by Ken Scholes
She nodded slowly. Then Petronus went to the bow of the lifeboat and stood, stretching his hands to the sky. The woman jumped when he called for the kin-dragon, but she didn’t flinch when it descended suddenly to absorb Petronus. And she didn’t make a sound as Petronus then took her into himself and tucked her away.
Then Petronus set out to the north and built speed, his nose and eyes and ears and skin all absorbing the vast sensory cornucopia of his homeworld for what he suspected was both the first and last time.
Chapter
23
Marta
Muffled voices rose in heated discussion as Marta sat with Isaak in the dim room. The metal man had said nothing during their flight, spending those hours largely in his version of sleep. And when they’d disembarked, an old man had met them with a dark look upon his face. He was flanked by other men—these armed with long rods made of wood or something like it. And more surprising, there were metal men with them. Three of them, dark and old and yet like Isaak.
Only nothing like him at all. These didn’t speak. They didn’t limp. They stared through empty jewellike eyes and did not move until told to.
There was also a woman with them in dressed in robes that indicated some kind of high office. She and Neb had spoken first and then had left together with Ire Li Tam and most of the soldiers.
Then the old man who’d been waiting for them near a plain wooden chair escorted them—followed by the other metal men—into the same low building and ultimately to this back room, where he pointed to a stool. “You can wait here with it if you prefer that to waiting with the others.”
They’d waited for an hour when the voices went suddenly quiet. The door opened and the woman stood in it with Neb and Ire behind her. “I’m so sorry for the wait,” she said to Marta. Then she looked to Isaak. “You pose us quite a quandary, Mechoservitor Three.”
“His name,” Marta said, “is Isaak.”
“Yes,” she said. “But our faith and our system of government doesn’t allow for our machines to have names or to function at all in the way that Isaak functions.” Her voice was warm, but her eyes were cold. “And we certainly do not use them as weapons.”
“It is unfortunately what we were made for, Administrator Gras.”
Her eyebrow arched now at his words. “So you know who I am.”
Isaak nodded. “My aether and subaether connections were augmented in some way by my contact through the dreamstone. I have full access to New Espiran communication and archives. I am also able to communicate broadly with far more range than my system should permit.”
She sighed and looked over her shoulder. “I feared that.”
“If you are concerned about my presence in New Espira, I can assure you I only wish to see Lady Tam and Lord Jakob home.”
“It is more than that, Isaak.” Marta noted the woman’s discomfort using the name. “You’ve been asked for. What do you do when the object of your faith asks something of you that violates the rules of that faith?” She sighed again and looked at him. “Let’s go, then.”
The other metal men stayed in their alcoves, and Marta followed as Isaak limped out. They went to another room, where they found an open hatch just like the others Marta had seen in the Beneath Places she’d left behind in the Named Lands and more men in uniform waiting along with the old man who had first met them.
They sent Isaak down the metal rungs first and she followed after. When Administrator Gras and the old man reached the bottom, they led them down a corridor until they reached a room with a silver pool and a tree. The old man looked at Isaak with curiosity as he plucked a piece of fruit and passed it to Marta. “Get a good bite,” he said, “and swallow it down.”
Marta looked around. “What are we doing here?”
But he had already turned to Isaak. “Have you utilized lightway travel before?”
Isaak shook his head. “I have not attempted to. My companions have not been able to do so.”
“Translation commencing,” the old man said into a stone he held. Then he looked at Marta. “I’m sorry,” he said. “Someone will explain later.”
The juice was running down her chin, the meat of the fruit still sweet in her mouth, when he pushed her into the pool and everything spun away in blue-green light.
She came up gasping and choking and using words her father would’ve chastised her over. The room had spun away, and she was in a grove now standing up to her waist in the same silver fluid that she had seen disintegrate Gray Guard during their escape from Orius and his men.
Neb was beside her, and then Isaak was on her other side—and as they lifted her, she found she could stand upon the surface by a combined act of faith and will and a little help. She walked across the pond, and once she was on solid ground, she turned in time to see Ire and Administrator Gras both appear. The administrator lifted Ire up by the hand, and the two of them approached.
Marta became aware of the others waiting—two women and two children. One of the women had long hair the color of a sunset, and she was certain it had to be Lady Tam, Queen of the Ninefold Forest. Which made the little boy Lord Jakob, the Child of Promise. She had no idea who the other woman was, but the little girl, she suspected, must be the Crimson Empress.
Neb and Isaak were standing with Lady Tam. Isaak was quiet, but Neb was talking excitedly.
Welcome to the Firsthome Forest. Come closer, for time is of the essence.
The voice was deep and rich and warm and familiar and old. Marta had heard it before, she was certain, somewhere in unremembered dreams. It filled her head and her heart both, and then she noticed the tree.
It was nearly as vast as the one in her dream, but it rose up above a forest like nothing she’d ever seen, and the meadow around it was pocked with ponds and brooks like the one she now stood beside. And there were roots like massive bones exposed here and there around it, leading up to it. The tree might’ve been white and shining once, full of seed that awaited some wind to carry it like the one in the dream. But now it was old and sick and mottled with gray.
And speaking.
The chuckle was warm as well. Yes.
Marta took a step forward and felt Neb’s hand upon her shoulder. “This is Marta,” he said. “This is Lady Jin Li Tam of the Ninefold Forest Houses and Lord Jakob, Rudolfo’s heir. Marta is…” Neb looked at her and tried to find the right word. “Marta is a friend of Isaak’s. She was the first to find him after his regeneration. She traveled with Winters and Charles for a time.”
Lady Tam inclined her head and extended her hand from where she towered over her. “Well-met, Marta. Winters is a dear friend of mine. I’m glad Isaak has had you keeping an eye on him.”
Marta’s tone was matter-of-fact. “He needs it.”
The grim look in her eye told Marta that the woman understood that. “This is Lady Chandra, mother of Amara Y’Zir, formerly the Crimson Empress.”
“We really do not have much time,” Administrator Gras said. She was already walking toward the tree. Marta looked around and realized that they were less alone than she’d thought. Men in uniforms that reflected back the colors of the forest moved about between trees, and in the distance she saw what looked like large horseless wagons. There were also tents of the same material.
“What is happening here?” she asked as the others followed the administrator.
“We are under attack. We have some time—we were able to shunt the lightway to this section of the crèche—but we do not have much.” She paused to the side of the root they now walked upon and motioned them ahead of her. “She wishes to speak with Isaak and Neb.”
And you, Child. You are Isaak’s heart, though he doesn’t know it, and you will need my blessing in the days to come.
The administrator frowned, and Marta noted it. So she hears it, too. And she didn’t approve. She tried to force her focus into that voice and tipped her thoughts in that direction. Who are you?
Come and see, Child.
They reache
d the tree and walked around it until they reached a patch that Marta first though was discoloration. But when it twisted open into a toothless smile, she saw the mouth and stifled a gasp. “Hello, Marta. Use your voice. Let me use my ears.”
Farther up the tree, an eye opened and rolled its pupil in her direction.
Marta watched as Isaak leaned toward a flap she recognized now as an ear. His voice was low, though Marta heard it. “I’ve come to bargain with you, Grandmother,” he said.
“Then come and bargain with me. But bring your heart with you, for you will need it.”
Farther away still, a pair of branches unfolded and unfolded until she saw rudimentary arms and fingers. They motioned for them to come closer, and Isaak limped toward it. Marta went behind him, her eyes on the beckoning hands.
The tree was opening now, a red light spilling out of it, and Isaak paused. “You cannot come with me,” he said.
“She invited me,” Marta said. “Did you not know that I am your heart?”
Isaak cocked his head for a moment, and his eyes dimmed and brightened. Then, without a word, he slipped into the tree and Marta followed after.
The walls within were red flesh that smelled sweet in the hot air. Thick purple veins pulsed through the Grandmother’s flesh, and a bloody light from a chamber ahead filled the narrow corridor, beating in time with the fluid in the veins. Marta recognized it as the rhythm of a massive, pumping heart.
Now the voice was stronger but only filled her ears, not her head. “Bring your heart to my heart, Isaak.”
Isaak hesitated. “I … do not wish to,” he finally said. “I believe it is unsafe for the human to be here with me, Grandmother.”
The laugher was music. “She is not safe anywhere, Isaak, especially here. But I do not think that is your true motive. I think you mean that you do not wish her to bear witness to your bargain.” Now she paused. “Ah,” she said. “Unsafe because of the harm it will do her.”
Isaak said nothing and Marta turned to him. “What does she mean?”
“Enough,” Grandmother said. “I’ll not have you bickering in the foyer. Bring your heart to my heart, Isaak.”
He started moving again, and it seemed to Marta that his limp was more pronounced than ever, his shoulders slouching with the weight of this moment.
The corridor spilled into a small round chamber open around a thick red nodule that beat in time to the light it shed. It was supported below and above by a thick purple vein.
This is the tree’s heart. Marta could barely comprehend the idea of a tree having a heart. Or talking. Or inviting them inside for a chat.
“This is where bargains are made,” the Grandmother said. “What is yours?”
“Your Codex requires that I be reset and repurposed according to the Terms and Conditions of Frederico’s Bargain.”
“Not my Codex,” Grandmother said. “But the New Espirans’, yes.”
“I wish you to allow that to happen.”
“I am not in any position to prevent it from happening,” Grandmother said. “And soon, I’ll be in no position to do anything if the Daughter of D’Anjite and Daughter of Salome have their way.”
Marta felt her eyebrows go up. “What Codex? What does she mean?”
Grandmother chuckled. “He means that Frederico’s children are required by his instructions to erase the human components of Isaak’s system, delete or archive all data, and restrict his movement on the lightways and his access to the aether and subaether. Of course, the Codex also requires nonintervention and working in secret—yet you are both here with me now.” Her voice lowered. “But what are you asking for, Isaak? You want me to ask the administrator to do that which she wanted to do in the first place—that which I prevented by inviting you here?”
He nodded, and Marta’s mouth fell open as she continued. “Where is the mutuality and consideration required by contract, Isaak? Are you going to join the New Espirans and fight the invaders? Or are you going to give me the Cacophonic Deaths that I might use it to prevent my death?”
He said nothing and hung his head.
“I am already dying, Isaak. I will be dead within the century, and with my passing, this crèche will have served its purpose and its resources will be repurposed along with whatever is left of my sap.”
The reality of her was dawning on Marta along with what he was asking of her, and she turned on Isaak. “What are you doing, Isaak?”
But she knew what he was doing. He would never be used as a weapon again because he would no longer be Isaak. He would be like the mechoservitors in New Espira, used as tools and machines without names or robes.
“You come with a one-sided bargain, Isaak, and I will instead offer you a blessing.”
More branches unfolded at the top of the chamber, but these were moist and fleshy and they draped down to rest upon their foreheads. “I will not give you what you ask for, but I will give you what you need.… Does this sound familiar to you, Isaak?”
He nodded. “It is what Pope Petronus told Lord Rudolfo when he asked for a new Pope to be named at the conference where Sethbert was tried.”
“Yes. The same holds true of your bargain with me. And so I offer this blessing. Both to you and to your heart.”
It was a whisper of discord in a dark cold place and a nearly extinguished light, and then it became melodic. And then harmonic. A song, or at least the first few notes of one.
He showed you this, yes? Rushing light and numbers and symbols and more light.
“Yes,” Isaak said. “He deactivated it.”
Look closer, Grandmother said. Listen.
One note. And then one more to harmonize with it. There is a song that was lost, Grandmother whispered. And then it was found only to be twisted away from its purpose. Your blessing and your bargain is to see the song back to its proper form and find your choir to sing it.
Now it was colder and darker, and the discordant note was back. Only this time it was the hum of many voices—metal voices—whispering beneath the ice far, far to the north beyond the Dragon’s Spine, though Marta didn’t understand how she knew this. I hear them in my sleep but cannot find them. Find them, Isaak, and heal the world with your new song, and it will heal you as well.
The hands lifted away. “Bear witness to this, Child.”
“I do,” she said.
“I am not sufficient for this work,” Isaak said.
“That is not the truth,” Grandmother said with another chuckle. Then she clucked a tongue that Marta couldn’t see. “Ask your heart to tell you the truth.”
“I am powered by a—”
Marta grabbed his hand and interrupted him. “She means me, Isaak.” She didn’t wait for him to answer. “And you are sufficient if it is a work you choose. You do not need to be repurposed. I don’t know how I feel about traveling the world in search of a song and some mysterious choir, but I do know that I won’t go anywhere without you and will go anywhere with you. You are my home. And I am your heart.” She stared over at the tree’s beating heart. “Now swear to me by your own heart, Grandmother, that he is free to make his own choices in accordance with the first and second gifts given?”
Her laughter was warm and full now and it made her flesh quiver. “Oh, Child, you are a brave heart, you are. Certainly love and choice prevail.”
Marta smiled at the compliment and then lost her footing as the tree suddenly shook.
“And I’m afraid,” Grandmother said, “that our time is up and our uninvited guests have arrived.”
Marta’s smile faded quickly as she glanced at Isaak. It meant he would be leaving soon. He would go out and he would fight, bargain or not, even if the Grandmother was already dying. He would be doing it to save the children. And the others.
And me, she realized.
The realization sparked a sudden panic within, and by instinct she started after him barely comprehending just what his current path might cost.
Because, Marta thought, he is my heart a
s well as my home.
And as Isaak moved down the corridor and Grandmother’s branches curled around her, holding her back as she screamed, Marta was reminded that homes could be lost and hearts could be broken.
Neb
It started with the distant warble of an alarm and the waving of trees on the far side of the forest. Neb watched soldiers vanish as they activated the devices that functioned as their equivalent of scout magicks. The reflective nature of their uniforms made them difficult to spot once they were within the shade of the forest, but now they were practically invisible.
Of course, even with their thorn rifles and advanced equipment, Neb knew they couldn’t stand against Amylé. And if Ria had joined her …
He suspected strongly that alone, he would not last long. He withdrew the crescent. “Petronus?”
Of course, he’d heard nothing from the old man. The administrator had put him in touch with Ambassador Thrall briefly before they arrived to the tree, and she’d told him about the kin-dragons. Hopefully it meant Petronus was on his way. The two of them together—with Isaak—made their odds far better. But she has the axe.
And she means to use it on me, Son of Whym.
Her voice in his mind felt like the best of his memories as a child in the Great Library of the Androfrancine Order. Dim-lit aisles of books, the whispering of steam releasing from the library’s mechoservitor, the smell of ancient paper—all flooded him as she spoke. She was the distant memory of home.
I will stop her, Grandmother. But as he said it, he knew it was a fervent hope and not a sense of confidence that drove his words. He’d yet to best her when they were one-on-one, and now she brought help. And early reports since their arrival in the translation site were that Ria was every bit as unstoppable as Amylé in their advance upon the Firsthome Forest.
Neb looked at Jin Li Tam. She held Jakob with one arm while her other hand rested near a knife hilt that wasn’t there. “You should all wait inside Grandmother with Marta,” he said.
The waving of trees stopped as two figures emerged from the forest, moving fast and tossing invisible soldiers aside as they advanced into the meadow.
