The sword's hum ceased, and the blue light in the cyber died. Silence clamped down, and Sabre drew in a deep, shuddering breath, flopping onto his back. Frost rimed his skin and whitened the brow band. Steam rose from him in the chill that had accompanied his appearance, and a mottled flush replaced his unhealthy pallor. Tassin ran to him and dropped to her knees, amazement warring with her concern. Not even a scratch marred his skin, and no sign of burns or blood.
The cyber band blazed almost solid red. She touched his cheek and gasped at its iciness. Frost still whitened his hair and clothes, but the skin of his chest was much warmer. Already his temperature was rising back to normal. She picked up his hand and chafed it, calling his name. He appeared to be unconscious, his expression peaceful. He looked younger, but perhaps that was due to his comatose state, which robbed him of his usual guarded expression. In repose, his hawk-like features looked even more sensitive, almost vulnerable.
A tremulous smile tugged at Tassin's lips. He was not only in one piece, but appeared to be unhurt, more than she had dared to hope for. She wiped off the water that dewed his face with a trembling hand. Driven by an inexplicable urge, she leant down and kissed him, a sob closing her throat. Part of her wished he would wake at that moment, while a larger part shied away from the prospect with keen embarrassment.
As she sat back, she wiped away the tears that ran down her cheeks, torn between intense relief and sadness, an unnamed emotion clogging her throat. A soft chime made her look around at the sword, which lay several metres away, shining metal once more.
"I hope you rot, you vile thing," she muttered.
It chimed again, insistently, and she frowned. It seemed to be trying to communicate, but she had no wish to understand it. She shook Sabre, wishing he would wake so they could leave this accursed place. She glanced around at the swirling chaos, her concern for Dena, all alone in the madness, growing. She shook Sabre again and patted his cheek. Although she hated to leave him, she had to find Dena, then somehow find her way back here. The prospect of stumbling around in the chaotic Flux-realities scared her. There was a distinct possibility that she would become utterly lost and be unable to find either of them.
The sword chimed again, insistently, and she glared at it.
"Damn you! Whatever you want, I won't do it!"
After a short silence, it gave a single sweet chime. Somehow, the Core lived in the sword now, a thing of power. She doubted its power could save it from the rust that would eat it away, however, all except the hilt.
"You're doomed! He defeated you twice!" she yelled.
The sword gave a flat, discordant note.
"Only if you could help me, would I spare you."
A loud, sweet chime answered her. The sound betokened agreement, friendship, and wordless volumes of alien encouragement.
She rose and walked back to it. "Can you help us?"
It gave a sweet chime.
"Why would you?"
Its response was a flat note.
"You wish to be saved."
It chimed sweetly again.
Tassin bent and picked up the weapon. The hilt was warm, and a slight vibration ran through it as it hummed. "If you want me to save you, then you must make sure I can find him again, or I'll leave you here to rust. And don't think you can harm him; the cyber is still active."
The sword chimed.
Tassin went over to Sabre and gazed at his peaceful face. Laying the sword beside him, she set off into the chaos to find Dena and the cart. It seemed as if she stumbled in the chaotic Flux-realities for an eternity, and Tassin was almost frantic by the time she came across Dena huddled between the donkeys, staring ahead with blank eyes. All of them bore wounds from flying crystal. A quick examination assured her that the injuries were not serious, and Dena had already pulled out the shards. The child seemed catatonic until Tassin hugged her, whereupon she wailed and sobbed.
Tassin crooned, "It's all right. You're safe, I'm safe, it's all over. We can go home now, no more terrors, okay?"
Dena raised shimmering eyes. "It's gone?"
"Yes, Sabre destroyed it. It's gone."
"Where's Sabre?"
"He's back there. We'll go and get him now. He's hurt, so we must take the cart."
Dena released Tassin, wiping her eyes. "I'm okay."
Tassin smiled. "I know. You're a very brave girl, and Sabre will be proud of you."
The sword's chiming guided them back to him, and Tassin sighed with relief when she found him again. They lifted him onto the cart, placing him in the hay. Tassin tossed the sword in after him, and it chimed in complaint as it clattered on top of the laser cannons. With a last glance at the crater, she led the donkeys away over the crushed crystal, Dena sitting with Sabre.
Tassin soon discovered that walking in the chaotic Flux-reality was hard. The donkeys balked at things that appeared and vanished, and the ground writhed and heaved. Sound seemed to have left the equation, or perhaps they were all a little deaf after the Core's explosion, but the world was eerily silent. When Tassin grew tired of wading through the tugging chaos, she stopped beside a Real-reality rock and gave the donkeys fodder before climbing into the cart to sit with Dena. She lifted Sabre's head and trickled a little water into his mouth. He coughed and swallowed.
Dena watched with a worried frown. "Why doesn't he wake up?"
"He's very tired. He'll wake when he's rested enough." Tassin hid her concern behind a smile.
The girl looked around at the tumbling, colliding worlds with a shudder. "This is a horrible place now. Before it was okay, kind of fun, but now it's weird. What if monsters come while Sabre's asleep?"
"I doubt that. I think they all perished with the Core. If they didn't, they must have fled."
"I thought this would all vanish when the Core was broken."
"It will take a while to fade, I think."
Tassin glanced at the sword, hoping she was right. How much power did the Core still possess? Was it feeding the Flux-reality? Surely it contained only a fraction of the power that had been inside the crystal?
After they had rested and eaten, Tassin pulled the donkeys along again, her injuries aching. Dena offered to take a turn, allowing Tassin to rest in the cart with Sabre.
Chapter Thirteen
For three days, they struggled through the chaos, overcoming the mishaps that befell them, none of which were too serious, and involved only the hazards of the changing land. Tassin became immured to the madness and accepted the hardships without complaint, adapting to its unexpected dangers. The chaos' relentless bombardment of horrors was punishing, and allowed little rest. Tassin and Dena were soon bruised and exhausted, dirty and blank-eyed. She gave Sabre water, but there was only dried meat to eat, and he would not chew it.
With no nights to promote sleep and no sun to guide them, they rested when they were tired and tried to walk a straight line. Twice they encountered Real-reality pools, which were easy to spot now in the ever changing Flux-reality. They found no other living creatures, but came across many corpses, twisted beyond recognition or savaged. Tassin wondered what had become of Purr, saddened by the possibility that he might be dead. The donkeys plodded on with their usual indifference, learning to ignore the things that appeared and vanished, the sudden changes of weather and temperature, and the abrupt transition from light to dark when a night time world swept through.
On the fourth day, as Tassin raised Sabre's head to give him water, he opened his eyes. She jumped in surprise, spilling water on his chest, and grinned with elated relief.
"How are you feeling?"
He stared at her for such a long time she feared the trauma had affected his mind. Her worries evaporated when he said in a husky voice, "I'm alive?"
"Yes."
He looked down at himself, raising a hand to study it as if amazed to find it still attached and obedient. "I thought I was dead."
"The cyber saved you."
"The cyber?"
"Yes." She hesit
ated as a brief splatter of heavy rain swept through, dampening them for an instant. "I think it stopped the sword from killing you... the Core is in it now."
Sabre took the water skin and drank, scanning the chaos. "Where are we?"
"Still in the Death Zone. We've been walking for four days."
Dena glanced around at the sound of Sabre's voice, stopped the donkeys and climbed into the cart to hug him.
He smiled at Tassin over her shoulder. "You could be going in circles."
"I know."
Sabre tried to sit up when Dena released him, but his limbs trembled and he flopped back with a groan. Tassin helped him, and he examined his belly with a confused frown. "No wounds, and no scars."
"What happened to you? I couldn't find you, and then you just appeared out of thin air."
He stared at her, then nodded. "Like the guardians."
"Yes."
"I think it tried to do to me what it did to them, but it couldn't for some reason. It sent me somewhere... nowhere is more like it. Perhaps a place between worlds, since it has the power to open portals in time and space and draw other worlds into its sphere of influence."
He rubbed his brow, lines of exhaustion bracketing his mouth. "It rummaged through my memories like an old lady at a sale bin. I think it was looking for something to torture me with, and it found plenty. But the cyber kept jolting me. It stopped me from sliding into..." He shivered. "Then it hurled me into a void, I think. I couldn't breathe, and it was terribly cold."
Tassin nodded. "When you fell out of the air you were covered with frost. The cyber band was blue."
He fingered the crystals. "It must have overpowered the Core. That's amazing. They're both... artificial intelligences, I suppose, one programmed, one self-taught. But they're utterly different. I wouldn't have thought the cyber could match up to the Core, never mind defeat it."
"I think the Core's lost most of its power now that it's trapped in the sword."
"It must have."
"But how did you avoid the flying crystal from the explosion? Even Dena and the donkeys were hit."
"I didn't." He smiled at her confused look. "It hit me too, but when the Core flung me into... wherever I was, it tried to mutate me. I guess the cyber wouldn't let it, so it... reversed time. Perhaps it thought it could turn back the clock so far I'd become a helpless child again, but the cyber must have overpowered it before it could. By rejuvenating me, it healed my wounds."
She gaped at him. "It turned time backwards?"
"Yes. It can manipulate time and space, perhaps because they're related. The Core's incredibly powerful, or at least, it was. A good thing we're far away from it now."
She averted her eyes. "Not exactly."
"Don't tell me you brought the bloody thing along?"
She nodded and bent to pick up the gleaming weapon.
Sabre frowned at it. "It should be destroyed."
The sword chimed, a flat note.
Tassin said, "It helped us. I had to leave you to find Dena, and I was afraid I wouldn't find you again, so the sword guided me to you. We made a bargain. It doesn't wish to be left here to rust."
"It's evil."
She shivered as the temperature dropped and a flurry of snow chilled her. "It can't do much now."
"Maybe not." He showed no inclination to take it from her, so she tossed it back into the bottom of the cart. It whined, then fell silent. He gazed at her. "I didn't expect to survive that battle."
"I know, but I'm glad you did."
"I'm not. I don't have much to look forward to." He glanced around as a burst of orange light attracted his attention, a setting sun in some unknown world. A wave of heat swept over them, leaving the air pleasantly warm for a moment before it changed again.
"I won't let Manutim take you back."
"You can't stop him."
Tassin frowned and jumped down to lead the donkeys forward. Sabre lay back and closed his eyes. He ached with weariness and his limbs seemed to be made of lead.
"Did you have to be so cruel?"
He opened his eyes to find Dena regarding him sadly. "She must learn to hate me."
"Because this magician will take you away."
"Yeah."
Dena cocked her head, raising a hand to brush aside a tree branch that materialised before her. It vanished before she touched it. "Surely happiness, no matter how brief, would be better than this?"
"It would only lead to more pain in the end." He closed his eyes.
Sabre could sense Dena studying him, and wondered what she was thinking. The chaos caused an odd flickering he found tiring on his eyes, and closing them helped him to relax. He also had a splitting headache. A wave of sea water broke over the cart, distracting him with its chill slap, then it was gone. He realised that if he avoided watching the chaos, living in it was a bit easier.
When Sabre woke again, Tassin slept beside him and Dena led the donkeys. Levering himself up, he gazed around at the swirling chaos, then glanced inwards at the scanners and discovered that they were working again. He studied the two life signs, one distant, the other quite close to the right of the cart. It was pale green, and small. Curious, he gazed in its direction, but the ever changing scenery blocked his view. Idly he perused the cyber's information, seeking a clue as to what the creature might be. The answer was ambiguous; it was an unknown animal, but similar to a terrestrial racoon.
"Dena, stop," he called.
The girl obeyed, looking surprised. Tassin woke and protested when he struggled out of the cart. His knees buckled, and he cursed, climbing to his feet again. Tassin tried to help him, but he shook her off and reeled in the direction of the life form.
"What is it, Sabre?"
"I'm not sure. I'm going to have a look."
Flux-reality tugged at him. Trees and rocks came and went too fast to avoid, and for an instant he shared space with them. A few metres from the cart, he came to a Real-reality boulder, an island of constancy and sanity amid the bedlam. The scanners indicated that the life form was next to the rock, and he knelt to peer through the swirling Flux-realities that hid it. Something furry lay there, revealed briefly when the flux allowed. He touched grey fur, and his reality warded off the flux long enough for him to make out a plump body and black-banded tail.
"Purr!" Tassin cried, falling to her knees beside him.
Mud and blood streaked the mosscat's wet, matted fur, and gaping rents exposed bleeding pink flesh. Sabre carried him back to the cart and placed him on the hay, then rummaged in his pack for a needle and thread, intending to sew the wounds up and hope for the best.
Tassin exclaimed, "The sword!"
Sabre frowned at her. "What about it?"
"It can heal him, like it did you."
"It could kill him too. Why should it help?" He flinched at a spray of hail, glancing around. Tassin, more used to it than he, ignored the brief pelting.
"The same reason it helped me before. If it doesn't, we throw it away. It's afraid of that. It will obey."
Sabre shook his head. "I don't trust it."
"It healed you. It can turn back time."
"It was trying to kill me when it did that. What it did for you was a small favour."
"But it needs us now. We can force it to help us."
He gazed at Purr, who stood little chance of survival without a miracle, and nodded. "All right, bring it."
Tassin held it out to him, but he shook his head. She hesitated, clearly puzzled by his reaction, then laid it across the limp mosscat.
"Heal him like you did Sabre," she ordered. "Don't mutate him."
The sword gave a flat chime, and then its glow brightened, surrounding it with a rainbow nimbus. With a flash of golden light, it turned to crystal, and its power enveloped the mosscat. The hairs on Tassin's arms stood up as the eerie power flowed around Purr, caressing his fur with invisible fingers. The wounds closed as time flowed in reverse within the sphere of power the sword created. Unseen claws undid the damage
they had inflicted, and within a few moments the injuries vanished. As soon as it reverted to metal, she pushed the sword aside, and it gave a sullen chime.
Tassin wrapped Purr in a blanket and trickled water into his jaws. The mosscat coughed, swallowed and opened yellow eyes. He studied them, then spoke in his ventriloquist's voice.
"So, you succeeded, I take it."
She smiled. "Yes, Sabre did. The Core is gone, and the Death Zone will die now."
Purr nodded, his ears laid back. "Then why did you save me? My home's gone. I have nowhere to live anymore."
"You'll have a home with us."
"The people outside will fear me. I'm from the Death Zone," he growled, his little white fangs exposed in a slight snarl. Evidently Purr was extremely upset.
"No one will harm you, and there's no need for them to know where you come from. We can tell them you're from the jungles on the other side of the desert."
Purr shrugged, raising a pudgy hand to wipe his whiskers. "Well, I suppose it's done now."
"What happened to you?" Sabre asked.
"What do you think? When you destroyed the Core, everything went mad. The beasts started killing each other, and fleeing the chaos, which killed many too. I was attacked again and again. There was nowhere to hide, no way to camouflage in this madness. Eventually I found the rock, and I thought I would die there."
"I'm glad you didn't." Tassin tried to stroke him, but Purr ducked away from her hand. None of them had touched him before, and clearly he did not like it. When she withdrew her hand, he relaxed and started combing the tangles out of his belly fur.
Sabre stretched out in the hay, and Dena led the donkeys forward once more. Purr looked around and commented, "Presumably you wish to leave the Flux Zone, in which case, you should turn to the right." He went back to grooming his bedraggled fur.
Tassin studied Sabre, who lounged in the hay, one leg hooked over the side of the cart. He was pale and drawn, his eyes distant. Twice his gaze brushed hers, but he ignored her scrutiny and concentrated on the surroundings. It seemed he and Purr were unhappy about being saved. Purr because his home was destroyed, and Sabre because he believed the cyber would enslave him again. His pessimism annoyed her. She was sure Manutim would call on her before he did anything else, and she would persuade him to leave Sabre with her. Manutim had been her friend for a long time. Sabre did not realise how much influence she had with the mage.
The Cyber Chronicles 03: The Core Page 15