The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (3 page)

Tassin strived
to avoid his thin hand, but the cave wall brought her up short and
his bony fingers gripped her arm. She aimed kicks at his shins, but
his robe hid his legs.

"Take your
hands off me!"

He clicked his
tongue, and a strange weakness made her sag as her knees almost
buckled.

"Come now,
Majesty. You've had a nasty fall. Let's find somewhere for you to
sit and relax."

Tassin panted
with fear and outrage, unable to struggle as he led her into a
larger cavern where a stalagmite emitted cold blue light. She knew
sorcerers were able to draw energy from living things, but had not
heard of one doing it to a person before. Perhaps because their
victims did not survive. He helped her to a shelf of rock and let
her sink down on it. She glared up at him, her heart cold with
loathing.

"When Sabre
comes, I shall insist that he kills you."

Gearn
chuckled. "He's not coming, my dear."

Sabre squatted
beside the bush and forced himself to put aside his concern and
think logically. If someone had taken her, they could not have
moved out of scanner range so fast, so she had not been taken into
the bushes, which only left two directions, up or down. He ruled
out up on a primitive planet like this one, and studied Tassin's
footprints in the sand at his feet. Finding the last one, he
scrutinised the ground in front it, where the sand sifted into a
shallow depression.

Testing it
with his hand, he found a hard surface under the layer of dust, and
consulted the cyber's information. A structural analysis formed in
his mind, the image growing in layers as the structural scanners
penetrated the rock lid next to which he crouched. It showed a
three-metre vertical shaft with a cavern at the bottom and a hint
of a possible side tunnel, but the rock was too thick for the
scanners to penetrate any further. A trap. He stepped into the
depression, hoping to spring the trap again and follow Tassin down,
but nothing happened no matter how hard he stamped.

The structural
information showed that the lid was only about ten centimetres
thick. He could have lifted it easily, but there was nothing to
grip. The plug seemed to have risen from below, and fitted
seamlessly into the surrounding stone. He considered the weapons on
the cart, none of which were suitable for this job. The lasers
would take ages to melt through ten centimetres of rock, and
explosives would be too dangerous.

The
ground-penetrating scanners could not detect life signs, so he had
no way of knowing where Tassin was. If she was lying below the
plug, an explosion could kill her, and, even if he smashed it some
other way, the falling rock might still hit her. At least he had to
warn her, and try to wake her up if she was comatose. Picking up a
stone, he pounded on the lid several times.

There were
many ways to break rock, but perhaps the best way, in this case,
was not to smash it. Rising to his feet, he trotted to the cart,
where the donkeys browsed on the withered tree he had tethered them
to, rapidly reducing it to a skeleton. He chose one of the laser
cannons and loaded it, taking two more power packs and a water
skin, then returned to the rock plug. Using a bush to support the
unwieldy weapon, he set the beam to broad and aimed it at the
depression. A beam of hot blue light shot from its blunt muzzle
with a faint jolt and crackle, and he held the trigger while the
rock heated, the layer of sand fusing to glass.

Gearn's head
jerked around when a dull booming echoed through the cavern,
staring in patent disbelief at the shaft whence the ominous sounds
came. Tassin laughed, and he scowled at her.

"He will not
get in, My Queen, so don't start celebrating. He may have found the
door, but he can't open it."

She smiled.
"Don't be so sure, mage. His powers are greater than yours."

"We shall
see." He rose and approached her, took hold of her arm before she
could spring away and pulled her to her feet. "Let's go for a
little walk."

Gearn
gestured, and the back of the cavern vanished, revealing a low
tunnel toothed with limestone pillars. Another gesture brought the
blue light that inhabited the stalagmite leaping into his palm,
where it nestled in a shimmering sphere. Holding it aloft, Gearn
strode into the tunnel, towing Tassin. She tried to wrench free,
but he ignored her struggles, and she was forced to follow him on a
winding course between the pillars, stumbling on the rough ground.
The tunnel opened out into a larger cavern, and unseen denizens
scuttled from the light, taking refuge in dark corners.

A pool of
mysterious black water occupied one quarter of the cave, fed by a
trickle down the far wall. Stalactites and stalagmites grew from
ceiling and floor, carved into majestic shapes by water and time,
as if a mad sculptor had been loosed into this subterranean
darkness and forced to work by touch alone. Fragile shapes hung
from the roof, lacy filigrees of rock formed from minerals and
Mother Nature's infinite patience. Glowing colours revealed
themselves in the alien light, bright streaks of scarlet, yellow
and white, minerals that the seep of moisture had leached from the
soil.

Tassin had no
time to feast her eyes upon these wonders as Gearn hauled her
through the cave and into another narrow tunnel, where he paused to
wave a hand and mutter a few arcane words before hurrying on. She
stumbled down a steep incline into a chamber filled with thin,
sharp stalagmites, like sharpened stakes at the bottom of a grim
trap. Gearn threaded his way through them, uncaring of the damage
he did. On the far side, he stopped and made her sit on a step in
the cave wall, next to yet another tunnel. He infected one of the
stalagmites with his blue light, then rested against the wall, his
cadaverous features corpse-like in the harsh illumination.

"Now we wait,"
he said. "Your superman will never find you here, I promise."

Tassin leant
against the wall and watched a sparkling water droplet form on the
tip of one of the stalactites overhead. It swelled with incredible
slowness, mesmerising her with its timeless beauty. Trying to fight
the magician was a futile endeavour. He would only use his magic to
drain her strength, or worse, bind her with a geas. All she could
do was wait for Sabre.

Sabre studied
the granite lid, deciding that it was hot enough for his purpose.
Releasing the spent laser, he picked up the water skin and poured
water over the lid. Clouds of steam engulfed him, and there was a
dull report as the rock gave up the uneven struggle with hot and
cold. He emptied the skin and waited for the steam to clear, then
squatted to examine his handiwork. Cracks dissected the lid into
three segments, and he picked up the stone he had used to bang on
it earlier and smashed it with a blow. The rock fragments rattled
down the shaft and crashed onto something crunchy far below, and he
leant over the edge to peer into the darkness.

"Tassin?"

The scanners
remained devoid of life signs, and his concern redoubled. Lowering
himself over the side, he climbed down the shaft's craggy walls,
but found only a pile of brush at the bottom. Glancing around, he
spotted a tunnel and followed it into a stalactite-filled cavern.
It seemed to be a dead end, and he used the cyber's infrared vision
to search for footprints, but the floor was rock. When he checked
the cave's structural analysis, it showed a tunnel right in front
of him, yet it looked like a solid wall.

Sabre frowned,
his suspicions as to the identity of Tassin's abductor confirmed,
and passed his hand through the stone. With a growl, he walked
through the illusion and banged his head resoundingly on the
tunnel's low roof, staggering back with a curse. Clutching his
pounding head, he bent and entered a low, pillar-filled tunnel that
soon opened out into a larger cavern with a pool and beautiful rock
formations. Hurrying on, he reached a steep incline, and a faint
scuffling came from ahead.

"Tassin!"

A muffled cry
answered him, and he raced down the slope, dancing through the
forest of stalagmites at its base. Again he faced a dead end, but
the ground-penetrating scanners showed him that the tunnel
continued. He ran through it, bouncing off smooth, damp walls, and
a faint blue light appeared ahead, bobbing and flitting through yet
another forest of pillars in the next cave. It vanished into a
tunnel at the far end of the cavern, and he pursued it, slipping on
the wet floor as he dodged the pillars.

Entering an
upward-sloping tunnel, Sabre sprinted up it with a speed no normal
man could hope to match. Rocky protrusions and a slippery floor
made it treacherous. Bursting into sunlight, he shaded his eyes,
squinting. A black-robed figure raced away across the sand, a
flapping robe exposing thin legs. Tassin stumbled behind, held by a
powerful grip on her wrist that she clearly could not break. Sabre
sprinted after them, kicking up puffs of sand.

"Mage!" he
bellowed.

The figure
stopped and turned to face him, gripping the Queen's arm. She
looked pale and furious.

"No closer, or
she suffers!" Gearn shouted.

Sabre took a
few more steps, and the mage jerked Tassin's arm, making her bite
her lip. He thrust her in front of him as Sabre reached for his
laser.

"Leave now, or
I'll make her suffer until you do."

"Release her,
and I might let you live."

Tassin cried,
"Kill him, Sabre! He doesn't dare harm me!"

The mage
twisted her arm, making her yelp, and snarled in her ear, "Think
again, Queen Tassin. Without you I'm dead anyway, so I don't mind
taking you with me, if it comes to that."

Sabre held up
his hands. "It doesn't have to come to that. If you release her,
I'll let you go. You can make a life for yourself here and never
have to answer to Torrian."

"Why should I
make a deal with you when I have the upper hand?" the wizard
sneered. "I will not live in this barbaric land. You're beaten; go
now before I hurt her."

Sabre glanced
around, seeking something he could use to defeat the mage. If Sabre
attacked, he might be able to free Tassin before Gearn could harm
her, but it was a risk he was unwilling to take unless there was no
other way. He did not doubt the magician would kill her if pushed
too far. The man's eyes glittered with madness. Sabre's wandering
gaze found an eagle perched high in a dead tree behind the
sorcerer, and he consulted the scanners.

The bird was
four hundred and ninety-three metres away, almost at the limit of
the cyber's range, but it might work. His thoughts communicated his
need to the control unit, and it responded with a series of
flashing statistics that calculated the chances of success, which
were fair to middling, apparently. Gearn twisted Tassin's arm when
the brow band lighted, making her grimace.

"I warn you,
if you try anything I will kill her! Walk away, now!" the wizard
shouted.

Sabre made a
soothing gesture. "I'm just trying to think of a solution that will
benefit us all. It always does that when I think."

"The only
solution is for you to leave!"

Sabre
shrugged, watching the eagle. Its head turned, and its fierce
golden eyes locked onto the brow band. "Maybe you're right, but I
wish there was another way. Perhaps if you came back to Arlin as
Tassin's mage? I've found a way for her to stop Torrian. She'll be
invincible."

"How can you
make her invincible? Torrian has a far larger army now. Hers was
almost wiped out by the war."

The eagle
stared at the cyber band. Sabre smiled. "Old weapons, mage. I have
a whole pile of them in that donkey cart. Once they're installed at
the Queen's castle, she'll be able to send Torrian running with his
pants on fire."

Gearn
chuckled. "An interesting picture you paint. I'm sure Torrian will
reward me well for that information."

The eagle
spread its wings and launched itself into the air, its eyes fixed
on the unsuspecting mage.

"Without the
Queen, there would be no point in installing them, would
there?"

The eagle
sailed towards the mage on silent, predatory wings.

"Still,
Torrian will be interested -"

Gearn whipped
around just in time to receive the eagle's attack in his face. He
and the bird screamed together, a mingled shriek of pain and rage,
and he released the Queen to beat at the raptor. Tassin stumbled
away, turning to stare as the eagle's claws ripped into Gearn's
face. Sabre reached her in two strides and pulled her aside, then
took hold of the mage's robe. Gearn reeled, howling and beating at
the bird whose talons gripped his face.

The cyber's
hum changed pitch, and the eagle released the wizard and rose into
the air with powerful strokes of its long-pinioned wings. Sabre
jerked the mage towards him and crushed his skull with a punch. The
thin corpse collapsed in the dust, twitching. With a grimace of
disgust, Sabre turned to Tassin. Her hands were clamped over her
mouth, her eyes wide. When he approached her, she flung herself
into his arms and buried her face in his chest.

"You killed
him."

"Did I have a
choice? That's what you wanted, isn't it?"

"It was
horrible."

He patted her
back. "Violent death always is, but that guy was nuts. He would
have hounded us all the way back to Arlin, maybe even tried to kill
you. Even if we had evaded him, Torrian would probably have killed
him a lot more painfully than that. It was a better end for him; he
would never have given up."

"He didn't
even use any magic."

"He didn't
have time. Magic seems to involve a lot of chanting and arm waving,
but the eagle took him by surprise and I didn't give him time to
recover."