War in Heaven (72 page)

He cannot allow me to speak, for I am Mallory Ringess. I am Mallory Ringess; I am Mallory Ringess; I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess.

And so, as Danlo breathed in deeply, his eyes swept out to the central loggia above the nave, looking behind the fine stonework of the balconies for assassins or robot lasers. And he took yet one more small step closer to Hanuman; he wanted to make it as difficult as possible for anyone to fire upon him without also incurring the risk of slaying Hanuman.

"Lords and masters of the Order," he finally called out. His voice flowed out of him steady and clear, and it rippled with power. The thousands of godlings in the cathedral immediately fell silent at the terrible beauty of this godly voice; even Hanuman li Tosh looked at him strangely as if in awe at hearing the voice of Mallory Ringess for the first time. "Lord Hanuman li Tosh, Princess Surya Surata Lai, all those of you who have donned the golden robes of a godling and followed the Way of Ringess; ambassadors and citizens of Neverness and all those of you who have ever sought the secret of life in the remembrance of the Elder Eddas, I have returned so that we all might fulfil the truth of this eternal quest. I have come before you from the stars across the universe to bring justice to the Civilized Worlds and an end to war."

Here, Danlo paused a moment to allow the godlings to let loose a tremendous cheer that pounded through the nave from wall to wall and shook the long, glass windows in their casings. And then he drew in another breath of air and continued: "I have returned to bring justice, but there can be no justice as long as — "

"Death to autarchs! Death to false gods!"

Just then, from the crowd of godlings nearest the altar, a large and cruel-looking man who might have once been a wormrunner interrupted Danlo. All in one moment, Danlo felt his belly tense up at the sound of this voice, even as he saw Hanuman li Tosh subtly move his eyes in a cetic sign directed towards this golden-robed man. And then a terrible thing happened. The man drew forth a bullet-gun of gleaming chrome and aimed it straight towards the altar.

"Death to false gods! Death to Hanuman li Tosh!"

Many things happened almost all at once. A hundred men and women crowding near the altar cried out in terror, while a hundred more covered their faces or tried to duck low towards the smooth stone floor. The man with the gun screamed out in hatred, while three of the nearby cathedral police immediately closed upon him. One of them, a young godling with flaming red hair and fire in his eyes, managed to knock the assassin's arm off its mark. He held it locked straight upwards while the gun exploded into life. Three times gouts of flaming hot gas burst from the muzzle of the gun, sending metal bullets smashing against the hard granite of the vault high above them. At least one of bullets blew out a section of glass from one of the windows directly above the altar — as it happened, the very window of Mallory Ringess saying farewell to Bardo that had shattered inwards once before. This time, only part of the window shattered, and only a few bits of violet and gold glass rained down upon the altar. Almost without thinking, Danlo moved closer to Hanuman to shield him from this shower of sharp, glittering glass. It was as if the gun's explosion had hurled him back in time to a moment when his essential love for Hanuman had overcome his hate. And now he found himself suddenly embracing Hanuman, bowing his head down over Hanuman's head, letting the flying pieces of glass cut through his thick black hair or spray against the black silk robe covering his back and neck. Some of the cathedral police near the altar also shielded themselves from this glass, but others swarmed the assassin and disarmed him. And still others — along with Jaroslav Bulba and three of his warrior-poets — rushed up upon the altar to throw their bodies around Hanuman and Danlo.

"Protect him!" Hanuman cried out as he pushed away from Danlo. For one shattering moment of time, he met eyes with Danlo and stared at him strangely. Then he caught Jaroslav Bulba by the sleeve of his robe and motioned towards Danlo. "Protect Lord Mallory Ringess!"

While the cathedral police below the altar wrestled the would-be assassin to the floor and bound him with acid wire, Jaroslav Bulba and twenty other godlings swarmed around Danlo. They covered Danlo with their bodies, shielding him from the bullets or the laser light of other assassins — and shielding him as well from the eyes of the thousands of godlings spread throughout the nave. Thus concealed by this wall of golden silk, Jaroslav Bulba came up behind Danlo and stuck a black-tipped needle in his neck. At the same time, other godlings took hold of Danlo's arms and waist, even as Danlo suddenly surged forwards wildly and shouted out, "No!"

But it was too late for him to break free. The paralytic drug that Jaroslav Bulba had injected into him almost instantly froze his muscles into motionlessness much as a strong cold wind might steal a man's breath away. "No!" he cried out again. "I am Mallory wi Soli Ringess and I — " But then his voice choked off as if some invisible hand were squeezing his throat. His legs gave way and he fell against Jaroslav Bulba and the godlings surrounding him. Five of the godlings proceeded down the steps of the altar to clear the way while Jaroslav Bulba and five others followed buoying up Danlo in their arms.

"Out of the way!" Hanuman called out. He pushed away from the godlings remaining on the altar, foolishly — or so it seemed — exposing himself. He stood facing the godlings and all the peoples of the city standing below the altar. His smooth, silvery voice cut like a sword through the pandemonium spreading through the cathedral. "Make way for Lord Mallory Ringess! He must be taken to safety!"

Danlo, who was caught between the bodies of Jaroslav Bulba and three other ronin warrior-poets, struggled to speak and move. But he could do little more than watch Jaroslav's deadly violet eyes and wait for his captors to take him to safety.

They bore him through the nave of the cathedral, through throngs of women and men frantic to know whether or not their god had been struck by one of the assassin's bullets. Danlo felt Jaroslav's hot breath in his face and felt blood trickling down his neck where a sliver of flying glass had cut him. High above him, sunlight and wind streamed through the hole that the bullet had torn open in the beautiful window; all around him, the breath of hundreds of godlings broke into the air as they gasped out their fear for Mallory Ringess' life. And then the warrior-poets swept him through a great archway mounted with stone pinnacles and a sculpture of Mallory Ringess that looked out upon the nave. They half-carried him down a short passageway to the main stairwell that led up through the central tower. Someone opened the doorway to the stairwell and pushed him through. For a moment the stones of the stairwell echoed with the chant of ten thousand godlings calling out his name: "Mallory Ringess! Mallory Ringess! Lord Mallory wi Soli Ringess!"

I am Mallory Ringess
, Danlo thought.
I am Mallory Ringess, and I have returned across thirty thousand light years to end the war.

And then suddenly the doors banged shut behind him, cutting off the voices of the godlings, and there was a silence as deep as space.

In death thy glory in heaven, in victory thy glory on earth. Arise therefore, Arjuna, with thy soul ready to fight.

— Bhagavad Gita 2:37

The ronin warrior-poets brought Danlo to Hanuman's sanctuary at the top of the tower. As before, it was crowded with sulki grids, hologram stands, computers and other cybernetica. The flame globes had all been lit in anticipation of Danlo's arrival. They cast a rainbow light upon Hanuman's chess set on its black and white board: his old set of carved ivory and shatterwood pieces that was missing the white god. Danlo's devotionary computer — the one that he had carried with him across the thousands of light years of the Vild — had been brought from his cell in the chapter house and positioned on a table near the chess set. But as so many days before, Hanuman had covered it with a white null cloth impervious to sound or light.

Because Hanuman kept no bed or couch for sleeping, the warrior-poets laid Danlo down on one of the Fravashi carpets near the eastern quadrant of the room. Danlo, still under the grip of the warrior-poet's paralysing drug, could make no movement of his body other than blinking his eyes. As Jaroslav Bulba knelt to check his pulse and his breathing, he lay back on the carpet staring up at the long curving windows of the dome above him. He gazed upon the deep blue sky and the sections of the purple-coloured dome that blocked out the sky; from time to time, Jaroslav's face would hover straight above his like a spider suspended in space, and then he would gaze at Jaroslav's hideous red jewelled eyes.

"I've never seen a god before," Jaroslav said, looking down at him. "Mallory Ringess — there was a time when I would have had to slay you for being a god. That is, if you really
are
a god, as everyone says you are."

Danlo's heart beat three times, and he blinked twice as he stared up at this ronin warrior-poet who had once tortured him. But he could not turn his head away from him, nor could he speak.

"You will be wondering about the drug that I injected into you. Unless you are given the antidote, its effects are permanent."

I cannot move
, Danlo thought.
But I must move; I must will myself to move.

"Permanent paralysis," Jaroslav said in a voice without pity or heart. "But we can keep you alive with feeding tubes almost for ever, if Lord Hanuman wishes you alive."

I must will myself to move. I must turn and lie here facing west if it is my time to die.

After a long while — Danlo counted some three thousand heartbeats — he heard the sanctuary's doors open. From the sound of footsteps against stone he thought that two or more men had walked into the room. When one of these men began speaking, his voice echoed off the optical and quantum computers and the Yarkonan tapestries hanging between the windows. He instantly recognized this smooth, silvery voice, for it belonged to Hanuman li Tosh.

"Well, he doesn't look so godly now, does he?" Hanuman said. He came over to the carpet and stood above Danlo; his cold blue eyes looked down upon Danlo like two pale moons. To Jaroslav Bulba, standing by his side, he said, "Please give him the partial antidote now."

"Are you certain of this, Lord Hanuman? If he is really a god, then — "

"Oh, I think that he's as human in his body as you or me. Give him the antidote so that I may speak with him."

"As you wish, Lord Hanuman."

While Jaroslav stepped into view with a needle held between his fingers, another man shifted about behind Hanuman. Danlo could hear the crinkling silk of his garments but could not see who it was. And then he felt the cold sharp bite of the needle entering his flesh. His face, neck, jaw and throat began to tingle and burn. After his heart had beat twenty times, he found himself able to open his mouth, slightly. And then Hanuman spoke to Jaroslav again, saying, "Please leave us now. Wait outside the door until I call for you."

Danlo's heart beat four more times, pumping the new drug through his arteries, muscles and nerves. He managed to turn his head just enough to see Jaroslav Bulba gather up the other warrior-poets and move off towards the door.

"The antidote," Hanuman said to Danlo, "will cancel the paralysis of your face and head. The warrior-poets make the subtlest of drugs — you should know, we've other antidotes that will allow other parts of you to move. Or your whole body, just as it was before you were poisoned."

With great effort Danlo pulled his head straight backwards, trying to get a better look at Hanuman and the man who stood hiding behind him. "Hanuman," he finally gasped out. He licked his lips and swallowed against the fuzzy dryness in his throat. "Hanuman li Tosh ... I am — "

"Mallory Ringess," Hanuman said as he moved over and knelt by Danlo's side. "Mallory wi Soli Ringess is the god — or man — whom you have mimed. But I know who you really are."

With that, he motioned to the man behind him to step into view.

"Danlo," Hanuman said, looking down and locking eyes in the way he had done with Danlo since their meeting in Lavi Square many years before. "Danlo wi Soli Ringess — you are he, aren't you? I know that you are. I know that this man has recently sculpted you so that you might mime your father."

Danlo turned to stare at the tall, grey man named Constancio of Alesar. The paralysis of his tongue and lips had almost completely left him, and he found that he could give voice to all the wrath that he felt burning up inside him.

"Go away," he said in a deep and dark voice. "Go away and never return."

"I'm sorry about your son," Constancio said. At these words, Hanuman's eyes locked upon him like searchlights, and he stood looking back and forth between Constancio and Danlo. "I'm sorry, but there was nothing I could do."

"You might have
helped
him," Danlo said. "You had the drugs, the cryologist's art — it was within your power to save his life, and you let him die."

"I'm sorry, but it was too late. And we had already concluded our agreement, don't you see?"

"I ... see," Danlo choked out. He stared at Constancio, and his eyes burned with his anger. And then he said, "You promised. You were to keep the sculpting a secret — we touched hands to seal our agreement, yes?"

"Well, it was wrong of you to impersonate a god," Constancio said. He fairly cringed under Danlo's intense gaze, and he looked off down at the bare floorstones beneath the carpet. "And it was wrong of me to try to keep your secret."

"You agreed that if you told anyone, the price of the sculpting would be forfeit. The sphere belonged to my mother. Please return it to me, now."

At this, Constancio looked at Hanuman as if the drug had paralysed not only Danlo's body but his mind. "He's mad," Constancio told him. "I should never have agreed to sculpt a madman."

Hanuman looked at Constancio strangely, as if he were more of a mechanical puzzle to be solved than a living human being. And then he asked, "But you did sculpt him, didn't you? And you can prove this, as you have said?"