Starlight's Edge (17 page)

“Don't be afraid,” David told him as he unlocked the collar and tossed it into a pile of street rubbish. He glanced at Zee. “This is what you intended to do, isn't it?”

“Of course.”

David turned back to Arrius. “Promise us that you will never put that on another human being. Or anything like it.”

The boy nodded.

“Now, Arrius,” Zee said, “do you know where the path to the sea is? A place where boats go out from? It can't be far away.”

“It isn't,” Arrius answered. “I've taken it many times on errands for my master. I can walk there and back in less than two hours.”

“Good.” Zee took his hand and put five diamonds in it. “Do you know what these are?”

“Money?”

“No—more valuable than money, so guard them carefully and spend them only if you must. Take the path to the sea and do not come back. Run all the way, if you can. People will be launching boats. Use one of the diamonds for your passage and travel as far away from this place as you can, as fast as you can.”

“Then what?” Arrius asked.

“Then you are free to make your way in the world. Use the diamonds well, become a wealthy man and do good for others, for you belong to no one but yourself now. But hurry, Arrius. You do not have much time.”

Arrius ran. For the rest of his long life, he would tell everyone of the day he met a god who freed him from his slave collar and a goddess who divined his future.

*   *   *

“What did I tell you?” David asked as Zee stepped into the atrium of the villa he had brought her to near the city's southern wall.

Zee turned slowly to take in the large, open space. There was a square shallow pool in the center, directly below an open square in the roof through which rain could fall. Arched doorways led to more rooms, and the central line of the house flowed to a columned porch in the back. “Remind you of any place?”

Zee nodded. The floor plan was oddly like David's parents' house, only grander. And far more colorful. A statue in the center of the pool, of a water nymph with an urn on her hip, was not the gray marble Zee had seen in books but was brightly painted, with blushing cheeks, wide brown eyes, and a sea-green dress falling off one pink shoulder. The floor bordering the pool was paved with tiny, diamond-shaped tiles in alternating blue and white. The walls were saffron colored, trimmed in deep crimson. A couch shaped like a wave, with no back but a bolster at one end, was covered in plain beige fabric, but the throw left lying on top of it was lilac colored, with a border of silver embroidery.

“Someone important must live here,” Zee said nervously.

“Someone important did. But I saw the whole family leave yesterday, when the tremors increased. I'd say it's pretty much ours for the duration. They even left food behind.”

Zee was about to ask what sort of food it was when her computer began to chirp. She opened it immediately, and though the screen was still pale from the huge energy drain, she made out the words.

We've won. That computer is no more.

Then the screen went dark. Lorna might be no more, but neither was this computer. Tears slid from Zee's eyes. She felt as if she'd lost a friend. Even though she would restore the computer if she ever got back to New Earth, for now her friend was gone.

“What's wrong, Zee?”

Zee drew him down onto the couch beside her and told him everything that had happened since she'd gotten to Pompeii, and everything that she'd learned or figured out. It took all the resolve she had to tell him that Paul had purposely sent the wrong coordinates, then ordered Lorna to overwrite David's computer.

“He sent you the wrong coordinates on purpose, David. He meant for you never to leave here,” she concluded. “I know you've always looked up to Paul, but there's something wrong with him. I've felt it from the first night I met him. I think he messed with the nano storage at your parents' house that time we were almost dematerialized in the garden, and I'm pretty sure it was Paul who messed with my wingchute.”

David dropped his head into his hands. Zee heard a low groan. “I've suspected something was off with Paul for a while, I think. But I kept telling myself it was time lag or the stress of his last mission or the stress of getting ready for
this
mission. And it almost got you killed. If only I'd said something.” When he looked up, his eyes were deep with guilt and sorrow. “But he's still my brother. I have to go get him, Zee. I have to at least try.”

“I know you do.” Her voice was quiet. “I'll come with you.”

“You can't. It's too dangerous.”

“I'm not afraid of Paul.”

“I know you aren't, but that's not the problem. This is.” He held up a disk the size of his palm. When he touched it in the center, it opened like an upside-down umbrella. “Personal human fax. Black-book op, designed by Mia for emergencies like this one. Takes longer and hurts more, but it works. I'm thinking you didn't bring one with you.”

“I didn't know they existed,” Zee said, Mia annoyed that hadn't mentioned it to her.

“So I'm going to send you home, then go to Paul.”

“I'm not leaving you here,” Zee said. “No matter what happens, I won't go back without you.”

“And I won't leave you here alone.”

“I meant it, David. I'm not going back without you. I'll wait here until you get back with Paul. Then we can all go home together. So—” She was about to say more but saw something flicker out of the corner of her eye and glanced at David's h-fax.

“It looks,” she said, trying to keep the panic out of her voice, “like neither of us may be going anywhere. Is that a power indicator panel?”

The numbers were dropping quickly, almost a free-fall. With both of their computers dead, her missing cube, and no transfer capabilities, they were stranded.

David followed her glance. “Damn,” he said, snapping the device closed to save whatever power was left. “That's been happening ever since I got here. Scrambles, energy drains. That's what I thought was wrong with my computer, when I couldn't access it. Now I think it has something to do with the volcano. Demagnetization due to a concentration of heavy metal in the lava that's pumping its way to the surface, something like that.”

For the first time, Zee was truly frightened. “What are we going to do?”

“A transfusion.”

“What?”

“Look, we've got two dead computers, but they'll still have a bit of juice left. It's not enough to turn them on, but there's still some energy there. And my cube. I'm going to rig up an energy transfer. Drain all the energy from them and feed it to the h-fax.”

He was already at work, pulling a cable out of the rough knapsack he'd been carrying, along with his dead computer.

She let him work in silence. No one had to remind either of them that the clock was running out. While he worked, she looked around the room. There were so many lovely objects in it. Rock crystal goblets carved by hand, graceful vases, an inkwell of black obsidian with an amethyst stopper. It made her sad to think of it all being buried or destroyed, and it made her sad to think of the family who would never see their home again.

“The good news,” David said, “is that it looks like I can get enough juice for a full recharge.”

“And the bad news?”

“The bad news is it's going to take about twelve hours, and it's already three in the afternoon.”

Time. Neither of them knew exactly what day or time the volcano exploded, but both realized it would be soon.

“Twelve hours,” Zee echoed.

David took her hand and pulled her to him. “Let's make the most of it,” he whispered into her hair. Then he grinned and put on what was supposed to be a butler's accent. “May I show milady around her new house?”

They wandered from room to room, inspecting everything and speculating about the people who'd lived there. Zee was surprised at how modern the place felt, the layout of the rooms, the children's dolls and toy soldiers, a razor that David said he'd shaved with that morning so he wouldn't look like a thief. In a room that was clearly used by a woman, Zee found a casket of small stoppered bottles, each with a different scented oil inside. She identified cinnamon, rose, and orange, but there were others she couldn't guess.

David had his arm around her waist and drew her through the house to the portico at the rear.

“I saved the best for last,” he said.

Zee looked out on a vista that descended in graceful terraces. Ornamental trees, pruned to large green spheres at the top, marched in perfect precision down the terraces, and when the terraces stopped and flattened into a wide, level sweep, there was a large sunken pool, its bottom a tiled mosaic of fanciful fish, lobster, squid, and an octopus.

“How about a swim before dinner?” David asked, his eyes sparkling in the late-afternoon light. “The water's clean—I'm pretty sure it's spring fed.”

He pulled off his dusty tunic and sandals, even his underwear, and jumped in. She hesitated only for a minute, then took off everything she was wearing and followed him.

They swam and played like porpoises until the sun began casting chilly shadows. “Hey.” She laughed, swimming up to him with a splash. “Didn't you say there was food here? Shouldn't you be making my dinner?”

He put a hand on each of her shoulders and pulled her toward him. They rested their foreheads one against the other and floated together in a long, perfect kiss. “When I've caught such a glorious mermaid? How could I possibly leave?”

They tried to continue the kiss, but the pool was deep, over their heads, and neither could get any traction. Zee watched him climb out of the pool, the water shining and skittering off his back, his muscles smooth and long under his skin. Men called women beautiful all the time, but Zee thought she'd never seen a man as beautiful as David was at that moment.

*   *   *

The dinner, Zee thought, would have sent Marc into fits of delight. There was wine and bread, olive oil to dip the bread in, cheese, and a plate piled with pears, figs, grapes, and two roasted chickens, their skins crisp and speckled with herbs. David said the chickens were still warm from the spit when he entered the house, and the platters of bread and fruit were already on the table.

“As if the family was just getting ready to eat, then fled, probably when that second roller hit.”

Their mood changed as the sun set. Not sad, exactly, Zee thought, but somber. Neither of them laughed or joked. Each distant rumble or trembling of the ground reminded them of what was to come.

Finally David said, “I guess we should try to get some sleep.”

Zee nodded but knew him well enough to understand he would plan not to sleep at all. He would slip away the minute the energy transfer was complete, hoping not to wake her for the agony of a final good-bye.

“I need to show you something first, though,” he said. “It's important.”

He picked up one of the oil lamps and led her through a room that appeared to be a kitchen, then down some steps into a cellar. He opened a door that led into a smaller room. The room was lined with shelves and on the shelves were baskets of fruit and eggs and crocks of milk and cheese. A cleaned pig carcass hung from the ceiling, ready for the spit. The room was unbelievably chilly.

“A refrigerator?” Zee asked. “They had
refrigeration
?”

“More than that,” David said. “Breathe deep.”

Zee did and felt something. Cool air sweeping across her cheeks and moving through her lungs.

“Fresh air,” David explained. “There must be a huge cavern near here, with enough breaks in the rock to let the air flow in here. Listen, Zee. I'm going to find Paul and get back here as quickly as I can. This is the safest place I could find, on the south side of the city, the farthest from the volcano. But if the eruption starts before I get back and the air gets too bad to breathe, come down here. The air should stay breathable here for a long time. And don't come out looking for me. No matter what. Promise?”

Zee nodded, but they both knew she was probably lying.

*   *   *

They picked the grandest of the bedrooms, one with frescoed panels on the walls and a vaulted ceiling. There was a sleeping alcove at the end of the room, with a wide bed beneath a shuttered window. When Zee touched the sheets, they felt impossibly soft. They were lighter weight than the sheets she was familiar with, almost translucent.

David found a lapis lazuli flask filled with herb-spiced wine. He poured them both a glass from it. “I'm going to remember this when we get home,” he said, “and recommend the four-star hotel of the House of Lucius Gallus, the merchant. Maybe we can redo our apartment in this style.”

“Don't,” she said.

“Don't what?”

“Let's not pretend we'll get back for sure. We both know the odds are we won't, or that one of us won't. I don't want to pretend.”

“Okay, Zee.”

David was standing on the other side of the bed, pulling his tunic off. Zee untied her belt and her dress fanned around her. Slowly, deliberately, she raised her hand to her shoulder and unpinned one side, then the other, and her dress fell to the ground. She walked to his side of the bed and laid her head against his chest.

“I want this night to last forever,” she whispered, her lips teasing his chest. “I want this night to make up for all the nights we might not get to live.”

She felt closer to him than she ever had before. It was different from anything she'd ever known, even different from the joy of being with him for the first time. She'd never thought he would be so gentle, or that she would be so wild, so full of cries and fire, her body so full of surprises. Sometimes the only thing she could feel were the sensations in her own body, then came moments when she lost track of her body completely and couldn't tell where she left off and he began. She tried to catch and save every moment as it happened, but it was like trying to catch butterflies flying toward the sun. Later, she lay awake thinking about how much she loved him and only pretended to sleep so he would sleep too.