The Rings of Hesaurun

by Peter Harrett

  “Well?” Valerie asked. “What do you think?” “I think that if I marry you, I had better keep you happy—or you will turn me into an ass,” Ammon exclaimed.”

  “Too late, dear, you accomplished that all by yourself!” Valerie laughed.

  ________________________

  Ammon rode away on his old mare at dawn, carrying the secret raw materials for making steel and a pouch of silver coins. Stars were still visible, but the sky was clear, and the summer day promised to be warm. If he didn’t lose any time he could be at Tadhg’s forge by late afternoon. Since he now carried silver coins, he decided to treat himself to a hot meal and a night at an inn in Bregia rather than sleeping under the stars as he had on his first visit.

  As he descended from the Bearnán Éile ridge, Ammon made a brief stop to visit Lochlan, sharing some news with him, then followed the road to the bridge at Erlin. From there, he took the crossroad west toward Bregia. By late morning the August sun was intensely hot, so Ammon took a break under a tree on the Nore River bank.

  Ammon relaxed with his back against the tree, peacefully watching his horse wade into the shallow water to drink. He allowed his thoughts to wander lazily in the heat of the day, and then his thoughts returned to Valerie. Just yesterday she had been seated on his lap talking and kissing him beside the bank of the same river he now watched flow by.

  Ammon realized he was happier than he had ever been, and it was all because of the strange woman he had let into his once-predictably ordinary life. As he saw it, she had changed his life in a way that he could never have imagined. Now life was full of surprises and new challenges. Admittedly he had exchanged mundanity for unpredictability but welcomed it nevertheless.

  Valerie has reawakened my thinking ability , he realized. Now I am experiencing and doing things never conceived; learning a new language and reading and writing. Sure, she was strange, but he had grown to love her for that. It seemed that no two days were ever the same; anything could happen with her around.

  But don’t forget, he told himself, I am planning marriage to a woman who turns river rock into silver coins, levitates logs, and resurrects the dead. What’s next? he wondered. What other surprises does she have in store for me?

  Ammon ran his hand through his hair then massaged the stiffness out of his neck. Suddenly he realized that something had spooked his horse, which unexpectedly broke and ran upstream at a gallop. Ammon jumped up and called to it, but it was no good; the old mare was running wild as if her tail was on fire.

  Ammon stood in the shallow water watching in frustration as the animal disappeared upriver. Something had spooked the usually steady mare, but what? The grassy riverbank allowed a clear view of the valley floor for more than a mile in every direction. There were no wolves, bears, or anything else that would have scared the horse. A water snake? he wondered.

  Then Ammon felt rather than heard something odd, a raising tremor in the earth, and he knew that was what had scared the old mare. Searching the ground, he saw no reason for fear; other than the tremor, all seemed as it should be—and then the sky above Ammon shuddered and broke with an audible shriek.

  Ammon raised his eyes, and his heart turned to stone. Astreaking fireball appeared to be headed directly at him. Ammon sunk to his knees in a combination of astonishment and horror, for surely he was about to die.

  The ear-piercing scream echoed through the river valley as the blazing mass approached. But as the fireball streaked above, he realized it was higher in the sky than initially thought and that it would pass safely overhead. A wave of relief washed over Ammon as his eyes followed the object’s trajectory and disappeared behind the hills.

  Suddenly a flash, immediately followed by a compression wave and a thunderous boom, stunned him. Once Ammon gathered his senses, he stared as a dust cloud formed in the west of his position. Ammon couldn’t help but think of what might have happened to him had he continued toward Bregia instead of taking a break.

  But Ammon knew the area well and guessed that whatever it was that hit the ground was close, just over the hill, not more than a mile or two from where he stood. A sense of foreboding overcame Ammon as he remembered the day he and his fellow hunters watched Valerie’s ship The Dreamer rip through the atmosphere, then hammer itself into the ground in much the same way this object had done.

  However, this thing was nowhere near as large as The Dreamer, nor was it nearly as destructive as when it struck the earth. Moreover, he was certain this thing was a much smaller sphere, whereas Valerie’s ship was perhaps one-hundred times larger, rectangular and with appendages. Although he didn’t know what might have fallen out of the sky in this instance, he guessed it was something entirely different.

  Ammon was eager to see the object with his own eyes, but first, he had to catch the old mare, which still carried his weapons and the valuable supplies intended for Tadhg. Ammon followed the stream upriver until he found the mare grazing peacefully alongside the riverbank as if nothing had happened. Then muttering as he closed in on the animal so as not to startle it, he was able to recapture and remount her.

  Hurrying, Ammon turned his horse west and prodded it into a gallop. Soon Ammon stood atop the hill surveying the impact site from a safe distance. A long furrow marked where the sphere had skidded to a stop at the base of a knoll. The smoking sphere rested at the bottom of an excavation, steaming and snapping as it cooled. But there was more: a faint metallic thrumming sound emanated from the pit.

  Ammon took a knee as he studied the site with the patience of an experienced hunter. He was in no hurry; there was no need to rush. In his experience, diligence always paid dividends when assessing a situation. Respect for one’s enemy kept men alive, and Ammon considered this thing as a potential enemy. It certainly didn’t look friendly.

  Although more than an hour had passed since the event, the torn earth and surrounding debris smoldered still. The charred surface of the sphere shimmered in the midday sun. Other than the sphere’s rhythmic thrumming sound, the site was silent, and nothing in the area moved.

  That faint thrumming sound made him feel uneasy; it troubled him, and he considered it as a warning. What happened to Pearse when he touched Valerie’s ship was still fresh enough in his mind; he knew better than to repeat the error. He had no intention of touching it. Pearse had touched something similar and almost cost him his life. Ammon took pride in learning from other’s mistakes, and he considered Pearse’s error as a lesson well learned.

  But Ammon still wanted to have a closer look, so he walked his horse down the hill then tied it to a tree before going any closer; he didn’t want to take the chance of having to chase down a startled animal again. Suddenly the mare’s eyes went wild, and the old horse began stamping her hooves and pulling away. Ammon heard a metallic clank, looked over his shoulder, and was startled to see that something in the pit was moving.

  The sphere burst open like a broken egg, with the shell opening up into four symmetric sections. Now the thrumming sound came much louder, and something began to rise out of the fragmented casing. Ammon watched in horror as the thing unfolded itself into the shape of a six-legged spider roughly the size of a man, then all at once flew directly at him. Ammon had no time to react; the thing was instantly upon him.

  Ammon was thrown roughly to the ground by the hovering, thrumming metallic beast. Panicked, he tried to escape its grasp, but the strange machine was too quick. Six dangling arms grasped him and pinned him down; he was immobile, no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn’t move. The bug-like thing hovered over him, shining lights in his face, a blinding white light scorching his eyes. Suddenly he felt a hard stabbing pain on his neck, like a sting, and then he was abruptly released.

  The assault was over in seconds. But the horrible flying spider wasn’t finished yet. In a flash, the thing was upon the old mare, its six legs wrapped firmly around her head, shining lights in her frightened bulging eyes threatening to drive the animal mad. Helplessly Ammon watched as she struggl
ed against the attack, snorting, tossing her head, and bucking. But it was no use; she was unable to break away from the vile thing. Another arm unfolded from the beast’s belly then stabbed at the horse’s neck like a scorpion.

  The instant the stabbing arm had done its work and was fully retracted, the machine released the horse and was instantly on a nearby tree branch. The poor old mare was wild now, crying, bucking, and kicking, although firmly held to the tree by the rope. The machine repeated the procedure on the tree, the same as was done to him and the horse, and when it was done, it flew away at incredible speed, thrumming all the way.

  Still flat on his back, Ammon felt broken, too stunned to move. The attack came so fast, so overwhelming in its effectiveness, that he never had a chance to react. His defeat had been so swift and so thorough that he could not reconcile it in his mind. Wholly demoralized, he stared helplessly at the flying spider as it hovered over a bush, shined its blazing lights on it, then stabbed again with its scorpion-like stinger, then was on a rock.

  Man, beast, rock, or vegetation, it made no difference to the machine. It treated them all alike and then moved on without the slightest hesitation. It was done in seconds, then it raced away thrumming, incessantly thrumming, searching for its next victim. The thing stopped at a patch of tall grass, lights flashed, and it moved again, and again, and in a few moments, it was gone entirely and with it the upsetting thrumming sound.

  Groaning, Ammon rolled onto his knees and touched his neck where he had been stung, then gazing at it wonderingly. Although there was a trace of blood, there wasn’t enough to worry about. The injury appeared to be slight, which surprised him. From what he could see of the horse, the same was true of her wound. Bloodstained the animal’s neck, but like his own, the wound was superficial.

  Ammon held his head, struggling to understand what had happened. He had no words to describe it, no experience to fall back on, no information to help him make sense of it. This airborne iron scorpion moved so incredibly fast that it was impossible to avoid. What moves like that? Nothing! What was it doing, and why? Why would anyone—or anything bother to tackle a man, sting him, then unceremoniously toss him aside like refuse? Even more curious is the fact that it gave the same treatment to plants and animals!

  He wished Valerie was there . Surely she would understand, she would know what to do—wouldn’t she? And yet intuition told him there must be a connection between this great iron insect and Valerie Dunne. He didn’t know what, but the logic was unavoidable. She needed to know, and he had to get to her as quickly as possible.

  Ammon untied the now-calmed mare from the tree, hopped on her back, and galloped east toward Erlin. By the time he arrived at Valerie’s house, it was dark, the sun had already set, and lamps were lit inside. Valerie heard him coming and opened the door in time to see him leading the old mare to the barn. The horse was wet with sweat and needed to be properly cared for.

  “Ammon, is that you already?” she called. “I will be right there,” Ammon returned. “As soon as I take care of the horse.” Ammon unloaded the mare, brushed and fed and watered her as quickly as he could, then rushed to Valerie’s door. Since she was expecting him, he entered without knocking and seated himself at her table.

  One look at Ammon, and Valerie knew there was trouble. “Ammon, what’s wrong?” she cried, “you look like you saw a ghost!”

  Ammon, who was a master of understatement, replied, “Might have, got anything to eat?”

  “Ammon, you tell me what’s wrong right now!” Valerie insisted.

  “It’s a long story, and I am hungry.”

  Valerie turned, then threw a loaf of bread at him, which he caught one-handed. “Got any wine? I need some,” he said, then with a full mouth of bread added, “real bad—and pour yourself one, you are going to need it.”

  After pouring two mugs of wine Valerie seated herself across from Ammon expectantly. “So what happened? Why didn’t you go to Bregia?”

  Ammon stopped eating and stared hard at Valerie. Not sure where to begin or how to put his strange experience into words, he decided to start with the most significant part of the story.

  “An iron spider knocked me down, then stung me on the neck. Then it flew up and stung the old mare— which I can assure you she was not happy about. After that, the ugly thing stung everything else in sight, rocks, bushes—trees even!” he exclaimed.

  Valerie laughed. “Yeah, well, some people have all the fun!”

  Ammon remained silent, without a hint of humor in his eyes, and Valerie realized that although he was a terrible storyteller, he was not joking. Something dreadful had happened to him on the road to Bregia; she just needed to draw it out of him. Ammon showed her the welt on his neck where he had been stung, and Valerie’s eyes widened in horror.

  “Ammon, please start from the beginning and tell me what happened.”

  Ammon took a moment to gather his thoughts, picking at the bread with a desperate look on his face before beginning. When he met her gaze, Valerie saw that he considered what he was about to disclose to be extremely troubling.

  “I was halfway between Erlin and Bregia when I decided to rest beside the river. The day was hot, and I was thirsty. The old mare was wading in the river when something startled it, and it ran. I spent an hour tracking her down.”

  “What was it? What startled the horse?”

  “A fireball in the sky,” Ammon said with a definite edge to his voice.

  “Was that at about midday?”

  Ammon nodded.

  “I saw it in the west, heard it too,” she said. “A meteor, right?”

  “I don’t know,” Ammon paused. “I don’t know what it was, but it seemed to be heading straight for us. It flew overhead and hit the ground about a mile away, so after I caught the horse, I rode out there to see it.”

  “What was it? What did it look like?”

  “A ball, a smoking metal ball.”

  “Metal!” Valerie exclaimed. “Are you sure?”

  Ammon nodded again. “A metal ball,” he confirmed, “a metal ball that cracked open like an egg. And when it happened, an iron spider emerged.”

  Valerie’s throat tightened. “Iron spider,” she choked the words. “You mean a machine, right?”

  “I guess so,” Ammon reluctantly confirmed, then added, “It wasn’t a creature if that is what you mean. It was metal, maybe steel, and its eyes were like your solar torches.”

  Valerie was horrified, immediately recognizing what Ammon described as being a probe of some kind, perhaps even something from the future. Nothing else fit the description. But who sent it?Has the BRU sent a probe to find me? she wondered.

  She sighed, convinced she knew what Ammon had seen. “Ammon, describe the machine,” she said, her voice filled with foreboding.

  “It was metal, about the size of a man, bigger maybe. It had six dangling arms hanging from it and a hidden stinger. It flew at me so fast I couldn’t dodge it; it knocked me down, shined bright lights in my eyes, then stung my neck. After stinging me it was on the horse so fast she couldn’t avoid it either, believe me, she tried. I was proud of her for that; she fought like a wild cat!”

  Ammon smiled, then continued his account. “The machine got its legs wrapped around her head then stung her, too. And then the strangest thing happened; the machine went into a tree and did the same thing it did to the horse and me, like a bee moving from flower to flower. Then it was on a rock, a bush, and everything else it could find. It seemed to miss nothing; it shined its lights and stung everything, and then it was gone.”

  “Gone?” Valerie asked.

  “Yes, gone. It flew away, probably looking for more things to sting.”

  “I see,” Valerie said, rubbing her temples. “Ammon, what color was it?”

  “I don’t know. It was moving pretty fast,” he said as a matter of fact. “Bronze, maybe. What do you think it is?” Ammon wanted to know.

  “That figures, I should have known better,” she sai
d, shaking her head in disgust—a Boecki resource seeker drone, just what we needed. But this development is a good reminder of who’s running the show. It is so easy to forget the Hesaurun Rings are sentient, that I am no more than arms and legs for them, merely a vassal. I was foolish ever to think it was my idea to come here. They knew the Boecki would send a seeker drone to Earth in this time period—and guess what? Here I am at the right time and place to intercept it.

  “What do you mean?” Ammon wanted to know.

  “Oh, don’t worry, dear,” she said, patting his hand. “The probe didn’t sting you; it was just taking samples. It might have felt like a sting, but it didn’t intend to hurt you or the horse. It’s broken; the machine is not working right. It was supposed to check—um, check to see if you are healthy. Yeah, that’s it, that’s all,” Valere lied, and badly.

  Valerie watched Ammon’s face for a reaction. For now, half-truths and outright lies will have to do, she thought. How can I tell him the truth when I barely have the strength to admit it to myself!

  “Samples? Samples of what?” Ammon gulped, puzzled.

  “Blood samples,” Valerie admitted, as brightly as she could manage, but in truth, what she had learned was crushing, and she was horrified by it.

  “The machine is a medical drone from the future, like me—I mean, it is from the future like I am, not that I am a drone myself. Know what I mean?” she explained, laughing nervously.

  Ammon just stared at her, more puzzled than ever.

  “In the future,” Valerie continued, “we take small blood samples that provide us with information about an individual’s health. The machine is a medical drone that is supposed to help people, not scare them to death.”

  Valerie watched Ammon’s face for a reaction. She had no idea what he must be thinking. She felt his eyes on her, anxious and questioning, but the truth about the drone was just too frightening to explain. Instead she just sighed and took his hand. “Why don’t we go see if we can find it tomorrow? I am sure that by now it is safely back in its shell asleep.”