Tainted Garden

by Jeff Stanley

  Tiny creatures, like insects but composed of metal and flesh, scuttled over the frozen figures, boring into the translucent stone, gnawing at the bodies of the Bhajong. Emerging, the insectoids spun fibers from their nether ends toward the ceiling and crawled aloft. They disappeared into the shadows.

  At the far end of the chamber they entered another tube, this one sinking gradually until it deposited them in a hallway of metal. Rian looked around in amazement, startled by the sight of so much metal, here within the bowels of the ool. Though coated by intrusions of ool-flesh, the hallway gleamed, lit by artificial lights mounted on the walls. Twenty yards farther along the passage, an iris of ool-flesh rose up to block the way.

  A thunderous voice screamed from beyond the iris. The corridor shook, chunks of ool-flesh breaking free of the walls and tumbling to the floor. Metal buckled, heaving like some monstrous serpent, pitching the strangers from their feet. They cried out, tossed like pebbles along the hallway. Rian’s tether snapped, and he crashed to the floor. Around him, the landskin sheath seethed, streamers of flesh whipping about madly. Its inner surface bubbled, crackled, and Rian felt sudden play in his prison. He wormed one arm free. The stick fell from his mouth, and he sucked in great gulps of air.

  The iris shot open, revealing a world of nightmares.

  Alberto! I’m here!

  Lhedri fired his last acidslug. The sizzling wad of destruction hissed across the room and slammed into the revolving cylinder. It exploded in a shower of sparks, sending jagged lightning arcing through the chamber. The hybrid called God reeled back, its arms bracing its head as it unleashed a scream that rattled the walls.

  Other machines exploded overhead, and Lhedri dodged a falling tentacle that crashed to the floor and twitched, leaking. God slammed into a bank of hissing machinery.

  Beyond God, a sphincter shot open.

  Lhedri gained his feet and stumbled toward Dersi. Another Bhajong, Erekel, sat motionless, as still as death, in a chair next to hers. Lhedri slid in a pool of fluid and crashed into Dersi’s chair. He reached out for her, but his hands froze, inches from contact with her skin. Her face was bathed in blood, and a huge flap of skin had been removed from her head, revealing deep-scored bone. Tentacles and clamps littered her body, and a thick tube ran from an articulated arm overhead and down into her throat.

  “Lady Dersi!”

  He was too late.

  Rian rolled within his restraining sack, barking up against one wildly pitching wall. He seized the loosened lip of the landskin and pulled another arm free. Keeping his eyes trained on the stranger and his woman, both of whom lay clutching at their heads some yards away, Rian ripped at the landskin, feeling it tear between his hands. His other arm popped free. He dragged himself free of the sucking mass and staggered to his feet, thrusting out his arms to keep his balance.

  The stranger, his face a mask of pain, climbed to his feet. He reached for Rian.

  Rian retreated. Behind him, the iris began to squeeze shut. Without thinking, Rian dove through the aperture headfirst. He felt its closure nip his toes, and then he rolled, crashing into something hard and cold.

  He reached out a hand to draw himself up and felt the warmth of another hand. At his touch the alien fingers spasmed, and the hand seized his wrist.

  Chapter 41

  Rian jerked his hand away and scrambled to his feet. Thick smoke, glowing with the angry orange and scarlet of concealed flames, revealed a vague, manlike shape looming before him. Sounds crashed in upon him: the ringing crash of metal, a wet slurping, belching steam and the crackle of flames. And a scream, pounding on his ears, hurting, powerful enough to rattle the walls. Something touched him from behind, a wet, slithering thing concealed by clouds of smoke. He jerked away from the touch, waving his arms to clear away the acrid, stinging billows.

  A wheezing clank came from his right and he spun in that direction. A dripping arm shot out of the fog. He ducked, and the arm sent eddies of smoke curling over his head. A tentacle on the floor wrapped around his ankle, sending him sprawling. Others snaked out of the floor, seizing his arms.

  A massive, hideous figure loomed out of the smoke, a creature of nightmares, an amalgam of metal and flesh, writhing with tendrils and cords. A red-orbed mechanical eye oriented on him, and a mouth dripping with cilia turned up at its corners. Metal fingers seized his throat, ripping him from the bonds of the tentacles. He was swept into the air, his feet dangling, kicking futilely at the metal-sheathed torso of the creature.

  “Ah, my guest has arrived at last,” said a voice oozing with hatred.

  Yes! The voice in Rian’s head screamed in triumph.

  Something touched Lhedri’s hand. Instinctively, he snatched at it, felt fingers, a wrist. He turned, fanning the smoke out of his way, and raised the acidrod like a staff. The hand jerked away, and an ill-seen figure tumbled away into the swirling smoke.

  Machinery crashed down around him, sending up showers of sparks. Lightning danced within the billowing clouds of smoke. He coughed, his lungs seared by raging heat, poisoned by burning fluids.

  A soft sound, a groaning gag, came from nearby.

  Lady Dersi!

  Lhedri felt his way through the choking clouds. His questing fingers found an arm, swathed in ool-resin, and he traced it up to a shoulder, a throat, a face. He snatched away tentacles and clamps, unheeding the damage he might cause, knowing that if he did not get her away from here now, it did not matter how badly he injured her. What little life remained in her after her ordeal would be snuffed out.

  He pried away a series of tiny claws ringing her mouth. The tube down her throat presented greater difficulty. He had no idea how deep it went, what parts of her it had invaded. He pulled gently, breathing a great sigh of relief as it slid without a hitch from her mouth.

  “Ah, my guest has arrived at last.” Lhedri heard the uncanny voice of God, echoing through the smoke. He could not tell how close the creature was.

  Dersi coughed, spewing hot fluids across his hand. Lhedri leaned close, holding her. She coughed, gagged, and tried to say something. Over the sounds of the flames and the crashing machinery he could not hear her. He leaned closer, her lips to his ear.

  “Erekel,” she whispered.

  Lhedri tried to raise her from her chair. Ool-resin kept her locked in place. His fingers dug at the brittle, resilient resin. It cracked, large chunks breaking away.

  He heard someone gag in the chaos of flame and smoke and crashing machinery.

  With a final heave, Lhedri freed Lady Dersi. She collapsed in his arms, sending him sprawling to the floor. Her soft weight pressed down on him. Blood and strange liquid bubbled from her lips, bathing his shoulders.

  Rian squirmed, his hands working at the titanic strength of the claw at his throat. With his middle arm he lashed out, pounding his fist again and again into the face of the monstrous creature that held him. The creature laughed, a harsh sound, metallic and bubbling at once.

  Rian! Be still!

  “The pestilence you represent cannot be allowed to spread, Gagash!” the creature said.

  Needle-tipped tendrils sank into Rian’s skull, slicing through skin and bone like paper. Waves of agony washed over him, and he felt the strength fade from his limbs. He fell limp in the creature’s grip.

  Yes!

  A flood of sensation crashed through him. Images speared his mind, flashing pictures he could not connect. Then memories rose from the depths, swimming like boreworms through curtains of darkness. In scant moments, his mind was laid bare to the creature, all his secrets revealed.

  The creature laughed. “Ah, Santiago. You live! I can feel your touch behind all of this. But your pitiful machinations will not save you. I know all your secrets and have made them mine!”

  Not all of them, you gloating monstrosity!

  Rian tried to struggle, tried to marshal enough will to want to resist. He could not. The metallic claw at his throat choked the life from him, and he could do nothing.

&nb
sp; The voice in his mind fell silent, leaving him in the clutches of the monstrosity, helpless and alone.

  Someone coughed near Lhedri. “Dersi! Dersi!” The voice was harsh, rasping.

  “Erekel,” Dersi said, coughing up blood. “Help him.”

  “We have no time! This place is coming down around our ears, and God is here, somewhere. We must escape while we can!” Lhedri dragged her limp form to his shoulder. He dropped the spent acidrod and drew his sword with his free hand.

  “No,” she said. Her arm shifted, a slight movement that left her breathless. “Please.”

  Lhedri growled but shifted Dersi on his shoulder and waded through the smoke to the other chair. Here he found Erekel trussed up with squirming tentacles and hardened resin. He broke away the resin and Erekel surged up from the chair.

  “You!” The old man grabbed a fistful of Lhedri’s tunic.

  Lhedri slapped his hand away. “If you value your life or that of Lady Dersi, we have no time for this. How do we get out of here?”

  Erekel coughed. He shook his head. “I don’t know. I came through a sphincter somewhere. I can’t see through all this smoke. What’s happened? Dersi?”

  “Later,” Lhedri said. “She’s hurt. I don’t know how badly. Get us out of here, Erekel. I don’t care how, but anywhere is better than this.”

  A huge piece of machinery crashed down, shaking the chamber and shooting flames toward the ceiling. Lhedri stepped back from the intense heat, shielding his face with his arm. “Now would be a good time, Erekel.”

  “I . . . I think it’s this way,” the old man said, tugging on Lhedri’s arm and leading him through the smoke. Around them veins pulsed and throbbed, and sensory tentacles whipped about like lashes. The harsh grind of machinery swelled around them, accentuated by the consuming roar of flames. Heat washed over them, blinding in its intensity.

  A massive pipe tore loose from the ceiling, raining debris down on them. Lhedri jerked Dersi from his shoulder, crouching low over her, shielding her with his own body. Jagged bits of metal pummeled him. Erekel crouched low to the wall, and Lhedri heard him screaming wordlessly.

  Rian felt himself slipping away, felt the life sluggishly leeched from his body. The metal hand drew him close. He could smell the fetid breath of the creature even over the acrid bite of the smoke. “Know this, scion of Santiago: You have been used, and you didn’t even know it. Used by a creature as alien to you as I. You’ve been used, and you’ve been discarded. But by your own betraying memories you reveal that Santiago’s scheme went awry. You’ve failed. Santiago’s failed.”

  Santiago? Delirious with pain and sniffing at the rancid spoor of death, Rian had no idea what the creature meant. He waited for death, welcoming it.

  The creature stiffened. Its grip on his throat slackened. “Dersi,” it whispered. “No!”

  A tremendous rending sound came from overhead, and Rian caught sight of a mammoth pipe swinging down from the ceiling, its jagged edges belching steam. Rian’s captor looked up just as the serrated rim swung low. It smashed into the side of the creature’s head, tossing him from his feet as if he were made of paper.

  Rian found himself flying through the air. Instinctively, he tensed. He crashed into a wall, his breath whooshing from his lungs as something snapped inside. The hard metal floor rose up to smash him in the face. He flopped over on his side, his hand encountering a cloth-wrapped leg. “Help me,” he said, his voice inaudible to his own ears.

  “Wait!” Erekel snapped, crawling over to seize the man’s hand. He felt a pulse, steady but there. “He’s still alive.”

  “So? Let’s get out of here.” Lhedri tugged the old man’s shoulder. He coughed on smoke, squeezed his eyes shut against the sting. Something came, pounding through the smoke, shoving aside machinery that crashed against walls. He knew what it was. “God’s coming. Come on!”

  “He can help us!” Erekel said.

  “He’s almost dead. We don’t have time.”

  “Bring him,” Dersi whispered. “Bring him.”

  Lhedri snarled. “Here! Take her. I’ll get him.” He passed Dersi to the old man, leaned down, and pulled on the outthrust arm of the downed man. “Damn! He’s a monster!”

  “Gagash,” Erekel said. He wrapped Dersi in his arms and staggered to his feet. “Come on. Bring him. He can help.”

  Lhedri spat in distaste and hauled one of the Gagash’s three arms over his shoulder. He sagged beneath the weight, shifting his sword to his free hand. For a moment he caught himself thinking that three arms might not be such a bad thing.

  “Dersi!” God’s voice boomed out of the chaos. “You cannot escape me!”

  “Where’s the damned sphincter?” Lhedri felt the approach of the monster, knew they did not have much time.

  “Here!” Erekel said, and he led the way through the churning smoke. They dodged falling debris and writhing tentacles that sought to impede them. Lhedri slipped and slammed his knee on the floor. The flare of pain loosed a cry from his lips. He rose and pressed on, straining beneath the weight of the unconscious Gagash. His skin itched at the close contact. The Gagash’s skin was abrasive. Lhedri forced down a rising wave of nausea.

  “You will not escape!” God screamed, his voice shaking the chamber anew. More debris fell from the ceiling, glass shattering, metal clanging, ool-tissue falling with wet slurping sounds.

  “The sphincter! It’s shut.”

  Lhedri dropped the Gagash to the floor. He leaped forward, slashing at the sphincter with his sword. The blade bit deep. Juices spurted, but the iris held. Cursing, he hacked at the tough flesh again. It twitched, a spasm traveling through it in a rippling wave.

  “He’s coming,” Erekel said. His voice trembled.

  Lhedri ignored him, continuing to batter at the sphincter. He had opened a hairline crack in the flesh, a crack that oozed thick ool-blood. It pooled at the foot of the door. Another blow and the crack widened. He kicked at the portal, and bits of resin flaked off, clattering to the floor. “I’ve got it! Come on. Get Lady Dersi through. I’ll see if I can hold him off, grant you some time.”

  “Containment! Fire control systems activate!” God roared.

  Erekel surged forward, given strength through panic, his face a mask of terror. He slung Dersi over his shoulder and dove, headfirst, through the narrow gap Lhedri had opened. A shard of resin scraped along his thigh, drawing blood. The old man cried out in pain. His arm snaked back through the opening, grabbing the Gagash’s shoulder. Lhedri leaned down to aid Erekel, heaving on the Gagash’s considerable weight and shoving him through the crack. Resin shards cracked and broke, digging deep into the tough, leathery skin of the man’s body.

  “Pitiful child!”

  Lhedri turned, forgetting about Erekel, forgetting about the Gagash, entrusting Lady Dersi’s safety to his unwanted companions. God loomed up out of the smoke, towering, his mechanical eye blazing, glowing shafts of crystal embedded in his flesh. Behind him, machines dropped from the ceiling, thick white gas jetting from nozzles mounted on their ends. Where the white gas spewed, flames died and smoke dissipated.

  “Captain Lhedri!” Erekel called from beyond the sphincter.

  “Go. Keep her safe, Erekel. Go.” Lhedri firmed his grip on his sword and prepared to buy them time. He leaped forward, slashing at the gigantic figure of God.

  Chapter 42

  Memories exploded. The raging firestorm of images swept Rian away, a dizzying rush of impressions, sights, sounds, and tastes.

  Flicker

  He crouched beneath the cool, overhanging ferns, his sparse pelt damp with the morning dew. His mate, trembling behind him, picked through his fur, seeking lice and mites, forgetting for the moment their peril. With a shaking paw he parted the velvety fronds and watched as the massive carnivore padded along the path to the waterhole. Sight, rather than scent, served as his prime sense.

  His mate found a tick embedded in his flank. Her fingers were thick and clumsy, better suited to climbin
g than such delicate work. She leaned forward, parting the course hairs of his fur, and nibbled at his skin with her sharp teeth. He felt the slight pull as she removed a parasite. His ears, yet keen, heard the small pop as she bit down on the bulbous tick and chewed.

  The great cat paused, one padded, taloned forepaw frozen halfway to the soft loam, and cocked its tuft-eared head. Rian stilled, not daring to breathe. The feline groused, a wet rumble deep in its throat, and scented the air. The sluggish, thick breeze blew toward Rian where he crouched, concealing his scent from the carnivore.

  At last satisfied, the beast continued on its way toward the watering hole. Rian tugged at his mate’s large, protruding ear and scampered along the forest floor. She trailed him, and they sought the security of the high terraces.

  Flicker

  He ran across the rolling tundra, the tall grasses whipping at his naked thighs. His arm ached from carrying the clay-lined log and its precious cargo: four slow-burning coals. The ragged, lice-ridden garment of crudely stitched monkey skin he wore around his torso flapped in the breeze of his passage. Behind him, loping in their off-kilter manner, knuckles occasionally scraping the ground, came his band. Males bearing sharpened sticks fanned out in a wedge behind him, their eyes trained on the waving grasses. The females, cubs and smaller young clutched to their pendulous breasts, moved in a pack at the center of the wedge.

  Rian topped a rise and stopped, raising one callused paw to halt the band. The males halted where they were, scanning the terrain. Rian grunted at the nearest of the males, gesturing with his weak chin toward a line of scrub trees in the lowlands beyond the rise. The other male whuffed, alarm and curiosity intertwined, language in its infancy.

  A rival band emerged from the line of trees, screaming, whooping. They capered about, palms slapping the gorse, clubs crashing into the twisted trunks of the trees. Rian’s males rushed forward to the hilltop, brandishing their crude spears. They screamed at the other males, bolstering their own flagging courage.