Memento Mori, Chapter 25
Apr. 23rd, 2012 01:30 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
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memento_mori_11 Blink might have decided to trust that her little would-be saviours had good intentions at heart, but the further she followed the feeble glow from the lantern, the less sure she became that they weren’t unwittingly leading her into a worse situation than she’d been in moments before. Where the tiny creatures could walk almost upright with comparative ease, the fessine was reduced to an awkward squirm on her stomach. With insufficient room to properly flex her arms or legs, and aching, swollen fingers that refused to bend, she could only push herself along with her toes, and the going was painfully slow.
You’re going to get stuck, Bee, her pessimism reminded, again. Many more of these tight corners, and you’re going to be stuck in here forever. That’s if it doesn’t get even narrower, of course. You had thought of that, right?
Shut up, she told herself, sternly, biting back a whimper and shoving with her toes, trying to concentrate. Wasn’t exactly as if a plethora of options presented themselves, right now! So what if going forwards was difficult? Going backwards would be completely impossible. She had to just keep going, pushing on forwards, just keep going, Bee, don’t stop or you’ll freeze up. Why oh why did you decide this was a good idea.
Blink clenched her jaw and fixed her gaze on the tiny light, worming her way around increasingly awkward corners, squeezed on all sides by cold metal plate. It felt cold and hostile against her naked skin – an unfriendly vice, angry at her intrusion, slowly tightening around her. Her spindly frame made the tight junctions a fraction easier to squeeze her way around, but her long legs jammed painfully across the tighter corners and twice she almost got stuck completely. At least the decades of blown-in dirt and moisture and algae gave the cold metal a little slip. She swallowed hard over the fear bubbling up at the back of her throat.
This is not a grave. You are not going to become trapped. Just don’t panic, oh please don’t, don’t panic-! But her common sense may as well have been shouting into a storm. Her back felt rigid, inflexible as a board. The walls pressed down on her, squeezing inwards. Every second that passed, moving grew harder and the confines tighter.
With tears of fright already welling in her eyes, the sudden disappearance of the lantern was the last straw. Her heart momentarily stopped. No. No! Oh, sweet Unmaker no-! Terror clutched long fingers around her throat, choking off her breath. She thrashed involuntarily against the unyielding confines, simultaneously trying to back up and somehow bend the metal to her will, but the blunted claws on her toes scrabbled uselessly at the shiny metal and her aching palms wouldn’t grip on the dirt.
“Oh mercy, oh please, get me out of here, oh please, please get me out-” Her voice echoed back at her off the tight walls, mocking, and her words fractured into incoherent whimpering. She closed her eyes, squeezed her palms together in a futile attempt to stop them shaking. Don’t panic. The walls aren’t moving. Don’t panic. Breathe.
A little chirp from up ahead attracted her attention. Steeling her nerve, she managed to pry her eyelids up just enough to find the owner of the lantern peering back in at her, its silhouetted head cocked quizzically to one side.
“...don’t you make fun of me!” Her shaky words came out more like sobs. “You-you led me down here and now I’m stuck and oh gods, please somebody get me out...”
You can either keep going or go back. If it’s a corner you can’t get around, you’re going to have to make your way backwards. It wasn’t too many twists and turns – left, up, right – you can make it if you’re determined.
Lantern clicked and beckoned, before vanishing again.
Blink manage to squash her fright for long enough to appraise the situation; if the bug had just gone round a corner, she should still be able to see some of the glow of the light, correct? But the golden glow had completely disappeared, meaning...
As her eyes adjusted, she worked out that the pale rectangle a body-length in front of her was not just another sheet of unkind metal, but a velvet blue night sky freckled with tiny bright stars, and distant hills. The outside.
The outside!
Gripped by a sudden urgency, Blink resumed the tortuous squirm along the air-duct with a renewed vigour, determined not to spend even a second longer down here than she absolutely had to.
She finally emerged to wonderful, soothing moonlight that felt bright as midday sunshine to her vision-starved eyes, and a wide ledge that ran along the wall, as far as the eye could see both up and down river, forming a serviceable little quay. She clawed at the ground just below her with her fingers, thrashing her way out into the cold midnight air, finally slumping free of her cramped prison in an ungainly rush.
The cold, rough stone felt unexpectedly wonderful. Just being able to lay down, to sprawl out over it? Bliss, after so long held unable to move. The fessine flattened herself onto the quay, trying to get as much skin in contact with the cold surface as possible, and let the chill seep into her aching muscles.
The gentle lulling of the sluggish estuary alongside made her throat cramp and her tongue feel huge and swollen, sticking to the roof of her mouth. She hadn’t realised she was quite so dehydrated until the smell of the river filled her nostrils, and even the brackish tang of this tidal run smelt delicious. She watched the water swirl past just below, the wavelets threaded with reflected moonlight.
One of the danata gave an encouraging chirp and tugged on one of her toes. Come on. Blink glanced tiredly sidelong at it, and it pointed down into the water. Letting her gaze follow in the direction it was pointing, she saw a small boat bobbing on its moorings, down below. Lantern looked like it was busy preparing the vessel for launch.
“You want me to go down there?” Blink wondered, uneasily. Even her small body would dwarf the little ship. They weren’t seriously expecting her to get into it?
The inscrutable brown face quirked to one side, antennae waving, and pointed.
“Yes?” Blink wondered how to get the point across. “You want me to climb down to the boat?” She nodded, hoping that the danata would echo the motion if it agreed with her.
After another confused glance at the boat, the insect gave a long, uncertain swoop of its head that seemed to be intended as a nod.
Hoping it was actual agreement, and not just a confused mimic – it had seemed to understand her, previously, after all – Blink crawled awkwardly to the edge, and peered down to the water, ominously far below. How was she supposed to get down there, just... jump? Her stomach contracted at the idea. Anything could be lurking just below the glittering night-time surface – dangerous predators, jagged debris? Even something as simple as the bottom, ready and waiting to break her leg when she fell.
One of her new friends chirped and flickered its wings, clinging to a structure built into the quayside – a ladder. Oh, thank goodness. At least they weren’t expecting her to leap into the unknown. Now happy it had her attention on the way down, the danata fluttered up off it, buzzed low across the water and onto the boat. Blink watched it fly, enviously.
All right. She looked back down at the ladder – rickety, some of the lowest rungs broken off altogether – and licked her cracked lips, uneasily. Her hands cramped, in sympathy. Come on. You can do this, she encouraged herself. You just have to climb down.
Then what? Drown? You’ve never swum, ever. You’ll swim like a rock.
Ignoring the sniping of her pessimistic side, Blink made her cautious way down the rusty ladder; what had held up easily under the danata’s diminutive weight creaked ominously when she put her toes onto the first rung. The wood felt squashy and well-rotted under her pads. She inched her way down, carefully, wrapping her arms around the uprights for security.
Anticipating water deep enough that she would be forced to swim, the exhausted woman almost fell straight onto her backside when she stepped down into the river and her feet sank into clinging mud, hidden beneath murky water barely knee-deep. “Ah!” Alarmed, she fell back against the ladder, grabbing at it with both arms around the precarious rungs, to stop herself sinking out of sight forever. It felt like her heart only resumed its erratic, frightened beating when her feet stabilised and stopped sinking.
One of her rescuers gave an encouraging noise and patted the boat’s gunwales. Come on!
“I can’t.” Attempting to lift one foot, the other sank a corresponding amount. She could feel her breath quickening in fright. “I’m stuck.”
See, see! her pessimism cried out, triumphantly. Trapped in the mud, you’re either going to drown when the tide comes in, or you’ll be a sitting target when everyone wakes up!
The idea of being found again by Tevak – I’ll break your damn legs if you run away again – encouraged her to renew her effort. Shifting her weight onto just one leg so she could extract the other, it was impossible to prevent her small feet from sinking deeper, but she reassured herself that she only had a short distance to travel, and if... if she could just... spread herself out, a little, give herself a bigger surface area...
Feeling her legs trembling, and trying not to whimper too loudly, Blink rocked herself forwards until she was almost on her knees, water lapping at her throat. The shallow water seemed reluctant to support her. She couldn’t quite work out what she was supposed to do with her hands, either, paddling them irregularly underneath herself – not quite able to touch the bottom, and not sure how to use them to swim, either. At least the technique seemed to have worked, loosening some of that terrible, sucking hold on her feet.
Blink clenched her jaw and floundered determinedly for the boat. Thick, treacly mud clung around her ankles, threatening to drag her deeper with each labouring step, but she floated just enough to counteract it.
At last, she managed to flop against the side of the little craft. Sturdily built and beautifully buoyant, it felt almost like a boat made of cork, supporting her weight easily while she laboriously extricated her legs from the mud, coughing and spluttering for breath. One of the danata hastily wrapped a length of rope around behind her and under her arms, and secured it to the boat, so she couldn’t slip off the lightweight gunwales, chattering and chirping incomprehensibly while it did so.
“I wish I understood what you were saying.” Blink gave it an exhausted smile. “I’m not even sure you understand me. But thank you for getting me out.”
It gave a little click that sounded almost like an acknowledgement – or maybe that was just wishful thinking – and touched its antennae to her forehead, then moved off to untie the mooring rope.
As they moved out into mid-stream, towing the tired fessine along beside them, the current picked up a little, the small waves buffeting the boat and making it bob alarmingly. Blink tensed her arms, not sure she dared to trust the flimsy silken rope under her arms. Wavelets splashed tantalisingly cool water up over her face; she licked her lips, and tasted salt. So much beautiful, cool, toxic water. Pure torture. She wanted to dunk her head in it and drink deep, aching with an agonising thirst, but something – maybe what little remained of her common sense – stopped her.
Might be better to take a good long drink, Bee. You have no idea what’s going on, and dying quick might be the better option, pessimism reminded. They could be taking you away to eat you. Or to be a nice, soft repository in which to lay eggs.
Blink waved her niggling subconscious away. Even if they were, she felt unable to dredge up the energy to care, any more. Cold exhaustion had seeped all the way down into her bones, leaving her mind numbed and her body leaden. If not for the rope under her arms, she’d have fallen off long ago.
The boat landed next to a floating pontoon jetty on the far shore, evidently built by people barely a foot tall, right next to an overgrown slipway. While the largest danata busied itself with mooring the boat, the other two chivvied Blink up out of the river, trying to get her out of the water before she got too cold and stiff to do so herself. The woman crawled after them up the algae-covered slope towards the quay – on all fours, heavy and sluggish, like an animal, blindly following the flurry of excited clicks and chirps.
Heavy stones formed a sturdy quayside as yet fairly undamaged by the ravages of time and tide, but further back the town was every bit as overgrown and derelict as the rest of Kust, with the same skeletal roofs and isolated, fractured walls standing like tombstones among the rampant scrubby plantlife. The decorative mooring bollards, handrails and elaborate paving along the edge of the quay were all that was left of an opulence that eroded away long ago.
“Is this it? Are we here?” Blink dragged herself up off the slipway onto the overgrown shore, and sank onto her bottom with a groan of effort. “Where can I sleep?” The hard stone felt particularly uncomfortable beneath her, where her under-padded hips pressed into it, and the chilly night-time air made her shiver.
Surely they can’t mean for me to sleep out here?
A chirp drew her attention. Blink looked back over her shoulder to find all three watching her, expectantly, all of them facing away from the town, and towards the scrubby forest encroaching on the town. One pointed into the incredible dark under the trees and up the slope, towards where the twinkling vista of stars draped down to meet the crest of the hill.
A hollow, dismayed sensation took hold of her stomach. They don’t mean for me to sleep out here. It’s worse than that.
“Are we still not there yet?” The fessine groaned and wiped her face with one trembling hand, feebly. “Can’t I just sleep here? There’s plenty of houses. I’ll find somewhere safe to hole up. Just don’t-... I can’t go any further. I’m exhausted.”
Another chirping squeak, and one returned to tug on her arm.
“I can’t-”
Tug? Chirp? The serious face quirked to one side, antennae waving.
Blink looked down at it with a sigh of defeat. They’re not interested in you being tired. They rescued you for a purpose, they’re not going to let you stay here for the wild animals to eat while you sleep.
Unsteadily, she got to her feet, propping herself on one of the squat mooring bollards. After so many days of sitting, her knees trembled and bowed inwards, but somehow, miraculously, she remained standing. “All right.” She swallowed, thickly. “All right. Sh-... show me where you want me to go.”
The group headed away from the houses, and off into the undergrowth, choked with thorny brambles and treacherous fallen branches. Blink struggled to keep up with the lantern carrier, which skipped and fluttered its way along in front, the insipid yellow glow only seeming to make the surrounding gloom more impenetrable. Every so often it would pause, and wait for her to catch up a few strides, before fluttering on once more.
Apparently sensing her difficulty, Blink’s little guide fluttered up to perch on her shoulder; so light, the fessine could barely feel it, and would have barely noticed it if not for the scratchy little claws on its stub toes and the tickle of its bristly fur against her neck. It stayed quiet for only a few seconds, before tugging gently on her ear.
Obediently, Blink drew to a halt, and squinted at it, propping herself on the silken bole of a slender tree. “What? What is it?”
The danata gestured towards its friend, sitting on a branch of a squat tree with enormous, serrated triangular leaves. The slightly fuzzy vegetation looked appealingly tender, thick and succulent in the moonlight. Maybe they knew how hungry she was, maybe it was something to eat?
“You-... you want me to go that way?” Blink advanced a single step. “What’s-”
Her passenger clicked in alarm and tugged on her ear, even as its friend made urgent shooing motions, and Blink teetered back to a halt, shooting a pleading look of despair sidelong at the insect. It repeated the pointing motion, this time, more clearly directing around to the side of the fuzzy tree – and gave another little tug on her ear, in the same direction.
Their instructions slowly began to filter through the encroaching fog of sleep in Blink’s brain. It was trying to give directions, the only way it could. Go that way, around the fuzzy tree. A tug meant go right, a push go left. And however enticing the soft, succulent leaves might look, the fuzzy trees were bad, to be avoided.
Only the danata seemed able to see the invisible, overgrown route through the trees. A combination of Lantern’s light and a series of tugs and pushes on her ear guided Blink where they wanted her to go, without too many incidents more traumatic than a scratched arm or a bruised toe. The path they followed wound its tortuous way up the hill, very nearly doubling back on itself in some places to avoid clusters of lurking succulents.
Dawn began to break long before they reached their destination, the chilly bluish morning light spreading down through the canopy. It felt to Blink like her feet moved beneath her without any clear conscious effort, as though they’d been walking for so long that she was now on autopilot, asleep standing up. Please let us almost be there. Her legs felt impossibly heavy; even the minimal weight of her guide on her shoulder had become leaden.
Just one more step. Just one more step. One more step and you can curl up in the vegetation, and sleep forever. Just one more step, now. Just one more step.
Trembling and barely able to stand, let alone walk, dragging her toes through the tangled plants, she stumbled on a log, hidden from view in the undergrowth. She automatically put out an arm to save herself, and brushed against one of the fuzzy trees – just the slightest, glancing blow, a quick swipe from a single leaf-
Oh! Pain thundered instantly down her arm, all the way from shoulder to fingertip, and she threw herself involuntarily in the opposite direction, away from the source of the burning agony, hurling her guide clean off her shoulder. She tripped over her own feet and landed in a patch of brambly vines, but even their sharp little serrated stems paled into insignificance against the pure white-hot coating of electric pain on her arm. Exhaustion strangled the scream before it could tear free of her lips – she squeezed her eyes closed, managing to choke out a hoarse sob.
Blink figured she must have blacked out from the pain, because when her eyes would finally focus again, the three faces had somehow multiplied to seven, looking down at her and discussing things quietly in soft clicky voices. One sat close by her shoulder, trying to clean the plant’s poison from her flesh, but even the light touch of tiny fingers working over her left arm was intolerable, making her squirm and shy away in pain. Pick pick pick, it went, carefully pulling out the unbroken stings that had embedded in her skin, but each tiny electric bolt of pain made her retch, her empty stomach cramping and wringing acid into the back of her throat. Thankfully, her unwitting tormentor recognised her discomfort, and backed off, bowing apologetically, antennae back and trembling its wings.
To Blink’s dismay, they didn’t look like they were about to leave her in peace, to sleep off the pain like she wanted to. Come on, the familiar gestures said. Get up! Follow us.
Blink covered her face with her good hand, despairing of ever getting any rest. “...please, I can’t go any further. I-I’ll follow you later. Just let me sleep?”
If they understood her, they ignored her request. Come on. Come on! Little tugs and pushes and gestures from all seven tiny creatures, on her fingers and her hips and her toes. Come on, mammal. Come with us. We have need for you. We will not leave you to die and go cold and rancid in the forest. Come on!
Blink groaned softly and pushed herself first to a seated position, propped on one trembling arm, then to her knees. The brambles seemed to have developed a life of their own, reluctant to let her go, catching in her hair and around her body, adding another few fresh scratches to her growing collection.
At least – although she couldn’t quite find the spirit to be thankful for it – the pain in her left arm had shocked her awake enough to stand unaided. The worst of the acute, blazing agony had faded, too, and so long as she didn’t try and actively move the arm, letting it dangle pathetically at her side, the neurotoxin filling her muscles stayed relatively quiescent – so instead of feeling like her arm was coated in blazing white hot liquid metal, the arm was wrapped in electrified barbed wire.
She wobbled a precarious step forwards, and didn’t immediately fall over, reassuring her that wherever it was they were taking her, she might at least be able to manage it under her own steam. She might not be able to defend herself when she got there, but at least she’d get there. Woodenly, wearily, she resumed the slow, toe-dragging tramp through the undergrowth behind her chirping, fluttering entourage.
Finally, as dawn strengthened, the light grew brighter and the plants began to thin out, through the trees Blink could see fragmented glimpses of sunshine, reflected off something large and pale in colour. Please let it be the end of the walk. She resisted the urge to give a little dance of relief, but optimism swelled inside her.
The trees steadily thinned out, and bit by bit, the object was revealed – a building, crafted of elegantly pieced-together local stone, dozens of intersecting hexagonal lobes of different heights and widths all clustered together, like an artistic rendering of volcanic basalt. The strange collection of recycled objects incorporated into the building work – a double-glazed window unit here, a solar panel there – lent the building an oddly cobbled-together look, however. (At least it explained why the danata spent so much time in Kust.) Intense morning light slanted down over the trees, staining the little stone citadel an unrealistically romantic shade of honeyed amber.
...but it was all so small! Doors and windows designed for a people a fraction of her size. How did they ever expect her to get in?
Blink plopped heavily down in the grass on the edge of the forest, wincing as she jarred her spine, and felt that unpleasantly familiar prickly itch of disappointment, up inside her nose and in the corners of her eyes. Don’t cry. You’re too dehydrated to cry. At least that managed to quirk a grim half-smile onto her face. You survived Tevak. You’ll survive this, too.
A grim sigh shuddered from her lips, and she dropped her gaze into her lap, running a thumb tenderly over the sore skin of the opposing wrist. The thought wasn’t so comforting as it should have been. Perhaps it was the knowledge that she hadn’t really escaped from him at all – not yet, at least. He’ll chase you all the way around the planet, if he has to. The only way he’ll stop is when he’s dead. She pushed the thought away, determined not to dwell on it, but it flickered like a persistent ember at the back of her mind, never really quite going out.
Silently, she watched her “rescuers” discuss something with the two larger danata at the citadel’s broad main door. The flurry of clicks and chirps sounded more like a gathering of typists than a conversation – or maybe the high-pitched rattle of a thousand tiny piston engines, all working overtime. The bigger insects had a hostility to their manner – antennae perked forward, wings rattling, heavy mandibles opening and closing. To the watching fessine, it looked rather like her rescuers were getting a scolding; whatever possessed you to drag that ugly, dirty thing here, get rid of it now! She didn’t feel particularly inclined to test the guards’ patience. Or how sharp those beaks were.
Their reluctance to entertain her didn’t come as that much of a surprise. Naked except for the underwear clinging round her hips, filthy with mud and crushed vegetation, and her hair matted with burrs and brambles, she probably looked like she’d lived out in the wildest mountainous terrain for her whole life. Not to mention the whole flock of new scratches covering her pale skin, delivered by the hostile forest and its unfriendly undergrowth. The plum-coloured scrapes and gouges swarmed like sleek leeches over her skin, crisscrossing the pale scars already there and dividing her body into a finer patchwork. Permanent, livid bracelets circled her swollen wrists. The sight of herself in the bathroom that one time, pale but clean, had been bad enough. She didn’t even want to try and imagine how she looked now, and hoped desperately that they wouldn’t have too many mirrors around.
The burning pain in her shoulder and upper arm, where the stingers had offloaded their venom, had turned into more of a dull throb, now – the nerves quietly deadening to the sensation. She wanted to touch it, to brush away the unbroken silicon hairs still embedded in her skin, to soothe away some of the ache, but resisted the urge, suspecting that all she’d actually end up succeeding at would be to spread the pain around a little better.
Blink lowered her gaze to the grass. Cold, in pain, exhausted and gnawingly hungry... and now they weren’t even going to let her in. All this effort, and she was going to somehow have to crawl back down the hill on her own.
Maybe their dress code is stricter than you imagined.
The absurdity of the thought made her chuckle, but it rapidly mutated into hopeless tears, which only seemed to come harder the more she tried to stop them. You’d have been better off staying in Tevak’s cellar. At least he’d have eventually taken you out and fed you. Now you’re marooned all the way up here, completely at their mercy, and if they kick you out, that’s it. You won’t even find something safe to drink, not on your own. Her stomach churned painfully in hungry sympathy.
Could anything be worse than being so desperately scared and miserably uncomfortable, and completely alone into the bargain? With no-one willing or even able to show the smallest shred of comfort, because they didn’t understand it? Her sobs were clearly making the unemotional little danata uneasy – even the heavyweights guarding the main door didn’t seem entirely sure what to make of the unfamiliar ruckus, standing back away from her, leaning in against the outside walls. Blink swiped uselessly at her face, trying to wipe away the tears but without anything to dry her skin, only succeeding in spreading them around.
The big doors swung silently open, revealing a giant among danata, whose antennae literally brushed against the lintel. The pale newcomer was huge – almost twice as tall as the ones that had rescued her. Its arms and legs were shaggy with thick, flowing brown fur, but the plates of its overgrown abdomen were smooth, sleek, almost hairless, and the vicious sting at the tip very prominent.
Blink shrank back, alarmed but unable to force her legs to actually move – as though now she had finally reached her destination, her muscles had all given up and frozen stiff, because nothing on the planet could possibly be worse than just getting up and walking again. She could only watch, and hope that the monstrous creature didn’t intend any harm towards her.
For its part, the giant approached quite fearlessly, and clicked its mandibles... before thrusting out one hand, from the fingers of which dangled a piece of electronic equipment.
Half expecting an attack, the offer of a... gift, maybe? ...startled Blink. Gingerly, she accepted the thing. It looked like an earpiece, of some sort; heavy and battery-operated, with a speaker on one end, which she was sure she’d seen somewhere before. She studied it for a second, wiping her face dry with the back of her less-injured hand. “Y-you want me to wear this?” she whooped, trying to calm her breathing and rein in her tears.
The big insect gave a single emphatic, almost aggressive nod.
Warily, Blink set the speaker into her ear canal, and wrapped the rest of the earpiece around behind the external part. Obviously a laima design, it fitted perfectly. “What does-”
Without waiting for her to finish her question, the danata gave voice to another flurry of clicks, over which a clear, precise female voice said, straight into Blink’s ear; “Do you understand me now?”
Blink sat up straight, alarmed. “Y-yes, but how did-... how can I understand you now?” she stammered.
“We understand your language, but we lack your vocal apparatus and cannot speak it,” the big insect explained, gesturing to the spiracles on her thorax from which the squeaks and clicks emerged.
Of course – translation loop. Blink rapidly made the connection, and remembered where she recognised the earpiece from. She’d seen travellers wearing them on tiao’I – and mercy, it seemed so hideously long ago.
“I am Travels Far,” the danata continued. “I am matica; leader and mother of this colony. My daughters...” She gave an untranslatable click that Blink interpreted as a noise of irritation. “...tell me they have rescued you from maltreatment.”
Blink nodded, jerkily. “Y-yes, ma’am.” Her voice emerged as hoarse little shreds of sound. She cleared her throat with a cough, and tried again; “It was-... I-... I’m very grateful to them.”
“It causes me great unease that they have brought you here,” Travels Far said, bluntly. “I have spent my life building and defending this colony, and keeping it safe from your kind. What was the reason for your maltreatment, and are you likely to have been followed?”
The danata’s brusque manner startled Blink into a temporary silence. After an open-mouthed scramble for words, all that would actually come was a feeble protest. “I-I’m not a threat-...!”
“That was not my question.” Travels Far waved her antennae, head perked to one side. “This is our home, mammal. We work hard every day, to build and defend it, to gather food, to raise children in safety. I must think of my people’s welfare before I consider anything else.” She clicked her mandibles. “Even one so small and weak as you could easily damage our home, kill my daughters. The others in the city could destroy us completely. I need to know if we will be at risk by sheltering you.”
Her words made sense, although Blink couldn’t deny that they were disappointing. Lie, and they may be more likely to let you stay, her pessimism suggested, but she felt like she’d been stretched far too thin to have the energy for it. “Tevak will go straight to the Library. I doubt you’ll even cross his mind.”
So they can take the brunt of his anger, while you hide up here with the bugs and prey on their generosity! What a good friend you are. With difficulty, Blink ignored the chastising little voice her in the back of her head.
“What are your plans?”
Blink shook her head. “I don’t know.” She wiped her face, struggling to keep from crying again, in front of the fierce danata matriarch. She’s going to kick you out. Send you away. “I’m just... can’t I stay here, just until I’ve got some sleep? I’m so tired, I haven’t eaten for days, your forest savaged me on the way here...” She drew in a shaky breath, feeling fresh warmth trickle down her cheek. “I’m sorry. D-... don’t mean to be a burden.”
Travels Far scrutinised the shivery body for several more silent moments. before her stern countenance softened, ever so slightly. “You may stay – at least in the short term, provided you are willing to work.”
Blink glanced up, surprised.
“I accept that you personally are not a threat, and that you are unlikely to have been followed through the forest. I will ensure you are fed, and we will try and find you some appropriately-sized coverings,” the matica continued. “But we cannot afford to support you for free, and I will require payment from you, in the form of work. We will discuss a long-term solution later, once you have recovered.”
“Th-thank you. It-it’s... it’s very kind of you.”
Travels Far bowed her head, her antennae sweeping close but not quite touching. “I will send someone out to tend to your injuries.”
Blink didn’t have to wait too long for the promised assistance to appear; a small group of workers appeared from around the corner, carrying a selection of equipment and a heavy basin between them. They were all very slightly different in looks – one had pale tips to its antennae, another had pale feet, another had dark smudges on its wings – but none were different enough for Blink to easily tell them apart, and she couldn’t tell if any of her three little rescuers were in the group.
Blink eyed the container warily; long curls of steam twirled lazily from the surface of the contents and spiralled away into the damp morning air.
“Stretch out your arm,” one instructed.
“What for?” Wearily, Blink did as told. “Please. I really just want to sleep. Can’t this wait...?”
The danata held her hand, keeping the arm steady. “We must remove the stings first. Then you can sleep.”
Better they do it all at once, rather than remove each one individually and draw out the torment for hours to come, Blink agreed, inwardly, trying to reassure herself that it made sense – although she wasn’t keen to have her still-aching arm bathed in extra heat. Not to mention, imagine rolling on it!
The small creatures continued to chatter as they worked, erecting a small platform behind her so the nominated “doctor” could reach her patient’s shoulder. The translation aid wasn’t smart enough to decipher individual voices from the babble of speech; instead, dozens of near-identical female voices all overlaid on top of each other, a confusing mass of sound that was impossible to follow.
Well, she’d heard enough to know what they were planning, at least. Blink raised a shaky hand, and took the earpiece out. Indecipherable the clicks and whistles may have been, at least they weren’t giving her a headache in the same way as trying to untangle the jumbled voices. She swallowed, thickly – it’s not going to be that hot, you big baby – but her dry throat ached in protest.
Quickly, delicately, the medic painted the murky amber mixture onto the laima’s welted arm, overlaying it with bandages, then more mixture. Blink clenched her teeth in a wad of fabric, trying to distract herself from the electric irritation of the stings and keep still for the minuscule doctor.
The warm mixture of clay and wax quickly set into a pliable layer on her cool arm, and when they peeled it back, it miraculously took almost all the sharp stinging toxin-laden hairs with it. They repeated the procedure three times before apparently satisfying themselves that she was stinger-free, then applied a clay poultice and more bandages. Blink wasn’t precisely sure what it was supposed to achieve; maybe draw out any residual toxin? If it took away just some of the distracting throb in her muscles, she didn’t care what it was meant to do.
While the doctor worked, another group tackled her hair. While the vicious stingers had kept her distracted, seed pods armed with complicated arrays of hooks had tangled into her long hair. After a few futile moments trying to untangle the burrs, her helpers simply attacked the matted strands with a set of shears. Looking at the nondescript little group fussing around her, Blink guessed that one’s physical appearance wasn’t a particularly important matter for most danata.
Once satisfied she was in reasonable health, they led her around to a larger set of doors just big enough for her to crawl though. Facing the ocean, the high-ceilinged chamber was in all likelihood a hastily-empied store room, with a jigsaw of mattresses for their oversized and unexpected guest laid out in one corner.
Blink settled on her bed, snuggling a blanket around her shoulders, and quietly took stock of her situation. The fearsome-looking creatures were unexpectedly hospitable, and incongruously gentle when one looked at the fierce beaks and stingers. Even the big guards – the strazae, she had learned they were called – had a sort of prickly helpfulness about them.
She sighed, and felt her stomach gurgle weakly. Hospitable hosts didn’t make up for the void inside her, and hunger didn’t explain it. What she’d give just to go home, right now. Even if Skydash never forgave her, her family refused to speak to her, she never saw the children again until they were long grown up. Just to be home, to be nearby, working hard to make the world better for them.
You’ve made your point, World. I was never satisfied. I just kept on demanding more, and now I have nothing at all – not even the clothes on my back. I’m not even clean.
Clean? Make that, barely even recognisable. Still covered in a layer of grime, now supplemented by medicated bandages, and all her hair hacked short to remove the burrs hopelessly tangled into it, she was tempted to put money on even Tevak failing to recognise her – except that it would mean having to go near him again, and she’d rather put the money towards never encountering him again. An involuntary shudder ran up her spine.
A little squeak from one of the internal doorways attracted her attention. One of her hosts stood there, a flat wicker basket in its arms piled high with irregular, pale covered lumps. Blink recognised them as pieces of fruit, and her mouth began to water.
The small creature bowed deeply, offering the plate, wings flicking. Compared to the insect, it was a huge mountain of food; to Blink, it was little more than a couple of mouthfuls of a pale cream-coloured fruit, rind removed and flesh cut into segments, but her pleading stomach didn’t care so long as it got something in it.
“Thank you...” she croaked, struggling to remember her manners, bowing her head as she accepted her breakfast. So what if it was perhaps a little over-ripe, and with a peculiar smell? The fessine tore into the best tasting fruit she’d ever eaten. Her throat cramped and her stomach churned, wanting more, but the tidbit was gone in seconds, barely touching the sides. She sucked the last tiny traces of juice and grainy flesh from the basket before reluctantly deciding that she couldn’t eat the basket itself as well.
She curled down on her mattress jigsaw, wrapping herself in blanket. The instant her head touched the rolled wad of blanket that would act as a pillow, the sleep she’d been resisting while she satisfied her aching stomach finally sank its teeth in, throwing its constricting coils around her brainstem.
Her eyelids felt so heavy. Couldn’t keep her eyes open. Could feel herself crashing, quietly, systems shutting down. A sort of light-headed disconnect settled on her shoulders – her limbs too heavy to move, warm and comfortable but so muggy, as they settled into the soft surface on which she lay.
Sleep rushed upon her as quickly and quietly as the tide. She didn’t even remember closing her eyes before the dreamless slumber finally claimed her.
* * * * *
Sett was... fortunate, maybe? Unfortunate? To be first to find out that the basement was empty. Woken at the very crack of dawn by a squabbling pair of bristletails on the windowsill behind his head, and then unable to get back to sleep, he decided that he may as well take the sick prisoner her next dose of antibiotics and her usual ‘breakfast’ cup of water.
He drew to a halt in the doorway so suddenly, it was like he’d stepped into quick-drying glue. Water slopped from the jug and splashed to the floor, soaking his sooty toes, but he barely noticed it. He could only stand and stare, dumbly, at finding the room devoid of all occupants. Shreds of the filthy ribbon still clung to the water pipe, but the cushion and blanket sagged together as though the prisoner had simply evaporated clean away from within.
The young dar’s thoughts turned instantly to the pair of trespassers he’d encountered only a day or two ago, and his ears automatically folded back. He couldn’t pick their scent out of the fusty, mildew-y smells of the basement, but nothing else could explain Blink’s impossible escape.
They said I could trust them. They promised not to follow me! He pursed his thin lips, angry and ashamed in equal measures – angry that they’d obviously gone against their words and followed him, sneaked in somehow in the dead of night, and freed the captive. Ashamed that he’d been so easily duped, by individuals he knew he couldn’t trust in the first place! So desperate to bribe your way out of here, you ignored all your limited common sense in favour of making a pact with traitors.
It wouldn’t do for Tevak to find him down here. The giant didn’t trust him, that much was obvious, thought he was weak-willed, and swayed easily by emotional manipulation – but Sett didn’t need the brute to think he’d caved to bribery and released the fessine, either. He turned tail, and fled for his room, hoping if he was lucky? He might just be able to skate under Tevak’s radar...
125214 ♥ 200000
You’re going to get stuck, Bee, her pessimism reminded, again. Many more of these tight corners, and you’re going to be stuck in here forever. That’s if it doesn’t get even narrower, of course. You had thought of that, right?
Shut up, she told herself, sternly, biting back a whimper and shoving with her toes, trying to concentrate. Wasn’t exactly as if a plethora of options presented themselves, right now! So what if going forwards was difficult? Going backwards would be completely impossible. She had to just keep going, pushing on forwards, just keep going, Bee, don’t stop or you’ll freeze up. Why oh why did you decide this was a good idea.
Blink clenched her jaw and fixed her gaze on the tiny light, worming her way around increasingly awkward corners, squeezed on all sides by cold metal plate. It felt cold and hostile against her naked skin – an unfriendly vice, angry at her intrusion, slowly tightening around her. Her spindly frame made the tight junctions a fraction easier to squeeze her way around, but her long legs jammed painfully across the tighter corners and twice she almost got stuck completely. At least the decades of blown-in dirt and moisture and algae gave the cold metal a little slip. She swallowed hard over the fear bubbling up at the back of her throat.
This is not a grave. You are not going to become trapped. Just don’t panic, oh please don’t, don’t panic-! But her common sense may as well have been shouting into a storm. Her back felt rigid, inflexible as a board. The walls pressed down on her, squeezing inwards. Every second that passed, moving grew harder and the confines tighter.
With tears of fright already welling in her eyes, the sudden disappearance of the lantern was the last straw. Her heart momentarily stopped. No. No! Oh, sweet Unmaker no-! Terror clutched long fingers around her throat, choking off her breath. She thrashed involuntarily against the unyielding confines, simultaneously trying to back up and somehow bend the metal to her will, but the blunted claws on her toes scrabbled uselessly at the shiny metal and her aching palms wouldn’t grip on the dirt.
“Oh mercy, oh please, get me out of here, oh please, please get me out-” Her voice echoed back at her off the tight walls, mocking, and her words fractured into incoherent whimpering. She closed her eyes, squeezed her palms together in a futile attempt to stop them shaking. Don’t panic. The walls aren’t moving. Don’t panic. Breathe.
A little chirp from up ahead attracted her attention. Steeling her nerve, she managed to pry her eyelids up just enough to find the owner of the lantern peering back in at her, its silhouetted head cocked quizzically to one side.
“...don’t you make fun of me!” Her shaky words came out more like sobs. “You-you led me down here and now I’m stuck and oh gods, please somebody get me out...”
You can either keep going or go back. If it’s a corner you can’t get around, you’re going to have to make your way backwards. It wasn’t too many twists and turns – left, up, right – you can make it if you’re determined.
Lantern clicked and beckoned, before vanishing again.
Blink manage to squash her fright for long enough to appraise the situation; if the bug had just gone round a corner, she should still be able to see some of the glow of the light, correct? But the golden glow had completely disappeared, meaning...
As her eyes adjusted, she worked out that the pale rectangle a body-length in front of her was not just another sheet of unkind metal, but a velvet blue night sky freckled with tiny bright stars, and distant hills. The outside.
The outside!
Gripped by a sudden urgency, Blink resumed the tortuous squirm along the air-duct with a renewed vigour, determined not to spend even a second longer down here than she absolutely had to.
She finally emerged to wonderful, soothing moonlight that felt bright as midday sunshine to her vision-starved eyes, and a wide ledge that ran along the wall, as far as the eye could see both up and down river, forming a serviceable little quay. She clawed at the ground just below her with her fingers, thrashing her way out into the cold midnight air, finally slumping free of her cramped prison in an ungainly rush.
The cold, rough stone felt unexpectedly wonderful. Just being able to lay down, to sprawl out over it? Bliss, after so long held unable to move. The fessine flattened herself onto the quay, trying to get as much skin in contact with the cold surface as possible, and let the chill seep into her aching muscles.
The gentle lulling of the sluggish estuary alongside made her throat cramp and her tongue feel huge and swollen, sticking to the roof of her mouth. She hadn’t realised she was quite so dehydrated until the smell of the river filled her nostrils, and even the brackish tang of this tidal run smelt delicious. She watched the water swirl past just below, the wavelets threaded with reflected moonlight.
One of the danata gave an encouraging chirp and tugged on one of her toes. Come on. Blink glanced tiredly sidelong at it, and it pointed down into the water. Letting her gaze follow in the direction it was pointing, she saw a small boat bobbing on its moorings, down below. Lantern looked like it was busy preparing the vessel for launch.
“You want me to go down there?” Blink wondered, uneasily. Even her small body would dwarf the little ship. They weren’t seriously expecting her to get into it?
The inscrutable brown face quirked to one side, antennae waving, and pointed.
“Yes?” Blink wondered how to get the point across. “You want me to climb down to the boat?” She nodded, hoping that the danata would echo the motion if it agreed with her.
After another confused glance at the boat, the insect gave a long, uncertain swoop of its head that seemed to be intended as a nod.
Hoping it was actual agreement, and not just a confused mimic – it had seemed to understand her, previously, after all – Blink crawled awkwardly to the edge, and peered down to the water, ominously far below. How was she supposed to get down there, just... jump? Her stomach contracted at the idea. Anything could be lurking just below the glittering night-time surface – dangerous predators, jagged debris? Even something as simple as the bottom, ready and waiting to break her leg when she fell.
One of her new friends chirped and flickered its wings, clinging to a structure built into the quayside – a ladder. Oh, thank goodness. At least they weren’t expecting her to leap into the unknown. Now happy it had her attention on the way down, the danata fluttered up off it, buzzed low across the water and onto the boat. Blink watched it fly, enviously.
All right. She looked back down at the ladder – rickety, some of the lowest rungs broken off altogether – and licked her cracked lips, uneasily. Her hands cramped, in sympathy. Come on. You can do this, she encouraged herself. You just have to climb down.
Then what? Drown? You’ve never swum, ever. You’ll swim like a rock.
Ignoring the sniping of her pessimistic side, Blink made her cautious way down the rusty ladder; what had held up easily under the danata’s diminutive weight creaked ominously when she put her toes onto the first rung. The wood felt squashy and well-rotted under her pads. She inched her way down, carefully, wrapping her arms around the uprights for security.
Anticipating water deep enough that she would be forced to swim, the exhausted woman almost fell straight onto her backside when she stepped down into the river and her feet sank into clinging mud, hidden beneath murky water barely knee-deep. “Ah!” Alarmed, she fell back against the ladder, grabbing at it with both arms around the precarious rungs, to stop herself sinking out of sight forever. It felt like her heart only resumed its erratic, frightened beating when her feet stabilised and stopped sinking.
One of her rescuers gave an encouraging noise and patted the boat’s gunwales. Come on!
“I can’t.” Attempting to lift one foot, the other sank a corresponding amount. She could feel her breath quickening in fright. “I’m stuck.”
See, see! her pessimism cried out, triumphantly. Trapped in the mud, you’re either going to drown when the tide comes in, or you’ll be a sitting target when everyone wakes up!
The idea of being found again by Tevak – I’ll break your damn legs if you run away again – encouraged her to renew her effort. Shifting her weight onto just one leg so she could extract the other, it was impossible to prevent her small feet from sinking deeper, but she reassured herself that she only had a short distance to travel, and if... if she could just... spread herself out, a little, give herself a bigger surface area...
Feeling her legs trembling, and trying not to whimper too loudly, Blink rocked herself forwards until she was almost on her knees, water lapping at her throat. The shallow water seemed reluctant to support her. She couldn’t quite work out what she was supposed to do with her hands, either, paddling them irregularly underneath herself – not quite able to touch the bottom, and not sure how to use them to swim, either. At least the technique seemed to have worked, loosening some of that terrible, sucking hold on her feet.
Blink clenched her jaw and floundered determinedly for the boat. Thick, treacly mud clung around her ankles, threatening to drag her deeper with each labouring step, but she floated just enough to counteract it.
At last, she managed to flop against the side of the little craft. Sturdily built and beautifully buoyant, it felt almost like a boat made of cork, supporting her weight easily while she laboriously extricated her legs from the mud, coughing and spluttering for breath. One of the danata hastily wrapped a length of rope around behind her and under her arms, and secured it to the boat, so she couldn’t slip off the lightweight gunwales, chattering and chirping incomprehensibly while it did so.
“I wish I understood what you were saying.” Blink gave it an exhausted smile. “I’m not even sure you understand me. But thank you for getting me out.”
It gave a little click that sounded almost like an acknowledgement – or maybe that was just wishful thinking – and touched its antennae to her forehead, then moved off to untie the mooring rope.
As they moved out into mid-stream, towing the tired fessine along beside them, the current picked up a little, the small waves buffeting the boat and making it bob alarmingly. Blink tensed her arms, not sure she dared to trust the flimsy silken rope under her arms. Wavelets splashed tantalisingly cool water up over her face; she licked her lips, and tasted salt. So much beautiful, cool, toxic water. Pure torture. She wanted to dunk her head in it and drink deep, aching with an agonising thirst, but something – maybe what little remained of her common sense – stopped her.
Might be better to take a good long drink, Bee. You have no idea what’s going on, and dying quick might be the better option, pessimism reminded. They could be taking you away to eat you. Or to be a nice, soft repository in which to lay eggs.
Blink waved her niggling subconscious away. Even if they were, she felt unable to dredge up the energy to care, any more. Cold exhaustion had seeped all the way down into her bones, leaving her mind numbed and her body leaden. If not for the rope under her arms, she’d have fallen off long ago.
The boat landed next to a floating pontoon jetty on the far shore, evidently built by people barely a foot tall, right next to an overgrown slipway. While the largest danata busied itself with mooring the boat, the other two chivvied Blink up out of the river, trying to get her out of the water before she got too cold and stiff to do so herself. The woman crawled after them up the algae-covered slope towards the quay – on all fours, heavy and sluggish, like an animal, blindly following the flurry of excited clicks and chirps.
Heavy stones formed a sturdy quayside as yet fairly undamaged by the ravages of time and tide, but further back the town was every bit as overgrown and derelict as the rest of Kust, with the same skeletal roofs and isolated, fractured walls standing like tombstones among the rampant scrubby plantlife. The decorative mooring bollards, handrails and elaborate paving along the edge of the quay were all that was left of an opulence that eroded away long ago.
“Is this it? Are we here?” Blink dragged herself up off the slipway onto the overgrown shore, and sank onto her bottom with a groan of effort. “Where can I sleep?” The hard stone felt particularly uncomfortable beneath her, where her under-padded hips pressed into it, and the chilly night-time air made her shiver.
Surely they can’t mean for me to sleep out here?
A chirp drew her attention. Blink looked back over her shoulder to find all three watching her, expectantly, all of them facing away from the town, and towards the scrubby forest encroaching on the town. One pointed into the incredible dark under the trees and up the slope, towards where the twinkling vista of stars draped down to meet the crest of the hill.
A hollow, dismayed sensation took hold of her stomach. They don’t mean for me to sleep out here. It’s worse than that.
“Are we still not there yet?” The fessine groaned and wiped her face with one trembling hand, feebly. “Can’t I just sleep here? There’s plenty of houses. I’ll find somewhere safe to hole up. Just don’t-... I can’t go any further. I’m exhausted.”
Another chirping squeak, and one returned to tug on her arm.
“I can’t-”
Tug? Chirp? The serious face quirked to one side, antennae waving.
Blink looked down at it with a sigh of defeat. They’re not interested in you being tired. They rescued you for a purpose, they’re not going to let you stay here for the wild animals to eat while you sleep.
Unsteadily, she got to her feet, propping herself on one of the squat mooring bollards. After so many days of sitting, her knees trembled and bowed inwards, but somehow, miraculously, she remained standing. “All right.” She swallowed, thickly. “All right. Sh-... show me where you want me to go.”
The group headed away from the houses, and off into the undergrowth, choked with thorny brambles and treacherous fallen branches. Blink struggled to keep up with the lantern carrier, which skipped and fluttered its way along in front, the insipid yellow glow only seeming to make the surrounding gloom more impenetrable. Every so often it would pause, and wait for her to catch up a few strides, before fluttering on once more.
Apparently sensing her difficulty, Blink’s little guide fluttered up to perch on her shoulder; so light, the fessine could barely feel it, and would have barely noticed it if not for the scratchy little claws on its stub toes and the tickle of its bristly fur against her neck. It stayed quiet for only a few seconds, before tugging gently on her ear.
Obediently, Blink drew to a halt, and squinted at it, propping herself on the silken bole of a slender tree. “What? What is it?”
The danata gestured towards its friend, sitting on a branch of a squat tree with enormous, serrated triangular leaves. The slightly fuzzy vegetation looked appealingly tender, thick and succulent in the moonlight. Maybe they knew how hungry she was, maybe it was something to eat?
“You-... you want me to go that way?” Blink advanced a single step. “What’s-”
Her passenger clicked in alarm and tugged on her ear, even as its friend made urgent shooing motions, and Blink teetered back to a halt, shooting a pleading look of despair sidelong at the insect. It repeated the pointing motion, this time, more clearly directing around to the side of the fuzzy tree – and gave another little tug on her ear, in the same direction.
Their instructions slowly began to filter through the encroaching fog of sleep in Blink’s brain. It was trying to give directions, the only way it could. Go that way, around the fuzzy tree. A tug meant go right, a push go left. And however enticing the soft, succulent leaves might look, the fuzzy trees were bad, to be avoided.
Only the danata seemed able to see the invisible, overgrown route through the trees. A combination of Lantern’s light and a series of tugs and pushes on her ear guided Blink where they wanted her to go, without too many incidents more traumatic than a scratched arm or a bruised toe. The path they followed wound its tortuous way up the hill, very nearly doubling back on itself in some places to avoid clusters of lurking succulents.
Dawn began to break long before they reached their destination, the chilly bluish morning light spreading down through the canopy. It felt to Blink like her feet moved beneath her without any clear conscious effort, as though they’d been walking for so long that she was now on autopilot, asleep standing up. Please let us almost be there. Her legs felt impossibly heavy; even the minimal weight of her guide on her shoulder had become leaden.
Just one more step. Just one more step. One more step and you can curl up in the vegetation, and sleep forever. Just one more step, now. Just one more step.
Trembling and barely able to stand, let alone walk, dragging her toes through the tangled plants, she stumbled on a log, hidden from view in the undergrowth. She automatically put out an arm to save herself, and brushed against one of the fuzzy trees – just the slightest, glancing blow, a quick swipe from a single leaf-
Oh! Pain thundered instantly down her arm, all the way from shoulder to fingertip, and she threw herself involuntarily in the opposite direction, away from the source of the burning agony, hurling her guide clean off her shoulder. She tripped over her own feet and landed in a patch of brambly vines, but even their sharp little serrated stems paled into insignificance against the pure white-hot coating of electric pain on her arm. Exhaustion strangled the scream before it could tear free of her lips – she squeezed her eyes closed, managing to choke out a hoarse sob.
Blink figured she must have blacked out from the pain, because when her eyes would finally focus again, the three faces had somehow multiplied to seven, looking down at her and discussing things quietly in soft clicky voices. One sat close by her shoulder, trying to clean the plant’s poison from her flesh, but even the light touch of tiny fingers working over her left arm was intolerable, making her squirm and shy away in pain. Pick pick pick, it went, carefully pulling out the unbroken stings that had embedded in her skin, but each tiny electric bolt of pain made her retch, her empty stomach cramping and wringing acid into the back of her throat. Thankfully, her unwitting tormentor recognised her discomfort, and backed off, bowing apologetically, antennae back and trembling its wings.
To Blink’s dismay, they didn’t look like they were about to leave her in peace, to sleep off the pain like she wanted to. Come on, the familiar gestures said. Get up! Follow us.
Blink covered her face with her good hand, despairing of ever getting any rest. “...please, I can’t go any further. I-I’ll follow you later. Just let me sleep?”
If they understood her, they ignored her request. Come on. Come on! Little tugs and pushes and gestures from all seven tiny creatures, on her fingers and her hips and her toes. Come on, mammal. Come with us. We have need for you. We will not leave you to die and go cold and rancid in the forest. Come on!
Blink groaned softly and pushed herself first to a seated position, propped on one trembling arm, then to her knees. The brambles seemed to have developed a life of their own, reluctant to let her go, catching in her hair and around her body, adding another few fresh scratches to her growing collection.
At least – although she couldn’t quite find the spirit to be thankful for it – the pain in her left arm had shocked her awake enough to stand unaided. The worst of the acute, blazing agony had faded, too, and so long as she didn’t try and actively move the arm, letting it dangle pathetically at her side, the neurotoxin filling her muscles stayed relatively quiescent – so instead of feeling like her arm was coated in blazing white hot liquid metal, the arm was wrapped in electrified barbed wire.
She wobbled a precarious step forwards, and didn’t immediately fall over, reassuring her that wherever it was they were taking her, she might at least be able to manage it under her own steam. She might not be able to defend herself when she got there, but at least she’d get there. Woodenly, wearily, she resumed the slow, toe-dragging tramp through the undergrowth behind her chirping, fluttering entourage.
Finally, as dawn strengthened, the light grew brighter and the plants began to thin out, through the trees Blink could see fragmented glimpses of sunshine, reflected off something large and pale in colour. Please let it be the end of the walk. She resisted the urge to give a little dance of relief, but optimism swelled inside her.
The trees steadily thinned out, and bit by bit, the object was revealed – a building, crafted of elegantly pieced-together local stone, dozens of intersecting hexagonal lobes of different heights and widths all clustered together, like an artistic rendering of volcanic basalt. The strange collection of recycled objects incorporated into the building work – a double-glazed window unit here, a solar panel there – lent the building an oddly cobbled-together look, however. (At least it explained why the danata spent so much time in Kust.) Intense morning light slanted down over the trees, staining the little stone citadel an unrealistically romantic shade of honeyed amber.
...but it was all so small! Doors and windows designed for a people a fraction of her size. How did they ever expect her to get in?
Blink plopped heavily down in the grass on the edge of the forest, wincing as she jarred her spine, and felt that unpleasantly familiar prickly itch of disappointment, up inside her nose and in the corners of her eyes. Don’t cry. You’re too dehydrated to cry. At least that managed to quirk a grim half-smile onto her face. You survived Tevak. You’ll survive this, too.
A grim sigh shuddered from her lips, and she dropped her gaze into her lap, running a thumb tenderly over the sore skin of the opposing wrist. The thought wasn’t so comforting as it should have been. Perhaps it was the knowledge that she hadn’t really escaped from him at all – not yet, at least. He’ll chase you all the way around the planet, if he has to. The only way he’ll stop is when he’s dead. She pushed the thought away, determined not to dwell on it, but it flickered like a persistent ember at the back of her mind, never really quite going out.
Silently, she watched her “rescuers” discuss something with the two larger danata at the citadel’s broad main door. The flurry of clicks and chirps sounded more like a gathering of typists than a conversation – or maybe the high-pitched rattle of a thousand tiny piston engines, all working overtime. The bigger insects had a hostility to their manner – antennae perked forward, wings rattling, heavy mandibles opening and closing. To the watching fessine, it looked rather like her rescuers were getting a scolding; whatever possessed you to drag that ugly, dirty thing here, get rid of it now! She didn’t feel particularly inclined to test the guards’ patience. Or how sharp those beaks were.
Their reluctance to entertain her didn’t come as that much of a surprise. Naked except for the underwear clinging round her hips, filthy with mud and crushed vegetation, and her hair matted with burrs and brambles, she probably looked like she’d lived out in the wildest mountainous terrain for her whole life. Not to mention the whole flock of new scratches covering her pale skin, delivered by the hostile forest and its unfriendly undergrowth. The plum-coloured scrapes and gouges swarmed like sleek leeches over her skin, crisscrossing the pale scars already there and dividing her body into a finer patchwork. Permanent, livid bracelets circled her swollen wrists. The sight of herself in the bathroom that one time, pale but clean, had been bad enough. She didn’t even want to try and imagine how she looked now, and hoped desperately that they wouldn’t have too many mirrors around.
The burning pain in her shoulder and upper arm, where the stingers had offloaded their venom, had turned into more of a dull throb, now – the nerves quietly deadening to the sensation. She wanted to touch it, to brush away the unbroken silicon hairs still embedded in her skin, to soothe away some of the ache, but resisted the urge, suspecting that all she’d actually end up succeeding at would be to spread the pain around a little better.
Blink lowered her gaze to the grass. Cold, in pain, exhausted and gnawingly hungry... and now they weren’t even going to let her in. All this effort, and she was going to somehow have to crawl back down the hill on her own.
Maybe their dress code is stricter than you imagined.
The absurdity of the thought made her chuckle, but it rapidly mutated into hopeless tears, which only seemed to come harder the more she tried to stop them. You’d have been better off staying in Tevak’s cellar. At least he’d have eventually taken you out and fed you. Now you’re marooned all the way up here, completely at their mercy, and if they kick you out, that’s it. You won’t even find something safe to drink, not on your own. Her stomach churned painfully in hungry sympathy.
Could anything be worse than being so desperately scared and miserably uncomfortable, and completely alone into the bargain? With no-one willing or even able to show the smallest shred of comfort, because they didn’t understand it? Her sobs were clearly making the unemotional little danata uneasy – even the heavyweights guarding the main door didn’t seem entirely sure what to make of the unfamiliar ruckus, standing back away from her, leaning in against the outside walls. Blink swiped uselessly at her face, trying to wipe away the tears but without anything to dry her skin, only succeeding in spreading them around.
The big doors swung silently open, revealing a giant among danata, whose antennae literally brushed against the lintel. The pale newcomer was huge – almost twice as tall as the ones that had rescued her. Its arms and legs were shaggy with thick, flowing brown fur, but the plates of its overgrown abdomen were smooth, sleek, almost hairless, and the vicious sting at the tip very prominent.
Blink shrank back, alarmed but unable to force her legs to actually move – as though now she had finally reached her destination, her muscles had all given up and frozen stiff, because nothing on the planet could possibly be worse than just getting up and walking again. She could only watch, and hope that the monstrous creature didn’t intend any harm towards her.
For its part, the giant approached quite fearlessly, and clicked its mandibles... before thrusting out one hand, from the fingers of which dangled a piece of electronic equipment.
Half expecting an attack, the offer of a... gift, maybe? ...startled Blink. Gingerly, she accepted the thing. It looked like an earpiece, of some sort; heavy and battery-operated, with a speaker on one end, which she was sure she’d seen somewhere before. She studied it for a second, wiping her face dry with the back of her less-injured hand. “Y-you want me to wear this?” she whooped, trying to calm her breathing and rein in her tears.
The big insect gave a single emphatic, almost aggressive nod.
Warily, Blink set the speaker into her ear canal, and wrapped the rest of the earpiece around behind the external part. Obviously a laima design, it fitted perfectly. “What does-”
Without waiting for her to finish her question, the danata gave voice to another flurry of clicks, over which a clear, precise female voice said, straight into Blink’s ear; “Do you understand me now?”
Blink sat up straight, alarmed. “Y-yes, but how did-... how can I understand you now?” she stammered.
“We understand your language, but we lack your vocal apparatus and cannot speak it,” the big insect explained, gesturing to the spiracles on her thorax from which the squeaks and clicks emerged.
Of course – translation loop. Blink rapidly made the connection, and remembered where she recognised the earpiece from. She’d seen travellers wearing them on tiao’I – and mercy, it seemed so hideously long ago.
“I am Travels Far,” the danata continued. “I am matica; leader and mother of this colony. My daughters...” She gave an untranslatable click that Blink interpreted as a noise of irritation. “...tell me they have rescued you from maltreatment.”
Blink nodded, jerkily. “Y-yes, ma’am.” Her voice emerged as hoarse little shreds of sound. She cleared her throat with a cough, and tried again; “It was-... I-... I’m very grateful to them.”
“It causes me great unease that they have brought you here,” Travels Far said, bluntly. “I have spent my life building and defending this colony, and keeping it safe from your kind. What was the reason for your maltreatment, and are you likely to have been followed?”
The danata’s brusque manner startled Blink into a temporary silence. After an open-mouthed scramble for words, all that would actually come was a feeble protest. “I-I’m not a threat-...!”
“That was not my question.” Travels Far waved her antennae, head perked to one side. “This is our home, mammal. We work hard every day, to build and defend it, to gather food, to raise children in safety. I must think of my people’s welfare before I consider anything else.” She clicked her mandibles. “Even one so small and weak as you could easily damage our home, kill my daughters. The others in the city could destroy us completely. I need to know if we will be at risk by sheltering you.”
Her words made sense, although Blink couldn’t deny that they were disappointing. Lie, and they may be more likely to let you stay, her pessimism suggested, but she felt like she’d been stretched far too thin to have the energy for it. “Tevak will go straight to the Library. I doubt you’ll even cross his mind.”
So they can take the brunt of his anger, while you hide up here with the bugs and prey on their generosity! What a good friend you are. With difficulty, Blink ignored the chastising little voice her in the back of her head.
“What are your plans?”
Blink shook her head. “I don’t know.” She wiped her face, struggling to keep from crying again, in front of the fierce danata matriarch. She’s going to kick you out. Send you away. “I’m just... can’t I stay here, just until I’ve got some sleep? I’m so tired, I haven’t eaten for days, your forest savaged me on the way here...” She drew in a shaky breath, feeling fresh warmth trickle down her cheek. “I’m sorry. D-... don’t mean to be a burden.”
Travels Far scrutinised the shivery body for several more silent moments. before her stern countenance softened, ever so slightly. “You may stay – at least in the short term, provided you are willing to work.”
Blink glanced up, surprised.
“I accept that you personally are not a threat, and that you are unlikely to have been followed through the forest. I will ensure you are fed, and we will try and find you some appropriately-sized coverings,” the matica continued. “But we cannot afford to support you for free, and I will require payment from you, in the form of work. We will discuss a long-term solution later, once you have recovered.”
“Th-thank you. It-it’s... it’s very kind of you.”
Travels Far bowed her head, her antennae sweeping close but not quite touching. “I will send someone out to tend to your injuries.”
Blink didn’t have to wait too long for the promised assistance to appear; a small group of workers appeared from around the corner, carrying a selection of equipment and a heavy basin between them. They were all very slightly different in looks – one had pale tips to its antennae, another had pale feet, another had dark smudges on its wings – but none were different enough for Blink to easily tell them apart, and she couldn’t tell if any of her three little rescuers were in the group.
Blink eyed the container warily; long curls of steam twirled lazily from the surface of the contents and spiralled away into the damp morning air.
“Stretch out your arm,” one instructed.
“What for?” Wearily, Blink did as told. “Please. I really just want to sleep. Can’t this wait...?”
The danata held her hand, keeping the arm steady. “We must remove the stings first. Then you can sleep.”
Better they do it all at once, rather than remove each one individually and draw out the torment for hours to come, Blink agreed, inwardly, trying to reassure herself that it made sense – although she wasn’t keen to have her still-aching arm bathed in extra heat. Not to mention, imagine rolling on it!
The small creatures continued to chatter as they worked, erecting a small platform behind her so the nominated “doctor” could reach her patient’s shoulder. The translation aid wasn’t smart enough to decipher individual voices from the babble of speech; instead, dozens of near-identical female voices all overlaid on top of each other, a confusing mass of sound that was impossible to follow.
Well, she’d heard enough to know what they were planning, at least. Blink raised a shaky hand, and took the earpiece out. Indecipherable the clicks and whistles may have been, at least they weren’t giving her a headache in the same way as trying to untangle the jumbled voices. She swallowed, thickly – it’s not going to be that hot, you big baby – but her dry throat ached in protest.
Quickly, delicately, the medic painted the murky amber mixture onto the laima’s welted arm, overlaying it with bandages, then more mixture. Blink clenched her teeth in a wad of fabric, trying to distract herself from the electric irritation of the stings and keep still for the minuscule doctor.
The warm mixture of clay and wax quickly set into a pliable layer on her cool arm, and when they peeled it back, it miraculously took almost all the sharp stinging toxin-laden hairs with it. They repeated the procedure three times before apparently satisfying themselves that she was stinger-free, then applied a clay poultice and more bandages. Blink wasn’t precisely sure what it was supposed to achieve; maybe draw out any residual toxin? If it took away just some of the distracting throb in her muscles, she didn’t care what it was meant to do.
While the doctor worked, another group tackled her hair. While the vicious stingers had kept her distracted, seed pods armed with complicated arrays of hooks had tangled into her long hair. After a few futile moments trying to untangle the burrs, her helpers simply attacked the matted strands with a set of shears. Looking at the nondescript little group fussing around her, Blink guessed that one’s physical appearance wasn’t a particularly important matter for most danata.
Once satisfied she was in reasonable health, they led her around to a larger set of doors just big enough for her to crawl though. Facing the ocean, the high-ceilinged chamber was in all likelihood a hastily-empied store room, with a jigsaw of mattresses for their oversized and unexpected guest laid out in one corner.
Blink settled on her bed, snuggling a blanket around her shoulders, and quietly took stock of her situation. The fearsome-looking creatures were unexpectedly hospitable, and incongruously gentle when one looked at the fierce beaks and stingers. Even the big guards – the strazae, she had learned they were called – had a sort of prickly helpfulness about them.
She sighed, and felt her stomach gurgle weakly. Hospitable hosts didn’t make up for the void inside her, and hunger didn’t explain it. What she’d give just to go home, right now. Even if Skydash never forgave her, her family refused to speak to her, she never saw the children again until they were long grown up. Just to be home, to be nearby, working hard to make the world better for them.
You’ve made your point, World. I was never satisfied. I just kept on demanding more, and now I have nothing at all – not even the clothes on my back. I’m not even clean.
Clean? Make that, barely even recognisable. Still covered in a layer of grime, now supplemented by medicated bandages, and all her hair hacked short to remove the burrs hopelessly tangled into it, she was tempted to put money on even Tevak failing to recognise her – except that it would mean having to go near him again, and she’d rather put the money towards never encountering him again. An involuntary shudder ran up her spine.
A little squeak from one of the internal doorways attracted her attention. One of her hosts stood there, a flat wicker basket in its arms piled high with irregular, pale covered lumps. Blink recognised them as pieces of fruit, and her mouth began to water.
The small creature bowed deeply, offering the plate, wings flicking. Compared to the insect, it was a huge mountain of food; to Blink, it was little more than a couple of mouthfuls of a pale cream-coloured fruit, rind removed and flesh cut into segments, but her pleading stomach didn’t care so long as it got something in it.
“Thank you...” she croaked, struggling to remember her manners, bowing her head as she accepted her breakfast. So what if it was perhaps a little over-ripe, and with a peculiar smell? The fessine tore into the best tasting fruit she’d ever eaten. Her throat cramped and her stomach churned, wanting more, but the tidbit was gone in seconds, barely touching the sides. She sucked the last tiny traces of juice and grainy flesh from the basket before reluctantly deciding that she couldn’t eat the basket itself as well.
She curled down on her mattress jigsaw, wrapping herself in blanket. The instant her head touched the rolled wad of blanket that would act as a pillow, the sleep she’d been resisting while she satisfied her aching stomach finally sank its teeth in, throwing its constricting coils around her brainstem.
Her eyelids felt so heavy. Couldn’t keep her eyes open. Could feel herself crashing, quietly, systems shutting down. A sort of light-headed disconnect settled on her shoulders – her limbs too heavy to move, warm and comfortable but so muggy, as they settled into the soft surface on which she lay.
Sleep rushed upon her as quickly and quietly as the tide. She didn’t even remember closing her eyes before the dreamless slumber finally claimed her.
Sett was... fortunate, maybe? Unfortunate? To be first to find out that the basement was empty. Woken at the very crack of dawn by a squabbling pair of bristletails on the windowsill behind his head, and then unable to get back to sleep, he decided that he may as well take the sick prisoner her next dose of antibiotics and her usual ‘breakfast’ cup of water.
He drew to a halt in the doorway so suddenly, it was like he’d stepped into quick-drying glue. Water slopped from the jug and splashed to the floor, soaking his sooty toes, but he barely noticed it. He could only stand and stare, dumbly, at finding the room devoid of all occupants. Shreds of the filthy ribbon still clung to the water pipe, but the cushion and blanket sagged together as though the prisoner had simply evaporated clean away from within.
The young dar’s thoughts turned instantly to the pair of trespassers he’d encountered only a day or two ago, and his ears automatically folded back. He couldn’t pick their scent out of the fusty, mildew-y smells of the basement, but nothing else could explain Blink’s impossible escape.
They said I could trust them. They promised not to follow me! He pursed his thin lips, angry and ashamed in equal measures – angry that they’d obviously gone against their words and followed him, sneaked in somehow in the dead of night, and freed the captive. Ashamed that he’d been so easily duped, by individuals he knew he couldn’t trust in the first place! So desperate to bribe your way out of here, you ignored all your limited common sense in favour of making a pact with traitors.
It wouldn’t do for Tevak to find him down here. The giant didn’t trust him, that much was obvious, thought he was weak-willed, and swayed easily by emotional manipulation – but Sett didn’t need the brute to think he’d caved to bribery and released the fessine, either. He turned tail, and fled for his room, hoping if he was lucky? He might just be able to skate under Tevak’s radar...