The Red Queen (116 page)

‘How can a sword be a key?’

‘The Beforetimers called anything that unlocked or enabled something a key, whether it was a device or code words,’ I said. ‘I would wager my life that if the stone sword I was given was set into Luthen’s hands, it would fit and it would reveal the sceptre hidden in this crypt.
He
is the rightful owner to whom I was meant to return it. Cassandra must have taken it with her when she left here and it ended up in the Earthtemple, though why she took it and how she could have kept it all that time I can’t imagine. It’s big and heavy and unwieldy.’

‘Unless she carved a place for it and created the sword much later, when she was in Sador,’ Dragon suggested. ‘But it can’t have anything to do with the sceptre, since my mother was able to get it when she needed it and that was long after Cassy left Redport.’

It was a good point.

‘Where is the stone sword?’ Dragon asked.

‘It is in our camp beyond the dome. Matthew said the others will come in when Gavyn and Rasial return, for they have gone a-wandering. They will bring the sword in with them, when they come. I only wish we knew what had happened to the wolves.’

‘They fell into an underground river of fire,’ Dragon said. She saw my look and said, ‘It was when I was dreaming with Maruman that I saw it. Not all of them fell.’

I had seen that dream of fire and wolves, too, I thought grimly.

‘Let’s not wait,’ Dragon said impulsively. ‘Let’s go to the camp and get the stone sword now. I am longing to see what it will do, and I want to see Ana and Dameon anyway. And to say thank you properly to Gahltha,’ she added, as we climbed from the crypt chamber onto the steps, shut the door and went back up into the sunlight.

We walked together across the island to the stone bridge and then crossed it to the cobbled first scythe, where I was elated to find my mind unfettered. I asked Dragon how the block had been overcome, and surprisingly she replied that neither she nor anyone else knew how it had been stopped, nor what had caused it in the first place. It was generally accepted that it must have been some unexpected effect of a machine that had an entirely different purpose, yet it seemed impossibly fortunate that it had ceased just in time for Dragon to be able to coerce a dragon to secure the hearts of her people. I could see that Dragon was inclined to accept it as wondrous luck, but something about it made me uneasy. For one thing, if it had been accidental it would have affected Ariel, too, and surely he would not have welcomed any limitation of his powers. If it had been one of Ariel’s machines, or the emissary’s, why stop it and allow us the advantage of our powers, and if they had been unaware they were causing the block, why had it stopped when they were still at the Infinity of Dragonstraat?

‘I will summon Gahltha,’ I said. ‘It will be quicker if I ride to get the sword.’

Dragon sighed a little as I closed my eyes and formed a probe. On impulse I shaped it first to Maruman’s mind and sent it spinning out in search of the old cat. It would not locate. I tried Gahltha then and found him grazing in the cliff ruins with Faraf and Sendari, a herd of small grey ponies and muliki, and Brunt. I asked him worriedly about the Ekoni, but he said such humans as he had seen had paid no attention to him, save to gape. But he complained about the shaking of the ground the night before, and I realised I had not felt it on the ship. I asked him if he would come and carry me to the dome camp so that I could bring the stone sword to Dragon.

‘I will come, ElspethInnle,’ he sent. ‘Show me/Gahltha where you are.’

‘I will walk out to meet you on the outskirts, for I have a feeling that you are like to cause a sensation if you come into the settlement,’ I sent, smiling. ‘I am sure half Redport has given you wings in the retelling of your gallant delivery of the Red Queen to her people.’

I felt his rush of smug delight, but then, more seriously, he asked if I minded.

‘Minded?’ I laughed. ‘Why should I mind? She saved the day, with your help.’

‘I am the Daywatcher, bound to serve ElspethInnle in her quest, not to risk myself in other/dangerous ventures. Yet when the beastspeaker summoned me at the bidding of Mornirdragon’s Daywatcher and then she signalled to ask it of me, I carried her and . . .’

He must mean Matthew when he spoke of Dragon’s Daywatcher, I thought with surprise. It was not a term I had thought existed save to describe Gahltha’s relationship with me, connected to my quest. But thinking of the Daywatcher led me to the Moonwatcher, and I asked him if he had spoken with Maruman. He offered me a picture of the old cat curled up in Dameon’s lap and told me that Maruman and Darga had left the settlement after Maruman had been hurt. Darga had sought Maruman out, and had remained with him until his body had recovered. I wondered what Maruman would say if I showed him my dream of Hannah and the bandaged kitten. Did he remember anything of what had happened to him in the Beforetime?

‘Marumanyelloweyes remembers many things,’ Gahltha sent, rather enigmatically. I caught a glimpse of his mind and realised he was galloping hard. I withdrew so as not to distract him while he crossed the perilous broken ground of the fallen plain and then noticed Dragon watching me wistfully.

‘He is coming,’ I assured her. My stomach growled and I pressed it, saying I could not recall when I had eaten last. It had been aeons ago when Maginder had given me some food in Slavetown. Dragon said she would command a meal, but I bade her wait until I had the sword.

Dragon nodded rather absently, saying, ‘My mother had the power to speak with beasts, both those of the sea and of the land. That was an ability all Red Queens are said to have had but which I lack. I think it troubles some of my people. But then they say it must be because I was born of generations of Red Queens who never lived in the Red Land. I tried to say I did, but they only smile at me and tell me I am the queen and that I may say what I like.’ She scowled at the cobbles and I thought I must tell her the truth of her past before I left Redport. Matthew had said she wanted to muster up an expedition, but somehow that did not feel right to me.

‘Perhaps it is not a power the Red Queen needs,’ I told her. ‘After all, you have powers your ancestors did not have, maybe because they are the ones you needed to reclaim your kingdom.’

‘Perhaps,’ she said pensively.

Dragon said she would walk with me to the edge of the settlement. I wondered aloud if that was wise, given the settlement was still full of Gadfians and there were Ekoni free as well, none of them with any reason to feel warmly about her. ‘Maginder and the others are letting people know that they may stay and belong here, if they choose it and will abide by the same laws as my people, or they can return to their own land when I have the means to send them. That will make them less angry and violent, I hope. But I have a protector.’

She jerked her head and I turned and was startled to see Matthew following us at a distance. It was absurd that he did not catch up and walk with us, but I did not voice the thought. Dragon gave me a wry smile. ‘He is guarding me. I have the feeling he is going to be very tedious about it.’

I suppressed a smile at the memory of my own impotent fury when Ahmedri had insisted on accompanying me everywhere. But the tribesman had proven his worth over and over and I had come to value him very deeply and to feel genuine sorrow at our parting. Fleetingly, I wondered how he and Miryum and Tash were managing, and how the three of them fared with God, and if the computermachine had relented and had agreed to release the Speci. Somehow I doubted it, yet it was still possible I would find a govamen computermachine. I felt a little surge of excitement at the possibility that I would find one at Eden, and that it might be made to reach out to God and authorise the release of the Speci as well as producing the ingredients for the potion that would heal the sickness Miryum carried.

Then I remembered my quest was not to wake and use Sentinel, but to destroy its potential to ever be used.

‘You are thinking of your quest,’ Dragon said. ‘All that has happened here has got in the way, I know, but I promise you I will muster all my people and their resources to find Sentinel and you shall have anything you need to help you in your quest. Only it will take a little while for everything to calm down here.’ She sighed then. ‘I fear that ruling Redport will be a lot harder and less exciting than becoming its queen.’

We both turned to the sound of hoofs, and I felt the same rush of delight and awe I always felt at seeing the black horse trotting towards me, his long silken mane and tail drifting in the slight breeze, his dark lovely gaze fixed on me. He greeted Dragon very affectionately, after he had touched his velvety muzzle to my nose and let me kiss him and lay my cheek against his for a moment. Then he gave a soft neigh, his eyes on Matthew, and stamped out an imperious summons until the farseeker looked up. He joined us then, and greeted Gahltha.

‘I could ride with you,’ Dragon said, as Matthew gave me a leg up. ‘It would be like when we crossed the white desert looking for the shining city.’

‘I think your people might not like to see you leave so soon,’ I said gently. She looked crestfallen but I promised I would return as soon as I had the stone sword and then we would discover its secret together.

As Gahltha turned away, I heard Matthew asking Dragon deferentially what sword that was.

Gahltha broke into a smart, high-stepping trot as we passed through the streets for the sake of the startled and amazed onlookers, telling me that he had a reputation to maintain. I laughed but was relieved somewhat to reach the plain. As was his wont, Gahltha broke into a headlong gallop without any warning. My body reacted instantly. I leaned over his shoulder, my knees clamped hard against his heaving ribs. I refused to worry about the fissures and holes passing under us, for Gahltha was surefooted and sharp-eyed and the light was good and clear. Even so, my heart was pounding, and only partly from excitement and exertion, when he dropped back to a walk. I had asked him to circle wide to the south of the mounds because of the Ekoni but the dome was looming up before us now. I farsought the others but I was not surprised when I could not reach any of them.

Heat was radiating from Gahltha’s body and I was sweating and covered in dust, my poor silk and gauze finery turned to rags. Fortunately I had sensible clothes in my pack and I would change into them before I returned to Redport. I needed a bath too, but that could wait until after I had discovered the secret of Luthen’s crypt. If I did, I resolved to leave Redport on the morrow. That would give Dragon the chance to muster the defence of the Talons and me one precious stolen night in which to locate Rushton. Matthew had not mentioned him at all, which meant he knew no more of the Master of Obernewtyn’s presence than Merret had done. I did not allow myself to wonder why he had not come forth. I fastened on to the fact that I knew he was alive because of the golden spirit cord that connected us, knowing it would give me joy and anguish in equal measure to see him. As soon as I returned to the settlement, and had found whatever Cassy left for me, I would scry tirelessly until I located him. Swallow would probably insist on going with me, and that meant Ana would come too, for I doubted they would be parted. Darga would come, and Maruman and Gahltha of course, and perhaps Gavyn and Rasial.

If the latter had returned to the dome camp, I would ask them about the wolves. I would suggest Dameon stay in Redport with Matthew and help Dragon to be a good wise queen. But perhaps he would return with Rushton to Obernewtyn, the place he had fought so long and hard to build; the place where we had met and lived and worked and strived together, and where we had learned to love one another. How wonderful if someday I should vision of him as chieftain there. He had scarce been confirmed in that role before he had set off for the Red Land. I did not dare to hope that a day would come when I could return to him and Obernewtyn, because the futuretellers had foreseen that I would never go back there, and I knew that once I had fulfilled my quest, only death would keep me from it.

‘You are very morbid,’ Gahltha sent, gravely.

I sighed. ‘It is not morbid to accept that you must die.’ I frowned, for a bird was coiling and wheeling wildly in the air to one side of the dome. I squinted and said, ‘If I am not imagining things, that is Fey. Rasial and Gavyn must have returned. But how can she be flying in the daylight?’

‘Birds fly if their nest is attacked, be it day or night,’ Gahltha sent and broke into a trot.

The ground close to the dome was too broken for a gallop but the moment we rounded the mound, my unease turned to fear, for I saw Gavyn lying on his back, arms outstretched, and beside him, Rasial. The boy might have been sleeping save for Fey spiralling overheard in mute distress. There was no sign of anyone else, though our packs were piled in the same place beside the pit fire over which a pot hung, a dribble of black smoke drifting from it.

Rasial lifted her head and howled.

I slipped from Gahltha’s back and ran to the boy, my heart seizing in my throat at the sight of a terrible wound in his chest. My senses told me that he was alive, though the pulse of his life was faltering.

‘What happened?’ I beastspoke Rasial.

Instead of responding, for perhaps she was not capable of it with her soul so merged with the dying boy’s, Rasial sent a stream of images to my mind.

I saw Ariel and a dozen men converging on the camp – Salamander’s shipfolk by their black-swathed forms. Behind them was a wheeled cart piled with bundles and drawn by the same elegant little grey ponies I had seen days before in Redport, pulling a closed Chafiri chariot. Beside it a slight, cloaked figure stood looking away from the camp in apparent disinterest or distaste as a vicious struggle ensued between Swallow and some of the men before he was struck unconscious. Ana flew at the men, shrieking curses and striking out with her hands and feet ferociously, but for all her strength and courage, she was outnumbered. I saw the terror in her face as she was held and bound, and then one of the men lifted her up and threw her over his shoulder, laughing.