As fast as she dared, Saria hurried back to the room through which she’d entered the Shifting House, picking a route which would take her as far as possible from the Nightpeople’s chamber. Daylight or not, she knew she didn’t want to spend the rest of the day trapped in this empty shell of a building, haunted by ghosts of both the past and the present. She’d rather risk the desert.
She stepped out through the crack in the wall, and the rising heat of the day reflected up from the ground and washed over her, bringing relief from the chilling deadness that permeated the inside of the Shifting House. The ground around and below her was still cold and dead, but even that was preferable to being inside that ancient tomb.
A few steps away the hummer still crouched, no longer hidden in the shadow of the building but exposed to the full glare of the sun. The bright light gleamed off it, reminding Saria of the reflections off the shells of water beetles back in the valley. Avoiding it, Saria set her steps nightwards, but before she was halfway to the line of barrier poles the glare of the sun was already making her uncomfortable. Even with the hood of her robe pulled up, the heat prickled her scalp and itched at the skin of her arms and legs. Through her shoes, the hard dead ground was uncomfortably hot, not with the gentle glow of earthwarmth but heated like a cooking stone in a fire, a raw, savage burning.
She hesitated. As unsettling as it was, at least the interior of the ancient building was dim and cool, and she knew that it was foolishness to venture from the shade until the sun was below the horizon, especially with her limited water supplies.
She let her attention flow outwards, seeking even the faintest trace of the Earthmother that she might reach through and find alternative shelter, but this close to the Shifting House there was nothing.
What would Dariand do?
Even as she asked the question of herself, she knew the answer, and reluctantly she turned back towards the crumbling edifice that had seen the end of the Skypeople.
The noise of the departing hummer woke her, and she leapt to her feet just in time to see it rise into the air and streak away, shrinking into the dying sunset. She stretched and yawned. Every muscle of her body ached from an afternoon spent lying on the hard, unyielding floor of the Shifting House.
The room in which she’d spent the afternoon was almost pitch black now, and once she was convinced that the Nightpeople were far enough away that they’d not be able to detect her, Saria slung her waterskin across her back and slipped into the twilight. The evening was cooling, and the vault fading to night, but this close to the ancient structure even the sky seemed detached. She watched one of those strange, fast-moving vaultlights trace its irresistible course across the sky.
She set her course nightwards, in the same direction as the departing hummer, and almost as soon as she stepped through the line of metal guard poles, some of the tension eased from her shoulders and neck. The further she walked, the more calm she became, until finally, after a long time, the first distant tingles of earthwarmth shivered into her. After so long in the deadness of the Shifting House, the sensation was as reassuring as Dariand’s arms around her
SARIA!
There it was. Strong and reassuring.
She stopped, fumbling at the leather laces of her shoes until she was able to pull them off, curling her toes into the sparse dust as deep as possible, greedily sucking up the distant energy, all thoughts of not reaching again forgotten for the moment.
For a while she walked barefoot, surprised to discover that the ground seemed softer beneath her feet without shoes than it did with them.
Only once did she turn and look behind her. The monolithic building stood in the distance, catching the final rays of sunlight and glowing a cold, iridescent grey against the darkening sky.
She was tired and still sore and her legs began to throb and ache much earlier than normal. She stopped to take a sip of water, then sat for a few minutes massaging her legs and ankles and chewing on a small piece of dried meat. The earth was soft and warm and the call pulsed gently through her. She gazed straight up into the gathering nightvault until weariness overcame her and, unable to fight it, she closed her eyes.
Falling …
Dropping through the sky, towards the Earth. Towards the Earthmother. The room was cold and the light hard, but somewhere below her the earthwarmth beckoned, calling her like a distant pulse of blood through her veins.
The man looks down at her, anxious.
‘Not long now. Just hold on …’
Falling …
He is wearing his suit. Harsh skyfire light slithers across it like water over the rocks in the creek. His head is uncovered, though. The shimmering disc that should cover his face is lying on the floor beside her.
‘Can you hear me? Hold on.’ His expression is kindly. Like Dreamer Wanji’s. His eyes are crinkled at the edges with worry. ‘It’s going to be alright. Trust me …’
His voice is Dariand’s. ‘Trust me.’
Falling …
Slowing …
So cold …
‘Port North Central Ground Level’ Another voice. Disembodied. Cold. Unhuman.
‘Here. Come.’ The man reaches down and picks up his face covering. It snaps into place and the crinkled eyes are hidden behind its curved smoothness. As he leans down to help her, she can see herself reflected there, in his face, her features a distorted parody where his should be.
His silver hand is cold on her arm.
Doors slide open. Ouside is gloom and dull skyfire, not hot. Not like in the skycurves.
‘Here, this way …’
She steps from the room and there is earthwarmth. Hidden, muted, held distant by the layers of deadness that have been smeared on top of it, but after so long trapped amid the skyfire it almost screams to her, aching through the bare soles of her feet and making her legs buckle under her.
‘Come on. This way …’
The earthwarmth is singing to her now. Through her. And the man is half dragging, half carrying her towards something she recognises.
‘No …’
‘It’s okay. Come. please. We don’t have much time.’
The gleaming blackness of the hummer seems to exude cold towards her.
‘Not that …’
‘Please …’ Now there is desperation in the man’s voice as somewhere in the gloom behind them doors whisper aside.
‘You there! Stop right where you are!’
He’s not supporting her any longer, just tugging on her arm.
‘You won’t get another chance!’
Something roars, heat whistles around her and the man beside her falls. For a moment she totters, and as silver figures rush towards them, she reaches the last of herself down, pouring into that distant earthwarmth …
SARIA!
As soon as she woke, she knew she wasn’t alone. Something, some waking sense told her that another person was nearby.
‘Sleep well?’
Dariand was sprawled in the dirt a little way off, his robes spread about him as he observed both her and the slow rotation of the nightvault. For several disoriented seconds, Saria stared in disbelief.
‘Dariand!’
She started to fling herself towards him, but he held up a hand to stop her.
‘Careful.’
As the nightwalker stood up, he did so gingerly, without his usual fluid grace. His movements were more reminiscent of an old man like Dreamer Wanji.
‘What’s wrong?’
‘Slander and his lot…’ He didn’t need to explain further. ‘Nothing that won’t heal, though. Given time.’
‘How did you find me?’
He grinned. ‘Didn’t I tell you you wouldn’t be able to hide from me?’
‘You knew I’d escaped?’
He shrugged. ‘I hoped. When I finally got away from Slander and you weren’t in the sleeping chamber, I guessed you were either lost in the tunnels or found your way out. Did you get up though the breathing tunnel?’
She nodded.
‘I thought so. Where’d it come out?’
‘The well.’
His grin widened. ‘So it was you who snagged the bucket.’
‘Yeah.’
‘That was good thinking.’
‘Thanks.’
There was an awkward silence between them. Then Dariand’s grin faded.
‘Wanji’s dead.’
‘I know.’
‘How?’
‘I was there. In the chamber. Hiding. I saw it happen.’
‘You were in the council meeting?’
‘Yeah.’
‘And you heard …’
‘Everything.’ Saria recalled the events in the dim cavern, and Dariand’s useless attempt to argue for her, and her joy at seeing him again faded. ‘I heard you.’
Dariand didn’t reply.
‘Why didn’t you put up more of an argument for me?’
‘What do you mean?’
‘When you had your chance to speak for me. You told me I could trust you to look out for me.’
‘I did.’ Dariand’s expression was one of genuine surprise.
‘No, you didn’t! I heard you. You barely said anything.’
‘I reminded the council that my claim over you was stronger than Slander’s, and that there were better reasons to let you stay with me than to send you off to Olympic. That’s all I needed to do.’
‘That’s not how it sounded to me. It sounded like you didn’t care.’
‘Listen, Saria.’ Dariand reached out and placed a hand on her arm ‘There’s no way for you to understand everything that went on in that meeting. That’s why we decided you shouldn’t be there in the first place. Things were said there which went back to events long before you were even born. This fight has been a long time coming.’
His fingers were warm through her robe, their grip gentle.
‘Trust me, alright?’
A vaultlight fell from the sky, trailing a long streak across the darkness, and Saria decided to let the matter drop.
‘What happens now?’
He turned slowly, taking in the distant horizons.
‘Where were you going?’
‘Nightwards.’
‘Following the call?’
‘Yeah.’
‘Do you know what’s out there?’
She shook her head.
‘Well, I can tell you. It’s pretty much the same as this. Nothing. Just empty desert all the way to the Darkedge.’
‘How far is that?’
‘Not close. A few days walk.’
‘Will you take me?’
Dariand looked thoughtful as he stared towards the nightwards horizon.
‘To the Darkedge?’
‘Yes.’
‘There’s no point. Once you get there there’s nothing left to do but turn around and come back again.’ He thought for a moment. ‘We could head to the valley instead and live there with Ma. Or go across to Mooka and hope we arrive before Slander’s mob. Either way, we’d be safe for a while, and we’d find plenty of food and water.’
‘We can’t go back to Woormra?’
‘No. That’s Slander’s town now, as much as Olympic ever was. They’re already building a fence around it. If we go back there you’d end up either dead or handed to the Nightpeople. Probably both.’
‘It doesn’t matter, anyway. I want to go nightwards.’
For a long time, the two stood, looking at one another, until Dariand asked, ‘What are you going to do when you get to the Darkedge?’
‘Find a way across.’
‘You won’t be able to.’
‘I can try.’
‘No.’ His voice was emphatic. ‘You’ve never seen it. I have. You won’t find a way out of the Darklands, Saria.’
‘So you won’t take me?’
‘I didn’t say that.’
‘What, then?’
‘I’ll take you to the Darkedge, all the way, but once we get there and you see that we’re wasting our time, then you come with me, alright? Wherever I decide is best for us to go, you’ll come without argument, and without running off.’
‘Where’ll that be?’
‘The valley, most likely. Slander doesn’t know how to find it, so we’ll be safe there.’
‘And what’ll we do then?’
‘Live out our lives. Die, eventually.’
Saria thought about his offer.
‘I’m going to get out, you know.’
‘You’ll be the first.’
‘Let’s go, then.’
This time, it was Saria who took the lead, Dariand following.
‘Look.’ Dariand pointed daywards, into the gathering night, where a narrow thread of smoke climbed into the sky. It reminded Saria of the distant smoke she’d walked towards when she’d set out from the soak. That seemed like a lifetime ago.
‘What is it?’
‘Slander and his lot, I imagine. They’re the only ones who’d be stupid enough to light a fire while they’re tracking someone.’
‘How far away do you think they are?’
‘Hard to say.’ Dariand squinted his eyes. ‘They’ve already come past the Shifting House, that’s for sure. And they’ll have given that place a wide berth.’
‘Why?’
‘Superstition. Come on.’
He grabbed their gear and started walking in a direction completely opposite to their nightwards course.
‘That’s the wrong way.’
‘No.’ He nodded at the smoke. ‘Think about it. How could they have caught us up so quickly?’
It took Saria only a couple of seconds to work it out.
‘Camels.’
‘Yeah.’ Dariand nodded. ‘If we keep going nightwards, they’ll be on us before the night is out. We’ve gotta double back.’
‘But …’
‘Listen. Trust me. Now, no talking, just move.’
And he set a pace so fast that Saria was almost running to keep up.
For hours they walked, and as they did, Dariand wound their course in an enormous arc which would eventually bring them back across their original path. The further daywards they travelled, the harder it became for Saria to ignore the urgency in the call. Rather than fading as they walked away from it, it seemed to grow more insistent, until it was taking all of Saria’s mental and physical strength just to keep her feet moving. Finally, just before sunrise, Dariand called a halt.
‘Look there, we were right.’
Ahead of them, making a beeline nightwards, the ground was scuffed and marked with long shambling tracks.
‘Camels. That means Slander’s gotten Gan on board, one way or another.’
‘So what do we do now?’
Dariand looked around, staring into the sunrise and clearly making up his mind about something.
‘I’d like to head straight back towards the valley…’
Saria shook her head.
‘No.’
‘Why not.’
‘I can’t keep walking daywards. The call, it …’ She tried to find words to explain. ‘It gets harder to walk away from it the further we go. I have to go nightwards.’
‘Have to?’
‘There’s no other way for me.’
Dariand seemed to consider what she’d said, then finally he pointed at the camel tracks.
‘Okay. I don’t understand it, but I’ll trust you. For now we follow these.’
‘Follow them?’
‘They won’t be looking for us behind them, and this way we can keep a close eye on Slander. We might even get an opportunity to …’
‘To what?’ Saria prompted, but Dariand shook his head.
‘Don’t worry. Let’s just follow while it’s still cool.’
They trudged along in the wake of Slander’s group. As the morning grew brighter around them, Saria asked, ‘Where will we shelter when it gets too hot?’
‘I’ve got two sand shelters in my bag.’ Dariand patted the long sack he wore
across his back. ‘We’ll use them if we have to.’
‘Sand shelters?’
‘You’ll see. I’d like to get close to Slander first, though. See what he’s up to.’
‘How far ahead are they?’
‘Don’t know. It’s hard to tell how long ago they passed through here. And with the camels they’ll be moving a lot faster than we can.’
They marched in silence. The call shivered through Saria’s bare feet, and almost without thinking she found herself reaching. There was a moment when she felt her mind slipping out into that enormous awareness, and Dreamer Baanti’s pinprick pupils flashed across her thoughts, but the pull of the Earthmother was so much stronger, and she felt her body relax as she let her mind go.
It was like falling into a cool creek pool. The earthwarmth surged through and around her, and the world fell into place. The cold land of the Shifting House was well behind them, and ahead was the emptiness of warm earth and cool sky.
And Slander’s group, stopped in a small hollow of sand and rock, not far ahead.
SARIA!
‘Saria?’
Slowly, reluctantly, she pulled herself back.
‘What happened? Are you okay?’
‘I’m fine.’ She pushed aside Dariand’s hand as he tried to take her arm. ‘Just wait a second.’
A few deep breaths and slowly the earthwarmth faded back to its usual constant throb.
‘What was that?’
‘I was reaching.’
‘Reaching? Into what?’
‘The Earthmother.’
Dariand threw her a sharp look.
‘I didn’t know you could do that.’
‘Dreamer Wanji taught me. I’m stronger than most Dreamers at it.’
‘And you don’t need another creature.’
‘No.’
She could tell Dariand was itching to ask more questions, so she pointed ahead.
‘They’re not far. Just a little way on, there’re a couple of low ridges and they’re camped between two of them.’
‘You could see them?’
‘I could feel them.’
‘How many?’
She tried to recall. She’d been so lost in the power of what she was doing that she hadn’t really noticed.
‘I’m not certain, perhaps five or six.’
A cold smile crept to the corners of Dariand’s mouth.
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