Sharksinger

by Jay Aspen

  ‘Maz! Stop squealing! At least not in my ear, it’s painful!’ I reach up and disentangle the little sentinel from my neck, dropping the still-whistling animal onto the ground.

  ‘Stop! You know who I am. You’ve never raised the alarm about me since we were properly introduced.’ I kneel down to look the intelligent little creature in the eye. Although these ferret-like dome guardians can understand more human words than any other Pangaean animal, I’m focusing mainly on the tone of my voice to reassure Maz, figuring that the trauma of the last few hours has been too much for her.

  The sentinel continues her frantic whistling and starts running back and forth, into the trees and back again, finally nipping my hand in desperation. She has very sharp little teeth, nicely designed for catching large beetles and small mice as well as getting herself occasionally drunk on half-fermented fruit that drops from the trees.

  The sting of the bite jolts me into a sudden understanding of what’s happening.

  Of course! She’s already tracked her beloved kittens and now she’s come back for help! Who needs pheromones and mother-cat calls when you’ve got a foster-mother sentinel’s sensitive nose to follow instead...

  I scramble to my feet and run after the rapidly-disappearing white flash that is all I can see of Maz, instantly forgetting the danger and my promises to Severin to wait for his return, forgetting the need to avoid raising my heart-rate...

  8

  Maz’s route takes me towards what I’m guessing must be the third point of a triangle between Safi’s house, the abandoned safe house, and what I hope is the place where Safi and her kittens are being held. It makes sense that the kidnappers wouldn’t want to be beyond the five mile transmission range so that they can communicate their demands.

  Or should it be cat-nappers? Hannik! Get serious and focus!

  I keep running, pausing only when searching for a route around a patch of brambles the slender sentinel can traverse directly on one of the myriad wild animal trails.

  After twenty minutes or so I can feel the ayan effect returning in erratic bursts as my heartbeat increases, but this time it’s a shaky, uncertain feeling that makes me long for the reliability of my web-attunement, something I’d always taken for granted until it started dropping out unexpectedly.

  A cluster of wild canares plants is spread across a wide clearing ahead, and Maz disappears, running through the narrow gaps between the domes. Without humans to spread their seeds far enough apart to make them attractive places for Kareshi citizens to live in, wild canares generally grow in cramped conditions, reaching only half their domesticated size even when mature. The wild sentinels originally responsible for their seed dispersal are sociable creatures and like their homes close together.

  If Safi is here, she’ll probably be held in the giant mother-dome in the middle of the cluster, the only one to have grown to full size before the crowding offspring limited each other’s space. I creep silently towards it, knowing that the resident wild sentinels will start their shrill whistling at any minute.

  It isn’t long in coming. The sound passes from one group of white furry creatures to another until the whole clearing resonates with discordant shrilling. I hear shouts coming from the direction of the mother-dome, followed by the sound of running feet.

  I throw myself on the ground out of sight at the base of the nearest dome and draw my hunting knife. Grasping the edge of the small tunnel made by the resident wild sentinel I enlarge the hole, wriggle through, then pull the cut section neatly back into place. I lie still, trying to quiet my breathing and hoping my thumping heartbeat doesn’t sound as loud outside as it does to me.

  After a few moments I hear heavy footsteps crunching through the grass and cattails growing between the domes. A couple of angry voices are arguing about security.

  ‘I tell you! If the sentinels are alerting there must be someone out here.’

  ‘Stupid! It’s the fifth time today they’ve started up. And haven’t you noticed they get worse the minute we start patrolling? It’s us they think are intruders. We haven’t exactly been living here permanently have we?’

  ‘Damn well feels like it. Five days without a bath or any decent food or booze. You can bet the bosses of this little enterprise don’t live like this.’

  ‘Stop moaning, Gram. Tala doesn’t complain the way you do.’

  ‘You surprised at that? She got her own special delivery of supplies when they dropped her off. I thought it was going to be for all three of us––then she goes and stashes the whole lot in her own private dome and demands we wait on her like a couple of servants! I tell you, Frat, things gotta change if they want me to go on with this plan of theirs, never mind all their promises of riches to come. I want my share a bit sooner than sometime!’

  ‘Gram, shut up. Listening to you is depressing...’

  The voices fade as distance and domes get in the way. I push my temporary door open and wriggle back outside, unintentionally adding another layer of sticky canares sap to my daubing of frinberry.

  I try not to think about the delights of a bath. The overheard conversation made it pretty clear there isn’t much around here by way of plumbing.

  More usefully it confirms there are only two guards deployed here as well as Talaya. Still, assuming they’re armed the way all the others have been, I don’t stand much chance with just a hunting knife if it comes to a confrontation.

  I try to think of a good distraction while I sneak inside to free my sister.

  Hornets might work again but I didn’t see any frinberry on the way here and I really don’t want to waste time going back to the original bush to get enough for Safi and the kittens...

  I don’t get any further with that line of thought before there’s sharp nip at my ankle.

  ‘Ouch! Maz, this is a really bad habit you’re getting into!’

  Maz scuttles off again towards the mother dome. I glance warily around and follow, nervously aware that while no one will notice an extra sentinel running around the place, an extra human is a different matter entirely.

  Maz suddenly disappears through the wild sentinel’s entrance to one of the smaller domes. I frown, puzzled, until I notice that in this section of the cluster these pods have all grown into each other, the domes squashed together with no space between.

  It happens in early colony stages. An adventurous pair of sentinels starts a fresh colony by seeding a solitary mother dome. For several generations, before numbers reach the point where they all want more space between households, they plant the seeds close together to create a warren of connected domes.

  Humans use the technique as well. Kareshis call them tenements and in the city they work hard to encourage the formation on their dwelling-domes to create extra bedrooms or another bath annex.

  I try not to think about baths.

  This section of the cluster is by far the best spot for a temporary base plus prison for kidnap victims. It would only have needed a couple of hours’ work cutting human-sized doorways to give access from one conjoined dome to another. No doubt a chore allocated to grumbling Gram, providing more time and tedium for his constant complaining.

  I lie down by the sentinel-sized entrance hole and try a few mother-cat calls. After a few attempts an excited mewling comes from inside the dome, followed by an anxious whisper.

  ‘Hannik? That you?’

  ‘Safi! You all right?’

  ‘Sort of. I’m tied up though.’

  ‘Hang on, I’ll get you out.’ I slice through the side of the dome and crawl inside.

  Safi is sitting in the middle of the floor, hands tied behind her back and secured to a hefty iron peg driven into the ground. The kittens are bundled together in a netting bag hung from the green arched ceiling. They look very uncomfortable.

  Maz is running in frantic circles on the floor beneath her adopted family, thankfully having the sense to keep quiet.

  My knife chops through the cords on Safi’s wrists. As soon as she’s free Saf
i pauses for a quick sister-hug before snatching the knife and cutting the string that suspends the bag of kittens.

  ‘Oh, poor babies! They’ve been sooo horrid to you––’

  ‘Safi! Shh! And keep them in the bag, we’re going to have to run for it––’

  ‘Hey! There is someone running around here! I told you!’ The whining voice outside is Gram’s. A moment later his head appears in the hole I cut in the side of the dome. Luckily the rest of him doesn’t immediately follow, being considerably wider than the hole.

  Safi reacts fast. ‘This way! There’s several like this one joined together, leading to the mother-dome.’ She grabs my hand and pulls me through the inner doorway into the next arched space.

  She leads me on a peculiar twisting route she must have carefully committed to memory on her way in, until we burst into the large mother-dome. It’s empty but for a scattering of discarded pearapple cores and candystalk husks around a couple of logs the occupants have been using as seats.

  Maybe we’re in luck and the other two have followed Gram’s shout and run outside. We almost reach the outer door when a slim, elegant shadow falls across the sunlit space.

  Talaya steps out in front of us, blocking our escape.

  9

  Talaya moves fast, keeping a shocked Safi at gunpoint while snatching the bag of kittens from her and quickly stepping back out of reach. She keeps the bag gripped firmly in her beautifully manicured left hand while the gun in her right arcs across from Safi to me.

  ‘Bad luck. I’m not stupid like Gram. I guessed which way you’d gone. Thanks for delivering yourself here. Saved me the trouble of fetching you.’ Talaya’s voice is as smooth as the fashionable red silk clinging to her perfect curves. I’ve never met anyone who manages to sound quite so superior and confident and for a moment I feel utterly convinced that this is the end of both myself and my sister.

  ‘Now.’ Talaya slowly swings her aim back to point at Safi. ‘Hannik. Tell me where you’ve hidden our property or I start taking little bits off your sister.’

  I hear the click of the safety catch coming off and fight the panic that threatens to overwhelm me, focusing hard on the way Talaya moves, working out where her weak spots might be, following the path of energy-swirls that betray which way she’ll shift her weight and attack next. For all her well-groomed appearance, Talaya promises to be a formidable opponent in a fight, every move perfectly choreographed and in balance. She must be spending hours each day training.

  Although I feel less than confident I hold her gaze.

  ‘I left all your illegal items in Merkaan. I can take you to where they are.’

  Talaya rolls heavily made-up pale eyes. ‘Please. I told you I’m not stupid. You tell me where and I relay that to my associates in the capital to go collect everything. If it turns out it’s a false-trail, more little bits get taken off your sister. See? Simple, isn’t it?’ She waves the bag of kittens up and down. ‘And just for warm-ups, I might bump your precious little fluffies against the wall a few times––’

  ‘Don’t you dare hurt them!’ Safi lurches forward and makes a grab for the netting bag. Talaya steps sideways and hits her on the side of the head with the gun before jumping clear and reasserting her unwavering aim, this time at me.

  ‘One more stupid move like that and it’ll be your foot that gets damaged instead of a bag full of dumb animals!’ Talaya scowls angrily as she swings the bag towards the wall––and screams, dropping it on the floor, her hand grabbing at the long white furry creature that has sunk its teeth into her ankle.

  I see my chance. The instant the gun swings away I throw myself at Talaya and we both crash to the ground. The gun goes skidding across the rough floor and hits the wall.

  I roll clear, back on my feet in a flash. Talaya is still desperately trying to disconnect Maz’s teeth from her ankle without getting her hand shredded by the furious sentinel’s sharp claws. All her calculation and training hadn’t included avoiding the obvious mistake of getting between a sentinel mother and her precious brood.

  It’s the first time I’ve tried to work out combat moves complicated by a small furry animal getting in the way. A very angry, snarling furry animal, but nevertheless one that I really don’t want to accidently damage.

  In the end the decision is made for me. Talaya draws her hunting knife and makes a wild slash at the sentinel’s neck. I grab her wrist and give it a sharp twist that I confess I didn’t learn in the dojo The knife flies across the dome and embeds itself in the fleshy green canares wall with a dull thunk.

  Talaya hits me hard in the ribs with her elbow, knocking me to the floor and following through with a knee on my stomach and hands tight around my throat. This isn’t the sort of move you learn in the dojo either. Talaya has been training somewhere else entirely.

  Luckily I’ve been through a few extracurricular training sessions myself with the old Kareshi farmer who taught me to hunt. He’d been of the opinion that all the ‘polite fancy stuff’ that schoolchildren are taught in combat classes these days is just a bit too polite and fancy, and what you need in a tight spot is the odd surprise cheat that might just save your life.

  I draw my knees sharply upwards, jabbing them into Talaya’s back, while simultaneously pushing my hands up between the girl’s arms and forcing the strangle-grip apart. It only gives me an instant’s respite, which I use to hammer my elbow into exactly the right spot on the side of Talaya’s beautifully lacquered hairstyle.

  Talaya slumps to the floor and lies there unmoving as I struggle to my feet, still gasping for breath from the stranglehold.

  The sound of the gun seems disconnected from the sudden pain exploding into my already bruised ribs as I’m thrown violently against the wall. A fluttering thought drifts through my mind as I slide slowly towards the floor, contemplating how lucky I am that canares walls are soft and fleshy, unlike the hard abali-coated structures of Merkaan. Otherwise it would have hurt a hell of a lot more...

  There’s another loud gunshot and someone is shouting angrily and indignantly. It takes a few bewildered moments before my semi-conscious mind is able to work out that the furious tirade is coming from Safi and includes a startling collection of expletives I have never heard my sweet kitten-cuddling sister utter before. Eventually Safi manages to find words that actually form a sentence.

  ‘How dare you! Shoot my sister and torment my kitties and chase me out of my home––’

  Through my misted vision I can just make out the blurred outline of Safi standing braced against the dome wall with blood running down the side of her face and Talaya’s gun gripped in both shaking hands. Gram is lying on the floor howling in pain, blood pouring from a hole in his thigh.

  ‘Don’t shoot don’t shoot––’

  A soft thud fills the green-lit space of the dome and Gram relapses into a limp and silent heap. A dark silhouette against the sunlight outside steps through the open doorway, removes the dart from Gram’s back and walks calmly over to Safi. He runs his hand down her arm and gently eases the gun from her trembling fingers.

  ‘Shh. Well done Safi. It’s all right. He’s not going to hurt anyone now. Go look after your kitties.’

  Safi nods vaguely, looking grateful that someone has decided to extract her from a puzzling crisis she can’t quite remember getting into. She stumbles over to the netting bag and carefully removes the unhappy kittens.

  I can’t avoid a rather painful sigh of relief at the separation of an over-hyped Safi from the loaded gun. Severin flicks the safety catch back on and runs over to me, his eyes betraying his anxiety.

  ‘Hannik? Where are you hit? All I have with me is a first-aid patch kit.’ He fumbles with the fastening of my pack-shield and cautiously eases it back.

  ‘Somewhere here...’ I move my hand painfully to the burning in my ribs. Severin frowns and runs his fingers cautiously over the spot.

  ‘No blood. No fractures.’ With a sigh of relief he carefully peels off my silk tunic, ignoring
my squeaks and protests at the fiery stabs provoked by the slightest movement. He checks the damage more closely.

  ‘Hannik, you have the luck of the stars. It hit you on the thickest part of the body-shielding. You’ll have the most spectacular bruise ever but if I get this on quickly you should be fixed by tomorrow.’ He pulls a small sachet from one of his pockets and peels off the wrapper. I finally come back to enough alertness to remember something.

  ‘No! Severin, Frat is still out there! He could...’

  ‘Shh.’ Severin lays a finger gently on my lips. ‘I got him with a dart as he ran back here following Gram. Then I heard Gram’s shot and I thought...’

  He grips my hand, unable to speak for a few moments.

  ‘You promised you wouldn’t go rushing off till I got back! I was terrified you’d gone in without backup...’ He lapses into silence again, focusing his fear into sticking the nano-patch on my skin, smoothing the edges down carefully to make a seal.

  I watch his anxious face while he works on me.

  ‘Severin, I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to worry you. It’s just that Maz knew where they were being held and she ran off expecting me to follow. So I did. I couldn’t risk losing that chance. How did you find me?’

  ‘I landed the wasp outside Safi’s house, you weren’t there and I just knew you’d gone running off on some heroic rescue attempt. So I checked that emergency beacon I gave you. It’s also a powerful tracking device––’

  ‘Where’s Maz?’ Safi’s terrified voice interrupts. We both turn to see her looking frantically around the dome, arms still full of complaining kittens.

  Severin helps me to my feet to guide my wobbly steps outside, stepping round the unconscious form of Frat sprawled on the grass as we look for Safi. We find her in tears, sitting by the dome wall holding a red and white bleeding Maz. The little sentinel is still alive, snuffling quietly into Safi’s shirt.