by L. K. Rigel
“I believe it.” Dix barely whispered. “Only a god could create something so exquisite.”
Counselor broke the tension, opening the box that contained the dagger. “Great gods, this is stunning.” She balanced the dagger on one finger, displaying both the blade and the firebird handle.
Amid the oohs and ahs, only Celia remained silent. And pale.
Jannes examined the dagger for its maker’s mark. By his reaction, he recognized the pomegranate seeds. “My lord, Garrick will only press harder now.”
“Jannes is right.” Edmund said. “Even before knowing the truth, he’s made several attempts on both Céilidh and Mallory.”
Several?
“He’s tried to kill you too, Edmund.” Counselor said. “He had to have known you were on the Golden Wasp.”
“Red City won’t stand for it.” Celia finally spoke.
“Why should Garrick fear Red City?” Saskia said. “Have they ever punished him for his crimes?”
A voice belonging to none of them said: “Ma-Da is the one they all should fear.”
Jannes and Edmund leapt toward the owner of that voice, a young woman standing at the open door. She had dark blond hair and gauze-covered eyes, and she didn’t look well. The men grabbed her arms and dragged her into the room. She dropped an ugly gray scarf.
Her eyes rolled in Mal’s direction, and she slumped in the men’s grip. Blood gushed from her side. It was Kim.
Mal retrieved the Ptery cloth from the floor and used it to staunch the flow of blood. Saskia substituted a clean bandage for the cloth. “This is filthy.” She dropped the Ptery cloth into her bag without missing a beat. “Lay her down.”
“Ma-da, I’ve come from Garrick.” Kim grabbed Mal’s hand. “I’ve come to confess my sins against you.”
“You’ve done nothing to me, Kim.” She was delirious from loss of blood. “To the contrary, you saved my life once. Remember?”
Kim’s eyes rolled over in Mal’s direction. “I did. Your hair.”
“That’s right. My hair tangled in seaweed, and you saved me from drowning.”
“You owe me.”
“I do, Kim. I owe you. Don’t distress yourself.”
But her agitation only increased. She gripped Mal’s hand. “Garrick.” Her eyelids closed. She looked so normal like that.
“She’s lost a lot of blood.” Saskia said. “But she’s stable.”
“I did it. I set the bomb.” Kim’s eyes were still closed. “Garrick made me do it. He would kill my girl.”
“Do you mean the Golden Wasp? But that was yesterday. How could set a bomb if you were in Garrick?” Mal looked at Saskia. “She’s delusional.”
Saskia frowned. “I don’t think she is.”
“I was in Allel yesterday. I was in Garrick today.”
“Right, Kim. And how did you get back and forth so quickly?”
Kim’s eyes popped open again, and everyone jumped. Her laugh was like an old woman’s cackle. “And flights of angels sing thee to thy rest.” A laugh like the crone at the Horus tent.
“Are you talking about the little girl at the Horus tent, Kim? Is that your daughter?” Maybe she had escaped Red City before they could remove her uterus.
“Garrick knows. He knows about the stingers. The dagger. I told him everything, and still he killed me. With that dagger.” She pointed to Counselor’s dagger, hanging around her waist. “He’s coming to get you, Ma-Da. He’s on his way. He’s crazy.”
“Yeah,” Steve said. “He’s crazy.”
“Protect my girl, Ma-Da.” A tear slid out the corner of her eye, down her cheek. “You were never prejudiced. You liked the proofs. You owe me.”
When she’d been quiet for a minute, Steve said, “Is she dead?”
Kim twisted in convulsions and vomited something white and foamy with a disgusting, rancid smell. Saskia pushed Mal out of the way as Kim fell to the floor.
“She is now. Whatever blade stabbed her, it must have been poisoned.”
Oh, Kim. Mal knelt down by her body and held her hand. “What she said is impossible. But I believe her.”
Saskia backed away from Kim’s body with revulsion. Her physician skills must stop at death’s door. “It is possible. Did you hear that about angels? I’ve heard things out with the wildlings. I think there’s a new special species, or one we don’t know about yet anyway. The wildlings call them angels. They say they can move vast distances in seconds.”
“Are you saying Kim was an angel – and a Ptery?”
“I’m not saying anything. Maybe she hitched a ride with one. I don’t know!”
“Princess – my lady.” Jannes was on his feet and alert. “My lord. Allel is a city of farmers and engineers. We need fighters. With a stinger, I can get to my home camp in two hours. King Harold is on his way. We can divert the Queen Bee to the camp to use as a transport.”
So much for benign civilian purposes.
Steve whistled. “I knew there was something about that guy I didn’t know.”
Jannes looked at Counselor. “I am an orphan, as I told you. I was raised in the wild, except that these wildlings are remnants of the Imperial household who followed Damini into the wilderness.”
We’ve always known.
Jannes put his hands on Counselor’s shoulders. “I have sworn allegiance to Allel. That doesn’t change.”
“So that explains it.” Counselor returned Céilidh’s dagger to its box and snapped the lid in Jannes’s face.
“Explains?”
“Why you’re such a good dancer. You’re not a peasant at all, are you Jannes?”
Jannes smiled. But this time, it was a real smile, full of teeth. The resemblance to Pala was undeniable. Mal asked, “Who were your family?”
“My father was Raijin, brother to Jarlvidar, father of Gopala – known to you as Pala. He is my cousin.”
We’ve always known. This is what Pala had meant.
“There will be no going back,” Edmund said. “Raising an army is the grossest violation of the Concords. Mallory tells me she wants nothing to do with politics, and I believe her. But in any event, Allel is finished with the Concords.”
“Edmund!” Celia looked shocked, but why should she be? Hadn’t Edmund become exactly what she had intended?
“Tesla is fully functional,” he continued. “Allel doesn’t need Garrick. We certainly don’t need the Concord Cities.
“And what of Red City?” Celia stared at her hands. Were her plans going awry or coming to fruition?
Counselor bent down and kissed the honeybee on Celia’s cheek. “Allel has no quarrel with Red City, Celia. And you have always been an Allel in your heart.”
Celia glanced at Mal and quickly away, but the expression told all. Asherah had told the truth. From the beginning, Celia had meant that Mal and Edmund should bond.
“You did it, didn’t you?” Mal said. “The day I met Edmund, you sent the servants away so that we would find each other.”
Celia shrugged her shoulders, but she didn’t deny the accusation.
Edmund turned to Jannes. “Take a stinger. You should take another pilot to cover more ground.”
They both looked at Saskia.
“Believe me,” she said. “I’d love to. But I won’t leave Mallory; it’s too close to her time.”
Edmund couldn’t miss Saskia’s implication that Mal’s official dates were off. “Go.” He said to Jannes, who was already at the door. “I’ll catch up as soon as I can.”
Counselor followed Jannes into the corridor.
“My lady, you’re looking tired.” Saskia held out her hand, but before Mal could take it, Edmund was at her side, supporting her.
“My knight in shining armor.” But this wasn’t the time to joke. “Are you going to follow Jannes to the Imperials?” Imperials. Firebirds. Princesses. Wasn’t there a happy, rational place between mythological splendor and settlement trash obscurity?
“Soon. Let’s get you back to your suite.”
Counselor returned. Most of her curls had escaped the arrangement on her head. Her lipstick was messed up too.
“You understand better than anyone.” Mal handed her the box. “Whatever happens with me, will you keep Céilidh’s dagger safe until the proper time?”
“It is my honor.”
Celia met them at the door. She ignored Edmund. Her eyes burned bright, and she grasped Mal’s forearm.
“Counselor and Saskia have everything in hand, Celia.” Edmund stepped between them and handed Mal over to Saskia, indicating to the LOTHs in the hall to fall in behind. “You’ll be safe with Saskia until I get back, but your ladies make terrible guards.”
“Edmund, they had nothing to do with Kim getting into the room. Trust me on this one.” She’d tell him about the cloth later. Things were already too complicated.
“If you ask it, then I do.”
How was she ever going to disentangle her heart from this man? “Edmund, I must speak with you before you go. Privately.” That would take care of it. As soon as he knew about the soul, he would hate her.
“I’ll come to your suite as soon as I can.”
It was good to get back to her rooms, if only to put her feet up for a few minutes and clear her head.
“He’s doing it again.” Mal showed Saskia her belly, undulating with a will of its own. She should have started her labor days ago. Soon, she wouldn’t have any choice. “Maybe Father Jesse is right about souls not being so important.”
She didn’t believe it for a minute. It was over, and all was lost. None of them, not Saskia, not Nin, not anyone had a clue what had happened to the soul.
“Father Jesse has a point, Mal. Souls are unimportant in this reality, except that we make them so.”
Not helping. “Sometimes, I can believe I simply failed. There never really was a soul.”
“That makes the most sense. Otherwise, where did it go?” Saskia lifted the chocolate pot lid, wrinkled her nose, and put it down. “But nothing about you makes sense lately.”
“It doesn’t matter now. I can’t put labor off much longer. I’ll tell him when he …”
Edmund was standing just inside the doorway.
“Arrives?” Saskia walked over to the window – to admire the view of the city lights, no doubt.
Asherah help me. How do you tell a man you’ve ruined his life? After his years of work, everything he’d done for his city – and for her, taking a chance on her. After Counselor had been so kind to her, and he had made her so happy, she had failed them.
“Mallory, I’m here because I promised, but I can’t stay.”
“Edmund, I have to tell you something.”
“No, you don’t.” He put his arms around her. This was worse than she’d imagined.
“But you don’t understand.”
“I do.” His voice was gentle and soothing. He lifted her chin and looked into her eyes. “I know there is no soul.”
She broke down. She couldn’t help it. She cried from relief that he knew the truth, from a broken heart for failing him. He didn’t let go. He swayed with her, rocking her on her feet, saying it will be all right, it will be all right.
I love you. I love you. She was going to go mad, not being able to say those words.
“In the name of all that’s unholy!” Saskia blanched a shade whiter, her neon eyes about to pop out of her head. Her raised finger pointed to the fireplace.
Nin appeared in front of the fire, laughing like a maniac, her hands on Father Jesse’s chest and his arms around her waist. “How did you do that?”
Father Jesse swayed. His eyes crossed. And then he fainted.
“Mal!” Nin ignored the lump of priest at her feet. “I’ve discovered what happened.” She raised her clenched fists in a grand, triumphal gesture.
“Shapeshifters stole your baby’s soul!”
Empani Logistics
Mal wanted to scream, but where to start? It was like being underwater, drowning while Nin babbled on above the surface.
What was that thing about the shapeshifters?
Saskia asked the other pertinent question. “How in Asherah’s name did you get here?”
“So Mal.” Nin didn’t seem to notice how strange this all was. “Your message about the mad bog reminded me of our sanctuary-seeking half-Empani.” Nin splayed her hands toward Father Jesse still on the floor. She squatted and hoisted him over her shoulder. “I decided he had some explaining to do.”
“Do you need help?” Saskia said.
“How about a pillow for his head.” Nin put Father Jesse on the sofa. “He weighs a third as much as you’d think.”
Getting him away from the fire seemed to help. He didn’t open his eyes, but the color started coming back to his face.
Just go with it.
The voice in Mal’s head was weak, but it was definitely Father Jesse. Had he fainted, or was it some kind of coma? Her resistance felt out of focus. Probably because of that last contraction – which was actually uncomfortable.
I swear on my love for Samael I am no threat to you.
“His cellular structure is like nothing we’ve seen, more apparent than substantial – more wave than particle.” Nin was having a great time. She really was happier as a scientist.
Mal wished Edmund had stayed. He had taken Nin’s sudden appearance in stride and answered a few of her questions. Yes, he had been in the Empani nest. Yes, he had sex with an Empani “in the shape of Mallory.” Then Counselor came to say that Jannes had reported in, and suddenly he had to go.
Mal should be flattered about the Empani. It meant he wanted her. Except that he should have known it wasn’t her; she wasn’t in Allel at the time. But that point was irrelevant. Edmund could have sex with anyone he wanted.
“Not human?” Saskia put her head against Father Jesse’s chest. “Whatever beats in there sounds like a heart.”
“We’ve known for a while he’s some kind of special species. We ran a DNA screen on him – I nabbed a sample off a cup he drank from in the bistro. He is human, but he has other DNA we couldn’t identify at first. He’s a hybrid, human and Empani.
“How did you figure it out?” Counselor had stayed to find out how Kim – and now Nin and Father Jesse – had gotten past security.
“I did it the old-fashioned way.” Nin held out her mug for more chocolate.
“Ah.” Counselor nodded knowingly. “Detective work.”
“I asked.” Nin’s face softened. “He was relieved to have someone to talk to about it. I don’t think there are many like him.”
“Great gods.” Counselor stared at Mal’s undulating belly with dawning horror.
“No, no. You’ve got it wrong,” Nin said. “Mal isn’t carrying an Empani or a hybrid or anything like that. They only took the soul.”
“Only!” That brought Mal out of her silence. Took it? Then they might still have it!
“The Empani are shapeshifters. That, we all know. What we never thought about is they shift down to a molecular level. They become the thing they become. Father Jesse’s mother was Empani. I only say mother because his father was human. The Empani are inherently sexless. If his human parent had been a woman, the same Empani involved would have taken male form.”
Great gods. If the same Empani could manifest male and female, she and Edmund might have been with the same one. But was that better or weirder?
“My theory is that the Empani that took the soul had earlier tried to create another hybrid with Edmund. By taking the female form and seducing a male, they can keep the offspring.”
“Father Jesse’s human father doesn’t know he has a child?” Counselor said. “That is so sad.”
Saskia crossed her eyes at Counselor. “It’s not sad. It’s creepy.”
“The Empani are an order of angels cast out of heaven by Samael’s curse, bound by him to human will. As long as no human being is close by, an Empani can act on its own thoughts and desires. That’s why they keep to their nests. But
as Father Jesse told the proofs, the Empani’s only true desire is to get back to heaven and sit around adoring Samael all the time.”
Her inanity will drive me insane.
“How did you appear in my room? You teleported from Red City somehow, didn’t you?” What had Kim said? That quote from Hamlet about flights of angels. Kim had an Empani cloth too. Somehow, all these things were related.
“There, I don’t have a clue. Father Jesse and I were talking, and all of a sudden he was desperate to talk to you, Mal. He put his arms around – he grabbed me, and we were here. I’ll tell you this much; it was fun.”
“Doesn’t look like it was fun for him,” Saskia said.
“Maybe he called upon his angel nature,” Counselor said. “Maybe angels can teleport.”
“Yeah, it’s a great trick. It seems to have knocked him out of commission.” Saskia checked Father Jesse’s pulse. “His breathing is shallow, but his pulse is all right. Maybe he has to regenerate his strength after a performance like that.”
“Ninny,” Mal said. “Where is the soul? Do you know?”
“I have an idea. I think an Empani in the Allel nest became female to mate with Edmund, intending to create another hybrid. The hybrids all turn out different. Just as human beings have different combinations of attributes, so do the hybrids. Their hope is that eventually some human/Empani iteration will help them learn how to break free of human will. Apparently that’s a bust with Father Jesse. He isn’t even a very good half Empani. He can’t shape-shift.”
Samael, why have you forsaken me?
“But he can teleport.” Counselor said. “That’s pretty wonderful.”
If I could teleport, I would not be here.
Be quiet! Mal tried talking to Father Jesse in her head.
“The soul, Nin.” Father Jesse could also put ideas in people’s heads, but there was no time right now for that conversation.
“The soul. You came along into the nest, pregnant. More important, the pregnancy was ensouled. I think it was a crime of opportunity. The Empani sensed the soul in you and reverse engineered it.”
