A World of Secrets (The Firewall Trilogy)

by James Maxwell

  Holding the sword high, Kash absently nodded.

  Taimin climbed to his feet and exited the cavern.

  Taimin resisted the urge to glance behind him until he was well away from the tallest of the three peaks. When he allowed himself to check back at the entrance, his jaw tightened. A skalen stood just inside the triangular cave mouth, not even trying to hide the fact that he was watching.

  Turning away, Taimin stared up at the heavens while he walked. The waxing moon was low in the night sky, leaving a dark expanse overhead, so that a multitude of twinkling lights stared back at him. Wind howled over the desert, but the basin was protected by its encircling wall and all he felt was a warm breeze on his skin.

  As he pretended to take his bearing, he scratched his chin and pondered. He had taken a good look at the largest of the caves, but he still needed to see inside the two others. His intuition told him that if he revealed the true purpose of his visit he would have less, not more, opportunity to look around. Kash clearly didn’t like the thought of humans wandering freely through her domain.

  Taimin wandered while he gazed up at the stars. A shooting star darted across his vision, followed by another. His meandering footsteps took him closer to the next cave, the one that was square shaped rather than triangular. He surreptitiously looked behind him. His guard had started to walk toward him. The skalen held up a hand.

  Taimin ignored him and walked straight into the cave.

  He stopped inside the entrance, which wasn’t decorated like the clan’s residence. He blinked and pretended to look confused. Aurelium lamps rested in a handful of niches, revealing a rectangular, low-ceilinged space that appeared to be used as a storeroom. Dried meat hung from ropes. Clay jars stood in neat, orderly rows on the floor. Bulging sacks filled a corner. Several of the jars glowed from within: Kash’s clan possessed aurelium in quantity. The rear wall of the cavern glistened; the sheen of moisture indicated a spring or a well.

  Taimin swiftly took it all in. Then a reptilian hand gripped his upper arm.

  “Apologies,” Taimin said, meeting the skalen’s narrowed green eyes. The thin black slits of pupils enhanced the guard’s menace. “It’s dark.” He spread his hands. “I got confused.”

  The skalen didn’t say a word but firmly led Taimin away from the storage cavern to take him back to the residence. As soon as he entered, Taimin saw Lars and Kash still bargaining. A blanket lay between them with Taimin’s sword in front of Lars. Kash had a jar in her hand and was in the process of adding a finger-sized shard of aurelium to a cluster on an open leather pouch by her knees. She handled the piece delicately, placing it down so that there was a gap between the shards.

  “If you leave again you will be escorted,” the guard hissed to Taimin. “I suggest you stay here.”

  Lars gave Taimin an inquiring look but Taimin shook his head. Taking his seat on a cushion, Taimin settled in while Lars pretended to change his mind over and over again.

  18

  Selena didn’t say much on the journey. As she crossed the desert with Ruth and Vance, she still felt troubled and confused. Her parents had loved her, she knew that much. Her father had made a single, terrible mistake. She was already having regrets about the way she’d left things. When she saw Milton again, they would talk.

  Before she had left the homestead, she once more stood over her mother’s grave. Afterward, she wondered if she had settled something inside. Her mother was gone, but Selena now knew something about the woman she had been. Her parents were both mystics. She had a reason for the way she was.

  She focused on her goal: she wanted to get inside the buried machine—perhaps using the same passage she had found as a child—and do whatever she could to destroy or disable it. The firewall would vanish. Everyone would build better lives outside the wasteland. The bax inhabiting the hills would know about the machine, but would they be aware of an entrance?

  As the three travelers approached their destination, the taller dunes flattened, the yellow sand became dirt, and the range of hills grew in size. Eventually the terrain took on a humped, rolling appearance, leading them past ever-larger mounds while the ground climbed toward a barrier of miniature mountains. It was a rocky region, but far from monotonous. Soon, between two hills, they caught their first sight of a wide gorge, with walls almost steep enough to call it a canyon, and cliffs layered with shades of yellow, blue, silver, and rose. Aware that they were surely in the territory of the bax who lived in the area, they decided not to attempt to hide their presence.

  Selena headed up a graveled slope to gain a vantage. While she climbed, she looked in the direction of the firewall, now a strip of red sky on the horizon that contrasted starkly with the blue above it. Vance and Ruth walked behind, bickering the way they always did.

  “How do you know it works?” Vance challenged.

  Glancing back, Selena saw that Ruth had stopped to pluck a small shrub by its base and sniff the leaves.

  “I’ve told you,” Ruth said. “My mother taught me.”

  Vance snorted as he continued up the hill. “But all you really know is that if you make someone eat it, they don’t die.”

  Ruth scowled at him. “It’s called bloodroot. It has red roots, hence the name. It calms fever and helps with nausea.”

  Vance watched Ruth for a moment and then waved at her. “Give me a taste.”

  Selena couldn’t help smiling as Ruth reluctantly climbed up the slope to join him. Picking off a bit of spiky leaf, Ruth handed it to Vance’s grasping fingers.

  “Urgh.” Vance twisted his mouth. “And this reduces nausea?”

  “I’ve seen it work,” Ruth snapped. “You’ll be thankful if you need my skills. At least I’ve got them.”

  Now it was Vance who narrowed his eyes. “Are you saying I don’t have skills?”

  “Perhaps I am.” Ruth put a hand to her forehead. “No, wait. I forgot. You sell weapons. What a wonderful skill. Making the world a better place.”

  “Weapons help people protect themselves,” Vance said as he stopped beside Selena at the top of the hill.

  A moment later Ruth came close to Vance and prodded his chest with her finger. “Weapons cause wounds that people like me have to heal.”

  “Vance, Ruth,” Selena hissed. “Look.”

  From her position she had a commanding view of the area. As she scanned from place to place, looking for signs of a settlement, she had been sure the terrain was empty. But suddenly there they were, on a smaller hill. Two hunched, stocky figures stood watching them.

  “Bax,” Vance said.

  “What should we do?” Ruth asked.

  Selena glanced at Vance, and then Ruth. “I suppose we should go and talk to them.”

  She didn’t wait for a reply as she began her descent. While the two bax watched and waited, despite her outward confidence, her apprehension grew. There could be any number of bax hiding on the far slope, out of view. She found it difficult to put her faith in Milton’s description of the bax as friendly. In her experience, there was only one race more murderous, and that was her own.

  “Selena,” Vance said. “Slow down a bit. You too, Ruth.”

  As Selena turned and waited, Ruth stopped too, a perplexed look on her face.

  “What? Why?” Ruth asked.

  Vance was deadly serious. “Please.”

  Ruth’s frown deepened when Vance pushed past, taking his opportunity to lead from the front. Ruth opened her mouth to say something, but Selena shook her head, smiling slightly. Ruth gave a rueful shrug, returning the smile. Vance put a hand on the sword at his side.

  With Vance now in front, Selena inspected the two bax as she approached. Their splayed feet were bare, and both wore leather smocks that fell below their thick waists. Man-sized but shorter and broader, with lumpy skin and ridged spines, they were hairless, with sloping, furrowed brows and square jaws. One was a male, but the female had shoulders at least as wide as his. Selena reminded herself that of the races, bax were the mos
t similar to humans: they ate both meat and plants, built villages, and married for life.

  “It has been a long time since I have seen a human,” the male said in a throaty, guttural voice. Selena glanced at the axe hanging from a loop on his belt, but so far his manner was friendly. She realized he was young, with a wide mouth and a thick neck covered in green blotches.

  “You must be far from home,” said the female as her pink cheeks crinkled in a smile. Her deep-set eyes were warm and, like her companion, she was armed with a heavy cudgel of pale basalt wood that swung from her hip.

  “Well met,” Vance said. “Apologies if we’re in your lands. We’re traveling to see family.”

  It was a story they had agreed together. They first needed to find out how the bax who lived here felt about the rumbling machine before they asked their questions. If the bax were afraid of it, they might not share their knowledge, fearful that the beast under the sand might be awakened.

  The wide-mouthed bax glanced at his companion before turning back to Vance. “No humans live near here. You are making a dangerous journey.”

  Sensing their distrust, Selena thought furiously: they needed something more for their story to work. Why would they be traveling so far from any human settlements? She reminded herself of all the things she knew about bax.

  She had an idea. Vance and Ruth would hate her for it, but it might alter the mood.

  “Vance and Ruth here,” she said, indicating as she spoke, “were recently wedded. It is a human custom to visit family to share the news, no matter how far away.”

  Vance rounded on Selena. His mouth was open, but he didn’t say anything. Ruth’s eyes were wide. She looked like she was fighting a scowl.

  “Ah,” the male said. His mouth parted in a grin as he looked at his companion. “A marriage!”

  “We have goods we can trade for a place to rest,” Selena said.

  The bax shook his head. “Among bax, we do not receive gifts to celebrate a marriage.” He opened the palms of his hands. “We give them. I am Bagrat and my lovely companion is Den.” As he spoke, Den looked surprised but pleased at his description. “I have no doubt our warden, Gorax, will welcome you. I must warn you, however, he will ask you for news about the world, and you must not hold back.”

  “We are happy to oblige,” Selena said.

  “Come, Vance, Ruth, and . . .”

  “Selena.”

  “Such strange names.” Den shook her head. “But I’m sure our names sound equally odd to your ears. Come with us—and welcome. Welcome to Gravel Range.”

  Soon Selena, Ruth, and Vance were following the two bax along the floor of the gorge below the range of stunted mountains. The gorge narrowed, and as the walls grew steeper, a collection of well-made huts appeared, located under the cliff where an overhang stretched for hundreds of feet to provide shade and protection from above. The round huts were all similar, built with stone walls and roofs of dried razorgrass. It wasn’t a huge settlement, but still large enough to be a home to a hundred bax or more.

  As she entered the village, Selena watched dozens of bax as they chatted and worked, idled and ate. Some carried water, others lugged wood or scraped at leather drying in the sun. She passed an older female hauling a sloshing water sack in her arms and two bax working together to repair a hut. A group of youths carried bundles of pink razorgrass on their shoulders, while nearby a bax with wrinkled skin sat on a rock and sewed. A little female chased a lizard, snatching at its tail in vain. A trio of hunters carried dead scrub rats on their shoulders.

  It was suddenly driven home with force that when Selena had been a captive in the Rift Valley, what she had seen was an army at war. Gravel Range reminded her of a normal human settlement.

  “It’s a good place to live,” Bagrat said over his shoulder. “We have a well to bring up groundwater and plenty of game.” He grinned at Den. “Provided you like rock lizard.”

  “How long have you been married?” Den asked, addressing Vance and Ruth.

  Ruth’s eyes narrowed. “Just a short time,” she said.

  “You will have to tell Gorax your story,” Den said. She gave a short, grunting laugh. “He will want you to be more specific.”

  It was late afternoon, and as Selena walked through the pathways between the huts she smelled the aroma of roasting meat and guessed that evening meals were being prepared. Soon a fire pit came into view outside a larger-than-average hut, where a fat-bellied bax with spots on his crown and a necklace of tiny bones turned a skewered rock lizard on a spit. The old bax poked at the coals and hungrily examined the sizzling meat.

  “Warden,” said Den. “Look what we found. Visitors.”

  The fat-bellied bax looked up and his deep-set eyes widened. He immediately straightened his leather tunic and wiped his hands on his flanks. “It has been a long time since we had visitors.” He gave Den and Bagrat a grunt of disapproval. “You should have warned me.” He put on a smile and turned his attention to the newcomers. “I am Gorax, Warden of Gravel Range. And . . . ?” He frowned at Bagrat.

  “This is . . .” Bagrat faltered. He whispered to Selena in his hoarse, throaty voice. “I have forgotten your names.”

  “I’m Selena.”

  “Vance.”

  “Ruth.”

  “Vance and Ruth were recently married,” Den said. “They are traveling to share the good news with family. Do I have that right?”

  “You do,” Ruth said, almost making Selena smile. Her friend had reluctantly stepped into her new role.

  “A marriage?” Gorax clasped his palms together. “Tonight, we will celebrate. And how do you fit in?” He gave Selena an inquiring look.

  “Our mothers are sisters,” Selena said with a nod at Ruth. She wondered how much of a web of falsehoods she would end up weaving.

  “Snix!” Gorax bellowed, making Selena jump. A passing bax looked like he was professing not to hear. “I see you there. Don’t pretend I am not calling your name.”

  Snix stopped in his tracks and his shoulders slumped. With a defeated air, he came over to the fire pit. He was lean for a bax, with eyes that gave him a perpetual squint. “Warden?”

  “Take over at the fire, will you?”

  “Perhaps another—”

  “You can’t tell me you were busy. Do something useful for a change.”

  Snix sighed and began to half-heartedly turn the handle fixed to the end of the pole.

  “Slowly!” Gorax growled. “Do it properly, hear? If you do, you can share it with us.” Snix brightened and began to pay more attention to his task.

  Gorax turned when a female roughly his own age approached, waddling as she walked. As round-bellied as Gorax, she also had the same worn, leathery skin. Her brown eyes gave the impression of kindness.

  “Ah, there you are, jewel of my heart,” Gorax said. He took her hand. “This is my wife, Breang. Without her, Gravel Range would fall to chaos.” He turned to the three humans. “This is . . .” He faltered.

  “I’m Selena. This is Vance and this is Ruth.”

  “Vance and Ruth were recently married,” Gorax explained. Vance began to shake his head but stopped when Selena gave him a sharp frown. Neither Gorax nor Breang noticed.

  “I have always wondered what takes place at a human wedding,” Breang said. “You will have to tell me everything.”

  Now Vance and Ruth were both staring at Selena.

  “How long will you be staying?” Gorax asked.

  Selena hesitated. After the warm welcome, she felt a strong urge to tell her hosts the truth about their visit. But to reveal she had lied would cause offence. “Not too long,” she said. “Just long enough to rest a short while before we continue our journey.”

  “Is it far you have to go?” Breang asked.

  “Just past the three peaks on the other side of the desert.”

  Gorax and Breang exchanged grim glances. Breang’s voice became low and serious. “You do know that this is the time of sandstorms?” she aske
d.

  “We know,” Selena said.

  “You are taking a grave risk.” Breang shook her head and tutted.

  “Enough, wife,” Gorax said. “Bagrat, Den, if you find huts for your guests, I will reward you with an invitation to eat with us tonight.” Bagrat cast an anxious glance at the rock lizard on the spit. Gorax gave a short laugh. “I know that look. Never fear, we will prepare another.”

  “Two lizards?” Bagrat licked his lips and nodded. “Consider it done.” He and Den walked away with the hunched stride common to all bax, chatting quietly with heads together.

  “Now.” Gorax indicated some flat rocks placed near the fire pit. “Please, sit. Snix will take care of dinner. Rest yourselves while we share conversation.” An eager smile reached every part of his broad face. “As my guests, I have expectations of you all. In particular, I want to hear any news you have about the world.”

  Vance leaned forward and punched his fist into the palm of his hand. “. . . and that’s when Blixen arrived with his army. It was a moment of danger for the city. The rebellion was successful, but there were no soldiers to man a defense. People armed themselves and rushed to the gates to defend Zorn with their lives . . .”

  Selena gazed into the embers as Vance told Gorax, Breang, Bagrat, and Den the story of Blixen and his conflict with the Protector of Zorn. The smell of sizzling lizard meat made her mouth water. A dry breeze blew through the gorge, and the coals brightened and dimmed with each successive gust. The golden sun was setting but the crimson sun would take a while longer to fall from view. The cliffs that the small village huddled between glowed with a warm rose color.

  Ruth leaned over to murmur into Selena’s ear. “He’s quite a storyteller. I never would have guessed.”

  Vance brought his tale to an end. “Blixen had discovered the fate of his wife, and taken his revenge. He and Elsa agreed that the city would change. It would no longer be a place for humans alone. At last there was peace. But,” he spread his hands, “we know that it is a fragile peace. Zorn cannot support its population for long. With a shortage of water, the future is dark. And there will always be those who want to conquer the city and take it for themselves. Not all will be as wise and far-sighted as Blixen, Warden of the Rift Valley.”