Blind Shrike

by Richard Kadrey

  And then it was over. No more men came over the dunes. Spyder and Lulu turned in slow circles, waiting for someone else to rush them from the dark, but no one came.

  “Spyder, stop spinning that thing,” said Shrike. He dropped the flails into the sand to stop them. Shrike turned once, her head up, listening. “If there are any left, they’ve run off to lick their wounds.”

  Spyder put his arms around Shrike and she held on to him. “A fighter, not a victim. Understand now?” she asked.

  “Yeah,” he said, but thought, “I killed a man tonight. Two, at least.” Spyder pushed Shrike away and puked into the sand.

  “Pussy,” said Lulu.

  THIRTY EIGHT

  Dead Eyes Talk

  “The horses are gone,” said Lulu.

  “All of them?” asked Shrike.

  “The ones that aren’t dead.”

  “Goddam,” said Spyder as Count Non wrapped his injured shoulder in gauze he pulled from the saddlebags. He pressed a poultice to Spyder’s wound and wrapped that, too.

  “What’s that?”

  “Herbs with Saint Cosmas’ dust,” said the Count. “The shoulder and your hand should be healed by morning.”

  “You didn’t even get scratched.”

  “Unlike some people, I try to avoid being stabbed.”

  “You got something against bleeding?”

  “Blood belongs on the inside, little brother.”

  “Duck and cover. Got it.”

  “This one’s eyes are gone,” said Primo. “And this one.”

  “This one, too,” said Lulu. “Shit they’re all cut up. Oh my god…”

  Spyder looked at Lulu. She was kneeling by the body of a dead tribesman, her hands over her mouth. The dead man’s robe lay open, revealing his chest and belly. They were scarred and stitched in the same haphazard manner that was becoming very familiar.

  “Are they cut, Spyder?” asked Shrike.

  “Sliced and diced, just the way the Black Clerks do it.”

  Lulu touched the face of the dead man in the sand. “Is that how I look?” She spoke in a child’s voice, like she was in shock. She pulled her jacket closed and crossed her arms, tucking her hands underneath. “They all that way?”

  “Yes,” said Primo. He was walking from body to body, moving their clothing with his foot, checking them for scars. Spyder could tell that he didn’t want to touch them. Going to where Lulu knelt, Spyder got her to her feet.

  “Come away from there,” Spyder said, and sat her by the fire.

  “Why would they come after us like that?” Lulu asked.

  “In our clans, there’s a saying about the Black Clerks,” said Primo. “’They watch over us through silent eyes.’”

  “What does that mean?”

  “It means that taking a part of someone’s body gives the Clerks some power over the remaining body,” said Shrike.

  “It’s still just static to me.”

  “I believe it means that the Black Clerks might not take eyes simply because they are foul and need to replenish their organs,” said Count Non. “Perhaps they are able to see where those eyes should be, watching through the empty sockets they once inhabited.”

  “The Clerks are in my head? They’re looking through my fucking eyes?” Lulu shouted. There was hysteria in her voice.

  “Is that right, Shrike?” asked Spyder.

  “It’s possible,” she said.

  “I saw the Clerks in Berenice. I thought it was just a coincidence,” Spyder said. “They must want the book, too. Or to spook us from it.”

  “I led those slugs right to us,” Lulu said. “The Black Clerks have seen everything we’re doing and know right where we are.” She stood and snatched up the shotgun. “Fuck that.”

  “What are you doing, Lulu?” Spyder said. He started over, but Lulu pointed the four-ten at him.

  “Stay put, Spyder. I’m ending this right now.” Lulu was walking backwards into the dark, keeping the gun pointed at the group. “Those bloodless motherfuckers think they can watch TV out of my head? I’m going off the air, like I should have done a long time ago.”

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” said Spyder.

  “Look at me!” Lulu yelled. “Look at what’s left of me! I’ve pretty much used up all my stupid for this lifetime. I’m done.” She ran into the dark.

  Spyder ran after her, pausing at the dune line in case she was waiting. He didn’t think that Lulu would want to shoot him, but she still might out of fear or surprise. He moved slowly down the base of the dunes, letting his eyes adjust to the dark. Finally, she saw a woman running. Spyder lit out after her.

  “Lulu!” Spyder yelled. “Lulu!”

  When he reached her, Lulu was on her knees in the sand, the four-ten wedged under her chin.

  “Stay the hell back, Spyder.”

  “Give me the gun.”

  “I didn’t want you to get hurt. And I didn’t mean for you to get involved in my shit. The Clerks are coming for you now, too. For all of us.”

  “They’re not coming for anyone. We’re going to get that magic book and get clean.”

  “Look at us, Spyder. Those people back there have a clue. We get loaded and hunt for girls. We can’t help them.”

  “Not dead, we can’t.”

  “We’ll mess everything up.”

  “That’s a possibility.”

  Lulu looked at Spyder. “I really love you, you know. You’re the best person I know. But I can’t have those things crawling around inside my skull.” Spyder heard Lulu pull back the hammer on the four-ten.

  “Before you do anything, I want you to listen to me, Lulu,” Spyder said in a calm and even voice. “You listening?”

  “I’m not putting the gun down.”

  “Fair enough. You hold on to it, if it makes you feel better.”

  “Okay.”

  “The Clerks took your eyes. We know that and are agreed on it, right?”

  “Yeah.”

  “Did they take your ears?”

  “No. I’ve still got them.”

  “Right. So all they can do is watch TV with the sound off. You following me?”

  “Not really.”

  “If the Clerks are spying on us through you eyes it’s because that’s all they can do. They can’t listen to us. They don’t have your ears. That means, all we have to do is keep you from seeing where we are and they’re blind as a bat.”

  “You think that’d work?” Lulu asked. She moved the gun from under her chin and scratched the side of her head with the barrel.

  “We just cover up your little eyeholes and the Clerks get to play Three Blind Mice ’til we’re home, drinking tequila and winking at college girls.”

  “Maybe,” she said.

  “If you’re nice, I’ll get Shrike to slip the blindfold on for you. You like a little bondage with your morning coffee, right?”

  Lulu seemed to think about it for a moment. “I’m not giving back the gun,” she said. “I’ve been useless and naked up ’til now. But I know how to use this.”

  “I’m sure the Count won’t mind. Come on over here.”

  Lulu got up and went to Spyder. He kissed her cheek and hugged her tight. “Don’t scare me like that again.”

  “I won’t,” she said and hugged Spyder back. “So, can Shrike really put my blindfold on? That sounds kind of hot.”

  Spyder slid his around across her shoulders and led Lulu back to camp.

  “Christ, you got a cigarette?” Lulu asked.

  “Nope. Don’t worry. We’re almost to Hell. Bet they have plenty of smokes down there.”

  THIRTY NINE

  Anthropology

  “We’re moving too slowly without the horses,” said Primo. “I’m afraid we won’t make it to the mountains in time.”

  “When will the moon reveal the entrance to Hell?” asked Shrike.

  “Tonight, I think. Perhaps tomorrow, too. After that, it will be invisible for a month.”

  “Show me w
here we are on the map.”

  Primo pulled the Braille map from his jacket and placed the fingertips of Shrike’s right hand on one set of raised dots. “We’re here,” he said. He moved he hand north to another set of raised dots. “We need to be here.”

  “If we push through, we can make the base of the mountains late tonight,” Shrike said. “But we’ll have to rest at mid-day.”

  “I’d rather not, ma’am.”

  “I know, but we all have injuries and no one’s had any sleep. I don’t want us limping and yawning into the underworld.”

  “You’re right, of course.”

  They’d been walking most of the night, since an hour or so after the attack. Food and water was weighing heavier on their backs with each step. Spyder had a length of the Count’s rope tied around his waist and this was tied to Lulu’s left wrist. She was blindfolded with a yellow scarf, like a Tibetan prayer flag, Shrike had taken from a boudoir conjured by her magic book. Lulu didn’t have much to say as they trudged through the sand. She never let the four-ten drop from resting on her shoulder, Spyder noted.

  “How you doing, Lulu?” Spyder asked.

  “Feel like I’m your rottweiler bitch you’re taking out for a whiz. Find me a fire hydrant so I can mark my territory.”

  “You’re lots sweeter than a rottweiler. Hell, you might be a Shih-Tzu. Maybe one of those little Teacup poodles old ladies like.”

  “It’s not wise to taunt a woman with that much firepower,” said Count Non. “That gun is enchanted and will never run out of shells.”

  “I have this demon-made knife Madame Cinders gave us. Is that some kind of demon blunderbuss?” asked Spyder.

  The Count sighed. “The way you people use words, it’s a wonder you understand each other at all. Every vaguely inhuman creature you find unpleasant or frightening or just strange is a ‘demon’ to you. And everything conjured or made by these creatures is ‘demonic.’”

  “Back in San Francisco, there was a fat fucker with a monster mouth right in the middle of his chest. He wanted to eat me. You telling me that wasn’t a demon?”

  “He was no more a demon than Primo. Primo is Gytrash. Simply another humanoid race. A different kind of human animal. A more interesting and durable species than you ordinary humans, and probably a bit scary to you First Sphere bumpkins.”

  “So, what was Mister Mouth?”

  “He sounds like a Bendith,” said Primo. “They’re a particularly ugly sort of troll and aren’t averse to human flesh.”

  “A Bendith or possibly a Nagumwasuck,” said Count Non. “You boring one-headed, two-eyed humans are scattered through all the Spheres. Take our Butcher Bird. Like you, she’s an ordinary human, but clearly she didn’t grow up in some First Sphere backwater. She’s lived with other intelligent races and understands the infinite varieties of life, the magical possibilities, that spring from the conjunction of different living species.”

  “I was right there with you, Count. Up until the bestiality stuff right at the end,” said Lulu.

  “Humans and animal entities have been mating and producing offspring since the world began, little sister. It’s still quite common in regions of the Second and Third Sphere.”

  “Okay, Shrike, Lulu and me are white trash, Primo is a Second Sphere Übermensch and you’re some incredibly old rich kid slumming from Upper Coolsville,” Spyder said. “What the hell is a demon?”

  “A fallen angel,” said Count Non. “Demons are from Hell. They serve Lucifer, command his armies, run his cities and, when called upon, torment the souls that have been consigned to the underworld. True demons travel throughout all the Spheres and while they can seduce and despoil almost any creature that catches their fancy, they can’t produce offspring. The demons that exist now are the same ones expelled from heaven long, long ago. Give or take a few.”

  “What happened to the demons that aren’t around anymore?”

  “The prophets tell us that a few managed to beg and cajole their way back into Heaven. Others are dead. Demons can be moody company and while a human exorcist can, for instance, expel them from a possessed body, they can’t kill them. Only god or another angel can kill an angel, fallen or otherwise.”

  “Or an angel’s weapon,” said Spyder, pulling Apollyon’s knife from his belt. “This was made by a demon to kill demons.”

  “The weapon is ready, but are you? You will have to get very close to use that. You’ve never even seen a true demon. Will you be able to walk up to your worst nightmare and stick that toothpick in its gut, little brother?”

  “The babe to my left is the killer. I’m just here to hump gear and look pretty.”

  “You’re doing a fine job,” said Shrike.

  “Thank you. Where’d you get all this Trivial Pursuit data, Countdown?”

  “I study life. It’s what my people do. We are infinitely curious about the forms that life takes, from insects to angels. We know them and treasure them all.”

  “You’re like an anthropologist or a something?”

  “Both really. That’s the best way of putting it.”

  “An anthropologist with a big, goddamed sword,” said Lulu.

  “‘God will put his angels in charge of you to protect you wherever you go. You will trample down lions and snakes, fierce lions and poisonous snakes,’” recited the Count. “Self-preservation is no vice. If a black widow spider tried to bite Charles Darwin, I doubt he would have had much guilt about crushing it under his boot. Loving life doesn’t mean being soft.”

  “Amen to that,” said Shrike.

  When the sun was almost directly overhead and the sky was unbearably bright, they rested in the belly of a ruined metal storage tank in a scattering of industrial ruins. The night and first part of the day had been rough. Now, they drank water and ate dried meat and what little bread hadn’t been lost in the fight the night before. Things buzzed gently in the ground beneath them. If he weren’t so tired, Spyder imagined that he might have found this alarming.

  Later, Shrike lay down beside Spyder. “Thousand fingers massage,” he said.

  “What?”

  “The buzzing downstairs. It doesn’t feel so bad.”

  “Mmm,” Shrike said and was asleep against him. Spyder closed his eyes and in a few moments, he, too, was asleep.

  Spyder was in a scrapyard like the lot behind Santos Raye and Iggy Atkinson’s chop shop, only this scrapyard stretched to the horizon in all directions. Piles of dead cars burned in the distance, sending up gushers of flame and black smoke that boiled together like entwined snakes in the sky. Spyder looked down at the ground. It was wet and bones protruded from the red soil. The burning cars threw his shadow, long and distorted, behind him. When he looked again, Spyder saw his younger self there. He wasn’t surprised. The kid had always been just a step or two behind him. He looked worse than ever. His clothes hung from him in rags as if he’d been in a terrible accident. His eyes were gone and his body looked like something dragged off an autopsy table. Spyder’s shadow self smiled. He was still holding the punch dagger he’d had in Berenice. The blade was still slick with Spyder’s blood.

  Spyder knew what was coming. He dragged a heavy femur out of the wet ground so that he could hit the kid when he made his move.

  Something came clattering toward Spyder across the scrapyard. A filthy old man with a bit in his teeth was pulling a flaming chariot. The chariot’s rider wore a golden war helmet with a mesh face shield. He pulled that off and Spyder saw that the chariot driver had the same face as the old man with the bit in his mouth. The rider then pulled that face off to reveal a lean, fox-like face that Spyder didn’t recognize. “How many masks are we wearing today?” shouted the rider and he pulled at the face of the old man dragging the chariot. The old man’s skin came off his skull, a limp rag, exposing muscle, bone and mucous. Spyder was still considering this vision when he was staggered by a white hot blow to the back. The punch dagger, ruby red with blood and glittering like Christmas lights, was sticki
ng out of his chest. It had been pushed clean through him, back to front. He felt weak, but the shock to his body was so great that the wound didn’t even hurt.

  Shrike screamed and startled Spyder awake. Before he could move, Shrike was up and out of the tank, charging across the desert with her sword drawn. Spyder ran after her, and finally caught her by a collapsed brass tower thirty yards away. Shrike shook and cried, but her body was tense, ready to spring, ready to kill something.

  “Were you dreaming?” Spyder asked

  “Yes. My father was in Hell being tortured by the bastard, Xero Abrasax.”

  “Was he pulling a chariot?”

  “Yes,” said Shrike. “How did you know?”

  “I think I might have had part of your dream.”

  Shrike breathed deeply. “We’re close to Hell. It can creep into your dreams. That’s good. It means it was just a nightmare and not an omen.”

  “Yeah. We just dreamed what scares us the most.”

  “But why did you dream about my father?”

  “I don’t know. I know I’m not going to sleep again, that’s for sure.”

  “Me neither.”

  “Listen, let’s just go till we reach the mountains. No more bullshit. No more pit stops. We wait for it to cool off and we walk till we drop.”

  “You’re right.”

  Shrike nodded and they walked back to the tank. The others were all up, looking pale and agitated, as if they, too, had been awakened by disturbing dreams. There wouldn’t be any arguments about pushing straight on through to the Kaslans.

  FORTY

  The Possibility of Floating

  “Have you thought about what you’re going to do, little brother?”

  “When?”

  “When we reach the gates of Hell.”

  “Not much, no.”

  “Maybe you should. I’ve listened to you talk about the place and, while I admire your scholarship, I wonder if it’s enough.”

  It was just after sundown and the sky along the horizon was the color of rust and bruises. Spyder was spinning the flails of the Hornet over his head, speeding and slowing the serrated metal as they walked. Count Non was beside him. Lulu and Shrike walked ahead, led by Primo. Lulu said something that made Shrike laugh.