Daywards (26 page)

Here was a colony of bats, each whirling invisible in the darkness, every single one a pinpoint in a ballet of impossible precision.

And here … right out as far as she could reach, the dull ache of cold, lifeless plascrete, where ancient, crumbling towers lanced the vault of the sky, just as they spread cancerous across the face of the Earthmother below them.

Even in the middle of all this, Dara soared.

Shi!
Jaran's ‘voice' was filled with the same awe that she was feeling.
It's enormous.

You can reach the sky?
Dara had to fight to clarify the thought as her own, to separate it from their shared consciousness enough to make herself ‘heard'.

You can reach the earth!
The realisation – so obvious, she'd have thought – was filled with such a sense of awe that it set something bursting inside her and she felt the urge to plunge deeper and deeper into this shared well of awareness that they'd somehow formed around themselves. Jaran was feeling it too.

We should stop.

But there's so much more.

It's dangerous.

Beautiful

Stop.

It took every bit of determination she could muster to pull her mind back from the warmth, back into her cold body, back into the detached night. But slowly Dara recovered enough of herself to slide again into the familiar confines of her own mind.

Below her bare legs, the sand was suddenly cold. She was hardly aware of Jaran collapsing onto his back beside her. Overhead, the billion stars filled the sky with their liquid glow. The sky-eye was long gone, the night still. Dara fought back tears as an incredible sense of loneliness overtook her.

‘You … alright?' Jaran's voice. His own again, every word a labour.

‘I'm fine. You?'

‘Ama … amazing.'

‘You reach the sky.' It wasn't a question. She didn't need to ask.

‘I … guess.'

‘How is that possible?'

‘Don't know … Just always … have.'

It made no sense, but somehow, all the same, it felt right.

‘Could you feel the Nightpeople, when they were flying? And the drones?'

He nodded. ‘Felt … cold. Empty.'

‘That's how they felt to me on the ground, too.'

They sat in silence, while overhead another sky-eye, this one moving along a diagonal path to the first, tracked from horizon to horizon.

A thought occurred to Dara. ‘When you left me in the city, in the tower, could you feel me then?'

Jaran stiffened. The sudden tension in his body was almost imperceptible. If she hadn't been so attuned to him at that moment, she might have missed it. It was answer enough.

‘You could.'

Jaran looked away, taking a handful of sand and studying it closely as he let it run out between his fingers.

‘Had to make … sure … you'd be safe.'

‘Then you must have known when I escaped.'

He nodded. ‘Harder to … follow … though … when …'

As he spoke, the intervals between his words grew longer and longer, until he stopped completely, frozen into speechlessness by shame and embarrassment.

He didn't need to say any more. Dara knew, and the knowledge put her own thoughts into a confused whirl. He'd put her somewhere he could keep track of her, but that was cold comfort. And once he'd known that she'd escaped, he hadn't come back to check, hadn't even waited really.

Except that he had, she suddenly realised, remembering his dawdling during the long walk back to the escarpment. He'd hoped she'd catch up. And that's just what she'd done, though not in the way he'd planned.

‘Sorry,' he offered, the word catching in his throat.

‘It's okay. At least you were keeping an eye out for me, even if I had no idea. Does Uncle Xani know you can do this?'

‘Reaching?'

‘Yeah.'

‘No … nobody. Only … you.'

‘And Eyna.'

‘Eh?' Jaran looked confused.

‘She says she's been able to feel you reaching for ages. She was the one who told me about you.'

‘Thought … must have been … Ma.'

‘You thought wrong then.'

Jaran glanced back down the dune, towards the deep shadow where the other two slept.

‘We … should …'

‘Get back down there,' Dara finished for him. ‘You're right. Big day ahead tomorrow.'

She started to haul herself to her feet, but before she could do so Jaran reached out and brushed his hands lightly across the side of her neck. The contact was fleeting but long enough for the words to form in her mind.

We'll be all right, sis. We'll stick together from now on.

There was no need to reply. Dara grinned at her twin, and then the two of them leapt side by side down the soft dune in enormous, joyful bounds.

‘Had some pretty strange dreams last night,' Ma Saria said.

Dara glanced sidelong, but the old woman's face was giving away nothing. Ahead, perhaps a couple of hunded metres away, Jaran and Eyna were scouting for an easy climb over to the next dune valley, paying Dara and Ma no attention whatsoever.

‘Yeah? What sorta dreams?'

But the old woman didn't answer her. Not directly, anyway.

‘You wanna hear a story?'

‘I guess.'

‘It's an old one. Told to me a long time ago now, by Dreamer Wanji, back when I was a girl probably younger than you are now.'

Dara was intrigued. She thought she'd heard all the old Darklands stories, but the way Ma was talking it sounded like this might be something new.

‘A long, long time in the past, long time before my mother's mother, long time before the skycities, and a long time before the Darklands and the shifting, everything on the land was rich and alive, eh? Earthwarmth flowing everywhere and into everything. Everyone who lived on the earth knew the Earthmother, and everyone could feel her and feel into her and through her, just like you and me and your cousin do now.'

‘Back then, the rains'd come every year and the creeks would run, and the Skyfather would touch the land, and when he did there'd be love between him and the Earthmother, and there'd be water and lakes and all the life that came with them …'

Ma Saria's voice was even and unhurried as she talked about the skypeople who lived in the air and flew through it and burned the Earthmother to make their skyfire, and the Dreamers who lost their feeling for the land – burned it up until only a few of them could talk to and move with the Earthmother any more, and even they were weak. She talked about the shifting, the terrible moment when the earth tore herself wide open, and the Skyfather stopped sending his rains, and the land began dying, and the people who lived on it stopped having children.

‘Until one time, right when nobody thought there'd ever be another Darklander again, this girl called Jani and a bloke by the name of Dariand managed to get themselves a baby girl …'

‘You.' This part of the story Dara had heard many times.

‘Me,' Ma agreed. ‘And you know all about that, an' how Dreamer Wanji pulled me over to Woormra and began to teach me my reaching, and he reckoned I was the most powerful Dreamer yet to walk the Earthmother.'

‘Yeah.'

Ma Saria stopped walking, mid-stride, and took Dara by her shoulders, her grip firm almost to the point of being painful.

‘Well, Dara girl, last night that all changed, I reckon.

‘Changed?'

‘I dunno what you and your brother were doin' up on top of that dune, but sky knows I felt a reaching bigger than anythin' I've ever managed, even when I was a young thing. You two got something new between you, child, and I want you both to be real careful how you use it, all right?'

The old woman's dark eyes bore into Dara's, and at her shoulders a shiver of earthwarmth whipped down her arms.

‘We were just seeing if we could …'

‘Don't you apologise, Dara. That's not what this is all about, right? You just wanna be careful, both of you. ‘Cause this is something new and you two are gonna be on your own learning about it. From what I felt last night, there's not gonna be a whole lot I can teach you about this reaching, and that's frightenin', but it also gives an old girl some hope, too.'

Dara almost blurted it out:
Jaran can reach the sky!
But it was Jaran's gift, and not her place to tell.

‘We'll be careful, Ma.'

‘'Course you will.' Ma Saria let go of Dara, and the two resumed their progress towards the low pass that Jaran and Eyna had found.

The following afternoon they emerged from the dunes, climbing over the final ridge into a sand-blown afternoon. The moment they did so, the air changed, becoming moist and heavy, with a familiar tang to it.

‘Saltwater!' Dara exclaimed. She'd known they were moving towards it; every time she reached she could feel it there, cold and massive and yet teeming with life-sparks. But the reality of its presence, so close and so vital, the bite of that sea-laden air on the back of her tongue and the salt dampness on her bare skin, brought with it an array of memories and emotions that most of the time she tried to forget or ignore.

‘Sky!' Eyna exclaimed, and Dara remembered that her young cousin had never seen the saltwater with her own eyes.

Ma Saria led the way and they followed a series of sandy game paths, most heavily marked with scat, and wound between low scrubby sandhills until the stiffening breeze carried to them the distant roar of water and sand in ongoing conflict.

‘You two okay?' Ma Saria glanced anxiously at Dara and Jaran, knowing the memories this would be bringing back.

‘We'll be fine, Ma.'

‘Good girl.'

Jaran didn't say a word, but his hand brushed briefly against Dara's bare wrist, as had become his habit since the night on the dune.

Just grab me if you need me.

‘I'll be okay,' she told him.

I know. Me too.
He let go of her wrist and followed Ma along the trail. Dara looked up to find Eyna staring at her.

‘What's going on?' she demanded.

‘On with what?'

‘You two. He's been doing that a lot. What's happened?'

‘Nothing's happened.'

‘Shi, Dara. I know you both well enough to realise when something's different.'

‘We've just … learned a way to talk, that's all it is.'

Dara grinned, expecting Eyna to be pleased at the news. But her cousin regarded her blankly for a moment and her expression darkened.

‘So he
is
reaching, then?'

‘In a way.'

‘I knew it.'

‘You did,' Dara agreed. ‘You were right. Can we catch up with the others now?'

‘Hang on. How come he's only doing it with you? Why's he not reaching to talk to me and Ma?'

‘It's … a bit different, I think. Probably because we're twins.'

‘Different how?'

Dara didn't want to upset Eyna, but she didn't want to speak for Jaran either.

‘I can't really tell you. It's about Jaran, not me. He'll tell you when he's ready.'

‘Why not now? If it's just reaching, there's no reason he shoudn't do it with me, too. Then we could talk properly.'

‘When Jaran's ready to try it with you, Eyn, he will. Don't worry about it.'

Dara's words, which she'd intended to be soothing, had no effect.

‘It's not fair. I'm the one who's been talking to him, who's been listening to him. You've been ignoring him ever since we set out …'

‘That's not true, Eyn.'

‘Shi! You still haven't forgiven him for what happened in the city. I can't believe he'd share something like this with you and not me. And you won't even tell me exactly what's going on, like I'm just a little girl.'

‘That's not what it's about. It's different and it's personal. I'd tell you if I could, but it'd be wrong.'

Eyna looked as if she was going to argue the point, the anger still flashing behind her eyes, but then, without another word, she trotted off up the trail, making a beeline for Jaran's retreating back.

‘Eyna … Shi!' Dara realised what her cousin had in mind and launched herself after the younger girl, but too slowly.

Jaran heard them coming and turned to greet them, grinning at the sight of the two girls bolting towards him. His grin faded, though, as Eyna stopped directly in front of him, her face serious.

‘What …'

Before Jaran could finish, Eyna reached out and clapped her hand against the side of his neck, closing her eyes as she did so. Dara felt the hot surge of earthwarmth that her cousin pulled into herself as she reached, pushing her own awareness out into Jaran in an uncontrolled rush of energy.

For moment it seemed that nothing was happening. Dara watched the puzzled expression on Jaran's face give way to a look of surprise. Through her feet, there was another small tug as Eyna pulled more earthwarmth and pushed harder towards Jaran.

And then he screamed. Dara's eyes widened in horror as her brother's face twisted into a mask of agony and his pupils contracted to pinpoints.

Eyna screamed too. She was trying to pull her hand away from his neck but was unable. The two of them collapsed, still connected, falling hard and contorted to the ground, while Jaran's scream echoed.

And then Ma Saria was there, hurtling back down the sandy trail while Dara stood frozen in shock and disbelief.

‘Dara!' Ma's command broke through her stupor. ‘Help here!'

Kneeling beside her brother and cousin, Dara and Ma Saria pulled them apart. The moment Eyna's hand came away from his neck, Jaran gave a long sigh and his body relaxed, as though freed of an enormous weight.

Eyna also flopped loose as the tension ran out of her body, but unlike Jaran, who remained unconscious, Eyna rolled aside, groaning softly and clutching at her head.

‘Shi!' Ma Saria cursed. ‘Bloody shi, girl! What in the sky were you thinking?'

Eyna was in no fit state to answer. She rocked back and forth on the sand, her head in her hands and her body contracting into a tight curl.

‘Dara, look after her. Give her some water and try and calm her down!' Ma Saria ordered.

In a daze, Dara obeyed.

The entire episode had happened very fast – just a few seconds from when Eyna had dashed away from their discussion until the moment she and Jaran had collapsed.

‘Is Jaran all right?' Dara finally found her voice to ask.

‘Just look after her,' Ma replied, an answer that set a cold shiver of nerves tingling in Dara's toes and fingertips. There was no mistaking the command in the old woman's voice, though, so reluctantly Dara turned aside from her brother, leaving him to Ma's ministrations, while she knelt beside Eyna.

‘Here.' Fishing her water bottle from its clip at her waist, Dara pressed it to her cousin's lips. There wasn't a great deal left in the bottle, and she had to tilt it back hard to set the water flowing into the girl's mouth. In the process, she had no choice but to look into her face. Eyna's eyes were wide with fear, her expression tight.

‘If you've hurt him any more than he already is …' Dara began, but stopped when the words drew a whimper from her cousin, whose hands flew immediately back to her temples, clawing desperately.

‘Settle her down!' Ma ordered, barely glancing up from Jaran's prone form. Dara tried to see what the old woman was doing, but Ma had positioned her body between them, and all she could make out was her bent back as she crouched beside Jaran.

Eyna began to writhe again, spasms of some sort contracting into violent jerking motions.

‘Eyna! EYNA!' On impulse, Dara slapped the girl, quite hard, a stinging blow across her right cheek, which left the clear, crimson blush of her fingermarks. It had the desired effect. Eyna stopped thrashing and instead stared upwards, meeting Dara's stare with shocked recognition.

‘I … Dara.'

Then her eyes rolled back, her head lolled to one side, and she passed out.