The Red Queen (62 page)

‘He said Rheagor . . .’ I paused then pulled myself together. ‘I mean, what other injuries does he have aside from his eyes?’

‘Some bad scratches and bites on his head and flank, but though his eyes must be hideously painful, the loss of them is not a mortal injury.’ She glanced at the wolf under her hands. ‘He was less fortunate. He was barely touched by the
rhenlings
but Swallow found him on the ground outside a building. From his injuries, he fell from the roof and I think he will not last till night. There is nothing I can do for him but ease his pain. It is sadder yet because he is a young wolf. The rest of the wolves here will all recover.’

‘Dameon said Rheagor was in danger . . .’ I said.

She frowned and looked towards the white wolf by the wall. ‘He is not mortally wounded and there is no reason for me to think it but I have healed many people and sometimes . . . you get a sense that they are slipping away. I feel that, with Rheagor. That is why I asked for you to be awakened.’

I went to Rheagor and was aghast to see the bloody mess that had once been his eyes. I laid my hand on his flank and reached out a tentative probe, to find the pulse of his life was strong. His mind reached out to me. ‘You saved my life,’ I told him.

‘It did be hard to bring the pack here when this one did see what would come to tha, knowing so many would die,’ the pack leader sent. ‘Knowing this one would be blinded.’

‘Rest and we will talk when you are stronger.’

‘There do be little time for talk. Where do be Gobor?’ Rheagor asked.

‘He is in another place close by. We did not know if it would be right to bring him here, since he was banished. But what do you mean by saying there is little time? You are not mortally injured.’

‘Do bring that one,’ Rheagor sent. ‘This one did see . . . that Gobor One Ear would follow if the pack did leave the mountains. Would lead . . . when this one could not.’

I stared at him. ‘But what do you mean? If you foresaw in the mountains that you would be blinded here and that Gobor would have to lead, why didn’t you tell him so? Why didn’t you warn
me
, so we could have come here in the daytime, and the wolves would not have had to sacrifice themselves?’

‘To see
seliga
is to see/live/visit many shifting prospects. That one would not lead/come unless the pack left and Gobor did face his past and remember what was forgot. This would not happen unless that future came in which Gobor did find his sister/Descantra and she did tell him what was told by you of Sharna. That future was only one among many in which Gobor wished only to kill tha. This one did see that Gobor would not be changed until that one saved tha. It was only a day past when this one saw how that might come to pass, but this one also foresaw that tha life would be in terrible danger, and there was a great likelihood tha would die before Gobor could save tha. This one resolved that the pack must protect tha until that moment. Only then did this one see this was the way many other wolves would die, ElspethInnle.’ There was sorrow in his mind as he sent, ‘Even those that see much, see not all things, and not all things seen come to pass. Seeing is a perilous thing and now I am done with seeing and seering and leading.’

I stared at him in pity and dismay, understanding that by his lights he truly had no choice, and awed by the courage and stoicism that had enabled him to command the wolves to distract the
rhenlings
, knowing how many would die, knowing he would be blinded. But I sensed the wolf would not want my thanks or my pity.

‘I am sorry for the deaths of those wolves that helped me,’ I sent, very formally. ‘Yet we both know that it was not for my sake that the Brildane gave their lives to save me. It was for the sake of the world we all inhabit, for if my quest fails the world will fall and all creatures with it. But still, you are not mortally wounded so why do you need Gobor to lead the pack? And are you so sure he will agree to it, even now?’

‘That one will not agree to it,’ Rheagor said. ‘Not while there do be a pack leader. There be only one way that Gobor One Ear can claim leadership.’

‘Why is it so important that Gobor leads?’ I asked, not able to grasp the implications that seemed to thread through the pack leader’s words.

‘Long ago in the mountains, when this one did go
seliga
, this one did see that only if Gobor One Eye did lead the Brildane from this place, will tha quest succeed and the pack reach the land where beasts do walk free from the funaga-li.’ The wolf sighed and his eyes and mind closed as he slumped against the flank of the unconscious female.

‘Ana . . .’ I cried, and she was beside me, reaching out to feel the wolf’s throat.

‘It’s all right, he just fainted.’ She sat back on her heels. ‘What did he say?’

‘That Gobor is to lead the Brildane but that he had to claim leadership. He wants Gobor brought here.’ I was trying to make sense of what the wolf had said, but it seemed to me that there was something missing.

‘You had better find Swallow and Hendon then. You and Dameon could not manage it even between you. And surely there is no rush. Neither Gobor nor Rheagor are badly wounded and if Rheagor wants to talk to Gobor, that will give him something to live for, so let us delay their meeting a little. Besides all else, you may be healing yourself, but there is a cost to that healing. I can see how weak you are. You should go to the square where the others are and eat something. They can bring Gobor here at dusk,’ Ana said firmly. ‘But that reminds me. Have you contacted Maruman and the others yet?’

I gathered my wits. ‘I spoke to Gahltha just now. He said Maruman is somewhere in the city still, but the rest of them are in the same place as when I contacted him first, somewhere outside the city to the north.’

‘How do they protect themselves from the
rhenlings
if they are out in the open?’

‘I don’t know.’ A thought occurred to me. ‘Perhaps Hannah’s device is set up wherever they are,’ I said. ‘Where is the map God made? Maybe there is place just outside the city to the north.’

‘In my pack. You will recognise it because my . . . the bow and arrow case are bound to it.’

‘It is your bow,’ I said. ‘But where is the pack?’

‘In the square, with the other packs. I had Hendon bring them. It seemed easier than having him bring the whole platform, though he will do that before tonight. Of course we must all be under cover before it gets dark.’

‘The
rhenlings 
. . .’

‘Have returned to their roosts in all of the dark niches and crannies of this place,’ Ana said soberly. ‘Swallow wanted to go about killing them but there is no sense in it; there must be millions of them here.’ She began to give me directions to the square until I told her Dameon had already explained how to find them.

I made my way down the street and across the small square where Dragon and Dameon were preparing a meal inside the dusty base of an ornamental pool. It was badly eroded and worn, like every surface in the ancient city, but there were a few blue tiles of some hard stone or maybe glass at the bottom. It was a clever choice, for the edge served as a bench seat and a table of sorts, and the lip protected the fire from the hot wind sweeping along the street between the scrapers. So must that street have seen the passing of endless seasons and the winds they brought. It was strange to think that the elements were the only inhabitants this city had ever known, save for the
rhenlings
and other such beasts. Of course, not all of the city would be half constructed. I could see sections that, even from a distance, looked complete, but like Midland, the people meant to come and inhabit the buildings had never arrived.

Dameon straightened and turned, half smiling as he sensed my approach. Seeing this, Dragon swung round and beamed at me, too, her face lighting up as it always did these days when she saw me. I had a sudden memory of a dream I had experienced at Obernewtyn, in which she had turned to smile at me in exactly this way, only there had been a mosaic-covered wall behind her, half obscured by a creeper. That had never yet happened and maybe it never would, for even if it had been a true dream, perhaps some other possibility had occurred that had diverted our lives into a different course. This made me wonder how Hannah had been so sure that I would do what she had foreseen all those aeons ago in the Beforetime. Even my birth might not have happened, had something prevented my parents meeting or living long enough to have me.

‘What happened?’ Dameon asked.

‘Rheagor said he had foreseen that Gobor must lead the Brildane if I am to succeed in my quest, and that this would not happen unless I came here and Gobor saved me. I didn’t quite understand it all, but it seems that Gobor cannot lead while he, Rheagor, leads,’ I said. ‘It might be that he is trying to will himself to die to ensure the way is open, but in any case he wants to speak with Gobor. Ana said let him wait a bit and I think she is right. He can’t will himself to die if he wants to talk to Gobor. It can wait until Swallow and Hendon return.’

The smell of food wafted to my nose, making me realise that I was ravenous. I accepted a bowl of the Beforetimers’ pebble and stone stew, and realised that despite its tastiness, I was beginning to tire of the sameness of it. Perhaps it was because ordinary food did not always taste exactly the same. The taste and texture of dishes changed constantly as ingredients changed their flavour with the seasons, or were replaced by other ingredients. I thought that eventually this sameness would be as tedious as the Speci fare and I wondered how the Beforetimers had endured it.

I had eaten and was telling Dragon what Gahltha had said, having tried and failed to reach the horse again, when Swallow came into view between two buildings. For a moment I felt oddly shy remembering the raw emotion I had heard in his voice the night before. Then his eyes fastened on me and he came striding purposefully across the square. ‘I have found the grave,’ he said, eyes aglitter with excitement. ‘I spotted what seemed to be an open field from one of the buildings when I was looking for injured wolves. Hendon had taken some of the bodies we had found to bury in a field I had seen from afar. He already buried some of the wolves there, and when I was sure there were no more, I went to help him. I got the shock of my life to see there was a grave marker there already. Then I saw the names on the marker. What is the chance of me happening on one solitary grave in all this vast city!?’ He shook his head in wonderment, and then his eyes narrowed. ‘But of course it is not chance, is it? Hannah had to have foreseen that I would find it and bring you there. The odd thing is that according to Hendon, neither he nor the other androne buried Hannah here, so who did?’

‘It was probably Hendon and he forgot, just as he forgot where Miryum was,’ I said. ‘What exactly did he say?’

‘That Hannah buried Hannah,’ Swallow said. ‘Very gnomic and unhelpful. Unless Hannah came here ill, laid herself in the grave and died. But then who closed the grave?

‘Take me there,’ I said.

It took us half an hour to reach the open field, which was hidden from view until the last moment by surrounding buildings. We were close enough to the tower that I could see the bulbous tip had a row of dark squares around its middle that looked like windows. The tower itself consisted of six smooth, thick metal legs wound around one another, and it was easily large enough to be some sort of residence, although there was no visible way to get up to it. But I forgot about the tower when I saw the open field.

It was not a true field but a large smooth square of open ground covered in the same substance as the black roads, although the black stuff had almost eroded away to nothing. A wide border of earth had been left around its four sides. I saw the fresh mounds of earth that must be the graves of the wolves, and beside one a little further away, Hendon stood, motionless and gleaming in the sunlight like a strange statue. Its head turned smoothly and its blue eyes followed my approach like any human eyes, its smooth, shining carapace unmarked by
rhenling
claws or teeth.

It had saved my life, I thought, but I could not summon any true gratitude, for it had only been obeying Swallow’s order and had never been in any danger itself. And even if it had been in danger, it could not feel fear or pain, because it was not truly alive. It was a machine and so it could not die, even though it could be broken. Had it any feelings about that? Surely it could not be said to feel fear, but it had a process of mind that was very close to thinking, and perhaps there were times when fear could be called rational thought.

It was then that I saw past the androne to a lone, rough-hewn, old grave marker, and my heart began to pound. I went to it and knelt down on the hot dirt to read the words scribed into the stone.

Here lie Hannah Seraphim and Jacob Obernewtyn,
beloved each to the other, unto and beyond death.
That which was parted must be reunited ere the end.

I saw the last words through a blur of tears, though I hardly knew why I wept. Yet there was something profoundly right in seeing that these two had come to lie together at the end of their lives, even as Hannah had promised. Remembering the yearning and loneliness Jacob had expressed in his journal, I imagined again how those brief periods when they had been united had salved his heart and rewarded him for his long hard striving to find a way back to his beloved. And under my gladness, I felt a sudden savage longing that Rushton and I would be reunited ere the end, too. I had to fight a tide of emotion down, and force myself to accept that this was not going to happen. And yet, like Jacob, I could take joy in the knowledge that my love lived yet.

I thought of my dream of him running, mixed in with the dream of beasts who seemed to be like the merged spirit-form of Rasial and Gavyn, part beasts and part men. I had thought they had been pursuing him, but now that I thought on it, he had been in their midst, running with them. What could it mean?

‘It is incredible to think we have found their grave, after all that long journey, and so much time,’ Swallow said, coming to stand beside me. ‘Often it seemed to me a kind of marsh wisp, luring us ever onward.’