Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (10 page)

'She might be alive,' she said hurriedly. 'And there's a hungry lorrsk down
there. I think I can see a way.'
She eased herself over the edge, feeling with her boot, knowing that what she
was doing was foolish in the extreme. She would never have attempted it in
daylight. Tallia found a foothold, another, tested it then moved down. Stones
slid underfoot and she skidded half a span before catching herself. She went
even more gently the next time, but the same thing happened and she slid
another span or two before coming to rest against an ice-glazed outcrop. Her
heart was pounding like a piston. 'Lilis!' she shouted.
A flare soared high in the air over Carcharon. 'What's happening?' she
shouted.
'I can't see,' Nadiril yelled back. 'The snow is too thick. But Carcharon is
all lit up now. Something's going on! Are you all right?'
'No!' She had done a crazy, stupid thing. 'I'll have to come back up.' She
pressed gently against her foothold, her boot skidded and she shot down again.
The lightglass was jolted out of her hands to disappear down the slope, still
shining until the whirling snow obscured it.
Tallia?'
Now she couldn't see Nadiril either. 'I can't get back up.' Why had she done
this foolish thing? 'Lilis!' she roared. There was no response. 'Lilis!'
Nothing could be heard above the howling of the wind. Tallia clung to the
slippery slope, not daring to move. Exposed to the full blast, it was
perishingly
cold. She kept calling but Lilis did not answer. She must have gone over the
cliff.
Some time later a light appeared above her, a blazing brand. 'Tallia, where
are you?' Jevi's voice had never been so welcome.
'Straight below you. Don't come down, it's too slippery.'
'Have you found her?' She could hear the agony in his voice.
'No!'
'Are you stuck?'
'Yes,' she shouted.
'Don't move!'
Tallia felt a sudden spasm of fear. She did not want him risking his life for
her. She braced one foot and the slope slipped under her, hurtling her down
half a dozen spans before she thumped back and head into a clot of ice, a
frozen seep. She lay utterly still, hurting all over. The sheer plunge could
not be far below her. She prepared herself for death.
'Tallia, Lilis! Tallia, Lilis!'
Jevi's torch moved back and forth, a long way above. It must be snowing less
now. 'Go back,' she said weakly. The cold attacked her bruises and
lacerations. She couldn't get out of the accursed wind. Her clothes were
shredded. The snow stopped for a minute and through rags of cloud she saw
stars shining brightly. It would have been peaceful, save for the wind.
Pebbles rattled past once or twice. She called Lilis until she was hoarse, but
there was no answer, A pain at the base of her skull grew sharper. The stars
began to wobble across the sky, making her dizzy. She closed her eyes, which
made it worse.
All at once the torch was spluttering in her face and Jevi had his hand under
her chin. 'Tallia! Are you hurt?'
'Nothing broken,' she said softly.
'Have you heard Lilis?'
'No. How did you get down?'
'I'm a sailor, remember?' Taking off his gloves, he felt her
head. She flinched as his callused fingers roved over the bruise. 'I've
climbed many an icy mast on a stormy night, and I don't go anywhere without a
length of rope.'
'Oh!' she said in a daze. 'Where is it?'
'It didn't reach this far. Hold my hand.'
She clung to his fingers, her lifeline. His courage made her heart ache. Jevi

held up his torch, pointing out where to put her hands and feet. Going up was
easier, for she could test her footholds before putting weight on them. After
much slipping and sliding they found the dangling end of the rope.
'Can you climb it?'
Her head was spinning. 'No!'
He tied the rope through their belts and went up behind her, heaving her up
with his hand on her backside. Eventually they saw Nadiril's face looking over
the edge. He extended his hand to her.
'Look after her,' Jevi said, 'she's banged her head.' He moved the rope over
to the bottom of the steps and went down again.
Tallia watched in a daze where every second seemed to take an hour. The light
drifted back and forth across the slope like a firefly. She sweated blood for
Jevi, knowing that he was far beyond his rope. He was a small, wiry,
unhandsome man that she could have held up in one hand. Her bottom remembered
the imprint of his fingers. I care for him, she realised, in a way that I care
for no one else. I have ever since I met him. That reminded her of her
tropical homeland, beloved Crandor, of helping Jevi to escape from the
corsair's island, and how he had saved her from the jaws of a chacalot.
Poor Jevi. He loves Lilis more than his own life. He'll never find her. Now
the light was moving up again, very slowly and wearily. After an eternity he
came in sight, alone.
Nadiril helped him over the edge. Jevi had tears frozen on his face. 'Where
was Lilis standing?' he asked hoarsely.
'Just there!' Nadiril pointed to the edge of the steps. Jevi hobbled to the
spot. 'Exactly here?'
'A little bit to the left. You must give her up, Jevi,' Nadiril said gently.
'She can't have survived.'
'I won't!' he shouted. 'Not for anything! What happened after she stood here?'
'I didn't see! She just disappeared.'
Jevi dashed the frozen tears away. Tallia knew he was going to do something
foolish. 'Don't go down again!' she begged.
'I have to,' said Jevi, and quite deliberately stepped backwards over the
edge.
Tallia let out a wail of anguish. Nadiril cursed dismally. 'I'll go for help.
I expect the Aachim have some rope. Stay here. Don't go down.'
She laughed hysterically. T won't.' She felt as if she was frozen to the
stone. The two people she cared about most in the world were down there,
probably dead.
Tallia sat on the edge, and with the pain in her head and her heart she quite
lost track of time. Yellow lights flashed and flared inside Carcharon. Nadiril
reappeared with several Aachim, including Basitor, and Yggur. Everything
happened in a kind of waking nightmare.
Basitor knotted another length to Jevi's rope and tied one end into a harness
around his own chest. The other Aachim braced themselves and lowered him
slowly, right where Lilis and Jevi had fallen. The rope moved across and back,
many times. Basitor signalled with tugs, they added a third length and the
search continued.
Tallia heard an urgent whisper behind her. She looked around.
'There's someone at the gates!' hissed Nadiril. 'What are we going to do now?'
Tallia's headache felt worse than ever. 'We'll have to defend the path.' She
pushed herself up with the point of her sword, sure they were all going to
die.
'Signal to Basitor,' said Yggur. 'He's got to come up now!'
Tallia, Yggur and Old Darlish went down to the lowest
point of the path. There they drew their weapons and waited in the shadows. A
light grew in the doorway but disappeared again. A shadow ghosted down the
steps. As it reached the dip in the path, Yggur stepped into view. 'Go no
further, Ghashad!' he said.
The guard stopped still, inspecting them. It peered past Tallia at the scene
up by the steps. She wondered how well it could see in the dark.

Better than she could, evidently, for it gave a grim chuckle. 'You'd better be
gone before we come back,' it rasped, then headed back to Carcharon.
They returned to the steps. 'Come on!' snapped Yggur. 'What's the matter?'
'He's found something,' said the Aachim holding the rope.
'Well, signal him to hurry or we'll leave him behind.'
The man gave three jerks on the rope, three jerks came back and they began to
haul it up.
'Faster!' snapped Yggur, watching the tower. 'I think someone's coming.'
Basitor appeared. A body was bound over his shoulders. It was Jevi, his long
hair hanging down. Tallia felt speared through the heart. Taking hold of the
rope she hauled them up. Basitor wearily unfastened the bundle and lay Jevi on
the path.
'Jevi!' she sang out, and threw herself at him. He was battered blue and
black, and very cold.
'Careful,' panted Basitor. 'He's alive, but he's broken some bones.'
'What about Lilis?' she asked in a frozen voice.
The rest of the rope still hung over the edge. Basitor began to pull it in.
Suddenly the rope went slack as the load came off it. Tallia cried out.
'They were close together,' said Basitor.
'Tallia,' came a scream from below, and the miracle had occurred. Lilis was on
the end, scrambling up the last little distance.
'Well done, Basitor!' said Nadiril.
Lilis's face was scraped raw down one side and the knee of her trousers was
bloody, but she was alive! Tallia pulled her up and folded Lilis in her long
arms.
'They were an awful long way down,' said Basitor. 'In a little gully full of
snow, just before the precipice. I thought they'd gone over. I would never
have found her but Jevi had landed close by, and I heard her squeaking.' He
ruffled Lilis's hair.
'I heard you calling, Tallia,' Lilis said hoarsely. 'I shouted until I had no
voice left. But I knew you would find me,' she said with childlike certainty.
Tallia bent over Jevi, who groaned and opened his eyes. He smiled up at her
and Lilis.
'That was the stupidest thing I've ever seen,' Tallia said.
'I found her though, didn't I?'
She embraced him and he groaned. His right arm was broken, and three fingers,
and a good number of ribs.
'What if she'd gone over the cliff?' Tallia said.
'I'd still want to be with her,' Jevi replied, and that was the end of the
matter.
Operating Theatre
'W
here's Llian?' Lilis said sharply, after they rejoined the others above the
amphitheatre.
'He was below me when the thranx attacked,' said Tensor.
'Poor Llian!' exclaimed Lilis. 'I forgot all about him.'
'There's been no sign of him,' said Nadiril. 'I'd say he's ... not made it.'
'He must be still up there!' cried Lilis.
'We can't go back,' Mendark said roughly.
Lilis glared at him. 'Llian is my friend! I'll go by myself, if none of you
are game!.'
'I'll have a look,' Shand sighed. 'Come on then, Lilis.'
There were still lights showing in Carcharon, and the stick-figures of the
guards occasionally flashed in front of them. The group crept along the path,
more than a little afraid, and up the broad steps to the front door. There was
no sign of Llian. Lilis searched, very gingerly, behind the statues. As she
did so, something banged inside the tower, so loud that the door shook.
Letting out a little moan, she leapt out of the way.
'Come on,' said Shand, catching her hand. 'He's gone. We can't do any more.'
They hurried down the steps. In the darkness near the bottom Lilis trod on

something yielding. She cleared the
snow away to uncover a body. Llian lay quite motionless.
'He's dead,' sobbed Lilis, touching his cold cheek.
'No, but near it,' Shand muttered. 'And I'm to blame.'
He hefted Llian and staggered down the perilous track. Halfway along Tallia
appeared. 'I thought I saw something move down the side of the ridge,' she
said.
'The lorrsk,' said Shand, rolling his r's.
'Feet hurt,' Llian mumbled. He looked ghastly.
Shand pulled up the bottom of Llian's trousers and gasped. His calves were
raw, the flesh rasped off by the hobbles. A gum of blood, ice and grated meat
had frozen in a ring around each ankle.
Llian shuddered. 'How did you know its name?' He was delirious.
'Never mind! If we don't get him to shelter he'll die,' Shand said to Tallia.
'He might lose his feet anyway. How could I have been so stupid?'
He turned away, swearing at the night, and himself, then carried Llian to the
fires in the amphitheatre and banked them with the remaining wood. 'Keep
watch, Tallia! Run up for help, Lilis!'
Cutting off Llian's boots, he wrapped his half-frozen feet in blankets and put
him in a sleeping pouch with warm stones at the bottom. He was dribbling a mug
of soup down his throat when Basitor came running back.
'There's someone at the gates again!' Tallia shouted 'We've got to go, Shand.'
'Can I trust you to bear Llian down, Basitor?' asked Shand. 'I'm spent.'
Basitor's eyes glittered dangerously. 'I'll carry him,' he said harshly.
'And not drop him over?'
'No!' whispered Lilis. A bond had grown between her and Basitor after the
rescue, yet she knew how he hated Llian. 'You carry him, Shand.'
Basitor bent down and thrust his fierce face at Lilis's. She
did not flinch. 'Your loyalty is a fine and noble gift, child. My word means
as much to me. I won't harm your friend, though I want to!'
They departed hastily. By the time they reached the rest of the company Llian
was thrashing in a fever wherein the void and the thranx, and Karan and Rulke,
roiled in a blood-red, pain-driven subconscious.
Malien and Asper inspected the injuries. 'We've got to have fire and hot water
or we won't save him, or Xarah either,' said Malien.
They hurried down, terrified that the thranx would suddenly reappear, or the
Ghashad come hunting. Dawn broke before they reached the forest, a bleak
winter's morn, and it began snowing again, tiny flakes that fluttered in the
wind. They took refuge in the stone pavilion at the edge of Black Lake, which
was frozen over now. The Aachim rigged up windbreaks from tents while Yggur's
guards built three huge fires in the pavilion. The healers set up a surgery in
the centre to work on Xarah and Llian, and Jevi's broken bones. Guards
patrolled in pairs out in the forest.
Lilis was too tired to sleep. She went down to the lake where Osseion, the
captain of Mendark's guard, was hacking a hole through the ice with his axe.
She stood beside him, marvelling at his deft strokes.
'Ow!' she said, rubbing her nose where a chip of ice had just stung her.
'Stand back,' said Osseion, turning so that she was shielded by his massive
body. He struck the last blows and levered out a rectangular plug of ice.
Lilis began to fill leather buckets with a dipper.
'This takes me back to our first adventure together, fetching the water,' said
Osseion.
'You were kind to me.' Lilis smiled at the memory. 'Even after I helped to
chop your finger off.'
Osseion held up his hand. There was a gap where the
gangrenous middle finger had been. 'Had to be done,' he said, 'though I didn't
care for it at the time.' He hefted a bucket in each hand and they headed back
to the fires, chatting about past journeys.
The company was subdued. The thranx had cast a shadow over them. 'A hundred
such creatures could overrun the whole of Meldorin,' said Shand, honing his