by CW Tickner
‘For the time being we’ll take up a position down in the fields,’ Harl said. ‘Order the men to regroup and then set about distributing food to the slaves. They’re free now, but will need time to recover and adjust to being their own masters if they’re to join us when we leave for Delta.’
‘Will do,’ Damen said. ‘I’ll have the houses and towers searched one by one. The last thing we need is some crazed Caller getting the jump on one of our men.’
‘Leave the main tower,’ Harl said, ‘Put a guard on it until we leave. No one is to enter unless I say so.’
Damen frowned at the instruction, obviously curious, but then nodded and started giving out orders.
They discovered huge warehouses stuffed with food and provisions, and, as per Harl’s orders, Damen set up a street wide kitchen and gave the underfed and malnourished crowd a feast beyond their wildest imaginings. Kane found a large quantity of petroleum amongst the supplies and ordered it sent back to Oscars’ people in case Harl’s land had run dry.
Anger bubbled up inside Harl as he paced the battlements of the white wall.‘Like I said before,’ he said. ‘We’re not leaving people behind.’ He leant through a crenelation and stared down at the farmlands below as the wind blew through his hair.
‘Then perhaps I can return with the shipment?’ Kane said moving to the crenel next to Harl’s and staring down at the fuel shipment as it was carried across the fields towards the hole. ‘I can load it into the ship and be prepared for when you come back.’
‘No,’ Harl said, ‘It’s not part of the plan.’ As much as he trusted Kane he didn’t trust him to not attempt something foolish where the vessel was concerned. ‘We go on until my old land and only then do we turn back.’
‘And what about the tanks above and below us?’ Kane asked. ‘Will you leave them behind?’
The anger in Harl boiled over. ‘At least I’m not trying to abandon people every chance I get, Kane.’
Kane’s glasses steamed up as he turned red from frustration.
‘The longer we wait,’ he said, ‘the less chance we have of ever leaving this forsaken place. These tanks are filled with death, Harl and I do not want to end up trapped inside like some caged animal to be squashed whenever an Aylen chooses.’
Harl put a hand on Kane’s shoulder ‘Then help me to free those who have lived like that for generations, so they suffer no longer.’
Kane sighed and turned to look out over the land. ‘For so long I have been wanting to fly away from my own life that I have not stopped to think of those who are unable to jump on a ship and get away.’ He plucked his glasses off his nose and rubbed the lenses on his stained white coat. ‘Very well, go on if you will, but when you reach your land, head to the quarry you spoke of and cut a hole to the tank below. You can drop books and one of the melting lances. Perhaps that will give them a chance to free themselves and those in neighbouring tanks. I’ll stay here, as we planned and prepare everyone for the journey out.’
Harl slapped him on the back.
‘Knew you’d come around,’ he said and headed down from the wall to the streets of the city.
The cobblestone roads were in a constant bustle, not muted as before but full of excitement and energy. People would thank him in passing, pointing him out to others as the saviour of the people. Laughter and the constant chatter of voices filled the air. Almost all the slaves had belongings waiting by doors in expectation of leaving. Some even shouldered their burdens and began following Harl wherever he went, afraid that they might get left behind. Oscar’s booming laugh would explode whenever this happened. He would smile, wrap his arms around the strangers, and steer them away.
‘None will be left behind,’ he would say. ‘You’re free now. Have no fear.’
They reached the barrier shortly after Kane’s farewell and the lancers set about cutting a hole once more. Harl knew that they had to be nearing Sonora’s old tank and he expected to find an empty tank, similar to the one after Oscar’s sand world. He and Sonora had watched the Aylen scoop out the contents and then carry it away to be discarded between the Aylen shop and Delta, but he wasn’t prepared for what they found.
Once through the hole in the barrier, it was almost as if the destruction of Sonora’s world hadn’t happened. Had he miscalculated and there were still more tanks to go before they reached Sonora’s? It took him a moment to see that the ground was not fully covered with established grass and foliage. New shoots coated the soil and hundreds of trees had been placed where forests had once stood.
‘I thought you said it’d be empty?’ Damen said, plucking a small sprig of fresh grass from the ground to inspect.
‘I assumed it would be, unless this isn’t Sonora’s home,’ Harl said. ‘It must have been replanted and set as new for more people to inhabit.’
‘Where do they get the plants from?’ Oscar asked.
Harl thought about it but no answer came to mind.
‘I don’t know,’ he said, though the thought nagged at him. How were the Aylens able to get the supplies on a micro scale? To them the grass seed must be minute, like a powder, and the seeds for trees were not easy to grow even for those small enough to pick and plant them. Perhaps they scavenged from other tanks, a few trees here and there?
As they reached the middle of the tank, the memories hit Harl and he stopped. Life had been a dream in Sonora’s world, perfect days with the woman he loved. If he could have it back, would he? He didn’t know. So much had happened since then. His world had changed and he’d had to change along with it. But now standing in this tank he didn’t know what to think. Was it the same place? The difference was overwhelming.
The town had been in the centre of the valley. He turned around and looked at the bare expanse of ground surrounding him. There was nothing here. No sign of the buildings. No sign of foundations and pathways leading from the villages to the outlying homes. He closed his eyes and pictured the scene. The main gate had faced the sight and as you walked out under its archway, Sonora’s hill rose in the distance to the left. When he opened his eyes, there was no sign of the hill. Everything had just been wiped away.
He clenched his fists and shuddered. There was nothing left here. It was barren. The only part left was Sonora and she was so far away from him.
‘Let’s hurry,’ he said to Damen. ‘This place fills me with dread.’
‘Down!’ Damen cried as an Aylen strode into the sight and began peering in at the growing landscape. Its yellow eyes scanned the fields and bore down on them.
They all dropped. From their position, some small trees blocked the view to the sight. But it might not have been enough. The Aylen might still have seen them. Harl risked a glance at the enormous face as it scanned the inside. The Aylen let its eyes rove over the infant landscape and then lumbered off after what must have been a cursory check on the tanks’ growing progress.
‘We need to cross fast,’ Harl said to the group. ‘If the Aylen checks the other tanks thoroughly it will know that things are changing.’
‘Kane will keep everything looking normal,’ Damen said.
‘If not, we’re all done for,’ Drew said, tightening the straps on his armour.
The land rose, meeting the black barrier that had separated Harl’s first home from the one Sonora had been in. His coming had changed both their lives, ending up with this adventure to free hundreds of slaves and power a flying vessel. The oddity of it, strangely, did not shock him. He’d come to accept that vast creatures ruled their lives and that they could fly away. It could have all been a child’s dream if it were not so real. He thought of the child inside Sonora, would it live life as a human should, free from slavery, with Sonora and himself to guide it?
He didn’t know, but it was a dream worth chasing.
A cry from one of the lancers caught his attention and he looked up to find that they were through.
The next tank would be his own.
Chapter 68
The more I study th
em and create a world around them, the more I see how clever they really are. It’s more than just independent intelligence; I can see signs of their society and traditions.
Harl found himself getting more and more nervous as the lancers got to work. Even after living on the other side of this barrier for most of his life, he had no idea how the people beyond would take his return.
The lance team seemed to take an age to cut the barrier and, when the free section was pushed loose, the smell of his homeworld sent a wave of nostalgia jolting through him. The scents of his childhood wrapped around him, Troy’s farm, the forests, Gifting Square; he even caught a hint of Harkins on the air. He wouldn’t have guessed there was a particular smell to a world, but he knew it immediately. He didn’t even need to look through the hole to let the others know that they’d arrived.
Harl clambered through first. He stepped down onto an overgrown field full of ripe, golden corn. There was no one in sight. He waited as Damen led the other men through. He took his bearings quickly and knew that if they headed Sightwards, keeping close to the barrier, they would walk straight to his old home.
He doubted the old house would be empty, but it seemed his best chance at finding somewhere they could stay for the duration. Treading through the corn he spotted a small collection of houses next to where he had once lived. Three more buildings had been erected beside his own, creating a small grouping of thatched timber buildings. People sat on benches around the new houses, while a gaggle of children raced around, sword fighting with sticks.
He looked up at the Sight beyond them and again nostalgia filled him. For so long, that had been his view. All the other walls had offered nothing but the same black mask and yet the Sight had hinted at the great beyond. It was unchanging, eternal, and the only hint of life beyond his own walls had been the Aylen as they walked by or stopped to peruse life inside the tanks.
Harl’s focus snapped back to the field as some of his men walked past.
‘Wait here and keep low,’ he said.
The soldiers crouched down in the field as Harl moved towards the rear of the houses and then headed right to where his old home stood apart from the other buildings. At least twenty grazing cows wandered around the fenced paddock, which meant the new owners were far more wealthy than he had ever been.
A pretty woman with shoulder length hair walked into view around one of the houses and started throwing seed out to the chickens. She spotted him and stopped, cradling a baby in one arm as she stared across the paddock at him. He made a beeline for her and, as he got closer, he recognized the woman immediately.
‘Emily?’ he said.
The dark-haired woman gave out a small cry when she recognised him. Some of the children ran into sight around one of the buildings, laughing as they carried on their swordplay.
‘H-Harl?’ she stammered.
‘Yes, Emily,’ he said. ‘It’s me. Please don’t be afraid.’
‘I’m not,’ she said, although she took an involuntary step backwards. ‘Where have you been? And how did you get here? Troy swore you were alive. He stormed into one of Eldermen meetings just after you were lifted and caused quite a stir with his claims.’
‘Did they believe him?’ Harl asked.
‘Of course,’ Emily said. ‘He felt more responsible than anyone else for your death and no one doubted him.’
Harl felt bad that Troy had somehow known about him being alive but hadn’t been able to do anything about it.
‘How is he?’ Harl asked.
‘After you left he began drinking more at the Golden Spear,’ Emily said. ‘But the last I saw him he was well and back to his usual self.’
‘Emily,’ Harl said. ‘There’s a reason I’m back. I’ve been through so much that I can hardly believe it myself, but I’ve come back with a mission to accomplish.’
‘Go on,’ she encouraged.
‘Can we stay at your place for a while? When we have a place to stay I’ll explain everything.’
She looked at his old house.
‘I live here,’ she said, ‘But who is we?’ She glanced around for the others, but the men were too low in the field for her to see.
‘About fifteen of us,’ he said, not wanting to overwhelm her but left with little choice.
‘Fifteen!’ she said, causing some of the nearby children to stop as they ran past.
‘Go on with you,’ she chided and the three children dashed off.
‘We can feed ourselves,’ Harl said. ‘We just need a place to stay for a few cycles.’ He pointed to the field. ‘They’re over there. They may seem strange to your eyes, but if you put us up for the night, at least, we can tell you our story.’
‘Night?’ Emily asked.
‘Until the next cycle,’ Harl said. ‘Then we’ll go to the Eldermen and explain the same to them.’
‘And what about Troy?’ Emily asked.
Harl was nervous about seeing Troy again. It played on his mind that so much had changed for him and yet Troy’s life had carried on the same. Well, he thought, that wouldn’t be the case for much longer.
‘I’d like to see him again,’ Harl said. ‘But I don’t know whether to go to him or send a message first. The last thing I want to happen is for him to think he has seen my ghost and go back to the drink to cure it.’
Emily smiled and looked thoughtful. ‘I can get a message to him if you want. One of the little ones can go.’
‘If you’d do that, I’d appreciate it. Erm...’ He looked at the house. ‘Is there a man? I don’t want him to come home to find his living room full of strangers.’
Emily looked forlorn and stared at the baby in her arms.
‘Lifted,’ she said. ‘Two giftings ago.’
‘I’m so sorry, Emily,’ he said, reaching out to touch her. ‘We have come to put an end to the liftings.’
She looked up. ‘Truly?’
He nodded and waved a hand to beckon Damen and the men to join them. Emily stared in shock as the group of men stood up from the corn and trudged across to them.
‘Emily, I’d like you to meet Damen, Drew and Oscar,’ he said, pointing to each in turn. She lingered for a long time on Oscar, obviously startled to see someone with a different skin colour and a tattooed head, but she straightened and smiled.
‘Pleasure,’ she said eventually, her gaze shifting to Drew and lingering until he broke eye contact. ‘You’re all welcome to stay with me. Although you will have to feed yourselves.’ She looked at Oscar’s large frame and Harl could tell that she was wondering how much he would eat in a sitting.
Emily led them inside the cottage and while she was settling the group, Harl took a moment to walk outside to the bench and grove of trees he’d cultivated. It was still the same, with the exception of a few more weeds and a lack of wax on the bench. He sat on the bench and breathed in the scent of the climbing roses he’d planted so long ago at the base of the trees.
The Sight in front of him was the same and he suddenly felt like he had wasted so much time inside this prison without even knowing it.
He glanced at the trees beside him. Someone must be tending it, he thought, spotting the pruned stems. His thoughts wandered from his childhood and loosing his parents, to the baby still growing inside Sonora. He couldn’t tell how the child would grow up. Would it be in a time of constant flux, or even war? For a fleeting moment he considered letting the child grow up inside the tank. It was a perfect playground, safe and plentiful compared to the world outside, but it was still slavery and he couldn’t go back to that.
The choices that lay ahead of him now were complete unknowns. What would happen after they left this slave shop? He knew there was little hope for his people if they stayed in Delta. It was only a matter of time before either another swarm of hivers attacked or the Aylen found them again. He’d set in motion a series of events that would inevitably end up with them leaving Delta and heading out into the unknown to start a new life somewhere. It was a terrifying gamble.
Only if the ship actually works, he thought.
He trusted Kane immensely, of course. There was no one better at tinkering with things, but it worried him nonetheless. He could leave half the people behind in case the ship failed mid-launch or blew up, then at least there’d be someone to carry on, but in reality it had been everything or nothing ever since he left the tank. All he could do was keep fighting.
A voice came from behind him, snapping his thoughts away from the future.
‘I’ve been tending this place ever since you faked you own death.’ It was Troy’s voice and Harl spun to see his old friend standing behind him with a huge smile on his face.
‘It is you, isn’t it?’ Troy asked when Harl didn’t speak.
‘Of course it is, my friend,’ Harl said, standing and embracing him.
‘Where in the Sight have you been?’ Troy exclaimed, standing back to view him. ‘I saw you move when you were lifted and now Emily’s boy comes telling me you’ve returned. There’s not been a god’s hand in sight and yet here you are sitting on your bench as though you never left. The boy said you’d sprouted up in a field behind your old house, but I’m a professional farmer and I know better than that.’
‘Professional?’ Harl said and chuckled as Troy broke into laughter.
‘You look like you haven’t had a bath since you left,’ Troy said, ‘and your clothes...’ He pinched Harl’s shirt between his thumb and finger and rubbed the material between them.
‘I think “where in the Sight have I been” is the perfect question,’ Harl said, sitting back down on the bench. ‘I’ve seen more than we could’ve imagined, Troy. Sit down and I’ll tell as much as I can before we head to Emily’s and get some food.’
‘She’s a terrible cook,’ Troy said.
‘I know,’ Harl said. ‘Thankfully, she’s not cooking.’
Harl took him through the events since his “death” leading to meeting Emily behind his old house.
After breaking out into laughter at the tale Troy suddenly turned pale. ‘You’re serious?’