Angels and Djinn, Book 3: Zariel's Doom (8 page)

Iyasu watched the huge white sails spin relentlessly in the centers and tops of the huge shining towers that dotted the city here and there, some tall and slender, some short and broad, and all armored in the dark golden shades of bronze. The sunlight glinted off thousands of glass windows, many in straight angular rows, but plenty more in circular settings and positioned at different angles. Long dark ropes hung from roof to roof and tower to tower, forming a great web across the strange shining city.

With each approaching step, they discovered more about the bronze metropolis. They heard rhythmic clanking and pattering, and heard hissing and whistling, and saw magnificent plumes of steam blasting into the air along the water’s edge. Smells of oil and coal snaked through the air on the warm wind, punctuated by sharp spices and other more sickly odors.

“What do people do in cities?” Kamil asked. “There doesn’t seem to be much room for growing food.”

“No, there isn’t. Food is brought in from the farms out there.” Iyasu waved vague inland. “Or from the sea. The people who live in cities are craftsmen. They make things. Clothing, tools, pottery, glasswares… but this place… This place is definitely different.”

“Because of all the loud metal things?”

“Yes. The machines.”

“Machines.” The boy peered at him. “They scare you?”

Iyasu blinked as he considered his state of mind. “I suppose they do, a little.”

“Don’t worry, darling, I won’t let the machines hurt you.” Azrael smiled at him. It was a weary smile, a fleeting one, but most of hers were exactly that, and Iyasu knew the true depth of the joy and love and amusement that lived behind them.

At least, I think I do.

They walked along dusty lanes between small stone houses, and then upon roads paved with cracked bricks, and then roads built from heavy slabs. The houses grew taller, interspersed with shops, many with glass windows that revealed glimpses of the strange clothing and artworks and homewares for sale within.

The people they passed in the street were not particularly strange, though. They had the same light brown complexion as the people of Shivala, and they wore similar layers of robes and coats, though the patterns and colors were far more elaborate and the stitching more cunning. Iyasu also noted the many small brass chains that the people wore about their waists, and from their necks, all snaking in and out of cuffs and hems and pockets as though to secure many small valuables.

“Excuse me.” Azrael turned to a middle-aged woman wearing many shades of blue pacing thoughtfully along beside them. “What is the name of this city?”

“Dalyamuun,” she replied. “You are newcomers?”

“Yes, we just arrived.” The angel gestured to the towers and windmills. “We’ve never seen a place like this before.”

The woman smiled. “I’m not surprised. I doubt there is another city in all the world like Dalyamuun. We are building the future, some would say. Which is to say, we are seeking deeper truths. The causes and the means and the fashions of all things. With understanding comes prosperity, and more importantly, peace.”

“I see.” Azrael paused. “So this is a city of scholars?”

“Scholars, priests, engineers, explorers, doctors… all sorts. The finest in the world. All working tirelessly on so many wonders.”

“I’ve never heard of this place,” Iyasu said. “But it can’t be many days’ travel from Shivala over land, across the desert. Who do you trade with?”

Again the woman smiled. “With no one. We stand apart. Alone. Isolated by the sea and the sand. Our ships sail only to catch fish and to explore remote places, and our roads lead only to our own farms, and no farther. One day, when we have all the answers to all the questions, when we can cure all ills and heal all hates, and make the world a paradise, we will reveal ourselves. But not before.”

“But if you have so much knowledge, you could help so many people right now,” Azrael said. “There are so many people suffering all across the world, from so many things. If you can even cure one disease…?”

“Yes, we know. The world is full of pain.” The woman’s smiled faded. “But that is why—”

“That’s why you have to hide,” Kamil interjected. “If everyone knew about your machines and cures, and the other things you have, they would come and take them, and fight over them.”

The woman peered at the boy. “Clever one, isn’t he?”

Iyasu felt a darkness hovering over the woman and he said, “But what about visitors, like us? Surely some people must come here from time to time.”

“Yes, they do, from time to time. And when they do, someone comes to greet them, and explain our ways, and help them find a home here.”

Kamil looked at her quizzically. “And what if we don’t want to live here?”

“You wouldn’t be the first, or the last, but you will stay all the same.” The woman in blue paused and nodded past them.

Iyasu turned and saw a trio of strange shapes following them. The riders upon the creatures were simply men in robes of green and gold and black, armored lightly in small steel plates cleverly arranged and secured by small steel chains, but their mounts were bizarre in the extreme. One moment they looked like horses, the next like rhinoceroses, as they swayed and nodded their long heads. But their flesh was all of burnished bronze.

When the three riders finally stopped in a loose ring around the three visitors, Iyasu saw how magnificently the metal beasts were constructed, with dozens of overlapping sheets and plates of metal to allow the animals to move like creatures of flesh and blood, and thousands of tiny white rivets lined the seams in their metal hides, workmanship like nothing the seer had seen before.

“Unicorns.” Kamil half raised his hand toward the long curving horn on the head of the bronze beast nearest to him. The horn began with a sword-like blade at the front, rose to a needling spearhead, and ended with a vicious serrated edge on its rear side.

“Unicorns are a myth,” the woman in blue said. “These, however, are very real. These are the karkadann. And they will ensure that you do not reveal our existence to the outside world.”

“How, exactly?” Iyasu asked.

“They’re machines. They do not grow tired or hungry, and you cannot injure them,” their captor explained. “And they can run three times the speed of the fastest man. A small army of them stand guard around Dalyamuun, and they have never failed to stop someone trying to flee our borders.”

At that moment, a soft buzzing sound filled the air and a crackle of white lightning danced up the length of the nearest beast’s horn, sizzling and snapping as white sparks rained on the ground. And then the buzzing died away, and the lightning vanished.

“No one ever leaves?” Iyasu nodded slowly as he continued to study the life-like machines with his keen eyes. “I believe you.”

He did believe her. Every word. The karkadann were without question the perfect weapons to patrol a reclusive people’s lands and protect their secrets. Fast, strong, tireless, and merciless.

Not that it matters to us.

The seer glanced at Azrael.

As long as these things can’t fly, they can’t touch us.

“You made these?” Kamil leaned closer to the creatures. “With your hands?”

“With our hands, and our tools,” one of the riders said.

“Can you show me?” the boy asked.

The rider smiled. “Perhaps. One day.”

“Do you have books here?” Kamil turned from the riders back to the woman in blue. “Iyasu said he used to learn from something called books, and teachers. Do you have those here?”

The woman smiled so broadly that most of her face was lost to her wrinkles. “We do indeed. Would you like to meet some of our scholars, or perhaps some of our engineers?”

“Yes, I would.” Kamil turned back to the nearest karkadann, his hand still hovering near its monstrous horn.

“Um.” Iyasu put his hand lightly on the boy’s shoulder. “That’s certainly something we can talk about later.”

“Yes, later.” The smiling woman clasped her hands. “We should get you settled in your new home. Come along.”

She strode away down the street, leaving the karkadann riders to herd the three travelers behind her. And as they walked down the avenue, Iyasu noticed that the mechanical beasts were not merely elaborate war-wagons being controlled by their riders through some hidden means, but they did in fact move and behave like living animals. They shuffled and walked at different paces, swinging their heads from side to side, angling their eyes to peer at their prey as well as at the glassy windows beside them.

I doubt that attacking the rider would leave these machines defenseless. In fact, I wouldn’t be surprised if attacking the rider would leave these things free to rampage out of control…

A few minutes later they arrived at a gate, and beyond the gate was a small courtyard, and therein were two more karkadann riders guarding four doors to four small homes, all with only the one exit through the gate. And, as they were informed, that exit was guarded at all times.

The woman then introduced herself as Sister Neelam, explained that supper would be delivered later, and then promised to return the next day to speak with them again. And she left with a smile.

Iyasu stood in the courtyard and watched her depart with the three riders from the street, leaving them in the custody of the two mounted guards who had already been there when they arrived. He turned and looked at Azrael. “We have strange luck.”

“Very.” She rested her hand on the back of his neck. “But I don’t suppose we’ll be prisoners here for very long.”

“No, no. I’m not worried about that. But we do have strange luck.” He watched the two karkadann standing by the closed gate. The bronze beasts shuffled their feet from time to time, and angled their heads to point their shining black eyes here and there, all while their riders sat motionless with their arms folded over their chests.

“You want to leave, don’t you?” Kamil asked him.

“Don’t you?” Iyasu turned to the boy.

“No. Why would I?”

Iyasu paused. “Well, never mind that. We’ll come back to that later. First, I want to meet our new neighbors.”

“What neighbors?” Azrael asked.

“The guards were here when we arrived,” the seer said. “So someone is already here being guarded.”

He knocked on the first door, and when there was no answer he tried the second and the third, again without an answer. But when he struck the fourth door, he heard a muffled voice followed by laughter. He knocked again, frowning as he strained to hear. There was silence, then a dull thud, and then the door flew open to reveal a tall muscular man wearing absolutely nothing except a brash smile on his bearded face.

“Good afternoon!” the man bellowed.

“Put your pants on!” A woman laughed from the room behind him.

“You first!” The man turned and ran back into the room, leaving Iyasu to stare through the open door as the man dove onto the bed, where his momentum carried him and the nude woman lying there completely off the far side and onto the floor with a loud thump, followed by another peal of laughter.

The seer turned back to the Angel of Death. “Very strange luck.”

Chapter 7

The seer stood outside the open doorway, facing the courtyard and trying not to blush as he called out, “My name is Iyasu. I’m a cleric from Shivala.”

“A pleasure!” the man called out. “I’m Rahm of Zathruda. I’m sure you’ve never heard of it. No one has, as far as I can tell.”

“Is it very far to the east?” Iyasu asked.

“Why?” The man leaned out the doorway, his pants on but not yet belted, his unbuttoned shirt hanging open from his huge shoulders. He peered down at the seer. “Planning an invasion?”

Iyasu shrugged. “Not today.”

“Ha!” Rahm smacked the younger man on the arm and ducked back into his room.

Iyasu winced and massaged his throbbing arm, and stepped a bit farther away from the doorway. “And your friend? I only ask out of curiosity, still no plans of invasion.”

Rahm roared with laughter. “I like you!” And then a bit softer, “I like him, don’t you? I do. Quiet little fellow, but there’s a wicked imp in him, you can tell.” And then louder again, “You’re about to have the most wondrous moment of your life, little man, as you are introduced to my incomparable wife, the crown princess of Sungarath, the radiant, the devastating…”

“…the impatient,” the woman in question said.

“Hadara!” Rahm strode out through the doorway again, this time with his shirts and coats all properly fastened and his long black mane tied back in a loose queue. He gestured to the doorway and his wife appeared, a woman no less tall or powerful or amused as her husband. She paced out into the courtyard wearing a lightly flowing dress of orange and gold silk, and her dark brown hair hung freely nearly to her waist beneath a gossamer drape of golden lace.

“Hello, Iyasu of Shivala,” she said with a smile. “It’s very nice to meet you. Won’t you introduce us to your friends?”

Iyasu paused to collect himself. He had certainly seen tall people before, and strong people, and beautiful people, but never all three at once, and never two of them standing side by side. They scarcely seemed human in their casual perfection, fearless and powerful and fiercely happy.

“This is Azrael.” He reached out to take her hand. “And this is Kamil. We rescued him from an island just yesterday.”

“Did you really? That sounds like a grand adventure.” Rahm beamed. “Tell us all about it!”

“Actually, there’s nothing to tell. We simply helped him to sail his boat across the sea to the coast near here.”

“Ah.” Rahm shrugged. “Well, not every day can be a grand adventure.”

“And then you had the misfortune of coming into this city?” Hadara asked.

“Yes.” Azrael turned her back to the guards by the gate. “Did you come here by accident as well?”

“No, not at all.” Rahm folded his bulging arms across his broad chest and eyed them all in turn. “We were sent here, with no warning at all of the welcome we would receive, and we’ve been here for nearly a month now!”

“A month?” Iyasu frowned.