It had been a messy piece of work, but the main thing was that she was still alive. Somehow.
She turned to see the others moving about the gondola, and a quick headcount told her that they had escaped without loss. Silvestri was in the process of helping a limping Roman to disembark, while Gernot and his men were gathering up their belongings, battered and bruised but still in one piece.
“One hell of a piece of flying,” Silvestri remarked to her, leaving Roman’s side to stand before her. Without warning, he wound his arms around her and gave her a rough hug. “I don’t think I’ll ever know how you got us down alive, but I’m glad you did.”
“Yeah, it’s a fuckin’ miracle,” Gernot said sourly, holding out an arm while Norrey bound it with a cloth. “I think you managed to break my goddamn arm.”
“At least it wasn’t your neck,” Silvestri said. He drew back and held a calloused hand to Talia’s cheek. “You continue to amaze.”
“Stop it,” she said, embarrassed. “I almost got us all killed.”
“Hey,” Roman said from where he stood beside the flapping envelope, staring off into the distance. “I think I see something out there.”
The others twigged to the urgency in his voice, and all previous conversations stopped. They climbed out of the gondola and stepped onto the grainy soil of the lowlands. Talia was immediately struck by how dark the sky had become – minutes before, at the higher altitude afforded by the dirigible, they’d been floating on strong sunlight, but down here at ground level it was a much different story. The gloom of twilight had well and truly set in, and the landscape was shrouded in darkness around them.
Then Talia saw what had caught Roman’s eye.
Off in the distance, a cluster of flickering yellow lights wavered across the plain, and Talia thought she could hear the sound of something out there rumbling as the breeze swept across the ruined dirigible.
“We have company,” Norrey said.
“Shit, what next?” Gernot said, disgusted.
“Raiders, no doubt,” Silvestri said. “Scavengers. They’d have seen the dirigible dropping out of the sky. They’ll want to find out what she was carrying, and whom, to see if there’s anything of value worth taking.”
“And we don’t want to be here when they arrive, right?” Talia said.
Silvestri grimaced. “We do not.”
“So where exactly do we go?” Gernot said, glancing around anxiously. “We’re in the middle of fuckin’ nowhere, for shit’s sake. It’s not like we can just disappear in a puff of smoke.”
“I think I saw some ruins to the north-east as we came in,” Silvestri said. “Perhaps an old township. We might find a place to lay low there.”
“Or we might just end up backing ourselves into a corner,” Norrey said.
Silvestri shrugged. “If you have a better plan, I suggest you take it.” He glanced at Talia. “I believe our arrangement is ended now, anyway.”
“Yeah, but the arrangement didn’t include crash landing in the fucking desert,” Gernot said, glowering at them. “You were supposed to give us a pilot, not an expert in kamikaze. I could have flown that thing better myself, blindfolded.”
“The ship wasn’t fit for the air,” Talia said hotly. “Bagley told us as much when he handed it over. We all knew that it wasn’t going to get us far.”
“Listen, let’s argue on the way,” Roman said. “We need to get the hell out of here before those raiders roll in.”
“Agreed,” Silvestri said. He began to move off. “This way.”
Talia and Roman joined him, the boy limping as quickly as he could, and as Talia glanced over her shoulder she saw that Gernot and his two bodyguards had fallen in behind. She wondered if they might branch off and forge their own path, but after a brief consultation they held steady behind Silvestri.
“Seems we’re going to have our friends tag along with us,” she muttered.
“Worry about that later,” Silvestri said. “We can ditch them in the morning. Right now, we just need to get clear of the raiders and find somewhere to hole up for the night.”
“What do you know about these raiders?” Roman said.
“They’re a law unto themselves, out here. They view the lowlands as their own property, and anyone passing through has to pay for the privilege. The main problem for us is that we came down in that dirigible. That’s not something they’d be used to seeing. I have no doubt it’s probably gotten them very excited about picking up a major score.”
“They’re in for a disappointment,” Roman said.
“They’ll assume that we have connections, even if they don’t find any material goods to take. People flying around in airships must be rich and powerful, to their way of thinking.” He pointed. “This way. Up this rise.”
They scrambled their way toward a higher elevation, and Talia stumbled more than once in the near darkness. Details of the terrain around them were kept tantalisingly out of her reach; now and again she could make out the form of a withered tree or a rocky outcropping, but for the most part, the nature of the environment around her remained obscure. The engines grew louder, and as she looked back she could see the yellow headlights of the raiders clustered around the busted dirigible, flashlights waving back and forth. She heard voices, too, gruff and guttural, although she could not make out what was being said.
“When they find nothing at the gondola,” Silvestri said, “they’ll begin looking for its occupants.”
Can the raiders track us in the dark? she wondered. And if so, how long will it take to run us down?
It was a question she dared not ask.
They crested the rise not long later and Talia could see dark shapes blotting out the landscape ahead, inky ramparts huddling under the night sky. Not far behind them, Gernot was wheezing and cursing to himself as he tried to keep up, and down the slope, the yellow lights of their pursuers had left the dirigible and were now starting in their direction.
“How much further?” Gernot demanded. “I’m about to barf up a lung.”
Silvestri pointed at the dark shapes before them. “We’re here.”
23
Knile stood and stared, astounded, as the others crowded in behind him.
“Holy shit,” Ursie breathed.
“Well, I’ll be…” Tobias added.
Knile took a halting step forward. The room before them was perhaps fifteen paces long and ten across, with a ceiling low enough to be touched by an outstretched hand. Within lay the last thing Knile had expected to find here in the way station – row upon row of thriving, abundant greenery. Plants of all shapes and sizes crowded for space in the compartment, so much so that the place seemed more like a jungle than a room aboard a seemingly dead way station.
He wondered if perhaps he had gone crazy, if this were a mirage brought about by dehydration and delirium, but then he reached out and touched the leaf of a bean plant, felt it bend beneath his fingers.
It was real, all right.
“What kind of devilry is this?” Lazarus demanded, getting slowly back to his feet from where Knile had dumped him. “How is this possible?”
Knile let go of the plastic sheet that hung across the doorway, taking a further step inside, and looked down at his fingertips. They were covered in moisture. Glancing back, he could see that there were beads of water covering this side of the sheet, like a sheen of sweat.
“It’s a greenhouse,” he said in wonder. “Don’t ask me how, but… we’ve found a greenhouse.”
“Water,” Ursie said, brushing past him. “There has to be water in here.”
“Just hold up,” Knile said tersely. “We have to figure out what’s going on here before we go charging blindly ahead.”
“How about we do that after we find something to drink?” she said.
“You said you saw someone inside the way station, didn’t you?” Knile said. “Out there in the Skywalk, you said you saw a face.”
She shrugged, glancing about the room with
a little more wariness. “Maybe.”
“And now we’ve stumbled across a greenhouse that couldn’t possibly have survived here for decades without human intervention.”
“Maybe it’s grown wild,” Tobias said. He pointed. “Take a gander at the roof there.”
They shuffled forward, and soon Knile saw what the old man had indicated. Above them lay several thick strips of transparent ceiling, through which he could see the glint of stars, as well as an array of elongated mirrors that had been positioned above the greenhouse.
“Reflectors,” Tobias said, nodding to himself. “Yep, no doubt about it.”
“Reflectors for what?” Ursie said.
“Sunlight,” Knile said, catching on. “They bounce sunlight through the transparent roof, directly into the greenhouse.”
“Sure thing,” Tobias said. “You could get ten, maybe twelve hours of light in here every day, no?”
“But what about the water?” Knile said. “That should have run out a long time ago.”
Tobias scratched his head. “Well, that’s a funny one. Not sure how to explain that, myself. Could be that–”
“We should not linger here,” Lazarus rumbled behind them. “This place is unnatural.”
“I agree that we shouldn’t hang around,” Knile said. “The Skywalk is still collapsing behind us, remember? Whatever we’re going to do, let’s do it fast.”
“Yeah, good idea,” Ursie grumbled. “Let sleeping beauty make all the decisions for us.”
Lazarus’ eyes narrowed. “It seems I cannot even voice my own opinion without earning your scorn. Perhaps you would prefer to speak for me, demon?”
“Don’t call me that,” Ursie shot back.
“That is what you desire, is it not? To control my every thought?”
“The only time you did something useful this whole fucking time is when I made you do it,” Ursie said. “The rest of the time you’ve been watching the back of your eyelids–”
“Okay, that’s enough!” Knile said, stepping between them and holding up his hands like a traffic cop. “We don’t have time for this.”
Lazarus drew himself up, as if he were about to continue the argument, then seemed to wilt as a wave of dizziness washed over him. He reached out for a nearby bench to steady himself.
“Just take it easy,” Knile told him. He turned to Ursie. “And you… stop pushing his buttons.”
“So what do we do?” Ursie said sullenly.
“Keep going,” Knile said. “Don’t touch anything.”
“What?” Ursie said. “Don’t touch anything? We’re starving, and there’s food all around us.” She pointed to a small tree beside her that was full of reddish fruit the size of her fist. “We should bag some of this stuff.”
“Found the water!” Tobias exclaimed from a short way ahead. He had almost disappeared amongst the foliage. “Come take a look!”
“Tobias, get back here!” Knile said, but he followed quickly after the old man despite his misgivings. The mere mention of the word water had reminded him of how thirsty he was, how utterly parched he’d become after the long trek across the Skywalk. Just moments ago he’d had to suppress the impulse to lick the moisture from the sheet of plastic that hung across the doorway, so despite his caution, he couldn’t help but feel excited by what Tobias had said.
Knile wound his way between the plants, and was forced to brush away the overhanging branches and fronds as he made his way forward. In moments he had reached Tobias, who stood before a tall cylindrical column made of a thin, transparent material. Clear liquid that might have been water could be seen inside.
“Plenty for everyone,” Ursie said behind him.
“Hmm,” the old man said thoughtfully. He traced his finger along a pipe that ran from the base of the cylinder to a rounded machine on the wall that was covered in small slits, a bit like the old air filtration units Knile had worked on down in Link. “Reckon this here is a humidifier. Regulates the amount of vapour in the air.”
“So that’s how the plants get their water,” Ursie said.
“That’s my guess,” Tobias said.
“But where is it coming from?” Knile said. “There’s not enough water in this tank to supply this whole room for twenty or thirty years. Not even close.”
“Could be a recylcin’ system in here somewhere,” Tobias said. “Reclaims the water, feeds it back into the gizzards of the way station somewhere.”
“Look, there’s a tap!” Ursie shouted excitedly, gesturing to the lower end of the cylinder. “Where’s the container we had before?”
Tobias fumbled around and found the container filled with filthy water from the pipes in the Skywalk, then dumped the contents into a nearby garden bed. He handed it to Ursie.
“Fill her up, Urse the Nurse!”
Ursie needed no further encouragement. Stooping by the tap, she allowed a splash of water to dribble into the container.
“Just be careful,” Knile said. “We don’t know if–”
Ignoring him, Ursie eagerly took a swig. “Oh, yeah,” she gasped. “That’s more like it.”
“Okay, go right ahead,” Knile said helplessly.
“Good?” Tobias said.
“Uh-huh.” She allowed the container to fill this time, then took several long gulps before handing it to Tobias. “Try it out.” He did so, taking in several mouthfuls, before lowering the container and wiping a hand across his wet lips.
“Sweet nectar of the gods!” he exclaimed. “Here,” he said, passing the container to Knile. “Drown your sorrows.”
Knile took the container, but approached it in a more circumspect fashion. He took a cautious sip at first, then allowed a little more of the fluid to dribble down his throat. It was good, as refreshing as anything he had ever tasted. He wasn’t sure if it was the purity of the water or the fact that he was so thirsty that made it taste so sweet. Probably a combination of the two, he figured. Either way, the container was empty far too soon, and then he was handing it back to Ursie for a refill.
“Another round, barkeep!” Tobias said merrily, and Ursie laughed.
Over his shoulder, Knile saw Lazarus fidgeting with something on a nearby bench.
“What is it?” Knile said to him.
“Gardening implements,” the Redman said, holding up a small spade. He flicked a wad of soil from its tip. “Do you really believe this place could exist without human intervention?”
Knile looked around the room, unnerved, and saw a single leaf flutter to the clean white floor nearby.
A thought occurred to him. If this greenhouse really had been left untended all these years, wouldn’t the floors be covered in leaf matter? Surely by now the room would be ankle-deep in the stuff.
Someone had to be cleaning the floors, keeping the place tidy. Lazarus was right.
“We are trespassing,” Lazarus said, placing the spade back on the bench. “We should leave.”
“I think I agree with you,” Knile said. “Ursie, Tobias. Fill up the container and then let’s–”
Knile stopped, hearing a noise deeper within the way station. Ursie stopped the tap, the smile evaporating from her face in an instant, and Tobias began to look about, alarmed.
There was another thump, and then the sound of a door closing.
Knile moved back to the central aisle of the greenhouse, the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end.
At the far end of the room was another translucent plastic sheet covering the doorway, and beyond it he could see twisting shadows. He heard footsteps.
Someone was coming.
24
They had been moving across the ruins for almost half an hour before Silvestri found a place that he liked. It was a larger dwelling, perhaps the remnants of an old tavern, with a balcony on the top floor that afforded good visibility in all directions. The walls were still in good condition, unlikely to topple over unexpectedly, and there were also three exits providing multiple escape routes.
; “In here,” he said, guiding Talia and Roman inside. “Quickly, now.”
Gernot and his men did not object, following the others inside without a word. Silvestri watched them filter past, wondering about how and when to ditch them. At this point he had no reason to trust them, or to believe that they would make any attempt to protect Talia, Roman or himself should they find themselves in a firefight. In fact, even though they had shown no outward hostility, he reasoned that Gernot’s bodyguards’ only concern was Gernot himself. He was the one paying for their services. Anyone else was simply expendable.
In the morning, before first light, after we’ve rested, Silvestri thought to himself. That’s when we’ll leave, quickly and quietly. We’ll be on our way to Sunspire before they even know it.
He moved inside the tavern and closed the door. A rectangle of bright light suddenly flooded the room, and Silvestri realised that Talia had activated her phone in order to see.
“Just keep that away from the windows,” Silvestri cautioned her. “We don’t want to give away our position to the raiders.”
“Yeah, of course,” she said.
“So, what’s the plan?” Norrey said.
“We take turns at watch, up on the balcony,” Silvestri said. “We should be able to see, or at least hear the raiders when they approach. If they get too close, we scramble.”
“Sounds fine,” Gernot said. “Kolos, take first watch.”
“I’ll go with him,” Silvestri offered.
“No, let me,” Norrey said. “The rest of you need sleep. I’ll come and get you in a few hours.”
Silvestri nodded graciously. “Very well.”
The three of them disappeared into the next room, and Silvestri directed Talia and Roman to a smaller room that adjoined the main area. The tavern had been ransacked long ago, it seemed, for there were no internal furnishings whatsoever. No beds, chairs or anything else that might have provided some comfort. Talia and Roman settled down on the floor, huddling close together for warmth.
Sunspire (The Reach, Book 4) Page 13