The Burning Ground tst-2

by Jo Clayton

  Xe followed them from the House and into the street.

  Isaho started singing, her voice cutting through the noise from the crowd of Pilgrims. “God has told me,” she sang. “God has spoken, God has promised, the Fence will fall, it falls tonight.”

  When xe heard that, Thann’s stomachs turned to ice. Watching Isaho search faces everywhere for Mam, Baba, and Keleen after they passed through the Gate that first day was sad and troubling, and when her daughter began prophesying for the Mercys and the Pilgrims as if she were denying her grief again by using God as a shield, that was even harder to bear. But this…

  Xe didn’t know which would be more terrible for Isaho-if the Fence stayed right where it was, or if it fell. And xe had no idea what xe could do.

  The, procession swept up Bond Sisters as it passed their House, sucked in more and more Pilgrims as it moved down to Progress Way. Prophet Speakers came to swell the mix as they moved past the Seminary and the Tent. Brothers poured from the Grand Yeson as they circled around it and headed down the, wide avenue toward the Fish Gate and the seafront.

  Thann’s anyalit picked up the excitement around them and needed constant minding as xe tried to crawl out of the pouch and go scurrying up the handholds sewn into the front of the robe so xe could sit with xe’s head out the neck opening and see what was happening. Xe walked with both hands pushed through the side slits in the hatchry robe so xe could catch the little wriggler and shove the questing head back past the pouch sphincter. It was a rather welcome distraction from xe’s worry about Isaho, because all this activity meant the babbit was not only healthy but bright beyond xe’s age.

  As the procession reached the wharf, Thann tried to get closer to Isaho, but the press of the throng about her pushed xe aside. Afraid for xe’s babbit, xe gave up the struggle and moved away until she came to a double bitt. Xe settled xeself with xe’s legs hanging over the edge of the wharf, xe’s back and side pressed against the bitts. Though xe couldn’t see xe’s daughter, xe could hear her as she sang the shimbil litany, the crowd of watchers answering her.

  The golden glow of the Fence flickered on, constant as the beat of Thann’s heart. Xe stroked the babbit’s small head until xe went soft against xe’s palm and withdrew into the pouch to curl up with the nipple in xe’s mouth.

  An hour passed.

  Another.

  The shimmer at the edge of the sky vanished.

  Even the most fervent watchers were silent, even they didn’t believe what they were seeing. They waited for the glow to come back. A soughing like the wind rising before a storm passed across the wharves as the thousands out here drew in a collective breath and held it.

  Thann stared into the darkness and wondered about the offworlder who’d rescued them; it seemed a logical connection. Who else would know how to’bring the Fence down?

  “Praised be God, the Fence has fallen.” Isaho’s voice rang out, broke the spell that was holding the watchers silent.

  A mal somewhere in the middle of the press shouted, “Miracle!”

  More shouts.

  Holy Child.

  Messenger of God.

  Bless us, Child.

  Touch my hand.

  Heal me.

  Bless me.

  Thann huddled against the bitts and tried to keep from being stepped on as xe watched two Brothers lift Isaho onto their shoulders.

  Surrounded by Mercys and Bond. Sisters and Brothers and Prophet Speakers, Isaho and the mals holding her pushed through the crowd toward the gate, chanting the Praises.’Xe watched xe’s daughter accept this adulation as her due, then xe leaned xe’s head against the bitts, closed xe’s eyes and mourned. Xe’s daughter was gone; the Holy Child was a stranger with the same face. 6. Plotting the road to Change and a New Balance

  Wintshikan closed her hand around Zell’s as the Fence vanished. “They did it. I didn’t believe they could, but they’ve done it.”

  She watched Zaro and Kanilli grab hold of Xaca’s hand and the three of them join the rest of the Pixa hohekil on the beach in a wheeling, shouting, laughing dance. “I don’t think my knees will hold out for that.”

  Zell waggled xe’s hand in anya laughter.

  ***

  They sat on the side of an abandoned boat and watched the celebration develop along the sands, merchants bringing out bottles of shwala and injyjy, hot meat pies, and roasted tatas. A drummer, a fiddler, and a flutemal met on the raised porch of a house a short distance off and started playing. Others were doing the same farther along the beach. Bonfires bloomed on the sand.

  Wintshikan looked out to sea once again, rejoicing at the darkness at the edge of the sky-a darkness that meant the Fence was still down. She took a deep breath, let it out as she turned to her anya. “Zizi, I’m thinking that I want to stand in new mountains and watch the sun go down over land I haven’t seen before.”

  Zell smiled. These damp lowlands hadn’t been good for xe; breathing was difficult and the pain in xe’s hip never left xe. +Where there’s no war.+ Xe stroked xe’s hand along Wintshikan’s arm. +Where hate is a personal thing and not visited on strangers.+

  Wintshikan sat silent as a long line of femlits, mallits and anyalits snaked past them, laughing and stomping the sand as they moved. When they were by, she said, “We’ll wait a few days for Luca and the others. If they come back. If they’re all right. But if we wait too long, the price may move beyond what we can pay.”

  +We can leave word where we’re going if the time comes before they do. We should think of Zaro and Kanilli. And Xaca. The Coranthim Remnant might meld with us to make a new ixis; they’ve got young orals but not much coin. We’ve got coin.+

  “Speaking of coin, I’m hungry. You?”

  +I could swallow a tam or two.+ Xe used Wintshikan’s arm as a brace and pushed onto xe’s feet. +Ahh, Wintashi, what a night. I truly didn’t think I’d live to see this.+

  7. Into the wild blue…

  Shadith swung the chair around, stretched, groaned, and ran her hands through her hair. “Vumah vumay, that’s done.” She glanced from the piles of debris to the anxious, waiting faces of the locals. “The Fence is gone.”

  Yseyl closed her eyes and went very still.

  Hidan grinned, tucked xe’s rifle under xe’s arm, made a broad sweeping sign of triumph. When the sign was done, though, xe’s grin shrank to a tight smile. +Ptaks been circling this place and trying to get in through the door for the past half hour.+

  Shadith listened and heard through the noise of the storm a confused and muted muttering barely louder than the hum of the station behind her. A reach told her a crowd of wet, mean, frustrated Ptaks were milling about outside; as yet there was no organization in that mob, just a few individuals around the Exec who were focused on the codex, a few others trotting off to circle about the building, hunting, no doubt, for the place where the intruders breached security. She rubbed at her back. “They won’t be getting in, I changed the… urn… keys. You’ve been watching. Has anyone noticed yet that the glass is out in that storeroom window?”

  +I haven’t thinned many Ptaks back there, just a few who keep trotting around and around the building, I think because they’re too steamed to stand still.+

  Yseyl shuddered and opened her eyes. “Syon would have started shooting if they found the hole and tried to get in. Start the fire and let’s go. I don’t see any reason to hang about.”

  Shadith glanced toward the Ptak techs. Tied, gagged and blindfolded, rolled up against the wall under the windows, they wouldn’t have a chance once the fire got going. They were awake now, frightened and furious. “Right, but we’ll switch the order of things. Ghost, you and the others mask up and head out, P11 give you a few minutes’ start before I touch off the fire.”

  Yseyl stopped a moment in the arch, looked back. The mask hid her face, but Shadith had no trouble reading her suspicion and speculation. A moment later she was gone.

  Shadith leaned back in the chair and contemplated the Ptaks. “Listen ca
refully,” she said. “The others will be out and clear in a few minutes. Well on their way into the mountains. You’ll never find them. This is their home ground. I came into this for ethical reasons. That Fence is an abomination in the face of God, so I have destroyed it. Be warned, what I have done, I can do again. I will remove your gags before I go to join my allies. In their anger they would have left you to burn to death, but I will not. I have programmed the shield to go down and the door to open ten minutes after I leave. Yell for your people to come get you. Tell them that the kephalos has been infected and will fail five minutes after the door opens.”

  Shadith set the stunner to broad beam, clipped the collapsed ladderpole to her belt, and vaulted through the window. She hit the ground with a loud splash, slid across the gelatinous mud, and finally managed to scramble to her feet. Half blinded by the rain, disoriented by the slither, she dropped to a crouch, touched the triggering sensor on the stunrod, and swept the field through a wide arc. As she rose, she reached in a quick check of the area. No active minds anywhere close. She groped for the narrow path she’d sliced into the thorn hedge, eased through it, jumped the body of a stunned Ptak and ran for the trees.

  Away from the lights and the buildings with the foliage dripping about her, the darkness was intense. The ground was soaked and slippery underfoot; though the leaves gave her some shelter, each time she brushed against a branch, it unloaded; itself over her and she was wet through after her first few strides.

  As she headed for the end of the lake and the Drill Field, she tried to run and scan at the same time. That was a mistake. Her foot slipped off a root she didn’t notice and hit a patch of clay mud. She went down hard, her head glancing off the tree, her other knee twisting as she fell on it, the stunrod flying from her hand.

  For a moment she lay there, dazed and hurting, then she heard Ptak shrieks and the splatting of feet off to one side.

  She struggled up, gasping at the pain in her knee. There was no time to search for the rod and maybe no need; between the rain and the mud the Ptaks shouldn’t be able to learn much from it. And they already knew an offworlder was involved. She took a step, gritted her teeth, and limped as fast as she could toward the Drill Field.

  Swing that leg, plant the foot, lurch forward, over and over, grab onto branches to take at least a little weight off the knee, swing lurch splat. Confusion around her. Sound of rain hitting the leaves, rain in her face, cold and dreary, trickling down her neck. Wind. Mud. Mud. Mud.

  A shout. The light brightened around her, unsteady light, wavering through the boles of the trees. They got the door open and the draft hit the fire. For the glow to reach this far, it must be going good. Ah Spla! Ten minutes gone already?

  Step. Slide. Slither. Gasp. A gust of rain hit her in the face. Arm crooked over her eyes so she wouldn’t be blinded by the downpour, she lurched another two steps and was out of the trees. She hunched her shoulders, and continued to limp toward the field she couldn’t see. The rain battered at her, blew into her face until she was half drowned.

  A shout. Ptaks! Close behind her. She swung awkwardly around, fumbling for the cutter at her belt. She could just make out two dim gray forms heading for her. “Ah Spla, why did there have to be two cool heads in that lot?”

  She lifted the cutter, but before she could use it, she felt the aura of a stun beam going by too close and saw the Ptaks crumpling into the mud.

  “Shadow, Wann said you were hurt.” Yseyl’s voice. Shadith turned. “Fell and twisted my knee. My own dumb fault. Appreciate the assist.”

  “Ha.” Yseyl moved closer. “Use my shoulder. You forget you’re the only one who can fly that thing?” Shadith managed a chuckle. “Nice to be needed.”

  She turned the flier in a tight circle above the caldera. “Thought you might like a look at the damage.”

  The roof of the Control Center collapsed at that moment in a shower of sparks; in spite of the heavy downpour the suddenly released flames leaped twenty feet into the air. The thorn hedge was smoldering and several of the closest houses were also burning.

  Pressed against the window as if they couldn’t get enough of the sight, the Pixas were silent, a fiercely triumphant silence. Zot clapped her hands and giggled, then she, too, went quiet, snuggling up against Yseyl.

  Yseyl hesitated, set a hand on the child’s shoulder. She saw Shadith watching her, stared back with angry denial, then turned her head away.

  Hm, maybe Digby will have himself a ghost for hire. I don’t think that relationship is going to work out. Assassin and little mother don’t seem to be compatible occupations. “Right. If you seat yourselves and get comfortable, we’ll be on our way. Before I take you back to the camp where we started, I want to go look at where the Fence was. Just to make sure it’s really down, not an aberration in the software. Thought you might like to see that, too. Or rather, not see it.”

  Luca threw herself, into the front, seat, drawing Wann down beside her. “Yes,” she said. “I want to see it. I want to see it gone.”

  Khimil slapped his hand hard against the side of the cabin. “Yes. I saw that cursed thing every day when we were on that coaster working our way south. Syon, remember the time the wind caught us and Cap’n Dakwe was drunker’n thuv?”

  “Urr. We coulda been ashed.” The young mal shivered, edged up close to Hidan, took xe’s hand, and held it against his face.

  Xe freed the hand, patted his shoulder, then seated herself beside Nyen.

  As soon as the rest had sorted themselves into the seats, Shadith took the flier into a sweeping circle, and sent it racing west as dawn pinked the sky behind them.

  8. Afterbite

  “No! What we just did is one thing, you got your adventure and lived through it, but where I’m headed now, it’s too dangerous.” Yseyl thrust her fingers through her hair, turned her shoulder to the crouching, glowering child and stalked to the stream. She squatted, separated out a pebble from the scree on the bank, flung it at the bole of a conifer on the far side of the stream. The snap of her arm and the satisfying clunk of the pebble calmed her. She looked over her shoulder at Zot. “I won’t take you, Zot. You can argue all you want.”

  Zot brought her head up and forward like a striking yok. “Liar! You just want to get rid of me, that’s all. You think I don’t know?”

  “Believe what you want, it doesn’t change anything.” She got to her feet, dusted her hands together. “I talked to Luca. Khimil and Syon are joining their ixis and they want you with them. You’ll have a family again and you need that.”

  “I don’t want a family. It’ll be worse than living in the Hall, people messing you around all the time.”

  “I’m doing the best I can for you, Zot. You’re a good kid and smart, but you don’t know me. I don’t know what you think you see, but it isn’t me. And you don’t know thuv about the world I’m going into.” Her voice was soft, almost a whisper, anger putting edges on the words. “And don’t tell me you could learn. You’d get yourself killed and maybe me, too.”

  Zot stared at her a moment, biting her lip to keep it from trembling, eyes squinted to hold tears back. Abruptly she was up and running full out, vanishing a moment later into the shadow under the trees.

  Yseyl stood where she was, anger and affection both emptied out of her, only a vague relief left to temper the coldness. It was done and easier than she’d expected. Zot will calm down once I’m gone. She’ll see it’s the best thing and go along with Luca. Family. She needs family. Not me. Not me. Not me… She shivered, drew her hand across her face, wiping away all that nonsense, then walked briskly across the grass to the hunter.

  “Is there any reason why you need to wait longer? I want to get out of here.”

  “I don’t want to lift until there’s enough traffic in the air so we won’t be spotted and targeted.” She nodded at the flier a few paces off, backed under the overhang of the canopy. “Alarm’s set to tell me when more fliers are up. Shouldn’t be long now.”

  �
�I don’t understand, I thought…”

  “The Ptaks know a lot of arms dealers and those gits sell more than weapons. I’m no gambler, Ghost I like to have my feet planted and know where I’m jumping…”

  A musical chime, a single pure note, sounded through the open door of the flier.

  Thethunter came: to her:feet in one of those fluid swift moves that always startled Yseyl in one so large and:lumpy.

  “And it’s time to jump,” she said. “Get your gear and let’s go.”

  15

  Seek the Balance between Passion and Reason.

  Chapter 13

  The dawnlight was gray under the ragged trees as Luca stepped across the boundary line of the camp.

  There was a loud alarm whistle and a young fern she didn’t know stepped from the shadow cast by one of the tents, rifle lifted, face stony. “Stop there, or I’ll shoot.”

  “What is this? Where’s ixis Shishim?” Luca looked round. The corral was gone, and the jomayls, but two of the tents were familiar-she recognized a patch Xaca had sewn over a rip. “What happened?”

  Shadowy forms were coming from the tents, spreading out behind the sentinel, then Kanilli darted forward. “Luuuucaaaa,” she cried and flung herself at the fern. “You came back,” she cried, the words muffled against Lucca’s shirt.

  Wintshikan stepped into a patch of moonlight. “It’s all right, Phula, she’s one of ours. Let me see you, all of you, you’re all back, and who are these? Never mind, you can tell me in a minute. You did it. God’s blessing on you, you did it.”

  Luca walked over to the leather cushion where Wintshikan was watching the celebration. She dropped to the ground and sat examining the older fern’s face. Once Heka, still Heka by the rule of the Cards. Of Shicoram ixis now. “I’m not going back to the old ways.”