by Brian Lowe
"Come on, Avanya," I said. "Tierse knows she's doing. We'll be out of here soon. We can follow the lake; it'll be less dangerous." I led her to the edge of the sand. Tierse did know what she was about; up against the trees we'd be nearly impossible to see without a powerful telescope, while anyone sailing on that smooth water would stand out for miles.
Or any thing… I put the monocular to one eye, squinted--and I was looking straight into an open mouth lined with teeth half my size!
I yelled, jumping back from the monster that was still a hundred yards away, and dropped the monocular. Not that I needed it--the creature was headed for shore like it had rockets, and roaring until it echoed off the roof! I couldn't guess its size because most of it was still submerged, but it was already as big as a house, its head sporting jaws like a thunder lizard and weaving on a long, twisting neck.
Tierse and the others had heard it, too, and they started to run back toward us, but it was too late; the sea monster had seen them and was charging so fast it would hit the beach before they could get away. Abruptly they stopped and as one started unlimbering fire from their rifles, but that behemoth was swimming fast and the only part they could aim for, the head, was bobbing side-to-side so that hitting it was a matter of luck. Even if they did, I wasn't sure it would do any good. This baby would eat thunder lizards for lunch--and probably had.
I swung the neutron cannon into position, waiting an eternity in a single second for the ready light on my targeting hologram while my friends tried to stop a force of nature with a light show.
It didn't matter that I couldn't see the creature's body. The cannon shot would work just as well underwater, and even if I didn't kill it, I could sure as hell slow it down. The ready light flashed. I pressed the trigger button…
And nothing happened.
XXIII
I jabbed the button again and again with no more luck; the cannon was dead. I might as well have run up to the monster and hit it with my stick.
I could hear Tierse shouting for help, but there was nothing I could do. The manual I'd memorized included instructions for field maintenance and trouble-shooting, but they were dependent on the cannon giving me some idea of what was wrong, and it wasn't. The targeting holo lit up, and the ready light, but the cannon was no more than a child's toy.
"Do something!" Avanya was screaming, so I did the only thing I could. I grabbed her by the hand and ran in the opposite direction.
"What are you doing?" This, after she'd begged for me to "do something." Women…
"I'm getting us out here!" She kept shouting at me. She wanted to fight me, but that wasn't happening. "Save your breath for running!" I ordered, and tried to do the same--while not listening to the hissing roars that were falling away behind us. I could still hear the others' thoughts as background noise, so I knew they were alive. I hoped they realized that something had gone wrong--and if they hadn't, I hoped they'd live to interrogate me about it.
Then the shouting from behind us stopped. Nausea arose from my stomach, but I knew I couldn't stop running. I didn't know if the creature had even seen us, but if it had, it might still be hungry after…
At least Avanya had stopped yelling at me; I could her breath coming in great gulps. I've never been a runner, but she was apparently even less used to it than I was. We reached a point where the sand gave way to a rocky shore, and the jungle veered off to our left while the lake took a detour to our right. I led Avanya away from the water and we slowed to a stop.
Avanya bent over, sobbing between gasps of breath. Suddenly she fell to her knees and threw up.
After a few moments she raised herself again, her eyes red and raw. "I'm all right now," she whispered. I just nodded and put a hand on her shoulder.
We both turned to look back down the beach. A few hundred yards away the lake monster had come to rest; we couldn't tell what it was doing, and I for one didn't want to know. But one thing was for sure: There was no way to go back and look for our friends.
"Do you think it will stay there very long?"
I shook my head. "I don't know. I don't know what it's doing. It could be--" I couldn't say it. "On the other hand, it could be laying eggs. It might stay there for days."
"Days? We can't wait that long."
"You're right; we've got to keep moving." I pointed. "Those caves are still a good ways off."
Avanya furrowed her brow. "Caves? We're aren't going that way? If Tierse is still alive, we have to find her!"
I tried to be kind, but it was hard. Our friends might be dead--Bradr at least was dead. The neutron cannon which was supposed to save them was useless, and as bad as I felt about it, I had a pretty strong feeling that I hadn't done anything wrong. This was a new cannon, and I wasn't the only one who'd checked over before we left. It hadn't gone off-line by accident.
Add to that, we were now practically unarmed. I had a sidearm, my bush knife, my staff, and a very large and imposing neutron paperweight. We were lost, without allies or most of our supplies. And Avanya seemed ready, willing, and able to argue every decision I made. Treating her with any kind of civility was going to be a trial.
"We have to reach those caves. They're the only shelter I can see. We can't stay here; we don't know how many more boats are out on the lake, or what kind of creatures are in it."
"Why don't we--?" But the question died before it was finished. No one who had spent any time in that jungle was going to suggest we could stay there, especially at night. Her shoulders sagged. "You're right. We'd better get going."
I took one last desperate look backward. The lake giant hadn't moved from its spot. For one brief second I hoped that maybe Tierse had killed it, but then it shuddered all along its length, flapping its tail on the water. I thought about trying the cannon again, but I knew it would be useless.
Avanya was already waiting for me ahead. I caught up with her and we walked without speaking for a long time.
"You can't leave the cannon. It's too valuable."
"It's worthless. I'm not going to be able to fix it, and even with the gravity compensation system, it's a lot of trouble to carry."
"It's also one of Tanar's most precious pieces of equipment. If you leave it here, anyone could find it. And if it can be fixed, that would be a disaster."
"Why? Even if someone could fix it, they couldn’t fire it; it's coded to me."
"Perhaps not, but they could take it apart. Tierse told me that, as far as we know, it's the only portable weapon in existence that could shatter Tanar's shield. We invented it, even though we've never used it before. Nobody else has a gun like this."
"Oh." I hefted the cannon's harness with renewed respect. "I guess you and I are going to be close friends for a while," I told it.
I had planned just to leave it in the caves when we got to them, but now it looked like that was out. We'd been walking for hours through waist-high grasses, and we were probably half-way to the cliffs which were the only shelter for miles. I took a moment to check behind us, but I didn't see anybody.
I turned back scout the trail ahead and something knocked me on my face.
It sounded like some kind of a large wildcat, snarling and struggling on top of me, and I could hear claws scratching at the cannon's harness. Whatever it was had landed on the cannon instead my neck, saving my life.
I heaved up and rolled sideways, trying to pitch it off. Grabbing my staff from where it had ended up underneath me, I spun around, too fast for the gravity compensator, and the cannon threw me off-balance so that when the big cat lunged, I wasn't there.
Avanya had a gun, but judging from her screaming I didn't think she was going to be much help. Steadying myself, I poked at the animal's face while it tried to knock the stick aside.
It was about half my size, but made mostly of teeth and claws, all of which it was trying to use on me. If it caught my staff and batted it aside, it would be on me before I could draw and fire.
"Avanya! Shoot it!"
It seemed
like half an hour before a beam almost sliced through my arm, missing the cat by feet. A bit of brush twenty yards away briefly caught fire.
I jumped back, shouting at her to stop. Then I lunged, planting the staff square on the cat's nose. It yowled and retreated, giving me an evil look, its tail twitching. I feinted, and it dropped back. Suddenly tired of the game, it turned and padded away. I pulled out my pistol and burned some grass right behind its retreating feet; the cat screeched and took off, hopefully for parts far distant.
Holstering my pistol, I started to give Avanya an evil glare of my own, but the poor woman was shaking so much I hadn't the heart. Likely she had never expected this trip to be so dangerous, no matter what Tierse had tried to drill into her. She was a city-dweller; even if she'd anticipated trouble, she'd also counted on having Tierse and a team of highly-trained explorers to shield her. That had been our job, after all, to protect her and get her where she needed to go. She'd been given a gun, and told how to shoot, but she'd never expected to have to use it.
In the end I simply made sure her sidearm was secured and said, "Come on." From that point, I held onto my staff with my right hand and Avanya with my left.
XXIV
The caves were even bigger up close than I'd imagined. We stood in front of one that yawned like a huge mouth in the face of the cliff, easily three times my height and wide enough for half-a-dozen thunder lizards to pass through together. I tried to estimate if the monster that had come out of the lake could get in there, and the answer was an uncomfortable uncertainty. Not that I expected it to, we were miles from the water, but it gave me a bad feeling nonetheless. Unless the cavern narrowed down a lot inside, there was no shelter for us here.
I looked up toward the higher, smaller openings where I expected someone might live, if anyone did around here. I didn't know if this had been the site of one of the old research stations, and neither did Avanya. If it had been, there would have to be some way of climbing up there, but none presented itself.
"There could be tunnels inside the cave," I said. "We should look. I don't want to sleep down here; it's too exposed."
"What if there aren't any tunnels? Maybe this was never a research station and no one ever lived here."
"In that case, we'll have to make do. There should be some spot inside where we can hole up. We can always build a fire to scare away animals."
Avanya hesitated. "What about animals that may already be in there?"
The question had occurred to me also, but we knew the kind of things that lived outside in the grass, and while we hadn't run into any more, I wasn't looking forward to waking up and finding another one of those cats clawing my face. Not to mention whatever else lived out here that had been too shy to approach us while we were moving, and in daylight.
This close to the cliff, small trees and bushes had taken root. I cut off a couple of thick sections of wiry branches and set one on fire with my pistol. The wood was fresh enough not to burn up immediately, so I took that as a good sign. No sense in using up our lantern batteries if we didn't have to, and fire's better for scaring off animals than a flashlight.
I handed the extra branch to Avanya. "Stay close to me." I could have saved my breath; she was practically riding on my back along with the cannon.
There was sufficient reflection off of the walls and ceiling for me to see that the cave was, in fact, shrinking as we got further in. It remained open enough that we had no problem with the smoke from our torch, though, right up until the moment several minutes later that we came up sharp against the back wall. We searched left and right, but didn't find any off-shoots, or even a crevice large enough to hold us. I turned back to look at the space and frowned.
"Nothing. We're going to have to go outside and try to climb to one of the other caves."
Avanya pulled out a small console and checked it. "It's going to be dark soon. You can't go climbing in the dark."
I said something under my breath. "Well, we can't stay here. There isn't enough wood outside to build a fire big enough to block the cave entrance. We'll just have to do the best we can and sleep in shifts."
Having seen Avanya's reaction to an emergency, I wasn't keen on this idea, but there weren't a lot of others presenting themselves. I could make a small fire in the cave, and we could stay behind it; the very sight of a fire might frighten off predators, and at least then it wouldn't be visible unless someone was directly opposite.
In which case they'd be able to see it for miles.
I set my torch aside, carefully propping it up where it wouldn't fall over and go out, and started for the entrance. I had opened my mouth to tell Avanya to stay inside when I closed it again, squinting at a spot on the wall I hadn't been able to see before because I'd been blinded by my torch. I walked over to examine it more closely.
"What is it? What do you see?"
"It looks like a ledge, about eight feet above the floor. The wall here is rough; I should be able to climb it." I took off my boots and scrambled up. Even with the cannon on my back, it was surprisingly easy.
"It's big!" I reported. "Big" was a relative term, but there was more than enough room for the both of us to lie down without crowding. It didn't offer a lot of head room, but then, neither of us was very tall. I unlimbered the cannon and left it in the furthest corner and turned back to Avanya. Crouching there for a moment, I felt like a king looking out over his kingdom of one. "Come on over. Bring the torch."
When Avanya reached the base of the wall, I lay down and extended one arm. She grabbed my hand and I pulled her up.
"This is wonderful! We won't even need a fire."
Privately, I wondered if one of those cats we'd seen might not be able to jump high enough to reach us, but, ironically, now that we could safely make a small fire that wouldn't be seen outside, there was no room for one.
"We should still sleep in shifts, but I think we're a lot safer up here than down there. You go ahead. I'll wake you later."
It was cool in the cave, and cold under my butt. The wall scraped my back as I leaned into it, and the coming night brought with it the howls and screams of wilderness survival. Staying awake should not have been a problem, but it was.
When I say we were lucky to wake up the next morning, I mean that with neither of us standing watch, anything could have snuck up and murdered us in our sleep. Obviously nothing did. Later I would learn that luck had nothing to do with it, but as much as I like to give myself credit for perception, I was too ignorant to recognize the signs.
I came to with a start, guiltily realizing what I'd done, how I'd let us both down, and simultaneously forgiving myself when I saw we were both alive and uneaten. Avanya was still asleep, irrespective of the hard, cold floor. I decided to leave her like that; I wanted to check out some things. If she called, I wouldn't be far away, and for some reason I couldn't put my finger on, I liked that she probably couldn't get down without my help. I used to drive my mother crazy sneaking into places I wasn't supposed to, and I've found it's easier just to perform my explorations alone, without having to answer questions.
Yesterday, I hadn't noticed any means of reaching the upper caves, but as I surveyed them now, I confirmed an earlier hunch: The openings were suspiciously regular in size and shape. It wasn't like they had been drilled, but they did offer evidence of having been improved.
We had miles to go, and little margin for error left, but my curiosity was killing me. Was this one of the old research stations? If so, was there anyone here? Were we being watched? And if not, what had happened to the scientists? The entire time I'd been in Tanar, I'd been lied to--or at least, kept in the dark. There was no question. Even Tierse had guarded her answers to my inquiries, keeping our conversations on safe subjects.
On the other hand, they had no problem including me on their most secret mission, an expedition upon which their survival might well depend. (And a good thing, too, as it had turned out.) But why? If I was cleared to know about Avanya's diplomatic efforts, the
n what was I not allowed to know? And why not?
Today presented my first opportunity to seek out answers since I'd left Rose in the snow. Maybe the answers wouldn't have anything to do with Tanar--and maybe there were no answers here at all. But I couldn't scratch that itch unless I could get into those caves up there and see what they held.
They say curiosity killed the cat. Why don't they ever think about the poor gorillas?
XXV
From a distance, the wall had looked to be unscalable, but upon closer inspection, I could see places where an agile climber could make his way up. Even if I had tried this last night, Avanya could never have done it, and I certainly couldn't have carried her. We'd been very lucky to find that ledge.
I had to leave my boots behind so I could use my toes. I spent a few precious moments trying to come up with a way to carry them, but finally I left them sitting at the bottom of the cliff. Maybe if Avanya woke up and found them there, she'd figure out where I'd gone. Or maybe she'd think something had come by and left only my boots behind. Well, if she did, I'd hear her screaming and know she was awake…
Legend has it that gorillas were great climbers back in prehistoric times, and I've found that I climb better than any Thoran I've ever met, so making my way up the cliff face didn't prove to be terribly difficult, just time-consuming. It was only thirty feet or so, and if I was right, Thorans used to do this all the time. As long as I was careful to test my handholds, I didn't have any problems to speak of.
In fact, I was barely breathing hard when I levered myself into the first cave. I peered in, but I couldn't see a thing past the first few feet. Hoping that I was right and no one lived here, I turned my back on the cave to survey the valley below.
From my vantage point, I could easily see across the plain to the lake, and the cliffs on the other side of the valley. I couldn't see any details, of course. I scanned the water for any disturbances, but it was still. Somewhere under that calm surface was the monster that had attacked us, and who knows how many other nightmares. I wondered, briefly, if Tierse and the rest of our expedition had proven filling enough to warrant leaving the water to feed, but I forced the thought down hard. Belatedly, I realized I was still carrying the monocular, but a prickly feeling along my back told me I had spent more than enough time ignoring whatever might lie in the cave. Once I had satisfied myself that nothing was capable of sneaking up behind me, I could spend the time surveying the Southern Valley and picking out a potentially safe route around the lake.