Into the Storm d-1

by Taylor Anderson

  “Their version of ‘here be monsters,’ I bet,” Garrett offered.

  “The Western Sea is vast and deep,” Adar said. “And there are monsters there. That is why the enemy hugs the coast and why they have taken this long to find us-to conquer their way to us-it would seem.”

  Matt nodded. “That’s exactly right. They seem to have all the territory bordering the… Western Sea, all the way to Singapore, although that seems a relatively new addition. Ceylon’s their closest major concentration. The tree symbols seem to indicate settlements of the People they know about. A few even have blood spots beside them. We think that shows where a battle took place.”

  Keje traced a claw slowly from one spot to the next. “A tree,” he said bleakly. “They use a tree to represent us. How appropriate and how… wrong.” He looked up. “You said you found a human skull as well?” Matt jerked a nod. “I’m sorry to hear it, but how can that be?”

  “The same way it happened to your people, Keje,” Matt replied woodenly. “He was eaten.”

  “Saak-Fas saw it?”

  Matt nodded. “He described a human being brought aboard-‘one like you,’ he said-but he had no idea where it happened.”

  “But how did they… get this person?”

  “We don’t know.” Matt gestured at the chart. “They know where Mahan is-or was. But judging by the position fixes the lizard captain noted on the chart, the ship we took was never anywhere near Mahan’s last position.”

  “You think they got this person from another ship?”

  “That seems likely, as well as the information where Mahan was.”

  “Do they have her?” Keje asked.

  Matt could only shrug. “They will look for her, if they have not found her already.” It wasn’t a question but a statement of fact.

  “They must not have her!” Adar cried. “For them to have the power you possess…” He trailed off.

  “They must not have her,” Matt agreed.

  “What will you do? What must we do?” For the first time since Matt had met Keje, the Lemurian looked afraid.

  “Two things,” Matt responded. “First, we need help. Baalkpan’s in it-they can’t leave. But we need more help from Homes like Big Sal.” He shook his head. “I really don’t know what to do about that. Talk about isolationists! Otherwise, I suggest you put aside your differences, whatever they are, with the Surabayans. It looks like they’re next on the list anyway. The enemy doesn’t know about Baalkpan, but that can’t last. The ships they sent to chart those seas have gone missing, and sooner or later they’ll send more. If we help the Surabayans, it’ll add depth to our defense and might gain us an ally.”

  “And second?”

  “Find Mahan,” Matt said, grimly determined. “We have to get her before the enemy does-or destroy her if they have her.”

  Keje still seemed overwhelmed. Well, that was understandable. “I never guessed the Grik could be so numerous,” he whispered and glanced at Adar. “This map shows lands we never even knew to exist and all are in the realm of this evil!” He looked sadly at their faces. “Yesterday was a great day. A great victory. Or so we thought. Now I see it was less than nothing compared to that arrayed against us. We’ve won nothing! The fight has not begun!” He gestured vaguely toward the unseen Grik prize floating nearby. “Together, we’ve destroyed ten of their ships only to learn that is nothing compared to the strength they have! They were mere scouts!” He slammed his hand down upon the chart, claws extended. “Mapmakers!”

  “It doesn’t look good,” Matt agreed, “but we have won a victory. We’ve learned what we’re up against, which is more than they know.” He smirked. “More than I’ve ever known.”

  Keje snorted derisively. “Yes, they face a disorganized mob that numbers less than one to their ten. An unpleasant surprise that will be!”

  “No!” said Matt sharply, standing. “They face soldiers! Brave and determined! We boarded their ship with half the numbers we’d hoped-my fault-and fought them one to four! Our losses were grim, but we killed ten for one-in their kind of fight, not ours. They also face cannon, which will be a very unpleasant surprise. And they face Walker. While she floats, she’ll never abandon you! I’ve seen evil before-at least I thought I had- but nothing in my experience compares with what I saw in the bottom of that ship. We’ve been friends and allies since we met, but honestly, I’ve often regretted getting my people involved in your war. And that’s how I thought of it: your war. I felt kind of like a mercenary, and my men didn’t sign up for that. But after last night-and not just because of the human skull-this war against the Grik became just as much ours as yours.” He sat, leaning back in his chair.

  “Now, we can sit around and mope and whine ‘woe is me’ or we can get ourselves in gear, make the tough decisions, and figure out how to win!” He saw Adar’s predatory grin and knew he’d finally won him over. The Sky Priest probably had more swing with the other Homes than Keje did anyway.

  But Keje wasn’t out. He leaned forward. “Were you not overwhelmed when first you learned the odds?” Matt was guiltily aware that he’d been “overwhelmed” for the last six months. But this time it was different. The steamroller was coming and his tricycle had a flat, but he’d thrown the blindfold off. Keje huffed. “You’ll hear no whining from me!”

  Matt stood with Sandra on Big Sal’s battlement, leaning on the rail and watching the setting sun. Below, the victory celebration was still under way. Time enough later for the full extent of the challenge to make itself known. For now, let them enjoy themselves. They’d earned it. Adar swore the weather would remain fine for several days at least, so Matt hadn’t ordered the PBY back to Baalkpan. It floated now, bouncing a little on the choppy sea but safe and snug in the sheltering lee of the massive sides of Home. Bradford cut short his safari. For such large creatures, super lizards were surprisingly difficult to find-particularly since his guides had been instructed by Nakja-Mur not to lead him anywhere near one. He’d arrived with the plane and was, even now, examining the “prize” with Spanky, Chief Gray, and a group of Naga’s and Adar’s acolytes. In the middle distance steamed Walker, festively alight from stem to stern but still screening the revelers against any approaching threat. As it should be. As she’d always done.

  Matt blinked and looked around. It struck him odd that he and Sandra would have the vast expanse of Big Sal’s battlement all to themselves. Others had been there-Keje, Garrett, Pete, Jarrik-but he hadn’t noticed when they left. Weird. Neither had spoken for quite some time, enjoying the companionable solitude.

  “It’s so sad about Chack,” Sandra said, breaking the silence.

  “Yeah, Keje’s daughter too. I think she was expecting wedding bells when she saw Chack come aboard.”

  “Her name’s Selass,” Sandra reminded him. “We spoke before we left Baalkpan, and she told me her hopes and the understanding she had with Chack. She wondered what I thought he’d decide.” She shrugged. “I had no idea. Now… she’s in for a rough road. She loves him, but they can’t mate, no matter what he had decided.”

  “Why not? I thought ’cats got married and unmarried whenever they felt like it.”

  “Sometimes, but they seem to take ‘sickness and health’ pretty seriously. Selass can’t ‘divorce’ Saak-Fas until he’s well-which I doubt he’ll ever be-or until he dies, of course.”

  It had been a heart-wrenching moment. Selass greeted Chack with a joyful embrace, but then they hoisted Saak-Fas aboard. She had her answer-the only one possible-and Chack limped into the crowd while Selass desperately called his name.

  They were quiet for a long moment, and then Sandra suddenly giggled. “That Silva and Risa sure carried on-right in front of everybody- when he came aboard! They’ll have everybody thinking they are married if they don’t cool it!” She looked thoughtful. “That’s probably gone far enough. They’ll run it into the ground. Besides, I never figured Silva for the type to ride a joke down in flames. He’s already got Chack’s goat. They
’re just doing if for attention now.”

  Matt groaned, remembering the embarrassing spectacle. “I don’t want to hear that man’s name! As far as I’m concerned, he’s restricted to the ship for the rest of his life! We’ll see how married he thinks he is then!”

  There was another long silence between them, and when Sandra spoke again, her voice was softer, hesitant.

  “I wonder what Chack was going to say? To Selass. I wonder if he’d made up his mind. Would he”-she looked at him, eyes questioning- “have said the same thing you told me yesterday?” Matt looked confused.

  “What, that you’re an idiot?”

  She snorted with laughter, but tears filled her eyes. Without even looking to see if anyone was watching, he took her in his arms.

  “I don’t know what he would have said. None of my business. But I do love you, Sandra Tucker.” He kissed her on the forehead. She shuddered against him.

  “I love you too,” she whispered into his chest. Her breath was warm through the tear-soaked cloth. “What will we do now?”

  “What do you mean?” His voice was husky. “Will we win? Will we ever find other people? Will we even survive?” He raised her chin to look into her shimmering eyes. “Will this be all we ever have?” He kissed her lightly on the lips and she returned it-hard enough to electrify every nerve in his body. For a long while they just clung to one another, each drawing strength and courage to replenish the wells they’d gone to so often. Then he brushed the hair away from her face and wiped the tears from her cheek.

  “Well,” he sighed sadly, “that’s a whole other story, isn’t it?”

  Far across the water, nearly a dozen men leaned against the safety chain beside the number three gun on the amidships deckhouse. There were only two pairs of binoculars among them and they were making the rounds.

  “It’s about damn time,” Silva grumped.

  “Yeah,” agreed Felts. “Way to go, Skipper!”

  Silva looked at Laney. “Fork ’em over, snipe.” Grumbling, Laney handed him two wrinkled cigarettes-careful to keep his distance so close to the rail. Cigarettes were the closest thing to money anybody had, and nobody ever smoked them anymore. Till now. Silva handed one to Felts and lit them both with his Zippo. They took long drags and exhaled contentedly.

  “What are you so damn happy about?” Laney snarled, watching his wager go up in smoke. “There’s only two dames in the whole goddamn world, far’s we know, and they’re both took!”

  Silva looked at Felts and rolled his eyes. “Snipes’ brains are like weeds. Not enough sunlight belowdecks for ’em to grow.” He looked at the machinist’s mate. “And some are stupider than others. It’s like this, see? The Skipper and Lieutenant Tucker are nuts about each other-which everybody knows, but nobody’s supposed to. But they ain’t gonna do anything about it until they find dames for the rest of us.” He shook his head. “Couple’a dopes. Anyway, that’s a mighty incentive for ’em to find us some, don’t you think?” After a moment, Laney grinned and lit a smoke of his own.

  Eventually, the binoculars found their way to the Mice. No one knew why they were there. It was actually kind of cool on deck and they’d likely catch their deaths. Regardless, they waited and took their turn peering through the binoculars, one after the other. Then they shuffled off.

  “I wonder,” Gilbert said at last. “Maybe we could marry us one of them monkey-cat gals like Silva did.”

  Isak shook his head. “Won’t work. Silva said the Skipper had his weddin’ annealed, ’er somethin’.” Gilbert looked perplexed.

  “I thought ‘annealed’ means to heat somethin’ red-hot an’ let it cool off on its own so you can bend it.”

  “Yep.”

  Gilbert looked at Silva and cocked his head. “Didn’t work.”

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