Paul Collins - Swords Of Quentaris

Steel met steel, and it was Rad and Tulcia who were driven back as the more experienced thieves hacked and slashed their way forward.

A back-handed blow from one of Tulcia's opponents surprised her, and a blossom of blood appeared on her forehead like magic. She cried out. The cutpurse closed in. By pure chance she countered his vicious attack: a quick parry, a feint

to her attacker's chest, then a quick stab to the thief's shoulder.

The man gasped in pain and fell backwards.

Rad wheeled to cover Tulcia while she blinked away the blood coursing down her face.

'Pah!' Le'ard spat as his remaining colleague hesitated. 'They are but children!' he snarled and swept forward, feinting, stabbing, deflecting.

Sweat bathed his face, but he fought relentlessly.

Perhaps too much so, for in the end it was Rad who had the winning play. He ducked as Le'ard's steel thrummed overhead. He retreated before Le'ard's onslaught — blocking mostly, but eco-nomically, wasting no energy but deflecting the sweeps and strikes with minimal effort. Twice Le'ard's blade sliced his tunic, but Rad seemed not to notice. He danced back sure-footedly, back and back.

Le'ard, mistaking Rad's retreat for cowardice, extended himself, right foot forward, sword-arm outstretched. Rad easily parried the lunge and leg-swept Le'ard's leading foot.

The thief lost his balance and landed hard.

Rad's sword point quickly found his exposed throat. 'Call off your man or I'll skewer you,' Rad panted.

Le'ard's gasp of alarm drew a quick conclusion to the other duel. Tulcia slashed down savagely on her astonished opponent's sword and it clanged against the metal doors. He shrank back quickly and joined his wounded comrade.

Le'ard's whiskered lips curled savagely. Rad's sword point trembled against his gullet. A dozen rasping heartbeats passed. 'Do it, street urchin, as I would you!' he whispered hoarsely.

Rad kicked away the man's fallen sword. A distant rumble unsettled him. 'We intend to leave now, thief. What is in that room will be of no interest to you.' He smiled to himself. 'Leave now or make peace with your chosen god.'

Le'ard gingerly pulled away from Rad's sword.

Quickly he scrabbled up and retreated two arm-lengths. 'You've not heard the last of this —

mark my words!' He signed for his two fellows to follow him. He edged around Rad and entered the control room. His two ill-at-ease companions

doubted their leader's decision but nonetheless joined him.

Rad grabbed the ashen-faced Tulcia. 'Are you all right? You're a bloody mess!' he joked and urged her forward when she nodded blankly.

'Rad! What's come over you? We'll never find our way out of these catacombs if we just rush around! The floors drop and —'

Rad shook his head urgently. 'I have it up here,' he said, pointing to his head. 'It's fantastic. I know a lot of these caves like the back of my hands. Tulcia, it's as though I've absorbed more knowledge than anyone has ever had of them!'

Tulcia flinched. 'Don't talk like that, Rad. You might've been possessed.'

'Possessed with the knowledge of the rift caves, Tulcia! These caves — they're not connected.

Each has its own life! They open and close like living things.'

Sudden movement in the ground wiped the grin from Rad's face. I'll tell you all about it later. This place is like a giant holding bay of

knowledge. But Vindon set off a self-destruct mechanism — everything's going to collapse.

C'mon!'

'You are using outlandish words,' Tulcia said, her bloodied hand clenching the pommel of her sword. Are you possessed now? By the Hamil?'

Rad shook his head violently and stayed her hand. 'We have to act now, Tulcia! Or else we'll be swallowed whole.' He leapt forward and dragged her with him.

Tulcia had trouble keeping up with him. She hadn't lost much blood, but a forehead cut sluiced a steady stream. When Rad realised this, he tucked his arm under hers and half-carried her.

Luckily for the pair, what had taken them hours to enter took only minutes to escape. They ran helter-skelter through the rumbling, bucking caves and plunged straight through the rift. As they did so, it buckled and belched as though it might at any moment disintegrate.

'Watch your step here,' Rad wheezed. He skidded to a halt and stepped over the skeleton they had passed earlier. The two corresponding smudges on the opposing walls he now knew

were made from blood. These walls were booby trapped.

'Ugh!' Tulcia grunted. Fresh smears had appeared on the walls. A hapless carcass lay at her feet, its glistening blood soaking into the caked dirt. One of Le'ard's men.

Nimbly, Rad led Tulcia to the entrance. They swam through the image not a moment too soon.

Already the walls were shutting behind them—

the facade shimmering and billowing like a curtain. Somewhere not far behind a tremendous explosion ripped through the air.

'The rift!' Rad said.

From within the mountain they heard an-guished screams. Or perhaps it was the wind gushing from the fissures of the Scar. Whatever it was, they had no time to lose, nor to dwell on the foolishness of thieves.

The first stars were out beyond the gathering dusk, and Rad paused to consider the length of time they had been inside the Scar. Amazing, he thought in wonder. Tulcia had been right. There was beauty ...

'Look out!' Tulcia said.

Boulders rumbled past their heads. Moments later the lintel of the cave collapsed. The ledge tossed and heaved like a living thing. Their rope, still secure, hung like a jiggling meat hook in the ensuing maelstrom.

Together they clasped the anchor line and began scrabbling up the now shifting cliff face, as an avalanche began its rumbling descent. The mountainside shook like a waking monster; stunted bushes were swept aside as the landslide gathered momentum and the rubble rolled towards them like an unfurling carpet.

Rad frantically clawed his way up. Behind him Tulcia screamed for him to move faster. A monstrous dust cloud enveloped them even as Rad gained solid ground, then reached down and pulled Tulcia over the lip. Without a backward glance they raced along the narrow ledge.

Barely had they scampered across the escarpment when the mountain itself seemed to belch and growl. The very ground itself seemed to ripple like a shaken carpet. The avalanche roared past, pebbles and dust stinging them in its wake.

From the Scar, orange flame and smoke spat like an angry dragon's breath.

They strove to keep their balance until the land settled, a beast twitching in its death throes. Then it was silent. The Scar was no more, the only evidence of its passing a pall of eddying smoke.

The descent took longer than the ascent. Rad attended Tulcia's wound while she demanded that he explain everything. It was not until they reached the anxious soldiers that Tulcia began to fully understand everything Rad had told her.

The soldiers were massing by the darkened perimeter fence, their lit torches flaring in the wind. The soldiers had felt the ground trembling and knew what to expect. These two young adventurers, like many inexperienced youths before them, had somehow unleashed a horde of otherworldly creatures.

The sentry guards who had signed them in claimed that the pair had promised two horses as an entry fee, but these had rampaged through the gates and escaped.

'You two!' growled a surly sergeant. 'You'll pay for this!' He glared at the rock face that had once been etched by the Scar.

Rad laughed carelessly, reached into Tulcia's pouch, and threw a gem to them. The guards broke ranks with oaths and curses, and an all-in brawl followed.

Now Tulcia knew this: Rad de La'rel had never been more sure-footed in his life and an energy seemed to blaze from his every pore. She was suddenly sure that no-one would ever treat him as a street urchin again.