The long north-south corridor between two escarpments of Presences that Donatella Furz had found for them had made the traveling simple and very quick, since they had not needed to sing their way through. Now they would need to travel even more quickly.
Don came out of the grove of trees where their small tents were pitched, her face flushed with annoyance or anger or some mixture of both. ‘Did I hear you say someone is tracking us?’
Tasmin nodded. She grimaced, then turned to take a folded chart from the pack on the ground, spreading it on a convenient rock and kneeling over it. ‘Damn! I didn’t think anyone would find us in here.’
‘They probably found our trail all the way back in the Redfang and tracked us in here, Don. There are two Explorers with the group.’
She shook her head. ‘Well, I found this corridor. I suppose it would be arrogant of me to think no one else had the wits to find it.’
‘Did you tell anyone about this passage?’
‘I probably did. I would have noted it on the file charts in my room, too. I think I told Ralth. Hell, for all we know, Ralth may be one of the Explorers with them.’
‘Whoever they are, they probably don’t know they’re hunting you, Don. Whoever sent them will have fed them a tale.’
She perused the chart, chewing her lips. ‘You still want to split up?’
Clarin made a face of denial, but Tasmin said, ‘Yes.’ He said it very firmly. He had become too aware of Clarin. She seemed always to be at his side, ready with whatever he needed next. Or he was always at hers. It was hard to know which. He found himself turning to her, depending on her. If she had her way, she would not leave them, but he was going to insist on it. Clarin and Jamieson both. It was the only thing that made sense. He bit down the feelings this raised in him. It could be a final parting, and they all knew it. It was bearable only if he did not admit it to himself. ‘I want Jamieson and Clarin to do their best to get to Splash One.’
Don pointed at the chart. ‘The best way back to the ’Soilcoast from here is to take the Shouting Valley cutoff, about half a day ahead of us.’
‘Why do you want me to go to Splash One?’ Clarin asked Tasmin in a subdued, faintly rebellious voice.
‘You’ve got to get to Vowe,’ Tasmin answered. ‘I want you to tell him everything we know, everything we suspect, everything we’ve even thought of in passing. We need whatever protection he can give us. He’s got to be ready for whatever we do, and if you don’t get to him, we have no other way to let him know.’
‘Also, I want you to take him a recording of the Enigma stuff,’ Donatella said. ‘I made a copy cube last night. I’ll keep my box, the one with the translator in it. You take my new one.’
‘We’ve got synthesizers,’ Clarin objected.
‘I know you do, but Explorer boxes are different. They’re programmed to try variations. You sit off about a mile away from a Presence and start with something that almost works or worked somewhere else. Then you try variations until you get one that doesn’t rock the needle, see. We don’t publicize it, but that’s how you do it, mostly.’
‘I thought Presences always reacted adversely to recordings,’ Jamieson remarked suspiciously.
‘They do, if it’s close up. But at that distance, it only seems to tickle them. Like a subconscious response, one they’re not even aware of. When you’ve got a variation that doesn’t rock the needle, then you play it over until you know it well enough to sing yourself through or at least to get up close and try it first person.’ She patted the box, almost as though it had been a mule. ‘If often works, for the easy ones. Not for the Enigma, of course.’
‘You never told us what Erickson’s clue was to getting the Enigma score, did you?’ Clarin asked.
Donatella shook her head. ‘And I’m not going to. Not yet. Better for you if you don’t know. If it looks like you’re going to be captured, destroy the cube. That way you won’t know anything that can help anyone.’
‘We’ll know where you and Tasmin are going.’
‘Yes,’ said Tasmin. ‘And if you’re taken, tell them anything they want to know. Tell them where we’re going. We’ll watch out for ourselves. You don’t know anything except that Don Furz thinks she talked to a Presence and is going to the Enigma to find out for sure. Tell them that.’
‘You’ll get through all right,’ Don said. ‘I’ve got proven Passwords for almost everything west of here stored in the box, and the charts are clearly labeled. You’ll have to duck around the Giant’s Toenails. Can’t get by there without a tripwagon full of effects, but if you detour to the south, there’s a back way.’
‘Where are you two going when you leave the Enigma?’ Clarin asked.
‘From there, depending upon what we get, either to Deepsoil Five or back to the Deepsoil Coast,’ Tasmin replied.
Silence. Her face was calm, but he could see her hurting, rebellious eyes. Oh, Clarin. Clarin.
‘Clarin.’ More than anything he wanted to comfort that pain. Foolish. She was almost young enough to be his daughter.
‘Yes.’
‘Listen. At least one of us has to go with Don as a witness. I’m the logical person because I’m enough older than you and Reb to have a reputation that guarantees me a certain amount of credibility. Also, getting back to Splash One for the hearings is going to require help. I can get that from the citadel in Deepsoil Five, and I carry more weight there than either you or Reb.’
‘I could go with you and Don.’
‘Then Jamieson would be alone. And if whoever is following us chooses to split up
