Beyond the Sky: Chapter 6
Locked Out
The next morning, Velli went over and got a bowl of soup from a gas stove in the courtyard, and had just started to sip when a shadow passed overhead. For one dreadful second she thought it was the Black Triangle returning, then she saw the broad-winged shape of a Yune coming in to land.
It was Hinven, their messenger. He passed through an open section of roof, swung into a spiral, and touched down on wing-arms and legs. He seemed harried.
“It’s Edjhar Deeps.” He straightened up as Commander Udan approached, smoothing out his denim flight-covers and mail pouch on his chest. “I tried to make my delivery, but the city’s closed.”
“What do you mean, closed?” Velli asked.
“Since last night, the other mailmen said. The Burrowers shut the door and haven’t opened it again.”
“We’ve got our contact in there!” Teliv exclaimed.
“I was supposed to deliver to him.” Hinven opened his pouch to lift a letter partway out, sealed with tape from JNF headquarters.
“This is bad,” Udan scratched his ears. “I thought the Regime might find us here, after what happened last night, but if they know about our business in Edjhar...” Velli didn’t bother asking what business that was. “To the trucks! Velli, fetch the recruits!”
The covered JNF truck bounced and rocked down a muddy dirt road. Velli watched out back as they passed farmers carrying sugar-reeds or fruits in carts, some glanced up but otherwise paid no attention. One reason why Velli had been defending that village—no militia could operate without a sympathetic populace.
Burrowers, however, were a different matter. She’d heard that when slavers came to their cities, they just chose some of their number to send out. No fighting back, no fleeing. It seemed monstrous, but then again no species’ ways truly made sense to another. Such was the way of the world, ever since the old legends.
“Heard you saw it last week.” Another fighter, a young man about Velli’s age, said.
“Depends on what ‘it’ is.” Velli unrolled a cloth, buffed a spot out of her rifle barrel.
“You know. The Black Triangle. The Mespreth Rocket-Plane. Or was it a funny-looking cloud?”
“Last I checked, clouds didn’t have pilots, and didn’t hover a heightspan off the ground.”
“Hover?” one of the new recruits asked. “You mean it just floated there?”
Velli raised her ears. “Like one of those spinning magnetic toys. No noise, no nothing.”
“Sure you haven’t been chewing too many kassaf leaves?” Teliv asked.
“I thought you smoked them all,” she shot back. The gathered squadmates laughed.
Teliv continued, “But what I want to know is, did you really go into the Pit? Seemed like what the Commander said.”
“It’s true,” Velli replied.
The back of the truck fell silent.
Naaca asked, “And the Shadowstalkers let you leave? Why?” The mark on her forehead was now crossed out, the symbol of the Effaced.
“I...” Velli paused. “I asked.”
“I thought Shadowstalkers couldn’t reason.”
“They have clothing, and art.” Commander Udan leaned back from the passenger seat. “They’re just different, that’s all. Don’t like other kinds.”
Velli decided not to mention the cooking pit.
“Did you see one?” Naaca asked again.
“Just blurs and shadows,” replied Velli.
“I’ve seen them,” Hinven spoke up, nibbling on a candy bar. “Did you know in Ghanat-Tahj, Shadowstalkers can buy and sell openly in markets?”
“Now that’s a lie,” Velli said. Wouldn’t be the first time a Yune spun a wild tale about some faraway place.
“It’s true, I swear!”
“That’s not what you should be worried about.” Teliv took a grim tone. “It’s the Shadow Debt.”
“Huh?” Velli asked.
“There’s an old tale that says, if Shadowstalkers save you then your life belongs to them. And one day, they’ll make you pay up.”
She gulped.
“Take the back road!” Commander Udan said to the driver, as they neared a hill. The truck turned, engine revving as it climbed. Branches brushed against the canvas, and a few more minutes of driving brought them to a stop.
Velli hopped out, feet hitting rocky earth. They were in a forest atop a hill—the hill above the Burrower city. She spotted a copper-plated light-pipe extending up through the trees.
“After me.” Udan motioned. “Carefully. Hinven, wait with the truck.”
Ducking down, they crawled to the hillside. Below was a gash like a wide ravine, forming an open-air gathering place outside the Burrower city. Its door was almost directly below them, and clearly closed: Dozens of people, perhaps even a hundred, milled around or waited outside: merchants with cars and wagons of wares, farmers with crops and animals, Yune couriers flapping their wings to exercise, and a few other Burrowers, perhaps from another city. All seemed puzzled and annoyed.
“Now what?” Velli asked, when they snuck away.
Udan replied, “The Burrowers gave us another way in.”
“They’d do that?” Velli followed him as they hurried past the truck again.
“It was a condition of Headquarters agreeing to work with them.” They started down the hill’s back side. He reached another light shaft, then looked to another and walked over to a rock. “Help me with this.”
Velli and Teliv lifted, it swung open to reveal a hidden shaft and ladder descending into darkness.
“You first,” Teliv said.
Velli sucked in a breath, shouldered her rifle, and started down. Teliv followed, then the rest of the squad and Udan, who pulled the hatch shut. Her feet touched gravel, she stepped off the ladder and clipped her flashlight under her rifle. It illuminated a corrugated-metal tunnel, low enough she’d have to duck—Burrowers were shorter than Cepic.
Udan led the way, through the tunnel and to a wider shaft, square and with supports overhead. Lightbulbs glowed in rusted fixtures.
“Power’s still on,” Teliv remarked.
“We’re in the old mines.” Udan took out a pocketbook and paged through it. “City is this way.”
Burrower settlements were not like those of the Cepic, Fesk, or Trinn. Legends said they spent so much time underground they could no longer stand to live in the light, though Velli doubted it.
Still, she felt a sense of amazement as she ducked through a low steel door and emerged in a large round tunnel, big enough to support three levels of dwellings built off its sides. Walkways and bridges ran parallel and crisscrossed in places, snarls of wires running beneath. Signs and logos denoted shops at the floor. All very interesting.
And all utterly deserted.
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