Half Discovered Wings (35 page)

Gabel always disappeared in the mornings. She had noticed it
the second night, and the following two. Last night she’d woken and
followed him to the inn. After that he vanished, moving quickly
through the side streets, scattering shili, and disappeared. She
thought she had seen a figure crossing the clearing, and this
morning intended to see where it was that Gabel went to.

She saw the outline of a figure way across the clearing,
barely visible amidst the burning iridescence of the ground as the
sunlight was split by the shifting heat-glare. For a moment she saw
a heat delusion in which rippling air over his shoulders became
stretching wings, and they came with an impression of being
watching, as though the wings had eyes … Rowan watched as the man
moved back toward the town, the distressing delusion having
faded.

‘
Joseph,’ she called when she was sure. The figure turned and
looked at her, now much closer.

‘
Rowan. You shouldn’t be out in this sunlight. You could harm
yourself.’

‘
Where have you been?’

‘
To the river.’

‘
Why? To wash your hands again? Why so often?’

‘
To keep them clean?’ he suggested sarcastically, and pulled
his hat over his eyes, looking at the floor as he walked
by.

‘
That isn’t the reason. Tell me.’

‘
If you tell me you’re not interested in Turenn.’

Rowan looked
away. The sun felt like it was burning her now, and she glanced
over to the nearest building, looking for some shade to shelter in.
Her eyes hurt with the light.

The hunter had refused to speak with her at times, apparently
furious, and sometimes she refused to talk in return. She had
followed him today … why? He looked at her as if waiting for an
answer, but before she could speak, he said:

‘
I’m going back to find the others. I think we’re ready to
leave. We’ve helped out enough here.’

He walked into
town, leaving Rowan standing by herself in the shade of a high
wall.

She heard the sound of raised voices. Rowan faced where she
thought the noise was coming from – somewhere nearby – and saw
Gabel stop in the street to look too. When he ran toward the source
of the noise, she quickly followed.

‘
Look at this!’ a bass voice was yelling. ‘Look at this rubble
that was our town. I can’t put up with this anymore!’

‘
Quiet, Ramek,’ the strong voice of Saykaan called out. ‘You’re
making a scene.’

‘
A scene? What sort of stage is this for a scene, and what sort
of play? A play of war? Certainly disaster. This town’s
cursed.’

Gabel and Rowan met at the intersection. The buildings there
were the worst damaged, as the invading Luxer hordes had swept
along these roads more than once. Nearly all buildings, for a
radius of two or three streets, were levelled.

A group of
dusty dark-skinned men stood in the half-cleared wreckage of a
large building. One came forward, and Rowan recognised him as one
of the two who had escorted them to the Mayor’s house the first
morning they had stayed.

‘
Look at this mound of rubble and bodies we stand on, Saykaan!’
Ramek yelled. ‘See this heap of brick and bone our feet rest upon.
Maybe we should repave our streets with it: there’s enough to go
twice around the town.’

‘
Enough!’ Saykaan roared. ‘What shall we do? Weep about the
past? We’ve done enough of that! Everyone else is now concerned
with rebuilding our homes so that we might live in peace for a
while. You cause a fracas in the streets!’

‘
Live in peace?’ Ramek laughed, looking around at the small
troupe behind him. ‘Live in
peace
? Until the next time those
white-clad devils come. We’re about due, aren’t we Saykaan? They
come like clockwork now, once a week, if we’re lucky … They come
and burn more each time, not minding who they slaughter as they go
about it.’

‘
There’s nothing we can do, Ramek, except defend and rebuild.
We killed two and captured one last time they attacked. Maybe next
time we’ll kill five or six, and more the next … They can’t spawn
that quickly.’

‘
Saykaan, you are naïve,’ said one of the men standing beside
Ramek. ‘As Ramek said: this town is an ashtray. We should empty it
out and move it to somewhere safer!’

‘
What would you suggest, Cimal?’ one of Saykaan’s defenders
called. ‘Shift the town further down the road? All they would have
to do is ride their horses a little further before they get their
bonfire. It would solve nothing.’

‘
Then move even further! Why stop in the forest? Why not go
deep into the Plains, where they daren’t follow?’

‘
You’re a fool, Cimal. Think of the sanguisuga.’

‘
Calm down, Tumat,’ Saykaan ordered. ‘Ramek, this argument is
over.’

‘
It is not!’ Cimal yelled. ‘Why
not
move into the desert? Find caves
in which to dwell? Soon the Luxers might encircle us in this neat
open grave of a clearing, and what then? Nowhere to hide. And what
if the river continues to dry up? What about the fires they start?
Leave them to burn? Or use your mother’s pride and false confidence
to smother them?’

‘
Enough
!’ yelled Saykaan. ‘You will continue rebuilding. Or do I
have to lock you up, with that Luxer demon?’

There were murmurs from Ramek’s crowd. They dispersed,
lifting rubble and carrying it to a dumping site just outside the
town.

‘
This isn’t finished, Saykaan,’ Ramek said quietly, standing
before the Mayor’s son. ‘Not yet.’

‘
Get back to work,’ Saykaan replied calmly.

Gabel and
Rowan watched in silence as the dispute ended, then glanced at each
other.

‘
Is it true the river dries up?’ she asked.

‘
Yes,’ Gabel replied. ‘There’s nothing but pebbles and sand
now, beneath the tiniest trickle of water. If there are more
fires…’

‘
This whole place will be cinders,’ she finished.

Saykaan saw
them and walked over. ‘This is the rivalry that has divided our
whole town. My mother insists we should continue to defend
ourselves against the Luxers. That was my father’s wish as
well.’

‘
Do you agree with them?’

‘
I’m starting the think that perhaps Ramek is right,’ Saykaan
breathed. ‘We should evacuate Iilyani.’

~

Two more days passed, and over each meal Gabel watched as
Turenn seduced Rowan. At the end of each meal the pimp gave no mind
to the attention-seeking girls around him, and sat looking at her
from across the table, waiting for her to stand, perhaps, and sit
on his lap as the other had done.

Rowan never moved from her seat, but often
smiled when she thought no-one was looking, and could occasionally
be found walking down the corridors, seeking the man who had caught
her notice so thoroughly.

*

Twenty-One

—
AND FLAMES

On the sixth night shouting drifted up from the outskirts of
town. The first wave was a collection of war-cries and savage yells
of joy. The second wave was, indisputably, collective screams of
terror.

The Luxers had
come to take Iilyani.

Caeles awoke with the first yells. Eyelids flickering open,
he lay still in his bed and listened in the darkness. He heard
movement outside of the room. Immediately he was out of bed,
bare-footed and bare-chested, and he grasped the slick black
scabbard of his sword, which lay propped up against the wall. He
rushed through the door and found the corridor full of young women
in nightgowns.

‘
What’s happening?’ he asked.

‘
The Luxers!’ one girl stammered.

Another
grabbed Caeles by the arm. ‘Turenn! Turenn has gone to fight
them!’

‘
Shit,’ Caeles breathed, already halfway down the dark
corridor. The windows cast an orange glow across him as he ran;
flames had risen once again to claim the town.

Neither Gabel or the magus seemed anywhere nearby, and Rowan
was nowhere to be seen. Making a decision, Caeles left the building
alone brandishing the wakizashi.

People were running through the streets, and shili screeched
in terror, scattering between the pounding feet of the frightened
citizens and climbing up walls. The horizon burned a deep red.
Oil-thick smoke blotted out the stars. Cursing, Caeles pushed
through the crowds. He battled his way past mothers clutching their
children and confused feral animals

He heard hoofs. Backlit by the fire that had spread across
the east side of town, a hooded figure on horseback came from
around the corner of a demolished building. The faceless rider
pulled on his steed’s reins, turning the blinkered beast to face
down the street, then commanded it to run. Caeles stood in the
centre of the road, chest heaving, brow creased deep with anger.
The sword sang as he released it from its scabbard, and seemed to
burst into flames as the fire saw its reflection in the silver
surface.

The horseman
galloped down the street, seeing the swordsman too late to stop or
turn. The wakizashi cut through the hot air and searing blood
splashed on Caeles’ arm and face; the horse reared instantly,
whinnying and turning on its hind legs. The rider slipped from the
saddle and his masked face crunched into the hard road. His ankle
broke loudly as the stirrup refused to let go. The horse galloped
away, and the gushing Luxman spun twice in its wake before the
stirrup released him and left the body to be trampled by the
escaping crowd.

The right side of his body cloaked in hot blood, Caeles took
off around the corner toward the crossroads. There, two Luxmen
bearing torches were swiping at a small group of unarmed fighters,
who surrounded a small figure Caeles couldn’t see. The riders
reared their animals, threatening to crush the men, and waved the
burning torches. Around them, the buildings groaned.

‘
Leave us!’ screamed one of the men.

‘
Please don’t harm the child!’ cried another, and his voice was
drowned by the terrified shrieks of the youngster they
protected.

The horsemen paid no attention. They eyed the group through
the black slits in their hoods as they continued to make their
horses pound the pavement. In the glow of the fire, the hoods and
cloaks made the Luxmen diabolic. Armoured torsos and fists blinked
fierce red.

Caeles dashed forward and ducked, mechanical muscles bunching
into ropes of cable as he brought his sword to the knees of the
nearest horse. Blood sprayed onto the road and pooled as the beast
staggered. Its surprised rider rolled backward onto the cobbles.
Caeles glimpsed bare neck and drove at it with the
blade.

The other
rider yelled, attempting to bring his own animal about but failing
miserably. The creature had seen its fallen brother and only
whinnied in terror, fighting the reins its master tugged upon.

Caeles stamped
out the torch that rolled by his feet, the nerves beneath his skin
deactivated by electrical impulses, and then ran at the second
rider. With the horse up on its back legs, spinning and auguring
death by hoof, Caeles could get no closer.

The Luxman cursed and pulled a crossbow from his cloak,
already primed with an arrow. The sights levelled on Caeles, but
before the arrow could strike Caeles had the silver wakizashi up by
his chest and the arrow was deflected. In the same movement the
sword came up and around, slashing the straps binding saddle to
beast and toppling the rider, who crashed on his back behind the
horse. The fallen Luxman looked up just in time to see a
bloodstained blade whistling toward his throat, and then saw no
more.

‘
Are you all right?’ Caeles yelled at the group of men. He
amplified his voice electronically in order to be heard above the
roar of the fire. One of the men stooped and picked up the crying
toddler.

‘
Yes! Thank you,’ he replied.

Caeles turned
and saw the horse he had amputated, kicking as it lay on its side,
breathing hard but making no other noise. He decapitated it in two
heavy hacks of the blade, then turned and mounted the second horse.
He felt warm blood on the soles of his bare feet as he kicked away
the ruined saddle.

‘
Get that kid out of here,’ he yelled, and jabbed his heels
into the sides of his steed, then tore down the street.

The crossroads were littered with bodies. At that moment,
Caeles cursed the Mayor who had refused to leave the town for a
safer place. As he carefully steered the horse around the bloody
bodies, Gabel and the magus appeared from a side road.

‘
Caeles!’ the hunter yelled. ‘Whose horse is that?’

‘
I borrowed it,’ he replied. He noticed Gabel had his
five-chambered revolver in his hand. ‘Been hunting
Luxers?’

‘
I see you’ve taken a couple yourself,’ Gabel said, eyeing the
blood that coated Caeles’ bare chest and arms. ‘What spurred you
into action all of a sudden?’

‘
Dried up rivers aren’t my business. This is another
matter.’

‘
We should separate. A few are still here.’