The Glory Walk

by Lynne Roberts

  Chapter 3. Acquarius Base

  The hoverpad skimmed through the city, dodging around towers and domes in a reckless way that made the girls gasp. Kate was sure it would crash into one of the other hoverpads that sped though the air all around them. But evidently there was some sort of order to their movements, as they never seemed to collide. Finally the hoverpad drifted down to a grey pad beside another tube of grey webbing.

  ‘Destination Aquarius Base completed,’ the metallic voice announced. Part of the tube opened and the girls stepped out. The hoverpad shot into the air vertically and dropped into the top of the tube.

  ‘They stay up there until they’re needed,’ Celeste told Kate, as she saw her looking upward.

  ‘Come on,’ said Angelica impatiently. ‘Let’s get them inside.’

  ‘We’d better take the High Road,’ said Celeste. ‘There’s hardly likely to be anyone there today.’ She led the way to another tube where an archway opened before them. This time there were stairs, to Kate’s relief, but they were slow moving ones, like an escalator. As the girls ran along the stairs, Celeste snapped, ‘priority tempo,’ and the speed increased.

  ‘I hope I don’t trip,’ thought Kate in panic, as the sides of the tube passed in a blur.

  The moving stairs ground to a halt as the girls reached a long corridor with an arched roof of clear stuff like glass. It was warm to the touch, as Phoebe felt when she stretched out her hand curiously. Angelica led the way impatiently down another corridor, which opened into another tube then another. Finally, as Phoebe and Kate were feeling totally lost and bewildered, Celeste placed her hand on a glowing plate beside an archway and it opened to reveal an airy apartment. All the furniture, which appeared to be mainly squashy pillows, was in shades of white or pale grey.

  ‘Not very practical,’ thought Kate. ‘It must get grubby really quickly.’

  There were round windows like portholes on a ship on every wall, but when Kate looked at them closely they all seemed to have been blacked out in some way. A soft light glowed but she couldn’t see from where. It appeared to be coming out of the walls and ceiling somehow. Celeste motioned the girls to sit. Kate gingerly tried a cushion and found it amazingly soft. She felt as if she was sitting on a cloud. Phoebe sank down onto a white cushion then jerked upright in fright.

  ‘There’s something furry here beside me. It moved,’ she squeaked in horror.

  ‘Oh, that’s only an Emanator,’ Angelica said scathingly. ‘It won’t hurt you.’

  ‘What is it?’ asked Kate looking over at the furry ball beside Phoebe. ‘Is it a cat of some kind?’

  ‘What’s a cat?’ Celeste and Angelica looked blank.

  ‘It’s an animal you keep as a pet. They catch mice.’ Kate faltered to a stop as she saw Celeste and Angelica exchange pitying looks.

  ‘Weird,’ said Angelica.

  ‘So are you weird,’ snapped Kate, feeling irritated with these girls who obviously thought they were superior beings.

  Celeste took pity on her. ‘The Emanator is quite harmless. It comes from another planet and it was given to my mother by an Outcast in exchange for a robe she made him. Hold onto it and you’ll feel better. Here.’ She picked up the furry purple ball and dumped it in Kate’s lap. The ball was soft and warm to the touch and hummed softly.

  ‘It sounds like a cat purring,’ said Kate in fascination. She stroked the Emanator and felt a sensation of peace come over her. She knew she should be worrying about what was happening but suddenly she didn’t care.

  ‘Kate. Kate! Can you hear me?’

  ‘What?’ said Kate dreamily.

  ‘It’s the Emanator,’ said Celeste. ‘They beam out happiness. If you’re not used to it you can fall asleep the first few times.’

  Kate hastily put the Emanator down on the floor where the humming faded.

  ‘We have to decide what to do with these creatures,’ Angelica said impatiently.

  ‘Let’s have something to eat first,’ said Celeste. ‘I’m starving.’

  Kate and Phoebe were relieved to hear this. They had started feeling weak and wobbly with reaction and Kate had been thinking longingly of the picnic Anna had made for them. This led to thoughts of Anna and her father looking for their bodies in the bush and she had to shake her head to clear it before she could hear what Celeste was saying.

  ‘Do you suppose they eat the same things as us?’ Angelica wondered.

  ‘Don’t know. Do you eat farinatas?’ Celeste asked Phoebe, who shrugged and looked helplessly at Kate.

  ‘We can try them,’ said Kate firmly. ‘They must be edible,’ she whispered to Phoebe. ‘We don’t have to eat them if we don’t like them.’

  To their relief farinatas turned out to be a sort of sweet bread that Celeste spread with a pale blue substance that tasted remarkably like butter.

  ‘Now,’ said Kate, after she had eaten three of these. ‘Tell us what this Glory Walk thing is that you were on about?’

  Angelica sighed. ‘We all have to do the Glory walk to become accepted as a full member of the Solar Circle,’ she said. ‘It’s when all the members of your family, even the Old Ones and the Master all come together. You have to demonstrate what talent you can offer to the Circle. Then if it is accepted you do the Glory Walk when you walk past everyone in turn and they touch your palm with theirs. That shows you are accepted into the Circle.’

  ‘It’s mainly a formality in most cases,’ Celeste added. ‘Most people know what their talent is and everyone else does too by that stage. But sometimes people’s talents change or they decide to offer something else.’

  Kate and Phoebe exchanged glances.

  ‘But why did Angelica have to get space monsters?’ asked Kate.

  Angelica looked embarrassed. ‘The problem is that I don’t have any talent,’ she admitted. ‘When you do the Glory Walk you are accepting what form your work for the Circle will take. Everyone has to contribute in some way. But I’m a total failure. So far I haven’t shown any talent at all.’ She said this with a defiant toss of her head.

  ‘What talent do you have?’ asked Kate, turning to Celeste at the same time as Phoebe said, ‘what sort of things are talents?’

  ‘There are all sorts of talents,’ said Celeste. ‘In my family we mainly have a talent for stitching.’

  ‘What, sewing?’ asked Kate incredulously.

  ‘Not just sewing,’ corrected Angelica gloomily. ‘They sew charms into the needlework.’

  ‘I don’t understand. What sort of charms?’

  ‘Oh, things like a picture for the wall to bring good luck or good health to the household. Or clothing to make the wearer strong or to repel space monsters,’ Angelica explained. ‘Celeste is an excellent stitcher. Most of her family are excellent as well. Her sister Stella is famous for her charms. People can pay with goods or credit and her garments are always in demand.’

  ‘Can’t you sew?’ asked Kate curiously.

  Angelica blushed. ‘No,’ she said shortly. ‘The last thing I stitched took the chanters a whole day to undo the curse. Then I had to unpick the entire lot and it took ages.’

  ‘You have to unpick your own stitching,’ put in Celeste. ‘Otherwise it is bad luck.’

  She passed around translucent spheres the size of an orange. The girls sipped them through the tiny tube at the top and discovered they were some kind of slightly fizzy fruit juice.

  ‘So are you going to offer stitching for your Glory Walk?’ Phoebe asked Celeste. She nodded. ‘But Angelica hasn’t discovered her talent yet.’

  ‘I haven’t got any talent,’ muttered Angelica.

  ‘Yes you have,’ sighed Celeste patiently. ‘You just haven’t discovered it yet.’ This was obviously a common argument between them.

  ‘I get it,’ said Kate at last. ‘That’s why you wanted to get space monsters and train them. To impress the others that you could do it.’

  Angelica nodded.

  ‘Then what’s the problem? You got us bu
t can’t you say that’s what you were aiming for?’

  ‘Actually I was aiming for a whirble, like Dad got a while ago. When I went up to the machine the dials went crazy so I just pushed the buttons and hoped for the best.’

  ‘You could still say you were aiming for us,’ insisted Kate.

  ‘It wouldn’t work. They’d be bound to ask me what settings I used and my father would make me do it again to show him. But that doesn’t matter now. We have to decide what to do with you. I told you I couldn’t send you back.’

  ‘Perhaps we could hide them in the pit for a while,’ said Celeste doubtfully.

  Kate objected strenuously to this. ‘We want to go home again. You brought us here so you’ll have to send us back.’

  ‘But I can’t,’ spluttered Angelica. ‘I’m truly no good around machines. They do strange things, which is why you two arrived here. In fact, I’m not much good at anything. Nothing works properly for me.’

  ‘What do you mean?’ asked Phoebe.

  ‘I can’t work the hoverpads. They stop working if I give them a command and the whole lot jam in the tube. I can’t work the food buttons at all. I have to wait for someone else to do it. Watch.’

  She walked over to the pink panel that Celeste had touched to get the farinatas. She tapped it and said ‘farinatas please.’ There was an ominous rattling sound then a loud bang. On the plate in front of the screen a tray of glutinous grey substance appeared.

  ‘See,’ said Angelica despairingly. ‘It’s been getting worse. It wasn’t so bad when I was little but now I can hardly do anything. I’ve managed to keep it hidden from my parents with a lot of help from Celeste, but we can’t keep it up forever. Once we’ve done the Glory Walk we won’t see each other so often and I don’t want to be an Outcast.’

  From the expression on her face as she said this, it was evident that this was the worst fate she could imagine.

  Before Kate could ask what an outcast was, Celeste said, ‘We’ll have to take you somewhere else for now. You can’t stay here.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere until you promise to send us back,’ said Kate mutinously.

  Angelica fingered her belt where the metal cylinder was ominously close to her hand.

  ‘I’ve already said I can’t do it,’ she said impatiently.

  ‘You’ll have to find a way then.’ Kate folded her arms and put on her most stubborn mulish look.

  Celeste sighed. ‘She’s right, Angelica. We will have to find a way to send them back. Do you think your father would help?’

  ‘No,’ said Angelica decidedly. ‘Don’t bother asking me again. As far as I’m concerned they are more trouble than they are worth. Maybe I should vaporize them and be done with it.’