Penult (21 page)

I went back into the main room where
Luther was having a heated discussion with a group of residents
dressed in shaggy wraps and breech cloths—newbies at weaving from
the looks of it. They didn’t even notice me enter.

I went to the entry and placed my palm
over the hole. Nothing happened. I just stood there feeling foolish
until the aperture flew open to let in another group of people
dressed in rags. We stood and stared at each other through the hole
until I hopped through and strode off across the plaza.

The light under the big dome was
easier on the eyes, and the air, if not fresh, was fresher. At
least it moved. I carried the wing joint by the broken spar that
had connected to the foremost set of the Seraph’s wings. I handled
it like it was a bomb, taking care not to bump it.

By the time I reached the cabin, the
lights overhead had begun to dim, simulating dusk. I found Bern and
Lille sitting on the porch in their bed clothes.

“
See? I told you he would
be back tonight,” said Lille.

“
Call me surprised,” said
Bern. “So did the interrogation go?”

“
You were right about
Luther toning down his act. It’s amazing how normal he can be when
he tries.”

“
He’s been trending that
way ever since Victoria put him in his place,” said Lille. “It’s as
if something snapped inside of him.”

“
To tell you the truth. I
miss the old Luther,” said Bern. “He was always good for a laugh.
You never knew what he would do next.”

“
He still has his taste for
flamboyance,” said Lille. “He’s just a little more subtle about
it.”

I noticed a lumpy mattress and pillow
with a fuzzy blanket set against the porch rail.

“
Is that all for
me?”

“
Yes,” said Bern. “Sorry to
make you sleep out here, but it’s a mite too cozy inside at the
moment. Lille and I actually make our bed on the kitchen table.
Once we finish the expansion we’ll be able to offer a proper guest
bedroom.”

“
Oh, this is more than
fine,” I said. “I don’t even need a bed, really.”

“
There’s a towel with
toothbrush and soap by the basin on the front walk. Those are
yours, freshly woven. Feel free to put on a glow, though I’m afraid
there’s not much to read but the local rag. If you’re still around
in the morning, we’ll break our fast together. How does that
sound?”

“
Sure. If I’m still here.
I’m surprised I’ve lasted this long. I mean, this must be a record
for me.”

Lille latched onto my gaze and
wouldn’t let go. “It must mean you are taking it hard on the other
side. Losing a love isn’t easy.”

“
I … suppose. But I don’t
know for sure … that she’s lost.”

“
Not knowing what happened
only makes it worse.”

“
Well, I’m bloody
knackered,” said Bern. “Come on, dear. Let’s not stir the boy up
this late.”

“
Good night James,” said
Lille, as she pecked me on the cheek.

“
Don’t let the Reapers
bite,” said Bern.

“
No worries James,” said
Lille, chuckling nervously. “No beasties have broken into the dome
since they added the extra layer to the outer shell.”

As they retired to the interior of the
cabin, I leaned back in the wicker chair my nerves all abuzz. It
had been a confusing and disorienting. It had been so long since I
had been back to the Liminality and then I get here to find
everything all upside down and people expecting big things from me.
I should have stayed back in the hollow, the only place so far
where things had stayed pretty much the same. Who knows? I might
have faded back by now if not for all of this extra
stimulus.

As I sat there, things just got
quieter and quieter. The community shut down once the lights went
out. There were no radios or televisions here, no musical
instruments, though I could hear someone singing softly in the
square, faint laughter from an adjoining hut, the muffled moans and
outside the dome the collisions and groans of Reapers on the
prowl.

I wasn’t the slightest bit sleepy. I
rarely ever felt fatigued in the Liminality. Some people are
creatures of habit, I suppose, and liked to crawl into a bed every
twenty-four hours. Not me. I generally listened to my body. But it
was pitch black under the dome now. I could have made something
glow but was the point? What was there to see?

So I laid down on the mattress, after
first making sure the wing joint was secure on an end table. It
wouldn’t do to have that thing fall onto the floor. I crawled under
the blanket, not bothering to remove my clothes.

I never expected to fall asleep, but I
did, after a fashion. I dreamt, or at least I thought it was a
dream. It resembled one of those visions I had been having lately,
head hopping and hovering near strange men I had never met, except
this time I was cruising through the Singularity. It was even
vaster than I remembered spanning a massive network of realms
nested and linked by bridges and membranes. The whole structure was
there to see but too huge and intricate for my imagination to
grasp. These were the after-realms spread before me for me to see,
but I was scared to take it all in. I just wanted to crawl up in a
corner and hide my head.

And then I was back in the world of
the living. I thought I had faded, but I was not in my own head. I
was still cruising the dream space, flitting between souls, hopping
from household to household, skipping down highways from driver to
driver, lingering just long enough to absorb the essence of these
strangers and to recognize that they were indeed people I had never
met.

Me and my consciousness crossed the
entire UK coast to coast, north to south. But I was a passive
observer, at least consciously. My soul on autopilot seemed to know
what to do, where to go. Though I had a feeling it was being
actively assisted by that continuum of souls of the Singularity.
Whatever. I just settled back and enjoyed the ride.

And then like a Tiger spotting easy
prey, it (they? we?) pounced, swirling into a girl walking down a
sidewalk in some unidentifiable city-scape. I had lost track of
where we were geographically. I would have been paying closer
attention if I should have realized what they were up
to.

Because this girl was
Karla!

***

She was carrying a bag of groceries.
She was calm and collected and in no big rush. She was thinking
about ice cream. She had a pint of strawberry ice cream in that bag
and she wanted it.

My heart bounded with the knowledge
that she was alive and free and seemingly unharmed. I must have
yelled out, because the next thing I knew I was looking up at
Bern’s craggy face illuminated by a glowing hunk of root, shaped
into a crude lantern.

“
What’s wrong? Having
nightmares.”

“
I saw her! I saw
Karla.”

Bern smiled faintly. “Dreams. They are
quite vivid down here, aren’t they?”

“
I’m not sure this was a
dream.”

“
Of course it was. What
else would it be? You were sleeping, weren’t you?”

“
I’m … not sure”

Bern went back inside and I laid there
in the dark, staring into the utter blackness, trying to calm
myself down enough to get back into that dream state so I could
catch another glimpse of Karla, make sure it was really her and
maybe figure out where she was. But getting my head back into that
space proved elusive. I felt nothing, saw nothing, dreamed nothing.
Nothing ever came easy for me.

***

Morning came. The dome brightened. I
still had not faded, much to my chagrin. I heard dishes clunking
inside the cabin. Lille came out onto the porch with a steaming
mug. She reached over me to nudge the wing joint aside to make room
for the mug on the night stand.

“
Careful!”

Too late. Her hand brushed against the
wrong knob and the joint leaped into action. Her arm flailed back
and the mug smashed against a corner post. The joint slammed into
the cabin and embedded itself deep in the fibers.

As something clear and hot but
smelling of coffee dripped down the wall of the cabin, Lille stood
and blinked at me, holding only the handle of the mug.

“
What in bloody hell?” said
Bern, bursting out the front door.

“
No worries,” said Lille.
“I can weave another mug. Bring you another cuppa.”

“
What is that thing
sticking in my wall?”

Bern came over and squinted at the
wing joint.

“
Don’t touch
it!”

“
Don’t you worry. I’m not
coming any closer than this.”

“
It’s from one of the
contraptions the Seraphs use to fly. Olivier help figuring out how
to reverse engineer it.”

“
Whatever for? What good
are wings in these tunnels?”

“
I guess he just wants to
know how they do it.”

Bern ran his hand along the post,
examining the crack that the flying mug had inflicted.”

“
Nothing personal, James,
but if you don’t mind, can you do this work somewhere else? I’ve
rebuilt this cabin one too many times as it is.”

“
I never should have
brought it here. I should have left it in the palace.”

Bern sighed. “So how do I extract it
from my wall without it bashing in my brains?”

“
There is a way of picking
it up that’s safe. You just can’t touch that one knob or else it
packs a massive kick.”

“
Then you pick it up the
safe way, and please get it out of here.”

Chapter 20:
Expedition

After breakfast, Bern and I carefully
extricated the wing joint out of his wall. I took it and wandered
off to the far edges of the bubble where the ground was flat and
open and devoid of shacks. I wasted the morning sitting cross
legged, staring at the gizmo and conjuring faulty replicas. If
nothing else, I got in some good meditation.

The occasional curious person would
wander by to see what I was doing. Some were newbies who had never
seen the surface. The population of this latest iteration of the
Burg was only a fraction of the previous settlements. The crackers
had inflicted hundreds of casualties and many of the survivors had
stayed up top with the resistance.

A ripping sound drew my attention to a
huge slash that had appeared in the side of the dome. I hopped to
my feet, half-expecting a Reaper to come busting through, but
instead, it was a party of scavengers. They were a rugged and
swarthy bunch, returning from the tunnels with sacks laden with
lost things—wallets, keys, reading glasses—little of use in this
realm. But Luther made them go out every day to scour the tunnels.
There were treasures to be found for sure. That was how I found my
sword.

They were a raucous bunch, recounting
to each other a close encounter with a grizzled Reaper. They tossed
me glances as they sauntered on by but did not pause to even say
hello.

Alone again, time ticked on. The
dome’s glow peaked. I was itching to get back to the living world.
I was beginning to wonder if something bad had happened to me on
the other side.

I couldn’t have been murdered. If I
had, being this close to the Core, my soul would have been shunted
directly to the Deeps. Only those who died when their souls were
beyond the Core’s influence got to stay behind in the Liminality as
Freesouls.

The Frelsians had discovered this
loophole. I had to wonder if Karla had gone off to seek that
existence without me. It was what she wanted more than life. I
wondered what I would say to her if she showed up in this place
right now. But not knowing her fate, I didn’t know what to feel.
Grief? Betrayal? Anger?

The wing joint revealed none of its
secrets to me no matter how intensely I stared at it, which way I
turned it or tried to think through its mechanisms step by step. I
was just doing my due diligence for Olivier, going through the
motions, not really expecting to get anywhere. I littered the
ground around me with my attempts at replication. None came close
to doing what the original could do.

I was about to give up and return to
the cabin when Kitt came striding up to me from the settlement, a
courier bag slung from her shoulder.

“
Any luck?”

“
Nope.” She nudged the
joint with the toe of her boot.

“
I wouldn’t do that if I
were you, not if you’re interested in keeping your leg.”

“
Looks like it would be
easy, doesn’t it? I mean, it’s just a hinge, right?

“
This is way more than a
hinge,” I said. “This thing is an engine. This is what makes those
wings go.”

“
Sure would be nice to get
me a pair of Seraph wings. I could cover a heck of a lot more
ground on patrol.”

“
Yeah, well. Don’t hold
your breath, unless you want to shoot down another
Seraph.”

She stood there brooding with her lips
pursed. “Luther wants to see you again, by the way.”