by Jaine Fenn
‘That’s very true. Listen, Kerin, if it makes you feel any better, this is pretty hard for me too. Where I come from, people see the Sidhe as wicked alien monsters, so to find they’re most probably mutated humans is a bit of a shock.’
‘Not as much of a shock as finding your son is one! I am sorry, Sais, but this is too much.’
‘No shit! I’m amazed you’re coping as well as you are. Maybe there’s another explanation, but I can’t think of one right now. Whatever the reason, the important thing is that we’ve got control of the ship.’
‘Does that mean we can cure the falling fire?’
‘Yep, just as soon as your arm’s sorted. And when we’ve both had some sleep.’
‘What about the carousel?’
‘We’ll send it back for dusk, just a day late. The truth has to come out eventually. This can be the first sign from Heaven.’
Kerin nodded slowly. ‘Aye. And I need to think about what will happen when we go back down.’
I’ll bet you do, thought Sais. He wondered whether he should remind her that the ‘we’ didn’t include him. No, she knew that.
Kerin looked up at him, bright-eyed. ‘Can we wake up the other Consorts?’
Sais hesitated. ‘In theory, yes - but what would we do with them? You can hardly re-unite them with their families.’
‘We cannot just leave them here!’
Sais felt a strange mixture of guilt and hope. ‘They’ll be fine, Kerin, really. For now, leaving them asleep up here is the best plan. You can stay safely in stasis for years.’
‘If you are sure . . .’
‘I think people back down below are going to have enough to deal with without a load of unexpected skyfools running around.’
‘All right,’ she said, though she still didn’t sound entirely convinced.
He took the portable diagnosis unit out to Lillwen and found she had a serious concussion. Putting her back into stasis like that would be too risky, so he administered the drugs the unit recommended, enough to keep her out cold for the next day or so.
He also untied the mute they’d caught earlier and got her to help him load the empty boxes back onto the carousel, along with the four boxes with mutes in. He took the sleeping Consort off the carousel. That gave him thirty-seven in all. He had the mute get into an empty box.
He prepared a meal for them all in the ship’s galley, then the three of them grabbed a few hours’ much-needed sleep in the med-bay. Damaru would have preferred to keep playing with the tech, but Kerin, still immobilised in the gel-bath, persuaded him to rest for a while, and at last he curled up next to her bed.
When they awoke, Sais eased her arm out of the gel and put a light dressing on it. He found a bag and packed it with spare dressings and drugs.
As he handed it over, she nodded solemnly, and looked up at him. ‘When the time comes for my people to rejoin the community of the sky, medicines such as this will be one of the first things we would wish to get.’
In that moment, Sais knew that all the shit they’d been through might be worth it; despite the mess they’d made just trying to survive, this could work.
CHAPTER FORTY
Kerin felt better for a few hours’ sleep, and the pain in her arm had been reduced to a dull throb. But her mind was reeling: Sais was asking her to collude in manipulating the beliefs of everyone in the world . . . but their beliefs were lies, and they deserved the truth. Whether they could handle it was another matter.
She accompanied Sais and Damaru back through the eerie humming corridors. When they passed the bridge there was no sign of yesterday’s carnage, save perhaps a faint unpleasant smell in the air. She had to ask, ‘What happened to Einon? To his body, I mean.’
‘I put it outside the ship. The poor bastard wanted to see Heaven, and now he’ll spend the rest of eternity floating round in it.’
Kerin nodded. For all his flaws, and despite his betrayal, she could not hate the priest.
Sais took them through a short passage to a long room with seats along the side and at the front. He told her this was another ship, though she was not sure how that could be.
Damaru rushed up to the controls at the front, but Kerin only had eyes for the view. The huge window - or was it a screen? - before them showed the top half of a great glowing globe, set against a dark background. The upper area was white, and froths and specs of white covered the lower part too. And there were so many other colours down there! Greens, yellows and a hundred shades of brown, forming random, intricate patterns.
‘What is that?’ breathed Kerin.
‘That,’ said Sais, ‘is your world.’
‘My . . . world?’ He had told her the world was a globe, but she had not imagined it could be so big, so bright, so full of detail. ‘Tis beautiful.’
‘Most places are, from space. Damaru, could you move over please? I think I’d better drive.’
She and Damaru sat on the seats at the side while Sais took control. Though she felt no movement, the picture changed. They seemed to be falling into it, and for a moment panic thrummed through her. But Sais remained calm, so all must be well. Kerin watched in wonder as the glowing land rose to fill the view and the darkness around it disappeared. Trying to make sense of what she saw, she asked, ‘What are the white things?’
‘Ice. Only the equatorial region - the bit in the middle of the globe - is warm enough to live in.’
‘No, the little ones. They almost look like they are moving.’
‘They are. They’re clouds.’
‘But they’re so small!’
‘We’re still a long way up. We need to get down to just above them, then we can start spraying.’
‘Spraying the red rain?’ Kerin was unsure how big this ship was, but she doubted it was large enough to make rain over the whole land.
‘We spray a substance that reacts with the water in the air and makes the red rain. You see those dark curving lines cutting through the land? They’re rivers - the Glaslyn and the Afon Mawr. We need to concentrate near them.’
Sais pointed out other features - the bleached yellow-brown drylands, the watery fens that patterned the south like broken veins, the rich green lowlands and then, further west, the highlands, which looked like crumpled cloth from up here. Kerin tried to work out where Dangwern was. She spotted a tawny circle that could be the grass plain, then all at once the view began to shimmer as though in a heat haze. Again, Sais appeared unconcerned, and a few minutes later the view cleared. They were now so low that the land appeared to roll out under them.
Sais said, ‘We’ll work our way west to east, to make sure we spray as much of the sky as possible, especially the uplands where the clouds form.’
‘Did the Sidhe spray the falling fire over the land like this?’
‘Yeah, they did. It was a good way of keeping your people scared and obedient.’ He went on to explain the intricate, careful, vicious details of the Sidhe’s scheme: how they created diseases and their cures; the way they replaced the Cariad when she aged or if she died in office: all this care, this planning, all this deliberate suffering, in order to breed people they could use - people who, if Sais was right, were of the same race as they were. Kerin felt an echo of the hot hatred that had driven her to kill the Sidhe on the ship. She did not fight it.
Watching the unreal view of the world seen from above, she asked, ‘Will the Sidhe come back for the Consorts?’
‘Eventually, yes, so you’ll need to be ready. That reminds me, I’ve put the five mutes to sleep in the carousel, ready to go back down. Damaru knows how to work the boxes; when you get back you should maybe wake the mutes up. They’re a bit like skyfools, though without the scary powers. They’ll need looking after. You’re good at that. There’re a lot of people who are going to need looking after.’
Something in the way he spoke made her look over at him. Suddenly she knew, as surely as if she had her mother’s abilities - the abilities of a Sidhe - what he meant.
They were flying over cloud now, and the land below was hidden in white. Kerin felt light-headed, as though she might float away. ‘I . . . Are you suggesting what I think you are?’
He gave her a lopsided smile, and nodded.
They came out of the cloud and the view jumped into focus. Here was a sight of wonder, a sight no one else had ever seen. Her world. ‘Then you had better show me how this Sidhe technology works.’
‘I’m not sure how much I can tell you in the time we’ve got, but we can cover the basics.’
The idea that pressing a button, touching a panel, or sliding a lever could have such a great effect - a single switch controlled the distribution of the spray that would cause the red rain, and so cure the falling fire - made her head spin at first, but once she accepted the idea, the apparently delicate devices made more sense, even if the full details were currently beyond her comprehension.
Finally, when she had taken in as much as she could, Sais took the flying ship higher so they could see more of the land. She was shocked to see part of the globe of the world sliced away by darkness. ‘What is that?’ she gasped.
‘The terminator: the point where the globe turns away from the sun, so it gets dark.’
‘So that is the shadow of night, advancing over the world?’
‘Yep, and it’s nothing to worry about - it happens every day. But it’s probably our cue to get you and Damaru back to the carousel if you want to arrive at Dinas Emrys for nightfall.’
They persuaded Damaru into his box with relative ease, as he was as tired as either of them. Then it was Kerin’s turn.
‘So this is goodbye,’ she said. She wanted to say a lot more, but her feelings for Sais were a small matter compared to the task she now faced.
‘Not exactly. You can call me.’
‘Call you? Oh, the coms, aye.’
‘Told you you’d get the hang of it. If I don’t hear from you, I’ll call you this time tomorrow - the middle of the afternoon, your time. And if I don’t get an answer, then I’m coming down to check you’re all right.’
‘But the carousel—’
‘No, I’ll come down in my ship, maybe land on the Tyr. Let Urien explain that one away.’
Kerin laughed, and threw her arms around him. He winced when she squeezed his bruised ribs, then clasped her in return.
‘Good luck,’ he said.
‘And you.’
He held her a moment longer, then let go.
She climbed into her box. The lid closed, and she was alone.
Cocooned in the box, she considered what might await her below. Perhaps the Escorai were all dead. Poor Sefion would be for sure. The other two would have been locked in with his corpse. Or maybe Urien had managed to open the door and had taken control. No, Sais said there was no chance of that; the priest was not truly Sidhe. He had explained how the potential to produce a Sidhe child - a potential that she, or the priests, or any of her people, had - was not the same as . . . How had he put it? Having the trait fully expressed. He had said that in some ways this was like the difference between Einon’s map, which was drawn on paper and represented the world, and the view of the world itself that she and Damaru had now seen, laid out like a map before them, but real, not just a representation of what might be.
She wondered what Urien must be thinking right now. He would know the truth soon enough. She hoped he could take it. If he did not believe her, or if he could not accept what she had to say, then all was lost. The lie would continue. Even if Sais did come down to save her, it might not be enough. Urien might have her and Damaru killed before he arrived—
Eventually her mind would let her worry no more and she fell into a fitful doze.
The slight jolt at the bottom awoke her at once. She panicked for a moment, then counted her breaths to calm herself. One - two - three . . .
She opened her box as Sais had shown her and sat up. Prysor had abased himself on the floor before the carousel. Urien stood behind him. The Escori dropped to one knee as she emerged, though he looked uncertain. She climbed out. The next box along remained closed; Damaru, exhausted and with no worries to distract him, had almost certainly fallen into a deep sleep.
As she stepped off the carousel Urien’s eyes widened. ‘Kerin am Dangwern?’ he croaked.
An understandable reaction. She must be an odd sight, in a black robe that Sais had found in one of the Sidhe’s rooms, and with a bandaged arm. ‘Aye,’ she said, ‘tis me.’
The Escori opened his mouth, then closed it. ‘But . . . what? How?’ he said, his voice barely audible.
Kerin walked over to him. As she passed Prysor, the other Escori raised his head briefly, then lowered it again and began to mutter slurred prayers. She handed Urien a clear container made of a substance whose name Sais had probably told her.
To his credit Urien took the strange item without flinching, though he looked dumbstruck.
‘It has water in it,’ she said. ‘You have been in here for almost two full days. You must be thirsty.’
He nodded, then uncapped the container and drank half of it. He put the rest down next to Prysor. ‘His mind is broken,’ he said, indicating the prostrate Escori. ‘And Sefion is dead.’ Then, his voice stronger, he added. ‘What has happened that you return alone from Heaven?’
Kerin looked him in the eye. ‘There is no Heaven. It is as I said: we have been lied to.’
Urien stared back, doubt and confusion in his eyes. Finally he nodded and said, ‘Tell me. Tell me everything.’
Kerin did. She answered his many questions as honestly and fully as she could. She let him take the lead with his queries, as that seemed the best way to pass on this strange and terrible knowledge.
Finally he said, ‘I think I understand, though tis hard medicine to swallow. I have always sought knowledge, but I never dreamed of this terrible truth.’ He paused, then added, ‘Surely these sky-people - either the Sidhe or Sais’s own folk - will come here now the plan of the Sidhe is foiled?’
‘Only if we let them.’
‘Only if we let them? Kerin, you are a woman of rare perception, but have you forgotten that we are trapped within this strange room of Sais’s ‘technology’? We cannot save ourselves, let alone help our world!’
For the first time in some while, Kerin felt a smile tugging at her face. ‘We are not as powerless as you think,’ she said. ‘Sais told me much of technology, and you yourself have used it, in controlling the bridge in the testing room.’
‘That may be so, but we are still trapped!’
‘No, we are not. Wait here.’ She went back to the carousel. Urien, looking uncertain, stayed where he was. She went up to Damaru’s box. ‘The Sidhe have power over these devices, even those we cannot operate ourselves. And not only the Sidhe.’ She was still not sure how she felt about Sais’s claim that Damaru was Sidhe. For now, all that mattered was the result. She woke Damaru gently while Urien looked on. Despite her bold words, she was trembling. This was the true final test. She told Damaru what he must do, then led him past Urien and up to the door. Urien trailed after her. Prysor remained on the floor.
At the door, she whispered to Damaru, ‘Will you let us out now?’
Damaru looked at the door, frowned, then reached for the palmlock.
Kerin held her breath. If Sais was wrong—
The door slid open.
She heard Urien’s expelled breath behind her. Ahead, the corridor was as they had left it. She turned to Urien.
‘Do you have people in the Tyr you trust?’
He raised an eyebrow. ‘Some,’ he said.
‘Then I suggest you might want to get them to help. Prysor should be ministered too, and Lillwen is also returned and in need of aid. In addition there are five sleepers who Damaru will wake. They are innocents, used by the Sidhe. It may be fitting that each Escorai is assigned one to care for. ’
Urien’s dubious expression had matured into stark disbelief. ‘What Escorai? There is only myself and Prysor, and he
has all but lost his mind.’
‘There must be changes. I will need your help. The first task is to appoint new Escorai. Do you have candidates in mind?’
Urien looked at Kerin in amazement. Then a cold, canny smile crept onto his face. ‘Do I take it,’ he said slowly, ‘that you yourself are laying claim to a position you believe to be vacant?’
Though her innards twisted, Kerin kept her expression composed and her voice even. ‘I cannot see any alternative. Lillwen was only ever an unwilling tool. Of course, the Sidhe will return one day, and they will wish nothing more than to put one of their own back in place, and return us to the servitude and ignorance in which they have held our people for untold generations. Is that truly what you wish for our world?’
Urien shook his head, his expression dark. ‘Of course not, but this is . . . absurd. You are hardly qualified to rule!’
‘I have some knowledge of the devices here, and I know how the world works. My son understands the devices better than I, and, more importantly, he has the ability to make them work for us. You need this. Our people need this.’
‘It is unthinkable.’
She spread her hands. ‘Urien, please. I am no politician. I do not crave power - but it has been given to me. I will need good advice. I wish only to find the path that will save those I care for from further harm.’
Urien narrowed his eyes and looked at her long and hard, a gaze nearly as sharp as the Sidhe’s, though without the malice. Then he said, ‘You brought water from Heaven to quench the thirst of a stranger who may have been your enemy.’
‘But one whom I hoped would be my ally,’ she whispered, her voice beginning to fail.
‘Aye,’ said Urien. ‘So you did.’
Kerin said nothing. There was no other argument she could use.
Finally Urien said, ‘We should go. I believe we have much work ahead of us.’ He moved aside to let her through first. ‘After you, Divinity.’
CHAPTER FORTY-ONE
With Kerin safely on her way home, Sais went back to his ship. As he stepped on board the Judas Kiss he said to himself, ‘My name is Jarek Reen, and this is my home.’ He almost believed it now.