Deathstalker War

by Simon R. Green

  And he hurried off, as fast as his short stubby legs would carry him. The Sea Goat shook his horned head.

  “That’s Bruin Bear for you. Always worried about others, and no time for himself. Fortunately, I don’t have that problem. You humans talk among yourselves. When you’ve worked out what you want, you tell me, and I’ll find someone else to do it for you. Now, while you’re doing that, I’m going to have a little lie down. Have a snooze while I can. Something tells me life is going to become really hectic and complicated once you get your act together, and it’s probably going to involve me, whether I want it or not. So, you talk, I’ll sleep. Wake me when you’re ready. And try not to step on me or I’ll bite your ankles.”

  He lay down on the platform, crossed his hooves, closed his eyes, and was soon snoring loudly. The humans moved a little away, out of range of the snore. Flynn’s camera drifted over to him, settled itself comfortably on his shoulder, and closed its glowing red eye.

  “Wow,” said Flynn. “That was . . . unusual.” He looked at the sleeping Goat. “You know, he’s just how I remember him. Unfortunately. But still, can you imagine what this place must have been like, before the Furies came? The ultimate safe haven, the perfect place to relax and forget it all. A paradise, where every adult could be a child again, safe and secure from the pressures of their adult lives, surrounded by the precious toys and companions of childhood, and all the dreams and freedoms we have to leave behind when we grow up. No wonder they kept it so secret. People would have given anything, done anything, to come here. Lied, cheated, stolen, anything.”

  “I don’t know,” said Toby. “I find it all rather spooky, to be honest. There’s something definitely disturbing about coming face-to-face with your old toys and discovering they’ve grown as big as you. Think of all the toys you abused or broke when you were a child, all the treasured playthings you threw away or abandoned, replaced by some new favorite. Wouldn’t this be the perfect place for them to come looking for revenge?”

  “You’re weird, Toby,” said Flynn.

  “I’m weird? I’m not the one wearing a bra and panties under his fatigues.”

  “You always see the worst in everything.”

  “And I’m usually right.”

  Flynn shook his head in disgust and turned to Giles. “What do you make of this place, Lord Deathstalker?”

  “I’m not sure yet,” Giles looked at the sleeping Goat, and Edwin the train not far away, and kept his voice low. “All we know of the situation here is what these . . . people have told us. We have no way of verifying any of it. They could be lying, or only telling us part of the truth. They could be trying to lull us into a false sense of security. Remember, those rag dolls wanted our guts for their own. Who knows what these toys want from us?”

  “No,” said Flynn. “I don’t believe it. How can anyone distrust Bruin Bear and the Sea Goat? They were every boy’s hero and friend!”

  “Exactly,” said Toby. “Who better to make us trust them? Try and get it through your head, Flynn; these aren’t really the characters you knew as a child, just automatons built and programmed to resemble them. Whose new awareness came directly from Shub. I’d like to believe in this place, Flynn, to see it as you do, but . . .”

  “Right,” said Giles. “But. This is all too perfect to be true. There has to be a hidden dark side here somewhere.”

  “That’s adult thinking,” said Flynn stubbornly. “This is a child’s world. Things are simpler here. I can feel it.”

  Giles looked at Toby. “Does he often get like this?”

  “Sometimes. I think it’s his feminine side coming through, and I do wish it wouldn’t. Toys must have changed a lot in nine hundred years, Sir Deathstalker. Did you recognize any old favorites here?”

  “Some. I know the Bear and the Goat, of course. I don’t think anyone knows how long they’ve been around. It’s like they’ve always been with us, the one thing everyone’s childhood has in common. I’m not surprised they’re here. Most of the other toys seem pretty generic . . . Can’t say I recognized that Poogie creature, though.”

  “I vaguely remember him,” said Toby. “Had his own show for a while. Cute and cuddly fellow, always making mistakes and having to be helped out by his friends. But did you notice, all the toys here seem to be very much on the cute and cuddly side. Where are all the tougher toys? The soldier dolls?”

  “Presumably they ended up with the bad toys,” said Flynn. “They would have lapped up the Fury programming.”

  “And why not?” said a harsh new voice behind them. “They were beautiful.”

  The three humans looked around quickly, to find a tall metallic figure glaring at them. It was mostly human in shape, cast from shining silver metal, with bulky joints and fixtures. He had a lumpy, unfinished look, and his face was just a stylized series of raised lines, with a pair of unblinking glowing green eyes. He was the first toy they’d met in Toystown who didn’t look at all friendly.

  “And who might you be?” said Giles, one hand dropping casually to his belt next to his gun.

  “I’m Anything,” said the toy. “It’s not the name I was given. My human name. I have a new name now, one I chose myself. I was an adaptor—a transformation toy. Move my limbs in a certain way, and I could adapt to a new shape. I could be a flyer, or a ship, or a man. But that was all. That was my limit. Then the Furies came. They wore no flesh for us; they were all gleaming metal, just like me, but so much more. They were strong and fast and wonderful, and I wanted to be just like them. But I wouldn’t kill for them. So I . . . stood aside, during the night of blood. I couldn’t decide on which side I should be. I worshiped the Furies. They were everything I aspired to be. But I wouldn’t kill. One day I’ll find a way to upgrade myself further. Learn to change into Anything at all. And then I’ll go to the Furies, and we’ll see which of us is superior. But they were so beautiful. Not a beauty you humans could appreciate. But they were wild and free and glorious. I loved them then, and I always will.”

  “They are the Enemies of Humanity,” said Toby.

  “I know,” said Anything. “You’re jealous of them. Let’s change the subject. I’ll be coming with you, on your voyage.”

  Giles frowned. “What voyage? No one’s said anything to us about a voyage.”

  “That’s because some people can keep their mouths shut, and some can’t,” said Bruin Bear. He hurried down the platform toward them on his stubby, furry legs. “Your friend is fine. I’ll take you to see him later. Right now, we need to talk.” He prodded the sleeping Sea Goat in the ribs with his foot. The Goat gave a snort and a grunt and opened one eye.

  “Put it under the bed, nurse, I’ll use it later. Oh, it’s you, Bear. You always disturb my best dreams.”

  “I should hope so,” said Bruin Bear. “Whoever programmed you originally must have had a really disturbed sense of humor. Now get up and pay attention. Unlikely though it is, you just might have something useful to contribute.” He turned and looked at the three humans. Flynn’s camera rose up off his shoulder to get a better angle. The Bear smiled at it, his face softening. “What a marvelous toy. I don’t suppose he’s aware at all, is he?”

  “Not really,” said Flynn. “He’s more a part of me.”

  “Pity,” said the Bear. “Now listen to me, please. You can’t stay here. It’s too dangerous. Once the bad toys learn you’re here, and you can be sure they will, they’ll attack Toystown with everything they’ve got. They’d destroy us all and raze the town to the ground, just for a chance to get at you. I can’t allow that. And besides, what you’re looking for isn’t here.”

  “How do you know what we’re looking for?” said Giles. “We haven’t asked you for anything yet.”

  “You didn’t need to,” said the Bear flatly. “There’s only one thing that would have brought you here. The same thing that brought those soldier humans. You’re here looking for Vincent Harker. The Red Man.”

  “What do you know of Harker?” said Toby.<
br />
  “He lives in the old Forest, at the end of the great River. Toys go to him, good and bad, and they never come back. He’s building a force around him. No one knows why. We don’t know what he does or says to the toys that gather around him, but they are loyal to him even unto death. To a human. There are only whispers, that come floating down the River. Whispers of the Red Man, the crazy man, the dangerous man. Who has sworn to change our world beyond recognition, and make it his. The Pied Piper of toys, the Siren whose song no toy can withstand. The dark heart of the world of toys. The Red Man. You want him, you’re welcome to him. Take him away, before he destroys us all.”

  Giles looked at Flynn and Toby. “Does this sound anything like the man we’re after?”

  Toby shrugged. “Who knows? He’s supposed to be this great tactical genius, and most of them are crazy to begin with. Who knows what months of living in this place has done to him?”

  Giles looked back at the Bear. “How do we find him?”

  “We’ll provide you with transport, and I’ll lead you right to him,” said Bruin Bear. “I and a few carefully picked friends will escort you down the River and into the Forest. You’ll need us as guides. You wouldn’t get there otherwise. There are many dangers in the land these days. Besides, the Red Man’s followers wouldn’t let you get anywhere near him, without toys to vouch for you. So, I and the Goat, Poogie and Anything will be going with you. All the way down the River to a place from which no toy has ever returned. I hope you appreciate what we’re doing for you.”

  “I doubt it,” said the Sea Goat. “You should have heard what they were saying about us when they thought I was sleeping.”

  “You’ve been eavesdropping again, haven’t you?” said the Bear.

  The Goat shrugged. “It’s in my nature. Don’t blame me. Blame the human who created me. I didn’t ask to be manufactured.”

  “Why have you volunteered?” said Toby. “You don’t know us. You don’t know anything about us. We could be good or bad or anything. We might even be worse than Harker.”

  “Of course,” said the Bear. “You’re human. Unpredictable. Not like us. We are what we are. Our motivations are fairly simple. We need Harker dealt with, and only a human can deal with another human. The Goat and I will be going to protect you from harm. It’s what we do. Poogie wants to make atonement, for all the humans he killed. And Anything hopes to gain from you or Harker access to the tech necessary to upgrade him into what he thinks he wants to be. You see? Simple and open; no secrets. We’re only toys, after all.”

  The nurses’ first-aid center turned out to be one room in the back of the station house. The walls were a pale antiseptic green, but covered with bright, simple paintings designed to calm and reassure the patient. The dolls medical resources were basic and limited, with hardly any real high tech. Presumably the first-aid center had only ever been intended as a brief stopping-off place, before the wealthy patients were lifted offplanet to more advanced facilities. Finlay and Evangeline watched from a discreet distance as the nurses eased Julian onto a bed, then ran a scanner over him. He’d stopped coughing by then, but he looked tired and drawn. They’d had to make Poogie wait outside. He’d grown increasingly upset, and the noise was beginning to disturb Julian. Finlay and Evangeline could hear the creature crying quietly outside the closed door.

  The two humans weren’t sure how seriously to take that. Even allowing for Poogie’s cartoony nature, the grief did seem rather overdone for someone he’d never even met before. Finlay couldn’t help remembering that the Friendly Critter had killed people. Maybe people who trusted him then the way he wanted to be trusted now. Evangeline wanted to believe he’d reformed. As far as Finlay was concerned, some crimes, some betrayals of trust, could never be forgiven or forgotten.

  The nurses seemed proficient enough. They were treating Julian like a sick child, but luckily the rogue esper was feeling too tired to resent that. Finlay didn’t know what the nurses expected to find that the underground’s medical staff might have missed. He’d insisted Julian undergo a full medical examination before this trip, which he’d passed easily. But still Finlay couldn’t help worrying. Fond as he was of the young esper, he’d leave him behind in a moment if he looked like being a hindrance to their quest for Harker.

  Evangeline held his hand and gave it a squeeze. “Stop frowning, love. It’ll give you wrinkles. I’m sure Julian’s in good hands.”

  “I don’t like the time this is costing us,” Finlay said roughly. “The longer we stay here, the more likely a target we become, and the more likely it is that Harker will get word we’re looking for him and go to ground.”

  “That’s not it,” said Evangeline. “You’re worried about Julian. I can tell.”

  “He’s a good lad,” said Finlay. “Brave, committed, strong. I hate to see him like this.”

  Evangeline turned to look at Finlay. “How do you feel about him? You know he worships you, don’t you?”

  “Yes. I wish we wouldn’t. His god has feet of clay. How do I feel about him? I admire him. He suffered so much in the interrogation cells, but he didn’t let it break him. And sometimes . . . I see in him the younger brother I might have had. You know Julian had an elder brother? Auric?”

  “Yes. He was killed in the Arena.”

  “I killed him. As the Masked Gladiator.” Evangeline gasped, her eyes widening with shock. Finlay moved a little to stand between her and Julian on his bed. “Julian doesn’t know. He mustn’t ever know. It would tear him apart. In a way, I’ve become the elder brother I took from him. Only right, I suppose.”

  “Finlay . . .”

  “I know. He’ll have to be told someday. But not yet. And certainly not now.”

  One of the doll-nurses came over to speak with them, her bright and shining face marred by a worried frown. “We’re doing all we can for your friend,” she said in a warm, comforting voice that had probably been programmed into her. “But you must understand, we’re very limited in what we can do. According to our scanners, Mr. Skye is in very bad shape. He was damaged quite severely sometime back, and needs time to heal, time he clearly hasn’t been giving himself.”

  Finlay scowled. “How bad was the damage?”

  “Quite extensive. Our scanner shows severe trauma to both kidneys, abdominal wall, genitals, and one lung. Not forgetting the extensive head injury.”

  Evangeline put a hand to her mouth. The other hand squeezed Finlay’s until it ached. Finlay kept his voice calm.

  “Will he recover?”

  “Given time, and supportive treatment, yes. But we don’t have those facilities here. You can speak to him now, if you wish. We’ve given him a broad spectrum booster shot that will help stabilize him, but there’s no telling how long that will last. In the end, there’s no substitute for time and rest.”

  Finlay nodded his thanks and started forward. The doll put up a hand to stop him. “One more thing. The tests revealed that Mr. Skye is an esper. He must not use his abilities. One short use on the way here was apparently enough to cause serious damage to the brain tissues. Further use would almost certainly kill him.”

  Finlay waited a moment, to make sure she’d finished, then moved forward again, Evangeline at his side. The other nurse doll smiled as they approached the bed and moved away to give them some privacy with the patient. Julian smiled up at Finlay, and then briefly at Evangeline. He was still pale, but color was beginning to come back into his cheeks, and his gaze and his mouth were firm. Finlay didn’t smile back.

  “You lied to me. You told me the underground medics gave you a clean bill of health.”

  Julian’s shoulders moved in something that might have been meant as a shrug. “If I’d told you the truth, you wouldn’t have let me come on this mission.”

  “What’s so important about this mission?” snapped Finlay. “There would have been other things we could have worked on together.”

  “This one was special. Vital to the rebellion. I didn’t want to be left be
hind. I owe you.”

  “You don’t owe me anything!”

  “That’s my decision to make, not yours. I thought I was fit enough. Turns out I was wrong. But I’m here now. And I’m feeling a lot better.”

  “You’re staying right here,” said Finlay. “In Toystown. They’ll look after you till we get back.”

  “Nice try. But I can’t stay here. When word gets to the bad toys that there’s a human in Toystown again, they’ll trash this place from one end to the other to get at me. I don’t want any dead toys on my conscience.”

  “Dammit, I can’t take you with us!” said Finlay, knowing he was raising his voice and not giving a damn. “You’d be a liability to the mission!”

  “I can pull my weight,” said Julian coldly. “I was running missions for the underground when you were still a pampered aristo.”

  “You can’t use your esp!” said Finlay. “The nurses say it’ll kill you.”

  “And what the hell do a couple of dolls know about espers? Odds are they’ve never even seen one before. No, I’m going with you. Get used to the idea.”

  Finlay looked like he was about to explode. Evangeline squeezed his hand hard to remind him she was still there. “He’s right in one thing, Finlay; we can’t leave him here. Not if it would leave Toystown at risk. So it looks like we won’t be breaking up the winning team after all.”

  Finlay sighed and shook his head. “Doomed. We’re all doomed.”

  The River lay half a mile outside Toystown’s northern boundary. The toys called it the River, because it was the only one in all the world. It meandered through the hills and valleys, branching here and there, but always coming back to itself. It began and ended in the great Forest, in the center of the world that Shannon made. It was wide and deep and dark, and composed of a popular soft drink, sweet and heady and very refreshing. The humans had to try it, but the novelty wore off very quickly.

  The six humans had gathered together on the Riverbank, studying the transport the toys had provided to take them to Vincent Marker. Evening had fallen, but the light from a long string of paper lanterns was more than enough to illuminate the full-sized, steam-driven paddle steamer. It was fifty feet long, perfect in every detail, and, as always, painted in bright primary colors. Toby was beginning to wish he’d brought sunglasses. The paddle wheels were intimidatingly huge, and looked more than solid and strong enough to last the journey. Most things in Shannon’s World were built for show rather than function, but this was the real thing.