"I don't understand what this has to do with Quantrill and Tekkeng. Do you think these cleansing rituals will drive them away?"
"It will make it more difficult for the undead to enter Castle Rock. And it diminishes Tekkeng's power should he be bold enough to attack me here." Martool laid her hand on Debbi's arm. The anouk's touch was warm and calming. "This war is merely an attempt to prevent me from continuing a procedure that I have started to save this planet. What I have started, they will not taint! Since humans arrived, my people's history has been one of defeat. We have tried fighting back and only soiled ourselves in the process. But no longer. My way will bring salvation to my planet."
"Maybe at the expense of your clan," Debbi responded quietly.
"No more will die!" Martool shouted. "Not if we stay within the walls!"
"Until your food supply runs out! Then it will be the young and the old that die first. Is that what you want instead?"
"That is only a possibility. To go out and fight, death is certain." Martool was exasperated with defending her position to someone who couldn't possibly understand. Drawing in a deep breath, Martool continued, "Quantrill could outlast us, but he does not have the patience to do so. He is like an animal; eventually something else will tempt his appetites and we will be left alone. He will find far easier targets on Banshee. Soon he will tire of us, and my work cleansing this valley may continue in peace."
"What about Tekkeng?"
Martool inhaled tiredly and paused, lost in thought. She did not respond.
Debbi stared at the shaman. "You're willing to risk—"
"Everything. I know. But it is my decision, the decision of the Council."
Debbi was dismayed with her inability to make Martool see reason. "I can't keep the Rangers here indefinitely, you know."
"Then you should go," Martool said eagerly. "Please. It is better that you do."
Debbi flinched. That hurt. "I just want to help repay you for all that you've done for me."
"I know. And for that I thank you. You should have no guilt about Tekkeng. He would have found me eventually. He is resourceful and timeless. But I beseech you to go. It is important that you do not die here."
"We don't intend to die."
"Not them. You. It is important that you do not die here, in this place."
"Why? What do you mean?"
Martool cast a quick glance at the blank walls. "There is nothing more that I can say. There is nothing more that I know for sure. But I feel it is of great significance that Castle Rock's corruption does not claim you."
Debbi's brow furrowed and she offered a confused smile. "I appreciate the concern, but I know the risks. I live with the chance of death every day as a Ranger."
Martool sighed and wearily rubbed the side of her head. "You do not fully understand. There is no way you could. I wish I could explain it to you, but I don't fully understand myself. There is much that needs to be done. Is there anything else, Debbi?"
"No," Debbi said quietly.
"Then I must continue with my rituals."
Part of the wall in back of Debbi fell like sand to the floor, revealing a door once more. She backed out and watched the door seal up again before her. She didn't know how long she stood there staring at it before she felt a hand on her shoulder. She looked around to find Sahrin waiting patiently.
"Ready?"
"Yeah," she whispered. "I suppose I am."
The walk back to the sun gate with Sahrin was a blur to Debbi. She didn't even bother trying to remember the way. It felt like she wasn't ever going to pass this way again.
She agonized over what to tell Ross when she returned. He was going to be furious when he found out the anouks were no longer fighting back at all. If Martool was going to restrict his ability to fight Quantrill here, he might just leave and attack the Legion on his own elsewhere. Which, of course, was suicidal. But Ross wasn't completely rational these days.
The Rangers would want to leave. As well they should. There was nothing to be done here. Martool had all but tied their hands. It would be foolish to remain and take the chance that the anouks could hold out until Quantrill got bored.
Debbi looked at the families going about their business as she walked beside Sahrin. Life was relatively normal for them despite the fact that there were flesh-hungry zombies outside their door. She suppressed a mirthless laugh. Martool was wrong. Quantrill would never lose interest in the prospect of killing anouks. There was nothing he enjoyed more.
Stew shouted out her name and she looked up to find him approaching. She was back in the sun gate courtyard. Debbi skirted the corpseless cemetery, noticing again with a familiar chill that many of the tannis tombstones were uprooted.
"What's the word?" Stew asked as they converged and continued on to the base of the wall.
The rest of the Rangers crowded around her. Ross stood to the outside, his dour expression steadfast. He had shucked his duster and shirt, and was sweating through a sleeveless undershirt. In fact, all the Rangers were dusty and sweating.
Debbi told them most of what passed between her and Martool, except the shaman's fixation on ghost rock and its role in spreading evil forces. Martool's connection to Kreech surprised some of the Rangers, all of whom knew about the almost mythic Red River campaign against the rebel witch Kreech. She got a mixed response. Chennault, Miller, and Ringo were irate and ready to call it quits. Stew, Hallow, Fitz, Tsukino, and Ngoma seemed content, willing to follow wherever Ross or Debbi led them.
Ross stood there, his jaw muscles twitching, which was never a good sign.
Debbi expected an outburst, an angry retort, a command to pack it in, something. Instead, Ross turned on his heel and stomped back to the wall. Debbi could see that the Rangers had been busy in her absence. They were demolishing parts of the lower steps and moving the heavy tannis stones to the end of the avenue that cut through the base of the wall to the gate.
"Come on, Rangers," Ross commanded. "Let's go back to work."
"What the hell, Ross?" Miller shouted. "Let's just leave!"
"I'm not leaving without a piece of Quantrill's hide. You can leave if you want, Miller. If you can convince Hallow there to go with you, then go, 'cause without him, Quantrill and his goons will have you crashing your Hoss into the side of the canyon."
They all knew Hallow would not leave without Debbi. Soon all eyes tracked to her.
Damn it! Debbi glared at Ross. This shouldn't be her call. But she could make only one choice. She shrugged helplessly.
With a collective sigh and some irritated grumblings, the Rangers picked up their tools and went back to digging. Debbi followed after them, picking up a shovel on the way.
Ross threw himself back into work like a man possessed. As he tore out chunks of tannis with a pickax, he knew he had made the right decision. Quantrill had to be taken out, and it had to be here and now. The bottom line was that nine Rangers weren't enough to do the job. An army of anouks, however, was another story. If Martool wasn't going to take the offensive, that was her business. She was a shaman, not a soldier. Ross hefted his pickax and paused to study a group of anouk warriors watching in the distance. There were enough warrior clans within the walls of Castle Rock who should be eager to get at the Legion and draw some blood. Those war chiefs might listen to reason. Ross had only to stoke the fires of their anger and frustration, feelings he well understood.
He slammed home the pickax into the hard stone sending chips flying everywhere. The impact resonated in his arms and shoulders, but the physical labor felt good.
Debbi stepped up to him, her green eyes hard. "I wouldn't strike too deep if I were you."
"Why the hell not?" Ross regarded her from under the sweat-stained brim of his hat. A ball of perspiration ran down along his cheekbone.
"I found out the sun gate is the lowest habitable level of the city. Right beneath us is the holding pen for a whole castle-load of monsters." She lifted her spade and shoveled the shards of stone. "Just thoug
ht you'd like to know."
Ross dropped his gaze and contemplated the ground for a second. Then he took up the pickax and drove it helve deep into the rock "The more the merrier."
Chapter 20
Debbi and Ross walked together as they inspected the interior wall that the Rangers were constructing from the excavated tannis blocks which now obstructed the avenue that ran through the base of the wall into the courtyard from the sun gate. It was nearly complete after long days of labor.
Debbi said, "Sahrin told me that Martool wasn't happy with this wall we're building."
Ross snorted disdainfully. "Why? She afraid to inconvenience the Legion when they pour in here and kill us all?"
"No." Debbi rolled her eyes at his sarcastic edge. "It's my understanding that the architecture here has a sacred purpose. It's not just functional. So I don't think she likes it when it's altered without her approval."
"God Almighty," Ross growled. "She's too damn much."
Debbi felt herself bristle at the comment. "Ross, you know a lot of anouks. Why are you so oblivious to their spiritual nature?"
The older Ranger eyed Debbi frostily. "I'm not oblivious to it, Dallas. It's just a pain in the ass when you're trying to fight a bunch of dead guys who ain't got the respect for anouk spirituality that a rock does. Plus, all the anouks I know were regular people, warriors and the like. Now, you take Fareel. That guy I get. But I don't have much truck with shamans." He took a deep, frustrated breath.
"After all your years in the field, you don't believe in anouk magic?"
"Oh hell, I believe in everything," Ross replied. "But magic doesn't make you smart. And Martool is being stupid."
Debbi then saw Hallow walking toward them across the courtyard. The syker waved. Ross exhaled in annoyance and kept moving while Debbi stopped to wait.
"Debbi, I need to ask you something." Hallow stared her in the eye as he came close.
"Sure, what's -"
The syker turned his head slightly to the left and a scorching flash of energy blasted from his forehead.
Debbi ducked, reaching for her sidearm. On the nearby steps of the wall, she saw a strange spray of blackish red ooze appear in the air surrounding a blank oval shape. As the ichor splattered against the steps, the blank oval filled in with the head of a Legionnaire who had the back of its rotting cranium blown out by Hallow's attack. Then the rest of the body appeared and it fell back dead against the tannis steps. The undead syker had been sitting invisible not five feet from where Debbi and Ross had been talking.
Ross ran back as Debbi spun to face Hallow. The syker's head was crackling with electricity. He turned slowly and deliberately, scanning the courtyard.
"What the hell's going on?" Ross shouted. He kept his Peacemaker trained on the dead Legionnaire. "Where'd that thing come from?"
"I don't know," Debbi answered. "Hallow? Hallow?"
The syker fired another brain blast out across the courtyard.
"Damn!" Hallow exclaimed, clearly shaken. "He can't do that. How can he move and chameleon at the same time?" The syker turned to Debbi. "Martool's in danger. Get to her and keep her inside. Captain Ross, bring some men and follow me."
The syker took off at a dead run across the courtyard.
Ross put two fingers to his lips and gave a piercing whistle. "Stew! Chennault! With me!"
Stew and Chennault stood near a Stallion. The commotion had drawn their attention, but it had happened so fast they had barely had time to react beyond staring open mouthed. They both grabbed Hellrazors and cut across to meet Ross as he legged it after Hallow through a tunnel off the courtyard.
A group of anouks raced toward the action. Debbi ran to meet them. She saw the ever-watchful Sahrin and Fareel among them.
"Sahrin!" Debbi shouted. "We have to get to Martool now! She's in danger!"
"What danger?" the anouk asked.
"I don't know. Please trust me."
Fareel grumbled a few words, but Sahrin ignored him and said to Debbi, "Come."
He led Debbi into the maze of corridors. Fareel followed closely. His hand clamped onto the atax at his belt and the weapon glowed with power.
Ross finally caught up to Hallow as the syker stood in the crossing of two inky corridors. Unlike the other passageways in Castle Rock where the Rangers had been, these walls were half-collapsed and the floors strewn with debris. Cobwebs dangled from the jagged roof. Lightly phosphorescing slime covered the surfaces.
"What is going on?" Ross demanded of the syker.
"Quiet!" Hallow snapped. He breathed through his nose and his eyes rolled up as he studied the three possible paths.
"What's he doing?" Stew asked from behind.
"Quiet!" Ross snapped. Then he shrugged.
Hallow turned and smiled. Ross had never seen the dour syker smile before and it was made all the more disturbing by the apparent coldness of the emotion. Hallow pointed straight ahead.
"This way," he said.
"Whoa, whoa." Ross shook his head. "How about some info?"
"There is an assassin loose."
"What? How'd it get inside the walls?"
"They're good. We have to hunt this one down before I lose track of it. So let's go."
"Lights." Ross pulled a small flashlight off his belt, as did the two other Rangers. "Everybody watch your step." The three Rangers followed along the dark, debris-filled corridor. Ross asked the syker, "So this place could be full of sykers that we can't see?"
"No. The skills are difficult to master. And most syker assassins returned to Earth on the Unity years ago before the Tunnel collapsed. Quantrill can't have too many this good."
"How do you know?"
"Because I was an assassin. And I was very good."
"Assassins," Chennault muttered to Stew, looking as if she tasted something foul. "I hate stinking murderers."
Stew glanced at the pulse rifle that the ex-HI Marine cradled like a baby and raised an eyebrow.
Chennault argued, "I don't have any qualms about killing my enemies in battle. But I do ask that everyone put on a uniform and declare their intentions."
"Shut up back there," Ross snarled over his shoulder. "We can debate morality after we frag this zombie. Hallow, this hallway is sloping down pretty steep."
"So? Are you afraid of falling?"
"Dallas tells me it ain't too smart to go below the sun gate level. Martool said there are dangerous things down here."
Hallow continued moving through the darkness. "If we don't follow the assassin now, I may not be able to locate him again. And he could kill Martool."
"How do you know it's after Martool?"
Hallow laughed. "Do you think you're the target?"
"No," Ross said. "I was thinking you."
Hallow's laugh caught in his throat.
Chennault spoke up. "Yeah, Hallow, maybe this killer is luring you down into the dark to kill you. And us along with you."
Without turning, Hallow hissed, "From here on everyone stay silent! I need to concentrate!"
Stew looked at Chennault with feigned severity and placed a reproachful finger to his pursed lips. The short Marine pursed her lips too, but showed Stew a different finger.
The farther they walked the worse the corridor broke apart until it was no longer a recognizable hallway. The air grew damp and stuffy. Ross had his scattergun in one hand and flashlight in the other. While the phosphorescent slime cast sufficient light to see by, he didn't trust it. Stew had goggles with starlite filters, but neither Ross nor Chennault had their goggles when they were pulled away to follow the syker.
Hallow stopped and looked around as if trying to pick up a scent.
Ross wanted to inch away from him. Watching the syker ply his trade made the Ranger uncomfortable. Phantom sensations of Quantrill burrowing into his brain made his skin burn. His head began to throb again and that made him angry. But he couldn't move away. Ross had to stick close because he had to protect Hallow. He constantly had to remind himself t
o separate the living syker from the dead ones. They needed Hallow.
The musty, cloying stench of the cavern made Ross long for the clean, wet smell of the blooming prairie or the warm, organic tickle in the nose that came from a horse barn or the sweet waft of cut flowers on a bedside table.
"Ross."
He felt a touch on his back. Stew nodded forward. Hallow had already moved off into the dimness ahead. Ross followed quickly, cursing his lax attention.
The tunnel was barely passable now. It was filled with rocks slick with glowing slime. Hallow and the Rangers had to scramble over piles of jagged stones and squeeze through narrow gaps in rock falls. Ross saw no evidence of a physical barrier holding back the monsters that supposedly inhabited these nether regions, but then he supposed the anouk's binding magic was probably strong enough.
After twenty minutes of clambering through the treacherous tunnel, it unexpectedly opened up into a natural rock cavern. Ross looked out on a vast, convoluted landscape of pillowy stalagmites that seemed to have been flash frozen from bubbling molten lava. The surrounding rock was multicolored ranging from vibrant red and yellow like the sun-blasted desert above to the darkly black, violet veins of tannis slipping like snakes through all the strata. His untrained eye picked out what he thought were traces of ghost rock. Streaks of glowing green slime covered the walls of the cavern.
The sound of running water filled the air. The Rangers felt a sheen of liquid spray covering their exposed faces and hands.
Hallow knelt just inside the tunnel and covered his eyes with his hands. "He's in here. And there's no other way out."
"How do you know?" Ross asked.
"Because he knows."
"Well, it's a big cave with lots of places to hide. If we move in, it might slip around us."
"Exactly," Hallow answered in a soft voice. "That's why I'm going to try to overload him so we can see him, if I can get a fix on him. It's very difficult. If he senses what I'm doing, he might try to blast his way out. Be ready."
Ross said, "The thing's invisible. Appreciate a heads up if it starts coming our way."
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