by L. K. Rigel
He joined them without asking, looking typically pleased with himself. "Jake, I just spoke with your mother."
"How?" Char said. Magda had been the Emperor's favorite concubine. The Space Junque had belonged to her, a gift from her lover. Char knew Magda and Geraldo had some kind of connection because Rani had stayed in Corcovado for some time when she was young. She had hated it here.
"Her fallout shelter has communications. There must be a satellite at least partially operating in orbit. She made contact with us minutes ago."
"Let's go." Jake was already on his feet. The light had returned to his eyes. "And then we'll go to the Pacific Zone."
The Space Junque was gone but they still had the orbit runner, which flew nearly as fast in the atmosphere as it had in orbit. Over the Atlantic, the air seemed relatively clean. The runner's instruments detected surprisingly low levels of radiation.
"What?" Jake said when Char chuckled to herself.
"I just prayed to Asherah that the air would be as clean over the Pacific Zone, and then I remembered what she said about prayers. I hope she doesn't smite me."
"If you had some beeswax, you could light a candle."
It felt so good to laugh.
Magda's estate was in New Melbourne, a remote and beautiful island out of the path of war. "She's on the roof." Using telescoping sunglasses, Char spotted Magda from a mile out. She was waving a red and yellow silk scarf.
"Is anyone with her? Can you see?"
"Two women -- and a small child."
"Jordana survived," Jake whispered. A tear slid down his cheek. "Rani's daughter."
He landed the runner and scooped the child up into his arms. Her eyes flashed a blue light, and she squealed with happiness.
"Let's get out of here," Magda said. "Too many ghosts."
"Ghosts?" It was hard to believe Magda was intolerant of ghosts when she obviously cared for Rani's daughter, a mutant.
"Not living ghosts," Magda said. "Memories. Shades of the dead. Everyone on the island seems to have caught apocalyptic hysteria and either killed each other or themselves. Except those two. I have no idea who they are."
The two unknown women took the passenger seats in the back of the runner. They were alive but in shock. Not ghosting, but not interested in talking either. Char sat with Magda and Jordana. The toddler was fascinated with Char's unnatural red hair and kept trying to grab it.
As Char had expected, Jake's mother was magnificent. She was in her early fifties and as beautiful as an older woman with adequate resources could be. More beautiful. Char had heard of mitochondrial repair, but until now she'd never believed the therapy was perfected. The rich and connected always get the good stuff first.
Magda's dark hair could be from coloring. It was her peaches and cream skin that gave her away. The wrinkles around her eyes were barely noticeable, her lips full and unlined.
To her surprise, Char wasn't intimidated. Magda reminded her of her own mother, a cold woman who never wanted children but had enjoyed them after they'd grown up.
"What is your name short for, my dear? You couldn't possibly have been named Char on purpose."
"Charybdis," Char answered. "And my twin sister's name is Scylla. We call her Sky."
Magda burst out laughing. Char felt completely comfortable with her.
Magda told Char about Jordana, a second-generation exotic. Unlike first-generation mutants whose hair fell out at puberty, Jordana had never had any body hair. No eyelashes or eyebrows. She was natural born, which made sense. As a mutant, even an exotic, Rani would never have been given a license for children.
A license. Who would issue licenses or enforce birthing laws now? Char looked out the window at the Pacific Ocean. "What's that?"
A fire like none she'd ever seen burned on the dead water below, an unnatural white-gold flame that consumed the agglomeration of plastic and oil and sludge. It covered the entire ocean with the exception of an occasional patch of sea.
When they reached land, the Pacific Zone was engulfed in the same fire. It gave off no smoke or heat but consumed everything it touched. Sky was down there somewhere, sealed in an underground vault designed to protect the Tesla project from nuclear war. There was nothing left to mark its location.
Char just hoped the vault would protect Sky from the gods' scourging blaze. For what else could fire like that be?
"We'll come back and find her, Char. I promise." Jake turned south. Ironic. The runner was made with Tesla technology.
This thing will go until it falls apart.
Well, it would go as long as solar wind existed. Considering all the recent violations of natural law, it wasn't a sure thing. Char took over the controls for the flight back so Jake could have a break and visit with his mother.
The fire burned until they were about twenty miles away from Corcovado. Char inhaled deeply and blew the breath out, trying to settle her stomach. She had been nauseous for the last hour. A sip from her bottle didn't help, even though it contained pure artesian water from the wells of Corcovado.
Mount Corcovado came into her shades' range. She used the slider to zoom in on the statue and get her bearings. Three white herons were perched on the statue's outstretched arms. They turned in one synchronized movement, as if they expected the runner. As if they could see this far out.
Those herons were always creepy.
On the south beach, divers were bringing up salvage from the bay where the Space Junque had crashed. The recovery of its supplies and hydroponics equipment had finally begun.
Char focused on one of the storage bins. Good. Then another. Good. Another. A huge relief -- the bins were intact. From what she'd seen on this trip, saving the seed in those bins was a godsend.
Godsend. Cripes, Jake had joked that the word could be used literally now. He was right.
What did it matter, saving seed for crops, if all the human seed was destroyed in that bizarre fire? There might not even be any hospitals left, and if that fire burned the world over and destroyed all eggs on deposit, there weren't going to be any more children anyway.
Asherah had said she would save the human race. She'd better not be counting on nine little girls who still had to grow up.
Using the slider made Char's nausea worse. As soon as they were close enough for bare eyes, she took the shades off. A little better. She would still need Jake to take over for landing. It was quiet back there. Jake was staring out his window, a tired smile on his face. Jordana had finally fallen asleep in his arms. Magda had been asleep for hours.
"Cripes!" Char jerked the runner in an evasive maneuver. She'd almost hit something, a heron or seagull. Another wave of nausea rolled over her.
"Hey, Meadowlark, do you need a real pilot up there?" Jake actually laughed. Her hero to the rescue. He took Char's seat and guided the runner past Corcovado's sheer drop-off and to the tarmac behind the admin building.
Geraldo was waiting for them in the courtyard, his secretary and other hangers-on at hand. Durga was there, standing apart from Geraldo. The little warrior looked ready to start issuing orders, but when she saw Jordana her eyes lit up. The two-year-old toddled over, her eyes on Durga's hair.
Char stumbled over a loose tile. Geraldo steadied her, and she grimaced. Asherah had never appeared to him, but he was as much her tool as Char or Durga. He'd schemed for years to build a clean, pollution-free environment at Corcovado where fertile females could live. Sanguibahd, he called it. Blood city.
It wasn't that he had any respect or reverence for fertility. One time he had practically molested a cocktail server in front of Char. Rani had threatened to squish him like a fly. It was a mystery why Asherah would use such a shibdab.
Char really did feel awful. Her hands trembled and her jaw clattered. Oh, cripes. No, no, no. She knew this feeling. She crossed her arms in a self-hug, a shield in front of her chest.
Against her will her arms flung wide like The Redeemer, and her head bent forward. Her breathing accelerated into short ra
pid pants. She tried to slow it down, but it was like fighting against all the air in the world.
She rose off the ground. Not floating. Some force had lifted her. Was she leaving her body? Jake called to her, but he was so far away.
She hung suspended in the air, and a crowd poured into the courtyard. Her head jerked up. A voice not her own began to speak in her mouth. It was happening again. She could see the people below her, but she felt detached from time and space. Like watching a holofilm.
"My chalices are sacred; violate a chalice on pain of death…."
It went on for hours. Char channeled instructions from Asherah regarding what she called her chalices, females she would make fertile. She charged Durga to go out to the world as her emissary to collect the chalices and bring them to Corcovado.
The final words made Durga's status clear. "Behold, the child Durga has my favor. And though she will bear the mark of men, note well the mark of gods. Hear Durga and obey!"
The goddess released Char. Jake caught her as the world went black.
She woke up in her room. It was dark out, and quiet. She felt empty. Asherah was gone. Forever. Char knew then she would never see the goddess again. She was glad.
Jake was in a chair and bent over the bed, asleep. She rested her hand on his head. He would want a haircut, but she liked this loose, shaggy look. Durga sat nearby on top of the blanket. Her face was puffy, and she drew a sharp breath when she saw Char was awake.
"Don't die!"
Poor earnest Durga. It would be funny, if she hadn't said the same thing to Rani. "Your eyes are as red as your hair, little warrior."
"That's what Rani called me."
"It fits." Char sat up and fluffed the pillow behind her back. She felt drained of strength, but otherwise much better. The shibbing nausea was gone. "I don't know why Asherah used me as her messenger if you're The Chosen One."
"After last time, she thought I was too small and I might die."
Char laughed. "I suppose I am The Expendable One."
Durga's pained look told Char all she needed to know.
"Don't worry, Durga. I know I won't be fertile. You have your spider, and the other girls have all been given a symbol, right?"
"Asherah whispered it in their ears. Their totem, to guide them on their journey as chalices."
"Exactly." Char was happy to be left out of the chalice business. She had never in a million years wanted to have a child naturally. It sounded messy and dangerous, and the idea of doing it for gods and humanity was creepy.
But she also knew she'd been excluded from something extraordinary. "Asherah didn't whisper a totem in my ear, Durga. I am expendable."
"I'm sorry, Char."
"I'm not."
Jake stirred, and Char ran her fingers through his hair. This was happiness. To love Jake, and be loved by him. She was glad to be free. "Asherah is finished with me, Durga. I've served my purpose. She's done with me, and I'm done with her."
"Don't say that." Durga's eyes were huge with love and fear.
"From this moment, I reclaim my life. I will live for myself and for those I love. And if Asherah doesn't like it, she can smite me."
Raptor and Chalice
Now
Cripes, it was cold this morning. Jake's settlement in the New Central Pacific Zone was always cold compared to Corcovado. Char moved out of the wind, onto the side path to the citadel's basement kitchens. Leaning against the wall, she pulled a lumpy snood from her bag.
The crocheted hat, a horrific blend of green, red, and blue hemp, was larger on one side than the other and had no brim. Jordana had made it especially for Char to hide her hair in, never mind the fact that Jordana didn't know how to crochet.
Char watched the common yard for Jake. He had stopped to pick up weapons from the armory for their trip outside the wall. Another search for Tesla. After eight years, Sky must be dead, but they still searched for the vault and the technology it contained.
And Char had to know. She had to see the body. What if Sky was alive? There were a million what ifs.
What if everybody in the vault had died except Sky, leaving enough food and water for one person to survive? What if, being scientists, they had extended the life support systems? What if a shibbing miracle happened? What else were the gods good for, now that they were back?
Char fingered her half-heart pendant. The other half of the heart might well dangle from a dead body, but until Char saw that body, the what ifs would never go away.
In the common yard, the cagers worked in the open. Crazy cagers. With hand axes, two cagers stripped birch trunks and branches into poles and cross-beams. Wiry but well-muscled, the two bantered with some other cagers who might be women, but they were so angular and lean it was hard to tell. A nice change from Corcovado, where sexuality permeated everything down to the molecules of the rocks.
Right. Who was she kidding? Since she arrived last week, she had had Jake in her bed every night. She couldn't get enough of him. These last few years, anything would put her in the mood. Watching cagers make boxes put her in the mood.
The women cagers bound the wood into a rectangular box, complete but for a roof. It wasn't big enough to hold a raptor. In Jake's design, the cages were meant to keep birds out. The men walked around in this one and aimed imaginary weapons at imaginary raptors while the women laughed and admired their pantomimed prowess.
A few feet away, a lone woman knotted rope into a lattice-like net. The cage's roof. She was eerily thin, skeletal compared to the cagers. Her bald head was uncovered, but she didn't seem to mind the cold weather any more than she minded the cagers' cold indifference. As if she and the net were all that existed.
She was a ghost who'd come in from the wild.
By some counts, roughly one-fifth of the world's population had survived Samael's fire, and among the survivors were some ghosts. Because they rarely ate, the ghosts who did escape the fire easily made it through the post-cataclysm famine. Jake had recently discovered that ghosting's apathy could be fought. The woman making the net was coming back to a communal life one knot at a time. A herculean labor, harder than taking on a raptor with nothing but a longbow.
Cripes! A wagon loaded with produce narrowly missed the ghost woman and headed toward Char. She backed up toward the citadel. It swerved and lurched to a halt, losing the carrots that were piled on the potatoes.
The driver scrambled to the ground, frantic to unhitch the horse. "Don't you see them?"
Fear rippled through her, and she scanned the clouds in the east. Nothing there, but he could only mean raptors.
The driver dragged the horse by its bridle toward Char. "Get up against the wall!" He checked his anger when he noticed her fine clothes. Then he saw her face, and his eyes widened with full recognition—though her odd cap seemed to befuddle him.
She put a hand to the cap. It was in place, but a strand of hair had escaped. Shib. When people in the world saw her hair they inevitably bombarded her with questions. Have you actually seen the goddess? What is Durga really like? Is it true she can [insert preposterous superpower here]?
And the one Char hated the most: Why didn't Asherah make you a chalice?
"A blessing, my lady!" The man seemed torn between flattening himself against the wall and prostrating himself at Char's feet.
Cripes, cripes, cripes. She glanced at the common. The cagers had disappeared. One of the women was just ducking through a perimeter wall door. The ghost woman still sat on the ground working her net, oblivious to the danger.
"Please, my lady. The favor of a blessing. My wife and I are expecting. Could I be so bold as to touch your hair?"
"Be quiet, citizen."
Shibad. The world had gone from believing in nothing to believing in everything. One touch of "Asherah's hair" could cure a fever, prevent an Empani from reading your mind, and ensure a healthy bagger. Char had heard of countless other fancies.
The first scream echoed over the common, and the driver forgot about t
he hair. Eagles. Not the worst—that would be peregrines. At least with eagles, you knew they were coming. The sky was still clear, but Char's heart about pounded out of her chest with fear.
Every part of her wanted to stay with the driver flat against the wall, but she couldn't let the ghost woman be taken. She'd seen a raptor feed its young the warm intestines of its still-living prey.
"Do you have a bow?"
The driver was lost to her. His eyes were jammed shut, and he was moving his lips—the kind of prayer Asherah especially despised. At least he tried to save his horse.
Char forced her legs to move. Another scream sent adrenaline coursing through her body and gave her some speed. There was more than one bird, and they were close.
"Char, catch!" Thank Asherah! Jake was in the common. He tossed a crossbow that hit the ground ahead of her, and she scooped it up on the run. It was loaded. Another scream, an angry one. Jake had hit a bird.
Char raised the crossbow and fired. The quarrel would be poisoned. If she could paralyze a leg, it wouldn't be able to grab.
Years of training with chalices at Corcovado kicked in. She bent down, slipped her arm around the ghost woman's waist, lifted her off the ground, and kept running for the closest door in the perimeter wall. Now that she was reasonably sure she wasn't going to die, it was all a bit thrilling.
The tower bells erupted in a furious clang, clang, clang. Char put the woman down and said stay. Jake was halfway up the stairs. She followed him up into the cages bolted to the top of the wall and loaded another quarrel.
An eagle hit by a shot from the cage guard let out an enraged cry and let go of its prey, which landed on slate tiles in the common with a thud and crack of snapping bones.
Aiming through the cage's net roof, Char sent the quarrel flying. It struck the bird's throat, and the quick-acting poison did its work on the raptor's nervous system. Wings spanning some forty feet twisted and jerked in unnatural spasms. The raptor hit the ground outside the perimeter wall.