Diamond Mask (Galactic Milieu Trilogy) (14 page)

The professor frowned, her face showing concern rather than annoyance. “Poor baby. It has been a long walk, hasn’t it? But we’ve just come to the best birding place on all Islay. And there’s wonderful news! One of the people we’ve just been talking to says that a small flock of retroevolved great auks have been spotted swimming off the rocks just a klom or so further west along the cliff track. Your mum and Uncle Robbie and Aunt Rowan are eager to be off at once.”

“Great auks? …”

“A black-and-white flightless bird that looks something like a huge penguin. They stand nearly a meter high. They were exterminated in 1844. But genetic engineers used DNA from some skins preserved in the British Museum to bring them back again about ten years ago. The breeding colonies are still very small and rare, and we’ll be very lucky to see them.”

Dee turned away. In spite of all her resolution, tears had begun to slide down her cheeks. “Granny, I don’t feel well. I’m sorry to be so tiresome. Maybe I could just sit here by myself and wait while the rest of you go and see the auks.”

“No, that wouldn’t do, Dorothea.” Masha sighed, then smiled at the sight of Dee’s woeful face. “Don’t worry, dear. I’ll wait with you, and you can try to take a little nap. When you wake up, you’ll probably feel much better. I don’t mind staying. I’ve already seen the great auk. I’ll just tell the others, then come right back.”

Dee closed her eyes.

Oh, angel, I really would like to go to sleep and forget this horrid feeling! Why am I so sure that something awful is going to happen? Should I tell Gran Masha about the bad exotics in the farmhouse? Should I tell her about the mind-reamer? … But I don’t want anybody to think I’m a silly baby! I only want to hide. Hide behind my strong blue wall and float on my nice rosy pool and be safe. That’s all I want. Can’t I just do that—?

“There, now. It’s all settled.”

Dee opened her eyes. Gran stood there together with a very glum-faced Ken. “The three of us will wait here while your Mum and aunt and uncle go see the great auks at Geodh Ghille Mhóire.”

“I wanted to go!” Ken said peevishly.

Masha undid her pack, took out a cushion, and pinched it to inflate it. “You’re tired, too, Kenneth. The walk to the geodh is strenuous and you’re better off staying here, as your Mum said. Sit here beside me on the cushion. It seems there’s only enough grass for Dorothea.”

Still grumbling, Ken settled down.

“What’s a gyo gilmore?” Dee asked sleepily.

“It means ‘Gilmour’s Chasm.’ It’s a steep cleft in the northwestern corner of the island, and once a terrible shipwreck happened there. But never mind about that. I’m going to tell you another story—one I heard when I first came to Islay many years ago.” Masha put one arm around Ken and the other around Dee. Since her rejuvenation, Gran wasn’t quite as soft and comfy as she used to be, but it still felt very good to be cuddled next to her.

“Did you hear the story from Grandad?” Ken asked.

“Yes. Now hush and listen: The story is about the great cave at Bholsa on the other side of Loch Gruinart. It’s the biggest cave in the west of Scotland. For centuries people used it as a shelter and even kept sheep in the area around the entrance. But they were afraid to go very deep inside because it was said that its tunnel led straight to the fiery underworld.”

“You mean, like hell?” Ken asked doubtfully.

“Yes. Now let me tell the tale. One day a brave piper said he was going to find out for himself what was inside the great cave, and he marched in playing ‘MacCrimmon’s Lament,’ with his little dog following after …”

Dee closed her eyes again and let the calm voice of her grandmother fill her mind, overwhelming everything else.

She dreamed she was a white gyrfalcon, flying high above the rocky headland, following Mummie and Uncle Robbie and Aunt Rowan. As the three tiny figures approached a long, deep cleft in the rocks they began to hurry. Strange noises came faintly on the wind. Was it the great auk? The gyrfalcon lofted high, curving out over the churning sea and then turning back to fly up the geodh.

The three figures reached the lip of the chasm.

And one by one, as the falcon watched in helpless horror, they leapt into empty space. They tumbled slowly, slowly down, as gently as falling leaves, neither their minds nor their voices crying out, until they landed on a rocky shelf. There the waves boomed and hissed as the sea surged into the cleft, reluctantly
retreated, then came roaring back again to wash over the bodies lying there.

In the cliffside was a dark hole, and from it came a scuttling dwarfish thing that moved as quickly as a spider.

The Kilnave Fiend.

Plummeting down, the gyrfalcon cried a warning. At the sound of the bird’s scream the three people lying on the drenched rock slowly lifted their heads and caught sight of the horrid thing approaching.

Get up! the falcon cried. Run! Run!

But the adults seemed paralyzed—or else they did not understand her. She swooped past their listless faces and hurtled toward the Fiend himself, talons outstretched and beak agape.

Instantly, the dwarf changed, expanding into a huge, ungainly black beast larger than an elephant, having four misshapen heads. Its eight eyes blazed blue-white like a constellation of evil stars, and its red mouths had pointed tongues thrusting in and out. Four long, supple necks bent over Uncle Robbie and the many black limbs held him fast.

Slimy lips pursed. The thing began to suck out his life.

She flung herself at the monster telling it: NO NO STOP STOP—

Pain.

The most awful pain she had ever felt. It lasted only an instant, and when it stopped the four-headed monster had vanished. Dee seemed to see two men and two women deep inside the wet green cave, laughing. On the rocky floor were three smoking dark mounds that might have been large heaps of half-burnt seaweed. Mummie and Uncle Robbie and Aunt Rowan were gone.

“Go away!” the red-mouthed bright-eyed people said. “Go away, you stupid bird, and find your own food! There’s nothing at all left here. Nothing but ashes.”

She knew then what the smoking piles must be. She screamed and flew at the four adults in a rage of sorrow. But before her talons struck, the people turned again into the ravening monster. Its black arms spread wide. It seized her and the four laughing mouths got ready to suck and once again there was horrible pain …

Dee woke from the dream, crying out. Ken, somewhere nearby, was also shrieking at the top of his lungs.

She was not a gyrfalcon but her own self. And the pain was
real. Her head was covered by something, and she was being squeezed so tightly that she could hardly breathe. She kicked and struggled until finally she tore herself free and scrabbled about in the stony dust, dazzled by the sudden daylight, sobbing and gulping and gasping as she regained her breath. She crawled a short distance away, still hearing Kenny’s screams, feeling giddy with shock.

It was some moments before the dizziness passed. And then Dee saw that it had not been the Kilnave Fiend of her nightmare trying to crush her. It was Gran Masha!

Her grandmother sat with her back to a large rock, her youthful features so distorted that she was hardly recognizable. Her eyes were shut tightly and her mouth was twisted awry. She was making an inhuman rhythmic groaning noise, as though every breath she took was unbearable agony, and she clutched Kenny, flailing and howling, to her breast. His head was partially muffled by her open jacket.

Dee heard Masha’s mind shouting:
Holdyouholdyou notletyougo neverletyougo you FIEND!

Dee was nearly paralyzed with fear. What was wrong with Gran? “Let him go!” she screamed. “Gran, let Kenny go, you’re hurting him!”

Had the Kilnave Fiend somehow got inside Gran’s mind? Dee tried to shout again but found that she was unable to utter a sound. It was not until she thought to close her eyes and summon the healing redness that she regained any strength. She climbed to her feet then and staggered toward the cliff overlook.

“Help! Somebody help!”

But no one was there. She turned back, heading for the steep path that led down to the car park, trying not to hear Ken’s weakening cries and the ghastly sounds made by her grandmother.

“Help! Help!” She stumbled down the trail, tripping over heather roots and exposed rocks, pulling herself back up, canceling out the pain, shouting again, going on and on—

CHILD. STOP.

She was brought up short, coerced to a standstill, nearly fainting, certain that the four-headed monster who had driven Gran crazy was now taking hold of her with its deadly mental power.

No, little girl. You are safe. I will not harm you. I am an official of the Galactic Magistratum. A kind of policeman. Open your mind to me and tell me what is wrong. OPEN.

A vast indigo wave swallowed her. Coercion. Almost overwhelming
her protective shield, yet failing at the last. She was still safe! But Gran Masha and Kenny … She looked into the face of an elderly man who held her by the shoulders as he knelt in front of her.

He was wearing a garish orange sports jacket.

“My g-granny … my b-brother …” she stuttered. Then she seemed to see him properly for the first time, and she whispered: “You!”

Be still, Dorothea Macdonald. I will not hurt you. I will help you if I can.
[By the All-Penetrant! What a mind-screen this infant weaves! I don’t believe I can force it.] “Little one, tell me in verbal speech what is wrong. Are you hurt?”

“No …” It was the Krondaku, all right, but no longer talking like a fake Scot! “My granny—the Kilnave Fiend’s got her. And my brother. Up there.” Dee pointed, then she pulled herself loose from the exotic’s illusory hands and began to run back the way she had come. “Come on!” she shouted, and was lost to view behind a rock outcropping.

“Wait. Trust me. Open your mind. It will be so much quicker!”

But the child ignored him, and so Evaluator Throma’eloo Lek thrust forth his seekersense, located the madwoman with the half-throttled boy far up the slope, smote her with his coercion to force her to turn the lad loose, poured the balm of redaction upon the suddenly released victim, and was astounded to realize that he knew the deranged operant female who now lay thrashing weakly among the rocks at the top of the headland of Tòn Mhór.

“Sacred Aperiodicity! It’s Professor Masha MacGregor-Gawrys! And what’s this in her mind? … I cannot believe it. All
three?
And branded with those peculiar radially symmetrical patterns of ash? Extraordinary!”

Earth’s gravity was twice the optimum for the Krondak species and the planet was oxygen-deprived as well. Lacking the vulgar metafaculty of psychokinesis that might have sped him on his way, the Evaluator could only struggle up the path with ponderous slowness. Finally, in order to conserve his fast-dwindling energies, he shed the superficial guise of humanity and slithered au naturel to the scene of the disaster, pushing aside with his tentacles the sharp rocks and obstructing plant life. His primary optics glowed bright blue.

The little girl uttered a shriek when the exotic apparition first came into view, but she stood her ground beside her collapsed
brother, an expression of fierce resolution on her face. Masha and the little boy lay about two meters apart. Ken was coughing and weeping, while the professor still rolled feebly in the throes of her seizure.

“Stand back, Dorothea. Do not touch your grandmother. I will take care of her. You may assist your brother if you are able. Give him some water. See that he does not aspirate it—choke on it.”

Uncertain, Dee stared at the hideous being for a moment, then nodded. She unzipped one of the daypacks that had been flung aside by Gran’s struggles, took out a water bottle, and knelt beside Ken.

The exotic sent out several urgent farspoken communications. Then he supported Masha’s lolling head with one tentacle while a second pressed against her forehead. Instantly, the paroxysms ceased and she fell back in a faint. The Krondaku gently lowered her to the ground and placed the air cushion beneath her head. After a few moments she opened her eyes and moaned softly.

“Be at ease, dear colleague. It is I, Throma’eloo Lek.”

“Lek?” Masha’s voice was hoarse. “Oh, thank God. I
tried
to hold it for the authorities, but … Did—did you see in my mind what happened? In the sea-cave?”

“Yes.” His voice was solemn and portentous. “This is a very grave situation. More serious even than you realize, for I know what kind of entity has done this terrible thing.” Masha mydearfriend are you capable of mental speech? I do not want to traumatize the children further by speaking of this in front of them.

Lek! I hurt poor little Dorothea&Kenneth! I didn’t mean to nonono I was deluded thought they were the THING ohGod as the three of them began to die to give up their lifeforce in that hideous way the vision burst into my farsight and I saw them burn and I tried to seize the THING I thought I had it but … but …

[
Peace.
] I am afraid that you suffered a violent brainstorm. Perhaps it was indeed triggered by the draining of the lifeforce from the persons who were beloved by you. Perhaps it was caused by … something else. I have repaired some of your mental damage but you will require additional treatment later. The two children are well. I redacted their minor injuries.

Lek! Call the Magistratum fortheloveofGod Viola&Robbie&Rowan were burnt beyond recognition beyond any
hope of regeneration how in Christ’sname could it have happened CATCH THE THING THE KILNAVEFIEND BEFORE IT GETS AWAY—

I regret to say it is already gone. The local police are on their way and I have summoned investigators of the Human Magistratum from both Edinburgh and Concord. And also the First Magnate of the Human Polity.

Paul Remillard? But—

This tragedy concerns him personally. And his family.

“I don’t understand.” Masha spoke aloud. Slow tears had begun to streak her dusty face. Her hair lay in sweaty strands, which a gentle tentacle brushed back from her forehead.

“Gran Masha?” Dee stood there, hesitatingly offering the water bottle. “Would you like a drink, too?”