Maddigan's Fantasia (10 page)

‘Give me Jewel …’ Eden began again, and Timon interrupted him.

‘No way, Eden. We’re not losing each other in this town. It’s a real pain, carrying a baby, but I’ve got the sling to carry her in. When we get back to the Fantasia I’ll rig up some sort of sling for you too. Then when Goneril’s busy we can take turns. And Garland’s right. Let’s go to this southern wall as quickly as we can. Garland – you know the way.’

‘More or less,’ Garland said, trying not to sound too doubtful.

Then she set off with the boys at her heels, weaving her way through busy streets, trying to stay alert and to watch out for exemption guards, trying not to be distracted by glassy shop windows and trying above all to remember just how the jigsaw of Gramth worked. South! But were they really going south? When you have turned around and around a few times in a strange place it is hard to be sure of directions.

And then she felt it once more – that dizzy quivering as if a note of strange music, being played in her ear, and going through her like a silver sword. Garland also felt herself beginning to tremble a little. By now she knew what these strange feelings meant. She was going to see the silver girl. So she stopped and stood stubbornly still, staring around her, and there –
there
– beyond a crowd of jostling people, the silver girl was taking form as strange and vague as ever, not quite real, yet
utterly inescapable. There was the silver girl, pointing, as she always did, at something she wanted Garland to see. Garland obediently looked in the direction in which that arrow of a finger was aiming itself, and saw a corner.

‘This way!’ she said, perfectly sure of herself at last. As they approached the corner the silver girl’s waving changed into something else. She was still pointing with one hand and yet holding up the other.
That is the way
, she was saying.
But be careful!

‘Wait!’ said Garland.

‘What? Why?’ asked Timon and Eden on top of one another.

‘We have to be careful,’ said Garland, slowing down yet still sidling to the corner. It was somehow chilling to think she might have to walk right through the silver girl, but like a
well-behaved
ghost the girl began to fade as Garland walked sternly towards her, then disappeared. No more silver! No more ghost!

It was just as well she had been warned. When they looked, very carefully, around the corner they saw two guards with guns and power rods, patrolling a wall. ‘Sector Four’ said a sign on the wall behind them.

‘How did you know?’ Timon asked, staring at her curiously.

‘Lucky guess!’ said Garland. ‘But Chena wouldn’t bring Tarq anywhere near those guards, would she?’

Somewhere perhaps a street away a bell rang and one of the guards straightened, put his rod of office across his shoulder and marched away in the shadow of the wall, and out of sight.

‘They might have got her already,’ said Eden. ‘What do we do?’

The bell must have been a summons of some kind. The second guard was now marching after the first, and the children were able to see they had been guarding a space set around with posts and chains … and beyond this space, set into the wall, was the outline of something like a door – a door with a grille.
It reminded Garland of something she had seen in Solis – that city of unexpected wonders.

‘Hey!’ she said. ‘I think – I think it’s one of those … those little rooms that go up and down. An – an elevator! A lift! They were guarding the door of a lift!’

Still tingling and quivering Garland immediately walked towards that enclosed space, and the outlined door behind it.

‘How did you know where to look?’ asked Eden.

‘Hey!’ Garland said, hearing a little triumph echoing in her voice, ‘you’ve got your sort of mysteriousness but I’ve got my own mysteriousness too. I’m sure – I’m pretty sure – that Lilith might have been taken down in this elevator. Don’t ask me how I know. But I feel sure I do know. Let’s go. Quickly!’

Eden groaned. ‘What’s wrong?’ Garland asked.

‘He gets funny going underground, or being shut in,’ said Timon. ‘Some people do. It’s called claustrophobia. But I’ll come with you. We’ll check it out.’

‘I’ll hide up here,’ Eden said, with a sigh. ‘Give me Jewel and give me that sling. I’ll carry her.’

‘No one needs to come with me,’ Garland said, though she was pleased when Timon passed Jewel back to Eden, unhooked himself from the sling and gave that to Eden too. Then he moved up beside her. They stood side by side, pretending to look around Gramth, waiting for the right moment – that moment when no one was watching or passing by.

‘Now you wait for us. Hide! And watch out for those guards. We won’t be long,’ Garland said to Eden, but he shook his head.

‘You don’t know whether you’ll be long or not,’ he replied. She could hear a trace of desolation in his voice, probably because his older brother was about to vanish down in a lift that, for all they knew, might go down into the very heart of the world.

‘We’ll find Lilith – if she’s there, that is,’ said Timon, doing his best to reassure Eden. ‘And anyway – you’re the one that can come and go. Mostly I just skid along after you … waiting, waiting. Your turn to wait for me.’ None of this seemed to
comfort
Eden in any way.

Garland pressed the button beside the door and the door slid sideways.

‘Right! It
is
a lift!’ she cried softly and triumphantly.

‘Now!’ said Garland, stepping into the lift and studying the buttons and levers on the control board. ‘Look! This button has an arrow pointing down. Do you think …’

‘Give it a go,’ said Timon. ‘After all, it can’t go up unless it’s able to fly in some way. There’s nowhere for it to go up to.’

‘I think this closes the doors,’ said Garland, pressing a green button, and was gratified when the doors closed obediently, shutting out Jewel and Eden who had been staring in at them a little vaguely, as if the space inside the lift were full of dreams that only he could see.

Down! Down! Down!

‘It goes on forever,’ said Garland impatiently.

As she spoke the lift jolted to a stop. Garland turned, wondering how she was going to find the right button there in the gloom, but the door hissed at her then opened under its own steam.

‘Barrels!’ exclaimed Timon, and he was right. Barrel upon barrel upon barrel. ‘Rails,’ he added a moment later. Garland thought she could hear in his voice that he was frowning in the dark. ‘Too small for train rails,’ he continued; and then a moment later said, ‘Cart rails of some sort!’

‘It’s a sort of crossroads place,’ Garland added, half
whispering
.

They were standing in a passage. To their right a row of lamps wound away into the darkness, weak light sifting into the air around them. They could make out other tunnels,
branching
off from the main tunnel, and gaping at them greedily with wide black mouths.

‘There’s something coming,’ said Garland, laying a hand on Timon’s arm, and they both shuffled an uncertain dance into the shadows just before a cart, empty perhaps, or filled with something impossible to recognize, came rattling down the tracks towards them. The rattle became an embracing roar, as
the sound swept around them … over them … and then moved away, growing softer with distance.

‘Let’s follow it,’ Garland said. ‘It must be going somewhere.’

‘And I think there’s stronger light in that direction,’ Timon agreed. ‘So let’s make for the light. If Lilith
did
come down here that’s probably what
she
did. Mind you, it’s hard to believe she did come down here. This isn’t a Lilith kind of place. No lollies!’

‘She did,’ Garland replied, trusting that silver girl. ‘I’m sure she did. Maybe she was
brought
here.’

As she said this they heard – they actually heard – in the dark distance a protesting voice – Lilith’s voice. It was almost as if she was shouting to them through the night of the tunnels.

‘I’m not one of you. I’m part of Maddigan’s Fantasia,’ she was screaming.

‘See? There she is,’ said Garland a little smugly. ‘Come on.’

It was not hard to find a way once you were used to the
twilight
. The line of lights reflected on the rails, and those rails, gleaming a little in the semi-darkness, seemed determined to lead them on.

‘How much further?’ whispered Garland, and was sorry she had asked. Her whisper, soft though it was, immediately echoed in a peculiar way, becoming a whole chorus of whispers racing ahead of them only to dive back in on them from every direction. Then, almost as if she had heard that echoing whisper, they heard Lilith begin screaming again, but much closer this time, and much more distinctly.

‘Ask my dad! Ask Maddie! Ask anyone!’

This time the chorus of echoes shrieked around them, and, as it did so, they edged out into a huge cavern, its floor
scribbled
with rails, all twisting across one another like eels tipped out of a basket. Looming up behind the scribble, they made out an indistinct castle of square storage tanks, one on top of
another, with shadowy figures moving backwards and forwards in front of it.

‘Please!’ screamed Lilith really close at hand now, and then a wild wailing filled the air.

‘Lilith!’ muttered Garland. ‘I’d know that grizzling anywhere. This way.’

‘This place …’ said Timon, hesitating and looking around, ‘it’s a mine of some kind. Isn’t it? But what are they mining down here? It looks like oil doesn’t it? What’s that sound?’

As he said this, a great many small blurred figures came stumbling towards them out of a tunnel to the right. It was almost as if they were being surrounded by a colony of mining trolls. But the trolls took shape as they came towards the centre of the cavern, and became a group of children, panting and straining, pulling a loaded cart along its rails. To their horror Garland and Timon could clearly see that each child was linked to the next by a large dragging chain. Looming behind them marched the obscure figures of two guards, one looking towards Garland and Timon without seeming to see them, while the other struggled with a small but furious figure – Lilith – arms and legs shooting out in all directions.

‘What can we do?’ Garland breathed.

‘Just watch for a moment,’ Timon breathed back. ‘We’ll try to get the hang of what’s happening.’

As he spoke one of the guards said something to the other. They both laughed. Then, picking up one of the lamps, the first guard came walking straight towards them. Garland caught her breath, certain they had been seen, but the man turned off into a small passage she had not noticed until now. And as he swung into this passage, Garland noticed something else … heard something too. He had a big ring of keys
jangling
at his belt. Immediately she glanced over at the children and believed she could make out the padlocks that kept those
chains fastened around them. ‘Keys!’ she said to Timon.

But there in the dark he was standing up, staring at the remaining guard, freezing if it seemed the guard might turn to look in their direction. Garland stood too. Gently! Gently! There must not be the slightest sound.

‘I’m a Fantasia girl,’ Lilith was howling. ‘You’ll get into trouble for this.’

However, she was sounding less sure of herself – more frightened. Garland thought she might even be crying. And then Garland was following Timon – at least she thought she was. He was making for the faint glow of lamplight edging into that small passage and Garland picked her way after him, carefully feeling for any loose stones before she put her foot down.

Suddenly the walls seemed to peel back and, abruptly, she found herself in a rocky chamber, moss growing on its uneven walls. And there was the guard, standing still, leaning back a little, and peeing against the wall in a relaxed fashion. And there was Timon, arm raised, a rock in his hand. It was hard not to shout out and warn the guard, but even if she had been silly enough to do this, Garland would have been too late. Timon banged the rock down, and the guard staggered a step or two and then tumbled sideways. Timon leaped in, tugging first at the bunch of keys hanging at his belt, and then at the thin rope that hung beside them.

‘Help me,’ he ordered Garland urgently. ‘Have you got a handkerchief or anything? A big one?’

Garland patted her pockets.

‘Nothing big. But he’s got a sort of scarf around his neck,’ she said, falling on her knees beside the fallen man, and
struggling
with the knot of the scarf. She knew just what Timon had in mind, and so, as Timon tied the man’s hands and feet together, she pushed moss into his mouth and then tied the scarf tightly around it, safely gagging him.

‘Bound and gagged,’ said Timon, holding up the keys. ‘Hey! We’re quite team aren’t we?’

‘Quickly!’ Garland said softly. ‘No mucking about.’

And, side by side, they slid back down the passage, trying not to rattle the keys, and leaving the gagged guard beginning to wake and twist on the stones behind them.

Back in the main cavern again from somewhere along the gleaming line of the rail there was the sound of metal falling.

The guard who was standing over Lilith turned his head.

‘Trouble!’ he said. ‘They will do it.’ There was a further
rattling
and collapsing. The guard looked down at Lilith.

‘Well,’ he said. ‘Wait for me. Not that you have any choice.’ And he left her lying there, kicking her chained feet against the wall.

‘You wait!’ she was shouting. ‘You just wait. I’ll
get you
.’ She shouted it over and over again although there was no way in which she could break free from the chains.

Then suddenly there was a soft thud beside her – a whisper in the air. Garland was kneeling on one side of her, Timon was standing on the other. Garland had a finger across her lips.
Shhh!

Lilith stared as if she could scarcely believe what she was seeing.

‘It is us,’ muttered Garland, though Lilith could easily see who it was. Then she held the keys up and rattled them very softly.

‘Pigs!’ shouted a distant voice. ‘Mongrels!’

‘Can’t be Lilith this time,’ said Timon.

‘It’s that girl Chena … the one we were supposed to meet by the wall,’ Garland said despairingly. ‘They must have caught her … and her brother.’

‘Beastly servants of oppression,’ the faraway Chena was yelling.

There in the shadows Garland took a breath. No use trying
to fit keys into a padlock if your hand kept shaking.

‘The people will rise up,’ Chena was screaming in the distance. The guards were roaring back.

‘The people will do as they’re told,’ one of them yelled.

‘This is the right key,’ said Garland. She turned it. There was a faint click. The chains fell away and Lilith leapt to her feet.

‘Hey! This way,’ Garland said, grabbing her and spinning her around. ‘Look! Along here. Follow Timon.’

They set off in single file. Along that tunnel on their left they heard a voice cry out in pain. Chena was screaming, and suddenly Timon came to a standstill.

‘Give me those keys,’ he said to Garland. ‘Listen.’ They could hear voices, faint but despairing.

‘I just can’t – can’t walk away and leave those kids here.’

‘But we can’t save them all,’ Garland argued. ‘We could get trapped down here ourselves. And then the Fantasia would have to stay in Gramth forever (because they wouldn’t move on without us) and the converter would never get back to Solis and – I don’t know – the Remaking would probably unmake itself.’ It seemed to Garland as she said all this that the whole future of the world was depending on her. ‘Isn’t that more important? I mean we could come back and save them later.’

‘You go on,’ said Timon. ‘Take Lilith with you and get up to the surface. Get to Newton. Bargain for the converter and then …’

‘I’m not leaving you down here,’ Garland argued obstinately. She listened to those faint cries and knew exactly what Timon was feeling. The desolation of the chained children was something they could not walk away from. ‘Oh all right,’ she said, ‘let’s go back.’

‘No way!’ moaned Lilith. ‘Don’t leave me.’

‘We won’t be long,’ Timon said, though he could not possibly be sure of this. ‘We’ll be back for you soon. But just keep your great big mouth shut tight, or they’ll quickly find out where you are.’

‘Don’t you dare sing,’ Garland said, making a joke which Lilith did not enjoy.

And then, like blacker shadows in a world of shadow, Timon and Garland were gone, leaving Lilith waiting alone in the dark, teeth clenched, lips folded hard against each other, trying not to whimper.

There was certainly no chance that she might sing, even to raise her own spirits.

‘Along here – I think,’ Timon whispered. ‘It’s a bit hard to be sure. Listen?’

But he was right. An odd, rhythmic thudding trembled in the rocks below them, coming up through the soles of their boots and tingling in their feet. The tunnel Timon had chosen was leading to yet another of those lighted caves. The rocky roof, curving over their head was rough and low. Very few adults could have stood upright. Even Timon had to stoop a little, and Garland put one hand up to the rocks above anxious not to bang her head. They crept to the edge of that circle of light and found themselves looking in at more children,
blackened
and weary, linked to one another by long chains, bent over with the weight of the pickaxes with which they chipped at the walls around them. There was Tarq, and there, standing as tall as possible, was Chena.

Garland watched her throw back her shoulders, stretch herself and then lean back obstinately against the rocky wall.

‘I’m not going to work for them! I’m not!’ she cried to Tarq, who was hitting rather feebly at rocks which leapt mockingly away from his pickaxe rather than actually breaking.

‘They’ll beat you,’ Garland heard him say.

‘They can
kill
me,’ she cried defiantly. ‘I’m not working for them.’

‘They might beat
me
,’ said Tarq fearfully, and even in the shadows Garland could see Chena’s expression change. And now Garland found herself moving forward beside Timon, hissing like a shadow given its own shadowy voice.

‘It’s us!’ she heard herself saying. ‘
Shhhh!
It’s us. Look, we’ve got the keys.’

‘You!’ Chena hissed back. ‘How did you get here? Did they catch you too?’

But Timon was already bending over the locks, squinting downwards and struggling yet again to find the right key. Not the first one … not the second … not the third. Garland could hear the keys tinkling against one another and Timon
breathing
hard as he concentrated.

Suddenly someone shouted out behind them. The words came rolling and echoing out of nowhere.

‘Man down! Man down!’

‘They’ve found the guard,’ Timon muttered, and as he said this the key he was trying out turned smoothly, the lock snapped open and the chains fell away from Chena.

‘Get out!’ Chena said. ‘They’ll get you next.’

But Timon, having found the right key was already unlocking Tarq’s chains.

‘Man down!’ howled the voice out in the dark.

‘Here!’ said Chena. ‘You take Tarq and run for it. Give me the keys and I’ll try and free the others.’

And she snatched the ring of keys from Timon just as a group of guards in their blue uniforms, flourishing clubs and torches came into sight on the far side of the circle of light.

Garland ran towards the mouth of the tunnel. She hadn’t asked for this, but all the same she knew it was her turn to be
heroic. Those guards just had to be distracted and led away.

She danced and waved her arms.

‘Hey! Over here! You stupid or something?’

‘Good luck,’ Timon whispered to Chena. Then pulling Tarq behind him, Timon joined Garland and they made off down the tunnel, hearing the guards coming after them, feeling the pounding of their feet beating down on the rocks as they scrambled over them.

‘Faster!’ panted Timon.