The River Horses Read online

  Yet, although the air became cooler and a few drops of rain occasionally pattered against the canopy, the storm never arrived. The clouds became thick and heavy, and shortly after midday Marie spotted a blue-white lancet arcing between the sky and the ground. But the lightning strike was somewhere in the grasslands many miles to the south, so far away that, when the thunder finally arrived nearly a minute later, it was only a dull grumble. The front moved over and past them with little more than a vague threat of violence; by early afternoon, as they passed through the broad delta that marked the mouth of the Alabama River, the clouds were parted here and there to admit angular columns of pale yellow sunlight, ghostly stairways rising into the heavens.

  Marie was in no mood to appreciate the sublime beauty of the moment; she had another problem to worry about. She didn’t know whether it was anxiety or the diet of processed food—it had been two days since they’d had anything fresh to eat—but regardless of the reason, she’d come down with a case of diarrhea. Since the beginning of the trip, she’d learned to wait until they made rest stops along the way, but today her bowels refused to cooperate. The antacid tabs she’d found in the medkit didn’t help much, and during the hours while Lars was running the engines hard in an effort to get out from under the storm, she hadn’t dared to ask him to pull over so that she could make a quick dash into the tall grass.

  Yet her guts had begun to cramp painfully, and unless she wanted to relieve herself over the middeck rail, she had to do something fast. So as soon as they were past the Alabama River, she demanded that Lars make an emergency landing. No, they couldn’t wait until they reached the coast; she had to go, right now. Lars groused a bit, but one look at her face told him that she wasn’t kidding. With a resigned shrug, he throttled down the engines and turned the Armadillo toward shore.

  Marie was off the skimmer before Manny had a chance to lower the ramp. Scrambling down the ladder, she dropped into ankle-deep muck so thick that it threatened to pull her moccasins off her feet. Scowling as she grabbed at waterfruit vines for support, cursing with each bowlegged step she took, she clambered ashore, then scrambled up a muddy riverbank until she reached dry land. Then she plunged in the tall grass, searching for some place where she couldn’t be seen from the skimmer.

  A dozen yards from the creek, she found a spider-bush thicket high enough to afford her some privacy. Dropping her pants, she squatted behind it; relief was immediate and not a second too soon. Once she was done, she pulled up a handful of cloverweed and used it to clean herself, a trick she’d learned while in the Rigil Kent brigade. Then she stood up and bent over to pull her pants up from around her ankles.

  It was when she raised her head again that she spotted the boid.

  The giant avian stood less than twenty yards away, silently watching her from the tall grass within which it was concealed. So perfectly did its tawny feathers match the color of the sourgrass, she might have missed seeing it entirely if something hadn’t moved near its feet. Perhaps it was a swamper or a creek cat, but it distracted the boid just enough that it moved its head ever so slightly to watch it go.

  She caught a glimpse of its enormous beak, absurdly parrot-like yet large enough to decapitate her with a single bite, and involuntarily sucked in her breath. The sound she made was sufficient to draw the boid’s attention; its head swiveled on its thick neck, and once again its black, button-like eyes fastened upon her.

  Fighting the urge to run, Marie forced herself to stare straight back at the creature. If it knew that it’d been seen, it wouldn’t attack…or at least not immediately, because boids preferred to stalk their prey and catch them unaware. Yet now that it knew that it had been spotted, the attack would be inevitable. The short, spike-like plumage on the top of the boid’s skull lifted—it was an adult male, as if that mattered much just now—and it rocked back and forth upon its legs, almost as if daring her to make a break for it.

  Marie’s mind raced, calculating her odds for survival. The distance between her and the boid was greater than the distance between her and the skimmer. Not much, but those few extra yards might make all the difference. If she ran fast as she could, she might be able to reach the creek before it caught her. But boids were fast; their legs were longer than her own, and they were accustomed to chasing down their prey and leaping upon them while they were…

  Damn it! Too much thinking, and not enough action. “Aw, shit,” she muttered, and then she turned and ran.

  She might have had a good head-start, were it not for the spider-bush directly behind her. She’d forgotten about that. Swearing, she nearly charged headlong into it, and only barely managed to avoid being tangled within its thorny strands. Yet it cost her precious seconds; even as she dodged around the bush, she heard the boid screech, and knew without looking back that it was coming after her.

  Air burned within her lungs as she raced for shore, her arms raised to swat aside the grass. The ground trembled slightly beneath her feet, and she instinctively knew that the boid had leaped over the thicket. Still, she refused to look back. The shore was close, very close; already she could see the skimmer’s aerial, protruding against light grey clouds tinted orange-red by the afternoon sun, so heart-achingly beautiful, and, in a moment of clarity, she realized it might be the last thing her eyes would ever see.

  Oh god, oh god, oh god…oh dear lord, save me, I’ll never do anything…oh god, please, I swear I’ll…

  A hot wind, stinking of decayed flesh, brushed against the back of her neck. A hard snap just behind her…

  From somewhere to her left, the loud poppa-poppa-poppa of an automatic weapon; looking around, she caught a glimpse of Manny standing in the tall grass only a few yards away, hood thrown back, carbine raised to his shoulders.

  “Down!” he yelled.

  The gun’s muzzle moved in her direction, and she dove headlong for cover. She hit the ground face-first, hard enough to knock the wind from her lungs. Rolling over, Marie saw the boid towering above her. For a second, she thought this was the end, then she heard gunfire again. The boid staggered backward, red blood and grey brains spurting from a hole in its head big enough for her to stick her hand in. Gore spattered across her legs, then the creature toppled over, its taloned feet twitching as if, even in death, it was still trying to catch up with her.

  Her mouth dry, her heart feeling as if it was about to pound its way through her chest, Marie fell back against the trampled grass. A timeless time went by, then Manny loomed over her, a figure in black with a death’s head for a face. He said something—it may have been Are you all right? but she couldn’t be sure, because his voice sounded scratchy and distant, as if it was a radio transmission from another world—and all she knew for certain was that she was drifting away to a dark, warm place, where there was no fear.

  From the diary of

  Marie Montero:

  Uriel 52, c.y. 06 (extract)

  When I came to, I was back aboard the skimmer. Manny [had] carried me back while Lars pulled anchor and started up the engines, so when I woke up, I found that we were already underway. Manny’d laid me out on deck and pulled the awning over me, and when I woke up, I found that he’d put a wet cloth across my forehead.

  Very weird, coming out of it like that. Don’t even remember fainting. In fact, that’s a first for me—fainting, that is—but Manny says it’s not unusual, considering how close I came to buying it. I asked him how close the boid was when he shot it and at first he wouldn’t tell me, but when I told him about the snap I heard, he said that was the boid trying to bite my head off. That’s how close it was.

  Manny told me he’d come ashore when he saw that I’d gone off without a rifle. He had a hunch there might be trouble. Glad he had that hunch, or I would’ve been lunch, ha ha. Not funny, I know…but right now, laughing is a lot better than crying, and I’ve done some of that already.

  Lars got us downriver a mile or two, then stopped engines and came back to see how I was doing. He was worried, too…at le
ast I think he was…but then he went off on me about going ashore unarmed, and that I shouldn’t ever take a dump again without packing a gun. Then he told Manny we should’ve hauled the boid aboard and carved it up for food, because we could’ve gotten a good meal out of it. I had to laugh at that. Hell, I was downright hysterical. Told him that it would’ve tasted even better if I’d fattened it up a little bit. That got him pissed off. He went back to the cockpit and started the engines again, and didn’t say anything to me after I returned to the bubble.

  Lars means well, I know that. And he was right about going ashore without carrying a rifle to protect myself. But, dammit, I was almost killed back there, and he’s mad about not getting some fresh meat from the carcass?!

  At any rate, we made it to the end of Boid Creek by the end of the day, where we found the entrance to the West Channel. So far as we know, we’re the first ones to see the western side of New Florida. From here, it’s about five miles across the channel to Great Dakota; we can see river bluffs on the other shore, with deep forests and high mountains that look almost black rising in the distance. Totally different landscape from New Florida—sort of like Midland, except even more rugged. What a relief. I’m so sick of sourgrass, I could puke.

  It was too late for us to cross that night, so we made camp on New Florida, on the north side of the mouth of Boid River. For once, Manny made Lars haul everything ashore and set up the tents—he wanted to spend the last hour or two of daylight surveying the area (taking pictures, setting up the theodolite and making measurements, using a plumb-line to estimate the water depth, etc.). Says this place could be a good site for a port town, some time in the future. Guess I can see that, maybe…but Manny sees things a lot different from us, I think.

  I made dinner, but it wasn’t very good…burned the beans and undercooked the chicken (in fact, I couldn’t even eat the chicken—reminded me too much of what almost ate me). Lars bitched about having to do all the hard work, but Manny stayed quiet. He spent the time writing up the report to send home—I asked him not to mention what happened today [because] I didn’t want Carlos to get worried—and when he was done I read it over and let him transmit it. Then I crawled into the tent and tried to go to sleep.

  Lars came in a while later. Pulled off his clothes and made me take off mine. Wanted to have sex. Wasn’t in the mood, but I let him, because he insisted. Felt good for about a minute, but I [crossed out]. It seemed to satisfy him, though, because after he was done he rolled over and fell asleep.

  Needed to pee, so I moved him aside, crawled out of the tent. Found Manny standing by the fire, looking out over the channel. He wanted to escort me while I went into the bushes, but I told him I’d be OK. No boid cries—everything was calm and quiet. I didn’t go far, just to the edge of the water, but I never let him out of my sight. He turned his back, but I could tell from the way he held his gun that he was on high alert.

  When I was done he said goodnight and told me to have pleasant dreams. Before I went back to bed, I asked him what he was doing, i.e., what did he do all night while Lars and I were sacked out.

  He said that he was writing poems.

  Writing poems. I like that.

  Although Marie, Lars, and Manny thought they were the first to navigate the southwest end of the West Channel, they soon learned they were wrong. Not long after the expedition crossed over from New Florida and began making its way down the east coast of Great Dakota, they unexpectedly came upon another group of explorers.

  At Manny’s insistence, Lars throttled down the engines and let the current carry them downstream. Although Lars was impatient to reach the Great Equatorial River, Manny wanted to take time to study the channel. When Marie agreed with the savant—after all, there was no reason for them to hurry—the pilot found himself outvoted. So while Lars fumed within the cockpit, Manny and Marie sat side by side on the middeck, legs dangling over the side, as they watched the river go by.

  The day was pleasantly warm, with just a touch of autumn to the salt breeze wafting across the channel’s dark blue expanse. Swoops circled above the faux-birch whose roots clung precariously to the edge of limestone bluffs rising above the river; now and then, channelmouth jumped from the water near the boat, as if frightened by the aliens who’d suddenly appeared in their midst. In the far distance, they could make out the highlands, enormous mountains so thickly forested with blackwood and rough bark that they looked as if they were made of charcoal, save for the rocky summits that towered above the tree line.

  Great Dakota was breathtakingly beautiful, as awesome in its unspoiled majesty as the savannahs of New Florida had been menacing. For the first time since they’d left Liberty, they were able to relax. There was no sourgrass to battle though, no boids to watch out for. After a while, Marie and Manny stopped talking; instead they shared a quietude that was both respectful and intimate. Manny made notes in a datapad, but every so often he switched to the graphic-input function and used the tip of one of his claw-like fingers to render a quick sketch. Peering over his shoulder, Marie was surprised by the delicate lines he traced upon the screen. Manny was not only a poet, but also an artist; it was easy to forget that he was a savant, a soul locked within a mechanical body.

  Around midday, Lars stopped the engines. He came up top to drop anchor, then stomped across the middeck to the stern where, without apology, he opened his fly and urinated into the river. Marie had taken off her shirt and now wore only her bra; looking around to catch Lars staring at her breasts, she found herself feeling naked, and quickly pulled her shirt on again before going below to make lunch.

  Left alone with Manny, Lars leaned against an engine cowling; he crossed his arms and silently regarded the savant for a long time, idly scratching at his beard but never once saying a word. Manny put away his datapad and stood up to face the channel; he was better at practicing stoicism than Lars, and after a while Lars turned and began plucking small blades of grass from the fans.

  Marie came back up with sandwiches and some dried fruit; she and Lars ate in near silence, their only conversation some technical chatter regarding engine maintenance. Lars threw the rest of his sandwich overboard and watched a couple of channelmouth fight over it, then he stomped back across the deck, pulled up the anchor, and went back down the ladder.

  Manny and Marie resumed their previous places on the deck. A few minutes later, the engines restarted and the skimmer began moving down the channel. Marie let out her breath, and for just a moment she heard the soft crackle from Manny’s mouth grille that, in its own way, signified a sigh.

  It was late in the afternoon when they spotted a thin tendril of smoke rising in the distance, from a point farther down the coast. At first Manny thought it was a forest fire caused by the storm that had passed over them the day before, but soon he and Marie realized that it was too small to be natural in origin. Lars must have thought so, too, for suddenly the engines revved up and both of them had to grab the railing as the skimmer rose higher upon its pontoons and began to cruise down the river.

  They were right: the source of the smoke was a campfire, set by people who’d already ventured down the West Channel. As they grew closer, the bluffs gradually disappeared until they came within sight of a broad, flat delta where an inland creek emptied into the channel. A pair of keelboats lay at anchor just offshore, their sails furled. Nearby were several catskin tents, their poles leaning haphazardly as if carelessly planted in the muddy soil. And it was clear that they’d been spotted as well, for several figures stood on the sandy beach, waving their arms above their heads as the skimmer approached them.

  “Who do you think they are?” Marie had climbed down the ladder into the cockpit; now she stood behind Lars, gazing at the campsite through the bubble.

  “Does it matter?” Lars throttled back the engines as he turned the yoke toward shore. “First people we’ve seen in almost a week. Probably the only guys we’re going to see this side of New Florida.” He grinned. “Time to go over and say howdy
.”

  “We’re not supposed to make contact with anyone.” Unnoticed by either of them, Manny had followed Marie belowdecks. “That’s the condition of our…”

  “Shut up, Robby.” Lars shoved down the throttle bars. The fans growled as the engines reverse-propped; the skimmer’s bow rose slightly upon the crest of its own wake. “Ain’t a colony, is it? So we can meet ’em if we want to.” He glanced back at the savant. “And since when did you become boss?”

  Marie kept her silence. Already, two men were wading out into the shallows, preparing to grab hold of the skimmer and help tow it ashore. Their beards were long and unkempt, their clothes ragged and patched together. Upon the beach, several more men and women stared at them; although a couple held up their hands in greeting, she saw no welcoming smiles.

  “He might be right,” she murmured, feeling a forbidding chill. “Maybe we should…”

  “Look, it’s just for a little while, okay?” Lars cut the engines, let their momentum carry the skimmer the rest of the way ashore. “’Sides, we gotta make camp soon anyway. Why not with these guys?” He stared at her. “Anything wrong with that?”

  “No…no, I guess not.” Her voice was meek. “It’s just that…”

  “Yeah, well, hold that thought.” Lars pushed himself out of his seat, then slid between her and Manny, practically shoving them out of the way in his haste to get topside. “Need to drop anchor before this heap drifts away.”

  Manny watched him as he scampered up the ladder. “Who knows?” he said quietly. “Maybe seeing someone else might do him some good.”

  Marie could already hear men clambering up the sides of the skimmer. Recalling stories of Caribbean pirates she’d heard when she was very young, it wasn’t hard to visualize them with bandanas tied around their heads and daggers clenched within their teeth.