Robe

Chapter 35

The dust storm blanketing Hep Duatab had ceased, but it would be some time before the haze would diminish. The fires within the town were still ablaze and pumping dark smoke into the air, while the light of the afternoon transitioned into the twilight of an early evening.

If there are such things as 'afternoon', 'twilight', and 'evening' here, Shah thought, ruining the poetic setting a little. Whatever was happening to the source of ambient light (the 'Line'-thing that Sonic had shown him) was creating a sense of the day ending... but without actually seeing the sky, Shah couldn't be sure. Won't be a Hou Yi taking potshots at it, or even Terry's Pratchett's Scrab pushing a, er, line of dung across the sky. Now that he thought about it, there wasn't a single Earthling myth or story that would fit the narrative.

Both he and Dresden were walking now. They weren't being followed, so there was no need to move quickly. Buildings were indistinct, formless shapes in the odoriferous fog, while cobblestones lighted the haze below them in dim luminescence. It was as though they were walking through low cloud. Interestingly, it seemed whatever power the Queen had to sustain her 'air dome' could not be expanded to include the entire township. Shah, meanwhile, had the Rig up, using the scope to steer as they went in the general direction Tayra had pointed.

"Shah, I want to ask what happened in the Common?" Dresden asked. "I understand my mother is... difficult, but why did we flee?"

"Your mother thinks I'm with the enemy," Shah replied, lowering the Rig for a moment. "I hope you do not agree with her?"

Dresden gaped. "Of course not! But my mother is suspicious of everything and everyone new, Shah."

"I see that," Shah said wryly. "I am glad you have not adopted this trait."

"I take after my father in this regard."

"He seems like a good man," Shah said, "and I'm sure your mother has sound reasons for her actions. As to what happened in the Common, the Gol'ur-Klem were herded there, Dresden." He gritted his teeth before continuing: "Captain Tayra mentioned this was by design. The slaughter of those defenseless creatures was well executed."

"This is what we have done in times past," Dresden said, "although it is usually with the assistance of the Custodian."

"I see," Shah said. "But he was not in the Common, Dresden. The Queen said he killed the Garoc."

"He did?" Dresden's eyes widened under his helmet. "Then he has performed great magic indeed!"

Shah recalled what the portly man had said to Sonic (...'Save this miserable place yourself, for I am done with it!'...), and wondered: could Sonic have been wrong? Shah had made enough mistakes while he was here, so perhaps his off-sider had also made assumptions that were not based on reality? But he didn't think so, not when it came to the Sonic's psychic power. She was phenomenally gifted at unmasking what people really thought and felt.

"Dresden, do you agree the Queen did the right thing with the brutes? Massacring them in the Common like that?"

Dresden didn't reply immediately. "What else could she do?" he said at last. "It was a cruel but necessary act, Shah. The brutes follow their Core, without which they are lost." He cleared his throat. "And my mother is... stern. Very stern. Mercy is not one of her attributes."

"Neither is trust."

"She is necessarily suspicious, Shah. Did you know she presumed Sonic was with the Gol'ur-Klem?"