by Ren Cummins
“Their brown fur marks them as common bulwogs, brutish and unintelligent,” Mulligan explained. “They’re just here to kill things.”
She nodded, and dropped down to the street in front of them, adding the velocity of her fall to the swing of her staff. The crushing impact dropped the lead creature instantly with a sickening crunch of its bones and caused the other three to jump back, startled.
One of the remaining bulwogs leaped at her, large fangs bared. She hooked the curved end of the crook around its neck and spun it in the air, away from her. Unfortunately, the creature was lighter than she’d anticipated, and it flew further than she’d expected, striking one of the main conduits of the steam assembly. The bulwog and its scream of pain were immediately swallowed up in a tremendous cloud of super-heated steam.
Rom grabbed Mulligan and jumped backwards, away from the explosion, but misjudged her landing, rolling end over end and striking the back of her head against the brick façade of the building behind her. She’d managed to protect them both from most of the superheated steam, but her arms stung where the fabric of her dress clung to the skin. Her hands, she could see, were already bright red where the steam had come into direct contact.
“Hang it!” she winced.
“Language!”
“Not now, Mully!” The staff felt clumsy in her hand, which were strangely stiff; the backs of her hands and her knuckles pounded with blood.
She looked around quickly, trying to assess the current state of the fight. One other bulwog appeared to have been caught in the blast, and lay twitching in the center of the street. That could have been me, Rom realized, but she shook the threat of disorienting panic from her mind. She took a few steps forward, blinking her eyes against the pain in her head and arms.
“Jump!” Mulligan yelled – she kicked off from the ground, spinning in the air as another bulwog passed harmlessly beneath her. Hooking the curve of the staff around its neck, she pulled herself quickly down to land on its back. It landed and tried to turn its head around to bite at her, but she held firmly to the shepherd’s crook, which kept its head safely from her.
“Now what?” Mulligan asked. “Jumping on isn’t as easy as jumping back off.”
She bit her lip – she hadn’t thought that far ahead, really. But the warping angle of the staff made her understand a function of the device which had not been intended simply for guiding or defending. She changed her grip, and, once the beast’s head positioned itself just right, she spun her hands sharply , twisting the staff and snapping the creature’s neck. It fell instantly to the ground, and she and Mulligan jumped off, sliding to a stop.
Rom looked about her quickly. “Where’s the fourth?” she asked Mulligan. He pointed to her right just in time for her to spot the tail end of the remaining bulwog as it disappeared around a far corner. She shook her hands and flexed her fingers. They still hurt, she could move them.
“He’s pretty fast,” Mulligan observed needlessly.
A few of the thickly-garbed steamsmen were already showing up to begin working on the broken conduits. Rom pointed at the fallen bulwogs and frowned. She called out a sincere but brief apology as she launched herself up to the nearest rooftop and leapt to the far side of it to give her a less congested view of the streets.
The bulwog was at a full sprint, avoiding the few people it came across in its hurry to avoid what it must have sensed to be a superior predator. She kept up with it as it skidded onto a broader street and spotted a pair of partially-open doors ahead of it. Rom knew those doors all too well, having lived within them most of her young life. Before she could catch the bulwog, it launched itself from the exposed streets and into the unsuspecting halls of the orphanage.
* * * * *
As they pulled up in front of the ordinarily tranquil entrance to the college of Atmology, Kari felt a degree of her own confidence in their ability to defend the town slipping away. Whereas apprentices and mastersmiths would leisurely come and go through the great brass doors, they now all streamed in, hustling and pushing one another through the entryway.
Cousins gripped her arm. “Are you going to be okay?” he asked. “Things look pretty crazy here.”
She could see the legitimate concern on his face – for some reason, this made her feel better and worse, all at once. Kari reached into the large bag at her belt, and slipped on her gauntlets. “Don’t worry about me. If anyone gets too pushy, I can push back.”
“See that you do, then,” he smiled. It seemed like he was going to say something else, but shook his head slightly. “Well, I’d better go organize my people. They’ve been wanting to beat something up ever since Favo and I have started changing the business – this might be just the kind of adventure they’re looking for.”
“And you said you never wanted to be the hero,” she grinned.
He chuckled. “I never said I was a hero. I just feel that an opportunity such as this can’t be passed up – it’s an excellent opportunity to bring in a more respectable sort of clientele.”
“There you go again, talking like you’re an old person.”
“Yes, well,” he grinned again. “Anyway…” his voice trailed off.
“Be careful,” she warned.
“You as well.”
Kari turned away from him with a nod, and began the short walk towards the doors. She could feel his eyes on her for a few moments, but finally heard the engine of the Runabout accelerating and fading off into the distance. Her stomach felt funny – a dull ache mixed with a fluttering queasiness. She hoped she wasn’t coming down with something.
The insides of the College were as convoluted as she felt inside – she managed to avoid being knocked over several times before making her way towards her own secluded sections of the building in the Independent Studies wing. Aleph had been moved down here where he could be more exhaustively examined by the higher-ranking Professors. She wasn’t entirely happy about that occurrence, but Professor Theremin had assured her it was one of the prices worth paying for the opportunity she had been given and the great deal of trust the College had placed in her hands.
When she entered, all eyes – including Aleph’s – turned to her. She noticed that one or two of the eldest Professors didn’t look entirely happy, and their faces scrunched up even more when they saw her come into the large examination room. Before she had time to mull this over, however, Theremin approached her with a broad smile.
“Apprentice Kari,” he said enthusiastically, “you’re just in time! A few of the council have had a few – make that quite a few – questions regarding your leaps of logic into the fields of kinesthesiology, especially seeing as how you have, as far as we are aware, received no formal education in those sciences – is that something…”
She interrupted him, although it was clearly an awkward action on her part. “I’m sorry, Professor, but there’s something more urgent that I’m here to ask.”
Her voice, by far the youngest in the room, sent an immediate hush over the other conversations.
“I have to …. borrow Aleph.”
Her simple statement might as well have torn through the central generators. Once the obligatory moment of shock passed, the room erupted into a flurry of “that’s preposterous!” and “utterly scandalous!” and immediate calls for her expulsion. These of course were instantly answered with a volley of defensive cries for patience and reminders that it had been she, a novice apprentice barely 12 years of age who had been responsible for the restoration of the technology that had restored the Machines to life.
Professor Theremin waved his hands furiously for calm, shouting incoherently three times before achieving their almost total attention.
“Gentlemen! Gentlemen, please. I assure you, Apprentice Kari is a responsible and well-thinking young woman. Clearly, she must have a motive for her statement, and I beg you, give ear that she might share it with us.”
A few voices harrumphed at that, but eventually they were all silent enough to lis
ten to her.
“It’s just…” Kari felt smaller than she had ever felt before, and her voice seemed to be of the same mind. “It’s just… well, there are a lot of m-monsters approaching… and…”
One of the Professors in the back picked up her train of thought. “And you decided you would simply come in and take this… magnificent construct out to, what? Be used as some sort of tremendous weapon?” A few other voices echoed the obvious contempt in his statement with otherwise indistinct responses. Seemingly buoyed by their verbal support, he concluded by bellowing, “Are you mad, child?”
“Now see here,” Theremin responded before realizing to whom he was addressing, “begging your pardon, Provost Langren, but do please understand that there clearly need be some sort of investigation into the validity of her claims.” Avoiding the puffy red face of the Provost, he turned instead to speak to Kari.
“Certainly, if something of so grave in nature as the events to which you are describing is in fact in occurrence, then certainly we should do all in our power to assist the citizenry, but you must understand that a device of this value cannot simply be…”
He was cut off by another professor whose name Kari couldn’t quite recall in the developing chaos of the room. “Nonsense! This Work is the property of the College of Atmology, and cannot be risked at simple threat of life or limb – you presume too much, sir!”
And, again, the room filled with professors, administrators and other learned men dissolved into pure mayhem as the pent-up anger and resentment spilled over into a level of disorganization bordering on a riot.
Theremin stood speechless for several moments, before his own ears heard one of the opposing sides utter a perfect fabrication and misappropriation of the truth, and turned to vanish into the cacophony with his peers. Kari, dizzied by the frenetic debates, looked away from the sea of old men and closed minds, and eventually her eyes met Aleph’s.
Although a machine, Kari couldn’t help but imagine that he was watching the ensuing melee with a similar degree of approbation as she did. His face turned to regard hers, and she caught an almost imperceptible nod of his great head.
And, with that, he stood.
The voices stopped almost immediately.
As the assembled members of the college of Atmology ran for cover, Aleph crossed the room with two paces of his tremendous legs, his body bent low at the waist to avoid driving his head clean through the ceiling. Bracing one hand upon the wall, he lowered the other towards Kari.
“Aleph will help,” his voice resonated through the room, the emotionless and mechanical man decisively ending the discussion.
Chapter 21: No Time To Think
Before she even cleared the doors, she could hear the screams of the children; Rom wasted no time, simply following the obvious clamor caused by the creature’s path. She passed quickly by the base of the main stairway, as the motion of the two large-paned doors that led into the courtyard still swung freely – one only barely hanging to its hinges.
Rom jumped through the narrow opening of the doors and landed nimbly at the edge of the stone-tiled walkway surrounding the central area where the children typically played. Where she had played, she corrected herself. She heard a few muffled children’s cries as her eyes fell upon the bulwog that crouched only ten or so feet ahead of her. It turned quickly towards her at that moment, pouncing in a single motion.
Its jump was aimed to land just at her feet; Rom vaulted backwards with her feet meeting the wall just above the doors and pushed off hard towards the center of the courtyard. She spun as she landed so that she remained facing the creature. Her plan – if it could be called as such – was to keep the creature’s attention fixed away from the door and buy the children who were hiding out here time to run back inside where it was relatively safe.
Rom spun the staff rapidly in her hand; the staff’s curve created a low whistle through the air. The bulwog’s ears perked up and it began slowly moving towards her, obviously curious about the sound.
“In just a moment,” she called out to the children without looking in their direction, “I want you to slowly and quietly move to the doors, get in and run upstairs. Find the other children and the Matrons and hide there with them. Don’t make a sound, just move. Ready….” The creature was still crouched down, uncertain whether to pounce or sniff at the strange sound the whirling staff was making.
“Now!” she said – loud enough for them to hear, but not so loud as to spook the creature into attacking her. Not yet, she thought. Just hold its attention a few moments more.
She slowly moved back, adding new degrees of sound and motion to the curiosity the creature displayed. Three small points of movement began going behind the far statues, but she kept her eyes locked on the bulwog.
Two of the children moved into the comparative shelter of the Orphanage, but the third remained by the doors – they seemed to be looking at her, but she didn’t dare pull away her gaze from the creature, lest it jump at her in the moment of her distraction. But the child, if they realized her predicament, didn’t seem to care.
“Rom?” the other child bellowed.
She couldn’t help herself. Rom looked up – just for a moment – and she groaned in spite of herself. Why did it have to be him, she wondered? Why did she have to save Milando?
As she had feared might happen, the bulwog sensed her distraction and lunged at her, but she moved only a fraction of a moment too slow. But where its attack might have disemboweled her, it merely succeeded in raking her across the leg with a paw-full of his claws. She nearly dropped her staff with the shock of the instant wave of pain that raced up her thigh to her shoulders, but stopped twirling the staff in time to slam it down across the bulwog’s leg and knock it off balance.
Putting most of her weight on her left leg, she shifted the staff to her other hand and swung the staff up and under the bulwog’s neck. The pressure on her leg sent a new spasm of tenderness, but, bracing the staff across her waist, she turned on her foot and flipped the creature over onto its back.
With a quick double-tap of her bracelet, she replaced the staff-form with the sword. Ignoring Milando’s exclamations of surprise on the far edge of the courtyard, she moved quickly to the bulwog’s side and pierced it through the chest before it could roll back over to its feet. The end of the sword rang as it struck the stones beneath, and a fount of blood hissed upwards, coating her face and hands with a thin dark red spray.
Milando’s expression would ordinarily have been the cause of unending delight for Rom and Kari only a few months before. But now, any possible humor she might have experienced at his shock and horror felt empty to her. Her lips curled in a grimace.
“Get inside,” she growled, and he turned to obey. She entered the doors after him, and saw him clamoring up the stairs in his hurry to be away from her.
She paused at the base of the stairs and watched him until just after he turned and ran out of her sight. “And Milando,” she yelled. He stopped, nearly stumbling at the top stair as she added, “Stop being mean to the other kids.”
With a wry smile, she concluded, “Or I’m coming back.”
* * * * *
Word had already begun to reach Favo’s complex in the form of rumors and chaos by the time Cousins pulled the Runabout into its secured parking room, not even bothering to plug it into the recharger before slamming the door behind him that led into the underbelly of the central building. Favo’s other cycle was missing.
He could tell by the expressions on the faces of the first two guards he met that they’d heard something, at least. “Where’s Favo?” he barked at them.
The taller of the two – Cousins couldn’t remember his name just now – shook his head. “He left last night and hasn’t checked in. He passed word to all of us that you’re in charge until he gets back.”
Cousins frowned, chewing on his lip. At least he left things in my hands, he thought sardonically. Any other day, I might actually enjoy the responsibil
ity.
Shaking off the thousand other thoughts and self-doubts that threatened to overwhelm him, he broke things down to the basics, and started issuing out commands as he made his way up to Favo’s office.
“You – send out a courier to bring in all off duty personnel, we’re going to need everyone suited up and ready for action, immediately. You,” he pointed at the second guard, “we’re going to minimal staff here on base. Set up a skeleton crew here, five men tops.”
By the time he reached the main floor, ten of the guards were waiting for him, standing at an almost military level of attention. He smiled briefly, and the growing sense of anxiety seemed to dwindle and fade. There was work to be done.
To the casual observer, the image of the fourteen-year old boy giving orders to a crew of grown men might have seemed ridiculous –but these men could already see just by looking at him that their boss’ new second in command was far from the average child. Anyone capable of besting Favo was certainly not one to be underestimated, regardless of their age.
“We have to help protect the town,” he said urgently. “It’s not for money; we’re not getting paid for this. But we have to do it.”
The men nodded, smiling. One of them – a veteran of Favo’s organization who’d been here for several years now – spoke up. “Sir, we’re all behind you already. Just tell us where to go and what you need us to do.”
Cousins gave a little sigh of contentment. After years of living relatively on his own – a company of one – this transition to greater responsibility was easier to take than he’d feared.