The Dreaming Void

by Peter F. Hamilton

  ‘Sorry.’

  ‘You need to stop saying that, as well,’ she said, and smiled.

  ‘Yes. I know. It’s just that all of you are used to this.’ He gestured round. ‘I’m not. There are more people here in this market than ever lived in Ashwell.’ For a moment he was struck by real guilt. He thought about his home less and less these days. Some of the faces had faded from memory. Not Akeem, that never would; but Gonat now – did he have red hair or was it dark brown? He frowned from the effort of remembering, but no clear image came.

  ‘Bellis,’ Kanseen said. ‘My family lives in Bellis.’

  ‘Right,’ he said. Bellis was on the eastern side of the city, close to the port, and directly over the Great Major Canal from Sampalok. They hadn’t patrolled round there yet. ‘You’ve never been back to see them.’

  ‘No. Mother didn’t approve of my becoming a constable.’

  ‘Oh. I’m sor— Shame.’

  ‘I think she would have preferred me to take the Lady’s vows.’

  ‘Nothing wrong with that.’

  ‘You really are from the countryside, aren’t you?’

  ‘Is that bad?’ he said stiffly.

  ‘No. I guess that’s where the values this city used to have are kept alive, out there beyond the Donsori Mountains. It just gives me a shock to hear someone with convictions, that’s all. You’re rare in Makkathran, Edeard. Especially in the constables. That’s why you make people uncomfortable.’

  ‘I do?’ he asked, genuinely surprised.

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘But … You must believe in values. Why else did you join?’

  ‘Same as half of us. In a few years I’ll shift over to bodyguard work for a District Master family. They’re always desperate for people with a constable’s training and experience. Particularly one like me; female constables are very thin on the ground. And the noble ladies need protection as much as their husbands and sons. I can just about name my own price.’

  ‘Oh.’ The notion surprised him, he’d never considered the constables as a route to anything else, let alone something better. ‘Who do I make uncomfortable?’

  ‘Well Dinlay for a start. He believes in truth and beauty just like you, and he’s a lot noisier about it. But you’re stronger and smarter. Chae’s going to nominate you as squad leader.’

  ‘You don’t know that.’

  She smiled. It made him realize how attractive she actually was; something the uniform normally made him overlook. But that smile was a match for any of the silly family girls swanning round the market.

  ‘Put money on it?’ she challenged.

  ‘Of course not,’ he said with mock indignation. ‘That’s bound to be illegal.’

  They both laughed.

  ‘You two need a room?’ Macsen called over his shoulder. ‘I know one that’ll do cheap rates.’

  Kanseen gave him a forceful hand gesture.

  He pulled a face. ‘Wow, it’s true; you can take the girl out of Sampalok, but you can’t take Sampalok out of the girl.’

  ‘Arsehole,’ she growled.

  ‘We’re on patrol,’ Chae snapped. ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Professionalism at all times,’ the squad muttered dutifully.

  ‘Then kindly remember that, and apply it.’

  Macsen, Kanseen, and Edeard grinned at each other as they moved on to the third market, which featured crafts. Stalls displayed small items of furniture, ornaments, cheap jewellery, and alchemic potions. There was even a section selling rare animals as pets. The awnings here were all a uniform orange-and-white-striped canvas arranged in hexagonal cones with centre poles swamped by eaglevine. It was warm underneath, but the full power of the sun was held back.

  Edeard stretched his farsight out across the Great Major Canal that ran the length of the city from the Port district to the Circle canals where the Orchard Palace was situated. Ysidro district was on the other side from Silvarum, wedged between the back of Golden Park and the Low Moat. It was where the Lady’s novistery was sited.

  ‘This a good time?’ his mind enquired.

  ‘Hello,’ Salrana replied with a burst of good cheer. ‘Yes, I’m fine. We’re in the garden, planting summer herbs. It’s so lovely in here.’ A gentle image gift came with her happiness. He saw a walled garden with conical yews marking out gravel paths. Vines and climbing roses painted the walls in bright colour. There was a broad lawn in the middle, which was unusual in Makkathran; it was trimmed so neatly Edeard wondered what kind of genistar they used to chew it down. A snow-white statue of the Lady stood at one end, almost as high as the walls. She was smiling down on the novices in their white and blue robes as they skittered about with wicker baskets full of plants.

  ‘Nice. Why don’t you use ge-chimps to plant the herbs?’

  ‘Oh, Edeard, you have got to start reading more of the Lady’s teachings. The purpose of life is to achieve harmony with your environment. If you use genistars for everything, you establish a barrier between yourself and the world.’

  ‘Okay.’ He thought that was stupid, but clamped down tight on the emotion for fear Salrana would sense it. She was developing quite an acute empathy these days.

  ‘Where are you?’ she asked.

  ‘I’m patrolling Silvarum’s markets.’ He let her see the bustle surrounding him, showing the rich stall displays.

  ‘Arrested anybody bad?’

  ‘No. They all run in terror from us.’

  ‘Oh, Edeard, you feel sad.’

  ‘Sorry.’ He caught himself and winced. ‘I’m not. It’s just boring, that’s all. You know I’m actually looking forward to my exams. This’ll all be over after I take them. I can be a proper constable then.’

  ‘I can’t wait to see your graduation ceremony.’

  ‘I don’t think it’s that grand. The Mayor hands us a pair of dark epaulettes, that’s all.’

  ‘Yes, but it’s at the Orchard Palace, and all the probationary constables from the city are there, and their families are watching. It’s a big event, Edeard, don’t knock it.’

  ‘I wasn’t really. Do you think you’ll manage to get to it?’

  ‘Of course I will. Mother Gallian approves of formal functions like that. I’ve already told her you’re graduating.’

  ‘Hey, those exams aren’t easy, you know.’

  ‘You’ll pass, Edeard. I’ll ask the Lady to give you simple questions.’

  ‘Thanks! Can you get out this weekend?’

  ‘I’m not sure. It’s difficult with the main service on—’

  Angry shouts up ahead made Edeard look round. His farsight could sense several minds inflamed with fury. Around them were minds blazing with sour determination; they began to move faster and faster.

  Shouts reverberated under the awnings.

  ‘Stop them!’

  ‘Thieves. Thieves.’

  ‘Kavine is hurt.’

  ‘Thieves in the market!’

  Identical longtalk cries flooded into the aether. Jerky image gifts of faces clashed in Edeard’s mind. Too many, and too poor to make any sense.

  His farsight swirled round the shifting commotion, contracting on the centre. Men were running, their arms flailing wide as people swarmed round. Hands gripped long metal blades, swiping wide, keeping everyone away. Overtones of fear bubbled into the clamour of longtalk.

  ‘That’s us!’ Sergeant Chae shouted. ‘Come on. Constables! Clear the way! Constables coming through.’ His longtalk was directed to warn people sauntering between the stalls at the same time as he shouted. He began to run. Edeard immediately followed, as did Macsen and Kanseen.

  ‘Move! Move aside!’

  After a moment of shock, Boyd took off after them. Dinlay had frozen, his mind radiating dismay.

  Edeard was running hard now, keeping close to Chae. People were jumping out of the way, pressing themselves against the stalls to open a path. Women were screaming. Children shouted, excited and fearful. The theft ahead was still kicking up a h
urly-burly.

  ‘Remember: act together,’ Chae told them all with remarkably calm longtalk. ‘Minimum of two at all times, don’t get separated. Keep your shields up.’

  Edeard sent his ge-eagle streaking through the sky, heading towards the edge of the market where the thieves must surely emerge. Every street beyond the rippled roof of canopies had a covering of pleasant saffcherry trees, their pink and blue blossom clotting any view of the pavement and people below. His farsight was still concentrating on the criminals as they sped from the scene of the robbery. There were four of them, three wielding the blades, while the fourth was lugging some kind of box. From what Edeard could sense it was full of metal. And plenty of the stalls around him were displaying jewellery.

  Chae drew his truncheon as they burst through a group of people gathered round a couple of overturned stalls. A man lay on the floor groaning and thrashing about, blood pooling beside him.

  ‘Lady!’ Chae exclaimed. ‘All right, stay back, give him air.’ He scrambled for his medical pack and knelt beside the fallen stallholder.

  ‘A doctor?’ Chae’s longtalk demanded, rising over the general clamour. ‘Is there a doctor in the Silvarum craft market? Wounded man.’

  Edeard’s farsight was still following the criminals. ‘Come on,’ he yelled at Macsen and Kanseen.

  ‘Where?’ Macsen demanded. ‘I’ve lost them.’

  ‘They’ve just reached the edge of the market. Albaric Street. I can still sense them.’ He ploughed on through the clutter of bystanders.

  ‘Edeard, no!’ Chae yelled after him.

  Edeard almost stopped at the command, but he just couldn’t ignore the fleeing thieves. We can still catch them. It would be their first real arrest. So far all they’d ever done in their four probationary months was clear drunks off the streets and break up fights. Never any real constable duty. He charged along a narrow passage between rows of stalls. Macsen and Kanseen were racing after him.

  ‘Come back,’ Chae bellowed.

  Ignoring the sergeant sent a flash of wicked glee along Edeard’s nerves.

  Stall holders were cheering the three probationary constables as they sped on through the market. Edeard and Macsen were using their longtalk to order people aside. By and large it was working. They were closing the gap on the fleeing thieves.

  Edeard’s ge-eagle swooped low over the saffcherry trees of Albaric Street, its wings skimming inches above the waving blossom. The four thieves were pounding along the pavement underneath, heading straight for the Great Major Canal. Their blades had been sheathed so as not to draw attention. Even so, the minds of people around them pulsed with curiosity and alarm.

  ‘Where are they going?’ Kanseen demanded.

  ‘Got to be the canal,’ Macsen replied. There was a lot of exhilaration flooding along his longtalk voice.

  Edeard finally saw the end of the market up ahead; the striped canvas roof gave way to the hazy radiance of blossom-filtered sunlight. ‘Can you locate any other constables?’ he demanded.

  ‘Lady, it’s all I can do to watch where I’m going,’ Macsen complained.

  ‘What are you planning on doing?’ Kanseen asked, all apprehension and doubts.

  ‘Stopping them,’ Edeard said. Wasn’t that obvious? What was wrong with her?

  ‘There’s more of them. And they’ve got blades.’

  ‘I’ll take them down,’ he growled. Her uncertainty flowed away from him, as if it was another landmark he’d left behind.

  They were closing fast now. Albaric Street was almost deserted compared to the busy market, allowing the constables to race onwards, weaving round the occasional recalcitrant pedestrian.

  The ge-eagle flashed over the last saffcherry tree. It showed Edeard the street ending abruptly at the edge of the Great Major Canal. The big waterway stretched away on both sides, cutting the city in half. Away to the west was the Birmingham Pool, intersecting the Outer Circle Canal, while eastwards the High Pool formed a junction with Flight Canal and Market Canal. There were only two bridges between Silvarum and the Padua district on the other side, one beside each pool. Like every bridge over the Grand Major Canal they were narrow and steep; most people preferred to use a gondola to cross the hundred-and-fifty-yard width of water. Several were bobbing at a mooring platform where the street ended.

  ‘Got them,’ Edeard exclaimed. ‘They just ran out of street.’ His jubilant mood suddenly dropped as the four criminals sped down the wooden steps to the platform and hopped on to a waiting gondola. It looked scruffy and badly maintained compared to the craft that normally slid along the city’s waterways, with dull scratched paint and a drab awning. There were two gondoliers standing on the back, both holding a pole. ‘Oh Honious!’

  ‘What?’ Kanseen demanded. She was red-faced and breathing heavily, but still keeping up.

  ‘Boat,’ he gasped back at her. ‘Come on, we can still catch them.’ Right in front of him a very grand-looking old lady in a billowing black and white dress and her entourage of younger handmaids were leaving one of

  Albaric Street’s high-class restaurants. His longtalk demands to move didn’t seem to be registering with any of them. He dodged round the old lady, cursing. A third hand swatted at him as one might an annoying insect. He flashed her an exasperated look.

  The ge-eagle spiralled up, watching the shabby gondola ease out from the mooring platform and into the multitude of craft flocking along the big canal. Downbeat the gondoliers might have been, but they knew their watercraft. With two punts available, and working in harmony, they were soon moving a lot quicker than anything else on the water. The four thieves flopped down on the benches, and started laughing.

  Edeard, Macsen, and Kanseen came hurtling up to the canal bank, coming dangerously close to toppling down into the water as they stopped at the top of the mooring’s wooden steps.

  ‘Bastards!’ Macsen shouted at them.

  One of the gondoliers raised his green and blue ribboned boater in mocking salute. They were already twenty yards downstream. Edeard knew with grim certainty they’d be going all the way down to Sampalok, and the wounded stall owner would be ruined. ‘Help us,’ he called down to the gondolier who was left moored below. ‘Take us after them.’ This gondola was a fancy craft, its black paintwork shining in the afternoon sun, the awning embroidered with a scarlet bird crest. Somehow Edeard just knew it belonged to the old woman behind.

  ‘Not a chance, pal,’ the gondolier called back. ‘This is Mistress Florell’s private gondola.’

  For a moment Edeard considered shoving him into the canal, and commandeering the craft to set off in pursuit. Except he didn’t have the first idea of how to use a punt pole.

  ‘Somebody help,’ he called with his voice and longtalk. It drew a few interested looks from the gondoliers out on the canal. But no one even asked what he wanted.

  A chorus of jeering carried over the water. Thirty yards away, the criminals were leaning over the gunnels to wave and gesture. Edeard stared at his tormentors with a rage that chilled his blood. He smiled back savagely. Some hint of his fury must have flashed out. Macsen and Kanseen swayed back. The jeering stopped.

  Edeard reached out with his third hand and plucked the box from the man holding it. Hands grasped empty air in futility as he lifted it ten feet above the gondola. The thieves exerted their own third hands, trying to prise it back. ‘Is that the best you can do?’ Edeard taunted. They never even managed to unsettle his grip.

  People on nearby gondolas watched in silence as the box drifted sedately through the air. Edeard’s smile turned malicious as it landed softly at his feet. He crossed his arms and gloated. ‘Don’t come back to our district,’ he long-talked to the departing gondola. ‘Not ever.’

  ‘You’re fucking dead, you little shit,’ came the answer.

  Edeard pressed his third hand down against the bow of the gondola, causing it to rock alarmingly. But it was too far away now for him to capsize. And the six of them hurriedly erected a strong enoug
h shield to deflect him.

  Macsen started laughing. His hand came down hard on Edeard’s shoulder. ‘Oh Lady, you are the greatest, Edeard, the absolute greatest. Did you see their faces?’

  ‘Yeah,’ Edeard admitted with a malign grin.

  ‘They won’t forget today,’ Kanseen said. ‘Heavens, Edeard, you must have frightened the life out of them.’

  ‘Let’s hope, eh.’ He smiled at his friends, very content with the way they’d bonded that little bit more from the shared event. A frilly parasol hit the side of his arm. ‘Ow!’

  It belonged to the old woman they’d pushed past. ‘In future, young man, you will display the correct courtesy due to your elders and betters,’ she snapped at him. ‘You could have knocked me over the way you were charging about with complete disregard for anyone else. At my age, too; I would never have got up again.’

  ‘Er, yes, madam. Sorry.’

  ‘Mistress Florell!’ she said, her wavery voice rising an octave with indignation. ‘Don’t you pretend you don’t know who I am.’

  Edeard could hear Macsen chortling behind him, it was muffled as if a hand was over his mouth. ‘Yes, Mistress Florell.’

  Her eyes narrowed with suspicion. Edeard thought she looked at least as old as Master Solarin. ‘I shall be reporting you to my nephew,’ she said. ‘There was a time in this city when the constabulary had decent people in its ranks. That time is clearly over. Now get out of my way.’

  He wasn’t actually in her way, but he took a step back anyway. She brushed past with a swirl of her tent-like skirt to descend the steps to the mooring platform. Her entourage followed with immaculately shielded minds. A couple of the handmaids flashed him amused grins. They all settled in the gondola.

  ‘See,’ Macsen said, sliding his arm round Edeard’s shoulders. ‘That’s our true reward, the respect of a grateful populace.’

  ‘Who is that?’ Edeard whined.

  Which set Macsen off laughing again.

  ‘You really don’t know, do you?’ Kanseen said incredulously.

  ‘No.’

  ‘Among other family connections, Mistress Florell is the Mayor’s aunt.’

  ‘Oh. I suppose that’s not good, then?’