Half Discovered Wings (29 page)

‘
Good for them,’ she murmured.

~

Caeles picked
his way through the trees, rubbing the sandpaper bark of their
heavy trunks as if feeling for the first time. The magus wandered
close by, breaking twigs from the drier branches.

‘
I think it’s about time we talked about what we’re really
doing out here,’ Caeles said.

The magus
rearranged his bundle of kindling in his arms, carrying it all like
a baby made of sticks. ‘Really?’ he asked, not turning around.

‘
We must have some sort of real objective. Just saying that
Gabel and I have to protect each other is bullshit. There’s more to
it; there always is. What’s
his
objective? And what happens to me when he’s
carried it out?’

‘
Do you really want to know that?’

‘
Look,’ said the cyborg, sighing. He’d plucked a few green
leaves from the trees and was rubbing them together between his
fingers. ‘First of all, stop with all the obscurity. Who are you,
“magus”? You’re an errant, aren’t you?’

‘
Well, of course,’ he replied, turning and flashing him a
dark-lipped smile. ‘What else could I be?’

‘
Then you’re a damn special one, if you are. I know that
errants were genetically designed, I suppose you could
say—’

‘
Stop,’ said the magus. ‘Caeles, what you think you know about
errants isn’t the whole truth.’

‘
I know that they’re all long-lived. I know that most of them
have skills that are enhancements of natural human
abilities.’

‘
Skills,’ the magus chuckled. ‘There were a lot of errants who
felt that they were cursed. Your friend Jason Dyson of São Jantuo
is one of those people.’

‘
How do
you
feel?’

‘
Not all of my “skills” came with being an errant. I learned
many of them. And you are asking all the wrong questions, Caeles.
Ask me what our mission entails.’

‘
All right. What does our mission entail?’

‘
You’ll find out soon,’ said the magus, and began to walk
away.

Caeles
groaned. He looked down at his fingers: he’d turned the leaves to
watery green mush on his fingertips. He wiped his hands on his
trousers.

‘
All right,’ he said. ‘Listen up. You’ve come to me before I
even joined this group, telling me to be ready. Like some damn
ghost. So what’s the point, unless I have some important part to
play? Something to add here?’

‘
You’re doing all right,’ replied the magus. ‘Keep
going.’

‘
It’s someone I know, isn’t it?’ Caeles asked. ‘Someone I’ve
met before.’

The magus looked at
him again, and nodded slowly.

‘
You know the name,’ he said.

~

The
hunter become increasingly frustrated with the dwindling fire.
Rowan saw such anger in the man, and it became more apparent with
each day they travelled, and each argument he had with Caeles. She
recalled the look in his eyes when the magus had shown his doubt at
Gabel’s competency: like fire, burning a fierce red for just a
second before putting itself out. She had since tried to convince
herself it hadn’t happened, but every time the image came to mind
she also remembered the poem he had written.

She was abruptly brought back to the present by Gabel kicking
earth into the flames.

‘
The wood’s damp,’ he growled. ‘This won’t stay alight much
longer.’

‘
We have more,’ said Caeles, returning and dropping his bundle
straight onto the fire. The magus put his own bundle to the side,
leaving it for later.

‘
This should do it.’

‘
I heard more movement in the trees,’ Gabel told them. ‘It came
from the direction you were heading.’

‘
Didn’t hear a thing.’

Gabel shrugged
and played with the fire. Rowan was breaking open a crust of bread
and handing it around.

‘
We haven’t seen any goyles,’ she said. ‘Maybe we’re safe out
here.’

‘
Or maybe they’re gathering forces, creating battleplans,’
laughed Caeles. ‘Or perhaps they’re burrowing underground, so they
can burst up through the fire and catch us all off
guard.’

‘
She’s just concerned,’ Gabel warned.

‘
I’m not,’ she said. ‘I was just pointing something
out.’

‘
It makes no difference,’ said Caeles. ‘We’re all right now,
and we probably will be until morning.’

A
sudden a rush of wind blasted across the clearing, putting out the
heated conversation along with the fire. Kindling scattered through
the opening between Caeles and Gabel, and ashes spiralled into the
air and glittered against the night’s sky.

A dark blur approached rapidly from the south-west, and by
this time Gabel was already putting himself between Rowan and the
indistinct figure, who rocketed past them both and around, sweeping
Caeles from his feet as he attempted to stand.

‘
Get down!’ Gabel commanded Rowan.

‘
Won’t help,’ said a metallic-sounding voice. It came from the
centre of the circle. In the black scar of the fire’s remains stood
the cloth-covered ninja. ‘In fact, it won’t even come
close.’

‘
What do you want?’ Caeles asked. To Rowan he sounded almost
bored, as though expecting the confrontation. She wondered what he
and the magus had been talking about.

Had it been me?
she couldn’t help
but think.
Am I to be talked about in
private, and wait like a child as the grown-ups discuss the next
step?

‘
Before, I wanted to kill you,’ the stranger said, sparks
dancing around his feet. ‘I know you are a cyborg, and that
you
are abnormal,’ he
continued, indicating the old man.

‘
I am a magus,’ he said simply.

‘
And you,’ the Scathac said, spinning so quickly that it was
almost unseen, and so that the last few sparks rose up and settled
in his thick dark hair. He pointed an accusing finger at Gabel.
‘You are also … different.’

‘
So tell us what you want,’ the hunter demanded. He held Rowan
behind him, his rough hands on her waist, keeping her back. ‘What
do you want if you no longer want to kill us?’

‘
I want to
help
you, because you are all enemies of Tan Cleric—’

The Scathac stripped off the belt that covered his eyes and
pulled down the mask. It was a woman, dark-skinned with startling
all-green eyes. A heavy mat of hair hung down over her well-defined
cheekbones. She unfastened the voice-temper and let it hang down
around her neck.

‘—
And I am missing a son.’

*

Eighteen

THE SCATHAC
NINJA

The woman in
black turned to show her face to Gabel and Rowan, who now stood
apart and looked on in surprise. Then the woman crossed her legs
and sat down, straight onto the cooling remains of the fire.

‘
How do you know about Tan Cleric?’ Caeles asked. He had his
hand ready to draw his sword, yet he already knew he didn’t need
it.

‘
I was following you through the forests,’ she explained. ‘And
I heard you and the old man talking of him. You sounded as though
you don’t like him very much.’ Her thick lips parted in a wide,
white smile.

‘
You could say that,’ Caeles muttered.

‘
Who is Tan Cleric?’ asked Gabel.

‘
He’s a guy I used to know. Insane. I never expected to see him
again.’

‘
You!’ the woman said, indicating Caeles. The curved blade of
her wrist-mounted kukri gleamed. ‘You’re just like
him
, made of metal on
the inside. That’s why I couldn’t trust you before; I thought you
were one of his people.’

‘
You haven’t told us why you’re here, or who you are,’ Gabel
growled.

‘
I am
Sarai Catling,’ she said, standing back. ‘My son has been captured
by Cleric, and he’s being held in the rainforest.’

‘
This has nothing to do with our mission,’ said Gabel. ‘I’m
truly sorry your child has been captured by this man, but it has no
bearing with our own objective. We can’t help you.’

‘
Wait,’ said the magus. ‘Joseph, this
is
part of our mission.’

‘
What do you mean? Why didn’t you say anything about this
Cleric person?’

‘
You didn’t need to know anything until we got there. But now,
I suppose it would be okay to tell you. Sarai, would you sit down
with us? I’m sure we can get another fire going.’

~

War had made the planet barren, the magus explained. Man and
creature suffered, but a few of the more stubborn lived on. Things
changed, and for the worse. Things became very different, but there
were reminders of the Conflict all around. There were things left
behind, and new things brought here from other places.

‘
Like what?’ asked Gabel.

‘
Like the theriopes and the sanguisuga; the rusalki. And all
manner of other creatures. Gabel, this is your work, your job. It
pays for your food and your accommodation. It is why you are here
now, with the rest of us. Because of these things that came, but
should not be here.’

‘
From Hadentes,’ Caeles scoffed. ‘These came from Hell, you’re
saying.’

‘
Hadentes is adjacent to our own world. Think of them as two
sheets of parchment laid across one another. How easy would it be
for wet ink to leak from one, to the other? And how easily could
you punch through both with a sharpened blade? Consider this in
three dimensions. If souls can pass through this membrane in death,
surely living beings can slip out in the opposite
direction?’

‘
With a big enough hole,’ said Sarai. ‘Carved by a sharp enough
blade.’

‘
A leftover from the Conflict,’ said Caeles, sitting up against
a tree, scraping at the soil until he found rubescent clay, and
then rubbed it between his palms. ‘You’re talking about a
weapon.’

‘
Exactly,’ nodded the old man. ‘Something
cataclysmic.’

‘
What
do you mean?’

‘
There
is
a
weapon. A man-made weapon within the crater in which Shianti is
situated, a relic that could destroy this continent and everyone
upon it. It is called the Hahnium, and it wields the power of
radioactivity. It was designed to destroy men – soldiers – and
cyborgs like yourself, Mister Caeles.’ Caeles gave a polite nod.
‘Birds, animals, fish; all plants: trees, flowers, weeds. The
grass. The grounds, the earth. Everything. It is designed to
destroy everything with its radiation. And it may do, if it falls
into the wrong hands.’

‘
With weapons,’ Caeles muttered, ‘all hands are the wrong
hands.’

‘
So this is what you are hiring me for?’ Gabel asked. ‘To stop
this weapon from being used?’

‘
Precisely.’

‘
And what has Tan Cleric got to do with it?’ asked
Sarai.

‘
I believe Tan Cleric,’ the magus said quietly, ‘is one of the
monsters we seek to destroy.’

‘
Wonderful,’ Caeles muttered. He had palmed the clay until it
oozed pink liquid, and it slipped from his muddied
fingers.

~

With the arrival of Sarai, the journey became more
interesting for some and less bearable for others. After it was
agreed that the Scathac could accompany the group, at least
temporarily, the baggage-horse was relieved of its burden and the
reins were handed over, the luggage divided amongst the animals and
strapped behind the saddles. None of the horses seemed to mind the
extra weight, but Gabel seemed to worry that the increased load
would slow the beasts if a chase were to break out.

Sarai talked little, letting her animal carry her without
fuss. She avoided any form of conversation, only nodding at or
hedging any attempts made by the others to unbury more about
her.

Rowan took to riding by her side, continuing to try and prise
information about her past and son. The Scathac gave nothing away;
however one day, a few days from Iilyani, she seemed to soften a
little, and made quiet conversation with the group as they
ate.

‘
My son and I had been travelling for a long while,’ she began.
‘I come from a place over the ocean, and I was carrying my Isaac in
my belly at the time.’ Her fingers touched the fabric over her
stomach, as if remembering stroking her distended abdomen all those
years ago. ‘We had to fight to exist, struggling against the
Luxers, whose numbers and zeal had been swelling in other lands.
After a time we decided to move on a kind of pilgrimage, through
the rainforests to the west, moving east.’

‘
This direction,’ Rowan said quietly.

‘
That’s right. We were passing through the Sinh-ha Plains when
my Isaac ran from me.’ She tore a piece of bread from the loaf that
was being passed around, and stayed silent for a short while.
‘Because of this man, Cleric. He desperately seeks out those who
are different. I believe he thinks himself some type of scientist,
but I never came close to uncovering his goals. Cleric wrongly
assumed that my son was as I am, “different”, and pursued us. I
believe that Isaac left me so that I might be safe.’