Nightpeople

by Anthony Eaton

  By the time she returned, the other two were once more in conversation, which stopped as soon as she came near. Dariand didn’t say anything more, but simply threw another angry glare at her. It was Gan who spoke.

  ‘Make yourself scarce for a while if you want, but then rest up today, girl. We’ll head for Woormra tonight and you’ll need your strength.’

  The two of them returned to their whispers, making it clear Saria wasn’t invited to join them.

  Sighing, she wandered along the edge of the pool, exploring the deep hollows of shade which formed where trees grew close to the wall of the gorge. At times, the path was only slightly wider than her footsteps. A little away from the camp, she came across a thick-tailed lizard bathing on a rock in the warmth of the sun; for a moment she considered reaching for it, but the lizard, alarmed by her intrusion into its morning, scurried off before she had a chance.

  Around a curve, she sat on a sandy stretch of creek bank and threw pebbles out into the water, watching the widening circles shivering across the greenish surface. Something about the shape of them reminded her of the call. She hadn’t heard it since Olympic.

  It wasn’t fair for Dariand to be mad at her. If he’d told her more about the Darklands, or perhaps let her see Olympic when they’d gone for water, none of this would have happened. Or if he would just tell her about Woormra, or Dreamer Wanji …

  Something pressed into the back of her neck. Something cold and damp. The unexpectedness of it, combined with the sensation on her skin, brought the memory of Dreamer Baanti’s burning touch flooding back, and with a squeal Saria leapt to her feet.

  Startled by the sudden noise and movement, the dog shrank away, cowering back into the scrub that lined the creek bed. Saria simply stared at it, her nerves on end from the fright. Then, as her breathing slowed, she noticed the tiny, almost apologetic twitch at the tip of its tail.

  ‘What are you doing here?’ Slowly, not wanting to startle the animal further, she crouched and held a hand towards it. Initially the dog pulled further away, but then crept forward until its nose quivered a tiny distance from her fingertips.

  'I'm sorry for frightening you.’

  Without dropping its eyes from hers the dog lowered itself to the ground and rolled, exposing the soft skin of its belly. Saria remembered the oddly familiar presence that she’d sensed coming up the valley the day before, and she gently stroked the white fur.

  ‘Did you follow us all this way?’

  Beneath her hand, the dog’s ribs stood out. Its fur was so thin and patchy that the mottled brown and pink patterns on its skin were clearly visible.

  Without even thinking, she reached and felt the animal’s mind simply slide aside and let her in. Immediately she was aware of something coming up the creek bank towards them. Fast. She pulled her mind back.

  ‘Go!’ she whispered urgently, and without needing further encouragement the dog rolled to its feet and vanished into the bushes, disappearing just before Dariand came charging out of the scrub, with Gan close behind.

  ‘What’s wrong? We heard you scream.’

  He cast a quick glance around the small patch of creek bed.

  ‘I’m fine.’

  He looked around until he was satisfied there was no immediate danger, then regarded her again.

  ‘Why’d you scream?’

  ‘I saw a snake.’

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Over there. On that rock.’ She pointed at a flat stone jutting out into the water a little further up the bank. Hopefully, Dariand wouldn’t decide to go hunting for it.

  ‘You don’t need to be scared of snakes.’ His exasperated expression spoke louder than his words.

  I know that, she felt like telling him, but she didn’t. She had to stick to her story. Something gave her the feeling that if Dariand knew Dreamer Baanti’s dog had followed them from Olympic, he wouldn’t be too happy. Instead, she mumbled an apology.

  ‘No harm done. Let’s all get back to camp, eh?’ said Gan, glancing at Dariand.

  ‘Good idea.’ He turned and followed the old woman back down the creek. After a dozen steps he stopped and looked back at Saria.

  ‘Well?’

  ‘I want to stay here a bit longer.’

  Dariand shook his head.

  ‘No. Snakes won’t bother you, but with a squeal like that you might bother them. Come back and get some rest with Gan and me. We’ve got a big night ahead of us.’

  ‘I thought we were going to hide until everything’s blown over. That’s what Gan said.’

  ‘Things aren’t going to blow over, Saria.’ Saria detected something sad in his voice. ‘So we’re going to go and meet it face to face.

  ‘Meet what?’

  ‘Destiny.’

  With a last quick glance at the bushes where the dog had vanished, Saria reluctantly followed.

  Back at the campsite, the two adults quickly settled themselves into patches of shade. Dariand gathered his robes around him and Gan propped her back against a tree. Saria found a patch of deep shadow cast by the wall of the gorge and lay on the ground, staring up at the glimpses of dayvault that shimmered between overhanging tree branches. In moments, it seemed, both adults were fast asleep, but then Dariand opened one eye and directed a hard stare at her.

  ‘If you wake up before us, you stay right here. I don’t care if you see Nightpeople on the other side of the creek, you don’t go anywhere.’

  ‘Don’t worry,’ she retorted. ‘I won’t do that again.’

  ‘Good. Because I reckon you’ve used up all the luck due to you.’

  He rolled on his side, and moments later his breathing deepened.

  The afternoon was hot, and Saria tossed and turned, finding it impossible to get to sleep. It was fine for Dariand, he’d been walking all night, but she’d only been awake for a little while and didn’t feel even slightly tired.

  The ground was hard and uncomfortable. For a while she tried to call up earthwarmth into herself, craving the softness that always seemed to come with it, but without an animal nearby to reach into, she couldn’t seem to summon it up properly.

  Half-heartedly she considered one of the camels, but they were tethered too far away, and in a spot far more sunny than the one she’d found. She sat up and looked around for the dog, but it was nowhere to be seen. She thought about whistling for it in the way that Baanti did, but the noise would wake Dariand; besides, when she remembered the defeated way the animal had accepted Baanti’s kicks and abuse, she knew she’d rather not have it thinking about her the same way.

  Her eyes fell on Dariand again, and she remembered what Dreamer Gaardi had said to her days earlier: You gotta have a bit more connection to a person to get into their head.

  A glimmer of nervous understanding shivered through her. She’d asked Dreamer Gaardi if it were possible to reach into a person, and he hadn’t really answered her He hadn’t said it couldn’t be done.

  Just that you needed more connection.

  Did she dare to try and reach into Dariand? The thought sent a tingle down her back. What would it feel like? she wondered, to touch another person’s mind with her own.

  She’d have to be careful though. She wouldn’t probe out for him, wouldn’t let her mind sink into his, even a tiny bit. She’d just see if she could call up the earthwarmth and find his consciousness. That’s all.

  She crept across and lowered herself to the ground beside him. Barely daring to breathe, she reached out and rested one of her hands lightly beside his, then inched it forward until her middle finger brushed against bare skin on the side of his hand. Dariand stirred slightly, but didn’t wake.

  He didn’t move his hand away, either, and even though the actual physical contact was so miniscule, Saria could suddenly feel a warm pinprick between them. Without even calling it up, earthwarmth was rushing through her and Dariand’s mind was there in front of her. The brightness and heat of it was startling, and, faced with such a clear, sharp presence, she hesitated.
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  The man’s mind was so different. Almost like something alien. If anything, it reminded her of the wild dogs back in the valley, but even they didn’t give off the same aura as this. Dariand was … alive. There was no other word for it. His mind pulsed with intelligence, making it unlike any animal she’d ever reached before. Just floating there in the earthwarmth, without even probing, she could already sense things below the surface: determination, anger, fear, and something she couldn’t identify.

  A sudden sense of power filled her. She could know Dariand – possess him – if she wanted. That brightness which surged though her fingertip could be hers, and all that came with it.

  She should stop. She knew she should pull back right away, withdraw from the sensation of heat and life hovering before her. But the urge to probe outwards, to actually touch her mind against his, was overwhelming.

  Her heart racing, Saria reached forward, slowly … and gave just the gentlest of nudges.

  The explosion of pain that shot through her head was agonising. She screamed, twisting and tearing herself away, rolling desperately to try and escape. The earthwarmth wasn’t gentle now; it was a fierce, jolting burning that kicked her away from Dariand with almost physical force.

  Dariand was awake the instant her mind touched his, and suddenly he was on top of her, grabbing and shaking her as she lay prone and gasping.

  ‘Was that you? Was it?’

  His voice trembled with rage.

  ‘I …’ Saria started to speak, but her mind was clouded, her thoughts refusing to form into words. Dariand pinned her to the ground by her shoulders, pressing all his weight on her.

  ‘What did you think you were doing? What in the name of the night spirits were you thinking?’

  ‘Dariand, steady on, eh?’ Gan, wakened by the commotion, tried to pull him off but he shrugged her away.

  Saria’s chest felt as if it was being crushed, but that was nothing compared to the painful echo of the bright contact with Dariand’s mind which still lingered across the front of her skull.

  ‘I’m … sorry …’ she managed to gasp.

  Dariand lifted her roughly by the front of her robe, hauling her from the ground and dangling her in the air before him.

  ‘Sorry? You don’t even know what you’re sorry for.’ He shook her once, hard, before releasing her She crumpled to the ground and Dariand took a couple of steps back from her

  ‘Don’t you come near me again, ever. Don’t try to speak to me, don’t even look at me. Understand?’

  All Saria could do was nod.

  ‘Good.’ He vanished into the scrub.

  ‘What’d you do, girl?’ Gan was bending over her ‘I ent ever seen Dariand like that before. Usually like a stone, that one. What’d you do?’

  ‘I don’t know. I was trying to reach him and …’

  The old woman had been about to hold the nozzle of a water-skin to Saria’s lips, but now she lowered it. ‘What d’you mean?’

  ‘Like with animals. I wanted to reach into his mind.’

  The old woman stood and backed away a little.

  ‘What animals?’

  ‘All of them.’ Saria made a tiny, confused gesture. ‘Lizards, dogs, insects. I reach out to them and I can see the world like they do.’

  ‘Did Ma Lee teach you to do that?’ Gan’s voice was as hard as the stone walls of the gorge.

  ‘No. She didn’t even know I could.’

  ‘So, who?’

  ‘Nobody taught me. I’ve always been able to do it. Dreamer Gaardi told me I shouldn’t tell anybody about it.’

  ‘Did he tell you about reaching into people?’

  ‘No.’

  ‘Why’d you try it, then?’

  ‘I don’t know. I just wanted to see if I could. I didn’t know it would be so … painful.’

  Gan said nothing for some time, clearly making up her mind about something. Finally she crouched beside the trembling girl.

  ‘Listen …’ She glanced around to make certain Dariand wasn’t nearby. ‘Dreamer Gaardi was right. Don’t you tell nobody, right? When we get to Woormra, you can tell Dreamer Wanji, but otherwise you don’t let anyone know you can do this.’

  ‘Why not?’

  Gan sighed and plonked herself down heavily in the dirt.

  ‘This is real big power you got here, and also a big sign. There are people who’ll read it all wrong.’

  ‘I don’t understand.’

  ‘Okay.’ The old woman paused. ‘I’m gonna tell you things that, by rights, you shouldn’t know, and there’s more stuff you’ll have to get Dreamer Wanji to tell you, ‘cause strictly speaking this knowledge is not for women.’

  ‘Why would Dreamer Wanji tell me, then?’

  ‘Cause you can do the “reaching”. You got the power to listen to the land and hear it talkin’ back to you. That’s the only thing that’s kept us Darklanders going all these years – having Dreamers who could feel the land and find the water and the food and the wood. Without them, the Darklands would have died off a long time ago.’

  ‘So why’s it have to be such a big secret? If reaching’s so important, and if I can do it, then …’

  ‘Listen, girl. In all that time, ever since the Shifting, you’re the first woman I ever heard of who could do the reaching. The only one. And on top of that you’re still only a girl, not even a woman yet. Some people ent gonna like that.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘People don’t much like change. Believe me, you gotta keep this to yourself You’re dead lucky that old bastard Dreamer Baanti is such a crap Dreamer he didn’t find out about this or he’d have killed you on the spot. You didn’t do any reaching over at Olympic, eh?’

  ‘No.’

  She decided not to mention her visions in the pit. They’d been different, anyhow. They’d come after the call. Not when she was trying to reach an animal.

  Silence fell across the clearing. The old woman kept glancing at the girl, reassuring herself that she’d understood it properly. Eventually she rose to her feet.

  ‘Never thought I’d even see the like of you, but I’ll tell you somethin’, girl, I’m bloody glad I did, ‘cause whatever happens, you’re gonna stir things up around here’ and that’ll be a story to tell. Now, you’d better try and get some rest. We’ll be goin’ fast tonight.’

  ‘What about Dariand?’

  ‘Don’t worry about him. He’ll be back when he’s had a bit of time to cool off.’

  ‘He told me never to come near him again.’

  ‘Yeah, well.’ The old woman gave a lopsided grin. ‘Men say all sorts of rubbish they don’t mean. You get to sleep an’ I’ll go see where he’s gotten to.’

  Sleep still refused to come. She lay motionless in the shade, hoping the soporific warmth of the afternoon would lull her to sleep, but she was still awake when Dariand and Gan finally returned and stood over her. She breathed deeply and stayed still, the way she used to when she wanted Ma to think she was sleeping.

  ‘I had no idea she could do it. No idea at all. Bloody Ma didn’t even mention it.’

  ‘Tch!’ Gan made a clicking sound. ‘She didn’t have a clue herself. Mind you, that’s nothin’ new from her.’

  Dariand chuckled softly. ‘Ma’s alright.’

  ‘So you tell me. But she didn’t even notice that the girl was reaching every bloody thing that came along.’

  ‘I’m sure Saria kept it to herself. She’s a devious little bugger.’

  ‘You don’t mean that.’

  ‘She is.’

  ‘You’re pleased with her, though.’

  ‘I meant what I said, Gan. She comes near me again …’

  ‘Cut it out, Dariand. You might be able to sell that crap to the halfwits in town, but don’t try it on with me, eh? We both know how to read the vaultlights.’

  The man laughed.

  ‘Fair enough. I never could get anything past you. Neither could anyone else, for that matter.’

  ‘Hmph.’ Gan g
runted, but there was a sort of grudging affection behind the sound.

  ‘Thanks for looking after her. You don’t know how important having her at Woormra’ll be.’

  ‘I know, alright.’

  In the silence that followed, Saria could feel both of them looking at her.

  ‘You remember the night she was born, Gan?’

  ‘Difficult not to.’

  ‘When Dreamer Wanji handed her to me, I couldn’t believe it. I just wanted to stare at her forever. But I couldn’t, eh? As it was, we only just made it out. The Nightpeople were there before we even had time to clear town.’

  ‘You made it, though.’

  ‘We did. But do you remember what Dreamer Wanji said that afternoon, when Jani had her first pains and we knew the child was on its way? He called everyone together and said …’

  ‘ … “tonight begins the end of the Darklands”. Yeah, I remember.’ There was a catch in the old woman’s voice.

  ‘What happened, Gan? What happened? I believed him then, and for a long time after. Even when I set out to return her to Woormra I believed him. But now …’

  ‘Now?’

  ‘I dunno. She doesn’t seem right, does she? She runs off into the plains on her own. She messes around with reaching. She could have damn near wiped me, back then. That’s not what the child’s supposed to do, is it?’

  Saria risked opening her eyes a fraction. Through slitted lids, she watched the old woman take Dariand by his shoulder

  ‘You got it all the wrong way round, you know.’

  ‘How?’

  ‘I never really believed any of Dreamer Wanji’s stories. Not till recently.’

  ‘How recently?’

  ‘Till I actually saw her I thought like a lot of people that she was just the last of them, and Dreamer Wanji was throwin’ all his dreams onto this final kid. But now, I dunno. When Dreamer Baanti carried her into our huntin’ camp from the desert, it was kinda strange. I just got this sudden feelin’ that everything was starting to come into place, right?’

  ‘Why’d you help out Dreamer Wanji all these years, if you didn’t believe him?’

  Gan thought for a moment.

  ‘He’s still a better bloke than Dreamer Baanti or any of his mob, eh?’