Chapter 9

9

- Alba -

Anter’az goes over to the big rock that fell.

“Did anyone touch it?” he asks the boy he tasked with guarding it.

The boy’s eyes are narrow with watchfulness. “No, Anter’az! I watched it the whole time.”

“Are there any other rocks on the ground? Small ones of the same color?”

The boy studies the ground as if he sees it for the first time. “No.”

“Good work.” Anter’az bends down to lift the stone, struggling to get a good grip on it. It must weigh a thousand pounds or more, and its edges are jagged.

“Be careful,” I caution him. “Your hands!” He’s still wearing the strips of leather where he cut himself for the oath yesterday.

“My hands will be fine,” he growls.

I stick close to him as he carries the huge stone over to the common table. Groaning with the effort, he places it in the middle of the empty table, right where the chiefs usually sit. The table creaks dangerously under its weight.

“I was going to wait until the evening meal, but there’s no time. This way, everyone will see it. Alba, have you ever seen a rock come loose and fall from the side of a mountain?”

For a moment I consider saying that I’ve only really seen footage of that, but that would mean having to explain what ‘footage’ is. “Yes,” I reply to save us some time.

“So have I. And every time, more than one rock fell. It wasn’t just one big piece, but also many smaller ones. Where are the smaller ones that should have fallen, too?”

A coldness goes through me. I hadn’t thought of that, but he’s right. There should have been a little hailstorm of smaller rocks. “There not any. And there was no sound before it hit you. When a rock come loose from the side of a mountain, it make a sound. Like this: crack .”

He looks at me with bright orange eyes. “You’re right! It does. Well, now we know for certain that someone did try to kill you. There’s no need to doubt anymore, and that is an advantage for us. Let’s pack and leave.”

He glares up at the rock face and quickly leads me to his cave, looking around the whole time. “I will have to get a boy to feed my creatures. I wonder…”

I keep my distance to the cages. “Yes?”

He goes over to the cages and examines them. “When you were bitten by the hekasit and the okeran… was there someone else here? Did you see a shadow? Movement?”

“No,” I admit. “That was all me.”

He adjusts a cage. “I see. So at least that was not someone trying to kill you.”

“The okeran tried,” I point out.

He gives me a tight smile. “But nobody apart from the okeran and the hekasit did?”

“No. And they already known to be murderous.” I give the stack of cages a little kick to show the insects how disappointed I am in them.

Anter’az gets a big dinosaur skin bag and fills it with food, jars of various types, and other items that will be useful. Then he pulls aside the black curtain and goes in behind it, closing it carefully after him. I would like to know what he keeps in there, but this is his cave, and all of us are entitled to some privacy.

Coming out again, he carries a smaller bag and puts it into the big one.

“I can carry something,” I offer.

“And you will,” Anter’az says, filling a small bag with light stuff like leather sheets and small furs from the sheep-like animals that we sometimes see in the jungle. “Everyone must carry their weight in the jungle.”

“I can carry more than this,” I tell him as I heft the bag he gives me.

“I know you can,” he agrees and shoulders his own pack. “But we might pick up more things on our way through the jungle. And there’s this.” He goes to a dark corner of the cave and comes back with a short spear. “I made this last night. While I’m sure your knife is the best the Borok tribe can make, we Krast have better iron and lots of it. Everyone needs a real weapon in the woods.” He hands it to me.

The spear is about five feet long, so far too small for a caveman to use. It’s topped with a foot-long iron spike with a complicated, twisted structure that tapers to a point so fine I’m sure I could prick myself on it. “That’s wonderful! Is so light! Thank you!”

“Weapons may seem light at first,” he says, “but they tend to get heavier after you’ve walked through the jungle for a whole day, clutching it in your hand. It’s a great mystery.”

We go outside, carefully peering up to see if there’s anything falling. Anter’az pulls the curtain to his cave closed and arranges for two nearby boys to feed his huge insects every day. They accept the responsibility with eagerness and glowing cheeks, clearly proud to be trusted by the tribe healer.

Then we walk through the village, always noticing the looks and half-hidden stares from the tribesmen. Some of them go out of their way to avoid us, and even though I know it’s because they’ve been ordered to, it’s actually not much fun to feel like a pariah.

Anter’az walks tall, but there’s anger in his movements. As we approach the village gate, the guards don’t get out of his way.

“Tribesman, do you have the chief’s approval to leave?” one of them says, clearly not feeling too comfortable challenging Anter’az.

“There is no chief!” he snaps. “Those two dotards who claim to share that position can’t even keep our guests safe in our village! Thankfully I take that responsibility more seriously.”

“The chiefs,” the guard says carefully, “have said that if Woman Alba leaves the village, she’s not to be allowed back in.”

“Why would she want to get back in?” Anter’az growls. “I fear our tribe has lost her goodwill and kind help forever. But I shall try to make it right, and so we’re leaving.”

Having done the bare minimum of their duty, both guards look relieved to step aside and open the gate. “May the Ancestors bless your journey,” they say as we pass.

Outside the intricate little alley that’s part of their gate, I spot some big, bell-shaped leaves. Picking one of them, I turn it upside down and put it on my head like a bucket hat. It’s not elegant, but it might work better than the woven thing that let the sap through.

Anter’az waits for me, but doesn’t speak before we’re well inside the jungle.

“We’ll be quiet now,” he says softly. “Stay close to me. If anything happens, drop the bag and run to a tree trunk. Stand with your back to it. But don’t drop your spear.” He looks me up and down, pausing briefly at my chest and hips, then turns and goes on.

Huh. His gaze feels almost like a physical touch, so intense is it. And just as a physical touch would, it starts tingles going down my front. Now that I know what he can do with that tongue, those tingles are stronger than ever.

He was good . And the situation was so unusual and so new that it still feels like I was in a movie. “I’d love to do a remake of it,” I mutter under my breath.

We walk for a long time. The jungle is its usual self, noisy and hot and dripping. But now that I have the company of a strong caveman like Anter’az, it doesn’t feel quite as oppressive or dangerous.

Anter’ax obviously knows it well. Sometimes we double back, sometimes we walk a wide arc around something he doesn’t want to get close to, and sometimes we stand still until some danger has passed. Once we stand side by side with our backs to a tree trunk while a giant dinosaur wanders by without giving us a second thought. Trees break like matchsticks when it saunters into them, giving off sharp bangs like gunshots. It leaves a trail of destruction, and we hurry away from it before more dangerous dinos follow in its tracks.

Right after, we back up to another tree as Anter’az senses something pass overhead. I only see a shadow up beyond the treetops, but the shadow does remind me a lot of the horrific alien pterodactyls that the cavemen call ‘irox’.

Anter’az sometimes stops and picks fruits or nuts or leaves, and I do as well. Once he shakes a sapling until a big, green beetle falls out. Smiling, he grabs it and winds long leaves around it before he puts it in his sack. “I’ve been looking for one of those,” he says softly to me.

I can’t imagine what he’d want to use that thing for, but I’m sure I’ll find out.

We don’t stop, just eat fruits while walking. Anter’az could clearly walk much faster on his own, but he paces himself without making it seem obvious that it’s for my benefit. It’s the same way he does everything, now that I think about it. He was really good with the boy who had a parasite, talking to him in just the right way while still being effective. The more I get to know this healer, the more I like him.

From the few glimpses I get of the sun through the dense canopy high above us, I’m sure we’re walking directly away from the Borok village. Since this is Krast turf, I don’t think many Borok or Tretter men have been in this part of the jungle. Some Foundlings may have, since they’re pretty adventurous. But I may be kind of an explorer right here, so maybe I should try to remember some of the trees and bushes. I’m starting to be able to tell the difference between some of them, and there are species of both I haven’t seen before.

“Almost there,” Anter’az rumbles around mid-afternoon. “Just one more obstacle. We must be very quiet.”

Trying to walk even more silently than before, I follow his wide, green-striped back through an area of slender saplings. It’s a much more open area than any other we’ve passed so far. It’s also unusually dark. The reason is obvious: In front of us are two giant trees, each as thick as a church steeple and twice as tall. Their crowns, hundreds of feet up there, look pitch black because they completely block the sunlight from reaching the ground.

Anter’az draws his sword and holds it up in front of him in a strange way, edge forwards and tip a foot above his head.

When we’ve passed between those trunks we keep going for a while before Anter’az stops and turns.

“Our guard,” he whispers and points up.

Between the two massive trunks there’s a strange shimmer, starting about ten feet up the trees and going so high up I can’t see where it ends.

“It looks almost like a giant sheet of glass,” I whisper. Except it must be cracked glass, in a round pattern, like a gigantic web?—

“Shit!” I exclaim when I see it and my brain gets turned inside-out. “A spider!”

It’s the size of a pick-up truck, and it has only five long legs, arranged like a star. It’s a deep, splotchy green, which is why I didn’t see it at first on the background of the treetops. It’s obviously not a spider the way I know them from Earth, because this one looks more reptilian and less insect-y. But it must have many things in common with those, such as the ability to spin silky threads and to stay still in the middle of its immense web, waiting for prey to get entangled in it. It must be some prey — the web is easily the size of a football field.

As I watch, the spider turns its head, as if it heard me. I can’t see any eyes on the creature, but I’m sure it’s staring. It makes my skin creep.

“Can we go?” I ask as I lift the spear so the spider can see that I’m armed.

Anter’az chuckles. “The vral is safe as long as you don’t go into his web. But it’s too high up for you to touch, and I just have to hold my sword up to make sure it doesn’t touch my head. It’s not us he wants. I once saw him pick an irox out of it and drape it in a thick web. Not a big irox, but I was still impressed.” He turns, and we walk on.

I keep looking behind me to see if the spider is following us, either on the ground or up in the treetops, but it doesn’t look like he is.

Only a few paces on we get to a tall ridge with a steep side. I sigh inwardly, imagining we’ll have to climb it to go on. Instead, Anter’az turns to the side, bends down next to the rocky wall, and pulls up a big chunk of the ground.

It’s a stiff net woven from branches and twigs and hidden with a layer of loose leaves and small rocks that have been pushed into the mesh to make it look real.

“We’re safe here,” Anter’az rumbles. “I’ve never seen a Big in this place. Or their tracks. Not even rekh.”

“Why you think that is?” I ask, throwing a nervous glance over my shoulder in the direction of the web.

“I think it could be this.” Anter’az takes a couple of steps and then jumps once. When he lands, the ground shakes and gives off a deep, distant boom . “It’s as if the ground is hollow.”

“And the Bigs are afraid it might give in under them?”

He shrugs. “I don’t think we’ll ever know. But it could be that.”

I tap my foot on the ground. “What under here? Tunnels?”

“Caves. And this is where they start.” He goes to the wall of rock and jumps into the hole that the net was covering. When he lands, only his head sticks up above ground. “Come on, it’s safe.”

I tiptoe over, not feeling that safe about any of this. “Is it deep?”

He’s standing on the bottom of a hole dug right by the side of the rock. There’s a wide, low opening that goes into and under the rock.

“It’s deep. It is also my favorite place in the jungle. My favorite place in the world, now.” He glares in the direction of the Krast village.

“Are we going in there?” I ask, pretty sure I know the answer.

“It’s where we’ll stay for a few days.” Anter’az reaches up to me. “Sit on the edge.”

I do as he suggests, and he grabs me around my waist and lifts me down to him.

“We have to crawl to get in,” he says and takes my pack from me. “I’ll go first.”

He gets down on all fours and crawls into the opening, pushing our packs in front of him.

I’m not super keen on being left alone out here with the spider-like vral , so I get down and follow him. It takes me back to my days in the tunnels with Astrid and Bronwen, and I don’t like it one bit. I sometimes have nightmares about those times.

After just a few feet, Anter’az gets up and helps me up, too. “We can stand here. Wait here while I close the opening.”

His voice echoes from above, and it sounds like we’re inside a big room. I hear the clucking of water, and ahead I see a spot of bright light. “Is there where we’re going?”

“It’s not far,” Anter’az rumbles as he returns and leads me on.

My eyes haven’t adjusted to the dark, but the ground is flat and smooth. The light ahead widens fast, and soon we’re back outside.

“Nobody knows about this,” Anter’az says with satisfaction. “I found it one day years ago when I was out looking for new plants for medicines. I told nobody.”

I don’t know what to say. It’s pretty much a hole in the ground, an irregular depression in the light gray rock around it. It reminds me most of all of a crater, but this doesn’t look like a volcano. It could have been a small mountain that was hollowed out by flowing water until the peak collapsed and left this hollow. It’s not big, maybe a couple hundred feet from end to end. Water flows on the flat bottom, forming several creeks that run in deep channels they’ve dug themselves over what must be thousands of years. Because no trees grow on the rock, this place has something I rarely see on planet Xren: a clear view of the sky straight up. The sun glitters on the running water and sparkles in crystals embedded in the rock. It’s like an oasis from the hysterically fertile and frantically alive jungle outside, a refreshingly barren place with some silence and some calm. If anything, the quiet mood reminds me of those Japanese rock gardens I’ve seen pictures of.

“Anter’az, this is wonderful,” I enthuse. “Never tell anyone about this.”

“I was going to maybe show it to my son, if I would ever be allowed to give into a Lifegiver. That chance is smaller than ever now.”

I grab his wrist, my hand reaching maybe halfway around its sheer bulk. “You really think they will cast you out?”

He puts his hand on mine. “Depends on who the next chief will be. I think most of my tribesmen see the value of what I do, but no man has only friends. But my enemies are not here, and we shall see what happens. Let’s drink.”

“Should I bring my spear?”

“Always keep a weapon with you,” he says. “Only inside the village are we truly safe. Well, usually.”

The walls are too steep to climb all the way up to the edges, but this cave opening is only about halfway up the sides and Anter’az shows me the way to get down to the bottom of the not-crater.

We kneel down and drink water from the creeks, having to reach down into the channels to get it. It’s fresh and much cooler than the water I’m used to in the villages.

“This is great,” I tell Anter’az as I straighten up, having drunk my fill. “It’s safe and there’s water.”

He looks at me with those owlish eyes.

I'm suddenly acutely aware that there's only the two of us. There's not even a jungle. And now, this caveman alien is all there is. It's like being alone with a tiger or a unicorn — he takes absolutely all my attention and keeps it.

I've been around cavemen for weeks now, whole tribes of them. But none of them can catch or hold my attention like Anter'az. He’s all caveman, big and strong and dangerous. But he’s also brainy, with a real passion for his healing skills and the medicine he makes. Maybe this?—

“Look out!” He suddenly comes at me, drawing his sword. In a horrific split second I think he’s about to cut me to pieces.