Richard Kadrey: Dead Set

Zoe didn’t want to listen, didn’t want to talk to the queen. There was something in her voice, something seductive and compelling. Something hypnotic. “I could use someone brave and resourceful for a friend. But to be my friend, you will have to come down here and stand beside me.”

“I. .” Zoe said weakly, “I can’t.”

“Of course you can, dear,” said the queen lightly. “Don’t worry about falling. My men will catch you.”

“Catch me,” said Zoe. The words bounced around in her mind until she saw their true meaning. “Yes, you want to catch me. You want to use me to get back to the world.” She backed away, knelt on a filing cabinet, and started climbing again.

“Nonsense. Did that fool Prosper tell you that? He was mad as a hatter,” said Queen Hecate. “That’s why I dismissed him.”

Zoe’s was dizzy. It was hard to move forward. Each step she took, each handhold, was an effort. Even though the queen didn’t tell her to stop, the sound of her voice weighed Zoe down and made moving almost impossible. She said weakly, “I don’t believe you.”

“One day, it will be my time to leave Iphigene, you know,” the queen said. Her tone was conversational. “When I do, a new queen will have to take my place. Until now, I haven’t seen anyone worthy of the title. But you could be that queen.”

“No” was all Zoe could muster.

“I have your brother and soon I’ll have your father,” said Hecate in a deadly tone. “My men are already on their way to arrest them.”

Zoe ignored her. This angry Hecate was less hypnotic than the cajoling one, and easier to fight. Zoe’s head began to clear, so she climbed faster. She could see the edge of the giant mirror just a few yards above her.

“I will not let you leave!” Hecate cried.

Zoe paused, picked up a box of glass paperweights, and hurled it down to the floor. The box split open and sharp shards flew in all directions, forcing Hecate’s troops back.

The queen turned and spoke to one of the wolf men. “Very well,” she said. “But only wound her.”

An arrow sliced the air by Zoe’s head and embedded itself deep in the side of a heavy oak desk. She threw herself down behind the desk and looked for a way out.

The edge of a nearby bookcase that was tall enough to hide behind. She put her shoulder into the side of the desk and pushed, feeling it slide slowly forward. Finally, it toppled down the mound, scattering Hecate’s men. Zoe ran the few steps to the bookcase and jumped on top as more arrows shot past her.

From there she was up high enough, she thought, that if she kept low and crawled, the archers on the ground wouldn’t be able to get a good shot at her. She started forward on her belly. Arrows still flew at her, but they all landed too low or whizzed by overhead.

“Enough,” said Hecate impatiently. The arrows stopped flying. “Come, my children. Feed. Fill your bellies.”

Zoe heard an awful sound in the air above her. She looked up just in time to see a swarm of Hecate’s winged baby snakes swarming into the room and filling the space under the glass dome. Their high-pitched squeaks and chirps sounded even madder than before. The bats circled the dome once, twice, and then dove for her.

Zoe stood and scrabbled up the pile of junk as quickly as she could. The giant mirror was just ahead. If she could reach it, she’d be close enough to the window that the bats and archers wouldn’t matter.

When the first wave of snakes swarmed around her, they hit hard enough to knock her down. She had to grab the base of a withered old potted palm to keep from rolling over the side. The next swarm hit her just as she got to her feet. Zoe was ready this time and ducked, so she was able to take the blow and stay standing. She made it up the pile a few more feet before they hit her again. From where she stood, it was a straight line to the mirror. If she leaned forward far enough, she could almost touch it.

This time when the swarm slammed into her, the snakes didn’t fly away. They dug in with their fangs and beat her with their wings. Zoe covered her face, trying to protect her eyes. She swung her free arm before her, trying to keep the snakes off as much as she could. She couldn’t breathe. It felt like she was drowning, drowning while being eaten alive. It took her a second to realize that the screams she heard were her own.

Zoe fell to her knees as more snakes landed on her. She closed her eyes and crawled a few feet, using one hand to move and the other to cover her face. Every inch was agony. Covered with snakes, her arms felt like they weighed a hundred pounds each. Then her hand landed on something glassy. Zoe tilted her head up and opened one eye. Through the trembling mass of serpents, she saw the gold frame. With her free hand, she reached out, grabbed the edge of the mirror, and pulled herself up. When she stood, the snakes lifted off her as one.

Her legs shook but the snakes were gone. Relief flooded through her. She looked down on the wolf men and humans below. I’m too close to the window to stop and they know it. She raised her bloody hands and gave them all the finger. It wasn’t until she lowered her hands that she saw Hecate, and by then, it was too late.

In the split second before it happened, she remembered the first time she’d seen the queen. Zoe had known instantly that she was more than a simple ruler. She was a warrior. That’s why it was so frightening, though not at all surprising, to see Hecate aiming a longbow up at her.

There was the slightest of sounds, as if someone had delicately plucked a string on a classical guitar. A second later, something slammed into Zoe’s chest. It didn’t feel like an arrow, what she imagined an arrow would feel like. It was more like being punched with a fist made of fire. When she raised her hands, however, she felt the arrow’s shaft buried deep in her chest. She looked down at Hecate and watched as a satisfied, feral smile split her face. The sight made Zoe’s head swim.

She stumbled back, grabbing on to the mirror. One of her legs slid from beneath her and slammed into something. Zoe felt the junk mound move ominously. Boxes shifted and settled. Something cracked. She didn’t care. She slid down onto her belly as her vision collapsed into a long dark tunnel. From somewhere a million miles away, she heard Hecate scream “Don’t let her fall! I need her body!”

Zoe tried to push herself back to her feet, but her bones had turned to rubber. She leaned back onto the boxes and felt them slide away from her. A roaring, crashing sound filled the room. It took her a second to realize that she’d started an avalanche. A whole section of the junk mountain was beginning to move. A fault line opened in a lower section, wobbled from side to side, and slammed into the mirror. She heard a scrape and a screech as it shifted and began to slide.

Boxes cascaded around her and over her. The hand she’d been resting on the mirror was suddenly empty as the enormous slab of silvered glass toppled forward.

“No!” shrieked Hecate in a new voice, one more fearful than angry. “What have you done, child?”

Zoe didn’t answer. She lay on her side, one hand on the arrow buried in her chest. Her arms and legs didn’t work anymore. She couldn’t see much more than gray outlines below. Each breath she took was harder than the last. Something wet sloshed around inside her, filling her lungs. Each breath hurt more than the one before. She couldn’t keep her eyes open. Zoe knew that she was dying and she was so tired, she was happy to just let it happen.

At least I’ll be with Valentine and Dad, she thought.

When the mirror hit the floor, it shattered with a sound like the earth bursting open, of the sky cracking. Everything shook, like all of creation was trying to rip itself apart from the inside.