Winterstrike (31 page)

‘What if they’ve got hunting beasts?’ Rubirosa asked.

Then we’re in trouble.’

The kappa were not far away now; I could hear them, their whistling voices and the sound of their feet splashing through the low water levels. We were level with a patch of the submerged trees:
I took Rubirosa firmly by the arm and indicated a rudimentary shelter.

The trees were vast: a central twisted trunk from which depended an arching canopy, sending branches back down into the water and forming a ball of root and branch, with as much below the
waterline as above. We edged out onto a narrow strip of the causeway to reach the shelter of the branches, then stepped under the canopy itself. The branches were springy and gave a little under
our feet, but they held. I was conscious of my feet becoming wet. The Library was an insubstantial presence among the ball of roots, apparently standing on the surface of the water.

‘Here they come,’ Rubirosa whispered. Clutching tightly onto the canopy, I watched a group of five kappa hasten by. They carried basic spears and one of them had a thing like an
electric prod. They whistled to one another with urgency as they passed. None of them looked in our direction.

‘Maybe they’re not after us,’ Rubirosa said, hopefully. I thought that was too good to be true, but then there were cries from the other side of the causeway and a second group
of kappa came over the ridge. They, too, brandished spears.

‘What’s that?’ I said. I could see something through the branches of the canopy, something light and drifting over the water. A moment later, a glowing ball of phosphorus
floated by, becoming momentarily entangled with the branches and breaking apart, only to coalesce back together again. Beside me, I felt Rubirosa relax.

‘Only marsh gas,’ the marauder said. ‘I’ve seen it on the edges of the Small Sea.’

‘That was marsh gas,’ I said, nodding in the direction of the ball, ‘but
that
isn’t.’

It was as I’d seen it so many years ago on the canal beyond Calmaretto, like and yet unlike the hunched, debased thing in the cell, like and unlike Mantis, too. The demothea drifted over
the surface of the brackish water, its tentacles coiling and drifting around it. The robes that it wore were the same as the ones I’d seen on the imprisoned creature back in the settlement,
but this thing had a face filled with light, ethereal in its beauty, and its eyes glowed like moons.

‘It’s escaped,’ Rubirosa breathed.

‘Or they let it out to hunt it,’ I said. ‘If it’s the same one. I don’t think it can be.’ Next moment, it was clear that I was partly right: a spear whirred
through the air and splashed into the water, just beyond the canopy. The demothea hissed and disappeared, going under in a shower of glistening spray. There were shouts from the kappa, who now
waded out into the water, fanning out so that they formed a semicircle in front of the canopy.

‘Stay where you are,’ the Library instructed, into my ear, but I didn’t need telling. The kappa might seem faintly laughable, with their stocky bodies and waddling gait, but
the spears were real enough and so was their intent.

‘Where did it go?’ Rubirosa whispered. ‘The water can’t be that deep if they’re walking through it.’

She was right, but I could see no sign of the demothea: it had vanished as completely as if it had never been there. I wondered whether it had just been an illusion, but the kappa didn’t
seem to think so. They were coming forward and one of them was striking the water with a long pole. Perhaps there were underground tunnels that the demothea knew . . . Then, suddenly, it was back,
rising up from the water inside the canopy with such speed that Rubirosa and I nearly fell off our branch. The kappa cried out and pushed through the canopy and then we did fall: I stumbled into
the dark water and found myself up to my knees. The kappa ignored me, even though they were all around. They pushed past me, shoving me out of the way as if I was no more than an inconvenient
branch, and closed in on the hissing demothea.

It might not be armed, but it wasn’t without defences. Something lashed out from it, a long black tentacle like a shiny whip, and took a kappa’s legs from under it. The kappa crashed
into the water, flailing. The tentacle whipped out again, curling past the branches and aiming at the leading kappa. The water sizzled as it struck: some kind of localized field. The kappa doubled
over and the whip struck again, catching the prod that the kappa had held, but not gripping it. The prod flew through the air and I reached out and caught it. I had no time to think about my
decision. I lashed out and activated the prod just as the tentacle came towards it.

A shudder ran the length of the tentacle and the demothea screamed. It went into a writhing, blurring coil of motion, thrashing the water around it so that the spray shot upward, silver in the
moonlight. The kappa gave a great collective shout. The demothea’s whip lashed to and fro, then abruptly drooped. The thing folded in a tangle of robes and sank into the water. This time it
did not disappear. The kappa surged forward and picked it up, making a hammock of its own robes, then wound it into some kind of net.

The one who had held the prod turned to me.

‘Are you hunters?’

‘So you can speak Martian,’ I said.

‘Only I. I was not there when you were taken. The others cannot. I learned for the demon.’

‘The demon?’

The kappa nodded towards the bundled form of the demothea.

‘I see. No, we’re not hunters. We’re travellers. We – came from the Queen.’ In a manner of speaking.

‘From the Queen?’ If the kappa had possessed eyebrows, they would have risen. ‘Did she send you?’

‘No. She’s been abducted. My enemy is a demothea. I came because I thought you could help.’

‘I know that the Queen has – gone away.’ She didn’t sound unduly concerned. ‘You have a ship?’

‘We crashed. The craft was destroyed,’ Rubirosa said, with minimal truth. ‘We escaped with our lives.’

The kappa turned and spoke to her colleagues, presumably translating. They murmured among themselves.

‘Do you think,’ I asked, ‘that we could go somewhere less wet?’

A tall order for a saltmarsh, but we managed it. The kappa led us back to the village, this time as guests, not prisoners.

‘My name is Evishu,’ the Martian-speaking kappa said. She listened to our names with a frown, memorizing unfamiliar syllables. The Library walked alongside and remained unaddressed:
evidently the kappa could not see her.

‘Your village,’ I said. ‘I wasn’t sure if we’d got the right place.’

‘It’s not a village. I think it was a military installation, from some time long gone, though we built the huts. We came here in pursuit of demotheas.’

‘Where I come from, they’re a legend,’ I said. ‘There are none to be seen.’

‘That’s because you don’t know they’re there. Do you have marshlands?’

‘Yes, around the Small Sea to the south of the Crater Plains.’

‘Then you will have demotheas,’ Evishu said.

‘So what are they? Why were they made?’

They’re military. They cope well with water, as you’ve seen. They have the power to create illusions around themselves. The whip is obviously the weapon and they emit a localized
form of electricity, like an electric ray. They were designed as killers. Very probably, where you come from, the people did their best to exterminate them, during the time after the Age of
Children. You can see why.’ The kappa might be the Changed, I thought, but Rubirosa had been right when she’d spoken of divisions and rivalries.

‘So if they were Martian,’ I said, ‘why are they here on Earth?’

‘We don’t know. The most likely explanation is that a group of them were sent here for some military purpose and never went home. Ropa is huge, you can see that from any map. After
the floods, there was contamination – an engineered disease. No one comes here any more.’

‘No one except you,’ I said.
And us.

‘We were sent here by the Queen.’

‘What does the Queen want them for?’ asked Rubirosa, evidently sharing my paranoia.

‘We don’t ask that sort of question of her,’ Evishu said, placidly enough.

‘So you just do what you’re told?’

That’s what
we’re
for,’ Evishu said.

I gestured towards the bound form of the demothea as the kappa carried it along the path. It looked as though the thing was beginning to regain consciousness: it twitched and writhed in the
hands of its captors, who plodded along unheeding.

‘What are you going to do with it now?’

‘Let the Queen’s people know that we’ve had a partial success,’ Evishu said.

‘Partial?’

‘There are more, in the marsh. We already have one, but it’s dying.’

The notion of more of these Martian-grown monsters in this limitless landscape, cold under the moon, made me shiver. And this was what Mantis and Leretui were. ‘Do they ever band
together?’

‘They hunt alone. But they come together once or twice a year. We think,’ Evishu added, ‘that you’d best spend the night with us. They may come for her. It isn’t
safe out here.’

I looked out over the expanse of the moonlit marsh, the thick banks of waving black reed and the distant glitter of the swallowing sea, and agreed.

TWENTY-SIX

I was glad when the last of the vulpen disappeared into the base of the tower, taking the Centipede Queen with them, but that also meant that I was alone out here among the
rocks, and twilight was coming.

But where there were vulpen, so might there be Leretui.

I crept closer to the base of the tower. It squatted on top of its tumble of rocks like a dishevelled bird of prey. It wouldn’t have surprised me if the whole thing hadn’t suddenly
toppled off in a shower of mortar and stone: it looked derelict enough.

But there had to be a way in. I’d seen the vulpen disappear. I explored the rocks around the tower, feeling it loom over me, as though it was watching. The light was fading quickly now,
the short winter day coming to its swift close, and the shadows around the rocks were deepening. I had to make a decision, whether to stay out here and find a bolthole in the boulders, or keep
trying to find a way in. I kept looking. The Queen’s little pet crawled out of my sleeve as I searched and nipped the back of my hand, making me jump. The image was of a hatch, leading down.
The Queen must have come this way, and transmitted the information to her creature.

Among the rocks, at the far side of the base of the tower, a scuffle of ribbed sand betrayed what I was looking for. I swept the sand aside, and found the hatch. No haunt-tech, not even a bolt.
The hatch had a heavy metal ring, which twisted when I hauled on it. Open, the thing revealed a dark hole and steps leading down. I listened. There was no sound from within, but there was a dim
light, enough to see by. I pulled the hatch closed behind me and went down the steps.

They did not lead far. After a short descent, I came out into a narrow passage with a stone-flagged floor, winding into the base of the tower. The walls had been smoothed and lights set into
them at intervals: from the illumination, and the almost dustless condition of the floor, it looked as though this tunnel was regularly used. There was also a strange, strong smell, unfamiliar to
me, but I thought it might be vulpen. The idea made me nauseous, but I kept going. I could hear a sound: a distant roaring like wind on a stormy night. I started to go towards it, before realizing
that it wasn’t external at all: it was the sound of the geise inside my own head. It cried out my sister’s name.

Then I turned a corner and my mother Alleghetta was standing under one of the lights on the wall.

‘Essegui!’ she snapped, in the tone one would use to a disobedient child. ‘Where are you?’

‘Can’t you see?’

‘I’ve only just managed to find you again.’ She sounded as though I’d got lost in a shop. ‘Where have you
been?

‘Looking for my sister,’ I said through gritted teeth. ‘Just as you wanted me to.’

Well, and have you found her?’

‘Not yet. But I think I’m close.’

‘You’d better get on with it,’ Alleghetta said. ‘I need her back in Winterstrike.’

‘Why? I’d have thought you’d be glad to get rid of her, under the circumstances. Haven’t you got your Matriarchyship coming up?’

A shifty, furtive expression crossed Alleghetta’s face, one I’d seen many times before, usually in the course of discussions about politics.

‘I have my reasons,’ she said, just as she’d said so many times, too. ‘Bring her back, Essegui. As soon as you can.’

And so I would, I thought, as her figure faded and something twinged inside my head. Dark science could rot the soul, so they said, and I believed it.

The little centipede twitched inside my sleeve and there was the sudden sense of a growing excitement, not my own. I took this as a sign that the Queen was nearby. She’d helped me before,
I thought; perhaps she could do so again. And then I heard her voice.

‘This is the one,’ someone said, a low voice with a familiar timbre to it. Mantis.

‘I’ve told you before,’ the Queen said. ‘I won’t help you. Besides, aren’t you an abomination?’

‘Who is this woman?’ That was a woman’s voice, clear and high, and of course I knew her. Leretui. I’d found her.

‘I told you,’ the low voice of Mantis said. An ally, from Earth.’

‘I’m not your ally,’ said the Queen, and for the first time there was a touch of anger in her tone. I couldn’t blame her; I wouldn’t have liked to be ignored,
either. But the voice went on, ‘Leretui, it’s time to go. Would you like to see Earth?’

‘You know the answer to that,’ my sister said, almost purring, and a long-held suspicion that I hadn’t wanted to entertain was confirmed. My sister hadn’t just
disappeared. Somehow, against all odds, she’d run away.

I followed their footsteps as they receded up the stairs of the tower. Alleghetta’s voice echoed in my head:
Where is she? Where are you now?
Stop badgering me! I silently cried,
but her hectic voice went on.