Margaret watched after her. “So, she would have us believe.” With her gone the crowd began to relax.
“Where are the other Mothers?” David asked.
“Mother Graine has always been the foremost voice,” Kara said. “But these last months the Mothers have all but disappeared. We are bred to trust them, almost as much as we distrust the earth below, but even that acceptance has been stretched to its limits.”
“So you don’t think we will see them here?”
“No, not even for you and Miss Penn over there. There is something going on, I guess, plans. Maybe even a new weapon against the Roil,” Kara Jade said. “A single Mother is common. Indeed, Mother Graine is all we have seen in the past few weeks. Now, I really must introduce you to a few people before we get you into your rooms. Unless you'd rather go straight there.”
Margaret shook her head furiously. “I've been cooped up inside for days. I’m rested enough.”
That proved a mistake.
After being stuck with just David, these crowds came as a shock. At first it was exciting, almost energising, but soon, all these people — even with Kara offering some protection — were exhausting. All that noise, questions of the south, of the true fall of Tate: Margaret was forced to consider things that she had been avoiding for weeks.
Finally, Kara Jade led them out of the scrum to rooms within the Caress, and the crowd did not follow. This was the oldest building in Shale, it demanded quiet and respect — and sometimes it got them.
A single doorway connected David and Margaret's rooms. Kara nodded to it, and grinned most salaciously.
“That door won’t be opened, I guarantee it,” Margaret said primly.
“Of course,” Kara said, “from you I would believe it. Though I'd watch this one, seems he can even charm a Mother of the Sky.”
CHAPTER 22
There are always factions wherever you go. Get five people in a room, and factions will form. Drift was just a very big room. Yes, we were politically naive, but we were quick to lose that. We had to.
Processes towards New Government, Raven Skye
THE CITY OF DRIFT 1401 MILES NORTH OF THE ROIL
Kara Jade let out a long breath and grinned.
“You,” she said, and swung her arms around him, she didn't hold him for long, but David appreciated the effort. “How do you stand her?” she whispered in his ear. Then much louder, “I didn’t think I would see you again.”
“I never thought it would happen, either,” David said.
“And I’m happy to see you, too,” Margaret said.
“Of course you are,” Kara waved a hand in the air. “Of course you are.” “I’m sorry,” Margaret said, “if our parting was a little heated.” Kara laughed. “Heated, I suppose some of your threats could be considered heated.”
“You left us alone, mired in the politics of Hardacre.”
“I left you because I was summoned home. You can be scary, I suppose, but you’re nothing compared to the Mothers of the Sky. You saw her, and that was a good day. Imagine seven more, all in a fury because I didn’t deliver you to them.”
“You were meant to deliver us to them?” Margaret said.
“I think it was implied more than a direct order. Otherwise I would have taken you here immediately.”
“So, now we know where your loyalties lie.”
“Where did you think they lay? With a pallid, death-hungry bitch and a drug addict?” Kara smiled. “No offence intended.”
“None taken,” Margaret said archly.
“Count yourself lucky I didn’t bring you here at the beginning. David, you were unconscious for days, think about what might have happened then?”
“Well, you’ve got us here now,” David said and smiled at Kara, but she didn’t smile back, just a tightening of lips, a deepening of frown.
“Mother Graine says you’re a monster. But looking at you, all I see is a young man, with a ridiculous moustache. What are you?” she said, holding his arms. David tried his hardest to keep the cold from them. But what did he know of warmth? All the power that he possessed drew from its opposite.
“I quite like the moustache,” he said. “I’m still me, and I’m not. I’m an Old Man in a young body. I’m David Milde and John Cadell, well, Cadell is in there somewhere.”
“Hey, Old Man.” Kara bumped a knuckle against his skull. “How do you both fit in there?”
David shuddered. “Truth is, I don’t know if we even can. But, at the moment at least, we’re managing.”
“But I thought that Cadell died.”
“Yes, and then I had to kill the body.”
Kara’s eyes widened. “You what?”
“Cadell’s body went missing after you left. Without his mind, all it possessed was hunger,” David explained.
“You fought Cadell, and you won? That man leapt onto an iron ship, destroyed it with his bare hands.”
“We managed. I had all of Cadell’s strengths — and Margaret — all he had left were his weaknesses. Hunger is a terrible and frightening thing, but it isn’t that smart.”
“And are you still hungry?”
David laughed. “I am always hungry. Always, takes a lot of fuel to drive what I am.”
“This is so unfair,” Kara said.
“Life is always unfair. I’ve never expected it to be anything else. And since my father died, I’ve been reminded of this almost a half-dozen times a day. Nothing is fair for anyone now. We’re all of us struggling, all of us frightened.
“Hardacre is all but ready to throttle itself, and the situation here, I’m not sure I understand it, but it is a situation, that’s for sure. Even the Roil is frightened, or it wouldn’t continue its attack with such urgency. I mean, what need does it have for human agents now, and yet it still infects them.”
He pulled from her grip. Kara might not have noticed it, but she was shaking. David said, “We’re stuck with doing the best we can with what we have. I suppose that has always been the way of it. If I give into my grief now, all I have in my future is madness and killing, and the spectre of Old Men hunting me down.”
“ The Old Men?” Kara asked.”Yes, they’re after me. Don’t worry, they’re still a long way away, but they see me just as abhorrent as I saw the mindless Cadell. They’re coming to tear me from the earth if they can.”
“Obviously they won’t be interested in any of your friends.”
That stopped him; he’d forgotten what it was like to have friends. Those had been substituted by suppliers and addicts and little else over the last few years. Even Cadell had been more of a supplier than a friend. After all, what friend would give you this?
“Of course, they’re all damned, too,” David said. He studied his room: five steps to the door, no window, just a narrow vent. “So when do you think we will be allowed to leave? You’re not in trouble, and I’m guessing you will be accompanying us to Tearwin Meet.”
“Soon and yes, I’ll be facing the headwinds full on with you.” She smiled. “Not that I’m much good. Look at these hands, they’re almost as soft as yours.”
“They’ll toughen up,” Margaret said. “Now, what do you mean by soon?”
“Tomorrow, I’d guess, after the reception. I suspect that all Mother Graine wanted was to see you were capable of finishing this.”
“And I’ve passed the test so far?” David said.
“So far…” Kara reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device. She pressed it once, and it began to keen, a shrill mechanical sound, like a tiny engine weeping. She looked back at the door, waited a moment, and released a breath.
David raised an eyebrow at her.
“That should work for a minute. Things are bad here,” Kara said. “I think there has been something of a coup in the upper echelons. Amongst the Mothers themselves. Not too long ago you would see them all. Now we have Mother Graine alone speaking for them.”
“You think she’s killed them?” Margaret asked.
; Kara looked like she was going to vomit. “No, that’s not what I think. That would be unthinkable-”
“And yet…”
“They’re trapped somewhere.”
Margaret shifted. “You said you were in trouble.”
“I’m very much in trouble. Even more so now that we’re having this conversation, believe me,” Kara Jade said. “But not as much as you.” Her eyes dropped to the Orbis. “The Mothers of the Sky wanted that ring, and I think they would have killed you to get it.”
“They’re going to have to join the queue,” David said. “Why did you drag me here?”
“Because I can keep an eye on you,” Kara said. “If I’d not gotten you here, they would have sent assassins. And in Hardacre, they could have gotten to you easily. But now, now something’s changed.”
David thought of Mr Sheff. Had he been working for Drift rather than out of some sense of grievance?
Margaret shook her head. “That logic is utterly flawed. Here we are surrounded by those who would kill him, if by stupidity alone.”
Kara smiled, raised her hands in the air, though David thought she looked like she’d rather hit someone. “Here they’re relaxed, they don’t expect you to do anything. I’m not even sure Mother Graine wants you harmed. And Drift is on a path to the Deep North: every moment brings us closer.”
“But we can't stay here, you know what they want to do with me. If they want the Orbis, they’ll need to kill me,” David said.
Kara patted his arm. “You die, and everything starts over again. We're going to be waiting weeks, I suppose. And how tedious would that be? Besides, the Roil has started to move so much faster than before, it's picked up pace.”
“The Roil is like any storm, I guess,” David said. “Watch a storm and it hardly seems to move, it glowers and it boils, but it appears stationary. And then, all at once it is upon you. Fury and fire, and you realise the only one that wasn't moving was you. The Roil's moving now, and it's moving fast.”
“Been caught out in a few storms, have you?” Kara Jade said. “I know storms, the Dawn and I ride them. You won't be caught in that storm, David. Nor would I have Margaret and I suffer the inconvenience of your funeral.”
“Thank you for your sympathy,” David muttered. “Perhaps you could deliver the eulogy.”
Kara cleared her throat. “Here lies a man that was two men, and neither of them up to much. Couldn't hold his liquor for one.”
Margaret turned towards Kara. David sighed. “She is right, though.”
“Can we leave the joking until we are out of here?” Margaret said. “Yes, of course. I’m sorry,” David said.
Kara looked at Margaret, and nodded.
“Good, then tonight, after the reception we make a break for it.” “Why not now?” David asked.
Kara laughed. “Right now, I couldn’t get you out of here. It’s one thing for me to sneak through the guarding stations, another for you two. There are traps, patches of bad air, and odd gravities that won’t bother me, but will certainly have an effect on you two. I want us to escape, to finish what I know needs to be done, but I don’t want to kill either of you doing it. Look, you are safe enough now. Just be patient.”
“After the reception, then,” Margaret said.
Kara pressed the button again, and the keening stopped. “Now, I’ve things to attend to. I will see you tonight.”
CHAPTER 23
The Underground became the most sophisticated hub of industry in the world, outside of Tearwin Meet and the long-distant Breaching Spire, though to say anything about the sophistication of those regions is to offer little more than wild speculation; Tearwin had last admitted entry eight centuries before, and there are few — if any living — that have stood at the base of the Spire and wondered, just wondered, where it might take them. That is to say the Underground’s secrets were technological in nature, as far as politics was concerned, it was as unsophisticated a place as any where women and men chose to settle, united messily by common purpose, but divergent beliefs.
Projections of a Seemly Man, Molck
THE UNDERGROUND 865 MILES NORTH OF THE ROIL
The hallways of the Underground leading from one segment to the next were ill lit, in some places almost pitch black. Most of the energy required to keep the lighting running was being funnelled into the defences of the structure, and the construction process itself. Which meant that Medicine Paul didn’t see the fist that hit him in the face, or the next one that had him on his arse.
“What did you do with my nephew?” A light clicked on, and Medicine blinked at the woman holding the torch. He had been waiting for this confrontation for some time, which certainly didn’t mean he had been expecting it here. She was always such a surprising person to deal with.
“Hello, Veronica,” he said. “Nice to see you, too.”
“Where is my nephew?” she said.
“Safe, he is in Hardacre. Cadell took him from the city, there’s a ship called the Collard Green that has been sent to collect him.”
“You did what? That monster, he’s-”
“The only option I had,” Medicine said, getting up.
Another fist was driven into his chest, but he was ready for it, he stepped backwards, and it only clipped him gently.
“Ah, you infuriating bastard.”
He reached out a hand and closed it over her fist. “Trust me, it was all I had left. Your brother-”
“My brother could look after himself, he knew what he was doing.” “Exactly.”
“But he isn’t here, and neither is my nephew, all I have is you.” Medicine nodded. “I know, I know. I blame myself.”
“Are you going to the infirmary?” Veronica said.
“If I wasn’t, I think I might need to go now.”
“I didn’t hit you that hard.”
Medicine smiled. Patted dust from his shoulders, and took a deep breath of the hot, dry air — pungent in a way that had become less apparent as the days had passed. “No, you didn’t, and yes, I am going. I need to be useful.”
“Yes, we all do. It’s coming, isn’t it?”
“Has been for what’s felt like most of my life.”
Veronica nodded. “So Warwick is dead? Really dead?””Yes,” Medicine said. They stood in silence.
“I always told him that politics would be the death of him,” Veronica said.
“Not that I could ever avoid it myself. I’m sorry about what happened to your companions.”
“Thank you. Grappel should not have done what he did.”
“No, I think he made the right choice. Allow Stade’s poison in here, no matter how calm and well reasoned, and we all rot. We might as well open the doors to the Roil.”
He said, “I knew them, they were good people.”
“Good people that killed my brother, and that locked the gates of the city to the refugees, and drove them to Hardacre. You know, Medicine, the day that happened — that was my last day in Mirrlees; I could not breathe the same air as people that might think that was right. When short-sighted pragmatism overrules compassion, when it is lauded as wisdom. We would have struggled, but we could have built something new, something wonderful. Ah, it still burns.”
“That same pragmatism that says it is all right to kill in cold blood those of a different political persuasion.”
“That is different. They made their choices. We all do, I’d die for mine, and I know that you would die for yours.”
They reached the lift that led to the infirmary, Medicine jabbed the button.
“And do not pretend that you haven’t killed for yours,” Veronica said. “In these last days all our hands, including those ruined ones of yours, are drenched with blood.”
“I do not,” Medicine said. “All that I can say is that I am surprised that you didn’t find me until now. My arrival was hardly a secret.”
“I found you,” Veronica said. “Who was it that nursed you to health when you were sick with the northern fever? I
made sure that you breathed. I changed your sheets… now, that was pleasant.”
“And you didn’t stay to confront me then?”
“No, I couldn’t stand to see your face.”
“What’s changed?”
“Grappel’s deciding your future,” Veronica said..”
“He’s going to kill me, too?”
Veronica shook her head. “He needs a second in command. What you did, taking those people up from Mirrlees, recapturing the steam engine from the Cuttlefolk.” Medicine could hardly take credit for that; it had been more seizing an opportunity and fleeing for his life.
She said, “It impressed him. He’s going to ask you to join him. I thought I’d let you know first.”
“What? I don’t want authority. I don’t need it. I’m back doing what I should have been doing all along.”
Veronica smiled at him. “We both know that’s a lie,” she said.
The infirmary was always busy. Medicine worked until he was exhausted. This was what he had trained for all those years ago; and now, listening to people, helping them as best he could, he’d found a new joy and a new way of escape from the troubles that beset him. Here he was helping people, even if it was only easing suffering, keeping them alive.
When he was done, still thinking about Veronica’s words, he took the lift back down to his room, sat on his bed and unstoppered the bottle of whisky that Grappel had given him.
When the knock at the door came, he was expecting it.
Grappel’s messenger entered. “He wants to speak to you now,” he said.
Medicine nodded. He knew what he was going to say.
CHAPTER 24
Drift kept itself apart, because it was easy to. But that did not make it an easy city in which to live. It had never unshackled itself from its dependence on Shale for food, nor the sheer cost of moving items to and from the city. It was a state with no resources, but one. And that it ruled ruthlessly.
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