11. On One Condition

Menelaus looked at Yuen and spoke in Chimerical. “Loyal and Proven Alpha? What do you think?”

Yuen nodded reluctantly. In Chimerical he said to Menelaus, “That was well said. Even among the lesser breeds, I see that the greatness which in us is perfect exists in them in an inchoate, crude, and unformed foreshadow.” In Virginian, he said, “The General Command of the Commonwealth agrees to accept your alliance—”

Fatin raised her wand. “Not yet! We offer it only on one condition. If we defeat the Blue Men, the Tombs will be in our hands, yes?”

Menelaus said in a tone of exasperation. “Oh, come now! Are we going to start talking about who gets how much loot from the treasures buried here? All that stuff belongs to the people in the coffins! People like us!”

Fatin gave him a cold stare. “It is not the treasure of the ages I demand, albeit I would be right to demand it. It is the Judge.”

Mickey looked surprised and turned to Menelaus with a helpless shrug. This was something he had not anticipated.

Yuen scoffed. “You think he is real?”

Fatin said, “I think he is the worst criminal of all human history, and the enemy of man. That is our demand. If we help you fight the Blue Men, and if victory comes, and the Tombs are ours, my demand is that we find and unearth and unmask the Judge of Ages, and burn him very slowly on the sacred fire for his deeds. Since you, with your mind that is darkened and blind, call him a fiction, you have no reason to refuse.”

Yuen said, “Very well. We agree.”

Menelaus looked uncomfortable, but said nothing. He glanced over his shoulder at Daae.

“The posthuman is beyond retaliation,” said Daae thoughtfully. “The Chimerae agree.”

Yuen said jovially, “Then we are of one mind! We overcome the Blue Men, who have victimized us all, then we find and destroy the Judge of Ages, whom we all despise. Whether he is real or not.”

12. Promotion

Daae said. “Then it is decided. We must send messengers to the Hormagaunts and the Nymphs to gather their folk as well. And Beta Sterling Xenius Anubis—”

“Sir?”

“I hereby issue you a field promotion from Lance-Corporal to Corporal.”

And now Daae smiled, which he had never done before, and gripped Menelaus by the shoulder.

“Beta-Corporal!” The voice of Daae rang out, “I fear I can offer you no increase in pay, since the only wages that issue from my hand, in this cold, strange world of this lost and far-hither year, shall be wounds and toil and cries of pain, and then victory for the living, and the honor for the dead of being buried as free men, by the hands of free comrades: but liberty both for living and dead.”

Even Yuen was grinning.

Menelaus was both surprised and moved. “Sir! I expect no better wage.”

Mickey the Witch threw his hat in the air and clapped his big hands, hooting and whistling his congratulations and calling down blessing from his many gods.

Daae said, “We shall establish the ambush in the pass yonder. You will command a unit on the far side of the pass, and I on this side, so we take their column from either direction. Once the Blue Men realize that Larz Quire cannot open the fourth door, and return and climb the switchback, we shall fall upon them—”

Menelaus was shocked. “Sir! With all due respect, my plan to assault the wire and win the hospital, free the prisoners there, and secure the airfield allows us to face less formidable odds!”

Daae said, “It is far more important that we get underground as soon as possible. You see, we found something dreadful. The gray twins discovered it—”

At that moment there was a sharp whistle from the trees not far away. A Beta-ranked maiden of the Chimera race, a girl named Vulpina, stepped from the trees and waved a warning. Before any other word was said, the Chimerae on the hilltop scattered. The Witches were slower, but they began moving rapidly down the slope of the bowl-shaped hill, trying to keep the crest between themselves and Illiance, who was approaching at a rapid trot with a squad of dog things.

Menelaus had to decide between running after Daae, to hear the rest of his comment, or running after Mickey. He chose Mickey.

But the huge man waved him off. “You stay while we flee. The Blues still trust you. But they must not see men of the different eras gathering!”

Menelaus said, “It is only one squad. Let’s stand and fight. You cannot get away. You’re too fat.”

Mickey uttered a belly laugh. “You forget I studied the Lore to the Twelfth Degree. I gained this weight to attract the gluttony of the anthropophages of the stepped pyramids of Appalachia, so that other members of my coven, the thinner ones, would be overlooked. When the dogs and manhunters of my day came to the village on the dark moon nights and feast days, I was the one the packs followed into the swamps and bogs, and I was the one who emerged at dawn, with the severed tails of the hunting hounds tied into my hair as trophies, and the severed hands of the huntsmen. Besides, the Witches were a dying race when I was born, and with the Chimerae driving us out of the lowlands and into the hills, the old strictures against biomodification carried less weight. Or in my case, carried more. Watch this.”

And he sped away like a jackrabbit, leaving impossibly light footprints in the snow, his conical hat, dangling by its chin strap, flopping energetically down his back, his black robes and scarlet chasuble flapping like wings. He used his charming wand as a pole-vaulter’s pole and threw himself across a line of holly brush, and for a moment look like a black, silken, and highly ornamented blimp.

Menelaus was still standing and staring when Illiance stepped silently up next to him. “Lance-Corporal Beta Sterling Anubis, if you should happen to accompany me, there is a relict who bears questioning on a matter of some import. It would be advantageous to come as quickly as possible. Several vectors of events are reaching a convergence.”

The dog things pelted past, noses to the ground, snuffing for scent. Menelaus saw a trio of them congregate near the line of holly, but then circle in confusion and frustration. One of them sat on his haunches, waved his cutlass angrily in the air, put back his muzzle, and howled.

12

The Testament of Ctesibius the Savant

1. The Rook

Menelaus walked alongside Illiance, looking like a tall adult in a robe and hood of metallic cloth next to a bald child in a richly ornamented coat, and he realized what an odd sight they would have seemed to any man from any earlier era.

Menelaus noted that only one of the two hemicylindrical gun emplacements at the wire was being manned by dogs at the moment. An eerie silence hung over the little village of seashells, and no figures could be glimpsed moving among them.

He followed Illiance into the large blue nautilus shell, and up the smaller curving ramp into a space that was even narrower than the chambers he had seen before, very near the topmost part of the spiral tower. They were alone, unaccompanied by any dog things.

Menelaus spoke: “Who are we interviewing now? And why is it so important that you and I are doing it alone, while the others are off preparing for the fabulous Larz and his fabulous assault on the Tomb doors?”

“Two relicts remain, both from the very earliest stratum of history, perhaps from the days before the Ecpyrosis. Their answers will either increase or diminish the confidence extended to the testament of Kine Larz of the Gutter. I have my reservations about placing too much trust in Kine Larz.”

“No kidding,” said Menelaus sardonically.