The Blood Debt Part 15

*Sal!' she shouted, trying to make her stiff leg move more quickly. *Sal, be careful!'

He didn't seem to hear her. Not caring about discretion any longer, Shilly pulled the flare from her pocket and did as Tom had instructed her. The top cracked with the sound of breaking chalk, and she held the base well away from her face as it ignited. With a bang and a fierce whizzing sound, the firework shot up into the sky, trailing a line of black smoke behind it. It exploded high above her in a multicoloured cloud. Seconds later, another, much fainter bang came in reply from away to her right.

The dust had settled enough for her to see Sal again, and the wide scar the flying wing had carved into the yellow ground. Sal was bending over the wing, trying to get at what lay underneath.

*Don't touch her!' called a m.u.f.fled voice. *She's hurt!'

*I can see that!' Sal said, pitching his voice rea.s.suringly but loud enough to penetrate. *We have to get her out of the harness. Hold still. I see the latches.'

Shilly could hear the concern he was trying to hide. There was blood on the ground where the flyer had skidded to a halt.

The wing wobbled.

*Easy!' Sal said more firmly. *I've got her. Can you get the wing off us? I need to look at her.'

Shilly limped to a halt as the wing lifted up and away. She reached out a hand to help the person underneath. As the wing swung upright and the face of the person attached to it became visible, she took a step backwards.

*Skender?'

The name registered, but Skender didn't seem to see her at first. He looked at her and his gaze skidded away. His eyelids fluttered. Then he put a hand to his head and sank to his knees under the weight of the wing.

She forgot her surprise and moved in. to help him. He was filthy and his robes were torn. The way he moved suggested that he was in shock.

And no wonder, she thought. After five years, he had just literally dropped out of the sky upon them.

*Is she ...?' Skender's concern was solely for the person stretched out on the ground between them. A young woman, Shilly saw; about her age or a little younger. Sal had turned her over and bunched a wad of fabric from his tunic in both hands and pressed it to her forehead. It was turning red fast.

*Head wounds bleed a lot,' Sal said, gritting his teeth. *It's hard to tell what's going on underneath.'

*Help her.' Skender reached out with one badly grazed hand and gripped Sal's shoulder. *Like you helped Shilly when she broke her leg. Heal her!'

*I can't,' Sal said. Shilly noted that their ident.i.ties seemed to have sunk in, even if he hadn't acknowledged them in any other way.

*You have to!'

*I would if I could.' Sal looked up at Skender with desperation in his eyes. *But I'm telling you - I can't!'

In the dust and the heat of the moment, with an unknown woman's blood pouring through Sal's fingers onto the ground and an old friend pleading for the woman's life, Shilly felt a powerful chill, as of a cold, iron blade sliding down her spine.

*He's not lying,' she said, turning to peer around her. Sal looked foggy-headed, as though trying to see through a veil. Skender's eyes were still not quite focusing. She herself felt no different - but being only sensitive to the Change, not naturally talented in it, she supposed she wouldn't.

Out of the weirdness of the heat haze to the southwest, a man walked towards them, carrying someone in his arms.

She let go of Skender and stood up. Despite the dread she felt, she would not confront that moment on her knees in the dirt. She would meet it face to face, and she would not scream like Larson Maiz.

The Homunculus stepped out of the wilderness. It looked like a man, but as it drew closer that first impression faded. Shilly was unable to bring it into focus; its outline constantly shifted, making its precise form difficult to pin down. Its skin was a deep, textureless black and it seemed to have too many arms. Its pace was even and unhurried.

The body in its arms hung as limp as a sleeping child, although it belonged to a full-sized man. The Homunculus carried him without strain. Dark hair with wide grey streaks framed a face she almost didn't recognise. Shilly knew it could only be one person.

*Stop right there,' she said as the Homunculus came within a dozen paces of them.

Much to her surprise - and no small amount of relief - the creature came to a halt.

*Who are you?' it asked. The words issued fluidly from its mouth but, like its features, the sound possessed an odd distortion, as though simultaneously heard from a great distance and near at hand. Its mouth stretched far too wide. At odd moments it seemed to have four eyes.

*I'm Shilly,' she said. *Who are you?'

The creature's oversized head blurred. *You don't need to know. Will you help this man?'

It stepped forward, offering her the body in its arms.

*What's wrong with him?' she asked, conscious of Sal watching the exchange closely from behind her. *What did you do to him?'

*Nothing. He needs water and food or he'll die.'

*We can help him, but -'

*Good. It's been a long journey. He couldn't keep up, and you're the first people we've encountered. This land is so empty ...'

The Homunculus's voice was full of sadness as it squatted and put the body of Highson Sparre on the ground at its feet.

*We'll take care of him,' Shilly said. *Thank you.'

The Homunculus didn't respond. It simply stood and looked around, getting its bearings. Shilly and the others stood between it and Laure. It turned, clearly intending to walk around them.

*Wait,' Sal said, speaking at last. *This man is my father. Why did he summon you?'

*His summoning wasn't successful.' The face turned to look at him, its expression unreadable. The strange eyes swung to focus on Shilly, then moved on. *You -' The Homunculus stared at Skender. *Your name is Galeus. We've met before, but you won't remember. We weren't part of this world, then.'

Skender's mouth hung open in stunned surprise at the use of his heart-name. He shook his head.

*But I remember everything,' he protested weakly.

The Homunculus stood frozen for a moment, staring at them all with intense concentration. Through the peculiar distortion, Shilly thought she saw the features of a young man, not much older than them, coalescing out of the chaos. The details of his face weren't completely stable; they came in and out of focus as though she saw them through ill-matched gla.s.s lenses. But there was definitely something trying to get through. Someone.

Shilly couldn't take her eyes off that strange face.

*Who are you?' she asked again, caught in a very strange dream.

For an instant, she thought the Homunculus might answer.

Then a shout from the south put paid to that possibility.

*Sal! Shilly! Get down!'

Shilly turned and saw Marmion and the other Wardens converging on the scene. Habryn Kail swung an arm over his head, and something whizzed towards them with a loud, singing noise.

She dropped her cane and ducked, recognising the bola for what it was, albeit one much larger than any she had ever used to catch rabbits or dune hens. The weighted rope spun over her and wrapped itself around the Homunculus's chest. It went down with a cry of pain in a furious tangle of limbs. Its form dissolved. She saw at least two heads and far too many arms and legs as the creature tried to right itself. But the bola had tied itself tightly around the Homunculus's torso. It was effectively pinned.

Then the wardens were among them. Skender gaped as the new arrivals helped Shilly to her feet and stood guard over the writhing creature.

*What the G.o.ddess do you think you're doing?' Marmion asked her, his face white with fury. *I told you to stay down!'

*What's your problem?' she said, facing his challenge squarely. *You got what you wanted, didn't you?'

*I need help here!' said Sal, where he was still quenching the flow of blood from the injured woman's head. *Highson does, too. Argue later!'

*Eitzen, Rosevear,' Marmion barked at two wardens, *help them!' He turned away from Shilly with a look that told her there would most definitely be a later, and went to study the Homunculus where it struggled on the ground, shouting its frustration.

*Misbegotten creature,' Marmion said with a sneer. *We'll soon have you back in the earth, where you belong.'

The Homunculus replied with a babble of words too fast to understand.

Through it all, Skender simply stared in shock. He didn't react until Tom joined the throng. Shilly watched the young Engineer as he checked on Highson then came around to Skender. Tom ducked under the wing and whispered rapidly into his ear.

Skender snapped out of his daze and stared at Tom with a matching intensity. *My mother?' he said in disbelief.

Tom nodded and stepped away. He put his right hand under his robes.

Shilly watched him closely.

What's he up to now? she wondered.

The two wardens Marmion had named had taken over from Sal, checking the injured woman for broken bones then gently rolling her over so they could inspect her head wound properly.

Two more wardens examined Sal's father, lying ashen between them. Highson Sparre's lips were cracked and swollen. When they poured a trickle of water between them, he coughed weakly but didn't wake.

Tom crossed to where a tight knot of Sky Wardens stood over the flailing Homunculus. Marmion snapped his fingers and one of them handed him a long, thin staff that tapered to a wicked-looking point. Marmion raised it, whispering words under his breath.

Shilly realised then that there would be no careful probing into the Homunculus's nature, no exploration of why it had come into the world or what it wanted. Marmion had been sent to dispose of the creature, and he wasn't about to waste any time obeying his orders.

*You can't do this!' she exclaimed, remembering the Homunculus's concern for Highson. It hadn't seemed dangerous in the slightest. It had seemed simply different, and that was no reason for anything to die.

It was too late. The staff came down, and she was too far away to stop it striking home.

*No!' she shouted.

Sal was watching over Skender's friend, liberally covered in her blood, when Shilly cried out. He summed up the situation instantly. The Homunculus lay sprawled before its executioner, hopelessly struggling. There was no way, especially without the Change, to intervene in time.

At the last moment, Tom shoved Marmion to one side. The point of the staff buried itself in the dirt. Marmion overbalanced and fell. Before any of the wardens could stop him, Tom bent over the captive creature and cut the bola with his work knife.

The Homunculus sprang to its feet and pushed Tom away. The wardens fell back as four arms spread in anger, like a spider about to strike. With one of its arms, it pulled the staff out of the ground and pointed it at Marmion, where he lay sprawled on the dirt. Their positions were now completely reversed.

*Don't!' called a weak voice.

The Homunculus's strange head turned to stare at Highson Sparre, who had raised one hand in warning from where he lay cradled in the arms of a Sky Warden.

*Don't,' he repeated.

The Homunculus hissed in anger, but said, *No. You're right.' It threw the staff to one side. *There has been enough death.'

Then, without another word, it turned and ran for the edge of the Divide. Its manifold limbs moved in a blur, propelling it with inhuman speed.

*Stop it!' screamed Marmion. *Don't let it get away!'

Kail produced another bola and swung it over his head, picking up speed with each flex of his wiry muscles until it became a shimmering, humming disk. Sal didn't dare interfere for fear of losing a hand.

Kail set it free an instant before the Homunculus reached the precipice. The bola hurtled through the air with the speed of an arrow, flying swift and true. The Homunculus didn't slow as it ran out of s.p.a.ce. It simply ran right off the edge. The bola sailed over its shape-shifting head as it dropped out of sight.

In that instant, the Change returned. The world, flat and dead in the Homunculus's presence, suddenly regained its usual life. The creature's wake had vanished, as though leaving the Earth's surface, however temporarily, caused the effect to evaporate. Sal could feel Shilly's anxiety and alarm where she stood near Kail. He could feel the buzzing of the pointed staff as Marmion recovered it and stuck it angrily in the dirt.

*Idiots!' the warden snarled. *Now what are we going to do?'

*We're going to keep tracking it,' Shilly said, her anger a match for his. *And this time, when we find it, we're going to keep you well away from it!'

Marmion raised an arm to strike her, but Kail grabbed his hand.

*Don't do something you'll regret,' said the tracker in a low, threatening voice.

*My only regret is surrounding myself with fools.' The warden pulled free. Seething, he rounded on Tom next. *Do you intend to explain yourself?'

*What you were doing was wrong,' Tom said without a hint of fear or remorse.

*That's not your concern!' Marmion yelled into his face. *The Alcaide sent us to do a job, and you just got in the way of it. Consider yourself warned. One more stunt like that, and I'll see your torc smashed into pieces.'

Tom shrugged, his expression one of utter disinterest. Shilly went to him as a gesture of solidarity in the face of such vehement criticism. Marmion shook his head in exasperation. His gaze took in the severed bola, the discarded staff, Highson Sparre - who had fallen unconscious again - and Skender's injured friend. He seemed to be disbelieving his own eyes.

*Would someone like to tell me what he's doing?' he asked, nodding past Sal.

Sal turned. Skender was walking in the direction the Homunculus had taken, moving with difficulty under the weight of the wing still strapped to his back.

*I'll find out,' Sal said, wiping his b.l.o.o.d.y hands on his robe and setting off in pursuit. Marmion turned to someone else and shouted at them.

Skender didn't look up when Sal came abreast of him just metres from the edge of the Divide. He was bent almost double and concentrating on carrying the wing.

*Going somewhere?'

*I have to. Tom told me that if I follow that thing it'll lead me to my mother.'

*Your mother?' Sal was confused, realising only then that he knew nothing at all about what Skender was doing in this place. *What has happened to your mother?'

*I don't have time to explain, Sal. I have to go now. If it gets away from me, I might never find her.'

*Is that what Tom said?'

*Yes!'