Family Law

by Mackey Chandler

  "But," Lee started and then looked around like she was aware she might be overheard. "It's about control isn't it?"

  "You're starting to understand. Just like this," he said and held some invisible thing down on the table top with his massive thumb. "If one of the Mothers decides you aren't doing a good job you turn in your reader at night and the next morning they issue it to somebody else. No fuss. No way to look at data yourself and offer suggestions on better ways to do things. Also there is no way to see somebody else is doing a lousy job and complain about it. That's for the Mothers to decide, not workers."

  "But if you have some really bright kid, who might be a artist, or scientist, or something, you'd never even know, because he can't study whatever he wants and he'll never grow," she objected. "You'd just throw that talent away."

  "Out here, yeah. It's pretty much the same in all the clan keeps, but not in the cities. Don't forget, cities are new to us. We had a few small towns that weren't clan keeps, on trade routes or harbors, but mostly the fortified and remote seats of clan power were our only cities, until after the landing. By the time I was your age the trade cities were growing haphazardly, new cities that had humans and traders and didn't belong to any one clan. When that happened we had somewhere to go, if we didn't want to stay at home and do what we were told."

  "That's what you did?"

  "Yep, when it came time to be apprenticed I was supposed to be a cooper and furniture maker. I got up the morning I was to start with him and told my master I was going to town. He was OK, I had nothing against him. I just wanted to go off world and nothing here would lead to that. I didn't discuss it with the Mothers, because they would have just ridiculed me. I just walked out the way we came in, with a bow, a single bit ax, a pair of boots, a water bag and the firestarter and such any boy carries in the back country. It was spring, but I had a winter cloak I rolled up, because that was about all I owned and I didn't know if I'd ever come back. I took some left over breakfast for the road. Took me three days to walk to where we stayed at the inn. I foraged and shot a few small animals for food along the way."

  "How old were you?"

  "I was seventeen. That's about sixteen Earth years and that's pretty much equivalent to where you are for a Derf, as far as development and maturity. But I was old enough to know I didn't want to make barrels and chairs all my life. I stopped by the same inn we used, but I didn't stay there, didn't have the money to stay there, not even a few coins to buy a beer to talk to the crowd in the evening. There were a few houses around the inn even back then, although not as many as today. I asked around until I found somebody who would give me work, so I could buy an adult knife before I went to a bigger town. A fellow who brewed for the inn hired me to carry and crack grain and that sort of rough labor. Paid me my board and let me sleep in his outbuilding. After a month he gave me an old fighting knife, with a guard and sheath to hang it. Then he talked me into staying another month and getting some cash money before going into the city. He talked a good bit of sense to me, so I didn't get cheated or robbed in the city. That was worth more than the knife or the cash money. It helped me not look like a clueless country boy quite so badly." Gordon pushed his plate away, even though he'd been doing most of the talking. So Lee hurried to finish up her own plate.

  "Would you like to go see the memorial I told you about? That will get us out from under foot here for most of three days."

  "If we have to go back out on the mail truck let's wait until we leave for good."

  "No, First Landing is on Red Tree's land, so we'll have a little hike and we'll need to camp overnight. We might as well do it while the dry weather is holding."

  "Sure, let's do it," Lee agreed. Why didn't he tell her humans landed on Red Tree territory? That seemed important. Did that mean it was his clan that first met humans? If it was, why didn't he say so? It bugged her when people were needlessly secretive.

  Chapter 13

  The path they took followed a stream north into the hills, parallel to the distant mountains. The trees grew bigger and the bark was a different color, but the red of the tribal name showed in the cracks between the scales it displayed. The fallen leaves, very similar to Earth pine needles, were so thick on the ground they suppressed any undergrowth and the only clue Lee could see to mark the path, was that dead under limbs were sheared off the trees on each side, as far up as a Derf could reach with an ax. If you stood back and looked, the path was a barely discernible tunnel through the woods, marked by an absence of dead limbs overhead and the carpet of needles below lacked the usual loose scattering of sticks and seed pods. The dead needles were a deep red and the live ones a bluish green. It made for a very dark woods.

  When they were beyond any sign of habitation Gordon stopped and gave Lee a lesson for the day. He demonstrated the high stepping rolling walk he used in a stalk and challenged her to find a gait for herself that would be as silent. After much effort and little success she stopped and pulled her shoes off, hanging them around her neck. In her stocking feet she was doing much better. She would do well for awhile and then fatigue and walk normally until she was no longer cramped up. It strained muscles she swore had never been used, to control her steps so closely.

  Gordon had a small pack with a ground cloth and some food. He also carried the first Derf bow she had seen. It was so short it looked a toy in his hands, but the recurved arms were so thick she didn't see how it could bend. The ends curved so sharply they actually reversed direction briefly, before twisting opposite in a tight little arch. The bow string rode slack with the loops still over each arm. The end of each was a small knob with a groove carved from the front over the end. The arrows had metal shafts that wore a dull finish and looked impossibly long for the tiny bow.

  They crossed dips and hollows, but it was obvious the path was tending up more than down. The stream might be lost from sight for awhile, but its murmur was always there. A few times she saw something fly through the canopy, but it was always just a dark shape, against the few bright points of sky shining through. She never saw them, but other things rustled in the tree tops and sent an occasional twig or seed pod down.

  Toward midday they turned to climb down to the stream. She looked ahead and the trail went on as the dead limbs were still trimmed ahead in a tunnel, but they left it here and descended. There was a great chain across the stream of some copper alloy, the links as big as both her hands brought together, a greasy dark blue on the outside and a deep green patina on the inside. It was set in a sturdy eyelet that seemed cast into the rocky foundations of the hill itself.

  Gordon invited her to his shoulders and crossed with uncharacteristic caution, both lower hands on the chain. The cold water reached to his lower arms, rocking him on his slippery footing and splashing up on Lee's legs. On the other side Lee hurried out of range, as he shook the water off like a dog. They continued along the stream on the opposite bank, Gordon looking down as if he was looking for something. "Pick a pebble," he encouraged Lee. "Make it a nice one, something memorable. You'll need it at the site," he said mysteriously. She watched until she saw a pure white pebble, flawless and even in shape and pocketed it without quizzing him.

  "When you move in the woods being silent isn't enough," Gordon continued her lessons. "Movement attracts the eye and you must learn to move smoothly. When you peek out from cover, or turn your head it should be slowly. If you get caught in the open and don't want to be seen, first hide your face. The brain is programmed to pick out faces and eyes. You dip your head, or turn it aside and then slowly melt to the ground like a piece of ice melting. If you roll up in a ball and imitate a rock, sometimes you can avoid being seen even in an open field."

  "Or in your case, imitate a small hill," Lee teased him, snickering.

  Toward sunset they turned off the path and went up a short climb to a camp, with a lean-to shelter and a fire pit, set in a clearing among a few scrubby trees instead of the surrounding giants. There was a doubled tarp over the lean-to, that c
ould be folded down to close the front in really bad weather, a firewood carrier spread upside down, to keep the rain off the kindling and a tripod joined at the top by a ring, for hanging a pot over the fire. Gordon spread the ground cover in the shelter and tossed his pack on the corner to weigh it down. Lee dumped her shoes on the opposite corner.

  "I'll start a fire," Gordon volunteered. "The reason they put the shelter up here is the bed rock sticks up here too much for tree trash to accumulate. There's just rock and a little bare dirt and gravel. Down below the tree needles can be a meter deep. You don't want to get a fire in the ground cover, because it can burn for years. Custom is we leave wood for the next fellow, just like someone did for us," he pointed out the stack. "If you would go get some dead branches while we have light, that would be a big help."

  The dead branches were gone as high as a Derf could reach, almost two hundred meters downhill from the camp. Finally she found a long narrow clearing of trees, blown down in some great storm, that would supply more than she could carry. She was short of breath at this altitude and dropped the canvas carry sling and single bit hatchet at her feet and sat on a boulder to rest before trying to cut wood.

  The woods were not quite still, the wind a constant murmur in the tree tops, even when it didn't reach the ground. A few of the flying creatures flicked through the tree tops, dark shadows that stayed there and didn't venture over her clearing. In the woods some small creature chattered an angry warning, that made her look up. There was movement that caught her eye at the far tree line. She watched it and then there was tiny flash of light off something artificial, some small surface of glass or metal and then she lost it in the shadows again.

  Unsure of what was friendly or not, she slid down the boulder slowly just like Gordon had told her to move and went around the rock on hands and knees. The wood carrier was a coarse fabric like canvas with loop handles and she reached between the boulder she'd sat on and it's bigger companion and pulled it through the dip between them. The hatchet slid out on the ground, but too far away to reach. Only the very edge was shiny so she left it and draped the sheet of coarse fabric over her head and shoulders, leaving a dark tunnel hiding her face as she peered low from between the stones.

  Several more times she saw movement, if not a shape, skirting the clearing. The woods were dense enough there were only a few speckled bright spots that reached through them, from the setting sun. Something dark would obscure a few of those bright dots as it moved along the edge of the woods. Then after moving well past her, a Derf dared to cross the clearing and stepped fully into view, marching along steadily, oblivious to the scolding animals, but looking about the clearing with some care.

  Lee abandoned the Derf sized wood carrier as too bulky to carry stealthily, but slid over the gap in the boulders with a hand braced on each side and retrieved the hatchet. The lone Derf was headed straight towards their camp and Lee was determined to follow, thinking of her uncle Gordon alone. There was a sneaky quality about this Derf she didn't like, avoiding the clearing and peering about with a look she would have labeled skulking in a human. That an omnivore the size of a small ground car didn't need a forty-six kilo little girl as backup never entered her mind.

  It was getting dark quickly in the woods and she had to hurry faster than she liked to get the Derf back in sight. Lee slowed down when he was just an indistinct area of movement in the shadows ahead, trying to keep a tree between her and the big fellow. She'd stop when she came to the tree she was using for cover, to catch her breath and flex her toes that were cramping up from the rolling gait she'd adapted. She'd lean low and look around the trunk slowly, then move on an angle to put another big trunk between her and the Derf, moving toward it as fast as she could without making noise.

  It was tiring, walking silent and slightly uphill at that. The deepening dark was making it difficult to avoid stepping on twigs and seed pods that would make noise. This wasn't exactly the path she'd come down herself, but as long as they were headed back uphill, they had to be headed to the camp on the summit, if they didn't turn off. If he did turn off, Lee would keep going uphill, because it would be too dark to see her way soon and if she followed him off she'd be stranded until morning, because she'd left her light in camp - a mistake she wouldn't repeat.

  A couple of times the Derf stopped and she caught up closer than she intended, but he never looked behind, instead sheltering behind a big tree and scanning the woods ahead of him. When he slipped around his tree and hurried forward, she'd do the same.

  When at last he slowed down the woods behind them was almost black and the light ahead was from where the camp clearing opened up, about fifty meters ahead of the Derf. Lee could smell the smoke from Gordon's fire and was glad she'd followed this fellow. He wasn't calling out or marching forward openly and she didn't think that spoke well of honest intentions.

  The stranger was in better light now, as the cover thinned out on the summit and she was in deepening shadow hanging back. She could see he carried a lot more gear than Gordon. He had a ruck and a lot of pouches, as well as a weapon that looked like a carbine in his big hands, though it would be too heavy for her to handle. She didn't especially like how he was carrying that, as if he was ready to use it, and quietly unfastened the flap on her holster.

  He inched forward giving her a good lesson in the things uncle Gordon had been teaching her. He moved quietly from cover to cover, almost disappearing when leaning against a tree with his cinnamon coat. All his equipment was dull and muted colors, she noticed.

  At last he stopped and then after craning his neck around looking at something, he started slowly backing up. When he turned and walked back into the woods Lee had to hurry to turn and duck around her tree, until she could see his ruck on his back from the opposite side. She stayed sideways, slowly circling the tree the opposite direction to keep his back in view. He walked away on an arc to the left. It didn't take long to see he was making a loop, on a different approach to the camp.

  Her heart was beating fast and she was breathing through her mouth trying to keep from making gasping noises. When he turned around he'd almost caught her. She actually had a flash of irritation with him, that he'd let a complete novice in the woods like her get away with following him. Didn't he ever look behind? Then the chilling thought struck her, that she hadn't looked behind herself on the whole long stalk. She turned slowly, correcting that error, but the dark woods were empty and silent to her relief. She carefully cataloged that as another mistake not to make again.

  Lee also circled around the camp, closer to the edge, very aware she was silhouetted against the lighter clearing now and using the trees carefully. They were stunted and wind sculpted here, compared to the straight massive trunks just a hundred meters downhill, but they had low branches and bushes to hide behind, that were absent in the deep woods. Even with the extra care she kept up with the stranger, because her path was so much shorter than his. In fact, she lost sight of the Derf a few times. When he started coming back in she could just see the lean-to on her left.

  The fellow approached the lean-to slowly, stopping to look around and Lee stayed behind the tree she was using, only leaning out enough to keep an elbow or edge of his ruck in sight to locate him.

  When he was leaning over peering into the shelter Gordon materialized from the woods behind the fellow, so suddenly it made her start.

  "Hello neighbor, nobody home you see."

  The cinnamon coated fellow straightened up slowly. The muzzle of his weapon was turned to his left, pointing into the shelter, exactly opposite Gordon. He didn't make any move to swing it around.

  Gordon had his lower clawed hand firmly around the shank of his ax, right under the head. It was still tucked in his belt, but he could draw and throw it in an instant, even though he had technically not drawn a weapon. His true arms were crossed in a gesture that spoke of irritation, the same as it would in a human.

  "Courtesy and custom would be to have that rifle slung, muzzle down
across your back, when you walk into a stranger's camp, young fellow. Some ill-natured old grumps would put an ax in you, for carrying it at the ready like that."

  "That's not one's place to do on another's territory, Red Tree. Blue Stone claims to the river and to me you are the interloper on our land."

  "Red Tree claims the water shed clear to the peaks. We have for two thousand years, since Wide Leaf clan ceased to exist. The ford-chain binds our banks and if Blue Stone wants to dispute the claim they are welcome to rip the chain out and see if they can live with the consequences. It has been a millennium since the clans have made war, but be assured we have not forgotten how."

  "You talk as if you make law like a Mother. The Mothers can make all the laws they wish, but it's males in the woods who decide if the laws stand. Sometimes it isn't war parties and armies, but single males who decide who can stay and who best keep out. Today I'd say it boils down to which is faster across ten meters, a bullet or an ax."

  That made Lee's mind up for her and she drew her pistol, leaning out slowly to make sure the idiot Derf had not tried to bring the rifle around. She kept the end of it in view from behind the tree. She didn't think, hoped, Gordon wouldn't let him bring it to bear. As it stood, it looked about like an equal stand off to her. It would take about as much time for the rifle to come around and be aimed, as it would for an ax to cross the distance. Her money was on Gordon, but she wasn't sure.

  "Beside the fact your Mothers may not be as happy with you as you'd think, bringing the whole land dispute to the fore right now, there are other factors involved you don't know youngster. If you don't let your pride get in the way our grandchildren can argue about the boundary someday. If you miscalculate it won't be a concern to you anymore."

  "Oh? Is this where you bluff me with an ally behind me I'm supposed to whirl around to see? You think me a fool."