Whisperworld
Chapter 21
Kiyu guided us up from the little ocean, but we didn’t go far. The lower reaches of the crevice were pocked with more caverns, each with wide entrances hung with the best — though still salt-whitened — hangings I had seen anywhere in the fissure. These must have been the homes of the elders and the other important folk of Lago Warren. No society was totally equal, I supposed, but so far the elders here hadn’t done anything to make me resent them.
I wondered if you actually had to be old to be an elder. I had a lot of great ideas that the Gardeners never listened to. Maybe the Whitefingers would. But call me vain — I wasn’t sure I wanted anyone thinking of me as elder.
Zach had his hands buried in his pockets and fidgeted. I teased him for acting like Gregory and managed to get a chuckle out of him, but I was nervous, too. If these elders really reached their thoughts into the Stormsphere, they could answer questions about the Tear of God that I had been asking since my first time in Sunday school. And maybe we could finally discover why the Tears of God were dying.
Diego’s home was one of the larger canyon caverns. The central chamber was as big as Angelica’s entire cave and several openings led off in different directions. Blue-green algae jars sat on every surface and dozens of them hung from the ceiling. Kiyu gave some of the dimmer ones a brisk shake as she took us inside.
Ten old men and women reclined on cushions strewn around the floor, but I picked out Diego easily. Either because this was his home or just out of respect for his wisdom, Diego sat on the nicest, fluffiest pillow, and though the others were arranged in a circle, they all faced him slightly.
Elder Diego wasn’t old. He was ancient. His back was hunched and his face as wrinkled as an old shirt. Diego’s sun-browned skin dangled from his frame and gathered under his chin in waddles. His long hair was as fine as spider silk and hung around his prominent ears in gray wisps. The elder’s eyes were bright, though, and caught my gaze from across the room. He waved Zach and me over with a withered and age-spotted hand.
“You’re the two Blackthumbs?” Diego asked in a quiet, wheezing voice. “How are you finding Lago Warren?”
“It’s… different,” Zach answered diplomatically.
“Will you help us today?”
Zach shuffled his feet like a chastened schoolboy, his hands still in his pockets. I smirked in the turquoise light, but it didn’t feel right teasing him in front of Diego. I would give Zach hell later, I decided.
“Yeah,” I said for us both. “We’ll help if we can.”
Diego inclined his head and it looked like an apple on the end of a stick. Shit, I hoped no one heard me thinking that. Diego may not have been a yin, but how many people in this room were?
The front door hangings rustled and the tall shape of Jacks ducked through, followed closely by Diesel. Kiyu put her finger to her lips. Diesel and his burn-scarred master remained silent as a teenage girl who looked like she might have been Diego’s granddaughter — or maybe great-granddaughter — walked around the circle of elders. She carried a heavy water skin and stopped in front of each elder to squeeze some thick, murky liquid into a bowl. I smelled the sour stench of engan, which I wasn’t likely to forget any time soon. I was glad that I didn’t have to drink any. Once was more than enough.
“Tell us what you saw of the Stormsphere,” Diego said. “Perhaps it will prepare us for what awaits us there.”
I couldn’t help thinking that I was betraying the Whisperward. The feeling surprised me a little… But we had promised to help, sold ourselves to Jacks based on the value of exactly this kind of information. Maybe we could even help the Whisperward that had disowned us. It went against a lifetime of habit, though.
“The Gardeners gathered offerings of nectar and flowers, then carried it down a staircase,” I said. “There were paintings along the walls of milkweed and some trees I’ve never seen before.”
Diego nodded, but didn’t ask me any questions. The other Lago elders held their engan bowls, waiting and listening.
“I think there used to be more to the murals,” I went on. “Parts of them were painted over, like the Gardeners might have covered something up.”
“It was just repairs,” said Zach. His hands were balled into fists in his pockets.
“Maybe,” I agreed reluctantly. I doubted it, but didn’t say that to Diego. “At the bottom of the stairs was a black door. It was shiny and curved like the outside of the Stormsphere. Torres — one of the other Gardeners — opened it with a card-key. Just like the one Kiyu stole. Hey, do you still have that?”
Kiyu nodded. “Yeah, I do.”
“I didn’t see much of what was inside, though,” I admitted. “It was… white. That’s about all I can tell you.”
“Thank you both. Please wait while we commune,” Diego said. A smile creased his wrinkled face. He was missing a lot of teeth. “Quietly. We may have more questions for you. Until then, you can just watch us all drink this vile stuff.”
Diego held up the bowl of slimy engan and winked at me. Kiyu tugged at my sleeve and we retreated back to one side of the cave. I leaned against the wall next to her. The other elders mimicked Diego, raising their bowls and then the whole circle drank deeply. They didn’t even wince at the taste.
Two by two, the elders’ eyes drifted closed. Their breathing began to even out until they all inhaled and exhaled together. I had to concentrate not to time my breath to theirs. It was eerie. A faint thump echoed from somewhere outside Diego’s cave, but there was no other sound.
We all waited in silence. Zach restlessly shifted his weight from foot to foot. I was getting bored, too. The only thing to look at was the ring of old people, unless I let myself stare stupidly at Kiyu. But I didn’t want to start drooling in case Diego needed to ask about anything else, so I kept my eyes to myself. There were more muffled thumps and I thought I might have heard voices. I listened, wondering if a storm was blowing over us and I was hearing thunder echo down the deep stone fissure.
Jacks frowned. Diesel followed him to the cavern entrance. Jacks pulled the hanging aside and looked up, his frown deepening.
“What the hell?” he muttered to himself.
“Can you hear it?” Kiyu asked.
For a moment, I thought she meant the distant booming sounds outside. I wondered if Jacks was going to climb up and quiet whoever was making the ruckus. I would have assumed that the Whitefingers would be more used to storms passing over them out here. It must have been a bad one and I hoped the underground warren was safe. Jacks waved his hand in front of his face as dust filtered down from high above.
But then I heard what Kiyu was talking about. Whispering. I put my fingers in my ears and shuddered when that did nothing to stop the sound. It was inside my head. Was that the Whispers? All the way out here? No, I realized a moment later. There were snatches of words I knew, songs that I didn’t recognize, but that were definitely human.
“That’s the communion of the warrens,” Kiyu said very softly. She stood up on her toes to whisper into my ear. Her lips brushed my skin and I shivered. “The Lago elders have joined their thoughts to those of the other warrens. Now they’ll reach out to the Stormsphere.”
“This is it?” Zach asked. His voice cracked. I couldn’t even imagine how scared he was, surrounded by dreameaters.
“It’s okay, Zee,” I said. I considered taking his hand, but I didn’t want to embarrass him.
Kiyu put one slim finger against her lips. Tell that to the storm outside, I thought. And the people. The voices were louder now and I could discern a note of panic in them. Another boom sounded, this one shaking the stone walls. At the door, Diesel whimpered. I wanted to ask Jacks what was going on — despite Kiyu’s admonitions of silence — but then the elders spoke.
“Are you there?”
Diego and the other nine spoke at once, each voice a little different in pitch and resonance, but all in perfect unison. Their question echoed through my head and I felt my teeth clench too hard as my whole body tensed reflexively. An icy chill slithered down my spine. I didn’t need Kiyu to tell me what they were talking to. The Whitefingers were reaching out to the Stormsphere. Now would it answer…?
“Are you there?” the elders asked together. “Can you hear us?”
“What’s going on out there?” Kiyu whispered.
She slid away from me to the door and looked past Jacks and Diesel. I followed her, grateful for the excuse to put a few more feet between myself and the circle of Lago elders engaged in their otherworldly conversation. Zach was right behind me, close enough that I felt his breath against the back of my neck.
“Come on…” he whispered.
We stepped outside the cave and into the open warren. At first, I couldn’t see anything through the smoke overhead. Smoke? And then I saw the flames. Bridges were burning, door hangings smoldering and falling away to ash, even stone blackened and cracking with thunderous sounds. People ran along ledges and slid down ladders, crying and screaming as they fled. Something fell past us, streaming bright fire and dark smoke. Zach grabbed my arm and pulled me back against the rock wall of the ravine.
What the hell was going on? A beam of red light stabbed out of the black smoke and streaked across the cavern. Soundlessly, it sliced a bridge in two and dumped a dozen running Whitefingers tumbling and screaming down into the abyss. Kiyu made a strangled sound and she lurched, hands stretched out as though she could catch them.
Which she could… but only some. Three of the flailing bodies stopped midair and sweat broke out across Kiyu’s forehead as she pushed them onto another ledge. The Whitefingers grasped for the rocks as soon as they were close enough and then scrambled into the nearest cave.
“What is this?” Jacks bellowed, whirling on Zach and me.
My mouth was as dry as dust. I had seen that kind of light only once before — eleven years ago when I stood on the Angel City walls and watched the destruction of the swarming mutants. Another silent, blood-red light slashed through the cavern. It glowed like a halo-gram, but so unlike a Halo’s projection, which I could pass my hands through, these beams incinerated everything in their path. Where the light met flesh and bone, there were little flashes, then red smoke and black ash. Where the beam hit stone, it burned instantly orange, burst briefly into flame, and then exploded with a sound like a gritty thunderclap. Only one thing in the world was armed with weapons like that, and only the Gardeners could order them into action.
No.
I was still trying to understand how there could be a robot out here, so far away from the Whisperward, but Kiyu sprinted for the closest ladder. Before I realized what I was doing, I chased after her.
“Julia, don’t!” Zach shouted after me.
“We have to stop that thing!” I cried.
I found part of a Whitefinger’s spear rolling on the ground. I had to dive to catch the pointed metal tube before it went over the ledge and fell far out of reach. I scrambled up and sprinted after Kiyu. I wasn’t sure how to stop a robot with half a spear, but I was sure as fuck going to try.
Kiyu waved her hand and burning rocks flew up off the ground, sailing across the chasm. I heard them crunch into the far wall, but something rang off of metal. For a moment, the smoke cleared and I saw the bristling cactus of machinery that was the robot. It had as many glistening, jointed legs as the most horrifying mutant spider. It crawled along the warren’s sheer stone wall, spined with metal tubes and slender, upthrust wires. Fading dayglow and the light of flames shined on the chassis and I knew that this was what we had seen in the desert. It followed us all the way from Angel City.
We brought it here.
My knees turned into water and I felt sick, but there was no time for my guilt. The robot’s sections swiveled across the cavern and weapon nozzles lit up with red death. The machine rocked as something struck the reinforced metal. A group of Whitefingers charged toward the robot. I saw Jacks’ burned face in the lead, mouth open as he shouted orders. Diesel raced after him, ears back and teeth bared. A Whitefinger that I didn’t recognize gestured and hurled a boulder still glowing along one side where the robot’s death ray had carved it off the wall. The rocky missile clipped the robot and made it sway on top of its cluster of shining silver legs.
A hatch popped open and something streaked out of the robot on a tail of fire. It hit the ground and exploded. Stones and bodies flew.
I heard Diesel barking, but couldn’t see the dog anywhere in the smoke. I was running a dozen yards behind Kiyu. She psychically flung rocks at the robot as she sprinted, barely watching where she was stepping. I was terrified that Kiyu would fall to her death before she did any good. There was nothing I could do with my spear from this distance, so I concentrated on catching up with her.
One of Kiyu’s flying stones slammed into what seemed to be the robot’s head. Weapon arms whirled and pointed. I leapt at Kiyu and grabbed her around the waist, smashing us both down onto the narrow ledge. I was only a second ahead of the robot. A red beam raked the wall over our heads. I covered Kiyu with my body as chips of burning rock rained down on us. I grunted when a rock thumped against my back, but nothing seemed broken.
I seized Kiyu around the waist and dragged her into the nearest open cavern. Zach threw himself through the door after us. A dripping line of melted stone scarred the wall where a beam had passed through the open doorway and scorched everything inside to ash. A single white hand lay curled in the center of the room, the wrist just a blackened stump.
“What… what is that thing?” Kiyu cried. Her voice shook and I could barely hear her over the sounds of death just outside.
“Robot,” I answered. “The Gardeners sent it. It must have followed us. I’m so sorry, Kiyu. I never wanted this to happen.”
“Maybe it’s for the best, Julia,” Zach said. “Our faith has to be in the Gardeners.”
“What are you talking about? You don’t mean that, Zee!”
Why the hell was Zach chasing after me, anyway? He didn’t just watch people die. He just didn’t. Why wasn’t he fighting? I couldn’t understand any of this.
I leaned out of the doorway. The robot skittered down a steeply descending ramp, methodically blasting every level of the warren as it went, or at least trying to. Half of its weapon nozzles rotated, took aim, and then turned toward a new target without actually having emitted one of its deadly beams. But even at half capability, the damage was terrible. That hatch — or maybe it was a different one — opened again and released another flying missile. It detonated against the warren’s far wall and hurled stones and bodies up into the air. I grabbed Kiyu’s sleeve when she tried to run out past me.
“Let go! I have to try to stop it,” she shouted.
“I know. Take this,” I told her. I handed her the half of a spear I clutched. “See that hatch?”
I pointed to the port as it closed. We caught a glimpse of small white shapes inside, the things that the robot fired.
“Can you hit that?” I asked.
“Yeah,” Kiyu panted. “So?”
“They explode.”
Kiyu’s dark eyes flicked up to the crater blown out of the stone across the ravine. She nodded and took the spear from my hand. Kiyu dashed out of the cave, moving in a low, ready crouch. I don’t know why I followed her. It wasn’t like I could help. Even if I had my crossbow, I didn’t think it could pierce the robot’s thick armor. But I wasn’t about to send Kiyu out there alone. Zach shouted my name, cursed and then chased after us. We had to climb down to find the robot again. I could see water below us.
“I need it to open that panel again,” Kiyu hissed.
“Got it,” I said.
Kiyu looked confused, but Zach knew exactly what I had in mind, of course.
“No!” he shouted. “Julia!”
But it was too late. I was already running out along the ledge. I scooped up a rock and felt the heat of it burning my hand. I wasn’t as good a shot as Zach, but I liked to think that I was still one of the best Blackthumbs in Angel City. I aimed and sent the stone soaring at the robot. It bounced off the metal with a sound like a struck bell and the machine pivoted on its cluster of legs. The insectoid antennae twitched toward me. Weapon barrels rotated to take aim.
Come on, shoot me…!
And then Zach slammed into me and I went sprawling to the ground. Zach waved his arms at the robot, holding something out toward it.
“No!” he shouted. “Not her! Thorn said you wouldn’t–!”
Zach fell silent as the beam of light sliced through him. Everything between his knees and ribs was gone in a burst of hot, sticky mist. What was left of my partner hit the ground beside me. The edges of his fatigues were on fire and the flesh beneath sizzled.
“Zee!” I screamed.
But there was still another target. Something inside of the robot whirred and one of the middle segments spun to aim its round hatch at me. The cover plate slid back and then something dark streaked through the smoke like an oversized crossbow bolt — the spear. Kiyu clung to a ladder below me, one hand held out. The spear’s course arced up against gravity and the point slammed itself into the open missile port.
There was an instant of relative quiet as machinery grated inside the robot, shattered and broken. And then an explosion tore through the metal skin. The shockwave blew hair back from my face and the afterimage of fire glowed in my eyes like a vision of a burning flower.
Some of the explosives inside had either been duds or else the ancient robots were even stronger than the Gardeners claimed. Several weapon-studded limbs lay scattered across the stone or tumbled down into the seawater, but the robot twitched and scrabbled at the ground with its remaining legs.
Jacks leapt down on it while Kiyu and at least one other yang attacked the robot with brute mental power. It fired off a single strobe of red light that vaporized the man standing next to Kiyu before she raised her hand, clenched it into a fist, and shouted a warning to Jacks. The scarred man jumped clear just before Kiyu brought a wall of laser-scorched rock crashing down onto the robot. The avalanche crushed another arm off and then swept the robot over the edge. It smashed through a bridge and then splashed into the black waters far below. Sparks lit up the shadows and then the ruined metal monster sank out of sight.
I crawled to Zach. His face was pale and dark blood stood out starkly against his skin. His eyes were open wide… but they were empty, already beginning to cloud. In one hand, Zach clutched a small cylinder of metal. A red light blinked on the top.
“Oh, Zee,” I said. “What have you done?”
