A Queen Among Crows: Book One of Empire's End

by M. S. Linsenmayer

  "You have a plan?" Lois asked as one of Amara's men began tossing bags off his sled.

  "Maybe. Or this will be a very short fight." Rope, yes, a couple bags of food, a tent, a medicine pouch, yes...

  I stopped for a moment, felt my forty-five in my belt holster. Could I even hit her? Did I even want to try?

  "Is it to kiss Julie or kill her?" Lois looked me directly in the eye.

  "Both, probably." My heart broke. My hand drew my sword.

  #

  I stood by the main doors, about fifteen feet back, but clearly visible from them. I had pulled them as open as I could, then swept the new fallen sleet and snow into a flat smooth plane. Behind me, my birds waited quietly, hiding in the broken buildings. Julie could attack over the walls, or try and sneak up behind me somehow, But In our fights together she had always struck straight on, confident in her speed and skill to overcome any foe.

  I was betting my life on that today.

  A few minutes quiet. Breath in, breath out, the winter chill turning my exhalation to clouds instantly. What if I was wrong? I might die here, now, and never see her coming. I wanted to see her, one last time, no matter who won.

  The road, perhaps three hundred feet in front of the gate, exploded in clouds of ice and dirt, a mini avalanche caused by something very fast stopping very quickly. Julie appeared in the mist, And I took a moment to devour her features with my eyes. Her brilliant blue irises widened in relief to see me alive; then dropped in horror and understanding. A sneer crossed her ruby lips for a moment, then a touch of pain.

  We said nothing, but stared at each other. She raised her sword, I raised mine; she bent into a runner's crouch, I began to silently count.

  One

  The ground behind her exploded.

  Two.

  A blur.

  Three.

  I lunged to the ground.

  The air cracked like a canon shot as something flew over me too fast to see. I pushed up, then fell down as my left arm gave way. Strikes of pain told me it was broken. No time, no time, that fall won't hold Julie for long, deal with it later, look for Julie now, there she is, plowed into the snow, still stunned or dead, not dead, no please not dead...

  I screamed myself up, staggered to her.

  She was moving, yes alive, reaching for her sword, I fell on her, holding her down, wrestling for her sword, she was yelling and crying, bucking to throw me off.

  I got my hand on her sword, she got her other arm free, and slugged me, once, twice, in my broken elbow. I fell off, the world twisted, and vomited harsh bloody chunks.

  Julie slammed her knee into my back, my face hit the ground. She yanked my hair, I heard it rip as blood squirted down my scalp. A cold steel edge kissed my throat.

  "What did you do?" Julie whispered.

  "Rope. Under the snow. You are simply too predictable, my love." If my birds could distract her...

  "Not that. I figured that. The British? You were spying for the British all along? After everything they did to your people?" Julie held her sword very steady against my throat.

  "What they did? What has Catherine done? Her Empire has killed millions of people in its slave camps. What do you think she will do when she gets any more power?"

  "And are the British any better? Does Ireland ring a bell? How about the rubber plantations of South America? "

  "The British promised my people their freedom." I retched, hacked, then coughed some more.

  "And you believed them?" Julie screamed in rage.

  "Excuse me ladies" James yelled from behind us "But my lovely mate wished me to remind you both that we are all still here, we can fly, and we have dynamite."

  "I can take you..." Julie said. The ground shook. Everything was quiet for a few seconds. The ground kicked upwards. We flew several feet, then I landed on my head, again, dammit.

  "Earthquake?" Julie said.

  "Oh hells no." Boom. The ground ruptured, smoke and orange light flaring from the crevice. "Run" I screamed "run from the mine! James, Lois, everyone, fly!"

  Arms like steel grabbed me from behind "No more tricks, Eryma, no more damn tricks!"

  "No trick! Julie get us out of here or we will both die!" I tried to break free, I should be stronger than her, why was I so weak.

  The ground blurred, was I sick again, no, can't breathe, we were moving... The world stopped, Julie let me go, I staggered, "Where?" I gasped.

  "About two miles away, on the hill." Julie panted. So, she did have limits.

  Boom the earth shook.

  "Get down" I commanded. I reached for my binoculars, but found only broken pieces.

  Boom. Something moved, rising above the mine. Boom. More smoke, more harsh orange furnace light. Boom. The size was impossible to tell, there was nothing to give it scale... The walls, the walls were thirty feet, making each leg at least ninety feet high. Boom. Each step cracked the frozen ground under it.

  Ten legs, three body sections, solid black, not even a reflection from the sun to give it color; it was clearly both mechanical and alien. Something like this had never been made on Earth, something like this simply could not be, no metal was strong enough to support it or gas engine powerful enough to drive it.

  "Gods" Julie moaned "The spider. It was in the mine all along."

  "Yes, and when my people moved the device, they woke it." I needed a new plan. A much bigger new plan. With bigger guns. Much, much bigger guns.

  The spider continued booming its way down the road, simply stepping over the prison walls like they were not there. It either did not see us or did not care. I was not sure which was the better or the worse.

  "We need to stop it." I said.

  "You are insane." Julie replied, "Send your birds with the dynamite."

  "James was bluffing. Well, mostly bluffing." I took out my scarf and looped it around my head to try and staunch the bleeding. With only one arm, I doubt I did a good job.

  "Oh, give me that" Julie aggrieved "Bluffing?"

  "My birds can use grenades on their own, as it's just pull the pin and drop. Dynamite, someone needs to be nearby to light. Just like when we attacked the castle." The scarf was now tight around my scalp, but Julie wasn't very gentle about it.

  "Your arm needs serious care, as do my ribs. I doubt I can carry us both at sufficient speed to get to that thing unobserved."

  "Not to it." I smiled "We need to get ahead and above it."

  "How" Julie did not smile back

  "The rope I used to trip you. There is more, and it's not a natural rope." I giggled.

  #

  "This is insane!" Julie screamed. Or I think she screamed, it was hard to tell with the wind rushing past. I blinked my eyes to try and clear them of the ice; fifty feet from me, Julie dangled wrapped in a bright yellow rope net like a fly in a spider's web. Each of the strands of the web pulled tight above her were held on by a half dozen birds- none strong enough to lift her by themselves, but added together, they can lift tons. The trick was all in the rope; stronger than steel, lighter than silk. Professor Carothers, I think I love you.

  I looked down from my own web. Hundreds of feet below us, the mountains and hills raced past. The spider may be fast, and the dog sleds even faster, be we were traveling as the crow flies, literally. I could vaguely see the small shapes of the dog sleds racing down the road, dodging trees and rocks, desperate to reach the sea and escape; five or six miles behind them, but gaining, the spider simply boomed on any little thing in its way, like trees, boulders, or small hills. It was an implacable, unstoppable juggernaut; not so much a weapon of war as an instrument of divine wrath.

  "It is not firing" I yelled to Julie.

  "So, what?" she screamed back.

  "So why not? Is it afraid to hurt the device? Can it? Why did it wait for the device to be moved? The thing has limits of some kind, it's just a machine!" we had to figure out those limits, fast. Or this would be the shortest battle since Julie's one-woman invasion of Japan.

  "It's
alien! This may be how it gets its laughs!" Julie was no help.

  "Hey boss!" James called from my lead rope "Where to?"

  Mountains, sheep, mountains, trees, mountains, giant spider from space..."There!" I yelled back "The dog sleds will cut up that trail, but it's too small for the spider. It will have to go along the valley between those peaks. Put us on top of on, James, as high as you can!"

  "Head it off at the pass, check! Faster people!" James laughed. And Julie thinks I am insane. James is in a class all of his own.

  #

  "Where are we do you figure?" The mountain we were standing on wasn't that high, maybe two thousand feet above sea level, if the thin air was any judge. The range ran east west, with several ice-covered peaks much higher than our own. Eight hundred feet below, a fairly wide pass between this granite crest and one two miles north would e wide enough to allow the spider to pass, I hoped. North of us the sea glimmered in the setting sun.

  I poked my left arm in its sling once or twice with my finger. It had stopped hurting, and I somehow suspected that was not good news.

  "Byrranga, I think. Assuming that is the Leptiv bay, behind us." Lois sounded exhausted. "If I remember my maps correctly, there should be several whaling and fishing stations along that bay, if we can make it there."

  "Assuming we do not kill each other. Or the spider does not kill us all. Or we do not run out of calories and freeze like normal women. You two evil geniuses have a plan?" Julie stripped off her webbing with rough movements. I wondered if it was the flying she hated, or the loss of control. She loved to drive dangerously fast, after all. No, when she caught me looking at her, it was me she hated now.

  "My plan is dynamite." I pointed at the box in its own webbing.

  "We could have simply dropped it on it already." Julie stomped over to it.

  "And likely done nothing. No, we need to use it to trigger an avalanche." How much time did we have left? How fast would it climb? Would it even come this way? What if...

  Boom

  Never mind.

  "Got it. So, we tie, cut cord, have the birds fly it to the other..." Julie crouched down and started opening the explosives box.

  Boom

  "Or" I started panicking "We grab what we can, light, and throw hard."

  Boom. The tree line shattered as one giant black claw leg lifted into view.

  "We are standing on a glacial peak, Eryma!" Julie snarled.

  Boom. The great mechanical head with its single orange flame eye heaved into view.

  "We are out of time! I light, you throw!" I grabbed a bundle with my working arm, cursed my broken arm, as I started to fumble the lighter with one hand.

  Boom. The entire cliff side quaked as the spider moved into the mountain pass.

  Julie threw. The first bundle streaked too short.

  Boom. The dynamite exploded at its feet.

  I lit another bundle. Julie grunted and threw higher.

  Boom. The spider reared, looking for targets.

  I grabbed for another bundle, dropped my lighter.

  The last bundle exploded on the mountain side north of us. The spider whistled an impossibly high note. The sky turned to bright day. An orange and blue beam, impossibly bright, seared from the spider's eye to gouge into the northern face. Snow and granite exploded into steam.

  I found my lighter, lit. Julie screamed and threw.

  The northern peak cracked. Thunder and smoke billowed forth. In the far distance, I could see the orange beam searing into the sky. It cut through the mountain, dear gods, it cut through a mountain.

  I just stopped, stunned. Fumbled for the dynamite once more.

  Julie bellowed something untranslatable in French, grabbed the lit dynamite, shoved it back in the box, and then with a great twist launched the entire box at the spider below. The case arched down the mountain, hit once, bounced, and slammed into the spider's lower leg. Wood shattered, sticks flew like shrapnel, time stopped into crystal clarity, then the area shook with the force of several hundred sticks exploding at once.

  "Lois, fly!" I screamed. The ground shifted beneath me, and I began to slide. I reached desperately for a handhold, the snow just scraping through my fingers. I began to move, slowly at first, then with thunderous speed, my view blinded by dust and snow.

  Well, congratulations Eryma, you had you avalanche.

  CHAPTER THIRTY

  The Beginning of the End

  Lois glided in swift circles over the broken land below. The air still shook, and thunder echoed into the distance. Millions of tons of snow and rock had bombarded the pass below. The spider, toppled, was buried, only it's still kicking legs sticking up from the ground.

  The ground still quaked and cracked, mini avalanches sending their loads below like barreling freight trains.

  Where the hell was Eryma?

  I woke with a start. Panted, trying to breathe. There was a weight, felt like an elephant, on my chest and legs. There was light, dim and broken, coming from a small hole about two or three feet above my head. Air. There was air up there. I tried to move, could not. My legs twitched but did not move. "Lois, James?" I tried to speak but only coughed. I closed my eyes, tried to call from inside, but heard no answer, not even static.

  Was I crippled again? Were they dead? No, I would know if Lois was dead. Even crippled, I would know. Jammed. I was buried under the snow, the antennas along my nerves must be blocked. This was like the sanitarium again. I survived that, I can survive this. I tried to push again, barely twitched, tried to scream.

  Footsteps, was that footsteps above me? A shadow? "Lois?"

  "Non, Ma Reine, tis not your wise bird, but only I." Julie began clearing the snow off my face and head with her hands "Now, there are things I must ask, and you must answer."

  "Julie" I tried to reach for her with my hand, she blocked it with her sword.

  Flapping, quiet flapping, above me. James landed by me head, coughed loudly.

  "No more tricks." Julie's grin was savage. Her sword tip pressed right on my throat. "I have her at my mercy, and all your explosives and toys are gone. Who has the device and where are they taking it?"

  "Julie" I tried to say. A great shadow crossed my vision.

  "Answer me!" Julie screamed.

  She raised her sword to strike.

  A hurricane of wind blew past. Julie's sword just dropped. She was gone, simply gone. A short bark came from above.

  James, dear beloved courageous laugh at danger James, screamed like a child.

  Shadows again. A head, larger than any bird should be, came into view. "False queen. Cruel queen. Child queen." The Maphnk said "We have been waiting for you."

  #

  It took almost twenty birds, each, to fly us up to that peak. It took one Maphnk, to pull me from the ground like a kitten, grab me in its claws, and carry me aloft. James, Lois, and the children followed along behind, staying very quiet.

  Which was fine, as Julie made enough noise for all of us. Suspended in the claws of another Maphnk, she bellowed out all sorts of obscenities in French, German, Russian, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, and something that may have been Swahili. I was impressed, I think James took notes. The Maphnk ignored it all, until I tried to make silent communication with one, in which case I received an evil eye for my troubles, followed by a sharp shake.

  Our trip was about an hour, but low enough among the passes we did not freeze. Or freeze anymore, at any rate, as I was now well frosted. The mountains receded behind us, ahead the Siberian highlands opened up, rich country full of winding streams and herds of caribou. Several of the streams met to create wetlands, and in their center, stood the stone ruins of some ancient and forgotten city.

  The buildings were crude, made of thick pieces of the native granite, and overgrown by vines and ferns. The largest was a fort of some kind, roughly square, with a simple two story keep, graced with massive corroded bronze doors. The crest of the keep was carved to resemble some great raven's head, eternally watchin
g the lands below for enemies or prey. The streets were paved with crushed stones, weathered by centuries of use; I saw them all too well when the Maphnk dropped me on them like so much unwanted garbage. With an 'ooph' Julie landed beside me. She at least tried to land on her feet.

  I pushed myself to my knees. Broken arm, cracked ribs, concussion, gods only know what else, I was in no condition to fight my way out of here. Maybe if I just rested for a moment. Breathe in, breathe out, my ribs like small knives in my chest. Lois hopped over and rested her head lightly against my hip.

  Footsteps, beside me. "Get up" Julie commanded.

  "Give me a minute" I tried to catch her eyes.

  "No" Julie roughly pulled me to my feet by my coat collar.

  "Enough" Lois growled. "Even if you can take us, Dame, you can never get past the Maphnk by yourself."

  "True." Julie sighed "Which is why I have not left you behind. But the Maphnk brought us here for a reason. So, time to earn your life, Ma Reine, and start thinking clever things."

  I pointed at the steps leading to the great bronze doors. "To die, I suspect."

  "What do you mean?" Julie pulled my body into a partial shoulder carry and started walking us up the stairs.

  "The door, it's green. Someone has been playing all of us; you, me, Catherine, the British, all of us- like pieces on a chess board." Left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot, walking should not be this hard...

  "I hate Rasputin" even Julie sounded in pain now.

  "If I am correct, the doors should swing open dramatically." We stopped to wait. Waited another minute. The doors just stood there, ignoring us. "Or maybe you could rest me against this pillar while you open them."

  "Good idea." Julie roughly thrust me down. I hit my head on the cold stone. Ow.

  The doors resisted, then buckled, before opening with a dying squeal. Dust blew out of the room in gasping clouds, as light cut into the room for the first time in possibly centuries. At first, I thought I saw standing figures, before the light grew clearer, and I saw they were stone statues. The air was foul, reeking of old death and ruin.