Apart from some slight scarring along one cheekbone, her face was perfect.
Harrow got up. He thought about covering her face again, but he decided to leave the wrappings aside. Whatever psychological damage Makeblise had wrought on her, it had no hold on her now.
He went over to the bed and sat down on it. The comm-linker lay on the floor. He had dropped it when he was firing the light-drill, but the icons on its face were still glowing. He set it to call Durham Red's frequency, and hit 'send'.
He was almost surprised, some minutes later, when he got a reply.
13. ENTER THE DRAGON
"What do you think?" Red asked, peering down into the pit. "Sewers?"
"That would make sense." Godolkin was already in the hole, creeping about with a lantern. "I believe this chamber is a crypt. There may even be catacombs or ossuaries, depending on the age of the church. If the helot wishes to move freely within the city, it will need some kind of tunnel network."
"It's not drilling its way the whole time. People would have felt it." Red leaned down into the pit and sniffed, but she couldn't smell anything except rock dust and smoke.
The nature of the wash-houses and other facilities in Igantia suggested the existence of some kind of sewer network, if only a primitive one. It wasn't beyond the realms of possibility that the people who had rebuilt the city after Brite Red's attack had used the existing sewers, just drilling down into them wherever needed. That would also explain the drain-gullies on either side of all the major streets.
"Okay, you'd better come up." She grabbed Godolkin's hand as it emerged from the pit, hauling him out. The edges, with their broken and shelving flagstones, were treacherous, and she didn't want him injured in some foolish accident.
The whole church was a mess. The helot's arrival had not only opened up a gaping hole in the centre of the floor, but its thrashings had shattered pews, brought down masonry, and damaged walls. The altar was a wreck. Three of the Daedalus guards lay dead, their blood soaking across the flags, and those members of the council who hadn't fled were sitting in shock.
Even Red, revitalised as she had been by her meal at the warehouse, had suffered some serious bruising from the thing's attack. It had been horribly strong.
So, she thought grimly, another mystery was solved but, as seemed the way of things in Igantia, the answering of one question simply raised more. There was no doubt that the dragon was one of Brite Red's servitors, but how had it survived the dissolution of the Manticore? Why was it roaming this city in search of lost technologies, ripping apart anyone who stood in its way? Most worrying of all, given the number of these things she had seen inside the Manticore, was it alone?
She wandered away from the pit. Over to one side of the church she could hear the priest muttering the last rites over one of the guards, the one whose ribs had been shattered by a slung flagstone. It had taken the man a distressingly long time to die. Listening to his cries, Red had doubly cursed the helot for making off with Trewpeny's medikit. It wouldn't have saved the guard, but it might have eased his passing.
The priest stood up, crossed himself and turned to Red. "It's done."
"Thank you, father." The dead guard had a cloth draped over his face, a piece of fine linen embroidered with an eye. She had seen the same on the other two dead men.
He nodded sadly. "This dragon, star-fallen. Did I hear right? You've seen its like before?"
"Yeah, a long time ago. I thought they'd all been destroyed, but it looks like one slipped the net."
"So they can die, then."
"Yes but not easily. They're strong."
"So I see." He began walking back towards the wrecked altar. "Perhaps the Endura are controlling it, star-fallen. It did seem fixated on young Trewpeny's find."
"Maybe. It probably carved up those poor beggars in the warehouse too - they must have been keeping some tech of their own. Then again, it was gone before I got there, and the two Endura were still poking about. They might have had the lightning gun to protect themselves from it."
"Although that would suggest they knew of its existence and where it would emerge."
Red sniffed. "The Endura know a lot of things they shouldn't. There's definitely something fishy about that lot."
The church door banged open, and Red looked up to see Bill Foxe shouldering his way through it. He had two more Daedalans with him, the two men who had left the group earlier. "People," he called out, shutting the door and bolting it firmly. "We have more problems. The Endura are trying to take over the city."
"What?" Sarah, the woman Red had argued with in the meeting hall, gaped at him. The few other Daedalans in the church immediately began crowding him, bellowing questions. It took several shrill, but effective commands from Sarah to quiet them.
"It's true," Foxe continued. "Most of the marshals are still at the docks, and it looks like Makeblise has seized his chance. I've seen three watchtowers guarded by Endura, and halberdiers patrolling the streets. They've called an early curfew."
"Preposterous," snapped the priest. "The people won't allow that!"
"Won't they? Makeblise will blame the dock explosion on us, and who wouldn't believe that? He'll step in with new measures to protect Igantia against Daedalus and their devil's ways. He'll be in power before daysummer."
Red was still over by the altar. She saw Godolkin coming over to join her. "Congratulations," he said quietly. "You appear to have initiated a coup."
"This is bollocks, Godolkin. If the Endura take over they'll hang half the population, and then make sure the rest freeze to death next time the sun goes down. What the sneck have I done?"
"Blasphemy, this was inevitable. You have seen how this community is run. The system has been unstable for decades - if our presence had not caused this, something else would have."
"You're probably right. Doesn't make me feel any better about it, though."
Someone called her name. She glanced over to the group of Daedalans, but they were still bickering amongst themselves and largely ignoring her. It took a second call to make her realise that Trewpeny had emerged from the meeting hall, and was walking quickly towards her.
"Anton? I thought I told you to rest up." The boy's wounds had started to bleed afresh after she had pulled him out of harm's way earlier, and without the medikit there wasn't much she could do about it.
"I know, my lady, but there's something weird happening."
"Yeah, we heard. Makeblise is trying to take over."
Trewpeny looked aghast. "He is?"
"Well, it looks that way." Red raised her eyebrows. "Why, what did you mean?"
"I..." He was staring over at the others, obviously horrified by Red's admission. Then he shook himself. "No, what I meant was, er... Your robe, my lady."
"My what?" Red had been given a robe by Bill Foxe after she had lost hers in the warehouse. She had taken it off in the meeting hall, mainly to freak the council out.
"Your robe," repeated Trewpeny, "it's making a funny noise..."
The comm-linker had spent most of the past few hours attached to her belt. How it had managed to end up bundled in her robe she wasn't entirely sure, but it probably had something to do with the way it stuck out on its mag-clip. She had been wrapping the robe so tightly around herself to keep warm that there was every likelihood it had just come off.
Thankfully it hadn't just fallen into the street, because there was an icon blinking on its display that she had almost given up hope of seeing. "Jude!"
"Holy one? Moon of blood, you have no idea how happy I am to hear you!"
"Actually, I think I have. How are you doing?"
"I'm well, Red, but these have been trying times. I have become rather too acquainted with a man called Makeblise."
"Oh yes?" She gave Godolkin, who had followed her into the meeting hall with Trewpeny, a sideways look. "That's not a very popular name around here. Better start at the top, Jude. We've got a lot to talk about..."
Over the next few m
inutes, Judas Harrow filled Red in on everything he knew. He told her of his incarceration in the Tabernacle, his attempts to use the sanctum to locate her and anything that could be used to repair Fury's power core, and his eventual battle with Makeblise. In turn, Red told him what the power spikes had been.
Harrow seemed intrigued by this. "Holy one, if the helot could be captured intact, its power core would be sufficient to begin charging Omega Fury."
"Okay, Jude, couple of flaws in that particular plan." Red leaned back in her chair, placing her arms behind her head to straighten her spine. The comm-linker was on the circular table, and she had been leaning over it intently for the past few minutes. It could pick up her words and relay Harrow's from a quite respectable distance, however. "Firstly, this thing's as big as a bus, okay? Or at least a van and the bugger's got some tricks I never saw it pull on the Manticore. Even armed, I don't think I can take it down as easily as all that."
"You might have an advantage in an enclosed space, holy one. If you can get behind it-"
"Yeah, whatever. Even assuming it doesn't just pull my head off with a tentacle or roll over me like a freight train, I'd have to find it first and you can't spot it when it goes underground."
"I could with your comm-linker acting as a relay."
Red made an exasperated hiss. "Have you got a bloody answer for everything?"
"Almost."
"Blasphemy," said Godolkin. "Consider this; the present situation in Igantia may or may not have been our fault. However, equipped as we are, there seems little chance of our being able to affect it in any meaningful way."
"True. I mean, I could go after Makeblise, but he's got a plasma derringer and I haven't."
"Even with appropriate handguns our options would be limited but with a functioning starship..."
Red blinked at him. "Are you suggesting we fix Fury up and then fly in here with all guns blazing and stage a counter-revolution? Are you out of your tiny Iconoclast mind?"
"Very probably."
"Yeah... Me too..." She sighed. "You know, this is one of the most bloody stupid plans I've ever heard, and it's not even me who came up with it. Jude?"
"Holy one?"
"How do you feel about sticking around there for a while?"
Amazingly, once Red had relayed the plan to the Daedalans, they actually agreed to help her.
After she had told them, she climbed down into the pit to prove to herself that using the comm-linker would work after all. It did, in as far as Harrow was able to patch her linker's limited scanning ability into that of his own, and relay the combined information to the sanctum's primary locator. It was an awkward, jury-rigged solution, but it gave Harrow a fix on the helot almost as soon as the connection was made. Not only that, but he was also able to see a vague map of Red's immediate surroundings.
Bill Foxe, who had been the first to volunteer his help, was both impressed and vaguely repulsed by the linker's efficiency. "If Makeblise had ever gotten hold of such things as these, we'd never have stood a chance."
"Don't put too much faith in this set-up, Foxy. There're going to be a million ways to screw up down here, and most of them involve getting killed."
"Any one of which is preferable to living under the rule of Lord Willem Makeblise, my lady." He hefted his sword, whirling it neatly around in his hand. "I'm with you, for good or ill."
She grinned. "Makeblise hasn't got a chance."
There were four of them; Red, Bill Foxe, and the two Daedalus guards. All carried lanterns and swords, along with whatever other equipment they could find at short notice - crowbars, rope, even a mallet or two.
Red wasn't carrying either a sword or a lantern. If the time came when she needed either, then she was already lost. If she had to go wandering around in the sewers with a murderous robot spider for company, she preferred to do so with both hands free.
However, if she was unhappy about the situation, Godolkin was positively furious. "Blasphemy, reconsider this foolishness. My place is at your side in this endeavour."
"Sorry, big man." She patted his shoulder. "I need you up there, not down here."
"You will not best the helot alone."
"I'm not alone. I've got these fine boys with me." She gestured at the three Daedalans. "Godolkin, someone's got to get in touch with the marshals. We'll need them on our team when we come back with Fury."
"Diplomacy is not exactly my forte."
"You're not so bad. Besides, just think of yourself as a bodyguard. Make sure Sarah and Rudhale get to Sheriff Roder okay, and they'll do most of the talking. You can just stand there and look imposing."
"I would prefer to do otherwise."
"And I'd prefer to be on a beach somewhere, with a tequila in each hand and a small army of oiled pool-boys fulfilling my every sordid whim, but I guess we don't always get what we want, do we?"
Godolkin raised one eyebrow, very slowly. "It appears not. What about Trewpeny?"
"Is he still there?"
"He is."
"Okay, let me talk to him."
Red clambered out of the pit. Trewpeny was sitting on the end of a broken pew, swinging a sword he had found. When he saw her he leapt up. "My lady!"
"No," she said flatly.
"My lady, please. I won't get in the way."
"Yes you will." She snapped a hand out and pulled the sword from his grip without even trying. "Anton, you've done more than anyone could ever ask of you, but we can't have you down there. You'd get killed."
"I don't care about that," he snapped, "and I want to help. I can carry that comm-linker for you, and supplies. I can hold the tools so the men with swords don't have to." He reached out and took his sword back. "And I want to see you bring down the monster that killed my friend."
Red raised her eyes to the heavens. "Oh, sneck." She growled. "If I don't let you come along, you're just going to follow me down there anyway, aren't you?"
"Yes, my lady. Yes I am."
"All bloody right, then! Just makes sure you stay at the back and if I tell you to run, you run. Understand?"
As Godolkin had surmised, the cobwebbed chambers of the church crypt quickly gave way to the city's sewers. After a few moments of searching among the scattered coffins and broken monuments, Red found a hole in one wall, surrounded by debris.
The hole was three metres across, and had been drilled through several metres of solid rock. Red peered down it and swallowed hard. "Harrow?" she called back. Trewpeny was holding the linker. "How much can you see of this?"
"I can see a junction into a main artery. Why, what can you see?"
"Never mind." She climbed into the tunnel. "How far's the helot?"
"A good way yet, holy one. You shouldn't meet any opposition, unless there's something else down there with it."
Red sighed, running her hands over the tunnel walls as she padded along. The stone was covered in great ridges, huge spiral cuts that she could put the whole edge of her hand into. It looked like a giant drill had gone through.
The metal tentacles, she guessed, whirling around and flaying the rock apart. It wasn't a very comforting image. "Okay, we're heading into the main artery. Which way now?"
"South-west."
"Jude, I haven't got time to keep going back and checking the compass on this thing. Right or left?"
"Right."
"Good lad."
When she reached the end of the tunnel, she dropped down into the sewer pipe, looking carefully around it. It was big, more like a transit tunnel than a waste management system. Evidence, she supposed, that this had once been intended for a far larger city than Igantia. The Gerizimi had been planning great things, before their colony had begun to divide. "Jude, this system could go out past the edges of the city. It's snecking massive."
"The helot's still within the city limits, Red. Try not to chase it too far away, though, or you might have a long walk."
"Thanks, Jude. Thanks so much." She turned to the Daedalans behind her. "Come on, guys. L
et's get this over with."
The sewer was not built of uniformly wide tunnels. Nor was all of them as unused as the first one Red had entered. Before long she was leading the way stooped over, up to her ankles in freezing, reeking water.
She tried not to look down, and told herself that the solid objects bumping against her boots were chunks of ice. "Jude? Does it get much smaller than this?"
"Much, but I can route you around those parts."
"What about the helot?" asked Bill Foxe. He was behind Red, holding a lantern. His voice echoed weirdly around the tunnel. "Has it moved?"
"Not yet."
"Maybe it's resting," said Trewpeny hopefully.
One of the other men snorted. "Or feeding."
"It probably doesn't need to do either," Red told them. "Look, don't panic on me yet, okay? It can't even get down a tunnel this small."
As she said it, darkness gaped on both sides. She stopped abruptly, forcing those behind her to halt far more suddenly than they would have liked. Curses and splashes sounded from the tunnel.
"What is it?" Foxe asked her. "What have you found?"
"Crossroads," Red replied. She moved forwards, enough to let the others see the gaping holes drilled on either side of the tunnel. The helot had been here, carving its way from one artery to another by simply going straight through the rock.
"I think," said Trewpeny carefully, "that it can go pretty much wherever it wants..."
Red tried to keep to the smaller tunnels. Even though they were by far the most uncomfortable and unpleasant, she was hoping that if the helot did decide to come for them at least they would have some warning.
It wasn't always possible, though, and as the little group neared the helot's location the sewer opened out considerably. One junction, instead of leading into another tunnel, took Red and her team into a small cave.
Red slowed, peering around. The cavern floor was ankle-deep in stinking slush, but she could still see that it was built on several different levels. The walls were vertical, and the ceiling flat. When Foxe lifted his lantern, she saw that pipes and tubes jutted randomly from the walls and floor. "Guys, watch your footing. There's metalwork coming up from the floor, and you don't want to trip into this stuff."
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