Patternmaster

by Octavia E. Butler

  By now Teray and Amber worked together almost instinctively, worked together as though they had been a team for months instead of days. And they both were strong. It was possible that together they could take on seven Patternists and have a chance of winning—if none of those Patternists was Coransee. Amber spoke as though on cue.

  “I don’t think any of them is Coransee. I only got a flash of them before I shielded, but I think I would have sensed him if he had been with them.”

  “People from this sector, perhaps,” said Teray.

  “No matter who they are, we’re fair game.”

  The two groups met in a grove of trees, Teray and Amber on one side, and the seven strangers—four men and three women—on the other. Teray and Amber sat still, tense, shielded from the strangers, joined to each other only by the link. They waited.

  “It would be best for you,” said a small, white-haired woman in the center of the seven, “if you came with us without fighting.”

  The woman’s hair was naturally white, not graying with age, yet Teray knew she was old. He could not have explained how he knew. Her age did not show in any definable way. Either she or her healer had stopped all physical signs of its progress, to leave her looking about thirty-five. Yet Teray had no doubt that the woman had lived more than twice her apparent thirty-five years. Which was unusual for a Housemaster—as this woman seemed by her manner to be. Most Housemasters were killed for their Houses long before they reached this woman’s age.

  “There are seventeen of us,” the woman said quietly. “Ten that I don’t think you’ve noticed yet. We’re all linked. Attack one of us, and you attack us all.”

  Immediately Teray and Amber became aware of the ten others approaching from the opposite direction, only now coming within range of the quick scan that they dared to make. Teray looked at Amber. Amber shrugged, then relaxed into a posture of apparent submission. What could they do against seventeen linked Patternists?

  “What do you want of us?” asked Teray.

  “To pay a debt,” said the woman.

  Teray frowned. “A debt to whom?”

  “Unfortunately for you, young one, to your brother. To Coransee.”

  “You mean to hold us for him?”

  “Yes.”

  Teray relaxed as Amber had, aware of the tension in the link between them. It was not the tension of a thing on the verge of breaking, but of a thing held in check, ready to spring into action.

  “No,” said Teray quietly.

  The ten approaching Patternists came into view from among the trees. Teray ignored them, and felt Amber turn her attention to them, as he had expected her to. She was fast enough to sense any attack from their direction before it could do damage. Teray spoke again.

  “If Coransee catches me, he’ll kill me. So I don’t have anything to lose in defying you.”

  “You have the life of your woman to lose. I can see that you and she are linked.”

  And Amber spoke up: “I’m not eager to have Coransee catch me either. And I’m my own woman, Lady Darah. Now as before.”

  For the first time, the woman took her eyes off Teray. “I was afraid you might be. Hello, Amber.”

  Amber lowered her head slightly in greeting. “You’re right, Lady. We are linked. We’re going to stay linked. And you should be able to guess where we’re going to direct all our power the moment you attack us.”

  Teray picked it up at once, suppressing his surprise that Amber knew the woman. “You know Coransee is my brother, Lady. That should give you some idea of my strength. Unless you’re willing to sacrifice your own life as well as the lives of several of your people, let us go.”

  “I know you’re strong” she said. “But I don’t believe you could kill me. Not linked as I am with so many. If you think about it, you won’t believe it either.” She signaled the ten riders now waiting a short distance behind Amber and Teray. The ten began to move forward, clearly intending to herd Teray and Amber before them.

  But neither Amber nor Teray moved. Through the link, Teray felt Amber’s slight expenditure of strength an instant before he realized what she had done. Then he understood.

  Six of the horses approaching them—the six closest—collapsed. Shouting with surprise, some of the riders jumped clear. Some fell. All seventeen Patternists had been expecting an attack on themselves, or at least on Darah. This attack on their horses caught them completely by surprise. Amber finished it quickly, giving them no chance to take advantage of the momentary opening in her shield. Teray was instantly on guard to stop any who tried.

  But there was no movement other than that of the fallen riders and their horses picking themselves up from the ground. None of them seemed to be hurt. And as the Patternists remounted, none of them seemed eager to close with Teray and Amber again.

  “Lady,” said Amber softly, “you may have forgotten my skill, but I haven’t. I can kill you here and now, no matter who you’re linked with. I can kill you as easily as I’d kill a Clayark. I’m fast enough to do it to at least one person before anyone reaches me.”

  The woman held Amber’s gaze steadily. “You’d die for it. My people would kill you.”

  “No doubt. But what good would that do you?”

  “You’re not under any death sentence from Coransee.”

  “No.”

  “And … in view of the favor you once did me, I might be willing to let you go. If you go alone.”

  “Might you?”

  “Do you want to die, Amber?” The woman’s voice had become hard.

  “No, Lady.”

  “Then go!”

  “No … Lady.”

  “I don’t believe you’re willing to sacrifice your life for him.”

  Amber smiled. “Yes, you do.”

  “And,” the woman continued over Amber’s words, speaking to Teray again, “I don’t believe you’re the kind to let someone else do your fighting for you.”

  “Do you think I’d be foolish enough to refuse her help against you and sixteen other people?”

  “I just wanted to give you a chance to save her life—since you can’t save your own.”

  “Lady, you choose any three of your people. Keep linked with them and sever with the others. I’ll take the four of you on alone. That’s the kind of chance I’d like.”

  The woman stared at him, then laughed aloud. “Boasting in a situation like this. You’re his brother all right.”

  She didn’t think he was boasting. In fact, Teray thought, in a way she was boasting—assuring him that he was doomed, yet not attacking. Trying to separate Amber from him.

  “Are you ready to die now, Lady?” he asked.

  She said nothing but her people looked more alert.

  He nodded. “I thought not. I have no more time for you.” He whipped his horse forward suddenly, sending it straight into Darah and her companions. He was aware of Amber moving beside him but he kept his attention on Darah and her people. Their horses reacted, leaping aside, startled, half rearing before their riders tightened controls on them, calmed them.

  At a canter, Teray and Amber continued on, Teray now focusing his awareness ahead while Amber focused hers behind on Darah and her people. But Darah was not following.

  Teray wanted to urge his horse into a headlong gallop, get away before the woman changed her mind. But he knew better. There was no “away” within his immediate reach. Darah could catch him if she wanted to as long as he was anywhere near her home sector. She had allies, no doubt—other Housemasters who would be willing to help her. And she had other members of her own House whom she could command to help her. It was all a matter of how much she was willing to lose to repay her debt to Coransee. He had no doubt that she was willing to sacrifice a few of her people. But apparently her own life was another matter. Now if only she did not find someone else more courageous—or foolhardy—to lead another attack in her place.

  They rode on, no longer following their roundabout route, but traveling due south across th
e peninsula. It seemed better to take the chance of riding through more of the sector now than to take the time to ride around it. If Coransee wanted Teray held, then he was coming after him. He was probably already on his way, and possibly not far behind.

  Teray and Amber had not spoken since their escape, but through the link, Teray could feel Amber’s anxiety. She was as eager to put the sector behind them as he was. She was grimly alert, her awareness now mingling shieldless with his. Together they covered an area nearly twice the size that either of them could have managed alone.

  With only brief rest stops, they rode on through the evening and into the night, not stopping until they had to, until both they and the horses were too weary to go on.

  Then they camped in the hills, in a depression too small to be called a valley. It was surrounded by low grassy hills, so that while a Patternist passing nearby might sense them, no one who failed to sense them would see them and have reason to be curious. They lit no fire, ate a cold meal from the rations they had been conserving. Biscuits made that morning, water, jerked beef, and raisins. And for the first time they felt like the fugitives they were.

  The night passed uneventfully. They slept as usual since the canopy of their awareness guarded them, once set, whether they were awake or asleep. The next morning they ate a quick skimpy breakfast and rode on early. They were no longer within Darah’s sector but they were still close enough to it to be nervous.

  A little of their urgency was gone, though. They reassured each other, calmed each other, without intending to. They had hardly spoken since escaping from Darah—had hardly communicated in any way beyond sensing each other’s feelings. That had been enough until now. Now Teray was in a more talkative mood. And now he had something to say—perhaps.

  “Amber?”

  She glanced at him.

  “Where did you know Darah from?”

  “Here,” she said. “The last time I came through, Darah didn’t have a decent healer and she looked twenty years older than she does now. Of course forty years older would be more accurate. Anyway, I helped her. I had thought of her as an old friend. Until now.”

  “An old lover, you mean?”

  She raised an eyebrow. “No. All her lovers are men.”

  He looked at her for several seconds, studying her. Golden-skinned, small-breasted, slender, strong. Sometimes she looked more like a boy than a woman. But when they lay together at night their minds and their bodies attuned, enmeshed, there was no mistaking her for anything but a woman. Yet …

  “Which do you prefer, Amber, really?”

  She did not pretend to misunderstand him. “I’ll tell you,” she said softly. “But you won’t like it.”

  He looked away from her. “I asked for the truth. Whether I like it or not, I have to know.”

  “Already?” she whispered.

  He pretended not to hear.

  “When I meet a woman who attracts me, I prefer women,” she said. “And when I meet a man who attracts me, I prefer men.”

  “You mean you haven’t made up your mind yet.”

  “I mean exactly what I said. I told you you wouldn’t like it. Most people who ask want me definitely on one side or the other.”

  He thought about that. “No, if that’s the way you are, I don’t mind.”

  “Thanks a lot.”

  “You know I didn’t mean any offense.”

  She sighed. “I know.”

  “And I wasn’t asking just out of curiosity.”

  “No.”

  “You risked your life for me with Darah.”

  “Not really. I know her. She’s managed to live as long as she has by gathering a solidly united House, and by avoiding situations that could kill her. She talks a good fight.”

  “She believed you were ready to die with me.”

  Amber was silent for a moment. Then she smiled ruefully. “I was. She’s not only good at bluffing, but at seeing through a bluff, so I had to be.”

  “No, you didn’t.”

  She said nothing.

  “Stay with me, Amber. Be my wife—lead wife, once I have my House.”

  She shook her head. “No. I warned you. I love you—I guess we’re too close not to get to love each other sooner or later. But no.”

  “Why?”

  “Because I want the same thing you want. My House. Mine.” ‘

  “Ours …”

  “No.” The word was a stone. “I want what I want. I could have given my life for you back there if we had had to fight. But I could never give my life to you.”

  “I’m not asking for your life,” he said angrily. “As my lead wife, you’d have authority, freedom….”

  “How interested would you be in becoming my lead husband?”

  “Be reasonable, Amber!”

  “I am. After all, I’m going to need a lead husband.”

  He glared at her, thoroughly angry, yet still searching for the words that would change her mind. “Why the hell did you stay two years with Coransee if you wanted your own House?”

  “To enjoy the man, and to learn from him. I learned a lot.”

  “You needed that on top of what you already had from Kai?”

  “I needed it. I didn’t want to be just a copy of Kai, running on her memories. Clayarks. Teray.”

  Her tone did not change as she gave the warning, but through the link he was instantly aware of her alarm. She had reason to be alarmed. She had sensed the edge of a vast horde of Clayarks—perhaps the same tribe that they had noticed days before. They were behind Teray and Amber, approaching from the direction of Darah’s sector. It was possible that they had attacked one of the Houses there.

  Teray and Amber had come through the hills to finally meet the old coastal trail, but the Clayarks were still in the hills. By the way they were moving, they meant to stay in the hills. There was game in the hills, and there were edible plants. The Clayarks were moving on a course that roughly paralleled the coastal trail. It was possible, even likely, that they would pass the two Patternists without ever seeing them. Unless they changed course. Or unless they spread out more widely. Or unless they had already seen Teray and Amber—spotted them from their higher vantage point before they blundered into the Patternists’ range.

  That last was a real possibility. Clayarks knew that two Patternists alone would not dare to attack a tribe.

  “If they don’t go any faster,” said Teray, “we can keep ahead of them.”

  “I’m not so sure I wouldn’t rather be behind them. I don’t like the idea of their driving us.”

  “There are supposed to be some mute-era ruins not far ahead of us. Maybe the Clayarks will settle there for a while.”

  “I don’t think so. I’ve been through those ruins. There’s not enough left standing to give shelter to a family of Clayarks, let alone a tribe.”

  “That’s not what one of the stones I studied said.”

  “Then that stone was out of date. I think people from Darah’s sector tore the ruins down because they attracted Clayarks.”

  That was reasonable. That was why most of the ancient mute ruins had been leveled over the centuries, at least in Patternist Territory. But he was in no mood to be agreeable.

  “Maybe they’ll stop there out of habit,” said Teray. “Whether they do or not, we’d better keep ahead of them.”

  “Or find some cover and let them pass.”

  “No. If they get ahead of us and stop, they’ll spread out. We’ll have to detour back through the hills to get around them.”

  “Fine. At least we’ll be alive to make the detour. If we stay ahead of them, and they decide to come out of the hills, we’ll have nowhere to go.”

  She was at least partly right, Teray knew. She was always right. He was getting tired of it. “Listen,” he said, “if you want to stay here and let them pass you, go ahead.”

  “Teray …”

  He looked at her angrily.

  “We can’t afford this. Only people safe and secure in
Houses can afford to let their emotions get in the way of their judgment.”

  “Do you want to stay behind?”

  “Yes. But I won’t. I’ll stay with you unless the Clayark’s start to veer in our direction. If that happens and you still haven’t cooled off, I’ll stay back and watch you go to meet them.”

  And that, he thought bitterly, was probably the closest thing to a victory that he would ever have with her. Surely she had done him a favor by refusing to become his wife.

  The Clayarks picked up speed a little and more of them came into range. Without thinking about it, Teray and Amber also moved faster. Then the Clayarks began to catch up again.

  At that moment Teray realized that he and Amber were being pursued—or driven. Abruptly, there was no longer any question of what they should do. They had to find cover, a place from which they could make a stand. They could not outrun the Clayarks if the Clayarks were aware of them and intent on catching them.

  Teray looked around quickly for a place where they could take shelter. Even as he looked, the Clayarks increased their speed again and turned toward the two Patternists.

  Clayarks were, if nothing else, magnificent physical specimens. Running without restraint on level ground, they could reach speeds of one hundred kilometers per hour. Of course, they were running on hilly ground now—but they were running.

  They were in a kind of flying wedge formation, and they were holding back, not running even as fast as the hilly terrain would allow. Even at their present speed, though, they could run down a horse. Left alone, they could race past the horses, stop more quickly than anything moving that fast should be able to stop, turn, and fire at the passing horse and rider. They had been known to do such things to mutes. More-daring ones had even been known to attack the horse and rider directly, leaping onto the horse’s back or neck. They seemed totally oblivious to the risk to their own lives if they saw a chance to kill their enemies.

  At a full gallop, Teray and Amber passed a grove of trees, ignoring them because they did not offer enough protection. There were rocks ahead, jutting up from the sand and continuing at irregular intervals out into the surf. Teray could see one place where they seemed to be high enough and wide enough to give shelter even to the horses. He directed Amber’s attention toward it and left it to her to see that they got there. He turned his own attention back to the Clayarks.