by Jay Aspen
I drop to my knees, reaching out to touch the jagged gash across Maz’s back.
‘Oh chaos! I didn’t stop Talaya’s knife in time! Severin, do you have another of those patches?’
He kneels on the ground the other side of Safi, reaching into one of his pockets.
‘Last one. But I can’t stick it down with all that fur in the way.’
‘But you have to! She saved our lives! You must have worked on wild animals when you were a ranger?’
‘Mostly we didn’t interfere with nature. If we did, we shaved a big patch of skin first––’
Maz snaps her head round to glare at him, lips curling in a ferocious snarl. Severin draws back his hand sharply.
‘Erm, maybe no shaving then.’
I turn to Safi. ‘She can’t possibly understand ‘shave’ can she?’
Safi gives an embarrassed shrug. ‘Twins’ latest joke. Since they watched Finn shaving they’ve been going round suggesting the same thing for kittens, sentinels, my hair, their hair – anything in sight. I think Maz might have learned that one after a few narrow escapes.’
Severin sighs. ‘If I try to compete with those teeth and claws I’ll just make the cut bleed worse.’ He looks up. ‘Safi, can you collect some canares sap? It might be sticky enough to soak through the fur. You’ll have an interesting job washing it out afterwards but I think it’ll work.’
Ten minutes later the heroically wounded sentinel is pronounced temporarily repaired and ready to go, her long slender body wrapped in a human-sized nano-patch that makes her look like a peculiar fluffy taco, front and back legs sticking out of each end and canares juice oozing into her fur from the stuck edges like sticky green hot-sauce.
Maz looks incredibly embarrassed.
Severin sends a message back to Tregen with instructions on how to find three kidnappers and take them back to Kar. I finish tensioning a tourniquet round Gram’s leg and clip my transponder onto his collar so he’s easier to find. Severin leads Safi and I back through the trees to where he’d parked the wasp, well beyond the alert range of the wild sentinels.
He tries to insist that I should be first to get ferried back to the safe house but I argue that Safi might have delayed concussion from where Talaya hit her with the gun.
He sighs resignedly. ‘Hannik, at some point you really will have to learn to follow orders.’
‘You’re a fine one to talk. You just shot Ressay precisely to stop him following orders.’
‘Hmph,’ says Severin, sounding rather like Alis. He covers his defeat by helping Safi and her various animals into the wasp.
He turns back to me, one hand ready to close the hood. ‘Just stay out of sight and stay there. I’ll be back in ten minutes.’
I grin happily in spite of the biggest bruise of my life making its presence felt. There’s something very different about the way Severin tries to boss me around from the way Vander did. It’s coming from the fact that he cares about me instead of trying to arrange my life to suit his demands. And it feels good.
To my relief Severin makes it back within the promised time. In the ten minutes I spend waiting for him my whole body has started aching, my stiffening muscles complaining about too much running and fighting, not to mention getting thumped, shot and thrown against a wall. Even if it was squashy canares.
I have no difficulty swallowing my pride to let Severin help me into the wasp and then out again at the safe house. My limbs really don’t want to move any more.
He suddenly peers at my face.
‘You’ve gone yellow. Thought I noticed it before. Are you getting sick?’
‘Erm, no. It’s frinberry juice.’
He examines his hands. I’ve left behind a generous layer of stickiness on them while he’s been helping me move around.
‘Frinberry and canares cocktail more like. All over. You going to explain?’
‘After I’ve had a bath. I’ve been longing to wash it off for hours. Oh. Tregen might want to check the route to Safi’s house for a couple of people with hornet stings.’
Severin’s brow furrows. ‘Hmm. I’d heard about the hornet trick with frinberry but never tried it. You’ll have to show me sometime.’
‘Hope I never need it again,’ I mutter with feeling.
We walk into the dome to find Safi and Finn locked in a family-hug with the twins. It looks as if it’s going to last for some time. We step around the cooing cuddle-heap and make for the bath annex. I can’t wait, scattering clothes as I go, never mind the painful jabs from the bruises. I sink gratefully into the pool of constantly replenished warm spring water that flows through the small conjoined dome and into the stream outside.
‘Severin, don’t come and pull me out till I’m totally soggy and wrinkled from being in here too long!’
He picks up the stub of aromatic raffin-stem from the ledge at the side that Pangaeans long since learned to use instead of soap.
‘Turn around. You’ll never get all that gloop off your back with those bruises.’
And for the rest of the evening I’m content to let him spoil me. If he’s trying to make me feel guilty for taking risks and worrying him half to death he’s succeeding but I don’t care.
Being pampered is nice.
As soon as Safi and Finn disappear into the bedroom with the twins, Severin keys the hover seats to flatten-and-stick-together and makes a bed for me in the main dome.
‘Hannik, I want to stay with you tonight. I won’t sleep unless I know you’re safe.’ He kneels beside me, carefully rearranging the blanket while avoiding all the bruises.
I lay my hand over his. ‘Severin, I’m exhausted and I ache all over, but I’m not made of eggshells.’ I smile, reaching up and stroking his rumpled sandy hair.
He settles himself beside me. ‘I’ve been longing to kiss you since that day I found you in the forest, and now I’m not sure I can find anywhere undamaged enough to even hug––’
I silence him with a long kiss. When we both come up for air Severin wraps his arm carefully around my shoulders and draws me closer.
‘Sleep, Hannik. If anyone tries to get to you again they’ll have to go through me first.’
I feel his warm breath on the back of my neck as exhaustion finally pulls me into the velvety darkness of oblivion.
10
The first fingers of dawn filter through the green-gold translucent walls of the safe-house dome. I lie awake for long delicious moments, enjoying the easing of pain in my body. It’s a warm glow of sheer pleasure just to get partway back to normal.
Or maybe the glow has more to do with having Severin’s strong arms protectively around me. He’d slept in his clothes, the dart gun next to his pillow in case of a midnight attack. Even while asleep he managed to avoid touching the enormous bruise on my ribs that reminds me of its existence as soon as I move.
The resident dome-sentinel suddenly lets off an ear-splitting series of shrill warning whistles and shoots outside through the flap at the base of the door. Severin is awake in an instant, grabbing the dart gun and running to the entrance. He opens the door slowly and looks round, scanning for intruders before slipping outside and diving for the cover of the surrounding bushes.
Maz is still wrapped up like an over-stuffed taco and is attempting a feeble echo of alarm-whistles from her convalescent spot in the kitten-basket by the wall. I look anxiously around for the kittens, then with a flash of relief guess that they must have joined the family cuddle in the bedroom.
Finn’s sleepy face appears at the inner doorway. I wave him back.
‘Severin’s checking outside. Stay in there with Safi and the kids.’ I grab my clothes and peer cautiously out of the open door.
On the far side of the clearing someone is kneeling beside the inert form of Tregen who lies slumped on the ground, dart gun loose in his limp hand.
I freeze, wondering anxiously why Severin is approaching the intruder and holstering his gun as he walks.
Then the figure stands u
p and turns, and to my astonishment I recognize the stern dark features of the elderly sensei who guided my combat class back in Merkaan. He grips Severin in a fierce hug and slaps him on the back.
‘Severin! I hear you’ve been doing great things since you went to university and quit my classes! And I hear you gave Alis the next link in this chain of corruption and war.’
Severin turns him towards the dome. ‘It was Hannik who really made the breakthrough.’ He gives me a pointed look. ‘After taking far too many risks.’
I make my most respectful formal bow. ‘Sensei.’
He holds out his hand. ‘Please. My name is Olewala. We’re not in the dojo now and I’m grateful for what you’ve done.’ He notices my baffled expression. ‘Come inside and I’ll catch you up on events while we wait for Alis. She should be here soon.’ He turns to Tregen, who has regained consciousness and is scrambling clumsily to his feet. ‘Sorry about that, old man. We couldn’t risk using the airwaves to warn you we were coming and I didn’t want you to shoot me.’
Tregen glares at him, dusting off his rumpled uniform. ‘Less of the ‘old’ if you don’t mind!’ Then he remembers something and seems to relent. ‘That were a brilliant nerve-lock you used on me. Show me sometime?’
‘No problem. Just stay on guard for a while longer and I’ll show you a few like that.’ Olewala gives Tregen a friendly slap on the shoulder that nearly sends him reeling.
He follows Severin into the dome. We settle into hover-chairs and Safi reassures herself that things are almost back to normal domesticity by scurrying round with drinks and treats.
Olewala checks his holo-com and frowns. ‘No message. But I’m sure Alis will be here soon.’
I notice the anxiety he doesn’t quite manage to hide.
‘Where is she?’
He regains his controlled composure. ‘On the other side of Kar, arresting the Commissioner before he leaves home this morning to go to his office. Soon as he tells her who he’s working with we’ll know who we can trust among the rest of the police down here. Which will make us a bit less short-staffed than we’ve been since this investigation started.’
I shiver. Does getting him to confess involve the sort of thing his friends did to Vander?’
Olewala shakes his head. ‘Nothing so crude and unreliable! Alis sent a pigeon-message to a truthseer in the far western Karesh forest. He should be with us in a couple of days.’
My eyes widen in surprise. ‘You mean some people can read thoughts without ayan?’
He smiles, but it’s a warning sort of smile. ‘Very few. And only among the Webdancers, so it’s not an easy talent to get hold of at short notice. Their skill doesn’t work well if criminals are forewarned, so we try to keep their presence secret. Which means you are duty bound not to mention it to anyone.’
I gulp back a half-formed protest. This all seems to be getting too high-level for comfort.
‘Um, yes. Whatever. Are you Alis’ boss?’
He laughs. ‘Don’t tell her you even suggested that! She’d never let me hear the last of it.’ His face becomes serious. ‘I’ll start a bit nearer the beginning. Your father’s ‘lucky’ promotion didn’t happen by chance. And it wasn’t an invitation. It was a command, direct from the president. Alexin has one of the best gestalt minds in Pangaea and we needed him.’
I’d always been vaguely aware that my father’s work for the local administration here in Kar had involved his gestalt ability but it occurs to me now that the way he’d played it down, as if he had only a minor form of the talent, might have been for security reasons.
My own gestalt is rapidly making sense of what I’m learning.
‘You needed someone to make sense of scattered clues you’d found about this conspiracy?’
Olewala nods sagely. ‘Too many suspicious coincidences.’ He pauses for a moment. ‘I need to start at the beginning of all this. Have you heard of the island of Rhangaran?’ He takes my blank look as answer enough and continues.
‘That’s good, because we prefer to live quiet lives there, away from the busyness of the mainland. It’s my home. In my role there as Webdancer I explored many miles of ocean surrounding the island until I retired to become sensei of the dojo in Merkaan where we met.
‘A few weeks ago Janna, our most accomplished active Webdancer, came to see me with news of a serious disturbance in the resonance around our homeland. She and the other six Rhangarian Webdancers had sensed a deep tunnel being bored under the ocean from the coast of Eden. It had almost reached the main island in the chain.’
I’m about to make a surprised comment on learning of Janna’s Webdancer status––but looking back I should have guessed right from the start. The cool way my recently-appointed support-mother had dealt with my careless attitude on our first meeting, the unflappable response to my unorthodox request for a surgeon clamp... it all contributed to the way I instinctively felt I could trust Janna, could talk to her, even about the stupid pickle I’d managed to get myself into.
It doesn’t take much gestalt ability to figure out another connection.
‘It wasn’t coincidence she enrolled me in your combat classes, was it?’
He lowers his eyes, clearly embarrassed. ‘No. It wasn’t. The president asked Janna to stay in Merkaan and become your temporary support parent, then get you into my class in case your father’s investigative work put you in danger. I was supposed to keep an eye on you. Protect you. I didn’t do a very good job. You went on a social visit to Karesh where I mistakenly assumed you’d be safe... and you suddenly disappeared! I didn’t have a clue where you’d gone.’
Now it’s my turn to laugh. It feels good to break the tense atmosphere.
‘I don’t need my dad’s activities to put me in harm’s way! I seem to be pretty good at doing that myself without any extra help.’ I can’t be sure if it makes Olewala feel any better about his lapse in protection duty, but my curiosity is taking over again.
‘So if you’re not Alis’ boss...?’
‘Don’t...’ He smiles and draws a hand across his throat in mock horror. I wonder just how much of a hard time Alis would give him if she did hear that suggestion. He checks his com again. No messages. He sighs and goes back to his story.
‘Eden continent is supposed to remain uninhabited and as undisturbed as possible, so our visits are kept to a minimum and the Webdancers are always consulted first. The last time Janna went over to spy on the tunnel entrance on Eden she saw a couple of undeclared government-registered air-shuttles there. That was when she figured that someone high up in the administration was involved and she came to Merkaan to ask for my help.
‘If she’d gone direct from Rhangaran to see the president it might have made the conspirators suspicious enough to cover their tracks, so I offered to go instead. I made the pretext of lobbying for extra safety measures in combat classes.
‘I discussed the situation with the president and with Janna. We couldn’t trust anyone in the government until we had more information. Your father had helped the president briefly once before so we felt he could be trusted. We asked him to transfer to Merkaan and investigate. We didn’t know Alis was working on the same problem, also in isolation, until you told Janna when you asked to borrow a surgeon-clamp for your friend and gave her access to the secure com-link you’d been using.’
‘Some friend,’ I mutter under my breath, thinking of the way Vander put my family in danger. Olewala overhears.
‘Janna was fairly astute at filling in the bits you left out. You had a lucky escape there.’
‘Like I said. I seem to have a gift for getting into trouble.’ I try to avoid Severin’s eyes. Olewala takes pity on my embarrassment and moves the topic away from difficult territory.
‘We contacted Alis and shared information. Deron still hasn’t revealed anything useful, but Talaya’s parents are senior officials in the administration. We intercepted their messages and your father started working on likely connections. Meanwhile you disappea
red to Kar again, on a kitten-rescue mission this time, and here we are.’
‘Not quite,’ interrupts Severin. ‘You might need the news from my end. Yesterday I went back to the original safe-house to check on Ressay and give him a shot of tranc antidote before going to look for Hannik.’ He breaks off at Olewala’s puzzled frown and gives a resigned shrug as he decides to confess. ‘I, um, had to shoot Ressay to stop him reporting back to the Commissioner.’
Olewala’s dark eyebrows speak volumes but he doesn’t offer an opinion on Severin’s rather unorthodox methods.
‘Go on.’
‘Turned out Ressay hadn’t actually seen me do it so it was easy to persuade him the kidnappers shot him while snatching the whole family and disappearing into the forest, heading south towards the Irithen border.’
‘But that’s the opposite direction to where we were!’ Safi nearly drops the pot of pinkleaf she’s bringing over from the stove.
Severin grabs the teapot and sets it safely on the table.
‘Opposite direction. Exactly. I suggested to Ressay he should report in to the Commissioner and requisition an air-shuttle to start the search for them. His story was far more convincing because he thought it was true. I don’t think he has much acting talent.
‘The Commissioner was only too happy to send the search in the wrong direction because, obviously, he knew where the kidnappers’ base really was and wanted to make sure it wasn’t discovered. Once they went beyond the five-mile coms range from police HQ, Tregen had less than a minute of connection from his location out here to contact the pilot and redirect him to the real base to pick up our prisoners.’ Severin tries to look apologetic but I can tell he’s pleased that his gamble worked out. ‘We needed a bigger shuttle to collect all those people. There wasn’t room in the wasp.’
‘So where is Ressay now?’
‘Stranded in the forest in the police air-shuttle with five prisoners, following his habitual careful approach to police work by waiting for further orders from the Commissioner. Which he won’t receive if Alis has managed to arrest him.’ Severin shrugs ruefully. ‘I’m going to be making some serious apologies to Ressay when this is over.’
