The Atomic Sea: Volume Nine: War of the Abyss

by Jack Conner

  “No, only that they’d heard rumors of the alchemical substances that once abounded here. They thought the substances might be useful to them.” She rolled her shoulders. “It was the will of Lady Jivini. That is all that mattered.”

  “Didn’t you people even question her?” Janx said, and Sheridan shot him a glare. “Didn’t you ever wonder if helping her was the right thing to do?”

  Tavril’in looked as though she’d been slapped. The fish-woman stared at Janx, open-mouthed.

  The big man drained his glass, reached forward and refilled it from the bottle. “I’ve had my fill of gods.”

  Avery, who sat next to him, stomped on his foot, but he wasn’t sure if Janx even felt it; he was half-drunk and his foot was enormous. “Don’t mind my friend. The drink here is strong,” Avery said. “And the sap …”

  Along the walls, the guards were looking at each other. Some held spears or knives, but a few had pistols thrust through the holsters at their hips—given to them by the Octunggen, Avery had no doubt. He thought he even recognized the Octunggen design.

  Janx burped, long and loud, as if to prove Avery’s point.

  “I can’t believe you let one who blasphemes so travel with you,” Tavril’in told Layanna.

  “I choose my companions, not you,” Layanna returned, and Tavril’in shrank back, properly chastised.

  “Let’s move on, shall we,” Sheridan said. Before anyone could raise an objection, she added, “We need to communicate across the sea. Surely there must be a way to do such a thing.” She addressed this to the Town Father, who was swiveling his multi-faceted gaze from Janx to Layanna.

  “Answer her,” Layanna said, sounding as though the words pained her.

  Hi’il’ichi cleared his throat, causing a buggy trill that proved faintly musical, and Avery briefly wondered what enough of those with the Town Father’s mutation would sound like if gathered into a choir. Like a host of crickets from hell. “The only transmitter still intact on the island that I know of belongs to Lady Jivini and her Octunggen. They use it to keep in contact with the mainland, although I believe they do this infrequently these days. And Lady Jivini and her people are under siege in the Grand Pyramid in Vinithir. When the weapons of Octung stopped working, the war went hard for her.”

  “Fine,” said Sheridan. “Then if the only way to do that is to go inland to Vinithir, then that’s what we need to do. Can you arrange a party to take us?”

  “We don’t have the weapons to combat the Corers, not anymore,” Hi’il’ichi said. “And you will encounter many of those on the way. The Octunggen had plague machines and terrible lights and … well, many other weapons … but we have only a few guns and spears and arrows.”

  “We’re not enemies of the Core,” Sheridan said. “You are. We don’t need an entire war party, just an escort familiar with the lay of the land.”

  “I cannot send anyone with you,” Hi’il’ichi maintained. “However, I am sending a letter to Lady Jivini, and I am hopeful that she can break loose of the siege to come to us. Then you can use her transmitter if you can take it to a decent altitude.”

  “When will that be?” said Avery.

  “Soon. I’ve already had my scribe begin drawing up the letter, and I’ll dispatch it by messenger bird to the Grand Pyramid as soon as it’s finished.”

  “You’ll send for Lady Jivini tonight?” Layanna said. By the suddenly taut flesh around her eyes, Avery knew she feared the other Collossum, and a knot formed in his chest. Then again, it made sense; if Jivini had been sent on the same mission as Uthua had, she might be as powerful.

  “Of course, Your Grace. She will want to know of your presence immediately, war or no.”

  “I … haven’t prepared myself for her,” Layanna said. “My mission is mine alone. I forbid you to send her word.”

  Hi’il’ichi exchanged a look with Tavril’in; for once they seemed to be on the same page. “I’m sorry, High Mother,” he said, “but word must be sent. I owe my loyalty to her, as do all my people. We have worshipped her for many generations, as she’s been the primary herald that’s visited us. We’re glad of your arrival, and we will happily pay you homage, but nothing can sever the bond between us and the Lady.”

  “I forbid it,” Layanna repeated.

  Hi’il’ichi swallowed. The bird-thing at his feet sat up, seeming to grow agitated at its master’s tension. “Even so, Your Grace.”

  “It must be done,” Tavril’in added, taking some of the pressure off of him.

  Avery rubbed his temples, which were starting to pound. Change the subject before this escalates. “Town Father, are there any pre-human buildings on the island? Or anything known as the Monastery or something similar?” He needed to be sure.

  This seemed to be a jarring shift for Hi’il’ichi, whose insectile wings buzzed in agitation. Still, a consummate diplomat, he managed to say, “I’m not aware of any, sir.”

  That was all the change in subject the group was allowed, as just then a young man entered the room holding what looked like an old-fashioned scroll in his trembling hands. Eyes greedily devouring Layanna, he approached the Town Father and bowed. “Father, I’ve written the letter, as instructed, and brought it to you immediately. It requires only your signature.”

  He proffered a pen, which Hi’il’ichi accepted, his black, shiny eyes going once more to Layanna before dipping to the page. With a flourish, he signed, and said, “Have a bird flown with this at once. With any luck it will reach Lady Jivini by dawn.” It was clear, at least to Avery, that something about Layanna’s sudden arrival didn’t sit right with the Town Father. Hi’il’ichi wanted answers, and he wanted his goddess to bring them—along with righteous wrath, if necessary.

  “Very well,” said the scribe, and rose to leave. That was when his skull exploded in gore and he toppled backward.

  Shrieks rose up, and all spun (many rising) to see Sheridan. As soon as the scribe had entered, she had pretended to duck out, perhaps to visit the rest room (whose facilities comprised a hole in the floor, Avery had learned), but this had merely been a ruse. A guard lay crumpled at her feet and the man’s gun smoked in her hand as she took aim again.

  “No!” Hi’il’ichi shouted, but too late. Ichor erupted out the back of his head, and he fell over backward in his heavy chair.

  A guard drew his gun and turned on Sheridan, but she moved faster. She blew out his throat. Another drew. She spun, and he fell to the ground. Those were all the gun-wielders present. By then Janx had staggered to his feet and slugged one guard, just entering the room, with a blackened fist. The man reeled back into another guard, and both toppled. A third, already in the room, lunged at the big man with a spear, but Avery hurled his wine bottle and it broke across the man’s chest, making him stumble. Janx grabbed another man by the throat and squeezed.

  The wife of the fallen Town Father jerked at the gun in one dead guard’s hand, but as soon as it popped free Layanna punched her in the face and the woman collapsed. It was the first time Avery had ever seen Layanna punch anyone, at least that he remembered. Apparently she didn’t like it, as she was shaking her fist and sucking on her lips.

  “Don’t just stand there!” Sheridan shouted at her. “Do your thing!”

  Layanna scowled but obeyed. She made the air blur around her, and her other-self exploded outward.

  Pandemonium descended. Guards rushed in as screaming guests rushed out, including the children of the Town Father. The only guests that didn’t leave were Tavril’in and her junior priestesses, who hunkered against the far wall on their knees. Sheridan shot one guard, then another, then scooped up a fallen gun and fired again. Janx did the same, but when Avery tried to follow suit the big man ripped the gun out of his hand and shoved him under the table.

  “Stay safe, Doc! You’re the only one can call in the navies!”

  A bullet punched into the wall next to Janx. He grunted, swiveled and fired. A guard fell, bleeding into the carpet. Chips of wood had lacerated
the side of Janx’s head, and trails of blood wept into his right eye and tangled in the leather patch over his nose hole.

  The bird-thing Hi’il’ichi had been petting had hunkered under the table at all the violence, but now its bright bird eyes fixed on Avery. Trembling in vexation and snapping its long sharp beak, the creature longed to take its fear and anger out on someone, and Avery, a stranger and part of the group that had assaulted its master, proved an irresistible target. It stepped forward, digging its forward wing-claws into the carpet and readying its muscular rear legs for a lunge. The talons there were even more wicked than the ones in the front.

  Something shone to Avery’s right—a fork, still with a bit of green bean stuck to it. He reached out, closed his hand around the handle—

  The bird lunged.

  Avery swung. The fork glanced off the beak even as it opened to tear at his face, knocking the beak aside. The impact threw the fork loose of Avery’s fist. The bird shook its head and gathered itself for another strike.

  Avery didn’t waste time on the fork. He fell on the bird, careful not to let its beak spear him, and wrapped his hands around its skinny throat. He squeezed, hard, and felt something snap. The animal went limp.

  Crack. The table broke above him.

  “Shit,” Avery said, and rolled out from under the table, coming to rest against a wall.

  In the middle of the room, Layanna had ripped the table apart, and she’d let her phantasmal girth swell outward, pseudopods brushing against the ground and walls, even disappearing into them. Alien lights played off ancient wood and terrified faces. Layanna grabbed up one guard after another in her writhing tendrils. Several she stuffed inside her sac. Others she fried with bursts of energy or dissolved or poisoned. Blood and flesh oozed between the coils of her awful limbs.

  ENOUGH! she sent, and the incoming guards staggered backward, stricken by the power of her psychic blast. When they hesitated in resuming their attack, she sent, I am not your enemy!

  That confused them. Surrounding her now, they gripped spears and crossbows. Avery doubted any of them were coated in the venom of the lethal jellyfish—although it was entirely likely they possessed some, being a fishing community—but some of those spears might be able to penetrate her sac far enough to stick her human self before they dissolved.

  Even as the bloods of the fallen guards swirled around her human self, Layanna glommed forward and towered over Tavril’in and the three other priestesses.

  I am your god!

  “Y-yes, Your Grace!” Tavril’in said. “Praise you! W-we love and honor you, a-as is your due.”

  You will summon the entire town to the Temple at once. There I will accept sacrifices and present myself to the people. I am your god now, not Lady Jivini. She failed in leading you against those in the Core and must be punished, just as I had my friends punish the Town Father. You were right, Tavril’in. Your people failed, but I will only hold the leaders accountable. From now on you worship ME.

  Tavril’in blinked and exchanged glances with her priestesses, but no deceit showed in her face when she turned back to Layanna. “I will do it at once, Your Grace.” To all those in the room, she said, “Bow before the Great One! All hail Lady Layanna!”

  Hesitantly at first, but then with fervor, the guards knelt before Layanna, and she only seemed to swell more and glow brighter under their worship. Avery, who had joined Janx and Sheridan near one of Layanna’s pseudopods, stared out at the ranks of prostrate ngvandi and shuddered.

  * * *

  Later, after the carnage was being cleaned up and Layanna had given orders to both the Chamberlain and the High Priestess, Avery took her, Janx and Sheridan into a nearby conference room. Closing the door, he turned to regard them all, and guilty looks actually seemed to pass across the faces of Layanna and Sheridan. Janx slurped from a bottle.

  Avery tried to check his anger: “Jess, for the love of the gods, when will you learn that murder is not the solution to everything?”

  She didn’t drop her gaze. “What choice was there? It was either that or wait for Lady Jivini to come kill us all.”

  “And you really think that won’t happen now?”

  Surprisingly, Layanna rose to Sheridan’s defense. Looking uncomfortable, she said, “As much as it pains me to say this, the Colonel is correct.” The Colonel, Avery thought. Not Admiral. Layanna was letting Sheridan know, even while defending her, that she considered Sheridan a traitor and a liar and would only accord her her enemy rank. “I don’t want to face Jivini, not without having time to prepare. The Colonel just saved me from that—saved us.”

  Sheridan watched her, perhaps wondering whether to be grateful for the defense.

  Avery took a deep breath, then another. “Some of these people might actually convert to your worship, Layanna, but mark my words, not all of them. Before the hour is out, some will be leaving town to find Jivini, and she’s going to be furious when she hears from them.”

  “She would’ve been, anyway,” said Sheridan.

  “Would she? I don’t know.”

  “What do you mean by that?” said Layanna.

  “Think about it,” Avery said. “She’s been here for a year or more, possibly cut off from the councils of the R’loth or the High Command of Octung. It’s entirely possible she hasn’t heard about you, that you’ve turned against the other Collossum. But that won’t matter now, will it?”

  Layanna started to say something, then stopped.

  “I still fail to see what our options were,” Sheridan said.

  “That’s the problem! You never do! Killing people is always your first option.”

  She glared at him hotly for a moment, but then, finally, she looked away. Both she and Layanna stayed silent, neither meeting Avery’s eyes or each other’s.

  Janx gulped down a long pull on his wine bottle. “What I want to know is, what next? We really gonna sit here and wait for Lady Whatsit to come chargin’ back, and with whatever Octs she’s got with her?”

  “That would be suicide,” Sheridan said. “We must go.”

  “I agree,” said Avery.

  Layanna glanced up, determination in her face. “No.”

  “No?”

  Her voice stayed firm. “No.”

  They stared at her. “What’s your plan, darlin’?” said Janx.

  She crossed her arms over her chest. “You go. I stay.”

  “What?” said Avery.

  “Think about it. If Jivini returns to find us all gone, she’ll organize the people of the town—perhaps the entire Rim; apparently they’re one big Collossumist tribe—and lead them after us. But if I stay here and gather the townspeople against her, I can ambush her. Kill her.”

  “That’s a big ‘if’, blondie,” Janx said.

  “I agree,” Sheridan said. “That’s assuming a lot.”

  “As you said yourself, what other choice is there?” said Layanna. “At any rate, I think you’re missing the big picture.”

  “An’ what’s that?” said Janx.

  “Our primary purpose—in addition to seeking some sign of the Monastery, of course, and I think we’ve already done that—has been to contact the mainland and summon the navies. But Segrul has already started his attack.”

  “It is a problem," Avery admitted. "If it takes days to locate a transmitter, and more days for the navies to arrive ..."

  “Exactly. The Town Father said it would take Segrul five or six days to reach Vinithir. Once he’s there Thraish will open the Monastery and accomplish whatever objectives the Muugists have. It doesn’t matter what those are. As soon as the Monastery is opened by anyone other than the mainstream R’loth, the R’loth will activate the failsafe.” She let them chew on that for a moment, then said, “Torn as it is by war, the island won’t be able to stand against the pirates. Don’t you see? You won’t have time to summon the navies before Thraish reaches the Monastery. But if I can bring the people of the Rim under my authority, I can make common cause with the peop
le of the Core. Unified, we might be able to stand against Thraish and Segrul—hold out until the navies arrive. We’ll need both forces to prevail, those of the island and those of the navies.”

  Avery felt his mouth go dry. “But, Layanna …”

  “Yes?”

  He tried to be tactful. “I know you just lost your priests in the Pool of the Deep One, and I can tell you’re anxious to replace them with new worshippers—”

  “This is not about me, Francis.”

  “Isn’t it?” When she just stared at him, he hastily added, “Maybe it’s not. I agree, unifying the island would be a great help to our cause. But our main priority is still to find a transmitter and summon the navies.”

  “You’ll just have to do that without me.”

  “Where’re we gonna find a transmitter?” Janx said. “The Town Father said they’d all been destroyed in the fighting.”

  Avery hesitated, then sighed. “He said he knew of one. He said the Octunggen have one.”

  Janx swayed backward. “You can’t be sayin’ what I think you are.”

  “I’m afraid I am. We have to find a way into the Octunggen’s camp and use their transmitter.”

  “That’s crazy, Doc.”

  “I agree,” Layanna said. “But that’s all the more reason why I can’t go with you. Jivini is with the Octunggen, and she would sense me if I drew too close. Just hope I can lure her away from Vinithir before your arrival. Once my rule here is cemented, I plan to have one of my priests send her a message by bird inviting her here for some exciting and hard-to-resist purpose. She’ll have no knowledge of my presence, and when she arrives I’ll arrange an ambush. I’ll destroy her.”

  And devour her, Avery thought.

  Janx scowled. “You want us to go out into this fucked-up island with its pyramids and ghosts and wars to infiltrate the court of a god … without a god-killing weapon.”

  “Yes,” Layanna said. “Within five days.”

  Janx’s reply was succinct: “Fuck that.”