The green and black remains of the beast floated around us like vomit from some distressed god. Deadeye struggled out of the water onto the rock. I helped him up.
Deadeye and the girl shivered as I burnt away the chains with my hot knife. Icy waves burst over us. The girl appeared to be in shock, glassy-eyed and helpless. “Deadeye, we have to swim back.”
“I cannot swim, Slayer.”
I pondered this for a moment, as Deadeye clung miserably to the rock close beside me, his skin slowly turning blue. He cannot swim, yet he jumps in to fight the gortron. I decided that I would teach Deadeye how to fire my E. I did not much care about regulations or consequences at that point.
I made two trips across the icy waters to the shore, first with Deadeye, then with the girl. By the time I carried her ashore, I was afraid that she might die of exposure.
I recovered my E and fired a flare into a shallow cave formed by a jumble of rubble. It burned brightly, a hot, brilliant, flaming yellow fire, spitting sparks. I picked her up again and we went inside and huddled around the flare on our knees, bathing in its warm glow. I held her close and rubbed her arms, trying to get her circulation going.
My comtop was at the bottom of the anchorage. I could not contact Beta, and there was no sign of anyone else in the vicinity. Firing another flare into the air could attract as many Cultists as Legion soldiers.
Deadeye and I held the girl close to the flare. Her eyes were open but glassy. Deadeye and I stared at her. I could hardly believe it. Freezing, in shock and soaking wet, her long hair plastered all over her shoulders, she was beautiful. I cursed the perverse logic of the Cult.
“Look away, Slayer,” Deadeye said, explaining it all.
Good advice, I thought. I did not, I could not, look away.
“Do not look at her, Slayer. She has returned from the dead, she has escaped from the Gods.” He sounded scared.
For the first time, I noticed she wore a dull black medallion on a cord around her neck. I could barely make out the emblem, a dark skull, under the crown of a king.
“Deadeye, tell me about her. Why do you look away? She is beautiful. Does she have a man? What is that symbol?”
A faint moan escaped Deadeye’s lips. “Do not think it, Slayer. You must turn your eyes away. I know this girl now. She is not of your world. She belongs to the past, and she carries the sign of the Book. This is Moontouch, of the Dark Clouds. The Cult took her to appease the Gods, and because they hate the Book. She is a princess of the House of the Past and her father is a king. She is a virgin and she can only take a loremaster for her man. She is a web-spinner and if you get too close she will take away your mind. And now she is dead. She will claim you, Slayer. I am afraid for you! You must be strong!”
I quipped, “Well, she’ll have to get in line behind Priestess and Valkyrie.”
Moontouch looked at me, as if from a long way off.
“Deadeye, does she speak Taka?”
“Yes, Slayer. She hears all, she knows all. We have both taken her from the Gods. We will die.” I had never seen Deadeye so depressed.
“What do you mean, she can only take a loremaster for her man? I thought the loremasters were all dead, that only women kept track of the past.” Atom had told us all about it. The cult of knowledge was now exclusively a female pursuit, in Sunrealm. Men knew only how to fight, and how to die.
“Yes, Slayer, it is true. She cannot marry. She sleeps only with knowledge and power. But she has died, Slayer. You took her-we took her-from the Gods.”
“You’re talking nonsense, Deadeye! We took her from the Soldiers of God, who wanted to kill her! Her father will thank us. The Dark Clouds will thank us!”
“No, Slayer. The Cult had offered her as a sacrifice to the gortron. It is a sacred ceremony. She is the Food of the Gods. You-we-took her back. She is dead, she is cursed. So are we. Cursed.”
“Is the gortron a god?”
“He is the mouth of the Sea, and the Sea is a god.”
“And I killed him. I killed a god! There is nothing to fear. Are you afraid of a girl? She is only a girl!”
“No, Slayer. She is death! You should put her back on the rock, and leave her there.”
“Deadeye! How can you say that, after what you did? You wanted to shoot the gortron with my E, didn’t you? Didn’t you?”
“Yes, Slayer. Yes. But I did not know how to shoot it.”
“Why? Why try to shoot the gortron? Why leap into the water, to fight it with your knife? You said it was a god. Would you kill a god?”
Deadeye sighed deeply, and looked into the cloudy sky. The flickering glow from the dying flare lit up his face. “It was for you, Slayer. I am your sword, and your shield. For you, I face the Gods. But not for her.”
Deadeye would not say any more. He just huddled miserably by the flare, still holding our captive by one arm. She looked at me closely, breathing shallowly. An icy flash shot through my veins as her dark misty eyes gazed into mine. My flesh crawled.
“She is afraid of you, Slayer,” Deadeye said at last. “But you should be afraid of her. She will kill you, Slayer.”
“I am immortal, Deadeye, remember?”
“Moontouch,” I said gently. “I am Slayer, and I bring death to all your foes.” It was the traditional Taka greeting, warrior to virgin. “I have come from out of the great dark to return you to your father, the King of the Dark Clouds. Can you hear me?”
Her lips trembled. “Hear.” Her eyes did not leave mine.
“Moontouch, you are cold. I give you something to fight the cold.” I punched a mag from my medkit, and showed it to her. “Put this on your tongue, and swallow it.”
Moontouch shuddered, and looked deep into my eyes. Then she closed her eyes, and opened her mouth. Her pink tongue trembled slightly. I placed the mag on her tongue and she swallowed it. Just like that. An alien monster from another world has just killed a god. Take this, says the monster. Swallow it. She closes her eyes, and opens her mouth, and swallows it. Something very wrong here, I thought.
“Deadeye, run up the hill and strip the soldiers. We need their clothing, all of it. For you and the girl.”
“Clothing!” He scrambled up into the rubble of that ancient city. Moontouch was looking into my eyes again, quiet.
“Speak to me, Moontouch. Are you cold?”
“I am dead.” She said it quietly, totally resigned to her fate.
“Moontouch, you are not dead. Your heart beats within you. You are a princess of the Dark Clouds. Your father awaits you!”
“I am the Food of the Gods. I am the slave of the dead. I cannot return, God-killer from the great dark. I cannot return. Your servant Deadeye is right. You should leave me here to die.”
“I will not leave you. Who is to know what happened here? The Soldiers of God are all dead or dying. The gortron is dead! I will say I took you from the soldiers. It is true! We don’t have to tell about the gortron. Who is to know?”
“The Gods will know. I am dead, Slayer of my foes. I am dead.”
“You are alive!” I almost shouted it. “You are alive, because of me, and I will not permit your death. I will bring you back to your father. I didn’t jump in that water, kill that creature and rescue you, just to let you die. I do not give you permission to die.”
“Your servant will know.”
“He is not my servant. He is my brother. He is my sword, and my shield. And he brings death to all your foes. We are one.”
“He is a Taka, and he fears the Gods, as I do. If he helps us in this, he is as dead as I am.” Moontouch shivered. “I was a princess of the House of the Past, guardian of the holy dead, a keeper of the truth. Now I am only a phantom, doubly cursed. My life will be a lie. I will walk the corridors of life like a ghost, a slave of Fate.”
“You are young, and should not die. We are all prisoners of the Gods. I have come from another world, to pull you from the very mouth of the gortron. It means you are not destined to die, but to live!” Predes
tination, and fate. The Sunrealmers believed in it just as much as I did.
Moontouch calmly gazed into the dying yellow glow of the flare. She turned her eyes to mine, and looked right into my soul. Her eyes were deep, dark pools, swirling galaxies full of stars, a sudden, secret gateway into another dimension.
“You are right,” she said. “I am yours, Slayer. I have lost my world. My life has ended.”
Deadeye returned with the skins, and we dressed Moontouch in the bloodstained clothing of her slain enemies.
Deadeye bowed to the Gods. “We are dead already,” he said. “Slayer and Moontouch and Standfast. We are only phantoms now, passing among the living, who do not know. It does not matter what we do now. We are all doomed. It is Fate. I stand by my brother, Slayer. Speak, and it will be done.”
Moontouch spoke. “Slayer, immortal Godkiller from out of the Great Dark, and Deadeye Standfast, Waterwalker, who defies the Gods, fearless enemies of my enemies, I do not mean to alter your fates. I am only a speck of dust in the wind. My Fate is already fixed. I am the Food of the Gods. I am doomed, and if you were wise you would tie me again to the rock and let me die. But I can see this is not to be. You have taken me back from the grasp of the Gods. My future is yours. I am nothing. I am your slave, Slayer. I am yours.” Her eyes filled with tears, and she bowed her head.
Deadeye moaned. He knew what it all meant, already.
A great sense of dread washed over me. Moontouch was stunningly beautiful, but something in her eyes made me hesitate. She would be an important prize to command for the Legion, I thought. I certainly couldn’t get personally involved-could I? I could almost see the wheels turning in her mind. She had plans for me. For a moment, I thought maybe she was right. Maybe I should throw her back to the sea! If I didn’t, Priestess certainly would. Or Valkyrie.
Chapter 10: The Eyes of the Dead
“You have killed it, Slayer!” Deadeye held an ancient trident. He was clad in loose camfax, his face smeared with dirt.
“It’s still alive, Deadeye.” We faced a huge exoseg deep inside the hive, just the two of us, running on adrenalin and terror. I had just zapped it with biobloc. “Snow Leopard, Thinker,” I said, as calmly as possible. “I’ve got one exo that’s trying to kill me. It’s kind of annoying.” We were assaulting a big exoseg hive deep underground, and we thought we had all the exits blocked. If so, many exosegs would surely die. And possibly some Legionnaires-starting with me.
The leviathan had stopped, stunned, filling the tunnel before us. It shuddered, briefly, then moved backwards and stopped, twitching. My flare crackled away, harshly illuminating the ugly creature.
“What are you using, Thinker?” Snow Leopard appeared, his E raised, ready to fire. His pink eyes glowed behind his faceplate.
“Nice of you to drop by,” I replied. “I’m using biobloc. It’s a driller. No sign of the soldiers yet.”
“Lasers?” Merlin moved up, prepped to fire.
“No, I think it’s dying,” Snow Leopard said. We watched. The beast shuddered again, twitched, and stilled. The flare hissed noisily. All of Beta had arrived by then, lining up against the tunnel walls.
“Command, this is Beta. We’ve got a dead driller blocking the tunnel. We are investigating.” Snow Leopard reported our situation to our CAT commander.
“Confirm.”
“Let me have the next one, Slayer,” Deadeye pleaded. He had wanted the creature himself. I decided he was a perfect Legion auxiliary. Completely insane, just like us.
“Command, Beta. We’re advancing. We need a probe here.”
“Tenners.”
“All right, let’s go. The sensors show there’s nothing there-let’s just squeeze past.”
Snow Leopard and Coolhand led, burning off legs to make room. The raw earth of the tunnel pressed against my back and the great dead body plates of the creature pressed flat against my chestplate. We clambered over burnt, smoking leg parts. My muscles began to shake, involuntarily. Slime, all over my A-suit.
“I hate this.”
“Deadman!”
“Deto!” I shot back. That was a fairly mild curse, considering my intense desire to resolve the problem with a suitable charge of high explosives.
“What’s that noise?” We emerged at the driller’s rear, into the tunnel. Snow Leopard and Coolhand crouched just ahead of me, green shadows in my darksight. We could almost stand, in the tunnel. My skin crawled. A metallic chirping filled the air.
“We’re close!”
“Ohh, listen to that!”
The rest of Beta emerged, and we lined the tunnel, backs to the wall, E’s pointed downtunnel. The chirping continued, like a million metallic birds swarming in some nightmare nest. We rechecked our equipment very, very carefully.
“The readings are off the scale!”
“Where’s that probe?”
“Can I have one of those flashes?”
“Psycho, I want you up front with that Manlink.”
“Can I be excused for the rest of the afternoon?”
“Don’t forget-xmax, lasers and flame. I don’t want any more biobloc. And be careful with the lasers!”
“Deadeye, keep your head down!”
“I will be beside you, Slayer.”
“Beta, Command, sitrep.” Our CAT leader wanted a progress report.
“Nothing to report.” Snow Leopard almost whispered it. Nothing to report! It was an old Legion tradition, still very much alive: nobody needed any help. It slowly began to dawn on me that Snow Leopard wanted all the exos for himself.
Snow Leopard fired a burst of flame down the tunnel. It illuminated filthy dirt walls. The walls teemed with worms and miniature insect life and slime. The floor was littered with debris.
“What is that stuff?”
“Body parts and dead flesh. Food-and scavengers.”
“Sorry I asked.”
“Advance.” The chittering became louder as we moved forward. My boots crunched and snapped, crushing nameless creatures of the dark underfoot. Snow Leopard and Coolhand sent short bursts of orange flame swooshing down the tunnel ahead from time to time. Smoke swirled all around us. I decided that I much preferred busting Cultists. But Central Command wanted a maximum effort to learn all we could about the exosegs, and Beta had been sucked in.
We came to more tunnels, intersecting our own. The chirping was driving me mad. Somewhere nearby, we would find a huge hive. We huddled where the tunnels crossed, and shot great rushes of flame down them, probing for life.
“Alert!”
“Life form!”
“Exoseg…”
I did not hear the rest. It charged down a side tunnel right at us. Astounding how fast it could move. It bounced from side to side off powerful black exoseg legs, a green hulk, flashing reflections in my faceplate in a dream-like, slow-motion sequence. I fired xmax at the same instant as Warhound. The double explosion brought down the tunnel on top of the creature. Snow Leopard, Coolhand, Merlin and Dragon blasted it with flame, and the tunnel filled with burning smoke and flying dirt. Sheets of flame reflected off my faceplate, and shadows darted wildly all around us. The tunnel shuddered with the blasts and I feared it would collapse on top of us.
“Whoo! What was it?”
“It was a breeder male, Thinker,” Sweety informed me.
“Breeders!” somebody exclaimed, “We must be close to the hive.”
“When did you first begin to suspect it?”
The tunnel echoed harshly with that metallic chirping. Breeders-they were supposedly harmless, they didn’t even have pincers, but without them, the exos could not reproduce so our orders were to terminate them all.
“Advance. On me.” Snow Leopard moved forward. The sensors showed the exos right up ahead! We would have to kill them all to stop that noise. We fired more flame downtunnel, a river of fire for our advance. The air around supercharged with heat.
“Put on your breather, Deadeye.” He slipped it on, his face already black with soot
.
“Alert!”
“Life form!”
“Exoseg…”
We ignored the rest of the report. Snow Leopard, Coolhand, Psycho and I all triggered our E’s, firing on xmax as the exosegs appeared. We followed up with bursts of raw flame, splattering liquid fire everywhere. A burning shock wave hit us, a backblast of heat.
“…a whole bunch of them…”
“Exoseg Gigantic Neuter.”
“Are you guys all right?”
“Take it easy! Those are neuters, they’re not dangerous.”
“Keep firing! There’s more of them!”
We used the flame-it seemed to do the job. We advanced slowly through a tunnel of fire, flames now burning right into the dirt, running past our boots, flickering all around us. We passed the massive, shredded corpses of exoseg neuters, spitting flames.
“Beta, Command, sitrep.”
“Nothing to report!” Lunatics, we were all lunatics. I could have been a librarian, stacking cubes in a conditioned room, slowly turning pale and soft, eating well and sleeping all night. And knowing I’d be there, the next day, safe and sound.
“I think this is the nutrition chamber, Snow Leopard!” Coolhand sounded tense. Xmax blasts echoed all around us, drowning out the noise of the exosegs. Lasers flickered on my darksight. Coolhand and Warhound and I were so close we could have been grafted at the hips. Snow Leopard and the others remained slightly behind us, blasting neuters, firing down into another tunnel. We had just cut our way through several exosegs with lasers, and as the leading element, we had to force our way through the mess. My whole body shook. I took another mag but it did not help.
“Look at this! Deadman help us!” Warhound sounded horrified. He shone his flash up ahead. The hive burned, spitting blue-hot flames from our attack, the fire spreading, a fierce white glow reflecting off Warhound’s faceplate, illuminating his harsh features. The chamber, an underworld labyrinth constructed by the breeders from their own secretions, revealed many animal species from the world above, stacked carelessly for eventual consumption by the exos. I spotted one of those spidery, scaled treecats, frozen in death. What a sad end for a creature of the sunlight.
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