And All the Stars

by Andrea K Höst

  A different pair were trying to intercept the sprinters, gouging a channel into the bright green grass with a punch which knocked both women sideways. The one holding the light animal – dangling it by its ears – somehow angled her landing so that her shield bounced her toward the Spire. With a stumble, she ran into starry darkness.

  At the end of the muddy gouge her companion lay broken. She had been a short woman, maybe twenty, with dark braided hair and bronzed skin which set off the blue of the stain. The fine drizzle dewed her skin, and glimmered in the light of blooming wings.

  The Moth lifted, a slow undulation, and swam through the rain into the stars.

  "There's a leader board," Fisher said, and tilted the laptop so Madeleine could see a web page where a name had appeared in two different scripts, with the number 2 beside it. "That's the São Paulo clan." He paused, looking across at Noi, who was grey, lips set, and added: "You don't have to stay."

  "Yes, we do," she said. "They're showing us their limits. Their attacks."

  Madeleine stared at the screen, as the image shifted to another part of the golf course in Manila, to another group of Blues chasing long-eared balls of light. The second time a Blue died, the Moth seemed to be fatally wounded as well, emerging only to slump to the wet grass, colour leaching from its blue pattern. Other Blues were merely injured, and limped or were carried away, helped by Greens stationed near the cameras.

  The chase for the long-eared balls of light was quick, brutal and efficient. There were many more teams than balls, and soon the losers were returning to their home Spires, to face the widely varied reaction of their Cores. Two dozen corpses remained, human and alien, but it wasn't particularly comforting that most of the Moths had died with their hosts.

  "The garage," Madeleine said stiffly, when it seemed they were done. "Practice? If we use a look-out?"

  They looked at each other, then at the screen at another crumpled, discarded shell which had been a person, and nodded.

  Chapter Thirteen

  "You do not understand me, gentlemen," Pan said, throwing his head back. "I asked to be excused in case I should not be able to discharge my debt to all three; for Monsieur Athos has the right to kill me first, which must much diminish the face-value of your bill, Monsieur Porthos, and render yours almost null, Monsieur Aramis. And now, gentlemen, I repeat, excuse me, but on that account only, and—on guard!"

  Min made a by-play of drawing a sword, and wincing as if his shoulder was injured, but said: "When you please, monsieur," and then skipped backward as Pan feinted, fist out. Extra layers of clothing bulking their figures, they circled each other, throwing out finger-punches, and then firmer blows, not full strength, but enough that they had to set their feet or be knocked backward by their smoothly responsive shields.

  "The cardinal's Guards!" Emily called suddenly, and Min and Pan spun toward Madeleine and punched with dual force, and though Madeleine's shield automatically reacted to the punches, there was no way to keep her footing and she struggled to bring up a second shield at the right strength before she collided with one of the support pillars.

  Bouncing forward, she stumbled and dropped to padded knees, but managed to counter-punch at Min and Pan both, since they'd foolishly clumped together. Min dived to one side, leaving only Pan to be slammed into a car door. The glass had been smashed in an earlier bout, but this time metal crumpled.

  "All right, Pan?" Nash asked from the east lookout post, as Madeleine held her hands out in the 'no attack' signal.

  "Yeah." Pan stepped out of the concave imprint he'd made. "I managed not to bounce! Though I'm not sure if I can claim credit, or if I just hit the right point between too hard and too soft. You weren't holding back as much that time, Maddie."

  "Meant to only step up a notch," Madeleine said, shakily. "But I think I'm getting a little better at judging." Hopefully she'd improve before accidentally killing someone.

  "Rest and then we'll swap to Emily and Fisher for a final bout," Noi said from the west lookout, and Madeleine obediently plopped down near the entry gate. Min plucked an invisible hat from his head, dipping into an elaborate, hat-twirling bow, and joined her.

  It was the fourth practice session. The garage under the North Building was suitably isolated, entirely separate from the main apartment, with only one perforated metal entry gate and a few ventilation shutters offering anyone a chance of seeing what was happening. And for that they would need to walk most of the way down the wharf and peer into the gloom of the garage.

  The first day, upset and angry, they'd done little more than peck at each other, limited by the unforgiving concrete and steel environment, and recognising an added hurdle: for all its privacy, the garage was cramped by a half dozen cars – and their alarms. But as dusk came on, they risked moving several out to the visitor parking between the two buildings, and disconnected the batteries of the remainder, disabling the alarms.

  During the second session Pan had started turning their attempts to learn into a game, switching through an endless stream of fight scenes – Hamlet, The Princess Bride, The Empire Strikes Back, Monty Python – and falling frequently back on an evolving Blue Musketeer persona. It wasn't till the third session that Madeleine realised that Pan was as intent on distracting everyone else as he was trying to make himself feel better. They were all facing the gap between their current abilities and those displayed during the Manila challenge, and trying to believe they had some hope.

  "We're getting better at blocking physical impacts, at least," she said, loud enough for the two lookouts to hear. "And not paralysing ourselves when we try to shield-stun someone else."

  "I wish we could practice in a park," Emily said. "So we didn't have to keep worrying about bouncing into the ceiling."

  "Or through it." Pan grinned up at a circular impact mark. "Too much pixie dust, Tink."

  "I think I'll nap before the next challenge," Madeleine added. "And take the late night watch."

  "I'll take early–" Nash began.

  "Down! Move!"

  Noi, eyes wide, hurled herself from her lookout position at the westernmost ventilation shutter. They scrambled to their feet, hurrying for shelter behind pillars and cars.

  Too late, and pointless beside. The glowing thing which leapt against the entry gate clearly knew exactly where they were. It made a huffing noise which had something of the whine of a jet engine to it, and the metal bars shuddered

  "The Hell is that?" Pan asked, abandoning attempts to hide.

  The thing huffed again, and scrabbled. It stood a little taller than a person, the head long, tapering and bony, topped with two trailing streamers of light which suggested ears. At the front it had streamer-fluffed claws, but its rear was elongated, and curled on itself: a sea serpent's tail.

  "Let it in," Fisher said.

  "Have you lost your mind?!" Min asked, backing rapidly away from the gate. "We can't let that thing in here!"

  "We can't let it go away either."

  "He's right," Noi said. "Maddie, brace yourself against the rear wall so it sees you first. Everyone else to either side. Try not to force punch wildly or we'll have the building down. Nash, close the gate after it, then stay back."

  Nash, nearest the controls, gave Fisher and Noi a sharp look, then pressed the manual release.

  "Oh damn," Pan said, then ducked to one side as the gate tried to lift, and slowed as it hit the glowing creature outside. "I don't think we're ready for this."

  Madeleine was sure she wasn't, but seeing no other option she dashed to the rear wall of the garage, and set her back to it. She'd barely turned before the gate had lifted enough for the thing to duck under. It raced straight at her, a galloping motion made strange by the twining tail, which undulated above the ground as if it swam through water. She hastily brought up her shield, unwilling to rely on any automatic response, struggling for control. This was impossibly different to mock duelling with Blue Musketeers.

  As it neared her the thing reared, mouth gaping
, then pounced forward, the impact driving her into the concrete even as the shield bounced it away. Immediately it surged at her again, at a slower speed which didn't produce the bounce reaction, and she gasped at the weight of it, pressing both the shield and her into the wall.

  "Try knocking it down with shields while it's occupied with Maddie," Pan said, racing up.

  Fitting action to words, he immediately shield-smashed the glowing creature, but rebounded from the contact. Then the coiling tail lashed toward him, a crunching slam only avoided by frantic rolling.

  "Everyone stand to this side of it," Min said. "Then all low-level punch at once. That might do it without sending it through a wall."

  "Hold fast, Maddie," Noi called, as they scrambled. "If it gets too much, try to knock it back."

  Maintaining the shield for a long period required concentration, and Madeleine was starting out tired from training, but at least its interest in her gave everyone a chance to gather together out of tail-lashing distance.

  "Get ready to move if this doesn't work," Fisher said. "Go."

  All the punches together made a whoomping noise, and the creature did seem to feel it, twisting sideways. But then, glowing brighter than ever, it leaped back at Madeleine, its jet engine howl increasing in intensity.

  "I think you made it stronger!" Madeleine gasped, as she was again slammed backward into the wall, not daring to cushion with a shield in case it bounced her forward. Unable to stand the weight, she pushed out with the front shield, glad she'd put a lot of practice into not paralysing herself, and took a relieved breath when she succeeded in jolting the glow-monster a few feet away.

  "If shields cause rebound when struck quickly, move in slow," Fisher said rapidly.

  "Surround it and all press in," Noi agreed.

  "Nash, come when we have it pinned," Fisher added, and Madeleine couldn't understand why, but had to focus on keeping her shield up as the glow-monster came at her again.

  It seemed to be trying to knock her to the ground and with its increased strength Madeleine was not only being pushed into the wall, but she could feel the glow-monster getting closer, making gradual progress through her shield.

  "Set your feet," Min warned, and then rocked backward as his attempt to pin the thing's tail was only partially successful.

  Nash ran up. Madeleine still hadn't understood what he was expected to do, since, while he could shield and punch a little, he was vastly weaker, and tended to collapse almost immediately. He couldn't use the precious energy he drew from them to fight.

  But that, of course, was the answer, and Nash had thought through Fisher's reasoning quicker than Madeleine. Squeezing between Noi and Pan, he set both hands to the thing's heaving side.

  The reaction was immediate: frantic thrashing threatening to hurl them in every direction. Fisher and Pan, the weakest among them, stumbled, but pressed in again.

  "Hold firm," Noi gasped as the thing's howling cry scaled up to painful intensity, enough to make them want to stop everything in favour of covering ears.

  "Too much." Nash was blazing, his palms and the stars which covered the back of his neck burning pinpoints.

  "Vent," Fisher told him tersely. "Go outside and punch over the water."

  Nash ran, the necessity of re-opening the garage door slowing him down. But once he was out, he had a clear shot east.

  "Hurry!" Pan called, as the glow-monster heaved back from Madeleine, trying to escape, to push against the weakest shields. Emily and Min fell, and the tail lashed, swiping Fisher, who ricocheted into the nearest car, and Madeleine gasped aloud, but saw he'd managed to shield himself against the impact.

  Noi and Pan dived on the tail, pinning it to the ground between them, but they weren't usefully braced. They'd been able to keep it in place when it had her against the wall and they'd surrounded it and pushed in, but now that it was loose there was no way any of them could hold it without being knocked away.

  "Push down on it and use another shield against the ceiling!" Min was already attempting to put his words into action, but it was definitely something easier said than done. With a startled shout, he ended up bouncing sideways, and water began spraying from the fire sprinklers.

  Not trusting herself with such a difficult manoeuvre, Madeleine ran for Nash, barely beating the glow-monster's attempt to run right over him. With no time for explanations, she simply spun and shield-punched the thing toward the car with the Pan-sized dint in its side, the impact catapulting her backward.

  "Pin it! Pin it!" Pan ran forward, and the others joined him, holding the creature against the car so Nash could risk approaching. Madeleine ran to join them, keeping it still as it frantically tried to escape Nash's touch.

  It collapsed.

  The transition was so swift that most of them went down with it, falling to puffing heaps around a thing which now glowed no more than a paper lantern. A lantern the size of a small car.

  "Is – is it properly dead?" Emily whispered.

  "I think so." Nash, stars bright, pressed his hand against the thing's neck, then started back when his fingers sank into the glowing surface. "It doesn't have – it's like it's turned to mud. Less than that. Fog."

  "It looks like a dead jellyfish," Pan said. "Which is a step down from the 'mermaid called Rover' thing it started with." He grimaced, and wiped at the water running into his eyes. "We beat one of these things. We know now that we can fight back. Why the hell aren't I cheering?"

  "We don't even know what this is," Min pointed out. "Our problem is the Moths. Whole different ball game."

  "It's familiar in an odd way," Madeleine said. "I know I've never seen it before, but I felt like I had."

  "The balls with ears from the first challenge," Noi said, using Pan's shoulder to lever herself to her feet. "Come on, we can't just sit here in a puddle. Nash, go see if you can spot anyone coming down the wharf. Everyone else, there have to be controls to shut these sprinklers off."

  Fisher, next to his feet, held a hand down for Madeleine, and waited to check she could stay up. Then they paused to stare at the thing they'd just killed. It did remind Madeleine a little of the targets from the Manila challenge, but a car-sized doggy mermaid was a long way from a soccer ball with ears and paws. Related species? Parent? She puzzled over it while they hunted for a way to shut down the broken sprinkler system without cutting off water to the entire building.

  "No sign of any movement on either side," Nash said, jogging back to the garage entrance just as they succeeded in stopping the flow. "Why alone? It seemed to know where we were."

  "Maybe it's some kind of Blue tracker," Min suggested. "Able to smell us or hear us or something."

  "Doesn't explain why they'd let it gallop off to leap on us alone," Noi said, then shivered and shook her head, a few drops of water spraying from damp curls. "Speculate later. Right now we have a big glowing corpse, no obvious Moths, and a huge decision."

  "Stay or leave." Fisher said.

  "At sunset, while cold and wet. When the only one of us not exhausted is Nash." Noi ticked the obstacles off. "Not necessarily insurmountable. We've talked about Goat Island as a possibility. We have boats and have downloaded harbour charts, and it's a straightforward enough trip. We could probably get there in the dark without running into anything. But for all we know Goat Island is where they keep their flying snake, so condition unknown. And it's one of the few largish islands in the harbour, so a bit obvious as a hiding place. That's the question of leaving – what about staying?"

  "The gamble is whether they have another Rover," Min said. "If, that is, the thing really could track us. They obviously haven't been able to before now, or our pyjama party would have been over days ago. If we're to believe the internet chatter, the Moths don't know when Blues are hiding nearby. This building has been cleared already, and the hidden room and webcams are seriously hard to give up, so long as we think this Rover is the only Rover. The problem with staying is that." He nodded at the corpse, large and obvious in t
he fading light. "We could risk using the garage because it's dim and sheltered and there's little chance anyone will go in it to notice any damage. The glow from that thing is a neon sign marking the start point of any hunt."

  "Staying or leaving, we need to get rid of it," Fisher said.

  "True enough." Noi's stomach growled, announcing another issue they needed to deal with, and soon. "Right. Fisher, grab the laptop and see if you can dig up any other sightings of Rovers. Nash, Pan, take lookout either side. We'll try to push it into the water."

  The yielding, insubstantial mass would only shift when thumped with a shield, and by the time they had knocked it out of the garage and then chivvied it to the navy base side of the wharf, all Madeleine could think of was food and rest.

  The lantern glow of monster sank below the surface, and they went inside to eat and decide what next.

  Chapter Fourteen

  A chorus of breathing in a room lit only by the flicker of computer screens. Madeleine shifted, warm beneath a blanket, bracketed by sleeping people. Her back hurt.

  With no sign of Moths following Rover, and everyone but Nash close to dropping where they stood, the decision to stay or leave had been a forgone conclusion. As a precaution they were all spending the night in the hidden study. While his fellow Musketeers filled their stomachs, Nash had shifted the computer to the top of the filing cabinet and removed the simple desk, creating a little more room. Then he'd been stuck with a lot of cleaning up, as everyone else focused on getting warm and dry before curling up to sleep and digest. The extremes of the Blue metabolism.

  Madeleine had gone to sleep propped between Noi and Emily, but, drifting awake, she could see Nash sitting beneath the window with a laptop, and Noi curled next to the sprawling pile which was Min and Pan. The shoulder she was tucked against belonged to Fisher.

  Noi had most likely contrived the swap during a bathroom excursion, and Madeleine decided to be grateful, to enjoy the moment. Fisher had continued to provide a fascinated audience during the portrait sittings, helping her clean up afterwards. Today – yesterday – they'd spent all of the time between the sitting and late afternoon training chatting. He'd avoided talking about himself, instead drawing her out on what still needed to be done on the new portrait, and the chances of a young unknown winning the Archibald Prize, and all her hopes for being able to study full time, to not need to compromise between what she wanted to do and what was likely to earn her a living. About scholarships, and the gaps in her portfolio. She hadn't meant to talk so much, but Fisher was a good listener, and so interested.