Nightpeople (33 page)

Gan and Dreamer Gaardi were still galloping steadily away, but compared with the scale of her reaching, they might as well have been right beside her A tiny bit further off, three hummers had settled on the ground around Slander and his camel. She could even see the Nightpeople, but in an odd way. They were cold, like holes in the world, moving in detachment from everything else. Several were approaching Slander.

‘Saria!' Dariand was shaking her now. ‘Come on! Move!'

And still the horizons stretched away from her. Past the dead scar of the Shifting House, past Woormra, across the plains. She could feel it all. Olympic, Silver Lake, even the valley, so many days away now. Below her the Earthmother was a living thing, alive like nothing she'd ever reached: veins of coolness where water flowed, empty caverns and fissures, the hard bones of rock and granite and the soft earth between them.

And through it all came a sense of constant movement and incredible, crushing pressure. And she could feel the surface, where the ground wrapped the Earthmother like skin, open and exposed to the skyvault. And there was something new there too, some strange joining of Earthmother and Skyfather.

‘Dig!'

‘What?' Dariand looked at her as though she'd gone mad.

‘Dig! Here! Cover yourself with sand.'

Saria dropped and began scraping a shallow depression in the earth.

‘It won't work.'

She stopped for only a moment to look up at him. ‘Trust me.'

A second later, Dariand was clawing at the ground beside her.

She sank her hands into the sand, scraping the dirt aside and feeling earthwarmth tingle through her fingers. When the hollow was deep enough, she and Dariand lay in it and pulled sand back over themselves, covering their bodies and their necks and around their heads, leaving only their faces open to the air and the sky. Lying there, cradled in the earth, an eerie calm came over her.

‘They'll see us,' whispered Dariand. ‘They'll see where we've been digging.'

‘No, they won't.'

He said nothing more, because the first hummer passed directly overhead, its unearthly sound shuddering through the ground like a physical blow.

Saria could feel the embrace of the Earthmother, energy flowing through her, into her, making her a part of it. She could feel vastness. She could feel the cold, distant hole where the crumbling remains of the Shifting House sat, reaching high into the sky and barely clinging to the surface of the Earth. She could feel the call as it came across unperceivable distance. Sighing, she let herself go completely and melted into it, became a part of it, and as the Nightpeople tore the sky apart above, their lights searching and probing, they didn't notice anything different about the slightly ruffled patch of sand in the midst of the great plain.

And then the sound of the hummers grew distant, echoing out to the nightwards horizon until it vanished. The glow from the nightsuns faded, to be replaced by the first blush of dawn. Away towards the daylight, Saria could feel the Nightpeople take Slander with them into one of the hummers, and as soon as it lifted from the ground his energy faded and vanished, leaving his camel to wander alone.

‘Have they gone?' Dariand's voice was a whisper.

‘Not quite. Soon, though.'

‘Are any more hummers coming back?'

‘I don't know.'

‘Why not? I thought you could feel them.'

‘Only on the ground. In the air they're … gone.'

They lay in silence for a long time, until finally Saria said, ‘Okay,' and they sat up, brushing away red sand which ran from them like water.

The morning was advancing, the sky taking on the first hints of blue.

‘Why didn't they see us?' The look in Dariand's eyes told her he expected an answer.

‘The Earthmother,' she answered simply. ‘She protected us.'

Dariand considered pressing the issue, but he let it go.

‘Look.'

Saria followed his finger. Along the horizon, extending from one side to the other, hunched a long, low line of darkness. Even the growing dawn failed to illuminate it. As the rest of the world began to shimmer in the earthy reds and browns of the desert, that long barrier sucked up the light, absorbing it in much the same way that the walls of the Shifting House had. It looked cold.

‘Is that the Darkedge?'

‘Yeah.'

‘It's not that big.'

‘You wait. It's still a long way off.'

They walked a little longer. The rising sun pushed away the cold of the night and Saria basked in its warmth. The call ebbed and flowed through her, and the ground felt soft beneath her bare feet. Silently, walking side by side, they continued towards the horizon, and by mid-morning, after hours of walking, the barrier seemed only a little closer. Saria studied it when they stopped for a drink. Even from this distance it filled the sky, cutting up abruptly from the desert. At regular intervals along the top strange arrays stretched even higher, topped with tiny glowing red lights.

‘What are those?' She pointed.

‘No idea.'

‘It's strange.'

‘What is?'

‘This is the edge of the world. It's weird to think that this is where everything just stops.'

‘It doesn't.' He shook his head in disagreement. ‘This isn't the edge of the world, Saria. Just the edge of our world. There could be anything on the other side of that wall. We don't know. Could be there's two people just like us standing over there, staring daywards and wondering how they might be able to get over the Darkedge and into here.'

‘Nightpeople?'

‘Or someone else.' Dariand hesitated. ‘I've been thinking about what you said last night. About the Nightpeople and why they've kept us in here.'

‘And?'

‘You might be right, perhaps we're more important to them than we think. But it still seems odd that they'd let us just get old and live like this for no reason.'

‘Unless their reasons are the same as ours.'

‘Eh?'

‘The first time I met Dreamer Wanji, he told me that everything in the Darkland's past has been waiting for me. Waiting for the last child.'

‘So?'

‘What if the Nightpeople have been waiting for the same thing? Why couldn't they be waiting for me too?'

‘Why?'

‘I have no idea. But why would they put in all this effort unless they had a reason?'

Dariand didn't answer. They walked on, lost in their own thoughts.

‘If you do get over, then what?' Dariand asked suddenly.

‘What do you mean?'

‘What if there's nothing at all over there. What if you can't come back again? What if you can't find food or water? Have you thought about that?'

‘The Nightpeople live over there somewhere. If they can survive, I can too. I'll reach through the Earthmother and find what I need.'

SARIA!

As if to reassure her, the call gave a brief surge.

‘I hope so.'

She cast a quick glance at him. As usual, Dariand was working to keep his face implacable, but there was something in the tilt of his chin and the creases at the corners of his eyes that gave him away. ‘You don't want me to go, do you?'

‘I don't think it'll matter. Nobody can get over that.' He pointed ahead at the Darkedge.

‘But all the same, you think I might be able to, don't you?'

The question drew no answer.

‘Why don't you want me to go? Dreamer Wanji thought I should follow this call. He thought it was important. I thought you believed the same as he did.'

‘I did. I mean, I do. But … I've got other reasons.'

‘What?'

‘You don't need to worry about them.'

‘Dariand.' Saria reached out and touched his forearm, allowing a little earthwarmth and a tiny bit of the call to flow between them. ‘Why won't you tell me?'

But the nightwalker hadn't heard her question. At the first contact of her skin against his, he'd stopped walking and stood stock-still, a shocked expression on his face. A whispered word escaped his lips, so soft that Saria barely heard it.

‘Jani!'

‘What?' She went to pull her hand back, but Dariand caught her wrist and held it. He looked as though he'd just walked through a night spirit.

‘How did you do that?' he demanded.

‘What?'

‘Jani! Where is she?' He was gripping her wrist so hard that his fingers dug into her skin. ‘Where did that come from?'

‘Dariand! You're hurting!'

He eased his grip, but wouldn't let go.

‘Where's Jani? You know.'

‘What are you talking about?'

‘I heard … no, I felt her. Just then, when you touched me. I felt Jani. Where is she?'

‘That was earthwarmth. You just felt the Earthmother.'

‘No.' He was adamant. ‘It was Jani. I know what she felt like, and she was here. She was in you. How did you do that? You have to tell me.'

‘I can't. I don't know what it is. It's the call, that's all.'

‘The call.' He let out a long sighing breath. ‘I understand now.'

‘I don't. What is it?'

‘Darri was right. About the call. It's Jani.'

‘How do you know?'

‘Because I knew her.'

‘You?'

‘We grew up together.'

Saria remembered what Dreamer Wanji had told her about her mother, how Jani had been brought up in the valley by Darri. Dariand had told her that he'd also grown up there. Saria gently removed her wrist from Dariand's grip and walked a few steps away, studying the distant Darkedge. The call seemed to fade for a moment, but then returned, as strong as before.

‘What was she like?'

‘Jani?'

He studied her for a long time before answering.

‘When they took her, she was only a little older than you are now.'

‘And?'

Dariand smiled. ‘She was just like you.'

‘How?'

‘Brave. Strong. Bloody annoying when she wanted to be …' He hesitated. ‘And one of the strongest Dreamers I ever knew, until I met you.'

‘She could reach?'

‘Like you wouldn't believe. Not like you did last night, but she could touch the Earthmother well enough to outreach any of the other Dreamers.'

‘Why wasn't she a Dreamer herself, then?'

‘She didn't tell anybody. She didn't want them to know.'

‘Not even Dreamer Wanji?'

‘No.'

‘Why not?'

‘She was afraid. Of what people would say. Of what they might do to her if they found out.'

‘Afraid?'

‘Look at what happened when people found out about you. And look at the way they treat old Darri when she talks about being able to reach. Jani didn't want to bring all that down on herself, and you can't blame her.'

‘But she told you.'

‘No, she didn't. I guessed.'

‘How?'

‘It wasn't hard. When you're that close to somebody, you see them as they are. All of them. With Jani it was all over her Full of earthwarmth that girl was. It just seemed to pour through her.'

When you're that close to somebody.

Dariand's words reminded her of what Dreamer Gaardi had told her while they crouched outside Olympic:
When two people get so close that they know one another's spirit and can mix their spirits together, then they can make a new life, one that's the best and worst of both of them. That's parents.

‘Are you …' Saria stopped, uncertain.

‘What?'

‘Why didn't you tell me?'

‘That your mother could do reaching?' Dariand held her stare evenly. ‘I didn't think you should know. I didn't want …'

‘No. Not about that.' Saria cut him off. ‘Why didn't you tell me about you and Jani.'

‘That I knew her?'

‘That you're my father.'

Dariand froze. The look in his eyes was something between horror and relief. Finally he broke from her stare to look nightwards, towards the distant Darkedge.

‘I … didn't know how.'

‘All you had to do was say.'

‘It's not that simple.'

‘Why not?'

‘Because … I didn't know you. I never got to know you. I don't know anything about being a father.'

‘You could have come and seen me while I was in the valley. Ma could have told me.'

‘No, I couldn't. We decided, all three of us: me, Jani and Dreamer Wanji. Before you were born we decided that keeping you hidden was the most important thing, the only thing that mattered, and it wasn't like I could go vanishing off to the valley all the time. People would have noticed. That was why we left you with Ma. She was already there, and she'd be your mother.'

‘But didn't you care? Didn't you ever wonder about me?'

‘Of course I bloody did. But this is bigger than just you and me. Sometimes you have to give up part of yourself for the good of everyone else, even if it tears you apart to do it. Jani understood that.'

He turned his gaze back, meeting her stare with his own.

‘It doesn't mean I never cared, Saria.'

The two of them stood there, eyes locked. Then Saria turned nightwards.

‘Come on.'

She didn't look back to see if he was following, and Dariand let her get a long way ahead before setting out after her.