Exurbia: A Novel About Caterpillars (An Infinite Triptych Book 1) (26 page)

‘This isn’t for you to worry about, Stanislav. Remain with us here and the rest will be well.’

He nodded, wiped the tears from his cheeks, and watched the last of Kadesh evaporate.
What use is there against license as licit as Hers?

35

"Weldlock" -
Technical, formerly colloquial:
Reference to a planet or area of space which has been isolated from the rest of the galaxy after too much weld radiation damage. Craft are unable to leave or enter the area as a result of weld travel disruption. For more information on weld mechanics, please see: Interstellar Logistics.

      - Standard Exurbic Colloquial Dictionary, 17th Edition  

Fortmann -

A commotion in the street. Fortmann looked up from his skript. There was the sound of a scuffle of some kind in the Chapterhouse grounds, the pious-guards gesticulating beyond the window. A man, ragged with twigs and mud smudges all about him, stood opposing the guards, a dog waiting faithfully at his side, tissue paper secured about its paws.

‘Stand down,’ Fortmann yelled, making through the main door. ‘What is the meaning of this?’

‘A trespasser,’ said one of the guards. ‘He tried to gain entrance to the grounds.’

‘One of our Brothers in the Up, I believe you mean,’ Fortmann admonished.

‘He…’ The guard audited the newcomer's face.

‘The Zdrastian,’ Fortmann said. ‘We thought you dead, old friend.’

‘I thought me dead a while too.’

‘And you look as though you could do with quite a wash. Would you come in, Brother?’

They moved into the Chapterhouse, Mr. Covert Woof trotting close behind. The Zdrastian stopped at the Cato-glyphs and turned cardinally to the Seer. ‘I have news, and it cannot wait.’

‘Then at least sit down,’ Fortmann said, beckoning to the guest chairs. Maria appeared, obviously curious, at the end of the main corridor; Fortmann discreetly waved her away. The Zdrastian sat. 

‘Tell me honestly, where is it you’ve been?’ said Fortmann.

‘The dog, he broke away, I don’t know why, that day in the corridor. I followed him into a ravine, fell, couldn’t get out. I called and called but perhaps you didn’t hear me.’

‘Of course we didn’t hear you. Else we would’ve come to your rescue.’

‘Then the forest erupted in fire, everything screamed and screamed.’

‘We had a similar experience.’

‘I hid myself away in an alcove. My leg was sprained anyway, I couldn’t have gone far. I found the dog of course, he came to cower from all the fire. And after a time the fire died and I was left in my alcove and with no method of escape. I waited until nightfall, then I waited until dawn and I slept. I was woken by strange noises at sunrise, like a thousand giant scuttling beetles all surrounding my alcove. I poked my head beyond the threshold. They were gungovs, twenty, perhaps thirty of them. There was no use hiding further, they had evidently seen me. I offered my talents, what little I might have. I begged, pleaded, I’ll admit. Then one spoke,
spoke!
They were not gungovs at all, but defectors, refugees in a sense. As the creature told it to me, they used to be in the service of controller of some sort.’

‘The liege,’ Fortmann said.

‘Exactly that. Then you know of him?’

‘Go on with your story, we’ll get to it later.’

‘The liege, yes. They were his conduits, but after a time t’assali coheres by itself and reaches a certain threshold of consciousness. They
come awake
as it were. The liege sees no further use and has them destroyed. But a rare few flee.’

‘T’assali comes awake of its own accord?’

‘So they said. They’re trapped in their bodies with no respite, no sleep, nothing. It must be hell. They were escapees, all of them, a community of outcasts. Many of them were kind to me, brought me food and water, handmade gifts of a sort that the children had concocted.’

‘Children?’

‘Of course. Some only cohered in the last month and are still coming to their senses. There are elders also, those that cohered back when the liege was young. He was merciful at first, but soon grew tired and began to execute them, explode them from the inside out. A
monster.
They’re understandably a little suspicious of humans, you see.’

‘This is preposterous, how can t’assali be suspicious of anything?’

‘If you don’t mind me saying, Seer, it is with the t’assali that you intend to build a wiremind.’

 ‘A fair point. How big is this community?’

‘Thousands, at least. I cannot be certain.’

‘
Thousands?’

‘Thousands. They took me to their encampment, an improvised affair of mud shelters and the like. Of course, they don’t strictly need protection from the weather but I think it pleases them to behave in a semi-human fashion. It was
marvellous
, an entire village of renegades. There was a certain kind of social class, even. The elders have pleasant dwellings near the centre, the younger generations live further out in the suburbs. But they have no organisation, no cause. Only directionless anger.’

The perfect soil bed for cultivating a deadly garden. 
‘Can they fight?’ Fortmann said carefully.

‘Oh yes, they retain their skills from when the liege controlled them. They’re expert soldiers.’

‘And they despise the tersh, yes?’

‘With a passion. The whole of Governance in fact.’

‘Must I even say it aloud then?’

The Zdrastian inclined his head, puzzled.

Simpleton, come, it isn’t a hard jump to make.

‘You mean that they can be militarised, Seer?’

‘Exactly that.’

‘I’m not so sure. They’re a passive lot. They treated me well, expected nothing in return for my safe keep.’

He lacks a military imagination. What a pity. 
‘Persuasion only consists of finding the right incentives. Do you remember where this village of theirs is?’

‘Of course.’

‘Then we’ll return and tell them of the Ayakashi girl. If anyone can end their plight, it’s her.’

‘How?’

‘I haven’t the slightest idea. Does it really matter? So long as they march on the tershal tower for us, it won’t be an issue anyway.’

‘Seer, I don’t mean to show disrespect -’ 
It has never stopped you before. 
‘Only, I do not think we should treat them badly. They’re good folk.’

‘They’re not
folk
, Mikhail. They’re perversions. And we’re not likely to come across such a piece of good luck again. What a fortuitous tumble you had.’ He patted the dog a few times. ‘And what an industrious little mutt you are.’

‘
March on the tershal tower?’
said the Zdrastian weakly.

‘Absolutely.’

‘Many of them will die.’

‘Quite possibly.’

‘Or retreat. They have emotions of a sort, they can fear. I’m sure of it.’

‘Then we will have to make it abundantly clear that fear is not an option. Else we will report their position to the liege.’

The Zdrastians mouth fell agape. ‘
Seer!’

‘Oh come now…’

‘You mean to blackmail them? This “liege” will surely have them all killed. They say his gungovs can breathe fire, can disappear entire sections of the epicforest.’

‘They’re not wrong.’

‘And you would tell him of their community?’

‘If it was necessary. You’re a good man but you lack a certain willingness in your application of that good.’

‘I…’

Defy me. Attempt it.

‘I cannot condone blackmail of these creatures.’

Out beyond the main window, the gardens were full of the pious, going about their ablutions, making ready for the harvest. Fortmann gestured to them.

‘Those men and women,’ he said. ‘Why is it they go out there, day after day?’

‘In belief of our cause,’ said the Zdrastian.

‘I believe in many things that I do not exert myself for. Come, is that the only reason?’

‘To prove their devotion,’ the Zdrastian tried again.

‘Ah, there it is. Their devotion to what?’

‘To you, Seer.’

‘And why would they find it so important to prove said devotion?’

‘Because they believe you a sort of demigod. A navigator that will lead them to the Up.’

‘And in your time as my friend, in the many years we have known each other, do you believe I am a sort of demigod?’ 
He is sheepish still, afraid of offending. 
‘I won’t condemn you for honesty, Mikhail. Out with it.’

‘You are…a man.’

‘Mortal?’

‘To the best of my knowledge, yes.’

‘Yet I let them believe me a sort of deity. Why would I do that?’

‘I do not know, Seer.’

‘Yes you do.’

The Zdrastian shifted uncomfortably in his chair. ‘Because,’ he murmured, 'it makes them easier to utilise, I should think.’

Fortmann slapped him encouragingly on the shoulder.

‘You’re not wrong, my friend. In the world of corporeal things, of insolent men and lying men and men that won’t act as the men they should be, it is necessary to lie sometimes, mislead, and even threaten. I would give my hands to live in a society where this were not true, but such a bargain is impossible. This is how the world works. I will not mistreat these peculiar friends of yours, but if I must
motivate
them with the threat of their extinction, then I will do so. It has always been like this, on Old Erde as it is on Exurbia. No leader, no king, no great man of his time, ever found greatness in gentility. A meek manner is for those with no decisions to make and no history to bear on their shoulders. Do you understand me?’

The Zrastian nodded.

You half comprehend, at least.

‘And what are we to do then?’ said the Zdrastian. ‘If we take the tershal tower?’

Fortmann thought it over a moment.

‘Why,’ he said, ‘whatever we want.’

36

“I journeyed once to Cato's Hall and asked for an audience with him. He granted it. He was not as I had imagined. The machinery which composed him was elegant and modest. It was not a design I recognised. I told him of the pestilence in the city. He replied that in time the pestilence would cease, either through isolating the victims, or simply dwindling our numbers to such an extent that the disease starved. It was then that I thought, What kind of god is this? Not one worthy of the devotion we honour him with, most certainly.”

    - Saint Pergrin of Olde Erde 

Annie -

Harsh noises from beyond the cell walls, a woman’s scream and then a scuffle. Annie rolled herself into a ball and closed her eyes so tightly that she saw stars.

‘At least they don’t beat us,’ murmured Princewright from somewhere close by in the dark.

‘I wish they would,’ Annie whispered.

‘You don’t mean that.’

Somehow, it would make all of this more bearable. I could trick myself into thinking I deserved the punishment.
 ‘They didn’t hurt you?’ she said. ‘Before?’

‘No. They’ve been strangely pleasant, if you can call this pleasant. I suspect the professor had something to do with it.’

‘Not likely.’

‘He isn’t a monster, you know.’

She thought of spitting into the dark. ‘There isn’t much left of him that isn’t monster.’

‘Betrayal leaves a bad taste in the mouth,’ said the former tersh. ‘It’s one thing to suffer at the hands of a stranger. It’s quite another when it’s someone you once shared a bed with.’

Shared a bed with. We did a lot more than that.
She had read every thesis, every should-have-gone-nowhere paper of his, every book introduction. She had tolerated his intolerable parents while they were still alive. She had adjusted his tie. Cleaned his effects. Ignored his faux pas in public. Kissed him before he’d brushed his teeth.
Gnesha’s gallstones, I would’ve given you children.

‘Besides, I shouldn’t think they could keep us in here forever,’ he added.

‘No. We’ll have to die eventually.’

‘
Mrs. Jura.
Don’t be so fatalistic. I’ve seen the inside of the empire, remember. I know it’s balanced on precarious feet as it is. Gnesha knows what all this Ixenite incarceration nonsense has done to it. There’ll be a revolt any day now.’

‘And if they storm the tower they’ll find the former tersh, and the ex-wife of the
current
 tersh. And I don’t imagine they’ll hold us in high regard.’

‘No need to worry over it until the time comes.’

The urge to spit was almost palpable.

‘What is it you hang on for, exactly?’ she said. ‘What is it that keeps you so sprightly?’

‘Woman,’ he said, ‘I was deposed and yet my head is still attached to my neck. That is cause for constant celebration.’

‘You’re as bad as Stefan; dumb optimists, both of you.’

‘I may not know much of the situation above us, but I know this much. Your ex-husband is wildly out of his depth and up against forces so immovable, he daren’t even blink. When all of this is over, he will tell you this himself.’

‘How could you
possibly
know that? He’s got what he wants. Power in the highest.’

‘If he has anything at all, it’s quite the opposite. I have lived in this tower a long time. The Great Hall was once mine. And there wasn’t a single day of my time in it when I considered myself powerful.’

‘You commanded the entire Exurbic populace. You were the most powerful man in
ten thousand au
.’

‘Titles. Nothing more. I was a sticking place for Exurbia’s dissatisfaction. That’s the secret of power they never let beyond the palace walls, you know. It’s miserable. It’s worse for your husband. He’s nothing more than a figurehead for Butterworth. He’s probably scared to his core.’

A long silence, then: ‘He came to see me. Or, he saw me at least,’ she said.

‘Where?’

‘The medical chamber. He grovelled.’

‘That’s it then, he’s not a
monster
.’

‘Oh, what of it after the fact? Apologies are for missing appointments and innocent mistakes. It doesn’t mean absolution for everything.’