by Drew Wagar
‘Many of us saw such things,’ Nerina said.
‘But then words … words came to me.’
‘Words?’ Nerina’s voice was flat. ‘Explain.’
Kiri nodded, her confidence regained. ‘A voice called out the Obelisk commands. The Obelisk requires. Obedience and urgency. Changes must be made. Lacaille must be sated, all must be set right or death and destruction will blossom, fires will come more devastating than any you have known.’
A muted mumble of conversation drifted around the hall of the priestesses. Kiri heard brief snatches of conversation
‘… the forbidden book?’
‘Elena’s commandment from the Obelisk?’
‘It can’t be …’
Kiri looked around her and back to Nerina. Nerina’s expression was unreadable and Kiri could sense nothing from her.
‘I was scared,’ Kiri said. ‘Terrified. I did the only thing I could do.’
‘And what was that?’ Nerina asked, a trace of impatience filtering into her words.
‘I asked,’ Kiri replied. ‘What must I do, Obelisk, great servant of Lacaille?’
The conversation around her dropped away, first to a whisper and then into silence. Kiri saw Nerina tilt her head up, her gaze still fixed on Kiri.
‘And was there an answer?’ Nerina asked, her voice quiet but still carrying throughout the hall.
Kiri nodded.
‘Come to me, faithful one, servant of Lacaille,’ she said, her voice cracking. ‘You are chosen. Come to me. This you must do. Carry out the task appointed. Changes must be made.’
There was uproar as she spoke the words.
‘Blasphemy!’ someone called. Kiri wasn’t sure, but it might have been Merrin. Kiri stepped back a pace. Snatches of conversation drifted around her.
‘… claiming the Obelisk out of the forbidden book spoke to her, the audacity!’
‘… it could be her! She has the strength and the gift in great measure …’
‘… setting herself up to be Elena incarnate? How dare she …’
‘… she has risen far from the lowest ranks, why not …’
‘… guttersnipe has gone too far …’
‘Enough!’ Nerina’s voice silenced conversation in a moment. All heads turned to her.
‘It is clear this message is of great import,’ she said. ‘We all understand the ramifications of it. If Lacaille commands and speaks to us through the Obelisk as was done long ago in our books of lore, we would be fools to ignore it.’
Nerina looked at Kiri.
‘We must seek the meaning behind these words,’ Nerina said. ‘It seems that task falls to you, Kiri. It seems there is much still to be done. Come with me, now.’
Nerina beckoned to her. Kiri stood still, noticing that Merrin was walking towards them and stood alongside Nerina.
‘The rest of you wait here,’ Nerina called. ‘We will return shortly.’
She looked at Kiri, her eyes narrowing. ‘Follow me.’
Kiri followed Nerina and Merrin out of the hall. The door closed behind them. Nerina gestured to a side room a few paces along.
‘Wait for us,’ Nerina directed. ‘We will call for you.’
Kiri opened her mouth, but no words came. Her choices were stark; submit or confront. After a moment’s hesitation she capitulated and opened the door to the room, venturing inside. The door was pulled closed behind her.
She heard rapid footsteps outside and then there was silence.
CHAPTER FOUR
Straithian Sea, Shaderight of Amar
Round 2307, Second pass
The sea-sickness had passed, but Zoella still looked pale and ill. Fitch had given her blankets and a warm drink. Mel had throttled the engine back up to a cruising speed, but there seemed to be no repeat of the strange sudden loss of ’tricity, at least for now. Coran, Mel, Fitch and Meru sat clustered around her. They were all in the Mobilis’ common room. Ren was cuddled up with her, clutching her close.
‘You had a dream?’ Meru asked. ‘You’ve had dreams before and you said they came true, what was this one about?’
Zoella looked around at the expectant faces all about her.
‘I saw some kind of tower,’ she said. ‘It was huge. Taller than anything I’ve ever seen. There were clouds and storms all about, swirling around. All seemed well; there was a sense of peace and tranquillity despite the weather. But then …’
‘What did this tower look like?’ Coran asked
Zoella held up the pendant she wore. The silver chain was tarnished with age, but the pendant itself was bright and shiny, as if it were new. ‘It was metal, it looked just like this.’
She turned it over in her fingers. Guerrun had given it to her. The others leaned forward to get a better look.
‘This is the mark of the witches …’ Fitch said, before Mel gave him a look. ‘All right! The priestesses! But we saw these in Dynesia, in that courtyard with all the slaughtered people …’
‘They use it now,’ Meru said. ‘But Guerrun said it was older than them … what did he say? The mark of the gifted … he called it the tower too.’
‘And this is the tower you dreamed of?’ Coran asked. ‘The same?’
Zoella nodded. ‘But it was enormous, metal, a huge thing reaching into the sky … Lacaille was clear in the sky above, not just in the sky, but right above. It called me. I’ve got to go there. If I don’t everything will be killed.’
‘Go there?’ Mel echoed.
‘We don’t even know where it is,’ Meru said.
Zoella shook her head. ‘I just know I’ve got to go there.’
Coran frowned. ‘You said Lacaille was above you in your dream?’
Zoella nodded.
‘As in straight up?’
Zoella nodded. ‘Yes, but …’
‘Wait a moment,’ Coran ducked out of the common room and could be heard next door in his own room, rummaging around for something. He returned a moment later with a carefully rolled parchment.
Space was made and it was unfurled on the table.
‘The map of Esurio?’ Meru asked.
‘You remember how you figured out how to navigate?’ Coran asked.
Meru nodded. ‘The angle of the pass and the height of Lacaille in the sky gives you … the height of Lacaille. Oh … I see what you mean!’
Coran nodded and looked at Zoella. ‘You’re sure Lacaille was straight up? I mean, absolutely above?’
Zoella nodded. ‘Yes. It seemed so strange, but yes, that’s where it was. Why is that important?’
Coran traced his finger down the map. Zoella could see Drem, Scallia and Drayden marked on a large continent. To the right she could see the island of Amar, their current destination. But Coran wasn’t pointing to any of them.
His finger had stopped at a dotted line at the base of the map. It was unmarked. The area below the line had been torn off, lost long ago.
‘The far sunward,’ Meru whispered.
‘What does it mean?’ Mel asked. ‘You’ve lost me.’
‘The further sunward you go, the higher Lacaille rises in the sky. Remember in Drem? That’s the far shadeward, Lacaille drops to the horizon. In the opposite direction …’
‘You think this tower is in the far sunward?’ Mel asked.
‘Has to be if Zoella is right about where Lacaille is in her dream,’ Coran said. ‘Look, these lines on the map are converging. You can work it out …’
Meru counted up the divisions on the map.
‘You’re right,’ he said. ‘Lacaille would be overhead in the sky at the point these lines converge … but the map stops way before that, there’s nothing here.’
‘And that’s a long way,’ Mel said. ‘Easily as far as the journey from Amar to the continent, maybe even more.’
Coran nodded and turned back to Zoella.
‘And after you finished screaming …’
Zoella swallowed and nodded.
‘I heard it somehow. It was calling me.
Asking me to come to it. In my dream something went wrong, there was heat, and that ghastly blue light that came from Lacaille. Animals and people died horribly…’
‘And at that moment …’ Mel began.
‘The ’tricity cut out and left us stranded,’ Fitch finished.
Coran sat back.
‘Mel, you remember during the flare when we saw that green light in the sky, those strange patterns?’
‘They were coming from Lacaille, from the sunward. They were linked with the ’tricity,’ Mel said. ‘When they were glowing so bright there was too much, the engines overloaded.’
‘It’s all connected somehow,’ Coran said. ‘This dream, the tower, the lights, the ’tricity, these powers … everything, it’s all connected. Got to be.’
‘All of us have been warned of these flares,’ Meru said. ‘Zoella in her dreams, us by Caesar in that hangar …’
Zoella was looking distant again.
‘The tower,’ she said, fingering the pendant. ‘The eye, the Obelisk, that’s what it’s called …’
Meru turned to look at her, ‘What did you say?’
‘In my dream, that’s what it was called. The eye, the Obelisk …’
‘Obelisk!’ Meru said, looking around at the rest of the crew. ‘I’ve been an idiot! Don’t you remember?’
‘No,’ everyone else replied after a moment.
‘Sandra Morino,’ Meru said, ‘and Caesar too, they said something about an Obelisk.’ He paused, his eyes darting from one side to another as he tried to recall. ‘Her voice, her warning – you must remember. We heard it on the radio.’
Fitch nodded. ‘You’re right boy. She said something about losing contact with the Obelisk, that she didn’t know if it was still working …’
‘And Caesar had that report,’ Mel said. ‘On the glass panel. Obelisk status … it had failed, it wasn’t responding!’
‘The tower is the Obelisk,’ Meru said. ‘It’s the same thing, it has to be. It must provide the ’tricity somehow, and …’
‘It’s breaking down,’ Zoella finished for him. ‘I know it is. And if it fails, it won’t just be your ’tricity we lose.’
She got to her feet. Ren pulled at her, worried.
‘Everything is going to die.’
They all looked at her. Zoella was trembling from head to foot. Mel reached out a hand to steady her.
‘So,’ Fitch interjected after a moment. ‘What are we going to do?’
Zoella turned to him. ‘I’ve got to go to it, it needs me.’
‘It’s clear this is some kind of warning,’ Mel agreed.
Fitch frowned. Coran was shaking his head.
‘We’ve got to get to Amar,’ Coran said. ‘We haven’t delivered our warning to them yet.’
‘They’ll have already been hit by one flare,’ Mel said. ‘Damage is already done …’
‘Not just the flares,’ Coran said. ‘The danger from the witch–priestesses. Amar is going to have to prepare.’
‘This is more important,’ Zoella protested. ‘If the tower fails, the flares and the priestesses will be the least of our problems. The blue light, it burns skin, it hurts … it kills!’
‘You’ve just had a bad dream, lass,’ Fitch said. ‘Can’t be chasing off into the sunward on a hunch …’
‘Zoella’s dreams come true,’ Meru interrupted, seeing frustration growing on Zoella’s face. ‘We can’t ignore it. I’ve already seen that blue light, it blisters your skin right off!’
‘It hurt me,’ Ren said, summoning the courage to say something. ‘Burns and scalds!’
‘I’ve got to go!’ Zoella added, stroking the small boy’s hair.
‘Hold your hergs,’ Fitch said. ‘How do you get to this tower, eh? Where is it precisely? How far away? The map is incomplete, torn and missing, it’s all uncharted. Could be anything towards the sunward. Why, Meru was shipwrecked in a storm that came up from that direction. Is it sea, or land? Who knows what hazards there are. What kind of traipse is it? You don’t know!’
‘We’ll find a way,’ Meru snapped.
‘All right, say you do make it there,’ Fitch continued, glaring at Meru. ‘What are you going to do when you arrive? Both of you are experts in this strange device that makes ’tricity and magic powers are you? You know how to fix it, I suppose?’ Fitch looked at Zoella and Meru, neither responded. ‘Thought of that? No, didn’t think so. Snuttin’ kids!’
‘Caesar,’ Meru said, after a moment. ‘Caesar knows. We should go back to Dynesia. He had better maps than we did! We could find out more about it …’
Coran shook his head. ‘Meru, that’s a long journey in the wrong direction. We have a half crippled ship in the midst of the ocean. ’Tricity might fail again at any moment. Sensible thing is to do as Fitch suggests and get to Amar, make repairs, give our warning. Then we can consider another voyage.’
‘But …’ Meru began.
‘We don’t have time,’ Zoella said. ‘I know we don’t have time!’
‘We have a duty,’ Coran continued. ‘We’ve got to bring a warning about the flares and the priestesses back to Amar.’
Meru was about to protest, but Mel raised her hand.
‘Captain’s made his choice. Course is set.’
Meru sighed. Zoella looked like she was about to protest again, but took her cue from his resigned face.
Coran looked at Zoella and Meru. ‘Listen. I hear what you’re saying and I don’t doubt it. Right now the risk is too great with too many unknowns. Safety of the ship has to come first. We’ll get back to Amar, give our warning, make repairs. Then I promise we’ll deal with this tower and Obelisk business.’
Meru looked at Zoella. She rubbed at her forehead and shook her head but said nothing else.
‘Right then. Let’s get to it,’ Coran snapped. ‘Meru, pass is almost due, figure out our position and we’ll set a course. Mel, best speed to Amar.’
Zoella still looked unhappy, but Meru gave a reluctant nod.
‘Aye captain.’
Meru busied himself with the timers aboard the ship and squinted through the double axis sextant set before the bridge of the Mobilis. Zoella watched him set up the equipment. Towards the rear of the ship she could hear the thrum of the ship’s single working engine increasing. Mel had been repairing it for a spell or two. It seemed she had finished.
‘What did you mean back there?’ Zoella asked. ‘Caesar, knows? Who’s Caesar? Radio? Sandra … these names and words are strange.’
Meru explained about their voyage across the sea and the receipt of the radio message that had led them into Caesar’s hangar. Zoella listened in amazement.
‘You remember I told you we’d found a voice?’ Meru said. ‘That was Caesar. I guess he’s some kind of machine left behind by our ancestors hundreds, thousands of rounds ago. You could talk to him, ask him questions, but he wouldn’t always answer them. He could show pictures of far off places, describe things … and he mentioned the Obelisk.’
‘What did he say about it?’
‘Not much, he just said it had failed, that it wasn’t responding,’ Meru replied. ‘Other stuff that didn’t make sense …’ He thought about it for a moment, trying to recall the words. ‘Something about winds, a warning to check the Obelisk … most of what he said we didn’t really understand, but it didn’t sound good.’
‘Then we must go there,’ Zoella said. ‘We need to find out. If we don’t …’
Meru nodded. ‘Yeah, but if the ’tricity fails while we’re at sea and doesn’t come back on … starving to death out here won’t be nice. This ship can’t move without it.’
Zoella shivered, unable to stave off the feeling of fear that surrounded her. She could see the Alisse, the strange green hanging curtains of light in the sky, streaming away from Lacaille.
Time is short, I’m sure of it.
Meru turned back to the sextant, looking through the aligned glasses.
‘Still no sign no sign of Mayura,’
he murmured.
‘Mayura?’
‘Start of the pass,’ Meru answered, adjusting the instrument again.
‘All this left by our ancestors,’ Zoella said, her voice low. ‘Thousands of rounds ago, what does it mean? If it was all so important, why haven’t they left us records, or guides? We shouldn’t be guessing our next step.’
Meru drew back.
‘When I was flying to Viresia I stopped at this strange place en route,’ he said. ‘It was old, abandoned, all broken down, but it was full of the same sort of things as Caesar’s cavern. Something to do with sending messages into the sky. I think our ancestors had all sorts of things they could do that we don’t know about, I think they set lots of things up, but it’s all so old now, most of it is broken, lost or just forgotten about. No one understands how it all works any more. Remember we talked about how many rounds there were?’
Zoella nodded. ‘It’s two thousand three hundred and six rounds … but since what?’
‘Since we started counting time,’ Meru replied. ‘I think our ancestors had all these amazing abilities, but something went wrong. Now, after all that time, most of it is gone, broken and forgotten. We don’t know how it works. Even this ship, we only just about understand it and we certainly couldn’t build another one. It does seem that the ’tricity, your gift, all these machines … they’re connected. What we do know is that people have been fighting each other for as long as anyone can remember. We found the remains of people killed long ago in Dynesia. Your city was destroyed, all that knowledge lost, if you imagine that through all of history …’
‘All that time,’ Zoella said. ‘And our history is lost, so much we don’t know, so much we need to know …’
Meru squinted through the sextant.
‘Ah … there it is,’ he said.
‘Can I see?’ Zoella asked.
‘Sure,’ Meru said. He guided her to the instrument. ‘Look through here, you can see that Mayura has just touched the edge of Lacaille.’
‘That marks the start of the pass?’ Zoella asked. She could see a faint indentation against the limb of Lacaille, growing into a curve as Mayura began its transit.
