IN NATURA: a science fiction novel (ARZAT SERIES Book 2) (25 page)

CHAPTER 37

PLAN OF ATTACK

Moses had been carefully watching the cliff’s face from the top of a flat, elevated rock. He slid back to the ground like a serpent so that the lizards could not possibly notice his movements were they to glance in his direction.

  In addition to his uncanny sense of smell, Moses also had the eyesight of a bird of prey. This particular attribute had just served him well. He had found the lizards’ hiding place. As he had waited and observed the activity around the entrance, he had seen a human female with several of the large beasts. Almost as soon as he had spotted her, she disappeared from view.

  Moses was too far away to be absolutely sure, but the woman had to be Maria.
After all, who else could it be,
he asked himself.
Certainly, it was a woman from her camp. Perhaps Abraham was right. Perhaps his daughter was still alive.
A sideways smile crossed his face, something between a grimace and a grin.

  His success in tracking the wounded lizard from the valley where they had killed the others hadn’t come easily. The beast had tried every trick to throw Moses off his trail—traversing waterways, crossing beds of hard rock, even doubling back on occasion. Moses was actually impressed, though he would never have admitted it. These were not the actions of an unintelligent being. But his quarry had also kept bleeding and leaving small signs here and there that only a tracker with his skill would have spotted. The more signs he had found, the more he had increased his own pace, trying to close.

  Moses had left signs for Abraham and the other warriors who were still struggling to follow, hampered by their exhausted horses and the steep terrain. Though he possessed a fine mount
of his own, even that animal was no match for his own constant pace when he was tracking. One of the other warriors was leading it for him behind his own tired beast. It would be a pleasant moment when this was all over and he mounted it for the ride back home.

  I have found them
, he thought again, with a certain bloodthirsty delight.
And perhaps, I have found Maria. Abraham will be most pleased.

  Moses was personally no less pleased. Several seasons before, his own father—who had been the chief tracker for the tribe prior to Moses—had been brutally killed by the lizards during a hunt for buffalo. Though still quite young at the time, Moses was to have been along for that particular hunt, but a brief illness had caused him to miss it—a fact he had never forgiven himself for. None of the warriors had returned. A search party had eventually discovered their remains, his father’s severed head and skin among them left in a hideous pile with the others.

  Perhaps, if I had been there,
he had thought regretfully a million times since. At the time, he had vowed revenge, wishing he could personally kill every one of the lizard men on earth. His feelings toward them had never changed. As far as he was concerned, there was no way that the humans and the giant lizards could live in the same world. The sooner they were all eliminated the better.

  Since his father’s death, Moses had argued with the tribal father’s countless times to send out hunting parties to attack and eliminate the reptiles completely. But aside from infrequent encounters, usually at a great distance, the warriors rarely even crossed paths with them. Now that it was clear that they had killed again and taken Abraham’s only daughter surely . . .

  But aside from his hatred for the lizards, Moses had an even more compelling wish to find Maria alive and to rescue her. Were they to be successful, he was certain that Abraham would finally award him his daughter in marriage. He had always been secretly obsessed with Maria and had been crushed when she had taken another mate and even more upset that Abraham had approved it.
Now look what has happened,
he thought, with a certain degree of self-satisfaction.

* * *

Abraham and the other warriors were much further down the mountain when Moses returned to meet them. The animals and the men were sweating and gasping from the climb, still nursing their mounts up the steep grade.

  “I think I have found the lizards’ hiding place,” he said quietly to Abraham alone.

  “How many?”

  Moses shook his head. “That is hard to know. There is an opening to a cave on the face of a high cliff. I saw what appeared to be three or four guards and . . .”

  “And?”

  “Just as I arrived, I saw a human with the lizards—a
female
.”

  “Was it Maria?” Abraham instantly asked.

  Moses was not at all sure. He hadn’t even come across the female’s tracks in his pursuit of the wounded lizard, but he wanted to convince Abraham to attack regardless, so he answered carefully. “It was hard to see from the distance—but yes—I think it was Maria.”

  Abraham took a deep breath. Suddenly, he once again had hope. They had not found clear evidence of Maria in the pile of human remains—and Moses was rarely mistaken—so perhaps. In any case, there was a woman captive and she was almost certainly from his tribe. Daughter or not, he felt obligated to try something.

  “Tell me more about this place,” Abraham asked.

  Moses described what he had seen of the entrance on the cliff face.

  Abraham frowned. “That will make an attack difficult.” He looked away from Moses, trying to imagine a way to rescue whomever the female was without getting her killed in the process.

  “We may not have to attack them directly.”

  Abraham paused and faced Moses.

  “We may not have to attack. At least not in their lair,” Moses said again. “The cave seems to be set into the side of the mountain. If there is only one entrance . . . like that of a bear . . .” Moses hinted.

  “Show me.”

* * *

Abraham looked up at the cliff’s face watching the movement carefully, hoping against hope that he would see some sign of Maria. His eyesight was no longer as good as it once was and it was certainly nowhere near as sharp as Moses’s. He could make out some movement, but really nothing more.

  Moses had brought him back to the same rock where the tracker had spotted the lizards’ earlier. They were a considerable distance away, perhaps three or four hundred steps, which might be safe from discovery, but it made observing any details difficult.

  “What can you see, Moses?” Abraham asked, squinting at the side of the mountain.

  Moses raised his hand over his eyes to shield them from the late afternoon sun. The lizards blended almost perfectly into the rock, so unless they moved, even he had trouble spotting them.

  “There are two or three lizards on the ledge. Earlier, I saw the female and another lizard disappear, so there must be an opening up there somewhere.”

  Abraham continued to peer up at the mountainside but he could not see anything other than the rock it was made of. He once again cursed his own eyes, which had recently begun to blur images both close and at great distance.

  “How high is the entrance?”

  “Not more than twenty or thirty steps, Abraham,” Moses said, as he continued to study the cliff. “We could easily reach it with fire arrows.”

  Moses was referring to a method the hunters used for rousting animals from caves. Instead of actually entering the cave itself, they would set fires just inside the entrance or lob fire arrows in to smoke the animals out. When their quarry eventually emerged, the hunters would slaughter them.

  Prior to returning to Abraham and the other warriors, Moses had carefully scouted the area for evidence of other entrances, but had found none. He knew that only if they could flush the lizards out of the protection of their caves, would they have a chance at saving Maria. With only one entrance, that might be possible. On the other hand, the lizards might just kill her regardless. Even Moses knew it was a poor option, but it was really the only one they had. Storming the entrance and trying to attack the lizards on their own ground inside the caves would be next to impossible. Somehow, they needed to lure them out of their stronghold.

  “Wait here and continue to observe,” Abraham told his tracker. “I will go and get the other warriors and return.”

CHAPTER 38

REUNION

Tom plunged his hands and face in the cool mountain water and took another large and satisfying drink. Maria and Ara were close by doing much the same. They had been traveling all day at Ara’s almost impossible pace and both Maria and Tom were exhausted and dehydrated from the almost constant uphill climb through difficult terrain. There was no doubt that in the pursuit of Mot and Alex they were heading for the mountains. The only question was how high they would have to go before they found either one of them.

  Ara had finally sniffed out a small creek along the way and deemed the water safe to drink. The three of them wasted no time satiating their thirst in the brook’s crystal clear flow. 

  Tom couldn’t resist pulling his hiking boots and socks off and plunging his feet into the stream. He sat on a rock by the edge and looked around, grateful for a chance to rest. The cold water running over his toes was like a little slice of heaven.

  “Are we getting anywhere near them, Ara?” he asked, while he examined the one and only pair of shoes and socks he would probably ever see again in his lifetime. It seemed as if he had been asking Ara that same question all day, but he somehow couldn’t resist. As anxious as he was about Alex, even Tom wasn’t sure how much longer he could manage Ara’s breakneck pace.

  “That is hard to determine, Tom Pilot. I have detected no clear sign of any Arzats other than Mot for several
torches.
For some reason, it seems as if he has chosen to follow the humans and their horses rather than the Arzat who captured Alex.”

  Ara was squatting next to the brook, scanning the area with her eyes and occasionally sniffing and flicking her tongue, tasting the air for danger. Tom noticed that one of her palms lightly rested on the ground, obviously checking the earth for any unusual movement around them as well.

  “Any idea why he would have done that?”

  “It is hard to say. But I know this—it would only have been for good reason.”

  “Do you hear anything, Ara?” Tom asked, noting that Ara’s hand was still monitoring the vibrations in the earth.

  Ara continued to hold her palm to the ground and flicked the air with her tongue. “The sound of the humans’ horses has diminished, Pilot. I can only tell you that I can sense Mot. I feel that he must be somewhere close by.”

  Tom looked over at Maria. She had been watching him but turned away when their eyes met. He was still awestruck by her natural beauty.
Unbelievable,
he thought.
She has been getting the shit kicked out of her all day and she is
pregnant
, yet she looks unfazed.

  Don’t forget, Tom,
he could hear Alex saying.
She has lived in these conditions all of her life.

  He looked back at Ara, who was eyeballing him quizzically. Tom could feel himself blushing.
She is reading my mind again,
he thought.

  “It is quite all right, Tom Pilot. The Arzat males are very appreciative of the most beautiful of the Arzat females. In fact, in our clan, the more powerful males often took several mates over their lifetimes, sometimes even concurrent with others if they were senior enough. The greatest hunters, of course, were also given that privilege. In our time, the females almost always outnumbered the males, so the practice made perfect sense.”

  Tom blushed again. “Well, I wasn’t thinking
that,
Ara!”

  Ara cocked her head, looked at Maria, and then back over at Tom.

  “That is unfortunate, Tom Pilot,” she finally said, clearly not believing him. “I can tell you this—that is
precisely
what this little female is thinking.”

  Tom glanced at Maria and caught her eye again. She immediately looked away.

  “I thought Arzats mated for life?” Tom said as a question, trying to change the subject.

  “Oh, we do. But, there are exceptions to every rule are there not? Particularly where males and females are concerned? Sometimes mates are lost due to death or banishment. Sometimes we may lose our mate to an open challenge with another male. Of course,
any
male who decided he was no longer satisfied with his mate could simply request to be relieved of her by decree from the Council of Elders.”

  “Huh.” Tom shook his head and began putting his socks and shoes on.

  “Listen, Tom Pilot, I have had much time to converse with Maria, daughter of the Great Hunter Abraham. She knows much about this land and how to survive in it. Since the Arzat attack on her people, she is now without a mate and about to bear a child.”

  Tom looked at Ara, her golden eyes boring into him.

  “You would do well to consider keeping her . . . close . . . to you and Alex,” Ara said suggestively.

  Tom felt himself blushing again.
Alex would never hear of it! Would she?
He glanced at Maria. She was looking at him directly with her clear-blue eyes, her face expressionless. This time, when their eyes met, she did not look away. He half wondered if Ara had included the young woman in part of their conversation.

  “We’ve got to find Alex, Ara.” Tom said, suddenly uncomfortable. He finished lacing his boots and stood.

  Ara picked up her hunting stick and rose. “I am sure we will Tom. But first, we must find Mot, son of Url.”

  “I think you have succeeded, Ara, daughter of the great Hunter Zan.”

  Mot’s words rang in Ara’s head and also in the head of Tom the Pilot. His thoughts were so surprising and seemed so close that neither Tom nor Ara believed they could be real. They both looked at each other.

  “Yes, it is I,” Mot telepathed again with as much excitement as Ara and Tom were both feeling. “I am close, but I do not wish to frighten the female.”

  Ara sniffed the air and flicked. The distinctive scent of her mate completely filled her senses.
How has he gotten so close without me detecting him,
she wondered, relieved she had found him alive and well.

  “I am Mot, son of the Great Hunter Url,” Mot said proudly as his answer. “And I think it is
I
who have found you, Ara, my mate. I approached from downwind until I was sure. You would not have detected my presence.”

  “However you have done it, I am most pleased,” she replied.

  “Now, can you instruct the human female that I am near? I do not wish to frighten the life out of her.”

  Ara looked at Maria, who had also risen and was prepared to continue. Her mate had wisely assessed the situation from afar, despite not knowing the entire circumstances concerning the female.

  “Maria,” Ara said. “My mate is close by and is about to show his face. He wishes not to alarm you and has asked that I give you forewarning. He will not hurt you in any way. Do you understand?”

  Maria glanced nervously at the trees surrounding them. There was no sign of any other lizard that she could see, but that was not surprising given what she had already learned from the Ara and her own personal encounters with the reptilian creatures.

  “I am ready, Ara. I will not be frightened,” Maria said using only her mind. The moment she had passed the message to Ara, a large lizard, very much like the ones who had killed all of her friends and her mate, slowly appeared from the tree line. Maria noted that his skin was a variation of colors that almost perfectly matched the tones of the forest around him.

  “Mot,” Ara said with a sigh of relief when she could actually see him. “Thank the Great Creator.”

  Mot slowly approached Ara and placed his hands on her shoulders. He then bent down enough to touch the top of his head to hers.

  Tom watched, amazed. He had never seen any outward expression of emotion from either of the Arzats before—ever! He turned to Maria to check on her reaction to Mot’s sudden appearance.

  Maria stood, carefully looking at the large beast. He was huge, bigger than the female and bigger even than the lizard men she remembered from the camp.
I’m glad they warned me,
she thought,
or I would have pissed myself.
She felt the baby within her womb kick suddenly as if in agreement.

  Maria had been contemplating the entire day what to do about her current situation, magically conversing with the female lizard for most of the journey, trying to learn as much as she could about these strange creatures and their human friends. It was a fantastic story about great long sleeps and two other worlds entirely different from her own that had existed impossibly long ago. Something in the telling had made her believe that the female lizard was not lying. Maria wasn’t even sure how she knew, but she knew. The fact that they were able to communicate at all seemed proof enough.

  And this man, Tom the Pilot, was clearly not the female lizard’s enemy. In fact, he had apparently saved both Ara and her mate on more than one occasion. Not only was he handsome, he obviously knew something about survival. Now, even if she could find her father and the tribe, she knew she would be reluctant to return to them.

  There will be nothing but sickness and despair for my child
, she thought, unconsciously rubbing her belly.
Things will be just as before. My father will find another mate for me—this time of his own choosing—and I will be forced to comply with the beast’s every wish.
Come the winter, we will starve with all of the others. And the next winter, if we are lucky enough to survive the one before, we will starve again
.
No, this cannot be,
she resolved, as she watched her new companions reunite.

  “Greetings, Tom, son of Richard.” Mot had turned from Ara and was now regarding his human friend with his red reptilian eyes. They were glowing. “Listen, Tom Pilot, I have located Alex—and she is
alive
!”

  Tom felt tears begin to form at the edge of his eyes. He wasn’t one for crying, but Mot’s sudden revelation that Alex had so far survived her capture was surprising. He had spent almost the entire trip imagining the worst, including horrible visions of her body roasting over an Arzat spit. Now, there was suddenly real hope again.

  “Where is she, Mot? Is she safe?”

  “She is still with the other Arzats, Pilot,” Mot said, with a note of disappointment. “Unfortunately, I was not able to catch up to her before the Arzat who had taken her reached his caves. But, he has kept her alive for some reason. So, for the moment . . .”

  “How did you find her?” Tom asked.

  “He is an Arzat Hunter,” Ara interjected proudly.

  Mot looked at Ara, then back at Tom. “I lost her scent many times, Tom Pilot, first at their human camp then later in the rain. I was lucky when I came across the tracks of some other humans and their horses. They have been tracking the Arzats as well.”

  Mot didn’t bother to describe the Arzat killing and even blocked his thoughts of it from Ara. It would only further disturb her.

  “I decided to follow the humans and discovered Alex’s scent again when hers crossed paths with theirs. Then, I was finally able to track her to their caves. They are exactly where one might think—on high ground with an entrance that is easy to defend. I saw an Arzat leading Alex into them with my own eyes.”

  “What of the humans, Mot?” Ara asked.

  “They are almost to the caves as well. I think they might be planning to war on them.”

  Perhaps, thought Ara, the humans are looking for someone. She turned and looked at the female.

  During their journey, Ara had—through conversation and by gently probing Maria’s mind—discovered that she was the daughter of one of her own clan’s elders. This would make her very important were she an Arzat. Ara could only assume it might be the same with humans. Whatever the case, a war between the two groups would probably not bode well for Alex. Depending on their numbers, it was hard to imagine any fight going well for the other humans either. If the Arzat caves were threatened, the Arzats would defend them viscously.

  “Maria,” Ara asked so that both Mot and Tom could hear the question, “do you know if your clan is looking for you?”

  “It is possible,” Maria answered. Her mind was suddenly racing. Had Ara’s mate discovered other humans close by? She thought about her father. Yes, Abraham might have sent out a party in search of her. If they had found their camp . . . well . . . she could only imagine her father’s reaction. He would probably have given up on Maria still being alive, but that wouldn’t necessarily stop him from trying to exact revenge.

  “Mot, do you know how many humans?” Ara asked.

  “Eight by three, Ara. What I cannot determine is how many Arzats. But, if their caves hold a typical clan, perhaps eight by eight by four,” Mot shrugged. “Perhaps less, perhaps more.”

  Tom struggled to do the math in his head, converting the Arzats’ base eight counting to base ten. Maybe two-dozen humans in pursuit of two hundred and fifty or so Arzats! Rescuing Alex was certainly not going to be easy.

  In fact,
he thought,
now that she was within their caves, it might just be impossible.