Angry Lead Skies

85

Colonel Block's coach was still a block from my house when it bogged down in traffic. Macunado Street was clogged with bodies, most of them human and only remotely acquainted with personal hygiene, but with plenty of odds and ends and mixtures in the crowd, too. Everybody wanted to see the glowing blob in the sky that seemed so interested in our neighborhood.

This blob wasn't a flying disk. Nor was it like those things that Evas and her friends had flown. This was more of a cylinder with gently tapered ends, with nothing protruding outside. To hear the crowd tell it, the cylinder had descended to ground level several times but was now just hovering, like it was confused. Or just waiting.

I told Block, "I'm telling you right now, flying around up in the air isn't one-tenth as much fun as you might think."

"And you'd know what you're talking about?"

"Hasn't been that long since I took a few rides on a pegasus."

"Garrett, you ought to write all your adventures down. Being mindful not to leave out any of the bullshit you're always laying on people you know."

"I'd do that if there was any way to make a few coppers out of it. But even I have trouble believing some of the stuff that's happened to me."

"You're right. You'd have a credibility problem. I don't believe some of it—and I was there when it happened."

The crowd oohed and aahed as the skyship suddenly dropped down almost to touching level, just about where the Garrett homestead stood. It hovered there only briefly. Colonel Block was looking out the other side of the coach at the time. He might not have noticed.

He did say, "All these weird things going on in the sky lately have had their positive side effects."

"For instance?" I wasn't paying close attention. I was worrying about Casey's stubborn streak. Was he going to get after Kip again, now?

"Such as the political shenanigans have quieted down for a while. We haven't had anybody march for days. And it's been at least a week since there was a significant race riot."

"People get tired of the same old entertainment."

Casey's skyship rose up against the backdrop of the night, dwindled till it was a point lost among the stars. I wondered just how strange his home country could really be. Presumably those of his people that I'd met were amongst the most bizarre specimens. The normal people would stay home, content to do normal things.

Colonel Block dropped me in front of the house, the street having emptied quickly once the show came to an end. "Hang on, Garrett." He made me wait. "What do you intend to do about Bic Gonlit?"

I hadn't given that much thought. It didn't need much. "Ignore him and hope he goes away, I suppose. He's just been doing his job. He can go on doing it. I don't see how that could involve me anymore."

Block grunted, said, "I do want to know which stormwarden he's running with, if you happen to stumble across that bit of information."

"You got it." I started up the steps to the house.

A moment later I was surrounded by a cloud of pixies, every one of them squeaking, all of them determined to have me adjudicate countless disputes and quarrels. I was rude to them all, whether or not I knew them.

Singe opened the front door. She held a big, cold mug of beer. Ah, the little woman, welcoming me home.

As I started to extend my drinking hand Singe tossed back half the mug. Then she told me, "The Dead Man said you were coming."

"He's awake again?"

"That Casey woke him up. He said."

"Damn! That's a trick I wish he'd taught me before he went away."

Garrett.

"All present and accounted for, near as I can tell. Headache and everything. What's up, Big Guy? What'd the Visitor have to say?"

Just no hard feelings and farewell and thank you and do not be too concerned about reactions to his report. He does not believe that his superiors will insist upon any follow-up. The damage done by the Brotherhood of Light was slight and should damp itself out within a generation. Apparently it did the same last time around.

"That's good to know. Whatever it means. I'm going to go sleep off this headache." After I drank some beer and chased it with headache powders.