the Barsoom Project.
And when he no longer carried the weight of both MIMIC and Dream Park, perhaps he could be more human with her. Between now and then they would discover everything they needed to know about each odher, and just maybe…
If the 'real world' would just leave him the hell alone…
But for now they were firmly enmeshed in different worlds. Sharon didn't even seem to notice as he slipped out the door and into the outer corridors.
Tammi exhaled as fully as she could and squeezed through the gap in the crystal caverns. She felt the walls pulse. Was that music? No
… wait… the walls began to shift, molding themselves to her body.
The walls clamped on her until there was just barely room to breathe. She found enough space to turn her head and look back at her teammates. Interestingly, The walls seemed to flex to make each of them uniformly uncomfortable. From what she could see, Appelion was almost exactly as cramped as lithe Mouser.
There was no room to pull a dagger, let alone a sword. It would have been smarter to let Twan go first. In the Crystal Maze, magic was often stronger than steel.
Tammi stopped in her tracks, chilled by a crackling, creaking sound. She squelched a quick flare of panic. Where had that come from? It sounded like ice breaking…
Tammi had played Crystal Maze seven times, but had never been through this corridor. It might be new. Common sense told her that things were about to get deadly.
The crystal in front of her cracked open. Something disturbing wormed its way out.
At first it seemed like a sea anemone a tiny sprout with tentacles, protuberances that wavered like fronds in a sea bed.
There were four little fronds, and then… it budded an opposing thumb. A tiny hand as large as a newborn child's. It reached for her…
And where it touched, its tiny fingers grew crystal claws. It raked, leaving scarlet creases along her skin. Evil, impish laughter echoed through the Maze.
Tammi strained and reached back along the corridor, breathing gone suddenly ragged. 'Appelion!' she panted, and he reached out his hand to her. 'Get Twan!'
Appelion reached back and linked hands with Twan, and Twan began to mutter a spell.
As she began, the wall erupted with tiny infants. They laughed insanely. They had pale dead eyes, and red, crinkled skin. And crystal knives for fingers.
Acacia was halfway across the bridge. Wind and mist boiled out of the abyss, and she tottered (Someplace in Dream Park, a computer rolled its electronic dice, and she was saved…)
— She extended her arms to the side, windmilling for balance. She crouched into a ball, steadied herself, and waited.
From the far side of the gorge came a high-pitched chittering sound.
A crystal monkey… baboon… orangutan? It was perhaps three feet tall, with long hairless arms and a fixed grin. It chittered again and then screeched in challenge. It stepped out onto the rope and hopped up and down experimentally a few times, and came on.
It swarmed down the rope so quickly that she barely had time to prepare herself. Acacia whipped her sword into position as the ape jumped off the rope, catching itself with a single paw. It dangled there and then swung up, sweeping at her ankles.
Acacia jumped back, sucking air. She couldn't cut at its hand without cutting the rope. And yet, if she didn't do something, she was going to be shaken off.
She had a choice. She backed up and hunkered down.
(Curious, but the rope felt, well, broader than a mere rope. Eighteen inches wide, perhaps. She grinned at what could only be interpreted as an interesting kinesthetic illusion.)
She wrapped her legs around the rope and edged forward. The crystal monkey eyed her from its upside-down world. She swept the sword at it experimentally.
It skittered back, chattering. It crept closer… and closer…
Acacia readied her sword. It was almost close enough A sudden realisation stayed her hand. At no time had the creature actually attacked her. When one came right down to it, all that it had done was come close and investigate. Might it not be friendly?
She smiled, as broadly as she could. She said, 'Pretty thing. Friends?'
The monkey's expression didn't change. But it reached out a long arm, a limb as clear and hard as diamond. It touched her arm and left no mark. The monkey smiled, and the cash register ran in Acacia's head. Another eight hundred points?
Hand over hand, it returned to its side of the gorge. Acacia followed. Then, as if sharing a secret, sacred knowledge, it showed her how to extend the bridge…
Twan's magic was irresistible. Tammi and her team glowed blinding white, and before that aura, the crystal hands retreated. Her team was scarred and bloody, but they were almost out of the caverns.
Tammi crept out first and saw Acacia's team ahead of her on the bridge.
Tammi screamed, 'Attack!' and they swarmed down.
Terrance the Zulu Warrior met Tammi's attack coolly. His assegai jutted at her. She swept the short spear aside and lunged. Terrance blocked twice with a tak-tak! rhythm, then disengaged and stabbed for her chest. He was good, better than Tammi in a confined space. She had discovered that during a previous encounter. But for all of his speed and coordination, he was weak on tactical maneuvers.
She used the blind pressure of her charge to force him back a little, where she had more room for swordplay.
Mouser saw an opening and slipped past Terrance, and headed for the bridge. Then Appelion was able to join Tammi.
With Acacia on the far end of the gorge, and with no time for Top Nun to launch a spell, Tammi would have the Zulu down and dead in another moment. Terrance fell back to the mouth of the rope bridge. They were piling up. Only Captain Cipher had made it across. Top Nun was still at the halfway point, with Mouser in hot pursuit. If Tammi could fight past Terrance, Appelion could pepper Acacia with arrows.
'No!' Tammi heard herself shriek. Incredibly, Acacia had bent to the line and was sawing away! With her own teammates at risk? What manner of insanity was this? 'Back!' Tammi yelled.
It was already too late. The bridge was falling. Top Nun, Mouser, and Terrance plunged screaming into the gorge, lost in the rushing current.
The rope dropped away from under Tammi's feet. She fought back for safety, too late. Falling, she managed to grasp a rope. The wind whooped out of her as she smashed into the spongy cliff face.
Tammi hung there, twisting in the mist, and stared shuddering into the heart of the falls. What the hell had happened? Acacia had lost two: Top Nun and Terrance. The Troglodykes had lost one: Mouser.
A poor, and almost incomprehensible, sacrifice.
There were no individual points in Crystal Maze. Only team points. Still, a two-for-one loss?
Tammi climbed to the top of the gorge, helped the last few feet by Appelion and Twan. She stared back down, and then across.
Acacia and Captain Cipher were gone. And worse…
In some odd fashion that Tammi couldn't quite grasp, Acacia had gained a delicate advantage. Tammi knew it, but couldn't identify it.
Some unnervingly complex and subtle trap was being laid out right under her nose. She was certain she had all the necessary clues, but she still couldn't figure it out. Whatever was going on went beyond Acacia's capacity for guile.
In fact, it had a touch of the Bishop about it.
And if that was so…
Then the rumors were true.
