"What's your hurry?" asked Yago. "He ain't that close."
"Close?" Atreus panted, hands braced on his knees. "Who?"
Yago looked up toward the narrow gap through which they had descended onto the glacier. A single dark figure was coming straight down the slope, taking long plunging steps that kicked loose huge slabs of wind-crusted snow.
Tarch!"
"He is a fool to come down like that," said Seema. "He will bring the whole slope down."
"Then perhaps we should run," Rishi offered, prodding Seema toward the glacier." The time for caution is past"
Seema did not move. "No," she said. "Now we must be more cautious than before." She turned to look at them. "Do not make the mistake of thinking Tarch is the danger. The Yehimals have claimed a hundred times more lives than he has."
"Yes, but the Yehimals are not hunting us," said Atreus. "Maybe we should hurry things along."
"You cannot hurry in these mountains. That is the fool's way." Seema pointed at the dark line of a crevasse lying perpendicular across Tarch's path and said, The tailed devil is being careless, and a thousand hazards lie before him. We will do far better to look to ourselves and let the mountain take care of our pursuer."
"I suppose you're right," said Atreus. "Well have plenty of time to worry if he catches up."
Seema nodded. "Good," she said. "We will continue as before."
She started across the glacier, choosing an angle much steeper than before. Atreus took the frozen chain from around his neck and tapped it against the rock wall, knocking the ice out of the links. Rishi quietly beseeched the gods to blind the "tailed devil" and send him plunging into a bottomless abyss and close it as promptly as possible. The Mar's supplications went unheeded. Tarch descended the glacier at a near run, twisting and turning his way through the labyrinth of crevasses, sometimes leaping narrow ones and other times trotting across snow bridges as thin as sails. His plunging steps sent a steady stream of snow slabs hissing down the slope. Several times those speeding cakes seemed destined to sweep Seema off the mountain. Atreus and his companions could only watch, afraid that a warning shout would bring the whole slope crashing down on her.
The nearer Tarch drew, the more nervous Rishi became. He began to complain bitterly about his forced promise not to kill the tailed devil, and he chastised Atreus several times for breaking his sword back in the couloir. Yago grew tired of Rishi's griping and quietly noted that no one had promised Seema anything about his safety. This was enough to quiet the Mar.
Finally, Seema reached a rocky alcove on the opposite wall, perhaps one more traverse from the bottom of the dangerous area. Even before she turned to signal, Rishi was bounding along in her footsteps, his dark avalanche cord trailing in his wake.
Above, Tarch had descended nearly half the glacier's length. Unless he met with one of the hazards Seema had spoken of, he would catch the company long before they completed the final traverse. The thought of fighting him again sent a chill down Atreus's spine. He could not forget the fear he had experienced when Tarch touched him, nor the tongue of flame that had nearly engulfed Rishi. Perhaps "tailed devil" was not an exaggeration at all. The slave master certainly had the magic of a creature from the Thousand Hells.
Atreus's thoughts were interrupted by Yago's deep voice. "I suppose you meant what you told the girl?" The ogre's gaze was fixed on Tarch. "About not killing that devil thing, I mean."
"You know I did."
"I was afraid of that" Yago glared down at Atreus with one big bloodshot eye, then shook his head, saying, "You humans and your mating games. ltd be simpler for everyone if you just claimed her."
Atreus felt the heat rise to his cheeks. "What are you talking about?"
The girl," Yago said, gesturing vaguely in Seema's direction. "She looks a good prize, from what I've seen of how humans judge."
"She is a good prize," Atreus admitted, "but you've been around people. You know we can't just wrestle a female down and expect her to start keeping the cave."
Too bad," said Yago. "She'd let you win."
Atreus rolled his eyes.
"You don't think so?" Yago asked. "She don't want us killing that devil that's after her, and if she's just trying to outrun it, we sure ain't speeding her up any. So what's she doing here, if she ain't waiting for you to claim her?"
Yago's question was a good one, though Atreus suspected the answer had less to do with him than what lay beneath the Sisters of Serenity. Trust me, Seema isn't here because she wants to wrestle me. No woman would. I'm too ugly."
Yago considered this a moment, then shrugged. "You're a good enough fighter," he said, as though that should account for more than appearance, "but I don't see why you made her that promise."
"You know why," Atreus said. "You were there."
"Oh yeah, I forgot. So a woman who won't have you doesn't let herself get caught by a slaver she won't let us kill." For an ogre, the irony in Yago's deep voice was a rare show of wit He shook his head, then added, "If someone's missing something here, it ain't me."
Yago glanced up the glacier. Three hundred paces above, Tarch was just leaping a crevasse, arms flailing and tail whipping. He landed in a billowing puff of snow and crashed through the wind crust, launching a ship-sized circle of broken slabs down the slope. Why the whole mountainside did not break free and sweep him away, Atreus did not know. Either the snow was more stable than Seema claimed, or the slave master was the luckiest devil this side of the Abyss.
Rishi reached the far side of the glacier, and Seema waved.
Yago nudged Atreus forward and said, "Go on."
Atreus shook his head. "If you break through again, you won't have a chance against Tarch.."
"But I'm the bodyguard." When this did not work, Yago growled, "Well go together,"
"And let him bury us both in an avalanche? We're better off spread out," Atreus said, shoving the ogre forward. "Now stop wasting time and go."
Reluctantly, Yago started across the slope. He could not run for fear of plunging through the wind crust, but his long strides covered ground rapidly. He was soon scurrying along the top of a serac field on the far side of the glacier, just a dozen paces from the sheltered alcove where Rishi and Seema stood waiting.
Tarch rounded a crevasse only twenty paces above, turned away, and continued straight down the slope. Atreus was so astonished that he merely stood there collecting his safe, Tarch could hardly have missed seeing him-Atreus was standing in plain sight-so the only conceivable explanation was that the slave master did not think him worthy of attacking.
Atreus charged out onto the glacier, as angry at being ignored as he was apprehensive about the coming battle. He whirled the chain over his head, filling the air with a metallic thrum. Tarch continued to angle down the glacier toward the alcove where Seema stood waiting.
"Up here!" Atreus's voice echoed across the canyon.
A snow slab broke loose beneath him and started down the slope, nearly sweeping him off his feet. Tarch continued to ignore him. Atreus pumped his knees furiously, his footsteps reverberating off the wind crust as he closed with the devil to a little more than arm's reach. They circled below a crevasse and started to pass above another one, then Tarch pulled up short, stopping so suddenly that Atreus crashed headlong into his back.
Tarch's tail lashed out, trying to sweep Atreus's feet from under him. Atreus jumped, avoiding the attack, and whipped his chain at his foe's head. He never saw the devil's foot come up, only felt the big heel sink into his stomach and double him oven He sensed himself flying backward and saw Tarch leaping after him, then felt himself crashing down on the wind crust and the slave master slamming down on top of him.