She considered the question. At last she said, “I don’t know. I was a girl in the Citadel when all that happened.”
Not much help. I was a girl might have meant six, twelve, or even eighteen years of age. I was thinking the gray could have started and the Flight Killer might have come to power around twelve or fourteen years ago, because of something Mr. Bowditch had said: cowards bring presents. Like he saw it happening, gave his faves some goodies, helped himself to a shitload of gold pellets, and ran away. Also because of something Dora had said: Radar was little more than a puppy when Mr. Bowditch showed up the last time. The curse had been happening then. Maybe. Probably. Plus, just to add to the fun, I didn’t even know if Empis years were the same as the ones I knew.
“Sleep, Charlie. It’s the only escape we have.” She started to turn away.
“Jaya, wait!” Across from me, Iota grunted, snorted, and turned over. “Who was he? Before he turned into Flight Killer, who was he? Do you know?”
“Elden,” she said. “Elden of the Gallien.”
I went back to my blanket and lay down on it. Elden, I thought. I knew the name. Falada the horse, speaking for her mistress, had told me that Leah had had four sisters and two brothers. Leah had seen Robert’s poor crushed body. The other brother was also dead, although she hadn’t said how it had happened, or if she had seen his corpse. The other brother was the one who had always been good to her, Falada said. Falada, who was actually Leah herself.
The other brother was Elden.
5
Three days passed. I say three because Pursey came nine times with his cart of half-cooked meat, but it might have been longer; in the gas-jet twilight of Deep Maleen, it was impossible to tell. During that time I tried to put together a history I thought of as The Fall of Empis, or The Rise of Flight Killer, or The Coming of the Curse. This was idiotic, based on the tiny scraps of information I had, but it passed the time. Some of the time, anyway. And I did have those scraps, poor as they were.
One scrap: Mr. Bowditch spoke of two moons rising in the sky, but I had never seen the moons rise. Had hardly seen them at all. He also spoke of constellations no astronomers of earth had ever seen, but I had caught only occasional glimpses of the stars. Save for that one ephemeral patch of blue when I had been approaching the sundial, I’d seen little but clouds. In Empis, sky was in short supply. At least now it was.
Another scrap: Mr. Bowditch had never mentioned Hana, and I think he would’ve. I didn’t hear the giant’s name until I visited the “googir.”
It was the third scrap that interested me the most, the one that suggested the most. Mr. Bowditch had talked about what might happen if people from our world discovered the way to Empis, a world no doubt filled with untapped resources, gold being only one of them. Just before he realized he was having a heart attack he’d said, Would they （meaning the would-be plunderers from our world） fear waking the terrible god of that place from its long doze?
Based on the tape, things were already bad in Empis when Mr. Bowditch made his last visit, although Hana might not yet have been at her post back then. The city of Lilimar was already deserted and perilous, especially at night. Did that mean he knew from personal experience, like a final expedition to get more gold, or only that he’d heard it from sources he trusted? Woody, perhaps? I thought he’d made a final trip for gold, and that Hana hadn’t been there.
Based on this shaky matchstick foundation, I built a skyscraper of supposition. When Mr. Bowditch made his last visit, the King of Gallien （whose name was probably Jan） and the Queen of Same （name unknown） had already been deposed. At least five of their seven children had been killed. Leah escaped, along with Auntie Claudia and her uncle or cousin （I couldn’t remember which） Woody. Leah claimed her brother Elden was also dead, but it was clear that Leah had loved him best （that was straight from the horse’s mouth, ha-ha）。 Wasn’t it possible that Leah would prefer to believe Elden dead than to believe he had become the Flight Killer? Did any sister want to believe her adored brother had become a monster?
Wasn’t it possible that Elden had also escaped the purge—if that was what it had been—and awakened the terrible god of that place from its long doze? I thought that was the most believable of my suppositions, because of something Hamey had said: Ever since Flight Killer came back from the Dark Well.
That might just be bullshit legend, but what if it wasn’t? What if Leah’s brother had gone down into the Dark Well （just as I had gone down another dark well to get here） either to escape the purge or on purpose? What if he had gone down as Elden and come back as the Flight Killer? Possibly the god of the Dark Well was directing him. Or perhaps Elden had been possessed by that god, was that god. An awful thought, but it made a degree of sense, based on the way everyone—gray people and whole people—were being wiped out, most of them slowly and painfully.