Spider Wars: Book Three of the Black Bead Chronicles (16 page)

“
You two are in trouble. I
can smell it,” Tam said glancing between the both of them, daring
them to lie about it. “You have ten minutes. Start at the beginning
and tell me what is going on.”

It ended up taking more than
ten minutes, mostly because Connor and Cheobawn had differing views
about the events of the day. Tam had to stop more than a few
disagreements. In the midst of an argument that involved her fondness
for Sigrid and Ramhorn Pack, Cheobawn reluctantly revealed Sigrid’s
discovery of their secret trip to the Meetpoint dome. Megan looked
dismayed. Tam’s scowl grew thunderously dark.

“
Why would he question you
about that?” Alain asked, puzzled, “when he knows the subject is
forbidden between genders?”

“
He wanted to be sure it
was safe before he told me about the messages from Sam Wheelwright
and Colonel Bohea,” Cheobawn said.

“
I am going to kill
Sigrid,” seethed Tam. “He had no right dredging up the old
memories. Are you going to be alright, wee bit?” Megan reached out
to touch Cheobawn’s cheek, deep concern on her face. They knew,
more than anyone, what a toll the Meetpoint foray had taken on her
peace of mind. It was Tam who had held her when the memories of blood
and death swept like wildfire through her mind while her body
trembled uncontrollably and the sweat poured from her cold skin. It
was Megan who stroked her hair and sang to her, trying to get her to
sleep when the promise of horrific dreams filled with death kept
sleep at bay. It was Alain who racked his brains to think of new
games that might distract her and engage her all at the same time so
that she did not worry obsessively about her failings as an Ear who
got people killed.

“
I am fine,” Cheobawn
said. “Really. I was glad to hear from Sam.” She recounted almost
verbatim the conversation with Sigrid. Tam and Alain grew still and
silent, the news contained in the messages not welcome at all.

“
You didn’t tell me that
part,” Connor said, the familiar look of annoyance on his face once
more.

“
I should have killed Sam
when I had the chance,” Tam said, a snarl curling his lips back
from his teeth.

“
Lowlanders!” Alain
spat, his hands turning into fists. “Their stink travels up the
Escarpment, tainting everything.”

Cheobawn understood their
rage. Sigrid’s familiarity, they could forgive. Sam, a forbidden
Lowlander, broke all the bounds of polite society. Cheobawn kept
talking, trying to distract them with her story. Connor grew quiet,
his additions to her narrative growing less and less as she
continued. She recounted the rest of the day, ending finally with
Gudu smuggling them into the sauna.

“
You are not going back
out there tomorrow,” Tam said firmly when she finally stopped
talking.

“
I have to, don’t you
see?” Cheobawn pleaded. “It’s my fault that Sigrid is hurt and
Erin has to go out again without him.”

“
Erin said she would not
go out without you. I say we keep her to her word. Stay in, Ch’che,”
Megan suggested. “A handful of cattle is not worth anyone’s
life.”

Cheobawn did not want to
start an argument with her packsister after being separated from her
for so long. Hadn’t Brathum and his patrol died trying to retrieve
a handful of cattle? And what was Star’s death but more of the
same. Did their deaths have so little value?

“
I’m on Megan’s side,”
agreed Connor sleepily from the upper deck. “I love this smoke.”

Alain reached over and
punched him in the shoulder. Connor sent a fist towards Alain’s
head, but Alain slid around it and caught the younger boy around the
neck. A wrestling match broke out on the top deck that involved a lot
of goodhearted laughter and not a little bit of cursing. Cheobawn got
up and paced the floor, an exercise in frustration as she could only
go three paces in any direction.

“
What worries you, little
bit?” Tam asked.

“
The messages from Sam
Wheelwright,” she said, sucking on her swollen lip. “I know you
think it is the mad ramblings of a crazy Lowlander but it hangs like
an enormous cloud in my mind. I cannot shake the idea we have
overlooked something.”

“
River Captain or not, the
boy’s insults are not to be born. I will cut his throat if he ever
tries to talk to you again,” Tam growled, his anger still simmering
just under the surface.

“
But we have a friend,
now, down below the cliffs,” Cheobawn suggested tentatively. “One
who could keep others from climbing the Escarpment or at least warn
us when a threat is imminent.”

“
See,” Connor said with
a snort, “this is the consequence of telling her
no
when she
says she wants a pet. She adopts every flea-bitten orphan she meets.”

“
We have been doing just
fine for over a thousand years without Lowlander interference in
tribal matters. Why would we need such an alliance now?” Tam asked.

“
It is not Lowlanders I
worry about. Sam is just a confused boy,” Megan said. “It is the
message from the Ghostman that seems ominous. What did Bohea mean by
the
one stone
?”

“
Sam’s bloodstones are a
family. Linked stones to the one Cheobawn kept,” Alain reasoned.
“Of the nine Sam managed to keep, he saved one for himself after
giving one to his father. Where did the other seven go? Bohea said
the Scerrons wanted one, as a reward for services rendered. Maybe
that’s what he means. That the race of adepts that fly their
starships now have a direct line of communication with the bloodstone
that Mora has locked up in her office. They were all hot to talk to
you before. Maybe they are inviting you to parlay.”

“
Bohea did not care about
the Scerrons,” Cheobawn said. She closed her eyes and tried to
remember the minutia that surrounded Bohea in her memories. “He
considered them lesser beings. Omegas. It was the war with the Spider
people that concerned him most. I told him that one of the stones
might solve his problems but I am almost certain he found my solution
repugnant.”

“
So, let’s pretend he
changed his mind,” Tam said softly. He had that look on his face,
the one that said his brain was gathering all the pieces of this
puzzle and setting them in motion, trying to predict an outcome. “We
have a space-faring spider who happens to be waging war against all
the Spacers. What happens when they receive one of your bloodstones,
Ch’che?”

“
It was an invitation,”
Cheobawn said, her voice barely audible. She looked away, afraid he
would see the truth behind her eyes.

“
Excuse me?” Tam said,
his voice hard-edged. This was an old argument between them that she
did not want to stir up again. “I think you said
invitation
.
That’s right. I remember now. You invited a bunch of man-eating
spiders to come live here.” Tam’s eyes glittered sternly from
under his scowling brow.

“
Not here. Orson’s Sea.
They are aquatic,” she said in a very small voice, “most of the
time.”

“
Most,” Tam said loudly
to the room at large. “Most of the time. If you were at war with
someone, would you allow them to establish a foothold behind your
battle lines? Anyone?”

“
Only if it was a setup,”
Alain mused. “A trap. Offer up a bait too attractive to refuse then
pounce on them from all sides, cutting off any retreat, pounding them
into oblivion. A War Master would never fall for it, though. Too
obvious.”

“
But you were positive
they would take the bait, weren’t you Ch’che?” Tam observed.
Cheobawn looked up into her Alpha’s eyes, her chest tight with
remembered grief.

“
There is too much magic
tangled up in Sam’s bloodstones. Old Father Bhotta, Bear Under the
Mountain, Star Woman,” she whispered, not flinching from Tam’s
intense eyes. “Even my magic, as small as it is. Bohea’s wishes
and desires would not have been able to stop the inevitable outcome
of throwing those stones off the cliffs. The Spiders will come.”

“
And Bohea will be
prepared for that coming,” Tam said.

“
Yes,” Cheobawn said
through frozen lips. When you looked at the problem from Tam’s
point of view, she was not nearly as clever as she thought, it
seemed. It was not an easy thing, using living beings as pieces on a
War board. They were prone to picking themselves up and walking off
the playing field. Throwing Sam off the cliff had been just such a
move. She had thought she was buying the tribes time before the
unavoidable confrontation between the people of the domes and the
Lowlanders but the exact opposite was coming true. They had less time
than before. The mite on the back of the flea could no more shift a
rock than a child could stop a war among the stars. She had been a
fool to think otherwise.

“
This planet will become a
battlefield,” Tam said.

“
No, I don’t think …
oh.“She made a small noise as a sudden thought pushing all the air
out of her lungs. She looked up at the sky through all the layers of
wood and dome and air.

Tam straightened, alarmed.
“Ch’che, what …”

“
Shut up, Tam,” Connor
said, interrupting his truebrother. He poked his mop of ebony hair
over the edge of the top tier and peered down at her, blinking
owlishly. “Give her a minute. She always says the most amazing
things when she gets that look on her face.”

“
A shadow hangs in the sky
over the northern pole,” Cheobawn said faintly. “There are
things, strange things, lighter than air but colder than ice, like
frozen light falling to earth. The cold is no accident. The storms
are a weapon and a tool. A battle looms.” She shuddered as a wave
of dread washed over her. Her legs suddenly felt soft as jelly. She
fell to her knees as she met Tam’s eyes once more. “This is all
my fault. I think I killed Brathum and Star.” Hot tears filled her
eyes and spilled over to run down her cheeks. She shook her head but
the tears would not stop. Cheobawn covered her face and wept in
earnest.

Tam swore viciously as he
jumped down next to her and gathered her up in his arms.

“
That’s silly. You
didn’t kill anyone. Why would you think that?” he said, holding
her tight. Megan was there as well, patting her head and murmuring
the familiar sounds of comfort she remembered from when she was
little.

“
Connor said I should have
listened to Herd Mother from the beginning.” Cheobawn sobbed. “She
knows. She has always known. Those balls of light are her ice demons.
The smoke leopard is not fleeing the storms or the cold. It fears the
demons hidden in the winds.”

“
That is not your fault,”
Megan said firmly. “None of this is your fault.”

“
The thing in the sky is
here because I made it come,” Cheobawn wailed. “Sigrid thinks I
am a hero but I am just a little girl. Just a Black Bead with Bad
Luck who gets people killed.”

“
Never say that!” Megan
hissed, pulling her away from Tam and shaking her hard. “You are
not Bad Luck. Do you hear me? Never doubt your gift. I know you. You
are good. You hold all of creation in your heart and bleed for every
bit of it. Nothing bad can come from that love, do you understand?
Nothing.”

Cheobawn looked up at her
friend in surprise as her head bobbed with each shake.

“
Megan,” Alain said
casually, “I think you made your point. You may want to let go a
bit so the blood can reach her fingers.

Megan eased her fingers out
of Cheobawn’s soft flesh. Tam drew her back into his arms.

“
You did not make this
mess,” Tam said, rubbing her arms to get the circulation going
again. “The Spider wars started a long time before anyone alive now
was born. Bohea had no right trying to involve you in it. You are my
little Ear and there is one thing I am absolutely sure of. You know
what you know when the time is right to know it. You need to trust
your gift as much as I do.”

Cheobawn hiccuped as she
tried to wipe away her tears with her hands. Megan pushed her hands
away, using a towel to better purpose.

“
So where does that leave
us?” Alain asked, trying to steer the conversation out of its deep
waters. “We’ve got a shadow changing the weather of an entire
planet. The biggest question I have is this: whose is it?”

“
I vote for Shpiders,”
Connor said, his words slightly slurred. He was lying on his back
drawing invisible pictures in the air above his head. Alain looked
down at him, a worried frown between his brows.

“
Maybe,” Tam said. “But
if I were Bohea, I would be creating the biggest leg trap in the
universe. I would need a place to hide the battalions meant to spring
into action once the trap has been triggered. What better place than
a blizzard as big as a planet?”