“If only, Eva Nine, but I doubt . . .” Rovender stopped and sniffed the night air. He doused his light. “I know that scent. It’s munt-runner,” he whispered.
“What?” Eva said. “Munt-runner?”
“Yes. I am sure of it. Come on!” Rovender took Eva by the hand and rushed back to camp.
CHAPTER 28: GHOST
As they approached their camp, Eva could hear braying and shuffling sounds around the site. From the shadows trotted a tall birdlike bipedal animal with a shadowy rider on its back. Leather reins hung from the pair of horns that grew from the mount’s brow.
“Is that a munt-runner?” Eva whispered.
Rovender gestured for her to be quiet.
“Who’s out there?” Eva Eight was standing at the fire swinging a broken fin ray like a sword. Behind her lay Nadeau, still bundled under his blankets. The rider entered the campsite, a young Cærulean seated in the munt-runner’s saddle. His mount’s wild scarlet eyes dilated as they neared the firelight.
“Come on.” Rovender took Eva’s hand and stepped into the flickering glow of the campfire at the center of the camp.
“Do my eyes betray me? Look what we have here, brother,” the rider announced, gesturing toward Rovender. Another young rider emerged from behind a standing stone.
“The spirits of the dead are out this night,” the second rider said.
“Indeed, for I see the drunken ghost of Rovender Kitt,” added the first.
“Galell, it has been some time,” Rovender addressed the first rider. “You were hardly older than a nymph when I saw you last.”
“Do you hear that?” Galell said to the second rider. “The ghost speaks. It now mingles with dirt-burrowers . . . still lost without its clan.” Both riders chuckled.
“Rovee’s not—” Eva started, but with a gesture Rovender cut her off. Eight watched from the campfire, unmoving.
“Whether I am a ghost or not,” Rovender said, “only your spirit within knows for sure. However, this ghost, along with these others, has traveled far to return one of our brethren back to Faunas.” Rovender pulled back the blankets to reveal Nadeau. The Cærulean looked paler than ever. His wan skin contrasted with the dark wires that pulsed beneath it.
“What in Orbona?” Galell hopped off his mount and rushed to the weakened Cærulean. He took Nadeau by the hand. “What has become of you? Who has done this?”
With shaky aim Nadeau pointed at Eva Nine. “It was their kind, but it was not—”
Galell did not allow Nadeau to finish. He wheeled around and pulled a sonic boomrod from his pack. The second rider hopped down holding a bolas. The munt-runners brayed and stomped, splashing puddles near their feet.
Rovender jumped between the barrel of the boomrod and Eva. His outstretched arms covered both her and her sister. “This is not what you think, brother,” Rovender said, remaining calm. “They are helping Nadeau.”
“I don’t want to hear any more ravings from you, old ghost!” Galell kept his weapon aimed at Rovender. “We are taking Nadeau and these dirt-burrowers back to our village, where they shall pay for their cruelty. Their fate is now in Antiquus’s hands.”
Eva grabbed the spit with the charred turnfin on it. She slung the meat off and pointed it as a weapon toward Galell.
“Try it!” Galell charged the boomrod and pressed closer. “You see this, ghost? They are all hostile. They’ll kill us as soon as they have the chance!” The second rider whirled his bolas over his head in a rhythmic fashion.
“Enough!” Rovender said. “Eva, go with them. I don’t want any more bloodshed.”
“Come on, Nine. Let’s do as he says.” Eva Eight put a reassuring hand on Eva’s shoulder.
Eva shrugged off the gesture. “No way, Rovee. We can—”
“Just. Do. It.” He turned to her and Eva Eight. “I don’t want either of you to get hurt. Let us try to solve this with words, not weapons. Understand?”
Eva dropped the spit down into the fire, sending up a flurry of incandescent ash.
“What?” she said, flabbergasted. “You—you’re just gonna leave and let them take me?”
“It will be okay. This I promise.” Rovender knelt down and hugged Eva. “I’ll see you soon,” he whispered into her ear.
“Let’s go, dirt-burrower.” Galell nudged Eva on with the barrel of his boomrod. He forced Eva up onto his mount. The second rider did the same with Eva Eight. From the saddle Eva watched Galell attach the travois to the back of his munt-runner. Nadeau, unconscious once more, said nothing.
“Galell, I must come with you,” Rovender said. “I need to speak to Antiquus about this. There is more here than what you see.”
“Wander off, ghost.” Galell stepped into the stirrup of his saddle and climbed up onto his mount. “Your time in our village has long passed.”
With a sharp kick from Galell, the munt-runner took off into the night. Eva looked back over her shoulder to check on Rovender. She expected a signal, a sign about what to do next, but the flames of the campfire had been extinguished and she could see nothing.
“Wake up!” Galell nudged Eva Nine hard with his elbow and nearly knocked her from his saddle. Eva blinked away the sleep and shook off the exhaustion that had overtaken her during their ride. The shadows of the night still hid among the bushes and trees as the early light of dawn flushed the sky gold.
The riders steered their mounts into a spacious clearing. Clustered in the center of this clearing were domed huts, each perched high on tapering stalks. Their mushroomy appearance brought to mind the large structures that made up Lacus. Somehow, in the construction of both villages, Eva could see that the builders had originated from the same planet, as Rovender had mentioned.
As the riders neared the cluster, Eva realized the domiciles were constructed entirely of woven materials. Dried leaves and coarse fiber had been meticulously intertwined to form the bizarre structures. Every façade was adorned with scrimshaw, as if each building told a story in pictures of those who dwelled within.
A lone Cærulean, standing on the roof of the tallest hut, let out a piercing cry, which ushered forth the entire village. In moments the villagers, whooping and calling out, surrounded the two riders. Everywhere Eva looked she saw Cæruleans who bore a striking resemblance to Rovender, but her friend was nowhere to be found. She glanced over at Eva Eight, who appeared dazed.
Galell pulled his weapon and addressed the gathering. “While hunting last night in the Valley of Standing Stones, I came across a ghost.”
A whispery hush fell over the village.
“This ghost told me he was returning our long-lost brother Nadeau back to us from these dirt-burrowers.” Galell pointed to Eva and her sister with his boomrod, then hopped off his mount. A murmur grew among the villagers. “See what these monsters, these callous creatures, have done!” He pulled the blankets away from Nadeau. Audible gasps and moans came from the crowd.
Eva turned on the saddle to see the poor Cærulean. He looked dead. His chalk-white skin, rigid form, and half-open eyes made him appear as if he’d been frozen alive. She leaned over to see if he was breathing, but several hands yanked her down from Galell’s mount.
“I told you, Galell, I didn’t do this!” Eva yelled, struggling against her captors. “We were trying to save him!” Eva felt fists box and strike at her. A scowling Cærulean began twirling a set of bolas. Eva craned her neck to locate her sister, but Eva Eight had been pulled from her ride as well and was obscured by the mob.
Rovender, where are you? she thought. You need to hurry.
“What is this?” a gravelly voice called out. “What has troubled you all on such a glorious morning?”
The crowd calmed and parted to form a pathway. From the back of the gathering came an aged Cærulean seated on a hoverdisc. He floated over to examine Nadeau, still strapped in the travois. The elder had long twisted whiskers and tattered ears that hung over his simple robes. Saying nothing, he placed a knobby large hand flat on Nadeau’s
chest. The entire village was silent. All Eva could hear was the elder’s wheezing breath.
“Are you Antiquus?” Eva asked. Galell jabbed her hard in the ribs with the muzzle of the boomrod, and she dropped to her knees.
The leader of the Cæruleans kept a hand on Nadeau and turned toward her. From the personal items on his hoverdisc, he plucked a hand-size metallic object shaped like a seashell. He placed the object in his ear and looked at her curiously.
“Are you Antiquus?” repeated Eva. She braced herself for another strike from Galell, but none came.
The leader raised his droopy brow to expose piercing ice-blue eyes, which studied Eva. “Antiquus I am, little one. What has become of our brother Nadeau?”
Eva tried to approach, but the Cæruleans held her tight. “I—I did not do this. My sister and I, along with Rovender Kitt, were trying to bring him back here before . . . before he died.”
Antiquus’s brow dropped back down, shadowing his eyes, and he resumed his examination of Nadeau. “Rovender Kitt. That name means nothing here.”
“It means something to me,” Eva replied. “Isn’t this his village?”
“It is not.”
Has Galell taken us to another village of Cæruleans? Rovender would never find them now.
“Poor Nadeau.” Antiquus ran his fingers over the Cærulean’s pale cheek. “His spirit yearns to leave, yet the electricity that now courses through him does not allow it.”
“No,” Eva said. “He held on because he wanted to come home before he let his spirit leave.”
“I do not understand.” There was sadness and confusion in Antiquus’s voice. “How could you . . . Why would you do such a thing to another?”
“She didn’t.” Eva Eight spoke. “Cadmus Pryde did. The human leader.”
“Hu-man? And what clan is the hu-man?” Antiquus asked.
“They are people,” Eight replied. “Like Eva and me. But we had no part in this.”
Antiquus grumbled, “So the sneaky raffid says when cornered by a pack of wild dargs.”
“Why won’t you believe us?” said Eight. “We could have just left him back in New Attica to die. Do you know what we’ve been through to get him here?”
Antiquus waved away Eva Eight’s words, and she was pulled back into the crowd. Clearly he had heard enough. He removed his ear trumpet, uncoiled it, and placed it in Nadeau’s mouth like a horn. From the folds of his robe the elder pulled a fine thin blade no longer than Eva’s finger. Slowly he pushed the blade into Nadeau’s throat. An audible exhalation could be heard escaping through the ear horn.
Eva winced and looked away.
“Safe journey, Brother Nadeau. You are free,” Antiquus whispered, and closed Nadeau’s eyes.
Cries of anguish burst from the crowd. The villagers freed Nadeau’s body from the travois and lifted him high over their heads. Their wails began to harmonize into a chorus, creating a melancholy song of mourning.
Antiquus coiled his ear trumpet and put it back on. He turned to Galell. “Take these two to the isolation house. I must convene with the circle of elders so that we may determine what fate these hu-mans have earned for their actions.”
“What a mess we’re in,” Eight said. “When is your friend Rovender going to come and sort this out?”
“I don’t know,” Eva replied. They were in a tiny hut set high above the village.
“Well, he better get here soon, or we are going to be joining Nadeau.” Eight rummaged through the scant items in the room.
Eva scooted toward the doorway and peered down into the village. She could see Galell turning the large crank that wound the rope ladder that they had ascended. The nearest rooftop was at least fifteen meters below.
Galell finished retracting the ladder and stood guard as the other villagers constructed a large fire. A procession appeared from one of the huts carrying the shrouded body of Nadeau.
I am so sorry, Nadeau. We really tried, Eva thought. She scanned the surrounding forest, hoping a wandering tree could come to her assistance, but none responded to her mental pleas.
“Any ideas?” Eight sat against the back wall of the hut and pulled a blanket over herself.
“Rovee said that we needed to solve this with words, not weapons,” Eva said. She watched as the villagers placed Nadeau’s body onto the pyre. “Maybe we’ll be able to talk it out with the elders.”
“I don’t think that’s gonna happen, Nine,” said Eight. “This old guy is just as bloodthirsty as Cadmus. Did you see what he did to Nadeau?”
Eva closed her eyes to force the image away, but it remained, just like the image of Besteel killing Otto’s mate . . .
. . . and the image of the juvenile water bear being frozen alive in the taxidermist’s lab . . .
. . . and Muthr, broken and battered in the desert sand.
Just let me go, Muthr had said.
Maybe that’s all Antiquus was doing . . . letting Nadeau go. She watched as a ribbon of smoke from the funeral pyre below drifted past the doorway of their hut. Nadeau is on to his next journey, she thought. Hopefully it is one without any pain.
A sense of comfort radiated from somewhere within Eva. Even though their situation appeared dire, somehow she knew it would work out. “It’s all right. We are going to be fine. Rovee will come, and we’ll figure this out,” she said in a calm tone.
“How do you know that?” Eight replied.
“I—I just know.” Eva smiled.
“I don’t think you do, Nine,” Eight replied. “Cadmus is going to kill or enslave every race on this planet, including humans, and you think it’s all going to be ‘fine’?”
Eva slid away from the door. “That’s not what I mean. I mean we’ll be fine. I don’t know what will happen to everybody else.”
“I thought I knew everything when I was a child your age. You’ve got a lot to learn,” Eva Eight said and stared out the small window.
Eva ignored her sister’s condescension. “Of course, I don’t want there to be a war, she said. “I want everyone to be able to live together . . . to be happy.”
“Your friends in Lacus aren’t going to be too happy when a warship starts shooting everyone on sight.”
“I know, I know. We have to meet with Cadmus,” said Eva.
“Meet? Are you crazy?” Eight glared at Eva from across the hut.
“Rovee and I saw the Wandering Forest growing. It’s bigger now than it was before. Eventually it will reach New Attica. Cadmus doesn’t need the Vitae Virus generator. He doesn’t need to invade at all.”
“You are naïve, Nine.” Eight shook her head as she spoke. There was exasperation in her voice. “Cadmus needs to be eliminated. Didn’t you hear what those aliens said? They hate humans. They are going to kill us in retaliation for Cadmus’s lab experiment.”
Eva looked back out the doorway at the Cæruleans down below mourning Nadeau’s passing. With the entire village gathered it reminded Eva of the peaceful Halcyonus back in Lacus. How would Hostia treat me if there were a human invasion? A flock of turnfins fluttered past. I wish I could fly away like them. She let out a long sigh and waited.
CHAPTER 29: TRUTH
The sun sank behind the treetops, turning the cloudless sky an angry vermilion. Eva looked down from her lofty cell and spied Galell climbing the long rope ladder up to her.
He entered the hut and threw a cloth sack onto the floor, causing the fruit within to tumble out. He pointed to Eva Eight. “You stay.”
He turned to Eva Nine. “You—the elders want a word with you.”
Eva Eight jumped up. “No! We are family! We stay together!”
Galell pulled out his boomrod and charged it.
“Stop!” Eva Nine pushed the muzzle of the weapon away. She rushed over to her sister. “I’ll be all right,” she whispered.
“You can’t let them separate us, Nine.” Eight clutched Eva. “I don’t know about these aliens or their ways. We have to stay together.”
Eva hug
ged her sister. There was genuine fear in Eight’s eyes. “I’ll be okay,” Eva said. “Rovee will come.”
“Rovender! What about me? What about us?”
“Stay calm.” Eva patted Eight’s hand. “Remember how you asked me to trust you?”
Eva Eight loosened her grip on Eva. She relaxed and nodded in agreement.
“Don’t worry,” Eva said. “All I can do is tell them the truth.” She gave her sister another hug and then followed Galell down the ladder to the base of the isolation house.
On the ground an armed Cærulean began to crank the winch that pulled the ladder down from the hut. Eva glanced back up at Eight. She was watching from the doorway high above.
“Let’s go!” Galell shoved Eva. “They are waiting.” Eva scowled at him and followed.
Galell escorted Eva to a small, low-lying hut partially obscured by the stalked bases of the other homes. “In there, dirt-burrower.” He pointed up at the closed curtain doorway.
Eva climbed up the short ladder to the doorway and looked over her shoulder to see that Galell remained on guard at the base of the ladder. He was not following her in.
“Do not keep them waiting! Go!” Galell said.
Eva pushed the heavy curtain aside and entered the hut. The scent of burning soap wafted over Eva, reminding her of Arius’s dwelling. In the soft glowing lights she could see that the woven walls were decorated from floor to ceiling in ornate pictographs. Around the hut hung thick fibrous cords. Each cord looped out to the center of the floor from the wall into which it was woven. The loose end of every cord was tied around the waist of a council elder, all of whom were seated in a circle.
“Come in,” said Antiquus. He sat cross-legged on the floor with an age-smoothed cane at his side. Behind him a tiny fork-tailed bird twittered from a wooden perch. Antiquus gestured to a floor mat at the center of the circle of elders, and said, “Please sit, hu-man. We have talked much about the events that we witnessed today. Now we have some questions for you.”
Eva did as she was told and looked at the council of Cæruleans seated around her. She half-hoped to see Rovender among them, but he was not. Like their leader, each of the other elders was adorned in earth-toned garments offset by colorful jewelry made of beads, seedpods, and feathers.
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