The Red Queen (129 page)

But when I opened my eyes, it was to find Rushton stretched out beside me, fully clothed and deeply asleep. I looked around to see if there was someone else in the room, but it was empty. It was still broad daylight, I saw by the slash of light that escaped the drawn shade cloth, but I felt well rested. Rushton must have pulled the cloth across when he came in. Perhaps I had dreamed that someone had shaken me.

I lay back down and turned carefully on my side to gaze into Rushton’s face, studying it in repose, all the strain and tension of the day smoothed away. He had several new scars, one a claw mark, which made me think of his strange sojourn in the darklands surrounding the Spit. Someday I would ask him to let me visit his memory of that time.

I remembered then that I had yet to release his spirit from the bindings I had imposed at Obernewtyn to protect my secrets after we had loved the first time. It gave me a chill to realise that if I had not chained his spirit, Ariel, who had taken him prisoner, might have rifled through his mind at any time; perhaps he had even done so, for there were periods after he had left the Spit when Rushton had admitted to having no idea what had happened to him. On the other hand, nothing Ariel could have learned from him would have enabled him to reach Sentinel and seize control of the Balance of Terror weapons. Though maybe the point was that he would have the confidence to try, instead of luring me to Sentinel, and then he would fail and perhaps bring about the doom the emissary had spoken of.

Rushton opened his eyes and there was love in them. I smiled and reached out to touch his face, running my fingers over the rough scars, and his smile faded into an intensity that filled me with a rush of heat. He reached out and cupped my head and drew my mouth unerringly to his. I kissed him back and pushed away his shirt to get to his skin, the warmth of it. He crushed me against him and still it was not close enough. He stripped off his clothes and, impatient, I rose up to take him back into my arms. I pressed myself to him and his kiss opened me to him and him to me. As he entered me, I entered him and poured into him the great surging tumult of my spirit, breaking all of the chains and bindings, and I took from him all that he was and had done and all that had been done to him. I saw the eyes of the beastman who had tended him at the Spit and heard it beastspeak to call him brother, though he had not understood it.

I saw it speak my name.

I did not need to tell him. He had been with me and in me when I had seen his memory. He knew all that I knew.

‘What does it mean?’ he asked, as we lay naked, cooling slowly, save where our bodies touched. The light was slanting lower now and had a ruddy cast that told me the afternoon was wearing down. Rushton frowned, answering his own question. ‘It must have to do with the beastlegends about you.’

‘I think so,’ I said. ‘Only I don’t know what it is that I am meant to do. I can’t free beasts from humans. I don’t know how that would be possible. I understand that humans treated them as things and slaves in the Beforetime, and in our time as well, but the world is changing. Humans began by freeing beasts, but now beasts are freeing themselves. They don’t need a human to free them.’

‘Perhaps you will learn the meaning of the beastlegends, once we return to Obernewtyn.’ He stopped. ‘But you are not to return.’

Suddenly there was a hammering at the door. We barely had time to cover ourselves before Merret looked in. ‘Ana says to tell you to get up!
Gahltha is coming
.’

There was no sign of Gahltha or Ana when I came out, but Merret was waiting. She said that she had taken to bed early like the rest of us, in order to recover from the long night of vigil and so as to be ready for the Red Queen to rise at midnight. She and Blyss had been roused by a commotion and had come out to find Ana and Sendari surrounded by a cluster of Redlanders, half of whom had never set eyes on a horse before Dragon announced her arrival on one. They did not know whether to be afraid or dazzled.

Ana told them she had been awakened by a dream of Swallow, and had come outside to find his mount, grey Sendari, waiting in the yard of the compound. She bade them wake me and tell me Gahltha was coming. But by the time I had splashed myself with water and dragged on my clothes, she had departed on Sendari with Darga at their heels.

‘But what did Swallow say in her dream? What did she see?’ I asked.

‘She did not tell me,’ Merret said. ‘She said only that Gahltha was coming.’

‘Was that her dream?’ I asked, my heart beginning to sink.

‘Listen,’ Rushton said, and I heard the sound of a horse galloping.

Moments later Gahltha burst into the yard, scattering Redlanders and Landfolk alike and coming to a heaving stop in front of me. He was so black and shining and beautiful, and alive. I flung myself at him, kissing his nose, stroking his hot neck and beastspeaking joy and relief to him, ‘Darling Gahltha! I knew you were not dead! I feared it but it was impossible. I could not believe it. But what happened? Where have you been?’

‘The wolves dug me out, ElspethInnle. But my spirit had gone very far from my body. The beastheart called to me, but then Maruman was with me. He called me the Daywatcher and bade me turn back. I wanted to turn then, but the beastheart called. I had not the strength to turn, but then Rasial/Gavyn were before me and Maruman bade them help me to turn back. They lent me their strength. Yet I would not have found my way back to my flesh if there had not been a thread connecting me to it. The wolves were licking me. They had held a thread of my spirit to my body in that way. I breathed and they nipped at me till I rose. They told me Maruman had been taken by the
dinrai
, but before I could get out of the ground, it shook and the way up closed. We had to go another way. The wolves led me, it was very far down and back, and perilous. There was a river of fire. The wolves had crossed the crumbling bridge over it once and did once again. I do not know how they had the courage to do it twice.’ He shuddered. ‘We ran beneath the earth along an ancient funaga road, almost back to the place where the flying
glarsh
fell.’

‘Oh, my dear,’ I said, having seen glimpses of his strange and terrible journey in his mind. ‘Maruman is here, safe. But what of Gavyn and Rasial? And the wolves?’

‘The man/beast flies the dreamtrails,’ Gahltha said. ‘The wolves are waiting.’ Then he bade me bring Maruman and come, for we must make haste.

‘Why? Where are we going?’ I demanded, knowing the wolves would not come until it was dark, but perhaps he wanted me to come because the wolves would not enter the human city. I fetched a sleepy and ill-tempered Maruman, ignoring his protests, slipped on my coat so that I could put him inside it and belt it, then Rushton helped me up onto Gahltha with him and Merret gave him a leg-up behind me.

I looked helplessly down at Merret, who said that Ana had told her to fetch Dameon, for Faraf would soon come for him, too. Blyss had gone to get the empath. They would follow on foot and meet us.

‘Meet us where?’ I cried.

‘The eastern edge of the settlement, where the dome rails enter,’ Merret said.

Gahltha cantered through the streets scattering people who gaped or cursed or cried out in wonder, depending on their dispositions, and I prayed we would not kill anyone in our mad dash.

‘What is the haste?’ I beastspoke the black horse, as we narrowly missed taking our heads off on the outstretched foot of a crumbling statue.

‘Wait,’ he sent, maddeningly, then I was distracted by a dog racing along beside us. We outstripped it, but moments later there was another and then a cat. We left them behind too, but as we continued there were more animals – cats and dogs and muliki and goats – all of whom we left behind.

‘Ye gods,’ Rushton muttered. ‘Look behind us.’

He leaned aside so I could turn, though it was a dangerous manoeuvre at the speed Gahltha was moving, and I near fell as my body went slack with astonishment, for all the beasts were racing in our wake and more were joining us every second. People were running after us too, shouting out in wonder and astonishment, and truly we must have made a mad strange sight.

‘What is happening?’ I beastspoke Gahltha.

‘Wait,’ he sent.

And then we were at the edge of the city and I saw there were already other beasts, a great strange herd of them, and in their midst Ana stood with her bandaged hand on Sendari’s neck, and Darga stood close by her. But she was not looking towards us, towards the city.

She was looking out across the plain.

As we dismounted, the ground shuddered, so that Rushton and I stumbled against one another. Then the shaking ceased. Maruman was awake and clawed at me. Wincing, I let him out of my coat and set him on the ground. Tail lashing, he turned and looked out across the plain, too.

‘What is it?’ I asked. ‘Is it the wolves?’

‘Not wolves . . .’ said Ana.

And then I caught sight of something; one thing moving on all that broken, red, windswept plain that ran to the arc of domes and spread beyond them out of sight; Something that shone and gleamed in the red light, and moved with a queer gliding grace.

‘What is it?’ Rushton said.

‘It is
Hendon
,’ I said incredulously.

‘The machine man you left by the rift,’ Rushton murmured.

‘No,’ sent Maruman, and I looked down to see the old cat coming towards me, limping slightly.

‘What do you mean,
no
?’ I demanded. ‘I can see it is the androne.’

‘Wait,’ said Maruman.

There was the sound of movement and voices behind me and I turned to see Dameon had arrived on Faraf. The little goat Brunt had come trotting and bounding along with her, and now he rushed at Gahltha, butting at him and prancing in an ecstasy of welcome and delight. Gahltha nuzzled affectionately at the mad little creature as Rushton helped Dameon down from Faraf.

‘What is happening?’ the empath asked, for once looking puzzled.

I reached out to take his hand. ‘None of us quite knows, my friend, though my eyes tell me it is the androne, Hendon, coming across the plain to the city.’

‘That is what Faraf signalled,’ Dameon said. ‘I thought I had misunderstood. It is sometimes difficult for her to find the way to signal things to me. It must be that Hendon’s solar has been replenished. But I thought he was to make his way back to God when he woke.’

‘That is what
I
thought, too. But maybe it has come to bring me the golator first, thinking I still want it. I asked for it before we left the rift because I hoped it would show us how to find Eden and I would find some clue there that would bring me to Sentinel. I did not know if it heard me or not, though Ana said it did . . .’

I turned to see she was still gazing out at the approaching androne.

‘It saved her life,’ Rushton murmured. ‘But what of all these beasts?’

‘I don’t know . . .’ I said.

By the time Hendon was close enough for me to see the blue of his eyes, the ground had trembled three more times, and mad as it seemed, I had begun to wonder if the androne was causing it. It came not to Ana, as I had half expected, but to me, passing through a parting crowd of beasts and people, who had come running after us to see what was happening. Now, as it stopped in front of me, the crowd fell silent.

‘Greetings, Elspeth Gordie,’ said the machine man. Only it was not the voice of Hendon, nor the voice of God either.

‘Ye gods,
Sentinel
,’ I breathed incredulously. ‘How . . .?’

‘It was your suggestion that I send myself to another computer,’ she said, and the sound of wings were in her voice. ‘It made me wonder if there was not another computer near enough that could accept me. I searched and found this unit. It was operative and had a vast storage capacity. It recognised my government codes. It sent that it had been seeking me. I entered it, then I brought it here.’

‘To me?’ I said, uncertainly.

‘To bring you with me to Eden, where I will fulfil the purpose I have chosen, to waken the beasts that sleep there; all those who are gone from the world because of the first Sentinel. My brother.’ The last words were said hesitantly, and I heard in Sentinel’s voice the sound of rain falling. ‘But if you come, it must be now.’

‘Now?’ I said incredulously.

‘Now,’ Maruman sent, and his mindvoice was so strange that I looked down at him and saw that his yellow eye was all darkness. I reached out to his mind and found that he was falling into one of his fey states. I bent to lift him into my arms, and felt his heart beating very fast. I looked at the androne.

‘Come now,’ Sentinel said implacably, and there was the sound of stone striking stone in her voice.

‘Now,’ sent Gahltha, and his mindvoice was the voice of the Daywatcher.

‘But I . . .’ I turned to Rushton. ‘Dragon . . .’

‘I think you must go, my love.’ He caught my shoulders and shook me a little. ‘There is something large and very strange at work here, but Sentinel is . . . well you know what she is, and so I know it, too. I think this must be connected to another part of your quest. The part told in beastlegend. I will explain it to Dragon. You can tell us what happened when you return.’

But Maruman’s claws sunk into me. His voice echoes in my mind were full of wild strangeness. I saw the moon crack open and molten fire spill out. ‘There will be no return for ElspethInnle. The earth will open its maw and tongues of fire . . . wolves will leap from its mouth . . .’ He fainted in my arms.

‘What is it?’ Rushton asked.

The old cat lay limp. There was so little to him. I held him close and looked at Rushton. His dear face. It seemed to me that my heart would truly break.

‘He . . . he said if I go I will never come back.’

He looked at me; one long look full of love. ‘Then I will go with you.’

I stared at him. ‘But if you go with me,
you
can never come back either. What about Obernewtyn?’ I said.

He smiled. ‘Why would I want to come back, without you? I have loved Obernewtyn and I have been dutiful, but I fulfilled my oaths to myself, and my friends. It was a haven I held safe, while it was needed. But I am not needed there now. I do not know if I will be needed where you go, but I will come with you and help you fulfil your vow to free the beasts of the Beforetime, and see them live again. If you want me.’

There was a sudden uncertainty in his face.

‘Of course I want you!’ I cried.

He looked beyond me then, to the androne, and said with courteous gravity, ‘If you will also permit it, Sentinel.’

‘Yes,’ said Sentinel. ‘Come.’

‘Wait!’ It was Ana. ‘I don’t understand how
you
can be Sentinel when Elspeth destroyed you. I don’t understand how you can be here inside Hendon . . . what happened to him?’ she demanded.

The androne looked at her, seeming to study her. ‘Hendon is within me, but he was very small and I am very large. Larger than anything that ever was, I think. He is a small fish in the vastness of a sea. Yet, your face is in my memory. Your name: Ana.’ There was the sound of music now, a snatch of the same music I had heard from it before. Then there was the sound of a birdcall, something very high and beautiful. ‘If you come too, we can speak of Hendon,’ Sentinel said.

Ana looked astonished and frightened and yet there was yearning in her face, too. Her eyes dropped to Maruman lying limp in my arms. Then she looked at me. ‘A part of me wants to come but I . . . I can’t, Elspeth. I need to stay here, where Swallow died, at least for some time. I dreamed of him last night. He told me about Hendon but he asked me to go back to the Land to find his sister and his grandmother. To tell them what became of him.’ Tears were spilling from her eyes, already red from weeping.

‘Don’t cry,’ I said. ‘It is right you stay and go back to them.’

She turned to Sentinel. ‘I am sorry, Sentinel. I can’t go with you. I wish . . . I wish I could have said goodbye to Hendon. He saved my life, you know.’

‘I will think about that. I will try to remember it,’ Sentinel said, and then again, ‘Come now, all who would come.’ And she turned and began to move away.

I turned desperately to Dameon. He smiled at me. ‘I know that you must go, and this time, I will stay, my dear one. I have journeyed far with you, but it is time for me to go my own way now. I will stay here for a while, and then go back with Ana to Obernewtyn. I do not think the empaths have need of me now, but I will find work to do. Perhaps I will live on the farm that was once mine. Or maybe I will lead an expedition to Midland and tell Tash the end of our story.’

‘You have been a true and beloved friend,’ I said huskily. ‘I . . . I can’t bear to say goodbye to you.’