She drew away from him, keeping her weapon aimed at his back, and stood waiting while he assumed the position. His carbine lay on the ground only a metre to the side of him, but even as he glanced at it two Umbrathane women stepped out from different parts of the jungle and began jogging up the slope. As they converged on the campsite both of them studied Saphothere with evident hostility.
âIveronica,' Meelan acknowledged the woman Saphothere recognized as the leader of the Pig City Umbrathane.
Stepping forward Iveronica said, âI saw Coolis go, but what about the rest?'
The other woman, who could have been Meelan's double, but for the fact that her lower jaw had been replaced by a metallic prosthesis, hissed, âGolan was dragged through with the torbearer. Olanda is on his way.'
Saphothere grinned at the jawless woman. âWhat did you say? That wasn't very clear.'
Meelan belted him across the back of the head, knocking him down on all fours.
âSoudan, we need him.' Iveronica restrained the jawless woman, whose carbine was now trained on Saphothere's midriff. âPut it up.'
âWhat do we need him for?' Soudan lowered her weapon. âCowl has given us our way to him and soon all Heliothane will be extinct.' She gestured to where the incursion had appeared earlier, and where eight thorny objects were scattered on the ground.
âInformation,' said Iveronica. âCowl won't be pleased that we didn't capture the torbearer.' She glanced aside. âHere's Olanda now. That's all of us?'
âYes, all,' conceded Soudan. âThat fucking primitive got Oroida and burnt Golan before she jumped him. I doubt she survived the drag-throughâshe was a real mess.'
âHe was augmented,' said Iveronica, her face expressionless as she gazed at Meelan. âThat's why he first escaped. Golan and Oroida knew this. They made an error.
Soudan was glaring at Saphothere, and did not seem to register her companion's words. She was probing her prosthetic jaw as if she felt it might fall away.
âObviously not as genetically advanced as your fellows,' said Saphothere. âHow long ago in your time has it been since I just missed hitting that sack of shit between your ears?'
With a snarl Soudan swung her weapon back up. But then a shot hit Soudan squarely between the eyes, spraying Iveronica with pieces of her bone and brain. Saphothere rolled smoothly, snatching up his carbine and firing at the Umbrathane leader as she shook the bloody mess from her eyes. Meelan turned, just as smoothly, and put a cluster of shots into Olanda's chest, flinging the man back in an explosion of gore. Fire cut up into the sky as Iveronica went down, one leg blown away at the knee. She tried to bring her weapon to bear, but further shots from Saphothere smashed away her weapon and her right arm.
Saphothere stood and glanced round at Meelan. âThat could have gone better.'
âHow so?' asked Meelan tightly, as she holstered her weapon and strode over to stare down at Iveronica. âI don't see any of them getting up again.'
The Umbrathane leader, Iveronica, looked up at the two of them.
âWhy?' she managed, as she bled into the dirt.
âSeven thousand of our people were on Callisto,' spat Meelan. âWhen you sat in your nice comfortable ships and leapt back through time with Cowl, what of them?'
âLosses ⦠were inevitable,' said Iveronica.
âYou could have picked them up. Callisto was under your control once Cowl erected the phase barrier. You didn't bother because my kind of Umbrathane has always been cannon fodder for your kind. My people were reduced to less than atoms.'
âMany have died in our cause.' Iveronica managed to push herself up onto her remaining elbow. The bleeding from her shattered arm had ceased as her body already began to repair itself. âAnd you have betrayed them all.'
âDo you need to hear any more?' Saphothere asked Meelan.
Meelan turned and stared at him for a moment, then abruptly stooped, her right hand closing around the supine woman's throat and her left hand catching her flailing left arm. With a raised eyebrow Saphothere looked on while Meelan slowly choked Iveronica to death. When it was over, he said, âYou know, putting that mine on Tack was a bit risky.'
âNot really.' Meelan stood, still staring down at the dead woman. âNo paralytic on the glass, and I set it to detonate far enough away from him to cause no damage as long as he was wearing that suit.'
âI meant when he threw the damned mine at you,' said Saphothere, shouldering his carbine and turning away.
After a moment Meelan followed him and they walked down the slope to where the incursion had manifested. Reaching the bottom, Saphothere turned over with the toe of his boot one of the many active scales discarded by the torbeastâone of the tors Cowl had made it leave behind for his Umbrathane allies.
âWell, friend Tack was a little more dangerous than we supposed,' said Meelan finally. âI think Coptic could attest to that. Anyway, who are you to talk about taking risks?' She held up her hand and shifted it in its brace, inspecting it closely. âMaxell is not best pleased with us, you know.'
âOf course I know. She made that plain when I finally brought Tack to New London. Apparently she didn't think I should have risked losing him for the sake of finding and destroying Pig City.'
Meelan turned to look at him. âShe perhaps sees the bigger picture.' She gestured back at Iveronica. âLike she did.'
âPerhaps,' Saphothere conceded. âBut even Maxell would have to agree that the results have been ⦠gratifying.' He again nudged one of the tors with the toe of his boot. âIveronica would have stayed in her stronghold and never have gone to Cowl until no other option was available. With Pig City gone, and her energy sources destroyed, she and those who survived with her became just as much refugees as any other Umbrathane, and like them, needed tors to escape nasty Heliothane killers like myself.'
Meelan snorted. âYes, everything has worked very nicely. But why this?' She was still inspecting her hand.
âVeracity.'
Closing her hand into a fist, Meelan abruptly spun round and drove it into Saphothere's torso. He accepted the blow without retaliating, dropping down on one knee and clutching his gut.
âVeracity,' she spat.
Regaining his breath, Saphothere said, âIveronica would have wondered about why only you and Coptic survived, and perhaps have been less inclined to give you the energy feed leading to Pig City. Being badly injured, your continued hatred of Heliothane would be believed and they would understand how you had neglected to scan Tack.'
âAnd why atomics?'
Saphothere stood. âI had to destroy those generators and there was no time to set up catalysers or conventional explosives. I knew there would be survivors and you would be amongst themâyour mantisal, though damaged, was within easy reach. I also knew that with the generators destroyed it wouldn't be possible for Iveronica to get more than a few mantisals hereâI did not want hundreds of umbrathants turning up. And I knew you would be amongst the riders. It could only work this way.'
âSurvivors,' said Meelan, staring at him bleakly. âI got out about a second ahead of the blast, with an enteledont trying to chew my head, and just rode out the bleed-over of that blast into interspace.'
âComes with the territory.'
âI sometimes wonder precisely what your priorities are, Saphothere.'
âYou know my priorities, Meelan. And you knew the dangers when you signed up with me,' Saphothere replied. âAlso I hope you fully understand how things are most likely to go from now on.'
âYes, I understand,' Meelan hissed.
Â
THE GLASSY SKELETON AROUND her was veined with red, like glowing wires centred in cloudy black, and the air inside it stale yet again. To Polly it seemed like an engine pushed to its limitsâa malfunctioning hydrocar driven to the point where the components of its engine were growing red hot. Every now and again it vibrated, as if something was going out of balance prior to some final smash. When this was becoming unbearable, she found she did not need to use much force of will to push herself out of this hell. Just looking into the grey and black, and contemplating summoning up that place of hyperspheres and endless surfaces, was enough to push her out into the real again.
No sea was visible, or audible, this time. She glimpsed twilit sky through boiling black smoke, a river of fire snaking down from the boiling caldera of a volcano, while a cataclysmic roar filled her ears. The stink of sulphur was strong and acrid. She sneezed as something salty and stinging went up her nose, then tasted grit and ashes in her mouth, stumbled away over whorled stone, the heat from which she could already feel through her boots, and that same stone shook and jerked under her like a dying beast. A boulder the size of a family car hammered down to her right, deforming around its glowing core rather than breaking, as it bounced once, smashing the larval crust beneath it to release gouts of yellow vapour, then crumping down a second time, much of its bulk penetrating down into a gas-formed cavern.
This is not a good place.
Eyes on her footing and her hand cupped over her mouth and nose, Polly began to run. Other lumps of hot rock came hammering down. She glimpsed something the size of a railway carriage drop down behind a rucked-up outcrop, raising a cloud of the black ash that lay in drifts and sooty lakes all about. Hot flecks settled in her hair, burning into her scalp.
Shift, for chrissake, shift!
But she couldn't. There seemed nothing leftâno strength, no will.
The ground shuddered underneath her, and Polly glanced back as an eruption concealed everything behind her in a boiling cloud of red and grey, hurtling towards her with ridiculous speed, seeming to eat up the landscape as it came. From somewhere there was enoughâthe tor perhaps realizing that, in
the face of this, it would not itself survive to take back even a fragment of her arm. She shifted, glimpsed grey and black which seemed only an extension of the vulcanism, the cage not even forming around her. She came out yelling in a roll across the surface of a lake of cold cinders, sunlight above, and only a hint of sulphur in the air.
Â
AGAIN THE PSEUDO-MANTISAL HAD been unable to form, but this time not due to any lack of will on his own part, nor lack of nutrition from his tor. Something had grabbed him from interspace and pulled him down, and he rolled out of it, releasing his packs and drawing his carbine from its holsterânow positioned on his back. Rough shingle and broken shell gave way underneath him as, coming up onto his feet, he swung, sighting his weapon around him. No one nearby. Focusing on the rock field at the head of the beach, he advanced, weapon still ready, and checked the most likely places of concealment. Still nothing. Which meant that whatever had pulled him from interspace might not be nearbyânor whoever had used it. But certainly they would be coming along. His programming impetus was pushing him to shift again, but not very strongly. He fought itârebelling on an almost unconscious levelâand won. Slinging the two packs over one shoulder, while retaining his carbine in his right hand, he returned to the rock field and found cover, where he waited while tucking into his concentrated food supplies and gulping his bottled water. Leaden fatigue was eating into him as some hours later the man came limping down the beach, leaning on a strut of vorpal glass.
Tack identified him as Heliothane or Umbra, but very oldâsomething he had yet to see in either of their kind. The man paused by the trail Tack had left and looked up the beach to the rock field. Stepping out of cover, the butt of his carbine propped against his hip, Tack waited.
The figure waved an arm and struggled up the beach. Tack observed how the old man's decrepitude had seemingly increased of a sudden, and his own wariness increased. Even so, this man looked very ill. The clothing hung baggily on his thin frame and the skin of his pallid face was as near to the skull as was possible without him being dead.
âThat's far enough,' said Tack, when the oldster was ten paces from him.
The man leant on his cane of glass and wheezed dramatically. âAt last,' he said and took a step forwards.
Tack gestured with the gun and shook his head. The man took another step nearer.
âOne more step and I kill you,' said Tack and he meant it.
The man halted and held up a hand. âMy apologies, Traveller. It has been so long since I saw one of my own kind I can hardly believe you are real.'
âHow long?' Tack asked.
âFifty years, or thereaboutsâI lose track.'
âWho are you?'
âThe name's Thote. Poor Thote, stranded here; a casualty in a war that never ends or begins. Forgotten by those who sent me into battle.'
Tack thought the guy was laying it on a bit thick.
âAnd you are?' Thote asked.