Dark Space - Marianne de Pierres [69]
Djeserit anticipated its action and threw herself in front of him. A foreclaw slashed through her robe and blood fountained from her leg. She screamed, arching her body.
Next to her the korm erupted into more screeches, enraged by her friend’s injury. It went down onto its small forearms: haunches high, crest stiff, it launched itself at the Saqr.
With unexpectedly quick movements, the Saqr tried to slash the korm’s flesh with its claws, while the korm countered with its slashing hind limbs. They traded attacks but the korm was weak from hunger and in a few short moments it tired of sparring. The Saqr caught the korm’s forearm and pinned it to the viuzza with several claws. From its mouth lobes thin, needle-like stylets protruded. It pierced the korm’s skin.
The korm screeched again, this time in agony.
Mira stood transfixed by the hideous scene. How could she not have realised? How could she not have understood what Jancz had hidden in the biozoon?
‘There is a pistol,’ she cried, suddenly.
‘Give it to me,’ Trin shouted.
But even in that moment she hesitated to trust him. He snatched the bag from her and fumbled for the weapon but when he pressed the discharge the pulse was weak and the beam glanced off the creature’s thick carapace.
Thin rivulets of fluid streamed from the korm’s arm wound and the Saqr’s mouth lobes worked hard, sucking greedily through its stylets.
Trin crouched over Djeserit, tearing at the lining from his fellalo to bind her wound. ‘Go,’ he shouted at those around them.
Mira’s legs still refused move.
The Saqr tightened its grip on the korm as a cacophonous baying resonated along the viuzza. In a blur of shadows a pack of cane, drawn to the smell of blood, attacked the Saqr from all sides. It withdrew its stylets from the korm to counter them. Blood spurted from its mouth lobes and sprayed the cane. They became frantic, leaping, howling, and buffeting their horns against its hide.
The Saqr reared onto its hind claws and began to fight in earnest, clawing and screaming until it chased the cane away into the night.
No one moved.
Slowly the korm righted itself and sank, exhausted, into a roosting position. Its wounds leaked a clear fluid, the sight of which broke Mira’s state of trance. Uncertain of what what else to do, she took water to it.
It gulped some down and chittered softly at her.
Mira then took the water bladder to Djeserit. Trin had bound up the tear in her leg with his royal ensign and hovered over her with concern. ‘Is there probiotic in that pack?’ he demanded.
‘No. There is no medicine,’ said Mira.
‘I cannot walk on it,’ said Djeserit. Her face was contorted, her eyes disappearing behind the folds of her lids.
Trin touched her face tenderly. ‘Then I will carry you.’
The action stopped Mira’s heart. His concern. His touch. Why had she not realised before? That night of the explosion at Villa Fedor, his presence in the lodge . . . but Djeserit is only a ‘bina. Surely even you, Trinder…
Vito began to cry in her arms. Mira rocked him. The Pagoin infant had not uttered a sound throughout the fight, as if he had already learned when to be silent.
Trin lifted Djeserit in his arms. ‘We are close to Carabinere headquarters. We must keep moving before the sun comes.’
He was right. It was all they could do—Mira knew. She slipped the water bladder over Djeserit’s shoulder. ‘Keep drinking. You have lost precious fluid.’
Djeserit nodded weakly. She clung to Trin’s neck, her head sagging against his shoulder.
Mira’s stomach clenched. Djeserit was a juvenile alien on a world that despised her kind and Trin Pellegrini was a privileged humanesque used to the finer things. What use, what attraction could he possibly have for her?
Trin walked on, leaving Mira standing with her thoughts. She hastened to the korm and urged it to its feet. If they lost sight of Trin, Mira knew that he would not stop for them.
* * * *
‘Behind those casas.’ Trin staggered now under Djeserit’s weight.
Mira looked up at the brilliant night sky. Tiesha and Semantic spilled their combined light across