Tim Lebbon - Echo city

"If they do, they do," he said. And if Peer is still with them, please, let her talk to me. Let her accept me.

The distance roared, and he wondered what state Echo City was in.

The Bellowers bellowed, and Peer and Alexia traveled south in a pod with the injured Nophel between them. Alexia had administered brief first aid but thought it too risky to try removing the crossbow bolt. At least it doesn't seem to be poisoned, she'd said, and Peer's thoughts had gone back to Malia. It would be difficult telling Gorham about her death, but at least it had been a brave one.

And was I brave? she wondered. Whatever happened in the immediate future, she would never forget the feeling of her sword ending that tortured woman's life.

The journey passed quickly. At last they lifted Nophel between them and headed toward daylight, and he groaned as he walked, trying to help but losing a lot of blood. As they emerged into the dawn from the final Bellower basement-Peer welcoming the sunlight, reveling in the heat on her face, and yet convinced that something terrible was stalking them-the ground was shaken by an immense tremor. Peer staggered against a wall with Nophel, and Alexia went to her knees on the narrow path. Windows smashed, people screamed. The Unseen woman grasped the water canteen.

As the noise of the impact faded, a silence hung over the built-up area-a pause that invited more chaos. But none arrived.

"What was that?" Alexia asked.

"It's getting close," Peer said. "We have to hurry, Alexia. Fast as we can. We've got to get across into Crescent and down to the Baker's labs, and that's two miles away. And…" She looked at Nophel, with his head bowed. We should leave him, she thought. But he had helped them so much-the Unseen most of all-and before she could say more, Alexia had grasped his arm across her shoulders.

"Then we should go."

Smoke rose in the distance, and voices rose in panic again. This was not the usual morning chaos. This was the sound of a rout.

"What's happening?" Nophel asked.

"Come on." Peer grabbed his other arm and they walked along the narrow alley. The smoke she'd seen was thick and rich; the stink of cooking meat hung in the air. And as they rounded the corner and Peer looked down the sloping street, the chaos grew apparent.

The streets were thronged with people, carts, and tusked swine loaded with hastily tied packings, all of them flowing south. Arguments broke out here and there, fistfights flaring and dying out. Farther up the gentle hillside toward the looming Marcellan Canton wall, a building burned. Its windows gushed fire and the roof wore a head of flames, and from this distance it was difficult to tell whether the fire was being tended. One side wall had already collapsed, and burning brands were drifting westward on the breeze. Already there were smoke plumes heading skyward from a dozen secondary fires.

Someone called for their son. A woman screamed. An old man begged for help, somewhere out of sight. Children cried, men shouted, and a tusked swine was shrieking. It had fallen in the road, leg snapped where a hole had opened up in the paving. A family was hastily unloading the beast, and no one seemed eager to put it out of its misery.

Another jolt, and more glass broke and showered into the street.

"The moth said south!" a woman cried as she emerged from a building across the street. She was slapping at her husband's hands as he tried to hold her back. "Come with me!" she begged. "Please?"

"Moth?" was all he said, and the woman held his coat and tried to pull him with her into the throng.

"Moth?" Alexia asked.

"I don't know," Peer said. She grabbed at a woman walking by. "Wait! What's happening?"

"South to Skulk," the woman said. "Haven't you heard? That's what's best."

"The Marcellans have ordered that?"

The woman had walked on, but at that she paused and turned back, barely sparing Nophel a glance. "Ha! The Marcellans? You're joking, aren't you? They don't-"

There was another thud that traveled up through Peer's feet and set her teeth ringing. Somewhere far away, something fell, heavy stones tumbling and crushing. The flow of humanity paused for a moment, then continued on its way, voices a little quieter than before, a little more afraid.

"There's another one," the woman whispered. "If you've got your heads on right, you'll come with us."

"But who told you?"

"Who? People just… know. The terror is rising; go south to Skulk."

"We can't," Peer said. The woman looked at Nophel properly then, a spark of interest in her eyes. Then she turned and went on her way.

"Right, well, that's got me crapping in my trousers," Alexia said.

"Easy… for you to say," Nophel mumbled. "So are we going or not?"

As they set off for Crescent, across the flow of people, it felt as if Nophel was leading the way.

Beside the street at a major crossroads lay the bodies of three Scarlet Blades. They had been dragged to one side and left there, food for rockzards and other carrion creatures. People poured past, heading south for the Tharin. Though Peer could not see that far, she knew that the river crossings would be thronged, and beyond there would be streets filled with panicked, desperate refugees. Nothing like this had ever happened in her lifetime. The whole city was moving.

The terror is rising; go south to Skulk, the woman said, and it had echoed with the sound of something repeated.

The ground shook. The impact was so great that the air before her seemed to vibrate, and the shape and color of the city changed. What is that? she thought, stumbling into a wall to one side. She blinked, took in a deep breath, and realized that, in all the streets she could see, people had fallen down. They recovered quickly, and soon the flow of humanity was moving once again. But for just that moment the city had been still and prostrate.

A cloud of dust rose in the distance where a building had collapsed.

"Won't the Marcellans be doing something?" Alexia asked, staring back and up the long hillside to the spires of Hanharan Heights.

"You tell me," Peer said. "You worked for them."

"They'll be debating a course of action," Nophel said, laughing, then coughing.

"They'll be doing something," Alexia said. But she did not sound convinced.

"We have to go against the flow," Peer said. She looked out across the northern parts of Course at the splash of green in the distance. Crescent. That was their destination, but between here and there were rivers of people flowing south. Escaping something, she thought. We should be going with them. But they had something important to do. These people could flee to Skulk, but that place was still a part of Echo City. If what was rising was as terrible as she feared-as terrible as it felt-they had to go farther. And the only person who might help them do that was the Baker.

"We could go down through the Echoes," Alexia said.

"You know the way from here?"

"From a long time ago," she said. "There was a time… With the Blades, we used the First Echo to bring people back to Hanharan Heights."

"People?"

"Dissidents." She glanced away, because there was a lie in her voice. Peer no longer cared. Perhaps none of that really mattered anymore.

"The city's going to change," she said, but at the back of her mind the change was greater than she could voice. The city is going to die.

"This way," Alexia said.

As they worked their way along the street, there was another terrible tremor. Tiles slipped from rooftops, injuring dozens in the streets below, and weaker buildings slumped in their foundations. The dead Scarlet Blades were already covered in a film of dust, and Peer noticed that Alexia averted her eyes as they passed them by. Maybe she knows them.