by John Hook
I reached nearly the top of the chasm from momentum alone and then floated up and land in the cave. I collapsed from the memory of the pain. It reminded me of my time in the pain farm.
I slammed my fist on the ground. “Another sacrifice to my hubris.”
“Well, not exactly.”
I spun around and saw Rooni, the alien, walk up to me.
“But I saw you…”
“Indeed you did. You humans have a quaint notion of cats having nine lives. Well, in fact, my kind does have multiple lives. It is a finite number and I would appreciate it if you didn’t use up any more of mine.”
With that, Rooni became a cat again and walked away into the cavern with her tail up in the air.
9.
I found Roland standing at the wall by the rubble that used to be our end of the bridge across the river of lava. He tended to spend time there thinking. I think he found staring down into the flow patterns of the fiery ooze below to be soothing. He was always a bit of a loner, but he had become like the town sheriff in an old western. People, both his fellow Dark Men and the Zaccorans, had come to trust him, but the authority they had come to vest in him made him apart and aloof. He wasn’t, for most people in Zaccora, someone you’d sit down and have a beer with. I suppose, in my own way, I was similar except for my circle of friends.
As I got closer, Roland hadn’t looked up yet.
“Don’t do it. You’re already in Hell.”
Roland smiled wanly. “I don’t know, maybe the next one is better.”
“Where’s the group? I can’t find anyone since getting back.”
“Everyone was pretty upset and “‘in a mood”’ after they got back.”
“I bet. A lot of our work for however long we were in Antanaria was just flushed and we were left holding nothing.”
“You’ve faced setbacks before, but I’ve never seen your group like this.”
“Being betrayed and having to start over will do that to you.”
“So you’re no closer to freeing Guido?”
“No, we may be further away. At least before we knew where Adaxa was.”
“Well, Izzy and the rest went to the Keep to regroup and recover somewhere where people weren’t getting on their nerves.”
“And vice versa.”
Roland spread his hands. “They were a little grumbly to be around. What about Saripha? She’s alone in Ohnipoor. Will she be all right?”
“This has to have been hardest on her. But, yeah, I think she’ll pull through.”
“Where were you, by the way?”
“Attacking the Angels where they live.”
“How’d that go?”
“There’s good news and bad news.”
“Tell me the good news first.”
“I survived.”
“I thought I told you to tell me the good news first.”
“The bad news is I can’t attack them where they live. Physics. Just can’t survive their conditions.”
“The conditions they want to create everywhere.”
“Yup.”
I looked across the river of lava at the other part of the city. Where the other end of the bridge used to be was a wall made of what looked like clay bricks.
“How are things across the way?”
“Who can tell? They keep pretty much to themselves. You’ve seen the new wall. Observers did manage to learn they have named their city Zaraboro, after the Shade who liberated them.”
“Observers?”
“We had a couple of spotter stations set up near the far gate at the other end of their city, back when we thought Gerod was going to attack. It never occurred to us to remove them.”
“So what happened?”
“The citizens of Zaraboro apparently have become quite skillful with Izzy’s archery equipment. Made it clear we should no longer have observer posts.”
“Détente is probably going to take a while. Can’t really blame them.”
Roland didn’t answer. He knew I didn’t mean it accusingly, but it was still a sore point in wrestling with his conscience.
“How have the newly released Dark Men been working out?”
“Pretty well, all considered. I think most of them had already regretted the hold Gerod had on them. Once they were in this new context and forced to relate to the others as real people, they have found the transition okay. The effort we made to have Dark Men think of themselves as Zaccorans helps. Many even add more typical Zaccoran dress to their glamour.”
I looked at Roland. He looked as he always did, dark brown lapelled jacket, black turtleneck, brown pants and boots. He caught me checking him out and shook his head.
“I’m just saying, jeans and a tee shirt might make folks relax a bit with you.”
“I’m not a jeans and tee shirt guy. I don’t think there’s any way I could get my glamour to do that.”
“We are who we are, I guess.”
“Yes we are, blue man.”
I laughed. I often forgot that I was blue now unless I looked at my hands.
“I guess I’d better head to Ohnipoor to check on Saripha.”
“Taking the demon express?”
“No. I prefer to walk if time isn’t urgent.”
There was a shortcut we had figured out up over the mountains from Zaccora so we didn’t have to go back by the no-longer-existent Rockvale. I still didn’t want to see the bare, energy-blasted earth where Rockvale had been. We felt somewhat nomadic. Many former citizens of Rockvale now lived in Zaccora, many more in Haven. The Keep, where Saripha and some of the others of our little inner circle had been living when I arrived, felt closest to being home to many of us now. However, for Saripha, Ohnipoor was home, the place she had shared with Guido. And the place where she had lost Guido.
I walked across the fields approaching Ohnipoor, an eerily empty city of dark windows and abandoned streets. I was worried about Saripha. As long as I had known our group, Saripha was always the stillness at the center. The fact that she could put up with mentoring me with grace and calm and humor said a lot about her inner strength. Even when she first lost Guido—and as strange a relationship as that must be she clearly loved him—she remained collected and steady. If she was now falling apart, I wasn’t sure what it would mean for us.
As I approached Ohnipoor, I saw a small legion of flame monkey demons gathered in the plaza near the jazz bar, but as soon as they saw me they started hooting and turning summersaults and disappeared into several abandoned buildings. From previous experience, I knew it was useless to try to follow them. I assumed they were keeping watch while Saripha was there. I didn’t know where they fit in or their connection to Guido, but they had thus far proved not to be a threat so I wasn’t going to concern myself with them. I had enough to worry about.
Something made me stop and pay attention. I realized it was music coming from the jazz bar. It was noisy and rousing but I couldn’t quite make it out. Apparently the walls of the jazz club were pretty good. I stepped up and opened the door and was immediately assaulted by Frank Sinatra belting out “That’s Life.” I had to admit it was a nice version, without a lot of the later Vegas flashiness and a sweet organ in the background.
The club was like it always was: dark, smoky and empty, but smelling of bourbon and cigarettes as if a crowd had just been there. Dark wooden tables were arranged in a more or less orderly fashion, but the chairs were not. No glassware or silver remained on the tables, but salt, pepper, catsup, mustard and tabasco bottles were lined up like soldiers. There was a piano to one side and a curved wooden bar along two walls with a door to what would have been the kitchen behind it at one end. Behind the bar were shelves of glass liquor bottles that sparkled enticingly even in the dim light.
Sitting at the bar facing out into the club was Saripha. She had a smile on her face but it was hard to read because her eyes were dark and stormy. On the bar next to her were two bottles, one empty and the other one-third full with liquid. In her glass was a smooth, golden brown
liquid. Scotch would be my guess.
“Really. Lounge crooner music?” I shouted to overcome the challenge of her hearing me.
She shrugged. I couldn’t tell if she was drunk, but her movements were not as graceful as they usually were.
“You should have been here earlier. I had Big Bill Broonzy singing ‘The Glory of Love’ and ran through a whole catalogue of Memphis blues.”
“Glamour music?”
“Don’t change the subject.” Saripha slurred only slightly. “Why weren’t you here?”
“You said you wanted to be alone to think.”
She looked at me with an unforgiving stare.
“Okay, I went to see if I could get to the Angels where they hide.”
I had never seen Saripha like this. Her hair, usually pulled back neatly and either gathered on her head or worn as a ponytail, was a mess going every which way. She leapt up and pounded ferociously on my chest.
“And what if you had died? How would that loss have helped us?” I didn’t know if Rooni had let her know or if she just knew. I held her arms. She just looked at me and collapsed, sobbing into my chest.
“How do you do it? How do you keep going against such hopeless odds?”
She stood up and wiped her eyes and regained control. I helped her to the bar and then went around to the other side. I threw a towel over my arm, posing like an attentive waiter. Frank had given way to Roy Orbison.
“And what do we have there, young lady?”
I nodded at the bottles and glass.
Saripha picked up the glass and grinned conspiratorially. “I finally figured out how to create glamour booze.”
“Scotch?”
Saripha looked at me like I was clueless.
“Irish.” Then she raised an eyebrow. “Try it. There’s more under the bar.”
I reached down and pulled up a bottle, grabbed a glass off the rack and poured. I held it up to the light and watched the smooth, golden liquid wash around the glass. I motioned with the glass as in a toast, and then drank it down. It somehow tasted as golden as it looked and seemed to coat the throat. It then began to send a smooth heat into my throat and chest.
“Wow. Nice. Compliments to the chef.”
I poured another few fingers into my glass and sipped it quietly. Saripha sat equally quietly, staring at the bar. The music stopped and the piano started playing by itself. It was a Scott Joplin rag.
“Can you believe it?” Saripha laughed. “This is Guido’s favorite.”
“A magical being with a soft touch.”
Saripha reached over and put her hand on mine. I felt a strange kind of electricity and was startled to find myself becoming aroused. I realized that I didn’t know how consuming glamour food and drink worked, but I was way more intoxicated than I would have expected. She looked up at me and I heard my mouth say, “Are we going to sleep together?”
Saripha laughed.
“You know that’s not the reaction I usually go for.”
She took her hand off mine and patted my face.
“That’s the stress and the spell I used to create the glamour Irish. Sometimes acts as an aphrodisiac. You’re not my type.”
“Darn. And here I thought I was irresistible.”
Saripha rolled her eyes. “I think we’re better off keeping our working relationship. I realize you sometimes get aroused during some of the more intimate rituals because you don’t understand that intimacy and sexuality don’t always go together, but we’re better off as friends.”
“I bet I’ll be really embarrassed when I sober up.”
Saripha raised her glass. I started wiping the bar with the towel as if I were the bartender.
“No thanks. I think I’ve had enough of your brew.”
“You know, you are a sexual being. You can seek other relationships while the matter of Rox is unresolved.”
“The funny thing is, even with what just happened, I don’t know if I can. I’m still in love with Rox.”
“That’s also part of not seeing intimacy and sexuality as different, if related, dimensions.”
“So, are you ready to begin figuring out freeing Guido?”
“Quentin, I had to let myself completely unravel. I’m actually glad you weren’t here for the worst of it. It was a process I needed to clear my head and all the self-pitying rage about how ineffectual I had been. I was hoping some clarity would come in the end. Clarity of mind has come, but I don’t have any idea what to do.”
“I do. We find Adaxa.”
“But that’s it. We have no idea where she’s gone.”
“I think I know someone who might.”
Saripha looked up as if startled.
“Who?”
“Rox.”
Now she just looked confused.
“How…?”
“Well, not Rox exactly. When I saw Adaxa something seemed very familiar about her. Especially the eyes. But I couldn’t place it.”
“How could she be? I’m sure she’d been trapped there longer than you’ve been here.”
“I know. I dismissed it, too. Then when I was trying to get into the Angel’s hive, I had a flash of an old dream come into my head.”
“A dream about Adaxa?”
“A dream about a small girl with very dark blue skin with feathers in her hair.”
Saripha closed her eyes and then her face relaxed as it came to her. “I remember now. There was something about the sky shattering.”
“Yes, and then there was fire everywhere. The fire would have consumed her, but a Black Angel appeared and wrapped her up until the flames burned past them.”
“You think that girl was Adaxa.”
“After we found the Black Angel hidden within Rox, I assumed it was Rox. Especially after seeing the wraith of Rox running and then being met by the Black Angel.”
“But you don’t think so now?”
“I don’t know how much of the dream was symbolic. It was a dream, after all. I’m not sure I was seeing Adaxa as a little girl, but I believe the little girl represented Adaxa. The shattered sky represented, I believe, the Idiri arriving into our universe or multiverse from theirs. The fire, their destructive intent. And the Black Angel was trying to hide Adaxa from the Idiri who came for her because they needed her dreaming.”
Saripha’s face lit up. “Rox now fully shares her consciousness—and glamour—with the Black Angel.”
“And the Black Angel may know where she would hide.”
Saripha’s face became more serious. “Would the Black Angel help us?”
I shrugged. “I think Rox might. Maybe she can convince her other half.”
“It’s a plan.”
I raised my glass.
“More than we had a few minutes ago.”
Saripha poured more into her glass and raised it.
“To the Mountain?”
“I need to get over there to check on the progress of the sword anyway.”
We clinked and downed our glasses. I noticed that while it burned with the same fire it no longer seemed to have any effect. I suspected it really was a glamour drink. You only got drunk—or horny—if you wanted to.
We went out together through the “kitchen door,” which actually led back to Saripha’s living quarters. She kissed me tenderly on the cheek and went off to her bedroom. I went to one of the guest rooms. There was a bottle of oil next to a small clay dish of lava. I had seen Saripha use these before and poured a little oil on the lava. Fragrant smoke wafted up and I lay out on the bed. The smell was subtle but it seemed to relax me and banish thought. We didn’t need sleep, but we sometimes needed rest. Thoughts faded away in my mind as I concentrated on my breathing and then, gratefully, I slipped into a dreamless floating nothingness.
I liked the fact that we really didn’t need showers. If we got rest, our glamours seemed to refresh themselves. I woke up clear headed, my mouth clean, my hair soft and neatly styled, my clothes crisp and ironed. Not the usual expected outcome for a
night of drinking, although I kind of missed actually getting the shower and getting cleaned up.
I was surprised by what I found waiting for me in the main gathering room in Saripha’s apartments. Saripha, looking quite her old self, was serving up a glamour breakfast to Izzy, Anika, Blaise and Kyo. She looked up at me. Deep in her eyes I could still see storms, but the rest of her was put together. Her silver-white hair was pulled back and braided. She wore a robin’s egg–blue top and jeans with black shoes that might have been deemed masculine, but they would serve well for hiking, which we were going to be doing.
“Are you feeling okay?” Saripha asked.
“I’m fine. How did everyone get here?”
“Probably the same way you did.” Izzy giggled around a mouthful of blueberry pancakes.
“We hadn’t heard from you and didn’t know what had happened to you, so we returned to Zaccora.” Kyo took a sip of tea. “Roland said you had come here.”
“Where did you run off to?” Izzy asked.
“Snuck back in to check a few things out.”
“You tried to go down into that chasm after all.”
“The one you told me not to go down?”
“That would be the one.” Izzy shook his head.
“You know what telling me not to go somewhere does.”
“What did you find?”
“Two sleeping Angels, I think. Didn’t get much time and it probably would have killed me if Rooni hadn’t been there.”
Izzy put his face in his palm. “Are you going to listen next time?”
“I listened this time.”
Blaise let out a little laugh. Kyo looked more admonishing.
“It wouldn’t have helped Saripha any if you didn’t make it.”
Saripha raised an eyebrow. I sighed.
“Okay, you are now the third entity to give me grief over that choice, including a dimension-walking cat. I give up. I won’t do it again.”
“Yes you will,” Blaise said casually as he wiped his mouth with a cloth. He looked up. “If you think you can learn something, you’ll do it again.”
“You shouldn’t encourage him,” Kyo muttered.
“I’m not. But we are who we are, babe.”
I was thinking there was probably no one else anywhere who could get away with calling Kyo “babe.”
