City of Time (11 page)

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two long skis unfolded from under the truck, replacing the rear wheels.

Cati and Dr. Diamond looked on openmouthed and Owen grinned. "Anyone for skiing?"

Even with the skis, the going was now very slow. Dr. Diamond was groggy from the blow on the head and he found the road hard to follow. "I lost my contact lenses when I was hit on the head. I should have brought a spare set."

"Resisters have contact lenses?" Owen was open-mouthed.

"Yes, I hate to lose them. They take weeks to make."

"It's starting to snow again," Cati said. Great fat flakes were falling, getting thicker by the minute. Soon Dr. Diamond couldn't see the road at all.

"I know where it is," Owen said. "I'll tell you where to go." He moved in beside the scientist and calmly directed their progress. Cati looked at Owen. How could he tell where the road was when they could barely see beyond the end of the hood? If Dr. Diamond thought it was odd, he didn't say so.

It was a long day. Cati climbed through to the back and started to look through the paperbacks. There were titles such as
Cuisine of the Three Mountains
, featuring strange recipes for things like roast argosy. There were boring-looking books called
Time: Past or Present?
and
Increase Your Temporal Taste Buds
. Then she took down a volume written in a strange, jagged script, which

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contained drawings of ornate buildings, a towering palace, and a vast hall with a domed ceiling. She couldn't understand the words but felt sure that these buildings were in the City of Time.

Dr. Diamond called back, "As long as you're in there, why don't you whip us up something to eat?"

They sat in the warm cab eating bread and cheese. The doctor continued driving, and Owen's voice calling out the directions had a hypnotic quality. Soon Cati was asleep.

When she awoke the snow had stopped. They were driving through a dense patch of tall pine trees, each branch laden with snow. The headlights were on, casting their yellow beams on the snowy road.

"What time is it?" she asked.

"Almost night," Dr. Diamond said. Cati looked up apprehensively at the trees that pressed in around the truck.

"Look!" Owen said. Someone was standing at the edge of the road, a small dark person just under the trees up ahead.

"It can't be anything good," Cati said, shivering.

As they drew closer, they saw it was someone bundled up in a black fur coat. They couldn't see a face. But the black-gloved thumb at the end of an outstretched arm was unmistakable.

"A hitchhiker!" Owen said.

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"Don't stop!" Cati said as the doctor eased on the brakes.

"It would be wrong to leave anyone out here at this time of the evening," Dr. Diamond said. He slowed to a halt and opened the window. "Can I offer you a lift?"

"Too right you can," a girl's voice piped up from under the hood of her coat. "Thought you wasn't going to stop for a mo'." Without hesitation the girl walked around and clambered in through the passenger door, elbowing Cati aside with a "Move over, can't you?" Cati moved, trying to put some distance between herself and the stranger.

"Nice and cozy in here," the girl said.

"Where are you going?" Dr. Diamond asked.

"Hadima, bless you," the girl said. "Nothing much else around here unless you want to cuddle up with the Albions."

"They're not very cuddly," Owen said, warming to the girl, although he hadn't even seen her face yet.

"Phew," the girl said. "Mind if I take my coat off?" She disrobed, a process that involved half standing up in the seat and poking her elbow into Cati's eye. "Sorry about that, pet."

Cati stiffened. She didn't like being referred to as
pet
, particularly by some urchin they'd picked up by the side of the road. She stole a look at her. The girl had jet-black hair and her eyes seemed to be the same color, set

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above an upturned nose and a cupid's-bow mouth. She was dressed more for a party than for the mountains, wearing a black silk jacket with a gold clasp, and a straight skirt over stockings. Her shoes were patent leather with a high heel. Her gloved hands were covered with rings, Cati noticed as the girl took a makeup mirror and lipstick out of her pocket.

"Got to apply the old war paint," she said. "The name's Rosie, by the way."

"Pleased to meet you, Rosie," Dr. Diamond said, putting the truck into gear.

"Who's the funny-looking geezer with the bump on his head?" Rosie whispered loudly.

"Dr. Diamond," Cati said. "I'm Cati, and this is Owen."

"If you don't mind me asking," Dr. Diamond said, "what are you doing out here on your own?"

"Magno hunt," Rosie said. "What else? Walked a bit far yesterday, though."

"Yesterday?" Cati said, but thought,
In those shoes?

"Yeah, took a lift with a trader. He never seen me holding on the back."

"Did you find any magno?" Owen asked.

Rosie eyed him suspiciously. "Why? Who's asking?"

"I just--"

"You just nothing," Rosie said. With her back to the door, she slipped one hand under her jacket and brought out a long slender knife.

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"No one wants your magno, Rosie," Dr. Diamond said softly. "We have our own. It's not what we're here for."

Rosie glared at them, the long needle-like knife glittering in her hand.

"I was only trying to be polite," Owen said.

"Put the knife away, Rosie. Please," Dr. Diamond said.

"All right, all right. I suppose if you wanted to rob me, you would just have run me over back there and took what you wanted," Rosie said. The knife disappeared again. "But you can't be too careful. The place is full of bandits."

"Please!" Cati said. "Do we look like bandits?"

"You
do," Rosie said.

Cati folded her arms firmly and stared ahead out the window.

Dr. Diamond suppressed a grin. "There's some chocolate in the back," he said. "Why don't you get it, Owen?"

Owen found the massive bar and broke it into four. Rosie sniffed her piece cautiously, then bit into it and devoured it with an expression of ecstasy.

"Enjoy that, did you?" Cati said.

"Ain't had any for years. Not since rationing."

"There's rationing in the City?" Dr. Diamond asked.

"Not for ordinary food, but for anything posh, like chocolate. I reckon it all goes to the Terminus."

"What is the Terminus?"

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"Where the ones are as is in charge."

It was now completely dark outside and Owen found himself yawning. Up ahead Dr. Diamond spied a rotting wooden noticeboard that showed a picnic table under trees. He turned there and they saw a tumbledown building that might at some point have been a toilet. Of picnic tables there was no sign.

"Time to stop for the night," Dr. Diamond said. "I'm not sure how safe it is to travel in the dark."

"Are there Albions around here?" Owen peered into the dark.

"You get them in the mountains," Rosie said, "and there's a different gang near the city. Should be safe enough here, though."

Dr. Diamond killed the engine and they climbed through the hatch into the back of the truck. Rosie looked around her with approval. "Not bad," she said, nodding.

"You mentioned rationing in the City," Dr. Diamond said. "Are things bad there?"

"They're not good," Rosie said, "and that's a fact. Everything's low. Magno stocks are drying up. There's only the likes of me goes up to the old mines and finds a little bit. Then there's the time famine."

"What's that?" Dr. Diamond asked.

"Ain't no time coming in. They got nothing to trade in the Bourse. Reckon it's all bought up or stole."

"The Bourse?"

"You know. Where they buy and sell time."

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"How can you buy and sell time?" Owen said.

"That's the problem," Rosie said. "If there ain't any, you can't. The City isn't happy. There was riots last year. Now the Specials is on the street all of the time. Looking for your papers and that sort of malarkey."

Owen took a large hunk of cheese from Dr. Diamond's rucksack. "I'll make cheese on toast for supper," he said. "Here. Cut this up with that knife of yours."

He threw the hard lump to Rosie. She caught it, then flinched and gasped with pain, which she tried to disguise as a cough.

"What's wrong?" Cati said.

"Nothing," Rosie said.

But Dr. Diamond could see the tears in her eyes. He moved to her side. "Let me see your hands." The scientist seemed to tower over Rosie and his voice was full of authority. Rosie looked as if she was about to resist, then she met his stern gaze and slowly stretched out her hands.

With great gentleness Dr. Diamond removed her rings, then slid off the black gloves. Owen gasped. The girl's fingers were twisted and distorted, and ugly sores and cankers covered every inch.

Cati's look softened when she saw the terrible injuries. "What happened?"

"The magno, I'd guess," Dr. Diamond said. Rosie nodded dumbly. "In its raw state, magno is a dangerous thing. And volatile. It emits a force that penetrates flesh

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and bone. I presume you're picking it from slag heaps at those mines?" Rosie nodded. "I've heard of this. Burns, distorted bones, eventually ..."

"Your hands have to be took off else they fall off," Rosie said, her voice almost defiant.

"Yes," Dr. Diamond said with a pitying look.

"Why do you do it, then?" Cati burst out.

"No choice." Rosie shrugged. "My brother got took hostage in the Terminus. They left me free to raise the ransom. That's what they do."

"That's terrible," Cati said.

"Works two ways," Dr. Diamond said. "They raise money on the ransom, and it keeps the population quiet."

Rosie put her head down so they couldn't see her eyes, but Owen caught the glint of tears. She started to pull the gloves back on.

"How much do you need?" Cati said.

"A lot more than I have," Rosie said, her voice muffled. Cati felt her heart melt. What pain she must be enduring to try to free her brother.

"I have some ointment that might help," Dr. Diamond said.

But Rosie would have none of it. She pulled on her black gloves and, with her hands safely hidden, seemed to recover some of her old spark. "So, you lot never been to the City before?" she said.

"A few days ago I didn't even know it existed," Owen said.

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"It's a tough old place for them that doesn't know their way about."

"We could probably use a guide, yes," Dr. Diamond said.

"I could guide for you," Rosie offered.

"We don't know anything about her!" Cati said, her pity reverting to suspicion.

"I don't know nothing about you neither," Rosie said. "I mean, where d'you come from? And what's your business in the City? Tell me that. I don't wanna put myself in the employ of rebels or traitors."

The friends looked at each other but didn't say anything. Rosie was amused. "Y'see? My reckoning is you want to get into the City dead quiet and go about your business, whatever that is, without nobody nosing around."

"We'll decide in the morning," Dr. Diamond said. "Now we should get some sleep. And we'll need to set watches. We don't know what might be lurking around out here. I'll take the first one."

Owen took a walk outside before settling down. It was a clear night and he could see great spiraling galaxies in the sky, and once a shooting star that burned across the sky from north to west. The forest stretched off to the left, dark and still.

When Owen climbed back inside the truck, the girls were in their bunks and had turned down the light. He could see Dr. Diamond's head through the hatch; the scientist was sitting in the driver's seat. The doctor had

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taken out some of the books Cati had been looking at earlier and was reading by the light that he wore on a strap around his head.

Owen climbed into his bunk. "Night, Cati. Night, Rosie," he said.

"Night," Cati replied, but there was no answer from Rosie.

Soon Cati could tell from Owen's even breathing that he was asleep as well. But Cati lay awake, thinking about Rosie's hands, how terrible they looked and how painful they must be.

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Chapter 13

Owen wakened to the smell of frying bacon. Dr. Diamond was busy with the pan over a roaring stove. Owen realized that he must have kept watch all night, without waking them.

"Wake up, lazybones," Rosie said.

Owen blinked out through the hatch at the windscreen. It was completely white. "It's snowing again."

"Going like the clappers for an hour," Rosie said. "Too heavy to drive through."

"We could be stuck here for days," groaned Owen, his heart sinking. He wasn't sure if the rest of them felt the same urgency he did. He'd been dreaming about that huge moon crashing into the earth.

"Weeks," Cati said.

"We could find out," Rosie said.