This Broken Wondrous World (30 page)

“Gone,” I said.

“God damn it!” She looked up. “Okay, listen up, people. Stop playing with the birds. I need Puran and Slair to get Claire.” She turned back to me. “Do we need the human?”

“We need the human,” I said.

She sighed. “And Buthran, get that human. Follow me. We're getting the hell out of here.”

She leaned over to pick me up.

“Wait!” I said. “Put the phone pieces in my pocket. We might be able to save Vi.”

“If you say so.” She shoved them into my pants pockets, then hoisted me. As my head moved around, I saw the other trowe pick up Claire and Holmes. Then we all hustled over to the hatch. It looked like about a ten-foot drop to a hard-packed dirt floor that led off down a dark passage.

“I hope this dwarf knows where he's taking us,” said Liel. “This place is full of tunnels. I've been using some of them, but I didn't know about this one.”

Gunfire was right at the doorway. Bullets zinged past, hitting the stone wall behind us. Tear gas canisters rolled into the room.

“Go go go!” shouted Liel.

The trowe began dropping down into the hole. Once all her people were in, Liel jumped in with me on her back. We landed hard and she stumbled. “God, even missing limbs you're heavy,” she muttered. She put me down on hard, dry earth, then reached up and slammed the lid of the hatch down just as an explosion went off.

Then the dwarf's small face appeared directly in front of me.

“I told you I would come,” he said in his heavy German accent. “When your need was most dire.”

Liel picked me up again. We followed the dwarf down a long tunnel, the sounds of gunfire fading in the distance.

“Where does this let us out?” asked Liel.

“Not far enough away,” said the dwarf. “But we have friends waiting for us.”

“What friends?” asked Liel.

But the dwarf only hurried down the passage faster until he reached a dead end.

“Here!” He pointed to a ladder bolted into the rock that led up to another hatch.

Liel slung me over her shoulder and climbed up the ladder. She pushed the hatch open and a sudden gust of fresh air hit my face. The rest of the trowe came next, and finally the dwarf.

“Okay,” said Liel, dropping down on the ground, panting hard. “Now we juuuuu—oh, shit!”

A squad of soldiers had peeled off the force storming The Commune and headed toward us.

“What now, shorty?!” she screamed at the dwarf.

“Friends,” he said.

A lone figure stood up from where she had lain on the ground, hidden by the brush. She had long, black hair, and tears of blood leaked from her eyes.

“La Llorona,” I whispered.

She screamed at the soldiers and they began falling in waves before her.

Then Rhoecus the centaur rode up next to us. At his side was La Perricholi, still in wolf form.

“Quickly!” shouted Rhoecus. “Put the injured on my back.”

The trowe laid Claire, Holmes, and me horizontally across his broad horse back so that our arms and legs dangled on either side.

“Follow me!” he shouted, and took off at a gallop. It was difficult to see, bouncing up and down on his back, but I caught glimpses of the trowe, with La Perricholi bounding along beside them. For a moment, I was worried we'd left the dwarf behind. But then I saw Knossos the gryphon swoop down and pick him up. La Llorona continued to hold back the wave of soldiers coming toward us.

“There!” Rhoecus shouted, pointing at the helicopter that had brought us here.

“Are you kidding me?” snarled Liel. “That's FBI!”

“No!” said the dwarf. “Friends!”

In the cockpit were Javier and Bakru.

“Oh, God, she
is
alive!”

“Told ya,” I said weakly.

“Look,” she shouted. “The cargo bay door is opening. Let's go!”

We sprinted the rest of the way and fell inside in an exhausted heap.

“What . . . about . . . La Llorona?” I said.

“She will depart according to her own wishes,” said the dwarf
gravely.

Through the open cargo bay, I could see her still standing before the coming waves of solders. As the bay door began to close, she raised one blood-red hand in farewell, then turned back to the soldiers, just as a bullet pierced her chest.

Then the bay doors closed. Or maybe it was just my eyes. My eye. The helicopter began to rise. Or fall. It felt like I was falling. And then there was only
darkness.

World's End

“Our
battle is with cruelties and frustrations, stupid, heavy and hateful things from which we shall escape at last, less like victors conquering a world than like sleepers awaking from a nightmare in the dawn . . . A time will come when men will sit with history before them or with some old newspaper before them and ask incredulously, ‘Was there ever such a world?'”

—FROM
T
HE
O
PEN
C
ONSPIRACY
by H. G.
Wells

The Monster Who Challenged the World

T
HE NEXT FEW
hours came in disconnected bursts that flashed out of the darkness. Claire wiping my face with a wet cloth. Liel and Bakru embracing. La Perricholi back in human form, shaking and exhausted as Holmes covered her with a blanket. Other faces began to appear. My mother crying as she held me. Ruthven's face etched with lines of fury. I lost all sense of time and place and I started to wonder if I'd died.

Then the dwarf's face appeared right up close to mine. He touched my forehead with one tiny hand.

“I have done all I can,” he said. “Now it is
your
time.”

And I woke up. For a moment, it all came crashing down on me, memories of being attacked by the bird people, Vi's phone getting crushed, Kemp's death, La Llorona getting gunned down, and that endless sound of my father screaming while being slowly eaten alive. I felt that same dark and yawning chasm again, the void trying to pull me down. I almost gave in and let myself slide back into unconsciousness.

No
, I thought. He wouldn't have wanted me to give up. To give in. He would have wanted me to do something. To stop Moreau. And that was exactly what I planned to do.

I slowly sat up and looked around the dim, enclosed space.

“Boy!” My mother knelt down next to me, her eyes red and puffy, smudges of dirt on her perfect china-doll face.

“How long have I been out?” I asked.

“A day.” She brushed my hair back, like that would actually have any impact on my looks.

We were alone in a small cave-like room. There were several passageways that led off into darkness. In the distance, I could hear hushed voices.

“Where are we?”

“Under the mountains. The dwarf led us here. We are safe.”

“Nowhere is safe,” I said.

“Oh, my Boy . . .” Her hand stroked the side of my face where my eye was missing. “I will fix you. I promise. I just need materials.”

I nodded as I stared down at my stump of an arm that ended at the elbow. Then I looked up into her eyes. “Did you hear? About Dad?”

“That I cannot fix.” A tear coursed down her expressionless face.

“Mom,” I said, and pulled her in close with my one good arm.

We sat there for a long time like that. Finally, she lifted her head and looked at me.

“Do you know he asked me to marry him for nearly a hundred years before I said yes?”

“Why didn't you want to marry him?”

“He was a self-absorbed, violent brute. Even after Victor was dead, he was so filled with rage and self-loathing, I could not stand to be near him.”

“So why did you finally marry him?”

“He went up into the Arctic alone. When he came back, he was different. I don't know how, but he found peace there.”

We sat there in the dim lighting for a moment.

“A hundred years. And he never gave up,” I said. “He must have really loved you.”

“Yes.” She smoothed the front of her dress and slowly stood up. “I promised Claire I would tell her when you woke up.” She looked down at me. “She has been by your side nearly the whole time you have been unconscious. This is a good woman.”

“I know.”

“Don't forget that.”

“I won't.”

She turned and walked into the dark passage.

I shifted myself around, inspecting the damage. Other than the missing limbs and eye, I was in surprisingly good shape.

“Well,
finally
,” said Claire as she walked into the room.

“I needed some beauty rest,” I said. “Did it work?”

“Com'ere, you.” She dropped down next to me and pulled me in for a kiss. Then she pressed her forehead against mine. Her dark eyes glistened and her jaw muscles clenched as she stared into my eye.

Her voice was soft, near breaking as she said, “I was really worried about you.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I was worried about
both
of us. The bird people slashed you up pretty bad. But you look fine now.”

“That dwarf of yours has all sorts of little tricks. Once the Dragon Lady got here, he mixed up some potion with her blood and it healed us all right up. Well, except it couldn't grow back limbs and the like.”

“Mom can take care of that,” I said. “She just needs some parts.”

“Might be some spare trowe parts she could use,” muttered Claire.

“Now, now,” I said.

“She helped him, Boy. She's a bloody traitor.”

“She also saved our lives.”

Claire looked like she was about to fire off another retort, but then she just let it all out in a sigh.

“Yeah. Okay.”

She moved behind me, stretching her legs out on either side of me. Then she wrapped her arms around my chest, and let her head drop onto my shoulder.

“I'm so tired,” she said.

“I'm not.”

“That's because you've been sleeping this whole time while I've been all nurturing, at your bedside, wiping your brow and shite.”

“You wiped my brow?”

“Too bloody right, I did.”

“Thanks.”

“You're welcome.”

We sat there in silence for a moment. Then, gradually, I started to become aware of a feeling in the air, like right before a storm.

“Claire? Do you . . . feel that?”

“Yeah. What the hell is it?”

“No idea.”

The feeling got more intense, as if the air pressure in the room was changing. Then a crack formed in the cave wall and began to slowly widen.

“That looks bad,” said Claire. She stood and moved in front of me, her fists balled up.

Laurellen's head popped through the crack.

“Oh, good,” he said calmly. Then he turned his head and said behind him, “This is the place. Sorry about that last one. It's been
a while.” He turned back to us. “Hello, Claire dear. Boy, you look frightful. I'd offer you some glamour but I'm afraid I've used the last of it for this.”

He stepped out of the crack, followed by Maria and Henri, each holding one of his hands. As soon as they stepped through, the crack sealed shut, like it had never been there.

“Let's never travel that way again,” said Maria. She leaned against the far wall and took a slow breath, her face pale.

“That was
amazing
!” said Henri, somehow completely recovered from the beating Stephen had given him. “In the succession of incredible things I have seen in the past month, I think this actually was the most astonishing.” He looked at me with eyes brighter than I'd ever seen. “An
alternate reality
, Boy! I cannot . . .” He shook his head. “Words fail me!”

“Whoa, slow down there,” said Claire. “Where the hell did you just come from?”

“I knew time was short,” said Laurellen. “So I took us through the faerie realm. It's a bit dreary these days, now that there are so few faeries. But still, I suppose it's good to pop in and see how the old place is doing.”

“Boy,” said Maria. She seemed to have recovered a little. She came over, knelt down beside me, and took my hand. “I am so sorry about your father. I never had the chance to meet him, but Mozart spoke of him with the utmost respect.”

“Thank you,” I said.

“Laurellen,” said Claire, “why didn't you ever tell us you could bloody teleport?”

“It's not teleportation, actually. Time is different in the faerie realm. It's only been a few hours out here, but in there we've been traveling for weeks. That's why Henri appears to have miraculously healed. He just spent most of his recovery in the
faerie realm.” He frowned. “I'm
fairly
certain that won't have any long-term effects.”

“But how did you guys even know what happened or where to find us?”

“Vi told us, of course,” said Henri.

“Vi,” I said, patting my pocket. “She's okay?”

“Your mum was able to salvage the drive from that phone and upload her into a different one,” said Claire. “Since then she's been jumping all over the place, from Ruthven's phone to Holmes's to wherever else she can pop in to relay messages. We haven't been sure if Moreau can track our regular communications, so using her as the messenger seemed the most secure way to do it.”

“So, Boy,” said Henri, his face suddenly serious. “We are going to get Moreau, right?”

“Of course,” I said.

“How?” asked Claire.

“Do we still have that helicopter?”

“Yeah, it's just outside the cave. The dwarf has it camouflaged somehow. Why?”

“One of my daring plans is starting to form.”

She rolled her eyes. “If it's anything like the last plan, I think the word you're looking for is
suicidal
.”

CLAIRE HELPED ME
hop down a passageway that opened up into a cavern big enough to fit everyone: my mother, Ruthven, the surviving dryads and trowe, La Perricholi, and Holmes. The Dragon Lady was also there with Rhoecus, Knossos, and Javier. There was no sign of the dwarf, but that didn't surprise me. What did surprise
me was that standing next to Holmes was General Montgomery.

Maria went immediately to embrace La Perricholi. “I'm so sorry, my child.”

“There is nothing to be sorry about, Mother,” said La Perricholi, stroking her long, black-and-gray-streaked hair. “I understand him more than ever now. I feel closer to him than I thought was possible. For that, I am willing to suffer the rest.”

Maria nodded and kissed her forehead, tears in her eyes.

Ruthven raise an eyebrow at Laurellen. “How on earth did you get here so fast?”

“Faerie realm,” said Laurellen.

“How is it now?”

Laurellen shrugged, but there was a flash of pain beneath his usually smug expression. “Much the same. Perhaps a bit worse.” Then he smiled again. “Henri enjoyed it, though.”

“Yes . . .” Ruthven frowned slightly as he watched the dryads approach Henri. They were looking at him in a way I'd never seen them look at anyone before.

“Eh, hello, ladies,” said Henri, flashing a nervous smile. “You haven't been hitting the wine, I hope.”

“Something is different about you. . . .” said Meadow, placing her hand on his chest.

Iris leaned in to him so closely that her nose pressed against his cheek. She inhaled deeply.

“Yes,” she said. “He smells of old earth.”

Sequoia ran her fingers through Henri's hair. “I always liked him, anyway.”

“Um . . . help?” Henri looked over at us, his eyes wide.

“I suspect they're just picking up some residual presence from your stay in the faerie realm,” said Laurellen. “I'm sure they're perfectly safe.”

“Are you really sure?” I asked quietly.

“Not at all.”

“Let's keep an eye on that, then, okay?”

“Absolutely.”

I turned to Montgomery. “I didn't expect to see you here, General.”

“Holmes brought me.” He nodded his head toward her. “I, uh . . .” He looked off into a dark corner of a room, his expression uncomfortable. But then he turned back to look at me. “I asked her to. Because I screwed up. If I'd listened to you, if I'd
trusted
you and Holmes, I might have been able to prevent what happened in there. So I'm here to do whatever I can to help make things right.”

“Good,” I said. Then I turned to Holmes. “How is it out there?”

She shook her head. “It's really bad. You'll see for yourself soon enough. Most of those feral monsters are still running amok. And the Sphinx is destroying anything and anyone he comes across, on the ground or in the air. Moreau still occupies Phoenix, but he's also gained control of Albuquerque and Denver. I know he did not have this many troops when he hit Phoenix. I can't figure out how he keeps expanding his numbers like this. It's almost as if . . .” She paused for a moment, then shook her head. “Regardless, the entire middle of the country is more or less a war zone. Now he's trying to convince monster enclaves in other countries to join in and rise against their own governments. There have been incidents in Scotland, France, Germany, Romania, China, Russia, and Australia.”