Penult (41 page)

And stop her it did. Every pore and
appendage of her exploded with roots. Fine tendrils swarmed from
every hair follicle. Thick corms sprouted from her toes. Wiry roots
stretched from her fingers, her ears, her nostrils, from every bump
and crevice in her body. Her scream was stifled by a root that
transformed her tongue into a thick and gnarled trunk that
stretched to the floor of the grotto and anchored her firmly to the
stone. When the sprouting ceased, the only sign of life she
displayed was a pair of anguished and flickering eyes staring from
behind a brow of rumpled bark.

But the cracker column continued to
thrum and shake the grotto. Stones and bits of gravel started to
rain down from the ceiling. I tried to go to it, but my feet
wouldn’t budge. I teetered and fell backward. I was still anchored
up to my ankles in the re-congealed stone.

“
Olivier! I can’t move. You
have to do it. You have to turn it off.”

He looked down at me helplessly, still
holding his splintered staff.

“
How?”

Chapter 43:
Expedition

Olivier rushed over and tried to help
me. He whacked and pried at the stone binding my feet with his
shattered staff. But he only managed to jam a splinter into my
toes.

The shaking intensified. The waves
emanating from the base of the column grew in amplitude. Cracks
appeared in the grotto wall. Several of the cracker’s segments had
not yet been activated. If they had, the mountain would already be
coming down.

Olivier stared at the vibrating column
and the thing that Victoria had become.

“
What the fuck were you
guys trying to do?”

“
It wasn’t me, it was her!
She was trying to take down the mountain.”

I kept wrenching and twisting and
flexing my ankles, struggling to free myself, but the stone held me
firm.

“
Step back!” I
said.

I relaxed, took a deep breath and let
my will build inside until I got it churning. I focused hard and
cast it down as forcibly as I could at my feet. The blast struck
the stone and dissipated, scattering like mercury across the
cracked floor. My feet remained trapped.

It was no wonder Victoria’s spell
craft held firm. Her weaving skills were way out of my league.
Unlike me, she could manipulate objects and substances that had
long differentiated from root and her rearrangements were
permanent.

“
Listen, you’re gonna have
to turn it off. See those spikes? Grab ‘em and spin each segment
until they’re out of alignment. Then you fold them up into their
slots. Start at the bottom and work your way up.”

Olivier just stared at me. He looked
befuddled.

“
Go! Turn the damned thing
off! I told you how. Now do it!”

The floor was heaving. The bedrock
below had shattered. Random blocks of stone rose and fell. Olivier
picked his way through the chaos block by block, barely able to
keep his feet. When he reached the cracker, he latched on to the
lowest ring of spikes and pulled.

It yielded slightly, but the column
continued to vibrate.

He grunted. “It … won’t … budge … any
more!”

“
Fuck!” I said, straining
with frustration at my trapped feet.

Olivier leaned back and threw all his
weight against the spikes. The segment gave way. He kept pulling
until it rotated to a place where the knobs were no longer aligned
and the spikes could fold up flush. He did the same with the next
segment and the next until the vibrations eased and the column grew
still.

The air in the grotto was filled with
stone dust. Bits of grit rained down from the shattered ceiling.
The floor shifted. The block of bedrock holding my feet cracked,
freeing one of my feet.

A band of Duster warriors surged into
the grotto ready to blast us to bits with their gnarled and knobby
scepters.

“
Easy, easy!” said Olivier,
holding up his palms. “Everything’s cool here.”

***

The Dusters helped me free my other
foot from the grotto floor with a hammer and chisel. A contingent
of Frelsians hovered at the grotto entrance until they were
comfortable that the cave would not collapse on their
heads.

When they learned that Victoria was
now more or less a tree, they sent off a runner to inform Zhang.
Meanwhile, the others strapped the warty, mangrove-like monstrosity
that she had become onto a litter and draped her with a tattered,
old curtain.

Once I was freed, I borrowed the tools
and went to work extracting my now fossilized sword from the grotto
wall. I was relieved to see that although it was now entirely
black, it remained metallic. Victoria had not transformed it into
stone.

I managed to chip it out more or less
intact, though it was encrusted with bits of stone that remained
fused to the surface of the metal, now warped with waves and
ripples. I didn’t care. All I cared was that it remained sharp and
pointy.

Olivier went and stood over Victoria
as the Frelsians secured her to the litter with long and wiry
strands of root.

Olivier stroked the burl that
encrusted her forehead. “Will you look at this gal? So full of
hate. Not one shred of remorse.”

I joined him and saw her eyes all
inflamed with horror and rage and pain. She would be screaming if
she had a mouth.

A Frelsian soldier of middling rank
came up to us. He looked a little nervous.

“
Excuse me. Would you mind
if we ask you two a few questions? Comrade Zhang expects a full
accounting.”

***

Olivier and I sat on a bench near the
entrance and did our best to satisfy the Frelsian officer’s endless
inquiries. He asked us to describe step by step everything that had
gone on down here from Urszula telling me to get myself a saddle to
finding the dead guards on the stairs to Olivier turning off the
cracker.

Several of the Dusters gathered around
to listen in on us. The Frelsian found it difficult to believe that
Victoria would have unleashed a cracker on their doorstep. The
Dusters seemed to have an easier time believing.

When the questioning was done, Olivier
and I were left sitting on the bench. Now that morning had come,
the blackout curtain had been pulled back. A mist hung over the
cloud forest. Mantids hunted in the treetops. The clearing below
swarmed with soldiers gathering for patrols.

Olivier looked up at the cracked
ceiling. “This place isn’t going to collapse on our heads, is
it?”

“
Nah,” I said. “What was
gonna fall already fell. Everything else is wedged in
tight.”

“
Well, I’m glad you think
so,” he said, as he picked splinters of the end of his shattered
staff.

Six Frelsians passed us with the
litter bearing Victoria. I had to look away. The weird mix of
anguish and disgust in her eyes still haunted me and I had no
desire to see that again. It was almost as if I feared her gaze
might taint my soul.

“
She’s not right in the
head, that one,” said Olivier. “The Lords must have messed with
her. Tampered with her soul.”

“
Yup,” I said, averting my
eyes until the litter bearers had turned the corner onto the
stairs.

“
That stuff you did to her.
Is that something you can undo?”

“
I’m not sure. The stuff I
do, I can’t always control.”

He smirked and patted my arm. “Remind
me never to get on your bad side. He looked up at me? “Hey, did you
ever get your saddle?”

“
Nah. I guess I’d better go
grab me one.”

I got up and sauntered over to the
wall of the grotto where all the Dusters stored their gear.
Everything piled against it was covered with a thick layer of grit
and dust. The dragonfly saddles were all humped and vertical like
motorcycle seats, designed to prop the riders high so as not to
interfere with the wings. Mantid saddles were flatter, and looked
more like something you could use on a horse.

I chose the saddle that had the least
blood smeared on it. It looked a little too small for me, but maybe
a lighter saddle would be good for getting Tigger used to it. I
could always upgrade later.

As I slapped off the dust, a large
gaggle of people appeared at the entrance, led by Zhang and Yaqob
and a pair of Old Ones, both women, the latest in the rotation of
their leadership. In their communal system, any Old One was
empowered to speak for all.

“
Is it safe here?” said
Zhang.

“
Oh yes sir, of course,”
said one of the officers who always seemed to be near him. “The
lower terrace is firmly under our control.”

“
No. I mean the armory. It
looked a bit damaged.”

“
Oh, it is quite stable. I
can guarantee.”

“
Good. We’re meeting here,
then,” said Zhang, striding into the grotto.

“
You. Come here. Now,” said
Yaqob, looking at me.

***

I was glad to see Kitt and Tyler in
the entourage, back from whatever fade or scouting mission had
taken them away. Kitt had her wings with her, all mended and
redecorated over my bleaching. Urszula had come as well. She smiled
when saw me with the saddle and gave me a thumbs up.

We convened in a circle on whatever
benches and stools Zhang’s people could throw together. The cracker
column had been removed from its socket on the floor and replaced
onto the saw horses beside us. Yaqob scrutinized its knobby surface
closely studying the fresh grooves Victoria had added. He glanced
over at me.

“
This is not the same
device we captured.”

“
Yeah it is,” I said. “She
modified it. Made it stronger. She wanted to take down the whole
mountain.”

Yaqob’s eyes twinkled.

“
Can you make another just
like this?”

“
Uh. I doubt it. Not one
that works.”

“
Why not?” he
said.

“
Because … they’re
complicated.”

“
Have you tried?” said
Zhang.

“
Not really. But I … I
don’t even know where to start. I mean, give me some roots and I
can make a pole that looks like one of these. But it won’t be
functional.”

“
Can this one be
reactivated?” said Yaqob.

“
Probably,” I said. “I’d
rather not try. Not here, anyway. Any more shaking and this cave is
coming down.”

“
But you could start it if
we brought it to Penult? Give the Pennies a taste of their own
medicine?”

“
Yeah. I think
so.”

Excited murmurs swept through the
grotto.

“
We must form an expedition
as soon as possible,” said Yaqob. “The Cherubim in the basin are
preparing another assault. This column will not be safe
here.”

“
And yet more Cherubim come
to reinforce their brethren,” said one of Yaqob’s scouts. “A new
flotilla has arrived on the shore.

“
Will they bring more
columns?” said Zhang.

“
Undoubtedly,” said the
scout. “Their vessels bear cargo. But we couldn’t get close enough
to see for certain. Their falcons drove us off.”

“
I volunteer!” said
Kitt.

“
Me too,” said
Tyler.

“
Hold on,” said Zhang. “I
have been having second thoughts. I am wondering, is this really
wise? After all, Penult is a place we all should aspire to …
someday. No? There are some among us who believe it might be …
actually Heaven. Do we really want to bring harm to such a
place?”

“
None of you are meant for
Penult,” said Yaqob. “The Lords would never allow you. They see all
who pass from the underground as unworthy. They would never accept
us. Any of us.”

“
Unless … we take it for
ourselves,” said Olivier.

“
Steal Heaven?” said Zhang,
raising an eyebrow.

“
Bah! Why you think we need
Penult?” said Urszula, sputtering. “This land is good enough. Yes,
they ruin much, but there is still plenty they don’t
damage.”

“
And what is destroyed can
be restored,” said Yaqob. “The Old Ones shape and mend stone. They
are creators, too. Not only Penult. You think the surface has
always looked like this? They made this land what you see. They can
raise mountains.”

Faint smiles appeared on the women
representing the Old Ones.

“
We hit the hard,” said
Olivier. “They might think twice about what they’re doing
here?”

“
Is a single cracker gonna
be enough?” said Kitt.

“
Maybe,” said Olivier. “If
we find the right place to deploy one, and if it was powerful
enough.”

Olivier looked at me as if I could do
something about the situation.

“
Comrade Zhang, do you
concur with this plan?” said Yaqob.

Zhang was looking troubled. He said
nothing.

“
We need to act quickly,”
said the Duster scout. “There is another wave of vessels coming in
off shore.”