doorway. Mouser's thews swelled, anticipating the challenge Then a Thief's good common sense reasserted itself. He shifted his bow into a more comfortable position across his back and scampered up the shaft like a little monkey.
The knobs were finished to provide good traction, better for climbing than he had feared. Better still, ten feet up they became indented rungs, even more secure. He was panting a little by the time he reached the top and found himself facing another circular doorway and three glowing buttons. With his free hand he fished out a small, ornate mirror.
'Appelion? Wakey wakey.'
A swirl of smoke, then a small silent flash of lightning. Appelion's frozen face reappeared, eyelashes dappled with frost. 'The dead sleep soundly, Mouser. What have you done this time?'
'Listen: there was an airlock in the base of the obelisk at the sixth level. I climbed up the shaft, and I'm hanging at the top now.' He looked down over his shoulder. It was a long way to the bottom. 'I should be about to enter the tip, which should be the control cabin. The tip of an obelisk is a pyramid, and there was a pyramid on the roof.'
'Ni-ice!'
'Yeah. Anything you'd like to warn me about before I open that door?'
'You're ahead of me, actually. Pyramids have deadfalls, right? Watch out for security. And if you didn't close the outer door, the inner door of an airlock shouldn't open.'
'Aargh. Okay, stand by.' Mouser tucked the mirror in a vest pocket. 'Can you hear me?'
'Yeah.' Muffled.
Mouser looked down at the bottom of the shaft, to the ruined doorway. Crap. No way to seal that now. 'I'm going to use brute force.'
'You?'
'Twan gave me the necklace from the jewelry store.' Mouser set himself, then slammed the heel of his hand at the thick circle of door. The door ripped free and fell inward with an almighty clatter.
A slanting beam of sunlight lit his way as he moved inside.
The interior was a maze of stairs and platforms at different levels. A grillwork elevator shaft ran up the wall, and Mouser cautiously stepped onto the platform. There were two glyphs on the elevator's wall, one reminiscent of sky, the other of earth. Cautiously, he brought his palm near the 'sky' symbol. The symbol glowed orange, and the elevator began to rise.
He rose past storage tanks, and weird computeresque constructs of ceramic glass, and what might have been huge engines. When he reached the top, the platform sighed to a halt. Mouser disembarked and found himself in the main cabin.
It was more than just a control center-it was living quarters, as well. On the platforms-he counted nine-were banks of equipment in a horseshoe array, primitive hardware compared to what one might find in a Gaming Central; and flat couches.
One of the couches had an occupant. It was held in place by a score of flexible white straps: a web of seat belts. It might as well have been mummy wrappings; the occupant wasn't going anywhere. It was a skeleton. A catfish skeleton, it looked like, though with an uncharacteristically large skull and a wide hollow spine, and odd pocks along the bones of the jaw.
The pilot had worn a crown of sorts: an ellipse of gold studded with gems half-covered its long, capacious skull.
Sunlight poured through a slit of a window, high up. Mouser climbed to that level and looked out. Then he pulled out the mirror and faced it through the window.
'Appelion?'
'Excellent, kid. You're on the roof!'
'But of course. The tip of an obelisk is a pyramid, I always say.'
'Everybody loves a smart aleck, I always say. What's next?'
'There's a crown. It's sitting on the skeleton of a Nommo, maybe the pilot or captain. Maybe it runs the ship, direct nerve induction or like that, but it looks just like every crown you've ever seen. I'm going to take it.'
'Careful, kid,' the dead man cautioned. 'This has all been too easy, so far.'
'Watch this, Unc.'
Mouser doffed his cloak and spread it on the elevator platform; he was going to need some cushioning for the next stunt.
Then he tiptoed back to the crown. Deep breath… shield his hand with his soft cap…
In a single smooth motion, he snatched the crown, flicked it into the elevator, and dove after it.
Something slapped his heels.
He rolled into the platform before he looked behind him.
The captain's bones were wearing translucent flesh. Hot damn, a Nommo zombie! Ectoplasmic tendrils writhed around the mouth. The thing's tail swiped futilely at where Mouser had been; and then it flopped off the couch and humped toward him.
Mouser pushed the lower button. He set the crown on his head, then reached for his bow. Try everything.
The elevator began to descend.
He heard a babbling; his vision was obscured by green linesketches and pink hieroglyphics. The crown must be trying to talk to hirn. He snatched it off; he couldn't handle distractions now.
The dead Nommo flopped through the doorway and braced itself in the shaft with its tendrils, crawling after him. He held his breath. It was going to be a close race…
He nocked an arrow and aimed, prepared to sell his life dearly. The mass of a zombie Catfish dropped toward him, sank as if through water and light bathed his feet.
The falling elevator had given him the top twenty inches of lower doorway. He rolled through it, landed on hands and feet, and kept rolling.
Ghost-tendrils groped out through the widening opening. Mouser could see the Nommo trying to slide under the door. In a moment it would be through. Mouser ran to the ladder, whooping.
24
A fire roared in the recroom's artificial fireplace, throwing vaguely human shadows onto the walls. Griffin sat with his back to a bookcase, finishing an omelet. He hated to admit it, but Bishop was a hell of a cook.
A soft voice above him asked, 'Mind if I sit down, Bobo?'
Before he could answer, Acacia sat down next to him, balancing a plate of food on her knees.
'So,' Alex said. 'Your name is Panthesilea?'
'Yes. I come from the domed cities, an enclave far to the east. We came in peace.' Her brown eyes were soft. 'I come in peace, Bobo.'
She chewed thoroughly, giving it her full attention. 'I was wondering… if there is more than one reason for your presence.'
Alex's tongue teased a scrap of bacon from between his teeth. He should have felt numb at Acacia's proximity, but instead the sensation was closer to dry heat.
'Duty,' he said, vaguely disassociated. 'I am here for duty.'
'And not adventure? Or love?'
In the recreation room behind them, Top Nun had found a guitar and was beginning to strum. He hadn't noticed when it started, but his ears perked up when she said, 'I've got one for you, Cipher. Listen to this-' Lentia has a large one, and so has cousin Luce. Eliza Izas a small one, though large enough for use. Beneath a soft and glossy curl, each Lass has one in front. To find it in an animal you at the tail must hunt…
Acacia grinned. 'Mali's riddling Captain Cipher again. It won't do her any good.'
