City of Ruin

F ORTY-TWO

Randur stood on the deck, wincing into the light. To his surprise, he did this a lot, staring into the red sun. There were vague comforts to be discovered in deep contemplation, and up here he felt he had found time to slow himself down and grow up a little. How his life had turned so bizarre and out of context, he didn't know, and he vowed to seek out a quieter existence in future. All he needed was a place by the coast, maybe a decent local tavern in which to lose the years. Enough of the constant pressure; maybe those people in that tavern back on Folke weren't so wrong in their attitude after all.

Under the dying rays of the sun, the Exmachina continued drifting above the cloud base, heading towards the mountains soaring up through it from the southern coast of Y'iren. They pierced the cumulus, icebergs in the sky.

Then Randur noticed something different from the panorama: one of the taller peaks appeared to be peeling fragments from its highest ridge. Vast clumps of earth were breaking off and hanging in the sky alongside. And some impossible force was keeping them afloat.

'Artemisia,' Randur called out to the empty deck.

A moment later, a hatch burst open and the woman-warrior came up to him. He didn't even need to say anything. She tilted the end of her telescope and sighed. 'This is something to cause concern,' she decided, then dashed back along the deck.

A moment later there was frenzied activity in the skies above the ship as the Hanuman fluttered manically, unbuckling their excitement, and the Exmachina began to slow its pace and veer off-course.

Eir and Rika joined him, and gripped the railing as the ship's motion readjusted. 'What's going on?' Eir said.

Randur pointed to the huge unfalling clumps of land.

'What is that?' Eir whispered. She had a way of showing her apprehension by rubbing her arm above her elbow, as if she felt cold.

The wind accelerated because of the change of direction, sending his hair in tendrils across his face. 'Whatever it is has sent Artemisia legging it, which doesn't bode well.'

Artemisia returned with an armful of items.

'Keep these on and you'll be fine.' She offered some masks of red mesh that fitted over their mouths, crafted from no material he knew of, and they dutifully secured them. Randur discovered that his breathing was just as easy.

The looming peaks sailed towards the ship, and small dark objects could be seen above and below, skittering and darting about in ragged patterns of flight.

'What are those things?' Randur asked, his voice slightly muffled by the mask.

'Those vessels, they are called Giasty – literally earth cities, although little lives there. The structures you will see on them are, in fact, largely constructed of human bones, which should, I hope, give an indication of how they view your species. Human bone is valued as a building resource in our world. And those things you see flying about are called Mogilal – they are quite a menace. And, I fear, they have been waiting for us.'

'Are they the creatures you are fighting?' Randur asked.

'My world is, yes.' She unsheathed her blades with a zing, and Randur took a step back as their arc whipped past his face. If Artemisia herself was anything to go by, these other creatures would probably be violent.

'Should we be doing anything to help?' Randur glanced towards the girls, whose gaze was locked on the drifting island. He drew his own sword, and Eir, alert to his gesture, followed suit, but the dismissive glance from Artemisia suggested that such weapons would be of little use.

A fizz across the sky, a high-pitched whistle, and something slapped into the ship below. Artemisia hastily put on her own mask, fabricated from the same red mesh. She seemed to wait for…

Two deep thuds, then stillness.

Another object streaked across on an upward trajectory, visible white trails carving up the sky… towards the ship, above the ship, then the Hanuman clustered around it and screeched, and something exploded in a smoke-plume. Bits of flesh began to litter the deck.

Artemisia began shouting orders in some unknown language, waving her swords at the Hanuman who seemed utterly stunned by what was going on. A flock of them clustered as one mass, and waited overhead. The next projectile they dealt with better: slowing it significantly, then gently steering it away from the ship till it dropped over the side.

The warrior turned to the three humans. 'Do not move. Do not inhale when they explode. Do not remove your masks or you will not be able to speak afterwards.'

They nodded in silent affirmation as Artemisia took several big strides towards the centre of the deck. The sun was nearly below the clouds, extending the woman's shadow bold and long.

Time after time the Hanuman steered the projectiles away from the ship and into harmless oblivion, and occasionally there were explosions from down below, well out of sight.

Both blades drawn, Artemisia waited like a prophet as the Hanuman circled in the air above. Her hair stirred in the wind.

The land masses came close enough so that Randur could perceive settlements on them, weird esoteric homesteads and other structures that cluttered up the rockscape. They seemed too bizarre to be real.

A smaller fragment of land peeled away from this one, then drifted like a bubble towards the Exmachina. A shadowy figure stood on top of it.

Across the intervening sky. Then alongside.

The figure banked alongside the large vessel and hopped aboard with a thud as it touched the deck. As tall as Artemisia, white-skinned and gold-armoured, the thing took three steps forward and Artemisia backed away cautiously, enticing it further into the centre.

Then it happened strangely:

The combatants slowed and juddered in and out of time and location, flickered from one part of the deck to another, appearing each time in different fight poses as if racing and grappling with each other through incomprehensible zones of space, a fight spiralling through dimensions that were impossible.

The third pose: blades locked at the far end of the ship, silhouetted against the red sky.

Flicker.

The fourth: amidships, two strokes from the stranger and both connected with the deck; and Artemisia severed its arm, blood pooling all round.

Flicker, the fifth pose: now nearby, her victim screeched as she jumped and kicked out at its chest, sending it sprawling on to its spine. She marched closer and, with its other arm, the intruder raked its sword horizontally. The edge sliced through Artemisia's thigh.

Rika gasped in concern, and Eir had to hold her back.

Artemisia buckled on one knee, dropping her blade, then the two began to grapple hand to hand. Pinning the enemy's free arm, Artemisia brought up her remaining sword then stabbed it through the chest, the tip of the metal splintering the deck beneath.

After a moment of violent but silent juddering, the enemy fell still.

Artemisia pushed herself upright, panting, wiping blood from her brow, and gestured with her weapon at the corpse.

'Earthlanders, come. I shall show you one of those we fight.'

Randur and the girls moved tentatively over to her side and for a moment they watched the warrior rip some material from her clothing then wrap it around her wound.

The body looked inglorious in its wreckage: yet this was something once noble, with a slender face almost human in its features, and something almost deer-like about its bodily form. A muscular white body was encased in golden armour, into which was carved all sorts of intricate designs, making it look too precious for use in combat.

'It is one of the Pithicus – using your mythological term – who with others make up the nations of the Akhaioi. Another race invented by your early ancestors. These people command a wealth of forces, including the race which has breached into your world, their expendable foot soldiers – the Cirrips. Though no doubt your people would have given it another name by now. These Akhaioi deem themselves superior to other species, and I am surprised to find that they have come through already. Normally the Cirrips do all their fighting in the early stages.'

'This creature seems so elegant,' Randur remarked. 'Clearly these things were wrought to look good.'

'Do not be deceived by their beauty. These are people who, if granted victory, would see you wiped out in order to repopulate with their own kind. I have seen so many of their like, and fought… thousands of them. Be warned, the human and rumel races will come to an end if the Akhaioi lay siege to your dimension, like they do to our last city. Our people are becoming too few to protect you all.'

'What do they want here?' Rika enquired.

'The same as we all do. To survive. Is that not what species seek? We may appear vastly esoteric to people of your culture, but I can assure you of this: when faced with the end of our existence, we are desperate and humble. The difference between ourselves and our enemy is that they wish to clear the land totally first, and then to use your bones as material to build their habitations. We simply wish to live alongside you, or quietly on our own in some distant corner. I repeat, this is why I have been sent to find you.'

'How the hell can one woman achieve anything? I mean to say, you're pretty sharp with a sword, but against whole armies?'

Artemisia seemed unconcerned by this query. 'I may be able to disconnect their sentience – which is how they, your new enemy, communicate. The doorway through which they entered is a massive chain of communication utilizing various primitive signals transmitted through the air. Without this link, they become significantly less skilled as fighters. The rest, admittedly, may be up to your own armies. I am not a god, but I can still utilize this ship's science.'

Randur began, 'We have cultists-'

'Your cultists', Artemisia interrupted, 'are constantly flapping about the Archipelago as if they actually know something. I can tell you this much: they know nothing.'