by Jack Conner
“Nothing much,” Avery said. “Retrieved the Codex, saved Uthua.”
Janx stopped in his tracks. “You what?”
Avery smiled again. It seemed that’s all he could do. He felt so light he was almost floating. “We have a lot to catch up on.”
“Guess we do.”
“Are any of the others here?”
“Hildra, of course. She won’t let me outta her sight. She had a coupla things needed doin’, though. She’ll see you later.” He paused. “I had a room set up for ya, Doc. A room. Didn’t know you’d have comp’ny. I’ll go ahead and order another—”
Avery held his breath. “That won’t be necessary.”
He didn’t get the explosion he’d feared. “You ... sure?” It was almost as if Janx hoped Avery was joking.
“I’m sure. One cabin will do for the both of us.”
“Guess it’s a good thing Layanna ain’t here then, isn’t it?”
“Where is she? And Ani? How’s Ani?” Avery was desperate to hear news of her.
Janx clapped him on the shoulder, an impact Avery felt to his toes. “Like you said, we have a lot to catch up on.” He continued showing them around the ship, which Janx had renamed the Muirblaag, a typical Navy ship, clean and orderly—and kept that way by Janx—the only difference being that it was unmarked. The sailors dressed simply and neatly, and all acted as though wearing the crispest military uniforms, but none did, only the civilian equivalent. Janx finished the tour at the door to Avery’s cabin, and Sheridan tactfully, and surprisingly for that, vanished inside, giving the two friends a moment alone.
Janx paused, still a bit stiff, and Avery felt it too. He was delighted to see the whaler again, but it had been a long time since they’d seen each other, and both had changed, if subtly. They needed to reestablish their rapport somehow, and the fact of Sheridan wasn’t making it any easer.
“Well, Doc, I gotta get back to the bridge and make sure we get to Salanth before we run out of fuel. If nothing else, it’s closer than Hissig.”
“It’s urgent that we reach it without delay. As it is, it’s entirely likely that our enemies will arrive first.”
“Guess that means you did what you set out to—find out what the Octs’re up to.”
“It’s more than that, Janx. It’s what the R’loth are up to. Also, there’s another player involved whose identity we don’t know. I trust changing the route won’t be a problem.”
“Hell no. I’ll call in to headquarters and let ‘em know. I just hope you know what you’re doin’, Doc. The Ysstrals ain’t exactly friendly to outsiders.”
Avery sighed. “Not typically, no.”
“After I end my shift, I usually have dinner in the officers’ mess with my folk. Why don’t you join us—tell us what you’ve been up to? Kind of a casual debrief?”
“I’d like nothing better,” Avery said, honestly, “only I don’t feel comfortable sharing the truth with everybody. It would only disturb them, and there’s always the possibility, however unlikely, that one or more of your officers is an enemy agent.”
“I don’t think—”
“I said it was unlikely. I would love to have dinner with you, but I would rather wait for drinks afterward, with you and Hildra alone—assuming she’s willing to join us—to tell you what’s going on.”
“So it will be.” Janx’s gaze flicked to the open door. “Will she be joining us?”
“That’s up to her.”
The whaler rubbed his bald pate, wrinkling up the skin in sweaty folds. “I don’t like this, Doc. She’s bad news. Always has been.”
“She saved our lives in the Crothegra.”
“Yeah, after she tried to kill us, and only because she needed our help.”
“I don’t think she did intend to—never mind. She’s with us now. She ... well, she chose me over Octung.”
Janx’s long face drew tight. “Did she?”
“Yes.”
Janx’s face didn’t move. For a moment Avery thought he would say something more, but then he simply said, “See you at dinner.”
Avery retreated indoors, and as soon as he closed the door and switched on a light—why hadn’t Sheridan done so?—he heard her voice in the darkness:
“We have a visitor.”
The light sprang on.
Hildra crouched in an armchair facing them, just out of sight of the doorway. In her right hand—her only hand—she held a beat-up revolver aimed at Sheridan. Long and lean, dressed like a criminal, Hildra must have been waiting in the dark for some time, as the light made her blink rapidly. Taking advantage, Sheridan’s hand moved to a pocket, perhaps searching for a knife—
“Do it,” Hildra said. “I dare you.”
Sheridan’s hand dropped.
Avery came to stand beside her. “What’s the meaning of this, Hildra?”
The young woman snorted. “This is bullshit, bones. What is she doing here?”
“Obviously, she’s with me. How did you know?”
“I had a feelin’ if we ever ran into you again, you might have her along. I told the crews to signal me if you did. Didn’t think she’d show up in your room with you, though. I just meant to talk to you about her. Guess I should’ve known, though. Gods, bones, but you are one whipped bastard.”
Avery went to the bar—which was stocked; They know me well—and poured himself a finger of bourbon. “Want one?” he said, then realized he hadn’t designated whom he spoke to. “Either of you?” When neither woman spoke, he shrugged and knocked back a gulp.
“Nice friends you have, Francis,” Sheridan commented.
“Can it, bitch,” Hildra said. “I came here to talk to the doc, not you.” Avery opened his mouth to say something, but Hildra overrode him, speaking, despite her edict, to Sheridan. “Just what is it with you, anyway? Are you, like, fucking mental?”
Sheridan shifted her weight from one leg to the other. Hildra flinched, finger tightening on the trigger. “I would ask for a drink,” Sheridan said, “but I’m afraid it might get me shot.”
“Hildra,” Avery said, “can you put the gun away? We’re all friends here.”
“Now that’s the biggest laugh I’ve had all day. ‘Friends’. We’re all friends? Fuck that, bones. I’d rather pitch her off the nearest deck than win the lottery. If I was on fire and she had the only bucket of water aboard, I’d shove that bucket up her ass and die smiling.”
“Well, they are colorful,” Sheridan said.
Hildra cocked the trigger. “One more word. Say one more word.”
Avery raised his hands in a placating gesture, sloshing some bourbon as he did. “Easy, Hildra. Easy. Maybe we’re not all friends, but we’re on the same side now. Sheridan’s with us now.”
“If you believe that, you’re dumber than you look.” But at least Hildra uncocked the pistol and sat back a bit. To Sheridan, she said, “Why shouldn’t I shoot you?”
Sheridan said nothing.
Hildra rolled her eyes. “Okay, now you can speak.”
“Thank you. What was the question again?”
“Why shouldn’t I put a hole through your fucking face? Give me one reason. Last time we needed you. This time we don’t. I need a reason.”
“Hildra,” Avery said, as if to a misbehaving child. She ignored him.
“Maybe you don’t,” Sheridan said, “but ... maybe ... you do.”
Hildra chewed her lip, then tilted the gun barrel up, away from Sheridan, but only slightly. “How?”
Sheridan smiled. “That would be telling.”
Hildra ground her teeth. Her gun barrel started to tilt down again.
Avery spoke up. “The reason you shouldn’t kill her, Hildra, is because she’s my guest. Isn’t that enough?”
Hildra’s gaze was fixed on Sheridan. With visible effort, she swung it to Avery. “I don’t know, bones. I just don’t know.” Back to Sheridan. “You better prove useful, bitch. If you’re not, you’re ballast. Got that?”
“
It wasn’t a subtle point.”
Hildra rose. Indicating with her gun that Sheridan should step away from the door, she moved forward and Sheridan obliged. Hildra turned at the hatch. “One last thing, both of you. If she so much as pisses in a way I don’t like, I’m gonna cut her liver out.” She raised her left arm, and her hook gleamed sharply. With that, she was gone.
After closing the hatch, Sheridan met Avery at the bar and with remarkably steady hands poured herself a drink. But it was a sizeable drink.
“Sorry for the reception,” Avery said.
She tossed down a shot. “Not exactly rolling out the welcome mat, are they?” She let out a ragged breath. “I hadn’t expected it, though. Really, it isn’t going half bad.” She chuckled, and he thought he heard a trace of nervousness in it. “I still have my liver.”
He smiled. Unable to stop it, he touched her hand, then kissed her. That seemed to relax her somewhat.
“It’ll be all right,” he said. “You’ll see.”
“And when we see Layanna, again, what then?” She stared at him, and her expression was solemn. “Who ...” She cleared her throat, then plowed on: “Who will you choose?”
Did she really just ask that? She looked just as surprised by the question as he felt. He took a long sip.
“You, of course,” he said.
“You hesitated.”
“I did not.”
“You did.”
He tried on a disarming smile. “Well, she is blond.”
She punched him on the arm, but she smiled.
“Anyway,” he said, leading her toward the bedroom, if only to relax them both, “it feels good to have you in my power at last. For too damned long I’ve been at your mercy. It’s about time the slug was on the other hook.” When they reached the bed, he turned back. “What did you mean, by the way?”
She looked innocent. “About what?”
“When you told Hildra you might be of some use. What did you mean?”
“Who says I meant anything? Maybe I was bluffing.”
He sat his drink down on the bedside table and drew her into her his arms. “Just what secrets do you have remaining, Jess?”
She kissed him, and opened to him, but not that much.
* * *
“They were what?”
Avery had to smile. “That’s right. They were invisible.”
“Fuck that,” Hildra said. “Fuck that all to hell.”
The three were in the small officer’s mess. Dark had fallen, and lightning zigged up from the Atomic Sea to starboard, visible through the large porthole. Janx, Avery and Hildra all held drinks, and Avery was coughing slightly as the others smoked, Janx one of his big smelly cigars and Hildra a long-stemmed cigarette on a cigarette holder; it contained more than just tobacco, apparently.
Janx leaned forward in his chair, shadows swaying around him. The room was lit only by lightning and one green-glowing alchemical lantern, and his face glowed like green wax. “But what do they want with it—the Codex? You said only a Collossum could read it.”
“Or some other powerful being, yes. Uthua said something about humans that had served the Ygrith in ages past; maybe they’re the ones who are supposed to use it. I don’t understand it, either, Janx. Uthua said the one he wounded was mortal, not godly, but he didn’t seem quite sure of it, either. That’s all I know. But the mystery party—the group of invisible attackers—is working with the pirates. Whether that means Segrul and the ocean-based fleet or just the aerial ships, I don’t know. They failed in retrieving the Codex, but the mystery party was present when Uthua decoded it. They know where the Sleeper is, and probably much else we don’t by now, to be as ahead of us as they’ve been. They’re almost certainly on the way to Salanth, and they could easily beat us there.”
“I wouldn’t worry about that,” Janx said.
“Why?”
“They’re pirates. Unless they trade their fleet for another, there’s no way the Ysstrals’ll let them in. They might let us in. We’re Ghenisan, and Ghenisa’s an ally of theirs. Well, much as they have allies.”
“They have always kind of existed in their own little bubble, haven’t they?” Getting into the subject, Avery said, “Oh, they’ve tried to expand it over time, and for a few moments in history it seemed like they might be able to conquer L’oh and take over Urslin, maybe Consur, too, but L’oh always threw them back.”
“Enough,” Hildra pleaded.
“But it’s fascinating. The Ysstral Empire is located in a cold, gloomy place where it rains all the time and little grows, at least little that likes sunshine. I understand that some phenomena of the region, perhaps derived from the sea, makes rain often poisonous.”
She spat to the side. “I’ve been there before. So’s Janx.”
“I’ve read about it, but never gone,” Avery said. “It’s not exactly a vacation spot, is it? And yet a mighty civilization developed there.”
“You sure we have to go?”
“We must wake the Sleeper.”
“Do we?” she said. “I mean, gods know what this so-called Sleeper really is, or what it could do. And if it can open the doors to this Monastery ... well, unleashing the Jade Hell might be a safer bet.”
“Then again, the Monastery could be harmless. We have no idea why the Ygrith left or why this one individual stayed behind. All we know is that the R’loth mean to replace humanity with a more tractable servant if they can’t get access to it.”
Janx and Hildra glanced at each other. Both looked as ill as he felt. Janx’s voice was low and grating when he finally spoke: “There’s gotta be another way, Doc. We can’t let the bastards get their slimy whatsits on whatever’s in that monastery.”
Avery thought of the plan Sheridan believed he had. He hadn’t lied when he let her think he had one, but by the same token he wasn’t ready to unveil it to Janx and Hildra, not just yet. It was nebulous and dependent on the answer to too many other things that he didn’t know.
“What?” Hildra said. “What is it, bones?”
Avery lifted his glass to his lips. “We’ll see. For now just trust me. The way forward is to the Monastery. That much is certain. As to the rest ... we’ll see. Besides, if we don’t wake the Sleeper, the mystery party will, and I doubt they mean anything good by it.”
“What could they want it for?” Janx said. Perhaps appropriately, a particularly bright burst of lightning detonated not far away, its accompanying thunder shaking the craft, and all in the cabin flinched.
With the afterimage seared into his retinas, Avery said, “I have no idea, other than that they also want to possess the power hidden in the Monastery, and are competing with the R’loth to get it. Whoever reaches it first, wins.”
“Wins what, though?” Hildra said.
“The world.” Avery waited for anther shocking burst, but the sea didn’t oblige. Sucking in a breath, he asked the question he’d really been wondering: “How’s Ani?”
Janx and Hildra paused, and Avery felt a swell of misgiving.
“What is it? Is she okay?”
“It’s nothin’, bones,” Hildra said. “Hell, Janx and I don’t even know, not really. We lit out after you only a few days after the Starfish died. The relay scouts had hit their fuel limit, so we had to go.”
“But ... ?”
Hildra fell silent.
Janx shifted uncomfortably. “It’s nothin’, like Hildy says. Probably nothin’. Only ...”
“Only what?”
Janx let out a long breath. “During those few days, we went up to Palace—that’s what people’re callin’ the mansion where Prince Id lives—and to the Parliament Building, where he and his folk go sometimes. We went, maybe, twice a day, wherever they were then. Each time we asked to see Ani, to check up on her.”
“And?”
Grimly, Janx held his gaze. “She wouldn’t see us.”
“Ever?”
“Ever.” Janx sat back. “Now, could be it wasn’t her decision. Mayb
e our message never got to her. It was kinda a madhouse around Prince Id, ever time we got close. Hell, that’s how we knew where he was. People went apeshit. Press, civvies, protestors, whoever. So I can’t really say she sent us away.”
Looking out the window, Avery said, “But you can’t say she didn’t, either.”
“That’s about the size of it.”
Hildra whistled. “But that ain’t all. Bones, you shoulda seen the way those bastards talked about her!”
“Ani?”
“Sure, Ani. They talked about her like she was, I don’t know ...”
“Royalty?”
“Fuck you, Frank. I meant the way the other royals talked about her. We’d go an’ see ‘em, ask to check in with your little girl, and they’d go all quiet-like. They’d look at each other, and their voices would go low. ‘Oh,’ they’d say, ‘she is busy.’ She. And their eyes’d get all big and shiny.”
“I don’t understand,” Avery said. No, he thought. Uthua has to be wrong. He HAS to be.
“We don’t either, Doc,” Janx said.
“An’ whenever we’d see her in the papers or on the tellie,” Hildra said, “the other nobs would always be surrounding her. Like some sort of honor guard. I mean, Prince Id doesn’t get that kinda attention.”
Janx cracked his knuckles. “That ain’t the only change. Layanna’s stirrin’ shit up, too.”
“Oh?” Avery tried to focus.
“After Rigurd bit it, his flock went nuts. The sewers’d packed tight when the Starfish was on the way, all converts to Rigurd and his brood. When he went tits up, no one was there to lead them. There were riots, lootings, rapings. Mutants popping up from the sewers to start all kinds of trouble. Some said they were meetin’ with the ngvandi from the hills, that maybe they’d switch their worship over to the Mnuthra still up there.”
“What did Layanna do?”
