The Red Queen (84 page)

It had grown very dark now, and given there was nothing to see for the moment, I settled myself more comfortably, closed my eyes and began to shape a probe to Matthew’s mind. My heart hammered and I realised that I was nervous at the thought of making contact with the farseeker, whom I had not seen since he was led aboard the
Calor Lady
in chains. It struck me that my careful survey of the settlement, while necessary and useful, had been procrastination, for my greatest fear was that I would not find Matthew’s mind. And there was good reason to be afraid. Aside from his rebellious activities in Redport, Matthew had been marched onto a ship on which Ariel had been travelling, and though I knew from my dreams that Matthew had reached the Red Land, Ariel had been to the settlement since. As a favoured guest, he would be unlikely to have crossed paths with a slave, but what if he had learned of Matthew’s presence there from his dreams, or worse, from Dragon’s?

The thought of what Ariel would have done to Matthew, had he got his hands on the farseeker, made me feel sick, but it also made me shield my probe very thoroughly before sending it spinning out, so that it would touch no other mind but Matthew’s. It moved smoothly to the edge of the settlement then stopped, meeting the same impenetrable barrier I had encountered when reaching out to it from afar. Not taint, I thought. It felt like it, but it was not quite that, either. Puzzled, I tried again to breach it, to no avail.

‘What could be causing the barrier, if not water or taint?’ Dameon asked, when I had climbed back down to them.

‘It feels more like a blanket of interference than a barrier,’ I said.

‘Caused by what?’ Swallow asked.

‘Perhaps by a machine the slavemasters got from the white-faced lords,’ Ana suggested.

‘The same thought occurred to me,’ I said. ‘Only why would the Gadfians use such a device if they have no knowledge or interest in Talents?’

‘The interference could be a side effect,’ Dameon said.

‘Or the machine belongs to Ariel,’ Dragon said grimly.

I had thought of this too, but I merely said, ‘There is only one way to find out for sure. I need to get into Redport.’

‘Perhaps it should be one of us who goes in, since the block will prevent you using your Talents,’ Ana said.

‘I am sure I will be able to use them if I can make physical contact with whomever I am to coerce or farseek,’ I assured her, though in truth I could not be sure since I had no idea what was stopping my abilities. ‘It might also be that this barrier is exactly that – an invisible wall – and once I get past it, I will be able to use my Talents unhampered. Garth once told me the Beforetimers had the power to create such unseen walls and they might interfere with Talent incidentally. Perhaps, once I enter Redport, I will be able to farseek Matthew freely.’

‘If he lives,’ Swallow said bleakly. ‘Are you so sure about going in alone, given that this barrier may be Ariel’s doing?’

‘Notalone,’ Maruman sent, digging his claws into my shoulder.

‘I am the only one who will be able to track the cause of the barrier if it is a machine,’ I said. ‘And I will take Maruman. If anything goes wrong, he will come out of Redport and beastspeak Gahltha, and then Gahltha will tell you what has happened using signal speech.’

Gahltha had just returned from ranging to the south of the settlement and although he agreed to serve as a go-between for Maruman, he emanated disapproval of the expedition. ‘I donotlike this barrier that will keep me from reaching yourmind.’

‘I, Marumanyelloweyes, will watch over ElspethInnle,’ Maruman sent somewhat haughtily.

Gahltha stamped his hoof and snorted.

‘Hush,’ I beastspoke the black horse. ‘Marumanyelloweyes will come out of the barud and call/will tell you if I need help. But nothing will happen. I go into thisbarud only briefly, to learn how matters stand.’

Gahltha nuzzled me, snorted at Maruman and then walked away to join the other horses.

‘What if you can’t reach Matthew?’ Dameon asked.

‘I will try to locate Jow or Gilaine, or anyone who was aboard the ships from the Land. If I can find none of them, I will try to learn as much as I can about how things are arranged here, and most especially, the names of the leaders among the Redland slaves,’ I said.

I wanted to leave immediately, but Swallow insisted I eat first and then give him time to climb the dome so that he could keep watch. That way, if anyone moved against me as I crossed the plain, he would see and be able to come to my rescue.

Half touched, half annoyed, I acquiesced, for aside from all else, the later it was that I entered, the fewer people there would be in the streets. We moved to the depression where they had set up a rough camp and I was relieved to see Gavyn was still sleeping. The last thing I needed was the worry that he might take it into his head to follow me into Redport. Swallow prepared the ingredients for a soup as Ana lit a small cookfire and the sight of flame made me think of Fey’s visions of fire celebrations in Redport and to wonder again what had prompted them. Certainly there had been no sign of any celebration from the top of the dome, nor had I seen any sign of spectacular fires. I had noticed a number of small fires burning in the area between the two towers, which, although I could not see it, I believed to be the Infinity of Dragonstraat.

Thinking of this, I remembered, too, that Dragon had told me this was also the location of an important and imposing building her mother had loved, because its outer walls had been covered in a magnificent carved frieze showing a seething march of wild beasts. There was also an immense carving of the first Red Queen.

Hearing this, I had immediately known this must be the carving that had convinced Matthew that Dragon was the daughter of the Red Queen because of her striking resemblance to the carved woman whom I had supposed to be her mother. But to my surprise, when I had mentioned this to Dragon, she had told me that while her mother resembled the Red Queen a little, the carving was of the
first
Red Queen.

I regretted again that I could not get at Dragon’s memories of Redport, but her mind would no more accept me than allow me to give her the vision I had got from Fey of Redport, which I had given to all of the others. Dragon had said blithely that it mattered not for she would get the vision from Fey through Rasial and Gavyn, while they all slept. I had warned her very sternly that she must not dreamtravel anywhere while I was in Redport, lest she encounter Ariel and alert him to our closeness.

Dameon said, ‘If Ariel is in Redport, he may know you are coming without any help.’

This was an unusually blunt approach for the empath, which suggested he was less sanguine than he seemed about my intended foray.

‘Sooner or later I must face him,’ I told him evenly.

‘Must you?’ he asked. ‘Surely that meeting is
his
desire. You do not need him to fulfil your quest and so you can avoid him.’

I sighed. ‘For the longest time I thought our purposes marched to the same end from different directions, Ariel’s and mine. I thought that it was a race between the Seeker and the H’rayka, the winner being the one who got there first and prevailed in their dealings with Sentinel. I did not imagine we would have to face one another unless we arrived simultaneously. But Ariel has always been convinced that he needs me to succeed in my quest, before he can succeed, and for that reason, I believe he will do everything to bring about a meeting between us.’

‘He will want to capture you and force you to lead him to Sentinel,’ Ana said.

I shook my head. ‘If capturing me was all that he wanted to do, he could have done so long ago. He had the perfect opportunity on Herder Isle when he futuretold that I would come there and warned the Herders to lay a trap for me. But he knew I did not have all I needed to reach Sentinel, and he realised he had no choice but to let me go my own way. Domick told me as much. It was a message from Ariel, delivered as hurtfully as possible. Ariel has always played a waiting game, save when his malevolence has grown so great that he could not resist striking out at me. But he always did it by hurting people I love. Never me. If he knows I need only one last thing in order to reach Sentinel, and that it lies in Redport . . .’

‘He will stop at nothing to capture you, which is why going into Redport alone is madness,’ Swallow said grimly, thrusting a bowl of hot soup into my hands.

I rested the bowl on my knees and accepted a spoon, saying mildly, ‘I am trying to say that I think he will not move against me even if he does know I am coming, until he is sure I have all that is needed to reach Sentinel. I believe that, until I have Cassandra’s key, I will be safe from his interference or malice. But if he is true to form, it is the rest of you who will be in danger. He would capture and use you cruelly to hurt me and to control me. That is why I insist on going alone to begin with.’

They all looked somewhat shattered by this.

It had also occurred to me that Ariel might have dreamed of me finding Cassandra’s final message, and simply retrieved it himself. But since all of the messages and devices she had left for me had been concealed in places where I would find them, and the discovery had often come about because of choices that I’d made spontaneously, I had to believe that this last thing was something that she had ensured I alone could find.

I began spooning up the soup, which was watery and a little bland, having been cooked too short a time, but I made no complaint. The others stared into the fire somewhat morosely, but Dragon found her pack and brought it back to the fire to rummage through it. It was dark enough to need the firelight, for the moon was once again covered in cloud. Watching the girl covertly as I ate, I noted absently that her face was dirty again, and also that the dirt in no way marred her bright beauty. She glanced at me and caught me looking at her.

‘Are you sure I should not go with you? I could help you.’

‘I am sure you could, but I am also sure that of all the people Ariel might want to get his hands on, you would be the most desirable,’ I said. ‘Because aside from the fact that I love you dearly, getting his hands on you would give him even more power with the Gadfians. And we know from your own dreams that he seeks you.’

She frowned and Ana told her, ‘We must use you in the way that would best serve Elspeth’s quest and your own needs as the true queen of this place. Think of it,’ she added, looking at me now. ‘The fuss caused by the appearance of the Red Queen could provide the perfect cover under which Elspeth can search for whatever Cassandra left the Seeker. So the best way you can help her and yourself is to reach the leaders among your people safely.’

‘So long as the faithful rebel leaders have not been eradicated,’ Swallow muttered, brooding over his soup.

Of course he was referring to Dragon’s dream and the talk in it by the emissary from the land of the white-faced lords of the execution of the rebel leaders, which we had spoken of as we plodded across the plain the night before.

‘If we know one thing from experience it is that oppression does not crush rebellion, no matter how it tries,’ I told him. ‘It breeds it anew with every tyrannical act. If the slavemasters rule the Red Land, there will be rebels to be reached and you can be sure they will welcome the Red Queen.’

Dragon announced regally, ‘Once I am recognised as the Red Queen, I will rouse my people against Ariel.’ She went back rather suddenly to rummaging ferociously in her pack and I smiled, remembering how, when it had got terribly hot as we had descended to the sunken plain, Dameon and Swallow had stripped off their upper clothes and Ana too had stripped to her breast bindings, complaining that if it got much hotter, she would abandon all of her clothes. That had made Swallow gape, and seeing his expression, Dragon asked crossly, ‘Why shouldn’t Ana take her clothes off, if she is hot?’

I wondered now, and not for the first time, what the Redlanders would make of their wild and wilful young queen. Dragon uttered a laugh of triumph and finally withdrew what she had been searching for – a small square object, which she pressed into my hand, saying it had been given to her by her mother and now she wanted me to have it. I took it and was astonished to see that it was one of the small book cubes.

‘However did you manage to keep it with you?’ I asked.

‘There was a bag of things I had with me,’ Dragon said vaguely.

Touched and somewhat mystified, I thanked her and buttoned it into the same pocket where I kept the device I had got from the computermachine in the amethyst chamber and the red token I had meant to return to Tash, and which I now kept as a memento. Then I went on spooning up the soup, asking again and without any real expectation, if she had any new thought about the whereabouts of the grave of the first Red Queen’s brother, Luthen.

Dragon frowned. ‘Luthen . . . that was his name, yes, but you know he was not truly buried, for there was no body.’ She stopped abruptly and knitted her brow, and then her face cleared. ‘I remember! My mother said the first Red Queen had a . . . a crypt created as a memorial to her brother. But as I said, there was no true grave there. At least, not his. The first Red Queen . . . I think she was laid there, when the time came for her to die.’

‘A memorial crypt containing the body of the first Red Queen,’ I murmured. ‘That sounds very promising. Do you know where it is located?’

Her face fell. ‘No.’ Seeing my exasperation, she added apologetically, ‘It was a secret you see because the sceptre that is the mark and symbol of the Red Queen lies in Luthen’s crypt.’ She spoke these words so formally that I guessed she was repeating something that had been told to her, but which she had not understood at the time. All at once her face lit up. ‘I think it might be in the palace, for I remember one day the ruler of some other place came in his ship to Redport, and my mother said she ought to carry it when she went to greet him. She was all dressed up and she went away and returned in a little while, and she had it in her hand.’ Her smile faded. ‘I remember she looked so sad and I asked her why. She said the sceptre reminded her that every Red Queen must keep faith with the promise of the first, and that it was a hard promise to keep.’

‘What was the promise?’ I asked curiously.

‘I asked her that, but she said only that I would know in time, for it was a promise the first Red Queen asked of her daughter before she died, and which she must require of
her
daughter, when the time came,’ Dragon said. ‘I asked my mother why she would not ask it of me then for what if she should die suddenly?’ She shook her head and laughed ruefully. ‘But she said only that I must be patient. She never did tell me . . .’ She stopped abruptly and said to me passionately, ‘Elspeth, please let me go with you. It may be that once I am in Redport, I will straight away remember where the crypt is!’