The Blood Debt (37 page)

The wish brought to the foreground that which had only nagged at him before. His senses tingled as they reconnected to the world around him. The Change was returning!

Before he could tell Kail, the tracker froze. Ahead of them, a silhouette had appeared at the end of the tunnel.

‘Someone’s coming!’ Kail hissed, turning. ‘Get back!’

Before either of them could move, a bloodcurdling scream from the dungeon froze Sal’s feet to the floor.

* * * *

Skender heard voices outside the dungeon. The Homunculus stepped away from him, its form shifting fluidly as two people inside one artificial body moved in slightly different ways. It reminded him of a shadow with a solid, well-defined central core and a nebulous penumbra. The penumbra seemed to interact perfectly normally with the inanimate world — the ground, Kail’s bola, the bars of the cage — but when it came to people, something else entirely happened.

‘It’s will,’ one of the twins had said, half of the Homunculus’s double mouth moving at odds with the other half. ‘You possess will, so we have to work together to touch you.’

‘We’ve been together for so long,’ said the other half, ‘it sometimes takes more effort
not
to work together.’

They explained that they had first noticed the effect with Highson Sparre. Skender hadn’t entirely understood the explanation but he was prepared to accept it for now. As long as it worked as he hoped it might. Sometimes intuition was enough.

Pirelius swaggered into the room, followed closely by Rattails.

‘What? Not dead yet?’ The bandit leader sauntered casually up to Skender’s cage. ‘Looks like you and the monster have become entirely too chummy. Get him out of there.’

Pirelius turned away, leaving Rattails to look uncertainly from him to the cage and back again.

‘How?’

‘Go in there and drag him out, of course.’

‘That won’t be necessary,’ said Skender. ‘I’ll cooperate.’ He walked through the open bars to the neighbouring cage, the one the twins had previously occupied, and closed the gate between them.

‘Good rabbit,’ said Rattails with undisguised relief.

‘You don’t get off so easily, you idiot.’ Pirelius cuffed the jailer across the head. ‘The door between them is still unlocked. You’re going to lock it.’

‘Why?’

‘Because I want you to. And because I don’t trust them. They’re definitely up to something, as you said. Let’s not give them a chance to show us what it is.’

Rattails gulped, considering his options. The locking mechanism for the cell Skender had just vacated was above the connecting door. Rattails would have to get into the cell with the twins to seal Skender in.

The Homunculus watched from the back of its cell, eyes coming and going as the twins’ postures shifted.

‘Not a terribly sensible design,’ said Skender. ‘Did you build them yourself?’

‘Found them here when we moved in. They were animal cages, appropriately enough.’ Pirelius’s stare was decidedly unfriendly. ‘Swap cells.’

‘Or else?’

‘Or I’ll kill your friend over here.’ Pirelius indicated Kemp, watching silently with a worried look on his face.

‘I thought you said he was dangerous.’

‘That’s not the same thing as valuable. We have too many mouths to feed around here as it is.’

Skender shrugged and did as he was told. When he was done, the twins went through the door in the opposite direction.

‘Now we’re getting somewhere. In you go,’ Pirelius said to Rattails, shoving him. ‘Keep the cage between you and it and you’ll be safe enough.’

Rattails reluctantly approached the entrance to Skender’s cage, the key in his hand. ‘Put the stick on the floor, rabbit. Now get back and stay back.’

Skender did as he was told, pressing himself against the cold stone at the back of the cell.

Rattails reached above his head and unlocked the door. Swinging it open, he stepped inside. Just two paces separated him and the adjoining door, but there would be a moment when his back was turned. Rattails obviously couldn’t decide who was the greater threat: Skender in the cage with him or the Homunculus just a short distance away through the bars. His eyes flicked rapidly between them. With a nervous, mincing step, he hurried across the gap and raised his hand to put the key in the lock.

‘Now!’ Skender lunged forward and stooped as though to pick up the stick. Rattails jumped and turned to defend himself. Skender ignored the stick and rammed headlong into the jailer’s midriff. Rattails fell backwards, taken off-guard, and slammed against the bars.

For the moment, Skender had the upper hand. Rattails was winded and unclear what had happened. But his cunning was still intact. He hadn’t dropped the key. His lips peeled back in a snarl and his fists bunched.

Then he stiffened and went pale. The key dropped unnoticed to the floor and his hands flew up in claws to the back of his neck.

Behind him, the twins had both pairs of arms stretched through the gaps between the bars. One of the twins reached for Rattails’ neck, while the other clutched at the small of his back. All of their individual hands passed unimpeded through Rattails’ body. Where their hands met inside the jailer’s flesh, however, they became very substantial.

Rattails opened his mouth and shrieked with pain. His eyes rolled up into his skull and his legs kicked out. Both arms flailed uselessly and another shriek ripped from his throat.

It was the most awful sound Skender had ever heard. He staggered away, as surprised as anyone by the sudden transformation. He hadn’t intended it to work
so
well.

Movement out of the corner of his eye prompted him to stop gawping and think fast. He scooped up the key Rattails had dropped. ‘Keep back!’ he warned Pirelius, who had lunged forward to shut the cell’s outer door. ‘One more step and we’ll rip out his spine!’

‘Have it,’ Pirelius snarled. ‘I don’t need it!’

‘No — no — no!’ Rattails’ scream ended on a rising, wordless note as Skender threw his weight at the cell door before it closed on them. Pirelius growled and pushed back. The bandit’s superior weight was too much for Skender. His feet began to slip in the dirt floor.

‘Kemp! Quick!’ Skender tossed the key past Pirelius, across the room. It skittered on the ground and landed just outside Kemp’s cage. The albino snatched it up and reached through the bars for the lock.

Pirelius roared in anger. ‘I’ll kill you! I’ll kill you all!’

Then a very strange thing happened. A wall of fog billowed into the dungeon from the chamber outside. Thick and heavy, it was soon dense enough to hide the far side of the room from view. Everything stopped as the weirdness of the phenomenon hit home.

Skender remembered a charm Master Warden Atilde had shown him and his friends in the Haunted City — a charm that turned dust into fog. There was plenty of dust in the Aad, but there was a profound absence of the Change. Or should have been.

The fog roiled and thickened, bringing the muffled sounds of a commotion from the antechamber.

Pirelius stepped away from the door. Surprised, Skender stumbled out of the cage. Thick-fingered hands went around his throat and tugged him upright. The stink of Pirelius enfolded him.

‘Skender! Can you hear me?’

Sal’s voice came out of the fog like something from a dream, but Skender could manage only a squawk in reply. He was too busy being strangled.

‘We’re in here!’ Kemp yelled back. ‘So’s the Homunculus!’

‘Don’t come any closer,’ Pirelius shouted, ‘or I’ll break your friend’s neck!’

‘Skender?’ Sal’s voice grew louder. Skender dimly perceived a shadowy figure in the entranceway to the dungeon. ‘Skender!’

Pirelius’s fingers closed tight over his windpipe and Skender felt the world begin to grow black.

* * * *

The Hangar

‘When you look anywhere using the Change
—

be it into the past or the future, or into someone’s

mind, or just into another place
—
you send part

of yourself in the process. If the connection is

severed, you may never get that part back. When

that happens, it falls into the Void Beneath

and cannot be recovered.’

THE BOOK
OF TOWERS
, FRAGMENT 243

hilly snapped out of a daydream in the middle of the Sky Wardens’ meeting at the sound of Sal’s voice in her mind:
‘Carah
—
we’re in the Aad and we’ve found the Homunculus. We need your help!’

She bolted upright, knocking over a glass of water. ‘Tom! Give me your hand!’

The Engineer looked as startled as everyone else, but didn’t hesitate. He reached over the table, ignoring the puddle spreading across maps and notes. She gripped his hand tight and Took what she needed. The mnemonic required to communicate with Sal long-distance formed instantly in her mind.

‘Sal! I hear you! What’s happening? Are you all right?’

She didn’t breathe as she waited for a reply.

‘Sal?’

Nothing. The mental contact had been fleeting and was now utterly gone. She released Tom and he sank back into his seat, looking dazed.

‘What is it?’ asked Marmion. ‘Was that Sal and Skender?’

Shilly opened her mouth to confirm his guess, then hesitated. There were two options open to her. She could tell Marmion everything and hope that he didn’t dismiss it as misdirection on her part. He still talked as though the Homunculus was coming for Laure and made preparations to capture it. The morning’s planning session had consisted entirely of ways to structure an ambush outside the city Wall, assuming the swarm of man’kin had moved on. Marmion hadn’t once mentioned the story Highson Sparre had told them in the dead of the previous night, so the question of what the warden wanted with the Homunculus remained: she didn’t want to hand it to him on a plate if all he planned was its casual destruction.

The alternative was to keep the news to herself and make her own plans, perhaps with Chu’s help. The flyer watched keenly from where she sat on a low cupboard in one corner of the room, eager for news of her wing. But what chance did the two of them have in the face of the Divide? Just getting across it on their own would be difficult, let alone dealing with whatever Sal had encountered in the Aad.

The warden was staring fixedly at her, waiting.

Blast it.
As much as she hated throwing herself upon Marmion’s mercy, she didn’t see that she had much choice.

She nodded in response to his question, and sat down.

He turned away. ‘Gwil, I have a job for you.’

The Magister’s lackey jumped. ‘But I —’

‘Take these forms. I believe Magister Considine is waiting for them.’ Marmion handed him a sheaf of papers. ‘I’ll have a list of requirements for you when you return, so be quick about it.’

‘Yes, sir.’ The thin young man glanced around the room, then hurried from it.

‘Right,’ said Marmion when the door had shut behind him. ‘What do you know?’

She repeated what Sal had told her. ‘They’re in the Aad, and they’ve found the Homunculus. I think they’re in some kind of trouble.’

‘The Aad? You’re certain of that?’

‘That’s what he said.’

‘I’d like some more information. Make contact with him again and —’

‘I tried. Something’s cut him off.’ Worry gripped her heart. ‘He asked for help. I think we need to act quickly.’

Marmion ran a hand across his scalp. What few hairs remained stood up for a moment then sank back down flat. Shilly could see the conflict naked on his face. He was facing a decision similar to hers: trust her and commit all his resources to a move that might be unsuccessful, or stick to his guns and maybe miss a crucial opportunity.

‘Very well,’ he said, sounding resigned. ‘We’ll go to the Aad and help Sal and the others. Any thoughts on how to get there?’

‘We could use a buggy,’ said Tom, looking drawn.

‘It’ll take too long,’ said Banner. ‘All the way across the Fool’s Run, then up the side of the cliff, then along the edge —’

‘We could cut along the bottom of the Divide,’ said another warden, ‘once we reached the far side.’

‘Or go straight across.’

‘The ground’s too rough.’ Chu spoke up. ‘And that’s not even mentioning the man’kin. Would you want to break an axle with those guys bearing down on you?’

Marmion shook his head. ‘Obviously not, but it’s either that or turn up too late. Do you have an alternative?’

The flyer looked down at the floor. Her dark hair covered her bandaged temple and obscured her face.

‘Only one,’ she said. ‘Skender and I talked about it, but it was way out of his league.’

‘Let’s hear it.’

‘We charter a heavy lifter and fly over.’

‘How difficult would that be?’

Chu looked up, obviously surprised that Marmion hadn’t immediately dismissed the suggestion. ‘Well, it’s not cheap.’

‘Money won’t be a problem. How many people can one of these dirigibles bear?’

‘Up to twenty, as long you don’t want to carry any freight.’

‘So we shouldn’t all go, given there might be Skender’s mother and party to rescue as well.’ Marmion nodded. ‘Will we need to hire a pilot, or can you fly it for us?’

‘I could probably manage it.’

‘Can you or can’t you? We need more certainty than that.’

Chu’s chin lifted. ‘My father was a lifter pilot. He let me use the controls sometimes. I may not have Skender’s memory, but it isn’t something I’d forget in a hurry.’

‘Good,’ Marmion said. Shilly wondered if he noticed the emotional undercurrent to her voice, or cared if he had. ‘I want this organised immediately. Take Banner and get things moving. If anyone asks difficult questions, refer them to me.’

Chu slid off the bench and Banner stood. ‘What about Magister Considine?’

‘I’ll let her know in due course.’ Marmion looked around innocently. ‘You’ll notice that her envoy is currently absent. When he returns, I’ll be sure to forward the appropriate paperwork through the appropriate channels. How long it takes to process is out of my hands.’