'I am too. You've no idea how much.' He took her hand then, not caring who saw it or what they thought. For a brief shining moment, he felt happy, which he found strange considering that he was standing in the ruins of a world. For a moment he felt hopeful, as if something good might eventually come out of all this destruction, even if it was only his ability to show his feelings to the woman he loved. Then he thought about the huge army of undead monsters and the moment passed vanishing like the warmth of a sun passing behind a cloud.
Weasel came over and stood in front of them. He showed no signs of having noticed the fact that they were holding hands. 'I think we'd best be going, sir. I think I can see something moving along those ridges behind us and judging from the numbers and the speed with which their moving, I'm guessing it’s some deaders.'
'Thank you, Weasel. You're the Sergeant now. At least until we can rejoin the army.' Sardec have expected Weasel to grin but he didn't. He looked solemn and his shoulders slumped a little as if the new responsibility pressed down on him.
'Thank you, sir. You're showing a lot of faith. I'll try and not let you down.'
'I'm sure you won't. I'm counting on you to back me up. I'll need that if we are all going to get home alive.'
“I think we’re going to need more than that, sir, but we’ll do what we can with what we’ve got.”
“That we will, Sergeant. That we will.”
As the sun rose, Asea sorted out her gear. She set Karim to burying the things she could not take: the elemental flasks, the chests full of magical paraphernalia, the exotic weaponry usable only by a mage. Her hair she clipped short and she wore a soldier’s tunic and britches. She looked surprisingly convincing as a Terrarch officer. Such gear as she could carry she put in a holdall.
“What now?” she asked Rik.
“I am going with you.”
“Are you sure you want to do that?”
“You will need someone who knows what they are doing to keep you out of trouble.”
“I can see how your skills would be useful.”
“I want to come with you as well,” said Tamara.
“Why should we allow that?”
“Because my knowledge of Sardea is greater than yours. Because I know how to get where you want to go. Because I have skills that will help keep you alive on your travels. And not the least because we are on the same side.”
“Are we?” Asea asked.
“We share enemies.”
“That is not the same side.” Rik glanced between the two Terrarch women. Hostility bristled in the air, ancient and instinctive. They were not two people who could ever like each other. If Tamara could be trusted she would be an invaluable ally, for all the reasons she had outlined and more. She could teach him things about the powers he had been born with. And that might help keep him and Asea alive.
“I think we should take her with us.”
“I am not sure I trust her.”
“She will be always within reach. You can kill her if she betrays us.”
“I will not betray you.”
“She might be recognised.”
“So might you and she has the skill to conceal herself, and you too, should you choose to use it. I can testify that her talent for disguise is a formidable one.” Asea lifted an eyebrow, and Rik suspected that at some point he was going to have to explain that last remark. There was no help for it now. He wanted Tamara to come with them. She was a trained Shadowblood assassin. That had to be useful on a mission like this. “Her skills increase our chances of success. Given the odds against us, surely that is the most important consideration.”
Asea appeared to consider this for a long time. Eventually she shrugged her shoulders and said, “Very well, but be warned, at the first sign of treachery, Tamara, you die.”
Tamara’s smile was icy. “There’s a good chance I am going to die anyway.”
Rik wished that he could disagree with that statement. He was sorry that she had made it. He was already having second thoughts about the wisdom of accompanying Asea but he was committed now. The voices screamed in protest. He told them to be silent. If things got really bad, he could always flee later.
By then it might be too late, they chorused back.
“You’ll have to remove these chains if I am to go with you,” Tamara said. “People might find the sight of you travelling with someone bound with truesilver a tad suspicious.”
Asea considered this for a moment, then nodded to Karim. He opened the locks and they waited expectantly as Tamara stepped from her fetters. They stood frozen as if expecting violence.
Tamara smiled and said, “When do we go?”
“Now,” said Asea, and picking up her pack she set off towards the East.
Chapter Twenty-Two
Rik sat by the roadside, his back against a tree-trunk. He felt exhausted and frustrated. Tamara and Karim sparred with their fists, both fast and deadly and seemingly well matched. Both were holding something back, he could tell. Neither wanted the other to know the full extent of their abilities. Still it was an education just watching them.
Tamara had kept him practising her strange sorcery for hours as they marched eastwards through the deserted lands of Eastern Kharadrea. He never seemed to be able to get it quite right. Sometimes he felt on the verge of sensing something, a vague foreboding, the slightest of premonitions, the feather touch of some sixth sense that registered the appearance of a shadow-walker.
Tamara feinted a blow at Karim’s head with the side of her fist. He ducked it and swept her legs out from under her. Tamara flipped back onto her feet, lithe as a cat. Beyond the pair Asea watched keenly, as if she might perhaps be able to divine the future in their ritual conflict.
Rik thought about the exercises. They were dull but essential. Being bored under these circumstances was not really possible. He loved sorcery and he loved the possibility of learning some new form of it. He felt as if he stood on the edge of some great sea in and beyond which lay knowledge and power. Just being there and looking out at it was exciting in exactly the same way standing by the ocean was. Out there might be monsters but there was also adventure and possibly riches.
Tamara launched a kick at Karim’s midriff. The man stepped to one side, and launched a blow at her head. She caught his arm, and threw him, bringing herself around to land on top. He rolled to one side, avoiding the blow.
Rik asked himself where he thought he was going with all this. He was slowly painstakingly acquiring a mass of knowledge for the possession of which the Inquisition would gladly burn him and which would cause most sane men to turn their faces from him if they suspected. There were times when he wondered whether he was sane any more, or whether he had gone mad a long time ago- when he had devoured the Quan or perhaps before. Not that it mattered much. He was determined now to walk this path to the end wherever it might take him.
He was starting to think that if he could combine the knowledge Asea had given him with that which Tamara was teaching him that he might be able to create something new or find a way to walk his own path and be a power in the world. It was exciting and frightening all at once and it made him feel alive in a way that nothing else did.
Tamara laughed and rose into a fighting crouch. Karim faced her, expressionless as always. Wary and coiled to respond to any threat, the two stood motionless as statues.
“Enough,” said Asea. “Save your energies for the march.”
Asea gestured for him to get up and start walking again. She seemed tireless as one of the walking dead, an automaton with but one purpose, to get them to their destination and confront their ultimate enemy. There was a wildness in her eyes that Rik did not like, but he was committed to helping her to her goal.
