Home Random Page


CATEGORIES:

BiologyChemistryConstructionCultureEcologyEconomyElectronicsFinanceGeographyHistoryInformaticsLawMathematicsMechanicsMedicineOtherPedagogyPhilosophyPhysicsPolicyPsychologySociologySportTourism






CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

Clinks

 

I STOOD ON THE ROOFTOPS with the storm flickering overhead, my heart heavy in my chest. I wanted to follow Auri and apologize, but I knew it was hopeless. The wrong sort of questions made her run, and when Auri bolted, she was like a rabbit down a hole. There were a thousand places she could hide in the Underthing. I didn’t have a chance of finding her.

Besides, I had vital matters to attend to. Even now someone could be dowsing out my location. I simply didn’t have the time.

It took me the better part of an hour to make my way across the rooftops. The flickering light of the storm made things harder rather than easier, blinding me for long moments after every flash. Still, I eventually made my limping way to the roof of Mains where I typically met Auri.

Stiffly, I climbed down the apple tree to the enclosed courtyard. I was about to call down through the heavy metal grating that led to the Underthing when I saw a flicker of movement in the shadow of the nearby bushes.

I peered into the dark, unable to see anything but a vague shape. “Auri?” I asked gently.

“I don’t like telling,” she said softly, her voice thick with tears. Of all the awful things I’d been part of these last couple days, this was unquestionably the worst of it.

“I’m so sorry, Auri,” I said. “I won’t ask again. I promise.”

There was a tiny sob from the shadows that froze my heart solid and broke off a piece of it.

“What were you doing out on top of things tonight?” I asked. I knew this was a safe question. I’d asked it many times before.

“I was looking at the lightning,” she said, sniffling. Then, “I saw one that looked like a tree.”

“What was in the lightning?” I asked softly.

“Galvanic ionization,” she said. Then, after a pause, she added, “And river-ice. And the sway a cattail makes.”

“I wish I’d seen that one,” I said.

“What were you doing on top of things.” She paused and gave a tiny hiccuping laugh. “All crazy and mostly nekkid?”

My heart began to thaw a bit. “I was looking for a place to put my blood,” I said.

“Most people keep that inside,” she said. “It’s easier.”

“I want to keep the rest of it inside,” I explained. “But I’m worried someone might be looking for me.”

“Oh,” she said, as if she understood perfectly. I saw the slightly darker shadow of her move in the darkness, standing up. “You should come with me to Clinks.”

“I don’t think I’ve seen Clinks,” I said. “Have you taken me there before?”

There was a motion that might have been the shaking of a head. “It’s private.”

I heard a metallic noise, then a rustle, then I saw a blue-green light well up from the open grate. I climbed down and met her in the tunnel underneath.

The light in her hand showed smudges across her face, probably from where she’d been rubbing away her tears. It was the first time I’d ever seen Auri dirty. Her eyes were darker than normal, and her nose was red.

Auri sniffed and rubbed her blotchy face. “You,” she said gravely, “are a dreadful mess.”



I looked down at my bloody hands and chest. “I am,” I agreed.

Then she gave a tiny, brave smile. “I didn’t run so far this time,” she said tilting her chin proudly.

“I’m glad,” I said. “And I’m sorry.”

“No.” She gave her head a tiny, firm shake. “You are my Ciridae, and thus above reproach.” She reached out to touch the center of my bloody chest with a finger. “Ivare enim euge .

 

* * *

 

Auri led me through the maze of tunnels that comprised the Underthing. We went farther down, through Vaults, past Cricklet. Then we moved through several twisting hallways and down again, using a stone spiral staircase I’d never seen before.

I smelled damp stone and heard the low, smooth sound of running water as we descended. Every once in a while there was the gritty sound of glass on stone, or the brighter tinkling sound of glass on glass.

After about fifty steps the wide, spiraling staircase disappeared into a vast, roiling pool of black water. I wondered how far the stairs continued below the surface.

There wasn’t any smell of rot or foulness. It was fresh water, and I could see ripples as it swirled in the stairwell and spread out into the dark beyond where our lights could reach. I heard the clink of glass again and saw two bottles spinning and bobbing on the surface, moving first one way, then another. One ducked under the surface and didn’t come up again.

There was a burlap sack hanging from a brass torch bracket mounted into the wall. Auri reached into the bag and pulled out a heavy stoppered bottle of the sort that might have once held Bredon beer.

She handed me the bottle. “They disappear for an hour. Or a minute. Sometimes for days. Sometimes they don’t come back at all.” She brought another bottle out of the sack. “It’s best to have at least four going at once. That way, statistically, you should always have two moving around.”

I nodded, and I pulled a strand of burlap from the tattered sack and daubed it with the blood that covered my hand. I uncorked the bottle and dropped it inside.

“Hair too,” Auri said.

I pulled a few from my head and threaded them through the bottle’s mouth. Then I drove the cork in hard and set it floating. It rode low in the water, circling erratically.

Auri handed me another bottle and we repeated the process. When the fourth bottle was swept out into the swirling water, Auri nodded and dusted her hands briskly against each other.

“There,” she said with a tone of immense satisfaction. “That’s good. We’re safe.”

 

* * *

 

Hours later, washed, bandaged, and considerably less nekkid, I made my way to Wilem’s room in the Mews. That night, and for many to come, Wil and Sim took turns watching over me as I slept, keeping me safe with their Alar. They were the best sort of friends. The sort everyone hopes for but no one deserves, least of all me.

 


Date: 2015-02-03; view: 896


<== previous page | next page ==>
Principles | Wrongful Apprehension
doclecture.net - lectures - 2014-2024 year. Copyright infringement or personal data (0.007 sec.)