The fragment was disdainful. "Of course. And I'm not claiming that was a direct relay. What you heard is several minutes old. Here's what Steel and I are planning this very second." His Samnorsk abruptly stopped, and the hallway was filled with the gobbling chords of Pack talk. Even after a year, Jefri could only extract vague sense from the conversation. It did sound like two packs. One of them wanted the other to do something, bring Amdijefri — that chord was clear — up.
Amdiranifani went suddenly still, every member straining at the relayed sounds. "Stop it!" he shrilled. And the hallway was as quiet as a tomb. "Mr. Steel, oh Mr. Steel." All of Amdi huddled against Jefri. "He's talking about hurting you if Ravna doesn't obey. He wants to kill the Visitors when they land." The wide eyes were ringed with tears. "I don't understand."
Jefri jabbed a hand at the Cloak. "Maybe he's faking that, too."
"I don't know. I could never fake two packs that well." The tiny bodies shuddered against Jefri, and there was the sound of human weeping, the eerily familiar sound of a small child desolated… "What are we going to do, Jefri?"
But Jefri was silent, remembering and finally understanding, the first few minutes after Steel's troops had rescued — captured? — him. Memories suppressed by later kindness crept out from the corners of his mind. Mom, Dad, Johanna. But Johanna still lived, just beyond these walls…
"Jefri?"
"I don't know either. H-hide maybe?"
For a moment they just stared at each other. Finally the fragment spoke. "You can do better than hide. You already know about the passages through these walls. If you know the entrance points — and I do — you can get to almost anywhere you want. You can even get outside."
Johanna.
Amdi's crying stopped. Three of him watched Tyrathect front, aft, and sideways. The rest still clung to Jefri. "We still don't trust you, Tyrathect," said Jefri.
"Good, good. I am a pack of various parts. Perhaps not entirely trustable."
"Show us all the holes." Let us decide.
"There won't be time — "
"Okay, but start showing us. And while you do, keep relaying what Mr. Steel is saying."
The singleton bobbed its head, and the multiple streams of Pack talk resumed. The Cloak got painfully to its feet and led the two children down a side tunnel, one where the wick torches were mostly burned out. The loudest sound down here was the soft dripping of water. The place was less than a year old, yet — except for the jagged edges of the cut stone — it seemed ancient.
Puppies was crying again. Jefri stroked the back of the one that clung to his shoulder, "Please Amdi, translate for me."
After a moment Amdi's voice came hesitantly in his ear. "M-Mr. Steel is asking again where we are. Tyrathect says we're trapped by a ceiling fall in the inner wing." In fact, they had heard the masonry shift a few minutes before, but it sounded far away. "Mr. Steel just sent the rest of Tyrathect to get Mr. Shreck and dig us out. Mr. Steel sounds so… different."
"Maybe it's not really him," Jefri whispered back.
Long silence. "No. It's him. He just seems so angry, and he's using strange words."
"Big words?"
"No. Scary ones. About cutting and killing… Ravna and you and me. He
… he doesn't like us, Jefri."
The singleton stopped. They were beyond the last wall torch, and it was too dark to see anything but shadowy forms. He pointed to a spot on the wall. Amdi reached forward and pushed at the rock. All the while Mr. Tyrathect continued talking, reporting from the outside.
"Okay," said Amdi, "that opens. And it's big enough for you, Jefri. I think — "
Tyrathect's human voice said, "The Spacers are back. I can see their little boat… I got away just in time. Steel is getting suspicious. A few more seconds and he will be searching everywhere."
Amdi looked into the dark hole. "I say we go," he said softly, sadly.
"Yeah." Jefri reached down to touch one of Amdi's shoulders. The member led him to a hole cut in sharp-edged stone. If he scrunched his shoulders there would be enough room to crawl in. One of Amdi entered just ahead of him. The rest would follow. "I hope it doesn't get any narrower than this."
Tyrathect: "It shouldn't. All these passages are designed for packs in light armor. The important thing: keep to upward curving passages. Keep moving and you'll eventually get outside. Pham's flying craft is less than, uh, five hundred meters from the walls.
Jefri couldn't even look over his shoulder to talk to the Cloak. "What if Mr. Steel chases us into the walls?"
There was a brief silence. "He probably won't do that, if he doesn't know where you entered. It would take too long to find you. But," the voice was suddenly gentler, "but there are openings on the top of the walls. In case enemy soldiers tried to sneak in from the outside, there has to be some way to kill them in the tunnels. He could pour oil down the tunnels."
The possibility did not frighten Jefri. At the moment it just sounded bizarre. "We've got to hurry then."
