The Lost Steersman (Steerswoman Series) (61 page)

But why store them here? Why not in a den, or a series of dens, convenient?

Secrecy. Rowan had seen a male killed for speaking in public. Rowan was in a secret place.

But this female was privy to the secret, seemed to encourage the males; certainly she aided them, handing them the words that she spoke, for the males to add to their secret hoard.

Sharing. Sharing knowledge.

The steerswoman gave a weak laugh. “I think that you and I are very much alike.” She turned back.

Then she said, “Or perhaps not.”

The female, unfortunately, was engaged in mating, employing two males simultaneously on opposite sides of her body.

Rowan stood watching the unerotic coupling, winced in embarrassment. “Well,” she admitted, “customs do differ.”

41

W
hat is this place?”

She turned; he stood, head ducked under the low ceiling, his left hand steadying himself against the stone above. Moths fluttered about the hand, a dizzying little pocket of light. He flinched when they flew close to his eyes.

Rowan held up the object she was examining. “Does this look like a tanglebrush to you? It rather does to me, from a certain angle.”

He gazed about, toward the dimmest recesses where no moths stirred. “We’re underground.” Light moved too quickly across his face for her to discern his expression.

“Yes.” She returned the object to its grouping, rose, brushed the ceiling to improve the light. “But we’re not home free yet.”

“I’ve never seen this.” Janus looked blankly at the collections of case-objects— of utterances— that lay all across the cave floor. “This is one of their places.”

“Yes.” She studied him in the brighter light. He seemed a bit dazed, a bit unsteady on his feet; still, quite an improvement. She took his arm, led him back toward the alcove. “Did you find the food I left by you?”

“No . . .”

“You should eat. And drink more.” She sat him down, handed him the cheese. He reached for it with his right hand, stopped, took it with his left.

She felt his forehead: slightly warm but dry. She knelt beside him, gently felt his right arm again, down to the wrist. “I don’t understand why this hand isn’t horribly infected.” She had not dared to unwrap it; she was certain to cause pain, and there was not water enough to clean it properly.

“I put it in the bug pond.”

“ ‘Bug pond?’ A pool of water, surrounded by rocks?”

“They brought me there every day. They couldn’t bring me water, so they brought me to the water.”

“Well, you seem to have done some good by it.” She released the arm, shifted to sit facing him. “Do you want to explain to me what you said earlier?”

“How far are we from the city?”

Only people built cities. “I see that you’ve figured out that these demons are not animals.”

He looked at her blankly, but he said, “Unfortunately.”

Her gaze narrowed. “Why unfortunately?”

“If this is one of their places, they’ll come here soon. We can’t stay long.”

“We won’t be staying long. What do you mean by ‘unfortunately’?”

“I can walk now, if we go slowly. You still have the talisman. Let’s go now.

She sighed, but it was through her teeth. “Janus, one of us must answer the other’s questions— really, one of us must. And since it can’t be me, it must be you.”

“I can’t bother with your rules.”

“They’re not rules, they’re principles. You know that.” She forced her anger down. “I want to understand you, I truly do, but you’re not giving me any help.” He did not reply. She rubbed her forehead, pushed back her hair, reminded herself that he had undergone a horrific experience, the like of which she could scarcely imagine, and she could not expect him to behave in an entirely rational fashion.

Then she realized, suddenly and appallingly, that she could imagine it, easily: if, months ago, she had acquired a live demon to study, it might well have received similar treatment at her hands.

She said, “They thought you were an animal.” He did not reply. That was why the female demon had let them go, Rowan understood; Rowan herself must have done something that demonstrated clearly that she was no animal.

Janus was watching her closely. She could not help asking, “Why you? They could have captured any number of humans to study. Why come all the way to Alemeth— ” She suddenly saw that they must have used a blinded demon to capture Janus. “The talisman— ” And a blinded demon had guarded him in the den; another, or the same one. “But why— ” They must have feared that his immunity would somehow return; they did not know that it could not; they did not know at all of what Janus’s original protection had consisted.

“What
is
this?” She picked it up from the stony floor, held it up between them in the dim, shifting light. “Other than a word, or a sentence? How can they obey it unless they perceive it? How can they perceive it and not know what it is?”

He did not look at it but sat merely regarding her, expressionless. “They’re not like us,” he said.

She flung out one arm. “I do believe I’ve noticed that already! But what is it, what does it
say?
”

Then he did look at it, brows knit slightly. And then, head tilted a bit, he gave the question such calm, unhurried, careful, thoughtful, and complete consideration that Rowan understood that his mind was far less stable than she had assumed. She must deal with him cautiously.

Eventually, he arrived at his conclusion; the discovery seemed to please him. He smiled at her. “I believe,” he said, “that it means ‘Holy, holy.’ ”

Silence. Then, “I see.” She carefully set the talisman down again. “And . . . have you managed to decipher any other statements?”

He looked at her as if she were simple. “I don’t want to
talk
to them,” he told her.

“I see . . .” she said again. She decided not to argue the point. “Now, Janus, listen carefully. I am going to get you home. There’s a ship waiting for us at the Dolphin Stair. All we need to do is cross the Demon Lands . . . and you know that will take some time. You have to cooperate with me, you have to do what I say, and everything will be all right.”

“It’s impossible to cross the Demon Lands.”

“No it isn’t,” she pointed out, carefully patient. “You’ve done it, several times. And I’ve done it.”

“No, you haven’t. You only think you have.”

She was a moment finding a reply. “Well . . . you’re free to correct any misconceptions I might have. In fact, I’d welcome it. But I do know how to get us back to Alemeth.”

“Good. Let’s go now.” He started to rise.

“No.” She placed a hand on his shoulder. “Not yet. This cave is located inside the city. They’re patrolling the streets outside; I’ve checked recently. There are a lot of them, and they’re being very systematic. I don’t want to get into a situation where we might become surrounded. We’ll wait until they relax their guard. Then we’ll leave.”

He studied her face. He took a breath as if to speak, released it wordlessly. He nodded.

“Good.”

He discovered the food in his hand, began eating, with rather less urgency than Rowan expected from one as obviously starved as he was. She did not consider this an encouraging sign. She wondered how much to tell him in his present uncertain condition; but she must say something, and soon. “Janus, shortly demons will be coming here. You mustn’t be afraid.”

He continued eating. “We have the talisman.”

“That’s right. And if you like, you can stay behind it while they’re here.”

She watched as the implication of her statement dawned on him. Eventually he said uncertainly, “And you must, too . . .”

She took a breath. “That depends on which demons they are. A demon helped us escape from that den you were held in; and she and her mates are still helping us. They’ve brought us food, twice now— from my camp or your nearest cache, I suspect.” He looked aghast at the cheese in his hand. “I believe we can trust them,” Rowan said.

“Trust?” He dropped the food, clutched her shoulder. “Rowan, if they’re feeding us— ”

“Please, calm down— “

“— then this is just another prison!”

“A prison we can walk out of, any time we like? We still have the talisman— ”

“All they need to do is block off the entrance— ”

She placed her hands on his shoulders, held his gaze, spoke distinctly, stressing each word, “But they haven’t done so.” He subsided, but his eyes remained wide. “We’ve been here two days,” Rowan went on, “and the other demons are still searching the city for us. Tan and the males are keeping our presence secret.” She saw astonishment on his face, spoke before he could ask. “I call her ‘Tan’ for her color. I must call her something, if only in my own mind.”

He dropped his hand, sat stiff under her grip. “Skies, Rowan, you’ve
named
the thing!” he spat, with sudden fury.

“Yes! Yes, I have. In fact, I believe she’s named me, as well. We had a very interesting conversation while you slept— I’m sorry you missed it. Apparently, I was both brilliant and eloquent.” She released him. “Unfortunately, I have no idea what I said.”

He was so long silent that she grew disturbed. Eventually he said only, quietly, “You fool.”

“Why? Why am I a fool, Janus?” No reply. “Very well, then. But this fool, as you call her, is going to get you out of this alive.”

Demon-voice.

She expected him to startle or show fear, but his expression did not alter. He held her gaze.

She glanced toward the entrance, shifted to sit beside him, placing the talisman in front of them both. “They’re probably dropping off more food. Here— ” She had cut two more finger-ends from her right glove; she found ‘ them, passed them to him. “Put these in your ears; it will help with the noise.” He did so, awkwardly, one-handed. They waited, she watching the light grow and fade as the moths reacted to the demons’ movements; and he, when she glanced back, watching her, his face unreadable.

The voices went on: three of them. They continued too long to be a simple food drop. Rowan began to wonder if these demons were strangers to her, and she grew concerned. She found her sword, gestured to Janus that he was to remain where he was, and took the talisman. Stooping, she slowly walked forward, carefully keeping Janus protected directly behind her.

The light and voices had moved deeper into the cave, among the case-objects. Rowan approached near enough to recognize three of Tan’s males.

She returned to Janus, placed the talisman before him, and indicated that he was not to move. He made no response, neither by gesture nor nod. She left him.

Three bizarre creatures— the strangeness struck her even more forcefully now that she knew that they were intelligent. She had, while Janus slept, spent a long time considering the idea, examining it, with a deep and very steerswomanly delight . . .

But seeing the demons again, she realized that in her own mind she had subtly altered their shapes, adjusting them toward the human form, even to the addition of a shadowy suggestion of a head above the arms. How could you guess what a person was thinking without eyes to watch, a face to read?

No heads, no faces. Columnar bodies. Arms sprouting from the top.

Quadrilateral symmetry. It was very hard to see people in those strange shapes.

But these particular people were doing something, and having a lot of difficulty at it.

She approached slowly, not wishing to startle them; the smallest male did seem startled nevertheless, arms jerking upward and dropping several times during her approach.

She decided it was a habit of his. Some people, she told herself, are just nervous. But she stopped ten feet away.

The second demon, the largest and darkest colored of the three, was dragging something along the ground. It was nearly as large as he was.

The third demon was the speckled male; he stood to one side, either watching the dark male, watching Rowan, or regarding something else entirely— or doing all three. Rowan studied the gentle rise and fall of his arms, wondering what emotion or state of mind the movement might indicate. When, by pure guess, she decided that the males were accustomed to her presence, she came a bit closer; and even the jumpy male did not seem bothered by her.

The dark male was attempting to add the object he was dragging to one of the groupings of utterances. Unfortunately, it was so large that it immediately displaced all the other objects. All three males set to rearranging the collection around it.

Rowan sat on her heels, observing the process.

She had already determined that the utterances were not grouped by size or shape. Some other method of organization must operate, if the males were to have any chance at all of knowing where to find the ones they sought. The only other method the steerswoman could think of was a conceptual organization, with similar or related ideas grouped together. The males had obviously decided that this new object belonged among these others. Eventually, they completed their adjustments, and they stood around the group together in a moment of motionless demon regard.