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57 - An Untested Hypothesis

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Suni

Calm. Stay calm.

Birds sang in the canopy around me, welcoming the morning. Crickets chirped and cicadas buzzed in their swelling and falling chorus. And amidst it all, it took everything I had to fight the panic rising inside.

It was a boiling frenzy, a craze of jitters and tremors bubbling just beneath the surface. Muddled my thoughts, set my hands to shaking and my breath to rattling in my throat.

Ancestors above. Calm, Suni. Stay. Calm.

I’d followed the river through a gap in the stakewall and out of the camp. Had crawled ashore somewhere downriver and sprinted into the jungle by the dim light of dawn. Now I was in a tree, shivering with cold, and adrenaline, and fear, and who knew what else. I’d eluded the Bospurians for the moment, but as the world filled with morning’s light it was becoming increasingly apparent that they weren’t going to give up the chase.

Patrols were moving through the land all around. My tree wasn’t deep into the jungle, so I had a good enough view of the camp, the open ground around it, and the undergrowth far below me. Several groups of soldiers were scouring the tall grass around the river’s edges, while several more had filtered into the jungle. A few went past the base of my tree. They were gone, but for how long? There was no way to tell. And furthermore, the part of my brain that was still functioning knew I couldn’t stay in a tree forever. A few days, maybe. But I was separated from where we’d hidden our supplies before infiltrating the camp. Without food, and only a little water, I couldn’t hold out long.

Not to mention, every moment I stayed up here was another that the rest spent in captivity.

There was no way around that one.

Furthermore, the only way out was via one of the Bospurian skyships. Another thing I couldn’t deny.

Okay, okay. So those were the facts. I took several deep breaths. Someone had to do something, and I had to be that someone.

But what, and how?

I hadn’t come out here for this. Wasn’t trained for it. Hell, I didn’t even know how to use the dagger Elpida had given me. Not that I wanted to, anyway. More death was not the solution. Enough people had died.

But I was just a naturalist’s apprentice, damnit. I was trained to observe, to study. To propose hypotheses and put them to the test so we could better understand the natural world. How was any of that going to help me? How had any of that prepared me for this?

The answer was simple: it hadn’t.

Except... maybe it had?

What would Senesio have said? Don’t think about reasons a thing won’t work, think about reasons it will?

I looked out toward the camp and the roving patrols.

I was trained to observe, to study. To propose hypotheses and put them to the test. Why couldn’t I do that now?

I’d seen the camp up close, from the inside even. I knew it decently. Enough to find another way in, though?

Hard to be sure. But there wasn’t any other option.

A plan began to form in my mind. Or the beginnings of one, at least. Generally speaking, once inside, I’d need to find a way to free the others. How in the world I was going to do that was a whole other issue. One step at a time, Suni.

What had Theo said when we’d briefly discussed a plan the night before? We’d need a distraction? She was right. If I could figure out a distraction of some sort, it’d certainly make things easier.

But again, one step at a time. The first step was still how to get inside.

From my vantage point in the tree I stared at the camp, taking in every detail to refamiliarize myself.

It was spread across a series of river islands, with one palisade wrapping around them all. It was punctuated with gaps caused by the river channels, but looking now, I could see there’d been nets put in place to fill these gaps. I’d used just such a gap to escape downriver. Apparently, the Bospurians weren’t going to let that happen again.

If no one was paying attention, and I came under the cover of darkness, I could probably cut through one of the nets. But considering the number of patrols out searching for me, that was wishful thinking. The camp would be on even higher alert if they didn’t find me by sundown.

The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

What other options for getting inside, then? Climbing the stakewall? It was a rough-hewn thing, made of pine tree trunks that’d had their branches sanded down. I needed a closer look to be sure, but probably there was still enough there to grip. A climb could be possible. So that was one option, but again, I’d need to escape notice while doing it. What were the odds of that? And getting back down the other side would be far from easy.

There were gates in the palisade, but they were each under guard. Theoretically, those would be the easiest way in, but only if the sentries weren’t watching. And even then, it’d be risky.

Okay, so what else? There was a way, there was always a way. I just had to find it.

My perch in the canopy was high enough that I could see over the stakewall and into the camp proper. It looked much the same as the first time I’d laid eyes on it the day before. Except, the prisoners weren’t working in the river today. They were still in their pen, with what looked like extra guards stationed around them. The Bospurians clearly weren’t taking any chances.

Were Senesio and the others in the pen with them? Impossible to tell from this far out.

A shout from nearby pulled my attention from the camp. Soldiers, below. One of the patrols had come back! They were moving through the jungle, spread out in a line an arm’s length apart.

Ancestors above.

I clenched tight to my branch and held still as I could. A breeze passed through and set the tree to swaying back and forth slightly. A few leaves broke free and flitted down.

The nearest soldier paused a moment as they fell into his vision. He looked up and my breath caught in my throat. I’d never been happier to be caked in mud and filth. Couldn’t have made better camouflage if I’d planned it.

The soldier stared for several long moments, eyes searching. Any moment now he was going to see me. Was going to call out, I knew it. And then what? What was I going to do once that happened?

“Keep up, Lazar,” one of the soldiers said.

The man staring up, Lazar, it seemed, held still a moment longer, then nodded. He mumbled something I couldn’t hear, then headed off toward the rest of his group.

I let out a shaky breath and tried to unclench my hands. They’d been gripping the branch so tight its bark had cut into my palms. Had drawn a bit of blood, too.

“Swear I saw something.” Even from so high up, I could make out the words. Any relief I’d felt drained away in an instant.

“Well I’m not climbing up there to find out.” A pause. “You really think you saw something?”

I looked down to find the soldiers were back at the base of my tree. Five of them in total, and all staring up.

“Suni!” the one called Lazar shouted. “Suni, if you’re up there, come down. We have everyone else and this is no place to be on your own. You’ll surely die out here.”

I didn’t respond, obviously. They weren’t sure I was here. Didn’t have a clear view and if I didn’t give them any more reason to think I was here, well, they’d move on, right?

“We could torch the tree, just to be sure.”

You could also not.

“Suni!” Another shout. “If you’re up there, come down now. Kamil wants to speak with you. He promises you won’t be hurt.”

Probably that was meant to soften my resolve. It did the opposite.

Lazar stared a moment longer, then shook his head. “I swear I saw her, just for a moment.”

“Could be your eyes playing tricks on you?”

Yeah, that was it. Just move along now.

“Could be.” Lazar shrugged, then cupped his hands to his mouth. “We’re burning the tree. If you’re up there, Suni, this is your last chance.”

Blast. What was I supposed to do? Coming down wasn’t an option, but even as I deliberated, a command went out.

The soldiers began dumping something liquid at the base of my tree. Oil.

I had to move now. If they were torching the tree, I was done for. But it was wet out here, humid. That’d make a fire burn slower. And the canopy around me was all connected, right? If I could get farther out on my limb, I could reach for the next one over, maybe leap to the next tree? Surely the soldiers would see me? But what other option did I have?

I moved slowly, careful not to shake the branch or give any indication that I was there.

The Bospurians seemed intent on their fire-making, though. Wisps of smoke were beginning to waft upward.

Apparently, the oil was doing its work. The fire was burning hot and fast. Still far below me, but for how much longer? I moved faster, hurrying out on my branch.

There was a snap, then a flurry of pops and the branch I was on shuddered.

No. No, no, no! But there was no stopping it. It snapped again, then once more. I retreated, moving back toward the trunk.

Calm, Suni. Calm and focused. You can do this. I took a deep breath as I moved, and the thick, heavy smell of smoke caught in my nose. Ignore that. Let’s take this one step at a time.

I was back at the trunk now. Could pick a new branch, another escape route. But the fire was burning quickly below me, and the smoke was rising. Blast it, but here was no denying it, I needed help. Needed Elpida to come up with some clever idea. Or Oz, to pull some daredevil stunt and create an opening. Or, even Senesio. He would have had some harebrained idea that would have worked out somehow.

But there was no one else. The thought rang resoundingly clear in my mind. I was alone. No help was coming.

The smoke was thickening now, the fire burning hungrily. The wind was still blowing hard and as I watched, the billowing smoke was carried off north, toward the banyan grove.

Hold up.

An idea hit me like a hard left hook.

No help was coming. But in a situation as dire as this, I could afford to stretch the definition of “help” a bit, right?

I pulled the dagger from my belt and drew it across the back of my forearm before I could rethink the idea.

“Ah!”

The blade burned as it sliced through the soft skin. I’d been too hasty, had cut too deep, and now blood was welling out of the wound, running down to my elbow, then falling away in a steady stream of droplets.

It would do, though. Too much blood was better than the alternative. I raised my arm, holding it up and letting the wind blow over it, letting it carry the smell off into the trees.

“How did it come to this?” I muttered to myself. I was just a naturalist’s apprentice. But I was a naturalist’s apprentice with a hypothesis now, and it was time to put it to the test.