The Frost Child (8 page)

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"Very clever," Dr. Diamond said, "and you have grown, Navigator. But why are you waking us so soon after we went to sleep?"

"I'll explain at the Convoke, but there's a Harsh fleet close by."

"What? Why didn't you tell me?" Dr. Diamond said, leaping to his feet. But before Owen could answer, Dr. Diamond had darted off through the crowd.

After an hour the Starry was thronged with just-wakened Resisters, making their way out to the snowy Workhouse. Owen had called a Convoke, which was what the Resisters called their gatherings. It was to take place immediately in the Workhouse.

"Give us time to shake the sleep off, boy," Samual snapped.

"There is no time," Owen said, and something in his voice made Samual stop and stare.

So they gathered in the still roofless Convoke hall, the last of the Resisters straggling in as Owen began to speak. Contessa, Rutgar, and Samual sat on the dais. Pieta took her usual seat by the fireplace. Owen wondered where Dr. Diamond was. Contessa motioned for Cati to get up onto the dais.

"You are the Watcher," she said. "It is your entitlement." Then she clapped her hands sharply.

"It is my privilege to address you first. I hope you are all refreshed after your sleep," she said. "It is wonderful to see your faces again, and I would like time to dwell on each one. But the Navigator tells us that danger is close

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by, so I will let him speak." She motioned to Owen, who got up onto the dais.

"I'm also glad to see all my friends again." There was a murmur of greeting from many of the Resisters--apart from Samual, who folded his arms and didn't look in Owen's direction.

"But we don't have time for saying hello," Owen went on. "Cati and I have seen a Harsh fleet of many ships, and it is, I think, almost on us."

The murmur turned to an agitated babble.

"What size of fleet?" a voice called.

"Many ships," Owen replied. "They are sailing through time. I saw them from the
Wayfarer."

"We'll never raise the defenses in time," someone else shouted. The level of noise in the room rose. Some of the fighters got to their feet.

"Open the armory, Rutgar! We need weapons!"

"We had trouble enough dealing with four or five Harsh," a woman said. "How are we going to deal with a whole fleet?"

People were arguing and gesticulating. Owen put out his arms to try to calm things, but he was ignored--until one man in red rose to his feet and pointed at Owen.

"It's your fault. You opened the Hadima gate when it was forbidden."

Owen said nothing. It was true. He had opened the gate.

"None of you would still be here if he hadn't," Cati shouted, but no one heard her.

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"Good way to open a Convoke, boy," Samual said with an unpleasant grin. "See what you've left for Rutgar and me to make a fighting force from?"

Contessa stood up, white-faced and dismayed at how things had gone downhill so quickly.

"Sit down!" she called, but she was ignored as well. Rutgar gathered his lieutenants about him and looked as if he was about to knock a few heads together to restore order. Then there was a rumbling noise deep in the bowels of the building. The ground under their feet shook, and fragments of mortar fell from the walls. The noise grew louder, and everyone fell silent. Was it an earth tremor, like the ones that had come with the last Harsh attack? Owen looked at Cati and saw that she was grinning.

The earth seemed to erupt. Owen jumped back as a huge column of brass shot from a half-hidden hole in the floor. On top of the brass column was perched a structure that looked like the top of a lighthouse, with glass walls. Owen watched as the brass column continued upward, divided into sections and unfolding like a telescope, the sections screeching against each other as they moved. The whole thing, swaying alarmingly, rose to roof level, and beyond.

"If the whole world doesn't know that we're awake, then it does now," Samual said.

"If there is a Harsh fleet on the way, then it doesn't really matter what the world thinks," Contessa said.

The brass column halted its ascent with a tremendous

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bang, accompanied by groaning from the brass segments. There was a pause, then a glass door in the top section slid open and Dr. Diamond stepped out onto the walkway that encircled the top. The glass top of the column was the Skyward, his laboratory. The whole thing was known as the Nab.

"Friends," Dr. Diamond said, "we are all confused after our long sleep. Do you not remember, we are the Resisters? The odds are against us, it is true, but we have good people here, and I may have a few surprises for the Harsh. All I need is a little time. So go, prepare what defenses you can. All is not lost. The world knows nothing of you, and you will fight and give your all without anyone knowing. But we are the Resisters. That is our work."

The Resisters turned to each other, embarrassed at how they had panicked. Some shook hands and grinned. Others patted Owen on the back as they passed him. Pieta came toward him.

"Diamond can say what he likes," she said, "but we're helpless without defenses."

"I know," Owen said. Pieta gave him a long look, then strode off, her deadly magno whip hanging at her side.

Everyone was busy. Contessa was organizing food supplies. Gangs of men and women were working at lightning speed rebuilding the Workhouse. Watching them, Owen realized that the tumbledown look of the building wasn't completely an illusion--parts of it had been removed and hidden away. Even now, men were

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lowering huge sections of the roof into place. But Pieta was right--as fast as the Resisters worked, they could not have the defenses ready in a couple of hours.

"Cati," Owen called.

"What?"

"If anybody's looking for me, say I've gone to the Den," he said.

"What's going on?"

"I've got a plan. But I'm not sure everyone will go along with it. Besides, it would take two hours talking about it, and we don't have two hours."

"Right," Cati said. "I'll cover for you. Good luck."

Owen slipped and slithered down the path to the
Wayfarer
, dodging out of the way of people carrying timber and stones and ropes. Down at the frozen river Rutgar was distributing weapons to his men at a frantic pace, while Samual strode up and down barking orders.

When Owen got to the
Wayfarer
, he saw a familiar, long-legged figure perched on the bow. Dr. Diamond stood up when he approached.

"Going somewhere?" the doctor asked.

"If I told them, they'd try to stop me."

"They might and they might not. At the moment, you're their only hope."

"So you're not going to stop me?"

"You have to make your own decisions. But haven't you forgotten something?"

"What?"

"No one has wakened the Raggies."

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"The Raggies! How could I have forgotten! But I don't have time ..."

The Raggies were a branch of the Resisters who lived in a warehouse at the harbor. The warehouse was an island in time like the Workhouse and had its own Starry. The waiflike appearance of the Raggies, all children, belied their toughness. They had been cruelly abandoned in time by a sea captain who had been supposed to look after them.

"I will take Cati to do it. But go now, Owen. We're depending on you."

As if to underline his point, a gust of icy wind blew snow into their faces.

"What is your plan?" Dr. Diamond asked.

"To get them to chase me away from the Workhouse."

"And will they?"

"I think so," Owen said grimly. "I think so."

"Go, Owen," Dr. Diamond said. "Buy us as much time as you can, but a day will do a lot."

Owen scrambled on board the
Wayfarer
, which rose off the ground. He adjusted the helmet, which he had pushed back on his head, so that the chain-mail visor covered his face, but as he put his hand on the tiller his mother ran up.

"You don't understand," he said. "I
have
to do this. For all our sakes."

"I know you do," she said. "Pieta isn't the only warrior among the womenfolk around here." His mother's eyes flashed in a way that he hadn't seen before. "I

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brought you this," she went on, placing a magno gun and ammunition inside the boat. "Take care of yourself," she said. "Use your speed and maneuverability. Trust the
Wayfarer
. And remember, we don't need that long."

Owen looked at his mother standing straight and tall with the wind blowing her hair back, and felt a rush of pride. He grasped the tiller firmly. The
Wayfarer
pointed her bow toward the sky. Within seconds she was speeding upward. Martha stared after her son.

"Take care," she said faintly.

"That can't have been easy," Dr. Diamond said, putting his arm around her shoulder.

"It was hard, but he is ready," she said, her eyes still fixed on the distant craft.

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Chapter 9

High above the Workhouse Owen lashed the tiller so that it wouldn't move, and clambered forward to unfurl the sail. As it billowed out, catching the winds of time, the
Wayfarer
surged forward. The scene below faded from view. Owen felt both nervous and exhilarated. For the first time he was alone on the
Wayfarer
.

"Let's find some Harsh," he said grimly, and the
Wayfarer's
bow appeared to rise in response.

It didn't take long to come upon the enemy ships. Within twenty minutes Owen had spotted the tops of their masts on the horizon. He felt a thrill of fear. Even from this distance the Harsh fleet was impressive. He examined the chart and the Mortmain. They couldn't be far from the Workhouse, and as he came closer, he saw that there were Harsh standing in the rigging of the great ships.
Ready to take in sail
, he thought, and when they did, they would emerge at the Workhouse.

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As the
Wayfarer
rose and fell jagged fragments of spray struck the chain-mail armor and his face mask, but still he urged her on. On the first ship, a sail was run down and then another, but he was still too far away to attract their attention. He looked around wildly, then saw the magno gun. He grabbed it and fitted one of the glass missiles. Shooting one-handed from the bucking deck of the
Wayfarer
, he wasn't likely to do much damage, but he might attract their attention. He put the gun to his shoulder and fired. The missile arched into the air and exploded. As the magno spread in the shimmering sky, it pulsed a deep blue. The Harsh stopped what they were doing and looked up. It bought Owen a precious minute. By the time they bent back to the sails, he was within hailing distance.

"Hey, you!" he shouted. "Hey!"

The
Wayfarer
sailed under the bow of the lead ship. The Harsh were high above him, but he could see a group of them clustered round the wheel. They were in their true shape of ancient kings and queens, haughty and evil-looking, but the Harsh in the rigging were in the form of teenagers--young men and women with spoiled faces.

The
Wayfarer
tossed wildly in the bow wash from the massive ship. The dark planks of the ship's bow reared above him, and Owen could see that there was ice between the planks, as though it held the ship together. Fighting to keep on his feet, he reached for the magno gun again. He fitted a missile and fired wildly in the

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direction of the ship. The bolt glanced harmlessly off the ship's planks and exploded in the air. Three of the younger Harsh ran to the side and looked over.

"Come on, frostface!" Owen shouted, wheeling the boat around. "Come down and fight!"

Above his head, a gun port opened and the muzzle of a cannon appeared. Owen barely had enough time to turn away before a bolt of ice flew over the top of the
Wayfarer's
mast with a vicious buzz.

I don't want to be shot at
, Owen thought.
I want to be followed! As
far as he could see, the rest of the ship's crew were ignoring him. In fact, more sails were coming down, the fleet slowing as they did so. He needed something more.

Easing the
Wayfarer
back around the bow of the lead ship, out of range of the cannon, he found himself looking up at a group of the Harsh. And in the middle of them stood the Harsh queen.

"Down here," he shouted, "down here!" His voice sounded shrill and small, but the wind died a little and the queen looked down. Owen lifted the mask so that she could see his face. The queen gave a silent bellow of rage, sending an icy blast of air downward, spinning the
Wayfarer
around and heeling her over so far that she almost capsized. Owen was thrown against the rail, cracking his head. He tried to stand up but swayed. The pirate queen turned to the helmsman. He spun the wheel. Owen looked up and saw the massive bow of the ship turn toward the
Wayfarer
. She had righted herself,