Mirror 04 The Way Between the Worlds (12 page)

for its wings weren't designed for a world as heavy as ours. I reckon it will
need a lot of rest after the last few days.'
'That gives me hope for our coming struggle,' said Yggur.
'And as you say, someone has to go back,' Tallia said. 'I'll go - '
'I need you in Thurkad,' said Mendark.
'I've served my ten years and more,' she said angrily, a rare rebellion. 'My
indenture is finished.'
'But you're still my lieutenant, until you resign!' Mendark's

eyes challenged her. Then he changed his mind. 'Yes, good idea. Go in the
morning. Find out everything you can about his plans; and his construct!'
'I'll come with you, Tallia,' said Shand. 'I prefer the company up there.'
The following night the whole house was sleeping but for Llian, who lay by
himself in the old keep near the front door. Gothryme was crowded with
refugees and he was at the bottom of the list for the best bed. Llian's legs
throbbed constantly, though he hardly noticed. What had Karan and Rulke done?
And what happened inside Carcharon, after the thranx came?
He lay staring up at the invisible ceiling, drifting into dreams and
immediately back to wakefulness. After some hours, a sudden movement caught
his eye. A shadow had flitted through the door leading from the west wing into
the keep.
Llian watched without curiosity as someone glided into the room, moving so
smoothly that their feet must have scarcely touched the floor. The manor was
full of people, and it was not surprising that one of them, unable to sleep,
should go for a midnight walk.
But whoever it was, they quested about as if searching for something. Or as if
the layout was unfamiliar. Llian closed his eyes as the figure came close,
conjured ghost light from its fingertips and inspected his face. The light
disappeared. After an interval he opened his eyes to see the shadow moving
noiselessly up the steps towards Karan's bedroom. He didn't dare follow,
cripple as he was. It was not long before the intruder reappeared, a shadow
surrounded by a faint nimbus of light. It shook him by the shoulder and light
again flared from its fingertip, dazzling him so that he could see nothing but
a golden-skinned, blue-veined hand.
'Where is she, chronicler?' The voice was a disguised hiss. He could not tell
if it belonged to man or woman.
'I don't - '
Nails dug into his shoulder, piercing the skin. 'Where is Karan?'
Surely it wasn't Rulke then, unless Karan had somehow escaped from Carcharon.
That didn't seem likely.
'At Carcharon!' he gasped. 'Rulke has her. Unless he has taken her to Shazmak,
or between the worlds.'
The hiss was a shriek in his ear. The nails wrenched painfully then the light
went out. By the time Llian's night vision recovered, the intruder was gone.
Still he tossed on his straw mattress, worried senseless about Karan. It must
be after midnight now. Suddenly something struck the door near his head. It
was not a hard blow, but enough to shake the door and startle him. Another
blow followed, and Llian heard a thin cry, though he could not make out the
words. Maybe Tallia and Shand had returned unexpectedly.
Something scratched at the door, then that cry came again. It sounded like a
child. Llian lit his candle and crawled across the freezing floor, which was
easier than trying to walk. The door handle was out of reach. Three times he
tried to force himself up, urged on by those pitiful cries, and as many times
fell back groaning.
'Help! Oh please help!' came the cry again.
Llian scrabbled at the timbers, caught the handle and forced back the bolt.
The door swung open and someone fell through. It was a boy about twelve years
old, clad in stained rags. What was he doing out on a night like this? Then
Llian saw that the stains were blood, and the rags, good winter clothes that
had been torn apart.

Putting down the candle he helped the boy up. Gouges down his chest ebbed
blood. One arm hung limp. He opened his eyes, wide and terrified.
'It came out of the sky,' the boy wailed.
Confinement
Llian's shout roused the household. Someone knew the boy, who came from a
farmhouse halfway between the manor and the village.
Yggur stared down at the stricken child, his jaw muscles spasming. 'If we
don't see to the thranx right now, this scene will be repeated a thousand
times across Santhenar.'
'And if others get through,' said Mendark gloomily, 'if it breeds . . .'
'Let's get a hunting party together, quickly!' Yggur gave orders to his
guards.
In a few minutes they were gone, Mendark and Yggur, Yggur's guard and Vartila
the Whelm, Osseion and Torgsted. All the able-bodied Aachim went too, except
Malien and Asper, who remained behind to tend the injured.
Sometime later, Llian was woken by a smashing, wrenching noise, as if the
whole roof had been torn open. There was a scream of timbers above his head,
then something came crashing down the stone stairs, careered across the room
and thudded into the wall between Llian and the door. Llian felt a sharp pain
in his earlobe. The whole keep shook with the impact, then the candle went
out.
Before he managed to light it, Malien had come running
with a lantern. 'What was that?' she screamed above the groaning of roof
timbers.
A boulder half a span across lay on the floor. 'It must be part of the upper
wall.'
'I don't think so,' said Malien. 'It's still got yellow earth on one side.
It's been wrenched out of the ground and dropped, to crack us open.'
Llian felt weak all over. 'Better see if it has,' he whispered.
She put one foot on the rubble-littered step, then stopped. Further up, the
stairs were partly blocked by a tangle of beams. 'This reminds me of the way
the Charon took our world from us. They came out of the void too.'
Llian was just as afraid. He felt his way around the wall to her, and every
step was agony to his ruined calves. But he couldn't bear to lie here, waiting
for it. He went up the steps on hands and knees. Malien was beside him, tread
for tread. They negotiated a gap between the broken timbers and the wall.
Llian stopped. Cold sweat was pouring off him. 'Give me your arm!' he panted.
They reached the third floor, where a long landing was littered with shards of
slate. To the right was Karan's bedroom. Above was an attic whose floor was
smashed open. Llian and Malien looked up though it. The wind howled. There was
a hole in the roof that a horse and cart could have bolted through.
Silhouetted against the stars was the unmistakeable arching shape of a wing.
The thranx stood straddling the broken roof. Darting its head through, it gave
a hiss of pleasure.
Llian could feel Malien's tension through her shoulder. 'Of all places in the
valley,' he said, 'why did it have to pick us?'
'Maybe it watched the others going out.'
'Or maybe it likes the smell of us. What are we going to do?' He clung onto
her shoulder.
'Have you got a knife?'
'Do you think they'd let me keep one?' he said with a trace of bitterness.
'Quick, have a look in Karan's room. See what you can find.' She threw up her
arms, crying out to the thranx in the Aachim tongue.
Llian slid behind her in through Karan's door. The only time he'd been in here
had been after Mendark's attack on him a couple of weeks ago. Then he'd been
too sick and sore to notice his surroundings. The room was dimly lit by
Malien's lantern. The centre was occupied by a huge square box bed. He saw
linen chests and cupboards, a lantern on a lampstand, but nothing that could
conceivably be used as a weapon.
Turning to go, he was reminded of that distant night when he'd rescued Karan

from the old house in Narne. He had smashed a lantern in the hall in front of
Vartila, sending a curtain of flame roaring up to the ceiling. Llian swirled
the lantern. It was half full. Clicking the striker until the wick lit, he
lurched back out to Malien.
She stood in that same frozen attitude, her hands upraised. The thranx watched
Malien with its hooded eyes, no doubt wondering if she had the same power as
the man who had hurt it before.
Llian hurled the lantern into the pile of timber. The light went out. Malien
yelped and clutched at her head. The thranx let out a great triumphant roar
and leapt down into the attic.
'What did you do that for?' she said furiously.
'I thought if the wood caught fire it wouldn't be able to get to us.'
'It's not a wild animal, Llian! It's not afraid of fire. Now I've broken
first, and it won't be afraid of me.' She took a tiny step backwards. In the
semi-dark they could see the creature's shining teeth.
'What is a thranx afraid of?'
'Very little, I'd imagine, if it's hungry.' She moved back onto the top step.
'This one can't possibly be hungry. It's eaten three of us, and who knows what
else. Look at the size of its belly.' The thranx's stomach was notably
distended. Basitor was in there.
Though he had been an enemy, Llian still took a thrill of horror from the
sight, and the thought. 'What does it want?'
'I don't know,' said Malien. 'Maybe just a place to sleep.'
Suddenly the thranx dropped through the attic floor. It hit the boards of the
landing hard, wings thrumming, claws scratching. Llian scrabbled backwards and
fell off the top step, but was caught by Galgi the weaver, for the rest of the
manor's occupants were now crowded on the steps below, silently staring up.
The thranx came on, drawing a flail from a pouch at its waist. Malien stood
her ground. She made a feint with her left hand. A shiny bubble appeared in
the air and drifted away. The thranx showed its teeth and snapped the flail,
bursting the bubble with a bright flash of purple. The gesture seemed like a
sneer. Without warning it sprang.
The leap took it forward a good three spans. Its claws skidded on the
splintered timber, then it snapped the flail viciously at Malien's face. The
thongs cut off by Yggur had been restored. She stumbled backwards just in
time, but another bubble appeared, seeming to pass right through her fingers.
It flashed toward the thranx, darted between the thongs of the flail and burst
with a brilliant green flare against the creature's belly.
It gave a little cry, cupped its arms protectively about itself then tensed to
spring again. 'Quick, Malien!' Llian screeched.
Malien leapt down the steps. As she did so a third bubble slipped out of her
hand to explode in the middle of the timber pile. Flames licked up the stone
wall. Soon the wood was a blazing barrier across the hall.
'Get out of the way!' Malien screeched. She looked back over her shoulder.
'Come on!'
The thranx sprang in the air, its wings scraped the sides of the hall and it
soared above the flames. There was a mad scramble down the winding stairs.
Someone dropped the lantern, which went out.
Llian heard Malien cry, 'Out of the keep! Barricade the door!' The thranx came
down on the lower side of the fire, reared up on its mighty wings and blocked
out the light.
Llian fell the last three steps, rolled and cracked his injured shin on
something. Pain flared, so excruciating that he was quite helpless. When it
became bearable he crawled forward blindly, not realising that he was going
the wrong way. His head hit a wall. Llian was so dazed that his arms and legs
tried to keep going.
'Bolt the door!' Malien screamed. 'Wait - where's Llian?'
The thranx flew across the keep, a winged shadow, and slammed the door in
their faces. In seconds it had reinforced the doorway with chests and beams.
The boulder was piled on top.

Llian propped himself against the wall and waited. Blood poured down his
shins. He couldn't move to save his life.
The thranx stood back with its head cocked. Evidently satisfied, it turned
toward Llian, took one step and stopped. It clutched its belly while a spasm
passed across it, then moved forward tentatively, never taking its eyes off
him.
Llian did not move. In the past year and a half he had survived so many
dangers, overcome so many insurmountable obstacles, that now that his doom was
finally here he felt quite calm about it.
The thranx barricaded the front door and closed the shutters over the slit
windows. Taking Llian by the shirtfront, it lifted him high in the air. The
light of the burning timber was fading now. The creature drew the grey baton
that it had used against Yggur on the cliff top and passed its dark light over
Llian from head to foot. His bloody shins glowed luminously under the eerie
flare. Again the thranx was wracked by a spasm. It dropped Llian but caught
him in midair. Then, to his amazement, it simply tossed him down on the
mattress.
Evidently it was no longer hungry. Obviously it did not see him as any kind of
a threat. That was true enough; Llian
couldn't have throttled an earthworm. But why didn't it kill him anyway?
Outside there were thuds on the back door, followed by the front, and cries
that barely penetrated the thick timbers. Presumably they were trying to find
out if he'd been eaten yet. He lacked the strength to answer.
The thranx folded its wings and leaned back against the wall, holding its
belly. It seemed to be in pain. Llian recalled that Yggur had wounded it. It
flexed its legs, squatted down but stood up straight again. One hand rubbed
the small of its back. It let out a muffled groan. Instantly its head snapped
towards Llian. In the void pain was weakness, and weakness death. But Llian
had not moved.
He sat there for some time, watching the creature. Out of habit he noted its
every characteristic to use in his tale -the grimaces, the leg flexes, the
groaning that grew ever louder. Then, after a particularly tormented cry, it
squatted down and began to pant, little outrushes of air through lips formed
into a trumpet.
Only now did Llian realise what was going on. The thranx must be about to give
birth. All this time it had just been looking for a safe hiding place,
thinking that Santhenar was as savage as the void. In that case, why had it
kept him alive? The answer was obvious. Because it would need to eat again
after the event, or worse, to feed him to its babies.
Llian had once seen a cat teaching its kittens how to hunt and kill. It had
played with a mouse, stalking it, then letting it go while the poor creature
ran back and forth in terror. By the end of the lesson the kittens, cute balls
of fur, were cruel killing machines with blood-covered mouths, and the mouse a
red rag on the floor. Was that what the thranx had in mind for him?
It gave a tremendous groan, cut short by a gasp, and a deluge of pink water
poured from between its legs. Llian stared, fascinated yet repelled as the
belly of the creature roiled. He had never witnessed a birth, not even a farm
animal. The thranx let out a dreadful scream. Blood ran down one leg. Its
wings beat the air. Snatching up the baton, it turned the black light on the
damaged area. The spot fluoresced; the blood flow stopped. The thranx bore
down again. With a grunt and a moan a head appeared in the birth canal.
And there, despite efforts that grew until the thranx was bellowing to shake
the walls, it stayed. Pink foam flecked the creature's rubbery lips. Pale
green drops of sweat covered its face and chest. Its nostrils expanded and
contracted like beating hearts, but the baby was stuck.
The efforts went on for an hour or more. The thranx weakened visibly in that
time. Llian wondered what those outside must be thinking. Surely that it had
torn him apart and was devouring him gobbet by gobbet.
A faint light appeared through a crack in one shutter. It must be dawn. Llian
felt light-headed from lack of sleep. Despite his peril though, and the