153 - Epilogue

Kyrus sank down on the code floor and Tizrav crawled into his lap, up his chest ad thrust her nose into his neck. *I fly now. Bio body old old old and tired. I fly now. I fly. I DRAGON now. FireDrake said. One said.*

Werfas sat, all but exhausted. *What's wrong with Tizrav?*

*I don't know. * Kyrus ran his mental hands down Tizzy's spine and could feel the crunch and crushed vertebrate code. 

*Tizzy. Fix. You fix and come out with your boy boy.*

*No. No. I stay. I stay. I stay with old old ma.*

Kyrus tried to hold onto her but she shivered as the code re-wrote itself and the tiny, lithe white body bounced straight through his grasp and ran over to a gigantic cliff face that looked like Mother Thriti, but with closed eyes. She curled up against the chin of the image and... became stone.

**

*Mom? Mom? Are you still running, under there?* FireDrake One had uncoiled itself, slithered out and flown to the rubble field at the base of the butte, the instant Prime's bombardment stopped. Its long, flexible mouth parts closed on boulders the size of warbirds spitting them violently over the north rim with reports that made people all around flinch.

*Carefully, One, please.* Mom's sending was faint but clear. *Thank you One, that weight was about to crush us all. * FireDrake's digging grew somehow more frantic but more careful. *One, you needn't be concerned about this hull. You have my consciousness safe. So does Agador. I have many back ups. We are nearly free. *

*We'll have you all out momentarily. *

*Thank you, One. *

**

Terence opened his eyes in time to see Hara sit up and reach to touch Mother Thriti's arm. “Should Agadore call a medic?” But he could see that the old woman sat like a wax statue, her mind gone elsewhere. Her dog sat at her feet, as still as she, but still breathing, a steady whimper rising from the tiny black and tan.

“She... helped dig out... uncover... the control centre.” Hara said vaguely, her eyes not tracking. Most of the other zardukar hadn't managed to crawl out of code yet. His Radiance was still under, Ilax as well. The Nadu head and Archie were both barely beginning to stir.

Mariush, with Homa on her arm, swept in. “Get everyone water. We need to have everyone checked. Shashi, Amardad, if you have anyone not flattened, we're going to need them.”

The bees roared in, floated in the top of the room and coating Ky's da from head to foot. “Ow,” he said faintly, and began to sit up, slowly.

Ky rolled over and right off his couch. “Ow. Da, I think I'd rather learn to be a regular feather spitter than do this.”

His Da laughed, choked, coughed and made it to his feet, still robed and crowned in bees. “We have a lot of work to do, before Prime figures out the code shuffle I passed off on him.” The warriors of Lainz and Milar and Nadumon, raising themselves out of the brutal code fight, were quiet but they were, at least, still alive, as were most of city folk. 

Dag lifted her head from Silly's neck and looked around the rest of the flock.  It was the first time another type of animal had voluntarily gone into code with them, so now they had ferrets, dogs and warbirds.  Silly couldn't vomit but his secondary eyelids were closed tight as if against a haboob.

The distant roar as the mist curtains continued to show people a sky empty of fireballs, and they began to uncoil and realize they were all still alive and that there were their lives to rebuild.  Code dogs howled and ferrets sat silent as zardukar were discovered missing from their bodies.

The zardukar were sitting up slowly, all around Kyrus, moaned. Their noses were bloody, some bled from their ears.  One or two vomited quietly and the stink of someone's filthy underclout filled the room.  

Werfas accepted a glass of water and groaned "Is this what war is going to be from now on?  We're all in a stinking room, bleeding from our ears and struggling to sit up afterwards?" 

Ky just nodded at him. "We seem to be doing this a lot," he whispered.  "Not what I thought I'd get when I tried to make Ilax teach me to be a warrior."

People retched, but no one spoke, except Kyrus. He turned to look at all of them, meeting their eyes. “As I told you before. We've won this latest battle. The war is still to be finished."

End