They traded glances conspiratorially, and at last Layanna said, “There’s a ... creature. A being. We believe it’s responsible for the murders and that if you told us more about how you found the bodies, it might help us find the killer.”
Jeffers stared at them. “You wanna find the Collossum? You’re mad!”
This time the looks they threw each other were surprised, not conspiratorial.
“You know about the Collossum down here?” Hildra said.
“’course. Everyone does.”
“Michael said it was common knowledge,” Avery remembered, “but I thought ...” To Jeffers, he said, “What do you know of it?”
Jeffers hitched his chin toward the window. “Only what the priests’ve said.”
“Priests?”
Jeffers seemed perplexed. “Yeah. ‘course. Shit, you folk don’t know that either?” He rose and pointed to some lights shining on the other side of town. “That’s where they are, the priests of the creature. That’s the church of the Collossum.”
Fifteen minutes later they stood outside of (but not too close to) a squat, rounded structure with the symbol of a trident over the door. Low singing came from within.
“Think they’re sacrificin’ somebody?” Janx said.
“They must do other things besides human sacrifice,” Avery said, though, even as he said it, he could not discount the possibility.
“Damn it all,” Hildra said. “A Collie church here in Muscud.” To Layanna, she said, “Is the Collossum there?”
“No. I would sense it.”
“Everyone knows its location’s secret,” Jeffers said.
Avery peered at him seriously. “I think it’s time you told us your story.”
The old man sighed. “A few weeks ago, I was travelin’ to Vosli, that’s another town down here if ya didn’t know, and as I was goin’ up the channel a buncha bodies come down toward me, driftin’ on the current. A whole mess of ‘em, all as bad as that one I gave Boss Vassas. I was so scared I wouldn’t go the rest of the way. Didn’t want to come on whatever’d done that. About a week later I got up the nerve, though. Vosli was gone. Blackened. Twisted. Half sunken. Bodies lyin’ in the streets, bein’ chewed at by bugs and ratkin.” Jeffers looked off, as if seeing it anew, and his face filled with horror. “I heard a sound. It were a boy, all dirty and starved. He’d been trapped in the rubble when it all went down and had been spared, or maybe whatever did it wanted the world to know and left him alive. He’d gotten free, anyway.”
“What’d he say?” Janx asked.
“Said a few weeks before it happened, some priests had come to town, preachin’ a new religion. The New Order, they called it. They worshipped some heathen god. They tried to pressure the town mayor to let ‘em build a chapel there, to help spread the word, if ya follow me. The mayor told ‘em where to stick it. A few days later, it came. The boy didn’t get a good look at it, but he heard the screams and the destruction right enough.”
“What happened to him, the boy?” Hildra said. “You bring him back here, or to one of the other towns?”
Jeffers seemed reluctant. “I tried. He wouldn’t come. Said the ghosts of his family talked to him there. He wouldn’t leave Vosli.”
“Poor kid.”
“Yeah. Well, after word spread of what happened there, no one went against the priests when they came to visit. Pretty much every town agreed to host a chapel if the people of the New Order’d spare them. But the priests keep the lair of their god a secret. They’ve only said it resides at the holy city that’s the local center of their faith, somewhere here in the sewers. This one in Muscud’s just what they call a satellite. A branch.”
Layanna bit her lip. “So Vassas struck a deal with the Collossumists. That’s why he didn’t want to talk to us about it.”
“He only did what he had to, to prevent Muscud from becomin’ another Vosli.”
“Should we confront him?” said Avery.
“Don’t you dare,” said Hildra. “He’d slit our throats.”
“Maybe. Besides, he obviously hasn’t converted, himself, otherwise he’d wear a trident necklace or show some other sign of the faith.”
“Not to mention he would’ve turned us over by now,” Janx said.
“Maybe we should waylay a priest,” Hildra suggested. “Get the bastard to tell us where the main Collossum temple is.”
Janx cracked his knuckles. “Works fer me.”
Avery nodded. “Yes, we can use the priests to find out where the so-called holy city is. But Collossum priests are fanatics. He or she will die before revealing anything.”
“Yeah? So?” The idea didn’t seem to bother Janx.
“That doesn’t mean we can’t use him or her to show us where the Collossum is. If there is a main complex down here, the priests of the order will likely visit it on occasion. We have only to establish a watch and have the priests followed next time they leave Muscud.”
Somewhat hesitantly, they consulted with Vassas, finding him as he was leaving one of the back rooms of his casino, wiping blood off his knuckles and wearing a satisfied expression. When he heard what they wanted, he agreed readily enough.
“Fuckin’ bastards,” he said. “Sure, I’ll help if it’ll get rid of ‘em. Even have some of my boys watch the church if that’ll help. They’re takin’ over the whole town. Just a coupla weeks ago, no one paid those damned cultists much attention. But now more and more people are showin’ up, comin’ from the surface, some of ‘em, and all worship the whatsit. Some weren’t infected before, but they’ve let themselves become that way in some fucked-up ritual. Some they sacrifice. And people have begun ... disappearing.” He looked pained. “Won’t be long before they just take over.”
* * *
That night, Avery found Layanna at the small tavern on the roof of the casino/brothel. It catered only to the workers and residents of the establishment and so was much smaller and quieter. The gathering sat under a canopy and watched the tumult of predatory flails, a subspecies that only came out at night, though what difference it could make to them here Avery didn’t know. Still, they knew when it was time, and in great numbers they swept and fluttered all around, a wet, nasty storm of whickering wings and splashing mucus—hence the canopy. The watchers drank, smoked and talked quietly from under its protection, enjoying the natural show all around them. Some threw the flails food. Some threw darts.
