Vengeance

inside. The lake was only ten yards away yet it might as well have been a mile — she could never drag his dead weight that far. She would have to try and heal him.

Even the most minor healing was draining, but it was going to take far more than that to save him and she had little strength left. Tali pressed hard on his cheeks with her healing hands, summoning every iota of her little gift to draw the heat out of him. Her hands went as hot as his face, yet he seemed to be getting worse.

He clawed weakly at his chest and she saw the dart embedded there, the bubble of fluid under the skin. Taking hold of the feathered tail, she eased the dart out, then opened his shirt. She shot a glance around her, saw no Tinyhead lurking, no Orlyk or Mijl. Tali pressed her fingers in under the bubble so as to drive out the remaining poison, then carefully wiped it off his skin, stroking outwards so none would be drawn into the puncture.

She laid hands on his chest again. He was even hotter now and his heart was going like a galloping horse; it was a wonder it had not burst. Tali murmured the strongest healing charms she knew, trying to draw the heat into her hot hands. They became scaldingly hot, red and painful, and after a minute she felt the heartbeat slow its frantic pace.

The smoke was settling, forming an opaque, knee-deep layer she could not see through. Mijl and Orlyk might be creeping up on her or they might be dead. She could not tell.

‘Tobe?’ Rix groaned, eyelids fluttering. ‘Tobe, that you? Thought you — dead.’ He tried to sit up.

She could not think about that. ‘It’s me, Tali. Stay down.’

‘Help Tobe. He’s … the better man.’

Noble, perhaps, but stupid. ‘Shut up and let me do my job.’

Tobry was on his hands and knees, attempting to crawl, though he only managed a yard before flopping like a dying man. Was he dying? Tali had seen so many dead — in her brief life she had lost everyone she cared about. It was a struggle to help Rix, whose heart raced every time she lifted her hands. How could Tobry survive the same poison without healing aid?

Ting! White smoke belched up from the bracelet again, burning her scorched ankle. She shook her foot, trying to ease the pain, and caught the stench of burning skin — Orlyk must have roused. Yes, she was lurching towards Tali, knife out, and the look on her face was murderous.

‘I am so going to enjoy cutting your throat,’ said Orlyk.

Without thinking, Tali picked up the chymical dart she had taken from Rix’s chest and tossed it into Orlyk’s open mouth.

Her crimson-faced, steam-gushing death was not pretty, but it was mercifully brief.

‘Better now,’ whispered Rix. ‘Help Tobe.’

Dare she? If she left Rix now, both he and Tobry could die. Where was Tobry? He must have crawled off and there was no time to look for him. The chymical smoke was thinning, blowing away, and the pothecky was on her feet, blood running from cheek, shoulder, belly and knee. Mijl must have been in agony but she was determined to do her duty. She lurched around towards Tali, each step a struggle, and there was no one to stop her.

She raised the tube and, after three fumbling attempts, inserted a killing dart. Tali scrambled backwards, looking for a fallen weapon. There was nothing within reach.

‘Aah!’ gasped Rix. ‘Heart burning, burning.’

He pressed his hands over his chest, tried to get up and succeeded in raising his head, but it fell back on the path, thud.

Tali found a pebble. It was too small to do any damage unless it struck Mijl in the eye. It would have to. She hurled it and missed by feet.

The pothecky raised her tube and tried to hold it steady but swayed and slammed down onto her cracked kneecap. She screamed and something fell onto the ground and smashed — a glass eye. Mijl turned her empty socket and good eye on Tali, then raised the tube again. It was wobbling a little, though at this range she could not miss.

Tali wondered if she could dive and outrun the dart. Surely not. Mijl’s cheeks puffed out to blow, but as she did, and Tali ducked, a staggering, scarlet-faced Tobry came at Mijl from behind and with a ferocious slash lifted her domed head four feet off her hunched shoulders.

Rix was on his feet. ‘Burning, burning.’

He swayed, jammed the point of his sword into the ground to hold himself up and almost took a big toe off. Tali pressed her hands against his chest, muttered her healing charm and forced until her fingers burned and her knees wobbled. Slowly the crimson receded from his face.

‘Water,’ whispered Rix.

Tali and Tobry dragged him to the edge of the lake and rolled him in. Tali stepped into the water, quenching the ankle bracelet in a hissing cloud of steam, and it cracked and came to pieces. Her ankle was redraw, blistered in a circle and, now that she had nothing to distract her, excruciatingly painful.

Tobry drank half a gallon, Rix even more, and after several minutes he sat up.

‘Where — Orlyk?’ he rasped. ‘Watch out for her.’

‘Dead,’ said Tali. ‘They’re all dead, save for Tinyhead, and he’s gone.’ But how far?

‘Thank you.’ Rix tried to struggle upright.

‘Lie down. You’re not well.’

‘No time,’ said Rix. ‘The other squad’s coming. Tali, Tali, got to say it.’

‘You don’t have to say anything,’ she muttered.

‘Yes, I do.’ He extended his hand. ‘Sorry about yesterday. I’m a fool. Everyone will tell you that.’

‘He’s not lying,’ said Tobry, managing a grin. ‘You’ll look hard to find a bigger idiot in all Hightspall. I’m thinking about writing a book about him.’

‘Don’t go on, Tobe,’ said Rix.

‘But his heart’s in the right place.’

‘It is now,’ said Rix, pressing his free hand against his chest.

As Tali stared at him, the heat swept back into his face. Was he thinking that she was going to spurn his apology? ‘Yesterday you threw up at the sight of my slave mark.’

He bent his head to her. ‘I was taught that the Pale willingly served the enemy. I’m not proud of myself.’

‘We’re enslaved! We’ve always been enslaved.’

‘I understand that now.’

She could see what an effort he was making. And, having saved each other’s lives, there would forever be a bond between them. It was no small thing.

‘I’ve made plenty of mistakes,’ said Tali, ‘and not all could be remedied with a handshake.’ His huge, tanned hand engulfed her small, pale one. ‘Shall we call truce?’

‘Truce.’ He turned to Tobry. ‘I thought you were dead. How did you survive?’

‘Don’t know,’ said Tobry, in a voice as dry as a crackling blaze. ‘After the dart hit me, my heart was on fire. I was burning up; knew I was going to die. Nothing I could do. Tried to heal myself but didn’t know how. Then I … I lost a minute or two. When I roused, the hot pain was being pushed back down … and out.’

‘Pushed back down?’ said Rix incredulously.

‘I can’t explain it. Must have a strong constitution, I guess.’

Tali looked from one to the other. Rix was studying Tobry side-on as if he did not believe what he was hearing. No, as if he thought his closest friend was lying.

CHAPTER 50

Tobry broke Mijl’s tube underfoot, tossed the pieces into the lake and rummaged through her pouches and pack, taking out small items and stuffing them in his own pack.

‘We don’t have time for that,’ said Rix, looking up the path. He thought he could hear the enemy coming, though it might have been his own racketing heart. His face still felt scalding. ‘The second squad can’t be more than five minutes away.’