Dragonfly: A Tale of the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes (24 page)

47 Death by Moonlight

We backed the car slowly out of view. “Well,” I said, “what now?”

“I’m thinking,” said Perses. “As I see it, there’s only one thing we can do. We’ll have to creep along the tracks under the cover of night, scale the cliffs, and catch the garrison unawares from above.”

“How many of them do you suppose there are?”

Perses shrugged. “I don’t know,” he said. “Ten?”

“All men? Or a mixture of men and ghulim?”

“That’s a good question. I imagine that they’d have maybe three or four men and a contingent of ghulim, but really I have no idea.”

“We’d have to leave our car on the tracks,” I said. “The next train would be here before we could retrieve it.”

“True,” said Perses. “I suppose we’d have to push it over the edge.”

“But then how would we travel? If we’re going to lose the car anyway, I think we might as well just circle the gate and continue on foot without fighting.”

“That won’t work,” said Perses. “The cliff on the other side is too sheer. I don’t know about you, but I’d never be able to scale it. No, I think we’ll just have to gird up our loins and fight. You seem reluctant. Is there a reason for that? I’d rather you tell me now than let me find out in the heat of battle.”

“I do prefer to avoid fighting,” I said. “I kill only when necessary.”

“Well, sometimes it is necessary.”

“Yes,” I said. “I’m aware of the fact. But I’m not going to agree to such a desperate idea as what you’re suggesting until I’m certain I’ve exhausted my options.”

“Do you have a better idea?”

“Well, I don’t know,” I said. “Are you certain there’s no way around?”

“The only other route to Eblis circles far to the north and east. It’s a journey of many months requiring supplies and mounts. I’m not sure what schedule you’re on, but as for me…”

“No, that won’t do,” I agreed. “And the next train is due after dark?”

“Yes, around midnight.”

“It would take a good while for it to stop even after the brakes were applied, I suppose,” I said.

“Yes,” said Perses, somewhat impatiently.

“And how long would you say the tunnel is?”

“A few stades, perhaps. Why do you ask?”

“Do you think a train moving at full speed would be able to come to a stop in it, if the brakes weren’t applied until just before entering?”

“No, probably not, though I don’t know for certain. Why are you asking all this?”

“Now, our problem is this,” I said. “How do we get past the portcullis? We can’t if it’s closed. That much is obvious. All things considered, it seems unlikely that we could
make
the garrison lift the portcullis. So the only way is to have them open it of their own accord.”

“I don’t follow,” said Perses.

“Well, they have to open it for the train due later on tonight. If every train stops before passing through as a matter of course then my idea might not work. But that seems unlikely. At this point, the watchtower is probably just meant to regulate the traffic of cars like this one. A train can be searched any time they like.”

“What are you getting at? Do you propose we board the train?”

“No. We wait here for it. When we hear it coming, we start pedaling. Fast. If the timing is right it won’t matter if we’re spied from the tower. The train will come up from behind. You see? Let it hit the car. If we’re going fast enough it won’t derail us. At least I hope not. Then we sit back and let it push us right on through the tunnel and across the bridge.

“We should be past danger by the time it can stop, if they do try to stop it. There seems to be no way the warders could drop the gate without derailing the train, wrecking the tower, and blocking the tunnel. It would be a disaster, and they would want to avoid it at all costs, even if it meant letting us get away. I have no idea what would come after the bridge, of course. But that gets us past the tunnel.

“Well, what do you think?”

“I think that’s the most ridiculous idea I’ve ever heard,” he said. “I’m going to wait here until it gets dark. Then I’m going to walk down there, climb that cliff, and kill every living creature in that tower. You can come with me or not.”

My face became hot. “I’ll not abandon a companion,” I said. “But I think we’re throwing our lives away.”

By an unspoken agreement we separated to opposite ends of the car to wait. The sun had just set but its light lingered within the canyon walls, augmenting the creeping verdure. The sky slowly darkened. The full moon mounted majestically, crowned with icy rings. If it saw anything of interest it maintained an enigmatic reserve.

“It’s time,” Perses said at last. “Come now if you’re coming.”

I got down beside him. As my foot touched a rail an electric thrill shot through my body. I froze and looked at Perses. He followed my eyes to the rail. Kneeling, he put his ear to the metal. He immediately leaped to his feet.

“What is it?” I cried.

“The train is early. No time to push off the car. Looks like we’ll try your idea after all. Come on!”

Together we leaped back onto the car and took our places on the pedals. Soon we were going as fast as ever. A mechanical wail bore down on us. It was only the train’s signal to alert the garrison of its approach, but its solitary cry in that stony waste was a harbinger of approaching menace.

I glanced back and saw the engine’s hull. We had gotten too far ahead. I motioned to Perses, and we slowed the car down. The distance began to close. But the slope was steeper now, and we weren’t able to accelerate to our former speed. The faceless prow bore down on us, its intricate machinery starkly outlined by the brilliant moonlight, its parts moving in concert like an insect’s jaws.

With a jarring thud it struck. Our car bucked and reared. Perses somersaulted backward and landed on the deck with splayed limbs. I was flung to the side, narrowly escaping the plummet into the abyss by seizing the gear lever. That happened to disengage the gears, so that the pedals slowed and stopped.

I swung myself back on deck and met Perses at the front. We crouched there, swords in hand, tensed like maugrethim waiting to spring. The heat of the engine pounded our faces. So far there had been no signs of life on the train. I started to hope that the collision had gone unnoticed, but soon saw a solitary figure atop the engine, silhouetted against the luminous sky. Perses let off a bolt at him, and he dropped out of sight.

The tunnel was open now and the portcullis open. No alarm had been sounded yet on the watchtower. Our handcar escaped the warders’ notice until it was almost too late for them to act. A few desultory shots bounded off the engine and the deck, and then the train roared into the tunnel’s mouth.

We hadn’t long to wait for the first attack. Three guards leaped onto the car, one from the left and two from the right. We flung ourselves on the intruders. I ran my sword through one, who doubled over and tumbled off the side. The other two had attacked Perses. They could come at him only one at a time because of the driving mechanism. He dispatched each in turn.

The train kept up its speed, and we soon burst into the open. The tunnel’s mouth was a glowing orifice in a wall that stretched from tartarean depths to the starry vault. It receded rapidly as we shot over a suspension bridge high above the Ilissus.

The tracks climbed out of a cutting on the opposite side of the gorge. The basaltic uplifts had been left behind. The moon-blanched landscape was a spectral desert of wind-sculpted stone hills and canyons barred with black shadows.

We weren’t to be left in peace for long. There were signs of a renewed attack on the train. “You stay here and guard the car,” shouted Perses. “I’m going to see what’s happening.” There was no time for me to protest. Perses had already leaped to the locomotive and begun making his way along it. An instant later, two guards jumped onto the car from the other side.

Deinothax was a bar of white-hot metal in my hands now. I deflected a blow from my first adversary, slipped aside from the descending stroke, and drove my sword upward through his neck. The body tumbled to the wayside.

Now my remaining opponent and I began circling one another around the machinery in the middle. Three times we made the circuit. Then I saw my chance. I threw myself against the gear shift. The car jerked and the pedals sprang into life, throwing the soldier off his feet and pinning him to the deck. I was on him in an instant.

I rose, wiping my sword on the guard’s tunic. We were coursing along the side of a valley now, about to drop into its depths. The prospect was strewn with a thousand or ten thousand twinkling lights, a sea of sparks like a second firmament. Rows of white tents stretched as far as the eye could see. We were throwing ourselves upon the mustered hosts of Enoch.

Soon we were amongst the nearest. Sentinels raised the alarm. Teams of trained ghulim lined up along the tracks and began letting off volleys of crossbow bolts. Several glanced off my light armor before I thought to fling myself to the deck.

“Keftu!” I heard Perses cry. “Abandon the car! Quickly!”

I sheathed my sword, sprang to my feet, and bounded to the locomotive. The hot metal scorched my hands as I swung myself up and around the side. I groped my way into a recess filled with steam and smoke. There was a tremendous crash. The whole train shuddered. Fragments of the handcar spun up and out into the desert, glinting in the moonlight.

Suddenly Perses’ face dropped from above, upside-down and spattered with blood. “Greetings,” he said. He was grinning.

“What news?” I panted.

“Come and see.” He put out his hand and helped me mount to the top.

The last lights of the camp were disappearing behind the ridge we had just climbed. We had crashed through a second checkpoint. The locomotive was ours. The rest of the train was gone. Perses had released the coupling.

Soon the edge of the Deged fell away, and we went soaring over the desert on a great iron viaduct like a bridge over a sea of sand. I felt the dry air on my face. I was home again. The stars were bright in the sky over Eblis.

48 Desert Sand

The tracks were a vector to the east. The world flew by beneath us, the face of a featureless ball. We slept in shifts. Perses insisted that I go first, hoping I would sleep the night through. He was annoyed when I entered the steering compartment at the appointed time, but took his turn without argument.

He came out well before dawn. For an hour we watched the landscape fly by without talking. Eventually, though, Perses fell to describing the Afram terminus. It was an Enochite colony, he explained, the center of mining operations in the area. “That’ll be your first place to try,” he said. “You’ll get news there.”

“News of what?”

“Of Vaustus’ location, naturally. He doesn’t live in the Deserits, you know.”

“Aren’t you looking for him, too? Shouldn’t we stay together, at least at first?”

“I don’t think so. They’ll be looking for us. If we separate, we’ll have a better chance of going unnoticed.”

“Well,” I said, “you seem anxious to split up, at any rate, and I’ll not force my company on you. Do you know the way to Moabene?”

“Moabene? Of course,” he said, a little too nonchalantly. “What do you want there?”

“Nothing. I’d just heard of it. That’s all.”

“It’s the first major town south of Afram. It lies at the foot of the mountains, divided from the desert by the gorge of the Esta River. But you’ll do best by beginning with Afram. Druins don’t take to outsiders. You’ll find phylites in Afram.”

“I’m for Afram, then,” I said.

“We’ll get off this thing before we reach the city. It wouldn’t do to go rattling in with a stolen locomotive. I’ll go first while you wait behind. Then you can do what you like.”

“Very well,” I said. “To tell the truth, though, I’d hoped I could find some Druin clothing before I got into the city. I’m afraid I’ll be too conspicuous otherwise.”

“We’ll see what we can do,” said Perses.

We drove on through the night. The Deserits rose up like a black cloud on the horizon, eating up the stars. Another train passed by, bound for the west. Its guards peered after us and pointed, but it was unlikely that they would take action before they reached the Deged. At any rate, Perses remarked, the pursuit from the Tartassus had no doubt already begun.

We brought the train to a stop at a watering station a few miles out from the mountains. I distracted the watchman while Perses snuck up and disarmed him. We tied him up, and I took his cloak, mask, and head cloth.

Flights of stairs led us to the desert floor. The flats round about were dotted with wind-worn metal skeletons that hummed in the wind. Day was dawning over the Deserits.

“What are these things?” I asked.

“They’re left over from the earliest mining days,” said Perses. “The Enochites are mad for nephridium. They need it to power their space elevators and flying palace, and for a thousand other things. When they first found it out here they extracted it from under the sand by a process involving water. What they didn’t know was that the system of wells south of the mountains is recharged here by rainfall that comes from the Elodia basin. Their activity poisoned the water.

“Druins began falling ill and dying. They all had to move into the highlands, and there they lived a generation in misery. It was a great scandal, but it suited the Cheiropt, for the chaos helped to weaken the traditions here, so that the Druins fell completely under its sway. In time the poison flowed south and the water ran sweet again. The Druins came back down to their old homes. But the poison of the Cheiropt was already in their blood.”

“How long ago was that?”

“A chiliad or two. The water moves slowly.” Perses settled his wrappings and slung his bag over his shoulder. “Well,” he said, “here we separate.”

“So be it,” I said.

“So it must be, my friend. I have my errand, and you have yours. Wait one hour, then follow the viaduct to Afram. The city lies high up in a notch, but there’s a path from the flats. Look for the flag tied at its foot.”

“I’ll do that,” I said. “Farewell.”

“Farewell,” said Perses, “and good luck.” He set off at a trot into the east.

I waited until he was out of sight, then headed into the south, toward Moabene.

*          *          *          *          *

Day broke swiftly over the desert. I looked back as the first red rays were falling across the sand and saw a new train at the watering station. A body of armed men was pouring onto the platform. I would have been captured if I’d waited as Perses had said. I was uncomfortably close as it was, and hoped my cloak helped me blend in with the landscape.

All day long I made my way around the mountains. The igneous peaks were gaunt and gray and lifeless. Ahead and to my right the desert stretched on and on, unbroken, I supposed, until it came to the Wabe of the Pillar. The terrain varied little: rippled sand flats dotted with sticklike seed plants, dune fields, arroyos with stands of rattling reeds, rocky downs haunted by land crabs, the occasional oasis around an artesian well.

In the evening I rounded a particularly large peak whose southern slopes sheltered a valley, a fan-shaped fold of the mountains spilling out into the desert. There Moabene sat enthroned like a celestial city descended upon a seat of rugged earth, her broad bosom adorned with shimmering spires, her tapering arm draped along the pass where the High Road to Afram wound out of sight.

Tombs like black termite palaces loomed up out of the dusk, surrounded by a field of open-bottomed urns on piles of dust. I made my way amongst them, intending to bed down for the night.

A pale figure sprang up out of the shadows. “Are you the one I was to meet?” it cried.

“What?” I shouted. “What is it?” I thought at first that I’d been accosted by a ghost. But I quickly saw that it was only a girl. She reminded me of Seila and Perses. She had beautiful green eyes, and was close to my age, or a little older.

“Forgive me,” she said, having gotten a better look at me. “I mistook you for someone else.” She returned to the shadows where she had been hiding.

I made my way to the entrance of a tomb and sat in the dust, but didn’t go to sleep. The shadows gathered thickly about me. Presently five figures emerged from the dusk. Four were masked and armed; the fifth, their leader, was neither.

“Come out,” he called in a voice that was both negligent and predatory. “We know you’re here.” He waited, listening. The wind hissed through the tombs and urns. “Come out. There’s nothing to be afraid of. Don’t make us look for you.” Again he waited. Still nothing. “I’ll give you one last—”

“Spirits of fire,” I cried, striding out into the open. “Can’t you let a fellow sleep?”

The four silent ones drew back a pace, a poniard in each hand. Their master struck a languorous contraposto. “We’re looking for a woman,” he said. “She stole something of minor value. Have you seen her?”

“There’s no one here but the maugrethim that gnaw your fathers’ bones.”

The man’s eyes flashed. “No?” Then, to the others. “Spread out and search them.”

“I wouldn’t do that if I were you,” I said. “It might make me angry.”

“Do as I commanded,” the master said. “Deal with him first.”

I laughed out loud. “That’s what I hoped you’d say!” Without waiting I flung myself on my four attackers, careful not to let them surround me. When I was done there were four figures sprawled at my feet. I wiped my sword on one of them.

The master’s eyes glinted. “Excellent!”

“Ghulim!” I spat. “More like butchery than fighting. Haven’t you got anything worth my while?”

“You know they’re ghulim!” My answer was a contemptuous laugh. “Tell me,” he went on. “Where did you acquire your keen eye?”

“Here and there.”

“I could use a man like you. Come see me if you want a job.”

“Where will I find you?”

“At the Palace of Canthes. Ask for Exarch Stilerich.”

“Exarch!” I muttered. But he was already striding toward Moabene.

The girl came out of hiding, drawing back her hood. Her skin was smooth and fair, her hair auburn. “Thank you,” she said. She glanced at the prone figures. “I wish you hadn’t had to…”

I shook my head. “They’re ghulim. Without souls.” I sheathed my sword. “What’s your name?”

“Yaneth.”

“Yaneth. I’m Keftu.”

“I would offer you my hospitality,” she said, “but the gates are closed now. We’re both trapped outside the city for the night.”

“Hm. Your friends would be watching the bridge anyway, I think.”

She shivered. “There’s a hostel just this side of the gorge. Migrant workers usually stay there, but the moss-fields are drained for the season.”

I scratched the back of my head uncomfortably. Yaneth saw it and said, “Be my guest tonight. It’s the least I can do.”

I bowed. “I accept. Lead the way.”

I followed Yaneth out of the cemetery. The sky was an ashy lavender. The moon had climbed up over the city between two twisted peaks and was eyeing the falling ghulim gravely. A lone maugreth was already picking at one of the bodies.