The Curse of the Winged Scorpion
Shockingly, things continue to go wrong

Asecurity drone, its propeller blades slicing the air like a threshing machinethrough wheat, zipped past her along the walkway. Fantel reared back into thespare parts room, but the drone was not focused on her. As she watched thedrone swept down the stairs toward the front of the chamber where Fantel hadleft Rashari. Across the room she heard the rhythmic hum of other droneszipping through the rows of dormant automatons. Fantel ran to the railing andpeered down over the edge.

Rashariwas no longer slumped by the door. The space where she had left him was markedby a patch of singed concrete. There were several inoperative automatons lyingon the ground, some still attached to the chains that had connected them to theceiling; all of them showing signs of damage. A pair of security drones,propeller-less models of a similar shape to Smith, hovered in front of athicket of ground-sweeper maintenance automatons. As Fantel watched one of theground-sweepers shuddered to life, its vaguely humanoid head lifting and bluelight igniting behind its twin eye holes. The ground-sweeper jolted forward ona continuous track like that of an armoured tank, its arms, long reticulateddouble jointed limbs connected to rotating brushes, shot out in front of it asit slammed into the hovering drones. The drones scattered, rising into the air.The ground sweeper crashed forward, careening wildly over the concrete floor.Fantel caught a glimpse of Rashari ducking behind another automaton, using itfor cover as his hands dug into the automaton’s insides.

Fantelwhirled to run back into the parts room to replace more weapons when a resoundingboom stopped her in her tracks. She whipped her head around to stare at thesealed doors. A dent had appeared in the metal, bowing the steel inward. Thesoldiers were trying to break down the massive door with brute force.

“MadameFantel?” Rashari yelled up at her. “Have you found it yet?”

BeforeFantel could reply the security drones dived on his location just as Rasharifinished hacking the controls of a very odd looking automaton. The automaton hada small turret gun mounted to its body and an oversized rounded head dottedwith eight glittering sulphur-yellow eyes. It also had eight spider legs and asshe watched the automaton jumped several feet into the air, used its spindlylegs to catch hold of one of the dangling chains and, hanging upside down. Itstarted shooting at the flying drones. Staccato bursts of hot lead peppered thewalls and cabinets. The flying drones returned fire, scoring burning lines intothe solid concrete walls. The spider drone leapt nimbly from the chain to therails of the walkway, skittering over the rail as its turret gun rotated threehundred and sixty degrees, firing continuously. Another booming crashreverberated through the room as the door took a second hit.

“Blloooopppppppp.”Smith convulsed hard in her arms and Fantel had to scramble to readjust hergrip before dropping him over the side of the railing. Somehow in herdistraction she had failed to notice that Smith was still facing backward,toward the parts room. He continued to burble with increasing insistence.Fantel looked from the battered main doors, fit to crash inward at any time,down into the main chamber where two more spider drones had sprung to life, andthen back toward the parts room. “Bloooopppppppppppppppp.” Smith wailed. Heseemed to want her to go back inside the parts room. Fantel blinked in suddenrealisation -not a parts room, butinstead a maintenance room. She’dthought it would be larger. She had envisioned a laboratory as large as thestorage unit, full of phantasma belching machines towering to the ceiling, nota small and pokey little back office. Rashari had said that inside themaintenance bay she would replace the controls to awaken all the sleepingautomatons.

“Zweeeeeeee,”one of the spider drones leapt up onto the railing in front of her, its yelloweyes grazing right over her before its turret spun around and opened fire onthe security drone Fantel had not even noticed hovering just behind her. Fanteldropped to her knees and covered her ears with her hands as the rapid rapportof automatic weapons fire pierced her eardrums. Below her she could hear agreat deal more commotion. Rashari may not have been able to get around all theautomatons in storage but he had clearly managed to awaken a fair number.Spider bots skittered up the walls and bounced from the dangling chains hangingfrom the ceiling chasing after clusters of green-eyed security drones. OutsideFantel imagined dozens of human soldiers swarming around the building, readyingtheir battering ram for one last blow that would bring the door caving in.

“RashariI have the stone.” She shouted down to him. There was no answer. Fantel doubtedhe could even hear her over the din. A few feet away a stray beam from one ofthe attacking drones sliced through a dangling ground-sweeper; the destroyedautomaton fell onto the platform, spraying burning metal shrapnel in a widearc. Fantel covered her head with her arms. There was a flash of heat and afoul burst of phantasma vapour as the remains of the ground-sweeper exploded;liquid flame swept over the metal walkway, glowing green and red and yellow.Fantel scrambled on hands and knees back into the maintenance room, rollingSmith along before her. She kicked the door closed behind her.

Sheran to the workstation. She had no idea what the remote control to awaken theautomatons would look like. The workstation was empty save for a circular sawand vice clamp built into its frame. She turned in increasing desperationtoward the filing cabinet, yanking on drawers that refused to budge.

“Bllluuup!”

Smith’salarm was the only warning Fantel had. She dropped to the ground and rolledunder the workstation as a security drone burst out of the passageway. Thisdrone was a different make to the green-energy drones. This one was ellipticalin shape with a long pointed nose that in reality served was the nozzle of ahigh powered machine gun. A barrage of bullets smashed into the door and thealready ruined cubbyholes attached to the far wall. Debris flew and pieces ofshrapnel embedded themselves in the wall and the floor. Bullets chewed holesinto the door. Fantel wrapped her arms around Smith and tucked her head in,wriggling as far back into the foot-well of the workbench as she could. Heronly hope of survival lay in remaining undetected.

Themachine-gun drone stopped firing, its rotating nozzle slowing down with aslurring clicking noise. It hovered in the air just above the workstation. Itdid not seem to have noticed her yet, but the room was small, a simple sweepwould reveal her immediately. Silently Smith quivered in her arms, he’d dimmedhis eyebeam, but the light of his gaze still paved the underside of theworkstation in a violet glow. That glow was angled upward and onto the singlematt black button protruding from the underside of the bench. Fantel’s handdarted out before she made a conscious decision to do so. She pressed thebutton, breath caught in her throat. Something clicked. She felt the metal ofthe workstation thrum with energy and a mechanism above, on the topside of theworkstation, activated. The machine-gun drone reacted to the changeimmediately. It turned smoothly in the air, the machine gun nozzle spinningback up. Its eyebeam was a horizontal line of hot, angry red. Fantel staredright into it knowing it would likely be the last thing she ever saw.

“Zweeeeeeee!”The bullet ridden door burst open behind the automaton. In a flash of motionalmost too fast to see Rashari appeared in the doorway. The automaton spun,sensing a new threat. Rashari’s arm whipped back and then forward and he threwthe spider bot in his hand straight at the drone. Long metal legs arced forwardlike the grabbing tentacles of a deep sea octopus and the spider bot collidedwith the drone, wrapping its legs around it and dragging them both to thefloor. Rashari dived into the room, he ran to the workstation. Fantel sucked ina sharp breath of relief. On the floor in front of her the spider bot drove itsserrated legs into the body of the machine gun drone, punching through itsmetal shell.

Rashariwas hunched over the workstation. The plain, scratched metal surface had splitopen down the middle revealing a control console, which looked a lot likeVedeca’s cockpit. Incomprehensible strings of code scrolled down a black-greenglowing screen. Rashari’s fingers flew over the keypad, typing more lines ofgibberish onto the screen. On the floor at their feet the spider bot reducedthe machine gun drone to so much twisted metal and spilled phantasma fuel. Whenit was finished it bounced up onto the workbench. Fantel noticed that it wassmaller than the other spiders and lacked any armament. Its multiple eyesblinked in sequence. In her arms Smith quivered thoughtfully. He seemed to beappraising the spider bot in a considering fashion.

“There.”Rashari hissed his voice tight with a mixture of restrained triumph andlingering fatigue. Outside the maintenance room sudden silence fell like aniron curtain. Rashari pushed back from the console, staggering a little whenthe spry spider bot leapt into his arms and then scrabbled up to perch on hisright shoulder. Its sharp legs hooked into the fabric of his coat for purchase.Rashari met her eyes, his features drawn with urgency. “Let’s get the bloodyhell out of here.”

Outsidein the main storage unit Fantel drew to a halt, her breath hitching in herchest. The entire room was full of light from dozens upon dozens of automatoneyebeams in every conceivable shade of the spectrum. Security bots danglingfrom their chains gazed down at them from the ceiling. Ground-sweepers angledtheir strangely human heads up toward the platform. Others rolled out acrossthe floor to form ordered rows in front of the battered main door like infantrysoldiers lining up for inspection. Clusters of ten or more spider bots bobbedand twitched where they waited hanging from the platform railings or clingingto the walls. Even the drones that had been bent on attacking them moments beforenow hovered quiescent and patient in mid air.

“Whatare they waiting for?” Fantel whispered, unwilling to speak above a murmur incase the sound of her voice might break the spell.

“Forthe new directive I inputted to take effect,” Rashari replied leaning heavilyon the railing as he headed down the stairs. “I sent out a general order toprotect the storage unit from intruders –meaning anyone or anything that isn’tpresently inside - and disengaged the directive prohibiting them from attackinganyone wearing the Aramantine emblem. Something like that takes a while toprocess; it’s a fairly profound departure from normal operations.”

Anotherbooming crash reverberated through the door. This time the metal ruptured,splitting like the over-ripe flesh of a dropped peach. Instantly soldiers pouredinside. The ground-sweepers surged forward; rolling on caterpillar treadstoward the soldiers, smashing into them. The security drones dived down as themass of soldiers broke through the ravaged door and spilled into the room.Fantel did not spare a glance behind her at the ensuing bloodshed. She ran withRashari toward the back of the storage unit. A host of security drones andspider bots flanked their retreat.

“Thisis a dead end,” Fantel reached to catch hold of a fold of Rashari’s coat. Theback wall of the storage unit faced them, solid cinderblock packed togetherwithout any give. “There is nowhere left to run.” After all they had done itwas a bitter pill to swallow, but Fantel could see no way forward. They weresurely about to die.

Rashariturned to her, blood and sweat leaking down his face. His eyes were wild.“There is always somewhere left to run.” He said with surprising vehemence.Tugging free of her restraining grip he whipped up one hand through the air,his movement sharp and imperious. Instantly the host of buzzing drones moved incloser, and a small rearguard of ground-sweepers closed ranks around them. Attheir back Fantel heard shouting, the soldiers were still fighting the rest ofthe drones at the front of the chamber, but a few had slipped past the meleeand were headed their way.

“Thewall,” Rashari commanded, using his raised arm to point toward the back wall,“Fire at the wall.”

Fora confused instant Fantel thought he was talking to her until the drones roseup into the air, formed a neat, regimented line and, in perfect synchronicity,aimed their energy beams at the back wall of the unit. The dull greycinderblock glowed lurid green, a hot angry colour that seemed to darken likean advancing bruise. Rashari grabbed her arm and pulled Fantel back toward theadjacent wall. At that moment a splatter of gunfire shredded the back of one ofthe ground-sweepers. Soldiers pounded forward, their boots thudding heavilyover the concrete floor. Ducking behind one of the empty automaton lockers,they wedged themselves in between the locker and the wall. The remainingground-sweepers rolled forward to engage the soldiers. The defencelessmaintenance bots were torn to pieces by the soldiers’ weapons fire in moments.Beside her Fantel heard Rashari suck in a sharp breath, a twitch of regretshivering down his spine. Crouched on his shoulder the small spider bot, itsjointed metal legs hooked securely into the folds of his coat, bobbed up anddown. Smith was very still in Fantel’s arms. The soldiers turned their fire onthe row of drones. The drones, still focused on the wall, were blown to piecesin less time than it took to tell about it. The soldiers ran forward towardFantel and Rashari. The back wall, pulsing with energy, exploded outward in ashower of super heated masonry. The soldiers screamed as they fell, smotheredin a wave of scorching dust and pummelled by lumps of stone.

“Go.”Rashari hissed pushing Fantel out ahead of him. They took off running while themortar dust was still whirling through the air, dancing with sparks. Fanteljumped over a body moaning pitiably on the floor. Clear night air breathedthrough the unit, coming in through the gaping hole in the wall. Fantel lookedback once. All she could see was the white hot flash of gunfire and the sparkof glowing drone eyes through the swirling dust.

Rashariwas several paces ahead of her, streaking across the yard toward a nearlyidentical building to the one they had left. The sound of gunfire chased atFantel’s heels as she darted across the concrete to catch up. Rashari used thespider bot’s sharp legs to tear through the metal plate protecting the manualcontrols for the door lock. Fantel heard the lock release a few seconds later.Rashari slumped against the wall and the console, breathing ragged. Fantel hadthe feeling the only thing keeping him upright was the way he leant against thewall. The massive double doors opened outward. Fantel hauled on them for allher worth. She set Smith just inside the darkened hangar and turned back toRashari, manhandling him inside as the first wave of soldiers came for them,guns blazing.

Theonly light inside the large hangar came from the twin glow of Smith and thespider bot’s eyebeams. The interior smelt of oil and metal. Fantel could justmake out the indistinct shapes of various artillery vehicles. She saw somethingthat might have been some manner of tank. It looked only large enough to take asingle soldier, and was built like a box on treads. Fantel saw a collection ofthe same handglider contraptions she had used to jump free of Vedeca during thecrash, dangling from the ceiling – and there, at the back of the hangar, twolight weight air-craft. Fantel sucked in a sharp breath, hope flaring in herchest. It seemed almost too good to be true. She glanced over at Rashari, whowas slumped against the inside wall, arms out to brace him and head hanging.How had he known about this hangar? Had he planned this all along, or was hesimply graced with the most peculiar luck?

Itdid not matter either way. Fantel let Rashari lean on her as she guided himswiftly toward the closest of the small air craft. The craft was not anairship. It was too small, too light weight. Fantel realised that it was aglider; designed with two side propellers under the wings and a small fuel tankjust large enough to allow the craft to become airborne. Gliders were designedfor low altitude flights of short duration. The fuel tank and engine weredesigned to cut out when the craft was airborne, which allowed the gliders tofly a short distance out toward the Steppes without fear of the miasma. Fanteleyed the craft appraisingly, larger than an air-cycle its wings stretched outlike a crows, black and sharp-angled. The curved nose bristled with the manyrounded chambers of a massive gun barrel. The body was just large enough fortwo, a curved glass and metal dome raised up to allow access to the cockpit.Fantel wasted no more time wondering over their luck and instead helped Rashari– shaking like a leaf – into the cockpit before clambering into the back withSmith snug in her lap. The dome dropped down over their heads, cutting off thenoise of the soldiers approach. The glider powered up.

“Howare we going to get airborne?” She asked trying to make herself heard over thethrumming engines. “There are soldiers outside; they’ll open fire on the glideras soon as we clear the hangar.”

“Thisis a military issue Empyrean glider; it can survive a few bullet-holes.”Rashari gripped the steering handles in both hands and pulled back. The glider rolledforward on its wheels. Fantel looked out through the glass dome. The doors tothe hangar had closed after them, sealing the soldiers out but sealing them inalso. If they tried to open the doors the soldiers would be upon them in aninstant. If they did not open the doors the glider would smash straight into them.Rashari powered up the glider’s main gun and Fantel’s stomach dropped as sherealised what he meant to do.

Thehangar was not that large and the glider picked up speed quickly. A stream offire burst forth from the nose of the glider, bullets spewing out ahead of themin coruscating waves. The concentrated fire hit the double doors. The force ofthe bullets chewed the metal bullets to pieces. The doors bounced open. Fantelcaught a glimpse of movement, soldiers and automatons, and the wide canvas ofstars in the night sky. Rashari kept the glider’s gun focused on that opening,even as they hurtled forward. Fantel shut her eyes at the last moment. Therewas a dreadful crunching-thud, loud enough that it penetrated the mufflingeffect of the dome, and Fantel half expected to be engulfed in flame as theysmashed into the doors and the glider exploded. She opened her eyes just asthey crashed out of the hangar, the doors popping open ahead of them, swingingout in a wide arc that sent the gathered soldiers scrambling backward.

Theglider jostled over the ground, bouncing up off its wheels as Rashari wrenchedon the steering levers, swinging them around so they faced the open space betweenthe cluster of buildings and the barracks outer fence. The main gates lay inruins, the remains of the guard house Rashari had blown up earlier lying on theground beside fragments of the gate. Fantel felt her jaw loosen in stunnedsurprise. By the Mother he really had plannedall this. Fantel had thought Rashari was merely improvising a way to get theminside the storage bay when he used that power cable to cause an explosion. Shehad never considered that he had been planning ahead for their escape from thebarracks all along. Her stomach lurched, ears popping, as they picked up speed,the nose of the glider beginning to lift as they bounced off the ground. Thenose gun ran out of bullets, the last spinning wave coughing free to pock markthe courtyard.

Soldiersshouted disjointed orders, chasing the glider. Fantel whipped around to starewhen one foolhardy soldier leapt upon the wing and another tried to catch thetail. Rashari kept the glider on a straight course for the gate even as moresoldiers tried to block off their escape route, using their own bodies. Theglider lifted off the ground, rising several feet into the air. The soldiersclinging to the wing and tail lost their grip falling to the ground. Rasharihauled on the steering levers and the glider tilted to the side, tipping up onewing to sweep neatly through the narrow gate. Underneath her feet Fantel feltthe metal of the bottom of the cabin pucker, pelted with dozens of bullets, butnone penetrated all the way through.

Theywere perhaps twelve feet off the ground as they cleared the barracks. The edgesof the fourth circle buildings rose up ahead of them; the roofs still far abovethem. Searchlights blinded and dazzled her eyes. Fantel gasped as Rashariwhipped the glider around in a sharp angled arc and she was thrown sharply tothe right, her shoulder pressed against the glass dome of the cabin. Thesoldiers below opened fire. Waves of bullets burst through the night and theblazing brilliance of the fourth wall’s many searchlights chased after them.Rashari had turned them right around. Fantel realised he meant to fly them overthe barracks. Had he lost his mind? A mortar shell, fired from atop the fourthwall, narrowly missed the glider. It pounded into the ground just inside the compound.

Rasharipushed the nose of the glider upward, forcing the engine to work to its limit.Fantel’s nose twitched as she sensed the release of phantasma exhaust creatinga dark reddish contrail behind them. Above the flat rooftops of the barracks Rashariforced their craft almost vertical, throwing Fantel back against her seat, thesudden pressure of momentum slamming the air from her lungs. The massive fourthwall loomed up directly in front of them, black as pitch and striped inbrilliant multi-coloured light. The wall was so massive it seemed to haveobliterated the night sky completely. Rashari pushed the glider up, up, chasinghigher and higher over the endless expanse of the wall. Stomach and heartlodged in her throat Fantel squeezed her eyes tight shut. Their ascent seemedendless, yet at any moment they could be blasted out of the sky in flames.Abruptly Rasari levelled off their flight. Fantel’s eyes flew open and herstomach plummeted back down where it belonged, with far more speed and forcethan she was in any way happy about. She blinked amazed to see star speckledsky above and all around. They had made it. It was almost too much to believe.

Belowthem the slums of the fifth circle looked no less desolate from altitude thanthey did from the ground. A flash of light had Fantel looking up and straightahead of her toward the imposing shadow of the fifth and final city wall.Rashari swore and wrenched the glider hard to the port side just as a line offire opened up along the bulk of the fifth wall and a volley of cannonadeblasts ripped through the night. The glider bobbed and weaved, rocked hitherand thither in the path of the screaming missiles like a row boat in the wakeof a galleon, yet somehow Rashari was able to steer them through the barrageunharmed. He set a course straight for the crest of the fifth wall.

Fantel,unable to do a thing to aid their survival, could only watch in silent horroras the cannon balls fell to the ground, onto the wastes below. She could notsee clearly enough whether any of the barrage fell on houses. Fire blossomed. Fanteltried to imagine what it must feel like to be down there, knowing that thecannon falling on her came from Aramantine soldiers, all because of two thievesin the night.

Theglider sailed over the top of the fifth wall; the blazing eyes of a dozensearchlights glaring after them as they hit empty sky. They had escaped. Theywere free; before them lay the Battlan Steppes and untold dangers ahead. Fantelpulled the Heart of Anoush from the pocket of her coat, cupping the roundedstone in her palms. The Heart was dark, reflecting the black expanse of thenight sky and the distant cold spark of the stars far, far away. It seemed sucha trifling thing to cause so much destruction; was such a thing as this reallyworth the blood they had spilled?

Life is blood. It ispain. It is the freedom to bleed or make bleed.

Inher hands the stone throbbed, and a bloom of darkling light flickered in thecentre of the Heart. A voice whispered in her mind. I will be free, little Chimera –you shall release me from this prison.A flare of heat seared Fantel’s palms as a pulse of magic jolted through her. Shegasped, breath snagging in her lungs. Pain acute and immediate, blossomed underher breastbone, as if she had been pierced through the heart. Everything wentwhite. She could not move. In her mind she saw a pair of huge, delicate mothwings unfurl.

Yes, The voice of the Sereph Anoush purred,triumphant. You shall make an excellenthost indeed.