by John Daulton
She became aware of everyone staring at her again, and the weight of their expectation was nearly physical.
“Well,” said Altin, “do you know where it is?”
She nodded. “I do. But I don’t know if there are any planets there, much less life. This thing doesn’t have much detail on it at all. Worse, I don’t know how we can possibly get there in time. It took you days to get to Blue Fire, and she is so much closer than that one is. You have no idea how far. We’ll never get there before it is too late.”
“That doesn’t matter,” said High Priestess Maul. “We don’t need you to ‘get there.’ We will speak to him from here. What we do need from you is all the information you can give us to guide the divination spell. You must tell us everything you have just learned and what it means. Every scrap of information will get us closer to finding him.”
“And,” Altin added, “try to tell it as if you were explaining to me. You know, someone who is not understanding more than half of what you say.”
“Of course,” she said. She called up a few relevant files on her tablet and then started right in. Over the course of twenty minutes, she told them everything she learned from the short computer entry about the star Caulfin had designated Red Fire, and she gave as much technical background as she could in such a short period of time. She explained as precisely as possible in the absence of meaningful Prosperion terminology the distance involved, and this was augmented by periodic input from both Altin and Tribbey, who stood as something of a bridge between the technologies of the two cultures, much as Orli was, and had gotten through their own efforts more understanding of intergalactic things than anyone else on Kurr. The explanation was further assisted by frequent references to the illusion Caulfin continued to maintain, where Orli would step into it and point out this detail or that, and reference images to go with it on her tablet. She explained the nature of red supergiant stars, and even tried to explain star collapse, dwarf stars and black holes as best as possible. But they were running out of time and everyone knew it.
Finally the Grand Maul said, “Enough.” He touched her soft hand gently with the wreck of his own, and bade her shut off her device. “And let us hope it is.” For the first time Orli thought he might not be rooting for the end of humanity after all, or at least part of him anyway.
“Places,” said High Priestess Maul, after which she went directly to the edge of the circular pit. Without the least thought for modesty, she slipped out of her robes and handed them to Klovis who folded them neatly and took them away. The Maul was strong and lean, and she looked confident and proud as she made her way gracefully down into the pit. While Orli had no idea what the reasons for it were, her composure gave Orli confidence. Maybe they really had a fighting chance.
The assembled priests took places around the middle stair, just as the priests in Leekant had done when Altin went into the hkalamate pool in the temple there. The acolyte powering the Grand Maul’s chair pushed him around to the far side of the pit where the square block of an altar sat. The youth cast a levitation spell, and a moment later, the ancient figure was atop the altar, chair and all, ready to conduct the spell.
“What are they doing?” Orli asked as she watched the ritual being prepared.
Altin explained as best he could, but the hissing shush he got from the Grand Maul prevented thoroughness. It was enough, however, and Orli settled in close to Altin and waited patiently.
Klovis came up beside them and motioned that they remain silent. Orli had to resist the urge to say, “Duh.”
Shortly after, it began. The fires of the braziers lowered around the walls, and the crushing darkness from above descended, as if it meant to join with the equally-crushing silence that filled the vastness of the chamber now. Then, slowly, and with rising volume, the Grand Maul’s old voice became audible. It creaked like old ship timbers as he sung the spell that would start the hkalamate dream, and Altin stared all the while into the bottom of the pit where High Priestess Maul lay, her arms and legs spread out nearly to a cross, exposing herself, making herself, mind and body, a target, open and vulnerable. Just as he had once done.
Soon the black vapors of the hkalamate came pouring out from the edges of the lowest step, swirling around the Maul like a graveyard fog devouring the light. She remained motionless, calm, the pace of her breathing apparent for a time by the rise and fall of her chest, until eventually that too was gone. Then there was only the darkness, a pool of coal-black mist.
The priests around the ring began their part, echoing the words of the Grand Maul seated above them in his chair. He guided them in their quest for Red Fire. His mind, his power and experience, shaped the chant of the rest, each of them on their own willing High Priestess Maul into the place of the one they knew as Anvilwrath, yet guided also by the things Orli had explained.
The chanting went on for well beyond an hour. Altin was used to such things, but Orli became restless and her feet itched to move. She wanted to pull out her tablet and see if her father was okay, and Roberto, though she knew she’d never get a signal down here. She had no idea how far beneath the surface they were, but somehow she knew instinctively it was very far.
Something warm hit her then. Something wet on her lips. It came upon an explosive squishing sound, and as it struck her, she saw that Altin was recoiling from something sudden striking him as well. She wiped at her mouth and pulled away a bit of something soft and gray. She looked to Altin who had dark spots on his face and a long bit of the gray stuff sticking to his robes, which he picked off and studied for a moment with an arched eyebrow. His attention was pulled back to the hkalamate pool, however, as many of the priests had begun falling forward, tipping into the dark cloud like felled trees.
Both Altin and Orli glanced to the Grand Maul, seeing that he stared wide-eyed into the pool just as they did, his expression horrified.
They looked back into the pool and saw that the dark cloud was melting away, the mist receding as if down a drain opened by the cessation of the Grand Maul’s chant. Altin’s eyes strained for the sight of High Priestess Maul as the pit emptied. She had not sat up yet, nor made a sound, but soon he saw her bared breasts appear, a pair of pale islands that soon grew to include ribs, stomach and, slowly uncovered, the rest of her. Most of her was just as she had been, strong limbs, the taut body of a warrior priestess. But her head was gone. Or, at least, most of it was gone. There remained only a ruptured shell of skull, like the bottom half of a broken egg laying where her head had been, and the splattered evidence of where the rest of it had gone in the radial lines of wet darkness slung outward, tracing the explosive path of her demise.
Altin looked at the bit of gray substance in his hand and, suddenly mortified, flung it away. Orli looked sickened too, and wiped at where the bit of the Maul’s brain tissue had been upon her lips. She could still feel the sticky wetness there. She shuddered and turned to Altin, who was staring once again at the Grand Maul.
The Grand Maul stared back across the space at him and shook his head. “Anvilwrath does not wish to speak to us.”
There followed a long silence. More than a few looks of fear among the younger priests. Tribbey shushed Caulfin from something he started to say.
“Then it is too late,” muttered Klovis from her place beside Orli after those first few moments had passed. “We must prepare for the end. Judgment has come.”
“Fuck that,” Orli said. She turned to Altin, clutching his arm tightly with both hands. “Get me back up top. We know where it is. Maybe the director will listen now.”
Altin nodded. Whatever she had in mind, they had to try.
Chapter 37
Altin’s teleport spell brought him and Orli out of the hkalamate chamber far below the temple and placed them back at the spot at the top of the temple steps, near the first of the giant columns and with a view out over the southern half of the city. They’d been down in the ritual cavern for well over an hour, and in that hour, the number of fires burning
along the southern wall had grown considerably. There were too many plumes of smoke to count, and a large section of Crown City’s southern district was slowly turning black as fire consumed it, the ruin spreading like a disease whose malignancy the two observers could follow visually as it progressed. Still, horrid as it was, Altin supposed it could have been worse given how long they were down below. The defenders were doing what they could. Unfortunately, he also noticed that there were two new plumes of smoke to the west. That was not good news. If the west wall was breached, the stain of that disease so visible in the south would infect everything there as well, and likely straight away. Even with the help of the starships and bombers, they were still losing ground.
Orli was tapping the icons on her tablet as Altin surveyed the city. She uttered a few profanities, most of which ended with the director’s name.
“What is it?” Altin asked.
“I can’t get the director,” she said. “It’s either the magic or fucking Asad is blocking the relay.”
“Why would he block it?”
“I don’t know. It’s probably magic.”
“Can you get Asad directly?”
She was punching buttons and sliding images across the screen as he asked. A moment later she shook her head. “No. I’ll try my father.”
“Maybe he can get Asad?”
“If he answers, he can patch me into his ship, the Livermore. I hope he’s okay.”
Altin could see her hands shaking as she said it, and he put his arm around her. “I’m sure he’s all right. I fought with the man. He’s an incredible warrior, and clever. He’ll be fine.”
The colonel’s voice sounded from the tablet, and with a touch of her finger, Orli made his face appear, though it flickered and the sound crackled horribly. “Good,” she breathed. “You’re still alive.”
“So are you,” he replied, the relief apparent on his face. “Where are you?”
“We’re inside the city, at the Temple of Anvilwrath. Altin’s with me. We’re both fine. Where are you?”
“I’m with nineteen Marines and eleven of the Queen’s Seventh Cavalry, near the south wall. The demons opened up a section of it, and it’s all the Royal Army can do to hold the gap. We’re chasing demons through the streets when they get through, but it’s like drinking from a fire hose over here.”
“There’s more than one breach,” she said. “But Director Nakamura says he’s willing to send a hundred thousand mechs, just like you said you’d need, if we can figure out the Hostile problem.”
“Well then you better do it quick. I’ve lost almost half my team, and these guys on the horses are insane. They’re the only ones left of their whole regiment. You’ve got to give them credit for balls, but balls aren’t going to be enough forever.” His hand moved up and touched his ear for a moment, and his eyes darted to another section of his control panel. “Your pal Levi says ‘hello.’”
“Roberto? Is he there? Why is he there?” She sounded almost hysterical.
“Yeah, he’s here. He flew us into the city when the director ordered our people off the ground.”
“Off the ground? Why did he order you off the ground? He’s supposed to be reinforcing you guys, not pulling you out.”
“I don’t know. We got the order right before the starships started scraping the walls. It was a good call though, we were being overrun.”
“So why is Roberto with you? Does he even have a mech?”
“No. No suit. He’s running around on foot. For a guy who sits on his ass all day flying spaceships, he’s pretty handy in a firefight.”
Orli’s expression conveyed that she was absolutely appalled by the idea.
“Don’t worry; I’m keeping an eye on him.”
Orli shook her head, knowing that could easily not be enough. But what else could she say, especially since Roberto was obviously hearing at least half of the conversation right now.
“Listen, you have to hold on a little longer,” she said, forcing herself back on point. “We figured out where the Hostiles are coming from. It really isn’t Blue Fire. It’s another being like her; we’re calling it Red Fire for now. It’s a red supergiant in Cepheus, Cep 128a1.”
“So can we get some nukes to it and take it out?”
“We don’t even know if there’s a planet there.”
“I thought you said you found it?”
“Well, we think we found it.”
“How far out?”
“About a thousand light years.”
The colonel didn’t have to say anything. The turn of his mouth made his feelings clear—he knew as well as Orli did what that meant in terms of time. He put on his best believer’s face, though. “Well you better tell your boy Meade to get his ass moving.”
“Blue Fire!” Altin blurted, listening in but only getting half of what was being said. The way he said it suggested he’d had a revelation of some kind.
Orli and the colonel from his place on the tablet in Orli’s hands both looked at him. “What?” Orli asked.
Altin’s eyes were already closed, his thoughts at work making their appeal to Blue Fire. Are you there? Speaking to her was much like the way one walks in total darkness, hands out, steps coming tentatively, reaching through oblivion for what should, or might, be there.
Always here, came the reply.
Can you see this? He sent the images he had in his mind, the red stars from the images in Orli’s tablet, the supergiants, and he conveyed the image of the little red spot in Caulfin’s illusion. He included a reminder about what she herself had said, about the red star, or whatever it was, being male. Do you know this … do you know him?
No.
The abruptness of her reply, the totality of it, struck him with finality. There was nothing like curiosity or anything. Just, no. He frowned. He could hear Orli talking to her father on the tablet, her voice rising. He tried to push it away. Can you look for him? Can you find him like you found Altin Love? He thought it carefully, focusing on the question of it, conveying the sense of Orli dreaming, of her as she had been the first time Blue Fire found her while she toyed with the Liquefying Stone. He shaped the idea, but he sent with it the sense of seeking, of curiosity, he imagined himself poking around in tall grass, kneeling and looking under a bed. Look.
No find, she sent back. There came after that the image of Altin naked on the ledge in the center of Blue Fire’s world, the blue star of Blue Fire’s dead mate above him. A definite essence of maleness came with it, a concept she was learning from her human friends. She sent back the image of Altin looking in the grass and under the bed, this time with Blue Fire’s mate above him. He saw Orli’s face under the bed. Must find Blue Fire.
“Harpy spit,” Altin swore aloud. He tried to work through the riddle. He and Blue Fire’s mate, looking under the bed and finding Orli there. He just about swore again, but realized it might actually be perfectly clear. Are you saying that males must find females? That he has to find you?
Truth. She showed him an image of Prosperion surrounded by an endless expanse of pink light, a plain of it, or perhaps a vast unmoving sea. She put a sound in his mind, a note like a plucked cello string, a sound taken from his memories. The image pulsed and ripples moved across the pink expanse toward a planet that appeared in the path of the outbound rings. Orli had described seeing this, though they hadn’t had time to work out what it meant. They’d been in such a rush, he couldn’t be sure.
Blue Fire changed the image, borrowing again from Altin’s memory, this time the illusion that Caulfin had cast. She sounded another note, this time emulating Caulfin’s bell. Pink rings moved out from the image of Prosperion in the illusion to where Blue Fire was. Blue Fire see Orli Love world.
A gradual sense of dawning came upon him then, augmented by what Orli had surmised, that somehow Blue Fire had found Prosperion because its people, or its creatures, had been using magic. “It’s mana,” he said, once again speaking aloud by habit now. “You found us in the mana.
Or you found our world in it somehow.”
Truth.
So, can’t you find Red Fire in the mana? He must be using it too. His orbs are using mana all the time?
Not mine. No find. Again came nude Altin on the ledge with the blue star above him. Then he saw a pond, and across the surface of the pond blew a small cloud of dandelion seeds. A small version of Blue Fire floated in the water at the edge of the pond. The dandelion seeds blew into it. Find Blue Fire. She sent back the image of one of the red-hued Hostiles attacking Earth as she’d gathered from his mind. Find. That was followed by an image of the dark orbs he’d first encountered, the ones he deemed coconuts.
He scrunched up his face, fighting hard to understand. He became aware that Orli was no longer talking into her tablet. He opened his eyes. She’d put the tablet away, tucked back into the waistband of her trousers.
“Well?” Orli asked, clearly impatient and having been watching him for a while.
“I asked her to try to find Red Fire. She seems to be saying that she can’t. I think he has to find her. Something about his orbs and hers. Ripples in the mana and dandelion seeds. It’s giving me a headache. Maybe you need to talk to her in a dream. I don’t even know if I’m conveying the red sun idea properly.”
“Like there is any chance I can get to sleep,” she said. “My father patched me through to the director via the Livermore, and the director says he’s given the ready order for the mechs to redeploy to Prosperion. But nothing else has changed. The inbound orb count remains steady, so he’s holding off on giving the go-ahead. He’s not going to pull anyone off Earth defense until the Hostiles pull out. And frankly, I still think he thinks Her Majesty is bluffing somehow.”
