Codex Born (28 page)

“And we will, just as soon as we get a mile down the road. Assuming nobody and nothing tries to follow us.” I climbed into the truck, started the engine, and opened the window to the back. “Ready?”

“Don’t drive too fast,” Lena said. “Potholes and knives don’t mix.”

I toyed with the idea of trying to take Bi Wei with us. It wouldn’t be the most honorable move, but she was dangerous. She might have the shape of a woman who disappeared five hundred years ago, but she carried something else inside. She had become the embodiment of everything I had learned to fear these past months. Of everything Gutenberg had feared since the founding of the Porters.

But she was also a refugee from a magical war that had been erased from our history. She hadn’t asked for any of this. She hadn’t known what she would bring back. More practically, I didn’t have a clue how we’d be able to hold her. Lena couldn’t keep a knife to her throat forever, and Bi Wei’s magic could flatten any spell of mine.

We pulled away at a leisurely pace. I split my attention between the road and the mirrors, watching for any of Harrison’s metal pets.

After five minutes, I stopped long enough for Lena and Bi Wei to get out. Lena walked Bi Wei to a birch tree at the side of the road. She twined the branches and roots around Bi Wei’s
wrists and feet, and molded a wooden blindfold as well. Another branch held the knife to Bi Wei’s throat.

I slammed the gas pedal to the floor the instant Lena was inside. The rear tires spun out, raising a cloud of dirt as we tore down the road. I didn’t know what Bi Wei could do, but I didn’t expect Lena’s precautions to hold her for long.

I watched the rearview mirror, but nobody appeared to be following us. Not yet. But they would. And next time, they would have all of Bi Wei’s power to back them up.

I pushed open the door of the Dearborn Martial Arts Academy. A bell jingled overhead, the sound a gentle contrast to the sharp yells of the people within.

The floor was pale, waxed wood. Strips of cypress segmented the white walls. Black-and-white photos of Japanese men with swords hung by the front window. Red-and-gold banners decorated the far wall, along with the flags of Japan and the United States.

The students were moving back and forth in pairs, swinging bamboo swords at one another. They wore metal masks and heavy padding to protect their necks, shoulders, and chests.

A man in a loose black uniform stepped away from the two women he had been helping and approached me, his smile warm and welcoming. “Can I help you?”

I dug a crumpled coupon from my pocket and showed it to him like it was a permission slip. “I’d like to learn to fight. Your advertisement said I could get a free lesson.”

He barely glanced at the coupon. “Why?”

A thousand answers danced through my thoughts. Because it would make me more attractive to Nidhi. Because according to
Nymphs of Neptune,
fighting was part of who I was. Because
physical exertion made me feel good, whether it was working in the garden or making love to my partner. Because I could, and because there were so many people who couldn’t. My forehead wrinkled as I sorted my reactions, searching for the words.

“There’s no wrong answer,” he said. “But if you or someone else is in trouble, we should talk about that right now.”

“Someone’s always in trouble,” I said without thinking.

He studied me, then chuckled. “That’s true enough. Were you hoping to study kendo?” He gestured behind him. “We also offer classes in aikido and women’s self-defense.”

I nodded eagerly. “Yes, please. All of them. I have money.”

I cringed inside. It was money Nidhi had given me. I didn’t want to keep taking money from her. Not for this. I would have to look into finding work.

He continued to frown, and I braced myself for rejection. Instead, he took the coupon and said, “Remove your shoes and socks, and place them beneath one of the chairs by the wall.”

While I hurried to obey, he turned and barked, “Ryan!”

A lanky boy with blond hair backed away from his partner, bowed, and ran toward us. He bowed again. “Yes, sensei.”

“Take our new student…” He paused.

“Lena.”

“Please take Lena through the basics of etiquette and stance.”

“Stance?” I asked.

“Everything begins with stance. Power, balance, movement. All the strength in the world is little use without stance. Once you learn to take root, you’ll be able to apply your full power to every strike.”

I curled my toes, feeling the dry strength of the wooden floor, and smiled. “I can do that.”

I
T TOOK ME TEN minutes to make my way from the back roads to Highway 28. I called Nicola Pallas the moment I figured out exactly where we were. I gave her a mostly complete account of what we had learned, including the location
of Harrison’s camp. “I don’t know how much magical whoopass you have on call, but I recommend sending all of it.”

I was unsurprised when Pallas called back a short time later to tell me the camp was abandoned. Harrison and his followers had known their cover was blown the second I escaped. They hadn’t been able to take their vehicles, and they had left the majority of their supplies in their cabins, which I took as a consolation prize. The inconvenience didn’t make up for what they had done to Lena and me, but it was a start.

Lena called Nidhi next, and put her on speaker. The second Nidhi answered, Lena said, “You’ve got to stay away from the apartment. Harrison knows where you live. You can’t go back there.”

“But Akha—”

“The cat will be fine. She’ll scamper off and cower behind the couch like she does every time someone knocks on your door. Or the TV switches on. Or she decides the curtains are evil monsters trying to eat her soul.”

“Where are you and Jeff now?” I asked.

“Lower Michigan. About twenty miles south of Flint.”

They were hours away, which meant they were probably safer than the two of us. I concentrated on driving while Lena filled Nidhi in on the students of Bi Sheng. I was having a hard time staying focused. My adrenaline rush had worn off, and the abuses Harrison had inflicted were catching up with me.

Highway 28 hugged the shoreline of Lake Superior, with stretches of dunes on both sides. I pulled off the road and parked our stolen truck behind a station wagon. Down by the water, a family was splashing in the water.

“Hold on, Nidhi,” said Lena. “What’s wrong?”

“Shock.” I fumbled through my books until I found
Roc and a Hard Place
by Piers Anthony. I flipped to the dog-eared page where the heroine found a healing spring, and reached into the pages. The book resisted at first, but whatever the students of Bi Sheng had done to suppress my magic was wearing off. Once I touched the spring’s magic, I tilted the corner of the book to my lips. Water spilled over the yellowed paper, and a
thousand stinging cuts gradually cooled. I passed the book to Lena. I still looked like a butcher’s shop had thrown up on me, but the redness and swelling had faded, and I could move without pain.

While Lena drank, I told Nidhi about Bi Wei. “I don’t know what she was before. If Bi Sheng’s followers had been this powerful when the Porters attacked, they would have crushed Gutenberg and his automatons.” I thought back to what I had seen, watching in my mind as Lena entered the tree. “Several of Harrison’s bugs snuck in with Lena. I never saw them come out. I’m guessing they infected Bi Wei with whatever devourer magic they were carrying.”

“You think the devourers are what make her so powerful?”

“I’m not sure.” I thought back to what I had sensed. “Her magic wasn’t like the devourer that attacked me in Detroit. I know this sounds crazy, but she felt like a book. When I read a book, it becomes a doorway to magic. In her case, the book is a part of her, and the doorway is always open.”

“Have you reported this yet?” Nidhi asked.

“I wanted to talk to you first.” Nidhi was no longer my therapist, but she was damn good at helping me sort out my own conflicts. “Bi Wei scares the hell out of me, but none of this was her fault. When Gutenberg finds out, he’ll do whatever it takes to destroy these people. Harrison can go light a match and stand behind a flatulent dragon for all I care, but what about Bi Wei and the rest?”

“We don’t know exactly what happened,” Nidhi pointed out. “We don’t know if their version of events is any more or less reliable than Gutenberg’s.”

“Yes, we do.” Lena closed the book and returned it to me, so I could end its spell. “Wei and I were together in that tree. I saw her. She knows time has passed, but doesn’t remember the passage itself, beyond fragmented dreams and nightmares. She’s terrified of Isaac and the Porters, and I can’t blame her. I saw her last memories.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” I asked.

“Wei was running, along with her fellow students. Three
automatons were destroying their temple, ripping the walls down and collapsing the building on top of them. She fled to an underground library where a man was waiting for her. Her brother, I think. She didn’t want to leave him, but there was no time. They hadn’t expected Gutenberg to strike so soon. Her brother stood with her as she read.” Tears dripped down Lena’s cheeks. “His last words to her were a promise to hide her book so she would be safe. He knew he would never escape the temple.”

How many had died to keep those books from Gutenberg, and to get them into the hands of people who could protect them? “Could Bi Wei communicate with the others in their books?”

“She was alone,” Lena said flatly. “She remembers that much. Her readers were her only link to the world. Nothing else existed. The first time she knew anyone else had survived was when we were in the tree together. I felt her grief for how few remained.”

I picked up the book I had taken. That I had stolen. Broken roots appeared to impale the cover and the pages within. “I think the devourers were like Bi Wei. People who somehow fled into magic, but lost themselves in the process.”

“How did Bi Wei survive?” asked Nidhi.

“Because she had people to help her.”

Lena took the book and carefully tugged the thickest of the roots free. It left no hole, nothing but a smear of dirt on the cover.

“You’re not responsible for Gutenberg’s actions,” Nidhi said. “Whatever happened five hundred years ago, our focus has to be the present. Harrison has Bi Wei. What will they do next?”

“If they fled the camp, it means they don’t feel strong enough to face the Porters yet,” I said. “He’s not stupid. Eventually he’ll come after Lena again, but first he’ll want to assess Bi Wei’s power and build up his army.”

“Wendigos are supposed to be wild, foul-tempered creatures. How is he controlling them?”

“Probably the same way he controlled me.” I tugged at my shirt to unstick the blood from my skin. “He’s the alpha male.” Transforming innocent people into monsters was only the first step. They also needed to be taught their place.

“Harrison didn’t force the students of Bi Sheng to help him,” Nidhi said. “They’ve been willing partners. As for Bi Wei, whatever she once was, she’s been corrupted.”

“We don’t know that,” said Lena. “She might be able to control whatever is inside her.”

“She might, yes,” said Nidhi. “Or she might not. But even if she retains control, her last memories were of death and war. What makes you think she’ll stop fighting that war now?”

Neither Lena nor I had an answer for that.

“Where are you going next?” Nidhi asked.

“Home.” I started the engine and pulled back onto the road. “I need more books, and we have to do something to protect Lena’s tree.”

“You can’t exactly relocate her oak,” Nidhi said.

I could, but it would be tricky. Maybe a shrink ray to make it portable? If I zapped Lena’s tree, would it have any effect on her human body? Probably not. The tree had grown taller and thicker in the past two months, with no corresponding change in Lena’s height or weight.

I hesitated, then said, “Nidhi, you know Gutenberg’s mind better than I do.”