Deneb turned off the communicator. “Well that should do it.”
Together they dragged the injured operators out of the room into the corridor to give them a small chance of escape. Deneb then shut the control room door. Using the hammer, he bent the handle against the wall. “They’ll not get into there very easily.”
The two of them went out of the room and down the tunnels. “We’ve got to get to Lydia,” Deneb said. “She may be too ill to escape on her own.”
“We need to get up the elevator shaft first,” Andi said. “It’s going to take some time.”
When they reached the elevator, Deneb forced Andi’s knife into the doors and together they pulled them open. “It’s dark up there,” Andi said, looking up into the blackness.
“I borrowed this,” Deneb said. He showed her a small torch that he’d found in the toolbox in the control room. He latched it onto his coveralls. “It should provide enough light for us to climb by.”
“It’s a long way, Dad,” she said. It was also stiflingly hot, and her clothes were sticking to her back.
“We’ll do it a bit at a time, then stop for a rest,” he said. “Okay?”
“Okay. Let’s go for it.”
Chapter Nine
Together, Andi and Deneb climbed into the elevator shaft. A ladder ran up the walls, presumably for emergencies like this, and so the climb was relatively easy, but incredibly long.
After only about fifteen minutes, Andi’s arm and leg muscles burned. “I’m going to have to stop,” she said, panting.
“The air quality’s terrible.” Deneb hung just below her, wiping his forehead on his sleeve again. For a few minutes they waited until they had regained their energy. Finally he said, “Ready now?”
“Yes.” She wasn’t, she still ached, but more than anything she now wanted to escape this terrible place.
So they climbed again. Andi began to think that she was in some sort of nightmare that was never going to end. The shaft just seemed to go on forever, and there was no hint of light at the top. She didn’t dare think of how far she had climbed, and how far she would fall, should she happen to let go. She squeezed her eyes shut against the image of Clios falling in the mine.
At one point, Andi became aware of a dark gurgling sound far beneath them in the depths of the mine. Deneb looked up at her. “Sounds like the water level’s beginning to rise,” he said. “Come on Andi, it can’t be far now.”
In all, with four or five more stops, it took them over an hour to climb up to the central cavern level. By the time they reached the top, Andi was exhausted. “How are we going to open the elevator doors?” she asked. “I haven’t got the strength to pry them apart.”
“We’ll find a way,” Deneb said. He was panting, though, and she knew he must be exhausted too.
As they reached the top, a light shone down on them. Andi’s heart plummeted. Had they come all this way just to be shot by Hoshaens? However, as she climbed opposite the elevator doors, she saw a welcome green Ruvalian face.
“Here’s another two,” he called behind him. Another Ruvalian came forward and together they helped Andi and Deneb climb out into the cavern.
They lay on the floor for a moment, unable to believe they had actually made it. One of the Ruvalians bent over them with a flask of water, and they sipped it gratefully. “Best to get out now,” he said, nodding over to the far elevators. “Water level’s rising.”
“Have many Ruvalians come up from the mines?” Andi asked.
“Hundreds. It was amazing. Once everyone realized they actually had a chance to escape, they seemed to find renewed energy.” He helped them to their feet. “Go on, the last climb’s not so bad.”
“We’ve got one last thing to do,” Andi said. “Thanks, by the way.” Grasping Deneb’s hand, she led him across the cavern to the interrogation cells. There were many dead Hoshaens lying on the floor, overcome by the angry, freed Ruvalians. Andi tried not to look at them, feeling responsible for their deaths.
The corridor was quiet. “I wonder if they’ve found Lydia,” Deneb said, walking down the row of cells. The doors were all ajar, the catches released when Andi closed down the generator. He opened the one that was next to the cell that Andi had been in, and went inside.
Andi followed him. For a moment she couldn’t see Lydia and she sighed in relief at the thought that the Keeper of the Golden Star had escaped. But Deneb crossed the room with a curse, and it was then that she saw the small form huddled against the wall on the other side. Deneb bent down to her.
“Is she alive?” Andi asked, hurrying over.
“Yes, but I don’t know for how much longer.”
At his words, Lydia raised her head. “Deneb?” She looked over at Andi. Her face was very pale and covered with sweat. Her arms were wrapped around her body and she seemed in pain. “Where’s Clios?”
Andi bit her lip. “She’s following later.”
Lydia nodded, but the tear that ran down her face showed that she guessed the meaning behind Andi’s words.
Andi took her hand. “Look, there isn’t much time. Did you hear the announcement? We’ve shut down the generator and the mine’s flooding. We’ve got to climb the last shaft to the surface. Can you make it?”
Lydia shook her head, tears spilling out onto her cheeks. “I can’t do it. I… I haven’t got long.”
Deneb looked at her for a moment. Finally he pushed himself to his feet, bent and picked her up in his arms. “Then I’ll have to carry you.”
He walked past Andi out along the corridor. She ran after him, following him across to the final elevator shaft. “How are you going to climb if you’re carrying her?”
“She’ll have to put her arms around my neck. You’ll have to rope her to my waist.”
“Dad, you’ve just climbed all the way up from the bottom level. You’ll never make it.”
“I said I’d get her out of here, and I will make it, Andi. You let me worry about that.” He lowered Lydia’s legs to the floor. “Up on my back now.” He and Andi lifted her up until her arms clung around his neck. Andi searched around, eventually finding some rope on the floor by the wagons. She tied it around Deneb’s waist and Lydia’s legs. The sick woman laid her cheek against his shoulder and closed her eyes. Her face was pinched and she seemed somehow smaller. Andi sensed that the girl had been right—she didn’t have long to live.
She walked around to face Deneb. “Will that do?”
“It’ll have to.” Deneb stared behind Andi. She turned to follow his gaze. Ruvalians were running across the cavern floor towards them. Behind them a dark mass spread slowly out of the elevator shaft through which they had just climbed.
“Is that water?”
“Looks like it.” Deneb swung himself inside the passage.
“How did it rise so quickly?” Andi stared at the water, which looked like thick black tar, creeping towards her.
“The pressure controlling it must have been enormous.” He bent down and beckoned to her. “It’s trying to regain its natural level. Come on. It’s time to go!”
Sighing, Andi climbed in behind him. This shaft had a few lights on the walls, which made it easier to see. She began to put one foot above the other, pulling herself up with her arms. After her came the final Ruvalians, eager to climb to the surface.
She knew that this tunnel was shorter, but somehow the climb seemed to take longer. Deneb above her was slow, too, made heavy by the weight of Lydia on his back. He climbed rhythmically, though, his feet sure on the rungs, and Andi felt a swell of pride at his strength.
After about ten minutes or so, however, there was a yell from further down the elevator shaft. “What’s happened?” she called down. Even as she spoke, there was a crack, and the few lights that had adorned the shaft blinked out. Everyone exclaimed in fright.
“Keep climbing,” someone yelled from below. “The water level’s rising really, really quickly.”
Deneb flicked on the torch he had attached to h
is coveralls. In the meager light, everyone continued to climb hurriedly. Andi could hear her father’s breathing, heavy in the heat of the chamber. Her arms and legs were burning again, and she knew she couldn’t go on for much longer. It can’t be much further, she tried to console herself. From below, she heard a yell and hurried conversation from the Ruvalians, and she knew that the water level had reached them. Surely she wasn’t going to die in this prison, deep in a planet on the other side of the Galaxy from Earth. Even though they were exiled from their home planet, Andi had always entertained a fantasy that she would return there some day. She would like to be buried there, she thought, in some green field under an oak tree. She didn’t want her final resting place to be the deep, dark waters of the Black Hole.
Just when she thought she couldn’t go a step further, however, Deneb gave a shout of relief and she saw his legs disappear above the elevator shaft. Then she was there, and a strong pair of green hands helped her off the ladder and onto the floor of the hall.
Andi lay there, gasping. Eventually, however, she managed to push herself up on one elbow. She was back in the hall where she and Clios had first been taken the day they had been captured. On either side she could see through the glass windows to the outside world. It was still dark because it was nighttime, but she could see the twinkle of stars in the sky, and in the distance the solemn shine of Thoume’s twin moons.
Andi rolled over to look at her father. Deneb lay on his side, looking at her, and he gave her a weak smile as he saw her glance over. Behind him, still tied to his waist, lay Lydia, her arms around his neck. Andi crawled over to them, groaning as her muscles complained, and loosened the rope around Deneb’s waist. Lydia rolled over, curling up into a ball.
“The water level?” Deneb asked, gesturing to the shaft.
Andi looked over. “It’s slowing down. I don’t think it will reach the top here.” She looked up as a Ruvalian came over to check that they were all right. “Did everyone make it out?” she asked. She looked around the hall, at the hundreds of green faces.
The Ruvalian’s eyes were wide and clear. “Not all. But a good percentage.” He frowned suddenly, cocking his head at her. Then his eyes widened. “Your voice. It was you on the loudspeaker.” He knelt before her. “Was it you who shut down the generator?”
“Yes.” Andi’s eyes filled with tears. “I’m sorry so many of your people died. Perhaps I shouldn’t have done it…”
He grasped her shoulders fiercely. “Everyone here is glad that you did. And I suspect that those who have died down there are glad that the torture is over. It was a terrible, terrible place. I am Larnx, by the way.” He looked across at the Ruvalian girl lying on her side. “Lydia?” His eyes widened and he looked at Andi for confirmation.
Andi nodded. “It is her.”
Larnx rushed over to her. He looked at Deneb, who was just sitting up, rubbing his arms. The Ruvalian put a hand onto his arm. “My deepest thanks, and the thanks of all our people.”
“You are welcome.” Deneb looked down at her. “She is ill, though. I think she needs a doctor.”
Larnx bent and picked her up easily. “I will take her to one of our healers. We are treating the wounded over here.” He began to walk away. Then, suddenly, he stopped and looked over his shoulder. “Do you want to come?” he said.
Andi and Deneb struggled to their feet and, wobbly with fatigue, followed Larnx across the large hall to a set of rooms on the opposite side. They had obviously been used for administration purposes, but the Hoshaens who had been there had fled when the Ruvalians started exiting the mines in large numbers.
Larnx spoke hurriedly with a group of Ruvalians outside the rooms and a commotion broke out as everyone realized just who he held in his arms. He was ushered through the crowd and into a room, where Lydia was laid on a table, Ruvalians clustering around her.
Deneb made to follow, but, with an apology, one of the Ruvalians closed the door in his face.
Together, he and Andi sat on the floor opposite the door. They shared a flask of water, sighing exhaustedly as their muscles ached. Deneb looked at the flask ruefully. “I’d do anything for a double of Lagavulin in this right now.”
Andi smiled wanly. “Do you think she’ll live?” she asked, letting her head fall back onto the wall.
“I don’t know what’s wrong with her. I think maybe one of the guards kicked her in the stomach or something. Perhaps one of her internal organs was damaged. I don’t know whether their Indigo Quartz can fix that.”
The mention of the crystal made Andi think of Clios. She reached inside her top and pulled out the chain with the pendant hanging on it. Deneb looked down, surprised to see the glowing purple stone. “Where did you get that?”
“Clios gave it to me when she realized that Sphere was going to split us up.”
“Why did she do that?”
“I don’t know. Perhaps she had a glimpse of her own future. Maybe she knew what the crystal would do for me.”
“What do you mean?”
Andi held it in her hand. It was cool now, but she could still remember the way it had burned in her palm. “I’ll tell you later.”
Deneb sighed. He stood up, walking over to the door.
“Can you hear anything?”
“Just muffled moans.” He banged his fist on the wall in frustration. “God, don’t they realize how important it is that she lives?”
Andi thought that they probably did, but she knew the question was rhetorical. “What do you think they’re doing in there?”
“Trying to heal her, I suppose.” He stared at the door. “Wait. What if I go in and ask her to tell me where the Golden Star is? We can go and find it then before… Well, while they’re healing her.”
Excited by the idea, he banged on the door. There was a muffled shout from inside, but it remained firmly shut. “Come on,” he yelled, “let me in for a minute.”
Inside the room, there was a sudden scream. Deneb stared at Andi, eyes wide. “She’s dying in there. She’s dying and the knowledge of the Golden Star’s hiding place will die with her.” Putting his shoulder to the door, he stepped back and then rammed it hard.
The door flew open. Andi got to her feet hurriedly and followed Deneb in.
“She’s got to tell us about the Star.” he exclaimed. However, his voice tailed off as a thin, high cry cut through the room.
Andi stepped around him hurriedly in time to see Larnx hold back the Ruvalians who had rushed forward to evict them. In front of them, Lydia was lying on the table, her legs bare. She was covered in sweat, but she was alive, and she was smiling.
In front of her, someone was holding a baby.
“You were pregnant?” Deneb gasped.
“I’m sorry I didn’t tell you,” Lydia said in a croaky voice. “But Clios said to keep it a secret.”
Why? Andi thought to herself as Deneb moved forward to stand beside Lydia’s makeshift labor bed. She looked down at the baby, wriggling gently in the Ruvalian’s arms, coughing a little and screwing up its nose.
Deneb knelt by her side. “Do you want to tell me where the Golden Star is?” he said gently.
“Dad?” Andi’s voice was soft.
Deneb ignored her. “I promise I’ll get it for you and return it to your people.”
“Dad!”
Lydia reached out and turned his head gently to face his daughter.
Andi stood there, tears running down her face, the baby in her arms. It was a boy. She lifted him up to show him to Deneb. “Look.”
Deneb stared. On the baby’s face was a bright birthmark.
The shape of a golden star.
*
Eleven Days Later
The meadow was full of buttercups and a scattering of tiny scarlet flowers that Andi didn’t recognize. The grass smelled sweet, and far in the distance she could hear the sound of running water as the Great River meandered through the Ruvalian countryside.
Jarl’s hands clasping her own were warm a
nd dry. They were seated facing each other on the grass, cross-legged, eyes closed. Against her chest, Clios’s pendant rested, warm against her skin.
Her fingers were buzzing. It was as if Jarl was a socket she had plugged herself into. Throughout her body she felt something coursing through her veins, and it wasn’t just blood—it was energy, white-hot, and she was sure that if someone was watching her now, they would see her shining as brilliant as a light bulb.
This was Jarl’s passing gift to her. He was a naturally gifted psychic, and the piece of Indigo Quartz that he wore on a bracelet attached to his wrist honed his talents. He was the only person that Andi had told about the image she had received of her mother in the Black Hole. Jarl had nodded and told her that the Quartz had opened a channel to the otherworld so that Sagitta could communicate briefly with her daughter. He had offered to help her open the channel again before she left Thoume in return for rescuing his people from the Hoshaen oppression. Andi had cried as she said that she didn’t deserve it—that she had let Clios die. But Jarl had comforted her, explaining that Clios wouldn’t have sacrificed herself unless there was no other way, and she should not blame herself.
A sign, Andi breathed. Just give me a sign, Mum, that you’re still there. That you’re watching over me.
“Look.” Jarl squeezed her hands. Andi opened her eyes. A brilliant butterfly had alighted on her knee. Andi watched it, holding her breath. It was so beautiful, its wings an oil painting of sapphires and scarlets and jades. Its antennae twitched briefly. Then it took off, carried away by the light breeze, to dance in the meadow beyond.
“It is a sign,” Jarl said, releasing her hands. “The butterfly is an age-old symbol of resurrection and rebirth.” As she frowned, he continued, “A link between our world and the otherworld is very difficult to maintain. The Ancients do not have the luxury of indulging in long conversations, and therefore they have to speak to us in symbols that we must interpret to understand their message.”
Andromeda Day and the Black Hole Page 13
