[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
"The warriors of a city without the Law cannot have such skill," said Hota
crushingly. Sidas was about to reply, but a black look from Kareena silenced
Page 30
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
him. Blade was glad. Sidas was too intelligent to believe much of Hota's
superstitious nonsense about the Law, and much too likely to blurt out his
heretical opinions in Hota's presence.
It was mid-afternoon before they got all the munfans untethered and on the
move. They seemed more skittish than usual, and several broke their hobbles
and tried to bolt. Even the most experienced hunters and munfan-leaders
couldn't say what was bothering the animals.
The light was failing by the time they reached a safe refuge among the towers
of Gilmarg, with a cracked roof overhead and crumbling vine-grown walls on
three sides. Kareena decided against making any fires, and they ate a cold
dinner of bread and meat. Then the sentries took up their posts for the night,
and everyone else fell asleep.
Blade took the first watch with the sentries, then rolled up in his blanket.
He managed to sleep in spite of the chill and the sharp rocks digging into all
the more vulnerable portions of his anatomy. Sometime in the darkest hours of
the night he awoke to find Kareena curled up against him, one arm across his
chest. He tried to move her, but she only pressed herself closer without
waking up and made a noise like a contented kitten. He gave up, wrapped his
blanket around both of them, and went back to sleep with her firm warmth
resting against him. Hota might be jealous, but Blade's patience with Hota was
just about gone. If the warrior said one more word out of turn, Blade was
going to find it hard not to take him apart, Law or no Law!
It didn't take them long the next morning to find Saorm's tunnel. Either the
merchant had a naturally good memory, or knowing the number of swords pointed
at his back gave him one. Before the sun was well up he'd led them through a
maze of ruined side streets to a crumbling building with a half-exposed
basement.
In one corner of the basement stood a slab of concrete taller and thicker than
a man.
"There," said Saorm. "Under the lower end of that stone. The tunnel is narrow,
though. I did not get through it easily then. I do not think I could get
through it at all, now."
Hota poked the merchant in his stomach. "Too fat, eh? We should have marched
you harder, made you skinny. Well, there will always be men to go where you
cannot."
At first Blade doubted that Saorm was telling the truth about pushing the slab
into place single-handed.
Then he noticed several other slabs balanced more or less precariously around
the basement. One of them fell over as he watched, nearly crushing Sidas. When
the dust settled, Kareena had the men go around and push the rest of the slabs
over, so they could go to work on the tunnel without looking over their
shoulders every minute.
One man might have pushed the slab into place, but it took the sweat of at
least a dozen before it was clear. With Blade and Hota working together for
once, the slab was then dragged to one side. Everyone stood around the gaping
black maw now exposed, peering down the rubble-strewn slope until it vanished
in the darkness. Blade noticed that while everyone wanted to look, no one
seemed particularly eager to linger on the edge of the darkness.
To his credit, Saorm volunteered to be the first man down the tunnel. He
stripped himself naked, tied a rope around his waist, then on hands and knees
scrambled down into the darkness. A lot of cursing and grunting and the
clatter of falling stones floated up from the darkness, followed by a cloud of
dust. Then
Saorm himself reappeared, panting, sweaty, bleeding slightly in several
places, and shaking his head grimly.
"The tunnel is not as it was when I found it. The stones have moved, so that
there is much less room.
Even if I was the man I was then, I could not get through."
Page 31
ABC Amber Palm Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abcpalm.html
Kareena gave him the kiss of honor. "Do not grieve, Saorm. You have done well.
Someone else will have to finish your work, that is all."
Kareena's words touched off a ferocious argument over who should have the
honor of finishing Saorm's work. Blade was the first to volunteer to go down
the tunnel. Inevitably, Hota objected. "This man is outside the Law and facing
the judgment of the Gathering. It will bring a curse upon Kaldak if he is the
first to enter the hole and see this great wealth of Oltec. Let me go." He
looked ready to draw his sword against anyone who argued.
Saorm saw his chance to get back at Hota for his earlier insults. "You are
larger than I, and the Law will not make you smaller. If I cannot get down,
how can you?"
"Then Blade cannot go either, because he is bigger still."
"I am smaller than either of you," put in Sidas. "And I-"
"I am the smallest of the men," began Bairam. "I-"
"You may be Peython's son, but you are not in the Law's favor either," said
Hota sharply. "You are not so much better than Blade."
"I am-yah!" said Bairam, breaking off as his sister kicked him hard in the
shin. Kareena glared at everyone, then started taking off her trousers.
"I am the smallest of all. I am of Peython's blood. And no one can say that I
am at fault before the Law.
So I am the best one to go down, and no one will stop me."
When Kareena was naked, she bound her hair up, then let Blade tie the rope
around her waist. When he'd done that, she picked up a rifle and vanished down
the tunnel like a rabbit. They heard more curses and clatters and saw more
clouds of dust. They also saw the rope vanishing steadily into the darkness.
Then they heard Kareena's voice, distorted by the tunnel and by a spasm of
coughing.
"I'm all the way-down. The fire jewels-by the Law, there must be thousands of
them! Big stone in the tunnel, though. No one bigger than I-can get through.
I'll try to move it."
"Be careful, Kareena," shouted Bairam. There was no reply, except more
clattering stones. Dust poured out of the tunnel like smoke from a fire, and
Blade started stripping off his own clothes. He might be the largest man in
the group, but he was also the strongest and the most skilled in this sort of
work.
Then Kareena's voice came again, even more broken by coughing. "Can't-move-it.
Almost-but somebody-push from above." She sounded as if she was about to
strangle on the dust.
By now Blade was naked, wearing only his silver loinguard. Hota moved to block
the tunnel, but Sidas and Bairam both stepped between him and Blade. Blade
threw them both a look of gratitude, then got down on his hands and knees and
started crawling. His natural caution over moving into the unknown fought with
his desire to hurry to Kareena's rescue.
Stone by stone, Blade crept downward, the air growing thicker and the light
fading with each foot he descended. He was in a weird sort of twilight by the
time he came to what had to be the obstacle. It was another slab of concrete,
tilted so that it left only about a two-foot space clear. Blade wondered how
even Kareena could have slipped through, and hoped the stains on the slab were
Saorm's blood and not hers.
Fortunately there was enough light to let Blade see how the slab could be
moved out of the way. He crawled up onto the slab and shouted down into the
darkness. "Kareena! Get out of the way. I'm going to be throwing the stones
off the slab. Then you pull out the ones underneath."
A choking "Yes, Blade," from below reassured him that the girl was still alive
[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]