Code Noir (26 page)

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Authors: Marianne de Pierres

BOOK: Code Noir
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Mei stared up at me as if distracted from her task by a physical jolt.
‘
You!
’ she accused. ‘
What are you doing in my head?
’
‘
How can you know it’s me?
’ I thought back.
She stood, fists clenched. ‘
We’re linked, damn you Parrish. How the crap did that happen?
’
‘
You’re the shaman
,’ I retorted.‘
Explain it!
’
I tracked her thoughts as she remembered our union in Mo-Vay. Some bond had been forged then. Unwanted by both of us. Unwanted but undeniable.
‘
Get out of here. We’re trying to keep the rafts steady
.’
‘
We? Who are you betraying this time, Mei?
’
‘
The Cabal want to know if you have their - aggh—
’
The Cabal swarmed through her and along our connection, reaching for me, hungry with need to find out the fate of their brothers. I banked sharply and fell, desperate to escape them.
‘
Loyl!
’1 screamed as I fell to my death.
Chapter Seventeen
 
 
 
 
They caught me before I crashed. Stix, Chandra Sujin, Ness, Arlli, Talk Long and Tug straining to bear my weight, even though I had no substance, settling me gently on the ground.
When I became conscious, Roo and Glida helped me up. My nose bled from falling flat on my face. I wiped it and shook them loose.
‘Boss?’ Roo’s eyes were dark with strain. ‘We ain’t got time for this.’
The pressure had gone from my skull, replaced by a peculiar light-headedness. I sensed the satisfaction of the Eskaalim presence, as if it had orchestrated my escape. ‘If it happens again, keep everyone moving.’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll catch up.’
He looked unhappy but didn’t argue.
I went to the shamans where they squatted together in the creeping daylight on a clear patch of pavement. I didn’t bother to ask them what had happened. ‘Thank you,’ I said.
Ness opened her eyes wearily. Sweat glistened lightly on her brow like fever. ‘You were lucky.’
Lucky Parrish?
I doubted it.
I thought of the mirage. ‘What was happening in that blurred spot?’
‘The Cabal ask their spirits to fight the bitch loa,’ said Billy Myora. ‘They call the fire.’
‘How do you know that?’
The shamans mirrored my question in their faces. Billy hadn’t been linked to them, how could he know anything?
He gave us a sly smile and pointed to a fresh crack in the pavement. ‘The serpent moves through here.’
And then what?
I’d had a gut full of religion. For something that was meant to give comfort, it had a long track record of getting people killed.
‘What about Mei? How did she know me?’
‘You are psychically linked,’ said Ness.
‘Joke, right?’
She placed a hand on my arm. I felt a tingle like a double shot of tequila. She removed it as if proving a point. ‘We all are - from our shared experience. That is why we were able to help you. The elder
karadji
will use this connection as well, if they can. My guess is that they need you to defeat Tulu.’
‘What can I do that they can’t?’
‘Your psychic energy is uncommonly strong - though raw. That’s why you have not shape-changed. The parasite battles hard to possess you, but you resist. You have it . . . trapped.’
‘Y-you can sense it in me? You believe it’s real?’
‘As real as we are.’
I don’t know that I liked that answer. Lately, real had become very unreal. ‘Well, the Cabal can have Billy, but I’m taking the rest of you home.’
The shamans exchanged glances. For the first time Arlli pushed her dirty veil back from her face. Her skin had started to blister into ugly lesions from exposure to the
crawl
. In fact all of the shamans showed the beginnings of it.
‘You can’t,’ she said. ‘See this?’ She brushed the sores. ‘We have to protect our own people from this sickness, even if that means we fight
with
the Cabal.’
I glared at Billy Myora. ‘The Cabal are colonialists. They just want more territory,’ I argued.
Myora shrugged as if my thoughts were of no consequence to him, but he listened intently.
‘No, Parrish,’ said Tug. ‘They seek what was theirs. To heal it.’
I folded my arms in disagreement but my head told me it didn’t matter if they were right or wrong. Whatever the Cabal’s motives, it had to be better than letting this wild-tek infect the entire Tert.
‘What do you want me to do?’ I asked.
Ness spoke for them all. ‘Stay and fight. Perhaps gain them ground.’
I sighed. Couldn’t someone ask me to do something easy?
‘I’ll stay, but you -
all of you -
go home.’ I turned back to Glida and Roo. ‘The
karadji
owe me for him.’ I nodded at Billy. ‘I’ll use it to get you across. Roo, you must take the ma’soops back to Torley’s. Tell Teece to find room for them in the barracks.’
‘If you use your psychic link again, to bargain with them, you risk losing yourself,’ Ness warned.
‘Sure.’ The space around us had begun to creep with noise and movement. ‘The canal is only a few blocks away. Let’s get there first.’
I stood and urged them forward.
Fat-tail grabbed my hand and pulled me along. ‘Torlee’s, Tor-lee’s,’ he chattered.
His excitement spread among the ma’soops. They clicked and squealed with renewed energy. Wombebe snuck under my elbow, her scaly hand stealing into mine. She clicked and whistled in sadder tones.
‘M-iss Parr-ish,’ she said.
I pushed her ahead of me. ‘Don’t.’ I didn’t need that sort of extra attachment. Not now.
Her scaled face fell.
As we hurried on, Roo fell into step beside me, his round, young face gloomy. ‘I’m useless. My targeting system is out and my blades are melted.’
‘Just take them,’ I said flatly. I had no energy left for holding anyone’s hand. I needed to untangle myself from all of them if I was going to do what I had to.
‘But Teece told me to stay with you, no matter what.’
I fixed him with my most dogmatic stare. ‘Tell me Roo, what do you call Teece?’
He scratched his hair, eyes fretful. ‘Uuh? Teece, I guess.’
‘What do you call me?’
‘Boss, boss.’
‘So you work it out.’
He scratched again and gave me a resigned, tired nod. ‘Guess I’ll take them home then.’
Home
. I kept thinking about that word as we found a spot to shelter in the last line of villas that ran along the canal.
Ness and Chandra Sujin drilled me on how to relink with Mei and the Cabal and explained how they would try to block them if need be.
Ness clicked her tongue. ‘Concentrate, Parrish.’
I closed my eyes and attempted to focus my thoughts.
‘Empty your mind. A meditative state will allow you to leave your body,’ said Ness.
But my mind had other ideas. It resisted, running away from my control like a scared kid. ‘Can’t do it,’ I muttered.
‘Yes, you can!’ hissed Chandra Sujin. He tugged fiercely on my arm.
‘What about the parasite? It killed the others. It killed Vayu. You’re risking your lives as well,’ I said.
‘Yes, we are.’
This time I herded my mind into a corner and invoked the taste of tea with sugar. My mouth watered. Without realising it, my mind lifted and drifted. A vista unfolded below me like one of Jamon’s war-sims - excepting that these contestants only had one life.
‘
See the channel of light issuing from the far side? That is the Cabal. Get close enough to begin your link with Mei
.’ Ness spoke in my head.
‘
How?
’
‘
Is there something you share in common?
’
‘
No! Well
. . .
perhaps
. . .’
Daac’s image spontaneously filled my mind. Teeth flashing, dark skinned, intense. His fingers inside me, giving pleasure.
‘
Stop!
’ Mei’s shrill voice shattered the picture.
It got her attention. ‘
I need to link with the Cabal, Mei
.’
‘
You aren’t strong enough—
’
‘
Save it!
’
She gave a mental sigh. ‘
Always the tough one, Parrish. Remember you asked
.’
She diverted a thin stream of her energy toward me. I felt it unite with the Cabal and tug like a fast watercourse.
A storm of power coursed into me. It peeled open my mind and burst my senses with colours and aromas.
Ancient memories unwound before me - dreamtime rituals of ochre-daubed faces. Wimmen’s business - drinking dugong blood, dilly bags full of cramping berries . . . Then newer ones of stolen lives, urban subsistence and lost stories.
An instant later the torrent of knowledge vanished but the energy raged on, like a cyclone, tearing me apart. I felt Ness and the others struggling to bind me, keep me whole.
‘
I want these people to have safe passage across the canal
,’ I said.
The Cabal buffeted me in reply. ‘
Where are our
karadji
?
’
‘
Only Billy Myora lives
.’
‘
Then he was right
.’
‘
Who was right?
’
‘
Bring Myora to us
.’
‘
Only if you give these people safe passage across
.’
‘
We don’t bargain
.’
The wind roared and shrieked. Ness’s grip weakened. Then Stix’s. Slipping . . . Tug. Arlli. None of them strong enough. I began to unwind. Soon I would tear and the watercourse would drown me.
A shadow fell. A shadow with broken teeth and dripping saliva. The teeth scraped across my neck, hoisted me up high on to its back.
‘
Can ‘t stay on, it’s too fast
.’ I panted.
I slipped down and the water picked me up and slammed me. Thought blackened. Life squeezed out of my pores. I felt it leave . . . violet and violent.
No!
NO!
The Eskaalim’s protest doubled mine. It lent me strength and resolve. I grabbed the watercourse with my hands and twisted with all my strength.
It writhed and buckled in pain.
‘
Give them safe passage or I’ll choke you and Billy will perish
.’
‘
We cannot. The houngan battles us
.’
‘
Find a way
.’
The channel contracted in one angry, complicit thought.
‘
We try. Bring Myora and we will send someone
.’
 
‘Parrish? Parrish?’
Glida was shaking my shoulders. Dry saliva crusted on my face. My jaw ached with clenching. Slowly her face came into focus, flushed with colour by the the glow of the fires razing Mo-Vay.
‘How long?’ I asked.
‘Too long.’ Her eyes were wide and scared. ‘They attack. Roo shoot them. Tug gone.’
I looked around. The ma’soops huddled around Roo’s legs. Two bodies lay a short distance away. Thankfully they weren’t Twitchers or we’d be dead. A sticky brown substance oozing from the pavement had already begun to coat them.
My heart hammered at my throat. The shaman lay spreadeagled behind me. All except Billy Myora and Tug.
Myora squatted in the first patch of sunlight staring at the tide-swollen canal.
‘He no help,’ Glida said. ‘Roo try make he. Ness say no - better not.’
‘Where’s Tug?’
She shrugged.
‘He came out of the trance before the rest of you and left. I figured I better stay and watch, not follow him. We dragged you away from the others,’ Roo explained. ‘They were screaming. When we moved you from the circle they stopped.’
I crawled over and felt their pulse in turn.
Relief threatened to black me out. They were alive. ‘You broke their trance?’
‘B-bad thing?’ Glida stammered.
‘I don’t know.’ And had the Eskaalim and Loser really saved me from the Cabal? A liaison that mean . . . what? I didn’t . . . couldn’t think what. ‘Where’s the canrat?’
‘Gone.’
‘What do you mean, gone?’
‘When we dragged you from the circle he started howling. Then he just bolted.’
‘Remind me to get him some sugar dough.’
Roo and Glida exchanged the-boss-has-really-freaked glances. I didn’t let it worry me. Freaked was better than dead.
I think.
‘Come on. Get them up. You’ve got a boat to catch.’
 
An oarsman in fatigues and dull gold piercings battled the dark, swelling water of the canal to collect them. A faint blur dogged his journey and I wondered what the Cabal had sacrificed to get the raft past Tulu.
When he landed none of the shaman argued about leaving. They’d spent their courage surviving.
I singled out Roo. ‘You got ammo left?’
He patted his leg compartment. ‘A round for each piece.’
‘That should do. There’s plenty of snake and lizard on that side. They’re starving. Kill some straight away and eat them but leave the diamond pythons alone,’ I told him.
He only wrinkled his nose slightly. He was as hungry as the rest of us.
The raft took two trips to ferry them across. The Gurkha and I forced Billy Myora to stay until the second trip. It might not work against the
crawl
but on human flesh it was dandy. He regarded me with sullen indifference and I wished again that old Geroo had been the one to survive.
Ness gave me a renewal before she went - exhausting herself to fainting. Stix gave me a scowl that could have meant anything - probably condemnation of what Ness risked for me.
Arlli removed her veil and handed it over. ‘It will help you go unnoticed,’ she said. ‘Give it to me later.’

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