The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (28 page)

With a swift
stroke, he sliced open the puncture wounds and released a trickle
of pus and blood. He squeezed and washed the cut in clean water,
then put his mouth over it and sucked out the last dregs, spitting
it out. Tassin moaned, her eyelids fluttering. When he was
satisfied that the wound was clean, he rummaged in his medical
pouch and found the antiseptic cream. He smeared a little on and
bound her arm with a clean bandage.

Emptying out
the pouch, he sorted through its contents until he found what he
was looking for; an ampoule of antibiotic. Breaking off the glass
cap, he pushed the needle into her arm and injected it. He repacked
the bag, then checked her temperature again. Her brow was cool, but
she shivered now with genuine cold. Sabre stripped off his wet
boots, socks and trousers, stretched out beside her and pulled her
into his arms, dragging the blanket over them. Her naked proximity
kept him awake for a while, but he fell asleep when her shivers
ceased.

Tassin woke
cosy and comfortable, sandwiched between soft blanket and warm
skin. She stretched and sighed, then started from her pleasant doze
when she realised that she was naked except for her knickers. What
was more, her wounds throbbed with renewed venom and she lay in
Sabre's arms, her cheek pillowed on his chest. She clutched the
blanket around her and raised her head to look at him. His brow
band flashed sporadically, with only a few green flickers. She
tried to move away, then froze when his arms tightened. He opened
his eyes and smiled, removing his arm from beneath her to roll onto
his side, prop his cheek on his hand and regard her with mocking
eyes.

"Good
morning."

"You're
back."

"I'm afraid
so."

"What happened
to my clothes?" she asked.

"I had to take
them off."

"You... you...
Why?"

"They were
wet."

"No they were
not."

"They were
after I dumped you in the river," he said.

"Why did you
do that? I don't remember that."

"No, you were
unconscious."

"I was?"
Confusion flooded her. "What happened to me?"

"The wound in
your arm, where the wolf bit you, was infected. You were running a
dangerously high temperature, so I had to dump you in the stream to
cool you down."

"So you took
off my clothes."

He inclined
his head. "Well, yes, afterwards. They were wet."

"What else did
you do?"

"Nothing.
Well, I had to cut your arm and wash out the pus."

"What
else?"

"Nothing." He
met her eyes. "What do you think I did? You nearly died, and the
cyber wouldn't have done anything, because you didn't ask it for
help. I realised that something was wrong, and I was able to take
over again, just in time to rush you to the river. Why didn't you
tell the cyber you were sick? It would have helped you. If I hadn't
been able to get free, you'd have died. All you had to do was tell
the cyber that you required medical attention. It would have
scanned you, diagnosed the problem, and done exactly what I
did."

"I didn't know
I was sick, just that I was cold."

"Silly
girl."

Tassin pulled
the blanket closer to her neck, struggling to quell an intense
sense of vulnerability.

He looked
puzzled. "Just what, exactly, do you think I did to you?"

"Nothing. But
you saw me..." Her face grew warm, and she looked away.

"Naked? It's
not the first time I've seen a naked woman, and it's not like I
planned it or anything. I had to take off your wet clothes, or you
might have caught pneumonia."

Sabre tucked
the blanket around her and rose to light the fire. She sat up,
nursing her throbbing arm. He wore only his silken undershorts, and
she surmised that he had also got wet when he had dunked her in the
stream. He took their clothes outside to hang in the sun, and
returned as she was removing the bandage. Her arm was still
swollen, and a fresh cut dissected the puncture wounds.

Sabre examined
it and smeared ointment on it, then rebandaged it. He left to fetch
water in the pot the Andorans had given them, putting it on the
fire to heat for tea. Tassin was glad he was himself again, yet
resentful that he had removed her clothes. His right eye was black
and swollen almost shut, and mottled bruises marred half of his
face, while others covered his chest and arms in strange patterns,
like bizarre shadows. His right arm looked as if it had been dipped
in blue ink from elbow to wrist, and she wondered how he ignored
the pain.

"Why did my
wound go bad, and not yours?" she asked.

"You were
bitten by an animal. Such wounds usually get infected; animals have
dirty mouths. You had blood poisoning, but fortunately it didn't
have time to get into your system. I wouldn't have got an infection
even from an animal bite, though. I have an immune system that can
defeat the entire microbe population of a planet without breaking a
sweat."

"Is your arm
sore?"

He glanced
down at the blackened limb. "Fair to middling."

"It was
broken."

"Still
is."

"Then you
should put a splint on it."

He shook his
head, smiling. "There's no need. The barrinium plating was a bit
bent, but now that the cyber's straightened it, it will knit. It
forms its own splint."

"Oh." She
regarded him with grave awe. "Did you really drown?"

Sabre
sprinkled tealeaves into the pot and stirred it. "Almost. I went
into a blind panic, and that's when the cyber took over. I passed
out, and when I woke up I was lying on the bank and the cyber was
in charge."

"You must hate
water."

He nodded.
"Deep stuff."

"The cyber
didn't see the magic."

"Nope.
Machines have a blind spot when it comes to magic, luckily. I guess
it proves that when technology encounters magic, technology wins
through sheer logic."

"Will the
cyber be able to take over again?"

Sabre frowned,
glancing out of the cave mouth. "That magician's still out there,
licking his wounds. He may try again, even without the muscle-bound
moron, in which case, the cyber is our only effective weapon. It's
hard for me to ignore what I see, which is why those illusions are
effective. The cyber doesn't perceive them at all."

"So only the
cyber can fight him?"

"Only the
cyber is unaffected by his magic, but who knows what he's capable
of?"

She shivered,
despite the fire's warmth. "I wish you had killed him."

"There's a
chance that he'll go back to Torrian now, I suppose."

"No, Torrian
would kill him if he returned empty handed."

Sabre took the
pot off the fire and set it aside to brew. "Then he's more
dangerous than he was before. We'll have to be careful from now on.
We don't know when he'll strike, or as what. I'll see him on the
scanners, though. His magic can't do anything about that, and he
doesn’t know it."

"And then the
cyber will have to fight him?"

"Perhaps. At
least now I know I can regain control afterwards."

Tassin gazed
at him, troubled. Would the cyber grow stronger with each takeover,
or would Sabre? Who would ultimately win the battle for supremacy?
The thought of losing him caused a strange pain in her chest, and
she looked away.

Chapter Seventeen

Sabre gazed
around at the scrubby vista. Clumps of trees crowded shallow
gorges, and streams gushed from rocky nooks to run through them and
vanish. Herds of grazing beasts wandered in the distance, and
ground-nesting birds flew up ahead with warning calls. Two weeks
had passed since they had left the cave.

For two days
after his victory over the cyber, they had rested, waiting for
Tassin's arm to heal. He had kept a wary eye on the scanners, but
there had been no sign of the magician. On the third morning,
Tassin had announced that she was strong enough to travel. They had
climbed out of the gorge and turned north once more. The scanners
had showed no life apart from woodland animals since then, and he
had relaxed a little. Perhaps Tassin was wrong, he mused, or maybe
the magician had accepted defeat, and would live peacefully on this
side of the Badlands.

After several
days, the forest had given way to scrubland, interspersed with
copses and briar thickets. They slept in the tents, which kept them
warm as the nights became chillier, and safe from the dew and
frequent rain. Tassin pitched the tents and lighted the fire while
Sabre hunted for their dinner, then helped to cook it while he
relaxed. She seemed to have come to appreciate how much he did,
especially since she had tried to pick up one of the packs and had
almost fallen over in surprise when she discovered how heavy it
was.

With much
grunting and puffing, she had dragged it along for a bit, and he
had watched her, chuckling, until she gave up. It had surprised him
somewhat that she was unable to lift the pack. He had always
thought her stronger than she actually was, he realised. The pack
only contained one of the leather tents, several water skins, an
assortment of pots, and the sword, and he did not find it terribly
heavy. It probably weighed a little less than she did, he
calculated, which was not much by his standards. She had sewed a
shorter, more practical dress and a pair of moccasins from the
cured skins of the animals he killed, since her pink frock was
almost worn to rags and her soft slippers had holes in them.

As they
strolled through a belt of trees that meandered out of one of the
gorges, a warning light drew his attention to the scanner
information. It showed a human life sign ahead, and he had his
suspicions as to its identity. The trouble with wandering through
strange territory, he mused, was that you had no idea who was
around the next corner, or how hostile they were. At least the
magician was a known quantity, to be treated with extreme
animosity, and not to be confused with a possible friend. As they
emerged from the belt of trees, he stopped, frowning. A glossy
black stallion grazed on the lush grass that grew between the scrub
and woodland, and he checked the scanners again, which showed that
the animal was, in fact, human. The horse threw up its head and
stared at them, its nostrils flaring as if trying to catch their
scent.

Tassin cried,
"Look, a horse!"

Sabre caught
her arm when she started towards the animal, halting her, and she
looked up at him in confusion.

"What's wrong?
We can catch it and ride it."

He shook his
head, not taking his eyes off the beast. "That's not a horse."

"What do you
mean? Oh. It's him."

"Yes. Act
normal, just walk around it."

Tassin gazed
wide-eyed at the horse, and Sabre admired the mage's illusion. The
beast's hide twitched away flies, and he wondered if they were part
of the illusion, or real. The stallion watched them, its ears
pricked, and, had it not been for the scanners, Sabre would have
been fooled. The horse whinnied and trotted towards them, the
epitome of a lonely, tame beast looking for human company. Sabre
wondered if the noise was also a delusion, or if the mage had
actually made the sound. He stepped in front of Tassin, and, when
the animal drew close, picked up a stone.

"Shoo!" He
threw the rock, and the stallion shied.

"Sabre,"
Tassin muttered, "are you sure it's not real?"

"Positive."

The horse
watched them walk away, then tossed its head and trotted off.
Tassin gazed back at it until it vanished into the trees.

"It certainly
looked real."

Sabre nodded.
"He's a master of illusion, but it seems he's not keen on coming to
grips with me. That's why my hostility put him off."

"What was he
trying to do?"

"Get close to
you. If he grabs you, he could use you as a shield or a hostage,
and hurt you if I try to rescue you. Maybe he could even fly away
with you, like he did as the dragon. I'd really like to know how he
did that. He's scared of me, though."

She frowned.
"So why didn't you just tell him that you knew it was him, instead
of acting as if you really thought it was a horse?"

"That might
lead to a showdown, and I'd prefer to put off a confrontation until
I'm completely healed. If we pretend we don't know it's him, but
avoid the traps he sets for us, it buys me more time."

Tassin glanced
at his arm, which he still favoured. The bone was not entirely
strong yet, apparently. Her injuries had faded to pink scars, and
his other wounds were barely noticeable lines and the faint
remnants of yellowish bruises. She had removed the stitches from
his scalp and arm a week ago, amazed by how quickly he healed.

They walked
on, and Tassin glanced over her shoulder several times, although
Sabre assured her that the scanners were once more devoid of human
life signs.

The scrubland
gave way to a vast tract of sighing golden grass inhabited by huge
herds of terrestrial buffalo, antelope and deer, which grazed
beside wild cattle, sheep and goats. Streams became rarer, which
forced Sabre to carry more water, adding to his already
considerable load. Since there was no firewood in the rolling
grassland, they collected and burnt dried dung to cook the game
Sabre killed. Tassin found that she could now walk at his side all
day without growing tired, and even carried a small pack to lighten
his burden. She kept her hair a practical plait, while Sabre cut
his with his knife.

Two days after
the encounter with the black stallion, a human life sign appeared
on the scanners again as Sabre crested a hillock. A clear,
sparkling pool nestled in the next hollow, and Tassin gave a
delighted whoop and ran down to it, taking him by surprise. He
reached her as she was about to kneel and scoop up the water, and
she gave a yell when he pulled her away up the slope.