The Red Queen (109 page)

‘Are you saying . . .’

‘I
am not saying anything.’

‘To show herself as the last Red Queen did, and there, would be a bold stroke and far more dramatic and efficient than if she had let Maginder and the others trot her out like a prize in Slavetown.’

‘It is a pity she cannot do it tonight, but she does not have the sceptre yet, nor will she be able to raise a dragon coercively because of the blocking machine, and getting into the infinity would be impossibly difficult,’ Swallow said. ‘On my way here, I passed it again and there are now barricades set up at the end of every street leading into the infinity. That was what was going on last night, though I did not realise it. There is only one way in and that leads to the entrance to the Great Hall, and it is already heavily guarded. The slaves carrying food and drink in were stopped and searched and then escorted in and probably out as well.’

‘But there are a hundred doors that open onto the infinity as well as all the streets,’ I said.

‘Most have been boarded up and every one of those left open is guarded,’ Swallow said, ‘presumably so the guards can escort people from the building in and out of the infinity, because there is no other way in or out. From the talk of people milling about, the barricades are supposed to protect the emissary from any sort of attack by halfbreed Redlanders and Landfolk who have relatives in Quarry. And even if Dragon did get into the infinity, maybe by means of Matthew’s coercion, the Ekoni would soon overcome him and take her prisoner.’

‘But that is the whole point of her showing herself,’ I said. ‘Her people would not allow her to be taken. No matter how passive they have become, the sight of Ekoni manhandling their long-awaited Red Queen is like to rouse them up in a single moment, and far more effectively than speeches.’ I imagined the spectacle. ‘Yet how could she get into the infinity and show herself to enough people before being captured or killed by the Ekoni?’

‘Perhaps Matthew could coerce some of the Ekoni to escort her into the infinity. But what of the
Black Ship
and the emissary?’

‘The emissary and his entourage would be at the ball with no idea of what was happening outside,’ I said. ‘The shipfolk aboard his ship will have no idea what is happening either, and even when they do, they could not fire on the settlement and risk killing the emperor’s envoy. It seems to me that the
Black Ship
is a good deal more of a threat.’

‘Surely he will not fire his weapons if Ariel is in Redport,’ Swallow said. ‘Merret told me about the treasure the
Black Ship
shuffled onto a Gadfian ship, and I can’t see Ariel not being there to take credit for it.’

‘Except I don’t think that
is
the treasure,’ I reminded him. ‘I think Sentinel is what has been offered to the emissary.’

‘But you don’t know that for sure,’ Swallow pointed out. ‘You don’t even know if Ariel is here. Dragon dreamed of Ariel having a conversation with an emissary who may not even be the one who came here, and he offered a weapon that would be better than a slave army. For all we know that thing transferred so stealthily from the
Black Ship
was some sort of weapon.’

He was right, of course. I got up again and this time my senses remained steady. ‘I need you to find Jakoby and see what she has to say about the emissary’s ship and about the
Black Ship
. I asked her to find out if Ariel was aboard. And if Merret is there or one of our coercers or farseekers, they will be able to contact Ana to let her know what is happening.’

‘What will you do?’

‘I will try to get onto Palace Island, for if Dragon found Luthen’s crypt, then I might manage it as well. It might even be that Maruman is lurking somewhere, and I can get him to lead me to it.’

‘You are seeking Cassandra’s message,’ Swallow said soberly. ‘It is queer, but for the moment I had almost forgotten your quest.’

‘That was always the danger in coming here,’ I said.

‘Well, you will need an escort,’ he reminded me. ‘I will go with you to Palace Island and then I will seek out Jakoby.’

Harym was sitting on a stool in the hall and he rose, blocking the way to the door when we approached, and saying I must speak with Maginder before leaving. Swallow’s eyes narrowed, but I bade him wait and I would go up to speak to the old woman. Harym directed me to the roof terrace.

I slowly mounted the steps he had pointed out, thinking of the long Beforetime dream I had experienced under the influence of Maginder’s potion, trying to remember all of the things that had been said about Sentinel, for surely it was vital to know that the two keys hanging about my neck were almost certainly the hacker’s keys referred to by Hannah and the Beforetime Misfits, and that they served different purposes, despite having wound together. One key was to let me interact with Sentinel, to prevent it from ever waking. The other had something to do with the Balance of Terror computermachine. My mind still boggled at the idea that it was on the moon and had once and was even now sending out its endless siren call to Sentinel.

I shivered at the thought.

Stepping out onto the roof, I was dismayed to discover it was much later than I had realised. The sun was already sinking towards the Talons. Maginder was intent on watering some small plants in pots, but hearing my footfall she looked up, eyes very alert. Seeing me, she heaved a sigh. ‘I meant no harm in giving you the tisane, young woman. You needed sleep. You spoke with your handsome gypsy?’

I nodded. ‘We are going now.’

‘You will seek out the queen,’ she said. ‘Rymer has sent Murrim to rouse Matthew’s halfblood network to search harder, and Rymer has been meeting all day on and off with groups of the Redland halfbloods in Slavetown, begging them not to do anything until we find the queen.’

I asked about the meeting with Quarry, and whether or not a decision had been taken about the ships. The old woman told me that there would be a formal meeting between Redland and Quarry at midnight, when the attention of the Ekoni was well and truly centred on the Infinity of Dragonstraat and the Great Hall. She added that both Rymer and Murrim were uneasy, fearing that, despite the meeting having been arranged, there might be some mishandled attempt to take the ships that would lead to the destruction of the settlement. The fact that the slaves were already beginning to be moved in groups from Quarry to Redport did not help matters. Luckily they were moving slowly, shackled ankle to ankle, and so far there had been no trouble. That would certainly come on the morrow when they were marched into Redport and boarded.

I wondered if there were Misfits distributed among the shackled slaves, or if all of them were watching from the cliff ruins, where they would be safe and free to use their powers. To allow the slave warriors to be taken into Redport would require great faith and trust in the readiness of the Redlanders to disrupt and delay the boarding process. It sounded to me as if Matthew had been the linchpin between the two groups, only now he had vanished and they were uncoupled. The moment the shackled groups entered Redport would be decisive, I thought.

Maginder went on to say that a large body of Ekoni were divided between the Infinity of Dragonstraat and the shore of the bay. It struck me that they were probably spread thinner than they liked, and as a consequence, those charged with patrolling the streets, and particularly the shore area, were likely to be more aggressive and quicker to violence than ever and a good deal more suspicious. I wondered aloud if the High Ekoni had tried to convince their superiors to do things differently, and she answered that Murrim thought that they planned to use the occasion to flush out dissidents once and for all, and to build a case for getting rid of all foreign slaves and breeding up more passive Redlanders. She grimaced at the thought.

‘Do the Ekoni have any fear at all that the Redlanders might rise in defence of the Landborn and other foreign slaves?’ I asked.

‘I think they cannot imagine it,’ she answered. ‘A lack of imagination is the greatest flaw of tyrants, and not only of tyrants. Rymer and Murrim suffer from it as well.’

Something in her tone caught me. ‘You don’t think they should be out looking for Dragon?’

She answered obliquely. ‘Murrim fears that if the Landborn fight their captors, there will be a great deal of blood, for many of the halfbloods cleave to them in love and loyalty, and they will not suffer their friends and family to be taken away without a fight. The coming of the Red Queen is nothing more than a story to most of them. Rymer fears that the Ekoni will be ferocious if the Landborn dare to act against their masters. Their greatest fear is that our queen will perish in all of this, without ever revealing herself to us.’

‘There is reason for that fear,’ I said, somewhat amazed by her calmness.

‘They would catch the queen like a bird and put her in a golden cage,’ Maginder said. ‘But she is not a bird. She is a dragon and they should listen better to what she has said, and use their imaginations.’ She chuckled. ‘Like as not they will get their fingers singed.’

‘They fear for her and so do I,’ I said.

Without warning, the ground shook and the building with it. Maginder dropped to her knees with an agility that belied her age and a calmness that told of the frequency of these quakes. It did not last long and as I was helping the old woman to her feet, the Entina gave its dreadful roar.

‘Some say it roars thus because it does not like the ground to quake, but oft I wonder if it roars in anticipation, like a beast locked up, seeing a gate opening,’ she said, more to herself than me.

Yet her words sent a shiver of ice through me. Before I could speak, Swallow came bounding up the steps, his expression alarmed. ‘I do not mean to intrude but the ground quaked,’ he said in apology.

‘Strangely we noticed that,’ Maginder said with amusement. Then she turned to me again. ‘You say Maginder and Rymer fear for our queen and that is so, but it is not our place to fear for her. If she is our queen, it is our place to hear and to serve her that she may serve us better. Yet she is not your queen, Elspeth Gordie, nor the queen of this handsome fellow,’ she leered a little at the startled Swallow before returning her sobering gaze to me. ‘Matthew said that it was you who found her in the ruins and brought her to this Obernewtyn where your people dwelt long in secret, before they joined the rebels and took over the Land. He said you have been as a beloved older sister to her.’

‘That is true, but you have reminded me that she is no longer a child in my care. She is a queen come to her own land and her own people,’ I said. I wished her well and said we would leave if her giant allowed it.

‘He will let you out now that we have spoken. But do not think that you and the queen have done with one another yet. Raise the Dragon,’ Maginder said devoutly.

I was pleased to be able to farewell Murrim and Maya, who were arriving as Harym let us out. They greeted me warmly and I introduced Swallow to them. Like Maginder, they assumed I was going out to search for Dragon, and warned me the streets were somewhat chaotic, and the scythe south of the infinity was clogged with Gadfians wanting to secure a good place from which to watch the arrival of those attending the masked ball, though there would be a good many more people out at midnight, spread through all the surrounding streets, for when the ball ended, the Chafiri would come out the other end of the Great Hall into the Infinity of Dragonstraat for the honouring of the emissary. There were to be fire displays, martial displays by the Ekoni, slave dancers and some performance by the women of the emissary, though this last might be no more than one of the many rumours abroad.

‘Of course they will all have to watch from outside the barricades,’ Murrim said. ‘No one will be permitted into the infinity, for the Ekoni are terrified some attack will be made on the emissary, thereby drawing down on Redport the fury of the emperor’s ships, anchored outside the bay. For this reason, you had better steer clear of any Ekoni, for they have taken a good many Landborn and halfblood Redlanders prisoner already, partly out of suspicion gone mad and partly to frighten others out of any misbehaviour.’

‘It is the fact of the masks that has got them so unnerved,’ Maya said. ‘It is impossible to tell whether a person is a fullblood Redlander or otherwise once they have a mask. They are unmasking people at knifepoint if they see the slightest thing that rouses their suspicion.’

‘I have the mask Matthew gave me, but you will need one, too,’ Swallow realised.

‘You can buy cheap ones in the Infinity of Hope,’ Maya said. She reached into her pocket and drew out a few little greymetal coins, waving away my thanks and asking if I was not the woman who brought them their queen.

‘Do you think there is any suspicion among them that the Red Queen will rise?’

Maya shook her head. ‘There are whispers, of course, because our search has given rise to excitement and hope, and inevitably the Gadfians have heard of it. But though they emulate her masked ball and her sacred walk for the amusement of the emissary, they would think nothing of our excitement, for what can anyone expect from superstitious folk like us who would imagine the mystical rising of our long-dead queen?’

I nodded and bade them farewell again, and Maya hugged me and whispered, ‘Raise the Dragon.’

We made our way to the Infinity of Hope, and I bade Swallow buy me a mask from a stall selling them, giving him Maya’s coins. I looked about as I waited, wishing I had examined the row of statues in bright daylight. It was busy and the scent of food was already floating about, making me hungry. I had told the gypsy I had changed my mind about him going to the ruins, and explained my reasons, and we agreed that he would escort me to the island and then we would leave Redport together. If it was not dark enough to cross the plain, I would farseek Ana and bid the horses come for us as soon as it was dark.

‘You are assuming you will have whatever it is that Cassandra has left for you, and that you will be able to leave and continue on your quest, but what if you do
not
have it?’ Swallow asked when he returned. ‘What if you need Dragon?’