We woke just after the sun came up, ate some more fruit, and, hearing no sounds denoting the near presence of taiskels, took the raft to shore and went slowly along the riverbank looking for any sign of Arlyne having put in somewhere.
We had not gone far when Simon spotted an air car in the distance.
“Should we be waving or hiding?” Kirsty inquired.
“Not sure yet,” I replied.
The question was answered by the laser beam that hit the front of the raft as soon as the air car got close enough to spit one out.
The raft spun around wildly and struck the bank. We jumped off and fled into the forest, temporarily forgetting about savage plants and animals.
The air car couldn’t follow us into the forest. Nor could it land on water, and there was no clear flat area between the river and the trees for the pilot to make use of. From the (relative) safety of the trees, we watched him take it downriver, looking for one.
As soon as the air car disappeared around a bend, we went back to the raft. Its controls were no longer working, but even if they had been, we didn’t want to go back out onto open water. Stuffing as much of the remaining fruit into our satchels as possible, we resigned ourselves to walking the rest of the way to wherever we were going.
“The river’s not very wide here,” said Simon. “Or even very deep. We should cross over and make our way downstream along the opposite bank. When Drazok’s guys come back, they’ll see we’ve abandoned the raft and think either, (a) we’ve left the river and gone inland on this side, or (b) we’re going to keep following the river from this side.”
“Making the other side the better one for us to be on,” I said, and Kirsty and Jip agreed.
We could all swim, but didn’t have to, as the water wasn’t very deep at that particular point. Our only real concern was whether or not it contained aggressive aquatic things. Fortunately, it didn’t.
From the trees on the other bank, we saw four men return on foot, stop by the raft, and go into the forest just as Simon had predicted. We, too, then went inland, but not very far inland, as it was only by keeping the river in sight that we could be sure we were still headed downstream and still on Arlyne’s trail.
Several hours later empty water bottles forced us back to the riverbank. Most of it boasted thick and, in places, threatening, foliage but we came out onto a spot with hardly any. Instead, there were rocks. Rocks that led to hills, which in turn led to mountains.
And, pulled up onto them, was a raft similar to our own.
“Now there’s a bit of luck,” I said. “It has to be Arlyne’s and we’d never have spotted it if we hadn’t come to refill our bottles.”
Simon gave it a cursory inspection and said it seemed to be in good working order.
“Aye,” said Kirsty, nudging it with her foot. “So, why did she leave it? And where did she go? She’s not likely to have taken to the hills. That’d be hard going with we’ans.”
“It certainly would,” I agreed. “But somehow…Somehow, I think she has.”
“Me too,” said Simon.
“What are the pair of you basing that on? Sibling intuition?”
“Kind of,” Simon replied.
I nodded. “It is just a feeling, but I’m sure that’s where she’s gone. Up into the hills.”
“And that could make sense,” said Jip, “as it would put her on higher ground from which to look for the other escape pods or be spotted by rescuers.”
“Aye, well, there’s that,” Kirsty conceded. She gave Simon and me a hard look. “Are you feeling there’s any particular slope we should take?”
“Yes,” we said together, both pointing at the same one.
“Off we go, then.”
As the day wore on, Simon and I remained sure of our way, going up and down several hills until, after only a few breaks for food and rest, we came to a clearing at the foot of a mountain.
“Are you off your head?” Kirsty said when I proposed tackling it. “Arlyne might be somewhere in these hills, but do you really think she’s hiking up a mountain carting two bairns?”
“Yes. I don’t know how she’s managing it, but she is,” I said, to which Simon nodded vigorous agreement.
Kirsty and Jip exchanged looks.
“If you both feel strongly, I suppose we should do as you wish,” said Jip. “But in an hour or so, night will begin to fall. It would be better to camp here until morning and start up the mountain then.”
“Or not start up it at all,” said Kirsty. “Suppose it’s volcanic and decides to erupt halfway? That being the sort of thing we can expect around here. And we’ve not met with much in the way of perils since we left the river, so we’re aboot due.”
“That almost seems weird in view of everything that happened yesterday,” I mused. “Even the few animals we’ve seen ran when they saw us.”
“There still could be aggressive ones about,” said Jip. “We will have to take turns staying awake to watch for predators.”
A sound plan, but one we never got a chance to implement. Having, sadly, finished off the fruit, we were just about to open some nutrition bars when we saw an air car making its way towards us. The same one we’d seen earlier in the day. Stopping only long enough to snatch up our survival satchels, we ran for what looked like a path going up the mountain — with Kirsty, all mountain-climbing reservations forgotten, in the lead.
The air car landed in the clearing and its occupants jumped out to give chase. Now reduced to three — possibly because one had stayed behind on this trip, but more likely because one had been devoured by something — they were armed with liquidators and fired at us repeatedly, forcing us to hunker down amidst some boulders.
Reaching for our stun guns, Jip and I fired back, but neither of us managed to hit even one of our attackers. Their aim was much better, each shot coming perilously close to one or more of us. And since the power storage capacity of disruptors is greater than that of stun guns, it wasn’t long before ours were almost completely drained. With just one more discharge left per gun, we set them on wide for a last, desperate volley, and were amazed when both blasts struck a rock face behind the men, bounced off it, and slammed into them full on, causing all three to drop to the ground as fast as the beetroot-things had.
“You did it,” Kirsty cried jubilantly. “You got them all.”
“For now,” I said, standing up. “As soon as they come to, they’ll be after us again.”
“Not armed, they won’t,” said Simon, running forward to gather up their fallen liquidators. “They might even think twice about coming after us if they know we’ve got these. And if they have more back in their air car, they’ll have to go back for them, which’ll give us a bit of a head start.”
“Be careful with those things,” I said, alarmed. “Do you know how to put them back in safety mode?”
“I…uh…no.”
“Well, neither do I, and we’re not experimenting. Or taking them with us without them being in safety mode. Toss them in the underbrush.”
“Meda—”
“Don’t argue. Do it.”
If he hadn’t, I would have, and he knew it.
“Okay,” he said in disgust.
His eyes went wide when the first one fell short of the underbrush, struck a rock and exploded. He quickly disposed of the other two, which also exploded. I looked up at the mountain uneasily, wondering if the explosions, coupled with our altercation with Drazok’s men, would set off a landslide, but nothing happened.
“Let’s get going,” said Kirsty. “I’m wanting to put as much distance between us and them as possible.”
We all were. Simon and I had both lost our strange directional hunch while fleeing from Drazok’s men, but it had been steering us towards the mountain before, and it seemed only sensible to keep going up for as long as we could in what was now twilight, as the thickness of its vegetation would make it impossible for Drazok’s henchmen to pursue us in the air car and force them to follow us on foot.
We started along what still looked like a path. Just around the next bend, the hunches returned, and I suggested veering off into the trees. Thankfully, none of them appeared to be looking for a meal, and we climbed steadily, using both trees and the expansion of night as cover.
Our survival satchels all contained pocket torches, but not wanting to call attention to ourselves with their beams, we made do with moonlight. Like many planets, Cholar has a moon, and that night, it happened to be full, making a night climb a little less chancy than it might otherwise have been.
Eventually, however, the trees started to thin out. Which meant there was a possibility that, if we went beyond them, the, up-until-then, friendly, moon could show our silhouettes to anyone below us.
“We must find a place to hide until daylight,” said Jip. “But where? There are no longer any bushes thick enough to fully conceal us.”
“I’m feeling like we should go back to the path,” said Simon.
“So am I,” I said. “Assuming we can find it again.”
We did, and with little trouble. As soon as we set off, it suddenly seemed as though the moon was lighting a path to the path, and, once we were on it, shone directly down on what appeared to be a cave. A cave I felt was welcoming us.
The idea of taking sanctuary there appealed to Jip and Simon as well, but Kirsty had some misgivings.
“Are taiskels ones for living in caves?” she asked my brother.
“No. They live in burrows, like rabbits. They’re just not as harmless as rabbits.”
“Rabbits, harmless? Huh! When I was a we’an, Neil had a rabbit that kicked and clawed us quite regular. And even if taiskels aren’t cave-dwellers, other dangerous beasties might be.”
“The men behind us are dangerous too,” I pointed out. “And we do have our stun guns if the cave already has an occupant.”
“Are they not oot of power?”
“Well, yes. But there should still be enough residual power in them to produce an impressive-looking flash and a bit of a noise. Nothing that would actually stun anything but might frighten an animal.”
“We should at least take a look,” said Jip.
“Aye, I suppose we should. If it’s safe, it’ll be a better place to lay oor heads for the night than oot here.”
Jip and I went into the cave first, moving cautiously and holding tight to our stun guns in case it was inhabited by something a flash and whine might intimidate. But all we found within was a profusion of flowers growing along its walls.
Gorgeous flowers.
“I didn’t know flowers could grow in caves,” I said in amazement as Kirsty and Simon joined us. “I thought they had to have sunlight.”
“They do,” said Simon. “But some species grow near the mouth of caves, where they get the benefit of both sunlight and shelter.”
“Another little nature-related tidbit you picked up from Mardis?”
“Yes. He’s interested in all the life sciences, but if I go into that field, I think I’ll just focus on zoology.”
I blinked in surprise. “Are you considering going into that field?”
“Maybe. If we manage to get out of Chorathase alive, we’ll have all kinds of careers open to us when we’re older.”
“We will that,” Kirsty agreed. “Me, I favour dealing in fine jewellery and other bonnie wee items. That’s not to say I dinna appreciate the wonders of nature, though. The flowers in here are the most beautiful I’ve ever laid eyes on.”
“They are not just beautiful,” Jip said quietly. “They are sentient.”
“Sentient?” I echoed.
“Yes. Listen.”
A soft whirring noise was coming from all the flowers.
“Open your minds to them,” Jip commanded. “They are trying to speak to us.”
And, after a few minutes of intense concentration from both parties, they did. Or rather, one of them did. A large red and yellow one. After producing the initial hum that obviously got things going, the others must have voted it the spokesplant and dropped out of the conversation so as not to make things too confusing.
“We are the Zguri,” the spokesplant informed us, the sound of its voice within our minds strong and masculine. “First Nation of Cholar. Millennia ago, we found ourselves persecuted by the planet’s later denizens. Their desire for all that sustains life or makes it pleasurable went beyond necessity. With greed came exploitation and an intolerance for those who would live more simply. Our numbers much reduced, we retreated to this cave, where we sensed protective and beneficial energy we could use to ensure our preservation. Here, well hidden from those who lacked the perception to tap its wonders, we developed the means to live in peace and contentment. As we still do now. Long forgotten by those on the outside.”
“Where you once lived also. But you came here, so you can, uh, move about?” I inquired, speaking aloud.
“Not as you do. We evolved along different lines. Sunlight and a sufficient amount of rain reach us here, and insects and other creatures aid our procreation. During those times of the year when sunlight is less plentiful, we hibernate. It is fortunate the circumstances which brought you here did not occur at that time. Although our queen believes we are capable of awakening should it ever happen to be required of us.”
“Queen?” I looked around. “Which one of you is the queen?”
“She dwells further within the cave. Her name is Azmx. No title. Simply Azmx. She awaits you. Please go with the guide.”
Something looking, except for the green, orange, and purple feathers, a bit like an Earth bat with six legs, swooped in, circled above our heads, and took off into a passage. When we did not immediately follow, it came back and circled again, emitting impatient squeaks.
“I think we should comply,” said Jip and, with no hesitation whatsoever, set out down the passage it had once more disappeared into.
“Drat the lass,” Kirsty said as the rest of us hurried after her. “You’d think, for safety’s sake, she could at least have used one of her other dimensions to check things oot instead of just trotting off like that. What if these pretty Zguri thingies are like the not-so-pretty beetroot thingies and we’re being tricked into going close enough for their queen to grab us and have us for her dinner?”
I didn’t feel overly perturbed. “The ones back there didn’t try to eat us.”
“The queen might get first dibs,” Kirsty countered. “Still, we canna very well let Jip go up against the queen on her own.”
We followed Jip and the feathered bat-thing though a labyrinth of passages I was sure we’d never find our way back through, even though the walls were luminous and provided as much light as pocket torches would have.
When our guide finally stopped, it was in an open cavern filled with beautifully coloured stalagmites and stalactites, some of the latter possessing the same luminous glow as the passage walls. In the middle of the cavern, the flower queen, Azmx, was nestled on a short, flat-topped, moss-covered stalagmite with sunlight streaming down on her from above. Presumably from some sort of opening. Three times the size of even the largest Zguri at the entrance, Azmx’s petals fell in an alternating pattern of royal blue and deep pink flecked with gold. She was so magnificent that, for a moment none of us noticed Arlyne, Challa, and Kadi sitting at the base of her stalagmite throne.
Arlyne and Challa scrambled to their feet. Challa even ran to meet us, waving her treasured baton. Kadi’s greeting was not as enthusiastic. He broke into a smile upon seeing us, but then looked past us, his face suddenly becoming much less animated.
“You made it,” said Arlyne. “I was starting to get worried. Even though Azmx said you were on your way.” She paused. “The Zguri were able to communicate with Challa almost immediately, but it took them a bit longer to get through to me. I was really quite startled to learn they were people.”
I nodded. “Yeah. Us too.”
Azmx began making whirring noises. Within seconds, we could hear her in our heads, the sound of her voice firm and majestic, but also calm and reassuring.
“Welcome, friends and pod-mates of Arlyne, and protectors of the royal seedlings. Please apprise each other of what has befallen you since you were last together. Conversation with me can wait.”
“You go first,” Arlyne said as we sat down, our backs up against the stalagmite. I tried to settle Kadi on my lap, but he pushed me away, looking disgruntled. Respecting his mood, I let him go on sitting where he was and joined the others in filling Arlyne in on all that had happened since we’d freed ourselves from our escape pods and found hers.
“How come you didn’t stay with it?” Simon asked. “Your landing was pretty cushy compared to ours.”
“I thought about staying with it. Then I started to think about Drazok. I’ve never met him, but just from seeing him onscreen before he shot at us, I could tell he meant business. I knew if he thought there was any chance of us surviving the crash, he’d come in pursuit and might find us before Taz could.”
“He is in pursuit,” said Kirsty. “Close pursuit. Or rather, three of his henchmen are.”
“They can’t harm us here.”
“They can if they figure oot we’re in this cave and come in after us.”
“Bad people can’t come in here,” said Challa. “Just me, and Kadi, and our friends.”
“Why’s that?” I asked amused.
“Because they are of the House of Beom, and the Shield of Beom protects the House of Beom,” Arlyne answered.
“You mean the shield’s here? You found it?” Simon sprang up. “Where is it? Show me.”
“It’s not what you think — what I thought — when we first started reading about it. We all had the idea it was a shield like medieval knights or Roman soldiers used to use. But the more I read, the more it seemed like the Shield of Beom wasn’t a thing. It was a place. A place that shielded.”
“Why didn’t you tell us?” I asked.
Arlyne grimaced. “I guess because…well, you’re all so smart, and strong, and daring, I…I didn’t want to look dumb if I was wrong.”
“But you weren’t wrong.” I looked around in awe. “This cave is the Shield of Beom.”
Arlyne shook her head. “No, it isn’t. We were all wrong. The shield isn’t a thing or a place.”
“Huh?”
She smiled and glanced up at Azmx.
“The Zguri are the Shield of Beom.”