by Неизвестный
" Yes, you are quite right."
" Let' s walk. And keep track of where we are. I want to get back out of here as soon as we find Inyx."
" Friend Lan Martak, you worry too much."
They walked. And walked and walked. Lan made no effort to remember the turnings, the corridors, the slightly curving halls they traversed. The initial confusion he' d experienced entering the Twistings made it worthless trying. Still, he learned one thing quickly. Most of the monsters were real. Only a few- usually the wraith creatures- were illusory.
" How' d this maze ever come to be built?" he asked, more to hear his own voice than for a response.
" The Twistings is underground," said Krek. " I can sense the rock above my head, all around. From the ' feel' I get, the corridors were burned out of solid rock, possibly by fire elementals."
" The sorcerers just turned the elementals loose to honeycomb the planet' s crust? Why?"
" Who can say what a sorcerer thinks? From association with you and other humans, my best conjecture is that something even more vile lived underground. The elementals burned them out, leaving the tunnels as a by- product."
" And somewhere along the way," concluded Lan, " the Lord turned this into a mind- twisting maze- a prison- for those whom it wouldn' t do to execute."
" Possibly this obsession with mazes had a more benign origin."
" What do you mean?"
" Most cultures enjoy puzzles, mazes. I know my own hatchlings enjoy contriving new and more intricate web patterns. Perhaps the original Lord used this as an amusement park, allowing people to wander around until they were tired."
" It' s possible, I suppose. They have a park in the middle of Dicca devoted to illusion. Remember how Jonrod mentioned only the rich were allowed in Knokno' s park?"
They walked in silence again, not encountering any creatures. The presence, the presence, Krek lent to their small party kept most of the maze creatures at bay. Lan came to learn the only ones attacking were the illusions, but he still felt a thrill of fear when they advanced. His magical powers weren' t honed finely enough yet to detect image from reality.
After a few hours of hiking, Lan said, " I feel as if I don' t want to leave- ever."
" Another magical spell? A compulsion?"
" Maybe so. But another idea comes to mind. The Lord taunted Silvain."
" About something inside the Twistings. Yes, friend Lan Martak, that may be it. Whatever it is of Claybore' s that has been lost is within the confines of the Twistings."
" Silvain wouldn' t enter himself, not until he was sure he could escape with what Claybore sent him to find. He' s afraid we' ll find it and destroy it."
" If it is part of Claybore' s body, it is indestructible," pointed out Krek.
" For the most part, you' re right. But Abasi- Abi had worked for years on a spell designed to get around such protection. I found it in his grimoire. If we can find what Silvain and Claybore are so interested in, we might be able to come out of this ahead of them at last."
The only warning of attack he had was a small scraping sound. Then Lan felt the metal dart enter his shoulder, twist, and firmly embed itself on barbed hooks. He slumped forward, the corridor spinning. Whoever threw the missile wasn' t an illusion. Lan turned painfully and glanced back, his vision blurring.
A mechanical readied another dart. Lan' s finger pressed down on the death tube' s trigger. The mech' s legs sheared off just under the hip. It crashed to the floor, struggling to bring its dart into play. Lan fired again. The beam lightly brushed the mech' s arm. At last only harmless pieces of their antagonist remained.
" Pull it out quick, Krek," he told the spider. Mandibles clamped on the finned dart. He almost fainted when the spider did as he was told. Blood trickled, then gushed from the wound.
" Allow me to bandage it," said Krek.
Lan felt spider silk touching his skin, binding solidly. In less than five minutes Krek had woven a tight bandage over the wound. The pressure directly on the entry point staunched the blood flow until Lan could begin his own healing spells.
The man didn' t dare carry those spells too far. It presented him a case of lesser evils. If he completely healed the wound, he' d be too weak from the penalties the magics subtracted from his vitality to be very effective in another fight. On the other hand, the wound itself weakened him. He cleansed the wound magically, then began a healing. When he was finished, he needed Krek' s aid in walking. He felt drained, exhausted from the use of the spell.
They went to where the mechanical' s face glowered up at them. Lan picked it up and stared into the glassy eyes.
" Why' d you attack? Did you think we were maze creatures?"
" Knoton ordered all humans killed." While it hardly seemed possible, Lan had the feeling the mech looked from him to Krek, wondering if Krek counted as human.
" Knoton' s a mechanical?"
Lan got no answer to that. He hadn' t expected one.
" Friend Lan Martak, hostility inside the Twistings is more than we expected. I can cope with illusion. We can both defend ourselves against mere physical attacks."
Lan' s shoulder twinged in pain.
" You' re suggesting we should retrace our steps and get the hell out of here, is that it?"
" Regroup is a better way of phrasing it. We can reenter the Twistings equipped to do battle, knowing what to expect. That will assure us a much better chance of success."
" You' re afraid my wound will keep me from fighting."
" There are dozens more mechanicals coming down the corridor," said Krek. " You cannot fight them all."
" We signal one another," said the mech' s head. Lan threw it from him in disgust. The head seemed too much like Claybore' s fleshless skull for him to tolerate its insolence.
" The room through which we entered is not far distant," said the spider. " Let us retreat, heal, return then."
" Let' s go," said Lan. He disliked the idea of stopping, even for a moment, his hunt for Inyx, yet Krek' s advice made sense. Even now he heard the metallic feet tramping down the adjoining corridor. Whether or not the mech had lied about signalling them didn' t matter. An army advanced on their position, and he and Krek were in no position for holding off warring elements in the Twistings.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Sharpened steel cut off a lock of her black hair. Inyx dodged the mechanical' s next slash, lunged. Her knife failed to penetrate the mech' s vitals. She and the robotic creature grappled and fell to the floor.
" Die, human," grated the creature as it struggled to roll on top of her. The woman fought desperately now. She' d been surprised by its sudden appearance, seemingly out of thin air. The mechanical outweighed her by a three- to- one margin. Once she lost advantage, she' d be dead. Her fingers groped, and she discovered a wire running up the mech' s back that sent an electric tingle up her arm. Grip tightening, she savagely yanked. The wire came free and the mechanical sagged, lifeless.
Fredek Fynn came running up, metal bar in his hand. He saw that Inyx had triumphed.
" Amazing," he said, admiration in his voice. " Few men ever best one of them in single combat. But where' d it come from? It just appeared in the middle of the nest."
" I got lucky stopping it." From his awestruck look she knew that wasn' t a good- enough explanation. " Here, look," she told him. " It' s not all that mysterious. This wire is similar to our arteries. I dislodged it and the mech simply: died."
Fredek examined the ragged end of the copper strand. He hesitantly touched it to the junction where it had been attached. The mechanical jerked spastically but did not come back to life.
" You' ve killed it," he said finally. " I' ll tell the others about this. It might give us a better chance."
" Any report from the scouts?" she asked.
" None. Knoton doesn' t maintain a base. He moves constantly through the maze."
" He knows it better than we do, that' s for certain. This attack proves it. Still, he needs somewher
e to repair his troops. I can' t believe he doesn' t have some fixed point for a base." Inyx had become the leader of the nest more by default than anything she' d actually done so far. She had carefully mapped out all entrances to the large room and had the more sane of her followers guard them. And still the mech leader had infiltrated at least one- the deactivated one at her feet- through their lines. Knoton had either discovered a hidden passage or burrowed through lines, silently killing more than a dozen human and near- human hybrid guards.
" He might not have the need for rest that we do," said the man. " To constantly explore increases his chances for survival."
" He has a base," she said firmly. " And find out how this one got into the nest. That worries me. Our security is worthless unless we discover his route in."
The man began probing the walls nearby while Inyx searched the fallen mech for any bit of information it might yield. She found nothing, but Fredek did.
" The illusions we encounter from time to time aren' t as vivid for the mechs," said Fredek. " See this wall?" He placed his hands flat against blank expanse.
" So?"
" Watch." Fredek' s hands vanished to the wrists, to the elbows. Curious, Inyx came to examine the section. Her questing hand vanished, too. While it appeared substantial enough, the wall wasn' t actually there at all.
" Illusion," she said glumly.
" I' ve heard it said that the Twistings know if you are a sorcerer. If so, the illusions are more real, more numerous. Others, like me, see very few, and those are only basic images. Walls." Fredek Fynn' s hand disappeared all the way to his wrist again.
" Does the Lord look into the Twistings?" she asked. " Perhaps that is the real source for the illusions."
Fredek shrugged.
" He," Inyx went on, " can meddle to his heart' s content with those able to appreciate his illusions. The others he couldn' t care less about. But this wall mirage is more basic than seeing monsters. It' s been here since I entered the nest."
" No one has found it before."
" How can you tell?" she asked bitterly, looking around the nest. The human and hybrid food- gathering party had returned and were again engaging in their own personal madnesses. Some sang to themselves, others argued with thin air, and still others descended into catatonia. It wasn' t a prepossessing army she led.
Fredek' s hand rested lightly on her shoulder.
" If anyone can escape the Twistings, you are the one. There' s something about you, Inyx, that won' t let you stop. No matter what the Lord does, you' ll escape.”
" It' s not the Lord I' m worried about at the moment. It' s Knoton. The mechs have a much more organized band. Why haven' t they killed all the humans by now?"
" We' re tougher than we look. You might say some of us fight with insane fury."
" Where' s the scouting party now? I' d like to know if they' ve located Knoton. This attack inside the nest means he' s become bolder and may be ready to launch a big attack against us."
" Let' s do some exploring on our own," said Fredek. He glanced at the spot in the wall where illusion plastered over the corridor.
" Just the two of us? That' s risky." She wanted more than just Fredek to back her up before following this path. Knoton had known of it; an ambush might lay ahead. But Inyx was a realist. There weren' t any humans or hybrids left in the nest she' d trust. Her ablest troops were scouting for the exit from the Twistings, for Knoton, for anything that might aid them. Inyx heaved a sigh and picked up her knife. " All right. Let' s explore."
She closed her eyes and stepped forward. If she' d watched, there wasn' t any way she could have walked so boldly through what appeared to be solid wall. As it was, she felt a light tingle on her face and then only cool air. She walked forward, knife point leading the way. The darkness enveloped her and forced the woman to rely on other senses she' d sharpened since entering the Twistings.
Inyx heard Fredek behind. To either side came the soft susurration of air caressing solid. Ahead- nothing. She advanced with a step, test, full- weight stride. While skirmishing with Knoton, she' d seen several of the mech' s bodyguards vanish through the floor. The trap led downward. She' d tried to find the spot again after the fight but had failed. Either it had vanished or she' d gotten turned around in the maze and had not found the proper spot again.
In the Twistings, either was possible.
A rectangle of dim light showed ahead. She slowed her snail' s pace even more and held out her arm to stop Fredek. Inyx spoke to him in a low voice.
" Back me up. I' m going to look. If anything happens, run for the nest and don' t try to rescue me."
" Knoton' s ahead, isn' t he?"
" I can feel him," she said.
Inyx advanced, eyes fixed on the light. When she was twenty yards away from the doorway, she dropped to her belly and began crawling. She' d learned that the mechs' vision often failed to pick up slowmoving objects at floor level. Inyx vowed to be very slow- moving.
Rusty clanking noises greeted her. The voices of arguing mechanicals soon drowned out that sound. When she peeked around the door frame, she saw what she' d suspected existed and what no human had found. Knoton did have a base. He fostered the myth of constantly being on the move to give added protection. Dozens of mechs were in various stages of disassembly. This corresponded to a mechanical hospital where technicians worked to restore limbs and sight and mobility.
" Kill them. Kill them all!" raged Knoton.
Inyx sought out a pile of discarded metal parts and hid behind it. She then watched, unobserved.
" I counsel caution. This new human, this Inyx. We can deal with her."
" You' re wrong, Kolommo. She is like the rest. The Lord is human; he casts us into this foul, deadly place. She is human. We can kill her in revenge."
" You," accused Kolommo, " seek only revenge. Knoton, she is right when she says we are all exiles together now with the same common enemy. If we worked as a single unit-"
" No!"
Knoton' s vehemence made Inyx cringe. This Kolommo appeared to be the second in command. Ideas formed in Inyx' s brain. Remove Knoton and deal with a more rational mechanical. It could be done. It had to be done, if any of them were to escape the Twistings.
She duck- walked: back to the darkened corridor. On silent feet she rejoined Fredek. Motioning him back toward the nest, she hiked in silence until they emerged again in familiar territory.
" They have a base, don' t they?" he demanded.
" They do. And I see a way to carry this fight to them. Whatever happens, we' ve got to take out Knoton. From then on- it might be easier for all of us."
Inyx went to plot strategy.
" The scouts are back," shouted Fredek. Inyx saw a small bandfewer in number than when it had left- tiredly walking down the main corridor leading into the nest. She rose and went to stand beside Fredek.
" What did you find?" she demanded of the party leader.
The smile greeting her made her wince. Three teeth had been knocked out recently, leaving bloody spaces in his mouth. But the smile was one of triumph.
" A room, some distance away, guarded by every maze creature we' ve ever seen and a few that are new to us."
" A guarded room? In the Twistings?" That by itself was curious. The entire maze was one giant locked room.
" We couldn' t make much headway, but we did find the spot where the blue creatures are spawned."
He gestured to a woman lugging a large pack. Inside were dozens of small yellow fruits.
" They' re cannibals," he explained with some distaste. " These are their eggs- or whatever you' d call them. Eventually they hatch into blue globs."
" And that' s what they live on- that' s what we live on," Inyx said.
" We learned how to decoy them, too. That' s how we got these. We found a group of the cappers and chased them into the spawning area. That made the blue monsters spittin' angry. They came rushing out, jaws snappin' shut and chompin' down on anything and ever
ything in sight." He stood, proud of his accomplishment. For all the years people had been exiled to the Twistings, this was the first real systematic exploration that had been done.
Inyx felt a curious combination of elation and emotional depression. The scouting party had found the single room in the Twistings that the Lord guarded with maze creatures and more. Further, she saw how to defeat Knoton and his mechanicals. But it would be bloody. Many would die, both human and mechanical, and in between.
" Can you get the monsters attacking down this corridor?" she asked, sketching out the location she meant. The quick nod convinced her the time had come.
One way or the other, the civil war in the Twistings would be over soon.
" Quiet," Inyx hissed. " They' ll hear us." She sent the word back along the line of eager, kill- crazed humans slowly wending their way down the darkened corridor Fredek had discovered. Ahead gleamed the rectangle leading into Knoton' s base camp and repair area. The coming battle would decide all.
" When do we fight?" demanded one of her less stable men. " I want to kill, kill, kill!"
" Soon," she soothed. " When we hear the blue globs attack them. Then we follow in." She wanted the maze creatures to do as much of the fighting as possible. Let Knoton fight them off; then, when the mech leader least expected it, she would attack.
Her ragtag band grew increasingly restive. They weren' t used to discipline. When Inyx heard loud chomping sounds, she knew that they didn' t have to wait any longer. Fredek and the scouts had decoyed the blue monsters into Knoton' s camp. Now came the real fight.
" Forward!" she cried. The humans surged behind her, waving clubs made from mech legs and human thigh bones, makeshift knives, anything that swung or cut. They burst into Knoton' s camp and found the metallic beings in disarray. The blue monsters had rampaged through, causing great destruction. Inyx hated to admit it, even to herself, but this carnage sickened her. These weren' t flesh- and- blood creatures; they were the product of some mage or technician.
But they lived. They thought. They experienced life. Not as she knew it, but they sensed they were alive.
