The Unmaking (The Last Days of Tian Di, #2)(39)

The military complex spent the rest of the night and the early hours of the morning in a state of high alert. Something had breached the walls. It was impervious to bullets. It had vanished. They did not know what it was, except that it looked like a girl, and they did not know what it intended. It had emerged from the main wall and disappeared for ten or fifteen minutes inside the mess hall. Then it had suddenly emerged again and run into the armory. This had everybody most anxious. A sweep by Special Forces showed there was indeed a living thing inside the ceiling, although they weren’t sure how it had gotten there. They fired a rocket straight into the ceiling and none of them heard or saw anything more for a further twenty minutes, when it was spotted again running for the Communications Tower.

General Malone’s office was under heavy guard in case this was an assassination attempt. He was at his desk now, on the phone with a commander who told him that dragons had been sighted near the border. Reports were coming in from all over. This was the greatest influx of Tian Xia beings that Di Shang had seen since the arrival of the Xia Sorceress nearly half a century ago. Worst of all, the Mancers were nowhere to be found. The normal lines of communication yielded no response. Pilots were out looking for their Citadel but it could be anywhere in Di Shang. It was like looking for a needle in a haystack.

Quite suddenly the carpet under his feet shifted and then bulged. General Malone muttered, “Keep me posted,” and hung up the phone. He backed away from the desk and drew his gun. The bulge in the carpet grew bigger, the carpet split, and a breathless girl with untidy hair crawled out from under his desk and looked up at him imploringly. She was wearing a dirty black robe and a dark green winter coat. He recognized her instantly.

“By the Ancients! Eliza Tok.”

“Everybody’s chasing me,” she said, seeming rather hurt. “Would you tell them to stop?”

“You are what the entire complex is after? You breached our wall?”

“I needed to see you, aye.”

General Malone went on the intercom. “Attention all personnel. The intruder has been found. The threat is eliminated. Resume your normal duties.” He looked back at Eliza. She had grown a few inches. She looked older but not so different from when he had last seen her in the Xia Sorceress’s web of Illusions.

“The outer wall will have to be rebuilt,” he said. “We’ve shot up our own armory. The whole place is in uproar.”

“I’m sorry,” she said meekly.

General Malone wasn’t sure if he wanted to scold her or laugh. He did neither.

“Perhaps you can shed some light on what’s going on,” he said. “Where are the Mancers?”

“The Xia Sorceress turned them all to stone,” said Eliza. She didn’t know what had happened to Kyreth but there was no point mentioning that now. General Malone stared at her in horror, speechless.

“She’s free of the barriers but she’s going to Tian Xia,” Eliza continued. “We dinnay need to worry about her here, yet.”

“Tian Xia worlders must know the Mancers are no longer defending Di Shang,” said the General. “That’s why so many are crossing over. The military...we can’t handle a full-scale Tian Xia invasion without the Mancers.”

There was a tap on the door.

“Enter,” called General Malone.

Two guards opened the door.

“Everything all right?” asked one of them, looking warily at Eliza.

“Fine. Our intruder is...an old acquaintance of mine,” said General Malone dryly. “She has a strange way of making a visit.” He looked at Eliza again. “You do know I have a telephone, don’t you?”

“I didnay know your number,” said Eliza.

The General nodded to the Guards, who exchanged a look and shut the door behind them.

“I appreciate the information about the Mancers,” said General Malone heavily. “Was that what you invaded a top military command centre to tell me?”

“No, there’s something else,” said Eliza. “There’s a creature that the Sorceress Made, and if you kill it, it might...hurt her, or stop her. I’m nay sure. But it’s connected to her. That’s the one you need to go for, aye. Two of the Mancer dragons are following it now.”

Eliza sat down on the floor abruptly and stopped talking. General Malone knelt at her side, touching her shoulder lightly.

“What’s wrong?”

She shook her head. “I havenay eaten in a while. Nor slept. I came straight here.”

The General nodded. “I’ll have a bed made up. Let’s get you some food.”

He started to rise but she caught his sleeve with her hand. “First you have to send soldiers. It’s heading for the border towns around Quan, aye. Going south. It might take a lot. Rockets, or...I dinnay know. It willnay be easy to kill.”

General Malone patted her on the shoulder and helped her to her feet. “Consider it done, Eliza.”

As she followed the General out into hall she seemed to hear the Oracle’s voice again, almost hissing with pleasure. Victory will only come at a price for you. You will cut out your own heart. The first time they had met, she had told Eliza that she would lose all those she loved. Those words had haunted her ever since. According to the Oracle, Eliza was sure to meet a terrible end, the road ahead full of heartbreak and loss. Yours is the lonely road, the Oracle had said that first time. Now that Nia was free, surely that time had come, the time the Oracle was speaking of. But not everybody believed in prophecies. The Mancers believed the future to be undetermined and took prophecies more as warnings than as certain predictions. Eliza clung to this now and wished Foss were here to advise her. Now that the military was aware of Nia’s creature and could prevent it from reaching her mother, she had to find a way to break Nia’s spell on the Mancers. She couldn’t face the battle ahead without them. But first, food and sleep.