The Foretelling of Georgie Spider

by Ambelin Kwaymullina

  That was smart thinking. Everybody hiding in the hall would be gazing at the Lookaway’s backs, which meant they wouldn’t be affected by the ability. But everyone outside of it would be looking – or trying to look – at a Lookaway who was looking at them. Which was impossible.

  “I’ll go first,” Cat said. “That way I can make sure everyone knows you’re not enforcers. Give me a little while, and then shut your eyes and run in a straight line for about ten metres.”

  She closed her own eyes and darted out. I reached for Connor’s hand, and Jules’s. I didn’t want to lose track of them, and we were going to have to run blind. There was only one way to approach a Lookaway who was facing in your direction without getting turned around, and that was if you couldn’t see them. Shona took hold of Jules’s other hand, and we waited for a few minutes. Then the four of us ran out, jogging along in darkness with our feet thudding against the composite ground. The only way I had to tell that I was getting closer to where we were supposed to go was the gradual increase in the battle noises. It was very loud now – we were almost on top of the fighting, and it seemed like I’d been running for ages. Surely it had been ten metres already? What if something went wrong?

  Cat’s voice suddenly called out, “Stop! You’re here.”

  I staggered to a halt, blinking my eyes open. In front of me were a lot of detainees, huddled in the shelter of a big pile of rubble. I could see the odd flash of weapons fire over the top of the debris. As I’d thought, we were right at the edge of the fight. Cat grabbed hold of Shona’s arm, pulling her over to where wounded people were lying on the ground. That left Jules, Connor and me staring at the rest of the detainees. There were about fifty of them, and some were staring suspiciously back at us.

  The others were digging.

  They were gathered around a jagged hole in the composite-covered ground, scooping dirt out of it and into enormous cooking pots that they must have managed to salvage from the dining hall. Twenty – no, twenty-three – pots, and all of them filled up with earth. Was this what they’d needed to break the composite for? They certainly seemed to think they had something worth protecting from the way they were hunching over the pots and glaring at us.

  Beside me, Jules muttered, “We don’t want your dirt. Really.”

  “Shhh!” I hissed. “They must have a reason.”

  “Either they do or they’ve been in here too long and gone cr–”

  He broke off as Shona came striding over, along with an older, grey-bearded man whose shirt was stained with blood, although from the easy way he was moving he wasn’t hurt any more. Shona must have Mended him, and as I watched her approach I realised all the wounded were getting to their feet. She’s good. In fact she was about as strong a Mender as any I’d ever seen, other than Wentworth.

  “This is Bran,” Shona said, as she reached us. “Bran – Connor, Jules, Ashala. Connor’s the one who can fly.” She drew in a breath, and added, “We need your help. We’re losing out there, and we’ve got to find a way to win, or at least hold out until Laurie can get everyone else free. See those pots?”

  “They’re kind of hard to miss,” I said.

  “They’re filled with seeds. The wind blows them in from the forests and we’ve been collecting them for years and hiding them from the guards. Just in case we ever got a chance to fight back.”

  I suddenly understood why the detainees were being so protective. Not dirt. Weapons. Or the seeds would be in the hands of a strong Leafer, who could make anything grow as long as it was anchored in earth. Which was why it had mattered that Leafers were hurt. “You’re going to attack the enforcers with plants?”

  “That’s the plan,” Bran said. “We Leafers are going to climb up to the top of the rubble so we’ve got a good view of the fight. Then we move the pots onto the battlefield, and make the seeds grow.”

  “The problem,” Shona said, “is that it’s not going to be easy to get the pots to where we want them to be. We need them scattered over as much of the fighting as possible, and we don’t have anyone who can fly. So, Connor, if you could carry even a few of them across to the other–” She broke off, scowling. “You all find this funny for some reason?”

  Jules and Connor and I were grinning, and she didn’t know why. Because she didn’t know what Connor could really do.

  “My ability,” Connor said, “is not flying.”

  He gestured, and there were startled exclamations from the detainees as their pots rose upwards to hover above the ground.

  Shona’s jaw dropped. “Wh – how?”

  “He doesn’t fly, exactly,” I explained. “He controls the air.”

  The detainees were staring at Connor as if he were the sun come down from the sky to shine upon them.

  “You control the air?” Bran repeated. “That means – you can–” A fierce grin split his face. “Oh, this is going to be grand! You get the pots out there, lad – we’ll do the rest!”

  He spun around and raced for the debris, calling out to the others as he went, “Leafers! Top of the rubble, now!”

  Detainees shot to their feet and followed him. Ten… twenty … thirty … almost everyone here is a Leafer. Even if some of them were having difficulty with their abilities there were more than enough here to compensate for it. And their Strongarms had prioritised freeing the Leafers from the cells. These detainees had been thinking about escape for a long time.

  Connor, Jules and I soared up to the top of the rubble, lying flat to peer over the edge as the Leafers climbed up after us. Below was more of the collapsed hall, and directly opposite was a huge building dotted with tiny windows that had to be the cellblock. In the space between there and here was chaos.

  There were enforcers everywhere, shooting and slashing and stabbing, and they moved like the trained fighters they were. I could see individual detainees fighting back – Jumpers leaping in to strike a blow and leaping out again; Strongarms lifting guards up and flinging them across the ground; Waterbabies blasting with spouts of water and a couple of Firestarters tossing fireballs. But too many of the detainees seemed to be trying to fight with nothing but their fists. Others were gesturing with their hands, as if something was supposed to happen, and nothing did. They’re having problems with their abilities. Against swords they still could probably have taken the enforcers. But not against streakers. The detainees were losing, and they were dying fast.

  The Leafers reached the top of the rubble. Connor drew a breath and pots shot out overhead to hurtle across the battlefield. Streaker fire blazed through the sky as some of the enforcers fired upwards, and the pots swerved, zigzagging back and forth as they scattered across the sky over the fight. Connor’s shoulder was next to mine, and I could feel the tension in it. Too many pots, too many streakers … I shifted closer, trying to transfer what strength I had to him. We couldn’t let those pots get shot down – if the dirt spilled the Leafers weren’t going to be able to grow the seeds, and this would be for nothing.

  The pots careened onwards until they’d reached all corners of the battlefield, hovering above the fighting. And Bran shouted, “Now!”

  The seeds began to grow.

  Stinger nettles surged out and down, wrapping around enforcer heads and sending them shrieking in pain as the toxic hairs on the leaves embedded into their skin. Tussock grasses boiled out, stretching to unnatural lengths to tangle up enforcer hands and pluck streakers from their grasp. Starflowers descended in a pretty shower of pink and white to puff their pollen into enforcer faces and confuse their senses. And from every pot, the slender silver limbs of young gungurrus grew, coiling around and around to encase their pots in wood before flowing to the earth and thickening to form a trunk.

  “Let go, lad!” Bran called. “We got this.”

  Connor shuddered, lowering his head. I pressed closer to him, and tightened my grip on my streaker, alert for danger. Only there wasn’t any, not to us, because the Lookaway protection was still working. Even with the pots flying out f
rom this direction, none of the enforcers had noticed anything odd about not being able to look this way, or at least, not enough to realise it was an ability at work. Which wasn’t surprising, since they had more immediate problems.

  The pots had become living towers that were dealing green death in every direction. A few of the enforcers were firing uselessly at the gungurru trunks, burning the wood but doing no more than that. The rest of them were struggling with the plants or with the detainees, who were attacking with renewed enthusiasm. Some of those detainees were now armed with the streakers that the tussock grass had stolen, and it hadn’t taken them long to figure out how to fire the things. Then there was a sudden roar, and I looked across at the cellblock to see detainees pouring out. One after the other went charging into the fight in what seemed like a never-ending stream of people. Well done, Laurie. The detainees already in the battle let out a ragged cheer. So did the Leafers on the rubble around us. And I saw it, as clearly as if I’d been standing on the shore in Gull City – the tide had turned. The detainees were going to win this.

  I nudged Connor. “It worked. It totally worked!”

  He lifted his head. “We should–”

  “No!” Jules snapped.

  We both looked at him, and he growled, “We shouldn’t do anything. Whatever idiot, self-sacrificing idea you’re about to suggest, no!” He jabbed a finger at Connor. “You were badly hurt back in the city. And you–” he pointed to me, “can’t even use your ability! Besides, in case you haven’t noticed, this lot are taking care of themselves just fine. So for once, for all of five minutes, can the two of you just stay put and stop helping people!”

  Connor and I exchanged rueful glances. Then I said, “Well, I suppose. For five minutes.”

  “Possibly even ten,” Connor murmured.

  Jules didn’t think we were funny. He turned his head away, muttering something that sounded like, this is the worst job I’ve ever had. Except that didn’t make sense, so I must have heard wrong.

  We watched the fight for a while longer, but Jules was right that the detainees were looking after themselves just fine. So we floated down to the ground and were immediately recruited by Shona, who needed help to manage the wounded. For the next few hours I held hands, and spoke reassuringly, and helped sort people into three groups: hurt … a lot hurt … Shona get over here now! The remains of the dining hall gradually became a makeshift hospital, with Lookaways guarding the sides but not the front so detainees could find their way in. Eventually, there came a point when I realised there was no one left to help. And everything was quiet; there were no sounds of fighting any more.

  I glanced across at Connor and Jules, who were standing nearby. “Is it over?”

  A voice behind me said, “Yes it’s over Ashala Wolf!”

  I spun around to face Laurie. Shona caught sight of him and hurried across to us, reaching out to take hold of his arm. “You’re all right, Laure? You’re not hurt anywhere?”

  “I can Run much faster than enforcers.”

  She checked him over and gave a relieved nod, wiping a weary hand across her forehead. She’d been using her ability for ages now, and desperately needed to rest. I couldn’t let her yet.

  “Shona? If the fighting’s over, then there’s something everyone here needs to know. Something really important.” I drew in a breath and launched into the story of the repeal of the Citizenship Accords. Connor and Jules joined in, adding details I’d missed and telling their side of what had happened while I’d been with the Primes.

  When we got to the end, Laurie was grinning an enormous grin. “No more Accords? Really truly?”

  “Well, sort of,” I told him. “They’re gone, just … not around here, if Terence Talbot is in charge of Gull City.”

  Shona was staring at us with an expression of utter disbelief. I supposed not being an Illegal any more was a hard thing to absorb. Then she said,“You want us to fight for the government?”

  Oh. It wasn’t the end of the Accords that she was finding hard to believe. “We want you to fight against Neville Rose.”

  Laurie hunched his shoulders. “Neville Rose is a bad man.”

  I blinked, recognising the way Laurie said those words. It was the same way I said them. “Neville hurt you.”

  He stared down at the ground, moving some stray dirt with his foot. Shona put her arm around him. “Laurie was one of the subjects for Rose’s experiments. A lot of people here were.” Her lip curled into a snarl. “And I was the one Rose got to Mend them once he was done. So that he could start all over again.”

  I shuddered. “I know. I mean, I didn’t know about you, but …”

  “You know what it’s like,” Shona said.

  “Yeah.” I moved a fraction nearer to Connor so that my hand brushed against his. When I’d been held prisoner in Detention Centre 3, Connor had been the one who’d had to patch me up and send me back to Neville. It was the hardest thing I’d ever asked of him. An impossible thing, only he’d done it. We did the impossible for each other, and the Tribe.

  Shona’s gaze roamed across the two of us, and I don’t know what she saw in our faces, but she said, “I’ll tell everyone to hear you out. Although I don’t know if anyone’s going to be prepared to do what you’re asking.” She looked up at Laurie. “Can you go tell everyone what’s happened in the city? And that if they want to find out more they should come speak to Ashala?”

  He nodded and disappeared. Shona pointed to the rubble. “You need to go sit somewhere where it’s easy for people to see you, so they can come and ask you questions if they’d like to. Don’t go up to anyone yourself, don’t pressure anyone for a decision, don’t–”

  “I know,” I interrupted. “In detention you have all your choices taken away. Now everyone here is the boss of themselves, and it’s important that they’re treated that way.”

  She let out a sigh of relief. “You do understand. Now go!”

  Connor, Jules and I made our way up the rubble and sat, high enough so people could spot us from a distance and come talk to us – or not. Then I turned my head to the left, towards the battlefield where detainees were going about the grim task of clearing the area of bodies. There were a lot of people dead, detainee and enforcer both. I wouldn’t ever have left the detainees at the mercy of Neville’s people, but I wished there’d been another way.

  After a while, people came, in groups of twos and threes. Some asked questions. Some just wanted to hear us tell the tale of the repeal of the Accords. Many told us they weren’t going to join the fight. Others went away again without saying anything at all, and I knew they were thinking about it. Before we’d come here I’d figured we’d be bringing detainees back with us straightaway. I knew now that wasn’t going to happen. They needed time to make the decision. That was how things were done in this Tribe.

  We talked through most of the day. When it was clear no one else was coming I rose, needing to stretch my legs, and walked across the rubble to gaze out over the battlefield. It was empty of bodies now, and there was blood and streaker scorch marks on the composite. And twenty-three strange-looking trees. There wasn’t enough soil in the pots for those plants to survive for long, but they wouldn’t have to. The Leafers were going to make a garden and encourage the gungurru trunks to sink roots deep into the earth. That was another thing we’d learned in the course of the day – many of the detainees were staying. They thought that between them all they could hold the centre against anyone who came to take it back. I thought they probably could too.

  Jules and Connor came to stand on either side of me. “We did it,” Jules said. “Guess we’re all heroes.”

  “I think they would’ve done it without us,” I replied. “I mean, more people would have died, but … years. They spent years collecting those seeds just on the chance that it might help them.” I’d imagined Neville before, staring into the exercise yard at detainees who shrank from his gaze. Now I wondered how many of those detainees had been looking away beca
use they’d been looking for seeds. Neville had taken away most of their choices. But they’d held on to their hope.

  We were silent, staring out at the battlefield and over the grey centre bathed in the long light of the afternoon. Then Connor murmured, “There will come a day when a thousand Illegals descend on your detention centres …”

  I’d heard those words somewhere before. I looked up at him to find the corner of his mouth was curving into a smile; he was waiting for me to realise something. And I remembered. Connor was quoting me. Back when I’d believed Connor was my enemy, because Ember had altered my memories to keep my secrets safe from Neville’s interrogation machine, I’d made him a promise. I’d told him that one day Illegals would rise up and destroy every detention centre in the world.

  I tried to remember how the rest of it went. “Pounders – no, Boomers! – will breach the walls …”

  He joined in. “Skychangers will send lightning to strike you all down from above …”

  “… and Rumblers will open the earth to swallow you up from below …”

  He took a breath, and I took a breath, and we chorused together, “And when that day comes, think of me!”

  Connor’s laughter rang out over the centre and sparkled through his eyes. I rested my head against his shoulder and laughed with him. Jules rolled his eyes at the both of us. But he was smiling as well, as if it made him happy to see us happy.

  I put one arm around Connor, and the other around Jules, and said, “I think it’s about time we got back to the Tribe.”

  THE WHEN

  GEORGIE

  Ember was back and so was Nicky. They’d arrived yesterday only they weren’t in the Firstwood yet, because Em had needed to help the Prime and all the other people who’d come from Gull City move in to Detention Centre 3. But she’d mindspoken Jaz, who had mindspoken Daniel and me. That was how I knew Terence Talbot had sent Neville Rose to take over Gull City, and the Citizenship Accords were gone, and Ash and Connor and Jules had gone to save the detainees in Detention Centre 1. Or Ash and Connor had, and Jules had gone to save Ash and Connor. Only Ember wouldn’t know that because Ember didn’t know about the blizzard.