Ray Aldridge - The Orpheus Machine

“Well, what does it matter?” he said. He took a deep breath and let his mind empty, until he was just a man waiting in a dark room.

By the time Einduix came back, Ruiz had lost all sense of time.

“Ruiz Aw, hello!” said the little orange man. He seemed to be alone; he held a lantern full of glowing worms, a squirming tangle of greenish light. He carried in his other hand a covered tray.

“Hello,” Ruiz said sluggishly. He found it difficult to think; perhaps he should instruct the limpet to discontinue treatment, now that he had enough light to reset the limpet’s parameters. He fumbled under his shirt and clicked it off. He felt slightly painful tugs, as the tendrils withdrew from his body — but his ribs seemed much better. He poked at them, found only a little lingering soreness.

Ruiz dropped the limpet in a pocket. It might later come in handy; for now he would conserve its limited capacity.

Einduix thrust the tray at Ruiz. “Breakfast,” said the little man. “Eat quickly.”

Ruiz peeked under the cover. There was a bowl of yellowish porridge and several strips of what appeared to be dried fish. A deep cup held water.

“Eat!” said Einduix, so Ruiz did. The food seemed tasteless — or perhaps he was paying no attention. When he was done, he felt marginally more alert.

“So… are you ready?” said Einduix.

“Ready?”

“Yes! You must go to SeaStack; so you claimed when we met on the hillside.”

“Ah,” said Ruiz. “And how will I go?”

“Those-who-stayed took counsel. Aid will be given, as I promised. They can spare you no weapons; they have too few already. But they will help as they can. Follow!”

Ruiz got up and followed. Perhaps, he thought, Einduix was incapable of explanation. In any case, he lacked the energy to interrogate the little man.

The two of them trudged through kilometers of dark tunnels, a maze of mouldering machinery and sealed doors. They met no one.

Ruiz thought about his benefactors, since he had nothing better to do. Obviously a remnant of the stackfolk survived here, down in the deepest rubble of the Compendium. But to what purpose? He could not imagine such blind loyalty, at least not to a thing that had died so many centuries before. After a while he stopped thinking about it; the universe was full of inexplicable things.

After what seemed hours, Ruiz became aware of a faint shuddering sound, rhythmic and diffuse, almost too deep to be heard with the ears.

“What is it?” he asked.

Einduix glanced back. “The sea. Do you not voyage to SeaStack?”

“Such is my hope,” said Ruiz glumly.

“Then follow,” Einduix said, lifting his pale lantern and moving off.

The sound of the sea grew louder. Presently the walls of the tunnel began to tremble with it.

Ruiz was ready to ask Einduix another question, when they rounded a curve and came to a gate, a tall slab of monomol secured by heavy cross timbers.

Here a party of stackfolk waited, armed and nervous. The old man named Joe wasn’t with them, and Ruiz felt an unexpected flicker of disappointment. What an odd thing, he thought. What is he to me?

“This is… what?” asked Einduix of the woman who stepped forward. She had a worn defeated face, but she stood straight-backed and held her old punchgun with an air of familiarity.

“Escort,” she said. She handed Ruiz his wireblade. “No activity along the beaches. Roderigo delays; Delt ignores.”

Ruiz shook off his dangerous passivity. “Wait,” he said. “I must know what you plan. This is my area of expertise.”

Einduix frowned at him. “Out into the Sea Caves we go. Where once flourished trade. Where once vessels in great numbers called. There, sealed safe against the ages, low-tech escape boats are hidden.”

“Ah,” said Ruiz. “Well, then, how many are required to obtain one of these?”

“You could do it alone, had you the knowledge.”

“Do you have the knowledge?” Ruiz asked Einduix.

“For a certainty.”

“Then let us go alone. We’ll have a better chance of escaping notice.”

“Agreed,” said Einduix. The woman argued with him, but without enthusiasm.

In the end, the two of them slipped unescorted through the gate into the Sea Caves.

The Sea Caves formed a vast natural cavern system. Einduix led them down a tall narrow corridor. Stalactites hung down like hungry teeth. Black iron railings were in places buried under a half-meter of white flowstone, and Ruiz wondered how long it had been since humans had walked this route.

They passed numerous junctions; the path changed levels several times. “Are you sure you remember the way?” Ruiz asked.

“Yes,” said Einduix. “Never can a stackperson forget; otherwise we would lose our way in the stacks.”

Eventually they came to a crawlway, where the ceiling pressed close to the floor, creating an opening like a wide frowning mouth.

Einduix stopped, looked at Ruiz critically. “It is possible that you are too large. We must try, however. On your belly! You first; then I will follow, the better to pull you out if you become stuck.”

Ruiz took a deep breath. He had never liked confined spaces. But he got down and wriggled under the overhang and began a long painful crawl over sharp gravel.

Only once did he find himself jammed between the overhead and the gravel. For a moment he couldn’t seem to get his breath, and he almost sobbed, trying to fill his lungs. The stone seemed to press down on his back, and he had the terrifying illusion that it had settled a little closer to the gravel and was about to crush him. Was the island subject to earthquakes? He struggled to no avail, writhing like a bug under a giant thumb.

“Ruiz Aw! Attend!” Einduix spoke sharply. “Let out your breath. To the left is more clearance.”

Ruiz controlled himself, realized that he had been holding his breath, as if that small pneumatic pressure could hold the stone up. He concentrated on emptying his lungs, and the stone released him.

When they emerged into another high-ceilinged room, Ruiz felt a joyful sense of release. They rested on a flat-topped formation for a few minutes, though Einduix seemed untaxed by the crawl, despite his age and apparent frailty.

The thunder of the sea shook the stone here, an insistent vibration, as if the stone under Ruiz’s hand were the skin of some living creature. “How close are we?” asked Ruiz.

“Close,” said Einduix. He frowned and gave Ruiz a searching look. “On the lifeboat, after Loracca died, you seemed to own some small knowledge of the sea. True?”

“I’ve sailed several seas,” said Ruiz. “I claim no great expertise, but I can navigate well enough to find the coast.”

“The escape boats are uncomplicated — but old and somewhat fragile.” Einduix got up and pointed. “We must go, and hope that Roderigo waits elsewhere.”

They walked the last hundred meters on condensation-slick rock and came out under the great dome of the Sea Caves, filled now with the gray cold light of dawn.

They stood among the ruins of warehouses, now reduced to a few low walls. Among these remnants huge pillars rose to the roof high above. These appeared to be natural formations, once carved with decorative reliefs. Ruiz stepped closer to one of these, but the carving was obscured by delicate calcite veils, evidently formed since the destruction of the Compendium.

Long piers had once extended from the warehouses into the sea; these lay in broken tumbles, submerged for the most part.

A mild surge ran into the Sea Caves. It seemed the worst of the booming surf broke on the windward side of the island, just east of the caves. The sound was very loud, as if the arch of the cave somehow focused and amplified it.