Menagerie - Martin Day [80]
'It is good to hear you talk of the future,' said one of the moth-creatures.
'It is important that we have confidence in our own abilities,' she replied. She turned slightly as she heard approaching voices. A huge Taculbain entered, flanked by two others. It had been one of the first to respond to the special food, and was now almost completely transformed into a soldier. The mandibles had become huge attacking jaws, counter-balanced by a bony ridge extending from the back of the head. The wings were covered by a hard carapace like that of a beetle. It bowed stiffly and the accompanying Taculbain returned to their other duties.
'Well?' asked the Queen.
'As we requested, we returned to the building that contains the machinery that we were asked to destroy,'
reported the soldier. 'There seems to be no way to undo our damage.'
'Did we see these Mecrim creatures?'
'In the room of metal cocoons some were still cold to the touch, others were as warm as the bright light of the surface world. Fluid was draining away. Some creatures were crumbling to dust. Inside others we could see the beasts, these Mecrim.'
'Did they seem strong?'
'If seeing is true then yes, they did.'
'Did we see any of the creatures emerge from their cocoons?' asked the Queen.
'As we left we heard a huge rushing sound, a splash of fluid followed by the jangle of metal and glass falling to the floor.
'We glanced back and saw a creature, slow but looking straight at us. A ruined casket lay overturned beside it. We saw other hands and heads moving. They began to pull themselves free and stand, dripping, on the floor. Hissing.
Preparing. Ready to hunt and kill.
'The Mecrim are free, our Queen.'
'The man was found in the hills beyond the city walls. By all accounts his cries could be heard from within the gatehouse. He was agitated and unkempt. When the knights first spoke to him he seemed easily distracted and for many hours I thought he would say nothing that did not smack of rambling insanity.
'Enquiries within the city showed that he was a traveller, only recently arrived. According to the inn-keeper he had seemed quiet but secretive when asked about his business here. He did not socialize, spending long periods away from the inn. When he returned he stayed in his room and food was sent to him.
'My men investigated his room, the inn-keeper being quite willing to provide a key. The first thing they noticed was a silver pendulum hanging from the ceiling. Various marks and lines had been noted on the wooden floorboards beneath it in chalk. Some lines described the possible motion of the pendulum, other marks appeared to be calculations. Although the knights at first suspected some foreign religious sect even a cursory examination of these writings showed the man to be a scientist.
The rest of the room was unremarkable, as he had brought little with him. There were a few maps of the countryside around the city, over which he had drawn lines and made numerous annotations. In addition on sheets of parchment he had sketched maps of what appeared to be a series of caves, although they matched none known to us.
All such documents carried thin layers of dirt as if they had been taken with the man on his forays into the hillside.
'We had more than enough evidence to convict him of involvement in heretical science. I simply could not understand what such a man was doing in our midst when I am still given to believe that our reputation is well known right across our world.
'I began to question him myself. This was a day or so after his initial apprehension. He seemed calmer now, and, sifting his words for the taint of madness brought on by his abominable studies, I was able to make some sense of what he had to say.
'I was interested to hear that when he spoke of the mysteries of the pendulum he spoke as often of mystical as scientific secrets. He had chosen