Threshold (26 page)

“Then we have no choice,” Isphet said, and squatted down by Boaz. She grasped his face in a rough hand.

“Magus, can you walk?”

“His name is
Boaz
,” I said softly, but my eyes were hard.

Isphet ignored me. “Well?”

“If I have help, yes,” he replied.

“Well, you’ll die if you stay here. Kiamet, help him up.” And she rose and bundled several belongings into a blanket, speaking swiftly to Kiath and Saboa.

Boaz did not make a sound as Kiamet helped him rise, but his face paled, and I grabbed him, thinking he was about to faint. Holdat fussed about us, but I told him to look after the box. “And the goblet, too, if you can manage it.”

He nodded, wrapping both goblet and box in a blanket Kiath handed him, and then Isphet was at the door.

“Ready?”

We all nodded save Boaz, he was concentrating too hard on staying upright.

“Isphet,” I said urgently as she opened the door.

“What?”

“Please, we’ve got to stay out of Threshold’s shadow as much as we can. Keep to overhangs and narrow alleys. If it sees us…”

She stared at me, but she understood. “Very well. Come on now, the alley is clear…”

Clear of people, but smoke drifted down over the rooftops, and the sounds of fighting some three or four streets distant clattered about our ears.

“Hurry!” Isphet hissed.

“What about the others?” Saboa asked. “The tenements are packed.”

“I’ve no time to save the world,” Isphet snapped. “This sorry band will take all my effort.”

But she banged on doors as we passed, shouting to occupants to get down to the river.

We stumbled along, Kiamet taking much of Boaz’s weight as he concentrated on putting one foot ahead of the other, his arm tight about my own shoulder. Please do not die, Boaz, I prayed. Please. Please.

We reached the end of our alley and Isphet waved us to a halt. “Down here, I think,” she muttered, indicating a street branching to our left.

“But,” Kiamet began.

“I
know
it’s longer,” she said, “but it’s also clearer, and frankly I prefer an extra quarter of an hour in clear streets than lying dead in crowded ones.”

I glanced worriedly at the sky, looking for the position of the sun. But smoke was thick overhead now, and all I could see was an indistinct haze.

And so we stumbled on. Isphet led us well, taking twisting, narrow alleys and passageways that I barely knew existed. Bands of other slaves passed us, some armed, hurrying to the fighting, others like us, fleeing flames and the action behind us.

I wondered what Threshold thought of all this.

“Boaz!” I whispered as a thought occurred to me. “With all the smoke drifting overhead, the sun won’t have a chance to break through!”

Boaz mumbled a reply, his face ashen and sweating, and it was Kiamet who answered.

“The wind blows from the north-east, Tirzah. Threshold will be clear.”

Isphet stopped us underneath an overhang. “Tirzah, Kiamet. Strip that blue robe from Boaz.” She looked me in the eye as I was about to protest. “We’re nearing the river. There are undoubtedly hundreds of slaves about. What they will do if they recognise Boaz I cannot say.”

Appalled that I hadn’t thought of this myself, I pulled the blue robe and sash from Boaz as Kiamet supported him, gathering them into a bundle and further loading down the long-suffering Holdat. Boaz’s white under-robe was stained with blood and dirt, but that was good in as much as it further disguised him.

“Kiamet, bear with me,” I muttered, reaching for the dagger in his belt. I cut Boaz’s queue off with two quick slashes, and threw it away, mussing his now shortened hair. Then I rubbed dirt about his face.

“Quick!” hissed Isphet, and we were off again.

There were burning buildings close to us now, and the smoke was thick and choking. Embers and sparks flew through the air, and tears streamed from my eyes.

Shouts and screams and the clash of steel echoed from around a corner, and Isphet waved us to yet another uncertain halt.

“I do not know what to do,” she said. “There is fighting ahead of –”

Abruptly half a dozen men lurched into our alley. Two were slaves, the others wore the armour and insignia of the imperial army. One wore little more than a blue wrap, rent and bloodied, and a gold band about his sword arm.

“Zabrze!” I cried. “Oh, Zabrze! Help us! Please!”

“Tirzah?” He stumbled closer, and I saw that he had sustained a number of nicks in his chest and arms. “
Shetzah!
Is that Boaz?”

“I have not had a good day, Zabrze,” Boaz muttered, barely able to raise his head to look at his brother.

“
Damn you
, Kiamet!” Zabrze snarled. “What were you doing to so allow this –”

“There was nothing any one of us could have done,” Isphet said, restraining Zabrze by the arm as if she thought he might strike Kiamet. Zabrze stared at her, then pulled his arm free.

“It was a rash action fuelled by long-held hatreds,” Isphet continued, utterly calm in the face of Zabrze’s anger, “and, surely, he should have expected something of the like. But what is happening, Zabrze? We know nothing save of the fighting and fire.”

Zabrze glared at her familiar use of his name, but knew this was not the time to fuss. “Most of the army remain loyal to Chad-Nezzar, who remains
totally
loyal to the power promised him by the Magi and the power of the One through Threshold.”

Zabrze threw a simmering glance at Boaz, but was too worried about him to comment further. “I have a few units behind me, no more. We tried an assault on Threshold, aided by Azam and Yaqob and some two thousand slaves, but it was no use. We got no further than the gates to the pyramid’s compound, and have been beaten back street by street.”

He looked at me. “It’s the river, Tirzah. Escape. There’s nothing more we can do. We’ve got to get Boaz to safety.”

“It must be close to noon, Zabrze.”

He nodded distractedly. “Yes. I’ll help you get through, but…but Neuf…”

“Oh gods, Zabrze!” I cried, “where is she?”

His face looked haggard. “Still in the compound of the Magi, I think. I’ll have to go back for her.”

“Zabrze! You can’t…it’s too late…too dangerous!”

“I can’t leave her here!” Zabrze shouted. “I
won’t
leave her here!”

A dozen other armed men joined us, Azam among them. “Great Lord. We must get to the river.”

Zabrze nodded. “Yes, yes. Take this group, and mind that you cause no further hurt to my brother. I think he is the only one who will ever be able to destroy that abomination!”

Yet more men joined us, and I felt more hope than I had for a long while. The sound of fighting still reached us, but it had drifted off into another street.

“The way is clear,” Isphet said.

“Then hurry!” Zabrze shouted. “I’ll join you as soon as I can.” And he dashed off back the way we’d come.

Without thinking I handed my share of Boaz’s weight to one of the imperial soldiers. Boaz was safer now than he had been all morning, and though it broke my heart to leave him, I owed Zabrze too much to let him run back to his death for that woman. And I wanted him alive and with us, for I knew he was going to be as important to Boaz’s ultimate survival as Isphet or anyone else.

“Isphet,” I gasped, “look after Boaz! Promise!”

She nodded. “What…?”

“I’ll be back,” I cried, and then I was off, bunching my skirts about my knees as I ran after Zabrze.

I caught him as he turned the corner into a blind alley.

“Stupid woman!” he cried. “Get back with –”

“You’ll be caught by a sword or a falling tenement if I let you wander about Gesholme by yourself! And that won’t save Neuf. Come on! This way!”

And I grabbed his royal hand and pulled him in the opposite direction.

It was a nightmare run.

Smoke lay thick about us, and I tore lengths from the bottom of my dress so Zabrze and I could wrap them
about our faces and keep some of the smoke from our lungs. There were people about the streets, but most of them were milling aimlessly, disorientated by the smoke and the heat and the thickening darkness above us.

Threshold, stretching its shadow.

“Zabrze!” I cried as I looked back to see him with the same confusion darkening his eyes. “Think of Neuf, or of Boaz. But don’t let Threshold confuse you! Resist it!”

He shook his head, then nodded. “Which way?”

“Down here.
Fast
, Zabrze!”

The gates to the compound of the Magi were unguarded and we stumbled through unhindered.

“Where was she, Zabrze? At your residence?”

I saw him nod – the smoke was not so bad here, and when I glanced north-east I saw that Threshold stood clear and sun-drenched. Soon. Soon.

The residence, as the gates, was unguarded, and I supposed that all soldiers and guards were in the streets, either protecting Threshold or fighting the rebels.

“Where?” I gasped.

Zabrze took the lead, pushing past me and leading me down a central corridor. He checked rooms as we passed, but no sign of Neuf.

We would never find her if she’d fled to somewhere else.

But she hadn’t. We eventually discovered her hiding in a pantry off the kitchen. Her eyes were wide and frightened, and her hands trembled as she clasped them before her.

“Zabrze! What’s going on! I heard rumours that you had led men against the Magi?”

“No time to talk now,” Zabrze said. “If you stay here you’ll die. We’ve got to get down to the river.”

Neuf saw me for the first time. “Girl! What are you –”

“
Shetzah, Neuf! Hurry!
” And Zabrze dragged her, stiff and resisting, into the kitchen.

“Zabrze,” Neuf said in a firmer voice. “I don’t want to go with you if you are going to lead me off on some wild insurrection. I won’t do it. I’ll stay here. I’ll be safe here. I’m not going to go with slaves…”

Zabrze cursed again, far more foully this time, and swung Neuf into his arms. She gave a wail of protest, but he ignored her. “Tirzah. Out. Go.”

I wasted no more time, thinking that it would have been no great loss if we
had
left the cursed woman to her fate.

I raced from the residence, then through the Magi’s compound and into Gesholme, Zabrze panting behind me. Put her down and make her run herself, I thought, but that would only be counterproductive, because I knew that Neuf, placed on her own two feet, would refuse to take any step that might bring her closer to the river.

The streets were calm now. Even the smoke was drifting away, although I could still hear flames crackling somewhere.

I stopped, worried. “Zabrze…”

“Tirzah,” he panted, stopping briefly beside me. “It’s close to noon, and I want to be as far from Threshold as possible. Come on, girl, I want to
live.
”

And so we fled.

No-one hindered us, although we passed through a number of units of imperial soldiers who were, I think, still allied with Chad-Nezzar and Threshold. But they were staring behind us – towards Threshold.

“Don’t look, Tirzah,” Zabrze said, covering a protesting Neuf’s eyes with one hand. “Don’t look!”

I had no intention of looking, and led us into a series of narrow, dark alleyways that would get us to the river out of the sight of whatever was happening behind us.

Just as we were covering the last hundred paces or so, Threshold awoke.

There was a blinding flash of light that sent Zabrze and myself crashing to the dirt. The sun must have reached its
peak, pouring its strength through the capstone into the Infinity Chamber and charging Threshold with power. I can imagine what happened – the entire pyramid would have burst –
exploded!
– into light. Anyone looking at it must surely have been temporarily blinded.

The bridge to the Vale was complete.

And something crossed over.

The stillness that hung over the site was now so dense I could feel it pressing against me, trying to keep me to the ground. Zabrze still held Neuf tight in his arms – she was unprotesting now – and he and I fought through the oppression, crawling close to the northern wall of the alleyway, praying that whatever Threshold now was it would not see us.

Behold, creatures, and see your god!

I wailed, and went rigid with horror. The voice had penetrated every structure of the site – yet without sound.

“Tirzah!” Zabrze whispered. “Please, we’re so close!’

I got to my hands and knees and crawled a few more steps.

Behold, creatures, and tremble at the sound of your god!

And Threshold shrieked and roared.

I gagged, dry retching, and I heard Zabrze crying a few steps ahead of me. Neuf had fainted, and she was now a dead weight in his arms. I scrambled over to him, and he freed one arm from Neuf and wrapped it about me, and we lay there as the dreadful sound roared about and through us.

Behold creatures, and know your god! Know that I am the One, and know that I call myself Nzame!

“Nzame?” Zabrze whispered. “Couldn’t it think of anything better?”

I would have laughed, except I was crying too hard. Zabrze’s words had broken the spell about us, and we somehow rose to our feet, Neuf now moaning quietly in
her husband’s arms, and stumbled down the alleyway towards the Lhyl. Behind us Threshold continued to speak.

Behold my power, and subject yourself unto it!

To my right I caught glimpses of the main avenue, and saw scores – hundreds – of people crawling towards Threshold.

Come, humble yourself before me and power unimaginable shall be yours for the asking.

“Nzame! Nzame!” Thousands took up the shout.

And then I stopped, unbelieving. Chad-Nezzar was running down the avenue towards Threshold, screeching and screaming.

“Nzame! I am yours! Take me!”

He was tearing off great chunks of jewellery and metal bands and chains as he ran, casting them to each side. “Nzame! Nzame!”

As he tore the chains and jewels from his body, little gobbets of flesh flew off as well, but in his ecstasy Chad-Nezzar ignored them. “Nzame! Nzame! I am yours! Yours!”