Part 40 (1/2)

*I have no idea what you think I did to you, but calling each other names solves nothing.'

The bandit pushed the Homunculus into motion. It staggered forward like a sleepwalker. *This isn't over,' Pirelius said. *We will have a reckoning.'

This the Magister didn't grace with a reply. Her head retreated and the heavy lifter surged smoothly forward.

Sal dropped out of the vision. Someone was shaking his shoulder again. He blinked and focused on the real world.

*What is it?'

s.h.i.+lly pointed over the interior side of the Wall, a worried look on her face. He was startled by the transformation in the city. Fires were burning where the man'kin had broken through the Wall. Thick smoke belched along the city streets. The city guards had fallen back several blocks as a heavy tide of man'kin filled the streets. Creatures of all sizes and shapes swarmed over the cobbles of Laure, an irresistible ma.s.s of living stone.

The press was formidable. Those man'kin that could escape the crush, did. Some climbed up onto roofs and took station on the eaves, roosting like gargoyles. Others weren't content to sit only a floor or two up. They leapt from building to building, seeking ever-higher vantage points. At least two were scaling towers just a handful of metres away from the Wall itself.

That was a concern. Sal backed away as a large, fat man'kin with a cherubic face climbed hand over hand to the top of a nearby tower, the ease of its movement belying its sheer ma.s.s. From that vantage point, it turned to look at them with dead, stone eyes.

*Oh, s.h.i.+t,' said s.h.i.+lly, gripping Sal's upper arm painfully tight. *I think it's about to -'

She didn't finish as, with a crunch of stone and a roar of effort, the man'kin leapt across the gap between them and onto the Wall.

The Man'kin.

*Earthquakes, bushfires, flash floods, hurricanes: we ignore these signs at our own peril.'

THE BOOK OF TOWERS, EXEGESIS 10:24.

R.

un!'

The command came from the leader of the guards, and Skender didn't hesitate to obey. The sight of the giant man'kin - at least four metres high and weighing several tonnes - launching itself from the tower was enough to make him move. The force of its leap was sufficient to topple the tip of the minarette it had been standing on, sending bricks and tiles cras.h.i.+ng down onto the streets below. With a deafening crunch, the broad chest of the man'kin struck the edge of the Wall not metres from where he stood. Its fat fingers scrabbled for purchase and caught the guard rail. Metal twisted with a painful squeal but held. Stone ground against stone, and the man'kin hauled itself up onto the roof.

Skender, running almost backwards, hypnotised by the creature's ma.s.sive strength, tripped over the ragged hem of his robe and fell awkwardly onto his side. s.h.i.+lly shouted something but he couldn't hear her over the heavy thudding of man'kin feet. A guard threw one of the light-globes into its back. Bright energy flashed, followed by a surge of heat so powerful Skender averted his eyes.

*Hold!' shouted the leader of the guards. Skender blinked and looked up into the giant statue's face. It stood over him, so close he could reach out and touch its leg. A globe thrown now was just as likely to kill him, and the first didn't seem to have done any damage at all.

*MAWSON,' the man'kin said in a voice like mountains falling.

*Sal set him free,' Skender protested, scrabbling backwards on his hands and feet.

The man'kin followed as though tied to him with string. Its expression was blankly intimidating. *MAWSON FRIEND.'

*He's our friend, too. He wouldn't want you to hurt us.'

The man'kin shook its head and reached down with one bulbous hand. Skender tried to run but barely made it upright before ma.s.sive stone fingers wrapped around his torso and pulled him into the air.

*No!' Its grip was tight. He could hardly draw breath enough to shout, *Don't!'

*MAWSON FRIEND MUST: Skender felt himself raised up high. He closed his eyes, nerving himself for being dashed to the stone. He thought of Chu and was glad she wasn't there to see this.

*MAWSON FRIEND MUST LOOK.'

The moment of his death didn't come. He remained suspended in the air, firmly contained by the creature's stone fist. His many bruises complained, and for once he was grateful for it. While he hurt, he remained alive.

The man'kin shook him.

*MAWSON FRIEND MUST LOOK NOW!'

The creature's leaden words finally sunk in. Skender opened his eyes. The man'kin held him disconcertingly high above the top of the Wall. The view was almost as impressive as it had been from under Chu's wing. The spreading stain of the man'kin horde darkened the streets below, while the ma.s.s of living stone outside had shrunk to less than a quarter its original size. The twins and their captor cut a straight line through them, with the Magister's heavy lifter following discreetly above.

The man'kin shook him so hard his teeth rattled in his head. The world swung jarringly around him. When it settled down, he was staring to the east, at the Hanging Mountains. The sun was fading into the west, wreathing them in shadow. The ridge of clouds he had seen from the heavy lifter was still banked hard against the distant peaks - a permanent fixture, perhaps - but now something else was visible. A tendril of white led down from the mountains. It looked like the mountains had grown a tail. The tail wound through the foothills and out into the plains, following a zigzag course that reminded him of something he had seen before. It took him a moment to remember where.

The white tendril was following the path of the Divide, as he had seen it from the wing. It wasn't actually white, but dirty brown with a foaming edge. The foam reflected the sky back at him, making it appear bright against the surrounding plain. The leading edge was growing visibly nearer.

*Oh, s.h.i.+t,' he said, the enormity of what he was seeing momentarily freezing his capacity for thought.

*Skender?' called s.h.i.+lly from far below. *Answer me!'

*You can put me down now,' he told the man'kin.

*LOOK?'

Skender took in the face of the giant creature as it deposited him gently back on the Wall. Its face wasn't built for expressiveness, but now he could see that it was worried, not angry.

*Yes,' he said. *I looked, and I saw.' He recalled the man'kin shouting among themselves as they argued over whether or not to kill Sal. The Angel says we must keep moving, one had said. And the stone pig that had spoken to him afterwards had tried to explain: We are saving ourselves.

*That's what you're doing in the Divide, isn't it?'

*ANGEL.'

It could take a while for the creature to build up the verbal momentum to complete a sentence. Skender turned instead to Sal and s.h.i.+lly, who had left the guards standing at a cautious distance and pressed forward to help him. Gwil Flintham was a dot in the distance, still running.

*I'm okay,' he told them. *I think this big lug was sent up here by Mawson. There's something coming down the Divide, out of the mountains. It's huge, and it's frightened the man'kin.'

*Frightened them?' echoed s.h.i.+lly disbelievingly.

*ANGEL SAYS.'

*Remember that the man'kin don't see time the way we do. They see it all at once, in a big tangle, and it's hard for them to tease out individual threads. Before we left the Aad, Mawson told me that he and the other man'kin were afraid of the one from the Void, the Homunculus. That's what I thought he meant, but I was wrong. They know that when the twins come, something else, something terrible, is going to happen. And it's on its way right now.'

*ANGEL SAYS RUN.'

*What is it?' asked s.h.i.+lly, glancing at the man'kin then back at Skender. *Can we stop it?'

*I think it's a flash flood - and a big one. We need to let the Magister know. If it comes this far and hits while the Wall is breached ...'

It wasn't a thought he wanted to complete aloud. He wasn't familiar with rivers that flowed the year round, but had seen sudden surges tear down a watercourse that had been dry for months, tossing boulders as though they were pebbles and ripping trees right out of the ground. The tiniest c.h.i.n.k in a bank or dam could be widened in an instant under the force of such a deluge. Nothing could withstand it.

In his mind, he pictured the city flooded as a wall of water burst through the hole made by the man'kin. He felt ill. Chu and his mother were down there, along with thousands of other people. He couldn't stand by and let them die.