The Paladin's Odyssey (The Windows of Heaven) (30 page)

S

he held a beautifully crafted wood lyre in one hand with U’Sumi’s leviathan-bone flute
in the other
, which he had not seen since they
left
Psydonu’s Tower. However, the first thing he
saw
were Pyra T’Qinna’s black eyes, split lip, and the bruises
on
the un-bandaged part of her otherwise bare midriff. No amount of cosmetics could hide them, though
she had applied
copious layers
to try
.

U’Sumi pushed away like an unwanted intruder the
desire to kill with his bare hands whoever had done this to her.
Why should I care? It probably happens to the little slut at least once a month!
However,
the “human cockroach” model of
W
orld-end had worn thin. He could no longer deny the compassion
trained
into him by his father, even if he could not understand how it coexisted with knowledge of the coming slaughter
and with
that of
humanity’s guilt at having incited it
.

A’Nu-Ahki
stood
to greet her,
his
eyes soft with pity. The Old Man made no effort to subdue his quiet tears. U’Sumi just glared at her with cold disbelief. He wanted to comfort her, to take her in his arms and protect her. Yet he could not believe that it would do any good.
It would send the wrong message anyway. She’d only think I wanted to
…

A’Nu-Ahki whispered, “Who did this to you, child?”

Pyra T’Qinna averted her swollen eyes from the Seer, as if unable to deal with something
as
foreign and intense as his fatherly affection.

“Which of you plays the pipes?” she asked,
as if
trying to pretend
that
nobody could see the white behemoth in the room.

“I do
.
”
The words stuck in
U’Sumi
’s
throat.

“My grandmother said I could bring them to you.” She handed him his instrument, then retreated a few paces
back
from his eyes.

A’Nu-Ahki turned to his s
on. “Where did you get those?”

U’Sumi had kept the pipes hidden beneath his clothing since receiving them, practicing only when he was alone on the ship.

Although
he
had heard
his father admit to its beauty, most elders in the Seer Clan still frowned on instrumental music because
“
it
was invented by Iyu’Buuli, the
reveling music
ian
of Qayin.” A majority in Seti enjoyed it nowadays nonetheless. U’Sumi wanted to
play
to E’Yahavah on those pipes—whether
in
worship
,
or
as a
sullen remind
er to
the Deity of the Sailor who had carved them, he was not
entirely
sure.
Maybe
this is why I don’t want the girl around,
he realized for the first time.
I can’t
watch
another person snatched away into Underworld
. Especially not her!

“
…
If your E’Yahavah were real, I’d only curse him to his face
…
”

U’Sumi
tucked the pipes
in
his cloak, staring at the young priestess. “A sailor on the ironclad gave them to me,” he mumbled to his father.

A’Nu-Ahki said,
“A lot happened o
n that ironclad during my fever.
”

T’Qinna almost stuttered.
“I
-I
promised to come back
.
Can I sit?”

“If you don’t mind cold white stuff—whatever this floor is made of.” A’Nu-Ahki helped her down onto a spot by him.

T’Qinna came to the point. “Will E’Yahavah
still accept me even after I refused to believe you or is it too late for me to change my mind?”

U’Sumi
’s heart almost stopped
.

His father gazed at her and smiled. “Of course he will accept you
, as will
we. Yet what you propose is dangerous to you—though not nearly as dangerous as ignoring the truth and trying to go on as if you had never heard it. You will have to leave here
;
leave this kind of life forever.”

“I know,” T’Qinna
said. A
weight
seemed to
lift from her shoulders
, as she sat upright
. “I
want
to help you escape. Taanyx stand
s
watch outside.”

“Are there no guards, no listening devices?”

“We usually only keep animals here—an
d only I understand how they communicate
. Since nobody really listens to me, nobody thinks
animal
speech
has
any value. I know a way out where there are no guards. It will be dangerous
;
there may be monsters.”

U’Sumi said, “Monsters?”

She turned to him. Her eyes made him want to brave ten monsters. “It’s the best we can do. I heard that you are the only
man
that
ever slew an Agent of Judgment
,
and that you did it with only a knife. Is this true?”

Her swollen eyes transfixed
U’Sumi. “I killed the Elyo. His name was Typhunu. I slew that thing and by E’Yahavah
,
I can do it again if I
need
to. Only now I don’t even have a knife.”

She reached into the dragon hide sash she wore around her bottom garment, and produced a small dagger.

“I’m sorry it’s not a hand-cannon. It’s all I could get past the guards. It once belonged to my father
—
a
mottled man of the Far East. I never knew him. My
Mauma
gave it to me when I was small. She told me he used to come see her a lot and that they had special feelings for each other. That’s forbidden here. She died last year birthing a creature like that Typhunu. I keep seeing it in my mind—I don’t know if it’s real or a fever dream—I was sick when she died. We used to quarrel a lot, but she taught me to care about things
like people, and animals, and stuff.”

U’Sumi took the knife
and
secreted it beneath his cloak.

“Please tell me,” he said to her, “who beat you?”

T’Qinna gulped. She dropped her eyes to U’Sumi’s feet, letting some of her hair fall in front of her face. “A monster,” she whispered, “a monster I created myself
,
and
then lost control of. I guess, being Pandura’s daughter, I have my own Pandura’s Box.”

A’Nu-Ahki also fought down tears—a sight that moved his son deeply. “How shall we go?” he asked her.

“The menagerie has a floor grate that drops into the city sewers. The three of us could lift it together. But there are sail-backs, crocodiles, and all kinds of deformed things down there. We also can’t let any sewage get into our eyes, or into any open wound
;
I think they dump some kind of poison there. And there are tiny parasites that can burrow into your skin.”

U’Sumi said,
“We’re good,
but y
our injuries concern me.”

She met his eyes with hers and smiled briefly at him as if he had just made her the happiest girl alive.

“Well, they do! I’m not heartless, you know!”

“I’ll be okay
; i
t’s probably
only
long-time exposure that’s a problem. It’s just best to know and avoid touching anything.”

A’Nu-Ahki asked, “How long will we be down there?”

“Not too long. We
must
keep our bearings and move downhill to the harbor. The Temple has poling boats near the drainage canal where the sewer lets out. The harbor-master watches them for us, but not too closely. My mother and I used to take them out
to watch the ships com
e
in and out of port. I saw them
there
still the last time I divine
d
a murder on the waterfront. We can take one and come ashore
past
the city walls. It’ll be dark by then.”

A’Nu-Ahki said, “Are you sure you want this? We must escape across all Aztlan. They still need our tissue. You they c
an
easily
kill
.”

“From now on I’m a priestess of E’Yahavah!”

U’Sumi mumbled, “E’Yahavah doesn’t have priestesses.”

T’Qinna yanked his cloak and pulled his face close to hers with a savage strength. “He does now!”

U’Sumi wisely let the matter drop. She released him
,
and they followed her out into the menagerie. Taanyx joined them there.

T’Qinna and the sphinx led them through rows of pearl cages, past many stalls, to a slight dip in the floor at the center of the huge chamber. The three of them stooped to remove the grate, but froze when a sound echoed from back up the way they had just come.

Somebody had opened the menagerie vault. Footsteps approached.

The fugitives waited, hoping the guard would just poke his head in and leave without checking the tiny cell window. Instead, the footfall tapped
in
to the main chamber. When the sentry reached the window, he cursed,
and
then called to a partner who must have stood outside the menagerie.

“Move!” U’Sumi hissed.

A’Nu-Ahki grunted as the grate slid over with a clank. T’Qinna
shined
a small quickfire lantern
she had grabbed
from a cubby of emergency supplies
down
into the hole. The dry bottom was only about six cubits down.

The tunnel ran east to west, slanting gently downward in the latter direction toward the harbor.

The noise of the grate had given them away.
The guard shouted for them to stop, as his footsteps increased to a full run from behind the cages.

U’Sumi dropped lightly through the aperture
and
then motioned for T’Qinna to hand him the lantern.

“Hurry!”

T’Qinna lowered herself carefully, so as not to scratch her lyre or hurt her bruises, then fell into U’Sumi’s arms. Despite the danger, he held her for a couple seconds, before they both moved
out of the way for his father and the cat. Taanyx leaped down silently.

U’Sumi released T’Qinna and looked up through the opening. A bright light shone in A’Nu-Ahki’s face.

“You over there! Halt!”

U’Sumi’s father jumped through the hole and landed on his rump. U’Sumi and T’Qinna helped him up
,
and half-drag
ged
him down the duct to
ward
the harbor. Only when
A’Nu-Ahki
ran on his own did they release him to speed
up
. Behind them
,
alarm
s rang
down into the echoing caverns. U’Sumi heard the clatter of soldiers dropping through the hole
after them
.

The floor got damp, as
the
youths an
d sphinx outpaced A’Nu-Ahki.

After several minutes, U’Sumi and T’Qinna slid into ankle-deep sludge and nearly lost their footing. With fancy legwork, U’Sumi broke their fall,
holding
the girl steady. Taanyx stopped short of the ooze and yowled, refusing to touch a paw to the stuff. Pursuit noise
s
reverberated down the tube, but still seemed distant because of
the
refraction from branch conduits.

T’Qinna cried, “Come on Taanyx, we have to go!”

The sphinx refused to budge.

U’Sumi sloshed ahead, lantern held aloft to see down the pipe.

T’Qinna pleaded with the cat
,
and
then suddenly fell silent.

He saw
no visible end to the blackness ahead. “What’s wrong?”

“U’Sumi, your father’s missing!”

That was when they saw an army of cold phosphorescent reptilian eyes approaching hungrily from the inky branch tunnels on both sides.