Jo Clayton: Fire in the Sky

The grazer leaned into the harness and step by step hauled Marrin from the crashed flier. When he was swinging free and had the staff ready to shove himself clear of the thorn patch, she called again, “Ready?”

He grunted, set the end of the staff against the trunk. “Ready.”

Shadith clucked to the grazer, got her to take an awkward step backward, then another and another. The cow mooawwed her displeasure and shook her head angrily. She didn’t like backing up, she didn’t like the rubbing and pressure from the harness, but it only needed half a dozen steps to lower Marrin gently to the ground and the job was done before she balked and wouldn’t move again even with Shadith’s mind-tickling.

After a last scratch of the curly poll, Shadith used her belt knife to cut the rope off the harness, then the harness off the beast. “My thanks, lady.” She patted the cow on the flank and watched her run off, heading back for the ambush-clearing and her calf.

As Shadith hobbled wearily back to Marrin, she saw the Chav watching her. Before she moved out of sight round the bulge of the thorn patch, she gave him a broad smile that she hoped irritated him intensely.

She squatted beside Marrin. “How you doing?”

“I have been better.”

“Well, let’s get you in the tent. Then I’ll see if I can get hold of our rescue service.”

“What about the spy?”

“He’s contemplating cloud drift right now. No doubt plotting like mad and waiting for an opening to set those plots going.”

“Don’t leave him alone long, Shadow.” He tried to lift himself and help her move him but his arms had no strength left and there wasn’t even a twitch in his legs. “I’m no use.”

“Feeling sorry for yourself, are you? Hmp. You’ll be fine once we get you in the ottodoc at the ’Clave.”

He smiled up at her. “And we can be sure the Goлs will come for us. We’ve got his proof.”

“Sorry and cynical.” She chuckled. “And very right. Brace yourself. I’m going to have to slide you along on the blanket and it won’t be comfortable.”

“I am a Scholar with a Scholar’s constraints. And while I sympathize deeply, your people are not my people, this is not a fight I have any business joining.” Aslan spoke slowly, with a weightiness that made her cringe a little; but she wanted no mistakes about what she was saying. “I can suggest this, treat with the Goлs Koraka hoeh Dexios. He will probably provide transport and medical services-but the price he’ll ask for these is something that you might not want to pay. He will not sell you weapons.”

They were in a sun-filled tree-shaded patio with Eolt graspers on the eaves and a fountain playing gently in the center, water from a hotspring below the blai shooting at intervals into high jets but mostly bubbling up, then dripping musically from bowl to bowl and into a small stream that vanished under a wall. Aslan found the humid heat uncomfortable, but the Eolt and the Denchok who’d come to talk with her seemed cozy enough.

Daizil Voice for the Earth leaned into the speaking tentacle of Bladechel Voice for the Air. After a moment, xe sighed and straightened. “Why? We fight the same enemy.”

“The Goлs is not a warrior, he’s a trader. He takes the long view. Which is that what you use to defeat the enemy will be turned on him once the enemy is gone.”

Again the two Voices consulted, then Daizil said, “Ard Danor implied that if the Chandavasi triumph, they will be harvesting Eolt on Banikoлh also. Do you think this is likely?”

“Once this is a sealed world, yes. There will be no place for Eolt or any other Bйluchar to hide from them?’

“And there will be no help from outside. They take what they want.”

“There will be protests from University, but yes. Without witnesses to raise their voices in protest and start a campaign against the Chandavasi, essentially no help.”

“And you?”

“The Chave are not likely to leave witnesses from outside, especially those who know how to make their stories heard. This is a world visited by smugglers and free traders. There would always be a chance one of us might escape.”

“I see. So your fate depends on our deeds.”

“To some extent, yes.”

“And still you’re unwilling to do more than advise.”

“To be a credible witness-which will be of greater use to you than my own inadequate fighting skills, I can do no more.”

“There is no chance of talking with the Chandavasi?”

“I would never say don’t talk. I would also say that their history as I know it doesn’t indicate a willingness to listen.”

“I see. Would you use your communicators to speak to the Goлs for us, should we decide that is what we will do?”

“Yes. You must do your own bargaining, however.”

“That is understood.” Daizil smiled at her. “We know traders, Scholar. We have many of our own.”

The sound shook the building, a great deep note that resonated in Aslan’s bones. She’d been stretched out on the bed, eyes closed to facilitate memory, sub-vocalizing a report to herself, getting down impressions, questions she needed to ask and anything else that occurred to her. She sat up, startled, removed the throatmike and went outside to see what was happening.

The sky was thick with Eolt, swirling in a wide golden vortex, singing as they circled higher and higher to join the streams heading east. The flow seemed endless, more Eolt arriving every moment, coming from all directions.

“Scholar.” Daizil joined her and stood looking up, xe’s mouth set, a sad droop to his eyes.

“Voice. What’s this about?”

“The Eolt have decided. There will be no bargaining. Whatever the cost to them, the Chave must be destroyed.”

“You’d best keep a close watch on him. He’s tried to kill himself, twice.”

The Goлs smiled grimly, his mouth open to show the tearing canines. “I thank you for the warning, Harper. We have some potions that will take his mind off his troubles.” He contemplated her a moment, eyes like chocolate ice, then he smiled again, this time the closed-mouth pleasure smile. “Bringing the Scholar and her team was one of my better ideas,” he murmured. “Will you join me for a glass of cha or something stronger, Shadowsong?”

“Of course, Goлs Koraka. I would like to be kept posted on Aide Ola’s progress, though. He is a man to be valued.” She glanced at the procession leading the spy away, met his eyes and felt a chill lance through her. Even the creepy Ginny Seyirshi had never treated her to so intensely personal a hatred.

The Goлs noted that. “Yes. We’ll make very sure he’s kept chemically restrained, Shadowsong.”

He poured the cha from an elegant white pot into a small drinking bowl. “Will you have citra or glemm? And I believe there is some toz in that pot.”

“Nothing, please. What cha is it?”

“Smoky sill from the highlands of Molot.”

“Ah. A favorite of mine.” She smiled. “I see we share the same smuggler.”

He chuckled. “An odd little man with interesting connections, by name Arel.”

“Mm.” She sipped at the cha, relishing the clean tang of the liquid and the silky texture of the bowl. The she sighed and set the bowl on its saucer with a small decisive click. “Reluctant as I am to disturb the peace of the moment, how far have you got on the repairs to the splitcom?”

“We captured one of the Chave sats, Dulman be blessed that the shuttle was not linked into the system when it went down, and we’re attempting to cobble up something with those parts that we can use to hook into another of the sats and go from there. Chave thought patterns are not all that complex and we’ve managed to work out the codes. With a bit of luck and some hard work we’ll get word out within the next tenday. Which should take some of the…” He looked up, frowning as a phora came in without knocking. “What?”