The Book of Koli (Rampart Trilogy #1) - M. R. Carey Page 0,153

bolts, and they come quick to see what we was up to. That was what we knowed would happen, and we waited for them to come. As soon as they got close, we pushed down hard on that pole and took the grating clear of the bolts at last.

It fell forward and down, for there was nothing to hold it back. It come down right on top of the guard that was in front, knocking him flat. I think he was dead when he hit the ground, for the weight was fearful and it come down on his head first of all. His body slowed its falling though, so the woman had a little more warning and jumped back.

She didn’t get all the way clear. The grating hit her somewhere on her shoulder or chest. She give a scream, letting out the pain of it and calling an alarm at the same time – though the sound of the grating when it hit the ground was surely alarm enough.

Ursala picked up the metal pole and come striding out of our cell, swinging it like a reaper swings his blade. She hit the woman in the side of her head, and there was not no coming back from that. The woman fell down full-length and didn’t move.

“Here,” Ursala said. She give me the pole and knelt down by the dead woman. When she straightened up again, she was holding a knife in her hand. “Go,” she said. “Go, Koli.” For I was looking down at the woman’s body, my courage all draining out of me. You might think that after what happened with Mardew I would be somewhat hardened to killing, but I was not. I was hoping we could get away without hurting anyone, and here was two dead before we had gone ten steps.

But I knowed what would happen to us if we stayed, and I was not keen to abide it. So I held to the plan, and I done what needed to be done.

First of all, I went about to smash all the lanterns that was near us – all but one that Ursala grabbed up in her free hand. The lanterns that was down on the ground I toppled with my foot, spilling the burning oil out so it run in ragged streaks across the uneven floor. To get to the ones that was hanging on ropes or chains I swung with the pole, sometimes jumping up to get a little higher. We had got to dodge aside from the broken glass and the splashes of sizzling yellow fire that come down out of them.

People was moving and shouting now, but they wasn’t yet running our way, for the echoes in the cave made it hard to tell what direction a sound come from. It always seemed to come from everywhere at once. They knowed something was happening, but they was not sure what or where.

I got to the big butt or tank that I seen, close up against the side of the wagon-house that Ursala said was called a train. I could tell when I had got there in spite of the dark around us, for there was a strong stink of oil. I got my fingers under the bottom of the butt and heaved hard.

It didn’t move an inch. It was bigger than I thought, and the weight of the oil inside was more than I could manage. The footsteps and the shouts was coming closer now. I knowed we didn’t have much time.

I set my back to the butt and tried to push it off its base. Ursala stood by and watched at first. Then she put down the lantern and come to help, but nothing we could do would move it.

Four or five people come running towards us. I waited a second then another second for them to get right up close.

“Now, Monono!” I says.

The shrieking wail that come out of the DreamSleeve was like nothing I ever heard in my life before. I knowed it was coming, and even so it near to freezed me in my tracks. The people that was rushing on us stumbled to a stop, slamming their hands against the sides of their heads, staggering like they was hit with a hammer. They forgot about us for a while, as the personal security alarm shouted in their ears as loud as a hundred and forty bells.

I turned back to the tank. It was not going to budge