Po looked down into the med kit. “You will tell me everything?”
“Yes, if you can keep secrets,” Barcus answered.
She turned and trotted out of the room. She returned just a few minutes later with a tray of bread, honeyed butter, cheese, ham and whole apples. There was a small pitcher of milk, too. She helped him sit up and put the tray in his lap. She drank deeply from the pitcher and, while licking her milk mustache, she handed it to Barcus who did the same.
In silence, they shared the cold breakfast like it was a feast.
Po put a kettle on for tea and came back looking at the case and asked, “All right. Tell me what is next.”
“There is a white bottle in the lower right that is labeled 'Hemitropic Stims' that is full of pills. Do you know what a pill is?”
“Is this it?” She held up the correct bottle. “What is it?”
“Hand it to me. I'll show you.” He opened the bottle, shook out one pill, and closed the bottle. “This is called a Hemitropic Stim pill. I need this because I have lost a lot of blood. Loss of blood makes you weak. Lose enough and you die. This is a drug that helps my body replace the lost blood. But I need to drink a lot of water for it to work well.”
“Will this work on anyone? Or just Keepers?” she asked.
“Anyone,” Barcus answered.
“What if you take it without food or water?” she asked.
“You will hurt your stomach, maybe enough to make you vomit blood. Never take it alone. Take it with food and water at least. Never alone.”
“What if I take one now, uninjured, with lots of food and water?” she asked.
“Well, it won't hurt you. Actually, in a day or two, you will be able to hold your breath longer. Run farther without running out of breath. It lasts a week or two. But they are too valuable to waste like that.”
“Tell me about that.” She pointed at the handgun. “I know that is magic. I saw you use it. It killed the Telis. There is thunder in there.”
“It is a projectile weapon, like a crossbow, but more powerful. It’s called a handgun. It's very dangerous. And I want you to learn how to use it, just not now. When I am better, I will teach you.”
“Will this work for anyone? Or just Keepers?”
“Anyone. If you know how,” Barcus said.
“All of these things are forbidden, aren't they?” She looked at the handgun.
“More than you know,” he answered.
***
The next day they were finished with lessons by midday. They were packing the rifle back into its case as she asked, “Why is the rifle so much quieter, even though it seems far more powerful?”
“This rifle has a device called a suppressor. It keeps it quiet.” He indicated the 'muzzle' end of the rifle, the end where the death comes out. “It is made to be quiet to protect your hearing and to keep your location a secret. It adds size to the rifle, though. The handgun could have one, but then it would be bigger and more difficult to carry it.”
She was taking it all in as if it was not any big deal. She had a real knack for the AR. Barcus knew she considered it all to be magic. Even though he answered every one of her questions, he could now see why it was a consistent opinion. Once she had gotten past the taboo of it, she embraced it. Just like reading. She was very good with the rifle. Especially good. Unnaturally good.
He was rubbing his eyes, trying not to scratch his healing wounds.
She was there, gently pulling his hands down from his eyes. They were just outside the gatehouse. “You need to drink and eat and rest now.”
He was looking at her. He wanted to say something. “I am not a Keeper. I never was.”
“I don't care,” she said.
“I hate them. I'd kill them all if I could,” Barcus said.
“I believe you,” she said.
“I'm lost. I don't know what to do except survive,” he said.
“You and I are the same then,” she said.
“I will tell you everything if you want me to,” he said.
She nodded.
“I came from the sky. Not across the sea, not far over land. Not anywhere in this whole world,” Barcus confessed.
“There is a fable I heard as a child, about a man that came here from heaven,” she said.
“Oh, what did he do?” Barcus asked.
“He died. They killed him,” she said.
Barcus smiled. “Nice story. It is told to children?”
“The Keepers would kill anyone who told the story. It was forbidden.” She looked up to his face. “That ensured everyone whispered it,” she said.
She was still rubbing her wrists. He could tell she was working up to another highly taboo question.
“Have you ever been to...Earth?”
He raised an eyebrow at that. “Yes. I was born there. It was my home, until I left for the sky. How do you know of Earth?”
“Earth is the place they scare children with whispers in the dark. Death lives there,” Po said.
She touched the scar on his face. “I still believe it. You are a Son of Earth. I have seen your wake. And I am still not afraid.
“Saying any of that out loud ensures a visit to the anvil,” she said.
“Ash and Em are both soulless demons, made from stone and death, tools and reason,” she said.
She sounded like she was reciting something from memory.
“But they are my demons. Ours,” Barcus said.
“They are coming,” Em interrupted.
CHAPTER THIRTY
Barcus is Thirsty
“The actions of Po during this time made us begin to suspect that there was more to her than a slave. The EM tested her Intelligence Quotient and discovered it was 162.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Emergency Module Digital Forensics Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team.
<<<>>>
They heard Ash long before they could see him.
His feet were pounding in the road, despite the muffling effect of the snow. Barcus and Po stood at the gatehouse entrance on the small bridge that crossed the shallow moat ditch in front of the door. They could see Ash moving with ease directly toward them from a kilometer off.
Em had already acknowledged their proximity, and Barcus was watching her progress as she approached from the north. A regional HUD map seemed to hang in the air five meters in front of Barcus showing everyone’s position relative to The Abbey.
Ash slowed to a gentle walk as he made his final approach. He towered above them as he began to cross the bridge.
Po surprised Barcus by stepping right up in front of Ash and placing her hand in the center of his smooth, black chest.
“Ashigaru,” she addressed him formally, “I know what you are. Would you harm me for knowing?”
Ash actually knelt, coming closer. It was still taller than Po by a meter, but the gesture was not missed.
“My Lady, even I do not yet know what I am. But I would see myself utterly destroyed before I allowed you to come to harm,” Ash said quietly in his deep voice.
“I know you have no soul,” Po added.
“In this, you may be wrong,” Ash said as he rested a massive hand on Barcus’s shoulder.
She had not expected these answers. She seemed to falter.
“Feed him and put him to bed. He is lying to you. He is pretending to be well. He is about to fall down,” Ash said to her.
Ash stood easily. “I will wait for Pardosa.”
It was true. When she looked closely at Barcus, he was pale and sweating, even though a breeze had brought new flakes of snow. She led him to his chair in front of the fire. She brought hot tea, bread and cheese while she began to cook.
Lunch was ready by the time Olias came in.
“Par told me that a Telis got in The Abbey and ate a goat,” he said excitedly in common tongue.
Po replied in common, as if it was nothing, “Yes. It's still here.”
Olias blasted water out
his nose and sputtered, “W...w...what?”
“It's over in the paddock. You can't miss it. The huge hill covered with snow.”
He looked Barcus in the face for the first time to see if there was amusement there to confirm the joke Po was playing. That's when he saw the scar on his face.
Without a word, he abandoned his still steaming bowl of stew and ran out to the paddock. It was five minutes before he came back, sitting down again before his cooling bowl.
Po said, “Do you think the meat could be tasty? Get Ash to help you hang it up and butcher it. It will be the first meat for the winter locker. Oh, the goat it killed too, please, what's left of it.” She was sopping her stew up with a piece of bread.
His look of fear began to shift following the look on her face. The smile preceded his words in common, “I can't leave you alone for a few days without you getting into trouble, can I?”
***
That evening, Barcus, Po and Olias talked long into the night about the new salvage that had been brought in on this load. They discussed the need to remove the rubble that allowed the Telis Raptor to get over the wall, even as Ash was moving it. They talked about the repairs in The Abbey, the weather and honey bees and orchards and vineyards.
Po watched Barcus closely. He knew she was watching. She could not believe the amount of water, tea, milk and wine Barcus drank without ever going to the privy.
Olias had gone off to his own rooms and Po had cleaned up.
“Rest,” was all she said, as she helped him to his feet. She was very aware how much bigger he was than her as she made him stand there so she could check his wounds without anything in the way.
He allowed it without protest. She removed his belt, safely handling the handgun it held. Just as he had taught her. She took off his tunics, baring his chest. His drawstring pants hung low on his hips.
The flesh was soft and very white along the wound, like a baby’s skin, freshly made. She gently washed it but did not use the liquid bandage on it again. She was amazed again at the size of the wound.
She made him sit on a chair so she could do the same for his face. She washed it gently. She used her own brush to comb his hair back.
She removed his boots and socks and hung his clothes on pegs or placed them in baskets where they belonged. She drew back the bed clothes.
She helped him to his feet and led him to the edge of the bed. As she looked up into his eyes, she untied the drawstring on the front of his pants. They fell to his ankles, and he stepped back out of them with the help of her bare foot holding them down in the center. He sat back and slid under the quilts to the far side of the bed.
Po reached up to the single button at the base of her neck and released it. Her dress fell of its own weight, thick as it was for winter. She climbed into bed with him, her head resting on his bicep, her naked back towards him, as his arms closed around her.
He was so warm, still fevered. She felt so small there. His left hand wrapped around her, and his nose burrowed into the nape of her neck.
She felt the exhaustion take him. Soon, his body twitching made her smile. He was so warm, but now she knew he still had a fever caused by the Nanites as they worked. Their legs entwined and her arm reached back to hold him, her palm on the base of his spine.
She willed her life force into him again. She knew it would work as she drifted off.
She woke in the dark. The only light was from the low coals of the fire. She was stretched out and warm. And alone.
She listened to the darkness but heard nothing. She slid from the warm bed and retrieved her knife from where her belt hung on its peg. A shadow moved beyond the curtain in the main room. Using the tip of the knife, she carefully drew aside the curtain enough for a peek.
The fire blazed in that room. Barcus was silhouetted in the firelight with his back directly to her. Both his hands were raised, holding the large pitcher to his mouth.
“Did no one ever teach you to use a proper cup?” Her voice sounded loud in the quiet room as she stepped in.
It startled him a little, and a quantity of water splashed down to his chest.
“I'm still so thirsty. I'm sorry.” He meant it.
“Don't be.” She entered and went to the rack where towels dried. “The jug, the water and the thirst are all yours,” she said.
She moved as if she had no idea she was naked.
It was obvious that Barcus was noticing.
“The Hemitropic Stims seem to be working,” she said as she dried his chest. Water had run down to his hip bone, and she slowly dried all the way down to it. As she dried him, she looked into his eyes. They sparked in the firelight.
“Did you know I am free? Free to do what I like?”
“Yes,” he whispered.
“Did you know I am free to say ‘yes’ as well as ‘no’ whenever I like?” She smiled and returned to bed.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
Cassandra
“The Emergency Module was now outside the parameters of all out known protocols. It was somehow acting irrationally. Decision trees could no longer be followed. Data corruption was increasing. Barcus never noticed. Much of this data is still under forensic analysis by the team because it makes no sense.”
--Solstice 31 Incident Investigation Testimony Transcript: Emergency Module Digital Forensics Report. Independent Tech Analysis Team.
<<<>>>
The snow stopped as they continued to make their way. Grady had not seen Ulric this serious or sober in many years. He was even leading the way.
Now and again he would stop, usually on a rise, and look into the distance. Grady didn't know he was looking for the ghost and finding it often in the distance.
That night the snow was a blizzard. All the tracks they were following were gone.
“Ulric, sorry to bother you with petty, practical considerations, but we will reach a point where we only have enough rations to make it back to Greenwarren.” Grady was used to his silence but not THIS kind of total silence.
“We will be fine,” Ulric said. The forest was deep here. The trees were old growth and limited the amount of light and snow and underbrush. This served to make the going easier as well as possibility of getting lost. It was all the same in every direction.
“If riding in a circle for days is fine,” Grady grumbled.
“Grady, have you ever been to this forest before? Has anyone? Ever?” They were riding by a tree that was so big, ten men with arms extended would not reach around it.
“Why do these trees never fall?” Ulric asked.
Before Grady could consider an answer, he noticed a change in the nature of the light in the direction they were moving. Not a clearing, but something.
Ulric could see her waiting there in the distance between the trees. One leg was a shining steel piling below the knee. Her arms were fit and impossibly bare in the cold. She walked off to Ulric's left, falling out of view.
“What is it?” Grady's had not missed Ulric's noticing.
“I believe it's a road,” Ulric stated.
Grady saw it was a road. As the horses stepped over the wide curb onto it, he looked in both directions at the unmarked snow.
Ulric went to the north without hesitation.
Grady reached around and drew a well-oiled map from the pack he always wore. Looking up at the arch of the forest canopy, he knew he had no idea where this was. His map had no road in this region, much less a road of such workmanship. Few saplings had caught hold there. Tree fall was scattered randomly, but the road was sound.
It was completely unmapped.
“If I had to bet money, I'd say we were somewhere far north of the Salterferry Bridge. Way farther north of the unfinished tunnel. I will need some night sky to be sure.” He folded his map and placed it once again in his pack.
The road was wide. It was so wide, four wagons could roll side by side without a single nervous driver.
“I have never seen any roads like this so far north,” Grady said
.
Ulric wasn't listening. His eyes were focused in the distance. A stone arch could be seen far off, with a small tower to the left side, its windows empty, save one. There she stood, waiting for him. He'd have to go. If he didn't, he knew she would come to him and steal his sleep. She would torment him in the darkness with a past he didn't want to remember and could not drown in drink if she was at his ear, reminding him of things he had forgotten, perhaps never even knew. Like the names he never knew.
So he would do as she asked.
***
“The tower arch is a way point, just as they have in the south. It was a traveler’s shelter, somewhere to rest and keep warm in safety.” The wooden door had frozen closed, and it took them both to force open the rusted hinges. The stable there was full of dry leaves, but serviceable.
“It's better than sleeping rough,” Ulric said with a suspicious lack of complaints.
There was a stack of firewood stored in the alcove. The wood was covered in cobwebs and drier than any Grady had ever seen.
“Get a fire started, and I will tend to the horses,” Grady said as he exited, roughly pulling the door closed behind him.
Instead of starting the fire, Ulric went directly up the stairs that spiraled up in the back of the room. The door at the top still swung easily, if not loudly, into the room above. Windows on all four sides of this room were broken in several places. The door that led out onto the arch was gone completely.
She stood there looking onto the arch.
“Cassandra warned me, you know.” He waited for a reaction. Her back was to him, naked in the cold except for the massive tattoo there. The livery he had tried to forget.
“Did you meet Cassandra on this planet? What do you think she warned you about, Chris? You don't mind if I call you Chris? I always did when we were alone. Remember?” She turned to him. Her eyes glowed golden, like a cat’s in firelight.
“She was my wife. She sent us here.” Ulric's voice was a trembling, graveling whisper. “She told me my days would end in the north, with madness, and clarity, and anger and war and pain and no peace until the end.” He waited for her to say something. She didn't.
Solstice 31: The Solstice 31 Saga, Books 1,2,3 Page 24