by Nina D'Aleo
Silho’s skin all over her arms, chest and face was severely burnt. Her eyes stared open, glazed with shock. He piled ice on top of her. The bitter cold burned his hands numb in seconds. His teeth chattered and shivers ran through his body. Almost instantaneously, Silho’s skin began to heal and her bloodline marks of firebird and flame grew back along her arms. This time the tiny pictures had spread even further across her neck and chest. He touched the images and pulled away. They were burning hot despite the ice.
Silho blinked, her sights clearing. She sat up, the ice cubes rolling off her. She studied her own hands and arms. ‘I don’t understand it,’ she murmured, exhaling mist.
‘You must have inherited your mother’s Pyron skills,’ Copernicus said.
‘But I didn’t – I burn and it hurts.’
‘Yes, but you also heal from the burns almost immediately. You’re a half-breed . . . maybe the key to killing the Skreaf isn’t increasing your power so much that you don’t set alight, maybe it’s resisting the pain of the fire. If you resist the pain for long enough to kill them you’ll regenerate.’
‘I’m not sure I can resist,’ Silho confessed. ‘And even if I could, there’re too many of them. How would I drain them all at the same time? My skills would need to be magnified.’
Her words triggered a thought in Copernicus’ mind. ‘The Mazurus Machine is a magnifier. The Skreaf are using it to strengthen their curse to free their master. Maybe we could use it against them.’
‘Bellum has the others,’ Silho said. She held her head in one hand. ‘I couldn’t stop her. I failed.’
‘I was there too, Brabel,’ the commander reminded her. He used his skills to access the shape of her thoughts and saw that her mind was repeating the enchant without her conscious effort. She was growing stronger at a much faster rate than he would have expected, but he doubted it would be fast enough. He had no idea what their next step should be.
Copernicus felt a vibration on his hip and took the communicator out of his pocket. The hedge had completed before they’d fled the facility and there was a message from Eli waiting in the lines.
‘Play message,’ he instructed the machine and he and Silho listened as Eli told them what he had discovered about the Skreaf, the Envirious Realm and the gateway land of Woulghast.
‘He said that portals can be forged from our realm into Woulghast,’ Copernicus said once the message had ended. ‘According to the Wraith, Omarians painted portals between their realm and ours. Did your father ever talk about this?’
‘No, but Bellum did.’ Silho’s face darkened. ‘She said they’d forced him to paint a portal in his cell before he was executed, that without it, their plans would be for nothing.’
‘In his cell,’ Copernicus repeated and his mind took him back to the night at the Galleria when he had found Englan Chrisholm’s final prison. He’d seen the painting on the ceiling.
‘We have to go to the Galleria,’ he told Silho. ‘That’s where the portal is. We have to try to pass through into the gateway land.’
Silho lowered her head. ‘I don’t think . . . I’m not strong enough. I can’t do this.’
Copernicus recognised this confession as the first time Silho hadn’t tried to hide or lie through her pain and fear.
‘Tell me why you think that,’ he said quietly.
‘Because my mother was the greatest at everything and Bellum still killed her. I’m nothing compared to her.’
‘That’s not true,’ Copernicus said. ‘You have skills Oren Harvey never had.’
‘I don’t think we’re going to make it,’ she whispered. ‘I don’t deserve to.’ She looked up at Copernicus with tears in her eyes. He didn’t understand what she meant, but he could see what she was feeling. She felt completely alone with the odds stacked up against her like an impenetrable wall, with no way over or around. She was facing death – they both were. Realistically, Silho was right. There was no chance he could see of them coming through this alive. They were just too heavily outnumbered.
Instead of lying, Copernicus put his arms around her and pulled her close against him. ‘You’re not alone. I won’t abandon you,’ he promised. ‘Whatever happens, I’ll be with you.’ He looked down into her eyes. Their faces were so close that their lips almost touched.
An earthquake tremor shook the tiny icehouse. The ice cubes rattled and the boards of the structure clattered together. For a moment Copernicus wondered if this was it, if they were already too late, but then the quaking subsided. He and Silho looked at each other, understanding that they had no more time.
Copernicus stood and pushed open the hatch. He hauled himself out and lifted Silho up after him. The sky was lightening to a dark grey as dawn-light fought against the blackness of night.
They moved silently through the streets of Nureyev scouting for transport. To get to the Galleria they needed to ascend over 150 levels. They found an old model transflyer parked outside an unlit house. Without Diega’s skill, it took Copernicus a lot longer than he would have liked to override the security system, even though it was outdated. He hadn’t boosted a craft since he was a kid. Finally the engines coughed and started. Copernicus jumped into the pilot’s seat and took off.
They found most of the skyways were clear because the blocks had been removed. Neither of them said it, but they both knew this was a bad sign. The Skreaf obviously felt as though they had already won. Copernicus touched the ring in his pocket. Their only hope was that this was the original. The witches couldn’t use the machine without it.
He sped them through the main tunnels until they reached their destination level. There they abandoned the craft and went on foot to the Galleria. They paused on the fringe of Elio D’An Square. Masses of palace enforcers and state guardians stood positioned around the Galleria. A group of machine-breeds worked to set up a stage at the museum’s front entrance. The royal banner and flags flapped in the chill breeze. A line of soldiers in full riot gear held back a growing gathering of protestors.
‘The king must be making an announcement today,’ Copernicus whispered to Silho.
‘Which means there’ll be no way in,’ she said.
Copernicus considered their options. They could find a way into the underground tunnels beneath the Galleria, but that would take time they didn’t have. Their other option was to go straight through the front door, but that meant he would have to perform advanced Illusionist cloaking magics that he had never used before. He took a deep breath and made a decision.
‘Follow me.’
They left the shadows and walked directly through the centre of the square, passing the bronze statue of King Miron II. He felt Silho hesitating as they neared the entrance of the Galleria, crowded with soldiers, but she didn’t stop. She stayed by his side.
Copernicus held an image in his mind of how he wanted people to see them – as red-uniformed enforcers. They reached the sentinels and passed them without incident. They walked under the part-wolf, part-dragon sculpture carved into the entrance-hall ceiling and entered the grand foyer of the Galleria. Copernicus didn’t pause. He led Silho towards the hanging room, which had been reopened for public viewing, and through the corridors to where the Mazurus Machine had sat. They went to the loose marble square and Copernicus used his blade to prise it up, exposing the cleaners’ standing box underneath. He sent his senses down to the tunnel below, but the reading was clouded. Dark magics smothered the air. He nodded to Silho. She crawled into the box and slid through. He followed, dropping down onto the masses of abandoned written word below.
A light shone ahead of them and they inched towards it. Silho struggled to keep her footing on the unstable piles of sliding books. He gripped her arm and they made it to the place where Copernicus had found the cell block hidden behind a fake wall. The wall now stood open and the flickering fluoro light in front of the last cell lit their path. They moved towards Englan Chrisholm’s final prison.
Inside the cell, they found a bench with knives and
tubes had been set up for use. Copernicus’ senses picked up on voices echoing behind them. A man yelled and a scuffle broke out. The vibrations grew nearer, but the haze of magics stopped Copernicus from seeing who they belonged to. He turned to Silho. She stood staring up at the ceiling of the cell, at the painting – all the tiny pictures so similar to those on her body. She whispered the words written across the artwork, ‘My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?’
A burst of light exploded from the images and engulfed them. Copernicus felt himself lifting off the ground and his last thoughts were on the trials and tests of the gateway land that Eli had spoken about. What would be waiting for them on the other side?
38
Eli entered the chemist shop, jingling the bell above the door. He kept his head down in case of military I-eyes or spyers implanted in the ceiling, and ducked swiftly into an aisle to start searching for the medications he needed. His own allergy medicine was prescribed, so he knew he wouldn’t be able to find it on the shelves, but he thought a mix of extra strength, normal anti-allergy pills might be enough. He was going just on a hunch, but he hoped that treating Luther’s allergy would cure his inability to retain nutrients. If not, he was out of ideas and time.
He saw one of the labels he was searching for and snatched the bottle, pushing it into his jacket. The speed of his hands covered his thievery, but clammy patches of sweat were appearing under his arms and on his back. His wings twitched irritably and Nelly kept quiet in his pocket, as though she was also holding her breath that they didn’t get caught. As he reached the end of the aisle and found the second packet of pills he was looking for, he realised that he hadn’t needed to be so concerned. The chemist and all the shop attendants were occupied, standing at the serving counter staring up at a holo-screen broadcasting the news. Eli pocketed the pills and peeked around the corner of the shelf to listen in.
‘Violent scenes have erupted in front of Palace Sirenseron as protestors sympathetic to the machine-breed cause demand an explanation from the king regarding his order that all Androts submit themselves to the authorities or face capital charges . . .’ The screen showed images of thronging masses of shouting people being pushed back from the palace gates by reptilian-faced enforcers. ‘The Standard has released a statement that King Miron XI will make an announcement in Elio D’An Square at the dawning of tomorrow’s day. In other news, experts believe the deep core tremors that have been shaking Scorpia for the last week now are a result of minimal earth shifts and should not be viewed as a major concern. Now, let’s go to Ray for a weather update. Looks like more acid rain on the way . . .’
The shop attendants stirred and began talking among themselves and Eli took the chance to slip out of the shop. He darted to the other side of the street and ran along the footpath until he saw the sign for KJ Street up ahead. He slowed to a jog and took the corner. Ev’r stood there, holding two slabs of wrapped meat in one hand and eating a bread roll with the other.
‘Here.’ She fished another one from her pocket and threw it to him. ‘Eat before you pass out.’
Eli caught the roll and gnawed off a chunk of bread, gulping it down as he raced to the end of the side street where he had parked the transflyer with Luther inside it.
Ev’r’s boots thudded behind him. He ripped open the passenger side door. The transflyer was empty. Eli felt over the seat then climbed in, felt all over the floor, all over the pilot’s side, the back seat – Luther was nowhere.
‘He’s gone!’ Eli said, dismay dragging heavily on his heart. ‘Why would he go? He was barely conscious.’
‘Maybe he died and disappeared. That’s what happens with Midnight Men,’ Ev’r said.
Eli jumped down and said, ‘Well he couldn’t have gone far. We’ll just look for him and —’
‘Snack-size!’ Ev’r interrupted. ‘Listen to yourself. You want to find a semi-conscious, invisible, mute man, lying somewhere in the city, who has most likely already died and vanished. Caesar K-Ruz approached me at the grocery store. He said the Skreaf had taken Kry to the Galleria. We have to go.’
Eli’s shoulders slumped and he shook his head. ‘I promised Luther. He was so scared, but he helped me.’ He sank down to the ground, his mind so tired he could barely lift his head.
Across the street a dog barked at them from inside a narrow three-level house, built shoulder to shoulder with its identical neighbours. Eli looked up at the window where the pure white wolf-like creature stood staring out. Three cats were also pressed up against the glass pane, trying to scratch their way out. The scope of his stare widened and he took in a pile of uncollected hardcopy mail items at the front of the house. The lawn was overgrown.
‘There’s no one there,’ Eli said. He forced himself to his feet.
‘What are you talking about?’ Ev’r asked.
‘At that house. No one is there, but the animals are locked inside.’
‘So?’ Ev’r demanded. ‘Are you delirious or something? Remember – Skreaf demons taking over the world. I think that has priority over some stray animals.’
Eli ignored her. He moved out of the alley and across to the house, where he pushed open the creaky front gate and ran up the stairs. Several pairs of feet tick-tapped on the boards behind the door as Eli drew his blade and worked at the lock.
‘Trutt,’ he cursed. He’d never been good at jimmying locks.
‘Here, give that to me.’ Ev’r grabbed the blade and shoved him out of the way. One turn from her practised fingers and the door sprang open. The big white dog and three cats dashed, meowing and woofing joyfully, from the house. They circled Ev’r who was still holding the fresh meat. She ripped off the wrapping of one packet and threw it down on the grass for them to eat. The cats attacked it immediately, but the dog only sniffed it then bounded over to a place in the yard below the window where the animals had been sitting. It sat down and bayed. Eli looked up at the windows of the houses all around them, expecting lights to go on and faces to start appearing to investigate the disturbance. He hurried over to the dog, trying to shush it. Nelly shrank down in his pocket.
‘Good boy, well done, that’s enough.’ He encouraged the dog to be quiet.
Eli tripped over something on the ground and sprawled onto the grass. He got up onto his elbows and looked behind him. There was nothing there, but the dog was nudging something with his nose – something in the air. Eli scrambled onto his knees and crawled forward with his hand stretched out in front of him. His fingers bumped against skin, and then felt a face . . .
‘Luther!’ he hissed. ‘Ev’r! He’s here! He’s here!’
She ran over and he held up his hands around the invisible body to stop her from stepping on the unconscious Midnight Man.
‘Is there any meat left?’ he asked her.
She held up the remaining packet.
‘Can you take some out?’ he asked her. He ripped open the packet of one of the medicines he had stolen and unscrewed the lid of the other. Using his blade, he crushed the pills together onto the lid.
‘Meat.’ He held out his hand and Ev’r pushed some of the squashy substance into his palm. He poured the medicine powder onto the portion.
‘Okay,’ Eli said. ‘You open his mouth and I’ll put it in.’
Ev’r felt over the invisible man’s face and found his lips.
‘Don’t cut yourself on his teeth, they’re sharp,’ Eli warned her.
She managed to prise his jaw apart and said, ‘Ready.’
Eli pushed the meat in between her hands and hooked it onto a row of ragged teeth so that Luther wouldn’t choke. Ev’r pressed his mouth together in a chewing motion, mashing the medicated meat into a liquid pulp that would slide down his throat.
For several minutes nothing happened, then the prone man coughed, and as he did, he appeared, his shadow cloak swirling around him. Luther opened his eyes and Eli helped him to sit up.
‘Here, eat some more,’ Ev’r pushed another piece of meat into the man’s mouth. Lu
ther chewed weakly and swallowed with effort. As he swallowed, his whole body morphed – filling out, growing stronger. The sagging skin of his face stretched back to reveal darkly handsome features, nothing like the monster he’d appeared to be while he was ill. The effects didn’t last though, and he changed back to his wasted state virtually straightaway.
‘What was that?’ Eli asked.
‘Partial metamorphosis,’ Ev’r said. ‘Looks like the medicine is working and the meat is enough. He doesn’t need to feed on the near-dead. Probably the more he eats the stronger he’ll get. Here.’ She handed the slumped Midnight Man the whole packet of meat she had stolen from the shop. ‘Get under cover and eat. We can’t stay with you anymore. Eli, let’s go.’
She stood, but Eli sat for a moment beside the man who the commander had described as desperately lonely, wanting to be near people, but no one wanting him. He was too frightening – too strange. Eli noticed the animals had gathered around in a conference-like way and were watching the Midnight Man and the food resting in his lap. Eli had an idea. He took Luther’s hand and placed it on the wolf dog’s shaggy white head. The dog nuzzled and licked the Midnight Man’s fingers. The cats pressed in, brushing against his legs. Eli noticed Ev’r was avoiding looking at the animals. Luther’s lips twitched upwards and he stroked the dog’s head.
‘Take care of them. Their people are gone,’ Eli said. ‘And take these pills, one of each every day. You have allergies. That’s what’s making you sick. Do you understand?’
Luther nodded.
‘Find me when they run out and I’ll get you more. Take care,’ Eli said, thinking in his mind that the possibility that the city would still be standing then and that any of them would still be alive was slim to none. A heavy knot squeezed his gut. ‘We have to go.’
