MULDER Year 31, Week 20.0 Dale Reckoning (late afternoon to twilight) We made good time for an hour at least. The land changed from barren to fertile and, though there were now some cart and foot paths, there were more small farms and cultivated fields. Ben's route took us west of Stony River but because of our limited time not as far out as I would have preferred. Still, the harvested fields were empty. "I think we're safe. Everyone should have left already for town. Another one of those festivals I'm not going to get to," he said with as much humor as his tired body could manage. I had had visions of Daniel raising the country against us, but it certainly didn't look like that was the case. He had boasted that he didn't share. Such egotism could turn out to be his downfall. If only he and a few of his men were looking for us, we might have a chance. Believe it or not, I had caught some of Arniesse and Ben's conversation in the hut. If the changeling was correct about the Graypeople wanting nothing more to do with Dan Rowe, then there was another point for our side. Ben and I were also the only ones who knew that this was the night; Daniel didn't, so he wouldn't know where we were going. Where our plan fell through was if Arniesse had been premature in speaking for his people. There was also nothing to prevent Daniel from making assumptions about the expediency of our departure. With or without the changelings, Daniel would be able to travel faster than we were managing. We could also not forget about the sniffing that went on during our first survey north and they have my scent by now as well as Ben's. We stopped to catch our breath within the dark under a copse of small trees. Collapsed would describe it better. As the day had turned cloudy, there wasn't much light in that closed space, but the warmth was worth it. In mid-afternoon the temperature had begun to drop as the breeze stiffened. As I had clawed up the last few yards to our resting place, I could have sworn occasional drop of wind- driven rain had been mixed with snow. It took me too long to stop wheezing. "Ben," I gasped, "where would you be heading now ... if not north. Surely not back to the farm." Ben's even features with their days' growth of beard showed that he hadn't considered this. "I don't know." "You must have friends." "None that would stand up to the Mayor... except maybe Mac." "So the search should be split between your farm to the west, Mac's surgery in town, and the area around South Cove if they thought that I would be unable to travel very far." "Daniel also knows where the landing place is," Ben offered. "But he's convinced that Charley won't be returning until spring." "We still need to be careful," Benjamin warned, his tired face gloomy. "You think that you know Daniel, but you don't." "Which is why I owe you everything for keeping us out of sight as much as you have." I didn't bring up the issue of the changeling trackers and that the residual affects of what had happened the night before probably meant that we were shedding pheromones like a nervous cat sheds hair. Ben had enough problems. I needed more rest but there wasn't time. The shakes and the sickness and the headaches came and went; though they came more than they went as the miles stumbled by. Forcing down a few mouthfuls of dried fruit and grain that Ben had brought, we started off again, ducking under the low-hanging boughs and back into the biting wind. It seemed to have dropped another ten degrees and there was snow in the air now without a doubt. Only one field more would bring us to the end of the cultivated land. Beyond stretched the rocky and higher hills of the north with its occasional cliff and gully and dark lines of trees. I didn't make it very far. Maybe less than a mile. I had tried to hurry but felt what strength I had draining away with each step. Wrapped in a fog of pain and exhaustion, my legs as heavy as lead, I made it up the second rise, which put us solidly into the north, but there my body just stopped. We halted under far sparser cover this time, a single conifer-like tree whose branches hung nearly to the ground. "H-How far now?" I wheezed, trying to sound matter-of-fact but that's hard to do when you barely draw breath. "An hour," Ben's said with no optimism. "But that's walking quickly which you haven't been able to manage." What I just did hadn't been walking quickly? It had taken nearly all I had. I was leaning over with my hands on my knees, trying to find the strength to pull in another mouthful of air. My side hurt, my chest hurt. I felt sick again. My stomach had emptied again only a hundred yards back. "Maybe you should stay here," Ben suggested uneasily. For the first time in what seemed hours I actually looked at my companion. Concentrating as I had been just to shuffle along, he had seemed like a shadow to me, and yet at the same time also my strength, never far from my side, lending an arm, and guiding my wavering steps. If he looked this tired and hopeless... "I'll go ahead," he offered. "I can run some yet. I'll find this Charley and bring him back --" "No, he won't show himself to you. It has to be me. He laid down the rules and he's a literal bastard." I forced my back to straighten in an attempt to look more fit than I was. The abused muscles clenched in the grip of fist-sized cramps. "I-I'll do better. Just tell me there's time. It's so dark that I can't tell where the sun is." His voice was soft and touched with pity which made me worry about just how dark it really was. "We won't be too late if you can push the pace a little more than we have." I nodded in acknowledgement that I had heard, but my attention was all for the road of pain ahead. It was very like walking on the stumps of legs, all splintered bone and damaged nerve. I didn't look at his face again. I didn't like the anxious shadows I saw there, not that there weren't plenty of other signs of disaster. The vagueness was still with me; partly due to my scrambled insides that the Graypeople have left me with and partly due to the cumulative psychotropic affects of the lichen leaves which I been chewing all afternoon just to stay upright. And part, I admit, was due to the blindness that comes from me being me. Like the fact that the afternoon must have been growing colder more quickly than I thought. This was because my fever was climbing again, though I had refused to admit it at the time. The tremor in my hands was almost constant, as well, and Ben stayed even closer than before so he could catch me from falling when I stumbled, which was happening more and more. As for the headache, I had more urgent things to think about ... like what I would say to Charley and what I would offer if he would only take me back and, in time, take me home. I managed to get moving again but only because the first long stretch was downhill. It gave me enough rest that I managed another hill after than and then a shorter downhill slope. I believe I crawled up the next steeper rise. Then came a long expanse of ankle- twisting stony ground. I was moved in a fog of pain, barely able to feel Ben's arm around my waist supporting more and more of my weight. Ben. I couldn't allow myself to think about him. That parting would be every bit as bad as my parting from Ness. Worse. She had had the Circle, her family. What life was Ben condemned to for helping me? Had they appropriated his farm already? His crops? His little bits of handmade furniture and the fanciful carved animal he had made with such love? Whatever I achieved here today, it would be no victory. Tears burnt my eyes. I let the fog take me. It closed in tight for a while. Just the fog and the pain. When it cleared I found myself sitting on ground covered with prickly pine needles and with no memory of how I got there. I had lost all sense of time. It seemed that I had walked for a lifetime and yet it was still not far enough. Dead stop this time, dead being the operative word. I had to be closer to that condition that to anything actually living. The wad of lichen leaf that I had been chewing for so long that it was no more than a gritty paste fell out of my mouth. I had no strength to stop it as it dribbled down the front of the ragged blanket Ben had wrapped me in against the increasing wind. Didn't matter; I had no pride left and hadn't gotten any value from the drug for a long time. The fever and shakes and the knife thrust between the eyes had all taken their toll. I was also drifting again as all of the 'one- ness' I had from recovered through Arniesse's secret mumbo-jumbo had burnt away. I was only dimly aware of Ben scooping me up and slinging me over his shoulder, no small task. The fog returned and a throbbing in my ears now, which made the headache ten times worse. There was no thinking about Charley any more. Existing was about all I could manage. The next thing I remember was being carried, still head down, into a dry gully, a place of steep, hard walls and eroded earth. It was good to be out of the bitter wind that had been scouring our exposed skin with patchy bits of stinging sleet. It must be a riverbed when the snow melts in spring. It was when I tried to raise my head to ask my companion why we were there that things went to hell. That was when my body decided that it was as good a time as any for one last monumental seizure. A peaceful blackness blessed me then which was oh-so-much better than the gray fog. When this cleared to a scene tinged an ethereal blue-gray, I was somehow not surprised to find that I was looking down on my body convulsing weakly on the hard, dry ground. Benjamin was holding my head to keep me from biting my tongue or otherwise injuring myself. No, I wasn't mind reading; this was not from Ben's or any other person's point of view. This was a far more ancient and primal kind of seeing and I had been there, done that before. It's a loosening of the soul. In the X-Files there are more than a hundred documented cases... The X-Files, my files.... But they are a long, long way from Ben's little agricultural wonderland of short summers and hellish winters. Buried in those well-thumbed pages is one that I filled out myself. If you ever came across it, Scully, you let on. It describes how I watched my body die in Alaska in that metal tub of murderously warm water. I saw you, too, that day from somewhere above your left shoulder. You had cardiac paddles in you hands and you were giving the army doctors hell and shocking my poor heart back to a sluggish, reluctant beating. When it happened in Alaska I was not afraid. Even so long ago you held my life in your hands in more ways than one. Watching Ben weeping as I convulsed, I was more than afraid; I was terrified. I didn't want to die and the seizures had to have been going on for too long. One night when I was spending the night on your couch and I couldn't sleep, I found a video some sadist made from my time in the psych ward. For God's sake, Scully, why did you keep it? I hope that it doesn't turn you on to see me like that. What I saw on that tape looked more than anything like the death throes of some poor animal that should be put out of its misery. In that desolate place so far from your the affect was even worse. If astral eyes can be trusted, it was almost entirely dark. I should have been standing in the center of the landing place right now and shaking my fist at the great god Charley, but I wasn't, was I? I had not been strong enough. I must not have wanted to go home badly enough or maybe sub-consciously I had feared going back to Charley more than I thought. It certainly wasn't Ben's fault. I realized with my new clarity that, during this day, especially during these last hours, he had carried me more often than not. And for what? For his good? Finally the convulsions ceased and he cradled my twitching body in his arms, and cried some more. His head shook despairingly from side to side. He was shocked at how hot my skin was. It was at this point that his expression hardened suddenly. He set my limp body aside and, jaw clenched, rose stiffly and began rapidly to study the steep, canyon walls. What he was looking for and found was cave-like depression that the spring rains had carved in the streambed. He laid my body in that close place. Under my head he placed the bit of sacking he had carried the food and clothing in when we had food and before we put on all the clothes. I should be slowly freezing to death. Instead, I feel comparatively warm. Must be the fever. It was that sense of warmth that made me realize that I was back in my body. I must have drawn strength from Ben, vampire that I am. Maybe I was back because he was talking to me and I wanted to hear what he was saying. But I still couldn't. There was this hum all about me. The ocean again. He drew away. With the very last of my strength, both my mind and my body reached out. For God's sake, don't leave! I don't want to die alone. But my companion had evaded my grasping hand, if barely twitching fingers can be considered grasping. I found only empty air. There was a touch on my shoulder, however, and the back of fingers larger than yours, Scully, swept for a moment against my cheek. Then he was gone, pausing to pile dry brush across the opening to my tomb. There was no light at all now. Through the sensitive skin of my damaged back, I sensed footsteps stumbling away back across the dry ground. Then there was silence and I was alone. It was dark, Scully, in every sense of the word, dark. As before, all that was left to me was my mind. My nerves at least had decided that they had taken enough and weren't going to feel pain any more. Free of distractions, links began forming between this and that word or this and that event that I had not had time to think about before. Only in this new peace did one plus one come together and I saw the error that Ben and I had both made. In that instant I wished that I were that super-being again. I would even have accepted being tied down wrist and ankle to the cold metal of that hospital bed, because I needed to reach Benjamin. He had to be warned! In deep in despair as I was and sick of heart, still I tried and then tried again. Regretfully, all I managed to do was awaken the knife to start poking holes in my skull again. Killed my last peace. Oh, Scully, it hurt; it hurt so bad. I hung on for a little while but in time I couldn't find the strength to fight any more. It was on the point of that knife that I ceased fighting and began to slip back down that darkest of roads. Until the very last candle went out I wondered if Ben had heard my warning. BENJAMIN Year 31, Week 20.0 Dale Reckoning (full dark) I hated myself for leaving him; I would have hated myself worse for staying. His trying to hold me back at the end made it just so much more difficult. Did I see those twitching fingers? I did and very nearly took that hand. I would have held it until he died, but how would that have helped either of us? I was willing to lose him to this Charley in hopes that it would be to a better place; I was not ready to lose him to the Dark One. Unlike so many of the colonists, I have never believed in a life after death where there is a woman for every man who will welcome you to her bed and where there is food for the having and perpetual summer. Besides, I couldn't see Mulder being any more content there that he had been at the farm. So I ran, though I feared that I was already too late. I ran with what bit of strength I had left but without much hope. At the top of a particularly high ridge I stopped and stared north into a sky now completely black. I was still at least twenty minutes away from the landing place that Daniel had desecrated so. From such a high point I should have been able to see any strange lights like the ones Mulder described during one of his few lucid moments on our way here. I saw nothing except for a night slightly aglow with the softly blowing snow. I debated as to whether I should go on twenty minutes more to find nothing only to turn right around to find equally nothing except perhaps just one more body to plant in this hellish soil. In the end I turned around but not to go far. There was another possibility, small though it might be. I headed for a thicket of half-dead redbud bush that I passed on my way up the last slope. There was dry fuel here and being in the lee side of the hill, it would be as out of the wind as anything could be on such a night. With the pair of flint stones I always carried, I had a small flame going within two minutes, a miracle with the way my hands shook. That was a sign if ever there was one that I was doing the right thing. From my pocket I drew three crumpled and drying lichen leaves. How many times over the last few hours had I wanted to give them to Mulder, but we were no longer in the area where they grew. If I had given them to him then I would not have been able to attempt what I planned now. With my coat tightly pulled over my head like a hood, I bent over the tiny burning leaves and prayed that it would be enough and that he would hear. MULDER: Year 31, Week 20.1 Dale Reckoning (sometime before dawn) The fever came in the night. It's only fever that gives me dreams like that. Over and over a kind of mantra ran through them, "I don't want to die, not on this planet. I want to go home." I found out later that I lay entombed in the crypt Ben had found for me for most of the night. Even after the fever broke I still faded in an out. The first true sensation I had was far from pleasant: Someone's mouth was closed over mine. Now, Scully, don't jump to conclusions; it wasn't what you think. Neither was it what I thought at first either. I thought that I was being given mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Embarrassingly, it's not so unusual for me to wake up and find that particular life-saving technique being performed on my person. As a runner, my respirations are fairly infrequent and shallow compared to most people's, so the novice good Samaritan may not notice that I'm actually doing just fine on my own. What I found disgusting on this occasion was that the breath of this particular Samaritan reeked of smoke and the guy -- I knew it was a man from the rasp of his beard and the size of his mouth -- had one incredible pair of lungs. And where did this guy learn CPR? He filled up my lungs with his noxious breath one moment -- overfilled really -- and then he, or someone, would push down hard on my stomach to force me to exhale the next. You add the beard and the bad breath and this was far worse than any respirator I'd been hooked up to in any hospital and you know how I hate those things. As soon as I could think straight, I struggled to let the man know that his efforts weren't needed. The problem was I couldn't struggle much. I couldn't move either my head or my arms. I found out later that a second man held my head down while my 'savior' had a knee on one wrist and a third man had his knee on the other. Still he must have gotten the idea, feeble though my resistance was. *He's awake. Should I stop? * *Fuck! * There was underlying humor in the next exchange, this one spoken aloud. "I heard that, Fox. Such language. Yes, Jason, you can leave off now." I swore because the first words had popped into my mind directly. Just as I've learned to distinguish an out-of-body experience from seeing through someone else's eyes, I knew telepathy from the spoken word once I'd been warned. Mayor Dan's words were the signal for the three burly men clustered around me, darker shapes against the night sky, to lean back from their work. They didn't retreat far, however, as if afraid I'd leap up and run. That sounded like a reasonable idea, only the way I felt I knew that I wouldn't be doing any leaping for quite some time. Breathing on my own was work enough, which I did in great grasps in an attempt to clear the evil out of my lungs. I even managed to summon up a truly painful cough or two, but the harm had been done. Lichenleaf. The only question was why force the telepathic stimulant at this particular time, but I wasn't about to ask. Instead, I collapsed back against the ground, bare except for a thin layer of trampled vegetation. At least it was the ground that was bare this time, not me. I didn't fight any more than I had tried to run because, truthfully, there wasn't much fight in me. I only vaguely recognized the three men who still hovered near me. I think I last saw them lingering outside Government House. Each certainly had the look of a Mob Boss's hit man, which in essence was what they were. By the light of the fire, for there was a good-sized one, I could see that one of the men, the one called Jason, still held a large clay pipe. Jason must have been the one who held the lichen leaf smoke in his mouth before exhaling into mine. My stomach ached from where another of the bullies made certain that I would inhale deeply enough. Across my field of vision the bulky form of Mayor Dan wavered, retrieved the pipe, and took a drag. He raised it in my direction. * More? * Nausea rose unpleasantly in my throat. "Do you have any idea how long it takes to kick the habit once that kind of thing gets started?" Daniel chuckled and sat down on a convenient log by the fire close enough for me to see him without my needing to move more than my eyes. *Think to me, Fox. Don't speak. * "I'll just manage in the old-fashioned way, thank you." Five ghostly shapes moved against the dark. One wore a face I recognized. It was Arniesse, who averted his eyes from mine, and four of his 'brothers'. The older one, the one who Ben said stood up to Daniel, wasn't among them. Clearly, he hadn't been invited to the party. I wish that I hadn't been invited either. Closing my eyes, I tried to take stock of how I felt now compared to how I felt the last time I recall being conscious. The answer is: A whole shit better, though if I'd been a fish I probably would still have been thrown back. The bits and pieces of me that had seemed to be flowing more and more randomly during the day had at least stopped moving so the feeling of not being quite 'me' had improved. I probably had the changelings and their laying-on-of-hands magic to thank for finishing what Arniesse started back in the hut. From the dulled headache and the metallic taste in my mouth I surmised that I'd also been juiced me with a whole fistful of Mac's magic leaf rolls. This also meant that the fever and nausea and tremors and convulsions from my body's lusting after the drug were also gone, at least temporarily, though I ached absolutely everywhere and my body hummed in an unnatural way. All in all, therefore, I had to conclude that this particular mob didn't take bad care of their property -- just as long as over- medicated is considered good medicine. *Don't go to sleep, Fox. * That was unlikely; I was freezing. The cold from the ground was rising and clawing its way into the damaged muscles of my back. The cold did help to remind me of my stumbling, crawling, 'tripping' flight across Dale's countryside. I tried to sit up so I could meet my devil on something approaching equal ground, but I couldn't. It was Arniesse who came to help, being careful, I noted, not to touch my skin directly. I would have to remember that cloth shields the affect. Cold as it was on the ground, it was colder off for the stiff wind of the evening before had not completely died away. Seeing me shiver, the changeling draped a blanket around my shoulders. What would I get next? A last meal? It was clear pretty quickly that I should never have tried to sit. There was no threat of seizing, but that many drugs had left me lightheaded and my insides vibrated in a way that made me slightly seasick. With the migraine numbed, my whole head felt as if it had been wrapped in cotton wool. It was so padded in there that those of Daniel's thoughts that I did pick up would probably be sucked into the padding - or at least I hoped so. Across from me, Daniel appeared relaxed, but the rapid puffing on his pipe gave away how anxious he was. I wish he wouldn't do that -- smoke, I mean. I didn't want him any stronger; didn't want him able to hear me or for me to be able to hear him. Then I realized that I didn't hear much from him and never had, just a directed phrase here and there, nothing like the torrent of voices from the year before. It was a kind of comfort that if this thing in my head was growing back, that it was still in its infancy. Time enough to whack it out later then. But I would worry about that when I got out of here, which still seemed unlikely. I was probably going to die here, if not from my own stupidity then from Dan Rowe's malice. Just then the old man rose with a jerk and began pacing back and forth in front of the fire. There was a sudden pop of sparks from the fire and my eyes instinctively followed the glowing trail into the sky. That was when my heart stopped. There was a lightening of the dark just above the horizon and they don't have cities on Dale. I hadn't thought to ask the time. Night was flowing away. Dawn was waiting in the wings. Oh, Scully, ever my rock and my heart's home. I've missed my flight. I've blown in big time. The biggest. I'm never going to get off this ball of clay and the Lord Mayor here, who is striding up and down like a damn rooster, is going to make sure that what time I have left is going to be spent as miserable as possible. I glared at him with what fury I could find the energy for. *So get it over with. What in the hell do you want? Why are you still here and not... * I gestured with my eyes towards the sky. He whirled to face me, surprised, I think, by the clarity of the message I'd shot his way. *As I've said, Fox. I don't waste valuable resources, not so long as they are still valuable which you have just proved that you are. * * For what? * I'd been too busy being depressed to wonder exactly where I was. I turned my head away from the fire and took a moment to let my eyes adjust. After a moment I recognized the ragged cliff as well as the pattern of the remaining trees around it. Daniel had made his little camp dead center over the rendezvous point. Not that that fact did me any good, I was too late and even if I wasn't I wasn't alone. I knew what the fire was for though, and it wasn't there just to provide Daniel's little force with some warmth in the early winter chill. It was a signal. 'Hey, Charley! Here! We're over here!' So why save my life and drag my almost corpse all the way here? Daniel said I was valuable. I can't say that I agree with him, but I guess it can't hurt to play the game. I just wish that my heart were in it. "I thought you weren't interested in having any competition for this particular trip?" I asked, raising my voice as loud as I was able which wasn't much. I must have hit a nerve. In shifting orange glow of the bonfire, the old man's angry face never looked more like his younger copy. "First he has to come, but the bastard didn't come!" I assumed as much. "And you expect me to do what?" "Call him." The idea was so ridiculous that I couldn't help smiling. "E.T. phone home? Ah, but then you wouldn't know that one." He was on me in two quick steps, dragging me up by the front of the two layers of the colony's precious homespun that I wore. The jerk was accompanied by a ripping sound. More clothes ruined. I felt a flash of deja vue. I had been in this position with Charley a lifetime before. "Call with your mind, Idiot! With as much force as you can. In fact you don't even have to call him in words. You only need to fill the airwaves with your signature. Scream to that dog Benjamin for help for all I care." I started. Ben? How could I have gone so long and not thought about Ben? Idiot was too good a word for the kind of friend I was. Arrogant, egocentric, self-pitying worm came closer. "Where's Ben? If you've done anything to Ben..." The shaking I got before he let go of what remained of my shirt and tunic was all the reminder I needed that I was not in tiptop shape. "I said 'Call'! I'll know if you don't." He stood over where I lay sprawled on the trampled grass and tried to look menacing. He didn't have to try very hard. "Tell me where Ben is and maybe I'll think about it!" Years defending the X-Files against all comers and then living with Charley had taught me how to be defiant against worse odds than Dan Rowe. But Dan had lived with Charley, too. I forgot about that. Faster than I thought that old man could move he drew out what on this planet was a very unexpected object. It was a real knife, not a flint one, not crudely remelted dental filling. I saw the straight, bright glint in the firelight. "Hold him." Dan's three hit men were only too happy to do so. They first threw me down on a boulder that was not only cold but also sharp. One then took a fist full of hair and pulled back my head while a second grabbed me firmly by the right wrist and the third tore the sleeve. Easily within the reach of that evil-looking blade, they held the limb out as steady as a rock no matter how hard I fought. Sadly, my fight was rather pitiful, but then they were also very efficient in their movements as if this was something they'd done before. Clearly, Dale's mayor was well prepared for those times when it just wasn't convenient to transport his victims to Government House and the fun and games that went on in the basement. I had no misconception now about what this old man wanted me for. Bait. And when Charley showed up, I'd be expendable. Daniel would have the audience he craved. I expected more threats at that moment, and lots of melodramatic talk. What I got was a long, thin line of red along the length of my forearm. There wasn't a lot of pain at first but surprise made me cry out, though as this was what Dan wanted, I tried to swallow it as soon as it started. Maybe I had some control over what exhibited on the outside. What I couldn't do was stop the shock that went bouncing around inside my skull. "Not bad," Daniel murmured with satisfaction. "There's no point to this," I started, with a voice only slightly tinged with hysteria. "Charley's headblind, you know that. All the shapeshifters are." "But his instruments aren't. Remember what I said about finding you when you were young. How do you think we choose the ones we wanted to begin with? Mindspeakers unconsciously give off a kind of radiant energy your science and mine refuses to recognize, but with the right instruments what a beacon you were even when you were young." "Thanks to a certain black-lunged pain-in-the-ass, I'm not the freak you knew." "But you've recovered a portion of that shine. I just hope it will be enough. We've boosted you about as much as we can manage here." He moved his hand in brisk, crisp motions, allowing the tiny blade to glitter to its best advantage. "So let's try it again, shall we, only louder this time." The old man bent to his work. He made only a modest cut this time and, ready for it, I bit down on my lip and made hardly any sound even on the inside. Daniel snorted disapprovingly and gestured for his goons to tighten their grip. "You do know that there's only one profession that a man with one arm man is good for in this society, don't you?" That gave me a chill from a couple of different directions, though I tried to assure myself that the blade was too small and too thin for downright amputation. Still, the current game wasn't worth the cost to me of allowing him to try. The next cut would be deeper and longer. I wish that I had been able to hang on, to play for news of Ben if nothing else. As for being the bait for bringing Charley here, if he heard and if he came, that was one shapeshifter who could take care of himself. While he was at it, he could also take care of Dan Rowe so it was to my advantage to stay alive and relatively whole as long as I could. Even forewarned it was still a shock when the blade bit deeply into flesh. There was no point in holding back; I'd had enough of this shit. I don't know where the power came for the cry I sent up then. There was no control and no words that would be printable here. I know that the power sailed like a damned shooting star out of the top of my head. It was like hitting the sweet spot on a maplewood bat; even when you don't know what you're doing, sometimes you hit it just right. Instantly, there was a commotion about the fire as if everyone had felt it, human and changeling alike. What I'd been told about the mindspeaker compound being in the very blood and bones of the planet and everyone being exposed to it to some degree must be true. The men holding me fell back as if struck especially Jason who'd smoked so much from the pipe. Daniel cried out and dropped the knife to grip his head. The thought came to me that this would be the perfect time to go for the weapon, but after the white lightning of that cry came a crack like that of a whip and almost as if in slow motion time and place went softly away for a while. When I came around Arniesse was calmly bandaging my arm. The fact that I was sitting up on my own indicated that I could not have been entirely unconscious, but there certainly had been a lot of nothing for a while. Not too much time had passed, however, because there was only a little more light in the sky. I think it was the bite from the pain of my newest injuries that helped bring me around and Arniesse had had something to do with making certain that I felt them. I know for a fact that he wasn't being as gentle with his nursing as he could have been. Without moving any more than necessary I checked for Daniel and his men. Equally spaced around the dying bonfire, they were dark silhouettes standing guard and staring intently outward into the barest gray of dawn. Even though the changeling and I didn't seem to be anyone's immediate concern, I spoke as softly as I could. "Where's Benjamin?" The handsome, bowed head gestured out beyond the fire. "Out there." "Daniel found him, didn't he? Is he dead?" Arniesse's eyes lowered. "I don't know, I wasn't there. When the hours passed and the spaceship didn't come and neither of you came, they went searching. They wouldn't let me go. I'm not entirely trusted at the moment. I'm told that they did find Benjamin, but that he refused to tell them where you were. They followed his trail back to you. I was taken along for that since I know you better than the others. You'd crawled out of the hiding place he'd made for you. You may have frozen to death by morning." And how would that have mattered to anyone? "But what happened to Ben? How badly did they hurt him?" "Badly, or so I'm told." "Then why haven't you gone to him?" I snarled. "Because," Arniesse replied with more regret than I'd heard before from the changeling, "he would not want me to leave you." The dark head bowed over the knot he was tying in the bit of torn cloth to hold the bandage in place. Now that I knew him better I could see the subtle signs of his distress. I flinched when he tied the knot too tight. "Sorry." He stared down at the bandage where dark, wet spots were already seeping through. "I would not have let them take your arm. And they call us animals," he hissed with bitterness. Something had been bothering me. I vaguely remembered shouting a warning to Ben back when he hid me in the dry gully. Now I remembered what the warning was. "You were in the hut, when Benjamin talked to me about finding my calendar only we didn't know it then. You knew from that exchange that tonight was the night. You told. That's how Dan and his troops just happened to be sitting here waiting for us to show up." My interrogation skills have obviously gotten rusty because Arniesse didn't confirm or deny. He simply looked out with his/her beautiful face, composed again, in the direction of the great empty plain where Ben was lying dead or dying. I'm absolutely certain about the dead or dying part because Ben would never have told and Daniel would never have stopped asking until he knew that he would learn nothing. Arniesse wasn't going to answer, but Dan Rowe took that moment to come in range. "What happened to Benjamin?" I demanded. "Who knows," Daniel replied in a distracted voice, more interested in watching for movement beyond the fire. At that moment I would have killed him if I could have stood up without falling on my face, but what little strength I had had spent itself on that one telepathic bomb. With irritation, eyes still on the promise of at least a cloudy dawn, Daniel kicked a small glowing piece of wood back into the fire. "Show yourself you damned green-blooded monster!" he howled, then as if with a sudden thought, he reversed to glare at me. "Could you have gotten it wrong?" My response was a shrug but hope stirred a little. Maybe I had. Maybe there was still a chance. Does the tree in the forest make a sound when it falls even if there is no one around to hear? Could the moon be said to be full even if there are too many clouds to see? Is it full on its own or only because we know it to be so? It's all in the viewpoint, after all. Daniel growled and turned away. What did it matter? Even if I was wrong, I'd never be given the opportunity to be alone here again and Benjamin would be just as dead. We all sat in silence for some minutes after that. Arniesse went back to his own kind who huddled quietly out of the ring of dwindling firelight. As dawn approached, Daniel was indeed letting the fire burn down, confirming my assumption that it had been lit as a signal. Not that it wasn't just as cold now as before. I hadn't mentioned the weather much because it was so still. In New England they would call it a crisp morning and talk about frost on the pumpkins. A comfortable temperature if you are walking bristly or busy confronting madmen. It crept into your bones when you did nothing more that sit like a stone. How long would we wait? There was no telling from looking at Daniel and his men. Patiently, they maintained their slow circling vigilance. I didn't let myself be assuaged by their lack of firepower. It didn't matter that except for Daniel's knife each was armed with only a stout club and a sharpened hunk of a flint ax head. I had no doubt that they knew how to use both. Most notably, there was always one within two steps of where I sat on another butt-denting rock. A hostage in the event of Charley's sudden appearance, I had no doubt. There was no telling who heard the footsteps first because within seconds we were all alert. Someone was approaching from the direction of the rough thrust of rock that so identified the place. All eyes were soon trained that way. A guard moved behind me. Flint pricked the side of my neck. Let's say that I didn't move. I didn't even breathe much. Within seconds an anxious challenge was raised and a hesitate voice answered. There was a general mumbling as the guards, even the one at my back, went to see the arrival. It was about the last person I would have expected. It was Reese, Daniel's manservant, bringing some critical news from town. It was while they buzzed about the old Bob that I noticed Arniesse and then the rest of the Grayrobes stiffen. Arniesse rose slowly but his attention was focused in the opposite direction from where Reese had come. Over the sounds of the voices from Daniel and his men I heard what Arniesse and his fellows had heard -- slow, halting footsteps, every other one dragging a little. Not Charley. It was still too dark to see far but enough dawn to make out forms beyond the firelight. A figure the color of frost like the morning itself stopped just at the limit the light allowed. I didn't recognize him by his face, half of which was covered in something dark, most probably blood. I knew him by the height and width of his shoulders and the ragged clothes though he listed badly to one side. Benjamin. I felt an absurd happiness. He'd been badly beaten, but it was Ben. If he came to save me, however, his timing was terrible. Arniesse straightened as he, too, recognized the figure. He didn't go to him any more than I, however. The other Grayrobes also stayed where they were. It was not a good idea to move quickly with Daniel and his men only momentarily distracted. The tableaux probably lasted no more than ten seconds before the Mayor's men swept down on us. They slowed and stopped when they saw who it was though not from fear. They were just wary to see if their neighbor, and former victim, was going to be stupid enough to retaliate for past abuses. After a moment their shoulders relaxed and weapons lowered, though in their place I wouldn't have been so quick to do either. There was a suppressed tension in the young farmer. Not knowing how long of a fuse Ben had, I considered going to him, but barely able to sit without falling over, I would probably make the situation worse. Better to watch and wait. After all, I've caused Ben problems enough since my arrival. His injuries as well as his current estrangement from his village were my doing. Besides, he hadn't looked my way. Oh, he had at first but just enough to count heads. It was Daniel that he stood and waited for. The old man approached more slowly than his men. Everything about Stony River's Mayor was casual and matter-of-fact except for the eyes. Ignored by Daniel just as he always had been, Reese followed closely behind, his features tense. "So, it's Benjamin. Fox has been taxing our patience with all his questions over your status so we're relieved to see that you're still with us. You understand why we had to take the actions we did, don't you, Benjamin? Of course, you do. And you're forgiven. We're all capable of momentarily forgetting where our true loyalties lie. Just don't let it happen again. By the way, did you happen to stumble upon Bek on your way here?" Benjamin's reply took some time in coming. A head wound will do that. I've had too many occasions to know. "He found me." As Dan Rowe hadn't been serious when he asked his question, Ben's answer was so unexpected that it took everyone around the fire, me included, time for it to sink in. So I got the date right after all and Charley was here. Only where? My eyes rolled skyward but all I could see was dark gray gradually turning lighter and the occasional flake of blown snow. MULDER: Year 31, Week 20.0 Dale Reckoning (Dawn) "He's come for..." and Ben nodded his bloody head in my direction though his attention remained on the old man. Relief struggled to come alive in my chest, but I knew how dangerous my position still was. Daniel was breathing heavily and I almost wished that the light were better so that I could watch him turn purple. "No!! Not that! Where is the bastard!" Unbelievably, it was Reese who answered. "I expect that he'll be here any minute now." With these clear, precisely intoned words it became obvious, at least to me, that this was not the same man who had silently served drinks and passed the hors d'oeuvres. Whipping around, Daniel stared at his servant. "There was no fire at the east common farm, was there?" Suspiciously, his intense eyes darted from the aging newcomer to Ben and back. Reese's arrival had allowed Ben to approach without being challenged. Showing up separately as they did had thrown Daniel temporarily off balance. It had been a diverting little plan. No sudden moves meant safer for me. As my forearm still burned like hell, this was something I could agree with. Meanwhile, Daniel had spun back towards his men, what was left of his control crumbling as if he expected the transport beam from Charley's ship to appear at any moment. "Now, as we discussed! The master's come for his pupil, let him have only one he can leave with." The three men lumbered forward but hesitantly this time. They were bullies, not murderers. Arniesse and Reese, neither big men, stopped the thugs' advance simply by stepping between the three and where I sat huddled under my blanket, helpless in every way possible and for the moment glad of it. There are advantages to not appearing to be a threat, as you and your five-foot-two have reason to know, Scully. Still, I was attempting to get to my feet to intervene, when from behind Benjamin's strong hands came down heavily on my shoulders. Benjamin protecting my back -- it felt right that he should be there. All in all, it certainly was a novelty to have friends -- in addition to you, of course, Scully. I just hoped that I wouldn't get them killed. Reese was speaking again, his voice loud and clear and without a hint of a stutter. "Where has your honey voice gone, Mayor? You boasted to everyone who would listen that you would talk this alien mercenary into taking you instead, that it would be no problem at all. Now you have to commit assault and murder?" To emphasize his point he gestured as much to Ben's bloody face as to me. "The Graypeople agree," Arniesse added, raising his soft voice with unexpected force. "Clearly, you never had the power you promised. Therefore, as you have been warned, we will no longer listen to your counsel. The only reason we told you of their plans and came today was to end this and prevent exactly what you intend now." Daniel snarled, baring his teeth. "Do you think I need you? Do you think that I need any you whores?" He spun back to his men. "Well? What's stopping you? It's not like we have not silenced the rebels in our ranks before. To survive we must be united and we must be strong. Be strong now. I must be the one who meets with Bek!" After a pause to check first that none of them would be wading into the situation alone, the three men started forward again. Nervous hands choked up on their clubs. "I warn you," Arniesse's clear voice called out, "stop now or no Grayrobe will ever enter your town again and neither will you be welcome in ours." At that seemingly mild threat, the oddest thing happened. The three bullies visibly hesitated, expressions of alarm growing in their faces. Into this atmosphere, one of Arniesse's companions, heretofore silent, stepped forward to stand shoulder to shoulder with his fellow changling. He was taller and green-eyed and awesomely beautiful. "Did you hear, Raymond?" He called, staring at the youngest of the three thugs. "No more Firstday nights -- ever!" The young man wavered as if struck by a blow. His club began to sink as his face turned fiercely red. A second changeling came forward, less tall and striking but no slouch. "I also stand with my kin, Jason." These words made the ugliest and meanest of the three go pale. The second to the last changeling stepped up to join our group. It was getting crowded. He didn't speak, but one piercing glance and the third bully, a rotund fellow who was more meek than his fellows, dropped his eyes even as his club fell to his side. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry but as exhausted as I was I was certainly on the verge of doing one or the other. It was an odd sort of Lysistrata, but the old ways are often the best. Had the Grayrobes placed 'concubines' with Daniel's lieutenants for just such a eventuality? It certainly seemed that way. Let Daniel do all the work while they secretly held all the high cards? The last and oldest of the Grayrobe group came to stand beside Reese, their shoulders comfortably touching. There was now enough dawn light to see that Daniel's face had flared red. "Traitor," he hissed at Reese. "How could you betray your own?" "My own? These are more my own than you. They treat me like a man. To you I am little more than a dumb beast." "So you were their spy in my house? For how long?" "Too many years to count. Since they took pity on my silence and worked with me to help me think and speak again." Too flustered to come up with a reply, Daniel turned to confront the one whose betrayal probably stung the worst. "And you..." he hissed at Arniesse, loathing dripping from each word. "Worse than a spy." "Those who are powerless will seize what weapon they can," the changeling said simply. Finding no way to start a physical brawl with these two groups, the old man glared wildly at his three lieutenants. "Can't you see what they're doing? What are you? Men of mud? Where is your backbone? Where is your heart? This is our last chance. We have to insist that Bek take me! You know I'll work for the colony's interests. You can't trust a stranger to do that!" Ever since he had verbally attacked Reese and Arniesse, the mayor had been moving and gesturing with his arms. Being a large man, his movements covered a lot of space. Unaccustomed to fighting and in their smug satisfaction over the thwarting of Daniel's plans, Reese and the changelings had let their guard down. They'd allowed him to scatter them. All at once he was two steps away from where I still sat. He didn't seem to be armed, but I knew better. That little knife could easily be hidden in the palm of a hand as large as his. This is the way in which things so often go wrong. A tense situation is defused and you feel this brief burst of euphoria as the last of the adrenaline burns away. As if in slow motion, I saw him begin the movement that would turn him in my direction and bring the little knife up with force into my throat. I had to get up, I had to defend myself, but I was too stiff, too sore, and I'd been sitting too long in the cold. All that my standing managed to do was give the old man a larger target, my stomach. On this planet the thrust from an arm as strong as Daniel's would make a lethal wound, though death may take its time. That was when a body with the strength of a small bull pushed me aside. The knife found its target... into Benjamin who'd forced himself into my place. Or did it? Ben didn't fall or react at all. With the help of Reese's arm I managed to get to my feet from the trampled ground where I'd been shoved out of harm's way. I would have gone to my friend then but the old newcomer held me back. Maybe it was going to be all right. There was no flash of blood or grimace of pain. Maybe the little blade had become tangled in the layers of rough woven clothing he wore. All I knew was that he stood where he was, his work hardened hands around the old man's powerful wrist, and stared coldly into those hateful gray eyes. "What makes you think," he said in tones even colder, "that anything would induce me to deal with anything as twisted as you?" The words came from Ben, but it was a voice that I had never heard from that young man. I knew what was going to happen next even before it did. Benjamin's strong, handsome features began to ripple, to flow, to grow larger and thicker as his body became taller and more broad -- and all so familiar. For only the second time since 'Benjamin' had limped into the fire circle, he looked fully me. "The entire power structure of a world in turmoil? As ever, wherever there is trouble, that is where you can be found, Agent Mulder." It sounded good to hear that name but not nearly as wonderful as it once may have. For it was Charley, not Benjamin, who spoke and who held the old man by the throat, an old man who in appearance could easily have passed for his father. Shock and grief made me stagger, which was quite different from the anxiety that had eaten at me since I had heard about the attack on Ben. This mourning was not that my Benjamin might be dead but that he had somehow never existed. Had he been Charley all along? But this was clearly not the time for a formal greeting which after all this time would be complicated to say the least. Dan Rowe was thrashing in the shapeshifter's grip like a frenzied animal. I'll give him credit; he fought well for his age. After sufficient damage had been done, Charley let him go. The old man staggered back, holding his throat and its darkening bruises. In a rasping voice he spoke, "At least listen to me. I want to come back. I can still pilot the ship. I'm still strong, you know that I can manage the Beast." >From Charley's expression you would think that he was facing some insignificant life form. "Very well! If you have to replace me with Fox then so be it, but at least take me along. There's so much I can teach him." "The way you have taught the people here? The people you begged to be allowed to take to a better place? You have made a mess of your own ship, do not attempt to do the same to mine." "The deaths were not my fault!" "They were no one's fault, but when the harm was done and the offer was made to move the colony to an established place, to a hard but safer place, you refused. Did you tell your beloved people that? Or would you then have to admit that you refused because relocating the colony would mean that you would have to give up your high seat in favor of another?" The men from Stony River and Reese stared at their mayor in astonishment. This was a part of the story they clearly didn't know. All these years their hopelessness, the deaths of their mothers and wives and daughters, had been unnecessary. "And these..." Charley looked with what for Charley was almost fondness on the cluster of slender, gray-clad changelings, "even after your refusal they were planted here to help you. You think of them as barren but they are not." To a man, or woman, the reaction of the changelings was immediate. "They must only remain in their female form until the fetus is implanted and then cannot return to their male form until the child has come to term. But your 'law' does not allow them to come and go except by your leave, nor can they appear as women in your town and none but you can visit theirs. The result? No children." Arniesse's question came out as a moan. "Why weren't we told?" "So that you would see a need to grow strong and find your own ways to resist this man's power and petty rules. That you would find ways to be accepted so that the two communities would eventually merge. In time the gift we gave you would then have become known. A people's future after all should not be brought into a place of conflict. Unless the culture changed, you would have remained freaks to them and become little more than slaves or cattle to create children. But he kept you separate, the enjoyment of your gifts a shameful thing. In an atmosphere of strife, none prosper." Charley stared hard at his 'father's' face. "You promised to make a kinder world than the one you were fleeing. You should have done so." "How ironic," the old man snarled, "considering the torture the two of us inflicted on helpless children for so many years." Here I had thought myself pretty much forgotten but now most eyes followed Daniel's to me. It wasn't unusual to find myself the object of attention. What made me squirm was to find so much of it sympathetic. Not surprisingly, Charley's expression didn't alter but his next words were softer. "To survive, each race as a whole must change, must grow, must learn from its mistakes. In the process some individuals must always lose a thing so that the whole will survive. There are and will always be the pathfinders, the soldiers and those that sacrifice all. We played our part, Dan. It was a different war then." The pathfinders, the soldiers, and the sacrifices... After many years of sleeping on stony group, explorers that do not fall by the wayside will find their way home. Soldiers do return from the war though not all of them living and even more of them not whole. Then there are the sacrifices, those who die just because they are in the way, just because that's the way of the world, any world. Which one am I, Scully? "Agent Mulder." It was Charley's voice calling me. "It is time for us to go. They have much to clean up here and we have much to do." But the old man wasn't finished. "No!" he cried. Staring wildly towards each of his men in turn, he declared, "Don't tell me that you honestly believe this fairy tale? He just wants to wash his hands of the problem and we'll be abandoned again. He can do more, he just refuses to." Rabble rouse as he may, the old politician was having little affect on his once obedient flock. "Look, there are eight of us. The original plan doesn't have to be over. Take Fox and he'll deal! It's all he wants or cares about!" But to a man -- and to a changeling -- they all turned their heads away. The three town men and Reese each sought instead the eyes of their changeling lover and in an astonishingly short time there were four couples, male and gray-clad female, creating a wall of defiance against the old ways. With a cry Daniel stooped, his hand closing on a rock. Logically, he would just have thrown it down again in impotent rage but, though aging, the man had been in the military once and an athlete and he was still strong. With the speed of a major league pitcher, he whirled. We never found out who that final stone was meant for -- Reese, the traitor; Charley, the old Master who rejected him; Arniesse, the spy; or I, the rival. We never found out because the old man staggered suddenly, the projectile falling harmlessly somewhere on the flattened weeds between the four of us. He fell seconds later, his hand clutching his throat from where a dark- fletched dart protruded. It was Reese who lowered the tiny blowgun from his lips. "A gift from Mac," he explained, dispassionately observing the start of Mayor Dan's death throes. "He thought it might come to this, though I didn't know that the poison would be so potent. I guess Mac knew better than most what kind of monster lived among us. He had to doctor Daniel's victims often enough." For a time no one spoke. We all just stood abhorred and fascinated as the old man frantically clutched at his closing windpipe. It was all happening so fast and so horribly. The old eyes sought those of Charley. The swelling lips said something then, something I wasn't close enough to hear nor was I able to make out the words that were formed, but Charley was. Was the old man begging for Charley to save him because shapeshifters were healers? Forbidding Charley to save him? Reminding him of some old attachment? In a matter of seconds lips stopped moving and the cold gray eyes stared into the pale morning light. No one moved to help as the broad, flushed face went from blue to black. Epilogue Without a word or ceremony a grave was dug. Too weak to do much to help turn the cold, hard ground, I managed at least to check for a pulse. No one deserves to be buried alive. In was early winter, however, so the body was already cooling by the time they had finished carving the shallow hole. Depth wasn't needed; there aren't any scavengers on Dale but Human ones. As was their custom, he was buried naked, the dead having no need of the precious boots or warm clothes. Minutes later, without any more of a farewell than a nod, the four couples began their long walk back to one or the other of their respective towns. I dare say that they will take their time. Only Arniesse remained and Charley and I. Charley, stone-faced as always, stood over the grave by himself, wrapped in his own alien thoughts. Arniesse stood beside him. I had long since returned to my stone, too tired and dizzy and sick to stand. The overdose of lichen pills they had pumped me with was fading and my body was beginning to make some serious requests for more. "The colony will manage well enough," Arniesse predicted as he watched the distant twin specks of couples until they were lost within a line of trees. "Change will be quick. Reese knows all that Daniel was involved in and his new importance will change the lot of the others." "Then the BoBs will be freed?" I asked wanting to be certain on that point. "Those who feel unfree. Some are happy with their lives and some truly can't live without care. The ones whose adoptive 'parent' will not let them go, those cases will take some work but there are, gratefully, fewer of those than you might think. The truly unhappy and abused can't work. My kind will come to town now. We are as eager for children as the men beside the river. It will be an interesting winter with the status quo broken in more ways than one." A slight smile crossed the smooth face. "If my people have anything to say about it, there won't be one of us without a round belly by spring." "But what about the birth trauma? What's to keep your people from dying like the colony's women died?" "We thought of that long ago in case a miracle should ever happen. Immediately after birth we will change back to our male form until the bleeding stops, then switch again to nurse the young. Timing will be tricky but nothing that can't be dealt with. Well worth the risk." The pathfinders, the soldiers and the sacrifices. "What will you do?" I asked the handsome young 'man'. "Me?" Did I have to say it? He would be alone at least for a while. Daniel wasn't the only one who was gone. "I'm sorry about Benjamin." He looked at me oddly and said nothing more. I was distracted by Charley then who, I realized, hadn't spoken for a long time. He dark gaze was still on the mound. They had traveled many years together. There had been tension I was sure, as between Charley and I, but not all of it could have been bad. Jailer and prisoner have more in common than one might think, a lesson I was still learning. I never did find out what he was thinking. Feeling my gaze on him, he straightened his bowed head, but it was Arniesse he looked towards. "There is nothing more that I can do here. There is a great task for the war that needs to be attended to first. It's why I've come for Mulder. But hear me: If I can, I or one of my allies will return and we'll see what can be done to help." For only the second time since transforming from Ben's bloody features -- which could not have been actual blood since Charley bleeds green acid no matter what his form -- the shapeshifter looked me straight in the eye and there was an understanding between us. This great task he spoke to Arniesse of was what I'd be required to take part in if I were accepted back. With an inclination of his head he signaled that it was past time he were gone and took a few steps back in the direction 'Ben' had come from. My own next steps would be the critical ones. I could still stay and thus stay for good. But to go I need only rise and follow and I'd be in. No groveling would be required. On the other hand I hadn't forgotten the sheer agony of joining with the Beast. It was the only road home, however. I got to my feet -- or tried to. I finally managed after a fashion. It was with relief that neither Charley nor Arniesse moved to help. The shapeshifter only slowed his steps so that I could catch up. He also beckoned with the tiniest movement of his hand and Arniesse, with an expression to match his own, fell into step with us both. It was as if the changeling expected this. As for me, I was past caring one way or the other. My only coherent thought was a badly worded prayer that we didn't have to walk far. I was not doing well and just the thought of being on a ship in stardrive made me feel a good deal worse. We were outside the fire circle now. Though the fire was now out, there should have been more than enough morning to see by. Then why couldn't I? Was there going to be a storm? If we didn't hurry, I'd have come to Dale in storm and I'd leave in storm. Got to move faster, but I couldn't. I'd already fallen behind. Charley and Arniesse were at least a dozen strides ahead and didn't look back. My head hurt badly with a pounding behind my eyes. The world went gray and dim and stayed that way for quite some time. I stumbled. A familiar, strong arm around my waist kept me from getting up close and personal with the earth of Dale again. Before me there was only the empty plain. No Charley, no Arniesse. I looked right to stare at the face next to mine. It was a dirty, tired face and streaked with dried blood but also endearingly familiar. It was Benjamin and he was smiling. I blinked several times. "Don't tell me he fooled you?" he laughed sounding blissfully happy. I was not going to admit to what I thought -- that Charley had been Ben all along. For Charley to keep the pretense of being human for so long, and such a gentle soul as Ben's, seemed inconceivable now. Stress and sickness had badly muddied my thinking. Then there had been my other fear. "I thought that Daniel and his men had killed you." Ben passed his free hand over his face and a few flakes of reddish brown crumbled off. "Not for lack of trying." "How badly are you hurt?" "How badly 'was' I hurt, you mean. Pretty bad. It was my own fault. I 'called' Daniel. I though I was saving your life. But then I saw the lights of the ship and I realized what I blunder I'd made. Luckily, Daniel's group hadn't seen them, so I had to keep silent. It was the only way to keep you from Daniel's hands and possibly get you into Charley's. Charley found me after Daniel's group got finished with me. Took me up to his ship and worked some kind of magic. I'm doing well now." He bounced on the balls of his feet, the jostling more than sufficient to set little bombs off in my head. He must have noticed my grimace and calmed his enthusiasm. "He had come upon Reese earlier while he was shadowing Daniel. He wanted to know what that old lion's plans were." Ben's black eyes glistened. "The ship is amazing. I couldn't believe it when I met Reese there." "Anyone mention me during all this?" I murmured. "I thought he was going to spit nails he was so angry with you for not being there waiting for him. When I told him that you had tried and that you were unconscious he understood why he'd been unable to find you. Then he began to get weak signals from you. When it became clear that Daniel had you, we began to make plans. Just before he and Reese were ready to leave he got some incredibly loud reading. About roasted his equipment! Whatever you did surprised him. You should have seen him smile." "Charley, smile?" Benjamin's expression was curious. "You know, Charley's not so bad. He's not at all like you described." I just rolled my eyes. "Well, he left me alone down here just now," I grumbled. "He's sorry about that. He and Arniesse both thought you were following. It's why he sent me down to get you, as a peace offering. That's what I've been doing, waiting on the ship for you. And there's another thing." He took a deep breath. "I'm coming along," came out in a rush. I stared at him. "I'm coming with you on the ship." "I know what you meant. You can't be serious. You don't know what it's like. Besides Daniel's no threat any more. You can go home." "And plow fields, and carve little mythical animals I'll never see, and chop wood in the winter till my hands bleed, and invent two hundred different ways to serve potatoes and beans? Given this chance, how could I not?" "'How you gonna keep them down on the farm after they've seen Parie?'" I said. (Note, Scully, that I recited. I did not sing.) "Does Charley know about this? I can't image that he's much on house guests." "He invited me, and Arniesse, too, I heard. Guess they had some talk on their way back to the ship. Charley and I also had a couple of hours together. I told him a lot already about what happened since you arrived, about your back and whatever it was that the Grayrobes did, and about the lichenleaf addiction. He was so pissed at Daniel that it's a good thing that the man's dead. And don't you worry; Charley's going to fix everything." "I'll bet he will." Benjamin chatting away with Charley about all my medical problems...boggles the mind. "Mulder, about my coming. He says he needs me. That the two of you need..." Ben paused to remember the word "... an intermediary. He says I can help." Ben was totally serious now. "Mulder, he says that there's so much to be done." "In the war?" "Yes. They need you, Mulder. Something special that only you can do. And, Mulder, he promised that if the mission goes well that he will send you home. Home, Mulder, to Earth." To you, Scully... I stare into the distance at Dale's rolling hills, but between that fertile land and me there's a familiar beam of bright light. It's only a hundred yards away and with the aid of Benjamin's strong arm I think that I might actually be able to make it on my own two feet. I just hope that Charley's got himself a bigger spacecraft. So I'm going to join Charley again, but not alone this time. There's Charley who can be anyone and who has already indicated has human urges; there's Arniesse/Annie, who can be either a beautiful young man or a beautiful young woman; there's Benjamin who's so affection- starved he'll try anything... and I. I've rejected them all at one time or another. Would make a body shiver even if he weren't already going through withdrawal. I don't see any of this as fun and games. There's a great 'task' to be done? Right. But is it a job for a pathfinder, a soldier or a sacrifice? Does it matter? None of the three necessarily find their way home all in one piece. Guess I'll have to watch my step. The End (My Travels with Charley will conclude in part 9.)