Part 9 (1/2)
”Trouble?” she asked. Then, sniffing the air and catching the cordite, she added, ”You've got a habit of being too close to blasters that just go off.”
Jak said nothing. Pus.h.i.+ng past her, he left the tent before his temper got the better of him. He could feel her eyes bore into his back as he walked away. Her time would come. It would be the two of them if necessary. He had no quarrel with her, but if she felt differently, then he would see it through.
Chapter Ten.
As they progressed, it became apparent that they were traveling down an incline that was gentle and barely noticeable, but nonetheless had an effect on the surrounding jungle. Over a period of three hours, they found progress easier in terms of both exertion and the amount of foliage that had to be chopped back to supply a path.
”Valley of some kind,” Gloria said to Ryan. ”Different soil, too. Look at the change around us.”
The one-eyed warrior looked around. The stunted trees were more prevalent than the creepers and shrubs that had crossed their path prior to this point. The root systems of the trees had also retreated farther into the ground, making the way underfoot less treacherous. There was still a canopy of leaves and branches that made the light filter through in shafts and blocks rather than as a clear view of the sky, but even this was more evenly distributed than before.
Gloria raised her panga, pointing to the treetops. ”See how they're spread out more, sweets? That's because they're more deeply rooted, growing strong and straight. Which means we're coming into a place where the water and goodness lies deeper in the soil. Which isn't what I'd expect in a valley.”
”Mebbe this is leading downward into something larger,” Ryan suggested, ”like mebbe we're coming down from a plateau?”
Gloria chewed her lip. ”No news from the outriders on big changes in the landscape. Wonder what I could see from above?”
And before Ryan had a chance to answer her, the Amazon queen had left his side and scaled the nearest tree, sheathing her panga and stretching her sinewy arms up to grasp a lower branch, pulling herself upward and over onto the limb with a feline grace. She disappeared into the canopy of foliage.
Krysty joined Ryan. ”Gloria scouting the land?”
He nodded. ”If this is a valley, then we need to know what the h.e.l.l the incline's like. If it isn't, then what does it end in?”
”Trouble,” the t.i.tian-haired woman answered quietly.
Ryan turned to her. The strands of long, flaming hair that usually hung loosely over her shoulders were coiled in tight to her neck.
”What is it?” he asked softly, not wanting to alert any of the Gate to Krysty's doomie sensibility until he himself knew what she was thinking.
”Not sure,” she replied in an equally cautious tone. ”It can't be too near, as the Gate scouts haven't reported anything, but since we started to go downhill and the landscape started to change, I've had this growing knowledge that we're headed into trouble. I just wish it wasn't so vague.”
”Better vague than nothing,” came a voice from just above them. Both Ryan and Krysty looked up to see Gloria hanging from a tree limb, having moved across the trees with the stealth of a tree monkey.
The woman flipped off the branch, landing effortlessly on her thonged feet.
”I couldn't see much from up there,” she continued, ”but one thing is for sure- there's enough hiding places. I couldn't even spot my own outriders. Which is okay, 'cause they'd be in deep s.h.i.+t if I could! But there could be anything in there, and there are a couple of spots where we'd be very vulnerable.”
”Like?” Ryan queried.
”My guess is that we're in an area that was sacred in some way, and hidden from the view of the world. There are some areas where camouflage was used, and the years have worn it away. Mebbe ten miles from here there's a settlement of some kind. No fires or signs of life I could see, but at this distance it's too soon to say.” She shrugged. ”But before we get that far, there's a plain in the middle of this that stretches for about a mile. Why the h.e.l.l it should be there, I don't know. It doesn't feel right.”
”Mebbe that's what's worrying me,” Krysty said. ”It could be something residual that's giving me this, rather than any real danger.”
Gloria shook her head. ”Never ignore a doomie, honey. What I mean is that the plain looks like it was man-made in some way. This is a decline into a lower ground level, not a valley, and with this around-” she gestured to the woodlands around them ”-then there's no reason in nature why that plain should suddenly be there. It's kinda weird, and that worries me.”
”How far to the plain?” Ryan asked.
”About half a mile,” Gloria answered.
The one-eyed warrior nodded, his mouth set in a grim line. They had to advance, and if there was a settlement ahead that was deserted, then it could prove instructive. But to get there...
”Triple red, without a doubt,” he said. ”Reckon we should call in the outriders, as well. If they haven't seen anything out there, then mebbe whatever's waiting-if it is-is too smart to be caught out that way. Besides which, this is their territory.”
”Agreed. I'll call them back and we proceed with extreme caution. The unknown is a worse enemy than anything you see,” the Gate queen murmured before turning and letting out an earsplitting screech that was a signal to her outriders.
J.B., Jak, Dean, Mildred and Doc moved through the stilled procession of the Gate until they were level with Krysty, Ryan and Gloria. While the tribe was content to wait for their queen to inform them of what was happening, the companions were more anxious to know. Krysty and Gloria filled them in on what had been discovered and discussed.
”I wonder,” Doc mused, almost to himself. ”Could it really be so, after all?”
”Could what be so?” Mildred prompted.
Doc looked at her as though she had completely missed the plot, even though it was a story that had been running only in his own head for some time now. ”My dear Dr. Wyeth,” he said in amazement, ”why, surely it's obvious.”
Mildred raised an eyebrow. ”Not to me, you crazy old coot. So come down off that cloud and fill me in. Pretend I'm stupid, okay?”
Doc raised a smile. ”As if I could ever believe that, my dear madam. I merely surmise that this could be the place for which we seek, and the place that I dredged from the recesses of my poor, addled memory, which, I may add, I do know to be not the most reliable of sources. No, my dear madam, I do indeed wonder if this is the shadow capital of which I heard talk, and which seems so well to fit in with the legends of our dear friend here.” With which he indicated Gloria with a sweeping flourish.
J.B. polished his spectacles on the corner of his s.h.i.+rt, focusing his thoughts with each movement of his thumb and forefinger across the surface of the lens.
”If that's the case,” he said slowly and deliberately, ”then we're gonna have to be right there for the Illuminated Ones, 'cause we know they're still around.”
Gloria, who had been listening intently, nodded. ”That's why I want us all together. I don't want to lose outriders just 'cause they're alone. Safety in numbers, now.”
By this time, all the outriders had responded to the signal and were back with the tribe. Gloria gathered them together and filled them in on what was known and what was surmised. There was a buzz of excitement that pa.s.sed through the tribe at the thought that they may be the generation to attain that for which they had spent so long searching.
Gloria held up both hands. ”Wait,” she cried in a tone of voice that none of the companions had heard her use before. There was a harsh edge to it that seemed almost alien. She continued, almost imperious, ”If we are to be the chosen ones who reach the promised places, then we must do it properly. I want none of us to lose our chance to be there because of the slackness of others. We are all together -we are all one. Remember that and remember well.”
There was a silence that hung over the tribe as they considered this.
Gloria broke the silence. ”Okay, we've got half a mile to the plain. Then we need vigilance. Let's go- and keep it sweet, my people.”
She turned to Ryan and his companions.
”Let's do it, babes,” she said simply.
ON TRIPLE RED, the tribe and the companions made their way through the last stages of the jungle growth. As they neared the beginning of the plain, it became apparent that the vast expanse of gra.s.sland was basically a disguised pa.s.sive defense. Although it seemed innocent enough, it was wide enough to make circling it and staying in the cover of the forest growth a tedious and drawn out task. The easiest route forward was to move across the plain, and although it was large enough to make the journey safe because any attack could be seen from some distance, it also made any party moving across that plain equally visible.
”This is not ideal,” Doc commented as they set foot onto the plain.
”No, but it's the best option, as long as we stay together and stay on red,” Gloria answered. ”And I'll tell you something else, honey-this is no natural plain.”
”How can you tell?” Krysty furrowed her brow. The plain seemed to be natural enough, the scrub stretching out to the trees, far flung on each side.
”Two things,” the Amazon queen replied. ”First thing is the way that the gra.s.sland ends suddenly at the edges of the plain. Even the most squared of natural plains has little hollows and indents into the trees. This hasn't.”
Krysty followed the sharp, penetrating blue eyes of the Gate queen as she surveyed the outer edges of the plain. It was true; the plain was sharply defined at all sides, rather than bleeding naturally into the woodland.