Dome 6, p.1
Dome 6, page 1
DOME 6
TINKERED STARSONG BOOK 3
GAIL CARRIGER
CONTENTS
Wait, what am I reading?
Prologue
1. Sift of the Earth
2. Cave of Everlasting Song
3. Dome of the Imago
4. The Cost of Salvation
5. Cantor Got Your Tongue?
6. The Burning Flesh
7. Be Still and Know Divinity
8. Dome of Six Gods
9. By the Skin of Our Song
10. Vault of Grace
11. The Fixation Has Broken
12. Live for the Dome, Die for the Dome
13. Abandon All Hope, Those Who Cantor Here
14. A Skinsift in Disguise
15. The Dome Is Salvation
16. The Divinity Endures
Afterword
Sample Crudrat
Author’s Note
More Gail Carriger
About the Writerbeast
DOME 6
Gail Carriger
Wait, what am I reading?
NYT bestselling author Gail Carriger brings you the third and final book in her cozy sci-fi space opera trilogy about the galaxy’s most cutthroat entertainment industry, where music is visible and fame might save humanity.
Gail has a fun, silly newsletter full of gossip, sneak peeks, and giveaways. Join the Chirrup
In the beginning, the Dyesi created the domes and the divinity.
But why?
1
SIFT OF THE EARTH
“Are you sad Asterism didn’t win?” Missit’s gold-flecked eyes were earnest, staring up at Phex.
Phex paused at the entrance to the practice room. “Win?”
“The Best New Pantheon award.”
Truth be told, Phex had already forgotten about the Divine Awards. Even though they’d ended yesterday. “No.”
Missit wrinkled his nose in that utterly endearing way. “I am.”
Phex’s heart sank. Had he disappointed Missit?
Tyve stuck her head out from behind the curtain over the doorway. “Phex, there you are. Oh, hello, Missit.”
“Are you sad about losing?” Missit instantly asked.
Tyve grinned, teeth pointy and menacing, but her tone was deferential. “Of course.”
Missit clicked softly, affirmation and sympathy. “You know Tillam won our first year?”
“Yes, but there were fewer groups back then to compete against,” protested Kagee, his silver head also sticking out from behind the curtain, on the other side of the doorway from Tyve and lower down.
“Tillam also got to practice together for much longer than we did, before debuting,” added Tyve.
Missit held up both graceful hands and turned pleading eyes to Phex. “No need to be defensive. I was simply hoping you’d follow in our footsteps, that’s all.”
“Sorry, Missit,” said Phex, voice low, meaning it. Perhaps they should have tried harder? Honestly, he hadn’t thought winning awards was important.
Some of Phex’s fear must have shown in his face, because Missit put a hand to his forearm. “I’m not mad at you. The voting system is clearly rigged!”
Tyve snorted. “Nevertheless, my brother is going to be insufferable about this.” She and Zil had a contentious sibling relationship, or maybe rivalry was a better way of describing it.
“You realize that you don’t have to follow in anyone’s footsteps, right?” Kagee was clearly encompassing both Tyve taking her brother’s path and Phex taking Missit’s.
“Zil’s are very graceful footsteps, though. Galaxy’s best, some would say.” Tyve was all sarcasm.
“Do you want us to be like Tillam?” Phex asked both Tyve and Missit, for clarification. “Because I don’t think that’s possible.”
Kagee snapped, “Must we deal with your collective inferiority complexes right now?”
“Hey!” said Tyve.
Phex wanted to say that where Tillam and Missit were concerned, they… well, he… was inferior. It wasn’t a complex, it was a fact. But Kagee looked like he might hit him if he did. And Missit would be upset too. Missit hated it when Phex talked like he was lesser. He was lesser, but Missit refused to believe it.
An acolyte came gliding down the hallway toward them. Their latest assigned precatio was a slender, frenetic Dyesi with particularly flappy crests who seemed young and worried all the time.
Finding Missit talking with the demigods, it made a full obeisance – finger flick, crests way back, even lowering its gaze.
Missit looked faintly embarrassed by such obsequiousness but also realized he was still clutching Phex’s forearm and dropped contact quickly. “No need, precatio. How can I help the divinity today?” Missit was very good at formal speech, but that only made the acolyte even more deferential.
“Your pardon, great one.” Its cheeks went opaque with embarrassment. “It is not you. I am here to speak with Asterism.”
Missit flashed a smile. “That’ll teach me to assume it’s always about me. Well, babies, better luck at next year’s awards. I’ll be off.” Missit twirled and trotted away, presumably off to find the rest of Tillam.
Phex watched him go, gaze lingering on the Dyesi influence in his walk and the sway of his hips.
“At least he didn’t call us losers,” said Kagee, side-eyeing Phex.
Phex dipped his head, embarrassed to be caught yearning. Fortunately, the acolyte seemed oblivious.
“Shall we go inside?” suggested Phex politely to the Dyesi.
“Please,” replied the precatio, crests wilted a little, presumably in relief at not having to deal with Missit.
But once they were inside the practice room, with all six of Asterism collected expectantly around the acolyte, the Dyesi became nervous again – even though they were lesser gods.
“Are you here to inform us of our next tour stop?” asked Phex gently, trying to prompt the poor thing.
“Are we expecting an imminent departure?” asked Fandina, following Phex’s lead, tone softly polite and crests neutral, trying to put the acolyte at ease.
“Oh! No. Nothing like that,” said the acolyte.
“We are not leaving right away?” Fandina was surprised. Indeed, they all were. It had been a whirlwind tour with very little rest time not caused by Fortew collapsing or Phex getting injured or similar medical emergency.
“We are staying here in Dyesi space?” Jinyesun was always one to pursue clarity in all things.
“Have we finished the tour already?” Kagee asked.
“Already?” Tyve pointed two fat-tipped fingers at Kagee. “It feels like we’ve been touring forever. What do you mean, already?”
Kagee ignored her.
“Is Fortew back in hospital?” asked Berril, concern causing her wings to rustle slightly.
Phex felt rather proud of them. Asterism had grown into itself, peppering acolytes with questions as if they had the god-given right. As if they were important. Which they were, even if they didn’t win some stupid award. They had, after all, proved themselves on tour with Tillam. But their newly developed confidence came out as chatter and seemed to be driving the precatio into a panic. Its crests were in a permanent state of flapping, unfurling and folding back in distress at each new question. The lights of the practice room shining through the thin iridescent membrane caused little blue-tinged rainbows to appear and disappear on the floor.
Phex wondered if this was the acolyte’s first big assignment – managing Tillam and Asterism. It couldn’t be easy.
Finally, its crests paused and puffed, everyone stopped and waited expectantly.
The acolyte opted to answer them all simultaneously. “Not staying here, you will be leaving soon, it is only that you need to transfer ships first.” It said this politely but without pause for breath.
Phex felt his stomach clench in pure panic. Were Asterism and Tillam being separated by the divinity? Was he losing Missit already?
“Why?” asked Jinyesun.
“New ship? Why transfer ships?” Kagee crossed his arms, not liking the phrasing, not liking the sudden change.
“Will Tillam be going with us?” That was Tyve asking the question Phex couldn’t bear to. He wasn’t sure if he was grateful to her for it. He found himself clenching his jaw hard.
The precatio’s crests flattened at the fresh onslaught. Phex willed him to answer Tyve first.
Jinyesun and Fandina looked guilty over a fellow Dyesi’s obvious distress, but Tyve, Berril, and Kagee were not disposed to give a new acolyte an easy time.
“We are accustomed to this ship and this crew,” protested Berril.
Fandina pointed its crests at the precatio. “Let the acolyte speak.”
Berril and Tyve pouted.
Phex’s tension evolved to nervous caregiving – desperate for a distraction, he handed out flasks of water to the graces. “Occupy your mouths,” he said.
He tossed a third water at Kagee, who caught it deftly, unsnapped the lid, and took an angry sip.
The acolyte’s crests puffed. “Thank you, sun. All of you, including Tillam, will be transferred to a larger spaceship. The tour is not ending.”
Phex worked hard not to show obvious relief. Although his shoulders must have visibly relaxed. He and Missit would be together a little longer. He knew, of course, that they had an inevitable ending. They were from different pantheons, different backgrounds, at different places in their careers and life journeys. Not to mention the fact that the acolytes forbade romantic relationships. The divinity, the worshippers, the whole galaxy would be against them if they found out. Quite apart from that, who was Phex to hold the attention of a god like Missit for very long? But he was still pathetically thrilled that they weren’t separating right now. Phex wanted to hold the undeserved happiness of Missit being his, and belonging to Missit in turn for as long as possible.
“Meanwhile, you must pack.” The acolyte used the singular formal you, crests pointed at Phex.
“We all must pack, if we are moving spaceships,” Phex corrected the mistake gently.
“Ah, no. You, alone of your pantheon, will be taking a shorter trip first.”
Phex’s skin prickled with fear. He was being singled out and separated from the others? “Why?”
“Your presence has been requested.”
“My presence? Alone? By whom?”
“You and the great god Missit.”
Okay, they would get to be together, but was this some new trouble Missit had gotten them into? Had Missit known this was coming? Was that why he’d popped up in the hallway on the way over?
“Your duet,” the precatio added, as if that would explain everything.
Phex relaxed. “The divinity wants us to do another special performance?”
“Yes. Exactly. Less spectacular than the last, we hope.”
Missit and Phex’s duet had caused a sensation at the Divine Awards the night before. Mostly because it had quickly become not a duet. They had been joined on the dais by four sifters, making up the proper number six. Oddly distributed, but still six. But four sifters matched with two Sapiens, acting both grace and cantor, had produced a display on the dome like no other and never likely to be seen again. It had caused quite the ruckus, much to Missit’s delight and Phex’s chagrin.
“Just the two of us?” Phex clarified.
“Yes, just the two of you.”
Phex relaxed even more. The original duet he and Missit had practiced, singing and dancing together in the old Sapien way, was not a godly thing. But it was spectacular and it was a lot of fun. He enjoyed what he and Missit could do together as artists almost as much as all the other things they did together. He was happy with another opportunity to perform the piece.
“Where do we go this time?”
“You have been honored by a formal request.”
“Have we?”
“One of the caves has asked to witness you.”
Phex was stunned out of his customary calm complacency.
Berril and Tyve both gasped.
“Dyesid Prime?” said Kagee, voice full of shock. “Phex is going to visit the home world?”
“Which cave?” whispered Jinyesun.
The acolyte looked at Asterism’s two sifters. Three sets of crests fluttered in some complex form of body language communication that Phex could never hope to understand.
“Not yours, demigods, apologies,” said the acolyte to both Jinyesun and Fandina, highly formal.
“But the invitation would not have included us, even if it were one of our home caves,” said Jinyesun, looking sad.
Fandina said, crests neutral, “It is probably one of the west caves. They are very forward-thinking. They often pay closer attention to the divinity as a result.”
Jin clicked agreement. “Highest number of keyskins come from the west. Still, I miss the caves.”
Phex hadn’t thought until that moment that the Dyesi could get homesick. He’d always assumed that the divinity was simply what they all did. Well, what all the nymphs did, anyway. If your life’s pattern included an obligation to explore the galaxy as part of your religious movement, did you have a right to miss your home planet? That seemed counterintuitive to an expansion model.
Suddenly, Phex was worried about Jinyesun in particular. How long had his friend been hurting and Phex hadn’t realized? He’d taken pains to learn what homesickness looked like in Sapiens because he did not feel it himself. But he hadn’t realized he should include the Dyesi in his assessment. What was it that made others feel better? Comforting memories? The food of their home worlds? A warm beverage? Conversation? Phex shuddered.
“Should I bring something back for you?” he asked Jinyesun and Fandina. “From the caves, I mean? Something you miss?”
Jin blinked huge eyes at him, crest tips folded. Finally, it said carefully, “You cannot bring colors back from the caves, Phex, you can only experience them in person.”
Phex said, “I’m low cantor, of course I can bring color.”
Jinyesun was jolted out of its sadness by amusement. Really, Phex was always making the Dyesi laugh, and he had no idea why. “You are so cute sometimes, Phex. Perhaps I should have said beauty, not color.”
Now Phex was confused, so he moved on. “Missit and I are to dance in the caves of Dyesid Prime for the entertainment of the locals?”
“Yes. Is that not what I just said?” The acolyte was now both flustered and frustrated. Clearly, it was too new to its divine precatio duties to understand that Sapiens dealt with surprise poorly. Especially gods.
Phex frowned, “Will Quasilun be joining us?”
“Why would you want the protector imago?”
Phex tilted his chin. “Think very carefully about the phrase you just uttered, acolyte.”
The Dyesi speckled and its crests drooped. “I do not understand, demigod.”
Jinyesun looked away to hide amusement.
Fandina took pity on the new acolyte. “Quasilun is our bodyguard, precatio. Remember?”
“Your sun thinks a protector imago would willingly protect him from other imagoes?” The acolyte paused. Then its crests went flat to its head. “He thinks he needs protection from them?”
“Knowing Phex,” piped up Berril, “he thinks Missit might need it.”
Kagee sniffed. “How do you know he’s not worried your beloved imagoes don’t need protecting from Missit?” Kagee did love to throw soap in the soup.
Now all three Dyesi in the room had flat crests, gods and acolyte.
Kagee continued. “After all, the award show proved what Phex and Missit’s voices can do together under a dome. From what I’ve gathered, your caves are merely domes in another form. Is it not a great risk inviting them to perform?”
Phex turned and looked at Kagee. “What are you doing?”
His high cantor pretended innocence. “Just teasing a bit.”
The new precatio looked panicked, skin almost entirely opaque. “Should I request Quasilun’s presence? Of course I should. Please excuse me. Meanwhile, please pack for a short stay, low cantor Phex, and meet me to disembark in one hour.”
Phex bowed in acknowledgment of the instruction, but the acolyte was already dashing away.
“Happy with yourself?” Tyve asked Kagee.
“If our new precatio can’t handle us, how will it handle Tillam?”
“Fair point.”
“I guess I’m packing.” Phex left the practice room, heading for their quarters. The others trailed after him.
“Don’t worry, Phex. We can get the rest of your stuff to the new spaceship,” said Fandina.
“Again?” said Phex. Because that was how his stuff had made it to this spaceship. Fandina and Jinyesun had done his packing for him. Frankly, if it had been him, he would have included more spices and that one spatula he really liked.
“Are you excited?” wondered Berril, bouncing up next to him and grabbing his hand. “You’ll get to see Dyesid Prime. Not many non-Dyesi can say that.”
Phex turned his head toward Jinyesun and Fandina. This was their home world. He was getting to see the planet that had birthed two of his best and only friends. That had birthed the divinity. He supposed that made it a kind of pilgrimage.
“Sure,” he said. He didn’t want to rub it in, especially not with Jin and Fandina right there. They, who had their beloved home so close but would not get to visit it. And he, who had no home at all, would get to visit yet take no comfort from the experience.
