The Curse of the Winged Scorpion
Ambush

“Ifyou truly do fear DeLunde gaining control of the stone, is it not dangerous totake it out to the Steppes?” Fantel asked.

Rasharirolled his right shoulder in a dilatory shrug, “Now that we know ProjectPandora is active again? Yes, I suppose it is. I’m just not sure what else todo. DeLunde might be ahead when it comes to deific research but that doesn’tmean that Adra is the only nation aware of it. You can bet Dushkuland has itsown project, and gods alone knows the Suluman would sell the Heart a dozentimes over to get out of debt.”

“Thenwhat is your plan? You could have given it to LePortail, but you didn’t. Youare determined to take it out to the Steppes, even knowing your enemies waitthere.” It all seemed unnecessarily complicated to Fantel. If he trusted his alliesso little why had he made the deal with Banaborra in the first place? The moreshe found out about Rashari the more he confounded her. Logic and sense wereclearly alien concepts to him.

Rasharinodded. “Maybe it seems mad to you, but so long as I have the stone, then myenemies don’t. Right now that seems like a very good thing.”

“Ido not understand you.” Fantel shook her head. Clearly a proper considerationof consequences could be added to the growing list of concepts Rashari’sconvoluted thought processes struggled to grasp.

Rasharisighed. “The stone seems dormant. If the Seraph Anoush is still in there herpower is massively diminished. That’s actually worse. It means it will be easyto access the deific power left in the stone. We need to get away from thepeople chasing us. Dangerous or not, ‘losing’the stone in Battlan is still our best plan.”

“Isincerely doubt you would know a ‘good plan’ if it bit you,” Fantel tapped herfingers over the cold stone floor. “What about the Seraph, you cannot tell ifAnoush remains?”

Rasharishook his head. “No. I know that nothing happens when I touch the stone. Smiththinks Anoush’s consciousness must be in hibernation, weak, but still there.Otherwise I’d be able to feel the deific energy inside the stone.” He shrugged clearlynot confident one way or the other.

“Thenwe must awaken the goddess,” Fantel said. “So long as Anoush is awake thedeific energy cannot be harvested, correct?”

“Yes,but I don’t know how. The machinery in the research base could probably do it, ifit didn’t kill her, but without that?” He shook his head frustrated. “How doyou go about waking up a goddess that has lain dormant for centuries? I don’tthink yelling ‘oi wakey, wakey,’ is going to work.”

Anidea coalesced in Fantel’s mind, formed from the twisted fragments ofeverything she had learned since their journey began. She sighed. “Since youare determined to go out to the Battlan Steppes we may as well use it to ouradvantage. Battlan teems with life and anima. We can take the stone to awellspring, a place where raw anima rises from the heart of Aldlis. There wecan drop the stone into one of the open fissures. If the anima does not awakenthe goddess we can at least be sure that the stone will be beyond the reach ofhuman hands.”

“That…”Rashari paused, “is not an altogether bad plan.” A smile spread his lips, “betterthan my notion of burying the thing in some boggy marsh in the backend ofnowhere and hoping for the best, certainly.”

Fanteldecided for her own peace of mind not to dignify that with a response. “Westill do not know who set you up. Do youthink it could be DeLunde and your father?”

“Ihave no idea. Everything is spiralling out of control. A scion stone becomesavailable. I make a deal to steal it. DeLunde reopens the Adaline base afterten years of nothing.” He shook his head, striking the air with his hand andrippling the candle flame. “I can’t believe any of this is a coincidence,” Headmitted. “Maybe our secret puppet-master is banking on me making a break forBattlan. Running headlong into disaster is something of a habit of mine.” He addeddryly.

“Ihad noticed,” Fantel assured him. “Regardless it seems the only course ofaction left to us.” As much as she hated to admit it. “The Dha-hali will bewatching Vedeca, no doubt. I do not think you would wish to leave your shipbehind should we flee Aramantine for another human city.”

“Bloodyright I don’t.” He agreed without hesitation and then winced. “Bugger it. Ihadn’t even thought of that. Damn-all, we’re like rats in a trap, aren’t we?”He shook his head disgusted. “I wish I knew who was behind all this.”

“Youhave no idea at all?” Fantel pressed. “You seem to know a great manyuntrustworthy people.” She added. “Surely a suspect must stand out against thecrowd?”

“No,”he looked up at her, frustration writ large across his face. “It could beanybody. Raiders are notoriously untrustworthy; it’s an occupational requirement.Every last one of us is out for ourselves. We might band together for profitbut you can be assured we each have a knife ready for a spot of backstabbingwhen it suits us. That’s just how it is. You learn to accept the fact that aknife might replace a home in your kidneys at any moment. It’s like the Idrissweat or Messonyan quincey – death comes and goes with the turning tide.”

Fantelarched her eyebrows both amused and incredulous. If all raiders were really soquick to turn on their allies it was a wonder they had managed to become socredible a threat around Aldlis. “This person must know you well, to soaccurately predict what you would do.” She pointed out. “Is there no one youtrusted at all?”

“I didn’t trust anyone, that’s the point.Well, except Smith, and he didn’tbetray me.”

“Smith?”

Fantelhadn’t thought about him since they’d left the fourth circle wall, andimmediately felt a pang of concern (and a smidgeon of guilt). She met Rashari’seyes and saw a mirror of her own creeping realisation reflected upon hisfeatures.

“Shouldhe not have found us by now?” She asked.

“Yes,”Rashari looked worried as he got to his feet. “He knows about this place, andanyway, he can always replace me.”

“Youthink something has happened to him?” Fantel rose as well beating him to thehole in the wall and out into the corridor.

“Ithink if someone knows me as well as it seems then Smith becomes leverage.”There was a sick look on his face as he snagged the candle from the floor. Theflame flickered and almost went out. “We need to replace him.”

Theywere both sticky and sweaty by the time they reached the commercial district,having run more or less the entire way. Under the lurid rainbow lightsRashari’s face was pale and drawn, emphasising the curve of his cheekbones andthe darkness of his eyes. He scanned the crowds, tense and wound taut. Fantelshaded her eyes from the harsh lights, gritting her teeth against theunpleasant buzz of phantom energy thrumming through the district.

“Whyare we stopping?” They had agreed to start their search for Smith at the fourthwall gate, the last place they had seen him.

“I…”Rashari shook his head, a sharp anguished motion that reminded Fantel of ahorse tossing its mane to dislodge flies. “I thought I sensed…no never mind,let’s go.” He started running again, knocking carousing locals out of his waywithout a backward glance. Fantel plunged into the crowds after him and soonmade up the distance.

Theyran together; their feet pounding over cobblestones and cracked concrete, therasp of their breathing echoing harshly in the night. Finally they came to thefourth wall gate, closed and barred for the night. The shadow of the wall roselike a gigantic wave, fossilised to stone, just before it could crash down upontheir heads. It was eerily quiet. They skidded to a halt, nervously scanningthe battlements and the empty patch of no man’s land right in front of thegate.

“Thereshould be guards…” Rashari began and then stopped, breath catching in a hiss asdark clad figures emerged from the surrounding shadows on all sides. The thinlight of the moon caught over the edge of a curved sword and the twistingtattoos decorating the face of the man who strode confidently toward them.

“Iwarned you,” Tomah said teeth flashing in a fierce, triumphant grin, “that yourtime would come.” He held his curved sword easily in one hand, stopping severalfeet away from them. His cold eyes,wreathed in thorny, ember bright markings, fixed on Fantel unblinkingly. Hesnapped the fingers of his free hand. “Seize them.” The cloaked and hooded mensurrounding them closed in. Some brandished swords like Tomah, while otherspointed pistols at their heads. The pair exchanged a glance, equal parts frustrationand resignation, and both raised their hands in surrender.

Fantelwas forced to her knees on the hard, rough stone. A curved blade was pressed toher throat and a pistol muzzle pushed against her temple as her hands were tiedbehind her back. Beside her Rashari received similar treatment. Tomah stoodabove them, watching, his gaze cool and careful, not gloating now. Fantel wouldalmost have preferred it if he had crowed about his victory. Complacency couldlead to carelessness that she might exploit to free them both. Alas, everythingshe had learned about Tomah told her that he was not a fool. He would wait tosavour his victory until after she and Rashari were either dead or at Einar’smercy.

Tomahpulled a stoppered bottled from inside his cloak, along with a rag he proceededto douse in the liquid from the bottle. A sharp, astringent medicinal scentassaulted her nostrils and Fantel instinctively shied away. Tomah noticed. “Youremember the smell, Chimera? The Dagoman gave you a dose of the Fire Dream whenwe first brought you to our enclave.” He handed the rag over to another of hismen, pulling yet another fresh cloth from inside his cloak. “You did not likeit much then, I hear.” His dark eyes burned into her as he crouched down withthe rag and bottle held before him and for the first time Fantel could see thewide square of gauze taped over one side of his neck. “Perhaps you willappreciate the Dreams more now, as I promise you, you will not enjoy wakingup.”

Besideher one of the nameless Dha-hali shoved the other soaked rag into Rashari’sface. He reared back instinctively, eyes flaring wide as the foul, stingingliquid scent pervaded his nose and mouth. Fantel could only watch, out of thecorner of her eye, as Rashari succumbed to the Fire Dream. Eyelids crashingshut and body slumping forward. The Dha-hali caught him, lowering him to theground but keeping the rag in place even after he lay still on the ground.Fantel turned back to glare at Tomah, making a promise to herself that shouldfate be so kind as to give her a second chance at ending this man’s life shewould not let anyone stop her. Tomah shoved the rag over her nose and mouth,one hand snaking around the back of her head to stop her pulling away as theother splayed across her face, pressing the cloth against her skin hard enoughto push her lips painfully against her teeth. She tried not to breathe but itwas impossible. The hot, stinging scent burned up her nose and corroded hersenses, setting her sinuses to screaming. Her vision wavered, eyes streamingtears, and her sight fractured into a thousand shattered pieces. The last thingshe saw was the broken edges of Tomah’s satisfied leer as the ground fell awaybeneath her and she plunged down, down, down into an angry black pit of nothingness.