Quest (45 page)

He watched the deleff plodding along in front of him. Animals interested him far more than trading, for he’d had virtually nothing to do with them before coming to Sunrise. Oh, there had been the usual compulsory visits to simul-chambers, where farms and woods were displayed to the young - these things were part of everyone's education on a totally urban planet - but such experiences had in no way prepared him for the sheer personality and presence of real animals.

Take deleff, for instance. If you’d viewed their habits on holocubes or walked among them in a simul-chamber, you might have learnt that a deleff looked like a cross between a lizard and the mythical dragons of Old Earth, though without wings; but you still wouldn't appreciate how clever Sh'el en, the leading deleff, was, or how he smel ed of grass warmed by the sun. You'd not realise that he flicked his left ear to acknowledge you when you spoke to him, or that if he stamped around in a certain way, it was because he considered it time to set off in the morning.

One deleff in any group was always the leader and was referred to as the deleffal. Jonner said that if you wanted to pass a deleff on to someone else, you had to explain what you were doing to the deleffal and introduce the prospective new owner to him or her. If the deleffal approved, the transfer could happen, but if you tried to force a deleff to do something against its nature, it simply walked back into the wildwoods, and no deleff would ever come to serve you again.

How was all this possible if they were only unreasoning animals? Davred had seen for himself that no one was needed to drive the second wagon, or even the first one, really. Sh'ellen always seemed to know where to go and the two deleff pulling the second wagon just followed their deleffal and his mate, stopping when Sh'ellen did, starting off or turning in his wake, all without any visible signals passing between one animal and another.

Katia called the deleff creatures, not animals, because she said it was the more accurate term. 'Deleff are just deleff,'

said Jonner easily when Davred questioned him, but then, Jonner had grown up with deleff and he accepted their vagaries without question.

Davred wasn’t satisfied with this answer. He wanted to know how deleff knew things and how they communicated with each other. There was no doubt they did this, and it was surely not by their strange bugling calls, which sounded only rarely. He was puzzled by the structure of their bodies, too, for they looked as if they ought to have wings, and they even had bony protuberances that might once have supported wings on either side of their spines.

Jonner had laughed at him when he had said this. 'Just be thankful you haven't seen their wings, Davred, because if you do, it'll mean we're in danger.'

QUEST Shannah Jay 166

'What on earth does that mean? Have
you
seen deleff with wings?'

'No, and I never want to, either! They only use 'em in self-defence.' And beyond that, he refused to be drawn.

Davred watched Katia return from one of her foraging trips, her bag laden with ripe fruit, flowers twined in her hair.

From time to time she would vanish into the wildwoods through which they were passing, and reappear laden with mushrooms, or nuts, or some other delicacy for their evening meal, always with a deeply happy expression on her face.

When Davred offered to accompany her, she laughed gently and said he must first grow used to the sun on his cheeks.

In truth, he suspected she enjoyed being alone in the woods.

Davred helped her store the latest gleanings in the wagon, then got down to stroll by her side. He breathed in deeply, enjoying the smell of the woods. Did those who ran Confex know how rich the smells of untouched nature were to nostrils bred on deodorised and sterilised air? Or was it only on Sunrise there was such a rich variety of perfumes and musky wood odours to give one pleasure?

Everything had its own smell. Even the wagons were redolent of the aromatic wood from which they were constructed. So many new things to learn! Wagons, he had found, were put together like a child's puzzle box, easily assembled and disassembled once you knew the trick, but a bewildering array of planks if you did not. Wagons were simple to repair, too, for wooden planks were a standard commodity on Sunrise, cut to specific widths and lengths throughout the claims.

How was this possible on a primitive planet? Standardisation was surely a development of more mature civilisations?

He turned to stare yet again at the crude vehicles. Each of these wagons carried a couple of spare wheels, although wheels of standard sizes could be purchased anywhere, Jonner said. And when the raas-root spring plates wore out, new ones could be inserted in a few minutes. If you ran out of spare plates, you just found a raas bush and cut some more, leaving the shreds of the bush dug into the earth to sprout into new plants. So simple, yet so effective!

Davred looked around him. You could usually find a raas bush, he had learned, wherever you were. They thrived in every type of soil and were as common in the wildwoods as in the cultivated areas. Yes, there was one on the right, heavy with unripe fruit. What useful plants they were! You could eat the fruit, use the huge broad leaves for thatching your house, if you preferred that to thatchgrass, burn the dead raas wood on your fire and cut spring plates for your vehicles from the roots.

Confex would consider Sunrise a rich find because of the plants alone, if only they would let the inhabitants tel them how to use things. Lenlin, studying plants from a distance with samples picked up by small robo-probes, hadn’t learned about raas bushes; Robler, immersed in his metallurgical surveys, hadn’t the faintest idea that a civilisation could manage perfectly well without the rarer metals he sought - without much metal at al , in fact. Davred wished he could get a raas cutting to the Biobureau at Confex, together with full instructions on its uses. Maybe one day, when peace was re-established, he'd be able to share the treasures of Sunrise with the citizens of the Confederation.

As Davred and Katia strolled along, their conversation turned into an informal lesson on the flora and fauna they saw. Katia knew most plants and smal animals, but there was an occasional plant which even she didn’t recognise, for the vegetation was slightly different from that in the High Alder, though most things were common to the whole planet. She never emphasised Davred's ignorance, though he felt it keenly, nor did she pressure him to learn; she simply answered his questions and shared her knowledge. Davred, remembering the gruelling schedules of his university training, whether with live tutors in the simul-chambers, or with the computers, realised now how sterile the knowledge was that he’d gained there.

One of his specialities was sociometric xeno-anthropology, which dealt with overviews of people and societies. Yet he’d been raised on the artificial, narrowly-focused university planet, and had only begun to properly appreciate the complexities of natural societies once he came to Sunrise. Now, using the memory-training techniques of the Sisterhood, he was rapidly digesting all his wife could teach him, comparing it with his former knowledge and trying to analyse the society around him at the same time.

None of the hypno-learning of his youth had been quite as effective as the Sisters' training methods. His memory hadn’t been such a finely honed tool then, because he’d relied on computers. Nothing had ever been quite as vivid as life on Sunrise. In fact, before this, he’d lacked true understanding of other peoples, for all his learning, for all his potential.

QUEST Shannah Jay 167

How could you do a true analysis of what you didn’t understand, hadn’t experienced? How could someone thinking like an automaton understand people's feelings? He’d needed to come here to develop his potential. But he prayed he’d never have to leave.

Benjan, who’d never been far from the city before, and had certainly never ventured into the wildwoods, edged forward to join them. He was still diffident about participating in their activities and lessons and seemed to expect to be treated as an inferior being, occasionally betraying his surprise when he was made welcome and spoken to courteously.

Katia smiled warmly at him now and Davred made room for him to walk between them.

'I didn't know you were interested in nature, Benjan,' Katia teased.

He turned an unblinking stare upon her. 'I'm interested in staying alive - and in keeping you people alive. So, the more I can learn about these woods, the better.'

'Don't you enjoy the beauty of the flowers?'

He shrugged. 'There's no time for that now.'

Benjan wasn’t aware, though Davred was, that Katia was teaching him some basic techniques of memory as wel as giving him knowledge of plants and animals. And Benjan was proving a very receptive pupil.

'I've never had two such willing and eager pupils,' she joked.

'If I work hard, is it permitted that I continue to learn with the Lord Davred, Sister?'

Katia nodded, vowing to herself that she would one day coax a real smile out of him.

A brightly-coloured bird fluttered out of the undergrowth in a large hol ow ahead of them. It flew up to the treetops and stayed there, scolding loudly. Katia stiffened and called out in a low voice to those in the first wagon, 'Herra!

Jonner! Something must have disturbed that bird!'

'Show no signs of anxiety,' warned Herra, and closed her eyes in concentration. She spoke rapidly, 'There are people hiding on each side of the road down in that hollow. Quite a lot of people, too many for me to
still
at once, even with Enhancement. Benjan, I'll have no killing! Try to do no more than disable anyone who attacks you. Jonner! Be careful where you throw those knives of yours. I want no permanent injuries - preferably no injuries at all.'

Fiana, who had been sitting on the tail of the first wagon, dropped off at a dip in the road and ran round to the back of the second wagon where Cheral was keeping an eye on Carryn. As she ran, Fiana loosened her sword in its scabbard, a sword which she, as a Sister, should not have been wearing, but which she had learned to use with considerable skil .

Whistling softly between his teeth, Jonner checked his knives and used his foot to edge the cudgel on the floor beside him into a more convenient position. 'When have I ever looked for trouble, Sister? I'm a simple trader, that's all.

I don't go round attacking people. There's no profit in dead people. I just defend myself from some of the live ones.'

He caressed the hilt of one of his favourite throwing knives as he spoke.

As the wagons jolted down the hill, Benjan moved forward, ready to protect Herra. Davred touched Katia's arm, to try to reassure her. He could sense her tension and he knew how any violence would upset her. She had grown to hate the eating of animal flesh as she grew older, and disliked even helping to catch animals or fish for her companions'

evening meals.

Davred's own tension was rising as well. He al owed his heart to beat faster and made no attempt to check the adrenalin that was beginning to pump through his body. His distaste for violence grew each time he encountered it or was forced to use it, but it didn’t upset him as it did Katia. This attack wasn’t of their seeking and couldn’t be avoided, so he felt no guilt. He was determined only that Those of the Serpent should not win. It must be they who were waiting in ambush, for who else on Sunrise would attack innocent travellers minding their own business? Who else would risk attacking the precious deleff?

They drew nearer to the hollow. Davred's throat was dry and Katia's face had lost every vestige of colour, though they were still pretending to chat and laugh together.

Suddenly, armed men leaped out upon them from the bushes on each side of the track. All except two of the
QUEST Shannah Jay 168

attackers were wearing either the black and red of Benner's guards or the dark robes of Servants of the Shrine. The other two wore forester's green. The hatred which emanated from the attackers was tangible, as was their fear, which made each man reluctant to move far from his companions as they attacked.

'They're afraid of us,' Davred had time to think. 'Why are they so afraid of us?'

'Devil's spawn!'

'Unnatural whores!'

'Death to the witches!'

Benjan was the first to meet the onslaught. He ran forward and took the first attacker off his guard, felling his opponent with a quick blow to the temple from one clenched fist. The man dropped like a stone. Benjan growled in his throat as he swung round to face a second man. In one hand he brandished a large cudgel, which he’d made, together with the one for Jonner, when they first entered the wildwoods. In the other hand, he held a gleaming knife. His grin was quite as fearsome as the weapons he carried, and he continually taunted his opponents, a characteristic of the Hashites. 'Come on, my bully! Not frightened of one man, are you? There! Sleep you wel !' He spun round again, light on his feet, for all his bulk. 'Who's next? I'm only poorfolk scum, you know. Surely you're not afraid of me?'

Four motionless figures lay on the ground near the first wagon, witness to Herra's skill. She was choosing carefully whom to
still
next, in order to help anyone in difficulty, while Jonner and Benjan kept attackers off her. Katia and Davred each managed to slow down an assailant, but neither of them had yet acquired the skill necessary to
still
someone completely.

The deleff were making sounds of distress and bugling, which only added to the confusion around the wagons.

Suddenly blurs of light flared around the deleff, like glowing wings, and one attacker who blundered into this light screamed and fell to the ground, twitching and unconscious.

As another man jumped forward to attack Katia, she tossed an illusion at him, a cloud of swooping birds. He began to beat at the empty air around his head while she forced herself to hit her attacker in the neck with the minimum force necessary to render him unconscious.

Davred, with no ability to create illusions, was hard pressed to deal with the slashing sword of a second opponent, and suffered a cut on his arm before he managed to hit that certain spot on the neck. He began to think he’d have to learn to use a stave or a cudgel in future, so that he didn’t have to get so close to disable his attackers.