Penult (59 page)

“
There’s not even time to
go home. Wherever that is these days. Fort Pierce, I guess.
America. But … there’s no time.”

“
Kid. If you cross back
with the roots, you need to get yourself up into the highlands.
Away from that core. You near any mountains over there?”

“
No. I’m on a
boat.”

“
Sea level? Dang. That’s
the worst place you can be.”

“
Wasn’t my idea. We’re
heading for Penult. For a raid.”

“
Really? By boat? What the
fuck?”

“
One of the beetles was
having trouble … so … we stole a boat.”

“
You have bugs! Good. First
thing you do is get your ass someplace high. Two miles up, at
least, where the core can’t reach you.”

I just looked at him. “No. I think I’d
rather go back to the Deeps.”

“
What the fuck kid? Are you
crazy? Why don’t you want to be a Freesoul?”

“
Nah. I really don’t give a
crap anymore. The Horus can take me for all I care.”

Wendell grinned.

“
I see what you’re doing.
Talking nonsense to psych yourself out. Get the roots to come and
take you. Smart thinking.”

But I was being serious. Tears were
just rolling out of me now. I never felt so weak.

Wendell’s grin eroded. “Listen, by
tonight you’re not gonna be in any condition to do anything useful.
If you have anything you need done, you’d better do it now. Make
some calls. Eat a last meal. Whatever.”

“
Okay.”

“
So what do you want to
do?”

“
I want to
live.”

“
Yeah, well. That’s not
gonna happen. You’re alive right now that’s the best I can do for
you.”

“
Then … why should I
bother? There’s no time.”

“
No time? You’ve hours.
Maybe even days. Every minute you can look around and appreciate
this world is … precious. I know my time will come, sooner than
most, my profession being risky as it is. I take advantage of every
moment I can. I hardly ever cross over anymore. Not the way I used
to. But today’s all about you, kid. What do you want to
do?”

“
I don’t know. I’m not
ready for this.”

“
Come on. Let’s get you
something to eat while you can still enjoy it. Then we’ll get you
situated someplace quiet and cozy.”

“
Can … can we bring
Jess?”

“
Of course!” said Wendell.
He put the car in gear and turned the car around, heading back into
Stromness. At least my eyes had begun to dry and Jess wouldn’t have
to see me like this.

***

We pulled up to the stone wall outside
the cottage and I got out. Jess came rushing out the front door all
excited when she saw me coming up the walk. She stopped short when
she saw Wendell behind me.

“
It’s alright Jess. He’s a
… a friend.” It felt weird saying that about Wendell.

“
Thank goodness you’re
alright. Those people, did they—?”

“
No Jess. I’m not okay.
They got me.”

“
What do you
mean?”

“
They poisoned me. With
something bad.”

Her eyes flitted about.

“
We need a purgative. To
make you vomit. We need to get you to the clinic ASAP.”

“
It’s no use Jess. Wendell
thinks they got me with ricin.”

“
Pretty sure,” said
Wendell.

“
Surely, the clinic can do
something?”

“
No. Not if it’s
ricin.”

“
What if it’s not? How did
they—?”

“
Listen, Jess. I only have
one day left. Let’s gonna waste it. I feel pretty good right now,
but I don’t know how long that will last.”

“
Oh, but James! I had such
good news to share. The ladies … they found her.”

“
Found …
Isobel?”

“
Yes! They even have an
address. In Scotland!”

“
Is she
alright?”

“
We don’t know. The place
she’s staying is kind of off the grid. Fiona and Britt are hoping
to rent a car, but without you and those bottomless cards of yours,
they’re getting a little short of funds.”

“
Who’s this you’re talking
about?” said Wendell. “That young girl? Your girlfriend’s
sister?”

“
Yeah.”

“
I could have told you
where to find her. You wanna go see her? Come on. I’ll take
you.”

“
Really?”

“
Hop in. If we hurry we can
catch the eleven o’clock ferry to Scrabster.”

***

We reached the ferry landing a few
minutes late but Wendell had powers of persuasion that bordered on
magical. Whether it was mere charm or some subtle form of hypnosis
or the possibly the mesmerizing qualities of an immaculate, vintage
Bentley, the ferry men kept the gate open until we had driven on
board without any ticket or reservation.

He and Jess went up on the deck and
left me alone in the back seat of the Bentley. I needed some time
by myself to process what was happening.

My heart was going a hundred miles an
hour but I was no longer gushing like a crybaby. Where had that
come from? With all the bad shit I had been through I had never
cried like that, not even when I lost my dad or my mom, or when the
Fellstraw took down Karla.

What did that mean? Did I care more
about me than anyone else? It didn’t used to be that way. For
years, I couldn’t care less what happened to me. I would have been
glad to leave this existence. But I was in a different place now,
but dying just the same.

I was used to my feelings being
jumbled but this was insane. First, hanging over everything was the
panic over my imminent death, tinged by several measures of denial.
Karla would be thrilled to hear that her sister had been found. I
was thrilled, too. I had feared the worst for her, and the worst
was life with that bastard of a father.

I wondered how Karla would react to
the news of me getting dragged back to the Deeps, this time through
the front door like everybody else. Did I even care? I kind of did,
and even garnished a bit of self-pitiful glee over the prospect of
seeing her reaction. Freesoul, my ass, I was going back to the
realm of the Horus this time without Olivier and his will bomb to
help bust me out.

Amidst this jumble, I hung onto a tiny
kernel of hope that I could will myself a way to keep from dying,
that the ricin wasn’t really ricin, or that my special constitution
could hold the effects of the poison at bay. That little bit of
hope was enough to keep me in this realm.

But that little smidgeon of optimism
didn’t last very long. The first wave of nausea clamped down on my
innards and went rippling all through me. Now there was no denying
that the threat was real. Utter fear smacked down all other
thoughts and feelings, permeating me with despair. And with
despair, as always, came the roots.

Chapter 61:
Flotsam

My body jerked the way it does when
you’re half-asleep and get that falling sensation. The only thing
was, I really was falling. I dropped like a load of bricks and
slammed belly-first into the sea.

This water was so salty. It burned my
eyes and lips. A million screaming neurons instantly revealed every
minor cut and abrasion I never knew I had.

And I barely sank. The buoyancy out
here was incredible. I bobbed right up to the surface where I
gasped and gulped for air, and struggled to gain my
bearings.

The ocean was mirror calm in the dim
twilight of a dying afternoon. A quick spin about helped me located
the long boat which remained inert and at anchor. It must have
drifted slightly since I had faded, explaining why I had missed the
deck.

Someone clambered atop the oarsman’s
cage and peered out in my direction. I kicked to raise myself out
of the water and waved both arms.

“
Yo!”

“
He’s over here,” said
Ubaldo, and my fellow raiders came swarming to the rail. There was
a loud pop and an object came flying out at me. Out of the corner
of my eye it looked like a giant tethered cannonball. I flinched
and ducked beneath the surface, bobbing back up to find myself
within arm’s reach of a glassy green globe encased in a mesh of
heavy twine in a hexagonal weave.

“
Grab on! We will pull
you.”

So I latched onto the glass float and
found myself yanked vigorously back to the boat, like a limp
swordfish that had given up the fight. As they reeled me in, I
bumped up against some big. I was shocked to see a Cherub floating
face down. Not only that, there was a whole train of them strung
out behind the boat, carried adrift by the feeble current. Someone
had been busy clearing the holds and tossing them
overboard.

When I reached the hull, a jungle of
hands reached down to grab me.

“
We were worried this would
happen,” said Olivier. “We kept a watch. Didn’t want you to
drown.”

“
I don’t think that’s
possible,” I said. “A brick would probably float in this
stuff.”

I caught Karla smirking at me. She
tossed me a bundle that I barely reached out in time to catch and
keep it from flying overboard. They were my clothes, somehow quite
a bit cleaner and fresher than I remembered.

“
I told you he would come
back soon,” she said. “His life is miserable without
me.”

“
Um. No. That’s not
why—”

“
Oh? You are too happy to
have me out of your life?”

“
Karla. I’m … I’m dying.
I’ve been poisoned.”

All of the mischief went out of her
face.

“
What? How?”

“
That’s bullshit,”
Olivier.

“
The Friends of Penult.
They caught me. Injected me. With something. Wendell thinks it’s
ricin. No antidote.”

Karla’s eyes widened. “We need to get
him to the glaciers. To the mountains”

“
Hang on,” said Olivier.
“Nobody can poison him. He’s a Weaver. And not just any Weaver. A
master. He has power over matter even in the living
world.”

“
So how does that help me
against ricin?”

“
Easy. Just turn the poison
into something harmless. Say … cotton candy.”

“
But how?”

“
Same way you turn
basketball courts and bleachers into angry monsters.”

“
But … I can’t see the
poison. I need to visualize stuff to change it. Otherwise, there’s
no traction. Nothing for my will to work on. I have no idea what it
looks like or where it is in my body. It’s probably all
dissolved.”

“
Visualize yourself. Just
focus your will on yourself. Anything not you, you turn into cotton
candy. Easy.”

“
O-kay.”

“
Next time you fade. That’s
what you do. I don’t want to hear any of this, ‘Oh woe is me, I’m
dying,’ bullshit. Okay? We’ve got a job to do. Georg, how’s that
column doing?”

“
Pretty much dry,” said
Georg. “As far as I can tell.”

“
Let us finish with the
Cherubim,” said Ubaldo. “And then feed the bugs. We fly
tonight.”

“
What’s the deal with the
Cherubs?” I said to Olivier. “Why are you guys chucking them
overboard?”

“
Why shouldn’t we?” said
Olivier, smirking. “You’d rather we face them fully incubated and
weaponized?”

“
It’s just … they’re
people. Maybe there’s some way we can turn them back?”

“
Nah. Their souls are long
gone. They’re nothing but puppets now. Killer puppets.”

I peeked down into a hold
through an opening in the decking panels. The interior looked like
those old shipping diagrams I’d seen of 18
^th
century slave ships, with
cherubs packed in alternating rows to pack in as many as possible.
Each of their bodies were wrapped in sheets of gelatinous
membrane.

“
See that white stuff? It’s
like a cocoon. Their bodies are being transformed into weapons. We
un-wrapped a couple. It’s … disgusting, actually. Their human arms
are dissolving and reconfiguring. All these cisterns of goop we are
their food. The bugs seem to like it, but the shit tastes like
puke.”

I looked up and caught Urszula staring
right at me. Our eyes caught and held. She was looking
worried.

“
You need to fade again and
soon,” she said. She spun on her heels and strode off down the
deck.

“
Yeah, well that’s cute.
How about we get the raid done first?” said Olivier.

***

I wanted no part of the Cherub
disposal detail, so I made myself scarce, wandering the decks in a
daze. Karla took a break and came looking for me. She found me on
the bow sprit, watching the line of Cherubim drifting off as far as
the eye could see.

“
It’s gonna be okay, you
know,” she said, patting my arm. “You can just do what Mr. Olivier
said … and even if not … even if you can’t … it’s still okay. Just
… when the time comes … you need to get up to a high
place.”