The Nine

by Molles, DJ

  “Satisfied?” Mala asked.

  Perry nodded. “Yes.”

  “Then let’s go. Rixo, lead the way. I’ll follow with the half-breed.”

  “And you can call me Perry from now on,” Perry growled at her back as she shuffled Lux out the door, following Rixo and Callidus.

  Mala didn’t respond to that, as though such requests were beneath her.

  Perry slowed his pace, seeming to give her space to move through the tight corridors. He hung back a few strides, until all the paladins had gone ahead of him, and it was just Mala striding along with Lux, his robe gripped in her left hand.

  Perry shifted his hand so that he held the longstaff close to the blade with his right. He waited until Mala’s attention was forward, and then he lunged. He seized Lux’s belt at the base of his spine and yanked him backwards.

  Lux had at least two feet of height on Perry and probably outweighed him by a hundred and fifty pounds. But Perry was fast, and he took the bigger being by surprise, pulling him off balance. His robe ripped out of Mala’s grip, and Perry backpedaled another two paces, positioning his energized blade inches from Lux’s back.

  “Don’t fucking move or I’ll cut your spine out,” Perry growled.

  Mala spun, bringing her longstaff up, the muzzle shimmering green, but not firing. “What the hell are you doing?” she shouted, bringing the other paladins whirling around to face the commotion.

  “I’m going to get my friends,” Perry answered. “And I need Inquisitor Lux to release them.”

  Mala took a step forward, and Perry was very aware of the fact that her muzzle was directed right at his face. “You’re making it very difficult to trust you, halfbreed.”

  “Perry,” he corrected. “And now you know how I feel.”

  “Any minute now, and this place is going to be swarming with paladins that don’t want to see you freed.” Mala inched forward. “You might think yourself very clever, but remember how quickly I dealt with you, and then imagine how well you’ll fair against twenty paladins like me.”

  Perry smiled raggedly, continuing to back up. “First of all, you’re selling yourself short. You implied that you were better than most. Second of all, if time is running out, then maybe we should hurry up and free my friends.”

  “Oh just kill him,” Rixo yelled from down the hall. “He can’t possibly be worth this much trouble.”

  Mala didn’t kill him. Instead, she lowered her longstaff. “Rixo, take the others and secure our exit. Have your men get the skiffs and bring them straight in.”

  Rixo grumbled something, but turned and started down the hall with his paladins at a run.

  Mala stalked towards Perry and Lux. “Find them. Quickly.”

  Perry didn’t like turning his back on Mala—they’d kind of created a relationship of backstabbing at this point—but there was nothing to be done for it. Wasting any more time wouldn’t only put Mala’s operation in danger: If a battle ensued on the steps of the House of Inquisitions, Perry knew that he and his friends weren’t getting out of it alive.

  So he turned, and propelled Lux forward, feeling Mala’s presence at his back like a bomb that might go off at any moment, but knowing that he had to keep pressing on.

  “This door ahead,” Lux indicated one to the right.

  As Perry moved the Inquisitor towards the door, his mind began to think more than one step ahead. If Mala thought that he was going to give up on his mission to get the East Ruins, then she was deluding herself. But Perry had no idea how he was going to make that happen.

  And what was in the East Ruins anyways? Lies on top of lies. Perry didn’t know what to think now. But there was something there. Something that the demigods were terrified of. And something that terrified the demigods was something that Perry wanted to learn about, and perhaps use. Assuming it was something he could use.

  One step at a time. Get free of this place, then get free of Mala.

  Lux opened the door and Perry pushed him through into a room that was identical to the cell he’d just escaped from, save for the large Surgeon that took up half the floor space. On top of the medical contraption-turned torture device, Teran goggled at them, first looking at Lux with a flavor of terror and fury in her eyes, and then at Perry, with shock.

  “Perry?” she croaked, her voice harsh and dry.

  “I’m here,” Perry answered, pushing Lux towards the machine. “Get her out of those straps.”

  Lux brushed them away like they were nothing, and Teran came free of the machine with all the vigor of a newly-born calf, and about as much grace. The second she got to her feet, they went out from under her. She caught herself on one of the Surgeon’s articulating arms and clung to it until Perry pulled her up, steadying her.

  “Are we getting out of here?” Teran asked. Her eyes shot to Mala and then again to Lux. “And why are they helping?”

  “This is Mala,” Perry introduced rapidly. “She’s helping because she’s crazy. You already know Lux. He’s helping because I’ll kill him if he doesn’t. How well can you move?”

  “Clearly not well,” Teran said. “But I’ll figure it out. Just…let me hang onto you until I can feel my feet again.”

  Mala took control of Lux and shoved him out the door.

  Out in the hall, Mala barked rapid orders and Lux obeyed them without making a sound. The next door down on the left side of the hall uncovered Sagum, who seemed to have faired the best. His wound to the stomach must have already been fixed by a Surgeon, but he had not yet been tortured. They found him curled up in the corner, with his back to the door.

  “Go away!” he growled. “I’m not telling you shit!”

  “Sagum,” Teran raised her voice. “Get off your ass, you idiot! We’re getting out of here!”

  Sagum erupted from the floor at the sound of Teran’s voice. He wasn’t even in restraints. He rushed to Teran’s side, taking some of the weight off of Perry. His eyes flew across her limp legs, and then to the slash across her jaw-line, which had been cauterized, but still looked red and angry. “Gods! What did they do to you?”

  “What did they do to me?” Teran balked. “What didn’t they do to you?”

  “Besides patching up my gut wound, they didn’t do anything to me.”

  “Exactly!”

  “Well, don’t be mad at me for that!”

  Perry towed the two of them out of the door, then let Sagum take Teran’s full weight so he could man the longstaff with both hands. Teran’s boots made scuffing noises as she pedaled them along, but mostly she was being dragged.

  In the next cell, Perry burst through behind Lux and found Stuber, attached to the Surgeon. He didn’t move.

  Perry pushed to his side, eyes scouring across the man’s naked chest where clear incision marks had been made and then cauterized closed again. “Is he alive?”

  “Of course he’s alive,” Lux answered, as though offended by the idea. “He’s just unconscious.” Without being ordered to this time, Lux undid the straps and then stood back, looking at Perry with an expression as if to say, Let’s see how you fair carrying your bigger friend.

  Perry glared up at the paladin. “You carry him.”

  Lux’s eyes went wide. “That is a large man.”

  “You’re fucking seven feet tall,” Perry cried, shaking his longstaff at Lux. “Pick him up and carry him!”

  “Do what he says,” Mala urged, not in the mood for another delay.

  Lux muttered under his breath and grabbed Stuber’s arms. He pulled the big ex-legionnaire up into a sitting position and then hoisted him onto his back with only a minor flushing of the face and a vein that bulged in his forehead.

  “Alright,” Mala said. “We have your three friends. Can we go now?”

  “What about Whimsby?” Perry demanded.

  Mala’s jaw dropped. “The mech? He’s a machine! He means nothing to you!”

  Perry shook his head. “I’m not fucking leaving him here. He’s one of my friends, too.” />
  “You…” Mala snapped her jaw shut. Then whirled on Lux. “Where’s the mech?”

  Lux grunted under the weight of Stuber’s limp body. “You’re never going to make it out of here alive. But it means nothing to me. This way.”

  Despite his reddening face and the glow of perspiration popping on his forehead, Lux handled Stuber’s body fairly well, and led them out into the hall, bypassing the next two cells.

  “You better not be dragging your feet, Lux,” Mala seethed. “If I die, you die with me. I hope that’s abundantly clear.”

  Lux made no response, but he did quicken his pace. At the third door, he stopped and swiped it open.

  Perry thrust himself passed Lux and entered the room. Whimsby sat upon a pedestal like the one that Perry had been restrained on, except that he had no manicles on his wrists or ankles. He was bare-chested, and a large, steel collar sat about his neck, a series of red lights glowing on it.

  Whimsby turned his head as Perry entered. He saw the two paladins standing outside, Stuber’s body on the shoulders of one, and Sagum and Teran just beyond, linked about the shoulders. He was able to extrapolate what was happening.

  “Ah,” Whimsby said quietly. “This appears to be a rescue attempt.”

  “It is,” Perry said, striding to him. A portion of the flesh-like covering over his chest had been peeled back, and beneath it, in bloodless steel, sat Whimsby’s inner workings. His core processor like a round, glowing diamond in the center. “Can you move?”

  Whimsby shook his head slowly from side to side, and Perry became aware that it seemed his entire body was locked into an erect sitting position, and didn’t move at all. “Not with the freeze collar attached.”

  “Lux,” Perry called. “Take that off of him.”

  Lux approached the mech with a longsuffering sigh and squatted under Stuber’s bulk so that his hands could reach the collar. He touched this, rather than simply wave his hand across it, but it obeyed nonetheless. It separated into two halves, bisected at Whimsby’s neck.

  Perry reached out and grabbed the device, taking it off of Whimsby and tossing it to the floor. “Is that it? Can you move now?”

  Whimsby stood up, eyes affixed on Perry. There seemed a wholly human expression in those eyes, something that could not have been cooked up by any programmer. Perry was looking at something’s soul, and seeing gratitude.

  “You came back for me, Perry,” Whimsby said. “I would not have expected that.”

  “Yeah, well,” Perry slapped the mech’s bare shoulder. “Didn’t I say you were one of us? Come on. We’re getting the hell out of here.”

  “Whimsby,” Lux suddenly interjected. “Kill this human named Perry.”

  Perry jolted like he’d been stung, jumping back a step and leveling his longstaff at Lux’s face. “The fuck are you doing?”

  Lux didn’t even look at Perry. His eyes were focused on Whimsby, apparently fascinated.

  Whimsby raised a hand, and for a flash, Perry almost jerked away from him, fearing he might fall victim to his programming at this worst possible moment. But Whimsby’s hand only touched the length of Perry’s longstaff and pressed it away from Lux’s head.

  “That won’t be necessary, Perry,” Whimsby said, his voice light. He turned to face Lux. “I will not comply with that command, paladin. Perry is my friend, and as such, I consider his welfare to be more important than your own. Perry, would you like me to kill this paladin?”

  Perry barked out a laugh, resting his longstaff on his shoulder. “Well, how you like that, demigod?”

  Lux merely shrugged—as best he could with Stuber on his shoulder. “Scientific curiosity.”

  “Whimsby, thank you for the offer,” Perry said. “But Lux is doing a good job hauling Stuber right now. Come on. We need to get out of here.” Perry turned to Mala. “That’s everyone. Lead the way.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  THE OLDEST TRICK IN THE BOOK

  How am I going to get free of her?

  Perry stared at Mala’s back as they charged down the hall towards the front of the House of Inquisitions. He kept the muzzle of his longstaff trained on Lux, but his focus was on Mala.

  Perry was outsized and outclassed. But that was nothing new. That had been his reality for his entire life. He was plunging forward into the unknown, with nothing but his wits to help him. But they were quick wits. He was a fast thinker—you had to be if you hoped to survive as a runt. And that might be his only advantage.

  But Mala was no slouch. Not in skills, and certainly not in smarts. So what advantage did Perry actually have? He’d already pulled a fast one on her, and she wasn’t likely to let her guard down around him.

  You could blow her away right now, right in this hallway.

  But that had a slim chance of success. He might be able to kill her, but that would only mean that Rixo and his paladins would turn on Perry the second they realized what had happened. And as Mala had already pointed out, he was piss-poor at a head-to-head fight with one paladin, let alone several at once.

  No. He had to think of something else.

  They rounded a turn in the hall, and the ceiling vaulted above them. Perry tried not to goggle at the massive, three-story statue that dominated the wide open atrium. He forced his eyes to take stock of what was around him and struggled not to get distracted by the dozens of paladins scattered about—it was clear they were with Mala.

  Rixo stood in the center of a jagged hole blown into the side of the building, urging them on. “Skiffs are outside!”

  “Any contact?” Mala shouted.

  “No, they’re all still trying to figure out what’s going on, but someone’s bound to start shooting soon.”

  Despite the bright white interior of the building, Perry still found the sun outside to be blinding. As his sun-dazzled eyes adjusted, he became aware of an environment so far beyond anything he could have even imagined that he came to a complete stop, right there on the steps of the House of Inquisition.

  Directly ahead of him, two skiffs hovered. But Perry had seen plenty of skiffs. What boggled his mind was the landscape of white stone, pristine towers, spires that glittered in the sun, touching a sky so stark and blue that Perry wondered if it was the same sky under which he’d lived his life, or if he’d been transported to some other world entirely.

  “Halfbreed!” Mala snapped his attention back to her. She was down a few steps from him, waving angrily. “No time for sight-seeing!”

  Right. Perry tore down the steps towards the skiff in the rear, where Sagum helped Teran aboard. The paladin named Callidus grabbed her arm and hauled her up like she weighed nothing. Perry to stick with them. He could not let them get separated.

  “Callidus!” Mala shouted. “The legionnaire!”

  Perry glanced back over his shoulder as he reached the skiff, and saw that Mala now had Lux at the point of her longstaff. Lux lowered Stuber to the steps, the big man’s body still limp and motionless.

  Callidus towered over Perry with an indignant expression. “Are you enjoying my weapon, halfbreed?” He vaulted over top of Perry’s head, hit the ground, and ran up the steps to Mala. He scooped Stuber’s body up much easier than Lux had and hauled him for the skiff. “Get on or get out of my way!” he growled at Perry.

  Perry grabbed one of the siderails and pulled himself aboard.

  Teran and Sagum, on the starboard side. Whimsby at the fore, near the weapons controls.

  Callidus dumped Stuber’s body onto the deck, then jumped aboard. He snatched Stuber’s wrist, yanked him towards the others, and sent his body sliding across the metal floor.

  Gods, but the demigod was strong.

  Mala came in last, vaulting into the air and landing near the rear control panel.

  “They’re moving out,” Callidus called, observing the skiff ahead of them rocketing into the air and banking hard around the massive structure of the House of Inquisitions.

  Mala took the controls, her longstaff steadied bet
ween her legs to free her hands. The skiff rose rapidly, causing Perry to feel like he suddenly weighed twice as much. “Callidus! Man the weapons pods!”

  Perry struggled for the aft, his weight easing as they gained altitude and started moving forward. “Why didn’t any of the other demigods attack us?”

  Mala’s eyes were fixed on where she was going. She shook a strand of hair from her face. “They haven’t figured out what’s happening. There’s never been violence in The Clouds before. The houses haven’t fought amongst each other since the beginning. And no one has ever assaulted House Rennok.” Her gaze hit Perry’s and she smiled without her usual rancor, and it was bright and dazzling and Perry felt himself weaken, though he instantly hated himself for it. “I took advantage of their complacency. But they’ll figure out what’s happening soon enough. And then all hell will break loose.”

  Over the sides of the skiff, the spires and towers of white fell away as they hurtled through the air, and Perry began to see the shape of The Clouds. One giant, circular city, and beyond its edges, nothing. White wisps glided through the air, and it took a moment for Perry to realize that it wasn’t mist, but actual clouds. The namesake of the city of the gods.

  Now that he was aware of how high up they were, he noticed that his lungs didn’t seem to work as well as normal. Each breath only seemed to give him a half a lungful of air. It left him feeling dizzy and lightheaded.

  Perry stumbled to the middle of the skiff, then knelt at Stuber’s side. He put his hand on Stuber’s chest and felt it moving up and down. “Stuber!” Perry patted his bearded face. “Wake up!”

  Stuber’s head lolled, his forehead creasing into a momentary frown.

  Perry reared back and slapped him hard.

  Stuber’s head came up off the deck, his eyes wide and bleary. His hands grappled at Perry but the strength in them was gone. Then he rolled and vomited across the metal plating.

  “Easy, Stuber. You with me?”

  Stuber’s eyes ranged around, confused. They fell on Perry’s face and it looked like he was struggling to focus. Whatever anesthetic they’d pumped into him after his torture was still coursing through his system.