Sensing the threat, my sparrows and crows swarm, but they can't draw close. The moment they do, lightning blasts them out of existence.
Suzanne grabs my hand. 'This is it, Steven. I'm sorry it's all going to rest on your shoulders.'
'What the hell are you talking about?'
'You never were the brightest one, were you? Just look after Faber for me. He has always been such a loyal Ankou.' She grabs my face, kisses me once on the cheek, and then the lips, the latter a lingering thing that possesses a surprising tenderness. 'Pity, I think I would have enjoyed getting to know you better.'
They can't be serious. They can't leave all this to me! I didn't even want to be RM, and I certainly don't want to run all of Mortmax Industries. I can't.
The other RMs surround us. I remember them circling me while I fought Morrigan in the Negotiation, with all that hunger in their eyes. There's none of that rapacity now, just a grim fear. These Deaths are going to face their own mortality. They've forgotten what that is like, and now it's time to die. But for me, it's all too familiar.
It's one thing to serve it out, to be the creeping replication of cancer cells, the rupturing or blockages that halt a heart, or the shriek of metal against metal and the burn of petrol waiting to ignite on a highway. But it's an altogether different thing to be on the receiving end.
'We've been working hard to bring Rillman out into the open. The man has been actively lobbying against us in various parliaments for a long time. And he can be extremely persuasive, as you would expect from a man who came back from the dead. We never though he'd get his hands on the knives so swiftly. Steven, you have proven a remarkable accelerant.'
'Yeah, people say that about me.'
Suzanne ignores me. 'You were the perfect bait though; imagine, an RM who had also completed a successful Orpheus Manoeuvre. How could Rillman ever resist that? I'm sorry about what he did to you.'
'And Lissa? Walking in on you – me…?'
'We needed Lissa out of the way. She was in too much danger, and if anything happened to her, we know how that might affect someone at the stage you are in of your career. The last thing we wanted was a rogue RM. I must apologise for that. It was my idea. I sent one of my own Pomps to the Princess Alexandra so that she'd come home. You were set up again.'
'Again?'
'Well, Morrigan did it so successfully. We thought we could as well.'
'Successfully? Look how that ended up.'
'Hm, well, there's a theory that bait is best when it doesn't realise just what it is. Even Mr D agreed on this. Why do you think we allowed you to have him as a mentor? You are the first RM in the history of the Orcus to have such a guide!'
Mr D was in on this, too? I thought we'd reached a nice balance of trust and untrust, and now…
'Who else knew about it? Tim?'
'Tim's canny, but no. He does now. All the Ankous do. He loves you too much to keep something like that quiet. Steven, people love you, despite you making it so hard for them. They really do.'
'So you baited the hook with me? Thank you very much.'
'You were being watched. We wouldn't have let Rillman hurt you very much. And as for your relationship with Lissa, you did a good enough job of messing that up yourself, despite my help.'
'But did your spies have to punch me in the face?'
'Let me tell you, he was disciplined for that.'
'For punching me?'
'No, for being caught and needing to.'
The lightning cages and crackles around us, a net of fire that sets the hair on my flesh on end. The other RMs look at each other, and then at Suzanne.
The Ankous' marquee follows its twin into the air. Twelve Caterers rush towards the kitchen, place their hands on it and are gone. Can't guess how much this is going to cost.
I can hardly hear Suzanne's voice. 'You have to get away from here,' she's saying. 'The Ankous are already gone, including Tim. They're safe for the moment. And find your Lissa. Things may not end as badly as we fear, and if that's the case we'll find you. If they do end badly, well… you'll know.'
But I know it will end badly. I know they're all preparing to die. This is the path they have chosen, the plan they laid out when I became RM.
Suzanne is shaking her head. 'Steven, you may be a bit slow on the uptake, but really, your heart is in the right place. You're the only one of us who might stand a chance with the Hungry Death inside of them. You're the only one who might hold out against the coming darkness.'
I want to hit something, anything. 'So all that shit about you having a plan, about doing something. The plan was to leave it all up to me.'
'Not just you. You will have our Pomps, our Ankous, and your precious Mr D. Let me tell you, he won't give in to the One Tree for anything now with the kind of influence he'll have.'
Like I'm ever going to talk to Mr D again. Fuck him. Fuck all of them.
'You have to realise that the Hungry Death has been manipulating us all these years, driving our Negotiations to greater and greater violence. We started playing its game, and that's not how you control something like the Hungry Death. You made me realise that. So, Steven, you're not as stupid as you think.
'You'll succeed at this in a way that none of us can. Surely you can perceive what an important moment this is? Just what we're giving up? This is you. This is all your doing. You've made us all a little bit human again with your presence, your… flaws. Don't forget that.'
She leans towards me, fast, and kisses my lips hard, one more time. My face burns. 'There has to be another way. It's not too late. Please -'
'No. You're going to need all of the Hungry Death inside you to defeat what's coming. We're giving up our disunity in favour of your sense of purpose. Madness, isn't it?'
'Neill didn't want this, did he?'
Suzanne winks at me. 'Why do you think he's dead?'
'You organised that somehow. Made it easy for Rillman to get to him!'
'I'm a ruthless RM when I have to be. Don't hold it against me, de Selby. It's all I know, it's the reason I can't do what you have to.'
Lightning sparks against the bridge, a flashing beat of fire that webs its steel masts. Everything seems caught in the flame. I feel like I'm in an out-take of Highlander.
'There can be only one,' I mumble. My legs are weak. This is too much. Here I am, sick with fear in the eye of the storm.
Suzanne smiles. 'Now you're getting it. But there will actually be two. You, and the Hungry Death inside you. It will test you, oh, how it will test you. But then what doesn't? You'll be Death, Mr de Selby. Death of a whole world. What a glorious thing.'
The bridge shudders, jolts. And then Rillman shifts onto Kurilpa, followed by his Stirrers. Lightning flashes everywhere, arcing around us. Suzanne and I look at each other, almost embarrassed by the melodrama of the moment.
'He's nearly tiresome enough to make death pleasurable,' Suzanne says.
Rillman shifts to the rail of the bridge. He smacks the knives together. Lightning shivers from the blades, dancing between him and his Stirrers. They're generating it between themselves somehow, just as they've been generating the storms in Brisbane, I realise. The lightning curls around Rillman in a way that no lightning should.
I can feel something building. Electricity crackles in my ears. There's a moment of silence, an indrawn breath.
'Death is coming!' Rillman roars, and lightning drives into the assembled Orcus. They don't even flinch, though behind them I'm throwing my hands up over my face.
'Just get on with it!' Li An yells, ripping off his Akubra, and batting out the flames.
More sparks. Rillman has really invested in the show. With each burst the Orcus loses more of its civility. Clothes sear and burn, but flesh remains unharmed.
This isn't going to hurt them. It's what will come next: the edge of stony knives.
