City of the Falling Sky (25 page)

On Seckramas morning, Seckry woke to find
Eiya standing at the bedroom window.

“
Seckry, it’s so beautiful!”
she said, gleaming.

Seckry got up and joined her.

Outside, Skyfall was covered in a blanket of
pure white snow, glistening in the cold, winter sun.

The monorail whizzed past, sending a flurry
of flakes and a wet spray across the sky. The square below was
alive with people setting up a long sturdy table and placing heat
lamps all around it.

“
Merry Seckramas, loves!”
called Seckry’s mum from the kitchen. “Can you kids give me a hand
taking this food down there?”

As soon as Seckry opened the bedroom door, a
rich smell of cooking butter and stew filled the room.

After a quick shower each, they began hauling
Coralle’s concoctions down into the open square. It took them three
trips up and down the stairs carrying the dishes to the great
table, though Leena complained that her back was hurting and let
the others carry her last pot of casserole. They were clapped a few
times by the neighbours as they brought down the food and Coralle
even got a cheer as she plonked her huge ellonberry pie down with a
thud.

“
Well done, mum,” Seckry
said, staring at her array with awe. He wondered where on earth all
the cooking pots, dishes and ladles had come from and was sure the
cupboards weren’t even big enough to have been storing them
all.

Over the next half hour, the table filled up
with more and more dishes from the people of the square and by the
time everyone was ready to eat, it was brimming with mounds of
steaming food, and the square was filled with the most wonderful
smell of meat, spices, and exotic vegetables.

Tenk’s mum had been busy cooking as well and
had got Tenk and his brother to do the carrying, who didn’t seem
too pleased.

“
If she thinks I’m eating
any of this, she’s got another thing coming,” Tenk said, heaving a
pot of bubbling brown stuff onto the table.

“
Mum will batter you if you
eat everyone else’s food and not hers again,” said Longo, dumping
down a tray full of marinated fish heads.

While everyone was getting settled, Seckry
heard the sound of snow being crushed and the hum of an engine
before Mr Vance’s car pulled slowly into the square.

Seckry ran to meet him.

“
Merry Seckramas, Seckry,”
he said. “To you too, Eiya.” He followed them to the table, where
Seckry had saved him a seat.

When everyone was finally settled, Mr
Gibsbottom, of number twenty three, tapped his fork against his
glass and stood up.

“
Before we eat, I would just
like to give thanks to Seckraman, the son of Gedin, who was sent
down to us from the heavens to save us from the destruction of the
Great Meteor. When this city, and this entire world was under
threat, the Lord Gedin spared us and sent us his greatest gift, his
son. So I raise a toast to our Lord and our Saviour. To
Seckraman.”

“
To Seckraman,” everyone
repeated, and they all toasted each other in one giant clanking of
glass and metal.

Seckry tried to avoid talk of Gedin and the
coming of Seckraman in most situations, due to his embarrassment at
his name, and he never considered himself to be particularly
religious. But Seckry had been taught the legend along with
everyone else during his early years at school, and he knew the
story well.

It was said that more than two thousand years
ago, before time had even begun to be recorded, a meteor had been
on a collision course with the planet, and had almost destroyed
everything in existence, and then a miracle happened. A man came
down from the heavens and told the people around him that his name
was Seckraman, and nobody had to worry any more, as he was the son
of Gedin and he had come to save them. Then he raised his arm into
the sky and sent out an incredible force of light and goodness,
which made the meteor vanish into nothing, saving the world from
destruction. What happened to Seckraman after that nobody is sure
of. He vanished into thin air, but there were many accounts of him
being sighted again in the years to come.

Seckry couldn’t think about the story of
Seckraman for much longer though, as his mouth was salivating from
all of the wonderful smells surrounding him. Nearest to him were
platters of sausages, trays of boiled fish, pumpkin, multicoloured
beans, and what could only be described as a cauldron of mullsquash
soup, accompanied by huge, floury loafs of the softest bread Seckry
had ever seen.

Tenk warned them that the fluffy potato dish
next to the sausages was his mum’s Skyfall pulp-pot pie, which was,
according to her, a traditional Skyfall dish, though Tenk was
adamant she’d invented it herself out of smelly leftovers, and
which the glowflies seemed to be taking a particular liking to.

While Seckry and Eiya filled their plates
with a scoop of everything, Tenk’s parents began arguing over the
fact that his dad had filled his plate to the brim with bloodboar
meat, and nothing else. Mr Binko seemed utterly unaware of the
problem with it.

“
This is delicious,” Vance
said, giving himself a second helping of beet bubblepot. “Though in
all honesty I’m just waiting until I can get my hands on a slice of
that ellonberry pie of yours, Ms Sevenstars.”

Coralle blushed.

After Seckry and Eiya had both finished a
delicious helping of steam-marrow, Eiya leaned closer to Seckry and
whispered, “Look at Mrs Plum’s plate, it’s completely empty.”

Mrs Plum was seated opposite them with her
hands in her lap, staring blankly at her clean, empty plate as
though it was an abyss.

“
Do you think we should do
something?” Eiya prompted.

“
Maybe,” Seckry said,
feeling a deep sadness for the woman.

Eiya scooped some pulsepulp into a giant
ladle.

“
Would you like some, Mrs
Plum,” she said over the din of the party.

“
Oh . . .” Mrs Plum looked
disorientated, as though waking up from a dream. “Thank you, dear.”
She let Eiya gloop a mound of the stuff onto her plate. She began
prodding it with a fork, but didn’t look as though she was in any
hurry to eat it.

Before long, their plates were being whisked
away and clean ones were being set down for their puddings. As the
cellophane covers were ripped off the desserts, Seckry could smell
the sweet, citrus tang of someone’s lemon toppler to his right, and
the rich, dairy creaminess of a double dairypie to his left. At the
other end of the table, a huge mound of dough balls were dripping
in thick chocolate sauce, while underneath lay an array of luminous
jellies.

Mr Vance had gone straight for Coralle’s
ellonberry pie.

“
I have to say, I think this
may be even tastier than the first one,” he said.

Coralle’s face lit up with pride.

A few seats away, Tenk had begun tucking into
some kind of sticky sponge pudding, which had so much filling
inside it was oozing out of his mouth and running down his chin.
Eiya opted for a lather of rhuben crumble, which she topped with a
generous helping of custard.

Seckry wasn’t sure where to start, and he
didn’t want to miss out on tasting any of the puddings on offer, so
he piled his plate high with as many different dollops of desert as
he could manage.

“
You’re going to be so sick
later on,” Eiya laughed, eyeing his mound of multicoloured
mayhem.

“
I reckon it’ll be worth it,
though,” Seckry said, picking up an almond coated sugar-apple slice
from one side of his plate and dipping it into a dollop of
buttercream on the other.

Across the table, Seckry could hear Henrei’s
wife Marbery chatting away to one of the other women.

“
I’m telling you, Winifrill,
you’ve got to be strict with them! Henrei used to stuff his face
with jam sandwiches all the time. Wouldn’t eat an ounce of
vegetables. Now he eats healthily every day.”

Henrei caught Seckry’s eye and flashed him a
quick wink.

As they delved into their puddings, Coralle
popped open the cork of a wine bottle.

“
Here we go, my loves, have
a taste of this. It’s Seckramas, I’m sure nobody will
mind.”

She poured them a couple of thin glasses.

“
Mum! You’re supposed to be
telling us off for underage drinking, not promoting it!”

“
Oh well, a drop of wine
with some lemonade in it isn’t going to hurt.”

The taste of the wine made Seckry and Eiya
wince, and Eiya had to dilute hers even more with water before she
could drink it, but after a few sips it began to taste sweet and
they both felt extra giggly.

Some of the younger kids were squelching
around in the mushy snow that had melted under the warmth of the
heatlamps, and were throwing piles of the slush at each other.

“
No snowfights around the
table!” yelled Mrs Binko, and then sneakily threw a snowball at the
back of one of their heads, shouting, “Got you!”

When Seckry couldn’t eat another mouthful, he
leaned back in his chair, thinking his stomach was going to
burst.

It was only then that he realised the people
of the square had brought out paintings of Seckraman from their
apartments and hung them on the walls.

The closest to him was a large painterly one
depicting a heroic Seckraman with an inflated chest, a wavy brown
beard, and a muscular arm aimed effortlessly at the sky.

The sight of the man made Seckry feel a
little dwarfed. Was this what his mum wanted him to be like when he
grew up? She had named him after the greatest man in the world. How
could Seckry ever hope to live up to that? How could he live up to
the name?

“
You know, not every
depiction of Seckraman is so romantic,” Vance said to him, as if he
had been reading Seckry’s mind. “Come with me, I want to show you
something.”

Seckry excused himself and followed Vance to
the other side of the square, where more paintings had been hung
out by the residents.

“
Do you know where the name
Skyfall City originates from, Seckry?” Vance asked as they
walked.

Seckry shook his head.

“
It’s all to do with this,”
Vance explained. “Seckramas, and the meteor. In ancient times
people had no idea what a meteor was. They only knew the sky. When
they saw that the sky was becoming grey with rock and craters, they
thought the sky was coming crashing down. They literally thought
that the sky was falling. When the city was built they named it
Skyfall, in remembrance of the event.”

Seckry widened his eyes. He had never thought
about the city’s name before, but now it made sense. Everything had
a history.

“
It bothers you sometimes,
doesn’t it?” Vance said, stopping. “Your name?”

“
People often say to me that
I’m going to grow up to be this great man, like Seckraman himself,”
Seckry said. “Like it’s my destiny because I was given his name.
But the truth is, the only reason my mum called me Seckraman was
because I had one eye slightly greener than the other, like
Seckraman did. That’s where the similarities end.”

“
Well, Seckry, take a look
at this. I think you’ll find it quite interesting.”

Standing propped against one wall was a small
painting, cracked and worn, with most of its colour de-saturated
from age. It was of a boy with sandy coloured hair, just like
Seckry’s, clad in white robes and reaching up to the sky.

“
Who is this?” Seckry
asked.

“
This is Seckraman,” Vance
said simply.

Seckry frowned.

“
Wasn’t Seckraman about
thirty odd when he was sent from Gedin? And didn’t he have a brown
beard?”

“
That’s a common
misconception, Seckry. Most of the paintings we see of Seckraman
were painted in the sixteenth century, such as that one over by the
table. Our idea of Seckraman is of the quintessential male of that
time period. They often used models to pose for them. The style at
the time was to have these muscular frames and big, brown beards
and long hair. But look at the date of this particular
one.”

Seckry could just about make out a scrawl of
heavily italicised numbers in the bottom right corner.

12/04/1219

“
The year twelve nineteen?”
Seckry said.

“
That’s right. About three
hundred years before the sixteenth century artists began painting
the iconic, older, bearded figure. The truth is, Seckry, that
Seckraman may not have been that different to you at all. I have to
say it is hard, being a scientist, to believe that
anyone
was really sent from Gedin to save us all. Especially when I have
trouble believing in Gedin full stop. But . . . maybe somebody
saved us that day. And maybe he didn’t look that much different
from you.”

Seckry eyed the painting closer. Had the
great Seckraman really looked like this? A boy, just around the
same age as him, with similar, sandy coloured hair.

As he peered closer, his eyes began to widen.
There was something painted onto Seckraman’s robes. A small symbol.
A symbol that Seckry recognised.

He blinked and frowned, but there was no
mistaking the two wings and its circular centre.

It was the symbol of Endrin’s Divinita
Project.

“
Are you sure this is the
symbol you saw at Endrin?” Vance asked.