Lightbringers and Rainmakers - Felix Gilman [13]
“If you were lying about the Folk,” I said. “If…”
“One,” he said. “You’re not as smart as you think you are, Ransom.” He pointed to a rock and then to another rock. “There’s Folk markings all around and you haven’t noticed them.”
I looked closer and saw that he was right. There were spirals and whorls and beautiful and alien forms carved into that rock, and another, and others all about.
“You think too much and you don’t see what’s really there. And two,” he said. “You heard those engines last night? You saw the smoke?”
“Sure.”
“That was the Line coming to Disorder.”
I thought about it and I guessed he was right. It was kind of upsetting, though it didn’t seem to upset Flood.
“They were in Hekima a few days ago. That was the name of the town where you lost your precious Apparatus, by the way, Ransom. They’ve made it down to Disorder by now.”
“Why? Are they—?”
“They’re not looking for you, Ransom.”
“Are they looking for you, Flood?”
“Yes and no,” he said.
“That’s why you came with me, isn’t it? An excuse to get out of town. So is that the third thing you wanted to tell me, or is there more?”
“The third thing is that we’ve been traveling too long. We should have hit the peak long ago. We’re traveling west, on the Rim, and we’re lost.”
“I figured.”
“Do you know what that means?”
“Is that the fourth thing?”
“The fourth thing is that the Folk are watching us now. They’ve been watching us for a while, Ransom. They don’t generally care too much for me or my kind. So it’s best that we move on. Even if we don’t know where we’re going.”
“Your kind? Flood, are you—?”
“Four things, I said. And I said ’em.”
Those stars again. This time it is because the stars are out overhead. No constellations that I recognize. That is how it is out here, of course. The Vessels have gone, but I guess they’ll be back; if you are reading this it is because they have come back and found me. A while ago I heard shooting, so I will be brief.
We found a cave to sleep in. It was carved and painted red with shapes that seemed to move, though maybe that was only a trick of the firelight. There were spirals and triangles but also other shapes, geometries that I do not have names for. They were all over the walls and the ceiling of that cave. It was kind of like being in church, one of the old-school White City ones with the wrought gold all over everything and the stained glass, only more beautiful. I had strange dreams.
In the morning my assistant was gone.
Flood shrugged. “Nothing to do with me. Guess he went home.”
“He’s stuck with me through worse than this, Flood. Why would he go home now?”
“It’ll get worse, Ransom. Now get moving.”
I wanted to look around for a while, and Flood and me argued until in the end he pulled a gun. I still do not know exactly from where.
“What’s that, Flood?”
“Move.”
We walked. As best I could tell we were still heading west.
“Where are we going, Flood?”
“Where I say we’re going.”
“I guess we’re not looking for the Folk anymore.”
“We are not.”
He kept looking behind him. You know why, of course. There were Vessels in the sky and I heard engines behind us. Your pursuit had woken him.
“What’s going on, Flood? Who are you?”
“You know what I am, Ransom. You’re dumb, but you’re not that dumb.”
I did. He is an Agent of your Enemy, of course. An Agent of the Gun. That means he is a murderer a hundred times over. That means he is even worse than you.
I said to him, and I guess I am saying it to you, that I don’t want to have anything to do with your stupid war. I am neutral. If I work on behalf of anything it is Light, or the Future.
He pushed me ahead of him.
“What did you do with my assistant? If you hurt him, Flood—”
“If I hurt him what, Ransom? What’ll you do? Anyway I didn’t. He ran out on you, Ransom. Weird little mute freak.”
He shoved me again.
“Let me go.”
“You may be useful to me.”
“I’m not much of a hostage, if that’s what you’re thinking. The Line’s soldiers won’t care if I live or die. In fact they’d—”
“Shut up.”
We walked all morning. He kept shoving me.