apexeno vol 1

15. Legacy

On the way to the Janux's holding chamber, Stigel debated the wisdom of showing Karmak what was playing out in his home village: the inauguration of the new mist catcher his apprentices had carved in his absence.

It was impossible to know how Karmak would react. Stigel considered screening the event first, but there wasn't much time. Nalla was making the final preparations for surgery, which would take place in less than an hour. Besides, Karmak had a right to know what situation he would be returning to.

Arriving at the chamber, Stigel abruptly switched the holo from the barren floor of the Cleft to the live feed of the village. The Janux was used to seeing mysterious visions by now, and startlement quickly turned to rapt interest.

It was difficult to discern the number of Janux through the soupy mist, but the beetles reported there were more than eighty present, most of the village. They were gathered before a gargantuan trunk with thick, gray bark ridges that had been sliced with a winding spiral. Appearing to gaze out from between the channels were eye-shaped protuberances. The tree's roots were even thicker and taller than those at the color garden. Some humped so high that a Janux could pass underneath without scraping its armor spikes. The thick mist gave the scene a muted, flattened feel.

Stigel was no expert on Janux tree carving, but even to his untrained eye, this one looked radically different from the rest. The grooves were much wider with a small ridge in the center. Instead of running vertically, they spiraled around the tree like the stripes on a candy cane, cutting across the grain of the bark. Would the unusual design work well enough to spare the village, or would it be the utter failure Karmak predicted?

"Oh spirits, no!" Karmak exclaimed. "What have they done? The grooves should never be more than the width of a mustachand. Those must be two—no, three widths! By the Mother's egg, what a disaster! The angle of descent is too shallow—and the curves! What is the meaning of those? This is Quornil's work! That impetuous dunloch! He is the worst of all my apprentices. Always flouting the wisdom of the elders! He cannot be left to himself."

Karmak fidgeted and cursed as the mist rose with agonizing slowness. A clear band of forest floor was revealed like the space beneath a rising curtain. Stigel felt an urge to fast-forward before remembering that it was playing out in real-time. He wasn't the only one on tenterhooks. As the faces of the Janux came into view, he could read the mix of tension and anticipation along with raw thirst. Many were showing signs of dehydration: cracked lips and dry, flaking skin. Even their armor had lost its usual sheen. Older Janux leaned on younger companions. So much was riding on this mist catcher.

Clutching traces that reached up into the boughs, two Janux stood nervously to either side of the one called Quornil, who alone appeared eager and unconcerned. He looked even younger than Mimree. Cuticles still covered the bases of his top-spikes, an indication that they had not finished growing in. The fringe of hair around his round face was golden and full as a lion's mane.

The curtain of mist continued to rise, exposing the first low branches, which were mostly leaf-less. Quornil's companions tugged on the bough-traces. There was a creaking of wood, but the channels remained dry. "That's too soon!" Karmak exclaimed. "You never harvest the low-boughs. They're brittle and easily snap." As if on cue, a sizeable bough crashed down a few feet from Quornil, who just looked on with the same giddy smile. Karmak became even more agitated.

Next came the mid-boughs. The apprentices pulled on a second set of traces. This time, a trickle of water began to flow. The first droplets landed in dry container bottoms with dull plonks. "It's not enough!" Karmak frowned. "That will never fill the catches." Plonk. Plonk. Plonk-plonk. Was it getting faster?

Finally came the high-boughs. With the mist having risen to the level of the canopy, the sage tree looked like it was holding up a roof of cloud. Quornil joined in the tugging along with two more large Janux. All at once, the water began to flow. The grooves shimmered as if the trunk had been wrapped in strips of tin foil. The sound of dripping was replaced with that of filling pails.

"The catches are overflowing!" Quornil declared. "Bring more. Fill them to the brim!"

What followed was a merry chaos. Janux rushed about in all directions to fetch more containers. When they ran out, they drank them dry so they could fill them up again. Some of the young ones threw water at each other and splashed about in tiny puddles of spillage.

Meanwhile, Karmak had gone deathly pale. The murderous rage in his eyes caused Stigel to physically recoil. That split second reaction was what saved him. The Janux's scythe-like forcipules sheared through the air where he had just been standing. Somehow, he had managed to work them free of their carbon fiber restraints.

"Show yourself, evil spirit!" Globs of spittle sprayed from Karmak's mouth. His face was flushed as a radish. "I know you are there. You torture me with this false vision, a mockery! This could never be! It's all wrong, wrong, wrong! The worst apprentice in the village cannot overtake his teacher and his teacher's teacher. Cruel trickster, your true nature is now revealed. You offer me no bargain but a trap! Will there be no end to your infernal torture!"

Stunned, Stigel watched as a pair of syringes were inserted into either side of the Janux's head. Within seconds, Karmak's face sagged and went still.

Nalla stepped into the room. She had observed everything from an adjoining chamber, ready to commence surgery once Stigel was through. She didn't say a word as she removed the surgical attachments from her fingers.