Desai nodded, his mouth a thin, hard line. “From what you have told me, and what you have discovered, I fear you must be correct.”
He got to his feet, agitated, and began to pace. “I have tarried too long. I have been arrogant. I came to India imagining that I could deal with this problem on my own — that it was a thing I could contain by myself, as if Ikshuvaku and Sahoj were merely errant children. But I am too late. Perhaps it was too late before I even set foot on my homeland. If there are threads from the Sapphire Cutlass already sewn throughout the world, perhaps there is nothing more to be done. Perhaps there never was.”
Thaddeus got to his feet, dusting his hands off on his trousers. “That can’t be true. I won’t accept it. We defeated both Abernathy and Cantal. Perhaps we still have a chance to do something, if we act now. Do you have any idea what might stop this, Desai?”
Desai spread his hands. “My young friends, I do not. But whatever is to be done — if anything can be — the doing of it must take place within that mountain.”
“Where is it, then?” J asked. “Is it a long way away, like? Cos I’m willin’ to wager that this beastie has been farther, Mr. Desai.” He waved proudly at the airship.
The older man smiled and said, “In some ways, it is very close, J, and in others it is a lifetime away.” He raised his arm and swept it out over the horizon, which now glowed in the bright yellow sunlight of an Indian day. He pointed, and there in the distance, silhouetted against the light, reached the jagged tip of a twisted mountain, its lower reaches plunging into a valley so deep and so clogged with jungle that from where they stood, as high as the plateau was, it proved impossible to see from whence the mountain sprung.
“There,” said Desai. “There is the mountain created by the angry stamp of a lesser god, and there lie the answers to the questions we have posed for ourselves.”
“Right, then,” said J, getting to his feet and slapping his hands against his thighs. “Well, what are we waiting here for then? Places to be, things to do. Let’s be ’avin’ you, eh?”
“J, it is not that simple,” cautioned Desai.
“Why ain’t it? There it is, right there, and you’s said that’s where we got to go to work this fing out. So I say we hop to it, quick like, before this Sahoj and his Sapphire wotsit ’as a chance to see us comin’.”
“J, I know what a brave soul you are. I know what brave souls you all are,” said Desai, his words encompassing the whole of their small assembly. “But this is not what we found in Abernathy’s lair. It is not even what you encountered in France. This is on a different scale, and what we find there … What we find there could well be the end of everything we know. Think of the legend of Aruna. Think of those soldiers, torn apart by the bare hands of an unarmed young girl. Think what sort of power could induce such events as that.”
There was a brief silence, which Thaddeus broke in a soft, but firm, voice. “Well then,” he said, “that’s all the more reason for us to hurry. Wouldn’t you say, Desai?”
Desai looked at him, and then at each of their faces in turn. Something passed through his eyes — an emotion so large that even their dark depths struggled to contain it. He seemed to struggle to speak for a moment, and when he did his voice was thick. “My young friends. Your courage and loyalty are lessons for all. And if you are our future, then perhaps it is in better hands than we even deserve.”
“So tha’s settled, then,” said J. “We’re all going. And I say we don’t lose any more time chin-wagging, or it’ll be time for lunch and frankly, I ain’t missing another one o’ those unless the sky is fallin’ in.”
Dita nudged him in the ribs with an elbow. “Be careful what you wish for, eh, dirty boy.”
“I keep tellin’ you,” J said, “I ain’t —”
“There is one thing,” said Desai, his voice cutting through the children’s squabbling, “that we must address first.”
Thaddeus frowned. “Oh? What’s that?”
Desai turned to Rémy with a soft smile. “Your knowledge of the Sapphire Cutlass is not the only thing you brought with you from France, am I right?”
Thaddeus watched as Rémy’s face passed from confusion and into realization. “Oh,” she said. “Do you mean the puzzle box? But — but that is of no importance, Desai. It can wait.”
Desai raised an eyebrow. “Of no importance? This trinket that you risked your life to reclaim from the raja’s palace is of no importance?”
“I mean, it is not as important as everything else,” Rémy amended. “Anyway, I think the thing does not work at all. We have all tried for months to open it and we cannot.”
Their friend smiled. “My dear, I am inclined to believe that where you are concerned at least, there is very little that is not important. In this case, I am sure of it. May I ask what you believe it to contain?”
Rémy sighed. “An old woman, in France — a medicine woman — she gave it to me. She told me it would take me to the truth. She was also the one who told me that I had a brother: a twin, born just before me. I thought she meant the truth about my brother. But maybe I’m wrong about what she meant. Or she may just have been crazy — and anyway, if I have never known him yet, it cannot matter if I never do at all.”
“Do you really believe that?” Desai asked.
Rémy shrugged, twining her fingers together restlessly. “Monsieur, what can it matter that I may have a brother if the fate of the world is in the balance?”
Desai smiled. “What indeed. May I see it?”
Rémy hesitated for a moment and then crossed to where her leather bag sat on the ground. Pulling it open, she fished in its depths for the cube, then passed it to Desai. He turned it around in his hands, watching the play of sunlight dance across the intricate whorls and patterns on each surface. Then he looked up at her.
“You trust me with this?”
“I — yes, of course. I trust all of you. I would not have shown it to anyone but Thaddeus, otherwise.”
Desai nodded with a slightly sad smile. “It is a balm to a weary soul such as mine, Rémy Brunel, to find such optimism in one who has endured such hardships as you.”
Rémy blinked. “I am not —” She trailed off as Desai gripped the box in both hands. Instead of attempting to open the stubborn hinges, as they had each tried in turn, he held it out in front of him and twisted, one hand moving right and one hand moving left.
Rémy watched, astonished, as the box realigned itself, shearing smoothly along the new angle offered it by Desai. Still the hinges did not open, but they did fold in on themselves. A moment later, where once the box had been a perfect cube, now it was a sphere formed of triangles. Desai held out his hand, the newly formed sphere resting on his palm. As they all watched, a feature appeared on its uppermost curve — a button, clicking out of the whole.
“It is yours to press, Rémy Brunel,” said Desai quietly.
Holding her breath, Rémy stepped forward and hesitantly reached out a hand. The box was gleaming as if lit from inside, which she knew to be nonsense — it was merely the gold of its outer shell refracting the sun’s bright rays. The sphere felt warm to the touch, as if it had been woken, somehow, from a deep, deep sleep.
She pressed the button. It pushed in with a sharp click, and then — almost before Rémy could move her hand away — the sphere began to react. Each of the triangles that formed one half of the sphere flicked outward, until they stood open like the petals of a flower.
Inside was a compass. With trembling fingers, Rémy reached in and lifted it out.
{Chapter 11}
THE PUZZLE UNDONE
The others all moved closer to see. The compass seemed very old — a hand-painted dial set in a glass-faced gold case with two filigree hands pointing north and south that looked almost too delicate for their task. Rémy held the device in her hand, and as she did so, something on the dial began t
o move. A tiny flap opened and a fold of gold popped up through it. It didn’t seem to be affixed to anything, but instead wavered for a few seconds, whisking up and down the arc that represented north and south. Then it stopped, turned around on itself once, and began to unfurl. As they all watched, a third hand, smaller than the first two and even more delicate, unrolled out of itself like the frond of a new fern. It wriggled for a moment or two in its new state before setting firm.
“Cripes,” said J, after a moment of silence as they all continued to watch the compass, waiting to see if it would do anything else. “I ain’t never seen nothin’ like that.”
“Do you know what this is, Rémy?” Desai asked quietly.
Rémy shook her head, still staring at the compass in her hand, transfixed. “No, monsieur. Like J, I have never seen such a thing. I am sure that none of us have. Except maybe you, of course?”
Desai nodded and then, being careful not to touch the compass, pointed to the new hand. “You see this? This is your direction, Rémy. This is the direction you must follow.”
She looked up at him with a frown. “What do you mean?”
“You will find your truth — and possibly, with it, your twin brother — on this bearing. Moreover, you must follow it immediately, for the third arm will lose its direction as the sun sets on the day it is activated.” He paused and looked up at the sky, into which the new sun was gleaming joyfully. “You are lucky, Rémy Brunel. Today will last a long time.”
“But — wait,” said Rémy, her mind spinning. “I — I cannot follow it now. We — we must help you deal with the Sapphire Cutlass first.”
Desai smiled at her gently. “No, my dear girl, I do not believe that is your true course. If it were, the hand would point toward the mountain, would it not? And see here — it points to the southeast, which is very nearly in the opposite direction.”
“But — no,” said Rémy, still perplexed. “I cannot follow it, then. Not now.”
“If you don’t, you will lose your chance to know the truth.”
“I — I will take a note of the new heading, and follow it another time,” said Rémy, shrugging with a nonchalance she didn’t feel. Her stomach was churning, her heart beating in an unsteady patter. “D’accord? I have promised to help you, Desai, and Rémy Brunel does not abandon her promises so easily.”
Desai smiled again and reached out to take her arm in a firm but gentle grip. “There is a reason the heading only lasts for a day, Rémy. Tomorrow the truth — or at least where it is situated — will be different. If you do not follow it, you may never find it at all.”
“But — but I don’t even know if this is about my brother!” Rémy exclaimed, frustrated and infuriated, though she didn’t really know why. “It could be about anything!”
“Indeed, that could be true,” Desai said, a gentle smile still in his eyes. “But somehow, I think not. Boxes such as these are rare, Rémy, and to find them gifted even rarer. Be honest with me now. What do you think most about these days? What have you thought most about since you arrived here, in India, the place where you know you were conceived?”
Rémy couldn’t help looking at Thaddeus. He was watching her with eyes that, though they were shadowed with worry, were still full of the gentle reassurance she always saw there when she took the time to look. He smiled at her, and she wanted to say that she had spent most of her time thinking about him — which was almost true, or would have been if something else hadn’t always been lurking in the back of her mind.
“To find out about my family,” she said softly, still looking at Thaddeus. “To — to find out if I really do have a brother.”
“Quite,” said Desai, dropping his arm with another smile. “This is enough to tell me that the truth you seek — the truth that is indicated along that heading — is about exactly that.”
“You knew,” she said. “You knew what was going to be inside the puzzle box. Why would you have me open it now, when there are so many more things to worry about? How can I go and follow my own path when there is so much that needs to be done?”
“You imagine that these things are unconnected, Rémy Brunel,” Desai told her. “But you are the common thread that has run through this story from start to finish, and I cannot believe that your twin is not a similar part of the weft and weave. If we are nearing this tapestry’s completion, it seems to me that if you can find him, it is of as much importance to the pattern as anything else we may encounter from here on.”
“He’s right,” Thaddeus said softly, stepping closer. “After all, if you do have a brother and if he’s even half as wonderful as you are, Rémy Brunel — well, I for one would like him by my side in whatever fight may be coming.”
Rémy looked down at the compass, still resting patiently in her palm. “How far will I have to go?” she asked Desai, her voice rasping against her suddenly dry throat. “How long will it take?”
“I don’t know,” Desai told her. “These, too, are truths that will only be revealed along the way.”
“Take the airship,” J piped up. “You’ve sailed it yerself enough to know ’ow to handle ’er, Rémy. That’ll speed things up, eh?”
“I can’t do that — if everything you have told us is really so, Desai, you will need it, yes? You will need to be able to escape quickly.”
Desai shook his head. “Arriving by air will draw too much attention. We must use stealth from here on. Besides, Sahoj has seen it, has he not? He’ll be looking for it. Better that he does not see it coming. You can fly us as far as the farthest reaches of the valley and drop us there. That way we may even fool him a little — make him think we have contemplated entering the valley and turned back out of fear, as many a person has before. Any small advantage we can garner will be a help of incalculable worth.”
“But — but —” Rémy looked from one to the other, until her gaze rested on Thaddeus, who, with a smile, reached out to pull her into a soft embrace. Rémy turned her head so that it rested against his chest. The others moved away, leaving them to it.
For a few minutes they said nothing, only held each other. Then Thaddeus pulled back slightly and Rémy raised her head to look at him.
“You have to go,” he told her. “You know you do, Rémy.”
“I’d be leaving you again,” she murmured. “I promised myself last time that I would never do that again.”
“I told you — I’ll come with you. Whatever’s out there, Rémy, we’ll face it together.”
She shook her head. “You can’t come with me, Thaddeus. You heard what Desai said, about what could be waiting in that mountain. He will need all the help he can get — J and Dita won’t be enough, you know that. If I really am to go — then you must stay.”
Thaddeus thought for a moment, his eyes scanning the horizon over her head. Eventually he sighed and nodded. “You’re right, of course.”
“I wish I’d never opened the box,” Rémy said miserably. “I wish I’d left it to the raja, and good riddance. I don’t want to leave you. I don’t want to leave any of you, but you most of all, Thaddeus Rec.”
Thaddeus smiled and pressed a kiss to her forehead. “You’ll be back. You and I — we’re like that compass of yours,” he said, nodding to where she still held it in one hand. “You’re my north, Rémy, and I’m the arrow that points to you. We’ll always swing back toward each other in the end.”
He kissed her again, this time on the lips so that her words died away amid a blur of happiness tinged with worry and guilt. They parted after a moment, and Thaddeus rested his forehead against hers.
Eventually Rémy looked up at him, still hesitating even as the sun rose higher and higher on her back. As usual, time seemed to be running out, and she wondered how it could always be the case that, however old the universe was and however long it had existed, whenever something important had to be decided, it actually turned out there was n
o time at all.
“Go,” Thaddeus whispered. “There’s no choice to make, Rémy. Find this brother of yours and bring him back to fight with us.”
She nodded reluctantly, and then, before he had a chance to move away, pushed herself up on tiptoe and kissed him deeply. Thaddeus took her hand as they broke apart, turning to Desai, J, and Dita.
“Let’s go,” he said.
Desai nodded, striding forward. “It is the right decision, Rémy. The only decision, truly. But now I must ask you for a favor.”
“Of course,” said Rémy, “I will do anything I can.”
“I must ask you for the loan of your opal,” said Desai. “I know that it is precious — the only memento you have of your parents. But it is possible that if we are to defeat the Sapphire Cutlass, the stone may be able to help.”
Rémy put her hand to her neck, a reflex reaction returning her to an old habit she’d harbored for years. Until just a few months ago, the opal necklace given to her by her mother had been her constant companion, always hanging on a thin gold chain at her throat. But now, beneath her black shirt, her neck was bare.
“I’m so sorry, Desai, but I do not have it. I have not had it for months. I gave it to Claudette, so that she might speak to Amélie …”
Desai’s face clouded with fresh worry for a moment, before he dispelled it with a wide smile. “Ah, well. It was just a thought. Come, my friends, we must be about our business, and let Miss Brunel be about hers.”
Dita and J kicked dust across the remains of the fire as Thaddeus and Rémy readied the airship for flight. Rémy was at the controls as the ship rose into the air, turning her nose to head for the one patch of jungle that steadily refused to be lit by the sun — a valley so steeply banked and so densely packed with foliage that it gave off a darkness greater than that of the night they had so recently left behind.
The Sapphire Cutlass Page 7