The Red Queen (16 page)

‘Damn the Speci!’ said Swallow explosively. Then he shot a glowering look at Dameon. ‘
Stop
trying to calm me down.’

‘Our plight will not be helped by high emotion,’ Dameon chided mildly. ‘You know that Sikoka is aware of your discontent.’

The gypsy glared at him, then at once the tension in his shoulders relaxed and he sighed. ‘I am sorry, my friend. It is not your fault we are trapped here, and I do know he is aware of my discontent, but as far as I can tell, he puts it down to uncertainty about how things will go with Ana and me. The trouble is that I have been here longer than the rest of you and there are days when I feel I cannot bear it for another second. I feel as if I am suffocating.’ He looked at me and asked simply, ‘Have you had any brilliant notion about how we can escape?’

‘I know it has been long for you,’ I said. ‘But for me it has been less than two sevendays. I am still somewhat weak and hampered by being unable to use my powers to discover things. Today is the first day I have seen this place in the daylight. Be patient a little longer. I promise you, I
will
find a way out of Habitat and sooner rather than later.’ I yawned, spoiling the intensity of my promise and Swallow nodded and said flatly that he had better go back to his work for he had only a short break.

He showed Ana where to press on my neck to render me unconscious, then he got to his feet. ‘Ana can tell me tomorrow if you have any luck farseeking the others. Maybe Ahmedri will suggest a way out.’ The thought seemed to cheer him, and indeed it was a good thought.

After he had gone, I told the others that Tash needed to have some memory of sitting there with us to account for the time that had passed. I would wake her and then they must engage her in conversation. I would pretend to drowse and farseek the others.

The Speci girl opened her eyes and blinked at Dragon, whom I had told to shake her.

‘You fell asleep,’ Dragon said.

Tash sat up, blushing and knuckling her eyes like a child. ‘I do not understand how I nodded off so suddenly.’ She sounded mortified.

‘You have been working hard,’ Dameon said soothingly. ‘I must say I feel a bit like curling up for a nap myself and Elspeth is half asleep.’

‘Maybe we should go back,’ she said.

‘Let’s sit just a little longer,’ Dragon said quickly. ‘It smells so nice here and Elspeth likes it.’

I gave Dameon a coercive prod that made him flinch, which Tash noticed and enquired about. I had only meant to remind him to distract her, but this served just as well, for now he launched into a rambling tale of mishap and accident in the weaving house where he had been assigned. He was not a good liar and it would have been funny to listen to him floundering, but I turned towards the bush, pretending to inhale its fragrance, and closed my eyes.

With a sense of excitement and trepidation, I wove a farseeking tendril shaped to Maruman’s mind. I ought to search for Ahmedri first but I longed to be sure the old cat was safe. I sent the probe spinning out, and was elated to find nothing tried to catch hold of it, but despite the fact that it was strong and unhampered by any interference, it stopped dead at the wall encircling Habitat. Heart plummeting, I tried again and then again, in different directions, but to no avail. I tried to direct the probe straight up, just to test the limits of the block, and found a different sort of prohibition – a barrier of intense static stretched like cloth over Habitat. Trying to penetrate it caused the same unpleasant sort of numbness in my mind that I felt when trying to farseek or coerce beyond badly tainted material.

‘Elspeth?’ Tash asked, and I realised she must have been speaking to me, but I had been too lost in my thoughts to hear her.

‘I am sorry,’ I said. ‘I think I drifted off for a moment.’

‘You too? Maybe it is the scent from the flowers.’ She glanced at the bush. Dragon did not take her eyes off me, for of course she was waiting to hear the result of my farseeking. I shook my head slightly and her face fell. Ana looked frankly dismayed, though she hid it immediately. Dameon knew, of course, having already picked up my disappointment, and there was resignation on his face, as he told Tash tranquilly that he did not think the flowers were the culprits since he and Ana and Dragon were not affected. He was giving us time and I was impressed that, despite her disappointment, Dragon immediately took the empath’s cue and insisted, wide-eyed, that she felt fine. I did my part by assuring Tash I was merely tired and that I wanted to go back to my hut.

It struck me, as we made our way back across the common, that the govamen people who had kept the Beforetime Misfits imprisoned must have developed something to block their abilities, or they would have simply freed themselves by using their powers. It was not a thought that had ever occurred to me before.

I was genuinely weary by the time we reached my hut, but when Tash offered to massage me to ensure I did not get cramps from the unfamiliar exercise, I refused, insisting she go to her own hut with Dragon, for she needed her strength to tend to me on the morrow. She looked surprised and then, when I grinned, she laughed and I assured her firmly that all I truly wanted to do was to sleep. She gave me her sweet, sad smile and went off arm in arm with Dragon. I watched them go with a renewed feeling of pity, for the two were friends in a way that Dragon and I, however close, were not. I was more like an older sister, but Tash was a friend, and the Speci girl had probably been no less lonely in her own way than Dragon, for as well as being a Misfit, she was a resurrectee, and must wonder what had happened to her real parents. Yet if I succeeded, as I must, they would be irrevocably parted.

I dashed away a scatter of tears, telling myself that I was overly emotional because I was tired and disappointed by my failure to make contact with the others. I thought it very likely that some Beforetime device set in the wall about Habitat and emitting a blanketing block was preventing me farseeking, and the fact that I had been unable to coerce my Tumen attendant supported this theory. I only hoped that my attempt had not given the Tumen the means to identify me as an anomaly who made conscious use of Talent. I had no idea if that would be a bad thing, because my attendant had seemed only to care about gathering information. On the other hand, if some of the Speci deemed bad had been Misfits, it might be that the Tumen would act if I proved myself to be an anomaly.

On the edge of sleep a truly chilling thought struck me – what if the reason Miryum was being kept asleep was not because she was sick but because the Tumen had been able to determine that she had Misfit abilities, and she had shown herself capable of using them. Maybe an anomaly was someone with Misfit abilities, and if their use was detected before someone was resurrected in Habitat, they would be put to sleep in cryopods to await the judgement of the govamen, but if they used their Talents after being resurrected, they were killed.

Wide awake now, and too agitated to just lie there, I got up and removed my tunic and sandals. I poured water from the jug and washed my face. Finally I cleaned my teeth with the odd but efficient little long-handled brush I had been provided with, then I unbound and combed my hair. Stretched out on my bed again afterwards, I felt calmer. It was all speculation after all. I didn’t really know exactly what the Tumen meant when he had called me an anomaly, and I certainly didn’t know why Miryum was being kept in a cryopod. The most likely thing was, as I had thought before, that she had taint sickness and could not be healed. I needed to concentrate on how to get out of Habitat so that I could continue my quest. Even if I was right about Miryum, I could not help her until I was free. As for my failure to reach the others, Dameon was right; it was my first attempt and it might very well be that there was only some sort of mindless blocking mechanism inhibiting me. Certainly I did not seem to have raised any alarm by trying. On the morrow, Tash would take me to the Hub, and the following day, I would ask to see the burying ground, which was the location of the other deaf spot in Habitat. There, I could try again to farseek Ahmedri. After all, even if the Tumen had a blocking device, it might have weak spots. I would also ask to eat meals in the common huts. Aside from the possibility of having more freedom to speak to the others at mealtimes, I would have the opportunity to try coercing a Speci – one with whom I could make incidental physical contact. It would be a risk, but as Dameon had said, we were unlikely to get out of Habitat without taking risks.

Once again drifting to sleep, I found myself trying to imagine the Speci – generation after generation of them – being born, growing up, growing old and dying in Habitat, all without ever having any idea of what lay beyond the wall. Were the Speci really so accepting of their dully harmonious existences? From what I had seen and been told, their lives were insufferably bland. Surely some of them must rail at the limitations even if they did not dare voice their frustrations. They must hunger for something more than merely working to keep themselves alive and healthy, yet I had not heard anything about life in Habitat that suggested there was the possibility of joy or wildness or discovery in it, save maybe that people could get some joy out of one another if they were bonded, and even this was constrained by rules. And what of love? Did no one here ever love unwisely? Did not passion or anger or despair ever overcome caution?

Then I realised that half of the population of Habitat might be gnawing themselves to pieces inside, but dared not show how they felt for fear of suffering the same violent and mysterious fate as those brutally slain bad Speci. The thought of them was enough to make me rethink the risks I had blithely resolved to take, at least until I had a better feeling for Habitat.

It took a long time to fall asleep that night, and I dreamed.

Garth was standing with his hands on his hips, looking irritated, the sky behind him thick with blue-black clouds. ‘Ye gods woman, I know there is no accounting for the weather. I merely wonder how you can manage to ensure the road is dug up every time it rains, so that it is impassable for days!’

The hapless worker he was haranguing looked thoroughly browbeaten.

‘Master, I fear there is to be no gannin’ on today,’ Fian ventured. He was hovering in the background with the other workers, soaked to the skin, and looking on sympathetically.

‘I can do my own fearing,’ snapped Garth, then he sighed and shook his head. ‘I fear we will have to make use of one of the hostels we passed. The delay will be the undoing of my plans though. That wretched ship will not wait for my sake.’

‘We’ll have to gan by road to th’ Westland if we miss it,’ Fian said eagerly.

‘I do not see that is any cause for delight,’ Garth said suspiciously, as if Fian had finagled the foul weather for his own purposes.

‘I would like to see Followtown,’ Fian said, completely untroubled by his master’s vexation. ‘’Tis supposed to be a marvellous place and –’

‘And a certain young Jack plies her trade there, eh?’ Garth suddenly looked amused.

Fian flushed crimson. ‘I dinna ken what ye mean, Master. I was goin’ to say that we could call in on th’ farm that Master Dameon ceded over to Sallah and the beasts and people who want to live equal with them. I heard it is thriving an’ that every beastspeaker in th’ Land is clamourin’ to work there only Sallah gives preference to unTalents willin’ to learn Brydda’s fingerspeech.’

Garth grunted that the horse was a fool, successfully distracted from his teasing by his clever guilden. He turned and glared at the sky then bade the lad go back and find out if the nearest hostel had beds for them and a barn for Lo and Mira. Fian pelted away and Garth went back to the wagon. It was one of those carved by Brydda’s father Grufyyd and I was startled to see Kevrik in the driver’s seat. I had not set eyes on the armsman since he had helped me to capture Malik, and I wondered what twist of circumstances had him driving for Garth.

‘What now then?’ he asked the Teknoguildmaster equably.

‘Seems you were right, curse you. I’ve sent Fian to sort out beds in that hostel just yonder. We will wait here. No point turning the rig unless they can put us up.’

‘I’ll sleep in the wagon either way; save some coin. You’ll miss your ship,’ he observed mildly.

Garth muttered an oath as he heaved his considerable bulk into the wagon, and I noticed Kevrik lift a hand and flick a message expertly to Lo. The big mare snorted and flicked her ears and the armsman hid a grin.

‘Myself, I do not see what all the rush is,’ Kevrik went on when the older man had got himself settled. ‘Guildmistress Dell didn’t say she had got Ines to tell her all the secrets of the Beforetime yet, did she?’

‘She did not, but she thinks those books the Norselanders gave us might help,’ the Teknoguildmaster said. ‘Besides, it is time I met this mechanical paragon. Maybe she can tell me how to wake the computermachines we have unearthed beneath the Teknoguild caves.’

‘Ask me, better to leave them sleep,’ Kevrik muttered.

I woke to find Analivia quietly laying out fresh clothes on the chair beside the bed and the room glowing with a ruddy light flowing through partly opened window slats. I judged it to be dawn and was cheered to find my eyes had not suffered at all from the day before, though I would not yet trust them with full sunlight. I sighed a little and wished I had slept longer, for the whole day stretched out in front of me to be endured before Tash would come to bring me on my daily expedition. I had considered changing my mind and saying I wanted to go to the burying ground instead of the Hub, but I did want to see the Hub, even though there was every chance I would not able to reach Ahmedri from there either.

After Ana left, Tash came to knead and pummel me, and when she had finished her ministrations she departed. I thought that she had seemed more subdued and distracted than usual, and decided to ask Dameon, when I could, whether he had any sense of what ailed her. I had asked her if I might attend a meal but she said only that I had better ask whichever Speci came to give me a lesson on the Covenant that day. I had the feeling she only half heard me, and when I asked if she would still come at dusk to take me to the Hub, her answer had been vague and distracted. I hoped that she would not forget. After she had gone, I lay down and slept again for a time, as much out of boredom as weariness. I hoped to dream of Obernewtyn again, or of Norseland, but if I did, I did not remember when I woke. A tray with cooling food told me I had missed Ana or Dragon, who would have delivered it at midday. Disappointed, I ate the unpleasant fare dutifully, wondering how healthful food could be made to taste so unappealing.