* * *
The air was filled with the smell of stew; it rode aloft in the night air like a thick, sweet and sour delight. Ned had offered to cook; it was one of the few things he was familiar with ever since working alongside his father at the Sniggering Pig. As he stirred the broth in the pot, he couldn’t help but throw a few glances at Judith’s lithe figure sleeping a few feet away.
At first Judith had insisted cooking; she was worried that even up high on the tallest, farthest branches of the oak, under the cover of thick brush and leaf, with noone in sight a mile out, the tiny column of smoke from their campfire would attract unwanted attention. Ned had burst in laughter at Judith’s overly paranoid seriousness, even though there was ample reason to be worried, even though she had saved his life. Ned’s reaction had a curious effect on her; she had decided that getting some overdue sleep was more important than light discipline.
Just for good measure though, she’d quickly gathered some brush to cover up most of the fire. A small, wet piece of cloth was set up like a tent above the pot, to absorb some of the smoke. There were all sorts of small details she never seemed to stop paying attention to; her mind and body were in constant movement, never idle, always a step ahead. Ned couldn’t help but marvel at her for all the right and all the promiscuous reasons. He was grinning like a dolt, mindlessly stirring the soup, his gaze fixed away into the distance, at the very lip of the treetop.
“That’s were we’re going. That is, if you realize the dangers involved,” said Judith without so much as a yawn. She was already up and around, stretching her muscles, taking short, deep breaths. Ned turned his head around to answer and almost fell on his back, as if something had bit him; with one hand he covered up his eyes while with the other he tried to blindly propel himself back on the small log he had been sitting.
“Seven seas and a swan song parade! Put some clothes on! Please!”
Judith furrowed her brow; she thought Ned was kind of a throwback, a fish out of the water, but still an intriguing young man. Then she realized that for some reason all the other, nudity was frowned upon where Ned came from. She could respect that; she put on the inner, linen suit of hers. It was a one-piece affair that kept the body warm or cool, depending on the need. She looked at the lip of the treetop; Lemmy’s and the Elevator were visible on the large platform, as well as the narrow, three-mile long, corkscrew staircase that hugged the tree’s bark all the way up to the top.
“Are you dressed now?” Ned asked reluctantly, not even thinking of trying to peek through his palm.
“I am,” she replied and without turning to look at Ned she added as an afterthought: “You know, it’s not like the sight of my skin would petrify you.”
Ned sheepishly opened his fingers and peeked at Judith for just a moment before turning his attention back on the stew. He hoped his face wasn’t still flush red.
“Not at all, I never implied that. It’s just that, where I come from at least, it’s not very ladylike to walk around naked around men. And it’s not like a gentleman to peek either.”
Judith turned away from the sight of the treetop. She sat down cross-legged, the pot of stew between her and Ned. She sought his eyes, but still Ned would just stir the pot. She smiled thinly.
“I gathered as much. Where are you from, really? You don’t seem well travelled. None of you do,” she said and swayed her body sideways just long enough to pick up one of her swords. She swerved the other way and took hold of a small, hefty, brick-like whetstone.
“I’m from a tiny seaside town, down from the Sapphire Seas. It’s almost impossible that you’d know it.”
“I meant, which planet are you from?” asked Judith and started sharpening her sword againt the stone. The sound was keen and sharp, not unpleasant at all. It wasn’t the noise one would expect of metal grinding on stone. Ned shrugged and smiled thinly, feeling a bit embarassed though he’d be loathe to admit it.
“I’m afraid I have no idea. A few days ago I didn’t even know there was a whole other world out here, much less what a planet is. ”
Judith smiled back almost timidly. If one could ignore the fact she was sharpening a sword that shone like a perfect mirror, she had all the qualities of a sweet, innocent, maiden.
“A first timer to spacefaring then,” she said.
“A first timer to nearly everything, actually,” replied Ned and grinned.
“How about the stew? It’s not your first time cooking, I hope,” she said and put away the sword momentarily. She squatted for a moment and rummaged through her knapsack quickly. She produced two tin cups, and offered one to Ned.
“No, it’s not. I tried to do my best with what rations you were carrying, but there are limits to the culinary arts. It’s not magic.”
“From my experience, magic is usually overrated,” she said with a suddenly sombre face. She dipped the stirring ladle in the pot and filled her tin cup. She let the smell waft through her nostrils. Her lip curled in the crescent of a hearty smile. She sipped some of the steaming hot broth.
“It’s fine. Better than anything I’d manage. Even if I went for taste,” she said and raised her cup before sipping some more.
“Isn’t that what food is about?” replied Ned and filled his own cup. Judith shrugged and looked at the stars, as if she had suddenly felt a cloud of rain approaching. She gazed at her cup once more.
“It’s just sustenance. It’s what keeps the body going.”
Ned sipped some of the stew himself. He even picked up a nice little morcel of what small meat he’d scrounged up from Judith’s rations. He licked his fingers.
“They say it’s one of life’s great joys,” he said and looked Judith in the eye.
“Which is?” she asked indifferently.
“Food,” said Ned as if it were only natural of him to say so.
“I have many things in mind, but a joy of food is not one of them,” replied Judith as she held the cup with both hands, peering through the wafting steam at Ned. Her smile was now gone.
“Something must make you happy then,” inquired Ned and sipped some broth with a troubled brow.
Judith stood silent for a while. It wasn’t hard for her to speak her mind though.
“Vengeance,” she said and nodded slightly, as if to reassure herself.
“Is that why you’re here?” asked Ned and put his cup down on the leaf-spread ground.
“Does it sound strange to you?” she retorted, staring at Ned with a sharp, almost intimidating gaze.
“Frankly? No, not at all,” he replied truthfully.
“I would have thought vengeance would be a distasteful notion to someone like you.”
“How do you mean? What’s it like, to be someone like me?” said Ned, sounding amused. Judith misjudged his disposition.
“You sound offended. You’re peculiar. It wasn’t my intention to offend,” she said with just the right amount of respect in her voice.
“I don’t think of myself as someone who takes grave offense easily, Judith. I was simply curious. It’s always interesting to hear other people’s thoughts about you. Sometimes you might learn things you would never have thought possible.”
“I know who I am. I don’t feel that need. But then again, I think anything’s possible.”
“I don’t know what to think about that,” said Ned with a vacant stare.
“Then you’re shooting blind, aren’t you?”
“How so?” asked Ned, really trying to understand.
“What’s your purpose in life, Ned? Why are you here? What do you expect to achieve?” she said with a suddenly austere, diamond-rough voice.
“I’m not sure. I can only see so far into the future, it doesn’t really matter what I want, does it? A couple of weeks back, I was cleaning up tables in my father’s tavern. Now, my father lies buried and people are trying to kill me and my friends left and right. For crying out loud, I’m sitting on a giant oak that’s floating across space,” said Ned earnestly and shrugg
ed. He let out a little laugh, shook his head and looked around him. It was as if he still couldn’t believe half of what was going on. Judith stared at him intently; she was measuring him, judging him, but not unkindly so. At length, she picked up her other sword and began sharpening it as well. She started to tell a story.
“There was a time, not so long ago, that I wasn’t all that different from you. I was a farmhand, at a far away place. I thought that life was good; a good day out in the fields, and then supper. Sometimes the weather was hot, sometimes the weather grew cold. A roof over my head, and a bed to lie down.”
“Is there something wrong with all that?”
“Not if your purpose in life is to die one day. In a manner of speaking, I count myself lucky that I was forced to open my eyes and my mind to the world at large.”
“How did that happen?”
“One could say it was a rude awakening,” she said and kept sharpening the sword with a slow, persistent rhythm, like it somehow added purposeful sharpness to her words.
“Did it have anything to do with those dark horrors? Those things that tried to kill me?”
“The Ygg? It had everything to do with them. It still does,” she said and looked at her sword’s blade, inch by inch.
“You want revenge?”
“I want justice. I don’t expect you to understand.”
“You’re not the only one who’s suffered, Judith,” said Ned, raising his voice involuntarily, his eyes becoming darker, colder. He hated being treated like a child.
“What did they take away from you, Ned?” she asked him, putting away the sword.
“My father. My home,” he replied, his gaze wandering towards what little fire remained. Judith cracked a smile, a deathly cold smile that did not suit her at all.
“They took everyone from me, Ned. Everyone,” she said with a voice rough as stone.
“Your whole family?” Ned asked flatly.
“Everyone, means everyone Ned. Every living soul on my planet,” she said without smiling.
“I’d have thought you were joking, but I can see you’re not. How is that even possible? A whole planet?”
Ned sounded truly unable to comprehend. Judith tried to explain.
“They have sinister, unfathomable ways. They excel at suffering and misery. The worst thing about them is, they don’t seem to revel in it. They simply do what they do. It’s as if it should be harder for you to hate them.”
“Is it?”
“Not really.”
Silence ensued. They both looked engrossed in thought, as if anything that needed to be said had been said. The fire was dying, casting grotesque, flickering shadows of them on the surrounding growth. Ned broke the silence without warning.
“How did you escape their fate?”
“I’m still not sure I have. Sometimes, I wish I hadn’t been spared. I wish I was still toiling away at their mines, knee deep in silvery sludge. Chipping away crystals, looking at my reflection with disgust.”
“Who spared you?”
“A man named Tark. But in truth, it was blind luck. He could’ve picked anyone; it just happened to be me.”
“What do you mean?”
“He’s an intelligence operative. A spy, to put it simply; it so happened that in one of his missions, he had to pose as a slaver. He bought my way out.”
“Just you?”
“Just me,” she said and let her shoulder sag.
“And you’ve been free ever since?”
“I told you. I’m still not sure. Tark saw some potential in me. He trained me. Made me what I am today.”
“What are you, really?” Ned said with undeniable fascination.
“You tell me, Ned. What do you see?”
Out of the blue, Ned spoke his heart and mind.
“I see a beautiful woman.”
Judith’s face became suddenly taught. Then her face reddened and her lips wavered, trying for a prudish smile. She wouldn’t dare look at Ned; the single, slim path of a tear shone in what little light remained in the fire.
“I meant it as a compliment,” said Ned with worry in his voice.
“I know. It’s just that noone’s said that to me before,” she said, her voice almost a whisper.
“I find that hard to believe,” replied Ned with a sheepish smile.
“I was just a girl when the Ygg took us, Ned. Noone’s ever told me those exact words.”
“Well, they’re true.”
“You do look like the kind of man who’d die defending the truth,” she said and got up. She wiped the tear off her cheek and stood over the edge of the giant leaf that accomodated them.
“Let’s not get carried away. Let’s not die just yet,” said Ned with a wobbly smile.
“You need to be ready for that; I’m not trying to scare you. When we go in there..” Judith said and let her voice trail off. She shook her head before shrugging; it was so vulnerable an expression on her part. Strangely enough, she didn’t seem to have a problem with it.
“That’s where they’re keeping Bo, right?”
“As far as I know. I can’t sent a communique now - Tark’s in deep. We have to wait for his exfiltration signal.”
“What about the others, Judith? Lernea and Winceham, they could be in as much trouble as I was.”
“Don’t you trust your friends?”
“It’s not that. It’s just that I feel I’m letting them down.”
“It’s been a long time since I was in the company of friends. I remember though that you can’t let them down if they’re really friends.”
“You’re saying I should do nothing?” he said and got up himself, somewhat agitated.
“I’m saying there’s a time and place for everything. I should’ve straightened this all out from the start; I didn’t save you because I just happened to walk by. I had my orders.”
“From Tark? Where do we fit in all this? Where’s Theo gone?”
“I’m afraid I’ve really lost track of him, back when the orcs attacked you. But he’s safe from the Ygg, as are all the others. Except Bo. Tark’s got good reason to believe you were the folks who foiled a recent Ygg infestation on its early stages. You don’t know it Ned, but maybe you saved your planet. At least, for the time being.”
“You were there when the orcs attacked us? Why didn’t you help us?”
“It wasn’t something you couldn’t handle. And it wouldn’t be prudent to present myself to them so early.”
“How do you know my friends are safe? Why didn’t you tell me from the start?” Ned said aggravated.
“You have my word that they’re safe. We have our ways as well. Did you notice the circus was in town?”
“I did. So?”
“We’ve contracted them. They’re literally everywhere and they keep a close eye on things. There is, of course, some magic involved in snooping around.”
“You do have your ways, then. But what does Tark want from us? There’s always something, isn’t it?”
“He knows there’s something really precious about that crystal. And about that bunny. Something the Ygg might’ve been looking for a long, long time.”
“Then I guess there’s no other way than to work together. What’s the plan?”
“I’ll show you,” said Judith and walked to her backpack. She reached inside and produced a perfectly flat, mostly unassuming slab of slim-cut stone. She touched it and thin silver and golden strands of metal started running across it’s surface as if a writhing mass of shiny worms fought on its surface. The bits of metal settled in less frivolous patterns. It was like a living sculpture; cold metal flowed across its surface as if it had a mind of its own.
“What in the black blazes is that?” said Ned with an all too straightforward sense of fear.
“Don’t worry, it’s perfectly safe. It’s a thaumaturgic device, something like that throne you salvaged from the ship you came in.”
“What does it do?”
“All sorts of thing
s. But mostly, it’s a way to note things, communicate, access bits of information and so on.”
“Why would anyone want one?”
“You have to see it to understand. Here,” she said and offered the slab to Ned. He looked at her warily for a moment but took the slab in both hands somewhat reluctantly.
“What am I looking at?” he asked.
“The silvery beads, those are known Ygg infested locations. The red, ember-like bits, those are your friends.”
“So, this bit right here at the center is me?”
“That’s right?”
“And those three red beads in that direction?”
“Where?” said Judith almost losing her calm.
“Right there if I’m reading it correctly,” said Ned and pointed a finger at Lemmy’s.
“That’s it, they’re right over there. See? Perfectly safe. Not an Ygg in sight.”
“You said the Ygg are marked in silver?”
“Right.”
“We need to move!”
“What? Why?”
“There’s another red ember someplace near, and it’s sitting smack in the middle of a silver bead the size of my thumb!” said Ned as he raced to pick up his things.
“I don’t know if we’ll make it in time,” she said while she was suiting up.
“We’ll have to find out then, don’t we?” Ned retorted, having already secured the line they’d come up with through his belt. Judith nodded silently and put on the rest of her leather suit with amazing speed. She picked up her swords, passed the thin, extremely strong line through a special kind of hook and looked at Ned meaningfully. As she was about to push off the ledge and start descending, Ned shot her a worried gaze.
“I just hope it’s not Wince. I don’t think I can stand his bragging if we survive this,” Ned said and Judith pushed them off.