torg 03- The Nightmare Dream (15 page)

When Claudine Guerault finally reached a dark corner to hide in, she let the tears for her people, her country, flow.

42

The Victorian steam ship let its passengers off at a Singapore dock, then returned to the sea. Bryce, Tolwyn, Mara, Djil, Tom, Pluppa, Gutterby, Grim and Toolpin stood on the dock, watching the ship sail away. Tolwyn glanced around the dock anxiously, and for a moment Bryce thought he saw confusion in her eyes. Then the look was gone, and her steely gaze returned.

"What now, Christopher Bryce?" Tolwyn asked.

Bryce wasn't sure, and he glanced at Mara and Djil for assistance. But help came from an unexpected source. Tom O'Malley stepped over and clapped a friendly arm around Bryce's shoulders.

"Now we find an airplane," Tom exclaimed.

"Is that going to be easy in this place, Tom?" Mara asked.

"Nothing is ever easy, Mara," the pilot smiled, "but sometimes the trying is as fun as the doing."

Tom motioned for them to follow, and he led them away from the dock and toward the place he planned to find an airplane.

43

The black, rolling thundercloud stretched impossibly high, billowing from the ground to reach into the ash-filled sky of the beleaguered, slowing Earth. It was a sign of storm without precedent, an omen of cataclysm. But this towering cloud was not merely meteorologic. From it bayed the hounds of the Wild Hunt. From it scratched and shrieked the black ravens of death. From it, snorting and trembling with their run, thundered the at-last-slowing hoofbeats of the riders as their steeds once more consented to control.

The Horn Master brought his pack to rein before the storm front that marked the edge of Living Land reality, and led to the start of Core Earth. The armies of Baruk Kaah had already begun crossing the boundary, but the Earthers were holding them back with their weapons and cunning. Even the gospog were not enough to turn the tide. Baruk Kaah needed his own reality brought to bear. To accomplish that, he needed the Wild Hunt.

The Horn Master let the pack wait anxiously, for that would make their intensity even greater in the battle ahead. He would help the Saar of the Living Land, even though he disliked the High Lord, for Uthorion had demanded it. The Saar was weak and foolish, however, and the Horn Master's fealty would always be to Uthorion.

He removed his great horn from the strap at his side and hefted it toward his lips. When he sounded it, the tower of cloud and thunder they traveled in would break, raining death upon the Earthers. The Horn Master smiled. It would be glorious.

He sounded the horn, and the downpour of destruction began.

44

Baruk Kaah wheezed with the effort of running, glorious pain burning in his lungs. He offered his pain to Lanala, gladly, ecstatically, aware of every ache as he traveled toward the battle zone.

With every pain-lanced step and every whistling breath, the edeinos knew he embraced life. His stride, once smooth as his battle-trained body could make it, now dragged. His lungs squeezed and drew like a stalenger sailing a strong wind. His eyes doubled the outlines of the landscape in which he ran, and every part of his being focused on the fire that was his body.

"Lanala, feel my passion! Seize this offering, and restore my strength so that I may help you feel again!" the High Lord prayed.

Each step pounded through Baruk Kaah's body with the force of a hammer. His heartbeat ricocheted in his ribs, and flame crawled his abdomen. His tail bones shrieked with the effort to balance his weaving, jerking body. Blood pounded behind his eyes, and the' world tinged green with the effort of his run.

And then his sight began to clear. The rushing jubilation of restoration filled his ears, surged through his lungs, leapt the nerves and sinews of his limbs. The pain seeped into a tingling, living pulse, and rushed in rhythm with his stride. He felt exquisitely alive, feathered by ash and sand crystals that whorled in the vortex of his passing, warming in the exertion of his blood. He heard the crunch of his feet and the slide of sand in his footsteps, the renewed cry of insects no longer overshadowed by his passage, and he was filled with

joy-

He stopped finally, gazing through the Deep Mist in the direction of his warriors. He was still far from the battle, but he could hear the sounds of conflict. What life they must be experiencing! He wished that he had traveled with them, led them as their Saar, instead of staying behind. Rec Pakken had cautioned him from joining the fray, but he had finally won out and broke away. Let the Darkness Device worry like a lakten over her young. Baruk Kaah was no newly-hatched hen who needed protecting. He was Saar of Takta Ker, High Lord of the Living Land! He would make the Earthers tremble with his power.

In the distance far ahead, Baruk Kaah heard the sounding of a horn. It was loud, thunderous. It signalled the arrival of the Wild Hunt. Soon, the next patch of land would belong to him and Lanala.

He couldn't wait to join his people, to help them give life to the dead of this world. With renewed energy and burning anticipation, Baruk Kaah continued his run.

45

Julie kept the jeep moving through the mist, but after a few minor collisions with fallen logs and rocks, she kept the speed down to a crawl. They had been lucky so far, and she definitely didn't want to blow a tire or blunder into some hidden object that would do more to the jeep than dent a fender.

"What are we following, Kurst?" she asked without looking at the man beside her. She did not dare take her eyes from the road for even a split second, as visibility was nearly non-existent. "I don't see anything that you could possibly be using for landmarks."

"I am not directing us by sight, Julie," Kurst explained.

"Then how?"

"I am following Scythak's scent," Kurst said. "He traveled to Twentynine Palms from a bridge in the Living Land. We will trace his smell to that bridge and make our way from there."

She wasn't sure if she believed Kurst, but since they were already hopelessly lost in the mist — at least as far as she could tell — it made little difference which direction they took. It was all the same within the gray cloud that covered everything.

The change happened abruptly. One minute Julie was straining to see beyond the glare of the jeep's headlights, trying to make out shapes past the reflective blanket of fog. The next minute the jeep emerged into a clearing, and the headlights landed upon a huge edeinos

standing upon a slight rise in the ground.

The edeinos was larger than Tal Tu, broader, more powerful in stance and bearing. His eyes reflected the light cast by the jeep's beams, and Julie saw anger and hatred in those alien eyes.

"Shoot it, Ace!" Julie screamed, trying to rationalize her fear. It was only an edeinos, she told herself. Even if it was an evil one, it wasn't some unstoppable monster. But before Decker could snap off a single shot, the mist engulfed the edeinos in a protective shroud, hiding him from sight.

Julie turned to Kurst to find out which way to go and she jumped, startled. He had transformed, and a huge werewolf was sitting as best it could beside her in the cramped space.

"Kurst?" she shouted, "Which way?"

The werewolf pointed toward the right, not taking his eyes away from the billowing mist. She swung the jeep around and gave it some gas.

"I don't know about the rest of you, but that thing scared the hell out of me," Julie said, trying to make conversation in order to break her mood.

"It should have, Julie," Paragon agreed from the back seat. "That was Baruk Kaah."

46

He was here! The singer had returned! Oh, the audacity of one he had given such trust to! Baruk Kaah could not believe how much fortune his goddess had bestowed upon him, and he literally shook with the joy of it! Eddie Paragon had come back, marching up to the High Lord like an old tra presenting itself to a pack of tresirs for the kill.

There were others with the singer, though, and they carried dead objects from beyond the borders of the Living Land. How dare the singer bring such things here! Baruk Kaah noted with a slight tinge of nervousness that the dead things were working, for he heard the unnatural sound of the dead beast they rode upon, smelled the foul stink of its burning breath. He remembered his attack on the Earther hard point, and his subsequent loss against it. He had not been able to force his will and reality upon it, and it had cost him dearly. Could they have with them more such hard points? No! That was unthinkable!

The High Lord peered through the mist, watching them flee. There was a female and two males with Paragon, and they all had the odor of stormers about them. He glanced back into the mist, looking for a messenger to carry his words to the ravagon. He made the motions of command, and a young warrior approached.

"How may I serve you, Saar?" the youth inquired, positioning his body in the lowly shape of subservience.

"Find the ravagon," Baruk Kaah ordered, adding motions of speed and urgency to accentuate his words. "Have him join me here."

The warrior bowed, offered a quick prayer to Lanala to grant him speed, and took off into the mist. Then Baruk Kaah turned toward the direction Paragon and his companions had taken.

"Now you shall learn the powers of the High Lord of Takta Ker, singer," Baruk Kaah vowed. "Now you shall know life in all its abundance. Take the knowledge with you to Lanala when you die, and tell her you learned it from her beloved, Baruk Kaah!"

47

Decker watched the rear, straining to see if anyone or anything was following in their wake. The jeep bounced over bumps and small obstructions in the road, and every so often Julie cut the wheel hard to one side to avoid some larger obstacle. The congressman was more concerned with whatever the High Lord might decide to throw at them, so he kept his attention focused behind them. He did not share Julie's opinion that they had left Baruk Kaah in the dust. Apparently, from the worried glances that he kept making over his shoulder, neither did Paragon.

Ace fingered the trigger of the heavy machinegun, nervously keeping himself ready to fire at the least sign of pursuit. He knew that Baruk Kaah would be powerful, but he had faith that the weapon would be able to stop the edeinos — or anything else they might run into.

"Damn it!" Julie yelled from the driver's seat, and the jeep lurched hard to the right. For a moment, Ace thought they would continue to spin completely around, but a tree appeared out of the mist. The jeep smashed into it with a jarring impact, and then caromed back. The vehicle gave a shudder, then the engine died.

Decker saw that she had spun out trying to avoid a crevice that cut across the road. Had she not gotten around it, the jeep would have cracked an axle — or worse.

"Shit!" she cursed, trying to get the engine to restart. It coughed, but wouldn't turn over. "I bet there's not a tow truck within a thousand miles of this place."

"We've got another problem," Paragon informed them.

Stepping out of the mist was Baruk Kaah. He stopped about fifty feet from them, but they could see him clearly as the fog around him was dissipating. The edeinos High Lord let out a terrible roar, then levelled his alien gaze at Eddie Paragon.

"Singer," the High Lord said in a rasping, lizard voice, "you have disappointed me. I offered you an honored position at the Saar's side, and you betrayed me."

"We're from different worlds, Baruk Kaah," Paragon said. "I couldn't survive in yours. I'd wind up going mad."

"Madness is still an experience, a sensation. Now you will be left without experiences. Now you will just die," Baruk Kaah hissed.

"I don't think so," Decker called, pointing his machinegun at the edeinos. He wasn't sure, but he thought the High Lord was laughing.

"That will not work here, human," Baruk Kaah said as he strode forward, intent on destroying the arrogant humans with his bare hands. "This is my world, and the dead things of your world are nothing here."

Tangible waves of power emanated from the edeinos, and Decker felt his resolve waning. My God, he thought, how can I oppose someone with this kind of power? The congressman's whole body trembled, his legs started to go weak, and he felt like a small ship being buffeted by an angry sea.

Kurst was beside him then, speaking to him in his calm manner. "He is trying to impose his will upon you, Ace. Fight it. It is your belief against his as to whether the weapon will work here. I believe that it will."

"So do I," Paragon added.

"Of course it will work, Ace," Julie assured him, adding her support. "You know it will."

"Yes," Decker admitted, watching as Baruk Kaah closed the distance between them with wide, bouncing strides, "I do."

He squeezed the trigger.

Baruk Kaah's eyes widened. His tooth-filled maw fell open. His hands went up in a defensive gesture. But none of those actions were in time. The heavy machinegun added its voice to the others, and it sang out with affirmation, a confirmation of belief punctuated by the sound of high-explosive rounds bursting from the barrel. The rounds carried with them Ace's belief in his world and his reality. If you pulled the trigger in Ace's world, then the gun fired. There was simply no other choice. He believed that, and with the support of Kurst, Paragon, and Julie he was able to block out the doubts and fears projected by the High Lord. He squeezed the trigger. And, as always, his aim was true. The High Lord of the edeinos fell beneath a barrage of explosive charges.