The Red Queen (108 page)

‘Elspeth!’ a voice called urgently. ‘Wake! Wake up!’

I struggled against sleep. Someone shook me gently and then I was hauled into a sitting position. A hand slapped me lightly. Irritated, I jerked away and forced my eyes open. Swallow was peering at me, his eyes searching. ‘Are you awake?’

I nodded, but in truth I felt groggy and disorientated, my mind full of the Beforetime dream of Cassy and Hannah and the Beforetime Misfits entering cryopods. I had guessed it, but to have seen it was astonishing. And Hannah had lain down with Maruman! It could only be him! I licked dry lips and found my mouth and throat drier still. Swallow reached away and brought me a mug of something steaming. Dimly and then with clarity it came to me that it was
Swallow
who was tending me!

‘It’s fine. This will wake you. The old woman made it . . . Maginder?’ I flinched, but he made a soothing sound. ‘She meant no harm by putting you to sleep, and from the sounds of it, you badly needed it. I would have let you sleep, save that Dragon bade me tell you she knows where Luthen’s crypt is, and I want to go to Ana and Dameon to tell them what has been happening.’

‘Dragon!’ I cried, shaking my head hard to clear it. ‘Where is she?’

The gypsy pressed the mug into my hand and I sipped the hot liquid gingerly. This time it had an odd, sharp, but not unpleasant flavour, and my mouth tingled. Feeling my wits sharpen, I drank again as he continued. ‘I cannot say where she is at this moment; I met her and Matthew last night.’

‘But didn’t they come here with you?’

He shook his head. ‘Merret told me Matthew rescued her from an Ekoni, which was something of a surprise because neither of them mentioned that. It was in the Infinity of Dragonstraat that I spotted them. I went there when you did not meet me. I guessed you had been locked in at Slavetown, and since I must wait for you, I wanted to see the vision of the Red Queen on the wall of the Great Hall for myself. Despite it being after curfew the place was full of activity and I simply used the aura of people to guide me away from anyone likely to challenge me. I spotted them as I was leaving. Matthew was trying quietly to convince Dragon to come to Slavetown to make herself known to the Redland leaders, but she said
she
would decide when and how it would happen.’

‘You said she mentioned Luthen’s crypt? Is that why Dragon came into Redport when she did?’

‘She did not say so. When Dragon bade me tell you she knew where the crypt was but that it was hard to find, I assumed it was because she had to find the queen’s sceptre and had been unable to do so.’ Swallow frowned. ‘She cannot possibly be the daughter of the Red Queen, since the last one died generations ago, but there is no doubt she is descended from the first Red Queen. I have seen
her
face carved on the wall of the Great Hall in the Infinity of Dragonstraat, and it might be Dragon in ten years time. I thought she must have been guided to the crypt by past-dreams, but then Merret told me Maruman had brought her there. She would have caused a sensation had she not been wound about with draperies, for as I said, they were just coming from the Infinity of Dragonstraat. As it was, I did not even see her at first. It was Matthew who caught my eye.’

‘But where did they go after that?’ I demanded. ‘How could she be such a little fool as to not come here directly?’

Swallow gave me a stern look. ‘You might remember that is a queen you are calling a fool, Elspeth, and these Redlanders are not likely to take kindly to it. Mind you, they might be getting more than they bargained for in their little Dragon Queen. I don’t think they have really thought of her as a person so much as an ideal and a symbol.’

I nodded, soberly. ‘You are right and I will mind my manners, at least aloud. But you have not said where they went.’

‘That is because I do not know where they went after we parted. Dragon had some notion, which Matthew did not like, which came from some dream she had in which she saw you in a red dress.’

‘Me!’ I was taken aback.

‘So she said, but I did not get clearly what she was trying to say to Matthew before she broke off and began to tell me to tell you that she had found the crypt and that you must go there with her once she has proclaimed herself queen. She wanted to know where you were and I told her you had been trapped in Slavetown when the gate closed at dusk. That was what I thought. I told her I was coming to find you as soon as the Slavetown gates opened.’

‘What did she mean by saying she would proclaim herself . . .’ I said, beginning to feel apprehensive.

‘She means to reveal herself as the Red Queen.’

‘Of course,’ I said impatiently. ‘But how does she mean to do that if she will not come here? Didn’t Matthew tell her the Redlanders have a plan to present her to her people here in the Infinity of Hope?’

‘Matthew asked exactly that and Dragon told him haughtily that it was not his place to question her if he would have her as his queen. I thought he would snarl at her, but he said that he spoke out only for the sake of the Quarry folk who would to be carried off in two days by the emissary’s ships to fight in an unknown war, unless the Redlanders rise against the slavemasters, which they could not do until she took her place as queen.

‘Dragon said that he had told her all of this and that he had also told her the gates of Slavetown would stand open tonight because of the masked ball, which meant the Redlander council could not present her to her people until tomorrow night. Of course, this was true, but he said that they would work out what to do. She said that it was not for him or anyone else to decide what was to be done,’ Swallow said.

‘Ye gods,’ I said, somewhat astounded.

‘I think it is as you said some while ago. She has not forgiven him for his treatment of her in the past. Her manner to him is brusque and very cold. I wondered that he endured her high-handedness, but he was deferential even when he argued with her and he was not suppressing anger or I would have seen it in his aura. There was no anger or outrage in his spirit. Only an overwhelming humility.’

‘The block does not affect you?’ I asked.

He shrugged.

‘And all of this talk took place after curfew in the Infinity of Dragonstraat?’

‘Some did, for the place was full of activity as I said, but we did not remain there for long after I came to them. Matthew suggested we take refuge in a safe house he had established nearby and I said I would welcome a place to get a couple of hours of sleep before dawn. Dragon agreed and I think Matthew was utterly relieved. I gathered he had brought her to the infinity at her insistence. She had wanted to see it and the image of the Red Queen, but she did seem utterly mesmerised by those queer towers, which truly seem to be nothing more than strange giant statues left over from the Beforetime. She kept talking about her mother and the missing sceptre, which you are supposed to be going to help her find, and those towers. It was as if she was remembering something, only it can’t be a memory, of course. Perhaps she drew in some of the memories of her ancestors and mine, during the period she lay in deepsleep in a coma.’

I was fascinated by how he was knitting together a tale from disconnected bits of truth, and it was likely Matthew and the Redlanders had done the same, never guessing that Dragon was truly her mother’s daughter. I might have told him about my vision of the child on the back of the great fish and then curled in a small round cryopod, because he had seen Miryum wake from one in Midland, but it was too complex a tale to tell now.

‘Did you say those towers are from the Beforetime because you guess it or did Matthew say it?’

‘I heard it first from some Gadfians passing through the infinity just before I met them. There is a good bit of talk about them because apparently there is a similar set of towers in the emissary’s land, or so he told the Chafiri Prime, which might explain why the placatory gift-giving celebration is happening in the infinity.’

This bit of information was so startling as to silence me for a moment, then I said, ‘So you went to this empty safe house together?’

‘Matthew brought us both to the home of two Gadfian men whom he has coerced to regard him as a dear and valued friend, though he says he needs to make contact regularly and coerce them anew to keep them obliging and open handed. He said it was better than the network of safe houses because there was food to be had and fire for cooking and water-heating devices, courtesy of the land of the white-faced lords. Clothes, too. He did not say so but I think he was worried Dragon’s attire was too eccentric and that it and her filthy face and hands might draw attention to her. Twice as we were passing out of the infinity he had to make contact with passersby when they showed too much interest in her.’

‘Matthew truly seems to have developed full coercive abilities,’ I said.

‘He spoke of that when Dragon agreed, very reluctantly, to bathe. It seems it started with dreams when he was very ill and another time when he was badly injured. He has a limp as a result. But if I am not mistaken, he was guided and instructed by your Agyllian friend, for the voice that guided him ceased abruptly, I suppose when she died.’

That the Agyllians would involve themselves with matters in Redport was strange, but before I could ask any more questions, Swallow continued. ‘While we were eating, I said I would come to find you once the curfew ended so that I could get into Slavetown. Matthew said that there was a way to get in
during
curfew, and he would show me if Dragon would agree to go with us. She saw his ruse for what it was and bade him go with me, if he desired it so. Of course he had no intention of letting her out of his sight. I saw that in his face and in his aura. He said he would stay with her and she spent a good bit of the night asking questions, then she and I slept for a time. Matthew stood watch because the block erodes any coercion that is not constantly tended, and he needed to keep an eye on the men whose house it was. Finally we parted and I came here to seek you out. Matthew told me how to find this place. He got a mask from our hosts and bade me wear it, for this day the Chafiri have decreed that all Gadfians, even halfbloods, must wear masks until the unmasking tonight as a way of honouring the emissary. He had one for himself and for Dragon, too. Though the Chafiri have not commanded it, most Redlanders will wear them as well, as a tribute to the queen who will come. Of course, most of them have no idea that she really has come.’

‘But what did Matthew and Dragon say they were going to do next?’ I asked. ‘Are they still in the safe house? Where is it?’

‘It is not far from the Infinity of Dragonstraat but I doubt they would be there now,’ Swallow said. ‘They were preparing to leave, too. Matthew had slipped out for a little while we slept and had obtained some finery for Dragon. The last thing I heard was Dragon telling Matthew that she would reveal herself to her people as her mother had done.’

‘What did she mean?’

‘I do not know, nor would she explain. But whatever she had in mind, it showed – it made her spirit blaze like fire,’ Swallow said.

The apprehension I had felt at discovering that Dragon had not come to Slavetown sharpened; there was something in the gypsy’s words that sent a frisson of dismay through me. I got up too quickly and my head spun until Swallow helped me to sit.

‘Why is my life full of headstrong impetuous women?’ he muttered. Then he chided me. ‘Maginder said you ought to take things quietly for a bit, until one tisane has a chance to defeat the other in an honourable war.’

I wanted to snap at him to stop his nonsense, but truly I did feel odd. ‘You mentioned Merret? When did you see her?’

‘I had just come from the Knife into the Infinity of . . . I can’t recall the name. The large one close by.’

‘The Infinity of Hope,’ I said.

He nodded. ‘Yes. I saw her there with a pert child who took one look at me, blushed to the roots of her hair and dashed away. It was immediately clear Merret had known I was in Redport, which told me that she had seen you. I explained that I had spent the night in a safe house with Dragon and Matthew. She told me that far from being trapped here you had been out and about in Redport all night. She showed me here and then left.’

Some of my anxiety faded at the knowledge that Merret knew Dragon had not yet presented herself to her people.

‘A golden giant admitted me and brought me to the old woman and after I had told my tale to her and then to a stern man called Rymer, he wanted immediately to send someone called Murrim a-hunting for Dragon with his tattered little army of Redlander halfbloods, but Maginder said they must wait, for the queen had her own plan and it was not their place to seek her out, since clearly she knew they were there in Slavetown ready to serve her, but had neither come to them nor summoned them. Then the one called Murrim turned up and said she was little more than a child, and Maginder said a queen was a queen before she was a child.’

‘She sounds frighteningly sanguine,’ I muttered.

‘She is, and when they started arguing about what that plan might be, Maginder said rather dreamily that many folk had dreamed of the Red Queen of old emerging at the end of the masked ball wearing her mask and finery and crossing to the centre of the Infinity of Dragonstraat to unmask, raise her sceptre and proclaim herself the queen.’