Cloudland

by Lisa Gorton

  Wist picked himself up. ‘Well,’ he said. After a pause, he added: ‘We did it. It doesn’t seem . . .’

  He stopped again but she knew what he meant. Instead of exaltation, or even relief, she felt drained. Slowly, they walked towards Alkazia.

  They found themselves stepping over a varnish of water: Alkazia’s ice-melt, filled with reflections of sky. It gave Lucy a strange impression of walking on emptiness. She thought of that great weight of water pouring down on Earth. But that will be the end of it, she thought. These clouds will thaw, and then the rain will stop. Relief coursed through all her nerves.

  ‘Can we find Daniel?’ They passed between huddled groups of Cloudians. Some stood pressing their fingers into each other’s faces. Others knelt, gazing at their reflections in the ice-melt.

  ‘The Megalith,’ she whispered, bending to touch a still, ash-coloured heap. Its skin felt soft. Flakes of it lifted and spun into the wind. The Megalith’s head had twisted sideways, pressing into the plain. Lucy’s sadness was vast and blank. ‘It saved me,’ she said. ‘In Alkazia, it shielded me.’

  Wist stared down at it. ‘What would a Megalith be doing in Alkazia?’

  Lucy paused – not thinking, exactly, but feeling out the shape of thoughts. ‘You never really saw the Kazia. She had three Stratus trapped in her body as though she’d frozen around them.’

  Wist stepped back. His ears fanned slowly.

  ‘The statue must have started it all,’ Lucy continued, ‘when she ordered the Megalith to kill those Stratus who escaped.’

  ‘How did you –’

  ‘Fracta told me. The statue ordered the Megalith to get a piece of absolute cold. That was how it started.’

  Wist pressed his hand against his cheek. ‘They can’t know,’ he whispered, turning his head to gaze at the Cloudians and at the last shards of Alkazia. ‘They would . . .’ He breathed out slowly through his mouth. ‘It would upset the entire system.’

  ‘But they will know,’ answered Lucy. ‘Because I’ll tell them. I’ll tell them everything. The statues will have to free the Stratus now.’

  Wist’s mouth had fallen open, showing his ridged, toothless gums. With his mouth still open, he started nodding. ‘Alright,’ he said at last. He looked over Lucy’s shoulder at the Stratus, still waiting in two lines. ‘Alright.’

  Lucy saw Daniel, sitting with Fracta and the Heir. With his head thrust forwards, Daniel was peering into the softening light. He was searching for her. She called out and started towards him.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

  Home

  A red ball glowed like a second sun in the evening colours of the sky: a hot-air balloon, flying so smoothly it might have been holding still while the sky slid back. In its basket, a gaunt figure clung to the ropes.

  ‘January!’ Lucy leapt up, with Daniel beside her. She forgot the stinging pain in her hand as the two of them waved their arms and started yelling.

  ‘So you’re going,’ said Wist, behind them. His voice sounded as bleak as the wind in dry branches. Fracta and Jovius stood watching beside him. Jovius smiled vaguely, while Fracta stepped forwards.

  ‘Thank you,’ she said, stretching up to press her cheek against Lucy’s. Her face felt as cool and smooth as a night window. Lucy felt the ache she had always felt when she held her cheek against glass.

  Wist watched as Fracta pressed her cheek against Daniel’s, then he dropped into a low bow. When he straightened up, the five of them gazed at each other in silence. Lucy was aware of the plain, vast around them.

  ‘Climb up!’ called January. ‘I’ll take you home.’ The balloon was so close they could hear its burner – a sound like radio static. ‘Hurry!’ she called, and flung a rope ladder over the side.

  The ladder was made of scratchy, ordinary rope. Its rungs tugged against Lucy’s sore hand as she climbed. When she looked down, she saw January had let the balloon rise. Lucy and Daniel were hanging between the sky and its reflection on the plain.

  All at once, Lucy realised this was her last moment in the clouds. She could not see Wist, Jovius or Fracta. In fact, she couldn’t see any Cloudians. But Daniel was just behind her. She saw his face shining with the wide plain all around it. ‘We did it!’ she called. He grinned up at her. Then they started climbing again.