The Burning Ground tst-2

by Jo Clayton

  +I know, Mika. These are hard times and they make for hard choices.+

  Thann bent over Isaho, bathed her face and arms, got her to drink some bitter halaba tea, tucked her in again, and sat beside her trying to decide what they should do.. More and more even the clan-bond was being broken. The people in Khokuhl were turning into scavenger gangs picking over the dead city, chancing death each time they left their holes to forage. How long before they were feeding on each other?

  Would it really be worse to leave the city and try to reach Linojin? At least Isaho would be happier. And if they had just a little luck and were very, very careful.. Xe slid xe’s fingers into xe’s shirt, touched the flesh about the pellet burn. A little heat. Not bad, though. Maybe stiffness in the morning.

  Isaho muttered in her sleep. Thann smoothed xe’s hand over the child’s hair, brushed back a curl that had crept across her eyes, left xe’s hand tucked up against xe’s daughter’s face while xe whistled very softly an old lullaby.

  2. Farewell to all we knew

  As she huddled among boulders deep in a thicket of thornbush, Wintshikan tried to ignore the horror below, but the breeze climbing the mountains from the ixis camp brought her the smell of roasting meat and screams from one of the women they’d caught, brought Impix laughter and broken bits of words.

  Zell was shaking all over, xe’s tears hot as they touched her arm. She freed the arm, laid it about xe’s shoulders and pulled xe close, wrapping the Shawl about xe to keep away the sounds and as much of the smell as she could. She couldn’t do anything about Zell’s thinta and tried not to think about the emotions Zell shared with the dying anyas.

  The awful thing whispered by her sister Hekan was true. Impix phelas ate Pixa anyas. Ate their flesh as the flesh of a beast, not with honor and sorrow at a funeral feast. Butchered them and ate them. She thought about the empty eyes of the Pixa leader and it came to her that Pixa phelas were no better, that they also ate anyas when they could. Her mouth flooded, her stomach heaved, but she clamped her lips shut, swallowed hard, and barely breathed as she waited for this terrible night to end.

  The Impix phela left before dawn.

  They were so noisy in their departure that Wintshikan was afraid of ambush and clutched Zell tight when the anya tried to get to xe’s feet. “Wait,” she whispered. “Wait till I’m sure they’re gone.”

  The sky grayed in the east, a line of pink touched the bit of peak Wintshikan could see through the tangle of branches and vines. Below, at the stopping ground, a sicul whistled and chirruped, then half a dozen others joined in. In the distance a wild chal barked, then ran yipping from something big enough to scare it but too slow to catch it.

  The light strengthened.

  Shadows crept along the ground.

  +It is thne.+

  Weary to the bone and sick at what she knew she was going to see, Wintshikan put her hand on the boulder she crouched against and levered herself onto her feet. “Zell, stay here.”

  The anya shook xe’s head, but xe stayed very close to Wintshikan as the Heka worked through the thornbush onto the more open slope under the muweh trees. The growing light wasn’t kind to xe, putting hollows in xe’s cheeks and deepening the lines in xe’s dark and gracile face.

  The tents lay in rags. Everything the Impix couldn’t carry off that could be broken was shattered; what they couldn’t destroy, they urinated and defecated on. Eggs were stomped into smears, the embryos inside unrecognizable as anything but a scribble on the ground. Anya bones were scattered about, broken, the marrow sucked from them. All mixed together. Who could tell how many were gone. Seven of the Ixis women were sprawled on the trail, stakes driven through them. They’d died hard, but not from the stakes. Blind Bukh and Oldmal Yancik were tossed in a heap with three smaller bodies, the two mints and one femlit who couldn’t run fast enough but were too big to carry. Throats cut.

  Zell thrust xe’s fingers in xe’s mouth, curled xe’s tongue and let out the loud warbling whistle which was the emergency summons that was supposed to bring the ixis together.

  One by one those still alive came back. Four womenXaca, Nyen, Luca, Patal. Two anyas-Wann and Hidan, neither of them in egg nor yet in bond. Two young fernlits, the last of the ixis children-Kanilli who was Xaca’s daughter and Zaro whose mother had a stake through her heart, whose anya was bones with the others.

  They came separately from under the trees but stood huddled together near the blackened spot where the Praise fire had been. They were silent, even Luca, standing with eyes down, looking uncertain, fear stronger than grief.

  Wintshikan left the pile of the dead and came to stand with her arm about Zell’s shoulders. She drew in a breath, let it out. “Xaca, see if you can find a knife, a pot that’s usable. We need to bless the dead.”

  Luca lifted her head. “We’ve got to get out of here, they’re going to come back this way. You know that. You have to know that.”

  “We will keep as much hold on the decencies as we can, Luca. You did well to warn us before. Would you keep watch for us again?”

  Luca brdshed at the hair falling across her face; it was as if she brushed a shadow away. She nodded and trotted off, vanishing up the trail in the direction the hnpix had taken when they left.

  “Nyen, Patal, help me carry the dead into the trees and lay them out. The rest of you bring wood for the Eating Fire and look through what’s left of the tents, see what we can still use.”

  Wintshikan lifted the small bowl that Kanilli had found among the rubble, a twisty line of steam rising from the bits of brain and marrow inside it. “The Prophet says the body is borrowed from earth and returns to earth when the spirit departs. Brother, Sister, Anya, we call you into ourselves, into the Remnant of Shishim.”

  She lowered the bowl, dipped into it with thumb and forefinger. “Blind Bah, you were a good mal and true, following the Right Way with a whole heart and a good head.” She ate the bit of brain, passed the bowl to Zell, who dipped and signed Praise for another of the dead, and so it went, round the small circle till all the dead were remembered and the remnants consumed.

  The bodies and fragments of the dead were laid out in the forest, the possessions of the ixis that were unusable were burned or left to rot like the dead, away from the camp and the trail; what remained was sorted into piles for cleaning and dividing up among the living.

  Zell’s whistle brought the ixis together an hour after the ritual eating. Even Luca came running.

  ***

  Wintshikan stroked her hand along the Shawl; then, to the gasps of the others she took it from her shoulders, folded it, and set it on the ground before her feet. She straightened, lifted her head. It was a moment before she could force the words out. “I am not fit to be Heka. I am hohekil. I find this war unGodly, and I will no longer be a part of it.”

  Xaca snapped her fingers and leaped across the ground to stand beside Wintshikan. “I, too. Him who took me to my tent, took me like I was nothing, gave no heed to my needs or my joy, only pleasured himself. And are the others any different, Imp or Pixa, does it matter any more? When did this change? When did we become less than a hole in the ground?”

  Luca stepped from the shadows. “They knew they were followed. I heard them talking when they left. That’s why I watched. Heka Wintshikan, did the Phelmal warn you about this? Did any of that phela warn anyone that there was danger? I see they didn’t. They didn’t care what happened to us. No, it’s worse. They used us to give them time to get away. They knew the Impix would do what they did. They had to know.”

  Nyen came forward, lifted the Shawl, shook it free of leaves and twigs and held it out to Wintshikan. “Don’t walk away from us, Heka. We need you. Tell us what to do.”

  Wann and Hidan whistled distress, signed agreement with large emphatic gestures.

  Kanilli and Zaro ran to Xaca, stood beside her.

  Patal was the last. She looked around at the camp; it was clean now, the bodies gone, even the bloodstains were brushed away.
“It’s hard,” she said. “You throw away a thousand years when you leave the Round. I can’t do it. I’m not as strong as the rest of you. I wish you well. I think you’re wrong. In the morning I’ll go down the mountain to Shaleywa. It’s Meeting Time, there’ll be others there. I… wish I could stay with you, you’re my family. I can’t.”

  Wintshikan sighed, took the Shawl and snapped it round her shoulders. “We’ll go north to Linojin. Peddlers say there’s peace there still. Not even the unGodly touch the quiet of the Holy City. Patal, I won’t force another’s truth to match my own. God keep you safe and well.”

  3. Back with the goods

  Cerex slid his ship into the shadow of the moon and settled to wait for night to slide across the landing site he’d chosen for putting Yseyl onto her homeground.

  He swung his chair around and contemplated her. “You’re clear about how to use that?”

  She nodded, laid the disruptor into its case and closed the lid.

  “Mind a little advice?”

  “From an expert slider? Why not.”

  “They watch you, the Ptaks. And they’ve got paid agents working both sides. They’re going to notice you when you start siphoning people out through the Fence, so you haven’t got long. Maybe a couple months. And you’re not going to be able to sneak a few through at a time, the Ptaks will just pick them up and toss them back. Hm. How’re you going to get people to listen to you?”

  “I’ve… done some thinking about that.”

  “Why go back into that mess? One person, it’s like spitting in that sea down there, sea won’t even notice yoti. Come along with me. Once I buy my contract, there’s a thousand and a thousand stars to visit and each of them with something worth stealing. A ghost like you and me with my ship and contacts, we’d have a real good thing.”

  Yseyl shook her head. “I can’t. You kept your word, brought me back. I appreciate that. But I couldn’t just go away. Not and live with myself.”

  Cerex shrugged. “It’s easier than you think, dreamer. But I won’t argue with you.”

  Yseyl managed a wavery smile. “Maybe after I finish this job. I…” she paused, shivered. “I did enjoy very much playing the game back there. Walking the edge with nothing on line but me. No! I can’t forget… No. Just set me down where we planned. The mountains north of Linojin.”

  20

  Fortune, enlightenment, joy Such is the promise of the Sun Danger and excess Such is the threat of the Sun.

  Chapter 4

  1. Digby spins a tale

  The dancer on the highwire spun and leaped, feet light as feelers, flying the taut burn of the wire…

  Shadith looked at what she’d written, wrinkled her nose. The image still wasn’t right. Apt enough but overused. She struck out the word dancer, held the stylo above the sheet of paper and stared at the words, trying to force a new form out of the black lines…

  “Shadow, drone’s just in from Digby, come on up.”

  She made a face at the speaker, snapped the stylo into its slot, slid the paper into the drawer of the foldout desk, and shoved the desk into the wall. “On my way, Rose.”

  Shadith put out a hand to steady herself as the ship seemed to hiccup, then steadied. “Course shift?”

  Autumn Rose swung her chair round. “Right. As per Digby’s instructions, I’ve switched the ship’s internal ID to one of his Face Companies and we’re now heading for a world the locals call Ambela. He’s identified your little oddity. And agrees with your conclusions. A medkit came with the flakes, tailored to the ghost’s species. First you catch her-and it is a her-then you tickle her lifestory out of her.” She swung back as Shadith crossed the small bridge to the Co chair, tapped on the feed to the screen. “He’s now set to lecture us on his conclusions.”

  ***

  Digby’s simulacrum was in full professor mode, the tassel to the fez bobbing with every move of the image’s head. He folded his legs in his favorite sit-in-the-middleof-the-air stance, rested his virtual hands on his virtual knees, and smiled at them.

  “Splendid work, my children.” He lifted his hands, set fingertip to fingertip. “As a treat I’m going to tell you exactly what the gadget is our little ghost has lifted.”

  Autumn Rose sighed. “Dear Digby, if you didn’t pay so well…”

  Shadith snorted.

  “I see that your curiosity has been tormenting you.” He paused, stroked the pointed beard he’d assumed for the occasion, and dropped his hands to his knees again.

  “It is an opener of ways,” he said. “A thief’s wet-dream. An instrument for merging with a forcefield and insinuating a hole into it without informing the incorporated sensors that something drastic is happening. Among themselves our friends at Sunflower call it a disruptor, though that is an entirely inappropriate name. Inappropriate or not, disruptor we shall call it.” He coughed and tilted his head to get the tassel out of his eyes. “Your supposition was quite correct, Shadow. Sunflower bought themselves some tempting loot of dubious ownership. And you will be interested in the source. Omphalos Institute.”

  “Tsah!”

  Having paused for the expected reaction, Digby went on, “Yes, indeed. Our old friends, the Omphalites. Which brings up a point. I think none of us are happy with. the thought of an Omphalos op walking through walls wherever he feels an urge to roam. We are contracted to return the disruptor to Sunflower, but I wouldn’t be too disturbed if it were… mmrn… damaged in the process. My source tells me the being who led the team that developed the gadget poisoned his aides, wiped the test data and specs from the lab kephalos, and went off with the only prototype. Before he sold it to Sunflower, he was careful to let nothing out of his head. Which is the major source of their agitation since he was killed very shortly after turning over the prototype and before he could dictate the specs. Probably Omphalos, but not necessarily. Which is why we were hired to get their toy back to them. Me, I’m seriously pissed because they didn’t bother tell ing me Omphalos was involved. Maybe they didn’t know, but I wouldn’t bet on it.” He tapped his nose, nodded, and paused to let them comment if they had a mind to.

  Shadith chuckled, met Autumn Rose’s eyes, and said, “You’re a gambler, Rose. How much would you wager that even if we do retrieve the gadget intact, it has an accident on the way to Sunflower?’

  “There’s little pleasure betting on sure things.”

  Digby’s image cleared its throat, the small sound meant to reclaim their attention. “The inclusion of the disruptor in the theft gives strong support to your first choice of thieves, Shadow. Which I will explain in a moment, after I’ve dealt with the other two possibilities.

  “The Matriarch’s crew person is most unlikely. They’re too paranoid to buy stolen drugs and would be most upset by the presence of the disruptor on their world. Something that could bore silent holes in the shielding of all those little interlocking enclaves? No way, children. And no one they took off planet will have anything like free will.

  “As for the mouse who calls himself a jeweler, he has more blotches on his record than freckles on a lass from Vallon and no evidence of any unusual abilities beyond a fast mouth and faster fingers. He steals things immediately salable, mostly gems, and wouldn’t go within light-years of anything touching on Omphalos.

  “Shadow, I knew about Sabato, of course, and have a list of his Face Companies which I thought was complete, but Mavet-Shi wasn’t on it. When you get back, I’d like to know your source for this. Hm. And a long chat about other bits of your life.

  “I talked to Xuyalix about the Caan Cerex. He was somewhat reluctant to chat on the topic. Turns out Cerex is some sort of relative who had a patch of bad luck. Got caught with smuggled goods on a world with a low opinion of smugglers. Pulled a term in contract labor and was sold offworld. His kin put together a fund and tried to redeem him, but the Labor Service wouldn’t cooperate. I’d say the ananiles are meant to buy his contract with enough left over to get him home to Acaanal.

  “
Woensdag is on the way to Acaanal to check with Cerex about how close you got to the way the theft was worked, but I don’t see any reason to make more trouble for the poor schlup. He’s not important enough to bother with. I’ll send a drone your way with a report on the interview. It should reach you before you make Ambela.

  “The little one is the convincer. She’s got impressive reasons for needing that disruptor.”

  In the screen a planet swam against a star ground while Digby’s image sank to Thumbelina size. The turning world was mostly water with polar icecaps, two largish continents, one with a tapering tail of islands that came close to joining it with the third continent which was about half the size of the other two. A single moon drifted past in the stately gravity dance of satellites.

  Icon Digby set fingertip to fingertip, tilted his head so the fez tassel brushed along his jaw. “What the original state of Ambela was no one knows, but sometime after it developed rudimentary flora and maybe fauna, the folk generically called Impix arrived-even they don’t know where they came from. They settled in and mauled the world in the usual way, had some wars, lost hold on the tech that brought them there, began slowly building it back. They’d reached steam power and rudimentary electrical services, rediscovered radio, when the Ptak arrived as part of the outpouring when the Ptakkan Empire broke up. Ptaks are not a bloody lot, but they have their peculiar ways. They don’t like being overlooked by strangers or having outsiders controlling any of their space. As an aside, that’s one of the reasons their neat little empire broke up-too many non-Ptakkan species kept resolutely away from any touch of power.

  With that in mind, they uprooted every Impix they could catch, hauled them to the continent they called Impixol, and set up a satellite-controlled force field around the continent to make sure none of the Impix got loose to bother them.” The Digby icon tapped finger against finger. “Unlike the Impix, they kept contact with the outside, and with a low birthrate and the resources of a basically untapped world behind them, particularly the drajjul opals, they were a comfortable if not a wealthy society for their first millennium on-planet. When the drajjul mines began to play out and the shipping companies started dropping away, they opened casinos and used the third continent as a hunting preserve, pulling in hunters and gamblers. Fads and fashions being what they are, revenue from this started big, but tapered off considerably until two factions of Impix began fighting each other and the Ptaks found they had a new tourist attraction.