Surviving Arkadia

Of course we didn’t know they were bombs when we first heard them. They were just loud, sudden noises in the distance. They were the kind of sudden that you know means that something has gone very wrong somewhere.

There was a long and horrible moment of panic while we looked at each other and waited for someone to know what to do.

Gertrude was the first person to speak, “Petra, get on the roof and see if you can see what’s going on.”

As she spoke it seemed like Roly and Trudy finally broke free of the mental inertia. They both rose and headed for the hospital.

I didn’t wait to see what Amris would do. I headed straight for the quickest route to the highest local point. I scrambled up the decorative stone work on the back of the City Archive, heading for the small clock tower on the roof of the City Council building.

With more adrenaline in my veins than blood it was not a very different climb. I had no fear of falling. I was not pacing myself. I was totally focused on the fastest possible route up. It felt almost like flying. I was barely aware of the process of scrambling up the ornamental stone work. One moment I was on the ground looking up, the next I was leaning on the side of the clock tower, panting and looking toward a pillar of smoke on the edge of the city.

There were five pillars, all about the same distance away. Which was weird. Five things had gone horribly wrong, at the same time, roughly the same distance from the City Council building.

I tried to place the pillars on my mental map of the city. Jethro and I had gone on many walks around the city in our time here, trying to get a feel for the whole thing and not just for the area around the Citadel. We’d even bought a couple of day tickets and spent a day riding round on the Gondola network. Which was why I could be fairly sure that the five pillars of smoke and dust rising through the warm afternoon air were coming from the five Gondola Interchange Stations where the Gondolas from the ground stations arrived in the city and where the urban gondolas stopped and turned around. On a map the city looked like a five spoked wheel, with a knackered rim, because of the uneven perimeter.

If you wanted to simultaneously stop people from leaving the city and also mess up the city’s transport infrastructure an attack on the five Interchange Stations would be the way to do it.

I walked to the edge of the roof, intending to call down to the others, to warn them. Before I could I was drowned out by the voice of the Mayor on Moonstone’s Public Address System. It was used so rarely that I’d almost forgotten it existed. On an average week it was only used once, to allow the Convener of the Temple of the Source to remind everyone that the Temple was open and shops were closed for the day of worship, and then do a brief prayer of gratitude.

I’d never heard the Mayor use the PA in my time in Moonstone but I hadn’t really been there long enough to know how unusual it really was. However the message he delivered had to be unique.

“People of Moonstone, it is with a heavy heart that I inform you that we are at war with the Ostian Empire. I have just received a written formal declaration of war. It does include peace terms but they are so barbaric that I am confident that as soon as enough Members of the City Council can be brought together to vote upon it they will reject it. The Ostian Army is marching upon us as I speak. If you cannot, or will not, flee the city then I commend you to the Safeholds in your home district. I have ordered the Citadel Safeholds be opened and they will remain open to anyone who can reach them. Remember the rules of the public Safeholds. You may carry inside food, drink, medical supplies, and nothing else but the clothes you stand up in. May the Source protect you.”

I looked back at the five columns of smoke. Was I sure they marked the Gondola Interchanges? Getting the right information to the Mayor could be invaluable but the wrong information was a good way to get a bunch of people killed.

I was sure. I didn’t know where the certainty came from but I thought I could find out. I closed my eyes and examined the full text of the Survivor Type and there it was MENTAL MAPPING - SURVIVORS CAN ALWAYS PATH-FIND IN PLACES THEY’VE BEEN BEFORE AND DO NOT GET LOST IF THEY CAN SEE A FAMILIAR LANDMARK . I didn’t read any further. I’d already delayed more than I should have.

I leant out over the edge of the roof as far as I could and shouted down, “Someone get to the Mayor and tell him that they’ve bombed the Gondola Interchanges. All of them.”

I’m not sure if Gertrude heard me but I know that Amris did because I could hear him swearing from the roof. They both ran for the City Council building.

I returned to the shade of the clock tower. From my lofty vantage I could see the Mayor's announcement beginning to take effect. People had been milling about in shock but now I could see two different instincts taking over. Some people were heading straight for the City City Council building, the nearest entrance to the Citadel Safehold. Some others were heading for the nearest Gondola stop, presumably intending to use the network to flee the city.

A door in the side of the clock tower popped open and Gertrude staggered out, breathless and sweating from having run up the many stairs.

“If they’ve already attacked the Gondolas then it won’t be long before they go for the domes,” she said, in answer to my questioning look.

“So?” I said, wondering how either of us were in a position to do anything about that.

“I’m an Archivist,” she said, pulling a wand, that I had previously assumed to be a decorative hair stick, out of her hair. “I mainly use magic for repairing things or preventing them from decaying. Most of my spells come from the schools of Earth and Time. I’m not much of a combat caster but I can certainly keep this building in one piece, maybe this Dome too.”

“You’re sure they’re going to attack right now?”

“Why else would they blow up the Gondola interchanges at the same time as declaring war?”

The Public Address System cracked into life, saving me from trying to formulate an answer. “People of Moonstone,” said the Mayor’s voice, sounding even more worried than he had before. “Reports have reached me that our enemies have already destroyed the five Gondola Interchange Stations. Please do not go to the Interchanges unless you have the skills to aid the repair and rescue efforts. Enemy forces have been sighted beneath the city. People of Moonstone you must now choose, either retreat to the Safeholds or prepare to defend the city.”

“I suppose that makes it official,” I said. “I’m not much of a fighter but I’ll protect you as well as I’m able.”

Almost as soon as the words were out of my mouth I heard scratching. It sounded like someone climbing up the ornate stonework on the front of the City Council Building. I didn’t have my Messer with me but I never went anywhere without at least one work knife. I scrambled up the clock tower, seeking the higher ground to leap from, and drew the blade from its sheath.

A large dark figure vaulted over the edge of the roof and loomed over Gertrude. I leapt for it, blade out, and almost did myself an injury, twisting in the air to change direction so I didn’t stab Amris in the neck.

Gertrude’s defensive spell died on her lips.

Amris didn’t look himself. There was something feral about him. I had an instinct that if I had tried to stab him it might not have gone well for me.

“I’m here to keep you casting,” he said to Gertrude.

Before anyone could say anything else we were distracted by a high pitched whistling noise. I looked around for the source of the noise and spotted a thing that looked like a cartoonist's caricature of a bomb arching through the air towards us. It was a fist sized black sphere with a lit fuse protruding from the top.

Amris caught it in one hand right before it would have hit me in the face. I was so shocked by its appearance that all thought of defence had left my mind.

Gertrude tapped it with her wand, freezing it, not in ice but in time. The fizzing flame of the fuse stopped moving.

I pulled my folding telescope from the belt pouch where I kept it. After a moment of searching I could see the gap between the domes that it had to have been thrown or catapulted through. I pointed it out to Amris and he lobbed the bomb back the way it had come with such grace and efficiency that I just knew that Amris had to be an Outlander. I knew because I had seen no evidence of anyone on Arkadia playing cricket and that was something I had specifically looked for.

I had no time to ask him about it because there were so many more bombs incoming.