Night Song (The Guild Wars Book 9)

by Mark Wandrey

  Since it was early afternoon, nobody else was in the cafeteria except the cooking staff, who were busy working on the evening meal. Most of the food available was sangers, soups, chips, small salads, and some fish. Dana only took a salad and a bottle of water. The kids all took sangers filled with meat and cheese, with water to drink, then joined their parents at the largest table.

  Alan ate for a minute, again to establish initiative. He looked up at them pointedly, and they began eating, too. Good.

  “Okay,” he said eventually. “Your brother fell off the roof. We don’t know why. He’s not seriously injured, though. Doctor Tanner is certain. He was up there because he stole some money to go walkabout without permission.” He looked at Sonya. “He’s not going to die.”

  The four Zuul siblings looked at each other, their food, the table. Alan could tell they didn’t know what to say or ask. He could understand. None of them had ever been seriously injured in their lives. In fact, the only one who’d ever had a health issue was, again, Shadow. He’d gotten a viral infection shortly after they’d arrived on Earth. He’d almost died.

  “Ripley told us about the Zuul shuttle pilot,” Rex said. “What happened?”

  “Ripley gave you as much as we know,” Dana replied. “I understand they exchanged contact information. We’ll see if they get back with us.”

  Alan could tell the explanation didn’t satisfy them, so he added to what his wife had said. “Like we’ve explained, we tried contacting the Zuul government shortly after we brought you home. They didn’t respond. Our races haven’t had the best relations. It’s possible they didn’t believe us. We tried talking to the Mercenary Guild, too, and they said it wasn’t their job.

  “The Zuul in command who gave you to us said someone would come someday. The name was Coshke. I also tried finding out about Coshke through the GalNet. Nothing.”

  “We know,” Ripley cut in. “But talking to Chuuz made me wonder why nobody came for us.”

  Dana looked at Alan, who sighed and looked at his half-eaten meal. “The company you came from was called Krif’Hosh, which translates as Song of the Night, or just Night Song. Its commander, Crent, explained the company would die out if you didn’t survive. But again, the Merc Guild wouldn’t provide any help, and even a search of their records showed no company called Krif’Hosh. So,” he said, spreading his hands wide, “we were forced to wait and see.”

  All four young Zuul mumbled and looked at each other, hoping one of them would have something brilliant to say. None of them did. Alan heaved a silent sigh of relief.

  “Right now, we need to concentrate on your brother Shadow and hope he recovers. Maybe the Zuul pilot, Chuuz, will get back with us.” They all nodded in agreement. “Okay. Good.”

  The four finished eating and left Alan and Dana alone in the cafeteria. His own barely eaten meal lay on the plastic tray. A couple huge flies walked across his sanger bread, exploring it for possibilities.

  “We have to think of something,” Dana said.

  “You don’t think I know that?” He glanced at her, and she looked as sad as he felt. Sooner or later, the kids would do something stupid. With Rex as the alpha, it would probably be sooner rather than later.

  Rex looked like he’d been in a fight. Since Alan hadn’t been called by the local police, that likely meant the Zuul teenager had been playing Hóngsè Niu again. Sure, he’d known about it. He also couldn’t stop it. The pups were old enough to do such things, even if Alan and Dana didn’t approve. He could hold Shadow back, because he’d stolen company funds. Rex, however, had his own money he’d earned. What he did with it was his own business.

  How long before they do something crazier than Hóngsè Niu? He didn’t want to know what was crazier than dropping from orbit in a pod. If something didn’t prevent it, they’d find out.

  * * *

  Shadow fell through the velvet depth of space, three stars spiraling around him, multiplying to form a field of distant light. He stretched, the warmth of starlight stitched into the frozen void, guiding him as he spun into eternity.

  The pinpoints of stars brightened so harshly he squeezed his eyes closed and abruptly stopped falling. He no longer had eyelids to close, nor eyes to protect, nor a body that needed to see.

  All was nothing. Nothing was all. He—he? Had he ever had a body? Had he ever known who he was?

  Moments passed, but time mattered not. The slow progression of the universe rotated upon the point where he remained, pondering who and what he might be.

  As the infinite reach of the universe completed its revolution, he heard something, or perhaps remembered it.

  Shadow.

  Something beyond that, a whisper twining around the word, made of scent and sound he couldn’t place.

  He became aware of his body again, though he couldn’t see it, and he twisted to follow the trail. Stars streamed around him, and he swam, following his nose, pushing through the light field.

  A moon rose from the glow, enormous and looming, followed by a smaller, brighter secondary moon. He howled, and an endless pack of Zuul howled with him. They disappeared—all but one, who turned to stare directly at his formless self.

  The howl became a promise, the smell of truth and loss and home.

  Shadow.

  Neither voice nor memory, he flicked his ears, reached for the lone Zuul, and…

  Woke.

  “Shadow!” Dana’s voice, ragged on the edge of a sob, flattened his ears tight against his skull.

  “Mom.” His tongue rasped against his mouth, and before he could blink his eyes clear, she was there with water for him.

  “‘Bout time.” Alan this time, leaning close from Shadow’s other side, shoulders hunched with the worry he wouldn’t name. “We were about to get the nanites.”

  “Waste,” he answered, needing another sip of the water Dana held to continue, “of credit.”

  “That’s my boy.” Alan put a hand on his shoulder, then stood. “I’ll get Doctor Tanner.”

  “How are you feeling?”

  “Dry.” Fastening his eyes on his mother, Shadow tried to relax his jaw to reassure her. The tangled edges of a memory slipped through his mind, but he couldn’t hold it. “What…happened?”

  “I’d ask you the same thing,” she murmured, tucking her head close against the side of his to smell his neck. “Do you remember falling?”

  “I remember…” Falling. Through stars? The vision began to come clear, and then the doctor filled the doorway.

  “How are you feeling?” Dr. Tanner asked.

  “Sore, tired, thirsty.”

  Tanner laughed and gestured. The nurse brought Shadow a small cup of water, which he drank gratefully. Once finished, he coughed a couple times and sighed.

  “Better?”

  “Yes,” he said.

  Dana hugged him, and Shadow hugged back, nuzzling her neck. She smelled of concern and fear. How bad did I look?

  “Can you get up?” Alan asked, then looked at the doctor for guidance.

  “If he feels up to it, sure.”

  Shadow sat up slowly, carefully noting how he felt. When nothing hurt, he swung his legs over the side of the bed. Because Zuul ankles were reversed from Humans, getting down off their beds wasn’t as easy for him. He and his siblings slept on low cots, which were much more comfortable. He slid off and onto his feet with no dizziness or weakness. Everything felt fine.

  “No problems?” Dr. Tanner asked.

  “Nope,” Shadow said.

  “Walk around a bit, make sure you’re steady.”

  Shadow demonstrated his lack of impediment, and the doctor nodded.

  “Can you tell us what happened?” Alan asked. “Why you fell?”

  Shadow licked his muzzle. How could he tell his father he’d had a waking vision? Something he’d been hoping to have for years, ever since he’d learned Human holy men claimed to have them. He’d almost given up hope of inducing one, and when does it happen? A dozen meters up in th
e air.

  “I think I was dehydrated after my walkabout,” he said. It felt like the lamest description he could have imagined, yet the doctor nodded.

  “That’s reasonable,” he said. “I don’t have baseline hydration data on Zuul, but if he was out wandering in the bush, it makes sense. He should spend the day indoors, drinking lots of water. I want to check him out tomorrow morning, before he goes climbing on any roofs.”

  “Sounds good to me,” Alan said. Dana looked skeptical, but nodded finally. “At least you got out of work, right?”

  Shadow grinned and rolled his eyes.

  “Well, you don’t get off that easy. Thirty days on reception duty instead of construction.”

  Shadow’s grin turned to one of horror. “Oh, Dad; come on, mate! I can work outside.”

  “Nope,” Alan said. “Answering phones won’t kill you.”

  I might wish it did. Shadow sighed and nodded in consent. A second later the door burst open and his four siblings rushed in. Through all the greetings, sniffs, and hugs, Shadow continued to think about his dream and what it might mean.

  * * *

  Sonya dropped into a comfortable squat outside the med center, her tail brushing the wall behind her. She lifted her face to the sky, eyes closed, and took shallow breaths to keep from smelling the shifting wind around her.

  Even though Shadow had woken up and would be fine, an unease had settled in her gut that even her mother’s smiling face couldn’t end.

  Her ears flicked at the crunch of a footstep, and she opened her eyes, expecting to see Ripley. It was a measure of her distraction that she hadn’t noticed the difference between Zuul and Human motion.

  “Hewers.”

  “Sunny.” Jack Hewers, newly VOWS-certified and reattached to Silent Night in an official merc capacity, had the warmest brown eyes she’d ever seen on a Human. He was also broad-shouldered, big-smiled, and nearly as tall as Drake. If he weren’t so unrelievedly Human, she could…she would…

  “My parents are inside, if you’re looking for orders.” She closed her eyes again and wished breathing through her mouth would keep his scent out.

  “Sunny,” he repeated, dropping down next to her. Jack braced his back against the wall, knowing from long experience he wouldn’t be able to hold a squat anywhere near as long as her. “Wanted to check on you—you know, Shadow. Heard there was a tumble.”

  “Shadow’s good. We haven’t gone in to see him yet, but Dad said he just pushed it too hard in the bush.”

  “He was in the outback that whole time?” With a chuckle, Jack stretched his arms up, folding them behind his head. “That’s so Shadow of him.”

  Sonya’s jaw dropped in an unwilling smile, and she turned her head away to hide it. He nudged her, and she caught his teasing grin in her peripheral vision.

  “Yeah. So, we’re good here. Unless you need your colonel for something?” She didn’t want to be short with him, but it was easier to be sharp these days. He was a full merc now, and even when they’d been younger, bounding through the complex, he couldn’t have been anything else but a friend.

  “You just worried about your brother, or something else going on, Furface?” He nudged her again, a wide Human grin on his face.

  “Shut your skin flaps, Hewers,” she retorted, wrinkling her muzzle. “Just kid stuff. Nothing a merc has to worry about.”

  “Sunny.” His voice leveled into seriousness. “You haven’t been a kid in years. What’s going on?”

  “Ripley met a Zuul today.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but the words spilled out. “Dad told us some stuff about how he—how they brought us back, for the first time. Shadow fell off a roof. Been kind of a weird day.”

  “Huh.” Jack blew out his breath, noting his agreement of her assessment. “The Zuul Ripley met, did they know your, uh…parents?”

  “Don’t be a shite. You know Zuul have parents, like Humans do.” She shoved his arm, though he didn’t lose his balance nearly as easily as he used to. Better than thinking about how little she knew about Zuul family structures. GalNet had some information, but nothing truly helpful—Zuul had been part of the Galactic Union for a hell of a lot longer than Humans, and had spread throughout the galaxy accordingly. The resulting settlements had so much variety, it was hard to pinpoint what Zuul standard might be, and they couldn’t begin to narrow down what Zuul world they’d come from. Regardless, they were fairly certain she and her siblings hadn’t been grown in pods, so yes, they had parents.

  “And?” he asked, unrepentant.

  “And no, she didn’t seem to know our parents.” No one had ever heard of their people, given what their dad had said, nor had her parents mattered enough for anyone to reach out for them. “Did you really think that could be a thing? All Zuul just…know each other?”

  “You know what they say.” Jack dropped his arms and spread them wide. “For such a big world, it’s a small world.”

  “That’s not true of the whole universe, ya goose.” She lifted her lip in a half-hearted snarl.

  “Is that why you’re upset? Do you wish she knew your parents? Or…do you want to…go with her?”

  She was saved from answering by another footfall. Drake’s snarl was not nearly as half-hearted as hers, and Jack knew better than to linger.

  “Glad to hear Shadow’s doing better.” Though he moved reluctantly, he moved, nodding to Drake. “See you all soon.”

  Drake watched him go, eyes steady on the slightly older Human until the merc disappeared around the building.

  “Let’s go back in.”

  “I’m good here.” She closed her eyes once more, hoping her brother would make it easy and walk away.

  Of course she knew better.

  “Sonya. Shadow’s about to come out.”

  “Drake.” Her voice rumbled in her chest, not quite a growl. “He’ll come out, and we’ll go home, and I’ll spend plenty of time with him. If he can disappear to the wild for weeks, I can sit outside for a few minutes.”

  “And talk to the Human?” Drake scoffed, turning away.

  Her eyes snapped open, and he paused at her glare, staring back.

  “Ripley ready to talk about the Zuul she met?”

  Drake shrugged, breaking eye contact. “She asked if you were coming back in.”

  She muttered a curse and stood, then fell into step with him without saying anything else.

  They both preferred it that way.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 4

  Karma Station, Karma System, Cresht Region, Tolo Arm

  Chuuz floated through the transfer lock and into Karma station. She was immensely glad to be away from the Humans’ filthy planet and back to civilization. Of course, the first beings she saw as she moved into the promenade were…a group of entropy-cursed Humans. One nodded to her, and she gave a little snarl in reply as she floated past.

  She met the cargo master and received her personal gear bag. To her surprise, a pair of humanoid, four-armed Lumar were running all the bags through scanners, under supervision of a Veetanho.

  “What’s going on?” she asked the Veetanho.

  “All cargo coming out of Earth is to be inspected,” the Veetanho replied.

  “Why?”

  “Orders of the Mercenary Guild.”

  Chuuz had many more questions. She didn’t ask any of them. In the aftermath of the campaign against the Humans, a lot of collateral damage had occurred. She’d only heard about the direct incidents, such as shortages of combat-capable starships, and many merc companies abandoning their soldiers on Earth and its colonies. She should have known there’d be other side effects.

  Everyone knew the Veetanho were in charge of the Merc Guild in all but name. While General Peepo had been forced into an armistice by the Peacemakers, she hadn’t been defeated. Chuuz had heard all manner of stories about the general. One said she was gathering forces to oppose the Peacemakers. Another said she’d been jailed by the Peacemakers. Still another said she’d bee
n viciously murdered by the Depik in retaliation for crimes against their race.

  Regardless of any truth to the rumors, Chuuz was nothing more than a freelance shuttle pilot licensed as a merc. She had no intention of pissing a Veetanho off. A good size pile of credits was in her future, so she simply waited while the suspicious little rat had her lackies go through the bags.

  The only thing the Veetanho customs agent was curious about was a bag with Human writing on it. “What is this?”

  “A snack I found while there. It’s called a Milk-Bone.”

  The Veetanho ran her slate over the bag, wasting several more minutes as a complete translation was finished and analyzed. “The scan verifies your story, but says they are for an Earth animal known as a ‘dog.’ Why are you exporting them?”

  “Because they taste good,” Chuuz said darkly.

  The Veetanho grunted and seemed to consider confiscating them. Chuuz would be annoyed. Some Human had tossed one at her as some sort of joke, but she’d actually developed a taste for the crunchy treats. However, the Veetanho eventually relented and put them back in one of Chuuz’s bags, making notes in her slate. “You are cleared to enter Karma.”

  Chuuz took her bags and left without comment. To entropy with the cursed rat. She floated out through the promenade. As she went, she saw every access docking collar had a team of Lumar and Veetanho. Some were checking travelers, others not. She guessed the ones under scrutiny were like her, departures from Earth.

  She took the first companionway out of the promenade to one of the station’s huge spokes, then boarded an elevator to the first ring. Gravity grew steadily higher as they rose, and she looked forward to taking the tubes downward. In less time than it had taken the Veetanho to scrutinize her bags, Chuuz reached the company office and checked in.

  Somewhat richer for her extended stay in Human space, she did the same thing every merc did after getting paid—she headed for the bar.