by Shannah Jay
Meera waited for him to explain. It was no use trying to hurry Kerem.
'I wonder if we can do something to interfere,' he said at last, 'only if Robler attacks Davred directly, of course.'
'He might not do it directly. Did you know that Robler's been in touch with Those of the Serpent?'
Kerem's expression showed utter disgust as he nodded.
'He thinks we don't know, but he's been very careless with the daily recordings lately, and I've seen one or two.' Something about Sen-Sether made her feel sick. Even the memory of those encounters, with Robler pretending to be a god, encouraging that vile man to further violence, made her shudder.
It was wrong. Utterly wrong. 'He acts as if he's invincible, and more important and intelligent than the rest of us.'
Kerem nodded. 'You can hardly fail to notice that. My own guess, from what he's said, would be that he means to bring Davred back here by force and leave Davred's companions to Those of the Serpent. Then he'll probably go after Soo.'
'He'll probably hand the others over to Sen-Sether without a qualm. He actually admires that brute.'
Meera moved closer to the warmth of Kerem's burly body, the sanity of his clear grey eyes and was glad when he put an arm round her.
Almost thinking aloud, Kerem said slowly, 'But Alaran and Erlic are Davred's sons, and they're therefore entitled to full citizenship rights of the Confederation - not to mention full protection from Confex. If Robler leaves them behind I shall put in a full report of the misdemeanour.' Though in the current madness that might do no good.
What if they were never rescued from the satellite, though? They'd all worried about that. How could you not, after all this time?
Like Meera, Kerem had nightmares about what was happening down on the planet, as well as up on the satellite. Sometimes he wondered if this was all one long nightmare and he’d wake up one day to find himself back in a sane rational world again. Never in all his years in the Confederation had he seen such blatant disregard of common justice by an Exec officer. Never, on any planet he’d observed, had he seen the depth of evil and depravity displayed by Those of the Serpent down on Sunrise -
particularly the Initiates. The masses were drugged by the incense, and many of them didn’t seem to enjoy their visits to the shrines, so there was some excuse for them, but there was no excuse for those who ran the shrines, those who chose to perpetrate such violence against their fellow citizens and actually enjoyed it.
'Robler will find some way to explain it all once the Confex rescue team get through to us.' Meera hesitated, then added, 'Do you really think we could work out some way to help Davred - if needed?
And perhaps even save his companions, his wife and sons, at least?'
'We could try, but it won't be easy. And whatever we do, we should keep a secret record of events, because they'll surely charge us with insubordination afterwards.'
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'I've been taking some sleep training in communications. Now that Soo's gone, I think we need someone else with more advanced com-skills on the satellite.'
Kerem nodded approval. 'A sound strategy. How have you kept Robler from finding out about that?'
She grinned. 'He thinks I'm studying xeno-biology. Well, I am. Enough to get by with, anyway.'
Kerem was silent for a long time. It was a major step for him, something unheard of on his home planet of Hareth-III, to work against his Exec officer. 'You're right, though. I think we should be prepared to intervene, if necessary - purely as a final recourse.'
He sighed and looked so unhappy with this sketchy plot that Meera patted his hand. 'We'll only take action if we're desperate.' She knew how much Kerem hankered after the calm ways of his home planet and its two colony planets, how he longed for life to be logical and predictable again, with excitement to be found mainly from new scientific or technical discoveries. She knew Robler's irrational behaviour was making him desperately unhappy. She’d grown quite fond of old Kerem, for all his stolid ways.
'And,' he said in her ear, his whisper almost inaudible, 'I, too, have been learning new skills. I now know how to subvert the electronic warning system of the crew's private areas. Robler closed off Mak and Soo's old quarters when he couldn't get inside, but I can get inside. Soo left me a message. I wouldn't have found it if I hadn't been trying to find a way to work against Robler. She's very clever.'
He hugged Meera and added, 'No one would be able to see what we were doing if we went in there.'
She stared at him in shock. He had gone further in his rebellion than she’d ever have expected. 'Be careful, Kerem! If you're caught, you'll be in serious trouble with Robler for that.'
'My quarters are close to Mak and Soo's, as you know. No one will question my being in that area.
And I've got a movement sensor rigged up outside to tell me if anyone's nearby before I open the door to come out again. The only danger would be if someone were standing absolutely still. There are one or two alcoves where you could conceal yourself. But I can't see why anyone should do that. Not if they don't know I'm there in the first place.'
After another pause, he went on, 'I didn't want to draw you into it, but the communications equipment inside baffles me, because Soo’s changed things so much. If you've learned something about that field, maybe we can work on it together from now on?' He flushed and added, 'If we're caught in there, we can pretend we wanted somewhere to be alone.' He coloured as he said that, but made no attempt to pull his arm away from her shoulders.
Meera nodded, feeling some hope for the first time in ages. If a man like Kerem could be driven to rebellion, then Robler didn’t have the absolute power over the Confex exploration team he thought he had. She sighed and gave him a sudden hug. 'I do like you, Kerem!'
That made his heavy features light up. 'And I you, Meera.'
***
In the com-room that night, Robler set privacy screens across the entrance and contacted Sen-Sether in the Inner Shrine. 'The old hag and her companions have just left Yethalak, over in Netheron.'
'Aah!' Sen-Sether's expression was instantly that of a bird of prey who sees a soft belly one pounce away from his claws.
'How soon can you get there?' Robler demanded.
'In a few days.'
'No sooner?'
'No, Dread my Lord. I have the fastest riding nerids in the claim standing by all the time in case of sightings, but even they will take a few days. Do you know which direction the hag took?'
Primitive technology! thought Robler. It's a wonder they get anything done down there. Just wait till I'm in charge. He kept his voice calm. 'Yes, I do know. Herra is moving southwards.'
'They're walking into our hands, then.' Sen-Sether stood stiff and proud in front of the bloody altar, not even hearing the hissing of the farspeaker, so used was he to it now. 'This time we shall capture them. This time that Sister-Pervert shall not escape.'
'You will remember that Davred is to be mine - unharmed, untouched.'
'I will remember that, Dread my Lord.'
When the hiss of sound from the strange talking box faded, Sen-Sether allowed himself a tight smile. The Avatar was a fool. Why had the Serpent picked this man who lived across the sky to further the cause against those damned Sisters? He shrugged. Who knew the ways of the Serpent? He wouldn’t presume to make judgement on that.
All he did know was that his Dread Lord the Serpent brought him the blood and violence his soul craved, and that soon, very soon, once the boy for whom Herra was searching had been found, the boy who was his nephew and his brother's heir, he would be able to kill both the boy and the Lord Claimant, too. His brother, poor weakly Danver, had only fathered the one child. Sen-Sether had seen to that.
Afterwards, he would rule the Claim of Setheron in his own right, with no fear of a challenge. And after that, one by one, he would take over each of the other eleven claims until the whole country lay beneath his command, quiescent in the Serpent's grasp. At the mere thoug
ht of that prospect his loins throbbed and he knew he must seek the whip's caress that night.
'Dread my Lord,' he whispered, 'your plans are working well.'
And then he felt the low rumbling growl crawl around his belly, the sound beyond a sound that signalled the presence of the Serpent, unlike his vain and foolish Avatar with his hissing boxes.
Sen-Sether smiled as he whispered once again. 'Ah, Dread my Lord, just see how well I shall serve you.'
CHAPTER 8 THE WILDWOODS HUNT
Cadvin's directions led Herra and her companions to a deserted crèche far out in the wildwoods. It had been savagely looted and destroyed, so that only rubble remained - rubble and a few skeletons, which the creeping creatures of the wildwoods had soon picked clean.
'There are no children's skeletons,' Davred said quietly. 'They must have taken the children away.'
Herra nodded. 'And these were my Sisters.' She bent to touch the bones, her fingers loving as she
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straightened a broken thigh bone.
'Can you be so sure?' asked Davred, surprised.
'Oh, yes. Only Sisters and novices worked in the crèches. To me, there is no difference between them in death. They’re all my Sisters.'
Near the ruins of the main building, Herra found signs which only a Sister would have noticed, a tumble of rocks set ready to fall at a single command. The Sisterhood had always prepared for its crèches to be attacked and Those of the Serpent had always attacked them. The rockfall directed anyone who could read its patterns to travel south-east.
But for all the urgency of her quest, she wouldn’t leave until they’d buried the remains of her dead Sisters. She stood at the graveside, her face stony, as the slender white bones were laid properly to rest, and the moist dark earth piled over them. When all was ready, she nodded to Ivo to hand her the spade and began the ritual words of passing from this life.
With the first spadeful of earth, she said softly, ' May light shine in your darkness!' then passed the spade to Davred.
' May your lives draw ever nearer to wisdom! ' Davred scattered another spadeful, before passing the implement to Ivo.
' May the God bless your next coming! ' Ivo scattered a third lot of soil on the mound.
'Brother, look down!' murmured the others in a ragged but respectful chorus.
Herra took back the spade and leaned on it as she concluded the ritual, ' Go gently through the darkness, Sisters of the God. May our Brother send you comfort in your griefs and solace in your troubles in all your lives to come.'
With a flick of her fingers, she sent earth to fill the grave and another flick smoothed it so that no stranger might know Sisters lay there.
Alaran nodded approval. 'Those are beautiful words, Elder Sister.'
'Yes.' She laid her hand on his head in a benediction, then went from one person to the other, just touching them lightly. But comfort welled from her fingertips.
It seemed to Davred the light burned more brightly around her as she touched Jiran, last in the line, and then stood silent for a moment, with her hand still on his shoulder. Both of them were outlined in a growing incandescence. Both seemed almost to vanish in that brilliance, as if they were not of this world. Then the moment passed and their figures came into focus again as the light faded.
He glanced round, but no one else seemed to have noticed anything amiss.
'We were meant to come here, to lay our dear Sisters to rest,' Herra said in a more normal tone, stepping back from Jiran. 'Now that we’ve accomplished that task, let us continue our search.'
***
For three days the wagon rolled along quiet ways. They met no one, saw no settlements. Then they joined a broader track.
'Is it wise to travel so openly?' Davred worried. 'We're bound to meet other people on this sort of track.'
Ivo chuckled. 'Do you know a way to change a deleff's mind about the path it should take? I don't.'
Within a couple of hours, the wagon came to the border with Setheron and rolled across it without pausing. The border was marked only by a crumbling wooden signpost. Less and less were borders between the claims meaningful, for the Serpent cult was uniting the new rulers of the various claims, and Sen-Sether was undisputed leader.
'I can sense the evil ahead of us most clearly,' Herra murmured to Davred. 'Shh! Don't tell the others yet, but we're heading straight towards it.'
He nodded. 'I can sense it, too. And I think it knows we're coming.' He had been feeling unease creeping up and down his spine and making the hairs on his neck prickle for a while now. 'Are you sure this is the right thing to do? Shouldn't we hide for a while and try to find the boy later, when the danger has passed?'
'When has Sen-Sether ever just passed by? No, he's out hunting for us and won’t be stayed or diverted. Not if he guesses I'm here.' She frowned. 'What I don't understand is how he keeps finding out where we are, so that he can move towards us.'
Davred stared at her, struck by a horrifying thought. 'You don't think - No, it couldn't be!'
'Couldn't be what?'
'Robler. From the satellite he'd be able to track us. Maybe I should throw away the com-unit I carry.'
He pulled the flat black box out of his belt pouch and stared at it. 'Only - if I throw it away, Herra, and if Confex sends a rescue team, well, I shan't be able to contact them. And I think it my duty to do that, to give them a full report on this planet, even if I never return to Confex myself.'
Herra stared at the small box, trying to see what was right. In the end, she shook her head. 'I can sense nothing about it. It's as if it doesn't exist for me. What do you feel we should do, Davred?'
He shrugged. 'I feel that we should keep it. I've considered throwing it away several times, but always something’s made me keep it.'
'Then it must have some meaning, some use, for you at least.' But not for her. How could that be when she and Davred were so closely linked in this quest?
'So you don't think we should hide?' he pursued, still only half persuaded.
'No, I'm certain this is the time for us to find the boy, Petur. That I know. But there's something - '
she fumbled for words, which was not like Herra, 'something wrong about him. I can't understand exactly what. But that's partly why I daren't leave it any longer to find him.'
'The boy’s in danger?'
'I think he may be. Though what sort of danger - ' Again her voice trailed off.
Davred felt a shiver run through him. He’d never seen her so unsure of herself since she’d attained Enhancement.
One of the deleff whined through its nostrils and tossed its head. Everyone looked at it.
'The deleff sense something,' Ivo said. He hadn’t interrupted Davred and Herra's conversation until it came to a natural halt. He felt honoured that he’d been called to travel with and help someone as important as Herra of Tenebrak.
The young people, who’d been chatting quietly in the rear of the wagon, fell completely silent at Ivo's words. The two deleff continued to whiffle through their nostrils to demonstrate their distress, but they didn’t stop tramping forward along the track, for all that. Suddenly they turned off the main track again, pushing their way through a dense curtain of foliage that bounced back into place when
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they’d passed.
'Those of evil are close by.' Herra jumped from the wagon. 'I'll set wards to bar the track behind us, then I'll catch you up. If they can't easily follow us, it may delay them for a few hours, at any rate. Once we have what we seek, we must trust that the deleff or Quequere will take us through a portal. That’ll be our only hope of escape.' She felt danger swirling around them like a dawn mist in summer.
Nothing you could touch or chase away, but there all the same.
Davred watched her go. How many times had he tried to protect Herra during their travelling days?
And failed, for she would tolerate no protection or cosseting. Now, she was
a burning force that urged them all onwards, for if they failed in this part of their quest, if they didn’t retrieve the boy who had figured in the Great Prophecy, then the Serpent might triumph.
Herra had no need to tell Davred that the final confrontation would be a close-fought contest. He sensed that as clearly as she did. They all knew that they travelled with danger, and that death snapped ever more closely at their heels. He shifted uneasily on the hard seat of the wagon, thinking, never more so than now. Danger seemed to bounce at them from every tree trunk, to hum through the air itself.
When Herra swung abruptly on to the wagon again from the rear, to avoid pushing through the thick foliage at each side of the track, Purvlin gasped in shock and made a strangled noise in his throat.
'Oh, sorry! I didn't see you coming.'
Daranna, too, had turned pale and clutched at Alaran.
' To fear for one's life is to lose it a thousand times' Herra said gently, using a favourite quotation. 'We're all in our Brother's hands, dear children. Take comfort from that and set aside your fears. One life leads to another. Few souls are ever completely obliterated. So how can you fear death?'
Purvlin gulped, nodded and tried to remain calm. Daranna blushed and let go of Alaran, then sat clasping her hands so tightly together that the knuckles showed white, as white as her face.
'We shall try a Minor Discipline of Relaxation.' Herra decided aloud. She demonstrated this and the young people fumbled into the positions she showed them as best they could in the back of the jolting wagon, all trying their hardest to adopt the correct breathing patterns. By the time they’d been focusing on that for a while, however badly they achieved relaxation, they’d all lost a little of their fear.
When Herra moved forward to sit on the driving seat beside Ivo, Alaran patted Daranna's hand and winked at her. 'It gets easier to relax with practice.'
She gave him a tremulous smile in return.
'To join the Kindred is a privilege,' Herra said, turning round, 'but it also means a lot of hard work, not to mention danger and responsibility in these troubled times. You mustn’t flinch from the danger.