by Jean Kilczer
He fixed me with those silver slitted eyes that I found exotic, yet disturbing. His natural body aroma of maple syrup was actually homey and comforting.
“As soon as we find Huff,” I said, “we go back for Jules.”
The engine stuttered.
“What? Oh my God!” I exclaimed. “It's not the gauge. The mercs must have hit the solar circuit. We're running on batteries, and they're low.”
Trumbril stiffened. “How much of thre brattery powrer have we lost?”
“Oh, God, Trumbril, too much to fly back to the mountain. We'll be lucky to reach the Orghe Village! Jules… He can't spend the night on the mountain. He'll freeze to death!”
Evrill and Zik came into the cabin.
“What the yellow-freakin' leak is wrong with the engine?” Zik lifted himself to a view screen with a tentacle. “Why are we landing?”
“We have no choice, Zrik,” Trumbril told him. “The mrecs broke our fruel line with their aprons.”
“What aprons?” Zik asked.
“Their weapons,” I told him. I drew in quick breaths as I concentrated on bringing the crippled hovair down to land on the road below.
“I can repair the circuit with my energies,” Evrill told me, “but I cannot conjure electrical power out of thin air.”
“Hang on, everybody!” I cried as we landed hard on the road and bounced to a stop.
Zik dropped to the deck. Trumbril and Evrill were already seated, but Grothe cried out from the cot in the main deck.
“Sorry, Grothe,” I called back and unbuckled. “I have to show Huff that it's me. He's expecting Jules to pick him up in a jeep.”
“You should have tried to make it to the Orghe Village!” Zik said. “At least you could have gotten closer.”
“If the merc ship saw Huff, my diminutive friend,” I said, and bent down to his level, “and he ran back to the new village, he would've led them there, and the mercs would know that the Orghes weren't poisoned. Did you ever consider that?”
Zik stood up to his full four-foot height on all tentacles. “I don't much care what happens to the Orghes, or to you, my gangly friend, for that matter. My only concern on this dirtball in space is to get off, and back to my homeworld.”
“I would have never guessed, Zik!” I went into the main deck and put on my jacket. The little lump of shit! I thought and sprang the hatch.
Evrill looked at me and her lips crinkled in a discreet smile.
I jumped down and walked out into the open. “Huff!” I called. “Huff, it's me, Sophia.” I looked around. The desert sands stretched far away, except for one large boulder. I strode toward it. “Huff?”
I walked around the boulder and saw his white rump as he walked around it to evade me. I turned and faced him as he came around. He stopped short and went up on his hind legs, towering over me.
“Huff! It's Sophia.”
“Are you certain you are not a dopeyganger?”
“A–a doppelganger? No, Huff, it's really me.”
“Then where is my Terran cub?”
“He's… Oh, Huff, he's stuck on the top of a mountain.”
He extended his claws, those hooked talons. “Who stuck him there?”
I studied the empty sky. “I'll explain inside the hovair. We can still taxi closer to the Orghe Village. C'mon, the mercenaries' ship might still be in this area.”
He dropped to all fours and followed me as I trotted back to the ship.
“I would rather taxi to the mountain and unstick my Terran friend and cub.”
I wish we could!" I climbed through the hatch and Huff leaped in after me. I went to the cabin and left introductions to Trumbril. There should be some interesting conversations between the five of them. “Evrill,” I called, “did you manage to repair the circuit?”
“I did, but there's is no charge yet.”
“We'll see how far we can taxi,” I said. "We have to get help to Jules. Oh, Jules, I thought. My love. My life. God, he'll never make it through the night.
* * *
“I dro not thrink the craft will roll any fruther, Sophia,” Trumbil said.
“No, Trumbril, from here on we have to walk.”
We were silent as we left the hovair behind and walked toward the Orghe Village. Grothe leaned on Trumbril. I think he was still in pain, but he didn't complain or cry out.
Night in the desert is arctic cold with dry, sharp winds that shape sand like hands into new dunes. We had taken lights and spare stinglers from the stolen craft, but we walked in darkness.
I rubbed my arms as I plowed through sand, and couldn't stop trembling. If I were this cold, what was it like for Jules?
Trumbril saw me wipe tears. “He ish resourcefrul, Sophria. If it is prossible to survive the high heights, Julesh wrill do it.”
“I feel so helpless!” I told him.
“That ish becrause there ish no wray to help him.”
Pearls of wisdom! I thought, and glanced back toward the mountain. What would I do if he died this night? Where would I go? Back to New Lithnia to catch crusties again for my living?
My life had been bleak, I realized now, until I met Jules. My beautiful blonde god with eyes so blue you could fall into them like the sea and happily drown there. With a smile that could make Lord Hades give up the dead to follow him back to the land of the living. My beautiful, reckless, brash, loving hero. I wished I had stayed with him on the mountain. Died with him if that were to be our fate. But I had a duty to get the others out of danger when the Sword discovered us. “I could not love thee, dear, so much,” I whispered.
“Loved I na honror more,” Trumbril finished it. “I have heard Julesh sray thris.”
“He lives by it, Trumbril.” And will die by it, I thought.
It was near midnight when we topped a hill. The Orghe Village lay below. Fires had been doused. Only the moon threw vagrant shadows across the land.
Huff loped down the hill and into the village. By the time we arrived, Joe, Chancey and Bat were running toward us, followed by Galrin, Sunrai, and Oldore.
“What the hell is Huff talking about?” Joe asked me. “What does he mean, Jules is stuck on a mountain top?”
I explained what had happened as we strode into the village. Most of the people were awake and on their feet, listening.
“Joe,” I grabbed his arm and sobbed.
“Take it easy,” he said soothingly and hugged me.
“We've got to get him help, Joe. He'll die up there in the snow.”
“Oldore,” Joe called, “can your people help us?”
Oldore turned to Sunrai. “Saddle the draks, my general, and tell the women to wrap up warm clothing, and blankets, and coiled ropes, too, for the climb, and tie them to the saddles. Hurry now, my good breth.” He wiped a hand across his eyes.
Sunrai bowed, hooted softly and went down on all fours to lope into the center of the village.
Twenty minutes later, nine of us rode out of the village, while Huff trotted beside me, tireless as the draks, determined to save his Terran cub.
The mountain loomed ahead, a giant that blocked stars and forced clouds to climb its heights. I'd been given warm pants, and a furred buckskin jacket and hat.
I almost felt guilty to be so warm when Jules was… We're coming, babe, I thought. Perhaps he could receive my message. We're coming. If only I could be certain that he was still alive. “Great Mind,” I prayed, “don't let them find him dead.”
Please hang in there, Jules. We're coming,
Chapter Twenty Seven
Please hang in there, Jules. We're coming.
“What?” I lifted my head from the cold ground, under the overhang. “Sophia? What did you say? Is that you, Sophia?” Or did I dream it?
The rocks were cool, a campfire burning down. The night was black as the devil's own heart. Clouds scudded past my camp, torn by the peak, shredding stars as they swept by. A wanton wind rampaged across the shelf and lifted snow to swirl into my camp, sizzling and bu
bbling, cooling the rocks further. Smoke got into my throat and I coughed. I looked at my hands. I was no longer shivering. Well, that's good, I thought.
I fumbled for the stingler, finally grasped it in two hands, torched the rocks until they glowed red-hot, and moved closer to them. Was I too hot? Maybe I should take off my jacket, but I couldn't find the zipper. The hell with it. What I really needed was sleep. I laid down on the ice and closed my eyes. Please hang in there, Jules, we're coming.
If winter comes… The wolves of winter howled outside my camp, chewing ice and hurling it at me.
“Jules!”
More dreams. I closed my eyes and sighed. “To sleep, perhaps to dream, on a mountaintop, where conscience has turned me into a coward.”
“Jules!”
I sat up. “What, dammit?”
“It's me, Bat. And Galrin and Sunrai are with me.”
“And this is a dream.” I lay back down.
“OK, bubba, it's a dream. I've got some nice warm clothes for you. Here, dream these on.” He took off my wet jacket and sleeved on a heavy warm jacket with fur inside, and closed the wooden clasps down the front.
“Is this real animal skin and fur?” I asked.
He nodded. “Wild drak.”
“I can't wear real animal skin and fur!”
“Oh yes you can. Stand up.”
“Why?” They pulled me to my feet and Bat took off my pants.
“I need those,” I objected. My legs are cold."
“I'll just bet. These pants are stiff with ice.” He put my feet into heavy furred pants, pulled them up and tied the clasps in front.
“Hey! Watch that,” I said.
“OK.”
Galrin slipped furry shoes on my feet and heavy gloves on my hands. Bat shoved a furred hat on my head and tied it under my chin.
Galrin picked up my stingler.
“That's mine,” I said.
“I will hold it for you.”
“Come.” Sunrai yanked on my arm. “Your mate is waiting at the bottom of the mountain.”
“What's she doing down there?” I asked.
Bat shook his head.
I staggered forward, with the ground shifting. “I think it's an earthquake.” They steadied me as we walked to the edge of the shelf. “Are we all going to jump off the cliff? Galrin! I forgive you.”
“Thank you,” he said.
“We have a better idea,” Sunrai told me.
During the climb down, with Sunrai and Galrin lowering Bat and me on ropes while they clung to holds I didn't even see, my body warmed and my memory and reason returned. The Orghes were primates, after all, and a mountain was no more difficult for them to climb than swinging from high tree branches.
“Jules!” I heard Sophia call before we reached the waiting group, just dark shadows hidden by swirling snow and night.
“Sophia,” I whispered.
“Slow down!” Bat called to her. “No sudden moves, Soph. He has hypothermia. It's not good to jolt–”
She threw herself at me and landed on top as we both went down. “I thought I lost you!” She hugged me. “Oh, baby. My love. My life. I thought I lost you.” She rested her head on my chest and I wrapped my arms around her.
Huff bounded over and circled us, as though seeking an opening. I reached out to him and he licked my gloved hand.
“My liver is in joy!” he said.
“Mine, too,” I told him.
“Don't ever do this to me again,” Sophia said. “I couldn't stand it again!”
I kissed her cold lips. Mine were colder, and she clung to me. “I can't either,” I said, and held her tightly against me.
“You two lovebirds better mount up,” Bat said. “We got to get y'all to a warm fire back in the village.”
I stood up as Joe and Chancey came to my side.
“Welcome back, son.” Joe hugged me. “Bat! I hope to hell you've got an extra heart in your black bag, 'cause I'm going to need it before this mission is over.”
Chancey grinned as he walked with me to a drak and helped me mount. “I shoulda known it'd take more than a night in subzero weather to grow you a couple o' horns and a tail.”
“I was counting on wings and a halo.”
He shoved my foot into a stirrup. “Never happen.”
Oldore reached up and shook my hand. “Is this the gesture for a warm greeting back to the living, my Terran breth?”
I smiled. “It is, Senior Breth Oldore.” I looked around. “It still feels like a dream.”
On the way to the village, Sophia explained about the damaged hovair. She refused to leave my side, even when I dismounted to pee behind a tree.
“People are going to talk.” I grinned.
She touched my cheek and ran her gloved fingers across my lips. “If it were warmer, I'd give them something to talk about.”
We had reached the top of the hill overlooking the dark village in the valley below when the attack came.
Jeep lights suddenly flashed on like a necklace encircling the village. Grotesque shadows flitted through the night as Orghes jumped up and raced for cover against hot blue beams that seared the darkness.
Screams of wounded Orghes mixed with war cries from the attacking mercs, designed to throw the people into mass confusion.
“Get behind the jeeps!” Joe shouted to our group. “They won't expect an attack from the rear.”
“Sophia! Take cover,” I yelled. “You too, Huff.” I raced my drak behind a jeep and fired into it, sweeping the hot beam in an arc across the open vehicle.
Men threw up their arms and shrieked. One leaped out and fired wildly as he crouched in front of the stalled jeep.
I jumped off the drak, flattened myself on the ground, and fired under the jeep.
The merc screamed and tried to crawl away with a bloody stump for a leg. I fired at his head for a coup de grâce. He jerked and lay still. Smoke rose from his scorched skull. Have a good trip, I sent.
I crawled to the side of the jeep, using weeds for cover. A wounded merc peered over the back as my frightened drak trotted away into darkness. The merc must've thought I was still mounted. He fired at the retreating animal and missed. The drak honked and galloped away.
I stood up quickly, my heart beating as though it had wings for flight, and raked the merc's chest. He gurgled out a cry and slid to the floorboard. Two others in the jeep were dead.
I still felt weak from my bout with the cold as I dragged the bloody bodies out of the jeep, tore off my jacket and hat, and donned the jacket and hat of a tall dead merc. No matter the jacket was bloodstained. It was hard to see that in the dark, and this was their uniform. Now I had to fear my own people shooting me as the enemy.
The jeeps drove into the village, targeting screaming mercs.
“The fucking slimetrolls!” I whispered through teeth as I watched a woman with a child clasped to her breast go down and lie still. The child wailed and crawled back to his mother.
I screeched to a stop beside them, scooped up the crying child, and put him in the passenger seat.
Sunrai, on his powerful war steed, charged a jeep in a wild ride, hooting as he closed with the vehicle. One of the mercs saw him and swung his rifle to aim. I held my breath as Sunrai leaped on the merc and bit into his neck. The man collapsed silently and pitched forward under Sunrai's weight, slamming into the driver. The jeep fishtailed. Sunrai leaped out before it rolled.
I drove toward them as three mercs scrambled out of the overturned vehicle
“Sunrai, it's me, Jules!” I fired at a merc who was lifting his rifle from the ground to target Sunrai. I hit his arm and he dropped the rifle. I would've let him live. He was pretty helpless without the jeep, but Sunrai threw himself on the man and bit his neck. A dark stream spurted from the torn throat and my stomach turned.
“C'mon, Sunrai,” I called.
He loped to the jeep and sprang into it. “Watch out,” I said as he almost landed on the child.
I turned t
he vehicle to engage another jeep when the Sword of Terror rose up over the tree line, a behemoth that blocked out the moon and darkened the land even further.
“Uh oh,” I said.
Sunrai picked up the child and hooted softly to him.
“You have to get out,” I told him, “with the child. As long as the mercs think I'm one of them, I can fight them from this jeep.”
He grunted, held the child against his chest and leaped out. I saw him head for the cliff face. The child would be safe in there, as safe as anywhere.
The dead and dying were all around me, Orghes and mercs. With Joe, Chancey, and Galrin attacking from behind with beam rifles, Mack must be losing more men than he thought possible.
I turned the jeep toward a merc vehicle that was chasing down a group of screaming Orghe women. Let's see if I can even the odds, scuds, I thought.
I found no joy in this killing, but when the merc vehicle hit a young girl and sent her flying over the windshield and rolling to the ground, where she lay still, something inside me more primal than the prefrontals took over. Something with bloody claws.
I swung the jeep and raced toward the merc vehicle. They saw me coming, but thought nothing of an approaching jeep, until I broadsided them at speed and smashed in the driver's door, and the driver. He was part of the vehicle now, but three others were crawling away. I skidded to a stop and raised my rifle. “Going someplace?” I screamed and raked them. I didn't stop until the rifle grew hot. “This is for the girl!” I shouted to the blood and gore on the ground.
The remaining jeeps suddenly turned toward the hill and bounced up it, with the flagship jeep sending out a repeated flashing signal that I assumed meant: RETREAT.
But then I realized what the mercs were up to. This was not a retreat, but a signal to get out of the danger zone. “Oh, no!” I whispered as the Sword banked and came in low. “Run,” I yelled to the villagers. “Missiles! Run!”
I tore into the center of the square, slowed and called to the people around me to jump into the jeep. I picked up more as I screeched to stops in front of the Sword's nose. Orghes were hanging onto the sides of the jeep as I raced to the cliff.
I heard the deadly whine of an incoming missile, then the explosion in the village. The Orghes holding onto my jeep jumped off and ran into caves in the cracked limestone.
