The Children of the Sky

Amdi was making a strange medley of sounds. There was the whimpering, almost the sound of a human child. There were chords that she didn’t understand, and there was the pack’s little boy voice speaking in tones that were full of self-loathing: “The Ritl animal has been a troublemaker from the beginning. She is not smart, but she is always saying the wrong thing when I try to perform. You saw that too, right? She almost got us killed at Winch Top. At the same time, she is in my personal space every chance she gets.”

Jefri’s voice was soft: “She’s a singleton, Amdi. She can’t live apart.”

The whimpering got a little louder. Ravna had a sense of quick motion within the pack, heard a pair of jaws snapping on air. Jefri made soothing sounds. “Don’t be so hard on yourself, Amdi.”

After a moment, the little boy voice continued, “Sigh. I knew Ritl was an issue the moment she turned up, but I thought—I hoped it would be like in the romances. Ritl would make Screwfloss whole again! It would have solved both their problems. Instead, that stupid remnant has no interest in her. And Ritl doesn’t like Screwfloss either. Then she made, um, advances towards me. But so what, I thought. I am so perfectly matched. There is nothing that having another member could cause me except harm.”

Amdi didn’t say anything for a moment, though the whimpering continued. “… Tonight I was strung out all the way around the campsite. It’s really kind of an interesting way to be. I get very stupid, but I can see so much and the thoughts rattle around one step at a time, each of me adding a little insight.” The whimpering got louder. It wasn’t a group sound; it was coming from the three members hunched down closest to the ground. “Ritl came in among me. She didn’t sneak up exactly; I knew she was there. She started bothering the parts of me…” Amdi’s voice rose into keening: “the parts who like her.” He twisted around, jaws snapping. Jefri reached down, risking some nasty cuts to caress a head here and there. After a moment, coherence returned to the eightsome. “Ritl is tearing me apart!”

Chapter   30

The maps showed a town thirty kilometers up the road. There were nearer ones on other roads, but this was their best bet for a full provisioning. From there, they could sneak forward, scouting Woodcarver’s border forts for the safest one to approach.

This would be their last show, and then the real climax would be ahead. Meanwhile …

Ravna rode atop the wagon. Nominally, she was driving, though she suspected that all by herself, Ravna-from-the-stars could not have managed a team of four kherhogs. Their cooperation was more likely due to Remnant Screwfloss, who was almost always here and there around the animals, bullying them along.

Jefri and Amdi walked together, dropping further back than usual, their forms almost lost in the morning fog. The eightsome was clustered tight, the posture a pack normally used when in a crowd or coping with bad acoustics or needing to do hard thinking. The fog alone couldn’t account for that posture. Since his midnight collapse, the pack had been like this, cheerless and quiet, talking in low tones to his Best Friend.

Ravna gave the reins a tentative slap, just to let the kherhogs know that she wasn’t asleep. She glanced at her companion atop the wagon. “So is that what you are, Ritl? A pack wrecker?”

Ritl cocked her head toward Ravna. It was hard to see any expression in a singleton’s posture, but the animal seemed to have some understanding. Is she laughing at me? This morning, Ritl’s leash was tied short to the cargo railing behind the driver’s bench. Getting her up here had been a struggle. She seemed to think that after last night’s shenanigans she had achieved privileged status. Her hissing complaints had continued some minutes after they got on the road. Then she had settled into near silence, staring back along the road in Amdi’s direction. Every so often Ravna felt a buzzing sensation through the wood of the driver’s bench, probably a side effect of Ritl’s shouting ultrasonic endearments.

Ravna continued her one-sided conversation with the creature: “You know, among humans, it’s considered very bad form to break up another’s relationship, even if you’re needy yourself.”

“Very bad form, very bad form,” Ritl looped on the phrase a few times. Then her gaze returned to the object of her immoral advances.

Calling Ritl a “pack wrecker” was not just a figure of speech. Poor Amdiranifani was simply too big to take on another member. That’s what he claimed, anyway, and Jefri agreed. Amdi probably couldn’t even retain a puppy born of his own pack. Accepting an unrelated adult member would surely split the eightsome. The three male members who were enamored of Ritl would break away. Amdi said that one female was wavering. Either possibility would be the end of Amdi.