City of Time (29 page)

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his smiling teeth shining out from the soot on his face. He wrapped Owen in a bear hug. "Good to see you again, Navigator," he boomed.

The gentle Contessa took his hand and smiled. He had forgotten how much he had missed the Resister leader's wise counsel. "I have to talk to you," he said, and she saw pain in his eyes.

"Come to me later," she replied.

Some of the Resisters were still waking and leaving the Starry, looking around them in amazement at the scene of battle and at the retreating moon. Owen saw Wesley among the Raggies and went over to him.

A smile creased the skinny boy's tired and bloodstained face. "If it ain't the Navigator himself!" he exclaimed. "I hear tell you come out of the sky to save the lot of us."

Owen grinned. "If it hadn't been for you, there wouldn't have been much to save."

"I'll have to get a look at this sky boat," Wesley said.

"Not just a sky boat--a time boat!" Owen said, and Wesley looked at him in astonishment.

But Owen turned away. They had saved the world, and he had found the
Wayfarer
. So why was his heart so heavy?

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Chapter 36

The Resisters set about preparing an urgent Convoke for that evening. Ordinary life was resuming in the town and the Resisters had no place in it.

Owen saw Pieta, limping through the crowd, supported on either side by her two silent children. Cati called to her and ran over, but as she reached out to embrace the woman, Pieta flung her aside. Grabbing her magno whip, she tried to lash out with it, but her injuries prevented her and she fell to the ground with a groan of pain. "The Harsh!" she whispered.

Cati spun around. Silkie was standing there with the Harsh child. Samual and several of his men took a step backward and produced weapons.

"Kill it!" Samual shouted.

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"No!" Silkie leapt in front of the child, her arms outspread. "He helped us."

"It's a trick!" Samual cried.

"Wait, Samual," Contessa said. "It's true this child fired ice bolts at the attackers."

"And he saved me and Wesley's life," Silkie said.

"This must be discussed at the Convoke," Contessa said. "Can you guarantee his behavior until then, Silkie?"

"You don't have to ask," Silkie said.

"Then take him out of here."

"He's only a boy," Silkie protested. "A lost boy."

"Get it out of here!" Samual yelled. Silkie and the child turned and left without another word.

Owen went to sit in his Den until it was almost dusk. One part of him wanted to be with the Resisters, but another part wanted to be on his own. He was startled by a polite cough at the entrance.

"I thought I would find you here," Dr. Diamond said. "May I come in?" The scientist sat on the sofa while Owen made tea.

"Dr. Diamond," Owen burst out finally, "can I come and join the Resisters?"

"Why do you ask?" the doctor enquired, his head to one side.

"I could be a Watcher with Cati."

"There can only be one Watcher."

"I don't see why I can't join," Owen said stubbornly.

Dr. Diamond put down his mug of tea and stood up

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with a sigh. "Come with me," he said. He led Owen out onto the riverbank, but instead of turning toward the Workhouse he went the other way.

"Where are we going?" Owen said, but Dr. Diamond didn't answer. They walked for ten minutes under the trees, then emerged onto a pathway which they followed until they reached an ancient stone wall with a gateway in it.

"A graveyard!" Owen said in surprise. "I've never been here before."

"It can be hard to find," Dr. Diamond said. "Go in. There is someone there you need to talk to."

Dr. Diamond stood back as Owen entered the little graveyard and walked between rows of old headstones in the dusk, the names on the stones worn away by time and weather. He reached a freshly dug grave. His mother knelt by it, putting flowers on it.

"Who is it?" he asked, kneeling down beside her.

"Mary White," his mother said. "I brought her here the night she died."

"You carried her?" Owen asked in wonder.

"And buried her. You find strength when you need it, as you know, Owen.

"She was a good friend to us, and to the Resisters. Her heart gave out in the end. It's because of Mary that I was so sad and distant."

"Why?" Owen asked. "Why did she do that to you?"

"I fled with your father from Hadima. He had the Mortmain and the Harsh were in pursuit."

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Owen shivered. He remembered the Harsh cold in his bones.

"We abandoned the truck at Gobillard's shop--"

"Gobillard is dead," Owen said quietly. "The Harsh froze him."

His mother bowed her head and her eyes gleamed with tears. "Another one gone," she said at last. "You must tell me more later ... We were attacked by the Harsh. They put ice in my mind. I was in terror, screaming with pain. Mary turned off that part of my mind."

"Why?"

"So the ice could thaw. It took years. But that's why I was sad and forgetful. I'm sorry, Owen, but I couldn't have lived with the pain."

"You wouldn't talk about my father when I asked you today in Mary's shop," he said in a quiet voice. "I need to know if he is really dead."

There was a pause before Martha spoke.

"I wish for a place like this I could come to, a grave where I could lay flowers for your father. I didn't answer your question, because I didn't want to say it out loud. But in my heart I know. I know your father is dead. When his car crashed into the harbor with you in it, I knew ... You were saved, Owen, but he was lost."

Owen reached out and took his mother's hand and they knelt there as the shadows grew long around them. Then they rose and walked slowly back toward the Workhouse.

As they approached they met Rutgar.

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"You're just in time," he said. "The Convoke is about to start."

Owen looked around and saw Contessa. "I have to talk to her first. ..."

He broke away from Martha and approached the woman. Contessa could see the anxiety in his face. "What is it, Owen?"

"The Sub-Commandant ...," he began.

She looked at him, puzzled. "Cati's father? He is gone, Owen, drawn into the Puissance. You were there."

"No." He told Contessa about the brooch and the message, then about how the Sub-Commandant had appeared when the Harsh king held the Puissance in his hand. How he'd told Owen to destroy the Puissance, even though it would mean the end of his own life.

"I did it, Contessa. I destroyed the Puissance. Cati ... I killed her father."

Contessa could see that the full horror of what he had done was just dawning on him. "You did not kill him, Owen. You had no choice, as he had none. He commanded you to act, and because you did, this world is safe for a while longer."

"But Cati ..."

"Cati is a Resister, and she is the Watcher. Her father's daughter."

"Do I tell her, Contessa?"

"I cannot make that decision for you."

* * *

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The Convoke met in the great hall of the Workhouse, roofless now, as they had not had time to repair it. The Raggies perched themselves where they could find space along the wall. Samual's soldiers were there in brightly colored uniforms, as were Rutgar's men and women of the guard. Owen sat on the dais with Contessa and Cati and Dr. Diamond. Martha sat with the Resisters. Wesley joined the Raggies, but there was no sign of Silkie or the Harsh child. Pieta sat in her customary place at the fireside, her son and daughter standing solemn-faced beside her.

To Owen's surprise it was Cati who stood up and called the Convoke to order. Her voice was firm and precise, and he was reminded of her father. She called on Dr. Diamond, who stood and bowed to her gravely.

"We thank you, Watcher, from the bottom of our hearts. You have done great service." Cati blushed and bowed back.

He told the assembled Resisters everything that had happened since he, Cati, and Owen had left for the City, and there were many interruptions for questions and gasps of astonishment. When they learned about Owen and the
Wayfarer
and how he had brought the tempod back, they rose to their feet and cheered him. He bowed, red-faced, and thought about the first time he had met the Resisters, when he had stood alone and almost friendless in front of the same Convoke.

When Dr. Diamond had finished, Wesley stood and

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told his part and was cheered again, the Raggies shouting themselves hoarse.

"This is all very well," Samual said, getting to his feet, "but what do we do now?"

"We must return to sleep," Contessa said. "Time is safe again. We are not needed, for now."

"But we've just been woken," someone protested.

"Contessa is right," Dr. Diamond said. "The townspeople are coming back."

"It is a hard thing to do, but our lives were meant to be hard. We are Resisters," Cati said firmly.

"And no life is harder or more lonely than that of the Watcher," Owen found himself saying. Cati shot him a grateful glance and was puzzled when he looked away.

There were a few grumbles from the Convoke, but mainly they accepted Cati's words.

"I have prepared a feast from stores," Contessa said. "Later we must return to the Starry, but tonight we shall celebrate."

The Convoke was about to rise when Samual spoke. "Wait. Have you forgotten? The Harsh walk among us. Where is the Harsh child?"

"He has gone," a small voice from the back said, and Silkie walked forward, looking miserable and very alone.

"You were supposed to guard him!" Samual shouted. "What harm is he doing now?"

"I went outside and when I came back he was gone," Silkie said, sounding close to tears.

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Dr. Diamond watched and said nothing. It was he who had secretly beckoned to the Harsh child and led him to the edge of the sea. "You must go," he had said, "for they are afraid and may kill you."

The child turned to him without a word, and Dr. Diamond felt the loneliness, but also saw the beginnings of a small, cold smile.
His little heart may thaw yet
, Dr. Diamond thought. He watched in silence as the Harsh boy raised his hand and began to build a bridge of ice, casting it in front of him as it melted behind. In minutes the child was a speck on the ocean, and then was gone.

"Wretched girl!" Samual snapped. "I told you we should have killed it when we had the chance."

"Leave the girl alone." The voice was low but carried a menace they all recognized. Pieta rose slowly to her feet. "If it was not for Silkie rousing the Raggies and befriending the Harsh child, we would all be dead."

"We saw it," Owen said, remembering the visionater. "We saw the future and the Workhouse burning."

The Raggies started booing Samual, and others in the Convoke began arguing loudly. Dr. Diamond held up his hand.

"Pieta is right. Furthermore, this is something that has never happened with the Harsh before. Silkie forged a connection that may help us in the future." He turned slowly, looking around the silent room. "And apart from all of that, I'm hungry!"

A great roar drowned out Samual's protests. The

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Resisters started to stream toward the doors. Then Owen stood up.

"Wait!" he said. His voice sounded very small and feeble to his own ears, but they all stopped and turned toward him.

"In the City ... in Hadima ... I stood before the Harsh king. He held the Puissance in his hand and I saw many faces in it. But one spoke to me: that of the Sub-Commandant."

He could see Cati's face in the crowd. She had turned very pale. He knew what she was thinking. He had seen her father and had not told her. Why? The hall was very still.

"I had to destroy the Puissance." His voice sounded firm now, echoing from the great stone walls. "It was a thing with the power to undo worlds. I had to destroy it, and by doing that, I ended the life of a great man, the Sub-Commandant. We knew he was lost; now we know he is gone."

There were gasps of shock, then all eyes turned to Cati.

"He told you to do it, didn't he?" Cati said. Owen nodded dumbly. "My father told you to destroy the Puissance, knowing it would end his life. But you didn't say that because you wanted to take the responsibility on your own shoulders."

"I--" Owen began.

"I know what you did. I pay tribute to your bravery, Navigator, and I thank you for obeying my father's

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