Mikal reached to touch one of the rays of the sun. Her head was exploding with the sense of danger.
“Don’t touch!” she cried at him, but it was already too late.
She saw a long needle come out of one of the other rays, the one nearest the one he had touched; it pierced his hand. Then it withdrew and Mikal stared ahead of him with a dumbfounded expression on his face; he stumbled, and fell to the floor.
“I got a record of that, clear as a bell,” the granda subvocalized to her as she knelt down to look at Mikal.
He was already comatose by the time she got down on her knees. She lifted his arm; it was limp. She checked his pulse; it was fine. So, she said to herself, this was one of Gorsh and Guzi’s lovely little drugs, designed to keep a person alive, but dead to the world. A very fast-acting poison, much like the dose of mind-tangler that had felled her among the raspberry bushes, back on another world.
“What happened?” Jocan stood above her, white-faced. “Is he dead?”
“No, he’s alive. But he got a damn good dose of one of your father’s medications!” She got up. “Your pa and his companion are probably on their way here; we better get the hell away. I’m sure they’ve rigged that thing to give them a warning when it goes off.”
Jocan nodded. He re-pocketed the stunner that he had been holding. Wryly Kati noted that she was clutching hers, too. She shoved it into her pocket.
“I’ll take his shoulders if you’ll take his legs,” Jocan said, following his own instructions. “We better get back into the sewers.”
“And as fast as we can.” Kati picked up her part of the dead weight that was Mikal and they headed for the back room.
In there, they lay Mikal on the floor and Jocan opened the trapdoor while Kati closed the entrance into the Temple room. She wanted to, but did not dare to block it with the candle box; doing that would be to announce to their pursuers which way they had fled. Instead, she hurried to help Jocan, offering him the ball of rope she had stuck in one of her pockets before leaving the Inn. She realized that she did not have much of an idea of how to lower an alive but comatose body down seven feet of ladder, after getting it through the trapdoor.
Jocan took the rope and handily tied up Mikal’s body: arms to his sides, legs together.
“If you go down and receive him,” he said to Kati, “I can manoeuvre him through the hole and down. But I don’t want to drop him hard on the platform, that might do damage.”
She went. Moments after she had made it to the platform, Mikal’s form followed, strung on the rope that Jocan had wrapped around his own body in order to keep control of weight that amounted to considerably more than his own.
“Okay, I think I can get him down on the platform,” Kati called up to him, and as gently as she could she guided the comatose man to lie on his back on the wood.
By the time she had him straight, Jocan was already on the ladder, pulling the trap door shut. She stooped to loosen the ropes around Mikal’s body—no sense in cutting off his circulation for an extended period—as Jocan climbed down to her level.
“We just made it,” he whispered. “I heard them rush into the room a second after I got the trap back on.”
“Then we better make tracks,” Kati replied. “It’s only a matter of time until they think of rats in the sewers. The farther away we are by then the better.”
She attached her light to her shoulder and prepared to pick up Mikal’s feet again. Jocan watched her stick the light to the material of her jacket and tried the same trick with his; it worked, to his delight. He went to take up Mikal’s shoulders.
“I don’t think we can get him up the way we came down,” he said. “We’ll have to try some other way.”
“I don’t think it’s a good idea to be seen hauling a comatose body through the trails of the city, anyway,” Kati answered. She had already figured this one out, at least she hoped that she had. “Didn’t you say that these sewers are maintained all the way to the river?”
“Yeah, after a fashion. Could get a little tricky in places.”
“And there is one that goes to the river from Mistress Sye’s Inn, right? I suppose that one gets a bit tricky in places, too. Think you could find your way into it from the river in the dark?”
She sighed. No matter what, nothing this night was going to be easy any more.
“Sure I can find it in the dark. It’s not the first time that trick’s been used.”
“Well, let’s hope Guzi and partner don’t know about that trick. It looks like our only option at the moment.”
“No reason why they would know about it. Nobody comes down here except me and the maintenance men. Even the gangers turn up their noses at the stink. So I’ve got all these roads to myself and nobody’s the wiser. We’ll be all right, except that carrying a full-grown man around is a lot of work.”
That it was. They never did know whether or not Guzi and the crew-woman checked the sewers, even perfunctorily. They certainly did not follow them along the smelly road down to the river. Jocan was as good as his word, and confidently led Kati down sewer pipes which, at first, had the platforms on one side for them to travel on. Thus, in the beginning their progress was reasonably easy, even with Mikal’s dead weight between them. Further along, after they had climbed down a narrow staircase to a track on a sandy embankment just above the bad-smelling stream, they had to slow down and check their footing carefully. Jocan led the way along the track, warning Kati of the places where the path narrowed uncomfortably, or strayed so close to the stream of effluvium that a wrong step could spill them into it. The worst place was where they had to cross the stream, from one bank to the other, a manoeuvre which would have been easy for the two of them if they had not been burdened by Mikal’s body. They managed it, without giving Mikal an impromptu sewage bath, although by that time Kati was weary enough that she never afterwards quite remembered how they did it. She suspected that the granda was a big help; it was possible that it took over, and managed her body at the most difficult stage. However the task was done, they did it, and continued on along the track, until they reached the end of the sewer where its contents flowed into the river.
It was a relief to see the night sky with its countless stars. The walk along the river’s edge was almost pleasant; the fresh air with its slight chill energized Kati somewhat. She began to think that maybe their project would bear fruit yet. She was almost sorry when Jocan led them into the sewer going to Sye’s Inn; returning into the underground passages depressed her, necessary as it was.
It was dawn, or nearly so, by the time they reached the underneath of Mistress Sye’s Inn. By that time Kati was barely aware that they had reached their destination. She was trembling with exhaustion, aware that if she stopped moving she could not begin again. However, Jocan was pointing at another ladder, and another trap door above it, and telling her that it was okay to let go.
“Kati, Kati! You can stop now!” he was yelling into her ear, peeling her hands off Mikal’s legs. His head and shoulders were already on the wooden platform, she realized, and stooped to lower the legs on to the wood, as well.
“Wait here, Kati,” Jocan said. “Sit down beside him. I’m going up to get help.”
She nodded and sank down on the platform, feeling guilty because she knew that Jocan had been working just as hard or harder than she had, and he still had to continue.
“He’s one tough kid,” she muttered to herself and let her eyes fall shut as she sat waiting next to Mikal’s inert body.
Then there was light, and noise, and commotion, but she was too tired to care what was happening. Later on she would fret about her inertia—if she had been surrounded by enemies rather than allies, she would have sunk like a stone that morning. Fortunately Mistress Sye’s household had already decided that they liked her and Mikal much better than the sleazy Doctor Guzi, and they rallied into action when Jocan explained to them—whatever it was that he explained.
Dris and Mac climbed down the
ladder to retrieve Mikal into the upper levels of the Inn, and after being prodded a bit, Kati managed to drag herself up too, with Mac helping from behind and Sye pulling her through the trapdoor. Mikal was taken into the family’s domain, to be nursed there, and moments later Kati found herself there, too, being fed soup by Mistress Sye’s daughter who normally worked as a maid for her mother. Jocan was there, too, but he was spooning his own soup.
Dris burst into the room.
“I went to the suite, like you asked me to, Jocan. With the keys.” He glanced at Kati who was starting to gain a wee bit of energy from the soup. “And it’s been broken into!”
His tone of voice implied that breaking and entering was a crime not to be tolerated, at least not at this inn.
“The doors, both the locked ones, were smashed in! All the possessions, the guests’ things, were strewn all over the place, some of them smashed to smithereens! All those clean clothes from yesterday were scattered on the floor!”
Kati closed her eyes for a moment, turned down a spoonful of soup.
“How come I’m not surprised?” she muttered.
She was energized enough by the tale to take over the task of eating the soup. Which was good, since it relieved her nurse to other duties.
*****
They stayed in the family’s quarters all that day. Dris went back to the rented suite, collected the mauled belongings, and closed up the apartment. Kati offered to pay for the broken doors but Mac told her that he had wood in the stables that he could use to build new ones.
“That wood’s been there a long time. Not too many things break down around here since we build things to last.”
“I’m going to have to get Mikal and myself away from here before something worse happens to you. We can’t stay here; they’ll figure out soon enough where we are. Besides we have a journey to take, anyway; we have to get to the Northern Continent.”
“You can’t leave with him comatose like that,” Mistress Sye protested. “You’ll have to wait until he comes to.”
Kati shook her head. “I have no idea how long that’ll take,” she said. “I’m sure that Guzi used a big dose of some nasty off-world drug on him; how long its effects take to wear off, I don’t know. And I’m sure they are counting on us having to stay in the city while Mikal is unconscious; I can probably get a good head start on them if I figure out a way to leave before he awakens.”
She had made a clean breast of the situation to Mac and Sye. It was not fair to deceive them, since Mikal and her presence was putting them into danger, too.
“We could hire a boat to take us down the river,” Jocan said suddenly. “We could get him to the river through the sewers the same way we came here. And, Kati, I’m coming with you. You need my help with Mikal, while he’s like that. And I can make myself useful afterwards, too.”
“I’d love to have you Jocan, you’ve been awfully handy to have around, already.” Kati sighed. “But I’m not sure I should be taking you away from your home. We are going far away.”
And that’s just on this planet, she added to herself.
“This town’s not much of a home to me,” Jocan said brusquely. “Not much I’ll miss except the folks in this room.”
“You know,” said Mac, “if Jocan goes with you, Kati, it could be done. We’ll get Dris to find a fellow whom we can trust, and who owns a boat. We can use a runnerbeast and a cart to get Mikal to the river through the sewers.”
“A runnerbeast in the sewers?” Kati stared at him.
“It’ll make it lot easier for you and Jocan if you don’t have to carry Mikal. Easier on him, too. And, yes, runnerbeasts can be taken into the sewers, there are stairs going down from the stables. I use a runnerbeast there whenever I do maintenance on the sewers.” Mac grinned. “I guess even Jocan didn’t realize that I’m the sewer maintenance man in this neck of the woods.”
Jocan laughed. “I should have, though. They’re the best maintained sewers in the city.”
Kati hauled out her money bag. She had left it in the suite when she, Mikal and Jocan had headed for the Temple District, but the burglars had not bothered to steal it. However, when Dris had brought their belongings to the family quarters she had noted that every item of off-world origin was gone. Which meant that of the things she and Mikal had taken from the space ship only the ball of rope, the three lights and the two stunners that they had carried with them, remained.
“About how much will it cost to hire a boat?” she asked. “I guess we’ll have to get at least to the next town, but I’d prefer it if we could go all the way to the seacoast. There’s a sizable city at the mouth of the river, if my information is correct.”
“Your information is correct,” said Mac, “but it’ll take a gold coin to get a boat to take you that far. It’s a week’s trip to get you there and then the boat and its owner have to return, too. And that’s upriver, so it’ll be the longer, costlier part of the trip.”
Kati pulled out one of the remaining gold pieces from her bag.
“With Mikal in the state that he is, I don’t see as I have much choice but to spend the money. If we have to work our way across the ocean, so be it.”
She did not think it wise to sound like a Lady Moneybags, and as she thought about it, the notion of working for their passage on a ship sounded appealing.
“Don’t be an idiot woman,” the granda subvocalized, “these are sailing ships. You grew up in the middle of a continent. You’ll use the money in your boots.”
It was a pity she could not snarl at the granda. Instead, she tossed the coin to Dris, as if it was mere small change.
“And tell our boater that the money-changer—what was his name again, Jocan?—says that my gold is good.”
“Money-changer Lev,” said Jocan. “But the word will be out already. We were there yesterday morning; everyone will have heard by now that the Lady Katerina’s gold is good.”
“So it’ll be Lady Katerina who buys passage?” asked Dris, after having deftly caught the gold coin and then pocketed it.
“Yes. Lady Katerina and her Servant Jocan want to transport her other servant Mik, who is indisposed, to the city at the mouth of the river.” She spoke in Katerina’s formal tones.
“To the city of Delta,” added Jocan. “The city at the mouth of the river is called Delta.”
“Well, well, well,” the granda was muttering inside Kati’s mind. “They really go for original names on this drowned world. River City on the river. Delta on the delta. I suppose the ocean is Ocean.”
Kati rather suspected that that was what it would prove to be.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Dorn’s boat was a hybrid object, built to take advantage of whatever conditions might prevail. It had sails that could be raised to the wind to power it along when that was possible, and poles that a strong, burly man like Dorn could use to move it through shallow water. There were heavy ropes attached by iron rings to the deck; these ropes could be tossed on to land where sturdy beasts plodded along a path, pulling boats upstream for a price. At the moment none of these methods of propulsion were in use; instead, the craft was flowing gently downriver with the current.
Mikal was safely stowed into a bunk in one of the boat’s two tiny cabins, and Dorn’s wife and boating partner Loka, who had charge of the galley, had promised to peek in on him every now and then. Thus Kati and Jocan were free to enjoy the sun and the sights along the river, on the deck of the boat. After the last harrowing days, Kati was grateful for this opportunity to relax and play tourist for a short while. They hoped that they had left Guzi and his partner behind for the time being, although Kati had no illusions about Guzi’s ability to follow them once he realized that the prey had flown the coop. After all, he and his companion had a flit at their disposal, while she and Jocan were limited to indigenous forms of transportation, and, besides, had the dead weight of Mikal to deal with. Dorn’s boat had provided the solution to hauling Mikal around for the time being, but, considering the
circumstances, once Guzi realized that they had left town, it would not take him too long to figure out in which direction they must have travelled. Would he risk using the flit to check out the boats along the river for their presence, she wondered? She rather thought that he would; apparently the people of this world were quite aware of the existence of extra-world civilizations so a strange machine such as a flit would not shock them unduly. However, it might arouse covetousness in some inhabitants, and therefore make its owner a target for thieves. Surely that must be why the machine had not been in evidence in the River City; Guzi and his partner had hidden it.
On this morning, however, Kati was pleased to be lolling on the deck, watching this world roll slowly by.
The night previous had been a busy one, after all.
Dris had returned at sundown to tell them that he had located Dorn and Loka, the very boat owners whom he considered the best for the job, and had persuaded them to take on Lady Katerina’s custom. (The gold coin that Kati had provided had done a good portion of the persuasion.) Dorn had a delivery to make to the next town downriver, and had planned to leave for there the next day, so they had the perfect cover for the trip. All they were doing as far as prying eyes could tell, was leaving a little early, merely getting a good start on a trip they were taking in any case, by leaving in the wee hours. They would meet Mac and Dris who were going to haul Mikal down with the runnerbeast, and Kati and Jocan, at the sewer outlet shortly after midnight.
Mac and Sye’s household had been busy that evening. Besides having to take care of the usual tasks associated with running the Inn, the couple and their children helped the three ensconced in their family rooms to get ready for the boat trip. Fortunately they did not have to worry about food or other such supplies; those things were paid for with Kati’s gold coin. But they were going to haul a comatose man to and onto a boat, and keep him there for seven days if he did not come to, earlier. Kati had been fervently hoping that Mikal’s coma would last less time than the boat ride; things were going to be seriously difficult in Delta if he did not wake before then. Unfortunately she knew very little about the drug or the combination of drugs that had been used on him, and the others in the household knew even less. Possibly there was someone else, besides Guzi, in River City who might have been able to answer a question or two, but they dared not search for such a person. Mac and Sye had made the decision to keep the knowledge about the whereabouts of the threesome within the immediate family, and Kati had agreed wholeheartedly with that. The informal information networks of the city were just too efficient to dismiss; to keep a secret, you could not allow it to get out at all.
Escape from the Drowned Planet Page 20