Shanji. Part 5

The soldier waved his hand, and the column of men moved out, leading the three horses with their horrible burden. As soon as they were out of sight, the people came over to Ma and cl.u.s.tered around her, the women crying, the men cursing and mouthing useless threats against the soldiers.

"The most important thing is our lives. And I tell you we are in great danger here. Be ready to move! We cannot fight if we are dead. Now get to your packing, and get your horses saddled and tethered by your gerts."

Ma turned, and Kati saw her eyes were blazing red, and in her mouth were the sharp, pointed teeth of a s.h.i.+zi. No wonder the people had moved so quickly, though they were grumbling. Ma brushed past her into the ger. "You heard?" she growled.

"No. I heard nothing, but I was trying very hard. I think the Searcher was talking to you without words."

"He was," said Ma. She began stuffing travel woolins into a bag. "I don't know why, but he seems to be a friend. He said the Emperor wishes us destroyed, but the Searchers who advise him say we should be moved instead. They say no Tumatsin life should be taken, but now the flyers have done it, and it will be easy for them to do it again. He seemed fearful for us, and I have no idea why. The Searchers are certainly not our friends. Kati, pack your little bag with extra s.h.i.+rt and socks, and your tunic with the hood. You can take one doll, but no more."

"Where will we go?"

Ma worked furiously, filling one bag, and opening another. "We will go to Manlee in the Dorvodt ordu. It sits on the edge of a cliff overlooking the sea, and there are many children your age there. Your father was going there first, and Manlee will know where to find him. We must be prepared to ride through the night."

Kati opened her little bag, and began to pack it. "Maybe I can find Edi again, and we can hunt for sh.e.l.ls on the beach. I would like to live by the sea, Ma."

"I know. Life is hard here, with the cold. We have only stayed because our people needed an outpost for watching the Emperor, and we have served that purpose. But I think the Emperor's next step will be to drive us into the sea. If our Empress Mandughai is watching, then she'd better do something soon. We have waited for a thousand years, and our time is running out."

"The lady with the green eyes," said Kati, looking at the tapestry over her bed. "When I was at festival I saw green eyes, and they made the thoughts go away for awhile, but then the eyes were gone, and haven't come back. I think it was all my imagination."

Ma dropped the bag she was stuffing, and rushed to Kati, kneeling down in front of her and grasping her arms. "No!" she said. "It was not your imagination! It was a sign! A sign of recognition by the Empress. She watches you from afar, even now. She watches your powers grow, powers that no other Tumatsin woman has. You are different, Kati, something new. I wish I could tell you why you are this way, but I cannot do this until you are a woman. You will be able to understand it then."

Ma's face was still fierce, with the sharp teeth and blazing eyes, a sight Kati hadn't seen since festival. Kati touched her mother's teeth with a finger, and scowled. "I don't want to be different. I want to be like you."

Ma hugged her. "You will be like me, and much more. But you must grow to womanhood, and be safe. Kati, it's not just the Empress who has seen you, but the Searchers themselves. They know about you. They want you safe. The last thing the Searcher said to me without words was 'whatever happens here, you must do all within your power to protect the child. She must not be harmed.' The child is you, Kati, and he didn't even see you. But he knew you were there. For reasons I do not understand, the Searchers want you safe. It's the main reason I have for moving, and fast! Get your bag packed quickly, now, and see to Sushua while I fix us something to eat.

Kati did as she was told. She topped off her bag with a single doll, a warrior mounted on a black horse like Kaidu, then went outside and brushed down Sushua, combed her tail and mane while the little horse nuzzled, then ate the treat of flowers she'd hidden in the pocket of her tunic. Sushua nickered when Kati moved away, so she came back and gave her a hug before going inside to eat.

That night, long after it was dark and she was in her bed, her thoughts whirled with confusion. She was different from Ma, because she could hear everyone's thoughts, not just Searchers'. Was that why the Searchers were interested in her? Because she was like them? And why was she like them, and not other Tumatsin women? Ma said she would tell her when she was older. Why couldn't she tell her now?

When Ma had been telling her about what the Searcher had said, she'd seemed excited, almost happy, and yet they were in danger. The green eyes were a sign of the Empress watching her, but Kati hadn't seen those eyes in nearly three years. Had Ma left something out, something else the Searcher had said without words?

It's all imagination: the eyes, the Empress coming, that cave at festival that is nothing but a fire burning deep within a hole in the ground. n.o.body is watching us except the Emperor, and he doesn't want us here.

Ma came over to her bed when Kati's eyes were already heavy, and pulled up the wool blanket to her chin. She leaned over to kiss her cheek, and put a cool hand on her forehead. "Sleep well, my little Empress. I love you with all my heart, and I will watch over you as long as there is life in me."

Da had called her his little Empress many times.

But it was the first time that Ma had called her that.

PART II.

WARD.

CHAPTER FOUR.

TRAGEDY.

The flyers came at dawn.

Ma woke Kati when it was still dark. She loaded four bags of clothing, food and utensils over the rump of her chestnut while Kati was dressing. Kati came outside to hang her single little bag from the horn of her saddle and say good morning to Sushua. They went back inside to roll up the wall tapestries and wrap them in hides for burial. The tapestries were too bulky to carry along, but they had been with the family for several generations and could not be left to the scavenging of the Emperor's troops. Ma seemed certain they would have to leave, and so they wrapped up the tapestries and Ma broke down her altar, placing the elements of it in a coa.r.s.e woolen bag. They took these things to a grove of trees a hundred meters from the ger, and Ma used her hands to sweep aside the carpet of needles covering wood slats that were the roof of a stone-lined cairn set into the ground. Four of the Emperor's rifles lay within the cairn, wrapped in oiled leather. They put the tapestries and bag in with the rifles and covered it all up again.

The ger looked barren without the altar or the colorful pictures on the walls. There was only the stove and the low table, with a few water bags, plates, bowls, utensils remaining. Kati was suddenly aware of how few possessions they actually had. Ma moved silently in flickering lamplight, firing up the stove, and cooking their barleycakes and tea.

Kati felt her mother's sadness. This ger, this ordu, had been home for most of a generation. The old people had been children here. Still, Kati felt excitement about moving west to the sea where it would be warm all the time. And Edi was there. She could not feel sadness for herself, but only for Ma.

They ate their cakes, and drank tea, and the hot fire within the stove warmed them. The first light of Tengri-Khan streamed in between the door-flap and the walls.

And then the flyers came.

The whine of turbines came from east, north and south, and was suddenly right over them. Someone screamed outside. Ma's eyes were wide and yellow in an instant. "Stay here," she said, then jumped up and ran outside while Kati sat at the table, stunned. She heard Ma call out.

"Get the horses to the trees!"

The whine was deafening, and Kati clapped her hands over her ears, and then there was a bright flash lighting up the walls of the ger from outside. People and horses screamed, and Ma called out, her voice a shriek.

"Kati! Get under the table!"

Kati's breath was sucked away, and she was filled with fear at the sound of her mother's voice. Cups and cakes on a plate spilled to the earthen floor as she squirmed to get under the table, but it was too low to accommodate her with her bulky tunic and all she did was push it up at an angle. Bright light flashed again and again before her eyes, and her hands clawed at the floor, trying to dig a s.p.a.ce. The screams outside were high-pitched and horrible, especially from the animals, screams of pain, and agony. Kati gasped a breath, her chest aching, and sobbed as tears gushed from her. The table was pressing on her back, and she burrowed into the dirt beneath it.

And then there was a terrible flash, very near, lighting up her darkness beneath the table. There was a loud cracking sound, and the walls around her creaked, then moaned, then gave way. The roof of the ger came cras.h.i.+ng down all around her and on top of the table, pressing down on her and pus.h.i.+ng her face into the dirt in sudden pitch-blackness. Dirt was in her mouth and nose. She jerked her face to one side, spit the dirt out, and snorted. The weight on her back was horrible, and she struggled for a breath, scrabbling with her feet to push forward until her head was pressed against the table. She got her knees beneath her and pushed up, and suddenly she could take a breath. She sucked it in, and then she was crying. "Ma!" she screamed. "Ma, I can't move!"

There was no answer. A horrible silence just outside the ger, yet Kati could hear shouting from a distance before another flyer came over to drown the sound out. Everyone had run away, and she was trapped here beneath the heavy canvas and hides of her collapsed ger. The weight was too much for her. Her back and legs hurt, and there was sharp pain in her knees. If she relaxed even a little, the weight pushed her down in the darkness, her face so close to the dirt she could smell it. "Ma! Help me!" she shrieked.

And then she smelled smoke. At first it was just an odor: wood smoke, mixed with the smell of smouldering wool. She sucked in a breath with shock. The stove. It had been filled with wood, burning hotly to warm them while they were eating, and now it was covered with canvas and hides. It was burning the ger! "Ma! Someone! There's fire, and I can't get out. Someone help me!" she cried.

The smoke was getting denser in the pitch-blackness before her face, and it burned her eyes and nose. She closed her eyes, and took quick, shallow breaths. The agony in her legs and knees was now awful, but she was locked into position by the great weight above her, and she could only move her arms. She took a deep breath of choking smoke to summon up another scream, when suddenly she heard something: horses' hooves on hard rock, a clattering, metallic sound, first a trot, now a gallop, drawing nearer. Someone had come back! She waited until the horses were right by the ger, took a deep breath to cry out, then stifled herself with a m.u.f.fled choking sound.

Something had pa.s.sed through her mind for just an instant, a presence she had felt before. And then she heard his voice.

"Well, they were certainly thorough about it. How brave they are. Tell them we've arrived, so they don't select us as new targets."

"Yes, Chosen One. I've done that."

"Tell them also not to fire on those who flee. If they do so, I will know, and I will have their heads for it! They are in enough trouble as it is with the Brotherhood. They were supposed to attack only if the people refused our demands to leave, and they didn't even wait. We could have been killed by their fire, as close as we were. Tell them that, Hung!"

"Yessir."

The sound of a horse galloping away, but others trotting nearer. Kati was choking from the smoke she'd inhaled. She tried to take a breath, but it was smoke, not air. Stars danced brightly before her eyes, and her chest hurt.

I'm trapped here, and there is fire, and I can't breathe. Please help me. Someone help me!

"There is someone here," said the man outside."There-smoke coming from the rubble. Something is burning there. Put it out.""We have no implements for that, sir.""Then use your hands. Throw dirt on it, but put the fire out! Use your rifle to cut away the canvas."I'm in here. Please don't kill me. The fire is close, and I CAN'T BREATHE! The stars were colorful now, and Kati felt herself slipping away. But now she heard the sound of feet trampling the pile of canvas above her, then a long hiss. A sharp odor brought her near consciousness, and then the men were shouting.

"Here. A burning stove. Bring dirt!"Feet were trampling all around her. You're stepping on me. I'm here, beneath a table. Please hurry.

Please don't hurt me!

There was the sound of ripping canvas, and another hiss, and then light flooded her place, and the weight pressing down on her was suddenly gone. The table above her was ripped away, and she fell forward on her face, moaning. Rough hands gripped her beneath her arms, lifting her up, and there was a gentle voice softly in her ear.

"By the eyes of First Mother, it is you, and you're alive. Come to me, child."

You are safe, but there is a terrible thing to see here. You must keep your eyes closed.

NO! The light was bright, and Kati's eyes still burned from the smoke. She blinked rapidly as the man swept her up into his arms. She clutched at the leather armor on his chest, and his face was near, but it was only a blur at first. "Put me down!"

"Bring my horse," said the man. "I have what we came for, and we must leave quickly!"

Kati struggled in his arms, reached for his face, but he grasped her hands hard and held them. "Ma!" she cried. She blinked again, and her vision was clearing. He was walking away from her ger; she looked over his shoulder and saw the ruins of her home still spewing smoke, and a body lay near it. The body of a boy, groin and stomach scorched black. He lay on his back, eyes open. It was Abaka. Beyond him lay several sheep, and a horse, their bodies burned horribly.

Kati moaned, and writhed in the man's arms. The gush of tears stung her eyes, but cleared them. She twisted herself, trying to look over his other shoulder, but he turned, handed her to a soldier who took her beneath her arms and held her at arm's length away from him as the Searcher mounted his horse. The soldier lifted her up, as the Searcher growled, "Careful, fool!"

She was facing the Searcher, and he was an older man, much older than Da. The huge bulge in his forehead was purple with veins, and his hair was grey. He lifted her, trying to turn her around in front of him, but she grabbed his armor at the collar and hung on grimly, for now she knew what he didn't want her to see.

Only paces behind him, a woman was stretched out on the ground, arms flung to either side of her, a terrible hole burned in her chest. Even in death, her eyes were open and blazing red. One arm of the woman was draped over the flank of a little horse, grey with white spots and black mane. The stomach of the horse had been exploded by a burst of fire, and its entrails had spilled forth, still steaming in the morning cold.

Kati screamed, and held out her arms, kicking at the saddle, and into the Searcher's groin. He grunted, then firmly yet gently twisted her around and seated her in front of him. Still she struggled, trying for one more glimpse of what they had done to Ma and Sushua, but the Searcher wrapped his arms around her tightly and began walking his horse away from the scene.

You should not have seen that. I cannot change what has been done to you, but you are safe with me.

Kati struggled for breath. It seemed as if a hand had clutched her heart, and was squeezing it. Her sobs came in spasms, tears streaming down her cheeks. That one brief glimpse of what they had done burned bright in her mind. She was vaguely aware of the sight of other bodies along the way, and other collapsed gerts, but they were forgotten in a moment.

Kati writhed in the man's arms and screamed her agony, but it came out a m.u.f.fled choke. The hurt inside had reached her throat, constricting it, and the force gripping her insides was increasing, bringing numbness to her chest.

First Mother, what can I do? We have made a mess of this, and I don't want to hurt her. The strength of her pain is awful. It tears at me.

Kati moaned, leaned back against the Searcher's leathered chest, and looked straight up at him. His eyes were fixed straight ahead, and tears glistened on his cheeks.

You have killed Ma, and I have done nothing to you. And now I will die.

The fist in her heart squeezed harder and harder, and she gasped for breath, unable to cry further. Her forehead was suddenly icy cold, yet sweaty, and her vision clouded.

Perhaps this was death coming, and she would be with Ma and Sushua soon.

First Mother! I cannot deal with this! Show me what to do!

The Searcher squeezed her, then shook her gently, but she closed her eyes and wished for blackness to come. And suddenly there was a new voice in her head-the voice of a woman.

Kati. Kati-my child.

Kati stirred within her darkness. This was not the Searcher, but someone new. Never had she felt such a powerful presence, and it seemed she was warmed from the inside, from where her heart was. Her skin tingled powerfully, the sound of horses hooves and wind in the trees suddenly gone, and in her mind the blackness was now filled with purple spots of light like distant stars at night. "Ma?" she said out loud, her eyes still closed.

No, my dear. Your mother is gone, and I can do nothing to change that. But you must trust the one whose arms hold you now, and believe that he will keep you safe. He and his brothers are my children, and I place you in their care, for there are things I would have you do for me when you are a woman.

"Who are you?" whispered Kati, and it seemed the Searcher's arms were suddenly tighter around her. And then she gasped, for out of the night sky of her mind there suddenly appeared a thing she had seen before-two slanted eyes, blazing emerald green, opening up before her with incredible brightness to fill the void.

I am Mandughai, Kati. I am First Mother, Empress of Tumatsin and Hansui. I am Empress over all the peoples of Shanji. I was with your grandmother, and your mother, and I will be with you.

You take the thoughts away, thought Kati.

Only for a little while. Your grief must run its course, but now you must rest. Sleep, now, and know that I am with you, always.

The eyes closed, and for a moment the purple stars were back, flickering together, a slow, rhythmic pulsation in Kati's mind. Then only blackness.

The Searcher's horse stumbled on a stone and Kati was jerked awake. For one brief instant she thought it had all been a bad dream. She would open her eyes, and there would be flickering lamplight in the ger, Ma busy cooking cakes on the stove. But what she saw was the neck of a horse, and they were coming down into a broad valley on a narrow trail, a steep dropoff to one side. The Emperor's great city loomed ahead, jutting out of a sheer cliff, covered with a transparent spherical tent glistening like ice in Tengri-Khan's afternoon light.

The Searcher's arms were loosely around her, but warm. He leaned over, and whispered to her, "At last you're awake, just in time to see your new home. It's very large, and further away than it seems. Are you hungry?"

No. I will not eat your food. I will not eat anything again.

The Searcher squeezed her gently. "Very well, but I think you will change your mind. Let me know if you want something."

I want to go home. I want to find Da and my brother, and be with my own kind.

The Searcher squeezed her again, but said nothing.

They rode slowly, for the trail was dangerous. The huge valley below had been harvested, only stubble remaining. Three large machines sat at the edge of a plowed area, and man were swarming over them, making repairs. Closer to the city there were fields of dry gra.s.s, and cattle eating from bales of feed scattered there. There were no goats, or sheep, only cattle to be seen. No people, or gerts, no dwellings of any kind. Everyone must be living in the city.

And it was the city that held her attention as they drew closer. She had only seen it before from a great distance from her place within the pinnacles, and there it had seemed to sparkle like a jewel. Now she could see why. The transparent tent was not one piece, nor was it a true sphere. It was made up of many flat squares connected together by a network of beams like the web of a spider. Not all of the squares were clear, but colored in hues of blue, red and green, and beneath them the city rose in curved terraces, with tall buildings having every color in a rainbow. The terraces slanted upwards towards a summit, where there was a building with a golden dome glistening in the light of Tengri-Khan.

Closer still, Kati could see lines of open s.p.a.ce between the tightly packed buildings, lines radiating downwards from the one with the golden dome, and patches of green spilling over the terraces like waterfalls. And ahead of them was an enormous gate of what looked liked polished wood, black and glistening, set into the base of the all-encompa.s.sing tent, and it was opening to receive them. The Searcher leaned over and again whispered in her ear, "This is only a small part of what there is to see. The rest is beyond the mountain. You see the gold dome up there? That is the Emperor's palace."

Kati craned her neck to see the dome as they approached the gate on a wide, dirt road lined with unlit torches and sparkling rocks. Several troopers were at the gate, and more to either side of it, watching their approach. The troopers at the gate bowed respectfully, and waved them through the gate while Kati gawked at the colorful buildings packed together on the steep slope before them. She heard a flyer's whine, and looked straight up to see it hovering far off, above the city's tent. A blue panel, twice the size of the flyer, slid aside; the flyer descended through the opening, and drifted until it was out of sight beyond the gold dome at the summit of the terraces.

Inside the tent it was suddenly warm, and there was no breeze on her face. There were odors of animals, food cooking, and human sweat, a sudden closed-in feeling that bothered her. Sound filled her ears, a dull roar like rus.h.i.+ng wind coming from every direction.

They crossed an open s.p.a.ce paved with white, flat stones fitted tightly together, to a paG.o.da shading several benches, now empty. Beyond the paG.o.da, pairs of metal columns connected by rails rose up the steep slope towards the golden dome, the rails seeming to come together in the far distance. And hanging from those rails, sliding down towards them, was a box, painted red, surrounded by windows. The machine drew near and Kati saw one man standing inside, looking out at her.

The Searcher stopped his horse in the shade of the paG.o.da, dismounted, and lifted Kati down from the saddle. Only one trooper remained with them; he took the Searcher's horse, and rode back towards the gate without a word. The red box came down soundlessly, stopped before them, and a door slid aside.

Kati's hands were clenched at her sides. The Searcher took one fist in his hand, squeezed it gently and said, "We will ride this car to the Hall of Ministers at the top of the city, then you will rest, and have something to eat if you wish. There is a fine view of the city while we ride."

She followed him inside where there were many empty benches, one man standing before a panel of lights. The man's fingers moved over the panel; the door slid shut, and the car began to move as Kati's heart thumped hard. The Searcher stood her on a bench, so she could see outside in all directions, and they rose at a steep angle, the gate quickly dropping away from them and beyond it the fields, the great wall of rock, the first mountain peaks showing clearly above its edge, and then, in the far distance, a summit she recognized. The pinnacles, the place where she had seen the Emperor's city-with Sushua. She looked out at the mountains, and the horror returned. She began to cry softly, and the tears were hot on her face.

I feel your pain, child, but it will pa.s.s in time. Your life out there has ended, but a new one is about to begin.

The rest of the ride was blurred by tears. She was oblivious to all the buildings, and the people in the streets below her, even the beautiful hanging garden with its waterfall and pool, which she only glimpsed. Kati saw only the mountains, thinking of Ma and Sushua, Da and Baber, those she loved and would never see again. By the time the car stopped, her sobs were like hiccups, and her chest ached from it.

The Searcher had remained silent. Now he took her hand as the door opened. Another Searcher was waiting there, a boy no older than Abaka had been when they'd murdered him. He was dressed in white, tight-fitting clothing from high-collar to feet. Like all the other Searchers she'd seen, his face was longer and narrower than that of the typical Hansui, and he had a finely arched nose. The bulge on his forehead did not detract her eye, for it was small, a delicate web of blue veins showing there.