Artemis Awakening (25 page)

He fell silent. Adara sent a mental image to Sand Shadow, suggesting that the puma take advantage of the Old One’s distraction to prowl about and learn if this building connected elsewhere—especially to areas with lots of humans, especially women and children.

The puma responded with enthusiasm. Adara hadn’t been able to explain to Sand Shadow everything that Lynn had told them, but she had gotten across the idea that the Old One might be hiding things. Like any cat, Sand Shadow had her share of curiosity—and tremendous patience about satisfying it.

Terrell was also inspecting various bits of equipment. Adara decided that being underestimated by the Old One wouldn’t hurt in the least, so she leaned against the doorframe as if bored, listening to the men’s murmured comments.

“This might be useful,” Griffin said after a time. “It’s a backup unit.”

His next words might has well have been in another language for all Adara understood, but she gathered that the seegnur had apparently prepared for the long chance that their more sophisticated systems could break.

“Still,” Griffin ended, his excitement fading, “it’s a long shot. The nanobug contamination will have messed with this, too.”

“Is there any chance you can retrieve anything from your own shuttle to enable you to counteract this contamination?” the Old One asked.

Griffin had been open with Adara, Bruin, and Terrell about the countermeasures he had brought with him, now Adara was relieved to hear him hedge.

“I’m not sure. If I’d thought the shuttle held the answer, I would have tried to talk Bruin into having his students help me dig it out. What I’m really hoping to find is something left behind by the invaders—something they left against their own return. That would have been preventatively sealed.”

Both Terrell and the Old One looked interested.

“Hidden, though,” Terrell said. “They wouldn’t have wanted to chance someone finding it and using it.”

“But likely they would have hidden it here,” the Old One said. “As I told you, the facility itself was sealed until I figured out how to open it.”

“That unsealing must be a tale in itself,” Griffin said. “Do you have any maps? Maybe we could go back up where there is more light and inspect them so I’ll have a better idea of what is where. You could also show me some of those icons you think I might be able to read. Then, when it’s dark anyhow, we could come down.”

The combination of a chance to show off his work and Griffin’s promise to look at the icons proved the perfect bait. Adara saw that as clumsy as Griffin was on a forest trail or on horseback, he was plenty dexterous with this sort of travel.

She called Sand Shadow back to her. By the time the men had doused some of the lanterns and emerged from the stifling room, the puma was rolled over on her back, apparently as bored as her companion.

Adara shaped the emotion her demiurge associated with discovery, adding to it the sense of inquiry.

In reply, Sand Shadow yawned, showing that even her furthest molars were in excellent shape. Her mind sent a complex picture of dark areas scented mostly with dust, odd traces of metals, and other stranger, unclassified scents. No women. No children. No other humans at all. Not even many insects, much less rodents. Creatures did not go where there was nothing to eat or drink. The Old One’s Sanctum, with its many doors and lack of windows, was a very sterile dwelling indeed.

“We’re going upstairs to look at some maps of this facility,” Griffin said, as if Adara hadn’t been standing just a few feet away, perfectly capable of hearing everything.

The Old One flashed a smile. “Later, Griffin is going to help me try to interpret some of the codes. You know, it might be more convenient if he relocated here.”

“We can do that,” Terrell said quickly, acting as if he assumed the invitation included all of them. “Cedric and Elaine are sweet, but I’ve had about enough of puppies and small children.”

Since just this morning Terrell had been sitting with a pup on one knee and a child on the other, Adara knew this for an excuse. Again she experienced the sensation of being in an unfamiliar forest where she didn’t know any of the trail markers.

Griffin and Terrell trusted you when we came down from Shepherd’s Call. Can’t you simply be grateful that their skills balance your weaknesses?

But she didn’t feel grateful. She felt awkward, inept, and, in consequence, resentful. The sensation that Sand Shadow was laughing at her didn’t help. Adara had to fight down a desire to say that she, at least, would be staying with the Trainers.

If the Old One realized he had been trapped into extending his invitation, he did not show it.

“There’s plenty of room here,” he said. “I keep a guest suite for when loremasters visit. I will have the servants ready that. You four can make your own arrangements within.”

“That will work perfectly,” Terrell agreed. “Adara, shall you and I get our gear from the Trainers?”

Adara wasn’t about to leave Griffin alone with the Old One.

“We traveled light enough that Sand Shadow and I can manage. I’ll see if the Trainers will keep the horses and Sam the Mule. I can tell you’re itching to have a look at those maps.”

Terrell looked apologetic. “I am, rather. One thing the loremasters look for when training a factotum is curiosity about the past combined with an eagerness about the future. I’ve a full measure of both.”

*   *   *

When Adara returned with the luggage, she was met at the front door by a colorless woman of middle years who carried with her the scents of cornmeal and fish, accented by the smallest amount of sugar. Without a word, the woman showed Adara to the promised suite. Its windows were not as large as those on the side of the building overlooking Spirit Bay, but there was ample space.

The woman pointed out the various facilities, including those for bathing and an indoor toilet.

“The Old One usually prefers to breakfast alone,” the woman concluded, “but I can serve you and the two gentlemen here. Will you be needing food for the puma?”

“Is hunting permitted in the region?”

“Not in the town itself,” the woman replied. “However, the forests and meadows around the bay shore are public land. As long as you don’t let her help herself to someone’s cattle or sheep, or trouble the fisher folk, all should be fine.”

“We live in sheep country up in the mountains,” Adara reassured her. “Sand Shadow knows the difference between domestic and wild animals.”

The woman looked at the puma, her expression coloring with the first interest she had shown to this point. “That cat sure is a beauty. I love her eyes, like pale moonstones they are in this light. Looks smart enough to know just about anything.” She looked up shyly at Adara. “Would Sand Shadow mind if I gave her a pat? Just a little one?”

“Please do. Pumas are intensely interested in humans, but Sand Shadow doesn’t find many adults who want to be friends right off. Children are different. To them, she’s just a big kitty.”

The woman ran her hand over the deep golden fur and gave a sigh of pure pleasure. Her washed-out skin flushed pink. Even her lank hair seemed to gain a little shine. “Why she’s purring! I didn’t know the big cats purr!”

“I’ve heard that tigers and plains lions don’t,” Adara said, “but pumas most definitely do. By the way, what’s your name?”

“Jean, Mistress Huntress. Jean Cook. My husband is Joffrey. We handle most of the Old One’s needs here at the Sanctum.”

“Please, just call me Adara,” the huntress replied. “And thank you for getting things ready for us at such short notice.”

“It’s no problem, Adara, no problem at all. The Old One is always generous about making sure Joffrey and I have extra help when there are guests. Well, now, I’d better be off to the kitchen. Use the bell pull if you need anything.”

“May I just come over and find you?” Adara asked. “I hate to think of someone running all this way because we need an extra towel or some such.”

“Come if you wish,” Jean said. “
We’ve
nothing to hide.”

On that strange note, she gave Sand Shadow another appreciative pat and trotted off in the direction of the servant’s quarters.

Adara found the three men in the room with the large window. A long table had been set up and they were poring over charts. They seemed as happy as could be, deeply engrossed in discussing what areas might have served what purposes. Outside, the sun was shining, the wavelets on Spirit Bay beckoned. Adara and Sand Shadow slipped away.

The huntress had memorized Lynn’s landmarks. Now—while the Old One was under the watchful eyes of Adara’s allies—seemed a good time to see if anything remained of them. The landing facility had been built on the edge of the bay, part yet not part of the town. Near the Old One’s residence no fishing shacks crowded the shoreline and only one dock—the Old One’s own—extended out into the water. For all Adara knew, this might be because there were better harbors elsewhere.

“But it sure looks to me,” she said to Sand Shadow, “as if the Old One keeps his distance in more ways than simply living almost alone in that huge building.”

To be fair, Adara reminded herself that she didn’t know anything about the local lore. In Shepherd’s Call there were several places reserved as “scenic.” Every spring, certain flower seeds were sown in prescribed places. Every fall, bulbs were dug up and carefully saved for replanting, all to maintain a certain character to the landscape for the benefit of seegnur who had not visited in five centuries.

It was possible that the isolation of the Sanctum had nothing to do with the Old One’s desire for privacy, only with the local inhabitants’ abiding respect for the traditions of the past.

If so, what does that say about the Old One?
Adara thought.
That building remained pristine until he went and broke the seals set upon it by the seegnur. He says he respects the past, is eager that it not be forgotten, but he certainly shows that respect in a very different fashion.

*   *   *

Lynn’s detailed map began where a deep inlet cut into the shore several miles from town. She had included a list of landmarks, both natural and remnants of human use. Nonetheless, Adara and Sand Shadow searched for a long while before they found something that might be one of Lynn’s markers: a long, rocky shelf. In Lynn’s description, the shelf had been exposed, although surrounded by trees. Beneath the edge that faced away from the bay had been an open vent or window, the odor from which had alerted Lynn’s demiurge to the fact that humans were living in this apparently deserted place.

Now a large tree had fallen, obscuring the rocky shelf from view. Sand Shadow reported that the only human scent was old and scattered. Adara couldn’t find any trace of the vent or window.

While Sand Shadow went off to hunt, Adara sat down to think.

The tree might have fallen by accident over the winter. It’s certainly large enough that it would be vulnerable to high winds or the pull of ice. Yet, judging from the angle at which the smaller shrubs grow, the prevailing winds are from another direction entirely. Not proof, perhaps. Indeed, the wind coming from an unaccustomed angle might uproot a forest giant like this quite easily.

Still … Still … This is the right direction around the bay and the right distance, too. I can’t imagine that someone who had trained with Bruin and, later, had been a groundskeeper could not judge distances with some accuracy. We’re not seeking a pebble, but a very large rock, too large to be grubbed out without causing comment. Perhaps too large for any but a seegnur to remove. But not too large be concealed.

I think then, unless given good reason to think otherwise, that I will say this is the place and, as we suspected, the Old One has moved his operations elsewhere. Is it worth looking for the other signs Lynn mentioned? Why not? Finding another would confirm whether this is or is not the correct great rock.

She began scouting, discovering several interesting things. In time, Sand Shadow returned, bearing with her a portion of a yearling buck, antlers still in velvet. The puma had, of course, eaten her share, but doubtless Jean and Joffrey would welcome this addition to the larder.

Adara did the necessary cleaning of the carcass, trimming away the worst evidence of the puma’s meal and wrapping the hide to cover the raw areas. She was very pleased with the puma’s success and told her as much. She wished, not for the first time, that she could share her more complex thoughts as easily.

Not only am I happy to have the game to offer, so we will not seem so like beggars but, if the Old One has wondered, this will show that we were indeed hunting. I think it would be well if he thought me a little stupid, a little restless, eager to show off in this unfamiliar place. I can play that part.

She found herself hoping that Griffin and Terrell would not make the same assessment. Surely Terrell would not. They had known each other in Shepherd’s Call for some time. Griffin, though, already had demonstrated a time or two that he was surprised she could think. She’d seen his reaction when he saw her writing in her notebook. She wondered how much more surprised he would be if he learned what the contents were. Not only the trail notes and such that he doubtless expected but …

Such thoughts kept Adara amused during the tramp back into Spirit Bay. The few people she passed greeted her with varying degrees of surprise, but not so much as might be expected. Already, then, word was spreading of the huntress and the puma who had come to Spirit Bay. Well, that was all for the good. People who knew you were somewhere could often be convinced you were where you were not.

Dinner that night would be the cornmeal fried fish that Adara had guessed at when she first met Jean, but the cook was delighted at the gift of the deer—even more so when Adara offered to take care of the butchering.

“I’ll make a nice venison sausage with most of the meat,” Jean promised. “This time of year, game can still be tough, but making it into sausage will tenderize it nicely. I’ve garlic and some nice young spring onions. My herbs are leafing out…”