The Cyber Chronicles Book III - The Core (2 page)

The Queen, he
was sure, rode in the cart. He glanced along the trail, frowning.
The warrior mage had turned back towards the Badlands. Gearn
shrugged it off. It did not matter now where they went; he would
overtake them and set the trap he had planned. He followed the
tracks, glad they were easy to discern. The fact that the warrior
mage made no effort to hide his trail told Gearn that either his
foe thought he was dead, or was confident of his ability to defeat
him.

The months of
living in the outdoors had left no mark upon Gearn. His spells
protected him from hardship, although the frequent castings drained
him. It drew more from his surroundings, however, and each place
where he used sorcery was left withered and dead. In areas where
life was abundant, it merely sickened the plants and beggared the
soil, but in this poor land it turned the vegetation a crisp brown
and reduced the sandy soil to lifeless dust. It also affected a far
larger area, and his campsites were now dead spots.

The quest to
capture the Queen had become an obsession. He refused to entertain
the notion that the warrior mage was more powerful than him. It was
just not possible, and he intended to prove it. The chase had
become a test of his abilities, and he was determined to succeed,
not only in capturing the Queen, but in killing the warrior mage
too.

Murdor's death
and the warrior mage's subsequent immunity to Gearn's illusions had
shaken him. Since then, his traps' failure had taught him much
about his foe's considerable abilities. Now, however, he was
prepared, and the next trap would succeed. He gestured and murmured
a short incantation for strength, and the grass around him
withered.

Sabre glanced
back at Tassin, who sat on the donkey cart behind him and squinted
across the scrubland, shading her eyes. Although he often trotted
for most of the day, now he led the donkeys at a walk, to let them
rest a bit. A week had passed, and they were deep in the blighted
area, approaching the desert again. They had not encountered any
monsters, and he hoped their luck held out as they neared the
source. The scanners had picked up traces of radiation drifting on
the wind, and he deduced that they were heading into a region close
to a bomb site. The radiation level was not dangerous for the short
time Tassin would be exposed to it, but the creatures that lived in
the area were mutated. After killing a six-legged rabbit for
supper, Sabre had wondered if the water was contaminated.

As they
travelled south the strange animals had become more plentiful, and
they had come across an eagle that had obviously not flown since it
had plunged from its nest as a juvenile. The bird had had shrunken,
twisted wings, yet it had survived on the ground, indicating that
others were even less able to fend for themselves. They had
encountered half bald birds, blind rabbits, a two-headed deer and a
fox with three tails. Sabre had been reluctant to eat the mutated
creatures, and Tassin refused, so they had switched to roots, nuts
and fruit, although some of them were deformed too. He had found a
few healthy chickens and rabbits, and these they had eaten.

Her injury was
almost healed, and she was able to walk for spells, riding in the
cart when she grew tired. Sabre changed the dressing every night,
and she appeared to enjoy his gentle, if impersonal, ministrations.
He was glad it was healing well; he found tending the injury
unsettling. She always watched him so intently, and he wondered
what she found so interesting. Was it the bit of metal welded to
his head or the ugly scars that fascinated her? He could not berate
her for it though; it was not her fault he was a freak.

Sabre kept an
eye on the scanners, alert for radiation hot spots. The region
puzzled him. There was no sign of a bomb site. Instead, there were
bright spots of radiation spread all over the sickly land. When
they came across a spring, he found the water uncontaminated and
filled the water skins, then left Tassin to bathe.

Sabre
investigated a hot spot three hundred metres from the spring, and
discovered a black, shiny stone. Squatting, he picked it up and
examined it. It was a piece of black glass from the desert, where
the bombs had melted the sand. Deadly radiation filled those sites,
and the chunk he held was highly radioactive. Although harmless to
him, it would make Tassin sick, maybe even kill her. The only way
it could have ended up so far from the desert was if someone had
brought it, and whoever had been foolish enough to venture into the
black glass in the desert was surely dead.

Digging a
hole, he buried it in the dry, sandy soil, which would mask some of
its emissions. He walked four hundred metres to another spot of
radioactivity, and found second fragment of black glass. One, he
could understand, dropped by a wandering, dying man, but two?
Perhaps the same man, yet they were a fair distance apart. He
buried it and walked on, heading for yet another bright spot. By
the time he decided it was safe to return to the camp, he had
buried five pieces of black glass, and arrived at the unsettling
conclusion that all the bright spots on his scanners were bits of
radioactive glass.

Tassin roasted
roots over the fire when he returned, and the donkeys tore at the
scrubby trees nearby. Her smile faded at his dour expression.

"What's
wrong?"

He sat on the
other side of the fire. "I don't like this place. It's strange.
I've found radioactive glass from the desert scattered around here.
That's what's making everything so sick, and I don't know how it
got here."

"Some now-dead
fool brought it from the desert?"

"That's what I
thought at first, but there's too much of it, and it's all over the
place. I buried what I found, but there's bound to be more."

"You touched
it?"

He smiled.
"Don't worry, I was treated for it."

"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."