The Cyber Chronicles - Book I: Queen of Arlin (21 page)

"Tassin, let go
of the packs and hold onto the rocks."

"Why?"

"Just do it,
now!"

The blackness
persisted, and he waited for the pain and numbness. Instead, a blue
scanner image of the cliff face appeared within his mind, some
areas accompanied by measurements. A protruding rock ahead, which
he had been about to use as a handhold, was outlined in red. With a
start, he realised that the red-marked area was unstable, and had
he used it as a handhold, it might have crumbled away, sending them
to their deaths. Well, Tassin, at least. The cyber's
ground-penetrating scanners had detected it, and it was warning
him. After a few seconds, the image faded, leaving only a dull ache
behind his eyes.

"Okay, hold on
to me again," he instructed.

They completed
the descent without mishap, and once safely on the next ledge she
turned to him, and he explained what had happened.

"So it is
helping us?" she asked.

He nodded.
"You, to be exact."

"Does that mean
it is not going to keep trying to take over?"

"I don't
know."

At that moment,
her question was answered as blinding agony shot through his skull.
He fell to his knees, clutching the brow band. The battle for
supremacy was on in earnest this time. Whirling lights flashed in
his eyes in a dizzying vortex of colour, and blackness dragged at
him as numbness crept into his limbs. He cried out, vaguely sensing
the cold crispness of snow against his cheek.

Nebulous
impressions flitted through his mind, a mixture of enhanced scanner
images, flashbacks of his training, and a vision of Tassin plunging
to her death, drawn in computer graphics. He struggled to push away
the dark presence that tried to engulf him in its black folds and
relegate him to the spectator seat he had occupied for so long. He
fought it like a drowning man fights the cold water that drags him
down, knowing that if he lost, he would never have another chance.
His muscles went into spasms and his hands pulled at the brow band
until it cut into his fingers.

The images and
shafts of agony vanished, and he opened his eyes to find that he
lay in the snow. Tassin knelt a short distance away, watching him
with intense concern. He sat up, holding his pounding head, weak
and shaky in the aftermath of the intense pain. What little
strength he had regained had drained away without a trace, and
nausea churned his stomach. Stabs of dull fire exploded behind his
eyes, and he dug in his pouch for more pain killers. When they took
effect, he looked at Tassin and smiled wearily.

"Does that
answer your question?"

She nodded.

"It was
actually trying to communicate with me that time," he mused. "It
thinks I'm not capable of looking after you."

"Why?"

"Because it
thinks it's better than me."

"Is it?"

"No." A flash
of bitterness shot through him at her innocent question, and he
chased away the sense of inferiority with anger. She bit her lip
when he frowned at her, then he climbed to his feet and walked to
the edge of the next ledge, relieved to find an easy descent. A
broad ledge meandered down, wide enough to walk on safely. He
started down it, and Tassin followed.

The desert's
pale brown expanse drew closer as they descended, and a ribbon of
road appeared beyond a broad strip of scrubby, rolling hills that
bordered the mountain range. Sabre studied the desert, which
stretched away to a dust-hazed horizon, utterly flat, and devoid of
any features except the distant glassy patches.

They reached
the foothills at dusk, and Sabre chose a campsite in a clump of
trees. He dumped the bags and went in search of firewood, returning
with two rabbits as well. The prospect of fresh meat delighted
Tassin, but her smile faded when he held the carcasses out to
her.

"Here, you
clean them while I light the fire."

"No!" She
shrank away. "That is your job!"

He shook the
rabbits at her, making her scramble away from the splatter of
blood. "Up until now, everything's been my job. But I'm not a
mindless cyber anymore, so now it's your job."

"I will not!"
She stood up, putting on her most regal air. "Queens do not soil
their hands with rabbit offal!"

Sabre smiled.
"It's time you did your share of the chores, Tassin. If you want to
eat, you clean them."

"You have to
eat too!"

"Then I'll
clean one, and you can go hungry."

Tassin
spluttered with rage. "How dare you? You have no respect! After all
I did for you when you were sick. I could have left you there to
die!"

His eyes
narrowed. "Yes, I suppose you could have. But you need me to help
you escape from Torrian, don't you? Rest assured, if you were as
sick now as I was then, I wouldn't ask you to help. I've agreed to
help you escape of my own free will, which I actually have now,
something you take for granted. I didn't have to go hunting, nor do
I have to light the fire. I have a choice now." His voice and
expression softened. "All I'm asking is for you to help a little
bit."

"I am a queen,
not some kitchen maid to filthy my hands with muck!"

His brows drew
together, but his voice remained soft. "You're a spoilt little cow,
that's what you are. I hope I don't regret offering to help
you."

"You are a
commoner. You will do it, that is an order!"

The brow band
filled with sparkling red lights, and Sabre staggered back, raising
a hand to his head. The diagonal line of seven lights flashed in
unison three times, then the band went black again. He lowered his
hand, patently furious. Flinging the rabbits at her feet, he
marched off into the gathering gloom.

Tassin huddled
on a rock, staring after him with confusion and regret. She had not
meant to hurt him. She had not known her words would spark a
reaction from the cyber. His unexpected demand had surprised and
dismayed her. No one had ever tried to make her do menial chores
before. She longed to go after him and apologise, but pride kept
her glued to the rock while stubbornness stilled her tongue. Her
eyes flinched from the rabbits' corpses, and she could not bring
herself to touch them.

Sabre found a
rock and sat in the gloom, contemplating this fresh development.
So, the cyber could still inflict pain, even when it was not trying
to take over. It remained active, and had reacted to her words.
Just as it had warned him of the flawed rock, now it warned him not
to disobey. This time, her words had only triggered a minor bout,
but what would happen in a more serious situation? Did this mean he
was tied to this irritating young girl? What would the cyber do if
he tried to leave her? He touched the band of crystals that circled
his forehead. If only there was a way to get the damn thing
off.

The cracks
weakened its structure, but a fall of hundreds of metres had caused
those, so there was no way he could break it completely. This
selfish girl had the power to hurt him, perhaps even to force him
to obey her, and he resented that. After twenty years of being a
captive in his mind, he was still not entirely free.

What he had was
close to freedom, closer than any cyber host had come to before,
but it was not complete. She could trigger a determined takeover
attempt on the part of the cyber, one that he might not be able to
overcome. The thought chilled him, and his fear of the sucking
darkness that had imprisoned him for so long made him cautious, but
at the same time, angry and bitter.

Worried that
Tassin might be frightened, alone in the dark, he made his way back
to the campsite. She had lighted the fire in his absence, and
huddled close to it, but the rabbits were not cleaned. When she
looked up, her eyes were filled with shame, but also pride.

"I lighted the
fire."

Sabre glared at
her. "Don't ever order me to do anything again, got it? Never."

She nodded.
"All right."

Sabre cleaned
the rabbits and handed her one affixed to a spit. She watched him
as she held her spit, and the meat turned brown. He had shaved off
the stubble, and looked better for it. A white line ran through his
hair from the centre of his forehead, and she guessed that it was
where they had cut open his scalp to attach the reinforcing. The
things that had been done to him were horrifying, and yet he seemed
quite normal.

Tassin did not
understand some of what he had told her, like how they could make a
copy of a dead man, a clone, as he called it. That meant there were
hundreds, maybe thousands more just like him. She had seen
identical twins before, but it was hard to imagine so many who
looked exactly alike. Also, machines that nurtured babies, like a
womb? Unbelievable. How must he feel, knowing he had been created
as a tool? Her rabbit burnt on one side, so distracted was she by
her thoughts. She turned it again, glancing at Sabre. He looked
preoccupied, and she wondered what he was thinking.

Chapter Twelve

At dawn, they
started the long walk to Olgara, heading for the distant road that
ran along the edge of the Badlands. Tassin was certain that she was
safer now, for surely Torrian would not dare to send soldiers into
a foreign kingdom? She missed her home, and the servants who had
made her life so pleasant. All she had now was one strange warrior,
whose manners had not improved since he had become himself. If
anything, they were worse. Now he used her title mockingly, and
expected her to help with revolting, dirty tasks. At least he had
not asked her to carry some of the baggage.

As they
descended, the climate warmed, and Sabre removed his wool coat,
revealing a chest mottled with yellowish bruises. The bruise on his
forehead had also faded, and the skin around cyber band's struts
was healing. They walked towards the road, where carts and wagons
raised clouds of dust, and Tassin hoped they would be able to get a
ride on one. She still had some money left from Sabre's fights, and
wondered if he would fight for money again when it ran out.

Now she could
no longer order him around, which complicated matters. She did not
want to walk all the way to Olgara, already her feet throbbed and
her legs ached. Sabre strode ahead, apparently tireless, and she
glared at his back. She had removed her woollen coat, but by the
time they reached the road, sweat trickled down her face and her
head hurt. Deciding that she could not go another step, she sat
down on a convenient rock.

"Sabre!"

He stopped and
looked around, then strolled back to her. Although he looked a
little drawn, he showed no other signs of fatigue, and his smile
was cheerful. "Tired?"

She nodded. "My
feet hurt."

"Ah, would you
like me to wrap them again for you?"

"No. I want to
wait for a wagon."

Sabre glanced
up and down the deserted road. "You may have a long wait, it seems
like rush hour is over."

"Then we will
camp here tonight."

He shook his
head. "I don't think that's a good idea."

"Why not?"

"We have no
water. You drank the last of it."

"Oh." She
frowned at him.

"It looks like
there's a stream a bit further along the road."

Tassin spotted
a line of verdure in the distance. "That is far! Could you not just
go and get some?"

A short,
pregnant silence fell. Sabre sighed. "Come on, it's not all that
far. Then we can camp under the trees instead of out in the open,
and we can wash. I don't know about you, but I need a bath, and you
could do with one too, I think."

She resented
his common sense. "If I pass out from exhaustion, you will have to
carry me."

"No, I'll just
leave you there until you wake up." She gasped, and he chuckled.
"Just kidding. Come on, you won't pass out, you're a warrior queen,
remember?"

Sabre's mocking
smile spurred Tassin to rise to her feet and trudge after him,
arriving at the stream as limp as a cooked nerril. Flopping down on
the soft grass, she closed her eyes with a sigh. When she opened
them, several minutes later, Sabre had vanished. She almost
panicked, opening her mouth to bellow his name, then got a grip on
herself and went in search of him instead.

Moving
upstream, she came across a grotto that sheltered a waterfall,
below which a deep pool of crystal clear water filled a rocky bowl.
Sabre lazed in it, paddling idly. She climbed down to the mossy
rocks beneath the rainbow-shot mist and sat down to watch him. He
eyed her. His harness lay on the rocks beside her, and she noticed
that most of its straps and hooks were empty. Soon he would need a
sword. She looked up as he moved towards the bank.

"I'd like to
get out now, if you don't mind."

"I am not
stopping you."

His brows rose.
"I'm not the local entertainment for pubescent girls, so
scram."

Tassin smiled.
"What will you do if I do not?"

"Dunk you."

"But you will
have to come out to do that."

"If I
must."

Tassin giggled,
then retreated when he advanced, but only far enough to stay out of
his reach.

He growled,
"You might think you're safe, but I promise you, I'll dunk you if
you don't scarper now."

Tassin pulled a
face and left him to dress, returning to the campsite. A few
minutes later he appeared, clad in damp trousers and carrying a wet
harness. He looked refreshed, the lines of fatigue washed from his
face with the grime and dried sweat, and the pale operation scars
stood out on his tanned skin.

He sat down
nearby. "Your turn."

"That water is
too cold. When we get to Olgara, I will have a hot bath at an
inn."

"You
stink."