Part 43 (1/2)

'I was trying to help you,' she said. 'I loved you.' 'Love!' he spoke the word like a curse. Yet he smiled again as he stared at the top of her thighs. 'Yes, love. Tell me how much you love me. I will show you how much I love you.' He placed the bottle on the floor and took hold of the gla.s.s. He raised the wine above her face, toying with her fear. 'Don't misunderstand me, Lori. I respect the success you've had in dealing with your foe. Only the strong should survive. I was particularly impressed by the way you handled that insolent computer. It was a feat to be admired. Plus there was the shrewd manner in which you deduced the special nature of this fine beverage. However, you are wrong to think this bottle contains Martian water. Nothing so simple. You should have read the book. It was full of clues. How, for instance, does someone like me make a bride? I see I have your interest. We don't drink blood, but offer some of our own. Ivan was very gracious on this point. You'll be amazed to know that he knew you were coming. You see, we've been waiting for you. We've been waiting for the warrior. Of course, you're not Janier, a woman you never had the pleasure of meeting. Yet you are alike in many ways, and every ritual needs a sacrifice to complete the ceremony.'

He slowly tilted the gla.s.s. A solitary drop of wine landed in her hair. It felt horrible beyond belief. A nest of maggots could have begun to crawl over the top of her skull. She shook her head back and forth but the sensation refused to go away.

He sighed. 'So fine. A splash here and there and a single vigorous copulation and the sacrament will be complete.' He set the gla.s.s down and tugged at her shorts, exposing the curve of her hip. 'Love me, Lori.'

'Stop it!' she screamed. Her tears came, and she began to beg. 'Please, Gary. Don't let them make you do this. Remember who you are. You're my friend.'

He started to slap her. But he stopped just as his fingers contacted her face. He took back his hand and stared at it, at the tears that had moistened his skin. He blinked twice and for a moment he seemed lost. 'Lori,' he whispered. 'I wanted to tell you not to...'

He turned away. But not before Lauren saw the glimmer of her old friend in his face. 'Gary, you must remember who you are,' she said.

'No.'

'Mars has done this to you, but you can fight it.'

'No.'

'You're Gary Wheeler,' she said. 'You're a human being.'

'Shut up!' He whirled and slapped her face viciously. 'Your friend's gone. You can't bring him back. It was you who murdered him, b.i.t.c.h!'

The anger gave her reason to hope. Anything was better than his Ivan Zossima grin. 'I didn't know the wine was contaminated,' she said. 'I was trying to help you. You were dying of dehydration. I would have done anything to save you. I love you, Gary.'

'You can't love me!' His face swung from extremes of hatred and confusion. 'You deserted him. You cast him out. You left him to do this thing.'

'I never left you, Gary. You have to remember! Remember Jim. Remember how he loved you, how you loved him.' She couldn't stop crying. 'Remember how you felt when Mars killed him.'

'No!' he shouted. He panted as if he was straining to catch his breath. He was obviously in the grip of an intense internal battle. He tried again to wipe her tears from the back of his hand. 'This is a trick. Jim was a fool! He's gone while I survive!'

'They've lied to you. They promise you immortality, but they just kill you and make you walk around dead. Listen to me, Gary, you have to listen to me.'

In her heart, though, Lauren did not believe he could listen to her, not now. Once more she took hold of the scalpel in her right hand, hidden behind her leg. It was then she decided definitely to use the knife, as soon as he moved a tiny bit closer, a foot even.

'Lori,' he gasped. He sagged against her hibernaculum. His eyes were no longer blank, but filled with a great weariness. 'I want to breathe, Lori. I can't breathe. They won't let me breathe.'

'I can help you, Gary.'

'You can?' he asked pitifully.

'Yes,' she whispered. 'Listen closely, I'll tell you what to do.'

He leaned that one foot closer.

The Antabolene had greatly inhibited her reflexes. The paralysis was similar to the slowness produced by deep sleep, only to a much greater degree. It could, however, be largely overcome by extreme concentration and effort.

Lauren jerked her arm up through a curved arc aimed directly at his throat. Unfortunately, in her fright, she had forgotten the two plastic tubes that led into her artery shunt. Her attack was interrupted when she cut one of the tubes. Warm blood squirted over her belly and dripped into her crotch. Gary's expression changed from one of profound anguish to one of ravished hunger. His eyes focused on the blood. Lauren took advantage of the distraction to swipe again at him with the scalpel. The tip of the blade was almost to his throat when...

A cold vise of inhuman strength clamped onto her wrist.

He squeezed her wrist. A bone cracked.

The scalpel fell to the floor.

'No!' she squealed in pain.

Empty eyes, empty even of hatred, beheld her.

'Tell me how much you love me.' He tightened his grip. The pain was overwhelming. 'Tell me.'

'Please,' she whimpered.

To her surprise, he reduced the pressure. The holes in his head that were his eyes had fastened on the silver ring she wore on the middle finger of her right hand. A sneer touched his lifeless lips. It touched them, but they did not feel it. All feeling had left him. Gary was gone, gone for good.

'So you think to align yourself with her protection,' he said flatly. 'It's too late for that. You are like Janier. You are a coward. You would have fared better slitting your own throat.'

He threw her broken wrist aside, making no attempt to remove the ring. The s.h.i.+ny silver band was lost beneath the blood that continued to spill from the sliced tube. Cold despair filled her heart. He was right, she realized. She should have died. There are worse things.

Yet she still had no idea how much worse.

He raised the gla.s.s of wine. 'You have made your decision, harlot. You lied and reached for the knife. Your faith is hollow as your soul will be.' He smiled thinly. 'I was listening when Mark told you how she killed herself. It is ironic, it is appropriate. We are only actors fulfilling our roles. But she was no actor. Only when you walk through the endless night will you understand who she was. But then, it will be too late.'

He tilted the gla.s.s.

'Jenny!' Lauren cried. 'Help me!'

But her cry drowned in agony. The poison fell onto her body and it was as if a wave of parasitic worms had taken hold of her. They filled her pores and dug under her skin and fed on her organs. The wine burned, yet it sent a chill into her bones that no prayer to G.o.d could ever warm. Her shorts were torn away, and in the middle of the spilling blood and the torturous wine, the beast crawled on top of her.

Then the lump began to form inside, and it, too, was cold - cold and sharp, like a sword that had been tempered in a world that had seen a million blistering years of ice and not one soothing day of fire. It stabbed all the way inside her.

Lauren began to choke, to smother. She gasped upon air that no longer fed life into her blood. Her blood turned to ice and the last breath of air left her body. Her heart stopped.

Then Lauren Wagner died.

But the agony did not cease.

BOOK FIVE.

The Harlot.

THIRTY-FOUR.

Excerpts from Jennifer Wagner's Story As light filled the eastern sky, Chaneen stood from her meditations. At her feet was the pool of water. The reflecting stars faded as the G.o.ds departed. She was alone now. Janier was dead, and the way in which she had died had placed a terrible curse over the future of the children. Even their present existence was still in danger. Chaneen prayed she would be forgiven for what she had to do next.

She left the pool and walked through the long silent halls of her palace. On the way she pa.s.sed Pastel, the blind minstrel. He sat fast asleep with his back to a pillar. Chaneen was tempted to wake him, and speak with him about what was happening. But she left him sleeping. He would know soon enough.

Chaneen strode from the palace and into the forest. The trees and flowers swayed near as she walked by. But her thoughts were turned away from the Garden. She could no longer enjoy its beauty, now that it was close to ending. Soon the leaves on the branches would be left to die, and the flowers would crumble into the dust.