by CW Tickner
‘That’s terrible,’ Sonora said.
‘It was to be expected,’ Gorman said. ‘Power had warped their minds.’
They ate together after Damen had dismissed his men to their homes and families. The sun bathed the distant forest in an unsettling blaze as it slid towards the horizon. Harl watched it all through the window as he toyed with his food. He could see the men as they trudged along, the elation of victory drained away to leave them exhausted. But it was the light, that hint of flame, that taunted him. All of the death and destruction had been pointless without retrieving the Third Book. He sighed, pushed his plate aside, and sat there in silence as the sun burned its way into darkness.
Gorman touched his arm.
‘I think a walk would do us good, Harl.’
Harl nodded and let Gorman lead him outside.
‘You seem lost,’ Gorman said.
Harl breathed deep as they walked past a house coated with trellis and brimming with large flowers. It seemed the owners had gone a little too far in their attempts to camouflage the roof from an Aylen’s gaze. Bright, delicate flowers trailed along the thick vines that grew over the side of the sandy-bricked house. Even a tree sprouted from the roof, its white blossoms raining down onto the gravel path as they passed. The garlands’ scent lingered like a dream in the evening air.
Harl tried to imprint it on his memory, but it was too rich, too startling. He could only see the danger. The colours were a beacon beneath the rocky orange cliff that overhung Delta. How long until an Aylen noticed it?
He took a deep calming breath.
‘I shouldn’t have moved. Stepping forward… it was a trigger. If I’d stayed still, they wouldn’t have destroyed the book.’
‘Nonsense, my lad,’ Gorman said. ‘There’s no need to blame yourself over this. I doubt they’d have let you take the book anyway. It was yet another measure of control. Possession gave them power over the people. And those people have suffered under Enlightened rule, Harl, make no mistake. No, losing the book is a sign that change is coming, and that thought is racing through Deltans like a firestorm.’
Harl watched the bustle of those nearest them. Even with the bodies not yet buried, women and men greeted each other warmly and called out across the dusty street to those leaving the caves from clean up duty. People hurried from building to building with a purpose Harl had not seen under the leadership of the Enlightened.
Gorman laid his hand on Harl’s shoulder. ‘These people need you to guide them. They don’t care about the book; they only care that the divide is gone and that they face a different future. So you must lead them. You must show them what path to tread. But you have to show them fairness. It’s something they’ve never experienced. Do that and they’ll thrive. But it’s just the first step. There are still those trapped inside the Aylen’s cages. You have to free them and bring them back to the city.’
‘But what hope have we got even if we succeed?’ Harl said. ‘All we face is the constant fear of hivers and discovery by the Aylens. That’s no way to live.’ He hung his head and sighed at his own folly.
‘All is not lost, my lad,’ Gorman said. ‘I think I can be of some use.’
Harl looked up at this. ‘What do you mean? You’ve done enough already.’
‘Do you think that I sat on that book my whole life without reading it? After all, it was the one and only truth that proved my childhood was a reality.’
A slight smile crease Gorman’s face.
‘You’ve read the book? You know what was inside?’
‘I do. My memory, unlike my eyes, is as keen as ever, and I believe I could recall the majority of it.’
‘Why didn’t you say?’ Harl asked, thinking of Elo and those he had killed.
Gorman seemed to read his thoughts. ‘Those who died are not dead in vain. Look around you. These people -’ He pointed his walking stick at the nearest group of chattering women. ‘- know you did not recover the book, and yet they are happy. You did a great thing, my lad, by leading them in the fight to free themselves. They would not listen to you if the battle had not been fought.’
Realisation slowly dawned on Harl. After all of the fighting and loss they could still use the ship to escape.
‘Come, we have to get back to Damen’s house and find Kane,’ he said, leading the old man around to head back.
‘I will only do this,’ Gorman said with a grin, ‘if we can sample some of the local fruits on our return. I believe the market is that way.’ He turned Harl in the opposite direction and shuffled towards the bustling stalls.
Impatient to get started, Harl left Gorman to enjoy his fruit on a bench in the market and ran back to Damen’s house.
He found Kane sitting in a chair outside. His complexion was as pale as milk and the fresh lines on his face showed how hard the loss of the Third Book had been for him. He looked frail and beaten. People passed by in front of him, but he was oblivious to them. He just slumped there clutching a battered copy of the Second Book in his damaged hands as if it was the only thing that mattered.
‘I have good news,’ Harl said, grinning as he leapt up the steps.
Kane didn’t look up.
‘Does it matter?’
‘It does if you want to know what was written in the Third Book.’
Kane swivelled around to face him, a suspicious look on his pinched face.
Harl took a deep breath and repeated Gorman’s words.
It was like a change in the seasons. By the time he’d finished, Kane had jumped up from his seat and the look had changed from suspicion to utter disbelief.
‘It’s difficult to believe,’ he said, his bony hands twitching as they gripped the book. ‘But if it’s true, then I must get someone to scribe for Gorman at once. I’m afraid to trust the truth of it, though. I don’t want my hopes dashed again. It is true, isn’t it?’
‘It’s true,’ Harl said, laughing.
‘Then I will find the scribe. We’ve wasted too much time already.’
He sprang off the porch, leaving Harl to head inside and tell Sonora.
They had not spent much time together since Gorman’s return and he felt a twinge of guilt. There were so many things needing his attention that his time just slipped away and Sonora was the casualty in all of it. He longed to be with her, but he had to play his role. He had to live up to what people expected, what Sonora would expect of him. But now the weight of defeat had been lifted from his shoulders and he was here. He would make time.
‘Sonora?’ he called as he closed the door.
He turned round, expecting to see her. Instead he found Yara, feet up on a stool, stitching a child’s play toy.
‘She’s out,’ Yara said. ‘I spoke to her earlier. She’ll be treating the injured again in the medical centre. Spends most of her time there at the moment.’ She raised an eyebrow as if having a brainwave. ‘Perhaps she’s met a nice man there, one who isn’t trying to save humanity every waking moment. Don’t panic,’ she said, chuckling at his worried look. ‘I’m just teasing. Now go find her. Shoo!’
When he finally found Sonora, she was speaking to an elderly lady outside the medical base. It was only a small hut, but it was packed with medicines and equipment. The two women were seeing to the wounds of a group of men, but Sonora noticed Harl and excused herself.
‘Where have you been?’ Harl said ‘I was hoping to find you at the house.’
‘I’ve been exploring Delta and speaking to the people. As the partner of their new leader that makes me a queen doesn’t it?’
Harl laughed. ‘Something like that. But you don’t need to change, Sonora. You’re everything that I need.’
She smiled and stroked his cheek with a soft hand.
His cheeks flushed at the touch, but he closed his eyes and savoured the moment, raising his own hand to cradle hers as he told her of Gorman’s revelation.
‘Typical,’ she said, ‘just like him to have something up his sleeve.’
‘It’s
his way,’ he said, ‘How are things here?’
‘Good,’ she said, ‘People are eager to help, bringing me every herb and piece of clean linen they can find. I was shown the healing facilities this morning, and they’re better than anything we had before, but herb pickers and healers are in short supply.’
‘Come on,’ Harl said, taking her by the hand. ‘We’ll deal with all that in time. For now I think we should retire while Gorman’s busy.’
‘Retire?’ Sonora asked with a sly smile.
Harl blushed and tried to stammer out some words.
She laughed. ‘Are you afraid that Gorman will find out? I think he knows by now.’
‘He does?’
She slipped her hand into his. ‘Harl Eriksson, haven’t you learnt by now that nothing slips by my grandfather’s gaze? He probably knew before we did.’
He laughed, pleased to be back with her after so much hardship. The weight of his worries slipped away as he walked her home and then headed upstairs away from prying eyes.
Gorman was more than happy to lounge in a chair and recall all that he could of the Third Book, and for days he’d been sat in Damen’s front room gorging on all the food and drink Kane could find, thoroughly enjoying himself.
Harl smiled as he passed the old man. One of the Enlightened was stooped over a table next to Gorman, rapidly scrawling on a parchment as he copied down the old man’s words. Beside the scribe was a stack of finished pages covered with drawings and complex diagrams. It was a precious bundle and Harl touched it as he walked by. He wanted to pray that it held the secrets to their future, but praying meant the gods. He grimaced at the irony of it.
He met Kane and Damen outside the hunter’s house. They were in the middle of a heated debate.
‘It would be too many,’ Damen said, the scar wrinkling under his beard as he shook his head. ‘There’s not enough space or food.’
‘What’s the situation?’ Harl asked.
‘Too many mouths to feed and not enough space to accommodate them,’ Damen said. ‘Assuming we rescue those held by the Aylen.’
‘We must and we will,’ Harl said. He turned to Kane. ‘Surely we can expand the city to accommodate them?’
Kane shook his head. ‘We can to support the current population, but any more and I fear we will start to struggle. We’ll need to house everyone inside the cave system from now on. It will be too dangerous for anyone to stay beyond the walls if our plans go ahead. The same goes for food production. We need to move it all into the tunnels.’
‘But how can you farm inside the caves?’
Kane looked excited by the question.‘You would think that most of our food is grown outside or gathered by the hunting parties, but we produce the majority of it in farms hidden inside Delta’s cave system. It’s a simple procedure, really, where beds of soil and overhead-’
‘He doesn’t need all the details,’ Damen interrupted. ‘This isn’t another one of your lectures, science man.’
Kane gave him a dark scowl, but went on regardless. ‘Overhead lights replace the need for sunlight. I’ve ordered them upgraded so that the farms can produce more efficiently, but it will take time.’
‘Clever,’ Harl said, ‘but food and water must be a top priority. Have these cave farms work overtime to produce as much as possible. Even an excess would be preferable. But make sure the workers have regular breaks and are taught about the technology. Its been withheld for too long. For space, we’ll expand the caves. What about the soldiers? Can we defend ourselves?’ He directed the questions at Damen.
‘We’ve one hundred and fifty men capable of fighting,’ Damen said, ‘but there aren’t enough rifles to go around. We’ve plenty of bladed weapons and bows, and I’ve handed them out, but we’re still vulnerable if hivers attack.’
‘We have to do the best with what we have,’ Harl said. ‘Train the men to use blades. I’ll leave the schedule to you, but make it daily if you can.’
‘What happens if an Aylen finds us?’ Kane asked.
‘We fight,’ Damen said.
‘No,’ Harl said. ‘We run. That’s why the ship is so important. We can’t hope to stand against an Aylen. Our only chance is escape. Without that we’ll just end up dead or back in the tanks as slaves. Kane, what about men to work on the ship?’
‘Anyone not teaching will be employed to work on her once Gorman has told us more.’
‘Her?’ Damen said.
Kane shrugged.
‘Good,’ Harl said, ‘If we’re busy, we’re productive. Can you draft a plan of action for the next few weeks and have it for me by tomorrow?’
‘Of course,’ Kane said, ‘I have a few errands in the shipyard first, but then I’ll get to it.’
‘The shipyard?’ Harl murmured and then slapped himself on the head. ‘I haven’t seen the ship yet! Can you show me?’
Kane grinned.‘With pleasure.
Chapter 46
All attempts at forced breeding have failed, although I have noticed hatchlings have appeared in the more established tanks.
Entering the caves, they found men busy opening up new tunnels under Uman’s direction. Small explosions echoed in the distance, but, closer by, the constant clang of picks slamming into the rock walls made the air sing with activity. Workers pushed rock-filled carts through the narrow tunnels. Their faces glistened with sweat and rock powder, but they grinned as they passed.
The main council chamber had been renamed the Tactics Room. When Kane and Harl reached it, all signs of the slaughter had been cleared away. There was still a faint stench of smoke in the air, but at least the bodies were gone, and there was no sign of bloodstains on the ground. A large table stood where the fire had burned, and a crude map detailing Delta and its surroundings was spread across its polished surface. Several scribes were updating it from the reports returned by the scouts Harl had sent out.
A nondescript metal door stood at the rear of the chamber. Kane walked up to it and opened a small panel on the wall. He flicked a switch inside and stepped back as the doors swung open to reveal a set of stairs leading up into darkness.
‘The ship is just below ground level on the far side of the mountain,’ he explained. ‘We stand almost directly under it right now. When our ancestors first arrived, the hanger was a sink hole above this section of the hiver nest. Once they took the tunnels, this passage was extended up to the depression and the remains of the ships were dragged down inside. A roof was then built over the crater to hide them from view.’
At the top of the stairs the narrow climb opened out into a huge chamber lit by wide spotlights. It was bigger than anything Harl had seen in the caves. Large, cream rocks had been squared into bricks and used to bolster the sides of the old sink hole. It gave the space a light unlike anything in the rest of the caves; it was clean and inviting rather than full of dead shadows as the tunnels usually were. Steel beams arched up to hold the metal roof high above the vessel squatting in the centre of the chamber.
Long and rectangular, the ship stretched far into the cavern. Two stubby protrusions extended from either side, giving the ship – top down – the look of a cross, where one line was much shorter than the other. Both arms were hinged and looked as though they could be swivelled around the central axis.
Engineers crawled all over the ship’s exterior on a network of scaffolding as they poked, prodded, and worked away with tools that showered streams of angry sparks down to the floor. They looked like tiny insects scuttling around on the metal beast.
Harl stared up at what he presumed to be the front. A large pane of curved glass revealed a room inside. From his position on the ground the ship was too high above him to see more than the room’s ceiling, but the window reminded him of an Aylen’s giant eye watching the progress of the workers below.
Patched and repaired as it was, Harl had never imagined so much metalwork in one place. He’d envisioned a massive cart that could hold a few dozen people, but staring at the smooth, sleek beauty o
f the ship, he judged that it could hold hundreds with ease.
Kane led him across the chamber until they were walking beneath the vessel. Enormous landing legs rose like tree trunks around him, all gnarled and twisted where metal struts and immense hydraulic pumps bulged out like muscles. He could feel the vessel’s weight pressing down on him like a giant rock.
When they reached the rear of the craft, he found a ramp leading up inside. Kane pointed a bony hand at it.
‘This is the entrance. If you look above it, those wide slits house the main engines. It’s difficult, but try to picture the ship when power is restored. We imagine something like fire blasting out from those slits to propel the craft up into the air and beyond. The two engines on the side-’ He rotated his wrists around, demonstrating. ‘-swivel to allow changes in flight direction. As you can see, the ship is almost ready to go. Our only problem is the engines. Starting them requires a special fuel, but we don’t know where the injection tank is concealed and we’ve no record of which fuel is required. We assume that the tank inlet is somewhere in the engine room or cockpit. At least that seems the logical place.’
The level of work that had gone into the machine was so complicated, it was amazing anyone could understand it. Harl had a sudden respect for Kane’s immense knowledge.
As they walked up the ramp he saw a trail of cables running along the ceiling for the entire length of the corridor. They ran from light to light and darted off into holes and panels. He ran his fingers over switches and cables, admiring the complexity of it all.
‘We’ve spent most of our time and resources getting the ship’s lighting up and running,’ Kane said, noticing Harl’s interest. ‘Most of the wiring had to be replaced, as well as whole banks of fuses. There’s an insect that just loves the circuitry. It will happily strip wires and eat through circuit boards. They make little nests out of the material for the queen and she’ll produce thousands of larvae. It’s been a major problem with no obvious solution, but right now the bulk of our work is going on in the engine room, and we’re hoping that Gorman will reveal the next steps.’