by Shannah Jay
Katia sat upright, staring ahead, ready to use her growing powers to protect them, but trusting in the deleff, who would surely have walked out of their harness if they’d been expecting trouble. Presently she heard the sound of footsteps approaching along the track. The people who were approaching were making no attempt to hide themselves, which augured well. Perhaps they thought they were alone out here.
A man came into view and stopped dead with an exclamation of shock. The boy beside him froze and pressed closer to him.
'Greetings, friends,' said Katia. 'We come in peace.'
The man looked at her warily, glancing in the foliage beside the track, as if expecting an ambush.
It was the boy who spoke. 'These people won't attack us. Deleff won't stay with violent people, Mak.'
Katia jerked upright. Was it possible? Was it really possible? It was such an unusual name, not one she’d ever heard on Sunrise. She jumped down from the wagon, running forward impetuously. 'Is your name Mak?'
The man's wariness turned into apprehension. She could see it in every line of his body.
She stopped. 'Are you from the satellite?' she asked. 'Did you know my Davred up there?'
His jaw dropped and he took a step forward. 'Are you - can you be - surely you're not - '
'I'm Katia, Davred's wife.' She could see the distress held tightly back inside his body and moved closer to him. She was as tall as he was and it seemed natural to lift her hands and lay them on his shoulders. 'Our Brother be praised for bringing us together,' she said gently. She could still feel the rigidity inside him, a tension and anxiety almost strong enough to need a Sister's healing skills. 'Let's find a clearing and stop to eat a nooning together, shall we? Then we can talk. Or is there a settlement nearby? Is that where you're living?
We could go there if you prefer it.'
Mak was still having great difficulty in speaking, difficulty in controlling his emotions, so Aderon took it upon himself to reply. 'Are you a Sister?'
'Indeed I am.'
The boy's eyes lit up. 'We have a camp nearby. There are some other Sisters there. Would you like to come and meet them?'
Katia felt joy welling up inside her. 'Oh, yes. I'd love to meet them. Is the track to your camp wide enough for our deleff?'
'Yes. After the battle in Jerhaz Waters, we were given six wagons and deleff came out of the forest to bring us here. They've gone now, though. I miss them.'
'What's your name?'
'Aderon.'
'Mine's Katia.' She raised her voice. 'Quinna, you can come out, now.
There was a rustling of greenery and Quinna and the giant cliff cat appeared. 'Can't be too careful in times like these,' she said cheerfully, patting Nim, who was staring at the man and boy, as if assessing their worth.
'This is Davred's friend, Mak,' Katia explained. 'From the satellite.'
'Well, trample my guts!' exclaimed Quinna. 'It must be our Brother's doing.' She stepped forward to clasp first Mak's hand, then Aderon's. 'Do you have a camp near here?'
Mak nodded.
'And would you have some nice hot food there?'
Mak smiled. 'Oh, yes. Our Sister friends are excellent cooks.'
'Good. Me and my friend Nim here are excellent eaters. Which way is it?'
'I'll show you. Could we walk ahead together, Katia?' Mak's voice was rough with suppressed emotion. 'I -
I'd like to talk to you,' he gulped, 'alone.'
'Of course, my friend.' She turned to Aderon. 'Perhaps you'd like to ride on the wagon with Erlic?'
The lad beamed at her and scrambled up without hesitation. As she walked ahead with Mak, she could hear his high-pitched voice tossing questions at Erlic, and her son's softer answers. Quinna and Nim walked behind the wagon. In repose, Quinna's face was sad. She’d have to do something about Quinna, Katia decided, find some activity to stop her fretting.
'Is Davred nearby?' Mak asked.
Katia shook her head. 'No. We were all scattered across the Twelve Claims when we fell through a portal. I don't have a tracer, so my husband wouldn't be able to communicate with me now.'
'Aren't you - well, worried about him?'
'A little. But I can sense he's all right. I try to trust that our Brother will bring us together again.'
Mak's face fell. 'I was hoping - you see, I haven't heard from Soo since we came down to the planet. I don't even know whether she's alive or dead. I though Davred might have heard from her.'
His expression was so ravaged and desolate that Katia's heart went out to him. She set one hand on each of his shoulders and looked deep into his eyes. 'Do you feel inside your heart that she's alive or dead, my friend?'
He stared back at her. 'I feel she's alive. But I’ve no reasonable basis for that belief. How can I know the truth of it?'
Katia's smile was gentle and luminous, very much a Sister's smile. 'You can't, if you require proof. You must trust in our Brother and in your own feelings. After all, he brought you and me together, didn't he?
Don't you find that amazing?'
Mak nodded, but he still looked as if he were fighting a battle inside himself. 'There's no logic to my feelings, though, no reason to believe in them.'
'You have senses as well as reason,' she said. 'It would be unbalanced to trust only to your reason.'
He stared at her for a moment or two. 'I never thought of it that way. My people grow up - learning to follow only our reason.'
'It must be hard for you to alter that now.'
'Very hard.' He swallowed and changed the subject, not comfortable discussing his feelings with a near stranger. 'So Davred is still alive and free?'
She nodded. 'Yes.'
'How can you be so sure?'
'I can sense him. Oh, not what he's doing exactly, but I can sense his - his life force, his essence. I know that he's all right. We call it mind-linking. And my son can sense his twin brother in the same way.'
Mak's shoulders were hunched as they walked along ahead of the wagon. 'I wish I could sense Soo like that. I'd feel better if I could just - just . . . ' His voice tailed away, then a few moments later he said abruptly.
'Sometimes I think I can sense Robler watching me, though. The tracer - it sort of hisses. It's not supposed to do that.' His sigh came from the depths of his soul. 'Nothing behaves as it should on this planet.'
'Nothing behaves as you want it to,' she corrected.
Suddenly there was a babble of voices ahead and some small children came running along the track to meet Mak. They stopped at the sight of Katia, stared at the wagon, then turned as one to rush back to the camp.
'They've been taught to run to the Sisters if they see a stranger,' he explained.
A woman appeared further along the track and Mak waved to her. 'It's all right,' he shouted.
Katia walked forward without waiting for him. 'Our Brother be praised,' she said as she reached the other woman. 'He brings light into our darkness.' The two of them fell into each other's arms in a way they wouldn’t have needed to do before the onset of Discord.
Mak watched them hug and then start exchanging news. When the wagon caught up with them, he swung up on it to give Katia some privacy, standing on the running board as the deleff tramped across to where the other wagons had been left to be used now for sleeping quarters and food storage until proper huts could be built. At that moment, Mak felt very much an outsider. He stared ahead bleakly as the wagon came to a halt, then jumped as a small hand touched his.
Aderon was smiling up at him. 'It's nice riding on a wagon again, isn't it? I love the sound the deleff's feet make. And this is Erlic, Katia's son. He can speak to the deleff, you know. Just think of it! I wish I could do that.'
Mak found himself smiling back. Children, he was discovering, were wonderful for cheering you up when you felt down. They didn't sit brooding on life's injustices; they just got on with living. And he should do the same. He looked across at Quinna and was able to smile again. Quinna had found the cooking area
and was already devouring a bowl of stew, while Nim chewed shreds of meat off a bone beside her.
* * *
Up on the satellite, Robler had managed to get an approximate fix on Mak's tracer. After a long time without contact, he’d begun to worry what Mak was up to and had decided it’d be better to keep an eye on the medic than leave the fellow to cause more mischief.
Mak hadn’t been killed by Those of the Serpent as Robler had expected and he seemed to be travelling around quite a bit. Damn the fellow! What was he up to now? Had he fled into the wildwoods? Had he joined some rebels?
It took a while to home in on Mak's tracer, and even then reception wasn’t satisfactory. However, Robler managed to decipher enough of Mak and Katia's faint conversation to sit up in shock. Davred's wife! How the hell had Mak found her? That couldn’t be coincidence. Soo must have done something to the tracers, given them direction finders or something that sought out other tracers. After all, there were only a few of them down there on the planet. The disloyal bitch! Robler began to drum his fingertips and look thoughtful.
Davred's wife. One of the damned Sisters who had caused all this trouble in the first place.
Then he realised she was far away from Davred, more vulnerable without him, perhaps. 'There may be something to be gained from this encounter,' he said aloud. 'Perhaps we can still retrieve something from this mess.' If he could get hold of Katia, he was sure that Davred would do anything to rescue her.
Robler sat there absolutely motionless for a long time. The idea that was growing within him had such a feel of rightness he could almost taste the joy of success. It’d work. It must!
There would be problems, of course. It was absolutely against Confederation laws, as well as Confex regulations, to kidnap a primitive, but if he worked carefully, the results would justify everything. The Confederation needed Davred's skills - though not as much as they had done before, if Sector Headquarters had now been retaken. He’d make up some tale of having captured Katia to save her life from her enemies on the planet, for Davred's sake. Yes, that was it! And it’d be easy enough to dispose of the woman once Davred was in his hands. A regrettable accident.
He thumped one fist into the other. 'Yes! Oh, yes!' There was no benefit to be gained from keeping a primitive like her around for long, especially a primitive from the losing side. She'd only distract Davred again if she wasn't removed from the scene. Another grin curled the Exec's lips into a tight uneven line - the losing side! Of course, that was it! Sen-Sether would be delighted to get hold of Katia after she’d served Robler's purpose, and he could do the disposing of her in that Inner Shrine of his.
Afterwards, Robler could tell Confex it’d been a question of Katia's life or Davred's. He'd arrange that matter when the time came. There would no trouble in getting the new Lord Claimant of Setheron to do his dread lord's bidding. Sen-Sether hated the Sisters even more than Robler did.
It was where to put the woman until Davred was safe that would pose the main problem, how to keep her out of the way of the rest of the crew, who might get quixotic about rescuing a poor helpless primitive. Hmm.
Storing her in stasis might be best. He'd have to think about that.
When he left the com-room, Robler went straight to his quarters and stayed there for a while. There were a lot of details to work out. And before he could do anything else, he needed to find a way to track people down more accurately. Those damned tracers were still malfunctioning. Everything malfunctioned on this planet, it seemed, even potential Cathartic Agents like Davred Hollunby.
* * *
It was hard leaving the group of Sisters. Katia gave Jandahal and the others a last convulsive hug, then waved to the children and turned to follow the wagon. It wouldn’t be easy for the small group here, establishing a new crèche in the wildwoods, but they’d manage, she was sure of that. After all, their Brother the God had guided them to safety across a troubled land. He’d continue to watch over them.
She walked behind the wagon with Quinna, who’d been in her element in the camp, organising the children into squads, as they did on the Sandrims, and using her great strength to help build the frames for a couple of huts. Unlike the flimsy buildings in Tenebron, with its warmer climate, these huts would need to be very strong, to keep their occupants warm in the chill days of winter, and the roofs would have to bear the weight of snow. In the end they decided to use the same design as the houses in Danak, building steeply sloping roofs, with sleeping chambers upstairs inside the roof, above the warmth of the living areas.
They’d stayed for longer than they’d intended in the new settlement. With the days getting cooler all the time, there was an urgent need to provide shelter for the little children. They couldn’t walk away from that. It was all so very much like the High Alder that Katia's old homesickness had resurfaced. She’d resolutely set it aside, sharing her forest and wildwoods lore with the Sisters, and advising them on what plants to store and what to grow the following year. But she’d wept a little at night, into her pillow. Would her grandfather still be alive? Would Kensin be pleased to see her?
They’d been further delayed while Jandahal went back to Jerhaz Waters, escorted by Quinna and Erlic, to purchase more supplies. Four days there, four days back on one of the wagons, which Katia's own deleff had decided to draw. The townsfolk had been more than generous in gifting the Sisters with supplies and equipment, but even so, Jandahal didn’t tell them where the crèche was, and deliberately headed in another direction when she first left the town.
In the end, it was close to winter before Katia and her companions could leave. She made that decision just one day ahead of the deleff.
'I thought we might be wintering here,' said Quinna, waiting for the others to disperse after Katia had gathered them together and told them it was time to leave. 'It might be a good idea to stay over during the coldest weather, don't you think? Like we did on the Sandrims. It's hard travelling in the snow. Dangerous, too.'
Katia looked her in the eye. So far she’d refrained from betraying Quinna's secret, but she felt the time had now come to bring that matter out into the open. 'So that you can have the child here, you mean?'
Quinna sighed. 'I thought you must have guessed.'
'I'm a Sister Healer Elect. How could I not know that? You haven't told people. Why not? Is there some problem about the child?'
Quinna shrugged. 'Just that I feel a fool. I mean, I know perfectly well how to prevent such things, but I just - '
'Got careless?'
'No. I did it on purpose. I wanted Benjan's child.'
'Without telling him?'
'He'd have said we should wait. He still thinks about his little sister getting killed by Those of the Serpent.
He'd have said to wait until we'd won, till it was safe to bring up a child. But who knows when that'll be? I mean, it might take years. An' maybe I don't have so many childbearing years left.' She was fiddling with the fringing on her leathers. 'I never said much about it, but I'm older than Benjan, you know.'
'That doesn't matter. Why should it?'
The hand stilled, crushing the fringe. 'I'm a lot older than him, actually. Nearly twice as old. I've had children before. Never thought I'd want another, especially so late in life. But there you are. I did want it. So I
- just forgot to take precautions.'
'The pregnancy is going well. I'd have said something before if I'd sensed anything wrong with your body.'
'Ach, I carry 'em easily enough. No problems there. But you people don't raise your children like we do here in the Twelve Claims, so I wondered - ' she broke off and sighed.
'Wondered what?' prompted Katia.
'I wondered if the deleff would help me an' the child return to the Sandrims - afterwards, you know - after we've got rid of those snake-loving murderers.'
'But shouldn't you discuss that with Benjan? Surely he ought to have a say? After all, he's the father.'
Quinna took a deep breath. 'I reckoned by then
Carryn would have grown up an' he wouldn't want me.'
She gave Katia a lopsided grin, through which her pain showed. 'I reckoned he'd let me take the child out of guilt.'
'You love him very much.'
'Yeah. He's a great fellow, is old Ben. Best I ever partnered. But he's never pretended to love me. Never.
An' I've seen how he looks at Carryn. It's her he loves, really. We all know that. I'm not going to hang around where I'm not wanted. But I thought - well, I thought I could have his child to love. Afterwards, you know.'
Katia looked at her. 'I'm sure things will work out, but of course I can't answer for Benjan's wishes.'
Nim came up to nuzzle Quinna, sensing her distress, and she buried her tear-filled eyes in the cliff cat's coat.
Katia gave her a few moments to recover, then said in a more matter-of-fact tone, 'It might be a bit more difficult than you'd thought to manage on your own. You're carrying twins.'
Quinna jerked her head up and glared at Katia. 'Have those deleff done that? Like they did to you?'
'No, it's not the deleff. It's just - well, twins. They happen sometimes.'
'Girls or boys?'
'One of each.'
Quinna shook her head in amazement. 'Well, that serves me right, I suppose, for cheating old Ben. Twins!
Hah!' She slapped her stomach, which was showing little sign of her condition yet, apart from being a bit plumper than usual. 'It'll be hell getting back into condition after twins! Still,' she grinned at Katia, recovering fast now from the shock, 'it just goes to show, doesn't it? I'm not quite past it yet. An' old Ben's a lusty fellow.
I'm surprised he hasn't given me triplets, the way he goes on sometimes.' She heaved herself to her feet and stared down at her own body. 'Twins! Hah!'
'Just a minute. We have some exercises that may help - '