Midnight Crystal (6 page)

She glanced into the chamber where Gibson had disappeared. “We’re leaving, pal.”

He chortled, dropped the small quartz tomb mirror he had discovered, and dashed out of the room to join her.

They started along a corridor that curved away into the distance. Marlowe did some calculations in her head. “Six hours before we get out of here. That should put us back in Frequency around six o’clock tonight.”

“If we’re lucky.”

“Why do you say that?”

“No telling what we’re going to find in the way of civilization when we finally do get back to the surface. These mountains are sparsely populated and traffic is minimal, especially at night. No cell phone service, either. We’re going to have to hitchhike back to the city, which means that we won’t get home until we find a ride.”

“What about your car?”

“I told you, the guy with the rifle probably made sure it’s nonfunctional, like your bike.”

She groaned. “I need to get back by the time the office opens or at least call my assistant to let him know I’m okay. If he calls my mother and it turns out no one knows where I am, the whole family is going to panic. Uncle Zeke, being a conspiracy theorist of the first order, will assume the worst. The next thing you know, every member of my family and every J&J agent will be out looking for me. I’ve only been on the job for two months. It will be humiliating.”

“Not a good move for a Guild boss to disappear, either. If I don’t show up back in my office pretty damn quick, the rumors will start flying.”

“What rumors?”

“That I’m either dead or looking for a wife.”

“A wife?”

“It’s a Guild boss thing.” His watch brightened. “We’re in luck.”

“What?” she said.

“This indicates that there’s a jungle gate not far from here. That means we’ve got access to all the comforts of the rain forest. You won’t have to sit here on the hard quartz floor while I nap.”

“What good will that do? It’s a heck of a lot harder to trek through the rain forest than it is to walk the catacombs.”

“It will make a good rest stop. I’ll be able to sleep off the burn, and there will be water. When we leave we’ll take some with us. It’s never a good idea to get dehydrated in the tunnels. It has a disturbing effect on the senses.”

“How do you plan to collect the water?”

He tapped the small black pouch attached to his belt. “Collapsible canteen.”

She smiled. “A Guild boss is always prepared?”

“That’s the rule.”

HE COULD FEEL THE EXHAUSTION CREEPING THROUGH him like a virus, making it tough to stay alert and aware. It was never a good idea to relax in the catacombs. Illusion traps and the small energy storms known as ghosts were constant threats. The only defense was complete vigilance. If you triggered a trap or blundered into a ghost, it was game over.

The last thing he wanted to do was sleep, especially now. But there was no choice. He had pulled heavily on his already depleted stores of energy when he had taken Marlowe through the vortex. Now he had to use small doses of what little remained to get as far as the jungle gate. By the time he opened it, he would be finished. He had to make certain Marlowe was in a safe place before he went out like a de-rezzed lightbulb.

The slice of full-spectrum on the face of his watch abruptly darkened to a shade of violet that was almost black. He stopped, unpleasantly aware that it had become a major effort just to stay on his feet, and looked at the featureless green quartz wall. It resembled every other green wall in the tunnel, but the energy that emanated from it was different in some subtle fashion.

“This is it,” he said. “The gate.”

Sensing a new adventure, Gibson rumbled excitedly and bobbed down from Marlowe’s shoulder. He stood on his hind legs in front of the wall for a few seconds. A small opening appeared. He darted through it and disappeared. The dust bunny–sized hole in the wall closed.

“Well, damn,” Adam said. “Didn’t know the little critters could open gates.”

“I think he comes down here to hunt at night with his buddies sometimes,” Marlowe said.

“How do you know?”

“He’s forever bringing me little presents that could only have come from the rain forest. Flowers, some odd berries and fruit, a shiny pebble. The gifts are always that strange green that exists only in the jungle.”

“Psi green.”

“Yes.” Marlowe studied him with growing concern. “Are you sure you have enough energy left to open a gate?”

“I can handle it.”

“I’d offer to do it, but as we know, my amber is shot because of that vortex.”

He looked at her, surprised. “You can open gates?”

“I didn’t know how until I met Gibson. He taught me.”

“How the hell did he do that?”

“I can’t describe the process. I just watched him do it a few times with my other vision, and I could see how to manipulate the currents. It’s not all that different from handling dreamlight. When you get right down to it, energy is energy. Turns out a lot of alien psi comes from the ultradark end of the spectrum.”

“The dreamlight end.”

He pulled on his remaining reserves and focused through the spectrum amber of his watch, probing for the pattern of the gate currents.

The quartz wall glowed a hotter shade of green. An opening just large enough for a person to squeeze through took shape, providing a narrow window into the bizarre underground jungle.

Gibson appeared in the gate and chortled a greeting. He had a small stick in one paw.

“I’ll go first,” Adam said. He moved toward the gate. “Make sure there are no surprises on the other side.”

Marlowe followed. “I’m sure there won’t be. Gibson would have sounded the alarm if there was anything dangerous waiting for us in there.”

“Probably, but, see, in the Guild we have these rules,” Adam said.

He squeezed sideways through the opening and moved into the fantastic world of the rain forest. A heavy wave of heat and humidity hit him. In his exhausted condition it was too much. He grabbed a drooping vine cloaked with eerie green orchids to steady himself.

Marlowe slipped easily through the gate behind him. When she was clear, he used his last ounce of energy to close the opening. He did a quick survey of the surroundings.

The rain forest grew right up to the walls of the tunnels. The trees, covered in trailing vines, rose toward an artificial green sky lit by artificial green-tinged sunlight. The leaves of the trees formed a thick canopy. Green birds flitted in the branches, and small green creatures rustled in the undergrowth. Nearby, water splashed from a waterfall into a grotto pool. There were several small caves in the rocks at the base of the waterfall.

“This will work,” Adam said. “I’ll use one of those caves. The water is safe to drink, and the fruit hanging from those trees is edible. There are predators down here, but so far the experts haven’t found any that seem inclined to snack on humans.”

“Yes, I know,” she said.

“Sorry for the lecture. Routine. Whatever you do, don’t wander off on your own. Remember, your amber is no good. You’d get lost as soon as you got out of sight.”

“Don’t worry, I won’t be going anywhere without you,” she said. “Gibson will warn me if anything dangerous comes along.”

“Wake me in two hours if I don’t wake up on my own. That should be long enough for me to recover.”

“I’m not so sure. You are beyond exhausted.”

“Wake me,” he ordered. He gathered some thick leaves from a tree and headed into the cave.

“Adam?”

He dumped the leaves on the floor of the cave and sat down yawning. “Yeah?”

“What’s the rule about a wife?”

“What?” He checked his watch again. He was so tired now that he could not make out the time.

“A few minutes ago you said that if you didn’t show up in your office fairly soon people would assume that you were either dead or looking for a wife. You said it was a Guild boss thing.”

“Old Guild tradition.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Civilians,” he muttered.

“I think we’ve established that my family is not Guild,” she said. Frost gleamed on each word.

He yawned again. “Haven’t you ever noticed that almost all of the heads of the Guilds in just about every city or town are either married when they take the job or get married soon afterward?”

“Hadn’t thought about it,” she admitted. “But now that you mention it, yes. Generally speaking, they do all seem to have wives. And they often enter formal Covenant Marriages, at that.”

“You sound surprised.” He lay down on the leafy pallet. “You think marriage within the Guilds is any different than marriage outside the organizations?”

“Well—” She paused a beat. “I’m sure there are certain similarities.”

The doubt in her too-polite tone annoyed him.

“I know you folks in Arcane are real big on the Society’s matchmakers,” he said. “For your information, Guild families use professionals, too.”

“I’ve always heard that at the top of the Guild marriages are more in the nature of business and social alliances. Love and compatibility are not the primary considerations.”

“Are you going to tell me that it’s different at the highest levels of Arcane or society in general?”

“No,” she conceded. “But it’s different in my family. The Joneses have always been very traditional when it comes to marriage.”

The rigid social and legal codes set in place by the First Generation colonists had been intended to ensure the stability of the basic building block of the social structure, the family unit. Laws and customs had relaxed somewhat during the two hundred years since the closing of the Curtain, but not all that much. Family was everything on Harmony. Love ’em or hate ’em, you were stuck with your relatives. If you entered a Covenant Marriage, you were also stuck with your spouse.

The loophole for couples who weren’t ready to commit was the Marriage of Convenience, otherwise known as shacking up. The arrangements had legal standing, but they were really nothing more than affairs. MCs could be terminated at any time by either party unless there was offspring. A baby changed everything, automatically converting an MC into a full, very permanent Covenant Marriage.

Not everyone approved of MCs. Marlowe’s family, for example, Adam thought, along with most of the membership of Arcane. Guild men were infamous for going through a string of Marriages of Convenience before their family and social pressure pushed them into a Covenant Marriage. After that, they settled for a string of mistresses.

“For some reason, I’m really not in the mood to explain Guild marriage traditions,” he said. “I’m going to get some sleep.”

He closed his eyes and stopped fighting the exhaustion. His last conscious thought was that the sleep that was about to overtake him would be deep and profound. With luck there would be no nightmares.

MARLOWE SAT ON THE EDGE OF THE GROTTO POOL, eating a round green fruit that tasted of psi sunshine, and watched Gibson surf the grotto pool.

She had found the large piece of deadwood at the edge of the pool and tossed it into the water. After removing Gibson’s studded collar so that it wouldn’t drag him under, she had plunked him down onto the make-shift raft. He had taken to sailing with his usual exuberance and enthusiasm, just as he did every new game.

After drifting around the pool for a while he had discovered that he could get more speed out of the craft if he caught one of the small waves generated by the splashing waters. Half the time the churning waves toppled him off his surf board, but he evidently considered the dunking part of the game. Each time he went under he came up chortling.

Marlowe took another bite of the fruit and tossed the remains into the undergrowth. She heard a brief flutter and scurry as something small leaped upon the unexpected meal.