City of Fire (City Trilogy (Mass Market))

by Yep, Laurence

  Finally, they reached the city itself. Pink buildings of two or three stories lined the spacious boulevards. The shops and apartments all stared with empty windows as they passed.

  The streets had once been lined with palm trees some forty feet high, but they were being cut down by more small squat men with axes, while others were already trimming and then lashing fallen logs together.

  Ahead of them lay a park with spacious lawns and fountains with borders of flowers and trees; past that was a beach of black sand and blue ocean. Bayang could only guess at the pain and suffering that it had cost the Menehune to create that lovely vision.

  “Turn left,” Eleu instructed, and Bayang wheeled onto a broad avenue that led toward the tip of the western half. Directly across the harbor, the volcano seemed to watch them with fiery eyes.

  The street itself ended in a circular park where a mansion stood. It was a tall, stately building with marble columns rising from a porch. Most of the windows had been shattered, and there were smudge marks on some of the sills. The double doors hung from the hinges in pieces, as if they had been battered down.

  In front of it stood a giant bronze statue of Roland—which a team of Menehune were industriously sawing off its base. More teams, ready to pull it down, waited by ropes that had been hung about its neck. Scattered around were what Scirye thought were colored sacks until she realized they were humans and owl folk trussed up and gagged, also waiting for Pele’s justice. They wriggled on the pavement like colored worms. Broken guns lay like firewood all around.

  The Menehune froze when gunfire sounded from within the mansion.

  Instantly, the Menehune picked up the shovels and pickaxes that had been neatly stacked together. In the wink of an eye, they disappeared up the steps and into the mansion.

  “You’re so quick. I can see how you beat the guards,” Bayang complimented Eleu.

  Their guide sprang from her back, landing neatly on a captive. “We’re not as quick as a bullet, but we’re quicker than the eye of the person pulling the trigger. What you can’t track, you can’t shoot.”

  As Eleu walked forward, he tugged a sledgehammer from his belt. The shaft had been cut down for him to handle. Though the iron head was huge and heavy, he hefted it as if it were only cardboard to point at the mansion. “Pele is in there.”

  “Can you—?” Scirye began when a tommy gun poked its barrel out of an upper window, spraying bullets at the paving slabs. Sharp-edged chips showered from the spot where Eleu had been. Even as she began to duck, she saw the little man already up the steps and rushing through the door. The next moment there was a cry from inside.

  Bayang sharpened her claws upon the slab. “Well,” Bayang said, “shall we help the goddess dispense her justice?”

  “I think she’s doing just fine without us,” Koko said. “Maybe we should hang back. You know, be the bench for the team on the floor.”

  “Off,” Leech said, shoving his friend over the side. “We’ve got an appointment to keep.”

  Scirye

  Bayang led the way up the granite steps and through the broken doors. The smell of gunsmoke was thick, but not so heavy that they couldn’t also smell the stink from the erupting volcano. Scirye had accompanied her mother to mansions on diplomatic functions before this so she had seen quality before. Roland had spared no expense when building his home.

  The floor of the foyer featured intricate marquetry designs and the walls were paneled with mahogany polished to a deep, reddish brown. It must have been impressive before all the bullet holes pockmarked everything.

  An antique grandfather clock lay on its side, chairs had been reduced to kindling, and several man-high vases had been shattered like eggs. About a dozen humans and owl folk lay tied up with a skirted Menehune standing guard over them with an axe.

  Eleu must have passed the word that they were coming because the guard merely pointed his axe up a grand staircase. From above, they could hear shouts and thumps and the occasional gunshot.

  Scirye had put on her gauntlet and was carrying Kles on her wrist. “Scout ahead,” she whispered, and launched the griffin into the air.

  With gentle beats of his wings, he darted to the top of the stairs where he hovered, keeping an eye out for ambushes while Scirye and the others cautiously climbed the carpeted steps, their feet sinking into the thick red plush fabric. The gilt banister was broken in several places and they had to skirt around several holes. At the top had been a barricade of tables and chairs but it had all been smashed in the Menehunes’ anger.

  They walked down the central hallway. The doors had been shattered in the rooms on either side, revealing broken beds, tables, statues, paintings, and cabinets. The little men’s fury was as powerful and destructive as a hurricane. The only decorations left were the plaster medallions on the otherwise smooth ceilings.

  Koko’s eyes darted everywhere for something of value. Finally, he put his paws on his wide hips. “Geez,” he said in exasperation, “all this stuff is worthless now.”

  “You try being whipped,” Leech snapped, “and then see how patient you’ll be.”

  “No thanks,” Koko said, and then a sly expression crossed his face. “You know, maybe one of us should check out the kitchen.”

  Leech knew his friend too well and grabbed Koko’s foreleg before he could leave. “You mean you want to check out the silverware.”

  Koko shrugged. “Well, it’s not like Roland’s going to need it anymore.”

  “We’re not here to loot,” Leech said, dragging his friend along.

  “Says you,” Koko said sullenly.

  Halfway down the hallway a doorway opened onto the grand ballroom. A massive chandelier had fallen so that hundreds of shards glittered like gems across the floor. About twenty guards were being tied up by Menehune. A dozen more of the little men were methodically smashing the giant mirrors that covered one wall.

  “Don’t they know that’s bad luck?” Koko murmured.

  “Bad luck for Roland, you mean,” Kles said. “If they have their way, they’ll probably turn this mansion into a hill of rubble.”

  Koko shot a worried look below. “All the more reason to get to the kitchen. Ow! I’m coming, I’m coming,” he added as Leech pulled him along.

  When they reached the rooms at the end of the hallway, they found Eleu supervising squads of Menehune. They had gone beyond vandalizing the contents and were zipping about and destroying the rooms, beginning with the mansion’s walls.

  Eleu recognized them and swung his hammer to point, smashing a small table in the motion. “The Lady is in there,” he said, indicating a room across the way.

  “Kles,” Scirye called, holding up her gauntlet, and her griffin, who had been scouting overhead, landed on her wrist. Then they crossed the hallway, pausing on the threshold. The room was huge, almost a quarter the size of the grand ballroom, with fabulous views of the ocean. The bed and furnishings were heavy, and the expensive antiques and molding were even more ornate than the other rooms. The only thing that marred the perfection of the room were the rows of black sprinklers that marched across the ceiling.

  There were about a dozen Menehune inside but instead of zipping around at their usual frenetic pace, they were moving about with their faces pressed against the walls and floor like bloodhounds.

  Pele had taken on her human form and was sitting on a huge bed in the center, with her knees crossed and a foot swinging impatiently. “Ah, there you are. It took you long enough.” She grinned when she saw them and beckoned them inside. “Come in, come in.”

  “There’s something odd about this room,” Bayang muttered as she decreased her size to fit through the doorway.

  “What? You mean every bedroom doesn’t come equipped with a goddess?” Koko joked.

  Scirye marched straight toward the goddess and asked the question that had been burning in her mind as hot as the lava of the crater. “Why did you desert us?”

  Kles pinched her arm to remind her to mind her
manners and Scirye added hurriedly, “Lady.”

  Pele folded her hands on top of her knee. “You didn’t need my help. You got here on your own, right?”

  “No thanks to you,” Koko murmured.

  Pele lifted her head like a cobra getting ready to strike. “What was that, kupua?”

  Koko slipped hastily behind Leech. “No banks for you,” he lied frantically. “There ain’t a place where we were going to cash a check. I was going to make a donation to your favorite charity.”

  “But where was your honor?” Scirye didn’t want to believe that the goddess could be so calculating. “Did you just bring us along to be a distraction?”

  A concerned Kles began hopping from one foot to another on top of her wrist. “For Nanaia’s sake,” he hissed, “be quiet.”

  The goddess’s eyes bore into Scirye until the girl felt the room drop away and all that was left was her reflection in the goddess’s pupils. Then Scirye was plunging down into those eyes themselves as if into a warm lake, and the goddess’s whisper was like a breeze inside her head. “Nanaia could have picked any hero, but she put her mark on you. And you’ve just proved that she made a good choice.”

  Then the goddess blinked and Scirye was back in the room, feeling a little scared and overwhelmed. She shook her head in disbelief. “I didn’t do much by myself. We did it together.” She motioned to her companions.

  The goddess clapped her hands together in approval. “A hero has to be smart, too, and choose the right friends to help her on her quest.”

  Kles spoke in a low, urgent voice to his mistress. “From what little I know, it’s not like Pele to explain her actions. I suspect that she’s being very patient with you.”

  There was no keeping secrets from the goddess. “You listen to the chick-chick, smart girl,” she agreed. “I’ve taught you a bitty-bit right now because you have the mark. You can do more than you think.”

  Still dissatisfied, Scirye scratched her shoulder. “You keep talking about how I’m special. But I’m just ordinary. I don’t even have magical gadgets like Leech.”

  Pele pointed her index finger at Scirye and emphasized each word with a tap against the girl’s forehead. “So you don’t have magic toys. Maybe your magic’s all up here, eh?”

  Scirye stepped back, rubbing the spot, which felt hot from Pele’s touch. “If I’m so smart, how come Roland keeps getting away?”

  Pele’s nostrils widened as she sniffed the air. “Patience. We saw him go in here. We’ll find him.”

  Bayang inspected her surroundings carefully. “There must be a hidden safe room.”

  Pele nodded her agreement. “This is the one part of the mansion that my friends didn’t build.”

  “Because Roland didn’t want you to know about it,” Bayang said, joining her friends.

  Pele pointed to the little men inspecting the room. “They’ll find the door.”

  Koko, though, still had looting on his mind rather than revenge. Waddling over to the bed, he pulled his plump body up on top of the coverlet and headed straight toward one of the gilt eagles decorating the teak headboard. “I wonder if it’s really gold,” he mused, and pulled at it. Suddenly gears began to grind in the wall behind the bed.

  “It’s not my fault,” he shouted as he plopped back on to the floor.

  Pele got to her feet as the bed began to swing up so that the foot of the bed rose into the air, revealing a flight of stairs. At the bottom was a steel door as solid as a bank vault’s.

  “Ha!” Pele cried. “Got you!” Her voice was deep and resonant, like footsteps echoing in a cave.

  Suddenly her shape began to shimmer, and when it solidified, she was no longer the tiny old lady but a woman eight feet high, towering over everyone. Her hair had deepened from gray to black that drifted about like smoky vapor. Within the floating strands tiny red and yellow stars sparkled. Her high cheekbones gave her a proud and haughty look but her eyes twinkled with mischief. Her tan skin glowed with a soft iridescence like pearls before a fire. Scirye thought that she had never seen anyone so lovely, or so dangerous.

  Bayang threw up a warning paw. “No, wait,” she said. “I finally figured out what’s been bothering me—this is the only room with sprinklers.”

  The warning came too late as a lance of flame shot from Pele’s hands and splashed across the door.

  Then, from up above, Scirye heard an ominous click. The next moment water began to shower down like miniature waterfalls, drenching them all.

  Pele staggered and would have fallen if Scirye and Leech hadn’t caught her. “Water,” she panted, “makes me weak.”

  “Get her out of here,” Bayang ordered, but too late. A sheet of steel slammed down from the doorway. Etched across its face were runes and mystic signs. When a Menehune struck it with his hammer, there was a flash of blue light. With a cry, he leaped back. A Menehune aimed a crushing blow at the nearest wall with the same stunning effect.

  “There are wards on this room,” Bayang said. “They were set to activate when the sprinklers went off.”

  Grabbing a hammer from a Menehune, Koko scrambled up Bayang’s back. “Okay, the door’s not going to work. So it’s out through the penthouse.”

  “Hey!” the dragon complained as he perched on top of her head like a furry hat.

  “You’re the nearest thing we got to a ladder,” Koko said, and swung as hard as he could at the ceiling. Blue light exploded from the hammer head and over him.

  “Argh,” he cried in pain, and would have toppled backward if Bayang hadn’t caught him in her forepaws. His dropped hammer would have hit her hind paw if she hadn’t pulled it back in time. Instead of smashing Bayang, it bounced off the wet boards with blue light shining along its bulky surface until its owner reclaimed it.

  “Koko, you okay?” Leech asked, worried.

  Koko opened one eye groggily. “Oog. Now I know how the electric chair feels. I don’t recommend it.”

  The door at the bottom of the stairs swung open silently on its well-oiled hinges. Badik appeared in his dragon form, though he had shrunk down to the size of a human. The sprinklers had turned the staircase into a waterfall, and with the help of a cane Roland slogged up the steps behind him. He was in a raincoat and hat, down which the water dripped. On his left hand was the Jade Lady’s ring.

  “It’s no use trying to break out,” Roland announced when he reached the head of the stairs. “I had my wizards place powerful charms on this room.”

  Then he noticed the children, badger, and dragon beside Pele. “Ah, how delightful. You brought an entourage, goddess.” He pressed the jeweled head of his cane against his lips. “Oops. Pardon me. Could they be your menagerie instead?”

  Despite the dripping water, Badik swelled up his chest and unfurled his wings as if he were trying to appear even more imposing. “I am Badik of the Fire Rings,” he called in formal challenge, “where the volcanoes are as many as the scales of my skin. Who are you, dragon?”

  “I am Bayang,” Bayang announced, “of the Moonglow, where the waters shine brighter than the moon.” Her home had been named after the luminescent plankton that made the sea glow at night.

  Badik’s eyes narrowed. “You curs have been hounding me for centuries, but there’ll soon be one less of you. And the world will be a far better place for it.”

  With a growl, Bayang crouched, getting ready to spring. However, Pele held up a hand. “Wait! He’s mine!”

  Twirling his cane, Roland sauntered the few steps over toward Pele while Badik walked by his side. “I knew you were a sporting goddess.”

  “I don’t need fire, just my bare hands,” Pele growled, shrugging off the children. The wet strands of her hair hung like dank strings, and she swayed slightly on her feet.

  “My associate might have something to say about that,” Roland said, using the cane to indicate Badik. “And do you really have time for a wrestling match? You know as well as I do how unstable this island is”—he pretended to admire the cane’s j
eweled top—”don’t you, goddess?”

  Pele raised her hands. “Of course I do. If you hadn’t been holding my friends hostage, I would have sent this place to the bottom of the sea a long time ago.”

  “Well, allow me to help,” Roland said, and swung his cane against the wooden frame of the upturned bed. The jewel at the top exploded in a yellow and red fireball.

  “There,” Roland said with satisfaction, “that should send my home tumbling back to the sea floor. Satisfied?”

  The next instant, the windows rattled as the volcano across the harbor thundered. Through the glass panes, they could see flames shoot upward from the crater, rising like a fiery tower.

  Pele smiled when she saw the spectacle. “Fool! Even at this distance, that fire will make me stronger.”

  Roland’s hand shot out and seized the pendant of her necklace. At the same time, Badik grabbed the rich man by his waist and then bounded backward toward the staircase with Roland in his arms. The necklace’s cord snapped, and as Badik and Roland disappeared down the staircase, they left a trail of puka shells behind them.

  For a moment, though, Scirye glimpsed the trailing ends of the necklace’s broken cord and thought it seemed to sparkle with a life all of its own.

  As Roland stepped back inside his safe room, he tipped his hat. “But not before this place tumbles back to the sea floor. And you along with it. Adieu, goddess.”

  Shocked, Pele tried to send fire at him, but managed only some sparks that disappeared in puffs of steam from the cascading sprinkler water.

  “Get that back!” the goddess ordered the Menehune.

  Even as the little men sprang down the staircase, the door slammed shut again. A Menehune struck at the door as soon as it was in reach. However, by now Roland had put wards on the door, too. The Menehune bounced backward only to spring to his feet again and renew the attack. The other little men joined him, rising up each time they were knocked down to hammer at the door. The effect of the group blows created an almost constant glow of flashing blue light.