by John Kerry
Sammy decided she’d let him sleep and lay down on her own bed.
She listened to the former head of the citadel guard screaming down the hall and wondered if there was any part of his consciousness that remained. Had the intangible essence that made him who he was died when he entered the black smoke? Did some other entity possess his body now? She shivered. Whatever it was controlling the noise coming from him had pitched the sound just right to spook anyone that heard it.
Sammy figured she’d never sleep with the zombie scream soundtrack, but she started awake sometime later when the lock in the outer steel door clanged and the prison warden entered the room carrying two trays of nondescript yellow mush.
“Dinner,” he said as he approached the bars. He placed the trays on the floor and slid them through the narrow gap under the door with his toe.
Hami got up from his bed. “I’d like to see Air Chief Marshal Jorj,” he said as he collected the first tray and placed it at the foot of Sammy’s bed.
“You heard the magi master,” the prison officer replied. “No entering the cell. No visitors.”
“He didn’t say you weren’t allowed to deliver a message for us, though, did he?”
The prison officer was silent. It was almost possible to see the cogs in his brain processing Hami’s request.
“It’s a very simple message,” Hami went on. “I’m not trying to trick you. All I ask is that Queen Jorj is informed that Hami Hootan is being held in one of her cells.”
The prison officer paused. “Principal Hootan?” He lowered himself to one knee and dropped his head.
“You don’t need to bow,” Hami said.
“It is an honour,” the man stuttered. “Truly. But my orders …”
“Are still being obeyed,” Hami finished for him. “You won’t be breaking them by passing on my message. I won’t get you in trouble.”
The man seemed to consider this a moment, nodded, then scurried from the room.
Hami collected the remaining tray from the floor and took it back to his own bed.
Queen Jorj? Sammy asked.
Hami chose to voice his reply. “The Regent’s niece and Air Chief Marshal of the citadel’s air force. Technically there can be no royalty in Perseopia since the Sultan was killed, but Marshal Jorj is so well loved that many people call her Queen Jorj.”
“Why?”
“She’s a remarkable person. She was born to one of the citadel’s wealthiest families, and donated her entire inheritance to humanitarian causes. She worked her way to the top of the air force by starting at the bottom. She has influence with the controlling families, and yet listens to the people. She’ll work a day in the mines north of here, a day lifting freight, serving in a kitchen, you name it. Every once in a while she’ll even spend a day in sewage processing. She’s also always the first person to fly into battle.”
“That’s pretty cool.”
“It is, but her courageous attitude almost cost her her life about a year ago during a hunting trip. Thankfully, I was visiting the citadel at the time and had joined her security detail for the day. We were set upon by crabmen, and as it happens, I saved her life. And the lives of everyone else there that day.”
Sammy jumped up. “So she owes you one?”
“You could say that.”
“I knew you had a plan. We’re busting out of here!”
Sammy had eaten her lunch and was beginning to doze off again when Queen Jorj arrived.
She came in through the outer steel door taking two big strides into the room.
“I’ll call you when I need you,” she told the prison officer over her shoulder.
The prison guard dipped his head and left, closing the door behind him.
Queen Jorj wore no crown. Her clothes were white and simple like every other inhabitant of the citadel, yet she radiated royalty with every movement she made. She had deep brown skin, short cropped hair, and was the most flawlessly beautiful person Sammy had ever seen.
“Guests of the citadel,” she said as she bowed. She maintained eye contact with Hami and then Sammy as she spoke.
Hami lowered his head. “Air Chief Marshal,” he said.
“You sent a message informing me you were here.”
Sammy involuntarily stepped back as Queen Jorj came closer.
“I did, Air Chief,” Hami replied.
“Which was unnecessary as I’d already been told.”
Hami seemed genuinely surprised. “Really?”
“Master Piruzan suspected that you might try to contact me. In fact, I’ve just come from a meeting with him.” She approached the bars. “We’ve been discussing the impending battle, but he did mention you.” She paused. “And the trouble you’ve caused the realm.”
Hami grimaced. “I want to put things right.”
“Piruzan said you’d say that.”
“But you came to see me anyway?”
“I felt I owed you as much for … the assistance you gave my hunting party last year.”
“I saved their lives. I saved your life.”
Queen Jorj held up her hand to silence Hami. “I will hear what you have to say, but I can’t promise I’ll act on any requests given what I’ve learned.”
“My plan was to lure Ramaask from Aratta and defeat him,” Hami said. “And it worked. The rest … I never meant for Sammy to cross the seal that unleashed this demon.”
“The Ahriman.”
“That’s what people are calling it.”
“And you … according to Piruzan.”
Hami looked away.
“Regardless of your good intentions, you have unleashed something far worse than Ramaask and many of my people are going to die today as a result.”
“You know I would never have done this deliberately.”
“I know. Piruzan knows it too.”
“He does?”
“He’s contentious and aggressive, but underneath he’s a good man.”
Hami sat on his bed and put his face in his hands.
“He thinks you’re misguided,” Queen Jorj said. “He thinks you’re in the early stages of smog sickness and will continue to make bad decisions from this point onwards. The fact you’re unwilling to talk to the brotherhood is compounding that assumption.”
Hami removed his hands and looked the Air Chief Marshal in the eye. “You remember my partner? Master Baktash?”
She nodded once.
“He was captured by Lord VorMask recently. He communicated to me during the battle outside the Fifth Azaran. He told me things about Sammy that he’d learned from VorMask. Things I can’t repeat to anyone.”
Sammy turned to him. What things?
Later, Hami communicated, then shut himself off from her.
Queen Jorj smiled, then turned to leave. “I will talk to the magi. Perhaps I can persuade them to send more men to the portal.”
“The demon isn’t interested in your citadel,” Hami called out before she could leave. “It’s only passing on its way to the portal. Have the magi told you that they’re using the Naziarabad Monument for their last stand? A barrier against the demon?”
Queen Jorj turned to face Hami again. “They have asked my assistance in dealing with the creature. I’ve consented.”
“I’ve seen what this creature can do. All the towns between the Fifth Azaran and here have been destroyed. It’s decimated them and collected their bodies. That’s all it wants from the citadel. More dead bodies to build its army. Then it will continue past to the portal. Evacuate your people from the ground. Bring them up here until it passes. You’ll save lives.”
“The brotherhood know what’s best for the realm.”
“In this instance they don’t. They’ve only dispatched two magi to the portal. Two middle tier brothers that are likely to wind up dead.”
“I have faith …”
“Have faith in me! I saved your life. I’d never ordinarily call in
that debt, but you leave me no choice. You owe me.”
Jorj bristled. “I’m grateful you were there that day, Principal, but I’m tougher than I look. I could’ve handled those crabmen.”
“You could’ve. But what about the rest of your hunting party? What about your friends? How many of them would still be here if I hadn’t been with you that day?”
Queen Jorj began pacing. “I can’t go against the magi.”
“Everything I do, I do for Perseopia. It’s my duty to protect and serve. Let me save the realm.”
Queen Jorj stopped and approached the bars. She gripped them tightly, stared at Hami. “What would you do if you were to escape from here?”
Hami stood. Took a step towards her. “I’d take Sammy to the portal in the mountains and return her to the Mother World.”
“The brotherhood don’t want that.”
“They want to use her power for themselves. She’s only eighteen. She has a family.”
“Then after you’ve sent Sammy home?”
“Then I’d destroy the portal so the Ahriman can’t use it.”
“You wish only to send Sammy home, then destroy the portal?”
“Just that. The demon can’t be allowed to escape into the wider Mother World. We can contain it here. Out there …” Hami shrugged, “both our worlds die.”
Jorj remained quiet for a time. “You’re sure there are no other undesirable outcomes that you could inadvertently set in motion? No seals that can get crossed? No further demons that could get unleashed? And no apocalyptic events that might get triggered?”
“Please!”
“And you’re sure you can close this portal down?”
“I’m not sure of anything. But I have to try. The alternative is not worth contemplating.”
Queen Jorj walked to the outer cell door, then stopped.
She didn’t turn back to face them. “If the citadel came under attack causing this cell to become unsafe. Unsafe enough that you had to be transferred. And if it so happened that during that transfer you escaped, would you swear to go to the portal and destroy it?”
“I would,” Hami said.
Queen Jorj nodded once, then left.
–FORTY-SEVEN–
THE BATTLE OF SMOKE AND WINGS
Sammy pressed her forehead between the bars in the window. Giant Perseopian-style rooks circled above and below. At times seeming to fly in choreographed formation, and at others completely at random, spiralling and dancing on the thermals, cutting across each other, but never colliding. The riders themselves were primed for battle, armoured in leather and carrying hook-shaped swords that matched the shape of the dino-birds’ crests. Sammy guessed the design choice had been intentional.
The demon’s black smoke continued to advance along the ground. Crawling ever closer, until the lights at the far edge of the camp flickered and went out.
The demon had arrived.
A call went up and the rooks dived into battle.
There were flashes of light and loud cracks where smoke met camp, but Sammy was too high and too far away to see individuals.
Then the blackened lava pterodactyls from the Cataclysm came slicing up through the air. A swirling hurricane of leathery wings.
Sammy glimpsed Air Chief Jorj in amongst the dino-bird riders, then she swooped into battle followed by twenty other rooks and she’d gone.
The rooks and pterodactyls cut through each other, striking out as they passed, the rook riders with their hooked blades, the pterodactyls with their claws. Every so often there’d be a full on mid-air collision and the dino-riders would fall.
Queen Jorj reappeared nearby, hovering. She made eye contact with Sammy, then vanished into the mass of winged bodies again.
A moment later, the limp body of a pterodactyl came careening towards the window.
Sammy leapt back as the creature hit the outside of the column, sending cracks racing through the clean white wall.
Hami leapt up and pushed past her to the window.
Sammy elbowed her way in next to him.
Queen Jorj hovered outside. “Call for the guard!” she shouted. “Tell him your cell is unstable.” Then she dived away.
Hami left the window and went to the bars dividing the room. “Hey!” he shouted. “Warden!”
No response.
He called again. When no one came, he closed his eyes. He was concentrating on something.
The outer cell door rattled in its frame. Then the lock clicked and the door swung open.
The screaming citadel guard in room three became louder.
“Hey!” Hami shouted again.
Still nothing.
Sammy returned to the window to watch the battle while Hami continued to yell for the warden. The battle had moved lower and Queen Jorj was nowhere to be seen. More camp lights at the fringes flickered and went out as the shadow spread closer.
A scream startled Sammy. A large white object careening towards her, flapping, squawking. It hit the wall below.
The impact shook the room. Large fissures raced through the floor below Sammy’s feet. Cracks in the wall spread.
Then the window frame and surrounding wall fell out.
Sammy dived towards Hami, but too late.
The floor disappeared, along with the beds and the toilet.
She caught the remaining section of floor across her chest, then fell back catching hold of the edge with her hands.
Hami was still up against the bars.
“Sammy!” he called down and took a step towards her.
The ground at his feet cracked and the flooring under Sammy’s right hand fell away. She screamed as she hung on with her left.
Hami stopped. “Hold on!”
She felt him concentrating on her belt. Holding her steady with his powers. Cold air blew in through the hole in the outer wall.
A rider-less rook floundered in the rubble below, one floor down. It screamed up at Sammy as she dangled by one arm.
“Hami!”
“I can’t come any closer. The floor will collapse. If you drop down I can slow your descent. I’ve got you by the belt.”
“It’s too far!”
The rook screamed again and snapped its jaws. Sammy could sense the animal had an injury.
She swung her right arm up and grabbed hold of the floor.
Another crack, and the area she clung to tilted.
“Sammy!” Hami shouted. He lowered himself to the floor and carefully spread his weight, reaching out to her with both cuffed hands.
The pain coming off the rook was acute. The beast shook the rubble off its wings and screamed again. Sammy traced the pain to a broken leg. She concentrated on quelling the animal’s fear like she’d done for Kimbo, but the intensity of the pain was blocking her ability.
She focused on the leg.
Hami reached closer, but she couldn’t pull herself up to take his hand. The mortar was giving way.
The rook stopped screaming. Shook out its feathers. Sammy urged it closer. And it moved, labouring over the rubble below, flinching as it transferred weight onto its damaged leg.
Sammy soothed as far as she was able, but the creature was becoming increasingly agitated. It raised its head as it drew close. Keep going. Almost there.
The floor gave way.
Sammy opened her legs and landed across the giant bird’s neck. She slid down the smooth white feathers, feeling for the saddle with her feet.
The half-dinosaur, half-bird raised itself to full height, then beat its wings together.
One moment they were inside the tower, the next they were outside, as if sucked out backwards through the hole.
Then they were in freefall.
Sammy became weightless, disconnected from everything. She caught a fist full of feathers in one hand, but the rest of her hung in space. She pulled herself in, guiding herself towards the saddle hoping the feathers she hung on to wouldn�
�t come loose.
The leg straps whipped around in the rushing air. Sammy manoeuvred herself in close, fumbled with the buckles. She managed to guide her legs into the loops, secure the straps. Then communicated for the rook to pull up.
Nothing.
Panic had taken hold of the dino-bird’s brain and it had closed itself off to suggestion. The ground was fast approaching, close enough to be able to pick out individuals.
Sammy was panicking too. She needed to rein it in, to calm herself so she could calm the bird. She held her breath, slowly filled her lungs and sent soothing thoughts. The rook’s muscles loosened. Its mind opened. And Sammy gave the order. Pull up!
The rook spread its wings, raised its head, and gravity re-asserted itself at abdomen-crushing levels of deceleration. For a moment everything blurred and Sammy almost blacked out.
She clung on, slumped against the rook’s neck. She forced herself to take short, shallow breaths. Then she opened her eyes.
They were skimming the top of the campsite. Air rushing through her hair. Tents and fire lights whipping by below. Passing over men and women as they swept towards the approaching blackness. Above her, rooks and lava pterodactyls were engaged in aerial dogfights. Below her, men and women were running into battle.
Then Sammy was above the undead army. Grey men, women. Dark crabmen and other beasts too. All of them drained of colour and all advancing on the column, with dead eyes and blank expressions.
Sammy adjusted course as a crabman lunged with its sword arm. The movement happened instinctively. She had maintained her connection to the dino-bird and was in control. If she wanted the rook to move, it did so. No independent thought was required, just an impulse and the creature moved like it was an extension of her own body.
They were rapidly approaching the heart of the darkness now. A mass of black liquid and smoke coiling in and around itself. A giant’s silhouette in the centre, formed from pieces of man, crabman, and animal. Part flesh, part shell. The creature’s burning eyes fixed on her and it reached out an arm.