Arcadia (65 page)

‘As real as you and me. Which is to say, not very, but all we have.’

‘You seem to have had a rough time in the last couple of days.’

‘I’ve been here for more than five years.’

‘I saw you two days ago.’

‘Accidents happen when Angela is involved. Why did she get you to come here?’

‘She didn’t. She’s under arrest at the moment.’

‘Good,’ Chang said vehemently. ‘I hope they use the pliers on her.’

‘The what?’ Lytten was puzzled, but passed over the remark.
‘How did you end up here?’

‘She needed to know what this place is, and I needed to hide from you.’

‘Did you find out?’

‘Oh yes.’

‘And?’

‘You will forgive me for being blunt, but as you can see my situation is not good here. I’m afraid knowledge has its price.’

‘What is yours?’

‘I need to stay alive for a few more hours. Angela said she’d open the device for me here at dusk.’

‘I see.’

‘Dusk on the fifth day of the Festivity of the fifth year. They don’t have a universal system for dating, and that was the best direction she could come up with. But Thenald was in his seventh year, and young and healthy, as Henary said. I was afraid I’d be stuck here for ever. I had no choice.’

‘So you really did kill Thenald? Henary got it right?’

‘I had to. It was the most horrible and revolting thing I’ve ever done in my entire life. I’m a scientist, for heaven’s sake, not a cutthroat. Take it as a measure of how desperate I was. It took me months to recover, and I’m not sure I ever did. I still have nightmares about it.’

‘How did you get Catherine on the throne?’

‘I didn’t. It didn’t matter to me who took over. As long as the clock was set to zero, so to speak, it was of no importance who it was.’

‘Then tell me—’

‘No. I’m not saying any more unless you promise to get me out of here. This place is unstable. Besides, even if they don’t kill me, I’ll kill myself if I have to stay much longer.’

‘I’ll see what I can do. Just answer my questions as I pose them.’

*

‘The matter is settled,’ Lytten said in a booming voice. ‘You will all hear the truth from his own mouth. Jaqui, Hermit of Hooke, do you, freely and without force, confess to the murder of Thenald, Lord of Willdon?’

‘I do,’ the hermit said defiantly, causing a wave of relief to spread through the crowd, followed by a murmur of anger.

‘Did you do this on behalf of any other person?’

‘I did not.’

‘Did any other person know of your intention before you committed this terrible deed?’

‘No.’

‘Did you ever meet, know or communicate with either Pamarchon, nephew of Thenald, or Catherine, widow of Thenald?’

‘I did not.’

‘Then I say to the people of Willdon that they should find you guilty of this most terrible crime. Do you so find him guilty?’

There was a roar of assent from the crowd, accompanied by shaking of fists.

‘Silence! Do not approach. Punishment is my prerogative.’

There was a long pause until the noise died away.

‘The punishment for the crime of murder is death, with the additional penalty of being refused the right to lay down your story. That is inadequate in this case. I say your very body will be expunged from this earth. As dusk falls, I will return whence I came and I will take you into the darkness. You will vanish as if you had never existed and will endure, for all eternity, the punishment due to someone who dares take the life of another. That is my judgement. If the people of this land accept it, then I declare the End of Days will have come and will have passed, never to return.’

He paused, then said in a voice so powerful it brooked no dissent, ‘If you do not accept it, I will destroy Anterwold so completely not even a memory of it remains.’

Even the most bloodthirsty and vindictive of people had never heard of any pronouncement so terrible and cruel. A groan of misery, almost of sympathy for the poor man who was
to bear such punishment, rose up.

‘This man’s deeds called me here. Does anyone question my rights?’

No one dared respond.

‘Then go now. The matter is decided for ever. Settle the lordship of Willdon and restore harmony to this land.’

As the crowd slowly began to follow his instructions and started drifting away, Lytten turned to Catherine and Pamarchon. ‘I see that Gontal is already heading off,’ he said. ‘I would hurry as well, if I were you.’

‘I will leave guards to make sure that this man does not try to escape,’ Pamarchon said.

‘He will not. Besides, I think your men may have better things to do. I sense that I was not as persuasive with Gontal as I had hoped. He looks unhappy, and I know what that look means. He wants to be ruler of Willdon so very badly, poor fellow, and this is his last chance. And do not suddenly become tempted by power yourself, young man. I do not want you to have Willdon, and you could win it only at the price of losing Rosalind.’

‘I am a man of my word.’

‘Good. That doesn’t mean, by the way, that you should abandon your comrades. Tell Catherine that I say her secret must be paid for.’

‘I do not understand what you mean, but I will tell her.’

‘Splendid.’

The young man bowed once more and followed the crowd to the place where domain business was conducted. Catherine had already gone.

‘May I go with him for a bit?’ Rosalind said.

‘Of course, my dear. But not for long. We need to talk. You, Jay, should go with Henary. I suspect he needs company. I imagine you have a few things to talk about with Aliena as well.’

Rosalind grinned and skipped after Pamarchon, catching him up and taking hold of his hand. Arm in arm, they walked into the trees and disappeared.

59

The following morning, as day broke over the hills, Jack woke and swiftly got up. He had a long day ahead of him; Emily had offered to drive him to a refuelling station, and there he would try and get a lift north. After that he would make it up as he went along. He didn’t dare travel on ordinary transport, as he would be spotted the moment he bought a ticket, so he would take a longer, more complicated route that gave him a reasonable chance of going into hiding. Then he would blend into the background, unnoticed amongst so many millions of people.

‘Are you ready?’ Emily always seemed to be up before he was, bright and fresh.

‘Yes. If I can take some bread with me …?’

‘Of course. We can go in an hour. There’s not much point leaving before that, as there won’t be anything on the road yet.’

‘I’d rather go now.’

‘I have a few things to do first.’

He supposed that she was worried. If anything went wrong and it became clear that she had been helping him, then the consequences would be bad for her. He was grateful she had offered, and even though it was somewhat selfish, he had accepted without hesitation. It saved him a six-hour walk.

‘Very well. I’ll go and collect the document. I’ll need to wrap it well.’

‘I’m not sure Kendred has quite finished.’

She led the way into the next room, which had been set up as Kendred’s laboratory. Jack had spent an hour in there with him the previous evening, watching to make sure he did not in any way damage anything. He was impressed by his care; Kendred
snipped off only a tiny amount of paper to run his tests and for the rest of the time examined it carefully under an old-fashioned microscope, saying nothing and grunting occasionally. He was still working when Jack had left, and looked now as though he had been up all night.

‘Are you nearly finished? Jack wishes to leave.’

Kendred stretched himself. ‘Nearly.’

‘What are your conclusions?’

‘I am absolutely certain that this is a genuinely old document, dating back to the eighteenth century. The paper is certainly that old, the ink is of the same age. I have found nothing in the other papers which refers to it. So how do we explain it? The script cannot have been written then.’

‘Luckily, I do not have to worry about explanations,’ Jack said. ‘I was told to find it and return it. More than that I cannot …’

A low throbbing sound in the air had been growing steadily as they spoke. Jack had noticed it in the back of his mind but had paid no attention. He should have been more alert. Even Emily was quicker; she walked outside to look in the direction of the noise.

‘Helicopter,’ she said.

‘Several of them,’ Jack said as he joined her. ‘Big ones. That’s bad.’

*

There was no point in trying to run or hide, even if they had wanted to. Jack knew full well that advance soldiers would have surrounded the retreat already, taking up position and checking for any threats before the helicopters arrived. This was the end of the operation, the grand finale, not the beginning. There was nothing to do except stand and wait. Somehow or other they had been tracked and followed.

Four huge helicopters flew overhead, making last-minute checks, then pulled back into the middle distance. Jack didn’t
want to think how many guns were now trained on them, but he warned the others – the Retreat had only a dozen or so inmates and they all came out to look at the noise – to move slowly and deliberately, to keep their hands away from their clothes, to do nothing which might even be thought of as threatening.

They nodded nervously as he told them what to do, and watched as another machine – vast and terrifyingly noisy – loomed overhead, then settled down like a metal insect in the field opposite. Ten soldiers jumped out and spread across the ground, weapons at the ready. Two ran towards Jack and Emily; they did not speak, did not explain themselves, and no one was foolish enough to protest. Jack put his arm round Emily, both to give comfort and to warn her not to move. He knew from experience how nervous the soldiers would be. ‘Gently,’ he said quietly. ‘They’re doing their job. Let them get on with it.’

Then came the grand climax of the event, which was, he realised, choreographed to perfection. As the helicopter’s engines died and the huge rotors stopped, two more men leapt out and opened the doors; they put a set of steps up to the side of the machine. Then a small figure appeared at the doorway, blinked in the bright morning air and came down the steps, assisted by a guard who, almost touchingly, held his arm to steady him. He walked slowly towards them, then went straight past into the building. From the gestures of the soldiers, Jack gathered they were meant to follow, so he gripped Emily by the arm even more firmly. ‘Come with me. Don’t be alarmed,’ he whispered. ‘It’s a good show. It’s meant to frighten. If he’d wanted anything else we’d all be dead by now.’

*

Oldmanter was sitting in the one chair by the fire, which he briefly gazed at with what seemed almost like appreciation. Jack, Emily and Kendred were lined up in front of him. The bodyguards took up position at the doors and windows.

‘You understand my caution?’ he asked, gesturing at the guards with a lazy flick of the hand.

‘They are not necessary,’ Emily replied. ‘You know we do not approve of violence in our group.’

Oldmanter ignored the remark and looked around him at the room, which was bare and whitewashed, with wooden floors that had been scrubbed so often they were almost white as well. ‘Unusual. Not healthy, but appealing to the eye.’

‘Would you care for some refreshment?’

‘Would I care to drink some unhygienic muck that is not scanned in advance, out of a receptacle which has not been properly sterilised?’

Emily flushed.

‘No, thank you. I haven’t survived as long as I have by taking unnecessary risks. Shall we get down to business, or do you prefer a leisurely period of polite conversation first of all?’

‘I would like to know why you have come here. We have done nothing wrong.’

‘You think not? I could give you a very long list if I had the time. Unregistered Retreat, harbouring a fugitive. In fact, you know perfectly well why I am here. I want that document. Would you hand it over, please?’

‘I’m afraid I cannot,’ Jack replied. ‘You know that I am duty-bound to Dr Hanslip.’

‘He is under arrest and has been stripped of his status.’

‘Since when?’

‘Since we raided his institute last night. I took the precaution of bringing him here to demonstrate, in case you doubted my word.’

The old man flipped a hand and one of the guards walked out. They stayed there – Oldmanter sitting, the others standing, the guards with their backs to the wall, eyes flitting nervously everywhere – until the door opened once more, and two guards brought a dishevelled and badly beaten Hanslip into the room.

Far from being one of the rulers of the world, if only a minor one, Hanslip now seemed like one of the criminals Jack had
arrested in the past. His face was filthy and bruised, and already it was scored with that look of defeat and resignation which he had seen so often.

‘Well, Hanslip?’ Oldmanter said – not harshly or cruelly, Jack noted. There was no tone of victory or triumph in his voice. ‘You see how well your employee serves you. He will not hand over the manuscript until he is certain his contractual obligation to you is at an end. Please confirm it now.’

Hanslip continued to look as though he didn’t quite realise where he was or understand what was going on. Eventually he attempted a weak smile, which made him grimace from some hidden pain.

‘I’m sorry to see you like this, sir,’ Jack said, ‘but you must answer the question. Am I now free to hand over the document to Mr Oldmanter?’

‘No!’ Hanslip croaked. ‘No! Never. You must not! It is mine! No one must have it but me …’

He got no further. One of the guards clubbed him sharply from the rear with his gun, and Hanslip sank to his knees, his head bowed. Oldmanter regarded Hanslip with what looked surprisingly like sympathy. ‘Oh, shut him up!’ he said, then turned back to More. ‘I am not to be trifled with. This is too important. Mr More, you no longer owe loyalty to that man and all contracts and loyalties have passed to me. You must surrender the document. That is now a direct order.’

‘I would do so,’ he said, ‘but unfortunately I do not have it.’