The Red Queen (13 page)

‘Greetings,’ said the white-haired man. ‘I am Sikoka, current spokesman of the Committee.’

I nodded with what I hoped would be seen as shy awkwardness, and mumbled my own name.

‘Elspeth,’ Sikoka said. ‘Yes, so your friends have told us.’ He then turned to name his companions, pointing at each in turn. This was obviously a formality since he could not possibly expect me to remember so many names at one hearing, but I nodded to each and spoke the name aloud.

Sikoka then asked what I remembered of my time before being resurrected in Habitat. I had opened my mind wide to be receptive and so I was instantly aware when his empathy touched my mind lightly, encouraging me to talk frankly, assuring me that I was safe and among friends. It was a very slight Talent and would have been easy to block or repel for anyone who had trained their mind, but despite the fact that he was using his Talent unconsciously, it was definitely directed. As Dameon had said, he probably thought it was his will to lead that he was exerting.

I told them of the Land, and waxed lyrical about the mountain valley of Obernewtyn, describing its features in as much detail as I could and allowing myself to feel such emotions as they evoked in me. As an empath Sikoka would sense the truth of my feelings and I was relying upon him to assume that all of my words would be as true. He asked me then about the people I had known and I spoke of those at Obernewtyn without saying what sort of place it was, or what my role had been. Despite my careful omissions, I evoked that beloved place so strongly that at one point, tears sprang to my eyes. I faltered and Sikoka stepped close, took my hand in his and patted it gently, telling me that he understood it must be hard to find I could never return to a place and people that I had loved so dearly.

‘Your friends have spoken of this place you call Obernewtyn and truly it does sound as if it was a paradise,’ he said. ‘Maybe that is why God chose to save so many of you from that place. But soon enough you will learn, as have your companions, that God has brought you to another paradise. And that is even more wonderful because it is of God’s own making and you were especially chosen to dwell within it.’

‘I . . . The others have told me the world has changed – that all is now ruinous outside the walls of Habitat,’ I said. Without conscious decision, I made my voice high and kept my words naive. Sikoka was taking a paternal tone so I would be a child for him.

‘Do you remember anything beyond that place?’ Sikoka asked.

‘I was going on a journey with Swallow and the others . . . I think,’ I said, letting myself sound confused. ‘I don’t remember why . . .’

From the corner of my eye I saw some of the other Committee members exchanging knowing looks or shaking their heads and I hoped this was because they believed the simple persona I was offering them, and not because the others had spoken of me in ways that did not fit the part I was playing. If so, I would have to pretend to have been affected by a remembered accident. I would describe the fall from the observing house, and Sikoka would feel the truth of it.

‘It does not matter why you journeyed, truly,’ the older man said gently. ‘That journey and its intentions are lost in time, along with your Obernewtyn and all the people you knew, save those of your fortunate company who have been resurrected. Do you understand?’

I furrowed my brow and looked down at my feet. ‘Ana and Swallow and the others say it is so. But how can Obernewtyn be gone?’

‘Did your friends speak of the Holocaust?’

I chewed my lip and said that they had told me a Holocaust had ended the world we had lived in, only it must be another Holocaust, because that happened before I had come to Obernewtyn. Sikoka answered gravely that there was only one Holocaust but many people resurrected had dreamed of it out of order because God had sometimes sent dreams to warn men and women of the lost world that would come if they continued to sin. It was quite possible that I had dreamed one of those dreams.

‘What is sin?’ I asked.

‘It is what men and women do wrong in the eyes of God,’ Sikoka said. ‘The people did not listen to the warning dreams God sent and so God made the Holocaust to end the world. But God then chose some humans to resurrect, so that when the world was cleansed and made new, he would have good Speci to inhabit it. We Speci are God’s chosen, and he made Habitat to keep us safe. You will stay here, safe in Habitat, so long as you are a good Speci.’

‘I will be good,’ I assured him earnestly, mugging a wide-eyed look that I hoped made me look credulous rather than simply moronic. His eyes narrowed and I dropped my gaze to my feet, fearing I had overplayed my part. I had not Ana’s gift at pretending.

‘The others have told you about Habitat and instructed you about what it means to be a good Speci?’ Sikoka asked at length.

I assured him that they had shown me some of it and told me many things about life in Habitat, that I must work hard and learn the Covenant so that I could recite it by heart. I hesitated and he urged me to speak my heart to him. ‘It is only that I am not very good at remembering things,’ I muttered.

There was a little silence in which I imagined another exchange of glances between the Speci. On impulse, I looked up and asked if I could not someday go back to the mountains. As I spoke, I let myself feel again all the grief of knowing I could never return to that beloved place.

I saw pity in Sikoka’s face. ‘You must accept that there is no going back, my dear,’ he said gravely. ‘The whole world is poisoned and poisonous now, save this one bright clean place made by God’s will and grace, to keep us safe until the diaspora, which will come when the world is renewed and healed. Console yourself with the knowledge that God chose to save you when he let so many die.’

‘Why did he?’ I asked. ‘I am nothing special.’ I could see the expressions on the faces of the other Committee members now ranged from sympathetic to slightly bored, and I began to feel confident that I had established myself firmly as simpleton Elspeth. All I had to do was to make sure that nothing I did detracted from this picture.

‘You must trust that there
was
a reason, and that it was sufficient to God,’ Sikoka said with finality. Then he began talking of the Covenant between God and the Speci, explaining that being a good Speci was more important than reciting the words of the Covenant exactly as they had been set down. I promised that I would try and he patted my shoulder and said he thought I would do well, but for the time being, I must concentrate on getting better.

‘I am getting stronger,’ I said eagerly, knowing my appearance would give the lie to my words.

He frowned and told me I must be sure not to do too much too fast, for perhaps I had been ill and God had needed to heal me before resurrecting me in Covenant. That might be why I had come so much later than the others.

‘Were there others travelling with you?’ he asked the question lightly, as if it had just come to him, but I had the strong feeling he wanted to find out if there were any more of us likely to be resurrected.

‘Some beasts were with us . . . I think,’ I said, furrowing my brow.

Sikoka smiled and then gave me a stern look and said I should guard against any words or behaviour that would produce disharmony in the Habitat community, for that would make me a bad Speci. I gawked a little, then asked if I could go back to Obernewtyn when God let us out of Habitat.

Sikoka said with the merest tinge of exasperation, ‘I have told you that you must forget about your Obernewtyn, child. You will never go there again.’

I looked down at my hands, in that moment feeling all the pain of knowing that the Speci man unknowingly spoke the devastating truth. Even as Dell and Maryon had foreseen, I would never go home to Obernewtyn again. It was as truly lost to me as if the world had been obliterated, just as the Speci believed. Sikoka clasped my shoulder and when I looked up into his face, I saw by his expression that he had felt the truth of my sorrow.

‘Do not be grieved, child. What has gone was ill-used. When God has renewed the world and the Tumen open Habitat it will be far more beautiful than anything that was.’

‘What are Tumen?’ I asked, deciding to dare a little precocity.

‘They are God’s hands,’ said one of the other Speci, a stolid woman whose skin was pale as milk with sharp, watchful eyes and deep frown lines between her brows and running from the down-turned corners of her mouth.

‘God’s hands?’ I echoed, pretending confusion.

Sikoka made a gesture that silenced the woman and said, ‘The Tumen serve God. Like him, they are hidden from us.’

‘Are they ghosts?’ I asked.

There was a flash of frustration in his face yet he answered calmly enough that Tumen were mysteries, not ghosts. ‘But a good Speci need not concern themselves with such matters,’ he added firmly and gestured towards the door.

I thought he was directing the Committee to leave, but my relief was short lived, for one of the Committee by the door called out a name and a young woman entered. She must have been waiting outside the whole time. She was very pretty with big dark eyes and long brown ringlets, but her eyes were cold when they met mine.

‘Here is Balboa,’ Sikoka said. ‘She will show you around Habitat when you are stronger and help you familiarise yourself with our ways and routines and instruct you in the duties you will be required to undertake when you are stronger.’

I was dismayed to find I was to have a minder, and fearing Sikoka might detect my consternation, I muttered, ‘Can’t Dragon and Ana show me?’

‘We have deemed it best that you do not associate solely with those who were your companions before you were resurrected in Habitat, lest you dwell too much upon the time before,’ Sikoka said smoothly but firmly.

‘I just wanted –’ I began, but the frowning, milk-white woman cut me off sharply.

‘What you want is of no consequence,’ she said. ‘You must learn that a good Speci is an obedient Speci.’

‘Polya, we must remember that Elspeth is only just resurrected,’ Sikoka chided, and the woman flushed and scowled. He turned to me again. ‘I am sure you and Balboa will get along well enough when you get to know one another. But you can sit with Ana and Dragon at mealtimes if Polya posts you to the same meal sitting.’

Glancing at the sour young Speci woman with her unsmiling gaze, I thought glumly that she would probably arrange it so that none of the others would eat at the same time as I did. Sikoka, for all his smooth, smiling mien, must feel Balboa’s resentment, if not by observation, then by Talent. Which meant either he approved of it, or cared nothing for either of our feelings.

I forced myself to give Balboa an uncertain smile and she smiled too, a bland, meaningless upward twist of the lips that was as much a grimace. I wondered if she resented having to teach me and serve as my guide. Certainly, as a good Speci, she would have to obey the Committee, but she did not have to like it.

‘I worked on the farm at Obernewtyn. Would I be able to work in the fields here?’ I asked her shyly.

‘It is not for Balboa to decide these matters,’ Polya said repressively, then subsided at a quelling gesture from Sikoka.

‘It is the Committee who will assign you work to do, Elspeth, and it does not matter what you did in the time before. In Habitat all Speci take turns at performing all duties, for God requires equality of us. Once the Committee assigns your initial duties, Balboa will instruct you in what is required, or take you to whomever can teach you what you will need to know.’

‘Will she take me for walks?’ I asked.

‘You must exercise your body to regain proper control of it, but it is Tash – whom you have already met – who will support you until you have regained your strength.’

I strove to suppress my delight, for Sikoka must be aware of Balboa’s malice, yet he had still paired us. Perhaps he wanted me to feel alone and isolated.

Now he said briskly, ‘In time, we will ask you to make your pledge to Covenant. You must learn it by sense if not the exact words.’

I noticed some of the other Committee members frowning at this and Polya looked affronted.

‘Will I make my pledge in the Hub?’ I asked. ‘Ana says it is sacred to God.’

Several of the Committee members smiled approvingly at this, and Sikoka positively radiated approval when he said, ‘Ana has shown herself to be a good devout Speci and you would do well to emulate her. But in fact, a pledge need not be said in the Hub because God hears all that is said in Habitat.’

‘Yet the Hub would be a fitting place for her to pledge and she might choose where she does so, after all,’ said a stout, coarse-featured woman with small, fanatical eyes that nestled too closely either side of a long nose.

Sikoka regarded her with an expression I could not read, before saying abruptly that he hoped I would soon be well enough to take my proper place at meals. He went out, leaving the rest of the Committee to follow meekly in his wake. Balboa let the older folk precede her then, and as they left, she turned back to look at me. Her eyes were so full of hostility that I was startled, yet I felt certain that it could have nothing to do with me personally.