by Jaleta Clegg
I pulled out the Eggstone, watching the firelight reflect on its glossy surface. The webbing of cracks was still there, grayish silver against deep black. My best option was to find a way off planet as soon as possible. The only ships I knew about were back at the city, on a plateau overlooking the ruins. They were Sessimoniss ships, I wasn't sure I could fly one.
I wasn't going to get far without information. I needed to know what was happening with the Sessimoniss before I could plan anything.
Vance stirred in his sleep. I glanced over at him. Lowell said he was one of his top agents. There had to be more to Vance than good looks. I owed him my life. If he hadn't dragged me free of the ship and carried me here, I wouldn't have made it. I wasn't comfortable with that thought. I hated owing things to people I didn't know.
I stroked the surface of the Eggstone, waiting for a response. None came. It may as well have been just a stone.
One of the skitarrit scurried into the room with a fresh bucket of water. She ducked her scaled head when she saw I was awake and scuttled back out.
I wondered again about the Sessimoniss. I'd had little contact with any but their warriors when I'd been here before. The skitarrit at the temple had kept their distance.
She came back a moment later with a platter of the grain. There was nothing else with it. She set it on the stone, then backed towards the door.
"Stay," I said. It came out an order, harsh and unpleasant. "Please," I added.
She stopped, huddled halfway on her knees, her head bowed. "As the Heshk Bashnessit requires," she said in a whisper.
"Tell me," I started to ask.
She stayed frozen, bent over awkwardly, her nose almost touching the stone floor.
"Look at me, please," I said. "Tell me your name."
She shifted, shooting me a single sideways glance. "I have no name. I am skitarrit. I serve the Eggstone." She moved backwards, skittish and afraid. The thin crest on her head rose partway, flushing pure white.
"Thank you. You may go." I wasn't going to get anything useful from her.
She skittered out of the cave, on all fours.
I leaned against the stone. The pasty grain didn't smell appetizing enough to tempt me. It would require movement and pain to reach it.
I dug through my memories instead, searching for more information on the skitarrit, on the whole structure of the Sessimoniss society. If I had any knowledge about it, I couldn't find it. I rubbed the Eggstone.
"Where are your memories when I need them?" I asked the stone. There was no response.
Vance watched me, lying in the blanket. I wouldn't have known he was awake except his eyes were open.
"They brought breakfast," I said. "At least I'm assuming that's what it is."
He shifted and sat, turning away from me. He scrubbed a hand through his hair.
"They set up a bathroom of sorts back that way," I said, waving a hand behind me at the tiny chamber.
He studied me a long moment, his dark eyes unreadable.
"Did you dream up any good plans?" I asked. "Because I haven't been able to think of a good one yet."
"How's your ankle?" he asked, ignoring my question.
"Painful," I answered.
"And your head?"
"It hurts. How's yours?"
"Fine."
We stared at each other. Vance was disheveled and filthy. I probably looked just as bad.
"Why didn't you leave me behind when we crashed?"
"Because my orders were very clear. I was to protect you first, information was secondary."
"So why didn't you help me run when the ships attacked? Why did you run scans instead of programming the course?"
He shrugged. "It doesn't matter now."
"Yes, it does."
"I thought we still had time. I wasn't expecting them to do such short jumps or change vectors so quickly." He didn't look happy about admitting that.
"There were more of them than you thought," I said, putting pieces together. "The vector shift was impossible for the three ships to make. There were six of them. We didn't stand a chance." I shifted my leg to a more comfortable spot. "Who are they?"
"You're guess is as good as any." Vance stood, leaving the blanket in a tangle on the rock. "I hate sleeping on rocks."
"That makes two of us."
He picked up the platter of grain. "Are you waiting to be served?"
"I'm waiting for my leg to quit throbbing before I move again."
"Save half for me," he said as he put the platter next to me. He headed for the bathroom cubby.
I picked at the mushy grain. It was bland, almost tasteless, and gummy. I made myself eat it.
So Vance had been assigned to keep me safe. Was that why he'd hauled me through the caves and across the desert? He wasn't going out of his way to be friendly. But he wasn't being impossible about it either.
Vance interrupted my thoughts when he sat on the other side of the platter.
"Did you think of anything?" he asked me. "I heard you questioning the slave."
"She isn't a slave," I corrected him. "Skitarrit. Immature females. They were servants in the temple. She doesn't have a clan. That was renounced when she went to serve the Eggstone."
"I read about the clans. How come they haven't killed her?" A Sessimoniss without a clan was dead. They made certain of that. Only those within a clan were protected and fed.
I shrugged again. "I don't know. We need to find out what happened." I looked out the door of the cave. Our guards stood outside. Their spears were prominent, blocking the entrance.
"Will they tell us anything?"
"Not unless we push." I levered myself up and hobbled to the doorway.
The guards immediately came to attention, turning their spears to threaten me. They watched me impassively.
"I wish to speak to Koresh'Niktakket of Kishtosnitass," I told the guards.
"That is not permitted."
"Then I call Council."
"You cannot call Council," the guard said.
"Tell me what has happened. Why do you live in caves?"
"You will remain inside," the guard said. They both turned their backs on me.
"I want answers," I said, stepping forward.
The guard hissed, his crest rising. He swung back towards me, his hand out. I saw the poison gleaming on his claws. I backed away.
"That went well," Vance muttered.
I glared and found a different rock to sit on. It looked like I wasn't going to get answers, at least not the easy way.
Chapter 9
We sat in silence until the torch burned low. The skitarrit skittered in with a fresh one and left, the smoking end of the other one in one clawed hand. Nothing else changed.
I propped my leg on the stone ledge and went through my pockets. I didn't have much. I had my id plates which I never left behind, a single ration bar, and a handful of wiring couplings that I'd forgotten I had.
Vance stirred and went to the door. The guards hissed and clashed their spears. Vance backed away.
"This isn't getting us anywhere," he muttered.
"They'll come when and if they decide they want to." I put the couplings and my id plates back in my pockets. I opened the ration bar. "You want half?"
Vance sat next to me. I handed him half of the ration bar.
"Who shot us down?" I asked.
"No one knows. No one who's had an encounter with them has come back."
"Then we'll be the first. How long before Lowell sends a fleet?"
"He can't," Vance said. "He was stretching it just to get you authorized on the courier."
"So we have to rescue ourselves." I nibbled at the tasteless ration bar. "The only ships I know about are near the city. We have to find a way out of here. And then we find the city."
"It could be thousands of miles away," Vance said. "Unless you know where we are." He let that trail off suggestively.
"I don't have any idea where we are," I admitted. "And I don't
have any idea how to get out of the cave, either. We have to get them to talk to us."
He stood, brushing at nonexistent crumbs. "The Eggstone could tell us, at least that was what I thought from your report."
"It isn't talking to me. It was too damaged."
"So that resource is not available." He headed for the back of the cave, searching every bump and projection on the way.
"What are you doing?"
"Finding out if they left us a way out of here," he answered.
"They wouldn't have. They're very thorough."
He shrugged. "You have a better idea?" He bent over and squirmed into a cranny.
I stroked the Eggstone and watched the guards.
Vance explored the entire cave. He didn't find anything. Not even loose stones.
Time passed. I sat on the stone with my swollen ankle and knee propped up. They didn't hurt quite so bad, but my ankle looked awful. It was mottled with bruises. It bothered me to be barefoot, but there was no way I could have put my boot back on, not until the swelling went down.
Vance finished poking around in the back of the cave. He sat on another swell of smooth stone and watched me.
"What?" He was starting to drive me nuts, staring at me all the time.
"You know how to get out of here."
"No, I don't. Why are you so suspicious?"
"Why are you sitting there so calmly?"
"Because I'm not in any shape to leave. And we're safe enough. For the moment." I shifted again.
He sighed and looked away, at the door where the guards still stood. "I hate being shut away like this. We should be able to do something."
I kicked at a rock with my good foot.
"So," Vance said, "let's make some guesses."
"There are ships out there that we've never encountered before. Unless the Patrol has and isn't telling." I looked a question at Vance.
He shook his head. "There are rumors, vague hints, nothing solid. If our ship hadn't blown up, we would have had better scans and pictures than anyone else."
"Is that why you waited too long? You wanted the glory of bringing back better information?"
His face went wooden, a mask that let nothing show.
"Sorry." I didn't want to spend time fighting with him, not when he gave me a better chance of escaping. Even if I could fly a ship by myself I couldn't navigate. I needed him for that. "If you read my report about Serrimonia, then you know as much as I do. They got everything out of me, more than I thought I remembered. If those ships are shooting everything down, then maybe they're invading and we just don't know it yet. Serrimonia wouldn't be hard to conquer. Not with just one city. And the Sessimoniss are not a high tech culture, not anymore."
"You think they've taken over the planet? Kicked them out of the city?"
"You have a better theory?"
He shook his head. "I think you're probably right. We could speculate for days about why." He paced over the uneven stone floor.
I settled back and took a nap.
They brought us more food. And another torch. Nothing changed. It could have been only hours or it might have been a week. There was no way to tell. We talked, speculating and getting wilder with each theory. With no real information, we had no basis for any of our guesses.
I slept when I felt like it. My ankle and knee got less puffy. They still looked bad but I could finally put weight on my leg again. I limped around the cave, restless at being confined. Our guards still wouldn't talk. Neither would the Eggstone.
The food didn't vary. Platters of the grain were brought occasionally by the timid skitarrit. There weren't any kizzt after the first time, only the bland, mushy grain.
Vance decided to try on his own. He went over to the guards and talked at them. They ignored him. When he tried to push past the spears they hissed and showed their claws. Then jabbed at him with the spears until he retreated back in the cave.
"What were you trying to say?" I asked him.
He glared at the guards and the entrance. "I was asking to talk with the leader. Koresh'Niktakket?" He glanced at me.
"You were asking for one of their women, the breeding females. The proper inflection for the clan leader is on the last syllable." I said it for him, enunciating the harsh sounds.
He tried to imitate me. I talked him through it until his pronunciation was passable, at least to my ears. He asked me how to pronounce other words. He picked it up quickly, he had an ear for it. It also sharpened my memory for their language. The Eggstone still remained a lump.
We spent three or four days like that. Both of us were restless, pacing and trying to argue with the guards. They still ignored us. I studied their tunics for a while. They were older, lower ranking warriors. I didn't know if that was significant or not. We heard no sound from the other Sessimoniss living in the cave.
Vance persuaded me to tell him about my experiences as the High Priestess of the Eggstone. I told him, most of it anyway. He asked questions that made me think, trying to remember details that weren't significant at the time. He was trying to puzzle out their society. He finally admitted to me that he had some training in xenosociology and cultural theory. I asked him what he was doing working for Lowell. He told me Lowell had recruited him special for this assignment. I should have been flattered. I wasn't. I was angry with Lowell. He'd anticipated just this kind of trouble. He knew we were going to end up on Serrimonia, despite his warnings, despite the extra equipment. Despite his promises to me. I spent a while cursing Lowell. Vance was not impressed by my vocabulary.
The guards outside our door slammed their spears against the rock. The cavern boomed with the sound. We both looked over to the entrance.
The Koresh'Niktakket of Kishtosnitass ducked under the entrance and came into our cave. He gave me an amused blink before turning to study Vance. I watched him, growing more nervous as time went by.
"You wish to speak with us?" I finally blurted out.
Koresh'Niktakket turned back to me. "I have heard that you teach our tongue to your dreshtarrit. Why do you do this?"
"He is not dreshtarrit," I said, standing. I felt too short sitting. The Sessimoniss towered over me even when I stood. "He is much like Dresh'Nikterrit for our people. He was sent to speak with you, about trade among other things. Tell me what has happened. Our people have not heard news from your sector in much too long a time."
His eyes flickered, not amusement, he was angry and upset. I wondered if I had pushed too hard. I had no precedent here, and no help from the Eggstone.
"You push change on us, Heshk Bashnessit," he said. "You left, before Sekkitass could share your courage. You left us open to attack from those with great power. They are of your kind."
"They appear as we do?" I asked, surprised.
"Not as small," Koresh'Niktakket said. "They stand as warriors. But they use weapons that warriors would not. They degrade us. They attempt to turn us to teshkirrit." He spat his disdain for their treatment. Teshkirrit were slaves, the lowest of the low in the clan. To even hint that a warrior was teshkirrit was a deadly insult.
"Human?" Vance asked. He was trying to follow our conversation.
I waved at him to be quiet. "Their ships are not as ours. The flyers we saw are also not as ours. Tell me of these invaders."
"They are your people," Koresh'Niktakket spat. His crest was rising, flushing deep red in anger.
I shook my head. "They are not of the Empire. We are trying to find out who they are. They attack our ships as well. Many are missing."
"They are formed like you, they are your people." He hissed, his claws flexing in his anger. "You come to destroy us. You have betrayed us."
"Why would they shoot me down, if I were one of them?"
"You denied us your courage before," Koresh'Niktakket said. "We have no altar to Sekkitass here, that much you changed. But we have his priests. The old rites can be brought back. We would drink of your blood, but that is the blood of a betrayer."
"I betrayed
no one," I said as forcefully as I could. I held up the battered Eggstone. "I feel your anger and your pain. I know—"
"You know nothing, human!"
"I know your people are dying. I know you are living in caves, like beasts. Tell me what has driven you to this. Let me help you."
"What help can you give us? You, one weak human."
"Tell me what help you need and I will give what I can."
His crest settled part way, the red fading. "We are reduced to hunting skraggit at night, skulking and hiding."
"Are there more of your people? Or are those here all that are left?"
"We do not know. We have been scattered. They hunt us, as beasts of sport."
"With what weapons?"
He hissed, his crest rising again. "They are your weapons! Energy fields that kill over distance, those that do not disable." He spat at me again. "Sekkitass is waiting for you." He stalked out of the cave. Our guards took up their position again.
I slowly let out my breath, relaxing muscles tensed for a fight I couldn't possibly have won.
"I caught one word in ten," Vance said.
"They think the Empire has invaded them. They look like us, except not as short." I frowned.
"You are pretty short," Vance said. "They aren't from the Empire. Those ships were like nothing I've ever heard about before."
"That was pretty obvious," I said sharply. I was flustered and upset over the thought of me going to Sekkitass. The Eggstone's memories had been clear enough about that particular rite. I'd managed to avoid it before by running away faster than they could catch me.
Vance watched me, his eyes narrowing. "Why are you upset now?"
"Because they just threatened to sacrifice me to their other god. I barely escaped it before. I was hoping that was one tradition they had changed."
"Sacrifice?" he asked, incredulously.