Dene whimpered. Ka and Sha twined around his ankles. Kiv snatched them into his arms. They were too light. The air burned his skin, too hot and too cold at the same time. His children shuddered.
"Murderers!" Kiv backed away from the pair, who stood there like statues, doing nothing but blocking the housing. He forced himself to think. Get the children to the capsules. Now! Move! Move! Move…
His terminal legs gave out. His children bleated and wailed his name and the burning cold air pressed against his ears and his whole skin and bore him to the ground.
"Ererish…" And he couldn't remember the rest of what he wanted to say.
Aria drank in the sight of the brown, brick walls of Perivar's home and she sighed with relief. Several times she had made a wrong turn and been forced to double back and try again. Sometime during the march, the sun had gone all the way down. The crowds thinned around her and the buses that passed were full of people with their heads lolling. So Aria guessed it was getting relatively late. There was no way to judge by the unchanging lights that decked the buildings. Her joints told her she'd been walking a long time and they were reminding her she'd run too hard, as she'd known they would. Despite all that, fresh air and time had given her an internal balance that using the stones had removed. She could think clearly on her own again.
She shoved the map into her pocket as she crossed the empty street. The building's main door opened under the touch of her fingers. Unaided, she remembered that Eric had pressed the top key on the destination list for the elevator when he had brought her here before, how long ago? Three weeks or a hundred years? She closed her eyes and leaned against the wall as the elevator lifted her up to Perivar's floor. Well, with Perivar she'd have some direct and solid help, for Iyal's sake, if not for her own.
The elevator door dragged itself open and let her into the simulated daylight of the corridor. She blinked hard and rubbed her eyes. Perivar's door stood open at the end of the hall. The gesture of welcome where he came from. She smiled and strode toward it with something like relaxation in her movements.
But as she approached the open doorway, the air filled with the smell of ozone and rot. The doorway was dark and the place beyond was silent. Nothing hummed or buzzed or clinked.
Aria hesitated. Run, said part of her mind. Get out of here now.
Run where? Iyal won't be at the lab now, or maybe ever again. I can find the port all right, but what'll I do once I'm there? She set her jaw and unhooked the cattle prod from her belt, wishing she'd thought to steal a couple of knives from the lab.
Aria stole forward, placing each step silently on the tiled floor. A glance into the dim room showed no movement. She slipped across the threshold and pressed her back against the wall, letting her eyes adjust to the darkness.
All the machines that filled the space were quite dead. No one moved between them. The door to Perivar's living rooms hung open. No sight or sound of movement came from in there either.
Her gaze tracked across the silent machinery to the portal that divided Perivar's home from Kiv's. Its door was also open and the threshold was draped in grey rags left from whatever substance had kept their atmospheres free of each other. Beyond it waited nothing but shadows and pale, grey light spilling in from the windows.
Aria gasped and swore and backed toward the door to the hall. The sudden breeze and the firm click told her it had shut before she could even whirl around and see it for herself.
She pressed her palm against the smooth surface of the reader. Nothing. Aria cursed bitterly. It was locked and she couldn't do anything. She'd never seen how the door opened without the reader. She cursed again, this time for not being bright enough to realize that all the Vitae had to do was look at the destination list for the bus to find out where she had been planning to go.
She bit her lip, bothered. Why weren't they here already? She looked at the remains of the inner portal. Maybe this was supposed to look like an accident. If the authorities arrived before she had entered the trap and they found the Vitae there, their presence would be difficult to explain. Now, though, the Vitae would know she was here. They'd have some Skyman's trick. They'd be on their way for her.
Hide, Aria. Where? Near the door? Assault them as they enter? Too obvious. They'll be ready. Hide in the corners. Make them come digging for me. She glanced around. Perivar's private quarters were small and nearly useless. She remembered that. Maybe Kiv's.
Hide in the darkness, maybe even find a weapon and a defensible position. Keep your back to a wall and at least they can't sneak up on you.
With one eye toward the hallway door, she sidestepped through the inner doorway into the shadows. The room was nothing but knobs and bumps and mounds of blackness. She slid between them carefully, making sure her feet were flat on the floor and her balance was sound at each step. She could not afford to be shocked into falling over.
The main walls of Kiv's room were set in a mirror configuration of Perivar's with the door to the private section in the far wall. When Aria reached it, she froze.
Draped across the threshold lay Kiv's long corpse. His arms lay wrapped around three smaller corpses. Three of his daughters lay dead with him.
Aria swallowed hard. Horror and fear took her over as a wretched thought reminded her how the Vitae came to find this place. Anger came fast on their heels.
You don't do this to the children. If your quarrel is with the parents, you bring it to the parents. You do not claim thelives of the children. The Nameless forbid it. Expressly, firmly, with every breath.
You are not in the Realm of the Nameless. The Skymen may do what they please.
But not this! There is no power that can excuse them for this!
She steeled herself and climbed around Kiv's cold body.
"I'm sorry," she whispered to the little corpses as she stepped around them. "Nameless Powers preserve me, I truly am."
Her foot kicked something and it screamed. She jumped backward, missed her footing, and fell against Kiv's clammy hide. With a screech of disgust, she scrabbled across the tacky floor. The thing on the floor screamed and whistled and buzzed, but didn't move. Aria peered at it. It was about the size of her torso and it…writhed.
The capsule. It was the capsule that had dangled from the overhead cables and carried Kiv's children between the rooms. Inside huddled one…no, two of the children.
They screamed at her. She rumbled with the disk in her ear. "Come on, you fool thing, work!" She tapped it impatiently.
"Murderer!" she heard abruptly. "You killed them! You killed them!"
The little one clawed at the sides of the capsule, its snout opening and closing maniacally as if it would bite its way through to get to her. The other grabbed at it with all four hands and twined their long bodies together until her sister was smothered into silence and could only lie still, with her sides trembling.
"Help us," she pleaded. "I know it's not your fault, but she's going crazy. Please help us."
"Oh, little ones," Aria laid her hands on the capsule. "We're trapped together unless you can you show me how to open the doors."
"I can."
"Then we're gone." Aria hefted the capsule. It weighed less than she thought it would. She balanced it on one shoulder. "Close your eyes," she told them, and hoped they obeyed as she stepped over the remains of their family. Her stomach roiled and heaved and she forced her gorge back down. She had to get out of here. She had to get them out of here. She could hear one of them keening in a sound that she couldn't imagine meant anything but pain.
Under the child's instructions, she punched in the override code for the door lock. Aria had them all out in the hallway before the door had opened all the way. She avoided the elevators. Machines were the enemy now. Any or all of them might be in the hands of the Vitae. But the doors to the stairs were open and the stairway was clear.