Christmas Carol (23 page)

He turned back to her, his face alight. “If
you are here, and we remember what we are meant to be to each
other, then perhaps my friends and I can prevail against the
tyranny of the Great Leaders and the World Government. Seeing you,
I am filled with hope.” He broke off, his whole body going tense at
the sound of a footstep in the hall.

“It’s only us, Nik,” a man’s voice called
out, and Nik relaxed.

“My God, what a way to live,” Carol said. “Do
you assume every step you hear is that of someone bent on attacking
you?”

“Only by exerting great caution have I have
survived this long,” Nick replied. Raising his voice, he said, “I
am here. Come in, Al.”

A man bundled in the usual dark and worn
garments appeared, followed by a second person. Both were of medium
height, and were so well disguised under layers of clothing that at
first Carol did not see that this second figure was a woman. Not
until she spoke was her gender revealed.

“I told you we would come back safely.” The
woman swept off a too-large knitted hat to expose tightly braided
blond hair. Her blue eyes danced with laughter as she stepped into
Nik’s arms. “And you were worried.”

“I always worry about you.” Nik held her so
the candlelight fell on her face.

“There is not a scratch on me, or on Al,
either.” She caught sight of Carol. “Who is this? I have not seen
her in Lond before.”

“Car is a new recruit. Aug brought her to me
this afternoon. Car,” Nik said, “this is my older sister, Pen. And
her lover, Al.”

“Pen?” Carol could tell by the look in Nik’s
eyes that he had noted her reaction and knew she recognized these
people, too. Doubtless, he would ask her about it later. For the
moment, he had other concerns.

“Were you seen?” Nik asked Al.

“No. We were careful. However, it might be
well for us to show ourselves in public before the sun sets. That
way, we won’t have to answer questions on our whereabouts yesterday
and today. It will be assumed that the ice and rain kept us indoors
along with most other people. The weather is clearing now, and the
workers have finished with the World Tree, so it will seem natural
if we step outside to look at it.”

“I’ll go with you. You come, too, Car.” Nik
took her hand. “If we are not seen out of doors with some
frequency, the Government imagines we are up to no good and certain
unpleasant agents are sent to investigate.”

“Are you saying there are Government spies
who are continually checking up on you?” Carol asked, horrified by
this idea.

“Most of the time, they are scarcely
noticeable,” Pen told her.

“What a world you have here. It sounds like
the old Soviet Union.”

“From my reading, I think it is worse,” Nik
said. “Pen, Al, make your report now, quickly, before we leave the
house.”

“We met with four other groups,” Pen said.
“All agreed with your plan. We begin action on the second day after
the Winter Solstice celebration.”

“I,” Al declared, “do not think we ought to
depend upon Ben’s group. There are no women in it, and the men are
little more than thugs. They may prove to be more trouble than help
to us.”

“We don’t have much choice, not while our
numbers are so small. We have to make use of everyone who is
willing to work with us.” Nik waited until his sister and Al
stepped outside the library before speaking again to Carol. “Later,
you and I will finish what we have begun here. I do promise you,
Car, there will be a later for us.”

“Will you tell me then what you and your
friends are planning?” she asked. “It sounds to me as if you are
organizing some kind of strike against the Government.”

“If we are, will you join with us? Aug did
say you were sent to help.”

“Actually, I was sent to learn, though what
the lesson is, I haven’t a clue. Yes, Nik.” She looked deep into
his green eyes, seeing there a warmth to equal the heat racing
through her own veins. She thought by his smile that he appreciated
the double meaning of her next words. “I will join with you
gladly.”

The four of them climbed over the rubble
surrounding Marlowe House and then walked into the square. The
workmen had gone, taking their aged machine with them, but there
were a few people standing around looking at the World Tree.

“Does something fit into those fingers?”
Carol asked, gazing at the tortured metal branches.

“The Orb.” It was Pen who answered her. “At
dawn on Winter’s First Day, the Orb comes to rest in the branches
of the World Tree. It remains there until the Solstice celebrations
are over, to let us know a warmer time will return.”

“Do not ask more here,” Nik cautioned,
leaning down to whisper to Carol. “Those hearing you will know you
do not belong in Lond.”

“Oh, yes, the spies,” she whispered back,
smiling at him as if they were exchanging romantic words. “I will
be careful.”

As Al had noted, the weather was in the
process of clearing, but the air was rapidly growing colder. A
sudden breeze blew a heavy snow squall out of the lingering clouds,
dusting the square and World Tree and people with white. Nik looked
upward, laughing into the blowing flakes.

“I love the snow,” he said to Carol. “For an
hour or two it makes everything in this sad world clean and softens
the hard edges and the ugliness. When it snows, I could almost
believe the world can be made fresh and new again.”

“Even that monstrosity in the middle of the
square might be a real tree in the dead of winter,” Carol agreed,
sparing a less hostile glance for the World Tree, where the metal
branches bore a thin coating of white on their upper surfaces.
“Look, the sun is shining through the snow.”

The air was still full of snowflakes, but the
clouds, having dumped most of their burden of moisture, were now
too thin to block out the sun. A hazy, diffused yellow glow slowly
spread across the sky, while the sun could be seen as if it shone
behind a sheer veil. A last burst of snow flurried downward, the
flakes glittering in the dim sunlight like particles of solid
gold.

“How beautiful,” Carol murmured, seeing Nik
standing with his face turned up to the shower of snow and the
golden light. Snowflakes lay thick upon his black hair. More flakes
dusted his forehead and cheeks with bits of gold that melted
instantaneously on contact with his body’s warmth. She thought she
would always remember him like that, standing straight and tall,
laughing into the snow, with shimmering drops of golden moisture on
his face, his whole form illuminated by haze and sunlight.

His manly strength and beauty, and the love
she felt for him, tugged at her heart. She was fully aware that the
joy she knew in this precious moment could not last. Soon,
inevitably, time and Lady Augusta would separate them. But
meanwhile … just for now…

He looked into her eyes. His smile turned
gentle then, and in the green depths of his gaze, for just a
moment, she saw Eternity.

“Tell me how the square and the houses
appeared in your time,” Nik asked later that evening.

The snow showers had stopped with the setting
sun, but as the sky cleared the cold arrived in earnest, sending
their little group shivering out of the square and into the
inadequate warmth of the house. They gathered in the old servants’
kitchen, Nik and Carol sitting together on a wooden bench at one
end of the room, slightly apart from their companions, where they
could speak in relative privacy.

Bas, who seemed to be the
twenty-second-century equivalent of butler, cook, and general aide
to Nik, was heating up a large pot of stew over an open fire laid
where the stove used to be, so the smoke could go up the old
chimney. Pen, having refused Carol’s offer of help with the remark
that it was her turn for kitchen duty, moved from cupboard to table
laying out at least a dozen places with cracked dishes and
mismatched cutlery, while Al opened a dusty bottle of wine that Bas
had just retrieved from the sub-basement. They were talking among
themselves, none of them paying any attention to what Nik and Carol
were saying to each other.

Quickly, keeping an eye on their companions
so she could break off her descriptions of the earlier time if
anyone came close enough to hear, Carol described the area around
Marlowe House as she knew it.

“Flowers and grass in the summertime.” Nik
spoke in a pensive voice.

“And colored lights on the tree in the middle
of the square at Christmas.” Carol went on to describe the
decorations and the festive air in London during the holiday
season.

“I have never seen a Christmas tree,” Nik
said.

“If you had asked me a few days ago, I would
have told you that I have seen altogether too many of them,” Carol
responded. “Now, I don’t think there can ever be too many Christmas
trees. Nik, what would happen if you tried to find and decorate
one?”

“No one would know what it was,” he said,
shaking his head at the idea. “Furthermore, there are no trees in
Lond anymore, nor for miles on all sides of the city. Nor, if I
could find one, would I be permitted to bring it here. I shall have
to be content to see the marvel of a Christmas tree through your
eyes, in the same way in which I see the rest of your vanished
world.”

They could not talk any longer, for more
people were arriving. Each newcomer was allowed past the wooden
barrier at the entrance only after Bas determined that this was
indeed a member of Nik’s company. The last to appear was Lady
Augusta, who was still wearing her tattered robes, which Carol now
understood were chosen to make her blend in with everyone else.
However, dreary clothing could not disguise the woman’s innate
dignity, nor her commanding character. “Aug” was an important part
of Nik’s little group of rebels.

“She’s our resident witch,” Pen whispered to
Carol. “She comes and goes as she pleases, and no one knows where
she is when she is not at Lond. I think she knows a way to make
herself invisible. Nik says such spells are impossible. I am not so
sure.”

There were fourteen of them for dinner that
night, including Aug and Carol. And they
were
included. No
one questioned Nik’s decision on the matter of Carol’s admission to
their group, and everyone spoke openly about their plans in front
of her.

“Why have you scheduled your uprising for two
days after Winter Solstice?” Carol asked after listening for a
while. “Why not on the day itself, when police or other official
types will be distracted by the ceremonies?”

“Previous revolts have been attempted during
seasonal celebrations, using just that reasoning.” The speaker was
Jo, a short, red-haired woman whom Carol suspected was fond of Bas.
“As a result of those attempts, the Government now provides extra
civil guards for all festivities.”

“If we wait until after Solstice, then the
Government will have removed its guards and sent some of them away
on furlough.” That was Luc. Slender, black-haired, with olive skin
and dark, languid eyes, he glanced toward Pen, who nodded her
agreement with what he was saying. “We have a better chance of
succeeding if we strike when the Great Leaders are relaxed and
congratulating themselves on another festival peacefully
concluded.”

Carol was finding the relationships among the
conspirators fascinating. She was certain that Luc cared deeply for
Pen, yet he was close friends with Al and constantly deferred to
the older, tougher man who was openly Pen’s lover. All of them
ultimately deferred to Nik, and to Aug. But they did listen to the
opinions of each member of the group. Thus, Carol felt free to say
what she thought.

“What can you hope to accomplish by rising
against a worldwide government system when you are so few in
number?” she asked. “Even if there are other, similar bands willing
to coordinate their activities with yours, there cannot be enough
of you to make a real difference. You will be suppressed, and the
Government will see to it that no one ever learns what you have
done.”

“We know the risks and we accept them,” Nik
said. “We must try. Sooner or later, a rebel group will succeed.
Then other groups will arise to join it, and the movement will grow
until opposition to the Government is so overwhelming that a change
will be made. At last each person will have a voice in the making
of laws. We will form a new and better government, one willing to
heed the wishes of the governed.”

“It won’t be as simple as you imagine,” Carol
cried. “True democracy is a tumultuous thing and you are used to
conformity. After listening to your talk for the last couple of
hours, it’s clear to me that you are in the minority. Under the
Great Leaders, most people have stopped thinking for themselves.
They are willing to be told what to do. That kind of inertia will
be difficult to overcome.”

“Still, we must make the effort.” Pen’s face
was alight with the inner vision all of them shared. “We will go
forward one step at a time. Our first objective is to bring down
the World Government, and we are here to discuss the tactics for
our uprising.”

“I’m sorry,” Carol said. “I didn’t mean to
throw cold water on your hopes. I just wanted to point out some of
the pitfalls ahead.”

“We needed to hear your words of caution,”
Nik responded. “Sometimes, our hopes and dreams for the future
carry us forward too quickly.”

“I wouldn’t want to spoil anyone’s dreams,”
Carol said. “I agree with what you are trying to do. I just don’t
want to see any of you get hurt.”

“There will be sacrifices to be made,” Nik
said. “Each of us is prepared to give up life itself for our cause.
But remember this, Car; when we have won, there will be freedom to
celebrate any holiday you want. Then, I promise you, we will raise
up a Christmas tree.”