by Luke Donegan
Erys gripped the balustrade, his knuckles white with fury. She had been stripped of her Curator’s blue robes and wore now a linen tunic and a pair of pants. The clothes were dyed orange, the colour of crime against Nature. Her beautiful hair was gone, her head shaved bald. She seemed thin, almost threadbare in the white light of the Courthouse.
The guards led her to the centre of the floor then dispersed evenly around its perimeter. The Public Gallery filled with sound as people called down to her.
“Peace, Curator!”
“Find your way on the great wind!”
But one man spat over the balustrade, and there was a brief scuffle before soldiers escorted the troublemaker out.
Xia Tsang scanned the gallery for familiar faces.
“Xia,” called the Builder.
She found them and offered a small smile. She mouthed Sian’s name.
“I wouldn’t let her come,” called the Builder.
Xia nodded. She and the two men held each other’s gazes. We are with you, thought Erys. Whatever happens. You are not alone.
But she looked vulnerable and fragile, as if the light would wash through her at any moment and erase her from the world. She held herself with poise and dignity, but Erys knew she was afraid. He felt it too.
A door behind the far bench opened. The Defender, the Prosecutor and their scions entered followed by the Scion-Judge, each figure clad in black robes. The people in the Public Gallery bowed as the Lawyers took their seats.
“The Scion-Judge was recently the Defender,” whispered the Builder. “She ascended a year ago. That is good for us. She should tend to be sympathetic. And she will have a rapport with her previous scion.”
But Erys was not so confident. The Defender, only a year in her role, was young. Like the Hearth-Mother of Ocean-Hearth, she was too young for the responsibility of her role. And her scion could only have been ten years old. In contrast the Prosecutor was a man in his late twenties, probably not far from Passage, but with years of experience. Erys wondered if he was embittered that a young woman had been chosen as the Judge’s scion over him. Would he want to make his mark in a big trial before he died.
The Scion-Judge lifted a hammer and struck it on the marble bench. The crack echoed sharply around the Chamber.
“All bow for the Judge,” ordered the Scion-Judge.
A door behind the upper bench opened and the white-robed Judge entered the Chamber. Like the Director, this member of the Ascendancy hid behind a golden, expressionless mask.
Everyone in the Chamber, including Xia Tsang, bowed as the Judge took their seat.
The Scion-Judge stood to address the Chamber.
“We are here today to pass judgement on the Curator of Nature.” She lowered her head towards the Chamber floor. “Curator, you are charged with the most serious crime one can commit in our society – the breaking of a primary Law. Your own Law, the Law of Nature. ‘One shall not create unnatural life.’ This Law which you, above all others, should respect.”
The Scion-Judge turned to the man on her right. “Prosecutor, please relate the details of this case to the court.”
The Prosecutor rose and bowed. His high, thin voice sliced through the air like a blade.
“Two thousand years ago Jasmin Jared, a genetic biologist, conducted experiments on the genetic structure of living creatures. Her experiment went wrong and resulted in the mutation of life forms. These creatures grew at an accelerated rate, escaped and brought havoc and destruction to much of the planet before they were finally destroyed with quark weaponry. Jared broke the First Law of Nature.”
His eyes cast down upon Xia Tsang.
“Despite this lesson, some have not learned. The Curator of Nature is charged with repeating the crime of Jasmin Jared. The Curator of Nature, and possibly her colleagues at the Museum, conducted experiments on the genetic structure of life. In secret laboratories they re-created life forms long extinct on our planet, animals that have not walked the Earth for thousands of years. With little regard for the consequences, the Curator of Nature recklessly manipulated the genetic structure of life. We can only be thankful that the Ascendancy discovered her plans before another catastrophic event on the scale of Aberration was precipitated on our fragile world.”
“What is your recommendation?” asked the Scion-Judge.
“That she be found guilty, and made to pay the most severe penalty for that crime. Scion-Judge, I demand the penalty of death.”
Unrest washed across the Public Gallery. The Scion-Judge returned order to the court with the sharp crack of her hammer.
“Curator, how do you answer these charges?” asked the Scion-Judge.
Xia Tsang straightened her shoulders and lifted her head high. Even violated as she was, she possessed enough dignity to affect the Court.
“Scion-Judge,” she said softly. “I plead guilty to these charges.”
Cries of protest rose from the onlookers.
Erys shook his head.
“Curator,” said the Scion-Judge gently. “Have you considered this plea carefully? The court cannot show mercy under these circumstances.”
“I have, Scion-Judge. I am guilty of this crime.”
“Explain yourself, Curator,” demanded the Scion-Judge. She sympathised with the Curator and wanted to be lenient, but this obstinance frustrated her. “How does a Curator come to break the First law of Nature? I do not understand.”
“Scion-Judge, we have lost our way. People in this courthouse today,” said Xia Tsang, turning a full circle and looking up at the crowd, “listen to me. We have lost our connection with the Earth, and with ourselves. Where is our love of life? Where is our love for each other? Where is our dignity? We have lost these things.”
Light blazed through the Chamber. Xia Tsang momentarily disappeared behind the light. Erys wiped his face and squinted his eyes, his vision blurred with tears.
“I wanted to save us.”
“By breaking the First Law?”
“By creating life. By restoring the world to the way it was.”
The Scion-Judge looked down on the accused with pity. “Defender, what do you say to this?” she asked.
The young girl stood. Like a child bearing a heavy weight, her small but clear voice shook with responsibility. “Against my recommendations the Curator pleads guilty, Scion-Judge.” She paused, looked from Xia Tsang to the Prosecutor, and back to the Scion-Judge. “She is determined on this course, and that is my official plea to the court. The Curator of Nature is guilty of breaking the First Law of Nature. She takes full responsibility for her actions. She alone acted in disregard of the Law. While others carried out her commands, they were unaware of the implications of her experiments ...”
“Wait!” bellowed the Prosecutor. He raised an angry finger at the Curator on the Prisoner’s Floor. “The Defender is misleading the Court. Xia Tsang did not act alone. Others need to be brought to trial.”
The young Defender stood her ground. Although the Scion-Judge felt proud of her ex-scion, she showed nothing on her face.
“The Curator takes full responsibility,” repeated the Defender, her voice finding its strength. “Under the Law, no person can be tried for a crime assumed by another.”
“No,” argued the Prosecutor. “There was a conspiracy at the Museum. Many were involved. She could not have done it alone.”
Erys and the Builder watched the argument carefully. The fate of all of them rested on how the Scion-Judge deliberated in this moment.
“The Law is clear,” adjudicated the woman. “The Curator has pleaded guilty and takes full responsibility. Under the Laws of our society, her acceptance of guilt cannot be questioned.”
The Prosecutor folded his arms in disgust and fell back heavily into his seat. His scion leant towards him and whispered in his ear. The Prosecutor immediately stood again.
“What of the scion?” he asked. “Xia Tsang cannot have done this without her scion knowing. The relationship between master and
scion is intimate, unbreakable but for ascension or death. There is precedent in Law to consider master and scion as one entity ...”
Lines of glassy smoke shot from Erys’ eyes and coiled around the balustrade.
“I disagree. Acceptance of guilt is final and uncontestable,” said the Defender. But her voice could not be heard over the weight of the Prosecutor’s.
“... responsibility like everything else should be shared between master and scion. What one does, so too does the other,” he concluded triumphantly.
“I have pleaded guilty,” cried Xia Tsang from the floor. “My scion knew nothing.”
Dark Matter surged within Erys, straining for release.
The golden masked Judge sat implacably at the up-most bench, looking over the commotion.
The Scion-Judge slammed her hammer against the marble three times until order was restored.
“Hear the decision of the court,” said the Scion-Judge. “Because the Curator of Nature has confessed, the court has no option but to find her guilty of the crime of breaking the First Law of Nature.”
There were moans as onlookers around Erys lowered their heads. Erys closed his eyes.
“And, while I do not share the concerns of the Prosecutor regarding the scion,” continued the Scion-Judge, “there is precedent in Law supporting his argument.”
The Prosecutor smiled with triumph. The Defender looked quickly from the Scion-Judge to Xia Tsang. She conferred with her scion, but the younger girl was too unseasoned to offer aid.
“This matter of the scion needs further inquiry.”
“No,” pleaded Xia Tsang. “Not her. She is innocent.”
“I order that officers of the Court accompanied by the Army arrest the Scion-Curator of Nature and bring her before the Judge.”
“Please,” begged Xia Tsang. “She is innocent.”
The Curator of Nature slumped to the floor. Guards ran to her aid.
“The decision of the Court is final,” said the Scion-Judge. “The evil of breaking a primary Law is unequalled in our community, and can only be met with the most severe of punishments. The penalty for the Curator’s crime is death by hanging. A public execution will be held in the Central Square at dawn tomorrow.” She turned to the Judge above her. “Does the Judge agree with this sentence?”
The golden mask of the Judge nodded.
The Scion-Judge faced Xia Tsang. “I am sorry, Curator. May your Spirit find its way on the great wind.” She turned then to the man on her right. “Prosecutor, order the arrest of the Scion-Curator of Nature.”
The Prosecutor bowed.
Two guards supporting the Curator between them dragged her from the Prisoner’s Floor.
Erys watched her departure, forcing tendrils of smoke from his clouded vision.
“Sian has no hope if they bring her here,” said the Builder. “Don’t you understand, Erys?”
The Builder shook him by the shoulders. “Run! Get to her before they do. Find her. Hide her. There is no hope otherwise.”
Erys stared at the Builder as if paralysed.
“Run. Run!” The Builder pushed him away.
And Erys shoved his way through the dumb-struck crowd, one thought in his mind.
Sian is in danger.
He ran from the Public Gallery and raced down the spiral stairwell three steps at a time.
She was the only thing of value left in his shattered world. The army was marching towards the Museum to take her away.
He raced from the Courthouse, past the crowd milling on the gleaming steps, past the chicken seller in his malodorous store, out into the impossible brightness of this sorrow-filled day.
Chapter 16 ESCAPE
A thousand black tentacles burst from his skin. People in the markets panicked and ran. Thick tendrils lashed out and knocked over market stands and shoved people aside. Tendrils whipped into the air – through them Erys surveyed the piazza. Guards emerged from a side door of the Courthouse and raced towards the Barracks. His coat of black smoke rippled as if caught in a wild wind. Tendrils like the thousand legs of a centipede propelled him across the paving stones. His own legs barely touched the ground.
Sensation suffused through the tendrils of Dark Matter. Like eyes, ears and fingers, they provided information about the world. Dark Matter was fundamental to him now, a part of his body. And it was growing in power.
He used it to his advantage, but he fought it down before it could consume him. He burst from the markets and raced towards the Museum. Behind him the guards had reached the Barracks.
He had created such a scene leaving the Courthouse the army wasted no time in mobilising. A company of soldiers marched from the Barracks with orders to collect the Scion-Curator of Nature. They spied him in the distance, a black creature, something created by the Curators – an aberration.
Unwittingly he had placed Sian and himself in greater danger. The soldiers would kill Erys on sight, and the Court would show Sian no mercy.
Propelled on a cloud of Dark Matter, he ran.
The Museum grew as he approached - three domes and the tower. It rose up, a massive structure containing miles of corridors and hundreds of rooms.
He hoped she was easy to find.
On the Museum’s landing he hesitated. Young, nervous attendants staffed the desk inside. He concentrated, relaxed and drew the cloud of Dark Matter surrounding him back into himself. But for his eyes, he entered the Museum looking human. He could do nothing about the blackness pooling in his eyes.
The two attendants watched him approach.
“Scion-Teacher,” acknowledged one. “Is there news of the Curator?”
“There is little time,” he said breathlessly. “Where is the Scion-Curator of Nature?”
The girls shook their heads.
“Okay,” he said, thinking desperately. “I want you to leave the foyer. Close and lock the front doors, then return to your rooms. Do it now. Do you understand?”
They nodded.
“Good girls. You will be safe. Just do as I say.”
As he ran from the foyer the girls began to cry. These events were too bewildering to comprehend. As they drew shut the Museum’s massive doors and returned to their room, each feared desperately about what was coming. They had seen the black soldiers approaching along the Boulevard. And they had seen in Erys’ eyes that he had as little power to stop them as they did.
Erys rode the elevator to Sian’s level. He searched the chambers she shared with Xia Tsang but Sian was not to be found. He called her name. He tried to think as she would think. Where would she wait for news of the Curator? Perhaps she had gone to Erys’ room.
He caught the elevator down three levels and ran to the Teacher’s quarters.
“Sian!”
She was not there. He searched both his room and the Teacher’s long unused room.
Where would she go?
To the Nature Dome! She would seek solace amongst the animals. He had lost precious time.
He returned in the elevator to the ground floor. The machine descended at an unbearably slow pace.
“Sian!” he called out as he entered the dome. “Where are you?”
He half expected the animals to look up at his intrusion. They stood as placidly as ever.
Erys scanned the vast space but saw no movement, no human figure. Nothing in the Temperate Zone. Nothing in the polar wastes. He followed the stream down to the forest region, skirted its eaves through the Desert Zone to the small mountain ridge, calling her name.
Finally he spied her high up on the rocky face near the distant wall of the dome, sitting on a rocky shelf populated by mountain goats.
“Sian!”
She saw him and climbed to her feet. He ran along the base of the range. “Climb down.”
She swung her legs over the edge of the cliff and lowered herself down to the next shelf. Her hands were strong and she was a confident climber. But her descent was reckless and unplanned, and in her rush she came to a section
of rock with no good footholds.
Erys arrived at the base of the cliff.
Sian searched the rock. She spied a fracture line invisible from below. His heart stopped as she swung to the side and dropped two feet before snatching a hold.
He caught her as she jumped the last few feet.
“Erys?” She scanned his face, desperate for good news.
He had no answer. “We have to go.”
He took her hand but she planted her feet.
“No! Tell me first.”
His eyes were dark with Dark Matter, unreadable.
“Sian. Trust me. We have to go, now!”
Hope drained from the girl. He had to drag her through the Nature Dome. Both were silent, Sian lost in her despair, Erys fearful of what was coming.
They passed through the Desert Zone and up the grassy hillside, leaving the animals behind. And then Erys heard a terrible sound. It was the sound of something wailing. A horrible, pitiful cry of hopelessness. He stopped and scanned the dome for the source of this cry.
Where is it coming from?
And then he realised it was not a sound he could hear, but something he could feel with his mind. It came from Sian beside him. Her head bent down, her feet dragging. Dark Matter was sensitive to her Spirit and gave him the power to hear her silent wailing.
I want to stay with the animals! Please, let me stay, and find peace.
Her soul voice was desperate and in despair. The sound grew until it masked all other senses and filled the dome ...
... the silent and terrible wailing of her soul.
A thunderous crash rocked the foyer as the company of soldiers broke through the front doors. Erys and Sian paused at the junction between four corridors. Left led to the foyer. Soldiers gathered there like black, swarming ants, preparing to search the Museum. The right corridor led to the Science Dome and the elevator. Up into the tower or down into the workshops? he thought. We can hide, but they will find us eventually. We must get out!
Indecision would kill them.
“Sian. Listen to me. Help me. Where can we go?”
She looked over his shoulder towards the foyer. Erys swung around. Soldiers raced along the corridor towards them.
