The Crooked Letter (41 page)

They reached the far side unscathed, and kept running. The facade of a narrow office block had collapsed, sending rubble across the street. They dodged shattered bricks and concrete as they had the other wreckage, ever mindful of their footing. Hadrian’s heart was pounding, and his lungs began to burn. He hadn’t run so hard since Pukje had delivered him into Kybele’s hands through the back alleys of the city.

Ellis took the first turn she came to, down a narrow lane covered with water. They splashed noisily along it to a T-junction, where they took the marginally less-flooded way. If she had any destination in mind, he couldn’t tell, and he had no reason to question her. He was as lost as she was. Their goal was to simply get away. Once they had achieved it, they could work out where to go and what to do next.

They ran until he thought his legs would give out. He lost count of the turns they had taken when, gasping, they staggered into a small loading bay behind an empty post office to catch their breath. The sound of their breathing was loud in his ears. He tried to keep the noise down, but his body gulped at the air like a fish out of water. His migraine pounded.

He eased his head out of the loading bay to see if anyone had followed them. The laneway behind them was empty.

‘I think we did it,’ he managed. ‘We got away.’

‘Not far enough for my liking,’ she said, leaning against the wall. ‘I’d like to keep going.’

‘Can we walk?’ he asked. ‘If something found us like this, we’d be worse than useless.’

She nodded, not looking at him. ‘I’m thirsty.’

‘Let me recover and I’ll find us something to drink. There must be a deli or a toilet nearby.’

‘Toilet?’

‘Cistern water. Perfectly clean.’

She pulled a face. ‘I think I’d drink anything as long as I didn’t know where it came from.’

‘The truth will die with me.’ He breathed deeply for a minute, until the ragged desperation eased and the burning of his muscles ebbed to a hot throb. ‘Wait here. I’ll be back.’

‘No,’ she said, ‘I’ll come with you. We’ve only just found each other again. Let’s not take any chances.’

He agreed wholeheartedly.

* * * *

Seth caught sight of the Holy Immortals at the end of the sixth leg of the path of Life.

His attention was seized by a greenish metallic gleam high up in the firmament. At first he focussed on it simply to ease the dizziness that always affected him on re-entering normal topography. The sky had grown darker the higher they ascended — a fact that was paradoxical, even though it was the same in the First Realm, for here there was no thinning of the atmosphere to explain it away.

As the sky faded to black, the number of lifeforms and artifacts occupying it also decreased. Few and far between, now, were the giant mantas that had dogged them at the second juncture — slender, scudding shapes that had roiled like jellyfish in a strong current, sweeping around them in a tight spiral before swooping off into the distance. The only obvious things left in the sky were the sinister sparks that Xol had called ekhi; more crystal than organic, like giant eight-armed snowflakes, they hummed an inaudible siren song that, even though he was warned not to pay it any heed, tugged seductively at him. People were occasionally lured to their deaths by such things, Agatha explained, diverted from their ascension to Sheol into the mouths of the dangerously beautiful creatures.

Sheol itself was far too bright to look at. Sharp-edged shadows followed them everywhere they walked. The surface of the realm was now a daunting distance away. As they clambered by any means possible between the junctures in the Path of Life, Seth avoided looking down at all times. He didn’t know how long it would take to fall or what the final result would be, but he was determined not to find out.

The latest juncture consisted of a funnel-shaped structure dozens of metres across with vines or tentacles dangling from its downward-pointing tip. The path emerged from its hollow centre, spiralling up and out so they were left standing on its broad lip. Seth couldn’t tell if the funnel was an artifact or something living — and if it was living, whether it was animal, vegetable, or something else entirely. It reminded him of a carnivorous plant, and he was heartily glad they weren’t going the other way, down its wide throat.

‘Where’s the next leg start?’ he asked wearily, braving the silence that had consumed the group since the Ogdoad had let them go. There had been little opportunity to discuss more than the tasks at hand. None of the issues exposed by Tatenen had been explored, let alone resolved.

I am the fratricide, the murderer. I am guilty.

The betrayer will become known to you in time.

His brother comes. We will be saved, then.

Does he know who he is?

Agatha pointed in the direction of the greenish spark. ‘There.’

‘How do we get there?’

‘We catch a lift.’ The woman searched the black sky. ‘They shouldn’t be far away — if the Vaimnamne really exist.’

‘They exist,’ said Xol, his voice flat and heavy. The exposure of his history by the Ogdoad had brutalised him as surely as a beating in the First Realm. His aura felt raw, truncated.

‘I hope so,’ said Agatha. ‘I’ve been hearing stories about them all my life.’

Seth hadn’t decided yet whether or not he felt sorry for Xol. The events his guide had confessed to had taken place a very long time ago, and things had changed a great deal since then. It would be too easy to classify him as nothing but a cold-hearted brother-murderer, the man who out of jealousy had almost brought a full-blown Cataclysm upon the world. He was sure that, from Xol’s point of view, it wasn’t remotely that simple.

Bui Xol had done everything in his power to keep the truth hidden from Seth. Was there more yet to come? Could Xol’s shame and self-hatred become a threat to the expedition. A betrayal, perhaps?

Seth was about to ask what exactly Agatha was waiting for when Synett cleared his throat.

‘It’s worth looking the other way, too,’ said the man. ‘You should see this.’

Synett was standing on the edge of the funnel, looking straight down. He waved them over and pointed.

‘See?’ Visible, a disturbingly long way down, was the last juncture, a seed-shaped crystal tipped on its side with openings at either end. One opening led up the Path of Life and the other down. Crossing the gap between the two ends of the crystal had initially seemed impossible, for the crystal’s surface was slippery and there were few handholds, but the four kaia had known the trick to it. There were patches of crystal that acted like magnets, drawing anything living to them in order to suck their will. The attraction was strong enough to keep a person suspended in mid-air. Provided they didn’t linger overlong at any one spot the rate of absorption of will was too slow to be a problem, and apart from one terrifying moment when Seth had been forced to hang upside-down by one hand and one foot while he searched for the next gripping point on the crystal, his crossing had been accomplished without incident.

A black shape now marked the perfect smoothness of the crystal seed. It was a spread-eagled person, limbs moving slowly but purposefully from one end to another. Someone was coming along behind them on the Path of Life.

‘We’re being followed,’ Seth said aloud.

‘Yes,’ said Synett. ‘And look further. The realm is under attack.’

Seth shifted his gaze to the distant surface of the Second Realm. They were so high now that the world’s spherical nature was immediately obvious. The ground below curved in a bowl that never ended, sweeping dizzyingly upward to meet itself on the far side of Sheol. The rising walls of the bowl were always at the edge of his vision, tugging at his balance.

At the bottom of the bowl he immediately saw what Synett meant. The reddish cracks were spreading, buckling and splitting the bowl like a Raiku-fired glaze. At places where the buckling was most severe, where cracks met or the plates between them were furthest apart, light flashed and strange, dark tides spread across the land. He was too far away to discern details, but it looked as though the underworld was pouring into the realm like oil rising up from the heart of the earth — and riding on the back of that flood came other creatures from more distant places still, striking for the heart of Yod’s territory while its boundaries were weakened.

‘The damage goes both ways,’ said Agatha with ferocity. Seth was surprised to see that her cheeks were wet. The sight of her beloved realm under attack seemed to physically pain her. ‘Yod is best prepared to move against the First Realm, but that doesn’t stop someone from trying to come here in return. There are other powers besides Baal, and many will not have forgotten the last Cataclysm. They will know what these events mean. They will act in retaliation as best they can.’

‘They can’t win,’ said Xol woodenly.

‘But they can try, and their efforts will aid us. Anything that distracts Yod from our mission will only make our success more likely.’

Seth’s gaze slid back to the figure creeping across the distant crystal. That there was only one didn’t especially reassure him. Where one led, others would follow. If Tatenen and the Ogdoad were responsible for keeping the Path of Life clear of dangerous types, then they weren’t doing their job well enough. Or Tatenen had let this one slip through deliberately to irk them ...

Agatha’s gaze had drifted, too. ‘There!’ she said, pointing up and to their right. ‘This is how we’re going to get to the next stage.’

Seth saw a patch of twinkling light against the backdrop of the Second Realm. It looked like a meteor shower burning up in the atmosphere, but he knew not to trust his first impressions. The twinkling grew brighter, resolved into a cloud of small grey objects sweeping in a curved path around Sheol.

‘They are the Vaimnamne,’ Agatha said, a fierce joy shining in her eyes. ‘The silver steeds. We will ride them.’

‘How?’

‘They’ll sweep by here in a moment, Seth. We must each catch one and bend it to our will.’

He swallowed. ‘What if we miss or they won’t listen to us?’

‘That simply must not happen.’

‘And what about at the other end?’

‘We jump off.’

‘You make it sound easy.’

‘I’m sure it’s not.’ She grinned at him. ‘Are you frightened?’

He bristled. ‘I’d be an idiot not to be.’

‘So am I.’ Laughing, and taut with anticipation, the tall woman walked further around the lip of the funnel as the cloud grew brighter.
Getting in position,
Seth thought with a sinking feeling. He exchanged a sceptical look with Synett, thinking hard. If he had to jump on something large and moving fast, he would rather jump in the direction of the heart of the funnel. That way he wouldn’t fall more than a dozen metres or so if he missed.

‘“Behold,”‘ said Synett, ‘“one shall mount up and fly swiftly like an eagle.”‘

Not for the first time Seth wondered at the nature of the Holy Immortals, whose existence was so intimately tied to the Path of Life. He had pictured them as monks in either Buddhist or Christian robes, elderly men and women of dignified demeanour. He didn’t know how to reconcile that image with the requirements of the Path: he couldn’t imagine the Dalai Lama leaping onto the back of a meteorite or the Pope swinging overhand up the roots of a giant phantom tree, as he and the others had been required to do two junctures back.

‘Sounds good in theory,’ he said in response to Synett’s quote. ‘Has your Bible got anything about plummeting to our deaths?’

Synett smiled tightly. ‘“The Lord upholds all who are falling, and raises up all who are bowed down.”‘

‘Well, here’s hoping your Lord will start looking out for us soon. I haven’t seen any evidence of it yet.’

‘“You who fear the Lord, wait for his mercy and turn not aside, lest you fall.”‘

‘I get the picture.’ Sometimes he wondered if Synett’s ‘Lord’ was more than just a holdover from Bible bashing days in the First Realm. The man was supposedly in the service of Barbelo, but what if he was actually allied to Yod? Could he be the betrayer in their midst? Was he just waiting for the right moment to push Seth off the Path and to his death?

Synett, he sensed, was like a dog looking for a master. Obedience to the Bible in the First Realm had become service to Barbelo in the Second. Allegiances could change, even among the blindly faithful.

But murdering Seth a second time wouldn’t fix anything, he reminded himself. Not for Yod. Both he and Hadrian were valuable right where they were. Yod’s plan was to keep them there, not to kill them. So even if Synett was the betrayer, Seth didn’t have to worry about being pushed off the back of a meteorite. That, he told himself, was something.

The glittering cloud grew brighter. It was still hard to tell how large the ‘silver steeds’ were, how fast they were moving, or even exactly how far away they were. Agatha was poised and ready, legs bent and arms spread. The kaia were strung out in a line along the lip of the funnel to his left. Xol stood with his back to the swarm, looking over his shoulder. Synett waved his bandaged hands as though drying them, and assumed a similar posture, but with markedly less confidence.

Seth steeled himself to jump. If the others could do it, so could he.

With a sound like falling bombs, the Vaimnamne were upon them. The size and shape of small, elongated barrels, with no visible means of propulsion, the Vaimnamne moved at about the speed of a bicycle downhill — much slower than Seth had dreaded, but still hard to catch from a standing start. He grabbed at one and missed. A second slipped out of his hands before he could get a proper grip. There were dozens of them flying past the funnel, whistling in descending mournful notes. A third evaded him, and he bit down on a curse.

Synett succeeded on his second attempt. Xol and Agatha were already gone. Three kaia were swept away, leaving one — and him.

Seth made a grab for another silver steed. It dodged fluidly away. ‘It’s harder than it looks,’ he said, feeling criticism in the kaia’s blank stare.

‘They are avoiding you.’

Seth’s bluster evaporated. It was true. The Vaimnamne parted before him like a river around an island. Some came close but swerved sharply away if he made a move toward them. He literally threw himself into the air in an attempt to catch one, but it slipped deftly through his arms. He hit the lip of the funnel awkwardly on his backside, feeling like a fool. And hurt, rejected by creatures he hadn’t known existed until bare moments before.