City of the Falling Sky (19 page)

“
Your mum would give you a
hard time about it?” Eiya said.

“
My mum? No, my nan herself
would probably beat me to a pulp,” Tenk said. “Freakishly strong
woman for seventy five.”

When they got back to the flat, Seckry and
Eiya had a shower each and Eiya put on some clothes that she had
bought the previous weekend with some of Seckry’s small
fortune.

When they eventually took the monorail to the
venue, the place was heaving. There were all sorts of people and
ages there, some with Broken Motion t-shirts on, some with t-shirts
of other bands that Seckry recognised and some who were completely
clad in gothic leather and spiky things.

“
What are you talking
about?” someone shouted whilst they were waiting in the queue.
“Kaleidoscopic Slide was their best album.”

“
Looking for Tomorrow was
their best!” shouted someone else.

When they got inside and hung around for
another fifteen minutes or so, the lights began to dim and the
crowd went wild. Then, as The Broken Motion appeared from behind a
curtain the crowd went even wilder.

Seckry and Eiya exchanged glances, both
beaming with excitement.

They played a few upbeat songs from their
second album to begin with, which got the crowd jumping up and
down, and then a couple of newer ones that Seckry loved, then the
lead singer, E.J. began talking.

“
Our next track is one
that’s very special to us. We wrote it one night when all our
electricity had cut out. It was just us, our guitars, and a couple
of lighters. We want you to hold up your lighters and sing with
us.”

The lights dimmed and there was an expressive
sigh from the crowd as the ceiling lit up like a star field, tiny
lights scattered above them.

“
It’s called, ‘Do You Feel
it Too?’” said E.J, and the song began.

“
It’s so beautiful,” said
Eiya, beaming.

Seckry had listened to the song so many times
on his player that he knew every word, every chord change, every
drum beat and every riff, but hearing it now was like hearing it
for the first time again. He felt the hairs on his arms stand
up.

“
I love their music so
much,” Eiya said. “I bet I was their biggest fan before I lost my
memory. I can’t have only just discovered them. I feel like I’ve
been listening to this song all my life.”

Seckry felt Eiya’s small hand squeeze his
own, and something strange coursed through his body. Eiya brushed
the fine strands of her hair that were falling across her face and
tucked them behind her ears.

The rest of the gig was just as good. One
screaming girl had fainted and had to be taken out on a stretcher,
though as they were carrying her, she managed to say, “I love you,
E.J.” weakly, and reach her hand out in his direction.

As everyone was squeezing out, Seckry and
Eiya made their way backstage.

They were both gripped tightly by security
guards.

“
Stop!” shouted E.J. He came
towards them. “Seckraman?”

Seckry nodded.

“
Let them go, they’re with
us,” E.J. said, and the guards let go of them with dissatisfied
growls.

E.J. led them into the band’s dressing room
where the others were sitting on sofas.

“
Here, have a drink.”
Jopherson handed them each a can of ice cold pop.

Seckry was so excited he could feel his hands
shaking a little.

“
Thanks for inviting us back
here,” he said.

“
It’s no worries, you two,”
said E.J. “We wanted to see you just as much. We were very
interested in the email you sent us.”

After introducing themselves to everyone,
Seckry and Eiya told them about how Eiya had been found in the
Endrin compound, and they all looked at each other with
contemplation on their faces.

“
You just woke up
there?”

“
It’s the first thing I can
remember, yeah,” Eiya replied.

“
Wow . . .”

“
Why do you think Sanfarrow
and Kayne were expelled from Endrin?” Eiya asked.

“
We think Darklight must
have had a massive disagreement with them. Here, this is the reason
we invited you backstage tonight,” said E.J. and he pulled a small
computer memory stick from his pocket. “If you’re serious about
finding Sanfarrow and Kayne, this might come in handy. It’s a scan
of some paper that was found in Kayne’s old dorm. It was wedged
between drawers.”

He handed Seckry the memory stick.

“
We’ve never been able to
fathom it out, but we knew it would be useful to someone someday.
Maybe you’ll have more luck with it. There’s also a photo on there
of Darklight, Sanfarrow, and Kayne when they were at university.
Anyway, aside from this talk of conspiracy and corruption, what did
you think of the concert?”

“
It was amazing!” Seckry
said excitedly. “When you played the alternate version of ‘Leave My
Place.’”

“
And the skylights,” Eiya
said. “They were so pretty when you were playing ‘Do You Feel it
Too,’ and everyone had their lighters held up.”

“
That was Denno’s idea,”
said E.J. and patted the drummer on the back.

They sat and talked for the next hour and a
half, and E.J. even played the verse of an unrecorded song on his
acoustic guitar for them.

In the taxi back, Seckry and Eiya were
smiling at each others’ t-shirts, which the band had all signed,
until Seckry noticed that Eiya was gazing into his eyes.

“
What’s the matter?” he
asked her, and she smiled innocently.

“
It’s just nice watching
someone’s dream come true,” she said.

When they got back, Seckry plugged the memory
stick into his computer and opened the single file that was stored
on it, named sanfarrow_message.jpg. It was a tattered piece of
paper that read:

If things go wrong for us, K, you know it
will be bad.

We will have to hide. I’m sure you’ll know
what I mean when I say the following:

Refuge under the sign of Silversong.

Those trapped in glass will light your
way.

There was a logo at the bottom of the sheet;
a figure of a man standing with his arms outstretched inside a bold
circle. It was as though he were a human clock, with his left hand
pointing to the position of eleven, and his right hand in the
position of the three.

Underneath the logo were two small words:

Emrorrim Retneot

“
Emrorrim Retneot?” Seckry
said slowly, wondering if he was pronouncing the words correctly.
“What language is that?”

“
It looks like Ancient Klax,
doesn’t it?” said Eiya. “Your mum’s got that old
dictionary.”

“
Good thinking,” Seckry
said, and ran off to fetch it.

“
Em . . . ror . . . rim,”
Seckry said as he ran his finger down the heavily yellowed
page.

“
Here,” he said excitedly.
“Emrorrim, from the southern dialect of Klaxion. Emrorrim: To
Love.”

They looked at each other.

“
To love what?”

Seckry thumbed through the pages quickly.

“
Ret, ret, ret, ret . . .
retneot! It means . . .”

Seckry squinted and looked closer at the
description.

“
It means . . . ‘a rather
smelly variation of pig stew.’”

“
Oh,” said Eiya.

They both sat in silence for a moment.

“
What about Silversong?”
Eiya said.

“
Refuge under the sign of
Silversong . . . I have no idea what that is.”

They didn’t have time to ponder over it that
night, though, as they were both absolutely shattered and they
couldn’t keep their eyes open for any longer. Before going to bed,
they opened up the photo that was on the memory stick and eyed it
sleepily. Seckry recognised the face of Kan Darklight immediately
as he had seen him on the white chip video message, and there were
labels next to the men either side of him that the band must have
jotted down stating which was Kayne and which was Sanfarrow. Kayne
was standing to Darklight’s left, his eyes dazzlingly dark and his
black hair flowing down his shoulders, and Sanfarrow was more of an
unconfident looking figure, his smile forced and his posture
uncomfortable.

The next morning, Coralle let Seckry and Eiya
sleep in until half past ten, and when they emerged into the
kitchen area, they found she had made them each a glass of fresh
orange juice and a heap load of pancakes drizzling with syrup.

As they indulged themselves happily, Eiya
suddenly turned around to face the TV, which had been buzzing in
the background without Seckry noticing.

“
Seckry, look,” she
said.

The morning news was playing. Eiya upped the
volume a notch.

“
It’s the seventeenth murder
in what is believed to be the most brutal, most horrific serial
killer case in the history of Skyfall,” read the presenter.
“Ederith Umbercotton, a sixty five year old librarian from the
north partition, was found dead in her bed in the early hours of
this morning, her body brutally mutilated. The room was left in
tatters but no possessions were stolen from Mrs Umbercotton’s
property, leaving little doubt in anyone’s mind right now that this
is the latest work of the infamous Rabbit Man. The big question
everyone is asking right now is, when will this stop? When will
this mysterious man have had enough blood?”

“
Why would anyone want to
murder a sixty five year old librarian?” Eiya asked in
distress.

Seckry shook his head. He didn’t know. And
neither did anyone else in the city, it seemed.

The presenter stood to one side and a graphic
map of the city appeared beside her.

“
Let's take a look at where
these murders have taken place,” she said.

Little red rabbit icons started popping up
all over the map.

“
So far there have been four
in the west partition, six over here in the east, three in the
south, and now four in the north. Patrol officials say there are
more and more officers being assigned to this case every day and
are determined to stop this evil killer before he strikes
again.”

That weekend, Seckry and Eiya spent their
time trying to find alternative meanings to the word ‘retneot,’ but
uncovered only that it could also mean the awful smell of the stew
as opposed to the stew itself. They also searched for the word
‘Silversong,’ but found no entry in the dictionary and no
definitive answer on the internet.

When Monday came around, they realised that
they weren’t any closer to finding out where this Sanfarrow or
Kayne could be hiding than they were before meeting the band. They
showed the letter and the picture to Mr Vance, who made a copy for
himself and found the information very intriguing, but even he had
no idea how to decipher what was written.

Seckry spent most of the day listening to
Tippian describe excitedly the features of his latest Friction
purchase – some kind of electronic glove for Apocalyptia called the
Glove of Destruction.

“
You just place your hand on
a piece of wall, activate the power surge, and kaboom!” Tippian
said with excitement. “Guys, imagine the shortcuts we can take with
this. Never mind finding our way through another Section 52 maze,
we can blast our way straight through it!”

As they were leaving the school that day,
after a particularly pungent osmology lesson, Tippian jumped in
front of them and said, “I got thinking just then, what if
Apocalyptia’s Glove of Destruction was real? I mean, it’d only take
two transistors connected to a–”

“
Tipps,” Tenk cut in dryly.
“You’d better be kidding me.”

“
Chill out, Tenk, I ain’t
gonna go around blasting things to pieces. I’d never be able to
create a blast with that much force. It’d be cool to have a glove
that gave a nice, solid shock though, you can’t deny
that.”

Tenk shook his head. “One day, man, you’re
gonna be sitting on a rock with just rubble around you and you’ll
be wondering why you’re the only person left alive in the
world.”

On Tuesday morning, Tippian joined them at
the school gates and said, “Tenk, my good friend. I’ve known you
for several years now and I’ve never had the decency to formally
introduce myself. Please join me in a long overdue handshake.”
Tippian stuck out his hand which was encased in a bright blue glove
that seemed to be emanating a fuzzy glow.

“
Tippian, you didn’t go
ahead and make one of those things for real, did you?” Seckry said
in disbelief.

Tenk was backing away.

“
Don’t you come near me with
that thing, you nutter.”

Tippian was laughing.

“
Wanna see this thing in
action? Give me something you don’t need or want.”

Tenk pulled a soggy sandwich out of his
backpack.

“
Here, it’ll save me
chucking them in the bin when I buy some chips at
lunchtime.”

Tippian took the sandwich with his free hand
and eyed it with distaste.

“
What does your mum put in
these things, Tenk?”

“
Gherkins, marrowmallow, bit
of mingroot I think.”

“
What’s that brown
stuff?”