Transformation Space - Marianne de Pierres [43]
Balbao opened his mouth to share the joyous news with the others, then promptly shut it again. The four tyros were still communing silently.
He leaned back in his seat and took a deep relieved breath. Let them keep working for it. Let the annoying bastards work for it.
TRIN
‘Do you see them, Principe?’
‘Si.’ Trin struggled to keep irritation from his reply. Of course he did; the night sky was filled with them, yet Joe Scali had still deemed it necessary to ask, like a child repeating unnecessary things to a parent.
Trin’s patience with his friend had been short since he had seen him standing so close – so intimately close – to Djeserit on the darkened beach.
‘What do you think, Principe?’ asked Juno Genarro. ‘OLOSS, perhaps?’
Trin stared at the hundreds of lights floating across the night sky, high enough, it seemed, to be in outer orbit. ‘I would like to say they are our salvation, but something tells me not.’
The three men stood on the peak of the mountain. From the same vantage point he and Djes had seen the circular-shaped ship descend several days before. He had not told his people about it, but the appearance of thousands of satellites changed things.
Now a deeply troubled feeling beset him. ‘Juno, go down and call everyone together. I will follow soon.’
As he had since the early days of the invasion, Juno complied without argument or question. In many ways, aside from Djeserit, he had been Trin’s best ally and aide. Trin felt Juno’s respect and their common desire to keep the old ways alive.
‘What concerns you, Trinder?’ asked Joe Scali, when Juno had left.
Trin meant to dismiss the question. Instead, he found other words coming out of his mouth. ‘You have developed strong feelings for Djes.’
Under the glow of the thousands of satellites he saw Joe shrink a little, as if punched. The man had never really regained his equanimity since the Saqr had killed Rantha and her unborn child. Nowadays, Scali wore his emotions openly, and with less control than a young girl. Trin saw him weeping often.
‘I … we all … have great regard for her.’ He stumbled over his reply. ‘Djeserit has saved us. Kept us fed. Brought us here.’
‘That is true,’ Trin allowed. ‘But it would be foolish to mistake your feelings of gratitude for anything else. Wouldn’t it?’
Joe Scali bowed his head. He shifted away from Trinder in obvious discomfort.
‘I am clear, signor?’ asked Trin softly.
‘Si, Principe.’
Trin had expected meekness and embarrassment, but Scali’s tone held a trickle of stubbornness.
Should he say more?
No. He would speak with Djes. At the moment there were more important things to address. ‘We should join the others.’
He turned his back on his friend and made his way back down the shoulder of the peak to the caves.
The group was assembled outside. Over the previous days the women had swept and moved rocks to make a space that would accommodate them all, while the men had begun fashioning beds and tables from the small bushes that cloaked the mountainside.
Trin had instructed them to take the brush selectively, so as not to plainly show their presence. Djeserit had returned to the sea, taking Tivi Scali to wait on the beach and help her carry her catch. For several meals now they’d dined on white fish and roots that Cass Mulravey had identified as safe to eat. The food was still raw, but their bellies were almost full, and many of them had brush cots to sleep upon. Given time, they could make themselves even more comfortable.
Trin glanced into the night sky. But would they have that time? He stepped into the circle of bodies and crouched in the middle. The division between Mulravey’s women and the rest had lessened since their encounter with the giant ligs – as though Trin’s warnings of imminent danger had finally brought real acknowledgement of his authority to lead their group.
The women sat interspersed among his men,