The Orphaned Worlds (80 page)

A clean warmth flooded into his chest, arms and legs. His head felt clearer, his eyesight sharper.

‘I can manage, thank you, Rinavi. Please, lead the way.’

After twenty minutes of hasty tramping across boggy ground and through sometimes heavy undergrowth, they reached the crest of a low hill, rounded and free of any foliage. A small three-sided stone temple sat there, its lines and design reminding him of the structure on Giant’s Shoulder. Other Uvovo were gathered there, silently watching as he approached the wide, curved entrance directly ahead. Greg gazed up – smoke drifted in high layers, lit weirdly by the tessellated fragments of sunlight that filtered down from above. A light shower had begun to fall, tiny glittering droplets coming down in gauzy curtains. He felt them in his hair, on his face, his lips, and tasted a sooty grit in them. Sombre in the rain, he entered the temple.

The building had no other entrances and a triangular opening in the centre of the roof. The ground was an uneven expanse of grass and tilted, mossy flagstones, and there, seated on a long stone bench was a familiar figure. As he approached she rose and hurried towards him. Without hesitation they put their arms around each other and kissed. It was an unselfconscious act, tenderly, gently done.

When they broke apart, he saw that she had been crying, her eyes reddened, face streaked with tears.

‘What’s wrong?’ he said. ‘What’s the matter?’

She shook her head, wiped away the wetness. ‘I … harmed Segrana, Greg. I was trying to defend against the invaders and the bombings and I forced her ancient energies to surface, so that I could give the invaders a clout, make them leave! But I couldn’t control it …’ Catriona sighed and took hold of his jerkin. ‘I canna tell you what it means to see you again.’

Greg leaned forward and kissed her once more. She smiled, a little sadly.

‘Well now, Mr Cameron, am I right in thinking that you have intentions towards me? These lips of yours seem to be trying to tell me something.’

‘My lips, Miss Macreadie, are the very bletherers of candour.’

‘So tell me – do you love me?’

Taking her hand, he nodded. ‘Aye, I’m afraid that I do.’

‘Then tell me what’ll happen when you give me the Zyradin.’

‘I don’t know but I can tell you what it did to me.’

And he related his experiences as the Zyradin’s host, and tried to summarise events on Darien, all that struggle and intrigue and insane, daredevil heroics. He also told her a little about Kao Chih, the Roug, and the colony of Pyre. She in turn told him about Theo and how he helped in the initial defence of Segrana, and how he and the Ezgara-Tygran Malachi were abducted by unseen attackers. That a deadly enemy was now in control of the warp-well cast a dread pall over their mutual embrace.

‘I know that the Zyradin will alter me,’ Catriona said. ‘And I don’t want to do it! I don’t want to lose what I am and what I know and I especially don’t want to lose what we … what we might have together.’ She closed her eyes, as if in pain, and gave a small shake of the head. ‘But there are things that have to be done, and errors that must be put right.’ Tears were trickling down her cheeks. ‘All the damage that I did … aye, and now there’s huge areas where Segrana cannae even see or feel, while the fanatics and the Brolturans fight it out and Segrana burns …’

THE INTRUDERS CAN BE DEALT WITH
THE INJURIES AND THE BLIGHT CAN BE REPAIRED
THE GREAT WEAVE OF BEING CAN REGROW AND RENEW
THIS IS MY PURPOSE

Catriona straightened, eyes wide. ‘Was that him, it … the Zyradin? Can I see it?’

For a moment, Greg half-expected a cloud of blue motes to emerge from his skin but there was nothing as he unfastened a chest strap, swung the harness off his back and took out the canister. He removed the flexible lid and looked in at the restless mass of glowing blue specks, filling the container to the top.

‘I can’t even tell if all of you is in there,’ he murmured.

I AM THAT WHICH YOU SEE