Sabre noted the black-robed man who followed the behemoth, and veered off, as the wolf had done, to circle around the glade. The cyber's attention remained on the giant, who swung his sword in a whistling arc, his brown eyes gleeful. He approached Sabre, who waited until the warrior raised his weapon, then leapt forward and drove his foot into his opponent's belly.
The blow would have lifted a normal man off his feet, and the giant staggered back with a grunt of surprise. Sabre launched himself into a high spinning leap and kicked his foe on the chin, staggering him again. The man's sword sagged, and he shook his head, looking amazed. Sabre followed through with a double-fisted punch to the giant's solar-plexus, holding back only a little this time. The faint crunch of a breaking rib mixed with his foe's grunt. The giant growled and retreated, his sword held before him. Sabre spun again and leapt high, his right leg lashing out for the man's sword arm.
The black-robed man who stood at the edge of the glade raised his hands, and swirling light filled the cyber's vision. His foot struck his foe's arm a glancing blow, not breaking it as he had intended, and he fell, rolling away. The giant roared, and his sword clunked into the soil where Sabre had been a moment before. Sabre scrambled to his feet and backed away, shaking his head in a futile, instinctive bid to get rid of the strange lights that blinded him. Something hit him on the temple hard enough to make more lights flash in his eyes, and he sprawled on the leaves.
Sabre regained his feet in a lithe motion, only to be sent crashing to the ground again, his ribs aching from a powerful blow. A boot thudded into his back as he rolled away, and another kick punched the air from his lungs. He glanced at the scanner information, but, while it was unaffected by the lights, it was useless. It only showed a human life form right on top of his position, and he already knew that. A metallic clang on his skull, together with a terrific impact that made him taste blood, told him that the giant had hit him on the head with the sword. Waves of blackness nibbled at his mind, and he screwed his eyes shut, struggling to stay conscious.
Sabre grunted and flinched as the control unit's active infrared night vision actuated, far too bright in the daylight. It came from the tiny camera in the brow band, a set of blue outlines from the ground scanners mixed with it. He wondered what had happened to the standard video feed, which would have been far more useful. The supercomputer dialled down the spectrum to pick up heat sources, and the glowing gargoyle that was his foe appeared close to his right. Sabre leapt away, then spun to lash out at it. A meaty thud rewarded his action, but a huge hand gripped his arm, almost dislocating his shoulder when it lifted him and flung him down. The air left his lungs in a coughing grunt, and pain flashed through him. He writhed, gritted his teeth and rolled away as waves of blackness threatened to engulf him, fighting to breathe.
Tassin clamped a hand over her mouth in horror when the monstrous man smashed Sabre to the ground. He seemed to be blind, and she gave a choked cry as the giant stamped on Sabre's head. The cyber punched his opponent's shin, making the giant hop away with a curse. Sabre pushed himself up on his arms, shaking his head. What was the matter with him?
Tassin glanced around. The black-robed man stood amongst the trees, his arms raised, his lips moving in a silent chant. A magician. She recognised him as Torrian's sallow mage, and tried to remember his name. Gearn. She snatched up a fallen branch and strode towards the magician. The wolf stepped into her path, teeth bared, and she clouted him on the head as hard as she could. The animal collapsed with a yelp, and she paused, wondering if she should kill him. A grunt of pain from the glade drove her towards the mage once more. Gearn was so immersed in his spell-casting that she was able to walk up to him and smash the branch down on his head with all her strength.
Sabre's sight returned, and for a moment he experienced the dubious joy of seeing the giant in three different types of vision. A huge man with a twisted face, overlaid with a glowing infrared heat image and blotched with the colours of the rainbow bore down on him, sword raised. The extra images vanished as the supercomputer deactivated them, and Sabre leapt aside, stabs of pain lancing from his ribs and head.
Sabre kicked the giant in the calf, making him reel. The man swung around, and his sword flashed down, forcing Sabre to dive aside and roll to his feet once more. As he leapt up, he drove his fist into his opponent's solar plexus. The giant grunted and sagged, and Sabre used the momentary advantage to kick the sword from the man's grip, sending it spinning into the trees.
The warrior roared and lunged, his arms outstretched, Sabre leapt aside, caught his adversary's wrist and swung him into a tree trunk with a crunch. The man rebounded, blood oozing from his nose. Tassin's scream made Sabre spin around. She struggled with the black-robed man, who gripped her wrists, trying to avoid the kicks she aimed at his shins.
Crossing the glade at a run, Sabre grabbed the scrawny man's robe and yanked him away from the Queen. She landed a last clout as the man released her and turned, his eyes widening. He shrieked and threw up his hands to cushion the blow that would have crushed his skull. Sabre dropped him and seized Tassin’s wrist, almost yanking her off her feet. She stumbled after him, and he picked her up and quickened his pace.
Within a few minutes, he stopped and put her down, gazing back. The cyber band flashed erratically, and blood ran from a deep gash in his scalp, mingling with the sweat that sheened him. He breathed hard through an open mouth, his features drawn with fatigue and pain. Taking her arm again, he headed away, his eyes scanning the terrain. His grip on her arm was painful, but she did not dare to complain; he looked too keyed up.
About half an hour later, he halted and turned to look back again. When he relaxed and released her arm, she sank down on a log, rubbing it. After a moment he squatted and bowed his head.
"They're not following, but they will."
"Perhaps you killed him."
"No, he's alive, just not feeling too good."
"He's a magician." She scraped back her hair, which had escaped its plait. "His name is Gearn, and he works for Torrian."
He regarded her with doubtful eyes. "You mean that was magic he used on me?"
"Yes. I don't know what he did, but I saw him casting the spell and hit him on the head with a branch."
"No wonder they got through the Death Zone. That's a dangerous combination. The big man I could beat, no problem, but when the other guy blinds me, they have the advantage. I underestimated them. When they come after us again, I might have to kill them."
Tassin slid off the log and knelt beside him. "You're hurt."
"Yeah." He cast her a wry smile. "I guess I need to be stitched up again."
One side of his head was reddened, and blood oozed from his nose and spiked his hair. She lifted a hand, but he rose to his feet, evading her.
"Not now. We have to find somewhere to spend the night. I think those two will lick their wounds for a while, but then they'll come after us, and the wolf will track us. Come on."
Sabre headed downhill into a more thickly wooded area, where dense pines grew on a rocky slope that a layer of pine needles made slippery, replacing the spreading trees. They entered a steep-sided valley that levelled out into a broad flat area. A stream rippled over mossy rocks in the middle of it. Sabre waded into it and headed upstream, but Tassin hesitated on the bank, confused. He beckoned to her.
"Come on. The wolf won't be able to follow our trail, and they'll have to look for it again."
Tassin nodded and took a few steps downstream before wading in, gathering up her skirts and tucking them into her belt as the icy water swirled around her knees, making her shiver. Her feet slipped on the mossy rocks, and she tottered after him, waving her arms. Sabre waited for her to catch up, then took her arm to steady her.
After wading upstream for two hours, Sabre spotted a cave amongst the rocks, and they quit the frigid water to enter it. Tassin took off her shoes and rubbed her cold feet; Sabre settled near the entrance and stared into the gathering dusk. She gritted her t
eeth to still their chattering.
"Can you light a fire, Sabre?"
His head turned, and he frowned. "No. They might see the smoke."
"But you said that they're not following us, and I'm freezing."
He appeared to give himself a mental shake, and some of the tension left his expression. "Okay, just a small one to warm you up, then we put it out."
Tassin nodded, and he gathered some wood and lighted a fire on which she toasted her feet. Sabre sat on the far side of it, looking tired and dejected, obviously unhappy with this latest development. He had evidently visited the stream to wash off the blood, and the gash in his scalp oozed afresh. A thin red line ran down the side of his neck.
"You're bleeding," she informed him.
"I know. It needs stitching."
"I could try," she offered, disliking the idea.
"I'd appreciate that."
Digging in his pouch, he took out a curved needle and threaded it. Tassin edged closer, and he smiled at her nervousness as he held out the needle.
"I'm not going to bite."
She took it. "I've never seen anyone fight like you. It was amazing."
He shrugged. "Cyber training. He was more of a challenge than King Torrian, although he did some damage too. The cyber controlled me then, and its way of fighting is more mechanical."
Sabre bowed his head so she could reach the gash, and her hands shook as they hovered over his short damp hair. It had been different when she had cared for him in the Andaron village; he had been asleep most of the time, or groggy. After just witnessing his lethal speed and strength, she was inexplicably nervous.
Sabre looked up. "What's wrong?"
"It will hurt."
He smiled. "Don't worry, I can handle it."
"Couldn't I just bandage it?"
"No. It must be stitched."
Tassin swallowed hard, and he bent his head once more. She shivered when she pushed the needle into his scalp, and his jaw muscles bulged as he clenched his teeth. She tied each stitch, as she had seen the Andaron midwife do, the sight of his blood on her fingers making her queasy. By the time she had tied the last stitch, she was light-headed. The sight of blood had never worried her before, but for some reason his did, and she wondered why.
Sabre took the needle from her, stowing it away. As he zipped up the pouch, she slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him. His sudden tension betrayed his surprise.
"Hey, it's okay," he said, clearly perplexed. "What's wrong?"
"I'm afraid he'll hurt you... or kill you."
Sabre stroked her hair with awkward reluctance. "No he won't. That's not so easy to do, remember?"
Tassin raised her head to regard him, too close for comfort. Sabre leant back against the cave wall and looked away. Had she been anyone else, the cyber would have flashed a proximity violation warning in his mind, but she had command privilege, so she was allowed to touch him. The situation was unfamiliar, and, on one level, unwelcome. On another, more human level, it held a forbidden fascination.
Sabre had no idea how he should react. Part of him longed to hold her, while another kept him frozen, as if his body refused to obey his mind. His trained responses, he realised, blocked his natural ones, but the fact that he had a strange wish to return her affection did not make it acceptable. When he had kept her warm in the Death Zone blizzard, it had made him uncomfortable, but it had been necessary. He did not understand the reason for her action, which made it all the more disconcerting. Her rather inept embrace brought a rush of unwelcome emotion, and he strived to quell it. She gripped his chin to turn his battered face, her eyes flitting over it.
"I couldn't bear to lose you now."
Warmth invaded his heart, and his throat tightened. He turned his head away again, afraid she would see the tears that stung his eyes. His reaction to her affection surprised him. He could not speak, and was glad the darkness hid his expression. He coughed, trying to hide his embarrassment.
"I'm not going anywhere, okay?"
Tassin nodded and released him, and he wondered who she was confusing more, herself, or him. Since he had never been treated as a person before, he found it bewildering, and did not know if his reaction was the right one. Should he have done or said something different? Was she disappointed? More than anything, he was afraid of doing the wrong thing through sheer ignorance. He knew any affection she might develop for him was doomed, anyway. He was a cyber.
A cyber-bio combat unit, to be exact. Grade A. He had a serial number to prove it. He even had a bar-code burnt into the back of his skull, so if he was incinerated and his control unit's memory wiped, he could still be identified. A killing machine. One that was currently broken, but would be fixed in the not too distant future, he was certain. He was a weapon considered so dangerous that Myon Two kept track of all its cyber units, no matter where they were.
Even if the spacer who had brought him to this planet did not return, Myon Two would track Sabre down in the end. His owner must have falsified the annual location reports to smuggle him onto a restricted world like Omega Five, but the subterfuge would not last long. There was no hope of escaping his fate; the locator hidden somewhere in his body would lead them to him. He was just a broken killing machine living on borrowed time. The mocking voice that always roused at times like this taunted him from the dark recess of his mind: Cyborg!
Tassin studied Sabre’s pensive expression, wondering what he was thinking. More than anything, she longed for him to hold her and keep her warm, to impart his special brand of security and comfort that she had experienced so rarely. He was a fascinating man, and her boldness had surprised her. She seemed to have no control over her actions when she was close to him. Her desire to be in his proximity overwhelmed her good sense, and she was certain he must think her a complete idiot. Worst of all, her embrace had clearly unsettled him, and his rejection was tacit. She had admitted her feelings for him, and he had made light of it. Her ego smarted and her heart ached.
Sabre rose and stamped out the fire. In the blackness that followed its extinction, she curled up on the floor. Her damp skirts made her shiver as she listened to him settle down for the night. As silence fell, she closed her eyes and banished her quandary so she could sleep.
Gearn regarded Murdor over the fire, dismembering a succulent roast chicken he had conjured. Murdor chewed on a smoked haunch, looking preoccupied. The gladiator's swollen jaw and nose were testament to the warrior mage's strength and skill. Murdor winced as he chewed and shifted when his broken rib jabbed him. Gearn was almost glad that the warrior mage had done so much damage; it made up for all the scoffing Murdor had done. Gearn's head pounded, and even the wolf looked miserable.
"So he was not as easy to beat as you thought, hey, Murdor?"
He glared. "He was lucky, that's all. Tomorrow I'll tear him apart."
"If I had not cast a spell to blind him, you would be dead now."
He spat a gob of gristle into the fire. "I don't need yer help. Tomorrow he'll die."
Gearn shrugged, sucking the tender meat off a drumstick. At least Murdor had the courage to face him again, which not many men would, after seeing the speed and skill with which the warrior mage fought. He had not used the blue fire, though, and Gearn wondered if he had lost that magic. The Queen was a problem, however. Her attack had been unexpected. Tomorrow, he would make sure that she was unable to interfere.
Chapter Fifteen
Tassin woke alone, and sat up, panic nibbling at her. Shivering, she went to the cave mouth and peered out at the peaceful wooded vale. Only the stream moved, gurgling over the rocks. Her stomach rumbled, and she went down to it for a drink, then looked up as Sabre descended the slope, carrying the packs. He seemed unaware of her, but when he reached the valley floor he headed straight towards her. He only looked up when he was a metre away, but he was obviously aware of her location. He dumped the packs and rummaged in them, handing her some dried meat.
While they ate, he said, "They
're camped in the glade where we fought, but they'll be coming after us soon."
"You went back there?"
"How do you think I got the packs?"
"Oh. So what are we going to do?"
He shrugged. "We can't elude them while they have the wolf to track us. I don't want to kill them, so perhaps I'll just break the big guy's leg, or the wolf's."
"Could you really kill that giant? He's huge."
"Easily." He studied the shrivelled meat. "But if that damned magician blinds me, it will make it a bit more difficult. The cyber can provide active infrared vision and heat images to compensate, but it's not the same as my sight. I lose a lot of my depth perception, and that hampers me. The cyber uses a bunch of other sensors, proximity scanners and stuff like that, but my brain can't process that information.
"It's never used my eyes, but it feeds the infrared into my optic nerves so my brain will record it, since that's where its data is stored. If I attack the magician, the warrior will try to protect him, and who knows what other tricks the mage might have up his sleeve? If you can keep him from casting his spells, maybe hit him over the head again, I could defeat the big man a lot quicker."
"What about the wolf?"
"The wolf really complicates things. If not for it, I could ambush the giant and break his leg, but the wolf will know where I am." He paused, considering. "I could ambush the wolf I guess, since it always leads. If I get rid of it, we can give them the slip."
After the meagre meal, Sabre shouldered the packs and set off upstream along the bank. The gorge narrowed, and the pine trees on its slopes became twisted and stunted. The sun was overhead when Sabre slowed and looked back down the gully.
The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone Page 18