Peter Hamilton - The Temporal Void

There can't be anything wrong. Not here. They don't know we're coming for them. They can't know!

On top of that anxiety, Edeard began to worry if his longtalk could reach the sentry fastfoxes before they scented him coming. It would be touch and go, he knew, he hadn't realized the gulley was this deep, nor so serpentine.

The sense of foreboding grew even stronger. He thought he could hear a whisper. Not with his ears. His mind. A very faint longtalk?

He walked through a small shallow stream, moving carefully so he didn't create a splash, only to find his boots sinking with alarming speed. Quicksand. 'Shit, he whispered through clenched teeth. He had to reach down with his third hand to stabilize the treacherous ground. His finger tapped three times on Dinlay's hand — caution.

There was a tremendous scraping sound from above, as if the stone cliffs were splitting. Edeard immediately sensed a number of powerful farsights stabbing down, farsights that weren't fooled by concealment. The noise grew even louder.

'Weapons! Topar shouted.

Edeard dropped his concealment and sent his farsight straight towards the sound. What he found shocked him for a dangerous instant. Three huge boulders were starting to roll down the slope directly above them, as they moved they dislodged a whole swam of smaller boulders. Ambush ! he bellowed, and immediately strengthened his shield. At once he realized it wouldn't do him the slightest use, not against such a cascade of stone, the mass starting to slide down on top of them was incredible. He instinctively grabbed Dinlay with his third hand and threw him up the slope on the other side.

'Hello again, Edeard, a mental voice sneered.

Edeard was scrambling up the slope as the first boulders picked up speed. He reached for Macsen. But he knew that voice, and the cruelty behind it. The leader from Ashwell, the man who had killed Edeard's village, his life. Akeem's murderer.

Dinlay had recovered from his abrupt flight. He started shooting his pistol across the gully. It was a signal for Topar and Fresage to open fire. Verini began to run back along the gully. The overwhelming noise from the accelerating avalanche was joined by the deadly sound of rapid-fire guns. The three large boulders had been covering the mouths of caves in the cliffs. Now a dozen bandits were spilling out, taking aim on Edeard and his companions. The only thing preventing immediate death was the avalanche itself. To many rocks were interfering with their field of fire.

'The great Waterwalker himself, laughed Edeard's tormentor.

By now the smaller head-sized stones were bouncing down around Edeard. Bullets chewed the ground beside his feet. A screaming Dinlay dived for cover behind a rock. Not fast enough. Bullets chewed his legs, then thudded into his torso.

A stream of bullets smashed into Edeard. His shield held and he instinctively punched back along the line of attack. One of the ambushers flew backwards through the air, spraying blood.

Three big stones crashed into Fresage. His cry was cut off.

Macsen fired his pistol up at the ambushers. The ground around him was ripped apart by rapid-gun fire. Edeard screamed at the massive flare of pain Macsen's dying brain unleashed. His third hand lashed out wildly again at the ambushers, knocking four of them sideways. Two came careering down the slope after the avalanche, bones snapping as they twisted and tumbled.

A giant boulder smashed into Larby's chest, flinging him to the ground. More stones bounced and skittered on top of him.

Edeard was dancing about on the slope, trying to avoid the lethal barrage, smacking at the stones hurtling at him, deflecting them. Then the biggest boulder of all, nearly twice his height, slammed into the bottom of the gulley, shaking the ground. Momentum sent it spinning right at him.

He held it. The incredible weight was nothing. He just grabbed it with his third hand and stopped it dead in the air. It hung there, three feet off the ground as his lips twisted savagely with the effort. A shower of smaller stones from the avalanche smacked into it. Edeard held fast. One of the other original boulders rolled past, then teetered on the slope and skittered back down to the bottom of the gully.

'Ladyfuck! someone's frantic longtalk shouted.

'How's he doing that?

'Kill him. Kill the little shit.

The rapid-fire guns began shooting. Bullets thudded into the boulder hanging in front of Edeard. He could hear strange whirring pings as ricochets twirled off in all directions. The reverberations of falling rock grumbled away as the avalanche slithered to its end.

Edeard lifted the boulder high, above his head, higher, three times his height. Higher still. It drew level with the caves on the other side of the gully. Seven bandits were crouched down on a long ledge running in front of the dark openings. They gaped in disbelief at the massive rock that was now curving through the air towards them. Accelerating.

It struck the first one, knocking him away into the gully. The impact didn't even slow it down. Everyone on the ledge tried to run, but there was no room and no time. The boulder hammered into them, crushing their bodies to pulp or sending them spinning off into the chasm. Then Edeard brought it down very precisely on the last bandit.

After that, he simply stood there. Arms by his side. Staring numbly at the great swathe of shingle which the avalanche had created on the other side of the gully. He started to shake. Arms first, then his legs trembled and his muscles gave out. He dropped to his knees.

'Dinlay? he called with mind and voice. 'Dinlay? Macsen? Topar? Anyone?

He sensed the fastfoxes coming, slinking along the bottom of the gully, hurrying to do their masters' bidding. To bring death to the intruder. Without even thinking, he shoved his third hand into their skulls and tore at the soft brain tissue. They fell silently, sprawling over the stony ground.

The remaining bandits followed stealthily. Creeping along under concealment, rapid-fire guns held ready. Edeard let them come close, then killed them. Pulling them from where they crouched and crawled, and snapping their spines. They were discarded one after the other, dropping out of the night to lie broken beside their fastfoxes. He felt nothing. No sorrow. No anger. Nothing.

Dinlay's shredded body was sprawled on the slope above him, where he should have been safe. Where he would have been safe after Edeard dropped him there, if he'd just stayed down. But Dinlay would never cower behind a rock while his comrades were under attack. Not Dinlay.

Edeard focused his farsight down the slope. Macsen's bloody corpse was staring up at Odin's Sea. Defiant to the last, he'd even got off a shot after the first swarm of bullets had struck. Fresage and Topar were buried below mounds of stone. Boloton had been pinned down by a rock landing on his legs. Other stones had battered him while several bullets punctured his chest and head. There wasn't much left that was recognizable. And Verini hadn't got more than half a dozen paces back up the gully before the rapid fire guns had found him. Larby's arms and legs protruded from underneath one of the large boulders; there was nothing left of his torso but a mangled patch of gore soaking into the earth.

Edeard started crying. 'Why do you do this to me? he yelled at Odin's Sea. 'Lady, why? What have I done that's so evil to be punished like this. Why? Why ? Tell me you stinking bitch. He sobbed relentlessly. 'Why? Then he was curled up on the ground, helpless. Wanting this monstrous life to end. Wanting to die.

'Edeard.

The voice was spoken from a very long way away.

'Edeard, this is not over.

He wiped a hand over his face, smearing the mud and tears and blood that were clinging to him. 'Who… oh.