“The door requires those seeking entrance to share an affinity for each other. You killed Bronz, my life mate, the one who mingled the Flow by my side. Yet, now I hold allure for you. Do you have this for me?”
“Yes, yes, let’s go inside. I’ve waited long enough.”
From behind, Malkor barked his raspy laugh full of disdain. “You have forgotten you address a great lord, woman. Such questions have no place falling upon a Dark lord’s ears. I shall have you beaten for it.”
Darwin’s ire matched his impatience. “You will do what I command, nothing else. Perhaps I shall have your bared backside strapped for not recalling it. Now, go find Long Sand, inform him you are going to lead the way inside once we have cleared it. He is to bring up the rear.”
Malkor’s bow was abrupt. “I shall do as my lord commands,” he said.
Darwin turned his back to him. Even angry, Malkor would do as instructed. He had spoken much worse to the red robe, yet his servant had remained loyal for his lifetime. “What is required from us to open the wind door?” he asked, keeping his tone milder than he had when speaking with his servant.
“Stay as you are, and I shall show you.” Backing suggestively up against him, she held her right hand out, palm up. “Clasp my right hand with yours; try to put your left at my waist. We’ll have to try it that way.”
Ignoring the pain of moving his left arm so far outward from his stomach, he succeeded in awkwardly putting it on her lower stomach. “I can draw from the Flow in this position,” he said.
She nodded, rustling against him. Her left hand rose to slip under his. “Once we begin, we cannot stop or we die. If our affection for each other is not prominent, one or both of us may perish. Are you prepared to try?”
The firmness of her body pressing against him, the scent of her, stirred his desire even in the blistering heat of midday. He had the suspicion the woman intended it all along. “Show me what to do,” he said hoarsely, his voice drier than he liked.
Much stronger than he had expected, Railee drew from the Flow, pulling deeply, a stream of white interlaced with light yellows. As Darwin added his black torrent inside her conduit, it entwined around hers, and her Flow wrapped around his, flowing upward; they formed a radiant twisted pair. Their interlocked right hands burst into an interwoven ball of black and white twice the normal size of someone using the Flow.
Two interwoven bands of the Flow flowed forth from their hands, striking the bottom of the whirlwind, and again moved upward. The height and width of a small doorway, the ribbon of the Flow held the maelstrom at bay. Though it churned, the whirlwind vanished into the wide band and then reappeared, coming out of the other side and continuing its destructive path.
Slipping past his crippled arm, Railee tugged on his good hand. “Let’s go. Our streamers won’t last long. Don’t let go until we’re through,” she cautioned.
Darwin stopped, halting her forward momentum. “Will it close when we pass through?”
“Yes. Our allure for each other is not as entwined as I had hoped. We have to go now.”
“No! There is Guail and the clan. They cannot remain outside.”
Railee swallowed. “Then we wait and hope our… your desire for me grows over the next month! If we fail once, it will not open again.”
Darwin glanced at the hole. Dust sifted out from within it, getting denser as he looked.
“Do not trust her, Master! Let us wait and go together,” Malkor said from behind. A quick glance revealed his manservant stood not far away. Punishment for his insubordination would come later. “Malkor, you go first, now!” he shouted.
“No, we haven’t the strength for another!” Railee screamed.
Dashing without caution into the roiling darkness, Malkor vanished, leaving a last glimpse of his red robe billowing out behind him.
Releasing his hand, Railee tried to pull away, but he kept his grip, squeezing tighter. Striding past her, he hunched over and pulled her inside. The translucent white of her Flow illuminated the way. Twisting vertical at first and then horizontally, it spiraled through the whirlwind holding the raging whirlwind above and to the sides at bay, though not for long. Already he had to shuffle sideways or risk touching the Flow, which would likely unravel it.
Bending farther, he moved as fast as he could, his back protesting with twinges of pain. He couldn’t crawl and maintain his grip on her hand. His mangled arm assured that.
Railee resisted, the pull on his good arm growing stronger.
Ahead, an absence of the roiling chaos spinning around them beyond the twisting barrier of the Flow indicated they’d reached midpoint. Bending yet farther, putting heavy strain on his ankles, he staggered into the eye of the maelstrom, pulling Railee with him.
The light from the Flow winked out, plunging them into semi-darkness. Rock and gravel colliding within the fury of the whirlwind sent tracers of brilliant multicolored light flashing by in long lines.
Darwin let go of Railee’s hand and straightened. Gently, he slipped his palm under her chin and urged her to stand. Once she had, she wrapped her arms around him fiercely and cried. Her low sobs were loud with the deathly quiet inside the storm. Pressing her close, his good hand rubbed the small of her back.
After a time, Railee loosened her grip, pushing back a little to look him in the eyes. “Do you not know what you have done? The wind door does not move away, it be tethered to this precise spot. You have doomed us to die the lingering death of thirsting. We have a scant few days at most.”
Darwin glanced around, avoiding looking at one spot too long. The whirling lines were hypnotic. “Do you think Malkor made it through?”
Railee shuddered, her small firm stomach quivering beneath his arm. “I am uncertain. Methinks he may not have had the time.” Pressing back into him, she shuddered again.
Despite their predicament and the probable loss of a friend and servant, his body responded to the innocence of the move. So did his thoughts. She was at her prime, lean and strong, the most desirable to him. He shook his head to clear it. “There must be another way. Surely the Servants of Eons come and go; a door may open at any time.”
Railee shook her head, even before he stopped speaking. “The servants are solitary. Even so, should a wind door be opened, we wouldn’t know of it. Each one is attuned to those who have an attachment to each other, they could pass through us, and we would never know.”
Railee slumped against him, her dejection evident with her quivering. All of a sudden, he wanted her, had to have her. “As long as we are alone and going to die a slow death, we should make use of our togetherness. We may not have the energy later.”
“A single jump into the stormy abyss will end the threat; we do not have to wait.” Railee looked toward the churning whirlwind, but she made no move to walk way. Her hands slid to his hips.
Darwin kissed her then. Railee responded by opening her mouth and pressing her lips to his. He tasted the saltiness of her tears. He pressed hard against her. The allure of her was strong… he broke off the kiss and clutched her hand. “Open the wind door, let’s do it again while we’re so close!”
“My energy is gone! I used all I had the first time, I am sorry.”
“Open it now or I combat it with as much Flow as I can gather.”
Railee shook her head sadly, such a lovely move in itself. “Do that and it will destroy you; your Flow will be sucked from you at an uncontrollable rate. You will become a pillar of Flow, burning as a bright dark flame until consumed,” she said softly, desirably.
His need ascended a notch. “Then help me. What do we have to lose? We die here or we die trying to escape. Which is it, Railee?”
Squeezing his hand with a firmness that surprised him, Railee opened a conduit.
Using the path she provided, he joined her, pulling in the sweet succulence of the Flow. Coated with an ever-deepening blackness, he drew it in. Weaving through white until entwined, the coupled Flow ra
ced through him as it flew through Railee and gathered at their outraised, embraced hands. He’d never known such power, not the first time they had come together to open the wind door, not in his whole life. He exulted in it. This was true power. This was what he had spent his life searching for, unimaginable strength. This was where he was most alive, brimming with the great power of the Flow.
Darwin wanted to draw it all in, always more, but he would pillar if he did. “Now, Railee! Release the power, open the wind door!”
Railee complied. Twisting from their hands, the Flow ribbon climbed a story high in the maelstrom, parted it, and held it at bay.
“Run!” Railee screamed.
Slipping his arm around her waist, he ran.
Though it was awkward with their hips touching, they made better time, as if they leapt along a floor in some macabre dance.
Keeping the door open was harder, this time. The Flow streamed from his body reservoir at alarming rate, nearly draining him before going far. Forced to slow, he drew deeply from the river of power. The ceiling dropped steadily closer.
Siphoning from the river, Railee slowed notably.
Darwin pulled her along, pushing with the strength of adrenaline. “Keep moving!”
Ahead, light beckoned.
Bouncing against each other, oftentimes painfully, like a pair of drunken seafarers trying to catch a departing ship, they ran. The light became brighter as the ceiling shrank closer. As one, they bent over and fought for some little speed.
Light bloomed all about, exploding into the shrinking tunnel before them.
The Flow bled from Darwin, dwindling like smoke through his fingers. “Jump!” he yelled.
The tunnel gave way to a red stone floor.
Darwin found he lay painfully on his crippled shoulder. Droplets of blood spattered the floor below him coming from somewhere on his head, the part of him that throbbed, bringing eye-cringing pain with every new beat of his heart. After a time, the throbs subsided.
Someone rolled him over.
Malkor squatted beside him, an odd look of relief—and disappointment perhaps—on his narrow face. “My Lord, I thought you lost when the tunnel collapsed. Was the woman not strong enough?”
Offering his hand, his manservant helped him sit and then placed his hands on his head, healing him without inquiring if he needed it. Darwin did not object. He knew he did.
Railee was sitting up and fared better. Able to catch herself with both hands, she had kept her head intact, though her palms bled, and she rubbed at a shoulder.
Darwin waited for the jolt of energy that informed him the healing had neared completion. “Save enough Flow to heal the woman, she shall guide us.”
Malkor reached for Railee, but she drew back. “I do not want his hands on me, and I have a name. It is not woman,” she said, her voice quavering slightly with pain at the end.
Darwin made a conscious effort at keeping his voice mild, though her reaction grated on his patience. Stopping to replace bandages cost precious time. “Let him help you. This shall be the only times he touches you, I promise.”
Raising her knees, Railee wrapped her arms around them. “Very well, but I shall hold you to it.”
Malkor dropped his arms to his waist. “If the woman has not the desire for healing, then I will abide by her first decision.” He stepped back, folding his arms at his waist.
Darwin stood quickly. A wave of weakness leftover from the restoring rocked him, making his words come harsher than he intended. “You will abide by my command, servant. Heal her. Or you will wish you had not healed me.”
Malkor’s eyes narrowed, making his narrow face seem skeletal as he lowered his head slightly. The shadows from the hood of his robe, in conjunction with the red light of the ruby glimmer shards mounted on the arched tunnel ceiling, darkened his features. “As the master commands the lowly servant, I shall obey,” he said, his nasal voice a hiss.
Darwin waited for the initial shock of the healing, the stiffening of Railee’s backbone, and then he turned his back on the pair, studying the way forward. Bored round, the height of two men, the tunnel cut through the red sandstone for some distance where a darker opening indicated the presence of a larger area.
Malkor shuffled beside him, the drag of his shattered leg more pronounced. “The healing is done,” he said, his voice waning at the last word. He sounded as tired as he looked.
Darwin imagined two heals had taken a lot, even from him. “You have done well, my loyal companion. Let us continue. Railee, will you guide us?”
The Red Rock warrior swept past. “Follow me,” she said, her hips swinging with a pleasant renewed vigor.
Darwin was pleased. The destination loomed within reach, adding energy to his step from the mere thought of it. Railee, too, must have felt his exuberance or had some of her own. The woman set a quick pace, the light of the ruby glimmer shards making it seem as if they strode into the throat of a great sea monster.
Malkor shuffled behind, his one good footstep slapping the stone and the other scraping the sandstone behind him.
Darwin hoped his companion and manservant could keep up. He did not want to have to come back for him once he acquired what he had come for.
HER SERVICE
The rounded tunnel ended at a room created from an underground fast-moving stream that raged beside the slippery path of its older passage. The water vanished at the far end of a cavern the size of two pavilions. Lifting the strap over his head, Darwin removed his empty kell flask from under his black robe.
Railee put her hand on his wrist. “Not here, one slip would prove fatal. Such water will sweep one away in an instant.”
“I am well aware of the consequences of falling,” he snapped and then regretted his quick words when she jerked her hand away, as if shocked by the touch of him. He softened his voice. “I’m willing to take the risk, my servant requires it.”
Railee glanced back the way they had traveled. “I appreciate his healing, but we are safe inside Slick Rock Caverns now. Should you choose so, your servant may wait at the cisterns in the next room. I will see he has sustenance brought to him as we leave the caverns and enter Red Rock.”
Darwin pretended to consider. They were so close. Losing her guidance now could ruin it all. “I shall wait for easier access as you suggest. However, you should know, Malkor has other uses beyond healing. I desire him to remain with us for a while longer,” he finally replied. He kept his voice low, though loud enough for hearing over the din of the fast-moving water. Malkor made his careful way along the slippery path to them.
Railee frowned but held her tongue as Malkor shuffled to them. Once he came close, she led the way though a rough-edged door that opened upon a carved cavern thick with humidity and heat. There, she paused, allowing a view of the room.
Twenty rectangular cisterns lined one wall. Sloped troughs flowed with switchback formations to seven pools on the opposite side. Brown- and white-skinned, the people of Slick Rock Caverns wore soft cloths or nothing as they sat about conversing or soaked in the pools. Only the first two of the seven tarns were empty, the water dark and pungent, and the flow from the troughs feeding them was but a trickle. Their guide continued past.
Climbing a set of three stairs at the third, Railee stopped upon a carved landing. Pulling her flask over her head by the strap, she thumbed open the stopper, letting it fall and hang by the string attached to the carved wooden pin fastened to the top.
Darwin dipped his flask in the streaming water before it burbled into the trough. Filling it, he drank slowly and in silence, following Railee’s deliberate example.
Malkor paused with them, drinking noisily. Afterward, he splashed water onto his face and poured it over his head, letting it run down his back, soaking his red robes. A puddle of water formed at his feet.
Glancing behind them, Railee stoppered her flask and flung it over her shoulder. “We should move on.”
Darw
in agreed. A crowd had gathered. “What do they wish of us?” he asked, tilting his head toward the crowd.
Railee motioned for the Slick Rock Caverns people to continue with their bathing. Most of the throng dispersed, albeit reluctantly. “Wasting water here, even a single drop, is considered sinful and is a serious offense.” Without waiting for a reply, she descended to the walkway. To the right and left, bored tunnels led deeper within the rock.
Darwin scowled at his longtime companion. “Stay vigilant, fool; their customs are not the same.” He gestured for Malkor to go ahead so he could watch him. His manservant’s progress was better; his limp appeared less pronounced, though his ruined leg would always slow him.
Their guide allowed them to catch up when she stopped to speak to two sheer-clothed women and a man. All three glowered at Malkor as he limped closer. “Please send someone. He will know what to do,” Railee was saying when they came within hearing.
Malkor frowned. “Who will know?” he asked.
Ignoring the question, Railee set off for the end of the cavern, striding faster this time. Impatient with Malkor’s hobbling, Darwin passed him, closing the distance to the Red Rock woman as she strode underneath an open-walled archway and into the blazing sun of midday. High cliffs of brown granite rose above the red sandstone on the three sides adjoining it, curving dome-like toward the center.
Darwin gaped. Cultivated fields spread wide before them. Wheat swayed gently there. In another, rows of vegetables sloped slightly downhill from the sandstone cliff, and a shaded area at the base of the granite cliff sheltered thriving fruit-bearing trees. He could hardly believe his eyes. The desert people were father advanced toward total self-sufficiency than most cultures on Astura.
Railee selected a trodden path that circumvented the fields by staying above them in the shade of the red cliff. A trough carved at the cliff base showed the simple efficiency of the irrigation in place using the underground river as the source.
Before they had traveled far, Darwin broke a sweat; the place was scorching after the coolness of the cave.
Beyond the Dark Gate Page 16
