“This is where we will make our home, yes.”
“But there is nothing here. No homes. Just trees and sticks. How can we live among trees and sticks?”
I do enjoy the way she can be relied upon to always ask the question that must be asked. We have limited supplies, but they will not last forever, and an existence eked out in the open, living off what lizards and insects we might catch does not sound like a particularly desirable one for any of us.
“We will travel out of the cave and onto the plains. We are not the first to leave the city, Tethys. There are others here.”
“There are?”
“Oh, yes. Wild, uncivilized things. When we meet them, you must be careful. The introductions will be dangerous. But once we have made our name among them, we will find ourselves comfortable enough.”
He has thought about this before, obviously. He has planned for what he would do in a situation such as the one that just befell him. I wonder if he almost welcomes this, if the pressure of living among mercenary, murderous lords was always too much to bear in the aftermath of the loss of his family. I am sure he must have been tempted to go entirely mad, having lost so many. He may very well have, but for the necessity to stay sane for the girl with so many questions.
“We begin walking once we have eaten. Be careful.”
We set off on what is quite honestly a magical journey. Having been cast from one world to another with great abruptness and no real hope of return excites me, though I know logically there are many ways the Dinavri above could retrieve us.
“Won’t they just fly down and look for you?”
“Anything down here is considered lost,” Sithren explains. “This is a world before time, a respected place. I am no longer of any interest to them. They have what they want, my holdings, my land, my title, my voting rights.”
“It’s that simple?”
“Never underestimate how easy it is to lose it all,” he says. “It can happen in the blink of an eye.”
“I know. Some bastard ruined my life when I thought I was on a transit flight.”
“Yes,” he admits. “Sorry about that. In retrospect, not the fairest thing I have done.”
“Wow. I’m getting an apology? I didn’t think you were biologically capable of such things.”
“Do you want me to show you what I am biologically capable of?” He lifts his eyebrows meaningfully and I feel a rush of answering arousal. But we are on a mission, and we cannot stop to make love just because we feel like it.
“Father! Look! Others!”
“Come back here. Now. Get behind me!” Sithren’s response is stern and immediate. Tethys has made a good and willing scout. She has a natural talent for observation and sneakiness that might have made her quite a good spy if such a career path were ever to be open to her.
“HO! WHO GOES THERE!” The question rings out from behind dense foliage which thickens at the exit of the cave, made more prolific by the light that streams in from the open spaces beyond.
“FRIENDS!” Sithren shouts back.
“I don’t know if we’re strictly friends,” I murmur.
“Not now,” he growls at me. “You may give voice to your near constant attitude when we are settled, but for the moment, for the love of all that is good in the world, stay silent.”
I do as he asks, only because I am concerned that Tethys could be in danger if I accidentally start a beef with an ancient sect of Dinavri ancestor types. I might be reckless with my own life from time to time, but I will not be reckless with hers.
“SHOW YOURSELVES!”
The command comes from behind the thick foliage, and we heed it obediently, passing through a veil of leaves until we emerge, blinking into a bright sun shedding light over a brown and gold plain. This is grassland like the very same which greeted my ancient ancestors when they made a similar descent from the trees. In a strange and yet tangible way, this feels instinctively like coming home.
As we expected, tribesmen are waiting for us. They circle us, these bright, shining creatures who look just like Sithren save for the fact they wear very little clothing, and make no effort to hide their soft underbellies — bellies that are rock hard with thick slabs of muscle. These are creatures who know how to survive in the wild. They are agile and they are painted with incredible skill. They have taken the time to paint dots of various colors on their scales, creating a moving pointillist effect which must confuse predator and prey alike. They are all armed with sharpened stone, flint, and perhaps even metal points to their spears. I’d have to get closer to see, and that’s not high on my agenda at this moment.