The Chantry Guild

CHAPTER 26

"And it's been left?" asked Hal. "It's been left," answered Onete. "Everyone wants it that way."

There was nothing they could do from the ledge but watch. Onete left them again. In the next three-quarters of an hour as Procyon climbed brilliantly into a clear sky, Cee shadowed the two soldiers and was drawn into a semi-open area with short but vertical, near-unclimbable cliffs on two sides of it, and with now more than two dozen of the following members of the Occupational Troops closing in behind her to shut off escape back the way she had come.

She clearly heard them moving in on her, as they drew close, but the sounds must have come from all directions, so that she turned, ready to flee one way, then hesitated, turned to run in another, and hesitated again.

The hesitations were what doomed her. If she had raced full tilt for their line at the first noise, she would have had some chance, at least, of dodging between two of them, twisting, ducking, evading their grasps and so getting away. But at her first betrayal of the fact she had heard them, they all burst into a run toward her, so that when she began to run, herself, they were already closing in on her.

She checked and stood, legs spread apart, one in advance of the other. She had evidently been carrying something cupped in each hand all this time, and she now threw these two things, whatever they were, at the men most directly before her.

The throws were delivered with the kind of power and accuracy that could only come from long practice. With a sidearm motion her whole body sent the missiles on their way, and to the surprise of those on the ledge as well as that of the soldiers, the two men she had thrown at went over backwards and down, while she dashed forward again at the gap in their line she had now created.

Almost, she made it. But the others were too close. Nets exploded into existence in the air above and around her, dropped and enveloped her, and a moment later her net-swathed body disappeared under the swarm of adult figures.

From the ledge it was still plain, however, that she was not easy to subdue. The huddle of soldiers' backs, which was all those on the ledge could see, heaved and moved for some time, and it was only the sudden appearance of Liu Hu Shen and the Urk that stopped one of the soldiers who had finally reversed his needle gun, raised it, and seemed about to use it as a club.

The huddle struggled a bit more and then went still. Hu Shen clearly was issuing orders right and left. There were now between twenty and thirty of the uniformed men in the clearing, and at last the group holding her stopped its struggle, indicating she had finally been held and immobilized.

In remarkably short time the power pistol which the Urk had been carrying had been used to cut down a number of trees, large and small, to enlarge the clearing, the cut-down upper parts being hauled off to one side by teams of the men. Left standing were two trees about ten meters apart. By this time three dome-shaped battle tents had also been erected. The moment the first of these were up, the huddle of men carrying Cee, invisible in their midst, moved into it, to come out its entrance a little later by twos and threes with every sign of relief. Clearly Cee had been left, tied down or otherwise secured, somewhere within. "Bastards!" said Calas.

Liu, who had been generally overseeing the work being done, now for the first time went into the building where Cee had been taken. He was inside for only a few minutes, however, before he came out again, crossed the clearing and entered one of the other structures, into which his men had been bringing various furniture, such as chairs, a desk and a cot. They had brought the furniture folded up in carrying cases, and once the furniture was inside, they reclosed the cases and carried them into the third dome.

Calas's gaze, however, was all on the structure into which they had taken Cee. "They could be working on her in there right now!" he growled. "I don't think so," said Hal. "My guess is Liu just stepped inside with her long enough to see if she'd answer him, but not really expecting her to. When she didn't, he left her tied up, or however she's restrained, in there, for now." "That's your guess," said Calas mutinously. "I know the kind of shithouse sweepings they've got in that outfit!" "I believe you do," said Hal, "but I also believe they won't dare do anything they aren't ordered to do by that commanding officer, from the way you've described him. And he won't want any of them touching Cee - just yet, anyway." "Another guess?" Calas said. "No. Look down there for yourself," said Hal. "If he'd wanted to question Cee physically, the obvious place for it would have been back at his base, in Porphyry. They've undoubtedly got the equipment for it back there-" "That's true enough," said Calas, under his breath. "But back there, he'd have superiors who might take not only control away from him," said Hal, "but whatever glory there might be in catching the famous little wild girl. It just might be, too, that Liu has a pretty low opinion of the officers over him."

Calas nodded. "You mean, he's right in feeling that way?- asked Hal. "Unless they've got some brighter ones in since I was around," said Calas. "Right up to the Commander, the rest are all the sort that want to get to their desk at eleven in the morning, sign half a dozen papers, then go to lunch and take the rest of the day off. You're right, as long as he stays out here, he's the one in charge." "Yes," said Hal, "and he stands to gain more credit, which none of his superiors can take away from him, if he comes in, not only with the girl, but with as many more strays and outlaws as he can pick up and bring back. As I say, take a look down there. Don't those two tents and the cut-down trees make it look like he's planning to stay a day or two, at least?" "Yes," said Calas, somewhat grudgingly, looking at them. "It's a good guess, then," said Hal, "he's been looking, beyond Cee's capture all along. He'll be pretty sure she knows who else lives around here, and he'll want her help in finding them."

His eyes met Calas's brown ones. "You mean he knows about the Chantry Guild?" "Guesses, at least," said Hal. "He may have picked up bits of information from townspeople he's questioned, and gotten enough out of them to at least suspect there's some kind of community of free Exotics up here. That's why he'll be in no hurry to get his men back to barracks, and that's why he won't hurt Cee, to begin with at least. He may even try to make friends with her." "Lots of luck!" Calas cleared his throat, and spat, deliberately, over the edge of the cliff before them. "If she wouldn't answer when Artur tried to talk to her and she'd barely answer Onete, Liu's chances of making friends with her." Calas ran out of figures of speech, into silence. "But it's still all just your guesses, all the same," he said, at last, to Hal. "Old Man," said Hal, turning to the silent figure beside them, "what do you think?" "I think you're probably right," said Old Man softly. Calas turned to stare at the white-bearded, thin face. "He'll need the child in good physical shape to lead them to whoever else is here and if he's got any experience at all with managing prisoners, he'll know she'll be more willing to help him if she believes he doesn't plan to hurt them when he gets there. So I'd think he'll begin, at least, by making her as comfortable as possible, while at the same time making sure she doesn't run away. Also, he'll try to give the impression that it's just a matter of time before he finds the other people, whether she helps or not, and a leisurely attitude to the situation is going to help along that illusion."

As usual, when Old Man talked at any length at all, the Guild members had a tendency to listen attentively. Calas listened. When Old Man fell silent again, he nodded, slowly.

"Right," he said. "it makes sense. But what happens if she still doesn't answer him? He's going to run out of patience sooner or later." "We'll have to watch, wait, and hope some kind of opportunity comes up for us to do something about the situation, without risking discovery of the Guild," said Hal. "I don't know what other option we've got. Do you?"

After a long moment, Calas slowly shook his head again, and turned back to watching the screens showing where Cee was being held. Missy and Hadnah had followed the action of the chase closely and now held the area of the three buildings and the clearing in a good-sized picture. Calas sat unmoving and watching, but now he watched the way a wolf might, at a rabbit hole.

It was midafternoon when he suddenly exploded into speech. "By God, they've got him!" It was unnecessary to ask who had been meant by "him." Artur was the only one down there likely to be brought in as a captive. By rights it should have been Missy or Hadnah who first caught sight of the large man and his two captors, benefiting from the higher angle of their post of observation. But evidently the approach had been under the cover of treetops, which were more an obstacle to those viewing high on the mountainside, than Hal and the other two with him. "He doesn't look very mussed up," Calas went on. "You'd have thought someone like him who could move that boulder at the foot of the path out of his way and then roll it back could have put up more of a fight before they took him." "He's unarmed," said Hal. "What would you do if you were faced with a needle gun - and both those soldiers bringing him in have them?"

There was a pause. "You're right," said Calas, but he said it grudgingly. Artur had plainly given his clothing some thought before he dressed to leave the ledge. He was wearing green shorts and shirt, and boots made of rough leather tanned a light brown. He would not have been easy to spot among the growth below unless he moved. On the other hand, Hal guessed that Artur knew less than nothing about moving inconspicuously through the high-altitude forest below.

Cee, on the other hand, could have given any one of them lessons. If it had not been for the heat sensors, or whatever other technological aids the soldiers had been carrying, Hal would have been willing to bet she could have moved around and between them all day long without being spotted.

As the two guarding Artur brought him into the camp, one of the dozen who had stayed around after the three shelters had been set up ducked into the other tent, the one holding Liu. A moment later the commanding officer came out and stood while Artur was brought face to face with him.

They stood looking at each other. The screen showed their lips moving. Hal's ability to read lips had become rusty over the last few years and the angle at which the screen showed the two had Artur's back to him and Liu's face averted to the point where he could see only the left corner of his lips. He could not make out what either man was saying. However, they talked for no more than a few minutes.

The conversation ended with Liu abruptly turning around and re-entering his shelter. The two escorting soldiers, apparently having been given their orders by their disappearing commander, took Artur to one of the two trees that had not been cut down. They tied him to it, in standing position with his back to the tree trunk, enclosing him with what seemed an excessive number of turns of rope around his body and the tree. He stood with his back to the tree, unable to move even in small ways. "Now what?" asked Calas. "I believe," said Old Man in his soft voice, "that the officer has decided to leave him there to think his situation over." "Does Artur know they've got Cee, do you think?" asked Calas, looking from Old Man to Hal and back again.

Old Man said nothing. "I don't think so," answered Hal, "any more than I think they've let Cee know they've got him. Liu's probably planning to spring the news on both of them when the time's right to got the most shock value from doing it."

That may have been the commander's plan, but in any case he seemed in no hurry to carry it out. Procyon descended in tile west and the stars came out. The forest below became one dark. mysterious mass, with the exception of two small spots. One was where a blaze of artificial light lit up the clearing in tile distance where the trucks were still parked. The other, closer. was more directly below the watchers, where Artur stood, still tied to the tree, and with Liu still out of sight in his shelter. From one of the other domes trays with covered dishes were carried into the tent that was Liu's, and it was perhaps three-quarters of an hour afterward that he finally made an appearance.

The Urk hurried up to him and was told something. The tall, thin underofficer in the tailored uniform went off to the shelter that held Cee, and re-emerged a few minutes later, followed by two soldiers with the little girl held between them, her hands tied behind her.

She was making no effort to walk under her own power. Her knees were bent and the two soldiers were forced to carry her to the other tree that had been left uncut, where she was roped into the same upright position Artur had been tied into. After a few moments, she unbent her knees and took the weight of her body on her feet.

Her face had that blank look of a child's which could indicate anything from an extreme of terror to complete incomprehension. Her eyes followed the Urk as he went to speak to Liu.

Liu and the Urk came toward her. Behind the two men, in the center of the clearing, a large open fire was being built. It was not an unreasonable thing to do. At night, because of the altitude, even here at the base of the mountains proper, the nights were cool, for all that they were almost on the equator of the planet. But it did not get so cold that a fire so large had any real utility. Cee, herself, was obviously used to the nighttime temperatures, which she faced unclothed.

She was still unclothed now, more so, in fact, because her vine-pod girdle had been taken from her. But, as Hal had noticed on first seeing her when he had been with Amanda, her nakedness was such a natural and unconscious state that, if anything, she made those around her in clothes look unnatural. Her expression remained blank as the two men came up to her, and Liu spoke to her. It was intensely frustrating to Hal not to be able to catch enough of the officer's lip movements to guess at least a word or so from him, or from one of the soldiers.

In any case, she did not answer. Only, now, she stared directly at Liu, instead of the Urk, with that completely unfathomable, completely observant, open-eyed stare of which only the young are capable.

Liu's lips moved again. The expression of his face grew stern. There was no movement of lips or change of appearance in the girl before him. He glanced at the Urk, beside him, and the Urk said something. "I think," said Old Man unexpectedly, "he asked for confirmation of the fact that she actually knows how to speak, and understands Basic."

Hal looked suddenly at the brown eyes in the ageless face behind the white beard. "You read lips?" he asked, almost sharply.

Old Man shook his head. "No," he answered, "I only guess. But I think it's a good guess. And I think this Urk is reminding him she was six years or older when her parents died."

Liu turned away and went back past the fire to Artur. His face was now so averted in the picture shown on the screen before Hal that it was obviously useless even to try to read lips. "I'd say your guess may have been pretty close to the mark," he told Old Man. "What do you think he's saying to Artur right now?"'

Old Man shook his head a little slowly. "It's guessing, only," he said. "I could be very wrong, but obviously this officer's deliberately waited until dark to let the two see each other. Plainly, the fire is to make the scene look even more threatening. He gives the impression of a man who hopes to make use of psychological as well as physical pressures. Watching someone else tortured to produce answers is one of the favorite ways of getting information since mankind started to use such methods. The idea, of course, is to weaken the will of someone who doesn't want to talk. Here he's got two prisoners. He can question either one with all kinds of painful means, with a double chance of getting answers - either from the one he questions or from the one watching and expecting the same thing. Either might break. Obviously, though, he expects to be able to judge the effect of his questioning better on a grown man, than on someone like Cee." "He'll be threatening Artur with torture now, if Artur doesn't tell him how to find the other people who're around here? That's what you're saying, isn't it?" demanded Hal. "I would guess," said Old Man simply.

Liu continued to talk to Artur several minutes longer, but Artur's face, unlike Cee's, showed anger and defiance. Liu pointed at Cee several times and Artur shook his head. Most possibly, Hal thought, the big man would be denying any knowledge of the little girl, although it remained impossible for Hal to read the movements of his lips. Eventually, Liu turned away from him and went back across the lighted clearing into his shelter, while the Urk, with two of the soldiers, got busy with the physical questioning of Artur.

Calas began to swear in a low, monotonous tone, and his voice went on and on, as if he were talking to himself.

Mercifully, the angle of vision both from the ledge and from higher up on the mountain with Missy and Hadnah was such that the bodies of the three men were in the way of any camera view of exactly what they were doing to Artur. However, the soldiers and their noncommissioned officer were careful not to block the view Cee could have had of what was going on.

But their efforts were wasted. After watching them for a moment until Artur's mouth opened in what was obviously an involuntary scream of pain, she took her attention off them. Her eyes, in that expressionless face of hers, turned instead to focus on the round, white shape of the tent into which Liu had vanished. They kept their gaze immovable upon the tent.

Old Man drew in an audible breath. "He's made a mistake," Old Man said. "He? You mean Liu?" asked Hal. "Yes," said Old Man. "Artur denied knowing her and Cee told him nothing. The officer has no way of knowing she loves him, or he, her." "She loves Artur?" Hal asked. "Amid told me she wouldn't let him get close to her, after that one time he tried to reach out and touch her!" "True enough," said Old Man, "but all the time she must have remembered who he was and either loved him from before or come to love him when he tried to make contact again with her. She was just too frightened to come close to him. Look at her face now."

Hal reached forward to turn the screen's controls up to give a close-up picture of Cee's face. They saw it only slightly averted, staring at Liu's shelter off screen, but Calas's swearing broke off abruptly. "Holy Mother!" said Calas.

Hal also was absorbing the shock of what he was seeing. It was strange, since in no easily visible way had Cee's blank expression changed. Only, the steadiness of her gaze seemed to have acquired a power of its own. "God help that Liu if she ever gets her hands on him, and him tied up, or helpless!" breathed Calas.

Old Man nodded. "But why do you say Liu made a mistake?" Hal asked. "If she had not already, she has now identified him with whatever she saw done to her parents when they died. Liu Hu Shen thought to provoke fear in the child by forcing her to watch Artur being tortured. Instead he's unleashed hatred. A terrible hatred in her, against him."

After a long moment of silence, Old Man added: "Who would have thought one so young could hate so much? But then life has made her more than half wild animal, and the actions of that man have now made her wholly so...."