Gateways 07_ What Lay Beyond - Diane Carey [29]
Now what? Admit to these brave hunters that he’d been hedging his bets, immunizing himself and Braxan with tricorder scans? Tell them how different the energy acted on either side of the gateway? Just as the grave ship’s power wouldn’t read in conventional sensors, the tricorder acted differently, and had different effects.
Cheating… His own actions left as bad a taste in his mouth as the scans did in the free dancers’, but he had a lot to stay alive for. If he didn’t influence them, didn’t complete his mission, these people would stay here, would probably shuffle along for a few more generations trapped in this hellish place, and probably die off. Without Keller, there would be no one to speak for going to the other side, right now, while they had the chance, while the gateway was still open.
He had to at least appear to be playing by their rules. He had to participate in their society, or they wouldn’t respect him.
Now he couldn’t even play his one ace. If he did, the free dancer would descend, but wouldn’t choose either him or Braxan. He could save both their lives. Then what? Another hunt decision? And another one, until random order was satisfied?
Or if random order defied a choice, then the Elders would decide. By now Keller knew Kymelis well enough she wouldn’t decide. She would want to wait for a sign or a clue that would never come. Luntee would win, because time would run out.
A sly glint lit in Luntee’s eyes as he watched Keller. On the other side of the gateway Luntee had seemed a minor player, hesitant and unclever, hovering on the sidelines as Riutta made the decisions. On this side, all that changed. He was not only playing the laws, but daring to make hunches about his adversary and doing it with the rocky nerve of a riverboat gambler. If Braxan were chosen and Keller lived, representing Luntee, then Luntee’s voice was meant to be heard. Luntee’s trick was flawless. It left Keller no good way out, no way to win.
The wind tore at Keller, at them all. The sky began to crackle and grow lower. Giant shadows moved across the grid mats.
“All I have to do is throw myself before the free dancer, and Braxan’s voice remains,” Keller announced. “I swear to do that, Luntee,” he vowed. “I won’t let your voice be heard.”
A singular moan swelled through the crowd at this shocking declaration. Approval… shock… everything. He had to push.
He’d guessed right nobody had ever said such a thing among the Living. He was glad to shock them. He needed their respect. All of the people here, and on the other side of the gateway.
His hand was on his tricorder, but he dared not use it now.
Around him, Luntee, Braxan, and Kymelis a sea of hunters rounded their shoulders against the bitter wind, their soft link shirts ablaze with reflected lights from overhead.
So the free dancers would decide. Except that the tricorder would have more influence. Braxan was already immunized. Keller hadn’t done himself yet.
And now, he wouldn’t. Braxan had to live. Luntee’s voice couldn’t be allowed to prevail. Keller would stand on the hunt plain, and take his chance the hard way. No tricks.
“Crackle!” one of the hunters called. “There’s crackle above! We have descent!”
The hunt plain turned gunmetal gray under snaggletoothed sparking from overhead as a blizzard of candleflies panicked and shifted in giant tides. The free dancers had begun scooping them up, causing the biohaze to boil. A sense of imminence crawled over every shoulder.
“Descending!”
The cry was picked up and transferred through the hunters all across the plain. It rang like an echo.
Overhead, the first free dancer released its heat and floated down toward the Grid to take its meal. Above it came others, also sensing the crowd of hunters.
Nick Keller’s fingers were stiff with cold, his neck stiff, teeth gritted, legs aching. The hunt was a perfectly nightmarish experience, both physically and mentally. Everything hurt.
Around them, the hunters began to scatter, to fill out the Feast Grid in the way determined by centuries of desperate efficiency, the