by Galen Wolf
"Okay," Severan said, secure now himself. "I'm going to throw the rope back to you. Anchor it your side Gaijann with the other piton, and then we'll have a rope bridge that you can come over."
"Not so much a bridge... more a washing line. But I get what you mean."
The assassin glanced up. Mehefin was still hanging on to her rock. Her fingers were white from the effort. He guessed they would be slippery with sweat by now. One slip and she was gone into the hole. Gaijann glanced back at Severan then at Mehefin. Her face was tight with fear. Just one slip and it wouldn't be anyone's fault.
Gaijann saw the rope snaking through the air across to him. He tried to catch it with his free hand, but missed. It slid into the hole.
"Sorry," he said. "Again."
Severan laboriously dragged the rope back, coiled it and threw it again.
It flew. This time Gaijann snapped his hand up and caught it.
"Good job," Severan said. "Anchor it."
Gaijann had the other piton ready. He placed it against the rock face and set it off to dig in. There was a burning smell and a cloud of fine dust. Once it was firm in the rock, Gaijann tied the c-s rope end to its eyelet. Then he pulled the rope so it was tight between the two pitons and formed a cord across the hole. He secured the knot, re-checked it. It wouldn't give.
"You go first," he said to Mehefin hanging above him on the slope. "Just let go of the rock and drop to me. You'll just slide down and I'll catch you as you go past."
"What if you don't?" She threw him a suspicious glance.
He grinned."Your life's in my hands, princess."
"What's the delay? What are you chattering about?" yelled Severan from the other side.
"Nothing," Gaijann said. He held onto the piton. He made sure he had a solid grip then pulled his knife from the rock and sheathed it. He was ready for her.
"Come on." He said to Mehefin.
"I don't trust you," she said warily.
"It doesn't look like you've got much choice," Gaijann said.
"You'll let me slide."
"Come on." Gaijann was impatient. He held out his hand.
"What's going on?" shouted Severan.
"Mehefin's scared."
"Why?"
"She thinks I'll let her slide into the hole."
Severan went quiet. Finally, he said, "Don't do that." His tone was grim, the threat evident.
Gaijann extended his hand to Mehefin, stretching as far as he could."Come on."
He watched her face. She was pale. Her eyelids fluttered.
Gaijann shook his head. "I won't let you go."
She licked her lips in fear. Then she suddenly let go of her rock. She plunged rapidly towards him, reaching out with her hand. He grabbed it, but her fingers were slick with sweat and they slipped through his. She screamed and slid past him towards the glowing chasm, ever accelerating.
"Fuck!" he exclaimed.
Severan roared in anger, "You treacherous bastard!"
Gaijann let go of the piton and slid after Mehefin. He sped down and as she went over the edge he grabbed her by her golden hair. She jerked, yelped in pain, but he held her. With his other hand, simultaneously, he grabbed the c-s rope.
He was hanging from the rope over the hole. Below him, about a thousand feet down, was a lake of mercury. From the silver liquid, hands extended, stretching up in mockery of his hand clinging onto Mehefin's hair. She reached up and wrapped both of her hands around his wrist. A fall would mean death, and she could pull him with her.
He was supporting the weight of two people on one hand and he felt the burden pulling his fingers.
"I can't hold her," he gasped. "She'll take both of us down."
Some property of the place made his words ring in echoes. The Library mocked him.
Severan was at the lip of the hole looking down, but too far to reach them.
"You must hold her," Severan said.
Gaijann felt his fingers slipping.
"Let me go," said Mehefin. "Save yourself."
Gaijann was certain that if he didn't let her go, she would pull him down. He had seconds — no more — to decide whether she died but he lived.
He looked up at Severan, "If I can change my grip, I can maybe swing us towards you."
"Okay," Severan said. "Do it."
But before Gaijann could do anything, Mehefin's weight dragged him down and they both fell.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN: Atorkh shows his mettle.
"So, back?" Atorkh extended his finger to point in the way they'd come. He sat up and dragged his spindly beard between his thin fingers and his skinny thumb. He looked perplexed.
Torina was standing. "Back is the only way. We've no way of getting over that." She jerked her thumb at the quicksilver river that their former friends had flown over.
Atorkh stood slowly. He appeared to have residual pain. "What if we just waded through it?" he grunted.
Torina rolled her eyes. "Do you know how deep it is? How strong the current is? What the hell that stuff would do to your legs if you put them in it?" Torina walked away in the direction they had come. "Anyway," she said, "this project has crashed and burned. If we stay in here much longer, we're dog meat."
"Lizard meat, maybe!" grinned Atorkh.
"You're such a dork."
They turned and picked their way back the direction they'd come.
Atorkh said, "You know what?"
"What?" Torina didn't look round.
"I think I know where the Librarians went."
"The Librarians?"
"You know. The people who built this place. Who started to collect knowledge here first of all."
"Oh yeah. Where did they go?"
The youth laughed uproariously. "I think the Library ate the Librarians."
Torina was tired. "Why would it do that?"
Atorkh fiddled with his beard as he walked. "Well, I think that once they got a certain amount of knowledge in here, and connected it up, the Library became conscious. It started to think for itself."
Torina gave Atorkh's idea some thought. "So it's alive?"
"Yeah, that's what the huge life signal was that I got on the systems when we arrived first. Not the life signal of things living in the Library but the Library itself."
"But if it's alive, how does it get energy?"
"By eating the Librarians, then any visitors. Maybe it's like a big snake. It gets a meal then sits and digests it for centuries."
"But it's been a long time since anyone was here."
"Yeah. It must be pretty hungry."
Time went on. Torina's head was down as she trudged back in the direction of the Silver Pool. Her pack was much lighter now - after fixing up first Severan and then Atorkh she had little in the way of healing supplies left. He hurried to catch up with her and tried to put his hand on her shoulder. "We'll be okay Torina. We'll get out of this."
She kept walking. The hand fell away.
"Maybe, when we're out and we get back to the ship, we could just hang out?"
She finally turned to him. "You don't give up, do you?" she said.
"Not where you're concerned. You're too fine."
"Too fine? That's some dated slang you got there. You'll be calling me a dish next." Despite herself, she began to grin.
"I get the slang from old movies. But you are."
"I am what?"
"A dish: you look like Michelle Pfeiffer in The Fabulous Baker Boys. Do you know who she was?"
"No."
"Old movies are a hobby of mine. I have a huge collection."
"A boy needs a hobby," she smiled.
"I'm not a boy!" he said indignantly.
Then the net fell on them.
The net was made of iridium-vanadium alloy. Though the metal was lightweight the sheer size of it knocked the Torina and Atorkh to the ground. The creatures that had been waiting in ambush rushed forward and secured their captives, bending their arms behind their backs and winding graphene loops around their wrists
. Torina knew the graphene was unbreakable.
"Kissag!" hissed Atorkh. "I didn't pick up any signals."
The Kissag sergeant kicked Atorkh in the head. "Shut up you stinking ape," he snarled then barked an order to his men. "Get them up." The lizards took the net off the now bound prisoners. The Kissag soldiers gave the keys to the graphene loops to the sergeant then they took the pistols from Torina and Atorkh's holsters.
"They must have guessed I was tracking them and shielded their comms," Atorkh said. But all the comment earned him was a Kissag smacking the butt of a rifle against the back of his head. Atorkh stumbled forward, to be stopped by a punch in the guts from the Kissag sergeant.
Torina looked at the wheezing, bleeding Atorkh. Her pack of healing supplies had been taken by a Kissag trooper and her hands weren't free to switch on the healing fields in her suit. She could do nothing. Atorkh glanced at her and faked a smile, shaking his head and mouthing, "It was nothing."
Torina's mouth set in a grim line. She wasn't going to die down here, and neither was Atorkh if she had anything to do with it.
The lizard troop prodded their captives with rifles to make them move back up the tunnel. The stumble developed into a run until the pace was merciless and whenever Torina or Atorkh fell back the lizards beat them with the butts of their guns. The lizards did not speak as they jogged on, but it seemed they were in a hurry. Torina took everything in - the haste the Kissag marched at, the little they said to each other, how brief and spare the orders were that their leader spat out. She looked for any sign of weakness in her captives and any detail that might help her escape. Torina also noticed that the tunnels weren't the same. She was sure they had come in the this direction but the tunnels looked different. She didn't understand how, but it meant that any escape to the surface was going to be harder than she had thought.
Eventually the Kissag sergeant ordered a halt. Torina's suit translated. She was glad she hadn't switched off the AI. One of the soldiers said to his comrades, "These tunnels change."
"The Library can't be trusted," said the Sergeant. "It thinks. It is an enemy that must be defeated."
"How long until the night?" asked one.
"Not long enough. Time's running out," another growled.
"Shut up!" snarled the sergeant. Then he pointed right into a different tunnel. "That way," he said. The Kissag pushed Torina and Atorkh with them. Torina looked and saw Atorkh's head was lolling down, blood dripping from his burst mouth. He was flagging and whenever he faltered he got another blow.
They half walked, half ran for around ten more minutes and then Torina saw a Kissag command post ahead. It was lit. There was a commander and his staff officers clustered around comms machines, computers and heavy weapons. The place looked like it had been rigged for defense.
The officers glanced up as the sergeant brought his prisoners in.
The biggest one snapped, "Are they damaged?" He wore dark banded armor with some sort of rank insignia. It was Kissag made and Torina didn't know the type. It looked heavier than Gaijann's but lighter than Severan's. In any case, she had no weapon that would cut through it. She contemplated her surroundings. There were about thirty Kissag there. She exhaled heavily and examined Atorkh. He looked in a bad way. If she could only switch on her suit's healing fields. They were the weakest frequencies she had, but they still worked. She tugged her hands in their graphene loops, but the controls on the front of her suit were out of reach.
"Not damaged, Captain Pta'h, no," said the sergeant, bowing his head in subservience. Then he shoved the prisoners proudly to his commanding officer.
"Good, Zaaal," said the Kissag leader. He looked at Torina. "This one is a woman," he said contemptuously. "She will know nothing. And this," he pointed at Atorkh, "is a boy. But he is not undamaged, sergeant."
It was hard to read expressions on the lizard faces but the sergeant's head bowed again."He is not badly hurt."
Captain Pta'h took Atorkh's face between his finger and thumb and examined it like it was a broken vase. He said, "Will you help me boy?"
Atorkh spat a mix of blood and saliva in the officer's face."Fuck you!"
The sergeant punched him savagely from the side, sending him sagging into the arms of two soldiers who held him up for their sergeant to punch again. He held back, waiting for his superior's command, but the command didn't come.
Pta'h wiped the slime from his face. He laughed. "You have spirit boy."
Atorkh kept his head up and his eyes defiant. Torina saw the bruising and the blood.
"I need your help," said Pta'h. He paused, studying Atorkh who gave nothing away. The Kissag nodded for his soldiers to loosen their grip. Atorkh sagged and the Kissag said, "You are familiar with an individual known as 'The Professor'?"
Atorkh didn't reply. Torina watched the sergeant's hand tighten into a fist ready to make him talk, but the officer waved it away. "Really, you should help us," said P'tah. "You are a mercenary, yes? You do this for money. You have no particular loyalty to The Professor?"
Atorkh was sullen and quiet.
"Speak!" screamed the sergeant into Atorkh's face. The boy flinched back.
"I don't know any Professor," muttered Atorkh.
"Thank you for replying," said Pta'h. He gave what could be a grin. "So what is your mission down here?"
Atorkh said something incomprehensible. Torina saw the sergeant, Zaaal, step forward. The soldiers on either side held Atorkh ready for a beating.
"Despite what you may have heard," said the Pta'h. "The Kissag are not barbarians. We're the same as you. We have a mission down here."
"I don't know what our mission was," Atorkh said.
Pta'h spoke to Zaaal. Torina's suit translated. "He's either telling the truth, in which case he is no use to us. Or he is lying, in which case, he's making me angry."
The sergeant's mouth opened and his serpentine tongue darted out, tasting the air.
The officer tried one more time. "We were paid by a man called the Professor. You may know him by another name. We were to be his bodyguards here in the Library. He was here to recover an artifact of power. Of course he didn't tell us what that was."
"He didn't tell us either," blurted Torina. Atorkh's glanced over, his eyes begged her to be quiet.
The officer and the sergeant regarded her with disdain and curiosity. "The woman does know something," the officer said to the sergeant. The sergeant grinned again. "Who'd have thought they would have trusted a woman with knowledge?"
"You know, Sergeant Zaaal, I don't like her face. But she has a good body." The lizards made a dry rustling sound like laughter.
"But first she should tell us what she knows."
Torina cleared her throat. "I don't know any more than we called him The Count."
"Another stupid title," said P'tah. "He likes to aggrandize himself with them." He walked up to Torina and studied her with his moss green eyes; his slit like pupils flared. "It occurred to my masters that we should not be the Professor's bodyguards, but instead follow him and take what he has come here for to ourselves."
"If this is his woman," said Sergeant Zaaal. "The boy could be persuaded to talk."
Pta'h looked thoughtful. "That might work."
"We could offer to release her unharmed if he cooperated," said Zaaal.
Pta'h's his tongue darted in and out like a snake's. "Indeed, the boy could save her life?"
Zaaal nodded. "If only he told us everything."
They spoke in the common tongue. Torina thought they were clearly trying to intimidate them. She shook her head. "No."
P'tah turned to his sergeant. "Brave."
Zaaal grunted. "Pointless."
Then Atorkh's head bowed. "I'll tell you."
Torina groaned. "Atorkh, the Kissag will rape, kill and eat us both anyway, whatever help you give them. That's their nature."
With a savage backhand, Pta'h struck her in her face. She reeled back. Pta'h snarled. "Do not suppose to tell the Kissag about the
ir nature."
The blow had broken two of her lower teeth. She spluttered blood and couldn't put her hand to her face to wipe it away.
Torina heard Atorkh's desperate voice. "Don't hurt her again. I'll tell you everything. Just release her hands. She isn't strong enough to fight you."
"No, she isn't," agreed Pta'h. "Should we free her hands, Sergeant?" Zaaal shrugged. Then he took the key from a pocket in the combat jacket over his armor. He dangled it in front of Atorkh. "With this?" he said. Then he shrugged. "We don't have to have her hands free to rape her. So, I am guessing not."
Pta'h brought his muzzle close to Atorkh's face. "You are going to die anyway boy, but if you tell us what you know, we will kill you before eating you."
"Though not before raping you," said Zaaal.
Atorkh blurted, "Please just let Torina go. Do what you want to me, but free her and let her run."
Zaaal scratched the scales of his nose as if considering something. Then he yawned. "I'll tell you what. Let us fight - you and me - man to man. If you can make me submit, I'll let her go."
"You filth!" yelled Torina. "You know he can't fight. He's a boy - a technician - not a soldier."
Atorkh nodded at her. "I'll fight him - if he'll let you go."
She felt tears fill her eyes. "He won't let either of us go."
"Maybe they will. Maybe they are as honorable as they tell us," Atorkh said.
"They are beyond flattery," Torina said. "Let's just get our deaths over quickly."
"No, let me try, Torina. Please."
Pta'h made a dry rasping noise in his throat. "But first, woman," he said, "Before I let you go, tell me about the Professor."
Atorkh blurted, "Him and Morah went ahead, over the Silver River. He's going to some room where this thing he wants is located. That's all I know."
"Two of them only?" said Pta'h. "What about your leader, the famous Severan?"
"I don't know," Atorkh said. "He went back with Gaijann. He's probably dead already or he would have caught up with us."
