Fire in the Sky

3

Hunnar’s shadow fell on Ilaцrn suddenly, without warning. The Bйluchar’s hand shook and he scattered soil over the other plants; he bit down hard on his tongue and continued digging out melidai so he could replace it with the clump of kolkrais. Chel Dй’s Thousand Eyes, these bulky mesuchs could move like wisps of down if they took a notion.

“You’re a mess. What happened, the Drudges get at you again?”

Ilaцrn got to his feet, stood with head down, hands in the honor position. “No, O Ykkuval. I fell in the water, got tangled in roots. It was fighting out of them that did this.”

“Mp. What’s that you’re planting?”

“It is called kolkrais, O Ykkuval. It will have a small, dark yellow flower, then a shiny red sporecase. As to use, I know none except as decoration.”

“Ta’ma, go back to work, Cho, don’t let it die on you.” Hunnar strolled off, hands clasped behind him.

Ilaцrn dropped to his knees,, closed his hands into fists, and shook for a while. Then he pulled himself together and dipped up a dipper of water from the stream, moistened the soil with it, and began the delicate process of shifting the clump of kolkrais from the container to its new home.

“Doesn’t look like much.” Hunnar was back, standing on the far side of the stream watching him work.

“O Ykkuval, it will take a while for it to make itself at home here.”

“Ta’ma, ground grubbing isn’t my business.”

“No, O Ykkuval. You have much more on your mind than a miserable little weed.”

“Mp. You don’t know how true that is.” He began pacing back and forth along the path with its careful arrangement of flat stones, back and forth, his head tilted up so he was looking at the sky, not where he walked or at Ilaцrn even though he made a pretense of talking to him.

Eat5rn eased the bits of moss beneath the lowest layer of the kolkrais, pressed it into the soil and poured more water on it. The moss would hold the moisture and keep the plant’s roots happy until they’d tapped their own source of nutriment. This wasn’t the first time Hunnar had used him as a sounding board. From what he’d seen of Chav life, the Ykkuval wouldn’t dare talk like this to any of his own kind; it would be a weakness that they’d seize on and use to unseat him. Able to trust no one. Didn’t even have a wife to share his ambitions, at least, not here, not yet. I’m his wife for the hiatus, I suppose. He and I both know if I open my mouth about this, I’m dead. He dipped up more water, splashed across the kolkrais clump to wash the grains of earth away.

“They don’t know, they don’t know, they spend thousands on com calls to chew me out for wasting time and money. Get rid of the Yaraka, they tell me, but don’t you embarrass us, don’t get caught with your hands sticky. When I ask what do they want me to do, they say that’s your business not ours. When are you going to start shipments coming back to us, that’s what we want to know. We’ve got commitments. We need product. We’ll give you six more months, then expenses start coming out of your pockets. Hah! They foist that moron with the wide mouth on me, that Genree. Taner! What a lackwit. I’d like to do to him what they’re doing to me, I’d like to say get your bolgyet together so you can face a real inspection or I’ll fine your ass till you scream mercy. I’d like to, but I can’t. His mother is Gatyr ni Jilet’s sister and his sister is about to marry Tothar ni Koroumak. Cut my own throat if I tried it. I’ve got to do something, can’t get product with half the plant down. Wall him off somehow, get him too busy to interfere…”

Ilaцrn let the spate of words flow over him, nodding and making small listening sounds as he moved along the stream bank, setting out the plants he’d brought back with him. Nothing useful in all that glagairh, nothing he hadn’t known before. Old men, he thought. Donor didn’t tell me, but I know. A gaggle of old men plotting war. He lifted the last plant from its container, purple delk, a young one with a small single bulb, washed the dirt from its roots and settled it in its hole, tamping the dirt around it with gentle taps from his thumbs.

Hunnar paced on, spewing his anger and frustration, his ambitions and annoyances, Ilaцrn kept on murmuring encouraging noises and paying no attention to the words, shifting to make work when he finished the transplanting, pinching off dead leaves, stirring the ground to get air to the roots; he didn’t dare leave the stream bed or just squat there doing nothing.

“… and now there’s this lot from University, cinsing prynoses interfering, if this thing with the jellies gets out…” The voice stopped. Suddenly.

Ilaцrn looked up.

Hunnar was across the stream from hint, scowling at him. It wasn’t anger, the Chav’s inner lids weren’t down, his eyes were shadowed and dull.

Ilaцrn met those eyes briefly, then dropped his own. Chav reacted violently and without waiting for thought to a challenging stare even from one of their own. From a local like him, it was an invitation to a broken neck. Early days, before Hunnar had planted hooks in his head, when he was reaching out of grief for defiance, he’d earned himself broken ribs, a broken shoulder blade, and twice a concussion. Like a gath trained to bark and not-bark on command, he’d learned his lesson well.

“You won’t talk about that,” Hunnar said. “Not to Chav, not to anyone. Be sure I’ll find out if you do.”

“I have already forgotten, O Ykkuval.”

“Hm.” After a long Blistery stare, his inner lids drew back. When he spoke again, his voice was quiet, thoughtful. “Those husks. Just what is the effect of that smoke?”

Ilaцrn’s mind skittered frantically as he fought to keep his face dull and incurious, to show no interest in what lay behind the question. Chel Di’s Thousand

Eyes, what do I do. WHAT DO I DO! If Hunnar really wanted the information, he could get it despite anything Ilaцrn tried and he might pull out more…

“O Ykkuval, I’m not sure I know what you want.”

“Your lot, not those vegheads, what does it do to them? You have anyone who gets a taste for that smoke?”

“I drank smoke when I was just become a man. There were reasons for it. You could call it a religious thing.” He closed his eyes. I’m not talking to him, but to you, sioll Imuл, to your spirit wherever it is. “I have not done it since,” he said aloud, “but I can remember the sweetness of that day, I can remember my senses expanding to embrace all of earth and sky and everything between. An angi’s song was… ah… bright and piercing to my ears as its jewel colors were to my eyes. I could hear grass growing and the sap rising in the trees. I have had other pleasures since, but none that quite equals that.” He opened his eyes. “And many of the aroch… that is, those who tend the Sleepers… they live year round at the Sleeping Grounds because they can’t be without the smoke or they suffer. But how drinking smoke would affect a Chav, I have no idea. You’d have to test it.”

Ilaцrn stared at the water, wondering if the probe was going to be used on him to confirm what he said; a mix of terror and pleasure drenched his body and he couldn’t have moved just then if Hunnar was whipping him.

After a long silence, he looked up.

Hunnar was gone.

6. Journey’s Beginning