City of Ruin - Mark Charan Newton [199]
Bellis carefully explained what she and the Grey Hairs were doing in Villiren all this time, what they had been seeking, and how she needed someone’s help to raise it. Intrigued, and without hesitation, Beami found herself volunteering her services.
‘You do realize that this will be big?’ Bellis warned. ‘There may well be widespread destruction.’
‘If you think it will help sway things in our favour – then it will ultimately save many lives. Though I’m not sure I quite comprehend the scale of it.’
Bellis nodded. ‘Then, my dear, I will show you.’
*
Across the city, across the night, the two female cultists slippeuietly past soldiers and blockades and mourners gathered at pyres.
They cloaked themselves in darkness as they approached the firsocation.
There, Bellis produced a crowbar and turned to Beami. ‘My back isn’t what it used to be. Could you help me with this flagstone.’
She indicated one in particular that had an unusual symbol painted on it, one that Beami wasn’t familiar with. Possibly a hex sign? Together they prised it open and shifted the stone to one side . . . and underneath, embedded in the soil, lay a relic. Only the top of the orb was visible.
‘A Hefja,’ Bellis explained.
By the way Bellis looked at her, Beami felt that she was expected to understand. She thought the antique word meant ‘lift’ or ‘raise’, and suggested this.
‘That’s absolutely right, in the most literal sense. Pretty and bright – how wondrous!’
Beami understood then how it would work, how they would all work. Bellis had already explained there were a number of such symbols painted around the city, which the Grey Hairs had assiduously identified according to ley lines. ‘These locations are precise to within an inch,’ Bellis added. ‘All of them, once primed, should be enough.’
‘How will you know if they’re successful,’ Beami asked, ‘if you’re going to be somewhere else by the time they’re all activated?’
‘Ten in total, and all we can do is hope for the best. You see, this isn’t my first time . . .’ As Bellis smiled her face wrinkled up in delight.
Beami felt inspired by the woman’s confidence, and she had to admit it had taken her mind off things, to have this little assignment drag her out into the middle of the city, to prevent her from sitting alone and brooding over Lupus.
She watched Bellis set the device, turning the dials then placing her palm against its exterior surface. As the old woman withdrew it, the ghost of her hand remained visible under the surface of the orb.
‘This one is set,’ Bellis announced with a sigh of satisfaction. ‘Right, let’s get right to the next one.’
*
They shifted across several districts of the darkened city, througesolate lanes, stepping over corpse-thick passageways, while somewhere in the distance there were explosions and, shortly after, garudas arced back overhead.
Luckily eight of the ten devices were to be found in what was still Jamur territory, or no-man’s-land. Beami helped in lifting the stones, or in shifting corpses away first. To reach the two devices located in enemy-occupied territory, they had to use relics to shift between degrees of time. They shunted back and forth, vibrating between seconds, in order to reach them in real time, at a point just before they’d activated the first ones. It was all about synchronizing, of course.
Beami felt increasingly in awe of Bellis’s skills. The old woman possessed more wisdom and talent and imagination than she would have thought possible, and was surprisingly fit and agile. Now and then they’d stop to rest, and the old woman would whip out a hip flask of sherry, a grin appearing on her face as if the burdens of life had been lifted.
Dawn threatened on the horizon, and Beami felt a renewed sense of urgency because, once light arrived, the war would resume in full.
‘Don’t worry, my dear,’ Bellis said. ‘We’re just about set.’
The final device was back in Deeping, far across the city and safely behind