Dragonfly: A Tale of the Counter-Earth at the Cosmic Antipodes (29 page)

57 A New Thing in Enoch

“Farewell, my friend,” I said. “You returned in my hour of need. I count myself well repaid. Let this be the beginning of a long friendship between your house and mine. I have sworn it.”

We were standing on the pinnacle of a tall tower, the three cyclopes and I. Jairus was kneeling between us. The four anchor chains of the
Eclipse
had been fastened around his neck and fixed to four stakes at the corners of the platform. His calm, pale face was something terrible to behold.

I took each of the cyclopes’ hands in turn. They turned then and silently set about their descent from the tower, clinging to the ornate masonry and lowering themselves from floor to floor. When they reached the street they called to their livestock and began the journey back to the mountains.

Jairus refused to answer my questions, or even to look me in the eye. He seemed a skeleton of what he had been; his white skin was like wax melting off his big bones. “So be it,” I said when I saw it was useless. “I’ll see you soon.”

I took the elevator down and went out to a corner of masonry that projected over the crux of the rift. Nothing looked different, except that the helot custodian lay motionless beside the stream in its channel.

The smell of gas grew stronger and stronger as I made my way down the maze of stairs, ramps, and porticoes that formed the canyon’s wall. I halted, sick to my stomach. Images of methane swamps and gas pipes and trembling lamps flashed across my mind’s eye. I thought also of the explosion I’d heard.

Now I began to bound down with less caution. Suddenly my vision swam. A buzzing started in my head. My limbs turned to jelly. It was only with great difficulty that I crept back up to where I could breathe freely.

My guess was that the Misfit had flooded Hela with leaked gas. His plan was to bomb the rift, setting off a chain reaction that would destroy that part of Enoch. It had been thwarted for the time being at least, but the helots could breathe gas no more than I could.

Recovered now, I got to my feet, made my way back up to the street, and shot off in the direction of the necropolis.

*          *          *          *          *

Day was settling toward dusk when I regained the pit. I found the people all gathered at the pyramid. The Misfit’s stern discipline hadn’t been for nothing, for the able-bodied were unloading supplies from the transport and bearing them into the courtyard.

The work ceased when they saw me. They all gathered around, clamoring for news. I strode through the crowd, climbed onto a tomb, and set my hand on the hilt of my sword. The people fell silent one by one.

“Jairus has fallen,” I said, “undone by the trust he put in Zilla, who promised aid through fell beasts and proved faithless. You’ve come through fire and grief today. The exodus has failed. All that’s been accomplished is that life is impossible for you here now, and looks to become much more so in the future.

“I hope that some of the evil fruit of the day’s doings can be prevented by swift action. This will only better your own lot in the long run, as you’ll see if you think about it. Disaster is about to strike the helots, if it hasn’t already. Is there anyone among you who knows their way through Hela, who would be able to accompany me there?”

“I will,” a voice said. I looked down, and my eyes met Seila’s.

“We may die,” I said.

“It would not be too soon,” she replied. Her eyes burned.

“Then we’ll go together,” I said. I looked out over the crowd. “The Cheiropt is slow to react, but once it does, it does so inexorably. Soon it will realize that Jairus is no longer a threat. I fear that the necropolis will be overrun at any moment. I don’t seek to assume the warlord’s role. Far from it! But I know of a place where I believe you’ll be safe for the time being. To those who are willing to turn their backs on their past here, I offer an uncertain road to safety today and, perhaps, liberty tomorrow. If you wish to follow me, gather as much as you can carry and come with me right now. There’s no time to organize.”

“Why not use the ships?” someone said.

“Perhaps that would be best,” I said, “but I myself think not. The Cheiropt has its own ships, doesn’t it? Jairus’ strategy hinged on surprise and panic. Any attempt to escape by air now will meet with retaliation.”

“That was the case already. Why do you think we had warships?”

“But who would man them?” I said. “Your warriors are all dead or scattered.”

“What do you propose, then?” someone else demanded. “What good will it do to hide in Hela? We’ll have to come out eventually.”

“I’ve seen a path under the city. It’s a dark, terrible path, deeper than Hela and far older. But the Cheiropt knows nothing of it. That’s our highway to freedom, our highway
of
freedom. I have a plan for our survival. There’s no time to explain it now, and, even if there was, the details are all uncertain. I’m going to carry it out nonetheless. Anyone who wishes to accompany me on those terms is welcome to.”

I got down from the tomb. Seila put her arm through mine, and we set out for the foundation-wall. I picked up a tube lamp as we passed a box of them.

The people of the pit followed us in a long, straggling stream. About half ultimately came, including most of those with children. The other half set about loading the warships.

I saw the remains of a chimera and stopped. The creature had been cut in half and lay draped over a wiry lichen bush. But its sticky ichor had begun to coagulate, and a thin web of tissue looked to be extending across its exposed insides. Its eyes watched me placidly. Seila and I continued on our way.

We led the people through a portico in the side of the foundation. Beyond it lay an ancient fane and burial complex whose great crypts held stacks of bones removed from the cemetery to ease overcrowding. Some of these chambers had been emptied to serve as Jairus’ armory and commissary, and the people behind me bore off what supplies remained. We passed into the brick maze where I had found Maruch. The songline called to me, and I led the way down unerringly.

For the second time the silver-green light of a tube lamp dropped into the dark corridor like a star making a progress through the underworld. It was joined by another, and another, until a galaxy of them stretched in a belt along the black cathedral space. I led the way up the stony rise where I’d buried Granny. The Misfit’s phyle gathered on its sides and around its base like a city set on a nighted hill.

I climbed a pile of slabs at the top. “This is the place of which I spoke,” I said. “Seila and I will continue to Hela. Wait for us here. We’ll return if we live.”

“Wait!” Joanna called. “You can’t just leave us like this! At least tell us your plan.”

“I would tell you more if I could,” I said. “My path is like this corridor, which is dark, and leads I don’t know where. My thought is that we’ll become a new people. Not a new phyle within the Cheiropt, fighting to divorce itself, but a truly separate kingdom, existing
within
the Cheiropt, or beneath it, rather.”

“But how can
we
be a kingdom?” someone cried. “We have no possessions, no land! We’re empty-handed!”

“What
is
a kingdom?” I countered. “I’ll tell you. A kingdom is people—people with a common hearth. We are people.”

“And what is our hearth?”

“Darkness. I don’t know.” I shook my head. “I don’t have the words to say what I mean. The Inception of the Cheiropt was a new thing in the story of the world. Before that there had been cities and empires, but the people then had no words for what was happening. And so it rose up in their midst unopposed. Well, this is a new thing, too. A spore sown in a dark place.

“One thing I can tell you, for it comes from Jairus’ own lips. A people without individual responsibility is a people without greatness. It spreads out like a body without bones. Our kingdom in casual shelters will be composed of cells knit variously into hierarchical organs.

“But now I truly must go. The worse things get today, the worse it will be tomorrow, for us and for everyone else.”

I stepped down from the pile and took Seila’s hand. The people parted for us as we climbed down to the floor. We began making our way along the corridor. A bend soon hid the shining hilltop from sight.

“Keftu,” whispered Seila.

“What is it?”

“It’s going to be bad up there. Do you know that?”

“What do you mean?”

“The pressure is gone from the gas lines. The lights will go out, if they haven’t already. The helots will tear themselves apart with fear. They’re terrified of the darkness, and the leaked gas will keep them from lighting fires. Or, what’s more likely, they’ll light them and blow themselves up.”

“Why are they so afraid of the dark?” I asked. “They live in darkness.”

“Never complete darkness. There are things down here. They spread from another part of Enoch a long time ago. They’re shy of light. Few people have ever seen one.”

“Are they a kind of arthropod?”

“I—I think I’ve heard that. The helots say they’re men who’ve reverted.”

“Do you believe that?”

She shrugged. “The helots are idealists. They think a man has something to lose.”

We were picking our way along a sodden path through beds of white tubeworms with scarlet plumes. “I hope I do,” I said. “Have something to lose, I mean.”

Seila squeezed my hand. “Keftu,” she said.

“Yes?”

“What happened to you after…I last saw you?”

“Do you not know?”

“No,” she whispered.

“A trap was laid for me. I was almost infested.”

“Keftu, I knew nothing. Please believe me.”

“I believe you,” I said. “And yet I find you here with the Misfit.”

“I went back to him. Oh, of course I did! Surely you can understand that! Did I ask you to rescue me?”

“No,” I said. “What you said to me at the time was wise and just. And I think I know why you returned to captivity.”

“Why?”

“Because you wanted to find the one we spoke of. The Artificer. The Adept.”

“Well,” she whispered, “what if I did?”

“Surely you realize they sought his capitulation.”

“He’s too intelligent for that. Their designs are tools in his hands.”

“Do you love him still?” I asked.

“I’m with you right now.” She squeezed my hand again.

“I was your price,” I said quietly. “Wasn’t I? My safety, I mean.”

“Baby, baby,” she said. “I did what I had to. You just couldn’t take care of yourself! But the bargain wasn’t honored, it seems.”

“I wouldn’t be too sure of that,” I said.

She looked at me, then looked away. “The Misfit has fallen,” she said. “It seems that you, the Adept, and the Vicar alone in all the world can act with perfect freedom.”

“If that’s true,” I said, “it’s because we’re so bound by  restrictions.”

A pool lay across our path now. I led the way along it and through an abandoned encampment of the blind pygmies.     Together we climbed the side of a buttress and entered the crack that led to the tall chambers.

Seila cast her gaze up into the darkness, eyeing the brown casings and secretions that covered the walls like blasphemous bas relief. “Let’s walk faster,” she whispered.

We hurried through the network and up to the ancient lane.

58 The Harrowing

The smell of gas grew stronger as we approached Sabhenna. The square light at the tunnel’s mouth was dimmer than I remembered. We stepped into the open.

The gaslights were throbbing brownly. Methane was in the air, but not so strong as to be deadly yet. The floor was crowded with helot women, a moaning sea of flabby flesh. Many were scorched and bruised.

Someone spotted us and started gibbering. The effect rippled through the roiling mass. I shouted, but my words were drowned out in the hubbub, so I drew my sword and held it aloft. Its light was like a bolt of golden lightning. One by one the women fell silent and waited to see what I would do. They parted as I led Seila up through their midst.

We climbed to the shelf where the preacher had stood. “What has happened?” I cried. “Where are your men?” The women all started speaking at once. I held up my hand for silence. “You there,” I said, picking out one at the front. “Answer me.”

“They’ve gone to smash the gas lines and factories and punish the phylites for their sins!”

“And left you here to die? Who’s leading them?”

“Vol!” they all screamed. “Vol the wonder-worker!”

“Vol is a creature of Zilla’s,” whispered Seila. “The riot was timed to coincide with the exodus. I’m certain of it.”

“You’ll all die here if you wait for their return,” I cried. “You must follow me out.” Then, aside to Seila: “Can you lead me to the marshes?”

“Yes,” she said. “But you don’t know what you’re doing. These maggot-women have never been outside before. It will terrify them.”

“There’s no help for it. You go ahead. I’ll follow.”

We stepped down from the platform. The sea of flesh parted for us. Seila walked calmly through the masses, and I followed her with my sword raised high. We crossed the forum and went out between a pair of carved sphinxes at one side.

The long alley beyond was crowded, hot with flesh and rank with breath. Somehow we squeezed our way through and reached the end of the throng. The women fell in behind us.

“You keep them in order while I navigate,” whispered Seila. “One wrong turning, and we’ll be at the receiving end of a slow-motion train wreck.”

Using my sword and my body, I did my best to keep the tide of women from pushing past our guide. It was delicate work. The lights continued to dim. There were explosions and rumors of explosions. Ripples of fear ran over the throngs.

“Do something,” said Seila. “Keep them calm.”

“What should I do?”

“Anything. If they stampede we’ll be smashed to jelly.”

I began to sing. It was a song my godmother had taught me, about a time before Arras was, when men first found their way into the moss-rich plains from black beginnings. My tenor traveled down the flapping masses.

When I reached the end I started over. To my surprise they took up the song. It sounded strange on their lips, and the words and meaning began subtly to change into nonsense.

This went on for what seemed to be miles. At last we were moving along a round tunnel of more recent construction. I recognized the corridor down which I’d followed Maruch and Gehud. A disk of gray light showed far ahead. It grew larger and larger.

Then Seila and I stepped out into open air. We were on the sloping edge of the foundation, at the place where I’d first entered Hela. The suspension bridge led across the moat to the methane fields. The pipe that had linked the refinery to the foundation lay in pieces in the marsh below. Fire was shooting out of the open valve with a hideous cackling.

Seila pulled me to the side. “Direct them,” she said. “Think quickly. There are tons of pressure built up in that tunnel.”

The first women were stepping out. “Come,” I said, gesturing with my sword, pointing to the bridge. They quailed on seeing the sky and tried to turn back. But those behind kept coming, unable to stop. A woman fell down and was stepped on, screaming. I tried to get to her, but the torrent of humanity was too strong.

“Keep coming!” I roared, kicking and pushing them, slapping them with my sword. “Don’t turn back! Across the bridge and over the causeway!” My voice echoed down the tube, and such was my power over them that they were more afraid of me than of the open, and obeyed.

The waves kept coming. The tube’s exhalation was thick with methane and fear. Every so often a woman or two would turn back and be trampled, but my voice always prevented a panic. The causeways filled with white flesh. It was like watching termites pour out of a disturbed nest.

More were emerging than had been in Sabhenna. Women were draining from all over the lower levels. Rumor of their savior had passed up the ranks, and my stature grew with every new face. I was a hero, a wonder-worker, a demigod. The last waves kept trying to kiss my sandals or secure a lock of my hair. I kicked them away in disgust, but their attempts grew more and more violent.

The last stragglers emerged. The tunnel floor was plastered wall to wall with human remains, trampled flat as a carpet. I turned and looked around the platform. I was surrounded by fat women ravenous for relics.

“We’d better go now,” Seila said lowly. “They’ll tear you limb from limb.”

“Climb the stairs,” I said, holding Deinothax before me. “I’ll follow.” Seila started up the first flight, and I went backwards behind her. Cries of rage and disappointment swept over the masses.