Trident's Forge (27 page)

“You don't sound thrilled.” Devorah touched her arm. “I know he's out there again. Right in the teeth of it.”

Theresa nodded, fighting down a rising tide of dread. “With another gun in his hand. He doesn't like them, you know. Hates the idea of them, actually. He's a competitor, not a killer. He'll work himself into the ground, train like mad, skip sleeping, whatever he has to do to beat you. But that's all he wants to do. I swear the man is incapable of the sort of hate it takes to want to kill anything.”

Devorah squeezed her arm. “He's proven himself as a marksman, sure enough.”

Theresa laughed humorlessly. “That's just it, he didn't. Everyone knows about the ‘Shot Heard Round the Ark,' but it's all crew propaganda. When he faced down Kimura, he couldn't stop him from pushing the button. He just ended up shooting wildly until the gun was empty. It was pure, unadulterated, dumb fucking luck that one of the bullets hit the casing on that bomb. It wasn't part of the plan, the idea never even occurred to him. He wasn't a hero, he was just lucky.”

Devorah tisked. “Of course he is. He put himself in danger and did whatever he could to help. That's what heroes do. That's what defines the word. The lucky ones just live long enough that people know their names.”

“Better lucky than good? Is that what you're saying?”

“The enemy can prepare for good,” Devorah said. “Nobody can prepare for lucky.”

“Let's hope you're right.”

“I usually am,” Devorah said.

Theresa was spinning up a cutting retort when her plant alerted her to an incoming call. It was from Feng, and it was marked “Emergency.”

“Excuse me one moment,” she said to Devorah and opened the call.

Feng cut her off.

T
he sun returned much too quickly
for Kexx's taste, not that ze had expected it to take zer opinion into consideration. Ze'd spent what remained of the night huddled close to the fire where the cold kept its distance. Ze was overtired and zer shoulder was still sore from being bitten, but at least ze was warm-headed and loose.

Most of the rest of the caravan had taken the same precaution, either cramming in close to the fire or sleeping beneath the dux'ah for warmth. The large creatures released their own heat slowly through the long nights, greeting the morning none the worse for wear on all but the coldest days. The humans, for their part, alternated between standing watch for the calebs to return and sleeping in their “tent,” an ingenious little shelter that they could set up or take down in moments which fit inside an impossibly small bag when not in use. Kexx had asked Mei what sort of leather it had been sewn from. Whatever this “plastic” beast was, it must have been a very odd creature indeed.

By now, the caravan was well practiced at striking camp and moving out, although there were fewer hands this morning. They'd prepared Dluz and… Celiapak? Kexx struggled with the exotic name. Ze'd been from Yptari, a village almost as far from G'tel as it was possible to be. Kexx hadn't gotten around to talking to zer yet. It was a missed opportunity, one ze wouldn't have a chance to rectify. Kexx resolved to get to know everyone in the caravan by the time the sun set.

They prepared the dead to return as best they could, absent the guidance of an experienced elder, well before that dawn as tradition demanded. Their bodies were wrapped in sleeping blankets and placed under a low tree for retrieval when the caravan returned.

Assuming it returned.

Kexx banished the doubt from zer mind. It did no good for a truth-digger to dwell on what could not be known. There was a trail to follow, and it grew colder with each wasted moment. Some of the more adventurous members of the caravan were cutting up and cooking strips of caleb meat for breakfast, while leaving others aside to smoke and cure into jerky. Kexx had eaten ulik meat before and found it tough and gamey. Ze doubted the calebs would prove more flavorful, but ze needed the flesh to help zer own flesh recover, and anything they found out here was that much more food left in their pouches.

Ze looked around the camp with a great deal of satisfaction. They'd not only survived the night's surprise attack, but drawn together in the aftermath. The different villages mixed and blended around the fire for the first time since they'd stepped onto the trail. They'd even started to mingle with Mei and Benson, if a little awkwardly.

Kuul's position had not come out of the evening untarnished. News of zer attempted betrayal against Benson in the heat of the battle had spread through the caravan like wildfire. Kexx did nothing to help the rumor spread. Then again, ze hadn't needed to. Trying to kill an ally during battle was bad enough. But being so below their notice that they didn't bother trying to return the favor?
That
was humiliating. Robbed of half of zer attendants, Kuul sulked just outside of the fray, gingerly cleaning the wounds on zer abdomen. They looked angry… in-fac-ted; Kexx rolled the human word through zer mind. Zer own injuries hurt, but they did not weep, just as Benson had promised.

Kexx glanced over at Benson trying to share a joke with the one from Jumar. The human finished and held out zer hands, but the warrior just stared at zer uncomprehendingly. “Had to be there,” Kexx heard Benson say. Kexx buried a giggle at zer new friend's expense. Such power and wisdom at their fingertips, yet the humans seemed to be perpetually lost, like infants treading water, waiting for someone to direct them toward land. It was probably the only thing preventing the rest of the caravan from openly worshiping them at this point. Ze couldn't quite decide if that was a good or a bad thing.

As ze watched, Benson excused zerself from the conversation and started speaking into the small black box ze called a “fone,” more human magic that let zer communicate instantly with zer own village… on the other side of the ocean. Benson had tried to compare it to the signal network, careful to praise Kexx's own people for their ingenuity, but Kexx couldn't help but feel a little patronized. Ze'd seen Benson talk on it every day since they'd left the village, but this time was different. The human grew louder and more animated the longer the conversation went on. Kexx didn't need to recognize all of the human's body language to know ze was agitated. Mei joined zer and put a hand on Benson's shoulder.

Benson put away the fone. Kexx only caught a few human words of the hurried conversation, but it sounded like someone important had died. Ze got up and walked briskly over to where the humans stood.

“What's wrong, Benson?” Kexx asked, speaking human because the topic seemed sensitive. Benson's head twisted around in surprise as if ze hadn't heard Kexx walking up.

“Nothing,” ze said hurriedly, then slumped. “Everything, actually. One of our… chiefs died of a heart attack.”

“I am sorry,” Kexx said genuinely. “Have you caught the hart responsible?”

“What?” Benson's face was blank. “Er, no, Kexx. A heart isn't a person, it's an organ.” Ze patted a hand on zer chest. “It pumps blood around our bodies. Hers, I mean zers, quit working suddenly. We call that a heart attack.”

“I see,” Kexx said, pretending to understand and hoping it would all become clearer. “Do your… harts stop working often?”

“Not anymore,” Benson said. “And not in someone who was only fifty-three.”

“Fifty-three, what?”

“Sorry, fifty-three years old. Actually, our years are, were, longer than yours. So she was…” Benson went silent for a moment, “Seventy-six by your measure.”

Kexx gasped before ze could catch it. Ze hoped to live a full, satisfying life of fifty, maybe sixty years. Seventy-six was ancient, verging on legendary. To hear the human speak of it as though it was a young age to return to Xis was jarring. What would one do with that much time?

“So, zer death was not normal? Is that what you're saying?”

“It's goddamned suspicious is what it is,” Benson said. “And awful convenient. Lots of convenient things happening lately.” The last, ze shouted straight up into the air, as if chastising the gods themselves.

Kexx took the human's anger and frustration in stride. “Is there anything you can do about it right now?”

Benson's fists balled up. “Not a damned thing.”

“Has our task here changed?”

Benson sighed and relaxed a bit at the question. “No, I suppose not.”

“Then we should focus on our jobs until that changes, yes?”

“Yes.” Benson breathed deeply. “You're right, Kexx. Thank you.”

Kexx nodded. “Come. We have a long day ahead of us.”

I
t turned
out to be a very long day indeed. Tracking the retreating calebs was not difficult. Wild uliks tended to wander through the landscape and stuck to the hard-packed mud when they could, disguising their tracks to make it more difficult for other, larger predators to shadow them and steal their kills. But these beasts had no such instinct. They simply ran straight as a spear shaft back wherever they'd come from. The only problem was that they'd run very fast. There was a tremendous amount of ground to cover, despite the fact they'd only had a short head start.

There were four survivors, and Kexx could tell from the halting, asymmetrical gait and slight drag in the tracks that one of them had an injured front left leg. That was good and bad. If they accidentally cornered the animals while they rested, ze'd rather not have to face them down at full strength. On the other hand, injured animals could be unpredictable and dangerous. Kexx glanced over at the gun slung over Benson's shoulder and felt the strange mix of reassurance and dread that came with understanding the power it represented.

With the human fighting along zer side, their power was almost unmatched. But what happened if Kexx ever found zerself facing down their length instead of standing behind them? How many humans with guns would it take to subdue the entire village network? A few fullhands? Certainly not more than a hundred, an easy fit inside a single one of their great birds. A vision of humans and their terrible weapons sweeping from one village to the next like a plague of luka flies danced through Kexx's mind.

Ze pushed the nightmare aside. The humans had done nothing to make Kexx believe their intentions were hostile, and had gone out of their way to assure zer otherwise, for now at least. But Benson's worries about their discovery of “gold” and zer suspicions over the death of their chief Mahama left Kexx with the impression the humans were not nearly so unified in their motives and intentions as they first appeared. Was it possible that creatures of such wisdom were still just as fractured and contentious as zer own people? Was that a good or a bad thing? Kexx didn't know.

The caleb tracks changed abruptly, shortening their gait and dropping from a run to a canter, then down again a few strides later to a brisk walk. Kexx held up a hand, signaling a stop.

Kuul appeared at zer side and whispered. “What is it, truth-digger?”

“They slowed to a walk just here,” Kexx said. “I believe their shelter is very close.”

Kuul's skin flushed a warning and the other warriors set up a circle around the caravan.

Benson stepped up to join them. “What's going on?”

“Trouble,” Kexx said. “We draw near their lair.”

“Better ready your gon,” Kuul said begrudgingly.

Benson unslung the gun and brought it to zer shoulder. “You don't have to tell me twice.”

“Everyone else, stay put and protect the dux'ah while the three of us scout it out,” Kexx said to the rest of the caravan. The unlikely trio advanced, weapons held ready, as Kexx followed the tracks the short distance to where they ended in a hole in the ground.

“Not down there?” Benson asked.

“Yes, down there,” Kexx answered as ze held a hand over the entrance, tasting the air. “They're down there now, I can smell them.”

“How far?” Kuul asked.

“Some distance, but not far.”

“Can we enter without being seen?” Kuul asked.

“Seen, maybe. But heard?” Kexx glanced over at Benson tellingly. “Or smelled?”

“What's that look for?” the human said.

“You have a… distinct aroma,” Kexx said delicately.

“You smell like Varr-old dux'ah shit,” Kuul added helpfully, exaggeratedly wiping zer hands on zer loincloth.

“Yeah, well you two don't exactly smell like apple blossoms yourselves,” Benson said. Kexx didn't know what an apple blossom smelled like, but zer meaning was clear.

“No, but your smell is totally foreign here. I'd be surprised if the calebs haven't already caught the scent.”

“So what do we do?” Benson asked.

“Go inside.”

“Into an unfamiliar cave?”

“Yes.”

“In the dark?”

“Yeees.”

“When they know we're coming.”

Kexx grew annoyed. “Do you see another solution, Benson?”

“I don't suppose you have any napalm.”

“What is na-palm?”

Benson sighed. “Then no, not really.”

“We're giving them time to prepare for us,” Kuul said sharply.

“Ze's right, we have to go now,” Kexx said. “Kuul and I will go in first. We handle the darkness better. Benson, you will follow with your gun and your light to make sure nothing attacks us from behind.”

“Fair enough.”

“And keep that light pointed backward,” Kuul added with a hint of menace. “Or it will ruin our eyes for the dark.”

“I understand,” Benson said. “If I have to shoot in there, the walls will trap the sound. It will be incredibly loud. If I say cover your ears, do it immediately, or it might be the last thing you hear for days.”

Kexx nodded understanding, while Kuul's skin flickered the same. Kuul had spent enough time around the humans by now to recognize some of their simpler mannerisms, but zer warrior's pride and sense of purity prevented zer from using them. Without another word, both Kexx and Kuul's skin glow dimmed as their dark contrasting stripes expanded to cover almost the entire surface of their skin. They would be almost invisible against the unlit walls of the cave. The human, on the other hand…

Benson had repeatedly proven ze could handle zerself, despite zer body's deficiencies when it came to camouflage. Kexx just hoped Cuut was in a mood for accommodating fools today.

After a brief inspection with the light on Benson's gun, they started the climb down into the cave. It was a short climb, no more than four or five arm spans. Kexx and Kuul reached the bottom quickly. The human, however, found it more difficult.

“Your pet is no climber,” Kuul observed.

“Their hands are different from ours. You would have trouble too.”

“Ze'd have less trouble if ze'd take those ridiculous garments off zer feet.”

Kexx couldn't help but agree. “Shuus,” Mei called them. But as to their purpose, Kexx could only guess.

“It gives our eyes more time to adjust to the dark,” Kexx said, ever the optimist.

“And more time for our quarry to set traps and ambushes.”

Kexx couldn't help but agree to that, either.

“How are your wounds?” ze pointed at the angry claw marks along Kuul's abdomen. “They have begun to weep.”

“I can endure, truth-digger.”

“Of course, you're a warrior. But the humans have an oil, an-tee-sep-tic,” Kexx sounded out the foreign word. “I used it on my shoulder last night. It works very well.”

Kuul chuffed. “You sound like a traveling merchant with your pouch of miraculous herbs. If there's anything better than boiled-off urine for cuts, I've never seen it. And I've had a lot of cuts.”