The Huntsman and the Nix Ch. 06

CHAPTER SIX

[Sutter]

Sutter was still sitting on the ground outside the building, his back against Block Eight, his hand hanging off his knee. The Nix had opened the doors and turned on the fans. The gas was clearing out. There was no way Isobet could have survived in there.

If there was one thing Sutter knew about death--and he knew a great deal about it without having actually experienced it himself--it was that nobody came back from it. He'd checked. Not one of them had. It didn't matter what you felt.

Jaunt came and sat by him. "Half hour, maybe, to make sure," Jaunt said.

The Nix weren't far, most of them standing around with tragic faces. Sutter looked away. When he saw her, he'd know it.

Rab finally came over. "The gas is cleared. We're going to go in and get her. We can bring her out, Sutter."

Sutter shook his head, getting to his feet, his muscles sore, his jaw. Tired. He went through the door, Jaunt beside him, the Nix following. The institute might have been shiny, but Block Eight was the same old misery he'd known it would be. These places were all the same. They walked through and found the cells.

There was debris in the middle of the hall. He looked up. The ceiling had caved in, where she'd fell through. He didn't want to think about her fear when the gas came, nowhere for her to go to get away, fighting to breathe, but he couldn't stop.

It was a long drop. That would at least have slowed her down. Maybe. She'd probably landed on her feet. Each cell had a bed with manual restraints. A toilet. Tray slots for food. Ugly memories for all of them. Yeah, this was entirely familiar. These places. You could escape from them, but a part of you never really left.

They were searching the cells, going in different directions, looking on the ground, walking the long halls. Sutter looked under things where she might have crawled to try to avoid the gas. His chest had a familiar weight, frozen and heavy. He was aware Jaunt stayed with him.

"Anybody?" Rab called, his voice rough.

"Nothing down A corridor," Ulen said.

"B's clear," Ero said not much later.

Sutter reached the last cell in corridor C, looking around. They had to have missed her. He turned back, all of them meeting at the center.

"Over here," Cope said, Sutter's gut falling out from under him, but Cope hadn't found her. He'd found something else. "The medical lab."

"That's where she hid the data ring," Sutter said, going to the door. He turned the handle. It was open. He should have realized. This was probably how she'd set off the alarm.

Coming in here wouldn't have saved her. Nothing would have. The gas had been released into the same ducts she'd crawled through, the whole section flooded with it.

This was where her body would be.

They went in. It was a large room, bulky vague shapes everywhere. It looked like it had been used for storage, medical equipment with dust covers, machines still humming and low lighting. Rab hit the light and they fanned out, Sutter looking under a table and then behind an imager with a long retracted arm, the polished metal surface gleaming in the low light.

"Here," Rab said.

Sutter could tell from Rab's voice that he'd found her. Sutter turned and walked, hearing his footsteps echo, the floor stretching on. All the Nix were gathered, yielding to him as he approached. Rab was standing in front of a large rounded white box with a clear dome on top, a green light blinking in the corner.

A stasis pod, Sutter realized. He got closer. A medical stasis pod, clear, transparent polymer on the top, lit from the inside. Sutter stopped, looking down at her.

Isobet.

She'd probably gotten in when she knew the poison gas had been released. Isobet was lying on her back, her dark hair against the white lining, her eyes closed, long lashes. Pink in her cheeks. She looked like she was just sleeping.

Sutter's hand came out, touching the surface. He could suddenly hear the blood rushing in his ears. "Open it," he said. "Open it, Jaunt. Open it right now."

Jaunt looked on the side, finding the panel and hesitating, Rab shoving his hand away and pushing a button. The green light became a flashing green light. The pod released, a loud chuff and long hiss.

Because a medical stasis pod had its own oxygen supply.

The top of the pod opened and Sutter reached for her and she was warm, Sutter dragging her out of the pod and sitting on the floor at their feet with her across his lap, letting her head fall into the crook of his arm. Isobet was warm and all the Nix were gathering around, looming over them. Sutter felt for a pulse with his other hand.

"Is she alive?" Hops said.

"Is she all right?" Cope said. "Sutter?"

"Sutter," Rab said.

He found it. "Yes," he said, all of them breaking into talking, laughing and loud. "Okay," Sutter said, breathing, bringing her up with his arm. He leaned down and kissed her mouth and then drew back.

Isobet opened her eyes, blinking. Sutter leaned back as she sat up, beginning to cough.

"Let me in there," Rab said, squatting beside them, looking at her closely. "Can you talk to me, Isobet?"

"What do you want me to say, doc?" Isobet said, coughing again.

"What happened?" Hops said to her, squatting, all of them around her. "I heard the crash when you went through the ceiling. I waited and you didn't come out."

* * *

[Isobet]

Isobet coughed again. They were all standing over her, looming, and she saw Sutter's face. Someone had hit him, his jaw red. He was still holding her. She didn't understand what they were doing here. She got her breath. "I was in the ducting," Isobet said, pulling her breath in more carefully, recovering. "And it collapsed under me."

"There was a groundshake," Ero said.

She nodded. "I couldn't figure out what was going on. I was almost there when I fell through. When I landed, I was in the section of Block Eight with the cells. I saw the medical lab, so I thought I could still get the ring. When I opened the door from the cells, I set off an alarm, and that's when I smelled it and I started coughing and I realized it was the poison gas. So I got in the stasis pod and turned it on and closed it."

They were all staring at her.

She waited. "What?" she said, her eyes shifting.

"We thought you were dead, little sister," Rab said.

"I'm not," Isobet said. "Why are you all here?"

"When you didn't come out, we took the institute," Cope said.

Isobet blinked, and then she remembered. "The data ring. There." She pointed. "In the drawer, third on the right, in the fifth test tube."

Miter went and looked, upending it and bringing it to her.

She looked up at Sutter, frowning lightly. "Are you all right?"

Sutter took the ring when she offered it. "Fine," Sutter said, nodding, putting it in his pocket.

"Let's get out of this fucking place," Ero said.

When they walked out, Ulen approached at a run, talking to them even as he arrived, the most Isobet had ever heard him say. "Bruja might have gotten a message out, but she fried the enhancer board in the control room. Communications are down. Hey, Isobet. It's good to see you're all right."

"Hi, Ulen," she said.

"We've still got the institute shuttle," Jaunt said. "Let's get off this rock."

Sutter looked at Jaunt as Jaunt looked at Sutter. Isobet's eyes shifted between them.

"What?" she said.

"The shuttle," Jaunt said at the same time Sutter did.

All of them broke for the front gates, the Nix pulling ahead, Isobet staying with Sutter and Jaunt. Arriving, they were just in time to see the shuttle lift off the roof of the transport building.

Bruja.

They were all looking up as it passed over them, Isobet's stomach sinking. After all Bruja had done. After putting in the order to gas the Nix, so many dead. After killing Isobet's father, hurting him, and then giving Isobet to the guards to rape and brand and forcing her into the forest and trying to make Sutter kill her, Bruja was going to escape. Isobet was breathing fast, her nose flaring, so angry she was vibrating with it, her hand going to her shoulder.

"She won't get away from me, killer," Sutter said, meeting her eyes when she looked at him.

"We'll hunt her," Jaunt agreed.

"Look," Rab said, pointing.

The shuttle began to lose altitude. They all stood, staring, Isobet's anger fading, her hand dropping.

"What is she doing?" Jaunt said.

"Does Bruja know how to pilot a shuttle, Isobet?" Sutter turned and asked her as the shuttle wobbled over the field, wavering and dipping.

"I don't know. Why would she?" Isobet said. "I don't."

Sutter looked at her, a long assessing glance that said she also hadn't known how to make a fire, either, like these were skills one just naturally acquired along the way. "Would you know how to program it?" Sutter said.

"What?" Isobet said, dragging her eyes away from the shuttle and looking at him.

"Nothing."

"She didn't have time to have anyone program it," Jaunt said. "She's trying to fly it manually."

"Where is she going?" Ero said.

The shuttle's spin was slowing, but the wobbling was worse, the craft suddenly heading toward the ground, a slow crash, landing, dragging the runners across the dirt. The sound of shrieking metal was loud even from here, ripping the grass up as one of the runners separated from the body of the shuttle, which was still moving forward. Then the other runner caught, the craft making a slow fall onto its side with a dull crash, sliding and stopping. Isobet didn't think it was going anywhere again.

A figure opened the door straight up, the shriek of the twisted metal audible from here, climbing out.

"Bruja," Rab said, his teeth coming up.

The Nix men all focused on the small figure across the field, and then they were off, all of them, running across the field.

"Don't kill her!" Sutter yelled after them. "Son of a bitch." Sutter ran.

Jaunt ran after him, and Isobet ran after Jaunt, overtaking them.

Ahead, Isobet saw Bruja see the Nix. Bruja gave a cry Isobet heard faintly, turning the other way and running into the forest. Isobet sped up, drawing away from Jaunt and Sutter.

"Stay with us, killer," Sutter called.

She dropped back. Ahead, the Nix were just disappearing into the forest.

"It's where the injured handro went, Isobet," Jaunt said. "Follow us through."

Nodding, she dropped back, letting them go first. The two huntsmen got to the trees, moving quietly, keeping under cover. Isobet followed, doing what they did.

They weren't far in when Sutter pointed to a large fan leaf with bright red smeared across it, wet. Blood.

"Bruja?" Isobet said.

Sutter shook his head, speaking more quietly than she had. "The handro. It was here recently."

Isobet scanned around them, listening. "I don't hear anything."

"Let's follow it," Jaunt said, striking out in a direction, seeming sure.

Then even she could see that the handro had come this way, broken branches and blood and footprints. They came out into a clearing, the ground ending ahead, a crag through large boulders, a long cliff drop. There were seven Nix silhouetted against the skyline, looking over the side.

"What happened?" Sutter said when he was almost there.

"We told you not to kill her, doc," Jaunt said behind him.

"We didn't kill her," Rab said, looking back at them. "She was running and we heard the handro. We hid and then followed in behind it. We got here just in time to see the handro chase her here and the whole thing crumbled and dropped away from under both of them."

Sutter got to the edge, looking down, Jaunt already there. Isobet approached, the rocks and dirt freshly separated, looking down. Bruja laReine was on the rocks below, her body broken. Isobet's eyes shifted. The handro was near her, also dead.

"Poor animal," Jaunt muttered.

"Damn," Sutter said.

"What?" Isobet said, looking at Sutter.

"Paperwork," Jaunt answered for him, gesturing down. "We're going to be filling out paperwork for days."

She and Jaunt and Sutter retreated from the edge and turned around. They stopped. Seven Nix were standing in front of them, fanning out.

Sutter's eyes were shifting. Jaunt's were doing the same.

"What's going on?" Isobet said.

"Are you sure you can get us to system authority safely, that they won't just shoot us on sight?"

"They'd have to kill us too, doc," Jaunt said, Sutter nodding. "And there's not a planetary magistrate out there who doesn't know how the system authority reacts to anyone killing a huntsman."

"We're going with you, then," Rab said.

"Good," Jaunt said. "Come now and we'll take you in with the evidence."

"About that," Rab said. "How many can the shuttle you brought hold, Jaunt?"

"It's full of bins," Jaunt answered. "I promised Brosch nothing would happen to the cargo. But there's enough room for all of us to get to Corsa, easy."

None of the big Nix said anything.

Sutter was studying Rab, not seeming surprised. "There are others," Sutter guessed.

"A few others," Rab said, nodding.

Jaunt didn't seem surprised either. "And where are they?"

Cope's finger pointed without looking. "About three weeks that way."

"That's where we're going," Rab said. "We've talked. If you come with us first to get them, then we'll all go to the shuttle with you and from there to the justica on Corsa."

Jaunt looked at Sutter, who nodded. "Agreed," Jaunt said to them.

"Well, at least we don't have to haul all those feathers back," Ero said. "I think that's what I'm allergic to." He sneezed.

"Psychosomatic," Rab said under his breath.

"I'm not," Ero said, dabbing.

"You go ahead with them, Jaunt," Sutter said. "Isobet and I will catch up."

#

When Jaunt and the Nix were gone, they walked and got Sutter's pack, and then Sutter turned back to the institute.

"Where are we going?" she said as they trudged across the field.

"I thought you might want to get some stuff from your rooms."

She'd wanted to, yes. "I thought we didn't have time."

Sutter smiled at her, warm, and when Sutter smiled, you just liked him. You couldn't help it. Even when he was plotting, he was charming. "We'll be quick and catch up with them tomorrow, killer."

They walked back through the gates. The compound seemed empty, although when they walked into the doors at the Big House, she knew staff had to be in rooms behind closed doors, staying out of sight.

She went up the stairs and then to a doorway. "I wouldn't let them in when the guards came, but Bruja opened it electronically." She put her hand on the reader and it clicked open.

Pushing on the door, she went in. Her things had been thrown around and broken. She'd expected it, but still. Her shoulders fell. Closing the door behind herself, she locked it. Sutter set his pack down by her bed, watching her.

Her eyes roamed. It seemed like a very long time since she'd been here, the smells familiar. And she felt filthy, battered and marked, her hand going to the brand on her shoulder. Isobet had done everything on the network from these rooms. She'd almost felt like a normal person here, like she wasn't someone who had to hide, wasn't someone her father had to hide from others.

The room had always been full of light, the walls a dusky silver over plaster, warm blonde wood trim, original paintings of outdoor scenes on the walls. There was her plush bed on the floor with four tall posters, soft curtains around it, the bed still made, a soft coverlet in muted golds. A desk with a console, a fabric-covered chair in brushed velvet. A carved wardrobe, tall doors with white curtains leading onto a balcony overlooking the center courtyard, although they were closed now.

She watched Sutter walk to her desk. It was strange to see him here, like she recognized him, and she recognized the room, but she couldn't quite make them fit together.

There were images on her desk, a revolving projected display. In one image, she was eight years old. It was an image of her and her father. Almost all the images were of them. In the one Sutter stopped, the sensor reading his movement, Isobet was looking at the camera and her father was looking at her.

"You went to Corsa?" Sutter said.

She walked to him, looking at her father's face, her voice husky. It was difficult to imagine he was just gone. "I haven't been to many places, but I've been to the city of Atelone several times." There was another image, she and her father in front of the grand hippodrome on Korsa, known everywhere. "I went to Korsa. I wanted to hear the orchestra, so he took me." She was seventeen in the picture, in a formal dress.

"You cut your hair," he said.

She winced, her hand going to her hair. She felt like a mess, completely undone, everything around her in chaos. Her whole life overturned. "I wanted something different. Father was upset." It occurred to her, her eyes shifting to the other door. Sutter would just have to understand. She needed this.

"Pack some basic hiking clothes. Remember, not more than you can carry a long way."

Isobet smiled at him. "Sutter?"

Sutter's eyes slid to hers and then narrowed. "You want something," he observed.

Her smile faded. "I want to take a bath," she said.

"You want to bathe. Now. We don't have a lot of time."

She was frowning. "Hot water, Sutter. Hair soap. Clean underwear. Bubbles."

"Bubbles," he echoed.

She left him and went into the bathing room, sitting by the huge tub and turning on the water, pushing buttons for the heaters that would keep the water hot, hearing him opening and shutting drawers. Getting things together for her. That would work. She wouldn't be long.

He called out, "Any chance you've got a pack?"

"In the back of the closet," she yelled back, her voice carrying over the sound of water running.

It was quiet for a time, the bath filling, Isobet stripping.

"How many academic ranks do you hold?" he raised his voice to say.

He'd seen the certifications. "Two," she called.

"In what?"

She turned off the water to say it. "Legal Theory and Practicum. History, specifically Colonial History and the Terraforming Diaspora. I thought I wanted to be a justica."

"A justica," he echoed.

"I knew I couldn't. It has just always fascinated me. Did you know that in the past, on Detuth, it was considered a crime to insult a Heklasi, a member of the ruling family? And on Dorva, you can get married naked, but only on the third day of the lunar cycle. And in Ashin, it's illegal to die in a government building."

"Why couldn't you?"

"Die in a government building?"

"No. Become a justica."

Isobet turned the water back on, too complex to explain in a yelling match and she wanted to bathe. It was pouring in from several spouts, filling quickly, coming out hot and the tub would keep it that way until she turned it off.

She got her bubbles, pouring them in and stepping down into the tub. Slowly sitting down, she released all her breath, took a deep one, went under and stayed there. Something in her loosened at the familiar hush, and then she came up, sleeking her hair back, not looking at her shoulder. For just this moment, she wanted to pretend she was unmarked, that it looked the same as it had always had and she was just herself.

The bath was full, her body warmed, bubbles everywhere, when Sutter walked straight into the bathing room without even knocking and stopped, looking at her.

Isobet sent him a glance and stopped the water, reaching for her sponge, and began to wash her arms. She stopped to frown at her fingernails, cracked but at least they weren't filthy anymore, and then she resumed bathing. "I've done all the course work," she said, answering his question, scrubbing, "but I would have had to go to Cathal, the system capital, to take the exams. Father was afraid they'd learn I was a Nix. They look very closely at candidates. I was going to do it anyway, someday."