I didn’t have the strength to explain Earth and space and the planets, so nodded toward the South and said simply, “There. Some distance away. A place called New Yatsillat.”
“I feel that you are anxious to return. Why did you leave it?”
Not wanting to confess that I’d come to the forest to extract Dar’sayn and unwittingly kill the Zull’s fellows, I answered with a question: “Is my anxiety so apparent?”
“I am aware of those things that are absent within you.”
“How?”
“It is obvious to me. You are joined to another of your kind and are currently lacking that one’s presence. You think of this New Yatsillat place almost as a home but lack confidence that it can offer you safety. You are uncertain and are searching for something to believe in.”
“Can you hear my thoughts, Gallokomas?”
“No. Your mind is closed but your emotions play over its surface. I understand your need and must help as best I can. I will take you to New Yatsillat.”
“You would assist a stranger?”
“Of course. Why would I not?”
“I am grateful, but it is a vast distance to walk.”
By way of reply, Gallokomas stood, the cloak of skin on his back suddenly inflated like a balloon, and he rose five feet or so above the ground.
“You propose carrying me?” I asked.
“Yes, but first we must eat. Remain here. I will return.”
He shot upward and disappeared over the treetops.
I sat and rested my head in my hands. I hadn’t yet seen a single source of Dar’sayn, and even if I had, I wouldn’t extract the liquid now I knew that, in doing so, I’d kill an intelligent being. So what would become of New Yatsillat? Without a fresh supply of Dar’sayn, could the Magicians muster strength enough to preserve themselves for the duration of the red sun’s day?
Gallokomas wasn’t gone for long, and when he returned he was carrying a large bunch of black banana-shaped fruits.
“Much of what I found on trees and bushes was poisonous,” he said, “but these will not harm us. Eat, Thing.”
We filled ourselves with the bland-tasting stuff, then the Zull hooked a pair of hands beneath my arms and lifted me into the air. Propelling himself forward by means of a rippling fringe that ran along the top and sides of his buoyancy sac, he transported me to the river in the bottom of the valley and there settled that we might drink from the clear, fresh water.
I washed my wounds and began to feel some strength returning to me.
We didn’t linger for long, and for that I was glad. The sooner I was reunited with Clarissa, the better.
Gallokomas picked me up, shot with breathtaking speed up to such an altitude that the entire forest became visible, like a dark wedge in the landscape beneath us, then we sped southward.
We flew at a tremendous velocity. My hair streamed backward, the air forcing tears from my eyes, and we had to yell to converse. To our left, the red sun glowered. To our right, the serrated peaks of the mountain range piled upward, and between them the sea shone unpleasantly like freshly spilled blood.
“Phenadoor,” Gallokomas shouted. “Perhaps I will return there once I have atoned for my sins.”
“What is it like to live in Phenadoor, Gallokomas?”
“I have no memory of it, but I feel I was rewarded there for my every action, so that existence was fulfilling and I wanted for nothing.”
“Many of the Yatsill enter it to die, believing they’ll be reborn into a better life.”
“What are Yatsill, Thing?”
“They are sentient creatures, like yourself. Did you not encounter them in Phenadoor?”
“Perhaps, but if I did, I have forgotten it.”
We flew on and on. A hot wind gusted from the East. The land slipped by far below us. Finally, the mountain range began to lose its height.
I pointed ahead to where the side of a slope was scarred with quarries. “New Yatsillat is near.”
Gallokomas altered his course slightly. We gradually lost altitude and I saw the strip of jungle and the Yatsill farms laid out beyond it. Further ahead, where before I had seen columns of smoke and steam rising, there was nothing. The factories were obviously idle.
The Zull dropped closer to the ground, cleared the edge of the bay, and flew out over the city.
It wasn’t there any more.
I gave a cry of dismay.
New Yatsillat, which had risen at such a phenomenal speed, had fallen into the sea with equal precipitateness. The huge terraces had collapsed and massive trails of rubble streaked the muddy slopes. The fishing village was entirely buried. There was barely a single building standing. In the awful red light, the whole bay looked like a hideous open wound.
Campfires flickered at one side of what remained of the fifth level. I pointed at them and cried out, “Take me down there, Gallokomas!”
The Zull veered away. “I cannot. I will set you down at the top of the bay.”
“But I need to go to that fire. My companion may be there.”
“I must ask forgiveness, Thing, for I find that I possess an inexplicable aversion to the creatures you call Yatsill.”
“I assure you, they are harmless.”
“I am not afraid, but I cannot approach them.”
Though I was beside myself with frustration, when Gallokomas landed I turned to him and said, “You have greatly assisted me, my friend. I thank you.”
“I will circle above,” he replied. “When you have established that all is well, wave to me. I will see you. But if you require further assistance, return to this spot and I will come.”
“Are you not eager to join the rest of your kind?”
“Later. I cannot leave one who is in need.”
“I am humbled by your compassion.”
Much to his astonishment, I took one of his hands and gave it a hearty shake.
“What was that?” he asked.
“A bond of friendship.”
“I like it.”
I smiled, turned away, and set off down the cracked and crumpled remains of one of the large avenues. To either side of it, the destruction was tremendous. New Yatsillat had fallen as if built from sand. What remained of its buildings stood like the ragged stumps of broken teeth, their upper sections gone, the roofs that covered them disintegrated and swept away. I clambered over fractured girders and piled debris, broken glass and almost unrecognisable fragments of furniture and vehicles. Off to my left, three Ptall’kors were drifting, apparently without purpose. I saw the body of a Kaljoor, still harnessed to a hansom cab, crushed beneath the remains of a fallen tower. I stepped on a sandwich board that bore the legend
The Petticoat Parlour, First for Female Attire!
and felt a hollowing grief for a shattered dream. New Yatsillat might have become my home. Instead—
this
.
And Clarissa. Where was Clarissa?
With no little difficulty I descended to the fifth level and made my way toward the fires, where I found approximately two hundred individuals gathered. As I drew closer, I waved and shouted, “Hi, there!”
Human and Yatsill faces turned and someone waved back and called my name.
“Kata!” I exclaimed. “Is that you?”
“Yes, Mr. Fleischer,” my housekeeper replied as I joined the group. “I still have not been released. I think I shall never see Koluwai.”
“You certainly won’t if you’re devoured by a Blood God. Where is Miss Stark?”
A Yatsill—one of the Aristocracy—stepped forward and said, “I’m afraid she has been taken, Mr. Fleischer.”
I recognised the voice. “Baron Thewflex! You don’t mean—you don’t—she wasn’t—?”
“Possessed? No. I apologise. That was a poor choice of words. Indeed, it was! I mean to say she was carried into Phenadoor by a Blood God.”
“Carried into the sea?”
“Yes.”
I sat down heavily, my jaw slack, my brain unable to cope with this news.
“The Magicians couldn’t protect us,” Thewflex said. “The Blood Gods have taken all the Aristocrats but those you see here.” He flicked his fingers toward the other Yatsill, then pointed at the seashore and continued, “And the Working Class are now lazing about down there. They are little better than animals. Indeed! Indeed! There aren’t enough of us remaining to share intelligence with them.” He sighed and shook his head.
“Then she is drowned,” I whispered, and my vision narrowed to a pinprick.
“The rest of us might still be taken at any time,” Thewflex said. “Though we’ve all had Miss Stark’s medicine and the pace of the invasion appears to have slowed. In any case, we shall have to wait until the Saviour looks upon us again and the new children mature before we can rebuild the city—yes, indeed!—and, of course, only then if plenty of the young are made Aristocrats at Immersion.”
I couldn’t engage with his words. They flowed past me without meaning. Nothing mattered any more. Clarissa was gone.
Picking a burning brand from the fire, I turned away and left the group, unable even to bid them farewell. I walked back through the debris to the avenue and there, bracing myself against the remains of a wall, bent over and pulled desperately at the air, feeling that I might pass out from lack of oxygen. My legs could hardly hold me. The ruins slewed past vertiginously. My ears were assaulted by an animalistic whine, which, in a moment of horror, I realised was coming from my own mouth.
“Please,” I croaked. “Please, no.”
Maybe I stood there for hours, maybe for mere minutes. I have no conception of how much time passed before I pushed myself upright and stumbled on, descending the steep slope all the way to the lowest level. Then it must have taken me at least two hours to climb across the rubble to Pretty Wahine’s cave. Certainly, I remember replacing the brand on at least three occasions, putting its flame to other pieces of wood and taking them up in its stead.
I stepped into the cave’s entrance and followed the tunnel—the way illuminated by my fire—to the chamber at its end. Pretty Wahine lay within, dead, her glazed yellow eyes staring at the ceiling. I bent over her and saw that her skin was dotted with sucker marks. Obviously, a Blood God had found her. Perhaps her powers had failed as her great age finally took its toll. She was unable to hide Clarissa or even her own refuge any longer.
Poor woman. She had asked for none of this. A simple islander, and little more than a child when she’d been transported to Ptallaya—fear, and perhaps a degree of madness, had made of her a hermit. And a god!
Leaving the Saviour’s final resting place, I retraced my steps and made the long climb back to the top of the bay.
Eventually, I reached the place where I’d parted from Gallokomas. The Zull floated down from the sky and stood before me.
“She’s gone,” I said. “The Blood Gods took her to Phenadoor, where she surely drowned.”
“Why?”
“I cannot guess. The creatures are a mystery to me.”
“No, Thing. I mean, why would she drown?”
“My species cannot survive in the sea, Gallokomas.”
“Nor can mine. But Phenadoor is not the sea.”
“What?”
“Phenadoor is not the sea.”
I frowned, feeling confused. “Then what is it?”
“It is a great mountain beyond the horizon that rises from the waters and touches the sky.”
“A—a mountain?”
“Yes. I do not know where my knowledge comes from. Perhaps I have remnant memories.”
“But Phenadoor is land? An island?”
“I am certain.”
“Then Clarissa could still be alive!”
“That is true. What are these Blood Gods?”
I gestured toward the red sun. “They come when the Heart of Blood rises. They invade the bodies of the Yatsill and attack Phenadoor.”
The Zull shook its head. “No. It is a place of peace.”
“Whatever it is, Gallokomas, if the Blood Gods have Clarissa with them, and if they go to Phenadoor, whether to attack it or not, then I have to go there, too. Will you take me?”
“I cannot approach Phenadoor any more than I can approach the Yatsill. It is forbidden.”
“Can you get me close?”
“I would have to drop you into the sea.”
“Within sight of it?”
“Yes, I could do that.”
“Then I’ll swim the rest of the way.”
Gallokomas looked to the East, where the gigantic sun blazed, and said, “My kind await.” He turned back to me and his complex multi-jointed jaw flexed slowly. His expressionless eyes shone with an internal light, silvery and penetrating. The membrane on his back began to reinflate. “I feel the strength of your need,” he said, “and so cannot refuse. But once I deposit you in the water, I will have to leave you to fend for yourself. It will be too difficult for me to remain so close to Phenadoor. It pushes me away. Like all the Zull, I am forsaken.”
“If all the Zull are as generous as you, my friend, then you should not regret your current status, for you are to be admired and cherished.”
He rose a couple of feet into the air, flitted around me until he was at my back, then took hold of me as before and shot upward. We swooped over the bay and headed out to sea.