My use of power wiped all the hilarity from Nansi’s face. She came towards me, moving silently on the balls of her feet. Her glittering eyes were glassy blanks, but the electric thrill of the hunter was evident in her movements.
“How odd the truth is!” She bared those black teeth of hers. “To have you delivered into my hands is unlooked-for fortune. I will destroy you, Anna-Marie, and then I will possess Delany Corp, and the irony is that you’re helpless to stop me!”
“Not helpless, Nansi Ruhanna.”
“So you’ve realised who I am?” She laughed again. “How very clever of you! But how did you save the child?”
I shook my head. “Trade secret. One such as you will understand.”
Blackmail she recognised, my hint that I knew more of her secrets, and her gaiety died. “Draoi, this one is dangerous! She’s a spy, a witch and worse! All of them are a threat to us, an insult to the spirit of this place! Let me eliminate them!”
“There’s too much killing in you, Nansi,” the tall magician said calmly. “I see no reason to harm them. Ruane, release that woman and let her be reunited with her child.”
The construct obeyed and Meeka ran to me, tearing Angel free of my grasp. Her glare consigned me to the same class as Nansi—a monster who sought to harm her baby. My fear that she would see any similarity between me and her Angel was groundless. Even stripped of my assumed colours, she still wouldn’t see the match. Her hatred made her blind to what was plain enough to me.
“Listen to me, Draoi.” Nansi moved close to the man and adopted a wily, pleading attitude. “This woman is one of the greatest enemies our cause could have. She represents all that’s bad in the Terran government, their secrecy and manipulative tricks and, far worse than that, she’s a pillar of the technology we abhor. Have you never heard of the Delany Corporation, whose computers pervade the fabric of every planet in the galaxy? She’s the head of that accursed organisation. Strike her down and you strike at the very core of the blight that erodes our lives. Her death would be a mighty blow for the glory of our cause!”
Indecision trickled into the magician’s brown eyes.
“Do you trust her word?” I demanded. “Her uncle runs Transyst-Interworld. Admittedly they don’t sell quite as much hardware as Delany, but they have a large piece of the market. She wants my death to buy control of my family’s corporation, to sell even more of the technology you misguidedly despise. She cares nothing for your crusade, only for her own selfish whims.”
“Lies!” Nansi squealed. “Terran lies! Don’t listen to her!”
“You’re mad, Draoi, if you trust her.” I insisted.
The man smiled, quieting Nansi with an imperious gesture. “Then perhaps I am insane, Terran witch. Nansi Ruhanna is my friend and has been my close companion for the past six months. I am aware of her origins and the business of her family. I know also that she’s turned her back on all of that and embraced the beliefs of our cause. She shares my vision of a natural, free galaxy. You ask me if I trust her, if I place her advice above yours? You’re a stranger, in my company for less than half an hour. Can you not answer your own question?”
“Your silver-haired lady will betray you.” I predicted. “When you’re convulsing in the dirt with her assassin poison in your veins, remember that you were warned—”
Nansi struck me across the cheek, savage hatred in the set of her face. I shifted my weight to ride the blow and it was more sound than feeling.
“Let me kill her!” the woman begged. “Let me kill her now!”
“No.” Draoi was implacable. “You’ll harm none of them. There is a better way. They will be judged by a higher authority, by the powers of this place. If they are innocent, they may leave Tambouret unscathed, but if they are found wanting, they will be punished. Death or freedom, the choice is in the hands of the djinn. All of you—leave us now.”
The brown-haired Tambou signalled to Ruane, then called to the handful of others who still laboured in the clearing. One by one they withdrew, vanishing into the ebon shadows of the forest. Only Nansi hesitated.
“My command also extends to you.” Draoi seemed only amused by her disobedience. “Go now.”
“I fear they will escape...” Her voice faltered.
“What, escape my Master?” Draoi let the question hang in the cool air.
Nansi sketched a low ritual bow and walked stiffly away. Draoi waited until the woman passed out of sight between the trees before bringing his attention back to us.
“The eldest moon is setting.” He sniffed the air, his eyes narrowing. “Dawn is less than an hour away and before it breaks, you will know your fate. Please follow me into the body of the clearing.”
Lyall stared in utter amazement at the man’s unprotected back, as he walked around the recumbent stone to its far side. “Why in heaven’s name should we obey you? What’s to stop us overpowering you and returning to the city, carrying word of your perverted cult to the authorities?”
Draoi faced us, quiet confidence inscribed on his perfect features. “You cannot run, nor hide, nor raise a hand against me. You’re welcome to try any of the three if you care to, just to prove my point.”
“Don’t be so cocky!” Lyall snarled. “You’ll need a guardian angel to protect you from me—”
“Lyall!” I cut in. “He has worse than that! Don’t you sense the evil in this place?”
My warning wasn’t enough; the telepath unleashed his repressed fury and charged straight at Draoi over the fallen stone. As soon as he touched the monolith he stopped short, as if he’d cannoned into an unseen wall, his feet rooted to the spot. Agony transfixed his limbs, sculpting them into pain-wracked shapes and casting invisible splinters of hurt out into the night, which my attuned mind caught and suffered. The magician smiled, delighting in this sadistic evidence of his malevolent protection. I couldn’t bear the torture and snatched Lyall from the Wish-stone, lowering him carefully to the grass. He fell to his knees, groaning, and Chandre sprinted to his side.
“You’ll pay for that interference, witch!” Draoi’s smile vaporised. “Patience fails me. All of you, to this side of the stone, now!”
Meeka was the first to move, cradling the now quiet child in her arms. Lyall limped into place, leaning heavily on Chandre. I had no choice but to follow and keep them close enough for teleport, although I was still so weak that it would have to be a last ditch effort. Zenni lurked in the back of my skull and his unease at the situation matched mine.
“We could bring Brimstone down there.” Jeb suggested.
No! That was my intuition talking and I tried to justify its instant, absolute denial. Too dangerous. Stay in orbit, Zenni.
Draoi stepped onto the monolith and the very contact seemed to restore his energy. His pale skin glowed as a pearl might in moonlight, and the dying bonfire rose up like a phoenix to throw blood-coloured shadows over his scarlet hair. Dark power boiled within him, a vast ocean of demonic evil barely contained within its fragile human vessel. For a time he surveyed us, communing silently with that unearthly power, and I hadn’t the guts to try and probe his mind; then, abruptly, he swung around, levelling an accusing finger at a dark shape pressed into the shadows at the edge of the clearing.
“Nansi Ruhanna!” His voice was sepulchral, and a ray of violet light flew from his outstretched hand to outline the woman. Nansi had drawn a cloak about her to cover her silver skin and mirror hair, but the eerie light robbed her of all concealment. She took one step into the clearing before her courage failed under the magician’s stern gaze.
“You dare disobey?” Draoi demanded in the ringing tones of a stage actor, only a fraction shy of overplaying the scene. “If you would face my judgement then join these unlucky captives, but know what it is you face. Once I appear, in the full glory of my aspect, only the innocent will leave this place alive. If in your heart there lies deceit or guilt, then tremble! Death is the reward of sin, death and the utter damnation of the soul! Do you dare face that, m
y sweet, lovely Nansi?”
“Draoi?” She searched his face for some trace of humanity and found none. “I won’t defy you again, I swear it! Forgive me!”
“I spare your pitiful life.” The lilac halo winked out. “Begone, Nansi! Adieu!”
This time she didn’t pause. Her fear was a tangible thing and it kept her running until I lost track of her in the forest.
“Earthwoman.” Draoi turned his gaze on me and I could sympathise with Nansi’s flight. Nothing in his features had altered, yet a malicious intelligence burned in his dark eyes. “Come here, closer to me. I would speak with you.”
“You, Draoi, or that which inhabits you?” I hid a shiver. “I have nothing to discuss with demons!”
The moment was ripe for leaving. I took a step back into the centre of the group, caught them all up in my personal field and teleported. We failed to dematerialise and a bright purple net enclosed us, sucking up my psychic energy like a sponge. My knees changed phase to the proverbial jelly as the web vanished, leaving me too weak to make a second attempt to reach Brimstone. Lyall gripped my elbow to steady me, guessing the significance of this fresh pyrotechnic display. Chandre saw it too, and her open mind filled with dismay at the most powerful of her agents being rendered helpless.
“I think we do have something to discuss!” The devil within Draoi chuckled mirthlessly. “Come here, child.”
Anna, what happened? Zenni shrilled. What did he do to baulk our teleport?
I think he threw a magical spanner into the works. I can’t try again—I haven’t the strength.
I know. What will you do?
Talk to him. My skin crawled at the idea of approaching the man. Buy a little time. Draoi seemed to attach some importance to the coming of dawn. Perhaps his demon loses its power when the sun rises?
Illogical. Zenni paused. Worth a try. Bear in mind that Jeb and I can make the descent to that clearing in a shade under seven minutes.
If I give the word, pull out all the stops. I was still unwilling to call Brimstone down to this place, so close to the nameless force that lurked under the stone. Until then, stay where you are.
“Anna-Marie!” Draoi’s voice cut through my thoughts. “You reach a decision very slowly for a spy. Waste no more time! Come here!”
Lyall held me back, then his hand fell from my arm. I slowly crossed the small space of crushed grass and halted before the Wish-stone. The magician smiled down at me with enough warmth in his eyes to guarantee meltdown of most female hearts, extending one slim hand. “Come up here beside me. We should talk as equals.”
There was no way I could step onto the monolith. I recoiled from it, for it seemed that the spiral carvings crawled across its surface, radiating a pall of evil. “I’d rather stay down here, thank you.”
Draoi grinned, or rather the thing within him did. “As you will. I have a bargain to put to you, my dear. I am prepared to offer you the chance to free your friends. What do you say to that?”
“How can I trust you? You’ve proved false before.”
“It was Nansi who betrayed you, not I. She has an agressive, violent temperament and, in spite of all my efforts to re-educate her, she improves only gradually. When Madame Marteen and the little girl stumbled into our gathering, Nansi’s first thought was to kill them both. I had to step in to save their lives, so you can afford to trust me.” Although Draoi himself was sincere, he was only a puppet. I knew I could no more trust his master than I could trust the hurricane. “The terms of our bargain are very simple. In return for one small favour, all of your friends will be released. They will not be molested by my people and they will be allowed to leave Tambouret unchallenged, this I promise you. If you require it, we can even bring you proof of their safe return home, to Earth.”
“What is this favour?” I asked, cagey to the last.
“Stay with my people for a while, listen to my arguments. In time, perhaps I can convince you of the truth of my visions. You have power, little witch. Nansi fears it, but I think you could be useful to our cause.”
“Your pet assassin helps you.” I shifted from foot to foot, stealing a glance over my shoulder. The others stood like statues, straining to catch our words, trying to guess if I would save or betray them. “Isn’t she enough?”
“Nansi is unreliable. Certainly I can manipulate her, using terror and greed, but one day she will fail me.” His ethereal features blazed with the glow of his inner vision. “Can’t you see the destruction that the path of technology is leading us to? The ever-present computer that erodes our minds and the easy idleness of our electronic lifestyle that rots our bodies. I can foresee a day when humanity will be reduced to a race of button-pushing mindless wretches, fit for nothing but an indolent slide towards the relief of death. Mankind must be given back its liberty now, before it’s too late. Can’t you accept that what I’m doing is for the ultimate salvation of the human race?”
“Not all technology is wrong. It freed us from drudgery, eradicated much of our suffering and disease, made us healthier, happier and able to live longer. Science has shown us wonders and its greatest gift was the stars.” I tried to touch some persisting fragments of logic in his dream-mad mind. “Would you really turn your back on all that?”
“I must.” His mouth set into a stubborn line. “As must we all, if we would survive. All machines are inherently evil, and computers are the spawn of Satan himself. We must rid ourselves of them before we damn our souls for all eternity. This task has fallen into my hands. Will you help me?”
I didn’t need to speak. He read the answer in my eyes.
“You silly little fool!” His voice boomed through the clearing and Meeka whimpered, the sound echoed by Angel. Their fear cut me to the quick but it made no difference to my decision. “This refusal condemns all of them—and for what? Your stupid human pride?”
“I can’t join you, can’t be so untrue to my beliefs and myself.” I dared to look up into those beautiful, borrowed eyes. “I won’t.”
A ball of cold fire exploded in my face, hurling me ten feet through the air, sending me sprawling on the grass. Behind me, Chandre cried out, but I kept my silence, squinting through the brilliant afterflash.
“You dare to defy me, Terran witch?” Draoi roared, his voice transcending human limits. “Look upon my true face, mortal, and learn your error! The time for payment is here—and none of you shall escape!”
An icy wind rushed across the clearing, extinguishing the remnants of the bonfire. Darkness engulfed us, blotting out Tambouret’s bright stars, until the sole light in the glade was the eerie phosphorescence of the magician’s alabaster skin. He chanted a string of words in a harsh, acid tongue that made the hair crawl on the back of my neck. A sickly purple glow lit the fallen stone under his feet, and by that arcane light, we saw Draoi drop to his knees in obscene supplication to his master. The illumination ballooned out to surround him, until it was a globe some thirty feet across. It flared to white, obscuring the crouching form of the red-haired man.
I don’t suppose it’s a hologram? Zenni asked nervously.
It isn’t. I gritted my teeth to stop them banging together. The taint of evil was now a nauseating stench in my nostrils and its aura turned my flesh to water.
The manifestation curdled to dull yellow, cooled through orange and ended at the gut-wrenching colour of fresh blood. Its centre began to boil and fill with an oily, noisome fog. The stench became physical, a horrific blend of charred hair, rotting fish and exhumed corpses. Within seconds, the miasma enclosed us. Angel started to cry and Meeka gagged.
The sudden noise startled me out of inaction. If I couldn’t get them to safety, I could at least spare them this ordeal. I brushed the sleep centre in Meeka’s head and she fell in a senseless heap, her body cushioning Angel’s landing, although the child was also out cold before the pair of them reached the ground. I spared a second to check their condition and Lyall beat me to Chandre. With the advantage of skin contact he was able to
put her under as softly as a caress, and he lowered her tenderly to the ground. I reached for his mind, but his toughest defences were in place. I wormed around on one elbow to look him full in the face.
“Lyall, let me!” I pleaded. “You don’t have to suffer this.”
“One of us has to stay conscious.” He was pasty white and his eyes were bleak. “I volunteer. Let me push you into sleep.”
“You can’t face that. I’m not sure I can, but my chances are better than yours.” I reached again, but the wall was too strong. “Lyall...”
“Earthwoman!” It was Draoi’s voice, twisted beyond all imagination. It was the barest whisper, yet it thundered through the fabric of my being. Hearing it filled me with incredible ecstasy and unendurable revulsion at one and the same time. “You will face me!”
I hadn’t the slightest intention of obeying that order, but something dragged my head around inch by inch, despite my every effort to stop it. I clenched my eyes shut, yet my eyelids were raised, millimetre by unwilling millimetre, and I had to look.
The evil I had sensed had taken solid form, crouching in the heart of a red pulsating fog. It squatted on the recumbent stone, the twisted lump of its shoulder a good twenty feet from the ground. The carmine haze cleared and it became visible in all of its terrible glory, yet only the plane nearest to us was fully in focus, as if the beast flouted the laws of perspective.
I believe it had six limbs; only the first pair were apparent, jointed and muscled like giant human arms, ending in immense hands with six fingers, each tipped by a crimson scimitar of a claw. Its skin was coal-black and scaly, unevenly patched with scarlet hair, matted and filthy. Arching up from its shoulders was a pair of vast parchment wings, as wide as a dragon’s, as black as a bat’s. Its head was in the sharpest focus, a monstrous parody of Draoi’s handsome face, marred with warts and rodent ulcers. Its brow was crowned with hair, dirt-encrusted vermillion, running alive with bloated brown lice, each as large as my hand. Its mouth was a slash carved from ear to ear, with needle-teeth prickling in their hundreds from each jaw. It licked bloodless lips with a soot-black tongue, slavering a viscous grey-green slime down its chin. Only its eyes were the magician’s own, deep brown pools hideously out of place when set against the sum of diabolic features. An unearthly violet glow burned in their depths.
The Beauty of Our Weapons Page 20
