Star Hunters (23 page)

The boat eased out to the middle of the river; the sail filling, beginning to drive them along like a bird skimming over the water. In a few minutes Kiwanji vanished behind the bank and the trees. The massive kuumti trees of the river valley began to rise higher and higher until their wide branches left only a narrow space over the center of the Mungivir.

Havih turned the hare over and over in his hands then touched the clotted fur around the eyes and nostrils. “Look.” He showed the hare's head to Umeme. “Blood came out the nose and mouth, even out around the eyes. Something sure blew their brains.”

“Hunters.” Umeme wrinkled his nose at the hare. “Get rid of that thing, huh?”

Havih tossed the hare into the river and wiped his hands on his shorts. “How long to the coast, you think?”

“Depends on wind. With a good breeze, two, three days; current alone, maybe five. According to Agoteh, the river's good and deep the whole way, no shallows to worry about. So we got it made. Until we get to the coast, anyway. Agoteh said we got to watch out. People there are weird. And no laws or customs to keep them straight.” He frowned at the boys lounging along the boat in front of him. “Anyway, we got a few days of peace.”

Faiseh was behind the dais that held the body of the watuk and the shattered egg. Two more bodies were sprawled beside him. He held one energy gun. A second lay by his knee. Across the great cavern watuk guards were crouched in the corridor arch. Several of their company were scattered on the metacrete outside the corridor. As Aleytys and Grey stepped from the lift, one of the guards leaned out and shot at Faiseh. The Ranger ducked behind the dais, then returned fire. Both shots missed and the two sides continued to watch each other closely.

Grey shoved past Aleytys and ran to the dais, dropping behind it just in time to avoid a burst of energy from the arch. Faiseh grunted with satisfaction as the guard toppled slowly out onto the metacrete. He grinned at Grey. “Want to do that again? You're a great decoy.”

“Sorry. Any idea how many of them in there?”

“I touch half a dozen. Could be a few more.” He glanced back at Aleytys crouched inside the lift. “We're kind of stuck here. What about her? Can she do something? We got to get Manoreh out of the lab. If he's still alive.”

“He's alive.” Grey tapped the spare energy gun. “If we keep their heads down, Lee can fetch him.” He took the gun and looked around one end of the dais. Faiseh wriggled about so he could cover the other end. Grey got comfortable, then called, “Get over here, Lee. Keep down and come fast.”

When she reached them, two more guards were stretched out on the floor and she had a long singe on her back. Grey started to speak, but she held up a hand. “Give me a minute.” She grimaced. “Sore as hell.” She touched her seared buttocks. “Should keep my rear down.” She closed her eyes. Faiseh gasped as the charred flesh smoothed over. In a moment all trace of the burn wound was gone. She opened her eyes and smiled. “So. What now?”

“Manoreh's in the lab still. If we keep them pinned, think you can get him?”

She measured the distance from the dais to the lab arch. “He's unconscious,” she said slowly. Then she grinned at Grey. “Do a better job of keeping their heads down this time. I'm running out of juice.”

“Only our best.” He lifted an eyebrow. Faiseh nodded. “We're set, Lee. Go!”

She was up and away, running in irregular spurts and arcs, the green dress flaring up about her thighs and swirling about them in a flow of emerald, her red hair swinging and dancing as she dipped and darted. Grey and Faiseh kept the guards occupied, and she reached the arch untouched, then vanished inside.

The two men waited, snapping occasional bursts at the arch as guards grew curious or restless or tried to get off a shot. With two of them firing, more often than not, the guards tumbled out. Grey checked his meter. About a quarter charge. He edged his head around. “How much you got left?”

“Not a hell of a lot. What's holding her up?”

Grey shook his head. “No idea. Look, there can't be that many of them left.”

“I touch two.”

“So.” Grey put the energy gun on the floor and slid it across to Faiseh. “Keep them honest. I'm going in to see what the problem is.”

“There were guards in the lab too.”

Grey snapped his fingers. “I'm not disarmed, friend. Head up. I'm off.” He dashed from the dais, heard the soft whine of the gun, but made the lab with nothing more than a charred spot on the sleeve of his tunic.

Manoreh was stretched out unconscious on a black-padded table. The straps that had secured him were dangling at its side. Aleytys bent over him, her hands flattened against his chest. His hands were closed around her wrists. Her face was frozen in shock. His body was arched slightly under her hands, the same shock was on his face.

“Lee?” He touched her cheek. Her flesh was stone-hard. Cold. Her arm wouldn't move. He tried to pry Manoreh's fingers loose but the flesh seemed glued to Aleytys's arm.

He stepped back. Some complication of that link between them.
Break the link
. He looked down at his stunner fingers.
Manoreh first
. He slid his hand along Manoreh's shoulder and worked it up under the metal helmet—badly discolored but still on the Ranger's head. He jerked the helmet off and threw it across the room, then placed his fingers under the curve of the Ranger's skull. He gave the watuk two jolts from the stunner, stood back and waited. Nothing seemed to happen. He touched Aleytys's face. Still frozen. “Try again,” he muttered. “Now you.” He slipped his hand under her hair, stroked the curve of her neck. “Hope this works, love.” He activated the stunners twice again.

For a moment the tableau held, then Aleytys's stiff form melted. Grey caught her and lifted her away from the table. Leaving her stretched out against the wall, he searched among the dead and unconscious bodies in the bloody debris on the floor and found several energy guns. He checked the charges, grunted with satisfaction, then stripped a weapon belt from a guard's body and strapped it on. He tucked all but one of the guns behind the belt, then moved to the arch. He waited until he got Faiseh's attention, pointing along the wall toward the corridor's arch. Then he slipped out and ran noiselessly along the wall. Before the last guard had time to react he was facing the gun in Grey's hand. He walked out of the arch, resignation and fear blending in his face.

Faiseh came toward them. “That's all,” he said.

Grey rubbed his nose. “You can tell if a man is lying?”

“Most times. Why?”

Grey turned to the guard. “How many more guards in this place?”

The boy swallowed. He was much younger than the other guards. His silver-green skin dulled to a dirty olive. “Haribu.” His indigo eyes searched their faces. “Not many. Don't know for sure. Two or three working on a skimmer in the port. Up there.”

When Faiseh nodded, Grey said, “Good enough.” He directed the shivering guard to the cage in the middle of the cavern. The guard crawled inside and stood holding the bars, watching forlornly as the Ranger and the Hunter went back through the lab arch.

Faiseh was surprised to see the two unconscious figures. “What happened?”

“The link. They were tied together. I had to stun both of them to pry them apart. Think you can carry him?”

“Why not.” Faiseh crossed to the table.

Grey knelt beside Aleytys. She was still out, would be out for a while yet. He lifted her onto his shoulder, then went quickly through the arch and trotted for the lift.

With Aleytys huddled in one corner of the lift and Manoreh across from her, Grey shut the door and touched the sensor square that would take them to the Vryhh's nest. “We've got one stop to make. To pick up Haribu.”

“Ah!” Faiseh looked down at Aleytys. “Remarkable woman.”

Grey smiled down at her. “Very.”

The lift stopped. “Wait here. Be back in a minute.” He stepped through the doorway into the bedroom. The chair was empty. He crossed to the fresher, its door gaping open. Empty. He came back to the center of the room. “Damn,” he said mildly. “Damn.” Shaking his head, he went back to the lift.

Faiseh questioned. “Haribu?”

“Crawled under a rock somewhere. Let's get out of here.”

This time the lift opened into another cavern floored with metacrete. One end was open to the night air. Several skimmers were scattered about. Two men were bending over the engine of one of them. They looked up as the lift opened. Grey's gun fired before they could move. They dropped without a word. Dead.

Grey stepped out of the lift and pointed to the skimmer nearest the open port. “Get those two inside and wait for me.”

He walked through flurries of dust, stirred up by gusts of wind coming in through the opening in the side of the mountain. He glanced toward the portal and nodded.
The Vryhh
, he thought.
Got out of here without looking behind
. He grinned and stepped over the sprawled watuk.
Lee must have scared hell out of him
.

Using the tools left by the dead mechanics, he worked over three of the skimmers, then swung inside each and started the motors. Instead of the smooth hum, there was a tooth-jarring whine that pulsed like the breathing of a lung-shot beast. He stretched his mouth in a feral grin. Ten minutes and they'd blow.

Hastily he jumped back to the metacrete and ran to the skimmer by the portal. Still smiling grimly, he sent the skimmer darting out of the mountain, forcing it into maximum climb. He didn't relax until they were out of the mountains and cruising over the valley floor.

Faiseh looked back at the mountains. “What's the hurry?”

Grey leaned back. “Ever see what happens when a skimmer engine overloads?”

Faiseh grunted. “Not likely.”

“Watch the mountains then. Should be happening about now.”

As he spoke there was a great flare of light. The polarizing glass of the viewports went solid black for a moment, then returned to transparency as the flare faded to a white veil whose glow diminished as they watched. A moment later the skimmer rocked as a blast of air caught it, but the stabilizers leveled it.

“Right,” Faiseh said. He drummed his fingers on the console. “Doesn't make riding in this very comfortable right now.”

“Relax. Safe enough.”

“Where we heading?”

“Kiwanji.”

“A favor?”

“Why not. What is it?”

“Drop Manoreh and me at Kobe's Holding first?”

“No problem.” He sat up and swung the skimmer around until it was moving south and west, heading toward Kobe's Holding.

Some minutes later Manoreh groaned and sat up. Rubbing at his numbed arms and legs, he muttered, “What happened?”

Faiseh chuckled, repeating what he knew of events since the egg exploded. “Look back,” he finished. “You can still see the cloud shining a little.” He grinned. “Glad to see you taking notice. You weigh a ton.”

Manoreh started to laugh then groaned. “My head feels like you been stomping on it, couz.”

Aleytys stirred, moaned softly. Manoreh reached for her, but Faiseh caught his hand. “Huh-uh, couz. Bad idea.”

Manoreh looked down at Aleytys. “I see.”

Aleytys sat up, rubbed at her eyes, twisted her head back and forth, until she straightened and met Grey's eyes.

He swung his chair around and took her hand. “You all right?”

“In one piece, more or less.” She rubbed the back of her head. “You stunned me?”

“Had to.” She looked tired but relaxed. He was reluctant to disturb her hard-won peace, but she had to know of the Vryhh's escape. He spoke to stop the question he saw forming on her face. “I set three skimmers to overload. Blew the place to dust.” He pointed at the cloud still visible through the back viewports. She glanced back, nodded; then she began looking around the skimmer, frowning. Grey leaned back, waiting for her to ask about the Vryhh.

Faiseh touched his shoulder. “Kobe's Holding coming up,” he said and pointed down.

Relieved, Grey swung the chair around and took back the controls. He brought the skimmer around and set it down in the flat space between the barn and the kitchen garden. Then he looked from Manoreh to Faiseh. “Our business is finished,” he said crisply.

“Grey.…” Aleytys touched his arm.

He shook his head. “Finished, Lee.” He tapped a sensor and the door beside Faiseh slid open. “Sorry to shove you out, Rangers, but we're due in Kiwanji.”

“Got you.” Faiseh jumped down quickly and stood waiting for Manoreh.

Manoreh rubbed at the back of his neck. “Aleytys, I.…”

She smiled. “No need. I know.”

He eased to his feet and stood bent over, his shoulders pressed against the top of the skimmer. “You've certainly shaken loose a lot of my ideas.” He dropped from the skimmer and stood watching while she came to kneel in the doorway. “Kitosime will thank you. As for me, I'll wait and see.”

Aleytys laughed. “I wish I could stay and watch, but.…” She shrugged.

“Not a good idea. I've got problems enough with one independent lady.” He pointed to the barn. “Who waits there.” With Faiseh he started for the barn.

Aleytys leaned out the door, her body tensing, then she wriggled around and slid into the seat beside Grey. “There's a dead man by that door. Grey.…”

The door beside her slid shut with a crisp finality and Grey took the skimmer up, sending it toward Kiwanji.

Chapter XVI

With Faiseh close behind, Manoreh pushed open the small door and stepped into the barn. A rush of gladness made him blink until he realized that Kitosime was projecting with a power that nearly suffocated him. He heard Faiseh suck in his breath. A dead man, hacked to pieces outside, now this.

He looked past her. In the shadows at the edge of the light five wilding boys hovered, ready to run or fight. They were dirty, ragged, covered with small cuts and crusted blood. He projected
REASSURANCE/CALM
. Then turned back to Kitosime. She's magnificent, he thought. Her head was up, the feeble light from the lamp striking silver highlights from her high cheekbones and sinking her eyes into deep shadow. She burned with pride and defiance now that her first flush of joy had dissipated. Two girls pressed against her, one on each side, sharing in her defiance, slightly jealous.
Wildings
, he thought, startled. But they were neat and clean in their dress-cloths, their hair combed into tight knots. Four boys stood by her, watching him with hostility.
Wildings. Had to be, the way they projected emotion
. Manoreh frowned at one of the smaller boys. He looked familiar. Then he remembered.
The boy who'd scooped up the dead hares. He's changed. Meme Kalamah, he's changed. Wildings. Neat and clean in tunic and shorts. Kitosime
.… He smiled. “You've been busy, Kitosime.” He projected
AMUSEMENT/APPRECIATION/WONDER
.