07. Ghost of the Well of Souls (36 page)

O'Leary sighed. "I hate to do this, but . . ." He flung the rifle off into the night. After a moment, Har Shamish did the same. They were now effectively dependent on the priestess, but they had seen what she could do. O'Leary put the cart in drive and headed toward the station.

There was no point in driving through to Quislon, since the cart would be nothing more than a lump there. He parked it neatly in the parking area, and all three of them got out and walked toward the gate, which had all sorts of ominous-looking warnings none of them could read. It also had the universal hex symbol, though, and a twin cut through the bottom segment a bit to the west of center.

You are here, O'Leary thought. He hoped that it was indeed Quislon on the other side. With the hex boundary there and little starlight, what he could see through and across it could have been just about anywhere.

Neither of the Pyrons were too confident relying on Jaysu's newfound powers, but they also didn't think they had much choice. And if she was confident of them, then they had to go along, since she was the reason they were there.

She looked around at the complex before following them up to the passage through to the border, then caught up to the pair. "How does this power get out here?" she asked them.

Shamish looked around. "Broadcast is the most common method, but I don't think these characters would use it. Too paranoid. Underground cable would be my best guess."

She focused on it for a moment and saw it in her mind's eye, coming down beside the road, a living snake of flame.

"Let us proceed," she told them, keeping that flow in one corner of her mind.

The way was barred by a tall electrically operated gate. Beyond it was a tunnel of sorts, with fencing five meters high going down the suddenly primitive dirt road on both sides and even across a roof. A second gate was at the far end, thirty meters farther on, operated, it seemed, by the same set of controls.

The silver and black officer looked just like all the others, but more nervous. Still, he didn't appear threatening, and Jaysu felt no direct danger to any of them from him. He did seem almost surprised to see them, though, as if he never would have thought they would try a legitimate exit.

"Papers?"

They handed them over, wondering just what his instructions were.

He looked at them, then at the papers, then back at them. "You are taking nothing with you that you did not bring into Alkazar?"

"Nothing whatsoever," Har Shamish answered. "Our sole purpose was to reach Quislon."

"Very well. You understand that these papers are not valid for reentry?"

"Mine most certainly is!" Shamish protested. "However, as it happens, I have decided to proceed home after this and so won't be using them. Still, I am accredited as a diplomat to Alkazar."

"To Kolznar Colony, not to the country proper," the official responded. "However, as you say, it is moot." He wrote something on his electric pad, then proceeded to remove several of the sheets from their papers that had been added when they'd entered, and handed the papers back. There was a buzzing sound, and the nearest gate slid back, revealing that last thirty meter gauntlet.

"Proceed," the little bearlike creature said, and they walked through. The buzzing sound came again, and the gate closed behind them.

It was claustrophobic in the cagelike tunnel, walking in the reflected light.

"I was right," Shamish commented. "One high fence, passive, then a killer fence in the middle. One more passive will be over here at the other gate."

They reached the second gate, and waited for it to open. And waited. And waited. ..

"I have a bad feeling about this," O'Leary muttered.

Jaysu did not know where the danger was coming from, but she felt it, and knew it was time to act. She took hold of that current of living energy she'd identified and kept track of and mentally pushed against it.

There was a tremendous crackling sound, and sizzling, as if things were frying, and then all the lights went out and they were totally in the dark, including her. In fact, she was now completely blind in the conventional sense, but she could still "see" her companions in other ways, and the sudden panicking little creatures in the building behind them.

The two Pyron weren't blind at all. "Quick! Can you force the gate?" Shamish called to O'Leary.

"I—I
think
so," the agent grunted, pushing hard against it and rattling it.

Shamish came up and added his considerable weight and strength to it, and they started pounding against it.

The gate began to buckle, and then, with one mighty coordinated push, they got it partly bent outward.

"There's enough room to squeeze through!" O'Leary cried. "Come on, ma'am! Try and get through!"

"I cannot see!" she protested. "I can only see the living!"

She felt around, using their tentacles for guidance, and managed to find the hole, but squeezing through it with her wings proved difficult. Finally, she felt herself being pushed to the ground, and while one of the Pyrons pushed against the gate, the other pushed against her feet.

There were a lot of feathers left around, but now O'Leary managed to squeeze through the bent corner of the gate and was able to help Shamish through. Getting up, they helped the Amboran to her feet and made for the border, just a meter or two away.

She felt a pain, like burning, on one wing, but only wanted out of that horrible place and she went forward.

The temperature immediately changed. It was warmer, yet the air was much dryer, a desertlike feeling to it, and overhead, quite suddenly, the sky was clear and well-lit.

"You can fly all you want to now, if you can," Shamish told her. "You're in Quislon."

She looked back, shaken, at the blackness she'd caused beyond the border. "That is an evil place, if you wish to define evil, Citizen O'Leary," she commented.

"I think it is, but it still can't hold a candle to some. I wonder what the devil they were going to do with us once they had us trapped?"

"The energy—the power in the wires? Citizen Shamish called it a killer fence, the one in the middle? That same energy was also all around the cage. They were going to connect it so it would run through the cage as well. I could see them doing it."

O'Leary burned with anger. "Those bastards were going to
electrocute
us?"

She sighed. "I could not, of course, permit that to happen. When the one inside threw the switch, and the power started toward us, I simply, well, threw it back . . ."

"Thus shorting out the security fencing, the station, and maybe if we're lucky, the town and the train yard as well." O'Leary sighed. "Well, at least that's that. None of us will have to go back there again, and if you, Shamish, want to go back to Kolznar by ship, you can make them most uncomfortable."

"I think my vice-consular days there are past," the diplomat commented sourly. "I think I'll pick a different assignment next. But come! This is a desert, and we have a very long way yet to go."

Jaysu shook her head. "No, I must rest, and nearby," she told them. "I cannot see properly to do much in this place, and I need to meditate and sleep and allow my body to repair itself."

"It's two hundred kilometers to Quislon Center," O'Leary reminded her. "And the desert sun here is very, very hot."

"Then why don't you go on?" she suggested. "You can make your best time now, even this late. In the morning I shall catch up to you. It is basically south, then I will feel the tug of the Gate and head for it. They have a Gate in the middle of the hex, do they not?"

"Yes, that's the system for all of them," Shamish agreed. "But see here, it's our job to accompany you!"

O'Leary sighed. "She's got a point, you know. She can fly now, maybe even make the whole distance in a day, two at most. We'll be six days reaching Quislon Center."

"But we're bodyguards as well!"

O'Leary chuckled. "Yeah? And who's been saving who tonight? I think the little lady can take care of herself. Besides, I'd like to know just what the heck is in those crates, wouldn't you?"

"Yes, but—"

O'Leary looked out on the desolate landscape and pointed with a tentacle to marks in the hard ground. "Well, whatever it was went that way."

There was no way around it. They had gotten her this far, but now their own purposes were different, even if both were in the interest of fulfilling the mission.

"But we're going to make that ceremony," Har Shamish said in resignation.

"If we can't catch up to them or figure out what they're hauling, you bet we are," O'Leary responded. "I sure want to see how the hell he's going to pull it off."

Sanafe

THE BORDERS BETWEEN CLANS WERE NOT SOMETHING THE AVERAGE
outsider could see, but they
were apparently as real as hex boundaries to the natives. It might well be a scented marker, or even a planted pattern, and to Ari and Ming, as well as the Chalidang force, there was no difference at all between the last reef that was considered Clan Tusarch's sacred property and the next, which was Clan Paugoth. Still, the two escorts from the Lord of Tusarch stopped dead at the edge of that last reef and would go no farther.

"From the next reef on, you are in Paugoth territory," one of them warned.

"Yeah, and you better fight 'em, too, 'cause our whole clan's gonna be gathering to see. If you beat 'em, you're welcome to whatever you're here for, and then leave the remains to us. If you lose, we will be waiting for you."

In fact, Mochida was planning to wipe out the winner no matter who that might be, but he let it go. As far as he was concerned, Clan Tusarch was totally irrelevant. He was relieved that he hadn't had to waste men and resources fighting his way there, but was satisfied in any event to be here.

No welcoming party,
Ming noted.
Looks like nobody talks to anybody around here. You'd figure that by now we'd be common knowledge.

Up above, following the small markers that Colonel Kuamba sent up every kilometer or so, the dark shadow of a very large vessel continued to slowly follow. It could not be ignored by anybody. Even more interesting, at the release of the next small buoy there was additional activity above. Three smaller vessels seemed to be accompanying the big ship, possibly put over the side by that ship, but equally possibly they'd simply joined it unnoticed. Still, they followed silently, going away now and then if the wind or waves were wrong, but tacking back without much of a problem and generally keeping formation. Those guys are good sailors, Ari noted approvingly to himself.

But what else were they? Supply ships? Certainly not reinforcements, since what would have been the purpose of the cryogenic stuff? But they were there for some reason, all right.

As the large V-shaped formation of Chalidangers moved into the targeted clan's territory with a steady but slow and cautious pace, two small forms went over the side from the smaller boats above and swam down a bit and then across. They were not Chalidang, Kalindan, or any other race that Ari and Ming had yet seen, but seemed a kind of large animal designed for the water, yet almost certainly air breathers from the way they moved. They fanned out, took a good look at the situation, and then one headed back up and into one of the small boats once again, while the other paced the large formation about halfway between the reef and the surface.

"Friends of yours?" Ari asked the General.

"Yes, as a matter of fact. Although there are panels in the small boats and even in the large ship that allow one to look down here, the hard substance necessary to ensure that they don't break and sink introduces some distortion and also has a limited field of view. The Imtre have exceptional vision as well as other senses, and they also have a great deal of experience in this kind of campaign in nontech environments. They aren't much good at real fighting, but they'll coordinate our surface forces with our combat line here."

"Looks pretty complete. You don't think the locals are gonna notice?" Ming asked him.

"Oh, they'll notice. It's just irrelevant. The only thing that can cross us up is if the clan does not come out for a fight like the last one did. And if they don't, they're finished here anyway and might as well commit suicide. No, they'll come, and soon. Within the next few minutes, I'd say. Otherwise, I'm going to start blowing up their precious reef gardens, one by one."

He didn't have to bother, nor even explain how he could blow things up down here. The Clan Paugoth was suddenly there in full force and radiating irritation, if that was the word for it. Fury, maybe, was a better one.

"Who dares desecrate Paugoth lands?" thundered the local lord imperiously. If anything, his Voice of God impression was even better than the last one, both Ming and Ari agreed.

This time Mochida didn't allow a mere lieutenant to answer. To the surprise of the Kalindans, and possibly even some of his men, the General decided to do his own talking, and rose up to be level with that huge fanged mouth flanked by bizarre eyes.

"I am Colonel General Anchun Mochida of the Imperial Chalidang Army," he announced in tones that sounded not quite as impressive as the lord's but good enough. "In ancient times an object of great value was stolen from His Majesty's family and people by massed armies including the Sanafe, which received a piece of it as some sort of war trophy. I am commanded by His Most August Majesty to pay any price, fight any fight, do whatever needs to be done, to retrieve what is and was always rightfully ours. We are here to get the piece you still possess. If we receive it, your people and mine will be friends forever in the coming reorder of power in the universe and we shall go in peace, and quickly. Will you return it to us by your authority, wisdom, and leadership?"

The old lord seemed taken aback by this, and confused. "War? Stolen treasures? What nonsense is this? Even if any of that blather you just said is true, I have no knowledge of the object of your quest. Why do you search for it here?"

"But you
do
have it," the General responded. "It is the Indestructible Trophy, that which marks a clan for the next year as the Clan of Clans."