CHAPTER 19

Johanna coughed; things just seemed to go from bad to worse around here. She'd had a sore throat and sniffles the last three days. She didn't know whether to be frightened or not. Diseases were an everyday thing in medieval times. Yeah, and lots of people died of them, too! She wiped her nose and tried to concentrate on what Woodcarver was saying.

"Scrupilo has already made some gunpowder. It works just as Dataset predicted. Unfortunately, he nearly lost a member trying to use it in a wooden cannon. If we can't make cannon, I'm afraid --"

Note

!IMP PRO RETRO I think the humans should call the spacecraft a ship 
! This is consistent with the notion that interstellar travel is a big 
! deal. 

A week ago, Woodcarver wouldn't have been welcome here; all their meetings had been down in the castle halls. But then Johanna got sick -- it was a "cold", she was sure -- and hadn't felt like running around out of doors. Besides, Scriber's visit had kind of ... shamed her. Some of the packs were decent enough. She had decided to try and get along with Woodcarver -- and Pompous Clown too, if he'd ever come around again. As long as creatures like Scarbutt stayed out of her way.... Johanna leaned a little closer to the fire and waved away Woodcarver's objections; sometimes this pack seemed like her eldest grandmother. "Assume we can make them. We have lots of time till summer. Tell Scrupilo to study the dataset more carefully, and quit trying shortcuts. The question is, how to use them to rescue my star ship."

Woodcarver brightened. The drooler broke off wiping its muzzle to join the others in a head bob. "I've talked about this with Peregr -- with several people, especially Vendacious. Ordinarily, getting an army to Hidden Island would be a terrible problem. Going by sea is fast, but there are some deadly choke points along way. Going through the forest is slow, and the other side would have plenty of warning. But great good luck: Vendacious has found some safe trails. We may be able to sneak --"

Someone was scratching at the door.

Woodcarver cocked a pair of heads. "That's strange," she said.

"Why?" Johanna asked absently. She hiked the quilt around her shoulders and stood. Two of Woodcarver went with her to the door.

Johanna opened the door and looked into the fog. Suddenly Woodcarver was talking loudly, all gobble. Their visitor had retreated. Something was strange, and for an instant she couldn't figure what it was. This was the first time she had seen a dogthing all by itself. The point barely registered when most of Woodcarver spilled past her, out the doorway. Then Johanna's servant, up in the loft, began screaming. The sound jabbed pain through Johanna's ears.

Note

!INCON make use of armor consistent 

The lone Tine twisted awkwardly on its rear and tried to drag itself away, but Woodcarver had it surrounded. She shouted something and the screeching in the loft stopped. There was the thump of paws on wooden stairs, and the servant bounded into the open, its crossbows cocked. From down the hill, she heard the rattle of weapons as guards raced toward them.

Johanna ran to Woodcarver, ready to add her fists to any defense. But the pack was nuzzling the stranger, licking its neck. After a moment, Woodcarver caught the Tine by its jacket. "Help me carry him inside, Johanna please."

The girl lifted the Tine's flanks. The fur was damp with mist ... and sticky with blood.

Then they were through the doorway and laying the member on a pillow by the fire. The creature was making that breathy whistling, the sound of ultimate pain. It looked up at her, its eyes so wide she could see the white all around. For an instant she thought it was terrified of her, but when she stepped back, it just made the sound louder and stretched its neck toward her. She knelt beside the pillow. It lay its muzzle on her hand.

"W-what is it?" She looked back along its body, past the padded jacket. The Tine's haunches were twisted at an odd angle, one legged dangling near the fire.

"Don't you know --" began Woodcarver. "This is part of Jaqueramaphan." She pushed a nose under the dangling leg, and raised it onto the pillow.

Note

!CHKd sp forepaw 

There was loud talk between the guards and Johanna's servant. Through the door she saw members holding torches; they rested their forepaws on their fellows shoulders, and held the lights high. No one tried to come in; there'd be no room.

Johanna looked back at the injured Tine. Scriber? Then she recognized the jacket. The creature looked back at her, still wheezing its pain. "Can't you get a doctor!"

Note

!QU Is it okay that I haven't mentioned earlier in this scene that the 
! dataset is present? YES 

Woodcarver was all around her. She answered, "I am a doctor, Johanna." She nodded at the dataset and continued softly, "At least, what passes for one here."

Johanna wiped blood from the creature's neck. More kept oozing. "Well, can you save him?"

Note

!QU use of "men" okay here? Best? 
!V  No, because she is speaking in Samnorsk! 
!V  This is a general principle of Samnorsk which you should carefully  
!V  enforce 

"This fragment maybe, but --" One of Woodcarver went to the door and talked to the packs beyond. "My people are searching for the rest of him.... I think he is mostly murdered, Johanna. If there were others ... well, even fragments stick together."

Note

!RETRO the use of different voices 

"Has he said anything?" It was another voice, speaking Samnorsk. Scarbutt. His big ugly snout was stuck through the doorway.

"No," said Woodcarver. "And his mind noise is a complete jumble."

"Let me listen to him," said Scarbutt.

"You stay back, you!" Johanna's voice was a scream; the creature in her arms twitched.

Note

!CHKd sp part*way is not in webster 

"Johanna! This is Scriber's friend. Let him help." As the Scarbutt pack sidled into the room, Woodcarver climbed into the loft, giving him room.

Johanna eased her arm from under the injured Tine and moved aside, ending up at the doorway herself. There were lots more packs outside than she had imagined, and they were standing closer than she had ever seen. Their torches glowed like soft fluorescents in the foggy dark.

Her gaze snapped back to the fire pit. "I'm watching you!"

Scarbutt's members clustered around the pillow. The big one lay its head next to the injured Tine's. For a moment the Tine continued its breathy whistling. Scarbutt gobbled at it. The reply was a steady warbling, almost beautiful. From up in the loft, Woodcarver said something. She and Scarbutt talked back and forth.

"Well?" said Johanna.

Note

!QU proper to italicize Ja here and not in the Tinish scene preceding? 

"Ja -- the fragment -- is not a 'talker'," came Woodcarver's voice.

Note

!QU have I had enough previous discussion of how not all pack members 
! are articulate? 

"Worse," said Scarbutt. "For now at least, I can't match his mind sounds. I'm not getting sense or image from him; I can't tell who murdered Scriber."

Note

!?Slight INCON between this and the next paragraph 

Johanna stepped back into the room, and walked slowly to the pillow. Scarbutt moved aside, but did not leave the wounded Tine. She knelt between two of him and petted the long, bloodied neck. "Will Ja" -- she spoke the sound as best she could -- "live?"

Scarbutt ran three noses down the length of the body. They pressed gently at the wounds. Ja twisted and whistled ... except when Scarbutt pressed his haunches. "I don't know. Most of this blood is just splatter, probably from the other members. But his spine is broken. Even if the fragment lives, he'll have only two usable legs."

Johanna thought for a moment, trying to see things from a Tinish perspective. She didn't like the view. It might not make sense, but to her, this "Ja" was still Scriber -- at least in potential. To Scarbutt, the creature was a fragment, an organ from a fresh corpse. A damaged one at that. She looked at Scarbutt, at the big, killer member. "So what does your kind do with such ... garbage?"

Note

!PRB you should probably have talked about how she sees they make sound 
! earlier in the story DONE in c12 
!CHKd sp staccato 
!CHKd sp hackle               

Three of his heads turned toward her, and she could see his hackles rise. His synthetic voice became high-pitched and staccato. "Scriber was a good friend. We could build a two-wheel cart for Ja's rear; he'd be able to move around some. The hard part will be finding a pack for him. You know we're looking for other fragments; we may be able to patch something up. If not ... well, I have only four members. I will try to adopt him." As he spoke one head patted the wounded member. "I'm not sure it will work. Scriber was not a loose-souled person, not in any way a pilgrim. And right now, I don't match him at all."

Johanna slumped back. Scarbutt wasn't responsible for everything that went wrong in the universe.

Note

!QU is my shuttling between "he" and "it" in referring to Ja okay? 
!V   yecco, individual members are in one sense the most strongly 
!V   gendered. (Though as semi-animals/body parts the gender is 
!V   more what we humans might associate with animals or things) 
!PRO RETRO "repack" 
!ID PRB Hmm, but repacks could eventually become well-integrated as 
! they have pups and lose discoordinates 
!V    this is mentioned in c35 

"Woodcarver has excellent brood kenners. Maybe some other match can be found. But understand ... it's hard for adult members to remerge, especially non-talkers. Single fragments like Ja often die of their own accord; they just stop eating. Or sometimes.... Go down to the harbor sometime, look at the workers. You'll see some big packs there ... but with the minds of idiots. They can't hold together; the smallest problem and they run in all directions. That's how the unlucky repacks end...." Scarbutt's voice traded back and forth between two of his members, and dribbled into silence. All his heads turned to Ja. The member had closed his eyes. Sleeping? He was still breathing, but it sounded kind of burbly.

Johanna looked across the room at the trapdoor to the loft. Woodcarver had stuck a single head down through the hole. The upside-down face looked back at Johanna. Another time, her appearance would have been comical. "Unless a miracle happens, Scriber died today. Understand that, Johanna. But if the fragment lives, even a short time, we'll likely find the murderer."

"How, if he can't communicate?"

"Yes, but he can still show us. I've ordered Vendacious's men to confine the staff to quarters. When Ja is calmer, we'll march every pack in the castle past him. The fragment certainly remembers what happened to Scriber, and wants to tell us. If any of the killers are our own people, he'll see them."

"And he'll make a fuss." Just like a dog.

"Right. So the main thing is to provide him with security right now ... and hope our doctors can save him."

They found the rest of Scriber a couple of hours later, on a turret of the old wall. Vendacious said it looked like one or two packs had come out of the forest and climbed the turret, perhaps in an attempt to see onto the grounds. It had all the markings of an incompetent, first-time probe: nothing of value could be seen from that turret, even on a clear day. But for Scriber it had been fatally bad luck. Apparently he had surprised the intruders. Five of his members had been variously arrowed, hacked, decapitated. The sixth -- Ja -- had broken his back on the sloping stonework at the base of the wall. Johanna walked out to the turret the next day. Even from the ground she could see brownish stains on the parapet. She was glad she couldn't go to the top.

Ja died during the night, though not from any further enemy action; he was under Vendacious's protection the whole time.

Johanna went the next few days without saying much. At night she cried a little. God damn their "doctoring". A broken back they could diagnose, but hidden injuries, internal bleeding -- of such they were completely ignorant. Apparently, Woodcarver was famous for her theory that the heart pumped the blood around the body. Give her another thousand years and maybe she could do better than a butcher!

For a while she hated them all: Scarbutt for all the old reasons, Woodcarver for her ignorance, Vendacious for letting Flenserists get so close to the castle ... and Johanna Olsndot for rejecting Scriber when he had tried to be a friend.

What would Scriber say now? He had wanted her to trust them. He said that Scarbutt and the others were good people. One night, about a week later, she came close to making peace with herself. She was lying on her pallet, the quilt heavy and warm upon her. The designs painted on the walls glimmered dim in the emberlight. All right, Scriber. For you ... I will trust them.