by Jack Conner
Avery hunkered low, and heat washed over him. Debris rained down, peppering the black sea with sparks. He imagined Sheridan dragging herself out of the water on some dark shore and staring up at the fiery destruction, and he felt a wave of satisfaction.
Janx and Hildra whooped. Avery let out a breath and sagged against the gunwale. Layanna rested beside him.
The last lights of Cuithril faded behind them. There was no further pursuit.
* * *
They had made it. For a moment, Avery felt dizzy with relief. Then he thought of Ani, and something terrible came over him, a sort of gasping claustrophobia. The world contracted and spasmed around him. He had gone against Sheridan. If she still lived, then Avery had damned his own daughter.
“She’ll be fine,” Layanna said. Gently, she squeezed his shoulder.
“How did you know?”
“I heard what Sheridan said. Don’t worry. If it’s possible to help your daughter, we will.”
He opened his mouth to say something, but no words came out, and he realized there was nothing to say. The dirigible soared on.
Janx stared sadly behind them, and Avery could guess what he was thinking.
Hildra squeezed his arm. “You think Mu made it?”
Gripping the gunwale, Janx said nothing for a long moment, then: “The awful thing is, Hilly—I don’t even know if I want him to have.”
“He lives,” Layanna said. “If that is any comfort. Or at least his body does.”
“You sure?” said Hildra. “That blast—”
“Uthua wasn’t on the platform when the Temple fell. I can feel him.”
Janx’s face tightened. “I’d rather him be dead, darlin’, than that bastard wearing him.” His voice almost cracked on the word.
Trying to cheer him, Hildra said, “Uthua can wait, damn it all. We did it! Can you believe it? We ended the war. We saved the world.”
“Amazing,” Avery agreed. “It’s still hard to take in.”
Janx was silent for a moment longer, his eyes distant, but then he visibly shook off his grief. Dully, he said, “I wonder how long it’ll take before the last shot’s fired. A month? Two?”
“Six weeks,” Avery said. “I give it six weeks.”
Something glittered in Janx’s eyes. It wasn’t right up at the front, or overly bright, but it was there. “Is that ... a wager?”
Avery laughed, relieved. “I have just enough money to buy a cup of coffee, Janx.”
“Wanna double it?”
Throughout all this Layanna had been strangely silent, so much so that it began to grow conspicuous. Suddenly wary, Avery turned to her, and so did the others. Layanna could not meet their eyes.
“It’s over,” Janx said. “Right, honey?”
“It is,” Avery affirmed, then hesitated. “Isn’t it?”
Layanna sucked in a breath and let it out. Slowly, she said, “No. It’s not.”
Wind rattled over the gunwale, and Avery shivered.
Layanna visibly gathered her resolve. “I was able to establish a connection with them, but I was too late to warn them,” she said. “They were already being attacked as I transmitted the plans.” Grief stamped her face, and her voice fluttered. “Several died ...”
“I’m sorry,” Avery told her.
“All isn’t lost,” she said. “They believed they would be able to escape. To relocate. They’ve done it many times before, and they’ve been attacked more than once. But in the attack, a sound-bomb ... it poisoned them. All of them.”
Avery felt a wave of foreboding. He sagged backwards, hoping he was wrong. For some reason, he couldn’t speak.
Fortunately, Janx could: “And that means, what?”
A tear spilled down Layanna’s cheek. “Dying—they’re all dying.”
“Dear gods,” said Hildra. “After all this ...”
Avery felt as if he’d been punched in the gut. “But the Device ...” he said.
“Yes,” Layanna said. “I succeeded in passing the plans on to them. They believe they’ll have time to build it. It should be waiting for us. We did that much. We accomplished that much. It was worth it, all of it. Because of what we did today, the key to ending the war will be fashioned.” She watched them steadily. “But, because of Uthua, I’m afraid it may be up to us to do the unlocking.”
“Waiting for us,” Janx said.
“Yes,” Layanna nodded. “In Lusterqal. That’s where they are, of course, the Black Sect. The Device will be there if my friends can remain free long enough to build it. But it’s unlikely they’ll have the strength or time to activate it. Only one of my kind can do it. Soon ... soon I’ll be the only one left, at least with the will to see it done. The last of the Sect.”
“Well, godsdamn,” said Hildra.
Layanna met their eyes. “I doubt I’ll be able to make the journey alone. You ... you’ve proven your usefulness, time and again.”
“Hell,” said Hildra. “We can be less useful.”
There was a long silence. Hildra steered the dirigible around a low-hanging stalactite, then another. Janx frowned, and Avery’s head pounded. He wished he had a drink. Hildra could be heard to mutter, “Lusterqal! She wants us to go to the capital of Octung!”
Avery searched Layanna’s face, then the others’.
“We must see this through,” he said.
“Lusterqal’s deep in Octung, Doc,” Janx said. “Hundreds of miles away. And between here and there’s nothin’ but occupied territory and Octunggen vassal states. How’re we gonna get through?”
Avery smiled, but he could feel the strain in it. “Remember, these tunnels, they’re said to go beneath several countries, in various directions. Some are said to even go most of the way to Octung ...”
Janx and Hildra stared at him. Layanna looked relieved.
“You serious, Doc?” Janx said.
Avery nodded. “We could fly right under much of the danger.”
Janx and Hildra exchanged a long, grim look. Somewhere Hildebrand cooed mournfully.
“This blows,” said Hildra. She kicked the gunwale and said, “Well, shit. We’re still fugitives in Ghenisa, and Ungraessot’s out. Everywhere else is a battlefield. Hell, maybe the safest place to be is Octung.” But Avery could tell she didn’t really believe it. He didn’t.
“It won’t be easy,” Layanna said. “I won’t lie to you.”
Hildra grunted. “No. You would never do that.”
“I can’t speak for Hildra, Doc,” Janx said, “but I’m in. My friends died for this.” He raised his eyebrows. “And you’re still holding us to our oaths, I take it.”
“I ... I am,” Avery said. It was almost as if Janx had wanted him to say it.
“Then so be it,” Janx said.
Hildra rubbed something around her neck. Avery had never noticed it before, but he saw it now, perhaps because of Hildra’s preoccupation. It glimmered faintly of bronze, sharp and wicked and lethal. When Avery saw what it was, he nearly choked. It was Nancy. Hildra wore Janx’s old harpoon-head around her neck. The significance of that could not have been small. And yet they never spoke of it. Avery’s mind reeled.
“Alright,” Hildra said. “Fuck it. I’m in. To Octung we go. But don’t anybody expect me to like it.”
Avery swallowed, shaking off his surprise. “Good,” he said. “Then it’s settled.”
Layanna let out a deep sigh, and the dirigible sailed on into darkness.
Epilogue
Three weeks later Avery and the others ascended from the tunnels. They had passed under three countries, only coming up occasionally, and now were at the western edge of Lathralc. They stole up through the caverns, then the sewer, and out into the tangle of streets and alleys. They were in the city of Vunhydt, and the sun shown down on a fierce procession. Guns glittered and silver buttons caught the light as a military caravan trundled down the road, tank tires grinding loudly. Smoke belched up from the machines, and grim-faced Lathralcites watched the caravan pass from terraces over the
street. They looked starved, gray and terrified. How many of them had been taken in the night, how many to the reeducation centers designed to perpetuate the faith of the Collossum? How many had simply disappeared?
Hildra, familiar with the city, as she had once led a thieving life here, so she said, led Avery, Janx and Layanna up to the rooftops, and in silence they passed over the Octunggen-occupied town. In some courtyards Octunggen soldiers dragged prisoners into the open and tied them to posts. Firing squads formed up. The sounds of rifles cracked over the tiled roofs. In other courtyards Octunggen loaded up civilians to be transferred to some undisclosed destination. Some would doubtlessly be brainwashed or tortured for information about dissidents.
“I don’t understand,” Avery said. “I thought Lathralc was a vassal state to Octung.”
Layanna nodded. “Originally Octung pledged not to implement their harsher policies among their vassals, if only the countries would aid them in the war. Now, however, the war cannot be stopped, not by them.”
“So they lied.”
“They lied.”
Silent and ashen, the group passed over the city, and then out of it, into the rugged, pine-covered hills beyond. The hills separated Lathralc from Octung along this stretch of the border.
For hours they labored up the slopes, threading their way through dense pines and once evading an Octunggen patrol, until at last they reached a peak. Sweating and flushed, Avery paused to take in the view. Before him stretched another city, its buildings huge and monolithic. Bombers rumbled overhead, heading in formation outward, toward distant targets. Smoke belched up from factory after factory. Searchlights lanced the sky.
Layanna swept her arms. “Welcome to Octung.”
THE END
OF VOLUME ONE
OF
THE ATOMIC SEA
FROM THE AUTHOR:
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