The Blood Debt (42 page)

Twice more she saw people, none of them the ones she sought. Three ran out of a structure attached to the Divide wall and made a beeline for the edge of the city. A giant, lion-shaped man’kin chased them for a block, snapping at their heels. Its heavy tread brought down the remains of a nearby building. It stopped to perform an odd dance among the shattered stonemasonry while its victims took the opportunity to flee. Shilly shuddered to think what the man’kin might have done had it caught them.

‘Do you see anything?’ asked Marmion.

She shook her head. A half-dozen flyers had kept pace with them from Laure. They circled warily around the heavy lifter, distracting Chu. The one with an attitude problem had drifted away, possibly as struck as she was by the devastation below.

‘If we’ve come all this way for nothing —’ Marmion started to say.

‘Wait.’ Shilly took his arm. ‘Look!’

One of the flyers on the edge of the ruin had suddenly dipped. It began to tumble, then just as suddenly recovered — as though it had left a bubble in which its charms had stopped working.

Shilly knew only one thing that could have that effect.

‘The Homunculus! It’s over there!’

Chu looked to see where Shilly was pointing, then wrenched the controls of the heavy lifter. Ponderously it began to turn.

‘Be careful,’ Marmion warned her. ‘Don’t get too close. The wake extends further through air than it does across the ground.’

‘I know,’ she said. ‘I haven’t forgotten what happened the last time I flew over it.’

The edge of the ruins came nearer. Shilly made out a long wall carved from the side of the Divide. It had cracked in several places, like a gap-toothed lower jaw. At first she couldn’t see anyone, but then a huddle of people came into view, tucked inside the remains of a series of small buildings.

She instantly recognised Sal by the colour and cut of his hair.

‘There they are!’

‘What do I do now?’ asked Chu. ‘I can’t get too close or we’ll lose the rudder charms and the props.’

Shilly scanned the area around the group. One solitary person crouched off to one side, perfectly still, but she couldn’t tell who it was. A large man’kin was heading towards them, crashing through ruined walls like she would through stalks of wheat.

‘Let me think,’ she said. ‘There has to be a way.’

‘You’ve ruined everything!’ Pirelius snarled. The knife bit deeper into Kemp’s neck, and the albino squirmed. ‘I should kill you all right now for what you’ve done!’

‘Calm down.’ Sal held out his hands in a gesture of conciliation. ‘We didn’t come here to ruin you. We just wanted our friends back.’

‘Liar!’ Pirelius spat in the dirt between them. One eye was bruised and swelling.
‘She
sent you. No one else knew I was here. No one else knew about the sink. No one else had a fucking
motive.
So don’t feed me that crap, or I’ll kill the freak!’

‘Got it.’ Sal clenched his fists in frustration. The desperate fury in the bandit’s eyes convinced him that the threat wasn’t empty. Kemp’s tunic was already dark with blood. A millimetre deeper and his life would be spilling onto the dirt. ‘What do you want?’

‘I want to make her pay.’ Pirelius’s crooked teeth flashed malignantly through the rankness of his beard. ‘You’re going to help me.’

‘I don’t even know who
she
—’ He bit off the rest as the knife shifted again. ‘How are we going to help you?’

‘The man’kin are everywhere. They’re bringing the whole place down.’ The whiteness of Pirelius’s eyes betrayed a hint of fear. ‘I don’t know how she called them, but there’s no way to fight them. I’m not going to die here. That
thing
is going to get me out of here.’

Sal turned to the Homunculus, which was still effortlessly holding Shorn Behenna in its arms. Its features shivered under the bright sun.

‘I may have lost the sink,’ Pirelius went on, ‘but I’ll have the next best thing. Your ugly friend here stops the man’kin cold in their tracks. With it I can get clean away, and
she
can’t do a thing about it.’

‘We don’t want to help you,’ said the Homunculus.

‘You will if you don’t want to see your friend here dead.’

‘He’s not our friend. We don’t know him.’

‘That’s your answer, then?’ Pirelius’s nostrils flared. ‘If I kill him, it’s on your conscience.’

The Homunculus put Behenna down on the ground. ‘We have our own destination. You can travel with us, if you wish.’

‘Not good enough. I want revenge, and I know how to get it.’ Pirelius dug the point of the blade into the muscle under Kemp’s jaw. ‘I’m losing patience!’

Heavy stone footprints thudded towards them from the other side of the wall. Sal backed away as a mighty stone man appeared, trailing a cloud of dust. For a moment he was sure that it would step right through them, but it hit the boundary of the Homunculus’s influence and instantly stopped.

Beyond its noble brow, he saw something even stranger: a blimp descending over the Aad with light flashing from its prow. Someone was holding a mirror up to the morning sun and using it to catch their eye.

Pirelius hadn’t spotted it. His attention was firmly fixed on the Homunculus.

‘All right,’ it said, ‘we’ll go with you. Set him free and we’ll leave this place together.’

‘Oh, no,’ said Pirelius. ‘It’s not that simple. I saw what you did to Izzi in the cell. It’s not going to happen to me. You.’ He nodded at Skender. ‘Tie all its hands together and its feet in pairs. When that’s done, and not before, I’ll let the big freak go.’

‘I can’t,’ said Skender. ‘They helped us!’

‘You’ll do it or I’ll take you instead,’ Pirelius snarled.

Sal leaned in close to Skender and hissed in his ear, covering his words by rummaging in Kail’s pack. He produced several lengths of slender, soft twine. Skender nodded, tight-lipped, and didn’t argue.

The Homunculus, whether it had heard or not, cooperated as they lashed its limbs together. Its flesh was cool and waxy to the touch, with no visible markings like tattoos or scars. Sal’s hands moved quickly, conscious of the dirigible growing nearer over Pirelius’s shoulder.

He and Skender stepped back when the job was done. The Homunculus was as human as it had ever looked, although it still seemed to have too many eyes and mouths.

‘Right,’ said Pirelius. ‘Come here.’

The Homunculus obeyed. When it was within arm’s reach, Pirelius put his foot in the small of Kemp’s back and pushed him face-forward into the dirt at Sal’s feet. The knife jabbed into the Homunculus’s side as Pirelius tested the knots. Sal didn’t know how much damage an ordinary blade could do to the artificial body, but it was clear the Homunculus wasn’t prepared to take a chance. It was frozen — with fear or hopelessness, Sal couldn’t tell. Perhaps both.

He wanted to say that he was sorry, but there wasn’t time.

‘Get ready to run,’ he whispered to Skender as he helped Kemp to his feet. ‘We have to get out of the wake so the dirigible can come in closer, and I don’t think our friend there is as dead as he looks.’ The frozen man’kin swayed on the very edge of the Homunculus’s sphere of influence, its eyes watching them unblinkingly.

‘How are we going to carry everyone?’ Skender whispered back. Rope ladders dangled over the side of the gondola as it grew nearer.

‘We’ll have to leave Mawson behind for the time being.’

‘It’s been a pleasure doing business,’ sneered Pirelius, shoving the Homunculus ahead of him. ‘Don’t try to follow or I’ll stick you like pigs.’

Sal ignored Pirelius as he hurried away towards the Divide. The drone of propellers rose up out of the sound of stone smashing. He couldn’t see the edge of the Homunculus’s wake as Skender had in the Divide, but he could take a rough guess as to where it was. Kemp wordlessly wiped the blood from his throat and picked up Behenna. Skender put an arm around his mother and helped her stand straighten

‘I’ll go first.’ Sal waved both arms over his head, away from the man’kin, hoping the pilot of the dirigible would understand. Seconds later, it did shift course, coming in lower over the ruins in the direction he had indicated. He tensed to run.

Then, with a subtle grinding noise, the man’kin turned and took a step. Sal backed away automatically, even though he knew he was safe in the wake. He expected it to come between him and the dirigible, but instead it walked around the wake and followed Pirelius down the slope towards the Divide. Its step became thunderous. The bandit looked over his shoulder in alarm, and picked up the pace.

‘Maybe we’re not tasty enough,’ said Skender.

‘I don’t care what it’s doing. I’m just glad I’m not about to be squashed.’

Sal helped Skender and his mother to the first of the ladders. Abi Van Haasteren was too weak to climb on her own, but allowed herself to be hauled up by the blue-robed wardens into the dirigible. Sal could see Shilly now, leaning out of the front of the gondola. He waved as Kemp and Behenna went up in the care of the Wardens, then he went back with the albino for Mawson.

Later,
he had told Skender.
We’ll come back for the Homunculus later.

He was the last to leave the ground.

* * * *

We don’t want to help you.

You will if you don’t want to see your friend here dead.

He’s not our friend. We don’t know him.

That’s your answer, then? If I kill him, it’s on your conscience.

And the knife had dug into an innocent throat, drawing blood in a steady trickle.

The Homunculus —

— the Oldest One —

— the Mirror Twins —

—  watched in despair as, yet again, they were entangled in another petty plot. One life was nothing when compared to the fate of a world. But who were they to claim the high moral ground if they failed to intervene when an innocent was threatened? They had seen in their own lives what one life might mean in the balance of things.

We have our own destination. You can travel with us, if you wish.

Not good enough. I want revenge, and I know how to get it. I’m losing patience!

Death and torture. The new world was no different to the old one. They were part of it now, and innocence was purely relative.

All right. We’ll go with you. Set him free and we’ll leave this place together.

The decision was made. Only the details remained. They went passively along with what they were told to do, holding out their hands to be tied as though offering themselves for sacrifice. So long as the innocents went free, the rest could be worked out later.

A giant stone form loomed over them as the knife blade transferred to their back. Its point brought back memories of winter in another world, of roaring metal engines and blood pouring in a stream to the ground. Images of death overwhelmed them.

Paralysed by the past and trapped in the present, they let themselves be pushed into an uncertain future.

* * * *

This world-line is diverging even as we speak, so we have to hurry. We have to get out of here. Now!

The words they had spoken to the shadow called Galeus remained as true as ever. Nothing was going remotely as planned. They had thought their troubles over when they escaped death on the top of the giant ravine, but the fallacy of that assumption had soon revealed itself. The bottom of the ravine was rugged and desolate. Strange creatures traversed it, creatures whose substance ranged from the nebulosity of air to the concreteness of stone. They felt themselves being watched from all angles. The ravine’s inhabitants were drawn to and repelled by them at the same time. When the twins tried to approach, they shied away and vanished.

Whispers taunted them from the edge of the lighted area surrounding them. The darkness ahead remained absolute. They felt more exposed than ever, and lonely. The latter surprised them. Was that all it took, one brief contact with the shadows, to make the twins miss something they had not experienced for eons?

Friendship, companions, support...?

We
have each other,
they reminded themselves.

It wasn’t the same.