"Don't even think about it," Lewis said sternly. "We are here as guests, remember? Not thieves, or looters. You really want the Ashrai mad at you?"
"Well, not as such, no," said Brett. "But there has to be some way…
"No, Brett"
"They're just shapes," said Saturday. "They have no soul. My people sculpt in living tissues, torn from the bodies of fallen enemies. Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Sometimes I wonder about you," said Lewis. "And sometimes I'm sure."
They set off again, leaving the clearing behind. Soon it was lost behind the ranks of glowing trees. They all dreamed about the statues for weeks afterwards.
"How could the old Empire never have realized that this was an artificially created world?" Lewis said finally. "I mean, you only have to look at it. No ecostructure, no living systems; just the trees and the Ashrai."
"This is an inhuman place," said Brett. "Alien in every sense of the word. Nothing here to keep a man sane. How is it that Carrion survived here, alone, for more than two centuries?"
"He wanted to be an Ashrai," said Lewis. "Who knows how the Madness Maze changed him, or what he did with those changes?" Do we have any idea what an Ashrai looks like?" said Rose. All the official records were wiped long ago, on Robert and Constance's orders," said Lewis. "Only hints remain. Massive, deadly creatures, with fangs and claws and gargoyle faces."
No," Jesamine said immediately. "If these are the dragons that Owen called to fight alongside him, they were wise and wonderful and very beautiful. I used to dream about them, when I was a child. Flying through open space with them, like Owen."
"According to the Dust Plains…"
"I know what they said, Lewis. They said it was Carrion. We'll see.
And still they trudged on, the heavier gravity pulling at their bodies like weights. The heat never wavered, and there was never even a breath of a cool breeze. The trees seemed bigger, and wider and taller, the longer they walked through them, and they shone brightly in the diffused light. It was like walking through the vaults of some endless catacombs, and a growing sense of awe and stifling oppression fell over the group so that they spoke only in hushed whispers. The forest was just too big, too vast, for merely human feelings. Even the reptiloid Saturday seemed somewhat subdued.
Brett, on the other hand, was silent because he was becoming increasingly preoccupied with thoughts of how much the metal of the trees was worth. Metal from Unseeli was very rare, and therefore very valuable. And if he couldn't take away even one of the statues, surely even that misery-guts Deathstalker wouldn't begrudge him a small branch. Or three. Should be easy enough. A sudden stumble, a carefully aimed fall, and it should be child's play to break off some of the smaller branches with his weight. And then, well, they might as well take the branches with them as leave them just lying around… right?
Brett let himself drift just a little away and behind the others, taking his time so no one would notice. He'd actually got within a few feet of the nearest branch when he lurched to a sudden halt, all his instincts shrieking at him. His esp kicked in big-time, as the sheer living presence of the tree hit him right between the eyes like a hammer. It knew he was there. It knew what he was planning. It growled at him. Brett whimpered loudly, did his best to mentally project sorry sorry sorry and hurried back to join the others. To his disgust, none of them had even noticed he'd been gone.
The projected thirty minute walk had already become more than an hour, and Lewis didn't believe it was just down to the heavier gravity. Unseeli was a different place, with different rules. There was still no sign of the Ashrai, and Lewis had to wonder if perhaps they were determined to have nothing to do with humans. And if this man Carrion considered himself an Ashrai now, maybe even the legendary Deathstalker name wouldn't be enough to win his cooperation. Even though he hadn't admitted it out loud, even to himself, Lewis had been secretly hoping he'd be able to convince Carrion to leave Unseeli and come with them on their quest to find Owen. With a Maze survivor on their side, even Finn would think twice about getting in their way. Lewis scowled as he trudged along, mentally rehearsing various possible arguments.
Jesamine strode along beside Lewis in silence, looking straight ahead and ostentatiously not talking to him, though she wasn't sure if he'd noticed. He could be very obtuse about some things. She had no one else to talk to. Brett was sulking again, and Rose was a mystery, as always. Of them all, the hard trek through the forest had affected Rose the least. The lanky cow looked like she could walk forever. Saturday, on the other hand, looked increasingly unsettled. He couldn't connect to this silent, lifeless world, where there was nothing for him to eat or kill or have sex with. The great trees made him feel small, and weak, and he wasn't used to that.
Almost an hour and a half after they'd left the Hereward, the forest finally took mercy upon them and fell away to reveal a great clearing with Base Thirteen at its center. It was a hulking steel structure surrounded by plenty of space, as though none of the trees wanted to get too close to it. The base had been built for function, not aesthetics, but even so, the years had not been kind to it. The steel exterior was weathered and distressed, and punctured here and there with ragged holes. Many appeared to have been punched out from within, either by energy weapons or brute force. The front doors stood open, but Lewis couldn't honestly say they looked inviting.
He brought his group to a halt at the edge of the clearing and studied first the clearing and then Base Thirteen carefully. There was no sign of anyone waiting to meet them. He activated his comm implant. "Sir Carrion, this is Lewis Deathstalker. We have reached Base Thirteen. Are you here?"
He waited, looking about him, but there was no response. And then he felt as much as heard something approaching, and he looked up. The others looked up too, following his startled gaze. And there, all across the sky, the Ashrai came falling out of the clouds and into the diffused light. They flew unhurriedly through the still air—hundreds of them, their vast membranous wings barely flapping. They were huge, monstrous, grotesque creatures bulging, with muscles under rainbow skins, their broad faces composed of harsh bony planes and angles, fiery golden eyes, and a wide mouth full of long needle teeth. Their movements were eerily graceful as they swept across the sky.
Jesamine stared up at them, enchanted. "Oh, Lewis, it is Owen's dragons! Look at them! They're not what I thought they'd be—they're not beautiful—but oh, God, they're magnificent!"
"They're scary buggers, is what they are," said Brett, from behind Rose. "Look at the size of them! Damn, one of those things could make a real mess of a man, if it put its mind to it. I'd back one of them against a Grendel. A dozen Grendels. And give odds."
"I killed a Grendel in the Arena," said Rose, one hand resting on the sword at her hip.
"I know," said Brett. "It's all you ever talk about, and I do wish you wouldn't. Please don't start anything. Or if you must, give me plenty of advance warning so I can get a good running start."
"I wonder what they'd taste like," said Saturday, and Brett glared at him.
"Don't encourage her. You're almost as bad as she is. Am I the only one here who's noticed they outnumber us by a hundred to one? And they are big! Seriously big! They've probably crapped more dangerous things than us! I can feel one of my heads coming on." He watched the Ashrai circling slowly overhead. "How does anything that big and that heavy stay in the air anyway? I don't care what kind of wingspan they've got, nothing that massive belongs in midair, particularly when I'm standing underneath it."
"Calm down, Brett," said Lewis. "You're babbling. The Ashrai fly because their esp holds them up. Maybe they can fly unprotected through space after all… These are dearly powerful creatures."
"The song's back," said Jesamine, her neck arched almost painfully back as she gazed adoringly into the sky. "It's so much stronger here. It's not just the trees. It's them. The Ashrai and the forest, singing together, bound together. Can't you hear it?"
None of them said
anything, because it seemed to all of them that they could hear something. Jesamine opened her mouth and sang a delicate lilting song, older than the Golden Age, older than the age of heroes, from the days of the First Empire, when Humanity originally went out into the stars. The words were lost, but the melody remained, an ancient haunting evocation of days long gone, when to be human was to be part of a great adventure. The words were lost, but not the meaning. In their bones, and in their souls, Humanity remembered.
Jesamine sang, and the Ashrai sang with her. Their great voices filled the air; alien harmonies that joined with Jesamine's song, augmenting it without drowning it. The song filled the clearing—a celebration of life, and the glory of existence, and the driving need to find a meaning for it all. Jesamine sang, her face full of rapture, and the Ashrai sang with her. Lewis stared at his love, stunned by the power in her voice. He felt as though he was in the presence of something sacred. Jesamine finally broke off, and the Ashrai stopped singing too. Jesamine slowly lowered her head, sweat dripping off her face, and she put out a shaking hand to Lewis. He took her in his arms, making his strength her own, and she clung to him.
Oh, Lewis," she said finally, her face turned into his chest. "I think now I finally understand how other people feel when I sing. That was… amazing."
How did you know that was the right thing to do?" said Lewis.
I in not the first person to sing with the Ashrai," said Jesamine. Two hundred years ago, Diana Vertue sang with them. Before she became Jenny Psycho. This was the song she sang. It's still here, in the air and in the trees and in the Ashrai. They have never forgotten. Look at them, Lewis. At least now we know some of the old legends were true. These are the dragons, and they are glorious…"
Lewis held her in his arms, and said nothing. The Ashrai were certainly impressive and powerful, but it would take more than a pretty tune to convince him that they were friends. Hundreds of people had died in the past, just for daring to visit Unseeli. And while the Ashrai were undeniably mighty, they still looked ugly as sin itself to him. And bloody dangerous too. He tensed as a single Ashrai broke away from the others circling overhead, and dropped out of the sky towards them. Lewis didn't push Jesamine away, but he did turn her round so he could get to his gun more easily. The Ashrai seemed to grow larger and larger as it fell towards them. Lewis estimated it had to be at least forty feet from gargoyle head to spiny tail, with almost as wide a wingspan. The wings flapped heavily as it landed, cupping the air, and the great clawed feet touched down with hardly an impact. The golden wings folded neatly away upon the shimmering silver back, and the Ashrai folded its muscular arms across its massive chest as it regarded them all with unblinking golden eyes. Rose Constantine drew her sword.
"I have to do this," she said cheerfully. "I have to know. Damn, you ugly brute, you make me feel so hot..."
She surged forward, sword held out before her, grinning broadly. The Ashrai reared up, raised one massive foot, and stamped on her. She was slammed to the unforgiving ground, almost disappearing under the huge foot. Her sword flew from her hand as the impact crushed the air from her lungs. Brett shrieked, turned, and sprinted for the cover of the trees. Lewis shook his head slowly.
"Saturday?"
"Yes, Lewis?"
"Fetch."
The reptiloid nodded and set off after Brett, his long stride rapidly eating up the distance between them. Lewis gently put Jesamine away from him, and cautiously approached the Ashrai. The harsh face studied him thoughtfully with its glowing golden eyes. Up close, its heavy breathing sounded like thunder, though it smelt of nothing at all. Damn, the creature was big. Lewis cleared his throat carefully.
"Hi. I'm Lewis Deathstalker. Nice moves. Could we please have our psychopath back? She's impulsive and annoying, and has several appalling personal habits that you really don't want to know about, but she has a certain sentimental value. If you let her up, I'm pretty sure I can guarantee she won't try that again. Or anything else, until she can get her eyeballs uncrossed."
The Ashrai considered the matter, nodded its awful head, and stepped back, raising its huge foot. Lewis and Jesamine dragged Rose out from under, and set her down with her back propped against a tree. She was having trouble getting her eyes to track, but she seemed to know who and where she was.
"Caught me by surprise," she said thickly. "Get me on my feet and find my sword and I'll tear his wings off and beat him to death with the soggy ends."
"No, you won't," said Lewis. "You behave yourself and stop embarrassing me, or I'll shoot you myself."
"You do realize," said Rose, "That if anyone else spoke to me like that I'd fillet them? Good thing for you that I'm a little under the weather. And that you're a Deathstalker."
Yeah," growled Lewis. "Lucky me."
Saturday came striding back with Brett tucked securely under one arm. Brett was calling him every name under the sun, and Lewis really hoped the reptiloid didn't understand most of them. Saturday dropped Brett at Lewis's feet, and glowered down at him.
Next time, I'll bite off something superfluous. Fleeing in the face of the enemy? The very idea. What kind of impression does that make?"
Brett clambered painfully back to his feet. "Sorry. Trained reflexes. Also, bone deep cowardice. I did warn you. How's Rose doing?"
When I can trust my feet again, I'm going to kill everything in this clearing," said Rose.
"Back to normal," said Brett. "You go talk to the monster, Sir Deathstalker. I'll look after Rose. From a safe distance."
And then they all stopped talking and looked round sharply as the Ashrai reared up again, presenting its wide curved chest to them. The shimmering silver scales split suddenly apart, unfolding like a rose, and out of the pink interior of the Ashrai walked a man, dressed all in black. He strode unhurriedly towards Lewis and his companions, and behind him the opening in the Ashrai's chest slowly closed itself. And then the huge alien was gone, vanished in a moment, as though it had never been there. Only the man remained. He came to a halt before Lewis. Tall and whipcord lean, he wore black leathers topped with a billowing black cape. He was dark-haired and pale faced, his features subtly ageless. His mouth was a grim flat line, his eyes dark and accusing. He carried a long staff of polished bone, almost as tall as he was. His movements weren't entirely human. Just looking at the man sent shivers up Lewis's spine. He knew who this was, who this had to be. He could feel Jesamine pressing in close beside him, like a frightened child.
"You are the Deathstalker?" It was the same rasping, inhuman voice they'd heard on the ship.
"Yes. I'm Lewis Deathstalker, descendant of the blessed Owen."
"I am Carrion," said the man dressed in black, though he didn't sound entirely sure of it. "I have been an Ashrai for many years. I haven't been human since John Silence and I returned to this world. I'd forgotten how small and limited a thing it is, to be a man. Even your thoughts are smaller. I have descended from the skies to talk with you. It had better be worth it."
"No one speaks like that," said Brett. "Not in real life."
"You'd better let me talk to him," said Jesamine. "I speak fluent opera."
"Let me get this straight," said Brett. "That alien—that was actually you? You changed from a human into that… thing?"
Carrion looked at Lewis. "These people are with you?"
"Unfortunately, yes," said Lewis. "I'd apologize for them, but it's a waste of time. Feel free to ignore them. I do."
Carrion turned the full force of his dark, disturbing gaze on Brett, who immediately darted behind Lewis and peered past his shoulder.
"It is a glorious thing, to be an Ashrai," said Carrion. "It's what I always wanted. I was happy to leave my humanity behind, as something I had outgrown. And now, here you are, to remind me of what I wished most to forget. What do you want with me, Deathstalker? You mentioned the Terror. How can they be here so soon?"
"It's been two hundred years since the blessed Owen's warning," said Lewis.
"Has it
?" said Carrion. "I hadn't realized. The Ashrai experience time differently. For us, yesterday is the distant past, and the distant past is yesterday. You're the first human I've talked to since I said good-bye to the captain and gave up human weaknesses to be an Ashrai. You'll pardon me if I've lost the knack."
"Why did you want to meet us here?" said Lewis, gesturing at the abandoned base. Not so much because he cared, but to buy himself some thinking time. This wasn't going at all as he'd expected.
Carrion looked at Base Thirteen. "This is the only human structure left on the planet. We keep it as a reminder never to lower our guard. I thought it might help me remember how to be human again. It hasn't been a working base for centuries. All the mines and mining equipment it oversaw are long gone now, absorbed and recycled by the trees. But still, this is a place of… strong memories, for me. Bad things happened here. Do they still tell the story of the terrible events at Base Thirteen? Of the unknown alien, and the awful gifts it brought?"
Lewis and the others looked at each other. Lewis shrugged uncomfortably. "I'm afraid not, Sir Carrion. Much of the history of your time is lost to us. Only legends remain. And you are only mentioned briefly, in the… unofficial legends."
Carrion smiled for the first time. "I suppose I shouldn't be surprised. Captain Silence made it into the official legends, I assume? Of course he did. He was a hero, after all. While I… was a traitor, and proud of it. I fought with the Ashrai, in their war against Humanity. I killed men and women from my own crew—until Captain Silence scorched this planet from orbit, and killed every living thing on Unseeli except for the trees and me." He smiled again, at their shocked expressions. "Oh, yes, children, your great hero John Silence committed genocide here, in the name of his Empire. Some years later, Owen brought the Ashrai back. Made Unseeli a living world again. That's why the Deathstalker name buys you this audience." He looked again at Base Thirteen. "I was an Investigator, once. Trained by the Empire on how best to study and murder aliens. But even so, nothing in my experience prepared me for the horror Captain Silence and I found in this dark place.
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