Hard Mettle

by John Hook

  Tweedledee, as I referred to whichever Azaroti I was alone with since I couldn’t tell them apart, stood next to me, froggy grin never changing. If they ever felt impatience, they never showed it. Finally, I felt like the image was solid in my mind. I nodded. I don’t think I even had time to finish my nod. I was standing alone in the basement.

  It was dark and cool. I scanned the darkness, but there was no one there. I raised my blue tattoos to give me some illumination. I could hear a commotion above, the noise traveling down the stairwell. I could just ignore it. That wasn’t why I had come here. Unfortunately, my curiosity about how they were handling this crisis got the better of me.

  I eased up the stairway. There was no one on the first floor and the sounds still seemed distant. Everything must be happening on the fourth and fifth floors. I kept close to the stairwell sides. I didn’t think I could surprise them; I just wanted them not to see me until the last minute. As I climbed closer, I could hear Bela’s voice from, I guessed, the fourth floor.

  “I don’t know how they did it. They overpowered me. These guys are smart.” I could hear the fear in his voice. I decided I needed to see what I could do to pull suspicion off Bela.

  I emerged confidently at the top of the stairway, not even trying to hide. In the hallway, Bela and the other two engineers were being constrained by three Shirks and being interrogated by a shirtless man with short hair, black eyes and the kind of grainy metal skin the Baron had sported. I guessed he was the new Shade and had been given the much-recycled metal talisman. He looked young and didn’t present much gravitas in how he held himself. He was acting at being tough. He didn’t really know how to do it. He had probably been very recently called in off the bench when Zara went missing. There was a fourth Shirk standing lazily behind the others and he was the one who saw me first. I saw his eyes widen. He pointed with his finger and his face contorted.

  “Oh, fuck… it’s you!”

  I beamed. “Wow, you know how long I’ve waited to have people’s first reaction to me be ‘Oh, fuck… it’s you’?”

  The Shade was clearly rattled by my showing up and I could see wheels turning behind his eyes. It wasn’t pretty. They turned pretty slowly. He was floating on his platform, which was a little absurd indoors, but he obviously believed he needed contact with the talisman to get his power. He shoved the Shirks back and veered over at me with two metal javelins forming in his hands. That just provided me with handholds. I sidestepped, planted my feet and grabbed both javelins, using them to spin him around off his platform and planted him into the wall. And I do mean into. Whatever the wall was made of shattered, almost swallowing him up. I looked at the Shirks in case they were thinking of helping out. They immediately backed up, freeing Bela and the others.

  The Shade was having trouble digging himself out because his body was so heavy. I shook my head. He returned to flesh and blood and I helped him out.

  “Listen, junior, I’d never work with these useless engineers. We smacked them around a little and just did as we pleased. I’ve got my own engineers. Now tell me who is really in charge here. Where’s the Angel?”

  The Shade was caught between humiliation and rage, but he didn’t know quite what to do. He puffed out his chest and went for acting defiant in the way a toddler who knows he’s powerless acts.

  “The Angel isn’t here. But the Manitor is!” He smiled as if he had just pulled out an ace.

  “Good. Where is he?”

  “Upstairs.”

  “How convenient, thank you.” I patted the Shade on the side of his face. “I suggest you get some practice before you take another run at me.”

  “Count on it,” he said with frustration-fueled emphasis. Where did they get these guys?

  I looked at Bela. I instantly saw the fear in his face that I would say something that would confirm that he had helped me. Instead I mustered my most serious, threating face I could manage. Izzy would have giggled if he had seen it.

  “The next time you try to interfere with what I’m doing I won’t bother just getting you out of the way. I’ll just turn you into a proto. Do I make myself clear?”

  I didn’t wait for an answer. I knew it would take Bela too long to figure out what I had just done. I ignored the Shade and headed upstairs.

  I came into Adaxa’s chamber. Only one figure stood there, his back turned, wearing a robe of brown trimmed in green. I could tell from behind that he had an animal head, but I couldn’t tell what it was.

  “So you have returned.” It was a voice in my head, but seemed deep and resonant.

  The Manitor slowly turned. Like Guido, he was very large and broad shouldered. His head was that of a boar, although I wasn’t knowledgeable enough to know what variety, or if this was a species unique to Hell. The skin was gray brown with wiry hair in wild irregular tufts. He had a long snout with a flat nose and a tangle of sharp tusks on either side.

  “Boy, they didn’t spare any ugly when they came up with you.”

  “The manners of Kanarchan’s irresponsible pup don’t concern me right now. What have you done with Adaxa?”

  “I don’t know where she is. Apparently she doesn’t trust any of us. Not terribly surprising.”

  “You are a meddler in things you don’t understand.”

  “I doubt I would meddle less if I did. However, if you want to be rid of me, free Kanarchan.” I used Guido’s real name for the Manitor’s benefit, but he would always be Guido to me.

  The Manitor didn’t say anything for a moment. It was hard looking into that face. The dog head at least gave Guido an amount of humor and slyness. This Manitor just seemed vicious, but weary as well. It was an odd combination.

  “I suspect you know as well as I that Kanarchan cannot be freed without the power which she controls.”

  “Where do you think she would go?”

  He didn’t answer. I didn’t think he would. I assumed all Manitors were like Guido. Not big on speaking, at least in ways that were understandable by us.

  “I won’t quit until I free Kanarchan.”

  He nodded but still didn’t say anything.

  “Are you going to try and stop me?”

  “When we have a way to secure your power, we will stop you.”

  I thought about that for a minute and then changed the subject.

  “Why are you doing this to Kanarchan?”

  “The Angels are punishing him.”

  “The Angels. The Angels. I keep hearing about the Angels, but they aren’t around much. Why are you cooperating? Why not work with Kanarchan?”

  “The Angels gave us the council and were willing to leave us alone. Kanarchan wouldn’t accept it. He didn’t understand that the old ways no longer had value. The Angels will get what they want. We who are loyal will be safe.”

  “Not from me you won’t.”

  “You know I have the power to end this for you right now.”

  “Power, maybe. Authority, no.”

  “It’s unfortunate. You could have carved out safety for yourself and your friends. You still could.”

  “Just give up my power.”

  I turned and headed for the door. I turned back and looked one more time.

  “See you around.”

  He said nothing. I left.

  I found Manitors hard to fathom, although the only one I had gotten a chance to know was Guido. They seemed like powerful beings that no longer had much real ability to affect things. It was as if the Angels took over their domains but allowed them to operate with limits. Or deals, as Guido always talked about. There was a faded grace about Manitors. They didn’t seem petty or evil like the Shades that served them. That relationship seemed to be one of the deals. But the Manitors seemed to be once magnificent, now fallen beings that served at the pleasure of the Angels. Not an alliance, but resented servitude. Some, like the boar head, tried to make the best of it. Others, Guido in particular, were looking for a means to reverse the tide. He must have seen in our little band the possibil
ity of doing that. That’s why he befriended us.

  What I couldn’t figure out about the ones who chose to collaborate with the Angels was why they thought they would be spared in the end. Why would the Angels, set on remaking our universe in a form hostile to our life, care enough to let them live? They struck me as smarter than that, but I really had no idea how their minds worked. Even Guido. They were as alien as the Angels.

  I made my way downstairs. Most everyone had cleared out and no one tried to follow me. I wondered if maybe they were hoping I would find Adaxa for them. Maybe, but they had the ongoing dilemma. They wanted what I had but couldn’t take it. They also had the sword and I suspected if that were completed, they might no longer need my power. I smiled. They would have to deal with Black Angel Rox. My money was on her. Unfortunately, I also had to deal with her, and probably before they would.

  I continued down the stairs into the basement, where I began. In fact, it had been my true destination. I raised my blue tattoos to light up the darkness and crossed to the vault-like door. Izzy and I hadn’t resealed it. I swung the heavy door open and walked into the cave passage. I wandered through the cavern as it expanded. Up ahead I could see the faint light. At last I stood on the precipice overlooking the deep chasm where the light projected from.

  I looked behind me. I don’t know why. I didn’t think anyone had followed me. I was probably stalling, hoping that a plan would occur to me rather than the vague ideas of what I wanted to do that were rolling around like stones I was trying to polish. I studied the darkness in the distance on the far side of the chasm. There might be the rest of the tunnel over there. I could easily float across the divide if I ever needed to see where it went. Maybe there were other underground cities like Chadikar. Maybe the light below was from an underground city. However, from what Bela said, I knew it wasn’t. It was some kind of life capsule for the Angels.

  Apparently, the Angels had a hard time sustaining themselves in the physics of our universe. I had to guess the same would be true for us in the physics of theirs. That’s why their getting what they wanted with the sword—to recreate this universe in the way they needed it to be—would be disastrous for us. I was guessing that there was something about the Angel form that allowed them to sustain exposure to our world in brief encounters. The question I had was whether there was something I could do with my blue power—with my ability to make local changes in molecular structure and shape the world with stories—that would allow me to briefly inhabit their environment. If I could learn how to do it in this small life capsule, maybe I could do it with the bigger one Bela alluded to.

  Of course, I didn’t know how to do this. Still, the idea that I could strike directly at the Angels was too tempting.

  I felt something rub against my leg and looked down, startled. Rooni looked up at me. I didn’t need a translation for that expression.

  “There you are. Keeping your eyes on the Angels or me?”

  Rooni continued to glare back.

  “Maybe both. You don’t think I should go down there.”

  More glaring.

  “Can you communicate in that form other than the biting stuff? Because if I can’t have a real conversation, I’m not going to bother.”

  Rooni slunk away back into the shadows. I turned to look back at the chasm again. A voice startled me.

  “You really are a lot of work. I’m not sure why Saripha puts up with you.”

  I looked behind me and it was Rooni in the strange cat alien form I had seen once before. She had a large head that sloped to the back, a thin chest that curved to a ridge in front and legs that folded under and bowed slightly. It was like seeing what a cat might look like if it were a biped. She had done this once before to communicate with me when I had emerged from the mountain after my encounter with Rox and the sword.

  “You can’t talk as a cat?”

  “Of course not. Cats can’t talk.”

  “Yes, but you could do that mental projection stuff the demons do.”

  “Cats can’t do that, either. Limited cortex.” If an alien could sound impatient, she sounded like she was stuck trying to communicate with a very slow dullard.

  I shrugged. “Then why take that form?”

  “Are you always this trying?”

  “Usually. Answer the question.”

  “Cats seem to be the only species in this universe that can see the silver threads naturally, without any magical or technological augmentation.”

  “Silver threads?”

  I didn’t know if the alien could sigh, but she sat abruptly in a way that struck me as heaving a sigh. At first I thought she was going to extend her leg and lick her genitals. I was grateful to be wrong.

  “One of the critical structural elements that all the multiverses have in common are tiny strings that appear silver in color. They connect all energy fields and anything with mass and if you know how to harmonize yourself with them, as my race does, you can find the connections and move between universes, even.”

  I thought about that for a moment. Rooni was probably right to treat me as a dullard, because it seemed too cosmic to me.

  “The Angels have them, too?”

  “The Angels have what?”

  “Silver threads. Does their universe have silver threads?”

  “No. They are from outside our multiverse. They actually don’t have life.”

  “Wait. What?”

  “This is why stopping the Angels, as you call them, is so important. They are not seeking to shatter just your universe. They are seeking to remake the multiverse.”

  “Okay, I kind of get that, but what was this about not having life?”

  “They are not truly alive. They are energy contained within an inorganic body. When they found a flaw that allowed them to pass through to our multiverse, they encountered life for the first time.”

  “So what, they are jealous of life and want to take that away from us?”

  Rooni stared at me for a moment, maybe trying to figure out how to make it simple enough for me.

  “They don’t care. They don’t even see the connectedness of all biological life. They simply want to remake our multiverse so that there is no life here, either.”

  “The angel appearance allows them to survive our conditions.”

  “For a short time. The form is like a glamour, but woven from the life force of the race they slaughtered and stole it from.”

  “How do you know all this?”

  “The original “‘Angels”’ were a highly evolved race that were nearing the point where they no longer needed physical bodies. Because my kind could travel the silver threads, we acted as energy couriers. When the Idiri entered our multiverse, they wiped out both races. Only those of my race who were on a courier mission survived. I have been hunting for someone who could stop them ever since.”

  “And you found…”

  “Saripha. She is the center which has drawn many elements into her orbit, including you. I believe, with guidance, her group will change this.”

  “But you want the sword destroyed.”

  “The sword is not a solution to anything. Whether wielded by the Idiri or the Black Angel, it will mean destruction for all. It is all the sword is capable of. Destruction.”

  “That Black Angel used to be the woman I love.”

  “They are both there. She is still there.”

  I looked at Rooni in her strange alien form and yet I still sensed the cat. It was hard feeling like you were holding a serious conversation with a cat.

  “That last fact is what is going to make destroying the sword a challenge. And why I’m trying everything else first.”

  “You want to try breaking into the nest below.”

  “Bingo.”

  “You’ll die.”

  “Says you. Won’t be the first time I was supposed to die.”

  “You are going to do it no matter what I say.”

  “I have to. And I can’t trust you. I haven’t figured
out your agenda yet.”

  With that I turned and stepped off into the chasm. I hovered for a moment, turning my attention inward, breathing, raising my blue power, letting it fill me. Then I began floating down. The sides of the chasm were sheer. Although every so often a break in the rocks would form a narrow shelf, there would be no way to climb between them. The sides were more like glass than rock. As I got closer and closer to the glow, it became brighter and even the yellow turned into to bleached white. Wherever I was going, it was deep.

  It was then I noticed that my mind was drifting, becoming a little woozy. I thought it odd, but didn’t do anything about it. I saw a fragment from a dream. Why was I thinking about the dream again? That was long before we went to Antanaria with Saripha. The dark blue girl with feathers in her hair surrounded by fire, enveloped by the Angel, the Black Angel, but now the fire had passed and the black smoldering wings had unfolded. The girl was safe but in a trance. I looked closer. Her eyes like liquid gold suddenly opened. I recognized those eyes.

  My strange hypnogogic state was interrupted by fiery pain. I felt like swarms of bugs were crawling up my legs, biting and stinging. I was surrounded by bright white light, but it was like looking through a mist. I briefly saw, below me, what looked like a clear sphere with two coffins inside, but I couldn’t make out details. Anything in the light appeared as silhouettes. Pain came over me in waves and I looked down.

  I was dissolving from the feet up.

  Then something was clutching me. It was Rooni, as alien, not cat. With a single, lithe motion, she seemed to effortlessly swing me up, sending me rocketing up the chasm. However, in doing so, Rooni traveled in the opposite direction, turning into a cat just before yowling in pain and dissolving into particles that were bleached white and disintegrated.