It was still raining when Galen looked outside the window the next morning, but for the first time in weeks, the weather didn't sour his mood; he savoured being able to look at that rain from the other side of a windowpane. They hadn't taken lodgings in an inn anymore since Etissa, driving until nightfall and making camp wherever they happened to be at that time. It had paid off - they had made it across the mountains before the passes had been closed due to the winter storms.
... but at what cost?
Galen sighed a little. No, today it wasn't the weather that had him worried.
He tried to recapture that delicious feeling from a moment before, of being warm, and dry, and well-fed for a change, but his last thought had already spoiled that small joy, and now his mind was picking at their current problem - finding Alan. Having lost Alan, and having to deal with his panicked friend who was looking at him with murder in his eyes.
I didn't drop him - he let go of my hand. And he did it by choice. I saw it in his eyes. He... he gave up.
The memory made him sick to his stomach, and clawed at his throat, surprising in its intensity. He had preferred to see the two humans in their company as Zana's concern, except for that time in the beginning, when he had thought Alan and Peet had come from the stars, from another world; but his initial fascination with them had given way to disappointment when they had displayed the same flaws as the humans of his time. When they had blithely sacrificed Zana's and his baby, their future...
And to make matters worse, they had topped it off with a rebelliousness that he had found exasperating, even though he had reminded himself again and again that considering where these humans had come from, their wild spirit was to be expected, and maybe inevitable.
But despite it all, he had gotten used to them. Losing one of them had spiked a pain in him that was completely unexpected. Without Alan, their little group felt just... incomplete. Lopsided.
"Galen? Are you coming?" Zana stuck her head through the door. "Peet is getting restless."
"Peet hasn't been anything but restless since we lost Alan." Galen turned away from the window. "But yes, I'm ready. Bring him in and let's go over our plan before we head out."
They could stay close to the truth this time - they had been traveling in a wagon, and they had lost almost everything in that landslide that had taken half of the road with it; the only problem was that Alan, should he have survived his fall, wouldn't know that they were now using his Dr. Kova identity. Galen hoped that their stories wouldn't differ too much when they finally found him.
Right now, he didn't dare to hope for more than that they would find him at all.
He had barely finished the thought when both Zana and Peet filed in, already in their street clothes; Peet was carrying Betsy. Galen eyed the weapon with dismay. Considering Peet's current state, he didn't want to see the human anywhere near a weapon.
"Are we clear on our story?" he asked. "I'm Dr. Kova, a traveling veterinarian from the Pendan prefecture, on my way to bring the blessings of modern medicine into the northern badlands. You are ...?" He gestured at Zana.
"I'm Mila, your wife," Zana said obediently. She had run out of names she liked, and they had decided that she would use her very first alias - as far as Galen could tell, their stay with the Gorilla farmers had never been discovered by Urko.
Galen hesitated a moment before he met the human's gaze. Peet's eyes were fixed on him with an intensity that made his fur bristle. He cleared his throat. "And you are...?"
"I'm the guy with the gun," Peet growled. "An' I'm the guy with insomnia, so people should think twice before they try playing twenty questions with me."
"Uhmm, yes," Galen said. "You're Mila's bodyguard. I'm leaving her safety in your capable hands. You leave the talking to her, please."
"That's an excellent idea," Zana said, before Peet could open his mouth. "We all learned our lesson in Etissa, isn't that right, Peet... no, I forgot... what name did you choose again?"
Peet glared at her, his lips twitching; vacillating between anger and amusement. "Name's Danny."
Zana beamed at him. "What a nice name - I remember you used it before. Well, let's go - the morning is already halfway over."
She gently shoved him out the door and returned to Galen with quick steps. "As soon as we've found Alan, I will start... treating... them," she whispered. "Mothers know I'm not qualified for it, but if I don't try, nobody will. And then, sooner or later, Peet will get himself killed."
Galen mutely watched her hurry after the human. He didn't want to imagine her reaction if Alan started talking about his days in Etissa...
Well. That was a worry for another day.
They split up almost immediately after leaving the inn, Zana knocking at the doors of every house down one street - and Peet having to wait at ever greater distances - while Galen headed straight for the village's only pub. At this time of the day, and in this weather, he was sure that he'd find the entire male population of the village in there.
Thick pipe smoke, mixed with hot vapor carrying the sharp scent of spiced cider greeted him when he opened the door. The pub was packed, as he had hoped, but the noise level was moderate; none of the patrons dared to get drunk before noon meal and invoke the wrath of their wives or mothers. That would make it more difficult to loosen their tongues, but on the other hand, their information would be more coherent.
Galen made his way to the bar, smiling at and greeting anyone who happened to glance his way, and ordered a mug of hot cider for himself. In this weather, he could tolerate a hot beverage other than tea.
"Oh, this is good," he said after the first sip, "I've never drunk it heated before."
"We drink it all winter," the barkeep said. He was a Gorilla; when he had put the mug on the counter, Galen had noticed that his right arm ended at the elbow.
A farming accident, Galen assumed. He hoped it wasn't a souvenir from Urko's war against the humans, fifteen years ago. That would make his inquiry... a bit more complicated.
Galen sniffed and sipped at his cider.
"So I gather you're not from around here?" the Gorilla said. "Seeing as you don't know hot cider."
"You observed correctly," Galen said with his most charming smile, and bowed in his seat. "I'm from Pendan prefecture, south of the mountains."
"What brings you here, and in the storm season, to boot?" The Gorilla had grabbed a rag and was now slowly wiping the already clean counter, clearly in the mood for a chat. If someone had seen Alan, chances were that this ape had heard about it. He seemed to be a relaxed enough fellow, someone people would talk to.
So Galen wiggled around a bit on his bar stool to find a more comfortable position, and casually put his elbow on the counter. "Medicine brings me here. I'm an animal doctor, and I was on my way to the northern border-"
"There's nothing up there but wild humans and sand eels," the Gorilla said with a frown. "Your medicine is wasted on either of them. The eels are poisonous. I don't know if they mention that at the animal doctors school."
"Well..." Galen hedged, suddenly unsure if he should invoke relatives up there. He had no idea if that Gorilla had been to the badlands. Maybe he had lost his arm there.
"Open positions are rare in the southern prefectures," he said finally. "I heard there's a settlement program underway up north, and I figured they could use someone who knows how to treat an infected udder, or a coughing human."
The Gorilla scratched his cheek as he considered that. "But you lost your wagon in that road accident," he said, and Galen suppressed a smile. News traveled fast, and straight to this ape. He had made the correct choice.
"That's true," he nodded, "but fortunately, we were able to save almost all of our more valuable possessions - my medical equipment, the horses, and one of our two humans. The other fell into the river, unfortunately." He took a deep draw from his cooling cider to give the barkeep time to remember any gossip about a half-drowned human.
The Gorilla kept silent, though; but the quick glance he flicked him before he resumed wiping the counter told Galen that he did know something.
He licked the cider from his lips and tried again. "The humans were as close as... litter mates." The apes here probably wouldn't use any simian relationship terms, and he didn't want to appear as the crazy city ape to them. "And I'm sorely missing his skills, too. He's my orderly, you know, and it takes quite some time to train a human, especially for these highly specialized positions. We - my wife and I - are still looking for him, against all hope. Maybe he has been washed ashore..."
The Gorilla didn't look at him. "Maybe. The river sometimes washes up dead deer. What about your other human? Isn't he trained, too?"
Galen slowly rotated his mug on the wooden countertop. "He's... more suited as a bodyguard for my wife. He lacks the attention span for more, uh, delicate tasks. I'm afraid he won't be able to replace my orderly."
"Pity," the Gorilla muttered, and turned away to serve another customer.
Galen put the mug to his lips and watched him over the rim. By now he was certain that Alan had come through here - in whatever condition - but he had no idea why this ape was so tight-lipped about it.
What am I missing?
"I've been thinking of putting out a reward," he informed the Gorilla, when the ape passed by his seat. "For any hint about the fate and the whereabouts of my human. I'm optimistic that I'll get a lot of pointers - the human has fair hair, you see - he's unusual enough to stick in people's memory."
The Gorilla stopped in his tracks; then he leaned over the counter and murmured in his ear. "Yes, your human was found at the riverbank, but I wouldn't make a fuss over the whole matter."
Galen leaned back a bit to look him in the eye, brows raised. "You 'wouldn't make a fuss'? I just told you how valuable this human is, not just for his skills, but also for his color-"
"Yes, I heard you," the Gorilla rumbled. "But your human was found by the district chief's son - I doubt you'll get the beastie back. And I wouldn't get on the chief's bad side, if I was you."
"This isn't a question of doing me a favor," Galen said, nonplussed. "That human is my property, it's a simple legal matter. Surely a district chief would respect the law!"
"Voltis is a good man," the Gorilla said, and something - maybe his voice, maybe his stance, maybe the look in his eyes - convinced Galen that this barkeep had been a soldier in that cursed war, and that he and Chief Voltis went back a long time.
What have I gotten myself into this time?
"But his son is..." the Gorilla hesitated and shook his head, his gaze turning inward, "the boy is troubled. If he wants to keep that human, Voltis will arrange it that he does. He loves that kid more than is good for them both."
With a sigh, he came back to the present and regarded Galen with a little ironic smile. "Ah, I can see that you're not going to listen to me. They went back to Chubla - they had parked their coach here, and went upriver; the boy likes wandering up and down the countryside, even in this weather. When they came back, the kid's old teacher had to carry the human, the poor guy. That beast was pretty heavy, or so I've heard."
"Was he alive?" Galen had dreaded that question, but there was no point in avoiding it any longer.
The Gorilla shrugged. "I've no idea. If not, I wouldn't be surprised if they gave it to a taxidermist." He grinned at Galen. "Because of the color, you know?"
"I hope that wasn't the case," Galen murmured, and put his sembles on the counter. He didn't want to imagine how Peet would react to such a sight. They would probably have to tie him down... for the rest of his life.
He pushed that thought from his mind as he made his way back to the inn. Even without the gruesome image of a taxidermied Alan, the situation was challenging enough. He had lost the forged ownership papers for the humans when the wagon had crashed into the gorge, but even with new papers, getting Alan back would be difficult. A district chief was the most powerful ape in the province, beholden to no-one but the Council back in Cesarea. Here in the north, with its traditional disdain for everything south of the Iron Mountains, Voltis was a king. All the prefects were under his command.
And now this man's son had claimed Alan for himself.
He didn't tell Zana and Peet about any of these thoughts when they came back to the inn in the late afternoon, wet and tired and disheartened. Instead, he just informed them that Alan had been brought to Chubla, and that they would travel there, too, come morning. Peet's mood, which had lifted at the news, plummeted again when he was informed that yes, he would have to ride on Ahpahchee's back, and couldn't just run the whole distance with the horse in tow.
"Humans up in the north are not only allowed, but required to ride, Peet," Galen said patiently. "Otherwise, they'd only slow down their masters. The roads aren't really suited for wagons, if you hadn't noticed. Everyone rides, if possible. And you were very impatient to meet Alan again."
"Still am," Peet muttered. "Jus' want to get there in one piece."
"Practice makes perfect," Galen said absently. His day wasn't over yet - he'd have to write new papers for himself and Zana, and for the humans... luckily, he had kept all his equipment in his backpack: Zaius' special paper for official documents, the mold of Kanla's seal (which Alan had painstakingly crafted from the wax seal on Galen's work contract for treating her humans), his ink and quills, wax and sand...
It was a good thing he could focus on these tasks tonight. It would keep his mind from thinking about Voltis and his son.
"It's been over a week now!" Burke gripped his wrist behind his back to keep himself from punching the wall. "When will that damn monkey finally see you?"
"Don't use that word again, Dehni," Zana said sternly. She had insisted that they address each other with their fake names even in private, to avoid slips of the tongue in public. "And we can count ourselves lucky that Chief Voltis has agreed to meeting Kova at all. He's a busy man."
Burke let go of his wrist and grabbed the backrest of a chair instead. "We still don't know if Al's... if he's even alive," he ground out. "Can't you understand it's driving me up the wall?"
Zana smiled sympathetically and leaned across the table to pat his arm. "I do understand it. But you have to understand that Chief Voltis isn't just your usual prefect. He's the district chief - he's not someone you want to annoy. We do have an appointment - we're just not the first in line. And all things considered, one week of waiting isn't that long."
"More than a week," Burke muttered. "We've been holed up in here for nine days now."
Zana stared at him with a blank expression. "Yes, exactly - one week."
Another simian idiosyncracy. Damn monkeys insisted on doing everything different from humans. It irritated Burke more than usual today.
Nothing had gone right ever since Virdon had taken the plunge. Yes, they had been pointed to Chubla, and yes, it was a good thing Galen had been able to save their money, because there was no way of telling how long they'd be sitting on their hands in this damned inn.
But their forged papers had taken that plunge, too, and when Galen had pulled Zaius' paper from his oiled leather sheath, he had discovered that somehow, the rain or the humidity from the constant fog had managed to creep inside, and the scrolls had gotten mouldy. As Galen had pointed out to him, you couldn't just scratch 'this human belongs to me' on any old scroll. You needed an official scroll from a prefect's or councillor's office - they were different from the usual scrolls in some way, like the special paper used for banknotes before the switch to e-currency.
So, currently Burke was traipsing through Chubla without papers, which theoretically meant that any ape on the street could just grab him by the neck and claim that they'd like him for themselves. He'd be considered a 'stray' and his new master could just drag him into the nearest forge and press a hot iron into his neck... and there'd be nothing that Galen or Zana could do.
Which was the reason they had pretty much grounded him in their rooms at that inn. Which was the reason Burke was ready to thrash the furniture, or jump out of the window, or... he drew a deep, calming breath.
"Did Gal... Kova at least find out if Al's anywhere in that ghetto?" he asked. The human population of Chubla wasn't corralled in some outlying village. Instead, the town had just incorporated that village, like an amoeba, and had enclosed it with a wall. The gates were guarded by apes at all times, and if you wanted out - or in - you better had the papers to prove that you had a legitimate reason to do so.
Zana shook her head. "What reason would he have to go in there? We just have to be patient, Dehni. Whatever has happened to... to Nait, has already happened. Your fretting isn't changing anything. If he survived, he'll be in good hands now - since Chief Voltis' son wants to keep him, he'll get the best healer they have."
That wasn't the point, but she wouldn't understand it. Both apes seemed to be glad for the respite - Galen was drinking tea and copying his damned book all day, and Zana was... drinking tea and reading some scrolls she had bought at the market. She hadn't told him what she was reading, just mumbled something about 'some stories... for entertainment'. At any other time, Burke would've teased her about indulging in lurid simian sex fantasies.
He blew a frustrated sigh and made for the door.
"Where are you going?" Zana asked, alarmed.
"Stables," Burke muttered and yanked the door open. This inn had its own stables, so he had at least that option of retreat.
"Ahpahchee must be the best-brushed horse in all of Chubla," Zana remarked, and returned her gaze to her scroll. "Why not switch to Tala, for a change? She'd be grateful, too, I'm sure."
"Right." He pulled the door closed behind him before she could tease him some more.
Besides, he wasn't going to the stables.
The secret to not looking like a stray was to walk briskly and determinedly, as if you were on an errand for your monkey master. For once, Burke was grateful for the bad weather - it allowed him to pull the hood of his shirt over his head, concealing his neck and its missing brand. Neither of the apes had dared to suggest he'd get one, which was a good thing, because he couldn't have guaranteed for the furniture then, but for a moment, Burke pondered if there wasn't a way to at least fake a brand. But even the thought of a faked brand made him grit his teeth. He just couldn't do it.
He rounded the wall of the ghetto, trying to find a way inside that didn't involve dealing with the ape guards at the gates. There were three of them, each occupied by a grim-looking chimp with a rifle. He stopped at a street vendor's cart to buy a bowl of meatballs with some spicy sauce, and used the time he had to wait in line to scan the wall and the passing apes and humans. The wall itself wasn't insurmountable, but traffic was thick in all adjacent alleys, and Burke didn't want to draw attention. He supposed he could try his luck after dark, but just like back in the City, Chubla had decreed a nightly curfew for its humans.
Eating his meatballs gave him a few more minutes to linger and think up another strategy for getting the information he so urgently needed. He knew he wasn't as good at diplomacy as his commander, and he doubted he'd ever be able to relax enough to chat with an ape - save Zana - but why not try his luck with one of the humans coming out of that gate?
He threw away the empty bowl and approached an elderly woman who had just passed the guards without a hitch. "Hey, lady? Excuse me..."
The woman stopped and eyed him warily, and Burke forced a smile on his face. "Sorry for chatting you up in the street jus' like that, ma'am, but I'm not from here an' I..." he gestured at the wall behind them, "... I heard you have some pretty decent healers in there. That true?"
The woman's gaze brushed over him from head to toe. "You need a healer?"
"N... no, ma'am, not for myself." He resisted the urge to rake his hand through his hair and throw his hood back with that movement. "It's, uh, for my baby daughter. She's got a fever, an' our healer can't get it down."
The woman's eyes softened at the mention of a baby. "Well, we have two healers. There's Lovits, he's a faith healer - he prays to the Mothers, and people walk away cured, he's truly gifted..."
"Uhm, yeah, I'll keep him in mind," Burke muttered. "What about the other one?"
"That'd be our Laisa. She's very good with herbs - she even treats the humans of the rich apes." The woman glowed with pride. "She even treats the human of young master Ennis now!"
Ennis - that was the name of the monkey who had found Al at the rivershore. Had found him, and had picked him up like you'd pick up an odd-colored pebble and stuff it into your pocket.
And that Laisa woman was nursing Al back to health for him now. That... meant he had to be alive.
He had to be alive.
Burke kept his face straight with an effort. "She sounds exactly like the healer my little baby girl needs. D'you think the guards would let me in if it's an emergency? I, uh, I forgot to ask our head man for papers - ran away in the middle of the night, when the fever would rise an' rise..."
The woman raised her brows and shrugged. "You can try... but if you don't have papers, it's the guards' decision if they turn you away or not. Maybe show them your brand, so that they can see which prefecture you belong to."
"That's a good idea," Burke agreed, silently cursing all monkeys, "thanks a lot for your help. I guess I, ah, try the other gate. The guard there seemed to have had a good breakfast. That should mellow him out a bit." He turned away and quickly strode down the road before the woman started thinking twice about his little story.
The alley made a slight, drawn-out bend now, and there were only a few humans milling about - it didn't mean anything, the next ape would appear any second, but Burke didn't allow himself to linger on that thought. He took a run, jumped up the wall, and climbed up to its crown before his better judgment could catch up to him. A human trying to get into a human corral shouldn't cause as much alarm as a human trying to get out, right? Besides, before they'd have found him in there, he'd be out again, anyway. He was just here for a quick check-up on how Al was doing.
Just to make sure it was really him. And that he was really alive.
