Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
“Love is a form of obsession, absolutely. And some of us never learned how to let go. Didn’t much pay attention during the lessons on sharing, either.”
—Alice Healy
Back on Johrlar, being taken before the Eldest Living of the Kairos
THE GUARDS MARCHED THE FOUR of us at bident-point back through the jungle to their village, and through the village to the home of the Eldest Living.
They didn’t seem surprised or concerned about the fact that we had a Johrlac with us now; if anything, they were delighted to have someone else to point their spears at.
By the time we reached the tree and were waved impatiently inside, I was ready for a fight.
I balled my hands into fists, pale flames surrounding them.
Everything I’d seen when we were here before was flammable.
Tree, fabric, little old lady who I really probably shouldn’t set on fire—all flammable.
All expendable if they insisted on standing between us and rescuing Sarah.
But when the guards urged us into the tree, the Eldest Living wasn’t atop her mountain of cloth. Instead, we seemed to be alone. I seized the opportunity to straighten and cross over to Artie, who was looking a little green around the edges.
“You all right, buddy?” I asked.
“This is terrifying,” he said. “Who are these people? What do they want with us?”
I paused. Oh, right. Artie hadn’t been with us when we’d encountered the Kairos before, and neither had Arthur.
There was no way he could remember any of this.
“A long time ago, the Johrlac swiped a bunch of Kairos from their home dimension because they wanted a telepathically resistant service class,” I said hurriedly.
“They just didn’t think through the implications of a telepathically resistant service class that happened to be close friends with coincidence and causality, and the Kairos somewhat inevitably got away from their captors and started their own settlements in the deep jungle. ”
“Where we’ve been hounded and hunted ever since,” said the voice of the Eldest Living, as she stepped out of the shadows around the edge of the space.
“The collective cannot let go of the idea that because our ancestors were not from this dimension, we owe them in some way for our existence. As if the timing would not have seen the ones it wanted born, regardless of the world our parents lived in. Hello, travelers. Some of you are new to me.”
“Your guards were watching for us,” I snapped. “What is your game?”
“Freedom,” she said. “We want to be left alone. We’ve been bargaining with the current collective for a long time, and it’s no longer serving us well. We require a new collective. So we ask and wait for the timing to provide us with the tools we need. You, and the rogue queen, are those tools.”
“The rogue—Sarah?” Artie focused on the Eldest Living, suddenly intense and anxious. “Are you talking about Sarah?”
“The collective took her, and agreed to leave us in peace for a season,” said the Eldest Living, blissfully unaware of how much that statement made Artie want to beat her over the head with the nearest chair.
His hands flexed, and I knew he was considering doing precisely that.
It would have complicated getting out of here, but after everything this lady had been associated with doing to us, I’d be fine seeing her go down.
The Eldest Living sighed as she looked around at our faces. “It was necessary to spare my people. I apologize, but you would do the same if our positions were reversed.”
“How can you be so sure we’re the tools your timing wants you to use to break the current collective?”
“I’ve spoken to the majority of you, and you don’t become the Eldest Living without learning a thing or two about people,” she said.
“Look. We all want something simple. We want to be left alone, here, on Johrlar, and not forced to return to a dimension we don’t remember in order to preserve our peace.
You want your queen back. She’s been absorbed into the collective by now, and we can help you recover her. They never see us coming.”
Mark smirked. “No, I guess they wouldn’t,” he said. “I can’t catch hold of your mind at all. It’s like trying to see through mud when I try.”
“From the way you move your head, I can tell you grew up around people who see with their eyes rather than their minds. For those who neglect the physical aspects of their senses, as the Johrlac of this world tend to do, we might as well be invisible,” said the Eldest Living.
“They don’t see us unless we move, and even then, they lose sight of us quickly. ”
Mark frowned. “That’s terrible operational security. If they know you’re there for people who rely on vision, they should be training up guards who know how to look for you.”
“That assumes a flexibility of thought that the Johrlac lose when a single collective remains in power for too long,” said the Eldest Living.
“We’re not asking you to help us harm anyone beyond the collective, which has done harm beyond measure.
All we’re asking you to do is help us change an unfair system, so that we may have a moment’s peace before the new system rises to replace it. ”
Sam and I exchanged a look. I didn’t like this.
I didn’t like the idea of coming from another dimension to overthrow someone else’s government.
We’d have to leave immediately afterward, which was the definition of making a mess and leaving it for someone else to deal with.
But then again, they started it when they stole Sarah and Arthur.
Having Artie back was wonderful in ways I hadn’t been able to take the time to really grapple with yet, but it had been so long since we’d lost him, and Arthur had become his own person. Losing him stung.
Whatever we did to these people, they deserved it.
I turned to the Eldest Living. “What’s your plan?” I asked.
Slowly, she smiled.
Kairos planning, which was largely based on lucky breaks and best-case scenarios, was remarkably similar to family planning, if based on even more tenuous chains of coincidence, which made sense: their connection to the timing was direct and reliable, unlike our own, which became more diluted and unpredictable with every passing generation.
Less than an hour after our arrival, we were walking along the monorail structure in the company of a massive group of Kairos guards, easily forty of them, all packed in close around the enormous velvet worm that Mark was seated atop, riding it dutifully toward the city.
Artie rode behind him, more out of necessity than desire: Arthur had never been interested in fieldwork, and so while he’d maintained basic physical fitness, he hadn’t kept their shared body in the sort of shape that would allow Artie to make this walk without straining something he was probably going to need later.
As we approached the series of ramps that would take us down into the city, Johrlac guards appeared, flanking the exits.
Each of the travelers would approach, the guards’ eyes would flash white, and then the travelers would begin their descent.
As the only one of us the guards would be able to really “see,” Mark was our representative.
This was also our test of how well he could navigate in Johrlac society.
It was our turn. Mark urged the worm forward, and when he was in position, he met eyes with the guard.
The man’s eyes flashed white. Mark’s did the same, brighter and harder to look directly into.
The man blinked, repeatedly, and dropped his spear before staggering back against the rail, putting a hand against his forehead.
Then he waved us on, and we began our descent, about half of us looking back in anticipation of the pursuit that had to be coming.
It didn’t come.
“Dude, what the hell?” asked Sam. “You were supposed to be all ‘These are not the droids you’re looking for,’ not ‘Let me melt your brain for you.’ And why did they just let us go?”
“I didn’t mean to,” said Mark sourly. “He asked what my business in the city was. You were right—he didn’t see any of you people.
So I told him I was taking my weird giant worm for a walk, and then he wanted to know my name.
Only he didn’t like my name, and he tried to push deeper into my mind.
So I shoved him out. I guess I wasn’t supposed to be able to do that, since he didn’t even try to stop me. I didn’t mean to hit him so hard.”
“As long as they don’t chase after us, we’re fine,” I said. “I think we’ll be fine if they do chase after us, but it’ll be the sort of fine that comes with a lot more bloodshed, and I’d rather skip it if we can.”
Mark eyed me skeptically.
“What?”
“Just not sure I believe one of you assholes trying to avoid the bloodshed.” We were winding down the ramp, the velvet worm’s footing sure and stable, thanks to its many, many feet. There were more guards at the bottom. Mark locked eyes with them and they stepped aside, gesturing us forward.
I eyed him. He shrugged.
“Queens lead their society, and kings are supposed to be impossible,” he said.
“So they hit my mind, feel enough power to make me a queen, pick up on the fact that I’m a dude, and don’t know how to deal with the contradiction, so they just sort of back down.
I get the feeling they don’t spend a lot of time thinking for themselves.
It’s not an encouraged skill around here. ”
“You think pretty highly of your own species,” said Sam.