‘It’s too sticky. The Vomits tend to blow up.’
‘H-how often?’
‘Might not happen for a thousand years. But when it does, it’ll empty the lake and wash Caulderon clean away.’
Tali wished she had not asked. ‘How far is it to Rannilt?’
‘Three miles in a direct line,’ said Tobry. ‘But it’ll take hours on our winding route.’
In hours the enemy could catch them. In hours the shifting thing could kill Rannilt and eat her.
‘How did you escape Cython, where no other Pale ever has?’ asked Rix, sometime later.
She explained about the sunstone knocking all the enemy out.
‘Yet you escaped?’
‘It didn’t affect me — apart from a terrible headache.’ Or had it? The power that had killed Banj had appeared soon afterwards.
‘I wonder why not?’ mused Tobry.
She did not answer, for a chilling possibility had occurred to her. How come Rix, the one person she could identify from the murder scene, had appeared at the shaft within hours of her escape? It could be a coincidence, though it seemed a little too neat.
If he knew the killers, had he been blackmailed into protecting them? But in that case, why had he rescued her, and why was he doing his best to make up for his earlier insult? She couldn’t make sense of it.
She had to confront him, tell him she knew he was the boy from the cellar, and demand answers … though, after he had risked his life for her, to do so now felt more than a little ungrateful. It must be soon, though, and in the meantime she would try the subtle approach.
‘Why was Tinyhead hunting you before you escaped?’ said Tobry.
‘He’s why I escaped.’ She turned to Rix, watching his face. ‘He betrayed my mother to her killers and now he’s after me.’
‘Then he’s a traitor to his own country,’ said Rix.
‘He serves a higher master.’ She told them how Tinyhead’s master had burnt through his head to prevent him revealing the name. ‘For a few seconds, I could see his eyes looking out of Tinyhead’s eyes, staring at me.’
Rix jumped, and he and Tobry exchanged glances. ‘I don’t like this at all,’ Tobry said in a low voice. ‘When we get home, Rix, we’ve got to talk.’
‘He wants me desperately and I’ve no idea why,’ said Tali, moving closer to Rix and watching his face. ‘Wants to kill me the way that woman killed my mother.’
‘What woman?’ said Rix. His voice rose. ‘Were you there when she died?’
‘I saw her killed,’ said Tali, staring at his eyes. She saw no flicker of guilt, shame or even recognition. ‘The killers were masked, but they were definitely from Hightspall.’
‘Hightspallers in Cython?’ said Rix to Tobry.
‘I don’t know that we were in Cython. Tinyhead led us a long way underground.’
‘Doing secret deals with the enemy is treachery, even without conspiring to murder Pale. Treachery of the worst kind, a capital offence. What scum would sink so low?’
She wanted to scream, then what were you doing there?
‘They’re behind us,’ said Tobry. ‘Nine of them.’
‘Can we shake them off?’ said Tali. Rannilt was lost in a deadly land and Tali had to get to her before the thing in the dark did.
‘Not a hope,’ said Tobry. A cluster of cone-shaped peaks broke the horizon a mile and a half away. ‘If we can reach those hills we might hold them off … for a while. Run!’
She set off, and every stride was like having the soles of her feet beaten. Rix passed her, jogging, his wet boots squeaking with every stride. Tobry laboured along beside her.
‘Are you better?’ she said.
‘It’s been a while since I’ve had a day like this.’
‘Did you get the scars on your chest in battle?’
Tobry shook his head. ‘There hasn’t been war in many lifetimes …’ He did not speak for a while. ‘I didn’t get those scars respectably.’
‘I don’t understand,’ said Tali.
‘A woman’s husband challenged me to a duel of honour. His honour, not mine, if you take my meaning.’
More than a little shocked, she mulled it over as she ran. Such things were unheard of in Cython. When the men came back for their monthly visits, many were too exhausted to service their own wives. An especially vigorous man could be called upon to honour the wife of an incapable friend, but that was by mutual consent. Clearly, things were different in Hightspall.
She looked sideways at Tobry. He was half a head shorter than Rix, wiry rather than muscular and no one would have called him handsome, yet in Cython he would have been a rare prize. Moreover, she felt safe with him, as she had never felt safe since her mother was murdered.
‘I think you are honourable,’ she said.
‘How little you know me. My noble house has fallen, not unrelated to a terrible choice I had to make as a lad. Now I’m forced to rely on the kindness of my friends. I believe in nothing save the here and now, and I think the whole universe is a joke. So there.’
‘You’re brave and kind,’ she panted. ‘You gave me the last coins you had. You risked your life for me.’
‘They’re gaining fast,’ said Tobry.
They had crossed half the distance now. Even if they made it to the peaks, three could not fight nine when Rix was the only one armed.
The peaks were shaped like cones and only a few hundred feet high. Tali could see four of them and thought there might be others beyond.
‘Those mountains are oddly neat,’ she said.
‘Cinder cones,’ said Tobry. ‘Baby volcanoes.’
‘Do you think there could be caves there? Or anywhere we can hide?’
‘No. They’re just steep piles of broken rock, and dry as bones.’
Rix reached the face of the nearest cinder cone, climbed twenty feet then turned to look out over the plain. Tali scrambled up to him, wincing. It was hard climbing, the surface being loose rock which slipped underfoot.
‘How are you doing?’ Rix said pointedly.
She wasn’t giving anything away. ‘In Cython we learn — ’
‘To endure pain. I’m getting sick of hearing that.’
‘Sorry. My feet hurt like blazes. Everything hurts.’ It was a big admission, for her.
He put an arm around her. ‘We’ll stand together and make them pay.’
No, she thought, we won’t.
CHAPTER 53
The enemy reached the base of the cinder cone, hundreds of feet below them. Rix drew his sword, Tobry a knife. Tali picked up a stone that fitted neatly in her hand, and waited.
‘Come down,’ said the pock-faced captain.
‘Go to hell,’ shouted Rix.
‘Send down the slave and we’ll allow you a merciful death.’
‘We know all about Cythonian honour,’ Rix sneered. ‘And Cythonian treachery. That’s why the war started in the first place.’
The captain clenched his grey fists. ‘The war started,’ he said, biting off each word and spitting it in their faces, ‘because your Five Heroes used vile sorcery to forge King Lyf’s name on a charter — ’
‘They made a solemn agreement with your king which gave us half your country.’
‘Cythe belonged to the people. No king ever had the power to give it away.’
‘Well, that was two thousand years ago and what’s done can’t be undone,’ said Rix. ‘Go back to the Rat Hole where you belong.’
‘I’m not sure it’s wise to insult them,’ Tobry murmured.
‘I’ve had enough of their stinking lies.’
‘Take them!’ ordered the Cythonian.
The enemy had just begun to climb the slope when Tali, who was higher than Rix and Tobry, noticed a cloud of dust back the way they had come. She climbed onto a honeycombed rock as tall as she was, then up onto a cart-sized boulder. Could they be that lucky?
‘Tobry, riders!’
He scrambled up beside her and stared across the raddled plain. ‘Dozens of riders, coming this way. The Cythonians don’t have horses, do they?’
‘They could have stolen them.’