The Red Queen (61 page)

Beyond the door, we heard the shrilling cry begin again.

‘That noise . . . it is Hendon,’ I said. ‘But I saw it . . . him fall. He used his headlight – it was very strong. Many of the
rhenlings
fell from the sky. He made that terrible screaming sound and they were confused, then he stopped screaming and the
rhenlings
attacked him and his lights went out.’

We heard a woman’s voice.

‘That was Ana!’ Swallow said sharply. There was the sound of movement and then the door opened. ‘Ana, Dragon, here,’ he hissed. I heard scuffling and then Ana’s voice say clearly, ‘I have to help him.’

‘Damn you, stop. It is a machine!’ Swallow swore, then there was the sound of a struggle.

‘Take your hands off me!’ Ana snarled, louder now, and there was fury in her words. I realised Swallow had drawn her into the stairs, but she had not come willingly. ‘Let me go!’ she cried suddenly, and there was real fear in her voice.

‘Ana!’ Swallow sounded shattered. ‘I will not harm you, Ana. Do not . . . never fear me. I would never hurt you. Ana, hush. My sweet Ana. Ana.’ His voice had gone from a shout to a croon. There was such tenderness in it that not one of us listening could doubt his feelings for her. They were naked in his voice and he did not care. He bared his soul to her and to all of us.

I heard Ana give a choking sob then something thudded against the door, and again. Then there was silence.

‘Elspeth?’ It was Dragon. She must have come in before Swallow dragged Ana in. I called out softly to her, and when I felt her close, I reached out and found her hand. It was trembling. I drew her to me and put my arms around her, taking comfort in comforting her.

‘Your teeth are chattering,’ she said in a muffled voice.

‘I am not surprised,’ I said.

Dragon gave a high hysterical laugh, which turned to weeping.

‘Elspeth?’ It was Dameon’s voice.

I opened my eyes to a dazzling stream of light, flinching and squinting and trying to think where I was, even as a door closed, leaving me with the dim glow of a lightstick. The dreams of the night, full of running, ravening beastmen, Rushton in their midst, running, too, slipped away before I could grasp them.

‘I dreamed . . .’ I began, and then stopped, for I could see a wolf lying beside me, its pale pelt streaked with dark red patches. Gobor, I thought. ‘So, it was no dream.’ Then I thought confusedly that it must have been a dream, because Rushton had been in it.

Dameon was there, then, setting aside the lightstick and squatting down to rest a gentle hand on the unconscious wolf. ‘Don’t worry. Ana has tended his wounds and then she gave him something to make him sleep deeply. She sent the androne back to the platform to get her healing kit first thing this morning, and she wishes to see you when you are well enough to walk.’

‘The androne?’ I echoed. ‘I thought it was destroyed by the
rhenlings
.’

‘It was not damaged. The weight of the
rhenlings
merely toppled it over. Ana said the call it made is called a sonic siren that can be pitched to disrupt the hearing of the
rhenlings
, which apparently is how they see. They send out sounds too high for human ears to detect, and when the sound bounces back, they use it to build up a picture of their surrounds and then they hunt anything that moves, using scent as well.’

‘So if we had simply been quieter . . .’ I began.

Dameon shook his head. ‘They see with the sound they make. It doesn’t matter whether their prey is silent or not. But they have a powerful sense of smell and blood draws them.’

They had scented the blood I had so obligingly shed, I thought, remembering the terrifying sight of the creatures pouring down from the sky towards me. ‘But why did it stop shrieking?’

‘Because it had used up one of its cells,’ Dameon continued. ‘Apparently it has several and when one runs out, the other takes over. But there is a delay. Once it switched to a new cell, its headlight came on again. But instead of using its siren when it could, it waited until the horde massed to attack it were pressed close together, and then it sent out a force from its fingertip. Not fire but a light that was so hot and terrible it set fire to the
rhenlings
it touched and because they were pressed close, all of them went up in a great blaze like the leaves of a tree put to the torch. They attacked three more times before those that remained gave up and sheered away. The smell out there is horrendous.’

‘The wolves?’

‘Were less lucky,’ Dameon answered. ‘A good many of them died and two were blinded.’

I uttered a soft, heartfelt curse. ‘They deliberately drew off the
rhenlings
 . . . Rheagor must have foreseen what would happen – he even spoke of the deaths of wolves, but why didn’t he just warn me?’ Something in the sudden stillness of the empath caught my attention. ‘Rheagor?’ I whispered.

‘He is dying,’ Dameon said, regret in his voice. ‘He was injured badly but Ana says that is not what is killing him. She needs you to speak with him.’

‘You should have woken me sooner,’ I said, struggling to sit.

‘Ana bade us leave you sleep as long as we could because your self-healing abilities would use up all of your energy,’ Dameon said, helping me up. ‘And Swallow only found him a little while ago.’

I glanced at the empath and gasped to see livid claw marks running down one cheek and along his neck and chest. There were more scratches on his forehead, and one sleeve was almost completely shredded, the arm underneath scored deeply. Looking down at his hand in mine I noticed a deep bite mark on his wrist, the flesh surrounding it red and angry and puffy. Cold fear ran down my spine.

‘We were all scratched and bitten,’ I said slowly, reaching up to touch my own cheeks and feeling scabbed scratches, though there was no pain.

‘You are thinking about the Endrax virus,’ Dameon said, patting my hand reassuringly. ‘Don’t. Hendon performed some test and he says the
rhenlings
do not carry it.’

My feet and my legs felt flaccid and weak but I realised there was no more pain in my ankle.

‘What about Gobor?’

‘We would have taken him to where the other wolves lie but Ana reminded us that you said he had been banished, so it seemed better to leave him here with you.’

I nodded and reached out a farseeking probe to the injured wolf. He was deeply asleep but the pulse of the old wolf’s life was strong.

‘When can I see the other wolves?’ I asked.

‘At once, if you feel strong enough,’ Dameon said simply.

I leaned heavily on the empath as we made our way up the steps into the light, which was not sunlight but a strange blighted brightness. Looking up as we came out of the cellar, I saw there was a thick film of dark, yellowing cloud over the sky. This must be what had blotted out the moon the night before, enabling the
rhenling
horde to rise long before the sky had darkened. Before me the white plain we had crossed stretched away in all directions, shimmering in the heat under the strange sky. I could see the androne’s platform some distance to the south. The ground was littered with black lumps, the bodies clustered so thick that we had to pick our way through them.

‘Faugh,’ I said, for the smell of burning mingled with their strong musk was truly awful. I shuddered inwardly as we began to make our way through the charred
rhenlings
.

I looked up at the row of buildings we were passing and was struck by the fact that these scrapers were lower than most, and, unlike the buildings on the surface of Midland, they were badly eroded: some of the facades had crumbled to the ground, and some of the roofs had fallen in. Even accounting for the lack of a God to keep things in some sort of repair, there seemed too little rubble, and it occurred to me that Northport might have been only partially complete when the Great White came.

The ground underfoot felt suddenly odd and I looked down to see that we had reached the dusty remnants of a black Beforetime road. Dameon turned to go up it, and I realised he must have made this journey enough times when I was unconscious to be able to lead me. I was so accustomed to his knowing his way around places that I had not even thought to wonder how he was leading me.

We passed the depression where I had briefly taken shelter and I steered the empath a little to the side to avoid it.

‘Gobor ran to me when I was hiding in this hole we are passing, before Swallow found me,’ I said. ‘I thought he must have followed and meant to make good his threat to kill me, but he protected me, with his body first and then with his teeth when the ground crawlers came.’ I stopped, thinking it made no sense that the old wolf had saved me, nor that Rheagor would let his pack be attacked for my sake, when he might simply have warned me, unless he had not foreseen that when he had gone
seliga
before he had agreed to allow the pack to accompany me.

‘Ana was right about Northport being on a slope,’ Dameon said as we made our way upwards. ‘Swallow says these buildings we hid in are at the very top of a ridge. Our way is down the other side. We should be almost at the top now, by my reckoning.’

As we went on I glanced towards the platform, but I saw nothing moving in all that whiteness. ‘Where is the androne now?’

‘With Swallow, searching for other wolves who were hurt and helping him to bury those who died. Those that were unharmed vanished before the sun came up. They will not come until Rheagor calls them.’

If he calls them
, I thought.

We reached the top of the ridge and I looked down the gap in the row of buildings I had reached the previous night. Once again, now in broad daylight, I saw the city of Northport stretched out. It was as vast as I remembered, but I realised it was not a ruined city, but the remains of a city that had been in the process of being built. That might explain why neither Kelver Rhonin nor Hannah had found a computermachine connected to govamen here. Yet while Hannah might not have known the city of Northport was only partly built, Kelver Rhonin must have known. Therefore if he had come here looking for a computermachine connected to govamen, there must once have been one.

That made me wonder again at the purpose of Northport, which had been sited so far from the other settlements. Perhaps Midland alone had been complete when the Great White came.

‘We are looking for a red door on the right,’ Dameon said. ‘That is where the injured wolves have been laid because there are no windows.’

‘I see it,’ I murmured, my eyes going from the red door at the foot of a low building which appeared to be complete, to the high tower in the distance, with the bulbous top that I had seen the night before. Seeing it in daylight, it no longer seemed the tower of my dream after all. That had been narrower and rose high above the buildings around it. Yet it made me think of Maruman and I bade Dameon stop a moment while I wove a probe to seek the old cat. Without waiting for him to answer, I closed my eyes and formed a probe shaped to Maruman’s mind. I sent it spinning out, seeking the old cat, but it did not locate. I farsought Gahltha and was very relieved when he answered my beastspeaking call at once. His relief was palpable at finding that
I
was safe but I cut off his questions and asked about Maruman, thinking he might have left the city before I woke.

‘Marumanyelloweyes did not return lastnight or thisday,’ Gahltha said. But he added that Darga had insisted both Maruman and I were safe. That had to comfort me for the present. I told Gahltha that I would contact him again very soon, but I felt his disapproval and impatience before I withdrew my probe.

‘I could not reach him, but I spoke to Gahltha,’ I said. ‘The others are all with him, I think, save Maruman. Just before the
rhenlings
came, he told me Maruman was in Northport. I will contact him again as soon as I have seen Rheagor.’

‘Ana is with him and the other wolves,’ Dameon said, when we came to the red door.

I opened it to find steps leading down into an open maw. It was another basement chamber, but utterly dark.

‘Do not be afraid,’ Dameon said gently. ‘Swallow broke the lock on the door this morning and there are no windows in the basement, so this is the only way down into it. There can be no
rhenlings
lurking in the shadows. I will leave you to it. We have set up camp a little further down this road in a small open paved square that Swallow chose, because the animals can join us there. We will all have to take shelter before nightfall of course, and he is still searching for somewhere large enough to hold the horses, that can be shut up tight.’

‘It might be better for them to stay where they are, if they are safe, but we will talk about it later.’ I looked down the road, which was split and broken in several places. ‘Do you want me to walk there with you?’

‘No, I counted my steps when I came up to find you and I have worked out a route.’ He began to turn away then stopped and asked where the beasts were, for my words made it sound as if they were not in Northport.

‘I have the impression they are somewhere north of the city,’ I said. ‘But I will ask Gahltha as soon as I have finished here.’

I went down into the stairwell and reluctantly closed the door behind me. Immediately I saw a soft red glow below. I descended the stairs until I could see into a wide low-roofed chamber. The light was coming from a small oil lantern with a flickering flame, which I recognised from our trip through the mountains, and it illuminated a number of wolves lying about. Ana was in their midst, the lantern beside her, bent over a white wolf. I made my way to her side and she looked up as I approached. Her expression was serious, but even in the dimness I could see there was something new and radiant in her face and eyes. I had seen that look in my own eyes in a mirror, I realised, after I had been with Rushton, and I remembered the raw, clear sound of love in Swallow’s voice the previous night, when he had spoken her name.

‘Are you all right?’ Ana asked, and I realised I must have been gaping at her like a thunderstruck fool.

‘A good deal better than poor Dameon, I suspect,’ I said. Then asked, ‘How is Swallow?’

She could not help but smile and the fleeting joy in it confirmed my guess. Somehow they had found one another in the darkness and violence of the previous night. But Ana’s voice was pragmatic when she said that he had been badly bitten about the head and shoulders and there were slash marks that she had needed to stitch.

‘I am glad that
your
body heals itself,’ she said. ‘It means I have one less patient to worry about, and what would become of the quest if the Seeker falls?’ Her voice was light but her eyes grew serious again as she looked down at the wolf. ‘
He
was not so fortunate.’

‘Is it Rheagor?’

‘No, Rheagor is over by the wall. I recognised him as soon as I saw him when Swallow brought him to me. He was blinded in both eyes. Three of the other wolves were attacked in the face, but only a she-wolf was blinded and only in one eye. The
rhenlings
seem to have targeted the wolves’ eyes. I asked Dameon to have Swallow or Dragon fetch you, but he said he would guide you.’ She shook her head. ‘Dameon is very stubborn in his independence, yet here you are.’