Fugitives of Chaos

Quentin bowed his head slightly, turned to one side, hiding his reaction.

Victor remained calm. "I hope you would do us the courtesy of waiting till we are no longer in the middle of an emergency."

Colin said, "I am not sure I want to be in a group that is going to run off and leave this whole ship's complement to die horrible, horrible deaths. What kind of people would that make us? I'd rather be dead than be that kind of person."

Quentin said softly, "And rather have the Earth destroyed in the process, too, I suppose."

Colin barked at him, "Yes! Why not? I am not responsible for what the folks in Chaos do! I didn't start this war!"

The deck tilted slightly underfoot. We all felt it. After a moment, the deck righted itself.

The sensation would not have been strange for someone in a smaller boat. Boats always rock when someone climbs over the side. A ship this size, as steady as a fortress even in the heaviest waves, would not rock if any lesser creature climbed aboard. But Echidna was not one of the lesser ones.

Victor said, "We have no time to debate, no time to come to a consensus. At the moment, you cannot quit the group, since we are in the middle of an emergency. It is possible, I admit, that my orders are ill-advised, or even wrong. Nonetheless, you will all obey them, promptly and without question, while the emergency lasts."

Colin said, "And what if I just say, stuff it, and go off and fight the monster myself, since no one else seems to be able to?"

Victor spread his hands: "It would be somewhat out of character for you."

Colin's face turned red: "Are you calling me a coward?"

Victor said calmly, "I mean, before now, you displayed great strength of character. You have been, till now, entirely devoted to the group, even to the extent that you committed acts of vandalism and extraordinary disobedience in order to attract attention and pull punishments onto yourself which would have otherwise fallen on other members of the group, especially Amelia, who seemed not to notice your self-sacrifice. I thought it was obvious what you were doing. It showed that you were serious. Serious about the group. Are you not serious anymore?"

Colin said, "We can't just let all these people get killed! They rescued us! You said it yourself!"

"Nor can we all go shooting off any which way we like," said Victor.

For some reason, Colin looked at me when Victor said that. I realized that I had not told Colin about the episode when I would not obey orders during Grendel's attack. That did not mean someone had not told him about that event. And he might have heard a version much less flattering to me than what I might have said.

Colin compressed his lips and said nothing.

Victor was saying, "We are losing time by this talk. I will point out that the fishmonger has already climbed aboard the deck. It is only a matter of moments before she begins tearing up hull plates and killing people. Since this matter is serious, however, I would be willing to have a vote of no-confidence right now, if someone will propose another candidate for group leader. I will ask for a straight vote with no debate. Pausing to debate might cut off any possibility of escape. Fishmonger may be sitting on the hatch that this vent leads to. Candidates?"

Colin said, "Me. I want to lead. And I do not think we can run away. If I am elected, I am going to go fight her."

Victor said, "No speechmaking, please. Any other candidates?"

Quentin said, "I nominate Victor. And I vote for him, too."

Colin said, "I vote for me. Two to one."

Victor said, "I have not voted yet. It is one to one."

Vanity looked at me. She said, "What do we do, Amelia?"

That really surprised me. I suppose Vanity still thought of me as the wise older sister, the person to turn to when the boys were fighting. And although no one had raised a voice, or raised a fist, this was a fight, a fight to the death, really. Colin was challenging Victor's supremacy as the king stallion of the herd.

And it was my fault. It was all my fault. I was the one they were really fighting over.

And the fact that Echidna was here was my fault, too. If I had not taken the wedding dress, she would not be here. It had been hanging on a branch, and I had paused to take it and put it on. My four friends would not be doomed.

Because if Colin fought her, he would die. The voice from Quentin's mirror, the Duke of Hell, had said so. If any of the four of us approached her, either singly or as a group, we would die. The voice said so.

But there were five of us.

Let her return what she has stolen, and she may yet return a—

A what? Return a book to the library archive? Return around five? Return all roasted like a pig, apple in her mouth, spiced with garlic and chive?

Alive.

I said, "Alive."

Vanity said, "Amelia…"

"Rhymes with five. Alive."

Victor said, "If you would please pay attention to our present political crises, Amelia, we…"

"Me," I said, "I am the one he was talking about…"

Vanity said, "I second the nomination and cast my vote for Amelia."

I blinked. "What? I wasn't nominating myself for leader—"

Victor said, "I also vote for Amelia." He laughed and looked quite relaxed.

I said, "Wait a minute—"

Victor said, "The leader has ordered us to wait a minute. Everyone please wait."

I said, "How am I leader? Not everyone voted."

Victor said, "If you vote for Colin or for me, that will tie it up one to two to two. But since you nominated yourself, the vote tally now stands at three to one to one, doesn't it?"

The deck shivered underfoot. In the distance, we heard the scream of metal as some huge amount of deck plate was ripped up from its moorings.

Quentin raised his hand to his brow, and gave me a snappy salute. "I change my vote. She knows what we have to do. I see it in her face. Four to one."

Colin raised his hand and gave me a stiff-armed Nazi salute. "Who am I to stand in the way of progress?

Five to naught. Hail, Dark Mistress! I yearn for your whip! What are your orders? Do we fight or do we flee?"

More snapping of metal overhead. Echidna was tearing the hatches open.

I said, "Neither. You flee. The four of you. Colin, turn into something. I have to go face Echidna alone…"

Colin blenched. "Fuck, no! You cannot just sacrifice yourself to—"

"Quiet! No back-talk! No debate! Everyone in the crawlspace! Snappy! Double-time! Go, go, go!"

I ran into the other room and shoved aside boxes. There it was. I lifted the lid to make certain I had the right box. Soft fabric lighter than smoke, with glints of pearl and shivering dew drops, shone back at me: the wedding dress.

1.

Vanity's crawlway led only a dozen feet. There was a set of grilles through which rain was blowing, and a cylindrical housing for some sort of pump or turbine. Unfortunately, the metal cylinder of the turbine occupied all but the merest sliver of the crawlway, and was between us and the grilles which opened out onto the deck.

Colin was in front, and I was in the rear, behind Victor. Vanity and Quentin were in the middle. We heard Colin grunting and straining for a moment or two.

Vanity called to him (shouting over the storm noise), "Use your powers on it!"

He shouted back, "Inspire me!"

Vanity shouted, "Amelia and I will do another striptease act for you if you get that vent off!"

"Ho ho. That would be nice, if I believed you," said Colin.

Well, on the one hand, I did not want to be embarrassed. I should say, I did not want to be crucified with embarrassment. On the other hand, being stuck in an air-shaft on a ship about to be pulled underwater by the eldest mother of all monsters who ever preyed on humanity was not such a great option either.

I wished I could have just whispered this in his ear.

I said to Victor, 'Tell Vanity to tell Colin that I promised him anything."