Doubts and uncertainty crowded him for a moment, clouding his mind. He closed his eyes, longing for the old days when no responsibilities had chained him, when he’d lived by his wits on the streets of Vir. Yeah, muttered a sarcastic voice inside his head, the good old days when you were young and stupid and starving most of the time, taking all the risks for Da while he gambled and sniffed dust.
Growling to himself, Elrabin opened his eyes and faced them all. His grip tightened on the weapon, and he tucked it grimly into his pocket. He was no killer, never had been. But he could do what he had to, if it meant survival for himself or those whom he loved. And he loved Ampris, as a friend, as family, in a way that Velia still could not understand. Ampris would want him to take care of the group and her cubs, but Elrabin knew that Ampris was an excellent leader, the best they could ever have. Without her, the group would suffer.
He met Paket’s gaze. “We’re going after her.”
Approval filled the old Kelth’s eyes, and he nodded at Elrabin, who felt relief at having made the right decision.
But Velia’s eyes grew stormy. “Fool,” she said sharply. “I might as well start mourning now.”
He didn’t want to argue with her in front of the others. Embarrassed, he gestured for her to step aside with him. Taking her inside the shadowy interior of their small shelter, he ducked his head to keep his ears from brushing the roof poles and cradled Velia’s muzzle between his hands.
“Have a little faith in me,” he said softly, his hurt evident in his voice. “I been around a long time, see? I can take care of myself.”
Her hands gripped his, and her breath puffed warm against his palms. “But who will take care of me if I lose you?”
“You ain’t going to lose me,” he said.
She whined softly. “I am afraid for you. You take terrible risks, and I cannot live without you.”
His heart softened and he gave her a gentle lick between her ears. “Ampris would do the same for me.”
“But she has no family, no—”
“She has her sons.”
Velia pulled back her head in scorn. “Those creatures! They are monsters—”
“Hush,” he said, gripping one hand around her muzzle and giving her a tiny shake. “That ain’t Ampris’s fault. And that ain’t got nothing to do with the problem in front of us right now. Time’s getting away. I gotta go.”
She clung to him, holding him tight as she wept against his chest. Sighing, Elrabin circled her with his arms. How he’d hoped that with time, Velia would grow stronger, would find courage. But at every crisis she fell apart. He knew she’d been badly abused before he met her, but at times like this he felt powerless to help her. Ampris kept saying that he should give Velia time. But right now he had to go.
“Here,” he said softly, digging into his capacious pockets. He pulled out a plump grain head and placed it in Velia’s hand.
She stopped weeping and pulled away from him. “Food!” she said in astonishment, her tears forgotten. “But I thought you failed. Why didn’t you tell us at once you had some food? Robuhl has been crying. Twice today I grew dizzy and thought I would faint. Tantha has been half-wild with hunger.”
Elrabin shifted away, uncomfortable. He thought about the numerous basketloads of grain Ampris had concealed behind the shed. They would have feasted beyond their imaginings tonight if all had gone as planned.
Instead, here they were with the scant amount he could stuff into his pockets as he’d run like a coward from the first sign of trouble.
“Never underestimate me, my love,” Elrabin said. He pulled out three more heads, each one of them large and heavy. “If you can stretch ’em right, there should be enough to feed everyone tonight.”
“Oh!” Velia said, cradling them happily in her arms. “I have some chuffie roots that Tantha found this morning, and there are still a few greens. If I use the last of the pepfrike for seasoning, and boil these until they can be mashed, I can—”
To stop his mouth from watering, he slid his muzzle against hers in a final caress and ducked out of the shelter.
Blinking in the light, he saw that Paket had taken the opportunity to fill a water skin and sling it across his crooked shoulders by a leather cord. The old Kelth had armed himself with a rusty slicer that he’d found half-buried in the ground several days ago. He’d been trying to clean the rust off it without much success ever since.
“Ready,” Paket said and held up his slicer with a grin.
Tantha also stood there, holding a water skin and carrying her hunting sling. “Ready,” she echoed. “Let’s go before the Rejects come back with the cubs and there is much trouble.”
Elrabin glared at her impatiently. “Slack yourself, Spots. Ain’t no way we’re taking you.”
“Of course I will go,” Tantha declared.
He sighed, hating the way she always tried to take charge when Ampris was absent. Elrabin felt that Tantha ought to be sitting quietly somewhere, weaving swaddling cloths for her unborn cubs, instead of demanding to be included in the action. But at least she wanted to help, unlike Velia, who had to be bribed and distracted with food.
Looking up at Tantha, Elrabin tried to keep his annoyance out of his voice. “You can’t go,” he said.
Her hand clamped hard on his shoulder, the claws digging in slightly. “I will go. I am strong. You need me with you, not tending a cooking fire.”
Elrabin met her fierce eyes and didn’t back down. “You’re near your time. You can’t run and if we hit any trouble, you won’t be able to fight.”
She bared her teeth and held up her sling. “I can fight! I have good aim with this.”
“And if there’s shooting?” he asked, hoping Velia didn’t overhear this. “A sling and some stones up against stun or worse? No,” he said sharply. “Sorry, Spots, but you’ll just slow us down.”
She growled at him, but he held up his hands, refusing to relent.
“I wish we could take you. We need you, but you ain’t no good for this.”
“I can do what is necessary,” she said fiercely. “I want to kill Viis.”
“Yeah, and what if they kill you?”
She backed her ears in disdain.
“Or what if you start birthing? We gonna all get caught or killed ’cause we got to stop and carry you? What if you lose those cubs? They gonna be all you got left of Morlol. You lose them, and you got nothing. Is that what you want?”
She snapped her teeth together and turned away, but not before he saw the stricken hurt in her eyes. Hunching her shoulders, she strode away without another word.
Silence fell over the camp for a moment. Elrabin stared after Tantha unhappily. He hadn’t wanted to hurt her. But she was so stubborn she had to be hit between the eyes to get her to understand. Still, he felt bad about it.
Velia emerged from their shelter, still holding the grain, and shot him a look of reproach that told him she’d overheard every word. “Oh, Elrabin,” she said softly. “That was harsh.”
“But necessary,” Paket said in his gruff way. “Tantha has no sense sometimes.”
“That doesn’t mean she should be treated cruelly,” Velia said.
“Wasn’t trying to be cruel, see?” Elrabin said. “I just—”
She reached up and gripped his muzzle to silence him. “I know,” she murmured. “But she wants so much to be active. Otherwise she thinks too much about Morlol, and her heart breaks inside.”
He nodded, understanding, wishing these females could understand too. “Better Tantha gets hurt this way instead of with plasma slugs. Now be careful. Light just one cooking fire, and keep it small. They ain’t going to smell that with all the fields blazing. If any shuttles fly this way, everyone hide in the canyon past the stream. Promise me.”
Velia nodded seriously. Her eyes filled with fresh worry, and she began to pant.
He recognized the signs and turned away. “We’re going.”
Collecting Paket with a look, he strode out
of camp before Velia could fall apart again. Paket hurried along beside him.
Elrabin glanced at the old one. “Females,” he said with exasperation.
Paket winked at him. “Right,” he said with feeling. “Got their uses though.”
Refusing to laugh, Elrabin snorted, but his annoyance faded. Together they headed along the trail as fast as Paket’s stiff old legs would go.
Halfway down the hill, they veered off the trail and dropped into a shallow canyon. Thereafter, the going was slow, for they had to push their way through the thick undergrowth. Elrabin could hear Paket’s hoarse panting, but the old Kelth never complained and never asked to stop.
It was Elrabin who called a halt at last so the old one could rest. Wheezing for air. Paket sank down on a boulder with wispy golden grass growing at its base, and closed his eyes.
Worried, Elrabin watched him a moment, but didn’t make the old one waste his breath in explaining how he felt. It was obvious anyway that he was in considerable pain.
Guilt touched Elrabin, but he shoved it away and turned his back on Paket to peer ahead down the slope. They were upwind of the fields, so the smoke was blowing in the opposite direction. Still, the stench was enough to choke Elrabin’s nostrils.
He squinted and swiveled back his ears, calculating. It had been maybe two hours since Ampris had been captured. The guards would take her back to the compound’s slave quarters first. There, her missing ownership ring and lack of a registration implant would give her away. Then the Viis owner would probably be consulted. Being a Viis, he would not want to turn her in as he was supposed to according to the law on runaway slaves. He would probably keep her.
But she would be in chains, confined, under orders. She’d been free long enough that the pierced hole in her ear had grown together. They’d have to punch a new one so they could fit an ownership ring through it.
Elrabin snarled silently to himself. He had worn both ring and collar himself. How well he knew the feeling of degradation.
His greatest worry was that Ampris would fall into despair over her capture. She might do something foolish, might risk death, might invite death, might fight until her captors were forced to hurt or kill her.
Think of your cubs, who grow but still need you, Elrabin thought her way. Do not lose heart, my old friend.
Behind him Paket lurched to his feet with a groan he tried to conceal. “Wasting time,” he said.
Elrabin looked at Paket and swiveled his ears in fresh worry. Paket looked winded still, despite the rest. Perhaps it would have been wiser to bring Tantha instead.
But as soon as the thought crossed his mind, Elrabin dismissed it. Tantha couldn’t follow orders, and Paket could and would. End of second thoughts.
“We’ll get there,” Elrabin said aloud, to reassure both Paket and himself. “Got to wait until dark anyway.”
Paket limped steadily along. “You think the patrollers will be gone by then?”
Elrabin knew why he was asking. Most of them had possessed the usual registration implant, but Paket had been a worker in the quarries before he was condemned to Vess Vaas. The quarries branded their workers with an ion-release tattoo that couldn’t be eradicated. So Paket was still traceable if he crossed paths with the authorities. Bringing him was a very big risk, except that Elrabin figured the patrollers were already long gone.
“I’ve seen how the patrollers on ag duty operate.” Elrabin answered finally. “Check a field for blight, condemn it, and set the fires. Then they go. Got no reason to hang around. They ain’t here looking for runaways. Their scanners won’t be calibrated for that kind of check.”
“Yeah,” Paket said bravely. “I figured that.”
Again guilt touched Elrabin and he ducked his head while he quickened his pace. He’d been lying his whole life. What was one more falsehood now?
The truth was, a bounty lay on the head of every runaway, whether that individual was wanted dead or alive. Sometimes when he happened to be in a city, Elrabin would tap in access on a public vid link just to check to see how big his reward had grown. Galard Stables was still operational, although no longer the undisputed champions of the arena circuit. And the bounty reward for Elrabin’s death still stood on record. Ampris was believed to be dead, so no reward had ever been posted for her, the lucky creature. Sometimes when times got lean, Elrabin was tempted to turn himself in so he could collect a percentage of the reward. But he couldn’t figure out how to work the scam so he didn’t get himself taken prisoner in the process.
The patrollers were Viis individuals as hard hit by the economic troubles of their empire as any of the other citizens. All patrollers had scanners with an infinite number of missing registrations programmed into them. Whether they drew duty on the city streets, or agricultural details, or merchant guards, or the Bureau of Security, they checked anyone and everyone, always hoping to score lucky and collect a reward.
Taking Paket anywhere near the vicinity of a patroller was suicide. Elrabin knew he was risking getting the old one killed. If Paket had any sense he would know it too.
But to save Ampris, Elrabin was willing to let almost anyone become expendable. That wasn’t the way Ampris wanted it. She’d tried for years to reform him, to turn him into someone as honest as she was. But Elrabin knew the truth didn’t always get you where you needed to go.
Still, he felt guilty and unsure. To distract himself, he started talking.
“I figure we’ll circle around and not head toward the compound until nightfall. We want it good and dark before we leave cover. I’ll have to pick the security system, fuse it some way.”
“But that will cause trouble,” Paket said worriedly. “The guards will be alerted. They will come after us.”
“Yeah, but by then we won’t be there,” Elrabin said, rolling his eyes at having to explain the obvious to Paket. Too old for this, he really was. “We’ll be at the slave quarters instead, pulling Ampris out.”
“You make it sound simple,” Paket said, panting hard. “But nothing ever is.”
“Yeah, well, we just have to make up the rest of our plan as we go,” Elrabin muttered. “I had enough doubts coming my way from Velia. Let’s think positive, see?”
“Think positive. We’re going to break into a Viis compound, complete with guards and security nets, just the two of us, with nothing but one old side-arm and my slicer.” Paket snorted. “Yeah, I’m positive.”
Put like that, it sounded worse than foolhardy. Elrabin flicked back his tall ears. “So what you be doing loping along with me?”
He made the question a challenge, but Paket didn’t falter. “I was condemned to the quarries, and I survived them. I was condemned to Vess Vaas, and I lived to see that place of horrors destroyed. You think I don’t believe Ampris can find a way out of a farmer’s slave quarters?”
Elrabin yipped. “Yeah, same figuring I had. She’s—”
He heard a faint rush of sound and turned his head, glimpsing motion from the corner of his eye. Alarmed. Elrabin flung up his hand and started to call out, but he was tackled from the side and knocked to the ground.
The impact hurt. His shoulder hit the ground first, jolting sharp pains up into his neck, then his head thumped hard. He bit off a yelp and squirmed violently beneath the weight of his attacker. Whoever it was didn’t weigh much. Elrabin threw him aside and scrambled dizzily to his feet, swaying and cursing while he drew the side-arm from his pocket.
“Stop!” It was Paket who spoke, Paket who gripped his arm and deflected his aim.
But by then Elrabin had seen the identity of his attacker. Glaring at the thin, gangly figure swathed in a hood of coarse cloth, Elrabin did not fire. Instead he pocketed his weapon and slapped dirt from his coat. “Go home, Nashmarl,” he said in disgust.
The cub strutted around him once, then twice. Nashmarl was the number two son of Ampris’s single litter, born of genetic experimentation deep in the horrific recesses of Vess Vaas Laboratory. Neither Aaroun nor Viis bu
t instead some tragic combination of the two, the youngster was skinny and awkward, with long limbs and bony shoulders. His skin was a pale cream color, showing through a fur pelt so thin it resembled down. On his face and head he had no fur at all, and his skin tended to burn if exposed to the sunshine. Now twelve years old and more than half-grown, he was as tall as Elrabin, with an ugly flattened face lacking more than a vestigial muzzle. He had no visible ears, and his forehead curved in a dome above two deep set eyes of Viis green.
Now blocking Elrabin’s path, he parted his jaws in a grin, revealing Aaroun-sized fangs. “I got you. Elrabin!” he said triumphantly. Glee danced in his green eyes. “I got you good. Hey, Paket! Did you see how I got him?”
Paket’s ears were flat. He said nothing.
Elrabin glared at the cub. “Go home.”
Nashmarl skipped and strutted back and forth in front of them. “Admit it. I’ve been following you all the way down the mountain, and you didn’t know it, Elrabin. Neither of you knew it. I could have taken you anytime.”
Elrabin locked eyes with the cub. “Sure, you attacked me, but you ended up on the wrong end of business.” He patted the pocket that held his weapon and looked hard at the cub to make sure he understood how insignificant his accomplishment actually was. “Now, go home.”
Nashmarl’s grin faded and he came closer. “What are the two of you doing out here in the hottest part of the day?”
“Hunting,” Paket said with an impatient growl.
Elrabin gestured at the old one to stay quiet, but Nashmarl noticed the signal. His green eyes were quick. “What’s going on?” he demanded. “Paket, you’ll tell me the truth, won’t you?”
“Nothing’s going on,” Elrabin told him before Paket could answer.
“What are you doing with Mother’s side-arm?”
“Paket told you. Hunting.”
Nashmarl’s gaze narrowed. His mouth pinched down tight and suspicious. “You don’t hunt with a side-arm. not game you don’t. What are you up to? Where’s Mother? You were supposed to be—”
The Crystal Eye Page 4