Surviving Arkadia

Amris and I took it in turns to hurl the cartoonish bombs back the way they had come. Both of us lobbed them in the easy, overarm throw of someone who had practised throwing a ball from the outfield to the waiting gloves of a wicket keeper. All we could do was hope that one of our throws would find our enemy and kill them, or better yet, destroy their arsenal, before someone down there thought to mess with the fuse length and send us a bomb that would explode before Gertrude could freeze it.

Most of the bombs did not hit the roof but were falling on the crowd of civilians trying to reach the Citadel Safehold. I saw one explode in the air above the crowd and several people go down, hit by the shockwave or by fragments of the heavy iron bomb case. Another bomb hit the ground, rolled into the crowd and exploded there.

From the roof it was hard to tell how bad it was but we could hear the screams. After the explosion in the crowd someone down there raised some kind of shield aura. I don’t know how well it worked because I was too busy concentrating on the incoming bombs.

In the end the stalemate wasn’t broken by them killing us or by us killing them. They stopped lobbing bombs for fear of hitting their own troops. Ostian aerial forces had arrived in the city. At first they were just dark figures in the distance, dropping out of the sky and landing on any clear ground space in the city. They could only land around the edge of the bigger districts, where the Domes didn’t quite reach the ground.

When the bombs stopped I took a moment to check them out with my telescope and the moment I got my first look at the Ostian military uniforms I had an instinctive understanding of how much trouble we were in.

“What?” said Amris when I started swearing.

I handed him the telescope and pointed at the dark figures organising themselves into squads in the middle of a wide boulevard in the Theatre district.

Amris looked at them for a moment and then joined me in swearing. “Fucking Fascists,” he said.

“We have to evacuate the city,” I said. “Someone needs to tell the Mayor.”

“I’ll go,” said Amris. “Gertrude needs to stay close to the Dome and he's more likely to believe me than you.”

“You’re going to tell the Mayor to Abandon the city based on a cursory look at the enemy forces?” said Gertrude.

“It’s the uniforms,” I said. “Their uniforms look like Nazi Germany had a baby with Imperial Japan and then hired Franco as a nanny.”

“She means they look very stylish, very expensive and more like costumes than real uniforms,” said Amris.

“I mean that they look like they were designed by someone who cared more about how badass they looked than how much they cost, or how practical they were. I bet they’ve got little skulls on them.”

“You and the Mayor are just going to have to trust us,” said Amris, and he left before Gertrude could argue further.

I handed her the telescope and pointed out the soldiers, more because I thought it would distract her from arguing than because I thought it would convince her. The smart black jackets with their high collars did look very cool. So did the knee high boots. Maybe we were wrong. Maybe it was just easier to mass produce that sort of thing here than it was on earth. Maybe there were spells to do it and once you had one cool black uniform you cold make a bunch more with minimal investment. That didn’t fit with everything I’d learned about making things as a Scavenger though.

“I see what you’re saying about the uniforms,” said Gertrude, “But they could just be some kind of elite aerial unit.”

“Maybe they are,” I said. “In which case why are they sending an elite unit into a city full of civilians. We don’t even have a standing army.”

Gertrude looked uneasy but didn’t say anything.

Moments later the Mayor’s voice boomed out of the Public Address System again.

“People of Moonstone. We are now in a full evacuation. The Citadel is leaving. I repeat, the Citadel is leaving.”

I had no idea what the announcement meant but the crowds below us reacted almost immediately. People surged towards the Citadel as the Mayor’s voice announced, “One minute!”

I heard noises coming from the dome above us. I’d never heard anything actually hit one of the domes before. I looked up and there were six more of the black uniformed Ostian troops above us. They were on the outside of the dome hammering huge spikes into the dome. With each blow the dome rang like a bell. I didn’t know anything about magic but even I could tell that the spikes were damaging the dome somehow. It was losing the multicoloured shimmer that had given the city its name.

“Can you stop them?” I said.

“Maybe, at least for a while,” said Gertrude. “But it might make more sense to let them break it and then repair it.”

“Won’t they fall through then? I can’t fight half a dozen elite soldiers by myself. I probably can’t fight one of them.”

“They’re not going to come for us,” said Gertrude, “Because we’re not going to be an obvious threat until after they’ve dropped through. Someone’s going to have to deal with them though.”

“They’ll probably head straight for the Mayor,” I said. “Unless this is more Fever bullshit and then they’ll head for the Hospital.”

“Then we won’t have to worry about them,” said Gertrude, “Both the Mayor and the Hospital are defended.”

“Thirty Seconds!” the voice of the Mayor boomed out once more.

There were screams from below as the crowds fought to get to the Citadel.

The Dome rang again and then I felt it crack. It wasn’t like glass cracking. It was like nothing I’d heard before. I felt the crack in my very soul. A horrible moaning sound rose up from the crowds below us.

The six black figures dropped through the spreading cracks in the dome. Whatever magic they’d used to get up there slowed their fall and allowed them to manoeuvre in the air. They broke into three teams of two. One team headed for the hospital and one team dropped past Gertrude and I to land on the Mayor’s balcony.

When I looked for the other team they were gone. The pair of them had vanished while I was staring at the two headed for the Mayor’s balcony.

Gertrude pointed her wand at the Dome above us and muttered under her breath. Then she stopped, “Oh dear,” she said. “I may have underestimated the gravity of the spells involved. “

“Can you fix it?” I said, dreading the answer.

“Oh I can fix it,” she said. “I just need you to catch me afterwards.”

“Ten Seconds!” said the voice of the Mayor over the Public Address.

Gertrude looked up at the Dome and said something that the System did not translate for me. There was a bright flash of light and when I could see again the Dome was in the process of remaking itself and Gertrude’s arm dropped. The wand fell from her hand and she toppled.

I did manage to catch her before she hit the roof. I also grabbed the wand before it rolled off the edge.

“Three seconds… two… one. Detaching now!” said the voice of the Mayor.

There was a terrible grinding sound that came from somewhere deep beneath. Not just beneath my feet but beneath the building. It was metallic and huge and it made me think of the vast iron chains that had been my first sight of the city.

The building shuddered. No. Not the building. The Citadel. The whole thing shuddered and began to descend. Before long I was looking up at the buildings of the surrounding districts. Then I was looking up at the people standing on the edge of those districts, the people who had failed to reach the Citadel in time. Then I was looking up into the eyes of Jethro.

He was standing on the very edge staring back at me as I hoisted Gertrude’s unconscious body onto my shoulder. I wanted to say something but I couldn’t think of anything useful I could possibly say in the short time we had. Fortunately Jethro wasn’t as paralysed by indecision as I was.

He shouted, “I’ll see you in the Woods,” just before the Citadel dropped too far and he was out of sight.

So at least I had somewhere to go, if I ever got out of the Citadel.