Shadow World

by A. C. Crispin

  "Oh, God," Cara said. "Do you think he would do it?"

  Three pairs of eyes, brown, golden, and faceted, watched Mark anxiously.

  "He'll have to," Mark said grimly. "I'll tell him so."

  Crawling out of the shelter after the relative coolness was

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  like plunging into a furnace. Mark could hardly bear to breathe as he wavered to his feet.

  Cara peered up at him from under the sheeting. "He can't refuse. You helped him with the plant," she pointed out. "Honor would say he owes you one."

  "Maybe," Mark said, and stumbled toward the Simiu's "shelter." This was the confrontation he dreaded ... or close enough. Falling, more than kneeling, at the edge of the Simiu's hole, he spoke in Mizari to the uprooted plant that covered it.

  "Honored Hrrakk'! I must speak with you."

  A fierce-looking head rose up out of the sand. The fleshy leaves draped over it would have looked laughable, if it had been anyone else's face. But the Simiu's violet eyes held only disdain and impatience.

  "The Elpind baby who's been unconscious since the crash ... hinsi is finally awake."

  "Of what concern is that to me, human?"

  Mark quickly explained the problem. "There are only two males in this group.

  The baby's got to be fed, and will only take food from a male," he concluded, finally. "Since I can't take Misir--that's hinsi's name--that leaves you."

  "No," said Hrrakk' flatly.

  Mark was stunned. "But ... unless you do, Misir will die!"

  "I have seen that child," Hrrakk' said. "It will die no matter what. There is no honor in attempting to prolong a life that has no hope."

  "But ... we have to try. Honored Hrrakk'!"

  "I do not have to try. I am going to sleep." Hrrakk' started to slide back down in his hole.

  Desperately Mark gathered nerve he wasn't sure he had for the leadership showdown. "Everybody pulls their own weight on this trip, Hrrakk'. You knew that before we started out. You're part of the group, like it or not. You can't refuse to help!"

  The glitter in the alien's eyes was now clearly one of anger, and the bronze crest on top of his head flattened. Mark could see the flash of his enormous canines as the alien's muzzle lifted in what was almost a snarl of challenge.

  "You are impugning my honor, human, and that is not wise. Be warned."

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  Mark glared back, his initial nervousness lost now in his own anger. "Maybe Misir is fated to die, but you'll never know whether hinsi could have lived, unless you help! Refusing this request is like going over there and kil ing that baby with your own hands! Where's the honor in that?"

  Hrrakk's eyes narrowed, but he controlled himself with a palpable effort.

  "You know nothing of Simiu honor! Leave now!"

  Mark's eyes wavered, then fell. "You are right, I am not well versed in the nuances of the Simiu honor-code," he admitted. "But"--his eyes returned to lock with Hrrakk's--"I will learn more of the Simiu," he promised fiercely, "and someday I will know whether your honor-code truly demanded that you refuse to help."

  He knew that judging alien actions in terms of human morality and ethics was wrong, but nothing could make him regard the prospect of Misir's death as anything but a tragedy. Mark glared at the Simiu. "Someday I will know,"

  he repeated, then scrambled to his feet, and, despite his weakness, stood firm. "Until the day when I will know," he switched into the highest Mizari dialect, the tongue of formality, "I grieve. I sorrow for your honor, as well as my own, that, between us, we must let the child die."

  Mark felt Hrrakk's stare boring into his back as he walked away. He shook his head as he crawled back into the shelter. Cara's eyes widened with horror. "Oh, Mark! He couldn't refuse!"

  "Well, he did." Mark looked at the Elpind. "Eerin, you've got to try to feed hinsi. At least you're an Elpind. Maybe that's all that will matter this time. The baby may be too weak to care whether you're han or heen or hin or anything else."

  "Hin cannot. The chemistry is wrong. Hin has told Mark."

  "We have to try."

  Eerin gave him a tolerant look underlaid with sadness, but made the attempt.

  Hin's careful and repeated efforts to coax the straw into the baby's mouth, however, proved futile. Misir's jaws remained locked shut.

  "Okay." Mark sighed. "You were right." He stared at Misir, trying to think of a solution.

  "It is Elpind biology," Eerin said miserably. "Hin cannot--"

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  "Give me the child," a deep voice broke in. Hrrakk' reached down into the shelter and practically snatched Misir, holding the baby against his massive chest with one hand.

  The Elpind missed only a beat before reaching up and handing over the feeding straw as well. Mark admired hin's poise. His own mouth was hanging open, and he hastily shut it.

  "Sleep!" barked Hrrakk'. "We must travel again soon." He turned and marched back to his hole.

  "Do you think he'll be gentle with Misir?" Cara asked worriedly. "Hinsi is so tiny ..."

  Mark was tempted to go see for himself but, given the Simiu's temper and unpredictability, feared that any interference might cause Hrrakk' to change his mind again. "Since he took the child, honor demands that he treat it well,"

  he said slowly. "Simiu clans are very nurturing, I know that." He yawned despite himself. "Cara ... Hrrakk' was right. We've got to sleep."

  Mark and Eerin took one shelter, Cara and the Apis, the other. It occurred to the student that the Elpind would be very impatient with this time wasted; there was nothing to occupy hin's attention while the rest of the party slept.

  The layover couldn't be helped, though; even the Elpind seemed eager to stay out of the sun.

  Mark pulled off his socks and boots, groaning as the sweaty socks peeled from the sore bottoms of his feet. He massaged them, wiggling his toes vigorously.

  "I hope Terris didn't sleep so much during the night that hinsi can't sleep now." Mark lay down, squirming into a comfortable position in the trench.

  Terris levered up from his chest on pipe-stem arms, inspecting the shelter alertly.

  Mark watched that unbridled curiosity, so like Eerin's, with a smile, but part of his mind was with the Simiu. "Wonder what made Hrrakk' change his mind?"

  he asked his pair partner.

  "Mark does not believe it is something he said?"

  "Maybe. I was really angry, and I let him know it. But there's a lot we don't know about Hrrakk' ..." He tried to concentrate on an odd, nebulous feeling he had about Hrrakk', but couldn't hold it long enough to define the thought.

  Sleep was falling over him like a muffling blanket.

  Mark closed his sun-sore eyes and knew nothing more.

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  Chapter 13 CHAPTER 13

  The Intruder

  Mark dreamed, and it was his old nightmare. Slowly, slowly, he came to a door. Blood seeped out from under it onto his bare feet. Jon is dead. My fault!

  Only this time, when he opened the door, there was a broken ship behind it and, around the ship, dozens and dozens of bodies. Each body was his mother's.

  The roar of a wild animal suddenly shattered both the silence and the dream, and Mark woke, heart pounding. Outside he could hear a voice cursing and screaming incoherently in English. There came another wordless roar, then a guttural stream of Simiu words that Mark, of course, couldn't understand.

  Hrrakk'! What's going on? Who's out there?

  Terris squawked in fear as Mark bolted up and scuttled out of the shelter, his heart slamming.

  He was halfway out of the lean-to when he heard the solid smack of flesh meeting flesh. He looked up, frozen with shock.

  The burly man who'd attacked Eerin back at the ship sprawled unconscious on the ground. Over him stood Hrrakk', clutching the Elpind baby in one huge hand, the other hand

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  still half raised and ready to strike again, and strewn on the grounds--

  Oh,
dear God, No!

  --were shards that glimmered bright green in the late afternoon sunlight. The babies' feeding straws. Broken.

  A piece of green tube still lay in the palm of one of the man's outflung hands, thick, gray fluid coating the lax fingers.

  Cara emerged, rubbing her eyes, then gave a choked, horrified cry. "Oh, no!

  Look what that bastard did! Are there any left?"

  Eerin was already searching. "No," hin said grimly.

  Feeling sick to his stomach, Mark knelt and helped the Elpind look a second time. What are we going to do? We're still days from the nahah!

  Not a single straw had survived.

  He scrabbled through the pieces, trying to find any of the liquid that wasn't befouled with sand, but the man had done a thorough job, crushing the pieces and squeezing out the liquid onto the thirsty sand.

  Guilt and anger churned inside Mark. He rose, crossed over to Hrrakk', and looked down at the unconscious man. A red mark showed clearly on his face where one powerful blow from the Simiu had knocked him out. Too bad, Mark thought coldly, that Hrrakk' didn't kill him. He was too angry to be horrified at his wish.

  "What happened?" he asked in Mizari.

  "Do you not have eyes, human? I awoke when I heard this honorless thing babbling as he ripped the straws to shreds. Where were you?"

  Mark wished he had a better answer than the obvious one. The supplement straws had been in his knapsack, beside him in the shelter. If only he'd awakened when the man had reached in ...

  But Eerin had been there. Mark swung around to the Elpind. "Eerin ... where were you?"

  Hin hesitated. "Hin was asleep also," the Elpind finally admitted.

  Cara's eyes widened. "But--Eerin--I thought Elspind never sleep!"

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  "There are certain times in the lifecycle that an Elpind's body must gather energy in the same way as a human's does ...and certain conditions that cause that need also. Great heat is one of them. Hin fell asleep, just as Mark did." The Elpind seemed apologetic.

  "Well ... are you okay?" Mark asked worriedly. He had the feeling there was more that Eerin wasn't telling him.

  "Hin is fine," Eerin said hastily.

  "What are we going to do about the babies?" Cara asked.

  "The first thing we can do is give them some water," Mark declared. "Living beings die of dehydration long before they do of starvation. If the hinsi aren't getting their liquids from their feedings, they'll have to have water."

  They managed to rig a feeding straw from a bit of plastic wrapper, then gave Terris water. Hinsi sucked it up eagerly, but Misir would only take a few drops from Hrrakk'. "I awoke earlier, when this hinsi stirred," the Simiu said,

  "to change hinsi. At that time, I gave the child the remainder of the earlier feeding in the middle of the afternoon." The Simiu shook his head. "It is unfortunate that I then slept again," he said with a black glare at the intruder.

  "Well, at least hinsi has had something today," Mark said, but the big alien shook his head, and his violet eyes were bleak.

  "The feeding did not stay down," Hrrakk' reported.

  "Oh," Mark said. Cara looked ready to cry.

  Terris squawked and burrowed in Mark's sweater, making hinsi's distinctive

  "I'm hungry" noise. "Uh-oh," Mark said, stroking the baby. "Hinsi's hungry.

  We've got to figure out something to feed these babies!"

  "There is nothing," Eerin said sadly. "Their systems cannot tolerate any of the substances we have. They will die."

  "Not if I can help it!" Mark said grimly.

  "It is Elpind biology."

  "I'm sick of hearing about Elpind biology!" the human snapped. "Dammit, Eerin, these babies didn't live through that crash just to die here in the desert. We're going to keep them alive until we reach the nahah!"

  Mark saw the Elpind's golden gaze soften and give way in affectionate understanding of a friend's stubbornness. He smiled in rueful

  acknowledgment at his pair partner.

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  "Let's try mashing up one of our concentrate bars with a little water," Cara suggested.

  He nodded. "They might eat that. We'd better have some food and water ourselves." Mark felt as if every bit of moisture had been baked out of him while he slept.

  "I'll get the concentrate," Cara volunteered.

  Mark nodded, then sighed, studying the man at his feet. "He shouldn't be out this long. He must have walked all day in the heat to catch up with us.

  Probably dehydrated. Bad sunburn, too. I guess we'll have to give him some of our water." He heard the reluctance in his own voice.

  It galled him to share their small supply with this man, but he had no other choice ... did he? Mark resolutely pushed away temptation and fetched the canteen. Carefully he dribbled a little water between the man's cracked and blistered lips, seeing him swallow eagerly. Tight-lipped with anger, Mark gave him more, begrudging every swallow. He took the canteen away after a few sips, then sat back on his heels.

  The man struggled up and stared dully around him, until his wandering gaze stopped on Terris, clinging to Mark's chest. "Murderer's spawn ..." he whispered, eyes brightening with hate. "Kill the murderer's spawn.

  Retribution ... eye for an eye, life for a life ..." His words trailed off into inarticulate mumbling.

  "What is he saying?" Hrrakk' asked.

  "You don't want to know," Mark said. "He's crazy ... not responsible for his own actions."

  "Like SimonViorst who, sixteen years ago, caused the death of one of my people after they had welcomed in friendship your vessel Desiree?" growled Hrrakk'. "Not responsible like that?"

  Mark shrugged. "Yeah, I suppose so," he muttered.

  "You humans excuse the most heinous crimes with that phrase 'not responsible'!" Hrrakk' glared at him, the violet eyes filled with contempt. "Of course this honorless dragkk' is responsible! Who else walked through the desert with death filling his thoughts and the wish to kill the innocent driving him?" The Simiu gave a disgusted grunt. "I only regret that I did not strike harder, and thus remove this one from his miserable, honorless existence when I had the opportunity."

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  I was just thinking the same thing, Mark thought sourly. "Well, unless you want to kill him now in cold blood, that opportunity is past," he said bitterly. "I guess we're stuck with him. We'll have to tie him up and take him along."

  "We could leave him here in the desert," Hrrakk' suggested.

  "We could, but how do we know he won't sneak up on us again?" Mark asked. "Besides, Honored Hrrakk' "--he held the alien's gaze with his own--"that would be the same thing as murder, and you know it as well as I do."

  The alien nodded. "I do," he conceded. "My honor would not permit that, even had you been willing."

  He was testing me.' Mark's lips tightened angrily. "Sorry to disappoint you,"

  he said aloud. "Maybe I have my own kind of honor, ever think of that?"

  The man did not resist as they hauled him to his feet and bound his hands behind him, nor did he speak again. His eyes seemed slightly more lucid, however. "Do you know what you've done?" Mark demanded angrily. "You destroyed all the babies' food! Now they may die!"

  The man's expression remained blank. Mark could not tell if he even heard the accusation.

  "Why did heen do it?" Eerin asked, speaking for the first time as Cara returned with the food.

  "I think he's cracked from the grief," Mark said, taking a bite from the concentrate bar the journalist held out.

  Elpind curiosity surged forth. "Hin does not see cracks," said Eerin, looking hard for some.

  "Mark means that he's gone insane," Cara translated automatically. She waved a hand before the man's face, trying to get his attention. "Hey, what is your name? I'm Cara. Can you hear me?"

  No response.

  The next half hour was a flurry of activity. They took down and stowed the sheeting. Cara and Mark ate several of the dry, tasteless food bars that were standa
rd survival ration while the Apis sucked juice from a hydroponics-grown orange, and Eerin stuck the sucked-dry pulp under hin's tongue after the Apis was through. Everyone except Hrrakk' drank several healthy swallows of water, including Terris and the new addition to their group. Misir took only two tiny sips, despite all their efforts.

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  Both babies adamantly refused the liquefied concentrate. Terris made a face and spat it back out, then turned hinsi's head away. Misir simply would not suck, and drops they squeezed into hinsi's mouth drooled or gagged back out, even when Hrrakk' stroked the downy throat to engage the swallowing reflex. In Misir's case, Mark suspected the results would have been the same, whatever the food.

  Hrrakk' gently rubbed the baby's fragile arms and legs. The massage started Misir's limbs moving feebly. Next the Simiu held the infant up to his massive shoulder, rubbing the tiny body against his fur. He was trying to encourage the child to take hold with hands and feet for transport.

  Misir nuzzled hinsi's head against the Simiu's thick, coarse hair. Instinct stirred, and all four limbs reached out and grasped as they were supposed to.

  But only for a second.

  Misir's body sagged and fell. Fortunately, Hrrakk' had cupped one huge hand beneath the child, and caught hinsi. (

  No one spoke as Hrrakk' rigged a small sling from the blue jersey, knotted it around the strap of his travel pack, hung it over his shoulder against his chest, then slid the baby inside.

  Eerin pulled out hin's kareen. "Hin wishes to dance the Mortenwol," the Elpind said hesitantly.

  Mark could think of several reasons to object: time, further depletion of Eerin's water reserves, the possibility that hin's dancing would set their captive off again. But he remembered how important this was to Eerin and merely nodded silently. We all need a boost, he thought. Maybe it will help.

  Out came the feathers of red and green and blue and that breathtaking white one. Eerin flicked them this way and that, and they were a headpiece. Hin wound, then activated, the music board. The first sweet, high-pitched note swelled out.

  Eerin dipped hin's downy head in an oddly moving gesture that Mark realized was directed at the two hinsi, then bent, turning slightly. Halfway through the turn, hin rose cleanly, gently into the pellucid air of sunset.