Portal Jumpers

by Chloe Garner

  “It’s time,” Pane said. Cassie slid into the water, checking the breathing tube to make sure it was clear, then put an arm across Pane’s chest. A back fin cut the surface of the water in front of them, kicking up water as it made a hair-pin turn and went back the way it came. The infants were enjoying their freedom.

  Jesse was riding with Klath, and Cassie understood that she was to be a part of the advance guard with them. She took a moment to be sad that Benth wasn’t going to be with them; he had deserved that.

  Pane drifted to the front of the group, where the larger portion of the warriors were talking. There was conversation about currents and how long it would take for the warriors of Calenna to spot them. Everyone seemed to think that they wouldn’t be perceived as a threat, with this many caretakers with them, but they made contingencies, anyway. This far out, they would find scouts, first, and then farmers, if the scouts somehow managed to miss them. Jesse waited patiently, listening to the planning. He’d already said that they should just go and figure it out as problems came up, but the Adena Lampak culture of debate and consensus was too strong, especially now.

  Finally, Klath sent the rest of the warriors that would not be in the advance guard back to their positions, and they began the grueling work of getting everyone moving. Once they started moving in a straight line, they would have an easier time accelerating, but at first, the caretakers would peel off in clusters that tended to work in circles rather than straight lines, and the rest would slow down while the warriors went to get them back into the main group. After a couple of false starts, they were moving.

  “To Calenna,” Pane murmured.

  “To Calenna,” Cassie said, putting the breathing tube into her mouth and tucking her head against Pane’s shoulder. And then they were underwater.

  Pane surfaced a few times to let Cassie know what was going on.

  The fields were empty. Well-maintained, not long-abandoned, but un-attended.

  The fish farms had been closed down correctly, so it hadn’t been a disorderly retreat, at least.

  Little Benth came to swim with them for a time, and Pane swam with her head above water for a stretch so that Cassie could see the tiny Adena Lampak as she played. The child whistled and shrilled, then a caretaker caught up to them and cut the child away. The rest of the warriors had gained a lead on them, and Pane went back under to catch up.

  The warrior Adena Lampak was surfacing more often, by Cassie’s count, as the sun continued its slow descent. Cassie had gotten a few hours of sleep on the raft as they’d gotten out of the way of the predators; she wondered how long it had been since Pane had slept.

  And then the towers of Calenna peaked the horizon.

  “We should have been stopped by now,” Pane told her as they skimmed along the surface for a moment. Klath and Jesse were having a quiet conversation a few yards away. Jesse looked concerned; Cassie couldn’t read the Adena Lampak.

  “What does it mean?” Cassie asked. Pane shook her head.

  “I don’t know.”

  It meant they were probably too late. That Calenna was being sacked as they sped in. Cassie thought of Aland and Jeen, of the Url, and hoped.

  She wondered what would happen to Pane for disobeying orders. What would happen to the caretakers. If anyone would be willing to look out for them.

  Pane dove again and they kept on. What else could they do?

  The swim in to the tower took maybe half an hour. No one stopped them. As they got close, they slowed, keeping enough pace to keep formation, but most of the warriors who didn’t have specific scouting and protection tasks swimming with their heads up, watching the tower.

  The tower watched back.

  As they got closer, they could see the volume of Adena Lampak at the rails, watching them.

  And yet no one stopped them.

  The sea was empty, save for the periodic sounds of Adena Lampak breaching to breathe.

  Was it over?

  Had they come that late?

  They came to the main tower as a group of Adena Lampak came down the stairs. From below, it was impossible to tell who they were. The caretakers milled and Jesse, Klath, Pane, and Cassie went to stand on the bottom stair.

  The procession rounded the last sweep of the staircase, coming into view, and Cassie’s heart jumped into her throat.

  “Jeen,” she gasped. The beautiful creature had new scars, fresh and light-blue, across her abdomen, but she moved perfectly in front of Aland. Further back, Cassie recognized a few individuals and the Url, but she was overwhelmed at the surprise that Jeen was well.

  “You’ve come back to us,” the Adena Lampak said. “I wasn’t sure that you would.”

  “Klath,” a voice from above said, and Cassie turned to look up at the Url.

  “Url,” Klath answered.

  “Why have you come?”

  “We seek sanctuary, and to prevent violence that has no purpose.”

  “Always noble,” the Url answered. “What would you have us do?”

  “Shelter our caretakers and listen to our story,” Klath answered.

  “Palta, do you vouch for his veracity?” the Url asked.

  “There are no tricks here, Url. What you see before you is the future of your species. I would advise you treat it as the treasure it is.”

  The Url nodded.

  “We will shelter them and we will hear you. But first we will see that everyone is fed.”

  “There’s no time,” Cassie said. The speaking Url turned to face her, giving her a curious look.

  “The rash one has returned as well,” he said. “What would you have us do?”

  Cassie looked at Jesse, who nodded. Pane put a fin on her back and gave her the same nod.

  “The war comes to Calenna,” Cassie said. “Today. We need a solution to stop two armies from eating each other.”

  The sea burbled and an infant came rolling out of the water, tipping against Cassie’s shin as it tried to balance. She leaned down to pick up Benth and heard Jeen gasp.

  “You’re hatching,” the Url said. “Why would the Commander persist with a war over an issue that is gone?”

  “They don’t know,” Jesse said. “This is part of a very large scheme to make the Adena Lampak destroy themselves, and this,” he said, nodding toward Benth, “is the hidden truth that re-solves the puzzle.”

  There was quiet for a moment from the Calenna Adena Lampak. Benth whistled at Cassie and she shook her head at the baby.

  “You need to learn how to speak, and then you need to learn when not to speak,” she said.

  “He is un-cut,” the Url finally said. You’ve been raising infants feral?”

  “No choice,” Klath said. “We took evidence to the Commander, and… He rejected it. We have cut ties, since.”

  “How long do we have?” Aland asked. Klath shook his head, then looked at Pane.

  “It’s a long swim,” she said. “They could have been here by now.”

  “They will have had to have avoided the predators,” Jesse said. “They won’t want to fight them on the way here.”

  “They didn’t have an anchor to drag,” Klath answered. The silent Url raised an eyebrow, then turned.

  “We need to get the caretakers in. Come. We’ll make plans.”

  “How do you get them in?” Cassie asked.

  “You think we never let them out?” Aland asked. “What kind of evil do you think we are?”

  “They’ll be glad to be back in,” Pane said. “What can I do?”

  “We have plenty of hands,” Aland said. “They’re going to need your mind.”

  Pane gave him a nodding motion and went to follow Jesse and Klath up the stairs. Cassie sighed.

  “I can’t believe we made it,” she said.

  “You’ve had an adventure since I last saw you,” Jeen said. Cassie nodded. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”

  “I never really felt like a real Adena Lampak without scars,” Jeen answered.

  �
�The human should come, as well,” one of the Urls called back. Cassie looked up the stairs, surprised, then looked back at Jeen.

  “Go,” Jeen said. “It’s where you should be. We’ll see that the caretakers are cared for.”

  Cassie looked out over the caretakers, milling in the shadows of the tower, then eased Benth back into the water and ran up the stairs to catch back up with Jesse and the Url.

  “It’s too risky,” the general said. “I won’t let civilians stand in the middle.”

  “My people aren’t civilians,” Klath answered. “And they have a right to be involved.”

  “Have you considered the consequences?” Jesse asked.

  “My people will raze everything on their way in,” Pane said.

  “We’ve taken that into consideration,” the Url said.

  “This is the way,” the other Url added.

  “We are prepared, and we will recover.”

  “And if they lay siege?” Pane asked.

  “We will find the way,” the Url said.

  “Much as I appreciate the desire to avoid bloodshed, they aren’t innocent. You have the right to defend yourselves,” Klath said.

  “War is fought to win,” the Url said. “What do you do when your goal is no longer to win, but rather to stop?”

  “You surrender,” Cassie said. The sound the general made might have been a laugh. Jesse grinned.

  “He’s right,” he said. “That is what this will look like.”

  “What does that matter?” the Url asked. “If we begin in chaos, we lose the seeds of the future. Even an orderly surrender is better than a disorderly end, if that end means the end of Calenna and our ability to keep the caretakers safe.”

  “It’s a beautiful city,” Pane murmured to Cassie. “I only saw Elsa from the water.”

  “Cartan will execute you,” Klath said, “if this goes poorly.”

  “What kind of Url values his head over his people?” the Url answered.

  “I’ll do it,” Cassie said. Heads turned.

  “They think you killed the Commander,” Jesse said. Cassie raised an eyebrow.

  “They think you killed the Commander,” she answered. “They think I’m the poor, witless dupe you drag around with you for reasons they haven’t figured out yet.” She looked at Pane. “Tell me I’m wrong.”

  Pane sighed resignation.

  “He hasn’t overestimated it.”

  Cassie nodded.

  “Any of you look like a threat. If we’re going to do this without anyone getting killed, that’s our best bet.”

  “Everyone but me,” Pane said. Cassie expected the Adena Lampak to argue that she should go in Cassie’s place, but the woman surprised her. “We’ll go together.”

  There was a moment of hesitation.

  “You’re miserable at following your own protocols,” Jesse finally said.

  “Does that mean you aren’t arguing?” Cassie asked. He shrugged.

  “Don’t die.”

  “Do my best.”

  “We should be represented,” the general said, the voice of advice, directed toward the Url.

  “It should be us,” the Url said.

  “They’d kill you,” Pane said. The Url nodded.

  “And the next Url isn’t ready,” the general said.

  “Nor will Aland and Jeen hide,” the Url said. “As you say, Palta, they are terrible with protocol.”

  “Youth,” Jesse said. Cassie glared at him and he suppressed a grin.

  “Aland will join you,” the Url said. “Jeen will supervise the caretakers and their requirements.”

  There was another long pause. Cassie’s nervous system finally caught up, realizing that this was probably a good time to be nervous.

  “Is that it?” she asked. She wanted the Url to say something romantic like go with God, but it wasn’t the time or the place. What she got instead was Jesse:

  “For the record when it goes wrong, this wasn’t my idea.”

  And that’s how Cassie ended up sitting on a wave-washed stair at the bottom of a great sea tower, wearing a leather bikini, with two foreign terrestrials and a sentient eel, waiting for an army.

  She checked the knife at her hip and tipped her head so that Pane would see it.

  “I hope we don’t need it,” Pane said, “but Benth told me that we underestimate you.”

  “Rigid skeleton,” Cassie said. “I have a native advantage in air.”

  “You say that like you earned it,” Aland said.

  “He did,” Pane said. “All soldiers do.”

  Cassie nodded.

  And they waited.

  They didn’t talk much.

  They were relying on someone on the other side to ask questions before they were too committed to the attack.

  They weren’t human.

  Cassie kept reminding herself that.

  She was relying on it.

  A noise from above told them that someone had sighted the Adena Lampak on the horizon. They’d pulled in the scouts ahead of the caretakers, shutting everything down in an effort to make their approach easier. The seas were empty.

  They had less than a minute, if the army was blitzing them.

  Cassie settled Benth in her lap and the infant made a buzzing noise at her.

  “This is it, kid,” she said.

  Cassie didn’t have a sense of when the Adena Lampak got there, but Benth wriggled differently and Pane stopped breathing.

  “They’re here,” Aland said. Cassie stood, dunking Benth and taking a couple of steps down the stairway. She wanted to keep the rail between herself and the open water to give herself the best chance of getting back out of the way, should something go wrong. She felt Pane follow her, knowing Aland was standing, dry, on the stairs just above them.

  “They’re deciding,” Pane said. Cassie nodded. She held the infant against her chest. She needed to go in with the caretakers and the rest of the infants. She’d been out of the water too long, and while she was happy enough by nature, the noises she made crept closer and closer to pain as the hours had worn on.

  “You are wanted for treason,” a voice said as a handful of heads popped up above the surface.

  “Where is Benth?” another asked.

  “This is Benth,” Pane said, taking the infant from Cassie and dropping lower in the water.

  “You trade your oath for a Centralist child?”

  “We killed their caretakers,” Pane said. “They have no children to trade. This is my own child, with Benth.”

  More heads appeared above the water.

  “Why is the child uncut?”

  “He doesn’t speak, either,” Pane said.

  “Get Cartan,” one of the lesser officers said. A head disappeared and the Adena Lampak looked up at the towers.

  “You’ve taken our advantage,” the officer said. “You will pay the price for it.”

  None of them were comfortable under the towers; Cassie was sympathetic. If they were going to attack, it would have been from underwater, fast, trying to force the defending warriors into the awkward transition from air to water.

  They retreated.

  Pane let Benth rest in the water, watching the direction the Southerners had come from.

  “Is he going to be okay?” Cassie asked.

  “All infants recover quickly,” Pane said. “We won’t know how well he can adapt for a while.”

  Cassie nodded.

  They waited more.

  A trio of Adena Lampak surfaced a few yards away.

  “Cartan?” Cassie asked quietly. Pane nodded.

  “Let me see the child,” he said.

  “You killed the last,” Pane answered, handing Benth off to Cassie and turning to face her former commanding officer.

  “We killed an abomination. A lie. False hopes offered by traitors.”

  “You alienated our most sensitive and vulnerable people,” Pane answered. “The child you killed was not a lie. He was the first of many. I have seen
them.”

  “You betrayed your people,” Cartan said. “Your words bear no weight.”

  “You betrayed them,” Cassie said. “You left them to die.”

  “You have no right to speak,” Cartan said.

  “More right than you,” Cassie said. She couldn’t tell who looked more surprised, Pane or Cartan.

  “She’s right,” Aland said, voice soft but laced with a quiet authority that Cassie hadn’t heard from him before.

  “You abandoned your own kind when they needed you,” Cartan said.

  “We did no such thing,” Aland said. “But the roots of our war are not at question here. The future is.”

  “You abandoned your own kind when they needed you,” Cassie said. “You’re as bad as you accuse him of being.”

  “Sacrifices must be made,” Cartan said.

  “Why?” Cassie asked. She rotated Benth so Cartan could see the young Adena Lampak clearly. “Why do you have to sacrifice all of your caretakers?”

  “The child is just another lie.”

  “There are more,” Pane said. “I’ve seen them. We went to get the colony out of the way of the predators, but we found a flourishing colony.”

  “This is more of the Conspiracy,” Cartan said.

  “We bring proof,” Pane said. “My own child. It’s up to you to alter your perspective based on the evidence. I have the right to expect that of you.”

  “I should attack now, before you have time to take advantage of our hesitation.”

  “We offer you no defense,” Aland said. “We have taken in your young and your caretakers. After everything you have done, we still want to find the misunderstanding and end this.”

  “It wasn’t a misunderstanding,” Cassie said. “It was lies. Mab was poisoning your eggs. When you put them out of his reach, they started hatching. Your caretakers were never at fault.”

  “Conspiracy,” Cartan said. “Conspiracy and tricks.”

  “No, we kept Jesse out of this,” Cassie said. Cartan blinked at her, and she shrugged. “We’ve said what we can say. Either you’re Adena Lampak or you aren’t. Mab wanted to end your species through war, and if you destroy Calenna, that’s what is going to happen.”