City of Burning Shadows (Apocrypha: The Dying World)

by Barbara J. Webb

  From the shadowed doorway, a man’s voice called out, “Hey baby, you lookin’ for some fun?”

  “Shut up, Vik.” Iris walked boldly up to the crumbling concrete porch. I followed, unable to look away from the gun pointed at us.

  “Who’s your friend?” Vik asked as he stepped into the light. Bald, burly, and carrying his own very large gun, Vik was not a man I wanted to be on the wrong side of.

  “Viktor, this is Ash. Ash, Viktor. It’s okay, Vik, he’s with me.”

  Yet another surprise in a day full of them. I would never have imagined Iris knew people like this, much less worked with them. I smiled as best I could.

  Vik’s grin was predatory. “Your boy’s nervous.”

  Iris stepped forward, somehow managing to loom over a man with twice her mass. “Stop screwing around. Ash needs to sweep the place.”

  “For what?” Vik slung his gun back over his shoulder and crossed his meaty arms. “Our security’s been good enough for Price before. What, she thinks we’re fucking up all of a sudden?”

  “It’s different this time. And I can explain. But only after Ash has done his thing.”

  Vik glared, but he stepped aside and let me through. I was glad Iris kept close. Especially as we moved through the hall and past a room with three more men like Vik.

  Maybe I had been naive. It was no secret the influence the criminal element had in Miroc. The city’s bad reputation was one hundred percent earned. Even back when we priests had real authority, this city was nothing like Tala, where the gods and the churches kept folks safe. Miroc was the place where dangerous people came to disappear, where criminal enterprises could count their money undisturbed, where back-alley deals didn’t have to take place in back alleys.

  The Ellsworths, the Ramiydhs, the Cuandos, the criminal families had as much influence over the city as the council did. So it shouldn’t have been a surprise that to get things done, Amelia—via Iris—also worked through some questionable contacts. “Amelia trusts these people?” I whispered.

  Iris turned to me and rippled through several different faces, settling back on the lean, hard visage these people knew. “Judging by appearances?”

  Chastened, I said, “I just hope she knows what she’s doing.”

  “Me too.” By her flat look, I knew Iris was talking about me.

  The apartment building wasn’t large. Six two-bedroom units, all had seen better days. Four showed signs of occupation—by the men I’d seen here, I imagined. The fifth was storage. Guns and barrels of water and smaller bags of—I didn’t want to know.

  The sixth apartment was obviously our safehouse. It didn’t have much in the way of furniture—a bed in each bedroom and a table with mismatched chairs in the front—but it was clean and secure-looking, with a new lock on the door and thick metal shutters over the windows.

  I went over the whole building the same way I’d scanned the warehouse. The other men watched me as I moved through their space, but Iris’s presence kept them from interrupting. I was as thorough as I could be. If this job went bad, it wasn’t going to be because of me. It took an hour before I was willing to declare the complex safe.

  Iris called all the men together—six of them including Vik—and explained the situation. They weren’t any more thrilled at the mention of Jansynians than Iris had been.

  “Amelia wants to move Spark in here tonight,” Iris said over the grumbling. “Can you be ready?”

  “Ready, sure, we’re always ready,” Vik answered. “And we know our business. But what kind of opposition are we looking at? We’re not exactly specced to be holding off a full tactical team here. Especially one armed with Jansynian weaponry.”

  “Do your job right and it won’t come to that. If they can’t find you, they can’t hit you.”

  That evoked more grumbling, but Vik said, “We’ll do our part, so long as Price does hers.”

  Iris nodded and left without another word. I scurried to follow.

  #

  We had to go all the way back to the office to check in. Every tiny spark of communication in this city ran through the Jansynians’ net. We couldn’t take the risk they might be listening.

  Amelia wasn’t alone in her office. Josiah and Vivian—two more of P&B’s “investigators”—waited with her. Both of them were visibly armed. I was starting to wonder if everyone in the firm was more than advertised. And were they thinking similar thoughts about me?

  “Good, you’re back,” Amelia said to Iris and me. “I’ve been in contact with Micah and made the handoff arrangements.”

  She woke up the wall with a touch. It was set on a map of the city. “You’ll be picking Spark up at the same location you went to this morning.”

  Josiah squinted at the spot Amelia pointed out. “Right under the Crescent? I thought we were trying to avoid Jansynian attention.”

  “Spark’s already there,” Amelia said, “and I trust our ability to move her safely better than I like the idea of her trying to get out on her own. Ash, since you’re their point of contact, you’ll be in the car with Josiah and Vivian. Iris will be in the air with an eye on the landscape.”

  Vivian stepped up to the screen, smoothly taking over. “Once we’re certain we got away clean, we’ll rendezvous with Iris here,” she tapped a point on the map that was a couple neighborhoods away from the safehouse. “We’ll ditch Ash and the client and then continue to drive around for a while, in case we missed any kind of tail. Ash and Iris will escort the client to the safehouse, tuck her in for the night, and we’ll all celebrate a job well done.”

  “Any questions?” Amelia asked.

  “Lots,” I said.

  Vivian took me by the arm. “We can talk in the car,” she said. “Let’s go get things moving.”

  The car was a hire and while it was necessary, I shuddered to think of what it cost. Not for the car itself, but the fuel. Given it had been four months since Miroc had received an outside delivery, driving had become prohibitively expensive. But what choice did we have? It wasn’t like we could keep a Fyean hidden as we took the tube across town.

  “This’ll be easy,” Vivian said as she settled into the huge back seat with me. Hire cars had to be spacious enough to accommodate the larger races. Anything short of a giant would be comfortable back here. Through the window, I saw Iris jump up and shift in the air. A falcon flew up into the night sky.

  Josiah drove while Vivian talked. “Seriously, Ash, just relax. We’ve done this plenty of times before.”

  “Have we?”

  Vivian grinned and elbowed me. “Welcome to the pro circuit.”

  I checked out the window, but if Iris was there, I couldn’t spot her in the dark. “I’m not the only one uptight.”

  Vivian shrugged. As she talked, she pulled her two pistols from the harness she wore under her jacket and checked their load. “Iris’ll settle down once we’ve got Spark to safety. That’s when everything gets easier.”

  From where I sat, that was the point at which our real problems would begin. “It’s not like we’ll be sending them a memo that Spark’s out of reach. They’ll still be looking for her.”

  “Amelia’s got plans,” Josiah said.

  Vivian patted my knee. “Focus on what’s in front of you. Smooth handoff. Spark to the safehouse, and then we all get to go home. Worry about the rest when it happens.”

  She made it sound so easy, but as I leaned back in my seat and listened to Vivian explain the handoff process, I couldn’t keep from staring out my window at the glowing dome of the Crescent growing larger and larger, like a monster waiting to swallow us.

  CHAPTER FIVE

  Chased

  Josiah turned off the car’s lights as we reached the warehouse’s street. He sat at the intersection longer than was necessary, letting our eyes adjust, then moved forward at a casual pace. As we got close, I noticed one of the side freight doors was open and a makeshift ramp had been set up. Josiah eased the car up and through the open door into blackness.


  The door slammed shut behind us and sudden lights blinded us. I lifted my arm to shield my face, but Vivian tugged on my elbow. “Let them see you.”

  The lights faded to a reasonable level and I saw Micah in front of our car. Standing next to him, a lizard with a gun he was just lowering. I got out, followed by Josiah and Vivian.

  Micah waved me over. Tonight, he was calm and polite, no trace of the anger that had sparked between us this morning. “Is everything in place? Are we good?”

  If he could be businesslike, so could I. “We’re ready if you are.”

  “Great. Vogg, I want you to meet Ash. Ash, this is—”

  The lizard bowed, touching his clawed fingers to the horns atop his head. “I am Vogg Asad’Korel, Sentry of Miroc, Warrior of the Fourth Circle. It is an honor to serve you, Priest Ash of Kaifail.”

  “Just Ash is fine, really.” I lifted my eyebrows at Micah.

  “Vogg is Spark’s bodyguard. He’ll be coming with you.”

  I looked back at Vivian. This hadn’t been in the plan, but she nodded. “Welcome aboard, Vogg. Let’s get moving.”

  Micah and I went up to the office where Copper waited with a second Fyean who had to be Spark. They sat together on the floor, bickering as only sisters could over the wiring of a circuit board that lay between them. Copper still wore the plain leathers she’d had on earlier, but Spark was dressed in a long desert tunic of bright sunset hues and the wire wraps atop her antennae were a dark silvery metal.

  After introducing us, Spark took her sister’s hand. “You sure you won’t come?”

  “They’re not after me.” She leaned forward, pressed her forehead against Spark’s. Their antennae brushed, then Copper pulled back and pushed her sister at me. “Keep her safe, Mr. Drake.”

  As we walked, I couldn’t keep from stealing sideways glances at Spark. She caught me at it and smiled. “You’re not used to being around my kind?”

  “No,” I admitted. “I’ve never been out of Miroc, and as far as I can tell, this isn’t a popular city for you Fyeans to visit.”

  “It’s true.” Spark’s huge eyes were a few shades lighter than her sister’s, soft jade rather than brilliant emerald, and they glinted with a cheer at odds with Copper’s stern demeanor. “Even Copper and I never meant to be here.”

  “What happened? If you can tell me.”

  “It’s no secret.” She sighed. “We were trying to get out of Tala. Took the tubes. This was just meant to be a stopover. As long as we were passing through—I had a couple friends at the university. Researchers I’d corresponded with over the years.

  “Turns out, we were right to get out of Tala, but wrong to have delayed. We were still here when those things invaded and the tube system got shut down.”

  Shut down was putting it mildly. Every city and town with the resources to do it had collapsed any tunnel that led outside their boundaries. No one wanted the infestation that had destroyed the gods’ own city to spread. That was when we’d lost our communication with the outside as well. The cables that connected us had been in those tunnels too.

  “I’m sorry,” I said.

  “No need to apologize. Our story isn’t any sadder than others, and better than most.”

  “Except for the part about the Jansynians hunting you,” I pointed out.

  “And you’re going to fix that for us, so everything’s fine,” Spark answered cheerily.

  We reached the car, where Vivian waited with the door held open. “Glad to have you with us, Spark. Step inside and we’ll have you to your hidey-hole in a few.”

  Spark and I got in the back. Vogg entered last, carefully tucking his tail away from the door. Vivian joined Josiah in the front. Micah caught my eye and gave me a sincere “Good luck,” as he closed us in.

  The warehouse outer door opened. Josiah backed us out and we were on the street again. Step one accomplished. Now for the rest.

  #

  We had no choice but to drive under the Crescent to get back to our own side of town. I’ll confess—every one of us in the car looked up and held our breath as we did so.

  I couldn’t bear the tense silence. “Why?” I asked Spark. “Why are they after you?”

  “Because they are thieves,” Vogg’s deep voice rumbled.

  Spark shook her head, making her antennae wave. “It’s not like that. Not this time.”

  “This time?” Vivian turned around in her seat. “You’ve dealt with them before?”

  Spark pursed her thin lips and looked away. “It’s the way of things. It’s how our lives have always been. The simple truth is there’s no such thing as Jansynian innovation. They are as their god made them: brilliant, but lacking any true creativity. They hate my people for being the creators they can never be.

  “And normally it doesn’t matter.” She addressed the words to Vogg, sincerity in her voice. “It really doesn’t matter. There are more of them, and they’re everywhere, and they have so much money and so many resources—it makes better sense for them to take our ideas and figure out how to distribute them. Manufacture, finance,” Spark rolled her eyes. “Boring. There’s not a one of my people who wants to spend their life worrying about those things. And it frees us up to move on to the next idea, which is never a hardship.”

  She twisted around in her seat to look at the glittering lights of the Crescent, now shrinking behind us. “Except this time, it wasn’t a game. This time, we couldn’t afford to wait the usual time it takes for things to go through the Jansynian research and development process.”

  Vogg crossed his arms, disapproving, which had the result of digging one of his elbow spikes into my ribs. It hurt. He didn’t seem to notice. I squeezed a little closer to Spark. “Copper said you could make it rain.”

  That got Vivian and Josiah’s attention. I guess Amelia hadn’t filled them in on the details. Josiah looked around, although he quickly returned his focus to the road. Vivian straight-out stared. Spark squirmed under everyone’s gaze. “I’d had the idea early, not long after we got stuck here. I’d worked out the math and drawn some designs. And at first, right after they stole it, I thought maybe it was for the best. It’s not like Copper and I had the resources to build an orbital network.”

  “A what?” Vivian asked.

  Spark brightened even more at the chance to talk about her idea. “It occurred to me—and I can’t be the only one—but after the Abandon, well, there’s all this sky. Sure, we couldn’t do anything with it before, but Ouliria’s gone. If she won’t make it rain anymore, then she probably won’t be swatting things out of the sky anymore either. There’s a lot we could do from above that we could never manage from below. And one of those things…” she paused and flashed us a wide grin. “I think we could make it rain.”

  Vivian had turned all the way around, sitting on her knees in the front, although it was too dark to make out her face. “And they stole that from you. The way to make it rain?”

  “Yes. And at first it was fine. They were working on it. It’s not like you can hide tests when you have to launch them into space. It looked like they were moving forward as fast as I could hope. And why not? They’re not as desperate as the rest of the city, but it isn’t in their best interest to watch Miroc wither away to nothing.

  “Except time passed and nothing happened. I knew they had the satellites up there, but they weren’t moving forward anymore. I couldn’t exactly ask them what happened, so Copper and I decided to go a different route. We took the plans for the system to the city council.”

  Vivian started at mention of the city council. In the dark, I almost didn’t see it. And I had no idea what caused it. But I knew better than to ask in front of clients.

  “That was when the trouble started,” Spark continued. “When the Jansynians came after me. They must have found out, and didn’t want the competition.”

  “We know they have spies on the city council,” Vivian said. Which was news to me. Although hardly shocking.

  Spar
k didn’t seem surprised either. “I didn’t think it would matter. They never used to attack us like that.”

  A lot of things in this world never used to happen. But now the referees were absent, the watchful parents who made sure all their children played nice.

  Or mostly nice. History held plenty of conflict—from small territorial disputes to all-out wars, but while a number of those had resolved themselves naturally, just as many had ended with the direct intervention of one of the Thirteen. And numerous others had never begun because one church or another had simply forbidden it.

  The Abandon had broken the world, and now who was going to save it? After people had risen up against the churches, after the madness and fear that led to the riots had spent, had any new leadership stepped in? Had anyone tried to rebuild?

  Not here in Miroc. Maybe not anywhere. We were all still waiting, hoping we’d wake up one morning and everything would be back the way it had been.

  Vivian had fallen silent and I looked up to see her staring out the back window, frowning. “Jo….”

  “Yeah, I know.”

  I craned my head around, but couldn’t see anything wrong in the street behind us. “What’s wrong?”

  “We’re being followed.”

  I heard the click of Vivian readying her gun. “What do you think?”

  “They’re faster and better armed than us.” Josiah sounded remarkably calm. I twisted around in my seat and caught sight of the Jansynian hovercar skirting the shadows behind us. Stalking us, waiting for the moment to move in.

  Vivian had also taken on a cool focus. “Around the next corner, slow down enough I can jump out. I’ll get their attention, try to catch them in a crossfire.”

  “Is that a good idea?” I asked. She’d be exposed, vulnerable.

  “Not really,” Vivian said, “but our options are pretty much violence or violence. And better if they’re shooting at me than the car.”

  It sounded like suicide to me, but what better solution could I offer? I’m not Iris. Complex magic on the fly is beyond me, too dangerous to contemplate. So what could I do that was simple?