by John Kerry
Sammy took her time taking in the atmosphere, savouring everything. She moved to the table, ran her hand over its uneven green surface. Traced a finger along the polished copper work surface, over the sink and under the misaligned kitchen units.
She tapped one of the multi-coloured birds in the mobile above her. A red one that until then had been coasting lazily above her head. It soared away, pulling its friends along with it, altering their trajectories and creating spiralling patterns in the complex paper and wire structure that filled the ceiling.
This cramped but beautiful little capsule, that she’d spent less than a week of her life in, had dominated her dreams over the last two years. Not all the memories she’d made in it had been pleasant, but she’d built it up in her mind as a refuge from her life in Sheffield. All her problems and responsibilities were outside these curved walls. Now she was safe.
“Is it as you remember?” Mehrak asked, severing her from her reverie. He closed the trapdoor they’d come up through. “I still can’t believe you’ve been away.” He looked away, and laughed awkwardly. “We were both here in the kitchen this morning. You were angry we’d tried to lose Hami.”
Sammy smiled. “I remember.”
“This feels strange,” Mehrak said.
“What?”
“Us,” he said. “We were best friends earlier today. Now you don’t know me.”
Sammy wasn’t sure what Mehrak expected to hear. She shrugged. “I know,” she replied. “It’s weird.”
He nodded. “You know you can still stay here as long as you like?”
“That’s kind. Thank you.” Sammy made for the stairs that led up around the outside wall. It was what she’d wanted to hear, but voiced aloud it came across sounding awkward. She’d not forgotten that the last time she’d been here, she’d kissed Mehrak. To him it had only just happened. To her it was a lifetime ago, figuratively. She hoped he wasn’t looking to rekindle something between them. He was still technically married, even if they were now a lot closer in age.
She’d figure something out if she needed to. For now, she was going to enjoy being home.
“Hami says you shouldn’t go out onto the balcony,” he said. “Someone might see you.”
“Okay,” Sammy replied as she continued up the stairs.
Leiss was in Mehrak’s bed. He watched her climb out of the hole in the centre of the room, then looked away to the ceiling.
Sammy closed the railing gate at the top of the stairs. A natural, subconscious action that she only became aware of after performing it. It pleased her to think she was already tuning back in to the harmony of Eggie.
The bedroom was exactly as it had been. A smaller space than the kitchen with blue walls and a red doughnut-shaped carpet around the spiral staircase down to the kitchen. Mehrak’s bookshelf still contained its small collection of books, there was the green wardrobe, and the red curtains that covered the arches to the front and rear balconies.
The only object out of place was Leiss, lying sullenly on his back and taking up most of Mehrak’s four-poster bed. He said nothing and kept his eyes fixed firmly on the wrought iron chandelier in the apex of the ceiling.
“I thought you were dead,” Sammy said.
“I deserve to be.” He was still not looking at her.
Sammy cast her mind back. “You left us to go after that tall thin creature.” Too much time had passed for her to feel angry about what he’d done. “I made it home,” she said. “And none of us died, so I wouldn’t feel too bad about it.”
Leiss said nothing more and rolled over.
The floor lurched and Sammy caught hold of a bed post to steady herself as the cottage rose up beneath her. Louis was getting to his feet. She held on until the cottage settled in to a gentle, side to side rocking motion.
The sensation made her feel oddly queasy. After congratulating herself for quickly acclimatising to life aboard Eggie, she was disappointed to have lost her sea legs, or, she supposed, Louis legs.
Sammy tentatively edged towards the front balcony and the curtain that separated it from the bedroom. The pull of the forbidden balcony was strong. She desperately wanted to see Louis again. Hami had told her not to go out onto it, and she wouldn’t, but a quick peek couldn’t hurt. She wanted to see where they were going, to relive previous travels. Leiss was facing the opposite direction. He wouldn’t see. No one would know.
Holding the centre of the curtain closed with one hand, Sammy parted the top to make a gap just big enough for her face.
Louis had already covered most of the atrium in the short time it had taken for her to cross the room. As they reached the open temple doorway, Sammy glimpsed a young female priest on the gallery above the doors. Their eyes met and the girl’s mouth dropped open.
Sammy tugged the curtain closed and waited. Was this bad?
Maybe the girl was looking at Louis. She might’ve never seen a gastrosaur before. Priests probably didn’t get out much. If the girl had seen Sammy, she’d only have seen her eyes and nose. No blond hair. And there’d been a decent distance between them. It could have been anyone peering out.
Sammy had an uneasy feeling about it, though. She parted the curtains again, just enough to see out with one eye, but by that point it was too late. They’d already passed through the temple doors and she found herself looking up at the ridge of the Cataclysm and the black sky above.
–TWENTY-FOUR–
MAGI INBOUND
Hami scrambled up the piled earth back to the plain where Narok and the others were waiting. At the top, he stumbled and dropped to one knee. And for a moment couldn’t get up again. Every physical exertion was an ordeal. His body was precipitously close to shutting down, but time for recovery wasn’t a luxury he could indulge.
He rose slowly and set about organising for Louis to get up the incline. The gastrosaur could probably make it alone, but he instructed the Marzban to tie ropes around his waist anyway and secure the other ends to their karkadann.
Mehrak came out for moral support and talked the animal through each step.
Louis heaved himself and the cottage up the earth mound as the karkadann backed away, keeping the ropes taut enough to keep him moving forward.
When Louis reached the plain, the relief was strong enough that Hami fell to his knees again and then forward onto his hands. He was mentally and physically spent, and not entirely sure how his body was still going. If he were to lie down now he could pass out that very moment. But he wouldn’t allow it. Not yet.
They needed to leave, to begin moving before the magi got there. He was surprised they weren’t here already. Perhaps they’d been held up. Perhaps his luck would hold out one last time.
He’d give Narok an excuse, then they’d be on their way.
Eva had seen the tall thin creature crest the Cataclysm and head north following the direction the demon and bodies had gone. He could use that as the basis for his excuse. He’d ask the Marzban to wait for the magi while he took Sammy north after the thin creature. Then, once they were out of sight, they’d detour west. If he could get Louis into the Fungi Forest with Sammy on board, they’d be concealed enough to sneak away and he’d be able to sleep. He’d figure out everything else when he woke.
But as he raised his head from where it hung, he saw a herd of greenbuck bouncing towards him. Landing and rebounding like fleas. The twenty-strong magi reinforcements had arrived. And he was too late.
The thin figure moved through the darkness between the dead crabmen and Marzban, zigzagging its way through the shuffling corpses. They were nothing more than puppets. All of them reanimated shells, devoid of the souls that had previously piloted them. Some of their memories remained, personality traits that distinguished their behaviour from the others around them, but they were echoes of their former selves, ghosts haunting flesh and bone vessels.
As the figure made its way towards the front of the crowd, the density of bodies became tighter.
Their faces and exposed skin bubbled and melted as he passed them but they made no protest, they felt nothing.
His master existed where the bodies were thickest. The core of everything dead and polluted.
A deep gargling voice emerged from the amalgamation of animal and human body parts. “Ramaask has gone?”
“At the bottom of the Cataclysm,” replied the thin figure. “Trapped beneath the column.”
“You must return to the city. To the gate.”
“There is nothing to be done there.”
“Guard it. Nothing else can be allowed through until the time is right.”
“That’s unnecessary. Nothing can …”
“Do you defy me?”
“Never, master. Everything I have done has been in preparation for your arrival. The death of my brother. Leading the Mother Worlder across the seal to release you.”
“You have been loyal.”
“But not yet loyal enough for you to return me to my true form? To release me from this half-existence? I’ve restored you to the realm of the living.”
“Patience. You must protect the portal in the old capital while I travel through the portal in the mountains.”
“As you wish, my master. May I at least make a detour? I have someone to collect from the city of Honton Keep. Someone that may prove useful to us.”
“Go then,” said the voice. “But be swift. Do this thing for me and I will return you to your true, terrible form.”
–TWENTY-FIVE–
STOWAWAY
Hami remained on all fours. He no longer had the energy to get up. He’d failed spectacularly. A new plan was needed, but his brain was too slow to come up with one. He sifted through the fog that clouded his head, searching for the barest shred of an idea. There had to be something he could do. He was a lost cause, but perhaps he could save Sammy.
“Mehrak!” he called.
“What?” he asked as he came over. “Are you okay?”
“Head back into Eggie and stay with Sammy. Make sure she stays in the kitchen where the walls are thickest, and keep her there. She’s giving off too much energy. If the magi find her they’ll take her away. Tell her to close off her mind if she can. Tell her not to reach out to the magi network and to focus on a simple object like a cup or a spoon. She needs to picture it in her head and concentrate on it. Tell her to think of nothing else and to keep it in her mind’s eye. Go now and don’t make it obvious.”
Mehrak turned away and walked off in an exaggerated nonchalant manner that he must’ve assumed looked casual. Idiot.
The greenbucks came out of the darkness, bouncing to a stop like balls losing their elastic energy. Hami recognised Master Salazar Piruzan at the front. It was the last magus Hami wanted to see. The man that had vetoed his request for the status of Master. A battle-scarred monster of a man whose power far exceeded the intelligence he could muster to control it. He was the only magus in recent times to have fought Ramaask and survived. An accolade Hami now realised that he shared. Piruzan hadn’t come away from his fight lightly, having lost half the skin on the left side of his face, exposing his jaw and giving the impression that he was constantly sneering.
He leapt off his greenbuck over the top of its head. He landed in a crouch, stood and approached Hami slowly. He licked the area his lips had been. A mannerism he’d adopted since his injuries, presumably out of necessity to stop his exposed gums drying out.
Hami lowered his head to face the floor. “Louis,” he whispered. “I need you to wander off a little way. Not too far as to make it obvious, but I need you to put some distance between Sammy and the magi.” He hoped the effects of Ramaask’s past presence, the shadow that the corpse creature had left in its wake, combined with the thickness of Golden Egg’s walls, would inhibit the magi from sensing her. But they were all rested, alert. He struggled to sense her, but he knew her individual entity frequency. It could go either way.
Louis began moving.
“Master Piruzan,” Hami said.
Salazar Piruzan watched Louis move away. “Principal.”
Hami couldn’t bring himself to his feet to face him. So he remained where he was on the floor, and said nothing.
Piruzan returned his attention to Hami. “What a mess,” he said, then gazed up at the sky.
“We need to …”
“We, Hami? There is no we. Not now. There is us, and there is you. You are to be escorted directly to the Grand Master in New Ecbatana.”
“Master,” Hami said as politely as he could manage. He couldn’t provoke Piruzan. Not if he wanted to appeal to the man. He had a history of pettiness, but he was still a master magus and would serve Perseopia in what he believed would be a fair and just manner. Hami would have to appeal to his conscience. “May I speak?”
Piruzan wasn’t looking. He’d fixed his gaze on Eggie. “Perhaps, we could talk inside your gastrosaur,” he said. “Meet your friends.”
“She’s gone, Master.”
“Has she?” Piruzan said. He didn’t sound convinced.
“You can feel her echo,” Hami said. “The resonance of the Mother World is strong. Much stronger in her than in any of us.”
“I feel the power, Hami. It’s still here.”
“It’s not hers.” Hami got to his feet with a groan. “I can help you.”
Piruzan said nothing.
“Please,” Hami said. “Let me show you.” He walked to the Cataclysm and waited close to the edge, where it was possible to see down past the mountain. “Can you feel it?” he asked, once Piruzan stood beside him. “You of all people should be able to.”
Piruzan said nothing for a time. He licked his exposed teeth and gums. “He’s really down there, isn’t he?”
“He really is. You’re feeling his echo. Like Sammy’s.”
“Tell me what happened.”
Hami told Piruzan of how he’d used Sammy to lure Ramaask to the Cataclysm, how he’d fought the crabmen and defeated Ramaask while Sammy had remained inside the temple. He explained how she’d used the Pearls of Portal Paths to return to the Mother World, how the mountain had fallen and the skies had turned black. He went into detail about the creature in the liquid smoke and the bodies getting up and walking away.
“We felt the creature arrive. It was like nothing else that has ever arrived in Perseopia. Not even the girl when she created that larger rift.” Piruzan stopped himself. He lowered his voice. “I appreciate that you’re cooperating, Principal, but our orders are to deliver you to Grand Master Aegis.”
“Why wouldn’t I cooperate?” Hami said. “I’m still a magus … for the moment. Tell me you wouldn’t have done the same thing if it meant ridding the realm of Ramaask?”
“I wouldn’t have risked the entire realm for Master Baktash. The realm comes first. It always has.”
“You lost your partner, Siamak, to Ramaask. You only survived because he gave his life so you could escape.”
Piruzan’s hand went to the ruined side of his face but said nothing.
“I had the realm’s interests at heart. I had an opportunity to lure Ramaask out of Aratta, and I seized it. You can at least understand why I did it.”
“I understand more than anyone. But it doesn’t mean I condone it.”
“I know we’ve never seen eye to eye,” Hami said. “But you need me if you’re going to take this thing on.”
“There are eighteen of us, Hami.” Piruzan gestured at the magi and greenbucks congregated behind him.
“That’s not enough.” Hami paused. “I was told you were twenty.”
“We were.”
Hami stared down into the light. “Who did you lose?”
“Aran.” Piruzan paused and took a deep breath. “And Taj. I’m sorry, I know you two were close.”
Taj had been a teenager when Hami trained him. He’d been given the boy to train as an apprentice despite being only five years older. He’d not known the boy long, ye
t the loss still caught him unexpectedly, and for a moment he was unable to talk. “Crabmen?”
Piruzan nodded.
Hami let the moment pass. “We have another casualty.” He led Piruzan to Calven’s cart.
Calven looked up as Hami approached. Hami was quick to dismiss him. “Could you leave us a moment,” he said before Calven could open his mouth and ruin everything.
“Okay, but I was wondering …”
“I’ll explain later,” Hami interrupted. “Just give us some space? Head into the golden caravan, ask the traveller to make you some tea.”
“But my karkadann …”
“I’ll make sure he doesn’t run off.”
Hami took Piruzan round to the back of the cart while Calven dismounted and headed over to Golden Egg Cottage.
“Victa?” Piruzan shook his head. “Poor boy.”
“I need to take him to the magi garrison so he can be treated.”
“I can’t allow it, Hami. I have my orders. You’re going to New Ecbatana. Victa can go with you. You were always a passable healer, you can patch him up on the way.”
“With respect, Master, I believe he needs proper help. He’s lost both feet. I can’t match the healers at the garrison and those at the capital aren’t much better than I am.”
Piruzan gazed at the boy, his eyes full of sorrow, then they narrowed. “How did he come to be here?”
Hami shrugged as nonchalantly as he was able. “He registered briefly on the network when he got injured. I told him I was coming here. He must’ve told the Marzban that saved him from the crabmen.”
“You told Victa you were coming here? A new recruit that you barely know. You must’ve told him a while ago, because he’s travelled quite some distance to be here. Yet Aegis, our Grand Master, you’ve only just told. Why is that?”