Snare

by Katharine Kerr

  ‘Is the pillar made out of fire?’

  ‘No, it’s cold.’ He leaned his head back, and his arms twitched, as if someone were pulling his hands behind him. ‘So are the handcuffs.’

  ‘What are they saying to you?’ Ammadin deliberately softened her voice. ‘The knife touches your throat. What are they saying to you?’

  Zayn spoke in Kazraki – several sentences as far as she could tell.

  ‘Remember that,’ she whispered. ‘Remember what you just said.’

  He nodded so slowly that for a moment she thought he was about to faint, but he sat unmoving. She leaned close to him, paused, then, when he didn’t respond, laid her hand on the side of his face. In the heat of the day he felt cold, and she could feel his pulse beating fast in his throat. He’s not a spirit rider, she thought. This could be dangerous.

  ‘Zayn?’ She ran her hand through his hair. ‘Zayn, come back. You’ve gone off somewhere.’

  He twisted away from her touch, then stared, dazed, at her face.

  ‘Zayn? It’s me, Ammi.’

  Suddenly he shook his head like a fly-stung horse. She rose to a kneel and reached for him, but he smiled normally and turned to look at her.

  ‘What was all that?’ he said.

  ‘You were reliving something.’ Ammadin sat back down. ‘Do you remember what I asked you to remember?’

  ‘Yes, from the initiation ceremony. They laid the knife on my throat and told me, one word to any man about our secrets means your death.’ He frowned, thinking. ‘Your death lies within you – that’s when they put it over my eyes – like a snake coiled within your soul. And then they put the knife on the back of my neck, and it hurt like hell, I could feel the pain all up and down my spine, but you know something? At the same time it felt like sex. It got me off, anyway.’

  ‘Oh, did it? I’d be willing to bet that’s when they put the snake in your soul, whatever they meant by that.’

  ‘Maybe so. There were lights in the blue quartz. For some reason that matters.’ Zayn began rubbing the back of his head as if it still ached. ‘I told Idres about them, too, the lights, but I don’t know why.’

  ‘Neither do I. Can I see that imp?’

  ‘Sure.’ He slipped it over his head and handed it to her.

  When Ammadin held it up to the sunlight, it glowed like a feeding crystal. ‘Did the lights look like this?’

  ‘No. There were points of light moving inside the pillar, going up and down.’

  ‘How could you see them if you were tied with your back against it?’

  Zayn stared at her so blankly that she feared he’d slipped back into trance. ‘I don’t know,’ he said at last. ‘I just did. I could see myself and the pillar, and the lights were moving inside it.’

  ‘You could see yourself? Did you feel like you were floating up by the ceiling?’

  ‘No, because I could see everything in front of me, too. The officers, I mean, and the room itself. I –’ He hesitated, eyes narrowed. ‘Shit! I don’t know. I just could.’

  ‘Huh.’ Ammadin handed the imp back. ‘I don’t understand this at all.’

  She could smell his sudden fear. He took a deep breath and with it slapped his mask over his face.

  ‘You were hoping I’d understand it,’ Ammadin said.

  ‘Hell yes. I don’t know anyone else who would.’

  ‘Neither do I. Unless maybe Sibyl. To hear Water Woman talk, anyway, she knows everything worth knowing, more than any spirit rider ever did.’

  ‘Do you think she’ll let me talk to her?’

  ‘Maybe. You can ask Water Woman when she gets here.’

  The mask turned rigid around his eyes.

  ‘Well, if you can,’ she said.

  ‘I’m sorry, Ammi. After this last go-round with the ChaMeech –’

  ‘Wounds on top of wounds?’

  ‘Yes, ’fraid so. I’m not proud of it, you know, panicking every time I get close to them.’ His voice ached with shame. ‘Do you think I like feeling like a goddamned coward?’

  ‘Oh shut up!’ She laid a hand on his arm. ‘You’re not a coward.’

  ‘Well, who else would be so frightened of something that happened eight years ago?’

  ‘Another Recaller. I’m beginning to get an idea of what it means, being one of the Inborn.’

  ‘Well, maybe that’s it, but –’

  ‘Do you think I’d sleep with a coward?’

  At that he smiled and laid a hand on top of hers. ‘Thanks,’ he said. ‘You’re a comnee girl, and I know you wouldn’t.’

  He leaned forward and kissed her. Reflexively she freed her hand and ran it through his hair, ran it down the back of his head – and pulled away from him.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Zayn said.

  ‘Hold still.’ Ammadin rose to a kneel and ran her fingers along the back of his skull where it joined the spine. ‘Whatever they did to you left a scar.’

  ‘It did?’ He raised his own hand, let her fingers guide his to the ridged circular depression in his skin, then smiled. ‘Oh, that! I’ve always had that.’

  ‘Always?’

  ‘As long as I can remember, anyway. Since I was a baby.’ The mask cracked, and he looked on the edge of tears. ‘One of the healers my father took me to called it a demon mark. He thought that the demons claimed their own by biting them or something like that.’

  ‘Gods, they were so stupid! It’s not a demon mark or a gennie bite or anything else they might have called it.’

  ‘You’re sure?’ He managed a smile.

  ‘Very sure. I don’t know what it is, but demons don’t have real teeth.’

  In between bouts of poking at the stew, such as it was, Loy spent the morning writing. She finished the first notebook and started a second, filling the pages with data on the tunnel system, Zayn and his Inborn talents, the wildlife, the Chof, the Settler artifacts. When she finished, each notebook went into a waterproof, fireproof, double-sealed pouch. Already she had information worth the cost of her expedition, and she had no intention of losing a word of it.

  Loy was just putting away the second notebook when she heard, or perhaps felt, the sound of Chof thrumming. She stood up, turning to the south to listen. The thrum came again, and this time, thanks to her own Inborn talent, she could pick up actual sound. A pack of Chof were calling back and forth to each other, off to the south but fairly close by.

  ‘Ammi!’ Loy yelled at the top of her lungs. ‘Do you think that’s Water Woman?’

  ‘I hope so,’ Ammadin called back. ‘But get out that gun. Zayn, bring in the horses!’

  Zayn had just finished tethering the horses on short ropes between the fire and the stream when the wind brought a waft of Chof scent. Even Loy could smell it, and the horses turned nervous. Ammadin tipped her head back and sniffed the air like a shen.

  ‘Three females,’ she announced, ‘and maybe four males. It has to be Water Woman.’

  Not long after, the Chof appeared, tramping through the high grass on the far side of the road. Their long necks swayed and their bulbous heads bobbed as they strode along, and Loy was struck once again by how inherently graceful they were, with their slender pseudo-arms neatly folded across their chests as they marched in step with one another. Water Woman, her skin oiled to a brilliant purple, her blue and white skirt hiked up and tied around her middle, led the way. Her smaller grey servants came directly after, loaded down with bundles and sacks. Behind them marched the four males, spears tucked under their pseudo-arms. They wore kilts of blue trade cloth and carried an assortment of strangely lumpy packs lashed to their backs. When they reached the road, Water Woman boomed once and waved both her pseudo-hands.

  ‘Ammadin, Loy!’ she called. ‘At last at last we meet-now.’

  Loy collapsed the focus rod of the rifle and slipped off the heavy power pack. She happened to glance at Zayn and nearly dropped the gun in surprise. Under the heavy pigmentation of his skin his face had turned bloodless, and he was sweating far bey
ond the heat of the day. He’s afraid, Loy thought. My god, I never thought anything would scare a man like him! When he realized that she was staring at him, he flinched, then strode back among the horses.

  As Water Woman hurried across the field, her two female servants kept pace, but the males fanned out. They stopped some twenty yards from the camp and arranged themselves in a semi-circle, facing the road, and lifted their spears to the ready. Loy and Ammadin exchanged a troubled glance. Water Woman confirmed the trouble when she arrived.

  ‘Danger,’ Water Woman said in Hirl-Onglay. ‘Trouble among us Chof, and Yarl be somewhere. Everything be-now all wrong.’ She waved her pseudo-hands in vague circles. ‘I apologize-now to you, Ammadin Witchwoman and Loy Sorcerer. Our gods be-must dead I know-now. Everything fall apart, and our Chof ways fray-now like an old cloth.’

  The two servants threw back their heads and moaned.

  ‘What’s happened?’ Ammadin said. ‘Who’s chasing you?’

  ‘I know-not. Maybe they chase or not chase.’ Water Woman bent her long neck to bring her head low. ‘I have-not the power to think-now clearly. Awful awful awful.’

  ‘It’s that other faction, isn’t it?’ Ammadin said. ‘The one who took Zayn’s friends hostage.’

  ‘Yes. Faction.’ Water Woman’s voice cracked, possibly from anger, more likely from the effort she was making to speak high enough for H’mai ears to hear. ‘You know-not, Loy, Ammadin, what this mean to us Chof. We agree-always not on the little questions, no, but on the big issues Chof agree-always. We argue, we scream, we raise our heads high, but agree-next-soon. Now no agree-not never. Awful awful awful!’

  Water Woman abruptly haunched. One of the servants hurried forward to untie her mistress’s skirt and arrange it over her hindquarters.

  ‘Come have some food.’ Loy pointed to the stew pot. ‘Please share our food.’

  ‘Thank you, Loy Sorcerer.’ Water Woman bobbed her head. ‘You know something of our Chof ways, I see-now. Food, yes. We all share-next some food.’

  With a meal to supervise Water Woman became much calmer. Loy herded Ammadin and Zayn away from the stew pot.

  ‘Let her do it her way,’ Loy whispered. ‘It would be rude not to. She’s the highest-ranked female here, in her eyes anyway.’

  First Water Woman had her servants unpack their collection of sacks, most of which contained foodstuffs. When they’d unloaded each other’s burdens, the females trotted out and fetched those carried by the males. The males haunched, but they kept their spears raised and ready. With one thrust of their powerful hind legs, they would be up and facing any enemy who might appear.

  Water Woman joined the H’mai and haunched with a long sigh. At this signal, Loy sat herself and gestured at Ammadin and Zayn to do the same. After rummaging through everything, the two servants brought out oily rounds of a rough-milled wheatian bread and big wooden bowls for the chunks of yap-packer; they served first Water Woman, then the two H’mai women. They stopped in front of Zayn, however, and stared in confusion.

  ‘He eats with us.’ Loy reinforced her words with gestures.

  The servants each stamped a foot in thanks, then trotted back to the fire for more food. After they’d served Zayn, they took food for themselves and sat behind their mistress. The Chof women ate steadily and silently; Loy, Zayn, and Ammadin followed their lead.

  After the females of both species and Zayn had taken what they wanted, Water Woman led them away from the place where they’d eaten. They sat in the shade of the Midas trees with the two servants haunched behind their mistress. At that point the males got up and went to eat the remaining meat straight out of the stew pot; they used the remaining bread to sop up the yap-packer broth. When they finished, they grabbed their spears and returned to their position between the females and the road.

  ‘Maybe I should have eaten with them,’ Zayn said in Vranz. ‘Should I go help guard?’

  ‘No,’ Loy said. ‘If you’re marked as having a higher rank, it’ll be easier to rescue your friends.’

  ‘Good. Would it be rude if I got up and put the horses on full tether again?’

  ‘No. Everyone’s finished now.’

  Zayn got up, nodded pleasantly at the Chof women, then trotted off to take care of the horses. As soon as he was well away, Water Woman swung her head around close to Loy and Ammadin.

  ‘I speak-then with Sibyl this morning. She tell-then me that the other faction hide-then the Karshaks in an old building made of white curse stone. They be-now all near the hills.’

  ‘Curse stone?’ Ammadin said.

  ‘Your people make-then-long-time-ago this white stuff, like the picture cliff here. Chof have-not the power to destroy-then-now-next-soon, so we call it cursed. But tell-not Zayn. He want-maybe to rush off and try to rescue the other Karshaks. We have-not the power to rescue his friends.’

  ‘Is it too dangerous?’ Loy joined in.

  ‘Not dangerous, no. I explain-now our Chof ways. The faction go-then to find the Great Mother. They make-soon an appeal to her. We have-not power do-now more. Only Great Mother have the power to decide who be right, who be wrong.’

  ‘They’ve gone to the Great Mother already?’ Ammadin said.

  ‘No, but they be-now closer than us. They get-first there. And we Chof have-always a law. No one have the power to stop anyone who want to appeal to Great Mother.’

  ‘So,’ Loy said, ‘did Sibyl tell you they were going?’

  ‘No, they tell me. You learn-then about our secret roads from Zayn?’

  ‘The tunnels, you mean? Yes.’

  ‘I tell-next another secret. Chof talk-easy when we be in the roads. Listen.’ Water Woman raised her head, inflated her throat sac, and let out a deep note, so deep that Loy felt more than heard it. ‘When we do that, it travel-next long long way in the roads.’

  ‘Yes,’ Loy said. ‘I just bet it does.’

  ‘So what are we going to do, then?’ Ammadin leaned forward. ‘Will the Great Mother listen to us, too?’

  ‘Yes. Great Mother listen-always to all. I call-then-yesterday my other spear servants. When they come-next, we all go-soon.’

  ‘Are we going to travel in the tunnels?’ Loy said. ‘I’d like to see them.’

  ‘I know-not. We wait-next, spears come-soon, tell-next-soon. Maybe safe, not safe. The others be-now on the secret road. I want-not fighting, my spears her spears.’

  ‘Who is this other her?’ Loy said. ‘The leader of the faction?’

  ‘Yes.’ Water Woman raised her hindquarters a couple of feet off the ground and made a dipping motion before she sat back down. ‘Lastunnabrilchiri, Herbgather Woman. I wish-now that her eggs dry to a nasty dust. She put-then-now-next many spear servants on the secret road. I want no dead males, Loy Sorcerer, no dead females either, not even Karshaks.’

  ‘Good,’ Loy said. ‘How long will it take us to reach the Great Mother if we ride our horses?’

  ‘Days.’ Water Woman raised her head and moaned. ‘And Herbgather Woman, she have those days to talk talk talk in Great Mother’s ears.’

  ‘How close is Sibyl to this flexstone building?’ Ammadin put in. ‘More days’ ride?’

  ‘Many days’ ride, yes. The secret road run-not there. All must walk to Veeduhn Dosha.’

  Loy felt a thin, cold line of excitement run down her back. Sibyl lived in N’Dosha Town, where the archives had been kept.

  Although Loy had enough questions to fill fifty notebooks, she had few of them answered that afternoon. The rest of Water Woman’s loyal males – a contingent of some thirty spear servants, as she called them – arrived far earlier than the Chiri Michi had expected. Water Woman heard them first; she scrambled to her feet and stood looking across the road to the open field.

  ‘There they be!’ she said. ‘A good sign, a good omen! They get here so fast, no time for fighting.’

  Thrumming and booming, the blue-kilted males came stalking across the dried grass. Water Woman thrummed in answer, then hurried off to
meet them. The two servants calmly began packing the various boxes and sacks. Ammadin and Loy walked over to join Zayn, who looked merely frightened, not terrified.

  ‘Are you going to be all right?’ Ammadin said to him.

  ‘Yes.’ His voice sounded reasonably steady. ‘Having you along’s going to make a hell of a difference.’ He took a deep breath, then managed to smile. ‘It’s going to be interesting, anyway.’

  ‘That’s certainly true. And with all those spears along, it should be safe enough. There’s not much Soutan’s supporters can do against so many.’

  ‘Ah yes,’ Loy said. ‘Yarl. I don’t suppose you’ve seen him in your crystals.’

  ‘No, I haven’t.’ Ammadin thought for a moment, then turned to Zayn. ‘Another mystery – do you know what Soutan and Arkazo are doing out here?’

  Zayn’s face became a mask. Even though Loy had seen him suppress his feelings before, she found it profoundly unsettling.

  ‘I’ll get the horses saddled and loaded,’ Zayn said, and his voice carried not one trace of what he might have been feeling. ‘Either way, we’ll be getting on the road.’

  Zayn hurried off to fetch the horses in from pasture. Ammadin stood looking after him, and Loy had no trouble understanding her feelings: raw fury.

  ‘Does he do that often?’ Loy said.

  ‘Yes. It’s his way of lying without saying a single word.’ Ammadin made a visible effort to calm herself. ‘Well, there’s no time to deal with him right now. Water Woman’s dithering is all I can handle anyway.’

  ‘I’m surprised at how badly conflict upsets her.’

  ‘It makes sense to me. Factions are like comnees, aren’t they? Being part of a comnee teaches us how to get along with other comnees in the Tribes, and in the Cantons, you’ve got families that do the same thing. Chof don’t have families like we do, because of the way their children grow.’

  ‘Of course! By the time they get back to land, the adult Chof can’t tell whose child is which, and the children belong to everyone.’

  Water Woman and her male servants were all milling about in the field. Loy could just hear her booming voice, and now and then the males inflated their sacs; if they were speaking, they were doing so at too low a pitch for even her genetically enhanced hearing. Eventually Water Woman strode across the road and headed for the camp. Her spear males followed, some bunched together, others straggling behind. She waved both pseudo-hands and boomed as well.