The Outworlder (34 page)

Now! Jared told himself, clenching his jaws
and steeling his heart.

Everything happened in a blur. Jared raised
his sword and readied his shield, then launched himself out from
behind the pillar. Another stride brought him between Sahara and
the serpent.

Jared stared up at its writhing bulk, its
flaming eyes. The partially broken shaft of Rafe’s javelin still
protruded from its chest, and Brytnoth’s arrows were lodged
securely under its foreleg. Neither wound seemed to bother it, but
Jared’s sudden appearance made it rear back.

In the split second that he had the advantage
of surprise, Jared darted forward with a cry that echoed back to
him from the temple and the mountains. He drove the sword up to the
hilt in its flesh, in that place that seemed to him closest to the
monster’s heart.

The dragon staggered on the edge of the cliff
with a strangled, gurgling roar. Bursts of flame and gore erupted
from its open mouth, and its scales contracted and pulsed with the
final beats of its heart. Then they began to crack, melting under
the heat of the flames within.

It balanced there on the cliff edge for a
moment, flames spurting from its wounds and between its plated
skin, and then it toppled over the edge of the gorge.

The shield fell from Jared’s hand as he
sprang to the edge. The dragon was hurtling into the abyss, but
before it had fallen halfway, it suddenly contracted, then
exploded. A ring of fire and white-hot light scorched the canyon,
and then everything faded to a dark quiet.

Jared knelt there on the cliff edge, his mind
a chaos of relief and pounding adrenaline.
It’s over,
he
thought again and again.
It’s over.

He rose slowly and turned back to the temple.
Sahara was weeping silently, sagging against the chains that held
her fast to the pillar. He staggered to her and knelt at her feet,
pressing her cold hands to his face.

“It’s done,” he choked. “It’s over.”

A hand on his shoulder made him jump. Rafe
and Brytnoth were standing beside him.

“You!” Jared cried, getting to his feet. “I
didn’t think you’d made it…I was sure he’d turned you into
cinders.”

“We didn’t quite get our ashes kicked,” Rafe
answered with a mischievous grin. “But I do feel a little bit
singed.” He felt gingerly along his hair line.

“We’re fine,” added Brytnoth. “But we didn’t
want the dragon to think that. We thought it would be better if he
thought we were dead.”

“By the way, nice work with the sword,” Rafe
said. “I wasn’t sure you still had it in you.”

“Let’s get her out of here,” he said.

“I don’t suppose we have the key for that, do
we?” asked Rafe, pointing to the heavy lock that held the chains
fast.

“No. I don’t even know if it has one. I don’t
suppose anyone’s ever left this pillar except in a dragon’s
stomach,” Jared said. Sahara shuddered and he laid his hand on her
shoulder. “We’ll have to break it.”

“Ah, easier said than done,” said Brytnoth.
“We didn’t bring tools for that kind of work.”

Rafe rubbed his jaw for a moment, then
disappeared into the half-gloom of the temple. Brytnoth glanced at
Jared.

“Where’s he going?” he asked.

“Where does this door go?” Rafe called from
the back of the room.

“It leads into a passageway…the ship dock is
at the far end,” Sahara managed to say, but her voice was too weak
to carry.

Jared shouted this information back to Rafe.
“But where are you going, you crazy fool?”

“I’m going to find some tools. Don’t leave
without me!”

Jared shook his head and groaned. There was
nothing to do but wait. Brytnoth crossed to the stone bench inside
the temple and sank down, burying his face in his hands. Jared sat
with his back against the pillar and held Sahara’s hand.

“We’ll get you free,” he said, giving her
fingers a gentle squeeze.

“What if it’s too late, Jared?” she
whispered. “What if Albadir’s already gone?”

Jared sighed, all his heavy thoughts
returning. “We can’t change the past,” he said. “What’s done is
done. Let’s just get out of here. Then we’ll find out what’s
happened to Albadir.”

They sat for a long time in silence. Jared
felt that Sahara was weeping again, but he didn’t know what to say
to comfort her. He just held her hand and watched with her as the
moon, shedding its bloody veil, shrank and climbed higher into the
sky.

“I hope Rafe hasn’t gotten himself killed,”
Brytnoth said. Then, after another moment, he added, “I’m
starving.”

Jared rubbed his free hand over his face and
glanced up at Sahara. Her tears were spent, but her face was ashen.
She tried to smile at him, but it faded as it reached her lips.

“I’m back!” called Rafe suddenly.

“I hope you found something useful and didn’t
just waste an hour of our precious time,” snapped Brytnoth.

“I found several things,” he said.

Jared rose as Rafe and Brytnoth returned to
the pillar. Rafe dropped a leather bag at Jared’s feet.

“Tool kit,” he said with a grin. “And there’s
more. The ship’s still there. The one they brought from K’ilenfir.
And from what I could tell, there’s no one here.”

Jared grunted and rifled through the pack. He
discovered a pair of sizeable pliers, and after a few attempts,
they finally snapped the lock. Sahara collapsed into Jared’s arms
as soon as the chains fell away, and Jared half-carried,
half-dragged her to the stone bench inside the temple.

“Let’s just rest here for a minute while we
decide what to do,” he said. He brushed the hair out of Sahara’s
eyes and smiled. Then he glanced up at Rafe and Brytnoth. “We’ve
got to get back to Albadir. The executioner told Sahara that the
city was destroyed.”

“What? That’s not possible!” Brytnoth gasped.
“You mean this was all for nothing?”

“Not for nothing.” Jared smiled down at
Sahara. “But I’ve got this horrible feeling that he was telling the
truth.”

“Well, there’s no way she can make it if we
try to go back the way we came,” Brytnoth said. “Hell, I’m not sure
I could make it.”

“We don’t have to do that,” Rafe said. “Let’s
take the ship.”

“You think you can fly her, Rafe?”

Rafe nodded. “I took a bit of a look around.
The controls aren’t much different than what I’m used to. And what
other choice do we have?”

“Let’s just get out of here,” Brytnoth said.
“I know you said you thought the place was deserted, but I’ve got a
funny feeling that you’re wrong about that.”

The journey down the dark tunnel was
tortuous. Sahara couldn’t manage more than a few steps on her own,
and trying to support her between them made their pace painfully
slow. Finally, Brytnoth stopped.

“We’ve got to do this another way,” he said.
“We’re losing too much time.”

“Let’s carry her,” Rafe suggested. “We’ll
take turns.”

Jared lifted Sahara in his arms and jerked
his head to the others. “Let’s move,” he said.

As they set off again down the passage,
Sahara leaned her head against Jared’s shoulder. He smiled down at
her and saw the tears flowing down her cheeks.

“I’m a burden,” she muttered. “You should
just leave me here.”

“After all that, you want us to leave you?”
Jared said. “Not going to happen. Besides, it’s like old times.” He
winked at her. She said nothing, but her frown deepened.

When they halted a bit later, Jared set her
gently on her feet and stretched his back and arms.

“Are we nearly there?” she asked, leaning
against the rough wall of the tunnel.

“A little more than halfway, I imagine,” he
said. “I took the tunnel at a run…it’s going to take us at least
twice as long to get there at this pace.”

“I don’t like this place,” said Brytnoth
suddenly, shuddering. “There’s something sinister about it, and I
feel….” His voice trailed off.

“Feel what?” pressed Jared.

“Like we could be ambushed at any
moment.”

It was certainly a wretched place. The tunnel
swirled away from them into growing gloom and its barely finished
face shone vaguely under a line of ghastly luminescent stones. They
couldn’t see anything clearly more than ten yards in either
direction.

At the mention of an ambush, Sahara started
trembling uncontrollably, and she wrapped her arms tightly around
herself.

“I told you,” Rafe said. “I was down here not
an hour ago and I saw nothing. The place is just getting under your
skin.”

Brytnoth frowned at him. “We killed the
dragon,” he said. “But what about the rest of their servants? Do
they die with their master, or do they just lurk in the shadows and
regenerate?”

“What a time to recall those idiotic
agricultural texts,” Rafe retorted. “Regenerate! That’s
absurd.”

“We should be careful anyway,” Jared said.
“If they brought guards with them, they may still be here
somewhere.” He hesitated, then added, “And we left all our gear and
weapons in the canyon.”

Rafe frowned. “Hadn’t thought of that,” he
muttered, then added in a louder voice, “Let’s get out of here,
then. Before something does find us.”

Without another word, he hoisted the
shivering Sahara in his arms and began to move off down the
tunnel.

“Wait!” Brytnoth called. “She should be in
the middle. Let Jared go first. Just in case.”

Rafe paused and let Jared take over the lead,
and then they were on their way again.

*****

Sahara felt a growing uneasiness in her mind
the further down the tunnel they got. The air hung around them
oppressive and stale, and the stones that lit their path leered at
them like lidless eyes. Once she was sure she heard a step in the
passageway behind them, and she started violently, peering over
Rafe’s shoulder in a desperate attempt to see beyond Brytnoth’s dim
form.

“What’s the matter?” Rafe asked.

“A step…I’m sure I heard…” Her voice trailed
off as she strained her eyes to see through the gloom.

“It’s probably just Brytnoth. He’s kind of
clumsy sometimes, you know.”

Sahara knew he was trying to comfort her, but
she shook her head. “Do you think I don’t know their steps by
now?”

“I’m sure you do, but you’ve had a very
difficult time of it. I’d be hearing things too if—”

“Quiet!” hissed Brytnoth from behind them,
stopping in his tracks.

Jared and Rafe both turned around, and Sahara
began shivering uncontrollably. Brytnoth stood still, listening,
and she could tell that Rafe was barely breathing.

“I heard something,” Brytnoth said in a low
voice. “Something’s behind us. I’m sure of it.”

Jared and Rafe exchanged glances, and Sahara
struggled in Rafe’s arms.

“I told you!” Sahara whispered to Rafe. “I
told you I heard something!”

“How much farther to the ship?” asked Jared.
His voice was steady, but Sahara could sense his anxiety.

“Not much,” said Rafe, setting Sahara on her
feet. “It’s hard to gauge in this damned tunnel. Everything looks
the same.”

“We’ll have to make a run for it,” he said.
“Without weapons, we don’t stand a chance in a fight.” He glanced
at Sahara. “Can you manage?”

“They’re coming!” Sahara cried hoarsely. “I
hear them…they’re coming!”

They took off at a run. Jared and Rafe
supported Sahara on either side, and she forced her legs to move.
Up, down, up down. Keep moving. Move, or die.

Move.

Or die.

Sahara glanced back once and saw three
shadowed forms just outside the reach of the light.

“Don’t let them get me,” she whispered.
“Please don’t let it end this way!”

It was a mad sprint for the end of the
tunnel, and Sahara could hear the heavy, deathly tread just paces
behind them now. They were running too, and they were gaining.

Sahara had no strength left for anything but
movement. Even fear was more than she could manage. She doggedly
put one foot in front of the other, trying to keep up with Jared
and Rafe’s long strides without stumbling.

“There it is!” Rafe called, his voice hoarse
with the dank air of the tunnel. “Fifty yards. Right there.”

Brytnoth was running beside them now, his
face grim and pale in the livid light of the stones.

“When we get on board,” Rafe panted, “we’ll
have to be fast. Jared, take Sahara. Brytnoth, you hit the red
button on the right hand side. It’ll close the ramp. I’ll fire her
up and we’ll send those monsters straight to hell.”

The next moment, they were tumbling up the
ramp and into the transport. Rafe dropped Sahara and dashed to the
flight deck, and Jared dragged her clear of the ramp. Brytnoth
slammed his palm against the button, cursing at it to hurry.

As the last slit of the outside world
disappeared, Sahara saw their pursuers charging the ship. The
engines rumbled underneath them, drowning out the monsters’
guttural shouts.

Jared pulled Sahara to her feet again and the
three of them followed Rafe to the flight deck.

“Strap in!” Rafe shouted. “Let’s get the hell
out of here!”

As they dropped into seats and fastened the
harness, Rafe gunned the engines. The ship lurched forward and
skimmed out of the landing port under the crag of the mountain. As
soon as they were out of the shelter of the rocks, Rafe pulled back
on the controls. Sahara watched the face of the mountain in front
of them slip away as they climbed, heard Rafe muttering prayers and
curses under his breath as the controls shook under his hands.

And then they were out in the clear. The dawn
was a rim of fire along the eastern horizon, the air shimmering
with the dust of the night winds.

Brytnoth leaned back in his seat, shaking
with silent laughter. Jared leaned forward, rubbing his hands
through his hair. Then he turned to Sahara.