by Patty Jansen
Great. It was starting to sound familiar.
She said, "We'll just go in, check out this spot where the transmissions come from, and leave again."
Wishful thinking. Things were never that simple. Glad they'd brought Braedon who apparently spoke some Pengali.
The boat glided closer and closer. The dark mass at the bottom of the cliffs dissolved into individual trees. A lighter patch turned out to be an area of rock. A veil-like waterfall trickled into a lagoon, which was separated from the marshlands by a sand spit that curved all the way around the lagoon.
The closer they came to the beach, the more imposing the rock formation. From the water, you could see over the top to the forested slope and the cliff face, now golden with the light of the low suns. But close up, the rocks and forest restricted the view to just the lagoon. For one used to living in corridors and underground passages, it surprised her just how claustrophobic this made her feel. Rock walls at Hedron didn't provide opportunities for enemies to hide like the forest did. It was not like Indrahui, where she could count on being able to spot enemies far away, and attack with fairly primitive weapons. Pengali were quick, strong and with their huge eyes, saw much better in the dark than she did.
The boat glided across the still and dark water and hit the beach with a crunch. Eris and Loxa jumped out to pull it up. Loxa studied the wall of forest at the back of the beach, his hands held at elbow height so that he could quickly grab his gun.
The air was still, with not a breeze ruffling the trees. The only sound was the tinkling of the waterfall at the rock formation. A faint whiff of sulphur hung in the air.
"It's best to set up there," Braedon said, with a wave towards the rocks. "There is a cave where we can shelter."
"But we can't see anything coming from there." The thought of sleeping in the open without being able to see all around gave her the creeps.
"If we're in the cave, they can't see us either. If the rogue Pengali decide that they want us out of here, we'll have more chance to defend ourselves from that cave."
Eris nodded. "I'll set up the motion alarm and trips before we go to sleep."
They unloaded their packs and carried them across the soft sand to the overhang of the rocks. It was quite cool in the cave-like structure, and the rock wall was wet in places where water seeped through. Having relieved it of its burden, Loxa dragged the boat further up the beach. Then Eris and Dashu set out with a bunch of motion sensors and a large roll of invisible wire.
Izramith left the cave and climbed on the rocky outcrop to inspect the area where wisps of steam curled into the air. The slope was a terraced patchwork of pools. Steaming water ran from one pool to the other, across salt-encrusted edges that coated the rock like icy stalagmites. Water in the pools was orange, yellow or pink, each more garish than the next. The low sunlight made the salt crystals sparkle.
"Wow," she whispered.
"It's quite something, isn't it?"
She whirled around. She hadn't seen Braedon come up behind her. With his hair tied back and dressed in tough gear that probably came from the old Mirani army supplies, he no longer looked like Trader. He held his hands in his pockets, relaxed. The breeze blew a strand of hair over his forehead. "It's such a pity that this area is disputed and unsafe, because it would be great for day trips."
"Have you been here before?"
"A few times. Usually with the tribal Pengali. They show me natural remedies, and I buy various medicinal compounds off them. I like to see where those compounds come from, so I go into the forest with the Pengali, and I pick the leaves and dry them, and grind them up." He smiled. "Silly, right?"
She shrugged. He clearly loved what he did. There was nothing silly about that.
"I love it," he continued. "It's so beautiful here."
"Yes." Different from Hedron, but beautiful.
For a moment they stood in a strange companionable silence. Unlike with Dashu, Izramith felt no need to say something or defend or explain her behaviour. He didn't care about sheya about who was highest in ranking or any of that Asto crap.
Eris and Dashu came walking uphill along the edge of the rock platform.
"Where are the others?" Braedon asked.
"At the camp," Eris said.
A look of concern passed between them.
"We set up motion alarms all around the area. We should be secure."
"Let's go back there," Braedon said. "Should is not a word we must learn to trust."
"Thania Lingui, current Chief Coordinator of Asto," Izramith said. And father of her current employer. "Seriously, is there that much danger in this area?"
"Pengali land is never safe, unless you have Pengali with you."
Dashu pointed towards the forest. "The location we're after is just uphill from here. There is a bit of a hill in the forest. You can't see it from here, but it would overlook most of the bay if it wasn't for the trees. We might go and have a look."
* * *
They assembled at the cave, donned all their safety gear, armour and helmets and set out for the spot, led by Eris with the tracker.
Izramith soon discovered that forest was a very annoying thing. They had to push vegetation aside, and climb up a hill without making noise, and trying to keep in contact with the others whom she couldn't see if they were more than a few paces away. On top of that, her stomach started gurgling.
It was so unbelievably hot and she was still annoyed with herself for feeling this way. She was never sick.
How long would it take before she could finally function normally?
For now, her clothes stuck to her body with sweat under her suit. The helmet fogged up, and she was under constant temptation to rip it from her head, but then she would lose her communication.
There was no path, so she needed to jump from moss-covered stone to moss-covered stone. Branches hung poked out at the most inconvenient spot and the damn stones were slippery as hell so she had to steady herself with her hands while holding onto branches, all of which she couldn't see well because of the fucking helmet. She tried the infrared scan, but just turned the whole forest into a mush of grey and slightly darker grey.
They found the hill, cloaked in thick vegetation. From the bottom you couldn't even see the top, let alone down to the bay. The hillside was covered in vines that dropped floppy strings of flowers when touched. She wasn't sure if flowers was the right word. The stems were very flexible, and covered in fluffy stuff, so that the assemblage looked like a floppy bug. It gave off a white powder that itched like crazy when one of the stems fell in the space between her suit and her helmet.
A bit further uphill, bushes threshed about where Eris and Loxa were making their way up. It was impossible to remain quiet in this impenetrable jungle. If there was anyone around, all they needed to do was hide in the trees with a gun and pick them off.
Someone on the comm said, "I can see something." It sounded like Loxa. "There is a structure on the top of the hill. Can't see any people."
"Wait approaching until we've caught up." She looked over her shoulder. Braedon was trailing behind. "Where are the others?"
"Can't see them, but I can hear them. Still coming up the hill."
"Yup, doing our best," Dashu said. She sounded out of breath. "Wairin's with me."
Braedon scrambled up a boulder behind her, meeting her eyes through the visor of his helmet.
"Anything wrong?" he asked. His voice sounded muffled. His armour had collected a number of green smears.
"Loxa and Eris have spotted something." It was annoying to have to speak inside the helmet instead of sending text. But: no Exchange coverage here. "They're waiting for us to get there."
But as she said that, she spotted the glint of Loxa's silver insulation suit a bit further up. They hadn't been so far behind after all.
Izramith clambered up a giant boulder to join them.
She peered ahead between the bushes but saw nothing except a tangle of vegetation. That damn stupid forest.
She wanted to scream and blast it out of the way so she could see.
Braedon joined them on top of the boulder, followed by Dashu and Wairin. In the spots where Wairin's skin was visible, it glistened with sweat. He wiped his neck with the back of his hand.
Braedon detached the gun from his arm bracket, and Izramith did the same.
Slowly, they advanced up the hill, and in the light that angled between the trees, a primitive shack dissolved from the forest: two walls, one at the back and one at the left hand side, and a sloping roof, held up in the opposite corner by a post. It stood at the base of a large tree, which formed the support in the corner where the two walls joined. Under the shelter of the roof stood a makeshift table and two benches. A tangle of vines had made a carpet of green on the roof, which cascaded down the outside wall and crept into the covered space. A couple of vines trailed around the legs of the table.
Against the back wall stood a platform that could have been a bed and above that on the wall hung a shelf that was empty except for a few dead leaves and a single bright yellow piece of resin that looked like a cap for a plug or something similar.
The floor was covered in dead leaves, moss and creepers.
Izramith studied the yellow object without touching it.
"It's a cover for transmitter plugs," Dashu said.
"That means there's got to be a transmitter somewhere around here." She studied the ceiling. The corner of the shack housed an interesting arrangement of leaves and sticks woven together with what looked like dried slime. There were five oval constructions, about the size of a fist, each with a perfectly round hole at the front. Some sort of animal nest.
"Where would they hide the antenna?"
"They could have brought in a portable."
"I thought they'd needed a decent dish to reach pretty much anything from here. There is no Exchange coverage."
"Yeah, I would have thought so, too." Dashu studied the ceiling and the interesting-looking animal nests. "And that's not equipment you can easily move. Unless you can see an antenna."
Izramith stepped out of the shack and peered into the mass of green above. Leaves, branches, clumps of vegetation growing on the branches, things growing on trunks. Air roots and vines going everywhere. Where did one tree even stop and the next begin? You could possibly hide a satellite dish up there, and no one would ever find it.
"How long ago do you think they left this place?" There were no signs of disturbance.
"Not sure. Doesn't need to have been very long. They might be hiding out close by. Maybe they only come here when there is something to transmit."
Which, apparently, there had been last night.
Eris dropped to his knees and studied the ground and the underside of the table. Wairin walked around the shack, studying the ground. Loxa and Dashu followed him, looking at the walls and up into the tree. Izramith studied the bed and the shelf on the wall, all made from crude timber. She found no remarkable features, and neither did the others.
They gathered back under the cover of the shack.
"Nothing," Loxa said, and there were nods all around.
Izramith said, "We'll do a search of the immediate surroundings and then we can go back to camp. Eris, can you set up motion sensors in this area, armed and wired?"
Wairin and Eris went back to the beach to get the gear, while Izramith, Braedon, Dashu and Loxa swept the area. The top of the hill formed a kind of platform surrounded on three sides by steep drop-offs littered with boulders and overgrown with tangles of bushes. No way anyone could easily get down that way.
Izramith's map had shown the geography, but reality made it so different. The position of the hilltop shack was quite defensible as if someone expected trouble.
Wairin and Eris returned. They directed the others to string thin "invisible" wire around the top of the hill, they armed the wire by connecting it to the power supply and hung motion sensors in strategic positions in the trees.
After all that was done, they returned to the cave.
Since the area was now searched and secure, they took the opportunity to organise the camp and start thinking about dinner.
Braedon cut up the fish he had caught and hung it to cook in a cloth bag in one of the pools, but one single fish wasn't going to feed six people, and Wairin joked to him about it, so he got his line out again and went to the point where the beach jutted into the lagoon. He stood there, a tall silhouette against the darkening sky.
"You need to put something on the hook that the fish like," Izramith said, ambling up to him.
He turned. "What do you know about fishing?"
"We have fish at Hedron."
"Really?"
"In the underground rivers. I used to catch them sometimes."
"Is that true, huh?"
She sat down in the sand, but as she did so, spotted a few holes. Just like the worm holes she used to dig out at Hedron.
She stuck her fingers into the sand and dug up a good hand full. After a couple of empty scoops of sand, she came up with a small wriggly creature. It jumped from her sandy palm onto the sand and started to re-bury itself, but she grabbed it and held it between thumb and index finger.
"Here is something for you."
Braedon withdrew the line. There was a piece of fluff at the end with a vicious hook inside.
"What is that thing?"
"It's a lure. Fish see it and think it's some creature that's fallen in the water."
"Oh. Fish at Hedron have no eyes." Izramith spiked the wriggling thing onto the hook. "So they go by smell and taste alone. You have to put something on your line, or the fish won't come. There you go." She let the end of the line go, and the wriggly thing swung back and forth over the water, still wriggling on the hook.
Braedon swung the line behind him and threw it back into the water as far as he could. It sank into the depth.
Not a moment later, the line jerked. Braedon pulled it up. A much larger fish jumped out of the water and splashed back in, scattering diamond drops of water.
"Whoa!" Braedon started rolling up the line, but it snagged underwater.
"I'll get it." Izramith jumped into the water and waded to the spot. With each step, she sank knee-deep in soft ground. The muddy bottom sucked at her shoes.
The fish was about the length of her forearm and it had tangled the line in underwater vegetation. When she pulled it up, the slimy skin slipped from her hands. It fell back into the water, threshing and splattering. Water went into her face.
Braedon shouted, "Watch out!"
From the corner of her vision, Izramith sensed something big making ripples in the surface of the water. Next moment, a huge thing reared from the water, a massive long-bodied creature, with a big spiky head and open mouth. The skin shimmered in the low sun. A vicious yellow eye glared at her.
In that one moment, Izramith knew she was dead. She'd survived the battlefield and siege of Pataniti to be eaten by a creature in Barresh.
A charge flashed overhead.
There was a moment of silence in which Izramith waited for the bite of teeth and then something very large splashed in the water, soaking her.
Crap.
Izramith raised herself on her knees. Her clothes dripped with muddy water. The fish she had been holding had escaped.
The creature that had attacked her lay on its side, a long body with a spiky head at an odd angle to the rest of the body. Its skin was dark grey and shimmery. Its eye—yellow and the size of her palm—stared lifelessly into the sky, while a trickle of dark fluid oozed over its neck. Shit. Even half in the water, it reached midway to her thigh. This thing could have gobbled her up in one bite.
Braedon stood on the beach, slowly letting the gun sink to his side.
"Good shot, buster." And she meant it. He fucking saved her life.
He tucked the gun in his arm bracket. "Well, I think we now have enough fish for dinner."
Chapter 20
While Dashu, Loxa, Wairin and Eris came runn
ing onto the beach, Izramith stumbled out of the water, her heart still thudding.
"What is that thing?"
"It's an eel," Braedon said. "I'm sorry I had to kill it." The latter to Eris, who nodded, his face grave. He waded into the water. "It's a big one." He placed a hand on the side of the creature's head and stood like that for a while. No one said anything. Eris faced away from the beach. His lips moved. A dedication? Death prayer?
Then he let his hand slide from the head and turned around. "Throw me the rope."
Together, they heaved the creature to the beach. You had to watch the spikes on the head, Eris said, because they were poisonous.
Loxa brought him a knife and he sliced into the flesh, peeling off the skin and cutting chunks of the white flesh underneath. Wairin wrapped these into the skin and piled them on the beach. Braedon took one of those parcels to the hot springs. Then Eris cut long strips from the remaining flesh. His hands dripped with blood and grease.
Loxa and Dashu retreated to higher up the beach. Dashu looked sick, and because no one else volunteered, and because it was getting dark and because it was her fault that the creature was dead, Izramith grabbed her dagger and helped cut the rest of the fish up. They worked in an odd reverent silence. Izramith frequently had to hold her breath, because it was foul work and the smell of dead flesh was making her sick.
Slowly, the piles of fishy flesh on the beach grew and the carcass was beginning to resemble the framework for a tent.
"What are we going to do with all this? We can't take this back with us." At least she hoped not, because sharing a long boat ride with smelly fish would not end well.
Eris turned around, wiping sweat off his face. "No, but if we leave it here on drying racks, others will use it. That is the Pengali way." Like this, with the low sunlight on his face, he looked older and wiser than all of them. Even though he had the typical keihu—extremely ugly—nose, he was not unattractive. He was yet to acquire the excess weight that so many keihu men seemed to carry and his eyes, soft brown, were intelligent and kind. Crazy as he was about rules, he had displayed a lot of maturity in the way he listened and considered the effect of his actions on others. In fact, if he had a little bit less consideration for others, he'd probably do better for himself.