Chapter 12 - Part II

"Someone is near." Davin's ears perked up as he scanned for the alien sound of sentient life miles away.  His compromised ears poked out from underneath the scarf that covered his charred eyes and he inhaled deeply, seeing if his nostrils could provide more information.

"He comes from the northeast.  Quickly.  Panicked." Anita relayed to her companion, "He is coming here.  A gegleth." and she turned her back to him once again, humming a forgotten tune as she entered one of the hut ruins and proceeded to thrust her hands into a long empty basin of stone that once served as a vessel for cool, crystal clear water from the nearby springs.  Her pretend basket of berries she submerged and retrieved several times, clearing the imagined debris to prepare them for cooking or drying.

Then suddenly, she stopped.

"Two more.  One soldier in armor.  One young man, or maybe a woman." Davin acknowledged her report, though he could not verify her claim with his own ears yet.

"How much time until they arrive?"he asked, as he followed a whim to go through the motions of cleaning the carcass of a mountain goat that had existed only in his mind.  If he were alone, he might have resisted, but the allure of falling into their old routine was too powerful with her going through the motions in the kitchen.

"At least 8 hours.  Considering the gegleth will not travel during the heat of day, I do not think it will arrive until past midnight." she continued to shake the water dripping from the basket until she was satisfied that not one drop of imaginary water was left.

Davin stopped his motions and looked at her in her trance.  "What should we do about it?"

"I don't know."

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Heavy panting cleanly echoed off of the sweeping granite walls of the alpine valley.  The major moon was high in the night sky, giving off a radiant glow of moonlight on the silent ruins of the old Woodswalker village.  Minutes later, the blue antenna of the gegleth could be seen.  The two bei had been waiting for him, silently laying where once their bed of down and fleece stood.  The straw roof long gone, their dried out eyes pointed directly to the stars, though they could not see them.  Sound, touch, smell and taste could not travel so far from the heavens.

They got up to greet the gegleth in the village's path.  They could sense the sweat beading from the creature's forehead.

"He smells strangely." Anita whispered in the ear of her fellow bei.  "Where is his usual scent of lilac blossoms?"

"It is fear." Davin replied simply under his breath, "But I have never smelled the lilacs before."

"They all smell of lilacs."

"I see."

They were interrupted by the gegleth when he approached them.  "The woman follows." he said in desperate, scratchy and broken speech,  short of breath.  Not at all the charming voice Anita was accustomed to hearing.  "She was captured.  Escaped?  Unknown.  Tkkt tkkt."

"Sit down and rest insect." Davin ordered though his voice was devoid of condescension.

The gegleth looked at the two bei with a measure of offense but said nothing.  The gegleth creatures and the bei often crossed paths in their service to the bei'thal and the Empire, but never had cause to interact.  Yet this was the only option available to him now.

"You are the gegleth who dug the tunnels at the Archne Estate?" Anita accused, frustrated perhaps at her inability to distinguish the smells of the gegleth with his mask of fear.

"Tttcchhkkt." he sighed, "No... not all gegleth look alike kind lady."

"It does not matter.  We cannot see." Davin informed.

A pause between the three of them lingered uncomfortably for the gegleth as he anticipated further questions, but got none from the two.  They waited patiently for something to happen, but seemed unable to serve as catalyst.

"Chtrttcht is the name.  Humans cannot say it, so call this creature Chet."

"Your name is not interesting." replied Anita before the creature finished the last syllable of his sentence.

"The bei'thal no longer act in shadow.  This has been learned for the bei'thal."

This sentence finally won the attention of the two bei, though the victory was only momentary.  "Do you have orders from a bei'thal for us?"

"No.  The Vaughn bei'thal ordered a return to the Pho-Boteth place.  But shouldn't the one who is yourself concern themself with the news this one brings?"

"That information is useless to a bei.  Tell it to a bei'thal.  Why have you not returned to the city?" Anita questioned.

"The Archne follows."

This also won another few moments of undivided attention, but the bei did not know what to do with this information.

"The Archne comes here." he added.

"We know." Davin arched his head to better hear the two humans in pursuit.

"I cannot hear its voice.  Where is its guiding song?" Anita whined to her counterpart.

"The Silent Scholar cannot hear us." Davin reminded her.

"And we have no bei'thal.  We cannot help you insect."

"Perhaps you will stay in this house." Davin pointed to one of the ruins.  He, like Anita, had no ability to plan what to do, but his instincts told him that if he and his former love put themselves between the quarry of the Archne woman and Zaexyl herself, a situation might resolve itself.

"She is here." Anita noted without warning.