The Hunted and the Hind

Chapter 1Escape Will Will came out of the rudimentary sanitary facilities, rubbing the linen towel over his damp hair. It was getting long. He’d lost count of exactly how many days he’d been here now. He thought about three months. It wasn’t a bad prison cell as prison cells went…he’d had a lot worse. But it was still confining, damned boring and lonely. He’d asked for some books early on and they’d given him a stack of different tomes in various languages and alphabets, some of which he could make out and some of which he couldn’t understand at all. All the same, they passed the time. He’d spent the first couple of weeks railing against the Frem who brought him his meals, planning how to get the better of them and get out. He’d gone so far as to attack one of them once and made it out into the winding, narrow stone corridor. But he’d been summarily recaptured and ended up on the sandy floor, face down with a knee in his back. “Will Grant, please do not try and get away,” the person sitting on him said calmly. “There is more going on than you know and you will make things harder for Fenn and their people to work against the Ternants. Be patient.” Will had wriggled over on to his back and looked up into the bland face, eyes covered by that disconcerting nictating membrane that the Frem employed when they wished to veil their emotions. “Against the Ternants?” he asked. That was the ruling council, who had sent Fenn from here to Will’s world and had held Fenn’s brother hostage and eventually killed him. His captor had nodded. Will had extended his othersense a little, enough to touch their kias, and had seen that they were telling the truth before they slammed their barriers down…and Will had nodded once, and acquiesced. He trusted Fenn. If this was what Fenn needed, then Will would do it. That was nearly three months ago. The person who had prevented his escape was named Lin and had been cautiously friendly, without giving Will any information that could help him escape. Will had read, and practised with his kias, and done calisthenics to try and keep himself in condition and once a week he had been allowed out to the bathing pools under Lin’s watchful eye. Lin had told him that water was precious up on the surface, but here in the underhalls, it was plentiful. The Frem made best use of it as a natural resource, piping it around the caves in the same ingenious way they used something called lim-moss that grew naturally down here as a light-source. Now, Will wandered out of the little bathroom with his hair wet and threw the towel onto the small table, then turned to absently finger the pages of one of the leather-bound books on his pile. He didn’t know what he was going to do today. Lin should be along soon with his breakfast and might have time to stop for a while and talk. That would pass some of the time. Then, out of the corner of his eye he saw something out of place. He spun around toward the door and stopped still, arrested. Behind him and to one side, out of his immediate vision coming out of the bathroom, Fenn was leaning a shoulder against the closed door to the corridor and watching him. Arms folded, as casually as if he hadn’t been absent for three months with no word. Will stared, shocked into silence. He had that moment of cognitive dissonance that he got sometimes with the Frem now he’d met more of them, the flicker of perception that bounced them between female and male. His mind couldn’t seem to categorise Fenn as one or the other, although he understood from Lin that they were both sexes in one. He wondered briefly what his friend Lew Tyler would say about his failure to respect people’s pronouns and made a mental note to ask him if they ever got home. Fenn was still staring back at him. He looked tired and rather thin. “Will Grant,” Fenn said, finally, uncrossing his arms and reaching out a hand toward Will. Will didn’t know whether he wanted to punch him or kiss him. He took a step toward him and grasped his palm, then pulled Fenn forward off the door and into his arms. Fenn jerked, startled, and then allowed it. “Jesus, Fenn!” He tightened his arms around him and his voice was muffled in Fenn’s long, fine hair. “Fenn! Where have you been?” Punching appeared to be off the table. He wanted to kiss him. There was no time to act on that, though, because Fenn stepped back and grasped Will’s shoulders in his long-fingered hands and looked him in the eye, secondary eye-lid open, emotions on show. In a rough voice he asked, “Do you trust me?” Will blinked. “Of course. Of course I trust you. Why?” “Come on, then. We don’t have much time. Put your boots on. Quickly.” Will complied, sliding his feet in to the low, leather Fremish boots they’d given him. “Where are we going?” he asked, as he did so, squishing all his other questions down deep inside him. “Home, hopefully. If it works. But we need to go now.” “Home? London?” “Yes, if I get it right. But it has to be now. Hurry up, there’s not much of a window.” Will laced the boots and buckled on the Webley holster Fenn was holding out to him. It was his own. They’d removed it when they shut him in here. He dragged the long, loose over-coat they’d also given him on top of everything, shrugging into it even though it was warm in the underground room. He looked around. Anything else that was his? No. “Ready,” he said, drawing himself up. Fenn nodded. “Come on then.” They hustled along the corridor. They didn’t meet anyone—Will’s room seemed to be in the middle of a quiet area. There was never much bustle to be heard going past the door, and it was early in the waking period so not many people were about anyway. “Where are we going?” he asked again and they followed the twists and turns of the sandy tunnel, lit by the creeping lim-moss along the walls. “Shhh,” Fenn replied. “Let me concentrate. I need to use kias.” Will nodded, behind Fenn where Fenn couldn’t see him, and expanded his own othersense a little to try and follow what Fenn was doing. He got a sense of reaching out, listening, in much the same way Will was listening to Fenn. But that was all. “Here.” Fenn stopped them at a junction in the corridor. “Down this way.” It was a side-passage, branching off their larger throughfare. It was even narrower and after a few yards it twisted and there were steps downward. The mossy lim-light was plentiful and lit the ancient worn-smooth dips in the stone steps. It was obviously an old part of the cave complex. Fenn speeded up, the old army coat Alec had given him billowing out behind him—why was he still wearing that after all this time?—and Will followed as closely as he could. After three or four turns the narrow spiral of the stair levelled out again and Fenn stopped so abruptly that Will ran into him and jabbed himself on Fenn’s sword where it was slung over his back. “Sorry,” Fenn said, absently, standing stock still. He was clearly still listening with his kias, head tilted characteristically a little to one side. After a moment he said, “Come on, this way,” and started forward again, down yet another, narrower tunnel. Will followed without question. He didn’t want to break Fenn’s concentration. “Here,” Fenn said finally, after a few more swift twists and turns. “Let’s try here.” He opened a small, worn-looking door and ushered Will through in front of him, following him in and shutting it behind them. It was a tiny, empty chamber, well covered in lim-moss. There was a stone bench carved out of one wall and nothing else. Will was panting a bit and worried he was going to cough. His gas-damaged lungs hadn’t improved during his captivity in the stuffy indoor atmosphere of the underhalls. “Sit,” Fenn said, gesturing to the stone slab absently. “We have a little time. It’s still building.” Will sat obediently on the warm stone and Fenn delved under his coat, bringing out a large water bottle and proffered it, attention still mostly elsewhere, head c****d like a pointer. “Here,” he said. “Try not to cough. I’m not sure how close we are, but this corridor backs on to the main halls. There’ll be air-vents.” Will choked back something that could have been either a cough or a laugh and took a sip gratefully, leaning his head back against the wall behind him and taking the opportunity to rest. It was even warmer down here than in his cell and it felt damp. They must be close to the underground pools. Lin had said this whole complex was under scorching, dry desert hills and there were both hot and cold springs deep underground that they used to support what sounded like a large underground city. He passed the flask back to Fenn, who took it and made it disappear under his layers again and finally sat down beside him, leaning forward and propping his elbows on his knees. His hair fell in an unbound curtain and he pushed it back behind his ear irritably and then sat up and began to plait it. “We have a few moments,” he said. “The Ternants are trying to open another gate tonight. If we are lucky, we should be able to use the edges of the kias to slip through.” “To where?” Will asked. He had utterly failed to get a grip on all this moving between worlds and times palaver. That was possibly due to the blow to the head he’d got during one of his early escape attempts, but more likely because there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. He knew it was possible intellectually, but he had no idea how it actually worked. “Wait!” Fenn held up a hand, springing back to his feet, head tilted again in that listening position. He stepped forward and drew his sword. That wasn’t good. Will stood up too and fumbled for his Webley. He didn’t even know if it still worked, or whether it was loaded. “What is it?” he said. “What’s going on?” “I’m not sure,” Fenn said. “Someone is coming. They are using kias to hide themselves.” That wasn’t good at all. Will finally picked something up with his kias at the same time as he heard scuffling outside. The bright sense of self that he usually got when he sensed a person was clouded and vague. The door began to open and Fenn raised his sword, ready to attack. “Fenn, Fenn, it’s only me. Stand down, child.” Will got the sense of their sentence from his long months as Lin’s student in his cell. An older Frem followed the words and slid into the room around the partly-opened door, yanking someone with their face covered with a hood behind them by their upper arm and shutting the door behind them. They leaned back on it, breathing hard, not letting go of the person they were holding. “Ana!” Fenn sheathed the sword in a single movement and went to them, holding them by their elbows as they caught their breath. “What’s going on?” He glanced over at Will, who still had the Webley drawn. “This is Ana, my parent.” Ana shoved their companion toward Fenn and he caught the propelled figure by their upper arms. Will held the Webley steady. It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Ana, exactly. But this was all very peculiar and he didn’t like it or feel safe. At that point, Ana dropped whatever masking kias they had been holding and Will could feel them and their companion as two separate entities. “Keren-ke!” Fenn’s voice was full of shock and pain as from their place behind the smaller figure, Ana pulled the concealing hood from their companion. Fenn stared. “Keren!” he said again. It was a boy. Child. A child. Neither boy nor girl, Will corrected himself as he holstered his revolver. They were pale, like Fenn and Ana, with silver hair and huge dark eyes that were filling with tears as they stared at Fenn. “Fenn-se!” they said. The two of them stepped closer and wrapped their arms round each other in an embrace. “No time,” snapped Ana, in English, glancing at Will to include him in the conversation. “My apologies, Fenn, Will Grant. The fewer people who knew the better. You need to take them with you. I had help to get them away, but there’s very little time. Go. Don’t come back, any of you. We will do better with you alive than dead, both of you. I will find you when it’s safe for you to return. Don’t plan to come back, Fenn, not until I tell you it’s safe. Stay away. You don’t owe the Ternants or the Hunters anything, you’ve done your duty to the Frem. We all have.” Fenn looked at her over Keren’s shoulder. “Ana…” he said. But it trailed off. “Ana. What are you planning?” “What I should have done years ago. Malach has exceeded their authority. It is time for change. But you must take Keren and keep them safe. They’re too young to be involved and I cannot allow them to be used as leverage again.” They broke off and put their head up like a deer scenting the wind. “It’s nearly time. It’s building. Are you ready?” Fenn passed the quiescent Keren to Will. The child seemed stunned, blinking uncertainly and swaying to and fro. “Are they drugged?” Will asked Ana sharply. “Yes,” Ana nodded. “They have been keeping them dosed so we couldn’t sense their kias. It should wear off in two or three days. It’s making them sleepy.” Will nodded, all business. “Anything else we should know to help them?” Ana shook their head. “Plenty of water. Sleep. Time.” Will nodded again. “We’ll see to it.” Although they were covering it up well, Ana was upset. “We’ll take care of them, Madam. Don’t worry.” Ana stepped forward and embraced Fenn and then Keren, who still stood, swaying slightly. As they held them, Keren put their arms around Ana and Ana pulled them in close. “Namma,” they said, voice slow like treacle. “Namma, what’s happening?” “Child,” their voice was a whisper. “Go with Fenn, Keren-ra. Fenn will keep you safe.” “Fenn? Fenn,” Keren turned in their arms, toward Fenn. “Fenn-se! They told me you were dead.” They were blinking, confused. “Likewise,” Fenn’s voice was wry, but Will heard the effort it took for him to keep it that way. “We need to go. They’re raising the circle.” That sounded important. Will looked between Fenn and Ana. “I have absolutely no idea what is going on. What do you need me to do?” Ana choked back a laugh, or perhaps a sob. “I wish there had been more time to get to know you better, Will Grant. I think you will suit Fenn very well.” Will blushed. “Madam! Concentrate! What do you need me to do?” “Hold Keren. And keep a hold of Fenn.” They passed Keren almost like a parcel over to Will, and he put his right arm around the boy automatically. Fenn stepped backward and linked his right arm through Will’s left. He had drawn his sword again. Ana stepped to one side, pressed against the wall of the room. Will could hear faint chanting that seemed to herald the Ternants working with the shimmer. He’d heard it before, in London at the start of this confusing adventure. “Now?” Ana asked Fenn. Fenn nodded. “Now. Thank you for helping, Ana. It makes it easier with two.” She nodded. They watched each other, obviously synchronising their breathing. “Do you need my kias?” Will asked. “Please,” Fenn muttered on an out-breath. “If you can.” Will began to breathe with them as well and sent as much kias as he could to Fenn. As he linked with them, he felt the shimmer expand around him, thick and warm, like a comfortable bath. To one side, through the rock walls, he could feel the Ternants working. The sensation Will could feel was the backwash from whatever they were doing with their kias. It was extremely strong. The shimmer began to glow a few feet in front of them, the result of whatever Fenn was doing. It was very close to them in the tiny cell. Except for Keren, they were all breathing as if they had been exercising heavily, syncronised. Keren just hung there, under Will’s sheltering arm. Will drew him tight against his side. The glow of the shimmer intensified. “Now?” asked Ana. “Nearly,” said Fenn. “Nearly…” They kept breathing. It felt like using a pump. Will and Ana were pumping kias to Fenn. Fenn was pumping it into the shimmer. The glow kept intensifying. After another minute, Fenn said, “Now. Now.” He stopped pumping, hesitated, and looked over to Ana. “Namma…” Fenn said, plaintively. “Go, go.” Ana made shushing motions with their hands. “There’s no time for this, child. Think of your destination and then go! Go!” Their voice was strong, although Will noticed that there were tears on their cheeks. The shimmer started to spark with little flecks of light in front of them. It was reaching its peak. Will remembered this from before, when he had blundered through after Fenn and the carnas. Fenn was weeping openly and Keren suddenly began to move out from under Will’s arm toward Ana. “Namma?” Keren said, reaching out and stepping forward, away from Will, “Namma? What’s happening?” Will pulled him in tight to his side again and thought Well, at least one of us has his brother back. Fenn seemed frozen in place at this crucial moment. “Fenn, you must go! Will! Take them through!” Ana’s voice was becoming frantic. “We won’t get this chance again and I need Keren away and safe before I confront Malach!” Neither Fenn nor Keren seemed to be moving. It was down to Will. Damn it. He hated it when things were down to him. He’d stepped back from that as much as he could since he’d got knocked about in the mess in Egypt before he’d got redeployed to France. Apparently he couldn’t avoid it. The Ternant’s singing was getting louder and louder and the shimmer was now too bright to look at directly. “Go! Go! Please!” Ana’s voice was alarmed. Will held on to both siblings as firmly as he could and stepped into the bright pool of light.