The Foretelling of Georgie Spider

by Ambelin Kwaymullina

  Behind me, somebody made a choking noise. Probably Willis; her thoughts must be going in the same direction as mine. But the noise didn’t stop and it was followed by the sound of cups crashing to the floor.

  I spun around. All the Primes were choking, gulping for air and clutching their throats. My gaze fell on my taffa cup, the only one that was still full. I hadn’t drunk, and I was fine. They had, and they weren’t.

  Poison!

  I dashed to Willis, reaching her just as she tumbled out of her chair. She gazed up at me out of terrified eyes, silently begging me to help, only I didn’t know what to do. I cast a frantic glance towards the windows. The electricity was covering them too. There was no way out. And it sounded like Willis’s breathing was getting worse, although it was hard to be sure because it was difficult to hear anything over the panicked thumping of my heart. The Primes were dying and I had nothing I could use to save them.

  Except for my ability.

  Nicky, help!

  Nothing happened. Either he couldn’t sense me or he didn’t care about saving the Primes. I closed my eyes, pouring out my terror and desperation as I tried to make him understand. If the Primes die alone with me I’ll be blamed, and the whole world will come after the Tribe. Do you get it, Nicky? If I can’t save them I die too!

  Still nothing.

  Then I fell asleep.

  I must have fallen asleep, because I was dreaming, and it was a strange dream. I was sitting on grass that grew in odd blue and white patches, and around me were bright, angry lights that hissed with menace. The lights would hurt me if they could. I hunched my shoulders, trying to make myself a smaller target – and saw the bird.

  She was flopping on the ground, blue wings fluttering helplessly as she struggled against the taffa vine that was choking her. I lunged forwards and grabbed the vine with both my hands, pulling it in two directions so it came away from her neck. But my left arm was oddly weak and the vine fought back, wrenching itself out of my grasp. I gritted my teeth and took hold of it again, focusing on sending strength flowing into my arm. The weakness faded, and I pulled. The vine tried to slide away, and I held on tighter. I am stronger than this vine. I was stronger than anything in my own dream. Power surged through my body and I gave it one last yank.

  The vine came free. I fell back and the bird squawked and rose to her feet, fluffing out her feathers. She was okay. I sagged in relief. Then she squawked again, and I could hear the panic in it – no. That sound was coming from behind me.

  I turned to find there were three more birds – one green, one yellow, one brown – and all of them were being choked. Now I could see that a vine rose up from the grass in a central stalk before splitting into four strands that flowed outwards to grasp the birds by their vulnerable necks. I lurched up, and nearly fell. My legs were weak and unsteady. Tired. I was so tired, as if the effort of saving one bird had been almost too much. I’m stronger than tired. I’m stronger than anything. Only I wasn’t, because I’d been … injured? I couldn’t remember and it didn’t matter anyway because it didn’t change what I had to do. Animals were in trouble and I had to help them.

  I staggered to the central vine. It was about as tall as me and I hugged my arms around it, pulling backwards as I tried to uproot the deadly thing. It bent, but not much. I pulled again, bracing my feet against the grass. This is my dream and I am strong … I don’t feel strong … I AM strong!

  I threw back my head, snarling my defiance, and pulled.

  The vine uprooted. It went flying out of the grass and I flew with it, soaring backwards through the air and landing–

  –in an armchair?

  I gazed around in bewilderment. How had I gotten here? There was no grass, no lights, no taffa vine and no birds. Just a chequered carpet, fallen cups, electricity on the walls, and the Primes. Grant and Lopez were sitting on the floor next to each other, and Lopez was trembling like a leaf in the wind. Grant was hugging his knees to his chest, rocking back and forth as he muttered to himself. McAllister was in a chair, staring at me with his mouth hanging open. And beside me, Willis was taking one long breath after another as if she needed to reassure herself that she could still breathe.

  The birds – no, the Primes – were shaken and scared and in shock. But they were alive.

  THE ACCORDS

  ASHALA

  My stomach roiled. I put my head in my hands and focused on not throwing up. Sleepwalking always made me sick. Exhausted, too. So much so that holding myself upright in the chair was a mammoth effort. My body craved sleep, but this wasn’t over. We were still trapped and I could still hear streaker fire from outside. I tried to reach out to Connor. All I could sense was my own weariness. I’d know if he were … hurt. Surely I’d know. Except where was he? And where were Jules and Em? They’d been right on the other side of the door, and I knew they’d be trying to reach me. So why hadn’t they?

  “Ashala?”

  I lifted my head to look at Willis.

  “Thank you,” she said. “It’s not enough, but – thank you. And I hate to ask anything else, only can you get us out of this room?”

  “Sorry. My ability’s all used up. Won’t work again for ages now.” And to myself, I said, Connor and Ember and Jules are helping people who’ve gotten injured. Or waiting for the best chance to strike. Or something, and I couldn’t think about it any more because I wouldn’t be able to function if I did.

  McAllister rubbed at his throat. “What I just saw … that was you, using your ability?”

  His voice was trembling. Wonderful. I knew how I looked when I Sleepwalked – moving through the world with my eyes all white, reacting to things no one else could see. Most people found it scary, and McAllister was obviously no exception. “There was some kind of poison in the taffa,” I explained wearily. “I had no other way to save you.”

  From the expression on his face I’d frightened him off abilities for good. But I had much bigger problems than that right now. I forced myself up and staggered to the window, trying to make out what was happening without getting too close to the electricity. I couldn’t see much through the sparks, just the green blur of the garden, the blue blur of the ocean beyond, and flashes that probably meant weapons fire. A lot of weapons fire. There was the scent of smoke in the air, too. Something was burning. Part of the Residence? The gardens? The city? Whatever was happening, it was bigger than poisoning the Primes.

  “Can you see anything?” Willis asked.

  “Not much. A lot of streaker fire. And something burning, I think.”

  Lopez gasped, “What did you say?”

  “I said–” I began, and stopped. Lopez wasn’t talking to me. She was glaring at Prime Grant.

  “Nothing! It was nothing,” he babbled. “I don’t even know what I’m saying!”

  “Liar!” Lopez snapped. She rose to her feet, pointing an accusing finger at Grant. “He just said, ‘it was only meant to make us sleep’.”

  There was a shocked silence. Then Willis breathed, “Peter, you knew. You knew the taffa was poisoned!”

  “No! I didn’t. I thought …” His voice trailed off, and she finished the sentence.

  “You thought it would only make us sleep. How long have you been working with Terence?”

  He lifted his chin. “I’m not. I – I haven’t done anything, and besides, none of you have any right to judge me!”

  McAllister surged out of his chair and reached down to grab hold of the front of Grant’s shirt, hauling the smaller man upwards. He held him so that Grant’s feet dangled above the floor, and snarled into his face, “Tell. The. Truth!”

  Prime Grant started talking, the words tripping over each other in his hurry to get them out. “I’m s-sorry, I’m so sorry! Terence said Belle had lost her way, and she was being manipulated by rogue Illegals and, and, when she asked us to meet with the Tribe before the Council meeting I knew it must be true!”

  McAllister set him down and took a disgusted step back. “Terence blew up
the station. It never occurred to you that he was the one who’d lost his way?”

  Grant’s gaze slid to me. “I thought she was responsible for the station. I was trying to save my city – all the cities – from an Illegal threat–”

  “That Terence invented!” Willis interrupted. “Those Illegals you’re so afraid of are the ones he controls, you–” She stopped and sucked in a breath. When she spoke again the anger hadn’t quite left her voice, but it had retreated to lurk beneath the surface. “Recriminations won’t help any of us now. What did you think would happen while we were ‘asleep’?”

  “Terence was going to take you away to get you some help. He promised you wouldn’t be hurt!”

  Prime McAllister let out an incredulous bark of laughter. “And you believed him?”

  “Naturally he did,” Lopez drawled. “We all know that Peter is adept at believing what he wants to believe, especially when there’s something in it for him. I suppose Terence told you that you’d be the hero who helped to save Gull City from the big bad Illegals, didn’t he, Peter?”

  “That wasn’t why I did it.” But he couldn’t meet their eyes. He was foolish and weak. And this is one of the people that run the world. This was the man who lived while my brave Penelope was dead. I felt sick for an entirely different reason than before. Sick and angry, because it was so unfair that this was the life I’d been able to save, this man who …

  I gasped. This man who knew we were coming to the city. Terence’s information hadn’t come from inside the Gull City government. “It was you.”

  The Primes looked at me, and Grant shrank away. Which was sensible, because I wanted to take him apart with my bare hands. “You told Terence the Tribe was going to be here! You’re responsible for the station.”

  “No, no, I didn’t.” I could hear the false note in his voice. There was a roaring in my ears and a bitter taste in my mouth. I took a step towards him, so furious I was shaking with it.

  Another step – and Willis was in my way. She spoke too softly for the others to hear, “I have an idea, but you need to back off.”

  I glared at her, and she added, “Ashala – don’t let her death be for nothing.”

  I’d once said something similar to her, over another death. Jeremy Duoro, Willis’s advisor and friend, who’d been killed saving my life from a minion Firestarter. I didn’t want to back off. Only her friend had died for me, and I’d promised her it would mean something. I had to let her try whatever it was she wanted to try. I nodded, and shifted back to the window. I needed the length of the room between me and Grant; I didn’t trust myself any closer.

  Willis swung around to the other Primes. When she spoke she was putting her powerful voice to good use, sending her words rolling out over her audience. “There’s a battle going on outside. I think Terence is trying to take the city, and if he’s prepared to go this far, none of your cities are safe.” She paused, letting that sink in. The Primes exchanged uneasy glances, and Willis continued, “But we are not helpless. There’s four of us here and that’s enough for a Council meeting, which means there’s something we can do to defend ourselves. We can vote.”

  “Vote on what?” Lopez demanded.

  “On expanded Exemptions, as we were going to before.”

  This was her idea? Wild hope welled up, and I shoved it back down. It wouldn’t work. It couldn’t work. She needed four Primes out of the total seven to change the Exemption criteria, which meant everyone in this room had to vote with her. Grant wouldn’t and maybe not McAllister either, not after I’d scared him with Sleepwalking. Except … Belle Willis isn’t an idiot.

  She would never have begun this if she didn’t think she had a shot.

  “Think about it,” Willis said, in a quieter, more persuasive tone. “The only reason we are alive is because Ashala was here, and Terence didn’t know she would be, because I didn’t tell anyone she was coming. She’s what he didn’t plan for and she’s all that protected us.” She gestured to the walls. “This electricity? It’s the work of one of Terence’s people and he’s got a lot more. How do you expect to defend yourselves and your cities unless you’ve got people with abilities to help you?”

  “There’re plenty of Exempts already,” Lopez pointed out.

  McAllister shook his head. “By definition anyone with an Exemption has an ability that can’t be used to hurt someone.” He cast a sidelong glance at Lopez. “At least, that’s how it’s supposed to work.”

  So the other Primes knew or suspected that things were different in Spinifex City. Lopez met McAllister’s gaze with a blank, I-have-no-idea-what-you-mean expression. She was good at it too; I expect she’d had a lot of practice.

  Wait … wait … no one’s said “no”! On the contrary, Lopez and McAllister seemed to be considering the idea. Grant was hunched in on himself, his gaze darting between the other Primes. Weak and stupid. That worked for us now in the way it had worked against us before, and Willis realised it. Grant could be bullied or convinced. I might just be able to keep my promise to Pen after all.

  The corners of my mouth started to lift up into a smile. I tried to straighten them out again.

  Then McAllister said, “No.” And I didn’t have to try.

  He looked straight across the room at me, and continued, “I won’t vote on expanded Exemptions. But I will vote on ending the Citizenship Accords altogether.”

  I swayed, so stunned I felt dizzy. I’d heard him wrong. I must have heard him wrong. Except the other Primes were looking at him as if they thought they’d heard him wrong too.

  “Since when are you a reformer, Ian?” Lopez demanded.

  “Since today,” he replied. “Because I was dying and for what seems like the first time in my life, I saw things clearly. I felt how wrong that poison was. How … imbalanced.” He nodded at me. “Then you were there and you made things right again, and if that poison was imbalance then you were its opposite. I no longer believe abilities to be unnatural. And if they aren’t …” He shrugged his big shoulders. “I can’t justify the continuation of a set of Accords that treat people with abilities any differently to everybody else.”

  The expression on his face was the same as the one I’d seen before, the one I’d misinterpreted as fear. I didn’t make that mistake this time. It was awe. The true believer. I hadn’t scared him after all. I’d convinced him.

  “Well,” Willis said, sounding a bit giddy, “you all know I’ve got no problem with ending the Accords. Isabella?”

  Lopez glanced from McAllister to Willis. “We can’t just open the gates to detention centres! That would be doing no favours to Illegals or anyone else. Many of them would have nowhere to go.”

  “Staged implementation of the change,” Willis suggested. “Provided all detainees are released within six months.”

  Lopez sighed. “I can live with that.”

  “I can’t!” That was Grant. The others turned their attention to him and he took a quick step back. “I won’t be a part of this – and, and you can’t make me.”

  I locked my body into place, forcing myself not to go snarling towards him. Let Willis do this. Trust her to do this.

  “No one’s going to make you do anything,” Willis told him soothingly, and I wondered if Grant heard the false note in her voice. “But Terence did try to kill you too, Peter. In fact, if we make it out of here he’ll probably want you dead more than any of us, since you’re the one who can link him to the poison.”

  Lopez chimed in, “I don’t expect that you’ll last more than a few weeks without someone with an ability to protect you.” She looked him up and down, and gave a contemptuous sniff. “Perhaps fewer.”

  Grant swallowed. “I suppose I might be willing to consider expanded Exemptions.”

  “I’ve already said I won’t,” McAllister rumbled. “Come on, Peter – vote with us, man. Do it and we’ll lie for you.”

  That got Grant’s attention. He shifted towards Prime McAllister, and asked in a hopeful tone,
“Lie for me?”

  “We’ll say you had no idea anything was wrong with the taffa. You escaped certain death at the hands of that madman Terence Talbot right along with the rest of us.” McAllister glanced around at the others. “Any objections?”

  Yes! I object! I want the whole world to know what a traitor and a coward this man is. I shut my teeth on the words before they could escape me. Exposing Grant wouldn’t get me the world that was safe for kids and dogs. Keeping the secret might.

  Willis and Lopez shook their heads. McAllister raised a busy eyebrow at me, and I said, “I won’t say a word.”

  Grant brightened. “Well, in that case – I mean, given my responsibility to my people, and the danger Terence poses to the Balance, I suppose I could vote with you.”

  Lopez rolled her eyes. “You really are a–”

  “Let’s vote then,” Willis interrupted. “I hereby call to order this meeting of the Council of Primes. Four Primes in attendance. Are we all agreed this is a duly constituted meeting?”

  Everyone nodded, and she continued, “The motion under consideration is the repeal of the Citizenship Accords. All in favour?”

  Everyone raised their hands.

  “Four in favour,” Willis said. “None against. Motion carried.”

  Everyone lowered their hands. I didn’t understand. Wasn’t someone going to say or do something else? Willis noticed my confusion, and said gently, “The Citizenship Accords are repealed, Ashala.”

  Just like that? I couldn’t absorb it; I needed Georgie here to tell me this world was real. It was too sudden, too fast. Too easy. I couldn’t believe it had been that easy to get rid of the Accords all this time and nobody ever had. Or, no, not that easy. It was just that it wasn’t the actual vote that was the difficult bit. The struggle had come before. The struggle had cost lives.

  Willis knew it too, I saw it in the mix of triumph and sadness in her face. She was thinking of Jeremy. And the person I wanted to see most in this moment was someone I was never going to see again. I spoke to her in my head anyway. The Citizenship Accords are finished, Pen. What you did wasn’t for nothing. Then I smiled, because she’d want me to, a big, bright, happy smile.