Into Battle Page 3

  There was only one thing Tal could do to avoid detection and capture. He must weave a lightrope within the next few minutes and dive down to the Lake of Ash. But unlike the regular light-divers who returned to the Hanging Rock by shrinking their ropes, he would have to try and get as close to the ash as possible, cut himself free, and swim ashore. Tal knew the principles of lightropes. A red strand for strength, a yellow strand for flexibility, and an indigo strand to keep it all together. A few months ago he had never even handled light above the yellow spectrum, but now he didn't hesitate. He would even use violet if he had to.

  Tal lifted his Sunstone ring and concentrated on it. A thick line of red light spilled out of the Stone and fell down, coiling as it fell. Tal kept it going and added a yellow strand, thicker than the red. Then came the indigo, winding about the two other strands. The complete rope kept falling and coiling, and Tal realized he had another problem.He didn't know how long to make the lightrope. If it was too short he'd just bounce up and down and end up hanging too far above the ash to safely drop. If it was too long he'd dive deep into the ash and even though he'd probably bounce out several times, the initial impact would probably kill him.Desperately he tried to remember watching other light-divers. He tried to recall conversations he'd overheard. Was it three hundred and fifty stretches? It was three hundred and something… three hundred and sixty?

  Tal decided shorter was safer than longer. Better to be captured alive dangling above the Lake of Ash than killed. He decided on three hundred and fifty. Allowing five stretches for the loose ends before the lightrope wove together, he was almost there.A thin sliver of sun was already poking over the far crater wall. Behind him, there was sunlight on the closer wall, about fifty stretches above him. He could see the line of sunlight falling every minute, creeping closer down to him. Tal twisted his hand and directed the end of the rope through the anchor hole, directing the light so it shot under the Hanging Rock and back over to rejoin itself below his hand. Tal pulled back as if he were lifting a weight, tightening the loop until the rope was fast against the rock. Then he cut it off with a thought and went forward to pick up the other end. After cutting off the loose strands with a fine ray of Red light, he used two fingers of Indigo light to tie the lightrope securely around his ankles.The sunlight hit the top of his head. Tal took a deep breath and shuffled to the very edge of the Hanging Rock.He looked down. The lake was a long, long way down. The Chosen houses and the walkways between them were tiny.Sunlight touched his eyes.

  Tal shut them firmly and leaned forward. For a moment he hung on the very edge of the Hanging Rock.

  Then he toppled forward and fell straight down,the lightrope rippling out behind him.

  CHAPTER SIX

  The Underfolk crawled closer. The free Spiritshadows followed right behind them. As the light from the lanterns illuminated a stray bone from the skeleton, the Underfolk stopped and pointed. Instantly, the three Spiritshadows swarmed forward, obviously excited. The Underfolk shuddered as the Spiritshadows slid over and past them, cold shadowflesh chilling them through their robes.The lead Spiritshadow touched the bone with its proboscis, then with its two front claws. Then it looked at the others, and all three briefly touched their forelegs.At that moment, while they were distracted, Milla attacked.She lunged forward in a crouch, her hand extended, trusting that the Talon of Danir would do whatever it did automatically.She intended to use the glowing fingernail to cut the closest Spiritshadow. But as she leaped forward, the Talon extended itself, until it was as long as her forearm. Bright violet sparks showered from the end, and a long plume of violet light shot out like a whip -- a whip of light at least three stretches long.

  Milla brought her hand down toward the Spirit-shadow, and the whip of light shot around and became a lasso. Without conscious direction from Milla, it settled over the head of the Spiritshadow and pulled tight. It went through the shadowfleshlike a wire through cheese, cutting the Spiritshadow's head off in a single sharp action. Milla flicked the lasso at the next one, and the same thing happened. As she flicked it at the third and last Spiritshadow, the other two were picking up their separated heads and then trying to reconnect them, as they scuttled as fast as they could back down the tunnel.The third Spiritshadow was quicker and the lasso missed. But before it could attack Milla, the violet streamer undid itself and the free end whipped out to slice through the Spiritshadow's forelegs. The creature crashed to the floor, and wriggled backward, sliding over the Underfolk, who had pressed themselves facedown on the floor. It halted for a moment, then scuttled away.

  Odris had rushed forward to grab the shadow, but as she reached out, the light from the Talon whipped back toward her. Instantly, Milla threw her hand the other way, slapping her palm against the wall.The whip missed Odris by a finger-width."Careful!" boomed Odris. She sounded scared.

  Milla was shaken, too. She held her hand against the wall, until the violet stream of light slowly ebbed back into the Talon, and it shrank back to its regular size. "I didn't know it did that," said Milla. No wonder Danir had been such a fearsome warrior, her legend lasting thousands of years. She had worn one of these magical fingernails on each hand."Interesting," said Malen. "The Talon seems to act of its own accord against shadows.""I'm staying back here, then," said Odris, "until you learn to control it." Milla nodded and cautiously drew her hand back from the wall. The Talon didn't do anything. Perhaps it only worked when she wanted to fight. She would have to be careful to make sure Odris wasn't nearby when she did. In a way it was like being a Wilder, one of the berserk warriors that occasionally emerged in the clans. You had to stay clear of them when they fought, until the blood-craze left them and they knew friend from foe."You can get up now," said Milla to the two Underfolk. "Well, you can crouch, anyway."She crawled up to them, but they didn't move. Milla raised her Sunstone and light flared, the brightness washing out the yellow glow of the lanterns."You can…" Milla started to say again. Then she scowled and reached forward to touch the closest man. He didn't move.

  Milla felt for a pulse in his neck and then repeated the action with the other one.Neither one had a pulse."They're dead," she said slowly. "But I don't see how."She shuffled up between the two bodies. Only then did she see that they each had a tiny wound in their back of the head. A wound about the same size as one of the Spiritshadow's proboscis."The last one must have stabbed them as it passed," Milla said.She felt strangely affected by their deaths. Death was no stranger to her, even sudden, unexpected, and violent death. But somehow this felt worse than the accidents she had seen, or the fatal encounters with the wild beasts of the Ice.It took her a moment to realize what it was. "Shadows have killed," she said slowly. "I do not think I believed it was possible before.""It is not only possible, it has happened many times before, long ago," said Malen. "The ancient war has begun again. We know it, as do the shadows of Aenir, even if the Chosen do not. You realize what those shadows were looking for?"

  Milla nodded."The Talon," she said, looking back at the skeleton. "And perhaps the Sunstone. The Spiritshadows expected to find the man's remains -- or what he carried--to be here somewhere. That is why they were searching so carefully.""They have reason to be afraid of the Talon," said Malen. "I wonder how much a shadow can be cut before it cannot repair itself?""This is a very morbid conversation," said Odris. "Personally, I don't want to find out."No one spoke for a moment. Milla carefully rolled the two Underfolk over to look at their faces and fix them in her mind, so she could describe them later and find out their names. She wondered if the

  Freefolk would know them. Perhaps they were close family. Certainly they would be someone's brothers, or uncles, or fathers."I do not know what the Underfolk do with their dead," Milla said finally, as she folded their arms across their chests and carefully opened their eyes wide so they might see their way ahead. "The Chosen trap them in stone boxes.""I have spoken to Crone Mother Panul," said Malen. "I have told her the turnings. She will send Shield Maidens to take these Underfolk out and give them
to the Ice. There is no likelihood of bad air between here and the outside, is there?""I don't think so," replied Milla. She gestured down the tunnel. "It lies ahead. Tell Panul they should take the airweed these men carried. Tell her how to use it."

  Malen nodded. Her eyes clouded as she joined the mass mind of the Crones.

  Milla looked away, at the tunnel stretching out ahead. The Spiritshadows would have spread the alarm. They would not know who they encountered, but they would tell of the deadly whip of violet light.Many shadows might be gathering now in the lower Underfolk levels, waiting for Milla, Malen, and Odris. The Chosen should all be in Aenir, but even if they weren't, Milla wasn't afraid of them. They had lived too easy lives. They were not warriors.Free shadows from Aenir were a different matter."Come," she said. "We must hurry. The enemy now knows that the evening breeze brings raiders down upon the ship.""What?" asked Odris. "Which raiders? What ship?""It's only a saying," said Milla. "Anyone would think you were Adras." "Adras is gone," sighed Odris. "Gone to Aenir, back to being a Storm Shepherd.""Gone?" asked Milla. "But Tal was to get the Red Keystone. He shouldn't be in Aenir." "Maybe he isn't," said Odris mournfully. "Maybe… maybe he's dead, and Adras was released. I don't know.""When did this happen? Why didn't you tell me?"

  Odris shrugged. "Three sleeps ago. I heard his farewell upon the wind. You were sulking on your stupid chair.""You must tell me matters of importance," Milla said angrily. "I bet he's got himself into trouble again."

  "Adras?"

  "No, Tal! Come on!"

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Tal plummeted down, the lightrope spilling out behind him. Down and down he fell, his arms spread wide, his head back. He saw the Lake of Ash below, coming closer and closer and closer, and still he fell, the lightrope running free.Any moment, the rope would run out and he would bounce back, but the moment didn't come and the lake was so close, only ten or twenty stretches below -- and this time Adras wasn't nearby to catch him!The rope was too long. He was going to hit the lake!

  Tal wrapped his arms around his head and screwed his eyes shut. He felt his stomach stay behind as his fall was suddenly arrested. He opened his eyes and saw the surface of the lake just beyond his reach--and then he was hurtling up again as the rope jerked him back.His stomach felt like it was determined to stay on the surface of the lake as Tal bounced up and down. When he finally came to rest, he was hanging about four stretches above the surface of the ash and sixty stretches from the shore.The surface of the lake was quite smooth. Even though it looked completely gray higher up, from this distance all the clear crystals allowed Tal to see a little way under the surface. It was like looking into very cloudy water. Not that there was anything to see, which was a good sign. He didn't want to see anything there. Flipping himself up, Tal grabbed the rope. He used his Sunstone to unravel the indigo binding thread. He hung from his hands for a moment, then let himself go. Above him, his lightrope dissipated into the air.

  Tal fell straight down into the strange fluid of the lake, only remembering to hold his arms out at the last moment, so his head didn't go under.The mixture of ash and tiny crystals almost felt like water, but it was warm and dry, and it was much harder to move through. Luckily, it was easier to stay afloat.

  Tal started swimming to the shore immediately. It would be daylight throughout the crater soon, and he had to find somewhere to hide.He was halfway to the shore when he noticed that there was another noise beside the curious rustling sound of his own swimming. A sound that he could feel as a vibration through the ash, as well as hear. It was coming from behind him, so he rolled over to look, while continuing with a fairly clumsy backstroke.At first he couldn't see anything. Then a large and highly unwelcome shape briefly surfaced about a hundred stretches away, before disappearing again.

  Tal saw a great long back of serrated blue and red scales, accompanied by the brief flash of a huge mouth surrounded by four long, questing tendrils.Suddenly Tal's arms started thrashing through the ash with new strength and speed.He knew what he'd seen. It was a Kerfer, one of the great carnivores of the lake. A creature played in Beastmaker for Strength or Special. Its Special ability lay in its six feathery tentacles. Four were several times longer than a man and sensed vibration and movement. Two were shorter, but oozed a paralyzing venom.

  Tal looked again. The Kerfer briefly broached the surface, tentacles rising into the air before they splashed down ahead of its body. It had closed the distance between them by half in only a few seconds. He had no chance of outswimming it.The Chosen boy stopped swimming, though his feet trod the ash to keep him afloat. He raised his Sunstone ring and concentrated on it. Red light grew in intensity there, until it was almost blinding.A tentacle rose up out of the ash just a stretch away. One of the sensing tentacles--but the paralyzing tentacle would not be far behind.

  Tal waited. The tentacle quested forward and touched his chest. He flinched, and it recoiled. Then came the target Tal had been waiting for. The Kerfer breached again, and he saw its cavernous mouth, a mouth lined with wriggling cilia instead of teeth.

  Tal fired the Red Ray of Destruction at the highest intensity he could summon, straight between the monster's jaws.Light exploded everywhere, the crystals in the ash picking up and multiplying the red flash. Tal was momentarily blinded. Something hit him, and he screamed, thinking it was the paralyzing tentacle. Ash filled his mouth. The Kerfer had reared up and splashed down, creating a huge wave.

  Tal's vision cleared as he spat out ash. For a moment he couldn't orient himself, couldn't see the shore or the monster. Then he saw the Kerfer floating on the surface, its tentacles limp. It was either stunned or dead.

  Tal didn't wait around to see which it was. He struck out for the shore as fast as he could.He climbed up onto a beach of more solid ash. He didn't look behind until he was safely on rock and a good twenty stretches from the lake. Then he turned around, his Sunstone ready, in case the Kerfer was going to drag itself after him.It wasn't. As Tal watched, the inert creature bobbed under once, then twice, as if something was nibbling on it.Something was. Tal couldn't help retreating even farther from the lake as the whole Kerfer -- a creature that would weigh ten times as much as Tal disappeared with a sudden pop, leaving a deep whirlpool in the lake that was easily fifty stretches in diameter.

  Tal shuddered. He was glad he hadn't encountered whatever that was instead of the Kerfer.

  Now his priority was to find somewhere to hide, so he wasn't exposed out here in the sun. The crater wall had lots of caves. But was there one close by?

  He ran toward the wall, jumping from one tumbled rock to another. There were a few promising patches of dark shadow ahead. One of them should be a cavemouth. And apart from the lake, the Chosen made sure that there were no creatures within the crater itself. So there should be no danger from a Cavernmouth, or any other of the horrendous inhabitants of the rest of Aenir.

  At least, Tal thought, there shouldn't be any danger. But then he'd never gone into any caves that weren't on the path…

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  Spiritshadows lay in wait for Milla, Odris, and Malen. As Milla cautiously crept out into the lowest of the Underfolk levels she wondered whether the three spiky-snouted Spiritshadows had perished from their wounds or lack of light. Or perhaps they had gotten lost, or had not reported their find.Whatever had happened, she was grateful. Not that she was afraid of fighting shadows. She simply preferred the battle to be fought when she had a great host of specially armed and armored Icecarls behind her.This trip was a raid, and airweed was the prize they sought. In fact, they could not return without it, for their own supply was now exhausted.It took Milla a moment to reorient herself as

  Malen climbed out behind her. She had taken extra care to memorize all the twists and turns of the heatways, but had not paid particular attention to the Underfolk levels. Even so, she had subconsciously mapped it all in her head, as any good Icecarl would do."This way," she said decisively, pointing down the plain, whitewashed corridor. Its ceiling held oc
casional, weak, undersized Sunstones, and consequently the hallway had many shadows. Natural shadows, Milla was pretty sure, though she was ready to strike with the Talon if necessary.

  Odris noticed the tension in Milla's hand and stayed back with Malen. Not that the Crone liked this. She kept trying to move away, only to have Odris keep up with her."We have to go along here, and then down a stair, through a belish root forest, then down a steep tunnel into the lake where the airweed grows. From there it's fairly easy to get to the Freefolk Fortress," Milla explained quietly after she had checked the next intersection.They turned the corner, but Milla didn't keep going. Instead she stopped and frowned in thought. "Though there's bound to be an easier way--if only we can find one of the Freefolk. Perhaps we should wait a little while here. They found us easily enough before.""I would not be sorry to rest a little," said Malen. As before, she hadn't complained. But the heat, the bad air, and the pace Milla had set had clearly taken their toll. Her golden hair, normally perfectly straight, was bedraggled and her face was flushed. Only her strange Crone's eyes were unchanged, still that deep, luminous blue."Rest, then," Milla said. Malen gratefully sank down, putting her back against the wall. Odris sat next to her, ignoring the Crone's angry look.

  Milla didn't rest. She paced quietly back and forth, keeping an eye down both corridors while she thought about how much airweed they would need. Assuming an average of two bulbous nodules were required per person to get through the patches of bad air, a force of two thousand Icecarls would need four thousand nodules.That was a lot of airweed to get to the far reaches of the heatways, particularly since whoever carried it would also need to use four nodules, there and back. Yet one person could probably carry twenty or thirty strands, each with six nodules. That was 120 per trip, less the four they used themselves, was 116…