"Why not?" Olivia asked. "Surely the Council has a say in things all over BloodDark."
"You'd think so,” Caveman replied, rubbing his jaw. "Truth is, it's not so easy. The Penumbrans fought longer and harder than anyone to keep their independence from the Pure Bloods, and they're not going to relinquish their independence just because of the treaty. It makes dealing with them ticklish at times."
"Will we be in any danger while we're there?" Olivia asked.
"No. Far from it. The Penumbrans I've met are great people. They're just... touchy... and it's understandable. They'll come around in time. We just have to work things out, that's all."
Hernando grinned. "I'm glad the Penumbrans allowed the railroad line to be extended to their city. It makes travel a lot easier. Deciding what an archeological site is or isn't shouldn't be difficult. On Earth, I have no problem telling what's a current habitation from a long-ago one. Ancient homes don't have dish antennas or sports team flags hanging in the front window."
"Very funny." Olivia stuck out her tongue at her boyfriend's attempt at humor. "Keep your day job."
"You might assume it would be as cut and dried knowing what's what here, but it isn't." Caveman sighed. "Believe it or not, runaway humans have been living near present-day Penumbra City in homes cut into the sides of the cliffs. They've been living in the cliff faces for hundreds of years, completely isolated from the rest of BloodDark society—human, Quadsang, Overseer or Pure Blood. I don't think anyone knew how many cliff folk dwelled there until recent times, when we took a census."
"They sound like many of Earth's indigenous peoples, trying to live apart from the colonizers who took over their lands. Could these cliffs be the draw for so many Earth academics?" Hernando asked.
"They very well could be." Caveman nodded. "We'll see. By living apart from the rest of us all this time, the cliff dwellers have maintained much of their original Earth cultures and methods. We're going to travel from the city to the site using an ancient form of transport they've resurrected since we declared a new government. They say it's the most efficient way to travel great distances in the desert."
"An ancient form of transport to cross the desert?" Olivia wrinkled up her nose as she recalled a long-ago class field trip to a petting zoo. "You mean stinky ol' camels or mules?"
Caveman shook his head. "Not it's not a camel or a mule, but I'll assume these crazy cliff dwellers' method is faster and smells better. How these folks have kept their primitive technology alive all this time is a mystery to me, but the Alphans who've contacted them say it's quite impressive."
He took a step forward and lowered his volume. "To tell you the truth, if it impresses a snobby group of Pure Bloods, I can't wait to see it."
Chapter Ten
Olivia and the others gathered in the observation car located behind the massive locomotive to get their first glimpse of Penumbra City. The farther south they traveled, the lighter the sky grew, until the train passed through a land of perpetual twilight. Scrubby plants dotted the landscape, which rose by gradual stages toward a range of sharp-fanged mountains, the higher peaks edged with sharp orange light. Olivia sensed the powerful locomotive taking the strain as it progressed up the gradient toward what she first took to be a blank cliff face. As the light increased, she saw it was in fact a massive wall, like one encircling some ancient city in Europe, built between two of the taller peaks. Towers stood at intervals along its length, the crenellations rimmed with amber light, throwing the ground in front of the wall into deep shadow.
"Quite a sight, isn't it?” Caveman sounded impressed.
"Yeah, it is.” Olivia pointed. "Are those gunports?”
Caveman squinted. "Sure looks like it. I told you the Penumbrans value their independence. They're more than prepared to fight for it.”
The train began to slow as it approached the wall. A quarter mile out, it sounded a mournful double blast from its whistle, raising echoes from the implacable surfaces of stone wall and mountain. The face of the wall flooded with light as a number of searchlights came on. Their beams picked out the approaching train and played over its length, making Olivia and the others squint. In the increased light, she saw debris from the recent railroad construction piled to one side on the sandy ground, the searchlight beams making shadows dance and sway about the heaps.
A bell rang, signaling the train's approach to the mouth of a huge gateway. The echoing sound of the wheels on the tracks increased to an almost painful level as the train passed through the cavernous tunnel and exploded into dazzling daylight.
"Wow.” Olivia shaded her eyes. "I'd forgotten what sunlight was like."
"Ouch.” Hernando winced. "I need to go below and grab my dark glasses.” He pecked her on the cheek. "I'll see you when we disembark.”
Olivia watched him go, regretting his sun-sensitive Quadsang nature prevented Hernando from enjoying the sight of the city as much as she did.
"This must be the Maidan.” Caveman indicated the broad sweep of open ground the other side of the massive wall. "It's the great public area the citizens use for recreation, exercise, and military assemblies.”
"It must measure several thousand acres.” Olivia waved to a group of people standing and watching as the train passed by. They waved back, and she heard their cheer over the engine noise. "Why do they call it Penumbra City?" she asked. "I thought penumbra meant twilight. This is more like late afternoon."
"From what I hear, when the city was established it did lie in twilight." Caveman shrugged. "Perhaps the sun got brighter over time or the world shifted, somehow. I don't know, but it makes you think."
"It does. If we could bring solar panel technology here it would have a terrific impact." Olivia leaned on the sill to watch the world go by.
Penumbra City spread in all directions, its multitude of buildings a bizarre juxtaposition of styles from medieval to modern, crushed up against each other with no discernible plan. The city filled the deep, broad valley between the mountains. Tall domes, steeples, and towers rose here and there. The buildings appeared to stop at a definite line short of the plateau covered by the Maidan. Olivia wondered at the reason behind such a boundary.
Caveman pointed. "I think we're here."
A building resembling an old-fashioned railroad depot stood alongside the track, a crowd of people gathering on the wooden platform. Unlike the preserved examples Olivia had seen during her occasional tours with her model-railroad hobbyist father, this depot looked brand new.
The train clanked to a stop with a weary but satisfied sigh. "Penumbra City!" came the unnecessary cry throughout the carriages.
Olivia followed the others as they threaded along the carriage and out onto the platform. Hernando had taken the time to cover himself up well with clothing and apply a special kind of sun block to areas of skin left exposed.
She eyed him. "It's warm here. You're going to boil in your get-up. You sure you don't want to peel off a few layers?"
He shrugged, a movement made comical by the heavy, brown leather duster he wore. "Better than frying in the sun."
"You're not the only one who thinks so around here, Hernando." Caveman nodded toward a sedate figure wearing a burqa and others wearing burnous. "Although those look lighter and more comfortable than your gear."
"You're right. I'll see if I can get one for myself."
A small reception committee had gathered to welcome the strangers to the city, and a much larger crowd pressed behind them. Olivia thought it all looked good-natured and organized. After a couple of mercifully short speeches from dignitaries, they were led to where honest-to-goodness trams awaited to take them into the city proper.
As they clanked along a set of rails set into the surface of a wide boulevard, Olivia gazed out at the passing scene, taking in what she could of Penumbra City.
Most of the city's windows faced the eternal sun as it hung like a great mandarin orange low on the horizon. Wooden doors covered in intricate and marvelous designs gave ac
cess to the buildings. Wrought ironwork and painted window boxes were everywhere. In fact, greenery flourished, on rooftops and in window boxes, in plazas and courtyards, the citizens utilizing all available space to grow fruit and vegetables. A multitude of public fountains shot upward, water droplets catching the sunlight to fill the air with rainbows.
A hint as to the source of the water lay to the east, where a broad avenue opened up to show a distant view of a mighty cascade tumbling from the mountain heights to feed a huge lake nestling in a high valley. Shaded alleyways opened between the buildings on either side. Unlike those Olivia had encountered on Earth, these alleys looked clean and quiet, places for people to live and work rather than to fear or avoid.
She'd been told an official ten-hour clock existed, but with the sun fixed permanently in the heavens, time in the city appeared to be a matter of personal choice and arrangement. Bright awnings and shutters provided the means of blocking out the light when it came time to sleep. Most of the citizens held the sun in warm regard, for it gave them life, light and, in the past, safety from predatory Pure Bloods.
The streets, arcades, souks, and bazaars thronged with people going about their business and pleasures. The party from the dark side drew curious stares but no overt hostility that Olivia could see. A few vehicles traveled the thoroughfares, some appearing to be steam-powered, although most were carts, wagons, and even caravans drawn by an ox-like species with russet hides and bad-tempered expressions.
Caveman came back to where Olivia and Hernando sat. He stood with his hands on the seat backs to either side of the aisle and smiled at them. "We'll have the equivalent of a day before heading off to see what those cave-dwellers are up to. Until then we can enjoy the city's hospitality."
"Oh, goody." Olivia clapped her hands and glanced at Annara. "We can go shopping."
Annara nodded. "Yes, we could. I need a new quiver and arrows and I thought I saw a sign for a fletcher's workshop."
"Shopping," Hernando murmured. He rubbed his temples and groaned.
*****
"Is that thing for real?"
Olivia grinned from ear to ear, enjoying the stunned look on Annara's face. "Oh, yeah. It's for real, all right."
Their guides had moored their airships to posts at the edge of the mesa. The Sandhill Docks were comprised of a small forest of mooring towers and a row of huge hangars spread across the open flatland to the south of the city. A massive airship floated in the blue sky like a barracuda grazing at a coral reef, the shoal of smaller craft around it resembling remora fish. The air resonated with the low pulse of engines and the stutter of propellers as airships maneuvered, docked or departed. It reminded Olivia of a busy airport, but with a lot more class.
She whistled as she glanced over the side of the mesa. One false step and a person would plunge at least thirty stories before splattering into a million pieces on the rocks in the ravine below.
"So, Olivia, you say you've always wanted to ride in one of these blimps on Earth? Over a football stadium?"
Annara slouched with her hand on her hip, doing her best to affect her tough fighter image, but Olivia saw through it. Her friend was terrified of the idea of climbing into the glass-enclosed gondola dangling underneath the gargantuan-sized hot air balloon. She needed to convince Annara their air journey was an adventure and not a suicide mission.
"Yes, I have a friend who has a cousin who had a neighbor who rode in the Goodyear blimp, and he said it was the most awesome trip ever. He took zillions of photos from a couple thousand feet up—he even snapped a picture of his own house from above."
"Earthers do have some strange ideas of what goes for entertainment, but still..." Annara frowned and pointed at the massive dirigible. "How are overgrown children's balloons going to take us all to the site in one piece?"
"Quite efficiently, or so I'm told," Dradix interjected as he approached them. Like most of the Pure Bloods and many of the Overseers, Dradix wore extra-dark sunglasses, a large-brimmed hat and gloves to protect his fair skin and sensitive eyes from the dusky sunlight of the penumbra zone. "I understand you are familiar with this form of transportation, Olivia of the Clan Brown."
Olivia nodded to the Pure Blood technician. "I am. I'm just surprised to see not one, but dozens of these airships on BloodDark. Why didn't you all know about airships in BloodDark City before now?"
Dradix scratched his narrowed chin in thought. "As a child, my father told me fanciful bedtime stories about evil human pirates who flew through the air and terrorized our peaceful dwellings, but I always thought these tales were flights of fantasy, fictional constructs to lure us off to dreamland." He chuckled. "I mean, really. How could mere humans, without the help of their Pure Blood masters, accomplish such feats of technology?"
Annara rolled her eyes. "How indeed."
Olivia bit her tongue, keeping her comment to herself. Annara's disgruntled tone didn't bode well for the several hours they'd be traveling to the site of the unimaginatively-named protective device. Before they’d arrived at Penumbra City, Hernando had emphasized the need of cooperation and respect. No arguing or name calling, no matter what. Olivia knew it didn't take much to provoke Annara to anger, so she took her friend by the arm and steered her away.
"We'll see you when we land, Dradix," Olivia called out over her shoulder to the Pure Blood Portal technician. They strolled toward the ruling council's designated airship.
"I could snap the skinny bloodsucker in half with one flick of my wrist," Annara muttered before turning to her friend and smiling. "Notice how I'm acting like a civilized person today. Aren't you pleased with me?"
"You're handling yourself very well." Olivia winked and suppressed a giggle. "Would you like me to ask Caveman if you could travel with our group?"
Annara sighed. "No, thank you. I already have an assigned group. It doesn't include Dradix, so rest assured I'll behave myself. I'm sorry I can't travel with you and Hernando, but our security team is stretched thin as it is." She scanned the crowds and made a quick head count. "It looks like a large portion of our 'casual tourists' chose to go by land transport. Afraid of dropping out of the skies, I suppose."
"You're not afraid." Olivia squeezed her friend's hand. "You've flown in aircraft on Earth, so you're a professional air traveler now."
"True, and the upside of airship travel is we'll get there faster and have more time to investigate the device and determine if Clan Alpha is telling us the truth."
Olivia nodded. "You doubt it's a weapon to protect BloodDark from an attack from space like I do."
"I think it does protect something," Annara said, narrowing her eyes in the unaccustomed light, "but who or what it protects is the question. The most likely answer is it's another full-sized Portal device. The energy signatures did resemble one. Perhaps Clan Alpha wants to transport their whole house at once to another world to begin again without us pesky humans in the mix."
"Pesky humans." Olivia sighed. "Pesky describes us well, I'm afraid. We can't quite leave well enough alone."
They halted in front of the lead airship, the largest of the fleet. Its gondola could carry one hundred passengers, and so the ruling council and their closest advisors were assigned to it. The sheer breadth and length of its blimp amazed Olivia. It was filled with hydrogen they had been told—not hot air—and so it was highly flammable. A spark of electricity or an ember from a cigarette could set it alight like the infamous Hindenburg crash of the 1930s. She was glad smoking wasn't a vice on BloodDark, eliminating that particular risk, as well as preventing her from becoming airsick from the acrid smell of tobacco smoke.
Why they didn't outlaw smoking altogether on Earth after the Hindenburg explosion, Olivia hadn't a clue. One unfortunate accident couldn't have killed off an entire industry, could it? Helium made for safer airships and didn't go up in flames as easily as hydrogen. It wasn't like cars, trains and planes didn't crash and burn on a daily basis.
"It's quite a magnificent aircraft, isn't it?"
Moreau's voice interrupted Olivia's musing. "I'm told my great-great-great-great-grandfather once flew in one across the whole of BloodDark in several days, setting a record for travel."
"Yet another feat of Pure Blood daring we've never heard about until now, huh?" Annara quipped. She turned to Olivia and whispered, "I'd better get to my assigned station. You're going to be okay with your bloodsucking ex-boyfriend on your airship?"
"I'll be fine. Hernando and Caveman will be with me. I thought Valori would be here by now, too."
"I did ask around this morning, but her whereabouts are still a mystery. Drucinda was supposed to have arrived as well. Perhaps they're already on their way to the site in one of the land transports. We'll know when we get there. Good luck."
"Good luck to you too—and Annara—" Olivia winked as her fellow Resistance fighter turned to go. "If you feel a bit queasy, don't look down. Think how much you'd rather deck Moreau or Dradix instead. It'll keep you focused."
Annara laughed. "You do the same."
Annara assumed a military posture and strode toward the crowd milling about one of the smaller airships. Olivia recalled how brave her friend acted when they followed their Resistance cell into the winding catacombs of BloodDark city after admitting her fear. She had been a true role model for all of them. If anyone could convince others she wasn't deathly afraid of heights, it was Annara.
"Shall we proceed to our embarkation point?" Moreau asked.
Olivia startled back to the present. "Oh, yes, yes we should. I don't want to hold up our progress today." They strolled side by side toward the airship.
"I don't think I'll ever understand these concepts of night and day, morning and evening," Moreau admitted. "Even after spending time on Earth when I was younger, I find this idea of changing patterns of sunlight very strange."
"Your people would." Olivia furrowed her brow. "How long a time did you spend on Earth? Is it why you speak English so well?"
Olivia's Decision Page 9
