Quintessence Sky by David Walton Page A

in their language. "Will you take me to her?"
    "You can't stop them," the manticore said.
"Rinchirith's followers are many."
    "Take me anyway."
    "No, Matthew," his father said. "You can't do
her any good. Stay here and wait."
    "And do what?"
    "Pray for her safety."
    `"I don't want to pray. I want to save her
life."
    "If God wishes her life to be saved, it will
be saved. If not, then it will not, except if by humble
supplication you obtain his mercy."
    "Good idea," Matthew said. "You try that
route. In the meantime, I'll go rescue her. We'll see which works
better." Without waiting for an answer, he stepped through the
barrier and addressed the manticores. "I'm ready. Take me to
her."
    "At least bring a pack," Parris said. "It's a
two day journey to the mountains; you'll need food and
supplies."
    Blanca, however, had anticipated the need.
She appeared with two packs from the storehouse, her quintessence
powers making it easy for her to carry both. She stepped across the
barrier after Matthew. "Don't tell me I'm not coming with you," she
said. "Catherine's my friend, too."
    Matthew nodded, then faced the manticores.
"Let's go."
    The manticores, however, did not move. "We
will not take humans to the Gorge."
    "What do you mean?" Matthew said. "Catherine
is there already."
    "She is the accused."
    "And I'm her fiancé. I want to speak for
her."
    "We will not take you."
    Matthew hurled his pack to the ground. "You
don't trust us with your sacred spot? Is that it? You think we'll
spit on it or take it for ourselves?" He knew their concerns were
probably warranted. After all, several of the manticores' sacred
places had been destroyed since the humans arrived—though
not intentionally—and many villages as well. But he wasn't going to
sit by and let everyone tell him there was nothing he could do.
"This is nonsense," he said. "You're going to kill Catherine, you
savage bastards, now tell me where she is."
    "Matthew!" his father said, a shocked rebuke.
He started to gesture an apology.
    The three manticores hissed and took fighting
stances, bodies low to the ground with pincers extended, their many
tails fanned up and over their heads. Blanca jumped back behind the
safety of the barrier, but Matthew was too angry to heed the
warning.
    Parris dashed through the barrier and tackled
him. He dragged him to the ground just inside the barrier and made
his own body heavier to pin him down. Matthew thrashed, but
couldn't lift himself free.
    "Let me go!"
    "You're no good to her if you get yourself
killed."
    "I'm no good to her if I can't find her,
either."
    The red manticores disappeared into the
trees. When Matthew stopped struggling, Parris stood and helped him
up. "We'll find her. But antagonizing the only manticores who don't
already want to kill us won't accomplish that. We need a plan."
     
     

CHAPTER 7
     
    BACK in the cellar room, Ramos set to work.
Barrosa wasn't there to tell him what had been tried before, but he
didn't want to know anyway. At least for now, he wanted to discover
and see for himself.
    He took careful stock of the room, examining
each cage, each shelf, each golden artifact. The room was a
disorganized clutter, something that would have to change, but for
now, he just left things where they were. He didn't know enough to
organize sensibly.
    He found a lot more gold carvings than he'd
spotted the day before: not only the flowers and leaves and mouse,
but a host of other ordinary objects carved in gold: a book, a
trencher, a pair of spectacles, a shoe. He was starting to suspect
that these things had not been carved after all. Only a few people
in the world could carve with such incredible perfection, and what
would be the purpose? That implied that these objects had once been
ordinary, but had been transformed into gold.
    Then he found a golden inkpot engraved with
the initials J.B. Juan Barrosa. The find gave him a little shiver
of excitement. If these objects had been transformed, then it
hadn't been done on the