by T E Olivant
There were maybe two dozen of them, all adults, all slight but still strong. I wondered what a group of Doctors were doing out here in the middle of nowhere, but I knew better than to ask. The best I could hope for was to resupply as quickly as possible, before they had a chance to examine my companions. I walked forward as confidently as I could manage, and a man from the other clan came to meet me.
The young Doctor was a foot shorter than me but nearly twice as wide, and there was something familiar about him. He was well muscled, but there was a healthy layer of fat that clung to his waist and this was what reminded me; this was the arrogant young Doctor that I had met on the way to the meet. Close up, his eyes looked cruel and clever.
“My name is Yohan. What do you want, Hunter?”
“Trade,” I said.
“I told you before, you have nothing we need.”
I shrugged. “There is always something to trade.”
Yohan looked at me, then placed his fingers in his mouth and gave a long high-pitched whistle. Damn, I thought as I watched Brand, the chief of the Doctors saunter over towards us. I hadn’t realised he’d be there. I couldn’t help but glance over at my two companions trying to look inconspicuous in the background. We were in trouble.
“You are a Hunter, so what brings you this far South?” The Chief’s gums were held back from his teeth in a nasty snarl. I had no choice but to stand up to him – any sign of weakness would spell disaster.
“I am a Seeker,” I said.
“Ah, the clan traitor, I have heard so much about you.”
I kept my voice even. “I have need of supplies. My companions are ill, and we are low on food and water. I have lichen from the tundra…”
“Something smells wrong.” Brand said, and a shout went up among the clan.
I shut my eyes – I knew it was all over. I should have realised that the strange scent of the underground humans would expose them as surely as if they had walked across the snow naked.
I heard a yelp and opened my eyes to see Yohan pull the furs from Sam’s back, then do the same to Lisanne until their faces were exposed. There were gasps of horror and fear all around me.
“What are they?” The chief sniffed at them, his teeth bared. Lisanne turned white as the snow and Sam visibly trembled.
“They belong to me,” I said and stepped in front of them, bringing myself up to my full height. I was nearly a foot taller than the tallest of the Doctors, but there was too many of them.
“What are they?” The chief repeated, more loudly this time. Doctors were normally the ones that knew everything: I could tell he was finding his ignorance disturbing.
“They are humans, like us.”
“They don’t look like humans”
“They live under the white.”
“What, like lice?” The chief poked Sam with his stick, and he flinched backwards. This was getting out of hand, but I couldn’t see how to fix it. There were just too many of them. I started to reach for my knife while everyone was distracted.
“What’s wrong with them, where’s their fur?” Yohan stretched forward as if to touch Lisanne’s face, but stopped at the last minute.
“Please,” Sam began to speak, but then the chief poked him again, harder, so that he fell backwards onto the snow. I gripped the knife and stepped forward.
“Stop!” Lisanne’s voice rang out across the White clear and strong. “We are not animals, we are human, just as you are.”
“How is that possible?” Someone called.
“I’m not sure.” She turned to me, but I motioned for her to keep talking. The doctors had momentarily forgotten about their threats of violence, held in thrall by this strange girl, but I knew that the spell could break at any moment.
“We live in a city under the ground. Like a huge cave.”
“And what do you want from us?”
“Nothing. We didn’t even know you existed.” Yohan scoffed beside me and I realised how false that sounded.
“We were just lost in the snow,” Lisanne carried on, even though the whispers around her were becoming louder and more suspicious. “Kyrk found us, he saved our lives…” Her voice began to falter and the Doctors moved closer, until we were encircled by them.
All of a sudden Yohan stepped forward and grabbed Lisanne roughly by the shoulders. He shook her, as if trying to dislodge some truth from her and I felt a growl start deep in my chest. Easy now, I told myself, you are only one against many. After a second’s pause where I thought he might disagree with his subordinate, the Chief gestured to Sam and another tall wiry doctor pinned his arms to his chest.
“Kyrk,” Sam hissed while Lisanne merely looked at me, eyes wide.
“You are taking my trade.” I kept my voice even, disinterested: I had to pretend to the Doctors that these two were little more than pelts or teeth, just another commodity to be traded.
“They are a danger to our clan. Probably to all the clans. I cannot let them leave with a Hunter barely more than a child.”
“A Seeker.”
“Seeker or Hunter, it makes no difference. These creatures are now the property of the Doctors.”
Within seconds Lisanne and Angel Sam were gone, marched away by their captors. I saw that they were heading for a collection of tents just on a nearby snow ridge. I made a note of where they were, even though I was powerless to do anything about it. I didn’t owe them anything, I tried to tell myself, but I couldn’t erase the image of Lisanne being wrenched away from me from my mind.
I looked away from the small stumbling figures and found myself looking directly into the fierce face of the Chief.
“Are you going to imprison me too?”
“Of course not. You are a guest of our clan. Seeker, Hunter, whatever you are. That is unless you prove to be a threat.”
He’s not sure what to do, I thought as I stared back into his grey eyes. I need to think carefully how to play this, I thought. Unfortunately, politics was never my strong point.
“I would like the chance to share what I know. If you hear the story of how I found these… people then you will understand that they pose no threat to your clan.”
The Chief snorted disbelief but started moving towards a tent and gestured to me to follow him. Inside the large tent was filled with the mosses and herbs that formed the centre of the Doctor’s trade. Some of them were already bubbling in large pots, turning into medicines to sell to the other clans. I tried not to think about the strange sights and smells and focus on the men around me.
Yohan had not been asked to accompany us, and I was profoundly grateful for that. The man made my fur itch. Along with the Chief and myself there were two others. The woman was old, but still strong and had positioned herself with crossed arms against one of the snow walls. The other man was around my father’s age and had long limbs even for a doctor. He stooped even in the centre of the room and looked deeply unhappy to be there. Not a welcome committee, that was for sure.
“Now clan traitor, start talking.” the Chief growled.
I tried to be as open as I could while I explained how I had found the strangers out on the White. I told them as much as I knew about where they came from, even though the Chief looked sceptical and his advisors looked even less happy.
“So, you just happened upon these creatures?”
“I saved the boy from the wolves. The girl had found her own way to one of the blackhuses and was sheltering there.”
The Chief sucked his teeth. “I told the council that we should have the last of the blackhuses destroyed. They are magnets for criminals and reprobates.”
I frowned. “But the blackhuses have existed forever. They are a sanctuary for all the clans.”
The Chief waved a hand dismissively. “Let us not get side-tracked. What were you doing so far south? Even Seekers don’t roam the ice lake. There’s nothing there.”
“An initiation rite,” I answered quickly. I knew they would ask this so I was prepared. “Something all new
Seekers have to do to prove themselves.” This seemed to satisfy them, and I allowed myself to relax a little.
“For that matter, what brings the Doctors south of the Peak?” This hit a nerve and the older man rose to face me.
“How dare you question us!” He said, although he backed down at a gesture from the Chief.
“Enough, brother.” So the tall man was Brand’s brother. They certainly shared a hot temper. The woman looked from one to the other with a hint of frustration.
“I understand you are wary of these strangers,” I said, doing my best to keep calm. “I am too. But their existence is more important than any one clan. If we bring them to the Seekers they will ensure that they are taken to the city where the council will be able to advice on our next course of action. We cannot keep them to ourselves.”
For a moment I thought I might be getting through to the Chief but then there came a shout from outside the tent and he turned away. A young female Doctor walked in, looking anxious.
“Reports of a lone wolf at the edge of the camp, Chief.”
The Chief slammed his fist against his chest. “If it’s not one thing, it’s the other. Come, brother, we must lead our fighters against it.”
“I could help…” I suggested, but the Chief didn’t even spare me a glance.
“Enra, watch our guest. We’ll be back soon.”
The woman with crossed arms turned her expressionless face towards me but didn’t say a word. After a few minutes I shrugged and curled up on the snow floor. I was exhausted, and I might as well try to get a little sleep: there was nothing I could do for the present.
I awoke to strange noises in the tent. I looked around to see that my guard was gone and I was alone. I ran outside to see that the camp was dark and in pandemonium. There were men, women and children running to and fro and no one seemed to know what was happening.
There were screams of rage coming from the edge of the camp and before I could even think what I was doing I had grabbed my pack and thrown the red dust that the Seeker’s gave me onto the nearest fire. The sparks flew up into the night sky, but such was the commotion that no one even stopped to look at them.
Then I ran. My heart hammered in my chest as I watched the figures running alongside me. A shrill scream pierced the air to my right, and I spun my body round just as something crashed into me from behind. I fell forward, face into the wet snow and instinctively rolled sideways. Only then did I see what had hit me. He was a Doctor, tall and slim, but all muscle.
He leaned forward with a sharp flint in his hand and I rocked back on my heels. I scrabbled for my knife.
It was just like killing a wolf, I told myself as I felt the cold weight of the knife in my hand. But still I couldn’t move. The doctor’s scared face turned into a sneering grin. He knew I couldn’t kill him, wasn’t brave enough to end his life.
With a scornful laugh he began to push himself up on his elbows. I dropped the knife and his smile grew wider until the moment my elbow connected with his nose. There was a stomach churning crunch as the bones shattered and his eyes rolled back in his head. As he fell to the ground unconscious I smiled. I might not be ready to kill, but I was no coward. I would take them out any way I could.
I think I only noticed the screaming once it stopped, that eerie sense you get when you hear an absence of noise. On the silent White it was like a thunderclap. All of a sudden people were running in the same direction, and all I could do was follow them. It was instinctual, we were like a herd of deer, each following the other.
We found them at the top of an ice ridge. Angel Sam stood to one side. His head was bowed and his stance was tense. I looked past him. On the snow was a figure, a Doctor, quite clearly dead. As I walked towards him I saw Sam move his hand. He was holding the electric gun.
“Sam,” I said softly, “hand me the gun.”
He passed it to me without turning his head. In a second I was surrounded by Doctors. I saw a face I recognised and made to hand the gun to Yohan but he flinched away. Instead I dropped it on the ground. I didn’t particularly want to touch it either.
“It wasn’t me.” Sam’s voice was little more than a whisper.
I walked over to the body, but I could already tell from the colour of the fur who it was. Brand, the Chief was dead, his eyes forever open. He was on his side, and there was a slight tang of burnt flesh. I walked around the body and saw a singed ring of fur at the small of his back. I hadn’t liked the man, but it seemed a cruel end.
“You and all your people will die for this.” Yohan’s voice rang through the silence. I spun round to see that he wasn’t talking to me. He had grabbed Sam by the throat with one hand, holding him aloft so that the boy could barely breathe.
“Sam!” I heard Lisanne cry. She was in the middle of the crowd, already being restrained by one of the Doctors.
“Enough,” I called. “You need him alive to find out what happened.”
Yohan grunted and dropped Sam to the snow.
“What happened?” I asked. Sam held his neck tenderly and struggled to get the words out.
“The Chief was running towards me. I shouted at him to stop, but he kept coming. I never fired though! I couldn’t do that! He just dropped like a stone a few feet in front of me.”
The Doctors were hardly listening to us. Yohan had a face like thunder, but the others seemed to be simply shocked. The only thing in our favour seemed to be their disbelief that a puny creature like Sam could have killed their beloved Chief.
“Look at the body.” It was Lisanne. She ignored the growls of disapproval as she fought to have her voice heard. “The wound came from behind. Sam couldn’t have shot him”
“Nonsense, he just shot the Chief in the back, like the coward he is.” Yohan called, and the voices of the Doctors rose in agreement with him.
I tried to think about what had happened. Could someone else have shot him? My instincts told me that the boy was no killer but there was just one problem with the idea: Angel Sam was the only one with a gun. None of our people had even seen one before.
But as they led Lisanne and Sam away, I wondered.
Chapter 13: Lisanne
The ropes were made out of animal hair and they jagged into my wrists. I looked over at Angel Sam who sat, ashen faced, staring at nothing. How had it all gone so wrong so quickly?
I knew we should have stayed put when we heard the screams from outside the tent. But Sam had whispered that this was our chance to escape, and before I knew what was happening he had pulled me outside into the darkness. The men who had been guarding us were long gone and we took the moment to slip away in the crowds. We had grabbed some extra furs from outside a tent and huddled down so that we looked like children.
But then it all went wrong. A shot of red sparks nearby frightened me, and I slipped on the snow. By the time I struggled back to my feet I had lost Angel Sam. I wandered around until I heard angry shouts and then I knew in the pit of my stomach that he was in trouble. When I finally reached him, he was surrounded by the Doctors, the gun in his hand and the Chief dead at his feet.
So here we were. Prisoners, left bound in a rough shelter on the White. No cosy tent this time for the murderers who had killed the Chief, just a couple of furs stretch across some spears. No one guarded us. What would be the point? If we ran the clan would be on us in seconds.
“I didn’t do it,” Sam said quietly.
“Of course you didn’t.” I hadn’t doubted him for a moment. Sam could never kill anyone, I would never believe it. If I had had any doubt one look at the horror in his eyes as he stared at the Chief’s corpse would be enough. Sam was no killer.
“What’s going to happen to me?” Sam said, his teeth chattering despite his protective suit. What’s going to happen to us, I thought, for surely if they thought Sam guilty they would punish me as well.
“I don’t know. Did you see who killed the Chief?”
Sam shook his head. “It was too dark and there were people eve
rywhere. Besides, those hairy creatures all look the same to me.”
“At least Kyrk stuck up for you.”
“Not that it mattered.”
We lapsed into silence. The wind whispered around us and I watched it drag the snow into drifts that sparkled in the first rays of sun. I looked out across the White and I almost laughed when I remembered the prison that I had been held in in the city. Out here on the ice there was no need for a cell or guards. There was just the snow, the emptiness and the horizon. Every so often one of the Doctors would turn to look at us, to check that we were in the same place, then turn back to their tasks. They had stripped us of our furs when they marched us out of the camp and we stood out like beacons. There was nowhere we could go; we were just as trapped as we would have been underground.
I wanted to speak, to break the silence but each time I tried Sam merely grunted a response. He was scared, and for once he couldn’t think of anything to do about it, and that made him angry. I was too tired to try to make him feel better.
When I saw someone walk out across the snow towards us, I had hoped it might be Kyrk - I had a small hope that he might be able to save us. But when the figure came closer it turned out to be a female Doctor, an older woman with a sharp face that I had seen earlier.
At first she merely stopped a few paces in front of us and stared at us. Sam made to say something but I kicked him on the ankle. I knew that we had to be careful what we said and how we said it. As desperate as the situation might be, it could still get worse.
“Is it true what you said? About the other city?” The woman’s voice was hoarse, and she had obviously been crying. She must have been close to the Chief and I felt a pang of sympathy for her that cut through my own self-pity. What if it had been Sam dead on the frozen ground?
“Yes. It was all true.”
“And did you kill him?” This was directed at Sam. He shook his head and the woman peered at him intently.
“No,” she said after a moment. “You do not have the strength to take a man’s life.” Sam stood a little straighter then and I felt him shudder with relief. “I do not believe that you are an invasion force either. Two runts, unarmed and weak are not an army. And if you did not come to hurt us, then maybe you did not kill our Chief.”