World of Mazes

CHAPTER FIFTEEN

Sharpened steel cut off a lock of her black hair. Inyx dodged the mechanical' s next slash, lunged. Her knife failed to penetrate the mech' s vitals. She and the robotic creature grappled and fell to the floor.

" Die, human," grated the creature as it struggled to roll on top of her. The woman fought desperately now. She' d been surprised by its sudden appearance, seemingly out of thin air. The mechanical outweighed her by a three- to- one margin. Once she lost advantage, she' d be dead. Her fingers groped, and she discovered a wire running up the mech' s back that sent an electric tingle up her arm. Grip tightening, she savagely yanked. The wire came free and the mechanical sagged, lifeless.

Fredek Fynn came running up, metal bar in his hand. He saw that Inyx had triumphed.

" Amazing," he said, admiration in his voice. " Few men ever best one of them in single combat. But where' d it come from? It just appeared in the middle of the nest."

" I got lucky stopping it." From his awestruck look she knew that wasn' t a good- enough explanation. " Here, look," she told him. " It' s not all that mysterious. This wire is similar to our arteries. I dislodged it and the mech simply: died."

Fredek examined the ragged end of the copper strand. He hesitantly touched it to the junction where it had been attached. The mechanical jerked spastically but did not come back to life.

" You' ve killed it," he said finally. " I' ll tell the others about this. It might give us a better chance."

" Any report from the scouts?" she asked.

" None. Knoton doesn' t maintain a base. He moves constantly through the maze."

" He knows it better than we do, that' s for certain. This attack proves it. Still, he needs somewhere to repair his troops. I can' t believe he doesn' t have some fixed point for a base." Inyx had become the leader of the nest more by default than anything she' d actually done so far. She had carefully mapped out all entrances to the large room and had the more sane of her followers guard them. And still the mech leader had infiltrated at least one- the deactivated one at her feet- through their lines. Knoton had either discovered a hidden passage or burrowed through lines, silently killing more than a dozen human and near- human hybrid guards.

" He might not have the need for rest that we do," said the man. " To constantly explore increases his chances for survival."

" He has a base," she said firmly. " And find out how this one got into the nest. That worries me. Our security is worthless unless we discover his route in."

The man began probing the walls nearby while Inyx searched the fallen mech for any bit of information it might yield. She found nothing, but Fredek did.

" The illusions we encounter from time to time aren' t as vivid for the mechs," said Fredek. " See this wall?" He placed his hands flat against blank expanse.

" So?"

" Watch." Fredek' s hands vanished to the wrists, to the elbows. Curious, Inyx came to examine the section. Her questing hand vanished, too. While it appeared substantial enough, the wall wasn' t actually there at all.

" Illusion," she said glumly.

" I' ve heard it said that the Twistings know if you are a sorcerer. If so, the illusions are more real, more numerous. Others, like me, see very few, and those are only basic images. Walls." Fredek Fynn' s hand disappeared all the way to his wrist again.

" Does the Lord look into the Twistings?" she asked. " Perhaps that is the real source for the illusions."

Fredek shrugged.

" He," Inyx went on, " can meddle to his heart' s content with those able to appreciate his illusions. The others he couldn' t care less about. But this wall mirage is more basic than seeing monsters. It' s been here since I entered the nest."

" No one has found it before."

" How can you tell?" she asked bitterly, looking around the nest. The human and hybrid food- gathering party had returned and were again engaging in their own personal madnesses. Some sang to themselves, others argued with thin air, and still others descended into catatonia. It wasn' t a prepossessing army she led.

Fredek' s hand rested lightly on her shoulder.

" If anyone can escape the Twistings, you are the one. There' s something about you, Inyx, that won' t let you stop. No matter what the Lord does, you' ll escape.”

" It' s not the Lord I' m worried about at the moment. It' s Knoton. The mechs have a much more organized band. Why haven' t they killed all the humans by now?"

" We' re tougher than we look. You might say some of us fight with insane fury."

" Where' s the scouting party now? I' d like to know if they' ve located Knoton. This attack inside the nest means he' s become bolder and may be ready to launch a big attack against us."

" Let' s do some exploring on our own," said Fredek. He glanced at the spot in the wall where illusion plastered over the corridor.

" Just the two of us? That' s risky." She wanted more than just Fredek to back her up before following this path. Knoton had known of it; an ambush might lay ahead. But Inyx was a realist. There weren' t any humans or hybrids left in the nest she' d trust. Her ablest troops were scouting for the exit from the Twistings, for Knoton, for anything that might aid them. Inyx heaved a sigh and picked up her knife. " All right. Let' s explore."

She closed her eyes and stepped forward. If she' d watched, there wasn' t any way she could have walked so boldly through what appeared to be solid wall. As it was, she felt a light tingle on her face and then only cool air. She walked forward, knife point leading the way. The darkness enveloped her and forced the woman to rely on other senses she' d sharpened since entering the Twistings.

Inyx heard Fredek behind. To either side came the soft susurration of air caressing solid. Ahead- nothing. She advanced with a step, test, full- weight stride. While skirmishing with Knoton, she' d seen several of the mech' s bodyguards vanish through the floor. The trap led downward. She' d tried to find the spot again after the fight but had failed. Either it had vanished or she' d gotten turned around in the maze and had not found the proper spot again.

In the Twistings, either was possible.

A rectangle of dim light showed ahead. She slowed her snail' s pace even more and held out her arm to stop Fredek. Inyx spoke to him in a low voice.

" Back me up. I' m going to look. If anything happens, run for the nest and don' t try to rescue me."

" Knoton' s ahead, isn' t he?"

" I can feel him," she said.

Inyx advanced, eyes fixed on the light. When she was twenty yards away from the doorway, she dropped to her belly and began crawling. She' d learned that the mechs' vision often failed to pick up slowmoving objects at floor level. Inyx vowed to be very slow- moving.

Rusty clanking noises greeted her. The voices of arguing mechanicals soon drowned out that sound. When she peeked around the door frame, she saw what she' d suspected existed and what no human had found. Knoton did have a base. He fostered the myth of constantly being on the move to give added protection. Dozens of mechs were in various stages of disassembly. This corresponded to a mechanical hospital where technicians worked to restore limbs and sight and mobility.

" Kill them. Kill them all!" raged Knoton.

Inyx sought out a pile of discarded metal parts and hid behind it. She then watched, unobserved.

" I counsel caution. This new human, this Inyx. We can deal with her."

" You' re wrong, Kolommo. She is like the rest. The Lord is human; he casts us into this foul, deadly place. She is human. We can kill her in revenge."

" You," accused Kolommo, " seek only revenge. Knoton, she is right when she says we are all exiles together now with the same common enemy. If we worked as a single unit-"

" No!"

Knoton' s vehemence made Inyx cringe. This Kolommo appeared to be the second in command. Ideas formed in Inyx' s brain. Remove Knoton and deal with a more rational mechanical. It could be done. It had to be done, if any of them were to escape the Twistings.

She duck- walked: back to the darkened corridor. On silent feet she rejoined Fredek. Motioning him back toward the nest, she hiked in silence until they emerged again in familiar territory.

" They have a base, don' t they?" he demanded.

" They do. And I see a way to carry this fight to them. Whatever happens, we' ve got to take out Knoton. From then on- it might be easier for all of us."

Inyx went to plot strategy.

" The scouts are back," shouted Fredek. Inyx saw a small bandfewer in number than when it had left- tiredly walking down the main corridor leading into the nest. She rose and went to stand beside Fredek.

" What did you find?" she demanded of the party leader.

The smile greeting her made her wince. Three teeth had been knocked out recently, leaving bloody spaces in his mouth. But the smile was one of triumph.

" A room, some distance away, guarded by every maze creature we' ve ever seen and a few that are new to us."

" A guarded room? In the Twistings?" That by itself was curious. The entire maze was one giant locked room.

" We couldn' t make much headway, but we did find the spot where the blue creatures are spawned."

He gestured to a woman lugging a large pack. Inside were dozens of small yellow fruits.

" They' re cannibals," he explained with some distaste. " These are their eggs- or whatever you' d call them. Eventually they hatch into blue globs."

" And that' s what they live on- that' s what we live on," Inyx said.

" We learned how to decoy them, too. That' s how we got these. We found a group of the cappers and chased them into the spawning area. That made the blue monsters spittin' angry. They came rushing out, jaws snappin' shut and chompin' down on anything and everything in sight." He stood, proud of his accomplishment. For all the years people had been exiled to the Twistings, this was the first real systematic exploration that had been done.

Inyx felt a curious combination of elation and emotional depression. The scouting party had found the single room in the Twistings that the Lord guarded with maze creatures and more. Further, she saw how to defeat Knoton and his mechanicals. But it would be bloody. Many would die, both human and mechanical, and in between.

" Can you get the monsters attacking down this corridor?" she asked, sketching out the location she meant. The quick nod convinced her the time had come.

One way or the other, the civil war in the Twistings would be over soon.

" Quiet," Inyx hissed. " They' ll hear us." She sent the word back along the line of eager, kill- crazed humans slowly wending their way down the darkened corridor Fredek had discovered. Ahead gleamed the rectangle leading into Knoton' s base camp and repair area. The coming battle would decide all.

" When do we fight?" demanded one of her less stable men. " I want to kill, kill, kill!"

" Soon," she soothed. " When we hear the blue globs attack them. Then we follow in." She wanted the maze creatures to do as much of the fighting as possible. Let Knoton fight them off; then, when the mech leader least expected it, she would attack.

Her ragtag band grew increasingly restive. They weren' t used to discipline. When Inyx heard loud chomping sounds, she knew that they didn' t have to wait any longer. Fredek and the scouts had decoyed the blue monsters into Knoton' s camp. Now came the real fight.

" Forward!" she cried. The humans surged behind her, waving clubs made from mech legs and human thigh bones, makeshift knives, anything that swung or cut. They burst into Knoton' s camp and found the metallic beings in disarray. The blue monsters had rampaged through, causing great destruction. Inyx hated to admit it, even to herself, but this carnage sickened her. These weren' t flesh- and- blood creatures; they were the product of some mage or technician.

But they lived. They thought. They experienced life. Not as she knew it, but they sensed they were alive.

" There' s the she- demon," shouted Knoton. " Kill her!"

Inyx advanced to lunge with her sword, the point severing the vital wire in one mech' s back panel. She fought through toward Knoton, to see if she couldn' t end this battle by eliminating the opposition leader, when she noticed that some of the mechs falling to her sword evaporated when they touched ground.

" Illusion!" she shouted to Fredek Fynn, just entering by way of the main corridor. " Not all' s real."

While she didn' t know for certain, Inyx guessed that the Lord of the Twistings had learned of what transpired in his grand maze. He personally controlled the illusions she now fought as hard as any real opponent. She pictured the Lord sitting in a chair, a smug expression on his face. He revelled in their misfortune. He sent wave after wave of illusion to torment and hurt and confuse. She remembered him clowning about. She remembered all too well the pain and humiliation she' d felt when placed in his tiny maze.

Inyx vowed then and there to kill him with her bare hands.

She fought like a dozen warriors.

Snakes coiled about her feet. She ignored them. Single- eyed giants attacked. She dodged out of their way. But the pain, the paralysis, the gut- wrenching sense of disorientation, those she couldn' t simply deny. Inyx fought all the harder. The more pain he sent her, the more she hated the Lord of the Twistings.

In a way, that series of illusions and agonies gave her strength to continue.

" Call it off, Knoton," begged another mech. Inyx recognized the broad metal back as belonging to Kolommo. Knoton shoved the other out of the way.

" Stop!" cried Inyx, motioning wildly to Fredek. It was too late. Fredek Fynn swung a metal bar with ferocious strength. Kolommo' s head exploded as if a death spell had focused on it. Inyx saw her only chance for peaceful alliance shattered into a million fragments.

" Murderer!" raged Knoton.

Inyx stumbled forward to stop the mechanical' s attack on Fredek. A transparent barrier stopped her.

" No, Lord, don' t do this. Let me through!" She pounded furiously on the clear wall to no avail. Inyx sagged, felt crushing despair, shook it off, and then turned and bolted for the corridor through which the humans had attacked. Down the darkened course she ran, into the now deserted nest, out and down another corridor. The last of the blue gobbling monsters waddled along, retreating from the fury of the mechanical counterattack.

She slashed at one before it sank deadly teeth into her body. Again, Inyx cut. The creature died. She forced her way over its blue bulk and into the hall beyond. The woman felt time slipping away. She sprinted, found the proper path and soon enough followed Fredek' s route into Knoton' s base.

Inyx saw the mechanical leader decapitate Fredek Fynn just as she entered.

Her body went numb. Her mind slipped out of synchronization with her actions. Inyx stumbled forward, her sword dangling from her shockdeadened fingers.

" You, human. You' re next," Knoton said savagely. The mechanical charged, iron bar swinging with effortless ease above his head.

Inyx didn' t quite snap out of her shock by the time Knoton came within attacking range. But the Lord didn' t want his private showing to end too soon. The iron bar crashed into an invisible wall, reverberated, and bounced free of Knoton' s hands. The mech stared in disbelief, then attacked with his bare hands.

The time between first and second assaults measured only seconds, but Inyx recovered enough to feel cold rage welling inside her. Fredek Fynn had been murdered by this monster. She could avenge the deaththe real death. A mechanism didn' t die. It simply stopped functioning. The woman could stop Knoton' s functioning.

Her sword cut ended abruptly against Knoton' s neck. The blade shattered like crystal on impact, but it drove the mech to his knees. Inyx followed up instantly, kicking, trying to smash the glass eyes and blind her opponent.

" It' s not that easy, human," growled Knoton.

The words turned Inyx into a fighting machine. She hadn' t asked to be placed in the Twistings. This metal monster had killed the only friend she' d found. And for what reason? Irrational hatred of flesh and blood. That was what drove Knoton.

All around them flowed unreality. Humans fought with mechs. Mechs and hybrids battled. And intermixed with all were the Lord of the Twistings' illusions. But to the dark- haired woman, only one thing mattered: Knoton.

Her fingers locked on cold metal flanges in deadly combat.

" Die!" he grunted, metal arms circling her body. Inyx allowed it, keeping her arms free of the grip. She had disabled one mech by loosening a wire in the back. Knoton would die, too.

She gasped as he tightened his grip around her body. The air gusted from her lungs. He tightened more, preventing her from sucking in new oxygen. Her fingers groped blindly, seeking out the vital conductor in the back. Just as the world spun and turned to blackness, she jerked free the wire.

Knoton roared and thrashed around- but he didn' t collapse.

" Human," he said, backing away from her. " My body is different. That slows me, but it does not stop me." Inyx studied the way the mech moved. Ripping free the wire she' d found had done more than slow Knoton. His left leg dragged perceptibly.

She gasped until her lungs had enough air, then looked around for a weapon. She' d learned her lesson; Knoton was far too strong for her. Nothing useful lay about.

Her eyes widened when she glanced over Knoton' s shoulder. A wraith glided forward, tiny hands reaching out. Inyx didn' t know if it was illusion or reality. One way meant advantage for her; the other meant lost concentration.

The wraith glided: through: Knoton. The mech took no notice. The Lord sent her illusion. However she responded, Inyx had betrayed herself to Knoton. He launched an attack, low and at her legs. He lifted her up and dropped her heavily to the floor. She looked up and saw metallic death descending toward her head.

Inyx jerked hard to the mech' s left side. What little damage she' d caused saved her. Knoton tried to follow her motion, failed. The woman evaded his clumsy lunge and again faced him, this time with her sword again in hand.

Or was it?

Inyx tightened her grip. The pommel felt substantial, but she hadn' t picked up the sword. It was illusion, but one Knoton saw.

" Knoton, let' s talk. I know that Kolommo wanted a truce. We can come to an agreement."

" After you' ve destroyed my friend?"

" You killed mine, also." She didn' t make the novice' s mistake of looking toward the dead Fredek Fynn. Such an opening for Knoton would spell her death.

Knoton slowed, stopped. He took in all the sounds of battle. The illusion mixed with reality cost lives.

" We have a mutual enemy," she said. " The man who put us both into the Twistings. Let' s fight the Lord, not each other."

" You fight well- for a human."

" You show compassion- for a mech."

They stood facing each other. Slowly the tension went out of the air. They abandoned their fighting stances.

" The only victor in this will be the Lord," said Knoton. " How do we end it?"

" We stop fighting. We join forces."

" No!"

" Then we just stop fighting."

Knoton and Inyx backed away from each other and slowly regained control of their forces. Knoton had the easier time of it, but Inyx soon persuaded her side to desist. The engagement broke off gradually, and each side assembled at a different part of the room. Bodies, both bone and metal, littered the floor. All over, illusion ended and a myriad corpses vanished into nothingness.

" Back to the nest," ordered Inyx.

Knoton stared at her from across the room. The civil war in the Twistings had ended- for the moment.