by Jay Aspen
‘Let’s hope he sees the funny side––’
Olewala is interrupted by another outburst of shrilling from the resident sentinel as a short message arrives on his holo-vis.
‘Alis,’ he mutters before running outside. A small recon shuttle is hovering overhead, waiting while he signals Tregen to back off and allow it to land.
The craft settles in the middle of the clearing and Alis jumps out with her usual businesslike agility. She doesn’t waste time with preliminaries.
‘We have a problem. The Commissioner won’t talk and we can’t wait two days for the truthseer to arrive before we act. So we’re still on our own. I just got a message from Alexin in Merkaan. He identified a couple more conspirators and he’s watching them until he can track down the rest of their associates. But Talaya’s parents have disappeared and he thinks they’ve gone to meet the leaders of their group in Rhangaran.’
‘In Rhangaran?’ Olewala sounds shocked. ‘But that’s impossible! It’s a small community and we all know each other. Janna thought the conspirators had been meeting up on Eden, near the mouth of their tunnel.’
‘Alexin mentioned that they’ve appropriated several recon shuttles so they may be planning to meet in the ocean around the island. Olewala, are there underwater caves they might use?’
He nods slowly, his jaw suddenly tense. ‘Yes, several large caves. But if they’re able to get access to one of them it means they do have help from traitors among my own people. It’s... hard and painful to believe.’ He looks around, a determined look in his dark eyes. ‘I have to go back there and warn our Council. Now.’
Alis gives it barely a moment’s thought. ‘You’re right. Severin will pilot you. Take the recon. It has a better underwater function than any other type of aircraft. I’ll fly the Commissioner back to Merkaan in the wasp.’ She waves an imperious hand at the large man in a police uniform who is sitting gloomily in the recon. He isn’t going to enjoy a long trip back to the capital in the cramped space of the wasp.
Severin exchanges Alis’ key to the recon for his own key to the wasp. ‘What about Ressay? Can you tell him to fly his prisoners to Merkaan? When he sees his boss in handcuffs I think he’ll follow your orders without too much argument.’
Alis nods and takes the key. ‘I’ll pay Ressay a visit before I head back. And Hannik, your father says you’re to move in with your sister and stay there, out of trouble till this is over. Understood?’
11
Alis’ orders are so not what I want to hear. The thought of being grounded as soon as things get ‘interesting’ as Severin would say...
But I learned long ago that the tone of voice she’s using is one where argument is futile.
‘Yes, I understand. He wants to make sure I’m safe.’
Alis looks at me suspiciously. Maybe she’s learned a few things about tone of voice as well.
‘He also said you’ve stirred up an interesting hornet’s nest of very annoyed conspirators and he discovered far more from being bait than from being an investigator. But he doesn’t want you playing bait anymore.’
My hand flies to my mouth. ‘So they did go after him because of me?’
‘And luckily they still think he’s just a bumbling civil servant who happens to be the father of a teenage troublemaker. Not a high level investigator hot on their trail. So stay here with Safi and let him get on with his job.’ Alis turns away abruptly and barks a few curt orders at the disgruntled Commissioner to get a move on. He climbs clumsily into the wasp.
As soon as she’s taken the tiny craft out of the clearing and over the forest, Severin and Olewala grab their gear and scramble into the forward-facing twin seats of the recon.
Severin hesitates, holding the pilot’s door open as he looks around the clearing.
‘Where’s Hannik? I was hoping to say goodbye’
Olewala closes the passenger side door. He sounds like he’s in a hurry.
‘I saw her heading back to the dome, muttering something about checking on the injured sentinel. I expect she’s upset and disappointed at being left behind. We need to move fast. You can have a passionate reunion when we get back.’ He smiles at Severin’s embarrassed shrug. ‘I could tell just by the way you two looked at each other. But I know you want her to stay safe as much as her father does.’
Severin guides the recon in a steep curving ascent out of the clearing.
‘Yeah. I do want to know she’s all right. But it’s so good to have her around. We work well together.’ He sighs as he sets a course southeast, towards the ocean that separates Pangaea from the uninhabited continent of Eden.
Soon the forest canopy below gets thin and scattered, the trees stunted by altitude on the slopes of the great Ishtar mountain range that divides the lush forests of Karesh province from the hot deserts of Irithen.
Severin adjusts the flight path of the recon through the Irithen Gap, a giant rift in the range cut by millennia of snowmelt from the peaks above. Below, the faint white ribbon of the dirt road snakes its way out of Karesh and through the rift to fade into nothing in the baked land of russet sand dunes on the far side.
No one tries to cross the desert on wheels. Or if anyone tried, they didn’t survive to tell of it.
‘Take the shortest route to the sea,’ says Olewala. ‘I know your people have forbidden flights over their province but we have to get there as soon as possible. Follow the Irithen coast south to Lizard Sandbar then set a course due east to Rhangaran. You’ll get across the ocean much faster with the strong wind coming off the desert behind you instead of pushing you sideways.’
‘Thanks.’ Severin still sounds preoccupied as he recalibrates his compass readings. ‘I’m surprised you know details like that. I thought Webdancers hated the speed of flying anywhere.’
‘It’s true.’ Olewala ignores the compass readings and recalibrates his own breathing instead. ‘It really confuses our sensitivity to the frequency, more so than with people who haven’t gone through the additional attunement training. I’ll be relying on the resident Webdancers for resonance information for a few days until I can readjust. When I came to Merkaan it took me a while to catch up with where I was.’
‘Lucky you’ve got me to help then, isn’t it?’ I stick my head through the gap between the two seats, giving them both my most disarming smile. It’s been fun listening in to their conversation but I can’t suppress my laughter any longer.
‘Hannik! How the hell did you get in here?’ Olewala turns an exasperated frown in my direction.
‘Easy! I snuck around the back of the recon just as the Commissioner was heaving his ponderous way out of it. He didn’t lock the door behind him so I wriggled inside while no-one was looking.’ I wrinkle my nose disapprovingly. ‘I didn’t know it would be so damned uncomfortable though! There’s hardly any room behind these seats what with all the junk piled up here. My leg went to sleep half an hour ago and doesn’t feel like it’s going to wake up for a while.’
‘That ‘junk’ you’re complaining about is essential gear for whatever emergency the recon might run into.’ Severin turns his head away so Olewala can’t see his grin of delight that I’m back with them after all. I can even feel his laughter in the faint echo of ayan still hanging around.
Olewala is doing his best to maintain the duty of care he promised my father.
‘Soon as we arrive on the island I’ll hand you over to the head of our Council. She’ll find you a safe place to stay. I distinctly heard you agree to your father’s request to move in with your sister.’
I’m unrepentant. ‘No I didn’t! I said I understood why he wanted to keep me safe, and of course I do understand. That doesn’t mean I intend to go along with it.’ I give Olewala my best pleading look. ‘Please let me come with you and finish what we’ve started? I’m sure I can be useful. I practiced focusing when we flew from Merkaan to Karesh and I think it stopped the worst of the disconnection with the resonance. I’ll try it again now. Can I rearrange some of t
his Very Important Emergency Gear first though?’
Severin is trying not to laugh. ‘Go ahead, it’s all in protective cases. We’ll need you able to walk when we get there.’ He tries to ignore the disapproving look Olewala is giving him. The elderly sensei must be getting the distinct feeling he’s in process of being outvoted.
For a few minutes the only sounds in the small craft are thumps and scratching as I rummage around in the cramped space behind the seats like a determined squirrel repairing a nest. After a few minutes I’ve rearranged the gear into something a little flatter and stretch out my legs with a sigh of relief.
‘Olewala, why do people want to live on a tiny island so far away from everyone else?’
He’s silent for a few moments. ‘Nobody talks about it much. Probably best to leave the past behind. Enough to say that some of the people who started the previous civil war escaped into hiding when they could see it was certain their side was going to lose. They built rafts and let the ocean currents take them east, hoping to land on the coast of Eden.
‘They planned to live out their days in the wild forests there, provided they could avoid being spotted by either the Webdancers or forest ranger patrols. A few of their rafts survived the ocean storms, only to be wrecked on the island they named Rhangaran, in memory of their leader’s brother who had advised against starting a war in the first place.
‘The government in Merkaan didn’t find out about the colony until one day the second generation of inhabitants rescued a survey recon that had been blown off course on its way back from Eden. You can’t put people on trial for what their parents did and no-one on the island wanted to live anywhere else, so things have remained this way until now.
‘A few Rhangarians visit Merkaan, but not often. I was the first to settle there when I retired from my Webdancer fieldwork. Sometimes new people arrive on the island just as our ancestors did, by raft, looking for a different life or running away from the law or...’
‘Dragon Island!’ exclaims Severin. ‘I thought it was just a bit of ancient mythology. The wondrous island in an emerald sea, where you can have everything you ever wanted...’ He hesitates. ‘It’s true that some people from Irithen have set off eastwards, intending to build a raft in hope of finding it. But everyone assumes they’re mad and will just drown themselves in the ocean.’
Olewala acknowledges sadly. ‘I think most of them do. While I was in Merkaan I checked likely numbers for people who have gone running after this ‘insane’ myth. If the numbers are accurate, hardly any of them make it across the water. Another reason not to make public that there really is an island there. I don’t want to think about how many more adventurous souls would drown if that happened.’
Severin is silent for a few thoughtful moments.
‘So... your origins are the reason you’re so disappointed that some of your people are supporting another attempt at a civil war?’
Olewala sighs. ‘Very disappointed. Education on the island includes so much study on the negative effects of war, I can’t imagine why anyone would be foolish enough to try to support another one.’
‘Let’s hope we get the chance to ask them and get an honest answer.’ Severin watches for landmarks as Lizard Sandbar appears ahead of us like the smooth back of a long golden worm reaching out from the shore into the blue sea. He turns to me.
‘I’ll stay quiet now so you can both deep-focus. Same bell as before to bring you out of it?’
I nod and close my eyes in concentration. The tug of gravity increases as Severin banks the tiny craft in a steep left-hand curve, leaving the searing deserts of his Irithen homeland behind and heading due east above the rippling waves.
12
I must be getting better at this flight-focus technique because I can tell just from the shift in the resonance that we’re approaching land. I’m already looking out of the window when Severin keys the sound of the bell for me. What I see takes my breath away.
‘It’s incredible! Beautiful and... impossible somehow.’
Severin pulls the craft round to circle above the island. Or rather, a long string of islands snaking through the turquoise water like the curved spine of a dragon, glistening in the sunlight. But it’s the form of each island that holds my gaze, rising sheer from the ocean in a latticework of slender stone arches. The space between the arches spills over with lush green vines and trees as if a giant has spun a tall multi-handled basket of fine rock threads and filled it with bright plants and flowers of every kind.
On a more practical note, I can’t see anywhere we might possibly land.
As if he guesses my thoughts, Olewala reaches for the shuttle’s com. ‘May I?’
Severin nods, keeping the craft on its circling course above the largest island.
Olewala keys transmit. ‘This is Webdancer Olewala, code number five zero seven requesting permission to land.’
There’s a crackly silence for a few moments, then a surprised voice comes back over the airwaves.
‘Ollie! What are you doing back here again you old goat? Thought we’d seen the last of you when you took that job in the capital!’
‘Less of the ‘old’ if you don’t mind, Mebele! I could still throw you across the dojo in a single round. Well, maybe two. On a good day, anyhow. A few things have come up with safety regulations for combat classes and I thought people here should be informed.’
‘Ugh. The joy of living here is not having regulations to worry about!’ Mebele sounds so disapproving I wonder if he’ll refuse to give us landing permission. Olewala doesn’t seem too concerned. Or else the banter is just a cover in case someone is eavesdropping on their coms signal.
‘Come off it Mebele, you have to have some rules. And these make a lot of sense. I remember several people getting injured the last year I was here. Life’s dangerous enough without adding more risk unnecessarily.’
‘Hmph. Well I suppose you’d better come in and put your new-fangled ideas to the Council. Though what they’ll say to it is another matter. You’re cleared for entrance two. See you later when I’m off duty?’
‘Get that pearapple brandy of yours ready,’ quips Olewala cheerfully. He cuts the connection and points Severin to the north side of the island, suddenly deadly serious. ‘Put the recon into dive just past that last rock sticking out like the dragon’s tongue. Then I’ll guide you into the dock. And no mention of why we’re really here. The traitors may be monitoring our airwaves.’
‘Sure.’ Severin keys the recon to dive mode and aims for the point in the ocean just beyond the flame-shaped rock. He’s obviously done this kind of air-to-sea dive before on ranger patrols, getting the angle just right to minimize the shock as the craft spears through the surface of the water and dives into shimmering blue-green depths.
‘Another five fathoms deep, then turn twenty degrees south.’ Olewala watches the curved shapes of underwater rock formations, using them as guides until a black circle appears in front of us. ‘There’s the entrance. Aim for the middle. The sides are jagged and could slice through the skin of the recon in a second.’
Severin keys the lights and heads straight for the middle of the tunnel. We follow it for a full minute before we’re stopped by a blank wall.
‘Can’t be a dead end?’ Severin holds the craft steady, his frown asking Olewala what he’s supposed to do now.
‘They’re scanning us for weapons. Then they’ll open the airlock.’ Olewala indicates a gate closing behind us, trapping the recon underground. Slowly, the water is pumped out until there is a generous six feet of air above the craft. The inner door opens and we float into the port like a small boat, the recon’s camouflage paint shifting from blue-green to grey and gold as rock and glow-lights replace water in our surroundings.
A broad-shouldered woman steps forward on the quay, her grey-green mottled wetsuit giving her the appearance of a human-form sea creature.
A heavily armed sea creature.
‘Surrender your weapons.’ She holds
out a demanding hand as we climb out of the recon.
Olewala and I give up our hunting knives. Severin passes her his knife and two dart-guns. There’s an awkward pause that tells him she’s already scanned everything he’s carrying. He hands over the bullet gun he took from Frat. The woman stares at it as if it’s some kind of abomination but she says nothing, simply motioning us to walk ahead of her down a long passageway cut into the rock.
I whisper to Olewala. ‘Where are we going?’
‘All newcomers are taken before the Captain of the Guard. I’ll be asked why I brought you here. You won’t be expected to say anything till I’ve finished.’
There’s no time for him to say more as we’re pushed through a doorway into another arched cave. The blue-grey rock floor is smooth and flat, unlike the walls which still bear the curved lines of natural formations. Several chairs are set around a central desk of polished dark wood. A tall woman with the same grey-green wetsuit and weapons harness stands by the far wall. Her face mask is pushed to the top of her head, revealing dark eyes watching us carefully.
Our guard places the confiscated weapons on the desk before stalking out without a word, her silent movements expressing her disdain for the gun she’d collected from Severin.
The tall woman examines each item before replacing it on the polished surface. She holds the bullet gun for a few long moments then looks up at Olewala, her expression unreadable.
‘So it is true then. Everything Janna told me. They are making these things ready for a war?’
‘Captain Aluna, I am sorry. After Janna found me in Merkaan I hoped we’d be able to stop it before things got worse here. But we could not. And it seems Janna was right to keep this news within just the seven Rhangarian Webdancers and yourself.’
‘And your old friend Mebele.’
He gives a wry laugh. ‘Inevitably. If Janna hadn’t told him and warned him to keep quiet before she left, he would have applied his gestalt expertise and guessed something was up anyhow. And given everyone no rest till he found out––and that might have warned our traitors.’ He notices Aluna’s startled look at the mention of traitors. ‘That is the worst news, Captain. We have learned the conspirators are coming to the island with air shuttles to plan the next stage of their project. Which confirms they have allies here.’
