Taimin looked curiously ahead. The eight figures had stick-thin bodies and sat on the ground with their limbs folded unnaturally beneath them. Wedge-shaped heads turned to display black eyes. The three humans were nearing the summit and would soon be within speaking range.
“Wait here,” Lars muttered. He held his palms out and stepped forward to approach the group resting in the shade cast by the huge leaning rocks. One of the mantoreans rose and left the others, and Taimin had his first good look at the insect-like creature.
Lars had confirmed that the mantorean was male. His body was eerily thin and his head was shaped like an upside-down triangle, with two multifaceted eyes just below his hairless crown. A pair of antennae twitched above his eyes, while two vertical scars formed nostrils halfway down his face. His mouth was tiny, and Taimin knew from Abi that he only ate plants and insects, never large pieces of meat. While the mantorean wore no clothing, a belt at his waist bore an array of tools, and a bow and a few arrow shafts poked from behind his shoulder.
Abi’s voice sounded in Taimin’s mind. A mantorean’s advantage is speed. Fortunately, they aren’t aggressive, and prefer to talk rather than fight. They have a knack for finding water, and the females will do anything to protect their eggs, so some humans keep a female captive for just that reason. They prefer to fight with a bow and arrow, but if you do find yourself in combat, try to cut off its antennae. The pain they feel is unbearable.
Like Lars, the mantorean also held out his hands to show he was unarmed.
“Greetings with peaceful intent,” the mantorean said in a scratching, clicking voice.
Taimin glanced at Selena, who was also watching the exchange. Griff whimpered, and Taimin put his hand on the wherry’s back.
“Greetings,” Lars said. “Will you trade?” He pulled a folded skin out of his pack, along with the ripe-smelling skin of the lizard Taimin had caught earlier. “I have skins.”
The mantorean came forward to examine the skins. Taimin heard Griff growl; the bigger skin came from a wherry. The mantorean rubbed a skin between his fingers. “We have need. Will you add one more skin to your trade?”
Taimin realized the mantorean meant Griff. “Not on your life,” he said flatly.
Lars made a pushing motion with his hands. Taimin glared back at him.
“What is it you need?” the mantorean asked Lars.
“It is for you to offer,” Lars said.
As the bargaining began, Taimin turned to Selena, who was lifting one of Griff’s paws. She plucked out a stone and then patted the wherry on the flank. Griff gave her a grin and butted his head against her torso.
“You’ve spent time with wherries?” he asked. He glanced again at Lars but had the sense that the trade had only just begun.
She nodded. “He’s smaller than some of the others I’ve seen.”
“My aunt said he’s a runt. One of the wherries that never become wyverns.”
“I’ve heard it said people can ride wyverns too.”
“Ride wyverns?” Taimin was incredulous.
“I’ve never seen it, but it’s what I’ve heard.”
“Who from?”
She scratched Griff in the place he loved, just behind his floppy ear. “One advantage of moving around is that you pick up a lot of skills. I lived for a few years with a hunter and took care of his children. He had a wherry.”
“What happened?”
Selena continued to pat Griff, even as she stared into the distance. “I told him I’d seen some trulls heading our way. He didn’t believe me. But I knew. He found me with his children, a boy and a girl, five and seven. We were running. I was taking them away.” Her eyes were tight but her tone was matter of fact. “He beat me and took his children home. The trulls came. They killed him and his children. I was weak, but I made my way back. I loved those children. I’d watched them grow. I buried the bodies. Then I left and never looked back.”
Taimin’s mouth was open. “But didn’t he know you were a mystic?”
“I didn’t know myself. I was only twelve.” Selena gave a slight shrug. “It was a long time ago.”
“What made you keep going?”
“I have a dream,” she said simply.
Taimin opened his mouth to ask her what it was, but she spoke first.
“Now I have a question for you,” she said. “What were you thinking when you saved us? Was it just about vengeance?”
Taimin’s brow furrowed. “Of course not. I saw you and I knew you were in danger.”
“Then why didn’t you come up to us right away? You didn’t call out or wave. It was almost like we weren’t there.”
She was deadly serious, and Taimin wondered what he could say that wouldn’t sound foolish. “In truth . . .” He hesitated. “I haven’t met many people.”
Her expression changed as she smiled. “You were shy? After what you just did, you were afraid of talking to some people you didn’t know?”
He knew his face had reddened, but a gruff shout forestalled any reply. He saw Lars trying to get his attention.
“Lad,” Lars called. The big skinner nodded at the stick-thin figure in front of him. “We’re going to be here for a while, but I’ve learned there’s a spring nearby.” He indicated a broken cliff perhaps a mile away. “Best if the two of you go together.” Taimin was initially surprised that Lars would be willing to let him and Selena out of his sight, but then the skinner spoke again. “Leave your packs here.” He gave a dark-eyed smile. “You don’t need the extra weight.” He glanced at Griff. “Also . . . you don’t have far to go. The wherry stays too.”
6
“Wait,” Taimin said. “I don’t think I can do this.”
Selena was already poised to gather speed and jump over the narrow crevasse that stretched in both directions. Taimin could see no way around it. She cast him a look of surprise, but then glanced at his leg.
He flushed with shame. If he had a plank or a log he could cross the gap with little trouble, but if his only option was to jump . . . He knew he would never make it across.
The terrain was rocky, stretching all the way to the broken cliff in the distance. Just fifty paces past the crevasse, a dark shadow carved an even bigger gouge in the landscape up ahead. Lars had said they would find the spring at the bottom of this wider, deeper gully.
The problem was that the crevasse made a barrier Taimin couldn’t get past.
As he pondered, he heard a rush of footsteps and his gaze shot to the side. He heard Selena grunt just as she launched her slender body from the edge of the thin gap. She sailed through the air to land squarely on the other side.
Once she was across, she moved so that she was facing him. “Throw me the water sacks,” she said, holding out her arms, ready to catch.
“And then what?” Taimin frowned.
“What do you mean?” she asked, puzzled. “I’ll find the spring.”
Taimin shook his head. “No.” He looked her up and down. “Do you even have a weapon? Why didn’t you bring that dagger?”
“Taimin,” she said, lifting her chin. “I’ll be fine. If I see anything down there I can run straight back, and you’ll be here waiting.” She nodded toward the gully, where a far more gentle descent beckoned. “The sooner I get down there, the better.”
He wished he could give her his knife but it was in his pack, which was on the ground near Lars’s feet. “Can you use a bow?”
“No,” she said. “Come on. Throw me the sacks.”
He reluctantly tossed her the first leather bladder, which she caught easily, before he followed with the second. But he was still troubled by her heading off alone, where he couldn’t help her if there was danger. He had an idea.
“Selena, wait.” He glanced over his shoulder to look back at the hill. “I’ll go and fetch Lars—”
A crease of irritation formed on her brow. “Taimin,” she interrupted. “I’m going.”
Taimin felt helpless. He stared into her eyes and put stre
ngth into his voice. “Don’t be foolish—”
Her mouth twisted. “I’ve managed to survive for a long time before you came along. I’m dirty and I’m tired. We need water. Lars is busy. You can’t stop me.”
He scowled at her, but already she was heading toward the gully. Her long black hair trailed behind her, blown by the wind. She lost height as she descended, and then all of a sudden the landscape was empty, and Taimin was alone.
He began to pace, following the edge of the crevasse that looked so narrow any child could jump it, but was much too wide for him. He imagined Selena clambering down the rock as she made her way to the bottom of the gully; it wasn’t so big that she would get lost, and she wouldn’t take long to find the spring. She would fill up one water sack. That might take her the amount of time she had already been gone. As he waited, she was probably filling the second.
But still the moments passed.
He gnawed at his lip. He kept up his constant search for danger, and walked back and forth, back and forth. As time dragged on, he tried to stay calm, but he kept conjuring up images of something unexpected in the gully: a snake, scorpion, firehound, or something even worse.
He turned to look back at the hill once more, where the two slanted rocks leaned against each other on the summit. He couldn’t see the other mantoreans, but Lars and his stick-thin companion were silhouetted against the sky.
As he returned his attention to the crevasse in front of him, and past it to the gully containing the spring, he clenched his fists at his sides. Selena should have been back by now. Something had happened. He knew it.
His eye caught movement.
The direction was unexpected, but long habit meant he never stopped scanning the horizon. He saw a row of squat, brown, hunched figures—tiny but growing larger as they followed the base of the broken cliff. Their path was angled; they were coming closer as their route led them toward the gully Selena had disappeared into.
Taimin’s breath caught. Bax . . . and more than a handful of them. His pulse began to quicken. Water was precious. The approaching bax might know about the spring. Taimin could run or hide before they saw him, but Selena was down in the gully.
Perhaps she had sensed them. She might already know.
But what if she didn’t?
His heartbeat shifted to a hard thumping. He had to warn her. The bax didn’t appear to have spied him—their vision was worse than a human’s—but if he shouted loud enough for Selena to have a chance of hearing him, they would hear too.
He had to take action.
He took several steps back, putting distance between himself and the crevasse, far more than Selena had used for her approach. Knowing he was about to test his body, he moved into a lumbering, staggering run.
He gritted his teeth. The bones moved against each other in his right foot, sending flashes of pain up his leg. When he reached the edge of the gap, he pushed hard with both legs. He put his head down and swung his arms as he jumped.
Hard rock approached with speed. He saw the steep chasm coming at him, wrinkled with jagged furrows. He was losing height too quickly.
As he slammed into the wall of the deep crevasse, his hands grabbed at anything they could. Frantic movements held him fast before his body could slide down the sheer face. As he found purchase on the natural seams, he winced: one of his fingernails had torn. His hands weren’t the only part of him hurting; he had scraped his arms and torn his vest on the lower side. Lifting his gaze, he saw the lip of the crevasse a dozen feet above him, tantalizingly close.
He groaned and tried to pull his body up. The muscles in his arms tensed as he reached to a different hand hold. Moving from one position to another, he climbed higher and pushed with his good leg. He gave a final stretch and flung out his arm over the top of the wall. His other arm followed. A great heave pulled his body out of the crevasse, and he rolled over on the dirt, until he was on his back, staring up at the sky with his chest heaving.
Thoughts of Selena made him shift into a crouch. His gaze shot to the cliff. The bax were still there, and now he could make out individual warriors as they followed each other in single file.
Taimin burst into a shuffling run, taking the risk now that he was just fifty paces from the gully. The gouge in the terrain opened up in front of him. He began to clamber down the rocky slope.
The gully was crooked, shaped like an arm bent at the elbow. Taimin could only see his section, but as he hurried down to the bottom, he knew the spring must be in the part beyond, after the bend. The shadowed interior swallowed him up, but the air was warm. Soon he was on solid ground, made up of dirt and gravel. He stayed quiet but moved as quickly as he could.
He guessed that if the bax were on their way to the spring, they might already be close. His struggle in the crevasse had cost him precious time. He had to find Selena and get her to leave. If she jumped over the crevasse and rejoined Lars, the bax might decide not to give chase, especially if what they were really after was water.
As sweat broke out on his forehead, he wondered what was taking her so long, and if it would stop her getting away. She might have twisted an ankle. Dangerous beasts needed water too. Anything might have been lurking in wait for her.
He rounded the bend in the gully. Coming to a sudden halt, his mouth dropped open as he stared.
Selena faced a trickle of water that slid down an incline. Two bulging water sacks rested on the stony ground near her feet.
She was naked.
She had her back to him as she splashed water over her torso. Her black hair was wet through and draped between her shoulder blades. Her angular face was in profile, so that he could see a dainty ear and her red lips, and her brow was furrowed in concentration; she hadn’t heard his approach.
For a moment, he couldn’t believe he was gazing at the same girl who had boldly jumped over the crevasse. Her waist was narrow but curved at her hips, which continued down her tapered thighs and legs, where one of her knees was slightly bent. Her skin was smooth and wet with moisture. She looked fragile but she also had a power, something that made him want her more than he had ever wanted anything.
With a start, he remembered his purpose.
He cleared his throat. “Selena.”
She whirled.
Her eyes went wide and her arms went over her body, one covering her chest and the other across her hips. “Taimin!”
He quickly spun so that he was facing away from her. “I’m sorry,” he said. “We have to leave.”
“What are you—?”
“There’s danger,” he insisted. “You didn’t sense it? Some bax are coming.”
“I have to put my clothes on.”
“Do it quickly.”
He heard sounds of movement and the rustle of clothing but he still didn’t turn around, and waited until Selena strode past him with a sloshing water sack in each hand.
“Let me take one,” he said gruffly.
Her hair, face, and neck were wet, and her tunic was dark in places that clung to her body. She almost threw the water sack into his arms, and he soon found himself hurrying to catch up with her as she left the spring behind. Her eyes roved over the area before she spoke over her shoulder. “Where are they?”
“You haven’t sensed them?”
“It doesn’t work all the time.”
“We’ll either see them as soon as we leave, or we’ll know they’ve left the area. If we see them, we’ll have to run.”
Her mouth tightened. “I thought you couldn’t run.”
“I have to try or we’ll be trapped here.” His voice was grim. “If we do end up running, don’t look back.”
But when they climbed cautiously out of the gully, the bax were nowhere to be seen.
“There’s nothing here,” Selena said, turning to scan in all directions. When she looked at Taimin again, her expression was cold.
Taimin made his own careful assessment. “We’re lucky. They must have moved on.” He turned his attention
to the crevasse. “Now I just have to figure out how to get to the other side.”
“If you can do it once, you can do it again.” Selena frowned. “Come on. I’ll help you.”
Selena knew she was scowling, but she couldn’t smooth her expression. She wasn’t someone who let anyone take advantage of her, and that meant she had become used to speaking her mind.
The mantorean Lars had been trading with had returned to his group, and the insect-like creatures all sat together, talking in low, clicking voices while they gave the humans the occasional curious glance. Lars was stuffing items into his pack: salt, twine, leather. Taimin absently patted Griff while he hoisted the bulging water sacks onto the wherry’s back.
Selena set her mouth in a thin line. Making a decision, she walked toward Taimin with long, angry strides.
“Taimin,” she said flatly.
“Selena,” he said, smiling as he turned to face her. His smile faded when he saw her face. “What is it?”
“There were no bax.”
His brow furrowed. “I don’t understand.”
“There were no bax,” she repeated. “You made them up.”
Realization dawned in his eyes. Color came to his cheeks; he was obviously remembering the encounter at the spring. Thoughts visibly crossed his face, but slowly his expression changed.
“That’s not true,” he said, meeting her gaze. “I wouldn’t lie to you. And especially not like that.”
“I’ve been around a lot of men—”
“But you haven’t been around me,” he said.
Without another word, Taimin led Griff away.
Selena had been prepared for lies or obfuscation. Taimin’s reaction wasn’t what she had expected. She tried again to farcast, allowing her eyes to become unfocused and her mind to wander. Again, she found nothing.
But her talent could be unreliable. She turned her head, and found herself watching the distant, broken cliff.
The golden sun had moved to a lower position in the sky. The hilltop with the two leaning rocks was high, with a clear view in all directions. Following the bottom of the cliff, where their path would have taken them, she saw a line of shadows. The shadows were cast by tiny figures, walking in single file. Only one race had that strange, hunched posture.
A Girl From Nowhere Page 7
