Nine Gates (52 page)

Anger. All her life for days and weeks and months had been colored by anger, but hearing Righteous Drum’s voice, hearing it fading had washed that anger away with something far more powerful—grief, grief and terrible, horrible, overwhelming fear.

Des’s voice, sharp and imperative, broke Honey Dream’s reverie.

“Don’t anyone turn around, but I think we’re being followed. There’s been a car behind us since we got out of the crush at the museum. Tan sedan. Pretty average. Driver’s wearing shades and a hat, but I think it’s Downhill Ski.”

Waking Lizard glanced over at Honey Dream. She shook her head and even smiled. “I didn’t do anything. I didn’t send any messages. If they’re back there, it’s because they’ve been watching us for days.”

“I agree,” Pearl said, surprising Honey Dream somewhat. She’d never thought the old Tiger would give her the benefit of the doubt.

And no wonder
, Honey Dream thought.
Since you broke into her house, and attacked one of her guests.

“My wards,” Pearl said, “would be difficult to breach without my knowing. If our adversaries somehow sent a vision to panic Honey Dream, that’s not her fault. It could have been whichever one of us was deep enough in meditation to stray into vulnerable territory.”

Pearl swung around in the seat and looked directly at Honey Dream. “And I’m not saying that’s what happened. I accept you believe your father is in danger. We’re going to find out what has happened—whatever it takes.”

Waking Lizard patted the seat by his leg. For the first time, Honey Dream noticed he held his hard whip, the short staff that was one of his favorite weapons—especially when subduing an enemy, not killing him was the goal.

“If they do come after us,” he said, “what does the Tiger direct?”

Pearl chuckled, an unfriendly sound, like a Tiger’s cough.

“Des is going to drive us directly through the gate into the warehouse. If they attempt to follow us there, I call both the business park’s security and the police. If somehow they block that, then we do our best to behave in a fashion that will get us the favorable ruling when the matter comes up before judgment.”

“In other words,” Des said, turning in to the industrial park, “we improvise.”

“Within limits,” Pearl agreed.

Honey Dream nodded and fingered the handful of bracelets Nissa had thrust in along with Pearl’s sword. For the first time, she considered the tremendous expenditure of both time and ch’i they represented. It had been a generous gesture—especially since her own broken mediation had left her own ch’i at a lower ebb than would be usual.

I will live up to your generosity
, she thought.
The time has come for me to live up to someone other than myself.

Brenda listened but the water thundering down from above made that an exercise in futility. She glanced over at the waterfall. Was that steam? No. Just spray.

She swam to where she could position her feet on Righteous Drum’s back. The Dragon was positioned in what she’d been taught to call a “deadman’s float,” head hanging, arms and legs limp. She knew it was supposed to be a very energy-efficient posture, and she knew he wasn’t going to drown, even if his nose and mouth were under water, but she didn’t like how it looked.

Was he even breathing? She put a hand to one scaled side, but she couldn’t tell.

Feeling like a louse, Brenda climbed up onto the Dragon’s back and worked herself into a standing position. That put her head a good five and a half feet above water level.

She yelled again.

“Get us out of here! Riprap! Deborah! Help!”

She kept yelling as long as she had breath, deliberately varying the cadence and pitch, hoping to find the sound that would carry over the roar of falling water.

She was taking another breath when a horse’s head leaned over the edge. A grey with a dark mane. Deborah’s mount.

It turned its head, made some sound she couldn’t hear, but a moment later, Loyal Wind and two other horses joined it. Loyal Wind’s eyes widened slightly, and Brenda remembered that she was stark naked. She fought the impulse to cover herself, realizing she’d look much more vulnerable if she did so.

Try and look like running around bare-assed naked is something you do every day, Brenda
, she coached herself.

Loyal Wind had swung up into his saddle. Now he was running over the edge. From how his mount moved, Brenda guessed that the footing—even for ghosts—was rather chancy.

Brenda dropped back into the water. Loyal Wind was uncoiling a rope, and she didn’t need to guess what they’d need to do. When he dropped an end, she seized it and dove under, looping it under the Dragon’s torso behind his front set of legs. She came up again and tied it off. The knot wasn’t very tidy, but she thought it would hold.

Loyal Wind had urged his mount upward almost before the knot was tied. Slowly, still hanging limp, Righteous Drum rose free of the water. As he did so, Brenda became instantly aware of two things.

One, she was now soaking wet, and two she was breathing in as much water as air. The water also felt hotter than
it had, and she realized that Righteous Drum had been protecting her from some of the variations in temperature as well.

Maybe that means he’s alive
, she thought, treading water hard, and angling to where Leaf was now making his way down.
But don’t unicorns’ horns keep their virtue even when they’re cut off? Maybe it’s the same for Chinese dragons.

The chasm was rather tight, at least when two horses, a grown man, and a Dragon were all trying to maneuver using the wind for footing. However, they managed, and Brenda wasn’t quite drowned when the golden horse got down to her. She reached up with alarmingly fading strength for one of the dangling stirrups, and grabbed hold.

Leaf didn’t wait any longer. He dug in and Brenda could feel the tremendous straining of his muscles as he sought a foothold on nothing. His upward progress was irregular and jerky, but Brenda held on to the stirrup although her fingers screamed protest. She swung back and forth, hitting the heat-polished rock walls several times, but at last the golden horse had cleared the edge. He rose further, hauling her up so that he could set her on her feet on the edge.

Brenda wanted to do nothing more than crumple, but one glance down the tunnel through which the Suns’ River had its course told her this would be fatal. When she and Righteous Drum had descended, the tunnel had been dark—would have been inky black except for the spell Righteous Drum had worked on her eyes. Now it was well lit, not quite the retina-searing brilliance she had experienced once before, but bright enough that she didn’t need Leaf’s urging to keep her feet.

She staggered forward a few paces, found her balance, and kept moving in the direction of the meadow that held the Nine Yellow Springs. It seemed terribly unfair that no one but the Horses had come to their rescue. Now even Loyal Wind was gone, presumably getting Righteous Drum to safety. She forced herself to move step by labored step.

Leaf landed next to Brenda, nudged her with his nose,
obviously offering to carry her, but Brenda didn’t think she could get her foot up into the stirrup. She leaned against the horse, her arms and legs both punishingly weary from the unaccustomed exertions. The leaning helped, and she moved more rapidly.

Brenda guessed when she was safe by a combination of the reduction of sound from the river and the fact that Leaf would let her move more slowly. There was grass beneath her feet now, and she fell forward, almost without volition.

Something caught her before she hit, but she passed out before she could decide what or who.

Brenda came
around to the heavy scent of magnolia blossoms and the gentle sound of tinkling fountains. She was lying on something soft, with something softer pulled over her. She ached everywhere, but the crippling exhaustion that had come upon her as a result of her final exertions was mostly gone.

She remembered everything, including the horrible limpness of Righteous Drum as Loyal Wind pulled him up out of the water. Her eyes came open of their own accord, and she discovered that at least part of the softness she was lying on was Deborah’s lap.

“You’re awake this time?” Deborah said softly.

Brenda wondered about the “this time,” and tried to speak. She discovered her throat was raw, and the effort made her cough. She rolled slightly, and Deborah held a cloth to her mouth.

“You’ve been coughing up water for hours,” she said. “Loyal Wind says that the air down there where the waterfall hit was more water than air—especially with the steam rising. We’re very lucky you didn’t drown.”

“Ri…” Brenda started coughing again, and Deborah bent her knees to help her get air. There was something practiced about the motion that told Brenda she’d probably been doing that repeatedly.

“Righteous Drum is alive,” Deborah said, “and in some
ways in better shape than you are, because the Dragon’s form protected him even after he passed out. He’s over talking to the springs.”

Brenda didn’t feel any urge to ask how one could talk to water. She could almost hear a voice in those light, tinkling notes.

Deborah went on, “You must be wondering why we weren’t waiting to pull you out.”

Brenda nodded, and felt a vague triumph that the action didn’t start her choking.

“Quite simply, we didn’t realize you’d need help. Loyal Wind assured us that the Dragon could swim upstream as easily as down—even with a missing forelimb. We had no idea that you were in such difficulties.”

Brenda managed a weak, “Ah!”

“Then we were having troubles of our own.”

“Oh?”

This last was followed by another fit of coughing. The manner in which Deborah efficiently dealt with the slime Brenda coughed up reminded Brenda that she’d been a nurse.

“Yes. Almost from the start, we realized that you and Righteous Drum were succeeding. Our first sign was when the Leech heads began dropping off of the springs. Then, somewhere around the fifth or sixth head, the Leech began thrashing around. It wasn’t until the seventh head that we realized that the thrashing was not the purposeless motion of a dying or wounded creature, but some sort of battle.”

I’m glad we didn’t quit after my lifeline broke
, Brenda thought, but she didn’t try to say anything. She made a sound she hoped indicated interest, and Deborah continued.

“The Leech was being attacked by the Nine-Headed Snake—the guardian of the springs. From what we could tell, the Leech had actually possessed the Nine-Headed Snake. Even though the banishment was working, apparently the Nine-Headed Snake wasn’t going to let the Leech go without exacting revenge.”

Brenda grinned, and Deborah laughed. “I can’t blame it either.”

Her expression grew serious. “When the Nine-Headed Snake won, our troubles started. You see, the Nine-Headed Snake wasn’t completely sane—or maybe it wasn’t too bright. It saw us and came to the conclusion that we were the source of its difficulties. Unlike the Leech, it wasn’t anchored to the ground, and it came after us.”

Brenda gasped, swallowed a cough, and motioned for Deborah to keep talking.

“We had a real problem then,” Deborah said, “because we didn’t want to hurt the Nine-Headed Snake, but we couldn’t retreat down the tunnel, because the relay of horses had already informed us that the sun was setting. I refuse to give you a play-by-play. Ask Riprap if you want one. I’m certain he’ll remember the details. What I remember is a flurry of defense spells on our part, and Loyal Wind and the horses—carrying us—swooping around those nine heads while we did our best to loop rope around them. We finally managed, and got the creature hog-tied.”

Deborah grinned. “If that’s the right word for bundling a bunch of necks together so the thing couldn’t move. We went over to try and talk to it. Flying Claw felt certain it must be at least somewhat intelligent. He also reminded us that the springs, once they recovered from being abused, would possess intelligence of a sort. Then there was the tree…”

She shook her head in wonder. “Loyal Wind hadn’t forgotten the approaching sun, though, and he was worried you would be in difficulty if you remained below much longer. He went back to check. Do you remember the rest?”

Brenda nodded.

“Good. Then all that’s left is to get you tidied up a bit and for us all to go over and speak with the springs. As soon as they came to themselves,” she gestured at the nine elegant fountains that now spurted where the Leech’s sucking heads had been, “they were eager to express their thanks. Making
‘men’ between them and our gates will not prove the least difficult. However, they insisted that you be present, since you risked so much for their freedom.”

Deborah helped Brenda get cleaned up and dressed. Standing actually helped with the coughing, and Brenda decided to resist asking who other than Loyal Wind had seen her naked.

“I’m one big bruise,” she said, looking over herself as she pulled on her jeans, and reached for her shirt.

“You’re lucky to be alive, without broken bones,” Deborah said, “but, yeah, you do look rather like a banana a couple days past sale date. And you’ll look worse before you’re better. Unless…”