Two swordsmen dismounted to block his headlong rush. Seregil sliced the head off the first one with a single swing and plunged his poniard into the chest of the other. Not caring if he was dead or not, Seregil trampled him underfoot and kept on running.

The alchemist tried to rein his mount aside, but Seregil sprang at him, dragging him from his horse. Throwing Yhakobin to the ground, Seregil hacked off one upraised hand, then plunged the point of his sword into the man's belly and yanked it hard, spilling his guts on the ground in his fury. He could see the man's mouth open, and guessed that he was screaming, but all he could hear now was a single clear, ringing note, too pure and piercing to come from a living throat.

He turned slowly, still caught in a nightmare. The rhekaro was standing over Alec's body, his mouth stretched in a perfect O. O. The sound was coming from him, and mingling with it were the screams of the slave takers and the cries of the horses as they reared and bucked. The sound was coming from him, and mingling with it were the screams of the slave takers and the cries of the horses as they reared and bucked.

As Seregil watched, the remaining riders fell from their saddles, screaming and bleeding from their eyes and ears and noses. One by one they went still and silent, and only when the last one was dead did the rhekaro's deadly song die away.

When it was done, Sebrahn collapsed across Alec's chest, and that pale grey little tongue flickered out, lapping at the blood on Alec's throat.

"Get away from him!" Seregil screamed. He staggered back to them, wrenching the arrows from his flesh as he went. "Can't you just leave him alone? Go suck the blood from your maker, you monster!"

Sebrahn looked up at him and Seregil saw that there were tears streaming down the rhekaro's cheeks. Seregil pushed him aside. Falling to his knees, he dragged Alec's limp body into his arms and felt frantically at Alec's throat and wrists.

But there was no pulse, or breath. Those beloved eyes had the fixed glaze Seregil had seen too often in the faces of the dead. "No! Oh Illior, no, please! Alec!"

He shook him, and chafed his blood-soaked chest, knowing that it was useless, but unable to give up yet.

Sebrahn pulled at Seregil's shoulder and he shoved the rhekaro away. Choking back a sob, he pulled the arrows from Alec's chest. When Seregil pressed his hand to the wounds, bright blood oozed up between his fingers, but it was no longer flowing.

Only then did he notice the hot blood soaking the leg of his own trousers, and feel the pulsing wound on his inner thigh. Ah then, they've finished me off after all. Small mercy. Ah then, they've finished me off after all. Small mercy.

Burying his face in Alec's tangled, dirty hair, he broke down completely, not caring that they were in the open, or about the carnage Sebrahn had wrought. He could feel his own strength slipping away, and welcomed it. He'd have sat there with Alec like that until they were both food for the crows, if that d.a.m.n creature hadn't kept tugging at his shoulder. Seregil tried to push him off, but Sebrahn simply wouldn't let him be.

"What?" Seregil demanded, wearily raising his head. Sebrahn was still crying, and holding something out in both bloodstained little hands, something he wanted Seregil to see.

It was another of those flowers, but this one was pure white with a golden center, and as clean as if it had just been plucked from a pure lake.

"I don't want your healing," Seregil growled, slapping it away.

Sebrahn shoved him back with surprising force and dragged Alec from Seregil's lap onto the ground between them. His silvery eyes burned with an inner light, and his tears glowed. Those pale lips moved, forcing out a hoa.r.s.e whisper. "Ah-lek."

Growing weaker by the moment, Seregil watched as Sebrahn leaned over Alec and let his tears fall on the wounds. Everywhere a tear met blood, a white lotus sprang up, one after the other until Alec's chest was covered in them, like a pall. Then Sebrahn threw his head back and sang again.

Seregil thought that he would die then, like the others had, but he didn't. Instead, the piercing sound went on and on, until Seregil could feel the vibration of it in his bones and skull. One by one, the white flowers turned to light and sank into Alec's lifeless form. When the last of them disappeared, a tremendous shudder went through the body and Alec coughed.

"Alec?" Seregil gathered him into his arms again as best he could, and held him while Alec coughed and gagged, bringing up long black clots of congealed blood. When he was done he went limp in Seregil's arms and stared up uncomprehendingly at him. The death glaze was gone; those eyes were clear and blue and filled with consternation.

"I-" he wheezed, fighting for breath. "I-"

"It's all right!" Seregil was laughing and crying now, on the verge of hysteria. "You were right. Oh Illior, you were right! He saved you. Your 'child of no woman.' You were right all along!"

But Alec clutched Seregil's arm, and shook his head. "I-I chose-you."

"Yes, you did!" Seregil bent to kiss those b.l.o.o.d.y lips, but a grey mist came between them and the world slid away. He smiled as he went, though, taking the sight of Alec's face with him into the darkness.

CHAPTER 45 45.

Sorrowful Journey

THE GEDRE SHIP slipped into a remote southern inlet under the cover of night. Once again, Mic.u.m and the wizard slipped ash.o.r.e unnoticed, this time with heavy hearts. slipped into a remote southern inlet under the cover of night. Once again, Mic.u.m and the wizard slipped ash.o.r.e unnoticed, this time with heavy hearts.

They brought along packhorses, and rode until dawn, guided by the stars and the vision Thero had been given by Alec's ghost. This country was only spa.r.s.ely habited, and they steered clear of the few villages and steadings they did see.

Mic.u.m prayed to the Four for Alec's shade to visit them again, but Thero could not seem to summon him, though he tried several times as they stopped to rest the horses. There'd been no sign of Seregil's ghost, either, despite the dire vision. Mic.u.m clung grimly to the hope that he'd somehow survived. Seregil always had, after all, no matter how bad things got.

The sun rose over a lonely, arid landscape like nothing Mic.u.m had ever seen. It was a dead land, with nothing green in it. He could taste dust on the breeze, and the cold wind carried scents that reminded him of temple incense. Far in the distance, the rising sun cast deep shadows across flat-topped cliffs. Apart from a few sluggish snakes, there seemed to be no life here at all.

At midmorning, Thero reined in abruptly. "I have to do another sighting. Nothing looks the same." He dismounted and sat cross-legged in the dirt with his crystal wand between his hands. "Put your hands on my shoulders. I need your strength."

Mic.u.m did as he asked and felt a strange sensation pa.s.s through him when Thero raised the wand and pressed it to his own forehead. After a moment, however, the wizard got to his feet.

Mic.u.m thought he saw the glimmer of tears in the man's eyes. "What is it?"

"Almost there. That way." Thero pointed a little east of the way they'd been going.

"What did you see?"

Thero wouldn't look at him as he climbed back into the saddle. "Nothing good."

They finished their journey in silence. Every so often Mic.u.m would feel that strange tingle again, and Thero would point this way or that, correcting their course. Never once did he give any sign that he'd seen them alive, and never once did Mic.u.m ask.

And so it was, when the sun was high and the bare white ground gave back the glare of it through the dust, that they made out the first dark specks circling in the sky ahead. Mic.u.m knew what they were.

"Thero-"

"I see," came the weary reply.

As one they kicked their sweating horses into a final gallop and closed the distance. Cresting a slight rise, Mic.u.m could see vultures on the ground, shifting and flapping in a huge circle around something there, feeding.

He rode at them, yelling to drive the carrion eaters off. They spread their black wings and retreated a little, screeching at him.

There were bodies sprawled on the ground, at least a score. Some had their eyes pecked out already, and others had their guts spilled and torn. All had short black hair and beards, and Plenimaran clothing.

At least you took some of the b.a.s.t.a.r.ds with you, Mic.u.m thought numbly, gentling his horse when she went skittish at the smell. He dismounted and limped forward, scattering more of the birds away from more and more bodies. Mic.u.m thought numbly, gentling his horse when she went skittish at the smell. He dismounted and limped forward, scattering more of the birds away from more and more bodies.

The Plenimarans lay scattered in a wide circle. At its center, Seregil and Alec lay side by side, hands clasped between them even in death. A child sat slumped at their feet. Her long fair hair looked white in the midday glare. She was dressed in rags, and beside her lay an empty water skin. She had a dented metal cup cradled in her hands and that was empty, too.

"The child," Thero whispered. "Alec said there was a child, but that's not what that is!"

Mic.u.m ignored him, and the child. As he approached his friends' bodies, tears slid unnoticed down his cheeks.

They were gaunt and hollow-eyed. Dried black blood covered them both, skin and clothing alike, and the white dust had settled over them in a thin pall. Their hair was dull with it and their lips were dry and cracked. And yet they looked so peaceful, as if they'd fallen asleep together.

Thero sank down beside Alec and covered his eyes. Mic.u.m dropped to his knees beside Seregil and took his hand. It was cold.

"Oh, my friend!" Mic.u.m began the grim business of looking for wounds. Lifting away the b.l.o.o.d.y coat, he found more blood on Seregil's chest, but no sign of an open wound. As he moved to turn him, he was amazed to feel the flesh beneath his hand move. Looking up, he found Seregil's eyes open a little, clear and grey and calm.

Mic.u.m was so startled he almost dropped him.

"Ah, here you are," Seregil whispered, and those cracked lips tilted slightly into the old grin. "Alec said you'd come."

"Alec?"

"Oh Illior, he's alive, too!" Thero pressed two fingers gently to Alec's throat, then unslung his water skin and wet Alec's parched lips as Mic.u.m did the same for Seregil. "But how? I saw his ghost!"

Seregil swallowed a few drops from the water skin, then raised one finger slightly, pointing to the child. "He did it. Sebrahn." His eyelids closed again, but he was still breathing. And smiling.

Mic.u.m glanced up at the child again. It still looked like a girl to him, with all that hair. His eyes were closed and he hadn't moved, but Mic.u.m could see the long tracks of dried tears on the boy's pale dusty cheeks. Mic.u.m reached out to see if he was breathing, but Thero grabbed his hand. "Don't! That's no child. Can't you see?"

"See what?"

The child opened his eyes and Mic.u.m saw that they were the color of steel. "What is it?"

"I don't know." Thero was squinting now, as if the child was giving off a bright light that Mic.u.m couldn't see. "It has human form, but there's something else showing just around the edges-And magic! It's like a storm in him, but muted."

Sebrahn, as it was called, whimpered and crawled slowly past Thero to stroke Alec's hair. The wizard scuttled back away from it, wide-eyed.

Mic.u.m didn't doubt Thero was seeing something he wasn't, but his heart went out to the child-like thing all the same. That was, until it lifted Alec's left hand to his mouth and licked weakly at the dry blood there.

"Bilairy's b.a.l.l.s!"

"It's all right," Seregil rasped as his eyes fluttered open again. "He's starving. Eats..."

"Blood," Thero finished for him, looking appalled.

"Alec's. Just a little," Seregil whispered as his eyes slid shut again and his voice failed. "Please, help him. Saved us. Save him..."

"You can't be serious," gasped Thero.

"You heard him," Mic.u.m said. "He's in no shape to explain." He took out his knife and pulled Alec's hand from Sebrahn's grip. The child was surprisingly strong, but gave up with another pitiful little whimper when Mic.u.m gently insisted.

"Look at that." Mic.u.m showed the wizard the tips of Alec's fingers, all stippled with small scabs. "I guess that's how they do it." He nicked the least damaged finger and Sebrahn lunged forward, grabbing Alec's hand and sucking frantically on Alec's finger.

Mic.u.m watched in mixed wonder and revulsion. "I don't suppose you could get word to Magyana to send us one of those translocations of hers? I don't know what Seregil meant when he said this little mite saved them, but it can't be much help to them anymore. We have to get them somewhere safe, and quickly."

"Translocations don't work that way, and even if they did, the shock of the magic would surely kill Seregil, weak as he is, and probably Alec, as well."

Mic.u.m looked around, trying to ignore the loud sucking noises. "There's no shelter in sight. We'll have to make do with the tarp for tonight. Can you do more of that healing on them?"

"I can, but I don't know how much good it will do. They need a drysian."

"Do what you can. And give them more water. The child, too."

Mic.u.m left him to it and led the packhorses away from the carnage. Not far on he found a dry gully deep enough to hide the horses. He used the tarp they'd brought to make a small lean-to, spread the bedrolls, and rode back for the others.

He found Thero still bent over their friends. The strange child hadn't moved.

Thero had their dirty coats open and was inspecting their chests. "Look here!" he exclaimed, pointing to what was obviously a freshly healed arrow wound on Alec's chest. "Seregil claimed this happened yesterday."

"But that would have gone right through his heart, and a lung, too."

"I know. Seregil has a similar scar here under his shoulder, and one that went into the large artery in his thigh."

"We call that a 'man killer.' How in Bilairy's name did they survive, half-starved as they are, much less heal?"

"Seregil kept insisting that this-creature did it, though I can't get enough sense out of him to know how, and it seems to be mute."

"Never mind. All that matters is getting them to shelter."

Handling the wounded men as carefully as they could manage, they slung them each over a saddle. They had some trouble with Sebrahn when they went to move Alec. The child clung to him and hissed at Mic.u.m when he tried to pull him away. In the end, Thero had to hold him back until Mic.u.m could get Alec on the horse, then lift the struggling, spitting child up onto the horse behind him. Once there, still gripping the battered cup in one hand, he clutched the back of Alec's coat with the other.

"It's all right, little one," Mic.u.m soothed, patting the child's skinny leg. "You stay with him and we'll be safe soon."

"I'm telling you, that's no child," Thero warned.

"You heard what Seregil said. That's enough for me."

They led the horses toward the camp Mic.u.m had set up, going slowly so as not to jostle their friends too much. Even so, halfway there the child began to whimper and squirm. Then Seregil began to moan and struggle weakly.

Mic.u.m pressed a hand firmly between his shoulders. "We're almost there. Just a little further."

Seregil's face was turned away, but Mic.u.m heard him gasp out, "So-undignified!"

"He's bleeding again!" Thero pointed out. "It's his leg."

Looking back, Mic.u.m saw bright red splashes in the dust. He halted the horse and walked around to the other side. Seregil's left thigh was soaked. Feeling carefully, he found the wound, then took off his belt and tightened it above the wound. "We'd better hurry."

"Yes. Alec is bleeding a little from the mouth."

The child grew more and more frantic as they went on, until Mic.u.m finally had to pull him off and carry him. He weighed almost nothing, but struggled all the way, reaching out for Alec and crying out softly.

At the tent, he scrabbled about underfoot until Mic.u.m and Thero had the wounded men settled on the bedrolls they'd brought. Seregil was unconscious, and Alec was in agony, coughing up b.l.o.o.d.y foam.

Mic.u.m put the child aside as gently as he could, but he persisted, tugging Mic.u.m's water skin from his shoulder. Squatting between Seregil and Alec, he filled his dented cup, then held out one little hand.

"What is he doing?" wondered Mic.u.m.

"Cut his finger," Alec wheezed. "Now!"

Despite his doubts, Mic.u.m did as he asked. As he and Thero watched, the child held his cut finger over the cup and something far too pale to be blood dripped into the water. There was a faint flash of light, and then a beautiful, dark blue flower appeared. Sebrahn scooped it out and put it on Seregil's wound. It melted from sight, leaving a pleasant scent behind.