The Red Queen (76 page)

‘We do not even know if Redport is on this landmass,’ I said.

‘It is here,’ Dragon said. ‘After the Spit, which is at the end of the land we have come from, there is the Clouded Sea, and you cross that to reach Redport. That is what Brydda and Reuvan and the other shipfolk always said. And Redport lies at the edge of a very vast and barren land, my mother once told me,’ Dragon said stubbornly, looking pointedly out the window.

‘Even if that is true, Dragon, you must remember Redport is not our destination. The glide will stop only when it comes to where Eden
used to be
in the Beforetime.’

Dragon had been staring past me, her expression set and mutinous, but now it changed. ‘Look,’ she said, pointing.

We all turned to see a long line of high jagged mountains running north–south had come into view at the farthest reach of the glide’s powerful forelight.

‘There are no mountains in my land,’ Dragon muttered.

I was about to say that the ground might have changed, but it would be unlikely to have changed much in a decade or so. These mountains were nowhere near as high as the high mountains in the range we had traversed on the other landmass, but when the glide approached them, it made no attempt to cross them. It turned smoothly north and followed the stony range until it petered out to a line of broken hills. Only then did it again swing west, resuming its new course. It was only as we crossed the ridge of jagged hills that I saw it had been the raised edge of a deep, narrow fissure in the earth.

Swallow asked Dragon to come and help him prepare something for us all to eat. After she had gone out of earshot, Ana and I exchanged a glance and she said softly, ‘I asked Hendon how many of God’s directions remain and he said there is only one left before we land, so we may well stop very near to Redport.’

‘Or we are simply to go west for as long as we went north,’ I said. ‘Still, at this rate, we might fly over it. That is like to cause Dragon considerable anguish.’

‘I wonder what she will do if we do land soon, for Redport calls to her,’ Ana mused.

I made no answer to that, and moments later, the glide turned north again.

‘That was God’s final direction before we land,’ Ana said, and made her way back to the control bench.

I looked at Dragon and saw that she was frowning. She had become more and more fixed on the Red Land since we had left Habitat. Something in her time there had awoken a deep identification with her home and people, and if it turned out that Eden was truly on the same landmass as Redport, and that this was it, as it might truly be, it was little wonder she felt the pull of her long-suppressed past. Despite my reluctance to enter the mind and dreams of another person, it occurred to me that this was exactly the time to try entering Dragon’s mind in spiritform. Which meant I must broach the subject with her.

When she brought me some sweet bread that she had made while I slept, I waited for her to speak of the Red Land, thinking I would raise the matter of entering her memories then, but she only sat beside me and checked that Maruman was sleeping before stroking him.

‘I wonder why he does not like being stroked when he is awake,’ she said.

‘I think it is because he sees being petted as something that happens to tame creatures. Maruman does not think of himself as a wild beast, but he certainly does not think of himself as tame either. We might ask why we desire to pet him, maybe.’

‘Other cats like it,’ she said. ‘The wolf cubs like it, too, and I loved it when my mother stroked my hair while she sang to me when I was going to sleep.’ This was the perfect opening for me to speak of her memories, but I hesitated, and she glanced towards the passage leading to the chamber where the wolves still slept, and asked in a low voice, ‘Is it true that Gobor killed Rheagor before we left?’

I wondered who had told her, but rather than asking, I said, ‘The Brildane believe a wolf that cannot see or run or smell is only half alive. They think of death in such circumstances as a mercy.’

‘Rasial said Rheagor did it to make Gobor lead the pack after you, because the pack could not take him back save as its leader, and he could only lead if he killed Rheagor.’

‘
Rasial
told you that?’ I asked, puzzled, because she had no beastspeaking abilities.

‘We were on the dreamtrails,’ Dragon said lightly. ‘We can talk when he is half Gavyn.’

‘You must be careful on the dreamtrails,’ I said.

‘Because of the H’rayka, yes I know,’ Dragon said dismissively. ‘Elspeth, last night I dreamed of the same white-faced lord that was with Ariel on a ship, only they were not on a ship any longer. They were in the Red Land.’

My heart began to pound. ‘The emissary was in the Red Land with Ariel?’ I asked in dismay.

She shook her head. ‘The emissary was with Gilaine and a woman of his own kind. Maybe she was his daughter or granddaughter, for she was young, not old like him. They were in a building with a window and I could see the buildings and the bay from it. The emissary was telling Gilaine that he hoped she did not mind that he had claimed her before the masked ball. Then the dream changed and they were in a closed chariot. I think some time had passed because they were less formal. He asked if she had made up her mind to come with him after all had been satisfactorily concluded in the Red Land, for the emperor’s sisterwife longed to meet her and she should have a beautiful residence of her very own in the gardens of the Forbidden City, with her own servants and warriors.’

‘The emperor’s sisterwife?’ I echoed, still puzzled by the meaning of the term. It also struck me forcefully that I might have dreamed of the emperor and his sisterwife, although fleetingly and only in the midst of other dreams. But they had used the same odd terms to address one another, and if I was right, they had been speaking of Gilaine.

Dragon said, ‘I felt . . .’ and stopped.

‘Felt what?’ I prompted, giving up on the brief dream.

‘That they liked one another,’ Dragon finally said. ‘The emissary and Gilaine.’

‘It is strange that this emissary would ask Gilaine to go with them to their land, as if she has a choice in the matter, when she was gifted as a slave,’ I mused. ‘And why would he say that a woman in his own land longs to meet her?’

‘Maybe he met her when he was in the Red Land before and told the emperor’s sisterwife about her.’

‘But what exactly would he tell, and why would she be interested in Gilaine in particular . . . unless he knows she is a Misfit and the people of the white-faced lord’s land value people of Talent!’ I thought of my dream of the diminutive gold-skinned man aboard a strange shipboat with Gilaine. Was it possible
he
was the emissary from the land of the white-faced lords? He had not had white skin but maybe it was only the masks worn by the white-faced lords that were white. The old man had not worn a mask in my dream, but perhaps he did not do so because he was aboard his own shipboat. Remembering the way Gilaine and the little man had smiled at one another, it seemed to me that they had behaved as friends and allies rather than master and slave. Gilaine had touched his hand once, too. Was it possible she had been farseeking him?

But if the little man and the small beautiful woman were folk from the land of the white-faced lords, it was they who had outfitted the
Black Ship
with the terrible weapons Salamander had used to destroy so many ships and enslave so many people. And it was they who sought an army of slaves. It was impossible to reconcile these things with the elegant little man who had spoken to Gilaine in my dream. And why had Dragon dreamed of them?

‘Dragon, will you let me look into your childhood memories?’ I asked. ‘I won’t be able to get into it while I am awake, but I think I might be able to manage it in spirit-form. But I don’t want to do it without asking you.’

‘You think you will find something in them to help your quest,’ Dragon said slowly. ‘But Elspeth, maybe it is simply as you thought in the beginning and we must go to Redport together.’

‘My quest is to find Sentinel . . .’ I began sternly, then a shrilling noise filled the chamber.

It was unbearably loud, and from the hold I heard the muffled whinnying protests of the equines down and the howls of the wolves and dogs from their chambers and niches. Maruman, now wide awake, stood on my knee stiff legged, fur fluffed. I detached his claws from my trews and lifted him to my shoulder as I rose. Ana was talking urgently to the androne, but I could not hear her words.

‘What is it?’ I shouted, bending close. ‘Is it the weather, or is something wrong with the glide?’

She gave me a wide-eyed look and cried, ‘Hendon says that is the signal to sit down because we are approaching the final coordinates for Eden, but I don’t see any sign of any buildings.’

‘We knew the location might not be exactly right,’ I said, my own heart hammering at the realisation we were about to land, and if this was the Red Land, we might truly not be far from Redport!

‘Elspeth, God aligned the big golator with Kelver Rhonin’s golator. I have had it here all along and it has not made a sound or showed any light, and it would have done if we were within a hundred kloms of his golator.’

‘Ye gods, Ana, we have no idea if he made it to Eden, let alone if that was definitely his destination,’ I said. I turned and ran for the back of the glide, leaping down the steps to find Swallow and Dragon were already there, fastening the horses’ nets. I beastspoke them all to warn them we were about to land, and then we all hurried back up the steps. Ana was coming from the wolf chamber, drawing Gavyn after her.

‘Hendon said we must all sit in our seats as the landing might not be smooth,’ she told me.

I looked at Gavyn. He was not resisting her, but he seemed not even to hear the deafening wail of the warning siren, either. I beastspoke Rasial who immediately nipped at his leg. He gave a yelp and then laughed as Ana led him to the nearest chair and made him sit down.

‘Please assume seats and harnesses and brace for landing,’ Hendon boomed over the siren. ‘Due to manoeuvres required by landing-site instability, disembarkation through the hold must be accomplished swiftly immediately following touchdown,’ the androne added, bafflingly.

Swallow and I looked at one another in consternation.

‘What on earth does
that
mean?’ I muttered, glancing outside at the slight rise now just ahead. ‘Manoeuvres?’

‘What is going on?’ Dameon asked. He had come from the passage containing the sleeping benches and his hair was all on end.

‘Hendon says that the siren means we are about to land so we need to get ready ourselves,’ Ana yelled, letting Dragon take over trying to fasten a suddenly unaccountably giggling Gavyn into his chair.

Startlingly a female voice now spoke. ‘Set down will occur in fifteen minutes and counting. All passengers and staff must be seated and assume belts and landing positions immediately. Webbing nets have been engaged to stabilise livestock and cargo. As a result of unstable landing terrain, glide grapples will be deployed to enable temporary lodgement and stabilisation of the vessel. Exit via the hold door only, immediately following landing. Leave all luggage behind.’

‘Only out the hold door?’ Swallow muttered, then shook his head and was about to take a seat.

‘No, let’s sit as close as we can to the hold door, if that is going to be the only way out,’ I shouted. Even as I took my own seat, I beastspoke a warning to all of the beasts to brace themselves as best they could for a crash, wishing it was day so that we could see better. Dragon called out desperately and I saw that although she had manages to belt Gavyn into his chair, he was struggling to get free. I farsought Rasial to ask for her help in getting Gavyn to stay put.

Maruman appear and climbed onto my lap. I lifted my shirt over him and then tucked it into the belt, and he relaxed against my belly at once and without argument, to my relief. Dragon flung herself into the seat beside me. I looked back to see that Rasial had solved the problem of making Gavyn stay in his chair by stretching out over the lad’s lap. Gavyn was now calm and still, embracing the dog and pressing his face into her thick, soft coat.

I farsought her to ask about Fey, and he said she was sleeping inside a niche.

‘Is the terrain outside very bad?’ Dameon asked so diffidently that I was immediately shamed by my thoughtlessness in not explaining anything to him.

‘It does not look bad to me,’ I said. ‘There is a slight rise ahead, but other than that I can’t see anything but flat land. Maybe there is some sort of obstacle beyond the rise.’

‘Perhaps the glide computer is reacting to something that was once here,’ the empath said.

‘Maybe,’ I said. ‘There is certainly no sign of any Beforetime buildings here.’

It was impossible to think clearly with the screaming siren going on and on, and now the glide itself was whirring and making strange sounds. It had been slowing ever since the siren began shrilling and I realised we were drawing level with the humped rise. Was it possible
that
was all the glide computer had meant when it had spoken of unstable ground? There would be no way for Hendon to put down elsewhere, if this was what God’s instructions determined as our destination. Ana had warned us Hendon would only be able to manoeuvre the glide around obstacles until it reached its destination.

The rise vanished under us and immediately there was a soft full whooshing sound and the glide slowed suddenly. I had the same sensation as when in a rising elevating chamber, as the glide lifted and then dropped very slowly. There was only the slightest thud as we set down. It was the softest landing I could ever have imagined, and when the siren abruptly ceased its shrilling, I burst out laughing.

Swallow let out a triumphant whoop and Dameon grinned. ‘I take it we are on the ground?’

Then a creaking, scraping noise silenced us.

Slowly, inexorably, the glide began to tilt forward. At first I thought that, having landed on the rise, the vessel was merely tilting until it settled against the lower ground on the other side, but to my horror, it tipped further and further forward until we all saw that the rise we had landed on was the edge of a deep fissure into which we were now overbalancing. The belt attached to my seat held me in place or I would have fallen forward as the glide tilted ever more steeply, but Maruman yowled, struggling and clawing at me.