Sam nodded. “That other walker was right about the fargates. I used them, a long time ago, but if you’re not actually dead or a spirit, both gates need to be open in the real. Getting back that way would need a lot of luck.”
She sat down, her back to the villagers as they continued setting fire to their dead. After a moment she found the wraith’s tendrils, occasionally cresting into view above a wall or a roof. “Where did Zoa go?”
Silence, as they all stared at their feet. Erran had been doing so for most of the time he had been in the square, but his expression had changed a bit. She was beginning to wonder whether being cut off from the walk was a more severe amputation than she had realized when he spoke up.
“That’s the sword that god wanted? Azure?”
He had nodded towards Kelena, without pointing. She didn’t turn to look. “I don’t know, but look at the damned thing. I can only assume that’s it.”
“So, if we ever change our mind.”
Her gut churned at the idea that a ghost was the first to see the paths she had seen, but she didn’t have time to ruminate. Steps approached from behind, and her companions looked up with caution. She turned to find Tharson standing here, and when he met her eyes he spoke slowly, in martian, and after she realized what was going on he repeated himself. She listened, this time, picking the words apart a little more. Then he used his limited earthling words. “Come. Gods.”
Behind him, Kelena and Yarger had gathered several of the feathered mounts, with more for the few surviving villagers. There was some arguing going on, and a great deal of pointing at the earthlings, but somehow these armored martians were giving her the benefit of the doubt that the freed captives would not. It was a strange damned world and a risk to take, but what other choices did they have? She could make a brash choice now, or wait to learn more before diving in.
She nodded in agreement, trying to repeat the martian words he had used and eliciting a bit of a smile as she did.
Erran stepped forward without much prodding, and Isavel almost thought there was a bit more spine to his back right then. Anxiety chewed around the edges of her gut as she realized he might be a little too keen on Azure’s promise. The others were more than willing to leave, and after a great deal more shouting about the irditi , it seemed Kelena, Tharson, and Yarger would ride with the earthlings. She was confident the wraith would find its way after them, but one person was still missing.
She glanced at Sam, and after a nod felt the ghost woman understood where she was going. She set off into the ruined village, through wood and whatever dried substance made up the walls that had since been charred and broken.
She found the trail on the ground soon enough - the staggering footsteps of someone unused to the strange weight of the world, too angry to tread carefully. She followed them, and understood where Zoa had gone long before she found her, several dozen steps out of the edge of the village, vaguely in the direction they had come from. The coder was curled up on the ground, her face buried in her arms, the dimming blue evening of Mars letting the blue of her hair seep into the rest of her features like bruises.
She was crying. It struck Isavel, as she came to a stop near the woman, that tears were something she had rarely seen these last months. The moment Ada left her had been the first time in a while she had been brought to that last resort of tears. In all her other defeats, she had been frustrated, numbed, angered - spurred by the irony of having such powerful gifts and no clear way to use them to solve her problems. If only she destroyed the right enemies, frightened the right people, things should have worked out.
She couldn’t destroy loss, of course.
She knelt beside the coder, tentatively reaching out, and for a moment Zoa quieted, almost startled. She raised her head enough to see Isavel, and Isavel caught the wet shine on her cheeks before the flash of frustration.
“What?” Zoa’s demand was not an easy one to meet. She rested her forehead back on the ground. “What do you want? Fucking punch me again you meatheaded -”
She sat closer and rested a hand on Zoa’s back, staring towards the village but also past it. After a moment Zoa began to cry again, and Isavel laid her head on Zoa’s back, squeezing the coder’s shoulder and looking up to the stars beyond the falling night.
Her other hand trailed against the locator stone, so close to her neck, so silent. She couldn’t destroy loss.
Chapter 5
After the tears slowed she helped Zoa to her feet, and they silently returned to the others. Zoa clambered atop the creature behind Yarger, the martian man looking unsure how much he was allowed to disdain a weeping earthling. Still, he said nothing - Isavel had not seen or heard him utter a word, yet, so perhaps he was the best one for Zoa to ride with.
As martians took the reins and one of the survivors was somehow convinced to take on Erran, Hail rode with Kelena and Isavel saddled up behind Tharson. He grunted something just barely comprehensible, then met eyes with her and repeated himself, tapping on the animal.
“Galhak.”
She wasn’t sure she wanted to learn the words on purpose - it felt dangerously sticky, like if it all got too familiar she might never leave. Mars seemed dangerous enough that that was already a possibility. But she had an out - maybe two. She felt the locator stone jostle around her neck in the lower weight of the world, repeating the word after him with a nod. Whatever it took.
The galhak made good speed away from the devastation, ashes of the village rising into the night sky behind them, flickering the stars beyond. As she clung on, watching the horizons for danger, hoping these martians might be able and inclined to help, Tharson twisted in the saddle to speak at her again and again. It seemed pointless at first, but when she started recognizing words - if not their meanings - she understood that was all he was trying to do. If not teach her, then at least prepare her to learn.
As words reached her and the wind snatched them away, she let her eyes track the others. Her hunter’s eyes saw human shapes clearly in the night, but it was difficult to see their faces. What were they thinking? They had barely had time to stop and breathe.
They did eventually stop during the night, though only briefly, and all the martians except Tharson and his two companions gave the earthlings wide berth. Tharson himself continued trying to teach the earthlings new words, to mixed results, while Kelena watched Isavel intently, and Yarger seemed to pointedly ignore them.
Isavel checked on Zoa, and the silent stare she received in return was in some ways reassuring - there was acknowledgement there. Zoa knew they had to move, and she would follow. When they reached the end of the line, Isavel was sure there would be more to say, but now was not the time. So she sat next to Zoa, for that first break, and said nothing. She wasn’t sure if it helped, but she thought it might.
Erran was similarly silent, and occasionally she caught a consternated look on his face; she suspected he was trying to walk, trying to see if this was all just some bad dream. He wouldn’t be the only one thinking it; deep in the night, when she found Sam and Tanos and sat down with them while the martians fed their galhak, the ghost woman looked over at Isavel.
“It’s scary as hell, isn’t it?”
“Being on Mars?” Isavel stared out across the dark scrubland all around them. “It’s… confusing. Definitely stranger than -”
“No. I mean the sky.” She pointed up. “There’s no ring, it’s just… empty. It’s like standing on top of a tower.” She bit her lip. “Realizing there’s no window between you and everything, you and nothing.”
Isavel looked; the stars were familiar enough, bare and powdered across the inky black, but the more she considered it the more she agreed with Sam. “Here’s a world the gods aren’t embracing. Not even their own gods.”
“I always figured the whole embracing thing was just a metaphor about taking care of us.” Sam glanced sideways at her. “Seeing this sky, though…”
“What?”
“You ever seen a pare
nt try to save their kid from something dangerous? When things are over too fast to think clearly. The way they grab them and pull them close, turn their backs to whatever’s coming.” Sam nodded towards the sky. “What if that’s the kind of embrace they had us in?”
That was not a comforting thought to be left with.
After every brief stop their strange party continued south. When dawn finally began to whisper blue promises of another olive-yellow day, and the scrubland had grown flatter, martians started shouting. She quickly understood why - the black wraith, invisible in the dark of night, was now bobbing along at rider’s height in plain sight. It moved almost playfully, its shape chaotic and ever-changing, and she tried reassuring gestures at the martians to stave off their panic. It barely worked; they yanked their galhak away, leaving her and Tharson closest to the creature.
She wondered, watching it glide on its strange magic, whether it felt anything about this place. Whether it could sense the stone around her neck, its kin in magic. What it knew.
Around noon the galhak slowed, long strides shortening to a stop alongside a large pond where a stream had decided to pool for a rest before flowing on to some distant sea. They joined it, and as she stretched her slightly numbed legs near the water she found the the pool had a curious shade not unlike red wine, at odds with the greenish colour of freshwater lakes Isavel knew. A copse of pale-barked trees spread deep purple boughs above the water, growing thicker here than they otherwise did on the plains. The animals began drinking and nipping at leaves, the wraith disappeared into the bush, and the martians sat down more deliberately. More than the galhak, it seemed this rest was for them.
The ride had been so eerily uneventful she took a second to react when Zoa suddenly flung herself at Erran, knocking them both further from the pond in a spray of red dust that floated far longer than it should. After the splinter of surprise, Isavel darted over to the coder as she shouted and tried to beat the ghost with her fists; Erran put up his arms and a bewildered expression in defense while Isavel tried to peel her off.
“Hey - hey!”
Zoa tried and failed to shrug off her grip. “He did this! He sent us here!”
“He didn’t know!” She yanked Zoa off and gave Erran a glare meant to get him moving, but he simply pulled himself up and started rubbing his face. “Zoa, I understand -”
“No you don’t. You - you’re the same as you always were.” Zoa pointed her finger in Isavel’s face. “You’re not a ghost!”
“What?” Isavel glanced between them. “Are you -?”
“They told us you’d been possessed! But you - you’re choosing to work with them? Everything they do kills people, Isavel! Can’t you see that?”
She glanced briefly to Sam, whose face took on the most obvious cast of don’t drag me into this Isavel had seen in years, and made her feel guilty for even looking that way. “Look, Zoa, this is my fault. Erran was doing what we asked -”
“You asked him to send you to Mars?”
“Well no, but -”
“He did this!” Zoa lunged for Erran again and Isavel barely caught her. “Isavel, you’re the biggest threat to the ghosts and he took you out of the picture!”
That particular thought hadn’t occurred to her. She glared at Erran, looking all the more miserable for the first few punches he hadn’t anticipated, and found it hard to believe wholeheartedly. But… “Did you?”
He closed his eyes and sighed. “Fuck the other ghosts! I could have had a thousand worlds and… way more years than that if I hadn’t sent us here. You’re the damned Herald going after the power of the gods - I needed that!” He threw his hands in the air. “But who am I kidding, you’ll never believe a fucking ghost.” He raised his chin a little. “Eh Sam? Aren’t you glad you’re not the one who can walk?”
Sam made a rude gesture at him, pointedly eating from a pouch of rations and looking away, though Tanos could not control the concern on his face and stared openly between the two ghosts.
She wrestled the coder away, since Erran didn’t have the sense to back off. “Zoa - listen.” She looked her in the eyes. “You need to get home. It’s what you wanted as soon as we got here - it’s still your best chance of getting back to the rest of your family.” Zoa’s expression took dark exception to the thought of family, but Isavel pressed on. “I’ll send you home myself if you get off-track. I’ll do my best. But if you can find it in you to clench your teeth and just… I don’t know. We don’t know what these martians will think if we keep beating each other up. Let’s just get through this. Okay?”
It was clearly not okay, of course, and Zoa wrenched herself free and stormed off around the edge of the water. Isavel felt the back of her neck prickling - there must be a better way to approach this, but all she could think of right now was that if they stopped moving long enough for Mars to notice them before they escaped, they might get crushed. Of course, some of them already had.
At least Zoa wasn’t actively trying to pummel anyone.
It wasn’t Erran’s fault, after all. It was hers. Who had had the brilliant idea to storm a shrine and make demands of gods? She looked at the ghost and sighed, shaking her head. He glanced quickly at the martians again, though. “You sure there might be a way home at the end of this?”
She wasn’t sure of anything, but she stepped closer and lowered her voice. “I’m sure it’s possible. You saw what Azure’s followers were doing, how armed they were - and we stumbled right into it. This can’t be the first time he’s done something like this. I’d rather try a deal with less bloody gods first, before I turn on the only martians who don’t look at us like we’re ghosts.”
She immediately realized that sounded more like an insult than a recognition of his situation, but he seemed to take the comment at face value, nodding along. “Right. I just don’t want to die here.”
“None of us do.”
“Tevoria would kill me.” At that, his mouth did curve into a wry smile.
She almost laughed despite herself. “What, exactly, is with you and her?”
“You’d understand if you’d been dead for more than a few minutes.” He shook his head. “If I die, I go to Elysium and we’re kept separate. If I summon her and we both die… who knows whether demons go to Elysium afterwards, but I doubt it. But if someone could get the gods to lift -”
“Wait. Summon her?” She frowned. “Like the demon by Campus?”
He shook his head and laughed. “That was Ada making a mess of things. A real summoning is… different. But the best way? You know why I’m here?”
She frowned. “I assume it’s not because Tevoria thinks you and I have an enriching friendship.”
“Yeah, no, she thinks you’re a walking fire hazard.” Erran glanced up at the alien sky. “But if you were able to get the power of the gods for yourself - and if we’d helped you along the way - well… I figure we might be entitled to a favour.” He grinned. “Beyond the not-killing-me favour you people seem so fond of offering me.”
She grimaced, and rested a hand on his shoulder. “Within reason. I’ll do my best. And I’ll do my best to get us back, too.” She glanced at the martians. “The less bloody the better, as far as I’m concerned.”
He didn’t look convinced, but nodded nonetheless. As he leaned back against the tree, she watched these tall, pallid people for a long moment, realizing that if she was to do this right, she would have to try to do it together. So she took a deep breath and strode over to sit across from the martians, her eyes meeting Kelena’s briefly; the swordswoman kept an intent watch on Isavel, but spoke comparatively little. Tharson was the only one interested in talking, and she spoke slowly, gesticulating and exaggerating her facial expressions as she tried a mix of slow words with ancient-sounding flair and broken martian. “Where are we going?”
He frowned a bit, then started tracing something in the rusty soil. A large circle, a series of hatches, something that looked like the branches of a tree. He dragged his finger in a l
ong line through the whole circle, into the hatches, to the tree.
She frowned and gestured at the circle. “What’s that?”
He grunted. “Deep Tharsis.”
She thought she recognized the word deep from the way he had described different parts of the landscape they crossed earlier, but she didn’t know what Tharsis was. Given its similarity to Tharson, it might well just be a name.
She barely realized what happened when Kelena spoke to her. It was not the ancient tongue, but one martian word was familiar, and the tone was even more so. She knew what the swordswoman meant. “What are you?”
She couldn’t stop herself from letting loose a single grunt of laughter. What was she indeed? That was a problem even the gods seemed unwilling to tackle. Whatever it was wasn’t doing her any favours. She was shaking her head, knowing that was a nonsensical answer, but Kelena seemed to consider it seriously.
Suddenly the swordswoman reached forward with her pale fingers and snatched at the locator stone bouncing around her sternum. Isavel recoiled instinctively, clutching at it and glaring at the martian for a moment before realizing she had not meant to steal it, only to look. Kelena remained frozen mid-reach, watching her, less in fear than in anticipation.
She sighed and glanced at the other two martians, but they were only watching impassively, apparently not worried for their comrade if a fight broke out. She held onto the thing for a moment, but… What did it matter, even if they were the thieves Azure claimed? Ada wasn’t here to judge her attachment to the thing.
Fourth Under Sol (Digitesque Book 5) Page 7