The Hidden Fire (Book 2) (6 page)

“My
former countrymen know the value of a slave,” Baleska said grimly.  “Once a
slave is taken, he is never freed.  It is considered bad form.”

Merna
leaned forward.  “There were a few handfuls of them remaining, those who had
escaped and gone into hiding in the jungle.  Hardly enough to justify giving
them forty thousand hectares — I mean, what would they do with it all?  The
little village up the river is all that remains of them.”

Nikkin
looked up from his plate.  “Old Jubi says that a long time ago they were part
of a great nation.”

His
father laughed.  “A great nation, out here in the middle of the jungle.  Not
likely.”

“Do
they work on the plantation?” Kyric asked.

“Most
of the men do,” said Dorigano, “and when we have a week of heavy harvest they bring
their whole families.”

“A
good thing, too,” added Merna.  “Importing workers is costly and troublesome.”

“It
is a mutually beneficial arrangement,” said Dorigano.  “I truly believe that
they’re grateful just to receive a fair wage and not be slaves.”

Kyric
watched him carefully.  He truly did believe what he was saying.

“I
don’t understand,” said Lerica.  “If there were places in the deep jungle where
they could go, how were the Enari so easily enslaved.  Were the other inland
people their enemies?”

“From
what I know,” said Dorigano, “they were friendly.  But the Baskillians employed
professional slave hunters — clever foresters who could track and stalk with
the best of them.  The most notorious was a band of Westerners who had fought
in Aleria and knew how to travel at night.  Their leader was a master of traps
and ambush called The Spider.”

Aiyan
was suddenly very still.  “
Tle Espide
,” he whispered.

Dorigano
looked at him.  “Yes.  That’s how it is said in my language.”

“Do
you know this name?” Ellec asked quietly.

“No,”
said Aiyan, shaking his head.  “No.  It couldn’t be the same man.  It couldn’t.”

Lerica’s
dropped her fork with a clatter.  “Are you talking about the one my people
called The Cutter?  The one that raided Alerian villages when all the men were
gone and cut the fingers off the women?  He would cut a foot from the older
boys too, if he found any.”

Lady
Dorigano frowned.  “Lerica, please, we’re at the dinner table.”

Lerica
picked her fork up and smiled thinly at everyone.

Luscion
Dorigano brought his hands together with a clap.  “Thankfully, those days are
long gone.  In the five years we’ve been here, there has been only one
accidental death, not even work related.  A young man tried to swim the river
last year and ran into an angel ray.  It was terrible to see someone die like
that.”

“Jubi
says that his people all become ghosts when they die,” Nikkin chimed in.

This
time, it was Kyric’s turn to feel a passing chill.

“Jubi
tells all sorts of stories,” said Lady Dorigano.

“He
says the word Enari means
walking spirit
, and that their ancestors can come
out of the spirit world to guide them.  And he says they’re very angry right
now.”

“These
tribal people certainly have their superstitions,” said Merna.

Aiyan
let one hand drift under the table.  He touched his locket.  “Men wiser than I
have said that we each have a spirit that can live beyond the bounds of our
physical form.  And that it is possible for a very strong spirit to live among
us, here on Aerth.”

Lady
Dorigano made a face.  “How can that be?  When we die we go to Summerland and
walk with the Lord and Lady.”

Baleska
smiled broadly.  “Are you telling us, Sir Aiyan, that you believe in ghosts?”

“I
do believe in ghosts,” Aiyan said.  “I do indeed.”

Kyric
felt a soft warm hand grasp his own.  It was Rolirra, pulling him up from the
mud.  A bright, glaring moon hung overhead, pouring shafts of white light
through the canopy of trees.  The forest stood silent.  The drowned ones had
gone.

They
found some higher ground and sat down in the crook of a buttress-root.  “I feel
that you are close to us,” Rolirra said.  “As close as I can dream.  Those that
you saw are the Enari.”

She
crushed something that looked like a raspberry between her fingers and smeared
it into his eyes.  They throbbed painfully for a moment and he saw a strange
light.

“Now
you will be able to see them on the other side.  You must ask them to walk, to
come out and show you the way.”

The
swirling light faded.  He wanted to ask her how to do that, but he couldn’t
move or speak.  The forest was alive with color.  He could see tree sap flowing
in bright green arteries, and a million insects as amber streaks in the dark. 
The sky went from black to blue to yellow and back to black.  It became too
much.  He leaned back against the tree and closed his eyes to the new light.

He
was up with the sun, the morning quickly getting warm.  He sat on the edge of
the bed  remembering his dream, the bright horizontal sunbeams making him shade
his eyes.  They were runny and encrusted, like he had slept for days.

When
he found his way to the breakfast room, Aiyan was already there, watching Ellec
and Dorigano finish their plates as they argued.

“If
I gave her passage,” Ellec was saying, “my guests would have to sleep on the
open deck with the crew.”

“Then
they can stay here.”  Dorigano turned to Aiyan.  “I would make my full
hospitality available to you and your ward.”

“It
seems that the countess requires transportation to Ularra,” Aiyan explained. 
“It also seems that the captain has not fulfilled his contract with the
baronet.  There is a second load of goods in Ularra awaiting delivery.”

Ellec
took a breath.  “I have already discussed this with my friend, Captain Felka. 
He’s willing to carry your goods here in my place.”

Dorigano
finished his last slice of bacon and pushed his plate away.  “He doesn’t know
the river like you do, Lyzuga.  And yours is one of the few ships that can
carry thirty tons without running aground on the last bend.”

“Felka
can do it,” Ellec insisted.  “The river is running very high.”  When Dorigano
didn’t answer Ellec looked to Aiyan.

Kyric
pretended to scratch an itch on his neck and gave Aiyan the Cor’el sign for ‘
stay
.’

Aiyan
smiled.  “We would be honored to stay here as your guests, baronet,” he said. 
“We’ll hire one of the locals and do some hunting.  It will be . . .
interesting.  You’ll be back before we know it, Ellec.”

Ellec
made a sound deep in his throat.  “I thought you were eager to begin your
voyage.”

“Another
week won’t make any difference.”

“Can
I stay, too?”  It was Lerica.  She had been standing in the doorway, listening.

“No.”
said Ellec.  “Who would stand your watches?”

“Oh,
you and Pallan can manage it.”  Her eyes sparkled for a moment.  “And this way,
you and Baleska will have more space at the captain’s table.”

Ellec
thought about it, the corner of his mouth turning up just a tad.  “Well, I
suppose it’s alright.  But do me a favor:  let those ladies show you how to
wear a dress.”

She
shrugged.  “They’re afraid to talk to me.”

“I’m not surprised.”  He downed a last
gulp of coffee and stood.  “Very well, Luscion, tell the countess to make
ready.  We sail this afternoon.”

“Yeah. 
Them art hating,” Jubi said in his atrocious Avic.

Aiyan
switched to Cor’el.  ‘Y
our ancestors are angry?’

Jubi
grunted and signed.  ‘
They gather in the swamp where their bones rest.  They
stir the waters.  They make the father of crocodiles slap his tail
.’

‘
Why?
’

He
shook his head.  ‘
It is not for me to say.  We have an elder who can say. 
She is a —.
’  Kyric didn’t know the sign.  He cocked his head at Aiyan.

“Speaker,”
Aiyan said to him.  To Jubi he said-signed, ‘
Can you take us to her?
’

“Yeah.”

It
was late in the day.  Aiyan and Kyric had slipped away while Lerica and the
Doriganos said their goodbyes and watched
Calico
disappear around the
bend in the river.  When Kyric explained that his dreams were connected to
these people who believed their ancestors returned as ghosts, Aiyan said, “I
was curious as well.  Just a feeling.”

Jubi
was the only native overseer on the plantation.  They had found him in the
grove west of the house, instructing two older boys on how to trim the shade
trees.

‘
Can
you take us now?
’ Aiyan signed.

Jubi
nodded.  He said something to the boys and led Aiyan and Kyric down to the
river, to where a rather broad canoe rested in the grass.  He pushed them
across the river with a long pole, standing up the whole time, beaching the
canoe on a wide apron of earth near the settlement.  Dark-eyed children and
silent women stared at them as they walked past the stick and mud huts.  A few
older boys played kickball with an animal bladder in the patchy lane.  Beneath
an awning, near the huge grinding stone in the center of the village, an aged
and fragile woman sat on a blanket.

‘
She
is too old and stiff to make Cor’el
,’ Jubi said-signed.

Aiyan
nodded.  ‘
Will you please offer her our respects, and ask her if she will
speak the anger of the dead
.’

After
a brief exchange with Jubi in their native tongue, she had him light a block of
incense she kept in a bowl.  It smelled awful, worse than burning dung.  They
sat like that for some time, the smoke getting thicker and the woman holding
her head askew as if listening.  With a start, her eyes rolled up into her
head, and she swayed from side to side.  A passing cloud blotted out the sun. 
She spoke.

‘
They
are angry
,’ Jubi translated.  ‘
They wait, and they do not walk
.’

‘
What
is making them angry?
’ Aiyan said-signed.

‘
I
hear my ancestor
,’ came the reply.  ‘
I shall ask him why
.’

She
made a curious humming whine, not very loud, then suddenly she lost her
stiffness.  She began signing vigorously, her elbows bending freely, her
fingers and hands subtle and quick.  Her word-sounds came out low and gravelly
— a man’s voice.

‘
We
are the spirits of the drowned.  We look through a veil of tears
.’  Her
face twisted into a mask of deep grief.  She sobbed as she signed.  ‘
The
slaughter of angels.  The rape of dreamers.
’

‘
Ask
them if they can show us
,’ Kyric said-signed.  ‘
Ask them if they will
walk
.’

The speaker raised her head.  ‘
We
will come out to show you.
 
We will walk.  We will walk.  We will appear
in the folds of the mist.
’

The
stars in the eastern sky had begun to fade away as they crept down the hill,
Kyric holding his bow, Aiyan sloshing with extra water skins.  They hadn’t
bothered to tell anyone that they were going to the swamp this morning.  The
mention of ghost hunting would have brought ridicule, and bird hunting might
have brought joiners, so they had slipped away before anyone was up.  Kyric had
been surprised at Aiyan’s willingness to go to the Enari village only on the
basis of his dreams.  He had been vague, and told him almost nothing of
Rolirra.

They
made for the rowboat tied to Dorigano’s dock.  When they got there, they found
Lerica already sitting in it, manning the oars.

“I
knew you two wouldn’t wait until dawn,” she said.  “Early worm gets the fish
and all that.”

Kyric
shook his head.  “We have to get to the swamp in time for the morning mist.”

“Better
climb aboard then.”

Aiyan
simply shrugged.  There was nothing for it, so they stepped in and let Lerica
row them across the river.  Kyric slung his bow, and they quick-marched along a
well-trodden path between two rows of coffee plants, the sky turning to violet
as they broke out of the field and walked down a long slope to the edge of a
wetlands thick with cypress and stagnant pools.  A rotting odor came from the
swamp.

“Don’t
you even want to know what we’re doing?”  Kyric asked Lerica.

“I
saw you coming back from the Enari village yesterday.  Had a little chat with
old Jubi myself.”  She shook her head, her eyes flashing with that spark she
carried.  “You fellows are not as subtle as you think.”

Aiyan
gave her a mischievous glance.  “We could say the same about you, Miss
Panthrum.”

Though
the trees, they could see mist rising from a shallow pond choked with lily pads. 
It was rising from a dozen places now, everywhere that water pooled, hanging on
the motionless morning air.

Aiyan
held very still, his eyes narrowing.  He pointed.  An Enari woman stood behind
a veil of hanging moss.  She stared blankly, as if she didn’t see them, then
turned and walked away.

“Come
on,” said Aiyan, moving to catch up with her.

“She’s
a ghost?” said Lerica.  “I thought you could see right through one.”

“She’s
not just one of the village women,” Kyric said.

They
turned to one another, both saying at the same time, “How come
you
can
see her?”

“Anyone
can see the invisible,” said Aiyan, “if they know how.  There is a way of
looking, out of the corner of your eye.”  He shook his head.  “Never mind, we
don’t have time for that now.”

They
hurried after her, pushing through fledgling buttonwoods, and wading stretches
of muddy water, never closing the distance, but never falling behind as she
followed the edge of the swamp in a curving course to the southwest.  Bug-eyed
lizards stared at them from the limbs of buttress-root trees as they passed. 
They were well past the Enari village and heading due south when something
moved to their left.  Lerica sprang ten feet sideways.

“It’s
only a crocodile,” Aiyan said, drawing his sword.  “Just back away easy,
Kyric.”  He looked at Lerica.  “No need to be jumpy.”

The
ghost, or whatever she was, led them onto a game trail and they made good time
after that, at times having to cut their way through dense walls of shrubs and
vines as they pushed through to another trail.

“Don’t
touch the vines with the white flowers,” Lerica said.

“Another
poisonous plant?” Kyric asked.

“Like
poison ivy, only worse.”

They
crossed a dozen tiny streams, too shallow to hide any deadly Terrulan fish, and
at length they stopped to rest, the figure they trailed becoming a shadow
behind a patch of bamboo.  The bark of a nearby tree seemed to move, then Kyric
saw that a colony of beetles swarmed over every inch of it.  He tried not to
think of the dream beetles.

The
sun hung directly overhead.  “We’ve been at this for hours,” said Lerica.  “We
need to turn around now if we’re to make it back before nightfall.”

Aiyan
shook his head.  “Do what you want, but I’m going on.  There are hidden places
in this forest.  I feel that we are near to one, and I
will
follow that
perception.”

They
pushed on, Aiyan in the lead, no longer seeing the spirit woman.  The
undergrowth began to thin, and they moved easily through a copse of
silk-cottons, soon crossing a wide stream bridged by a fallen tree.  The banks
of the stream were too straight, too uniform.  It was a canal.

Aiyan
led them along an overgrown trail, feeling something close, his stride
lengthening.  Then they broke out of the trees and it all lay before them.

It
was a dome sitting on a perfectly square island in the center of a perfectly
square lake nearly three miles across.  The dome was a hundred feet tall, and cracked,
the structure beneath it hidden behind a ring of trees and shrubs.  The ruins
of smaller domes sat at each corner of the island, and other square structures
were visible above the undergrowth.

The
lake had risen higher than the surrounding land, with only a grassy dike to
hold it back.  They climbed up on it to get a better view of the ruins.  The
ground was soft, the crest just a couple of feet above the waterline. 
Crocodiles lurked in the weedy shallows at the corners of the lake.

“A
great nation,” Lerica said faintly, “out here in the middle of nowhere.”

They
stood there for a moment, taking it in.  Kyric tried to imagine the power of a
nation that could build such a place — huge stone buildings in a forest where
it was hard to find a small rock.  He was no engineer, but he understood that
constructing enormous domes required advanced mathematics.