A CROOKED ANGLE THAT I QUICKLY LEARNED TO HATE

1560 4D

“How far is this place?” I asked Jeddin. The track we walked on was littered with small stones and depressions that forced me to watch my step. The heat of the sun beat on my skin, and I covered my head with a tierag, my hair sticking out unevenly. Sweat came and matted the hair with dampness, and thirst took over.

“Half a day out from the City – about fifteen k’s.”

Masinarin said, “That’s not far at all – the City‘s over a hundred k’s across. We weren’t near the Axis, either.”

Jeddin smiled. “It’s not far if it’s safe. If we see the military or the corpos anywhere along here, we’ll have to go a lot further – more like seventy k’s. Don’t waste too much energy.”

I groaned. “Is there water somewhere around here?” The distances looked huge. I could see past some low hills to where the road vanished around a bend behind a taller outcrop. I couldn’t tell how far away it was. City life had boxed me in, kept my vision short, and this vastness made me anxious. The sky seemed to press down on me.

Drasstar‘s big arm came around my shoulder. “We’ll keep an eye out. Jeddin must know where he’s going.”

“He does,” my father added, coming up on my other side. “He’s done this for a lot of people.”

Behind us, Naudi and Rashua sang one of Thringe‘s older songs, a slow one, about lazy love. Grioskin tattooed a rhythm behind their voices, his hand slapping his thigh softly as he walked. I missed Thringe, with a pang that ran through me like a needle.

“Stop.” Jeddin‘s voice cut through all the sounds, and we froze, silent. “We need to get under cover, right now. Follow me.”

The road, little more than parallel ruts barely fit for an autocart, ran down a long slope to a little bridge over a culvert. A stream ran through the culvert to a wide pool that gave out into a tumble of water over rocks down to a lower, larger brook. The culvert was about twenty strides long, and just high enough that Masinarin could walk, stooped sharply, inside it. We filed into its darkness and watched Jeddin, who stayed nearest the upstream end, looking up to the open sky.

A tiny sound pierced the upper end of my andro hearing, beyond even the hiss of anjive. It grew louder, held, and then grew once more. Jeddin drew back away from the culvert entrance and held up a commanding hand for stillness. The sound stayed, wavered, then gradually faded, but Jeddin did not move at all.

Drasstar rubbed his back where he was bending low. “What was that?” he whispered to Jeddin.

“Sshh.” Jeddin took a step toward the light. “Tell them to wait here, and don’t move at all,” he stuttered to me in anjive. He slipped out of the culvert as I relayed his words in plain speech.

It was cool, sweetly cool, in the culvert, and I wanted to dip my face in the stream and drink. As I started to bend to the water, Jeddin returned.

“Don’t drink that!” he hissed. “It’s full of toxins. We’ll find good water soon.”

“What was that thing?” Grioskin asked.

“It was a flyer – a flying machine from the City. One of the City militia‘s, I think. They were looking for something, probably us. I had to check to see if they’d left any listening devices behind. It’s clear out there now.”

As we filed out again, Jeddin gathered us by the stream. “Now here’s the bad news. We can’t stop where I wanted to stay. We’ll have to go on to either a place called Engrammatic, or if that’s not safe, a little spot called Buzzchicken. This is going to take us several days.”

Everyone started to complain at once. Finally I said, “We have to eat and sleep. Where will we get any food?”

Jeddin‘s smile took on a crooked angle that I quickly learned to hate. “It’s time to teach your bodies a few new songs. When you get where we’re going, you can get food and bed if you sing well. Until then, you’ll just get a little thinner.”

We reached the mountain inn he’d called Engrammatic, complete with flashing andro signs and a ring of watchful militia and corpo guards around it. We lay in the ditch across and down the road until nightfall, our throats parched, our tempers frayed, our feet sore, our stomachs grumbling so loud I was afraid the guards would hear them. Jeddin materialized in the shadows beside me.

“Looks like we’re headed to Buzzchicken. Hang on, Lejina, you won’t have to worry about eating once we’re there. Just be Thringe. Follow me now.” He led me and the others away into the night.