And All the Stars (36 page)

Fisher's recording had left Madeleine struggling to hide
tears, grateful but perhaps even less able to deal with the tangle between
them. At least he seemed to share her
immediate need for avoidance, staying at a careful distance.

"He is distinctly different, isn't he?" Noi added,
tone low, edged with sympathy. "I
asked Nash and Pan how they could not notice he was possessed. They thought he'd gone suddenly polite
wanting to impress you."

Not knowing how to respond, Madeleine simply hunched her
shoulders, and after a pause Noi said quietly: "I owe you an apology."

"What for?"

"I did kind of encourage you into bed with him."

"Oh." It was
like a jab to a wound, sudden and shocking for all they'd been talking around
the subject. "No, don't be
sorry. I'm not, not for that." She recognised a truth spoken, even though
her throat immediately locked with unshed tears. "I was so happy," she said,
struggling to get the words out. "It fell into a flaming heap, and I want to crawl under a rock, but
I can't regret it. I'd never been
happier in my life."

Noi's
hand tightened on hers, then
relaxed, and they sat connected by loosely linked fingers, waiting out the slow
degrees of dawn. The Cathedral roof
became a black silhouette against a pale sky, and, faintly, Nash murmured a
Hindu prayer.

"Eighty."

"Right." Noi
stood, and signalled again with her torch. "Keep counting, Millie, and let us know when you hit a hundred, but
from this point on we're assuming it could be any moment."

Noi wasn't quite able to keep a hint of breathlessness from
her voice, an awareness of how critical the moment was, and the consequences of
failure. Madeleine stood as well, and
tried to look at the Spire. South-west,
its base was little more than an impression of depth, though its upper reaches
stood out spear-sharp. Even on its own
it was a difficult thing to encompass, and she struggled to frame the whole
truth of it – not a ship, not a building, but a kind of spike or tentacle of a
creature so vast it must look like a mountain range, clawing an alien sky.

Feeling cold and wobbly, she searched through the
increasingly visible shapes around her until she found Tyler, incongruously
seated on a park bench which had survived and remained upright. It rocked a little as she sat beside him, but
it was a good place to collect herself. Lost in his own thoughts Tyler didn't speak, but gave her a small smile,
and Madeleine recognised that even after years of having little to do with her
cousin they retained the simple acceptance of family. Noi, along with so many millions of people,
had lost that completely.

"Hey,
Maddie
, what's the name
of that statue?" Pan, poking his
head over her shoulder, pointed at the bronze figure Noi was leaning
against. The gloom had lifted enough to
reveal a woman armed with a bow, kneeling beside the mashed remains of a stag.

"It's the Roman goddess, Diana."

That imp's grin lit up the morning. "Thought so." He bounced across to Noi. "You know, Wonder Woman's real name is
Diana. I'd call that a sign."

Noi almost visibly dragged her thoughts out from under the
shadow of the Spire. "If that means
spandex in our near future, I want a different sign."

Pan took
Noi's
hand and swung it
gently. "You don't need a costume
to be super."

"One hundred."

Noi flashed the torch again, and everyone held their
breath. Madeleine found herself looking
away from the Spire, at her feet, at Tyler, at the faces of the
Musketeers. Fisher.

"Now!"

The shout was scattered, a dozen different voices. Madeleine stood and immediately spotted the
ribbon of light, a dandelion dragon come home with the dawn, but it was
impossible see whether
Haron's
squad had
succeeded. Whether they'd taken those
few moments when the shield was down to press forward, thrust their hands
against the Spire and blast it, a united punch intended to stun a mountain.

"Work," Noi muttered. "Work, work,
wo
–"

The Spire screamed. There was no other word for it. Electronic dissonance at a thousand decibels. Madeleine, hands over her ears, was moving
back to the statue, all her attention focused on the curling ribbon of light
swooping in a tight circle over the southern section of the park, and then
coming to a near-halt, dozens of gossamer wings fanning. It was too far for her to clearly see the
riders, but she could just make out the shape of them. Three people, one of whom was Gavin, who had
driven to her rescue in his apple-green car.

The attackers' position in the north-east corner bought them
time, with the Spire blocking the Core's view of those closest to its base, and
the more widely scattered attackers sticking close to their chosen pieces of
rubble. But already the dragon was
moving, a swift arc north along Elizabeth Street, and then a slow drift toward
the Spire from the park's north-west corner, approaching the double line of
Blues pulsing measured punches into the velvety surface.

"Get ready," Noi said, barely audible over the
continuing unearthly scream.

Madeleine nodded, resting her hands on the statue's
outstretched arm, tracking the glowing creature's movements. The tactics Noi and
Haron
had recommended for dragon slaying were not greatly different to the Rover
fight. The dragon had some shielding,
and would gain strength from force punches. They needed to keep it still long enough for the leech Blues to drain
it. Quite a task when it was currently
drifting about sixty metres above the ground, searching the shadows. Stopping the attack on the Spire would be the
Core's first priority, and a great deal depended on what he chose to do when he
spotted the Spire Squad. The best option
for the freed Blues would be for the Core to pick up speed and circle the
Spire, returning to sweep through the people at the base. But he might drop immediately down toward
them, or try to blast them with punches from dragon-back.

"All for one, guys," Pan shouted over the scream of
the Spire, hopping up to balance on the mashed stag.

"All for one!" the Musketeers responded, quite as
if they'd rehearsed it. One of the
figures on the dragon's back looked toward them.

Around them, others picked up the cry, a scattered echo
across the park which united and became a chant, a roar.

"All for one!"

"All For One!"

"ALL FOR ONE!"

For Théoden,
Madeleine told herself as layers of gauzy wing beat into a faster pace, and the
dragon whisked into a diving curve, crossing directly between the Musketeers
and the Spire.

Madeleine punched. Full force, everything she had.

Her target was not the dragon's body, but below it, into the
downbeat of its wings. The weakest
point, with the least capacity for shielding or absorption. Diaphanous sails shredded into fragments of
light, and the punch continued onward to strike the Spire, one more blow
against the mountain. The dragon's swift
arc spun out of control, and it
zagged
suddenly left,
dropping into trees to the south.

Madeleine sagged, hooking her arm around the statue's in
order to keep upright, while all around her there was an immediate scramble
after their target.

"Stick with your partners!" Noi yelled. "Don't rush in – regroup on the
road." She paused to grab
Madeleine's shoulder. "Follow when
you can." Then she was gone.

Alone in the pre-dawn twilight, Madeleine staggered back to
Tyler's bench and flopped down, nearly overturning it in the process. The sudden decrease of the great roil of
power within left her feeling chilled and vulnerable. Her hands were shaking.

The Spire continued to scream, shredding nerves exposed by
cold, but she made herself ignore it, to take deep, even breaths until she felt
that she could walk without falling. She
didn't feel ready to fight, but she could get closer to her friends, in reach
so she could act when spots stopped swimming before her eyes.

Although she could now see almost clearly, it took care and
effort to cross the uneven ground to the road, and she sat down in the gutter
for a little while, searching anxiously down the road for signs of her
friends. She couldn't even make out the
light of the dragon, and with the noise the Spire was making she was struggling
to hear anything of use. Even the small
medical team had vanished.

Standing, she checked back to the base of the Spire, and saw
that on the far side of the park there was already fighting. Just a handful of people so far, but more
streaming from one of the hotels, racing down Elizabeth Street. Gritting her teeth, she started trotting in
the opposite direction, down College Street, searching the trees ahead for
signs of battle. A dragon shouldn't be
so hard to spot.

Passing the far end of the Cathedral, she glanced to her left
across the paved forecourt and over the eastern suburbs. The first gleam of gold had touched the
horizon. How long could the Spire Squad
keep pounding the mountain? Were they
feeling as drained as she?
Haron
hadn't been sure how long it would take, or how
quickly the Spire would recover if they failed to bring it down.

Turning, Madeleine met the eyes of a familiar, strawberry
blonde boy skirting the edge of the trees.

She drew breath – to shout, or take some action – but he was
too quick for her, force punching immediately. Her automatic shield kept her whole, but the blow was so strong she was
blasted off her feet, too stunned to bring up a second shield as a cushion as
she tumbled down a short, flat flight of stairs leading to the main forecourt.

Caught in that moment between being injured and knowing
exactly what hurt, Madeleine levered herself to knees and one elbow, but
another force punch hit her square in the back and she went down. Her shield was strong enough to keep the
punch itself from breaking her to pieces, but not to prevent bruising impact
with granite pavers. A third punch hit
her, and the stone around her cracked.

"STOP IT!"

Emily's voice. Horrified, Madeleine jerked her head up, just in time to see Emily launch
herself physically at the Core's stolen boy. Girl and alien overlord went down in a tangle of legs.

No time for recovery. Emily was a strong Blue, but the Core was stronger. Madeleine hurled herself to her feet,
staggered, and sat down abruptly. Above
her, she could just see Emily, punching at the Core beneath her, only to be
blasted upward, more than ten metres into the air. The girl twisted like a cat, and came
bouncing down, almost succeeding in slamming into the Core. He punched her again, and this time she
tumbled out of Madeleine's sight, across the street.

There was so little Madeleine could do. She didn't have the strength to force punch
or even attack the Core physically. Her
only advantage was the power of her spirit punch, and that she didn't dare to
do because there were no leech Blues nearby. Pushing the Core out of Gavin wouldn't kill it, and there was all too
great a chance that, in her weakened state, it would simply possess her
instead.

Whatever came after, the first thing was standing up. Madeleine rose carefully this time,
discovering on the way that her left arm hurt when she put any weight on
it. Five granite steps, broad and low. Then a short stagger out to the footpath, to
find Emily still holding her own, if only just.

Putting what was left of her strength into her voice,
Madeleine shouted.

"Shouldn't you be more worried about the
Spire?" She walked unsteadily
forward as the Core turned sharply toward her. "While you're wasting your time trying to squash us, we're winning
this war."

The last thing Madeleine wanted was the Core to go attack the
Spire Squad. She needed to unbalance and
distract him, long enough to get closer.

"I think you've given him a black eye, Millie," she
added. "But I expect Gavin will
forgive you. Look after him." Another few steps.

The Core glanced toward the Spire, still standing, still
screaming, but was not so easily diverted. His arm started to lift, and Madeleine dived forward, not trying to
reach him, just closing the distance so that she didn't need to stretch herself
beyond endurance.

She slammed into the footpath, hollow, a doll. Empty, as if only a scrap of
her self
remained. But light had bloomed. Madeleine
rolled painfully onto her back and stared up at the deeply Blue Core as it
moved toward her.

Hands, rough and hasty, grabbed her by the armpits and pulled
her backward. Fisher. Blackly frowning, hair wild.

"I'm sure you have some perfectly reasonable explanation
for not waiting for the leeches," he said, panting as he reversed them
both rapidly away, "but right now it's escaping me."

"Delaying manoeuvre." Madeleine hadn't heard him running up. "I figured I'm such a temptation to the
Core, it couldn't resist." She was
hurting, dizzy, but feeling more herself purely because of the huge swell of
emotion any contact with Fisher brought her. "Possessing someone who can hardly stand up would have to be a
tactical error."

Fisher let out a startled laugh, and shook his head. "Dangerous logic."

A heavy round bin served as a useful prop, with Fisher
positioning himself in front of her, a lone figure almost as tired as she. But already there were pounding feet behind
them, and a cry of "
Once more unto
the breach, dear friends!
" to herald a sudden crowd, a city's
defenders arrayed before her.

The Core, far from stupid, immediately flitted in the other
direction, and a Moth's speed may well have led to an escape, but for a grim
figure which rose into its path.

"No cutting out on your death scene," Gavin said,
perhaps trying to achieve a lightly chiding tone, but with such a harsh
undernote of anger that he sounded totally unlike himself as he hit out with a
shield.