Sunset in Silvana (Da'ark Nocturne Book 1) (25 page)

“That clinches it,” Bartes said.  “That fish is too big to live in such a small pool.  It must be fed from outside.”  He sighed deeply.  “I’m exhausted.  The others are asleep already.  Let’s join them.”

“You go on.  I’ll join you in a while.  There’s something I want to do first – something I’ve been wanting to do for days.”

Once the others were all asleep, Tanya stripped off her clothes and walked down to the pool.  She tested the temperature of the water with her toe.  As expected, it was cold and refreshing.  There were steps that led down into the sunken pool, and soon she was in it up to her neck.

She lay for a while, floating on her back and soaking up the calm that the tower exuded.  The firelight reflected off the walls and the surface of the water, and that and the soft glow from all around gently illumined her sleeping companions.  For the first time that she could recall, she felt truly at peace.

She almost wished she could stay there forever, but the cold eventually got into her bones and she began to shiver.  She swam to the edge and hauled herself out, towelled herself dry and lay down by the fire.  Soon a warm, furry body stretched out next to her – between her and the fire – and she fell into a deep, dreamless sleep.

Tanya woke with the dawn, her morning hymn on her lips for the first time since her nightmare on the boat.  She was about to yawn and stretch, but froze when she heard Anoushka talking.

“This place is so peaceful,” her friend was saying, “but we can’t stay here forever, and I don’t really think we’ll ever escape this planet.  When Tanya says we will, I believe her – for a while – but then something happens, like that horrible fight at the boat, or – or Joseph…”  Her voice trailed away.

RD and Anoushka were sitting together, and she was resting her head on his chest, while he had his arm around her, and was stroking her hair.  “I’m not normally an optimist,” he said with masterly understatement, “but I’d like to think that we’ll get back to Regni someday soon.”  He paused.  “If – and when we do, could you, I mean, do you think it might be possible for you and me –”  Tanya could tell his mind was a turmoil of confusion, resignation and a wild hope.

Anoushka looked up at RD and gave him a wan smile.  “Let’s discuss it over a candle-lit dinner, just the two of us – if we ever do get home.”  At this point, Iain stirred, and they said no more, but from then on it was noticeable that they passed as much time as possible in each other’s company.

Once any traces outside were covered, the group spent the rest of the day resting up and recuperating.  Tanya insisted that they all bathed and washed their clothes.  Though one or another of them kept watch by the entrance throughout, nothing significant happened outside.  The adult members of the resident rodent family went in and out, providing food for their young, but they seemed unworried by the intruders.  If anyone was in their way, they simply scampered over them.

Later that afternoon, Bartes was stripping down and cleaning his laser carbine when Tanya hurried over.  “Come with me,” she said, her eyes sparkling.

“What is it?” he asked.

“Do you remember that panel of coloured crystals I told you about at the top of the stairs?  Where the passageway stops?”

“Yes.  I had a look at that earlier.  It appears to be some sort of door release, but none of the crystals responded to my touch.”

“Well, I’ve got a reaction.”

“You’ve opened up the passageway?”

“Well... no...” she hesitated.  “Oh, come and see.”

RD and Iain had overheard their conversation and followed them up the stairs.  At the top, Tanya stood opposite the panels and concentrated.  Almost instantly, one crystal then another started to glow more brightly.  “It’s psionically activated,” she said.  “It took a while, but in the end I hit on this combination.  Brace yourselves.”  Broad circular bands of brilliant red rippled out from the panel across the end of the passageway, accompanied by a strong psionic sense of danger.  When it subsided, Tanya continued.  “I
think
it means access is blocked.  Given the damage we saw from the outside, the tower itself may have decided that to let us go any further is hazardous.”

“You could be right,” Bartes said.  “You know, it’s amazing that this place still has power.”

Iain studied the glowing red panel. “My guess is that there are geothermal generators deep below us.”

“It’s a pity we can’t get down there,” RD said, turning back toward the stairs.

“Yeah,” Iain agreed.  “I tried to swim as far as I could down the drowned corridor, but I couldn’t find any air pockets, and the few doors I could reach wouldn’t open.  D’you think that passageway was always flooded?”

“No.”  Bartes shook his head.  “There’s a crack in the floor on one side of the pool.  I think it must have been made during the battle that trashed the top of the tower.  The fish in the pool show that it’s connected to the river, which must supply fresh water, and also cool the generators.  If you think about it, the floor of the chamber is just above the level of the river outside.  That crack probably means that everything below us is completely inundated.”

Later that evening, Tanya and Bartes were on guard duty together again, lying side-by-side under the collapsed entranceway.  The moon was hidden by clouds, and darkness surrounded them.

“This isn’t exactly a
watch
,” grumbled Bartes.  “I can’t see a bloody thing.”

“So listen,” whispered Tanya.  “There’s something out there – did you hear that twig snap?  Over to the left.”

There was a tense silence, broken by a voice about fifty metres away.

“Look, it’s pitch black now.  We could walk within inches of them and not see them.”

“But the Sergeant said to check this mound,” responded another voice doggedly.

“I don't care what the Sergeant said!  He just sits around on his fat behind and orders us about.  Let’s just rest here for a few minutes, then go back and tell him we didn’t find anything.”

“Well…”

“I’ve got a bottle…”

“Okay...”

For several minutes there were sighs and the occasional gurgle.  After some time, the first voice said, “Shh…  Did you hear that…?”

“Yes – some sort of slithering noise…”

There was silence for a few seconds before twin screams of terrible agony rent the air.  Tanya stopped her ears but couldn’t exclude the pain from her mind.  There was something else, too: something repulsive and dirty that her brain flatly refused to contemplate.  The life signs of the two soldiers faded, and shortly afterwards the sense of evil diminished.

Once he felt it was safe, Bartes lit his torch.  Tanya was as white as a sheet, and there was a patch of vomit off to one side of her.  “Go – go and see how the others are,” she told him, her breathing unsteady, “but leave me your torch.”

He made his way down to where the others lay asleep, but they seemed blissfully oblivious to the carnage above.  Slimmest was the only one awake and alert.  :
Did you sense what happened out there?
: he asked her.

:
Yes,
: she sent, :
But it felt as if it was occurring a long way away – almost like it was a story I was being told.  I think this place must have been a Forerunner stronghold.  It protects those it judges to be its own – and not just physically.
:

:
Didn’t the others react at all?
:  he asked.

:
RD stirred slightly, like he was having a bad dream, but no-one else even twitched.
:

He returned to find Tanya peering through the entrance into the night, her body taut, as if every sense was straining to pick up any movement outside.

“What is it,” he asked putting his lips close to her ears.

“Whatever those things are, they’re still out there,” she replied, her voice pitched normally to avoid a whisper’s betraying sibilance, but a mere thread of sound.  “They seem to be searching for us – it’s like they know we’re here somewhere, but can’t find us.”

Bartes reached out with his mind and sensed a wave of corruption that made him feel ill.  Unthinkingly, he sent a lance of thought towards its source, trying to repel it.  This proved to be a mistake: there was a malignant chuckling sound in his head, and after a few seconds they could hear a slithering coming nearer.  Soon an indistinct dark shape overshadowed the entrance as it cut out the starlight beyond.

The fugitives seemed to be held paralysed in the grip of fear.  A pallid tentacle reached out for Tanya, but, as it passed between the tower’s still-solid walls, there was a flash of indescribably bright sapphire fire.  The creature reared up and backwards.  It screamed in pain and frustration before fleeing, its appendage blackened and still burning, back into the night.

Bartes held out his hand to Tanya, who took it in her own and grasped it tightly.  It was some time before she stopped trembling, and even longer before he felt he could break the silence.  “Are you all right?” he asked at last.

“I will be,” she replied with a shudder, “but not just yet.”

“What
was
that thing?”

“I-I’ve no idea – a-and I’m not sure I want to know...”  She shivered again.

They were still holding hands when RD turned up to relieve Tanya.  “Oho,” he said, “is there something you want to tell me?”

“Yes,” Bartes said, “but not what you suspect.  Tanya, you go and try to get some sleep.”  She took a deep breath, nodded, and retreated quickly to the safe depths of the tower.  Once she was out of earshot, he told RD about what they’d overheard and the subsequent attack.

“That’s odd,” he said when Bartes finished his tale.  “I didn’t hear anything.”  He paused, then shrugged.  “Do you think they’re gone?”

“I can still feel them out there.  The tower wouldn’t let them in, but they’ve been circling, looking for another entrance.”

When Iain arrived to take Bartes’ place, he was more than happy to go below.  He soon settled down to rest, but despite the atmosphere of peace in the tower, it was some time before he could close his eyes.  Tanya had banked up the fire so it gave extra warmth and light, but it did little to ease the cold in his soul.  She, too, seemed restless, and they both slept only fitfully.  He was actually grateful when he was called to take over watch again just as dawn was breaking.

“Are they still out there?” he asked Tanya as he lay down beside her.

“No, thank God,” she replied, the relief in her voice almost palpable.  “As soon as the sun came up, they left.”

It was only a few minutes later when they heard another voice outside: “Up here, Sarge, they’re here…”  It trailed off.  There was the sound of retching.

“What’s wrong, Private.  What happened to them?”

“I don’t know, Sarge… and I don’t think I want to know…”

“Get back to the others, Private – and clean yourself up, for God’s sake.  Corporal?”

“Yes, sir?”

“Get two of the squad with the strongest stomachs and put those corpses into body bags.”

“What the Hell happened to them?  They look half burnt and half...  eaten…”

“I don’t know.  They’d be on a charge for drinking on duty – if they were still alive – but nobody deserves that…”

There was an interlude, presumably while the remains of the two soldiers were retrieved, and then the Sergeant said, “I can’t see any sign of our targets.  There’s no way we’ll catch them now – they’ll be long gone.  And I don’t want to stay round here, given what happened to those two slackers.  Radio for extraction.”

Bartes and Tanya waited on tenterhooks until they heard a helicopter land some distance away and take off again soon afterwards.  They remained where they were for some time.  In the end, Tanya said, “D’you think we ought to have a look?”

“I guess so...” Bartes replied reluctantly.  “I’ll check it’s safe.”  He reached out with his mind.  “There’s nothing dangerous out there now.  Let’s go.”

The greenery was soaked with blood, with a few shreds of flesh and cloth hanging from the bushes – and superimposed over it all was a strange silvery deposit.  This slime formed a couple of trails that came from the west and subsequently wandered about the area.  One of them came up to the tower’s entrance, where there was a scorch mark, and both trails circled the tower a number of times before disappearing into the undergrowth.

They scrambled back into the tunnel, and while Tanya continued her vigil, Bartes went below and reported their findings to the others.

“Is the area clear now?” RD asked.

“Yes.”

“Then it’s time we moved on.  This place has been a real haven, but we’ve got a job to do.  Iain, pack your stuff, then go and relieve Dr Miller.  The rest of us should be ready to move by the time she is.”

So it was less than half an hour later that they emerged from their sanctuary and set off towards Telphania.  Rather than crossing the river, they followed its bank upstream.  As expected, it soon turned in an easterly direction, towards the mountains, and they were able to climb gradually higher, heading (they hoped) for the border.  Tanya and Bartes took it turns to check ahead for life-signs, but detected nothing significant.

Several times during the day they had to hide under the trees as aircraft flew over.  Their pursuers seemed to know the direction they were heading – the wreck of the helicopter would have told them that – but not the precise route.  Late afternoon found them on a high, grassy plateau, when Tanya noticed the approach of a jet from the north.

“Everybody lie down, as flat as you can.  We might not be spotted.”  She breathed a sigh of relief as the plane flew past their still, prone forms and headed south, but at the last minute it banked and came round for another pass.  “Oh well,” she muttered.  “Time for my party trick.”

Bartes glanced over at Tanya, who lay in the grass, nose to nose with Slimmest.  Their eyes were closed, and they both seemed to be concentrating.  The cat’s voice in his head asked, :
May I borrow some of your psionic energy?
:

:
Whatever you need,
: he replied, and a blue light flared under the cat’s chin as he felt his power draining away.  The plane flew directly over them, banked again and continued south.

“Thank you, little sister,” Tanya said, breathing heavily, as it disappeared from sight, “and you too, Bartes.  I thought we’d be seen for sure that time.”