A distant wail rose from the overseer. The slaves yelled and swore in disgust. “Too bad patrollers didn’t come ’fore all this work we did,” one of them shouted.
A shove from behind nearly knocked Ampris off her feet. She stumbled and turned around, finding herself looking up at the Toth with the diseased eye. Flies buzzed around his face, and he looked brutish and mean.
“Get moving,” he told her, pushing her over to join the rest. “Transport coming to take you.”
A ragged little cheer rose up among the slaves. “Hey, good!” a Kelth youth said with enthusiasm. “We don’t have to walk back to quarters.”
“Shut up, you fool,” a grizzled Kelth female snarled at him. “Burning the harvest means the master won’t pay taxes.”
“I don’t care—”
“You better care,” she said, baring her teeth at him. “No taxes paid means this farm gets taken by the government. That means we end up sold.”
The youth shrugged. “Sold is sold. Old master or new master, what’s the difference?”
Their argument went on, but Ampris couldn’t listen to it. Fear robbed her of breath. She couldn’t be caught like this. After twelve years of living free, she couldn’t go back to slavery. She couldn’t.
The guard shoved her again, making her stagger. He was staying close to her, keeping her right in the bunch. “Get moving!” he ordered. “Stay with the others.”
She snarled, desperation breaking down her caution. Whirling on him, she attacked, throwing herself at him in a tackle that should have brought him down but didn’t.
He stood like a rock under her assault, until her claws raked his side, then he bellowed and knocked her away from him.
She fell sprawling in the dust, and tried to scramble up, but he kicked her bad leg out from under her, and she fell again. Rolling to one side, she eluded his grab at her arm and scrambled again to her feet. She would run. Bad leg or not, she would run as though the wind carried her.
She turned and leaped, making two good, strong strides, picking up speed, the old speed that she’d been famous for; then her leg faltered and she stumbled. She was gripped from behind.
Snarling, Ampris spun around and ducked under the Toth’s arm. She tried to twist free of his grip, but he hung on grimly. She tilted her head and bit his arm, crunching down hard on bone and sinew.
He bawled and slung her around, but Ampris’s jaws didn’t turn loose. She tasted Toth blood and smelled Toth stink. Fear, fury, and old memories of the Toths who had injured her mother and abducted her filled her mind. She raked him again with her claws, her jaws crushing harder, and had the satisfaction of seeing his small, dark eyes widen in panic.
Clawing again, Ampris shifted her feet, pushing him off balance while he bellowed in pain.
Then thudding footsteps came up from behind her. She started to turn, but the sizzle of a stun-stick filled the air. She heard it before she felt it—the jolt to her spine that felled her in her tracks.
Gagging and snarling, she lay there in the dust. In her mind she heaved and struggled with all her strength, but her paralyzed body did not move.
For a moment there was silence, broken only by the moaning of the Toth she’d injured and the harsh breaths of the Toth who’d stunned her. Heat and smoke rose over the field, coming their direction as the fire spread rapidly.
Ampris lay there on the ground, half-smothered in the dirt, and tried again to make her body move. Disbelief and despair warred inside her, but there was nothing she could do.
One of the Toths laughed and planted his foot possessively on her back. “Bad slave,” he said, grunting his words. “Make you wish this day never come.”
CHAPTER•TWO
Elrabin pulled himself out of the canyon, climbing the rocks and scrambling through scrub that scratched and tore at his fur. He was panting hard, his tongue hanging out, and his upright ears swiveled forward and back almost constantly, listening for sounds of pursuit.
Getting too old for this, he was. Getting tired of living like a Skek, scavenging whatever he could find, running for his life as soon as trouble reared up.
And today plenty of trouble had hit. Elrabin shuddered and paused a moment to catch his breath. He was near the summit of the second-highest hill, and he turned to stare down at the checkerboard of fields below him. Slaves and guards moved about like insects. Flames consumed the stelf, and smoke curled high into the air.
Elrabin’s nostrils flared in repugnance, and he sneezed. Worriedly he rubbed his muzzle with both hands, over and over, until he realized what he was doing and stopped himself.
Ampris was caught. What to do? His mind circled endlessly, too stunned and worried to think. All he’d managed to do was get himself away, but she was back there, a prisoner, a slave again. As soon as the overseer ran a scan over her, he would learn she wore no registration implant. That would immediately brand her as a renegade, an illegal. Her old record would be called up. and she’d be identified. Then the authorities would know that Ampris hadn’t died in the explosion that destroyed Vess Vaas Laboratory twelve years ago. She’d be executed as an outlaw.
Stop it, Elrabin told himself sternly, putting a halt to his inner hysteria. This was no time to go soft in the brain and panic. He had to think, and think fast. He knew better than to run into camp, shouting his bad news. No, he had to have something in mind, some solution on hand to suggest, when he told the others what had happened.
Elrabin whined in the back of his throat, still watching the moving figures and burning fields. The slaves were loaded on board a decrepit old transport, which lumbered off in the direction of the farm compound.
“Ampris, Ampris,” he said, moaning her name.
He crouched on his haunches until he stopped panting, then wearily he resumed his climb. Ampris was his best friend, the one individual he truly admired and respected. Beyond that, she was a natural leader, and Elrabin liked to follow her. Although sometimes she came up with outlandish schemes, she was always more concerned with the welfare of the group than with her own. She’d kept them alive through that first terrible winter after she and the other inmates escaped from Vess Vaas. Despite having suffered horrible torture and experimentation at the hands of the Viis fiends who called themselves research scientists, Ampris had found the strength to keep going. Her hope and optimism had never wavered even when they were nearly starving and lost.
Thanks to Ampris’s courage and determination, the little group of Vess Vaas escapees had found a tiny village of free abiru, who took them in and gave them shelter. They learned how to hunt and live off the land. But in time, game in the area grew scarce and it was time to move on. The village divided itself and parted ways. Besides Ampris and her cubs, two of the original escapees—a Kelth named Paket and a Myal named Robuhl—still remained with her. The others had long since left to take mates and join other groups, or had died of illness or accident. In their stead, new abiru folk joined. Velia, Elrabin’s mate, had been a warehouse loader in Lazmairehl, When Ampris led a raid on the food stores in the warehouse, Velia had been liberated in the process. The two Rejects currently in the group had been with them for less than a year. Luax, grievously injured, had been dragged into the wilderness by her companion Harthril to die. But Ampris, when she came across the two Viis Rejects, had insisted on nursing Luax back to health, even though it delayed their migration to a better hunting region. Harthril had never talked about what had driven the two from civilization, but thus far they’d stayed with Ampris’s small abiru band.
Elrabin lowered his head and snarled to himself. Ampris and her big, soft heart. Always she was worrying about the group, taking all the burdens onto her broad shoulders. It had been her idea to go down and steal from the stelf harvest today. A good idea, up to a point. Elrabin told himself for the umpteenth time that he should have insisted on going without her, maybe taking Paket along as a helper. Thieving came easily to Elrabin. He’d practically been born into the life, especially with the da he�
�d had. But Ampris insisted on going, insisted on staying too long, insisted on showing off once she got a slicer in her hand. Now she was caught and chained, smack in the middle of everyone’s worst nightmare. She’d said more than once that she would die rather than be a slave again.
“Don’t give up yet, Goldie,” he muttered aloud. Somehow he’d find a way to free her, and fast.
Rising to his feet, he climbed higher until the hill leveled off. Finding the faint trail that led toward the camp, Elrabin strode through a stand of trees, until without warning a bulky figure with beige-spotted fur burst from the underbrush to block his path.
Elrabin’s heart jumped, and he nearly yelped in fright. Gulping for breath, he bared his teeth at the tall, pregnant Aaroun. “What you doing, scaring me like that? I lost growth here.”
“Never mind,” Tantha said with a growl. Her brown eyes locked intently on him. “You get the food?”
Elrabin sighed. That was Tantha, always thinking about her stomach, which grew larger every day. Elrabin had a bet laid with Paket that she was going to bear four cubs at least. Or maybe five, although Ampris said that was rare. Tantha herself said she was carrying three, and Elrabin figured she should know.
But looking at her now, he told himself that if only three cubs came out of her womb, they would be very large ones indeed.
“Food!” Tantha insisted, her growl deepening. “Three days now . . . nothing we eat. Are we supposed to gnaw bark like the—”
“Keep your fur on,” Elrabin said with annoyance. “We got more important things to—”
She gripped his thin shoulder, letting her claws dig in. “Nothing more important than we eat. If you bring us nothing, then we—”
“Ampris got caught!” Elrabin said desperately.
Tantha fell silent and stared at him with her eyes wide and serious. “Caught,” she echoed at last. “Dead?”
“Not yet,” he said, rubbing his muzzle. “Got to get her out of there, see?”
Tantha said nothing as she stepped aside. Elrabin strode past her without a glance and Tantha hurried to keep up with him.
“Elrabin,” she said, “what will you say to the others?”
“Just what I told you,” he said, not understanding her question. “Why?”
“You say it too harsh. You will worry her cubs.”
His ears swiveled back impatiently. “Foloth and Nashmarl should worry. They could be orphans by dawn—”
“Do not say such things!” Tantha said in outrage. She gripped his coat from behind, slowing him down. “You are cruel.”
He glanced over his shoulder and met her gaze. “No, just realistic. I see things how they are. And right now they ain’t good.”
Growling in her throat, Tantha released him. Together they hurried on. Situated in a clearing surrounded by trees, the camp was small and rudimentary, consisting of five crude shelters made from cut branches and circling one old, much-patched tent that belonged to Ampris and her cubs. No fires were lit because the camp had been left on standby alert in case something went wrong, but Elrabin noticed that every shelter’s outdoor cooking circle had firewood laid in readiness. Their meager collection of pots and kettles stood filled with water.
Paket stood in front of his shelter, squinting against the sunlight. His shoulders were stooped and twisted with age. All his joints were swollen, and it was painful for him to move.
But he came limping forward, his eyes shining eagerly until he saw Elrabin’s empty hands. Then the light died in his face, and he tipped down his white muzzle in disappointment.
“Elrabin,” he said. “The plan did not work?”
Elrabin whined softly in his throat, and for a moment did not know how to answer. “It worked fine,” he replied at last. “We got food waiting down in the field for us, if we can get to it.”
Paket’s lips skimmed back from his teeth in a grin. “Good. We’ll do that. Ampris said after dark the security nets won’t be on.”
“Yeah, but there’s a problem.”
Paket’s grin vanished. “With the food?”
“Look, forget the food, see?” Elrabin said, losing patience.
At his side, Tantha growled.
He shot her an irked glance. “Going at this easy ain’t going to work.”
“What?” Paket asked sharply, stepping forward. “What happened?”
A movement behind him caught Elrabin’s attention, and he saw Velia emerging from their shelter. As always his breath jerked a little in his throat at the sight of her. Slender and tawny brown in color, Velia was young and the most beautiful Kelth female he’d ever seen. Just a look from her tilted golden-brown eyes had the power to render him speechless.
But he saw the hope in her expression, clouded swiftly by disappointment. He panted, feeling ashamed of his failure. He couldn’t bear to see Velia hungry like this. He couldn’t bear to have her think him incapable of providing for her.
“Something’s gone wrong,” Paket said. “What? Why won’t you answer? Is it Ampris?”
“Yeah,” Elrabin replied, his worry a knot inside his chest. “Where are her cubs?”
“Out hunting with the Rejects,” Velia said. She pushed past Paket and slid next to Elrabin’s side.
He embraced her and gave her a quick lick on the side of her muzzle.
“He brings no food,” Tantha said, her voice deep and scratchy. Her ears were flat to her skull. “And there is worse news.”
Velia tightened her grip on his arm. “Trouble?”
Hating to see how swiftly fear still came to her, Elrabin rubbed her fur in swift reassurance. “Trouble for Ampris,” he said. “She got caught. We have to go back and free her before—”
“You can’t go back!” Velia said shrilly, gripping his arm now with both hands. Her eyes grew wide, and she panted. “You can’t!”
“Hush,” he said softly, trying to calm her. “I wouldn’t have left her, but I—”
“No, no, no!” Velia said. “I won’t let you risk yourself for her. You must think of yourself first. You must think of me.”
“He already thought of himself,” Paket said with a growl. “He’s standing here, safe and sound.”
The criticism burned Elrabin. He turned on Paket with a snarl, but held his tongue. After all, the old one was right. What could Elrabin say?
Velia bristled at Paket. “My mate is not a coward. He came to protect us. Will the Viis come here for us? Do they know about us?”
“Always think of yourself, Velia,” Tantha said. “You in no danger. I smelled no Viis on our hill.”
“Lots of smoke though,” Paket said. “Why are they burning the fields?”
“Blight,” Elrabin answered.
Velia whined and put both hands to her muzzle. “Then the grain is ruined, poisoned. We can’t eat it.”
“Nothing to eat,” Tantha said gruffly. She glared at Elrabin. “Left it behind, like he left Ampris behind. You valued your hide first, Kelth.”
Elrabin had had enough of her criticism. He glared up at her. “Hey, back off, Spots. I came to get some help. I know when the odds are against me. Paket—”
The old Kelth tried to straighten his crooked spine and pricked his ears. “I am ready.”
“Good. We need Harthril.”
“Gone hunting,” Tantha said before Paket could answer. “Told you already.”
“Yeah, but we still need him,” Elrabin said. He was thinking rapidly, trying to ignore Velia’s frightened panting in his ear as she pressed closer. “I figure we’ll slip into the compound at nightfall—”
“No!” Velia said with a yip. “It’s too dangerous. You’ll be caught.”
Elrabin grinned. “As good as I am? I can break into anything, slip past any security system. I am Elrabin the Quick.”
“You are Elrabin, full of wind,” Tantha muttered. “Why you so brave now?”
Elrabin glared at her a moment, then without a word he ducked into Ampris’s tent. It took a second for his vision to a
djust to the shadowy interior. As usual the cubs had scattered their meager possessions carelessly on their side of the tent. Ampris’s side showed only a neatly tied bedroll, a battered portable vid player that needed recharging the next time they ventured near a city, and a small box of personal items. Elrabin glanced around swiftly, then untied her bedroll. From the center he pulled out a pair of hand-links—one of which he tossed to Paket, who was hovering at the entrance—and a side-arm whose safety mechanism was as long gone as its registration number.
Holding the weapon in his hand. Elrabin drew a deep breath and steeled himself, then stepped outside.
He faced Tantha with the side-arm aimed at the ground and waited while she looked at it, her eyes growing wide.
“Yeah,” he said quietly. “I can be brave now, when the odds are going to be more even. What you want me to be, Spots? Stupid? You want me to charge unarmed into a nest of Viis patrollers and Toth guards and get myself caught too? What good would that do?”
Tantha said nothing. She kept her gaze down as though ashamed.
He stared at her good and hard, then nodded. “Now. Paket and I will go down there and—”
“No,” Velia said. She began to keen. “Don’t risk yourself like this. She isn’t worth it. She isn’t—”
“Quiet,” he said, angry and half-embarrassed.
“I won’t be quiet,” Velia said. Slender, tawny, and young, she was beautiful except when afraid. Now her eyes were wild, and she bared her teeth. “Ampris knew the risks when she went to the field. Why should you risk yourself and Paket for her?”
Elrabin felt something precious turn sideways inside him. He shook his head, not wanting to hear what she was saying. “Stop,” he said with a growl. “It has to be done. You know why.”
“You’ll be caught, both of you. Then the Viis will know there are more of us up here. They’ll come for all of us. How can we run from them? You put all of us in jeopardy.”
He didn’t want to hear what she was saying, but she had a point. Elrabin looked at the weapon in his hand and felt his shoulders sag. What was the best thing to do? Save Ampris? Or protect the group? What would Ampris want him to do?
The Crystal Eye Page 3