How the Stars did Fall (18 page)

Just as the conflict reached its peak, something caused the soldiers to pause. Olivia was standing in the back of the group, pure dread coming over her, such that she didn’t even notice that her hands were raised as if she were lifting some invisible object. Behind her the tide swelled and the previously calm sea now crashed against the rocks, some of the waves reaching as high as the very edge of the wharf. But these minor turbulences were a mere portent for what the soldiers saw and what caused them to pause their attack. A wave as tall as a house roared mere seconds from them and with each passing yard it grew larger until some of the men lost their nerve, turning around and running as fast as they could in the opposite direction. Then the wave’s rate of speed increased and its approach finally unsettled the last stragglers, and the soldiers fled the area, fearing for their lives.

The enormous wave cleared the wharf easily and the force of its crash toppled horse and rider and cart and any other structure that stood in its way, including a grocer and a tannery. More sturdy, stone constructions withstood the force but could not stop the water from invading their interiors, and wherever the water found an entrance its invasion was total, filling in every empty crack and crevice, overwhelming what flames it encountered. Some of the girls were dragged into these buildings and pushed against walls and floating tables. Olivia, too, was at the mercy of her own power. She hit her head somewhere and her unconscious body presented no challenge as the tide carried it deeper into the city. But with the wave came more than water. Black fins broke the skin of the sea. Great orcas. One of them found Olivia and with its powerful tail sped up until it could take hold of her with its mouth. Other orcas did the same with Molly and Ah Toy and a few of the other girls. But most of them were lost forever.

When Olivia opened her eyes she found herself beached on an island a few miles off the coast of San Francisco. She expected all of the other girls to be dead. Instead, she saw a few of them still conscious, lying on the beach drenched and scattered, seaweed still clinging to their legs and arms. Then Olivia rose and walked to the edge of the beach. From her vantage she could see the silhouette of San Francisco in the distance. Or what remained of it. Great tendrils of smoke hung above the crumbling buildings like black fingers. A little to the south, she could see the bright flashes of artillery fire. But what of the mystery of their rescue? Olivia had blacked out as soon as the water had hit her and remembered nothing. She turned her back to the shore, hoping one of the waking girls could help explain. But as she did so another sound summoned her attention. It was the sound of something enormous swimming rapidly up out of the depth of the sea and breaching the water. The beast that appeared looked to Olivia, even as someone who had never seen a whale, beyond the possible. The orca’s face alone was as wide and tall as a steamship’s bow, its green eyes larger than a man’s head. And once its body lurched onto the sand, the monster opened its mouth and spoke in words Olivia could understand.

“You control incredible power, little one.”

The weight of the beast made a huge dent in the sand and Olivia stood speechless, staring at its monumental ivory teeth, each one big as a crate. And in its cavernous and moist mouth a tongue like a dragon lay resting.

“Do not fear me,” it said. “I’ve come to help.”

Olivia had many questions for the speaking whale. Yet the mammoth beast shrugged them off and told her to rest, that she was safe on that island. Then it descended back into the waters.

It returned some hours later. By now the surviving women had lit a fire and were huddled close to it for warmth. The whale encroached upon them, letting its black body slide smoothly over the sand. When it opened its mouth, the women found hundreds of fish, some still living and moving. The women collected these fish with bare hands and stuck sticks through them and cooked them over the fire, eating the flesh nearly raw, such was their ravenous hunger. But Olivia disdained the food and instead remained close to the beast, still curious about many things, and the beast finally acquiesced, telling her that the next time he returned he would reveal as much as he could.

The smell of charred fish and burning wood comforted Olivia while she waited. She burrowed her feet in the fine sand and looked up at the stars, thinking for the first time that looking up at the sky was not that much different than looking down at the sea. And she imagined the stars and the planets as great vessels circumnavigating the cosmos, their movement governed not by wind or steam or combustion but by sound and mind and imagination. For all vessels require pilots, even those as wide as the Earth.

While Olivia lost herself in thought, two of the surviving girls brought her a fish, well cooked, even a bit charred at the tips.

“Thank you,” Olivia said, accepting the food.

“We thank you. Your great power saved our lives.”

Olivia did not know what to say, so she said nothing. Until the girls turned their back. Then something occurred to Olivia and she spoke it.

“I killed more than I saved. It’s no godly gift I’ve been given, but some sick curse.”

The girls who had brought Olivia the fish stopped, hearing the words, but then they went on as if nothing had been said at all.

“There is a saying in China,” Ah Toy said, coming up and sitting next to Olivia. “The imagined hero is more powerful than the real hero, for the latter can die yet the former cannot.”

“I do not wish to be venerated,” Olivia said.

“Of course not. But if some wish to venerate you, then there is little you can do to stop them.”

“How many survived?”

“We are nine in total.”

“That means over fifteen died at my hands. And were it not for the whales—”

“Nonsense. We were all condemned for the death of Bill Barnwell. Were it not for your action none would have survived.”

“I suppose you are right.”

“Of course I am right. And if we are to continue to survive, then we need you. You must embrace your abilities. The girls look to you for guidance now. Some of them think you the daughter of a god or the incarnation of some elemental spirit.”

“I am none of those.”

“It matters only that they think it so.”

“Yes, yes. Very well. I will do my best. But I have no answers.”

“Rest and tomorrow perhaps the answers will come to you.”

“You go ahead. I am not sleepy.”

Forgoing sleep, Olivia wandered the little island, walking along the coast, the faint light of the moon her only guide. She walked along the coast, on the sand, until the beach ended. Then she walked over pebbles and detritus, the clacking of the rocks beneath her soles like the crunching of bones. The gnashing of teeth. Looking back, she found the fire still burning but faint. Then she stared down the trees in front of her and, gathering her courage, ventured into the grove. What little light the moon emitted diminished further, blocked by the leaves and branches. So Olivia stopped and sat on the ground. She could feel the humidity of the soil in her nostrils. A smell like the beginning of life, the hearty womb of nascent trees. Then a rustle in the leaves. Startled, Olivia scanned the dark, afraid of what hid invisibly near her. Then a mass of foliage swayed and turned, tall as two men with arms and legs and a great round face with eyes and a nose and a mouth.

The apparition drove Olivia up off her feet and she was ready to run, but the creature extended its arm, grabbing on to Olivia.

“Wait. It is I. The same who saved you from the waters.”

“What?”

“I can take many forms. See.”

The creature let go of Olivia’s arm and its form shivered and many of its verdant leaves fell away and it became shorter and thinner until it looked like a man in simple clothing, with only a few branches still sticking out here and there.

“See. Now I am like you.”

“What are you?”

“What am I? I am alive much as you are. And I have a name.”

“I’m sorry, but all of this is strange to me. What is your name?”

“Adler.”

“How can you do that? Change forms?”

“The same way you can command water.”

“You speak in riddles. Tell me clearly what is happening or I will begin to believe your intentions are not as pure as you claim.”

“It is not an easy thing you ask of me. There is only so much I am permitted to say.

“Why did you save us?”

“Because I require your help.”

“Help with what?”

“You’ve been touched by the devilish one. The usurper. He gave you your power and he will seek to use it for his own purpose. But you must not let him.”

“Who is this usurper?”

“Think. Did you come across a strange man in your travels?”

“No…wait. Lynch? The man in the woods?”

“I was not told his name. It may be that. I believe your brother, too, has been touched.”

“And this man is evil?”

“He is no man. He entered this plane unbidden and he has caused many things to change, for he carries with him a reckless desire to meld and branch and bring forth, and the force of his will alone is enough to render the very air around him volatile and unknowable. Now rest and tomorrow we will go on.”

Olivia listened closely to Adler then watched as he walked into the ocean until the water reached up to his chest and his form expanded amorphously and blackened, finally taking the rounded shape of a great orca. He swam away.

That night, Olivia lay down next to Molly in the makeshift bed that had been made for her and remained awake for another few hours, unable to sleep, her heart pounding at the wonders she had seen, her mind struggling to account for these new facts. A few times she dozed off, but woke again with a crackling of the fire, and for a brief moment she did not remember all that had happened to her and she was still. Then she remembered all of it at once and she felt a kind of euphoric fear, as if she stood over some bottomless precipice, a fall into which she was certain would lead to another world. A better world.

In the morning Olivia found Molly sitting in the sand, a linen cloth stretched over her lap, holding the revolver broken down into several pieces. With a piece of her dress, Molly smoothed the iron, cleaning it.

“Do you think it will work again?” Olivia asked.

“Sure, the gun’s fine. The water only ruined the ammunition. We need to get more.”

“Ah, of course.”

“Something troubles you?”

“No, not at all. Well, maybe. You know the whale that saved us?”

“Yes…”

“It spoke to me. Told me I need to do something.”

“What kind of thing?”

“Find others like me. People with power.”

“Then you should do it.”

“Will you join me? Will the others?”

Molly sat silently, studying the puzzle in front of her. Each piece of the revolver connected to another in the right way produced a machine of death. Disconnected or done so in the wrong way and it was nothing but a few pieces of iron, completely useless. Quickly, her hands a blur, she fit the pieces together, reforming the revolver, and placed it down on the sand.

“I’m not sure,” Molly said.

The girls spent several more days on the island with no sign of Adler except for his envoys, real orcas that came up to the shore once a day, their mouths full of fresh fish. Besides those fish the girls scavenged the little island for bird eggs and Molly fashioned a spear out of wood and set out to hunt a pack of seals that lazed on top of a smooth rock. She failed repeatedly, succeeding only in scaring the seals away. But one of the days she went out to hunt with Olivia and right when Molly pounced on the seals and they dove back into the ocean, Olivia summoned a powerful wave that collapsed the seals backwards. Molly’s spear pierced the skin of one of the seals, a baby, its shrill cry for help dampened by the rush of oncoming water. Then Olivia changed the direction of the wave, pushing away the other seals from the baby, leaving it at the mercy of Molly, who further punctured it until its blood flowed freely and its body lay lifeless over the sand.

At night the sizzling seal fat filled the air with smoke and steam and the smell of rich meat and the girls ate like queen regents, all of them heirs to the earth and daughters of the sea. And there was laughter on their faces for the first time in a while, each girl’s mirth increasing that of the other until even sullen Molly smiled widely at one of Ah Toy’s comedic anecdotes. But they were interrupted when in the distance the black fins of the orcas sliced through the water. Eight orcas swam up to the beach. All except Olivia found an orca and mounted it. For a moment Olivia hesitated, unsure of what to do. Then came Adler, his enormous mass dwarfing all other orcas. He came up close to Olivia and turned, the force of his movement almost enough to topple her. With her tiny hands, Olivia grabbed on to the slick ebony skin and climbed onto the back of the beast.

The orcas swam south with Adler at the lead. They swam at a fraction of the speed they could command all through the morning, just close enough to the shore that the girls could make out the outline of human settlements now and again. Even at the slow pace, some of the girls struggled to hang on, their faces scrunched up for fear of falling and being left behind. As the hours passed, Olivia felt thirst and hunger and immediately suppressed the feelings. Instead, she let her body fall forward until her right ear lay touching Adler. With her eyes closed, Olivia faintly heard the sound of the massive beast’s organs and muscles working in unison to propel the whole body forward and in the background the repetitive beats of his heart like a primal meditative drumming. Such was the frequency of the beats that all other imaginings became subordinate to that one singular invocation. Exhausted, Olivia slipped into a light sleep, her body now loose, and all around her the water convulsed as if suddenly awakened and the turbulence of the waves increased to the point that the girls were drenched. Even above them the clouds seemed to darken by command as torrential rain poured down in great gulps, drops of water big as ripe oranges, their impact against Adler’s skin making a hideous smacking sound over and over.