maggots and graveyard worms?'
So they left him where Vikary had dropped the body, in a little open space amid the endless yellow-brown thicket, and they set off through the dim undergrowth toward Kryne Lamiya. Dirk carried his skyscoot with him, and struggled to match Vikary's rapid pace. They had been walking for only a few moments when they came upon a high steep ridge of twisted black rock.
When Dirk reached the barrier, Jaan was already halfway to the top. Janacek's blood had dried to a brown crust on Jaan's clothing, and Dirk could see patches of it clearly from below. Otherwise the Kavalar's clothes had turned black. He climbed smoothly, his rifle strapped to his back, his strong hands moving with assurance from one handhold to another.
Dirk spread the silver tissue of bis sky-scoot and flew to the crest of the ridge.
He had just ascended past the topmost boughs of the chokers when he heard the banshee cry out briefly, not so far away. His eyes swept about, searching for the great predator. The small clearing where they had left Janacek was easily visible from above, a patch of twilight close at hand. But Dirk could not see the body; the center of the clearing was a living mass of struggling yellow bodies. As he watched, other tiny shapes flitted from the nearby woods to join the feast in progress.
The banshee came out of nowhere and hung motionless above the fight, wailing its terrible long wail, but the tree-spooks continued their mad scramble, paying no mind to the noise, chittering and clawing at each other. The banshee fell. Its shadow covered them, its great wings rippled and folded, and it dropped; and then it was alone, spooks and corpse alike wrapped within its hungry grasp. Dirk felt strangely heartened.
But only for an instant. While the banshee lay inert, a sharp squeak sounded suddenly, and Dirk saw a quick small blur dart down and land atop it. Another followed. And another. And a dozen, all at once. He bunked and it seemed as if the spooks had doubled. The banshee unfolded its vast triangular wings again, and they fluttered weakly, feebly, but it did not lift. The pests were all over it, biting at it, clawing at it, weighing it down and tearing it apart. Pinned to the earth, it could not even sound its anguished cry. It died silently, its meal still trapped beneath it.
By the time Dirk climbed off of his sky-scoot at the top of the ridge, the clearing was a mass of heaving yellow once again, just as he had first glimpsed it, and there was no sign that the banshee had ever been there at all. The forest was very silent. He waited for Jaan Vikary to join him. Together they resumed their wordless trek.
The cave was cold and dark and infinitely still. Hours passed beneath the earth as Dirk followed the small wavering light of Jaan Vikary's hand torch. The light led him through twisting subterranean galleries, through echoing chambers where the blackness went on forever, through claustrophobic little passages where they squirmed on hands and knees. The light was his universe; Dirk lost all sense of time and space. They had nothing to say to each other, he and Jaan, so they said nothing; the only sounds were the scrape of their boots over dusty rock and the infrequent booming echoes. Vikary knew his cave well. He never hesitated or lost his way. They limped and crawled through the secret soul of Worlorn.
And emerged on a sloping hillside among chokers to a night full of fire and music. Kryne Lamiya was burning. The bone towers screamed a shattered song of anguish.
Flames were loose everywhere in the pale necropolis, bright sentinels wandering up and down the streets. The city shimmered like some strange illusion in the waves of heat and light; it seemed an insubstantial orange wraith. As they watched, one of the slender looping bridges crumbled and collapsed; its blackened center fell apart first, down into the conflagration, and the rest of the stone span followed. The fire consumed it and rose higher, crackling and shrieking, unsatiated. A nearby building coughed dully and imploded, falling in a great cloud of smoke and flame.
Three hundred meters from the hill on which they stood, looming high over the choker-woods, a chalk- white hand-tower remained yet untouched by the blaze. But, outlined in the terrible brightness, it seemed to move like a thing alive, writhing and grasping in pain.
Above the roar of the fire Dirk could hear the faint music of Lamiya-Bailis. The Darkdawn symphony had been broken and transformed; towers were gone, notes missing, so the song was full of eerie silences, and the crackle of the flames gave a pounding counterpoint to the wails and whistles and moans. The Darkling winds that came endlessly from the mountains to make the Siren City sing, those same winds were fanning the great fires that ate at Kryne Lamiya, that darkened its death mask with ashes and soot and ultimately bid it quiet.
Jaan Vikary unslung his laser rifle. His face was blank and strange, washed by the reflections of the great burning. 'How-?'
'The wolf-car,' Gwen said.
She was standing a few meters away, downslope from them. They looked at her without surprise. Behind her, beneath the shadow of a drooping blue widower at the base of the hill, Dirk glimpsed Ruark's little yellow aircar.
'Bretan Braith,' Vikary said.
Gwen joined them near the entrance to the cave and nodded. 'Yes. The car has passed back and forth over the city a number of times, firing its lasers.'
'Chell is dead,' Vikary said.
'But you're alive,' Gwen replied. 'I was beginning to wonder.'
'We are alive,' he acknowledged. He let his rifle slide from limp fingers. 'Gwen,' he said, 'I have killed my
'Garse?' she said, startled. She frowned.
'He turned me over to the Braiths,' Dirk said quickly. His eyes touched Gwen's. 'And he was hunting Jaan, running at Lorimaar's side. It had to be done.'
She glanced from Dirk back to Jaan. 'This is the truth? Arkin told me something of the sort. I didn't believe him.'
'It is the truth,' Vikary said.
'Arkin is here?' Dirk said.
Gwen nodded. 'Inside the aircar. He flew from Larteyn. You must have told him where I was. He tried some new lies on me. I knocked him out. He's helpless now.'
'Gwen,' Dirk said, 'we've misjudged Arkin badly.' The back of his throat was thick with bile. 'Don't you understand, Gwen? Arkin warned Jaan that Garse was going to betray him. Without that warning, Jaan would never have known. He might have trusted Janacek, might not have shot him down. He would have been taken, killed.' His voice was hoarse and urgent. 'Don't you understand? Arkin…'
The fire put cold reflections in her eyes as she watched Dirk. 'I understand,' she said in a thick, wavering voice. She turned back to Vikary. 'Oh, Jaan,' she said. She held out her arms to him.
And he came to her and rested his head on her shoulder and wrapped his own arms tightly around her. And then he began to cry.
Dirk left them and walked down to the aircar.
Arkin Ruark was tightly bound to one of the seats. He was dressed in heavy field clothes, and his head was slumped down so his chin rested against his chest. When Dirk entered he looked up, with an effort. The whole right side of his face was a swollen purplish bruise. 'Dirk,' he said weakly.
Dirk took off his cumbersome backpack and lowered it to the floor. He leaned up against the instrument panel. 'Arkin,' he said evenly.
'Help me,' Ruark said.
'Janacek is dead,' Dirk told him. 'Jaan lasered him and he fell into a tree-spook nest.'
'Garsey,' Ruark said, with some difficulty. His lips were swollen and bloody, and his voice trembled. 'He would have killed you all. Utter truth, utter. Warned Jaan, I did, warned him. Believe me, Dirk.'
'Oh, I believe you,' Dirk said, nodding.
'Tried to help, yes. Gwen, she's gone wild. I saw the Braiths take Jaan, I'd just come to join him, they were there first. Was afraid for her, I was. Came to help. She beat me, said I was a liar, tied me up and flew us here. She's wild, Dirk, friend Dirk, all wild, Kavalar wild. Like Garse almost, not like sweet Gwen at all. I think she means to kill me. You too, maybe, I don't know. She is going to go back to Jaan, I know it. Help me, you have to help me. Stop her.' He whimpered.
'She's not going to kill anyone,' Dirk said. 'Jaan is here now, and me. You're safe, Arkin, don't worry. We'll
