by Robert Beers
It reached a place that looked good for nibbling. Five, pale, sausage-looking things, small enough so it could lean over them and sniff out the most flavorful spots lay before it.
The rat opened its mouth and licked a place on the second finger over from the block's edge. It licked again, and died.
McCabe absorbed the life of the rat as idly as a man in a pub nibbles on a crisp. He could feel the surge of the small life flow through his system. A small exhilaration quivered his body, and the hair on his arms and legs stood on end.
He'd lain there, enjoying the painful bite of the cold stone against his naked skin, testing his newfound abilities for nearly a month. The time to leave was approaching.
The Duke's dungeon keepers had him shackled to the granite block in such a fashion that he could only move his head from side to side, and lift his hands from the wrist alone. It mattered little. He found the cramps and spasms an enjoyable diversion.
The only keeper he'd seen since that day the Duke railed at him to answer his foolish questions was the huge mute; the one they called Lifetile. For some reason, the voices didn't like the mute. They wouldn't say why, but they continued to clamor for food, pushing at the essence of the being that McCabe and the Seeker had become when it joined with him. They wanted to gorge upon the life essences they sensed through the conduit he gave them as a window into the world of men. He pushed them back once more, preferring to wait and learn about what he had become. There was an eternity of time ahead to enjoy the tastes of the lives he would take in satisfying the hunger.
McCabe sensed the second rat as it forced its way into the chamber through the bars over the drain. Another snack had arrived.
* * * *
“I think we should go down there.” Circumstance looked over the edge of the plateau at the tent city snuggled up against the southern flank of Cloudhook Mountain. A week had passed since Ethan put the choice into his hands.
Ethan shrugged his shoulders, and then tested the fit of his sword in its scabbard. “As I said, it's your decision. Let's go, then. There's the path.” He pointed to his right, where the remains of an old game trail snaked away from the plateau and down the mountainside.
The trip down proved uneventful, however some of the men working in the camp saw their approach, and a welcoming committee was dispatched to meet them when they reached the bottom.
“Hold up there, strangers.” Ethan noted the southern accent in the man's voice. “State your business here, if you please.”
Well, Ethan thought. The fellow was courteous, at least. “We've a matter that needs the attention of whoever's in charge of this camp.”
The southerner rested his palm on the knife at his side while he looked Ethan and Circumstance up and down. Apparently he didn't see anything worthy of raising an alarm about. He turned halfway to his right and pointed at a tent slightly larger than the others around it. The grouping sat about a bowshot away from where they stood. “That one in the middle? There's where you'll find the Chief Engineer. Guess he'd be the one to talk to.”
“We're much obliged, sire...?”
“Colling-Faler. Engineer, third. No need to be thanking me. You don't look like a hoard of Grishamites to me, so I've no worries about sending you on to the Chief.” The engineer waved them along as he turned and began walking back to his own tasks.
“Nice man,” Circumstance remarked, as they wound their way through the tents toward the one pointed out as their destination.
Ethan nodded. “Seemed that way. Say it's a point in the favor of the Southerners not being the monsters some have said they are.”
Circumstance looked back in the direction of engineer Colling-Faler as he vanished into the maze of tents and other bodies to the south. “He's a Southerner?”
“Sounded like it. Did you notice how he pronounced the word middle?”
“Uh huh. It sounded more like maddle.”
“That's how the Southern accent works. If he's not Southern now, he was at one time. Keep alert, now. We're at the Chief Engineer's quarters.” Ethan pointed at the tent with a nod of his head.
“Hey!” The voice came from one of the tents further down the row. “Who're you? And what are you doing there?” A Southerner, this one in a uniform of sorts came running towards them. “Intruders! Awake the camp! Intruders!”
Men erupted from the tents at the call. Cries of who? What? And where? Came from all directions around them. Ethan and Circumstance, wisely, didn't run. They stood in front of the Chief Engineer's tent, as they became surrounded by a horde of men in various stages of dress and wakefulness.
Engineers must not be early risers, thought Ethan. Some of these fellows look like they jumped right out of their cots.
“I said,” puffed the one who'd called the camp to alert as he ran up to them. “Who are you, and what are you doing here? This is a secure operation. Strangers are not allowed.” He looked more closely at Circumstance. “Especially strangers who are obviously not Ortian.”
A small smile twitched the corner of Ethan's mouth. “Do we really look so dangerous,” He turned to look at the crowd about them. “That it takes all your men to subdue one man and a small boy?”
The man sputtered a bit as his face reddened slightly. “Well ... uh...” And then he straightened, swelling his thin chest. Ethan thought that even Circumstance could have taken him. He looked like a Nervous Nelly. “There are rules to observe, and proper channels to follow, sirra. You can't just waltz in here as if you're the Emperor himself!”
“You tell ‘im, Gaspic,” a voice called out of the crowd. “A brute like you'll have no problem handling a pair of monsters like these two are.”
Gaspic's face reddened further with the laughter that followed the taunt. “You shut your face, Javik-Ster! You wouldn't know what procedure was if it stood on your foot!”
He turned back to face Ethan, still breathing a bit heavily. “Are you going to answer my question or not?”
“We want to see the Chief Engineer. This is his tent, isn't it?” Circumstance spoke up, no fear at all in his voice. A few murmurs of approval wafted out of the crowd.
“Oh, it's the Chief Engineer you want, is it?” Gaspic rounded on the boy.
Ethan had the man's measure now. He wasn't a Nervous Nelly. He was a bully. Someone probably placed a little responsibility into the fellow's hands and he used it like a club against those below him.
Circumstance didn't flinch away as Gaspic thrust his face into his. “Yes, it is.”
Gaspic straightened and folded his pipestem arms. “Well, you can't see him.”
“But we were told to. That's why we're here.”
Ethan decided to let the boy take the lead and watch how things played out. It was obvious the crowd wasn't hostile, merely interested in seeing how things went themselves. It also seemed a few of them, at least, were not on the officious Gaspic's side.
The boy's answer appeared to rattle the man. “Wha ... who ... no one has the authority to do that! Not without going through my office first! Who told you that?!” He reached out to grab Circumstance by the shoulders, but all he got was air as the boy smoothly stepped aside. More laughter came out of the crowd.
Gaspic seemed to want another try at grabbing Circumstance, but he controlled himself and merely glared instead. “Who told you to see the Chief Engineer?”
“Engineer Third Colling-Faler. He told us. He was a nice man.” Circumstance added the last as an indication of what he thought of Gaspic.
“Colling-Faler?” Gaspic reared back, aghast. “Wh ... why the man's barely a third! He's just out of academy!”
“An’ more of a man than you'll ever be, Gas-puke!” The shout from the crowd was followed by raucous laughter, more than before.
Gaspic glared at the crowd, furious, but unwilling to move against such odds. He'd take care of them through subtler means.
Circumstance spoke up over the laughter. “I liked the Engineer third. He could teach you manners.”
&
nbsp; “Oh, he could, could he?” Gaspic's anger and frustration took hold, and he lunged at the boy with murder in his eyes. His chin met Ethan's fist with a meaty smack, and he wound up snoring softly, face down in the trampled verge of the camp floor.
The cheers coming from the crowd told Ethan he need fear no reprisal for his defense of the boy. “Well struck! Serves the bugger right! One punch! You see that? One punch!” And so on.
“What's all this about?” An older man, with a fringe of red hair encircling his bald head, looked out of the tent Colling-Faler had earlier pointed them towards.
“He laid out Gas-puke wi’ one punch. That's what.” A tall rangy fellow with the look more of a day laborer than an engineer spoke up from behind Ethan and Circumstance.
The chief of this crowd, or so Ethan supposed he was, looked down at the foot of his tent and sighed. “Can't say as I'm surprised. And that's Gaspic, as you well know, Durston-Kres.”
He stepped out of the tent, straightened, and then cracked his back as he stretched. “All right. Tell me how it happened.”
To Ethan's ears, he sounded like a patient father sorting out a neighborhood scuffle between children, instead of the head of a semi-military outfit who's had one of his men assaulted.
The one the Chief called Durston-Kres raised his hand, and pointed at Ethan and the boy with the other. “We all heard Gaspu ... Gaspic yellin’ the camp was bein’ invaded. Well, I gets outta my tent an’ all I sees is these two. One guy an’ his boy. Don't look like invaders to me, they don't.”
The Chief Engineer looked at Ethan and Circumstance and then at the prostrate Gaspic. “I take it the boy wasn't the one who did this?” He jerked a thumb at the body near his feet.
“No, sire engineer. It was me. He attacked the boy, just because he didn't like what the lad said. I stopped him.”
“Yeah. With one punch!” The clarification came from out of the middle of the crowd.
“He wouldn't have hurt me.” Circumstance said to Ethan and the engineer.
“I couldn't take that chance, son.” Ethan looked down at Circumstance.
“You the boy's father?” The Chief Engineer moved his eyes from Circumstance to Ethan.
“Adopted,” Ethan murmured.
“I see.” The engineer folded his arms over his chest. Ethan noted the man's arms held muscle, and the stomach was still flat in spite of the age of the body. “Why are the two of you in my camp? As you can see, we're no army, but this is a military operation. Some of us,” He looked down at Gaspic, who was beginning to stir. “Tend to take it more seriously than others.”
Ethan looked around at the crowd. Some of the men were still in their smallclothes, but they appeared to be hanging on every word. He shrugged. “I'd prefer to tell you with less of an audience listening in.”
A chorus of complaint came out of the crowd. “Oh, come on chief!” “Bloody hell!” “Just when it was gettin” good.”
The Chief Engineer stepped aside and held the tent flap open for them. He called out to the men in the crowd, as Ethan and Circumstance ducked into the tent. “All right, entertainment's over. Try to get at least half of your workload done today, ok? Surprise me.”
Inside the tent, the Ortian engineer motioned for Ethan and Circumstance to sit in two of the wooden chairs set up before a plank wood desk on the left side of the tent. He sat down on the edge of a cot pushed against the right side.
“Ok.” He rubbed the eyebrow over his left eye. “Tell me why you're here.”
Ethan looked at the boy. “Circumstance?”
“I have something I have to do. I don't know what it is yet, but part of it is waiting here for someone.” Circumstance looked at the engineer soberly while he spoke.
The engineer stared at the boy for a moment, and then turned his head to face Ethan. “And you go along with this?” His tone indicated disbelief.
Ethan spread his hands. “I know it sounds like a pile of meadow muffins, but he's proven to me there's something going on. It could be that part of his heritage, which isn't human; I can't say for sure what it is, but whatever it is, is real. We wouldn't be here otherwise.”
The tent flap parted, and Gaspic, sporting a bloody mouth, stumbled in. “Intruders! We're under attack! We must rally the camp! We ... you!”
He stood there with his eyes wide, staring at Ethan and Circumstance, and then he turned to face the Chief Engineer, holding himself rigidly at attention. “My Lord. I demand that these ... persons, be put under arrest and held for public trial.”
The engineer's glance at Ethan contained an embarassed apology. “Why?”
Gaspic sputtered. “Why? Why? Why, because he,” he pointed a trembling forefinger at Ethan. “Assaulted me, that's why. And that one,” the finger moved to center on Circumstance. “Grievously insulted an officer of the Ortian military corps. That's why.”
The engineer turned back to face Ethan. “Did you really do all that?” He asked mildly.
Ethan looked at Gaspic. “Essentially. He's left out a thing or two.”
“And what would that be?”
“One of your people directed us to your tent. We asked permission first before our ... invasion. The insult was the lad expressing his opinion concerning the difference between the one who directed us, and this fellow here.” He waved a hand in Gaspic's direction.
“My Lord! I most strongly object! These fellows must be treated as the criminals they are!” He touched the corner of his mouth, and then held his finger out to show the Chief Engineer. “Look at the result of his pummeling me.”
“I didn't know one punch was considered a pummeling in the Ortian Empire.” Ethan remarked dryly.
“Ethan hit him when he tried to attack me,” Circumstance stated matter-of-factly. “It wasn't necessary, but he didn't know that.” Meaning Ethan.
“One punch?” The engineer looked at Ethan with new respect.
“My Lord! Surely you're not...” Gaspic raised his voice.
“Oh, pipe down!” The engineer barked.
Gaspic backed down, biting off the rest of what he was going to say.
The Chief Engineer leveled a finger at the fellow. “I don't want to hear another word from you on this matter. Now turn around, leave my tent, and do the job you're supposed to do. Make sure those lazy oafs who call themselves engineers get their work done. We're nearly a five-day behind schedule as it is.”
He looked at Ethan and Circumstance, and then back at Gaspic. “You're still here?”
“No, my Lord, I mean, yes my Lord. I mean...”
“Just go!” The engineer's shout spurred Gaspic into action. He left, almost tripping in his haste.
The engineer grimaced. “What a completely aggravating little man. If he wasn't such an efficient administrator...”
Ethan smiled. “As to what we were saying ... he called you... My Lord?”
The engineer mirrored Ethan's smile. “An accident of birth. The Emperor is a third cousin. I prefer being called by my name, Lemmic-Pries. The title is for the court.”
“I'm Ethan, this is Circumstance. Now, about why we're here...”
“Before we were so rudely interrupted.” Lemmic-Pries interjected with a grin. “By all means, go on with what you were saying.”
A sigh gusted out of Ethan. “The root of it is, the boy feels he must stay here, with you, to fulfill whatever this pull of destiny that's on him. I'm not sure I like it all that much, but I've given him my word to back him in his decision, and he's made it.”
The Chief Engineer nodded once. “I take it you're a man who values his word? No, don't answer, I don't need to hear it. Before I say anything on what you've told me, and it's a cartload, you can be sure of that, I want to ask the lad here a question of my own.”
“Ask him.” Ethan shrugged.
Lemmic-Pries raised an eyebrow. “Very well.” He leaned forward and looked at Circumstance intently. “You said his defending you wasn't necessary.” He pointed at Ethan. “Why?”
&nbs
p; A head poked into the tent. “Beggin’ yer pardon, Chief, but we needs to requisition more planks.”
Lemmic-Pries’ forehead creased in a frown. “Why are you bothering me with it? Tell Gaspic.”
The head coughed. “Well, uh, y'see Chief. Ever since this here fellow laid ‘im out, he's been right short with everyone. A real bugger, in fact.”
The Chief Engineer bowed his head and rubbed his temples with the tips of his fingers. “I should have seen this coming. We're never going to finish in time.”
“I can help.” Circumstance spoke up.
This earned him a sad smile. “I appreciate the offer, lad, but I really don't see how you could.”
“I could help carry messages. Your main problem is, you don't have enough people to get all the information to where it needs to go on time. I'm real fast, and I don't get lost.” Circumstance twitched his shoulders in a half-shrug as he finished.
Lemmic-Pries discovered his mouth was open and shut it. He got up, walked over to the tent flap and opened it. He called out to a passing member of his company. “Have the cook send me over tea, and a plate of biscuits and honey.”
He turned around and stared at Circumstance for a moment and then he sat back down on his cot. “How, in Bardoc's name, could you know that?”
“Now you know just how I felt when I tracked him down. He did the same thing to me a few times. I tell you, Lemmic-Pries, there's more to this kid than good manners.” Ethan leaned back in his chair.
“I'm coming to see that.” The engineer slapped his hands onto his knees and stood up. “I also see a couple of potential problems. One is Gaspic. You two have made quite an enemy of him, and he is a very vindictive man.”
“He won't bother me.” Circumstance said quietly.
“Yes, you mentioned something like that before, didn't you?” Lemmic-Pries raised the eyebrow again. “How can you be so sure of that?”