Butcher Bird_ A Novel of the Dominion

Fifty-Eight


Roll Me a Smoke, John Wayne

"Eight legs good! Two legs bad!" Lulu shouted as they strode across the desert.
They were making good time. Cornelius never needed to rest or slow down, even when walking straight into a sandstorm. Spyder told him to head for Berenice and he started straight across the desert without hesitation. A trip that had taken days on the way out, they now covered in a few hours. Around midmorning, when they caught sight of the city of memories, it was strangely reassuring.
"One step closer to home," said Shrike.
Something was happening around Berenice. Even at a distance, they could see it. A dozen airships were in port on the south side of the city. Spyder wondered if they should turn and head back into the open desert, then flag down a boat when they hit the coast. He didn't like the idea of going up in one of the airships again, and he was reasonably sure no one else did. But there was no telling when anything larger than a local fishing boat would come along. They had to go to Berenice.
"Damn," said Spyder. "I should have asked Lucifer for some of those jewels back on the ground in Hell. We don't have a penny to buy a ride."
"We'll be fine," Shrike said.
"You think?"
Shrike leaned against Spyder, running a hand through the hair on the back of his head. "The Count was right, you need to think bigger."
They caught sight of the first lookout a couple of miles from the city. The boy had been asleep, and his loose dun-colored robes blended into the sand. He awoke suddenly and screamed as Cornelius nearly stepped on him.
The boy ran ahead for a few paces, shouting excitedly to them before stopping, raising a pistol over his head and firing off a flare. Cornelius never broke stride and the boy ran after them.
"You don't think they're a lynch mob, do you?" asked Spyder. "For me doing over that memory?"
"I don't think so," said Shrike. "But if anyone does anything stupid, Cornelius can run us to the coast."
Other lookouts popped out of the sand as they approached the city, gawkers, too. It all made Spyder nervous, and he kept his hand on his knife, but each group smiled and waved at them as they passed. No one seemed upset to see them and better yet, thought Spyder, none of them looked like cops.
A group of twenty or more robed men and women met them at a wadi just outside the city walls. Dignitaries. Local bigwigs, thought Spyder. They had that self-important air about them, like the kind of crowd back home that gave a million dollars to the symphony just so they can get a plaque and their name in a newsletter. What the hell did they want? He slipped Apollyon's blade behind his back and kept his hand on the hilt. Shrike touched his arm.
"Relax," she said. "They're friends. They'll probably give you the key to the city."
"We'll see," he said.
However time and space moved in the underworld, on Earth there had obviously been enough time for word to spread about what had happened below.
"I don't guess it would take Sherlock Holmes to figure it out," Lulu said. "There's a hole the size of Dallas in the middle of the desert."
Just to make sure no one got frisky, Spyder had Cornelius stroll right up to the Berenice officials. The dignitaries looked a bit nervous by the proximity of the giant spider, but they all smiled and applauded as Spyder and the others climbed off. A gray-haired man with fierce Maori-style facial tattoos, clearly the head of the delegation, embraced each of them as they came down. With his hand on Spyder's shoulder, the tattooed man turned to the other dignitaries and began a quick speech in a flowing, melodious language.
Spyder looked at Shrike. "You got a clue what this guy's saying?"
"He's speaking Ubari. It's an old city-state built in the First Sphere. I haven't heard it spoken in a long time," she said. "He's calling us the 'Saviors of Light.' 'Defenders of Light.' Something like that."
"If at any point he says 'prison bitches,' let us know," said Lulu.
The Ubarian ambassador said something while standing next to each of them, gesturing extravagantly, clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight. The assembled delegates nodded and laughed politely. It looked to Spyder that a lot of the crowd were like him, not understanding the man, but going along with the group out of politeness or ritual. He spotted one man off to the side in the ordinary working robes of a merchant, rolling a cigarette. Spyder held up two fingers in the universal gesture of smoking. The man smiled and handed Spyder the cigarette he'd just finished, and lit it with a small gray stone that emitted a jet of flame when he breathed across it. Spyder took a long puff and bowed a little thanks, and then passed the smoke to Lulu, who took it eagerly.
"It's their great honor to greet us after our battle with the Princes of Despair," said Shrike.
"Who's that? The Clerks, you think?"
"Maybe. All I know is, they're happy to see us and no one is going to be arrested or lynched."
"Good news. He going to shut up soon, you think?"
Lulu came over and handed the cigarette back to Spyder. She dug in the sand with her boot, then half-turned away from the dignitaries.
"That tall blonde guy in the back look familiar?" she asked.
Spyder scanned the crowd discreetly, not letting his gaze linger anywhere too long.
"Should he?"
"Isn't he that prince from the airship? The one Primo was talking to on TV?"
"Bel. His ship got stuck to ours. I guess the prick didn't die in the dogfight, after all."
"Maybe we can get a ride with him. He owes us," Lulu said.
"How d'you figure?"
"We saw him f*ck up big time. And we're the Power Rangers of Light or whatever. He'll fart and tap dance for us if we ask."
"I'll settle for a drink and a shower."
"We're invited to a banquet in our honor," Shrike said. "All of Berenice, Ubari and the families of the Second Sphere want to honor us."
Spyder smiled at the man and nodded. "Can we say no?"
"They won't be happy."
"Tell him we need to get your father," Spyder said. "Tell him Dad's sick and in danger. We have to get to him fast."
Shrike stepped forward and smiled at the crowd, with all the dignity she could muster. She spoke slowly, hesitantly, taking long pauses, groping for words. Spyder and Lulu finished the cigarette and Spyder tucked the stub into his pocket. The man in the merchant robes came forward and gave them his bag of tobacco, along with his rolling papers. Spyder accepted, nodding sincere thanks.
"This hero thing doesn't half suck," he said.
"Roll me a smoke, John Wayne," Lulu replied.
When Shrike finished, the Ubari dignitary began chattering and gesturing again. His guests nodded solemnly and looked at Spyder.
"We off the hook?" he asked.
"I think so," said Shrike. "He's saying that we're true champions appointed by god, I think, or some kind of giant bird. That we care so much for humanity that we can't even stop to celebrate a victory . . . you get the idea."
The Ubarian grew quiet. He turned and embraced Spyder and the others in turn. The dignitaries all rushed forward to shake their hands and kiss their cheeks, as the group made their way back to Cornelius.
When Bel came forward to shake, Spyder held on to his hand. "Tell this a*shole we need a lift out of here," he said to Shrike.
She spoke quietly to the prince as the other dignitaries clustered around, praising them in a dozen languages. They're worse than demons, Spyder thought. Demons can't help being creepy.
A moment later Shrike returned. "It's set. We can head out in an hour, when the ship is ready to launch."
"Cool."
When they'd all climbed onto Cornelius' back, Spyder ordered him to rise as quickly as possible. The dignitaries gave a collective "Ooo," as the man-machine whirred and clanked to life and set out around the city walls to where the airships were berthed.
They waited with the prince beneath his new scorpion airship that seemed half again as big as the old one. The prince barked orders to a small group of deck hands waiting on the ground and these were relayed up to the ship in an elaborate series of whistles and arms gestures. A few minutes later, a huge cargo net was lowered down from the ship. Cornelius stepped into the net and curled his legs under his body, settling down like a giant cat. With a jerk, Spyder, Shrike, Lulu and Cornelius were hoisted up and onto the prince's airship.
Half an hour later, the big scorpion banked gently starboard and headed out to sea with a dozen other airships trailing behind. The morning sun turned the edges of the ships to fire, so that Bel's was trailed by a burning swan, a school of fiery fish, a glowing snake skeleton and a perfect silver sphere that reflected the sky, sea and all the other ships nearby.
"You sure this guy knows the way to Alexandria?" Spyder asked Shrike.
"He doesn't, but his navigators know their way through all the Spheres. Relax."
Prince Bel gave them his best rooms. They happily cleaned up and settled in. When they weren't busy sleeping, crew members brought in a constant stream of food and wine. Shrike didn't let on that she could speak the prince's language, and enjoyed reporting what she heard while eavesdropping.
"It's like a game of Telephone," she said. "The rumors circulate, getting bigger and bigger. Spyder is an archangel or maybe the new Lucifer. I get the feeling that a lot of asylums emptied across the Spheres when Hell came down."
Spyder relaxed on a silk-covered fainting couch, with Shrike curled up next to him.
"It's nice to be well thought of for a change," he said.
"Can't argue with that," Lulu said, blowing smoke rings and watching them float away through an open window.
The trip was calm and slow. Exactly what they needed, Spyder thought. He and Shrike disappeared into the unoccupied rooms in their wing of the ship and made love as often as they could. At other times, Shrike went up on deck and practiced with her sword, getting used to having her sight back. However, in the back of his mind, regardless of whatever they were doing, was always the image of Madame Cinders. What the hell was he supposed to do when they confronted her? He shook his head, pushing the thought back into the dark. What had the Count said? "You will never have more than what you have at this moment." If that's true, thought Spyder, it's all right with me.
By the time Bel delivered them to Alexandria, they were getting twitchy and restless. Shrike had spotted angels flying near the ship one night. They couldn't decide if that was a good sign or bad, but decided it was time to get off.
The prince, who'd kept his distance during the flight, appeared in full royal drag when it was time for them to disembark. He and Shrike exchanged a few polite words on deck, but it was obvious that he was as anxious to have them gone, as they were to get away from him. With a wave of his hand, the cargo net lowered Cornelius to the ground in an open area near Alexandria's main port. Spyder, Shrike and Lulu were already on the spider's back.
"It looks like Brighton," Cornelius said. "I think. Maybe not. But it's very beautiful."
What first struck Spyder about being back in an earthly city with cars and humans, pollution and fast-food joints, was how completely unremarkable it felt to be riding on the back of a giant mechanical spider borrowed from a friend in Hell, moving unseen through streets alongside the spirits, angels and fantastic beasts that inhabited the other Spheres. Shrike directed Cornelius to the tangled streets of the Medina, and they retraced the route Primo had taken them just days before. Seems like a century, Spyder thought, as they turned a corner and seemed to leave ordinary Alexandria and entered the ruins of the necropolis complex. As before, thin children stood on enormous stones watching them. This time, though, a few of the older children waved to them and turned to whisper to each other before their parents came and nervously hustled them away.
"That's a bit more honest," said Spyder. "Seems like everyone knows who we are, but someone finally admitted they're not happy to see us."
"Not everyone loves a god-killer," said Shrike quietly.
"You said the Clerks weren't gods."
"They're weren't. But I'm not sure that detail means much to these people."
"Probably know there's a shit storm coming," said Lulu, "If this Cinders bitch is what you say she is."
"She is," replied Shrike. "And more."
At the next bend in the road, the great onion dome and minarets of Madame Cinders' compound swung into view.