Silent Dances (47 page)

Her optimism dimmed.

Sailor and Thunder peere
d at her. She rubbed off the snow as the pain

ebbed and redonned her robe
.
Time to go.

Tesa hovered on the sled as Sailor took his running start
, and Thunder

launched herself up. Circling the c
ry
stalline lake, they cleared the rim

of the caldera
,
heading east.

Tesa chewed on a piece of jerky and worried about Sailor. What was taking

him so long? Looking straight up, she checked on Thunder, who was still

perched on a high limb overhead.

They'
d stopped on the shore of Black Feather
'
s
ri
ver, by the edge of
the fo
re
st
. They
were ti
re
d
,
and they needed information
.
It was
harder now to talk to the Travellers since none of them would get within

capture distance of the Aquila. Tesa and Thunder had to camp while

Sailor followed
the river,
information gathe
ri
ng
. Today
was taking
longer than usual, but Tesa supposed she should expect that
.
The

closer they got to home
,
the more they needed to know.

Tesa fidgeted,
wonde
ri
ng where her gold and white child could be
,

when suddenly she spo
tt
ed him weaving his way along the
ri
ver
,
looking rushed
.
Thunder dropped down beside her.

"Things aren't ri
ght here
,
Good Eyes
,"
Sailor signed. "I've followed the
water for miles and there were no Travellers and the Blue Cloud people

who'd been here are gone
.
So I went into the fo
re
st
,
but it
'
s dese
rt
ed
,
food
ri
pe and uneaten, small nests and burrows abandoned
.
I
found no one who could tell me anything.

"Trees have been destroyed,"
Sailor continued
, "re
cently."

"
By lightning
?"
Tesa asked.

"Or something else," he answered grimly.
He tu
rn
ed to Thunder
. "
I
couldn
'
t find any of the high nests of your people."

"
How far does this èmpty' area extend
?"
Tesa asked.

"I couldn'
t find the end of it
,"
he signed
. "
I don't like it here
,
Good
Eyes."

Sailor'
s edginess was quickly transmitted to Thunder, who began

glancing a
ro
und ne
rv
ously
. "
I can circle the area from high," she
suggested. "Perhaps I can see where it ends."

"No," Tesa signed, "
you'd be too easy to spot
."
The p
ri
vateers could
have been terro
ri
zing the Aquila
,
but she'd have

231

thought the other animals would return in a day or two-unless, the privateers

were now using this area as a base of operations. She couldn't risk

stumbling onto the
c
ri
minals
if they were camped somewhere
in this
wood, but neither did she feel safe taking to the air.

Tesa pulled out her voder. She'd been afraid to turn it on since they'd left the

caldera. Perhaps she could watch for transmissions, without asking for a

coordinates check. They hadn't noticed her
until
she'd done that. It was a

risk. She bit her lip, turned the voder on, and began scanning.

When she didn't pick up anything, she couldn't decide whether to be relieved

or not. Tesa wanted to go, but knew they should stay. They were too tired to

travel anymore tonight.

"The humans who killed your father might be in this area, Thunder," Tesa

signed. "We'll have to keep watch for them. This device might hear them

communicating with others, so we'll have to take turns watching it through

the night. If the pattern changes in any way, wake me immediately. We'll

have to leave here quickly, in the dark."

The two youngsters looked at her gravely. None of them wanted to
run into

that
terrible killing machine. Sailor said he'd watch the voder first, so she

tied it to his back where he could keep an eye on it. Finding a spot in the

river, he pulled up one leg and rested. Thunder selected a high perch.

Tesa decided the rust-colored ground cover made a perfect resting place for

someone covered by a red and white Ripper skin. Pulling her robe over her,

she determined to get as much sleep as she could until it was her watch.

Thorn's earpiece beeped, and he was instantly awake and alert. He couldn't

afford grogginess these days, living alone in the wilderness. He peered at

his Mizari voder, realizing that someone was transmitting now in the late

afternoon. He'd taken to dozing during the day, since he had to move around

so much at night. That's when the privateers pulled off information from the

robot probes. That's when he could trace them.

Of course, Bruce hadn't stopped looking for him either. The meteorologist

had to have been furious when Thorn had slipped out at night over a week

ago. Since then, the blond biologist was forever being roused by Bruce's

attempts to communicate with him, his endless demands that Thorn return,

confess his

232

complicity in the c
ri
mes against T
ri
nity and Earth, blah, blah, blah. He
had wonde
re
d whether B
ru
ce would come after him, but the

weatherman
'
s messages insisted it wouldn
'
t be safe to leave "the
women" alone.

Thorn could just imagine Meg's and Szu-
yi's response to
that.

The biologist figured that Bru
ce was hoping his pa
rt
ners, the p
ri

vateers, would find Thorn and kill him
.
Then B
ru
ce could claim they
we
re
just eliminating one more competitor for their wealth
.
After all
,
as
soon as he'd left camp
,
someone had transmi
tt
ed a warning to the c
ri
minals
.
Since then
,
the p
ri
vateers had been cautious.

All the more reason why he needed to move quickly now. Thorn scanned the

data,
brow furrowed. Someone had opened a telecommunications line,

but wasn
'
t sending
an
y messages, as though they were just waiting

for something to come in. Could their contact person be late?

Keeping an
eye on his voder
,
he rolled up his sleeping bag and packed

it on his sled
.
The receiver was by Black Feather's
ri
ver
,
an area the p
ri
vateers preferred. Maybe one of them was reconnoite
ri
ng
.
It was

damned peculiar.

He checked the coordinates.
According to his readout, the receiver was

actually located
in
the ri
ver. Did that me
an
another glitch in the
program
?
Well, he wouldn
'
t know unless he checked it out. Thorn

hopped on his sled and took off.

It was dark by the time Thorn traced down the transmitter. The red dwarf star

the Gru
s called the Mother Sun was high in the sky, an incredibly b
ri

ght star
.
Of the th
re
e moons, only the Child was full, and it didn
'
t
throw much light.

Thorn piloted the sled manually, keeping it as low to the ground as he could.

He stayed in the shadows of the trees, overlooking the
ri
ver, but he

couldn
'
t see anything yet. Suddenly the coordinates on his voder

began to change. The receiver was leaving the
ri
ver
;
it was being car
ri
ed onto the shore
.
It came toward the forest
,
then stopped
.
When it
stayed in the same place for several minutes, Thorn cautiously

advanced.

Without warn
ing
,
something huge dropped on him from above
,

pinning the h
an
d that held his small repulsor gun with a viselike, scaly

g
ri
p. He felt knives stabbing into his left shoulder as he was pelted

with blows. A high
-
pitched keening

233

made him realize he was being attacked by an animal, but he was

helpless to fight back
.
Involuntarily his left hand yanked on the manual

control
,
making the sled tu
rn
upside down, dumping him and the

animal roughly onto the ground. Something stabbed his
ri
ght hand

painfully
,
and the repulsor went flying.

Thorn scuttled along on his back,
scrabbling to get free, but the creature

just shifted its hold, punctu
ri
ng him in new places. A shaft of

moonlight splashed across his attacker
,
and in that hor
ri
fying

moment Thorn realized
that he
was about to be killed by an Aquila
.

He'd known there had to be some connection between the huge

raptors and the p
ri
vateers
,
but now he would never know what it was.

He bucked wildly, desperately t
ry
ing to free himself before that hooked

bill to
re
open his throat. He had a sickening memo
ry
of Peter
'
s body
,
his org
an
s
ri
pped out, and in real terror he mo
an
ed.

The incongruous sound of a young Grus'
high-pitched peep rattled Thorn
'

s ears, sending tremors down his spine. The Aquila looked up and
,
to

Thorn
'
s dismay,
an
swe
re
d the Grus' call. But even more confusing
was the appearance of a tall humanoid figure
,
clad in skins, and the

unmistakable threat of a sharp stone
-
tipped spear p
re
ssed none too
lightly against Thorn
'
s throat
.
Beside the figure towered a young

Grus, his half-white plumage glistening in the dim moonlight.

The Grus signed something Thorn couldn'
t make out, then the Aquila

reluctantly clambe
re
d off him
.
Slowly
,
respecting the spearpoint
resting against his Adam
'
s apple, Thorn took in a shuddering breath
.

It was possible he
'
d struck his head; he could have a concussion.
I'm
probably hallucinating,
he thought.

The humanoid pulled the spear back,
gestu
ri
ng at him to get up. Thorn

couldn
'
t take his eyes off it
.
Its legs we
re
covered in
re
d and white fur,
the same fur as its full-body cloak
.
Its head was topped by the furred

skull of the skin's former owner
,
which shadowed the hum
an
oid's

face so much he couldn't determine sex, race, or planet of o
ri
gin
.

Besides, it was hard to concentrate while the Aquila continued to stare

at him hung
ri
ly
,
and the hum
an
oid appeared eager to run him
through.

He glanced, confused,
at the Grus
.
What the hell was
he
doing here?
The
re
was something familiar about the avian.

"Sailor?"
he signed,
amazed
.
The spear point jabbed him
234

cruelly in the chest
.
He glared at the humanoid
an
g
ri
ly. Had the p
ri
vateers captured Sailor alive
? "
Who a
re
you
?"
he demanded
. "
Show
me who you are!"

"Who am I?" the figure signed.
Stepping into the light, it pushed back the
massive Ripper head.

Thorn'
s legs gave out and he sagged to his knees with a gro
an
as Tesa

'
s yellow eyes stared at him in the moonlight. Thorn covered his face.

I'm dead
,
too. That has to be it.

The spear point touched his arm lightly.
He looked up into the face he
'
d

thought he'd never see again
.
How it had changed! She was gaunt
,

her eyes shadowed. The effect only enhanced her prominent nose. It

was the most beautiful face Thorn had ever seen
.
Struggling to his

feet
,
he held out his arms. "Tesa, oh, God
,
Tesa
,
you'
re
alive
!
I can
'
t
believe it
,
baby, come here."