First Channel Part 28

Willa stared at her husband, her frustrated resentment slowly fading. Finally, she handed Zeth back to Kadi, and went to kneel beside Jord, putting her arms around him. People began to withdraw. Rimon and Kadi went back to their home, leaving Jord and Willa to work out whatever they could to salvage their marriage.

Spring finally came to stay. This year Rimon waited to plow his fields until after the floods-but the floods didn't come. "Some farmer!" he told Kadi. "I should have guessed that less snow this past winter would mean less runoff in the spring."

But Rimon didn't allow the time to go to waste. Besides earning extra money working for Del and Fort Freedom, he consulted with Slina to determine the most likely location of Henry Steers' son-if he were still alive. They knew he hadn't been taken with his father to the Farris Genfarm. There were only two establishments that dealt in quant.i.ties of pre-Gen children. If he hadn't yet established -or possibly changed over-there was about a seventy-five per cent probability that he was at one of those Pens. Otherwise, he could be anywhere, in one of the scattered Pens like Slina's. In that case, a Pen-by-Pen search was the only way to find him, and there was no way to do that.

Twelve was still young; there was a good chance the boy would not establish for a year or more, so in early summer, when Rimon and Del took some horses to High Canyon, Rimon made a detour to check out the Villiers Genfarm. Only one of the Villiers pre-Gens was a boy of somewhere around twelve, Rimon managed to speak a few words with him in English, found that he was not Henry Steers, Jr., but learned that there had been a boy called Hank-and maybe it was Steers, but he didn't remember-in the same s.h.i.+pment he had been in at one point.

Except for the possible clue that Steers' son had survived to be sold, it was a dead end. Rimon found it grueling to have to leave the boy. However, he was lean and spare-framed, a typical pre-Sime build. If he changed over, he'd have to work off whatever price Villiers paid for him, but he'd be all right if he could face becoming Sime. The only way Rimon could walk away was to convince himself of that.

His own homestead was growing enough without adding more children, even if he could afford to buy the boy. Both the young Gens who had been living with their families in Fort Freedom decided to stay on this side of the border, even after Jon's death. Rimon feared it was Abel's speech at the funeral that had persuaded them. They were starry-eyed kids, caught up in Abel's dream and determined that they wouldn't "fail the test."

So they came to Rimon and Kadi, their families helping to build on to Rimon's house, providing supplies and labor, and also giving him the tax money for their children. The boys' skills were welcome. Sordal Kent was already a good farmer and Len Deevan had been apprenticed to the herbalist. He took one stroll through their tunnel and asked Rimon, "Why aren't you growing mushrooms in here?"

"Mushrooms?" answered Rimon. They were a favorite food he'd missed lately. "I don't really know enough about cultivating mushrooms to attempt it. Neither does Kadi."

"Will you let me? I can get Mr. Lansing to help. Next year, you can take some to market when you go with Mr. Erick!"

Rimon authorized the plan, to be strictly supervised by Fort Freedom's master herbalist, and their first real industry was enthusiastically founded.

During all this, Rimon sensed a renewed unity among the folk of Fort Freedom. The month of lord's penance had worked wonders. Jord labored hard, alone, Willa never far away. Zlinning them as she watched her husband, Rimon found that Jord was under control again. Abel's plan was working; this time, Jord was going to succeed.

The ceremony for the unveiling of the monument held a real surprise. Jord had added a fourth name that hadn't been there the previous evening. As the first rays of the rising sun struck the smooth granite surface, the name of Billy Kell leaped out at Rimon. Billy Kell. Drust Fenell. Vee La.s.siter. Jon Forester.

Billy. Rimon forced himself to breathe evenly, not to give Kadi the slightest hint of his pain, as fresh as if it had happened yesterday. Billy trusted me-they.all trusted me. Who'll be next? Abel? Kadi?

Beside him, Del was crying, Carlana observing serenely. And not a trace of surprise from Kadi. When the two women exchanged glances, Rimon knew that one of them had put Jord up to this. He didn't want to know which.

Yet, after the ceremony, Rimon noticed that Del seemed less tense than he had in months, and Rimon, despite refusing himself the luxury of tears, felt that some indefinable burden had been lifted. There was something to be said for Abel's methods after all.

Summer brought Gen Raiders. Slina seethed, for she had predicted the retaliations as she struggled to keep enough Gens in supply to provide for both the town and Fort Freedom. Although she hadn't run completely out before a s.h.i.+pment had come through, it was unclear whether she would have been able to provide for the whole town if some of the town Simes had not gone raiding across the border. She claimed she could have, though, loudly, to anyone who'd listen. But as the town had no mayor, council, or even any form of law officer, there was no one to whom she could make an official complaint.

The effects of the illness in Slina's Pens were widespread. Although Rimon's carefully s.h.i.+elded homestead survived, they lost half a field of wheat to the fire the Raiders set. One group of Gens defied the barrier of the mountains when what was usually a raging river slowed to a stream. They rampaged across Del's property, cutting his fences, carrying away some of the precious wire, and making off with twenty of his finest horses. Wryly, Del told everyone that he was glad their greed had sent them back across the border with their loot without attacking deeper in-Territory. But everyone knew he couldn't afford such a loss.

Rimon and Kadi were doing better financially-but they had to. This summer the two years would be up, and their homestead would no longer be a homestead, but their own land, free and clear-except for the property tax Rimon would have to start paying on it. Now Rimon took every job he could get.

Kadi would have been glad to work in the fields of Fort Freedom with Rimon, but while the women of Fort Freedom worked hard in their own fields, none of them would ever hire out for pay. She and Rimon decided it might be best not even to mention it to Abel. Del, however, was constantly shorthanded.

So Kadi, who could handle horses just as well as Rimon, went to work for Del, leaving Zeth in Carlana's care most of the day. Rimon soon saw that Kadi had a knack for the work that he hadn't. The men from Fort Freedom who hired out to Del would escort Kadi and Zeth back and forth, and after a few raised eyebrows, it was accepted that Kadi was-as usual-different from the women they were used to, but not therefore bad.

Despite all his problems, Rimon felt a certain satisfaction when his homestead became his own property. He'd have to travel to the Territory Capital to obtain his deed: five days each way. It would be Summer Fair at the Capital -a time when all the largest merchants would display their wares. He promised Abel to look again for Steers' son, and if he wasn't there, to go on across the Territory to the Varnst Genfarm, their last hope of locating the boy. Abel, then, entrusted him with all the money that had been gathered to buy Steers-a fund Fort Freedom had kept intact in the constant hope that they'd somehow be able to locate Henry Steers, Jr.

Originally Del had planned to take a herd of horses along to the Summer Fair, but with the depletion through the raid as well as having to sell off stock to pay for extra hired hands, he didn't have enough to make the trip worth his while because he couldn't file the deed of owners.h.i.+p to his ranch until a month later. So Rimon and Kadi agreed to take five of Del's horses to sell for him.

Rimon had hoped the trip would be a chance to get away from his responsibilities-but here he was with horses and a large sum of money, and the burden of his thoughts and worries, which refused to be left behind. He wanted it to be a pleasure for Kadi, though; a treat after she had gone through so much and worked so hard. Neither of them could guess what to expect in the city from people who weren't used to seeing a Gen treated as a person, but Rimon was determined to fight his way through any obstacle to show Kadi a good time.

Kadi reverted to the Krazy Kid he'd known before she'd established, as excited as any child on the way to a fair. Her cheerfulness was contagious. By the end of the first day, Rimon was feeling much more fancy-free than in years. The time pa.s.sed swiftly, as Kadi marveled at each new scene-and Rimon recalled that until she'd established, she'd never been more than a day's ride from home.

They traveled across a plateau, into a land of small canyons with fantastic rock formations-but none of the roaring waterfalls Rimon had expected. They camped that night beside a drying waterhole, somber reminder of the advancing drought.

On the fourth day, they came into hilly green country. The horses wanted to crop the gra.s.s, and they had a hard time keeping them moving. Rimon told Kadi, "Tomorrow we get on the eyeway that cuts straight through the hills. We can stop early tonight, and still make the Capital easily tomorrow."

"It's been so nice, just the two of us together," Kadi replied. "I'm not looking forward to the crowds in the Capital."

"I'll take care of you," said Rimon, and Kadi turned to smile at him, her nager bright and serene.

"I'm not afraid, Rimon; you always take care of me." Then she said, "What do you suppose Zeth is doing now? I do hope he isn't tearing up Margid's clean house too badly."

"You know Abel and Margid love him like a grandson-" Just then, he zlinned a small group of Simes. "Kadi, travelers approaching: come over here beside me."

Even as he spoke, he realized that the Simes were not approaching; they were waiting-just the other side of the ridge. Their fields were partly insulated-most Simes wouldn't have-zlinned them at all. They were hiding-an ambus.h.!.+

Reining in, he said, "I don't like it. They're not moving. It could be thieves lying in wait. Come on-let's turn the horses back."

But in order to do that, they had to ride to the front of the small herd. The horses were starting to spook with the tension-and maybe had smelled the waiting Simes. Rimon and Kadi uncoiled their whips, trying to drive the horses back. At their shouts and the crack of their whips, the Simes in ambush must realize that their prey had sensed them. Rimon hoped that with the element of surprise gone, they'd hesitate to attack. There were three-no, four of them. Would they attack two people? But they perceived only one person, he realized; one person and one Gen.

Both Rimon and Kadi were now between the horses and the ridge. The Simes' nager increased suddenly as they came over the top of the hill, riding full speed. Rimon turned to face them, and almost froze. Freeband Raiders!

Four scarecrow forms converged upon them. The horses raced away from them, but Kadi turned beside Rimon, fighting her mount and wielding her whip bravely, cracking it in front of the nose of the nearest Raider's horse. The horse reared, but the rider clung, and another came up on the other side of Kadi. She tried to swing her whip at him, but she couldn't match Sime speed and agility. In one motion, he pulled her off her horse onto his. She squirmed, kicked, and finally bit into the Sime's arm, at which he dropped her-but before he could reach down to grab her again, another rider-a woman?-yanked her out of his grasp.

Rimon tried to fight off the other two Raiders who, in full augmentation, were determined to separate him from Kadi. They expected him to give up on odds of four-to-one and simply let her go. Instead, he fought his way toward her, and managed to coil his whip around one of the Raiders and unseat him-but the man caught his whip and took it down with him, disarming Rimon as the other knocked him off his horse. They went down in a tangle, and in a moment there were two others on him, two holding him while the other beat him, and he heard Kadi screaming, "Stop! Don't hurt him! Rimon, Rimon!"

At least she's still alive, he thought as he lost consciousness.

They didn't let him stay blacked out. He was held by two of the Raiders, while one held Kadi where he could see her, and the other poured water over his head.

"What the b.l.o.o.d.yshen h.e.l.l is this?" demanded the Raider to Rimon's left, her voice indicating she was indeed female. "You're more scared than that shendi-rippin' female!"

"Rimon, are you all right?" asked Kadi.

"Yeah," he lied hoa.r.s.ely.

"Not for long," said the man who'd poured the water. He was tall, with a shock of tangled hair as red as Kadi's. Above his pale, skeletal features, it looked like a clown's wig.

There was nothing funny, though, about the menace in him as he turned to Kadi. She stared at him defiantly. When he came close enough, she made a deliberate attempt to knee him in the groin. He sidestepped and slapped her viciously. She responded with a flick of her field that made him stagger, and the Sime holding her winced and gasped in astonishment.

The female Raider cried, "A witch!"

"S'matter, Ina?" sneered the red-haired man. "You scared of a Gen?"

"You'd better be scared of me!" Kadi said defiantly. "You picked the wrong Gen to attack this time."

Don't goad them, Kadi, Rimon willed. He could see through her bravado, but was sure none of the Raiders could. Rimon brought augmented strength to bear against the two holding him, but they matched him bit by bit until they gave him a shake. "Stop that, or we'll kill the Gen and have done with it."

How can I get loose and rescue Kadi? I must-somehow! Think! he began to zlin as deeply as he could, seeking anything that would give him an opening. Their captors' fields were consumed with the frantic beat typical of the Freeband Raiders. Of the four, the one holding Kadi had the lowest field, but none of them were in need. Freehand Raiders never allowed themselves to reach real need, if they could help it.

Then he found it-in the woman holding him-her whole body was rotted away with her dissipated lifestyle, but the weakest point was her vascular system. She had a condition seen usually in the very old, and could die very suddenly of circulatory collapse or heart failure. But how could he use that information?

He drove himself down into hypoconsciousness as again one of the Raiders, tentacles extended, delivered a ringing slap to Kadi's face. This group isn't as imaginative as those others I saw-long ago.

How can she be so calm? She expected him to do something-pull off some kind of miracle. They all expect me to do miracles, and I'm nothing but an ordinary man!

His despair registered with the Raiders. He felt them zlinning him, and then the woman said, "We can use this one!.He's as good as a Gen. Torture her and feel him squirm!"

The red-haired man grinned malevolently, and slapped Kadi again. She broadcast the pain right back at them with all the power of her nager, making the flick of anger she had thrown at them earlier seem like a loving caress.

It knifed through Rimon, and for a moment everything went red as he felt his knees sag under him. He didn't quite lose consciousness, but his weight pulled the two stunned Raiders down with him. As he swam up to awareness again, he realized he'd lost the chance Kadi had given him to get loose. If only I hadn't been zlinning! By the time he had control of his paralyzed legs again, the two Raiders coa.r.s.ened by their lifestyle and not nearly as sensitive as Rimon-had recovered and were pulling him roughly to his feet.

"Shen and s.h.i.+d!" gasped the redhead, while the woman puffed mightily in Rimon's ear. "Bron, kill that Gen. She's no good for anything."

The man holding Kadi spun her into kill position, expecting fear, and got it: Rimon's. Rimon tugged and writhed, but he was helpless, his system in chaos, a huge, aching bruise spreading on his right outer lateral, his head beginning to throb. I can't live without her! It'll kill me, too-it has to!

Transfixed, Rimon felt the Raider reach peak killmode. He couldn't hold himself below duoconsciousness as Kadi's lips touched the Raider. There was a split instant of selyn flow-and a bolt of lightning searing through Rimon, blinding his Sime senses.

As his eyes adjusted, he saw Kadi's face twisted in disgust as the Raider, shenned, fell at her feet-nager flat dead. Rimon was forced to duoconsciousness again. Free, Kadi staggered for balance and then came toward Rimon. The red-haired Sime grabbed her. She looked up to the vicious face descending toward hers, and with a cold deliberation turned into his arms, her fingers digging savagely into the tender nerves.

The Rider screamed, stiffening and dying even as she held him. She dropped him in a heap and moved on toward Rimon as the woman to his left suddenly slacked her grip on him and fell-dead, he zlinned, of a cerebral hemorrhage brought on by stark terror-of a Gen.

The remaining Raider pushed Rimon toward Kadi with a mighty heave and leaped onto his horse, riding for his life.

Rimon fell to the dirt at Kadi's feet. She went down with him, clutching frantically at him. "Rimon! Rimon!"

Rimon pushed himself up. "I'm all right, Kadi-"

"Quickly," she said. "To the horses. We've got to get away."

He looked at the corpses blankly, then a.s.sured her, "They're all dead, Kadi-there's no-"

"Dead! No! I only meant to stop them-only-only I killed!"

And Rimon understood. Kadi wasn't using the word "kill" carelessly as a child might. She meant precisely that: kill by selyn movement.

"Kadi-that woman died of a brain hemorrhage-her lifestyle did it to her. And the others were trying to kill you. You had every right-"

"No-I-didn't-" Kadi said through clenched teeth, backing away from him, her anger rising again.

Rimon reached out, flooded with the strangest emotion. I was supposed to protect her, and look what happened. What use can she possibly have for me after this?

Fear-that was the emotion raging in him-fear.

Chapter Twenty-Two.

COMPARISONS.

"Shenoni, Rimon, you of all people should understand!" But Kadi didn't reach for his outstretched hand. "I killed just as viciously and reflexively as any killer Sime! I couldn't help it, Rimon!"

Rimon looked at the corpses about them. Slumped in grotesque positions, they were like the discarded Gen corpses Raiders left beside the road for others to take away.

Kadi-killed.

He brought his eyes to focus on her, reading her nager. A Gen who can turn our own weapon back on us. A Gen. A person. If Gens were indeed people, then if there was any rhyme or reason to the universe, surely they could kill, too.

A great spreading warmth thawed his fears. "Of course, Kadi. It's only natural-you killed in self-defense. A Sime kills in self-defense against a Gen who refuses to give selyn."

A faint smile came over her face as she met his eyes, and Rimon could feel the shock receding. "Oh, Rimon, I love you, too."

She looked around, taking stock. The Raiders' horses had stopped some distance away, and their own mounts were scattered off in another direction. There was no sign of the herd. "Only G.o.d knows where those animals went. They're still half-wild," said Kadi.

Rimon tried to get up. Kadi was right. They had to run down the horses and move off a ways to make camp before tending their wounds. But dizziness washed over him, and the next thing he knew he was bent over, retching violently. He hadn't felt anything like this since he stopped killing.

"Rimon?" Kadi's voice came through the roaring in his ears, her hands taking his arms as they always had after a kill. Her nager locked to his, firm and soothing.

"I'm all right, Kadi," he insisted, gathering himself to rise. That was the last thing he remembered for some hours. When he woke at twilight, there was a cheerful campfire burning near him. He was under a blanket. The horses were tethered to a line strung between two scrub bushes. And Kadi- "I think you must have slept more than three hours!" she said when she saw he was awake.

She was calm, and Rimon felt the firm results of her ministrations. As he sat up slowly, his head stayed clear. "I guess I was in worse shape than I thought. I'm fine now -thanks to you."

She poured tea into a trail mug and brought it with a hard biscuit. "If this stays down, I'll believe you."

He took the mug, wanting to reject the biscuit, but decided not to fight her determination. There was no evidence of the Raiders' bodies. She couldn't have buried them. But he wasn't going to ask. "Kadi, you shouldn't have gone for the horses by yourself."

"Why not? I waited until you were sleeping naturally and then rode them down. No problem. Now drink."

He did, nibbling at the biscuit. Kadi ate with him, and that helped. He felt better by the moment. The bruise on his arm was visible now, and it still ached, but the worst of the shock was over. There was none of the blurring he had felt before he pa.s.sed out.

Kadi asked, her field totally blank, "Should we take the bodies into the Capital and collect the bounty?" * "Kadi!" Is this my wife? And from somewhere a distant thought: She did kilt.

She nodded. "I do stand out. If that Raider who ran away has spread the story and we come in with the bodies, we might get into trouble."

"n.o.body would believe him!"

She shrugged. "I think we dare take the horses and saddles-anyone can see they've been used by Raiders and we can say we found them."

"Kadi, what's wrong with you?"

"I'm trying to think rationally so I won't fall apart. We can use the extra money-but I don't think it would be wise to let anyone examine those bodies, at least not with us there. I'm dangerous, Rimon. I don't even know how dangerous-but the important thing is not to let a city full of Simes at Summer Fair know that. I've gotten used to living free. I've forgotten how to act like a Gen, if I ever knew."

"You just act like my wife!" said Rimon, putting his arm around her. "All right, it's common sense not to attract the attention of the rabble at the Fair-but I never intended you to pretend to be my property, Kadi. We have to let people start to see Simes and Gens together."

She snuggled into his embrace and began to relax. As the fire danced against the sunset, she drifted slowly to sleep. Feeling her weariness, Rimon appreciated what she'd been through in the last hours-her first experience of the kind of uncontrollable reflex he had learned to take in stride. And then he had fainted dead away, leaving her to face it alone. And she pulled it off-better than I could have. My wife. Kadidid.

He bundled her up against the chill of evening, built up the fire, and checked their camp. He found the Raider corpses neatly stacked under a loose pile of rocks downwind of the camp. Then he settled down to mind the fire and rehea.r.s.e his answers to the inevitable questions he would face in town. Would he be able to get them to register Kadi as a person, so she could inherit for Zeth if anything happened to him? Could he get all the Gens registered as people? Would anybody accept Kadi as his wife?

The Capital at Summer Fair was a madhouse in which Rimon and Kadi drew little attention simply because there was so much else to see, hear, and zlin. They were two weeks before the big Gen auction of the Fair, so it was still possible to find a room. The landlord didn't question Rimon's having a Gen with him, but Kadi shuddered at the cage in one corner of their room.