Part Two: Sharper Than an Oarfish Tooth
"If you'd listened to our advice…" said Dar.
"…which you never do," New interrupted.
New always interrupts. So does Dar. You might as well get used to it now; it'll save you trouble in the long run. I don't know if they do it to irritate me or because, as they claim, they share a single mind. Both are definite possibilities.
"…you'd have let us take care of the tricks," Dar finished.
They looked at each other and grinned. In the dim greeny light of the corridor, their freckles seemed to glow.
I looked down at our collection of blood samples and other related information. The boys had spent a little time in the Little Middle temple, too, where they'd snagged a few souvenirs: a few oddly shaped rocks, some slate pendants like the one the priest had worn, and three bits of blue glass that I was pretty sure had come from the Rim settlements, maybe even up in Alpha Sector. Also one piece of electronics, a fragment of circuit board with a jagged break which I inspected closely but which didn't seem to set off any alarms. I was a little surprised the folks in Little Middle had collected such obviously techie stuff. Usually, the Off-Grids were either frightened of tech or thought it was evil. Or both.
Dar bent his scrawny leg up and scratched the side of his neck with his right big toe. Sometimes I wonder if the boys even have bones.
"You know how good we are at legerdemain…" New began.
"…you just like to do the fun stuff while we do all the hard work," Dar said.
I ignored them with as much dignity as I could, considering they were probably right. I did like to practice my sleight-of-hand, but the boys had me beat when it came to dexterity.
I picked up one of the rocks, turned it over, waited for a tingle or a glow but got nothing. None of my tattoos even yawned.
I mentioned how the yokels had been impressed by my glowing tattoos, right? Well, they're more than just a trick to impress. My entire body is covered by them, from the neck down, though most of them are not usually visible to the naked eye. I can make the ones on my arms glow at will, but they have other purposes. Right now, though, they were telling me nothing. None of these bits and bobs was infected with anything, nasty or otherwise.
Our visit to Little Middle, stinks and stealing and turnips and flames and booms and running for my life and all, was a bust. A large pile of shit, in other words.
Oh, we'd managed to inoculate the villagers against everything we could, but we didn't have any hints, yet, as to exactly how the plague was spreading, or where it was coming from either.
"Cheer up, Meade…"
"…now we can go home for a while…"
"…cause we're out of boom powder and…"
"…Granther will have a cauldron of soup bubbling…"
"…and you know how much you like his soup."
"Suits me," I said as I tucked the bits of glass and the circuit board into a bag, then stuffed my robe in after it and hooked the bag on my belt. Robes with shiny silver embroidery are nice to impress the rubes but hard to travel in. I prefer my usual traveling wardrobe: sleeveless singlet, belt with hooks for bags, pocketed pants tucked into high boots. The boys, unless they're performing, usually make do with the same, though they prefer bare feet to boots. "Let's set these rocks where they can find them before we go."
They both opened their mouths, but I raised a hand and continued before they could. "Holy relics are important to human cultures."
"Did you say…"
"…hokey?"
I shook my head in disgust and gathered up the rocks, then walked back down to the end of the corridor, which was also the beginning of the Little Middle territory. I set the rocks in a neat row right where someone would be sure to find them.
When I got back, Dar and New were ready; we set off. It only took a little while to get to the end of the corridor and back into more open cavern. I didn't recognize exactly where we were, since we'd originally arrived from a different direction, so I slid my reader out and dialed up the local map with reference to the spot where we'd first entered Little Middle.
Not reassuring. Blank spots. I don't like blank spots. Of course, they're bound to happen. Can't expect every open cubic meter of Haven to be mapped, even after the human race—or what's left of it—has been living here all this time. But there's a lot of danger around and I like to know about it in time to be ready to run in the other direction. I slid past the blank spots and looked for something that was on the map. An agricultural Loop station showed up, and I showed the boys. It would take some time to reach, and I was still a little winded from my run earlier, but I tried to set an aggressive pace as we set off. The boys, naturally, leaped around like mantises after mice, bringing me rocks to look at and bits of fungus to nibble.
After a while, Dar asked, "You like those yokes…"
"…even when they try to kill and eat you, don't you?" New finished.
They both looked at me with identical inquiring twinkles in their eyes but their heads cocked in opposite directions.
"Nah." I shook my head. "But it's a good thing for you two I don't mind paying visits to backward areas else I'd never have run across a certain set of irritating twins."
"Are you…"
"…calling us backward again?"
"Cause if you are…"
"…you might want to consider that if we continue the way we're going now…"
"...it's going to take us twice as long to reach…"
"…the Loop station we're heading for, and besides your feet hurt."
I sighed and changed direction. I confess, I had missed our turn, but that was no reason for them to remind me. I'd been busy trying to decide which place to visit next to spread around some vaccines, now that we'd inoculated the entire population of Little Middle. Maybe a trip to Silverberg was in order. I didn't want to go too close to the Rim, not yet. Too dangerous. But…
"Hey, Meade?"
Only one boy talking shook me out of my reverie. I looked around, noting we were once again off our path.
"Yah, Dar?"
"I'm New," he said. "Dar's gone to look for a rope."
"Very funny," I said at his little joke. They both kept threatening to tie a rope to me to keep me on course. "And you're not New, you're Dar. I recognize your freckle pattern."
He shrugged and grinned. "You got me. New's gone on ahead in the right, correct and otherwise accurate direction. Maybe, anyway. We go this way, we think, so come on."
I followed Dar down a path, around a hill and across a narrow bridge carved from rock. New was waiting for us on the other side.
"She got lost inside her brain again, right?" he asked his twin.
"How could anyone get lost in such a tiny place?" Dar asked, spreading his hands in fake wonderment.
"Yo ho," I said as cuttingly as I could manage, seeing as how I sometimes suspected they were right. "Where are we?"
"Seems to be a straight shot that way…" Dar pointed.
"…to that path leading up a couple of levels," New said.
"…which we need to get to…" Dar again.
"…but we don't like the looks of that," New pointed too.
I looked in the direction they'd both pointed. With the little bridge behind us, it looked like an easy walk across a clear, almost flat plain to the opposite wall. I could just make out in the dim light a pathway carved into the rock and switchbacking up to a broad ledge with lots of openings. Obviously some kind of intersection to other levels and sectors and thus just what we needed.
"What don't you like?" I asked. "Looks like no trouble."
"That's what…"
"…we don't like."
I shrugged. "According to the information available, which granted isn't much, we need to get up on that ledge to get back into the charted areas. Just because this space isn't on the map doesn't necessarily mean there's danger. Right?"
"Doesn't mean…"
"…there's not."
/> "Only one way to find out," I said. But I was uneasy. The boys had an uncanny sense for threats. I'd noticed it more than once, and it had saved my life and theirs. Still, we had to go somewhere, and back towards Little Middle wasn't an option. I stepped forward, but New pulled me back.
"One at a time," Dar said. "Me first."
Of course, I should have immediately offered to be first, but I didn't have time to even open my mouth. Dar stepped forward, off the bridge and onto the plain. He took three steps, four, and I was just realizing I could stop holding my breath, when:
He sank down to his waist, through what appeared to be solid rock.
"Gripmire," New said. "Dangerous. Told ya so."
"Crap!" I stepped gingerly off the bridge, testing the surface beneath me for solidity as I moved forward, slow as rock grows. I felt the ground start to give beneath me and stepped back before the gripmire could seize my boot.
"Stay right there," New yelled through cupped hands. His voice echoed around us: "There…there…there..."
Dar shot him a glance over his shoulder that promised mayhem, bloodshed and pain at a future, undetermined date. "Why don't you walk out and keep me company?" he yelled.