The Temporal Void (40 page)

He felt her hair shift across him. Her fingers stroked his cheek. ‘I thought I’d managed to calm you.’

‘You did. I am so completely exhausted my mind is in a daze, that’s why I’m being so stupid.’

‘Do you want to make love to me again?’

He smiled up into the darkness where he knew her face to be. ‘I can’t actually move right now, let alone do that.’

‘You’d better recover by tomorrow.’

‘I’ll go to sleep now, I promise. I’ll be ready for you again tomorrow night.’

‘Tomorrow morning,’ she said sharply.

‘Yes, Mistress.’

Kristabel, he discovered as she woke him at daybreak, wasn’t joking.

During the days they walked along the coast, exploring neighbouring coves and beaches. Sometimes they’d take a swim, then warm themselves afterwards making love in the dunes. Kristabel especially took a delicious thrill at the prospect of being discovered by some estate worker or housekeeper. Obliging her wasn’t exactly difficult for him.

On the fourth afternoon they walked back along the lodge’s track, surveying the fields and groves that spread back from the small strip of wild ground that ran behind the shore. The coast line was a series of rugged coves reaching almost the entire way back to the city. Many of the larger ones were dominated by villages that had extended or adapted the curving cliffs to make harbours for their fishing fleets. The rest had been incorporated into the estates of Makkathran’s Grand Families, who had built pavilions or lodges where their younger generations could idle away the summer.

Further south, the land dipped to become a saltwater swamp before rising again at the end of the Iguru. Then the Bruneau Mountains stood up to fence off the arid southern plains. Towns and farmland continued to cling to the coast as it curved eastwards all the way down to Charyau, Querencia’s southernmost city, just past the equator.

‘They say you have to wear long clothes all year round there,’ Kristabel said as they stood on top of a tall hummock, gazing southwards. On the horizon they could just make out the snow-tipped peaks of the Bruneau range. ‘The sun is so strong it shrivels your skin, especially if you’re not used to it.’

‘Do they have stories of anyone else sharing our world?’ Edeard asked. ‘Perhaps strange ships that they’ve sighted at a distance out at sea?’

‘No. Our ships trade with them all the time, and their schooners regularly make port in Makkathran. If there were any stories like that, we’d hear them.’ She tilted her head to one side. ‘You’re so interested in what lies beyond our reach. Why?’

‘I’m just curious about the world, that’s all.’ He didn’t want to tell her his main interest was discovering where the rapid-firing guns were produced. ‘Doesn’t it even bother you that we don’t actually have a complete map of Querencia? The ships that brought Rah and the Lady must have seen what it looked like before they landed. Why didn’t any survive?’

‘There you go again, thinking differently. What you said makes perfect sense, but no one else ever makes that kind of connection.’

‘Is that so bad?’

‘No, but it does mark you out. I’d love to understand why you think the way you do.’

‘Just the way I am, I suppose.’
And the things I see in my dreams.

‘I wish I’d met your parents. I’m sorry if that sounds selfish, but they must have been very special people. Do you remember anything of them?’

‘Very little,’ he sighed. ‘Akeem told me my mother arrived in Ashwell from another province. He said she was beautiful, and smart. All the men vied for her hand, but she only ever wanted my father. Actually, he’d only been there twenty years himself, so I don’t suppose he counted as a local. He had a farm outside the village. It was a big place, or at least I thought so; I remember it having furniture that was very grand compared to the other houses. I don’t know why. We couldn’t have earned more than the other farmers. Akeem said Father didn’t get involved very much with Ashwell. I can’t say I blame him for that.’

‘I didn’t want to stir up anything that would hurt you.’

‘It doesn’t. They died a long time ago, I stopped grieving years ago. I hate the bandits who killed them, but Akeem was a true father to me. I was lucky to know him.’

Kristabel put her arm through his, and they made their way down the hillock. ‘There are bandits everywhere,’ she said. ‘In many forms. People who prey on the bounty that others have worked hard for. The gangs are no different.’

‘I know. That’s what angers me about them, just that they exist. And worse, that people accept their existence.’

‘I think our gangs are smarter than your bandits; they’ve managed to ingrain themselves in our lives.’

‘City and country again?’

‘Almost. Though they seem to share the same brutality and hatred. They’re broken people, Edeard. That’s why they do what they do.’

‘Are you saying we should show them sympathy?’

‘I don’t know what must be done.’ She stroked his face, gazing sympathetically at him. ‘You do understand everyone is expecting you to provide that answer, don’t you?’

‘I don’t have an answer. That’s the Grand Council’s job.’

‘They will blame you if no solution comes forward. Can’t you hear their voices: you began this, you came to the District Masters with this notion. You excluded gang members from some districts, and forced them into others. Why should those districts suffer at the expense of others? What will you do to get rid of the threat you highlighted, and you went to war against?’

‘Oh, Lady,’ he groaned.

‘You have to find something, Edeard, some way out.’

‘There isn’t one.’

‘There is at least one, and you know it. Banishment. Permanent banishment from the crystal walls. Exclude them from the whole city.’

‘That’ll never happen, Master Bise won’t allow that to happen in Sampalok for a start.’

‘Honious take Bise. You’ve got a huge political momentum growing behind you. Exclusion has been seen to work. You have to carry it forward. If you hesitate now, you’ll lose that momentum.’

‘Banishment? You’re not serious?’ His mind went back to the morning of the kidnapping, and how he’d been berated by Eddis’s wife. ‘Where would they all go?’

‘I can see how much this troubles you, but I think you’re wrong to worry so. This is one time that imagination of yours is leading you astray. You’re visualizing whole city districts being forced out at gunpoint. Edeard, the real trouble is caused by a couple of hundred people at best. I remember the night Daddy signed the exclusion warrants for Haxpen; you gave him four hundred and eighteen. That’s everybody, Edeard, every gang member you can find. That number is nothing compared to our total population, they’re so small they’re not even a minority. Get rid of the gang masters and their lieutenants, and the rest will be lost. They’ll rejoin society. They won’t love you, but at least they won’t be causing the kind of trouble they do today.’

‘I suppose so. But where will the masters go? That’s just giving someone else our problem.’

‘Look,’ Kristabel said forcefully, and held her arms out, twirling round to gesture at the entirety of the landscape. ‘I’ll make Daddy loan you the biggest ship in our fleet, and you can take them to the furthest atoll we can navigate to; or we’ll buy them fifty wagons and lead their caravan into the wilds beyond Rulan. Let them build their own houses and grow their own food. Edeard! You’re not responsible for them, not afterwards. You are a city constable, a position that was regarded with utter scorn before you arrived. You made us all feel safe again, you gave us hope. Don’t falter now. Makkathran cannot afford your doubts.’

He stared at her in awe.

She shifted round discomfited. ‘What?’

‘You are so incredible. I can’t believe you even notice someone like me.’

Kristabel looked at the ground. ‘But I do.’

‘Makkathran is lucky to have you.’

‘I won’t be a figurehead for the family, a mere caretaker between Daddy and my firstborn, someone who just votes for whatever the Mayor says. I will make a difference,’ she said fiercely.

‘I know you will.’

Their last night in the beach lodge together was one Edeard never wanted to end. Again, when the candles had long died Edeard sprawled over the bed staring upwards as his thoughts slowly came together in realization. Not least, what Kristabel had said to him throughout the week, in so many ways, none of which had really registered before. She lay beside him now, her arm across his chest, head nuzzled into the crook of his neck, one leg over his. It was where she belonged. For eternity.

‘I love you,’ he said in wonder

Edeard was dreading his return to Makkathran. Some part of his brain enacted the beautiful fantasy of them staying in the beach lodge forever. It wasn’t just their physical union, though Kristabel was all he had ever imagined a lover could ever be. He didn’t want anything to break the perfection of the week they’d spent together.

‘I don’t want to leave either,’ she said at breakfast on their last day.

‘I suppose we have to go back,’ he said grouchily.

‘We do, and don’t sulk.’

‘I wasn’t – sorry.’

‘You say that too much, as well.’

‘Thanks.’

‘I have a present for you,’ she said, and instructed a ge-monkey to bring in one of her cases.

Edeard hadn’t noticed it among all the other cases. For someone who’d spent most of the week naked or clad in wisps of silk and lace, she seemed to require a vast wardrobe. Now he leaned over with interest as she opened it, and held up the jacket inside.

‘A proper uniform for you,’ Kristabel said. ‘I can’t have my man looking ordinary at the ceremony, now can I? Not on this day. The day.’

Edeard took the jacket from her, admiring the cut and the seriously black fabric. It was a standard constable’s dress tunic, but at the same time so much more stylish. Kristabel produced some matching trousers from the case, and a white shirt, belt, tie.

‘Thank you so much,’ he said, then his mood dropped. ‘I don’t have anything for you.’

She gave him a strange look, almost as if he’d said something hurtful. ‘That’s because you don’t have any money. And that’s good, because that’s not what I’m looking for in a man.’

‘You’re wonderful.’ He kissed her.

‘We don’t have time, we have to be back in the city by midday. Go and put it on.’

‘We could spare a few minutes,’ he suggested hopefully.

Her finger pointed to the bedroom door. ‘Go and put it on.’

Edeard did as he was told. It fitted perfectly, and as he studied himself in the mirror he couldn’t help the very self-satisfied smile splashed across his face. He did look great.

‘Oh, Lady,’ Kristabel murmured huskily from the doorway. ‘There really is something about men in uniform.’

‘The tailor got my size just right, was he spying on me?’

Kristabel’s eyebrow raised a fraction. ‘I know your exact size,’ she purred. ‘Now come on, we need to get going.’

Strangely enough, when they did get back to the city he was cheered by the sight of it. The raucous babble of thoughts and longtalk spilling out from the human minds was a reassuring presence. Then there was the familiarity of the buildings and streets and canals. The way no one paid any attention to them as they walked back from the stables, not even bothering with a seclusion haze.

‘I’m home,’ he decided as the gondola took them along Grand Central Canal to the Orchard Palace.

His squadmates were waiting for him in the Malfit Hall, and gave him a hearty greeting.

‘Look at this!’ Macsen exclaimed, tugging at Edeard’s splendid new uniform. He glanced at Kristabel, who was chatting away to Kanseen. ‘Anything to
announce?
’

Edeard frowned. ‘No. We had a lovely time. And I’m certainly not giving you lot any details.’

Macsen and Boyd both shook their heads in despair.

‘Still the country boy,’ Macsen said sadly.

‘What?’

‘And have we got some news for you!’ Dinlay said proudly.

‘What?’ Edeard repeated dumbly.

‘After the ceremony,’ Kanseen taunted. ‘It needs time to explain.’

‘Come on,’ Macsen said. ‘We’d better grab our seats while we still can.’

At Edeard’s graduation ceremony the block of seats had taken up less than a fifth of the available floorspace. Today, some families who’d come to watch their sons and daughters graduate had to stand around the walls.

As before, Mayor Owain appeared at the top of the grand stairs, flanked by the District Masters and the Guild Masters. As they descended to the floor, the giant roof above displayed Querencia’s sister planets drifting through another exquisite dawn of wispy gold-tinged clouds.

Owain began his little speech on the makeshift platform. Edeard, who was near the back of the hall, looked along the line of Masters behind the Mayor. This time they all looked attentive, as if gauging the mood of the audience. Their tenseness was a contrast to the excitement and satisfaction of the new constables and their families. Then he saw Bise, whose long face was rigid with animosity; he was staring directly back at Edeard. For a second Edeard was taken aback by the loathing he saw and sensed. He composed himself, and matched the Master’s hostility with cool indifference.

Loud applause broke out as the first probationer stepped up to the platform, and Owain awarded him his epaulettes. Edeard applauded politely throughout the ceremony, which lasted a long time. The only time he clapped with genuine enthusiasm was when the probationers from Jeavons station received their epaulettes. Young Felax glowed with pride as he hurried back down the steps, holding the small bronze buttons aloft so his parents could see.

Edeard and Dinlay shared a grin at that.

‘Oh, Lady,’ Dinlay groaned. ‘Was I like that?’

‘I don’t know. I was too busy trying not to trip down the stairs.’

On the row behind them, Chae leaned forwards. ‘You were both an embarrassment,’ he assured them.

Edeard knew he was expected to participate in the reception that followed. Not so many months ago, the very idea would have filled him with dread. Now, after all he’d been through, he didn’t care any more. Besides, Kristabel was on his arm the whole time, smiling and impressing people a lot more than he did. So he took a wine glass from a ge-chimp, refused the canapés, put on his best smile, sealed up his mind, and started to tell parents how wonderful their newly qualified constables were, and how glad he was that they’d be helping him, and yes he did think the gangs would ultimately be defeated, and no he couldn’t give a time scale, it was confidential, and yes they did have a way to finish the exclusion campaign, and please urge your District Master and Representative to support the warrants.