‘Ready?’ said Rix.
Tobry bent double, slipped to his knees and stayed down. ‘Only if you can tow me too.’
Tali ran across. ‘Lean on me.’
He rose, holding onto her slender shoulders and breathing hard. Tobry was heavier than she had expected but she had borne greater burdens.
‘Why do you keep staring at me, Rix?’ said Tobry.
‘Just concerned for you.’
To Tali’s mind, his reply was unconvincing. What was Rix worried about?
‘Getting a bit old for this adventuring lark,’ said Tobry, letting go. ‘A maiden should be bathing my feet by a hearty fire while I sip — ’
‘They’re nearly within bowshot,’ Rix said curtly, and moved to the edge of the channel. ‘Ready?’
‘Give me one more minute.’
The cataract looked far more dangerous than the placid lake. The water had burnt all the way down into her lungs and without Tobry she would have drowned. Tali never wanted to feel that helpless again.
‘Ready, Tali?’ said Rix.
She shook her head. ‘I can’t go back in the water.’
‘Don’t you trust me to get you through?’
She took a sharp breath. She had to raise it now, while he was off-guard, and hope he would be shocked enough to give something away.
She met his eyes. ‘The last person I trusted was my mother …’
‘And?’ said Rix, when she did not go on.
‘She was murdered when I was eight.’
‘I’m sorry,’ he said politely.
Tali had expected him to start, or look away guiltily. Expected to see a reflection of that horror she had seen in his eyes ten years ago, or for Rix to conceal his feelings behind a liar’s mask. She had not expected polite sympathy. But he had been that boy, she was positive of it. How could her mother’s murder have meant nothing to him?
Rix was a man whose passions ran deep and she did not think he could be indifferent to such a childhood trauma, any more than she could. And how come he had not recognised her, when she looked so like her mother? Tali saw no recollection in his eyes, no guilt or shame or horror — nothing save mild curiosity.
‘I look just like my mother did, I’m told,’ said Tali.
He frowned, doubtless wondering why she was babbling about such things, then turned to Tobry.
‘We’ve got to go now, Tobe.’
‘I’m ready.’
He did not look it. His face was blotchy and his left knee had a worrying tremor. Rix lifted Tali’s hat off, the sky went up and down and panic exploded inside her. She snatched the hat and crammed it on, gasping.
‘What’s with the hat?’ said Rix, frowning. ‘You’re bound to lose it in the cataract.’
Tali pressed a hand against her chest, unable to speak.
Tobry peered at her. ‘You’re not used to being in the open, are you? Does it make you feel panicky?’
She jerked her head up and down. He drew a length of twine from a pocket.
‘We don’t have time,’ said Rix. ‘They’re almost within bowshot.’
‘If she has a panic attack in there, you both drown,’ said Tobry. He tied the hat on. ‘Go!’
Tali swallowed and took hold of Rix’s belt. He put an arm around her waist.
‘You don’t need — ’ she said hastily, uncomfortable with the physical contact.
‘If the current tears us apart, there’s nothing I can do to save you. We’ll go in together.’
She had to trust him. Though how could she trust someone hiding such a terrible secret?
He stepped off, carrying her with him, and before they sank to the waist the current had whirled them away, far faster than Rix had swum across the lake. Tali stifled a shriek and locked her hands onto his belt. If they got into trouble, not even his great strength could fight the power of the water.
They shot downstream, the current thumping the sheathed sword against her legs and his tied boots against her shoulder. Rix was steering them with scoops of his free arm and powerful kicks. A cascade appeared ahead, the water straining between smooth, slime-covered boulders. They were heading straight for one. They were going to smash into it and be torn apart! Tali shrieked. Rix gave a mighty double-kick, they shot between it and the next boulder and she felt slime-covered rock gliding under her thigh.
Tobry had tied the hat on so tightly that the cord was cutting into her throat, making every breath a struggle. It reminded her of drowning. Her legs thrashed, instinctively.
‘Don’t do that,’ said Rix.
She fought to contain the panic. Ahead the water ran straight and fast for a couple of hundred yards before another cascade, a bigger one, though the rocks were further apart and Tali wasn’t so worried this time.
She should have been — a dip in the water surface hid a little whirlpool. They shot into it and it hurled them out sideways, straight towards a ramp-shaped boulder, and Rix could do nothing to avoid it. He half-turned, sheltering Tali with his body, and struck it with his backside. A grunt of pain escaped him, then they were shooting up the slimy slope and hurtling into the air with his kilt up around his waist and Tali, clinging two-handed to his belt, trailing behind. Her cold hands were slipping. She was losing grip! A moan escaped her.
His arm clamped around her waist, crushing her against him, and she did not flinch from the contact this time. Did she trust him? In the water, she had to. Without him, she was dead.
There were rocks below them too, but they were moving so fast they passed over them and splashed into deep water. It hurled them away down the race, moving faster and faster. They curved around a bend and shot down another long straight towards a third cascade.
‘You all right?’ said Rix.
Tali nodded stiffly. How far had they gone? A couple of miles? They must be well ahead of the enemy by now, but her escape was a threat to Cython’s security and they would never give up.
She relaxed enough to look upstream. Where was Tobry? He had been exhausted before entering the cataract. What if he’d hit the rocks and broken his legs, or had been knocked out?
‘Tobry?’ she yelled. Water surged into her mouth; she choked and coughed it out. ‘Rix?’ Her voice went squeaky. ‘I can’t see him.’
If Rix was anxious, he did not show it. ‘He’ll be all right. Old Tobe is indestructible.’
‘Aren’t you worried?’ Tobry felt like an old, reliable friend. He could not drown; he could not. And yet, anyone could go under in this cataract. ‘He could be dead.’
‘If I take my eyes off the river to look for him, we will be dead. Hang on.’
‘What?’ said Tali, still scanning upstream.
‘ Hang on!’
She was turning when he crushed her so tightly against his iron-hard chest that it forced the breath out of her.
‘Can’t breathe,’ she gasped.
His grip relaxed a little, then they were on the brink — and it wasn’t a cascade. It was a waterfall and they were going over the edge.
Though Tali wasn’t a screamer, she let out a shriek of desperation, then threw her arms around Rix’s solid body as they fell in a torrent of water. Down they plunged, she could not see where to. They were surrounded by whirling spray going in a hundred directions at once, hitting her face so hard that it stung -
He rolled over in the air so he would hit the water first and not crush her beneath him, and they struck. But it did not feel like water — it was foamy and offered no resistance, supported no weight. They plunged through it, down and down and down. Why hadn’t she taken a deep breath before they hit? She had hardly any air.
This was worse than the other time. This time Tali knew what to fear — the desperate urge to breathe, while knowing that the only thing she could breathe was water. Water that would burn all the way down and fill her lungs with that terrible, aching cold.
Her lungs were beginning to heave; funny lights were dancing in her head. Tali kicked furiously, trying to get to the surface, but could not free herself of Rix’s grip. What if he had drowned and was carrying her to the bottom? She could not tell which way was up.