Angry Lead Skies



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85

Colonel Block’s coach was still a block from my house when
it bogged down in traffic. Macunado Street was clogged with bodies,
most of them human and only remotely acquainted with personal
hygiene, but with plenty of odds and ends and mixtures in the
crowd, too. Everybody wanted to see the glowing blob in the sky
that seemed so interested in our neighborhood.

This blob wasn’t a flying disk. Nor was it like those
things that Evas and her friends had flown. This was more of a
cylinder with gently tapered ends, with nothing protruding outside.
To hear the crowd tell it, the cylinder had descended to ground
level several times but was now just hovering, like it was
confused. Or just waiting.

I told Block, “I’m telling you right now, flying
around up in the air isn’t one-tenth as much fun as you might
think.”

“And you’d know what you’re talking
about?”

“Hasn’t been that long since I took a few rides on a
pegasus.”

“Garrett, you ought to write all your adventures down.
Being mindful not to leave out any of the bullshit you’re
always laying on people you know.”

“I’d do that if there was any way to make a few
coppers out of it. But even I have trouble believing some of the
stuff that’s happened to me.”

“You’re right. You’d have a credibility
problem. I don’t believe some of it—and I was there
when it happened.”

The crowd oohed and aahed as the skyship suddenly dropped down
almost to touching level, just about where the Garrett homestead
stood. It hovered there only briefly. Colonel Block was looking out
the other side of the coach at the time. He might not have
noticed.

He did say, “All these weird things going on in the sky
lately have had their positive side effects.”

“For instance?” I wasn’t paying close
attention. I was worrying about Casey’s stubborn streak. Was
he going to get after Kip again, now?

“Such as the political shenanigans have quieted down for a
while. We haven’t had anybody march for days. And it’s
been at least a week since there was a significant race
riot.”

“People get tired of the same old
entertainment.”

Casey’s skyship rose up against the backdrop of the night,
dwindled till it was a point lost among the stars. I wondered just
how strange his home country could really be. Presumably those of
his people that I’d met were amongst the most bizarre
specimens. The normal people would stay home, content to do normal
things.

Colonel Block dropped me in front of the house, the street
having emptied quickly once the show came to an end. “Hang
on, Garrett.” He made me wait. “What do you intend to
do about Bic Gonlit?”

I hadn’t given that much thought. It didn’t need
much. “Ignore him and hope he goes away, I suppose.
He’s just been doing his job. He can go on doing it. I
don’t see how that could involve me anymore.”

Block grunted, said, “I do want to know which stormwarden
he’s running with, if you happen to stumble across that bit
of information.”

“You got it.” I started up the steps to the
house.

A moment later I was surrounded by a cloud of pixies, every one
of them squeaking, all of them determined to have me adjudicate
countless disputes and quarrels. I was rude to them all, whether or
not I knew them.

Singe opened the front door. She held a big, cold mug of beer.
Ah, the little woman, welcoming me home.

As I started to extend my drinking hand Singe tossed back half
the mug. Then she told me, “The Dead Man said you were
coming.”

“He’s awake again?”

“That Casey woke him up. He said.”

“Damn! That’s a trick I wish he’d taught me
before he went away.”

Garrett.

“All present and accounted for, near as I can tell.
Headache and everything. What’s up, Big Guy? What’d the
Visitor have to say?”

Just no hard feelings and farewell and thank you and do not
be too concerned about reactions to his report. He does not believe
that his superiors will insist upon any follow-up. The damage done
by the Brotherhood of Light was slight and should damp itself out
within a generation. Apparently it did the same last time
around.

“That’s good to know. Whatever it means. I’m
going to go sleep off this headache.” After I drank some beer
and chased it with headache powders.



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