Sons watch from every vantage point as we flow across New Runcton. There are so many, each one looking my way. A mad, delighted little voice in my head says, “All this… for me?”
Hobb sits on his bench with an air of cultivated humility that doesn’t suit him. Beside the bench is a pyre with a diamond post and tied to the post is Ursula. She looks more conscious now.
I’m sent sprawling by a hard shove from behind, smacking my hands and knees on the unyielding floor.
“Charity!” Ursula cries.
I look from side to side and see a variety of large, clunky weapons pointing at me. The n-gun is still offline.
“It’s all right baby,” I say to Ursula.
“It’s not all right baby,” Hobb says.
For once Ursula keeps her mouth shut. Hobb looks calm and happy: a man who is exactly where he wants to be. He gazes around his followers and as they stare silently back Hobb seems to absorb strength from their vast, lumpen presence.
I start to get up. Something hits me between the shoulders and I’m clubbed back down. Winded, I look at Hobb, who ignores me. Ursula whimpers, loud in the silence.
Hobb climbs slowly onto the bench. It rises on a growing block of diamond and stops when Hobb reaches sufficient height to be seen by everyone present. He spreads his hands and stares towards his god in the floor.
“Brothers,” he says, “I thank you for the sweet gift of your faith.”
His awestruck voice is hushed but amplification makes it sound like he is in the very air.
“Today, we have with us two women. They were friends to us once, when they blessed our last sacrifice here. Since then however, they have fallen into vice and betrayal.”
Hobb points at me.
“This one has murdered many of our brothers,” he says.
The Sons murmur, a sound rich with menace. I stare at the floor, too frightened to look anywhere else. I’m suddenly very conscious of the delicate organic processes that make my body work and the flimsiness of the skin containing them. Ursula sobs quietly.
“She has spread lies about us,” Hobb says. “Lies about the Crystal Mind.”
Their eyes snap back to look at me as I cower on the floor. There is a dreadful moment and then they lunge like a single vicious creature. Hard fingers dig into my shaky flesh and I hear myself scream as they hurl me up into the air. For a moment I’m free, then fists thud into my back and the jumpsuit armour is useless against them. I writhe and buck onto more blows, afloat on a black sea of cloaks and agony. I try and shield my head with my arms but they are wrenched away to reveal a fine red spray of my blood in the air.
Punches batter my face and now I can’t see. The sound of hitting is an awful dull staccato, almost too fast for my stunned nerves to match. Pain comes in astonishing waves; I can’t move because of it but it keeps on and on.
“Enough,” Hobb says.
I smash to the floor and the impact cuts through all other agonies. Dazed, I lie on my back and shake. My body jolts excruciating little puffs of air into what’s left of my lungs and each breath is like another blow. I don’t know whether my eyes are open or not.
“She cannot help what she does,” Hobb whispers. “She is evil.”
My hair is stuck to my face, which feels like it’s full of extra blood and flesh.
“This evil comes from an unexpected source: Centria.”
Sight blurs its way back. My feet point towards Hobb and the pyre. I look at the barricade of black-clad figures, who glare down at me with uniform cold contempt.
“The heart of our realm has revealed itself to be unworthy of our regard. In its arrogance, Centria has bred monsters.”
Hobb closes his eyes. When he opens them again he looks stricken with grief, as if he has been betrayed.
“She is one.”
The Sons emit a euphoric sigh. Hobb tenses and the crowd leans forward as one.
“Centria tinkers with the works of God as if those mighty endeavours are playthings for stupid pampered children. No wonder the outcome is abomination!”
“ABOMINATION!” the Sons of the Crystal Mind roar.
The deafening word strikes my trembling core like all their punches in one.
“We must teach her the meaning of love my brothers. We must burn away distractions that keep her from seeing the Crystal Mind.”
He points at Ursula.
“Distractions like this false sister of hers.”
Hobb aims his hateful little device at the pyre. Dumfounded, I watch the wood begin to smoke. Ursula looks at it dully and passes out.
“You said you would let her go if I came here,” I croak at Hobb.
He looks theatrically bemused.
“No,” he says, “I didn’t. You have contaminated her, but her cleansing will be quick. Yours alas will take years.”
Hobb nods at the Son nearest to Ursula.
“Wake her.”
The Son jabs something into Ursula’s arm. She inhales sharply and her head comes up. She sees the fire around her and strains to escape but can barely move. Flames chew through the wood towards her. She screams.
I try to stand. A boot that seems almost disembodied flies in from the left and kicks me back down. Ursula’s screams go up a pitch.
“Get up,” Hobb says.
I try. They beat me down again.
“Get up!” Hobb shouts.
He sounds confused and I slowly angle my head so I can see him. He isn’t talking to me.
The flames reach Ursula and smoke gags her screams. She becomes senseless with choked hysteria as her trouser legs blacken horribly and-and then they catch fire.
Suddenly, water pours onto her from above. Flames hiss out and the pyre spreads in a fan of blackened wood. I look up. Above Ursula hangs a ship, smaller than a warship but heavily armoured. Water drips from its hatch and I glimpse Harlan in a black cloak as he ducks back inside.
“No!” Hobb screams, “nooooo!”
Painfully I clamber to my feet. No one looks at me; Hobb hasn’t even noticed that Ursula’s fire is out. Instead he stares into the crowd and I follow his gaze.
There is a civil war among the Sons of the Crystal Mind. Great swathes of them lie motionless on the floor. Elsewhere, their black-clad brethren methodically cut them down and Hobb’s floor cover stops the Basis absorbing the bodies.
I see Jaeger under a black hood, his expression eerily calm. His troops respond to the tiniest indication from him as he whirls untouched through knives and weapon beams to fling Sons of the Crystal Mind into their own fields of fire.
One of the Sons flies back and knocks me flat, his weight crushing my injuries. I gasp and inhale the smell of his sour body and musty clothes; then grab his rifle and struggle out from under him.
The Sons who surrounded me have all dispersed. They’ve got no idea who to kill; they don’t know it’s the New Form Enterprise dressed in identical black robes.
Two of the genuine Sons fight their attackers. One of the two then shoots the other. The NFE have got an identifier I can’t see to ensure they don’t make the same mistake.
“Stop,” Hobb shouts.
One of the Sons turns and sees me. He raises his fuze but I blow him apart with the rifle. Behind him I see the pyre. Ursula is gone.
“Charity!”
Harlan’s voice. I turn; his ship has landed nearby. I limp towards it.
The ground in front of me erupts! I stumble back, stunned. I look around and then up. Hobb points a rifle at me from the top of his diamond block. He laughs and shoots again; he wants me to know it’s him.
As I lift the rifle I notice a number on the side: 3, which becomes 2, which becomes 1… The rifle dissolves in my hands. It must have been a cheap model, only made to last a short time.
Another blast from Hobb explodes in front of me and the shock wave throws me back. I struggle up and a shot smashes down behind, hurling me forward to land on the jagged edges. Hobb fires again and again, his shots churning up the floor. Al
though I cover my head and throw myself out of the way bright fragments still cut through.
I writhe and scream in a storm of bloody diamond but all of a sudden it stops. I look up to see Hobb fire at Harlan’s ship and then my head nods forward involuntarily. My entire being is agony but in the terrible heart of it I notice… Hobb has blasted away a large patch of his floor cover.
Harlan fires a white n-gun bolt that shatters part of Hobb’s block. A few of the remaining Sons notice and shoot at Harlan. Harlan ducks into his ship, which rocks under the impact of gunfire.
I shelter against the base of Hobb’s block and gif a fuze in the patch of revealed floor. As I watch the gun form and grow, hot blood drips off my face like tears. Finally, my fuze rests on the floor and I reach over to pick the weapon up. Pushing myself to my feet I limp backwards until I can see Hobb.
“Hey handsome,” I say.
He turns, his expression a mix of surprise and guilty delight at my words. He notices the fuze and looks too confused to raise his rifle. His eyes flick to the exposed floor patch and as realisation softens his features I shoot him in the stomach. An impressive red spray jets out behind him; he doubles over and the rifle falls from his hands. For a moment he kneels and then slowly somersaults forward to land on his back with a dull thud.
I point the gun at his face. He blinks slowly and tries to speak as the noise of battle around us gradually fades. I let the fuze fall to my side, drop it and kneel next to Hobb. Ignoring the pain I grip his shoulders and pull him up until he sits with his back against my front.
“Look,” I say.
We face the remains of the crowd. Amid a horrible layer of black-clad bodies, the disguised New Form Enterprise pick off the last of the Sons and then disperse across Diamond City.
If anyone cares enough to investigate, it’s unlikely the NFE will be suspects. There’s no historical animosity or even link between the two groups. Hobb scared everyone out of New Runcton and none of the Sons are left alive to pass on scanned IDs.
“I don’t… understand,” Hobb says.
“Perhaps the Crystal Mind had other plans,” I say.
“Was… I… wrong?”
“I think you might have been.”
A strange sob escapes him and he seems to become lighter.
“I did… terrible things,” he says.
“Yes,” I say. “So did I.”
“No,” he says.
With effort, he turns until his horrified eyes look into mine.
“If only…” he says, “if only…”
His hand grips my fingers and then it slowly lets go.
New Runcton is silent. Hobb’s block slides down my back into the ground and I slowly descend as the floor cover sinks too. The bodies in their black cloaks are absorbed with Hobb the last to go, slipping down me as the Basis claims him.
I look out over a field of shadows under a bright surface. They blur, shiver and are gone as the Sons of the Crystal Mind go to meet their maker. Or, rather, mine.
39
Harlan helps me up the ramp into his ship; the hatch closes behind us and a slight jolt indicates take-off. Ursula sits trembling against the far wall, her glassy eyes bright and her breath rapid. Great scarlet burns weep on her beautiful legs, which are covered with a glowing anaesthetic sheath. I sit beside her and Harlan sits across from us. There’s a very peculiar pause.
“I-I’m sorry,” Ursula says.
Her voice has none of its usual confidence.
“You’ve got nothing to be sorry for,” I say.
I reach out to stroke her brutally cropped hair but she moves her head away.
“I wanted to stop you getting hurt,” she says, “and I had to watch those bastards beat you to pulp.”
“They didn’t quite do that,” I say.
“Charity, your face…”
My face does feel odd. At the moment, shock and adrenaline keep the pain at bay.
“At least we got out,” I say.
“How many people died?” she asks.
I look at Harlan.
“Three thousand, two hundred and sixty-two,” he says.
I didn’t ask Jaeger to kill everyone but I knew he would do something drastic and horribly efficient. That Hobb seemed to absolve me of it at the end changes nothing; he had no idea what really happened to his followers. As far as he knew they turned on themselves, an event as mysterious and terrifying as a genuine miracle.
Ursula groans.
“How did they find you anyway?” I ask her.
She looks down.
“They didn’t find me,” she says.
Harlan makes a funny noise in his throat. His expression is strange.
“She found them,” he says.
His words echo through me and get louder until the pressure seems to crack my chest. Ursula looks devastated, worse than from the pain. She hasn’t let the Basis heal her because she wants to punish herself for-for… joining the Sons of the Crystal Mind.
“I’m sorry,” she whispers. “It’s just… the fucking bastard Blanks. They shot you and burned me and left us in that stupid craphouse to get raped and killed. I hate them. I-I didn’t think it would end like this.”
Her words hurt more than the injuries to my body. I would need to multiply that pain by a hundred, even a thousand to come close. The one I love most has wounded me right in my soul, the secret part of me that keeps the rest together.
The little voice in my head just goes
very
quiet
Out of the silence comes hatred for this vain, stupid woman. My rage has a voice now; not a roar but something cold and quiet. It sounds like Ellery’s brutal truth, Keris’s implacable will, Jaeger’s ruthlessness and Gethen’s utter disregard.
“Ursula, I found out who I really am. Part of my heritage is that I’m a Blank.”
Her eyes go very wide.
I continue, remorseless. I am the Guidance.
“There is more to know,” I say, “but I am not going to tell you because I no longer trust you.”
“Stop,” she whispers, “Charity, please…”
“The vix link the Blanks used was a recording of an atrocity that happened right in front of you,” I say. “Perhaps you could have saved 88 Rabian, perhaps not. We will never know now because you are unable to think for yourself.
“To save you I have caused the deaths of over three thousand men. I’ve made a deal with the New Form Enterprise and I don’t know how that will turn out for me. I did all this for you.
“And you are not worth it.”
She puts her nails to her face and starts to claw it. I pull her hands away.
“No,” I say, “none of that for you Ursula. I want you to think about what you’ve done. Eventually you’ll arrive at an understanding. When that happens tell me and I will work out how I am going to forgive you.”
Her eyes are stretched so wide no part of their lids is visible. She gives a tiny nod. After a moment I let go of her hands.
“We’re going to land. Harlan and I will get off. You go back to Centria and make sure Mum is okay. After…” I look at my wrecked body, “three days tell Gethen Karkarridan to call me via Aerac, not ifarm. Tell him I now own Fulcrus. He will know what that means. Do you understand?”
She nods, mute, terrified.
The ship bumps slightly as it lands. I get up and stride out of the cabin, giving no indication I’m in any pain. The hatch opens to reveal a MidZone day, the same day it was ten minutes and another life ago.
I walk down the ramp and across the broad roof of a triangular building. Harlan runs to catch up as I keep going and don’t look back. There is something in my eyes; tears, blood, both. I blink it away.
“I think,” Harlan says gently, “it’s as well you love her a little less.”
I nod. He is very wise. The armoured ship passes over us and heads for Centria.
“You’re not just any Blank are you?” Harlan says.
“No,” I whisper.
40
A tickling crosses my naked body as if I have surfaced through water yet remain dry. The tender contact reassures, like Harlan’s caress. Light is low and comfortable. Support structures under my neck and back recede and I settle onto a cool, hard surface.
My mind feels calmer than it has for a long time. I remember gentle, whispered conversations but not their content, as if they were healing dreams. I open my eyes.
It takes a while to see properly. A dark friendly shape shifts nearby and a large hand takes mine as a streak of white above me becomes Harlan’s smile. Outlines resembling giant letters sharpen into Old World-style furniture: loops of ornate wood border rich purple fabric whose designs hint at lost kings and their imminent return…
I go to speak but I’m too dizzy. It doesn’t matter; I’m in no hurry. I yawn, a great lung stretcher that wakes my injuries although their clamour is an echo of what it was. I arch my back against the floor and extend my arms and legs carefully to push the sleep out. I feel latent, readied, the distant pain less an obstacle than a reminder of what I have survived.
“You’ve been out for three days,” Harlan whispers. “Here…”
A new pressure applies itself to my back, soft but also firm. The room seems to sink away as Harlan gifs a bed under me, a construction of mahogany swirls and rich pink drapery in keeping with the decor. I relax onto it as he runs his hands over my front. Warmth in my body rises sweetly in response and my breathing deepens.
“Easy now princess,” Harlan says. “You’re still healing.”
“I just need you to kiss it better,” I whisper.
He leans over and kisses my neck.
“Oww…” I drone, sleepy.
He leans back with a laugh.
“You’ll be all right,” he says.
“Gethen will call soon,” I say. “I don’t want him to see me like this.”
Harlan helps me upright until I sit on the edge of the bed, slightly short of breath. I look down at myself. Two thirds of my body are covered with red marks in a variety of shapes and sizes.
I get a diagnostic up. It describes external wounds including lacerations that will heal without scars in a few days, ripped muscles in my arms and legs, a twice-broken nose, eight cracked ribs and damage to one of my eyes that I didn’t even notice. Six teeth were loose and four were knocked out. The Basis has grown me new ones and I tongue them dubiously. They feel the same as the originals.
Sons of the Crystal Mind (Diamond Roads Book 1) Page 25