Penult (31 page)

I hung back while Urszula pushed
through the throng and approached the table. I looked for a place
to sit along the back wall. I was feeling kind of shaky.

Noticing my absence, Urszula wheeled
around and scowled, throwing up her hands. She came stomping back
and grabbed my arm.

“
What are you doing over
here by yourself?” she hissed. “Come! Don’t be shy.”

“
They … look
busy.”

“
Idiot. You … are their
business. This meeting is for you. For meet you.”

“
What?”

She dragged me over to the table. I
averted my eyes but Yaqob’s stare found me. He gave me the vaguest
nod of recognition. Next to him sat this Asian guy with sharp
cheekbones and sleek, waxy skin. He looked like some kind of Hong
Kong Kung Fu movie star. I’m sure some flesh weaving had to be
involved. The Freesoul elite of Frelsi’s Sanctuary put a premium on
good looks.

Victoria sat beside him, her
complexion and hair not nearly as perfect. In fact, she was looking
a little disheveled. Her gaze raked over me like a laser. I sensed
hostility. Suspicion. What had I ever done to deserve
that?

An Old One sat beside her, as still as
a stone pillar. I took him for human furniture, stashed away in the
long sleep, until his eyes suddenly shifted in my
direction.

There was a commotion at the entry. An
argument broke out. Olivier rushed in, chased by a pair of Duster
guards who seemed determine to evict him.

“
Leave him,” said Yaqob.
“He is with us.”

“
James!” Olivier beamed.
“Thank God! I thought we had lost you.”

“
Thank …
Urszula.”

“
Please, take a seat,” said
the Asian man I presumed to be Zhang.

“
Nah. I’m good,” said
Olivier. “I think better on my feet.”

I, on the other hand, was happy to get
off my feet. I squeezed myself onto a mat between Yaqob and the Old
One. Urszula a place on the other side of Yaqob.

A pair of Frelsian servants,
Hemisouls, from the looks of them, brought us some bowls heaped
with what looked like multi-colored scabs.

“
Welcome to the Resistance
Council … both of you,” said Zhang. “I have heard so much about the
famous Mr. Moody. I’m so glad we finally have the chance to
meet.”

“
Thanks.”

Zhang looked me up and
down.

“
I have to admit. Though I
trusted their judgment, for the longest time I didn’t quite
understand why the Old Ones insisted on bringing you back here. Of
course, I know of your exploits. The raid on the Sanctuary. Your
escape from the Deeps. I was actually a Hemisoul when you first
raided our fair city. I tended Reapers back then. Your marauders
destroyed my pens.”

“
Wow. So this here is quite
a promotion.”

Yaqob snickered. Zhang laughed out
loud.

“
Yes, well … we all know
that upward mobility is often accelerated in times of war.
Battlefield promotions and such. But … these Old Ones. I didn’t
understand. I thought they were just being grateful for what you
did for them.”

“
I didn’t do much,” I
shrugged. “Just woke some up.”

“
Are you kidding? It was
much more than that,” said Zhang, narrowing his eyes. “You put an
end to their genocide. We … Frelsians … never suspected they were
living beings. To us … they were just … please, pardon me, but to
us they were merely convenient Reaper chow. You’re awakening of
them opened our eyes as well. We always assumed they were … dead.
Inert, anyway. Unfeeling. Unthinking. Of course, we should have
known better. What does ‘dead’ even mean anymore? But this is not
just about what you did for the Old Ones, without whom this
Resistance would have folded long ago. I saw those wings you
engineered. When Miss Kitt came flying up the terrace on a pair of
those things and I learned that you had made them, I have to tell
you I was dumbfounded! What a brilliant feat! And then it made all
sense to me, this clamor to have you summoned. The Old Ones were
not simply being sentimental. They knew what value you brought to
our cause.”

I squirmed and looked away. I never
was good at handling praise. It always struck me as false. Too good
to be true. I knew the real truth about myself.

Zhang’s face grew serious. “I have to
tell you something else, James. I know … I knew … your
mother.”

That certainly got my attention. “My
mom? How? Is she okay?”

“
She’s not in New Axum so
we can’t be sure. We evacuated much of Frelsi just before they
deployed the devices that brought down our mountain. Many of our
people are still out and about. A few straggle in every day. Those
who can make it past the Cherubim.”

“
I saw her. In the
Sanctuary. She didn’t remember me.”

Zhang shrugged. “That’s not too
surprising. Many Freesouls opt to have their memories scrubbed.
Many are haunted by regrets and longing for those they left behind.
Abandoned. But like all flesh weaving, it’s only temporary.
Memories seep back, but in increments that are easier to cope with.
I guarantee that your mother remembered you. She knew it was you
who led the raid on us. She was embarrassed … but also proud … if
that makes sense to you. She wished you had the chance to learn the
ways of Frelsi. We’re not bad people. Even the Old Ones forgive us
our atrocities. Those from the Deeps have become our friends. It’s
too bad we couldn’t come together sooner. The war weakened us both.
If we hadn’t fought, perhaps we could have repulsed the first wave
of Cherubim.”

I didn’t know what to say. I feeling
kind cowed in the presence of all this leadership. Everybody was
staring at me like I was some kind of new zoo exhibit.

“
And so, like I said I
didn’t know exactly what you would be able to do for us, beyond
bolstering the morale of our Old Ones, perhaps delaying a few more
from returning to the big sleep. But now I understand. These wings.
As incredible as they are, this is not the only Penultian
technology we wish to possess.”

I just sat there and stared. My head
swam. I was starting to feel a little woozy again.

Urszula leaned in and whispered into
Yaqob’s ear.

“
The boy needs time to rest
and mend,” said Yaqob.

“
Of course,” said Zhang.
“We only brought you here to welcome you. Please, go and rest. But
you need to understand. Our need is urgent. You saw those armies in
the basin. This is the first day in many that they’ve left us
alone. I am sure the siege will soon resume now that their Seraph
has been returned. And now that we have our Victoria
back….”

Victoria smiled, but there was
something odd about her. She looked dazed. Her eyes wandered the
room, drifting from face to face as if she were among strangers.
This was not the Victoria I knew. Something fundamental had
changed.

Zhang shared a concerned glance with
Olivier, who strode over and whispered something that made the
Frelsian leader nod and frown.

“
Miss Urszula will show you
to your quarters,” he said. “I see your wound has already been
attended to but I’ll one of our flesh weavers around to see if they
accelerate the process. It’s good to have you with us, James. I do
hope you decide to stick around.”

Chapter 30: The
Warren

Urszula got up and came over to help
me. Good thing too, because I was so weak I don’t think I could
have risen off the mats on my own. I had never felt so drowsy in
all my time in the Liminality. I had to wonder if the falcon talon
that had pierced me had been poisoned or something.

Yaqob clapped. “Summon the
bees.”

A Duster guarding one of the many
entrances to the room yanked a lever on a contraption attached to
the wall and it emitted a high-pitched scratching sound, like a
tree cricket’s chirp. Within moments, a swarm of bees zoomed into
the room, offering nectar to each of the luminaries gathered around
the table.

I accepted a mouthful myself from one
insistent bugger, before stumbling towards the exit arm in in arm
with Urszula. She led me out of the bunker, down the narrow alleys
to a maze of narrow walkways connecting hundreds of one room
dwellings in various states of disrepair. Most were unoccupied, and
in the process of being cleaned out and rebuilt, but many refugees
were already living here.

She brought me to a refurbished space
on the far edge of this warren, perched on the lip of lower terrace
with a distant view of the basin and the river valley beyond. Dust
clouds obscured whatever hostilities might be going on down
below.

My room was Spartan but functional. My
bed was a heap of rushes covered with crudely woven mats. A groove
in the stone delivered a constant trickle of water to a basin.
There was even a rattan-like chair made the old fashioned way, with
lengths of woody vine bent and lashed together.

“
I will ask someone for
bring you food,” said Urszula. “I am maybe not here when you wake.
I am Hemisoul now. Again. Sometimes I go from
Liminality.”

“
Really? You still in the
States, on the other side?”

“
No,” said Urszula. “I have
gone to Slovakia. I am more comfortable there.”

“
That’s home for you
right?”

She gave me a sad look. “Not so much
anymore. I am dead a long time. My family is gone. But the place. I
know it. I am more comfortable there.”

“
Do you still like … being
alive?”

“
Yes,” she said softly.
“Sometimes.”

“
Do your Duster friends
give you a hard time? With that pink skin and all? Fading all the
time?”

“
Yes. But … I have no
regret.”

We looked at each other awkwardly. She
had this look in her eyes I couldn’t figure out. Sad, but not
really. Melancholy, I guess.

“
Hey … uh … any chance you
might have run into Karla over here?”

“
Your woman?” said Urszula.
Her expression stiffened. “No.”

“
Just … wondering.” I
sighed. “You never know.”

“
She still
comes?”

“
I guess. I mean, I imagine
she does. Though, she’s not all that crazy about this life
business.”

“
And you are?”

“
Life? Yeah, sure. I like
it. At least I thought so.”

“
You are …
unhappy?”

“
Duh. I mean … I wouldn’t
be here if I wasn’t. Right?”

“
You two. You are still …
together?”

“
Depends what you mean by
together. We never broke up. But … she … uh …
disappeared.”

Urszula studied my face, trying to
read my feelings, no doubt. I hated when women did that.

“
I will leave you now.
There are patrols to be done. But I will visit when I can. We have
so few—“ She gaped at me.

“
What’s wrong?”

“
You are leaving me first.
Good. When you come back, you will be strong. And maybe you stay
for longer.”

“
What? Am I fading?” I held
up my hand. There was no hand there for me to see.

Chapter 31: The
Offer

I awoke alone in a booth on a rolling
train. Cloud-filtered sun rippled across rolling fields of green. A
can of orange juice sat on the table. A polythene-wrapped egg salad
bun sat on a Styrofoam plate. I had been gone too long to still be
on a train. Was this a dream?

A small but dapper grey-haired black
man across the aisle peeked over the top of his copy of The
Economist and smiled at me. He put down the magazine and sat
directly across from me.

“
Welcome back, Mr. Moody. I
trust all is well.” He was an American, or at least he spoke like
one.

“
Who the fuck are
you?”

“
Who do you
think?”

“
You with the Friends of
Penult?”

“
Hell, no.” He chuckled.
“The name’s Charles.”

“
You with
Wendell?”

“
Bingo!”

I looked around the half empty car.
“Where are the girls?”

“
Beats me. Dining car,
maybe?”

“
There are no dining cars
on British Rail.”

“
Well, there used to
be.”

I twisted around and stared down the
aisle. “Where the fuck are they? What did you do to them? Did you …
did—?”

“
Relax. Maybe they’re off
powdering their noses.”

“
You do anything to my
friends and I’ll… I’ll….”

“
You’ll what?”

“
I’ll … stop
cooperating.”

“
Oh? So your friends in the
Liminality don’t mean as much to you? They’re in greater danger.
You’re going to sit and watch those Cherubim march right through
and exterminate everything in their path? Have you seen them in
battle yet? I hear they can be pretty nasty once they get rolling.
They’re not shy about ripping things apart. Overkill is their modus
operandi.”