he was coming to understand something about the Eldred, now senses the gulf that has always yawned between them. Ice in his stomach, he joins his comrades aboard the craft.
The hatch closes; through the smoky canopy they can see the top of the building, but the dark figure of the Eldred named Satan has faded against the darkness of the sky. As the flyer speeds away from the tower, there comes unbidden to Edge Nain a vision of the near future: of the self-constructed buildings of Yerusalom all taking to space in a glow of dark-bearing light, leaving behind a stunned humanity. Never, never, never to return.
WITHIN THE MECHANISM
RENDING
Long after the Anubine had left, a pall of smoke still hung in the air above the surface of the Mechanism. Slowly it settled onto the metal skin and the small plot of earth and its vegetables; ashes rained down onto the tree that grew beneath the grating, and fouled the pool at the bottom of the hollow drum from which Berrin and Maddus drew their water.
Berrin had been gone three days: a hunting expedition, faraway east along the metal aisles of the Mechanism, past the thicket of crisscrossing corroded beams they called the Hedge Forest and into the wild area beyond, where much soil had drifted into depressions of the surface. There, grass and trees grew, and birds and small animals were abundant.
The hunting had been good; Berrin was skilled with her crossbow. Her bags now bulged with meat. She was quietly happy. She longed to be with Maddus again, in great and sudden bursts of feeling that left her with a dry mouth and a pounding heart.
Her mind adrift in fantasies, she paid only cursory attention to her surroundings. Thus it was only when she was already very near her home that she finally grew aware of the devastation the Anubine had wrought. In sudden terror, she ran the rest of the way, not even thinking to draw the blade she wore strapped to her forearm.
She had known, perhaps, from the moment she perceived the remains of the cloud roiling in the air. In fact, it seemed to her now that she had known before that moment; as the pain of a wound is later remembered to have begun before ever the flesh was cut. She had known that she was too late, that the Anubine had caught Maddus and overcome her. As if it could not have been otherwise.
She found Maddus on the sloping plate behind the house. The Anubine had dismembered her and scattered her limbs about, a discarded puzzle of flesh. Dried blood stained the whole of the metal surface. The head had rolled to the bottom of the incline, and rested face up in the angle of the plate with the main floor. Its features were twisted; in surprise, in terror, in pain? Perhaps, thought Berrin, Maddus had been caught unaware and had not had enough time to be afraid. She doubted it.
The trunk had been hewn in three pieces, and the poured-out innards had been slashed into ribbons. With Maddus’s blood the Anubine had drawn a complex symbol on the rear wall of the house. Doubtless it meant something to them, but to a Mere human it was unintelligible. Berrin ignored it as she began to gather the pieces of Maddus’s corpse, methodically, the way she used to tidy up their house; and then her numbed mind began to thaw, and she was able to scream at last.
REBUILDING
In the end, it surprised her how ordinary the whole thing seemed. For many long minutes, but far less than an hour by the horizon clock, she had raved and gibbered. Then her emotions drained away, and her sanity returned. Always she had been like this, feelings coming after a brief delay in an explosive rush, and then utterly spending themselves, leaving behind a composure cold and hard, like the metal of the Mechanism in the night. Only happiness had been otherwise, a slow quiet building-up that did not pause or crest.
Her lover was dead now; her happiness should be ended, but there was one way that she might yet attempt to recapture it. It was forbidden; all her youth in Town Dulade, she
The hatch closes; through the smoky canopy they can see the top of the building, but the dark figure of the Eldred named Satan has faded against the darkness of the sky. As the flyer speeds away from the tower, there comes unbidden to Edge Nain a vision of the near future: of the self-constructed buildings of Yerusalom all taking to space in a glow of dark-bearing light, leaving behind a stunned humanity. Never, never, never to return.
WITHIN THE MECHANISM
RENDING
Long after the Anubine had left, a pall of smoke still hung in the air above the surface of the Mechanism. Slowly it settled onto the metal skin and the small plot of earth and its vegetables; ashes rained down onto the tree that grew beneath the grating, and fouled the pool at the bottom of the hollow drum from which Berrin and Maddus drew their water.
Berrin had been gone three days: a hunting expedition, faraway east along the metal aisles of the Mechanism, past the thicket of crisscrossing corroded beams they called the Hedge Forest and into the wild area beyond, where much soil had drifted into depressions of the surface. There, grass and trees grew, and birds and small animals were abundant.
The hunting had been good; Berrin was skilled with her crossbow. Her bags now bulged with meat. She was quietly happy. She longed to be with Maddus again, in great and sudden bursts of feeling that left her with a dry mouth and a pounding heart.
Her mind adrift in fantasies, she paid only cursory attention to her surroundings. Thus it was only when she was already very near her home that she finally grew aware of the devastation the Anubine had wrought. In sudden terror, she ran the rest of the way, not even thinking to draw the blade she wore strapped to her forearm.
She had known, perhaps, from the moment she perceived the remains of the cloud roiling in the air. In fact, it seemed to her now that she had known before that moment; as the pain of a wound is later remembered to have begun before ever the flesh was cut. She had known that she was too late, that the Anubine had caught Maddus and overcome her. As if it could not have been otherwise.
She found Maddus on the sloping plate behind the house. The Anubine had dismembered her and scattered her limbs about, a discarded puzzle of flesh. Dried blood stained the whole of the metal surface. The head had rolled to the bottom of the incline, and rested face up in the angle of the plate with the main floor. Its features were twisted; in surprise, in terror, in pain? Perhaps, thought Berrin, Maddus had been caught unaware and had not had enough time to be afraid. She doubted it.
The trunk had been hewn in three pieces, and the poured-out innards had been slashed into ribbons. With Maddus’s blood the Anubine had drawn a complex symbol on the rear wall of the house. Doubtless it meant something to them, but to a Mere human it was unintelligible. Berrin ignored it as she began to gather the pieces of Maddus’s corpse, methodically, the way she used to tidy up their house; and then her numbed mind began to thaw, and she was able to scream at last.
REBUILDING
In the end, it surprised her how ordinary the whole thing seemed. For many long minutes, but far less than an hour by the horizon clock, she had raved and gibbered. Then her emotions drained away, and her sanity returned. Always she had been like this, feelings coming after a brief delay in an explosive rush, and then utterly spending themselves, leaving behind a composure cold and hard, like the metal of the Mechanism in the night. Only happiness had been otherwise, a slow quiet building-up that did not pause or crest.
Her lover was dead now; her happiness should be ended, but there was one way that she might yet attempt to recapture it. It was forbidden; all her youth in Town Dulade, she
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