Chapter Seven
Ki had slept most of the morning. He’d made her do it. Considering what had happened to her over the past 24 hours, she’d barely been able to walk, let alone keep up the pace they needed to reach the pass.
It had been a strange experience to watch over her as she’d slept. His own weariness weighing down his limbs, he’d taken up post with his back resting against an old pine tree. Half closing his eyes, he’d been sure never to let himself nod off.
The scanner had been too much of a distraction anyway. He’d analyzed it carefully as she’d slept.
Learning to use it properly would no doubt take years, but for now he was confident he could at least use it to assist them through the ranges.
When she finally woke, she snuffled for at least half a minute, shifting restlessly before she pushed herself up. It was a strangely cute move.
When she opened her eyes to stare his way, he was already smiling.
“Where—” she began.
“We’re still in the mountains. You had to sleep, remember? It’s a little after midday. If you think you’re up to it, we should start moving. If we’re quick, we can make it to the pass by tonight.”
She propped herself against a large, jutting stone behind her. She rubbed at her arms, obviously feeling the chill wind against them. Unfortunately neither of them were properly equipped for this trek. The higher they went, the colder it would get. Their only other option was to head back to the town, but he knew that would be suicide.
“How’s your arm?” he pulled himself up, ignoring the stabbing pain in his legs. He’d really pushed himself last night. He was sore all over, with more than a few cuts and bruises. At least the effects of that drug had worn off though.
“Did you get any sleep?” her voice croaked harshly.
She still hadn’t had a drop of water.
He’d been productive whilst she’d slept though, and had found a river close by. She’d get her drink soon. “We should get you something to drink.”
“Did you sleep, Jackson?” she adamantly repeated her question.
“No.”
“Shouldn’t you try to get some? If you need someone to stand guard, I can.”
He shouldn’t have, but he laughed. He hadn’t intended for it to be callous, just light hearted. She was a priestess, she was very injured, and she was offering to stand guard.
“I won’t kill you,” she pushed her lips into a frown.
“I don’t need to sleep, yet. We’ve got to keep on moving. If we can make the pass by nightfall...” he trailed off.
“We aren’t equipped for travel through the mountains,” she said, mirroring his own thoughts. “Isn’t there some other way? What if we come across more of those wolves? What if the soldiers come back? They may not be able to track me anymore, but I know they can distinguish between different biological readings with their scanners. They’ll be able to tell two humans are up here, and they’ll take a wild guess that it’s us.”
He’d thought of all these things already. Nodding, he grabbed at the scanner, bringing it up. “You said these things have a range of 3km? I think it’s more like 5.”
Her cheeks slackened, despair obvious. It was hardly reassuring news, after all. “Jackson... what do we do? Isn’t it just a matter of time before they come back for us?”
He nodded resolutely. Of course it was. Soldiers like that did not give up easily. “There might be another way. I’ve been playing with this thing while you were sleeping. It’s got an optimum range, but different things affect it.” He walked over to show her the device.
“What do you mean?”
Leaning down he plucked up several stones by his feet. Placing one directly in front of the scanner, he tipped the screen so she could see. “Some of the mineralogical deposits in these rocks appear to affect its range. I tried it against one of those large boulders, and the scanner could only just penetrate beyond. There are heavy ore deposits all the way through these mountains.”
“So we stick to where the ore is most concentrated?”
He ticked his head to the side. “I wish it were that easy. Though there are heavy deposits, they aren’t everywhere. Whole sections of Paladin’s Pass will leave us exposed.”
She deflated, her long eyelashes brushing against her cheeks as she half closed her eyes.
“Don’t give up though. There’s another way,” he winced as he mentioned it.
He really, really didn’t want to have to take it.
“What do you mean, Jackson?”
He shifted his jaw from side to side, a habit of his whenever he was uncomfortable. If Ki had known him for more than a single day, she would have recognized it as a powerful sign something was up with him.
“Jackson?” she got to her feet. Still pressing a hand into the rock behind her to steady herself, her lips puckered with concern.
“There’s a cave system. It’s long, goes all the way underneath the pass and pops out under Paladin Mountain. It opens on the Hydra plains. And from there it’s a simple walk onto the highways that feed the Capital.”
Despite how wary his tone was, she smiled instantly at his words. “That’s fantastic news. Let’s take the cave system. It will be warmer in there, presumably we’ll always have access to ground water, and the Zeneethian scanners won’t be able to penetrate down that far.”
“Ki... it’s dangerous.”
She clearly did not understand, because she dropped her head to the side and shrugged her shoulders easily. “And the pass isn’t?”
“That cave system is treacherous. It moves. There’s heavy limestone deposits. Whenever there’s rain in the ranges, it floods. There’s cave-ins all the time. Plus, neither of us are equipped properly.”
“I would prefer to take my chances with the cave knowing the Zeneethians can’t find me there, than Paladin’s pass,” she answered.
Her voice was so quiet he could hardly pick it up. He understood the sentiment though.
Perhaps she was right too. The caves could flood, the rocks could move, and they could run into a dead end. But at least the stones would not shoot at them, scan them, or throw futuristic concussion grenades their way.
“Those cave systems are geologically active,” he tried to underline his point by nodding stiffly, “we could get halfway through only to find our path blocked.”
She pointed down at the gun by his feet. “They don’t run out of bullets easily. They have several charge settings. If we’re careful, we could use it to blast through rock.”
“I...” he wanted to tell her that would be too dangerous, but he found himself stopping. In conjunction with the scanner, that gun could cut them a path if it had to. The scanner would have a limited range down there, but a few meters or so would be enough to tell them whether a path opened out beyond a section of rock wall.
Turning from her, clamping his hand on his stubble-covered chin, he tried to think this through.
“Jackson, it sounds like our only hope.” Her voice wavered on the word hope.
Looking up, he cast his gaze through the pine trees above and beyond to the sun. It was still shining bright, but through the dense canopy he swore he could see dark clouds gathering at the edges of the ranges.
Even in autumn those peaks could attract a fell snow storm.
Could they really risk going up there? If they got beyond the pass, that was. It had been hard dealing with the wolves last night, without a cabin wall to hide behind, it could be impossible in the open.
He nodded hesitantly. “Okay. We’ll give it a try.”
She dipped her head and brought her hands together. “Great. Then let’s get going.” Turning, she limped forward. Though he’d made her those ramshackle shoes, no doubt they aggravated her already swollen and cut feet.
Again a pang of guilt sailed through him for what he’d done to her. It would, no doubt, take a long time to make up for it.
He was up for the challenge.
As soon as h
e realized that, one single thought resurfaced.
She’s Tarkan.
Despite the promises he’d made to her, and to himself, he felt the old stab of rage at what they’d done to him and his people. That keen hatred resurfaced like a whale from the ocean.
He did not act on it this time.
He pushed his hands into fists, letting the nails dig freely and deeply into his palms. The pain cut through the rage.
He knew enough about psychology to realize that he could not change his beliefs overnight. Any attempt to alter something so fundamental about oneself took time. He had spent his whole life hating her people; he couldn’t click his fingers and reverse that. Neither did he want to. Yet he promised himself he would try not to take it out on her.
For now, that was all he could do.
He hooked the gun over his shoulder, firmed up his grip on the scanner, and nodded at her to start moving. As he walked past, he caught her looking at him curiously. Her neck was lengthened, her head cocked to the side, her eyes filled with interest.
“What are you looking at?” he cleared his throat cautiously.
“Nothing.”
“Come on, you were staring at me like I had a sign painted on my head.”
“Priestesses are meant to be skilled at empathy,” she began.
He snorted.
Her once light and curious expression soured and she turned away.
“Sorry. Sorry, ah... continue.”
She flashed him a warning glance. “We are skilled in emotional reading and techniques. I was simply noticing the confusion playing across your features.”
He rolled his teeth sharply over his bottom lip. He’d always hated feeling exposed.
“I apologize, I shouldn’t have said anything. I’ll leave you to your thoughts.” She tried to walk ahead, though her labored hobble could not take her far.
“And what else do you priestesses do?” he tried to quickly change the conversation.
“Meditation, prayer, looking after the monastery,” she smoothed her hand down her middle, a far-off smile spreading her lips.
She had a very distant quality about her in that moment.
“You mean you stay holed up in the hills away from the distractions of a modern life?” he asked, faltering as he realized his question sounded far worse than he’d meant.
“Not at all. The priestess clan of Tarkan is meant to serve the people. We offer any who seek us out our aid in quelling their emotions and healing trauma.”
Again he wanted to laugh, but he stifled it with a strange gulping cough. “What do you mean?”
“We’ve always safeguarded powerful techniques, handed down through the ages,” she took an enormous breath, not staring at him as she spoke, but glancing ahead at the mountains beyond. “Meditation, massage, pressure point techniques.”
“I... see.” He didn’t know how to respond. This conversation had taken him somewhere he’d never expected to go.
Just how much did he really know about Ki? Apparently he knew nothing about Tarkan priestesses. He’d assumed she’d have just spent her days locked up in some room reading old dusty texts.
“People would come from all over Tarkan to see us. From simple farmers to heads of state. I once helped General Arcadus with his insomnia,” she noted through a far-off laugh.
He didn’t join in.
She finally turned to him. “Oh... sorry.”
“I can’t say I ever helped Arcadus sleep, but I have fought against him on the battle field,” grinding his teeth, he tried not to sound too harsh.
Arcadus was a legend to the Tarkans; the general who had won more battles than any other. To the Ashkans he was a monster.
Ki dropped back, brushing at her arms distractedly as she tried to look anywhere but at him.
He had to change the subject. If he let himself be pulled into a discussion about Arcadus, he would end up losing his temper. Old wounds would resurface all too readily and he’d likely go back on his earlier promise not to turn on her again. If he wanted to give this a chance, he had to find a way to suppress or divert his natural rage towards the Tarkans.
“I’m sorry, I—” she began, voice soft.
“Hold on, I thought you said it was not permitted for Tarkan Priestesses to touch men, how exactly do you give a man a massage then? Do you do it with a broom?”
It was the perfect way to change the subject; instantly her demeanor changed and she lost the withdrawn edge to her body language.
Twisting her neck up in that haughty way he’d come to recognize, she shook her head. “No, we are permitted to touch. Others must ask for our permission though. Especially men.”
He enjoyed a laugh at that. “Oh of course. Does it have to be in writing?” He laughed harder at his own bad joke, or perhaps more at the way her gaze hardened with alarm and indignation.
“You may find our traditions humorous, but priestesses are a respected part of Tarkan society.”
“I’m sure they are. I’m... sorry.”
“I really don’t think you are,” she challenged him, “remember, I said I’m skilled at reading emotion. I know when someone is lying to me.”
That shut him up. Instead of pushing her further, he cleared his throat and tried to concentrate on their trek instead.
He led her to the river, waited for her to drink as much as she needed, and looked away as she washed her feet. They were very red and swollen.
Once she was finished, they headed for the nearest cave mouth.
They reached it just as the sun began to dip below Paladin Mountain above them.
As they entered the large and daunting cave mouth, a chill raced down his spine. It was not just at the prospect of the dark cavity before them; he swore he heard a hissing, humming sound from behind.
Far off, it appeared to be drifting along with the wind from the east, back in the direction of the town.
Turning with the scanner held tightly in his hand, he waved it in the direction of the sound.
Nothing appeared on the screen, but that did not quell his nerves. “We should hurry up.” Nodding to the entrance, he all but pushed Ki through.
Though this cave mouth was large, after several steps they were deep within its dark shadow.
He’d been caving occasionally, and every time he’d taken the right equipment. Ropes, harnesses, and powerful head-mounted torches.
This time all he had was a scanner, a futuristic gun, and a hobbling priestess.
Staying at the back as he pushed Ki in front of him, one hand on her shoulder to encourage her pace, he waved the scanner behind them.
With every step the device’s range reduced; those blue outlines darting over the screen became less complicated as they visualized a shorter range until all that was displayed was several meters in every direction.
It was only then that he let out the tight breath trapped in his chest.
“I think we’ll be safe from their scanners now,” he wiped at the sweat over his brow, drying it before it could chill. The cave system was always cold.
The low temperatures, however, would not be their primary concern.
The further they went, the less the light from the entrance would reach them. Though his gun and scanner let off a faint glow, navigating by them alone would mean painfully slow and treacherous progress.
As if to prove his point, Ki tripped sharply to the side with a gasp. Though she righted herself, she was lucky not to have cracked her knee on the jagged rocks below.
“This might not work,” he cursed. “We just don’t have enough light. If only I’d managed to keep that lamp from last night....”
“Just turn up the setting on the gun. I used to watch the soldiers in my compound. There should be some kind of pressure pad just above the barrel. It sets the power rating... I think. Anyway, the higher it is, the more the barrel will glow.”
Pulling the gun’s strap off his shoulder, he turned the weapon up, careful to point the muzzle away from Ki as he
explored it.
“It’s just above the barrel,” she repeated, leaning close to him to point it out.
The slight blue glow from it played against her fingers, lighting up those delicate tattoos on each of her fingertips. It also shone up against her throat, emphasizing the line of her neck.
Momentarily distracted, he let her work. After seconds she found the pad she was talking about and pressed it down. The gun gave the slightest kick in his hand and he almost dropped it from his surprise.
“It’s okay. I’m pretty sure it’s fine,” she said.
Twisting the gun away from her, he sought out the pad and pressed it himself. It was uniquely sensitive. He’d never touched a mechanism like it. Just a light press up towards the top of the gun and it would kick slightly as the power setting hummed up, the glow from the barrel brightening measurably. At the top setting it sent out so much light that he could easily see the cavern around him for at least three or four meters. If he pressed towards the base of the gun, the setting dropped, the gun’s glow going so low he could hardly see his own hands as he clutched it.
“How long will this thing last at full illumination? Several hours? Minutes?” he returned the gun to the power level that offered the best visibility and shifted closer to Ki, nodding at her.
“I don’t think they run out... inside is a fragment of a levitation crystal. That’s why it’s so light.”
“Fragment? How large?” he couldn’t contain his sudden enthusiasm. At the thought he’d lost another of those strange devices last night, he’d been ready to condemn himself. They would hold the secret to what those soldiers were and where they came from.
“Nothing more than dust really. The crystals are very powerful. It takes one the size of my palm to lift a scout vessel. It takes one the size of a man to lift a city.”
His features screwed up in disbelief. “A city?”
“I know you think I’ve made this all up and the Zeneethians aren’t real. But I know where I’ve been...” trailing off, she took an audible swallow, “I remember where they took me.”
A city... in the sky.
“Why wouldn’t we have seen them? The Zeneethians with their floating cities, why wouldn’t we have spotted then with our telescopes?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “They move the cities. They hardly ever keep them over land. Though I can’t be certain, I think they are nearly all over the massive southern ocean.”
“Why wouldn’t a vessel have noticed them?”
“They can control the weather around them. They can also land them back into the ocean... though I never saw that actually happen, I only overheard the scientists talking about it. They can even take them higher,” she tipped her head up, reaching a little above her.
“How high? You don’t mean to space, do you? Because that’s preposterous. They wouldn’t have any atmosphere. The ionizing radiation would soon kill everyone if they didn’t run out of air first or float off to have the vacuum of space pop them like a blood-filled balloon.”
She receded at his colorful description, turning her nose down. “I don’t have all the answers. I can’t say for sure why no one has ever seen one of those floating cities from the ground. I just know what I saw. I also know that those legends must have come from somewhere. Maybe long ago they could not shield their cities from view, but as Tarkan and Ashkan technology has developed, so has the Zeneethians. Maybe they are always several steps ahead of us.”
What she was saying sounded plausible, if you could ignore every law of physics in the natural universe, that was. Gravity could not be locally turned off. Neither could a city move into space.
“I know this is hard to believe. But look at what you are holding,” she gestured at the scanner in his hand. “Can you explain that? It is decades beyond any technology we have.”
He snorted. “Decades? Try centuries. This device can calculate and measure like a human brain, but over impossible distances. It possesses visualization capacities that I can’t describe....”
“Is it so hard to believe that a race that possesses devices like these could float a city?”
Frustrated, he frowned deeper. “That’s not the same thing. The power involved would be astronomical.”
“Yesterday you floated into the air with nothing more than a crystal. Have you forgotten that?”
About to reply, he stopped. She had a point.
“I don’t understand how it all works...” she sighed carefully, “all I know is I don’t want to go back.” She turned and began to head further into the cave, anchoring her hands on the large rocks around her and moving over the rough terrain as best she could.
Her statement was poignant, and it still rang in him long after she’d walked away.
He couldn’t imagine what she’d been through. Probably because he argued with every fact she shared.
Drawing into a long and pensive silence, they headed deep into the cave. Their trek should take no more than two days. They would have to find water, and he was confident they would. As for food, they would have to do without. It was not ideal, but considering what they were up against it was the best he could hope for.
Moving side by side where they could, sharing the illumination of the glowing gun barrel, they clambered over the stones. Their shadows were cast long over the uneven walls and ceiling, distorted and elongated, they gave the cave a dark ominous feeling.
Though perhaps it was not the shadows that set his teeth on edge, igniting his nerves. It was the prospect of what would happen when they reached the other side.
How would he get Ki to the city? When he was there, then what? Would he swan into the Royal Academy, take apart this gun, and easily glean its secrets? No doubt it would take a large, dedicated team decades to understand it, let alone reverse engineer one.
Worse than that, what would he do with Ki? If he took her to the authorities, those futuristic soldiers would appear hours later. Though it was just a theory, he assumed they were capable of monitoring all forms of radio communication, possibly even telephony. If a message was sent anywhere, using any technology more sophisticated than a carrier pigeon, those soldiers would find out about it. So it was imperative that he kept Ki a secret.
A Tarkan woman... by showing her around the capital city and into the Academy, he’d be committing an act of treason. Had that really dawned on him yet? Could he live with that? Technically betray his own people for her?
As he thought deeply, battling with his conscience, he noticed Ki slow down to glance at him. She had that same look of concentration puckering her brow and smoothing out her pink lips.
Was she reading his emotions? At least she couldn’t read his actual thoughts. No doubt she would ditch him if she found out he was still undecided about what he’d do with her once they reached the city.
Trying to control his expression, he continued to press on. Try as he might, he could not control his thoughts though. His mind ran over every possibility, entertaining each strategy he could take. In truth, he liked none of them, but when he reached the capital, he would do something.
If he reached the capital.