So I dove off the tower, extended my wings, and went soaring along a southbound street below the level of the rooftops. The hoplites looked up as my shadow shot across the wall. When I reached the avenue that led to the library I mounted up higher and circled around toward the building where Jubah and Bulna were staying.
Reluctant to let them see me in my armor, I landed on the roof and took it off, hiding it in a disused storage room. The door to the stairs was locked, but a fire escape clung to the side of the building. I dropped down to it and went from landing to landing until I found a vacant flat with an unlocked window. I crossed to the corridor and made my way to my friends’ apartment.
They didn’t answer to my knock, but the door was unlocked, so I pushed my way inside. Bulna was stretched out on his mattress. Jubah was on the divan with his feet propped up on one arm. He was snoring and drooling. Dreary, late-morning light filtered through the blinds. The air was uncomfortably stuffy.
I crossed quietly to the kitchenette and opened up the cabinets, which were mostly bare. My friends either ate elsewhere or ate very poorly. I downed a few pickled eggs and fruitcakes, then took a swig of mescat from the bottle.
They were still asleep, so I went into the living room and coughed. Neither stirred. “Good morning,” I said.
Bulna sat up slowly, blinking sleep out of his watery, red-rimmed eyes. He frowned with confusion, then saw me. “Oh, it’s you,” he said, yawning. “Jubah! Hey, Jubah! Wake up!”
Jubah snorted and choked. He sat up, coughing. “What? What is it?”
“Keftu’s here.”
“Uh? Oh. Hello, Keftu. You surprised me. Thought you were going to the Deserits or something.”
“I’ve already been there and back,” I said.
Jubah laughed. His laugh turned into a cough. “What?” he choked. “It’s been only…what? A week or two? Didn’t you go there to, er, gather evidence for us?”
“That’s right,” I said.
“Well? Where is it?”
“Keep your eyes open and you’ll see something. That’s what I came to tell you. My trip was unsuccessful in its main purpose, I’m afraid.”
“What do you mean, Keftu?”
“I don’t have time to explain. Forces of chaos are about to erupt over the city. It’ll begin in the Misfit’s quarter. Don’t go out today if you can help it. If you want to see something interesting, go up a few stories and watch from a window. But be prepared to take cover.”
They were both looking at me, mouths agape. “I’ve been thinking,” I went on. “I know you don’t have your evidence yet, so you don’t have to say anything. I just wanted to tell you about it while it’s fresh on my mind. I went to that carnival in Sand City. I’d never seen anything like it, but it reminded me of something. Nearby here is a place—it’s an island, almost—crowded with old machines like what I saw up north. Rides and gauntlets and such.”
“I know it,” said Bulna. “Under the viaduct to Bel. It’s called Mona. But do you know how long those things have been sitting there?”
“They weren’t all in such bad condition. With some work they might be made to run again. Think about it! We could pull them to pieces and travel from place to place. Along the songlines, like I suggested. That’s how we’d make our money. A traveling carnival. Do you see? We could stage exhibitions with wild beasts, hold processions, have a gallery of misfits and…and phylites. It would be like Pinky’s, only…not like Pinky’s. It would be an exodus within. There’s a man I know—the announcer from the pit where we fought—who might be able to help.
“Don’t answer me yet. Wait until tomorrow. If I’m still alive, I’ll come find you, and we’ll discuss it again. If I don’t show up, well, then you’ll know what happened.
“That’s about all. Wish me well, for today’s my birthday.”
“Happy birthday,” said Bulna.
“Many happy returns,” said Jubah.
“Thank you,” I said. And with that I left. I returned to the roof, put my armor back on, and winged my way to my refuge.
Once again there was no sign of the cyclops. I realized I’d been hoping that Arges would turn up during the time I was gone. I clenched my fists. Now my sword was all that stood between Enoch and forces of dissolution. I drew Deinothax and looked at it. Its edge was keen now, at least.
I went into the parlor with my armor still on and sat in my chair. The world’s grinding machinery threatened to crush me like an insect crawling through the gears. For the first time in a long time it struck me how alone, how very alone, I was. My insides seemed to be tying themselves in knots.
I jerked myself out of the chair and strode into the salon. The pipe organ caught my eye. I thrust the thought away, pained by it. Music had no place here. Soon I would wing my way to the necropolis, to throw myself against an army of urban warriors and hosts of living blasphemies, to die alone. The pursuit of beauty was for times of peace.
But then like a bolt of lightning it struck me that there would never be peace in my life. I would always have to fight, would always be harried and oppressed. The future was a long road that ran before my feet into darkness. It had a bad ending, perhaps; and perhaps the badness would be senseless and thoroughly my own fault. And so there would never be a better time than now, because there would never be a time at all.
Like a sleepwalker I paced toward the organ, stripping my armor off piece by piece and letting it lie where it fell on the floor. I worked the pump and set my fingers to the keys. An abyssal elegy poured out of me, a dim reflection of what had drawn me through the fossil city of Cormrum.
Afternoon was progressing toward evening when I pushed back from the instrument. I went out and surveyed the city. It, too, was a fossil. Its people, invisible from where I stood, enjoyed near-perfect freedom, for this was the Age of Peace. Deep within its decaying heart, a liminal being was preparing to unleash forces that would at last grant it perfect freedom, the freedom of disorder.
I donned my armor and leaped off the parapet. I was going to stop it, if I could.
55 Exodus
It was plain when I reached my lookout that the exodus was about to begin. The Cheiropt seemed aware of it as well, for the wall crawled with hoplites, and there were artillery batteries in the streets outside. None of them entered the zone, however, and their forces seemed grossly inadequate.
The airships were floating in a line as I’d seen them, anchored to the earth by four iron chains each and manned by the Misfit’s forces. A small corps stood in formation before the platform, in the courtyard surrounding the pyramid. One of the lanes that led to the foundation was lined with people.
A great cheer went up. Teams of ghulim came into sight, marching along the lane with an armed escort, bearing glass tanks between them. The ova had a bloated look, like blisters about to burst open.
One by one the teams reached the pyramid, climbed the stairs, and mounted the platform through an opening before the throne room. The cases were distributed into even rows. This continued, with ghulim going back and forth, until one hundred tanks were arranged there.
Two figures merged from the chamber: Jairus, clad head to foot in scrap-iron armor, and Zilla, robed and veiled as before. I ducked down lower when I saw him, afraid somehow that he would spy me there.
The people began streaming up the gangplank to the transport. Zilla strode to the end of the platform, lifted his hands, and began the incantation. The corps disbanded and scattered to their ships. The Misfit himself made for the flagship anchored before the transport.
The sun wasn’t hot, but the air was still and miserably humid. Sweat streamed down my face and stung my eyes. But the doldrums were soon troubled by the blast of a horn. Anchors were drawn up. The ships began to move toward the street at the head of the line. At the same moment, a muffled explosion rocked a distant quarter of the city.
The Vicar was gesticulating with manic energy now. The salt-encrusted lids of the boxes opened in unison. With a series of pu
lpy pops that drifted up even to my lookout, a volley of glistening missiles shot into the air, reaching their zenith high above the tallest building, outlined against the sky. Each as it fell opened a pentagonal membrane like a cap detaching from the stipe of a mushroom. At first these seemed to serve merely as parachutes, but then they started to spin, leaving the soft bodies stationary. The creatures bounded through the air as a swarm and went whirring over the necropolis.
I drew my sword and stepped to the parapet. This was the time to stop them, before they scattered over the city. As I drew breath for the fatal plunge, though, I froze. The chimeras weren’t scattering at all, but circling the ships. Zilla was throwing them against the fleet.
Jairus’ warriors made hasty preparations for the onslaught. Terror unmanned the crews. The line drifted into disarray as they left their stations to fend off the monsters. I saw great gouts of blood spring up from those who went down before them.
This was my chance. I leaped into the air, spread my wings, and shot like an arrow toward the flagship. Soon I was nearing the cloud of chimeras. One of them spied me and left the swarm to attack me. Its body glistened with mucus, dun above and pale beneath; it was soft like a mollusk, with a ring of black chelicerae at the base of its suspended body, and eyeballs distributed at random over its lumpy visceral sac.
I hacked the thing from the air by chopping through its wheeling membrane. It was tougher than I’d expected, and almost wrenched the sword from my hand. Now several others turned to attack me. The next one I struck from underneath, severing the body from the pentangle, which then went spinning over my head to drift down among the black nimlathim below. I cut down two more this way, my hot blade slicing through their soft flesh without resistance, spattering me with their sticky white ichor.
I landed on the deck and folded my wings. It was a scene of chaos, strewn with fallen warriors and bits of chimeras. Jairus was steering the ship, fighting, and shouting orders all at once. The neighboring warship drifted unmanned, and he was having to wheel his own out of line to avoid a collision.
As I made my way to the stern I saw a chimera swoop under the envelope and swap a man’s head off. Then it wheeled and came at me. With a shout I ran to meet it. I leaped into the air and sliced it in half with one swing of my sword. The pieces fell on either side but continued to flap on the deck. The clustered eyes swiveled in their fleshy sockets to watch me.
I reached the Misfit. “Well,” he said, “we meet again. You must forgive me for not extending you the usual courtesies.”
“I came to make a proposition. You’ve been betrayed. Let’s make common cause against our enemy. We can settle our differences later.”
“What do you have in mind?” A light glinted in his eyes, and he said: “Be careful.” With a swing of his longsword he chopped down a chimera that was making for me.
“Your ships are falling into disarray,” I said. “They need to pull together into a defensive formation. If you give me some token of authority, I can bear the message to the other ships. Then I’ll attack the creatures from the air.”
“Here.” He drew a signet ring off his hand. “Left-handed spiral, center the transport. They’ll know what that means. And you can tell them to stop firing at the things. They’re more likely to hit each other. Hand weapons only.”
I turned to go. “Wait,” he said. I stopped and turned. “You warned me of this. I’ll remember that.”
“Fairly spoken.” I bowed, then ran the length of the deck and leaped across to the next. The men there were all hiding below. I had to swing down to an embrasure to talk to them. “I bear the seal of your leader,” I said. I told them the plan. “Gird up your loins,” I went on. “The creatures are deadly but not hard to kill. Stand back to back, keep low, and cut them down. Like so!” And with that I dropped a few feet and gutted one that was trying to pick me off the hull.
I climbed back to the upper deck and proceeded to the next ship, where the men were putting up more of a fight. They put the orders into action immediately.
And so I went, leaping from warship to warship until I reached the front of the line. From there I flew all the way to the rear, slaying three creatures en route. It didn’t take long to work my way forward, as most of the ships had already seen what was happening. Soon I was making for the transport itself.
The chimeras were swarming it like flies on a carcass, nipping at the great envelope with their prehensile inner mouthparts, searching for points of weakness above the tiers of up-sweeping slats designed to protect it from missiles. I hacked my way through them and clung to the hull. There were no decks for fighting, only loopholes for firing, and I swung myself over to an embrasure to peer inside. The cabin was small but richly furnished. A woman sat in the berth.
It was Seila.
“Keftu!” she cried. Tears glistened in her eyes.
“Stand back.” I tore off a great cantel of metal and pushed my way inside. “Is this locked?” I pointed at the door.
“What do you think? That I’m free to go as I will?”
“Well, are you?”
She colored. “Try the door and see for yourself.”
An image flashed across my mind: blood in a Moabene alley. “Forgive me,” I said.
Her eyes softened again. “Help us, Keftu. We’re in a maze. No one else knows the way out. You’re an alien. You have the key to every locked door.”
“Trust me, Seila. I’m in a labyrinth myself.”
She nodded toward the hole I’d made. “What’s happening out there?”
“That’s the work of the Sun Mage’s vicar. It seems that Jairus trusted a man whose motives he didn’t understand. The chimeras are swarming this ship. Where are your warriors?”
“I don’t know.”
“Let’s go find them. Stand back.” I battered the door down with my fists and we began to go through the ship. All of the cabins we looked into were empty.
We finally found the passengers gathered in the galley. There were women and children and men not fit for fighting, all huddled in groups and waiting. Jairus’ huge harem was among them.
“Where are your guards?” I demanded.
Joanna stood up. “They made off at the first sign of trouble. I saw it all. They slid down ropes to the ground. The ones who actually made it were torn to pieces by ghulim.”
There was a metallic groan as the deck began to tilt. “We’re sinking!” someone shrieked. “They’ll chop us to bits when we land!”
“But why?” another voice cried. “It all makes no sense! Why doesn’t Jairus help us?”
“Your master can hardly help himself right now,” I said. “But if I can help you, I will. First I’ll go take care of these ghulim. This is Seila, my friend. She was Jairus’ prisoner, but no longer. Anyone who molests her will answer to me.”
I went back to her cabin and dove out. The chimeras were less thick now, for the warships were drawing near on every side. But the creatures’ work was done: the envelope of the transport was damaged beyond easy repair. The ship was listing to one side and sinking fast. I spiraled to the earth, chopping through two chimeras as I went.
The scene down below was grim. The torn bodies of ten warriors lay scattered across a grove, with the carcasses of perhaps twice as many ghulim. I strode through the charnel-houses in search of the enemy.
A ghul spied me and gave the signal. A pack of them emerged from a grove and came at me. Their eyes blazed with bestial fury; their teeth, filed into sharp fangs, glistened with slaver. They wore claw-gloves like the ones I had fought before.
I scrambled up to the top of a mausoleum. Soon I was surrounded. I hacked them down one by one as they tried to reach me. They were unbelievably fast: by the time I’d laid one’s skull open, another would be coming at me from behind. Without the armor to sustain me I would soon have fallen. As it was I was sorely exhausted by the time I rove the breast of the last ghul. It collapsed upon its mates. Their bodies formed a pyramid around the sides of the mauso
leum.
I looked up. The ring had drawn tight around the transport. Only two warships remained outside it. They were drifting against the viaduct, stripped of hands or disabled. The gradually thinning swarm circled the fleet like a cloud of spores.
I leaped down the slope of corpses and set off at a sprint through the cemetery, making for the pyramid. I dashed up to the platform. Zilla was nowhere to be seen. I dove off the edge, extended my wings, and worked my way up to the ships.
The chimeras avoided me now: I had to give them chase. I circled the fleet with the swarm, slicing them up with my sword, punching through their clustered eyes with my fist. It was strange how easy they were to slay.
The decks were dismal scenes. Half Jairus’ warriors were gone. Some had been picked to pieces, others dragged over the edge and dropped.
I continued to circle around with the swarm, coursing now higher, now lower, felling the creatures one by one. Soon there were only ten chimeras, and then only five.
And then at last I wheeled and alit on the flagship. “Well met,” said the Misfit as he hacked one down.
“I found the transport unguarded,” I said. “The warriors had abandoned it and fallen to ghulim on the ground. The chimeras damaged its envelope. It’s sinking.”
Jairus turned to look. “This is it, then.”
“What?”
“The end of our exodus. We gambled it all on this one throw.”
“What do you mean? The battle is almost won.”
“These things were only part of our preparations. There’s no going back now.”
“What have you done?”
“You’ll soon find out,” said the Misfit. “They say that phylites have no memory. We’ll do our best to see that this is something they don’t forget.”
Dragonfly: A Tale of the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes Page 30