Part 17 (1/2)

'She's alive!' And the converse was also true. Hannah's father was truly dead. But her mother hadn't been on the u-boat when it was crushed by the s.h.i.+fting walls of magma scuttled by Maggs, who was no doubt paid to do the terrible deed by Vardan Flail.

'Your mother was was alive,' cautioned Jethro. 'A decade ago. That is the only hope you can trust.' alive,' cautioned Jethro. 'A decade ago. That is the only hope you can trust.'

'What was the expedition at Amajanur she mentioned?' asked Hannah.

'Amajanur was spoken of in the Pericurian scripture found in Bel Bessant's possession, dear girl,' said Amba.s.sador Ortin, enthusiastically. 'It sounds exceedingly similar to one of the chapters in my people's scriptures: The Gateway of Amaja The Gateway of Amaja, the tunnel that Reckin urs Reckin and his wife used to escape his treacherous brother and sister-in-law's city after the war of the heavens.'

'It's a gateway to trouble, lad,' said the commodore. 'That much I know and you so happy, amba.s.sador, you'd think you'd found a long-lost uncle's will and discovered yourself rich from it.'

'It is indeed a legacy,' said the amba.s.sador. 'But one for all of my people. Proof that our scriptures have a historical basis as well as a religious one will allow the reformers to gain the upper hand in the court once more.'

'The Jagonese have been living on this island for thousands of years,' said Nandi. 'If we can find evidence of a Pericurian settlement on Jago that predates settlement by the race of man, then our history books will have to be completely rewritten.'

'History, dear girl, I will leave to the sweep of time and the pens of archaeologists such as yourself,' said the amba.s.sador. 'But if I can change the present of my nation for the better, then I must seize the chance.'

The commodore shook his head ruefully. 'You want to seize the chance, but I can see that it's poor old Blacky that's going to be asked to do the bleeding for Pericur's bright new future.'

'You're going after my mother!' exclaimed Hannah.

'Ah, la.s.s, it's a pretty pickle,' complained the commodore. 'William of Flamewall goes off exploring after the trail of his murdered lover, your mother follows him, and now we're to be emulating the whole pack of them when not a blessed soul ever came back to boast of it.'

'I'm coming too,' Hannah blurted. 'My mother's still hiding out there somewhere, I can feel it.'

'Yes, you are,' said Jethro.

Hannah was about to start arguing when she actually processed the words and gawped in amazement at the ex-parson.

'Going will be no less dangerous for you than staying here,' said Jethro. 'Alice wasn't holding onto the two active pieces of the G.o.d-formula because she wanted to use them. She was keeping them in case the Inquisition needed to develop a counter-weapon against anyone who actually tried to use the code to attain G.o.dhood. She was murdered to stop her doing that, and her killer came after you on the mere chance that you had seen what was inside your locket. There is a ruthlessness and coldness to these acts that is rare to see, even by such as Boxiron and myself with the cases that we have worked on. That peril still holds true. In fact, it now holds true for all all of us. Each of us is in terrible danger every day that we stay here.' of us. Each of us is in terrible danger every day that we stay here.'

There was something in Jethro Daunt's voice that unsettled Hannah. 'You're not coming with us, are you?'

Jethro shook his head. 'There's something about sitting the church's exams you're already thinking in the manner of a Circlist priest, Hannah. You are correct. I must stay here in the capital with Boxiron. I was sent to Jago to uncover Alice's murderer, and that is what I intend to do. We have a great advantage over her killer, or killers, now. We know that William of Flamewall and your mother both travelled into the island's interior. They don't. Alice's murderer is still here in the capital and this is where I must stay to uncover them.'

Hannah was surprised to find the ex-parson was right insights did seem to be forming more quickly ever since she'd sat the cathedral's exams. It was as if the grease in the Entick helmet had lubricated the cogs of her mind; her brain running so much faster, with a diamond-sharp clarity. Hannah stopped. Jethro Daunt wasn't saying everything. He-he didn't trust himself with the G.o.d-formula.

Jethro fixed her with his sad eyes. 'If you find the third piece of the G.o.d-formula, you must destroy it. We are all weak, Hannah. A dead child or a sick wife, which of us wouldn't be tempted to change such a misfortune? You'd just bring them back and then instantly relinquish your power, that's what you'd tell yourself. Do that one small thing and then you could go back to the way things were before. Except-'

Hannah thought she understood. 'Until the first time you saw a hungry urchin in the Lugus Vaults, until you saw an act of cruelty you knew you could stop, a war you could halt, a leader elected to the senate you didn't agree with.'

'There would be no end to it,' agreed Jethro. 'Everything fixed to your will, more and more to be rectified, growing angrier and angrier with those that defied you. Until you started acting as a real G.o.d, and then you wouldn't be able to stop, not without abandoning your absolute grip on your perfect, burning world. The first two parts of the G.o.d-formula will have to be enough for us to preserve in case the Inquisition ever needs to develop a counter-weapon. The third part must be destroyed forever.'

Hannah nodded. It had taken both her parents from her, Alice too. The G.o.d-formula deserved to be destroyed. Unless, whispered a nagging voice from somewhere deep within her, she could use it. Use it to bring Alice back, to right all that was wrong with Jago.

'Alice's killer,' said Hannah, 'they want to be become more than just human. They would use the G.o.d-formula to gain ultimate knowledge and ultimate power.'

'Just human,' sighed Jethro. 'And they would be wrong. Infinitely folded in on themselves and out into the universe, the ultimate paradox given living expression. But lacking the wisdom of an infinite lifetime. human,' sighed Jethro. 'And they would be wrong. Infinitely folded in on themselves and out into the universe, the ultimate paradox given living expression. But lacking the wisdom of an infinite lifetime. Just Just human with ultimate knowledge. What an angel of fire that would be, and what a h.e.l.l they would make of Earth if they chose to stay here.' human with ultimate knowledge. What an angel of fire that would be, and what a h.e.l.l they would make of Earth if they chose to stay here.'

'But a truly good person might be able to control it?' asked Hannah, hopefully. 'Couldn't they change things for the better?'

Jethro smiled grimly. 'It's a temptation, isn't it? Thousands of years ago, Bel Bessant thought she was pure enough to survive it and still be human enough to end the dark reign of terror the Chimecan Empire and their bloodthirsty G.o.ds were threatening Jago with. Thank the Circle she had a man who loved her enough to kill her. I doubt that the person who killed Alice has such a love in their life. No, the third part of the weapon must be destroyed, never used. The Inquisition was always sure to appoint its officers to the archbishop's seat on Jago, Hannah, but I suspect that they never knew the full details of the secret. Only that a terrible weapon existed here and that their incomplete portion of it had to be kept hidden by their brightest and their best. Alice was such a woman. The secret would have been pa.s.sed from archbishop to archbishop, limiting the temptation of taking the G.o.dhead to a bare minimum. We know Alice's killer is seeking the G.o.d-formula and so now it must be extinguished forever. Do this for the church you're about to be sworn into, Hannah, and do it for me.'

And she would do it for her father. Her dead dead father. father.

It was going to be strange to be in one of the giant iron walking machines with the open sky above her head, rather than the roof of the turbine halls, Hannah mused. The trapper Tobias Raffold and his men moved with the same easy confidence in their RAM suits that the charge-master's staff had shown in theirs. The expedition was lucky to have secured Raffold's services, thanks to the significant financial backing of Amba.s.sador Ortin and some truly magnificent humble-pie eating on the part of Commodore Black the old u-boat captain muttering under his breath about the fact that his precious boat would be hauling animals across the seas for Raffold for the next decade to satisfy the trapper's bargain.

Including herself, Nandi, the commodore and Ortin urs Ortin, there would be twenty members of the expedition to find the final resting places of her mother and William of Flamewall. Most of those men were lounging around behind the safety of Hermetica City's main gates, rolling dice on the rocky ground while their RAM suits received their final checks from the city's lodge of mechomancers. Bales of supplies and crates of victuals were being winched up and belted around the hulls of their machines by a crowd of merchants.

The iron plating of the RAM suits had been painted with a geometric patchwork of purple, white and grey mottling to blend in with the territory outside. And if their camouflage failed its purpose, the right arm of each suit would be brought to bear mounted with a magnetic catapult and circular ammunition drums of sharpened disks. There were other subtle differences between these suits and the ones used down in the turbine halls. The domes that covered the pilot's heads contained more gla.s.s for better visibility in the mist-shrouded wilds, but the suits had less armour plating since they were not being exposed to the electric fields that dominated life in the turbine halls. And these suits were bigger and taller, the better to cover rough terrain quickly.

Chalph urs Chalph emerged from the gatehouse and Hannah waved to attract his attention as he glanced up at the Pericurian mercenaries patrolling the battlements above.

'I'm glad to see you managed to get here in the end,' Hannah called.

'One last chance to try to convince you not to go,' said Chalph. 'You've got everything you wanted entry into the church, a chance to be free. Why do you need to go on this fool expedition?'

'You know why,' said Hannah. 'My mother's out there.'

Chalph shook his large furred heard in irritation. 'She didn't come back. Just like your ancient phantom, William of Flamewall. Neither of them ever returned.'

'I will,' Hannah promised. 'You'll see.'

'I might not be around to see.'

'What do you mean?' Hannah demanded.

Chalph's lips cracked into a ferocious smile, flas.h.i.+ng his ursine fangs. 'The house's boat from Pericur has just docked and I got the news straight from its first officer. They've couriered the baroness an order from the archd.u.c.h.ess herself. Our house's trading licence for Jago has been cancelled. We're going home, Hannah Conquest! A few weeks to settle our commercial affairs and the next boat that comes here will be to take us all off.'

So much change, so quickly. The happiness that Hannah felt for her friend was tempered by the knowledge that things would never be the same for him or her again.

'Then you've got what you wanted, too.'

'Don't look so glum,' said Chalph. 'Even the archd.u.c.h.ess and her new conservative-packed council can't deny the House of Ush a new trading licence somewhere somewhere. Most of our people here speak your furless tongue better than we do our own. We'll end up with the trading caravans down south, doing business overland with the settlers in Concorzia. You could find yourself a parsonage down that way after your training...'

Leave Jago? Well, it wouldn't be the same without Chalph or Alice, with herself in the seminary of the rational orders. And when all the visitors like Jethro, Nandi and the commodore had gone home, what would be left? Dour old Father Blackwater and the resentment of every member of the Guild of Valvemen she happened across? Perhaps a new start had its attractions after all. And there wasn't much of a seminary programme on Jago any more. She might well find herself a.s.signed to a cathedral in the Kingdom of Jackals, or to one of the fledgling orders in Concorzia, whether she wanted to stay on Jago or not.

'I still have to go out there,' said Hannah. 'I have to know!'

Chalph didn't look as if he understood, but then ursines had large litters and only female cubs were truly prized by the mother the father was uninvolved beyond his initial contribution. It was the house that mattered in Pericurian society, not the parents.

'I don't want to leave this d.a.m.n island without knowing whether you're even dead or alive,' said Chalph.

'But you'll leave anyway,' said Hannah. 'You won't have any choice and soon enough you won't have much to complain about. Not the smell of the ca.n.a.ls or the taste of dome-grown food or being called a dirty wet-snout by the Jagonese.'

'That'll be a thing to see,' agreed Chalph. 'Real forests, with a real sky above filled with stars you can actually glimpse at night. Cities raised from Pericurian oak and streets teeming with hundreds of thousands of ursine. And you could see them too...'

'I will, one day.'