Chapter 9: Cracks in the Fortress

I staggered toward Ludger before flinching when something clicked from behind.

The horned birdman glided past me without glancing as I scrambled out of its way on my hands and knees. The beast reached Ludger’s stiff body in two strides, hoisted the fellow with a talon, and pulled back its hood.

I stiffened as a creak echoed from Ludger followed by a series of ticks. Clasping my hands over my pounding heart, I crept close but just out of reach of the horned birdman.

Somehow, the darn thing always seemed to be aware of my presence and kept its back to me while at work.

“There has to be something I can do. Anything at all.” I wrung my hands as I circled the horned birdman and tried to peer over its shoulder. “What if I… push those threads back in? No, I suppose I can't touch them. Well, you keep up what you’re doing. I'll think of something."

Since the horned birdman was so keen on ignoring me, my eyes flicked toward the marble egg. Not a single spark sprang from where it had dangled from the tree. No, it was just starting to look like the palace from the stories. If I can get it running again, my rhyme will be engraved above the entrance to the bloody University—wait, am I seriously thinking about this now? I shook my head and returned to clasping my hands over my heart. Ludger agreed to accompany me back to the Empire. Though, why anyone would willingly stay here is beyond me. It deserves my patience.

After several minutes, the threads inched back inside Ludger's head.

Disentangling the threads from the marble egg, the horned birdman yanked Ludger’s hood up, set the creature down with a thump, and clutched the smaller birdman’s shoulders. The beast didn't even breathe as it watched its fellow birdman.

Though, now that I thought about it, I hadn’t noticed Ludger so much as gasp for breath since its first encounter with me: its first human. Perhaps beings made of metallic feathers and threads of light simply couldn’t breathe… probably among other things.

Ludger stared blankly into space for several minutes. Once the threads of light that drifted within the creature’s wide eyes finished organizing themselves, two dense knots formed its glowing, pinprick pupils. It blinked rapidly before whipping its head around to take in its surroundings. Once its eyes landed on the horned birdman, it clutched the beast’s talon in both of its own and ran its beak over the walrus leather as if it were preening the larger birdman.

The horned birdman patted its fellow creature on the head while scanning the crowd of onlooking birdmen as if to take count.

Hefting the marble egg, Ludger bowed and made to scamper my way.

Snatching the creature by the scruff of the neck, the horned birdman hauled it toward its brethren, set it down roughly, and pointed a claw imperiously toward the crowd.

Bowing its head, Ludger peeled its wings from the egg, and the beast tucked it beneath its rippling folds of walrus leather. The creature slunk into the crowd and stood at attention.

The other birdmen didn’t even glance as Ludger wedged itself among their ranks. They were busy goggling at the fissures that snaked down the walls and ceiling where the streams of white light had been channeled through.

I made to stride toward Ludger to congratulate it on its quick recovery but backpedaled before I bumped into the horned birdman.

The beast stood inches from me. Leaning close, the beast studied my movements while its talon hovered over the leather folds that covered its knife.

"Oh, well aren't you full of clever tricks?” I grinned sheepishly and held my hands up: wondering whether these creatures would understand that this was a sign of nonaggression. My eyes flitted toward the snapped branches that littered the spot where I had dropped my rapier. “Have you always been able to direct streaks of light? Shame you only started noticing the currents in time to arrive toward the tail-end of Ludger’s house party, but I think you see my point now.” I nodded at where the living architecture had suddenly ceased to exist, but it continued to blossom in my mind. "I'll let you two say goodbye, and then Ludger really must be leaving for their bright future in the Empire. How does that sound, Ludger?"

When our eyes met, Ludger cocked its head incessantly toward the horned birdman as if to say, "we’re not out of this yet. Stay on your toes."

The horned birdman glided toward the nautilus-shaped tree: its body mechanically turning to always face me. Extracting the snapped branches from around the tree one at a time, the beast snatched my rapier from beneath the pile. It waved my blade overhead while sprinting up and down the hallway.

The crowd of birdmen didn't so much as flinch when their chief flailed the blade near them, but it took care to keep its distance.

Without warning, the horned birdman charged at the nautilus-shaped tree which it pretended to whack with my rapier.

"Sir, I believe you have something of mine, and, if you’re going to steal, could you at least swing it like a sword and not a mallet? Wait, are you implying that's how I look?"

The horned birdman nodded curtly before jabbing a claw at me with enough force to tear flesh and bone before lifting the folds of its thick leather to reveal the marble egg cradled to its chest.

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As I stepped toward it, the beast opened its beak.

Instead of a melodious tune, the sound of crunching stone echoed from the beast’s gaping beak.

I flinched and screwed my eyes shut. When the crack of ivory bricks colliding with my skull never came, I frowned in confusion and peeked at the ceiling. Apart from the missing chunks the tree had torn from the ceiling and the trenches carved by the forcefully relocated magic, not a brick was out of place.

The horned birdman snapped its beak shut and whirled on its brethren to find them shuffling toward the chunks of ivory that had left craters in the tiles. The beast shook its head before its brethren could twitter a single note. After its reenactment, I couldn't help but get this impression from the unblinking stare it fixed its brethren with: “Never tremble before the likes of this rogue human. These humans will not get a single whistle out of us. Understand?” The horned birdman’s talon hovered over one of the tusks that curled from its hood. Pausing for a second, it screwed its eyes shut and tore the ornament from its robe. It jabbed with its beak, and the tusk’s tip cracked. A jagged hole was left in the top, but it was a miracle the tusk hadn't shattered. Glancing at the palace around us as if expecting the walls to crumble at any second, the horned birdman whistled so softly, I barely heard it.

The ridges that ran up the tusk’s surface rippled with each inch it grew.

I imagined the stages of life the walrus that the tusk had been torn from underwent.

Ivory plastered over the jagged crack, but before the horn grew a new tip, the chief stopped whistling.

Studying what now appeared to be a flute in its talon, the horned birdman gave its craftsmanship a quizzical look and nodded. It brought the flute to its beak and blew a long, low note.

I spun on the spot when the sound of grating bricks came from behind.

An enlarging ring of violet light pushed the surrounding bricks back to reveal an endless stretch of glistening snow.

Every inch of me shivered as a frigid gust hit me from the other side of the portal, but I forgot my bodily weakness and reached to catch my rapier as it flew by.

My fingers grazed the handle as it passed through the portal before plummeting into the snow.

When I turned back to frown, I shrank away as the horned birdman somehow stared down the length of its beak at me despite being a head shorter and beckoned toward the portal. No, I am not about to be turned out. It has taken me too long to find this palace. If it had severed me with its portal, at least my disappearance would’ve convinced the deckhands to search for and find my magically-mutilated corpse: if not only to satisfy their morbid curiosity. But if I walk away, that’ll be the end of my journey. Can I count on another birdman leading me through a blizzard? Besides, returning to Freylor alive won’t do anything to convince the University to scour the Floating Isles for the “mystical birdman palace.” I tensed, ready to run at the slightest sign of movement from the horned birdman.

The beast continued blowing a continuous note into its flute while its eyes burned unflinchingly from deep within its iron features.

I planted my feet wide and held my head high. This birdman is different. It had lost control of itself when it cheated by pulling out that knife, but it must have higher faculties than I’ve been giving it credit for. It knows forcing me out will only fuel my curiosity, and I suppose it thinks my death will bring an army to its front door. But if I leave on my terms, it will have won. I’ll have bowed to the beast’s will without it needing to so much as lift a claw.

The birdmen who clustered behind their chief glanced from the flute to each other and shook their heads in confusion. Everyone aside from the horned birdman turned toward a clatter at the back of the crowd.

Ludger froze in the middle of rifling through a pile of cracked ceramic. The creature’s tableware must have been blown against the opposite wall after the magic discharged. Now that hundreds of pinprick eyes stared back, it removed ceramic shards with slow deliberation until they unearthed a cracked teacup. Ludger clutched the teacup as its gaze shot from its recovered treasure to the horned birdman. Finally, the creature threw its robe over its beak to muffle its whistling. When it lowered its robe, Ludger revealed an “instrument” that resembled a flute as a stick was similar to a carbon steel sword. Ludger had been unable to smooth the rounded bulges of the ceramic shards that were now held together with the seashells that once adorned its rim. The creature leveled the flute at a chunk of ivory as big as itself.

"Now wait a second.” I waited for the moment the flute would shatter as Ludger blew a soft, erratic whistle that filtered out of not only the end of the flute but the cracks that crisscrossed its surface. “You have all this ivory lying around. Did you ever think to use it? You’ll certainly have an easier job turning that into a flute than ceramic—"

The birdmen who were now rifling through the shattered tableware for usable shards and seashells hunkered down and cut me off with a collective hiss, lacking the decency to face me during the act, before returning to their work.

I understood they weren’t used to receiving criticism after being considered nonexistent by the known world, but ivory is partially organic. They didn't mind manipulating that when they made their portals. Yet only Ludger's tableware would be suitable for making flutes? Still, I clamped my mouth shut and looked away before I had to continue watching Ludger quake as they levitated the ivory chunk inch by inch. The first human Ludger meets, and this is its reward? No, I made a promise. After everything Ludger has done, nothing is going to keep it from seeing the Empire.

"All right, if you're so keen on spitting in the Empire's face, I’ll take my golden opportunities with me. It has been a pleasure meeting all of you. Oh, and thank you for existing. It would’ve been a tad embarrassing if I froze to death over a fairytale.” I stopped just outside the portal. My stomach twisted at the thought of walking through after my latest escape from these frameworks of light, but I took a deep breath. I couldn't allow myself to so much as stutter while I worked my kind of magic. "It's just a shame you couldn't live up to the stories.” I hummed as I reached into my innermost coat pocket stuffed with moldy lard rations and rolls of used camera film. “What do I mean by that, you ask?"

The horned birdman gave me an exasperated look, but the beast’s flute slipped from its beak and the portal fell apart as I extracted a parchment folded into a tiny square.

The parchment was stamped with an emblem featuring a globe stabbed by a quadrant divider: a seal reserved for University records meant for the Headmistress's eyes alone.

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