Part 22 (1/2)

Suddenly he jerked his hand away. There was another rail buried just below the surface, linking the bases of the fence posts.

'Oh well, it was a good idea,' said Arnella sympathetically.

Brockwell risked a small quick smile of thanks.

The Marquis was looking up at the trees, some of which overhung the fence. 'Perhaps it would be possible to swing over on our climbing lines.'

'We could try sliding one of the rails aside; said Myra, who had been examining the nearest fence post. 'They don't seem to be secured in any way, and the slots they sit in run right through. I think I can push the end of a rail from the other side...' She thrust the end of her staff into the slot, and the rail, surprisingly light for its size, slid free and dropped to the ground. It was as easy as that.

At least Falstaff had the decency to laugh heartily. Thorrin looked put out.

With a rail removed it left a gap of almost eighty centimetres, through which they stepped carefully one by one. There was a sense of palpable relief to have the fence between them and the forest.

'I think we should replace this section,' said the Marquis, once they were all safely through. 'Should those criminals come this way it may slow them down.'

'I shouldn't think it will make much difference; said Thorrin, with a touch of his former self-a.s.surance. They must be far behind us by now.'

'Don't underestimate Qwaid.' Myra said sharply. 'He might not have Alpha's brains, but he's determined. And if he's forced the Doctor to help him he might not be short of brains either.'

'I bow to your superior knowledge of the mental processes of the underworld,' said Thorrin heavily. 'By all means replace it.

But then can we please proceed?'

They gingerly edged the rail back in place by lifting it with their staffs. Then they set off across the open rocky plain, leaving the dark line of the dead forest, and all its nightmares, behind them.

As they plodded across the rocky wasteland, Willis Brockwell dropped back until he was walking beside Myra. 'I'm sorry about the professor,' he said quietly.

'What do you mean?'

'The way he spoke to you back there. It wasn't like him. I know, I've worked with him for years. I mean he can be short tempered and a bit overbearing at times, but he usually apologises for it afterwards. It's this quest business. He's become... well, fixated on finding this cursed treasure. I never thought money would have that sort of effect on him. He's made enough of it already after all.'

'Well, you never can tell what touches people that way. Like the Marquis, for instance.'

'Yes. What did he mean by ”cruel... but necessary”?'

'I don't know. I don't think either of them are telling the whole truth about what they're doing here.' She looked at Arnella, trudging along beside her uncle with her head down. 'She may know half of it, and perhaps that's what's troubling her - which I suppose doesn't make you any too happy either.'

Brockwell nodded regretfully. 'I wish she'd talk to me... but she's got her pride.'

'Haven't we all? And then of course I know even less about 'Sir John Falstaff” over there, and that bothers me intensely as well.'

'Still, I suppose that makes us the only two relatively uncomplicated people here right now, Inspector.'

She looked at him coolly. 'We'll have to see, won't we? Fear, greed, and the prospect of coming into a fortune like Rowan's treasure sometimes do strange things - even to the most uncomplicated of people.'

They topped a slight rise in the ground, and they heard Thorrin exclaim, 'What on earth is this?'

CHAPTER 19.

BLOODLINE.

Red made a final bound and landed on the gra.s.sy fringe that bordered the far side of the tiled plain. The saddle back straightened and the pocket stirrups released Peri. She slid stiffly to the ground, ma.s.saging her aching back and thighs.

'That was some ride,' she admitted. 'Can't you give a girl some warning when you're going to pull a stunt like that?'

Red contrived a look of puppylike sorrow.

'Oh, all right. I didn't mean it like that,' she said, petting him and feeding him another meat bar from her pack. 'We must have crossed five times faster than on foot, which is quite a bonus.

Now let's have a look through here...'

With Red padding along behind her, she made her way through the miniature jungle of fern trees until they came to the edge of the valley. Even the high sun had failed to disperse the mist blanket, and it remained unbroken except for the few crowns of the tallest trees close to the terraced steps. A series of deep honking cries floated up to her, followed by a throaty roar, which made her s.h.i.+ver.

'The boys and girls are still at their fun and games I guess.' she said, trying to sound offhand. 'From what I heard over Gribbs's radio, there're some berries that repel the things down there, only I don't know if it'll work for you as well. It's OK for me to take the risk, but it's unfair to put you on the spot.'

Red tossed his head and gave a defiant snort.

'All right, so you can lick anybody twice your size. But then there's that lake to cross, which means I'd have to build a raft, which might take some time. And the trick stairs. Will you be able to get up them?' She pursed her lips and looked along the misty valley thoughtfully. 'Well, there's nothing to say we can't try another way, as long as we meet up with the Doctor somewhere on the far side. They didn't have time to explore, but I can cover a whole lot more ground on you. Let's try some lateral thinking and check out the side of the valley first.'

She remounted and Red turned his head to the right, setting off in a long loping stride along the valley rim.

Dynes ate a pack meal without taking his eyes off the monitor screens, following it down with a couple of stimtabs. No time for sleep, now that his instincts told him things were starting to build towards a climax.

He'd sent replacement DAVE units at top speed to the last recorded positions of their predecessors in the hope of re-establis.h.i.+ng contact with his subjects. Even now they were searching the dead forest. He had lost Peri completely, and could only hope he might find her by chance. Via a DAVE he'd investigated the pseudo-meteor crater and had followed tracks to the Falcon Falcon. He had no idea what they signified, or if Gribbs was back inside the s.h.i.+p, but he was running short of drones and couldn't afford to leave one there on the off chance.

Now he could only wait and see.

The rocky plain was cut through the middle by a deep river gorge, on the far side of which they could see cool and inviting green trees and stretches of open gra.s.sland. The gorge itself, however, was more forbidding, and quite unlike anything Myra had ever seen before.

'They certainly do go in for some impressive feats of engineering,' Brockwell observed, raising his voice over the roar of the waters.

'If they hope to overawe us, they are wasting their time,' said Thorrin firmly. 'It's simply another challenge.'

The river ran white and foaming some twenty metres below the level of the plain. This was partly due to the fall along its course, and partly to the turbulence generated by its banks, which resembled nothing less than two sets of interlocking saw teeth.

The teeth were made of stretches eleven or twelve metres long, Myra estimated, which then turned a precise right angle, zigzagging in and out alternately, so that the sheer-cut sides on the opposite banks exactly paralleled each other. At no point did they come any closer than the same eleven or twelve metres. The remarkable construction stretched away into the distance on either side of them, without a bridge in sight. The river banks for fifty metres back were quite smooth, with not a single place where a grapnel might take hold.

'We either set off along the bank until its nature changes, or work out a method of crossing where we are,' said the Marquis.

'Even if I went into the water and had a line to keep me from being carried away, I couldn't climb up the other side,' said Myra.