The Huntsman and the Nix Ch. 07-08

Hey, everyone.

Two chapters posted this time.

EGRI- Some of us remember Felix the Cat, ha.

I apologize that the copy editing on this story is not quite up to where it should be. I got impatient. I had a deadline and I didn't want to shelve Huntsman until I was done with the other thing. I'm trying to catch them as I post, but it requires me leaving the copy alone for a couple weeks. Sorry about that. -H

CHAPTER SEVEN

[Sutter]

It took a little less than three weeks to get to one of the larger rivers on Tilles Moon. There were two groundshakes on the way, all of them crouching, waiting it out.

They arrived at a wood water boat with oars. Sutter glanced at the river. It was late spring. The river didn't look particularly fast-moving, but it was wide, and there were water predators on Tilles. They all got on board as Hops unwound the rope and tossed it on deck.

Sutter made his way to Rab, Isobet and Jaunt behind him. "How long, doc?"

"About two hours," Rab said. "We float down to get here, but we have to row upriver to get back."

"What about the lujin?" Sutter said.

"Yeah, the ones not rowing have to kill the lujins if they attack," Miter said. "They usually do, unless it's raining. We figured if it was difficult for us, others couldn't get here."

"So, the lujins are here," Sutter said, his eyes roaming the water.

Behind him, Jaunt was just as abruptly interested in their surroundings. "Lujins? Are those the creepy ones with the two tails and the suckers on their faces and the mouths with the teeth, all slimy? They jump out of the water and attach themselves to you and chew away?"

"Hitting them in the air is the easiest," Cope said, nodding, grinning and handing Sutter a big stick, more big sticks at the bottom of the boat, all of them with old blood and guts still sticking to them.

Isobet leaned, looking, and made a small sound, her nose wrinkling.

It was a battle. They all took turns, Sutter feeling his shoulders straining, the resistance when he rowed. There were nine men and six rowing stations, Isobet perched in the center and watching the show, and if you weren't rowing, you were pretty much , as Cope called it, laughing as he did so, dead lujin flying through the air.

They docked the boat under a grass shelter when they arrived, picking up their stuff and washing themselves off, covered in lujin guts. As they walked away, Sutter's eyes went to the river. He'd rather not do that again, fuck.

By afternoon, they were climbing. "A cave?" Sutter said as they neared it. The cave had a huge mouth, three times his height, under an overhang.

"Satellite doesn't see us in there," Rab said.

"Ulen?" a voice said, a figure emerging from the shadows of the cave's mouth, an intense man with dark hair whose eyes darted to him, and then to Jaunt and Isobet, and then continued on.

Ulen came forward through all of them, his face breaking into a grin as he walked forward. "Seth," he said. The two men met. Ulen bent, kissing him and straightening.

"Hey, Seth," Rab said, passing the couple, everyone following.

They lived mostly in the mouth of the large cave, houses made of lashed hollow tubes of wood and branches, mud and grass. There was a large oven in the center of the houses made of crude bricks, a small stream flowing down the side and trickling off the rocks in front of the cave, a fall.

"That's our shower," Rab said, pointing. "And our source of water. We diverted it from higher up. Not far in, there's a break in the ceiling. We have a small water wheel and we grow things and raise animals there. Gara birds and tamtoms."

"Papa!" they heard, a girl coming running out of a crude stick house, barefoot, her hair in braids.

Rab's daughter, and wasn't she adorable as she arrived and Rab lifted her and put her upside down, the child shrieking with laughter. All the people here were in crude clothing, and Sutter didn't see any technology. The Nix men didn't even appear to have razors or scissors.

"I walked all the way here to see Usta and now she's run away," Rab said. "Wait. Who's feet are these?"

"Mine, Papa!" she yelled, her arms hanging.

A pretty dark-haired woman with a tranquil manner came to the door of the house, holding a basket on her hip. She smiled and stepped out, setting it down and coming to them. Rab turned his daughter right-side-up and reached for the woman, the girl between them, tucking both of them into his chest. "Hello, Oline," Rab said.

Miter pushed past them as a woman appeared farther on, coming slowly out of another door, her hand under her belly. "Careful, Presha," Miter said, trotting to her.

She was pregnant, yes. Really pregnant. Big. "I walk here every day while you're gone, Miter," she said, but she smiled at him. "I'm very glad to see you."

Init was already walking to another woman, also pregnant, although her belly didn't look as terrifying and imminent. When Init arrived, his hand went to her belly and his forehead to hers.

A boy came dashing down the main way from up ahead, that absorbed Nix look on his face. Half-Nix, definitely, the boy fast. He didn't stop until he was almost to them and then he leapt into flight, his expression never varying from solemn intensity as Ero caught him and pulled him tight, the boy wrapping his arms and legs around him.

"I think he missed you," a woman said, Ero looking up.

Ero smiled at her, a pretty tall woman with dark blonde hair, walking to her, bringing the boy. "Malia," he said, reaching for her.

"Islan is with Cala and Sangra in the gardens," Oline said. "Usta, go tell them Cope and Hops are home."

The girl dropped from her father--Sutter could see the Nix now--and scurried at speed, and before long a woman came walking fast with a small child on her hip, a little girl, about three years old.

The woman didn't acknowledge anyone, didn't stop until she'd gotten to Hops, who opened his arms and closed them around her. Another woman came tripping lightly behind her, running, and threw herself at Cope laughing, Cope also laughing and swinging her around.

Rab looked down at Oline. "We have things to talk about, love."

"All right," she said, her voice calm.

#

It took nine days to get everything together and ready, supplies and a cart, and that was with everybody working as hard as they could. Presha was the biggest concern. By Rab's calculation--which was rough--she was only two weeks out now and Jaunt estimated it would take a little over a week to get to the shuttle.

Miter was a mess.

"We should wait until after the baby is born," he said, opening the argument again.

"We can't wait that long or we'll find system authority assuming Jaunt and I are dead and sending troops after the rogue Nix who killed us," Sutter said. "Or maybe not bothering with boots on the ground. You can't hide from the kind of satellite they could bring."

"She could give birth in the fucking forest, Sutter," Miter leaned in to say.

"She needs a real doctor," Rab said, joining them. "I'm just a medic, Miter. I don't have the training or the equipment, and I couldn't do anything for her if something went wrong."

Init, usually so quiet, was suddenly there in front of Miter. "You don't want to risk losing either one of them. Trust me, Miter."

Miter winced and then nodded. "You're right. We get there fast," he said. "We get there as fast as we can while keeping them safe."

Sutter didn't say the obvious. There wasn't going to be anything fast about moving twenty people, three of them children, two of them pregnant, across this landscape with the predatory animals out there. They'd be in handro country for part of it, and those women couldn't run.

The Nix had two sturdy carts with supplies, taking turns pulling them. If it rained, they would have to dig them out. The children went in one cart, although Usta and Wer sometimes got out to walk with an adult. Heta usually walked sometimes, but Presha mostly rode in the cart with the children.

As soon as they set out, they got an idea of what it was going to be like. It took all day to get the group downriver on the boat, three trips, leaving all of them exhausted by the end of it, battling the river in pouring rain, everyone wet and muddy. Their only grace was that because of the foul weather, there was no need for any bashing of the lulus.

They camped not far from the landing. Sutter had set up the device to discourage predators, but they kept watch all night, trading out.

"Sutter?" Isobet muttered as he got back in their bedroll, not dawn yet and Sutter hoping for a couple of hours, glad the bed was waterproof, glad she was in it, warm and soft.

"Yeah, baby," he said, pulling her close, smelling her. "Go back to sleep."

#

Three days in, they had an incident with a lotti, the animal outside its typical territory, a juvenile male who was hungry and willing to ignore the device, his ears flat and his head shaking, whining.

He came with a loping run toward the cart with the children. Oline simply moved into the animal's path, facing it, dark-haired, tall and calm. Sutter had never seen anyone move as fast as Rab did, hitting the animal's side running, knocking it down, the animal turning and snapping. Jaunt got close, pulled his pistol, and shot it in the head, three fast cracks that echoed and returned from the far hills.

#

Four days later, Wer fell into the water, playing at its edge when they stopped to camp, the boy's solemn face as he was swept downstream, Malia giving a shriek. Ero exploded into motion, Sutter behind him, slower. Sutter cut off the turn in the river in case the boy got past them, wading out and waiting in the fast river, keeping his feet. He finally backtracked to find Ero soaked, the boy on his father's lap and coughing, Cope and Miter standing over them, also dripping with water.

Malia came streaking up the path, Ulen behind her. Malia snatched Wer from his father and sat straight down, holding him. Ero moved, pulling them close as Malia buried her face in his chest and burst into tears.

#

Miter stayed by the cart with Presha as they walked. They stopped again.

"Sorry, everyone," Presha said, her hand on her belly, Miter helping her off the wagon. "I have to go into the bushes again."

#

It took too long, eleven days, but everyone got there safely, and Sutter was satisfied with that. Grateful. They pulled off the branches Jaunt had used to hide the shuttle.

"We're going to have to dump the cargo," Jaunt said, opening the door and staring inside. "Brosch is going to be pissed."

Sutter shrugged beside him. "I'll compensate him for it," he said, beginning to pull crates, the Nix joining him.

"I'll compensate him for it," Jaunt said in a muncy voice, mocking him.

Sutter turning, Jaunt looking elsewhere.

"What's the cargo?" Rab said.

"Shoes," Cope said, looking down into an opened crate.

In not too much time, seven large Nix, one ex-guard, six women--two pregnant--and three children were sitting in the back of the shuttle, all in homespun clothing with crude stitches and new shoes. Wer kept getting up to hop across the shuttle floor, his feet together, his long hair flying. Sutter closed the door, Jaunt powering up the shuttle. It made a high whine.

Sutter looked back, seeing Rab's face, all the big Nix looking alarmed. "What?"

"We're in handro country. That sound is going to bring every handro in the area," Rab said from the back.

"That's all right, doc. We're going to be off this rock before--" Jaunt said as the ground tremor hit and a handro, a huge female, broke from the trees to their right, heading for them, listing a little with the ground shake but on her way, roaring.

The unexpected followed by the unanticipated, right there, events proliferating fast, the unprepared-for on its way.

Sutter looked into the back, everything and everybody rocking and jolting, the Nix with their hands braced, shielding the others. Isobet's eyes were wide.

"Everyone on the floor!" Rab yelled over the sound of the handro bellowing.

"Time to go, Jaunt," Sutter said mildly, facing forward, his hand braced in front of him, watching the charging handro get larger very quickly as a hole opened up under the shuttle and they abruptly canted sideways, the front coming up, everybody yelling, the back-right corner slipping down at an angle. Cala was crying.

"The equalizer panel won't release the engines. It wants an even surface," Jaunt ground out, holding on to the console as they lurched and shuddered.

"Best to override that now," Sutter said.

The female handro arrived, green streaks, her head lowering to see into their window, the animal backpedaling at the last moment, trying to slow herself down, because she really wasn't very bright. She went over the edge of the hole, beginning to slide in the loose earth, colliding with and jostling the shuttle. She took them with her some, their view suddenly filled with the beast's side as she floundered. Her claws scraped on the outside of the shuttle as she tried to hold on, Usta screaming, unbelievably piercing, the hole under them widening and deepening.

Sutter had never met a stupider animal. But the handro persevered. "Be good to leave now," Sutter said as mildly.

"Stop panicking!" Jaunt yelled at him. "The panel released! Everybody hold on."

The shuttle shuddered as Jaunt hit the engines, the beast roaring as the engines fired, the shuttle creaking and shuddering, groaning as it began to lift, dirt raining on them from the edge, the hole still sinking. They hovered, wobbling, the shuttle struggling, and then it slowly lifted.

Sutter leaned and looked down as the handro bunched her legs. "She's going to jump!"

The animal gathered herself and sprang up, a powerful lunge. But her trajectory failed, the ground falling out from under her, a snap of her teeth as the shuttle lifted, trailing dirt. Sutter leaned and looked as the handro went down, still straining upward, still with her eyes trained on the shuttle, swimming in the dirt around her haunches, and then her belly, her chest, roaring. The hole took her body, and then it got to her neck and her face disappeared, her mouth still open as she got tinier with distance.

"That was close," Sutter said mildly.

"Don't start with me, Sutter, I swear," Jaunt said from between his teeth.

"Rab," Miter said. "Rab!"

Sutter looked back. Miter was holding Presha, who had doubled over herself, Rab climbing, trying to get to her, everyone else also on the floor and getting out of the way as Presha cried out.

"Okay, Presha," Rab said, his hand going to her belly. He looked up at Sutter and nodded.

"Son of a bitch," Sutter said, not at all mildly, gesturing ahead of them. "Pregnant. Big belly. Baby coming now. Drive faster, Jaunt."

"It's automated, stupid," Jaunt said, raising his voice, not at all sounding calm either. "Hold on, Presha. We'll be there soon!"

Presha cried out, Miter getting behind her and pulling her back against himself. She leaned on him, breathing, her eyes closed.

They found the end of atmosphere, the shuttle giving a loud bump as they made the transition, Usta giving another piercing scream as the engines built and fired, shooting them forward. The children had never been in a shuttle. They waited through the sounds of Presha struggling, Wer's eyes huge, curled up on Malia with his new shoes.

"Miter," Presha said. She was crying. "There's something wrong."

Sutter hit buttons for communications. "Atelone Central, this is Huntsman S-4062, heading for dock at Atelone Bay Five. Request clearance and an emergency medical team. Again, we are coming in with a medical emergency."

Presha cried out.

"This is Lead Darit, Corsa Security Forces," came back from the comm panel. "You are not clear to land. Return to your point of origin. Repeat, you are not clear to land. If you attempt to land, Corsa Security Forces have been authorized to use any measures necessary to stop you from disembarking."

Sutter shook his head, looking at Jaunt.

"What the fuck?" Jaunt said under his breath.

"Atelone Central, we have individuals in protective custody and a medical emergency. We are coming into Bay Five," Sutter said into the comm.

"Again, this is Lead Darit of Atelone Security Forces. We are complying with orders from Justica Alek Turne at System Central Authority. We have been informed that Forsyte Institute has been attacked by a group of Nix criminals and a rogue huntsman. A system-wide warrant has been issued for your arrest, Huntsman S-4062, with an authorization to use lethal force. We have been ordered to shoot any Nix on sight. Return to your point of origin. You cannot land here."

They were approaching Bay Five. Presha cried out again.

Sutter looked through the front window at the shuttle bay. Bruja had gotten a call out to someone at the SCA before they'd gotten to the control room. Four lines of fully armored security force soldiers were at Bay Five, armed. "That son of a bitch," he said to Jaunt. "Alek Turne was the name on Isobet's kill order."

The shuttle came in. Sutter turned around, the Nix tense. "Everyone stay in the shuttle until Jaunt and I work this out," he said. "We'll get you in there as soon as we can."

"Oh, no," Jaunt said. "You're staying here, Sutter."

"No fucking way," Sutter said. "I'm not letting you go out there alone."

"What part of we've-been-authorized-to-use-lethal-force-so-we're-going-to-shoot-you-for-no-fucking-reason didn't you understand, stupid?" Jaunt said. "Get out and I'll shoot you myself." Jaunt dove out of the shuttle, Sutter throwing himself back into the seat.

Sutter watched, his fists clenched, as four lines of security forces brought their weapons up, aiming at Jaunt. Jaunt moved slowly, opening his badge, the image coming high above his head, animating and enlarging. Jaunt had his hands up, walking slowly. "I am licensed Huntsman J-6390," Jaunt yelled. "I am invoking Huntsman Priority. I require an emergency medical team and an escort to the Atelone justica."

A soldier moved from behind the line of security forces, walking forward, two security force soldiers coming with him. Lead Darit, Sutter assumed.

Sutter couldn't hear. The guns were still raised. Jaunt was speaking, gesticulating. The soldier shook his head, also gesturing now. They talked some more and then Jaunt turned, making a come-hither motion.

Sutter breathed out, opening the door and ducking, exiting the shuttle, his hands up. He walked toward Jaunt, aware of the guns on him.

"Wer!" a woman's voice cried from behind him. Malia's voice.

Son of a bitch. "Do not shoot!" Sutter said, turning to the security forces, walking in front of them, between the guns and the shuttle.

Jaunt did the same. "He's a child!" Jaunt yelled. "Do not shoot!"

There was a patter of fast footsteps and then Wer came around the shuttle's other side, his long dark hair flying, running toward them.

Lead Darit looked shocked. "Guns down!" Lead Darit yelled, gesturing, all of the security forces soldiers lowering their guns, Sutter breathing out.

The boy stopped in front of Lead Darit, drawing himself up, solemn. "I'm Wer," he announced. "I'm five years old. I'm half a Nix."

"Hey, buddy," Lead Darit said, looking down at him. "What're you doing here?"

The shuttle doors opened and everyone looked as Ero slowly unfolded, huge, his Nix brand clearly visible on his arm. Coming for his boy.

Lead Darit backed up, his eyes darting, the soldiers bringing up their guns again, all of them aiming on Ero, who stopped, his hands in the air, going still. "Come here, Wer," Ero said into the silence, his voice tense.

Sutter got in front of him, his back to Ero, his hands still up. "They are not armed. They are not resisting. We have women in the shuttle and children. They are coming in voluntarily. Do not shoot."