Daywards (24 page)

‘Why'd you bring us all this way?' Jaran asked. Dara didn't think her father was going to give them a straight answer, but then he looked at them both seriously, meeting their eyes one after the other.

‘So you two will always have somewhere to get away to. If you need it.'

‘Get away from what?'

Their father looked out to sea.

‘From … anything. The clan, whatever. You never know when or if you'll need somewhere to hide, and for both of you this might be a good place to keep in mind. There's a fresh water spring just beyond that headland up there, plenty of food around, and it'd be difficult for anyone to follow you here.'

Dara glanced at her brother, but Jaran's eyes were fixed on the fire. The breeze continued to build and, despite the flames, she shivered slightly. Gaari noticed.

‘Here you go.'

From his hunting kit he pulled two silvery thermal blankets and tossed them to the children. The metallic cloth was gossamer-thin, but once she'd wrapped it around her shoulders Dara felt instantly warm. In the firelight the blanket shimmered a thousand different refracted colours. They sat, unspeaking, while the night settled around them and their father roasted some of the meat Jaran had brought with him. In the darkness, the constant booming of the saltwater seemed closer and louder, and several times Dara glanced nervously down the beach, reassuring herself that the water wasn't creeping towards them.

Their bellies full, they stoked up the fire once more and then settled down for the night. Dara pulled her blanket tightly around herself and lay back in the soft, firewarm sand, listening to her brother's breathing, which was barely audible over the crashing surf. She closed her eyes, but it was some time before she felt the first, soporific fluttering wash over her.

Just before she finally drifted off, a distant tremor swept through her, out of the earth, coming from somewhere far away, nightwards. It happened just the once. The sensation came and went so quickly that she barely knew she'd felt it before she was asleep.

Dara dreamed, that night on the beach, burning dreams which, when her father shook her awake in the pale pink dawnlight, fled instantly from her memory, leaving behind just a vaguely unsettled feeling of dread.

After breakfast she and Jaran wandered the beach, all the way to the daywards headland, examining the myriad detritus washed up above the high-water line. As well as the brittle, sun-and-salt bleached skeletons of tiny marine creatures, there were bizarre manufactured objects – unidentifiable foam and rubber shapes, tangles of fine polymer mesh, lumps of weathered plascrete, all of it aeons old, and all of it still clinging to the otherwise pristine beach like ancient tumours, stubbornly refusing to vanish even with the inexorable passage of time.

‘What do you reckon this was for?' Jaran asked at one point, picking up a lump of black, pliable rubber shaped something like a foot.

‘No idea. Nightpeople stuff, I guess,' Dara replied.

‘Not tech, though.'

‘Nope. Just … stuff.'

At the headland, the eroded granite was pockmarked and beckoning with an easy array of handholds and footholds.

‘You want to go to the top?' Jaran grinned.

‘Gaari said we should stay on the sand.'

‘Yeah, but Gaari's all the way back there.' Jaran pointed at the distant smoke smear and their father's shadow, still hunkered beside the campfire. ‘Come on. It'll be an adventure.'

‘Okay. Just up there and then right back down, though.'

The climb was easy. They were accustomed to clambering on the rocks and ledges of the escarpment. At the peak of the headland the view opened up in both directions, an endless, unbroken horizon of grey blue water to the south, and, to the east, an ongoing succession of beaches and headlands extending for as far as the eye could see. Grey monolith-islands, some topped with a sparse green covering of growth, peppered the ocean, each crouching, wreathed in spray, amid the waves.

Dara followed Jaran as he scrambled up the final couple of rocks and then carefully worked his way along the spine of the headland to stand on the highest point, overlooking the sea. Below them, the wrinkled water crawled into the bay and shuddered against the wind-carved headland with enough force to send tiny seismic tremors up through the ground and the occasional burst of spray high into the air around them.

‘Sky! This is great!' said Jaran, his eyes gleaming.

‘Jaman!'

A couple of enormous saltwater birds, disturbed by their sudden presence, heaved themselves into the sky, slipping easily from their rocky eyrie into the swirling updrafts of air that tore across and around the headland. Their indignant screeches were quickly whipped away by the wind.

‘We should get back,' Dara said.

‘Just a minute more.'

‘Only a minute.'

Jaran turned away from her, looking out over the water, and Dara stared back up the beach. Their tracks stood out clearly, two sets of footprints winding over the sand to their campfire, where their father stood, a tiny figure dwarfed by the size of the landscape around him, waving furiously in their direction. Smiling, Dara waved back, letting him know that they'd seen him and were all right.

But Gaari didn't stop waving. Her response only made his movements more frantic. As she watched, he flung his arms around with greater force and took several steps towards them.

‘Jaran …'

‘I told you, we'll go in a second.'

‘Something's wrong!'

Their father was weaving unsteadily now, staggering with each step. He was still waving furiously, but, as the two children watched, his arms suddenly fell limp by his side, and his tiny figure flopped onto the white sand.

‘Shi!' Jaran swore, and Dara felt a hard knot of fear form in the pit of her belly.

‘Jaran …' she began, but her brother was already leaping over the rocks.

‘Don't rush down or you'll fall. I'll meet you there. Just keep …' His final words were carried away by the wind.

As hastily as she dared, Dara followed, hopping from boulder to boulder and trying to ignore the drop to the seething water. Down on the beach, Gaari's body was still motionless, and she saw Jaran appear at the bottom of the climb and begin sprinting along the beach towards their father, running hard on the firm sand.

By the time she reached the beach herself, Dara's heart was thundering in her ears. She closed her eyes for a moment and breathed in several times to calm herself.

Just like the day before, she had a brief flash, a strangely disjointed moment where she was not in herself any longer, but somewhere outside. She caught, momentarily, the spark of her brother, and beside him the weak, fluttering spark that was Gaari.

Then she was back, half-running, half-stumbling across the sand as fast as she could, towards the distant, unmoving body of her father.

In the early afternoon, with the storm now abated to nothing more than a strong, cold wind and the occasional shower of rain, they set out from the Eye, Ma Saria in the lead, then Eyna, Jaran and Dara. Dara expected that they'd head immediately daywards, east from the clearing, but to her surprise Ma led them all the way back to the top of the escarpment, stopping in the shadow of the sentinels. There, the four of them stood in silence, staring south over the coastal plain and forest below.

‘Ma, you okay?' Eyna asked, and the old woman nodded.

‘Jaman. Jus' saying goodbye. Don't expect I'll see this place again.' The sadness in the old woman's voice was obvious.

‘We don't have to go,' Dara suggested. ‘The Nightpeople have gone. We could go back to the cave …'

‘Nah, girl.' Ma shook her head. ‘You and me still got a job to do, remember?'

Dara knew: that cold scar on the warm earth, all those kilometres away.

‘Couldn't … stay … anyway …' It was the first time Jaran had spoken since waking, and they stared at him, despite themselves, uncertain how to react to the way he had to search out words in his head and then force his mouth to pronounce each individual syllable.

‘Why not?' Dara asked.

‘Night … people b… ba. Wat …' His eyes grew dull with frustration, and he pounded one fist hard against the side of his head, until Eyna gently caught his arm.

‘Don't worry about it, Jaran,' she said. ‘It'll come back.'

Dara wasn't so certain, recalling Drake's quiet threat. She bit her tongue though.

Jaran turned away and stared south again.

Below, the forest was quiet after the days of stormy weather, and the branches of the canopy barely moved. Off in the far distance, the sun managed to break through a hole in the cloud layer, painting the wet land with a silvery patchwork of light and shadow.

‘Right, you lot,' Ma Saria finally announced. ‘Let's go.'

She led them daywards, east along the clifftops, following a path that took them parallel to the edge of the escarpment, sometimes winding back into the forest, sometimes teetering on the very edge of the dropoff. They fell into their hunting walk, but Jaran tired quickly and as the afternoon wore on they had to stop more and more frequently to allow him to rest. By the time the sun was low to the horizon and they'd travelled barely ten kilometres, Jaran was managing only fifteen minutes between rests, and Ma called them to a halt in the lee of a giant outcropping of boulders, slightly inland from the clifftops.

‘We'll stop here tonight. You girls go see if you can find us a bit of dry wood. Jaran an' I'll get set up for dinner.'

Eyna and Dara followed a muddy trail looking for sheltered hollows or undergrowth in which they might find wood untouched by the rain.

‘Do you think he'll get better?' Eyna asked, once they were out of earshot of the other two.

‘Dunno. Drake told me that people usually came out … broken. He didn't say if it was permanent.'

‘Nightpeople shi!' Eyna spat.

Dara regarded her cousin with surprise. She wouldn't have imagined it in Eyna's temperament to be so vehement.

‘If I meet them again …' Eyna left the rest of the threat unspoken.

‘Don't think that's likely.'

‘Pity. I'd like to see that Drake along the shaft of my spear one day.'

‘You don't mean that.'

‘Don't I?' Eyna gave Dara a hard look. ‘You mean you wouldn't? Aren't you mad at what they did to him? What they did to you?'

‘Of course I am!' Dara said. ‘But it's not going to do us any good getting worked up about it now. The four of us gotta concentrate on bigger things.'

‘What bigger things?'

‘Surviving. Getting to the Darklands. Fixing things there, so the Earthmother can properly heal herself.'

Eyna snorted softly. ‘Like that'll make any difference.'

Now it was Dara's turn to glare. ‘You haven't felt it like I have.'

‘That's right, I haven't. I'm not good enough to be part of your and Ma's secrets. Just like you never bothered trying to include Jaran.'

‘That's different. He can't reach …' Dara began, but Eyna cut her off.

‘How do you know that?'

Dara gave her cousin a questioning look.

‘You know what he thinks about reaching. You've heard him as often as me. He's like Uncle Xani …'

‘Nah.' Eyna shook her head emphatically. ‘He's nothing like Xani, even though he might have wanted to be. Your brother can reach. You've just never stopped to feel it.'

Dara stared at her cousin. The younger girl had become someone she didn't know. Eyna met her eyes squarely, her mouth set and her chin defiant.

‘What in the sky are you talking about?'

‘You followed him all the way to the city, didn't you?'

‘Yeah.'

‘And he knew you were there the whole time, right? Even before he met up with you?'

Dara didn't answer.

‘How'd you think he did that, then?' the younger girl continued. ‘He must be reaching.'

‘When someone's reaching around me, I can feel it. Just like you. And I've never felt Jaran.'

‘You've never looked for it. And he's probably never admitted it to anyone, either. But just because he doesn't want anyone to know what he's doing doesn't mean he's not touching the Earthmother the same as you, or me, or even Ma.'

‘I'd have felt it,' Dara insisted, her voice stubborn.

‘Shi. You're the one always telling me that you gotta relax and be open to feel things through the Earthmother. When have you ever reached for Jaran an' been open to him reaching back?'

Dara couldn't answer. Her cousin gave a lopsided grin that was more like the Eyna she'd always known and threw up her hands in exasperation.

‘You try it when we get back there, and tell me if I'm wrong. Now come on, we'd better find some dry wood if we want dinner.'

Neither girl spoke another word as they continued their search, eventually finding some wood in a deep fissure between two giant rocks. Her cousin's words kept spinning in Dara's mind.

Jaran couldn't reach. It was impossible that she'd never have noticed. Or that Ma wouldn't have realised, for that matter.

Nevertheless, the fact remained that Eyna was right; Jaran had found her easily, that night on the trail to the city. He'd simply stepped out of the darkness, grinning, and told her that he'd known all along that she was following.

And she recalled that day at the beach, when they'd run along the sand and reached their father who'd been lying where he'd fallen, the snakebite deep in his calf. After Jaran had applied the tourniquet and sucked as much poison as he could from the wound, they'd known right away that they had a bigger problem on their hands – the sun.

Lying on the beach, feverish and unconscious, Gaari had been hopelessly exposed, but there was no way the two children could have carried his dead weight. Instead, Jaran had rigged up a shelter, using their blankets and some branches and then had turned to Dara, who was still numb with fear and shock.

‘Run, Dara. You have to get back to the escarpment and bring Uncle Xani and the others. I'll wait here with Dad.'

‘But the sun …'

‘There's nothing else we can do about it. Just go!'

And she'd run, through the morning and most of the afternoon, retracing their route in a panicky stumble until she'd finally staggered up the home trail in the late afternoon – to find the uncles all ready to go, medkits and a stretcher prepared, waiting only on her arrival and the sunset so that they could set out. She'd always assumed that Ma Saria had told them what had happened. All the littlies knew that the old woman could do things like that.

But what if she hadn't?
Dara wondered now, as she helped Eyna haul armloads of dry firewood.

Back at their camp, as Ma Saria bustled around preparing food, Dara regarded her brother thoughtfully. Outwardly he seemed little different from the Jaran she'd always known, though his newly acquired speech impediment had made him even more taciturn, if that was possible.

Just do it!
she told herself.
Just shut your eyes, open your mind and reach. You've done it a thousand times. See if there's anything … different … about him.

But for some reason she couldn't bring herself to do it, and eventually her brother noticed her staring and returned the look.

‘Are … you … ‘kay?' he stammered.

Dara felt Eyna's eyes on her as she answered.

‘Yeah. Fine. Sorry.'

Turning away, she busied herself getting their sleeping mats set up, ignoring the itch of her cousin's gaze as she did so.

After they'd finished eating, they sat watching as the vaultlights shone milk-thick in the sky and listening to the drone of insects in the surrounding bush. Ma Saria fell asleep quickly and the others, brother, sister and cousin, moved away so they could talk without disturbing her.

At first, Jaran spoke little, listening while the two girls filled him in on what had happened to them in the weeks since his departure for the city. Occasionally he'd interject, slowly grinding out some question or other. Dara related her experience with the Nightpeople, her cheeks burning as she described Raj, her unexpected saviour.

‘Didn't … see … him. Just … Drake and … the other.'

‘Blin.'

He nodded. ‘Called … ‘self … Prelate.'

‘Did you find out anything else about them? About New London or anything?'

Jaran hesitated, a glimmer of uncertainty in his expression, and Dara didn't know whether he was trying to formulate his next sentence or was reluctant to speak. Eyna leaned across and touched him on the shoulder.

‘It's okay, Jaran. You can tell us.'

Jaran closed his eyes, concentrating, and watching him, Dara started slightly as a shiver of unexpected earthwarmth ran through her. Her eyes widened in surprise, but before she could ask Jaran if it was him, her brother started talking, haltingly at first but with increasing fluency as the words began to form and flow more easily.

‘They caught … me … near the Eye. Drones … chased me down and when I woke up … couldn't … move. Uncle Xani was … there with … Drake … Blin. Pretended to be asleep still, so I … overheard … talking. New London … last skycity still working but … almost … problems. Kept using word … entropy. Talking ‘bout Da Janil … too. Drake … said last hope … viable children … Us. Something about genes and … evolution. Sounded dangerous. Xani promised them we'd … cooperate. Said I'd take them to … Dara if they let … everyone else go.'

‘He thought you'd left me in the city.'

Jaran nodded.

‘Before he … called them … told me to put you … somewhere … safe. For protection for … clan. Knew they'd want … you, mostly … you.'

‘Uncle Xani called them?' Eyna asked incredulously.

‘Da … Janil left … instructions. In the … Eye. On tech. Automatic if … he … died.'

‘Instructions? To call in the Nightpeople?'

‘I … think so. Hard to … Uncle Xani didn't … say much about that to me.'

Dara's eyes narrowed. ‘But he knew what they'd want, too. He knew they wanted us, me especially. So when Ma Saria threatened to take off with me and anyone else who wanted to come along …'

‘Uncle … Xani … panicked.'

‘And told you to hide me in the one place the Nightpeople would never think of looking.'

Jaran nodded. ‘Didn't … want to, but … seemed to be … safest for … you.'

‘And why don't I get to decide what's safest for myself?' Dara growled. ‘Bloody Uncle Xani. Bloody you, too, Jaran! You had no right to do that to me. Do you know what it was like, waking up in that tower?'

Her brother dropped his gaze. ‘I … no. Sorry. Only safe place in … city, Xani said.'

‘Safe? Shi! I'd hate to see your idea of somewhere dangerous.'

‘Had to get you … off … earth. Away from … Ma Saria.'

Dara, her eyes narrow slits, leapt to her feet and took a half-step towards her twin, who flinched slightly away.

‘So you locked me in that tower? Because Uncle Xani wanted to be able to hand me over to the Nightpeople to save his own stupid skin?'

Jaran didn't reply. He sat there taking the brunt of Dara's anger in silence.

Finally Eyna interrupted. ‘Stop it, Dara! Jaran made a mistake. He's not the first one.'

‘Easy for you to say,' Dara snapped back. ‘You weren't going to be used as Nightpeople bait.'

‘And you managed to get away, so forget about it. We've got bigger things to worry about now, you said it yourself.'

‘Hmph!' Dara snorted, as she turned her back on the other two and walked away into the night.