The Seventh Tide (19 page)

‘What will happen to us, then?’

‘You will go away’.

It was too close to the truth to argue about, but Jay argued anyway.

‘And what if we
don’t just
go away?’ she said.

‘They’ll drive you away.’

And if we keep coming back?’

MakK shrugged. ‘You wouldn’t. But I suppose, eventually, they’d have to kill you.’

Jay’ said Adom softly, ‘we’re going anyway. You know that.’ To MakK he said, ‘Can you show us the way back to the shore? It’s time we returned… the way we came.’

The Neanderthal nodded and, without another word, led the way downhill. They followed. Nobody seemed much in the mood for talking, but Hurple kept giving Eo worried looks.

Finally, he had to speak.

‘Look, lad, it’s just the way it is,’ he said. ‘Was. Is going to be. There’s nothing you can do to change things for these people.’

Eo didn’t answer for a moment, and then seemed to come to a decision.

‘Maybe not for
all
of them,’ he said, ‘but maybe…’ He turned to Jay. ‘Here, take the Professor for a bit, will you?’

‘Sure…’ She took Hurple into her hands and draped him over her shoulder, as Eo hurried forward. ‘Where’s
he
going, O Divine One?’

The ferret sighed. ‘Off the deep end and into left field, I suspect,’ he said.

Eo caught up with MakK as the track came out from among the trees. The Neanderthal slowed down a little, courteously, and smiled.

‘MakK, listen I… I’m worried about you,’ Eo began breathlessly. ‘I think you’re in danger. Some things the Professor – I mean, you know, the god – overheard… I think your tribe is –’

‘Going to exclude me soon,’ MakK finished for him. ‘Yes, I know. I’ve pretty much always known. They give you time, my people, to grow out of wanting to change things – but I’m well past the end of my time! They’ve been patient, but I just never could grow up. Look, it’s
not changing
that has always worked for us, as a tribe. As a people,’ MakK explained earnestly. ‘If we change we’d become something else. Staying the same is how we know we’re
us.
’

For a moment, Eo could only stare at him. The gulf was so great… Then he shook himself and got back to what he’d started to say.

‘I can’t save your people, but maybe I can save you, if you’ll let me,’ he said, wishing he wasn’t sounding quite as pompous as he knew he did.

‘Save my people from what? From not being like me? Don’t be foolish. Or do you mean you can save
me
from not being like them? EoG, don’t you think others have tried? Don’t you think
I’ve
tried?!’ He gave that smile of his, and Eo suddenly saw how sad it was.

‘Come with us,’ he said with a catch in his throat. ‘I don’t care if you aren’t a warrior or a saint or, or anything – come with
us.
’

MakK just looked at him. Then he held out his hand. His pipe was in it.

‘This is for you,’ he said simply. ‘So you’ll remember.’

‘But –’

‘You’ll have no trouble finding your way back to the shore. Just follow the river down.’ He spoke to the others, who had caught up with them now.

‘You won’t come?’ Eo gave one last try.

MakK shook his shaggy head.

‘Goodbye, lad,’ said Hurple, a little hoarsely.

MakK bowed, but, like the others of his tribe, would not look a god in the eyes – not even a superfluous one.

Jay reached over and stroked MakK’s cheek with the back of her hand. ‘Goodbye,’ she said.

Adom gave him a nod. The Neanderthal turned and strode back up the valley with that ground-eating pace. Eo seemed frozen to the spot, unable to go forward or back.

Jay and Hurple looked at him and then headed off down the hill to the sea. Adom moved to join them. Then, as he passed Eo, he paused and said quietly, ‘That’s a large soul.’

‘What?’

‘Your friend. He has largeness of soul.’

‘Yes,’ said Eo after a bit. ‘That’s it, isn’t it? He does.’

Adom nodded again and carried on along the track. Eo stood for another moment and then, holding the bear-bone pipe tightly in his hand, started downhill after the others.

At a bend in the path, he looked back, wondering if MakK might still be there, watching them. But the slope was empty.

He was gone. And then, soon after, they were too.

11
The Throw of Interrupted Cadence

All G are youthful-looking, but Interrupted Cadence always, no matter what form he took, seemed to give the appearance of having only just fledged. Maybe his eyes were just that bit wider, or his skin that bit softer, or the shaping of his bones just that bit more delicate… Whatever the reasons, Interrupted was – and always would be – boyish in appearance. And because people saw him as younger than he really was, they tended to overlook him when adult matters cropped up.

Interrupted was used to this. In a way, he even preferred it. It is usually the less pleasant duties that fall to the adults of any population, and Interrupted was G enough to want to avoid
anything
that wasn’t much fun.

But
now
…!

Now it was his throw. Whatever
he
, Interrupted Cadence, chose to do on this pleasant autumn afternoon could decide the fate of the G for all foreseeable ages to come – and he wasn’t even sure what the choices
were!
If he lived a thousand years, he’d never feel old enough to do this.

‘What should I do? Where should I aim?’ he wailed, desperate for some answers.

‘Just fling the thing,’ Market Jones advised.

‘We haven’t exactly been successful with directing it, have we?’ agreed Hibernation Gladrag. ‘I can’t help thinking random chucks might have been a better strategy from the start.’ She was looking haggard and white-faced. They all were.

Hope was leaching away with every Tide. This latest visit to the people of the Ice Age might have yielded some long-lost tribal wisdom on dealing with the eldritch dimensions… but somehow Interrupted doubted it.

‘Here it comes!’

Interrupted squared his shoulders and planted his feet firmly at the edge of the tidemark. For some reason it seemed important to notice exactly
where
the Traveller re-emerged, but, as always, it was too sudden. In a blink it was already there and hurtling towards the beach, contracting down from the height of a man at incredible speed. The Queen plucked it out of the air with arrogant carelessness – and instead of playing about with it, as she had done before, immediately lobbed it at Interrupted. He yelped in surprise, and when the vortex made contact with his skin, he yelped again. It was
cold –
piercingly, shockingly cold. It hurt to hold it…

… and then he did something he hadn’t planned to do. He cradled the Traveller in close to himself and breathed on it, as if it were a freezing bird that had fallen out of the sky, or a small animal needing warming. He wasn’t sure why it seemed right to do so, or why,
when he made his throw, it was with quite a gentle action. But that was how it was. Hibernation gave him a sign at the moment of the tide’s turn. Interrupted threw. The Traveller arced over the wet sand, dropped down – and once again was gone.

‘Best bet?’ murmured Market Jones.

Interrupted nodded. ‘Let’s see what I’ve just done,’ he said in a husky voice, and turned back to the disc.

12
The Fifth Tide

Jay was dreaming – the nightmare that kept coming back. With no body she shouldn’t have cared about the cold and the dark and the ceaseless whirling round and round – she shouldn’t have even been
aware
of it – but knowing it was impossible didn’t help.
Nothing
helped, not even the silent words she kept saying in her mind:
It can’t go on much longer, it can’t go on much longer…

The end came without warning, but instead of crashing in a heap with Adom and Eo and Hurple, all together on some new shore, she was suddenly wrenched away from the others by a current of water powering in the opposite direction. She shot sideways, completely submerged, completely helpless. She started to breathe too soon, and saltwater flooded into her mouth and burned her throat, but just as she thought,
This is drowning
, the current flung her, retching and gasping, up to the surface and on to a tumble of jagged rocks.

She didn’t know where she was, but she was out of
the Traveller and that was a blessing all on its own. She looked about her, trying to see where the boys and Hurple had fetched up…

The stark landscape of the Ice Age was gone and a more temperate scene had taken its place. The sea filled a wide channel at her back, with misty hills in the distance across the way. Before her, there was a narrow heathery shoreline with low cliffs rising from it, on up to a high rounded peak. Compared to the world she’d just left, this one seemed full of colour – russets and greens, and the sky was beautifully blue… It was as she was gazing up at it that she saw the girl, following a path along the bottom of the cliff.

‘Hey! Hello!’Jay croaked, but her voice had no strength. She felt bruised all over and close to tears. ‘Please…’

The sharp shells of barnacles were cutting into her hands and her throat felt raw but she scrambled higher, frantic to get the girl’s attention.

‘Hey! HEY!’

The girl paused and looked vaguely back up the path, then ahead again – but
not
at the rocks on the shoreline.

Whimpering with frustration, Jay made one more effort. Teetering dangerously on the rock spines, she half stood up and began to wave her arms.

‘I’m HERE! Help me! HEL ‘

It was one effort too many. Her foot slipped, and in trying to find her balance again she stepped back and on to a patch of slimy seaweed. Arms windmilling, Jay crashed over, hit her head on the rocks and knew no more.

‘I’m extremely fed up with being wet all the time!’ said Eo – more or less.

What he
actually
said was full of colourful vocabulary which Professor Hurple certainly never taught him. Squelching further up the pebbly beach, he pulled at the wet straps of his bag to let the ferret out.

At least it’s not
freezing
wet this time. You all right, Adom?’ he called over this shoulder. Adom?’ The silence made him look round. ‘What’s up –
where’s Jay
?’

Adom was standing there, looking down at his hand, too shocked even to be sick.

‘I had her,’ he croaked, ‘and then… she just wasn’t there any more!’ He looked over at Eo, white-faced.

‘You let her
go
?! Eo charged up to him and grabbed him by the shoulders.
You left her in the Traveller:’
!’

Adom shook his head slowly, like a bewildered beast. ‘No… no, I’m sure we were out of it, because I remember I actually could
feel
her hand – but we were still under the water… and then she was just ripped away…’

The sound of pebbles crunching interrupted him.

fay
! the two boys cried, turning in sudden hope –just as a rough net was thrown over their heads, entangling their arms and legs until they both crashed helplessly on to the shingle.

The girl glaring down at them wasn’t Jay.

‘What are you
doing
?’ spluttered Eo.

‘Let us out this minute!’ Adom commanded, though the squeak in his voice undermined the effect a little.

The girl didn’t reply. Instead, she put her hands up to her mouth and let out a long, yodelling cry. It was obviously some sort of signal, and at a volume that would carry for quite a distance. And all the time she didn’t take her eyes off them, not for a second, as if she
were expecting them to leap up and attack at any moment.

In reality they couldn’t have successfully attacked a piece of wet bread in their current tangled state.

After some more blustering and a bit of wheedling, the two boys gave up. Their captor was
not
going to let them out any time soon,
or
chat about her reasons for packaging them, though she did give a sour little smile when Eo complained to Adom about the way his elbow was poking him in the eye.

Another girl appeared round the rocks. ‘Moira?’ she called. ‘You all right? I came ahead – the others are on their way. What’s up? Yeurch!’ She gave a strangled cry and leapt back as she caught sight of the lump under the net. ‘What kind of catch is
that?!
’