Grey Eagle - Chapter 30

Chapter Thirty

Arrangements were made and plans proceeded accordingly. Arion found that he could not stop himself from hoping for the best, and his spirits were high as they climbed out of Sharsa's craft and walked towards a business center near the building that housed the big videcom.

They were going to meet the pilot who would fly them to Lenis, and some of the Rikshastikan officials who were making it all possible by clearing the way for the Hammerstar. Sharsa apparently had far more influence than Raach had given him credit for.

The rendezvous was now only a day away, but he stopped and turned, still jumpy, as a hovercraft pulled up behind them. Sharsa turned with him as Raach stepped out, dressed in full Rikshastikan uniform. "Well, well. You finally managed to put one over on me," he said, smiling at the two of them.

"He's not available, Raach," said Sharsa levelly.

"I know that," he answered solemnly, adopting the Homonic as well. "But do you have any idea how hard it will be for him?"

"He'll adjust. He's going home, and there's nothing you can do to stop it."

"I have nothing against him going home," he said, looking at Arion.

Arion stared, sensing that he did in fact intend to stop it, and he was suddenly terrified that Sharsa would not be a match for whatever he had in mind.

"Then why don't you just leave?" Sharsa suggested, his voice growing heavy with annoyance.

Raach shook his head, looking at Sharsa now. "Dangerous," he said quietly, returning to his own tongue. "Very dangerous, what you plan to do."

Sharsa smiled coldly, answering also in Venatese. "You simply have no patience, Raach. No patience and no imagination. When I am done, I will have more Cedrychads than you ever dreamed of. I will make you look like a pauper!"

Raach smiled broadly now, highly amused. "Brother, he speaks Venatese."

Sharsa's head snapped around. Arion met his eyes, destroyed. Sharsa glared at Raach, furious. "Fool! Idiot! You knew! You knew, and you didn't tell me? You've ruined everything!"

"Calm down," he ordered disdainfully. "It never could have worked anyway. You haven't the right. Besides," he added, almost sneering, "we still have him."

"No. I have him. You had your turn. He's mine."

Aviel...

Now

Arion bolted past Raach to the hovercraft, still powered up and ready to sail. He jumped into the open seat, the chill of his spine desperately warning of Raach's laser behind him.

The hovercraft leaped into motion as Sharsa reached it, his hands sliding down the sleek sides as Arion pulled away. He dodged between the buildings, shielding himself, wondering wildly where he could possibly go.

He looked quickly about him in the craft. He found a laser in the catch-all, but in spite of Sharsa s treachery, he remained unsure whether he was capable of using it. His heart swelled then as he examined the radio - it was a broadcast unit in case of breakdowns.

Please be listening! he thought desperately, knowing they must be, yet terrified they weren't. "Arion Dorios to Arlemagen! Arion Dorios to Arlemagen! Urgent! Come in please." The computer would easily pick his hailing from out of the sea of similarly weak transmissions - if they were listening.

"This is the Arlemagen. We read you, Arion."

His gratitude was instantaneous and wordless. "The truce is a fake. Abort rendezvous. I repeat, the truce is a fake. Abort rendezvous."

"Message received. What is your situation?"

Arion paused, grieving. His worst fear taken care of, he now had to face his own fate. Still, formality bade him be accurate. "I'm on the run. I have a hovercraft, a laser, and myself. That's about it."

"Are you in immediate jeopardy?"

He looked over his shoulder. Several hovercraft, including Sharsa's, were now following. "Well, not immediate. But Bootes just unleashed Chara and Asterion. It's just a matter of time."

"A little time is all we need," broke in Soren's voice. "Are they big dogs or little dogs?"

"Just hovercraft like mine, but I'm slightly outnumbered down here, and I don't exactly have anyplace to go."

"If you can just stay ahead of them, you don't need anyplace to go. Can you just stay ahead of them for awhile?"

"Well, probably, but, you can't come down here after me," he said, fighting down an unpleasant sense of deja vu. "It's ridiculous. I appreciate the moral support, but I've had it, I know that. It's okay. At least I'm not bait anymore. But listen - "

"No. You listen. You've got a partner in this game now so don't go trying to fold. We're on our way, and not that far to go."

"But, Soren, you can't - "

"You've been listening to venats too long, buddy. Since when do you believe in can't? I'm telling you to hang light and keep moving. Now who are you going to listen to - a bunch of venats, or your wingmate?"

Arion wavered, afraid to hope yet again. "So I'll hang light," he said at last. "But one thing at least you should know. They have a new kind of laser here. Raach called it a brotik. It doesn't kill, just knocks you out with an electric shock. You wake up with a massive headache and a full bodyache to match. Not to mention the fact that you can't even remember what happened. And get this - it doesn't do a thing to them. Not a blasted thing."

Soren whistled. "You keep interesting company. That is something to know, isn't it?"

"Yeah. You don't want to find out the hard way, believe me. And they have the same principle applied to doorways. Not all doorways, and you can't tell by looking. Works off of some kind of electrofield. The doors are worse, but he's going to sell the guns to the Rikshastika."

"Cute."

"And they - " He broke off as a hovercraft pulled out in front of him. He swerved, then ducked as he saw the laser. He gave a sharp cry as it grazed his shoulder, burning a streak from his shoulder blade to the outer corner of his left shoulder.

"Arion!" But he didn't answer, trying desperately to maneuver the craft through the buildings, to keep them between him and the laser. "Arion! Are you all right?"

"Oh sure," he answered crossly. "I'm having a ball."

"Talk to me, partner."

"Sorry. Reinforcements."

"Are you all right?"

"Grazed my shoulder. Guess I should be glad it wasn't a brotik. You either miss or you don't... Blast!" The venator had shot at him between the buildings, hitting the craft.

He swung hard, grinding against the wall of a building. He traveled easily then, but had no idea where they were. "They hit the craft," he said, subdued. "I don't think they got anything important."

"Just keep moving, pal."

"It's no good, Soren. I told you all the important stuff. That's all He wanted..."

"Just keep moving, I said. I'm coming."

"But, Soren, how can you? They'll be tracking me, tracking you. You'll be a sitting duck..."

"So that's what's eating you, is it? I don't know what they told you, but get this and get it good. You're in the middle of a retreat. High level money town and some sort of research center, but hardly military. It's the source of our troubles all right, but there's no tracking station, no military base, none of that.

"They have a few fighter ships that run escort for the carriers to Lenis, but they weren't even using full power in their lasers until you and I messed things up. Every so often a bigger ship stops in to deliver supplies. They ride the fighters over by Aditi in exchange for part of the haul, then leave again."

"No base?"

"No."

No wonder it had been easy for Sharsa to clear the way. "But, Soren..." He wanted to ask what was hanging around now, but knew he mustn t. The Rikshastika would never allow Sharsa to draw in a Hammerstar if... Unless... Sharsa had spoken of having patience...

"Trust me, buddy."

He laughed nervously. "That's what God keeps telling me, but I don't seem to be very good at it. I guess I - Ah!" He growled in frustration as a laser blast dug into the craft. "Got her again."

"Are they military or locals?"

"I.. I don't know, I... " He looked then, disturbed that his attention could be so poor. He had assumed they were military and concentrated on avoiding them. "They're locals," he said quietly. "But Raach is military..."

"Quite likely," said Soren, hearing his distress. "A lot of their big money is military. But I'll bet you he's on leave, or visiting family."

"Tutoring his son," answered Arion, sick. "Only he.. he lives here."

"So what do you want first when you get back?"

He laughed slightly. "How about a cup of coffee?"

"Aw, you're too easy."

"I left my mythra behind," he said suddenly.

"Your what?"

"My mythra. Like the cithara, only different. Sharsa gave it to me."

"And you're going to worry about that now?"

"Well, no... I just wish I had it, that's all. I left it in the back of his craft. We were going to-" He swerved as one of the locals appeared, startling him. A laser blast sliced past him, hitting the inside of the craft, the front panel. "Aw, crud!" he snapped, batting sparks away, gritting his teeth against the pain in his shoulder as he moved his arm.

"Keep ahead of them, Arion. Get your head in the game!"

"Glad to. Glad to hear your voice, too. They just got my panel, and I thought I might have lost you too. Can you hear me?"

"Loud and clear. Any major damage?"

"I really don't know. I have no panel. But I'm still moving."

"Well at least in a hovercraft you can't crash," said Soren, his smile sounding wickedly in his voice.

"Oh you're a real comfort, you are," said Arion, his own smile more genuine than it had been so far.

He saw the fields stretching out behind the buildings now and veered towards them. "I'm going to make a dash for it, Soren. Out in the fields. This peek-a-boo, got-you is going to kill me. Raach's craft is a good one. It's real fast. Maybe I can outrun them long enough."

"Sounds like it's worth a try... Harder to run into anything in an open field..."

"Oh quit already!" said Arion, laughing.

"So you've got Raach's craft, huh? How'd you manage that?"

He paused, remembering, then shook his head, puzzled. "It was easy..."

"How's your escort?"

"Oh they're behind me all right," he said. "I'm in the fields now, moving fast. Three of them staying with me, but not gaining. And I'm out of range."

"Well just keep it that way, buddy, and we've got 'em licked."

"About how long do we have to go?"

"Oh, call it the final quarter of a quad-ball game, give or take. Not long."

"Ah," he sighed, "we can go from star to star, and it still takes so long just to come down."

"Well, I could shift to magnethrust if you wanted, but there wouldn't be much left to ride home in. Assuming you had about a year to dig me out once I got there."

"Yeah, yeah. I know." He looked behind him and sighed. "Soren, there is something else you should know..."

"What's that?"

"Well, it's going to sound really weird, but... You know in the old writings, where it says Satan is locked up?"

"Yeah."

"Well... He's loose."

Soren was silent for several moments. "Can't be," he said gently. "He's gone. Destroyed. That's all over with."

"No. That's.. That's what he wants us to think. But he's loose. It says, in the old writings, that he'll be turned loose again. For a little while..." Soren didn't answer, so he plunged the rest of the way in. "Soren, it's even possible that.. the venators might have souls..."

"Listen, we'll sort it all out when you get back, ot, without fear. It's no different than the same number of humans who would die anyway, only there would be no fear, no suffering, no needless, pointless, deaths. No children waking up in the middle of the night with nightmares."

Arion frowned, remembering Raach's scathing contempt because the writings taught peace, and yet they fought back. But the writings were talking about between humans. This was different.

Wasn't it? ...Fighting might be right, but he no longer knew that any more than he knew that it was wrong. Raach hadn't exactly said they had souls, but he hadn't said they didn't either... "Sharsa, do you have a soul?"

He laughed. "What brought that on?"

He hesitated, unable to explain. If he did, Sharsa might fabricate something. "The people on Lenis don't fight you because they can't hope to win. But their fear drives them to fight each other. That has to be worse than fighting you. You want me to go home and tell the entire Gadamista to stop fighting. To let the Rikshastika do whatever they want, because you'll kill us anyway. I can't tell them that."

"Well, no," he answered chuckling. "Not when you put it that way. I don't expect peace right away. What I want you to tell them is, I'm serious. That you trust me. I need them to be willing to listen to me or we can never negotiate anything."

He took a deep.. a half deep breath, letting it out slowly, a festering question finally crystallizing into recognizable form. But he hesitated, afraid to ask, afraid to expose the lie and seal his doom. He looked up, searching his eyes...

"Sharsa... You say the damats would replace us, but... Why waste that much time, that much food, just to raise meat you can catch for free?"

Sharsa smiled and nodded as if expecting the question. "They are carefully raised," he said slowly, "but we can feed them foods that we can't eat."

Arion raised his eyebrows dubiously and shrugged. "Still doesn't seem worth it. Spend how long to raise them, just so..." It wasn't decent.

Sharsa sighed. "Yes, but in the long run it'll be worth it. Not all of them are for food, so it's worth it. Trust me, it'll work."

But I don't trust you. "So what's the advantage? All this fuss and bother to raise damats, to avoid killing humans... I'm sorry, but I just don't see it. What's in it for you guys?"

Sharsa stared at him for a moment, then smiled slightly. "You of all people I would expect to understand that. Tell me, how many venators did you kill before you were captured? Damats don't kill anybody. That's what makes it worthwhile, Arion. We don't want to die just for something to eat."

He immediately thought of Manak, but even so, Manak had blamed him, not Reegat. But he still didn't like it, didn't trust it, couldn't support it. It was one thing for a venator to think that it was reasonable, but quite another for a human to endorse it. He sighed, troubled.

There was so much that he simply didn't know, or couldn't understand. He knew that Raach was with the Rikshastika, and they were the most powerful governing force among the Venatorista. Yet Raach had claimed a relationship with God. More importantly, he truly seemed to know what he was talking about.

If that was all true, was the Gadamista wrong to fight them? Could Sharsa be right? But God couldn't possibly want that. Except, as Raach had once pointed out, the original writings spoke of God sending people into slavery for being rebellious.

Raach had once called him mutinous, blaming him for his own capture. Maybe now that Satan was loose again... "Sharsa, I just don't know what to think anymore. I like you but..."

"Well, let it ride for now. Too much too fast. Let it ride."

Arion sighed, relieved and grateful. "Thanks."