Darkwhispers

by Vashti Hardy

  Now she could see that there were numerous buildings in the canopy layer. They enclosed the branches, yet also looked to be part of the trees, as though they had naturally grown that way: nature and construction working in unity.

  “They’re so beautifully crafted,” Maudie said, staring in wonder at the pointed archways for the windows and doors, marvelling at how the connecting bridgeways criss-crossed.

  “It’s simply incredible.”

  There were people in the treetops, crossing the bridges, moving through the archways. Maudie’s frame stiffened; what if they didn’t want her here?

  “You’re with me.” Florian smiled, reading her thoughts. “You have nothing to fear. Come.”

  He led her up and across a bridge. He smiled and greeted the people he passed, exchanging words in a language Maudie didn’t understand, but it had a beautiful ring to it.

  They stopped before one of the treetop houses. “My sister lives here.” Florian looked at Maudie. He bit his lip.

  “What is it?”

  “I need to let you know that she might not know who I am… She has problems remembering.”

  Maudie frowned and nodded. Tentatively, she followed Florian inside.

  “This is Herminia.” He gestured to a young woman who was sitting at a table screwing what looked to be some sort of light together. Her dark brown hair was intricately plaited down both sides and she had high cheekbones and wide, green eyes. “Herminia, pre dada istea, Maudie Brightstorm.”

  Herminia frowned and looked between them, the look of someone trying to work something out. It was similar to how Arthur appeared when he was grappling with something from Welby’s lessons, but it was as though she was trying to work out not only Maudie, but Florian too.

  “Istea manina, Florian,” he said slowly, and Maudie saw a sadness in his eyes that she recognized. It was the sadness she carried since she’d been separated from Arthur.

  Florian took some fruit from inside his bag and held them out to her, his hand trembling. Herminia stared at the fruit, then at Florian.

  “Istea manina,” he said softly.

  Like the unfurling of a new bud, a smile of realization grew on her lips and in her eyes. “Florian?”

  “Yes,” he said, grinning broadly at her.

  Herminia cut the fruit and shared it, and they sat on the floor eating. Maudie was quiet while the siblings continued speaking. Mostly it was Florian talking while Herminia listened like a child enraptured by a story, even though she was clearly several years older than him.

  Florian glanced across. “I’m sorry, Herminia doesn’t speak Lontonian. She used to, but … well.” He smiled sadly. “I’ve just asked her if any strangers had been here in the last few days, but she says they haven’t, although I’m afraid she may have forgotten. I’ll ask at some of the other houses too.”

  Outside, dusk had fallen. Florian put something that looked like a power cell into a receptacle and a beautiful golden light filled the room.

  “Wow, what is that?”

  Florian thought for a moment. “We don’t have a word in your language, something like water-energy-keeper?”

  “Well, whatever it is, it’s fascinating! Quite different to our pitch-lamps back home. I’d very much like a closer look…” but her voice faded as she noticed numerous other lights igniting in the treetops. She went to the arched opening and stared out in astonishment. There were hundreds of treetop houses and the stairways and bridges all glimmered with lights. It was utterly breathtaking.

  Florian held out his hand to her and smiled. “Come.”

  He led her up a staircase that went even higher, until they emerged above the leaves on to a platform. Stars glimmered in the indigo sky, and, despite her anxiety about Arthur and the others, Maudie couldn’t help but feel reconnected with them in this moment, wherever they were. She could almost feel that she was on the deck of the Aurora, flying into the night.

  After a while, Florian said. “Is it a big world out there?”

  Maudie looked across at him, and in the golden light of the platform she could see so much in his face: sadness and yearning. It reminded her of Arthur. She nodded. After a while she said, “Is your sister … all right?”

  He turned to face her. “You flew through the darkwhispers to get here.”

  “Yes.”

  “My sister wanted to be an agent.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Erythean agents keep watch on the outside world and report back to the city.”

  “Oh,” she said, thinking of the people on Nova.

  “She was refused. The city professors sensed that her intentions were driven by her own wants, rather than the interests of Erythea.”

  “But she only wanted to see the Wide?”

  He shrugged. “One night, she decided she would go.”

  “Your sister was caught by the darkwhispers, wasn’t she?”

  He nodded. “She was sailing towards them, and she knew the fire-bird would protect her, but she’d been followed by a group of agents who had seen her leave. The fire-bird can only protect so many of us, and it will always protect the group with the most Erytheans. My sister was separated from them in the cliffs.”

  He was quiet for a while.

  “By the time they found her, she had no memories at all … she didn’t even … she didn’t even know my face. I’m helping her build the memories. I come here when I can and tell her stories of when we were growing up, how she taught me to climb and find the pampa fruits close to the water-bear habitat.”

  “You were gathering fruits when I saw you?”

  He nodded. “The stories help her remember. She sees and tastes the fruit and it helps bring things back. Sometimes she will remember a small detail, adjusting the water-wing with me or something. We always liked to adapt them and make them faster, adding sails and things. Some days she remembers nothing at all. I try to visit when I can, but the professors think my language skills are best nurtured if I am based in the city.”

  “I’m sorry this has happened to her. To you.” Maudie thought about all the memories she shared with Arthur, experiences that only they could recall, things that united them in joy, discovery, sadness, loss. The memories breathed a past, the past that built them. “It’s a bit strange to keep hidden away like this. The Erytheans have got so much to share, so much we could learn from you, things you could learn from us.”

  Florian shrugged and looked away. “It’s the way it is. It’s not for me to question.”

  But the look in his eyes told her that he did question it. “If you could see Lontown, go to the Citadel and meet the kings, and see…” She stopped herself, sensing it was making him feel worse.

  They sat in silence for a while longer until Maudie said, “What’s a water-wing? You said you liked adapting the water-wings?”

  Florian grinned widely and stood up. “I’ll show you tomorrow.”

  They went back below, where Herminia greeted them with smiles and gave them sweet red berry juice.

  After breathing a deep lungful of air, Florian said, “I think it will stay dry tonight.”

  They climbed into leafy netted hammocks on the deck.

  “Goodnight, Maudie Brightstorm.”

  “Goodnight, Florian.”

  Maudie took her broken compass and the pink gemstone from her pocket and held them tight. They fell asleep listening to the orchestra of competing calls and croaks that the night brought, which were a world away from the fox barks, cat fights and rumbling pitch carts of the streets of Lontown.

  In the morning, Maudie found her compass in the hammock beside her. It had been mended.

  She looked around for Florian, then saw him inside the treetop house talking with Herminia.

  It hadn’t all been a dream. She looked around at the incredible bridges and buildings in the trees and began to analyse the structures, making a note of how they fitted together.

  Florian appeared, bottle-green eyes shining and a broad smile. “Tod
ay is a good day. Herminia remembers yesterday.”

  “How long have you been awake?”

  He shrugged. “Long enough to make a few things.”

  “Oh, yes, thank you,” she said, holding up the compass.

  “And I made this, because it will be easily lost if you have it loose in your pocket or hold it in your hand. It fell in the night, but luckily didn’t fall off the edge.” He passed her a necklace made from cleverly plaited twine with the pink gemstone that Valiant had given her attached. He looked away.

  “Oh! I guess it’s … double thank you,” she said, and put the necklace over her head.

  “The clouds are coming in from the east. We should head for the city now. I’m sorry we haven’t found your friends yet, but we can look on the way. A neighbour said they saw smoke in the south this morning, perhaps a campfire.”

  Hope flooded her chest.

  “It might just be another Erythean,” he said. “But we will go and find out.”

  They said goodbye to Herminia and made their way down the great spiral stairs.

  “The report of smoke was not far from here, so we’ll go on foot, then come back for a water-wing.”

  After trekking through the forest for a while, Florian suddenly stopped dead still and sniffed. He said something in his own language. His eyes looked wide and alert.

  “What is it?” asked Maudie.

  “Pantheras.”

  “What’s that?”

  “Quick.” Florian took a handful of mud and gave it to her.

  “Yuck, what are you doing?”

  He started smothering his body in mud. “Hurry!”

  For a moment she thought he was joking with her, but his face was deathly serious. She began doing the same with the mud.

  “Your face, too. Quick, put it everywhere; it will mask our scent, if it hasn’t already caught it.”

  Then he pushed her forward into the ferns. He put a finger to his lips. They waited. After a few minutes, he pointed ahead. At first, she didn’t see anything. Then she saw a shape moving through the trees not far away. They stayed motionless until it had passed.

  “They don’t often come to this area. They aren’t the best swimmers, and they wouldn’t want to get caught in a deluge, but the clouds are away. It’s likely come in from the west, so it may not have caught our scent, or perhaps it sensed some others…”

  Maudie was filled half with elation, half with panic – could it be? “Do you think the pantheras may be tracking others?”

  “Possibly. Come on, we’ll follow it. But shadow my moves.”

  They stealthily pursued it downhill.

  Then Maudie caught a glimpse through the trees of a large clearing that made her almost cry out in happiness. Maudie clamped her hand over her mouth. It was Felicity, standing by a campfire! Her clothes looked bedraggled and her hair was flowing messily over her shoulders, but she was alive!

  The pantheras stalked in the treeline, looking like a huge version of Queenie, but sleeker and with much bigger teeth.

  “What do we do? It could attack at any moment,” she whispered urgently.

  Florian looked at her. “Then we will have to draw it away.”

  “You’re joking!” she hissed.

  “Again, I’m not. We make ourselves known, it will be intimidated because there are two of us, but if it charges, we must make our bodies as large and fierce as possible.”

  She gave a shaky nod and then together they stepped from the foliage. It worked and the pantheras turned to look at them.

  “Don’t look at its eyes, or it will see challenge.”

  “You could have mentioned that!”

  Then it took a pace forward.

  Felicity must have caught sight of the pantheras because she cried out, but Maudie was too focused on the creature as it prepared to pounce, and then Florian had his arms above his head, and he was shouting fiercely, with a strength that made Maudie jump. Then, she sprang into action and did the same.

  The animal faltered, so they shouted louder.

  It backed up a few steps then hurtled away, into the jungle.

  Maudie turned and ran for Felicity, who yelped in surprise at the sight of her, and then Welby and Harriet rushed from the jungle beyond, brandishing branches aggressively. Maudie stopped, realizing she was totally covered in mud. “It’s me!” she cried, over and over, and in a moment, Felicity had enveloped her in a bone-crushing hug, and she was swarmed by Harriet and Welby.

  “I told you! I felt it in my toes, Harrie – today is a good day!”

  Harriet smoothed Maudie’s hair back from her face. “What happened? We’ve been worried sick! I lost sight of you; I feared you’d drowned, but Felicity wouldn’t let me believe it. She said she knew you were all right.”

  “The sky-ak saved my life. I somehow made it here – well, to a beach just north of here and then…” she took a breath. Too much had happened. She shook her head.

  “There’s plenty of time for that later. Now, tell us, who is your friend in the tree there?”

  Florian had climbed a little way up a tree and was observing them cautiously.

  Maudie beckoned him. “This is Florian. He’s been looking out for me. He can take us to the city – we think Arthur and the Vane crew may be there, and he has to kind of report us because no one here wants Lontonians to know about this place.”

  “Oh, I see, really?” said Harriet, tilting her head curiously. “So he speaks Lontonian?” She exchanged a quizzical look with Welby. “Is it far, Florian?”

  “It is not far if we are travelling on the channels by water-wing,” said Florian.

  They packed up and hiked through the jungle back in the direction of the treetop town. Welby, who was the best at recalling stories in his sagacious, deep tones, told them about the darkwhisper attack and how the great red bird with the fire tail had saved them. How their ship had been dashed against the rocks and they had just made it on a large piece of the wrecked hull. The fire-bird had guided them in to shore.

  Florian stayed silent as he walked, listening intently to their stories.

  “Can you tell us more about the fire-bird, Florian?” Harriet asked after a while.

  He thought for a moment. “We call the bird Aeterna, for it is as old as the land and is neither he nor she; it just is. Aeterna lives in the highest mountain and watches over the Erytheans.”

  Maudie thought Aeterna was a beautiful name. The more she saw of the Wide, the more it amazed her.

  “What do you mean by ‘watches over’?” asked Felicity.

  “It protects us from the darkwhispers, if we want to travel west.”

  “Don’t talk to me about those darkwhispers!” said Felicity, waving her spoon. “Although there are parts of it I can’t remember. Like fragments were stolen by them.”

  “It’s what they do,” said Florian. “If you don’t get away, then gradually everything, all your memories, disappear.”

  They walked from the trees into a brook below the treetop town. The water was crystal clear, and a group of narrow vessels were tethered to a stand of trees nearby.

  “This is quite something,” said Harriet, spinning around in awe and looking up at the spiral staircases.

  “We’ll fit better on two water-wings. I need to teach one of you,” said Florian. “Maudie?”

  She nodded eagerly.

  Harriet, Welby and Felicity looked around the immediate area of the glade, pointing and discussing the amazing structures above, while Florian untied two water-wings from the trees.

  Maudie sidled up to him. “I’m sorry I thought you wouldn’t be any good with mending my compass.”

  “I’m sorry I thought you wouldn’t be any good at … anything.”

  “Hey!”

  They laughed, and Maudie thought how different Florian seemed, now that she knew him better.

  He patiently explained how the water-wing worked and answered Maudie’s numerous questions about the tiny engine, propeller and power cell. S
he marvelled at how similar so much of it was to her skyak. Then he demonstrated how to hook in your feet and steer with the handle and rod. Maudie took to it instinctively and was soon flying around the glade to the applause of the others. Some of the treetop inhabitants had even come out to watch.

  She skidded to a stop beside Florian’s water-wing. “What’s that on the back of yours?”

  “Ah, this is my adaptation.” He pulled a small sail up at the back of the water-wing. “I steer with this hand and adjust the sail with the other. It doesn’t work down here, but on the sky-way it practically flies!”

  “The sky-way?” Maudie said, mesmerized.

  Felicity and Harriet rode with Florian, and Welby with Maudie. They started the small engines and were soon speeding along the river eastwards.

  After several chimes, the forest opened up and they were on high ground. The river they’d been travelling along led to an elevated waterway, something like a natural aqueduct, although parts looked to be constructed. In the distance was what appeared to be a great shimmering lake with a small mountain in the middle.

  Florian led the way. He was using the sail now, deftly catching the wind, and even though there were more people on his water-wing it shot ahead at almost twice the speed. Maudie’s water-wing sped along the water, and Florian slowed to let her catch up.

  “Impressive,” she called, and he smiled broadly.

  As they progressed, they saw there were many more waterways, all leading to a great plateau and other water-wings busied along them.

  “There’s still no sign of the Aurora,” Welby said.

  Maudie could tell he was missing Arthur, and the concentrated furrows in his forehead told her how concerned he was. “Maybe they didn’t make it here? Perhaps they turned back before they got to the darkwhispers. At least we didn’t see any sign of them there.” She wondered if the fire-bird had helped them through too. Either that or they’d been…