He gave a slow nod. All his mannerisms tended to be a little slow, and not quite natural. “Some of my siblings wish to meet you. I have explained to them that you remake reality, you see. And that you will make it so that we do not exist.”
It was such a ridiculous idea I would’ve laughed, if it had been at all funny. “I’d never do that. I can’t do that.”
“You can, and you will.”
There was nothing to be gained in talking sense to Terence but I couldn’t stop myself from pointing out the obvious. “If I could kill you, why didn’t I do it when you tried to kill me?”
“That was before. Your ability has evolved. You cured the Primes, and your ability will only increase in strength as you grow older.” His licked his thin lips. “One day you will decide we should not be, and we will not.”
No, no, no … He was afraid. He truly believed what he was saying, and that meant the other aingls would hear it as truth. With the exception of Ember, they couldn’t knowingly lie to each other, but they could say any kind of nonsense if they believed it themselves. Terence had told a group of powerful synthetic lifeforms that I was going to kill them, and death was the aingls’ oldest and deepest fear.
I could feel something closing around me, like one of the cages they’d put animals into in the old world, and with it came a clawing panic. Or maybe that was Connor, because he saw the trap too. Going to the Conclave meant walking into a city run by my enemies and a room full of aingls who might well try to kill me. Not going to the Conclave meant there was a good chance some of the aingls would come looking for me and they’d come looking here. A choice between me in danger and the Tribe in danger was no choice at all.
I glared at Terence. “I’ll be there.”
“I am pleased to hear it.” He hesitated, then added, “You will tell my sister that I could not stay.”
He hadn’t phrased that as a question. But he was watching me with of his pale eyes, waiting for a response.
“Um. I’ll tell her.”
“You will tell her something else also. You will tell her that she understood once.”
Again not a question, and yet there was the faintest hint of a plea in his tone. For some reason it really mattered to him that I passed the message on. “I’ll tell her that too.”
“Good. Now I am going to depart.” His voice rose at the end of the sentence, making it the third time he’d come close to asking a question without actually doing so. He’s worried I’m going to try to stop him. Terence was so delusional it was almost pitiful. Except those delusions had ended Pen’s life, and they might end mine before this was though.
Connor gestured to the minion. “Come over, but walk. Don’t use your ability.”
The Blinker stalked across to us, scowling at Connor and at me. Then he turned his attention to Terence and his expression shifted into adoration tinged with awe. Alexander Hoffman had put “gods” at the top of his list of the evils of the old world, and seeing the Blinker idolise someone as flawed as Terence made it easy to understand why.
“Are you all right, sir?” the Blinker asked.
“I am well,” Terence answered. He held out his arm and his nose wrinkled just like it had before. He didn’t like the Blinker touching him. He didn’t want anyone with an ability touching him. I stared at the Blinker’s hazel eyes, willing him to see. Don’t you understand he hates you?
But all the Blinker did was reach out to place his hand reverently on Terence’s elbow. Both of them vanished.
I swivelled towards Pepper. Call Em! Tell her to make sure Terence is moving away from the Firstwood and not towards it!
The silence was filled with the sounds of saur claws tearing through grass as Wanders and Gnaws began to patrol the area. They skittered in a loose circle around us, heads darting back and forth and blue tongues flickering out to lick the air, which was how they smelled. They didn’t seem to find anything and in a few seconds Pepper’s voice came into my head. She says they’re definitely moving in the direction of the city and it’s going to take her another half an hour to get here and are you all right?
Tell her I’m fine. We can talk when she gets here. Tell her – actually, did you overhear everything Terence said? I figured she had. The Saur Tribe had excellent hearing on account of their bond with saurs, and if Pepper hadn’t been able to hear I suspected Wanders would have relayed the whole thing to her.
Yep. I heard.
Tell her all of it.
Pepper went quiet again. I looked at Connor. “Em says Terence is moving away.”
“Hardly surprising,” he growled. “He’s done what he came here to do now that you’ve been forced to go to the Conclave. He’s using the aingls to get to you.”
I didn’t say anything. I was thinking about the look on Terence’s face when he’d realised he wouldn’t see Em today. I knew what it was now. Disappointment. And when he’d said that she’d understood once, he’d meant she’d understood the things he had to do to protect them all from abilities.
“He’s not only using the aingls to get to me,” I said. “It’s the other way around, as well.”
He frowned. “What?”
“He’s using me to get to them. Terence has his city back and I think he wants other things back as well. I think he wants things to be like they were when the other aingls all looked up to him. He’s the big brother, and he’s making me the danger that brought them all together before.” The danger for which they’d created the Citizenship Accords. If Terence could convince the aingls they were under immediate threat again there was no end to the lengths they’d go to in order to protect themselves, and not just against me but anyone with an ability.
Except Terence would make very sure they started with me.
Connor knew it too. He put his hands on my shoulders, and said in a low, intense voice, “Terence doesn’t hurt you. Not you, not me, not the Tribe. Not any of us.”
He sounded fierce. Inside he was howling and I understood why. Him losing me to Terence was like me losing him to Neville. He couldn’t bear the thought of it. I couldn’t bear the thought of it. I reached up, tangling my hands in his hair and staring into the blue wildness of his eyes. “Terence doesn’t end us.” Neville doesn’t end us. I said it with absolute certainty, because I knew they couldn’t even if they did. Connor and I went on, in this life or the next.
He bent his head until it was resting against mine and for a moment we stood there in silence, each one listening to the other breathe.
Ash?
I raised my head. Yeah?
Em says she’ll come out here for a while to make sure Terence doesn’t turn back, but you and Connor should head for the Firstwood. Where it’s safe. Like right now.
Okay, tell her we’re going.
“Em,” I told Connor, “wants us to go back to the Firstwood.”
“Mmph.”
He didn’t want to let go of me. I didn’t want to let go of him right now, either. Or ever, if it comes to that.
“Walk,” I said. “We could walk, for a while. You probably shouldn’t use your ability for a bit anyway, with all the flying you’ve done today.”
He nodded and shifted to put an arm around my shoulders. I looked for Pepper, and found that she was riding on Wanders’s back.
We’re going now, Pepper. You be careful, okay?
You worry too much, Ash.
And Wanders’s voice came right on top of hers. We are saur.
Tougher than anything. I hoped they were.
I leaned against Connor and together we walked back towards the forest without letting go of each other. Now, or ever.
THE SLEEPER
GEORGIE
“I don’t know what to do!” Em said.
She had said that many times as she’d paced back and forth across the cave. She’d said it yesterday as well, when she’d come back from the grasslands after she’d made sure Terence was really gone. But we hadn’t had everyone gathered together yesterday, and today we did
. All the people whose choices mattered were here, and Daniel as well. Starbeauty was lounging in the corner, and Jules was sitting beside her. Daniel was standing by the map with his shoulders resting against the wall. Helper was here too only he wasn’t helping at the moment because he was asleep.
Jules held out his hand to Ember. “Quit pacing, Red. You’re making me tired just watching you.”
She let him pull her down beside him, and he said, “How’re you going with that weapon?”
Em had been building a weapon that looked like a streaker but wasn’t. She said it was a copy of something her sister Delta had once made, and she said that if she could replicate Delta’s design correctly, the weapon would make an aingl unconscious for a few hours. Everyone thought being able to make Terence unconscious was a good idea, even if he wasn’t unconscious for very long.
“It’s progressing,” Em said. “But it’s hardly a solution to this! I was trying to – I mean, the weapon is just to give us some protection against Terence, not all of them.”
“Is it all of ’em, though?” Jules asked. “Who’s the biggest threat? Other than Terence, obviously.”
My pet is not a problem. He is an excellent pet.
That made Ember smile but her smile went away again fast. “No, Leo’s not a problem. He’s basically on our side as long as whatever we’re doing doesn’t affect taffa. And Delta might not be a problem either, because she hates Terence. She hasn’t forgiven him for giving the circuits that were all that was left of Dominic to Neville Rose.”
“Do the others know Terence did that?” Jules demanded. “Couldn’t you use it to start a fight?”
Ember shrugged. “I don’t know if they know or not. Even if they don’t, finding out might not make them mad enough at Terence to turn against him, not when he’s telling them Ash is going to kill them. And if they think Ash is a genuine threat, they’ll be able to justify her death.”
That mattered because Ember’s dad had made it so the aingls couldn’t kill unless they were sure the death was justified. Em said that if an aingl killed without being sure a death was necessary, they shut down, which was like being dead for them. Em also said that Terence saw threats everywhere so it wasn’t hard for him to kill.
Ember sank her head into her hands. “I’ve done this,” she whispered. “I called the Conclave. I made the wrong choice.”
Jules put his arm around her. I said crossly, “You did not make the wrong choice. The blizzard was much closer before you called the Conclave. You made the right choice. Now we just need another one.”
Then Daniel said, “What about moving the Conclave? To here?”
Em raised her head again. “We can’t bring my family to the Firstwood!”
“Not the forest. The Steeps.”
The Steeps was behind the centre. I’d never been there. Daniel had, and he said nothing grew there and the rocks went on forever.
“Gull City is dangerous,” Daniel pointed out. “And Terence has proved he can get here fast from wherever he is, so keeping him in the city for the Conclave doesn’t appear to be a particular advantage. Em, wouldn’t it be better to have Ash – and you – closer to us? Because we all know we’re not going to be able to stop Ash from going.”
Em nodded slowly. “You’re right. It would be better to move it, and I can do that. But it’s not going to be enough, and I don’t see any other choices that will help Ash.”
You require the fifth.
Ember stared at Starbeauty. “The fifth person whose choices matter?” Then she stared at me. “Georgie, who is it?”
“I don’t know. I haven’t Seen.”
Your not knowing and not Seeing is not important, and nor is my knowing and Seeing. What matters is that the fifth is known to himself.
“So who is he then?” Jules asked. Starbeauty was silent, and Jules reached across to scratch behind her ears. “Come on, beautiful, give us a name.”
She ignored him, licking at her paws. Above me, the spiders suddenly chittered, passing on a message from other spiders elsewhere in the caves.
“Ash and Connor are coming,” I said. That meant it must be later, because that was when we’d arranged for Ash and Connor to meet us to talk about the Conclave. Then we’d come earlier so we could talk about choices without them. “Everyone stop talking.”
Everybody did, and everybody had still stopped talking when Ash and Connor walked into the cave. They both paused in the entrance, looking around at us with puzzled expressions.
“You’re all very quiet,” Ash said.
Had I done it wrong? Maybe I should have told them all to keep talking instead. But Daniel knew what to say.
“Actually, we were just discussing moving the Conclave.” He explained why.
“Good idea,” Connor said.
Ash looked doubtful. “I don’t know if I like all the aingls being here. What if they decide to come after the Tribe?”
“All it really means,” Ember said, “is that they’ll get here a bit quicker than they would have if they’d come from the city. I don’t think they’ll come for us anyway, not personally. If they decide the Tribe is a threat they’re more likely to send in enforcers, or help Terence do so. And that they can do from anywhere.”
Ash opened her mouth to speak. Before she could Nicky came bounding in, barking madly. He ran in a circle around Ash and Connor and tore back out. Then he barked from the passageway. “Woof, woof, WOOF!”
“He wants us to follow him,” Ash said. She stuck her head out the entrance and said, “Nicky? Did you get your new stick wedged into a crevice again?”
Nicky whined.
“I’ve told you to stop trying to bury it in the caves!”
“Woof!”
She looked back at us. “Give me a minute. I’ll just go find his stick.”
Ash went out and Connor followed her.
Starbeauty rose, and flicked her ears at Jules. I have a name for you.
“Oh yeah? Who is it?”
Nicky.
Jules gasped and scrambled to his feet, pulling Ember up with him, and the both of them tore after Ash and Connor. Daniel and I went to go too but Starbeauty said, Wait.
We looked at her and she said, Daniel is required here.
“I am?” Daniel asked. “Required for what?”
You are required for vine. She stalked over to my pile of vines in the corner of the cave, and sat beside it. There will be much mapping to be done and more vine is needed. More is needed now.
I stared at the pile and felt bad. I had been letting it get too low.
“Go,” Daniel said, bending down to brush a kiss against my cheek. “I’ll get your vine.”
That was only a small kiss and it wasn’t enough. So I pulled his head down to mine for a much better kiss, a kiss that made me dizzy and happy and real. When it was done I whispered against his skin, “I love you, Daniel.”
“I love you, Georgie.”
I let him go and skipped after the others. The spiders told me they had gone into the warm black of the deeper passages, so I took a solar lamp from a cave and ran until I caught up.
When I found them Ash and Connor had lights too and they were holding them up to show the way as everyone trailed after Nicky.
Then Nicky stopped. Ash shone her lamp over grey stone. We were at a dead end.
Jules sighed. “That dog’s taken a wrong turn somewhere.”
But Ember said, “No. He hasn’t.”
She moved to the stone and put her hands on it, pressing. Something clicked and the wall slid up into the ceiling. Light flooded out, and I threw up a hand to shield my face. Then I peeked through my fingers into a passage that wasn’t made of rock. It was shiny and silver, and there were lights running along the sides of the floor.
Nicky barked again. “Good boy,” Ash said. “Good boy for finding … whatever this is.”
“It’s the tunnels,” Ember answered. “The ones that run beneath the Firstwood. This is where they connect to the c
aves.”
Em went wandering into the passage and everyone else wandered after her. I reached out to touch the walls. They were cool and smooth and flat. My spiders wouldn’t like it here. It was too bright, and too cold, and there were no crevasses to hide in.
Ember kneeled down next to Nicky, taking his head in her hands and staring into his eyes. “Are you trying to tell me what I think you are?”
“Woof!”
“I didn’t know you spoke dog, Em!” I said.
“I don’t.” She stood up. “But sometimes I understand what Nicky is saying. I think he’s brought us here because of my dad. These tunnels are where he’s … sleeping.”
Ash cast a suspicious glance up at the ceiling. “Is it going to collapse or something? Do we need to move your dad?”
Ember shook her head. “No. This part is completely stable. This isn’t about moving him. It’s about waking him up.”
“I didn’t think you could,” I said. “Because his head is broken.”
“If I can fix him,” Em said, “then it’s okay to wake him, and if I’m understanding Nicky right, he knows how to fix him. And once he’s fixed … my dad could make a difference to the Conclave.”
“How?” I asked, in the same moment that Ash and Connor and Jules asked the same thing.
Em looked around at everyone. “Eight aingls.” She counted them off on her fingers. “Me. Nicky. Leo. Not threats. Delta, possibly not a threat because she’s mad at Terence, only … I don’t know. That leaves Terence himself, Katya, Maleki and Nova. We can’t do anything about Terence. As to everyone else …” She sighed. “We all love Dad, even though he’s – well, sometimes he’s not the best dad. So if he makes it clear that he won’t be happy about Ash dying, some of my brothers and sisters might leave her alone. It won’t solve the Terence problem, of course. But it might hold off the others.”
Fixing Ember’s dad sounded like a good idea. Only Jules shook his head. “No offence, sweetheart, but are you so sure your dad is going to tell ’em he wants wolfgirl alive? Isn’t he a little … unreliable?”
“He’s a lot unreliable,” Ember said. “But he’ll want to protect Ash. Because she’s going to make him better.”
The Foretelling of Georgie Spider Page 17
