Immunity, page 2
“Fine,” I said. “Just fine. But I’m not going next.”
“I will,” said Bailey Dean.
“I’ll be right behind you,” Aniyah Cobb added.
“Right.”
I waited my turn, my back to everyone. I said nothing when Ms. Cobb began to buckle me in. She finished, checked everything, then stepped in front of me and looked me in the eye. “Claustrophobia?”
“Not normally,” I said. “But that might do it.”
“We’ll take care of you, ma’am.”
“I bet you think I’m some kind of weenie.”
“No, ma’am,” she said. “We all have skills.”
“You could kick my ass.”
She smiled. “The last time I had to speak in front of a group, I had a panic attack.”
“Seriously?” I narrowed my eyes. “Grade school?”
“High school,” she said. “I gave our graduation address. Well, I gave half of our graduation address before my throat closed up. The principal figured it out and rescued me. I don’t think the other kids realized my speech was supposed to be twice as long.”
“Is that story true?”
“Every word.”
“Is that hole filled with creepy crawlies? I don’t deal well with creepy crawlies.”
“I will personally take care of any that try to bother you,” she said.
“I bet you think this is funny.”
She shook her head. “I’m glad no one is depending on me to do your job. And I know you don’t think you’re a diplomat, but I’ve heard what the politics are like in academia.” Then she made a point of clipping the steel cable to my harness. “I’d tell you to just close your eyes, but you need to pay attention the first four yards. Use your feet to gently guide yourself.”
“I bet you would have gone first if you were sure I wasn’t going to chicken out.”
She smiled again. “You’re going to be fine, ma’am.”
I sighed.
The thing is, I understood my fear. It was the unknown. I didn’t know what was at the bottom of this hole. I didn’t know how stable it was. We were in a mountain range, after all. How stable was it? I didn’t know.
I might have been braver with better light. On the other hand, if I’d seen a bunch of things crawling around, there would have been no way they’d have gotten me to descend.
The first part of the descent was through a sort of chimney, a vaguely rectangular shaft four feet across. They lowered me evenly, and I used my feet to avoid bouncing into the wall.
But then the shaft widened, and by the time I was perhaps twenty feet from the surface, it opened into the sort of thing we normally envision when we think of a subterranean cave. The only natural light came from above me, but there was more light below, and I used my own flashlight to look around.
I didn’t see anything crawling, but I didn’t really look that hard.
At the bottom, Mr. Dean and Ms. Bender helped me, steadying me at the end of the descent, and then releasing me from the harness. There were also two Spanish guides. I was pretty sure they were smirking.
It took a half hour for everything and everyone to join us. Ms. Cobb was next, and then our gear. The guides took the packs of gear and made off with them, one or two at a time. They were only gone a few minutes per trip.
The portal wasn’t far, thank God.
No one seemed to expect me to carry anything. My team picked up the last of the packs, and we let the guides lead us, single file, through the cave.
It really wasn’t very far, just a minute or two, and then I saw all our gear piled up. “This is a loop,” said one of the guides in accented English. “If not for the portal, it circles that way.” He gestured. “And joins with the main entry on the other side, although not directly.”
I was staring at the portal. It filled the cave, floor to ceiling, wall to wall, and it looked as if someone had stretched a sheet of black rubber in place. It reflected no light, but it gave off a faint glow of its own.
“Can you see it in the dark?”
“Sí,” said the other guide. He flipped off his own light. One by one, the rest of us did, as well.
The portal definitely glowed. It was a little like looking at a dark, starry night, although with a little fog as well. We all stared for a minute, and then we began turning our lights on again.
“We have something for you, Ambassador,” said Ms. Cobb, rummaging through a pack. She straightened, and she had a long knife in a sheath. “Please don’t argue.”
I nodded and was a little surprised when she knelt down in front of me. She strapped the knife to my leg.
We were all dressed like some sort of special forces soldiers, although I’m not sure from what movie. We had combat boots and black tactical pants and jacket. I wondered how rough our travel would be. I wondered what sort of weather to expect.
My knife, of course, wasn’t the only weapon. Everyone received a similar knife. Everyone but me also received swords. I stared as they buckled them on. They weren’t all the same. Ms. Bender’s was much lighter than Mr. Dean’s, for instance.
“Do you know how to use that?” I asked her.
“The pointy end goes into the spider,” she replied.
“Do I get one?”
“Do you know how to use one?” Ms. Cobb asked.
“The pointy end goes into the spider?”
“I promised to take care of all spiders for you,” she replied. “Convince us you know how to use one, and you can have one of mine.” And then she added another sword to her hip.
“I know how to shoot a gun,” I offered.
“Unfortunately, they won’t work,” she replied. She gestured to the knife on my leg. “It’s very sharp. You can slash or stab with it. Don’t stab one of us.”
“I wish you’d brought me a baseball bat.”
She smiled. “It was suggested.”
“Seriously?”
“The Algonae would have laughed at you, though.”
“Maybe the ambassador shouldn’t be an open joke.”
“That’s what was decided.”
They finished gearing up. I offered to carry a pack. “The ambassador isn’t a porter,” Mr. Wilson said.
In the end, we left several packs on the ground. I didn’t know why we’d brought them. Then Mr. Wilson, my deputy, faced the portal. “Ambassador,” he said. “You must give the word.”
“When you’re ready, Mr. Wilson.”
He didn’t pause but stepped forward. And it was as if he was sucked into the portal.
The other men followed him. And then Ms. Cobb stepped to me and turned around. She patted her own shoulder. “There’s a handle.”
“Excuse me?”
“I need you to clasp the handle and hang on as if your life depends on it.”
“Does it?”
“Probably not. Please do it my way.”
I didn’t argue with her. I hadn’t seen her pull it on, but she had a sort of leather body harness, and there was, indeed, a handle right over her left shoulder blade. I clasped it tightly. “We step through together,” she said. “And you hold on until I ask you to let go. No matter what.”
“You’re scaring me.”
“It will be fine. This is how I know where you are, regardless of conditions on the other side. Our eyes are adjusted to the cave, but it could be bright sunlight. We’ll find out when we get there.”
I sighed, and a moment later, we stepped forward.
* * * *
The portal was weird. It did, indeed, suck us through. We exited with a decided plop. I stumbled and would have fallen if I hadn’t been holding onto Ms. Cobb. She took two more steps forward, and I followed her.
And then I looked around, gaping.
We weren’t in Kansas anymore.
We had arrived at the edge of a lake. Around us was dense forest. And facing us were elves, fifteen or so, all of them women. I stared for a moment, although it wasn’t the first time I’d met elves. I was a noted professor of elven studies, after all. I’d written books. I spoke their language. But I’d never seen so many at once, and I’d never been to one of their worlds. I’d never seen them in their natural habitat, so to speak. I’ll come back to the elves.
As for the habitat… there was no guessing we were on another world. Everything was different. The sky was blue, what we could see of it, but everything else…
The portal was under the trees, and so the sun wasn’t as blinding as it could have been. My eyes adjusted readily. We hadn’t been in the cave system all that long, after all.
I looked around, staring here and there. The lake was just a lake, not all that large. I was sure any fauna would be quite alien to me, and I wasn’t going to go for a swim unless the elves told us it was safe.
I doubted it was safe.
The trees, well… I had never been in an old growth forest. There weren’t many left in the United States, after all, and I’d never been to the Amazon rainforest. I’d been to California numerous times, but I’d never taken time to visit any redwood forests.
I’d never seen trees that big.
And it wasn’t just some of them; it was many of them. Most? Of course not. It was a growing forest, with young, old, and truly ancient trees. The forest canopy towered over us.
Some of the trees even had green leaves. But there was red, as bright as any maple in autumn. I didn’t think it was autumn. And there was purple and blue. And flowers, so many flowers. There was a growth of something that looked like purple and white lilacs, but I’d never seen 50-foot-tall flowering bushes.
It was stunningly beautiful.
The last thing I noticed were the sounds. In a forest in the United States, you would hear the gentle sound caused by the wind blowing through the leaves. Maybe the leaves themselves make noise as they shake. Maybe some of the branches brush together. And there are the sounds of insects. There are birds with their caws and their whistles. And maybe there are croaking frogs sounding a little like a muffled dog bark.
I heard all of that. Oh, I don’t know if there were frogs, but I heard the rest. But there were also noises, some closer than others, that I just knew came from animals larger than frogs and songbirds. I wondered how many of those noises came from predators; I wondered how many came from animals warning their friends about predators. I wondered how many of those predators would consider a professor of elven studies a tasty snack.
And so, as I looked around, I listened.
And I wondered one more thing.
What the hell was I doing here? I wasn’t any sort of adventurer. I’d never had a proper adventure in my life. The closest I ever came was going shopping on Black Friday. I considered it an adventure making my way through an airport I’d never traveled before.
What the hell was I doing here?
“Ambassador,” Mr. Wilson said, focusing my attention. “Perhaps you should say ‘hello’.”
I turned to him. He was a little white around the eyes. I imagined I was, too. But his verbal nudge was what I needed. “Right.” I lifted my voice slightly. “Are we secure?”
“Yes, Ambassador,” said Mr. Elliott.
“Our gear?”
Wilson nudged me, and I turned to see our Spanish guides bringing our packs through, two at a time. They turned around and stepped back through the portal. I didn’t worry about it after that.
I turned to the elves and stepped forward. I switched to Elvish, speaking slowly and carefully, projecting so I would be heard. “I apologize for my accent. I am Amelie Newman.” I didn’t have a word for ambassador, so I added, “Emissary for Keira Moss, President of the United States of America. We appreciate your assistance in our travels.”
One of the elvish women stepped forward to face me. She was achingly beautiful. Tall. They were all tall. I guessed her height to be near six feet. Her features were slender, her eyes piercing blue. Her hair was red, long, braided. I knew some elves had furry ears, but hers were as bare as a human’s and pointed. They were flared away from her head, aimed forward. In that way, they were more like a dog or cat who could aim their ears to better catch sound.
I felt deeply inadequate.
“Amelie Newman,” she said carefully. “Welcome to Algonae.” She had her own accent that I would learn was unique to Algonae. I was sure if she didn’t speak clearly, I wouldn’t understand her. “I am Chasianna. I lead this group.”
I introduced my group. She introduced hers. “Not all of my group speak Elvish.”
“I speak some English,” she said in that language. Then she switched back. “Your Elvish is better.” Then she smiled, and it was absolutely radiant. “I imagine it will become even better by the time we reach Algonae City.”
We studied each other for a moment. She eyed me up and down. “Is this clothing a uniform?”
“I am not an adventurer,” I replied. “I teach at a school for adults.”
She inclined her head. “We are aware.”
“I do not own clothing suitable for this trip, and this is what my government supplied for all of us. Does our attire offend you?”
“No. I was only curious. The previous group came ill-prepared. We have clothing if you need it.”
“That is very thoughtful. I think perhaps I am ill-suited to best judge.”
She was dressed in what I would consider stereotypical woodland elf attire. They all were. But an Algonae forest carried far more colors than an Earth forest, and their clothing matched. Her boots were leather and came nearly to her knees. Her pants were brown; her tunic was lavender. Her cloak was green with lavender piping that matched her tunic. The others were dressed similarly, with the greatest variety in the choice of colors.
“Perhaps you can wear this clothing today and try what we brought tomorrow.”
“I’d like that.”
“Do you require rest?”
“I believe we could begin our journey, if you are ready.”
“Then let us address one other issue, that of names. What do you wish to be called? Do you wish formality, and I should call you Dr. Newman?”
“I understand this journey will last some time.”
“Yes,” she said. “We could travel to Algonae City in perhaps ten days, but I imagine it will be somewhat longer than that.”
Elves could be very formal, although it could vary, and I didn’t know the habits of Algonaese elves. At the same time, they didn’t typically carry two or three names. Sometimes there was a form of sobriquet. She might be Chasianna of the Forest, for instance. But titles were rare, and they didn’t often use them.
“These are your lands,” I said. “We are your guests. I am Professor Newman to my students, Dr. Newman when my mother wishes to be ostentatious, and Amelie to my friends. What do you advise?”
“Perhaps we could call you Amelie.” She smiled again.
“Perfect.”
“We have mounts,” she said. She gestured and then led us to a group of horses, managed by several of her women.
“I wasn’t expecting actual horses.”
“The humans who invaded our lands brought them.”
The horses were on the smallish side, but lithe and well cared for. I didn’t know what to expect. Part of me envisioned elves riding bareback, but that can be hard on a horse. These horses were saddled, not all that differently than you would find on Earth, although the saddles themselves varied.
Chasianna led me to one of the horses. It was equipped with an English style of saddle that could have come from Earth. “This is Temper,” she said. She smiled again. “She has mellowed somewhat from earning her name.”
I stepped to Temper and let her get a sniff of me. I gave her a rub then found she liked having her shoulder rubbed and scratched. I would over the course of the journey learn she was quite greedy for scrubs. “You’re going to be a sweet girl for me, aren’t you?” I told her.
She introduced each of the women to their own mounts. She didn’t introduce the men. It took me a moment to realize that. When I turned from my mount, Chasianna was watching me. About half the elves were; the other half were watching the men.
“Which do they ride?” I asked.
“The men are not coming.”
“I require their guidance and assistance.”
“Then you should have brought women. Human males are not welcome in Algonae City.”
“That seems like the sort of thing you could have told us.”
“We did. It is not our fault if the previous representatives were incomplete in their report.” Her tone was steel.
“May I enquire as to why?”
“You are an intelligent woman. What do you think our attitude is regarding human males, given the history of this world?”
“You are aware that different human cultures have dramatically different attitudes regarding women.”
“Do they?” She asked. “How many women have been President of the United States? When did the women of the United States finally receive the right to vote? When could they fully conduct their own financial transactions at your banks? How many American males would prefer to return to days when women held fewer rights, when they weren’t allowed to vote?”
“You are well-informed,” I admitted.
She gestured. “We know these males were not involved in our subjugation. But the previous representative sent by your president was the type of male who would most happily have lived here until a decade ago. He was a poor choice.”
“President Moss asked me why I thought he was rejected from your lands. I told her he probably opened his mouth.”
There was a pause, and then the elves all laughed. Many of them smiled. Chasianna watched me and raised an eyebrow.
I turned to Taylor Wilson. “Did you follow the conversation?”
“Barely,” he admitted. “We’re not invited to the party.”
“They have ample cause.”
“I suppose they do,” he admitted.
“Will the president see you?”
“She will,” Hillary said.
