The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core Read online

  "So what should we do, turn back and find another way through?"

  "No, I think we should push on, but as quickly as possible."

  Tassin stared into the fire. "Okay. I want to go home."

  For the next three days, Sabre led the reluctant donkeys at a trot, and Tassin rode in the cart. More and more spots of radiation showed up on the scanners, and he gave them a wide berth while she was with him. On the fourth night, he left her by the camp fire and went to investigate one of the radioactive spots, which seemed larger than before.

  Instead of a single shard of black glass, he found a pile of it, and the implications sent a shiver through him. He did not wish to alarm Tassin, so he decided not to tell her, but whoever had made the pile had contaminated the entire area with radioactivity. People could become immune to radiation, and certain treatments could make them invulnerable to the electromagnetic waves, as he was, but why contaminate the land?

  Gearn's gleeful chuckle echoed around the cave. The tip of a stalagmite in the centre of the cavern glowed, throwing cold blue light on the jagged walls and weird, sculpted formations. It had taken him a while to enchant the stone, and he was well pleased with the result. Now all he had to do was wait for his victim to wander into his trap. He sat on a ledge and contemplated his plan with growing satisfaction. The spell-casting had drained all life for miles around, and ended the lives of several wild beasts. It had tired him, too, but it had been worth it.

  Stalactites stabbed down like giant stone teeth, throwing pointed shadows onto the walls. From deep within the caverns, the slow drip of water marked time, like a clock. The cold, damp air smelt musky, as if stagnant from ages of disuse. Glistening trails down the walls ended in glinting black pools, and strange, worm-like animals made strings of pearly globes that hung from the roof.

  Gearn rose and walked around the cave again, threading his way through the stalagmites. His plan was perfect. The warrior mage had moved in a straight line for some time now, and Gearn was certain he would pass near here. Then the Queen would vanish, and the warrior mage would never find her. He would exhaust himself in useless searching long after Gearn had returned to Arlin with his prize. Perhaps the warrior mage would die in his quest, although he might survive. Either way, Gearn would win. He laughed again, the echoes of his mirth ringing around the caverns beyond the one in which he waited, as patient as a coiled snake.

  Sweat trickled down Sabre’s chest as he led the donkeys at a trot in the noon sun's sweltering heat. He carried a laser and two extra power packs in his harness in case they encountered a Death Zone monster, for he calculated that they were not far from the desert now. His sensitive ears picked up a faint cry, and he stopped to listen. Tassin watched him with a puzzled frown, clearly unable to hear it, although her ears must have recovered from the sonlar blast by now. He tugged the donkeys forward. Whatever it was, he wanted no part of it.

  The alien sound sharpened his awareness, which the monotonous trotting had dulled, and he noticed that the bushes around them were withered. He checked the scanners, but the radiation level was no higher than usual. Perhaps a dearth of water had caused it. The cry came again, louder, and he slowed to a walk, glancing inwards at the scanners. Whatever it was, they were drawing closer to it, and he wondered if he should detour. He stopped, undecided. Tassin looked up as another faint, far off wail reached them.

  "It's a child," she said. "It must be lost."

  "The scanners detect nothing."

  She snorted. "You and your scanners. It's a lost child, I tell you."

  "Then it must be very far off."

  Tassin climbed down, shading her eyes as she gazed across the scrubland. "The poor thing, lost out here in this dreadful wilderness." She set off in the direction of the cry.

  Sabre called, "Leave it, Tassin. I'm sure its parents will find it."

  "What if they don't?" she shouted over her shoulder. "What if they're dead?"

  Sabre tied the donkeys to a tree, shaking his head in exasperation and muttering, "What if it's a Death Zone monster? What if you mind your own bloody business? What if you do what I say for once in your life?" When he looked up, she was a fair distance away. "Hey! Wait for me!"

  "Hurry up!"

  The despairing wail came again, and she hurried behind a shrivelled bush. Sabre cursed and broke into a run. Rounding the bush, he stopped in surprise when all he found beyond it was empty sand and dry undergrowth. He turned in circles, searched the scrubby landscape and wondered if she was playing some stupid game.

  "Tassin!" he bellowed. "Tassin, this isn't funny! Where the hell are you?"

  Sabre frowned, recalling a soft grating when she had disappeared behind the bush, which now it seemed ominously significant.

  "Tassin!"

  Only an eagle's distant cry answered him, and dry leaves rustled in the hot breeze. All the vegetation in the area was dead, and he wondered why. The problem of finding Tassin was far more important than a few desiccated bushes, however. The scanners showed only the donkeys and a few wild animals, increasing his alarm.

  Tassin sat up. Something brittle and scratchy supported her, which crackled and gave under her weight. She struggled in its clutches, realising that it was a pile of brush that had cushioned her fall. Spitting out dust, she crawled to the edge, wincing as sharp sticks scratched her. She had fallen into a cave, it seemed, and she wondered why she had not seen it. A soft giggle escaped her when she thought about how furious Sabre would be with her this time. She was always stumbling into something. Looking up, she was surprised to find darkness above her, yet she had fallen straight down, so where was the entrance? Sabre must be close by now, for he had not been that far behind her.

  "Sabre!"

  She climbed off the pile of branches, brushing leaves and twigs from her skirt and hair, then looked up again.

  "Sabre!"

  "He can't hear you," a voice said from the shadows, and Tassin whipped around. A thin, black-robed man emerged into the faint blue glow she now realised was the only light source, emanating from further inside the cave.

  "Welcome to my parlour, Majesty." He chuckled, the echoes redoubling his mirth.

  "You!"

  "Yes, me. Did you think I'd given up? That's what you were meant to think, of course." He stepped closer. "I've been very patient, and bided my time, devising this trap. It worked rather well, don't you think? I was annoyed that the warrior mage was so good at avoiding my previous traps, but this one is too good for him. He won't find you now."

  Tassin backed away. "He will. He can see through your illusions."

  "I thought as much, but this is not an illusion. The hole through which you fell is blocked by a slab of rock. He'll never know where you went." He gestured, his loose sleeves flapping. "Eventually he'll leave to search further afield, or give up. Then you and I will return to Arlin, where you'll wed King Torrian as you should have long ago, and saved me a lot of trouble."

  Tassin glared at his gaunt features. "Sabre will find a way to free me. You don't know what he's capable of."

  Gearn sniggered. "If he manages to free you now, he must be superhuman."

  "That's exactly what he is."

  He frowned, moving towards her again. "Come, Your Majesty, let's go to a more comfortable spot to wait for your superman to give up and go away."

  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."