The Red Queen (30 page)

‘God sends the red token to those who must be tested,’ Tash said. She looked at me. ‘I showed it to you.’

I was about to shake my head when I remembered her showing me the red memory seed. I remembered something else, too – Balboa spitting venom and rage, wishing I were dead, wishing I had got the red token.

‘Tested how?’ I asked.

‘Tested for what?’ Dragon asked at the same moment.

‘To see if I am a good Speci. It comes to those who have kept their sin and corruption secret, sometimes even from themselves,’ Tash said. ‘I always thought there was something wrong with me, but . . .’

I remembered with sudden deep concern that Tash had said the Committee would not harm her because she was God’s responsibility. She must have been referring to what would happen to her, because she had got the Token. I asked, ‘How are you supposed to be tested?’

‘When darkmoon comes I must go at night to the crops, and use the red token,’ she answered softly but with great resolve. ‘I will be tested. If I pass, I must never speak of it. If I fail . . .’

‘If you fail . . .?’ Dragon echoed anxiously.

‘That man who died,’ Tash said, looking down at the plast mask. ‘The one you saw in the crops, Dragon. He had the red token in his hand. Later it was gone. All those who die in the crops have been tested by God and found wanting.’

Dragon looked aghast. ‘You think that?’

Tash looked at her gravely, sorrowfully. ‘I know it. All know it, but we do not speak of any of the mysteries that happen during darkmoon nights.’

‘Who told you about the red token in the first place?’ I asked.

‘It is one of the things you learn in the childhouse,’ Tasha said.

‘Has anyone ever passed this test?’ I asked, realising Ana and the others had not mentioned it because, as adult resurrectees, they would have been told nothing about it, especially if it was informal information.

‘Those who have been tested may not speak of it,’ Tash reminded me.

‘Then maybe no one ever succeeded!’ Dragon growled indignantly, her voice loud enough that Tash bade her urgently to lower it.

‘I am afraid, I do not pretend otherwise,’ the Speci girl told us both with earnest dignity. ‘But God chose me and I was saved, and now God would test me. Am I to reveal myself a coward to my saviour? I am a good Speci, whatever people say, and God will know my heart and spare me. Or if I am truly an anomaly, God will claim me.’

I wanted to ask her to say more about anomalies but there were more urgent questions to be answered. ‘What do you mean when you say you use the token . . .’ I began, then broke off, hearing voices in the distance.

Tash begged us both in a whisper to be utterly silent, for sound carried in the profound silence of the cacti grove and we wanted them to have no reason to suspect we were close by. I became aware that the foul scent of the flowers had begun to change. Tash must have noted it too, for she held up the mask and put it on slowly, showing us how she attached and adjusted it. We had to lean close to see, for while the sky above was blue, it was darkening in the cacti grove, where the shadows had woven an early twilight. Dragon and I fitted the masks we had been given. The air I breathed through it tasted odd, but I could no longer smell the flowers.

Gradually, the sound of feet and talk grew louder, and I realised just how very close the path came to our hiding place. ‘I knew it!’ Feyat said fervently. ‘I knew there was something wrong with her the first time I set eyes on her.’

‘I had the feeling she was hiding something but it seemed to me there was no evil in her,’ Sikoka said, his voice troubled. ‘And then Balboa was so eager to speak ill of her that I was completely diverted.’

‘It may be that Balboa’s dislike of her was not mere spite,’ Feyat said. ‘Look how she gravitated at once to Tash, who was already inclined to poke and pry into secrets she had no right to know.’

‘God will deal with Tash,’ Sikoka said, a note of regret in his voice. ‘As for the other of Elspeth’s companions, I am less sure they ought to be squandered so readily. Ana is a very useful and clever Speci, and Swallow is strong and willing.’

‘We have been through this already,’ Feyat snapped. ‘We can ask God to return them to us, once they have been nullified.’

‘That is my point, Feyat,’ Sikoka said. ‘It takes years for a nullified Speci to regain knowledge enough to be useful. That would matter less if so many of those returned were not damaged. Do you truly want Dameon nullified?’

‘Certainly he will be a great loss,’ Feyat admitted. ‘He is capable of bringing harmony to any situation and he could be very useful to us in the Committee. As to Ana, I agree that she would be a loss as well, though I am less sure of the value of the man Swallow.’

‘His pairing with Ana would settle him,’ Sikoka said firmly. ‘It is clear his emotions are firmly engaged. And if approval were not granted by God after the blood offering, we could deliver the red token to him next time God requires it to be invoked.’

‘In my opinion Ana would be more useful if she were not paired to Swallow,’ Feyat said. ‘She has shown a great capacity for devotion – a most desirable trait in a Speci, and one that can be strengthened by other deprivations.’

Someone else spoke. ‘I do not know why we are even discussing this. The three of them have been prepared, and it is up to God to decide what will become of them. We should concentrate on capturing the other two. Given what those sent to capture her say, Dragon may be an anomaly even as Edek and Lisetta were. How are we to capture such a one?’

‘She did no physical harm to them, which suggests she is capable of no more than mind trickery,’ Feyat said briskly, dismissively. ‘In any case, God will deal with her soon enough if we are unable to take her.’

‘For the sake of harmony, both of them should be located quickly and given to God,’ Sikoka said.

‘There is no help for it, as I see it. Elspeth will have to die,’ Feyat said.

There was a pause before Sikoka said stiffly, ‘Speci do not kill Speci.’

‘I did not suggest breaking the Covenant,’ Feyat said. ‘But if the red token were offered tomorrow night . . .’

‘What use would there be in that when it is not darkmoon?’ someone asked.

‘It must be done when the moon sets,’ Feyat snapped. ‘It will be dark enough and late enough for no one to see.’

‘But whoever used it would die,’ Sikoka said

‘Obviously Tash will offer it,’ Feyat said impatiently. ‘You must tell her to use the red token tomorrow.’

Sikoka said reprovingly, ‘Tash must use it of her own volition during darkmoon, as is traditional.’

‘If you tell her to use it and she obeys, that is her choice. The sooner she and the newcomers are dealt with, the sooner harmony will be restored in Habitat,’ Feyat said implacably. ‘Let us make an end to this.’

‘What I don’t understand is what this Elspeth’s purpose can be in trying to disrupt harmony,’ said someone else in a querulous tone. ‘If God abandons Habitat we will all be lost.’

‘She is obviously mad,’ someone else said.

Gradually their voices had been fading and now I could hear nothing but the soft breathing of my companions.

‘Where are Dameon and the others?’ I asked.

‘Don’t you understand? They are being taken to the Hub now. That is why the Committee is going there,’ Tash said. Her voice sounded flat and strange, but maybe that was the mask.

I felt sick to my stomach at the thought that I had sat there doing nothing as the others were carried by my hiding place, unconscious and helpless. Yet what should I have done had I known? I could do nothing to save them or us without the code word that would give me the power to command God as Hannah had done. Hannah Seraphim had been an extraordinary person, far-sighted and resourceful as well as Talented. She would have left a code I could guess. But what was it? Everything hinged on me discovering it.

Hannah, what would you know that I would know? I thought, and it was a wish-prayer sent to that long-dead woman to help me save the others.

And all at once,
it came to me what the code word must be.

‘When will God take the others?’ I asked.

‘Before dawn,’ Tash said, glancing up at the sky. ‘The Committee will wait outside until dawn once they have laid them in the Hub. It is part of the ceremony of offering. When the sun rises, they will go in to see if anyone has not been taken. That will mean they are good Speci and that God wishes them to remain in Habitat.’

Dragon looked at me in despair. ‘What are we going to do? We have to save them.’

‘We will,’ I said. ‘Tash, lead us back to the Hub.’

‘It is no use,’ the Speci girl said, and there was pity in her voice. ‘Even if you could get to them and bring them out of the Hub, you would not be able to wake them. Only God can wake your friends now. And the Committee will not allow you to reach them. They are old, but they have ceremonial weapons, and they work. Once there was a man who did not want his daughter to be given to God. They used the weapons on him and then gave him to God, too.’

‘Dragon and I can deal with the Committee and their weapons,’ I said, and from the corner of my eye I saw Dragon nod grimly. ‘Once I get inside the Hub I can make God release us from Habitat.’

Tash stared at me as if I had gone mad. ‘Even if that were possible, Elspeth, there is only death waiting outside Habitat.’ Then she laughed harshly. ‘But perhaps it matters not, since it seems there is only death inside for us.’

‘Lead us back to the Hub,’ I said again.

In the dimness, I saw Dragon reach out to squeeze her hand, and then she got down on her belly and began to crawl back the way we had come.

It seemed to take a good deal longer to return to the Hub than it had taken to get to the clearing, but at last I heard a hum of talk and knew we were close. Tash stopped and I wriggled up beside her. She had brought us to the side of the Hub so I was able to see the front door, though not inside it. Three people were clearly guarding the door, standing with their backs to it, each bearing short, thick metal tubes, from the end of which flowed a widening beam of red light.

‘I do not understand,’ Tash whispered. ‘It is forbidden to bring light into the cacti plantation. It kills the night flowers.’

‘Maybe the red light doesn’t hurt them,’ Dragon whispered. She had wriggled up on the other side of Tash.

I turned my attention back to the Hub. Whatever else happened, the Tumen would need to enter it, so there had to be a place in the walls that would open. It must be at the back, else the Committee would see. Unless the Committee were
allowed
to see them. It would fit with their beliefs, for they believed the Tumen served God. Maybe it was something they witnessed but kept from the general populace of Habitat. There was so much that was not spoken about in Habitat, but now was not the time to think about it.

Abandoning conjecture and caution, I closed my eyes and concentrated on forming a coercive tendril. I intended to enter Feyat or Sikoka to learn what they expected to happen, so that I could decide the best way to get into the Hub. If I had to, I could coerce one of them to turn a weapon on the others to drive them back.

But the moment I sent the farseeking tendril out, it was enmeshed and unmade by a source of buzzing energy exactly like that which formed the net above Habitat. Horrified, I tried forming another probe. This time I extended it slowly enough to discover before it was unmade that the interference was centred on the Hub itself. Whether it was aimed at preventing the use of Talent or was merely an accidental side effect of a device that served another purpose, brute strength now seemed the only option. I had no weapon but perhaps if I crept around the edge of the Hub, the element of surprise would enable me to leap out and disarm one of the guards using coercer techniques Gevan had taught me, so that I could grab one of the weapons. But it was very likely one of the others would use their weapon on me before I could work out how to use the one I had taken.

‘Do you know how the ceremonial weapons work?’ I asked Tash.

Her eyes widened, but she whispered, ‘They are called stunners and they work like slashers in the crops, if you have had the chance to see them. There is a little knob on the side of the slashers and when you press it, a beam of heat comes out and you use it as if it were a knife. Only the most experienced older Speci use them because they are very dangerous. The stunners work the same way, but they use some other force that is not hot but dazzlingly bright, and if it touches you it is like a hard blow. They are only used by Committee members or by someone they appoint to act on their behalf, to deal with a person or people causing serious disharmony, who will not hear reason.’

‘What happens if you are struck?’ I asked.

We all froze as someone walked past our hiding place, obviously on patrol. It struck me that God was listening and I wondered what it made of what was happening. It was possible the Tumen that must even now be making their way to Habitat had some instruction concerning us, which was all the more reason to get to God
before
they arrived.

‘I have seen one used only once,’ Tash whispered, when the walker had gone out of sight. ‘A man went mad from heat and tried to attack Feyat. She pointed a stunner at him. A thin beam of white light came out and when it touched the man, he fell down as if he had been struck a hard blow. He was unconscious for hours.’

Dragon and I exchanged a quick glance, and I saw that she recognised the description as I had done. Obviously the Tumen had used some version of a stunner to render us unconscious when it found us in the white desert.

‘I need to get inside the Hub without being seen,’ I told her.

‘You will be taken by God, too, if you go before the others are taken!’ Tash cried softly.

‘Trust me,’ I said.

She looked at me, her face very pale; another white flower in the shadowy night. I realised it had grown very dark and wondered if the moon had set, or if a rare blanket of cloud had covered its face. The only light came from the red lightsticks carried by the people in the clearing before the Hub. I saw two people on the far side of the clearing come together and talk in low voices, their lights lifted so that they could see one another’s faces.