But one problem still plagued him—how would he ever explain the female? He had returned to the uman camp essentially to recapture Ack’s murderer and to right the wrong of losing her in the first place. Now Za’at had a female uman captive all right, but she was the wrong one! He wondered if Baa and the other hunters would know the difference. And, he wondered, would it be right to claim that she was the one who had taken Ack’s life now that she has saved mine? It was all so confusing. He turned again to look back at the female. Really, he thought, she looks like just about any other smooth-skin.
“We are almost there, little uman,” he said aloud, unlocking his mind so that she could hear his thoughts. Za’at had been consciously blocking for some time, now very much aware that the female was very good at mindreading.
“The caves are just over that hill.” He awkwardly pointed his killing stick with his bad arm indicating the exact direction. Za’at could sense that the female had stopped.
“My name is Alex, daughter of the Great Hunter Simon. You would do well to refer to me by my proper name, Za’at, son of Qua!”
Alex was both excited and frightened. She knew she was about to enter the proverbial lion’s den—in her case, a cave full of living breathing Arzats. As a paleontologist, this was something that was beyond her wildest dreams. Not only was she about to see how Za’at and the other Arzats actually lived now, she was also about to see how they probably lived sixty-five million years or so ago. They were the only known intelligent dinosaurs from the Cretaceous! The thought of it was incredible. But, she also knew that if she didn’t take charge immediately, she would almost certainly be walking into a death trap. Thank god Mot and Ara taught me so much about Arzat protocol and culture, she thought. That knowledge just might save me.
She turned and looked back down the mountain, wondering again if Tom and her two Arzat friends were anywhere near. Just maybe, she thought, with some luck, I can negotiate my way out of this mess and maybe even get some help finding them.
First, Alex, you need to stay alive, she heard her father say.
Alex spun back toward Za’at and found the Arzat squatting with his palms to the ground. He was also looking back down the mountain.
“Someone is coming this way,” he said, his eyes scanning the forest. He stayed motionless, then sniffed the air and flicked. “Umans.”
Alex’s heart leapt. Maybe Tom and Ara have finally caught up with us. Was it possible? She carefully blocked any thought of it from Za’at.
Za’at continued to monitor the ground and the air. There was the very distinctive scent of several smooth-skins filling his nostrils and the vibrations of many large four-footed beasts surging through his fingertips. “Umans,” he repeated, “many of them and many of their arsas.”
Za’at gave a last glance down the mountain, slung his scabbard over his back, and picked up the cat’s head. “We need to go, Alex, daughter of the Great Hunter Simon.”
* * *
A short while later, the two of them rounded a bend along a well-worn trail.
A high, flat cliff of nearly vertical rock walls several hundred feet high rose from the mountainside. Alex thought the face of it looked like a small version of Yosemite’s famous Half Dome. Below the cliff, a nearly flat sea of large boulders had settled many hundreds of years before, evidence of how the sheer face of it had been created. Virtually in its center, high overhead, Alex spied a large outcropping. As she looked more closely, she noticed several Arzats standing on it, as if they were guarding something. Almost as soon as she had noticed them, they seemed to have noticed her. There was movement.
Za’at also looked up and painfully pulled his hunting stick from its scabbard, raising it into the air. One of the other Arzats signaled back.
“Follow me closely, Alex, daughter of Simon,” he said. “The way to the top is quite steep and may be difficult for you. Should you lose you footing . . .” The Arzat shrugged.
Alex looked back up. Za’at’s meaning was quite clear. It was a long way up. She looked around for any indication of a path but could not see one. How in the hell does he expect me to get up there, she wondered. Heck, for that matter, how is he going to get up there?
Za’at leapt up on a large rock that was right in front of him, almost head high to Alex. “This way,” he said, squatting and offering his good hand to her.
Alex took it and placed her foot on the rock, allowing Za’at to lift her to the top. As he pulled her over, she was relieved to see what looked like a deer trail that immediately started up the cliff’s face. The path was interspersed with small rock outcroppings that looked almost like stairs. Ingenious, she thought, I would have never spotted this access from below or even imagined it was here.
Za’at picked up his trophy and the two of them began the ascent. Alex’s thighs began to burn almost immediately as she and Za’at wound their way higher and higher. She was already exhausted from the morning’s climb up the mountain. This was far worse. Just as the Arzat had warned her, the trail was steep and narrow, barely wide enough for one individual. She was forced to stretch her legs in order to place her feet in what were obviously well worn Arzat footholds.
As she progressed, Alex tried not to look down, but it was impossible. She had to in order to maintain her footing. The higher they got the more Alex clung to the inside rocks, which in some places protruded over the trail so much that they practically pushed her off the cliff’s face. I’m glad I’m not overly afraid of heights, she thought, venturing a look down as she clung to the wall.
They were already more than fifty feet above the trailhead. Below, Alex could see more remnants of the mountain that had slid away at one time or another, creating the cliff she was now struggling to climb. Her Arzat guide, meanwhile, had moved a considerable distance in front of her. She hurried to catch up and almost lost her footing.
“Stay very close, Alex,” Za’at cautioned, pausing to let her catch up. “Arzats are not used to seeing umans with their skin on—and certainly not alive. You will be a curiosity and will be quite threatening to them. In fact, they will probably wish to kill you on sight.”
Then why in the fuck are you bringing me up here, she thought, blocking.
“I will do my best to protect you.”
“I would appreciate that.”
“For the moment, you are my property. You should not be touched without my permission.”
Property my ass, Alex thought, almost slipping again.
“But, Alex, daughter of Simon,” he added, “I owe you only one life. In order to survive in the caves, I fear you might need far more than one.” Za’at disappeared around another sharp bend.
When Alex arrived at the same spot, she found herself on the ledge she had seen earlier. It was much wider than she had expected, twenty or thirty feet, with a large opening in the center. Za’at stood on the edge of it surrounded by three other Arzats, all sporting killing sticks of their own. All of them immediately looked at her, their multi-colored reptilian eyes blazing.
Alex stopped. She glanced at each of them, looking directly into their eyes just for a moment, then averted her own, remembering her lessons.
“Listen carefully, Alex, daughter of Simon,” Za’at said using just his mind. “Do not reveal that you can hear Arzat thoughts. As far as they are concerned, you are just a stupid uman and the current property of Za’at, Great Hunter and son of Qua.”
“I understand,” she said, making sure she was blocking correctly as Ara had taught her so that only Za’at could hear her.
As Za’at moved to the cave entrance, Alex attempted to closely follow him. The other Arzats, who had been momentarily distracted by Za’at’s unusual trophy, immediately drew their hunting sticks and pointed them directly at Alex.
“We cannot allow the uman, Za’at, son of Qua,” one of the hunters stammered, glaring at the strange creature. He was young and had never even seen an uman.
Though he spoke aloud in unintelligible Arzat, Alex could perfec
tly understand him in her mind. All three of the Arzat sentries had their eyes fixed on her. She noted that all of them sniffed and flicked as she got close, which she found somewhat amusing despite the pointed tips of their spears and the fact that her heart was probably beating one hundred eighty. Men, she thought, all the same regardless of species. If she hadn’t been so frightened, she might have laughed.
“Listen, Ta’a! I am Za’at, son of Qua! This is my uman, and I will enter with my property as I please,” Za’at said, his eyes glaring at the younger Arzat.
The Arzat Ta’a and the other two sentries slightly lowered their killing sticks, but did not move.
“Do you wish to challenge me, Ta’a?” Za’at said, venom in his voice. Za’at knew he had to be forceful. Were he guarding the caves, he knew he would never have allowed the uman without first checking with an Elder. “Any of you?”
Ta’a looked back at the uman and then to his comrades. “The Elders will not approve,” the young Arzat said weakly.
“I will deal with the Elders, Ta’a, and you have Ma’al and Ata here to witness. Now move aside and let me pass before I have to teach you to fly.” Za’at moved for the entrance, now apparently unopposed.
Alex took a deep breath, gritted her teeth and followed. As she walked past the Arzat sentries, she tried not to look at them or the sharp tips of their killing sticks that were poised only inches away from her.
CHAPTER 37
PLAN OF ATTACK
Moses had been carefully watching the cliff’s face from the top of a flat, elevated rock. He slid back to the ground like a serpent so that the lizards could not possibly notice his movements were they to glance in his direction.
In addition to his uncanny sense of smell, Moses also had the eyesight of a bird of prey. This particular attribute had just served him well. He had found the lizards’ hiding place. As he had waited and observed the activity around the entrance, he had seen a human female with several of the large beasts. Almost as soon as he had spotted her, she disappeared from view.
Moses was too far away to be absolutely sure, but the woman had to be Maria. After all, who else could it be, he asked himself. Certainly, it was a woman from her camp. Perhaps Abraham was right. Perhaps his daughter was still alive. A sideways smile crossed his face, something between a grimace and a grin.
His success in tracking the wounded lizard from the valley where they had killed the others hadn’t come easily. The beast had tried every trick to throw Moses off his trail—traversing waterways, crossing beds of hard rock, even doubling back on occasion. Moses was actually impressed, though he would never have admitted it. These were not the actions of an unintelligent being. But his quarry had also kept bleeding and leaving small signs here and there that only a tracker with his skill would have spotted. The more signs he had found, the more he had increased his own pace, trying to close.
Moses had left signs for Abraham and the other warriors who were still struggling to follow, hampered by their exhausted horses and the steep terrain. Though he possessed a fine mount of his own, even that animal was no match for his own constant pace when he was tracking. One of the other warriors was leading it for him behind his own tired beast. It would be a pleasant moment when this was all over and he mounted it for the ride back home.
I have found them, he thought again, with a certain bloodthirsty delight. And perhaps, I have found Maria. Abraham will be most pleased.
Moses was personally no less pleased. Several seasons before, his own father—who had been the chief tracker for the tribe prior to Moses—had been brutally killed by the lizards during a hunt for buffalo. Though still quite young at the time, Moses was to have been along for that particular hunt, but a brief illness had caused him to miss it—a fact he had never forgiven himself for. None of the warriors had returned. A search party had eventually discovered their remains, his father’s severed head and skin among them left in a hideous pile with the others.
Perhaps, if I had been there, he had thought regretfully a million times since. At the time, he had vowed revenge, wishing he could personally kill every one of the lizard men on earth. His feelings toward them had never changed. As far as he was concerned, there was no way that the humans and the giant lizards could live in the same world. The sooner they were all eliminated the better.
Since his father’s death, Moses had argued with the tribal father’s countless times to send out hunting parties to attack and eliminate the reptiles completely. But aside from infrequent encounters, usually at a great distance, the warriors rarely even crossed paths with them. Now that it was clear that they had killed again and taken Abraham’s only daughter surely . . .
But aside from his hatred for the lizards, Moses had an even more compelling wish to find Maria alive and to rescue her. Were they to be successful, he was certain that Abraham would finally award him his daughter in marriage. He had always been secretly obsessed with Maria and had been crushed when she had taken another mate and even more upset that Abraham had approved it. Now look what has happened, he thought, with a certain degree of self-satisfaction.
* * *
Abraham and the other warriors were much further down the mountain when Moses returned to meet them. The animals and the men were sweating and gasping from the climb, still nursing their mounts up the steep grade.
“I think I have found the lizards’ hiding place,” he said quietly to Abraham alone.
“How many?”
Moses shook his head. “That is hard to know. There is an opening to a cave on the face of a high cliff. I saw what appeared to be three or four guards and . . .”
“And?”
“Just as I arrived, I saw a human with the lizards—a female.”
“Was it Maria?” Abraham instantly asked.
Moses was not at all sure. He hadn’t even come across the female’s tracks in his pursuit of the wounded lizard, but he wanted to convince Abraham to attack regardless, so he answered carefully. “It was hard to see from the distance—but yes—I think it was Maria.”
Abraham took a deep breath. Suddenly, he once again had hope. They had not found clear evidence of Maria in the pile of human remains—and Moses was rarely mistaken—so perhaps. In any case, there was a woman captive and she was almost certainly from his tribe. Daughter or not, he felt obligated to try something.
“Tell me more about this place,” Abraham asked.
Moses described what he had seen of the entrance on the cliff face.
Abraham frowned. “That will make an attack difficult.” He looked away from Moses, trying to imagine a way to rescue whomever the female was without getting her killed in the process.
“We may not have to attack them directly.”
Abraham paused and faced Moses.
“We may not have to attack. At least not in their lair,” Moses said again. “The cave seems to be set into the side of the mountain. If there is only one entrance . . . like that of a bear . . .” Moses hinted.
“Show me.”
* * *
Abraham looked up at the cliff’s face watching the movement carefully, hoping against hope that he would see some sign of Maria. His eyesight was no longer as good as it once was and it was certainly nowhere near as sharp as Moses’s. He could make out some movement, but really nothing more.
Moses had brought him back to the same rock where the tracker had spotted the lizards’ earlier. They were a considerable distance away, perhaps three or four hundred steps, which might be safe from discovery, but it made observing any details difficult.
“What can you see, Moses?” Abraham asked, squinting at the side of the mountain.
Moses raised his hand over his eyes to shield them from the late afternoon sun. The lizards blended almost perfectly into the rock, so unless they moved, even he had trouble spotting them.
“There are two or three lizards on the ledge. Earlier, I saw the female and another lizard disappear, so there must be an opening up there somewhere.”
Abraham continued to peer up at the mountainside but he could not see anything other than the rock it was made of. He once again cursed his own eyes, which had recently begun to blur images both close and at great distance.
“How high is the entrance?”
“Not more than twenty or thirty steps, Abraham,” Moses said, as he continued to study the cliff. “We could easily reach it with fire arrows.”
Moses was referring to a method the hunters used for rousting animals from caves. Instead of actually entering the cave itself, they would set fires just inside the entrance or lob fire arrows in to smoke the animals out. When their quarry eventually emerged, the hunters would slaughter them.
Prior to returning to Abraham and the other warriors, Moses had carefully scouted the area for evidence of other entrances, but had found none. He knew that only if they could flush the lizards out of the protection of their caves, would they have a chance at saving Maria. With only one entrance, that might be possible. On the other hand, the lizards might just kill her regardless. Even Moses knew it was a poor option, but it was really the only one they had. Storming the entrance and trying to attack the lizards on their own ground inside the caves would be next to impossible. Somehow, they needed to lure them out of their stronghold.
“Wait here and continue to observe,” Abraham told his tracker. “I will go and get the other warriors and return.”
CHAPTER 38
REUNION
Tom plunged his hands and face in the cool mountain water and took another large and satisfying drink. Maria and Ara were close by doing much the same. They had been traveling all day at Ara’s almost impossible pace and both Maria and Tom were exhausted and dehydrated from the almost constant uphill climb through difficult terrain. There was no doubt that in the pursuit of Mot and Alex they were heading for the mountains. The only question was how high they would have to go before they found either one of them.
IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) Page 23