In Arcadia (Touchstone Book 5)

by Andrea K Höst

  Making Gidds Selkie catch his breath had become a main source of Laura's 'spare, precious moments'. And this time she'd even remembered to start a log so that, during times when she needed a captive fragment of joy, she could watch him go still, so completely focused on her.

  "I would be glad to," he said, and his beautiful voice was husky.

  He took her hand, and she led the way, reflecting wryly that it said something about her that showing Gidds her workroom felt more momentous than the sex.

  "I've been guessing that the door probably signals 'private'," she said, as they reached her room.

  In response, he shared her the feed of his vision, and the plain white door was suddenly stitched over with silver tracery. Not quite bars, or chains, or ghostly boards, but a mass that held something of all these things, and which quite clearly warned intruders away.

  Laura laughed, almost embarrassed by how truly she'd spoken. "My art supplies are the one thing I'm very organised about, and I was always having to lock the kids and the cat out, or find everything in chaos. And, when we were children ourselves, Sue and Bet would take positive joy in creeping up behind me. So I'm in the habit of keeping the door shut."

  She opened it, and watched Gidds' face rather than his feed as he caught his breath for the second time in a handful of minutes.

  Her own eyes showed only two stools side-by-side before an empty workbench, and a window looking out onto grey evening. Laura was very particular about wrapping and storing current projects, and putting her tools away, so there was nothing else of note from this angle. But Gidds' feed showed her a room filled with a riot of whorls and spirals, scrolls and arabesques.

  For a moment Laura could only blink, overwhelmed by layer upon layer, but then sorted out two distinct sets of patterns. One, the blue of a twilight sky, covered the whole of the room, though concentrated most around Laura's favourite spot at the bench. The other was less widespread, but darker, stronger: vivid threads woven through the larger skein.

  "We've rather painted the room in silver and gold, haven't we?" Laura said, awed and delighted. "Does everyone make different colours?"

  Gidds shook his head. "Liranadestar has been spending time here? It looks like she has been using her abilities."

  "We've been making models of our characters from Red Exchange," Laura explained. "Do…do you mean that Lira might have been making a version of her character in the Ena, as well?"

  "Creative activities have been shown to leave a more marked imprint," Gidds said. "But it is not something we have tested in any depth with Cassandra." He took a step into the room. "There is a great sense of belonging here. Both yours and Liranadestar's."

  Laura flushed, shaken by a strange mixture of pride and tenderness. She had had numerous thoughts about abruptly becoming 'Unna Laura' to so many children, but foremost among them had been a desire to live up to the role.

  "I find myself desperately wanting to protect people from the things that have already happened to them," she said.

  The time until Gidds' meeting was conveniently filled by a demonstration of the interesting patterns produced during extended bouts of kissing. And then, after a meeting and a shower, she did watch him sleep for a while, and replayed the log of the patterns they had made together, in her workroom.

  For all the pain Place Sight brought him, it filled Gidds' life with wonder. And she was fitting into that, less clumsily than she had feared.

  When the opportunity presented, who would not want to live such an extraordinary life? Like learning to fly, it was something Laura could not help but embrace.

  Chapter Seventeen

  "So this place is going to be on a river instead of a lake?" Julian said.

  "What makes you say that?" Laura asked absently, casting an eye over Lira and Julian to ensure that all sensible precautions for a day out in the sun had been taken.

  "Because it's called Areziath, Unna Laura," Lira said. "River City."

  "I thought 'river' was 'Avez'," Laura said, picking up one of the backpacks weighted down with lunch.

  "Arez," Lira said firmly.

  "In Old Muinan, Mum," Julian said, grabbing his backpack. "Come on—we'd better go make sure Aunt Sue isn't still in bed."

  But Sue had Nick, Alyssa and Maddy to haul her out of her Pikachu onesie and into some semblance of order.

  "Come on, slowpokes!" she called, waving from further down the path. "Laura, you need to overcome this habit of always showing up late."

  Laura offered her sister some rolled eyes, then said to Julian: "If you've managed to add Old Muinan to your accomplishments, along with beating me to adulthood, I'm going to have to seriously think about getting up earlier to make up lost ground."

  "The trick is to stay up all night, Mum. Or just asking Lira."

  "Ask Lira what?" Sue asked.

  "What Areziath means."

  "River City. According to Muinapedia."

  "Hey, we weren't going to look it up beforehand," Laura protested.

  Sue shrugged. "I didn't look at any pictures. Just checked the bugs and heat factor. Southern hemisphere, spring, but a bit more temperate than the Pandora region. If it gets snow at all, it'd only be a light dusting, and we'd be well past any spring melt."

  Since this was barely more than Gidds had already told them, Laura relaxed and instead waved to the trio of black-clad Setari waiting at the docks. Zee, Mara and Alay had most likely already been involved in performing surveys of Areziath during the initial months of Muina's resettlement, but all three of the senior Setari greeted the small expedition with bright smiles and no sign that they resented their years of training and incredibly deadly skills being wasted on guard duty at a picnic.

  "All I know is that Areziath is beautiful, and an unusual example of the platform towns," Laura said, in response to a question from Alay. "Gidds thought I'd like it, but suggested I not look it up."

  "Maze loves it," Alay said. "And visiting without any idea of what to expect—especially at this time of year—is an excellent idea. There's a good deal of debate over what to do with the site…but I won't go on. You'll see soon enough."

  "It's so special that we had a little competition to see who got this assignment," Mara said, with a meaning grin at Laura.

  To watch wide-eyed? Laura smiled wryly, finding she wasn't bothered by their warm curiosity.

  The arrival of their transport distracted her from further reflection. This was a small aircraft known as a tanz: a highly manoeuvrable vehicle that always made Laura think of the space shuttle as if designed by Batman.

  It settled into the water just off the end of the dock, and they walked across the wing to board, with Laura revisiting her perennial bemusement about military transports being used as taxis for her family. That was likely not even due to Gidds, but instead because of Lira, so valuable and so potentially dangerous.

  And currently sitting with her head bowed, expression distracted. Of course, she'd visited Areziath before, and knew what to expect, but she'd seemed to enjoy the idea of another visit—and the fact that Laura wanted to be surprised by what it was like.

  Squeezing her granddaughter's hand, Laura sent a text.

  Laura: Feeling okay?

  Liranadestar: I'm just checking on Nimenny, Unna Laura.

  Laura: You're lucky your Nimenny is so much less grumpy than my Kirr-tut. Would you like to go on another group quest with us tomorrow?

  Liranadestar: Maybe.

  Laura left it at that, not wanting to do anything to push the girl away from Red Exchange. Cass had noticed a sharp decrease in Lira's nightmares since she'd started playing, and so adventures with 'Nimenny' would not be complicated by the prospect of stealth Kalrani bodyguards.

  On the flip side, Laura had to wonder if there had been a committee meeting or two about the relative dangers of Touchstones who became devoted to computer-generated water spirits. As virtual pets went, the teszen were light-years from Tamagotchi.

  Literally. Literally light-years f
rom Earth. She would never quite get over that.

  The trip to Pandora's old town was brief and direct, with the tanz dropping them directly into the amphitheatre, allowing the shortest of walks to the teleport platform. A green-suited security detail was waiting to ensure no onlookers pressed too close, but as they disembarked Zee, Mara and Alay still shifted from relaxed and chatty to alert and focused. Laura was fascinated by the change, and the reminder that these three personable and friendly women were some of the most dangerous people on the planet, quite capable of swatting attackers like flies. Their training had been intended for killing monsters in the Ena, but they were more than equal to human threats—and over-eager fans, which was all they faced now, with a ring of spectators at the upper rim of the amphitheatre waving and calling out names. Mostly the three Setari's, ironically, but also Lira's and—to Laura's immense and carefully hidden amusement—Julian's.

  He might be growing into his father's gawky, stork-like figure, but Julian's features were even and pleasantly attractive when not quite so crimson, and he had accrued a not-insubstantial fan club. Though, as he had repeatedly pointed out, having a fan club for being someone's brother didn't really count.

  Their Setari escort ushered them below the amphitheatre to a simple round room with an unassuming white platform in the centre. This activated as soon as they had all filed on, replacing one round room with a second, almost identical, the only visible difference a sign that switched from 'Pandora' to 'Kalasa'.

  It was entirely impossible for Laura to make this trip without a burst of wonder at actual, real teleportation platforms, and a lurch of distress because Cass had been the one who'd discovered the function of the platforms—a development that had left her trapped in Kalasa, hunted by monsters.

  Laura always looked at the wall opposite the entrance, searching for signs of the gap that had allowed Cass to escape capture, but the patch was seamless. Repairs were underway all over Kalasa since, after considerable argument, the decision had been made to restore the ancient city rather than preserve it in the fractured state in which it had been found.

  Having imperfectly followed some of the debate, Laura knew there were practical reasons for making use of Kalasa, but could not help but wish it could be left untouched. A whitestone city filling a valley protected and concealed by an ancient and still-functioning forcefield, it truly was an abandoned ruin out of Forerunner legend.

  But KOTIS—recruiting a massive team of archaeologists—had moved in and, after years of cataloguing, were now cleaning and patching, decently dealing with the bodies of the long-ago fallen, and cautiously making the place habitable, because Kalasa was the place all the teleport platforms linked up: a planetary Grand Central Station.

  Since Laura's last visit, the technicians had finished restoring the arching fountain that soared above the teleportation platforms. A curving and elegant tripod structure, it would produce a vertical drop into a blue-tiled pool at the very centre of the city, though no water fell as yet.

  "The devices team refuses to allow installation of a conventional pump," Alay informed Laura. "As much as possible they're aiming to restore the original systems, which is quite a challenge when we barely understand them."

  Laura was looking about for Gidds, surprised to not find him waiting at the fountain as planned. While last-minute demands on his time were something she now expected, he was punctilious in keeping her informed of delays, and she'd expect him to be even more particular for their first almost-public date. Had something happened that–?

  But no, there he was, walking with Allidi and Haelin from the direction of the city gate.

  Sue: Ooh, civvies. Fit snug, don't they?

  Laura: Indeed.

  Sue: Do you think he'd do a few push-ups if I asked nicely?

  Laura: I think he would smile at you if you asked him that.

  Sue: You mean "Ah yes, humour"? Pfui.

  Laura: After a couple of decades of students, I suspect that's a built-in response.

  "A side-trip to view the tedan," Gidds explained, when the three Selkies reached the main group.

  "'Tedan'?" Sue echoed.

  "Freshwater version of seals," Laura explained, and then introduced Allidi and Haelin.

  The two girls responded with calm self-possession. It was one of those times when Laura felt challenged when faced with Sight Sight, knowing that chances were high that they would see she felt a little anxious, fretting over nothing. Perhaps she should ask Gidds to teach her a few Sights exercises as well.

  "Laura's been giving you selkie stories, has she?" Sue asked.

  "Just one. About a girl who met a man who was really a tedan," Haelin said, then glanced at Laura and added: "Are they all sad stories?"

  "Mostly. If you could dance in the sea, it seems almost inevitable to miss it when clumping about on land."

  "Hm," Haelin said, and then crossed to Alyssa and began to ply her with questions about the planned skating rink, Allidi following along behind.

  In their position, Laura would also have found ice skating infinitely more interesting than parental partners, and so she suppressed an impulse to push for their attention, instead taking the opportunity to briefly brush her fingers against Gidds'. Still, it was difficult not to think about the distance between indulgent grandma and wicked stepmother. She had been quickly accepted by Cass' children, but the situation she was facing with these two girls was one that left her full of questions about belonging.

  Getting way ahead of yourself, Laura.

  As they started into the building housing the Areziath platform, she put complexities aside and smiled at Gidds. "I feel like I've accidentally changed your relationship to your own name."

  "I have been thinking about that story a great deal," he admitted. "And contrasting the tedan's movements with my swimming ability. Swimming is not common on Tare, and I only learned relatively recently."

  Picturing him learning gave her one of those flashes of hilarity that she knew by now he would see, so she smiled apologetically and said: "It's a useful skill to have when moving to a planet covered with lakes."

  They reached the platform, and stepped from one hemisphere to the other with no effort at all, and Laura gave herself up to a burble of anticipation. Going to a beautiful place she'd never seen. Of course, all that met her eyes was a round white room, blandly identical except for the location sign, and perhaps the faintest shift of temperature. And when they headed up, it was to yet another amphitheatre, this one beneath a pale, thin sky.

  "Why is it you've only settled five out of the fourteen pattern-roof towns?" Sue asked Gidds.

  "We were in danger of tripping over our feet," he told her. "There needs to be a period of consolidation and balancing before any further expansion. Nor do we necessarily want to build cities at every one of the platform locations."

  "Definitely not Areziath," Zee said, shifting briefly from her ultra-professional guard stance. "Or, at least, it would have to be managed sensitively."

  "Nothing here until we understand its purpose," Gidds said, deliberately mysterious, and took Laura's hand firmly as they climbed the stair.

  She regarded him with faint amusement, knowing that he was anticipating the moment she saw the town. But she was glad she'd resisted the temptation to look the place up beforehand. What could be so special? Yet another whitestone town, but presumably in a particularly dramatic setting?

  "What's that weird sound?" Maddy asked. "Is that rain?"

  "What?" Alyssa asked, then lifted her head. "Oh, I hear it."

  "Kind of…whirry," Maddy said.

  "Maybe it's robots," Julian said, on an eager note, but then almost fell over backward as a formless amoeba blotted the pale sky above. Constantly changing shape, it crossed over the amphitheatre, abruptly reversed direction, and was lost to sight.

  Sue had gripped Laura's arm, but now raced up the stair, only to stop dead as she reached the top.

  "A murmuration!" Laura said, thoroughly delighted, an
d added to Gidds: "Sue's always wanted to see one."

  "It is a behaviour seen on Earth, then?"

  "Oh, yes, although I've never seen it in Australia. I wonder if it's the same species of bird?"

  The top of the stair had become crowded with people standing staring, but Gidds deftly manoeuvred Laura sideways, and then she, too, stopped in her tracks and gaped.

  The amphitheatre sat on the crown of a lone hill in the centre of large plain. There was, as anticipated, a collection of pattern-roof buildings, but these were confined to the slopes of the hill. Beyond was pearl and silver and milky blues in a mist-shrouded dawn.

  "River City," Laura said, with a full appreciation of a very literal name.

  The region was all river. Not a driving torrent or lazy rills, but...fretwork. Artificial channels—they had to be—had been cut into the entire sweep of land around the amphitheatre hill, to form a kind of Art Nouveau Norfolk Broads, with shades of a Japanese hanabi, for it was spring in Areziath, and a millennia ago someone had carefully chosen the trees.

  Sue: When Howl took Sophie to the garden in the Waste.

  Impossible not to agree. This was the stuff of purest fantasy. Magic.

  Laura: I would definitely not be surprised to encounter moving castles, talking fire, or a door that leads four ways.

  Sue: I'm going to spend the rest of the day picturing Serious Soldier moaning about his hair.

  "Teleport platform or door into Faerie?" Alyssa asked, with a catch in her throat that spoke for all of them.

  "Can we see it from above, Dzo?" Allidi asked, lifting bright eyes to her father.

  He nodded, and Zee said: "Groups of four, please."

  She took Maddy, Lira, Allidi and Haelin first, all four of the girls looking delighted, though three not as thunderstruck as the Earth contingent, since they'd all known about Areziath beforehand, but had politely kept details to themselves.