The end of the dogwood pole had ravelled to a tangle of fibers. They were a ball of orange flame through which Perennius leaped. His optic nerves were patterned with the white lacework of blazing iron.
Within, the ground curved away in a slope. The cavity was large and spherical and as unnatural as the bilious light which pervaded it. Packed about the interior of the chamber were translucent globules the size of clenched fists. The globules were held against the rock by swathes and tendrils of material with the same neutral consistency as that of the door itself. A narrow aisle crossed the chamber, dipping and rising with the curve to an opening in the far wall. Beyond was a glimpse of another cavity, a bead on a string and certainly not the last.
Perennius cleared the threshold in the air. He missed his expected landing because of the concavity of the floor. Globules smashed between the stone and his own solid mass of flesh and iron. Ten feet from the skidding agent, the Guardian pointed its weapon and screamed. The sound was a chitinous burring with the bone-wrenching amplitude of a saw cutting stone. The creature’s weapon did
not fire. The alien stood frozen as its fellow had done on the balcony in Rome. This time there was no bravo to stun Calvus and release the energy the woman’s mind blocked in the weapon.
Perennius rolled to his feet. Frosty gelatine from the eggs he had crushed slurped away from his left leg and forearm. The agent had poised his dagger to throw despite the poor visibility and his constricted limbs. There was no need for him to take that risk. Two sliding steps brought him to the alien. It did not move, save that the band of cilia beneath its head quivered with its rasping scream. Perennius brought down his armored fist as if he were driving a nail with the pommel of the dagger he held. The conical head shattered. The Guardian’s long waist tentacles spasmed. The energy weapon flickered out of the creature’s grasp. It clattered into the layer of eggs and stuck there. The creature’s braced legs did not give way, and the throat cilia continued to vibrate.
Perennius struck again. His fist was slippery and he lost the dagger at the shock. The agent could no longer see for sweat and the emotions raised by the chitinous scream. Both of his arms began to flail down into the stumpy creature. Bits of exoskeleton prodded back at the iron as the pulpy material within spattered the chamber. Perennius did not know when the screaming stopped. His next awareness was the touch of Calvus’ hand on his shoulder and the way the whole world focused down to a point as his muscles gave way.
CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR
The air in the chamber felt cool beyond the fact that Perennius breathed it without the mask’s constriction. Reaction from his berserk rage could only have left him unconscious for seconds. The tall woman had already stripped Perennius of his helmet, gauntlets, and greaves.
“You have to get out of here quickly,” Calvus said. She rolled the agent over on his belly unceremoniously to get at the catches closing his mail shirt. “I’m taking your armor off because it will save time over all.”
“What do you mean?” the agent demanded of the floor of the aisle. He did not twist against the woman’s manipulations. He accepted her good faith; and in any case, Perennius could not have resisted her if she were as serious as she appeared to be. “We’re not done till we smash all the – ” Calvus flopped him over again and began drawing both sleeves over his arms simultaneously – “eggs, are we?” Perennius gestured with the right hand that was cleared in that instant.
“Aulus,” the woman said, “please run. I won’t be able to give you light, and I want to be sure you get clear.” The chamber was distinctly colder, though the frosty glow with which it had been suffused was being supplanted by a warmer hue.
“Lucia, what’s going on?” Perennius pleaded. He stood up. Reflexively he wiped at ichor that had splashed his left wrist, but he did not move toward the doorway.