“I am Ara, mate to Mot and daughter of the Great Hunter, Zan,” Ara said, relaxing only slightly. She could see that the female carried an egg.
“Mot,” she said, blocking from the others, “why have you brought her here?”
“I found her with Alex. The caves were collapsing, Ara.”
While Mot had been searching for Alex, Ara had done some early morning reconnaissance of her own. She had been to the area of the slide and had found only one other male Arzat who had survived. She watched him carefully from a distance for some time as he picked through the rubble, carefully blocking her thoughts and staying down wind so the Arzat would not become aware of her.
Eventually the Arzat had climbed the rock face and had disappeared into the cave’s entrance. Ara waited, and when he finally returned, she had made the dangerous move of trying to probe his mind undetected. What she had found there had been disturbing.
“As far as I have been able to tell, there is only one other Arzat from your clan who has survived the great shaking of the earth,” Ara said to Ma’ar, “and his name is not Sa’te. It is Za’at.”
“That’s the fucker that took me captive!” Alex said, startled.
“What about the other humans, Ara?” Tom asked.
Ara shook her head up and down slowly. “As far as I could tell, those that lived through the earthquake did not survive the night, Tom Pilot. The Arzat was helping the injured into the Great Void.”
* * *
Moses watched as the big lizard slowly jumped down from a boulder to his level. The tracker had no weapon of any kind. Even his prized long knife that he usually wore strapped to his leggings had been lost in the earthquake. Now it was just a matter of waiting for the inevitable. He was helpless.
The lizard approached slowly, his strange red and yellow-flecked eyes checking all around the area. His reptilian gaze eventually fell back to Moses. Moses knew he was dead.
Moses could see the creature’s tongue dart in and out of its mouth, as if it were able to do so without even parting its own lips. It stood over him, then squatted near enough that he could smell the creature’s breath. The beast cocked its head and continued looking carefully into Moses’s eyes.
Za’at regarded the smooth-skin carefully, while continuing to sniff the area for any other signs of life. He felt the ground and could detect nothing but the movement of a few of the umans’ arsas in the far distance. It’s just the two of us now, he thought, still numb from the loss of his entire clan.
Za’at knew that there were other clans of Arzats, but it was highly unlikely that he would ever be allowed to join them. Were he a young and attractive female, perhaps. But he was anything but that. From now on, he was on his own. This is my punishment, he thought, my own banishment. The Elders had been right. Stay away from the umans!
Za’at looked the smooth-skin male over once more, just to be sure the creature was totally defenseless, and shoved his killing stick back into its scabbard. He slowly rose up and lifted one of the rocks that had pinned the uman’s leg. He tossed it to the side and grunted, then sprang to the top of a large boulder. Do you communicate with your mind as well little uman? Za’at wondered, looking back down and directly into the creature’s white-ringed eyes. Strangely, he suddenly found he didn’t care.
Moses couldn’t believe he was still alive. The rock was gone and his leg was free. He drew in a deep breath. Surely he is going to kill me now, he thought, looking up at the giant that was towering over him. Then, somewhere in his mind he heard something distinct. Not his own thought, but the thought of another.
“It looks as though we are in the same predicament smooth-skin. You would do well to never cross my path again.”
Moses watched as the lizard stayed on the boulder for a moment, peering down at him. Then, in the flick of an eye, the lizard disappeared.
CHAPTER 45
ACCEPTANCE
At first light, Maria had gone on a reconnaissance mission of her own, her newborn tucked under her arm, looking for her father and the other warriors. Though she was still somewhat weak, the birth of her child seemed to have given her a burst of strength. She knew she had to act quickly if the child was going to survive.
When she had reached the area of the giant landslide, Maria carefully looked around, astonished at the complete destruction. An avalanche of large rocks had simply let loose from the cliff’s face. There were dead lizards and dead warriors everywhere, many of them quite hard to spot in the rubble and the long shadows of daybreak. Most, she imagined, would be impossible to find at all. Half the mountain had collapsed. She didn’t have to look long to conclude that probably no one would have survived the shower of rock.
But somewhere, Maria knew, one of Abraham’s men would have been left to guard the horses, and she had gone to try to find him. What she encountered instead was only the grisly remains of his decapitated body.
Fortunately, several of the horses were still wandering aimlessly around in the woods, not the least of which was her father’s prized mount. She whistled as her father would have and the animal immediately came to her. With Socrates she was more easily able to approach and string several of the other nervous mounts together, taking as many as she reasonably could in case any of them were to become lame or sick.
Once the horses were secure, she scavenged some leather from a dead warrior’s clothing and quickly fashioned a sling for her baby, then remounted Socrates and headed back to find Tom and the others with the horses in tow.
* * *
Maria looked at Tom as she rode in and appraised the new female and the other lizards. Somehow, another of those had also been added to the count—another female if she were any judge.
“Amanos,” she said aloud, nodding her head in the direction of the rising sun and clearly indicating that it was time to leave.
Without dismounting, she rode further into the clearing and expertly passed the reins of the first two horses to Tom and the woman she assumed was his mate, her own dark blue eyes making direct contact with the woman’s lighter blue shade.
Alex accepted the reins as if she were in a trance. The girl’s demeanor and her piercing blue eyes were shocking and quite unafraid. Apparently, this strange young woman also had a baby slung tightly to her chest.
“Who the heck is that?” she finally managed, still shocked at the woman’s sudden appearance.
“Ah . . . Alex . . . meet Maria,” Tom said awkwardly, almost losing control of the horse Maria had just assigned to him.
Neither female responded.
Maria turned and expertly moved toward Ara, Mot, and the unknown lizard, and offered them the reins of the next three mounts in the string. The animals spooked momentarily, but Maria quickly calmed them with a series of gentle commands in a language that sounded to Alex like some hybrid of Spanish.
Mot and Ara looked at each other then back at Maria. They shook their heads up and down almost simultaneously. “I don’t think we are ready for this, Maria,” the female Arzat told her. “We will walk.”
Maria shrugged her shoulders, looked briefly at the other Arzat, and deftly tied the horses back to the train. She watched critically as Tom and the new female mounted. When they were ready, she turned Socrates back toward the trail she had come in on and began to lead the way out.
Tom looked back at Mot and Ara. “Are you really going to be okay to walk?”
“Yes, Tom Pilot, at least for the moment,” Mot said nervously. He still remembered his first encounter with the beasts at Alex’s ranch just after she had found him. The introduction had not gone well. The animals had been nervous and twitchy. Perhaps the horses had instinctively known that Mot would have been just as happy to eat them as to use them for transport.
Tom was going to push the issue, but he could tell by Mot’s tone that the Arzat was in no mood for a crash course in riding. “Alex, you ready?” he asked.
“Yep,” she replied, turning her horse and giving it a nudge. She looked up the trail a
t the mysterious female. The young woman had already practically disappeared in front of the long train of horses she was leading. “Thomas . . .”
“Yes, Alex,” Tom said, easing his horse along just behind Alex’s.
“Really, who the fuck is that?” she said, nodding in the direction of Maria. “And where in the hell did she get all of these horses?”
Tom shrugged. “It’s a long story Alex.”
Alex let the comment pass. She was suddenly too tired and too relieved to pursue the conversation any further at the moment. There would be plenty of time for that later.
I still cannot believe Mot found me, she thought again, her hips moving in unison to the motion of her horse. She could instantly tell that the animal was well trained and she relaxed a bit. Alex had grown up riding bareback, so the lack of a saddle didn’t bother her in the least. It certainly feels better than riding in some precarious position over the shoulders of an Arzat, she thought.
She wondered for a moment about Za’at. It was hard to believe that almost none of the other Arzats had survived. I wonder if he will come looking for me? Fortunately, with Mot and Ara around, she was no longer as concerned.
Alex turned and looked back down the trail and a chill passed through her. None of the three Arzats had moved. It seemed as if they were waiting for something.
* * *
Mot and Ara watched as the long string of horses moved past them and further into the forest. It was clear to Mot that his mate was thinking about something, but she had blocked her thoughts from him.
Ara was disturbed. She knew that if she allowed the female to come with them, she was essentially accepting her into their strange new clan. The idea of it did not please her at all. She looked at the female and judged her to be a season or two younger. Even more irritating was the fact that she was actually quite attractive. The female had the same golden tone to her skin and eyes as her own—the distinguishing characteristic of any well-bred Arzat female.
What would you wish, Ara, daughter of Zan, if the situation were reversed, she thought. And, if Alex, daughter of Simon, could allow another human female into the clan as easily as she had, then why shouldn’t I allow this female as well?
Ma’ar stood, carefully clutching her egg, her own golden eyes momentarily meeting the gaze of the more senior female. She looked down at the ground, praying to the Great Creator for acceptance.
“Come, Ma’ar, daughter of Ta’o,” Ara finally said.
Alex glanced back at the Arzats several times, trying to look past Tom, turning as far on her horse as she could without risking falling. They hadn’t moved and she was worried.
Would Ara propose that they strike out on their own? Alex knew it would make sense for them to do so in so many ways, and she knew Ara must have at least considered it. Compared to Arzats, she thought, all any humans could be to them in this kind of world would be . . . well . . . a pain in the ass.
Especially you, Alex?
Yes, Simon, especially me, she admitted to herself.
The Arzats remained in the clearing until she almost lost sight of them. She was just about to stop and turn back when, finally, to her great relief, she saw them start to follow.
Alex turned and looked forward again. The mysterious female was now far ahead, leading the long string of horses through the forest expertly. There were now several lengths between Alex’s horse and the last in the string. She gave her own mount a nudge to speed him along.
Then, another thought suddenly occurred to her. I wonder if Maria . . . No, that would be too much of a coincidence.
“Hey, Tom?”
“Yes, Alex?”
“Is that woman who I think she is? I mean . . . Is that the woman who my Arzat was really after?”
“Yes, Alex. She escaped a massacre. That’s how we . . . er, I should say, Ara . . . found her. She was trying to hide from the Arzat who captured you.”
“Hum . . . Interesting . . .”
The horses passed over a ridge and began down a path that was dropping in elevation. The forest opened up, and Alex noticed that they were heading east.
“Hey, Tom?”
“Yes, Alex.”
“Do you realize that we are not speaking aloud?”
“Yes, Alex.”
“I mean—like we are totally telepathing with each other!” Alex spun around and looked back at Tom. His eyes were shining back at her.
“Yes, Alex,” Tom said silently, smiling.
Alex looked forward toward the mysterious young woman leading them. Her long, black hair had just been caught by an early morning breeze and glistened in the sunlight.
“Then you better hurry up and learn how to block, bucko. That’s all I have to say.”
CHAPTER 46
FIRE FROM NOTHING
Despite his reluctance to do so, Za’at had returned to the caves once again. There was work to do, and he was the only one left who could do it. The Arzats’ bodies needed to be burned if their souls were ever going to have the opportunity to meet the Creator. Za’at wasn’t sure why this suddenly seemed so important to him—but it was.
He knew from the outset it was an impossible task. Many of the bodies were buried deep within the caves or in the rubble outside, but he was determined to try his best to properly send as many as he could into the afterlife. His mate, Va’a, at least, deserved that. Before he had left on the hunt, she had informed him that she had once again conceived. Their first offspring had emerged from its egg malformed, so it had immediately been put to death.
Za’at did his best not to think about that. He busied himself for most of the day, organizing the Arzat bodies in the chamber and retrieving as many of the dead hunters as he could from the landslide. Just as he had thought, many, unfortunately, were impossible to dig out. They would have to remain where they were.
Occasionally, he would stop and test the earth. Once, he had heard unusual rumbling in the ground like that of the smooth-skins’ arsas moving over the land. Twice he thought he had actually sniffed the scent of the uman Alex in the air, but the stench of the dead overwhelmed his senses, and he dismissed the idea as his head playing tricks on him.
Za’at realized that on his own, there was simply no way that he could retrieve all of the Arzats in the chamber and lower them to the fire. His only option would be to pull them out and hurl them into it from the cliff. Better to burn that way, than to slowly rot and never have the chance at uniting with the Great Creator, he reasoned.
At the base of the cliff, he gathered a substantial pile of dead wood together and prepared to light an enormous pyre. When everything was ready, he returned to the Great Fire of the chamber to obtain the last of its embers, but he found he had waited too long—there was nothing left of it. He spent some time desperately digging through the dark charcoal, sure that some remnant of the fire must have survived, but he could find no sign of it in the warm black ash. He combed and sifted carefully—nothing.
Finally, completely defeated, he left the chamber and crawled out onto a newly formed ledge near the entrance. Za’at squatted, watching as the fiery orb of Qu’aa dropped to the horizon, thinking about the chain of events that had placed him there.
He looked up into the darkening sky and pleaded with the Great Creator for some sign, but his request was met only with the ominous cry of a group of flying scavengers circling overhead. Otherwise, there was only the absolute stillness of death.
Why have you done this to me, he asked, as he stared out into the oncoming night. More silence.
Za’at sniffed the air and flicked. Soon, it would be totally dark. Other predators would smell the rotting remains of both the Arzats and the umans and come for them. Now, there was nothing more he could do to prevent it.
Eventually his eyes drifted down to the base of the cliff where he had built the pyre and where he had gathered the dead hunters that he had found. This is my fault. he thought. This is all my fault. The death of Ack, the slaughter of my hunting party, and eve
n the earthquake . . . the Great Creator has spoken. He has left me here to suffer the consequences. This is my punishment.
For a moment, the thought occurred to him to simply jump. You deserve to die, Za’at, son of the Great Hunter Qua. All for the pursuit of . . .
Suddenly, Za’at was on his feet. He clambered down the rough edges of the cliff’s face until he reached the pyre. Searching the ground, he found two small pieces of dry wood—one relatively flat and one round and relatively straight. He tapped a stone to form an indentation in the flat piece, exactly as Alex the uman had shown him, and placed the end of the straight piece against it. Holding the flat piece with his feet, he began to rotate the stick back and forth against the indentation with his long fingers.
At first, nothing happened. Za’at stopped and tested the wood. It was warm to the touch, but far from fire. He tried again, rubbing his hands back and forth more swiftly, searching his memory for the specific technique the female uman had used. He worked so hard that he found he was breathing heavily. Yes, his head told him, this is how she had done it.
Somewhere, deep in the night, a var cried out.
Za’at redoubled his effort and focused all of his remaining energy on the small stick in his hands. Still, nothing seemed to be happening. Then, finally, some smoke appeared. When the flat piece began to show more and more smoke, he quickly removed he stick. To his amazement, a small dot of red had appeared on the end of it. Za’at carefully blew and the red dot glowed hotter. An ember! He thrust it into some dry grass and continued to blow. A flame burst forth and Za’at immediately busied himself, feeding it smaller pieces of dry wood. When the fire had become substantial, he pushed it against the pyre. The larger pieces eventually caught and soon the entire base of the cliff was ablaze.
When Za’at finally stepped back, he realized that Qu’aa had long set. The sky was completely dark and stars were showing. The fire was enormous now. The large pieces of trees he had set into its base had caught and were roaring with life, sending plumes of sparks into the sky.
IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) Page 28