Penult (55 page)

“
So … how did the scouting
go?” asked Olivier.

“
We have a few problems,”
said Urszula. “There were many marches of new Cherubim moving to
the boats. We hide in the tall grass until the night came. The bugs
were restless. But coming back … we came too close to their ships.
They have new weapons. They are using the plasma now. One hit
destroyed Tyler’s fly and he went down into the water. That is how
they catch him.”

“
They got Tyler?
Shit!”

“
But … there are targets.
We find many good targets. We can show you.”

Urszula tore a branch from a shrub and
stuck it into an urn slung from her saddle. She slathered some kind
of resinous balm over some severe abrasions in Lalibela’s shell. It
looked like someone had taken a chainsaw to her.

Olivier stared out across the bay at
the retreating Pennies.

“
We’d better get a move on.
Now that they know we’re here, they’ll be back, by air and ground.
Maybe even by sea.” He started counting heads. “Alright now. Who
did we lose?”

“
I saw at least three
volunteers get hit,” said Ubaldo, still astride his hornet. “Plus
one of the scouts.”

“
Kitt?” said Urszula,
alarmed.

“
She took a direct hit from
one of the condors,” said Ubaldo. “I saw it happen.”

Viktor came screaming in low over the
trees.

“
Yaqob’s fallen. In the
forest.”

“
Shit!” said
Olivier.

“
We need some help over
here!” someone shouted.

A group of volunteers had gathered
around a limp body sprawled in the sand—Kitt. She panted heavily.
Her flannel shirt was soaked with blood.

Urszula rushed to her side, skidding
to her knees in the sand beside the fallen scout. I kept looking
around for Karla. Where the hell was she? I was beginning to fear
the worst.

I went over and crouched down next to
Kitt, placing my hand gently on her arm. Besides all the bleeding,
there was something terribly wrong with her mid-section. There were
lumps and dents in all the wrong places.

Urszula shook her head. “The bones in
her chest are crush. They have new weapons—a kind I have not seen
them use before. They now use the plasma like us.”

Kitt’s face was bruised and bloated,
her hair matted with blood and sand. But her eyes were open and
alert. She beamed at me with bloody teeth.

“
Hey James. It’s nice to
see you.” Her voice was croaky and weak, but she sounded almost
cheerful. She writhed around and took my hand, squeezing it
tight.

Her manner was much too chipper for
the situation. It threw me for a loop. What do you say to a dying
person acting so nonchalant?

“
I guess I’m headed … to
the Deeps, finally. “

“
I’m so sorry, Kitt. We’ll
find a way to get you back here.”

At least … I won’t be alone.” “Tyler’s
probably there already. Did you hear?”

“
Yeah. Urszula told
us.”

She pressed her eyes closed, grimaced
and grunted.

“
You’re gonna be all grey
next time we see you, though. You’re gonna be a Duster.”

“
That’s okay,” she said.
“Some of my … some of my best friends are Dusters.”

Two men came down off the dunes
carrying Yaqob, clearly struggling with his girth and weight. Thick
ballista bolts pierced his chest and belly. The hole in his chest
wheezed and foamed pink as he struggled to breathe.

The men laid Yaqob down beside Kitt.
Three others who had fallen were assembled in a separate group down
the beach where their comrades mourned the souls who had already
passed into the next realm. I was afraid to look too closely over
there just yet.

“
Hey Yaqob, those wounds
look patchable,” said Olivier. “You’re not bleeding too bad.
Someone get a flesh weaver over here.”

“
No need,” said Yaqob,
wearily. “It is my time.” He took Kitt’s free hand and clasped it
gently.

“
Will you show me the
ropes, Mr. Yaqob?” said Kitt, struggling to be brave, but her voice
was strained.

“
I … will not … be joining
you,” said Yaqob.

Oliver reached down and put his palm
on Yaqob’s chest. “His body, it’s getting cold. His breathing is
slowing. He ain’t dying. He’s shifting modes. He’s heading off to
the long sleep.”

“
Crap,” said Kitt. “I was
hoping for some company. Any chance I can go with you to the
Singularity?” She dug her fingers deep into Yaqob’s fissured
palm.

“
I am afraid that you are
not an old soul, Kitt,” said Yaqob.

“
Listen, the Deeps aren’t
so bad,” I said. “And maybe Tyler’s already there, scouting
ahead.”

“
Not to mention, the three
volunteers we lost,” said Ubaldo.

“
You guys stick together,”
said Olivier. “Stay away from the marches. Ignore the fucking
Horus.”

“
Find one of the free
settlements,” said Urszula. “Go there. The Hashmallim stay away.
And it is safe there from the Horus.”

“
I still have friends there
who didn’t cross,” I said. “Like Urszula said, find one of the free
towns. Ask for Lady An. She knows me. She’ll take good care of you
guys.”

As we gazed into Kitt’s eyes, they
dulled and took on the terrible and unmistakable glaze of death. I
felt a pair of arms slide around me and hug me tenderly from
behind. I turned and buried my face in Urszula’s dusty
hair.

Chapter 58:
Regrouping

From the tangled rat’s nest that was
Urszula’s hair, I looked up to see Karla standing a few feet away
with a group of other volunteers gathered around Kitt’s body. Karla
glanced at me and smirked, before looking away, feigning
disinterest, though she blinked a few too many times to make her
apathy convincing.

Urszula saw what I was looking at, she
pulled away like she had suddenly found herself in the embrace of a
hot, pot-bellied stove.

“
Your woman? She is
back?”

“
Yeah. She’s back, yes. But
… she’s not my … uh….”

“
Not your what?” said
Karla, with a lopsided grin, her eyes now fully engaging
mine.

“
You’re a friend. Just a
friend. That’s all.”

Her smirk only deepened.

“
And what is she?” said
Karla.

“
I am friend too,” said
Urszula. “We are all friends. She backed away towards Lalibela, but
then stopped and faced Karla. “But you had better watch out. Be
nice to him, or I will make him more than friend.” That erased
Karla’s smirk pretty quick. Urszula winked at me, turned deftly on
her heels and skipped across the beach to her dragonfly.

“
Glad you made it back
okay,” I said, feeling awkward. Should I go to her? Hug her? Make
up for the affection I showed to Urszula? But I just stood there,
gawking. “So … how’d it go out there? The fighting?”

Karla stared at me a bit, before
answering.

“
You saw, no? I did not get
any good shots in, if that is what you are asking. Your dragonfly
did better than me … and without you. You stayed behind, I
see?”

“
Yeah, well. I guess don’t
have the knack yet for wrangling bugs.”

Olivier came bustling over, one side
of his face crusted over with freshly clotted blood. Ubaldo
followed behind him, looking sullen and pensive. He stood at the
edge of the surf and let the waves lap at his ankles as he stared
across the bay to where the Pennies had retreated.

“
Come on people!” said
Olivier, clapping. “No standing around. We got shit to do. Need to
figure out who’s coming, who’s staying.

“
Whoever stays behind will
need to go inland from here,” said Ubaldo. “This camp is no longer
safe.”

“
We have some wounded for
sure who will need to stay back,” said Olivier. “Bugs and
folks.”

“
This one will not be able
to make the crossing,” said Viktor, examining a dragonfly with a
crumpled hind wing. “It will need a splint and a patch. But she can
make it to the bogs, I think.”

I saw one dragonfly go down in the
water,” said Karla. “I think it might have drown.”

“
And we’re short at least
one robber fly,” said Olivier. “Alright, let’s patch up whatever,
whoever we can and make our assessment. I’d like to clear out of
here within the hour.”

***

We buried Kitt and the other fallen
behind the dunes, just on the edge of the forest. Some of the
volunteers decorated their grave with a scattering of scallop
shells and sand dollars. No one said a thing. There was nothing
that needed to be said. We all knew Kitt was brave and spunky and
we would all miss her.

A party of the more able-bodied
carried Yaqob to an outcrop of ancient coral in the middle of the
scrub forest. They stashed him under an overhang where he would be
protected somewhat from the elements, not that it seemed to matter
with Old Ones. They weathered well even out in the open, gathering
moss and lichens without ill effect.

After that, folks just spontaneously
sorted themselves out to accomplish the various tasks that needed
to get done. Karla helped tend to the injured volunteers with
Ubaldo and a Frelsian who had some skill at flesh weaving. The
Frelsian—a short, bald Algerian named Ydris—had a knack for sealing
wounds and mending broken bones through unbroken skin.

I joined a crew that tended to the
bugs, most of whom had suffered some sort of injury. Tigger, again
refused to come down out of the trees when I called, but from the
looks of things he seemed fairly unscathed.

Lalibela, on the other hand, seemed
badly injured, her cuticle cracked in several places and leaking
profusely. Viktor and Urszula labored to patch her with resins
reinforced with sheets of thin but tough membrane that Viktor
carried for such purposes. Her wings were intact, other than a few
rips and holes in the clear parts.

Urszula shinnied up a fig tree to snag
her a couple aphids. She knocked several down off their perches and
they fell like coconuts. While she slid back down the smooth bark,
I cornered an aphid against a tree trunk. I could see organs
pulsing behind its translucent green cuticles.

Urszula snatched it up and tucked it
under her arm like a football with legs. She handed it to Lalibela
who snatched it up greedily in her forelegs. Oliver strode over
with Ubaldo, hovering as usual in his orbit.

“
So you’re the last scout
standing.”

“
So it would seem,” she
said, wrinkling her brow with puzzlement.

“
We’ve got a few more
questions for you. How stiff are their coastal defenses? I mean,
what are we facing?”

“
Defenses?”

“
Yeah. I mean, what can we
expect? Do they have air defenses. Falcons on patrol?”

“
They have nothing,” said
Urszula. “No real defense. It is as if they have never been
attacked, and they think they never will be. They are the
attackers. Their focus is all on this place. We saw many Cherubim
marching to the shore, with only a few Hashmallim attending to
them. They were going to the boats. We did not dare challenge them,
but they did not seem very alert. They wore no armor, carried no
weapons. Their limbs and skin are not yet modified. They were not
expecting any threats.”

“
They give us no respect
whatsoever,” said Ubaldo, grinning. “They think we are sheep. They
cannot imagine us coming to them.”

“
We faced no opposition.
Maybe it was a mistake to send us,” said Urszula. “Now they will be
alerted.”

“
No,” said Olivier. “It’s
good that we know what we’re getting into.”

“
One problem. The core is
very weak over there,” said Urszula. “We had trouble making spell
craft.”

“
Now that could be a
problem,” said Olivier. “Maybe that explains why they fight the way
they do. All those conventional weapons. Bows and arrows and
slings. I don’t think they do it just to be Luddites.”

“
So what about the cracker
columns?” I said. “Will they even work over there?”

Olivier looked at me like I was an
idiot. “Those have nothing to do with spellcraft,” he said.
“They’re like the wings. Pure technology.”

“
Really?”

“
Wasn’t it Asimov who said
that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from
magic?”

“
I said the core is weak,
not absent,” said Urszula. “Someone like James can use the core
even when it is faint. Even … in life.”

“
We’ll be counting on you,
then,” said Olivier. “The rest of us might be firing blanks once we
get there.”

My stomach churned, but it was just
nerves—no conjuring of will.

“
Any chance you want to
give that other column another shot? Try to get it
working?”

I just looked at Olivier.

“
Are you kidding me?
Honestly … I’ve got nothing. Not a clue.”