As I went forward the light increased slowly. I was nearing an open place. When I reached it I found that the street ended, breaking off as at the brink of a cliff. Beyond it was a wide, deep pit, and then another wall of towers.
I went more cautiously now. A carved limestone balustrade ran along the edge. I stepped up to it and looked out.
The pit held a neglected necropolis overhung by the beetling foundation and the towers above it. Huge nimlathim like black umbrellas soughed balefully in a sultry breeze. Rutted stone avenues ran between their feet, crisscrossing a crowded wilderness of crumbling mausoleums. A viaduct of black iron spanned the abyss from east to west, borne on black iron pylons. Wet clouds were moving in from the sea.
“Lay your blade on the balustrade and turn around,” a sonorous voice said. I did as I was told. I was surrounded by men with crossbows. They all wore scrap-iron armor like the men in the tunnel. Their faces were hidden behind metal masks.
18 Necropolis
“What do you want here?” asked the man who had spoken, the leader. He was like a small giant, a head taller than the others, but proportioned like a dancer. His hands were white and refined-looking.
“I want to see the Misfit,” I said.
“Why?”
I shrugged. “I heard he wanted to see me.”
The giant considered this. “Step away from your knife, and we’ll take you to him.”
“I give it into your keeping, and yours alone,” I said. “If my intent proves honorable, return it when you see fit.” I stepped away from the poniard.
“So be it,” said the giant, slightly amused. He picked up the blade. It was like a wand in his hand. “You should join us,” he said. “I like your mettle.”
I smiled. “Perhaps it’s you who should join me.”
The men muttered, but the leader only gave a strange, low laugh. “What is your name?”
“Amroth. Yours?”
“Call me Jairus.”
At a sign from their leader, the men began filing down a staircase to the cemetery. Jairus and I walked side by side behind them. Sea mist was beginning to fall, and the limestone steps were slippery.
“Do you have a reason for hiding your identity from me?” I asked.
Jairus bent his masked face toward me and gave me a long look. “I might ask the same of you,” he said lowly.
We reached the foot of the foundation and went on through the necropolis, making for a step pyramid at the center. People came out to stare at me. There were men, women, and children, all eccentric in one way or another. Among them were helots and phylites and half-breeds, and members and mixtures of other strange races.
Jairus saw me looking at them. “We’re all misfits here,” he said, “misbegotten, with no phyle among the phylites, no corner among the helots. Some are half-breeds. Others are sports or prodigies. But we all belong to each other through not belonging elsewhere.”
“Where do you live?”
“In these tombs. And in the towers surrounding, which are but the tombstones of Enoch.”
“How do you live?”
“We trade in things outlawed by the Cheiropt. Mescat. Hebenum. Live concubines. Prophetesses. We raid and slaughter the cattle of Enoch, the phylites, and live on the spoils. They call us a tumor and try to contain us, but this is one case in which the body and not the tumor is the cancer. One day, when we’re strong enough, we’ll break out and go found our own kingdom.”
“Your children are the first I’ve seen in Enoch.”
“Our society is composed of cells. Each man is responsible for his own household. What the Cheiropt has forgotten, or affects to forget, we remember: a people without individual responsibility is a people without greatness. It spreads out flat, like a body without bones.”
We had reached the pyramid. It was draped with carpets of moss that dripped in the mist. Jairus led me up the steep staircase with two of his men. The rest dispersed. The square room at the top housed a seat of black iron set against the back wall. Braziers smoked in the gloom. The two guards took their places on the surrounding platform. Jairus and I went inside.
He held his arms out while his wives unstrapped his armor. Then he took off his mask and seated himself on his throne. His face was thin and sallow, his nose long and pointed. His eyes were larger than an ordinary man’s and had a sleepy, vicious look to them. A thick brown mustache curled over his cruel lower lip. Parted hair hung in wavy tresses upon his shoulders. His limbs were long and lean and white like ivory.
“So,” he began, “it seems that—”
“You must forgive me,” I said, swaying where I stood. “You may have noticed—”
“Of course,” said Jairus. “Forgive me.” He clapped his hands. A woman entered. “Tell Gerrich I need him. He should bring his tools. Also, prepare a bit of something for our friend here. And have a chair brought.” He smiled, showing his sharp, white teeth. “No time to observe formalities, eh?”
“I was in such a hurry, I forgot to bring the keys.”
A girl rushed in with a chair and rushed back out again. I sat down. A moment later, Gerrich, a professional pick-lock, was working at my mask. With relief I felt it fall away from my face. Servants came in with a table and a tray of fruits and cured fish and a jar of water. I fell to while Gerrich worked at my harness. Jairus waited genteelly while I finished my repast. Gerrich got the harness off and went out at a nod from his master.
I pushed back from the table. “Thank you,” I said.
Jairus smoothed his mustache. “Tell me what I can do for you, Amroth. Because, frankly, I can’t imagine why you’ve come here.”
“You just offered me a place, didn’t you?”
Jairus flashed his teeth. “Is that why you’ve come?”
“Not exactly. But I am a misfit. The other kinds of work I’ve found in Enoch haven’t been to my liking. But then, you knew that, didn’t you? I’ve been in your service up to now anyway. In a certain capacity.”
“Hardly. I take my tenants as I find them, Amroth. She wasn’t in my employ. I heard she had some trouble with the Cheiropt, incidentally.”
“Is that what it was?”
He flicked a speck of dust from his doublet. “What happened to her?”
“She’s dead. I buried her in the underworld of this city of yours.”
“Her and her, ah…”
“Yes. The ghulim took care of the one. Granny succumbed later. They were dependent on each other, it seems.”
“Pity. I was always rather fond of the little one. In fact,”—here he looked me in the eye—“she may have had something to do with my, ah, sponsorship of her sister.”
“You are munificent,” I said.
Jairus spread out his hands. “A man makes his way through the world as he finds it. You know that as well as I do. Men of action can’t afford to be idealists. The time is coming, though, when the contradictions forced on us by Enoch will be left behind forever.”
“I wonder,” I said. “I have a friend who believes it futile for a man in the Cheiropt to try to fight against it. Even if he seems to escape, he only extends its boundaries.”
“That proposition will be put to the test soon. Now it’s you who must forgive me. I have many things to attend to. Did you wish to enter my service? Certainly you have the credentials. You’ll find that your reputation precedes you here.”
“I am the Phylarch of Arras,” I said. “I can swear fealty to no man. Let us say that I shall consider becoming your ally.”
Jairus sneered. “I will accept that, Amroth. For the time being.” He clapped his hands. One of his wives, a pretty young woman with dark red hair, appeared. “Amroth will be staying with us here for a time. Show him to the tomb of old Thelon. See that he is made comfortable.”
I began to follow her out. The door was a square of purplish gloom. Day was drawing to a close.
“One more thing,” said Jairus. I turned. He handed me the poniard hilt-foremost, and also the nephridium
lamp.
I received both and bowed. “Thank you,” I said. I went out with his wife.
19 Chimeras
I followed her down the steps and through the gathering dusk. We wove our way through the maze of mausoleums overgrown with mosses and overshadowed by the black boughs of the pines. I looked toward the viaduct. A long car with flashing white lights was slowing to a stop. “What’s that?” I asked. The girl glanced where I pointed but didn’t answer.
She led me to a strait sepulcher whose original occupant had been removed. She went in before me and lit a clay oil lamp. I hesitated at the threshold.
“Come in,” she said. “What are you afraid of?”
“Whose ancestor were the bones that rested here?”
“What hole did you crawl out of?” she laughed. “We incinerate our dead now. This place hasn’t been used in chiliads. No one knows his ancestors in Enoch.”
“Yes, I suppose I’ve been told that.” I took a few steps inside.
She was spreading a rough blanket on a stone bier in the center. She laid a thinner blanket at the foot, folded, and put a hard lump at the head for a pillow. “There now,” she said. “Will you be needing anything more?”
“No, thank you.”
She looked dubiously at me. “You’ll serve Jairus faithfully and well, won’t you?”
“It means a lot to you, does it?”
“I should think so. Where would we all be without him?”
“In the pits of Hela, I suppose,” I said.
“That’s right. Before he came and showed us the way, we were nothings. The Cheiropt didn’t care whether we lived or died. Now we have a place and a people.”
“Do you want to know what I think? I think he’s only as good as the Cheiropt allows him to be.”
“What do you mean by that?”
“I think he’s a flesh-seller, a brigand, a dealer in vice and twisted dreams. Only, he doesn’t soil his own hands with it—no, he has others do that for him. I just saw a filthy old woman—his ‘tenant’—and her innocent sister die an ugly death because he gave the nod.”
Her eyes flashed. “Maugreth! I’ll tell him the things you say.”
“Do so,” I said.
“Why are you here? What do you want with him?”
“I have my wants, but I don’t have a plan.” I shrugged. “When I lived in the desert I used to hunt packs of maugrethim. Sometimes they would all crouch out of sight in a ravine, waiting in the crannies to ambush me. I learned that the only thing was to leap right in among them, draw them out, and strike as need be when an opening offered itself.” I circled my poniard in the air. “I’m here to stir things up and see what comes to the top.”
She took a step toward me. “Do you think you have what it takes to seize what you want when you see it?”
“That remains to be seen,” I said. “What’s your name?”
Unaccountably, she blushed. “Joanna,” she said.
“Good night, Joanna.”
“Good night, Amroth.” She hesitated at the threshold. “If you decide to go out, be careful of the man watching your house.” She vanished into the darkness.
I put out the lamp and lay down on the bier to think. I was sorely exhausted, but a pricking at the back of my mind kept me awake. After a while I rose and went to the doorway. Night was a damp shroud over the cemetery, cutting off light and muting noise. A sullen red glow rose and fell at the entrance to a nearby tomb. It was my watcher, smoking a pipe.
I withdrew into the chamber and twisted the end cap of my tube lamp. Shadows fled into the corners. I satisfied myself that there was no other exit, then shut it off again.
Was the man outside there to keep me from leaving, or merely to watch me, and follow me if I did leave? I weighed it in my mind. Jairus hadn’t commanded me to stay indoors. There seemed no harm in putting the matter to the test.
Setting down the light and the poniard, I went out, turned, and began walking in the direction opposite the pyramid. I walked unhurriedly, as if going for a stroll. My shadow stayed behind me.
At a place where many trees grew close together, I went down a narrow path between two houses. Before he rounded the corner I slipped to the right and swung myself up to the roof. An instant later I was perched in the boughs of a nimlath.
The watcher blundered about below, nonplussed. I swung silently from tree to tree, alit in a different part of the grove, and set out for the pyramid. Its pinnacle was a beacon in the night.
* * * * *
I circled around to the back of the pile. The flagged courtyard was patrolled, but the sentries were curiously lax. I slipped between them and swung myself up to the first tier. There was no sign that I had been observed. I continued up the side of the structure, climbing from tier to tier, until I was all the way at the top.
Someone was speaking in the throne room. I crept as close as I dared to one of the side doors. The suave voice was one that I recognized: “They told me you gained a new recruit.”
Jairus gave his strange, low chuckle. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“It’s certainly convenient, isn’t it? I suppose you won’t be needing the helot now.”
“No,” said Jairus. “As a matter of fact, it seems that it was our guest who overpowered the escort.”
“Interesting. What reason did he give for coming here? I’m curious. He refused my invitation, yet here he is.”
“You think it would be all the same to him whether he offered his services freely and willingly or was brought here by force? You misjudge our young friend, Derrin, not to mention me. Also, it may be that he didn’t trust you. It may—it just may—be that I don’t trust you.”
The man called Derrin chuckled. “Why? What’s not to trust?”
“Would any person in his position trust a ghularch of the Cheiropt? Of course, it has occurred to me…” Jairus was silent for a moment. “You’re quite certain he hasn’t made contact with the woman?”
“He most certainly has not. How could he have? The old lady didn’t even know where we put her.”
“But she’s set up like a princess and all the signs are out.”
“Yes, in the temple district! He could hardly have gotten all the way over there, searched for her, found her, and gotten back here in the amount of time since we took care of the old woman.”
“True. To be quite frank I don’t know why he’s here. He wouldn’t tell me outright. Perhaps he doesn’t know himself. He’s a stranger in Enoch, or pretends to be. Perhaps he had nowhere else to go. He was still muzzled when we found him.”
“If you want my advice, he’s just one more variable to worry about. Slip a knife between his ribs and be done with him, as was supposed to have happened weeks ago. We can’t afford to have unknowns running about loose.”
“Perhaps you are unaware of his reputation, my friend. Every day the call for his return to the pit grows louder. When he fought the cyclops, phylites—phylites!—were coming in secret to watch him work. That little debacle made him extremely unpopular for the space of two breaths; now everyone want to see him. You know how the bulletins work. Also, he may seem like a bit of a fool to you—possibly he is one—but he’s intelligent. He keeps his own counsel.
“So here we have a young man, hardly more than a boy, who, in addition to being wise beyond his years, can single-handedly strangle behemothim, go spear-fishing for urianthim, lay low anakim and spare them through some misplaced sense of magnanimity, and fend off six trained ghulim at once. Murder him? I’m not certain I have the man for the job.”
“Then use two men. All you say is all the more reason to get rid of him. He’s dangerous, I tell you. Do you want to know what I think? I think you’re swayed by his value in dramachs. Just like the old lady. But they won’t be very impressed by such considerations, I think.”
“I try not to let that worry me. The Deserits are a long way from here. And even you must see that he’s more use to us alive than dead, until we know what he knows an
d where he stands.”
I could hear Derrin’s sneer. “Well, take your own risks. The Cheiropt will take care of me, in any event.”
“Speaking of which,” said Jairus.
“Yes?”
“Do you have the parcels I was expecting?”
“They’re in the rail-car.”
“Guarded?”
“Six ghulim on the car. Your guards down below. What are you afraid of? Your own men? I know you too well to think you fear the Cheiropt.”
“Let’s go see them,” said Jairus.
“Actually,” said Derrin, “I have a case here for your inspection.” He went out to the steps and whistled. A moment later I heard labored grunting and slow, heavy footsteps. I leaned forward a little at the risk of being seen. Two extremely large ghulim with tiny heads were porting a cube between them. They set it down in the middle of the floor and withdrew.
Its sides were of thick glass, beaded with condensation, held together in a frame of rusty angle-irons. Discolored salt encrusted the sealed hatch at the top. Through the glass could be seen a fleshy mass about the size and shape of a gymnasium ball.
Jairus twisted on a nephridium lamp and handed it to Derrin. He began to release the hatch. “Are you sure that’s wise?” Derrin asked nervously. Jairus looked at him, then returned to what he was doing. He got the hatch open. A strange, unpleasant smell insinuated itself into my nostrils.
The Misfit took the lamp back and held it down close to the fluid. Its light fell through the side of the ball, which was a thick, translucent membrane. Something inside it fluttered. Jairus jerked back involuntarily. He sealed the hatch and shut off the light.
“There’s a whole carload of those waiting for you,” said Derrin. “From the Sun Mage with warm regards. Splendid allies you have.”
Dragonfly: A Tale of the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes Page 10