by Conner, Jack
She nodded. “It’s no ordinary artifact. It occurred to me that the pirates might know something about it, so when I came aboard to liberate the crew, I, well ... asked some of the pirates about it.”
Avery held back a shudder. “What did you learn?”
“One of them had overheard something in a tavern. The relic was taken from a monastery in the Atosh Islands.”
“Wasn’t that occupied by Octung?”
“It was, and during their occupation the Octunggen did much digging among old ruins on the islands. Apparently they’ve done that in many places. Well, after we activated the Device the islanders were able to rise up against them, but some Octunggen survived and held out long enough for the pirates to reach them and bring both the soldiers and some relic they had extracted from the monastery with them back to Colu. The Atosh Islands were founded by the Ysstral Empire, and the monastery was something they built—around the most ancient of the ruins.”
“Why would the Ysstrals worship some old ruins?”
“All I know is there was an old Ysstral religion—cult, maybe, though it was large and organized—that a lot of the aristocracy belonged to, and that the monastery was established by them.”
“Interesting. How high did the cult go?”
“As high as the Emperor.”
“Mari—Ani’s mother—belonged to the old royal family of Ghenisa.”
“The Drakes. Yes, I know.”
“Well, they shared blood ties with the Ysstral Imperials.”
“You wonder if it’s possible some version of that ancient Ysstral faith was preserved among them.”
He recalled Ani’s strange dreams. “If so, Mari never spoke of it, and she personally belonged to the faith of the Three Sisters. Still, it’s an intriguing thought. The monastery the relic came from might be some remnant of her family’s religion.” He shook his head. “What does it all mean?”
To that Layanna had no answer.
Chapter 7
“Ain’t what I expected,” Janx said, as the ship passed between the twin lighthouses known as the Bookends, one rising from each spit of land that encircled Ilynmarc Harbor, and came in sight of the docks.
“Me, either,” Avery agreed.
They’d anticipated hordes of Navy vehicles awaiting their arrival in Hissig, but Avery could see none, not at the civilian marina, anyway. Toward the south, at the foot of black and looming Fort Brunt, was another matter. Navy men and women moved along the military docks and ships briskly and efficiently, and in large numbers. Fortunately the Verignun made for the civilian docks, as Captain Greggory had promised. Furthermore, it appeared he’d kept his promise not to alert the Navy of their coming. He’d even gone so far as to hail the docking authorities under a false name so that any agents Grand Admiral Haggarty had among them wouldn’t send out the alarm.
The five stood at the bow watching Hissig approach, Ani bobbing up and down at Avery’s side and gripping his hand tightly.
“Home,” she said. “We’re almost home.”
The others may have been filled with trepidation, but not her. Avery put on a smile and patted her back. “That’s right.”
A layer of fog wrapped the lower reaches of the city, but the many ancient towers and domes hunched above it, large batkin sweeping about, likely having flown in from the Borghese Mountains which sheltered the city on the north and western sides, their jagged peaks red by the light of the rising sun. Hissig was the northernmost point of Ghenisa, its largest city and capital.
The Verignun docked and Captain Greggory oversaw the many procedures that needed to be accomplished before he could begin dismissing the crew. Dock officials met with him, one demanding to know why he’d hailed them under a false name (he passed it off as a joke, but Avery’s party needed to be gone by the time they made their report), papers were signed, and the captain appeared thoroughly depressed through it all; he’d returned home with some money from selling whale flesh and other catches to various ports but without a significant amount of hot lard, still much needed by the country, whose stores had been depleted by the war, and, even worse, with many casualties and much damage to his ship besides. His investors would not be pleased. Avery wondered if their insurance covered pirate attack and abduction; it might.
Avery half thought about simply fleeing, avoiding any entanglements with the police whatsoever, but Captain Greggory, evidently unwilling to go against the authorities to that extent, must have called them; Avery noticed police vehicles waiting along the street past the crowded parking lot bordering the marina. Dark-clad police officers milled around looking expectant, fingering their weapons. Avery wondered if there were a reward, and if Greggory expected to receive it.
Turning to Janx, Avery said, “You’re sure your contact will be able to bail us out immediately—the fight promoter?”
“I’m sure,” Janx said.
“There’s no time to be wasted.”
“I said I’m sure.”
“Are they going to take us to jail?” Ani asked, and for the first time Avery heard a quaver in her voice.
“Only briefly,” he assured her.
“Jail ain’t nothin’,” Hildra told the girl, and Hildebrand chattered encouragingly on her arm. “You’ll do fine. I’ve been behind more bars than a horned slug in a zoo, and look at me.”
Ani looked, and Hildra made a face. Ani giggled.
It wasn’t long before Captain Greggory reached a point where he could duck away for a few minutes. He rounded up a dozen men and women and led Avery’s group off the ship, down the wide and busy docks and through the parking lot toward the street where the police vehicles waited to receive them. The group had shed their environment suits, and the air clung warm and heavy to Avery’s skin. Summer had come. Sweat thrust up through his pores, sticking his shirt to the small of his back, and he told himself it was because of the heat. In his right hand he held the briefcase containing the Starfish samples, in his left, Ani’s hand. In one pocket rested the god-killing knife.
“It will be okay,” he said, trying to be cheerful for Ani’s sake, just as figures burst from concealment, all in Navy uniforms and body armor, pointing shotguns and submachine guns at the group from the Verignun. The Navy storm troopers had been hidden behind cars and inside vans parked along the street, scores of them. Now they swarmed about, shouting and gesturing with their guns, riot armor glinting.
“Down! On the ground NOW! All of you! ON THE GROUND! NOW!”
Janx grabbed Hildra and shoved her to the ground while Avery did the same for Ani. Pale-faced, Captain Greggory raised his hands over his head and sank to his knees, then lowered himself all the way. His people followed suit.
Alone, Layanna remained standing.
The circle of Navy troops closed in. Their guns seemed huge.
“Submit!” called a voice from among the Navy personnel, and their ranks parted to reveal a severe-looking officer. “Do not resist.”
In answer, the air shimmered around Layanna, and strange colors began to dance along street and cars.
“Now!” the officer shouted.
Figures emerged wearing a different sort of armor and carrying long, faintly translucent whips that dripped moisture and stank of otherworldly poison. A full dozen men and women bore the whips, and they completely encircled Layanna, closing in fast. This was why they’d arranged the deception, Avery realized: so they could block her off from the sea and employ the whips, which Sheridan must have ordered for them. They knew the sea was the source of Layanna’s strength and that if they had revealed themselves too soon she would not have allowed herself to move away from it. But how had they known she was here?
Tires squealed and a solid line of vehicles rushed up the street. Guns fired overhead. The thunder of a tank boomed.
Army vehicles, Avery saw, over twenty of them, transports and jeeps, and several tanks, too. They barreled onto the scene, smoke boiling from their exhaust pipes and guns, soldiers firing into the air from running boa
rds and exposed seats. They were only warning shots, but that could change in a heartbeat.
“Fall back!” the Navy officer shouted.
The Navy troops, including the ones with the blurwhips, backed off, and the Army vehicles screeched to a halt. Soldiers erupted from the transports and arrayed against the outnumbered Navy storm troopers.
“Come with us,” a woman said through a bullhorn, standing up from the passenger seat in the lead jeep and addressing Layanna. “We mean you no harm. Hurry!”
The Navy officer barked into a radio, demanding backup. It would only take minutes to arrive, Avery knew, with Fort Brunt being so near. Just the same, Layanna returned the Army woman’s gaze coldly, mistrustfully. For a moment it appeared she would refuse the woman’s request, but then she closed her eyes and seemed to make herself relax. The air around her stilled. Everyone in the area gasped and shook their heads, as if reorienting themselves. Even the air changed texture.
Avery picked himself off the ground, then Ani. Janx stood, casting suspicious glances at the Navy troops. They didn’t lower their weapons, but they made no move to advance. Hildra bent and beckoned to Hildebrand, who had scurried away at the onset of violence. The monkey ran up her arm, eye wide.
“Quickly!” repeated the woman in the jeep, gesturing to the empty seats behind her.
Taking Ani’s hand, Avery led the way over and climbed into the seat behind the Army woman, putting Ani on his knee. That broke the indecision. Janx, Hildra and Layanna approached and squeezed in. It was a tight fit.
Captain Greggory, who’d risen off the ground, was glaring from the Army soldiers to the Navy, but said nothing.
“Roll out!” the Army woman called, and half the military vehicles, including the jeep, lurched forward. The half-convoy turned down a side street and moved from the marina while the other half remained to prevent the Navy troops from giving pursuit. It was only when the procession turned again, and the stand-off was lost from sight, that Avery realized he’d been holding his breath.
“I’m General Tav Hastur,” said the Army woman, turning in her seat. Now that she was closer, Avery could see she was not much older than himself, perhaps forty-four or –five, but physically his opposite, tall and spare, even gaunt, with visible bones in her face, her eyes glinting from deep sockets. Her voice was flat and brusque, used to giving orders and having them obeyed. She reminded Avery of a rifle, lean and cocked and lethal.
“Pleased to meet you,” he said when none of the others spoke. “I’m Dr. Francis Avery, and this is my daughter Ani.”
“Hi,” Ani squeaked.
“And these are Janx Corlul Maigard, famous whaler and notorious prizefighter, Hildra—ah, Hildra—and Layanna of the House of Uul.”
“Pleased to meet you all,” the general said, not batting an eye at the last appellation. Janx, Hildra and Layanna watched her stonily. “I’m sorry about your reception back there,” Hastur said. “A little misunderstanding between us and the Navy.”
“Fucking misunderstanding I’ll—” Hildra started.
“I think I understand that much,” Avery interjected. “The Navy’s loyal to Admiral Haggarty. It seems the Army is loyal to the Prime Minister. The struggle between the two continues unabated, then.”
The general nodded guardedly. “That’s about the size of it. But how it got to be this way—well.”
She was just a soldier following orders, Avery realized. Loyal to the government and confused why a fellow leader of the military, albeit a separate wing, would not be. Avery could have enlightened her, but he doubted the answer would have reassured her even if she had believed it.
“Where are we bound?”
“The Parliament Building. Prime Minister Denaris is waiting for you.”
“The P.M. her own self?” Janx said, sounding intrigued.
“She’s quite looking forward to it.”
For the first time since the marina, Layanna spoke. Her voice was not cold, but it was cautious: “Are we prisoners of the Army?”
The general seemed shocked. “You’re not prisoners at all. Why, you’re honored guests.”
They fell into silence as the procession wended its way toward the Parliament Building. The grim black buildings of the Ysstral Empire, bedecked with sinister arches and nightmarish gargoyles, loomed all around, infesting the city with their presence, but more modern art-deco buildings stood amongst them. Hissig was a city known not just for its bloody history but also for its art and poetry, and there were art galleries and taverns where writers would gather, all silent at this hour. Temples to various gods hunched here and there, some quite ancient, dating back to times even before the advent of the Atomic Sea.
The changes to the city amazed Avery.
“It’s so empty,” he said.
It was true. He judged that over half of the refugees that had flocked to Hissig during the war, awaiting transportation over the sea or the means to purchase it (however desperate), seemed to have vanished, leaving their detritus behind. They had erected shantytowns in markets, plazas, alleys and sidewalks, and though the refugees had disappeared, their shantytowns remained. Avery saw a group of elderly folk, retired volunteers perhaps, already out sweeping up leftover garbage and knocking lean-tos down. He wondered how long it would take to completely remove the refugees’ traces. Perhaps forever. Some scars just didn’t heal.
“Yes,” the general replied. “The sparrows have gone back to their roosts—most of them. We’re still trying to get rid of the rest. They’ve turned to thievery, murder for hire, drug trafficking, prostitution. It’s how they’ve survived so long. Many starved to death, or sold themselves or their children into slavery to foreign ships off the coasts. The ones still around found ways to make it, but they’ve had to become parasites to do so. Some were doctors and lawyers back home, but here ... killers, drug dealers, peddlers of flesh, whether their own or someone weaker. They’re a blemish on the city, and we’d like ‘em gone, but the fact is Octung still occupies many territories, and they don’t all have places to go.”
“Octung’s still around, huh?” Janx said. “I thought we got ridda ‘em.”
“Oh, they’re much reduced, but they’re still around, rest assured.”
“I feel ...” Layanna said. Gazing around, she blinked slowly.
“What is it?” Avery asked.
“Something ...” Suddenly she clutched her head, a gasp at her lips.
“Layanna! What’s wrong?”
“It’s—” She let out a sound almost like a growl. “It’s a ray.”
Avery’s head snapped up. For a moment, he saw nothing. But then, appearing from around a building, drifted the vast dark wedge-shape of a creature much like a manta ray, its wings stretching a mile to either side and its long, barb-tipped tail trailing miles behind it. Air blurred around its wings as it moved, cleaving dimensions like a man would cleave ice cream with his tongue, and though it must be flying miles above the city it still seemed huge.
Avery let out a hiss. “I’d hoped they were all dead.”
“There’s still that one,” said the general. “Grand Admiral Haggarty’s favorite pet. It, or the psychic working through it, can strike fear into the hearts of my troops, make them seize up or even go mad. Some just fall to the ground. That’s when Haggarty’s troops attack, when we’re helpless.”
“Can’t believe there’s open fighting between the Army and the Navy,” Janx said.
“It was rare until recently, but the incidences are increasing. Soon it will be all-out war.”
To Layanna, Avery said, “Are you all right?”
“I’ll be fine. But he’s aware of me now. The psychic. He’ll be bombarding me whenever he can.”
“Can you fight him?”
“I can hold him off for now.”
The jeep ascended into the hills where the wealthy lived, the great Parliament Building rearing from the largest of them, the orange stained-glass of its tower aglow with dawn light. Built after the Revoluti
on some fifty years ago, the building was free of the ominous architectural flourishes typified by the Ysstrals and the Drakes, but it was still baroque, built to look commanding and prestigious. Guards at black gates let the procession in, and as it trundled up to the marble steps, men in livery waited expectantly. General Hastur hopped out and showed Avery and the rest up the steps to meet the retainers.
“I’m to lead you to the Prime Minister,” one said.
Avery dusted himself off, drawing attention to the fact that their clothes had been caked with grime when they’d hit the ground back at the docks. “Perhaps we could wash and dress first,” he suggested.
“I’m most sorry, but I’m to lead you straight to her.”
“Like I said, you’re eagerly anticipated,” General Hastur said. “Well, I’ll leave you to it. It’s been a pleasure.”
They said their good-byes and she climbed back into her jeep and motored away, the military procession following, but not going far. Avery realized he had seen numerous Army vehicles near the Parliament Building as the convoy had approached it. Did they surround it? Was the Parliament Building under a sort of siege and they its defenders?
“Please, if you would,” said the aide.
As other aides took their few bags, he showed the group past the rearing granite pillars and inside. Their footfalls echoed on the marble floors and off the elaborate mosaics along the walls. It had taken ten years to complete this building, Avery knew; it had been started shortly after the Revolution, and two governments had collapsed before it was ready to house the third. Avery remembered the various coups and executions from his boyhood, the sound of gunshots and screams echoing through the city, and it awed him that the woman who had put all that behind Ghenisa, who had ushered in a new age of solid, benevolent government and rife optimism—the New Dawn—was the very person they were about to meet.
“Denaris,” he breathed. “The Granite Rock herself.”
They were just passing a long silken banner with Prime Minister Denaris’s proud face staring out from it, bold chin aimed like the prow of a warship, eyes like searchlights.
