The Disappearance of Ember Crow

by Ambelin Kwaymullina

  “He got us into the house. Jules traded some rare beans for his help.”

  “Beans? He should’ve helped for free if he thought I was in trouble!”

  “I don’t think he does anything for free – and I’m not sure he was convinced you were in trouble. How do you know him anyway?”

  “Ah. That’s – I mean – Ash, he’s my brother.”

  It was my turn to stop in the middle of the street, and Ember’s to tug me along. “Which one?” I demanded.

  “Five.”

  Five to nourish land and heart. Yes, I could see that being Leo. And he was high on the list of those who could be trusted, right after Dominic and Em. I sighed in relief.

  Then I scowled. “Got anything else to tell me?” I wasn’t sure if it was because everything was finally sinking in, but I was beginning to feel cross. “Any more relatives hanging about this place?”

  “No. I’m sorry, Ash. I was going to send you a message telling you where every one of my family was, once I had a location on them all.”

  “You should have told me years ago.”

  “I know, and hush!”

  I had spoken too loudly. But I was suddenly, overwhelmingly angry at her for hiding things from me, for not having any faith in me, for … oh.

  “Em. Sorry. It’s not me. Well, not entirely. It’s Connor.”

  “What?”

  “I’m picking up on what he’s feeling. He’s somewhere nearby. And he’s really mad.”

  I orientated myself on the sense of approaching fury, and headed towards it. “This way.”

  “Why is he so angry?”

  “Probably because I shot him.”

  “You shot him?”

  “With the stunner. I didn’t want him coming to the house; I was worried he’d go after Terence.”

  “Ash …”

  “I had to keep him safe.” I sounded defensive, even to myself. “I mean I – it seemed like the right thing to do. At the time.”

  We made our way into another street – and there was Connor, racing towards us with two yellow-robed figures following behind.

  “Are you all right?” he demanded, tearing up to me.

  “I’m totally fine.”

  He pulled me into the light of a streetlamp, scanning my face. Whatever he saw must have satisfied him, because he nodded and took a step back. I knew he’d wait to yell at me later when we were alone. Or maybe he wouldn’t yell at all, which was much worse. There was a coolness to his rage; a terrifying sense of distance.

  Ember nodded at the people who’d been following him. “Who are they?” she whispered.

  “Help. From the Lion. I’m not sure if you know–”

  “I know him.” She peered around. “Is Jules with you?”

  “He was. He’s …” Connor paused, and when he spoke again, his tone was very gentle, “Ember, there’s something wrong with Jules. He became very ill, very fast. I left him with the Lion’s Mender, but … I’m afraid it doesn’t look good.”

  Ember swayed. I put my arm around her, hugging her to my side. “Em …”

  She drew in a ragged, shaky breath, focusing on Connor. “Let’s go to Leo.”

  THE ATTACK

  Elle was waiting to meet us at the entrance to Leo’s tent, which, like the market itself, was as busy as it had been during the day. She escorted us past the people talking about dreams, through the room where we’d met Leo earlier, and into the house that adjoined the tent. We followed her along a series of hallways to a large, bright room filled with two rows of neatly made beds. An infirmary of some sort.

  She ushered us in and left. The only occupants of the room were Jules – lying in a bed at the far end – and Leo, standing beside him with his broad shoulders resting against the wall. The Lion straightened as we entered, focussing on Ember. “Hello, little sister.”

  Connor drew in a sharp breath.

  “Em says he can be trusted,” I whispered hastily. “He’s the fifth.”

  He nodded in acknowledgement as we hurried over to Jules, who was asleep. I was shocked by how frail and worn he was, and the way there somehow seemed to be less of him than there had been before. He looks like he’s dying. He looked like he was dying soon. How had he gotten so sick so fast?

  “He was conscious a minute ago,” Leo told us. “One of you can try speaking to him if you like.”

  Ember settled on the bed. Connor and I moved away, giving her space.

  “Jules?” she said softly. “Can you hear me?”

  There was no response. She tried again, speaking more loudly this time. “Jules? It’s Ember.”

  His hazel eyes blinked open, widening in delighted recognition. “Red! You’re okay.”

  “Yes. And you’re going to be all right as well.”

  “Don’t trouble yourself about me.” He reached up with obvious effort, and tugged on one of her curls. “Think I don’t know when the game is done?”

  She clutched at his shaking hand, holding it to her cheek. “It isn’t. You’re going to be fine.”

  “It’s okay, darling. No regrets. Glad to go out … doing something right.” He smiled his crooked smile at her. “You were a good bet, Red. The best.”

  She bent to kiss him, a long kiss filled with heat and desperation. I understood what it was to kiss someone like that. I looked away, only to meet Connor’s steady gaze. I knew he was remembering, as I was, the kiss we’d shared outside the centre, when I’d been trying to pour life into his broken body. His heart had started to beat, and that kiss had become a single perfect moment where the two of us had been each other’s world. Tangled up together, Jules had called us, and he’d been right.

  Connor’s expression grew distant, and his eyes flicked away from mine.

  I felt as if someone had sucked all the warmth out of the room. It was my own fault, this breaking of trust between us, but knowing that didn’t make it one bit easier to bear. What have I done?

  Ember spoke. “Sleep.” I glanced back to see she had her hand resting on Jules’s chest. She’s talking to her nanomites. Jules’s eyes slid shut and his breathing deepened.

  Em stared up at her brother out of a white, miserable face. “What’s wrong with him?”

  “That requires some explanation.” Leo jerked his head at Connor and me. “What do these two know about us?”

  “You can say whatever you like in front of them.”

  He raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t used to share information so easily. That toxin Terence doses his servants with–”

  “I got rid of the toxin!”

  “Yes, I deduced that much. However, every system in Jules’s body is shutting down, and the Mender cannot heal it. He seems to have been deprived of something that he is hopelessly dependent on – not the toxin, I think, but the antidote.”

  She went even paler. “I told him he didn’t need the antidote any more, not when I’d taken the toxin away!”

  “There was no reason for you to think otherwise. Unfortunately, it appears that prolonged use of the antidote results in a dependency upon it. It’s either is an unexpected side effect, or …”

  “Or Delta engineered it that way on purpose,” Ember finished, a bitter note in her voice. “So that even if someone found a way to purge the toxin from their system, they wouldn’t survive. It’s the sort of thing Terence would have asked her to do.”

  “And the sort of thing she would have done, simply to see if she could. I’ve tried giving him the antidote – I’ve had some stockpiled for a while now, in case it was ever useful – but it’s made no difference. Once the shutdown starts, it seems to be too late to use it.”

  She swallowed. “How long …”

  “My Mender thinks he has a week.”

  Em let out a whimpering noise.

  I hated to see her like this. “We can go back to the house, find Delta, see if she can help–”

  “She won’t want to help, Ash,” Em whispered.

  “Nor would I be inclined to trust any so
lution she presented you with,” Leo put in. “It’d be just as likely to kill him faster. Delta is exceedingly careless with human life.”

  “There isn’t anything you can do for him with nanomites, Ember?” Connor asked.

  She shook her head. “I could only help before because I’d already figured out how to deal with the toxin, years ago. I have no idea what to do about this! I need time. Longer than a week.”

  “Well,” Leo said, “if time is the problem, there’s always the stasis chamber.”

  I mouthed at Connor, “stasis chamber?” He answered in a low voice, “I’m not sure what it is. But to keep something in stasis is to preserve it.” His tone was clipped and shorn of emotion. Doesn’t particularly want to talk to me. Got it.

  “It might not be completely functional, of course,” Leo continued. “It’s been sitting around for a hundred and twenty-three years now.”

  “I didn’t think you still had it!” Ember said. “Where is it?”

  “You remember the cave where father used to work? I’ve been using the place as a storehouse. It’s there.”

  Hope lit up her face. “It’s worth a try. Only I’ll need a vehicle to reach it. And a sample of the antidote would also be useful.”

  “I suppose I am to provide you with these things?” He sighed. “Are you quite sure you wouldn’t be better to let this human go now? Before you become even more attached? He will die eventually, you know. And you won’t.”

  What a horrible thing to say! I cast an indignant glare at Leo. But Ember didn’t seem to mind. “I’ll take whatever time I have, Leo. The same as you did, with Peter.” She reached out to squeeze his hand briefly. “Are you really going to tell me it wasn’t worth it?”

  The Lion smiled his rare, sweet smile. “No, I am not going to tell you that.” He patted her shoulder, and strode to the door. “I’ll get the antidote.”

  I opened my mouth to ask Ember exactly where this storehouse was, and thought the better of it when she leaned over to brushed Jules’s hair gently back from his face. Let her be, for now. Connor still wasn’t looking at me, and I could sense both his anger and his absolute unwillingness to discuss it at this moment. No point in speaking to him, either. I wandered over to a bed and stretched out, sitting up with my back against a pillow. After everything that had happened, it would be nice to sit for a while and absorb the events of the evening.

  I have decided how you can repay your debt.

  On the other hand, perhaps what I really needed was a conversation with an ancient spirit.

  Starbeauty came padding in and leaped up onto the bed to loll at my feet. You must keep the chaos from returning.

  Do you mean … the great chaos? The Reckoning?

  Those were bad times. Difficult to survive. Even for cats.

  There were suddenly a thousand cats in my head, yowling in pain and terror. Their voices merged and changed, turning into a mournful roar that lingered in my ears, and I knew I was hearing one of the lost lions.

  The sound vanished as quickly as it had come, leaving an empty silence behind.

  Shaken, I said, Starbeauty, I had this bad dream about a hill, and bodies, and the death of the world. Is that what you’re afraid of? Was it about the future?

  If life is a ball of string, then what is before, and what is after, depends on where in the ball you begin.

  I thought about those words for a second, in case they would make more sense if I did. Nope. The man in the dream …

  He is a bad man.

  You know about him?

  I know about taffa dreams.

  Of course she did. It couldn’t be a coincidence that those dreams only happened in a city where an old earth spirit resided. Maybe they really could show you lives beyond this one. Or the future … What does the dream mean? I don’t understand how Neville could cause the end of the world.

  We each of us cause the end of the world, or its beginning. And you will ensure that there is no death of cats.

  I don’t know how to do that.

  You must learn to understand your power.

  What was this, some ancient spirit conspiracy to deliver me the same mysterious message? LISTEN –

  She sat up, ears twitching. Quiet.

  I went obediently silent; I wasn’t sure if I was imagining it, but she seemed suddenly anxious. After a second she said, There is trouble.

  What? Where?

  The tent. Come!

  She jumped down, bounding out of the room. I scrambled off the bed and ran after her, calling over my shoulder, “There’s something wrong in the tent!”

  Connor followed. Ember didn’t; she must have decided to stay with Jules. Or she thinks I’ve gone crazy, chasing after a cat. I’d found the chance to tell Connor what Starbeauty was right after we’d left the Lion earlier in the day, but Ember didn’t know.

  Connor reached into his pocket to toss me something as we pelted along behind Starbeauty. The stunner. I gripped its reassuring weight as we tore through the house. I could hear screeching and shouts, faint at first, and growing steadily louder and more discordant as we neared our destination. The three of us ran into Leo’s dream journal room, and burst past the curtain to the tent beyond.

  We’d arrived in the middle of a huge fight. Cats were pouring in through the front entrance; deadly, wailing storms of teeth and claw.

  Starbeauty plunged into the fray to attack the other felines. Everywhere, people were fighting off cats with fists and feet and … abilities? Small bursts of fire were popping. Water was splashing down out of nowhere, and those taffa vines that I’d thought were mere decoration were winding out of the pots to grab hold of furry bodies. Waterbabies, Firestarters, Leafers … How many Illegals did Leo have guarding this place?

  A few cats surged towards us, and Connor threw out his hands, flinging them away with air. I raised the stunner.

  You cannot kill a cat in my city!

  I couldn’t even distinguish Starbeauty from the other cats anymore, but she was obviously keeping an eye on me. Would the stunner kill an animal? I didn’t know. I stood there, not knowing what to do, and abruptly noticed that no one was really hurting the cats. The water wasn’t drowning them, the fire was only singeing them and the vines were just holding them in place. Even Leo, fighting in the centre of the room, was tossing them away without too much force. Cats were the perfect weapon in Spinifex City, and that couldn’t be an accident. Someone was using them to strike at us.

  There had to be a Yowler somewhere in this tent.

  I scanned the turmoil, and finally spotted him. It was the mousy haired boy who’d been guarding Terence’s house, the one Marta had drugged hours ago. He threw back his head to let out a wail, and the cats became more frenzied. I pointed the stunner but couldn’t get a clear shot. Starbeauty! I shouted out in my mind. It’s the boy near the entrance who’s doing this. He’s using an ability!

  An awful high-pitched screeching split the air. I clapped my hands over my ears, and so did everyone else. On it went, rising in pitch and intensity until it drowned out every other noise. When it ended, there was total silence in the tent. The cats had lost all interest in attacking; they were milling placidly about, and the Yowler was on his knees.

  Starbeauty stalked forwards, stopped in front of the Yowler, and purred.

  Suddenly all the cats started purring, even the ones being held up in the air, filling the tent with the low rumbling of felines. Starbeauty lifted up her front paw and pressed it against the Yowler’s leg. He whimpered. Then he began to tremble, wrapping his arms around himself as shivers wracked his body.

  She let her paw drop. I have saved you all.

  I cast a dubious glance at the boy, who was still shaking. What did you do to him?

  He speaks the language of cats. Therefore, he belongs to me. All that is of cat belongs to me. I have reminded everyone of it.

  Leo strode over to Starbeauty. He was bleeding from a dozen vicious scratches, but seemed to be moving all right. He stared
incredulously down at her, and she stared back as if to say, What do you expect? I’m a very clever cat.

  He shook himself, clearly deciding that whatever mystery surrounded his pet could be dealt with later, and glared at the boy. “Why did you attack us?”

  “You attacked Terence,” the boy replied through chattering teeth. “You all turned on him.” Tears began to stream down his face. “I was trying to do what he would want. To earn redemption … redemption through service. But I’m not … I don’t belong … I don’t know any more!”

  He dissolved into helpless sobs. Leo sighed. Then he drew back his fist and struck.

  I jumped as the Yowler collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

  It is best that he sleeps. When he wakes, I will make sure he knows that he is mine forever.

  That sounded a little scary, but better to belong to Starbeauty than to Terence. Listen, he’ll probably have a toxin in his system. He’ll need to take this … um, actually, don’t worry about it. Leo had the antidote, and the Yowler was a source of information about Terence; the Lion wasn’t going to let him die.

  Leo began to issue orders. Secure the tent … treat all wounded … People started to organise themselves. Taffa vines unwound to deposit cats gently onto the floor, and Connor allowed the ones he was levitating to drift to the ground. A few Menders were already moving through the space, laying hands on people to heal them, but I pleased to see that no one seemed to be gravely hurt. Certainly no cats.

  The Lion stalked past us and through the curtain into the journal room. He motioned for Connor and me to follow. When we were alone, he snapped, “Has Terence run mad, launching an attack on me? And with an Illegal? Neither of us wants the governments of the rest of the world looking into the people who work for us!”

  “I’m not sure that Terence did send him,” Connor replied. “The Yowler said he was trying to do what Terence would want. Anticipating orders, rather than following them.”

  “Delta and Terence were fighting when Em and I left,” I put in. “Really fighting, I mean, like a proper knock-down battle. I think maybe the minions – um, Terence’s Illegals – believe the other aingls are acting against Terence.”