Seeds of Earth (50 page)

Josu smiled.
'Ortka
root - it is common to this area and its core sap is easy to extract. For the Uvovo it relaxes the muscles and thoughts but for Humans it is a mind-taker.'

'And how quickly does it act?'

'I once saw a Human treated with it, an elder female who had injured herself while travelling far away in Segrana - it took effect in four, perhaps five heartbeats.'

Cat nodded. 'Well, this guy is young, fit and welltrained, so have several doses prepared.'

After that they moved swiftly on from Sweetseed, Listener Josu racing ahead to organise the gathering of the
ortha
while the young scholar returned to his injured comrades and Cat progressed at the
trictra's
more sedate speed, a tense anxiety thrumming in her neck and shoulders. The further the hunt moved away from the site of the explosion, the more forest creatures were out and about foraging or engaged in hunts of their own. Focusing her mind on the bond with Segrana, her senses widened and spread outwards, showing her glimpses of what Segrana saw, the sounds she heard, and other sensations for which taste and smell were only approximations. Just as she could still feel the deathpain of the Uvovo killed by the Ezgara self-destruct and the sorrow of the others' loss, she could also sense the second Ezgara, his passage through the green weave of forest-floor undergrowth, his relentless, crushing pace. Segrana knew,
felt
him journeying through her but she needed Catriona to look, to see, to find and not to yield.

Thus Cat caught flashes of him in the gloom with the eyes of a bird or a reptile or a baro, his speed slowing gradually, since he probably reckoned that he had outstripped his pursuers. By now, Cat had caught up with the body of Josu's scholars, who deferred to her with a reverential attitude she didn't feel was justified, yet she was too preoccupied to make a show of disapproval. Then Listener Josu arrived with two local Listeners, one short, one tall, both Of them wizened but wiry. Also he brought three cloth pouches, each containing four reed stalks, their tips sharpened, firehardened and soaked in gleaming
ortha
sap. These he gave to three trusted scholars with the instruction that the intruder be struck on his bare skin with three stalks. Then he introduced the two locals to Cat - the tall one was called Gruanu, the short one Hiskaja and pointed out that they knew of an ideal place for an ambush. Cat listened, questioned them and Josu, thought on it for a moment or two and gave her assent.

'Don't forget, Josu,' she said. 'We need this one alive.'

'This we understand, Pathmistress.'

Half an hour later, the final moves of the pursuit were played out among the shadowy trees that clustered near the foot of a sheer, mossy cliff. In the murky gloom, groups of Uvovo converged on the Ezgara's position only to veer off or retreat, feints meant to distract or startle. Then another group made their way from branch to branch overhead, moving above the intruder, prompting him to open fire - when he did so, they dropped nets full of leaves, small forest creatures and even a
pagma
nest or two to confuse him while the Uvovo on the ground started racing towards him from all directions.

Realising the danger, he swung his autorifle down and fired off an arc of razor splines, not seeing the pair of Uvovo swinging down out of the branches. They crashed onto his shoulders and knocked him to the ground. He twisted as he fell, lower arms producing blades that hacked and stabbed, slashing one Uvovo open diagonally from shoulder to hip while the other rolled and ducked out of range.

He had barely got to his feet when two more Uvovo burst up out of the ground and ran at him, dragging between them a rope that hooked his feet from under him. He fell, arms flying wide, and one daring Uvovo lunged in with a weighted sticky net, tangled it around the Ezgara's weapon and wrenched it out of his grasp. After that it was almost a free-for-all with most of the Uvovo diving on the intruder, trying to tie up his limbs and subdue him.

Cat had guided her
trictra
onto a tree branch overhead and watched as they bound up his artificial lower arms then pulled off the helmet and armoured jacket, coping as swiftly as they could with unfamiliar clips and fastenings. As soon as the man's neck and chest were uncovered, two of the pouch-carriers came in close, the third lying wounded off in the dark. Three drugged reeds punctured the man's skin, then everyone hurriedly retreated to watch from about 20 feet away. The Ezgara, who was definitely Human, writhed and struggled against his bonds but his movements quickly slowed until only his head was moving, sluggishly shaking from side to side as if in denial, his mutters slurring and eventually falling silent, motionless.

Then began the wait. Cat knew that it had taken roughly five minutes from the point when the first Ezgara was captured to his self-destruction, so she was determined to let fifteen minutes elapse this time. Silence fell in the darkening jungle, abandoned by larger creatures chased away by the violent confrontation. At last, when the vigil was over, Listener Josu approached cautiously while Cat directed her
trictra
down to the forest floor. A couple of the Uvovo brought out
ineka
beetles so at least there was a little light.

'He is unconscious, Pathmistress,' Josu said. 'And he will remain so for the rest of the night.'

Four or five hours,
Cat reckoned as she knelt beside the sleeping man.
I hope that's enough time to get that bomb out of you.

He was handsome, in a graze-cut, square-jawed way, dark-haired, thick eyebrows, quite full lips - in fact, there was a vaguely Scandic look to him. Peering closer, she saw that he had a small symbol tattooed just beneath his right ear, a red wolf's head. Then she laid her hand on his chest, just below his neck, but as soon as she touched his skin she gasped and snatched her hand away. Nervous whispers passed around and some of the UvovO began to back off.

'What did you feel, Pathmistress?' said Josu from nearby.

Felt and saw,
she thought. There had been a feeling of great danger from under the man's skin ... and a strange, momentary vision she decided to keep to herself.

'Something inside him,' she said. 'Something ...' She touched his face and his uncovered hands with one fingertip and got the same sensation.

'In his blood,' said someone.

Glancing round she saw the two local Listeners staring down at the man, those sunken eyes wide and unblinking, an intense, twofold gaze.

'His blood?' said Cat.

'A strange fluid, invisible to his body's defences,' said the taller one.

'. . . but dangerous,' said his short companion. 'When mingled with the other fluid . . .'

Cat grimaced - they were describing a binary explosive, two inert liquids which became unstable when mixed. So the other component had to be in some sort of container that shared a membrane with a main artery . ..

The shorter Listener seemed to read her mind and leaned forward to prod the sleeping man's chest. 'Here, a sac lies by the blood flow.' Those hooded, piercing eyes regarded her. 'Remove the blood-borne fluid by filtration and he will live. Otherwise . . .'

'Filtration?' She knew that Uvovo healers employed certain kinds of filtration roots in response to particular maladies, removing impurities from the blood. But for Humans . . .

'Could that work for a non-Uvovo?' she asked Josu. 'For a Human?'

'It has never been practised on a Human,' Josu said. 'It may kill him, Pathmistress, but left alone he would choose death, that much is clear.'

She nodded. 'Aye, there's more than just a touch of death-or-glory conditioning about them, that's for sure. Okay, we'll do it - while keeping a close eye on his wellbeing.'

With this agreed, the Listeners directed the strongest of the Scholars to carry the bound and sleeping sol her at shoulder height while others helped the injured or brought along the bodies of the Uvovo who had die! in the fight. As she watched them move off in procession, her thoughts went back to the strange vision that had flashed into her mind's eye while examining the Human Ezgara - for one vivid instant she had seen Greg, lying seeming asleep at the foot of a curious, many-stemmed bush from which several pale tendrils trailed to either side of his head, joined to the skin. Chel sat nearby, swathed in long, dark robes, keeping watch over him.

Why had Segrana shown her this? Was it a concocted image meant to allay her fears, or a glimpse of something that was real?

For a moment she put a hand over her eyes, finger and thumb massaging an ache in her temples. Then she straightened and called her
trictra
over, knowing her personal worries would have to wait until this situation was resolved.

49

CHEL

It was late afternoon, almost twenty-four hours since the escape from the Hegemony envoy's fortified villa and more than twenty since their arrival at Glenkrylov, a daughter-forest situated in a shallow valley a few miles south of Waonwir. It had been Cheluvahar's idea to bring Greg here in the hope that the root-scholars might find a way to draw out the enslaving dust of the Dreamless. The scholars persevered for many hours, testing a variety of bush and vine filter roots in different combinations until Chel, with his singular perceptions, was able to confirm that they had arrived at a safe and effective arrangement. After Greg had been sedated with
ortha
root extract, Chel settled down to keep watch with all his eyes, studying the diminishing presence of those baleful motes.

At the same time he was coping with a steady stream of visitors, Uvovo who were arriving at the forest in twos and threes or more, fleeing the towns and especially Hammefgard, where squads of Brolturan troops were detaining all Uvovo 'on suspicion of collusion with terrorist agitators'. It seemed that the new Unity government had quickly brought in repressive measures in exchange for Brolturan aid in securing law and order. Paradoxically, one of these measures had been the disbanding and disarming of the Darien Volunteer Corps, as well as the reorganisation of local law enforcement and the arming of certain police units.

So these escaped Uvovo had to be provided with food and shelter (and healing in some cases), then formed into small bands and dispatched to those secret Burrows and other refuges off in the western hinterlands. Then there was his role as Seer, which carried the previously unsuspected burden of providing reassurance as well as arbitration in disputes between Listeners. After some eleven hours of this he could feel his mind crumbling under the strain, his perceptions gnawed at by weariness. So, covering his eyes, he left Greg in the care of the healer Najuk, and went to climb a nearby beholder tree, seeking relaxation and a change of perspective.

Beholder trees were chosen for their height and sturdiness, which meant that they were usually
rakins,
on both Umara and the moon. Also, their bark had many knots and wrinkles which provided plentiful hand- and footholds. As he climbed, Chel could feel the kinks and aches beginning to ease, and his torpidity dissolve as the exercise stirred his essential forces. He breathed deep as he moved higher, enjoying the odours and sensation of replenishment that percolated through him.

About a third of the way to the canopy, voices came to him through the leaves, Human voices, and he slowed to seek out the source. Then clambered up onto a thick limb and saw them seated and sprawled on a matted platform fixed to the forked branch of a nearby tree.

Seeing Rory and one of the Firmanov brothers among them he waved and Rory waved back.

'How's that patient o' yours, Chel?'

'Much better,' Chel called across. 'He improves by the hour.'

'Any chance he'll be back on his feet in a coupla hours?'

Chel shook his head. 'Not before tomorrow, I think, Rory. When he wakes he will be weak and will need food and rest. Are you planning to leave the forest?'

'Aye .. . well, mebbe, when we've figured out how tae go lookin' for the Major.'

'Will you be going soon?'

'In a few hours, I reckon - we'll drop in and say our g'byes before we scarper.'

Chel nodded and they exchanged waves again as he resumed his climb.

A short while later he reached one of the cloudsteps, the highest and narrowest of the beholder trees' platforms. A cold and steady breeze stirred the surrounding foliage, bringing fleeting fragrant whiffs, and he could feel the entire trunk sway very slightly. All around were masses of rustling leaves, of shifting treetops over which insects darted and buzzed, tempting birds to swoop and snatch in midflight. Occasional afternoon sunshine broke through the clouds yet it was dry and warm, the air so clear that he could look eastward across the grey expanse of Loch Morwen to the small islands clustered near the mouth of the Gangradur River.

More important, however, was the northerly prospect, the cliffs that rose to meet the lower slopes of ridges, and the mountain spur whose eastern extremity was Waonwir. Chel had heard a variety of rumours about the temple site from arriving Uvovo: the Brolturans were going to use it as a prison for dissi dents, or they were going to demolish it, or they were going to build a fortress on it. Whatever the truth, they were definitely doing something up there - last night one of the forest scholars had been up in one of the other beholders and had seen a harsh white glow emanating from the top of the promontory. Now, as he peered at that distant, dark grey mass, there was no sign of such illumination but he could see a small dark speck take off and race towards Hammergard.

He recalled the prescient words of the spectral Pathmaster -
the Hegemony will shortly control Umara . . . soon they will be walking in this very chamber . . .
The words had been shocking but he could never have guessed that they would come true so soon. Such a possibility had not occurred to him when he stole aboard the zeplin that transported Greg down to the city, and now the fate of Listener Weynl and the others, both Uvovo and Human, was a mystery. The same was true of other Listeners like Faldri, Eshlo Shikellik and Murnil, and until now Chel had not realised how much they had come to rely on the Humans' communication devices to knit their far-flung communities together.