SKYDRUM Chapter 4: Note to Self

Halfsun from the bell tower's height. The tower's great bell swinging. The half sun exactly where it was yesterday; nothing in the city has moved except the people waking up.

Sound: "BONNNG"

Caption (narration): "The tower rings the day over. The sun doesn't notice."

A back street. Tam in a borrowed hooded shirt, hood up, sticks in his belt. His drum is still on Pell's bench. Vela beside him, cloak hood deep, goggles on.

Tam says: "Morning!"

A FLATBREAD SELLER at a griddle, waving a spatula.

Flatbread seller says: "Morning, Tam! Nice hood. Very mysterious."

Vela, under her hood.

Vela says: "Does everyone here say "morning" to everyone?"

Tam says: "All day. Every day. It's always morning."

Vela.

Vela says: "That's the most depressing greeting I've ever heard."

Tam tearing into hot flatbread, offering half to Vela.

Tam says: "Ember-pepper. It'll burn your face off."

Vela takes a bite. Her eyes water behind the goggles.

Vela, absolutely refusing to react.

Vela says: "It's fine."

Tam laughing, then stopping mid-laugh, head tilted.

Tam's ear. Around it, small drawn heart-rings pulsing at different speeds: the street's heartbeats.

Sound: "thup thup . thup thup thup . thup"

Tam, still chewing, eyes sliding sideways.

Tam thinks: "Two hearts. Walking when we walk. Stopping when we stop."

Down the street, two figures in grey cloaks over Warden robes, pretending to look at a rope stall.

Tam, quietly, through a mouthful of bread.

Tam says: "Don't turn round. We've got friends."

Vela turning round immediately.

Tam says: "I said don't-"

The two WARDENS throw off their cloaks. Bell-hems, clock-hand polearms.

Sound: "tin tin"

Tam and Vela bolting down a side alley into a rope-maker's yard: coils of rope, posts, a long drying line of tarred cord.

The yard is a dead end. A high wall at the back. The Wardens fill the gate behind them.

The FIRST WARDEN, broad, levelling his polearm.

First warden says: "Easy, boy. Nobody needs a bruise."

Tam pulling both sticks from his belt and spinning them.

Tam says: "Agreed. So you two go home."

Vela unwinding her star-chain from her forearm, links clinking.

Vela says: "Take the big one. I'll take the other."

Tam says: "They're both big!"

The First Warden charges, the polearm swinging in a heavy arc.

Tam's eyes narrowing. Around the Warden's chest, a drawn ring pulsing in five segments.

Sound: "thup . thup . thup . thup . THUP"

Tam.

Tam thinks: "Five. He's a five. Charging on four, landing on... now."

Tam ducks. The polearm smashes into a post right where his head was.

Sound: "KRAKK"

Tam already inside the Warden's guard, stick raised.

Tam thinks: "He's spent. Four beats till his next one. Plenty."

Tam's sticks on the Warden's breastplate: two quick light taps, then the third strike lands hard, the triangle speed lines from chapter 1.

Sound: "tak tak TAKK"

Tam thinks: "Two. Three. ONE."

The Warden rocks back three steps, gasping.

Caption (narration): "A downbeat every three beats. The shortest cycle anyone has ever seen."

Across the yard, Vela against the SECOND WARDEN. Her chain whips out in a long curve and wraps his polearm.

Sound: "SHHK"

She yanks; he holds. She is in full sun and her arm is trembling.

Vela, gritting her teeth behind the goggles.

Vela thinks: "Slow. Everything is slow in this light."

The Second Warden shoves her into a pile of rope coils.

Sound: "FWUMP"

Tam dancing round the First Warden, dodging again and again. Each dodge exactly on the Warden's fifth beat.

Sound: "WHUD . . . . WHUD"

Tam, grinning, getting cocky.

Tam says: "You know your helmet's shaped like a bell?"

Tam still talking, sticks moving.

Tam says: "Who designed that? Every time I hit it, you ring-"

Tam's count, drawn as a triangle around him, cracks on one corner.

Tam thinks: "Wait. Was that two? Or-"

The charge in Tam's sticks snaps back up his arms into his own chest. A burst of red lines from his heart outward. He doubles over in mid-air, mid-strike.

Sound: "THUD-DUK"

Caption (narration): "Lose the count, and the charge has only one place to go."

Tam on his knees in the dust, a hand on his chest, blood running from his nose.

Tam, dizzy, eyes unfocused.

Tam says: "Ow. Ow ow ow."

The First Warden, still winded, raising his polearm over him.

First warden says: "Told you. Nobody needed a bruise."

Tam, swaying, trying to hear anything over the ringing in his head.

Behind the Warden, Vela rises out of the rope pile, coils sliding off her.

The chain swinging round her in a wide, slow circle, gathering weight. Her lips are moving.

The chain lands across the backs of both Wardens' knees at once.

Sound: "WHAKK"

Both Wardens fall in a heap of grey robes and bells.

Sound: "tinnn-tin-tin"

Vela grabs Tam by the back of the collar and hauls him to his feet.

Vela says: "Up. Wall."

Vela boosting Tam up the back wall, his legs kicking.

Tam says: "I'm bleeding!"

Vela says: "Bleed on the other side."

The two of them dropping into a canal path on the far side, out of sight.

Under a bridge, in its shade. Tam sits against the stones, head tipped back, pinching his nose.

Vela crouches beside him, goggles up a little in the shade, studying him.

Vela says: "You were winning."

Tam says: "I know."

Vela.

Vela says: "You hear his whole cycle. You know when he lands. You had him."

Tam.

Tam says: "I know!"

Vela, the dry voice of a teacher.

Vela says: "Every heart keeps a cycle. Yours is three. Lose count in the middle-"

Vela pokes him in the chest. He winces.

Vela says: "-and the charge comes home. That's a Backbeat."

Tam.

Tam says: "I know what a Backbeat is. Pell tells me every time I trip over my own feet."

Vela.

Vela says: "Then why did you start talking?"

Tam opening his mouth to answer. Closing it. Thinking hard.

Tam, honestly puzzled.

Tam says: "...Because his helmet really is shaped like a bell?"

Vela pressing her palm into her goggles.

Vela says: "Three beats. You only have to count to three."

Tam, blood on his lip, one finger raised, solemn.

Tam says: "Okay. Note to self."

The two of them under the bridge, the canal glittering gold beyond the shade.

Tam says: "Shut up while fighting."