Lan nodded. ‘He died saving a family. We were on our way out. I couldn’t do anything.’ Her gaze fell to the table.
Fulcrom placed a hand on her arm. ‘It’s OK, we can talk about it later.’
Tane remained silent and aghast.
‘Death is not always the end,’ Frater Mercury spoke suddenly. His accent was strained, his words pronounced slowly and clearly as if reading the words from some distant tapestry. ‘His bodily pieces. Bring them. I repair.’
‘Who and what are you?’ Fulcrom asked. ‘Why did the priest bring you here, and where is he?’
‘Priest?’
‘Ulryk,’ Fulcrom said.
There was the flicker of expression on Frater Mercury’s face. ‘You have no…’ idea who I am, the voice continued in Fulcrom’s head. Could Lan hear too? Her expression indicated this was the case.
Villjamur, my word she has grown. She was a village like this when I left. Ulryk has brought me back to this realm safely. He has been consigned to the book — a momentary cost. You must take me away from this place. The Policharos will move.
‘The what?’
The Policharos in the sky. It will move. It will come for these people. It will eradicate them, and you. But not me, no — I had hoped to re-enter this Archipelago at a more suitable location. Of all the Wayfarer Towers, the priest chose the one in Villjamur where, it seems, plans were already afoot to invade.
‘Pretty ungrateful towards a man who summoned you.’
I haven’t the patience! The mirror on the wall shattered, everyone looked at each other, afraid. Take me to your elders.
‘We have no elders. If you mean superiors, there are none — the city was destroyed. For all I know, the Emperor and the Council with it.’
There are movements in the east. Take me there.
‘We know little about that,’ Lan said. ‘There was a war near Villiren, that’s what was said in People’s Observer — and where most of the military have been sent.’
Yes. Your people were successful. And have met others who can help — people who worship me. They seek an alliance. Your former ruler is alive.
‘Urtica?’
No, the woman.
‘Rika…’ Fulcrom said. ‘This changes everything.’
Yes. We all must move now.
‘Look,’ Fulcrom replied, ‘I’m sure in your world you’re rather important. But there are a few thousand people on the open road, many of whom are likely to die tonight. If we go east, then they’re coming too. We can’t leave them here, not at the mercy of that thing in the sky. I’m sure that tens of thousands of lives might not mean a lot to you, but they’ve nothing else.’
Frater Mercury looked repeatedly, and rapidly, from Lan to Fulcrom, Fulcrom to Lan.
If I must…
They lined up under a darkening sky on the porch to the hut. Fulcrom’s gaze fixed on Frater Mercury’s weird movements as he zigzagged through the crowd in desperate lurches, until he found the centre.
‘What’s he going to do?’ Lan asked, holding Fulcrom’s arm tightly.
‘I have absolutely no idea,’ Fulcrom replied.
Frater Mercury began wailing in some bizarre tones, until the ground began to shake. Fulcrom gripped the railing of the porch with one hand, and Tane stepped down to get a little closer.
There were terrified screams from the people huddled in the village centre as the muddied road on which they had travelled started to rise. A few jumped off hysterically, while others held on to each other. A segment of the very earth began to rise in the centre. Then came the sound of snapping planks: two of the wooden houses began to unbuckle themselves and collapse inwardly in a swirl of purple light, their structures disassembling, tumbling haphazardly, and then reassembling as circular constructs placed beneath the raised wedge of earth.
‘Wheels,’ Fulcrom gasped. ‘He’s making wheels to move that segment of earth.’
They watched in awe as an immense, basic carriage was formed from the elements: it was at least fifty feet wide, this mountain of mud and grass, and carried the better part of a hundred people — though it could easily carry more.
Fulcrom could see the obviousness of this construct: huge numbers of people could be transported from the city’s limits, away from the — What did he call it? — the Policharos. Well, they could if this ungainly chariot could be moved.
Another bank of earth rose ten feet up. Wooden wheels were formed once again beneath, and then another, until four of them — the entire length of the street through this village — lined up, one behind the other.
‘How are they going to move?’ Lan asked.
A few moments later, her answer came. In the brouhaha, Fulcrom had lost sight of Frater Mercury, but his vision was drawn to a group of horses — whose riders were pulled off and into the mud with a thud. The animals — four in all — were guided nearer the carriages, and stood alongside a wheel, their heights being roughly equal.
Then a hideous miracle: the beasts, in a haze of purple light, began to shudder and contort, growing in size — monstrously so. Bulbous and with abnormal musculature, the four horses — one black and three greys — loomed above what was left of the village.
It didn’t take a genius to work out what would happen next.
Fulcrom leaned down to Tane: ‘Get those people out of the way.’
Tane nodded and ran into action, bundling men, women and children away from the huge hooves, which kicked and stomped aggressively. Screams followed, as a handful of the unfortunate were pressed deep into the mud. People wanted to both leave and stay — they saw the sense of these earthly carriages, but were in fear of their lives. There was a magic at work now that they didn’t comprehend — and neither did Fulcrom. He seldom thought of the word magic, especially after having worked with cultists, but what he had witnessed here was so… inexplicable, so unnatural, that there was no other term suitable.
Frater Mercury lunged into view and spoke into Fulcrom’s head. Here is our transportation. I estimate we can take two thousand.
‘It’s not enough,’ Fulcrom said. Lan looked at him. ‘We need to take everyone,’ he continued, ‘or there’s no point.’
It seemed no effort to Frater Mercury, who tromped off into the masses once again, and then a boy came and stood before Fulcrom, a scruffy kid who wasn’t young, but not quite a man either.
‘Can I help you?’ Fulcrom asked.
The boy looked wearily to Lan. ‘Is she gonna arrest me if I say I’m an anarchist?’
Fulcrom shrugged. ‘Why don’t you ask her?’
‘Are you?’ the kid said.
‘I’m busy,’ Lan smiled. ‘What do you want?’
‘Name’s Caley,’ the boy replied. ‘You both look like you’re the authority here.’
Fulcrom contemplated the words, but didn’t disagree with the sentiment. No one else had come up with any solutions.
‘I came from Balmacara tonight,’ the boy said. ‘I was with Shalev. I was with her when she stabbed the Emperor, too. I just needed to tell someone important.’
A crowd had gathered behind him, curious as to his words. The boy turned and repeated the statements, describing the evening’s actions of the anarchists, and a murmur rippled through the crowd.
What was the priority? Fulcrom wondered. Getting these people to safety.
‘You want to make yourself useful, Caley, or are you enjoying the power of a little fame?’
Caley turned and spat on the floor. ‘I don’t enjoy power.’
‘Good. Then if you know of any of your cronies in the anarchists, round them up. Any military personnel, point them to me. You’ve good networks: get them doing something beneficial, and spread word that we are all refugees now. Villjamur is no more and we are to evacuate the area. What’s more, that object in the sky is going to eradicate us if we do not flee. We can’t return.’
