‘We’ll have to attack from here.’
‘We’re two hundred yards away. It’s impossible.’
‘I’m too tired to think. Ask me when I wake.’
Tobry pillowed his cheek on his folded arms. Rix longed for a quick nap to freshen his own muddy head, but dared not close his eyes. He pressed himself into a fold in the rock and stared down at the track. How to pull off an ambush from so far away? With his mighty wyverin-rib bow, stronger than any bow made from wood, he could shoot an arrow right over the path into the lake, though not with any accuracy.
He strung the bow, nocked an arrow and drew the string back a few times, aiming at a spot where the track passed this side of a cluster of boulders near the water. He would be lucky to hit a man at such extreme range. Tobry might; he was a better shot, but he was not strong enough to fully draw Rix’s bow.
Tobry grunted in his sleep and kicked both feet. His eyes began to flick back and forth beneath his closed lids in an unpleasantly familiar way, and he began to moan incoherently, n-n-n-n, n-n-n-n.
Rix’s throat went dry. Everyone had nightmares, but why was this one so familiar, so hackle-rearing? He could not remember, could not penetrate the mental fog of exhaustion.
Then suddenly he knew. Tobry had looked like this when the wrythen had been trying to possess him in the caverns. Was it making another attempt? But the mountains were a day’s ride from here; how could it reach Tobry from so far away? And what if it succeeded?
‘Tobe?’ Rix nudged him with the toe of a boot.
Like a cat, Tobry went from sleep to full wakefulness in a second, and sat up. ‘Are they coming?’
‘Not yet. You were having a bad dream, making a racket.’
‘Was I? Don’t remember a thing.’
He did not look troubled, which was comforting. After Rix had one of his doom-laden nightmares he could feel the shudders running through him for hours afterwards. This was just a bad dream, nothing to worry about …
He rubbed his face with his hands. Nothing could have induced him to doze now. What if the wrythen’s power strengthened further? What if it could reach Tobry when he was awake?
Cold sweat trickled down Rix’s sides. If he could not rely on his best friend, if he had to watch his back whenever he was with Tobry, he was bound to fail.
‘Tobe, do you reckon you could shoot a man on the path, from here?’
‘Not with my bow.’
‘What about mine?’
‘It takes a gorilla to pull your bow.’
‘Thanks.’ Rix pulled the arrow back a couple of times, straining until his biceps creaked and showing off a little. Right now, his physical strength was the one thing he could rely on. ‘What if I pull it and you aim?’
Tobry snorted. ‘That’d be like two men wheeling a wheelbarrow.’ He sighted along the arrow. ‘Maybe. Bugger of a shot, downhill.’
‘If we can kill their leader without warning, we’ll have a minute to disable the others before they kill Tali.’
Something flashed in Tobry’s eyes. Pain? Regret? ‘It’s possible. Just.’
‘It’d better be. Can you kill Orlyk from here if I draw my bow?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Can you hit her?’
‘I expect so.’
‘Not good enough.’ Rix released the tension on the string. ‘If you can’t be sure of bringing her down, we might as well go home.’
‘I can hit her, just can’t be sure of killing her. A flesh wound won’t stop her from shouting an order to kill Tali. Wait a minute …’ He felt in his pack.
‘What are you thinking?’
‘Still got that club-headed arrow?’ said Tobry.
‘Yes, but it doesn’t have the range of the others.’
‘What if you took the head off and put this in its place?’
Tobry handed him the little conical phial of hallucinogenic water he’d collected from the entrance to the wrythen’s caverns.
Rix weighed it in his hand. ‘Stopper’s nicely pointed. But there’s not much water in it …’
‘There’s more than you got on your hand the other day.’
‘True. And it disabled me instantly.’
‘So it should work … as long as I hit her.’
‘Make sure you do.’
Tobry took off the club-head, bound the phial in its place and fixed it with arrowhead gum. His hand had a slight tremor; it took him three attempts to get it right. He checked the balance, adjusted the position of the phial, checked everything again and put the arrow in the sun so the gum would set.
Rix had to forcibly unclench his jaw. It was a lunatic plan that could get Tali killed. The minutes passed.
‘You’re worried about Rannilt, aren’t you?’
Tobry did not answer.
‘I hate waiting,’ said Rix. ‘What if you miss? What if one of the guards cuts Tali’s throat before we can stop him?’
‘It’ll be a better fate than awaits her in Cython.’
Rix had seen throats cut before. That was how thieves in Palace Ricinus were dealt with, and Lady Ricinus required the household to bear witness. His artist’s eye could see bright pearls of blood all over Tali’s luminously pale skin …
‘You’d better not miss.’
‘Shut up, they’re coming,’ said Tobry.
Orlyk, a heavyset, squat woman, was limping along the track towards the nearer end of the isthmus. Behind her came a small sinewy woman wearing a large pack, then a tall male guard, then Tali, her hands bound in front of her, followed by the big man Rannilt called Tinyhead, and another guard.
Tobry cursed. ‘There’s five. Rannilt only said four.’
‘They’re too close together,’ Rix said hoarsely, ‘and Tali’s hands are tied. Even if you take the leader down, any of the others can kill her in seconds. I don’t like the look of that small woman, either.’
‘What don’t you like about her?’
‘Just an instinct.’
‘She doesn’t seem to be armed.’
‘Even more worrying. Get ready, but we don’t shoot until they’re well clear of those boulders or they’ll run for cover.’
Rix laid the phial arrow to hand, plus four ordinary arrows. In practice he could shoot ten arrows a minute, even with the heavy draw of this bow, but with the extreme range, and the awkwardness of him drawing and Tobry aiming, they would be lucky to get three arrows off in that time. And there were five targets.
After firing the arrows they had two hundred yards to run. On level ground he could do that in twenty-five seconds but it would take more than a minute down this rubbly slope. Tali could be dead by then. And what if the wrythen had got to Tobry, and was planning to take command of him at the critical moment? Rix shot a quick glance his way, afraid of what he might see in his friend’s bruised eyes.
‘Something the matter?’ said Tobry.
‘Nah!’
Then it got worse.
‘More of them.’ Tobry was staring to the east. ‘Coming the other way. Hope Rannilt has sense enough to keep out of sight.’
‘It must be the second squad. The ones who were going to kill Tali straight away.’
‘They’re between us and the horses,’ said Rix. ‘Even if we can rescue Tali, how do we get back to Rannilt?’
CHAPTER 47
Mere thought of the Oathbreaker’s Blade froze the wrythen’s plasm. The Immortal Text must be found and destroyed in case the Herovians were rising anew, though he did not know where to look for it.
He dismissed that worry for a more immediate one. He was floating in the white shaft of the Abysm. His nuclix, which was black as a hole in space, kept calling, calling, and the stolen three kept replying, but the master nuclix no longer answered and the wrythen was very afraid.
Had Deroe taken it already? He was growing stronger all the time, feeding on the raw power of the three stolen nuclixes and preparing to break free. The wrythen shivered; the cold radiating from his nuclix seemed to intensify.