Voices of Chaos (36 page)

It was almost too much to take in.
What has happened out there since I
gathered in An-Lieye and fled?
Could someone-- this League--really have captured Alexis and Magdalena? A League that seemed to think itself one of the new rebel groups, or so it sounded. But funded and directed by his father....

My father has taken the CLS women? He will murder them, once he
persuades the Emperor to do what he has these young fools ask in order to
make the exchange!

He had to do something--but he couldn't think! Follow that guard-captain?

No. Foolish. He couldn't be certain who the guard was, and the fellow had been warned to watch for followers. And he would be armed with a talon. If Zhik weren't killed on the spot, he'd be brought back here to face his father's fury, or taken where the women were being held and all three killed....
Get
out of the holding, now, before you lose your courage entirely,
he ordered himself.

It took time for him to reach the outside unobserved. Muttering apologies under his breath to Rewo--the elder he had planned to retrieve Zhik at full dark--the young noble pulled the deep clerk's hood over his head and went straight to vehicle storage. As he'd hoped, there were several of the plain, old, closed flyers his father kept, and neither the entry nor the combust-codes had been changed since he'd lived on the estates. As long as he didn't attempt to cross the borders of his father's vast holdings, he'd be safe. Flyers like this were everywhere on Zhenu's lands, used by clerks, servants, and guards alike. Recordkeeping here was inadequate and seldom up to date. It would be nearly impossible to keep track of all the flyers, anyway: There were so many of them, and the need changed daily. Hourly, even.

The old-style flyers weren't as useful as his own flitter would have been, but he didn't plan on needing anything but

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quick transportation away from the holding, somewhere near the hut. He entered the nearest vehicle, then hesitated: He could hide it.
No. You take
this as a clerk, and you operate it as one would, leaving it in Rewo's village
on the blocks outside the officials' hut.
It wasn't that odd for a flyer to be left, so: if two of the Duke's came separately to one place and went on together to another.

He
had
the shuttle, near the hut, if there was need for speed or another off-planet trip.

The single track into Rewo's village would be deserted at this hour: Field Arekkhi would be dozing under portable shelters out among the crops and herd-beasts until the heat of day faded. Those few who remained in the village would be inside their houses or apartments, shutters and doors tightly fastened.

He'd be seen as one of the
zhez's
many clerks, piloting a flyer according to Zhenu's order. The flyer would settle onto the blocks provided, and a clerk-clad Arekkhi would enter the town center. That might raise a few pulses in anxiety but generally would cause no open reaction. Once inside he'd remove the highly visible white clerk's robe that he'd fortunately worn over the thin brown one he kept in the hut as a disguise, and leave a message with Rewo's she, if he had not yet returned. Someone would come to retrieve the clerk's robe well after dark.

And then--but he couldn't plan any farther than that....

An-Lieye was as anxious as he'd feared, though he'd barely been gone half the day. "It is fine. I am all right, safe. And you are safe. Here, sit, let me touch you." She leaned against him as he laid a soft hand on her cheek and rubbed the backs of her hands in turn. "I found where your family is, An-Lieye. They are alive, but we will need help to rescue them." She looked up at him, eyes wide. "They were moved to Mibhor, the zhona-silk factory." Her ears quivered with distress again. "No, it is all right, they have only been there a short while, two nine-days. But to get into the factory pens--I will have to think hard how to do this safely."

She gently touched his face with her open palm to get his attention.
Prince
Khyriz will help us,
she mouthed and signed.

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The Prince searched for my mother, my family. But, he could not find them.

Zhik stared at her blankly. "Khyriz? You never said that before!"

She hesitated, then went on, so rapidly he had to get her to repeat.
It was not
my secret. I swore not to ever tell, for his safety, that no one would know
what he did. But now... Prince Khyriz has searchers, he goes himself. They
find Asha, and move them to safety. For two years at least they have done
this, all across Arekkhi. He has tried to find my family, but at the time Fahara
brought me to Ebba, they were moved to a village where it was dangerous
for him to send his rescuers. After that, they were moved again, and he could
not find them then.

"I didn't know," he murmured. "Khyriz? I had no suspicion!" He emitted a weak spat of laughter. "My pleasure-loving, nonpolitical cousin! Apologies, An-Lieye," he added hastily, and touched her face again. "That was not disrespect. Yes, Khyriz can help us. He helped--no, not important." He couldn't possibly mention Ah-Naul to her.

She brushed his hand to get his attention once more and signed,
Eat. Drink.

He gestured a negative; the very thought of food nauseated him.
Yes! Eat.

Drink.
And she would not leave him alone until he swallowed bread, washed it down with lukewarm tea. She was right: food took some of the haze from his mind.

"There is something else I learned," he said finally, and told her what he'd overheard about Magdalena and Alexis. "I must talk with Khyriz as soon as possible, and I must go alone, tonight." She gestured an urgent
no!
at that.

He tried to be firm. "An-Lieye, I must! It is dangerous out there for you. If you are seen--"

I am safe only with you!
she replied, and now her eyes were angry. I
go with
you. Prince Khyriz will help.
He would have protested, but she turned away from him and began to move around the room, touching things with nervous hands, clasping and unclasping her fingers on her wrists. Suddenly she turned back to face him and signed,
Tell me again, the women. What the
guard said. Cavern?
He couldn't understand her swift

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change of thought at first; then couldn't follow the gestures for what she was trying to ask. She had to mouth it slowly and in exaggerated fashion, twice, before he understood.

"Apologies, An-Lieye. He said a cavern--but there are so many caverns in this part of Akkherif!"

Not just cavern. You said, a wall--where a wall?

He had to close his eyes, rethink the moment. "He said there is a wall blocking the outside--"

Her eartufts quivered.
Yes. Cavern. Enclosed cavern. I know it.
There was more, and it took even longer for him to understand.

"A place built by villagers, years ago, where Asha could escape and then hide, until havens were found for them." He stared beyond her. Zhenu's guard must have discovered it at some point. The Asha who might have been there; any who were helping them.... He couldn't think about it.

It would do the women no good, anyway. Alexis and Magdalena were his task. An-Lieye's family and Fahara.
And you are Zhik, the Iron Duke's weak
offspring.
Even Hyorr dismissed him with contempt. No matter; he couldn't let that slow him, either.

Perhaps it would even aid him. Everyone knew Khyriz was a pleasure-loving, indolent young royal, fond of dance, the outsider women--particularly the translator--and fine clothing. He distanced himself from serious arguments, avoided politics, spent most of his time in his manor house by the sea, employing artisans to enrich the interior, gardeners to beautify the outside.
No one would suspect Khyriz, if Asha were missing. I only went to
him for Ah-Naul because I knew he has a kind heart. No one will suspect
Zhenu's weak son of--of what I will do now.

Should he attempt to enlist Khyriz for this? No. His cousin's estates were hours away, and there was no way to know if he'd be there. Zhik knew better than to use any communicator on his father's lands to reach Khyriz; they were always monitored, and someone would know at once who called and from where. Besides, delay might prove fatal for the women. "An-Lieye, will you tell me where this cavern is?"

She gestured a firm negative.
No. But I will show you.

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He argued with her, but she countered all his fears and his logic with the same response.
I show you. I go with you. I am safe only with you.

The sun was lower in the sky; he finally had to give up. "You stay with me, An-Lieye. We'll find a way to rescue the CLS women, and then I'll take us all immediately to Khyriz's manor. We can be safe there. Even my father wouldn't dare attack Khyriz. We can make sure Fahara is safe." He'd tried to use the threat to Fahara as an argument earlier. An-Lieye saw it as an even stronger reason to stay with him. It was only with difficulty that he made her promise to wait in the old storage, near the shuttle, where he donned the clerk's white once more so he could retrieve the flyer. A shuttle abroad on Zhenu's lands might attract attention, and the ground-cart would be useless.

As he tugged the hood over his ears, though, An-Lieye's fingers clutched his arm.
Swear,
she mouthed urgently.

He couldn't blame her for the fear that he'd simply choose to keep going, once he reached the flyer; he knew it came from who and what she was.

Still, that she continues to doubt me...
It was frustrating; he knew it wasn't her fault. "I swear it, An-Lieye. By my love, I swear." The set of her ears was no less anxious, but she let go of him and stepped back in deep shadow beyond the shuttle to wait. He checked the track leading to the village, and the land on both sides of it. What he could see of the fields beyond the village. No one in sight, except a few distant Arekkhi harvesting grain.

Someone might see him coming from this direction and wonder--but no villager would speak to what they saw as a clerk, and no villager would speak of him to anyone outside their own, lest word reach Zhenu and the village be blamed for something.

He could hear the high, vibrant cries of young somewhere nearby but saw no one; the flyer rose smoothly from its blocks. He took it a short distance along the track to the next village, but as soon as the last hut was out of sight behind a ledge, he brought it as high as it would go above ground and turned it toward An-Lieye. He had to show himself before she would come out, just as he'd asked. Even the thought of her stepping

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from hiding to find the flyer was one carrying Zhenu's guards had nearly cost him his bread earlier.

It took time, which made him nervous. He tried to hide his fears, knowing they upset her. But at first she couldn't tell where they were. In the end, he had to pilot the flyer most of the distance to her old village, silently reminding himself that they would have had to go that far anyway. And from there, things went quickly. The afternoon was still overly warm--an hour most Arekkhi would still be at rest, and only those who worked the land or tended herds would be about once more. Zhik eased the flyer into the partial shelter of a wide ravine, settling it as much in shade as possible. Back where the ravine was too narrow for the flitter to go, An-Lieye seemed to think there was a way up. He glanced her way as he shut down the machine. She was bent over the small erasable writepad Fahara had given her, drawing a rough map, mostly marks and written description: cave, path, shelter.

He wasn't good with maps, he knew. But he studied this one with care, then released the back hatch. An-Lieye brushed down her robes, tucked the pad back in her pocket, and followed him.

She is not as fragile as you see her,
he reminded himself. An-Lieye had come from these lands. It was useless to argue with her again, anyway. He waited for her outside the flyer and lifted her down, brushed her hand through his near whiskers, and sealed the hatch.

For one who had only been here as a very young she, his Asha had not forgotten much: The ravine was steeper than he liked, and her blue was smudged with dirt when they reached the top. She touched his arm, indicated
down,
and wrapped the thin fabric around one hand so she could crouch low and work her way across the open. The footing here was all rough stone, pitted with deep holes. Zhik kept a wary eye around them, but they reached the far side of the plateau without incident. An-Lieye eased herself cautiously into a shallow depression near the edge and, once he was next to her, signed for him to look down.

The drop was even higher on this side. He could hear water running somewhere down there, and the land that sloped

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gently up and away from the ledge was blue-green, dotted with brush and trees. Perhaps a hundred long paces farther, more red stone loomed, pitted with caves. An-Lieye touched his hand to get his attention and pointed down. A narrow track had been cut into the stone here; hard to see in the gloom, but his foot found a smoothed step just below their perch. She tugged at his sleeve, gestured far down the line of caves, and mouthed,
There is the
wall.

He had to stare for some time before he could see it; it was well back within the opening, far enough that only the contrast between rough stone and flat unnatural surface--and their angle here--let him pick it out. Movement caught his eye then, and he eased lower, pulling her down with him. A black-clad Arekkhi moved lazily into the open, looked down the line of caves and across the open, stretching and yawning, then went back out of sight. Guard, Zhik assumed. If he had a hand-weapon, it wasn't in sight.

Weapon,
he thought suddenly. I
did not even think to find a weapon.
But his plan called for stealth; find the women and bring them out unnoticed. One young noble with very poor aim would stand no chance against trained guards anyway. He turned to An-Lieye, who was watching him anxiously.