The Burning Ground tst-2

by Jo Clayton

  +Thann.+ Xe took the weapon, tucked it under xe’s arm to leave xe’s hands free. +I do know how to use it, if you’re interested. And your name?+

  “Call me Shadow. And do me, a favor, ignore the cues you picked up about me. I’m not supposed to be here.” +It’s the least I can do, Shadow.+

  “Hm. Well, let’s go find your daughter.”

  The sun was pinking the east when they reached the house where Isaho was. It was a big house, set inside a wall ten feet high with sharpened spears along the top. There were a number of trees inside the wall, but they’d all been trimmed, no branches allowed to thrust past the spear points.

  The main gate had a guardhouse with a watclunal dozing inside, but around the corner there was a small door set deep in the wall. Shadith moved into the alcove and bent to examine the lock. “Thann, give a whistle if you see company coming. Shouldn’t take long, a baby could turn this thing.”

  Despite the care with which Shadith eased the door open, the hinges squealed as if they were in pain. She stiffened, sent her reach sweeping across the ground. No alarm. Either no one had heard the noise or they thought it was outside in the street. She shoved the door wide enough to let them in, shutting it as soon as Thann was through.

  They were in a small court paved with flags, an open arch at the far end.

  “Hm, far as I can tell, the place is still sleeping. You thin any problems waiting for us?”

  +No. God watches over us.+

  “Over you, perhaps. I doubt he worries about me.” She pushed the hood back.

  Thann stared, seemed to gather xeself. +One worries about all living creatures.+ Xe stepped away from the wall, settled the rifle under xe’s arm. +Isaho is that way.+ Xe pointed toward the southern corner of the house. +On the second floor. The room’ at this end, the one with the balcony and all the windows.+ Xe’s hands trembled, and xe stopped signing until xe had them under control again. +She is not… I don’t know… the sense of her is so weak… he… he has…+ xe’s hands started shaking again.

  “Right. I’ve got it. You stay here. Be ready to get the door open the moment you see us. We may have to get away fast.”

  As Shadith passed through the arch, she heard growls and the scratch-thud of running feet. She flung herself to one side, rolled up with the stunrod in her hand. The quickest of the chals collapsed with his drool on her foot, the other went down only half a step behind him. Spla! I think I’d better go up the outside. Who knows what I’d find prowling the halls in there?

  A dusty ancient vine coiled up the side of the house, its rootlets set deep in the interstices between the courses of stone. She jumped, hung from her hands long enough to make sure it was going to hold her weight, then she half-walked, half-hauled herself to the balcony. She swung over the rail and crossed the deck in three quick steps, broke a pane of glass, reached in, and tripped the latch.

  The huge room was filled with a mix of gray starlight and the tiny yellow flickers from half a dozen nightlights. Whoever he was, he didn’t like the dark. She crossed to a bed big enough to hold a dozen Impix or Pixas.

  A small form lay sprawled on a pile of rugs as if the mal had shoved her from the bed when he was done with her. The smell of blood mixed with sharper sweeter odors from the ointments smeared over her.

  An old mal lay on his back in a tangle of silken quilts, faint snores issuing from a sagging mouth.

  She looked at him a moment, sighed. I know what I’d like to do, she thought, but I’m not your judge and definitely not your executioner.

  She stunned him, then looked round for the child’s clothing. Nothing.

  She found shirts in a chest by the door, used her beltknife to shorten the sleeves on one of them and pulled it over the comatose child’s limp body. She took another two shirts, rolled them into tight cylinders and shoved them down the front of her shirt; the anya could turn them into clothing after they got young Isaho cleaned up. She pulled one of the quilts off the bed, laid Isaho on it, and tied the ends into a sling.

  Using another quilt as a rope, she lowered the sling to the ground, then climbed after it.

  In the courtyard Shadith set the bundle down. “I have her. She’s fainted or something, but she’s alive.” She untied the knots, rewrapped Isaho in the quilt with her head clear, her fine hair pooled like black water, her small bare feet out the other end. “I’ll carry her.” She pulled her cowl forward to conceal her face, eased her arms under the quilt, and lifted Isaho as she stood up. “You walk guard, Thann, and chase off the nosy with an avert sign. One that says sickness, keep away. The streets will be filling up with dayworkers, but that should stop them from looking too hard at us.” She settled Isaho, so her face was pressed against the robe and concealed from the casual viewer. “Let’s go.”

  They moved through the winding streets at the trailing edge of Gajul, a zone of silence and emptiness about them generated by Shadith’s size, the limp and apparently lifeless child cradled in her arms, the rifle tucked under the anya’s arm, xe’s warning gestures. No one spoke to them or tried to stop them; even the guards yawning in their kiosks only watched as they strode past.

  The paved street became a dirt lane that wound for a short distance between small but intensely farmed plots of land and fmally turned into the woodlands where she’d stashed the miniskip. Shadith sighed with relief when the lane cleared for a moment and she was able to move unseen into the lingering shadow under the trees.

  She lowered Isaho onto the leafmold, turned to face Thann. “I’ll be here a while,” she said. “Until nightfall, at least. If you want to stay, that’s all right. Or you can move on. I yvon’t stop you.”

  Thann sank to the ground beside Isaho, letting the rifle fall from cramped arms. Xe smiled and shook xe’s head, then wearily, as if xe had barely enough will left to move xe’s hand, xe signed, +No. Where would we go?+

  “All right. I’m heading for the mountains above Linojin. If you’d like to go with me, I can take you. It might be safer there.”

  The anya’s fatigue-dulled eyes brightened, and xe managed a grin that gave new life to xe’s thin, worn face. +We were going to Linojin before the, slavers took Isaho. Thank you.+

  “Ah Spla, the ways of fate.” Shadith pulled off the robe with a sigh of relief, hung it on a limb stub to air out for a while. She thought about discarding it but decided not; what happened next depended too much on when Yseyl heard the song and what she did about it. She swung into the tree where she’d left the skip, got the emergency rations, the canteen, and the medkit and dropped down again.

  Thann was stroking the child’s face, xe’s thin fingers shaking with anxiety and fatigue. Xe looked up as Shadith walked across to xe but didn’t try to sign.

  Shadith twisted the top off a tube of hipro paste. “Here. Eat this. Food concentrate. Doesn’t look like it, but it’s good for you. Think of it as pate.” She gave Thann the tube and chuckled as xe eyed it dubiously. “Squeeze it in and swallow fast as you can. Believe me, you don’t want to taste it. And here.” She unsnapped the cup from the canteen and filled it with water, passing it across. “Wash it down with this.”

  As Thann followed instructions, Shadith opened the medkit and ran the scanner along Isaho’s body. “Hm. Your daughter’s torn up a bit, but the physical stuff isn’t bad. Do I have your permission to give her something to keep away infection?”

  Thann nodded, then drank hastily from the cup as the after effects of the hipro began working on xe’s taste buds.

  “Ordinarily, I wouldn’t advise letting any offworlder give you medication, Thann.” She turned the scanner over, ran the pickup long enough to suck in a few dead cells for Isaho’s baseline. “But my boss sent along a kit tailored to your species. Just in case, you might say.” She fed the scanner’s data into the pharmacopoeia and tapped in the code for antibiotic. “He’s a being who thinks of things like that. I say being because I’m not quite sure what he is these days, other than an intelligence that has made a home for itself insi
de a kephalos or maybe it’s a system of kephaloi. This is my first assignment.” A small green light came on and she pressed the spray nozzle into the bend in Isaho’s elbow, activating it with a tap on the sensor. “There. That’s done. And if I get caught here, it could be my last.”

  She set the pharmacopoeia in its slot, took up a transparent tube filled with green gel. “When we get her clean, I’ll give your daughter a shot of nutrient. That’ll help bring her strength up. Chances are she’ll wake on her own once she feels safe again.”

  Thann rolled the hipro tube into a tight cylinder, dug into the leaf mold and the earth below it and buried the tube, concentrating on what xe was doing with an intensity that was a measure of xe’s fear. Xe sat staring at the little heap of decaying leaves and dark brown dirt.

  Shadith unbuttoned the shirt and slipped it off Isaho.

  She, used her belt knife to start the cut, then began ripping the shirt into rags.

  The sound of tearing cloth brought the anya’s head up. Xe moved closer, signed, +Why?+

  “I thought it would be helpful if the child woke to the smell of soap, not those oils smeared over her.” Shadith wet one of the rags, squeezed out a dollop of soap and rubbed it until it lathered. She handed the rag to Isaho. “I’ll do her arms and shoulders. Better, I think, if you took care of the rest.”

  The anya shook out the quilt and helped Shadith ease Isaho onto it. The femlit sighed deeply and moved on her own for the first time, turning onto her side, her thumb going into her mouth; she didn’t suck on it, only left it there for the comfort it gave her.

  “Ah,” Shadith said. “That’s good, baby. You’ve got time, lots of time now.” She pulled the quilt over the femlit, tucked it in, then stood, stretched, patted a yawn. “Thann, you think you could stay awake for a couple hours?”

  +Watch?+

  “Yes. I need to get some sleep. Anything that worries you, wake me. There’s a way we can get out of here fast, but I’d rather not use it in daylight.”

  Shadith woke with a collection of aches and a taste in her mouth like somebody died. It was full dark. She’d been asleep for at least eight or nine hours. “Thann? You should have waked me sooner.”

  The anya moved from the shadows. Xe shook xe’s head. Xe’s hand moved in signs Shadith had to strain to see. +No one came. And you needed the sleep. I’ll rest when we’re away from here.+

  “Aahhhh Splaaaaa, I feel like someone’s been beating me with chains. How’s your daughter?”

  +She still sleeps, but it seems to me she’s easier.+

  Shadith dug out another two tubes of hipro, held out one of them. “Get that down. If you faint from hunger, you could fall off the skip and take your daughter with you.” She squeezed the paste into her throat, swallowed hastily, grabbed the canteen, and gulped down the last of the water. “Try shaking the femlit while I’m fetching the skip from the tree. It’ll be safer for us all if she doesn’t wake in the middle of the flight and go into a panic. Well, you don’t know what I’m talking about, and how could you? Anyway, see if you can wake her.”

  She jumped, caught hold of the lowest limb, pulled herself up. It was an easy climber, that tree, which was the reason she’d chosen it; no point in making trouble for herself if she had to get to the skip fast.

  She unhooked the straps that held it in the crotch, put the lifters on hover, and swung her leg across the front saddle. A moment later she was easing it through the mass of thin whippy twigs and oval leaves that grew at the end of the branch. She brought it round, kicked the landing struts down, and let it sink to the ground beside the quilt. She dismounted and began stowing the things she’d scattered about the campsite, rolling up the blankets, tucking the medkit away, removing all traces of her presence. Then she strolled over to the anya and stood looking down at the sleeping child.

  “Thann, you’re going to have to hold Isaho in your lap. I’ll strap the two of you together. Hm. It’s a warm night, but there’ll be some wind where we are. Tell you what, I’ll lift the femlit, you wrap the quilt around you and get yourself settled in back saddle. Put your feet in those stirrups there and signal me when you’re as comfortable as you can get. Remember, you’ll be spending six, seven hours seated because I’ll not be stopping unless we absolutely have to. T’k, that’s another thing. If you have to relieve yourself, you’d better do it now.”

  ***

  Shadith fed power to the lifters and took the miniskip up slowly. She could feel the anya’s fear as the earth dropped away, but the darkness helped and the soft hum of the lifters was soothing, so xe’s jags of anxiety rapidly smoothed out. She stopped the rise when they were a few feet above the tallest trees and sent the skip humming along the curve of the river, avoiding the farmlands and the ranches with their grazing stock.

  When Thann’s fear had simmered to a slight uneasiness, Shadith twisted her head around and smiled at the dark blotch so close behind her. “There, it’s not so bad, is it? If you need something, give a whistle and we’ll see what we can do, otherwise I’ll keep on till near dawn.”

  Thann whistled a pair of notes to signify xe understood, modified the last into a soft warble that went on and on, a wordless lullaby, the anya singing in the only way xe could to xe’s sleeping daughter.

  Shadith began thinking about the muteness of the anyas in this species, what it meant in terms of languages and things that voiced beings never had to think about. When she read about it in Digby’s file, it seemed an interesting twist on the things that life got up to and the sign language itself was fascinating, a language that could be translated to a degree but never fully into spoken words. Whistles like birdcalls for times of danger and times of need. Whistles for song like that lullaby. For the quick exchange of complex thoughts, though, anyas needed light and proximity so their gestures could be seen. Odd that the Impix had clung to the radio for the transmission of words, but had never developed or had forgotten coded transmission. Perhaps it was a reflection of the anya’s role in this society, the expectation that xes would not work outside the home except as religious and in that case did not need more than the occasional letter to their kin or clans.

  That lullaby was lovely, though; it really crept under the skin, so much tenderness in it that words really seemed unnecessary.

  Toward dawn she slowed until the skip was barely moving, swept her mindsearch as far as she could, hunting the bite of a thinking brain.

  Horizon to horizon, the world seemed empty of everything but fur and feathers. With a weary sigh she chose a clump of trees where they could camp, kicked the landing struts into place, and put the miniskip on the ground beside the river.

  5. Hatching

  The child’s eyes were open and aware, watching Shadith as she unbuckled the straps that bound her and her anya into the seat. When Shadith reached under her to lift her from Thann’s lap, she was stiff and afraid at first, then that fear suddenly vanished and she relaxed, smiling and sleepy.

  Shadith shook her head and settled the child on the blanket she’d spread beside the skip.

  Thann didn’t move through all this; xe sat hunched over, eyes squeezed shut. Shadith touched xe’s cold, clammy skin, then quickly got xe off the seat and onto the blanket beside Isaho. She snapped the quilt out, transferred xe onto that, and got out the medkit.

  As she knelt beside the anya, she looked over her shoulder at Isaho. “What’s wrong? Do you know?”

  The femlit stared at her a moment, then she spoke with an odd and troubling calmness. “Xe’s in egg. I think the babbit hatched when we were flying. Sometimes hatchlings use their eggteeth to bite before they start sucking. Thann and Main talked about it when they didn’t know I was listening. They said I did, bite, I mean, but it was just skin I got: Sometimes they bite the wrong place, and there’s lots of blood.”

  “Oh, shays! Can I take the babbit out of the pouch? Will it drown if I don’t?”

  Isaho shrugged. “Main and Thann, they didn’t talk much about that.”

&nb
sp; Thann’s eyes opened to crusted slits. Xe’s hands moved. +Please… my babbit… please+ A hand moved down xe’s body, pressed against the swollen pouch, and a gout of blood came rushing through the cloth of xe’s trousers.

  “Isaho, come help me. Quick.” Shadith began working on the ties to the anya’s trousers, the sodden cloth resisting her fingers. With an impatient exclamation, she cut the tie with her belt knife, and with Isaho’s help, rolled the trousers away from the pouch.

  “Your hand is smaller than mine, Isaho.” Shadith spoke quickly, reached out, caught hold of the femlit’s wrist. “See if you can catch the hatchling and get it out of there.” Isaho tried to draw back, the smell of fear sharp in her, so Shadith put more urgency in her voice. “I have to stop the bleeding, but I don’t dare while the babbit’s in pouch.”

  Shaking, eyes squeezed almost shut, Isaho forced a hand through the pulsing sphincter of the pouch. She squeaked suddenly, snatched her hand back, a dark wormlike thing attached to it, teeth sunk in the flesh of her smallest finger; it was slightly larger than her hand, with eye bulges sealed shut and a stubby tail. Silent and determined, Isaho cuddled the anyalit against her chest and squatted, watching as Shadith worked over Thann.

  “Good femlit,” Shadith said. She drew on a glove, worked her hand into the pouch, watching a readout as the sensors on the fingertips sent data back. “With a little luck, we’ll… ah, got you. Looks like it isn’t as bad as I thought, Isaho. It’s only a nick in a small vein. It’s been leaking quite a while, that’s all. I wish… ah, lie still, Thann. This may hurt a bit. I’m going to cauterize the wound, and I don’t think I’d better give you any drugs, not if you’re going to be feeding the baby. Let’s see, slide the tube in… right, right… good! In position. Stay as still as you can. Wait, just a moment. Isaho, there’s a bit of wood beside you… tight, that one… wipe it off… yes, that’s good… now, set it in your anya’s mouth so xe can bite down on it… yes, that’s right… get a good grip, Thann… bite down! Now! Good… I think… yes, that got it. Now a little blind gluing… what do you think about that, hm? Glued together like a nice little cabinet. Now we suck the blood out, get things neat and tidy in the nursery… now comes the really bad part, you’re going to have to eat a tube of hipro every hour till you’ve replaced that blood and gotten your strength back. Isaho, slip the babbit back home and I’ll have a look at that bite.”