The Blood Debt Part 41

*It's confirmed,' said Kail. *They see it too.'

*Of course they do. Why would we lie?' Sal didn't try to hide his irritation, although he could understand both Marmion and the Magister being cautious before accepting such drastic news on his word alone. *The next step is to ask Pirelius to turn back.'

*The Magister doesn't want to do that. She thinks Pirelius is lying - letting her believe that he's helping her, when in fact he intends to hold her to ransom at the very last.'

*So she's going to do nothing, and a.s.sume he'll do the right thing without realising it?'

*That's her plan.'

Sal couldn't tell through the Change whether Kail approved or disapproved. The plan did make a kind of sense, though. From Pirelius's point of view, the only threat to the city was the man'kin. He didn't realise that, in fact, it was he who might be critical in the crisis. If he was to find that out, he really could hold the city to ransom.

*I don't like the idea of risking everything on Pirelius unintentionally doing what we need him to do.'

Kail didn't respond. When Sal sought the tracker out again, a stream of images and sensory impressions was all he received.

The Wall - so close now that it and the sides of the Divide blocked out most of the sky. This was the first time Sal had seen the city from that perspective, and he was startled by how forbidding it looked. From above, its architecture had seemed sweeping and bold. From below it was simply brutally functional.

Sal still couldn't see Kail, although he had to be well within eyeshot. It occurred to him that the tracker must be using a charm to hide from sight. Glamours weren't complicated, but they could be draining. Kail was also relaying information to him, and probably hadn't slept for almost two whole days. Sal felt new respect for the man.

Pirelius looked around as though sensing he was being followed. The bandit was in a bad way, wearied and battered by his long trek through the man'kin horde. Sunburn on his scalp pulsed red and a streak of dried blood stretched from the corner of one eye into his beard. But his pace was unchecked, as was the ferocity with which he forced the Homunculus ahead of him. A steady stream of invective, punctuated by the occasional blow, rewarded the twins for their compliance.

Occasionally Pirelius looked up at the heavy lifter, still cruising weightlessly overhead. He did so with a naked shrewdness that told Sal that the Magister was almost certainly right. Pirelius was the very picture of obedience. It was too much to believe.

He became aware of movement beside him. Dropping out of the vision, he turned to see three guards hastily affixing a complicated series of grapnels and pulleys to the guard rail in front of them. s.h.i.+lly oversaw their efforts closely, although it was clear they knew what they were doing.

*What's going on?' Sal asked, noticing a large coil of finely spun rope lying to one side, next to a pair of leather harnesses.

*I don't trust Marmion any further than I can throw him,' s.h.i.+lly said. *He'll pick up Kail, yes, but I'm sure he'd. rather watch the Homunculus drown.'

*Who's going to make him do the right thing?'

She squared her shoulders. *Me.'

*What?' Skender, who had been eyeing the harnesses with some reservation, looked up in surprise. *Don't be ridiculous. It'll be me if it's anyone.'

*Why?' she asked, ears reddening. *Because I'm a girl and a cripple?'

*No! Because I'm a climber and you're not.'

*But it was my idea.'

*So? You're needed up here. You're in charge. And Sal has to convey messages to Kail. It makes sense that I go. Doesn't it?'

s.h.i.+lly's lips tightened, and Sal knew from long experience that she wasn't arguing because she thought she was right.

*I'm not afraid of going.'

*Who said you were?' Skender rolled his eyes. *This is no time for pride, s.h.i.+lly. Just let me do it.'

*All right, all right,' she said, and Sal could see the relief her back-down brought. *But you've got to be careful. How could I face your mother if anything happened to you?'

*Don't worry about her,' Skender said, *because nothing's going to happen to me.' He turned to the guards. *Are you ready yet?'

*Almost.' The leader tossed him a harness. *Put this on and we'll hitch you up.'

Sal and s.h.i.+lly helped Skender thread the leather straps around his waist, thighs and shoulders. They were designed for someone about his size - the smaller the better for such labour - and all the clasps looked well maintained. A complicated series of bra.s.s loops and stays connected it to the rope.

*Take this,' said the guard as he attached Skender to the a.s.sembly. He clipped a pouch containing three flags to the harness. *Red for up, green for down, white to stop. Got that?'

Skender repeated it word for word. *What if I drop the flags?'

*You can't. They're all connected.'

*But if-'

*Don't worry. You get into a sc.r.a.pe, kick out from the Wall and that'll be our signal to haul you up.'

*I'll be keeping an eye on you,' said Sal, *through Kail.'

*Couldn't he do this?' asked Skender, a flash of nervousness showing.

s.h.i.+lly shook her head. *I don't entirely trust him, either.'

Skender resigned himself to his fate. *Right, then. I'm ready.'

*Wait,' said Sal as Skender walked, jingling, closer to the edge of the Wall. *You might need this, too.'

*Hey!' s.h.i.+lly exclaimed as Sal took her walking stick from her and handed it to Skender.

*I'll make you a new one,' he said to her. To Skender, he explained: *It's a reservoir of the Change. I've been stocking it up for ages. I doubt you'll need it, but just in case ...'

Skender's gaze danced between him and s.h.i.+lly. *Thanks. I promise I'll bring it back.'

There was no more time for talking as Skender put himself into the hands of the guards. They gave him gloves and showed him how to grip the rope. He adopted a wide-legged stance and backed up to the edge. When the last of his guiding hands fell away, he leaned out and down, while two of the guards operated a mechanical winch to gradually pay out the rope.

*A reservoir?' said s.h.i.+lly to Sal as their friend disappeared out of sight. *You never told me that.'

*I never needed to. And that's a good thing, right?'

She punched his arm. *Let's get back from the edge. Things could start shaking again any time soon, and you're going to have to keep me upright now.'

He did as he was told, while at the same time dipping back into Kail's senses.

The Wall was a vast, solid ma.s.s. He could barely make out Skender against its sheer enormity. The sky at the top seemed impossibly far away. The heavy lifter had fallen back, cautious of coming too close lest a stray gust of wind sent it cras.h.i.+ng into the stone. Pirelius picked his way over ground heavily scarred by the pa.s.sage of the man'kin. Ahead, the tunnel gaped like a mouthful of jagged teeth.

Sal felt a vibration through his fingertips that he at first a.s.sumed was the stone of the Wall moving again. But it lacked any of the grinding, sc.r.a.ping sounds that had accompanied it before. Only gradually did he work out that its source wasn't his fingers at all, but Kail's.

The flood was coming.

The Flood.

*There are many ways of existing. Some creatures have no minds at all, or none that we would recognise as such; others are just minds, cunning intelligences hovering on the edge of the world.

The rule common to all is: like devours like.'

MASTER WARDEN RISA ATILDE:.

NOTES TOWARD A UNIFIED CURRICULUM.

S.

kender clung tightly to the rope and tried not to look down. This wasn't remotely like climbing. He was utterly at the mercy of the thin strand linking him to the apparatus at the top of the Wall. The guards turning the winch far above maintained his rate of descent. If the rope snapped, he would plummet instantly to his death. There was nothing he could do but dangle and hope for the best.

His descent was not so rapid that he risked skinning himself on the stone as it went past and he used his legs to keep at a distance from the Wall, kicking gently to maintain a rhythmic bounce. He felt like a bug on the vast expanse of the Wall. It seemed to stretch to infinity in all directions. The only details marring its smooth curvature were the giant charms reinforcing the sigiis on each block of stone.

A cool breeze caressed his neck. He relished the touch of it on his raw skin and bruises until he realised its probable source. A wall of water was rus.h.i.+ng down the Divide pus.h.i.+ng all the air ahead of it. A breeze was probably the best he could hope for, suspended as he was on a string right in its path.

He made sure the flags were secure against his waist. Red for up, the guard had said. It was imprinted in his memory forever. He just hoped the guards operating the winch were conserving their strength for a late charge.

s.h.i.+lly tore her eyes away from Skender as he receded down the Wall. Pirelius and the Homunculus were almost at the tunnel mouth. Movement out of the corner of her eye distracted her from the downward view, and she looked up.

The heavy lifter rocked from side to side, at eye level, painted pink by the falling dusk. The pilot turned it so it lay lengthways, parallel to the Wall, but its instability only seemed to worsen. Its fiery propellers spun furiously in an attempt to hold it in position.

Wind, she thought, glancing upwards. There were no clouds, but the sky to the east was growing darker.

Wind and spray. Time was running out.

*Faster!' she shouted at the guards turning the winch. *We don't have long!'

They pulled their handles with increased energy. One, red in the face, muttered to the other, *Who is she, anyway?'

s.h.i.+lly ignored him. *What's happening down there?' she asked Sal, wis.h.i.+ng she had her stick. She felt unsteady without it.

*Pirelius has stopped,' he said, his gaze focused on infinity. *He's calling for the Magister.'

s.h.i.+lly nodded. *Looking for a rematch.' Thus far, Pirelius was behaving exactly as expected. *Is she coming?'

*She's sent Marmion again.'

*Good. Don't want to make it look too easy.'

*TUNNEL,' rumbled the giant man'kin, startling her. She jumped and turned to face it.

*What?'

*TUNNEL CLOSING.'

The Wall began to shake. Obviously this man'kin had got word to Mawson about the flood and told the other man'kin to start closing the tunnel. *Good. While that's happening, why don't you help those two with the winch? Can you do that?'

The round face of the man'kin swivelled to take in the guards and the winch. It took two ponderous steps forward and crouched down. The guards backed away, terrified as a giant stone hand grabbed the handle.

*TURN,' it boomed, and did just that. The winch spun much faster than it had before. Rope vanished over the edge at a furious rate. *TURN.'

*Excellent,' she said, hoping against hope that she hadn't given Skender the fright of his life. *Make sure you stop when we tell you to, okay?'

It nodded. *TURN!'

The Wall quaked beneath them, and she clung to Sal for support.

*For the last time -'

At the sound of grinding stone, Pirelius stopped in mid-sentence and looked around.

*What?' He grabbed the Homunculus tight around the throat and pulled it closer to him, suspecting a trap. The blade at its throat gleamed. *Magister! What are you playing at?'

*Nothing, Pirelius,' said Marmion, bellowing to be heard from the shaking canopy above. *Stay calm! The man'kin can't hurt you!'

Pirelius backed away from the tunnel entrance. The crush of man'kin around him hadn't thinned, and that surprised Sal. He would have expected them to make for other refuges once word spread of the tunnel's imminent closure, but they stayed tight around the man and his captive, and continued to ignore the invisible Kail.

It took a good while for the truth - that things weren't going the way Pirelius expected - to sink in. In fact, it took the solid chest of a man'kin to drive the point home.

*Wh-?' Pirelius recoiled from the frozen statue with a look of utter confusion on his face. The man'kin consistently flinched from the Homunculus when it approached. This one - a three-metre-high bearded man in white stone with a beatific expression and outstretched arms - had not.

He backed away, and the frozen man'kin fell out of range. It shook its head, uncannily as though waking.

*The one from the Void is here,' the man'kin said. *Tiden har kommit.'

Pirelius just frowned at that, but the effect on the Homunculus was startling. It straightened with a jerk.

*What could you know about that?' it asked the man'kin, its superimposition of faces twisted in anguish.

*The time has come,' the man'kin stated matter-of-factly. *It has always been. You are there. We are there with you.'

*You weren't there! You couldn't possibly know!' The Homunculus wriggled in Pirelius's grip, but the bandit clung tight. The blade bit deep into its throat, drawing not blood but a strange silver mist that bubbled and ran down its chest. *We are alone!'

The sound of propellers whining drew Kail's eyes upwards. The heavy lifter was swooping lower in defiance of the rising wind. Sal couldn't have been more surprised to see Marmion dangling from a rope ladder if the Sky Warden had been stark naked and clutching a flower between his teeth.

*I'll kill it!' screamed Pirelius as Marmion dropped to the dirt in the safety zone. *I'll kill it!'