Adrian Tchaikovsky - The Scarab Path

'Have we lost them?' Che whispered.

Thalric kept his eyes on the sky, surreptitiously. 'I don't see any fliers. They'll broaden their net in a while, thinking they've missed us, that we're still running. They know they can move faster than us, so they'll try to make the best of that advantage. So we use it against them instead. We just let them fly away.' He was still grinning slightly, not at his own cleverness but at the game. It was the only game, once you had tasted it: the spy game, the intelligencer's game — the Dance, as the Spiders called it. He was in the thick of it again, and it seemed to have taken years off him.

'You look like Tisamon,' she told him.

'The Mantis? What do you mean?'

'He was like that, too. When he was up against it, he'd be smiling always. He loved being challenged.'

'Tell me you don't feel it,' he said, fixing her eyes with his.

And she did, that was the terrible thing. There was Osgan to protect, and there were Trallo and Manny and Petri dead, and there was a city out there that would be put to the torch tomorrow, but through all that she felt a leaping spark of excitement inside her. She was an agent again, not an ambassador, and it was just like old times. She let herself smile, just enough for him to see.

'Stenwold was always lucky, having you as his left hand,' Thalric said softly, surprising her.

'You've taken every cursed chance you've been offered to point out my inadequacies in that field,' she reproached him. 'How can you say that now?'

'You must have something going for you, Che, some trick of the trade that I've never grasped. Think of all you've survived, all you've come through intact.'

Not intact , she thought. Not when you tally the friends I've lost . Thalric bent over Osgan and she heard him say, 'We'll have to move soon enough. Unless they find us again, we'll take it slowly. If we're lucky, we can get to another hiding place without them picking up the trail.'

'We should head for the Scriptora,' Che suggested. 'We'll be safe there.'

'You might be,' Thalric told her, 'but those old men and women will have us two executed as Imperial agents. The funny thing is I'm not sure whether that's true or not.'

'I'll speak for you. Ethmet will listen to me.'

'Not unless we have no other hope,' Thalric argued. 'I don't trust the Ministers an inch. If they come to believe that the Empire does want me dead, they'll probably hand me over to the enemy to try and buy their city back.'

'You're not a trusting person, are you?'

'A very good judge of character is what I am. Now, let's make a move slowly. Try your best to look local.'

They had picked their way halfway down the narrow street, stepping over legs and bodies, moving as steadily and wearily as any evicted local, when Thalric's hiss alerted them: 'They're on us already. Run!'

Here? Che thought, already automatically picking up her pace. There were people all around them, a hundred witnesses to each move they made. It seemed impossible that the Wasps would make such a public move against them.

But they will be gone , she thought. They will be over the rooftops and away .

She heard the first crackle of a stingshot, and the people all about her were suddenly jumping up, panic on their faces. Most of them must have thought it was some Scorpion advance guard, over the river already along with their Imperial allies. Instantly the alley ahead of them was choked with alarmed people, a wall that Che crashed into, fighting her way through them with Osgan stumbling in her wake.

'Push on! Push through!' she heard Thalric shout, with two or three more stings backing up his words. Che tried, but her ability to forge a way through the Khanaphir crowds had deserted her. She was just one more awkward foreigner, and the Wasps were closing fast.

Thalric cursed, catching up with her. She saw his hand jut forward, but until he loosed his own sting she had not realized what he intended.

'No!' she yelled, but people were already recoiling from them, seeing his pale skin and features, falling before the golden fire his Art unleashed on them. He was aiming deliberately high, enough to scare and disperse them. She hoped he had hit nobody.

'Go!' he snapped and muscled forward, virtually throwing aside any local who had not already retreated. His sting spat again, and then another bolt seared past on Che's other side. The Rekef! she thought, but it was Osgan, his one good arm extended, following Thalric's lead. Injured and weak as he was, she had almost forgotten that he too was a Wasp.

She had no choice but to keep up with Thalric. There were people screaming and sobbing on all sides, and she made sure she did not look at them too closely. She did not want to see charred wounds, to become an accomplice to murder.

Thalric suddenly shoved her, knocking her sideways into Osgan. A figure had landed ahead of them, hand already extending to sting. Thalric's hand flashed first, punching the other Wasp off his feet. Then they were running again, virtually trampling over his body, taking an abrupt left on to a broader street, straight across into another narrow one. There were no cluttered refugees here, only a couple of late-returning citizens who got out of their way in a hurry.

'Where now? Where's the safe house?' Che asked, trying to keep pace with Thalric. Osgan was still with them, for the moment, driving himself hard. His face was shiny with sweat.

'Behind us,' Thalric got out. He turned in mid-run, loosed a couple of shots backwards, and then was catching them back up again. 'They've done their research,' he said.

'Scriptora!' Che said. 'Only chance.'

He bared his teeth. 'No, we'll tire them out. Flying and stinging's like all Art, it drains the strength. We'll just wear them out.' He had done this before, she realized. He was reliving some other chase, perhaps being hunted by Mercers in the Twelve-year War. He dragged them down another street, changing direction without warning, seeking out covered places where the airborne might lose sight of them.

'Thalric!' Che yelled at him. 'Osgan won't last! Look at him. The Scriptora's our only chance. It isn't far.'

He led them without answer into the courtyard of some wealthy man's residence. There were steps up to a roof garden, and Thalric took them three at a time. At the top he turned, dropped to one knee, hand flashing. Che and Osgan hurled themselves past him, into the greenery beyond.

There was little enough cover in the roof garden but, between the low parapet, the urns and the plants, there was just enough to conceal the three of them. She heard Thalric's sting crack three more times. Then he said, 'That put their heads down. They'll be working their way round. I've been a fool.'

'How?'

'In forgetting they have a Beetle-kinden with them too. That bastard Vastern, I saw him as we were running. Shaved bald as a native and keeping track of me. No wonder they found us so fast. He was right there all along.'

Che had no answer to that. Some old memory within her hands itched for a crossbow, but of course she would not have been able to shoot one even if she could somehow find one here. The locals had bows, but she had never used a bow. It was not a weapon her homeland placed any stock in. Perhaps I'll have to learn .

'The Scriptora.' Thalric did not sound happy about it. 'You're right, it's our best chance. But you'd better be able to talk the Ministers round.'

'I will,' she promised, hoping it was true.

'We're going over the wall to our left, then we fly down into the street and run for it. We're almost at the embassy now. It's only three streets from here to the Scriptora proper. Osgan, reckon you can make that?'

'Only one way to find out,' the other Wasp gasped.