by Shannah Jay
QUEST Shannah Jay 175
'There are many of them, more than I thought when I sent Katia to scout,' she said, 'and they're coming nearer.'
Jonner hissed between his teeth.
'What about Katia?' asked Davred.
'I can't tell. Can you?'
'She's alive. More than that I can't sense.' Davred broke off and started searching in the edges of the undergrowth.
Eventually he found a length of dead branch. 'Let me borrow one of your knives, will you, Jonner? I want to trim this.'
He hefted it in his hand. 'Will it do for a stave, do you think?'
'What? Oh, yes. Yes, it's a nice handy size, that. Who taught you how to choose a fighting stave?'
Davred smiled grimly. 'I've been watching you and Benjan.'
'Cudgels are better when they're dried out properly, of course,' Jonner went on, 'but there's no time for that now, and yours is a good shape, nicely balanced. Here, this'll do the job of trimming it.' He tossed Davred one of his larger knives, which had a broad wickedly sharp blade.
In the second wagon, Cheral deliberately set the frying pan near her. They would harm that child again only over her dead body. The God would surely want her to defend them both if they were attacked. After all, the Elder Sister has assured her that violence used only under extreme provocation wouldn’t be wrong.
The deleff turned abruptly left, and although this side track was stil passable for the wagons, it was much narrower.
The vegetation pressed more closely in on them, brushing the sides of the wagons and hanging in their faces. The deleff all had their ruffs raised to protect themselves from the dangling branches, and were moving as quickly as such ponderous creatures could, almost as if they could sense danger.
Herra wished she could set wards on the track, but she didn’t dare do so until Katia rejoined them.
'I don't like this place,' said Jonner. 'Too easy for someone to creep up on us with all this green stuff crowding in on us. Isn't there a better track than this, Sh'ellen?'
The deleffal ignored him. The track widened out abruptly into a circular clearing with a pool on the far side. The water looked as black as obsidian and its surface was quite stil , with not a single ripple to be seen. There were no birds drinking from it, and no tracks of animals around its edges. It just lay pooled there, dark and menacing. There weren’t even insects buzzing around the clearing, just the ring of huge trees, a semi-circle of beaten earth and a silence that was almost tangible.
'It's a dead end!' exclaimed Jonner. 'They've led us to a dead end!'
Sh'ellen half turned towards him and snorted through his nostrils, tossing his head and making his anger plain.
'Wel , I'm sorry!' snapped Jonner. 'I don't want to upset you, deleffal, but it looks to me as if you've led us into a trap. How can we possibly escape from here?'
Sh'ellen and his mate began to drag the wagon forward across the clearing, even their huge muscles straining to pull the heavy vehicle over the soft ground. In spite of the slow steady pace, in spite of the strength of the deleff, one of the rear wheels sank deep into the loam and the wagon stopped moving.
'Everyone off the wagons!' ordered Herra. 'Come here and push!'
They got the wagon going again, and when it drew to a halt at the very edge of the water, the second wagon began to move forward, exactly in the tracks of the first.
Jonner hit himself on the forehead. 'Where are my wits?' He rushed to the edge of the clearing and tore off an armful of small branches and leaves. He tossed these onto the soft patch where the wheel of the first wagon had got stuck. The second wagon moved forward, the rear wheel started to sink, then it found purchase on the leaves and twigs and jerked forward, pulling up at the edge of the pool next to the first wagon.
Sh'ellen whistled urgently through his nostrils, tossed his head and looked back towards the forest.
'Are you waiting for Katia, friend Sh'ellen?' asked Herra slowly and clearly.
QUEST Shannah Jay 176
The massive head tossed up and down, the ruff furling and unfurling. There were tiny flickers of light coming from the bony stumps on Sh'ellen's back and all the deleff were twitching about. Time stretched with agonising slowness across the clearing, with everyone trying to listen for the sound of people approaching.
'They're coming closer,' said Herra at last. ‘I can sense them more clearly.’
Sh'ellen pawed the ground, shook his head to and fro, then began to walk slowly into the water.
Davred jumped off the wagon. 'I'm going no further without Katia! She's alive and unhurt. I'd sense it if anything had happened to her. I'm not leaving her to face them alone.'
'Can we not wait a little longer, Sh'ellen?' asked Herra.
The deleffal ignored her and continued to pull the wagon into the water. When it was in the centre of the pool he stopped, and the other team of deleff began to follow with the second wagon.
' Wait! ' commanded Herra, but this had no effect on the deleffal. Eyes narrowed in concentration, she snapped her fingers and tried again. The second pair of deleff continued to tug their wagon towards the centre of the pool, as if she were not there. The dark water rose higher up the wheels. 'What are you?' she whispered, shaken to find herself total y helpless to control them. Even the Initiates of the Inner Shrine had not been able to resist her completely, as these so-called animals could.
A running figure burst into the clearing, followed by shouts and crashing in the undergrowth. Katia's face and arms were scratched and bleeding; her clothes torn. She ran towards Davred, sobbing for breath. When she was only a few paces away from him, there was a whining noise and an arrow slammed into her thigh. She screamed and crumpled to the ground. Herra gestured and one of the men following Katia froze in the act of nocking a second arrow to his bow.
Davred ran to help his wife and Benjan fol owed him, sword drawn. Sh'ellen bugled imperatively. The other deleff echoed his cal . The clearing rang with sound as the deleff began to bugle loudly, one after the other, not letting the reverberations die away. The sounds sent shivers run down the spines of the listeners. Arcs of light began to flicker from the deleff's backs.
'Get into the wagons!' shouted Herra. 'Something is about to happen! Quickly!'
Another arrow, fired from the cover of the trees, slammed into Katia's shoulder, and she couldn’t hold back the cry of agony. Davred flung himself between her and the forest, scooped her into his arms, and began to carry her towards the pool. An arrow whistled past his ear and another thumped into the earth at his heels. Herra stopped a third bowman in his tracks.
Shouts came from the wildwoods as the water in the pool began to bubble. It seemed as if it were alive, alive and menacing. Wading through it took a massive effort. Even Benjan was staggering as he reached out to help Davred carry Katia. The two men could hardly move at times as the water surged up around them.
Davred heard another arrow zip past him and sucked in more breath to fuel his failing muscles. Never had he found it so difficult to move forward, or even to breathe. The chill water was seething like a boiling cauldron. Spouts began to erupt all over the pool. They were soaked to the skin, half blinded with spray. Their wet clothes dragged at their bodies and their feet caught in the gluey mud of the pool bottom.
Moving slowly, like one in a trance, Benjan reached the second wagons and used one hand to haul himself on to the tail piece. As he turned to take Katia's semi-conscious body from her husband, Davred stumbled again and slipped right under the water. He flailed around, losing his sense of direction, then Benjan was there pushing him up on to the wagon next to his wife.
As Benjan lurched over to the other wagon, which was less crowded, he hauled himself up on its tail only just in time. Spraying water began to hiss up around them. The wagons' canopies were of little protection from the deluge.
Each minute the waterspouts rose higher, spraying them from every direction and veiling the scene round them. Even breathing was difficult, for the air w
as a thick mist of droplets. The eerie blue light flickering from the deleff's wings showed a nightmarish picture in which all the colours seemed wrong.
The pursuers had stopped loosing arrows at them.
QUEST Shannah Jay 177
'We've got them trapped!' someone yelled.
'The Serpent has triumphed!'
'They're bogged down in the Vespertine Pool!' shouted a man in green. 'They'll never get out of there alive!'
Ignoring the motionless figures Herra had stilled, a plump officer ran panting to the edge of the water, beckoning his men. 'What are you waiting for? Go and capture them, you fools! There's a big reward to be earned.'
The man in green shook his head. 'Not me! There's thick mud on the bottom of that pool and geysers spout when you least expect them. Those who get bogged down in it vanish without a trace. Their bodies don't even float to the surface. It's a dangerous place.'
'Superstitious nonsense! I command you to go in after them.'
'Look, Captain, you brought me with you because I know the forest. The Serpent wouldn't thank you for sending me to my death for no reason. How would that serve him?'
'Are you daring to tell me my business?' But the captain was tugging at his lip and he didn't repeat his command.
'I serve in the Inner Shrine, Captain,' said the man in green. 'You've no reason to doubt my loyalty. Believe me, we've only to stand here and watch them sink. They won't reappear.'
'What are they waiting for, do you suppose?' Fiana whispered to Benjan. 'Why haven't those men followed us into the water? Can you see what they're doing?' She stared through the mist of spray at the blurry at the edge of the pool.
'Can’t see anything clearly.' Benjan hefted his sword in his hand, turning occasional y to look towards Herra in the front of the wagon, though in truth, most of the time he could hardly see her for the cascading water, let alone hear her commands. The livid light dimmed a little and a darkness seemed to creep over everything.
Jonner, a sodden cloak over his head, fretted away next to Herra. 'Why doesn't someone do something? What are they waiting for?' It wasn’t clear whether he was referring to the deleff, the Kindred or Those of the Serpent.
Before anyone could ask Jonner what he meant, the deleffal trumpeted shrilly again, the other deleff echoed his cries and even bigger geysers erupted all over the pool, this time rising higher than before, then crashing down on the wagons till they rocked wildly and the wooden joints screeched in protest.
Continuous walls of pulsating water now hid the two wagons completely from each other. The people inside could only cover their faces and cling to the struts lest they be thrown out.
The deleff now began to call in unison, their voices rising above the sound of the water, blue light flickering from them like lightning with each call. Even Herra could do nothing but huddle down and endure the deluge.
Davred, with Katia lying face downwards across him, braced his legs against a box, holding her with one hand and a strut with the other, as the water lashed at them like stinging flails.
The wagons began to rock even more violently from side to side. At first Herra thought it was because of the force of the water, but after a moment or two she realised they were moving forward again, creeping at a very slow pace through the pounding deluge.
After what seemed an interminable time to those cut off from every sensation save the noise of the water and the rocking of the wagons, the force of the water started to lessen and the blue light died away completely from round the deleff. The liquid walls around them grew lighter and the droplets of water on every projecting surface of the wagons began to sparkle with reflected light. Gradually the space around them widened and the water sprays became finer and finer, revealing . . .
'Where in the God's name are we?' Jonner gasped, always the mouthpiece of the group. 'Where have the woods gone?'
'Dear Brother, thank you!' breathed Herra.
'Katia, we're safe!' exclaimed Davred. 'Lie still, but rejoice! The deleff have saved us.'
'Where are we?'
QUEST Shannah Jay 178
'We're - we're somewhere else. I don't know where. However did they do it?'
'Well!' exclaimed Cheral. 'That's a relief, I must say! But of all the uncomfortable journeys! If we don't get this child into dry clothes soon, she'll take a chill. We all will. And Katia needs our attention urgently.'
The deleff had pulled the wagons out of a rocky tunnel, and were now splashing through a sandy pool. It was surrounded by jagged rocks and sparse vegetation. The evening sun was higher in the sky here and still held some warmth. The air around them was bone dry. The wagons jolted through the shallow water slowly, making for a gravel ramp at one side.
Benjan smiled and bent to wipe the moisture from Carryn's face with the tips of his huge fingers. 'Sleep well, little one,' he rumbled. 'You're safe now.'
Her eyes fluttered open. After a moment's panic, they focused on Benjan's face and she relaxed. 'I'm glad you're stil there,' she murmured, as her eyelids closed. 'I feel - safe - with you.'
'But where are we?' fretted Jonner. 'I've been to all the claims and I've never seen a place like this. And how can you have desert so near to the wildwoods? And how did we get here?'
Around them was an arid landscape with a dusty track leading away from the pool along a narrow valley. Sparse, dust-coloured vegetation did little to soften the heaps of whorled sandstone. There was no sign of any habitation.
Sh'el en made the sighing sound that showed pleasure and moved across the last stretch of pool, tossing his head.
No plant or animal life could be seen in the water, though the pool was fringed with grasses and a clump of narrow-leaved shrubs overhung one side of it.
Jonner opened his mouth again and Herra cut him short. 'If you ask me again where we are, and how we got here, I'll strike you dumb!' she threatened with mock anger. 'I don't know the answers, but we've escaped our enemies and the deleff seem pleased to be here, so I presume we're no longer in danger. I can discern no trace of any other people nearby, whether of the Serpent or not, so I'd guess that we still have some travelling to do before we reach a settlement.
Now you know as much as I do so no more questions!'
Jonner closed his mouth firmly. You didn't anger the Elder Sister, even when she was joking.
The wagons splashed out of the water and the deleff drew them over to the bushes, where they abandoned their walk-in harness and began, with not the slightest sign of concern for those they had rescued, to crunch great mouthfuls of the tough leaves.
Herra jumped nimbly down and made her way to the second wagon. It was stil warm enough for her to feel no discomfort from her wet clothes. 'Get a fire going, Jonner,' she tossed over her shoulder. 'It'll grow cooler soon. I must tend to Katia and Carryn. Come on, man, move.''
He scrambled down from the wagon and took some of the emergency store of wood, still muttering under his breath about it being impossible, just impossible.
Benjan and Davred lifted Katia down from the wagon and Cheral bustled forward to lay a cover upon the ground.
'It's a bit damp, Elder Sister,' she apologised, 'but it's the driest we've got. Everything got wet on the wagons. Did we come through a tunnel, do you think? We seem to be a long way from the wildwoods yet it only took us a short time to get here. How do you think those creatures did it?'
She broke off to scold Davred and Benjan, who were moving Katia. 'No, set her down with her head at this end.
Can't you see that I've doubled the cover at that side? Though it's impossible to make her really comfortable on these pebbles. Don't try to move yourself, Katia. I'll pull you into position. There. You'll soon be feeling better.'
* * *
The next day Soo decided to stay in her quarters, rather than join the others in the rec room. She started viewing the previous day's recordings and watched for a while, yawning, as nothing seemed to happen, then cried aloud as the drama near the pool unfolded. What she found made
her summon Mak from the lab.
'See - they went off the track into the woods. I'll skip the next bit. It's just woods, hours of tracking through woods.
QUEST Shannah Jay 179
I've put a marker at the next point of interest. Just a minute. Now, there! They've stopped in a clearing. That's a dark pool, isn't it? You'd think the water would reflect some of the sunlight because it's not dusk yet. I must run a spectral analysis on it later. Perhaps there are natural chemicals in it which inhibit its reflective capacity.'
She stopped speaking for a moment as the scene unfolded, then said in a hushed voice, 'See, now they're driving into the pool, but Davred's staying behind. What are they fleeing from, do you think? That settles it! I must somehow send down a tracer with a variable radius, and never mind what Robler will say if he finds out. How frustrating this is!
There! Katia suddenly comes running across to join them and - '
'Oh! That must hurt!' exclaimed Mak. 'Who would be shooting at her, do you think? It must be Those of the Serpent.'
The picture blurred for a moment as Davred rolled over to protect Katia. 'How he loves her!' said Soo softly.
Mak squeezed her hand.
She smiled at him, then turned back to the screen. 'Look! The water starts rising now and everything goes dark.
They must have got absolutely soaked. Where did al that spray come from? Now, here it comes, wait for it . . . '
Mak jerked bolt upright. 'Daxos! That's impossible! Play that bit again, Soo, where the water dies down.' They watched carefully, slowing down the recording and enlarging the image, but there was no clue as to how the group had moved so rapidly from one terrain to another so totally different.
A light began to blink on a small readout screen and Soo hurriedly checked the results. 'Mak!' Her voice came out only as a shocked whisper. 'Mak, they moved over five hundred kloms! Instantly. Eight people and four animals. Just -