by Brian Lowe
I sniffed the air carefully. My sense of smell is a lot better than any human's, but I don't like to rely on it when I'm around them. Thorans have never made an issue of my being a gorilla--not that I would have expected them to--but the Nuum have no such compunction. Catilla wasn't the only time one had offered remarks about me being less than a man, not caring that I was standing right there, and the fact that they treated everyone who wasn't Nuum with the same lack of respect didn't make it much easier to take. But now I was alone, and my eyes weren't doing me much good, so I used what Nature had given me. Like my eyes, though, my nose offered me nothing.
When my eyes did adjust, I discovered exactly why I hadn't been able to see much: The cave was actually a tunnel, and directly in front of me was a blank wall where the passage took a sudden turn to the right. Once there, all light ceased. I turned on my hand lantern and stepped around the corner--
--and suddenly I didn't need my lantern any more. Any questions I had about this cave having been inhabited in the past vanished as I crossed some invisible threshold and soft lights sprang up lining both walls. The tunnel became a corridor of smoothed rock. I had found one of the lost research stations.
Which raised the uncomfortable question: Why was it lost? And was there anyone here who wanted it to stay that way?
Bearing in mind the suspicious reception I had gotten at Tanar, and the lack of a warm welcome I could expect at Kur should I be so unfortunate as to arrive there, I moved very carefully down that hallway, glad of my bare feet, listening so hard my ears hurt, sniffing the air constantly. I saw nothing but the walls, heard nothing but my own progress, and smelled only long-undisturbed dust.
I found the station's first inhabitant in the first room off of the corridor.
My mother is a doctor and a researcher herself, and occasionally when I was young I'd sneak a peek at some of her records and charts. I've also seen my share of bodies since leaving Tehana City. So finding a corpse sprawled over a desk whose lights and functions had long since departed startled me, but it didn't horrify me, particularly as the worker had obviously predeceased its workstation by a long while.
It wasn't much more than a skeleton, and it had lain here undisturbed long enough for the remaining bits of flesh to dry out, explaining why I hadn't smelled anything. From things my mother had told me over the years, I estimated whatever killed this person must have happened better than twenty years ago. I gave the skeleton a cursory examination, but I didn't spend too much time there; I was pretty sure I'd have more opportunities than I wanted to perform any amateur post-mortems.
I was right. The further I went, the more bodies I found, almost all in attitudes that indicated they'd died where they'd fallen, without any notice. None bore any sign of trauma. In the rearmost compartment, which I had to force open, I found several huddled together in a last desperate embrace, vainly hoping to escape the fate of their colleagues. The story they told was as frightening as it was tragic. I felt a rage rising up inside me that I had rarely felt in my life.
These people had been murdered.
There wasn't much else for me to find. There were no survivors, of course, and nothing to show that they'd had any time to record what was happening to them, not that any of their workstations or computers still operated after all this time. I searched cupboards and lockers as I came across them for anything we could use, but nothing came to hand.
At last I stood again in that first chamber, stilling my breathing, trying to marshal my thoughts. They were dark. That I would take revenge if I could upon whoever had done this thing was a given, but the chances of my finding out were slim. I bid the slaughtered scientists a silent goodbye and returned to the mouth of the cave.
Study with the monocular didn't show me anything alarming. If we continued our trip in the same direction, we could skirt the lake (keeping a safe distance) until we came to the northern shore, at which point a forest or another jungle sprouted that we'd have to go through. I hoped it was the former, because I didn't know if Avanya and I could survive another jungle crossing alone. In fact, without the neutron cannon, our chances of doing so were pretty poor. We’d been lucky so far, except for the lake monster; I couldn't expect that to continue.
I put the monocular away and gently lowered myself over the edge of the cave mouth. My toes found purchase, and my fingers, and the climb down seemed almost familiar. I had to rein myself in to keep from going at an unsafe speed, and I was on the ground before I knew it.
As I picked up my boots, it finally occurred to me to wonder why I hadn't heard anything out of Avanya. She couldn't still be asleep… Had she woken up, found a way down from the ledge, come outside and wandered off, not seeing my boots sitting there?
Or had something entered the cave after I left, trapping Avanya, that was even now lying in wait for its prey?
XXVI
I pulled out my pistol and tiptoed forward. I didn't dare call out to Avanya in case I gave myself away. When I couldn't see anything, I ran up to the rock ledge and jumped, seizing the highest point I could and scrambling up like a black wolf was nipping at my feet.
Scarcely had my head cleared the ledge when a laser bolt nearly parted my hair at the level of my eyes.
I dropped, hanging by my fingers. "Hey! It's me!" I hadn't even had time to see who shot at me; if it wasn't Avanya, I was in big trouble.
Come to think of it, if it was Avanya, I was in even bigger trouble.
But I heard a feminine shriek of dismay, and she appeared at the edge, peering down at me with a terrified look.
"Oh, Timash! I'm so sorry! When I woke up and you weren't there, I was so scared! I've been sitting here for hours with my gun out!"
For all that I was sure she was exaggerating, I had to admit I'd probably spent more time than I realized in the upper cave, and maybe not waking her to let her know what I was doing had been a mistake. Okay, it had been a mistake; any idea that ends up with someone trying to burn a hole through your skull is a bad one by definition.
"All right," I said, pulling myself up again so I could sit on the ledge. "No harm done, fortunately." I rubbed the top of my head to be sure. I thought I detected a whiff of burnt fur. I hoped I wouldn't have a bald spot.
"Where have you been? I was worried."
I gestured upward. "I climbed up to one of the other caves. I wanted to see if they had ever been used."
"And had they?"
I briefly reported what I'd found. "It looks like they all died of a disease or something. Didn't I hear that all of these science stations were doing biological research? Could there have been some kind of bacteriological experiment that went wrong?"
Avanya was silent for a moment. "I suppose… It's not really my field, but I know that some of the stations were doing germ research." She closed her eyes. "Those poor people."
"It looked like it was pretty quick. They were all just sitting at their desks or lying in bed. I don't think any of them knew what was happening."
"Well, that's a relief. At least they didn't suffer." She rubbed her arms vigorously. "We should get going."
I nodded. We reversed yesterday's procedure; she held onto my arm as I lowered her until she could drop to the floor. I slipped over the edge, my toes seeking purchase. I had left my boots below.
"Wait! You're forgetting the neutron cannon!"
"Not forgetting it," I grunted. Two seconds later I was standing next to her. I retrieved my boots. "I'm leaving it there."
"But you can't! I told you, it's extremely valuable--and extremely dangerous."
"And it's hidden in a cave that nobody's used in at least twenty years," I said, finishing with my boots. "Look at this place--even the animals avoid it. There are no droppings, nothing. Everything and everyone avoids this cave, probably because whatever killed those people up there hung around here for a long time. We're lucky it seems to be gone now. And say someone else came in here; it's ten feet off the floor. Even if a Thoran could climb up there, he couldn't get
it down again. It's safe.
"Let's go. It feels like we spent last night sleeping in a tomb."
Avanya probably would've kept arguing with me, but I was already on my way out. I heard her running to catch up. I was glad; I really did want out of that place.
I also wanted to be able to change the subject. I live in a world of telepaths. The less I thought about it, the less chance of any hint slipping out that I was pretty sure I knew what had really happened to the people up in that cave.
What I planned to do with that information was my business.
XXVII
We spent that day walking next to the cliffs with their gnarly shrubs on our left, and the brown grass spreading out as far as we could see to our right. Beyond that was the lake, but it was invisible from our viewpoint. The lay of the land continued to be flat, a blessing for our feet, but the tall grass was a constant drain on our attention. We had started out hugging the cliff where the ground was rocky; it was somewhat tougher going, but nothing was going to sneak up on us. Or so I thought, until I witnessed some kind of huge bear come shambling out of what must have been a cave up ahead, giving voice to a roar as he charged out into the plain on a quest for some prey that only he could see. After that I tried to avoid cave mouths, which put us in the grass. Rather than zig-zag all day, I opted for the smoother ground.
When our chronometers said it was noon, we picked a defensible spot against the cliff to eat a meager lunch. Our supplies seemed sufficient, but with our goal uncertain, we'd agreed it was best we conserve.
"I wonder if there are any snakes in there," Avanya said, surveying the unmoving sea of grass.
"Thanks," I said. "Now I have something else to worry about."
She shrugged. "They would've been there if you worried about them or not. But your staff hitting the ground and your galumphing footsteps probably warn them away."
"My footsteps? My ancestors were still walking around barefoot while your ancestors were wearing shoes. Who do you think is quieter on his feet?"
She laughed. "Okay, there's no way to argue with logic like that. But you know, I've been thinking. Why don't you grab one of these old branches and light it up?"
I glanced up to where the sun sat, unmoving above our heads.
"Not for that, stupid! For the smoke. Animals hate smoke, and if something comes at us, you can set the whole plain on fire if you have to."
"I thought you were the one who didn't want anybody finding the neutron cannon. The smoke might warn off animals, but it would also advertise our presence to anyone within miles. If I need to start a brush fire, I can already do that, and if I do, I'm going to make it a big one. You're right; if I'm worried about snakes, banging my staff on the ground is a better way to go."
We reluctantly took to our feet and resumed our hike. After that morning's bear sighting, I started looking for suitable shelter hours before dark, and it still took me almost to the end of the day to find some I liked. This time we had an opening small enough to block, but no conveniently unclimbable ledge, so I built a fire that would discourage any but the most hungry of bears. It was taking a chance, but not having one would be taking a bigger chance. And this time, I made sure I stayed awake for my shift.
By mid-morning of the next day, our cliffs were visibly angling toward the west in the distance, and I was pretty sure that if we made our way back toward the lakeside, we'd see the far shore. In other words, we were running out of Southern Valley. We would have to turn soon, toward the center, toward where, if Avanya was right, we would try to make contact with scouts from Udar and complete our mission.
How exactly she was planning on doing that, she was a little vague about.
"We don't know how things are out here. I've gotten some hints from Udar about what to expect, but who knows if anything has changed? They tell me that Kur doesn't run patrols in this direction, but just in case they're wrong, the less you know, the better for both of us."
This did not make me feel any more secure, but she was still nominally in charge, and it was her plan we were allegedly following. I took out the monocular and tried to plot a course.
"There's a small forest up ahead. It stretches south from about where the furthest tip of the lake should be. We'll hit it by tonight if we keep going. It's not very big, probably a few miles across. But I think we should probably try to find another cave tonight and save the forest for the morning."
"Udar calls that forest Treeland." She shrugged. "I didn't name it. Anyway, according to them, it doesn't hold any dangerous predators. We could keep moving, get into the trees, then find a place to sleep."
I hesitated. If Avanya's information was right, we could save some time, but the idea still bothered me.
"Cave tonight. Forest tomorrow. No sense taking chances."
She argued some more, claiming that she was tired of sleeping on "damn rocks," and I didn't disagree. But after the nights we'd spent in the jungle after leaving Tanar, I just wasn't comfortable with the idea of all that space around me, pitch blackness, and a thousand places to hide. And this close to Kur, we wouldn't be able to risk another fire. I couldn't shake the feeling that it would be safer to sleep one more night in a cave.
Safety: a relative concept at the best of times.
For one who had complained long and hard that she didn't want to spend another night on a bed of stone, Avanya seemed to be in a better mood the next morning than I could remember from this whole damned expedition. For all that her mental shields covered her thoughts, her sudden satisfaction leaked out like a light from under cupped hands.
"You seem awfully cheerful this morning," I noted, adopting a particularly grumpy attitude, purely for effect. Truth to tell, humans seem to think me grumpy anyway, so she probably didn't notice.
"We can finally see the light at the end of the tunnel," she said, punctuating her words with stretching exercises. This was an innovation; before, we had been in a hurry to get on the road. But I was stiff, too, and gorillas are more limber than humans. She grinned as I mimicked her movements, doing them one better, and damned if it didn't feel good.
"With any luck," she went on, "today I'll finally meet the man I'm going to marry. I wouldn't want him to think I was worn out by a few days' travel."
"Is that what you call this?" I asked, bending at an angle that would have broken Avanya's back, not to mention leaving her no breath with which to talk. "A few days' travel? Nothing about the carnivorous plants, the giant insects, the sea monsters, and the wild animals?" Not to mention a cave full of murdered scientists…
"Unfortunately, those are just the reasons that I didn't come here alone. We knew these things were going to happen… And, sadly, we knew that not all of us might make it. But those were the risks, and I don't want him to think that I didn't understand them from the start. This is still a diplomatic mission, and I have to maintain my status if I'm going to have any leverage in negotiations."
"I would have thought marrying the man would give you some leverage."
Avanya stopped stretching. "Then you've never been married."
Evidently, stretching before hiking suited Avanya, because she set a good pace that I had to work to keep up with. Treeland seemed to be grower larger by the minute, and it was well before noon when we stood in its shadow. After my experience with the jungle of our first few days, I stared into the trees for what felt like several minutes, but for all I could see Avanya's reports were correct: nothing moved but leaves.
Avanya was standing behind me.
"It looks safe," I said reluctantly, over my shoulder. "But I'll still be glad when we're on the other side."
She didn't reply. Because she wasn't there any more.
You know that you've been a prisoner too many times when you start to rate the accommodations.
As far as jailors went, the Tizinti were far from the worst people I'd ever met, although to be fair they weren't exactly people. Keryl Clee once told me that his in time "people" meant "human," but nowadays
things are a little different. "People" covers Thorans, Nuum, apes… even lizard-men. It probably includes the Vulsteen, and I guess in certain cases, breen. But the Tizinti were even further from the norm than the Vulsteen. The Tizinti were… Well, they were trees.
Some looked human. I was never quite sure if these were hybrids, or just a younger form of the actual trees, because they communicated with each other by some means we never were able to determine. It wasn't telepathy, more like fusion. Avanya thought that they might use tiny roots that they extruded into each other to talk directly, but we never did find out. And we never talked to the trees, either, just to the hybrids, who were capable of rudimentary telepathy, although they didn't have much to say.
After Avanya disappeared, I suddenly blacked out. I woke up to find myself lying high in the branches, with a little lemon-green thing that I first mistook for a man watching us intently. They had barely introduced themselves as what sounded like "Tizinti" when they left us alone, to all appearances completely unconcerned with who we were, and ignoring all of our questions as to why they had taken us or what they planned to do with us.
I say "they" because while I initially thought there was only one, it was soon obvious that the tree in which we were sitting was as much a member of this race as the lemon-green sprite.