The Last City (36 page)

‘You didn’t —’ he started.

‘No,’ the commander cut him off.

‘Gutless,’ Shawe snorted. His heavy footsteps crossed the room to one of the other beds and he proceeded to lie down with a series of grunts and groans.

‘I could use a drink,’ Shawe said in the darkness. ‘A nice, cold Araki. You remember how we used to sneak into the old man’s cellar and drink all night?’

‘I remember,’ Copernicus replied.

‘Wouldn’t mind the company of a good woman either. You remember how —’

‘I remember,’ Copernicus cut in.

Shawe chuckled. ‘You just going to sit up all night?’

‘Yes.’

‘Want company?’

‘No. I need to think.’

Shawe yawned. ‘You’re still as broody as a woman. You haven’t changed one bit.’

Jude and Diega’s voices rose from the other room in a loud discussion.

‘Oi, keep it down, will you,’ Shawe bellowed out to them. ‘I’m trying to get some shuteye in here.’

The sounds paused and several seconds later the gangster was snoring.

Silho awoke with a nightmare haunting her mind. For a moment, she stared up at the ceiling, uncertain of where she was, but then her memory caught up with her and realisation settled heavily inside her chest. She rubbed her eyes and forced herself to sit up. Pain shot through her back. Every muscle, bone and joint in her body ached. Grimacing, she forced herself to roll out of bed. The sound of voices and the others moving around came from the next room. Silho decided to re-try her skills before joining them.
It could be the last chance I get before facing Bellum again
,
she thought, then banished the idea as a terrified sickness swelled inside her.

She hobbled to the wall and slid off one glove. She repeated the enchant in her mind before reaching out and touching the cool rock wall. Images from the night before sparked instantly into clarity. She saw herself and Shawe asleep while the commander stood at the glass looking out at the underwater suburbs. She saw Shawe entering the room, herself talking to Copernicus. She jumped from that wall to the corridor and travelled along into the adjoining chamber where Diega and Jude stood close together in a distant kind of way. Diega had her back to him, her head hanging low. Jude’s eyebrows were drawn together and his mouth turned downward. His eyes were sad. Silho’s sight leapt up the hatch and out through the pipes. She paused there, aware of not going too far. The images shivered and she saw something up ahead. She drifted closer. A group of cloaked Skreaf crouched in the tunnel. Silho caught sight of the gnarled claw-like fingers and jagged fingernails of Bellum. The hooded High Skreaf lifted her head and stared directly into Silho’s eyes.

Silho jolted back from the wall, wrenching her hand away. Sweat had broken out all over her skin and her heart smashed against her chest. She turned and found the commander standing in the doorway watching her. The still blackness of his eyes shifted instantly with unease at the look of horror on her face.

‘Brabel?’ he asked.

‘They followed us,’ Silho breathed. ‘She’s here.’

The sounds from the other room had fallen silent.

Copernicus turned instantly and ran down the corridor. Silho followed him. They stopped in front of the transparent sliding door that had been closed between the hall and the main room. Silho saw the three others gathered around a table. Shawe sat slumped with his head lolling to his chest. Diega had slipped in her chair, with her arms hanging down, some kind of food spilling from her fingers onto the ground. Jude was staring straight ahead, like a machine shutdown, with SevenM frozen on his shoulder. Copernicus tried to slide open the door, but it was sealed firmly shut. He bashed on the glass and rammed his shoulder against it. It didn’t give at all. Silho sensed a malevolent presence and saw mist swirling around the ceiling of the chamber. The mist materialised into five Skreaf witches, Bellum among them. She fixed Silho with her droopy-lidded stare and a terrible sneer stretched her thin grey lips. The witches surrounded the table where the others sat helpless.

‘Leave them alone!’ Silho yelled.

Copernicus kicked and smashed against the glass, shaking the whole structure. Bellum jabbed a finger at him, muttering dark-words. The curse flew at the commander, but reflected off the glass and struck one of the other witches instead. She fell convulsing to the ground. Silho blinked to light-form vision. She held up her hands and drew from the squirming demon body-lights of Bellum and her servants. The massive drag of energy, magnified by the glass, set her hands and arms immediately alight. Silho managed to think of the enchant and while she had it in her mind, she blocked the pain and held the connection. Lights flickered in the air around the witches, but as Silho’s torso caught alight, the burning agony grew too intense. Fear of the pain, of the death it would bring, forced her to break free. She dropped to the ground, spewing up flames and smacking her hands against the floor, trying to put out the fire.

The force of her power-charged strike fractured the corridor and cold water seeped through the cracks. Copernicus ripped off his jacket and threw it over her arms to smother the flames. The water level rose quickly around them. Silho looked back into the room. Bellum and two of the witches were performing some kind of incantation around the table, where they’d drawn the Skreaf symbol, the triangle within a triangle within a square, in blood. The witch who had been struck by Bellum’s curse was still twitching on the ground. The forms of Shawe, Jude, Diega and the Skreaf became nebulous, shrouded by a mist that grew thicker and heavier, until it completely consumed them. The mist spiralled up through the roof and vanished, leaving the room empty. The corridor shrieked around them and fractures spread along the walls of the main chamber. The whole facility trembled.

Copernicus managed to wrench open the sliding door. He grabbed Silho and carried her into the room. Snatching up his communicator, he bolted up the ladder and out into the pipes. Silho lay shivering in his arms while he raced through the watery tunnels. Her nerves jolted at the terrible screeching explosion of the facility giving way behind them. The sounds of rushing water chased them all the way to the hidden exit into the Catadral. The commander dragged them out into the church. He ran to the front of the building and out into the air. Silho stared up at a sky without stars, a darkness without light.

‘P
lease . . . Please . . . Please . . .’ The prayer ebbed and flowed as Ev’r’s consciousness swept forwards and back like the drifting, dragging tide.

‘I didn’t cover his grave. I couldn’t put the dirt on him . . .’ she breathed.

‘Ev’r . . . Keets . . . Keets . . . Stay with me . . . Ev’r.’

‘I couldn’t,’ she said.

In her mind, Ev’r lay just below the surface of a dark river. She could see shadows moving around her, through her. Her body floated suspended in motion. All was silent –
except for that woman crying
. It was a soulless, desperate sound and dragged her towards clarity.

Ev’r twitched one finger and found her hand could move. She twisted her wrist and her arm jolted into motion. Her body animated and she swam towards the edge, surfacing beside her ancestor, Leila. The dark-faced woman, with glowing yellow-wolverine eyes and serrated carnivore teeth, didn’t stir. She just lay crumpled on the floor, the tortured sound rising from her mouth in an almost disembodied way. Blood had pooled around her, but she wasn’t crying for herself. Ev’r reached out a watery hand and brushed her fingertips over the woman’s rough skin. Leila spoke, her words divided into many unified voices, the receptacle of her people.

‘The Indemeus X has risen. He is coming. All is lost. All is dust and darkness.’

Something grabbed Ev’r’s leg and dragged her downward through the water at an impossible speed. She gurgled a scream. She struggled, twisted and thrashed, then crashed out onto a cold concrete floor.

Ev’r lay on her back, staring up at Eli. He stood over her, his sleeves rolled up, his eyes wild and terrified.

She found her arms, once again, pinned to her sides with the special chains. Her legs were also bound.

‘Is it you, Ev’r?’ Eli whispered.

‘Just like old times,’ she said and the words stung her raw throat.

‘It worked!’ Eli threw himself down on top of her and hugged and kissed her fiercely.

‘Who is the Indemeus X?’ Ev’r asked, her voice quavering.

Eli raised his head and looked into her face. ‘I don’t know, but for some reason I don’t like the sound of that name.’

‘Neither do I,’ she said darkly.

He scrambled up and hauled her into a sitting position then proceeded to unwrap the chains from around her body. She stayed slumped, the woman’s cry echoing through her mind.

‘Look,’ Eli lifted one of her hands and showed her that the blackness was completely gone from her fingertips, but for some reason, Ev’r felt no relief or joy.

‘It was the Venus Lily,’ Eli continued. ‘It was a close call. When I found you, I didn’t even recognise you.’

‘Where are we?’ Ev’r said, shivering.

Eli gave a nervous half-giggle. ‘Well, I had to mix the potion somewhere and the only bowl I could think of quickly was a . . . um . . .’ He shifted to one side and Ev’r realised they were in a public toilet block, sitting on a pee-stinking floor, inside a graffiti-covered cubicle. The toilet bowl was spewing out a bubbling, purple substance. Ev’r touched her wet hair and her hands came away purple.

‘You dunked my head in a toilet bowl?’

Eli giggled again and coughed over it. ‘It was clean – mostly. I was desperate.’

Ev’r leaned back against the cubicle door and stared up at the ceiling. An obscene, crudely drawn naked picture looked back at her. She was numb.

‘We can’t stay here long,’ Eli said, gathering up various objects from the ground. ‘Things are going crazy out there. Androts are being dragged from their houses and locked up.’

His words reminded her of what happened with the machine-breeds. She told Eli.

‘Trutt,’ he cursed. ‘If Kry has already left his hide, then the Skreaf might already have him. We have to get going.’

He took Ev’r’s arm to help her stand. She let him. He had kept his promise to her. It was the first time in her life that anyone had. When she could, she lifted her rucksack onto her back with weary arms.

Eli unlocked the cubicle and they moved out of the toilet block and onto the street. It was mostly deserted, except for a few vagrants shuffling along the footpath, sifting through the garbage piles beside the buildings.

‘It must be three-quarters dark-time,’ Eli said, gazing around the foggy street. ‘It feels like it.’ Ev’r shivered.

‘Hey.’ A vagrant moved towards them.

‘We have no money,’ Eli said. ‘And we’re contagious so keep away – please.’

The ragged person paid no attention and Ev’r drew her weapon as she sensed the electrical zing of magics. The vagrant’s head jolted up in an unnatural, jerky way. She was an old woman, one of her eyes piercing sharp, the other completely missing from the black hole in her face. She stared at them through a lock of matted grey hair. Ev’r noticed the purple cross branded into the woman’s neck.

‘Darmel the Premonitionist. I haven’t seen you in a while,’ she said.

‘But I’ve seen you,’ Darmel croaked. She was a mildly powerful witchdoctor and seer whom Ev’r had encountered several times in the Matadori. Popular speak said Darmel had died long ago, but zombified herself into immortality with her own dark magics. Darmel ground three dice in one filthy, yellow-clawed hand. ‘In my mind. You’re always running, but you’re never moving, and the ground is giving way under your feet.’

Ev’r gave a humourless smile, as sneaking disquiet snaked cold fingertips up and down her spine. ‘Sounds like the story of my life.’

‘No, it’s the story of your death.’ Darmel threw the dice into the air and let them fall onto the ground. Her voice became suddenly clear and her cyclopean gaze fixed onto Ev’r. ‘Beware. Grim Death walks the streets tonight calling your name.’

‘Yes, thanks, but you’re a little bit late,’ Eli cut in. ‘We just fixed that problem – so thanks again, but you can leave us alone now.’ Red splotches had broken out on his neck from the effort of deliberately being close to discourteous.

‘The end of days is near,’ Darmel crooned. ‘An ever-living enemy is rising. You must spread a warning. You must prepare a means of travel and escape this land. There is no hope of survival.’

‘Just an update,’ Eli said, his voice shrill with frustration. ‘They’ve already risen, they’re already here and you’re wasting time we could be spending trying to stop them.’

He turned and strode off down the street.

Darmel spoke in a low voice, so only Ev’r heard. ‘One worse than the Skreaf hordes is coming. The Indemeus X has risen. All is lost. All is dust and darkness.’ And with that Darmel vanished into the mist of the Murk and Ev’r shivered to hear the words from her vision repeated.

She turned and hurried to catch up with Eli. ‘Where are you going?’ she asked.

‘We have to find Kry, but first I have to help Luther. I’m sure I know how. He’s in a transflyer just down the road.’

Ev’r pulled up short and dragged him to a stop. ‘I don’t know whether you get this, but the city is almost cooked. The best thing we can do is grab a craft and head for the Brine. We may still be able to escape.’

He pulled out of her grip and said with a sternness foreign to him, ‘I will not abandon Luther to die. I will not abandon my friends. I will not give up. I helped you, Ev’r Keets, and I fully expect you to keep your end of our deal and help me.’

‘Who do you think you are, going around saving everybody?’ Ev’r demanded. ‘You need to wake up. The city is falling and you’ll die along with everybody else.’

‘Then I’ll die,’ he said without any waver of fear in his voice. ‘And I would rather that than live knowing I ran away when I could have stood up and fought. I said I expected you to fulfil your end of our deal, not because I can make you do it, let’s face it, I can’t, but because I know – even though everyone said that you’re a lost cause and that you won’t change –
I know
you’re better than that. I believe in your strength. You won’t back down. You won’t run away. You won’t stop fighting. You and I are a team and you’re my friend, whether you believe in friendship or not. I’m going to the chemist to get some medicine. You go to the grocery store and get some fresh, uncooked meat, then come to KJ Street. I’m depending on you.’

He turned his back and marched away and Ev’r stood staring, strange feelings stirring inside her –
you and I are a team and you are my friend
. . . She found herself moving towards the red sign of an all-night grocer.

As Ev’r reached the door, a shadow shifted in the alley beside the shop. She snatched up her blade as a figure stepped into the lamp light. Ev’r recognised the boss of the Crook’d Town Pride, Caesar K-Ruz. A twinge ran along the five-claw scar he’d given her year-cycles earlier. With one swipe, he’d sliced through her back, inches from her spine.

‘Where is Anklebiter?’ K-Ruz asked.

‘How should I know?’ Ev’r replied, keeping her blade ready.

‘Give him this message,’ the Pride boss demanded. ‘We tried to recover the Androt leader, but the witches got to him first. There are many more of them than I believed. Our situation is grave.’

‘Just catching on now, are you?’ Ev’r sneered. ‘You gangsters think you’re invincible, but you and yours will fall with the rest of us.’

Caesar snarled and Ev’r noticed he was gripping an injury in his stomach. Blood seeped around his fingers.

‘Just give him the message, Keets.’

‘Where did they take the Androt?’ Ev’r asked.

‘The Galleria – they took him inside.’

Caesar’s lion shadow circled him and, with another grimace of pain, the Pride boss stepped back into the darkness, leaving just the glow of his eyes.

Ev’r pushed open the grocery store door and entered.