Andrea Cort 03: War of the Marionettes

by Castro, Adam-Troy

  the amphitheater they came as a shock as far as I knew nobody had ever established that Fulani had voices of any kind these were high pitched and terrified and longer in duration than any powered by the human chest once as a child living on Bo CAI I saw a friend’s pet a Placid flying creature about the size of a baby’s fist whose vocal chords had never emitted anything louder than a contented tweet step onto a hot cooking surface it’s sudden whale had been like this less a cry of agony than a scream of Terror as the realization that the predictable benevolent little world that had known was a lie but in all the years since I’d never heard the same kind of stunned horror rising from thousands of voices at once but that’s what I heard now it was that coming from the Villani down below whatever mechanism they might have had for knowing what others of their own kind were doing it worried them as much as it had worried her Poth the Porrinyards pressed close to me Ocean to my left and Skye to the right their shared voice seemed to originate from someplace inside me I don’t know what this is Andrea but I concur with her both we’ve got to get you out of here I almost agreed I didn’t want to be

  anywhere near those screams but the hubbub among the other sentient around us was already rising as word began to filter through the crowds soon the panic among us would be just as dangerous I said Hammersmith the Porrinyard s didn’t give me a chance to object they never listened when their official role as my bodyguards took precedence they just lifted me off my feet and bowled forward half pulling me half carrying my feet skimmed the dusty ground unable to find purchase no matter how much I kicked no matter how far we charged into the crowd and no matter how many angry collisions we avoided the Porrinyard s were expert navigators through crowded places and my head jerked back and forth on an uneasy neck as the two of them made sudden unexpected course corrections to slip a sideways through fleeting gaps in the mob

  I caught only momentary impressions a flash of shoulder-length scarlet hair trailing behind a young human woman with arms like hella seas that spiraled over her head in waves a squat wide-eyed burst Eenie whirling in place lost still absorbing the sudden changed the night had taken a slow-moving kiss and Houten rammed from behind by a figure rushing too fast to avoid him withdrawing its head and limbs into its shell no panic yet but it was coming and through it all a rising cadence like ten thousand knives plunging hilt deep into as many unguarded ribs flop flop thump thump thump it was the sound I’d heard earlier today when that lone Villani ran from us the sound I just heard rising from the floor of the amphitheatre as the dancers took their places the sound the pointy end of lonny whips make as they pierced the ground while running but it was louder now and it was all around us thick enough to be the charge of an oncoming army I didn’t scream out loud I was still too stunned to off-balance but I thought it what’s happening the AI source voice inside my was kind enough to provide an answer nothing that hasn’t happened to you before

  CHAPTER 4

  Madness

  The Porrinyards turned right carrying me up the layered rows of the bleachers past the dozens of human beings and rear gone she and berstein II who had also sought higher ground to scan the darkness for approaching Giants it took seconds to reach the top row of seats and with it win a view of the empty plain where so many had left their vehicles the few lights that shone in that direction revealed the horizon now glistening with a reflected starlight I couldn’t tell how far away the Villani force was it hadn’t reached our line of vehicles yet but that was about as much as our lights showed it might have been kilometres beyond that or just meters I stood up it looks safe enough we can get to the skimmer Ocean grabbed me by the wrist and pulled me back down there’s no time how can you be sure two heads means four ears and better processing of audio input it’s much easier for me to isolate where sounds are coming from this was one advanced capability of theirs that had never occurred to me at any point during our two years together what’s happening there’s an entire line of them getting into position north of us the ones closest to us are holding their position while the ones farthest away are circling around to match distance if you saw their formation you’d see the resemblance to a door slamming shut on old-fashioned hinges the military implications had not escaped me they’re locking us in that’s what it looks like yes

  our lives from this point might well depend on how far they intend to advance the row of bleachers was now lined with other humans and aliens clustered in groups of two or three facing back toward the desert and not forward toward the amphitheaters they came to conclusions that could not have been much different from our own the faces of the humans and some of the Burstein II looked pale and washed out beneath the overhead lights Schiff and Fox lay prone about a third of the way down eyeing the landscape behind us through the horizontal slats he did all the talking but got what looked like entire libraries of information from her subtle nods a young man dressed in the baggy desert gear that seemed so common among Kreutz people decided to make a run for the vehicles he was a good runner he pumped his arms at chest level and drove his feet into the dirt as if intent on stamping it into submission when he reached the skimmers he passed four identical ones before vaulting into one dustier and more battered and a few designed generations older than the rest identifiable as his by the speed with which he assumed his position at the navigation and began to ascend it’s not going to be enough the Porrinyard said hard until now to make out against all the darkness a single of Lonnie appeared behind the hovering vehicle towering over it like a silent Titan it’s mirrored head shining with the reflection of the skimmers internal lights a thin dark line curving with a flourish at the end of a signature descended at impossible speed and smashed against the skimmer with a force that bent the entire vehicle in the middle and slammed it back against the ground the young man who for a moment seemed to hover over wreckage that had fallen faster than he could cried out once before landing in the ruins with a thud he might have lived through that but then the Villani took a single dainty step over the wreckage straddling it it’s big black head reflecting the glow of the internal lights in a curve that to my eyes resembled the gleam of a predators smile it raised two of its whips high into the air above its head and slammed them down again as I watched sickened hearing the screams of the terrified people all around me but unable to make a sound myself it hammered the skimmer and the poor man inside with a ferocity that broke its whip in half and sent the loose limb flying into the dirt to coil and thrash an idiot rage the communal gasp rose from all around me the beginnings of genuine panic an entire line of them maybe thirty or forty emerged from the night their whips whirling above their heads in a matched pattern that some of the whip harnesses worn by the indentures insisted on translating into words death love dance hate Villani human help fear hate hate death kill free slave hate egg hate hate whatever message our translation programs were failing to decode might have made sense in Villani terms and might have been the nonsensical ramblings of Villani surrendered to madness but either way each standing Vani straddled a different vehicle and began to destroy it some used their whips as sledges clubbing the skimmers with a terrible strength that reduced each to wreckage others used their whips as rape yours and stabbed downward punching holes that testified to the deadliness those limbs would possess when used against us the origin of the skimmers didn’t matter whether human regal Chi pristine iike sent out an oar CID they each crumpled with a blower to each eliminated in seconds as a means of escape nor did the Fulani seem to care about the damage they were doing to themselves even as their whips broke off or shattered or hung in jagged lines their intricate structure shattered to kindling they continued to smash our vehicles flat until they were not only useless but expunged it only took a few seconds and the worst of it didn’t arrive until a second row of thirty Villani arrived behind the first fighting out of darkness and stepping over the wreckage to advance against us these bleachers weren’t going to offer any protection the first time of lani slammed them with a whip the entire construct was going to
shatter to pieces the problem was that only left one way out any ideas I shouted nothing then follow me I forced my way back down the bleacher steps the Porrinyards close behind there was no time for caution or humanity the lower seats were packed with representatives of several different species climbing the structure to get away from the panic rising down below beings who knew what was coming for them and beings who didn’t human beings who could have benefited from abandoning thought and running like hell and beings like the slow-moving Kazan Houten who could not have moved fast enough if they tried they were no longer people whose fates I could afford to care about they were only obstacles to be avoided on the way down I saw a human being with curly red hair gone thin on top tripped over a fallen bursty knee and slam against one of the risers at an angle that left his leg bent the wrong way at the knee even as the pain hit him we made eye contact and I saw him see in my eyes the realization that he was now beyond help I hated myself for doing it but even as he reached for me I’ve altered over him risking an impact with the ground that could have placed me in the same crippled category I landed on the soles of my feet and then a second later my legs buckling from the impact on my knees the Porrinyards alighted on both sides of me with a grace that put me to shame and dragged me through the panic threading us through the one open space between collisions before we passed the main flow of traffic we came face-to-face with virile Hammersmith who was relieved to find his charge still alive even if that life expectancy might now be counted in seconds counselor you need to follow me why do you have a way out no but I’m responsible for your safety I have to somebody slammed into his back and almost knocked him over the Porrinyards separated sons negotiation Ocean continuing to pull me through the crowd and Skye doing Hammersmith the same favor as we reached the cliffside and the Porrinyard s contemplated their next move I spotted something wrong on the amphitheaters other side a black flood of Lani pouring over the edge of the opposite rim inundating another wave the two must have met with the impact of clashing armies but from this perspective the moment looked liquid as if some vast unknown reservoir had burst and spilled its inky contents onto the world the site might have been next to impossible to interpret in daylight the darkness rendered it as vague as any nightmare remembered in retrospect Hammersmith swayed dazed beyond usefulness by the insanity before him this doesn’t happen the Villani don’t interfere with their own ballet they just don’t I had nothing to add not when all my courage was wrapped up and stealing myself for something I would have rather died than attempt I don’t know how much time I would have needed to gather the courage in a perfect world but I wasn’t going to get it the splintering sound of the advancing Villani attacking the viewing stand had already begun behind us a scream closer than it had any right to be prompted me into the crouch that rescued me from being knocked down by a flying figure probably a bursty knee but possibly just a diminutive human being broken and impossible to reconcile with anything alive as it hurtled past me and plunged into the darkness below more instinct bad instinct made me glance over my shoulder it was an impulse I knew I’d regret for the rest of my life thickets of long serpentine whips whirling at velocities so great that they word as the sliced the air hammered down on the fragile viewing stand cutting the long seats and any sentience trapped there into shards I saw one long section of bleacher maybe ten meters long hurdle upward as of Lonnie whip slashed its center section three human beings and Tucci went flying one a young woman who’s screaming face had been reduced by shadows to cartoon essentials to black holes for eyes an even darker chasm for mouth seemed headed for a bone-crushing impact with the ground until a whip wrapped around her midsection and threw her into the night before I looked away two more of Lonnie climbed over the wreckage and started heading toward us using their whips like Spears to impale one fleeting figure after another that was behind us before us a 000 meter drop straight down the Porrinyards realized what I proposed to do you’re no climber Andrea no I shouted but you are that’s not going to help shit that was them seeing somebody else die ten meters away from us along the cliff side another of Kreutz people had just fled blindly off the safe flat edge of the summit fallen onto the dusty downward slope and slid over the edge of the cliff on his belly his scream swallowed up by all the others around us already crowds of the sentient shooters to escape the Fulani rampage before now were backing toward us avoiding the inevitable for as long as they could draw a breath in seconds the sheer weight of them would sweep us all over the edge our only remote chance of survival was being well down the cliff face before people started falling in numbers I wasn’t the only person who’d resorted to this desperate idea on all sides of me people were looking for a way down I spotted Fox dragging a semi-conscious Derek shift toward the edge the one thing that could have stopped the Porrinyard s from doing the same with me was my own aversion to Heights which was not nearly as crippling as it had been when we’d met but still made a sheer rock wall a less than perfect place to seek safety needing another second to persuade themselves that there was no other choice