by Gini Koch
Considered this as I tried not to shiver. “Is it my vision or is this continent sort of . . . tilted?”
“It’s not your vision, and that’s one of the reasons we didn’t get to the All Seeing Mountain—Chuck wanted to look at everything.”
“So, all of the Iceland spiral is this high up?”
“Yes.”
“Think this weird topography is visible from space?”
“Probably, with the right telescopes, which I’m sure all the spacefaring planets have. Why?”
“I’m wondering why no one from this solar system that we’ve met has ever mentioned that Beta Eight is so weird.”
“Maybe they don’t think it is. Lorraine and Claudia said that there are other planets like this out there.”
“Far, far away, but yeah, okay.”
“I’m freezing and I can tell you are, too. Do you want to keep on going?”
Looked around. “Are we easily spotted up here, do you think?”
“It’s not snowing and there’s still light, so yeah, probably. Why?”
“I’d like to wait here for a little while. Just in case.”
He cocked his head at me. “Oh. You’re hoping the Lecanora in the area will spot us, assume we’re Gods, and come over to check us out and possibly help us, right?”
“Got it in one! The waterfruit is awesome, isn’t it?”
“Yeah. You know, we haven’t given it to any of the others yet, or at least I haven’t. But Chuck and I both had more when we were racing all over the planet.”
“Yeah, it hadn’t occurred to me to give Jeff any until I was out running around after Patrina. But when we got back safely, I didn’t think about it, either. And I haven’t asked him if he’s hungry or anything. But I had one when I was out after Patrina.”
We were both quiet for a few moments. “That’s not normal for us,” Christopher said finally. “Or Chuck, because he hasn’t suggested we give some to the others, either. I mean, sure, we’ve all been busy, but . . .”
“But they’re addictive, aren’t they? I mean, something this great has to have a downside.”
“Either that or they’ll turn us into katyhoppers.”
“Dude, where did you get that idea from?”
“I guess because the katyhoppers are the top sentient form we’ve met so far, and yet, we didn’t think they would be because of their docility.”
“Like we said before, I think they were docile because they were able to tell we weren’t there to hurt them and, in fact, were afraid of them but got over it because they were helping us and not attacking. I mean, do you feel like you’re turning insectanese?”
“No, but I guess I wouldn’t know how that felt. But . . . I do know how addiction feels.” He cleared his throat. “It feels like this.”
“Are you sure? I mean, what if we don’t want to share simply because they’re awesome?”
“Since when have you not wanted to share something awesome with Jeff?”
“Good point. Well, crap. Do we throw them all away?”
“And risk dying? See, that’s the downside—they haven’t hurt us at all. They’ve helped us. So what’s wrong with continuing to eat them?”
“The fact that we can’t get them when we go home. Or likely grow them at home. And we wouldn’t want to grow them at home, would we?”
“No, I don’t think we would.”
We were quiet for another few moments. “Poofikins suggested I eat the one I had when I was looking for Patrina.”
“Huh. I want to think that if the Poofs offer it, it’s not dangerous.”
“Maybe it isn’t.”
“Maybe we’re relying too much on an animal’s opinion, even if it’s a really smart, amazing animal.”
Several heads popped up out of the snow. They were silvery-white, with blue eyes and light pink noses, and, as they stood up, I could spot some black fur framing their ears, paws, and tips of their tails. I put them as ferrets. Giant ones, to be sure, but still, ferrets.
One of them approached us cautiously, sniffing like mad. “Strangers, you smell like our cousins,” she said. It was definitely a she. And I took the leap and assumed she didn’t mean actual cousins, but rather the other clans.
“We’re traveling with some of them.”
Her nose kept on going. “There is only one clan that has all our cousins in it.” Yep, I’d called the cousins term right.
“Is that so?”
Her eyes narrowed. “It is. And if you’ve harmed them, we will be forced to avenge them.”
“Forced?” Christopher asked as he took hold of my hand again.
She pulled herself up to her full height, which was about equal to mine. She had beautiful fur, but unlike all the other Lecanora I’d seen so far, she wasn’t wearing any clothing or carrying any weapons. “It is our duty.”
“Good. I was hoping you’d feel that way. What about if that clan is in need of help? What’s your duty then?”
She eyed me. “Who are you?”
“Your cousins call me Shealla.” I nodded toward Christopher. “And they call him Binalla.”
Interestingly, while all their eyes opened wide, there was no immediate bowing, gasping, or anything else going on. Time to take the plunge.
“And I’m just betting that whatever it is that they call you, what it translates to is ‘warrior.’”
CHAPTER 42
THE FERRET NODDED her head formally. “Shealla is said to know her people.”
Had to figure this was a test. “Shealla’s a lot more interested in finding food and shelter for the people she’s protecting. And help protecting them, and the others who are helping them, would also be nice.”
“Others?”
“From different regions of your world. The strautruch and the katyhoppers. Well, I call them katyhoppers. They look like giant brightly colored insects. And the strautruch look like giant brightly colored birds. The katyhoppers are from the Purple Land and the strautruch are from the Yellow one.”
Finally the ferret seemed impressed. “You travel with those? But they do not speak. We are not certain they think.”
“They don’t speak your language or in your way, no. But they speak to us. And they definitely think. At your level.” Or higher. Kept that one to myself, and Christopher had learned long ago to let me roll and stay quiet.
“You claim you are Shealla, and that he is Binalla. Yet we see no proof.”
I shrugged. “I think I’ll call you Fancy. And because I’m the Giver of Names, you’ll be stuck with Fancy, unless you want to tell me a name you like better. Binalla flies on the wind.” I let go of Christopher’s hand and he took the hint.
He zipped off. To the Lecanora, of course, it looked like he’d disappeared. This time there were some gasps, but not from Fancy. He was back shortly. “Shealla, night is falling.”
“Fancy, we need to leave you and return to those we’re protecting.”
“Why have you come?” Fancy asked.
“To find warriors.” With that, I nodded to her, and started walking. Christopher came with me.
“How did you know they’d be here?” he asked me quietly.
“Just sort of knew. Based on what King Benny said about the natives here.”
“Really?”
“We can smell our own, Christopher, okay? Tell you more later.”
Fancy did a very ferrety thing and ran in front of us on all fours, then stood up on her hind legs. “Why do the Gods need warriors? Can the Gods not fight themselves?”
“Of course. But then the world will be ours, and not yours.”
She stared at me. “You mean to go against the king.”
“We do, because we fear he is not just. He has cast out many for speaking the truth. If he rules well, we will leave him be. But it does not appear th
at he rules well.”
“We have all seen the ships in the sky, all my people,” Fancy said. “But I would not allow any to say so.”
“Because you saw what happened to the others who did speak the truth.”
She nodded. “Do you truly travel with them?”
I put my hand out. “Come with us and find out.”
She stared at my hand. “And if this is a trap?”
“Bring your warriors with you. Link hands and hold mine.”
She made a chittering sound, and the others I’d seen already zipped over. None of them were wearing clothing or carrying weapons. Wondered where Rahmi and Rhee were. Hoped they were safe just like I hoped all the others we still hadn’t found were safe. Maybe Rahmi and Rhee were with Jamie and Gower. That would be good for all of them.
Shoved the worry back down. Didn’t have the luxury to wallow right now. Fancy’s Ferrets linked hands, she put her paw into mine, and then Christopher kicked the hyperspeed up to eleven, and they got to go on Ms. Ferret’s Wild Ride.
Of course, the ride didn’t take long. We did a fast tour of the entire Iceland Spiral and were back with the others in less than a minute. Had to give it to Fancy’s Ferrets—they didn’t fall to their paws and start retching, though I was pretty sure a couple of them really wanted to.
The people we were rejoining were expecting me and Christopher to come back, of course. But they weren’t expecting us to show up with twenty additional Lecanora. So there was a lot of gasping and jumping going on for a minute or so.
Looked at Fancy. “Note where we are. Why aren’t your people in here?”
“It’s a place of great danger,” she said. “None should ever enter these places.”
These places. Chuckie was, as always, right. “Why not? Who gave that decree?”
Fancy sniffed at me. “If you were truly Shealla, you would know.”
“Alcalla gave that order,” Chuckie said, stepping forward. “In other words, I gave that order. Thousands of years ago.” Figured I’d ask later if he’d guessed this was the right thing to say or had learned as much from one of the Lecanora while Christopher and I were gone.
Fancy finally looked like she believed. “Are the Gods truly here with us, Musgraff?”
“Yes, Corzine.” King Benny stepped forward. “They have saved us from the Horrors. A gigantic herd of them. All of us, from the highest to the lowest,” he indicated a somewhat nearby bosthoon.
Fancy eyed me. “What are the other Gods?”
“You know, King Benny here—that’s what I call him, instead of Clan Leader Musgraff, by the way—he didn’t need to cheat to pass the God Test.”
Her lips quirked. “But then you did not have to pass the test yourselves.”
The katyhoppers and strautruch joined us. They sized up Fancy’s Ferrets. They felt they could take them. I wasn’t so sure.
“This is Saffron, Pinky, and Turkey.” Each waved their antennae when named. “They’re katyhoppers. All given new God Names by me. These others are strautruch.” Crap, hadn’t actually had time to learn their names. Well, when in doubt and all that. “Their Shealla names are Tyler, Perry, Whitford, Hamilton, and Kramer.” The strautruch nodded their heads. The katyhoppers shared that the Big Birds were cool with getting named after my favorite band in the universe.
While Chuckie and the flyboys practically killed themselves controlling their Inner Hyenas, Jeff walked over, carrying a bosthoon in each hand. “Not sure what else you want as proof, but I have to say, yet again, that what I want is for these people to be safely housed, fed, and moved.” He put the bosthoon down. “I’m tired of all the standing around discussing things that we’ll handle later. Right now, King Benny’s situation is the most important thing and I want it handled, or the rest of the Gods are going to have a discussion with me they’re not going to enjoy.”
Fancy bowed to him. “You are truly Leoalla.” She turned to me and Christopher. “Forgive me, Shealla and Binalla, for not believing.”
I shrugged. “You questioned. There’s never a problem with questioning authority, even the Gods’ authority. The problems are blind obedience or stubborn resistance in the face of the obvious.”
“Shealla is wise and speaks the truth. We can provide what our cousins will need for the night’s survival. And we can offer the same to the Gods, if you so desire.”
“We’re with all of you, we so desire. Unless providing for us will cause your own people hardship, and then we’ll do without.”
“Speak for yourself,” Randy muttered. “The Winalla are starving.”
Fancy heard this and she laughed. “Never would we refuse to feed fellow warriors.”
“Oh, yeah, my God Gang, look at Fancy’s Ferrets as this planet’s Amazon Fighting Force and act accordingly.”
“Fancy’s Ferrets?” Joe asked.
“It’s Shealla Kitty,” Chuckie said. “What did you expect?”
“We wear that name with pride,” one of the Ferrets said. “Because we do follow Fancy Corzine into battle.”
“See? They’re one with the Shealla Naming Plan. The rest of you could take a lesson.” Saw that Jeff was ready to pop a vessel. “But enough of that. Let’s get our refugee clan fed and bedded and then we can discuss strategies.”
CHAPTER 43
WE HAD TO FIND a trail that ran close to the cavern and follow it about a mile, per Fancy, to reach the nearest entrance to her people’s homes.
We hurried, because the snakipedes apparently had no issues with cold and, sadly, we’d been shown they weren’t strictly nocturnal, either—they were 24/7, or whatever this planet’s equivalent was, killers. Apparently they were also willing and able to slither as much as fly, meaning they could get into Fancy’s Ferrets’ homes if they weren’t careful. But hurrying and hyperspeed weren’t the same thing.
However, everyone moved quickly and with purpose, which was a refreshing change. Had to admit they were probably moving well not because we’d told them to but, on top of fear of this world’s most terrifying predator, it was dark by the time we’d left the cavern and extremely cold. Plus it got darker and colder every minute, even for those with heavy fur coats and those who lived in nests high up on top of mountains. Even the bosthoon, once again loaded up with the young and the old and/or infirm, were hurrying. Well, for them.
The snakipedes really reminded me of sharks, and more than that. They sort of screamed “created monster,” especially since they seemingly had no issues with temperature or elevation changes. They also seemed to have no issues with day or night and no natural enemies, and yet they hadn’t overtaken the planet. Which again, sort of said Made In A Lab.
Had an easy guess for who’d created them, too, since LaRue had a Z’porrah power cube and apparently those puppies took you anywhere you could visualize. Meaning she could be routinely leaving Earth and going to the far reaches of space, then returning with more things to use to destroy us.
Needed to determine the range on the power cubes the moment I could convince one of the Poofs to snag one back from Algar, or when I had time to badger Algar in person. Presumed neither were going to happen right now.
As it got darker around us, though, something interesting happened—the snow began to glow. A soft glow, similar to glow-in-the-dark toys, only whitish as opposed to greenish and mixed with black light, so that whites glowed whiter and other colors looked more fluorescent. If you looked down, it was easy to see the ground. If you looked up, the glow went about twelve or fifteen feet above the snowline and then tapered off. Planet Colorful was even pretty at night.
The trail we were following sloped upward on a very gradual incline, meaning we were heading away from the All Seeing Mountain and toward the rim of the continent. If I was correctly remembering Christopher’s geography lesson from earlier, at any rate.
We Gods went last, with the katyhoppers and s
trautruch doing Line Monitor duty. You didn’t have to tell me twice that there were little kids and young animals along who didn’t necessarily understand or follow the rules, and the katyhoppers and Big Birds both felt they could spot and grab any potential deserters quickly.
The chochos and ocellars—who didn’t seem overly bothered by the cold, or at least not yet—were also helping with this form of herding, in no small part because I’d asked Ginger and Wilbur to ensure we didn’t have another baby of either of their species wander off to cause problems, and they’d made sure the rest of their pack and pride had gotten the message.
Bruno, like the rest of us, was cold, and I put him in my purse with what looked like all the Poofs of our group here already snuggled in there. “Keep Bruno warm, too,” I whispered to all of them. Soft mewls indicated that this was an acceptable request.
So, while we walked at the back and I carted all the animals we’d brought with us to this planet, the Earthlings discussed our situation. The three couples cuddled close together for warmth, the others cuddled close to the couples for the same reason. We were a chummy clutch of cold people.
“I think I can make the power orb essentially create a gate between the other power orbs,” Serene said. “The issue is determining where they are with enough accuracy for us to do the calculations.”
“I have another idea that doesn’t involve one or all of us potentially ending up inside a rock or blown up,” Christopher said. “Let’s leave the Lecanora here with their relatives, link hands, and just act like the A-Cs and humans able to handle hyperspeed that we are and run wherever we need to go next.”
“The katyhoppers are tasked with helping us, and they want to do so,” I reminded him.
“And they can all handle hyperspeed. I’m all for Saffron, Pinky, and Turkey coming along. Besides, it’s just three of them.” Christopher shook his head. “We need to move, and move fast, we all know it. But we’ve slowed to a crawl because we have a large group of refugees we’re trying to take with us. For no good reason I can see.”