The Survivors (25 page)

“Yust oo id,” she said around the stick in her mouth.

As Tal picked up a sharp, thin-bladed knife, Bradok felt Rose’s hand clamp down on his forearm. He tightened his grip on her arm and her waist as Tal began to saw away at the strange blotch.

The first cuts were shallow, allowing Tal to scoop out some of the gray skin. He quickly cleared the area, leaving only a few spots where his knife had plunged deep enough to draw blood. The next cut, however, caused Rose to grunt with effort, and Bradok felt her nails digging hard into his arm.

Tal chopped away a chunk of bloody flesh, throwing it down on the sand. Corin looked away, edging back, but Tal waved him forward again because of the light. Tal used a towel to dab the blood away before cutting again. Rose bucked hard, straining against Bradok, and chomped down on the stick, which muffled her cries of pain. But her arm stayed in place. Bradok could see the muscles in her arm tightening and jerking as she forced herself to hold her arm steady under her brother’s cutting, probing knife.

“All right,” Tal said after what seemed to Bradok like an hour of butchery, though it was only ten or twenty minutes. “I think I got it all. One root went very deep, but I got that out.”

He laid aside his tools and began packing the wound with cheesecloth, finishing by wrapping it tightly several times.

Rose had long since stopped straining and jerking. She was panting and drenched with sweat. She spat out the stick but couldn’t talk at first. She gazed up into Bradok’s eyes. He thought he detected something in the look she gave him then. More than simple gratitude for help well rendered, he imagined her look said that she’d have risked such pain only if he were
the one to hold her. In another moment, though, she had fallen asleep, slumping down to the cave floor in exhaustion.

“What should we do with this?” Corin said, indicating the bloody pile of flesh with disgust.

“Bury it,” Tal said, “or it will stink and attract predators. Needless to say, have as little contact with it as possible.”

Tal shook Rose gently. “Can you stand?” he asked.

Dazed and wobbly, Rose stood up. Tal helped her steady herself.

“You two clean this up,” Tal said to Bradok and Corin, wiping off his knives and putting them away. “I’ll take Rose back to the cavern and give her a medicine to help her sleep comfortably.”

With that, Tal shouldered his bag, took Rose by the hand, and slowly led her away.

Corin went to get the privy shovel while Bradok got to his feet and dusted himself off. His shirtfront was soaked with Rose’s sweat, and her scent was all over his body.

It didn’t take long to dispose of the bloody flesh once Corin returned with the shovel. They didn’t talk much as they worked, for both were anxious to get past the unpleasant job.

“I’ve been wondering something,” Bradok said as they finished up, piling sand on top of the hole they’d made.

“What’s that?”

“If your people kept all the Rhizos in a sealed cave, then where did our four playmates come from?” Bradok asked.

“What playmates?” Corin asked.

“The four Rhizomorphs we fought,” Bradok said. “Where did they come from?”

Corin stopped, his shovel frozen in mid action.

“By the Abyss,” he said finally, swearing in a low voice. “The caves,” he stammered. “The Zhome colony must have been broken open by the earthquake, just like the prison.”

“That’s what I’ve been thinking,” Bradok said grimly.
“It means that, if those four Rhizomorphs were down here, running around looking for hapless victims, so are all the rest of ‘em.”

Corin gasped. “There’s no way of knowing how many of them survived the earthquake,” he said, “nor any way to stop them from tracking us. We’re in Reorx’s hands, for sure, this time.”

“Reorx!” Bradok muttered angrily, adding quickly, more respectfully, just in case the god was listening. “Reorx.”

T
he slap of boot leather on stone echoed through the stone passage. It had been six days since the cave fisher attack and one since Rose’s disease had been operated on by her brother, and the survivors of Ironroot made little other noise as they marched. No one spoke much; no children were laughing anymore. Everyone kept their loved ones in sight and their hands on their weapons. To Bradok it seemed as though a gloomy fog had descended on them all.

The glowlamps that had so brightly lit their way had slowly dwindled to feeble points of light. Bradok, holding his compass open in the palm of his hand, walked in front of the group, using its small but clear light as a beacon, but that only seemed to emphasize the desperate nature of their situation. He couldn’t be sure, but he thought its light, too, was beginning to fade.

In the evenings people spoke only in whispers, and no one had gotten a good night’s sleep for several days. Without any light for protection, they avoided the caves at night. But sleeping in the tunnels was cramped and difficult, making everyone cranky.

That day the light in the tunnel was not so bad, and that gave Bradok an opportunity to step to the rear. Three other
dwarves walked wearily along with him, their hands never far from their weapons: Corin, Much, and Rose. He had asked for those three stalwarts to join him. Bradok was tired of so many of the others, who whined and complained at every juncture.

“We have to do something about this infernal darkness,” Much said as they shuffled along, their darkvision adequate enough to show them a grainy, black-and-white view of the path ahead.

“True, the darkness is depressing. But what do you suggest?” Rose asked, a hopeless note in her voice. “We’ve wracked our brains.”

“Everyone is on edge. People need a break,” Corin said.

“They need to rest,” Bradok agreed. “Everyone’s been sleeping with one eye open, and it’s wearing them down. If this keeps up, we won’t be able to make a full day’s march soon.”

“We need to find a place that’s secure,” Rose said. “If everyone felt safer, they might be able to sleep better.”

“We aren’t likely to find any place guaranteed to be safe,” Corin said.

“Maybe if we could just close off the passage behind us,” Much said. “Then we’d only have to guard our camp from one direction.”

“That’s a good idea,” Bradok admitted. “It might work. But we’d have to find a weak part of the passage to pull down, and we don’t have the proper tools. Someone would have to take risks.”

“It’s too dangerous,” Corin said. “Trying to collapse the ceiling.”

“It’d be suicide for whoever volunteered,” Rose said. “We still ought to consider it,” Bradok said without much enthusiasm.

“There you are,” Chisul’s voice reached Bradok before Chisul himself did. Bradok’s stomach turned sour. He was back there in the rear precisely to avoid trouble-making dwarves
such as Silas’s son. “I’ve been looking for you. You’re pretty far behind the group.”

“Imagine that,” Corin said with mockery in his voice, “the rear guard actually bringing up the rear.”

“Well, get your rears moving,” Chisul said, “if that isn’t too much to ask. The people want a word with their great leader, Bradok.”

Bradok ground his teeth in frustration. Every time anyone had a hangnail, they brought the problem to him. He made a mental note to find an appropriate way to thank Rose and her busybody brother for foisting upon him the leadership of the survivors.

He glanced guiltily at Rose. She seemed better, though now and then she stroked her bandaged arm. They had told the others that she had had a bad stumble and Tal had fixed her up.

“What do they want this time?” Bradok asked wearily as Chisul fell in line beside them.

“Oh, I imagine it’s the same as before,” Chisul said with a shrug. “They want you to do something about the darkness.”

“What do they think I am?” Bradok yelled, causing Rose to start. “I’m not a wizard or a priest. I can’t wave a magic wand or anything.” Bradok’s voice echoed down the passage, so the others could hear, but he didn’t care any longer. He poked Chisul in the chest, causing the younger dwarf to stagger back. “I can’t just say let there be light and have it spring up out of no—”

Just then a burst of brightness washed over Bradok. It couldn’t really have been very bright but, with his eyes accustomed to total darkness, the sudden intensity of it burned like fire. When Bradok tried to open his eyes, he had to shield them with his hands against the ball of orange energy that had materialized in the passage ahead of them, hovering just a few feet away.

“Your friend’s back,” Rose said, shielding her eyes as well.

It did look like the orb of light they’d seen before.

“You’ve seen that one before?” Corin asked, awe in his voice. He eyed Bradok with an intense look, his forked beard quivering.

“Yes,” Bradok said. “A couple of ‘em appeared and one flew right through me one night while I was on guard duty. But they were green then. Why?”

“My people call these things ‘dark lights,’” Corin said in a hushed voice. “To see one is considered a good omen. There are stories of them leading travelers out of trouble.” The Daergar shrugged; then his face lengthened. “Of course there are also stories of them leading the unwary to violent deaths.”

“Great,” Chisul said. “So now we have a light guiding us that can think for itself, and we can’t trust its motives.”

“That’s about it,” Bradok agreed wryly.

“Still,” Corin said, a thoughtful note in his voice. “It touched you once and now it’s back. That has to mean something. Maybe it’s a good omen, after all.” He laughed suddenly. “If there were any members of the Magma Tube Clan around, they’d find it absolutely fascinating that you actually touched a cave light.”

“You mean they’d revere him?” Rose said.

Corin nodded. “Right before they ate him,” he said with a smirk.

“Ate?” Much said, aghast.

“Oh, don’t worry,” Corin said, cutting Bradok off before he could protest. “We don’t have any Magma Tube Clansmen in these parts.”

“Well, that’s good,” Bradok croaked.

“As far as I know,” Corin added with a wink to Rose.

Their eyes had finally become accustomed to the light, and they lowered their hands. The ball of energy just hung there in the center of the passage, not moving. Its body, if the
edge of its fuzzy round shape could be called that, seemed to expand and contract at regular intervals, as if it were slowly breathing in and out. Purple pulses of energy would occasionally leap from one side of its form to the other then back, skittering across its surface to form a constantly shifting spiderweb of arcs.

“So … what now?” Chisul asked.

“How should I know?” Bradok answered.

“You must have summoned it.”

“No, I didn’t. The fact that it appeared right when I said ‘light’ was just a coincidence.”

“Quite a coincidence,” Rose said under her breath.

“Major coincidence,” Much added.

“I had a philosophy teacher once who said there were no such things as coincidences,” Corin finished.

Bradok turned to the Daergar. “Meaning what?” he asked.

“Meaning that maybe our glowing friend here wants something,” Chisul said.

All eyes turned back to Bradok. With a sigh, he rolled his eyes then turned to the orange energy ball.

“Ahem, uh, pardon me. What can I do for you?” Bradok asked, trying hard not to sound too awed or afraid.

The ball quivered at the sound of his voice, the distinct edges of its surface rippling like a still pond disturbed by a stone. Spiderwebs of energy erupted all over its body; then it zoomed around Bradok, circling him twice, before flying up the passageway. It stopped after a dozen yards, hanging motionless again. When no one moved, it pulsed twice, growing momentarily brighter.

“I think it wants us to follow it,” Rose said after a long, tense silence.

Chisul pointed at Corin. “Didn’t he just say they lead people to their doom?”

“He said
sometimes
they do,” Rose said.

“That’s often enough for me,” Chisul said.

“Me too,” Much agreed.

“I don’t think it wants to hurt us,” Rose insisted. “If it does, why didn’t it lead us to our doom the first time?”

The orange ball pulsed again, almost impatiently.

“Well, it’s going the same way we are,” Bradok pointed out. “We may as well follow it. If we turn around, we’ll lose the others.”

“Where are the rest anyway?” Much asked Chisul.

“There’s a big cave up ahead,” the cooper’s son said. “No mushrooms, but a lot of crystals. They’re waiting there.”

“All right,” Bradok said, slowly moving up the passage. “Let’s play along for a while. See where Blinky is taking us.”

As Bradok moved forward, the light retreated, always staying ahead of them, just within sight. When it reached the cave, it darted over the heads of the startled dwarves who sat, waiting for Chisul’s return. The chamber itself was large, with thousands of milky-white crystals growing from the walls, floor, and ceiling.

As the energy ball entered, the crystals seemed to leap to life, their glasslike edges reflecting the light brilliantly. It looked as if the single orb of pale orange light had been suddenly boosted by hundreds.