Ninth City Burning

by J. Patrick Black

  Ever since I launched off from Earth, I’ve been surrounded by my mijmere, but I’ve focused almost all of my attention on the real world. I needed to see where I was going, and I didn’t want to accidentally swerve off somewhere and leave Legatus Cressock and his fighters in the dark. Usually, I have a lot of trouble paying attention to two worlds at once, but right now it feels totally natural. I let myself submerge into the world of my mijmere, hoping I’ll be able to talk to Charles and Malandeera and Naomi there.

  I’m in the stands of a huge baseball stadium, sitting in a hard plastic chair. It’s nighttime, and the only light is coming from a mostly full Moon. All the lights in the stadium are out, including the great big tall ones above the field. Still, I can tell practically every seat around me is filled. People are murmuring and talking in the dark, and every so often I hear someone scream or cry out. “Charles?” I say. “Naomi? Are you there?”

  Someone next to me nudges my elbow, and I hear the voice of the Kid. “Tough break. Everyone all set for the big game, then this happens.”

  “Why is it so dark?” I ask.

  “No power,” says the Kid. “Must be a busted fuse. If someone doesn’t get the lights back on, it’s Game Over.”

  “Did you see any of my friends?”

  “Yeah, I think so. That prissy girl and the hobo-looking guy. Some lady with them, too. I think they went to see if they could get the lights working.”

  “Show me the way they went.”

  Out in Dis, I can already see what they’re trying to do. Charles and Malandeera and Naomi are headed for IMEC-1. It’s still far away, but I’ve spotted it now. The reason I didn’t notice it before is that it almost looks like just another rock floating through space. But my friends are aiming straight for this particular rock, and when I look closely, I can see the buildings and City Guns and the ring of defenders floating around it. The one thing I don’t see is a single spark of thelemity. That’s when I know for sure: IMEC-1 has gone dark.

  Now it makes sense why everyone seems to be fighting in little pockets all spread out away from each other. The reason the battle looks like it’s broken into a million tiny pieces is because that’s exactly what’s happened. Our fontani must be trying to get to IMEC-1, to bring back thelemity and get the City Guns going, and the Valentines are doing everything they can to keep them away. And that means IMEC-1 is where I need to be.

  Legatus Cressock and everyone from the evacuation force has already figured all of this out. As soon as I start toward IMEC-1, they accelerate right along with me. Charles and Malandeera have a good head start, and for a while it looks like they won’t have any trouble getting there, but then, out of nowhere, two Zeros come streaking through the sky like meteors. Even though I’ve never seen a Zero before, I know that’s what these are. Friendly fontani wouldn’t attack Charles and Malandeera, of course, but I think I’d be able to tell these were Valentines anyway. They just feel like strangers.

  Instantly, Charles and Malandeera are swept up in a big, roaring fight. They’re some of the toughest fontani the Legion has, but even if they weren’t, they’d have the advantage. The Zeros came alone, and Charles and Malandeera have their reserve fighters. A few equi or gunships wouldn’t stand much chance against a Zero all by themselves, but in a battle between sources, they can be enough to tip the balance.

  I know Charles and Malandeera will be fine, but I’m still nervous for them. The Zeros out there are probably trained fighters, picked specially to come to Earth and finish us off. Romeo wouldn’t have sent just anyone. Like some kid who wasn’t even supposed to be part of the battle to begin with. Who was supposed to run away. Those Zeros would probably laugh if they knew I was out here trying to stop them. If Valentines can laugh.

  In my mijmere, I’m climbing over people in the dark, trying to get to the end of my aisle. Everyone’s grumbling at me to get moving, and when I try moving faster, I stumble and step on an empty seat where someone’s spilled a drink, and my foot slips on the wet plastic. I’m about to go headfirst onto the concrete underneath when the Kid grabs hold of my arm.

  “OK?” he says, pulling me the last few steps to the aisle. He hands me something small and heavy: a flashlight. He’s got one, too, and he shines a bright yellow beam toward a tunnel leading beneath the rows of seats. “Over here.”

  We’ve barely got inside when we hear the sound of fighting somewhere nearby. It’s hard to say exactly what’s happening, but there are crashing noises and scary, popping sounds and voices.

  “That’s Charles and Malandeera!” I tell the Kid.

  “We should go around,” he says.

  “Don’t they need our help?”

  “We have to get the lights working first. Once they’re back on, there’ll be plenty of people to help.”

  He’s right. I don’t like the idea of leaving Charles and Malandeera behind, but I make up my mind quickly enough when I hear other footsteps running toward us.

  Somewhere in the darkness ahead, I hear Naomi call out, “Come on, Jax! They’re on their way!”

  Out in Dis, another Zero has appeared, heading right at us. Naomi is already closing in on IMEC-1. Her mijmere is easy to spot, with its spiraling, twirling edges. It looks the way I bet music would if you could see it.

  I push to follow her, but I’m also afraid of leaving Legatus Cressock and the rest of his fighters behind. If Naomi gets to IMEC-1 first, I’ll be able to slow down a bit, but I don’t think that’s going to happen. This new Zero is already almost on top of us.

  Deep beneath the stadium of my mijmere, Naomi calls out, “Keep going—I’ll hold this one off!” I can just see the glow of a flashlight up ahead, casting her shadow against the wall of the tunnel. I skid to a halt as another shadow appears beside Naomi’s. It’s shaped almost like a person, but gigantic, and some parts, like the head and hands, aren’t quite the right shape. “Go, Jax!” Naomi yells. “Go!”

  The Kid shoves me toward another tunnel. “Down here,” he whispers.

  I don’t want to leave Naomi behind. She’s never fought another source on her own, let alone a Valentine Zero. But as I fly past, Legatus Cressock and his fighters peel away to go and help her. It’s the right plan. They wouldn’t be able to keep up at my full speed, and this way Naomi stands a better chance against that Zero.

  It’s really up to me now. Naomi and Cressock and Charles and Malandeera and the whole reserve are all fighting to give me a shot at getting to the IMEC. It doesn’t matter that they’d all be better at this than me. I’m the one who’s here, so I’m the one who has to do it. I aim myself straight ahead and go.

  “Hurry!” the Kid yells into my ear. “We’re almost there!”

  IMEC-1 is close now. Just a little farther. I don’t even have to make it all the way there, I know, just get close enough for my umbris to reach some of the City Guns. If I can get power back to those guns, they’ll be able to help Naomi and Charles and everyone else. But a second later, I kind of wish Cressock had stayed with me. More Zeros are coming. The Valentines know what I’m trying to do, and they’re sending everything they’ve got stop me.

  In my mijmere, I’m running flat out. The beam of my flashlight bounces crazily, sending shadows everywhere. The Kid is a few steps ahead, urging me forward. “It’s right up here!” he says. “Only a little farther!”

  Heavy footsteps are coming our way through the darkness: another Zero heading straight for us. Somewhere ahead is the switch to bring back the power, and I’ve got to get there before this Zero does. I’m getting ready for one last burst of speed when suddenly the Kid yells, “Stop!” and half a second later I run straight into his back.

  “What are you doing?” I scream. “We’re almost there!”

  Just then there’s another scream. It’s low and twisted, and it can only be the Zero. The tunnel lights up with bolts of hot blue, and the air fills with a thick, sizzling smell.


  Out in Dis, there’s a huge explosion over IMEC-1, the kind of explosion you’d expect if a whole bunch of heavy artillery opened up all at once. The weird thing is, none of the artillery is working. There was only that one Zero flying down to block my path. I was sure it had me—it had reached just about the perfect spot to strike—and then, out of nowhere, it exploded.

  “What happened?” I ask the Kid.

  In my mijmere, he turns his flashlight toward the wall of the tunnel. There, in big orange letters, are the words CAUTION: ELECTRICAL HAZARD. Not so far ahead, the floor is covered with thick black cables. Some of them are torn or frayed. As we watch, they let loose a few bright sparks, each with a loud snap. Lying across the cables is what looks like the shadow of a tall, heavy man, but when I turn my flashlight to get a better look, it fades away.

  The way to IMEC-1 is clear. And I’ve figured out what happened to that Zero, sort of. Floating just over the city is a huge cloud of artillery shells, the kind the City Guns use for long-range attacks. They won’t do much of anything without thelemity, but once they’re inside an umbris, they’re deadly. These ones are just close enough to IMEC-1 that they’d be easy not to notice—floating there inside our ring of assault platforms—and just far enough away that they wouldn’t damage the city or any of our fighters if they went off. I don’t know how they got there, but I do know that when that Zero hit them, it set off a whole bunch at once, and left plenty of space for me to fit through.

  I make my way carefully past the shells—or the electrical cables. Whichever world I’m looking at, they could fry me if I make the wrong move.

  Down in my mijmere, the Kid points his flashlight at a wall of switches. One row is connected with a big lever, and I pull it back, snapping all the switches at once. Suddenly, everything is washed out in blinding white light and a roar that whumps into me like a gust of wind. When my eyes adjust, I’m in a tunnel leading out onto my baseball field. The lights shining down are so intense that I can barely see past the first patch of green grass, but I can hear the crowd, everyone cheering their heads off.

  The Kid runs toward the sound, and I follow. As we’re running, he lets out a whoop and kicks over a trash barrel standing by the side of the tunnel; it falls, spilling a few small metal cans onto the ground. The Kid stomps on one, crushing it with a crunch. Then he crushes another. A can rolls against my foot, and I step on it, feeling weirdly satisfied as the metal crinkles beneath my shoe, before I walk out onto the field.

  I’m standing on IMEC-1, what’s called the “green” side, or the “country” side, probably because of all the trees and green fields. It even has a lake. But it also has plenty of heavy artillery, and I’ve landed near a row of guns, coming down so hard that I send bits of rock and dirt flying into the air. All around me are what look like big metal snakes. They seem to be hanging from the sky, trailing way off toward some of the Valentine formations above. I realize these must be the fighters Romeo uses on us when we’re out of thelemity. Aeter-Capable Troops, or ACTs, though a lot of people just call them “ratters” because of their tails—those things I thought looked like snakes. Only I don’t see anything attached to the tails now except maybe a little crumpled metal. As I watch, the crumpled parts begin to fizzle away, and the tails start doing the same thing.

  I’m wondering what could have happened to those ACTs when two more of the ratty fighters drop down in front of me. In my mijmere, two metal cans have fallen at my feet. When I see the cans sitting there, I get it. I know just what to do: I smash them. At the same time, the ACTs shudder and implode.

  Legionaries armed with lazels have come out from the guns nearby, but when they see I’ve taken care of the ACTs, they salute and run back inside. Already, some of the other guns have started to fire. All through IMEC-1, things are starting to work again. The air is returning, the gravity, too. The huge lake on Green Side, which had floated partway out of its basin, comes splashing back down, waves running over its banks and flooding the slopes nearby. Between the rumbling of guns, I can hear smaller battles: legionaries fighting back against ACTs.

  This isn’t the time to stand around. Right now I’m the only source in this whole city, meaning I’m as dangerous to those ACTs as the ACTs were to everyone on IMEC-1 before I got here. My job now is to keep Romeo from doing any more damage.

  But when I try to fly again, I just stumble forward and trip. I fall hard on the ground—only it isn’t the ground of Green Side on IMEC-1. It isn’t any ground I recognize, either. And I’m not in any world I know. I’m someplace else.

  FIFTY-NINE

  JAX

  When I get to my feet, I’m in a tall room with dark wooden walls. I’m standing on a thick, heavy rug, which must be what tripped me. From above, I think I hear the sound of a crowd—very, very faint, and muffled like it’s coming through a staticky radio. In front of me is a huge wooden staircase, and underneath that a door with a tall man standing in it dressed in a black suit and black tie. The doorway is dark, and the shadows keep me from seeing any of his face above his lower lip.

  “Good evening, sir,” says the man in the black suit, “and welcome. The master is expecting you. This way, please.”

  He waves a hand toward the staircase. He’s wearing white gloves, which seems strange, but I don’t question it. I just go up. The stairs are so wide that the man in the black suit could walk beside me, but he doesn’t. He follows close behind, almost breathing on my neck. I can still hear the muffled sound of a crowd, getting louder as we climb.

  The place at the top of the stairs is a lot like the place at the bottom: high ceilings and wooden walls. There’s a big old Common Era clock, the kind with only twelve hours on the face, but there are no hands to tell the time.

  “Through here, sir,” the man in the black suit says, gesturing to a pair of double doors. He makes it sound like an invitation, but I get the feeling that if I don’t do as he says, something bad will happen to me.

  Past the doors is a room with books everywhere, stacked in shelves so tall, they have a ladder attached to reach the ones on top. One wall has an alcove with a hearth and a crackling fire burning inside, and in front of the fire are some very comfortable-looking leather couches and chairs, and a low table. There’s also a small box that casts flickering light into the room, cold light that looks strange beside the warm glow of the fire. The box seems to be where the sound of the cheering crowd is coming from.

  At the far end of the room, a man sits at a wide, heavy desk cluttered with papers and a complicated-looking machine. The word “typewriter” floats suddenly into my head. The man has swooping brown hair and a neatly trimmed beard. He doesn’t seem to notice us; it looks like he’s got his attention half on his papers and half on the flickering box.

  “Master,” the man in the black suit says. “Your guest has arrived.”

  The voice surprises me, it’s so close. The man in the black suit is towering over me, and even though between the flickering box and the fire there’s plenty of light in here, I still can’t see his whole face.

  Right then is when I figure out I’m in a whole lot of trouble. I don’t know this man or his “master.” I don’t know where this house is or how I ended up facedown on a rug back in that hallway. And no matter how the shadows in here move, no matter which way I look, the eyes of the man in the black suit stay hidden. I’m in a mijmere—someone else’s mijmere.

  I think back to the battle in Dis. It seems like it all happened a long time ago, in another life almost, or a dream. I’d just returned thelemity to IMEC-1. There was still a lot of fighting going on, but now we had a chance. And then I ended up here.

  Another Zero must have attacked me after I landed. It probably came through the same way I did, only a few seconds later. We’re fighting each other right now. As soon as I think it, I know it’s true. And if I don’t recognize this place, and there’s no baseball happening anywhere, it means the
Zero is winning. It must be insanely strong to have completely swallowed me up like this, before I had a chance to fight back or even notice what was happening. Maybe even stronger than Charles. It’s probably not too far from totally overpowering me. After that, it’ll be able to fit me into its mijmere however it wants. It could even turn me into an empty can and crush me, the way I crushed those ACTs.

  The man at the desk looks up from his work, fixing me with pale blue eyes. He must be the Zero. This isn’t how he really looks, of course. My mijmere is still strong enough that he looks like a person to me. To him, this place will seem like a library on his world—if the Valentines even have libraries—and I’ll look like a Valentine.

  The Zero smiles at me with teeth streaked yellow. In a voice as smooth and polished as his wooden desk, he says, “Ah, wonderful. Please come in and have a seat. I’ll be with you in a moment.” His smile gets bigger—a little too big. “Can I offer you some refreshment? A drink, perhaps? Or a sandwich?”

  “No,” I say, then, because he only smiles at me some more, like he thinks I’m just lying and I really do want a sandwich, I say it again. “No.”

  “Let’s get you some water anyway. In case you change your mind.” He looks past me, toward the man in the black suit. “And some cookies, too.”

  “Yes, sir,” the man says. He bows and steps away, closing the doors as he disappears.

  The Zero goes back to his papers, making marks on each sheet before adding them to the pile on his desk. When he sees I haven’t moved, he says, “Do sit down, please. It makes me anxious, having someone standing around like that while I work.” He marks one last page with his pen and gets up from the desk. “Right there will be fine,” he says, pointing to one of the couches by the fire. When I still don’t move, he smiles an extra-wide, extra-yellow smile. “I can have my man restrain you if necessary. I don’t think either of us wants that.”