Urszula got up and came over to help me. Good thing too, because I was so weak I don’t think I could have risen off the mats on my own. I had never felt so drowsy in all my time in the Liminality. I had to wonder if the falcon talon that pierced me had been poisoned or something.
Yaqob clapped. “Summon the bees.”
A Duster guarding one of the many entrances to the room yanked a lever on a contraption attached to the wall and it emitted a high-pitched scratching sound, like a tree cricket’s chirp. Within moments, a swarm of bees zoomed into the room, offering nectar to each of the luminaries gathered around the table.
I accepted a mouthful myself from one insistent bugger, before stumbling towards the exit arm in in arm with Urszula. She led me out of the bunker, down the narrow alleys to a maze of narrow walkways connecting hundreds of one room dwellings in various states of disrepair. Most were unoccupied, and in the process of being cleaned out and rebuilt, but many refugees were already living here.
She brought me to a refurbished space on the far edge of this warren, perched on the lip of lower terrace with a distant view of the basin and the river valley beyond. Dust clouds obscured whatever hostilities might be going on down below.
My room was Spartan but functional. My bed was a heap of rushes covered with crudely woven mats. A groove in the stone delivered a constant trickle of water to a basin. There was even a rattan-like chair made the old fashioned way, with lengths of woody vine bent and lashed together.
“I will ask someone for bring you food,” said Urszula. “I am maybe not here when you wake. I am Hemisoul now. Again. Sometimes I go from Liminality.”
“Really? You still in the States, on the other side?”
“No,” said Urszula. “I have gone to Slovakia. I am more comfortable there.”
“That’s home for you right?”
She gave me a sad look. “Not so much anymore. I am dead a long time. My family is gone. But the place. I know it. I am more comfortable there.”
“Do you still like … being alive?”
“Yes,” she said softly. “Sometimes.”
“Do your Duster friends give you a hard time? With that pink skin and all? Fading all the time?”
“Yes. But … I have no regret.”
We looked at each other awkwardly. She had this look in her eyes I couldn’t figure out. Sad, but not really. Melancholy, I guess.
“Hey … uh … any chance you might have run into Karla over here?”
“Your woman?” said Urszula. Her expression stiffened. “No.”
“Just … wondering.” I sighed. “You never know.”
“She still comes?”
“I guess. I mean, I imagine she does. Though, she’s not all that crazy about this life business.”
“And you are?”
“Life? Yeah, sure. I like it. At least I thought so.”
“You are … unhappy?”
“Duh. I mean … I wouldn’t be here if I wasn’t. Right?”
“You two. You are still … together?”
“Depends what you mean by together. We never broke up. But … she … uh … disappeared.”
Urszula studied my face, trying to read my feelings, no doubt. I hated when women did that.
“I will leave you now. There are patrols to be done. But I will visit when I can. We have so few—“ She gaped at me.
“What’s wrong?”
“You are leaving me first. Good. When you come back, you will be strong. And maybe you stay for longer.”
“What? Am I fading?” I held up my hand. There was no hand there for me to see.
YOU ARE READING
Penult (The Liminality, Part Four)
FantasyJames Moody has grown weary of the after lands, and wants nothing more than to rebuild a quiet life in the living world with his resurrected girlfriend Karla. He only wishes Karla felt the same. But she has long given up on life and yearns only to b...
