Lost Empires - Faces Of Deception Part 11

"You and Seema are free to go. You can take the gold with my blessings, if you can find it, but Yago and I will see our journey through to the end."

Atreus and Yago began to work their way along the brink of the ice field, searching fora route down onto the glacier. Ris.h.i.+ looked hopefully in Seema's direction, but sheonly shook her head and started after the two westerners. The group moved quickly.Over the past few days, Seema had used her healing magic on her companions manytimes, and their wounds seldom troubled them now. They soon came to a blocky ravine where a wedge of ice had been squeezed out of the rim, creating a narrowcorridor that wind and day-melt had eroded into a steep but pa.s.sable gully.

Seema circled around to the sunny side and led the way down a drift of wind-packed snow. The bottom of the shadowed gully was as icy as it was steep, and they had to descend half walking and half sliding. By the time they emerged fromthe mouth of the ravine, they were all nervous, s.h.i.+vering, and glad for the relativesafety of the glacier's sun-softened surface.

Seema descended a few yards, kicking her heels into the wind-crusted snow tomake flat, safe steps. Abruptly she stopped and warily glanced across the glacier.Motioning for the others to stay where they were, she drew her knife and dropped to her knees, then began hacking blocks out of the snow pack. A foot down, the snowsuddenly grew soft and sugary. She put her knife away and continued to dig, eventually climbing into the hole and disappearing to her waist This is very bad." Seema peered out of the hole. "It is not safe."Atreus rolled his eyes and started down the slope. "You're only convincing me that you're trying to hide some-tiling."

"No, come and look." Seema waved him over and pointed at the icy layer in thebottom of the hole. "Do you see how it is slick below and hard on top, with a layer ofsoft sugar in between?"

"Yes." "It is very dangerous on a steep slope like this," Seema said. "It is like a carpet overmarbles. The whole mountainside can break loose and slide down in a big avalanche."

The thought occurred to Atreus that Seema was just finding another excuse to keephim away from the Sisters of Serenity, but he could see for himself that what shesaid was true. He pulled a handful of the sugary snow from the hole and let it run between his fingers, glancing over at Yago.

The ogre merely shrugged. "I told you it was dangerous when we started."

Atreus stood, facing Seema. "What can we do to protect ourselves?" he asked her.

"We can turn around."

"Aside from that," Atreus replied.

Seema sighed, then led them back into the mouth of the gully. She instructed Yagoto start yelling across the valley, hoping to set off any impending avalanches with hisbooming voice. While the ogre bellowed, she took the supply bundle and began tounravel the long threads of a yak-hair blanket, knotting them together to create fourdark strands, each twenty or thirty paces long. By the time she finished, Yago hadmanaged to start a small slide on the opposite wall of the valley, but the snow on the glacier below remained ominously inert Seema tied one of the long strands around her own waist and had each of hercompanions do the same, leaving the ends to drag in the snow. If an avalancheburied someone, the dark cord would float to the top so the others could find thevictim*or so she said. They began to zigzag down the glacier, keeping themselves well s.p.a.ced and crossing dangerous areas one person at a time, so there wouldalways be three people to dig out a victim. Atreus found himself worrying less about avalanches than hidden creva.s.ses, but Seema seemed to have an uncanny sense foravoiding such pitfalls.

They were about a quarter of the way down when Yago, bringing up the rear of theline, plunged through the wind-crusted snow and sank to his chest Unable to feelanything beneath his feet, he could not tell whether he was buried in a particularlydeep snow-bank or hanging over a hidden creva.s.se, and he did not want to call out for fear of touching off an avalanche. He simply stretched his long arms across thesnow to spread his weight and waited. Eventually, the others noticed that he wasmissing and returned to pull him free. After that, Atreus brought up the end of the line.

As they descended, the snow grew more-unstable. Small slabs began to break off beneath their feet and slide down the wind crust The farther they descended, thelarger the slabs grew, and Atreus began to feel an avalanche was imminent Hesuggested having Yago yell again. Seema rejected the idea, saying the dangerwas no greater than before, as long as the slabs did not start coming fromabove. Atreus was not sure he believed her, especially when she grew even more cautious and insisted that they start crossing the entire glacier one person at a time.

They were about halfway down when Atreus heard a brief hissing noise above,then saw a raft-sized slab of snow shoot past and drop into the dark mouth of acreva.s.se. In the next instant, he was sprinting across the snow toward his friends,who stood waiting beneath the shelter of a rocky outcropping. There was no decision or thinking, he simply found himself running, hoping to reach safety before the avalanche swept him away.

But the roaring never came. No billowing clouds of snow swept down to swallow himup, nor did his world suddenly turn white and cold. He simply found himself standingat the outcropping with his companions, trembling and breathing hard.

"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 ontothe glacier. A single dark figure was coming straight down the slope, taking longplunging 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 slopedown." "Then perhaps we should run," Ris.h.i.+ 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 isthe 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 hurrythings along."

"You cannot hurry in these mountains. That is the fool's way." Seema pointed at thedark line of a creva.s.se lying perpendicular across Tarch's path and said, The taileddevil is being careless, and a thousand hazards lie before him. We will do far better tolook 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. Ris.h.i.+ quietly beseeched the G.o.ds to blind the"tailed devil" and send him plunging into a bottomless abyss and close it as promptly aspossible. The Mar's supplications went unheeded. Tarch descended the glacier at anear run, twisting and turning his way through the labyrinth of creva.s.ses, sometimesleaping 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. Severaltimes those speeding cakes seemed destined to sweep Seema off the mountain.

Atreus and his companions could only watch, afraid that a warning shout would bringthe whole slope cras.h.i.+ng down on her.

The nearer Tarch drew, the more nervous Ris.h.i.+ became. He began to complainbitterly about his forced promise not to kill the tailed devil, and he chastised Atreusseveral times for breaking his sword back in the couloir. Yago grew tired of Ris.h.i.+'sgriping 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 moretraverse from the bottom of the dangerous area. Even before she turned to signal,Ris.h.i.+ was bounding along in her footsteps, his dark avalanche cord trailing in hiswake.

Above, Tarch had descended nearly half the glacier's length. Unless he met withone 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 downAtreus's spine. He could not forget the fear he had experienced when Tarch touchedhim, nor the tongue of flame that had nearly engulfed Ris.h.i.+. Perhaps "taileddevil" was not an exaggeration at all. The slave master certainly had the magic of a creature from the Thousand h.e.l.ls.

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'sshe 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 seewhy 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 creva.s.se, arms flailing and tail whipping. He landed in a billowing puff of snowand crashed through the wind crust, launching a s.h.i.+p-sized circle of broken slabsdown the slope. Why the whole mountainside did not break free and sweep himaway, Atreus did not know. Either the snow was more stable than Seema claimed, orthe slave master was the luckiest devil this side of the Abyss.

Ris.h.i.+ 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," Atreussaid, shoving the ogre forward. "Now stop wasting time and go."

Reluctantly, Yago started across the slope. He could not run for fear of plungingthrough the wind crust, but his long strides covered ground rapidly. He was soonscurrying along the top of a serac field on the far side of the glacier, just a dozen paces from the sheltered alcove where Ris.h.i.+ and Seema stood waiting.

Tarch rounded a creva.s.se only twenty paces above, turned away, and continued straight down the slope. Atreus was so astonished that he merely stoodthere collecting his safe, Tarch could hardly have missed seeing him*Atreus wa.s.standing in plain sight*so the only conceivable explanation was that the slavemaster did not think him worthy of attacking.

Atreus charged out onto the glacier, as angry at being ignored as he wasapprehensive about the coming battle. He whirled the chain over his head, fillingthe air with a metallic thrum. Tarch continued to angle down the glacier toward thealcove 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, nearlysweeping him off his feet. Tarch continued to ignore him. Atreus pumped hisknees 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 creva.s.se andstarted to pa.s.s above another one, then Tarch pulled up short, stopping sosuddenly 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 leapingafter him, then felt himself cras.h.i.+ng down on the wind crust and the slave masterslamming down on top of him.

The mountain sighed, a deep silent rumble that Atreus sensed down in thehollow of his stomach. Tarch felt it too and sat up, startled, taking his weight off Atreus's chest. The devil looked up the slope.

Atreus noticed the glacier wall sliding past, remembered the creva.s.se below,brought his chain up and slammed it into Tarch's head. The devil roared, lashedout, and gouged at Atreus's throat A snow slab the size of an elephant caughtthem from above and hurled them backward through the churning air, still battling. Atreus whipped his chain up again and felt it catch around the slave master's neck.White sugar snow poured down around him, falling from above, rising from below,pouring in from all sides, Tarch clawed at Atreus's face and caught the corner of an eye.

They tumbled again. Atreus's head exploded into pain as the claw slipped free. He could not tell whether or not he had been blinded. Everything was white. Adeep, breathless cold rose up to swallow him. The chain tugged at his hand,snapped his arm out full length, and strained the socket. He clenched his fistuntil the nails bit into his palm, felt the crus.h.i.+ng pain of the chain tighteningaround his hand.

The avalanche rolled Atreus, slower, twisting his arm around behind him untilhe thought the chain would rip it off. He began to sting with cold and sensed theworld dropping away. The chain went slack. Whether Tarch was tumbling closeror slipping free, he could not tell. Everything was cold, churning whiteness, sugary and soft.

The tumbling stopped, and Atreus had the sensation of floating. The snow cradled him, closing in around him. He remained frozen in the same awkwardposition, one arm twisted around behind him, dimly aware by his queasystomach that he was sliding. He tried to pull his arm forward but found it too packed in snow to move. He tried to twist around to dig, found his body as caughtas his arm. Tried to pull his hand free, could not retract his elbow. Circle his wrist, clench his fist, wiggle a single fingertip... all stuck fast, stuck fast as a beetlein amber.

The sliding sensation vanished. The snow pressed in from all sides. He felt itin his ears, against his eyes, in his nostrils, growing heavier and colder with eachheartbeat His pulse began to roar, and he knew he was panicking, but panic in these helpless circ.u.mstances was a mere cruel joke. Could he flail about madly?Run blindly to his death? He could do nothing but lie motionless and stare intothe unimaginable whiteness of the snow.

Funny that it should still be so white, with him buried so deep. His bones ached from being crushed, his ears rang front the pressure, his lungs burned for air. Hepushed his lips apart and tried to suck in a breath through the snow, but he couldnot expand his ribs, could not move all those tons with only his chest The white never vanished. The pain faded, the pressure diminished, the roar ofhis pulse ebbed away, the yearning for breath became a distant memory, andthe white remained.

Atreus found himself standing beneath a pearly sky in a valley of white marble,facing an alabaster palace surrounded by snowy ponds filled with white lotus. Athis side stood a white-caped figure with a long, translucent tail and silvery-whitescales.

The form turned, and Atreus saw that it was Tarch, now with a flowing whitebeard and blond eyes. All the brutality had left his jagged features, and his faceradiated the same serenity and contentment as did Seema's. He saluted Atreus with a clawed hand, then climbed the palace steps and disappeared through a door. Atreus was alone.

He stood before the palace, studying its asymmetric majesty. It had an ancient, guileless beauty, with a large open rotunda on one end and a squarebalcony room on the other. Connecting the two was a long gallery of scallopedarches and slender columns, with a Y-shaped staircase that descended down tothe lower porch. The bottom story was painted in bright horizontal stripes, whilethe upper was decorated with swirling, ornately carved relief*s. The architecture could hardly be called balanced, and no part of the building seemed to belong withthe rest, yet it was the most stunning palace he had ever seen, casual andwarmly unpretentious and all the more magnificent Atreus climbed the stairs to the gallery and found himself standing in an icywind, staring into the rotunda where a brilliant silver flame flickered in a bronze brazier.

"All is not harmony and balance." The voice was Seema's. "If you see beauty in yourself, so everyone will see it"

Still staring into the silvery fire, Atreus walked into the rotunda Now that he wasinside, he could see a cowled silhouette standing behind the brazier, its ident.i.ty, even its gender, masked by the brilliant glow of the flame. The figure placed itshands over the brazier and slowly spread them. The flame broadened into a s.h.i.+mmering silver square.

"Look."

Atreus stooped down to obey, then cried out in shock.

There was a face in the silver square, as unbalanced and misshapen as hisown, with the same beetling brow and sunken eyes, the same oversized noseand twisted mouth, but this face was handsome, rugged and happy and utterly atpeace with itself.

"What would you do for this?" Now the voice was Tarch's, deep and raspy and rough. "What would you give to have this face?" Atreus looked up at the cowled figure. "Anything," was his answer. "I would giveanything .. .my fortune, my life ...*

"Wrong answer."

The figure brought its hands together and the s.h.i.+mmering square shrank to a single tongue of guttering flame."Your fortune means nothing to me, and I do not want your life."Atreus stared at the fading flame and asked, "What then? Tell me, and you shall have it!" The cowled figure lowered its hands and the last wisp of flame winked out, revealing the face beneath the hood."You know what I want" The voice remained Tarch's, but the face was Seema's. "Give it to me, and you shall have what you want"Now the voice as well became Seema's. "Give it to me," she said, "and you shall have Langdarma."

She reached out and leaned across the brazier as though to embrace him. A sense of serenity and contentment flooded ever Atreus and he understood atlast what the figure wanted from him. He stretched out his arms and steppedforward to accept the embrace, then suddenly grew dizzy and pitched forwardand found himself hovering over the brazier, staring down at a single white ember still s.h.i.+ning in the dead charcoal.

"Too late," the voice, now distant and s.e.xless, said. "He's for the dead book now."

Atreus craned his neck around to look up beneath the hood and found himselfstaring into the empty stone eyes of a statue. The statue reached down, graspedthe edge of the brazier, and the brazier turned into a thousand-spoked wheel, thewhite ember its burning hub.

"The Seraph spins the wheel round and round." The statue twirled the wheel as it spoke and the white ember became a six-pointed snow-flake, featheryand beautiful and cold, Motionless in the heart of the spinning circle. "Round andround and n.o.body knows where falls the dead man's soul."

Atreus's stomach became light and empty and he began to fall, whirling down toward the white crystal brilliance.

Chapter 11.

The fall took... how long? To Atreus, it seemed the mere flash of an instant and the endless drag of forever. Beneath him rose the thousand-spoked wheel, stillspinning, as vast and as flat as a dead calm sea. The feathery snow-flake in thecenter hovered motionless, growing neither larger nor smaller, but growing morebrilliant with each pa.s.sing moment The long plummet made his stomach qualmish and hollow, and the brightening snow-flake filled his eyes with a cold, scratchy ache. The chill air whipped past his face, tickling his flesh, drawing theheat from his body. His joints stiffened and his bones grew as heavy as ice. Heplunged toward the frigid oblivion of the dead, banded by the glare of that feathery, six-pointed star.

An eternity later, the snow-flake melted into a dark-hearted halo. Something pressed itself against Atreus's frozen lips. His numb flesh sensed only the weight,not the touch. Warm air swirled down through his throat and flooded his lungs.His pulse boomed to life. Blood rushed in his ears. The halo grew dim, and he sawSeema's smooth cheek pressed close, her brown eyes staring down at him, herdark hair making a tent around their faces. Her soft lips were pressed against hisand her mouth was working, her hot breath mingling with his. A sense of joyous wonder welled up inside him, and something more primal stirred lower down. Hereached up, twined his fingers into her silky hair, and returned the kiss.

Seema pulled away, her brow arching in surprise.

Atreus took his hand out of Seema's hair, dimly aware that he had made a terrible mistake. "I, uh... I thought..." he trailed off, fearing he would only make matters worse. "I didn't mean to*"

"It certainly felt like you meant to!" Seema's cheeks darkened, then she laughed lightly and called over her shoulder, "Have no fear for your friend. He only lured me down here to steal a kiss."

"Not at all!" said Atreus, mortified and struggling to identify where "here" was. "Wewere in Langdarma*"

"You have seen Langdarma?" Seema gasped.

"Yes," Atreus said, thankful to talk about anything but the kiss. "It is... white... and beautiful.. .and we were inside a..."

The image faded even as he tried to describe it. He recalled only the peace,the feeling of falling, and a handsome face in a s.h.i.+mmering mirror. He closed hiseyes, frying to recreate the memory through sheer will, but it was lost, wiped awaywhen he kissed Seema.

Seema clasped his forearm. "You cannot describe Langdarma," she told him, her voice warm and understanding. "Is bliss not different for everyone?"

"I... I don't know," Atreus answered, still confused by his surroundings.

He seemed to be lying in the bottom of a small white well, with Seema crammed in beside him. About six feet above her, Ris.h.i.+ and Yago were kneeling atop the wall, silhouetted against a brilliant blue sky, furiously dragging armfuls ofsnow away from the edge.

As soon as Atreus remembered the snow, comprehension came cras.h.i.+ng inlike the avalanche itself. He tried to sit up and found he could not He remainedentombed in snow from the waist down, one arm still twisted around beneath him. The air in the bottom of the hole was shadowy and frigid, and the pressure on his legs made his muscles ache.

Atreus was seized by the over whelming fear that the pits walls were about tocome cras.h.i.+ng down. He began to claw madly at the snow, trying to dig out his waistso he could sit up and pull his arm free.

"Yago! Get me out of here!"

Atreus had hardly closed his mouth before the ogre's long arms stretched downto pluck Seema out of the hole. She cried out in surprise, but Yago paid her noattention and set her aside without apology. He lowered his legs over the edge andplanted one immense foot on each side of Atreus's chest, then squeezed down into the hole and grabbed Mm under his arms.

Yago began to pull, slowly and steadily, but the snow held fast. Atreus felt as thoughhe would be torn in two. The ogre twisted him back and forth ever so slightly, andthere was a loud slurping sound. The pressure on Atreus's legs vanished, and hebegan to rise, until the chain tightened around his buried hand, bringing him to anabrupt halt "Wait!" Atreus commanded. Yago stopped pulling, and Seema leaned over the pit, peering down over theogre's shoulder."Did he hurt you?" she asked. "Dragging a person out of . an avalanche is not a good way to rescue him.*

"No, I'm fine," said Atreus. "It's Tarch."