Stardogs (35 page)

They’d carried Juan down, set his back against soft things and given him water. At first he’d tried to fight off the water before Denaari-Juan realised that this was what the alien body needed so desperately. They’d loosened his clothing, cleaned his wounded knees and raw palms as well as possible, covered him with a soft blanket, and gently given him more water in small doses. But he would not let them take off the crown. So they just left it there, burning a hole in Tanzo’s curiosity.

She’d been bitterly disappointed to find that her Denaari was as human as she was. But she’d been kind and caring. Only the most suspicious of nature would have thought it just because she wanted to grill the boy about where he’d found the crown. There was however, no doubting the sincerity of the mothering he got from her slight, big-eyed and shy sidekick: The girl whose near-shaved ridercrop was turning into a head of short, soft curls. Something about the delirious boy liberated mothering instincts in her.

Between the boulders Shari, Deo, Otto and a very unwilling Jarian crept closer. They could hear voices. Human and recognizable voices. Arguing.

“We’ll have to go and look for him.”

“And what do we do if, when we find him? We can’t let him go on this way. He’s drunk so much of the water and eaten the best of the food…”

“It’s only another two days. After we’ve got the next dose we’ll torture it out of him. We’ve got days in hand then,” said Brettan

“We can’t let him go on. The women aren’t safe,” said Mark Albeer, ponderously.

“And death is better, eh. Come on. We can settle it if we can find him,” said Brettan.

“Better in the morning. We can’t see properly and we’d probably break our necks,” Johannes said, nervously.

“By morning he could be out in the main valley again, going God knows where. We’ve got to find him.”

Behind the rocks Shari turned on the quaking Jarian. “Well, so much for your story of the Denaari having killed all of them. But they seem to want you back. I must say I think the better of several of them, risking their necks in the dark to find you. Been stealing things again, have you? I must admit I didn’t think you had the courage to molest a woman who could fight back, though. Or are they talking about somebody else? I haven’t heard the Yak, but I didn’t think that was likely of him.”

“Obrigato, Princess-Capo,” Teovan spoke from the shadows. “I see you brought the eta back. That’s good.”

“Hello Sam. What are you doing hiding out here in the dark?”

The small man stepped out of the shadows. They could see he was smiling his crooked smile in the moonlight. “Keeping a lookout, I guess. I just had a feeling… Besides, with that one,” he jerked a thumb at the cringing Jarian, “you can’t be too careful.”

“It’s a lie,” said Jarian, sullenly. “They’re anti-royalists, dearest Aunt. Not to be trusted. Especially this criminal.”

Shari noticed that Otto had peacefully gone and greeted the Yak, who had patted him in a startled sort of way. “Well, I’ll just have to abdicate. Lead on. Let’s make them happy that they don’t have to go out into the night looking for my suddenly affectionate nephew.”

“Don’t believe a word of what they’re going to tell you,” said Jarian desperately, as she pushed him forward.

One could have called it a gargantuan computer… In that the nano circuits were grown and not made according to internally evolved designs, it was also a biological creature. But, because of its access to the crown vaults it was something more, both the memory and the conscience of the Denaari. It was busy, as it had been for the last 3000 years, cataloguing. It had received a massive input which had strained its already overstretched indexing facility. It still had a couple of centuries’ worth of work to go. The interruption from some puny-brained back-country civil defense unit, with nothing better to do than sit about all day and direct its maintenance units to scratch its excretory orifice, was not welcome.

Security zone Delat: It reviewed: A bio-zoo unit that had reported irreparable cataclysmic damage, and requested materials and assistance-a screed of numbers followed: 2023 years seven days and four hours and twenty-two minutes seventeen seconds and 11 microseconds ago; a geosynch-line anchorage point that hadn’t had any reported traffic for - another screed of numbers: about 3006 years, nineteen days and twenty-five hours and three minutes, and a tracking-eye unit that hadn’t reported for… five days seven hours and three minutes… It had sent a long data string then… to Ground Control.

The huge biocomputer was not equipped to sigh. Nor did it have the capacity to psychoanalyze itself, to discover that it was suffering from both guilt and depression. It didn’t want to deal with yet another non-situation. The travel-speed of the transmission picked up by Sector Delat civil defence biocomputer unit would, at present rates, reach the ruined bio-zoo in approximately 119 days. And that was the nearest of the items in the Security zone. Wow! Panic! The message sent back to Sector Delat civil defence biocomputer unit could roughly be translated as ‘piss off and leave me alone’. However, in a minor flicker of conscience, a low-priority message was sent to Ground Control, requesting more input about the tracking-eye’s datastring.

It was right that the people should greet the Dewa with such delight and adulation. It was not right that they should come within such close proximity to her. Unease stirred. He screwed up his eyes, trying desperately to make sense of it all. Why did he feel that he must defend her? The Dewa’s incarnations were part of the Kali-Dewa. Beyond harming by mere mortals. His head. Oh, his head. Why was he here? Was this some kind of purgatory, where the light-Dewa led in a recreation of his past deeds giving him the chance to atone, to do things right so he might be reborn instead of going into the pit?

He had seen the pit, and the demons. He remembered it cloudily. He also remembered waking with her warm beside him. She had led him out. But he had betrayed her. Not with his hands, but with his heart. The Dewa knew this, as she knew all things. He had rebelled against killing Sugahata. He had allowed Dugra to escape, deliberately delaying the attack. Why then?

He puzzled at it angrily, fiercely raising his blood pressure in a way which severely distressed the nanomech surgeon within him. Then a verse out of the second Veda came to him, redeemed him. ‘The pathways in the mind of God are myriad and beyond the following of mortals.’ It would do. There must be reason but it was not his to question. It allowed him to focus again on this bizarre half world mixture of memories and the alien place through which the Dewa guided him.

“He gave you all Ectipain! How?” Shari eyes pierced the huddled Jarian. Both Sam and the Viscount watched Jarian. They were making sure he didn’t run away again.

“In a water-bottle that came out of your bodyguard’s pack,” said the Viscount shortly. Shari realised it was the bottle Jarian had attempted to offer both her and Otto a drink out of. Albeer could have co-operated… but not if it meant poisoning Caro. The poor boy was obviously smitten. Unfortunate for him, if hardly surprising. Caro loved men and left them. “He didn’t drink any. Made excuses about being too upset by your death and his guilt at stealing water before. He’s hidden the antidote somewhere. He reckoned it made him Lord and Master of us.”

“Those fuckin’ stomach cramps made damn sure we wasn’t in a hurry to argue with the eta about it. He’s still got most of us by the balls.” Sam grimaced feeling his stomach at the memory of the pains. A flicker of expression darted across Deo’s face.

“Yes. I’m afraid we need those pills before the day after tomorrow. Anyway, ectipain cramps or not, when he decided on… um… taking that ridergirl for a bedfellow, Lady Tanzo snapped. Went for him with a rock.”

“I haven’t forgotten that you hit me,” said Tanzo coolly from where she was administering a small mouthful of water to the boy in the Denaari crown while the ridergirl gently held his head.

Brettan shrugged. “I was doing my best for all of us.”

Tanzo snorted and opened her mouth for a blistering retort.

“Enough.” Shari was in a poor mood for bickering. “Jarian. I want those pills. Or I’ll feed
you
Ectipain. That’ll send you running for the antidote.”

“He poured the rest of the bottle out. We don’t have any more of the stuff.”

“That is a problem
I
can solve… very quickly, believe me.” Somehow there was no way that you could have doubted her. “The antidote, Jarian. Now.”

Sulkily Jarian drew out the vial with its carefully counted tablets. Popped the lid. “I’ll have it like that, thank you,” said Shari, reaching out a hand.

Instead Jarian put a tablet into his mouth, and scattered the rest into the darkness. He swallowed as both Sam and Martin Brettan grabbed him.

“Stand still all of you. Get a torch here. We must find those tablets.” Shari snapped.

But they could only find five of the violet tablets. And Jarian, having laughed and told his witch of an aunt she could give him ectipain now if she wanted to, passed out beyond waking.

Shari took charge of the pills, in the grim knowledge that four people would have to die now, and that she would have to choose.

She struggled to sleep for the rest of that night.