Barker, Clive – Imajica 01 – The Fifth Dominion. Part 9

The mystif was quick: at the door in two strides. Gentle drew breath, but as his hand went to his mouth he heard a shriek from Huzzah. He glanced down the corridor towards the child, who was retreating before two more guards, both Oethacs, one snatching at her as she fled, the other with his sights on Gentle. Pie seized his arm and dragged him back from the door as N’ashap, still rising as he came, ran at them with his sword. The time to dispatch him with a pneuma had passed. All Gentle had space to do was seize the door handle and slam the cell closed. The key was in the lock, and he turned it as N’ashap’s bulk slammed against the other side.

Huzzah was running now, her pursuer between the second guard and his target. Tossing the gun to Pie, Gentle went to snatch Huzzah up before the Oethac took her. She was in his arms with a stride to spare, and he flung them both aside to give Pie a clear line of fire. The pursuing Oethac realized his jeopardy and went for his own weapon. Gentle looked around at Pie.

“Kill the fuckers!” he yelled, but the mystif was staring at the gun in its hand as though it had found shite there.

“Pie! For Christ’s sake! Kill them!”

Now the mystif raised the gun, but still it seemed incapable of pulling the trigger.

“Do it!” Gentle yelled.

The mystif shook its head, however, and would have lost them all their lives had two clean shots not struck the back of the guards’ necks, dropping them both to the ground.

“Papa!” Huzzah said.

It was indeed the sergeant, with Scopique in tow, who emerged through the smoke. His eyes weren’t on his daughter, whom he’d just saved from death. They were on the soldiers he’d dispatched to do so. He looked traumatized by the deed. Even when Huzzah went to him, sobbing with relief and fear, he barely noticed her. It wasn’t until Gentle shook him from his daze of guilt, saying they should get going while they had half a chance, that he spoke.

“They were my men,” he said.

“And this is your daughter,” Gentle replied. “You made the right choice.”

N’ashap was still battering at the cell door, yelling for help. It could only be moments before he got it.

“What’s the quickest way out?” Gentle asked Scopique.

“I want to let the others out first,” Scopique replied. “Father Athanasius, Izaak, Squalling—”

“There’s no time,” Gentle said. “Tell him, Pie! We have to go now or not at all. Pie? Are you with us?”

“Yes. . ..”

“Then stop dreaming and let’s get going.”

Still protesting that they couldn’t leave the rest under lock and key, Scopique led the quintet up by a back way into the night air. They came out not onto the parapet but onto bare rock.

“Which way now?” Gentle asked.

There was already a proliferation of shouts from below. N’ashap had doubtless been liberated and would be ordering a full alert.

“We have to head for the nearest landfall.”

“That’s the peninsula,” Scopique said, redirecting Gentle’s gaze across the Cradle towards an arm of low-lying land that was barely discernible in the murk of the night.

That murk was their best ally now. If they moved fast enough it would cloak them before their pursuers even knew which direction they’d headed in. There was a beetling pathway down the island’s face to the shore, and Gentle led the way, aware that every one of the four who were following was a liability: Huzzah a child, her father still racked by guilt, Scopique casting backwards glances, and Pie still dazed by the bloodshed. This last was odd in a creature he’d first encountered in the guise of assassin, but then this journey had changed them both.

As they reached the shore, Scopique said, “I’m sorry, I can’t go. You all head on. I’m going to try and get back in and let the others out.”

Gentle didn’t attempt to persuade him otherwise. “If that’s what you want to do, good luck,” he said. “We have to go.”

“Of course you do! Pie, I’m sorry, my friend, but I couldn’t live with myself if I turned my back on the others. We’ve suffered too long together.” He took the mystifs hand. “Before you say it, I’ll stay alive. I know my duty, and I’ll be ready when the time comes.”

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