CHAPTER TWELVE
We’d been walking for about fifteen minutes when the footbridge dead-ended at a wide ledge jutting out from the side of a curved cliff face. Selene led us along the ledge, all of us ducking or brushing past the nearby trees and the small bushes and grasses that always somehow managed to hang onto sheer rock this way. Fifty meters later we arrived at a tunnel in the rock with a clearly artificial rain-guard overhang. She looked back to make sure we were all still following, then ducked under the overhang and disappeared inside.
Behind me, Braun muttered something under his breath. “Trouble?” I asked quietly.
“This isn’t where we usually went in,” he said, his voice heavy with suspicion. “We always went to the next tunnel. Where is she taking us?”
“I don’t know,” I said. Only Selene wasn’t taking us anywhere, at least not directly. The real question was where was Tirano taking us? “Maybe Lukki wanted to shake things up a bit. If she thought someone was watching her, she might have put the package where they wouldn’t think to look.”
“Yeah. Maybe.”
The tunnel’s walls and ceiling were bare rock, with no padding of any sort, but there was enough light seeping in from behind us to warn us of the various protrusions in time to keep from whacking heads or shoulders. But that light was fading steadily as we continued into the darkness. Ten or fifteen more meters, I decided, and I’d need to pull out my flashlight.
“Why are you here?” Braun asked. “Not here here. Here in Bilswift.”
“I was hired by Lukki,” I said. “Remember?”
“Bull,” he said flatly. “I know a con story when I hear it. Plus you weren’t checking in with her about some private job when you barged in on her at Panza’s. You were trying to get Tirano out of his indenture.”
“How do you know?” I countered. “You weren’t close enough to hear anything. Whatever Lukki told you afterward—”
“You think Lukki was stupid?” Braun interrupted. “You think I’m stupid? We had that booth bugged so we could keep tabs and records on everyone who talked to her. Willie and I were listening in the whole time.”
I winced. With my thoughts fully focused on Tirano’s situation, that obvious security arrangement hadn’t even occurred to me. “It’s not what you think,” I said carefully, my back tingling unpleasantly. Braun probably already had his Blackman out and pointed at the internal organ of his choice.
“No, I think it’s exactly what I think.” He was silent a few steps. “Okay, here’s the deal. I told you I know a con story when I hear it. I also know what it sounds like when someone’s stepped off the deep end and is just trying to claw his way back to the surface. I’ll give you one chance to tell me the truth.”
There was no way I could tell him everything, of course. The portals were a deep, dark secret, and the admiral would have my hide if I said anything about them.
But walking down a narrow tunnel with my back to my opponent, there was no chance of dodging or fighting my way out of this. I didn’t know if part of the truth would be acceptable, but right now it was all I had. “Selene and I are in Bilswift on a completely unrelated job,” I told him. “Nothing to do with you or Lukki.”
“What job?” he pressed. “You on a hunt?”
“We got a tip there were some artifacts hidden in the area,” I said. “We had some time on our hands, and Alainn was close, so we thought we’d drop in and poke around a little.”
Braun grunted. “If you’re talking about the village near Seven Strands, that was picked clean years ago. So why did you follow me to the Black Rose? No, back up a step. Tell me why you were at Lukki’s apartment.”
“Tirano had disappeared,” I said. “We were hunting him, and thought he might have gone to the apartment to hide.” I frowned, peering ahead down the tunnel. As the morning sunlight from behind us was fading, a new and fainter glow was now coming from in front of us. The tunnel was evidently coming to an end. “Or maybe not to hide but to look for the same paper you came there looking for.”
“The one Galfvi already made off with?”
“That’s the one.”
He digested that for a couple more steps. “So the package isn’t really here?”
“I really don’t know,” I had to admit. “But you had a gun on me, and your friends didn’t seem the sort to believe I just happened to stumble into your meeting. I had to say something.”
“Yeah,” Braun said. “Figured as much. So why are we here? What’s your woman looking for?”
“You know how Kadolian senses work,” I said obliquely. “You saw it often enough with Tirano. Selene’s using the same technique.”
“Even though she’s never been here before?” Braun asked. “Tirano said he had to have smelled something to find it again.”
“Tirano is young and inexperienced,” I said as confidently as I could. If Tirano didn’t come through, we were going to be in deep trouble. “Selene will get there.”
“Maybe.” Braun hissed out a breath. “Not that it matters. If the package isn’t here, we’ll just grab a different one. It’s not like the Ylps will know the difference.”
“Not at all,” I agreed, wishing I knew what exactly I was agreeing to.
We’d gone two more steps when something hard prodded against my right side. “Here,” Braun said. “Take it.”
“What?” I asked, frowning as I reached a hand up to the object.
And found myself holding the muzzle of my plasmic. “You sure?” I asked, taking it from him.
“Not really,” Braun said frankly. “But this place can be dangerous, and something doesn’t feel right. I think we’re being set up.”
“I’m starting to get that feeling myself,” I said, my throat tightening as I shifted my grip on the weapon and slid it back into its holster. “For the record, if we have been set up Selene isn’t part of the game.”
“I guess we’ll find out.” He touched my shoulder. “Everyone?” he called, raising his voice to a stage whisper. “Hold up here. We need to talk.”
Selene and the Ylps stopped and turned to face us. “Are these words necessary?” Scarf asked impatiently.
“Yeah, they are,” Braun said. “Up ahead we’re going to come to some caverns, more tunnels, and more caverns. Maybe some ladders leading up or down. There are people living here called the Loporri. Whatever you do, don’t touch them. Got it?”
“Why not?” Scarf asked.
“Because touching a Loporr releases a chemical scent into the air that alerts all the other Loporri in sniffing range,” Braun said. “Different touches make them give off different scents.”
“Such as?” I asked.
“Such as touches from other Loporri don’t bother them,” Braun said. “Touches from moss or game animals tell them someone’s tending the plants or that it’ll be meal time soon.” I saw his throat work. “Touches from intruders like us . . . let’s just say it’ll draw more attention than we want. Got it?”
“Got it,” I said. I looked past the Ylps and saw the sudden apprehension in Selene’s pupils. Apparently, Tirano had forgotten to mention that part to her.
Or maybe had skipped the warning on purpose. He knew she would be leading our little expedition, after all. If he wanted to ditch us, or worse, this was a perfect way to do it. Especially since Selene still couldn’t tell if and when he was lying.
Crime. Sociopathy.
Changeling.
“What about the package?” Scarf asked.
“Don’t worry about the package,” Braun said. “I’ve got that covered. Just don’t touch anyone else along the way.” He gestured to Selene. “All right, let’s go.”
She nodded and continued down the corridor into the ever-increasing light. The tunnel curved, revealing an opening into a larger space.
And as we all filed through onto another ledge I saw we were inside a large cavern, probably a hundred meters across and thirty high.
A cavern, and an entirely new world.
The tunnel behind us had been bare rock. Here, there was no such thing. The walls and floor were covered in a wild patchwork of vividly colored plants. Some were green, especially those near the two openings across the cavern and to our left where the midmorning sunlight was spilling in. Most of those plants looked familiar, matching the grasses and shrubs Selene and I had seen earlier during our drive around the Patth enclosure. But the majority of the plant life was decked out in shades of red and purple, or in the dirty white of mushrooms and other fungi. The ceiling had its own color pattern, mostly consisting of mosses or lichens, and there were strands that seemed to be luminous. Nightlights, possibly, for the long hours of darkness.
Moving unhurriedly around the cavern, picking the plants or ladling water on them, were the Loporri.
My first impression of them was that someone had stacked patterned gray-and-white car tires of varying sizes on top of each other, added spindly arms, short thick legs, and a head and called it a day. Their widest region was at their midsection, with their bulk tapering somewhat in both directions. Their heads were flat on top, maintaining my reflexive tire-stack image, with long hairlike tendrils flowing back from their foreheads to the midsection bulge. Their four splayfooted toes were surprisingly thin, given the rest of their bulk, and appeared to be somewhat prehensile. Size was always hard to judge without a known frame of reference, but I guessed their average height to be about a meter and a half or a bit more.
“Yeah, they look cuddly,” Braun muttered in my ear. “Don’t buy it for a second. And don’t touch them.”
“Don’t worry,” I muttered back. “Cuddly is the last adjective I would have used.”
“Good,” he said. “Where now?”
Selene had paused and was sniffing the plants clustered around the tunnel exit, first the ones to our right and then those to our left. “That way,” she decided at last, pointing behind me toward the right. “And I see a ladder that’ll take us down to the cavern floor. That’s probably the way.”
She started to pass us, stopped as Braun caught her arm. “Where after that?” he asked. “I don’t want to just stand around down there while you figure it out.”
“I’m sorry, but you may have to,” Selene said. “The mix of aromas from the plants is limiting the distance I can read the scent.”
“Don’t worry, she’ll get us there,” I said. A movement by the nearest of the cavern openings caught my eye—
I stiffened. Two of the Loporri had appeared, striding into the cavern from a wide, grassy area just outside, walking with a purposeful tread that was in stark contrast to the leisurely movements of everyone else in sight. A carrying pole rested on their shoulders, on which was suspended the carcass of what looked to be a freshly killed animal. In their free hands, each of them carried a simple but very effective looking crossbow.
And as they paused in the cavern opening, and the animal bounced against their skin, a sudden wave of interest swept over the rest of the Loporri, those nearest the opening pausing first in their work to look at the hunters, the same curiosity spreading rapidly to the whole group. “Selene?” I murmured.
“Yes,” she said, and I saw wonderment in her pupils. “Yes, I can smell it.”
“Good for you,” Braun said tightly. “Come on—we need to get moving before the rest of the colony piles in here.”
Selene nodded and started along the ledge, the Ylps right behind her. “Why haven’t we ever heard about these people before?” I murmured to Braun as we joined them.
“Probably not intelligent enough to be registered,” he said. “And there are other reasons.”
“Such as?”
“Such as you mind your own business and don’t rock any boats,” he growled. “Come on, keep moving.”
“Hold it,” I said, coming to a sudden halt. Two more Loporri hunters had appeared in the cavern opening from the grassy area. But instead of carrying dinner on a pole, this pair had gripped their hands together to make a seat and were carrying a companion.
But this one wasn’t like the other Loporri down there. He had the same coloring and head tendrils that they did, but was taller and noticeably thinner. Even more striking were the scattering of odd bulges across his arms, legs, and torso that looked like giant blisters.
Trailing from each of the blisters were strands of silvery thread that glinted in the sunlight, each of them three to forty centimeters long.
“What’s that?” I asked Braun, fending off his efforts to hurry me along.
“He’s called a Vrink,” he said. “Loporr subgroup. Come on.”
“Braun, look there,” Scarf said. He and the other Ylps had also stopped and were gazing across the cavern at the Vrink, who was now being lowered by his carriers to a sitting position at the side of the opening. “That one. Is it part of our package?”
I stared at him, my blood running suddenly cold. Darnell Javersin had said there were alien artifacts up here. Bicks had said that Tirano sometimes went hunting for them. Lukki had called herself a dealer in exotics.
Somehow, it had never occurred to me that all of that together was going to translate into illegal trafficking. “Braun . . . ?”
“Just can’t leave well enough alone, can you?” he bit out angrily. Grabbing my arm, he physically turned me around and gave me a shove back along the ledge. “No, that’s not one of yours,” he added to Scarf. “Those’ll be down below, in one of the adaptation chambers.”
“Then let us continue,” Scarf said, gesturing to Selene. “Take us there.”
Selene gave a sort of jerky nod and resumed her walk along the ledge.
But not before I saw the surprise and horror in her pupils. Apparently, Tirano hadn’t let her in on this aspect of our hunt, either.
“I don’t get it,” I said as Braun and I hurried to catch up to the others. “Why them? What are they good for?”
For a moment I thought he wasn’t going to answer. Then, he huffed out a sound that was a mix of frustration and resignation. “Yeah, what the hell,” he said. “You’ve already seen them. Those thread things coming out of the spin beetles they’ve got under their skin? That’s silver-silk.”
“You’re kidding,” I said, throwing another look over my shoulder. Silver-silk was a permanent item on the buy-and-boast apparel list of the Spiral’s super-snobbish. I’d never bothered to learn much about the stuff, but I vaguely remembered it being harvested from specialized insects on a single island in the Northern Crescent Sea on Jondervais.
“You think any of us would bother with this nonsense if I was kidding?” Braun retorted.
“Okay,” I said, frowning some more. “So why isn’t the Spiral beating a path up here?”
“Because nobody knows about it,” Braun said. “Everyone knows about the Jondervais silver-silk, but this little offshoot factory is a complete secret.”
“Ah,” I said, still trying to wrap my mind around this revelation.
But as the initial shock faded I could see the horrific logic behind it. Kilo for kilo, silver-silk was one of the most expensive substances in the Spiral. If what the Loporri and Vrinks were producing was genuinely identical to the Jondervais version, anyone who knew Alainn’s secret stood to make an incredible stack of money.
As did anyone who happened to have a few Vrinks of his own hidden away in the basement. No wonder Lukki, dealer in exotics, hung around a backwoods place like Bilswift. “So how and why?” I asked.
“The how is pretty disgusting,” Braun warned. “The spin beetles dig into a Vrink’s skin and settle there as parasites. They tap into his bloodstream for food and just live there. Far as they’re concerned, the silver-silk is just an accidental part of life. Maybe even a waste product.”
“And the Vrinks just put up with this?”
“Yeah, because the silver-silk has a weird side effect,” Braun said. “Watch it!”
Ahead, a Loporr unexpectedly emerged from another tunnel onto our ledge and headed toward us. Selene moved instantly, shrinking against the plant-covered wall to our right and giving the rotund creature room to get past her. The Ylps were a little slower on the uptake, but managed to also get out of the way in time to avoid contact.
Braun was already pressed flat against the wall. I followed suit, wincing a little as the ragged edges of the fronds behind me poked into the back of my neck. The Loporr passed Braun.
And stopped directly in front of me, the double concentric circles of his eyes boring into mine.
I froze, my hand reflexively gripping my plasmic. For a moment he just stared at me. Then, almost delicately, he reached a four-fingered hand out toward my face.
“Down!” Braun bit out.
I bent my knees, dropping into a crouch. The Loporr’s hand continued forward, now reaching past over my head—
And plucked a short branch holding a cluster of red berries from the vines crisscrossing the wall. He put the branch and berries into a pouch slung over his shoulder and continued his stroll along the ledge.
“Close,” Braun muttered as I straightened upright again. “Too damn close. Come on—let’s get moving. The sooner we’re out of this damned place, the better.”
We reached the ladder Selene had spotted without further trouble. The Loporri below us were moving toward the farther opening in the wall, where from our new position I could see a stone-lined firepit a couple of meters outside the cavern in the grassy area. Two of the aliens were stoking the fire, while the two hunters who’d brought in the kill had now handed the carcass off to three more Loporri who were starting to dress it. The grassy area itself was larger than I’d realized, probably stretching twenty meters before it disappeared into rocky cuts on one side and what looked to be a sheer drop on the other.
“Now—go now,” Braun ordered, gesturing urgently to Selene. “This is the clearest shot at those other tunnels that we’re going to get.”
Selene nodded and started down the ladder, keeping an eye below her to make sure none of the Loporri wandered into touching range. She was halfway down when Scarf started his own descent, with the remaining Ylps on the ladder by the time she reached the bottom.
I looked again at the firepit as I waited for enough buffer space to begin my turn on the ladder. Crossbows, group hunting skills, flint knives for cleaning their kill, and now fire. Like hell they weren’t intelligent enough to be registered.
But registered sapients automatically had rights, one of which included not getting bought and sold across the Spiral. Everything about this situation reeked of the superrich and superpowerful tweaking the law for their own profit and to the detriment of the Loporri.
“One more thing,” Braun muttered as I got a grip on the ladder’s uprights and started down. “You and Selene just being here today means you’re aiding and abetting. Remember that if you’re tempted to go to the badgemen when this is over.”
“Don’t worry,” I assured him. “I know how the game is played.”
Still, as my father used to say, When you go up against someone who’s changing the rules, they’ll naturally assume you’ll try to change them back. They won’t be expecting you to change them to something else entirely.
We reached the cavern floor, and after a bit of careful sniffing Selene pointed us to another tunnel mouth thirty meters away. Fortunately, the general motion of the Loporri was still toward the firepit and we were able to slip past them without touching or being touched. We reached the tunnel and headed in.
Unlike the passageway from the footbridge, this one had the same covering of moss and other plant life that we’d seen in the cavern. Here, though, without any sunlight to mask the glow, I was able to confirm that the lines of lichens in the ceiling were indeed luminescent, giving us enough light to guide our steps. We walked past a pair of side tunnels, which a quick glance showed led to smaller chambers filled with white fungi walls and flooring. Farm plots, apparently, sown with crops that didn’t require sunlight.
We were halfway down the corridor when Selene abruptly stopped. “What’s the matter?” I called softly.
“The scent,” she said. “Gregory, it’s different. It’s suddenly gone different.”
“Like back in the cavern?” I asked. “Maybe it just circulated around through here.”
“Oh, hell,” Braun muttered. “Listen.”
I frowned, straining my ears. There was a low murmur and a sort of swishing sound coming from somewhere behind us. “What’s that?” I asked.
“Trouble,” Braun bit out. “I need to know what’s going on, and I need to know now. How is she hunting for the package? What’s she keying on?”
As my father used to say, Be wary of anyone who wants to know something right now and won’t give you time to think about it. But the rustling sound behind us was getting louder, and there was growing fear in Selene’s pupils, and the odds were increasingly good this wasn’t just some clever gambit on Braun’s part. “She sent Tirano in ahead of us to track down the package,” I told him. “Or, like you said, a different group of Vrinks. You think he brushed against one of them?”
“I think he gave one of them a solid right hook,” Braun said bitterly. “He played you, you idiot. This whole thing was a setup and a trap to get us killed. And we walked right into it.”
“Do you seek our deaths?” Scarf demanded. He twitched two of his fingers.
And suddenly his three companions sprouted compact Kreznir 2mm pistols. “Betrayal is punishable by death.”
“Yeah, let’s hang onto the threats for later,” Braun said, peering behind us as he waved Selene forward. “Keep going. They take a while to get up to speed—if we hurry, we might be able to stay ahead of them. And put those damn things away,” he added, jabbing a finger at the Kreznirs. “You draw blood and there won’t even be enough DNA left of you for anyone to analyze.”
“Yet she has betrayed us,” Scarf said, gesturing at Selene. “She must pay with death.”
“You shoot her now and you’ll never get out of here alive,” I warned as all three Kreznirs leveled at Selene’s back. “Anyway, she didn’t betray us, Tirano did. Selene, any idea how much farther?”
“Not very,” she said over her shoulder, her nose and eyelashes going at double time now as she broke into a fast jog. “I can smell some of the bushes and trees from the forest outside.”
“We anywhere near where you usually go in?” I asked Braun.
“I don’t know,” he said. “I don’t think we’re far enough, but maybe.”
“What if we’re not?” I asked. “You know how fast they can move. Will they catch us before we get past this next cavern?”
Braun winced. “Yeah. I think so.”
“And they’re following this new Vrink scent, right?”
“Weren’t you listening?” he retorted. “Yeah.”
“Just confirming,” I said, looking at the Ylps. “You—head Ylp—give me your scarf.”
Scarf half turned. “What do you say?”
“I said give me your scarf,” I repeated. “We need to confuse them.”
“How?” Scarf demanded, his tone dropping into threatening range.
“By overwhelming the Vrink scent,” I said, pulling out my knife. “And we don’t have time to argue.”
“Just give him the damn scarf,” Braun snarled.
It was probably the first time one of Lukki’s people had talked to him that way. Or maybe he’d figured out what I was doing. Either way, he quickly unwrapped the scarf and tossed it to me. “You will still address me with proper respect,” he warned.
“Sure,” I promised, flipping the scarf open and cutting it in half. I thrust one half into Braun’s hands and laid the other lengthwise along the bare rock of the tunnel floor. Then, mentally crossing my fingers, I pulled out my plasmic and fired three shots into the cloth.
I hadn’t had any idea what burning Ylpea scarf would smell like. For that matter, I hadn’t even been certain it would burn. But burn it did, smolder it did, and the stench that cloud of smoke carried with it was all I could have hoped for. “Now go,” I ordered, holstering my plasmic and snatching the remaining piece of scarf back from Braun. “Before one of them figures out they can just walk past it and pick up the scent again.”
Selene was already on the move, hurrying down the tunnel. The smell of burning scarf would eventually reach her and probably bury the fainter scent she was following, but with a little luck by the time that happened she’d have figured out Tirano’s exit strategy.
Regardless, the smoldering scarf was doing its intended job. The swishing of mass Loporri movement behind us seemed to be slowing or fading, or at least wasn’t getting any closer. If the Loporri lost the scent and their reason for attacking us and went back to their lunch preparation, we should be able to get away.
Getting out of this maze, of course, could turn out to be an entirely different challenge.
Fifty meters later the tunnel opened into a smaller version of the one we’d just left, with a scattering of the usual fungi and an opening into the sunlit mountainside.
Unfortunately, the opening was far too small for any of us to get through. “No way out there,” Braun muttered.
“Not without explosives,” I agreed, looking around the cavern. The mossy plants on the floor were much scarcer than we’d seen elsewhere, but there were three much heavier concentrations near the opening. More puzzling were the indentations in each of those collections, as if the plants had been squashed by Loporri who’d been recently sitting or lying there. “What is this place, anyway?”
“Probably a bird trap,” he said. “Lots of bird nests in holes on cliffs like this one. You put a couple of Vrinks by the opening, a bird flies in, and one of the hunters spears or nets it.”
“Why would a bird fly in here?” Selene asked. She was still out in the tunnel, sniffing for signs of Tirano.
And right on cue, a red-and-purple-plumed bird flew straight into the room. It circled around twice as if looking for something, or possibly wondering what it was doing there, then flew out again.
“Because Vrinks and silver-silk,” Braun said, heading back across the cavern. “Probably some of the scent lingered after the Vrink left. Come on, we need to keep moving.”
“What do Vrinks and silver-silk have to do with it?” I asked. I started to follow.
And paused as something caught my eye. Something on the wall beside one of the indented spots, done up in a muted version of the same shades I’d just seen on the passing bird.
“Silver-silk,” Braun repeated, a bit more emphatically this time. “You coming?”
“Sure,” I said, taking one last look and hurrying to catch up with him. “You say silver-silk as if it’s supposed to mean something.”
He shot me a funny look. “Oh. Right. I never got around to telling you, did I? The thing is, silver-silk attracts prey and repels predators. That’s why the Loporri go to all this trouble, and why the Vrinks are willing to sacrifice half their lives hosting giant bugs for the colony.”
I stared at him. “You’re kidding.”
“Do I look like I’m kidding?” he growled. “Come on, pick it up. Where to next?”