Walk to the End of the World Read Online Free PDF Page A

shame in a fighting death, but I would rather have you as an ally than leave you as a corpse on this fem-stinking beach.’
    ‘Eykar, you’re being reckless,’ d Layo reproved him. ‘He’ll say yes and turn on us later. Don’t you think other men have tried to buy him over from the Hemaways before this? In the end, he’ll be loyal to his company, whatever he says now to save his life.’
    ‘Treachery is your style,’ the Endtendant snapped. ‘That’s why I need a man like the captain. I’m not such a fool as to travel the Holdfast alone with you, Servan.’
    The DarkDreamer put on a hurt expression. ‘I try to help, and what do I get in return? Insults!’ He grinned at Kelmz. ‘Come on, Captain, you can’t resist the call of duty: ‘Hero, I need your escort through danger!” ’
    Ignoring him, Kelmz said, ‘I have a question.’ He cleared his throat. ‘What happened to the Endpath Rovers? There have always been four of them, specially trained, with standing orders from the Board to keep the Endtendant safe – inside of Endpath.’
    ‘That’s correct.’ The Endtendant stood up. He wasn’t tall, and his build was light, but well corded with muscle. Kelmz knew the type: frail-looking and nervy, cable-tough under strain. He held his head back so that he seemed to look at Kelmz levelly, eye to eye. ‘The Endpath Rovers wouldn’t have allowed me to leave, but they were vulnerable. One of their duties was to dispose of the dead. The central chamber at Endpath is a domed circle, where the drink is mixed and dispensed to the pilgrims. Then each man goes apart into an individual cell to dream his death properly, as he would any other dream – in private. My part ends when I’ve handed the last man his cup and put his name down for inclusion in the Chants Commemorative.
    ‘Later, the Rovers enter and bring the bodies back into the central chamber, where there’s a chute leading down to an incinerator under the floor. When the corpses are cleared out, the Rovers leave and seal the chamber behind them, and I open a sluice-gate from outside. The sea floods the chamber and scours it out.
    ‘This last time, I locked the Rovers in while they were still working, and I opened the sluices. They drowned.’
    ‘Did you watch?’
    ‘Yes, from the gallery above.’
    Sometimes an officer had to kill his own Rovers if they were maimed or went rogue; Kelmz had accepted that necessity long ago. He felt that any man who would not look at his own lethal handiwork was no man at all.
    ‘Then you traveled down here alone?’ he said, frowning. It was reckless for a man to risk his mental balance between the emptyness of sky and land.
    ‘No,’ the Endtendant said. ‘I waited outside Endpath until the next group of pilgrims came. They began milling around in confusion when they saw that something was wrong on the Rock. I slipped in among them, dressed like this, and came back with them on the ferry.’
    He looked at the captain, waiting. His eyes were disquietingly clear and steady; Kelmz could not return their gaze for long. The dull black of the Endtendant’s uniform showed at the breast and cuffs of the pilgrim gown.
    ‘Are you satisfied?’ the Endtendant demanded.
    The captain saw a night-plumed being, nervous and awkward on the ground but in the air a dark and wheeling grace, lacing the wind with harsh cries.
    ‘Oh, Kelmz is satisfied,’ d Layo said, sulkily. ‘Look at him, he’s half in love with you already.’ He put away his knife and rose neatly to his feet, yawning. ‘I’ll get together the things we’ll need; you two rest, we don’t leave till morning.’
    ‘I’ve rested enough,’ the Endtendant said. ‘Captain, will you walk outside with me?’
    ‘Of course he will,’ d Layo leered. ‘But come back before sunrise; it’s better that no one sees either of you.’
    The beach was empty; even the shredding-shed was silent now. The Lammintown horns shouted periodically over the hissing of the sea.