The ghosts of barak mino.., p.20
The Ghosts Of Barak-Minoz, page 20
‘We were lucky,’ said Duzrekar. ‘Before the processions form, they’re less dangerous. Get up, lad.’ He extended a hand to Uzki. ‘Sorry I had to trip you.’
Uzki nodded, took Duzrekar’s hand, and got up.
‘It’s all right,’ he said. ‘Thank you.’
Duzrekar led them into a massive machine hall. Signs of fire and damage were everywhere. More Nighthaunt appeared, sinking through the floors of the port, faces peering from the walls, floating off to join the huge clouds gathering outside.
‘In here, quick!’ Duzrekar led them to the upper surface of an enormous endrin globe, easily twenty times the size of the Aelsling’s biggest. He went to the door and spun the lock wheel.
‘That’s not active, is it?’ asked Adrimm. ‘The aether effusion from an endrin of that size will broil us in moments.’
‘Millikhar[59] count is way down,’ grunted the endrineer as he spun the wheel. ‘It has been since the beginning, because I turned it down. Most of the fuel rods are out and there’s only residual activity from this endrin. It’s safe enough for us, but it’s still high enough to keep the dead at bay. It disrupts their forms. When they try to approach, they disintegrate.’
He heaved on the door. It opened with a long, mournful moan. The soft glow of active aether shone from inside.
‘Come on!’ Duzrekar beckoned. ‘Safer in than out.’
‘You first,’ said Drekki.
‘Don’t you trust me? As you wish,’ said Duzrekar angrily. He went inside. Kedren, Drekki and Adrimm followed. Uzki hesitated on the threshold.
‘You too, beardling.’ Duzrekar leaned out to pull him inside, then heaved on the inner lock wheel and the door swung closed with a boom. He spun the wheel quickly. When the bolts were snug in their brackets, he heaved a sigh of relief and leaned against the metal.
‘Nearly a goner there!’ he said, suddenly joyful. ‘I shouldn’t have let you keep me talking so long. Whew!’ He laughed. Arkarugen gave him a troubled look.
‘I’ve had narrower escapes,’ said Drekki quietly. He looked about the globe. The workings of the endrin were in the middle of the room, a sphere within a sphere. A catwalk circled the exact midpoint of the room.
The hemisphere of the endrin towered over him. Drekki paused at the core loading door, a massively thick, curved piece of silver-shot steel with a viewport of even thicker glass set into it. On the other side was a tall, rotating round, with dozens of holes to take aether-gold fuel rods in its exposed edge. Above that would be a loading machine, designed to spin the core and automatically insert new rods. This was the kind of huge, heavy-duty endrin used to keep sky-ports in the air, but it worked the same as the ones on the Aelsling, taking the solid gold as its power source, turning it back to gas to release its innate power. Drekki would not look into the window. Even though the light was far less intense than it would have been if the endrin had been working at full capacity, it would damage his eyes. Ordinarily, only specialist endrineers in full protective endrinsuits would have gone into an endrin core, and then only if malfunction demanded it.
‘Aether activity is very low.’
‘Don’t worry. Enough of the endrins are working that we’re not going to fall out of the sky, not tonight. You’re safe, though I can’t speak for your crew.’
They could still hear the tolling of bells beyond the endrin walls.
‘I’ve an aether-khemist,’ said Drekki. ‘He can keep a few ghosts at bay.’
‘It’s not a few!’ said Duzrekar. ‘It’s thousands! Every soul ever caught in the Dead Air.’ He looked out of a huge, bulbous endrin-port. ‘Your crew are goners. They are not getting out and they’re not coming back.’ He hit the side of the globe. ‘Then in four days, it’s all over. We’ll be outside the realmsphere.’ He laughed wildly. ‘The gods are bozdoks, giving me hope, then snatching it away. At least I won’t die alone.’
‘That won’t happen, because I’m Drekki Flynt,’ said Drekki. ‘You’re as good as rescued already.’
‘I’m doomed, so are you,’ Duzrekar said dully. He went to one of the endrin-ports and sat down on a tatty mattress up against the wall, crossed his arms over his knees, and pressed his beard into his arms. ‘I hate those bells,’ he muttered.
The others kept their distance from Duzrekar. Adrimm was making himself comfortable against the curve of the metal. Kedren had reloaded his blunderbuss, and was polishing his axe with an oily rag. Uzki sat a little way off. It was to him Drekki spoke first.
‘I told you to stay on the ship, my lad,’ said Drekki.
‘I wanted to look around,’ Uzki mumbled. ‘I thought I could be useful. I’m good at finding things. I’m good at puzzles. Neither seem to be doing me any good. I keep messing up.’
‘That’s not what Bokko says.’
Uzki shrugged.
‘It’s not what I say either, but what I do say is, when your captain gives you an order, you’re supposed to obey it,’ said Drekki.
‘I can do more than just swab the deck! I just wanted to show you.’
‘You don’t need to. Do you think Adrimm knew even half what you do, when he went to the academy in Mhornar? You know, where he got the second highest grade? You might have heard that. He’s mentioned it once or twice.’
Adrimm shot him a dirty look. ‘I deserved that mark!’
‘You’ll not send me away?’
‘Impetuousness and the beardling tendency to think you’re right all the time aside, you’re doing all right.’ Drekki put his hand on Uzki’s shoulder. ‘We’ll get out of this,’ he said to them all. ‘I always do. Let’s figure it out in the morning. Get some rest, lads.’
‘Aye,’ said Adrimm. ‘I’m blowed.’ He dipped his head into his beard and shut his eyes. In moments he was snoring.
Drekki went over to the other endrin-port. The ports were included to allow endrineers to monitor the endrin glow at a glance; they weren’t really designed to be used as windows. To deaden the effect of active aether, they were large and thick, the convexity of the glass distorting the view outside, but if Drekki stood right in the middle, and looked out of the flattest part of the glass, he could see well enough.
There were phantoms everywhere. They drifted in clouds, coming together in knots, where they danced around each other in slow vortices of gheist light. They moved lethargically, like children who have been forced to go play outside when they do not wish to. The crowds got bigger, the knots thicker. The dancing of the lights picked up their tempo. The tolling of bells grew louder, and the gheists formed themselves into long parades, ghostly ships at intervals along their length. At some unseen signal, the phantoms produced candles in their hands which ignited together with pale flame. The bells continued to ring. The thin, sombre music got louder.
The dead began to march.
Drekki watched, fascinated, as the parades criss-crossed the skies. He leaned closer to the port. Although it was warm in the endrin chamber, cold radiated from the glass, and Drekki’s breath fogged on it.
He could hear them through the massive barrier plating of the endrin, their moaning swelling like waves on a damned sea.
‘They say the Nighthaunt are a punishment.’
‘Funti drukk!’ yelled Drekki, leaping backwards. ‘You almost made my heart stop!’
Kedren pulled an apologetic face. ‘Sorry.’
‘Of all the times to creep up on someone, when they’re watching armies of ghosts parade about the night sky is the very last!’
‘I didn’t creep,’ protested the runesmith.
‘Grimnir’s flaming beard,’ Drekki muttered. ‘What would they be punished for?’
‘Not going to Shyish,’ said Kedren. ‘They’re lingering here, when the Lord of Death would have them all to himself.’
‘I don’t think they’ve got any choice in the matter,’ said Drekki. ‘They’ll be caught up in whatever magic is keeping this place together, making it move. They’re not to blame.’
‘I don’t think Nagash gives a drukk about blame, do you? He’s a vengeful, jealous, bony bozdok,’ said Kedren. ‘Since when have you ever heard a story that puts him in a merciful light? I’d say round about never.’
‘Fair point,’ said Drekki.
The endrin’s core reactor gave out a dull, blue flicker, almost as lifeless and cold as the ghost light outside. A similar glow drew near the window, running around the edge of the lensed glass like water. A procession passed right in front of the porthole, so close that Drekki thought he would be able to reach out and touch the gheists.
Behind them, Adrimm snored softly against the wall, his gun cradled in his lap. Uzki sat staring at the endrinshine, not daring to look out of the window. Drekki bent back a little so he could see past the core to where Duzrekar sat. The endrineer was with his ape, his arm draped around its hairy shoulders. Framed by the eerie glow of the phantasms parading past the endrin window, they leaned into each other.
‘There’s something not right about all this,’ Kedren said.
‘Perhaps,’ said Drekki. ‘Not much we can do about it now. We’ve a busy day tomorrow getting rich, so let’s catch some sleep.’
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
A PROMISE OF RICHES
Early in the morning, the Aelsling followed Trokwi in. When it puttered up to the docking spar near the endrins, the crew found a grinning Drekki Flynt waiting for them.
‘There he is!’ Otherek shouted from the observation cupola. ‘Bring her in, Evrokk!’
The ship manoeuvred into position alongside the wharf. In better times the place would have allowed deliveries of supplies and material to the endrineering section. Now, buckled by the explosion, it was a test of Evrokk’s piloting skill to bring the ship in safe.
Cables were tossed down to Adrimm and Uzki, who tied her up. With cries of ‘heave to!’ the arkanauts rolled out the gangplank. It landed with a clang on the lip of the wharf near Drekki’s waiting feet.
‘Good morning, lads,’ Drekki said.
Gord was first out. He gave Drekki a comradely punch that made the captain stagger.
‘Careful, unsteady footing here,’ said Drekki, rubbing his shoulder.
‘I thought you was dead!’ said the ogor. ‘Like Evtorr, but, er…’ Puzzlement creased his face. ‘Not?’
‘Not dead, never me.’
Otherek came next, and Hrunki. Trokwi lifted off her shoulder with a happy trill and landed on Drekki.
‘You took your time,’ Drekki said.
‘We were lucky to get here at all,’ grumbled Otherek. ‘The whole funti sky came alive with the dead. They didn’t stop chasing us until we got out past the metalith where we met that stonehorn, where they kind of… stopped. We barely got away.’
‘The dead here are legion,’ said Duzrekar. ‘You were fortunate.’
‘This the survivor?’ Otherek asked suspiciously. ‘Trokwi said.’
‘The last one,’ said Kedren. Otherek took his friend’s hand and they shook, both glad the other still lived, though being duardin, the handshake was the only sign they showed of affection. They were sober, after all.
‘Duzrekar Orn, chief endrineer of Barak-Minoz,’ said Duzrekar.
Otherek nodded at him. ‘Otherek Zhurafon, aether-khemist.’ He turned back to Drekki. ‘I’m sure you’ve a lot to tell us about last night.’
‘I’m sure you’re going to tell me how much aether is aboard this sky-port,’ said Drekki.
Otherek grinned. ‘Put it like this, we’re going to be rich if we get out of this one alive.’
‘Then let’s make our plans,’ said Drekki. ‘Trommraad!’[60]
Drekki’s trommraad comprised Umherth, Otherek, Hrunki and Kedren. They met according to habit in Drekki’s cabin. Duzrekar also attended. Besides the endrineer, Drekki invited Uzki to serve the ale, because he might learn something by listening in. Uzki wasn’t a very good servant, too overawed by being around so many oldbeards,[61] and he needed prompting to top off their tankards. A bit clumsy, too, Drekki thought, as he slopped beer suds onto the table.
‘Respected duardin,’ Drekki said, flicking the spilt beer away. ‘We need a plan, and we need one fast. According to Duzrekar here, the Dead Air will move in a few days. We have to be gone by then, and I intend that we get away with as much aether as we can carry.’
‘Hang on a minute. We could do better than that,’ said Umherth. ‘I reckon we go with the Dead Air, find our bearings, then sell the rights to mine the Dead Air to the highest bidder. Then we go home to Barak-Thrund really rich.’
‘A fine plan,’ said Drekki.
‘Aye, it is!’ said Umherth.
‘Which won’t work.’
Umherth scowled. ‘Why?’
Duzrekar leaned on his elbow and fixed them all with his milky eye. ‘You’ve seen these wrecks hereabouts? None are older than me.’
‘So?’ said Umherth.
‘Do you see any life here?’
The trommraad looked to each other.
‘The krozdonk…’ Hrunki offered.
‘Signs of life,’ said Duzrekar. ‘No actual life.’ He pressed the knuckles of his fists on the table. ‘A few weeks ago, all the birds and fish upped and left. Why do you think that is?’
Umherth shrugged. Otherek frowned.
‘Never mind his tone. He’s a bit doomy, this one,’ said Drekki. ‘Here’s the short version – the Dead Air is about to move, and we don’t want to go where it’s going. If we get moving now–’
‘Listen to me, before the gold madness takes you and you kill us all. I’ve been studying this place,’ Duzrekar interrupted. ‘It don’t move randomly, oh no. It’s on a journey of its own, on a spiral out from the Eye.’ From a bag, he pulled out a chart and smoothed it out on the table. It showed the whole Skyshoals. He traced his finger along a line of dots leading in a smooth, expanding curve from the centre of the chart out towards the edge. ‘You’ll notice how high we are here?’
‘Aye,’ said Otherek.
‘When I came here, we were in the low Second. Every move has seen us go up, until there’s no more up to go. It’s my estimation that, the next time it shifts, the Dead Air will leave the realmsphere entirely.’
‘He said last night its next stop will be on the other side of the Perimeter Inimical,’ said Drekki, wanting to shortcut Duzrekar’s tale.
‘I got that,’ said Otherek.
‘So our only real choice is taking the gold that’s here. Otherek, what quantities are we looking at?’
‘Refinery’s empty, but there is some solid aether in the stores,’ said Otherek.
‘Not much,’ said Duzrekar. ‘I’ve been burning what was refined before the disaster to stay alive.’
‘There’s still a tidy sum,’ said Otherek. ‘We can get it loaded onto the Aelsling within a few hours. It’s not the wild riches we were hoping for. But,’ he said, holding up his finger and grinning, ‘the port tanks, oh, they’re a different matter. The port tanks are full of aether-gold in raw form. Transport is the problem. We’ve limited tanking on the Aelsling. We could reinforce the aether storage, hyper-compress the aether, that’ll get us a bit more, but we don’t have much space, even if we had time for refining.’ He stroked his beard and smiled craftily. ‘There is, however, another option.’
‘The krontanker,’ Drekki said. ‘We get it moving, fill it up, take it home.’
‘We’ve no idea what shape it’s in,’ said Hrunki. ‘You’re a good endrineer, Drekki, but I don’t think even you can rebuild a krontanker in four days.’
‘It looks to be in one piece,’ said Drekki. ‘If it set down gently once it ran out of fuel, all its systems should be operational. Even if it can’t fare under its own power, if we can get the lofting mechanisms working, we can tow it out. It’ll make us slow, but the Aelsling’s got more than enough punch to drag it free.’
‘It’s tangled,’ said Otherek. ‘I had a look when we were exploring yesterday. They were loading when the disaster hit this place. It’s got half a pumping rig wrapped around it.’
‘We can cut that free,’ said Drekki.
‘You could. We could,’ said Duzrekar. He shook his head. ‘If you’re going to risk my life by dallying here, I’ll help. It will make it all quicker. The sooner we’re away, the better. I know my way around the equipment here better than any of you.’
‘The question remains how we fill the tanker,’ said Otherek. ‘The main pipe’s gone. It’ll take more than four days to get everything through the smaller hoses.’
‘I’m sure you can handle that,’ said Drekki. ‘Aether is your speciality.’
‘Yeah,’ Umherth said. ‘You handle it, khemist, I’m sick of being poor.’
Otherek took a long pull of beer. ‘All right. I need to do a proper survey first.’
‘Sounds like a plan! Listen, lads, Hrunki,’ said Drekki, putting on his most serious captain’s face. ‘It might be that we can only get whatever aether we can off on the Aelsling. Remember that’s what we were expecting, though I know we all hoped for more. Don’t go all grumbaki on me now you’ve had a sight of bigger riches. We’ll still be rich when we leave.’
‘But I want those extra riches!’ said Umherth. ‘I want them all!’
‘You’re speaking for all of us here,’ said Drekki. ‘And we’ve got a chance of bagging them, if we don’t spend all day in here moaning. So here’s what we’re going to do…’
The trommraad filed out and Uzki began clearing the pint pots and mopping the spots where he’d spilled the ale. He felt a little embarrassed by that. Why couldn’t he get anything right?
Drekki and Duzrekar talked by the door. Much of it endrineer’s cant, deeply technical stuff, and spoken low. The clatter of pint pots and the slap of the mop drowned most of what was said. Finally, they finished their discussion.
