Monster Planet(82)

Eventually she rose to her feet and straightened her hair. She felt drained. She felt hungry and wondered if any of the goats from the farm in Pennsylvania were still available. A tang of disgust bit into the back of her throat'she had just boiled the brains of a friend, she had turned Cicatrix's eyes to running custard. She should hardly be thinking of food. Yet she was a dead thing and she knew the hunger would never stop.

'Be taking this one away,' the Tsarevich said. Ayaan looked up, startled, expecting to be accosted by handless ghouls. The Russian lich had been talking to the green phantom, however, who grabbed up Cicatrix's pink ankles in his skeletal hands. He dragged her from the room without further ceremony.

Ayaan turned to face the mummy who held the brain, then at Nilla, who just looked sad. She glanced back at the Tsarevich. 'I will take them to a safe place,' she announced. 'There could be a follow-up attack. I recommend finding a hiding place for yourself.'

It turned out the Tsarevich was capable of nodding after all.

Nilla led her small procession out of MAD-O-RAMA and up the boardwalk, the silver planks of wood echoing like drums under her boots. Before they had taken a hundred steps the brain spoke to her again.

Bollocks,he swore.I can assure you we won't get a chance like that again. We could have killed him! Slaughtered him where he sat! From now on he'll be expecting an attack. He'll take precautions, perhaps hide himself away again where no one can find him. And it's all your fault.

Ayaan looked at Nilla. The blonde lich pushed her hair out of her eyes with one pale hand but the breeze off the sea kept fluttering her locks down across her eyes.

The brain sputtered inside Ayaan's mind.Don't worry about her, she and I are friends from far back. You can speak as you please. Now tell me, lass, did you lack courage? When it came to the fatal moment, did you lose your bottle? Tell me just what in the blooming bastard hell were you thinking?

Ayaan addressed the brain directly, leaning down toward the mummy's hands to get closer. 'I was thinking I don't trust you.'

Hah! You don't trust me?

'I don't trust the Tsarevich either, if that's what you're driving at. He turned me into a monster and I will never forgive him. But how much do my feelings matter in this? He is the only one who can rebuild this sad empty world. He is the only one who has the power. I saw as much in Pennsylvania.'

Strength should never be concentrated in the hands of one man. It must always be tempered with the wisdom of those who went before.It sounded like a recitation of holy scripture. Ayaan ignored it.

'You told me he had to be destroyed, that he had a plan of ultimate evil in mind. Now that grand secret plan is revealed'he simply wants to heal his broken body! I should kill a crippled man because he wishes to be whole?'

I'm not sure you understand. He has forced me to teach him the necessary magics. He has prepared the way to absorb all the energy of the Source into himself. That kind of power can do anything. It can reshape his body, fair enough, and mayhaps that's all he wants. Yet coupled with his level of control there's not a lot he couldn't do. He could end your life with an eyeblink, lass, if he chose. Cause wanton destruction, vanquish all who stood before him without lifting a deformed finger. He could rule by fire where before he's always ruled by iron.

'He needs to take power into his own hands if he's to do anything valuable.' Ayaan scowled. Why couldn't she make the brain understand? Humanity needed a leader. It needed a leader who could work miracles. It was the only hope, for any kind of a future.

She felt the brain trying to turn over in its jar.It's an ugly stretch of road from here to there. Do you truly expect him to do his best by all the wee folk in his wake? He mutilates their corpses!

'That's true. Who ever built a mosque, though, who didn't tear down hovels to make room? If you gave me a good enough reason, if you had given me any kind of reason at all I would gladly have sacrificed myself and yes, all of his followers, to destroy him. But you didn't. You decided instead to pollute my mind with post-hypnotic suggestions. Why should I give you my loyalty, when you try to take it by force?'

The brain was silent for quite a while.

You've gone soft.

Ayaan roared with disgust.

Fathers before us. You've actually fallen for the cod's wallop that tosser spews out, haven't you? You've turned. I had our Semyon lie on your behalf but he needn't have, eh? They brainwashed you just fine.

'Be careful what you suggest,' Ayaan told him. 'I happen to be a specialist in laying the dead to rest. I've never killed a ghost before but I'm willing to learn how.'