“What!” I said in shock. “How many others were killed?”
He stared at me blankly.
“I demand to know!”
“From what we know,” he said slowly, “the plot was in place for months, if not years. Frane was in personal contact with many of the traitors. Not all the F’rar she approached would comply, and these were either forced to keep quiet when members of their families were kidnapped, or murdered. Most of those lynchings Xarr spoke of were actually hangings carried out by Frane’s lieutenants.”
“They executed their own people?” I said in disbelief.
“It had the dual purpose of silencing those who could betray them to us, and inciting the rest of the F’rar population.”
My mouth must have hung open in wonder. “Frane is absolutely ruthless.”
“Oh, yes,” Thomas said. “And unless Xarr can hold her off, she will soon be in control of Wells. There were many assassinations carried out, many non-F’rar members of the government killed. We are trying to reform the assembly and Senate in the west. But I’m afraid it will be at best a skeleton government.”
“Then I must be crowned immediately!” I said.
“I don’t know if that’s wise, Sire. Perhaps it is best at the moment if she thinks you dead.”
“Why?
“As far as Frane knows, the assassin sent to kill you succeeded. Not many of her killers escaped, nor were they meant to, and you would have been killed if you hadn’t left your rooms and the palace when you did. He came in through the window, apparently just after you left. Your sister’s murderer was waiting for her in her room.”
Again a wellspring of pain rose up within me: I would never see my sister Amy again. With difficulty I overcame it. “I must be crowned. Now.”
“Sire –”
“It must be done. If the people think I am dead, they will flock to Frane, if only because they are frightened. What worked for my mother will not work for me now.”
Thomas eyed me thoughtfully, and then nodded. “Yes. I see you’ve studied your mother’s life well. And I think you are right.”
“I know I am.”
And there, with Senator Rella, the head of the Assembly, officiating, I was crowned King of Mars as I fled on an airship to a place I might never escape from.
As we finished the small ceremony, my attention was diverted by our landing. We were swooping down not, as I had expected, at the base of Olympus Mons but somewhere around half way up to the summit. There was a huge plain bordered by a sheer cliff to one side and a straight wall on the other.
“Why do we land here?”
“You will see, Sire.”
As we dropped the surface below became, if anything, even more unspectacular. There were no structures of any kind, only a flat red featureless expanse.
A plume of dust rose around us as we bumped to a landing.
“Now what?” I asked.
“We walk.”
The dust was settling, and yet I could see nothing through the window but the wall of rock leading up to the caldera of the mighty volcano in the near distance. There were strata in the rock wall, deep cuts of different colors – crimson, pink, an almost ebony color. I strained to see as far as I could upward, but the top of the wall was lost in misty clouds.
We disembarked. Immediately Thomas and a phalanx of guards surrounded me. It made me nervous that they kept studying the sky.
“We must go, quickly,” Thomas said, and led the way toward the rock wall.
Behind us, the airship took off in a roar of noise and a tall plume of dust. In a moment it was gone, a fading sliver against the sky.
“Where–?” I began.
“Please, Sire. Follow,” Thomas said.
We trekked for two hours. The wall in front of us grew incrementally taller, and more impressive.
“Is all of Olympus Mons like this?” I asked.
Thomas merely shrugged. “There are others who can answer that,” he said, finally.
We stopped for a meager lunch of bread and a sip of wine, and then walked on.
More hours passed.
Night was creeping toward us. A purple haze sat on the horizon behind, and then a sprinkling of stars began to dot the sky.
Then, finally, the massive wall was in front of us.
“I have a question, Thomas,” I said.
He looked at me, and I realized just how weary he was. “What is it?”
My curiosity overcame my kindness, which made me feel guilty for a moment. But curiosity prevailed. “Why didn’t the airship land closer to our destination?”
“Because it could not have taken off and gotten away as quickly,” he answered. “As you may have already deduced, Sire, this is a secret location.”
“Yes, but –”
“Please,” he replied, “no more question until we are settled, and rested.”
This time kindness prevailed, and I nodded. “Very well.”
The wall grew sheer above us. I had a momentary feeling that its immensity was endless, and that it was sure to crash down upon us. A kind of reverse vertigo – fear of depth? – assaulted me.
As I swooned Thomas, as always, was there to help me.
“Sire, are you all right?”
I drew myself up and said, “Yes, Thomas. Thank you.”
“Perhaps we should have carried you on a litter, had a motor car come out, even though it would have been dangerous –”
“A motor car?” I said in excitement.
Thomas smiled wanly. “More wonders than that await you, Sire.”
I couldn’t see how. The rock wall in front of us looked impervious, huge, faceless. Beside geological considerations, I couldn’t see any break in it at all.
“Where are we going?” I asked.
“Watch,” Thomas answered.
We approached the wall – must run straight into the wall, I thought – but then, as if by magic, it opened in front of us. There was no doorway and then, suddenly, there was – a wide, cool channel in the side of Olympus Mons that bade us enter.
As we passed in I heard a rumble and looked behind to see a huge door sliding from left to right shut behind us. It closed with a clang.
I looked at Thomas in the faint illumination, and he only smiled wanly.
“Like I said, Sire, more wonders.”
I nodded, and walked on, though my leg now had begun to ache.
We were in a cavern. The walls were lit with flowing colors – blue, red, green, yellow – in muted shades, as if from behind glass.
Thomas was beside, me, supporting me.
“Only a little farther to go.”
I nodded, and accepted his help.
There was another wall of rock before us, which irised away.
And then–
We were in the largest space I had ever seen.
I gasped – and so did others around me.
Thomas did not make a sound, and I looked over at him curiously.
“I have been here before, Sire,” he said.
“You helped design this place, yes?”
He stared at me.
“Your long trips to the west,” I explained.
“Newton was involved also, as was Xarr.”
“Where is Xarr?” I asked, suddenly afraid for the old general.
“He fights for you, sire,” Thomas replied, and when I pressed him he would say no more.
We moved deeper into the cavern. There were prodigious echoes here. Each footfall produced a booming cacophony, only multiplied by our number.
Something suddenly occurred to me.
“Why are we moving down, instead of up?
“Because that is where we are headed,” Thomas answered.
Again, when I pressed him, he was cryptic.
“You shall see.”
It was not long before I did. The first cavern opened up, after another, five times the size of the first, into a second, and even larger, space. I gasped again. We were in a world unto itsel
f, a chamber the size of a small ocean, with the far shore well over the horizon. The floor was red rock, cracked and split like the surface of a neglected, burned, cracked pudding. The ceiling was crimson rock streaked with flashes of light like lightning. I heard a distant boom of what must be thunder.
I turned to Thomas.
“Did I not tell you that we would see wonders?” he said.
“Where are we?”
“In the bowels of Olympus Mons, if you like. The tame-able bowels of this dead mountain. There are many tubes of lava on the various terraced slopes of this volcano. There are many lava river beds, like the one we just walked. But there is only one space like this, so far as we know.”
“Is it –?”
“It is natural?” he interjected. “For the most part. There are areas along the perimeter that have been, shall we say, customized. You shall see them, of course. Most of the volcano is unexplored. It would take years. There are rumors of an ocean deep in the depths, but we were not able to find it. This is a very old place. There are even rumors of ghosts.”
I stared with my eyes open at the cathedral ceiling at least five hundred feet above me, the vast expanse.
“When did you –”
“When did we build this?” Thomas asked. “That is a simple question to answer. We began on the day of your birth.”
“But –”
“Oh, yes,” my faithful servant answered, “we always knew this day might come, sooner if not later.”
Again he was cryptic: “All of us.”
Seven
It is amazing to me that a creature, any creature, can survive outside of its own environment. We are all animals of habit. I was nurtured in relative luxury, and I became used to that luxury – and now that it was gone, I was not doing well. I knew this was mostly my fault, as well as the result of my lack of toughness, but that made it no less easy to deal with.
It was harder still to cope with because, as Thomas has said, I had studied my mother’s life. Though she was little more than a historical figure to me, someone to be read about, she was, naturally, more than that – a symbol as well as a target. Though I had never felt my mother’s arms around me (that I could remember), could not recall her face, did not have the advantage of her counsel, I still felt her pull upon me. I was her son, and very much so.
And yet I was alone. I knew that too. I knew that as easily as I breathed in hacking gasps at this great height (15,000 feet – and still barely a quarter of the way up this monstrous mountain of 69,000 feet!), as easily as I caught the looks of those around me. They expected me to fail, to succumb to frailness, to die, and yet I resolved that I would not. I would not only show all of them that I was my mother’s son, but that I was my own man! Which naturally set me back when I awoke after fainting to find Thomas’ face hovering over me like a hot air balloon.
“How long...”
“Barely a day, sire,” Thomas said diplomatically. “It is a common occurrence. I have been here frequently, during construction, and so am used to it. I should have foreseen that you would not be.” He smiled. “You are not the only one who suffered such a reaction.”
“Did I miss –?”
He gave a short nod. “Yes, you missed the memorial ceremony for my mother and the others murdered by Frane. But we waited for the service for your sister.”
“Thank you.”
“We will schedule the service for whenever you want.”
“Tomorrow morning before dawn will be fine.”
“Tomorrow morning? But protocol maintains that the daughter of a Queen be memorialized at noon during a state service –”
“We will do it the way my mother would do it.”
Thomas looked perplexed.
“You remarked that I studied my mother’s life, Thomas. Then you should remember yourself that during the time she lived with the nomad clan of Mighty she adopted their ways in many things. I don’t believe she ever renounced their burial ceremony, did she?”
Thomas said, “No.”
“Then my sister Amy will be remembered with a similar ceremony. I remember the words and what must be done. Do not worry.”
He looked at me a moment, and then nodded.
“Yes, sire.”
“Good. And thank you, Thomas.”
The way I said it must have made him cock his head in query.
“For what, sire?”
“For everything. You have been with me since I was a kit, and I’m afraid I sometimes have taken you for granted. This is inexcusable. Without you I would be dead now.” I gestured at my surroundings, a near perfect reproduction of my rooms back in Wells. The window was missing, of course, since we were halfway up a volcano and hiding like rabbits.
He bowed. “It is my service, sire. What I swore to.”
“It is more than that. You are like a brother and a father all rolled up into one. I just wanted you to know I am old enough now to understand that.”
There was color to his cheeks, behind his spare fur. “Thank you, sire.”
“You will never call me sire again. You will call me Sebastian, just like always.”
It was his turn to say something wise. “I’m sorry, but I can’t do that. It would not be right. Whether you like it or not, sire, you are now grown up. There are many who rely on you, and many who have already laid down their lives in your name.”
This shocked me, and it must have showed on my face. Suddenly I was weak, and looked for a chair. I curled to the floor and lay there panting.
Thomas was instantly at my side. “I’m sorry, sire, I didn’t mean to upset you.”
“I don’t know if I can do this, Thomas!”
I could tell from his startled look that my face was pale, my eyes wide with panic.
Again, I thought of my mother, and steeled myself.
“I would wish that no one else ever see me like that.”
Thomas said something that startled me: “I do not envy you, sire. For all the coin on Mars, I would not be in your position.”
I took a deep breath and, with Thomas’ help, drew to my feet. “I fear we have difficult times ahead.”
“Yes,” he replied. “But you have many who will stand behind you.”
I felt instantly, strangely stronger. “I know that. And you are first among them.”
“Yes.” He had a faraway look, and then he said, “Did you know, sire, that the man who betrayed your mother was my Uncle?”
It was my turn to startle him. “Yes, I knew that.”
“How –”
“There are more wagging tongues than your own, Thomas. Suffice it to say I heard it in the scullery.”
“Fat Brenda!” he said, and for a moment his lips thinned with anger.
“No, it was not her, though it might have been. It is common knowledge.”
“The thing is,” he went on, “is that I feel responsible to this day for what my Uncle did. He brought great shame on my family.”
“He brought shame on himself. No man’s actions can be blamed on others.”
“Your mother put great trust in him, and look what he did to her.”
I tried to harden my voice, the way I had sometimes practiced in front of the mirror in my room when no one was there. I had never sounded convincing. “Your Uncle was an idealist and a fool. Are you an idealist and a fool, Thomas?”
My practice must have paid off, because he nearly shouted, “No!”
“Good. Then we need not speak of this again. I must say that I will miss those days when you called me Sebastian.”
“So will I, sire.”
When I turned around he had gone, closing the door gently behind him.
My sister’s memorial ceremony was held the next morning, before the sun rose, as Phobos moved silently overhead, as I wished. In the clan of Mighty it was known as the Moon Ceremony. We assembled on the plain where our airship had landed, a quarter mile from the secret door into the mountain. Phobos was dim and strange, a faint lantern, as I muttere
d the same words my mother had spoken over the graves she had dug with her own hands of Mighty and his band, after they had been treacherously murdered by agents of the same Frane we now fought:
O mighty son of the sky,
Fierce night warrior,
Guardian of the dark ways,
Help me in my pursuits
If they be worthy ones,
And let me not stray
From the path of righteousness,
From the road of good deeds,
And from the way which leads
To the well being of my people.
There were tears in my eyes as I finished. I began to struggle for breath, but hid it in front of all these people. I looked over at Thomas who regarded me with alarm, but held his place. I nodded. The world went black for a moment but then I regained my composure and my breath returned.
“Thank you for coming,” I said, my voice a strong gasp, and then I turned away from the multitude of eyes that regarded me.
I turned back, drawing weak air deep into my lungs.
“We face difficult days ahead,” I said, and my voice grew louder with my words. “More difficult than those behind us. My sister was but one of those who died. Many of you have suffered greater losses. Do not think for a moment that I do not know this, or appreciate your sacrifices.” My voice grew even stronger, and for a moment I felt my mother’s blood surge through me. “Do not forget this: Frane will never win.”
Then, my strength all but exhausted, I used the last of it to walk proudly from that place and back to my simulacrum room, where I immediately collapsed.
Eight
Many weeks passed. As Thomas had predicated, my lungs gradually grew used to the thin air. After a while, I relished it, looked forward to the momentary fight when I seemed to be overwhelmed and then, summoning my reserves, overcame the crisis. Each episode seemed to make me stronger.
And I was growing stronger physically, too. The passage from kithood to adulthood was swift and, as I had been told to expect, thoroughly frightening. I grew three inches in the scant time we had been at Olympus Mons, and my stamina seemed to develop along with my age.
We held Council meetings of a sort, and the news was almost never good. General Xarr had been pushed out of Wells altogether, and had resorted to a holding action in Bradbury to the immediate west of the capital city. But now Bradbury seemed on the verge of falling.
Sebastian of Mars Page 4
