But Nopileos needed their help, and as soon as possible! She wanted to talk with Nola Hi, Uchan, and the Paranid before she made a final decision.
Chapter 18
My love is not conditionless, but it is true! My dedication is not boundless, but it is great!
Martinus Sandas,
Argon cultural historian,
Founder of the Gonor Movement, died 217
Another deep, dark night over Ghus-tan, the village of the insurgents. Somewhere outside, a small campfire crackled, ignited between the satellite intervals by the watch crew. They had become a little more careless, since they expected the arrival of the Patriarch’s troops anyway; perhaps they had already been too careless. From time to time, a sharp gust of wind passed through the nearby treetops; the fire then blazed up audibly, but a shower of tiny water droplets shaken from the leaves of the trees, muffled the flame with light hissing.
Hatrak lay in the half-dark of the woman’s house with eyes open. Unbonded woman lived here: girls, warriors, and the elderly. As Rhonkar’s daughter, she had her own compartment, spacious and separated from the rest of the room by a half-height wall of roughly hewn stone. She was due it rightfully; even though all the others had to sleep packed together, Hatrak didn’t question for a sezura the benefits conferred on her by grace of noble birth. In fact, she brooded over the Teladi, the saurian from the distant Community of Planets. She had never left Nif-Nakh in her entire life; not once had she even crossed the borders of Ghus-tan. Now she was very young, she was aware of that, but Rhonkar had great plans: for Ghus-tan, for the Family, for her. But there was Nopileos, t’Nop, as she called him. He was very different, didn’t meet the descriptions of the elders when they talked about the other people of the Community. There was something to t’Nop that seemed like a warrior and something that was alien and unfamiliar. And then there was his devotion, his genuine friendliness. Nopileos would die by torture, that was certain and it was also proper. Hatrak was looking forward to it. Her forehead wrinkled in worried lines. Hopefully t’Nop would be prove worthy!
As if from afar, a long drawn-out, mournful sound rang out between the beams of the houses, only softly, but still alien and sinister. A low pitched remark in the Split language came in: “Kala thk, chro ghok—fear the dawn, dearest ghok.” Parthol t’Fllk, the commander of this tazura’s night watch, laughed croakingly. “Hai,” came his answer in the trading language. Hatrak shivered. She curled into a ball and pulled the fur blanket over her head. What if t’Nop never saw the big waters again? She knew about him, that water was the element of his ancestors. How could he enter the everlasting night if he were not at peace with himself and his ancestors? How could he face the beasts of heaven? And how under these circumstances could he face the torture with the courage and dignity that she wished for him? He wouldn’t be able to do it! Of course, Zhi didn’t care about any of this. Even Rhonkar didn’t waste any thought on it. Hatrak rolled over to her other side, trying in vain to shut her eyes tight. For the inhabitants of Ghus-tan, t’Nop was nothing more than an saurian creature. A particularly brave one for sure, but only an intruder, a foreign member from outside, a troublemaker. For her, Hatrak, Nopileos was more than that: he was her first encounter with the outside world; her assurance that the world out there even existed! More than that, Nopileos was her teacher, even if he didn’t feel that way himself. In a few wozuras she had learned more about herself, her people, and all the other peoples from his behavior and mutterings than in all the jazuras before. And something else…
He was her friend.
With a jerk, the girl whisked the sleeping fur from her body and straightened up. She now knew what to do: after everything that t’Nop had done for her, consciously or unconsciously, it was her duty to prepare him for what was to come.
Qham t’Trrh—once the first female restrainer, now an wise elder—blinked at the girl in surprised as she scurried past her cot. “Where to, Hatrak?”
The small Split stopped and turned on her feet. She hesitated. “To pay tribute to the beasts, Qham,” she finally said.
The old woman chuckled. “I see. Well, don’t do anything stupid, Noble Hatrak, daughter of Rhonkar and Aqhns.”
Hatrak pressed her lips together. “No.”
Outside, Parthol t’Fllk and another Split looked at her curiously, but said nothing. She ignored the two and struck out in the direction of the latrines. The chances were quite favorable that no one else was there at this hour. The inhabitants of Ghus-tan slept—apart from the guard, and perhaps a handful of restless people like her. Instead of entering the latrines, she circled around them but behind their screens, moving as silently as she could towards the prisoner’s barracks. Protected from the watch’s gaze by the moons’ shadows, the large palisade fence, and the massive arc of log cabins nestled up against the fence, she soon reached the back of the prison with her heart pounding. She felt the blood in her veins quicken. She pressed an eye to the crack between two beams with an almost euphoric mood; it was too dark inside, she couldn’t see a thing except for a tiny, silvery reflection that probably came from the cargo box or its contents.
“Wake up, t’Nop!” she whispered hoarsely. When nothing moved, she cried again in a low voice, “Nopileos!” The guards were fifty lengths away on the other side of the hut; they couldn’t hear her at this distance.
“Hat… Hatrak?” the saurian’s voice hissed in confusion. The Teladi had obviously woken up just that moment.
“Quiet!” Hatrak warned. “Listen, t’Nop! We’re going to the lake, just you and me, without Zhi! No one knows about it, and we’ll be back in a stazura.”
Long, stunned silence. Then: “Aren’t there any guards today?”
“I’ll open the door when they’re patrolling elsewhere.” She groped for her pouch to make sure she had the key in it. “Can you be quiet, t’Nop?”
“As a hatchling!”
“Good,” she whispered, unsure if Nopileos’s remark meant agreement or not. “Then wait.”
Pressing against the side wall of the hut, she worked her way far enough to be able to glimpse the clearing. Murmured words came across incomprehensibly; actually, no unnecessary word could be spoken while on watch duty! At any other time, she would have promptly informed the Supreme Warrior of his underlings’ offense, but now she was glad for it, because it was very convenient for her. Still shadowed from the silvery moonlight by the barracks, she squeezed herself around the corner; the guards were facing the opposite direction, peering into the fading campfire that they were now allowing to burn down.
The lock clicked loudly as she put in the key and eagerly turned it; she looked back over her shoulder, startled, but the guards were carrying on their muffled conversation as before. Hatrak decided she would have to inform Thro about the undisciplined behavior of his men after all. These unworthy Split apparently left too much to the protection of the palisade fence and focused their attention exclusively on the paved path that led into the village. There were other ways to enter and leave the village. At least, if you were no bigger than a child—or a Teladi! She opened the door a crack; Nopileos, who was already expecting her, slipped nimbly through, and immediately froze when he saw the sentry sitting fifty lengths away. Hatrak quickly closed the door again, more carefully and silently this time, and pushed Nopileos hurriedly around the corner, out of the field of view of the clearing. Done! She triumphed internally. Now the only thing left was to leave the village, but that should be the far smaller problem!
The forest path was frighteningly quiet; only the sounds of their soles and claws pattered through the silence. Nopileos lead, because he could make out more than the girl in the gloom of night.
“We have to be back in a stazura, t’Nop,” Hatrak said loudly. By now they had gotten far enough that there was no danger of being heard back in the village.
“Why, oh Hatrak?”
“Why!” she snorted. Silently the rounded the meat drying hut. Now it wasn’t far to the shore.
<
br /> “Hatrak, sister, why are you doing this?” You are getting yourself into a lot of trouble.”
Abruptly, the girl stopped. Nopileos noticed only a moment later that Hatrak no longer followed at his claws, and paused to walk the few steps back to her.
“No, you’ll get me into trouble if we’re not back in time!” Her voice was loud, aggressive. Nopileos tried to penetrate the darkness with his eyes to see more than the colorless silhouette of the girl. Why was she doing this? And why was she putting him in this position? She seemed to expect in all seriousness that he would go back with her to end up on the torture rock in a few tazuras. And if he didn’t, there was a chance that she would end up there in his place! That wasn’t fair, he didn’t want to make that decision. He had become far too fond of the cute girl for that.
“Keep going, waddlefoot,” Hatrak commanded. Nopileos obeyed in silence, lost in thought. When they finally broke through the thickets around the shore, a fresh breeze moved across the starlit, sandy beach. It carried the forbidden scent of freedom. And there was something else that made Nopileos’s forehead ridges pale.
“We should go back,” he forced through gritted teeth, “immediately!”
“Afraid of your own courage, t’Nop?” Hatrak teased, and stepped closer to Nopileos. “You don’t have to be. Go in the water. Swim a lap. I trust you.” She gave him a friendly push in the direction of the gently lapping waves.
“No…”
Hatrak’s questioning eyes were filled with the glow of a pale, green light in front of her even before he could explain himself to her. But explanations were no longer needed. Hatrak’s mouth opened and her gaze rose in horror. From the the direction of the water, the flap-flap of powerful leather wings approached; a tremendous fanfare made the Teladi tremble, a poisonous stench made him gasp. A beast from the primordial jungle!
“Back! Hatrak!” Nopileos cried in panic. He grabbed the girl’s right arm hard, to push her toward the jungle path, but she immediately tore away from him. The Teladi’s claws cut four parallel wounds in her upper arm, but she ignored it.
“A ghok!” she whispered in astonishment. These animals should should only exist back on the mainland; here on the island they had been completely wiped out long ago. She wish for her blowpipe, but there had been no reason for a detour to the armory. She raised her short lance gripped the weapon tightly in her hand’ then she would defend herself and t’Nop! As if the jungle dragon knew that his prey would escape into the dense forest, it lay on the ground between the entrance to the path and Nopileos and Hatrak, cutting off that route. Its feeding tail snaked forward while its dull, dead face showed no emotion. Step by step, Nopileos backed away from the approaching, gargantuan insect; Hatrak, on the other hand, held her position.
“Hatrak, get away, please, quick!” Nopileos cried in fear.
The girl didn’t answer. Instead, she gripped the spear more firmly, waited for the feeding tail to reach her, and stormed forward with a battle cry. The giant insect looked at the approaching girl with dully uninterested eyes. Its feeding tail curled and jerked forward at lightning speed; Hatrak only avoided this movement with some effort. She ducked under the tail and avoided the continual beat of its wings, and found herself just in front of the long, semitransparent throat of the creature. Nopileos flinched as Hatrak thrust her short lance into the ghok’s body without hesitation; for a fraction of a sezura he was sure that Hatrak would be victorious. The animal trumpeted and recoiled frantically; it pulled Hatrak with her as she clung to her lance. Corrosive blood splattered and coated the brave Split girl’s skin, but Hatrak took no notice of the burns. Finally she freed her weapon again, but instead of retreating, she renewed her attack. The ghok, already mortally wounded through the deep wound to its delicate nerve center reacted with unforeseen force this time. It lifted two lengths in the air and swept Hatrak off her feet with a slap of its wings. With dwindling strength, it stumbled toward the girl, the feeding tail stretched ahead to the side. Hatrak scrambled to her feet and jabbed again, hitting precisely a claw’s length from the first wound. Still dying, the jungle dragon bit. A hideous crunch resounded as its jaws pierced the girl’s body.
Nopileos cried out in horror. “Hatrak!” Laying backwards on the ground, she gave him a look with eyes that slowly showed their whites, and made his scales try to stand on end. Never in his life would he forget that look. Then the dying, giant insect collapsed and buried Hatrak underneath.
Chapter 19
Can an Argon be a friend-foe of a Split? Yes.
Can a Paranid be a friend-foe of a Split? Not ruled out.
Can a Teladi be a friend-for of a Split? Difficult to imagine, but possible.
Can a Boron be the friend-foe of a Split?
Never! Not to end of all time!
Uchan t’Scct
The picture was slowly beginning to clear. “Well,” Uchan tScct admitted with glowing eyes, “I expressed my interest in the temperature at which the Boron creature’s breathing fluid starts to boil. But”—his lips formed a sardonic line—“aboard an Argon space station this is naturally not understood as a threat, but as mere conversation. The creature provides us company.”
“No!” Nola Hi cheeped down from the ceiling.
The Split made an uninterpretable gesture. “Whatever. Kho, I will not work together with a Boron creature and I will certainly not take orders from it.”
Meanwhile, Elena managed to work out what Uchan’s problem was. The Split had been furious that Nola Hi had contacted the FL Raindragon so care-freely and without previous permission, as if there were never any differences between Split and Boron. Moreover, the scientific ethicist had posed, in his innocent way, as the mission leader. Unfortunately, the responsibilities hadn’t been sorted out by then, an oversight that now came back to cause problems. Elena fervently hoped that Uchan t’Scct had a strong enough sense of professionalism that he could accept the presence of the Boron aboard his ship, at least for the duration of this mission.
“Nola Hi is taking part in this flight only as an observer and adviser on behalf of the Queendom. I am leading the mission.”
“Is that so?” Uchan asked, as if he doubted Elena’s statement. He gave his partner Kalmanckalsaltt a sideways glance, but the Paranid had returned to his usual passivity. No matter which species, Kalmanckalsaltt wanted nothing to do with them, not even his own, since he had been exiled due to his unholy stereo vision. With enough credits, he might perhaps grow a third eye one day. But credits didn’t come from discussion.
“The pretty, brave, and funny Ele Na is right, speaks the truth, and has—”
“Yes!” Uchan barked. He performed a gesture of cursing. “Kho, the details.”
In the following half stazura, Elena let Uchan t’Scct and Kalmanckalsaltt in on the fundamentals of the mission. Although there was some need for clarification from the Boron on some points, Nola Hi wisely stayed in the background.
The first time the name Ghinn t’Whht was mentioned, the Split reacted with obvious confusion. Elena initially attributed this to the well-known name, but she was mistaken.
“I would like to speak with the honorable Ghinn t’Whht,” Uchan demanded. “If I am to endure the Boron creature, it is better that she be my restrainer.”
Elena had no idea what the Split was talking about. Maybe he hadn’t heard her right: Ghinn t’Whht refused to turn to Nif-Nakh. Elena tried to explain this to the Split careful.
“I know the respectable Ghinn t’Whht very well,” Uchan replied with a strange, inward-looking expression.
Elena was astonished. “How is that possible?”
“For three and a half jazuras I performed my service as the chief pilot on board the fast courier ship Bone Scout until its destruction. First under the command of Whalmar t’Bllt, then for more than two years under Cho t’Nnt, and finally, after Cho’s death, under Folim t’Ghhm for just a mazura.”
Elena shrugged her shoulders. “A ha?”
“During th
e time when Cho t’Nnt was commanding the Bone Scout, the respectable Ghinn t’Whht frequently stayed on board the ship, often in the company of the Patriarch of Chin, and sometimes alone.” Uchan fell silent. It had been an open secret that Ghinn had fostered forbidden feelings for the commander of the Bone Scout. But Uchan didn’t want to let the human woman from Earth in on it. The fact that he knew Ghinn had to suffice. “I would like to talk with her,” he reiterated again.
Already a stazura in, the Split should get his way; Elena personally brought him down to Argon City in the AP Nikkonofune, where she waited aboard the ship for his return. When Uchan finally came back, to Elena’s relieve—and utter surprise—he wasn’t alone.
“The creature will not touch me!” Ghinn t’Whht hissed with sparkling eyes as Elena prepared to help her up from reclining. The Split women got up angrily. She had spent the short flight aboard the AP Nikkonofune in the tiny sleeping cabin of the ship while Uchan t’Scct sat next to Elena in the cockpit.
They hadn’t been in Argon City for four stazuras. Uchan had spoken to Ghinn, and to Elena’s great astonishment, after the conversation, the Split woman had agreed to return to Nif-Nakh. Where this sudden change of heart had come from, Elena couldn’t say. As far as she understood the strange facial expressions of the Split, both Uchan as well as Ghinn showed a strange degree of satisfaction, as if they had come to an acceptable outcome for both of them. But in Elena’s presence, they barely exchanged a word with each other, and if so, not in Neo-Ancient Japanese, but in their mother tongue.
Millimeter by millimeter, Niji led the AP Nikkonofune to the side of the FL Raindragon, where Uchan’s partner Kalmanckalsaltt was supervising the final sequence of the docking maneuver. The Paranid had not been idle in the last stazuras: using thin but extremely resistant artificial metal walls, he had divided the spacious hold of the freighter into four additional cells. Two of these compartments were now supplied with respiratory fluid by the environmental system, so that the Boron scientific ethnicist could move around without a protective suit. The other two rooms were intended for Elena and Ghinn. Nola Hi, in turn, had transferred some of his equipment from his ship, the Boron Great Fun to the FL Raindragon so he could send the crippled ship back on the long journey home via autopilot.
Nopileos: A novel from the X-Universe: (X4: Foundations Edition 2018) (X Series) Page 16
