The Red Queen (15 page)

‘All of the flowers in Habitat smell better at night,’ Dragon said, helping me to sit.

Tash tried to encourage me to lie down, but I resisted, saying I was sick of lying down.

‘Enjoy it while you can, for once you are pledged, you will work ten hours in every day and some nights as well, and you will have community duties on top of that, such as cleaning up after meals,’ Ana said rather tartly.

I was trying to think how simpleton Elspeth would respond to this, when it occurred to me that we were in a place where I could speak freely. I looked at the Speci girl, who smiled, then lay down on the blanket beside me and fell asleep.

Dragon moved to lift the other girl’s head onto her lap and gazed down at her with affection, murmuring, ‘It seems wrong, somehow, for it to be so easy to make a person do what you want them to.’

I thought again that she had grown. The old Dragon had possessed little patience and had shown no inclination to think about the right and wrong of a matter. Dameon announced that Swallow was coming and I looked around to see the gypsy striding from the crops. It was almost dark, and Dragon took a lightpole from Tash’s basket and pushed it into the grass in our midst. She had naturally set it up so that our bodies would hide it from anyone glancing our way. The less attention we drew the better.

Reaching the bush, Swallow cast one comprehending look at Tash curled asleep then he sat down cross-legged at the edge of the blanket and looked at me expectantly.

‘It is good to see you, Elspeth, and to see you looking better,’ Swallow told me calmly, though his face was full of questions. That he did not immediately voice them told me what strong control all of them had been exerting over themselves in their time in Habitat, and he most of all as the longest indweller.

‘I didn’t think the Committee were going to let me take a step before next darkmoon,’ I said, and heard all the frustration of the long week of waiting in my voice.

Swallow visibly relaxed and grimaced. ‘It was a miscalculation taking you out that first night. We ought to have been patient and waited a few days until you were stronger.’

Ana snorted and he smiled at her.

Not wanting to waste any more time, I turned to Dragon. ’Do you remember anything between seeing the Tumen use his weapon on me and being knocked out yourself?’

She shrugged. ‘You crumpled to the ground, and the Tumen turned to examine our camp. It was half buried under sand from the storm. Dameon was sitting up but he didn’t look up. Then light shone from the same place in the Tumen’s helmet as before – the place where the tent mystics in the Red Land have their third eye tattooed.’ She tapped her forehead above her nose and I wondered fleetingly if I had already questioned her about what she now remembered of the Red Land, and had forgotten. ‘Then Dameon toppled over,’ she went on, her eyes distant as if she were looking into her memory. ‘The Tumen then did the same to Ana even though she was asleep. I must have moved or made a sound then, for he turned and the light shone at me and that was that.’

‘He must have got me after that,’ Swallow said. ‘I just hope he didn’t do anything to the beasts.’

‘There would be no reason to harm them unless they attacked and then he would only have used his light weapon to make them sleep as well,’ I said. ‘I wonder how it works though. I thought if I turned away it would not affect me, but from what you say, the Tumen used it on sleeping people.’

‘It doesn’t matter now,’ Swallow said.

‘It does,’ I insisted with faint asperity. ‘In order to get out of this so-called paradise, we might have to overcome some of these Tumen, and if we could get our hands on one of the helmets, it would be a very useful weapon to have.’

‘I hope it does not come to having to fight our way out of Habitat, for we are vastly outnumbered by Speci, never mind the Tumen,’ Dameon said.

‘Even if we get free of Habitat without trouble, we will have to deal with the Tumen beyond these walls,’ I said. ‘And I can’t see them being too happy about an escape. The more we know about them the better we will be able to protect ourselves.’

‘The third eye of your tent mystics is tattooed here?’ Swallow asked Dragon with sudden curiosity, tapping the middle of his forehead. Dragon nodded, but before they could be diverted into a conversation about seers and such, I asked how she had been able to tell the Tumen was a man and not a woman. Had he spoken?

Dragon shook her head, frowning. ‘I just took him for a man because he was so big and his body was the wrong shape for a woman, but I guess there could have been a woman inside the suit.’

‘You are certain there was only one of them?’ I asked.

‘I only saw the one,’ Dragon said.

‘He must have been with others or he had some sort of vehicle,’ I said. ‘How else could he have got all of us back to Pellmar Quadrants?’

‘You are certain that is where we are?’ Ana asked eagerly.

‘That is what my attendant told me. At least, he told me that was where I was when I woke in the cryopod. I am not sure Habitat is in Pellmar Quadrants, but I can’t see it being too far away. My feeling is that we are on the outskirts of the settlement. We can’t see any buildings but if people to be resurrected have to be moved from Pellmar Quadrants to Habitat, it makes sense that it would be close by,’ I said. ‘But let us leave off talking about the Tumen for the moment. I need to ask some questions about Habitat. You said there are no gates? I assume that means there are no doors either?’

They all nodded gravely.

‘Obviously the wall is too high for grappling hooks, and too smooth to climb. How hard is the matter it is made from? Could we cut footholds?’

Swallow shook his head. ‘The material is too hard to be scored by knife blade or sledgehammer.’ His tone made it clear he had applied both.

‘All right, tell me more of the Hub and describe it in as much detail as you can,’ I said.

Swallow nodded. ‘There is little I can tell you that has not been told. It is a round building about the size of four sleeping huts, though the roof is a good deal higher than the roof of any hut. It appears to be formed of smooth unbroken stone and the floor is part of it too, for there is no join that can be seen or felt. Nor are there any openings or niches save the doorway that has no door in it and a single slot-like window in the roof. There are no facades or decorative features inside the Hub that might conceal a door, and even if there were, it would be of no use, since the door would only open to the air. The only thing
in
the Hub is the altar, which is a great solid rectangular slab of stone that would take twenty strong men to lift. It stands in the centre of the chamber under an opening in the roof that mimics the shape of the altar. When the sun is directly overhead, light falls onto it as you will no doubt remember. It is supposed to be especially auspicious to request something of God when the altar is illuminated by sunlight.’

‘In the days following a request, the supplicant returns to see if their prayer has been answered,’ Dameon concluded.

‘Answered how?’

‘What was asked for will be found in the Hub, on or by the altar. Or not. Very occasionally what was requested does not appear, and the asker assumes that God did not choose to answer their wish-prayer.’

I chewed my lip. ‘Given your description, it must be that the Tumen enter Habitat from some other location and then bring things or people to be resurrected to the Hub.’ I looked at Swallow. ‘You said resurrections happen at darkmoon. Is that always the case?’

‘Pretty much,’ the gypsy said. ‘But wish-prayers can be answered anytime.’

‘But they tend to be answered first thing in the morning?’

Swallow was shaking his head. ‘I see what you are getting at, Elspeth, but before I pledged I used my time to keep vigil night after night in the Hub, determined to spot our captors creeping in and out. First of all, the Committee knew, even though I could have sworn no one had seen me. They asked why I went there so often and I told them I was praying for God’s help to learn the Covenant. I doubt they believed me but it did not trouble them that I was snooping there. The only thing they disliked was that it showed I had not taken on the Covenant as truth.’

‘You saw and heard nothing during those vigils?’ I asked.

‘Not from inside nor from outside, for I spent two nights lurking in the cacti grove, watching to see who came creeping to the Hub. I saw no one other than the occasional Speci and I watched like a hawk to make sure they brought nothing in.’

‘What happened as far as wish-prayers were concerned on those days?’

He shrugged. ‘Several were answered. Of course I had not watched every single second, but it would have been almost impossible for the Tumen to get in and out in the short periods when I was not there, and how would they know I was going to go and relieve myself at that moment?’

‘You hid in the cacti grove?’ Dameon asked. ‘I did not know that. How did you manage it?’

‘
Very
carefully,’ Swallow said with a glimmer of humour.

‘What are cacti?’ I asked.

‘Plants without leaves or branches, covered in sharp spines tipped in a poisonous resin that causes convulsions, fever and finally unconsciousness. Death, if you get one that is old and potent enough. Even the flowers give off a scent that causes confusion and hallucinations if you take a deep enough breath.’

I decided the cacti must have been planted about the Hub deliberately to limit access to it, which made it all the more likely that it was the key to getting out of Habitat, but when I said as much, Swallow said the cacti were useful for their own sake, being amazingly versatile plants – more so than any other in Habitat, save the fragile pulpul fruit. And there was a paved path that ran through the cacti to the Hub, which, if you kept to it, ensured you stayed far enough away from the plants to be safe, when they were in bloom. I thought of something Tash had said. ‘The flowers are night blooming?’

Swallow nodded.

‘So if the flowers cause confusion, and their scent is strong at night, people probably go there less after dark,’ I said.

Swallow looked thoughtful. ‘They go there mostly before the working day, because they are weary from their work, and though some go at night, they do avoid full-moon nights because that is when the scent becomes dangerously potent. I was warned to avoid returning along the path until morning, if I meant to stay and pray very late. Sikoka himself told me it would be better to stay in the Hub and come back in daylight, than attempt the path on a full-moon night. In fact, now that I think of it, that was why I stopped believing I was going to solve the mystery of the Hub and our captors by sitting vigil there – because he did not seem troubled by the idea of my spending a night in the Hub.’

‘Likely the Tumen have some watch upon the place and the entrance they use must be very close to the Hub, hence their ability to make use of it swiftly and at short notice,’ I murmured. ‘And clearly darkmoon and moonlit nights and even the deep hours of the night offer a good chance for them to reach the Hub without being seen. They could simply avoid it when someone like you spent the night there.’ I pondered for a moment then asked, ‘Are there any times when the Speci are forbidden to enter the Hub?’

They all shook their heads and Dameon said, ‘There are no actual rules governing visits. Anyone can go there at any time to talk to God or see if something they have requested has arrived.’

‘The Speci talk to God there,’ I mused. ‘It makes the Hub sound like a cloister.’

‘Except that there is no Herder haranguing you, claiming to be Lud’s messenger,’ Ana said.

I stifled a yawn and realised we ought soon to be thinking of moving. But I was frustrated in having not yet hit upon something that would suggest a plan. ‘Has anyone ever escaped? I mean are there stories of escapees or escape attempts?’

‘There are stories of people who could not accept things were as the Speci believe. Some died, having shown themselves to be bad Speci, and others learned to accept the truth, or to pretend to do so, anyway,’ Swallow said bleakly. ‘No one escaped, but if they had, I doubt the Committee would allow talk of it because it would suggest there was somewhere to escape
to
, and a means of escape, and that would lead to awkward questions about God’s Covenant.’

‘Do you think the Committee are hiding a way out?’

‘If they are, I can’t think what,’ Swallow admitted. ‘That was one of the reasons I was trying to get into the Committee meeting house. But the thing is, I can
see
that all of them believe what they preach when they say there is no way out and nowhere to go, so I’d say not.’

‘Still, they might know something that could help us, which they keep from the general populace for some other reason,’ I said, and outlined my idea of coercing one of the Committee. They agreed it would be the perfect way to learn what they knew, but the question was how to get them to one of the dead spots within Habitat so that I could coerce them. Quite aside from anything else, members tended to move around in couples or groups and did not mingle much with ordinary Speci. And we were not sure that the use of Talents would be safe, even in dead spots. That had yet to be tested.

‘I think it is time we tested it,’ I said. ‘I won’t use coercion but before we leave here tonight, I am determined to try to farseek Ahmedri or one of the beasts. If they are anywhere near, they may be able to tell us something about this place that will help us break free of it. If there is some sort of machine or device that gets hold of me, Swallow must knock me out.’

He nodded. ‘I can make you unconscious without hurting you. There is a hold . . .’

‘It is still a risk because the device or machine might merely enable the Tumen to identify you as a Misfit,’ Ana said.

‘Sooner or later we are going to have to take some risks for your quest, and it is you who must decide when and what is risked,’ Dameon said.

‘We have to get out of here,’ Swallow said suddenly, and rubbed his eyes. I realised he looked exhausted. So did Dameon. Clearly the work they were doing was hard, but it was more than that. Swallow was reaching some sort of limit within himself.

Ana gestured to the unconscious Tash and said we ought not to leave her sleep too much longer.

‘I will allay any doubts she feels when she wakes,’ Dameon assured her gently. ‘But Elspeth, I think this must be the last time we meet together like this. The Speci continue to be troubled by the fact that we all know one another and they mislike seeing us together. They gossip and mutter about our need to be properly integrated.’