Ammonite Stars (Omnibus): Ammonite Galaxy #4-5

by Gillian Andrews

  She gasped. “I so am NOT! How DARE YOU!”

  There was a moment’s stunned silence, and then the sound waves carrying her last shouted word slammed into blocks of solid rock on all sides, and threw them back to the centre of the valley, echoing around again and again. “HOW DARE YOU! DARE YOU! DARE YOU! Dare you! Dare you! Dare you!”

  Ledin and Grace turned back to stare, but then Grace caught sight of Diva’s expression and tugged at Ledin’s hand with what fingers she still had left. He looked down at her and smiled, and then they resumed their scrambling progress across the floor of the valley.

  “There’s no need to shout,” said Six crossly. “I heard you the first time.”

  “I’ll shout if I want to.” She put her arms on her hips, and fixed him with a steely glare. “If that is what you think of me, I’m not surprised you prefer to stay on Kwaide!”

  Six gave a sigh. “After we find Hanna, I am going to make a life for myself here on Kwaide, and possibly find somebody to share it with me. When I was waiting to be blown up by you on Pictoria I suddenly realized that I shouldn’t waste any more time.” He was breathing rather hurriedly, but he didn’t notice.

  “So now I’m a waste of time, am I?”

  He narrowed his eyes. “You know perfectly well I didn’t say that, Diva! Stop twisting my words and playing with me – you aren’t a catumba, although you behave enough like one most of the time.”

  She caught her breath. “I do NOT!”

  “—I’m not going to throw my life away. You have always made it clear what you think of no-names like me. Well, guess what? Not everybody shares that opinion.”

  “I don’t th-think that! You know that is not true. That was always just a joke!”

  “Was it?”

  Diva was looking horrified. “But … But we were going to leave Coriolis together, before … before we met Tartalus that day.”

  Six was tempted to give way, but he was too cross to give her that satisfaction. “Were we? I forget.” And with that said, he marched in the direction of the others.

  Diva stared after him as he strode away, suddenly feeling bereft. She stamped her foot and glowered. But there was nobody left to see it. For some ridiculous reason she felt tears coming to her eyes. She felt as if she were missing out on something really important. Something that nobody had ever explained to her. She dashed the tears away furiously, and began to walk slowly after Six.

  THEY SPLIT UP into two groups when they reached the part of the valley directly underneath the overhang. Ledin took Diva around to the right, having decided that the atmosphere between the two would be helped by a little distance. Six and Grace started a grid search to the left.

  Grace sent a sharp glance at Six, and decided to hold her tongue. There was nothing she could say just at the moment that would make things even a little bit better, so she would do well to keep quiet. She and Six began to search for Hanna in silence.

  Ledin was watching Diva out of the corner of his eye. She was walking jerkily, her back rigid, her neck muscles taut. One incisor was visible biting down on her bottom lip. He half-raised one eyebrow and decided to keep his distance from her. She didn’t look safe. He began the search, but kept an eye on the Coriolan girl at the same time.

  Diva was having some difficulty blinking away more tears. She was furious with herself. Coriolan meritocrats never cried! She was built of sterner stuff than that! And why on Sacras should she be crying for a Kwaidian no-name who was more stubborn than a Cesan donkey crossed with a vaniven? She would NOT give way to pressure like that! She should have blown him up while she had the chance! Her mind was whirling around and around the same words that echoed in her head, and she could barely concentrate on looking for Hanna.

  In the end she gave up altogether. She felt suddenly alone. It was as if Six’s words had dissolved the friendship built over years. As her mind went back over the times they had spent together, a heavy pulse started to pound in her throat. It was true! Six was the only person who had always been there. She couldn’t even envisage a future without Six. Who would she be? She was no longer the meritocrat, no longer the apprentice, no longer belonged to anywhere in particular. Without even being aware of what she was doing, she sat on a rock and stared into space.

  Ledin noticed this, but was uncertain what to do. He gave a thin whistle through his teeth to attract Grace’s attention, and indicated Diva. Grace looked over, and seemed to understand what was happening, because she signaled to Ledin to leave Diva where she was, and to withdraw towards the shuttle. At the same time Grace began to back away from the search site, retreating to intercept Ledin.

  When they met, Grace led the way back to the shuttle. “Hanna won’t mind waiting a few hours longer,” she said. “And if they don’t sort this out straight away, then things will have gone so far that they won’t be able to get back. Let’s make them a meal, and wait for them to find us.”

  Ledin nodded. “I have never seen Diva look like that. She made me feel really sorry for her,” he told Grace.

  Grace grinned. “I think she’s had a bit of a shock.”

  They made their way back to the shuttle, and began to set up some sort of a camp. It seemed as if they would have to spend the night here, after all. Grace found herself shivering. The Valley of the Skulls. What a place! Then she remembered the words of the man who spoke to canths. This was a journey of colour. Perhaps it was inevitable that something like this should happen here, today?

  SIX DIDN’T NOTICE that Grace had disappeared. He was so lost in his own dark thoughts, and so concentrated on the search, that between those two things he had no room left over to think about what the others were doing. It must have been a good twenty minutes later that he came out of his reverie to realize that Grace was no longer searching the grid beside him.

  He looked across at the other side of the valley, and saw that Ledin, too, was missing. The only person he could see was Diva, who looked as if she were injured, sitting huddled on a rock.

  He closed the large gap between them quickly, still as sure of foot across the rubble as he had been as a boy. Then he bent down to look at Diva’s face on a level. Her eyes were blank, and full of pain.

  “What is it?” he asked her gently. “Are you hurt?”

  She turned her face away. “Nothing.”

  He put one hand on her chin, and turned her back to face him. Her eyes were still not focused.

  “What, Diva? This isn’t the least bit like you. What have you done with the warrior princess?”

  Six was disconcerted. He had never seen Diva show an inch of weakness in all the time he had known her. She was a fearless fighter, an indomitable spirit, yet here she was – sitting on a rock in the middle of nowhere, looking as if she were lost. He didn’t know what to do. He thought that he must have gone too far. He bit his lip, feeling horribly guilty.

  “Err … perhaps I should find Grace—”

  She interrupted him. “—I’m not the same person, you know.”

  “What?”

  “I’m no longer the Coriolan meritocrat. I realized on Valhai that I had changed. You were wrong about that.”

  He wrinkled his forehead. “Are you feeling all right? Perhaps the air this high up is affecting you? I wouldn’t like you to collapse on me. Where on Lumina are Grace and Ledin?” He peered around the valley. “This place gives me the creeps.”

  Diva gave a harsh laugh. “When Grace and I were about to arm that missile that would have killed both you and Ledin on Pictoria, my soul froze into a block of solid ice.” She burst out crying.

  Six was now seriously worried that she had suffered some great damage. “Where?” he insisted. “Where does it hurt?” He began to feel down her arms, checking to see if anything was broken.

  She pushed him away. “Stop it. I am perfectly all right.”

  He seemed skeptical. “You don’t look very all right to me.” He peered into her wet face. “Have you got a fever?”

  “For SACRAS’ S
AKE!” She pushed him away and stood up.

  “SACRAS’ SAKE! SACRAS’ SAKE! SACRAS’ SAKE! Sacras’ sake! Sacras’ sake! Sacras’ sake!”, echoed the cliffs.

  Six grabbed hold of her elbow, but she twitched out of reach.

  “I just thought that we should both be there when they announce the new laws.” She gave a sniff, and then stood up. “I thought you wouldn’t want to lose the rights to your children. And I’m not crying. I just got a mote of dust in my eye. I never cry.”

  Six knew better than to contradict her. He nodded, and took hold of her arm again, gently. “I know you don’t. Let’s get back to the shuttle. You really need something to eat, and something hot and sweet to drink.”

  “Hah!” she muttered, showing signs of the old Diva at last. “We’re on Kwaide, remember. Not much chance of anything hot and sweet around here!”

  “Yes there is. Grace will have water boiling, I’m sure. Come on, let’s get you back to civilization.” He hesitated. “I suppose a few more days wouldn’t make much difference. I can come with you to Coriolis, if you really think it is that important.”

  “You will?” She brightened slightly. “Thank you. That makes me feel a lot better.”

  “Good. I’m glad. Now, can we go and get something to eat?”

  She allowed herself to be pulled to her feet, and they set off down the valley, their feet scrunching through the shards of millions of years of broken rocks, their minds trying to fathom out what had just happened.

  AFTER A FAIRLY substantial meal that Grace and Ledin had managed to cook up with very few ingredients, they resumed the search for Hanna. This time, they all worked methodically and with greater care. Diva was quiet, and rather introspected – very unlike her usual character, but she seemed calm and quite settled. Six looked tired. Grace’s eyes ran over her friends from time to time, a worried expression on her face, which slowly evaporated as she saw that they were speaking to each other again; though rather warily, as if treading on eggshells. Something had shifted in the relationship, she could see. It was as if her friends were two strangers, very much aware of each other, very much on their best behaviour.

  It took them two and a half hours to cover the first half of the grid which Ledin had laid out. They came across many remains in that time, but none which could have belonged to a young girl. Grace found the carcass of a warthog, completely cleaned down to the bone, but in one piece. Poor animal. She found herself hoping that it had died on impact. The alternative of lying here waiting for death was somehow much worse.

  They were on the point of calling it a day when a stillness from Ledin let Grace know that he had found something. She called to the others, who marked their positions carefully, and then walked over towards them. She herself scrambled across the sharp pebbles to Ledin’s side. There were a few bones in front of him, and a small square of leather still clung to what looked like part of a rib cage.

  Grace walked up and slid her hand through Ledin’s arm.

  “It’s her,” he said simply.

  “I know.” She squeezed his arm comfortingly.

  “Have you got the flag?”

  She nodded, and was unfurling it when Six and Diva came up. They walked over and looked down at the remains of Hanna. Neither of them spoke, out of respect for Ledin.

  Grace finished laying the flag out on the ground, weighted it down with four of the larger rocks at the corners, and then waited. Ledin was standing in front of the skeleton, with his eyes closed. There was a long silence, and then he opened his eyes again.

  “Help me, will you, Six?”

  Six moved solemnly into place beside him, and they took hold of the fragile bones. The bones had seemed to be articulated, but as the men took hold of each of the members, she saw that the connective tissue had long since disappeared. All the bones of the arms and legs were separate. They seemed to weigh nothing. Only the rib cage with the vertebral column was still in one piece, and the skull had separated. The lower jaw was missing, and when they couldn’t find it after a search around the area Ledin was disconsolate.

  “We should bury all her bones,” he insisted.

  Grace motioned to Diva, and the two girls began a more intense search of the area.

  “Birds might have taken it,” suggested Diva.

  Grace shook her head. “I don’t think so. I haven’t seen anything alive come this far down, and there aren’t that many birds on Kwaide, you know. No, I think it is here somewhere. Maybe it got displaced by wind or rain?”

  “Hmm. That’s possible, I suppose. If that were the case, then we should be looking a little further down this slope, because any water would run off in that direction.”

  They moved to where Diva was pointing, and eventually found the lower jaw, which they carried carefully back to Ledin.

  “Oh, thank you!” He placed it reverently with the other small pile of bones, and then lovingly covered all of them with the edges of the flag. Six brought up the light casket they had brought with them, and between them, they placed the remains inside. Then Ledin picked up the small square of leather. It looked like part of a rough purse.

  “I made her this when she was little,” he told them. “It was her most prized possession.” He couldn’t go on.

  Grace took it from him, reopened the edges of the flag and placed it delicately on top of Hanna’s remains. Then she folded the flag back in place, and tucked it down the sides of the casket. By the time she lowered the lid, Ledin had his feelings in place again. He looked around at all of them, and smiled. “Thank you – all of you. This means such a lot to me, you can have no idea.”

  “That’s all right,” said Six. “Honour to be here.” His eyes met Diva’s in a rather constrained manner. Then they both looked away. “Have you decided yet where you are going to bury her?”

  Ledin was staring at the casket, curiously reluctant to move his eyes away. He lifted his shoulders. “I don’t know.”

  But Grace knew. “She foresaw a sunny red planet on the other side of the galaxy,” she said. “And that is where we shall take her.”

  Diva gasped. “Back to Pictoria?”

  Even Ledin had looked up. He and Six echoed Diva. “Pictoria?”

  Grace got to her feet and shouted out across the valley. “She is leaving this dark Valley of the Skulls,” she said, “and going to the sunlight on Pictoria. PICTORIA!” She let the last word out as loudly as she could, and then stopped, eyes closed, as the Valley of the Skulls processed it, and the sound waves rebounded from the black and dismal walls. “PICTORIA! PICTORIA! PICTORIA! Pictoria! Pictoria! Pictoria!”

  Six looked at Diva, and raised one eyebrow in a question, asking her permission to delay the trip to Coriolis. She hesitated, and then gave a slight nod. She wanted to see this thing through, too. Even if things were a little awkward between them just now. There would be plenty of time to visit Coriolis afterwards. Six gave a broad smile.

  “Then we will postpone the trip to Mesteta for a few days, and come with you both,” he told Ledin and Grace. “We want to see Hanna laid to rest in peace too.”

  Chapter 24

  THE FIRST SHUTTLE came down onto the red Pictoria ground with care. It was early morning, and the first rays of the sun were illuminating the ridges, making the planet’s surface look dappled from above.

  The two occupants stepped down onto the planet with relief; there had been quite a lot of turbulence on the way down, and the cargo they were carrying was precious.

  It was as if the footprint of the Dessites had been wiped off the planet’s surface by the nightly winds. The day was balmy for Pictoria; for once the atmosphere warm and friendly. They stood, breathing in the morning air, and watching one or two avifauna gliding majestically away from the nearest butte.

  At last Grace moved, breaking the spell. “Where are we going to bury Hanna?” she asked Ledin, indicating the small casket which had accompanied them down from the New Independence.

  Ledin pointed to the nearest ridge. “On
the western side of that ridge, so that she can see the sunrise. Up towards the top.”

  Grace nodded. Pictoria was one of the few planets which rotated in the opposite way to its direction. Its retrograde spin meant that its sun rose in the west, and set in the east. Then she looked at the ridge doubtfully. “I don’t see how we are going to be able to dig a hole out of that stone.”

  Ledin opened up one of the boxes and held up a long cylinder. “With this – it is the explosive they use to mine rexelene. We shouldn’t need very much.”

  Grace was still unconvinced. “You’ll need a big hole if the casket is to fit inside.”

  Ledin looked down at the wooden coffer. “I am not leaving her in the casket. I don’t want her to be shut up inside anything. We will place her inside the rock just wrapped in the flag. She would have liked that.”

  “How are you going to make sure that the winds don’t uncover her remains?”

  “I have brought a rexelene extrusion machine from Kwaide. I am going to seal the entrance back up with that. Rexelene is as strong as rock when it hardens, but it will be transparent, so the sun’s rays will reach her.”

  Grace nodded. “We had better get started then.”

  There was a silence. Grace and Ledin stared at each other.

  Grace came to a sudden realization. “—You want to do this alone.”

  “Do you mind?”

  She shook her head, and gave a smile. “Of course I don’t. I think you are right. It is something you should take care of yourself. I can pay my respects when you have finished. I … I will just go for a walk up towards the butte. I wouldn’t mind trying to get close to one or two of the avifauna, to see if they have forgotten what happened with the Dessites. And Six and Diva will be down in their shuttle soon. I’ll go and find them, and bring them over here later on.” She walked quickly away.