A Town Called Dust: The Territory 1 (26 page)

“And if we refuse?” asked Lynn.

The Administrator actually laughed. “I’m afraid you’re mistaking this for a request, Lynnette. If you refuse my offer of exile you will face the Supreme Court, whose sentence will no doubt be much harsher. You will have achieved nothing but bringing about your own death and leaving your friend here to face a dangerous mission on his own.”

Lynn’s face was twisted with emotion and she blew thick breaths through her nose. 

“What’s the mission?” Lynn said with a steely voice.

“There is a prophecy,” the Administrator said, “about a weapon in the east that will destroy the ghouls and end the Reckon—”

“You need to stop making me burst in on you like this, Your Honor.”

All eyes turned to the far end of the hall where a thin, regal-looking lady with wiry steel-gray hair and wearing a cascading white gown walked, or more accurately seemed to glide toward them. As she drew nearer she smiled at Squid and Lynn. It was much like how Squid imagined an elderly spider might smile at a fly.

“And these must be our honored guests, survivors of the battle.” She turned her attention to the Administrator and the bearing-her-teeth-in-the-most-friendly-way-she-could smile disappeared. “You should have told me they were here, Your Honor. I insisted, after all.”

“Ah, High Priestess,” the Administrator said, “I’m terribly sorry. It completely slipped my mind that they were even arriving today.”

Squid swallowed anxiously. So this was the High Priestess Patricia.

“Well,” Patricia said as she walked toward them, “a man as busy as yourself, it’s understandable that your mind is slippery. Do you mind if I approach?”

“Well, actually—”

“Thank you,” she said.

High Priestess Patricia, blatantly ignoring Knox Soilwork, Lynn and Squid, went directly to the Administrator and spoke into his ear, though in the silence of the great hall, Squid heard every word.

“I may be mistaken, Your Honor, but I believe I heard you telling them about the prophecy. This wouldn’t be the case, would it? Because, after all, I’m sure you don’t want to be responsible for the downfall of Alice.”

“I have had enough of this,” the Administrator said. “Enough of you exerting your religious authority over my actions. I am the Administrator, and I am sending these servants of the Territory into the east to bring about the end of the Reckoning. I do this for the good of humankind. Now, High Priestess, kindly leave my Council Room.”

The High Priestess, unmoving, stared at the Administrator. “Never in the history of the Territory has there been an Administrator who has disobeyed the Church,” she said.

The Administrator, equally motionless, replied, “Never in history has there been a High Priestess so devoted to ruling the Territory herself.”

The two stared at each other for some time like two animals with their horns locked before Knox Soilwork attempted to speak.

“Your Honor, Your Holiness, perhaps—”

The Administrator raised his hand, cutting him off, and without taking his eyes from Patricia he said, “In this time of the Territory’s need, as the threat of the ghouls bears down on us, Squid Blanchflower and Lynnette Hermannsburg, by the word of the Administrator you are ordered to journey east and find the fabled vaccine that will destroy our enemy forever.”

“By ourselves?” Lynn asked.

The Administrator maintained his locked gaze with the High Priestess a moment longer before looking at Lynn. “That is the way the prophecy says it must be—you must travel alone.”

The High Priestess narrowed her eyes at the Administrator. “That is not—”

“Silence,” the Administrator said sharply. “I have spoken.”

Squid cleared his throat with a high-pitched bleat. The Administrator swung to look at him.

“Yes?”

Squid looked at Lynn.

“Well,” said the Administrator, “did you have something to say, Apprentice?”

“It’s just, the east is really big, Your Honor,” Squid said. “How are we—”

The Administrator took a deep breath, swelling his barrel chest and portly belly. “You will travel to the fabled city of Big Smoke,” he said. “It is prophesied that there you will find the weapon we seek.”

“Big Smoke is just a story,” Lynn said.

“It is legend,” said the Administrator, “and legend is based in fact. You will find the vaccine, Squid. I have faith that the Ancestors will guide you.”

High Priestess Patricia looked from Squid and Lynn to the Administrator. She opened her mouth to speak but then turned her attention back to Lynn, her old eyes burning. “Did you say that this was Lynnette Hermannsburg? Is that your name, girl?”

Lynn nodded. “Yes,” she said. “I’m Lynnette Hermannsburg.”

“Well,” the High Priestess said. “I have heard quite a lot about you, Lynnette. It’s a pleasure to meet you at last. I was saddened to hear of the death of your father. He was a fine man. Quite a shame I am required to have the Holy Order take you into custody on charges of treason.”

“I have already decreed her punishment,” the Administrator said. “She is to be exiled for her crimes against the Church. Such blatant disrespect for the Sisters is not to be tolerated, Your Holiness.”

The High Priestess looked at the Administrator and then back at Lynn. She didn’t say anything. Squid saw the look of incredulity and surprise in Lynn’s eyes. The High Priestess seemed to have let the matter drop far too easily. But the thought evaporated as Squid realized Patricia had turned her attention to him, and was looking him over with her knowing eyes. She examined his obsidian-black hair and a small smile crept onto her face, a smile she promptly suppressed.

The Administrator turned to Knox Soilwork. “Knox, find these two some rooms, comfortable ones. They leave tomorrow.”

Knox Soilwork, his face as deadpan as ever, nodded. “If you will follow me, please,” he said to Squid and Lynn, and strode away down the room. Squid didn’t look back. He couldn’t leave the hall fast enough, in fact, and was all too aware of the eyes of the Administrator and the High Priestess burning into his back until the door closed behind him with a resounding boom.

“I hope you realize you may have just ordered our downfall.”

“I highly doubt it,” the Administrator said. “I don’t believe your prophecy for a second.”

“Well, in that case you have just sent two young people on a suicide mission. They will never survive a journey into the east.”

“Indeed,” said the Administrator without looking at the old woman.

The High Priestess stared at him. “You seem very keen to be rid of them, Your Honor. Who was she?”

“She was Lynnette Hermannsburg,” the Administrator said. “As you well know.”

“You know very well what I meant. Who was the boy’s mother? He’s your son, is he not? And older than your Bren, I would guess, which makes him the rightful heir to the position of Administrator.”

“Goodbye, High Priestess.”

The High Priestess moved in front of the Administrator, forcing him to lock eyes with her again.

“You best pray that this Squid, your son, is not the boy of prophecy. The prophecies of Steven are rarely wrong. As for the girl, I don’t take kindly to you standing between myself and someone deserving of the punishment of the Supreme Court.”

“If you are so concerned, High Priestess,” the Administrator said, “I’m sure you have the means to ensure they never return. You wanted so much to kill them.”

The High Priestess tilted her head back and examined the Administrator through narrow eyes. She turned and walked away, saying as she went, “The Church does not do your dirty work, Your Honor.”

As Patricia, High Priestess of the Church of Glorious God the Redeemer walked from the hall she spoke out loud to herself. “We are perfectly capable of doing our own.”

The sun rose over Alice, setting the sky ablaze like a fiery layered trifle. Squid and Lynn walked from Government House into the early colors of morning, the only time of the day when the Alice Inside seemed to be mostly abandoned. The streets were quiet but for the occasional rattling of the buckled wheels of a fruit cart, carrying its fermenting produce to some early morning vendor, or the rumble of a bio-truck or hiss of a steamcycle moving through adjacent streets.

A horse-drawn carriage as yellow as a layer of that morning’s sky pulled to a stop before them. It had a small windowed cabin with an open front set on two large wheels. The driver sat on a high seat behind the cabin holding long reins hitched to a black horse that snuffed through his large nostrils. Large black letters half peeling off the side of the carriage declared “TAXI.”

“Taxi for Squid Blanchflower and Lynnette Hermannsburg,” said the driver.

“I’m Lynnette Hermannsburg,” Lynn said, “but I didn’t order a taxi.”

The driver spat something viscous and black from his mouth. It landed with an audible
thwock
on the paved street in front of Squid’s left foot. The driver looked down for a moment, flicking through some papers in front of him.

“Taxi was booked by Chief Minister Knox Soilwork,” said the driver. “I’m to take you to the edge of the city.”

Squid looked at Lynn. “I’m not sure it’s a good idea.”

Lynn looked up at Government House behind them. In a high arched window illuminated by the morning sun she could see the tall, dark shape of Knox Soilwork. He nodded his head, one long slow nod.

“I don’t think we have a choice,” Lynn said.

Squid and Lynn had been sent on their way with a small backpack each. Inside were the supplies provided to them under the Administrator’s orders: two cups of water, a slice of bread, six raisins and a pair of uncomfortable kangaroo-skin pants. Each of them had been given a shortsword too, but not until they were well away from the Administrator and on their way out. With one last glance back toward Government House Lynn climbed into the taxi. Squid followed, hugging his bag to his chest as he clambered up, rocking the carriage gently as he sat.

The carriage lurched gently and began to move, driving away across Steven Square and carrying Lynn and Squid through the streets of Alice for what Lynn thought was, in all likelihood, the last time. Lynn looked back to the window where the featureless silhouette of Knox Soilwork watched them. She stared at the shape of him for a moment, wondering what he was thinking, before turning away. Neither Lynn nor Squid saw that there was another figure watching them. In a second-storey window of the cathedral was the unmistakable white gown of High Priestess Patricia.

The High Priestess watched the taxi pull away. Inside that yellow box was the girl who was a traitor to the Sisters and who must be punished, but more important was the boy. She was certain he was the boy of the prophecy, the one who would bring about the downfall of the Territory, and with it her church. The Administrator was an imbecile, so concerned with covering his own tracks and protecting his line that he was willing to see the Territory fall. As she watched the taxi she almost felt a pang of sympathy for the two passengers. That boy, intelligent though he seemed to be, had no concept of what was waiting for him on his suicidal quest. And the girl, she would not even last as long as that. The High Priestess knew what had to be done and when she thought of what was at stake, what did the lives of one boy and one girl really matter?

The High Priestess had been watching the two men even before the boy and girl had exited the gate of Government House. In the empty streets of early morning, as the sun’s molten flood was still warming the colors of the world, it had been easy for them to hide in the dimness of a staff entrance. The two of them, the tall thin one with the long hair and the shorter one wearing a bowler-style hat blended back into the shadows as if they possessed the ability to become shadows themselves, but the High Priestess had seen them. She watched them as they eyed the boy and the girl climbing into the taxi and then, as the taxi set off, they emerged, solidifying into the light, and followed the taxi on foot, disappearing into the labyrinth of buildings. High Priestess Patricia turned up the corner of her mouth in a shrewd half-smile.

The carriage continued to work its way through the latticework of streets in the Alice Inside. In this area, near to Government House, they seemed to pass many of the same types of shops. How many “delectable ladies’ hats,” “fine waistcoats for gentlemen” and “tailored perfumes and aromas” could the people of Alice possibly buy? The carriage rattled around a corner onto a new thoroughfare, which an ancient sign, easily dating from before the Reckoning and covered by a glass plate to protect it, declared to be Todd Street. Here they passed restaurants with white-covered tables visible through their spotless windows and smaller eateries Lynn said were called cafés with names Squid thought were either inaccurate, nonsensical or just disturbing: “Spread Eagle Café,” “-tarbucks” and the “Ancestors’ Greasy Spoon.” Lynn said these places only sold tea and coffee which Squid didn’t believe; it seemed absurd that a business could possibly survive just selling lukewarm drinks.

As they drew nearer to the Wall the city grew more untamed, as if the chaos of the Alice Outside was oozing in through the gaps in the stones. The clean, smoothly paved streets were coated with red dust brought in on the wheels of wagons or bio-trucks and the movement of a breeze brought a fleeting whiff of the slums outside. As they reached the wooden gate in the Wall the driver pulled on the reins and the horse came to a lazy stop.

“Here,” said the driver, “edge of the city.”

“This is not the edge of the city,” Lynn said.

“The Outside don’t count as city. I’m not taking you out there.”

Lynn’s lips tightened and she took a single breath through her nose, failing to release it.

Squid nudged her and whispered, “We can just walk.”

Lynn released her breath and with it, her anger.

“Fine.”

She climbed out and reached into the pockets of her trousers. Despite the fact that she had long ago been revealed as a girl and the Administrator’s servants had offered her more appropriate dress, she had decided to continue wearing the clothes she’d arrived in. From her pocket she pulled a small floral-pattern pouch tied with a pink ribbon, a little something it seemed she carried to prove that she hadn’t entirely turned into a boy. Undoing the ribbon and opening the pouch she removed three gold coins. Each one was roughly circular, cut and pressed in the Administrator’s Mint, embossed with the number ten on one side and the image of the Administrator on the other. Glancing over, Squid noticed that someone had taken the time to engrave several additional details on the Administrator’s face on one of the coins, including a moustache, nose hairs and an appendage that wouldn’t normally be found on the forehead. Lynn handed the coins to the driver, whose smile made something bulge between his lower lip and jaw. He nodded stiffly and the taxi drove away.

Squid watched the taxi leave, losing sight of it through the cloud of orange dust being lifted into the air by the horse’s hooves. The streets of Alice were still mostly empty although Squid caught sight, for the briefest moment, of two men, one short and one tall, walking down the street behind them. The shorter of the two men caught Squid’s eye. The man smiled at him, doffing his hat and bowing his head, before they both ducked, out of sight, into an alleyway. Squid felt for the key around his neck. He was sure the man was just being friendly, but the way he’d smiled hadn’t seemed right. Squid turned to say something to Lynn but she was already walking through the Great Gate, which the guards had opened just wide enough to pass through.

Squid looked at the enormous wooden gate in front of him. Here he was again, he realized. The only thing standing between him and the world outside was a gate. He stiffened his face, took a shoulder-lifting deep breath and walked toward it. This time the gate would not stop him. Besides, he had a quest to complete. Granted, he would have preferred not to have had a quest at all, or at least not this one, but still, he had to do it. The ghouls would keep coming and eventually they would reach Alice. If he was the one prophesied to find a way to stop them, then that’s what he would have to do. He watched Lynn disappear through the door and hurried to catch her. Before he knew it, Squid Blanchflower, smallest boy from the smallest dirt farm in Dust, was walking out into the world.