Thus Falls the Shadow

by Martin Swinford

  “What's that?” asked Rilk.

  “We're the only people who know he's there.”

  “And he doesn't know we know,” Rilk said.

  “Exactly!”

  Rilk grinned. It was his most piratical grin, the one he used when he was about to cause some trouble.

  “We've got the drop on the fucker!” he said.

  LATER, IN THE DARK, my worries returned. I lay on my back listening to the soft sigh of Rilk's breathing and knew that sleep wasn't going to be visiting any time soon. I put my hands behind my head and felt my shoulder muscles bunch as I kicked the cover off my feet. The whole idea was ridiculous and yet I couldn't deny the part of me that urged me on. I crossed my legs, uncrossed them again, rubbed at my face. Finally, I pushed myself up and swung my legs over the side of the bed, fumbled on the floor for my shorts and pulled them on. My comm unit lay on the floor by the rest of my carelessly discarded clothes. I pulled up the video clip I had taken at Zestrade, muted the sound and hit play. For a few seconds that face filled the screen. I played it again, searching for detail in the blurred image, finding nothing beyond the pale skin and darkened eyes. Again I watched, trying to understand what I found so compelling. This unknown man, who had united two warring species against his own kind, what was he to me? I called to mind the image of the lines of bodies laid out among the desolation of Zestrade. Their blood was on his hands and yet I couldn't bring myself to hate him. Some people are raised above ordinary values by their vision, I thought, they see beyond the banal lives of the little people. When your dream is bigger than a planet, so big that it encompasses twenty planets, then what do the lives of mere people matter? These are the questions I asked myself in the dark as I realised that I didn't want to kill this man, I wanted to meet him.

  Behind me Rilk muttered and turned onto his front. The light from my screen glanced off his body, softly illuminating the ridges of muscle and I smiled despite myself. Reaching out, I ran my hand lightly down his back, my finger tracing the hollow of his spine. As always, I marvelled at the softness of the skin that concealed such power beneath. I switched off the comm unit and lay down on my side, one arm draped gently over him, and let the rhythm of his breathing soothe me into sleep.

  I WOKE TO FIND RILK gone and the bed cold. The Fading Sun's life support systems had cycled from night to day and for a moment I blinked in the light as the thoughts of the previous night reoccupied my mind. I pulled myself out of bed and went to find Rilk.

  He was sitting in the day cabin looking at the holograms of the dust cloud. I leaned over and put my arm round him, resting my cheek against the top of his head.

  “You smell nice.” I murmured.

  “You smell like a wet dog!” he replied. “Go get a shower!”

  “Woof!” I replied. “What you looking at?”

  “The dust.”

  I slid down next to him on the couch and looked at the holo. I was struck by how detailed it was, a perfect reproduction of a nebula that filled half the system. “What about it?” I asked.

  “I think I've found our route in,” he said. “Look.” He leaned forward and pushed his little finger into a slight indentation in the surface of the cloud.

  “Can you expand the holo?” I asked. He reached down and adjusted the projector. The image grew so that we now had the indentation right in front of us.

  “I still don't see it,” I said.

  “Wait,” Rilk replied. He adjusted again, this time changing our point of reference. I had the uncanny feeling of swooping low over the surface of the dust cloud while still seated on the couch. Suddenly I saw it. The indentation, now a great cavern in the surface of the dust, was actually the start of a vast tunnel.

  “That's amazing!” I said. “We can do it. Well done!”

  “I know, I'm amazing,” Rilk replied, “but I wouldn't get carried away yet. There's one tiny problem.” He adjusted the holo again and this time the dust receded as something huge loomed into view. I realised it was a planet, a gas giant by the look of it, with a surface of swirling clouds.

  “Regius!” he announced.

  Thirteen

  “YOU'RE NOT COMING.”

  “Well I'm sure as fuck not staying on the ship!” Bex's customary pout assumed gargantuan proportions.

  “Why not?”

  “What, hang out here with freako and robokid?”

  A storm of angry whistling came over the comm. Ariadne, by contrast, arched an eyebrow and then returned to tinkering with a piece of gadgetry.

  “I think she’d better come,” I said. Rilk looked at me with disgust.

  “Does she have to?” he asked.

  “Well,” I said. “It's either that or clean up a lot of blood when we get back.”

  Rilk gave me a long look and then sighed theatrically.

  “Fine!” he said, turning back to Bex. “But you better behave. We're trying to make friends here, not start a war!” He stood, arms folded, staring down at her. With his bald head, scarred face and bulging biceps he should have looked intimidating, but Bex had a weapon whose name was Sullen. She stared right back, saying nothing, chin lifted as she met his eyes.

  “You got that?” Rilk asked finally.

  “Yeah!” Bex spat. “Friends not war, I got it.”

  “Good.” Rilk replied as he started to turn away.

  “One question.” Bex said, stopping him in his tracks. “Who the fuck are we making friends with?”

  We were in orbit around the third moon of Kwa 7 and we were looking for allies. Rilk's discovery of a passage through the dust had given us a destination but thrown up a problem: Regius. The fiery red gas giant dominated the sector like a malevolent God, its rings and moons reaching far into space. There, a local bandit chief by the name of Simbardo had carved out an empire of extortion and piracy. Few ships that entered the sector escaped his clutches and much as I loved my ship, the Fading Sun was neither well-armed enough to fight nor fast enough to flee. We needed help.

  Describing the surface of the moon as inhospitable would be flattering. The best you could say was that the atmosphere was breathable and the going easy underfoot. To be honest, it was dark, cold and wet. We had passed through what seemed like an unending layer of impenetrable cloud as we landed and I doubted that the ground was ever touched by the rays of the sun. There was a little in the way of plant life, just a few scrubby weeds and lichens that clung to the heaps of dust and slag that stretched away into the distance.

  “Nice place you've brought us,” I remarked.

  “Fucking dump if you ask me!”

  Rilk laughed and started walking, leading us away from the landing site as the Fading Sun lifted off behind us, seeking the safety of orbit.

  “I still don't get what we're doing here.” Bex walked with her hands deep in the pockets of her jacket and shoulders hunched against the cold.

  “We're seeing a man I used to work for,” Rilk replied.

  “Yeah? What did you do?”

  Rilk stopped and looked at her. “I killed people.” He paused for a moment and then began walking again.

  “Fuck!” Bex remarked reflectively before scampering after him. “So what were you? Like, a fucking assassin?”

  “Mercenary.” Rilk glanced down at her. “How'd you think I got these scars?”

  “I dunno, maybe lover boy there gets a bit rough?”

  “I should be so lucky!”

  Bex giggled. It was the first time she had laughed since Zestrade.

  “So, you're like a big fuck off hard case?” she asked after a moment.

  “Sure.” Rilk grinned. “Want to feel my muscles?”

  We followed the rough path as it wound upwards over a ridge of jagged boulders. Above us a grotesque figure loomed out of the mist.

  “What the fuck?” Bex stopped, seemingly unwilling to go nearer. Rilk looked up and then shook his head.

  “I don't think he's in any position to harm us. Come on.”

  The Kwa-doon had been chain
ed up before they killed him, manacled hand and foot to the stone pillar by the side of the track. He slumped, face twisted in death, his body ripped open from sternum to pelvis.

  “Must've annoyed the boss,” Rilk remarked as he walked past. Bex paled slightly and hurried after him. I followed carefully, trying to avoid the blood that had pooled across the path.

  The mist parted as we crested the ridge. Below us the path plunged straight down the hill before disappearing into a cavernous gateway in the rock-face that rose shear on the far side of the valley.

  “In there?” I asked.

  “Yup.” Rilk nodded.

  “This fucking day out just gets better and better!” Bex muttered.

  “Come on,” said Rilk, and set off down the hill.

  The opening was framed by two great columns carved from the solid rock of the cliff. Above was another carving, a great winged beast with a mass of teeth and claws, and reptilian eyes that glared down on us as we passed below. Inside, the cave narrowed to a tunnel, a tunnel barred by two Kwa-doon. Intimidating at the best of times, these two were particularly terrifying, huge and battle scarred, and each grasped a huge axe. I looked at Rilk, waiting to see how he would deal with the situation. Not for the first time he surprised me.

  “Hello boys! Have you missed me?”

  The eyes of both flickered deep red with suspicion and anger and for a moment I feared the worst, before one of the guards lowered his weapon as recognition finally hit.

  “Rruulk?”

  “You better believe it, now go tell your boss I'm here.”

  The guards held a brief rumbled conversation, before one barked an order at the other and then set off down the tunnel. The remaining Kwa-doon stepped forward and held his great axe across the width of the tunnel and then stood, immobile and impassive, barring our way. Rilk looked at me and nodded reassuringly. Bex leaned against the wall, folded her arms and stared at the floor. We didn't have to wait long before the guard returned, jogging up the tunnel towards us. He grunted at the other guard, who stood aside, then beckoned to us before setting off back down the tunnel. We followed, the other guard falling in behind as we made our way deep into the ground.

  Fourteen

  THE TUNNEL WAS NARROW and uneven, the people in front mere shadows. Suddenly Bex tripped and I put out a hand to steady her. Behind me the rasp of the Kwa-doon's breath counted down our footsteps. Eventually I felt the ceiling pull away and the walls open out as we stepped into a cavern lit by torches that flamed either side of a pair of great stone doors, intricately carved with monsters and demons that seemed to writhe in the flickering light. A boom echoed through the cavern as the guard banged on the door with the butt of his axe. Then he stepped back, looked up to a point on the right and lifted a hand. After a moment a grinding rumble signalled the start of some hidden mechanism and the doors began to swing inwards.

  “Stone doors and security cameras,” I remarked. “Nice!”

  With a final grumble the doors thumped home into the niches on either side of the passageway and all was momentarily silent. The guard signalled and we entered.

  “Fuck me!”

  For once Bex had captured my exact thoughts. The cavern we had entered was vast, and it had to be. Before us flowed an underground river bridged by a looping arch of stone. Some distance beyond a wide set of stone steps rose majestically, narrowing with each slab like a great pyramid set against the wall of the cavern. At the top, proud and unassailable, stood a fortress carved from the solid rock.

  “What is this place?” I asked as the guard led us over the bridge.

  “This?” Rilk gestured theatrically. “Isn't it obvious? This is the palace of the emperor!”

  “I thought he was some sort of crime boss?”

  “Well that's the beauty of the outer system,” Rilk replied. “It doesn't matter where you start. Make enough cash and you can be anything you want. You could be a playboy or a prince, a businessman or a benefactor. Luca wants to be an emperor.”

  “What do you mean 'wants to be'?”

  “Simbardo's in his way.”

  I paused at the foot of the steps and felt a shove in my back. The guard gestured and grunted emphatically.

  “Easy for you to say!” I muttered as we started to climb.

  By the time we reached the top my calves were screaming with pain. Twice we had tried to stop, only to be pushed on by the guards. In the end Rilk had dragged Bex up the last ten steps, her breathing so ragged she couldn't even manage to swear. At the top we paused for a moment, my head swimming with vertigo as I looked back into the depths. Behind me the guard held a mumbled conversation with another invisible camera and the doors opened.

  “Wait,” Rilk said as the guards gestured us forward. “Let her catch her breath.” He signalled me to join him and moved over to Bex who was bent over with her hands on her knees.

  “You ok?” he asked loudly, then continued in a low voice. “Take care when we get inside. Don't say anything that might annoy Luca.”

  “Why?” asked Bex between gasps.

  “Let's just say he's got a bit of a temper. Best let me do the talking.”

  I thought of the Kwa-doon chained to the post with his guts all over the road.

  “You got it!” I replied.

  The inside was not what I expected. Rather than the imposing stone of the exterior, we found ourselves in a colonnaded hall with tiled floors and frescoed walls. At the end was a a pair of ornate doors, guarded by two huge Kwa-doon, resplendent in scarlet and gold, holding polished halberds in mailed fists. As we approached they slammed the butts of the great axes against the floor, once, twice, three times until the hallway rang with the sound. As the echoes died away the doors swung open and we entered.

  “Welcome back Rilk, it's been a long time.” The speaker's close-cropped hair was iron grey, and he wore a simple tunic but his seat was a gilded chair on a raised dais against the far wall. Like the entrance hall this room was beautifully decorated. Elegant pillars ran along both sides to meet the dais and lead to arches on either side of the throne. The walls were painted with strange and wonderful animals and the floor was one vast mosaic of a whale leaping free of the water.

  “Luca.” Rilk smiled and bowed. “You're looking well.”

  “I'm looking old,” the other replied irritably. “Now get to the point and don't waste time on flattery! Have you come to ask for your old job back?”

  Rilk smiled expansively. “Let's just say I've got a particular proposition for you.”

  Luca leaned forward in his chair. “And that would be?”

  “I'm going to destroy Simbardo for you.” Luca grinned savagely at the words but before he could speak another voice rang out.

  “I hope you're not going to listen to these vagabonds, father!”

  From the arch to the right of the throne a young man stepped into view, accompanied by a beautiful woman who rested a pale hand lightly on his arm. She wore an exquisite dress of pale blue silk that clung to the curves of her body, jewels shone from her neck and her golden hair was crowned by a silver tiara. Her companion was dressed with equal splendour, in a white tunic embroidered in gold, a scarlet cape that fell from his shoulders and a sword belted around his waist.

  “Ah, Petrus,” Luca replied. “I'm so pleased you could join us.”

  “Of course you are pleased my husband,” the girl answered. “For you know you rely on him in so many things!”

  “Jocasta, my love,” Luca held out his hand to her. “I am indeed fortunate in both my son and my loving wife.”

  “He's fucking joking right?” Bex muttered.

  “Shush!” Rilk hissed back.

  Petrus strode to edge of the dais, threw back his cloak and rested his hand on the hilt of his sword.

  “Things have changed here,” he declaimed. “It is now Petrus that leads his father's fleets, and it is Petrus that shall lead them to victory over that treacherous snake, Simbardo!”

  “I thought he was Petr
us.” Bex said.

  “He is.” Rilk replied.

  “Who the fuck's he talking about then?”

  “Himself,” replied Rilk. “It's because he's very important.”

  “Fucking crazy more like.” Bex folded her arms and started tapping one foot.

  Meanwhile Petrus had turned slightly pink. He stared hard at Bex for a moment, clearly unused to such a lack of respect, but then ignored her and turned to Luca.

  “Father, I demand you send these scum back where they came from!”

  “Demand?” Luca raised an eyebrow.

  “Yes, demand,” his son continued. “Or do you wish me to deal with them myself?”

  Luca didn't answer, he just looked across at Rilk.

  “Well Rilk?” he asked. “Shall I let Petrus deal with you?”

  Rilk nodded slowly. “You can let him try,” he said quietly.

  “What do you mean?” Petrus looked from Luca to Rilk and then back again.

  “You heard!” Luca replied. “Go ahead, deal with him!”

  “But...” Petrus hesitated and I started to feel a little sorry for him.

  “What's the matter boy?” his father continued. “Not so brave anymore?”

  “Father, I...”

  “Let me make it simple. You fight him. The winner stays, the loser goes.”

  “You can't do that!” Jocasta's voice had lost its previous poise. Luca rounded on her like an angry dog.

  “You forget yourself woman! I can do what I like because I am in charge, not this insolent puppy and certainly not you.” He turned back to Petrus. “Go on then,” he instructed.

  Still Petrus hesitated. He looked at Rilk, as if suddenly aware of the contained power of the man, then glanced back imploringly at Jocasta.

  “Oh get on with it.” Luca spat the words as if he tasted his son’s cowardice. “No good looking to her for help. You're on your own.”

  Still Petrus looked to Jocasta, watching her face twist before she dropped her eyes to the floor. He looked away, took a deep breath and then drew his sword.