The Cyber Chronicles Book II: Death Zone (25 page)

"Can you light
a fire, Sabre?"

His head
turned, and he frowned. "No. They might see the smoke."

"But you said
that they're not following us, and I'm freezing."

He appeared to
give himself a mental shake, and some of the tension left his
expression. "Okay, just a small one to warm you up, then we put it
out."

Tassin nodded,
and he gathered some wood and lighted a fire on which she toasted
her feet. Sabre sat on the far side of it, looking tired and
dejected, obviously unhappy with this latest development. He had
evidently visited the stream to wash off the blood, and the gash in
his scalp oozed afresh. A thin red line ran down the side of his
neck.

"You're
bleeding," she informed him.

"I know. It
needs stitching."

"I could try,"
she offered, disliking the idea.

"I'd
appreciate that."

Digging in his
pouch, he took out a curved needle and threaded it. Tassin edged
closer, and he smiled at her nervousness as he held out the
needle.

"I'm not going
to bite."

She took it.
"I've never seen anyone fight like you. It was amazing."

He shrugged.
"Cyber training. He was more of a challenge than King Torrian,
although he did some damage too. The cyber controlled me then, and
its way of fighting is more mechanical."

Sabre bowed
his head so she could reach the gash, and her hands shook as they
hovered over his short damp hair. It had been different when she
had cared for him in the Andaron village; he had been asleep most
of the time, or groggy. After just witnessing his lethal speed and
strength, she was inexplicably nervous.

Sabre looked
up. "What's wrong?"

"It will
hurt."

He smiled.
"Don't worry, I can handle it."

"Couldn't I
just bandage it?"

"No. It must
be stitched."

Tassin
swallowed hard, and he bent his head once more. She shivered when
she pushed the needle into his scalp, and his jaw muscles bulged as
he clenched his teeth. She tied each stitch, as she had seen the
Andaron midwife do, the sight of his blood on her fingers making
her queasy. By the time she had tied the last stitch, she was
light-headed. The sight of blood had never worried her before, but
for some reason his did, and she wondered why.

Sabre took the
needle from her, stowing it away. As he zipped up the pouch, she
slipped her arms around his neck and hugged him. His sudden tension
betrayed his surprise.

"Hey, it's
okay," he said, clearly perplexed. "What's wrong?"

"I'm afraid
he'll hurt you... or kill you."

Sabre stroked
her hair with awkward reluctance. "No he won't. That's not so easy
to do, remember?"

Tassin raised
her head to regard him, too close for comfort. Sabre leant back
against the cave wall and looked away. Had she been anyone else,
the cyber would have flashed a proximity violation warning in his
mind, but she had command privilege, so she was allowed to touch
him. The situation was unfamiliar, and, on one level, unwelcome. On
another, more human level, it held a forbidden fascination.

Sabre had no
idea how he should react. Part of him longed to hold her, while
another kept him frozen, as if his body refused to obey his mind.
His trained responses, he realised, blocked his natural ones, but
the fact that he had a strange wish to return her affection did not
make it acceptable. When he had kept her warm in the Death Zone
blizzard, it had made him uncomfortable, but it had been necessary.
He did not understand the reason for her action, which made it all
the more disconcerting. Her rather inept embrace brought a rush of
unwelcome emotion, and he strived to quell it. She gripped his chin
to turn his battered face, her eyes flitting over it.

"I couldn't
bear to lose you now."

Warmth invaded
his heart, and his throat tightened. He turned his head away again,
afraid she would see the tears that stung his eyes. His reaction to
her affection surprised him. He could not speak, and was glad the
darkness hid his expression. He coughed, trying to hide his
embarrassment.

"I'm not going
anywhere, okay?"

Tassin nodded
and released him, and he wondered who she was confusing more,
herself, or him. Since he had never been treated as a person
before, he found it bewildering, and did not know if his reaction
was the right one. Should he have done or said something different?
Was she disappointed? More than anything, he was afraid of doing
the wrong thing through sheer ignorance. He knew any affection she
might develop for him was doomed, anyway. He was a cyber.

A cyber-bio
combat unit, to be exact. Grade A. He had a serial number to prove
it. He even had a bar-code burnt into the back of his skull, so if
he was incinerated and his control unit's memory wiped, he could
still be identified. A killing machine. One that was currently
broken, but would be fixed in the not too distant future, he was
certain. He was a weapon considered so dangerous that Myon Two kept
track of all its cyber units, no matter where they were.

Even if the spacer who had brought him to this planet did not
return, Myon Two would track Sabre down in the end. His owner must
have falsified the annual location reports to smuggle him onto a
restricted world like Omega Five, but the subterfuge would not last
long. There was no hope of escaping his fate; the locator hidden
somewhere in his body would lead them to him. He was just a broken
killing machine living on borrowed time. The mocking voice that
always roused at times like this taunted him from the dark recess
of his mind:
Cyborg!

Tassin studied
Sabre’s pensive expression, wondering what he was thinking. More
than anything, she longed for him to hold her and keep her warm, to
impart his special brand of security and comfort that she had
experienced so rarely. He was a fascinating man, and her boldness
had surprised her. She seemed to have no control over her actions
when she was close to him. Her desire to be in his proximity
overwhelmed her good sense, and she was certain he must think her a
complete idiot. Worst of all, her embrace had clearly unsettled
him, and his rejection was tacit. She had admitted her feelings for
him, and he had made light of it. Her ego smarted and her heart
ached.

Sabre rose and
stamped out the fire. In the blackness that followed its
extinction, she curled up on the floor. Her damp skirts made her
shiver as she listened to him settle down for the night. As silence
fell, she closed her eyes and banished her quandary so she could
sleep.

Gearn regarded
Murdor over the fire, dismembering a succulent roast chicken he had
conjured. Murdor chewed on a smoked haunch, looking preoccupied.
The gladiator's swollen jaw and nose were testament to the warrior
mage's strength and skill. Murdor winced as he chewed and shifted
when his broken rib jabbed him. Gearn was almost glad that the
warrior mage had done so much damage; it made up for all the
scoffing Murdor had done. Gearn's head pounded, and even the wolf
looked miserable.

"So he was not
as easy to beat as you thought, hey, Murdor?"

He glared. "He
was lucky, that's all. Tomorrow I'll tear him apart."

"If I had not
cast a spell to blind him, you would be dead now."

He spat a gob
of gristle into the fire. "I don't need yer help. Tomorrow he'll
die."

Gearn
shrugged, sucking the tender meat off a drumstick. At least Murdor
had the courage to face him again, which not many men would, after
seeing the speed and skill with which the warrior mage fought. He
had not used the blue fire, though, and Gearn wondered if he had
lost that magic. The Queen was a problem, however. Her attack had
been unexpected. Tomorrow, he would make sure that she was unable
to interfere.

Chapter Fifteen

Tassin woke
alone, and sat up, panic nibbling at her. Shivering, she went to
the cave mouth and peered out at the peaceful wooded vale. Only the
stream moved, gurgling over the rocks. Her stomach rumbled, and she
went down to it for a drink, then looked up as Sabre descended the
slope, carrying the packs. He seemed unaware of her, but when he
reached the valley floor he headed straight towards her. He only
looked up when he was a metre away, but he was obviously aware of
her location. He dumped the packs and rummaged in them, handing her
some dried meat.

While they
ate, he said, "They're camped in the glade where we fought, but
they'll be coming after us soon."

"You went back
there?"

"How do you
think I got the packs?"

"Oh. So what
are we going to do?"

He shrugged.
"We can't elude them while they have the wolf to track us. I don't
want to kill them, so perhaps I'll just break the big guy's leg, or
the wolf's."

"Could you
really kill that giant? He's huge."

"Easily." He
studied the shrivelled meat. "But if that damned magician blinds
me, it will make it a bit more difficult. The cyber can provide
active infrared vision and heat images to compensate, but it's not
the same as my sight. I lose a lot of my depth perception, and that
hampers me. The cyber uses a bunch of other sensors, proximity
scanners and stuff like that, but my brain can't process that
information.

"It's never
used my eyes, but it feeds the infrared into my optic nerves so my
brain will record it, since that's where its data is stored. If I
attack the magician, the warrior will try to protect him, and who
knows what other tricks the mage might have up his sleeve? If you
can keep him from casting his spells, maybe hit him over the head
again, I could defeat the big man a lot quicker."

"What about
the wolf?"

"The wolf
really complicates things. If not for it, I could ambush the giant
and break his leg, but the wolf will know where I am." He paused,
considering. "I could ambush the wolf I guess, since it always
leads. If I get rid of it, we can give them the slip."

After the
meagre meal, Sabre shouldered the packs and set off upstream along
the bank. The gorge narrowed, and the pine trees on its slopes
became twisted and stunted. The sun was overhead when Sabre slowed
and looked back down the gully.

"They're
catching up. It's time to pick a spot." He walked on, scanning the
terrain, and stopped where the gorge widened into a flat gravel
area. His glance at the stream reminded her of his aversion to
water. He hid the packs amongst the rocks, took out the sword and
sheathed it in the scabbard strapped across his back.

She said, "I'm
glad you're going to use the sword this time."

"It will come
in handy to ward off his weapon, and perhaps a few non-lethal cuts
will deter him."

"It would be a
lot easier to kill him, wouldn't it?"

He nodded.
"Sure. Killing's easy."

"Why do you
risk your life to save his? He's trying to kill you, so you have
every right to kill him."

"I'd rather
not kill anyone if I can help it." Sabre pointed at a dense stand
of stunted pines on the downstream side of the clearing. "You hide
in there, so you'll be behind them."

With a worried
glance at him, she clambered in amongst the trees and settled down
to wait. Sabre went over to the rocky slope and climbed up it to a
twisted pine tree that leant out, where he settled, hidden by its
trunk.

Time dragged
past. Tassin caught herself chewing her nails and clasped her hands
together. Only the gushing river and an occasional bird singing
amongst the trees disturbed the gully's quiet, and various parts of
her anatomy grew numb from her uncomfortable position. She squirmed
to ease them, and her hands crept into her mouth again. She fondled
her dagger's hilt to occupy them.

A flitting
grey shadow entered the makeshift arena. The wolf circled it, nose
to the ground, following their trail. She held her breath and
willed him to move closer to Sabre's hiding place. The wolf stopped
and raised his head to look around, then lowered his nose to the
ground again, trotting towards her. He halted again, encountering
another track, which he sniffed, then turned back, heading for
Sabre's ambush.

As the wolf
neared the slope where Sabre hid, some sixth sense must have warned
him, for he leapt away as the cyber jumped. Sabre landed close to
the animal and lunged, catching his tail in spite of the speed with
which he tried to flee. The wolf yelped as Sabre dragged him
closer, then a flash of green light arced across the clearing and
hit the cyber on the arm. He dropped the wolf, which fled, and
looked up at the black-robed mage who walked up the stream bank
towards him. The giant sauntered beside him, hefting his massive
sword. Sabre inspected his arm, which was unharmed, and the mage
and his companion stopped a few paces away.

"I'm Murdor,
champion of the arena, and this time, I'm goin' to kill yer," the
giant stated in a thick, gravelly voice.

Sabre regarded
him with flat eyes, reminding Tassin of when he had been controlled
by the cyber. "It's a pity you don't have the guts to fight me
without the help of magic."

Murdor
growled, glancing at the wizard, who shook his head and said, "You
use magic too; this only makes it fair."

"Enough talk!"
Murdor roared, striding towards Sabre.

Tassin's
hammering heart tried to crawl into her throat as the giant closed
with the cyber, and Gearn folded his arms. Evidently he was not
going to use his magic right away. Sabre stepped back and drew his
sword with a hiss, then spun and leapt. The weapon sliced into
Murdor's jaw, jerked the gladiator's head around with a spray of
blood and made him stagger sideways. Sabre lunged and thrust his
sword at Murdor's thigh, but the gladiator raised his weapon in the
nick of time and turned Sabre's blade aside at the last moment.