Dying of the Light

Dirk, having nothing better to do, found himself following it.

It screamed again. The sound lingered.

And then he heard an answer.

He touched the wafer in the palm of his hand and began to descend rapidly, listening, suddenly alert again. The sound had been faint but unmistakable: a pack of Braith hounds, barking wildly in anger and fear. He lost sight of the banshee-no matter now– and chased the fast-fading sound. It had come from the north, he thought. He flew north.

Somewhere close, a hound let loose a howl.

Dirk grew briefly alarmed. It was possible that if he flew too low the hounds would start barking at him instead of the banshee. It was a dangerous situation in any event. His coat was doing its best to take on the colors of Worlorn's sky, but the silver of the sky-scoot could flash brilliantly if anyone chanced to look up. And with a banshee in tike vicinity they would look up.

But if he were to help Jaan Vikary and his Jenny, no real choices remained to him. He gripped his weapon lightly and continued to descend. Below him, cutting through the forest like a knife, was a swift-running blue-green river. He looped toward it, his eyes scanning back and forth restlessly. He heard the sound of rapids, traced the sound, found them. They looked fast and dangerous from above. Naked rocks strung out like rotten teeth, brown and misshapen, the water boiling white and angry around them, the chokers pressing close on either side. Downstream the river widened and grew more gentle. He glanced that way briefly, then back at the rapids. He crossed the water, circled, recrossed.

A dog barked loudly. Others took up the sound.

His attention jerked back downstream. Black dots in the water, wading in where the flow looked reasonable. He flew toward it.

The dots grew, taking on shape and human form. A square little man in yellow-brown, fighting the current to wade across. Another man nearby on the shore, with six of the huge hounds.

The man in the water retreated. He had a rifle in his hand, Dirk saw. He was a very wide little man. A pale face, a thick torso, heavy arms and legs-Saanel Larteyn, Lorimaar's fat teyn. And Lorimaar on the shore, holding the pack. Neither of them was looking up. Dirk slowed to keep his distance.

Saanel climbed out of the water. He was on the wrong side of the river still, the side with Lorimaar, the side away from Kryne Lamiya. He was trying to cross, though. But not here. Now the two hunters began to move away, heading farther downstream, moving clumsily among the weeds and rocks and chokers that lined the riverbank.

Dirk did not follow. He had the sky-scoot and he knew where they were going; he could always find them later, if he had to. But where were the others? Roseph and his teyn? Garse Janacek? He turned and went back upstream, feeling a bit more confident. If the hunting party had broken up, they would be easier for him to deal with. He flew low above the river, quickly, the water churning two meters below his feet while his eyes raked the banks for another group trying to cross.

About two kilometers northeast of the rapids-the channel was narrow and swift here-he found Janacek standing above the water with a puzzled expression on his face.

He seemed to be alone. Dirk yelled at him. Janacek looked up startled, and then waved.

Dirk came down beside him. It was a bad landing. The hump of rock Janacek was standing on was covered with a slick green moss, and the underside of Dirk's sky-scoot slid right across it, and he almost went pitching into the river. Janacek caught him by the arm. Dirk killed his gravity grid. 'Thank you,' he muttered. 'It doesn't look like easy swimming down there.'

'That was precisely the thought that I was thinking as I stood here,' Janacek replied. He looked haggard. His face and clothes were dirty, and the red beard was damp with sweat. A long strand of hair hung down across his forehead, limp and greasy. 'I was attempting to decide if I should risk this sort of current or waste time by continuing upstream, in the vague hopes of finding a place I could safely ford.' A weak smile broke across his face. 'But you have solved that problem with Gwen's toy. Where-?'

'Pyr,' Dirk said. He started to tell Janacek about his flight to the wrecked aircar.

'You are alive,' the Ironjade said quickly. 'I can do without the tedious details, t'Larien. Much has happened since yesterday dawn. Did you see the Braiths?'

'Lorimaar and his teyn were going downstream,' said Dirk.

'I know that,' Janacek snapped. 'Had they crossed?'

'No, not yet.'

'Good. Jaan is very close now, perhaps only a half-hour ahead of us. They must not reach him first.' His eyes swept the far bank of the river, and he sighed. 'Do you have the other scoot, or must I take yours?'

Dirk set down his rifle on the rock and began to unsling his backpack. 'I've got the other,' he said. 'Where is Roseph? What's going on?'

'Jaan has run magnificently,' Janacek said. 'No one could have expected him to cover so much ground so fast. The Braiths did not, in truth. And he has done more than simply run. He has set traps.' He brushed back his fallen hair with the back of his hand. 'He camped last night. He was far enough ahead of us. We found the ashes of bis fire. Roseph stepped into a concealed pit and impaled his foot on a buried stake.' Janacek smiled. 'He has turned back, his teyn helping him. And you say Pyr and Arris are dead?'

Dirk nodded. He had pulled the boots and the second scoot from his pack.

Janacek accepted them without comment. 'The hunters grow few. I think we have won, t'Larien. Jaan Vikary will be weary. He has run without sleep for a day and two nights. Yet we know he is not hurt, and he is armed, and he is of Ironjade. Lorimaar and that slug he keeps as teyn will find no easy prey.'

He knelt and began to unlace his boots, talking all the while. 'Their mad conceit of a new holdfast here will be stillborn. Lorimaar is berserk to even dream of it. I think his mind snapped loose of its anchor when Jaan's laser burned him back in Challenge.' He pulled off one boot. 'Do you know why Chell and Bretan were not among them, t'Larien? Because that pair had too much sanity for this high-Larteyn scheme! Roseph told me all about it as we hunted. The truth, he said, is this: Lorimaar announced the madness when the Braiths returned to Larteyn after Myrik had been killed. The six we encountered in the woods were there, plus old Raymaar. Bretan Braith Lantry and Chell fre-Braith were not. They had tried to pursue you and Jaantony, and later passed through some of the cities where they thought it likely you had taken refuge. So Lorimaar was essentially without opposition. He has always cowed the others, except perhaps for Pyr, and Pyr was never interested in anything save the taking of mockman heads.'

Janacek was having difficulty fitting into Gwen's narrow boots. He scowled and yanked hard, forcing his foot in where it did not want to go. 'When Chell returned, he was furious. He would not go along. He would not even listen. Bretan tried to calm him, Roseph claimed, but to no avail. Old Chell is a Braith, and Lorimaar's new holdfast was treason to him. He issued a challenge. Lorimaar was immune to challenge, in truth, since he was wounded, but he accepted nonetheless. Chell was very old. As challenged, Lorimaar made the first of the four choices, the choice of numbers.'

Janacek stood up, and stamped down hard on the slick rock to jam his foot into the boot more tightly. 'Need I tell you that he chose to fight single? It would have been quite a different duel had Bretan Braith confronted him as well as Chell Empty-Arms. Lorimaar, even wounded, disposed of the old man rather easily. It was death- square, and blades. Chell took many cuts, too many perhaps. Roseph believes he lies dying back in Larteyn. Bretan Braith remains with him and, more important still, remains Bretan Braith.' Janacek spread out his sky-scoot.

'Did you find out anything about Ruark?' Dirk asked him.

The Kavalar shrugged. 'It is all much as we suspected. Ruark contacted Lorimaar high-Braith by viewscreen-no one seems to know where the Kimdissi is presently-and offered to reveal where Jaan was hiding if Lorimaar would name him korariel and thus grant him protection. This Lorimaar did willingly. Jaan was fortunate in that he was within his aircar when they came. He simply took off and ran. They pursued him and finally Raymaar overtook him just beyond the mountains, but he was yet another old man and not nearly the flyer that Jaan Vikary is.' There was a note of gleeful pride in Janacek's voice, like a parent boasting of a child. 'The Braith went down in combat, but Jaan's car was damaged as well, so he was forced to land and run. He was already gone when the high-bonds of Larteyn found where he had crashed. They had wasted time trying to assist Raymaar.' He waved an impatient hand.