The Book of Water (45 page)

Nikko shakes his head, brandishing the phone. “Base says everything’s getting shot out of the air. These bastards are very well organized.”

“Your suggestion?”

“Only chance is to work our way to the rear and let ground transport come through the back and pick us up there.”

“Okay, let ’em know.” Baraga thrusts his chin at N’Doch
and Sedou. “You men stick with me. Nikko, keep an eye on the ladies.”

“Yessir, Mr. B. Got your vest on?”

“Always.” Baraga yanks open the drapes. The dining room is a haze of smoke and dust rising in the ruddy light of sunset that pours through the shattered windows. “Let’s move.”

N’Doch feels Sedou’s hand on his shoulder as they start after Baraga. The familiar touch about cracks his heart open. He turns, meets his brother’s eyes, and sees the dragon in them, trying to act like a man she knows only from his memories.

“What’s on your mind, bro?” Sedou murmurs.

“Gettin’ outa here.”

“Listen. Only listen.”

—
We’ve only to get to the back door. My brother Earth can pick us up there and we’ll be away from here.

—
But Baraga will protect us, especially if he thinks he’s got a live dragon he can put on his network. Where else can we go? Anywhere in the city’s a war zone. We go out to the bush, we put Papa Dja in danger. Baraga’ll keep us safe. He’s got the money and the power to do it.

—
And the money and power to make you a star, is that what you’re thinking?

If it wasn’t the dragon’s usual voice in his head, N’Doch would swear it was Sedou talking. It’s not just the good things he’s remembering now. “It’s on my mind,” he says aloud. He shakes off his brother’s hand and moves ahead, but Sedou’s voice stays with him in his head.

—
We cannot be dancing to Baraga’s music! We have our Work to do. We must find Fire and learn why he’s turned against us.

N’Doch takes a breath.

—
Okay. Then you go. I’ll go with Baraga and distract him, while the big guy takes you and the girl wherever you want to go. Then you’ll all be safe, and I’ll still have my chance. It’s a good plan. Think about it.

It’s a while before the dragon replies. There are bodies sprawled on the floor of the dining room. N’Doch nearly trips on one. No one is attempting to rescue them now. Broken glass is scattered everywhere, mixing with blood and
a dusting of ceiling plaster. Sedou catches up with him at the door.

—
It’s not a good plan. I can’t go without you.

—
Sure you can. You’ll do fine.

He’s glad he’s not trying to say this aloud. He’s not sure he could do it. He’s just got Sedou back and he’s giving him up so soon?

—
No, I mean
, we
can’t. Three is not four. You are needed.

He tries to make a joke of it.

—
C’mon, it can’t matter that much. What if I died?

—
We fail. Without you, without any one of us, the Quest will fail. If the Quest fails, my existence is purposeless.

—
Existence is never purposeless! Life is its own purpose!

—
Not for a dragon.

—
So then what?

—
I will cease, as will the others. You are needed, Dragon Guide.

N’Doch remembers when the realization first came on him, standing in the gym in the supertanker, of the burden this “destiny” was trying to dump on him. The same hollow panic grips him. Before, he’d thought it was rage and rebellion, but now he sees that it’s actually fear, fear of losing his freedom, of losing his self.

—
No! I don’t want it! I didn’t ask for it! What about what I need? I got the chance of a lifetime here! This is
my
quest! You only get one chance like this one!

Sedou looks back at him steadily. N’Doch understands now why this brother’s shape suits the dragon so much better than Jéjé’s. It’s not just an issue of size. Sedou and the dragon have a lot in common: The same hard righteousness lights both their gazes.

—
Remember the message offered in the wood?

—
The girl’s, you mean? Yeah, so?

—
Take it to heart, my brother. It was meant for you.

E
rde supposed she was meant to feel safer with the giant Nikko right at her back, but she didn’t. She didn’t like how his eyes slid past her face, lingered on her body, then dismissed her altogether. Or how he used his burly body as a prod, herding herself and Lealé through the smoke and destruction in the outer room. Broken glass crunched underfoot. The long table loaded with food had been tipped over sideways in front of the ragged openings that are all that’s left of the windows. Several people huddled behind it, a few of them looking more dead than alive.

They’d almost reached the door when the light in the room flickered again, as if even this magic of electricity was subject to wind and warfare. The bodyguard barked a warning to Baraga ahead of him, and then the room went dark. Lealé moaned softly and reached for Erde’s hand. Her grip was moist and hot, like the thick damp air invading the house through its broken walls. Light fell in through the holes like light into a tunnel, enough to see by but barely, a red smoky light that raised the hair on Erde’s neck. She sent images to the dragon anxiously waiting in the grove, of the ruddy shadowed room littered with glass and bodies.

—
Like our old dreams, Dragon! What does it mean?

—
That we are meant to be here.

Earth would think this was offering her comfort, since being where Destiny intended him to be was all he required of life. Erde hoped for a little more, and from now until they were safe again, she’d be unable to think of quests and purpose or anything else but survival.

—
Sometimes I think we’re in Hell. Are we, Dragon? Is it a punishment for my wicked deeds and unclean thoughts?

—
You mustn’t fear, child. Fear is a temptation to give in to Weakness.

—
Fearing and giving in are not the same. I can do one without doing the other.

—
I am glad to hear it.

Baraga listened at the door, then slid it open just enough to slip through. N’Doch and the new dragon-shape called Sedou followed him. Nikko herded Erde after them, his hands on her and on Lealé in places she was sure they didn’t need to be. The hall was dark, and thick with jostling, sweating bodies. Nikko palmed a small cylinder that suddenly gave forth an intense beam of white light. Erde recoiled from it, and then wished she had one. But Nikko used it as a club, flashing its brilliance into frightened eyes, forcing a path of fear down the crowded hallway.

By the little door at the end of the hall, the head acolyte Jean-Pierre was fumbling with the lock while he balanced a pile of metal boxes in his arms. He squinted into the spear of light.

“Got it all, Mr. B.”

“Good man.” Baraga grabbed the key while Nikko aimed his light. They piled through the door into the lightless narrow passage on the other side. Nikko came last, ejecting a handful of acolytes who tried to follow. He slammed the door and slid the heavy deadbolt home.

“Go dark, Nikko,” warned Baraga from the curtained antechamber. “We got a crowd in here.” Nikko doused his beam, plunging the hot little room into blackness as suffocating as the grave. But Erde felt a tickle behind her eyeballs, and grainy shapes and shadows swam up out of the black as Water extended her night vision to her human companions. N’Doch edged up on one side of her, Sedou on the other.

—
Say nothing. Your safety may depend on appearing helpless.

Erde blinked, and gave her eyes over completely to the dragon’s control. By the arched entrance to Lealé’s Reading-hall, she could see Baraga and his henchman listening at the draperies. Baraga reached and drew Lealé to him.

“How many, you think, Glory?”

“Could be as many as a hundred.”

“Laying low, hoping nobody’ll notice ’em.” Nikko lifted the metal thing she knew was a gun and seemed to be weighing it. “I’ll notice ’em, if they get in our way.”

“They are my ‘guests,’” reproved Lealé’s Glory-voice. “They’ll let us pass if I tell them to.”

“Will they let us hop into a tank and leave ’em all behind?” Baraga retorted.

“Yes. I think they would.”

From what she’d seen around the compound, Erde agreed. Besides, what N’Doch would call “the Glory thing” seemed to be their only chance to get through. She didn’t really believe that Nikko’s gun could fend off a hundred people, and as far as she knew, it was their only weapon.

“Should she go first, Mr. B.?”

“Yeah, then you, with the light. Ceremonial-like, you know? Like the power’s just blown and we’re dealing with it. I’ll follow with the others.”

—
Setting up the order of sacrifice.

Erde felt dragon energy thrumming through the body of the tall stranger beside her.

“Nah . . .” muttered N’Doch.

—
Putting himself in the middle, where he’s covered.

—
He’ll cover us, too, like he’s covering Jean-Pierre. We could make him millions.

—
He’ll dump anyone he thinks is extra weight.

—
There’s no extra weight here. Three isn’t four, remember.

—
Baraga doesn’t know that
.

—
Or perhaps he does.
 . . .

Earth’s weighing in to the conversation signaled to Erde his acceptance of Fire’s treachery.

—
What d’you mean?

—
As my sister said, he has a touch of Fire in him.

“Oh, god,” N’Doch whispered, and then told them of Baraga’s dream.

—
Given up on Lealé to move on to more fertile grounds
 . . .

—
He’s only got to get rid of one of us to satisfy his
dream-lord’s demands. The rest he can keep for himself.

—
No one could hold onto one of you guys by force, not even Baraga!

—
You think so? Fire seems to have done it. For all we know, he’s been giving the Man lessons.

—
Yeah, but look: All Baraga knows is, he’s got three people. One of them he’s suspicious about, but he’s still not sure who he needs and who he can do without. So we’re safe until he
knows.

—
So you’re saying: Lay low, my brother.

Erde saw the flash of N’Doch’s smile.

—
Yeah. I sure am. None of your dragon pyrotechnics.

—
Not me. That’s the other one.

Erde recognized the tone: the banter of men before battle. The dragon did so well in this new shape. Even for Erde, the lines were blurring between the big man beside her and the voice in her head. She could only imagine how N’Doch must feel about it, who knew them both so well.

“Ready, Glory?” Baraga chucked Lealé under the chin as if she was a child. “Show ’em your stuff.”

Erde was sure Lealé was more frightened than she was letting on as she squared her shoulders and tossed her head, gestures made only to herself in a lightless room. Nikko drew back a thickly embroidered drape, then flicked on his magical light and let Lealé walk majestically into its beam.

An amazed murmur rolled around the dark, cavernous hall, like a gust of wind through grass.

“Glory! Glory! Gloreee!”

Lealé smiled and lifted her arms in salute and benediction. The hard white light caught on the beads in her hair and on her robe, making her sparkle like a jewel, shooting tiny flashes into the darkness to reflect in the adoring eyes of her invisible worshipers.

“Glory! Help us! Glory! Save us!”

“Children!” The Glory-voice rang out like a bell, chasing its own echoes around the unseen dome. “My dear children! You must stay calm and quiet until this crisis has passed. The power is off for a while, but I’m sure they’ll have it back again soon.”

The ground rumbled and shook, calling her a liar. But the petitioners only sighed and called her name.

She answered them, and as she talked, she moved into the huge space, out across the polished marble as Nikko’s beam illuminated a path for her. Some petitioners were standing, most were seated in groups on the still-cool stone, pressed together for comfort. Lealé picked her way gracefully among them, bestowing a smile here and a touch there. Baraga trailed her, in the light bearer’s shadow, with Jean-Pierre behind him, clutching his precious load of boxes. Erde had no choice but to follow. She noted that Sedou took up the rear, scanning the unlit vastness with the interest of one for whom the dark is no obstacle. She hoped Baraga was too focused on his own escape to notice.

As they progressed grandly across the hall, more of the petitioners stood up. They pressed in closer and their pleadings became more desperate. Lealé’s pace slowed. She could no longer pass through them easily. Nikko began to ask, then demand that they move aside, but Erde could see he was unpracticed at the Glory-thing, and his harsh orders set off bouts of weeping and hysteria among the weakest, and angry mutters among those with more presence of mind. So Nikko shoved harder, and Lealé kept up her steady stream of Glory patter, soothing, seducing a path to open up behind the rough-handed bodyguard. Behind them, the petitioners rose up and followed, murmuring and pushing against Erde and Sedou and N’Doch, until Erde wanted to scream and lash out with arms and fists and anything to keep them away from her. But she didn’t, remembering what Earth had told her about fear.