The New Weird - Ann VanderMeer [139]
The worm-woman indicated the pools. "Freshwater lakes formed deep among us. We recoiled from the water and erroneously left it open to the air. And the Insects began to breed. We tried to stop them. We kept fighting but, as our numbers diminished, we found it harder to cover the ground. Generations after generations of larvae decimated us, so we sought shelter under the surface. From there we Shifted to find a new world to colonise. as many worlds as possible from the construction of the Insect's nest."
The Vermiform woman dissolved into a snake and slithered to rejoin the main mass. "We hope the Gabbleratchet might destroy some Insects," it added. "Brace yourselves. We will try to shake it once and for all by retracing our steps."
We looked around for the Gabbleratchet, in the cloudless sky, against the rounds of the moons, among the peaks of the Paperlands and directly down to the lake beneath us.
I thought I saw something moving in it! I blinked and stared. Something was swimming in its murky abyss. It became darker and clearer as it rose close to the surface. It moved with a quick straight jet, then turned head over tail along its length and disappeared into the depths.
"What the fuck? What was that?"
A flash of green on the sheer rock face below us. The Gabbleratchet hurtled straight out of it. Empty white pelvic girdles and scooping paws reflected in the lake.
Cyan screamed. The Gabbleratchet turned; it knew where we were.
"Now!" The Vermiform lifted us off our feet, through ―
― Plennish ―
― Infusoria Swamp ―
― Sauria ―
― Precambria ―
― Epsilon Market ―
― Somewhere dark.?
Somewhere dark! Cyan cried, "Are you there?"
"I'm here, I'm here!" I felt for her hand. I opened my eyes wide, just to be sure, but there was not one shred of light. Then, seemingly in a vast remoteness I saw a faint glow, a thin vertical white beam seemed to. walk past us. It stopped, turned around and began to hurry back again with the motion of a human being, though it was nothing but a single line.
"Where are we?" I demanded. "You said we were going back to the Fourlands!"
"Stupid creature! This is your world. We want to hide for a while in case the Gabbleratchet comes."
"But."
The Vermiform said, "This is Rayne's room. That is Rayne."
I think the Vermiform was pointing but I couldn't see anything.
"She is pacing back and forth. She's anxious; in fact, she's panicking. Can't you feel it?"
Curiously enough, I could. The intense emotions were radiating from the white ray and putting me on edge. "But what's happened to her? That's just a thin line!"
"Hush. If we see the Gabbleratchet's sparks, we will have to leave fast. This is the Fourlands, the fifth to the eighth dimensions. You occupy those as well as the ones you're familiar with, seeing as you've evolved in a world with ten. You can't see them with your usual senses, but you do operate in them. We are amazed that you never consciously realise it."
Close by, Cyan shouted, "It's talking crap! Tell it so, Jant."
"Hey, it's interesting."
The Vermiform harped on, "Emotions impress on the fifth dimension, which is why you can sometimes sense a strong emotion or see an image of the person who suffered it, in the same place years later. What other examples can we give? Acupuncture works on the part of you that operates in the sixth dimension, which is why you'll never be able to understand how it works with the senses you have. And the seventh, if only you knew of that one ― "
Cyan screamed, "Take me home! Take me home now! Now! Now! Now!" I could hear her thrashing and kicking at the flaccid worms.
"Think of it as a shadow world," I told her.
"You goatfucking son of a bastard's bastard's bastard!"
We waited for a long time. The Vermiform eventually said. "I think we've thrown off the Gabbleratchet. Let's go."
It gave us a small jolt and our worm-bonds dropped to the floor. Off-balance I stumbled