Fire in the Sky

Fill them with dread

Danor dropped to his knees, his arms hanging limp, his head down. He was trembling so violently he could barely keep his place.

An Eolt among the Meruu of the Air spoke, slowly, formally. “I, Bladechel, am Voice for the Air. You have seen these things with the eyes of your body?”

Danor cleared his throat, forced his head up and his voice out. “I have seen mesuch in an airwagon direct their weapons on my sioll. I have seen xe turn to a tower of fire when the beam from that weapon touched xe. I have seen the airwagons chasing Eolt, free and siolled, burning them for the joy of it. I have seen Denchok and Meloach chased and corralled like beasts and slaughtered like beasts. I have seen Fior driven from their Dumels and Ordumels, the women taken for whores, the men as slave workers. I have seen these things with my own eyes.” He let his head fall again to hide the tears he couldn’t stop.

As soon as he was finished the Speaker repeated his words to make sure all heard them. Then xe said, “The Scholar from University, step forth. Speak your name that all may hear it.”

Aslan moved to stand beside Danor. “I am Aslan aici Adlaar of University and of the School on University that follows the study of the cultures and histories of many peoples.”

“Do you know the history of the mesuch that kill Eolt for pleasure? Can you attest that this has happened before?”

“They are the Chandavasi. They call themselves the Souled Men. Let it be understood that what I say now is a caricature of their truth because all generalizations can only be caricatures.”

“We do hear and understand, Scholar.”

“Then I will proceed. It is their belief that all other creatures are little better than beasts and thus may be treated as beasts, even those that share their shape. They will restrain themselves only in the face of a perceived danger or a force greater than they can overcome at that moment. They have strong clan bonds, a long history of bloodfeuds and a weak central government that does little more than provide certain services to the clans and attempt to mediate quarrels between them. This is important because the home-world Chave will not send help to the mesuch on Melitoлh beyond what the mesuchs’ own clan provides. Defeat them and they will cut the names of the Chave who have failed from the lists of their people and the name of Bйluchad will never be spoken again. This being so, I can’t have any way of knowing that such actions have happened before on other worlds.”

The Speaker repeated her words as she had spoken them, then xe asked, “Hearing this, it seems to me they will fight like trapped behabs and destroy utterly what they cannot have if they see defeat before them.”

“That is so. There is evidence of such already. Among the starfaring it is considered a very bad thing to give energy weapons to those that don’t have them. This is almost as bad as the slaughter of intelligent beings. Yet they are doing this.” She held up the cutter. “Should news of these weapons get back to University, the Clan and perhaps Chandava itself would be, named Pariah and cut off from many services that they need. It would be as if the Kabits on the sail-barges refused to lend or buy from a person in a Dumel. How long would that person manage to prosper?

“The Chave have destroyed all means we have of reaching out with this information and they are now trying to destroy us. They are passing out these weapons and they have set a weight of gold on our heads. We have been attacked repeatedly by chorek. And will be again once we leave here. By the way, I’ll have a suggestion about that when the time comes for such things. Indeed, I doubt we are safe even here. Or you. These weapons the chorek have are hand-held versions of those mounted on Chav fliers, the weapon Danor spoke of. Should a beam from the cutter touch any Eolt, xe would burn like Danor’s sioll.”

“This is true? How many of those weapons are out there?”

“I don’t know. Perhaps dozens, perhaps hundreds. There is a Chav spy come across from Melitoлh; he’s passing them out like pieces of candy. Twice chorek attacked me and my aide at Dumel Alsekum. Each time they used a cutter. Of the twenty chorek who attacked the tower in the pass, fourteen had cutters. We have collected these. From some of the things the chorek said when they woke and found themselves bound, these are what you call political chorek and are filled with hate for all things Keteng and all those who deal with Keteng.”

There was wailing from the Eolt even as the Speaker was repeating Aslan’s words. Xe finished and was silent for a moment, xe’s tentacles coiling and uncoiling, xe’s filmy membranes pulsing. When xe could control xe’s voice again, xe said, “Is there any way you can demonstrate that weapon here without endangering the Meruus and those who watch?”

“I can’t demonstrate without destroying something. Would you mind replacing part of the arena floor?”

Once again the Speaker had to fight down xe’s agitation. Xe said, “Show us.”

Aslan walked to the edge of the dais, stood holding the cutter pointed down while she spoke. “This is a modification of a mining tool. Chandava Minerals is a mining business and can justify their presence by claiming these weapons were stolen from their crawlers. It is enough to keep them from the Verifier, which is a machine starfarers have that can judge the truth or falsity of a statement. That is why it will be necessary to capture and keep alive some who received the weapons and the spy himself until we can take them offworld and turn them to weapons against the Chave. If you will watch.” She touched the sensor, played the cutter beam along the white marble floor, gouging long deep lines in the stone, parallel, a band’s width apart.

She touched the sensor again and stepped back. “As you see,” she said. “Thick stone will defend against the beam, flesh will fry on the bone, glass will melt and metal will cook what’s inside it or touching it.”

There were no groans or moans this time, only a shocked silence. The Speaker shuddered wildly, then fought xeself to control. “You had a suggestion, Scholar?”

“Two suggestions, actually. One, that you allow my Aide and I to remain. We can discuss matters in considerable more detail so you will have the data you need for planning your defense. The flikit will also be useful, since the Eolt should stay carefully away from Medon Pass. There are devices in it that allow the pilot to locate large life forms. Chorek in other words. And there is a stunner set into the base.”

“A stunner is a nonlethal defense weapon. It acts rather like a block of wood brought down on your head, puts you out for a while, gives you a sore head when you wake, but does little additional harm. We are forbidden to give these to you. Even if we could, we have very few of them. Our goal is learning, not conquest.”

“The second suggestion is that the harpist Shadith and my Aide Marrin Ola be sent to capture the spy. They are both fight trained and very good at the arts of survival.”

“That child? That glorious gifted child?”

“That child has done things you can’t imagine, O Speaker. Cha oy, I will let her speak for herself. You asked what I would suggest, but this is your world. You will do as you must and we will hold ourselves bound by your decisions.” She lifted a hand, moved it in a flat slicing motion, a Keteng gesture that meant

I have done.

There was considerable muttering among the Meruu of the ground and touchings of tentacle to tentacle among the Meruu of the air.

Stretching muscle against muscle to relieve the strain from the tension and standing with her neck bent so long, Aslan eased back to stand beside Shadith. “You’re up next, glorious gifted child.”

“You’re not going to let me forget that, are you.”

“How often is one presented with a line like that.” She grinned at Shadith, then sobered. “I saw your sisters dancing out there. Mass hallucination or whatever, that is amazing, Shadow. Do you know how you do it?”

“No. You still haven’t said how you’ll explain sending Marrin off with me. Doesn’t he have more to lose than I if University disciplines him?”

“I haven’t decided. He made up his mind a while back and nothing I said changed it, so I’m left to find a way to cover him. Maybe use you as a reason, him going along to protect you. Mind?”

“No. I…” She made a face and stepped forward as the Speaker called her forth.

The afternoon wound slowly on, questions to Shadith, questions to Marrin Ola, questions to Aslan, questions to Maorgan, interminable arguments within and between the two Meruus, proposals raised, rebutted, brought forth again. The captive chorek were brought down from the tower, questioned to no great result since most of them refused to say anything, just spent their time staring at Denchok and Eolt with hungry eyes that was a more powerful warning of their intent than any words might be.

The Klobach came to an end when the sun touched the tips of the western mountains.