Penult (60 page)

“
So … finally looks you’re
gonna get your wish.”

“
Oh? What wish is
that?”

“
You wanted me dead. You
wanted me stuck here.”

“
No. I wanted us to be
free. Our souls.”

“
Free.”

“
We’ve talked about this.
You know—“

“
Listen. I’ve got some good
news for you. The Brynmawr ladies … they think they found
Izzie.”

Karla gaped.

“
What? Where?”

“
She’s in Scotland, they
think. They have an address. Wendell’s taking us there as we
speak.”

“
You’re working with
Wendell? But … where exactly is she? Is she alright? Does Papa have
her?”

“
I don’t know. We’ll … find
out. The ladies talked to Gwen.”

“
But I talked to Gwen and
she told me nothing.”

I shrugged. “I don’t know. Things
change. Maybe Izzie got back in touch with her.”

Karla’s features had transformed.
There was a glow in her eyes that I hadn’t seen in a long time. She
leaned forward and kissed me.

“
This is so wonderful. This
… changes everything.”

“
How so?”

“
Well. I need to see her.
She needs me.”

“
So … what? Are you gonna
fade?”

“
If I could … I would. Fuck
this raid.”

“
Yeah, well … I’m without
on that. I’m not feeling so gung ho about it myself.”

“
But this raid is important
for us. You do realize that? Not me. I am not important. But for
you … for us … this raid … will determine our future.”

“
Oh? Are you a fortune
teller now?”

“
Don’t play dumb. You know
what I am saying. You are the key. I am just a helper.”

“
So go and fade. See if I
care. What’s stopping you?”

She squinted at me. “What is wrong
with you? You have never talked to me this way before. There is
something different in your voice.”

“
I’m fucking dying, Karla
and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it! I don’t care what
Olivier says.”

“
Have faith,” she muttered,
almost imperceptibly.

“
What?” I said, even I
heard her perfectly.

“
Have faith … in yourself!”
she shouted, before stomping off.

***

When the last of the three hundred and
forty-three Cherubim had figuratively walked the gangplank, my
friends went to work feeding and saddling the bugs. I had to get
Urszula to help me with Tigger. That dragonfly just did not want to
listen to me.

We were not a good match at all, me
and him. If I ever made it back to the bog I might see if Viktor
could find me a more malleable insect. And it didn’t have to be a
dragonfly. The robber flies seemed pretty dumb but they were low
maintenance and much easier to handle.

As I made my way over to where the
bugs that were ready were being staged I stumbled across the
Hashmal oarsman who we had taken captive. I was surprised to see
him, half-expecting him to have been tossed overboard as well. I
guess a soul did count for something in this realm.

He was wrapped all snug in a mass of
netting and that special stickum that Urszula was famous for
generating via her scepter.

“
What will become of me?”
asked the man.

“
Don’t ask me. I just work
here,” I said.

“
Please. Kill me. Do not
give me to the water. I do not wish to drown. I will take any means
of death but the drowning.”

“
Listen. If they haven’t
drowned you already something tells me you have nothing to worry
about.”

“
But … they drowned all the
Cherubim.”

“
But you’re not a Cherub,
are you?”

Ubaldo came around the side, hefting a
saddle on one shoulder.

“
Do not speak to the
prisoner,” he said as he brushed past.

“
Hey. We … we’re not going
to drown him are we?”

Ubaldo paused and looked at me
flatly.

“
Why not?”

“
Because he’s … a
person.”

“
So were the Cherubim
before these assholes ripped their souls away.“

Ubaldo continued on bow-ward, without
sparing another glance. His hornet was tethered there, ripping its
mandibles into a gory meal I had no wish to see.

“
You see?” said the
Hashmal, his eyes wide and glossy. “He wants to drown
me.”

“
Is it true, what you did
to the Cherubim?”

“
They gave themselves to
the cause. It is what we do. Sacrifice for the common good. A
crusade, if you will. We seek to restore the proper order. It is
our calling, we of Penult.”

“
Who do you work
for?”

“
The Lords, of course. The
Erelim.”

“
And who do they work
for?”

“
Who do you
think?”

“
Tell you what,” I said in
a whisper. “Just before we go, I’ll cut you mostly free. I’ll leave
it so you can undo the rest on your own. It might take some time,
but I’ll do enough to make sure you can wiggle out with a little
bit of effort.”

“
Bless you,” said the
Hashmal, who looked a bit stunned by my mercy. “What is your
name?”

“
James.”

I found Tigger all saddled up and
clinging to the side of the oarsman’s cage. Lalibela was hovering
directly above the boat’s single mast. Urszula stood atop the cage,
cooing at her own dragonfly to coax it down to where she could
saddle it. When she saw me approach, her eyes riveted me to the
deck.

“
You should not be coming
with us. Find someplace quiet and concentrate. Make yourself fade.
Go back. Do as Olivier says. He is right. Back there you can undo
the poison.”

I just shook my head. “I’ve never been
able to fade on command. I don’t know how. Fades … just happen.
It’s not like coming here. I can’t summon anything by making myself
feel bad … or good … or whatever. It’s all random.”

“
It is not random,” she
said. “It is linked to your desires. how you feel about being here.
It has to be.”

“
Are you sure about that?
Seems pretty random to me. I mean, look at Karla. She’s dying to go
back and see her sister. Did she fade? Nope. She’s right over
there, getting ready to hop on her robber fly.”

“
People do it,” said
Urszula. “When there is a need to go … and you need to go
back.”

“
I’m telling you, I don’t
know how.”

I climbed up onto the cage and tried
climbing onto Tigger’s saddle, but Tigger was clinging to the side,
nearly vertical.

“
Um … this is awkward. How
do I get on?” I grabbed a loose strap dangling off one of the
saddlebags. At least I could make sure he didn’t try and take off
without me.

“
You should not be
accompanying us,” said Urszula. “We have the cracker. Olivier can
activate it. We don’t need you.”

“
Well, that’s a first.
Everybody else seems to think I’m some kind of savior.”

“
Please. I am telling you
to go back to the mainland. Someplace secure where you can fade in
peace. Some mountains preferably, just in case.”

“
Are there any mountains in
Penult?”

“
Not really. They are
hills, really. Little bumps. Very pretty, but … not sufficient. The
Core is not very strong there. But definitely too strong to free a
soul.”

I took a deep breath and gazed out
over the glassy sea. There was just a hint of roughness and mist at
the horizon that might very well be the headlands of
Penult.

“
Hell, you know, we’re not
that far away. Maybe there’s time. Let’s just do this and get it
done. If I fade, I fade. If not … so be it.”

Urszula gave me look that was a little
sad and defeated and maybe more than a little angry.

Chapter 62:
Raiders

While we waited for Georg and Solomon
to finish harnessing their beetles, I paced the deck, anxious to
get going. I was pretty much in panic mode over the ricin
situation, stressing over my imminent death.

Olivier made my poisoning sound so
trivial, that it should be a snap to neutralize the ricin by
converting it into something inert and innocuous. (I’m pretty sure
he didn’t mean turning it into actual cotton candy. That was just
an example.) But of course, he had also thought that it would be
easy for me to reverse engineer a cracker column. Look how that
turned out.

I told myself it wasn’t going to be
the end of the world if I failed. Well, it maybe it would be the
end of one world, but my existence would not cease. There were
always other worlds, some of which I knew to be quite decent, and
some of which I had yet to see, might actually turn out be even
better, maybe even paradisiacal. And even the worst places like
Root and the Deeps had redeeming features that made them
surprisingly tolerable. This train of thought helped ease my
anxiety somewhat.

Here in the Liminality, I knew I could
be comfortable. The place was a pretty fair facsimile of life. My
senses seemed a little bit off, everything from color, touch and
odor just a little more dull, but it was way more vivid and sensual
than a dream, and on the plus side that meant way less pain and
discomfort. I didn’t really get hungry or tired or itchy or achy
the way I did in life. Sure, it would suck big time being shut off
from the world of my birth, but I could picture myself hanging out
here over the long term. What burned me was that this had been
Karla’s plan for me from the start. If simple fate and my own free
will had brought to these circumstances I might have been more at
peace with them.

And yet another thing kept gnawing at
me. If the Friends of Penult wanted to keep me out of the
Liminality, why the hell would they go and have me killed in the
‘real’ world? Clearly, they had tried and failed with the keeping
me happy strategy. But to take me out in the living world would
only serve to ship me over here permanently. Could there be poison
of choice be some amped up version of ricin? Something juiced with
spell craft, giving it the power to eradicate my soul in every
realm, not just the one? Or was the ricin just the first phase of a
three part operation? Maybe they had plans to take me out here as
well as the Deeps? A triple assassination. The thought was
unsettling, to say the least.

In my pacing, I stumbled across the
trussed up Hashmal, whom everyone seemed to have forgotten about.
Remembering my promise, I went over and hacked away at the mess of
twine and stickum entangling him. My sword was so dull now it was
nearly useless for cutting. Nevertheless I managed to rip through
everything but a few strands that he could probably squirm free
within the space of an hour once we were gone.

“
Bless you,” whispered the
Hashmal, who was looking a bit parched and gaunt. “I will make sure
that the Lords hear of your mercy.”

A cheer rose up as Georg and Rhino
took to the air. I went aft to rejoin my friends. The cracker
column lay flat on the deck. Rhino’s wings created a wash and a
racket worthy of a helicopter as he descended gently and gripped
the column’s sheath with all six legs. The second beetle, guided by
Solomon the Frelsian, then took to the air, hovering over the base
of the column. It gripped the webbing and lifted the column off the
deck. The beetles made a broad banking turn and thundered off
toward the bank of clouds, below which Urszula insisted we would
find the island of Penult.

Ubaldo and his hornet were already in
the air and patrolling a wide arc around us, scanning our general
vicinity for threats. The robber fly riders, Karla and Mikal, were
next off the boat, and they hurried ahead to catch up with the
beetles. Olivier kept putzing around the deck, opening lockers and
bins as if he were searching for something. So far he was finding
only ropes and tools and such. I was getting nervous that he might
discover what I had done to the Hashmal’s bindings.

“
Maybe we should go now?” I
called out to him.

“
You two go on ahead. I’ll
catch up,” said Olivier.

I looked over at Urszula.

“
We wait,” she
said.

I took a deep breath and bit my lip.
Olivier ripped open yet another locker and pulled out a harpoon of
the sort that the Pennies fired from launchers to bring down bugs.
I thought nothing of it, that maybe he planned to use it as his new
scepter. But I was aghast to see him stalk around the cage and
plunge the weapon through the Hashmal’s ribs as the poor man tried
to plead with him. Olivier just jabbed it in, gave a twist and
walked. I was horrified by the coldness of his act and how
nonchalant he acted coming back to his fly.

He saw me staring at him, and he
stared right back. Unflinching. Unapologetic. I knew he had a
grudge against Hashmallim and their overlords that went back to his
limbless days in the Deeps, but I never knew it was this bitter. He
gave us a nod and we took off.