Earthfall (Homecoming) (40 page)

Shedemei heard what Issib said to her through the Index. “It’s dawn, and we’re well away from the village, but we’re slow, Shedya, and an army of diggers could have us by noon.”

To this Shedemei replied, “There will be no army today or tomorrow.”

“Just remember, Shedya,” Issib answered. “There’s only one of you to protect all of us. Don’t be noble. Don’t be fair. Prevail.”

“Good advice, Issya. Now let me go and follow it.”

For all her confidence, Shedemei was reluctant to leave the shelter of the starship, to make the door seal itself behind her. Wearing the cloak gave her a feeling of connection and closeness to every part of the ship, but in truth she had felt not very differently before. The ship was where her tools were, her library, her work, her career, herself. Stepping out into the village—the remnant of the village, the mostly deserted human-built houses—she was becoming someone else. Nafai must have relished this, thought Shedemei, this feeling of power, of control. But I don’t. I’m not interested to find out how much power can be focused through my flesh. I have no desire to know just how strong a jolt I can give someone without killing him.

To be fair, Nafai might not have loved it either. But good-hearted as he might be, he
was
a man, and men seemed to find an obscene amount of pleasure in having the upper hand, in winning. Shedemei, on the other hand, simply wanted to
know
. But maybe it wasn’t a matter of men and women. Maybe it was just that Shedemei’s connection to other people was never very strong, compared to her love for her work, her devotion to understanding the way life worked. Is that really different, though? she wondered. Nafai and Elemak were born to rule men and determined to win out over each other. But I feel myself also born to rule, not men or women but organisms, genetic codes, life systems, ecologies. And, like Nafai and Elemak, I
will
have my way.

The problem today would not be Elemak, not really. The problem would be the diggers. Shedemei could easily stop Elemak and his few human followers. But there was no way she could seek out and block all of Fusum’s soldiers, and they were the ones who would do the killing if they reached the Nafari while they were traveling, encumbered as they were by children and infants, by supplies and flocks and herds.

So whatever Shedemei did, she would have to persuade the diggers that they must wait; if the diggers did not go, then Elemak would also have to wait.

Thus it was that Shedemei walked through the village, paying no attention to the shouting as Elemak, Mebbekew, and Protchnu searching all the houses, ransacked them, really, screaming to each other about the betrayal, about all those who had gone. Mebbekew saw her and called out to her, then went howling off to find Elemak, crying out that Shedemei had stayed, Shedemei couldn’t leave the ship after all. “We have the laboratories! We have the computers! We have the Oversoul!” Time enough to disabuse him of this delusion later.

She made her way to where the digger watchmen were conferring in terror, wondering what would happen to them when Fusum learned that somehow they had all slept through the night, seeing nothing, hearing nothing, as most of the humans slipped away. “Fusum will kill you,” she said in her halting digger language.

They answered her in human speech, for which she was grateful. “What can we do? What happened to us? Someone poisoned us!”

“It was the Keeper of Earth,” she said. “The Keeper of Earth has rejected you, because a murderer rules over you. You have chosen a murderer to be your blood king and your war king.” Then, with some effort, she made her skin begin to glow. “Did you think that when Fusum desecrated the statue of the Untouched God, it would go unnoticed?”

She hated doing this. It had taken a great deal of effort to break them free of superstition, and here she was rekindling all their old fears and faiths. But how else could she control them, given the few powers that she had?

They were supine before her, offering their underbellies in a gesture of submission.

“I don’t want your naked bellies,” she said. “Stand like men, for once. If you had stood like men before, the Keeper of Earth would not be so angry with you now.”

“What should we do, great one?”

“Bring me the friend-killer, the liar who murdered Nen on the hunt.”

The charge was like an electric current suddenly flowing through them. “So it was not the panther! Not the panther!” they said.

“There was a panther,” said Shedemei, “but the panther killed a man who had been struck down by a blow from a friend.” Even as she said it, she wondered if it was true, and, if it was, how she knew it.

The voice of the Oversoul was clear and strong inside her head.

Could it be true? she asked.

But we set twelve satellites in orbit, she said. You must be able to see, even if you can’t hear their thoughts.

Furiously Shedemei responded, Well, I program you
now
to treat diggers and angels as if they were human, too.

Then do this, said Shedemei silently. Remember that because the humans have to live among diggers and angels now, our safety and survival depend on you watching what these sentient aliens do. You must always know.

Do your best.

Within your limits, within a reasonable set of priorities, do your best.

Don’t pretend to be helpless. I know what you are,
who
you are, and you don’t need me to explain things to you. Now do your best to help me understand Elemak.

Shedemei almost said, I wasn’t planning to. But then she realized that in the back of her mind that was exactly what she had planned. Fusum and Elemak, both of them dead and therefore the Nafari safe.

Why not kill him? she asked.

I haven’t done anything to him yet.

How can you know this?

So Nafai thinks that I need Elemak to keep the diggers in check.

Nafai was planning this all along, wasn’t he? When he gave me the cloak, he knew he would need me to do this.

Victory?

They dragged Fusum out of a hole in the ground and spread-eagled him before her. He hissed and howled and cursed her. She gave him the mildest of jolts, and his body spasmed. “Hold your tongue,” she said.

He held his tongue.

She had them bring him along into the human village, where now Elemak and Protchnu stood, with all the other humans gathered behind them.

Shedemei spoke to Elemak. “Tell Mebbekew to come out in the open and join you where you stand, Elya, or I’ll have to make an example of him and it won’t be nice.”

Elemak laughed. “So, underneath our shy and quiet Shedemei there was a queen waiting to emerge. All it took was a little bit of power, and here you are, lord of all.”

In the meantime, Mebbekew had slunk out from behind one of the houses and now stood behind Elemak. “Nafai took our women,” Mebbekew complained.

“I’m sure that if you ask him, Protchnu will teach you how to ease your deprivation,” Shedemei said. Protchnu glowered. So did Mebbekew, when he got it.

“I see you’ve already seized control of the diggers,” said Elemak, gesturing toward the captive Fusum.

“On the contrary,” said Shedemei. “I’ve seized control of nothing. I have merely accused this man, Fusum, of murdering his friend Nen.”

“I didn’t kill him,” Fusum said.

“He clubbed him down when he knew a panther was stalking them,” said Shedemei. “Only when he knew that Nen was dead did he lunge forward and kill the panther.”

“Why are you telling me this?” asked Elemak.

“Are you not the one that has been chosen to unite humans and diggers into one people?” asked Shedemei. “Are you not the one who will found the nation of the Elemaki?”

Elemak chuckled. “Oh, of course,” he said. “Of course the starmaster has always wanted me to rule.”

“The starmaster intends to take this starship into space on the day the launch returns with my husband inside it.”

“And when will that happy day come?”

“When the great nation of the Nafari is safe.”

“As long as I’m alive, there will never be such a day,” said Elemak.

Oh, yes, Nafai almost certainly would have had to kill him. “Safe enough,” she said. “Because you know and I know that you will only be able to lead your soldiers against their redoubt so many times before the people will cease to follow you. You’re a born leader, Elemak. You’ll know how far you can push and goad and persuade. And it won’t be far enough. Nafai and his people will be safe.”

“How many days?” Elemak said. He understood the bargain.

“I think it will take you at least eight days to examine the crimes of this traitor. You’ll have to find witnesses among his soldiers who will publicly confess about all the others who were murdered after Emeezem died. Justice takes time.”

“Eight days.”

“Or until the launch comes back. You’ll also be busy moving your village so nobody gets killed when the ship takes off.”

“I can see my work is cut out for me.”

Protchnu was furious. “You aren’t going to accept this corrupt bargain, are you, Father? That snake took half your family, half
my
family—”

Shedemei interrupted him. “Everyone who went with Nafai went of their own free will.”

“And we’re supposed to believe that?” said Protchnu. “Maybe Father will agree to your bargain in exchange for power over
these
—” he indicated the diggers with disdain “—but
I
will track them and hunt them down and my spear will take Nafai’s heart out of his body!”

“And your mother’s, too?” said Shedemei. “Because the only way she’ll ever come back to Elemak is if she’s dead.”

“She’s already dead!” screamed Protchnu. “She has no soul!”

“You have to forgive the boy,” said Elemak. “He’s distraught.”

“He just doesn’t understand what he’s dealing with,” said Shedemei. She reached out a hand toward Protchnu.

“No!” cried Elemak. But the air was already sparking with power, and Protchnu bounced into the air, his limbs cavorting madly. Then he fell to the ground, still twitching, and he whimpered, long high sighs that trembled as they faded. “You are really a bitch after all,” whispered Elemak.

“I think it’s useful for everyone to see that the Keeper of Earth does not leave her servants without power,” said Shedemei. “Now let everyone see how Elemak does justice. Call your witnesses, confer with the leaders of the digger people, and when in eight days or so you reach your judgment, all of us will see whether you are fit to be named the war king of the Elemaki. If the voice of the diggers and the voice of the humans are united in calling for you to lead them, then I will make you war king, and you will lead this people with authority.”

Elemak smiled at her, since of course he knew full well that she was trading the freedom of these diggers for the safety of the Nafari. He bent down and helped his son rise, shaking, to his feet.

“Remember, though,” said Shedemei. “I said
war
king. There will be no more blood king among the people. Do you all hear me?”

They heard.

“This one has defiled the office so that it can never be held worthily again. From now on it is forbidden to eat the flesh of angel or human. Any man who eats that forbidden flesh will be as guilty as if he ate the flesh of his own child. That is now the law of all people, through all the world! And you will enforce it over all the diggers of every land!”

“Thanks for the assignment,” said Elemak softly.

“I think you’ll come to see the wisdom of teaching them not to think of humans as a snack,” said Shedemei, just as quietly. “If they can eat your enemies, Elya, how long before they decide that you are also a comestible?”

“I got the point already,” said Elemak. “Now are you done?”

“No diggers following the Nafari,” said Shedemei.

“Do you think we won’t be able to follow the trail?” asked Elemak.

“No assassins on the road,” she said.

“I know the bargain,” said Elemak. “I know that I’ve been humiliated again, and this time Nafai took my wife and half my family, and you struck down my son. But I can live with that, because you’ve given me a nation. A nation of ugly rodents who live in dirt, but I’ve dealt with worse in caravans on Harmony, even though they walked in human shape. I
will
stand over Nafai’s body someday, Shedemei, regardless of what you think. But if it makes you feel better, I won’t eat him. And I won’t let anybody else eat him, either. Except perhaps the crows and vultures.”