Vengeance

CHAPTER 51

‘I’m never going in the water again,’ said Tali, trembling all over. She hugged the gown around her but the morning wind blew right through it.

If they escaped, found Rannilt and made it through the war zone to Caulderon, she might never see Rix and Tobry again. Or if Rix was killed … it felt callous, but she had to find out what he knew about her mother’s murder.

‘Ready?’ said Rix.

Tobry bent double, slipped to his knees and stayed down. ‘Only if you can tow me too.’

Tali ran across. ‘Lean on me.’

He rose, holding onto her slender shoulders and breathing hard. Tobry was heavier than she had expected but she had borne greater burdens.

‘Why do you keep staring at me, Rix?’ said Tobry.

‘Just concerned for you.’

To Tali’s mind, his reply was unconvincing. What was Rix worried about?

‘Getting a bit old for this adventuring lark,’ said Tobry, letting go. ‘A maiden should be bathing my feet by a hearty fire while I sip — ’

‘They’re nearly within bowshot,’ Rix said curtly, and moved to the edge of the channel. ‘Ready?’

‘Give me one more minute.’

The cataract looked far more dangerous than the placid lake. The water had burnt all the way down into her lungs and without Tobry she would have drowned. Tali never wanted to feel that helpless again.

‘Ready, Tali?’ said Rix.

She shook her head. ‘I can’t go back in the water.’

‘Don’t you trust me to get you through?’

She took a sharp breath. She had to raise it now, while he was off-guard, and hope he would be shocked enough to give something away.

She met his eyes. ‘The last person I trusted was my mother …’

‘And?’ said Rix, when she did not go on.

‘She was murdered when I was eight.’

‘I’m sorry,’ he said politely.

Tali had expected him to start, or look away guiltily. Expected to see a reflection of that horror she had seen in his eyes ten years ago, or for Rix to conceal his feelings behind a liar’s mask. She had not expected polite sympathy. But he had been that boy, she was positive of it. How could her mother’s murder have meant nothing to him?

Rix was a man whose passions ran deep and she did not think he could be indifferent to such a childhood trauma, any more than she could. And how come he had not recognised her, when she looked so like her mother? Tali saw no recollection in his eyes, no guilt or shame or horror — nothing save mild curiosity.

‘I look just like my mother did, I’m told,’ said Tali.

He frowned, doubtless wondering why she was babbling about such things, then turned to Tobry.

‘We’ve got to go now, Tobe.’

‘I’m ready.’

He did not look it. His face was blotchy and his left knee had a worrying tremor. Rix lifted Tali’s hat off, the sky went up and down and panic exploded inside her. She snatched the hat and crammed it on, gasping.

‘What’s with the hat?’ said Rix, frowning. ‘You’re bound to lose it in the cataract.’

Tali pressed a hand against her chest, unable to speak.

Tobry peered at her. ‘You’re not used to being in the open, are you? Does it make you feel panicky?’

She jerked her head up and down. He drew a length of twine from a pocket.

‘We don’t have time,’ said Rix. ‘They’re almost within bowshot.’

‘If she has a panic attack in there, you both drown,’ said Tobry. He tied the hat on. ‘Go!’

Tali swallowed and took hold of Rix’s belt. He put an arm around her waist.

‘You don’t need — ’ she said hastily, uncomfortable with the physical contact.

‘If the current tears us apart, there’s nothing I can do to save you. We’ll go in together.’

She had to trust him. Though how could she trust someone hiding such a terrible secret?

He stepped off, carrying her with him, and before they sank to the waist the current had whirled them away, far faster than Rix had swum across the lake. Tali stifled a shriek and locked her hands onto his belt. If they got into trouble, not even his great strength could fight the power of the water.

They shot downstream, the current thumping the sheathed sword against her legs and his tied boots against her shoulder. Rix was steering them with scoops of his free arm and powerful kicks. A cascade appeared ahead, the water straining between smooth, slime-covered boulders. They were heading straight for one. They were going to smash into it and be torn apart! Tali shrieked. Rix gave a mighty double-kick, they shot between it and the next boulder and she felt slime-covered rock gliding under her thigh.

Tobry had tied the hat on so tightly that the cord was cutting into her throat, making every breath a struggle. It reminded her of drowning. Her legs thrashed, instinctively.

‘Don’t do that,’ said Rix.

She fought to contain the panic. Ahead the water ran straight and fast for a couple of hundred yards before another cascade, a bigger one, though the rocks were further apart and Tali wasn’t so worried this time.

She should have been — a dip in the water surface hid a little whirlpool. They shot into it and it hurled them out sideways, straight towards a ramp-shaped boulder, and Rix could do nothing to avoid it. He half-turned, sheltering Tali with his body, and struck it with his backside. A grunt of pain escaped him, then they were shooting up the slimy slope and hurtling into the air with his kilt up around his waist and Tali, clinging two-handed to his belt, trailing behind. Her cold hands were slipping. She was losing grip! A moan escaped her.

His arm clamped around her waist, crushing her against him, and she did not flinch from the contact this time. Did she trust him? In the water, she had to. Without him, she was dead.

There were rocks below them too, but they were moving so fast they passed over them and splashed into deep water. It hurled them away down the race, moving faster and faster. They curved around a bend and shot down another long straight towards a third cascade.

‘You all right?’ said Rix.

Tali nodded stiffly. How far had they gone? A couple of miles? They must be well ahead of the enemy by now, but her escape was a threat to Cython’s security and they would never give up.

She relaxed enough to look upstream. Where was Tobry? He had been exhausted before entering the cataract. What if he’d hit the rocks and broken his legs, or had been knocked out?

‘Tobry?’ she yelled. Water surged into her mouth; she choked and coughed it out. ‘Rix?’ Her voice went squeaky. ‘I can’t see him.’

If Rix was anxious, he did not show it. ‘He’ll be all right. Old Tobe is indestructible.’

‘Aren’t you worried?’ Tobry felt like an old, reliable friend. He could not drown; he could not. And yet, anyone could go under in this cataract. ‘He could be dead.’

‘If I take my eyes off the river to look for him, we will be dead. Hang on.’

‘What?’ said Tali, still scanning upstream.

‘ Hang on!’

She was turning when he crushed her so tightly against his iron-hard chest that it forced the breath out of her.

‘Can’t breathe,’ she gasped.

His grip relaxed a little, then they were on the brink — and it wasn’t a cascade. It was a waterfall and they were going over the edge.

Though Tali wasn’t a screamer, she let out a shriek of desperation, then threw her arms around Rix’s solid body as they fell in a torrent of water. Down they plunged, she could not see where to. They were surrounded by whirling spray going in a hundred directions at once, hitting her face so hard that it stung -

He rolled over in the air so he would hit the water first and not crush her beneath him, and they struck. But it did not feel like water — it was foamy and offered no resistance, supported no weight. They plunged through it, down and down and down. Why hadn’t she taken a deep breath before they hit? She had hardly any air.

This was worse than the other time. This time Tali knew what to fear — the desperate urge to breathe, while knowing that the only thing she could breathe was water. Water that would burn all the way down and fill her lungs with that terrible, aching cold.

Her lungs were beginning to heave; funny lights were dancing in her head. Tali kicked furiously, trying to get to the surface, but could not free herself of Rix’s grip. What if he had drowned and was carrying her to the bottom? She could not tell which way was up.

She thumped him with a fist. His big hand went across her nose, mouth and two-thirds of her face, and then she could not have breathed if she had wanted to. She tore at his hands but he did not let go. She was suffocating; panic was overwhelming her; they were tossed upside-down and jerked in three different directions. Then, when she was blacking out, he drove them up to the surface and she felt blessed air on her face.

The hand pulled away. Tali sucked in air so full of spray that it was half water, breathed it out just for the joy of being able to, and took another gulp. The waterfall was pouring down on her head and she could not see a thing. It would have driven her under had Rix not been holding her.

Then they were moving, Rix dragging them out of the flow. The hammering on her head faded. She opened her eyes and they were in a broad, deep pool carved out by the waterfall. He kicked towards the edge, a sandy shore, and dropped her onto solid ground.

Tali concentrated on breathing, in, out, in, out. A minute passed before she realised that she was alone. Where had he gone? He was out in the middle of the pool, diving, disappearing. Tali climbed to her knees. Why wasn’t he coming up?

Her breath caught in her throat. What if he had drowned? The Cythonians would be here before long and she could not bear to go through that again. Better to cast herself into the pool, holding a rock, and sink to the bottom.

Don’t be stupid. You’re not a helpless slave now. You’re the last of the ancient line of House vi Torgrist. You have a duty to perform and you will do it, or die trying. You will never give up.

Rix bobbed to the surface, floating on his back, head towards her, arms and legs spread, prone upon the flood. Had he drowned? A few minutes ago he had exploded out of the water with her, a physical force that had overcome even the power of the river, but now he was limp as wet rags. One crooked arm held Tobry up in a headlock — or was it Tobry’s body? — but Rix’s eyes were closed.

Tali waded out as far as she could go, but from there the bottom sloped steeply and she felt sand slipping beneath her feet. She scrambled back, thrashing with her arms. How could she get them out?

A nest of tangled branches was wedged between the trees to her left, carried down by a flood. She heaved one out, snapped off the side branches to stubs and ran back. Wading in as far as she dared, Tali hooked a stub end into the belt of Rix’s kilt, and pulled gently. The kilt pulled up then slipped free.

She reached further down, caught something and jerked.

‘Aaarrgh!’ Rix roared. He convulsed and his head went under.

She panicked. Get him out, quick, before he drowns. She heaved on the branch with all her strength.

He let out a bellow that echoed off the rock walls, even louder than the waterfall. ‘What the hell are you doing? Let go.’

She kept dragging him backwards, and Tobry with him, still in the headlock, until Rix grounded on the shore. Tobry was not moving. She pulled Rix’s hooked arm away from Tobry’s neck, dug her toes into the sand and dragged him up the beach.

Rix groaned, rolled over, gasping and clutching at himself under the kilt, and only then did Tali realise where the branch had caught him.

Oh dear, she thought, flushing.

Tobry was barely breathing. She turned him onto his side and drove her knee into his diaphragm, imitating the way he had pressed the water out of her. None came out. She opened his shirt and put her ear to his chest, which was bruised and scratched where he must have hit the rocks, and red from healing cuts made days ago. She could not hear any gurgling, just his fluttering heartbeat.

She was about to drive her knee into his belly again when his eyes opened and he took a deeper, more reassuring breath. He was all right! She rolled him onto his back. His chest had a number of thin white scars across it, healed wounds, and some went perilously close to the heart.

‘Is Rix — ?’ he whispered.

‘He’s alive, but — ’ She bit her lip.

‘What’s the matter?’

‘I was hooking him out with a branch but … er, it caught on something under his kilt. I’m afraid I’ve hurt him.’

‘It caught on something under his kilt?’

‘I’m afraid so. He seems quite upset about it.’

Tobry made a muffled noise in his throat, looked at Rix, who was still writhing, and chuckled. ‘Serves the sod right.’

‘He’s in pain,’ said Tali, shocked at his callousness.

‘But hilarious pain,’ Tobry hooted.

‘What if I’ve damaged him?’ She knew men were sensitive down there.

His laughter echoed off the cliff face.

‘He just saved your life,’ snapped Tali.

‘And in ten years’ time I’ll still be getting free drinks to tell this story.’