Survivors: Book 4 Circles of Light series (5 page)

‘He must be told of the
gijan Kertiss has bred here. Oh I wish Khosa could stay but she
cannot. She must not. I am transferring information to her, as much
as I can while we speak, but she cannot stay here too long. If she
is sealed below with me, Kertiss will find her. How I -. Move back!
Kertiss approaches!’

Gan scooped Khosa from
the Ship’s door and had just readjusted his cloak when two heads
rose from the second hole in the floor.

‘And my wings are
retractable because they are only required during atmospheric
flight from orbit to onworld.’ Singer spoke over the throb of his
music.

‘How do you do that –
sing and speak at the same time?’ Maressa followed Singer’s lead in
what she hoped Kertiss and the woman with him would take as
innocuous conversation.

‘It is not difficult,’
Singer began to explain before Kertiss interrupted.

‘Enough of your
babbling Singer.’ He gave his false smile. ‘The Ship sustained much
circuitry damage when we arrived here. This is Orla. She and I are
known among the Qwah as the Survivors.’

The woman regarded them
coolly, much as one would study a laboratory specimen Ren
recognised with a shudder. She was taller than Tika, about
Maressa’s height, and had the same pale grey eyes as had Kertiss.
There was enough similarity for Tika to guess they were related,
perhaps even brother and sister.

‘I suggest you return
to your guest rooms now for a meal. I have certain essential things
to attend to but perhaps you would come back here in the middle of
the afternoon?’ Again that artificial smile. ‘You saw how I opened
the access ramp – I will be alerted as soon as you touch the
mechanism. At the base of that ramp, Singer will await you. We
would like you to see some of the work we have been undertaking
here.’

As Kertiss was looking
directly at Tika as he spoke, she felt bound to be the one to
reply.

‘We will come back
later then. There is of course room for the Dragons to move easily
beneath this floor – it would be most unfortunate to upset them?’
She smiled brightly, and just as falsely as Kertiss.

Orla looked faintly
annoyed but remained silent while Kertiss nodded.

‘But of course. I hope
we will become far better acquainted with each other. Seeing this
Dome, these statues and indeed the Ship, is usually rather
overwhelming to the few so honoured. The gijan will tell you when
it is the appropriate time to revisit us.’

There seemed nothing
more to say or do, so Tika simply began walking towards the
archway.

‘Do come back!’ Singer
called. ‘I’m sure some of you would prefer to sit with me and
gossip.’

‘Silence!’

Tika stiffened as she
heard the venom in Kertiss’s brusque command. She looked back over
her shoulder at the Ship.

‘I know some of us
would love a good gossip,’ she called as cheerfully as she could
manage, and then she was into the darkness of the arched tunnel and
climbing to the surface.

The Keeper was sitting
in the last patch of shade when Tika and her friends emerged,
blinking, into the glare of midday. He got to his feet.

‘You were longer than I
had expected.’ He smiled gently. ‘Let me take you back to your
rooms, you must be thirsty at least.’

‘We are indeed Keeper,’
Tika replied. She looked at him curiously. ‘Do you go in there
frequently?’

His step faltered. ‘Oh
no, no. I am not yet worthy to enter or serve in that
place.’

‘Then who does?’ Tika
decided to be blunt. ‘The place was clean, well swept. So who goes
in there?’

‘Gijan probably and
perhaps the most senior Keepers but it is not discussed among us.
We are simply told when it will be permitted for us to enter.’ He
sounded worried.

‘How very odd.’ Tika
beamed at him.

They were nearing their
rooms in what they now knew was called the Ring Complex and Brin
spoke in their minds.

‘Is it permitted
Keeper, for me to take the younger Kin for exercise? We will harm
no one, but it is necessary for Dragons to fly you
understand.’

Ren nudged Tika: the
Keeper’s eyes had become unfocused. He blinked. ‘You are free to
come and go as you will great one.’ He bowed and left them outside
their rooms, vanishing in the shadowed colonnade.

Tika felt as though her
head was overstuffed with words, impressions, sensations, and she
turned to clasp Farn’s face between her hands.

‘Go with Brin and Storm
for a while, dear one. We are safe.’

Brin was already
lifting into the air, Storm at his tail, and with only a brief
hesitation, Farn followed them. Seela reclined, blocking the
colonnade and Tika led the company within doors. Gijan were already
placing trays of drinks on two low tables. Gan discarded his cloak
with a groan of relief and freed Khosa. Everyone slumped into
chairs and onto cushions, stunned by the morning’s revelations,
except for Maressa.

She caught gently at a
gijan’s arm as he turned from a table. The companions felt calmness
pulse from her as, with great care, she held his hand and pushed
his sleeve up his arm. They all stared, the gijan standing
trembling before Maressa. She moved her free hand beneath the
gijan’s loosely curled fist and pressed upwards, forcing his hand
to lie open on the back of her own. His skin was dappled olive with
faint gold markings and lines and his hand had three fingers and a
thumb, the short nails curved and horny.

Seela rumbled softly
and the gijan raised startled dark eyes towards the huge purple
Dragon. Maressa released his sleeve, enclosing his hand between
both of hers. She leaned forward and touched her forehead to his
and then sat back. The gijan looked at all the faces, ducked his
head and retreated to the kitchen from whence issued appetising
aromas. Khosa sat on the lower stairs, ready to hide above should a
Keeper appear.

‘Gijan come from the
salt marshes far south of the desert.’ She spoke in all their
minds. ‘They should not be here. These are young. They do not live
long in this heat: long enough to birth a litter and raise the
children for five years or so, then they die.’

Olam sighed. ‘I didn’t
understand much of what was said this morning. Kertiss and Ship
used words I have never heard.’

Khosa hunched down,
wrapping her tail round her front paws.

‘His name is Singer. A
Ship is a thing, Singer is a living being.’

‘How can he be “alive”
Khosa?’ Navan voiced the general perplexity.

‘The Survivors come
from another world. They learnt to travel through the fields of
stars and they finally made Ships such as Singer uses.’ She blinked
her turquoise eyes at them. ‘You have all seen snails, soft
creatures who live within a shell? Well Singer is something like
that.’

She paused a moment.
‘On that distant world sometimes children were born with
unbelievable mental abilities. But often those same children had
bodies misshapen, damaged, unable to live any kind of normal life.’
The Kephi hesitated again. ‘Those children’s brains were removed
from their pain wracked useless bodies and placed within the
special Ships. Each Ship is therefore an individual
being.’

Ren was pale. ‘But that
is – appalling!’

It was Seela who
replied. ‘Perhaps not though. What would happen to these children
with their maimed bodies Khosa?’

‘They never survived
beyond three years and stars know their physicians and healers
tried hard enough to keep them living.’

‘But their minds live
still within their snail shell Ships? And they have travelled the
star fields and seen wonders. Surely that cannot be so very
appalling Ren?’ Seela’s eyes whirred softest grey mauve.

‘And it was done with
the children’s consent,’ Khosa added.

Ren’s chestnut and
silver eyes glared at the Kephi. ‘Three year old children are able
to consent to such a perverse treatment?’

Khosa’s tail thrashed.
‘Those children became aware in their mothers’ bellies. Their
mental capacity was as high as yours is now – if not higher – by
the time they had lived a year. And consider that they learnt like
cloths absorbing water even while enduring physical pain such as
you could never imagine. Yes, they were more than able to consent
and willingly, to what was done to them.’

‘How could their brains
survive?’ Ren retorted. ‘Chop an animal’s head off, it is
dead.’

Khosa spat. ‘Obviously
there were many processes involved in linking the brain to the
actual Ship’s systems. You are deeply ignorant Ren.’

Pallin cleared his
throat, eyeing the Kephi’s increasing temper with
apprehension.

‘You never mentioned
this Namolos fellow Tika.’

‘No,’ she agreed. ‘I
thought I would wait until we’ve seen whatever Kertiss has to show
us this evening.’

‘Who is Namolos anyway?
Another like these two?’ Pallin looked as though he would like to
spit but restrained himself.

Tika shrugged. ‘Gremara
spoke his name to me, and then Khosa also. I know only that he is
the Survivor to whom we must go. Perhaps he has some way of helping
us cleanse the lands of the affliction, or free Ren’s Drogoya of
the horrors there.’

She looked hopefully at
Khosa as she spoke but the Kephi’s eyes were firmly closed and she
received no reply.

A gijan came into the
room and spoke softly. When only incomprehension showed on the
company’s faces, he moved to the door to the kitchen and
bowed.

‘I think food’s ready.’
Sket hauled Riff to his feet, then held out his hand to
Tika.

The long table was
laden with different foods: pastries of meat, or vegetables, or
fruit, cheese, grains mixed with green leaves, and warm fresh
bread. The gijan served them, anticipating any need with unerring
speed and replenishing their mugs with a cold fruit drink. When the
company rose replete, and moved back to the sitting room, Olam
turned to the gijan. He gave a half bow.

‘Thank you for a most
excellent meal gijan.’

The three tiny
creatures fell to their knees, foreheads pressed to the stone floor
and a whimper emerged from one of them. Olam shook his head
helplessly and retreated, leaving Maressa to deal with the
situation.

They passed the time
waiting for their summons to Kertiss mostly in their private
thoughts. Brin, Farn and Storm lay dozing just outside while Seela
had disappeared in her turn. Tika went over and over this morning’s
experiences, trying to order them into a pattern – with little
success.

Those statues – what
had they represented? The Ship – she shivered recalling the
sensations that had flooded through her when she laid her hand on
its skin. She had heard Singer’s words but she was also aware that
he had put other things into her mind – as Kija had at the time of
Farn’s hatching. Tika had felt a desperation in Singer’s mind, as
if he had been isolated and afraid for too long a time.

Then Kertiss and Orla.
Kertiss had done what Singer suggested in fetching Orla – too
easily she wondered? And Orla had said not one word, even in
greeting. What “work” might they be doing hidden beneath the great
Dome? Thoughts of what she’d learnt of Rhaki’s experiments, in
breeding in particular, entered Tika’s mind. She felt the hairs
prickle on the back of her neck.

Khosa’s triangular ears
twitched and she whisked herself out of sight up the stairs. Tika
hurried to the bathing room, splashing cold water on her face in an
attempt to calm her spinning thoughts. She heard voices in the
sitting room – Gan greeting a Keeper who had obviously arrived to
conduct them to the Dome again. She squared her shoulders and
rejoined the others. It was the same Keeper as this morning so Tika
mustered a smile of greeting for him.

She found herself
walking beside Ren and touched his arm. ‘Still angry Ren? We should
be as calm and cool as we can manage this evening I
think.’

Ren glanced down at her
and grimaced. ‘I suspect Khosa and Seela have the right of it Tika.
It is just such a terrible idea at first hearing.’ His face relaxed
and he gave her a friendly bump with his elbow. ‘I am as cool and
calm as I can be – I promise.’

She grinned back at him
and moved forward to walk with Gan. He did not wear his cloak
tonight – Khosa had declined to come with them. He hoped there
would be no questions as to why he would wear a cloak in the heat
of midday and forego it in the chill of the desert evening. The
Keeper left them at the entrance to the Dome and the company went
through the arched tunnel again.

Outside, the sky
overhead was a luminous green with the earliest stars pricking
through. Behind them the sun had disappeared in a blaze of fading
crimson and orange. Once more they paused on entering the actual
Dome. It was filled with an amber light but they could discern no
source of the illumination. The light faded gradually above the
statues’ heads until the topmost part of the Dome was lost in soft
gloom. Even the transparent capping was dark – Tika could find no
glimpse of the sky as she had seen it this morning. The silence was
more intense now and in unspoken agreement the company walked
straight across the immense space rather than linger close by the
imposing statues.