Blade Kin (21 page)
Authors: David Farland
Tags: #Literature & Fiction, #Science Fiction & Fantasy, #Fantasy, #Science Fiction, #Genetic Engineering
Darrissea looked between Phylomon and Fava, not sure what to say.
“Give her a moment,” Phylomon said. “She has too much to worry about. I should not have added to her worries. Will you tell her that I’m sorry?”
“She’s terrified of what you might do.” Darrissea said. “Your apologies won’t alleviate her fears, and I doubt that you can gain her trust now.”
Phylomon looked at her sharply, narrowed his eyes, and Darrissea’s heart leapt. For the first time, Phylomon seemed to notice her. “You’re very perceptive. I have seen you in Smilodon Bay, but I don’t know your name.”
“Darrissea. Darrissea Frolic.”
“Was your father Dedemon Frolic?”
“Yes.”
Phylomon nodded solemnly. “A good man. A good warrior. With ten thousand like him, I could free this land. You look nothing like him.”
“Except in the eyes, I’ve been told,” Darrissea said.
He looked into her eyes a long time, and let his gaze drift down over the rest of her body. Darrissea lowered her head, embarrassed.
“You should not be so shy,” Phylomon said. “Styles of beauty change over the years. By today’s standards, you are too tall, too thin and long of limb. But among your ancestors, the ancient Starfarers, you would have been considered beautiful.” He lowered his eyes and began cooking the corn cakes, as if her beauty did not matter.
Darrissea’s heart pounded, and she felt her face flush. She wanted him to say more. “Can we ride with you and the Hukm to Bashevgo?”
Phylomon nodded. “It would be a pleasure.”
***
Chapter 32: Mortal Enemies
The sky was a soft cerulean blue out to the horizon, and the sun glinted on the waters. Mahkawn stood on the deck, squinted, looking off into the haze where sea met sky.
“See,” Atherkula said, pointing into the distance. “There it is.”
Mahkawn studied the white spray, finally saw it: a deep-red dorsal fin, slicing through the water. A sea serpent, a large one. “Yes, there he is. What of it?”
“That serpent has been following us now for six days.” Mahkawn said ominously.
“There are many serpents in these waters,” Mahkawn said. “I’ve seen as many as twelve at a time.”
“But none that follow ships,” Atherkula said. “This serpent is following us. More than once, it has come close, as if to attack the ship.”
“I know,” Mahkawn said. “I read the reports. The cannon fire drove it away.”
“Still, it follows us. It began following on the day that we caught Tull.” He halted, letting the words sink in. “It follows Tull, to protect him. It is his animal guide, and the spirits of the two are connected. If we do not act, it will attack. It’s only waiting for the right time.”
“You can’t be sure of that,” Mahkawn said.
Atherkula nodded, his gray braids barely moving as he kept his eyes out to sea. “I’m sure. We should kill the Pwi. Now, before it is too late.”
“You seem—overly eager for his blood,” Mahkawn said.
“You hunted him too, after he killed your men in Denai. You were so eager to prove yourself to Tantos, you practically did not sleep.”
“I thought he was only an escaped slave,” Mahkawn answered. “Not a Pwi.”
“Yet you hunger for his blood, and he has killed a Crimson Knight since. He has done you harm. And he has done me harm. He killed two of my sorcerers—one tenth of my forces.”
“Calm yourself,” Mahkawn said. “Even your master in the Land of Shapes ordered you to let him live. It is over.”
“It is not over,” Atherkula warned. “I don’t understand you anymore. You’ve killed hundreds of men for lesser crimes than Tull’s.”
Mahkawn turned, held Atherkula’s piercing blue eyes. “You are becoming senile in your old age,” Mahkawn said. “It shows in the way you rage. A Blade Kin should have more control. You embarrass yourself. Are you just a Thrall?”
It was a terrible insult, the ultimate cut. One should never dare ask a man of Atherkula’s stature such a question. It begged retribution. Yet Mahkawn knew—it was the question that every Blade Kin asked himself from time to time.
Atherkula spat at Mahkawn’s feet. “I will kill him for that. You can’t stop me!”
He turned away, and suddenly there was a great splash. Water surged over the deck. A shadow fell on them, and Mahkawn turned.
The serpent reared out of the water not forty feet behind the ship, its jaws gaping wide in the air, its huge eyes glaring. The rear gunner fired his cannon, scoring a hit on the serpent’s dorsal, and it dove as quickly as it had struck.
Mahkawn looked at Atherkula, and the sorcerer’s face was pale.
Mahkawn grabbed Atherkula’s black robes, pulled him to the railing overlooking the sea. The serpent was there, underwater, a great black mass trailing the ship.
“Think about it,” Mahkawn shouted, holding Atherkula perilously close to the edge. “Think about killing Tull, and that serpent will attack again. Kill Tull, and that serpent will take you. Do you believe you could stop it?”
Atherkula struggled to free himself, and lunged away from the water, stumbled. The old sorcerer sat on the deck, gasping from his exertions.
“You see,” Mahkawn added, “you cannot even consider killing Tull while we are still at sea. It is over.”
“It is not over—” Atherkula warned, “in Bashevgo lives a Thrall woman named Pirazha, with her three sons. The boys’ father will be fortunate if he never has to feel the pain of losing a son.”
Fear seized Mahkawn then. The sorcerer knew his secrets. From a man like Atherkula, Mahkawn realized, he could keep no secrets.
The old sorcerer got up from the deck, and wiped the sea rime from his robes. Then he walked down below deck, his back bent, as if he were a crooked and broken man.
***
About Blade Kin
There is a theory of writing nowadays that says that “Every story is an argument.” I think that I became conscious of that while studying Shakespeare’s plays, a few years before I wrote this.
The theory, which is written at Dramatica.com, goes on to say that the arguments in a tale tend to gravitate between the purely emotional side of a debate and the purely intellectual side, with a few characters who try to seek a balance of some kind.
In reading this now, I’m very conscious of how I wrote this piece in just such a way. On the issue of justice, Fava takes a purely emotional stance, being fiercely loyal to those that she loves, while Phylomon feels no loyalty whatsoever. Or perhaps it is more accurate to say that Phylomon is loyal to ideals, not to people.
Others in the tale—in particular Mahkawn—are struggling for their own private balance between idealism and the desire to remain true to the people that they love.
I’ll talk more about this when I sum the novels up, but for now I’ll let you ponder this as you get to the conclusion.
***
Glossary
Anee—
A mineral-poor moon 11,000 miles in diameter that circles a gas giant named
Thor
near a type I star 1950 lightyears from Earth. In the year 2681, the Alliance of Nations began terraforming Anee in order to create a terrestrial zoo—a place where genetic paleontologists could store specimens of animals recreated from the Jurassic, Miocene, and Pliocene Eras. Each of three continents stores representatives from one of the Eras.
Creators
—A race of highly intelligent beings, part machine and part biological organism, designed by genetic paleontologists to maintain the ecosystems of Anee. The Creators are living DNA synthesizers. To control animal populations, they frequently design and give birth to predators and parasites. The Creators are strictly programmed to perform their specific jobs. After the death of the Creator named Forester 1, the Creators designed
Dryads
to protect the forests.
Dire Wolves
—
Canis Dirus
—A heavy-bodied dark gray wolf common during the Pleistocene, short on cunning but long on tenacity and viciousness.
Dragons
—Warm-blooded flying carnivores that were created by the Starfarers to be an eco-barrier. Each continent has several varieties of dragon in various sizes—from the giant great-horned dragons to the tiny hawk dragon. Each dragon is born with a genetically transmitted memory that encourages it to destroy species that it recognizes as foreign to the environment.
Dryads
—A being made by the Creators to maintain forests in Pliocene areas after the Creator Forester 1 was killed in an earthquake. Dryads are humanoid females with long life spans and strange abilities. The abilities, size, and coloration of the Dryad depends upon the type of forest it was created to maintain.
Eco-barriers
—Certain animals have the ability to migrate across oceans. For example, many types of semi-aquatic carnivorous dinosaur could easily make such journeys, and the introduction of such animals into an area populated by Pleistocene sabertooths could be disastrous, since the sabertooths could not compete with the larger predators. The paleontologists who terraformed Anee recognized the danger such transoceanic migrations could cause. Therefore, they erected a series of “eco-barriers” to prevent migrations. These barriers consist of artificially engineered predators: primarily, the deep-ocean “sea serpent” to patrol the waterways; and various species of “dragon” to patrol the sky. Both the sea serpent and the dragon are ruthless predators without equal in nature.
Eridani
—An alien race that went to war with humans in the year 2902. Using small faster-than-light drone warships, the Eridani successfully stopped all extraplanetary travel between human settlements within a matter of four years.
Hukm
—
Homo-gigantis
. A race of large apelike humanoids with long brownish-red or white fur. The Hukm, one of several races of giant hominids once native to Earth, were originally restricted to a small region of Northeast Asia, and the species thrived only for a few thousand years. Fossil evidence indicates that the race probably died out about 396,000 BC. Extinction appeared to occur due to climactic changes between glacial periods, and may have come about as a result of inter-species warfare accompanied by starvation. When reintroduced into the wild on Anee, the Hukm showed themselves to be highly social vegetarians who quickly domesticated the woolly mammoths.
Kwea
—Emotional resonance. Often passionate feelings aroused by memories. Neanderthals have specific words that can refer to hundreds of different kinds of kwea, based upon the types and degrees of emotionality, but these are ignored in translation for simplicity’s sake.
For a Neanderthal, every object, every experience, every memory carries an emotional weight, a value of kwea. While some things, like the tale of Adjonai, are so universally known that nearly all Neanderthals feel a similar type of fear of him, in most cases the weight of kwea is based upon personal experience.
For example, a common knife may be considered sacred or of great value to one individual because of his associated kwea, while for another the same object would seem plain and unimportant.
Mastodon
—On Anee, any of eleven species of pachyderm that inhabit woodlands and grasslands in every climatic region.
Mastodon Men
—
Homo rex
. A race of carnivorous humanoids of low intelligence, averaging some 8.5 feet in height and weighing 500-800 pounds. Mastodon Man originally inhabited mountainous areas in Asia from 250,000-75,000 BC. On Earth, the Mastodon Man apparently did not compete well with smaller humanoids, but on the fecund world of Anee they quickly gained a strong foothold.
Neanderthal
—
Homo neanderthalensis
(see also
Pwi
,
Okanjara,
and
Thrall
). The Neanderthals are a distinct species, similar to modern humans in size and build, but differing from humans in their DNA by .285%. Neanderthals tend to be larger and stronger than humans, and have slightly shorter arms and a muscular build. The Neanderthal spine has less curvature, so Neanderthals stand straighter than humans do, and their large toe is curved inward, allowing them to run faster. The Neanderthal’s chest cavity is larger than that of a human, and their arms rotate at a greater angle. Their skulls are thicker, hips slightly wider.
Neanderthals have sandy yellow to red hair and green, blue, or yellow-brown eyes. They have heavy supraorbital ridges that give their eyes a deep-set appearance. Their teeth and palate tend to protrude more than that of a human, yet they completely lack a chin.
The hands of a Neanderthal differ in structure from that of a human. The hands of a Neanderthal are larger and stronger than those of a human, with large robust knuckles. The human thumb is tilted at a forty-five degree angle to the fingers so that tip of the thumb can touch the tip of each individual finger; however, a Neanderthal’s thumb is not tilted at an angle to the fingers, and the Neanderthal is therefore far less dexterous than a human.
Differences in the Neanderthal palate, larynx, and sinus cavities do not allow them to vocalize most long vowels or semivowels used by humans. Instead, the Neanderthals shorten long vowels and tend to speak through their noses.
The cerebral cortex of the Neanderthal brain is slightly larger than that of a modern human, and they are fully the intellectual equals of humans. However, the Neanderthal hypothalamus, the area of the brain responsible for processing emotions, is three times as large as that of a human. For this reason, Neanderthals tend to lead a very complex emotional life. Because of the way that the Neanderthal brain processes information, memories frequently carry very strong, emotionally charged ties.
Because Neanderthals feel their emotions more powerfully than humans do, they feel a consuming need to express these emotions. Neanderthal dialects vary by region, but their languages have some similarities. Any noun or verb can be modified by various suffixes to express the Neanderthal’s feelings about an object or action. The order of the suffixes always goes:
noun or verb + emotional indicator + person + emotional degree indicator.
For example instead of saying “the sky is gray,” the Neanderthal might express his feelings about the subject:
szerzhoaFava ah femma
. This sentence literally reads “Sky-love-I-generously is gray,” and would be translated “The gray sky which I love completely.” The first word in the sentence,
szerzhoaFava
, is translated below:
Emotional
Noun Base + Indicator + Person + Degree Indicator
szer (sky) zho (love) a (I) Fava (completely)
The degree indicator is often a noun itself. For example, the word
Fava
means “pear tree.” On Anee, several varieties of wild pear bear fruit in late autumn. Neanderthal legends often embellish this, telling of heroes starving in the wilderness who are saved by pear trees that magically blossom and ripen in mid-winter when the tree “sees” the hero coming. Because of this reputation for generosity,
Fava
then becomes synonymous with
generous
. When used as an emotional indicator,
Fava
means “given with all the heart.”
Okanjara
—The Free Ones. (Literally, “I am free!”) Any Neanderthal who has escaped slavery after a long period of time is an Okanjara.
Phylomon
—The last living human who was not born on Anee. The last of the Starfarers. A man who, because he still benefits from the technology of the Starfarers, has survived for over one thousand years.
Pirate Lords
—When an interstellar war between mankind and the Eridani first stranded the genetic paleontologists on Anee, a political argument soon developed over how mankind should treat their creations—specifically the Neanderthals. Certain technicians believed that by conscripting Neanderthals for use as laborers, humans could be left free to build the plasma missiles they hoped could destroy the Eridani warships circling Anee. Others correctly believed the effort would be wasted. Those who favored enslaving the Neanderthal formed an independent colony upon the island of Bashevgo. After two centuries of building, the Lords finally attacked the Eridani drones. The Slave Lords and their colony were nearly decimated in a counterattack, yet the offspring of the Slave Lords of Bashevgo still survive both upon Bashevgo and in the nation of Craal, and the Slave Lords prey upon both the Neanderthal and their human cousins.
Pwi
—Neanderthals who have never been enslaved by the Pirate Lords call themselves
Pwi,
the family. By the time that the first humans were forced to move to Anee, the original colony of Neanderthals had covered most of the Eastern half of the continent they called “Homeland,” and Neanderthals numbered about two million. Pwi dialects and customs were diverging, and they were on the verge of splintering into several large tribes. But as the Neanderthals found themselves battling a common enemy, they regained a sense of common identity and called themselves only “family.”
Red drones
—Orbital warships piloted by artificial intelligences sent by the Eridani to patrol the skies above Anee. Their neutron cannons destroy any mechanical vessel or organic being that climbs over four kilometers into the air. Originally, four warship were stationed over Anee, but two were destroyed by the Pirate Lords.
Sabertooth lion
—
Smilodon fatalis
—a large tawny lion with very long, serrated canines. The sabertooth lions live in prides in grassy and low, wet areas. Because of poor eyesight and teeth that are not adapted for small prey, the sabertooth primarily hunts large herd animals. Some of its favorite victims are the bison, giant sloth, the giant beaver (a semiaquatic water rat weighing up to 500 pounds), the mastodon, the hippo-like toxodonts, and the giant capybara. On Earth, the sabertooth was such a successful predator, that when it overpopulated in 8000 BC, over-predation coupled with climatic instability caused the extinction of over a hundred other species. With its food base destroyed, the sabertooth soon became extinct.
Scimitar cat
—
homotherium
. A solitary but powerful lion with yellow and brown stripes. Because of its elongated front legs, it runs with a bouncing gait, much like a jackal. The scimitar cat inhabits mountainous areas and hunts large prey by pouncing from a tree or rock. A female scimitar cat will often kill a young mastodon weighing 600 pounds and then drag it two miles so she can feed her cubs.
Sea serpents
—Giant eel-like carnivores created by the Starfarers to keep animals from migrating across the ocean from one continent to another. Sea serpents can vary their color to conform to background, can grow to a length of 380 feet, and can attack prey in two ways: by swallowing the prey whole, or by strangulation. Thorn-like protrusions on the serpent’s armored scales tend to slice prey open when the serpent attacks by strangulation.
Young serpents are less than a meter in length when they hatch in the spring. They feed on fish for the first several months, and in their feeding frenzy drive great schools of fish up the rivers. Within six weeks the serpents grow to a length of sixteen feet and head for open waters and larger prey. At the end of their first year, serpents often measure over a hundred feet in length.
Slave Lords
—Humans who enslave Neanderthals and other humans. Shortly after the red drones forced the human Starfarers into exile on Anee, some of the paleontologists began enslaving Neanderthals for use as miners, field hands, and domestic servants. The human Starfarers believed that if they could concentrate on developing weaponry to fight the red drones, they could escape Anee within a few centuries. But when their efforts failed, most of the Starfarers were killed, and much of their technology died with them. The few degenerate descendants of these Starfarers set up the nation of Craal, based upon a slave economy, and became known as the Slave Lords.
Starfarers
—The genetic paleontologists and their crew who first began the work of terraforming Anee. By 2816, mankind had been engaged in genetically and mechanically upgrading himself for so long, that the Starfarers were, in a sense, no longer human. The Starfarers had hairless bodies of various colors, depending upon the shade of the symbiote they chose for their skin; had total recall of all they saw and heard; with mechanical aid could achieve virtual immortality; and the Starfarers had a genetically transmitted “dictionary” that gave all members of their race a knowledge of English and mathematics. When the Eridani destroyed the Starfarer’s space station above Anee, the Starfarers lost the technology that would allow them to pass their extended lifespan on to their descendants, but some of their genetic upgrades remained.
Tantos
—A powerful Slave Lord who rules the island of Bashevgo.
Terrazin Dragontamer
—A Neanderthal psychic who used his powers to overthrow the island of Bashevgo.