by Jack Conner
“I so swear,” she said.
“Then I pronounce you man and wife, emperor and empress, from now unto the end of your days. Lord Jered, you may kiss the empress.”
He kissed on her on the cheek, and she accepted it with a small smile. The crowd went aww. The band started, girls threw flowers and crushed crab-shells in the aisle, and Jered and Ani, preceded by Empress-Regent Issia, made their way down the lane, crackling the shells as they went. Avery saw that Layanna was smiling and even a bit misty-eyed, which surprised him. He wondered what her strange R’lothan wedding to Davic had been like. That would have been long ago, back before either wore a human form. Had there even been a wedding? If so, Avery imagined it must be accompanied by a thousand screaming sacrifices to the bride and groom. He shivered, then readied himself to face the press. He and the others in the front row would go next, and so on, and the principals would address the press briefly, at which point Ani and Jered would pose for photographs.
That’s what was meant to happen. Instead, before Ani and Jered could even leave the room, the distant sound of bombs filtered through the windows. Bursts of light flickered in the darkness of the rainy day, but this time the light was not caused by lightning.
Frightened murmuring rose from the guests.
“What now?” said Hildra.
A runner darted in, whispered in the ear of General Stresgil, Empress Issia’s chief military staffer. His face turned grim, and he conferred with Issia. The whole gathering muttered fearfully and drew to the windows. Blooms of fire dotted the section of the city closest to the harbor. The stained-glass windows didn’t reveal much, but they showed the progression of destruction; it was headed, very slowly, into the interior of the city.
“It’s the pirates,” Issia said, coming to Avery. “They’re attacking. Apparently they have a great number of land troops, and their airships are bombing their attack corridors before their advance.”
“Can you hold them?”
“I don’t know. They have strange weapons. Extradimensional, I’m told.”
“But they can’t have. The Device ...”
He turned to Layanna for answers. She and the others stood in a line beside him; Janx had opened one of the windows and was peering out, ignoring the stray drops of rain.
“Any extradimensional weapons along the frequencies gifted to Octung should be rendered null,” Layanna said.
“And those are the only such weapons?” Avery said.
“As far as I know, yes. At least, that are usable to your kind.”
“Then how … ?”
“I don’t know.”
“Come,” Issia said. “We must go to the War Room. Lord Avery, bring your people and have your admiral get on the line immediately to your ships. We’ll need them to strike with all due haste ... assuming, of course, that that’s your will.”
“Of course,” he said, trying not to show how shaken he was at the thought. It would be the first time he had ever sent soldiers into combat. But not the first time I’ve had men die for me. No, he thought. Quite enough had died already. But to order them to do so ...
Ani had come next to him, and she was, with a visible effort, restraining herself from wrapping her arms about him. She seemed strangely vulnerable without Hildebrand on her shoulder.
“Are we safe, Papa?”
“Of course,” Avery said, though the truth was he had no idea. “Come, all of you, let’s go to the War Room.”
“Even us?” Janx said, indicating himself and Hildra.
“You especially,” Avery said. “You’re the one with knowledge of Segrul’s tactics.”
As they filed out past the muttering nobles, who were still watching through the windows, Avery turned once to see Uthua, and Uthua’s black eyes were on Ani. Was this what the thing was waiting for, some distraction so that he could spirit her away? Avery decided to strike first.
Cautiously, he moved toward the great Collossum. As he did, he could feel reality twisting around him. His skin prickled, and electricity ran through the hair on his arms and chest, causing him to shudder.
Looking every inch a god, Uthua stared down at him. “What do you need, little man?”
Avery cleared his throat. “We’re on your side, you know.”
“How do you mean?”
“We’re trying to wake the Sleeper for you, after all.”
Uthua’s voice was grinding stone. “For ... me?”
Avery tried not to fidget. “For your people. If I can call them people.”
“I find that difficult to believe. You have some other motive.”
“It’s true,” Avery assured him. “That’s why I saved your life back in Xlatleb. That’s why I helped you on the Floating Fortress. I even helped carry you. We have the same goal, you and I.”
“Which is?”
“To enable you to reach the Monastery. That's your quest, isn’t it?”
Uthua said nothing for a long moment, and in the background cracked the sound of bombs. “Yes,” he said at last. “I was tasked with finding it. I find the Monastery and I save your pitiful race.”
Save us for supper. “Exactly. That’s why I’ve helped you so far. That’s why I will help you now. I know you’re plotting something, some way to steal Ani and get her to wake the Sleeper for you. I know losing Segrul and the pirates must have been a blow to your people.” When Uthua said nothing, Avery plowed on. “You don’t need to act against us. We can all work together for the same cause.”
In a low, dangerous voice, Uthua said, “You would have my trap ... work for you.” The hint of a smile curled his piscine lips up, just a little. “You are clever. I can almost forgive myself for allowing you to best me. Almost.”
Avery tried to resist loosening the collar of his tuxedo. The thing was incredibly stuffy and getting worse. He was horribly aware that the others had gone—no, Janx had remained, he saw gratefully, standing in the doorway staring at him and Uthua, backed by several soldiers. The whip-wielders had remained, too, or half of them. The other half had gone to make sure Layanna didn’t eat the Empress.
“Well?” Avery said. “Will you help me, Lord Uthua? Rather, will you let me help you?”
Energy snapped around the god-thing. Avery stumbled backward. Several guests gasped, and the soldiers bearing the venom weapons started to rush forward. Uthua simply stood there, however, malevolent and powerful, but for the moment still, and without tentacles. The guards stopped.
“You go to a council of war,” Uthua said, and nodded. “Yes, little man, take me with you.”
Avery blinked. “That’s impossible.”
“Then suffer Segrul’s assault without my aid.”
Chapter 5
“You’re fools,” Uthua said, rising from his seat. At the gesture, the many guards that had come with him tensed, raising their whips and cocking their lances. The Empress-Regent, Avery and the others stiffened as well. They all sat around the black, oblong table that was the centerpiece of the War Room, which was even darker and smokier than most of the other rooms. Much of the smoke was caused by incense burners trying to ferret out the presence of the mystery party. “Do you hear the sound of those bombs?” Uthua demanded. “They’re coming closer every moment you delay.”
Empress-Regent Issia stuck out her chin. “Lord Avery, your new friend is very vocal about matters that are not his to interfere in.”
In a deathly voice, Janx said, “He’s no friend of ours.”
Hildra touched Janx’s forearm, trying to calm him.
“Hear him out,” Avery said. “He represents both Octung and the R’loth. If he chooses to help us, he has great power to draw on.”
“None that could get here fast enough,” the Empress-Regent said.
Uthua grinned, revealing needle-like teeth. “I have some resources that could arrive ... very fast.”
The Empress-Regent drew back. “What do you mean by that?”
He only smiled, and Avery wondered if he should mention the ngv
andi mobilizing for war. It was one of the reasons he’d wanted Uthua here, after all. But he didn’t want to alarm the others, so instead he raised his hands, placating, and Uthua resumed his seat. The soldiers behind him relaxed, if only a fraction.
“I agree with Uthua on one point,” Avery said. “We have more pressing matters than managing this battle.” For the last twenty minutes they had been receiving word on the various sectors of the campaign, dealing with them each in turn. Janx had been of great help in predicting Segrul’s troop movements. Avery had ordered his naval fleet to begin the attack immediately, in concert with the Ysstral forces already gathered, but all feared it was too little and too late.
“What do you mean?” asked General Stresgil, leaning forward. “There can be no more pressing matter.” Spittle sprayed from his lips as he added, “Enemy troops are invading the capital!”
Janx smashed a fist down on the table, redirecting the general’s attention. “Watch your tone. Doc, you were sayin’.”
Avery swallowed. “Segrul’s forces are driving toward the Necropolis. With every breath, they’re getting closer.”
“So what?” said Hildra. “Fuck ‘em. Pardon,” she added to Ani and Jered, who huddled on the far side of the table. More subdued, Hildra said, “They can have the blasted Tomb. Without Ani they can’t do jack shit about it.”
“Yes, but what happens when they storm the Palace?” Uthua said, and there was a patient quality in his voice that chilled Avery.
“They would never,” said Issia. “We will throw them back long before then.”
General Stresgil consulted with a runner just entering, then lifted his head to address the Empress. “My lady, it seems there has been a development. The enemy has unleashed some new horror on our troops. Some creature of the sea.”
“Go on …”
“It is some sort of giant crustacean,” General Stresgil said. “It emits lightning. It … can melt people with its scream.”
Fearful muttering greeted this.
Avery traded a look with Layanna; she’d never seen the creatures, except as corpses, but he had certainly told her about the living specimens. “If they are what I think they are, I’ve dealt with these things before,” he told the group. “I think of them as atomic lobsters. I ... I had no idea anyone other than Octung could wield them. I suppose when the R’loth created their new fleet they gave it some of the toys of their old one.”
“We do not waste,” Uthua said, but his face was haggard. Even he seemed disturbed by the pirates’ attack. In fact, he appeared as unnerved over it as anyone here, even Issia, and Avery was certain that was because of what he’d said earlier; the R’loth did not know why the pirates had turned against them. They did not know what they wanted or who they served. And the enemy seemed to possess technology that not even the R’loth had.
“The creatures are sending our lines into disarray,” General Stresgil said. “The pirates advance behind them while our men run for cover. Meanwhile their zeppelins bombard us terribly.”
“What of the airships?” asked Admiral Vellis, at Avery’s side.
“Our own airships are countering theirs,” General Stresgil said, “and our anti-aircraft weapons are helping, too. But this new threat, these lobsters ...” He turned to the Empress-Regent. “My lady, I think it might be time to evacuate you and your people.”
“Never.”
“But—”
“Never, I said.” She squared her shoulders. Behind her steely eyes her mind was clearly spinning.
“They'll get your little girl,” Uthua told Avery. “There can be no stopping that. Not if you stay here hiding.”
“We are not hiding!” the Empress-Regent all but shouted. “We are directing the war effort.” She said it as if speaking to a child.
“We must fetch the Codex from my embassy, then reach the Tomb,” Avery said. “Wake the Sleeper before Segrul can reach it, or us. Rob him of his desire, and he’ll have no reason to attack. Perhaps the Sleeper can even help us repel him. Either way, it’s our best chance. Perhaps our only chance.” He stared at everyone around the table. “Now is the time. We must wake the Sleeper, or all is lost.”
Uthua’s black eyes glittered.
Slowly, the Empress-Regent inhaled a deep breath. “One does not leave the cover of thick walls in wartime if one can help it, and I find it difficult to believe that pirates, even supplied with such creatures and weapons, could—”
Before she could finish the sentence, a man burst into the room, looking sweaty and dazed. “Madam Empress! An Ysstral battalion is approaching the Palace!”
“A ... battalion ... ?”
The man, who wore the epaulets of general, nodded. “It’s Duke Leshillibn, Your Majesty. His forces beginning an assault on the Palace.”
Issia clenched a bony fist. “Traitor! He’s in league with the pirates!”
“We warned you,” Hildra said. “Told you he was in cahoots with the mystery party.”
Where was the mystery party? Avery wondered. He kept expecting them to pop out of thin air, but they kept refusing to so. The Palace grew too hostile for them, he supposed. With our smoke and lances, they can’t act here. But they will act somewhere before this is over, of that I have no doubt.
Empress-Regent Issia turned to Stresgil. “Can we hold back my brother-in-law?”
“Not with the forces we currently have, and we can’t draw more away from the battle.”
She made her decision. “Summon an armored convoy to take us first to the embassy, then the Necropolis.”
“Yes, Your Majesty. The Palace Guard should be able to hold the Duke off long enough for you to get away.”
So it was. Sneaking through tunnels below the Palace, they came to a secret garage while the sound of guns crashed above: the Duke was storming the Palace. At Hildra’s bidding, Avery had instructed a man to find Hildebrand and bring the monkey to a safe haven that Avery intended to use for his own party if they couldn’t return here. Five minutes later saw them barreling down the slick city streets in a convoy of armored cars, jeeps, tanks and troop transports. In the distance, but growing nearer, came the greater rattle of gunfire and the thud of bombs from the battle lines. Overhead Ysstral zeppelins and aeroplanes flew toward the conflict, scrolling past the spindly spider-leg flying buttresses of the more fantastic spires.
“This is insane,” Hildra said, fingering her hook. The Empress had given it back to her and supplied Janx his gun.
“It’s only gonna get worse,” Janx told her. “Who knows what’s in the Necropolis.” To Issia, he said, “Have the folk there been told Ani’s empress now?”
The Empress-Regent nodded. “They’re psychic beings and were able to observe the whole ceremony through the eyes of their representative.”
Rain spattered the windows, and Avery peered through it to the city beyond, noting the glowing pink and green and yellow moss that hugged the lower reaches of the black alien buildings. Snail herders shepherded their flock around to the sides of buildings and under canopies, away from where enemy troops might pass, and Avery marveled at the shellers’ dedication. Even now they were more worried about their beautifully-shelled animals than themselves. A few wealthy citizens slithered about the upper reaches of spires on their furred octopods, caught outside during the battle and trying to reach a place of safety. Police officers on their own octopods guided them.
A great crustacean lumbered by on the road, and for a moment Avery feared it was an atomic lobster, but then he noted its more crab-like aspect. A score of devotees of the Shell Lords wearing their usual brown or gray robes huddled under the creature, some gesturing for passers-by to seek shelter with them. There were many passers-by, Avery saw. Whole hordes of people flooded down the streets and alleys, away from the fighting. Some were bleeding or carrying wounded. One woman, her face scorched by a bomb, was screaming down at the bundle against her chest. By the agony in her face, Avery realized the baby must have been hit. Before he could tell if it li
ved, she fled past, along with scores of others. Avery’s heart went out to them.
“I’m sure they’re all right,” Issia said, and Avery turned to see her speaking to General Stresgil. The grizzled warrior was staring out at the pandemonium tensely, his knuckles white where they gripped his bony knees.
Stresgil didn’t reply at first, and Avery realized the man must be thinking of his own family. They would be out there somewhere in this chaos … if they still lived.
“I sent a vehicle for them,” he said at last, and he sounded as though he had to struggle to speak. “Just before we left I received word that it had been … damaged in the fighting. Rendered inoperable. The driver survived to call in. Fysal, Jon and Clia … I don’t know what they’ll do … if they’ll …” He cleared his throat roughly. “They were right in the path of invasion.” He mashed his eyes shut, and Avery was surprised see a drop of moisture roll down his aged cheeks. Of course, it was no wonder. Even then his family could be dying, or perhaps his wife and daughter were even then being raped by pirates or taken to be sold into slavery. It was not surprising that his face was ashen and his eyes hard when he finally opened them. He seemed to have aged ten years in ten minutes.
Jered hissed out a ragged breath. The youth was shifting in his seat, looking on edge. “Can’t this thing go any faster?” he said, and Avery sensed a touch of the spoiled prince in his tone. Just the same, Avery wished the limo could move faster, too.
The vehicles of the royal convoy forced their way through the streets, all but shoving aside other cars, but the traffic proved thick with drivers seeking safety, and the pedestrians crowded both sidewalk and street, navigating between the stopped or slowly-moving autos, which only made it slower going. Police vehicles had gone ahead to clear the way, but obviously they hadn't been successful. It was a madhouse, and the autos were progressing at a rapidly diminishing pace. Some drivers abandoned their vehicles to join the press of fleeing people.
“We’re going to have to get out and walk,” said Layanna, when the convoy rumbled to a halt.