Something huge grabbed his back, knocking all the air out of him again. Then he was dangling. He looked up and saw his ’chute open reassuringly above him, a distant roof of fully blossomed orange and white silk.
But the thin air buffeted him, and he was swaying alarmingly, a human pendulum, and at the bottom of each swing G forces hauled on his entrails. He was having trouble breathing; his chest laboured. He pulled a green toggle to release his emergency oxygen.
The artefact hung above him, receding as he fell.
He had been flung west of it, he saw now, and it was closing up to a perfect oval, like a schoolroom demonstration of a planetary orbit. There was no sign of the other planes. Even the T-38 seemed to have vanished completely, save for a few drifting bits of light wreckage, a glimmer that must have been a shard of a Plexiglas canopy.
And he saw another ’chute. Half open. Hanging before the closing maw of the artefact like a speck of food before the mouth of some vast fish.
Emma, of course: she had ejected a half-second before Malenfant, so that she had found herself that much closer to the artefact than he had been.
And now she was being drawn in by the buffeting air currents.
He screamed, ‘Emma!’ He twisted and wriggled, but there was nothing he could do.
Her ’chute fell into the portal. There was a flash of electric-blue light. And she was gone.
‘Emma! Emma!’
… Something fell past him, not ten yards away. It was a man: tall and lithe like a basketball player, stark naked. He was black, and under tight curls, his skull was as flat as a board. His mouth was working, gasping like a fish’s. His gaze locked with Malenfant’s, just for a heartbeat. Malenfant read astonishment beyond shock.
Then the man was gone, on his way to his own destiny in the ancient lands beneath.
A new barrage of turbulent air slammed into Malenfant. He rocked viciously. Nursing his damaged arm he fought the ’chute, fought to keep it stable fought for his life, fought for the chance to live through this day, to find Emma.
As he spun, he glimpsed that new Red Moon, a baleful eye gazing down on his tiny struggles.
Fire:
The Mouth is gone.
The new people are nearby. The smallest is a child. They are all yelling. Their skin is bright, yellow-brown and blue. They are trying to stand up, but they stumble backwards.
Fire’s legs walk forward. He walks over the soaked fireplace. The ashes are still hot. He yelps and his feet lift up, off the ashes.
Sing is nearby, on her branches, weeping.
Fire’s eyes see Dig. They can’t see Loud. Fire calls out. ‘Loud, Loud, Fire!’ But Loud is gone.
Shrugging, the rain running down his back, he turns away. Fire will never think of his brother again.
A new person is coming towards him. This stranger has blue and brown skin on his body. Fire can’t see his member. It is a woman. But he can’t see breasts. It is a man.
The new person holds out empty hands. ‘Please, can you help us? Do you know what happened to us? What place is this?’
Fire hears: ‘Help. What. Us. What.’ The voice is deep. It is a man.
Stone is standing beside Fire. ‘Nutcracker-man,’ he says softly.
‘No,’ says Fire.
‘Elf-man.’
‘No.’
‘Please.’ The new person steps forward. ‘I have a wife and child. Do you speak English? My wife is hurt. We need shelter. Is there a road near here, a phone we could use –’
Stone’s axe slams into the top of the new person’s head. The head cracks open. Grey and red stuff splashes out.
The new person’s eyes look at Fire. He shudders. He falls backwards.
Stone grunts. ‘Nutcracker-man.’ Stone slices off the new person’s cheek and crams it into his mouth.
Fire hoots at the kill. Nutcracker-folk fight hard. This kill was easy.
Other people’s legs bring them running from the trees to join Stone at his feast. They have forgotten the rain. They get wet again. But they are all drawn by the scent of the fresh meat.
The new person’s skin yields easily to Stone’s axe. It comes off in a sheet. Fire’s finger touches the sloughed skin. It is blue and brown, thick and dense. Fire is confused. It is skin. It is not skin,
The flesh under the strange skin is white. Stone’s axe cuts into it easily. The axe butchers the body rapidly and expertly, an unthinking skill honed across a million years.
The other new people are screaming.
Fire had forgotten them. He straightens up. He has a chunk of flesh in his mouth. His teeth gnaw at it, while his hands pull on it.
The new people’s legs are trying to run away. But the new people fall easily, as if they are weak or sick.
Grass and Cold catch the new people. They push them to Stone. One of the new people is bleeding from her head and staggering. Its arms are clutching the small one. When it screams its voice is high. It is a woman.
The other new person has no small one. It has blue skin all over its body. ‘We don’t mean you any harm. Please. My name is Emma Stoney.’ Its voice is high. It is a woman.
Shoot’s hand grabs the hair of this one, pulls her head back.
The new woman’s elbow rams into Shoot’s belly. ‘Get your hands off of me!’ Shoot doubles over, gasping.
The men laugh at the women fighting.
The woman with the child speaks to Stone. ‘Please. We’re American citizens. My name is Sally Mayer. I – my husband… I know you can speak English. We heard you. Look, we can pay. American dollars.’ She holds out something green. Handfuls of leaves. Not leaves. Her arm is bleeding, he sees.
I. You. That is what Fire hears.
The woman has fallen silent. Her eyes are staring at the top of Stone’s head. Her mouth is open.
The top of the woman’s head is swollen.
Fire makes his hand run over his own brow. He feels thick eye ridges. He feels a sloping brow. He feels the small flat crown behind his brow. His fingers find a fly trapped in his greasy hair. He pulls it out. He pops it into his mouth.
Stone studies the new woman. Stone’s fingers squeeze the woman’s dug. It is large and soft, under its skin of green and brown. The woman yelps and backs away. The child, eyes wide, cringes from Stone’s bloody hand.
Fire laughs. Stone will mount the woman. Stone will eat the woman.
‘No.’
The other new woman steps forward. Her hands pull the other woman behind her. ‘We are like you. Look! We are people. We are not meat.’ She points to the child.
The child has no hair on his face. The child has wide round eyes. The child has a nose.
Nutcracker-folk have hair on their faces. Nutcracker-folk have no noses. Nutcracker-folk have nostrils flat against their faces.
Running-folk have no hair on their faces. They have round eyes. They have noses.
Stone’s axe rises.
Fire takes a step forward. He is afraid of Stone and his axe. But he makes his hand grab Stone’s arm.
‘People,’