Spider Wars: Book Three of the Black Bead Chronicles (14 page)

And that was that. Erin
stood her ground, answering Vinara’s protests with silence and a
repetition of her demands when it seemed Vinara had forgotten them.
Cheobawn sagged in exhaustion as the argument flowed over the top of
her head.

Connor left Erin to her
task. He put Sigrid’s arm over one shoulder and tugged Cheobawn
away. Together, they helped Ramhorn’s Alpha to the great double
doors of the South Gate.

Gudu let them in. The warm,
moist air inside the dome hit them like a blast from the smelting
furnace. It hurt to breathe. Cheobawn held her breath as she shed
hats and gloves and fumbled with cold-numbed fingers at the closures
on her duster and parka.

“
Why are you still here?”
Connor asked Gudu, helping Sigrid ease out of his outer wear. “Did
Finn grow tired of your ugly face and ban you from the worksheds?”

“
Nice to see you in one
piece, pipsqueak,” Gudu said, coming over to help. “Volunteered
to do double shift 'cause the entire second shift went out on the
drive. Where is everybody else? What did you do to Sigrid?”

“
I’m fine,” Sigrid
said, flinching as the parka got caught up on his arm and Connor had
to pull a little harder.

“
Sure you are,” Gudu
said as he put a hand out to steady Ramhorn’s Alpha.

“
Smoke leopard tackled his
bennelk out from underneath him,” Cheobawn said all in one breath.
“I think he has a couple of broken ribs.”

Talking triggered a cough.
The air was too heavy. It filled her lungs and she had no strength to
push it out again. One cough led to a dozen more. She bent over and
tried to breath as sparkling tracers of black lightning blurred her
vision and a thousand needles of pain burst inside her chest. Gudu
was kneeling in front of her when she finally drew a breath and
blinked the tears from her eyes. His fingers were unbuckling the
closures on her riding leathers one after the other as fast as they
could move.

“
What were they thinking,
sending you out on a foray in the dead of winter,” hissed Finn’s
apprentice. “Smoke leopards and storms coming, and they send out a
kid.”

“
I had to run,” she
wheezed apologetically, “I got scared 'cause I thought it was after
Sigrid but it just wanted Star. Open the gate. I will be fine outside
where the air is not so hot.”

“
I have a better idea,”
he stood up and looked around, spotting what he needed. “Bre’en,
Nonna! I need help!” The last was bellowed at a pair of oldmas
strolling by on the nearest cross walk. The two women looked up in
alarm and then hurried towards them. “Stay here while I get a
cart,” Gudu ordered as he turned and strode to the large shed
behind the guard station. Throwing open the doors, he dove in and
emerged moments later driving one of the small electric carts used to
transport cargo inside the dome. He stomped on the go-pedal and raced
towards them before whipping the steering wheel around at the last
minute as he stood on the stop-pedal and yanking the brake lever.
Finn would have been horrified at the abuse of his machine.

“
Cool move, Gudu,”
crowed Connor. His admiration was cut short as he pressed his fist
against his mouth to stifle a cough.

“
If I ever catch you doing
that, I’ll cut off your ears, pipsqueak,” Gudu warned.

Connor leaned over and
coughed hard. Gudu swore and started pulling coats and weapons out of
his arms and tossing them aside “Please tell me Cheobawn was the
only one running races out there?”

“
She charged that cat,
Gudu, like she was going to take it out. Scared me bad,” Connor
wheezed.

“
Little idiots,” said
Gudu shaking his head in dismay.

Gray-haired Nonna arrived
first. Gudu started rattling off instructions as he gathered up coats
and hats, shoving them into her arms until she could barely see over
the top of the heap.

“
Gotta take these three to
the infirmary,” he explained hastily. “Can you make sure the gear
gets taken back to the changing room and the weapons locker, please?”

Plump Bre’en arrived,
red-faced and breathing hard, her snowy curls in disarray. Gudu took
her hand and guided her to the guard station, still rattling off
directions.

“
Pinque is due to relieve
me in about an hour. If somebody buzzes the gate just hit the big
green button and then make them help you watch the gate until Pinque
comes. If anyone from the First Circle asks, I have taken Sigrid,
Connor and Cheobawn to the infirmary. Just remember to check the com
screen to make sure what is coming through the gate won’t try to
eat you.”

“
I am not stupid, young
Father,” Bre’en sniffed. “I was doing guard duty long before
Amabel planted you in your natalmother’s womb.

“
Bless you, Mother,”
Gudu said with a grateful grin. “Phillius will have my head for
this but the little ones have a worrisome cough and Sigrid needs a
bonesetter.”

“
Menthaleaf for coughs,”
Nonna called as she waddled away under a burden of coats, scarves,
and hats. “Those chits in the infirmary don’t like the old
remedies but they work the best.”

“
Yes, Mother,” Gudu
called as he guided Sigrid to the passenger seat of the cart. “Thank
you for that advice.” Connor helped Cheobawn into the bed behind
the seats and hugged her close as Gudu got in and stomped on the
go-pedal.

Cheobawn tried to suppress
her cough but each breath bubbled ominously inside her chest. She
fretted, worried about her own health for the first time in her life.

“
If we go to the
infirmary, Amabel will not let us go out again tomorrow,” Cheobawn
said over the noise of the cart wheels on hard pavement.

“
Wise woman,” Gudu
yelled over his shoulder as he whipped around a corner, and then
veered sharply to avoid a gaggle of underagers on their way to the
dining hall. “You would be crazy to go out again. Need to heal.”

Sigrid said something that
did not quite carry to the back bed. Gudu looked over at him, a
concerned look on his face. Sigrid said something else. Gudu stepped
on the stop pedal, coasting to a stop at an intersection in the great
promenade.

“
You sure?” Gudu asked,
frowning at Sigrid. Sigrid nodded.

“
OK, you two. Get out,”
Gudu said over his shoulder.

“
What? Cheobawn needs to
get to the infirmary,” Connor protested. Talking triggered another
coughing fit.

“
Calm down, calm down,”
Gudu said as he came around the back to help them out of the cart.
“We’re going to take Bre’en’s advice and get you guys into
some smoke but I gotta get Sigrid to the healers first. You guys
squat down in the shrubbery by the path until I come get you, hear
me? Don’t let any of the Elders see you.”

Cheobawn and Connor pushed
their way through the box hedge and did as Gudu instructed.

“
No coughing,” Gudu
admonished, “I will be right back.”

Right back was a relative
thing. Cheobawn settled onto the cool, damp earth under the bushes
and tried to concentrate on forcing air into her irritated lungs.
Sitting still made her cold. She shivered.

“
You alright?” Connor
asked as he put an arm around her and pulled her close.

“
Hurts to breath deep,”
she fretted softly.

“
We were crazy to run like
that. Deep cold burns like fire.” Connor grunted.

“
I … I’m sorry,” she
whispered. “I thought I was going to watch Sigrid die. I couldn’t.
I just couldn’t let that happen without doing something.”

“
Yeah, me too,” Connor
said, wrapping his arms around her.

Gudu took forever but
eventually the sound of plasteel tires sliding to a stop on the
sidewalk in front of them made them pop their heads up to peer over
the top of the well-manicured hedge.

“
Well?” Gudu said,
waving them over. “Hurry up and get in.”

As soon as they were settled
in the cart bed Gudu stomped on the go-pedal, whipped the steering
wheel around, and headed west towards the West Gate. Gudu’s cart
only seemed to know two speeds: stop and fast. Eyes closed, Cheobawn
clung with one hand to the side panels of the truck, the other hand
clutched around Connor while he did the same

As the cart charged the
great doors of the West Gate, Gudu rode it like a jousting bennelk,
waiting until the last second to stomp on the pedals and pull back
hard on the brake lever. The cart slid to a stop, the rear end
spinning around until the cart faced the way it had come. Cheobawn
wanted to scream, not sure if what she was feeling was terror or
exhilaration but her sudden intake of air set her to coughing again.
Connor joined her. Gudu jumped out and helped Blackwind Pack out of
the truck.

“
What are we doing?”
Connor asked, holding fast to Cheobawn’s hand.

“
Taking an oldma’s
advice. If we nip this cough in the bud, you might be able to fool
the elders into thinking you are fit enough for duty tomorrow,”
Gudu said.

“
You are going to do that
trick one too many times, Gudu,” Eban said coldly as he walked over
from the guard post, “and then someone will get hurt. What do you
want?”

“
Got any openings?” Gudu
asked as he stepped around the temple acolyte, Blackwind Pack in tow.
Eban tried to get between the young Father and the token board that
showed how many groups had gone out the West Gate.

“
The temple has the all
the huts reserved on Restday,” Eban said, “You know that. Come
back tomorrow.”

“
Tomorrow these two will
have full blown lung fever. Check again. You gotta have something set
aside for the healers.”

“
You,” Eban said
pointedly, “are not a healer.”

“
No, but I just came from
the infirmary and they sent me here. I was standing guard on the
South Gate when the foray came in. I had to corral Bre’en to watch
my post so I could get Sigrid and these two some help. Sigrid took a
bad fall and these two got lung burn,” he repeated.

“
The Sacred Rituals are
not to be interfered with,“Eban said, crossing his arms over his
chest to stare at Gudu impassively.

“
By the Blessed Goddess,
Eban, can you be a human for once,” Gudu yelled. “We got a score
of riders coming in out of the cold. If we wait for the infirmary to
catch up, these two will start drowning in their own juices.”

Eban sniffed and turned to
check the board.

“
Alright,” he conceded
reluctantly. “I have a small two-man hut. Number One. It won’t
fit all three of you.”

“
No, no, that’s
perfect,” Gudu said heartily, “I can’t stay. Gotta get back. A
healer will come to check on them as soon as the rush stops at the
infirmary.”

“
Kids don’t belong out
there tonight,” Eban fretted. “No noise, and stay clear of the
other huts. There is a supply of menthaleaf in the storage shed.”
He handed over the token and made a note in his log book before he
palmed the gate control. Cheobawn smiled at him as Gudu pulled her
through the widening gap in the doors. Eban returned her look with a
scowl. She did not mind. The Temple acolytes were notoriously lacking
in humor.

Cheobawn did not often come
to this side of the dome. It seemed, of late, it was only when she
was on detention duty and working for the Water Master. The dome sat
on a rock shelf just above Badnite Creek here. A series of canals and
pipe-works channeled water into and out of the dome by way of a large
holding pond that had been dug into the stone just outside the West
Gate. The West Road skirted the pond’s north edge and continued on,
across the bridge and on into the west pastures. A modified dome,
similar to the stable dome, covered the pond and the machinery that
controlled the water flow, protecting it from weather and marauding
creatures.

A string of wooden huts
bordered the south side of the pond. They were forbidden to
underagers, which had intrigued Cheobawn when she was six but once
she found out their use entailed sitting for long hours inside a hot
and dimly lit interior doing absolutely nothing, she had lost all
interest.

Smoky torches studded the
shoreline, giving off just enough light to let you pick your way
along the gravel pathways. Gudu stopped at the first wooden hut. He
plunged into its interior and started rummaging about in its
contents. Cheobawn sucked in the cold air, the tightness in her chest
easing. The air was cooler here than in the main dome, the automatic
sensors on the mini-dome’s panels set to keep the interior
temperature at just above freezing in the winter. This was something
of a challenge because the temperature of the water coming out of the
industrial cooling systems inside the dome was near to boiling. Icy
water flowed from Badnite Creek through a series of flumes that
dumped it, along with the dome’s hot water, into the pond.
Balancing the flows involved a tricky set of calculations by the
Water Master and his apprentices, the end product and the ultimate
goal being the temperature of the water where the exit flume finally
dumped its load back into Badnite Creek: the dome’s water had to
match Badnite Creek’s temperature perfectly.