Chapter Thirteen

 

For three days, they struggled through the chaos, overcoming the mishaps that befell them, none of which were too serious, and involved only the hazards of the changing land. Tassin became immured to the madness and accepted the hardships without complaint, adapting to its unexpected dangers. The chaos' relentless bombardment of horrors was punishing, and allowed little rest. Tassin and Dena were soon bruised and exhausted, dirty and blank-eyed. She gave Sabre water, but there was only dried meat to eat, and he would not chew it.

With no nights to promote sleep and no sun to guide them, they rested when they were tired and tried to walk a straight line. Twice they encountered Real-reality pools, which were easy to spot now in the ever changing Flux-reality. They found no other living creatures, but came across many corpses, twisted beyond recognition or savaged. Tassin wondered what had become of Purr, saddened by the possibility that he might be dead. The donkeys plodded on with their usual indifference, learning to ignore the things that appeared and vanished, the sudden changes of weather and temperature, and the abrupt transition from light to dark when a night time world swept through.

On the fourth day, as Tassin raised Sabre's head to give him water, he opened his eyes. She jumped in surprise, spilling water on his chest, and grinned with elated relief.

"How are you feeling?"

He stared at her for such a long time she feared the trauma had affected his mind. Her worries evaporated when he said in a husky voice, "I'm alive?"

"Yes."

He looked down at himself, raising a hand to study it as if amazed to find it still attached and obedient. "I thought I was dead."

"The cyber saved you."

"The cyber?"

"Yes." She hesitated as a brief splatter of heavy rain swept through, dampening them for an instant. "I think it stopped the sword from killing you... the Core is in it now."

Sabre took the water skin and drank, scanning the chaos. "Where are we?"

"Still in the Death Zone. We've been walking for four days."

Dena glanced around at the sound of Sabre's voice, stopped the donkeys and climbed into the cart to hug him.

He smiled at Tassin over her shoulder. "You could be going in circles."

"I know."

Sabre tried to sit up when Dena released him, but his limbs trembled and he flopped back with a groan. Tassin helped him, and he examined his belly with a confused frown. "No wounds, and no scars."

"What happened to you? I couldn't find you, and then you just appeared out of thin air."

He stared at her, then nodded. "Like the guardians."

"Yes."

"I think it tried to do to me what it did to them, but it couldn't for some reason. It sent me somewhere... nowhere is more like it. Perhaps a place between worlds, since it has the power to open portals in time and space and draw other worlds into its sphere of influence."

He rubbed his brow, lines of exhaustion bracketing his mouth. "It rummaged through my memories like an old lady at a sale bin. I think it was looking for something to torture me with, and it found plenty. But the cyber kept jolting me. It stopped me from sliding into..." He shivered. "Then it hurled me into a void, I think. I couldn't breathe, and it was terribly cold."

Tassin nodded. "When you fell out of the air you were covered with frost. The cyber band was blue."

He fingered the crystals. "It must have overpowered the Core. That's amazing. They're both... artificial intelligences, I suppose, one programmed, one self-taught. But they're utterly different. I wouldn't have thought the cyber could match up to the Core, never mind defeat it."

"I think the Core's lost most of its power now that it's trapped in the sword."

"It must have."

"But how did you avoid the flying crystal from the explosion? Even Dena and the donkeys were hit."

"I didn't." He smiled at her confused look. "It hit me too, but when the Core flung me into... wherever I was, it tried to mutate me. I guess the cyber wouldn't let it, so it... reversed time. Perhaps it thought it could turn back the clock so far I'd become a helpless child again, but the cyber must have overpowered it before it could. By rejuvenating me, it healed my wounds."

She gaped at him. "It turned time backwards?"

"Yes. It can manipulate time and space, perhaps because they're related. The Core's incredibly powerful, or at least, it was. A good thing we're far away from it now."

She averted her eyes. "Not exactly."

"Don't tell me you brought the bloody thing along?"

She nodded and bent to pick up the gleaming weapon.

Sabre frowned at it. "It should be destroyed."

The sword chimed, a flat note.

Tassin said, "It helped us. I had to leave you to find Dena, and I was afraid I wouldn't find you again, so the sword guided me to you. We made a bargain. It doesn't wish to be left here to rust."

"It's evil."

She shivered as the temperature dropped and a flurry of snow chilled her. "It can't do much now."

"Maybe not." He showed no inclination to take it from her, so she tossed it back into the bottom of the cart. It whined, then fell silent. He gazed at her. "I didn't expect to survive that battle."

"I know, but I'm glad you did."

"I'm not. I don't have much to look forward to." He glanced around as a burst of orange light attracted his attention, a setting sun in some unknown world. A wave of heat swept over them, leaving the air pleasantly warm for a moment before it changed again.

"I won't let Manutim take you back."

"You can't stop him."

 

 

Tassin frowned and jumped down to lead the donkeys forward. Sabre lay back and closed his eyes. He ached with weariness and his limbs seemed to be made of lead.

"Did you have to be so cruel?"

He opened his eyes to find Dena regarding him sadly. "She must learn to hate me."

"Because this magician will take you away."

"Yeah."

Dena cocked her head, raising a hand to brush aside a tree branch that materialised before her. It vanished before she touched it. "Surely happiness, no matter how brief, would be better than this?"

"It would only lead to more pain in the end." He closed his eyes.

Sabre could sense Dena studying him, and wondered what she was thinking. The chaos caused an odd flickering he found tiring on his eyes, and closing them helped him to relax. He also had a splitting headache. A wave of sea water broke over the cart, distracting him with its chill slap, then it was gone. He realised that if he avoided watching the chaos, living in it was a bit easier.

When Sabre woke again, Tassin slept beside him and Dena led the donkeys. Levering himself up, he gazed around at the swirling chaos, then glanced inwards at the scanners and discovered that they were working again. He studied the two life signs, one distant, the other quite close to the right of the cart. It was pale green, and small. Curious, he gazed in its direction, but the ever changing scenery blocked his view. Idly he perused the cyber's information, seeking a clue as to what the creature might be. The answer was ambiguous; it was an unknown animal, but similar to a terrestrial racoon.

"Dena, stop," he called.

The girl obeyed, looking surprised. Tassin woke and protested when he struggled out of the cart. His knees buckled, and he cursed, climbing to his feet again. Tassin tried to help him, but he shook her off and reeled in the direction of the life form.

"What is it, Sabre?"

"I'm not sure. I'm going to have a look."

Flux-reality tugged at him. Trees and rocks came and went too fast to avoid, and for an instant he shared space with them. A few metres from the cart, he came to a Real-reality boulder, an island of constancy and sanity amid the bedlam. The scanners indicated that the life form was next to the rock, and he knelt to peer through the swirling Flux-realities that hid it. Something furry lay there, revealed briefly when the flux allowed. He touched grey fur, and his reality warded off the flux long enough for him to make out a plump body and black-banded tail.

"Purr!" Tassin cried, falling to her knees beside him.

Mud and blood streaked the mosscat's wet, matted fur, and gaping rents exposed bleeding pink flesh. Sabre carried him back to the cart and placed him on the hay, then rummaged in his pack for a needle and thread, intending to sew the wounds up and hope for the best.

Tassin exclaimed, "The sword!"

Sabre frowned at her. "What about it?"

"It can heal him, like it did you."

"It could kill him too. Why should it help?" He flinched at a spray of hail, glancing around. Tassin, more used to it than he, ignored the brief pelting.

"The same reason it helped me before. If it doesn't, we throw it away. It's afraid of that. It will obey."

Sabre shook his head. "I don't trust it."

"It healed you. It can turn back time."

"It was trying to kill me when it did that. What it did for you was a small favour."

"But it needs us now. We can force it to help us."

He gazed at Purr, who stood little chance of survival without a miracle, and nodded. "All right, bring it."

Tassin held it out to him, but he shook his head. She hesitated, clearly puzzled by his reaction, then laid it across the limp mosscat.

"Heal him like you did Sabre," she ordered. "Don't mutate him."

The sword gave a flat chime, and then its glow brightened, surrounding it with a rainbow nimbus. With a flash of golden light, it turned to crystal, and its power enveloped the mosscat. The hairs on Tassin's arms stood up as the eerie power flowed around Purr, caressing his fur with invisible fingers. The wounds closed as time flowed in reverse within the sphere of power the sword created. Unseen claws undid the damage they had inflicted, and within a few moments the injuries vanished. As soon as it reverted to metal, she pushed the sword aside, and it gave a sullen chime.

Tassin wrapped Purr in a blanket and trickled water into his jaws. The mosscat coughed, swallowed and opened yellow eyes. He studied them, then spoke in his ventriloquist's voice.

"So, you succeeded, I take it."

She smiled. "Yes, Sabre did. The Core is gone, and the Death Zone will die now."

Purr nodded, his ears laid back. "Then why did you save me? My home's gone. I have nowhere to live anymore."

"You'll have a home with us."

"The people outside will fear me. I'm from the Death Zone," he growled, his little white fangs exposed in a slight snarl. Evidently Purr was extremely upset.

"No one will harm you, and there's no need for them to know where you come from. We can tell them you're from the jungles on the other side of the desert."

Purr shrugged, raising a pudgy hand to wipe his whiskers. "Well, I suppose it's done now."

"What happened to you?" Sabre asked.

"What do you think? When you destroyed the Core, everything went mad. The beasts started killing each other, and fleeing the chaos, which killed many too. I was attacked again and again. There was nowhere to hide, no way to camouflage in this madness. Eventually I found the rock, and I thought I would die there."

"I'm glad you didn't." Tassin tried to stroke him, but Purr ducked away from her hand. None of them had touched him before, and clearly he did not like it. When she withdrew her hand, he relaxed and started combing the tangles out of his belly fur.

Sabre stretched out in the hay, and Dena led the donkeys forward once more. Purr looked around and commented, "Presumably you wish to leave the Flux Zone, in which case, you should turn to the right." He went back to grooming his bedraggled fur.

 

 

Tassin studied Sabre, who lounged in the hay, one leg hooked over the side of the cart. He was pale and drawn, his eyes distant. Twice his gaze brushed hers, but he ignored her scrutiny and concentrated on the surroundings. It seemed he and Purr were unhappy about being saved. Purr because his home was destroyed, and Sabre because he believed the cyber would enslave him again. His pessimism annoyed her. She was sure Manutim would call on her before he did anything else, and she would persuade him to leave Sabre with her. Manutim had been her friend for a long time. Sabre did not realise how much influence she had with the mage.

Sabre remained silent and withdrawn, eating his food with a resigned air when they made camp. Now that he was awake, Tassin and Dena were able to get some much needed sleep. Dena curled up under the cart and Tassin stretched out in the hay.

A gentle shaking woke her, and she opened her eyes.

Sabre stood beside the cart. "Something's coming. Get up."

Brushing tangled hair from her face, she sat up, wincing at her first sight of the smearing worlds. Sabre checked her laser's charge.

"Only a half charge left," he muttered. "My laser's gone, and the sonlar too."

"What about the big power packs?"

He shook his head. "They won't fit the hand weapons. We're out of ammo." The ground shivered, making him stagger. "Get the others onto the cart. Let's try to move out of its way. Maybe it's just heading in this direction."

Tassin bundled Dena onto the cart with Sabre and Purr and tugged the reluctant donkeys forward.

After half an hour, Sabre said, "It's following us."

The familiar sensation of cold dread coiled in Tassin's stomach, and she glanced back. "What is it?"

"I don't know, but it's big."

Purr sniffed the air and growled, "Skifgar."

Sabre eyed him. "What's that?"

"Big creature. Very dangerous. One of the Core's worst creations, and one of its favourites. We've moved away from the Core, more monsters live here."

A few minutes later, crashing came from the Flux-reality behind them, and the donkeys broke into a trot, their ears laid back. Tassin ran next to them, urging them on. The skifgar caught up at an alarming rate, unimpeded, it seemed, by the chaos. The things that loomed out of the bedlam buffeted Tassin, slowing her down. A thud from behind was followed by an angry hiss as the beast ran into something solid.

 

Sabre sat up and took aim as a creature burst from the swirling Flux-reality. Even though he had seen many of the Core's mutations, he was not prepared for the apparition that blundered out of the bedlam. A fierce head topped a sinuous neck bristling with short spines. Dull grey hide covered the prominent bones of a knobbly, weirdly jointed and proportioned torso. Luminous red eyes glared in a dished, equine face with flared nostrils and long, translucent teeth that dripped saliva. At the base of its neck, two thin arms ended in clawed, skeletal hands with three fingers and two thumbs.

Below these, a second set of arms, as sinuous as its neck, ended in scythe-like horn blades. Beneath its chest, a pair of slender legs with forward-bending knees had four-toed feet tipped with long claws. The stout hind legs' powerful muscles supported long pasterns that terminated in another pair of larger four-clawed feet. A long tail lashed behind it, as bony as the neck, and tipped, like the second set of arms, with a blade of bone or horn. Its skin looked thick and tough. Bony ridges protected its eyes, and a curved plate of bone – an overgrown sternum – shielded its heart and lungs. According to the cyber's information, it was a trendil, found on a harsh rim planet that had been colonised and abandoned many decades ago after a prolonged and bloody war. Trendils appeared to be designed with just one thing in mind, to be efficient killers.

Sabre aimed at its head and fired, but the beast moved fast, its neck and head weaving from side to side. Lowering his sights, he shot it in the chest, wounded it slightly and made it hiss. He fired again, and the monster stumbled, hissing again. Its eyes gleamed with intelligence, but its maddened intellect seemed to know only a lust to kill. When he fired again, the laser's beam died, and Sabre tossed it aside. Pulling out his knife, he jumped down, stumbling as his knees threatened to buckle. Purr leapt after him with a huge sneeze, and Tassin dragged the donkeys to a halt, crying out in dismay. Dena tried to tug one of the big laser cannons free, her face twisted with effort and terror.

Tassin drew her dagger and ran back. The trendil stopped, dark red blood oozing from the laser wounds. Its head weaved from side to side, red eyes gleaming. Purr, a bundle of spines, claws and fangs, sprang at it, only to be caught by the second set of arms and flung aside with a disdainful flick. The alien was intent on Sabre, awaiting his next move. The cyber knew he was in no shape to fight such a dangerous beast. Trendils were formidable creatures, and had ousted humans from their planet through sheer dint of brawn and cunning intelligence. He stepped sideways, and the monster turned to face him, its blade arms making slow, anticipatory motions. The hand arms remained tucked close to its neck, out of harm's way.

The beast's head was far out of reach, making its armoured body his only target. Sabre dropped into a forward roll, hoping to come up under its chest. The creature stepped back too fast, however, and Sabre lacked his usual speed and co-ordination. The monster's head swung down, and its blade arms sliced towards him. Tassin shouted and ran forward, hurling the dagger. It struck the creature on the snout, and it reared back, blood oozing from a shallow wound. Its red eyes assessed her potential as an opponent, and Sabre slipped out of reach while it was distracted.

Tassin retreated, to Sabre's relief. At least she seemed to have enough sense to stay away, for a change. He circled the monster, keeping its attention while avoiding the occasional swipes of its blade arms. He did not have the strength to fight a trendil. His bio status was a mere thirty-seven per cent, dangerously low, but there was no other option. It hissed, and slurred words whispered in his mind as the cyber tried to interpret its language. Tassin ran back with the humming sword, and he shot her an incredulous glance.

He shouted, "No! Tassin! Look out!"

One of the trendil's blade arms lashed out, wrapped around her waist and lifted her. Tassin screamed and threw the sword. Sabre advanced, fear chilling his heart. The blade arm tightened, crushing her to the skifgar's neck, the knobs digging into her. The sword fell in a flashing arc, and Sabre leapt forward to catch it, then almost dropped it. The Core thrummed with malevolence, and he longed to cast it away. Its angry power sickened him, but he needed a weapon.

Sabre leapt at the skifgar, thrusting the blade into the creature's neck. The sword sliced into its tough flesh, and blood splattered over him. It hissed, and its head swooped at him, mouth open. He slashed at it, the weapon bouncing off bony armour. He was too weak, and what strength he had was fading fast. As the skifgar recoiled, Sabre held the sword before him. It glowed with a rainbow nimbus, humming with power and hatred.

"If I die, you rot," he promised it, remembering Tassin's recipe for the Core's co-operation.

The blade chimed and flashed, turning to crystal. Sabre slashed at the monster's head as it lunged at him again, leaping over a blade arm that swept past at knee level. The sword unleashed a flash of golden power that lanced through the creature's head in an explosion of blood and brains. The headless corpse lurched and collapsed. Sabre tried to fling himself aside, but again his strength failed him, and the corpse hammered him to the ground. Vaguely he was aware of a blinding white flare, then he went rigid as searing agony lanced up his arm.

The world darkened and Tassin screamed, a thin, distant sound. Tingles washed through him in waves, accompanied by a sickening sensation of weightlessness. Hatred and triumph radiated from the sword, and he flung it away. The tingling shocks and weightlessness vanished. He landed on hard ground with a thud, momentarily stunned. The situation's urgency beat at his brain through the mists of confusion and disorientation that clouded it.

Shaking his head, he levered himself to his feet and glanced around at a glowing yellow tunnel. The skifgar's corpse lay nearby, Tassin in its clasp. He staggered to her and freed her from the alien's grip. She was unconscious, but appeared to be unharmed.

Sabre dragged her to the side of the tunnel and propped her against the wall, glancing around again as he squatted beside her. A few gentle slaps made her gasp and open her eyes, which widened. She grabbed his arm, and Sabre tried to fend her off, but she transferred her grip to his neck and hung on.

He patted her back. "It's okay. We don't seem to be in any danger, and if we were, you're not helping."

"Where are we?"

"I haven't the foggiest idea. At a guess, I'd say we're on the trendil – skifgar's home world."

"How did we get here?" Her voice shook, muffled against his neck.

"The sword, of course." He glanced down when she pulled back to look up at him. "It transported us here. Just as it snatched the skifgar from this world, it cast us into it."

"Why?"

"Revenge." He sighed. "That always was its greatest wish. Vengeance against mankind, and now that I've reduced it to its present state, it wants me dead more than anyone. You should have left it there. You should never have kept your side of the bargain. That thing is evil. That's why I didn't want to touch it again. I'd already had too much contact with it when it was still the crystal, when we were bound together with neosin.

"Its hatred is immense and its depravity horrible. It didn't have nearly as much power as it had as the crystal, but I think it controlled the skifgar, lured it to us and made it attack me. It waited until we were in contact with the skifgar, then used the catapult effect to throw us back into the skifgar's world."

Tassin's eyes roved around the glowing tunnel. "What's a catapult effect?"

Sabre eased his aching back, allowing her to hold his wrist, since he knew she needed the tactile comfort of his presence. "It's the attachment every creature the Core snatched has with its native world. It took immense power to pull them from their worlds into ours, but not very much to send them back. That's why the sword waited until we were in contact with the skifgar before using its power. It used the skifgar like a homing beacon, catapulting it back to its world, and taking us with it."

Tassin shivered, although the tunnel was warm. "Where's the sword?"

"Good question. It forced me to release it, but I think it's also in this world somewhere. The catapult effect is powerful. I doubt it had the power to stay behind."

"Well I'm glad it's gone."

Sabre shook his head. "Don't be. This isn't a pleasant world, and its inhabitants certainly aren't, which is probably why the sword sent us here. It's our only hope of getting back. We have to find it."

"What if it's not here?"

"Then we're screwed."

Tassin gasped, her eyes widening. "Dena!"

"Purr's with her. He'll take care of her until we can get back."

"What if we can't get back?"

Sabre groaned. "What if... what if... We'll just have to find that damned sword, okay? But right now I think we should find somewhere safe to rest."

Tassin glanced up and down the tunnel and nodded, brushing back a lock of hair. Sabre consulted the scanners, which showed many points of pale mauve light. Trendils. The corpse did not register on the scanners anymore. A structural analysis revealed a network of interlinking tunnels, some passing close to each other. They appeared to be in a hive, surrounded by trendils.

Keeping an eye on the scanners, Sabre led the way down the tunnel, Tassin clinging to his hand. The yellow glow came from a sticky coating on the roof, jelly-like and unpleasant to touch. Sabre steered away from the trendils on the scanners, entering a downward sloping tunnel. The structural analysis showed an empty cavern ahead, and they entered a bizarre garden. Yellow slime threw a warm glow onto an amazing variety of fungi.

A pool at one end glinted mysterious black, and he wound his way through the growths to sample the clear water. While Tassin drank, he examined the fungus garden. There was an occasional recognisable mushroom variety, but most were alien, with odd colours and weird shapes. Hunger reminded him of his need to regain his strength, and he asked the cyber to analyse the fungi. It indicated that several varieties were edible, and he tasted some. Tassin looked alarmed when he munched on a bilious orange growth.

"What if that's poison?" she demanded.

"It's not. Try some."

She shook her head, rubbed water on her face and smoothed back her hair. "I'm not hungry."

Sabre settled beside the pool, eating a pale blue mushroom. "You will be, and I doubt there's anything more appetising than this down here."

"How are we going to get out?"

"We're not. We're going to find that bloody sword."

"But there could be more of those monsters down here."

He nodded. "There are. Plenty of them."

"Then we must get out of here. We must get to the surface."

"And then?"

"I don't know. Find help!"

"This is a rim world called Narrin Three, the only planet that trendils, or skifgars, inhabit. It was abandoned about fifty years ago, so I don't really know what's on the surface. It never was a very nice world, and the surface might be more dangerous than down here. In fact, I would guess it is."

"Why?"

Sabre threw away the pale blue fungus, which was so pithy his tongue seemed to have turned into a mohair rug. "Because skifgars live down here, and they're pretty formidable. There's only one real reason to live underground, in a hive like this, and that's protection."

"There might be people up there. Perhaps that's who the skifgars are hiding from."

He shook his head, plucking a knobbly yellow fungus. "No. Like I said, this world was abandoned. The settlers couldn't share it with such a dangerous creature. Forget the surface. If we want to get home, we have to find the sword."

Tassin looked crestfallen, but nodded. "Can you find it with the scanners?"

"Unfortunately not. The scanners only detect living creatures."

"Then how will we find it?"

He shrugged, popped the last bit of yellow fungus into his mouth and reached for a grey one. "Search."

"That could take ages!" She scowled. "How can you eat that stuff?"

He nibbled the grey fungus. "It's quite tasty."

"It looks revolting."

Sabre shrugged. "Cybers are conditioned to eat anything edible and nutritious. I've eaten worse than this. I need my strength if we're going to get out of here alive. Try some."

She shuddered, shaking her head. "Even if we find the sword, how will we make it take us back?"

"I'm not sure. I think it brought us here for two reasons. One is so the skifgar will kill us, especially me, and the other is to find creatures to care for it, ones it can control, perhaps even regain its previous power. It must have selected this world carefully before it made the skifgar attack us. Since its main motivation is self-preservation, perhaps it can be blackmailed."

"How?"

Sabre finished the grey fungus. "By threatening to destroy it."

"Do you think you could?"

"I'll certainly give it a bloody good try."

Tassin closed her eyes and rubbed her brow, drooping with weariness. Sabre's fatigue was profound, compounded by his weakness after his battle with the Core. He led her to a niche and settled down as comfortably as he could on the hard ground. The spicy scent of the fungus surrounded them as Tassin curled up beside him.