Vendacious turned all his heads toward Johanna, silently regarding. Then he scanned out all the windows one last time. "Very well, you may have her." Two jumped down to the cabin's hatch while another pair pulled her toward it. His voice was soft and near her ear. "Damn Pilgrim. Alive, you're just going to cause me trouble with the Queen." His knife slid across her field of view. "Don't oppose me with her. I am going to survive this affair still powerful."
He lifted back the hatch and daylight spilled blindingly across her face. She squinted; there was a sweep of branches and the side of the hut. Vendacious pushed and pulled her cot onto the forest floor, and the same time gobbling at his guards to keep their positions. He and Peregrine chatted politely, agreeing on when the pilgrim would return.
One by one, Vendacious trotted back through the cabin's hatch. Pilgrim advanced and grabbed the handles at the front of the cot. One of his pups reached out from his jacket to nuzzled her face. "You okay?"
"I'm not sure. I got bashed in the head… and it seems kind of hard to breathe."
He loosened the blankets from around her chest as the rest of him dragged the cot away from the hut. The forest shade was peaceful and deep
… and Vendacious's guards were stationed here and there about the area. How many were really in on the treason? Two hours ago, Johanna had looked to them for protection. Now their every glance sent a shiver through her. She rolled back to the center of the cot, dizzy again, and stared up into the branches and leaves and patches of smoke-stained sky. Things like Straumli tree squigglies chased each other back and forth, chittering in seeming debate.
Funny. Almost a year ago Pilgrim and Scriber were dragging me around, and I was even worse hurt, and terrified of everything — including them. And now… she had never been so glad to see another person. Even Scarbutt was a reassuring strength, walking beside her.
The waves of terror slowly subsided. What was left was an anger as intense, though more reasoning, than the year before. She knew what had happened here; the players were not strangers, the betrayal was not random murder. After all Vendacious's treachery, after all his murders, and his planning to kill them all… he was going to go free! Pilgrim and Woodcarver were just going to overlook that, "He killed Scriber, Pilgrim. He killed Scriber…" He cut Scriber to pieces, then chased down what was left and killed that right out of our arms. "And Woodcarver is going to let him go free? How can she do it? How can you do it?" The tears were coming again.
"Sh, sh." Two of Pilgrim's heads came into view. They looked down at her, then swiveled around almost nervously. She reached out, touching the short plush fur. Pilgrim was shivering! One of him dipped close; his voice didn't sound jaunty at all. "I don't know what the Queen will do, Johanna. She doesn't know about any of this."
"Wha — "
"Sh." And his voice became scarcely a buzzing through her hand. "His people can still see us. He could still figure things out… Only you and I know, Johanna. I don't think anyone else suspects."
"But the pack that confessed…?"
"Bluff, all bluff. I've done some crazy things in my life but next to following Scriber down to your starship, this takes the prize… After Vendacious took you away, I began to think. You weren't that badly injured. It was all too much like what happened to Jaqueramaphan, but I had no proof."
"And you haven't told anyone?"
"No. Foolish as poor Scriber, aren't I?" His heads looked in all directions. "If I was right, he'd be silly not to kill you immediately. I was so afraid I was already too late…"
You would have been, if Vendacious weren't quite the monster I know he is.
"Anyway, I learned the truth just like poor Scriber — almost by accident. But if we can get another seventy meters away, we won't die like him. And everything I claimed to Vendacious will be true."
She patted his nearest shoulder, and looked back. The tiny cabin and its ring of guards disappeared behind the forest brush.
…and Jefri lives!
Crypto: 0 [95 encrypted packets have been discarded]
As received by: Olvira shipboard ad hoc
Language path: Tredeschk-»Triskweline, SjK units
From: Zonograph Eidolon [Co-op (or religious order) in Middle Beyond maintained by subscription of several thousand Low Beyond civilizations, in particular those threatened by immersion]
Subject: Surge Bulletin Update and Ping
Distribution:
Zonograph Eidolon Subscribers, Zonometric Interest Group, Threats Interest Group, subgroup: navigational, Ping participants
Date: 1087892301 seconds since Calibration Event 239011, Eidolon Frame [66.91 days since Fall of Sjandra Kei]
Key phrases: galactic scale event, superluminal, charitable emergency announcement
Text of message:
(Please include accurate local time in any ping responses.)
