Qualia Page 19

  Nessus canted away from Belial’s arm. ‘Cu Sith?’ he raged. ‘That mouldy dog! There’s no way – no way at all – I’m dealing with him again.’

  Carly snorted and Nessus whipped around to stare at her.

  ‘I didn’t lose.’ He crossed his arms over his chest and glowered at the room in general. ‘That lying, conniving, owl-eyed fleabag cheated.’

  To say I was confused was, at the very best, an understatement. I nudged Carly. ‘What?’ I grimaced as the word disappeared in a hail of bells and vibrations.

  ‘Cu Sith is a barrow hound,’ she said as if that explained everything. With the noises in my head I just didn’t have the strength to pursue a proper answer.

  ‘Look, we don’t have time for this.’ Belial stood in front of Nessus. ‘I’ve got two of the Fae I can talk to about opening that door for us, so it’s either Cu Sith or we talk to Morrigan.’ He shrugged. ‘Your choice.’

  Nessus stamped and flattened his ears, his tail swished over his rump. Throwing his arms to the ceiling he pushed Belial by just walking forward. ‘Fuck that, Belial,’ he huffed, ‘that’s no bloody choice at all, you and I both know that Morrigan would have a saddle on me and be riding me to some insane war before I even had chance to open my mouth.’ His head dropped and he sighed. ‘Isn’t there anyone else that could go?’ He looked vaguely hopeful – a look which fell as Belial shook his head.

  ‘Sorry, old friend.’ Belial clapped him on the shoulder then turned back to the table. ‘You’re the only person that could even get into Mag Mell without being killed on the spot. We’re not really on talking terms with the Fae at the moment, are we.’

  I pressed my fingers hard against my temples; it seemed to deaden the ringing for a little while. ‘We are talking about what I think we’re talking about here, right?’ I couldn’t understand all the hushed tones. ‘Tinkerbell, little wings, fairy dust, granting wishes.’ I laughed. ‘The whole of Hell is populated by creatures that are heavily armed, moving muscle and ten foot tall.’ I pointed at Nessus and laughed again. ‘And you’re all scared of fairies?’ I ignored the look on Carly’s face. As usual my mouth was on a runaway course that no amount of warnings was going to stop. ‘Why don’t you just buy a job lot of fly swatters, or a can of Raid?’

  Melusine, her face totally expressionless, jammed her knife into her boot and stood up. Carly opened her mouth but Melusine ignored her and came to stand in front of me. We stared at each other for a moment and I realised the room had become very, very quiet. Carly shrugged and shut her mouth with a snap.

  Melusine began to change, her eyes becoming huge and golden, long white teeth sprang vampire-like from between her lips and, as she opened her mouth, others popped up to fill the spaces created by her rapidly lengthening jaw. Tall nostrils quivered as they sniffed at me and short tufted ears swivelled showing the fine golden hairs within. As her skin toughened and hardened, scales rippled across her face; each was a shade of bronze or green polished to an almost mirror finish. Her body dropped to all fours and filled out with huge muscles that ran from shoulder to foot in a movement that looked like ferrets leaping around in a scaly sleeping bag. Her long and beautifully manicured red fingernails turned black and lengthened to miniature scythes, so polished I could see my shocked face reflected in each individual claw. Melusine drummed each one in turn and they clicked on stone as they gouged rents in the carpet.

  I noticed Belial rolling his eyes at the sound of his priceless rugs being shredded.

  Melusine rolled her armour-plated shoulders then sat up on her back legs. She used a 15-foot tail to aid her balance; the creamy bone spikes on the end dug yet more holes into the carpet. Her stomach was a pale green and, despite what all the stories say, there didn’t seem to be any unarmoured spots at all. Taking a deep breath she turned her long face to the painted ceiling and casually blackened a 30-square-foot section with a jet of fire and smoke that ripped the oxygen out of the air and sounded like a jet engine. While she was cremating the decorative plasterwork, tall, claw-tipped wings opened with a crack. Long bat-like “fingers” created the support to these wings. The grey skin between each finger was so soft and translucent I felt I could just poke a hole right through – it looked like gauze.

  Dropping back to all four feet she flipped her wings closed and they settled neatly to lay like huge folded umbrellas along her crested spine. She laid her head on the ground and glared at me. Nostrils that were on the same level as my throat puffed clouds of carrion-scented smoke with each deep breath. I sank to my knees, coughing and choking. She gave me a long look out of one huge golden eye and spoke in a deep yet still feminine voice. ‘So go on then … Bring on the fly swatter.’

  Wondering if I had any eyebrows left I found myself staring at the perfect row of tiny glistening scales that lined her eyelid. I opened my mouth to make some smart comment but all that came out was ‘Meep.’

  ‘Melusine.’ Belial, one hand over his mouth, tapped her on the nose with a rolled-up magazine. ‘You’re killing my decor and no one can breathe. Really, dear heart, you shouldn’t do that inside, eh?’

  She snorted and, as Belial coughed and flapped his hands in an effort to get rid of the smoke, she sank once again into the form of a humourless woman with long dark hair, multicoloured eyes and a bad attitude.

  As she completed her change she cracked her knuckles, then, reaching out she patted me gently on the cheek, her long fingernails scratching just enough to make me worried. ‘Just keep thinking happy thoughts.’ She snorted a laugh then went back to sorting out her personal arsenal.

  ‘Great! Thanks, Mel.’ Nessus shuddered. ‘I really needed that display about now.’

  She snorted another short laugh and then ignored him.

  ‘So …’ Belial stared at me for a moment then obviously decided to ignore my sweating and trembling. He tapped his magazine against his hand to regain Nessus’s attention. ‘Can you do it, do you think?’ He looked worried. ‘I don’t like to ask but we’re going to need that door open and, even if we get through it, we’re going to have to run like …’ He obviously couldn’t think of an analogy. ‘… A very, very fast thing.’

  Nessus sighed again then, with a shrug, completely changed his attitude. He let out a huge bellow of laughter and clapped Belial on the shoulder, causing him to drop his magazine. ‘Of course I can do it.’ He roared and stuck his chest out. ‘I’ll be waiting in the Throne Room for you. I’ll be the one leaning on the tourmaline throne with a pox-faced barrow puppy at my feet carrying my slippers.’ He looked up. ‘Belial, I’m serious … Don’t leave me standing in the Throne Room with only that useless mouldy dog for company, OK?’

  ‘Mouldy?’ I asked Carly.

  ‘He’s green,’ she said.

  I could feel my mind trying to bend like a willow twig.

  Belial pursed his lips and rubbed his chin. It was obvious that he wasn’t happy about any of this. ‘Just stay out of the way of the other centaurs.’

  Nessus rolled his eyes and nodded. ‘You don’t need to tell me, I know.’ He shook himself and settled his bardiche onto his shoulder. ‘If I stay to the wooded ways I’ll be fine and no one will stop me.’

  ‘What about the angels?’ Carly wandered over and gave Nessus a hug, squeaking when he picked her up and gave her a tight squeeze.

  ‘Angels aren’t welcome in Faery, you know that.’ Nessus placed her carefully back onto the floor. ‘They can’t cross the Acheron and have made themselves pretty unwelcome everywhere.’ He gave her a kiss then pushed her gently toward her father. ‘I’ll be fine,’ he said.

  Belial rested his arm casually around her shoulders, then studied Nessus for a long moment. ‘Good luck,’ he said quietly.

  Nessus nodded then, with a wave to the rest of us, he headed out through the door. I kept waiting for him to look back but he never did.

  The group ended up with seven participants: Parity and her brother Farr, Melusine and Belial, Keril, Carly and me. I didn’t count Lucifer; st
ill unconscious most of the time he seemed to be just part of the luggage.

  Incredibly it had taken less than three hours to clear the city. With so many gates open, everyone just abandoned whatever they had, rounded up their families and ran. No one wanted to be there when the Host turned up. Most of them talked about Sodom, Gomorrah, Jericho and others with names I didn’t recognise. There was no question that if the Host wanted to get into a city there really wasn’t much that could stop them.

  Standing on top of the city wall Carly and I watched the last trickle of occupants as, laden with bags and packs, they disappeared into the grey haze beyond each gate. Each tall iron gate would slam shut and then, like a map, fold itself up to fall into the sand where it glowed white hot before cooling rapidly to resemble a small metal badge with a depiction of the world it opened onto etched in enamel on the surface. Centaurs with bags slung over their great shoulders were trotting about picking up the shining squares.

  Keril, Alice and Arden stood in an entwined group. ‘Where will you go?’ Keril pressed his forehead to Arden’s. The little boy pressed back – he looked solemn and scared.

  Alice shrugged. ‘We’re going with the engineers. They’re stopping in Karonet to pick up supplies then I think they said Pathern after that.’

  Keril smiled at Arden. ‘Pathern, eh? You’ll get to see the sea.’ He took the child and gave him a long hug. ‘You’ll love it, you can dig holes and paddle and make sand cities.’ Keril swallowed hard and buried his head in Arden’s shoulder. Eventually he handed him back to his mother. ‘I’ll see you both again.’ He pressed his forehead to his sister’s and added a swift hug. ‘Be safe.’

  Alice nodded then, with a deep sigh, pulled Arden up onto her hip. ‘We’ll see you soon.’ They headed toward the city square with many backward glances as though wanting to keep Keril in sight for as long as possible. The big demon leant over the wall and watched their tiny figures disappear with a flash and sparkle as a big group of Drekavak vacated the city.

  From our high vantage point on the top of the wall we saw the last public gate fold. I glared at Carly. ‘You should have gone.’ This argument had been going on for some time and Carly was obviously fed up with the whole thing.

  ‘Oh just shut up, will you,’ she said. ‘What’s the matter with you? I thought you’d like the company.’

  I ignored her smiles. ‘So what happens now?’ The bells in my head were beginning to obliterate thought. The sound had changed to a fairly rapid clanging – like an over-enthusiastic student with the school bell calling in the others from play. I could feel my eyeballs pulsing with each clang and dong. My hair hurt and my teeth had been gritted against the noise for so long that my jaw felt as though it were carved from wood.

  ‘Joe?’ Carly touched my arm.

  I couldn’t help myself. I jumped and yanked my arm from under her hand. Every inch of me was hypersensitive. Nauseated and shaking I felt as if I could fly apart at any second. Pressing the heels of my palms to my eyes I couldn’t stand up any longer and slid to the floor. I was convinced my brain was melting.

  ‘Joe? Joe!’ Carly bent over me. I glanced up at her then closed my eyes. It was too painful to keep them open.

  ‘I can’t breathe,’ I gasped. ‘I can’t think, I can’t move.’ I eased over to rest my back on the wall and then slumped to rest my forehead on my knees. My eyes were actually melting; I could feel the water running into my hands and down my arms. I would have screamed if I could have stood the sound of my own voice. ‘The bells won’t stop, just won’t stop.’ I heard a voice that sort of sounded like mine.

  ‘You idiot!’ Carly knelt down beside me. Reaching forward she took one of my hands away from my eyes. ‘Look at me!’

  When I refused to open my eyes – I really couldn’t, they would have fallen out – she shook me. ‘Look at me!’

  I managed to lever one eyelid open a fraction and peered at her from between the wet lashes.

  ‘Think of a switch, a volume knob or anything you would physically use to change the volume of a sound.’ Carly stared at me. ‘Come on, Joe, concentrate. Full angels have to answer this call or it eventually drives them insane. You don’t – you can choose to tune it out. Turn it up or down as you feel like, but you have to find a way to visualise it.’

  It was so difficult. Every time I managed to hold an image another toll of a bell would shatter it in a wave of pain. ‘I can’t,’ I gasped. ‘It keeps driving everything out of my head. I can’t hold on to anything.’

  Carly stood up. ‘Sorry about this,’ she muttered. Then, pushing the sleeve of her baggy green jumper up to her elbow she made a fist, hauled back and hit me as hard as she could.

  ‘Ow!’ I slammed back, banging my head on the ground.

  ‘Now!’ Carly screamed at me. ‘Do it now!’

  The physical pain was actually much easier to ignore than the psychic pain of the bells. I hurriedly constructed an off switch and flicked it up in my mind. Blessed, blessed silence. I breathed out cautiously and listened: nothing. There’s a lot of truth to that old saying that the only good thing about banging your head against a wall is that it’s lovely when it stops.

  Licking my lip I tasted blood then, wiping my nose on the back of my hand, I pouted and showed the smear of red to Carly. ‘I still hurt.’ I sulked.

  ‘So do I.’ Carly had stuck her right hand in her armpit. She took it out and examined the grazed knuckles with a rueful face.

  ‘I hurt more.’ I was damn well due some sympathy.

  ‘Not as much as you could.’ Carly licked her knuckles.

  Taking her hand I kissed each knuckle. ‘Thank you, thank you, thank you.’ Each graze deserved a kiss of its own, I worked my lips over her wrist, up her arm and attacked her ear.

  She giggled and, holding my face between her hands, planted a heavy kiss on the bridge of my nose.

  As I winced she laughed. ‘Have you considered telling me when something’s wrong?’

  ‘It’s beginning to occur to me,’ I whinged. ‘But next time you probably don’t have to hit me quite so hard.’

  ‘If you’d told me earlier, I wouldn’t have had to hit you at all.’ She gave me a smug smile.

  Keril coughed to get our attention. ‘It looks like they’re opening the lower levels – we’d better get moving. I’m not sure what those engineers are up to, but if I know them, when this city goes there’s every chance it’s going to end up one huge pile of rubble, despite what they say.’

  Carly sneered. ‘Yeah, ’cos the lower levels are going to be so much safer.’

  At my questioning look she sighed. ‘When Dad closed them up years ago, he released all the occupants and told those that lived down there to come up and actually live a life.’ She shrugged. ‘Some of them did – quite a lot of them did actually. But there were some …’

  Keril finished the sentence for her. ‘There were some that wouldn’t leave and some that weren’t allowed to leave. They’ve been down there for eons with nothing to do but worry each other. It could be interesting to see how they’ve fared.’

  Carly nodded. ‘They’ll either be a thriving little community,’ she paused, ‘which would be worrying in itself, or they’ll be … different.’

  ‘Different?’ I was confused again.

  Keril shrugged then looked over his shoulder as Parity trotted toward us, grinning as usual. She seemed to be having a great time. Farr ran behind her, his duffle coat over one arm. Sweat dripped from his head, sticking his long mousey hair to his glasses. Nodding to us, he left Parity to do the talking while he knelt down to tie his laces.

  I wondered how he managed to keep his trainers so white with all the rubble and dust that was around here.

  ‘Belial and Melusine are moving Lucifer,’ Parity shouted. ‘We have to go. Everybody is meeting at the centre gate and Gallard’s getting very excited.’

  Carly nodded but was obviously distracted. ‘What’s that?’ She pointed at some flashes that had started over the s
epia sand dunes. We stared out over the walls. Sparkles began to blink in the distance – first one or two fairly far apart, then tens, then hundreds. Eventually the entire plain in all directions was hidden by flashing lights; it was like looking out at a million photographers. A low drumbeat climbed the walls and the lights began to close in on us like some huge glowing sphincter.

  I peered over the walls desperately trying to see what was making the lights. ‘What is that?’ I wished I had some binoculars or a telescope; if we ever came back here I’d make sure they installed those telescopes you find at the seaside.

  ‘The Host.’ Keril turned slowly to look at all the approaching lights. ‘Thousands of them. The last time I saw this many they were invading my home.’

  ‘Thousands?’ There looked to be a lot more than thousands.

  Keril stared at me for a moment and then shrugged. ‘Whatever, there’s a fuck of a lot more of them than us.’ He turned and left the wall.

  Farr also turned away. ‘Come on, Par.’ He held his hand out to his sister who was waving over the walls at the Host and giggling. ‘Let’s get out of here and hope that the Drekavak are as creative as they say they are.’ Reaching back he grabbed her hand then began to run, dragging her, stumbling behind him. Her long combat jacket and her untied boots caused her to stumble and trip over the discarded possessions of the fleeing citizens; she didn’t slow her brother down at all.

  We ran through eerily empty streets heading toward the very centre of the city. I wished I’d had time to explore. Every race had brought the best of its architecture and ideas to the city and had made it home. Long, tree-lined boulevards joined odd little suburbs. It was like looking down on one of those pictures made from thread and pins that were so popular in the 70s. Each pin was different. A small group of wooden houses nestled beneath a tall glass structure full of steel and light that reflected the multicoloured umbrellas and canopies of the cafés and curiosity shops on the far side of the cobbled street.