Wolfwater
Page 27
Anise tucked a lock of hair behind her ear and stole a glance at Sasha. “I don’t understand what that means.”
“Well, I will start soft first and if you want more, I can go harder—”
Corvin was giving him a dirty look and Anise’s cheeks burned.
“Come on, guys. One time I am not making jokes, and you look at me like I am pervert.”
“You are,” Corvin replied.
“Okay, but I am trying real hard to make Anise comfortable around me. I promised not to flirt or make joke.”
Corvin selected a new color from his holographic palette. “Maybe it’s just in your blood. You can’t help it.”
“Maybe. Sorry, Anise.” He increased dermal resistance, then handed her the tablet, pointing at the envelope icon. “Okay. Touch it. You tell me if it is hard enough for you.”
Corvin’s right. I just can’t help myself.
Her finger sank into the holographic envelope and she gasped. “It’s like—like touching water.”
“Yeah, kinda. Okay now, see? My message is showed to you.”
Anise ran her hand through the projected message, then traced each letter with her finger. “This is amazing. I can touch your words.”
“Yeah.”
She beamed at him. “I like this. Thank you. I will be most happy to speak to you this way.”
“That is great. Now, I fix your tablet so you don’t got to type message back to me. It would take too long to teach you. You can talk into tablet instead and it will make message—that is what Corvin do—or you can write with stylus.”
Sasha removed the stylus and hit the reply button. A holographic sheet of beige paper appeared below the tablet. He set it on the desk, then gave Anise the stylus. “Okay, now, you can write to me. Pretend is pen and real paper.”
Anise frowned, but set the stylus against the holographic page and wrote, “Dear Sasha.” Her eyes widened at the smooth, ink-like words appearing.
“If you and Corvin want to write to each other too, I can set it up. You go ahead and write me letter for practice. Don’t got to be long or anything. Then you push ‘Send.’ I want to use drone some more and look for retrieval party.”
Drone D2 was currently hovering in standby above a large sailboat, which rocked in the current at the edge of a Northern beach. Sasha’s heart had leapt at the sight, and he ached to hear Dusty’s husky voice and look into her beautiful face. Finding her among the millions of trees in the dense evergreen forest would be extremely difficult, though. Maybe if he could find the Maralti tribe, he could guess the general path back to the sailboat and intercept the party.
An email icon popped up on his tablet and he clicked it.
Thank you for me teaching me this. It helps me a lot. I’m going to go downstairs now, but I want to write to you again. Is that okay?>
Sasha turned to Anise, who was clutching the tablet to the front of her floral dress. “Yes, of course. You are not going to downstairs because I make you upset again, right?”
“No, Sasha. I’m going to go help the followers make food for this evening. We have a community meal once a week. You and Corvin are welcome to join later, if you feel up to it, but I’m sure you will have to field a lot of questions.”
“That would be okay. I already told some of them I could answer questions today.”
Anise nodded and left the table. She lingered at Corvin’s bed, watching him paint, then disappeared into the hallway.
Sasha climbed into bed, reclining on the pillows as he sped the drone past the gray, rocky beach. It crested treetops, climbing higher for a wider view. The forest stretched to infinity in all directions. How had Dusty and his friends even found the Maralti? Or did they? What if they were still wandering around, lost? Especially since their tablet broke. There would be no way to look up aerial shots. Hopefully Gentlewave was a good navigator.
An email appeared in the corner of the screen; Sasha put the drone in standby, and clicked on the message.
He laughed. “Okay, this is very unfair now. I am trying hard not to flirt, because I don’t want Anise to be uncomfortable, but now she is flirting back to me. She is almost as bad as you, Corvin.”
“Well, I guess you were right—she’s more comfortable writing notes. Dewbell likes to write me saucy messages on little papers and leave them for me to find.” Corvin smiled.
“You guys always have notes and pencils all over your house. I, er, sneaked look at one once, but it was only shopping list for market.”
Sasha typed out a message:
After a beat, there was a reply.
He grinned.
Sasha replied and continued his scan of the enormous forest. He pulled back for a higher view, the trees growing hazy through thin layers of clouds. After a while of zooming in and squinting between the trees, then pulling back out and cursing, he spotted a large clearing filled with white teepees and yurts, smoke curling up from a huge bonfire in the center of the camp.
“I found them!”
Corvin looked up, eyes wide. “You did? Owl?”
“No, I mean, I found Maralti tribe. I hope is right one.”
Sasha stood, moving to Corvin’s bed and sitting on the edge. Corvin leaned toward the screen.
Navigating the drone around the camp revealed no clues if the retrieval party had been there, but several Maralti had noticed the drone, talking and pointing.
“I think you need that stealth mode now,” Corvin said.
“Well, nothing I can do about that. But maybe I can just ask these guys if they were here? You think they speak American?”
Corvin shrugged.
Sasha turned on the microphone, dipping the drone toward the camp.
“Hey. Don’t be afraid. My name is Sasha. You guys have some people come here on—”
A rock hit the drone and it careened to one side, the view through the tablet screen swinging wildly.
“Whoa! Hey, wait—”
Another rock glanced off the drone’s screen, sending a crack spidering across the front.
“Get out of there, Sasha!” Corvin said.
“I can’t! Control is not working right now.”
The drone swerved toward the ground, imparting a view of angry-faced Maralti, their sharpened black teeth bared in grimaces.
“Holy shit, Sasha. I hope Owl and everyone are okay. These people don’t look nice.”
Sasha’s chest tightened as he tried to regain control of the drone. What if these guys were the ones that broke the tablet? What if they ate everyone?
“Please do not hit this drone! It is not bad thing. I am only flying it. Trying to find my wife. Her name is Dusty. She is short, with brown hair, and have big pink coat.”
The grumbles and shouts of the Maralti dissolved into whispers. Someone kicked the drone with a moccasin-clad foot and it lurched into a tree. Several error messages flashed on the screen.
“Blyat! Stop that! Please, I am only trying to find Dusty and my friends. She go with other woman, named Owl, and two Islander guys.”
An older woman, her red braids streaked with white, stepped up to the wobbling, sputtering drone and took it in her hands, peering at the screen. People behind her crowded around for a better look.
“Please, I am looking for Dusty.”
The woman said something to one of the onlookers but it was hard to understand.
“Can they even hea
r you?” Corvin asked.
Sasha brought up a string of red error messages and scrolled through, grumbling. “No. Everything is fucked. They can’t hear or see us, and flight control module is messed up. Also, battery life draining faster than normal. Even in sunlight, is not going to keep charge.”
The woman was talking again. It sounded a bit like the Islanders’ version of American, which was already hard for Sasha to understand, but slurred together.
“Can you understand her?” Sasha asked.
“She said something like, ‘It’ll be better for watching the… graffal? Groth’nal?’ Then she said she was going to stick it with ‘the other monitors.’”
Sasha frowned. “How she even know what monitor is? They don’t got computers. You sure is what she said?”
“Pretty sure.”
Their view of the Maralti and evergreen trees disappeared as the woman hugged the drone to her chest. The sound of crunching leaves and more conversation came through the speakers. The drone turned, revealing a row of tree stumps with clunky, Old World monitors sitting on top.
“What the hell is that for?” Corvin asked.
“I don’t know, but I guess they do know what monitor is.”
The drone was deposited on an empty tree stump, facing the forest, then the footsteps receded.
“Looks like we just completed their weird ritual ring.” Corvin took the tablet and squinted into the screen.
Sasha pounded his fist into the mattress. “Dammit!”
Now he would need to try the other drone and pray that it worked. He’d have to sync it to his tablet all over again. All he wanted to do was race to Dusty. Where was she? Did she meet these people? Did they go to some other tribe? Maybe she wasn’t at a tribe at all, and he’d need to painstakingly comb through the forest for her.
He jerked at his hair. But I need my baby now. I don’t want to wait any longer. I want to go home, and I want her home with me.
“Hey, it’s okay.”
“No it’s not, Corvin.” Sasha’s face contorted. “I want Dusty.” He stood and picked up the other drone. It hit the table with a heavy thud, rattling the tools and electronics. Sasha jabbed the power button. It didn’t turn on. It had been sitting in the sun, the little solar panel tilted to the window, so it should have a full charge. Something inside was broken.
Thanks a lot, Laurel.
Sasha’s nostrils flared, and he forced himself to take a calming breath, but it didn’t help. What a clusterfuck all of this was, and it was all his fault.
Why did I want an evening away from Dusty? Because she gets mad when I leave wet towels on the bed? What’s wrong with me? I didn’t appreciate the love of my life like I should have, and it turned into me almost getting raped, Corvin nearly drowning, and my wife lost in the forest. I’m a screw up through and through. Nothing’s going to change no matter how hard I try.
He put his face in his hands and sniffled loudly.
“Hey, someone’s coming back,” Corvin said.
“Doesn’t matter. Dusty is not there. If she was, she would have seen drone and know it was me. And we can’t even ask those people if they seen her or if she left.”
“These Maralti are weirdos. They’re polishing the drone screen.”
“Let them. I don’t care. Nothing I can do about that drone now.” Sasha rubbed his face.
No time for being upset. I have to fix this drone.
He unscrewed the back panel of the drone’s shell and dropped it on the table. He pawed through the wires and circuitry in the back, trying to find what might be amiss.
Corvin picked up a pad of paper and scribbled on it, the tablet propped up on his leg. He tilted his ear toward the screen, then wrote something down.
“What are you doing?” Sasha asked.
“Making notes on their conversation.”
“Why?”
“Well, I would think if the retrieval party came through here, some of them would talk about it eventually, don’t you think? I mean, having a group of Islanders and southern folks come to your tribe to take a kid back with them isn’t an everyday occurance, right? Maybe they can give us some clues.”
“That is nice idea, but probably waste of time.”
“Not like I have anything else to do. Maybe I can help.”
Sasha smiled weakly. “Thanks. But that drone going to die after while. Power is draining.”
Corvin shrugged, tucking a lock of dark hair behind his ear. “Then I’ll listen until they leave or the power drains.”
The more Sasha fiddled with the drone, the more things seemed to be broken. He dropped his pliers on the table, his nose stinging and jaw tight. Maybe he needed a break.
Corvin was murmuring to himself, tapping the end of his pen against his lips and staring at his notebook page.
“What are you doing?” Sasha asked.
“Trying to translate some of these lines. Those two Maralti guys left some time ago, and I wrote down most of what they said, but some of the words were difficult to understand. And I didn’t want to say something yet, but I’m quite sure the retrieval party was there.”
Sasha stood, chest constricting. “How do you know?”
“Hang on. I just have a couple more words to work out, and I’ll read it to you.” Corvin frowned, crossing out a word and writing a new one. He glanced at Sasha and cleared his throat.
“What? What is it?”
Corvin put a finger on the page. “I’ll let you decide what you think this means:
‘When’s Dorhn’li getting back?’
‘No. I dunno.’
‘How long’s it take to go east?’
‘Depends on how far you need to go.’
‘Think he’ll come back with the two boys?’
‘Yeah. Dorhn’li. Couple wolfmen not gonna stop him. And a preggo girl was really riled up.’
‘Why?’
‘‘Cause she was sold in Hammerlink too.’”
Sasha’s breath caught. ‘Cause she was sold in Hammerlink too. “Dusty. They were there?”
Corvin nodded. “Heading east to catch up to wolfmen. Do you know what a wolfman is?”
“Yeah. Dusty warn me about them before we go to Hammerlink. You think retrieval party is chasing these guys? For why? They got the kids? And… and what? Going to sell them in Hammerlink?”
“Maybe. If so, they aren’t coming back yet. You’re going to have to send that new drone farther east to find them, I think.”
Sasha rubbed his face and paced the room. “Well, it is direction, anyway. But I can’t get damn thing to work. I will, though. Have to. If I can find them, and they got problem with this mission, this drone got guns and ammo, baby. I can help. Have to get it fixed.” He peered out the window at the late afternoon sky. The slightest kiss of orange tinged the bellies of low-hanging clouds. “But it’s too late for searching today anyway. Think I need to take break right now. Thank you, Corvin. It was smart idea.”
Corvin stared at Sasha gravely, as though waiting for him to say something else.
“What?”
“Did you catch the other bit about Dusty?”
“What bit?”
Looking at his paper again, Corvin read, “‘And a preggo girl was really riled up.’”
“What is that? ‘Preggo?’”
“Pregnant, Sasha.”
He stared at Corvin, struggling to process the word. The pregnant girl was really riled up, ‘cause she was sold in Hammerlink too. The pregnant girl.
Sasha rubbed his face, wanting to say something, though he wasn’t sure what. He sank onto the bed opposite Corvin.
“Are you okay?” Corvin asked.
“Think you wrote that down wrong.”
“No. I didn’t.”
Sasha breathed rapidly, twisting the sheets in his quivering hand. “She got my baby in her?”
“Sounds that way. Congrats, Daddy.”
He lay back on the bed, staring at the shadowed ceiling. “Holy shit.”
&
nbsp; I’ve gotta fix that drone.
19
~ Bracelets from Bones ~
Owl’s stomach grumbled as she stared at Merriweather. He popped a stuffed mushroom in his mouth and chewed gleefully, the campfire throwing gruesome shadows across his busted face.
I hope you choke.
Dusty held a jug of water awkwardly in her taped hands, taking a drink. Some of it dribbled down her chin and dripped onto her filthy pants. Owl wasn’t sure how Dusty had held up this long. They’d walked all day, rarely stopping for a break. Owl had been used to that, on her travels with Trav, but not with an empty stomach and she certainly hadn’t done it while carrying a child. The walking was slow-going too, as they traipsed over uneven terrain, bushes, and rubble. Merriweather refused to use the road, as people with duct-taped wrists tended to attract attention.
Hopefully it was better that way, though. Owl tried to step firmly in the dirt as she walked and flatten as many weeds and flowers as possible, leaving a trail for Dorhn’li. She’d also snapped a couple of tree branches when no one was looking. Jon’kin had done his share too, scraping a small rock across trees and boulders, leaving white marks in his wake. Hopefully coupled with the faint cart tracks, it was enough.
Dusty handed the water jug to Owl and she drank greedily. Maybe it would fill the hollow pit in her stomach a little. Bart took the jug and offered it to Jon’kin, then looked back at Owl. He stared for a moment, then produced a jar of pears from his backpack and unscrewed the lid. He dug a slice out with his stubby fingers and pushed it into Owl’s mouth. She jerked back, then sighed, chewing and savoring the sweet syrup.
Maybe chewing up a dandelion in front of him actually gained me some sympathy.
“What are you wasting your food for, Bart?” Merriweather asked, his mouth full. He passed his jar of mushrooms to Brandy, who was picking her filed teeth with a long fingernail.
Bart held out another pear slice and Owl took it with her teeth. “Sometimes it pays to be nice.”
“Oh? Why’s that? Snarky got something you want?”
“Yeah, and maybe if I’m nice about it, I won’t get bit.”