The Red Queen (83 page)

There was no use in asking Maruman, because if I was right, that was a vision of the future. Better to take it as an omen that we were going to be able to get into the settlement without difficulty.

‘Look,’ Dragon said softly, pointing to the right.

I looked and saw the five great mounds Swallow had described rising in an arc to the north-east of the settlement. There was no question in my mind, seeing them, that they had been made by human hands.

‘I do not remember them,’ Dragon said, leaning out to look at them, a baffled expression on her face. I felt sure she had merely forgotten them, for she had been very young when she had been taken away.

Dameon asked what we were seeing and Ana described the mounds to the empath, who frowned and said, ‘It is strangely hard to imagine them.’

‘What do you think their purpose is?’ Ana asked me.

‘I do not know,’ I said, ‘but seeing them, it occurs to me that it would serve us well to ride north now, and make our approach to the city using them as a screen.’

We adjusted our course accordingly, turning north for a time before angling back towards Redport. Each of the mounds was now clearly visible ahead of us, dark smooth forms bathed in moonlight, all exactly alike in their perfect roundness and smoothness, though not in their distance from one another. Then Faraf stumbled and I realised we were once more on uneven fissured ground, with holes full of powdery dust.

We walked the last stretch, making for the nearest mound, which was also the farthest east.

Coming to a narrow, shallow, flat-bottomed depression, Swallow suggested we set up a camp there, or at least free the horses of their burdens and leave them here so they could set out in search of food and water. When this was done, I bade the horses run free, but warned them to keep well away from the settlement when they galloped, for if there were no horses in this land, a cloud of dust would draw attention at once on such a bare plain, especially when day dawned.

‘You notice we have not seen a single soul nor any beasts on the plain, other than insects and the odd lizard,’ Swallow said, as we watched the horses move away, back in the direction we had come.

‘I noticed,’ I said, reassured to see how soon I lost sight of them. Then Gavyn came trotting up alongside Rasial, who looked a question at me. I beastspoke her to say that the horses had gone to forage and we would set up a makeshift camp in the depression in a bit. She glanced at Gavyn and although I heard no exchange between them, a moment later the boy flung himself down in the depression, yawned and curled up to sleep on the soft dusty earth.

Ana stared at him incredulously as Rasial curled herself about him and rested her muzzle on his neck.

‘Perhaps there is nothing to draw anyone out from the settlement,’ Dameon said. ‘But what about crops? You have not mentioned them in your descriptions.’

‘Because there are none, at least as far as we can see,’ I said, glancing at Dragon who had not said a word. There was a perplexed line between her brows as she studied the mounds, and I thought she was no longer listening to our conversation.

‘There might be farms on the higher ground to the north of the settlement,’ Ana said, coming to my side and pointing towards the coast in that direction. ‘It looks like it widens out further north.’

‘I can see that the escarpment we climbed down curves right around to the north and runs along the edge of the land to Redport,’ Swallow said. He squinted his eyes. ‘I think there is a lower section in the middle and it might be that there is a road going that way. You know, I think some of this land was low even before the plain sank,’ he added suddenly.

I told him I had been thinking the same thing.

‘Yet it sounds as if the high ground is a long way off,’ Dameon said. ‘You would think crops would be planted closer.’

‘Maybe the sunken parts of the plain do not support crops,’ I said. ‘Then there would be the need for water.’ I questioned Dragon but she knew nothing of crops. Only, she insisted that in her mother’s time, the city had been full of greenery, no matter what Fey’s visions showed.

I farsought Gahltha and beastspoke him to ask if he and the others would scout around to see if there were crops or any outlying settlements, then I suggested to the others that we take a closer look at the mounds.

‘Why don’t you try farseeking Matthew?’ Dameon suggested.

‘I will, but this time I mean to try from the top of this mound,’ I said. ‘That will give me the height to get over the buildings at the edge of the settlement in case they are tainted and they have been blocking my probes.’

The others gaped at me, all save Swallow, who at once approved my notion, saying the dome was flat enough and there was no wind. ‘It will make the perfect vantage point because it will allow us to see into the settlement a little. We might even be able to see the bay.’

That thought galvanised me, for seeing the bay would enable me to see if the
Black Ship
was anchored at Redport.

‘What about the watchtowers?’ Ana asked.

‘Fey saw no windows nor any place a person could stand, and there is no ladder going up to the top, so I am more sure than ever that they are not watchtowers,’ I said firmly. ‘Also, it must be very late now so most people will surely be sleeping. Even so, I will be careful.’

Having reached the mound, the settlement was now entirely obscured by its mysterious bulk, but we were speaking in whispers, in case there were people nearby. I had tried scrying through the mound, but it was as impenetrable as a true hillock, though one touch told me that something had been done to the earth from which it was formed. It felt as if something bound the grains together, while still leaving the surface rough enough to give reasonable purchase.

Swallow went to see what could be seen around the front and came back very soon to report that the mound was a vast hollow dome with one single enormous entrance and no windows. The strangest thing was that a silver ladder ran out of the dome entrance and across the plain towards Redport.

‘A
ladder
?’ Ana echoed.

‘It looks like a very long ladder laid down flat on the ground,’ Swallow said.

I asked about the door to the dome, only to be told that there was no door, just the one wide opening in a curved wall. He had been unable to see anything inside the dome but the silver ladder, which ran away into darkness, but he offered to enter and explore it if I wished. I shook my head, remembering the mutant beast Matthew had spoken about, and wondering if the domes could have been built over mines, though I could not imagine why anyone would build a dome over a mine site. Perhaps the domes housed smelters and fire pits where iron and copper and other metals were forged.

Dismissing the mystery for the present, I suggested the others set up camp while I climbed to the top. I would farseek them to tell them what I saw, if there was any urgency. Otherwise, I would stay up there for some time, and then someone else could go up and take my place.

Clouds once again scudded across the face of the moon as I began to scale the dome. It was not a difficult climb, and I was only slightly hampered by Maruman, who had insisted on riding on my shoulders. The wind blew harder as I rose higher, but never hard enough to cause me any real difficulty. Indeed, I enjoyed the coolness and the smell of the sea it carried.

When I was close to the top, I stretched out on my belly and moved towards the apex slowly. Annoyingly, a little cluster of clouds had sailed across the moon and for the moment it was too dark to see anything. Maruman padded from my shoulders onto my back and made himself comfortable. Grinning at the picture we must make, I set my chin on my hands and waited for the moon to show me Redport.

When the clouds did part some moments later, I found that I had a very good prospect of the settlement, if not as high a view as Fey offered. Irritatingly, there was enough cloud cover now that only beams of moonlight escaped, which meant that only patches of the settlement were illuminated at any one time, and never for long. As well, I was still too far away to be able to see streets or any real detail. But what I could see confirmed that Fey’s vision had been accurate. Redport was a mass of low buildings sprawled about the rough oval of a bay. Most appeared to be no more than two or three levels high and flat-roofed. This fitted the buildings I had glimpsed in my true dreams of Matthew. The only really high buildings were the two towers, which might not truly be towers at all.

Seeing them rising up so strangely above the buildings about them, with their bulging tips, I wondered suddenly if both they and the domes were remnants of the Beforetime, like the strangely marked grey poles that rose from the ground here and there about the Land. I had always assumed Redport had been established after the Great White, like Sutrium and Templeport. But what if it had been established on the site of a Beforetime city? Presumably it had been settled after the subsidence, in which case it might even be that the domes had been under the ground initially. I could not imagine why, but the Beforetimers had been very fond of burrowing into the earth.

Dragon might know something more of the history of Redport, or Swallow might have some information about it from his ancestors – I would question them both later. In the meantime I regretted that I had not thought to ask God for a map showing all of the Beforetime cities and the establishments that had existed in the lands to the north.

Of course, I might also have been unable to match what I was seeing with anything on the ancient maps. Given the vastness of the subsidence and the many submerged obstacles rumoured to sharpen the waters beneath the Clouded Sea, there might not even have been a seacoast here in the Beforetime. What if the obstacles were remnants of land that had sunk beneath the waves at the same time as this land had subsided?

I shook my head, abandoning my speculations, and rested my eyes on the dark area I guessed to be the bay, waiting for moonlight to illuminate it. When it did, I saw against the silver-white glimmer of the moon’s reflection, the small dark shapes of ship boats tethered along the shore, and in the centre of the bay, obviously anchored there, were several greatships. Unfortunately it was too far away for me to make out their flags or the colour of their sails. I told myself firmly that they were most likely Gadfian ships, or ships they had captured at sea, for it was known that the Gadfians did not welcome strange ships into Redport Bay. But Salamander’s notorious
Black Ship
had visited Redport often and if Salamander was here, it was likely Ariel was, too.

I wished I could ask Fey to overfly the ships, but Rasial had made it clear that she would not travel over water. I told myself that even if Salamander was in port, there was no certainty that Ariel was with him.

A shaft of moonlight lit an area in the south of the settlement and I suddenly remembered my true dream of Gilaine with the other women in red gowns. At the end of it, she had looked out at Redport through a window that had faced the bay. Comparing what I had seen through it to what I could see now, it seemed to me that Gilaine had been on the southern side of the city. The view through the window had seemed to be from high above the bay, so perhaps the ground was higher that side of the settlement.

From what I could see, it also seemed to me that the streets were wider in the south, and that was confirmed by what Fey had seen. I shifted my gaze to the area between the towers, but it was obscured by higher buildings. I looked to the north and noticed one area that seemed so thickly settled I could not see the streets between the buildings. Moonlight illuminated some of the buildings fitfully and I was sure they had steep roofs like Land buildings.

Clouds shifted and the world darkened. Waiting for the moon to reappear, my eyes returned yet again to the unlit bay as I wondered if any of the greatships belonged to the emissary from the land of the white-faced lords and what it would mean for Dragon and her people if the ship was in the bay when they rose against their oppressors. Would the people of that distant land regard themselves as allies of the Gadfians, and feel compelled to come to their aid? Or would they simply wait to see who won?

‘Gnawing,’ muttered Maruman irritably.

I sighed. ‘Sometimes you have to gnaw at things to get the good out of them,’ I sent.

‘Truespoken,’ the old cat said with surprising equanimity.

Obscurely cheered, I gave up trying to see the greatships and ran my eyes along the shoreline of the bay, trying to locate the island palace Dragon had spoken of. I felt sure it must have been co-opted by the slavers and was now the seat of Gadfian power in Redport. That was unfortunate because it also seemed to me that the palace would be the most likely place to begin searching for Luthen’s grave.

Unfortunately I could not see an island. But Dragon had said it was not separated by much water from the mainland. Doubtless the gap was obscured by some building or other. I ought to have had the sense to ask Dragon exactly where in the bay the island was located. I could have farsought Swallow to have him ask Dragon, but something made me decide to wait and ask her for myself.

Without warning, the clouds parted like curtains and the moon shone so brightly that I froze, feeling dangerously exposed. I was distracted by the curious sight of
sails
erected here and there upon some of the flat roofs in the south of the city. Then a flash of brightness at the lower edge of my vision caught my attention. I wriggled forward until I saw what truly did look like a silver ladder laid flat on the ground between the dome and the buildings at the edge of Redport, then the clouds moved and everything vanished into the general darkness.

The brief glimpse of the silver ladder provoked a memory of the events at the very end of Dragon’s coma dream. Dragon, Maruman, Rushton and I, all in our dream shapes, had been transported to the shore in a sort of wheeled box that ran along two silver rails set wheel width apart and connected by slats of wood. Surely this silver ladder was the same sort of path, created not for feet but for the wheels of a vehicle. Such transport would be the perfect means for bringing material from the mines to the shore of the bay.