Skyfall

by Anthony Eaton

  ‘Aren’t you scared?’ he asked, once the noise had died down.

  ‘Of this? Nah. I’ve been chased by you lot plenty of times. At least here there’s lots of places where you can get hidden quickly. Not like the Darklands. Nothin’ to hide behind out there ’cept dirt.’

  ‘So how do you avoid them?’ Jem looked at Saria, curious.

  ‘Sometimes we wet ourselves, cool right down and cover up in sand an’ mud and stay real still, like a rock, until they fly right past us. But just before his lot got me’ – she gestured at Lari – ‘I learnt how to use the Earthmother. I learnt to pull up earthwarmth and join the land, make myself part of everything, not separate like you.’

  ‘I don’t understand,’ said Jem. ‘Earthwarmth?’

  Saria took Jem’s hand, gently pulled her down, and placed the girl’s palm flat on the ground.

  ‘No point even tryin’ to feel it here. This land’s got so much dead earth smeared all over it that the Earthmother’s buried, real deep. But she’s down there, all right. An’ once you can feel her, you can find her easy enough.’

  Lari and Kes exchanged a mystified look over the top of the other girls’ heads.

  ‘We’re clear again,’ Gregor said. ‘Let’s go.’

  Lari and Kes followed him back out into the street and Jem and Saria came after them. They were walking along a wide thoroughfare lined with empty, crumbling buildings. Once or twice Lari caught glimpses of other people, little more than shadows, who seemed to be trailing them, flitting between the rubble on either side. Gregor seemed unconcerned.

  ‘Clansfolk. It’s old Weymouth’s people, though. Nothing to worry about.’

  The avenue curved slightly, then straightened. The sun had set some time earlier, but there was enough light thrown down from the skycity to make out the whole street, its surface cracked and crazy, stretching as far as Lari could see.

  It was strange, almost dizzying, to be able to look so far along a straight line and not have it interrupted by a curving wall of clearcrete. The closest thing he could compare it to was the flightline in the hangar deck below DGAP, but even that paled into insignificance against the unbroken, geometric immensity of this part of the underworld.

  They made their way cautiously, always alert for the telltale howl of an approaching flyer. Here and there, fires threw flickering dots of light from various deserted buildings, and between two of the old structures Lari saw a makeshift campsite with a mother suckling a child beside a dull fire. The look she gave them as they passed was somewhere between hostility and a lack of interest.

  ‘This is how they live? The clans?’

  Gregor nodded. ‘Some. A couple of groups, the beachfolk, for example, move around a lot, up and down the coast. But in this part of the city, people tend to stay put.’

  ‘What do they eat?’

  ‘Whatever they can get their hands on. The river and sea-edge clans know how to get food from the water. Some raid recyc storage dumps and others have shiftie relatives who bring stuff down from up top.’

  For Lari it was impossible to imagine anyone actually having to live like this.

  ‘You still haven’t told us where we’re going,’ Kes said. Ever since leaving the refuge, she’d been fretting about her parents. ‘I need to get back up to Mum and Dad. They’ll be frantic. Are you certain I can’t just get a maglift and—’

  ‘Not possible,’ Jem said curtly. ‘All upward-bound maglifts are being redirected straight to security stations.’

  ‘Then what about a ladder? Like the one on 87b?’

  ‘No,’ Gregor answered. ‘For the moment you’re safest with us. Don’t worry, Kes. You’re part of the Underground. We’ll look after you.’

  ‘But my parents …’

  ‘They can’t keep up this level of security forever. It’ll have to relax soon. Once they ease up we’ll get you topside.’

  ‘But what if they don’t?’

  Gregor looked at Jem and gave a tight smile. ‘They will. Before a lot longer the Prelate’s going to have much bigger things to worry about than catching a mixie girl like yourself.’

  Something in the look that passed between Gregor and his daughter left Lari feeling uneasy. ‘So who’s this person we’re meeting?’

  Gregor looked at Saria. ‘She knows. Don’t you?’

  The Darkland girl nodded. ‘You’re takin’ me to Jani.’

  ‘That’s right.’

  Jem stopped. ‘My mum?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘But she’s dead.’

  ‘In a way. We’re going to see her anyway.’

  ‘What’s going on, Dad?’

  ‘It’s all right.’ Saria walked over to her half-sister, reached out, rested her fingers lightly on the tattoo on the side of the girl’s neck and closed her eyes. Lari watched as Jem tensed for a second then seemed to relax completely. When she spoke again, her voice was completely different. Softer.

  ‘What was that?’

  Saria smiled. ‘Earthwarmth. Jani. Me.’

  Jem let Saria take her arm and they continued in silence. Gregor led, then Jem and Saria, and finally Kes and Lari, trailing behind. Once the others were out of earshot, Kes spoke in a low voice.

  ‘Lari, what’s going to happen?’

  ‘I wish I could tell you.’

  ‘But what are you going to do? You can’t live down here. Like … that.’ She gestured back to where the clanwoman’s camp was now vanishing behind them.

  ‘We won’t. We’ll get out. Get away from the city.’

  ‘You won’t survive.’

  ‘We might.’

  ‘They might. You’re not like them. The moment you get exposed—’

  ‘Do you think I don’t know that?’

  ‘So why risk it?’

  ‘I don’t see any choice. Anyway, I’d rather die out there, out in the open, than here in the shadows of a city that’s dying anyway, no matter what we do.’

  ‘What about your father? What about Janil?’

  ‘They both made their choices. They don’t need me now, any more than I need them.’

  Kes looked ahead, making sure that Gregor and the girls were too far away to overhear.

  ‘I’m not staying down here, Lari. I can’t.’

  ‘Nobody’s asked you to.’

  ‘I just wanted you to know. In case I have to disappear in a hurry.’

  Lari didn’t reply, then he touched her forearm lightly.

  ‘We’ll be heading east. If you change your mind.’

  ‘East? What’s out there?’

  ‘That’s the way my father said we should go. I guess we’d reach the Darklands eventually.’

  ‘Thanks.’

  ‘Hurry up, you two!’ Gregor called. ‘We’re almost there.’

  Lari and Kes increased their pace until they were all moving in one bunch again.

  ‘This way.’ Gregor veered off the main road, down a long, narrow alleyway. Several times they had to scramble over small piles of rubble, until they crossed an empty stretch of land, climbed a large embankment, and stood looking out over row after row of uniform, white stones.

  ‘What are they?’ Kes’s voice was puzzled.

  ‘Markers,’ Jem answered. ‘Each one of them is a life.’

  ‘A life?’

  ‘A death, more accurately,’ Gregor corrected his daughter.

  ‘There’s no difference.’ Saria had stopped and knelt on the uneven ground, then she completely prostrated herself. ‘I can feel her again,’ she said. ‘She’s stronger here. Stronger than before …’

  ‘Get up, Saria.’ Jem tried to haul the Darklander girl to her feet, but Gregor stopped her.

  ‘Leave her a moment, Jem.’

  ‘What’s she doing?’

  ‘Just… trust me. Her mother – your mother – used to talk about this.’

  ‘But what’s she feeling? I don’t understand.’

  ‘Neither do I. But she’s feeling something, all right. I’ve got no doubt abou
t it.’

  A moment later Saria stood up again and nodded at Gregor.

  ‘This way,’ Gregor said. He led them down the slope, to a tangle of decomposing metal. There he turned to Lari and Kes.

  ‘You two wait here. We’ll be a while.’

  ‘No. We’re coming, too.’

  ‘You can’t. This is … personal. Wait here and we’ll come back for you.’

  Lari and Kes exchanged an uneasy glance, then Kes shrugged.

  ‘If you say.’

  Without another word, she settled on the hard ground, her back against a jagged slab of concrete. Lari joined her.

  ‘See you soon.’

  Gregor took Saria’s and Jem’s hands, one in each of his, and led them into the rows of white stones, and before long they were completely lost from sight. As soon as they were gone, Kes leapt to her feet.

  ‘I’m going.’

  ‘Now?’

  She nodded.

  ‘But the lifts are still being diverted.’

  ‘We don’t know that. We haven’t seen a flyer in hours.’

  ‘What if they catch you?’

  ‘I don’t care, Lari. I have to try.’

  Lari stood up and faced her.

  ‘Kes, listen, the city’s dying.’

  ‘I know. You told me.’

  ‘I mean it, Kes. Really dying.’

  ‘I believe you, Lari.’

  ‘But you’re still going back up?’

  ‘It’s where my family are.’ She took a couple of steps towards the embankment, then stopped and turned back. ‘You’ve known about this all along, haven’t you?’

  Lari nodded. ‘Not me personally, but DGAP and the Prelate have known about the entropy scenario for years.’

  ‘And it can’t be stopped?’

  ‘No. The system’s running out of energy, Kes. And it’s going to take everyone with it when it goes.’

  ‘How long?’

  Lari made a gesture of helplessness. ‘Fifty years at most. Less if the Underground continue their attacks.’

  There was a momentary clearing in the haze and Kes stared up at the distant, twinkling skycity.

  ‘I don’t belong down here, Larinan,’ she said. ‘My parents, my brother …’

  ‘There’s even less future up there than there is down here, Kes,’ he said gently.

  ‘I know. But not for me.’

  Abruptly, she grabbed Lari in a fierce hug. ‘I’m sorry,’ she whispered.

  ‘Sorry?’

  ‘For everything. Jem was right. I should have told you.’

  ‘It doesn’t matter, Kes. Just listen to me now …’

  ‘No, I can’t. Be careful, Larinan Mann.’

  She planted a quick kiss on his cheek, her lips barely brushing his skin, then pushed him away gently and scrambled to the top of the embankment.

  ‘Kes!’ Lari called, and she stopped and looked down. ‘East. Remember that. Just in case …’

  Kes nodded, just once, then slipped across the embankment and into the night.

  SARIA!

  It’s not a call anymore. It’s a constant, summoning shiver. Here amongst the marker stones the earth isn’t dead – not like everywhere else in the city.

  Between the marker stones, there’s life. There’s earthwarmth.

  It’s ancient, it’s tired, but it’s there, and Saria can feel it though the soles of her feet.

  Walking through the old city she’d been able to feel the skyfire above, pressing down always, like a smothering blanket of force against the ground. But here, in the land of the dead, it’s different. It is almost as though the skyfire itself is being held at bay – as though there’s a dome here, an invisible one, covering the land of the dead.

  A dome of earthwarmth.

  Gregor leads them between the rows.

  Several times Saria has to stop and throw herself to the ground and just lie there, sucking the earthwarmth. It’s been so long since she’s felt that familiar tingle, the warming, filling energy of it, that she can’t stop herself. When she does this, the other two watch silently.

  Her sister, she feels it too, although she doesn’t realise it yet. She reminds Saria of herself back in the valley, when she lived with Ma Lee.

  Gregor is taking her hand again and leading her once more. Closer … always closer.

  SARIA!

  It’s all around her now. Everywhere and nowhere. The call has drawn her all this way, outwards, upwards, into the sky and then back to the earth like a falling bird.

  When Gregor pulls her gently past the final row of stones, Saria is barely aware of anything, only the call…

  SARIA!

  There is no stone marking this lifedeath. Only long-turned earth.

  SARIA!

  Even if she wanted to hold this earthwarmth back, she couldn’t. Jani surges into her, through her, and Saria reaches back down, into the Earthmother, feeling outwards … downwards …

  The city, the dead scar which seems so enormous around them, is little more than a smear against the landscape. She feels it all … out further than ever before.

  The land is healing itself, slowly but inevitably.

  Out there are streams and rivers, even whole lakes of water, and Saria feels them like blood.

  Out there are trees and bush, thicker than anything she’s ever seen. She feels them like her own heart.

  Out there are people.

  Her people.

  Dying people …

  People walled and trapped. Prisoners of a race which is itself already dead.

  And she knows why she’s been called here.

  Saria knows.

  She’s been called here so that she can go home again.

  The closer they came to Jani’s gravesite, the more strange Saria’s behaviour became. Gregor watched her closely, leading her when he had to and on a couple of occasions pulling her gently back to her feet. At first he was concerned, but then he remembered Jani. Even right at the very end, while she laboured to push Jem out to his waiting hands, she’d been drawing on something – some energy Gregor had no access to, no knowledge of.

  Earthvarmth. Earthmother. Those were the words she’d managed to gasp out when he’d asked about it. Then finally, SARIA! Then, nothing …

  When they arrived at the gravesite, Saria pushed his arm away, staggered a couple of steps, then folded to the ground and lay still, pressed to the earth above her mother’s final resting place.

  ‘Is she all right? What’s she doing?’ Jem, who’d been silent, came up and stood beside her father.

  ‘I don’t understand exactly. Some kind of ritual, I think. Your mother used to do it, too.’

  Jem looked around, absorbing the lingering peacefulness of the ancient burial ground.

  ‘What is this place?’

  ‘You haven’t worked it out?’

  ‘Something to do with our mother, clearly.’

  Gregor gestured to the narrow rectangle of ground upon which Saria lay. ‘That’s where I buried her.’

  ‘Buried?’ Jem’s forehead creased.

  ‘After you were born. After she died. I buried her here, just like they used to in the old times.’

  ‘You never brought me here before.’

  ‘There never seemed any reason to.’

  Father and daughter stood side by side watching Saria. Then Jem said quietly, ‘She’s … odd.’

  ‘You would be too, if you’d had to endure everything she’s been through.’

  ‘I’m not just talking about the DGAP stuff. There’s something about her. It’s like she’s not properly here.’

  Gregor took his daughter’s hand.

  ‘She is. Jani was the same. I think there’s just something about the earth that makes them … aware.’

  ‘What happens now?’ Jem asked.

  ‘After this?’

  ‘Yeah.’

  ‘After this, the Underground is going to do what you and I designed it for.’

  ‘And that is?’
/>   ‘After this, we start a war.’

  Jem digested this. ‘Lari’s father said the city is dying.’

  ‘So I’m led to believe.’

  ‘Then what’s the point of fighting it?’

  ‘I’m not.’

  ‘No?’ Jem raised an eyebrow.

  ‘I’m simply accelerating the inevitable.’

  ‘And killing us all in the process.’

  Gregor shook his head. ‘If what Larinan Mann told us is true, then we’re already dead, Jem. We just haven’t worked it out yet.’

  ‘But as long as we’re still alive …’

  ‘There’s hope. I know the theory. But the fact is that as long as this city is still clinging to the last vestiges of its long, pointless life, then she’s in danger.’ He inclined his head towards the prostrate Saria. ‘You too, if it comes to that. You’ll never escape unless there’s nobody to chase you.’

  ‘Escape? What are you talking about?’

  Gregor looked his daughter in the eyes. ‘You have to go, Jem. You and her.’

  ‘No!’

  ‘Yes. Even Dernan Mann realises it. Why do you think he was trying to get her out?’

  The name suddenly triggered Jem’s memory. ‘He sent you a message.’

  ‘Mann?’

  ‘Yeah. He said to tell you that you were right.’ To her surprise, the message drew a sharp bark of laughter from her father.

  ‘Took him long enough to admit it.’

  ‘What did he mean? Right about what?’

  ‘Just what I was saying a moment ago, Jem. The only hope this city – this race – has for any kind of future is if you and her and Larinan Mann and Kesra Anatale can escape from here before it all comes crashing down around us.’

  ‘I’m not going anywhere without you.’

  ‘That’s not an option. I can’t live outside.’

  ‘Neither can Lari.’

  ‘It’s different. I’m a creature of the shadows, just like all those cloudheads. My life’s work is about to start and it’s here in this city. Larinan, though, he’s never belonged. He was raised for something different. Just like you.’

  ‘Four of us won’t be able to start a new race. It’s not enough.’

  ‘No. Probably not.’

  ‘So what’s the point of even trying?’