The Inferior (18 page)

‘Can’t we turn that thing off?’ he asked Indrani.

She shook her head, looking sick. The air stank of waste and rot, worse than the latrine trenches in Man-Ways, worse than anything Stopmouth had ever smelled in his life. Rockface awoke, gasping for air.

‘By the ancestors, what’s making that stench?’

It was strong enough to make everybody’s eyes water. Stopmouth wiped his with the back of his arm and tried to study the scene as dispassionately as Wallbreaker would have done.

Most of the bodies hung listlessly, but some waved arms or tentacles or even flippers at the air as they cried out in endless pain. They all seemed to be evenly spaced, one separated from the next by the length of an arm. Nothing grew in the gaps between, not the tiniest sapling or wisp of moss.

‘Would you look at them all?’ breathed Rockface. ‘You know, we should kill a few, hey? Even the Armourbacks aren’t that cruel.’

‘I never thought it would have spread so quickly,’ said Indrani. ‘We didn’t mean it. A bit of excitement, we thought. That was all. We knew we could control them if we had to.’

Stopmouth had given up asking her specific questions some time before and was surprised by this opening up.

‘I’ve always wondered why my people haven’t come to save me,’ she continued. ‘But if this is the reason, I can’t say I didn’t earn it.’

‘What did you do?’ he asked.

‘You don’t have the words to understand it.’

‘I do, the Talker—’

‘Ah yes! The Talker. The greatest miracle of our Tribe! Do you know, Stopmouth, that we have things of metal so small that if they were to grow a hundred times, you still wouldn’t see them? Things that swim in our bodies to keep us whole. There are things of metal–
machines
, I should say–that built the Roof itself, and all we had to do was give them the orders to begin.

‘Some of them can make life. They can redesign us to live where we choose, how we choose; to die when we want in a way that pleases us. Stopmouth, my Tribe has machines for everything. Everything! And of all of them, only the Talker needs to be this big.’

The raft sailed past a field of creatures that resembled hairy humans with twisted horns on their heads and eyes that glittered green in the fading light. It had been some time since they’d seen anything moving in the water. Stopmouth was becoming more and more anxious to find a place to stop for the night, but knew Indrani would never agree to it so near to the Diggers’ victims.

To distract himself–to distract all of them–he asked, ‘Why then does the Talker have to be so big? Is changing words so much more difficult than making a world?’

‘Oh no,’ she said. ‘Changing words isn’t so hard. Recognizing a particular sound, swapping it for another–that was easy even for your ancestors. Reading what happens in your head and the heads of all the beings around you, now
that
is difficult. Finding equivalents in one culture for the basic concepts of another–that is
really
difficult. I say the word
vegetable
and the translator tells you something like ‘edible moss’. So, yes, it’s a miracle, but it’s a dangerous miracle. It makes you think you understand beasts and you never do. When it comes down to it, you can’t even understand your own species.’

Stopmouth shook his head. ‘I understand everything you say, Indrani. Maybe not always before, when you were trying to speak Human. But with the Talker it’s easy.’

‘Oh, really?’

Stopmouth nodded and was amazed to see her mouth turn up into a snarl. He feared she would use the bone knife on him and maybe Rockface thought the same thing, for the bigger man lifted one arm as if to restrain Indrani. But it wasn’t necessary.

She said, ‘If a woman says the word “rape” to a man, the little Talker in the man’s head comes up with several matches, none of them correct. You’re just a savage, Stopmouth. Rape means nothing to you but a good time. But not even the most civilized of men will ever know what rape is to a woman.’

‘Indrani, what did Wallbreaker…?’

She didn’t answer. Stopmouth’s head was reeling. It made a lot of sense now. Wallbreaker had been wary of Indrani’s fists and her strange, high kicks, but he could fool anybody into doing anything.

‘Did he weaken you with poison?’ asked Stopmouth. ‘Did he trick you into eating mossbeasts?’

‘No,’ said Indrani, not looking at him. ‘That was my idea. After.’

Stopmouth felt ashamed. He wanted to tell her that not all savages were rapists; that he, Stopmouth, wasn’t one. Surely she knew that already! She’d been ill and at his mercy for days and he’d done nothing but care for her. He didn’t want to believe Wallbreaker was capable of such things either, in spite of all he’d seen, but one glance at Indrani’s face told him otherwise.

Rooflight was already beginning to fade and still the fields of planted beings continued along the banks of the Wetlane. In the distance Stopmouth saw a dark line that might have been trees. He prayed fervently that this was so.

‘Look!’ said Rockface. ‘A Digger!’

Sure enough, a triangular head regarded them from the edge of the water no more than two hundred heartbeats distant. Its great, flat claws gripped the lip of the Wetlane and its long, perfectly round snout dripped clear liquid that hissed on impact with the water. It stared at them, if ‘stare’ was the right word for a creature with large but empty eye-sockets. Stopmouth remembered how the Diggers’ skin had seemed to writhe on their bodies the night before. As he got closer, he saw the reason why. A hundred thumb-sized grubs scurried over the creature, into and out of its ragged ears and the empty sockets of its eyes.

‘They’re its young,’ whispered Indrani. ‘They’ll keep feeding on it until it can find them another host. Then it will mate again.’

The creature had powerful-looking hind legs and it flexed them now as if it might try to leap aboard. Stopmouth poled them further from the bank, unable to understand how the beasts survived like that.

As the humans passed directly in front of it, the Digger said: ‘Attack.’

All beasts planted nearby obeyed at once. A multitude of appendages reached for muck or stones and flung them at the raft. Most of the missiles landed way off. Many didn’t even reach the Wetlane, while others threw up plumes of water to either side.

A clod of earth broke over Stopmouth’s head, but he kept pushing them along. Stones struck him in the shoulder and Indrani yelped a few times. Rockface growled back at the enemy. He returned any missile that came near him with as much force and accuracy as he could muster from a kneeling position. He got close to the Digger a few times, but it seemed unperturbed.

Finally, when they’d passed a dozen paces beyond it, the creature said, ‘Stop.’ Its empty eyes followed them until they were out of sight.

‘A display of power,’ said Indrani with a shiver. ‘It was struck as often as we were, I think.’

They came up to the trees in full darkness, but still Indrani wouldn’t let him stop. When he claimed to be too tired to continue, Rockface took over the job of poling them along. The big man was even more clumsy than Stopmouth had been, and surprisingly nervous, perched on the edge of the raft.

‘Those trees are still pretty sickly,’ said Indrani. Stopmouth didn’t think she was much better herself. She had gained some strength, but looked like she could have done with a few more days’ rest before setting off. If we get past the Diggers, he thought, we can hole up for a while. Then his only problem would be keeping Rockface from turning back in search of special Digger trophies. He sighed. At least he’d finally found one thing the big man feared. Rockface was sweating much more than would have been expected and he kept his gaze away from the water as much as possible.

‘Let me take over for a while,’ said Stopmouth. ‘Go on, we’ll need your strength for later. And I enjoy it.’

‘If you’re sure,’ said Rockface, handing over the pole immediately.

Stopmouth
wasn’t
sure. Exhaustion and pain were quick to replace the pleasure of his earlier exertion. Roofsweat started falling shortly after that. It brought some relief. It also saved his life.

Just as the trees were looking healthier, something grabbed the pole and yanked hard. Stopmouth’s slick palms lost their grip and he fell forwards onto Rockface, one hand clutching at the straps that held the logs together, the other landing in the water. Indrani shouted a warning and he pulled his arm free just as a pale head, all eyes and teeth, surfaced, lunged and sank.

For a beat all was calm. Stopmouth had knocked the wind out of Rockface. ‘Sorry,’ he whispered as the big man struggled for breath. The pole was floating away from them. Stopmouth got to his knees and used his Armourback-shell spear, point first, to pull it in closer.

Then something battered into the bottom of their raft, making them sway wildly. Stopmouth had to give up on the pole to lie flat on top of the supplies. The battering was repeated again and again. The creature or creatures struck mostly in the same place, as if hoping to create a weak spot. Perhaps they could see one already, a crack in a log or a frayed lashing. More of them seemed to be joining in on the assault. A flurry of thumps came that rattled every log and loosened the hide ropes holding them together.

‘Get away!’ shrieked Indrani. Stopmouth couldn’t see what had frightened her, but she rolled over towards him. As the raft tipped up, a log at the high end came loose entirely and floated free.

‘Untie another!’ cried a ‘voice’ from beneath them. Stopmouth saw a delicate white arm with writhing fingertips pulling at the rope directly under him. He shoved his dagger into the gap between logs, felt it bite, ‘heard’ a yelp of pain. But the raft continued to spin and twitch and shudder under a dozen different attacks.

‘We’ll have to give them the food!’ said Indrani.

‘We’re dead without it!’ he said. But it didn’t matter and they all knew it. Another log was starting to come loose.

‘Hold me steady,’ he said to Rockface.

A few quick cuts removed the hide that kept the food safe. Then the three humans could only watch as their chances of surviving the journey spilled into the water, one precious joint of flesh at a time.

A frenzy ensued. It seemed as if the creatures were fighting amongst themselves.

By now the humans were clinging together on the three shaky logs that hadn’t been torn free. Rockface, still underneath, had a dagger in one hand and his eyes fixed on the water, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Stopmouth could feel Indrani’s rapid breath, wet against his ear.

‘Behind you,’ she whispered. He wanted to spin round, but knew it would have killed them all. However, it wasn’t an attack she’d spotted–some kindly ancestor had sent the steering pole floating back towards them.

‘I can’t reach it,’ he said, ‘even with the spear.’

‘I’ll do it,’ said Rockface. ‘Let me up!’ His efforts to rise shoved Stopmouth onto Indrani and nearly over the edge. The raft swayed and dipped.

‘Enough! Rockface, please!’ said Stopmouth. ‘You can’t reach it either! Somebody will have to lean out over the water. Somebody the others can hold onto…’

He could tell by the increased rapidity of Indrani’s breathing that she knew who that person had to be.

The battle for their supplies seemed to be calming down now. Perhaps the creatures would be sated with what they’d already won, perhaps not.

Rockface held Indrani by the waist as she leaned out towards the pole, her shadow stretching over the reflections of the tracklights on the surface of the water. Stopmouth kept them balanced by sitting as far back as he dared.

‘A bit more,’ Indrani said, straining, brushing the pole with the butt of the spear. All other activity in the Wetlane had come to a halt and Stopmouth wanted to scream at her to hurry up. Rivulets of sweat ran down her face, dripping into the water like invitations. She passed back the spear and lifted up the pole.

‘Watch out!’ yelled Rockface.

A white head appeared and two arms, tipped with a nest of tentacles, reached up as if to embrace her. Indrani yelled and swung the wood at them. As the beast ducked away, she shoved the pole into the water and pushed the raft a man-length closer to the bank. Rockface drew his knife and slashed at the water where the creature had been, yelling the worst insults he knew: ‘Waster! Hoarder! I’ll eat those eyes for you! Flesh rotter!’

Whatever differences the creatures may have had earlier were forgotten, and everywhere their white forms were streaming towards what remained of the raft.

Stopmouth threw his weapons and tool-belt over to the shore. It wasn’t so far now, but something was fighting with Indrani for control of the pole. She smacked the creature over the head with it even as more tentacle-like fingers were reaching up out of the water. She had to let it go.

‘Jump!’ Stopmouth said to the others. ‘Jump!’ Indrani did, while he struggled to keep them steady. Even so, she almost capsized them. Hands were already reaching up from below, plucking at his ankles, loosening the remaining knots. Rockface had a snarl fixed to his face. White arms clustered around him. ‘Jump!’ screamed Stopmouth again. Rockface ignored him, slashing and stabbing. ‘Please, Rockface! Do you want to end up like Lingerhouse?’
Half eaten, trapped in horror at the bottom of Wallbreaker’s net
. Some of the fury left the big man’s face. ‘Please, Rockface, we need you! Jump!’

Rockface roared. His great fist pummelled once against a pale row of eyeballs. Then he tore himself free and leaped ashore, even as one of the last three logs came away from the raft.

Stopmouth’s heart was beating now, faster than the drums at his brother’s wedding. He couldn’t get up without falling in; he couldn’t control the raft. Terror ran free in his blood. Why hadn’t he jumped himself? Why should he be the last one left here, where the others couldn’t even help him?

‘It’s better to drown them first,’ said a ‘voice’ beneath him. ‘Pull it down and fill its lungs!’

‘One more knot,’ said another.

‘Stopmouth!’

The beasts sounded happy. ‘It’s coming loose. I have it now!’

Something poked Stopmouth in the face. He saw it was the end of his spear, and he grabbed onto it for dear life. Indrani and Rockface pulled the raft in with desperate strength. The creatures, surprised perhaps at the sudden movement, reacted slowly. Stopmouth shook off their clutches and brought his legs and body onto the shore, one arm trailing behind him on the raft. To right and left, other figures were struggling out of the water too.