Cormac 2 - The Line of Polity by Asher Neal

Author:Asher, Neal
Language: eng
Format: epub

Cormac 2 - The Line of Polity

12

“In the predawn light Brother Serendipity stood at the bounds of Agatha Compound and turned to address his three companions. 'You have served me well these three days, and should know that in that service you have served God and his Prophet: For the great day of his wrath is come; and who shall be able to stand?' ”

The woman made a slight whimpering sound as she suppressed a laugh. The Brother stood to one side of the tall boundary stone, with his arms spread wide and a beatific expression on his face. The three creatures looked at each other with expressions that were completely unreadable. The gabbleduck then lifted what could loosely be described as a hand up to the side of its head and, with what could equally loosely be described as a finger, scribed circles in the air.

“As the sun rose over the compound. Brother Serendipity said unto his companions, 'You shall come with me to share in this glorious day!' ”

Now the three creatures moved in around the Brother, almost concealing him with walls of flesh, bone, claws and teeth.

“ 'Here, from my trial in the wilderness, I come to claim my birthright. I shall smite the morlocks in their dank caverns and I shall rise up over my brothers and rule from the sky!' said the Brother. 'That would be a good place to rule from.' said the heroyne, sharpening his beak on the side of the boundary stone, 'This boy could go far' added the siluroyne, sharpening his claws on the other side of the stone. 'Shame' concluded the gabbleduck, whose teeth and claws were always sharp.”

The boy didn't get it for a moment, until he saw the picture of the creatures pulling apart the Brother like a piece of naan bread. He then grinned with delight and pointed at the picture.

“Gabbleducked,” he asserted, not without a degree of craftiness in his expression. The woman looked at him warningly, then finished the story.

“And thus our story ends with the moral: You can have your cake and give it away, but never turn your back on a gabbleduck.”

The night sky was bright with shooting stars that burned long courses through the oxygen-​bereft air. Occasionally, distantly, some larger piece of wreckage would make it to the ground, and there then would be a flash and a boom as of gunfire on a distant battleground.

“Dragon is nothing if not thorough when it decides to destroy something,” commented Mika.

“It always works on a huge scale,” said Cormac, taking a sip from the tea Gant had made out of a packet he'd found amongst their supplies. Cormac and Mika were sitting on their packs whilst watching this display; Apis stood a little apart from them, his head tilted to the sky; and Gant and the dracoman were out 'taking a little recce', as Gant put it.

Cormac nodded to the Outlinker boy. “You notice how all his hatreds are directed towards the Theocracy here

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