Ruins (Pathfinder 2)

“The others called me.”

“They’re not here.”

“I know,” said Vadesh. “After I picked them up, I came for you.”

“Thank you for telling me that they’re safe. Now I can go on.”

“There’s no reason for you to keep walking,” said Vadesh. “I’ll take you to the next wallfold, if you want.”

“I don’t trust you to take me where you say you’re taking me,” said Rigg.

“The vehicle obeys the ship, and the ship obeys you,” said Vadesh. “And I am sworn to obey you now.”

“Now that you destroyed my friend,” said Rigg.

“Get in the flyer,” urged Vadesh. “It will take us all to Odinfold.”

“The others wanted to go back to Ramfold,” said Rigg. “Take them there, and let me be.”

“They changed their minds,” said Vadesh.

“Then why aren’t they talking to me? Why did they send you?”

Vadesh turned without another word and headed back to the flyer.

Rigg realized how ridiculous this was. What kind of child was he, to insist that they had to ask him nicely to rejoin him? He didn’t want to lead them, and they didn’t want to be led, so let Vadesh take them wherever they wanted, to do whatever they wanted.

Rigg walked away across the meadow, heading eastward again, retracing paths that he and his one-time companions had already crossed more than once.

Olivenko came out of the flyer and called to him. “Rigg! Wait!”

Rigg just shook his head and went on. He felt foolish. But he would feel foolish no matter what he chose. Somehow, in his hours alone, the wall between him and his erstwhile friends had grown so thick and high that he could not even think of crossing it. They resented him. He was just trying to do his best and they hated him for it. So he was done with them. That was a wall he didn’t even want to get through.

So why were tears spilling from his eyes as he continued walking away?

“Please wait,” called Olivenko. Rigg could hear him running.

Olivenko is my friend, Rigg remembered.

But he didn’t stand with me when the crisis came, he told himself. So he is not my friend.

“Please,” said Olivenko. “I know you’re angry, you have a right, but it doesn’t make sense to pass up a chance to get a ride in this thing. Except for Umbo throwing up the first time it rose into the sky, it’s been exhilarating.”

Good for you, thought Rigg, still walking.

“Vadesh says we could reach Odinfold well before night. But walking, it will take more than three weeks. Well, it won’t take you three weeks, trekking alone. But it would have taken us all three weeks at least, at the pace we were going.”

Rigg didn’t remember deciding to stop walking away from the flyer, but here he was, with Olivenko beside him, at the edge of the meadow. Now he turned to face the man who had once been his real father’s friend. “I wish I hadn’t brought you all here.”

“I distinctly remember Loaf and me carrying you the last few steps through the Wall.”

“It all started with my foolishness in trying to sell a jewel in O.”

“It all started,” said Olivenko, “with the arrival on this planet of starships from a world called Earth. You didn’t cause that.”

“I’ve made mistake after mistake.”

“You didn’t cause any of this, Rigg,” said Olivenko. “The expendables have been running the whole world from the start.”