“It can’t,” I said. “Not while it’s in the belt.”
“You’re sure?”
“Reasonably. But I guess all of the slugs can hide themselves as objects.”
Nope, Doomslug said in my head. Only the yellow-blue ones. That was conveyed by a picture of herself.
There are other kinds? I asked.
Tons!
Right. Okay then.
Peg continued walking, thoughtful, so I kept pace with her. We soon left the barracks and entered a courtyard between several buildings. Inside it stood three trees. They were about three meters tall, with extremely stout limbs and very few leaves.
From the branches grew fruit. Like, actual fruit. Lots of it, in a variety of colors, shaped kind of like upside-down pears. Peg walked to one tree and inspected it. Then she selected a cherry-orange fruit and pulled it off.
She walked over and presented it to me. “A mulun,” she said. “For bravery. I’d hoped to have grown a few, and I have!”
I balked. “So…do these trees really…”
“Grow fruit based on how we tenasi feel?” Peg said. “Yes. My soul is bound to this tree. I was allowed to carry a new sapling with me, grown from my old tree, when I entered. Many of us believe that the fruit contains our emotions—and makes us able to be calm in battle. I find that to be a lie, or at least an exaggeration. But the bond is real.”
That made it even stranger to take the fruit as she forced it upon me.
“It is your reward,” she said. “Please. Honor me.”
So I took it. “Uh…do I…eat it?”
She laughed. “Not usually. Plant it. You won’t bond to it like a tenasi, but…well, having that tree will be recognized by others of my kind. As an honor.”
Well, that was cool. I was glad I didn’t have to eat it. Though in the past I’d made a few cracks about feasting on the blood of my enemies, that was completely metaphoric. I put the fruit and Doomslug’s pin in a pocket.
Peg turned back to the tree and drew her lips to a line. Not baring teeth, not threatening, instead content and happy.
“It just feels so odd,” I said. “Everything else about your people, Peg, seems about…well, being predatory. Aggressive.”
“No, not aggressive,” she said. “Merely growing a better future by making the next generation strong. We test, we push, we prove.”
“And trees relate to that…how?”
“Not at all,” Peg said. “Why should they? Humans are terrifying conquerors, but you have art, don’t you?”
“I suppose we do,” I said. Even during the war for survival on Detritus, we’d made sculptures and statues. People couldn’t help it.
“We evolved with these trees,” Peg said. “We care for them, and they provide fruit for us. Aggression and killing are always about life—life for yourself, for your kind. My people have forgotten that, and pretend those emotions don’t exist. I haven’t forgotten them. But I suppose that attitude is what ended up driving me to this place.” She waved to the trees. “These are about life too.”
Then she slapped me on the shoulder. “You’re leaving, aren’t you? My offer wasn’t tempting enough? You’ve decided to take another path. I see it in your expression.”
I supposed…I supposed that I had decided. Not because I felt guilty, but instead because…well, I had to. I didn’t trust the delvers. I needed to know what they were hiding, the things they didn’t want any of us to know.
But it wasn’t merely about duty. It was about stories. After it all, I…didn’t want to live in a story. Not if it meant leaving my friends and family. I wouldn’t ever be happy in here without them, and I didn’t want to forget them like Chet had.
Having the permission to stay had somehow given me the courage to leave.
“Thank you for taking me in,” I told Peg. “For not tossing me off the side of the fragment the moment you found me trying to steal from you.”
“I think I got the better end of the deal,” Peg said. “Will you at least stay a few days, to celebrate?”
“We’ll see,” I told her. “First, there’s something important I need to do.”
I found Chet sitting on a stone outside near the landing pad, looking toward the sky. He stood up as I approached.
“Chet,” I said. “I…” I glanced toward the warehouse behind us.
“You’re going to continue the Path?” he said.