A Princess of The Linear Jungle

“The Linear City automatically reroutes around damage.”
    On her personal origin: “I rode down on the sky fragment’s back.” Or: “I was an infant castaway when the ship that carried my parent son the River crashed here in flinders, during a storm. The hybrids raised me.” Or: “I came here like yourself, on another expedition, when there was no Princess, and invented my role.” Or: “I was sent from the Borough of Narligrash, millions of Blocks from here, to monitor the situation, and I simply overstayed my remit.”
    Finally, as to what fate lay in store for Merritt, the Princess would only say: “I shall take you to your destiny when the time is ripe for us both.”
    During these interviews, Merritt would find herself experiencing the queerest affinity for and empathy with the Princess, almost as if she could experience the other woman’s thoughts and feelings directly. The hot, cloistered air inside the royal hut, thick with unknown perfume, conspired with Merritt’s anxiety and perpetual lack of sleep to induce in her a fugue state, where all her old life seemed unreal under the waterfall of seductive words tripping from the Princess’s tongue. This fugue state often passed over at night into odd, perfervid dreams. Orphaned since birth, had Merritt not indeed felt a special calling? Who was to say she was not indeed the next Princess of Vayavirunga?
    Back in the hut she shared, shaking herself out of her trance, Merritt and the others spent futile hours parsing these tidbits of contradictory information, nowise enlightened in the process.
    At this moment Merritt could no longer stand the massed expectations of her fellows, all centered on her, thanks to Arturo’s assertion that she alone held the key to their release. She got to her feet and said, “I can’t think about any of this any longer. I’m tired, and I’ve got a headache. I’m going outside to play with the children.”
    The ratboys and pigeongirls, from toddlers to adolescents, could generally be found running about, playing variations of simple games any human child would have found instantly familiar. They were used to Merritt’s company by now, for she delighted in being with them, and they welcomed her into their midst with chittering and cooing. Soon she was sitting cross-legged on the ground and holding and holding a pigeonbaby in each arm, while ratboys rested their heads in her lap to be petted.
    Durian Vinnagar approached. “Merritt, let us go over again this matter of the Citybeast—Vasuki, of course, great be His Name. It’s truly the most vital matter of our quest. You claim the Princess said something about His tears—”
    “Oh, Durian, please leave me alone! I’m so very tired. We’ll know everything there is to know when the Princess is ready to show us, and no sooner!”
    And that day, as it happened, lay just beyond the following dawn.

    When several ratmen came to the dwelling of the humans early that morning, Merritt resignedly rose to her feet and prepared to accompany them to see the Princess. But the ratmen were not satisfied with her individual compliance, and began chittering animatedly at the other explorers, urging them all to file out of the hut.
    Outside, Merritt was astonished to see the whole population of the village awaiting them. A nearly palpable air of expectancy overlaid their alien stances.
    The ratmen continued to chitter away, and suddenly Durian Vinnagar spoke, his voice laden with astonishment.
    “I—I can understand some of what they’re saying. After all these weeks of blankfaced immersion. It’s as if a door suddenly opened in my mind….”
    Arturo Scoria clapped his rival on the back with real affection. “Durian, I always said your linguistic skills were second-to-none! Give out with what you can decipher.”
    “They say—they say we must all go to see She—She-Who-Needs-Be-Heeded. It is the time… the time of succession.”
    Merritt’s guts clenched and knotted. What was expected of her, what trial would she face? Did she want whatever was about to be offered to her? Why now? No, she needed more time to think—
    But the royal guardsrats brooked no dissent, and the six explorers were hastened deeper into the village, toward the hut of the Princess, the mass of hybrids trailing expectantly, as if at a carnival.
    Dan Peart looked longingly at the Riverside slope. “I say we make our dash right now, chums.”
    Ransome Pivot said, “And get a spear through the back?