the Dark shall do what Light cannot
Page 30
“No,” the Elder shook his head. “There are … other ways.”
“I did not know this,” the Elder-in-Waiting replied. “I thought only one ship could pass the Light Veil.”
“For now that is so…” the Elder replied. His thin, grey lips were twisted to form a small, repellant smile. “But things change, do they not? The Dark One teaches us to be aware of change.”
“How?” the Elder-in-Waiting asked.
“There are other forces…” the Elder said vaguely.
“Beyond the Veil?”
The Elder smiled. “I know now that you are worthy,” he said.
The Elder-in-Waiting bowed. “I am not worthy,” he said. “I can never be worthy of the Dark One.”
“None of us can…” the Elder said. “But we must strive… forever strive. And you? You too must work and strive to be… to live… as the Dark One wishes, but for today, you are worthy. In you, we have pride.”
The Elder-in-Waiting kept his head bowed. “I am not worthy,” he repeated quietly. I am not worthy. I am unforgivable, he thought.
“From you, much has been asked, and more may be required… by the Dark One,” the Elder said.
“As the Dark One wills.”
30
Orion strode past the liveried – in LiGa black and gold – doorman standing at the entrance of LiGa headquarters, calling for Shady. Cat, Father Griffith and Bruce trailed behind.
“Well, this is something!” Cat exclaimed, gazing around her as they stood in the entrance hall. “Quite a change from the glass cube, isn’t it?”
Yes, thought Father Griffith, it is different. The glass cube was transparent and it was unadorned. The Sun is as free in the glass cube as she is in the woods that surround it. She can go anywhere. This? This is all adorned in gold and silver and it glitters and gleams... And its solid walls are not transparent.
But no, it is also the same, he smiled. Each thing is in its place… Each thing fits its space… The glass cube is right for the woods that surround it. There are no visual barriers between the cube and the trees and the sky. The glass cube is as free … and as hard as nature… it is true in its place.
And here? But we are in Pera: a glorious golden peacock of a place. The glass cube does not fit here. It should appear weak in this space. Out of place.
Each in its proper place…
“Come,” Orion beckoned, reappearing with Shady.
They followed him to a large room with its bay windows facing the straits of Ortasu. They sat under a chandelier of swooping white birds that glittered with flecks of gold.
“So, Orion? Welcome,” Shady said.
“We have work to do,” Orion said. “Give me all the information.”
“You are being rude, darling,” Cat said primly. “Aren’t you even going to offer your guests a drink?”
Orion turned to her. “If you wish. But–” he continued slyly, “before you start guzzling away, I should remind you that our friend Carl – an immortal like the rest of us – was killed by lightberry poisoning– in his cocktail, I understood from Selcan?” He turned inquiringly to Shady.
“Yes,” Shady gave a slight nod, “but–”
Orion raised his hand. “But nothing, Shades. What about you? Someone tried to poison you as well, didn’t they? With the lightberry too!”
“Well yes, but–”
“Well, in that case I shall only trust you to prepare my drink!” Cat cried. “Shall I tell you what I like?”
Orion laughed. “You should be safe eating and drinking here.”
“Absolutely,” Shady said hotly. “The substitute cook is completely trustworthy. She works for the lady who came with me to meet you – Markiza.”
“Oh…There is a substitute cook?” Cat smiled brightly, turning to Orion who was seated beside her. “And we trust Markiza with our lives, do we?”
“Don’t worry,” Orion insisted, patting her hand. “Let’s have cocktails to welcome our new immortals!”
“That’s more like it,” Cat sighed happily.
* * *
He was sitting at the desk when he heard a loud clatter outside the window. He opened the window gingerly and was barely able to jump out of the way of the rush of wings and clatter of clawed feet.
The light bird flapped its wings a few times and came to rest on top of the desk. He approached the bird with trepidation. There were no light birds on the islands, and the seabirds that came did not mix with the human residents. This one was used to people. It was one of the police department’s trained light birds. Its sleek white feathers glowed in the dimly lit room and its beady eye flashed with an inner fire.
He made what he hoped were soothing noises as he reached for the canister attached to the bird’s leg.
The note inside the metal canister read: Leave Pera now. Orion is here. It was unsigned and undated. It told him everything he needed to know.
There wasn’t time then, to clear his traces; there would have to be a fire. He looked round the small, sparsely-furnished room. There was nothing here of importance except the information in his mind. He hoped it would be sufficient … for someone else, for he could not understand it. I am the messenger, he thought. I carry a message of great importance. But what if it wasn’t accurate? A wave of panic engulfed him. He had done his best to memorize what was written. These were fruitless thoughts. He could not go back. There was only going forward armed with the information in his head… Orion is here, he thought. Information could not be locked inside anyone’s mind if Orion found out…
He gathered a few belongings into a rough backpack and stood by the open window and listened to the sounds of children playing outside. They were oblivious. They had no idea of the coming fire. But they are lucky, he thought, because the fire would be lit soon, and they were all awake. Awake and already outside. Some people were not as lucky…
It was time to go. It was time for the fire…
He looked at the bird… The agreement had been to kill the bird that brought the message, to remove any trace that could lead back to him. But what about the bird? It’s beautiful, he thought, with a pang. And it knows nothing. It came to this band – his hand reached for the dark band that was affixed to his upper sleeve. One of the Blinder’s bands. He unhooked the band from his sleeve; it was his sole connection to the light birds.
“Come here!” He waved the band before the bird. It hopped obediently off the desk and waddled to the band. He picked it up clumsily. “Ow! Ow!” He cried out in pain as the bird’s webbed claw – or perhaps its chisel-like beak, it was hard to tell – ripped his flesh. He managed to wrestle it on to the window ledge. “Shoo!” He flung the bird out of the window. It squawked its disillusionment with this human specimen but did not return to the window. He watched it fly away.
It would be wrong to kill the ignorant messenger…
He regarded the band of narrow black fabric thoughtfully. His instructions were to burn it, to destroy it along with the bird. But he had spared the bird. He fingered the fabric almost tenderly.
It was his only connection to the light birds, messengers like him.
* * *
“Delicious,” Cat said appreciatively, sipping her drink.
“Good. Now, we can get on. Shady, I got an interesting communication from Selcan soon after we crossed the Veil–”
“What did she tell you?” Shady asked, sounding worried. “She spoke to me at Carl’s funeral. Seemed eager to get in touch with you. I forgot about it with all the stress of the poisoned jam. I’m sorry.”
“Naturally, she is very upset about Carl.”
“Of course,” Shady said hurriedly. “Did she say anything else?”
“When did you last speak to Carl, Shades?” Orion asked, evading the other’s question.
“Fiona asked me the same question the night we found him.” Shady stroked his chin thoughtfully. “It worried me. I felt she was looking for information.”
“Well?” Orion continued interro
gatively. “What about it? When did you last speak to Carl, and what did he say? You’re not giving me any information, Shady,” Orion added in an accusatory tone. “There’s nothing in your mind.”
“Because I have no information to give!” Shady retorted angrily. “I had spoken to him… oh maybe two weeks before he died. I thought we’d get a chance to catch up during our patrol. So? What did Selcan tell you?” It was his turn to interrogate.
“She said she spoke to Carl about ten days before his death, and Carl was very concerned about the results in one of his projects – something to do with using the lightberry underwater. According to Selcan, Carl thought he had discovered something important about the Light Veil… an instability? That’s the word she used. I don’t know. She did not know any details.
“She was also concerned because apparently there was a White Islander that Fiona arranged to work for him. He was working as an assistant. Did you know anything about this project?”
Shady shook his head. “Carl may have mentioned it, but I don’t recall. I think he spoke to Selcan about his projects, mostly. She understood what he was talking about unlike me!” He let out a self-deprecating chuckle.
“But we could find out about the project. Who was involved, the details–” Orion mused.
Shady assented. “Yes, we’re blind policemen. We could get the information. I can do it first thing tomorrow.”
Orion shook his head. “I will speak to the Rooster tonight, and see if you can get a list of everyone who worked on that project–” He paused, thinking. “We need all the details of the project. And the labs must be sealed until I find out what’s happening!”
“That will be more difficult,” Shady ventured. “The Light Labs where I assume Carl was working are research facilities. They are needed. There is all sorts of research going on there, I imagine. We can’t stop everything.”
“But we must stop this project. Now.”
“The head of Light Laboratories is a blinder,” Shady said, thinking out loud. “I can contact him, I suppose…”
“Do it now. Don’t waste time. We’ve already wasted several days. Do you have a mind link to him or do you need to use the Blinder’s Tab?”
“We have a link, but I don’t trust my telepathic abilities to communicate effectively. I will send him a message on the Tab.” He rose. “I’ll be back in a few minutes. We have offices on the second floor,” he explained to Cat who was regarding him quizzically.
“What is the Blinder’s Tab?” Bruce asked Orion.
“It’s like a computer system,” Orion explained. “There are numerous networks around Pera. The Blinder’s Tab is the network for the blind policemen. Only they can input information into the network, but the information is accessible to everyone.”
“It all seems to go back to the White Islanders… doesn’t it?” Cat said.
“What do you mean?”
“Cypress… this…”
“And Dragan, too,” Orion said, speaking mostly to himself.
“Dragan? Wasn’t he the immortal you said was found dead?”
Orion walked to the bay windows. “Dragan was found dead on Mira Island. It’s a small resort island–” he added, pointing out of the window. “You can just see it if you lean to the right–”
They followed his directions and indicated that yes, they could discern a small group of lights amid the inky darkness.
“He was found there,” Orion continued, “but apparently he had gone sailing around the White Islands that day. They are quite a distance from Mira Island–”
“About four or five months before his death, Dragan had decided he wanted to patrol the islands with the pirates…” Shady interjected from the doorway. Orion turned to face him with an enquiring expression.
Shady moved deliberately to the windows. He spoke facing them. “Dragan was a blind policeman in Pera, but he said he wanted to get to know the White Islanders. I don’t know the reason. Perhaps he was curious; perhaps he was suspicious, or knew something … he did not confide in me unfortunately.” Then he added, “I understand he approached the pirates, and apparently they didn’t object.”
“What about the islanders? How did they react?” Father Griffith asked.
“At the time, I don’t think they objected,” Shady replied hesitantly. He glanced at Orion. “We don’t know… what happened. There were no complaints while he was patrolling the islands – I think he went out three times–”
“Don’t look at me,” Orion protested. “I wasn’t here.”
“No. You were not.”
“I didn’t get called out to investigate that death, remember?” Orion added pointedly.
“It looked like an accident,” Shady said defensively.
“Like Carl’s accident?” Orion asked scathingly.
“It is not the same thing at all!” Shady cried hotly. “It is obvious Carl’s death was not an accident. By the way, I found out that Carl’s project was closed down immediately after his death. All experiments and results are sealed. He was working alone –except for the assistant Selcan mentioned. He was a young guy from Stone Island – that’s the largest of the White Islands,” Shady explained as an aside for the benefit of the newcomers. “I am told he is one of the Elder’s distant cousins.”
“Where is he?”
Shady shook his head. “I don’t know. Perhaps he went back to his island?”
“Perhaps…Why wasn’t this investigated before? Even if the police missed it, which I can well believe, you should have looked into all of Carl’s dealings, personal, scientific, everything!”
Shady sighed with frustration. “I had no idea. I was – we, I mean the police, were focusing on the telescope, and the note that was found on him!”
“Oh yes? Tell me.”
“I – the police found a series of figures on a piece of paper in his pocket. Looked like a set of coordinates, and the telescope… it was pointed at a cypress grove.”
“What figures?”
“They seem to be coordinates,” Shady explained, reciting the figures from memory. “I think it’s one of the White Islands.”
“Are you sure those are the same figures?” Bruce asked.
“He has photographic memory,” Orion said and let out a short, nasty laugh. “But you don’t need photographic memories for those coordinates. They are the coordinates for the Light Veil. Of course they are close to one of the White Islands! The Island of Birds is almost next to the Veil. Didn’t you know that, Shades?” he asked venomously.
Shady shook his head. “No. I did not. It’s not a secret, I know, but I never bothered to find out.”
“Can you tell us more about what happened to Dragan?” Bruce interrupted, breaking the tension. “I have a feeling whatever’s going on here started before Carl’s death, and might be related to what happened to Dragan. After all, they are both – and the girl, Cypress – connected in some way with the islands.”
Shady sighed heavily. “I’m sorry. I haven’t any more to tell about Dragan. We did not speak much about the patrols. The pirates were in control out there on the islands as you know, so it was outside my – our, the mainland blinders’ jurisdiction, and we left them alone. It seemed the right thing to do. The pirates didn’t pry into our patrols, so we didn’t question what they did…”
After Dragan’s death, Shady said, he had tried to get information about the patrols, but there had been little to find. “The pirates’ records of the patrols were spotty. Some captains were more particular than others…. Besides, Dragan wasn’t a pirate so it seems they let him do whatever he wanted. They said he was alone during some of the patrols, but that was not necessarily all that unusual. In Pera we make sure people patrol in pairs, but out on the islands–” he spread his hands, “well, the islands are small, and they are pirates. Cooperation doesn’t come naturally, I suspect–” Shady chuckled.
“But I understand Dragan wasn’t on patrol the day he died. Isn’t that right?” Orion asked. His voi
ce was hard.
Shady shook his head. “He had been on his last patrol a few days earlier.”
“How do you know he was out at the islands that day?”
“Philippa said so,” Shady replied dryly. “She said he was supposed to be sailing around the islands.”
But Philippa had not joined him because she had been taken sick the evening before.
“And she was found dead two days later…” Orion tapped on the table meditatively. Shady nodded, and cleared his throat. “Lightberry poisoning. But it must have been administered while she was sick,” he added.
“Really? Why?” Cat asked.
Shady began to speak but was interrupted by Orion. “He’s going to say that the lightberry poison is fast-acting, and most people die within an hour or two of ingestion, but we are not most people. Philippa was a LiGa Immortal, and while we are not immune to the poison of the lightberry, it probably takes a much higher dose to kill one of us because of our highly resistant physiology.
“So, it is possible that Phil had already been poisoned, but the dose had been too low… perhaps whoever it was went back and gave her a higher dose.”
“True…” Shady admitted reluctantly. “It is possible, but–”
Orion raised his hand. “No buts. It is possible. The only thing I want to know is, as she was alive for two days after Dragan’s body was found, why didn’t she say what he was doing there?”
“She – she said she didn’t know,” Shady said, a touch defensively. “Besides, she was very ill. She lost consciousness soon after Dragan was found, and never woke up.”
“Hmm… I think the White Islanders came to Pera? Am I right?”
Shady nodded. “The day after Philippa’s death, the Elder and a few of the Twilight’s Hands came to meet with the mayor. They said they came to complain about the patrols. They wanted the patrols to cease.” Shady paused and sighed. “I wasn’t there at that conference. What I know, I heard from Fiona – later – and also from the mayor–”