The Source by Brian Lumley

This time Jazz accepted all she told him; he had to start somewhere, and it seemed the best way to go. ‘Listen,’ he said. ‘Even though I like to think I’m fairly quick on the uptake, still there’s a lot you’ll need to explain about what you’ve already told me. But before that there’s one thing I’d better know right now: do I need to guard my thoughts?’

‘Here in the sunlight? No. On Starside, yes – all the time – but with a bit of luck we’ll never see Starside again.’

‘OK,’ Jazz nodded. ‘Now let’s get to more immediate things. Where’s this cave you told me about? I really think we should rest-up. And at the same time I can do a better job on your feet. Also, you look like you could use a more substantial meal.’

She smiled at him, the first time she’d done it. Jazz wished he could see her in good old down-to-earth daylight. ‘I’ll tell you something,’ she said. ‘I long ago learned not to listen in on people’s thoughts – they can be nice, I’ll grant you, but when they’re not nice they can be very unpleasant indeed. We sometimes think things we could never express in words. Me, too. Among espers it was a general rule that we observe each other’s privacy. But I’ve been lonely a long time – for a mind I could relate to, I mean. A mind from my own world. So while I’ve been hearing you talking, well, I’ve been hearing other things, too. When I’ve grown used to you, then I’ll make an effort not to intrude. I’m trying even now, but … I can’t help scanning you.’

Jazz frowned. ‘So what was I thinking?’ he said. ‘I mean, I only said we should rest-up.’

‘But you meant I should rest-up. Me, Zek Foener. That’s nice of you, and if I really needed it I’d accept. But you’ve come quite a long way yourself. And anyway, I’d prefer to keep moving until we’re right out of the pass. Another four miles or so and we’re out of it. But as you can see, the sun is just about to touch the eastern wall.

It’s a slow process, but in something less than an hour and a half the pass will be in darkness again. On Sunside it’s still sunup for, oh, twenty-five hours yet, and the evening is just as long. After that . . . then we’ll be holed up somewhere.’ She shivered.

Jazz knew nothing about ESP, but he did read people very well. ‘You’re a hell of a brave woman,’ he said; and then he wondered why, for passing compliments was something he wasn’t good at and didn’t usually do. But he knew he’d meant it. So did she, but she didn’t agree with him.

‘No, I’m not,’ she said seriously. ‘I think I maybe used to be, but now I’m a dreadful coward. You’ll find out why soon enough.’

‘Before then,’ Jazz said, ‘you’d better fill me in on more immediate hazards – assuming they are immediate. You said something about the Sunsiders – Travellers? – being after you? And something about the Wamphyri being desperate to get hold of you? Now what’s all that about?’

‘Sunsiders.” she gasped, but not in answer. She stiffened to a halt, glanced wildly all about, especially in the shadows cast by the eastern cliffs. Her hand went to her brow, stroked it with trembling fingers. Wolf’s hackles rose; he laid back his ears and offered a low, throaty growl.

Jazz took his SMG off safe. It was already cocked. He checked that the magazine was firmly seated in its housing. ‘Zek?’ he husked.

‘Arlek.’ she whispered. And: ‘That’s what comes of holding back on my telepathy, for your sake! Jazz, I -‘

But she had no time for anything else, for by then they were in the thick of it!

11

Castles – Travellers – The Projekt

Something more than an hour earlier:

Keeping alert for bats, Karl Vyotsky rode his motorcycle across the boulder-strewn plain toward the towering, fantastically carved stacks standing like weird sentinels in the east. It had been his first instinct to make for the pass and the thin sliver of sun he’d seen on the horizon in the high wide ‘V of the canyon. But half-way to the mouth of the pass the sun had gone down, leaving only its rays to form a fan of pink spokes on the southern sky.

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