by Shannah Jay
Quinna shook her head and strode off. 'Not now. I'm going for a walk. I want to get used to the idea of twins.' Nim trailed after her, as Nim usually did nowadays. The two were nearly inseparable.
Katia shook her head, smiling, then the smile faded into sadness. She too had seen how Benjan looked at Carryn and she was sure one day, Carryn would return his love, once she’d grown up. 'Brother look down upon them all!' she murmured as she went about her own business. Sometimes life was painful. She knew that. She missed Davred dreadfully. It was as if half of herself was missing.
When they stopped to camp on the first night of their journey, they discovered that Aderon had been following them all day. When the lad stumbled into the camp, he was drooping with weariness and his feet were blistered, but he was unrepentant.
'What are we going to do with you?' Katia scolded softly as she prepared to heal his feet.
'Take me with you.'
'It might be dangerous where we're going.'
Aderon looked across at Mak. 'If you take me back, I'll run away again and follow you.'
Mak came to squat beside Katia, looking down at the boy. 'Why are you doing this, Aderon?'
For all his attempts to be grown-up and brave, Aderon's lips were trembling. 'I want to be with you!' His voice ended on a wail, but his arms were stretched out, pleading for love, and when Mak gathered him into a bear hug, he gave way to his tears.
'Well, let's heal your feet, then, and get you to bed,' said Katia, as the emotions began to subside. 'But you'll have to do as you're told if you come with us. We're on a very important quest.'
'I want to help you,' he said. 'They killed my father, you know.' He swallowed and then said, 'I didn't tell anyone before, but he was the Lord Claimant of Dyandra.'
All the adults gasped at that.
Aderon clung even more closely to Mak. 'I'm not going back till we've defeated them. I'm not!'
Brother, you lead us along some strange paths, thought Katia. But it was right that they keep the boy. She realised that now.
It wasn’t till the middle of the night, when she was lying wakeful looking up at the stars, that a thought suddenly occurred to her. Quinna! This would distract her and keep her busy.
Next morning, Katia took the swordswoman aside. 'If Aderon's the rightful Lord Claimant of Dyandra, he'll need training. He'll have to fight for his rights one day. I wonder - I know it's asking a lot of you in your condition, but could you give him some training as we travel, the sort you gave to your own younglings in the Sandrims, perhaps?'
Quinna's face brightened. 'Good idea. And I'll train Mak while I'm at it. He's as soft as a ripe glowberry fruit, that one, never learned to use his body properly. We'll all have to fight, I reckon, before we're through.
Katia nodded. She loathed violence, but sometimes you had to stand firm and confront it.
As the days passed, it began to seem as if they'd been travelling for ever. With something to occupy her, Quinna came out of her shell and shared the news about her condition with the others. She also devised a rigorous training programme and kept the others to it. Even Katia and Erlic were given instruction in self-defence.
Mak was amazed that Katia could predict twins so soon, as well as telling whether they were girls or boys.
'How do you do it?' he asked. 'However can you tell that, just by looking?'
Katia shrugged. 'I don't know. The ability comes gradually to those of us with healing Gifts. And we don't just look at someone - we - we - ' But it was impossible to put into words that other sense that healers seemed to possess.
'Try to explain, please,' he begged.
'It's what makes you a healer,' she said. 'You begin to realise very gradually that you can sense others' pain and help them, even when death seems inevitable, as I helped little Yeldo back in Jeddiak.'
'As you helped Davred when you first met him.'
'It was mostly Herra who did that. I just lent her my life energy a little - but it was after that day that I began to realise what was happening to me.' She smiled. 'I wasn't sure I even wanted to be a healer then. It can be a heavy burden sometimes, to sense others' pain, but you learn to deal with that. You can't take the world's worries on your shoulders; you can only play your part in helping some people. Herra's been training me - not as I should be trained - but the Gift develops partly on its own. And one day, I'll be able to receive the full training, once we've defeated the Serpent.'
'Aren't you afraid of - of damaging someone - of doing the wrong thing?'
She stared at him. The idea was so alien that it took her a moment to realise he really meant his question. 'I couldn't damage someone. That's not how our Gifts work. The worst I could do would be to fail to help them.' In her turn she probed, 'Can the Confederation medics actually damage people they're trying to heal?'
'If they choose the wrong treatment, yes. Medical science is a strange area. New diseases develop, new theories - especially on recently-settled planets. You always have to be aware of the need for caution and conservatism when you're working out treatment programmes.'
She laid her hand on his and closed her eyes, sitting there for so long that he began to wonder if she had dozed off, except that his hand felt to be tingling and the air around them seemed to be flickering. He could have sworn he heard a humming noise, no, not heard it - it was too soft to be heard by the human ear -
sensed a humming noise, then.
Katia took her hand away from his and smiled at him. 'You have a healer's Gifts, Mak, though different from ours. I could show you some of our lore - if you'd like me to.'
His face was a blaze of eagerness. 'I'd love that!'
Later she got down to walk in front of the wagon. That was the first time she'd been able to choose someone, to know they carried their Brother's Gifts. She supposed it was inevitable that her own Gifts should continue to develop. 'Brother, help me to use my Gifts wisely,' she prayed. 'And above all, keep watch over my Davred.'
CHAPTER 21 THE HIGH ALDER
Katia sat upright on the driving seat of the wagon staring around, her heart beating rapidly with excitement she could barely keep in check. Today they’d reach the High Alder. All yesterday they’d wound their way up through the foothills, along narrow wildwood tracks known only to the deleff, and today she’d see her home country again. Joy kept welling up inside her and from time to time she had to get down from the wagon to expend some of her nervous energy in walking. How many times had she told herself she could never go home? How many lonely nights had she sobbed herself to sleep because of that when she was first chosen as a novice?
Since they were approaching the High Alder from the east, she assumed it would be easy enough to go straight to her home town of Danak. Erlic had tried to ask the deleff if this track would lead them there, but the deleff seemed a bit restless today, not in the mood to communicate.
As the track wound ever upwards and the wildwoods changed into forests which betrayed the presence of humans in the neighbourhood, the deleff stopped suddenly and began tossing their heads, as they did whenever they felt they were approaching trouble. Nim rumbled in her throat and Katia stared at Quinna, not daring to voice her fears, as if to keep quiet would make them go away.
A cool damp breeze blew up from nowhere and made all the foliage shiver and rustle around them. She raised her head to sniff the air. 'Is that burning? Oh, Quinna, tell me it isn't burning!'
Quinna came up to stand beside the wagon. 'I've been smelling burning, just very faintly, for a while now.
I'm surprised you haven't noticed.'
Katia let out a shuddering breath. 'I think I didn't want to notice. I can't believe that Discord’s found its way here.' She clenched her hands, but didn’t allow herself to give way to her fears. 'Let's move forward again, but carefully. Perhaps I should go and scout ahead?
'And perhaps you shouldn't.' Quinna patted her sword hilt. 'If there's trouble, we'll meet it together, Katia.
This is no time to risk getti
ng separated, not when we're so close to our destination.' She turned to the others.
'Get your club ready and be prepared to fight, Mak. And remember what I've been teaching you. Our lives are probably in danger right now. And Aderon, you'll remember what I've been telling you, won't you?'
The boy nodded and chanted, 'Children stay away from the fighting.' He waved something at her and added, 'I've got my sling, though. I will stay out of the way, Quinna, but I'll still be able to harass any attackers from a distance. You said I could do that.'
'Good lad.'
He nodded again, lips pressed together in a firm determined line. A month of training with Quinna had given him a lot more confidence in himself, as had the fact that they’d allowed him to come with them. And -
which was the most important thing to Aderon - Mak continued to treat him like a nephew, or even a son.
Aderon dreamed sometimes that Mak really was his father. His own father had hardly ever bothered to speak to him, but Mak and he talked a lot together.
Mak, too, found the relationship a wonder. Parents on Delta Macros spent little time with their children, who were raised by people trained in parenting and education. It was considered dangerous to allow children to be reared by their own biological parents. It wasn’t thought sane to grow possessive about another human being, or to let one's emotions rule one's reason. The people of Delta Macros, Mak now realised, had given up a lot in return for their rigid form of peace. Too much, far too much. Their way of life was sterile and colourless, lacking joy and love.
Quinna turned last of all to Erlic. 'Do the best you can, lad.'
He nodded. He still refused to learn fighting tactics, but he’d learned better methods of self-defence, methods which might help get himself or his companions out of danger.
The deleff continued to betray signs of uneasiness, but they didn’t refuse to go forward until they came to the edge of the town. There they stopped dead and moved out of their harness, trampling slowly to and fro next to the wagons, with Erlic standing nearby on his own, watching them.
Danak. Katia swallowed her emotion and stared along the main street. The last time she’d seen the town had been the day of her Choosing, when it was full of joyful crowds. Now, the streets were deserted, some houses damaged and the central meeting house was on fire. She could hear shouts and cries from the other end of town. And she could sense, sense oh, so clearly, the presence of evil.
As she watched, light began to flicker from the knobbly bits on the deleff's backs, though there were no signs of danger in the immediate vicinity. She blinked. The blue flashes were almost too rapid to be seen, so that it felt as if there was something out of focus just at the periphery of your vision. 'I think,' said Quinna in a low voice, 'we've found ourselves some real trouble.' She began to move forward quietly. As she passed a gap between two buildings, she swung round and let out a hiss of surprise.
A man walked out of the gap, but just stood there, making no attempt to attack her. He was wearing a black robe and carrying a staff with a serpent carved on its head. 'Unless you abjure your evil unwomanly ways and expiate your sins with pain upon our dread lord's altar, then I must kill you.' He spoke in a harsh voice, behaving as if he was already in control of the situation.'
'Hah! You could trry, I suppose. But you might find it just a little bit difficult.' Quinna laid one hand on Nim's neck to restrain the cliff cat. She shot a quick glance at Katia, who shook her head slightly and mouthed the word, 'Wait'.
The man had a cadaverous face with the burning look of a fanatic. His black robe flapped around his legs in the chill wind that was blowing more strongly all the time. He thumped the staff on the ground in front of him and then took a whip from his belt, expertly shaking its metal-tipped thongs free and letting them trail on the floor. 'I can smell Sister-loving perverts from here,' he said in a soft, yet vicious tone, ignoring Quinna now, as if he didn’t believe she even knew how to use the sword that hung so prominently by her side.
His gaze settled on Katia and a look of gloating satisfaction crept across his face. 'A Sister. Ah, Dread my Lord, you shall feast on her pain tonight.'
'No,' said Katia. 'That you shall not do.' She stepped to the head of their small group, standing in front of Quinna. It was her place to lead them now. Taking a deep breath and calling mentally upon her Brother to help her, she began to gather her inner forces.
'To me!' the man called suddenly, waving the staff in the air, with its weighted serpent head ready to strike.
'We've found ourselves a Sister. To me!' He cracked the whip to emphasise his words, but took a prudent step or two backwards at the same time.
There was the sound of excited cries and running footsteps. Quinna drew her sword with a swift hiss of steel and fell instinctively into a battle stance, ready to move in any direction. She gestured to the great cat to stay by her left side. Although Quinna's waist had thickened and her breasts grown fuller, her pregnancy in no way diminished her air of expertise as she made a few practice sweeps with the sword. 'You'll not take us easily, corpse-jaws!' she called. 'And I'll make you my prime target.'
'No woman could kill me!' But his eyes flickered uneasily over Nim and he didn’t move forward to take up Quinna's challenge, only stood and waited while the street filled slowly with perhaps twenty men. They were all armed and all had a look of mindless violence on their faces.
The wind blew wafts of sickly incense in their direction. 'That stuff sure stinks, doesn't it?' remarked Quinna loudly. 'Don't know how they stand it.'
'They're addicted to it,' said Mak quietly. 'I'd like to run an analysis on the stuff. I've never smelt anything quite like it before.' He lowered his voice. 'Shouldn't we do something, Quinna?'
'There's nothing much we can do but wait. They've probably sent others round to take us from the rear,'
said Quinna, her voice quiet for once. 'This looks real bad, Katia. I can't understand why the deleff let us come so far into danger.' She raised her voice slightly and addressed all her companions. 'You'd all better be ready to kill yourself rather than let them capture you. You hear me, Aderon, Erlic.'
Nim was still by her side, but the cat kept growling and baring its teeth at the group of men, each moment expecting Quinna to attack them.
'I hear you,' said Erlic, but his expression was puzzled, for he too was trying to understand how his brother deleff could have led them into such a trap. Then one of the deleff snorted and Erlic stepped forward to lay a hand along its snout. A listening look came over his face and a look of relief, too. 'Others are coming,' he said in a low urgent voice. 'We must hold firm together until they reach us. These deleff will help protect us until then.'
Quinna grinned. 'Other deleff are coming, eh? Good! Then I can enjoy this little fight for a while.'
'No. Other people are coming.'
'Same thing. Gives me an' Nim a chance to - '
The group of men began to move in their direction and the Servant raised his voice in a chant of 'Serpent, save your Servants,' that was echoed by the rest of the men, in a grinding monotone.
Quinna brandished her sword. 'Prepare to defend yourselves.'
But when she would have stepped forward, one of their deleff nudged her out of the way and placed itself in front of the wagon. And even Nim retreated a little, whining in her throat as blue light started flickering into huge wing shapes now. The shapes cast no shadows on the ground and lent a strange blurred tone to the sky as they crossed it. The second deleff trampled round to take up a position at the rear, and then the faint but comforting sound of its wings beating began to fill the air.
'Good thinking. That leaves us with only the sides to guard,' approved Quinna as the men yelled and charged forward. 'Helpful, that.' She slashed her sword to and fro, making it whistle through the air. 'Come on,' she said softly. 'Come on, you cursed snake-lovers. I'm ready.'
The sweeping wings had the first three attackers rolling on the ground before they could reach the humans, and
the other men drew back quickly to confer with their leader. They didn’t try to edge round to the side, but drew together in a group and started praying loudly in a whining monotone, their writhing hand movements an imitation of a snake's twisting that always seemed obscene to Katia, as if the men had lost their own humanity.
The air around Those of the Serpent darkened, in spite of the fact that it wasn’t long past the middle of the day.
Nim gave a sudden howl, a long ululation that made the hairs rise on the Kindred's necks.
'What's happening now?' whispered Quinna, not taking her eyes off the opposing group.
'They're calling on their god,' said Erlic, his voice thick with loathing. 'And he's answering. See that shadow forming on the street.'
Katia shuddered. That shadow seemed to come from nowhere, rising up from the hard earth. At the sight of it, the men's whining prayer grew louder and the shadow began to writhe along the ground, creeping towards the small group near the wagon. 'What evil will they create next?' she asked, unaware that she’d spoken aloud.
The deleff stood their ground in front of them and the shadow stopped just out of reach of those wings of light.
'Brother of the World, look down!' called Katia suddenly, then turned to the others. She knew what to do.
'We must gather, my friends.'
'I'm not taking my eyes off those devils for even a second,' said Quinna.
'You must! It's not swords which will keep us safe today, but our Brother's light.' She held out her hands imperatively and Erlic immediately moved forward to take one of them. Mak followed suit and grasped her other hand. Though he couldn’t gather properly, he’d learned to join the circle and meditate, and he loved it, as did Aderon, who now came to put his hand trustingly in Mak's.
'Quinna!' Katia said sharply. 'We need your soul's light. Put that sword down and join our circle. There are other ways of fighting the Serpent.' Her voice carried an echo of power reminiscent of Herra.
Quinna snorted through her nostrils, but obeyed, moving forward to lay the sword down within reach of her right hand. Behind her, Nim hovered, ears flattened and teeth bared in a snarl of defiance at Those of the Serpent.