"Don't preach at me, Garrett. Don't push. Just get me out of here. I'll bury my own dead." His teeth chattered.
"How about you, Spiney?"
"I never had any quarrel with you, Garrett. I got none now."
"Good enough." There were two Karentine soldiers in with them. They were the worse for wear, too. I didn't think it worth my time to ask if they would give me any grief.
Meantime, Morley chatted up the ladies. They were in a separate cage. Rose was ready to deliver the moon if we would just get her out. Me was the word I heard, not us. Lovable, thoughtful, family-oriented Rose. Tinnie behaved with as much decorum as the circumstances allowed. I decided to give her a closer look if we ever got out of there.
"Think we ought to turn them loose?" Morley asked.
"Up to you. They might slow us down."
It takes longer to tell than it took to happen. Even so, Dojango decided he'd had enough. "You guys quit jacking around or my brothers and I walk without you." He had the bloodstone and several unicorn horns, and though he was feeling wealthy, he was also worried about living to enjoy his gains.
His crossbow thunked. An instant later an arrow hissed overhead.
"He's got a point, Morley."
Morley spoke to the grolls. They opened all the cages with a few well-placed club strokes. Over Dojango's protests, Morley and I passed out unicorn horns. The grolls tossed our last few flares onto the steps and we headed for freedom.
48
Freedom was a coy bitch.
Our first charge looked like it would carry through. But they swarmed, threw everything at us, utterly determined to keep the secret of the nest. And I mean threw everything: filth, bones, rocks, themselves. And some were almost as tough as their masters. We lost every one of the older prisoners who had tagged along. They were unarmed and as slow as men in a syrup bath.
One of the soldiers fell. Vasco took a wound but managed to keep his feet. I collected another assortment of scratches. Saucerhead went down and had trouble getting up. When Doris grabbed him and started carrying him, the monsters swarmed all over him. I thought he was a goner for sure. When I saw he was still alive, I had to overcome self-disgust for momentarily wishing he'd died so we wouldn't have to drag him out.
Then the night people fell back and were silent. I wondered why, noting there were only about thirty of them left willing to fight. Then I noticed that the last two flares were about to die.
In moments they would have us in their element: darkness.
Time, then, for another one from up my sleeve. One I had expected to have to use earlier than this. "Everybody get in close, here. Leave something sharp-pointed out, face uphill, and close your eyes."
There were those who wanted to ask questions and those who wanted to argue. I lied, "Those who don't do what I say are going to end up blind."
Morley snapped orders in grollish. The triplets did what I wanted. That damned Doris was up and lugging Saucerhead again.
The last flare died.
Rustle and scrape as the night people began moving.
This one was actually in my boot, not up my sleeve. I said, "Close your eyes!" and ripped the paper open.
A blast of sulfurous air overrode the stench of the cavern. Light slammed through my eyelids. Night people shrieked. I counted to ten slowly. "Eyes open. Let's move." The enveloping light had waned to a tolerable glare. The Old Witch had said it was good for several hours. The light was much like that of the sun. The night people found it excruciating. If they didn't get out of it quickly, it would destroy what served them as sanity.
We went up the steps. I ripped rags off a fallen bloodslave, threw them over Kayean to shield her from the light. She was already in pain. Morley and Dojango wanted to stop and play with the bows we had left.
"Get out while you can!" I snarled. "Our luck has been too damned fantastic already. Let's not push it."
Marsha grabbed Dojango and started dragging. Everybody else started hiking. When he saw he would have to play alone, Morley grabbed his booty and joined the retreat.
There was no respite. The tunnel was one place the night people could escape the light. And once free of its maddening influence they became rabid, terrible enemies again.
Nevertheless, we outran them to the mouth of the world.
49
"What the hell is this stuff?" Morley growled as we struggled through the webbing or netting or wire that had materialized in the mouth of the cave during our time below.
"How the hell should I know? Just get through it." I was fussing over Kayean. She hadn't spoken a word yet. But she was whining like a baby. At first I thought it was fear of going out into a world she hadn't seen in years. Then I realized it was because the tangle we were in was wire and the metal's touch hurt.
Who put it there?
My money was on Zeck Zack. But where had he gotten the wire? And what did its presence mean to us?
We broke out. It was broiling, summer hot out there.
"Midnight," Morley groaned. "We were down there longer than I thought."
"Keep moving. Lots to do yet."
We were halfway down to the desert floor when the screaming started behind us. There was pain in it, but it was mostly frustration and rage.
Dojango gasped. "They say those things can recover from almost anything. You think any of the masters will come around?"
I told the truth. "I don't know. We'll tell the army first chance we get."
We hustled across to our camp. There was a three-quarter moon, so the going was quick, though Kayean kept whimpering at the brightness. So did Morley's prisoners. As we climbed to our camp, Dotes said, "We'll have to pack them in moist earth and wrap them up good to protect them from the sun."
"We have to do some talking, too."
"I suppose so."
"What happened to the major? Tinnie, do you know?"
She was sticking as close to me as Kayean was. "The one who arrested us? I don't know. I guess he got killed when the vampires attacked."
"Vasco. Did you see what happened to him?"
"I was too busy."
"Anybody?"
Rose said, "I thought I saw them carry him away. But maybe I was wrong. He wasn't in the cages when you showed up."
"Maybe they ate him," Dojango suggested.
"We have the right number of bodies," Morley said. Then he gave me a sudden, odd look, as though he suspected me of knowing something I hadn't shared.
I did, but I hadn't shared it only because it had hit me just minutes before. I whispered, "That name that kept turning up on those have-you-heard-of lists. The one I'd heard but couldn't remember? I remembered."
"And?"
"A legendary Venageti agent. Supposedly a shape-shifter. Also supposedly caught and killed. But if he was, why are some folks—with Venageti connections—so interested in him?"
"I don't know and I don't think I want to know. All I'm interested in now is moving myself from this godforsaken here to there where I can sit down to my first healthy meal in a month. But I suppose we have to protect ourselves. You think we rescued him?"
"There's a chance."
"Which one?"
"Take your pick."
"Not the women?"
"No. One would know the other had changed. I'd vote for someone about his size."
"Always assuming he's still with us."
"Always assuming that."
We were pleasantly surprised to find our camp as we had left it, unplundered and the horses uneaten and patiently waiting. Morley sent Marsha off for a load of moist earth. He assumed the job of sentinel. The rest of us doctored one another. When I was satisfied that I wouldn't succumb to the disease through my wounds, I hunted for Dotes. He was perched on a boulder contemplating the desert between our camp and the mesa. He said, "You haven't said a word to her."