part0037

THE CREEPING CROCODILES were on form today. They broke all their records with their catch. Maybe the two long river trips in one day had done them good, or maybe the place was just rich in fish. Either way, Katy and Tick-Tock pulled one fish after another onto the bank. The girls got tired of cleaning the catch and decided to cook only some of it, wrapping the rest in broad leaves for later. We had enough food to feed the whole village for a week. I stuffed myself to bursting and meowed happily, lying in the grass and watching as Varya and Julie climbed a tree and made a big bed in its boughs out of twigs, ropes, grass and scraps of thick cloth.

Shelly had a completely different job to do. At Sergeant’s request, the furry girl took a couple of heavy black bags from him and went to the neighboring woods. My master warned her that the contents stank and that it had to be taken deep into the forest and poured on an animal track. He asked for her to wash the priceless waterproof bags in the river and return them if she could. But she came back without the bags and with her hair standing on end. Her squeamishness must have gotten the better of her.

The shelter up in the tree was soon ready, and the girls went off to sleep. They wanted to drag me up there too, but I protested. I howled as gratingly as I could and even scratched them. Sergeant might need my help, so I wanted to stay with him! Sergeant asked them to hand the kitten to him anyway. Varya carefully threw me to the boy on the giga-komodo’s back. A flask of strong tea followed after me — the night promised to be cold, and a hot drink would be nice to have.

Sergeant stayed up on the giga-komodo’s back, yawning in boredom and singing to himself to stay awake. The sky was cloudless and starry, the night cold. I had no fear of freezing with my thick fur, but the boy had to put on his warm sweater and jacket to stay warm. All was calm and monotonous. I was a little concerned that the night beasts or other predators might appear in the darkness, but neither had made an appearance on the river meadow yet. Sometimes we heard heavy splashes and strange howls from the direction of the river, but whatever was happening was safely far away and didn’t concern us. I rolled up into a ball on the backpack and snoozed.

The reptile never seemed to tire. It kept racing around in circles, still at the same speed. Its stamina was amazing. Astride such a mighty and tireless beast, you could gallop all day without taking a break. The big human was already planning on how to use the pet. He talked to himself about bringing metal from Orshi-Ur to the river settlement. He daydreamed as far as organizing twice-daily trips on the giga-komodo to help the humans stay in close contact and remain a single whole even after the split.

Sergeant reminded me of old Pan then. That man was always talking to himself to stay awake during his nightly watches. Now and again the boy’s face lit up when the Riding or Taming skills leveled up. Somewhere in his ramblings he said he was near character level sixteen. He muttered unhappily as he read the game info for the Taming skill. It said that as the skill leveled up, then not only would creatures be less aggressive, but it would also take less time to tame them. So far he’d seen no evidence at all of that. The taming bar was filling up too slowly for his liking too. It had only reached twenty-one percent. It was looking like he’d have to spend the next night up on the stubborn beast too.

Then, suddenly, Sergeant shuddered, tensed. I was just starting to nod off from my master’s monotonous moaning, but the human’s sudden anxiety jolted me awake. I jumped up, twitching my ears and trying to figure out what had put the man’s back up.

No, no thank you. Even without the skill, I could see the tracks of some two-legged creature appearing in the dewy grass. Someone in invisibility slowly approached, then stopped three paces from the giga-komodo’s ring of trampled grass. The invisible watcher stood and did nothing, just watched while the beast ran in circles. The figure was short, two-legged, with shoes. A sherkh? I wondered… What was that fearsome Swordmaiden’s name again? My master remembered first.

“What do you want from me, Avelia?”

My other self seemed to think the same way I did. There didn’t seem to be many sherkhs around here. Their lands were far away. The ones here were probably part of a small group of long-range scouts. We’d seen two members of the group — Avelia and her younger brother. And Arvedo seemed impulsive and bad-tempered. He was more likely to shoot you in the back than stand there calmly watching.

We both guessed right! The short, long-eared blonde in her form-fitting dark clothes appeared out of thin air. The girl looked furious.

“How did you see me, Sergeant? Answer me! Do you have a thermal vision modification?”

Interesting. That meant you could see sherkhs in the infrared spectrum. I filed that away for future reference and waited for Sergeant to respond. Talking was inconvenient — the stubborn reptile kept taking us away from the girl as she waited for an answer, which came only when the next revolution brought us back round to her.

“Not at all. You just leave footprints in the dew,” Sergeant pointed at the chain of easily visible prints in the grass. “I have the Tracking skill, so I see things like that easily.”

That answer satisfied the Swordmaiden. She relaxed and took her hands off the pommels of her swords. My master still had enough of his wits about him not to mention the fact that he had the Eagle Eye skill, and that Night Vision was a potential modification for it. Or maybe the boy didn’t know.

The tireless giga-komodo made another couple of circles, twice passing by the sherkh girl. She just stood and said nothing. The third time, the Swordmaiden suddenly made a short run and jumped high into the air, coming down standing onto the scaled reptile’s back behind us. She stood a moment, easily balancing with her arms on the galloping animal, but then decided to sit down for safety. She stared daggers into the human’s back.

“If you let your hands wander, you’ll get stumps back!” It’s just inconvenient to talk you to you when you’re riding around in circles.”

Sergeant said he got it. And lightly rapped me on the head for some reason, although all I was doing was sniffing our nighttime visitor — she smelled of those leaves the veichs used to protect against midge bites. That was important. It meant the sherkhs could be detected by their smell!

No, I waved it away again. Not wanting to get another rap on the head for doing nothing wrong, I climbed onto Sergeant’s shoulder. In the meantime, the boy decided to show some basic politeness and offer some hot tea to the shivering Swordmaiden in her thin bodysuit, to warm her up in the night’s cold. Real black tea from the last world. It even had a little sugar in it, which was considered a great luxury in the new world. But Avelia’s reaction was strange:

“I will not drink, human.”

“Why not? Don’t trust me? Worried I’ll try to poison you?”

“Not at all. Any attempt to poison me would be suicidal, and you don’t seem like you want to die. It’s just that among my people, sharing nourishment is akin to accepting someone as a friend. And I am not at all certain that I have the right to make friends among humans. War could break out between our races any day now, and our commanders may take a negative view on friendship with the enemy.”

Woah! That was some news. So it turned out humans were on the brink of war with the sherkhs. That meant conflict might be around the corner. Not a happy thought. But Sergeant didn’t take the information seriously, just laughed it off.

“Today was the first time I’ve ever met anyone from your race. None of the other villagers have ever seen a sherkh in person. Most of them don’t even know you exist. What do you mean, war?”

The girl cocked her head at the back of his.

“The veichs are gone.”

“So? What does that matter?”

“If you don’t get it, then ask someone wiser. Your Engineer or Philosopher.”

“You know a lot about the people of Pan’s Landing,” the boy said in surprise. The girl’s answer was puzzling and concerning.

“You humans can’t even imagine how much we know about you! My kinsmen are everywhere, and we keep a close eye on your every movement. Pan’s Landing is in my area of responsibility, and I know everything that happens there.”

I listened very closely to their conversation. I got the impression that Avelia had deliberately revealed this no doubt secret information to the human. Why? She knew perfectly well that Sergeant would take it up the chain. To the leaders of Pan’s Landing, or maybe even beyond, to the humans on the other side of the snowy mountains. Maybe that was just what she wanted? Did she want humans to take their defenses more seriously, to prove themselves a fearsome and powerful neighbor, so that the sherkhs would rethink their martial plans? Was she trying to avoid a bloody war before it was too late?

“Why a Hexxer?” Avelia suddenly asked.

Sergeant just shrugged.

“Hell, who knows? Whiskers goes where he pleases, he can look after himself. Only he knows what he gets up to on his nighttime adventures. Maybe he ran across a shaman and learned some voodoo.”

The Swordmaiden looked at me a while, then, carefully, as if fearing a burn, extended a hand and touched the fur on my chest with her fingertips. Once certain that the furry critter represented no danger, she stroked me with more confidence. I meowed happily.

“May I?” Avelia was bold enough to pick me up and hug me. “What a cute creature. It somehow reminds me of a small child. I wish to buy it from you. Name your price.”

What? That was such a surprise that I was at a loss. Did I want to change masters and go live with the sherkhs? I wasn’t sure. It would have turned my life on its head, not to mention my plans for the future. Moreover, if I accidentally revealed my human nature, then they’d surely kill me. On the other hand, I could become the first foreigner that managed to infiltrate the sherkhs and find out more about the mysterious people’s way of life. All the same, I sighed with relief when Sergeant refused.

“The cat isn’t for sale. He’s my good-luck charm.”

Avelia stopped smiling and handed me back to Sergeant. She switched back to her strict, official-sounding voice and got back to business.

“Yes human, we sherkhs know practically all there is to know about our neighbors. I was listening in on your recent conversation with the Engineer when you insisted on organizing an expedition to Hundred Skull City. And, as it happens, that mysterious place is of interest to me as well. My people have a challenge — to return from the depths of those ruins with something valuable. It’s a mandatory stage of our initiation. Without this confirmation of skill, no sherkh is trusted to command a squad. I tried to get into the depths of the ruins on my own in invisibility twice. Both times I was forced to retreat. It’s too hard. So I’ll be going with your group, whether you like it or not.”

Since the nighttime visitor was waiting for some reaction to her words, my master bowed his head in respect and spoke with mock ceremony.

“I… We would all consider it a great honor if such a capable Swordmaiden were to join our party!”

Avelia just snorted derisively in response.

“You misunderstand me, human. I don’t plan on joining your group. I’m just going to be near it. I’ll see how you humans handle some of the traps. Maybe even help you out a time or two. That’s all I wanted to say. See you in Hundred Skull City. And think about the cat — I still plan to get my hands on him. The easy way… or the hard way.”

After that unambiguous warning, the Swordmaiden disappeared right before my eyes! A new set of footsteps appeared in the wet grass, this time quickly departing into the distance.