Deep Roots

by Ruthanna Emrys

  “Which is what, exactly?” I tried to sound more sympathetic than impatient, but my tongue was dry.

  Nnnnnn-gt-vvv shuffled limbs and said nothing. It backed as far as it could, claws scraping the floorboards between couch and record player.

  But sound crackled from the pendant: a familiar, almost maniacal voice. “Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt thinks it knows what’s best for us, of course it does. So old, so wise. We children need some discipline before we play with fire, that’s all.”

  I suspected my shock showed all too clearly on my face before I got it under control. But to meet with Shelean under these circumstances—what did she have to do with this? Is their conflict her doing? My hand stole to where Mary’s shield lay under my collar. “What are you doing here?” I asked sharply.

  “Oh, I’m not here. I’m at Freddy’s side, and Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt’s, learning about its plans and making a few small suggestions. This is just an encrypted projector. It’s like talking through a long metal tube—it all echoes.” Her voice turned sober. “You’ve heard terrible things about the K’n-yan, and they’re all true. Believe, as your cousin won’t, that I know the harm done when only the powerful are trusted to choose their lives. When the weak are protected from every danger except those powers. Better to risk letting us burn the world. But Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt thinks I’m being silly. Of course the Outer Ones are better stewards than the Mad Ones. Better than men of the air or the water. They’re old, after all, and wise, and they’ve survived their own wisdom for a long time.”

  Nnnnnn-gt-vvv rattled—a sigh? “Shelean speaks the truth. Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt wants to take a more active role in human affairs. To guide your species in this time of hazard, so you can pass through the crucible of your technology and join us among the stars. You may have all the potential it perceives—but conquest isn’t supposed to be our way. Nyarlathotep leads us along the void’s edge, and tests our wisdom and—”

  “And watches to see whether we keep our balance or plunge in screaming,” said Shelean cheerfully.

  “My point,” said Nnnnnn-gt-vvv, “is that humans deserve the chance to make their own way across the cliff. I think you’ll fall—so many species do. Most of you are insular and provincial and paranoid and prone to making terrible decisions in crises. But if we shape you to fit through that narrow gap, we’ll shave away everything that makes you yourselves. Better to save the few who yearn to travel with us, and offer your leaders what wisdom they’re willing to take freely, and let you own your risks. I love you as much as Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt, but if we believe everyone has something to contribute to the great conversation, we can’t silence you to keep you safe.”

  “I—” I sat on the couch, though it brought me close to Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s shifting limbs and diaphanous wings. Before I spoke I breathed, in and out, slowly, feeling something shift inside me. I looked at the Outer One, pushing through the strangeness, through the nausea of senses that rebelled at its presence. For the first time, I understood in my gut why Freddy would take such people as kin. “I fear for humanity’s future too. And I’m very grateful that you respect it as our future. I’ll do what I can to help.”

  “That’s about how I feel,” said Clara. She settled beside me—she still looked nervous, but some of the tension had left her. She gave me the same considering look I’d given Nnnnnn-gt-vvv.

  “Tell me—” I took a deep breath. “Tell me exactly what happened. I need to understand where the danger lies.”

  “But first,” said Clara to Nnnnnn-gt-vvv, “you come out of the corner and sit down like a civilized person. And pull in your wings before the neighbors ask what I’m smoking. You know you’re leaving trails. You’re going to drive me crazy with all your fuss.”

  Nnnnnn-gt-vvv slunk from its retreat. It hunched on the rag rug in the center of the floor, even more out of scale. Crab-like claws flexed against the spiraled fabric; tentacles brushed the floor. Abrupt jerks punctuated their anemone ripples. Its wings contracted to ordinary matter in a gust of cool air. The eternal humming buzz rose and fell, resolving into words as the wings condensed into bat-boned leather.

  “It’s hard to speak against them even now. It’s always hard when our debates grow bitter. For aeons we’ve honed our instincts toward cooperation, but sometimes it’s still not enough. The interventionists have closed the mine to dissenters—my faction’s in exile now, dispersed and seeking shelter so we can regroup.

  “Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt told you that we left our hills to learn more about humanity’s crisis—what danger you posed to yourselves, how soon you might face extinction. That’s true as far as it goes, but it didn’t tell you that while we came to New York, made our visits to Arkham and New Orleans, each was trying to prove our view of the answer. This argument isn’t confined to Earth, either. Many believe, like Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt, that we’ve been too passive in mining the universe. That we should teach more species to be like us—it would say ‘teach’; I and my faction would say ‘force.’

  “Our own flirtation with ecosystem-breaking technologies is aeons past, fallen into legend. In the generations since, we’ve developed weapons subtler and safer and far more powerful. We use them to defend ourselves and our travel-mates; no one would argue against that! But now Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt’s belief-mates say they’ve learned enough, and they think we should use those weapons to bring humans similar safety. If it works here, they can influence their fellows across the cosmos to do the same wherever the opportunity arises.”

  “What kind of weapons?” I asked.

  “You’ve seen what the trapezohedron can do: showing people more of the universe changes how they think. Then there are the cylinders. Removing people from their bodies makes them less subject to visceral fears, or to instinctive disgust at strangers, even after they return. These are tools if used on the willing, weapons otherwise. There are the arts I used, at their weakest setting, to calm your elders. We have all manner of methods for controlling and shaping minds, for insinuating subtle influence where it won’t be suspected. Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt thinks these will save humanity, but I know your paranoia. We saw it in Arkham, and I know that if they once find a hint of our influence they’ll suspect it everywhere. Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt is too confident. Fail or succeed, the interference it plans will lead to catastrophe.”

  Now my mouth was bone-dry. “And it wants to start with Barlow’s team.” A chill went through my bones. “And mine. Why did you follow me for so long instead of telling me my people are in danger? I have to let them know!” I rose from the couch, but sank back as I realized the problem. “They were going to spend today in the—the mine. I warned Mr. Spector that they needed to watch each other, but it may not be enough. And Neko’s there, too. Can I still get in? Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt … it has reason to think I’d go along with it trying to … influence Barlow’s people. I could try to get them out…” But I felt sick with the suspicion that my testimony had spurred Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt to do everything it wanted. I’d aimed its ambition at people who, for all their faults, didn’t deserve to fall under its sway, and who could be used to inflict terrible harm.

  This is the same mistake I made in January. Treating people I disliked as problems to be solved, instead of seeing them as people. I should have refused to answer Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt’s question. Ïa Cthulhu, please don’t let my mistake cost lives this time. As useless as a prayer could be.

  “You mustn’t go back to the mine,” said Nnnnnn-gt-vvv. “Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt wants your support very badly, and doesn’t fully trust you. It will use our weapons to control you if it can. It perceives you as zzzzz’v’ck.”

  “Oh, high praise!” said Shelean.

  “What does it mean?” I asked. I clamped my hands in my lap, nerves threatening to descend into useless tremors.

  Shelean: “It means you’re a hub and a lever. You know people who’d otherwise never meet, you link them to each other, and they listen to you. If you were an Outer One, you’d be hailed as a great leader—but you’re human, poor thing, so you’ll
just get leaders who want to use you. Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt first among them.”

  I wanted to pace, but there wasn’t room. I clasped my hands, nails stinging flesh. I hated to admit it, but the Outer One was right: going to the mine on my own was no better an idea now than it had been last night. Worse, knowing that Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt sought to draw me in. But to avoid the place entirely—that I could not countenance. “My sister—Neko Koto. Do you know where she is, what Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt intends for her? Can you get her out?”

  “She came to the mine a couple of days ago,” said Clara. “I remember her—we always pay attention to newcomers, even though there have been a lot lately. But they were treating her normally, introducing her around, teaching her our ways.”

  “She asked about differences between air and water,” said Nnnnnn-gt-vvv. “She seemed worried, but she was there willingly. It’s those who wouldn’t willingly cooperate whose minds are in danger.”

  Can’t I fear what my sister does to herself willingly? I forced my thoughts from that track. “Let me think. Most of us are supposed to meet at Coney Island tonight. The elders should be able to detect any new interference, maybe even treat it.” If Barlow cooperates. “The rest of us who used the trapezohedron—are you looking for them as well? Will Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt look for them?”

  “Are they also alone?”

  “It’s the Summer Solstice.” Why today? Did they know?

  “I don’t observe holidays based on orbital patterns. It seems presumptuous to pretend they shape our lives as they do those of the planetbound. Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt celebrates them, of course. Your celebration involves isolation?”

  “Yes—Charlie and Audrey will be on their own. So will Frances, but she’s never been involved in your rituals.” Trumbull was exploring the New York Public Library in spite of her disdain for their collection. Better not to mention Caleb and Deedee, perhaps still unknown to the Outer Ones and not included in their plans.

  “Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt may be interested in your companions, but it has other priorities—your agents who visit the mine unwitting are the most vulnerable.”

  “Okay. The fastest way to reach them is probably to wait at their hotel room. Whatever’s happened to them during the day, we’ll deal with it when they return. Would you be able to help? Tell if something’s off?”

  “I … may be able to.”

  “What it isn’t saying,” said Shelean, “is that it’s gone to a lot of trouble to hide what it’s doing and where it’s gone, and Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt’s work could be just as well-hidden.”

  Arcs of pain in my palms, to keep me focused on moving forward. “Then that’s what we’ve got to work with. I’ll take the train to the Ritz. Can you make your own way there?”

  “Yes.” Its buzz rose in pitch, painfully, then fell again. “I’d feel happier if you’d come with me. Anything could happen, traveling the long way.”

  “With all due respect—I saw how your shortcut treated Grandfather and S’vlk. I don’t care for it.”

  “I startled them, took them without asking. I’ve already said I shouldn’t have. If you don’t try to claw my joints open, I promise I won’t suppress your emotions. And if you insist on traveling on the street again, I’ll let you—but I think it’s a terrible idea. We’ve tried to be discreet, but any of us could have been tracked.”

  I didn’t want to see more of how the Outer Ones traveled. But if Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt really was after me, I’d probably like what it had in mind even less. “Will it have the same effect as the trapezohedron? Will it dissociate me from my body, or do anything else that would make it easier for you to”—I had no polite word, but recalled Freddy’s term—“encircle me?”

  “No. During sidestepping, your body and mind travel in tandem. Someone skilled in dreamwalking stands a chance of finding their way home if they pull away. Otherwise there’s no relationship to any art of separation.”

  If that was true, then the last remaining question was Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s own trustworthiness. My judgment was demonstrably faulty: I should not have sacrificed Barlow’s team to Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt’s benevolence. But Nnnnnn-gt-vvv wasn’t asking for targets, or probing for vulnerability. I could work with it, at least for now.

  “All right.” My nails still dug into my skin; I mustn’t let them draw blood. “Let’s go, then.”

  “She’s not used to giving directions in the outskirts,” said Clara. “How are you going to know where to go?”

  “Can you explain it to her?” Tentacles swiveled in her direction. “You should stay here, in safety, while she takes me to the hotel.”

  “But I’m not gonna. First, because I’m your travel-mate. Second because Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt could send someone to find me as easily as you found Miss Marsh here. This place isn’t ‘safe’ anymore.” Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s hum sounded distressed, but it didn’t argue further.

  “What do I need to do?” I asked.

  “Even without equipment Nnnnnn-gt-vvv can—not exactly see your thoughts, but perceive the shape of your mind. If you think about where you met these people, not just what the place looked like but also how you got there, the map of the world around it, he should be able to get close. From the outskirts you can look at the world and point out the right room.”

  “It’s easy,” said Shelean. “All you have to do is not get distracted by getting yanked out of physical reality for the first time.”

  “You shut up for once,” suggested Clara. “What are they doing back at the mine now?”

  “Aphra’s secret agents just left. If Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt did anything big to them, it wasn’t while I was in the room—but it hasn’t exactly been carting me around. There was a lot of negotiation behind doors.”

  “One at a time?” I asked.

  “They stuck together, as far as I could tell. But again, I’m basically planted in the conversation circle listening to gossip, and trying to get Freddy past”—she mimicked a child’s distressed whine—“‘But how can they be fighting with each other?’ Poor boy, he so wants them to be better than humans.”

  “Do you love him?” I asked abruptly.

  She sighed, exaggerated as a heartsick youth. But her voice turned sober again. “I’m getting there. I still feel the wonder of having people I can really talk with, and I see that in him, too. He basks in ideas like he’s standing in the sun for the first time. I can’t fault him for naïveté while he’s still blinking at the light.”

  CHAPTER 19

  Clara filled a bag with clothes and such supplies as she thought we might need. Nnnnnn-gt-vvv stood and shook itself. It rubbed its limbs together, as if it were cold or stiff; I tried to fathom the gesture. Am I making another mistake? What am I missing? Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s respect for Clara’s worldly duties, like nothing I’d seen from Kvv-vzht-mmmm-vvt, was all the difference I had to go on.

  I put aside doubts about the decision I’d already made, and considered how much I should tell Barlow and his team, when I finally saw them. If the Summer Tide was supposed to make me appreciate the people I could truly trust, I was certainly learning that lesson in full.

  Clara slung the surplus army duffle over her shoulder. Nnnnnn-gt-vvv wrapped its limbs around her, and she slipped her own arm among them, grasping something shoulder-like, comfortable as a child with a favorite doll. She looked at me expectantly. The golden pendant tittered.

  The air beside the Outer One was cool. Sweat shivered from my skin, and static tickled the hair on my arms and scalp. The touch of its limbs, chitinous and yielding at once, jolted me into a strange awareness: my body felt closer and clearer, while the rest of the room seemed to fade from importance. Its buzz vibrated through my bones.

  “Show me your map,” Nnnnnn-gt-vvv hummed.

  I forced myself to think about where we were going. Clara had said the shape of the space was more important than how it looked, but it was easiest to start with vision. The glittering lobby, the stares as we made a path to the elevator. Barlow’s suite, ostentatiously roomy. Their paper
s and books everywhere. Trying to keep my eyes open while they worked their rituals. By now the room must be rich with the track of their efforts. The blocks around the hotel, bright with plate glass windows and rancid with traffic …

  Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s wings snapped wide past the limits of my perception. Wind, gusting mint and ozone and formaldehyde, whipped my face. We rose; my eyes blurred with sparks, and I felt myself falling in all directions. I clung to the insectile limbs that held me fast.

  “Focus, kid.” Clara’s voice, improbably clear. My vision swam when I turned my head, but she looked normal. “Focus on where we’re going.”

  “And on not losing your lunch,” added Shelean. “Even your fancy body has disadvantages.”

  “You be quiet,” said Clara. She was half the K’n-yan’s age, I realized. Growing up, she’d have come to know Shelean as a harmless if eccentric aunt.

  I tried to pull my thoughts together. I closed my eyes against the improbable winds through which we flew. I imagined the suite, the table and the candles and the file that must now be thick with notes. I imagined George Barlow and Mary Harris and even Peters, brute that he was, living in that space and shaping it. It was a good exercise, nearly complete in its distraction.

  “Now.” I felt Nnnnnn-gt-vvv’s words as much as heard them. “We’re getting close. Show me where we need to go.”

  I cracked my eyes, then forced them open. Shifting layers of reality lay dissected before me. The Ritz shimmered within diaphanous walls, ghostly floors and furniture. Will-o-wisp guests shone like candles. I tried to recall, exactly, the elevator with its supercilious attendant. I counted floors.

  “Eight levels up. There should be a room with more books and papers than normal.”