The Children of the Sky zot-3

by Vernor Steffen Vinge

  Just now, Screwfloss was heading toward the last wagon. The Amdi member beside her twisted around to watch. “I think he’s checking on the spare kherhog,” he said. The extra draft animal followed the third wagon, on a short tether.

  As the remnant passed she glanced down. As usual, the limper affected the pack’s collective gait, but … She had gotten very used to the pack’s appearance. There were two members with white blazes across their heads, so perfectly symmetrical they had to be littermates. One was the poor fellow whose leg she’d broken. The limp made the critter impossible to miss, but now the border of its white blaze was smeared like … like a cheap dye job.

  Huh? Aren’t there enough mysteries? The thought flitted through her mind, and then her kherhog slipped a half-meter downslope—and all her attention was back where it should be, on surviving the day.

  • • •

  The rain continued into the afternoon twilight, but now they were past the worst of the climbing. Their little caravan trundled along the edge of alpine meadows. If not for the overcast, the orbiter’s cameras could probably have spotted them. Jefri cajoled additional kilometers out of the kherhogs, finally stopping where Amdi judged a cliff side would keep them out of sight of the orbiter even in sunny daytime.

  “Unless Nevil maneuvers it again,” said Ravna.

  “Yes.” The eightsome looked skyward nervously. “I gotta think. I spread myself too thin today.”

  Screwfloss did some climbing, maybe looking for rockfall threats. When he came back, he circled forward, indicating where they should put the wagons.

  By now, everyone but Ravna had plenty of practice with the scutwork. Despite the rain, they soon had the fodder set out for the kherhogs. Screwfloss started a campfire and they sat down to eat.

  “Even cooked, this stuff still tastes like crap,” said Jefri.

  “The salted meat is worse,” said Amdi.

  “Ah,” said Ravna. “Then the good news is that we’re almost out of food.”

  Screwfloss did not add to the chitchat, but he was chewing unenthusiastically. Being crippled and only four, maybe he wasn’t up for normal Tinish hunting. She noticed that he kept a speculative eye on one of the kherhogs, the nearly lame animal they’d been keeping behind Amdi’s wagon. Screwfloss and Jefri had worked on the kherhog’s front paw, removing a jammed rock. The creature might do some work tomorrow, but it was smart enough to realize that the implicit contract with its meat-eating masters was in jeopardy. Now, it uneasily returned Screwfloss’ gaze.

  “Well, I figure we’re at the midpoint of the cut across,” said Amdi.

  Ravna remembered what they had seen on the maps, in the valley that lay ahead. There had been scattered settlements. “We’ll find some place we can stop and trade for food.”

  Amdi said, “The Tines we’ll meet down there, very likely they’ve never seen humans before.”

  Ravna looked from Amdi to Jef. “You think they might attack us out of hand, the way Steel’s troops killed your parents?”

  Jefri looked around thoughtfully, then shook his head. “Steel was Old Flenser’s madpack, conditioned for over-the-top treachery.”

  “It won’t be like Steel,” said Amdi. “There are still a lot of unpleasant possibilities. I’m sure that people in the Principates have heard of humans, but—”

  “Okay,” said Ravna. “Maybe Jefri and I could stay out of sight at first. You and Screwfloss could pose as lone travellers. If we have to, we could trade them our lamps, maybe other things. We can get past the initial encounter, guys. The question is, what then? We have to get home fast, and without anyone noticing—until we want to be noticed.”

  Jefri hunched forward, his hands making a thatchy mess of his hair. Abruptly he sat back. “I’ll bet we’d be rescued by now if Jo and Pilgrim were still around. Nevil must have acted against more than just you, Ravna. We may end up having to rescue everyone else.”

  “I can do it, Jefri,” said Ravna. “Just get me to Oobii.”

  He gave her a strange look. “You can take control so easily? And yet you let Nevil just push you aside?”

  Ravna felt her face warm. “You think I was a fool for that?”

  Jef looked away. She couldn’t tell if he was angry, or contemptuous—but when he continued, his voice was mild: “Counting Nevil, we have three enemies looking for us. We have evidence that none of them is above betraying the others, but we don’t know exactly what each wants. Maybe Tycoon really wants us for some kind of zoo. Vendacious’ goon was mainly interested in quietly killing us—you, anyway—while pretending to take us to Tycoon. I think Nevil just wants you out of the way. With you gone, he’ll have Oobii all to himself.” He looked back at her. “In any case, by now all three factions must know that we’ve slipped loose. If we try to signal for help, one of them will get us. We have no place to hide out. The best we can do is what you’re saying: get over these hills, hike home through the Wild Principates, and … and then get you to Oobii.”

  Amdi made a whining noise, not objecting, just very unhappy. “And I’ll be the one who has to do all the talking, to strangers!”

  Jefri: “You know Screwfloss may recover some of his Interpack speech, Amdi.”

  “Maybe,” said Amdi, hope creeping into his voice. “He was always—”

  “Where is Screwfloss, anyway?” Ravna said. Somewhere during the conversation, the remnant had wandered off.

  Jefri gave a disappointed sigh, belying his optimistic comment of the moment before. “He got bored, I suppose. I’m not sure how much he understands about strategy. Hopefully, he’s settling in for sentry duty.”

  That reminded Ravna of what she had noticed earlier in the day. She described the remnant’s smudged pelt coloring. “So what is he hiding? How many layers of secrets are there?”

  Amdi gave a tentative laugh. “Oh, that Screwfloss. Being murdered has hurt his self-image. His grooming has gotten so careless…” His voice dribbled off. Some of his heads tilted as he exchanged a look with Jefri. They were deciding whether to clue her in.

  Finally Jefri said, “It’s your story to tell, Amdi.”

  The pack gestured them nearer, until she was sitting shoulder to shoulder with Jefri, and two of Amdi were leaning onto their laps. This had worked more comfortably when Amdi had been little. “It’s two secrets really. Please don’t blame me, Ravna, but … I’ve been ’prenticing with Flenser since, well, for a long time.”

  The one by her lap twisted its neck to look up at her. Its eyes were big and dark. “It wasn’t a Nevilish thing. We weren’t betraying anyone, though you and especially Woodcarver might not see it that way.”

  “Yeah, don’t ride Amdi about this, Ravna. We all have our issues.”

  Ravna nodded, suppressing a smile. “Amdi, I know a little about what Flenser was up to. He promised you some kind of medical help, right?”

  Amdi emitted a squeak and all his heads came up. “How did you know that?”

  “Later,” said Ravna. “It’s about the only secret I knew, and I didn’t believe it at the time.”

  “Okay, but you’re right.” Amdi’s heads dipped. “I know my problem is cowardice. You humans are brave; you lived with death for so long. Like you, I was born all together and I am so … afraid of dying.”

  Ravna petted the one that leaned onto her lap. “I don’t think it’s cowardly.” She wondered just what Flenser had promised Amdi. “But you were going to tell me about Screwfloss,” she said.

  “Oh, yes. About his disguise!” Some of the perkiness came back to Amdi’s delivery. “Helping with Screwfloss was a more successful project. I’m proud of what I did, even if Woodcarver might call it treason. I knew Flenser-Tyrathect is mainly good.”

  Jefri gave the one on his lap a light tap. “Are you deliberately tantalizing Ravna? Get to the point!”

  “No, no! I’m circling in on the truth.” He huddled in even closer, took a sweeping look at the darkness. The rain had started up again, but it was gentle in the windless night
. “It’s not a figure of speech to say that Flenser-Tyrathect is mainly good. Three of him is from the schoolteacher he murdered. She’s running the show, even though the pack doesn’t consciously interpret events that way.”

  “I know,” said Ravna. “Flenser even jokes about it, but in a sly way that implies it’s all a lie.”

  “Well, it’s not a lie.” This was asserted with un-Amdian truculence. “The one with the white-tipped ears is the critical connector, but all three contribute.”

  “I knew that, too,” said Ravna.

  Mischief crept into Amdi’s voice: “I’ll bet you didn’t know that all three have had puppies within the pack.”

  “What?” Even her broken surveillance system should have noticed that. Unless, “Was this when Flenser went missing up north?”

  “Yup.”

  That had been five years ago. Woodcarver had pitched a fit, coming close to making war on what was left of the Flenserist movement. “So Flenser-Tyrathect was trying to recruit from within himself for when the Tyrathect members die?”

  “Yes, but that part of it didn’t work out. Flenser had all sorts of broodkennerish explanations, but it came down to the fact that what was left of the Old Flenser was capable of rejecting the puppies … So, he gave one to Wretchly and I helped him place the other two.”

  Ravna looked out into the rainy dark. If this story was going somewhere, she could guess what became of the other two puppies. “Then who is the rest of Screwfloss, Amdi?”

  “Jefri and me, we smuggled the two puppies into the veterans’ Fragmentarium—where the remains of Steel were being held prisoner.”

  “Ah. I suppose that was right before Steel’s ‘suicide.’”

  “Yes,” said Amdi. “Somehow, Flenser persuaded Carenfret to fool everyone, Woodcarver included.”

  “Yeah,” said Jefri, “I’ve always wondered what Flenser had on Carenfret.”

  “I don’t care,” said Amdi. “Mr. Steel was a monster, but when I was very little, he was—I thought he was—my first friend. Anyway, the whole thing worked out the way Flenser and Carenfret planned. What was left of Mr. Steel was crazy, but part of the insanity was because Steel had always wanted to prove himself to the Old Flenser, to become something truly worthy. After he stopped trying to kill the two Tyrathect puppies, they fit with him perfectly. Some of the result still looked like the original Steel, so he needed the pelt painting for disguise.”

  Screwfloss’ sneakiness and killing rage had saved them all, but it was his patient caring that had brought her through the days she lay mindless. Could he really be from the pack that got Murder Meadows its name? It wasn’t a form of redemption available to humans, at least not Down Here.

  No one said anything for a moment. There was just the rain and the tiny fire dying down to embers. Finally, Ravna said, “So which of him got murdered last night? Is Steel half, or three-quarters, of what’s left?”

  “Ah, um.” Amdi’s voice was a little too cheery. “Don’t worry. You know personality doesn’t go by percentages. Three quarters of the remnant is from Steel, but the four is still a reformed soul.”

  • • •

  The object of their discussion did not show up for several hours, though Amdi said he could hear him patrolling around the camp. “He figures none of us make good sentries,” said Amdi. “I bet he’s going to sleep a perimeter.”

  They’d made the kherhogs as comfortable as possible in the lee of the steep hillside where it was about as dry as anywhere. As for their own sleeping arrangements: there were some waterproof cloaks in one of the cabinets as well as the clothes that Jefri and Ravna had worn the day before.

  They changed and Amdi and Jefri laid out the waterproofs. The two huddled together as they had on the cold nights of the trip south.

  “You can lie with us, Ravna,” said Amdi, making space.

  Jefri hesitated, then said, “It makes sense. We need the warmth.”

  The issue hadn’t arisen the night before, when their sleep consisted of brief catnaps on top of the wagons.

  “Right.” She lay down behind Jefri and let Amdi cluster all around. She hadn’t cuddled these two since they were small. Now … when she slipped her arms around Jefri, it was very different.

  Chapter 26

  The highlands were easier going than the climb up, even where rain had left centimeters of loose muck. The kherhogs could graze on tender meadow grass—though water lay just below the green, disguising deep holes. It wasn’t raining anymore, but the sky was densely overcast—ideal weather for making unobserved progress. Remnant Screwfloss (Remnant Steel?) behaved as he had the day before, scouting ahead of the three wagons, pointing out usable paths. His limp slowed him down, but it didn’t seriously affect his agility.

  The maps were stowed, but Amdi had memorized them: “These mountains dribble off to the west more gently than to the east. There’s a steep descent up ahead.”

  Ravna remembered that; “steep descent” was too kind a description. The map’s contour lines had merged into a single curve, a sheer cliff. Amdi didn’t deny that, but at the moment he was worrying about something else: “In a few more hours—two days at most—we’ll run into a village, or an inn, or just farmer packs. What are we going to say to them?”

  “It depends on the situation, Amdi,” said Ravna. Poor guy. He was trying to plan for an ad lib performance. Of course, while he was doing that, he didn’t have to think about the coming descent, or the fact that they were out of food (for all values of edible that Ravna wished to consider), and were being hunted by as many as three different gangs. And now, a wind was sweeping across the meadows. Maybe it wasn’t arctic cold, but it jammed icily against her sodden jacket. And they were all tired and filthy and cold and.… Think about something else:

  Screwfloss had moved to the rear and was snooping around huge boulders that were scattered in the meadow. His alertness was a comfort, though with every passing day, it seemed more likely that Chitiratifor’s gang was safely lost behind them. Amdi was not comforted. His heads snapped around to follow the foursome. “Wah! We could run into local packs even before we get to the dropoff!”

  Ravna noticed that Jefri had slowed the lead wagon, and was watching Screwfloss’ investigation, too. In fact, these meadows didn’t look much different from old-style farms of the Domain. Before genetically modified fodder crops, the packs’ idea of farming was much like the human notion of a game preserve. Traditional Tinish farmers simply made the land more hospitable for prey, keeping their animals fed and protecting them against other predators. Sometimes farm “fences” could be mistaken for natural tree lines and rockfalls—though she had seen nothing really likely hereabouts.

  Caterwauling erupted from behind the boulders. Something member-sized came racing out, heading away from the meadow. Three of Screwfloss outflanked it. The creature made a turn so tight it was a flip and headed into the meadow—but Screwfloss’ limper was waiting for it there. The thing had no choice. It made another hairpin turn and was sprinting along the path, straight at the wagons. Three of Screwfloss were closing fast.

  It was far too big to be a weasel—and if you saw one of those, you saw a hundred, and then you were probably the weasels’ lunch. Besides, this thing had two extra limbs at its midsection! As it raced past her wagon, she realized that its “extra legs” were the torn and muddy remnants of a travel cloak.

  Then lots of things happened at once. She almost lost her reins as her kherhog spooked away from the runner. Up ahead, Jefri and one of Amdi had jumped down from the front wagon.

  “Gotta go!” said the one of Amdi beside her. He bailed out, just as Screwfloss stampeded through, followed by the rest of Amdi.

  Jefri moved back and forth to block the creature’s escape.

  Ravna rose from her bench. “Be careful—” was all she got out before the runner skittered around Jef. But the faster of Screwfloss had caught up. They circled, forcing the singleton back. And now all of Amdi was ranged in front of Ravna’s w
agon. Corralling the thing was probably an accident, but it looked like a masterpiece of teamwork. The fugitive had stopped running. It was crouched low, still shrieking monstrously loud.

  Nobody moved for a second. Three seconds. The hissing stopped. The creature looked back and forth at its antagonists, then focused on the least numerous: Jefri. A pack could be deadly. What about a singleton? Jefri looked very calm. He kept his eyes on the runaway, but his words were directed elsewhere.

  “Ravna, sit back down. Don’t let your kherhog overrun us.” His own wagon had run forward almost fifty meters, then off a little ways into the meadow. “Amdi, you’re doing fine. Just stand up a little straighter.”

  She suddenly noticed that Amdi was trembling. His members were large and there were eight of them, but he’d spent most of his life thinking like a human child, with none of the internal role models of normal Tines. But Amdi did his best, all eight rising to alert poses. And he was talking, both to the singleton and to Screwfloss behind Jefri. That pack had been edging around the human, as if planning a sudden rush on the singleton. Now it backed up a little and settled for blocking the singleton’s exit.

  “You’re carrying some snacks, right, Amdi?” Jefri asked.

  “Yech, if you can call them that.” He reached into one of his panniers and pulled out a big sausage, green with mold. “Not even all of me can still eat these things.” He held it gingerly in the soft tips of a muzzle.

  “Why don’t you toss it to our new friend here.”

  “Ah! Okay.” Amdi said something to the singleton, then lobbed the sausage toward the creature. It landed just beyond the animal’s reach.

  The singleton didn’t move toward it immediately. Its head swept across Amdi, then quickly turned to check out Jefri and Screwfloss, and then sharply looked back at Amdi. It was strange to see a member working so hard just to see what was around it.