Sonata in Orionis (Earth Song Cycle Book 2) Page 13

  The scream of the impellers on the first two Broomsticks faded over the canyon rim while the third hovered over the river. Minu looked at those who’d just come ashore and felt a dark spot growing in the pit of her stomach. They were Ivan and his group. He spotted her a second later, a look of anger etched on his face. The Broomstick pilot landed his craft next to Minu.

  “You the bugs who crawled down the rope last night?”

  “Yes, Chosen,” she answered quickly.

  He nodded his head and gave her group a quick once over before dismounting and walking toward Ivan.

  “That was a dirty trick,” Ivan snarled at the Chosen.

  “Shut up, you pissant bug,” the Chosen snapped back. Ivan jerked like he’d been punched. Growing up a Malovich meant privilege and position; no one yelled at someone with his status. Minu felt a little smile creep across her face.

  “How were we supposed to overcome that challenge?” one of the others in Ivan’s group demanded.

  “Didn’t you notice the other bridge was cut?” asked the Chosen. “You can’t be blind; you’re looking at me now.” A couple boys nodded; Ivan showed nothing. “So if you saw the other bridge, you should have been suspicious. That group knew better; they climbed down the canyon wall instead of taking the bridge. Fuck, at least the earliest group was smart enough to only send one person over. Their loss was minimized.”

  “It’s not fair,” Ivan renewed his complaint.

  “Whoever told you the universe was fair?” The Chosen took eight drags from his pouch, two for each of them, and passed out the punishments. They already wore one each, and two of them wore three. One of the boys stared at the new drags in despair and dropped them at his feet. “Put them on, bug.” The boy shook his head. “Put them on or quit.”

  “I quit.”

  “Fine with me. Go wait by my Broomstick. What about you?” he asked one of the boys wearing three drags. He dropped his, too, and followed his friend. The Chosen laughed behind their backs. “And you two?” Ivan and his only remaining follower clicked their new drags into place. “What about those?” the Chosen asked, pointing to the four discarded drags.

  “Those aren’t ours,” Ivan said, pointing at the two boys standing next to the Broomstick, “they were theirs.”

  “Who is your group leader?”

  “I’m the leader, but—”

  “No buts, boy. You lead, you take the biggest risk. Put them on. Now!”

  “If I’m in charge, can’t I make him wear all of them?” The boy standing next to Ivan stared at him in shock for a moment, before answering in a thick, Rusk accent.

  “You do dat and you are on your own.”

  “Fine,” Ivan said and picked up the drags. “You take half.” He handed two to him. The other boy started to complain, but Ivan rose to his full height and glared at him.

  “Fine,” he said and took them.

  “Great,” the Chosen said. “Now that you understand how things work, you can get back to what you’re supposed to be doing.”

  “And what’s that?” asked Ivan. The Chosen laughed and walked back to his craft. A Broomstick, one of the two from the earlier rescue, swooped back into the valley and landed next to the other one.

  “Chosen,” Minu called out. “May I ask a question?”

  “You just did.”

  “Of course. May I ask you two more questions?”

  The man turned and smirked, then nodded his head. “Go ahead.”

  “What would have happened if more than three boys were drowning?”

  “One of them would have finished drowning.” He mounted his craft, situated the first quitter in front of him on the saddle, and launched. Turbines screaming, the Broomsticks roared out of the canyon, leaving Minu and her friends behind. Only now, Ivan and his last ally were with them.

  Minu looked at him. He no longer seemed as smug or cocky. He wore three drags on one leg and two on the other; his friend wore three on each. Minu and her group only had one each. She turned and led her friends toward their camp, unable to resist looking over her shoulder as she went. Ivan, standing with his only remaining ally, watched them go, his face an unreadable mask.

  * * * * *

  Chapter 12

  Julast 11th, 514 AE

  Unknown River, Desert Tribe Territory

  For three days, Minu and her friends followed the river’s path as the canyon snaked through the desert. The nights weren’t too cold, and the days weren’t too hot. They were as comfortable as they’d been during the Trials thus far. As they proceeded, the canyon narrowed, and the river ran faster.

  In the beginning, they foraged for edible plants, but with less dry ground, food became scarce. And the fishing, while plentiful, became dangerous. The swift current made even ankle-deep water treacherous—that morning, Pip was almost swept out into deep water. They found him hanging onto a rock by his fingertips, screaming for help. After that, Minu limited fishing to the increasingly rare eddies found near large rocks.

  Ivan and his crony stayed within sight, following them but staying a reasonable distance behind. They never got close enough for Minu and her friends to consider them a threat, nor did they try to talk to them. They were just there. Minu’s group kept watch each night in case the two decided to cause some mischief while they slept.

  “Maybe we should’ve gone the other way,” Minu admitted that night as they ate their meager dinner.

  “The river flows away from the mountain,” Cherise reminded her, “going back would be a waste of time.”

  They’d almost exhausted their survival supplies, and they tried to eat as much off the land as they could. That day, they’d caught two small trout and gathered a couple handfuls of edible nuts. Minu opened a ration pack and added it to the mix. They had four left, each of which was meant to feed one man for one day. Worse yet, they’d depleted the fuel for the little stove, using most of it to stay warm in the mountain cave. They used the ax to cut wood, when they could find some, but most of it was green and stubbornly refused to burn. Occasionally, they found dry driftwood, but not that night. They ate the fish raw, further degrading their morale. Pip complained incessantly.

  “Never liked sushi,” he grumbled, “even when it was an expensive treat.”

  “We almost never cook fish when we find it,” Cherise said. The others ate in silence. Every day they searched for a way to climb the canyon walls and escape the trap they found themselves in.

  “I wish we’d found some climbing gear in that footlocker,” Pip mumbled as he gagged on some fish. He’d bragged more than once about his rock climbing prowess. He’d even messed with some of their equipment hoping to improvise some gear, but none of it would support much weight, and Minu declared it way too dangerous.

  That night, they heard the first sounds of wildlife. Gregg was on watch when a distant roar woke the others from their sleep. Romulus had already passed over, and the night was very dark. Minu blinked away sleep and wondered what had made the sound.

  “Oh shit,” Gregg whispered. Minu looked at his dim outline, standing and scanning the walls of the canyon.

  “What is it?” Pip asked, his voice almost a squeak. Minu guessed from Gregg’s reaction what it was.

  “Kloth,” Cherise whispered.

  “Where?” Minu asked.

  “Can’t tell,” Gregg said as he cocked an ear down the canyon. The roar echoed again. This time he spun and closed his eyes, obviously concentrating hard. The scene would have been comical if they hadn’t known what was out there. “Back the way we came,” he said, finally.

  “How far?” she asked.

  “Quite a way,” he said, hearing the roar again, “maybe as far back as where we came in.”

  “How did it get into the canyon?” Aaron asked.

  “Maybe it fell?” Cherise suggested.

  “Or it entered back in the mountains,” Minu thought aloud.

  “If it fell, it could be hurt,” Pip said, hopefully.

  “Let’s hop
e not,” Gregg told him, turning back to face them after the last echo fell silent.

  “Why?”

  “Because a hurt Kloth is twice as dangerous as a healthy one. Their metabolism is linked to food. When they’re hurt, they eat everything in sight and build up energy to fix their bodies. They’ll attack things they’d normally pass up.”

  “Like?” Minu asked.

  “Cars, houses, other Kloth, you name it.” They all looked back the way they’d come. Suddenly, sleep didn’t seem like such a good idea. “We’d better get going,” Gregg suggested. “Keep looking for a way up. Even a ledge a few meters high would be enough; they can’t raise their heads more than ten degrees.”

  “Maybe it’ll eat Ivan and his buddy,” Pip said, hopefully. Minu would have chastised him if she hadn’t been thinking the same thing.

  “Where’re you going?” Cherise asked Gregg, grabbing his arm. He’d shouldered his pack and was looking in the direction of the Kloth.

  He looked at her and smiled brightly. “I’m gonna see how far behind us the beast is,” he said, gently removing her hand from his bicep. Before he let her go, he kissed her hand and touched her cheek. “Kloth aren’t dangerous,” he said, turning to go, “not if you know how to deal with them.”

  “Be careful,” Cherise implored him.

  “And be quick too,” Minu added as she got her gear together. “We won’t move too fast, so you’ll be able to catch up.”

  “Don’t slow down on my account. If the Kloth is moving this way, I’ll have plenty of motivation to catch you.” Minu shook her head as she shouldered her pack. She found it hard to imagine purposely going toward a monster like that. Still, if anyone in the group was qualified to do it, it was Gregg.

  “Let’s get going,” she said and led the way. Cherise waited an extra moment, watching as Gregg’s shadowy figure jogged up the riverbank and quickly disappeared into the night. With a sigh, she turned and joined the others.

  * * *

  Minu was worried and a little scared. The riverbank looked like it would soon disappear. Twice already, they’d waded across deep stretches of dangerously swirling water. It had been three hours since Gregg had left. The idea was his, and as leader, she hadn’t tried to stop him. But now she thought that might have been a mistake. She hadn’t taken into account Ivan and his cohort lurking in the shadows. Would they dare attack one of her people? She was certain they would.

  They came to a stretch of water a few meters wide and took a break, while Aaron probed its depths with a walking stick he’d fashioned from a piece of driftwood. Cherise occasionally looked back, hoping to catch a glimpse of Gregg. Minu understood there was something between the two and hoped it wouldn’t become a liability, then she chastised herself for her thoughts.

  “Not too deep,” Aaron pronounced and waded across. He used his stick to find footing until he reached the other side. “Piece of cake,” he announced as he stepped out of the water.

  “Shut up about cake, will you?” Pip said as he navigated the water after giving Aaron a sour look. “Anything other than raw fish and nuts would be good about now.”

  “Not much chance of more nuts,” Cherise said and gestured to their surroundings. The river flowed quite swiftly, and the tiny strips of land on either side were all that remained of the shore. As Minu crossed the water, she felt the river spray wetting her hair. Then she heard Pip groan and realized it was something else.

  “Rain,” Aaron said. In the distance, the Kloth roared its disapproval of the change in weather.

  “They don’t like rain,” Cherise told them. “Many will run for miles, searching for tree cover or shelter.”

  “Why don’t they like water?” Aaron wondered aloud.

  “Would you like water if you were long and narrow, walked on your belly and couldn’t lift your head?” Minu thought Cherise had a point.

  “Did it sound closer?” Pip asked. “I think it sounds closer,” he mumbled when no one else ventured a guess.

  They continued onward slowly. Not only was the bank narrow, there were large rocks, some two or more meters across. Minu wondered what force had rolled the massive rocks this far from the mountains. The walls of the canyon, over a hundred and fifty meters high, were smooth, and it seemed unlikely the boulders had fallen from there. They rounded a bend in the river, the rain a steady drumbeat on their already wet heads. “Perfect!” Pip spat when he saw what lay ahead.

  The river turned sharply and flowed under a large piece of land covered by a massive pile of logs and other debris washed ashore by a past flood. The pile was so massive it overhung the side of the river, presenting an obstacle that looked impossible to climb.

  “What do we do, boss?” Aaron asked as they approached the mountain of branches and stumps. There were even a few whole trees, their roots intertwined like the legs of a pile of dead spiders.

  “We wait to see how Gregg fares.” Having nothing more to say, they found a comfortable place to sit and wait.

  The sun climbed over the canyon rim and began to set again as they waited in the pouring rain. They built a lean-to using a pair of shelter halves draped over logs protruding from the huge pile. At least they didn’t have to sit in the rain. They each passed the time in their own way. Cherise looked for Gregg, Pip read an old book stored in his memory, Aaron tossed rocks into the raging river, and Minu tried to think of a way out of their predicament that didn’t necessitate turning around and going back.

  Minu watched Aaron throw another rock, but instead of the splash she expected, she heard a loud crack. She saw he was targeting a large branch floating by. Each powerful throw was right on target.

  “You have a great arm,” she told him.

  “Thanks! I spent a lot of time as a little kid chasing howlers out of the olive groves. They love green olives.” Another, larger log floated down river and became his new target. She watched it pass and suddenly had an idea.

  “Damn it!” she cursed and looked around at the broken trees. “How is the ax holding up?”

  “It’s dualloy,” Pip reminded her. “It’ll be around long after we’re gone. What do you have in mind?”

  Minu gathered a handful of small twigs and brought them back to the shelter. She found some long, stringy bark and began building a model. “This is how we get past the blockage,” Minu told them, and with a flourish, she set her model in the water and watched the current quickly carry it away.

  “It’s kinda small,” Aaron said, his chin in his hand as he watched.

  “We’ll make it bigger,” Minu said, exasperated. Aaron blushed and threw another rock. Pip laughed and made a funny face behind Aaron’s back.

  “We’re going to float down the river on a raft?” Cherise asked. Minu could tell by her tone that she found the prospect rather dubious.

  “I don’t see why not. Back on Earth, people sailed across oceans on rafts. We only need to go a few kilometers.” Due to a lack of large oceans, there was little large-scale shipping on Bellatrix, but there was some along rivers and the small equatorial sea. Minu could tell by looking at Cherise’s face that the idea of floating on a raft was a frightening, if not terrifying, prospect. “You can swim, right?”

  “Of course,” Cherise said, then mumbled something at her feet.

  “I didn’t catch that?”

  “I said, I sorta swim,” Cherise snapped, her face livid. Minu gawked at her. “I managed to finish the swimming course with five seconds to spare. I dog paddle really well…better than Gregg, anyway.”

  “But how come you—” Pip started to ask.

  “I’m from the desert, asshole,” Cherise snapped. Minu knew from experience that Aaron couldn’t swim well, but she wondered about Gregg. His past demonstration showed his lack of ability. How common was a water crossing in the nomadic life of a trader?

  “Don’t worry about it,” Minu told her friend, “I’m certain we won’t have to actually swim. That’s why we’re going to build a raft, right?”

  The
y split into teams to tackle the project. Aaron took command of the hatchet and began to shape logs, cutting them to the appropriate length and trimming away branches. Using the razor-sharp dualloy ax, he made short work of logs as big around as his thigh. Minu took a short break to watch him. His shirt was off, and the muscles on his powerful arms and back bunched as he swung the ax over and over. Some deep recess of her mind purred like a kitten.

  Cherise helped Aaron move the logs into place while Minu and Pip designed and assembled their makeshift raft.

  Night fell, and they kept working. The canyon’s angle allowed Remus to shine down on them when it rose, and Aaron lit a huge bonfire using the dry trimmings from the logs. When he spotted the glow of a pair of eyes in the underbrush, he added a rabbit to the fire. Cherise insisted on saving a haunch for Gregg’s eventual return.

  The work continued, hastened by the intermittent howls of the Kloth as it grew closer. There was no longer any doubt in their minds that the beast was headed their way. Whatever Gregg’s intentions, he appeared to have failed. As Romulus set, the lizard sounded so close they expected it to round the bend behind them at any moment. While the other three finished tying the ropes around the makeshift tiller, Aaron used the ax to sharpen a half dozen poles to a deadly point.

  “But we have knives,” Pip pointed out when he saw what Aaron was doing.

  “You don’t fight a Kloth with a knife,” Cherise told him somberly.

  “Not a good idea,” Aaron agreed. “From what I hear, you’d be better served to keep the knife in its sheath. That way, when the monster eats you whole, you can use the knife to cut your way out of its stomach.” Everyone laughed mirthlessly. With another leaf-shaking roar, the Kloth rounded the river bend a hundred meters away.