The Sac'a'rith (20 page)

Felix chuckled and shook his head. “You have to admit that from their perspective it looks pretty suspicious.”

“Yes, Felix, it does. I don’t mind a bit; in fact, I am hoping that whoever it is stumbles upon some information that could be useful to us,” he said.

“So we don’t have much in the way of leads?” asked Crivreen.

“None at this point. I am hoping this station will provide one. If it doesn’t, then it’s back to fighting in random stations, hoping the forces behind this make a mistake,” he said. “Crivreen, Zah’rak, go ahead and do your shopping. Take your time and see the sights, but remember why we are here.”

We were not allowed to bring our weapons onto the station, so we disassembled them and hid their parts among our belongings. At least Crivreen still had his spells, so we were far from defenseless. We both wore our armor, but out here on the rim of the nation’s territory everyone did the same. “Remember, walk with confidence and we should blend right in,” I told Crivreen. He had a tendency to slouch and look at the ground. I knew from my previous life that this marked him as an easy target.

As we walked among the people on the station looking for a shop that sold leather-working tools, I could not help but think that soon they could all be walking dead and I would have to blow their heads off. I tried not to remember their faces; I did not want to have to think about them as I finished them off. I really hoped this plan worked; there were too many lives at stake.

“
It is probably best that we keep any talk about our plan to this private communication you taught me,
” I sent.

“
Telepathy, Zah’rak. It’s called telepathy
,” he replied. “
But yes, I agree.
”

“Let’s try further in. This kind of thing is not much in demand, so we might find something among the smaller shops,” I said.

“Sure,” he said aloud, but then privately, “
We are being followed.
”

“
Are you sure?”
I asked.

“
Yes. What do we do?”
he sent.

“
Follow me,”
I sent. I doubled back over the path we had just followed and moved into a much more crowded area. “
What does he look like?
”

“
I don’t know. I can just feel it,
” he sent.

After making as many confusing loops as I could in and out of stores with no sign of anyone following us, I resumed our original course. “
Keep an eye out for anyone on our tail, but for the present I am going to assume we lost them,”
I sent.

Eventually, in a section of the station that many would have referred to as the “wrong side”, we found a store that carried some tools made from natural materials. After carefully selecting the tools, I brought them to the shopkeeper to pay.

“Excellent choices! How would you like to pay?” he asked.

“Just bill my account,” I said and gave him the ID that I had been issued. He looked at it and the color drained from his face. “Is something wrong?”

He glanced at me and said, “Nothing, sir,” nervously putting through the transaction. “Everything looks good. Thank you for stopping in,” he said as he handed me my purchases.

“
That seemed odd
,” sent Crivreen as we left.

“
Yeah; let’s make it a point to stop back here later unannounced
,” I replied.

“Where to?” he asked.

“We have lots of time to kill. Did you see anything that interested you?” I asked.

“This station is famous for its botanical garden. It would be a shame to pass that up,” he said.

“You know, I don’t think I have ever heard of one before. What kind of place is that?” I asked. As a slave I did not get out much, and even since being freed I had not had much in the way of leisure time. I wondered what kinds of things I might not know I was missing.

“Well, it is a place with plants and flowers. It will make more sense once we are there. Come, I think I saw a sign for it this way,” he said.

It turned out he hadn’t even the slightest idea where the sign was that he had seen, and we ended up wandering around for hours. At each turn he insisted he knew where this garden was, and I was more certain that we were completely lost. I had to admit that was an impressive feat on a space station where every corridor was marked and maps were readily available.

Eventually we did find the garden, though I am sure it was more by virtue of pure luck than any success on Crivreen’s part. The garden was secured behind an airlock, and we had to wait in line to get in. While we were queueing, a mind-numbingly monotone automated announcer explained to us that the air temperature, humidity, and air mixture would be different from what we were used to, as it was optimized for the plant life. The voice droned on, saying that the air filtration system was shut off for that compartment, as the plants handled their own filtration. It may have said more than that, but it was impossible to focus on it for long without getting sleepy.

I am not sure what I was expecting when we finally got in there, but nothing could have prepared me for what we saw. As we came out of the airlock into the garden we were greeted with a wave of heat and humidity. I took a deep breath and the air felt cleaner and better than any I had ever breathed.

Looking around I saw more types of plants and trees than I had known existed. The planet I had spent my life on was quite barren, as were most worlds, so my prior exposure to vegetation had been extremely limited. I could not begin to guess how many different kinds of foliage there were in there.

There was something else too, something strange and exhilarating about being in there. I wandered away from the group that was marching down the predetermined tour path, and when no one was looking hopped over the barricade and disappeared into the vegetation. I found a place where I could not be seen and took off my gloves so that I could lay my hand directly on a tree.

I felt an invigorating power flow into me of an indefinable nature. The old scar on my shoulder from the wraith grew warm, as did the numerous scars on my neck and back. As the power flowed through me all my pains, weariness and doubts began to evaporate. There was great strength in that tree.

As I stood there my awareness expanded and I could soon see the whole chamber. I saw Crivreen searching for me, and the bored-looking tour group slowly marching on, following that droning voice like dutiful robots. I could see everything everywhere in the chamber. It was like I was connected to every plant in there and could see through them.

“
Crivreen, slip away from the group and I will meet up with you soon
,” I sent.

“
Where are you?
” he asked.

“
Among the plants. This place is wondrous beyond words
,” I replied.

“
If you get caught, we could be in big trouble
,” he sent.

“
No one is anywhere near me, but I need a few more minutes’ rest in here
,” I sent.

“
Rest?
” he queried.

“
No matter; meet me in the gift shop near the exit
,” I sent.

As much as I did not want to, I knew I had to get back to the mission. I used my newfound awareness of the room to watch another tour group move through and slipped out of the restricted area behind them. As I followed them through the garden, doing my best to look like another bored tourist, I felt the power of the life around me. It was almost intoxicating.

When I finally met up again with Crivreen he said, “You look refreshed.”

“Oh, come on,” I demurred.

“
No, seriously, you look ten years younger. What happened?
” he sent.

“
I feel fifty years younger, but we really must get back to our mission
,” I sent.

“Before we go, I want to pick something up,” he said and led me into the shop. “Do we have enough to pay for this?” he asked. In his hands was a long wooden pole, a little longer than he was tall, and several centimeters in diameter.

“A stick? Probably,” I said.

“
This is real, grown wood. It may be a very long time before we find more
,” he sent, then aloud he added, “And these?” he pointed to a bundle of sticks. They were much smaller and thinner than the wooden pole.

“Gather them up, and let’s go find out,” I said.
“What are they for?”

“
Jammer told me once that magi can embed spells into real wood sticks to turn them into wands. I do not know how to do that yet, but who knows when we might have another chance to find real wood?”
he sent back.

It turned out that the sticks and pole were more expensive than I would have thought, but the government-issued fake ID had enough credit to cover them. “
More fun for that special agent,
” I sent.

“
Well, these really could help fight the wraiths if I can just figure out how to make wands out of them,
” he sent.

We wandered around the station for a while longer, but came across nothing of interest. “We probably should get back to the ship now,” I said.

“Sure,” he said. “
But we are still being followed. I tried to make him lose our trail as we looked for the garden, but it didn’t work. Whoever it is, he is still on our tail.
”

“Are
you sure that isn’t a convenient excuse for being lost?”
I sent.

“
Lost? On a station? What kind of engineer do you take me for?
” he replied.

I didn’t understand what he meant and let it go. “
Let’s get back to the ship. If someone is following us, we will lose them at the airlock.
”

We made it back to the ship without incident. Once on board I took off my armor and noticed that my arm was moving better. It had been just a little stiff ever since the encounter with the wraith.

“Hey!” said Felix.

“What?” I asked.

“The scars on your neck are gone,” he said.

“What happened on the station?” asked Narcion.

“Nothing much; we got the supplies and Crivreen found a garden,” I said. I felt my neck and couldn’t locate the bumps of the scars. The constant ache from them was gone, too; and my back, which had been covered with scar material, also felt more flexible.

“A garden?” he asked.

“Yeah,” said Crivreen. “Supposedly the largest botanical garden in any space station in the area or something like that.”

Narcion grinned broadly at that and said, “Felix, then that’s our first stop!”

“A garden? Really?” asked Felix as he got his armor on.

“If we need a rally point on the station at any time, it will be that garden,” said Narcion. “Anything else to report?”

I told him about the exchange with the shopkeeper when we had purchased the tools, and he chuckled and said, “Look at your ID again.”

I pulled it out and looked at it. I hadn’t paid much attention to it before. Narcion had requested them because he did not want to tip anyone off that we were on the station. He hoped that by using one of their IDs we could blend in as just another set of government agents and escape detection.

“Wow, I’m a police officer!” I exclaimed.

We spent several more days on Bonair, waiting. Each time Crivreen and I traveled to the station he was sure we were being followed. I never saw any signs of a tail, nor could Crivreen ever point to anything specific. Neither Narcion nor Felix sensed another presence, and even Crivreen was beginning to doubt himself.

The delay gave me plenty of time to finish Crivreen’s armor. The new tools made it much easier to make progress with the work, compared to those I had had previously. Crivreen pulled on the leather tunic over his armor and it merged into it, just as it had when I had done the same. Soon his armor was the same deep green color as my own.

“Wow,” said Felix as he watched Crivreen’s armor change. “Now that’s cool.”

“Thanks,” I said. “I will start yours tomorrow.”

Felix thought about that for a bit, then said, “Thanks, Zah’rak, but maybe you should do Narcion’s next, since I can wrap myself in a shield.”

Before I could respond, Narcion said, “Nonsense. You need warning to get your shield up. The armor needs no warning, nor will you get any. Carry on as planned.”

“Thanks,” said Felix. “Say, if he can enchant armor, what about weapons?”

“Yes, he can do that, or at least I have heard that enchanters can. I don’t myself know how, but I plan to find out. First, though, we need to get everyone into decent armor,” said Narcion.

“We much appreciate that,” said Crivreen with a smile.

After that, Crivreen and I headed back to the station for our rounds. As we walked, we talked about the things we had seen on the station so far. We compared the prices of various merchants and the quality of various eateries. Our goal was to continue to look like any other regulars on the station.

“
Let’s find a place where I can sit and use Sight to look around. If we really have a tail I should see something, I think,
” I sent.

We found a quiet café and selected a secluded table. We ordered some drinks, and while pretending to relax I closed my eyes and searched the station around me with only my mind. Crivreen was defined in sharp, clear color, but the rest of the people on the station were slightly out of focus and bland. I sat there looking around for a while, not thinking anything worthy of note when I suddenly felt something wrong on the station.

I opened my eyes and looked over to Crivreen, who sent, “
Yes, I felt it too. We’d better move.
”

“
The garden is much closer than the ship. We can hide there, but I think we’d better move fast,”
I sent.

He nodded in the affirmative and I touched off an alert to Narcion. I followed Crivreen as he moved quickly and directly towards the garden, completely unlike his detour on our last visit. It was not until we arrived that I remembered the long line to get in. “
Now what?
”

“
Follow me,”
he sent.

We went around the side of the gift shop where the exit was and waited. They kept the back door locked from the inside to force everyone to wait in line around the front, in an attempt to keep order. Without warning he started walking towards the exit and, just as he arrived at the door, an older woman was struggling to get through it with all her bags.