Kamil hadn't heard him. She was staring at the raincoated personage. "The Little One. I know you. And you must be Raoul. Dion told me about you—"
"Not now!" Xris said through clenched teeth, biting the end off the twist. "Well, sister? Is there another way?"
"Yes, there's another path," said Kamil slowly, making up her mind. "I've taken it. Astarte showed me. She and I used it."
"Give us directions."
"I couldn't. I can find it again, but only if I see where I'm going."
Xris eyed her speculatively. "All right. You lead."
Kamil turned, almost fell over the prostrate figure of the priestess.
"She'll be all right," said Xris. "Get going."
Kamil did so. They left the room, entered the hall, moving swiftly.
"I'll go on ahead," Xris said to Raoul when it became apparent that the Little One could not keep up. "You two follow as quick as you can. And stay in touch. Let me know what he knows. Use the commlink." The cyborg tapped his ear, glanced at the Little One.
"Yes, friend Xris," Raoul replied, waving his hand nonchalantly. "We will act as guardians of your rear end."
Xris grunted, shook his head, and spit out the remainder of the twist. He increased his pace, keeping his hand closed firmly over Kamil's arm, urging her along.
"You can let go of me," she told him. "I won't run off or cause trouble. You said Astarte was in danger. What do you mean? What invaders?"
"Just show me how to get up the mountain, sister."
"I will when you let go!" Kamil planted her feet, pulled back.
Xris eyed her, released his hold. Kamil kilted her long skirts up into the belt at her waist, started forward again at a run. The cyborg joined her, moving swiftly and easily, but with a strange, awkward gait, as if his mechanical leg were involved in a contest with the physical limb. It soon became obvious to Kamil that the cyborg could have run far faster had he wanted, but he was matching his pace to hers. Knowing the distance she would have to travel, she set her own pace at one she knew she could maintain.
They emerged from the main building. People saw them, shouted at them; a few attempted to follow, but none could catch up with them. Kamil led the way through the massive garden, heading for the grapevine-covered shrine that marked the entrance to the hidden path.
"What invaders?" she asked again.
Xris didn't answer, but his gaze flicked over to the north side of the mountain. Kamil glanced that way herself, thought she saw movement, but couldn't be certain.
"You don't trust me, do you?" she said.
"Should I?" The cyborg returned. "It would make life easier for you if she dropped out of the picture."
Kamil felt blood burning in her face, and it wasn't from the exertion of running. "I suppose I earned that." She couldn't look at him, kept her eyes on where she was going. "But I'm not that bad. I'm really not. If she is in danger and if there's anything I can do to help, I will. Put it this way; She saved my life. I owe her."
"Fair enough," said Xris. He wasn't even breathing hard. "How far is it?" He had glanced again in the direction of the north path. Now Kamil could see small figures, dwarfed by the mountainside, moving among the fir trees at the mountain's base.
"There .. . that little shrine." She was having to pause, to catch her breath. "Behind it. The path goes . . . almost straight up. That road they're on . . . takes longer, but it's easier."
"Got it," said Xris.
He scanned the cliff face, and though Kamil could see noth-ing herself, she guessed that the enhanced vision of the cyborg could pick out the small footpath, winding among the rocks and trees. Reaching the shrine, the two stopped. Kamil bent over— hands on her knees—to catch her breath. Xris was conversing with Raoul.
"They are beginning their ascent." The Adonian's voice could be heard faintly, coming from Xris's commlink. "There are twenty of them. Commandos. They have already killed one person—a priest—who tried to stop them."
"Killed!" Kamil looked involuntarily in the direction of the invaders.
She could see them winding up the path. They had abandoned their white robes, but they must have been wearing some sort of camouflage body armor, for they blended id well with the wilderness background. She saw a brief flash of bright light, heard the whip-shot echo of a laser blast ricochet off the rocks.
"What are they firing at now?" Xris asked Raoul.
"A small group of temple guards is chasing after them. I don't think they will be for long," Raoul reported.
"Those . . . the temple guards aren't armed!" Kamil protested. She saw them, in her mind's eye—mild and devout young men and women. The office of temple guard was given as a reward for scholarly pursuit. "They weren't really meant to guard anything." She felt sick.
"They're not. Not even keeping 'em busy," Xris muttered, frowning. "I'm going on up," he said to Raoul.
"I'm going with you," Kamil said, but she said it faintly and he didn't hear her.
"Be ready for my signal," he continued, talking to Raoul, then ended the transmission.
Circling around the shrine, he found the small path and began loping up it. Kamil wanted to follow, but she couldn't move. She stared at the snakelike line of men—murderers— moving with swift and practiced skill up the mountainside. They were heading for the cavern, heading for Astarte. And down below, the dead. People dead and dying. Kamil didn't know what she had expected from the intruders exactly, but it hadn't been death, violent death. Violence seemed ludicrous, out of place in these beautiful surroundings. This peaceful tranquillity should have prohibited such acts of terror.
"And she is alone, up there," Kamil whispered, the realiza-tion twisting cold inside her. "They've killed to get to her. Twenty of them...."
Kamil began to run, started scrambling up the cliff face behind the cyborg. She couldn't have said why she followed, except that she was suddenly angry—angry at the fact that a place and a people dedicated to peace had been so savagely violated. And there was instinct—the instinct of the shieldmaiden, of Olefsky's daughter, to protect and defend. And then there was shame. She'd been stung by Xris's accusation. And though she told herself she didn't give a damn what some mercenary cyborg thought of her, she did care what she thought of herself.
Kamil had been raised in the mountains of her homeland. She caught up with Xris and kept up with him.
"Go back," he ordered, not stopping to look at her. "You'll only get in my way."
She ignored him, kept moving. Glancing at her, Xris said nothing more, shook his head.
The path was steep, but not difficult to climb. The two were making good time, but so were the commandos, forging up the opposite side of the mountain. Nothing, no one was stopping them now.
Reaching a flat, level piece of ground, Xris halted, grimly surveyed the enemy.
"We'll never make it!" Kamil gasped, pulling herself up over a sawtooth ledge to stand beside him. "What . . . what are you doing?"
"Going to slow them down. Give 'em something to think about." Xris had removed his cybernetic hand. Opening his weapons leg, he took out a hideous-looking device resembling a hand with three gigantic hollow fingers, those fingers cut off at the knuckles. He attached the hand swiftly, then inserted three small torpedolike objects into each finger.
"You got a good carrying voice?" he asked Kamil.
"Yes," she said, gulping. Her heart beat fast and light; the air she breathed was clear and pure and seemed to sparkle before her eyes: rocks and trees were flat, two-dimensional, cut out and pasted down against a blue sky.
"Pitch your voice toward those rocks over there and yell like the devil himself had hold of you."
"What ... what do I yell?"
"Anything that comes into your head. It's not the words, it's the sound I want." He handed her a lasgun. "You shoot?"
"Yes. My brothers taught me. But I can't hit anything at this range. ..."
"Doesn't matter. Just blast away. Raoul, we're going to turn ourselves into an arm
y. You understand?"
"I understand, Xris Cyborg."
Raising his voice, Xris bellowed, "Commence firing!" His voice came tumbling down the cliff like a rockslide. He shouted again, kept shouting, "Take them from above! Outflank them!" Pointing his weapons hand in the air, he fired off the three rockets. They arced high into the air, exploded among the commandos, sent them scattering.
"Aye, aye, sir!" Kamil yelled, sudden excitement making her giddy. The echoes of her voice came shrilling back from a different direction, so loud that they startled her. She didn't recognize herself. "We're moving up behind them, sir!" Aiming the lasgun, she fired at a fir tree, set it ablaze.
"Good girl," said Xris. "Look, that's done it."
"What? I can't see." Kamil squinted. Then she did see.
The commandos, uncertain of where the attack was coming from or how large the force against them was, had halted. They were taking cover, deploying themselves along the path.
"It won't hold them for long," he said, and even as he spoke, Kamil saw the commandos steadily crawling their way upward. "But it'll slow 'em down. Come on, sister ... if you're coming."
He began climbing again. Kamil stashed the lasgun in the belt of her robes and hurried after him, her feet slipping and stumbling, her hands sweaty. Her injured arm had begun to throb painfully. She ignored it.
Down below, she could see Raoul starting up the path, shrieking something unintelligible about "air strikes" at the top of his lungs, and suddenly another, deeper voice began thundering from ground level.
"Circle around behind them, men!"
Kamil, peering down below, was astonished to see the archbishop, hampered by the folds of his elaborate ceremonial robes, standing in the garden, waving his arms and shouting for all he was worth.
Xris smiled. "Good for you, Brother Daniel."
The cyborg stopped again farther up the mountainside, fired off three more rockets. Kamil blasted away with the lasgun. More trees were burning; smoke was drifting up over the area.
In answer came an eerie, hair-raising whistling sound. Xris grabbed hold of Kamil, pulled her down flat on the ground. The mountain rocked beneath her, heaving up, falling back down. Splintered stone and bits of tree flew through the air. Dust and a bitter, acrid smoke filled her lungs and set her coughing. Dazed, it took her long moments to realize that they were under attack.
The ground had not stopped shaking before Xris—with a brief glance at her, to see if she was all right—was up and on his way again. Hardly knowing what she was doing, moving by instinct alone, she staggered after him. She could see the cavern now and thought she caught a flash of white near the entrance. Astarte must be wondering what was happening, or perhaps she'd already guessed. As queen, she must have lived every day with the knowledge that she was a potential target.
The whistling sound came again and this time Kamil knew what it was, reacted. She dove beneath an overhanging rock ledge, crowding her tall body under it as far as she could manage. The mountain shook and shuddered, rocks and boulders bounded down around her, a shattered tree trunk slid past.
And she heard, beneath her, a heartrending scream.
The scream was terrible, worse than the explosion. It stopped her breath. Horrified, Kamil crawled out from beneath her ledge, stared down below. Raoul was standing over the crumpled figure of his diminutive companion. A large bloodstain covered the back of the raincoat.
Raoul screamed again, a wail of sorrow and anguish; then he collapsed beside his friend. Black hair falling around his shoulders, Raoul gathered the Little One close, cradled the head— still wearing the battered fedora—close to his body.
The archbishop was hastening up the path, oblivious to the laser blasts bursting around him. One whizzed past Kamil, but she didn't even flinch. She was suddenly shaking so much she couldn't move.
"Go on. Xris'" the archbishop was yelling. "I'll take care of them! Go on!"
A strong hand grabbed Kamil's arm, pulled her along.
"Stay here! Keep under cover!" Xris ordered her, shoving her toward a grove of trees.
"No," she said through numb lips. "I'm coming."
And she came, though nothing made sense to her anymore. It was all fear and confusion and noise. She fixed her eyes on Xris and did what he did, went where he went, ducked when he ducked, ran when he ran.
They reached a ledge jutting out just beneath the cavern. Xris caught hold of Kamil, jerked her back when she would have crawled up and over without looking. He pointed and she understood. They would have to cover a large open patch of ground, with no cover anywhere, to reach the cave.
Astarte stood just inside the cavern's entrance, her soft white robes falling in folds around her. Her hands were on her hips; she was staring down the mountainside. And she didn't look frightened, as Kamil had expected. By her fixed expression and rigid stance, she was angry. So angry that it might have been her anger alone causing the mountain to shake.
"At least she has sense enough to keep out of the line of fire," Xris muttered.
He was pressed back against the ledge, absorbed in removing the rocket launcher from his arm, reattaching the weapons hand. Kamil held the lasgun, covering them both. She couldn't see the commandos, couldn't hear them.
"Are .. . are they gone?" she asked, daring to hope. "Did we frighten them off?"
Xris snorted. "Frighten? Hell, no. They're out there. Waiting to see what we do. They've probably guessed it was all phony, but they're not sure. They can't afford to take chances. Once we break cover, though, they'll know."
He twisted his head to look at the cave. "But if we can make it inside there, we can hold 'em off until DiLuna's forces get here."
He turned back to her. "I'm gonna run for it. You cover me. You can handle that, can't you, sister? You okay?"
"Yes," said Kamil, drawing a deep breath. "I'm okay. I can do it."
He smiled at her. Taking a twist from his pocket, he stuck it in his mouth. "We come out of this, I might have a job for you on my team." His tone grew bitter; he glanced back down the mountain. "Looks like there may be an opening. Ready?"
"I'm ready."
Xris gave her a final, reassuring nod, then pulled himself up over the rock ledge. Firing as he went—small torpedoes shooting out of his weapons hand—he dashed headlong for the cav-ern. Kamil kept up a steady stream of laser blasts. The commandos opened fire on Xris, but the cyborg crouched low and ran for it, ducking into the cavern just as a tree behind him burst into a ball of flame.
"Now, sister!" he shouted.
Smoke stung her eyes and filled her lungs. She heard more rockets going off. Unable to see, impelled by sheer panic, Kamil clambered over the ledge and hurtled toward the blessed safety of the cavern. Xris ran out, stood in front of the cave, blasting away.
A woman's hands caught Kamil, halted her mad forward rush. For a moment all she could do was cling blindly to Astarte, gasp for breath, and try to understand that she was safe, she'd made it.
"We're okay for the moment, Your Majesty," Xris said, dodging back inside. "You and Kamil go into the back of the cave. Both of you keep down. I'll stop 'em at the entrance." He was reloading his weapons hand, began shouting into the commlink. "Raoul! Damn it, Raoul, come in!"
"Xris!" came a voice over the commlink. "This is the ar— Brother Daniel. The queen? Is she safe?"
"For the time being. My guess is they want her alive, or else they'd have killed her by now. Alert the baroness—"
"I already did. But she refuses to bring her forces inside the temple grounds. It's against their law—"
"Law? The hell with that shit!" The cyborg swore.
The woods began to move. Shadows beneath the trees came alive, began closing in. Kamil grabbed hold of Xris's good arm, tugged and pointed. "Look . .."
"I see. Get in the back, damn it!" Xris shouted at the queen.
"No." said Astarte calmly. "I will not. And put away your weapons." Reaching out, she plucked Kamil's lasgun from her hand, tossed it fa
r back in the cave. "There will be no killing."
"Too late. Your Majesty," Xris said, keeping his eyes on the commandos, who were moving nearer with each moment. "There's already been killing. Some of your people are dead. Maybe some of mine." He was back on the commlink. "Brother Daniel, go to the baroness. Make her listen to reason. Tell her we're surrounded but we can hold out—"
"Archbishop, this is Astarte." The queen raised her voice to be heard. "Tell my mother I am safe and well. I intend—"
"Xris!" Kamil cried.
Three figures, two men and a woman, had emerged from the swirling smoke. The men held beam rifles, the woman carried a lasgun, all leveled in the direction of the cavern.
Xris shoved the queen behind him, raised his weapons hand.
"No, Xris! I forbid it!" Astarte cried, grabbing hold of his arm. Her voice was stern and commanding. "There will be no more killing. Those who bring violence to these holy grounds will bring violence upon themselves."
She stepped out in front of the cyborg, moving swiftly, before he could stop her. "You have defiled sacred ground," she said to the invaders, her voice stern. "What do you want?"
One of the men came forward, actually raised his hand to touch his helmed forehead. "Captain Richard Dhure, Your Majesty. We'd like you to take a little trip with us, ma'am."
"If I agree to come with you, will you leave in peace? Will you stop the killing?"
"We never wanted to harm anyone, Your Majesty. But we have a job to do and that is to deliver you safe and sound to the chosen destination." Dhure was polite, respectful, and he never lowered his rifle. "If you'll come with us, ma'am, we'll be out of here in five minutes."
"Very well," Astarte agreed.
Deliberately keeping her body between that of the commandos and the cyborg, the queen walked toward the front of the cavern. Such was her calm, imperious air that Kamil stared at her, dazed, let her go.
"Stop her!" Xris ordered, out of the side of his mouth. "I'll take care of them."
Jolted to action, Kamil jumped forward, reached the queen's side. The cyborg dodged to his left, to get a clear shot at the leader.
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