Ikeya set the boys down, and they quietened immediately. They were obviously his sons, and the woman their mother. The exchange between Ikeya and the woman was rapid, and Kara only caught a few words.
The woman turned her attention to Kara. Before she could protest, the woman had placed the cup in her hand, felt her forehead, put two fingers on her wrist to take her pulse, bent and examined the bandage. “Drink,” she ordered.
Kara was too bewildered to do anything else but obey. The confidence of these people intimidated her. The drink was hot and sweet, and the floating sensation in her head diminished.
“The caj is good?” the woman asked.
Kara finished the cup and nodded gratefully.
The two boys, around ten and twelve, watched her in open-mouthed fascination.
“Good. Herbs and satyr milk.” The woman deftly retrieved the cup from Kara’s hand. “My name is Yleni,” the woman said encouragingly. “Yours?” She smiled showing bright white teeth.
“I’m Kara.
Ikeya took hold of one arm and Yleni took the other. “Come,” Yleni said.
With no other option, and incapable of resisting, Kara allowed herself to be escorted back to the bed.
An urgent yelling came from outside the tent.
“We’ve not got much time,” Ikeya shot at Yleni and ran out as the shouts faded.
Kara wondered what the crisis was but forgot about it as Yleni unwrapped the bandage with quick sure hands.
The bear’s claws had left two long scars, still red and sore looking, down her leg. She could see where the skin had been expertly stitched together, which made her feel queasy and glad she’d been unconscious, though they appeared to have healed remarkably quickly. How long had she been here?
“The scars will fade in time,” Yleni told her, “and are proof of your bravery.”
Kara nearly heaved at the smell of the hard, dry poultice.
Yleni looked up at her and laughed. She had a kind laugh. “Not a good smell, but a good plant.”
Despite her nausea Kara was intrigued at the possibilities. The thought of how much knowledge she could garner about the plants they used was intriguing, especially if she could accrue invaluable information. “And what is this called?’ she asked in halting Marut, pointing at the darkened dried substance.
Yleni smiled but ignored her question and applied a greasy salve with a light touch to the scars, before she fetched several items of clothing from the opened chest. She tossed them at Kara. “Change,” she ordered packing away the old poultice and its wrapping. She marched out of the tent with the air of someone who was used to being obeyed—just like her husband.
Kara stared blankly at the clothes. She was at a loss as to why they’d brought her here. In her estimation, they ought to be no more than a day’s walk from where the survival exercise had taken place. Had she cracked her head on a rock when she'd passed out?
Yleni opened the tent flap, checking on her. “Change! Now!”
The woman seemed friendly enough, and, given the circumstances, Kara obeyed, not waiting to find out if the affability was a façade. She shoved her arms into a long sleeved embroidered top and yanked on the leggings and the perfectly sized boots. Someone had been thoughtful enough to measure her feet. Or use her old boots as a guide to her foot size. Where were her own clothes? Details, details, flashed through her mind as she stood to settle the leggings. But the pants, with their narrow legs, widened section for the hips, and two long strings coming out of the waistband confused her.
The second time Yleni poked her head in, she burst out laughing as Kara stood clutching the extra material in her left hand, and attempted to wind the short ties around her waist with her right. Grinning, she showed Kara how to tie a bow which kept the roomy soft garment in place, grabbed a long length of fine cloth, and settled it around her neck. “You're like a baby,” she said. “Sit and wait.” She pointed at the bed.
By the time Yleni returned with a bowl of steaming stew, the effort of moving told Kara how weak she was. Holding the warm bowl, she studied the soup, hoping the floating pieces weren't kallin bear. Her people ate processed meat substitutes adapted to provide every nutrient and mineral needed as there wasn't room for livestock on interstellar spaceships, but the Maruts were hunters and gatherers and ate whatever they could catch—except their satyr herds. “What is this?” she asked, poking the brown blobs, but when Yleni continued to take no notice of her questions, Kara decided she was too hungry to care. Strong pungent flavors assaulted her taste buds and made her eyes water. She was scraping the bowl when Ikeya rushed in and gave a string of commands before dashing out.
“Come. Now! We must hurry.” Yleni grabbed the bowl out of her hand and pulled her to her feet.
Kara exited the tent with Yleni’s hand under her elbow hastening her along, but she was determined to have an answer and pulled back, trying to stop the other woman's momentum. “Tell me what's wrong?”
“We have no time to talk, and you'll find out soon enough.” The tribeswoman dragged her forward.
Chapter Three: Flight
Marut Proverb:
Those possessed of sound mind retreat in the face of a greater foe. Dead men do not win fights.
Kara sat on the padded front seat of a cart harnessed to a team of two satyrs. Satyrs are herbivores, their hides are thick, and they are of varying colors popped into her mind. The left satyr sported a coat of pale green, and the right one, a light yellow. The animals were big. Bigger than she’d imagined. From where she sat she estimated they were at least up to her shoulder, and their coats were a fine fuzz, not the long shaggy hair she’d seen in the holovids. Their horns were thick black bone, most likely covered with a layer of keratin, and curled up back over on themselves. Useless for defense she thought. Shouts on the far side of the camp dragged her out of her musing.
She looked around, her mouth dropping. This was another scene out of her mother’s old holovids, although the activity in front of her hadn’t been part of her education. The camp was a kaleidoscope of colors and movement, with men swarming over Ikeya’s tent, rolling up the satyr hide walls, and dismantling the structure’s thin wooden poles in minutes. A mood of controlled panic pervaded the camp as men, women, with even young children helping, repeated the process with military precision. Sooner than she thought possible, every tent, along with its contents, was piled and tied in place on carts ready to leave.
Kara felt abandoned. Her peers had deserted her, a crime worthy of court martial according to colony rules. She thought of her father. He’d be sitting in his study gazing out across the gray paving of Central Square, or at home, where he preferred to be, looking after his farm. Either way, the camp authorities would have informed him she was missing, and he’d be worried sick, wondering if she was alive. They only had each other. She would give anything to be at home with him.
She couldn’t help but notice more of what she was witnessing contradicted the official colony description of Marut social structure. They were organized, whereas the colonists believed they were nomadic wanderers depending on chance for survival with little structure to their lives. From what she’d observed, these people lived in tight family units, but the colonists’ understanding was the males moved from female to female as they desired, with children brought up communally. She should be treating this as an opportunity to gather real observable facts about their culture. After all, new colonies lived on a diet of collect, observe and analyze while learning about the resources available. She should focus on how many notions about the Maruts she might be able to disprove rather than feeling sorry for herself.
The cart lurched as a young Marut male leapt aboard, unhooking the reins from where they were tied to the back of the seat. He was the moody young man in the group who’d butchered the dead bear, and the weird tremor shivered through her again as he sat down next to her. Wasn’t his name Rishi? She pushed away the image of him skillfully wielding his knife as he skinned the bear.
/> Ikeya strode up, her pack in his hand. “Here’s her bag.” He tossed it up to Rishi, and marched off without waiting for a reply.
Rishi dumped Kara’s bag on her lap, flicked the reins, and the cart jerked forward.
She lost her balance and would have fallen off her seat if Rishi’s arm hadn’t shot out and yanked her back. Her face flamed with embarrassment, and she glared at him. “Warn me next time. Okay?”
Although he stared forward, flicking the reins once more, she could see he was grinning. Something about him reminded her of Miklo, but she shoved that memory into the box where she was burying everything else better forgotten for the moment. This particular Marut had been sullen and antagonistic the first time they’d met, and at present he found her a source of great amusement. She glanced sideways at him, noticing his almond shaped eyes with their golden pupils, which, like those of every Marut, showed the alien DNA running through his genes.
“Get ready,” he said, simultaneously lashing the satyrs harder as they took off at a mad dash toward the opposite end of the valley.
Kara grabbed the back of the seat, fearful of being shaken off, as the vehicle—if it could be called that—rattled and bounced her from side to side as their speed increased. She risked a quick look behind her to see what the rest of the tribe was doing, and she gaped at the sight of at least two dozen carts, all pulled by similar teams of satyrs, following pell-mell and far too closely behind them. If one cart faltered, especially theirs, the rest would domino, resulting in chaos and injury.
What were they fleeing from? She’d witnessed how they dealt with the kallin bear. Ikeya said they’d tracked the predator since it entered the settlers’ territory. With or without her, they would have continued till they killed the animal. As a race, the Maruts had developed the proficiency necessary to survive the planet’s dangerous predators; why were they packing up an entire settled encampment and scattering like bone beetles burrowing into the soil at the first hint of winter? The threat must be a powerful one if they were running away instead of facing it.
The gray valley walls narrowed and rose in front of them as they headed for a tiny gap in the wall of granite. Still they thundered on, Rishi not slowing the pace even as they raced up a steep rise toward the top of the trail. As they cleared the pass, Kara barely had time to take in the vast arid red-brown plain stretching to the horizon, before they were clattering along a trail, with a sheer rock wall rising on Rishi’s side, and a steep drop on hers.
Kara looked down, instantly wishing she hadn’t, as she stared, paralyzed by how far they’d plunge if they careened off the track. She closed her eyes but that was worse. The noise of the animals’ labored breathing and hooves hammering as Rishi maintained the hectic pace did nothing to dispel the mental picture of broken bodies lying hundreds of meters below on the canyon floor.
“Hold,” he commanded, shoving an elbow at her.
She didn’t realize what he wanted, until he dug his elbow hard into her side a second time, repeated the command, and she grabbed onto his upper arm with both hands. As he hauled on the reins, the cart jerked to a violent stop, and Kara would have gone flying, probably over the cliff if she’d not been hanging onto Rishi’s arm. She tensed, half expecting the cart behind to ram into them, but a quick glance showed the procession of carts had also decelerated
Rishi flicked the reins, and made a tight controlled turn into a gap in the cliff. As the back left wheel spun out over the drop, Kara clutched tighter, but within minutes they were trotting at a fair pace along a narrow defile barely wide enough for the cart to pass.
“You can let go of me now.” Rishi laughed and twitched his elbow.
He was a different person when he laughed, and she sagged back on the seat, flexing her fingers and embarrassed at the red marks she’d left on his skin. She’d been too tense to notice how tightly she’d squeezed his arm.
The pass opened out into a small enclosed valley with forbiddingly high walls. With a flick of the reins, they picked up speed, careering across the open space. At the far side Rishi hauled hard on the reins, bringing the cart to an abrupt stop.
This time Kara’s hands were already gripping the back of the seat—she was getting the hang of being a passenger on this ancient mode of transport—and she remained seated.
Rishi leapt off and thrust the reins into her hands. “Stay.”
Kara wondered where he thought she’d go as she grappled with the reins, while the satyrs stood with bowed heads, their matted coats drenched in sweat, and sucked in great gasps of air.
Meanwhile Rishi dashed over to the cliffs followed by a dozen young men with crossbows slung across their backs. Thrusting sharp metal stakes from the small bags at their waists into the rock, they scaled the sheer sides of the cliff face, deft-footed and fast.
Kara couldn’t see from where she sat on the cart, but at the speed they climbed, she guessed there must be holes already drilled into the rock. As they reached a tiny ledge halfway up, she spotted a row of dark holes behind them—probably cave openings.
The men disappeared inside, and within seconds a series of rope ladders snaked down to the ground. The rest of the tribe scrambled off the carts, and began climbing as fast as possible with the older stronger ones aiding and carrying the younger and weaker members.
Yleni approached with the boys. Their hands clutched their mother’s tunic, and their eyes were wide with fright. Yleni grabbed the reins out of Kara’s hands, skillfully knotting them to the back of the seat. “Get down,” she ordered.
Kara didn’t move. This time she was determined to have an answer. “First tell me what’s going on.”
“A kallin pack approaches.”
“A kallin pack?” Kara repeated like an idiot. The colonists’ data indicated these predators were solitary and territorial with their habitat in the frozen northern wastes. In the early days, colonists had learned the hard way how dangerous these predators were. Cunning, determined, and able to track their quarry for days, they enjoyed tormenting their prey before killing them. She was seeing more direct contradictions of the colonists’ knowledge, revealing how much more they had to learn about the planet they inhabited. She looked up, and saw the first climbers had reached the ledge and disappeared into the caves.
“Yes, and this time they will have you for lunch if you don’t move soon. Do you wish to discuss them or be eaten by them?” Not waiting for an answer, Yleni hustled her off the cart and followed the boys over to the ladder where Ikeya waited. Yleni pushed Kara forward, and kept up a non-stop chant of what sounded like a desperate plea for help till they arrived at the top.
Ikeya was the last up their ladder, and as he crawled onto the ledge, Rishi, kneeling close by and waiting, whipped the ladder up.
Kara’s heart thumped near to bursting and, without the artificial boost of an adrenaline shot to enhance the physical side while calming her emotions, a wave of fear rose from her belly. She took a few deep breaths, feeling the panic recede. Whatever was coming, she should try to be in a rational state of mind to observe.
While Yleni was occupied with the boys, Kara maneuvered herself into a position at the cave entrance; behind her, apart from a few quiet sniffles, the women, children and old of the tribe waited in silence. In front of her, a line of kneeling Marut warriors concentrated on the small gap through which they’d entered the valley, waiting in taut silence with their crossbows loaded. Below the spooked satyrs jerked and dragged on their reins, stamping and whinnying as their alarm grew, but hitched to the heavy carts and with the reins tied off, they were helpless.
Ikeya gave a soft call and Kara’s eyes widened in disbelief as the pack of kallin bears raced into the valley. As soon as they sighted the satyrs, their jaws widened, powerful razor-sharp teeth glinting. As the lead bear moved ahead with rapacious speed, Kara tried to count how many more followed. Even before she’d counted to eight, the pack leader had loped halfway across the valley floor. The satyrs, unable to flee and hysterical with
fright, screamed ear-splitting keening wails, bucking and kicking in the traces as the carts jounced behind them.
The first crossbow bolt stopped the lead animal dead in its tracks as it thudded clear through the eye socket and into the brain. But it didn’t slow the others, and the swift wave of fearsome death raced toward the helpless satyrs. They reared and slashed with their hooves, but with little effect as the fierce creatures leaped onto the satyrs’ backs, and opened savage bloody gashes across their rumps. The satyrs didn’t stand a chance. Each warrior paused, took aim and fired their crossbows, every deadly bolt hitting its target.
Kara recognized the cost of the Maruts’ plan. By luring the pack into a trap and deliberately sacrificing some of their herd, the warriors could pick them off while the bears focused on the easy prey in front of them.
One beast, a powerful young male, unsatisfied with the satyrs and smelling a different scent from above, prowled back and forth at the foot of the cliff, sniffing the rock, looking for a way to reach them. The animal discovered the stakes, and even though not made for his species, he managed to haul himself upward, balancing precariously on his back paws as his front sought the next hold.
Kara froze, hypnotized, remembering the feel of razored claws slicing open her leg. Her heart thudded against her ribs as the slavering bear scraped its way up the rock face before dropping back to the ground with one of Rishi’s crossbow bolts through its eye.
The carnage didn’t last long, but when it ended, the pack, thirteen kallin bears in total, and eight teams of satyrs lay dead, with many more wounded.
Kara slumped back against the cliff in shock. On the one hand, they’d saved her life and showed great care and attention to her. On the other hand, they’d demonstrated brutality and cunning in their struggle to stay alive. Nothing in her safe protected upbringing had prepared her for this.
Veiled Planet (Hidden World Trilogy Book 1) Page 3
