Soon, though, he had to. Kissing her one more time, he allowed her to pull gently away from him. Her eyes were afire, somehow glowing a bright blue-green in the moonlight. Her perfect lips formed a smile that made his knees feel as though they would collapse.
“Sleep, Sam. I will keep watch for a while longer. I would be unable to sleep at this time in any case.” She reached out and ran her fingers tenderly through his hair, turned, and walked back to her vantage point to continue the watch. Not knowing what else to do, Sam watched until she had settled down and disappeared into the shadows and then he went back into his tent to try to sleep. Face hurting from smiling, he touched his lips, thought sweet thoughts, and finally, after a long time, relaxed into sleep, wondering at his fortune in finding a woman such as Nalia.
43
The next morning dawned bright with very few clouds in the sky. The sunlight, hindered by the surrounding trees, poked its way through, beaming through the dust motes floating in the early morning air. Sam emerged from his tent, ready for the day.
As he set about building a fire to fend off the morning chill, a thought occurred to him. The others, and especially Nalia, had become precious to him. He felt embarrassed that he had been trying almost every night to go back home, never thinking that he would be abandoning his friends. What if he got back home but then couldn’t come back? What if he succeeded and his friends needed him? He decided then and there that he would see this quest through. It wasn’t just him that had a stake in it. The others suffered, too, as did all the villagers the Gray Man had killed. He would see it through to the end. How could he do any less? Mind made up, he bustled around the small camp site, continuing his work.
Sam was using the trick Rindu had taught him, concentrating his rohw on a single point and translating the energy to heat to start the fire, when Nalia came out of her tent. She had apparently been relieved by Rindu or Dr. Walt after he had left her last night. His face heated and guilt pushed its way uncomfortably from his belly when he thought of how he should have insisted on taking a watch. His mind had been befuddled by her intoxicating kisses.
Noticing his reaction, Nalia shook her masked head. “Do not feel badly. My father awoke two hours ago and bade me to take a nap before the day’s hike. He is accustomed to being up well before the dawn. You have nothing to be embarrassed about.”
“Oh, ok,” was all he was able to say. Could she read him so easily? He was sorry to see that she had her mask back on. It was too rare an occasion that he saw her face and her mesmerizing eyes. “Ummm, about last—”
“Do not.” She said it as if it was a command.
“But, I just…”
“No.” She came up to him, standing right in front of him. Pulling her mask off quickly, she kissed him on the mouth, just a quick peck, and then the mask went back on. “Let us not talk about things now. I want to enjoy the memory and not tarnish it with speech.”
Smiling at the stealthy kiss but unsure what was happening, Sam nodded slowly. “Ok, I’ll try not to talk about it.”
She squared her shoulders and took his hands in hers. “Sam, you must understand. Sapsyra are much like the Zouyim in this respect: we live in the present, not analyzing too much the past or the future, if we can help it. I want to enjoy your company today. Let us try not to confuse things with speech. Rejoice in the day. We are on a dangerous journey and today could be our last day. Can you try just to appreciate this beautiful day without too much thought?”
Smiling more sincerely now, he answered, “Yes, Nalia, I think I can do that. I’ll try.”
“Thank you,” she said as she pulled her mask off again, gracing him with her beautiful, beaming smile. “Maybe I will let the morning air touch my skin for a while.”
“Thank you,” he said, and felt energized when her smile grew bigger.
They were busy making a breakfast of cakes and hot tea when Rindu came into the clearing from the trees. “When the sun rose, I scouted ahead. There is a path just through there,” he pointed off toward the West. “It is probably used by the bandits that live here. There is fresh movement, and not from the kuwpo, unless the kuwpo have started wearing boots.”
Sobered by the news, the party ate their breakfast in silence and then packed up their things. The rakkeben were called back from being afield and Skitter sauntered in groggily from some bushes near Sam’s tent.
Have you eaten yet, Skitter? Sam sent.
No. I am not feeling up to eating, the hapaki sent back. I think maybe the tender roots I ate last night did not agree with me. I think I’ll ride in the litter this morning.
I’m sorry, Sam sent. I hope you feel better. Let me know if you need anything.
Skitter slowly climbed up into the litter strapped to Shonyb’s back, stopping briefly to run his claws through the rakkeban’s fur and to receive a sympathetic lick from the big wolf. Settling down, he closed his eyes and drifted off into uneasy sleep.
To the questioning looks from the others, Sam simply stated, “He’s not feeling well, thinks maybe the roots he ate aren’t agreeing with him.” The other party members nodded their understanding, Nalia even patting the hapaki on his furry head, and then they all continued preparing for the day’s travel.
The journey started off normally, with the same types of trees and bushes, the same type of rock formations hidden within the narrow aisle they traveled. Soon, however, they came upon the “trail” Rindu had mentioned. When he pointed it out, Sam looked askance at him. “What trail? I don’t see any difference between what we have been walking in and the place you’re pointing to.”
Rolling his eyes, Rindu explained. He pointed to several disturbed bushes, one having a stem bent back so that it almost broke. He also pointed toward a stone which had the moss growing on it scuffed, almost scraped off. Finally, he brought Sam close and pointed to a depression in the grass, as if someone had slipped off the stone on which he was walking. It was hard to tell, but Sam took Rindu’s word that it was a boot print.
Looking at the Zouy, Sam gained a new appreciation for the man’s skills. He never would have noticed these things in a million years.
“Oh, and incidentally, if you bring yourself to khulim and soften your eyes so that you can see the rohw signatures, it may become clearer.”
Sam did so, standing and breathing slowly, methodically, in and out. As he reached the almost-trance point, he softened his eyes and gazed out at the shadowy forest floor. The boot prints and damaged foliage jumped into his vision, glowing as if they were dusted in some fluorescent chemical. Shaking his head and opening his eyes normally, he gave Rindu a sidelong glance. “Showoff.”
“‘The man who tells all he knows will never win at tiles,’” the Zouy said with a slight smile. He continued on, taking them off the trail and through a side passage in the foliage. He explained that he didn’t want to follow the trail because it was probably a trap.
The party traveled for another hour before they came to the hives. Sam was the first to notice them, Nalia and Rindu focusing on the trail and the surrounding forest. Sam looked up to see if he could judge the time by the sun and he saw the silhouette of a strange shape affixed high in a tree.
It looked like a man-made structure of straight lines and uniform angles. He stopped, looking at it to try to figure out what it was. After several steps, Nalia and Rindu both realized that Sam and, as a result, Dr. Walt, had stopped and were looking up. Dr. Walt was moving his glasses up and down the bridge of his nose and squinting, trying to get a better look.
The object looked to be pasted to a tree, at the junction of two large branches. It was a dull light brown color and seemed open toward the ground. It had many different chambers in it, each a perfect hexagon. Some appeared to be plugged up with a cotton-like material. The chambers were massive, almost big enough for a person to crawl into. Sam stood pondering for just a moment and then he felt as if his stomach had dropped to his ankles.
“Oh, my God,” he whisper-yelled. “We need to
get out of here. Now!”
Dr. Walt looked at him quizzically. “It’s too high for me to focus on well, my boy. What is that thing?”
Just as Sam was about to answer a faint buzzing sound filled the air like the air itself was vibrating. “Run!” he called to the others.
From the corner of his eye, he spotted movement. A flash of metallic blue was heading for them, flying a dozen feet off the ground. Large, compound eyes stared down at the party, evaluating them. The insect was huge. It had the form of a wasp but was the size of a large dog. A very large dog. With a maddened buzz like a high-pitched chainsaw, the wasp dove toward them, midnight black stinger coming forward to strike.
Sam was the intended target, being closest to the diving insect. As the wasp dove, he swung Ahimiro up, projecting his rohw through the staff. Instead of meeting the insect’s attack head-on, Sam buffeted the flyer to the side, causing it to miss him and bounce harmlessly into the bushes a few feet away. As it did so, Sam heard other buzzes from the direction from which the first wasp had come. “Run!” he yelled again, and took off for what appeared to be an opening in the rock face.
The humans, as well as the rakkeben, followed immediately. Skitter’s emphatic and panicked sendings let Sam know that the hapaki was bouncing along in the same direction so he knew Shonyb was following, too. By the time the small party had reached the opening, which turned out to be a cave, there were more than twenty of the huge wasps buzzing toward them at full speed.
Sam didn’t even want to think about what would happen if one of them was stung. Nalia had told them about rumors of highly poisonous wasp venom and the giant wasps that carried it. She hadn’t seen any on her trips through the area before, but Sam thought that was just luck. They seemed very real to him. And fast. He hoped they could lose the insects in the cave.
44
Ducking inside the cave first, Sam slowed as he used his rohw to light the end of his staff, causing it to vibrate quickly enough to generate light with which to see his surroundings. Sam found that he was in a large cavern, with walls that were roughly ten feet high and spaced twelve feet apart at the opening, increasing to over fifteen feet and then tapering again as it went deeper into the earth. He rushed toward the back, allowing room for the others to speed into the cave. At least the wasps couldn’t come at them all at once, he thought, even if the party couldn’t find a narrower passage.
It was the strangest thing, though. The wasps stopped almost mid-flight at the opening, swooping away rather than to enter the cave itself. It was clear the insects had no desire to enter the darkness.
“Are...they afraid…of the…dark?” Sam gasped, as they all collapsed to the ground breathlessly.
Dr. Walt took a few deep breaths and answered. “It’s possible that they don’t like the cold. Caves are normally colder than ideal for wasps. But…”
As he was speaking, Sam noticed too what Dr. Walt just realized. He finished the doctor’s sentence. “…but this cave is warm.” It was true. The cave was comfortably warm, even warmer than it was outside.
“Fascinating,” Dr. Walt declared. “It must be heated geothermically. I wonder why the wasps wouldn’t enter. I don’t remember every hearing anythingabout them not liking darkness.”
“Perhaps there is something in here that is not worth facing to reach their prey,” Rindu suggested. It was a sobering thought.
The wasps were buzzing around near the opening of the cave, along with another dozen or two of their kin that had decided to join them. There was no way they could slip out around them.
After taking a count of everyone, the four humans, four rakkeben, and the hapaki, and making sure none had been stung, they discussed their options. There was no way to make a break through the cave opening without at least one of them, and most probably more than that, being stung. They could wait the wasps out, but that seemed a shaky proposition at best. The third option was going deeper into the cave to try to find another exit.
When the discussion was over, they had decided that the party would stay in the entrance chamber, well away from the wasps in case one of them became brave enough to venture inside, while two of them searched for another way out.
Rindu shortened the decision-making process considerably. “Sam, come with me. We will find a way out.” And just like that, before the others had a chance to argue, they were off, Sam holding his lighted staff in front of him.
The chamber narrowed to a single opening at the back. It was about seven feet high and four feet wide and darker than the blackest night. Before going through, Rindu stopped and looked at Sam. “Release the light,” he commanded.
Sam did so and they were plunged into darkness. Looking out toward the opening, some thirty feet away, the light coming from outside looked much smaller and weaker than he would have imagined. To the sound of Dr. Walt’s gasp, Rindu assured the others that nothing had happened and dousing the light was intentional.
“Now, Sam, I want you to close your eyes and breathe, taking in lifegiving breath and rohw along with it.” Sam did so. “Do you remember our blind-folded exercises, the ones in which I suggested that you rely on your aura to see the things around you?”
“Yes.”
“We will do the same here. Picture in your mind the aura surrounding your body. Do you see it?”
“I do.” As he said it, something intruded on his aura, coming close to him. He stepped back.
“Good.” It had been Rindu, testing him. “Now, I want you to stretch your aura, double its size, and then double it again. Can you do that?”
Sam concentrated and, picturing himself as the center within his mind, he watched as the glowing field around him grew, stretching out further. Several feet away, he saw a shape. Concentrating on it, it resolved itself into Rindu, but without the detail or color. “Ok, I think I have it.”
“Do you see me?” Sam nodded before thinking that they were in almost total darkness. He was surprised when Rindu answered. “Good.” Of course the Zouy could see in the dark. “Keep focusing on anything that breaks your aura of vibratory energy. I will go first, but concentrate to make sure I do not miss anything.”
“Understood.”
They started off in the pitch blackness, Rindu at the front. They moved systematically, not quickly but not as slowly as Sam would have thought. Or preferred. He was soon growing tired from the constant mental exertion from focusing on his aura.
“It will get easier with practice. Right now, you are fighting your body’s desire to use its eyes. When you have learned to let go and not fight it, things will be much easier. It takes time and practice. You are doing well.”
As they went deeper into the passages, Sam soon became disoriented and lost his sense of direction. “Ummm, Master Rindu?” Sam started to say.
“Do not worry, Sam. I have marked our path with vibratory markers, little spots of stone on the walls that I have…ah…manipulated.”
“Manipulated?”
“Yes, I have projected my rohw into them, vibrating and changing their structure slightly so that when I look upon them, I will recognize them as my own work. I put my signature on them.”
Sam looked behind him with his mind and saw, at evenly spaced intervals, little spots of the rock that gave off a gentle glow. “How long will that last?”
Rindu stopped suddenly. “You can see them? You see the marks I have made?”
“Yes, why?”
“Interesting. I hadn’t thought you had developed the sensitivity yet to do so. Very good. To answer your question, the marks could last for years, decades. It depends on how the cave grows or what other vibrations occur, such as quakes. You do not need to worry in any case. They will be there long enough for us to use them to find our way back.”
Sam sighed his relief. They had already passed more than ten junctions and they didn’t always take the same fork when given a choice. Sam had always heard that to prevent getting lost in caverns, you should simply choose the right fork, or the left, al
ways. That way, you could retrace your steps. Rindu, though, was using some other sense to guide him in choosing which way to go. The little marks comforted Sam.
No longer distracted with worrying about their direction, or finding their way back, he began to notice that the cavern was growing warmer the further they went. Sam wasn’t sure what that meant, but he was sure it meant something.
Almost two hours later, Rindu slowed and then stopped. When he suggested that Sam stop focusing on his mental image of his aura and then open his eyes, Sam was surprised to see a spot of light far up ahead of him. They slowly walked toward it and found what they had been looking for. It was another way out. Though some of the passages had required the men to crouch, they were all passable by all members of the party, even the rakkeben. There had been some dead ends and passages that looked dangerous to crawl through, but they had found other ways to get to the exit. Smiling and patting Sam on the back, Rindu headed back toward the party, switching automatically, Sam assumed, to his rohw vision.
When they returned to the party, in a significantly less amount of time than it took them to find the exit, the wasps still had not left. Gathering his supplies, the Zouy led them back through the tunnels. He allowed the rest of the party to use torches, while he went ahead, reading his marks back to the exit. Sam, whose head was pounding from the rohw vision he used while finding the exit, was happy to use the glow of his staff light.
In the area of the tunnels where Sam remembered it being the warmest, Rindu stopped abruptly. Before anyone could say anything, he shushed them. Standing stone still, the party waited.
At first, Sam heard nothing, but then there was a soft scraping noise, as of someone dragging a heavy parcel wrapped in rough paper over the uneven stone floor. Then, he heard the same sound from several directions, along with a soft hiss. It sounded like the slow leak from a tiny hole in a bicycle tire, amplified in the stillness of the underground. The only other sound was the panting, dog-like breathing of the rakkeben.
Vibrations: Harmonic Magic Book 1 Page 29
