by Joan Lennon
44
Bryn Wakes Up
It was hot. He felt horribly uncomfortable, as if he’d fallen asleep in an awkward position and forgotten to move. His mouth was dry and his eyes ached when he tried to prise them open.
‘Where am I?’ he croaked.
Someone rustled up from the foot of the bed.
‘Well, what do you know,’ said a familiar voice. ‘People actually do say that.’
‘Madlen?’
‘That’s me.’ She stood beside the bed, looking down at him.
She seemed different, but he was too muddled to think how. He blinked stupidly.
‘I’m under oath to fetch Serena the moment you stir,’ she continued. ‘So wait here. I mean it – don’t you dare go away again.’
She floated off. Go away again? Bryn thought. What’s that about? He could feel himself starting to drift towards sleep and was only dimly aware when a large woman suddenly appeared out of nowhere. She fussed him irritatingly, making him drink, and messing with his pillow, but she smelled quite nice, and before he could properly protest, he was asleep…
*
When he next woke, Cam and Madlen were both there in the room. They’d been ordered not to tire him out, apparently, but that didn’t stop them trying to fill him in on what had happened after the Cave.
It didn’t stop Madlen anyway. Cam seemed preoccupied and restless.
‘When we found you we thought you were dead!’ Madlen exclaimed. ‘You’d certainly bled enough!’
Bryn didn’t want to think about that. ‘But how did you know to come looking for me?’ he asked instead. ‘I mean, how did the dragons know the vent had been sealed?’
Madlen laughed.
‘That was so weird,’ she said. ‘You remember Dagrod complaining about that buzzing in her ears? You know – she mentioned it when we first arrived at the City, and she kept rubbing at her head and stuff?’
Bryn nodded.
‘Well,’ continued Madlen, ‘there we were, sitting around, worrying, and Dagrod and the Keeper were pacing up and down and it was all really tense but boring at the same time, you know? And then – the dragons suddenly froze. They just stopped, mid-pace, with these goopy expressions on their faces. And Cam said, “What’s wrong?” and they said, “It’s stopped! The noise has stopped! Can’t you hear it?” Which, if you think about it, is not a truly sensible question… Apparently, the tinnitus was how the dragons perceived the energy leak!’
Bryn stared at her.
‘They were hearing it?!’
‘Yeah – and you know what is even weirder? When you plugged the vent, the lights went out! I don’t mean all the lights, but the ones like the Aurora – you know? – all at once they weren’t there any more! And when I said, “Where’d the flickering lights go?” Dagrod said, “What flickering lights?”!’
‘They’d never seen them in the first place,’ said Cam, showing interest in the conversation for the first time. ‘We saw the radiation – but they heard it.’ It shook its head. ‘Just goes to show, doesn’t it.’
‘Just goes to show what?’ said Bryn.
Cam shrugged. ‘Dragons aren’t like people?’ it suggested, and lapsed back into moodiness.
‘Well, that’s profound,’ snorted Madlen.
Bryn leaned back against the pillows.
‘But… there’s another thing I don’t get… what am I doing here?’ He wrinkled his forehead. ‘It’s not like there aren’t any doctors on Kir.’
‘Take too long to get you to them,’ said Madlen.
‘Yeah. I guess. But how did we get here?!’
Madlen hooted and Cam started to turn red.
‘What a performance!’ she said. ‘You should have seen it, Bryn! Cam marched right up to the Keeper and demanded you be sent to the Holder palace on Dalrodia for immediate medical treatment, just like that, like, I don’t know, it simply expected to be obeyed. And it worked! The Keeper bustled off and got another map and – would you believe it? – there was a tunnel to here! Sealed, of course.’
‘A tunnel to another World?!’
‘All very top secret, apparently. Dagrod’s eyes got so big I swear they were going to fly off. Seems this tunnel dates back to before human times – “Pre-Infestation” as the dragons so elegantly put it. Anyway, they were sealing it up again almost before we’d got you inside and then, I don’t know, there was a sort of shift, and we were someplace else. Here, actually, only on a lower level. A deserted bit, but security is so tight…’ She looked embarrassed. ‘All I did was sneeze and a million alarms went off and there were these big hulking guys piling in. I think at first they thought we were invading animals, all covered in fur like that – and pretty stupid animals too, with an air temperature of about four hundred degrees!’
‘Did you know you talk in your sleep?’ Cam said to Bryn in the interests of changing the subject.
‘What a stupid question!’ Madlen scoffed. ‘How could he possibly know what he does when he’s asleep?’
Bryn ignored her.
‘I talk in my sleep?! Cool – what do I say?’
‘Mostly you talked about that.’ Cam pointed at the dragon claw.
It was on the small table beside his bed. He picked it up and stroked the smooth side of it with his thumb.
‘You know, I almost think I remember that – did you try and take it away or something?’
Madlen nodded.
‘I didn’t want to lose it,’ he continued. ‘It makes me feel better, even though… Kate was right. You just know. It’s almost like the Quest Object finds you, instead of the other way round.’
Madlen gave a half-gasp, half-squeak.
‘I knew it – I knew it!’ she squealed. ‘I told you that the claw was it – I told you!’ She turned to Cam, then stopped. ‘You’re still not convinced, are you.’
Bryn looked at it. ‘Well? Come on, what’s the trouble? Spit it out,’ he said.
Cam looked miserable. ‘Well… I feel like a poop, but… I can’t help wondering, just a bit, if maybe you’re thinking the claw’s the second Quest thing because… it’s all you’ve got. Sorry.’
Bryn thought for a minute.
‘Yeah, well, you are a poop, but –’ and he nodded at the claw in his hand – ‘this isn’t something you need to worry about. I don’t want to sound all pompous and mythic, but this is just something I know. It’s like it’s outside worry, like that bit of the London House, you know? It’s like it’s… it’s sitting in the middle of a sort of puddle of calm.’ He grinned. ‘Like a frog in a pond in the summertime… do you have frogs?’
Cam shrugged.
‘There are sand frogs. I don’t suppose they worry much.’
‘What a World!’ murmured Madlen, when suddenly Bryn yawned.
‘Sorry!’ he apologized. ‘No idea where that came from!’
‘I do!’ It was Serena, on cue. ‘Now then,’ she said to Bryn. ‘No need to look as grim as all that! I’ll be very careful, I promise.’ Serena sat on the bed and took his bandaged hand between her own. He gave her a weak smile, but she didn’t notice. She was paying attention to something else. For a long time she just sat there, breathing. Then, from nowhere, he felt a warmth in his hand that hadn’t been there before and a strange, slight shifting in his bones.
Serena sighed deeply. Her eyes came back into focus and she gave him a smile and a nod.
‘Right,’ she said, getting up to leave. ‘Now scamper off, you two, and let the boy slee –’
‘No,’ Bryn interrupted. ‘Wait, Serena, I… I need to know… my hand – is it going to be…?’
‘He’s an artist, you see,’ Madlen butted in. ‘It’s his drawing hand.’
Bryn closed his eyes for a moment, automatically mortified, but then he opened them again and nodded.
‘That’s right.’
Serena sat down again and looked directly at him.
‘It’s a fair question,’ she said, ‘and I’ll give you a fair answer. It was a bad
wound. I’d be lying if I told you otherwise. And it’ll be a long road to it being the way it was, and that’s the truth too. But… with care and careful exercise and plenty of rest and no drawing for a good long time to come –’
Bryn leaned over and kissed her on both cheeks.
‘Serena,’ he said solemnly, ‘I love you.’
Her blush was monumental.
‘Now, now – none of that! People will be talking about us!’
‘Let them!’ he declared.
45
Ivory
Cam was desperately worried, too worried to talk to the others. It could hardly bear to admit what it feared even to itself. But at some point soon the words would have to be said out loud.
Ivory – its mother, the Lady Holder of the whole World, the sure and certain centre of its entire life – Ivory had gone mad.
Everything that was happening pointed to it. What else could it be? The only other possible explanation was that she was evil – consciously, wilfully wicked – and that was inconceivable.
Wasn’t it?
It had started almost at once, Cam’s uneasiness about Ivory. The first chance it could get – after Serena had taken charge of Bryn, and Madlen had been settled into a guest room – Cam had dragged its mother away and poured it all out – all the things that had been happening, the unbalancing of the Worlds, the Quest, its longing for Ivory and home… And Ivory had done everything right. She’d hugged Cam and called it Little Lizard, just as she used to, and exclaimed and gone ‘Ah!’ in all the right places, and it had been everything Cam had been missing and yet, in the end, it felt… unsatisfied.
Unsatisfied and grumpy, and aware of being unreasonable as well.
She’d noticed, of course. Cam had never been able to hide anything from her. And in its turn, it could see she was hurt.
‘You need to rest now,’ was all she’d said, though. And tomorrow I’ve got something to show you.’
And, even then, it felt wrong. Even then.
She’d come to Cam’s room early with good news about Bryn.
‘Serena insists he’s out of danger – and she’s very proud of you for getting him to her so quickly!’ She smiled. Cam could smell the perfume she always wore, cool and warm at the same time. ‘Will you come with me? I’ve something I want you to see.’
As it had stood up to follow her, she’d put a hand on its shoulder.
‘Cam,’ she’d said, ‘I don’t want you to think that no one but you is aware of what’s been happening – that there’s no one else trying to make things right. It’s too much, and you’re too young, and the fate of the Worlds is too heavy a burden for children to shoulder alone.’
‘I’m not as young as I was,’ said Cam a little huskily.
‘No. Of course not. But I want you to know that adults have been engaged as well!’
She’d let it go then and led the way into the body of the cliff. Cam thought it knew every nook and cranny – until they came to a door that had never been there before.
Ivory placed her palm against the access panel. Then she looked across at Cam.
‘You know, I never had the heart to take you off the access program,’ she said with a sad sort of smile.
Cam was startled – then it remembered that, to Ivory, it had been away for ten long years.
She was already moving off.
‘Ivory, wait – tell me where we’re going!’
She slowed, but didn’t turn her head. When she spoke, her words had an almost mechanical quality to them, as if she were repeating something learned by rote.
‘I’m taking you to see the Drill Head. We’re attempting to access the Water Table. I believe that is what will save the World.’
Simple words, but they caused Cam to stop short and grab Ivory’s arm.
‘What are you talking about?!’ It could barely speak. ‘Everybody knows that’s suicide! Everybody knows once you tap the base Water Table, you’d be destabilizing the entire geology of the World… The earthquakes! You’re already doing it! I heard about a tremor while we were at the London House – out Tantalan way – we’re having earthquakes because you’ve already destabilized…’
It let go of her and stepped away until it was backed against the wall.
‘But… what about the Desalination Plan? The Cloud Cropping idea? Artificial water production? None of them worked? You’ve ditched them all… already?!’
Ivory just looked at it.
‘You forget how long you’ve been away, Cam. Below a certain level of surface water, desalination would have been pointless – farming rain clouds was also an idea that assumed a certain level of moisture to seed from… And the dreams have all pointed explicitly away from every route but one. The Water Table. Drilling began not long after you left us.’
‘You had a dream that told you to drill?’
‘More clearly than you can imagine! And not just one!’ Ivory’s pale cheeks were flushed. Cam hadn’t seen her so excited in a long time. She looked almost… frantic.
And it was all so wrong. Dreams weren’t supposed to be clear, not at first glance, and they did not give specific instructions! True dreams made you work for their meaning; it took years of training on top of a natural aptitude; true dreams…
In spite of the heat, Cam shivered.
‘Tell me about it,’ it said hoarsely.
Ivory’s smile was a little tremulous.
‘You’ve no idea how good it is to hear somebody say that!’ she said. ‘It’s been so long since I’ve been able to discuss things with anyone. Not really since your father died. Before you left, I was holding on, waiting for you to be ready to train, hoping your father’s blood would…’
Cam put its hand on her arm again, gently this time.
‘There’s not time for all that now, is there,’ it said. ‘Everything’s different. You’ve just got me as I am.’
Her smile was heartbreakingly sad. ‘I’ve missed you badly all these years, Camlet. And I’ll tell you something I’m not proud of – I’ve hated that woman for having you when I didn’t.’ She laughed, a dry sound. ‘Perhaps that’s why I’ve got so old…’
But Cam wasn’t ready to talk about Kate. One thing at a time, it thought. I can do this – I can get this clear… I have to get this clear.
‘How did you know where to dig?’ it asked.
Ivory shook herself, getting a grip.
‘The information was all there,’ she said more firmly, ‘but so buried in the archives I would never have ordinarily stumbled on it.’ Ivory shook her head in wonder. ‘If the computer hadn’t crashed when it did… it was when I was reinstalling from the back-ups that this file title just leapt out at me. Geological Survey Chart of Fault Access to Subterranean/Base Waterbed. Then, of course, it was gone. I couldn’t believe I’d actually seen it at first – and it took ages to stop the installation, scroll back, afraid I’d gone too far, not gone far enough… but there it was. Who knows how long it had been there, squirrelled away in the computer’s memory, completely forgotten by us. Makes you wonder what other treasures we have without knowing!’
‘Makes you wonder,’ Cam repeated. There must be another explanation – the words kept circling round its brain –There must be another explanation…
The air was getting hotter as the tunnel sloped deeper down under the cliff. Cam wiped a sleeve across its face. Ivory noticed the gesture.
‘The workers suffer. We’ve had to improvise individual air filters for them to wear, since the quality’s so bad, but there’s been no efficient way to combat the increased heat. I don’t remember how many degrees per metre down, but –’
‘What’s that noise?!’ Cam interrupted. The clamour had been growing steadily as she was speaking.
‘That’s the Drill Head. It’s quite loud.’
They turned a corner and there it was – a cavern that pulsed with the noise of machinery at full throttle, men shouting to be heard, dollies of slag from the shaft trundling across the l
ittered stone floor to a lift that disappeared through another shaft in the roof, to be dumped on the surface far above. Metal – stone – dust – heat – battering at what was only flesh and blood, an unequal struggle –
‘It’s awful!’ Cam bleated inadequately, but Ivory was already striding ahead to meet the Foreman and didn’t hear.
She had almost reached him when a horrible claxon began to sound, cutting through the clamour with a new note of panic and despair. The Foreman swung away, heading for a structure in the centre of the area – he and every other soul in the place.
‘An accident!’ shouted a man Cam grabbed in passing. ‘There’s been another accident down the shaft!’
Cam and Ivory stood on the outskirts of the crowd. All work on the site had been abandoned and, in the comparative quiet, they could clearly hear the lift labouring up the shaft towards them.
The sound stopped and everyone rushed forward to drag open the doors. The blast of heat and stink made Cam reel even at that distance, but the workmen didn’t appear to notice. They pulled the survivors out of the lift and helped them to the medical stations with practised efficiency. The last man had to be carried. His friend tried to follow him, but came to a trembling standstill at the edge of the crowd and stood there swaying, bewildered. Ivory went to him at once and he stared at her, as if not sure of what he was seeing.
‘The cooling system broke down again. He stayed behind to secure the dig face.’ The man’s whole body was shaking uncontrollably. ‘He made us go back to the lift first and he stayed behind. I should have stayed but… I was… I couldn’t…’
Ivory took his filthy hands into hers and looked into his eyes.
‘Go and rest,’ she said. ‘You’re not afraid. You didn’t do anything wrong. The heat sickness is speaking, not you.’
She gestured to one of the workmen and he took the man from her with great gentleness. She didn’t move. But before Cam could speak to her, the Foreman had come back.
‘I’m sorry you had to see that, Lady,’ he said, wiping his face and looking anxious.
Ivory shook her head.