Valhai (The Ammonite Galaxy)

by Gillian Andrews

  “Anyway,” Amanita went on, “the Commission is with your mother at the moment, so we shall shortly know her future too.”

  Grace gasped. “You said you would let us know when they were coming!”

  “Did I? It must have slipped my mind.”

  “But she wasn’t even dressed. She was . . . was . . . in . . .”

  “The sarcophagus? I know.” Amanita’s eyes glittered with satisfaction. “Don’t worry, though, Grace, I took them straight through to her myself.”

  Grace straightened herself up, she felt instantly adult, as if she had just lived five years in five minutes. “You have gone to an inordinate amount of trouble to get rid of us, Amanita,” she said scathingly. “I just hope your little plan doesn’t backfire on you.”

  “I don’t think it will.” The woman smirked.

  “I wouldn’t be so sure.” Grace put her head up, walked through the open door leading to the family rooms and went to find her mother.

  It was just as bad as she had imagined. Cimma was dressed in the old dressing gown, and had clearly been resting. She was shouting at the Commission, which consisted of three men and two women. All were looking at her as if she were an alien.

  “You have no authority here. This is my floor. And don’t you think I will just go along with you easily, because I won’t. You’ll have to drag me screaming from here, and I will make such a fuss that everyone on Valhai will hear all about it.”

  “Mother.” Grace went to her side, and faced the Commission. “My mother was not informed of this visit,” she said calmly. “She was, as you can see, not prepared. You will have to return another day. I am very sorry for your inconvenience. May the perfect heavenly triangle remain stable.” She gave a slight curtsey of deference.

  “I think we have already seen more than enough,” snapped one of the women. “I really don’t think it will be necessary to come back again.” She glanced around the others with a raised eyebrow. They shuffled their feet and shook their heads. “No? – I’m afraid the decision is unanimous. Your mother will be transferred within two days to the hospital on Cesis.”

  “You are wrong,” burst out Grace. “Please! You must let her stay here. She needs to be close to my father.”

  The woman looked at the stairs up into the nearby sarcophagus and gave a delicate shudder. “I am sure she will progress better in an environment untainted by personal memories.”

  “No! She will hate it! Please, don’t do this! She is just mourning my father, that is all.”

  “Our duty is clear,” The tallest man said. “Almagest, Cian and Valhai.” On these words of departure all five of the Commission turned and walked out, in the direction of the main lift.

  Grace went to hug her mother. “It will all be all right,” she said, knowing it wouldn’t.

  But her mother pushed her away and went back to the stairs. “I don’t know what Sell is coming to. If your poor father were alive he would turn in his grave.”

  Grace was left staring after her. Then she gave a giggle. She had totally understood that last mixed sentence.

  Grace saw Amanita off in the lift without a word and then went to her office and put her face in her hands. It was all too much. She had no idea even where to start. Arcan, Diva, Six, Cimma, Vion. She had to come up with some help for Six, and for her mother too.

  In the end she made her way to the tridiscreen. It was only possible to do one thing at a time, that was for sure. She dialed up the code for her brother.

  “Grace?” Xenon was in his own office. “This is most inconvenient.”

  “Do you know what your Amanita has done?” Grace demanded stonily. She told him about the Commission.

  Xenon looked down. “I really have no say in that,” he mumbled. “I leave all that sort of thing to my wife. She is the expert in—”

  “House management,” finished Grace. “I know. So you aren’t going to do anything to help Magestra?”

  “This is to help her, Sister.” He tried to sound convincing.

  “No, Xenon. This is just to help you. Is that your last word on the matter?”

  “It certainly is, and I don’t take kindly to being interrupted like this. Please make sure that it doesn’t happen again.”

  “Oh, don’t worry, it won’t.” She put some heavy emphasis on the next three words: “Cutting the connexion.”

  “I’m sorry, Grace.” Vion, her next tridi call, looked sad. “There is absolutely nothing I can do to help if the decision has been taken. The Commission is above even my father, you know that.”

  Grace nodded. “I was just hoping . . .”

  “I understand,” he said. “You are looking for a miracle, but I don’t think I can give you one.”

  “All right. Thank you.”

  “Hey! Don’t cut me off! You know she will be looked after very well down on Cesis.”

  “She will hate it.”

  “Yes. But then, she hates everything here too.”

  “She says she will kill herself. And I believe her.”

  Vion blew out air. “It isn’t so easy to kill yourself in a hospital, you know,” he said. But he sounded concerned.

  “She would manage it.” Grace was certain. “And I will not allow that to happen. I have to do something about it.” She sounded desperate.

  “Don’t do anything hasty, Grace,” Vion warned. “You could make everything worse than it already is.”

  “Worse than my mother killing herself? Come on, Vion!”

  “You could be the object of a Commission yourself if you act hastily,” he advised.

  Her eyes glazed over suddenly, her mind was miles away. When she refocused on him there was a firmness about her look which hadn’t been there before.

  “Might as well be blinded by Almagest as Sacras,” she said.

  “What?”

  “Nothing.”

  His eyes narrowed. “Because if you’re thinking . . .”

  “Thank you Vion – you have been a great help. Cutting the Connexion.”

  “No! Hey, wait—” But Vion was talking to thin air.

  Grace went to collect her mother. “You are coming with me,” she said solemnly.

  “I don’t want to! I have to be here!” Cimma was belligerent.

  “If we don’t leave this floor now they will take you forcibly to Cesis tomorrow. Is that what you want?”

  “You know it isn’t.”

  “Then we must hurry.”

  “Where are we going?”

  “I am going to introduce you to a friend of mine. We will hide you on the twenty-first floor.”

  “But what about the sarcophagi?” wailed Cimma.

  “They will have to stay here for the time being,” Grace told her, “then we can maybe pick them up. You will need to take a few clothes, and bring a bodywrap which fits.”

  “Grace! I could never go bare planet!”

  “Just in case,” Grace soothed. “Don’t think about that now. Just get ready. Diva will take care of you . . . and you can take care of her, too.”

  “Who is she?” Cimma was suspicious.

  Grace gave a grin. “Wait and see!”

  “You are going to get us all in terrible trouble,” Cimma grumbled.

  “I know. But we were there already, really. I am just taking a proactive part in it!”

  Chapter 22

  SIX HOURS LATER Cimma was lying in an exhausted sleep, and the two girls were donning their bodywraps to go bare planet, discussing the older Sellite’s reaction to finding herself removed forcibly from her husband’s sarcophagus and her difficulty in believing that there had been a living inhabitant of Valhai all along.

  “I have never seen anybody so flabbergasted.” Diva chuckled, remembering Cimma’s face. “I thought her eyes were going to pop right out of her head!”

  “I know. She quite forgot about her own troubles, didn’t she?” Grace laughed too.

  “The best bit was when you told her we were off to talk to the lake!” whooped D
iva. “When she pointed out that the Commission had come to investigate her and not us!”

  “I hope you don’t mind my bringing her down.” Grace sobered up again.

  “Don’t see what else you could have done,” Diva said cheerfully. “It will be great to have company. You’ll see; I’ll have her back on her feet in no time. It’s no wonder she has got herself into that state . . . Anyway, she is going to show me Sellite self-defense. She is wicked with that knife!”

  “Do you think you can help?”

  “Help? Well, of course I can help, silly! Don’t you Sellites know anything at all? I know just how to make her feel better!”

  “Really?” Grace frowned. “How come I don’t?”

  Diva shrugged. “You and Six aren’t Coriolans. Can’t expect you to know much at all.”

  Grace looked at her friend, whose lips were curved up in a tiny smile. “You are teasing me!” she said.

  “A little,” Diva admitted. “Don’t you like it?”

  “Sure. It makes me feel like I belong.”

  “Of course you belong. What a funny thing to say! Here you are . . . on your own planet, in your own house, amongst your own people. I am on a foreign planet, don’t speak the language, am in hiding, and supposed to be dead. Yet you think it is you who doesn’t belong!”

  “Put like that, it does sound a bit weird.”

  “A bit?”

  “A lot, then.”

  “Grace. You sure do need a friend. I have never met anybody with so little self-esteem. We will have to fix that.”

  “I just never seemed to fit in.”

  “And? So what?”

  “I always felt I didn’t belong.”

  “You didn’t. No decent person could feel they belonged to that bunch of self-obsessed Sellites. You should be happy you never felt at home!”

  Grace considered. “I guess I should.”

  “There you go, then. No charge.”

  “Come on, let’s go see Arcan!”

  “After you, milady!”

  Arcan wasn’t feeling up to a welcoming display apparently. The lake remained smooth as they approached.

  “Well?” he demanded, as soon as they placed their hands on the surface. “What are we going to do?”

  Grace put her head on one side. Then she made up her mind. “We are going to get them all out,” she said firmly. “There is nothing else we can do.”

  “When?” The lake was suddenly in movement, tight concentric circles spinning out towards the other shore.

  “Tonight.” Grace looked at Diva, who was ready for action, eyes sparkling. “I think you should move them all onto the twenty-first floor in my skyrise.”

  “Thank you Grace.” Arcan shimmered, and the concentric circles sparkled with a multicoloured sheen. “If you think that is best, then that is what we will do.”

  “I don’t think it is best, exactly.” She tried to explain. “I just can’t think of anything else we can do. We can’t leave them here, and we have to put them somewhere where there is an adequate supply of oxygen. The trouble is, I don’t know what is going to happen to all of us when my . . . when the Sellites find out.”

  “No point worrying about Almagest when Kwaide is falling into Lumina,” Diva told them, clearly under the impression this would help. Both Arcan and Grace gave her a mental ‘look’. “What?”

  “What on Sacras does that mean?” demanded Grace.

  “It means,” Diva signed patiently, “that you have to take things one at a time.”

  They discussed the logistics for a few minutes. It was going to be a complicated task to get all of the remaining candidates out at the same time, but all three of them felt that it was the only way. They didn’t want to leave any of the apprentices liable to retaliations from the Sellites. It seemed prudent to co-ordinate a synchronized transfer.

  “They will find out where we are,” Diva pointed out. “We will need food, and you won’t be able to go back up to the 48th floor.”

  “No.” Grace nodded. “We will go up as soon as we get back and I will dial up enough food for a few days. It will take a while before they get around to checking that sort of thing. We will be all right for a week or so. Then . . .” she lifted her hands “. . . it is all a mystery.”

  “Will they need to know about me?” Arcan queried.

  Grace raised her eyebrows. “That is the main question. I think it is one you have to answer, Arcan. They will obviously suspect someone has released the candidates, but I don’t think it would occur to them that you are alive. So you could probably leave it for a few days. Once they find where we are, though, all Cian wouldn’t be enough to hide us. Then we are going to need your help.”

  The lake darkened. “I will be there to help,” Arcan promised. “Until then we will say nothing, OK?”

  The girls signaled their agreement.

  “It will begin in five hours, then?”

  “In five hours.”

  The first bubble to appear in the lift, which had been wedged open at the twenty-first floor by the girls, was Six’s. As the bubble dissolved into the walls, he fell to his knees in front of them. The girls rushed to pull him out of the way of the other incoming bubbles.

  “Hey!” he objected. “Girls! I know you can’t wait to get your hands on me, but this . . .!”

  “Shut up, Six,” Diva told him. “We are bringing in all the others as well. Get out of the way.” As she said this another bubble appeared, burst, and deposited a girl who looked absolutely terrified. Diva and Grace leapt to manhandle her out of the lift. She cringed back as they lunged at her.

  “Don’t hurt me!”

  “We are not going to hurt you, nomus.” Diva told her severely. “Stand here, out of the way. Six, keep them out of the way, will you, and let them know what is going on?”

  “Do I look like I know what is going on?” Six complained. “Oh, very well. Come over here.” He took the girl by her elbow and pulled her along the corridor a short distance. They were almost immediately joined by the other candidates, who all huddled together in a scared bunch.

  Six gave them a quick summary of what was happening. There was a shuffle of unrest as the candidates took it all in.

  “I don’t believe you!” one tall boy said, as Six finished his explanation. “The Sellites mean us no harm. Why would they kill us? It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “It makes very good sense,” Six told him. “Just not on any Sacran planet. They think that letting us go with the knowledge we now have could damage their monopoly of the market. Come on! Think about it! What else are they going to do with us after we have served our purpose?”

  “I was told we would become revered,” said one timid girl.

  Six gave a snort. “Revered! On Sell? You do know the penalty for speaking one word of their language is death, don’t you?”

  “Yes, but I thought they might send us to Cesis, or to Xiantha,” she hazarded.

  “And leave us to divulge all their recent scientific discoveries?” Six scoffed. “Sure.”

  “But then why do they teach us all that stuff?” Another girl asked.

  “Because it makes you an easier product to sell,” Six explained. “The client is convinced by our knowledge that our offspring will be very intelligent. That puts the price up. Simple merchandising, I’m afraid. Putting the goods in pretty packaging.”

  They were still mistrustful. They had only ever seen Six and Diva at a distance, and had never had the opportunity to speak to them. Worse, Six was a no-name!

  Diva took matters in hand. “Look,” she said. “You are out now, and we can’t put you back, so any sort of decision taking on your part is going to have to wait. We have tried to save your lives. We don’t expect your thanks. But you will, at the very least, have to stay here for the next few days. Even we don’t know what will happen beyond that.”

  They escorted the new guests around their lodgings, and then ushered them into the family room, where they had decided to put all o
f the beds for the newcomers. Cimma was half happy on a divan in the tanato chamber, and Diva was still in her hidey-hole bedroom in the vantage point with its view of the stars. Grace had decided to stay with the newcomers, and they had included Six.

  What they hadn’t foreseen was the way the other candidates would treat Six. Grace and Diva were so used to him that it had never occurred to them that he would be ostracized by the others. Diva’s insults had become more a way of speaking than seriously offensive comments. However, by the time they had eaten it was clear that the nine newcomers were unhappy at the thought of sharing a sleeping chamber with him.

  Grace was appalled. She had been so sure that she would like the newcomers! Yet here they were, whispering behind their hands, and behaving as if they were Sellites! She felt that they could just as well have left them in their bubbles. Finally she made a sign to Six.

  “I’ll go and make up a bed for you in one of the other two vantage points,” she said quietly. “Diva has the one by the back lift, but you can take the one on the front lift side, if you like. You have a view of the stars, and at least you will be on your own.”

  Six gave her a relieved smile. “That would be good, Grace. I guess I forgot that I am a pariah on the Sacran worlds.”

  Grace touched his shoulder. “Well, you aren’t here.” Then she corrected herself, “That is, we all are now, but you are one of us.”

  “At least Diva doesn’t ignore me! Never thought I would have to thank her for being her usual rude self.”

  “From what I hear you give as good as you get,” said Grace.

  Six held up a modest hand “You’re too kind,” he said. “How is her ladyship doing, anyway? How is she coping now?”

  “She seems to spend most of her time exercising. She must do fifty or sixty laps of the block every day, and about five hours in the music squares on top of that. The apathetic phase is past. Now she is cold set determined. I’m just not too sure what that determination is leading to.”

  “She was hit pretty bad by the operation.”