Edda

by Conor Kostick

  “Princess! Princess, what are you doing?” cried the man who had escorted Penelope into the room, still cowering by the door.

  A giant china vase, fabulously crafted, concealed a medic of some sort. It took all of Penelope’s strength to tip it over and although Erik thought about helping her, he didn’t want to leave Ghost’s side—not while there was an assassin about. Nor was he sure about Penelope’s actions. She had changed the plan and drawn Ghost into the room before sealing it. Perhaps her aim now was to kill all the manifestations and Lord Scanthax himself. After all, she had been shocked by the revelation of her kidnapping. Was she also filled with a murderous desire for vengeance?

  Slowly, the vase tipped over and crashed to the ground; the doctor didn’t even try to wriggle away from the shards of pottery in which he lay, but just looked up at the princess. She shot him in the head. The other civilians, seeing there was no hiding from her, ran to the top table to stand quivering beside their master. Lord Scanthax, however, said nothing as Penelope marched toward him.

  “Are you ready to negotiate now?” shouted Erik toward the top table.

  “Don’t let up!” Penelope looked back at Cindella, sounding furious. “We have him. Just think—if even one escapes, all those millions of troops will be under his control again. Think what it will mean for Saga if you relent.” Penelope looked across to Ghost to check that she had heard. Ghost nodded in response.

  Penelope raised her revolver again. A shot rang out and one of Lord Scanthax’s remaining servants spun to the ground.

  “It was an honor,” he managed to gasp, facing his lord before expiring.

  Another. And another. Shot after careful shot ringing out across the debris of the feast, followed by a crash as each body fell to the floor. One by one, they stood in front of Lord Scanthax, until only four figures remained. These, too, interposed themselves between the remorseless figure of Penelope and their master. The rotund man fell heavily, scattering the papers he had been holding across the floor. The last manifestation, some kind of mason, whimpered as his turn came. Then there was silence.

  “Well, Princess.” Lord Scanthax sounded defiant still. “What is it you want? Ambassador, you are still alive. Go talk to her.”

  Looking startled at first, the crumpled figure at the main door stood up. He brushed down his gown as he gathered his wits, then began to walk toward Penelope.

  “Stop right there.” Penelope pointed the pistol at him. “Assassin is still alive, hiding somewhere. Reveal him and I might allow Ambassador to speak.”

  The ambassador stopped and waited. Everyone waited.

  Suddenly, a flash at the edge of his vision caused Erik to turn. It was a powerful-looking man in leather armor, with an ornate dagger that shone with a ruby light raised in his right arm. The assassin had crept within striking distance of Ghost and Cindella without being seen. How was that possible? Could he have hidden among the bodies of the dead? Now he made a leap for Ghost, stabbing downward with the glowing dagger as he did so.

  “No!” cried Erik, knowing that Cindella’s move to block the assassin was too late and that Ghost’s wounds made her too slow to avoid the blow.

  Ghost staggered back. The ornate blade was buried up to its hilt in her chest.

  “Oh no! Ghost!”

  They locked eyes, Erik fully convinced that this was the last look he would ever share with the young woman who, despite her being light-years away and formed of a completely different physiology, was as dear to him as any of his friends on New Earth. Then Ghost looked at the hilt of the dagger and back at Erik again before bursting into wild laughter. On the ground in front of her was the body of Assassin. Without even a wince, Ghost pulled the shining weapon free.

  “It’s that cursed knife, remember? From the pool in Myth. Jodocus told us about it. It harms the attacker, not the victim. And I bet that assassin is wearing the cursed ring of invisibility, too.”

  Cindella wrapped her arms around Ghost. “I thought you were dead.” Erik’s heart was still pounding, and he could feel his human body shaking.

  “That settles everything,” said Penelope grimly. Walking toward Lord Scanthax, she pointed the pistol at his face. “You soulless monster. You destroyer of entire worlds. You have no idea how much I hate you.”

  Lord Scanthax shook his head. “I suppose not. I never hated my enemies. Feared them, felt anger, yes. But hate? Probably not.”

  “I don’t hate you as my enemy. I hate you for your cruelty; for the childhood you took from me and twisted around to make me think I was needed and cherished. I was just a tool for you. A human child yearns for someone to love. I gave that love to you and you neither noticed nor cared.”

  They stood looking at each other, only a few feet apart. Then Penelope controlled her shaking hand, and fired. The impact lifted him off his feet and Lord Scanthax’s metal breastplate hit the ground and rang out with the mournful toll of an ancient bell.

  For a moment Penelope stood over the fallen body. What was she thinking? This poor girl who throughout her childhood had had only the creature she had just slain for company. Crack! Another bullet was fired into the body. And another. And she kept on firing, as fast as her gun was able to reload.

  At last Penelope turned to Ambassador. He had been looking on with amazement, but now something in his expression changed. His dull resignation began to lift and a powerful intelligence studied the room from the depths of his eyes.

  “I . . . I am Lord Scanthax.”

  “Yes,” said Penelope, coming closer. Gently, Cindella let go of Ghost and began to walk across the bodies to get nearer to the ambassador.

  “Well . . .” The last manifestation of Lord Scanthax took careful stock of everyone in the room. “You have me at a distinct disadvantage. What are your terms?” The smile that he offered them was warm and conciliatory and he was careful to make eye contact with everyone.

  “There’s no need to point your guns at me; I’m not dangerous,” he continued, looking back past Cindella.

  Cindella turned. Ghost had picked up a rifle and was aiming it at the ambassador.

  “Wait. Queen of Saga, didn’t you want to negotiate?” asked the ambassador, looking worried now.

  “No! Ghost, no!” Erik called out passionately. He looked to Penelope for support, but she had raised her revolver.

  “Stop! Both of you, lower your weapons! We can solve this without killing him.”

  “Please listen to this person, this human. I’m not the Lord Scanthax who conquered Edda and three other worlds. I’ve no desire to harm anyone in Saga. And as for our princess, I’ve devoted my life to her and will do whatever I can to assist her as she reintegrates with human communities.”

  The shot rang out like a scream of anguish.

  Chapter 32

  UNDERSTANDING

  Cindella was standing alongside Ghost and Penelope, looking out past the wall-length windows of one of the great tower blocks of Saga. They were so high up that they could gaze down upon a pair of falcons, which in turn were gliding far above the streets of the city.

  “It’s incredible. So much life, and all of it unique.” Penelope gestured beyond the window to the busy city that stretched out before them. “I mean, I’d seen huge armies before now. But they were just robotic units. You have millions of people going about their lives down there, and every one of them is someone I could get to know, someone I could become friends with.”

  “And there’s us, too,” said Erik. “You’re going to be seeing a lot more people from New Earth clipping up to Saga now that our council has decided to encourage stronger links between our two worlds.”

  “That’s wonderful. And so are you, Ghost, for sending a rocket for me.”

  Ghost turned from the window. “It’s nothing, really. I haven’t got any better use for them. The Dark Queen had a wild scheme to use them to disperse her offspring throughout the universe. And at one stage I thought I might try uploading myself into one and traveling that way. But
these new electronic worlds suit me much better. Anyway”—Ghost moved to a couch and took a seat—“it will take about seven years to get to you and, if we haven’t contacted your humans by then, another fifteen to get to New Earth. You’ll be what? Forty, by the time you get to see each other in the flesh, so to speak?”

  “Thirty-eight,” Penelope corrected her in a low voice. “In any case, I can still enjoy all this while I travel.”

  “True,” said Erik. “And I think there’s a good chance we’ll make contact with the people who left your base before too long. If I were them, I’d be discreetly monitoring Edda in case of future problems. And once they see the armies have gone, or come across one of the message beacons we are installing, they’ll get in touch. You’ll see. You’ll be talking to your mother long before the rocket arrives. And then you can go meet her.”

  “I daren’t hope for that. Just being here, among other people, is enough.”

  “Well, the people of New Earth are hoping for that. You should see Gunnar’s postings, Ghost. He’s changed completely and is all for us racing through the different worlds leaving messages everywhere until we find our lost human colonies.”

  Ghost smiled at this. “I think he came to like us in the end.”

  “No kidding. He thinks the world of you and never stops talking about Athena, either.”

  “How’s your body doing?” asked Ghost, looking at Penelope.

  “Oh, it’s slow and painful progress. Especially when there’s so much to see here. Tonight, Athena is taking me to see a band. I forget what they are called. I’m really looking forward to it, though.”

  “No Phuture, with a P-h instead of an F. That’s our friend’s band. I don’t know if you’ll like them; it’s an acquired taste.” There was an unrolled computer screen on the seat beside Ghost, and she tapped it a few times before looking back up. “In any case, take your time. You have years to build yourself up. Just keep at it, bit by bit.”

  “Oh, I know. I’ll be fit and healthy long before the spaceship arrives, don’t worry.”

  With a nod of encouragement, Ghost turned her attention to Cindella. “What about you, Erik? What are you going to do now?”

  “The council has asked me to be New Earth’s ambassador to Saga. But I don’t know. I feel I ought to finish my studies and have some practical skills for our society. You know what a grind everything is; it’s going to take years to get our technology moving forward again.”

  “Well, while I was away, the people of Saga learned that they can do without me.” Ghost could not hide the note of delight in her voice. “So I’m going to explore those new worlds we found. There’s still a great deal to investigate, despite the attempt by Lord Scanthax to reduce them to lifeless factories. You could bring Cindella along if you want.”

  “Really?” Cindella came over to the couch and looked down at Ghost. “I thought you wanted to travel alone.”

  “Well, I’ve gotten used to traveling with Cindella. She’s useful, handy if I run into a problem.”

  “So, it’s my magic items you want, not my company?” Erik chuckled.

  “I don’t see you finding a problem you couldn’t get out of,” interjected Penelope admiringly.

  “I would have been killed by the assassin, remember, if he hadn’t been using that cursed knife.”

  “The thing is, Ghost, I consider you my comrade, and I’ll always fight for you if you need me. But they need me at home, too. Well, Inny wants me to go on a survey trip with her, and I’m looking forward to it. I need time back in the real world.”

  “I understand. Perhaps next year, or whenever you are in the mood to have a run around with Cindella. I’ll be reachable by radio in whatever world I end up in.” A moment later, Ghost looked up at him, a hint of doubt in her eyes. “Your decision isn’t based on the death of Lord Scanthax, is it?”

  Penelope turned around, too, perhaps sensing that the relaxed atmosphere of their earlier conversation had gone. She was watching the two of them closely.

  Erik let out a sigh. “Well, tell me, were you going to shoot him?”

  Ghost paused before answering. “I was thinking that the only guarantee of safety for everyone back in Saga was to kill him, and I also thought about Milan, which caused me to begin squeezing the trigger. But then I hesitated. I didn’t want to lose your friendship. So the honest answer is, I don’t know.”

  “Well, don’t worry; you’ll never lose my friendship. Remember when you held off Jodocus’s elementals and were fighting as hard as you could for the life of Athena? I’d have given anything right then to save you. Jodocus wanted me to believe that humanity could only survive by killing you and all EIs, but he achieved the opposite of what he intended: in that moment, I realized I cared more for you than for some abstract loyalty to my species. It seemed to me that if the only way humanity could survive into the distant future was through your destruction, then we deserved to die out. I still feel that. There is something in you that transcends the difference between human and EI. It’s like having a tiger for a friend. There’s no one I’d rather have at my side in battle. It’s just that . . . I’ve people I love on New Earth and I need to be with them for a while now.”

  “Thanks, Erik. And I understand. But don’t forget me. And don’t forget what we have in common. I believe I understand you better than anyone else I know, EI or human. And that you are my comrade, in the same way that Milan was. Like him, you didn’t waver for an instant and that means a lot to me.”

  “I feel the same way.” Erik replied.

  “And what about you, Penelope?” Ghost rolled up her computer and put it in her satchel. “Do you think you’ll fit in with Erik’s people and their renunciation of violence? Or did you enjoy that final moment with Lord Scanthax? Did you feel avenged when you pulled the trigger?”

  “Enjoy?” Penelope sounded surprised. “No. Not really. I felt it was justice, for what had been done to me. But I’m not a monster. I wouldn’t go looking for that feeling again.”

  “Good,” said Erik emphatically, “because if you do end up on New Earth, you’ll have to get used to our laws. In fact, some people—a minority—wouldn’t welcome you even now; they’d consider you a murderer. But Gunnar and I have explained what happened to you and how you’ve had no other role models in your life than Lord Scanthax.”

  For a while Penelope said nothing, turning back to the window and looking at the city below, teeming with life. Erik exchanged a glance with Ghost, who picked up her airboard and moved toward the door.

  “I know you want me to feel ashamed,” said Penelope at last, “but I’m not. I still feel amazed that I actually managed to get the better of him and free myself. Even now, I wake up with nightmares, thinking that he’s watching me through the eyes of the robots.”

  “I don’t want you to feel ashamed. No. I think it’s incredible how well you’ve coped with what happened to you. But . . . well . . . I’m not really in a position to judge, but don’t you think Lord Scanthax changed at the end there? That his final manifestation, the ambassador, represented a better and more sympathetic part of his character?”

  “No, I don’t. You don’t understand what he was like. That was all lies at the end. He was attempting to deceive us to buy time for himself.”

  “Then couldn’t we have rendered him harmless somehow?”

  “Temporarily, perhaps.” Penelope turned around and shrugged. “But I couldn’t live with the thought that he was still out there, attempting to escape; that at any moment while I was in the electronic worlds, he could seize control of my body again and kill me.”

  Often Erik had tried to imagine what it must have been like for Penelope to have grown up believing that her captor was her savior, and although he was certain that it had been a mistake to kill another sentient being, even one as cold as Lord Scanthax, he genuinely did admire the fact that she had the determination to survive such an ordeal.

  To show he was not condemning her, Cindella walked across the
room and gave Penelope a hug.

  Over by the door, Ghost raised her airboard by way of a challenge. “Come on, you two, while we’re all still around. Let’s race, freestyle. Or are my skills too good for you?”

  Now Erik laughed. “Bring it on!”

  The tension that had been building up in him during the conversation melted away. When Lord Scanthax had fallen lifeless to the ground and the echoes of the shot that had killed him had ceased, Erik had been shocked to see Penelope holding the weapon that had fired the lethal bullet. Immediately afterward, feeling betrayed and manipulated, he had unclipped in a sweat, thinking that it would be impossible for her to ever fit in with the people of New Earth. But he understood Penelope, he really did. They would still be friends.

  A week later, Erik was lying beside Inny, the two of them looking up at the stars from their camp in the mountains to the east of Hope. As he picked out the constellations, Erik’s thoughts turned to Penelope.

  “She’s out there, orbiting one of those stars, the only human in her solar system.”

  “Penelope? It’s hard to imagine, isn’t it? But she says she’s delighted with all the new friends she has made in Saga, and the parties, the bands, the dancing.”

  “I know.” Erik snuggled closer to Inny, feeling the warmth of her body against his side. “But she can’t have this. Not for years, at least.”

  “It’s surprising how well she’s turned out, really—given she didn’t have a mother or father, or anyone in her life to love her.”

  Erik said nothing.

  “What?” asked Inny.

  “Penelope went into that battle with Lord Scanthax knowing exactly what she wanted, which was to kill him. She used me, and she was willing to risk Ghost’s life in order to achieve that goal. Penelope’s been damaged by the whole experience of growing up with Lord Scanthax. It will take her a long time to learn that not everyone is out for themselves; for her to trust that her new friends won’t abandon her.”