A Silence Heard (14 page)

“A passing over melody I learned from the grand mourner at my ma and pa’s letting go ceremony.”

“I hope you will have little cause to sing it in the time that is to come.”

A boom and flash of fire sent Eadgard and Wirt racing from the exit. Kendra and I hit the ground instinctively and covered our heads with our arms. Another explosion came soon after and much smoke billowed into the room. I lifted my arm-shield a tad and through the fog, made out a familiar large built, skirt-wearing shape. I thought, at first, I was mistaken, the air so full of mist and the like, but as it began to clear I knew that I was right.

I shuffled over to Wirt and whispered into his ear, “Look. Coming though the opening. Is it?”

“Brennus to be sure.”

He was followed by a group of miss-matched rebels. Although blood and dirt adhered to their clothes, I recognised the Woodsfolk tartan patterned skirts on two of the bods. On four more I saw the long robes worn by the monks and nuns I’d seen at the Monastery, and I swear I saw a Lady that I recognised amongst them. They stopped at the entrance. Eadgard stood and Brennus walked towards him. He took his hand in his and shook it.

“How goes the fight?”

“With difficulty. They hae weapons most modern. We hae not the tech to compete. Is the Auger safe?”

Eadgard turned to where l huddled on the floor with Wirt.

“Adara, come.”

I lifted my head and gulped.

“Do nae fear. All is forgiven for the greater cause. Glad ye are alive. Is that Wirt?” Brennus said and pointed to my friend.

Wirt rose and pulled me with him.

The big male approached us and walked around our bemused bods. He took hold of Wirt’s chin and lifted it. “Ye have scuffs aplenty laddie. Are ye willing to gain more?”

“Aye, Brennus.” The Woodsmale slapped him on the shoulder.

Another loud boom.

Those that stood at the entrance raced away before a ball of fire burst into the room. Quick as a spider after a fly, both Eadgard and Brennus grabbed hold of the large table and flipped it onto its side. It proved to be a worthy shield against the mighty force of the flaming blast that rushed towards them. I, Wirt, and Kendra, dived behind it and waited for the inevitable crush as those who had run from the opening joined us.

But they did not.

The fire swooshed and bellowed around us and I buried my head into Wirt’s back until the sound of devastation stopped.

All was silent.

Such a stillness after the rage, as if the inferno had never existed.

But a heat remained.

So too the smell of burnt flesh.

I stood. Kendra too. She caught my arm and tried to stay my feet. But she could not. I strode to where my beloved friend lay. Marcellus’s body was scorched and blackened down the side nearest the doorway. Next to him, Pratt and Edwena moaned. Alive but singed about the edges. They had taken shelter behind my dear one’s form.

I watched them through eye mistiness as they slowly rose to a sitting position. A hand of hate clenched at my heart and squeezed. With every breath I took, I vowed to avenge the death of Marcellus. I did not hesitate. I leant towards them and opened my mouth. But a soft hand blocked the sound I was about to let forth.

“No time for this my dear. We must go before there is another assault.”

Kendra removed her fingers from my lips, bent down and grabbed one of Edwena’s hair-burnt arms. “Do not look so appalled. We must bring her. Her fat fingers and podgy palms are of use to us.” Kendra pulled and the filthy Agro fem let out a feeble grunt. I took the other arm and together we lifted her to her feet.

“Brennus, will ye aid me in lugging this Agro scum?” Wirt said and pointed at Pratt’s slumped bod.

“I will. Let us do so quickly.”

They dragged Pratt upright and pushed him to the wall opposite the burning opening. They let him drop to the floor and stood back to let Eadgard through. He peered at the soot-damaged partition. “There,” he said and lifted Pratt’s arm. He pressed the Agro’s hand against a small indent. The wall opened to reveal the corridor we had been brutally shoved down earlier.

“The Meeks are at the far end of this tunnel. Ye may be dismayed by what ye see, Brennus.”

“No matter laddie, lead on.”

Wirt and Eadgard grabbed Pratt and pushed him through. Kendra and myself hauled the floppy bod of Edwena towards the gap. At the entrance to the tunnel, Brennus took Edwena from us, hitched her over his shoulder and marched swiftly after the others. I hesitated at the opening and turned once more towards Marcellus. Kendra touched my shoulder. “Let us move forward. Let us triumph as a tribute to his memory.”

She led me into the passageway then stopped. I could not help but take one last look at my hoped-for-beau’s soot soaked face.

I would have gone to him but there came a rumble that sounded like approaching feet.

“Make haste,” Kendra said. She grabbed my hand and we left the room of sorrow.

Chapter Thirteen

Revolt Of The Meeks

We careened down the passageway like a Wolfie on the scent of a wounded stray and did not calm our speed until we arrived at the labs. We halted at the opening.

There was a sweet, sickly smell of fresh blood. Eadgard and Wirt let go of Pratt and propped him up against the wall. His eyelids flickered for a sec, and then his head fell against his chest. Brennus placed Edwena next to him. She too was out of it and lolled dribble-mouthed on Pratt’s shoulder.

Eadgard entered first and we followed. The room was darker than before and the ground speckled with bits of blood and gristle. I held my breath and Kendra squeezed my hand. I felt Wirt lean against me. “This is not a good sight. Wa if the Meeks have all been killed?”

“No, they would not slaughter those that they prize so highly,” Kendra said. She released me and stepped further into the room. Brennus followed. I took Wirt’s shaking hand in mine and together we walked into the dim place.

The rooms behind the glass-fronted labs were no longer lit. I let go of my friend, went to the window where I had seen Deogol, and peered in. I saw only black. I tapped upon the pane.

Nowt.

Making my fist harder, I hit the glass with force. When nothing more than the lonely sound of my relentless hammering came back, I ceased and gave Eadgard a wide-eyed look. He wiped his forehead and went from cubicle to cubicle. “I cannot see much of anything. All is quite without illumination. I fear the worst may have occurred.”

I held my breath. With a throaty moan, Wirt raced towards the lab room where his cuz was last seen, and squished his hands and forehead against the window. He shouted into the glass, “Stillman? Stillman? Answer me. Stillman!”

Eadgard pulled him away. “Do not torture yourself.”

“Indeed, my dear, there is no need.” I turned at Kendra’s words and saw her rummaging through the hideous mess on the floor. She held something up to her eyes and said, “Guards. These frightful remains are those of Agros, not Meeks. I have found shreds of cloth that I recognise. The bits have come from uniforms. Those we wish to locate may yet live.”

Wirt ran back to the window and pounded upon it. He pressed his ear against it and in less than a heartbeat his thump was answered by a heavy slap to the glass from within.

“Stillman! If ye live show yourselves.”

“They cannot hear you,” Eadgard said.

“They heard my fist against the pane before.”

“That they did. Pound again.”

His hands went red from the effort he made as he hammered on the window until all the lights in the room burst on, drenching us in a powerful and eye-hurting luminescence. We shielded our peepers with our arms and crept close together. I stared at the floor and shuddered as more of the gruesomeness became visible.

The ground was covered with tattered pieces of flesh, splintered bones and mush. If I did not know better, I would have thought a fearsome explosion had blown apart whoever had entered.

I lifted my gaze a little and the room became brighter. So bright that I could not see anything but white. It reminded me of the decontamination room at Cityplace. A to-be feared building that all must go if they are suspected of carrying a germ. Ma had to go, I remember, some eight or nine moons before Deogol's coming out. It was the place both Ma and Pa went after their trip to the Beyondness. And where my bro was taken when first they thought him, Meek.

“Deogol.”

“Wha? What is it ye say, Adara?”

“I think Deogol may have something to do with this.”

“How?”

“There is a square stone building in Cityplace where all defects, germs and the like are smitten from folk. Inside it is as bright as here and smells of fright. It was where Deogol went when they discovered his Meekness. Thinking it a flaw, they blasted him with sterile gumph and who-knows-what for five moons. When he came out, he had such a fear in his eyes that I wondered if he would ever recover. He once said that if anyone tried to put him in there again, he would rip them limb from limb.”

“Ah Adara, ye think this of yer own bro?”

“I do not want to Wirt, but my insides jiggle so that I must heed to their warning.”

“Look to him then. Be his ally and sib.”

Without hesitation, I did what Wirt advised. I became the sis to my bro-bro and walked to the window I knew him to be behind. Putting both my hands against the pane, I leant my face close, summoned up all the tenderness I felt for him and formed it into a breath.

I opened my mouth and let the air out in a note of high purity that penetrated the barrier between us. Then sang again, louder and more passionately. I lifted my head and let the song escape around the room, and into each blacked-out window. There came a cracking, splintering sound that grew and spread.

“Down! The glass is breaking,” Eadgard yelled, and I squatted. Hiding my head with my arms, as one by one, each window shattered. The sound it made was like no other. It was as if the glass became the voices of the Meeks, and all their fear and pain and sorrow shrieked out in one loud, thunderous scream.

Then silence.

The light dimmed and I raised myself slowly, brushing off shards of broken glass from my shoulders and legs. The others also stood, a look of bewilderment upon their faces. I was overcome with limb weakness as I turned to the wrecked lab. My throat ached from the singing, worse than before. With heavy legs, I plonked my feet upon the floor and walked oldie-fashion to the broken room.

I looked inside and saw the Meeks huddled on the ground. Deogol stood in front of them. He held a small device with a bright screen and several buttons. His fingers danced across them and all the rooms that kept them prisoner for so long began to crumble. Rubble and dust joined the organic matter on the floor and Deogol dropped his hands to his sides. The device fell and smashed. I held out my arms and my bro-bro fell into them as though exhausted.

I hugged him so hard he gasped. When Wirt give out a high-note of glee, I grinned despite my sorrow and fatigue. Relieved a thousand times over that he was alive. I held my bro at arms length and checked him over for signs of wounds.

“Are you hurt?”

“That would depend on the injury,” he replied.

How grown up he sounded.

How much older he looked.

Gone not so long and aged?

I furrowed my brow and he walked away, back to where his fellow Meeks stood in the same spot they had when walls and glass enclosed them. I looked amongst them keen to see if Aefre, my bro’s pal that was took some moons before him, was there. She was not. Curious.

The Meeks gathered around Deogol, their faces withholding the terror they must surely have felt. No tears, or frowns, or hands to cheeks, just wide eyes that stared at nothing.

“Stillman, are ye well?”

I dragged my gaze away from Deogol and saw Wirt embrace his cuz. Brennus pulled Stillman away and clasped him to his ample chest as more kith and kin emerged from the debris of their once cramped quarters.

I noticed Elita, Marcellus’s sis step into the carnage-filled room. My throat contracted at the sight of her. She looked so like her brother, round face, small nose, and long of limb. Although she was much smaller than he and had longer hair, it pained me to linger on her features, but I could not turn away.

Her eyes darted around the place and she pushed her way through the clumped together Meeks. She stopped at the entrance portal in the far wall and poked her head into the corridor.

“Marcellus?” she called his name again, and then came back into the room. “Marcellus? Where is he?” Elita’s voice became high and trembly. She wandered around and called out twice more before Kendra took her hand.

“Your brother, my dear, is…”

Elita did not let Kendra finish. She put her hand over her mouth, pulled away from my friend’s tender grip and closed her eyes. Marcellus’s other kin, Nuncio and Lucus, approached the shaking girl and touched her shoulders. She fell as though all her bones had melted, and lay weeping amongst the filth. I could not bear her grief, and to my shame, did not go to her. Instead, I walked to where Deogol stood in deep convo with his cell-Meeks.

They ended their chat as soon as they saw me. My bro put his hands behind his back and stood tall. I stared down at the wreckage that had once been their cubicle and said, “Deogol, you did this?” I swept my arm in the air to highlight the carnage that surrounded us. He stared at me and nodded, then tilted his head to one side and gave me a slight grin.

“I did goodly to destroy the Agros.”

“How did you do this? What weaponry?”

“Their own. We re-configured their bang-bangs and ka-plumo!” Deogol beckoned for me to lean close. “I let them own me for a bit. To avoid the pain, to stop the buzzing in my nonce. Then I saw you. Then I went all nutsy and did not rightly know what I was doing. I wronged you when I set the alarm. I knew it too. Still, more guards came here because I did. More went split-splat because I did.”

I breathed deeply, impressed and horrified at the same time. He and the other Meeks bowed their heads.

“Too much for ones so young. Deogol, we plan to take you all back to the place from whence you were took.”