The Equen Queen (12 page)

Tab looked ahead again. Amelia and Philmon leaned against each other for support. Amelia's back arched as she was sick.

The silhouettes were closer now. She could see the Loraskians’ massive, bulging, insect-like eyes. What appeared to be cloaks were actually folded, dusty wings, like moths. Tab had seen them before. She had seen them in her mind when she was in the tunnel.

Nearby the dragon snickered. It tittered and bounced, once, twice, and then it launched itself over the Drop-off – chasing the glider.

Tab took a deep breath, ready to call it back, but the Loraskians sounded again, and this time Tab collapsed.

Tab awoke; at least she thought she did. She wasn't able to open her eyes or move her limbs. She could smell sour vomit all around her, and her tunic was cold, as though the sick had soaked in. It was hard to breathe and she felt a weight on her chest and legs. It was a horrifying, claustrophobic, panicky feeling, but she knew that losing her nerve wasn't going to help. She concentrated on breathing, like she had in the Barrenlands, until she felt calm again. Once her breathing was steady she sent out her thoughts.

Close by there was a bird. It was frozen too, but at least it had its eyes open. Tab was amazed how resigned the bird felt, lying on its back in the garden.
I used to fly; now I can't.

Through the bird's eyes Tab could see the Loraskian soldiers stacking the bodies of the Quentarans one upon the other in great mounds in the Square. They looked dead but she knew they were just paralysed from the Loraskians’ screech, just like Tab was. New bug-eyed soldiers brought more bodies in wheelbarrows and in carts, borrowed from the markets. Tab was horrified. What were they planning to do with them now?

She could see herself, partially, from the bird's eyes – under the shoulder of a child that had been placed above her. Tab was grateful to be near the top of one of the mounds. She spied Amelia lower in the stack and she tried to call out, but all she could manage was a wheeze.

Between the mounds of people were piles of mood stones, taken from the pockets of the Quentarans before they were placed onto the heaps. Now the stones were a cool aquamarine colour. Two or three Loraskians seemed to be assigned to counting each pile and packing the stones into special caskets, which other moth-winged soldiers carried away.

The closer Tab watched, the more encouraged she was by the care the Loraskian soldiers seemed to take in placing people on the heaps. They didn't just throw them on in any order. They seemed to be stacked from largest to smallest, and there was a limit in the height of the piles. It gave her hope that her condition was temporary. With any luck, once the Loraskians had their mood stones back they would leave the Quentarans relatively unharmed.

She watched through the bird's eyes for a time, but after a while the methodical work of the Loraskians became repetitious, even boring, to Tab. She slipped back into the darkness of her own mind and slept.

Later, Tab melded with the bird again. She stayed in the back of its mind – not controlling, just watching. It blinked and twitched. It shook its head, flipped over, bounced a few steps and flew away. Tab would have smiled, if she could.

The bird flittered through the city. The Loraskian soldiers with their cases of gems followed a crooked path in single file, like ants, towards the City Wall, where they ran up a gangplank, jumped, and then flew out across the expanse between the two cities, their grey moth-wings a blur.

The bird was reluctant to follow, but Tab pushed it gently towards the Loraskians’ sky-city. She looked out for the sky-traders’ city, but it was gone. Tab guessed they had taken advantage of the Loraskian attack on Quentaris to slip through the vortex.

The soldiers landed on their sky-city, and then marched purposefully to the centre. Here there was a great spire, which turned slowly. It was peppered with thousands of holes, like a beehive, or wasps’ nest. The soldiers would slot their case of gems into a vacant cell, collect a new, empty case and then turn back to Quentaris to have it refilled.

Tab released the bird, and then very cautiously she reached out for one of the Loraskians flying back to Quentaris. She wasn't able to slip inside its mind, but she did get a sense of its mood. She felt honour, duty and purpose, and something else, tenderness and loyalty to its comrades.

They're not horrible, she thought. They're economical. They didn't see stacking bodies as macabre, it just seemed to them the most efficient way of storing paralysed persons, while they retrieved their gemstones.

Tab's Loraskian landed and followed its comrades back through the streets. Tab sensed something else too. The Loraskians thought the Quentarans were hideous, soggy, greasy creatures. Handling them was an act of great bravery. They thought of themselves as fine looking. They thought Loraskians were the best-looking creatures in all the worlds. They weren't horrible, just conceited, like Fontagu, Tab mused.

The Loraskian stopped. Somehow it had heard her. It thought she was poking fun and it was not pleased.

>>>No
>>Not laughing at you. Amused, because underneath our skins we are all the same

The thoughts pulsated like colours in its mind. The Loraskian squeaked, which she took for a grunt of acknowledgement. It changed its course, stopping in front of another Loraskian. She got the feeling that this new one was further up in the hierarchy.

>>>I have found one that communicates

The boss Loraskian squealed a reply that Tab was not able to decipher.

The Loraskian reached for Tab in its mind.

>>>I'm here

>>>We have more slots in cases than mood stones

She wasn't sure what it meant, or what she was supposed to do about it. It opened one of the cases and placed a claw-like hand into one of the slots where the mood stones were nestled.

>>>We have more slots in cases than cold stars

In her mind Tab showed him a picture of the skytraders’ city. >>>You have all that they gave us

>>>We have more slots …

>>>In cases than cold stars
>>I know. What will you do to us if you don't recover all your cold stars?

>>>Do to you?
>>We have more slots in cases than cold stars

Tab thought about her secret chamber. She expected the idea of giving away all those jewels to hurt, but it didn't. Too many friends were in danger. She sent the Loraskian the feeling of one of the gems she found in the secret chamber.

>>>Will any cold stars do?

>>>Direct me to where you are stored

Tab wasn't able to explain left and right, near or far so she used colours, red for when it was near and blue for when it was heading in the wrong direction. After a few mistakes the Loraskian hauled her body from the pile.

Before she knew it the Loraskian stabbed her in the neck with its proboscis. She felt an ice-cold fluid rush into her veins and gradually sensation came back to her limbs.

It was good to be back inside her own body, but she was weak, and her head ached. She felt like she had been run over by a team of oxen.

The Loraskian offered to carry her, and she was grateful, knowing how repulsive she was to it. It lifted her under her knees and shoulders. Up close it smelt pungent and alkaline, but she was careful not to wrinkle her nose.

She was about to tell the Loraskian which way to go, but then she remembered that they had a problem. The tunnel's entrance was one way, and the dungeon with access to the corridor, the one she had been in with the egg, was locked.

Who would know about finding treasure? she wondered. A pirate, of course! Verris!

‘We need to find someone,’ she mumbled. The Loraskian put her down and she wandered from pile to pile, trying to recognise the faces. She appealed to the Loraskian for help, but he gave her his species’ equivalent of a shrug, as if to say, ‘You creatures all look the same to me’.

Over near the Hub she spied a few mounds of Quentarans in the marines’ uniform. Of course! That's where Verris would have been at the time of the attack – guarding the Hub and Quentaris's precious icefire.

She scuttled towards those heaps as best as her weak limbs were able, and tried to move the bodies so that she could see better.

Her Loraskian squeaked at a nearby soldier and a team of them began to dismantle the piles of marines, laying the Quentarans in a line so that Tab could see their faces.

Tab walked up the line, examining their features. In the third row she found Verris.

‘Here!’ She squatted down.

The soldier injected Verris with the antidote, and shortly afterwards he was coming around. As soon as he opened his eyes and took in the moth-like soldiers, his hand reached awkwardly for his scabbard, but he had been disarmed.

Tab explained the situation to him. When she described the tunnel and the secret chamber, she could see that the pirate lord was not surprised.

‘It's
your
treasure!’ Tab gasped.

‘Why did you tell them about it, Tab?’ he moaned.

‘Because I don't know of any other big piles of jewels lying around. Do you?’ she snapped.

‘Of course I do!’ he barked. ‘In the Archon's treasury! That's why it's
called
a treasury!’

‘Do you know how to get in?’

Verris slumped. ‘No. I have been trying for some time now.’

Tab folded her arms.

Verris held his head in his hands. ‘It is my life's work. It's taken me years to gather it all together, and you expect me to just give it to these bugs?’ He looked up, frowning. ‘Well, they can fight me for it. I'll die before I hand it over.’

‘Look at all these people!’ Tab shouted. She pointed to the mounds of Quentarans. ‘Maybe we will
all
die! You can keep your stupid treasure! But if we're all dead, who are you going to buy things from?’

She stared at Verris, and then she remembered how she felt when she first discovered the treasure, how the possessiveness overwhelmed her. Tab tried to imagine what it must be like to have shed blood and lost friends to gather all that treasure together, and to have dreamt for years and years about how you were going to spend it.

‘Can you think of another way?’ she asked him.

Verris sighed. He stood up on unsteady feet. ‘Come on, then. Let's get this over with,’ he grumbled.

Soon they were outside the tunnel's entrance. Verris frowned at Tab. ‘Turn your back!’ he instructed.

‘Why?’ Tab asked. She was curious as to how he was going to unlock the wall – whether it was by magic, or some mechanical device.

‘Why?’ he repeated. ‘Because if you were not’ prenticed as a magician, Tab Vidler, you'd be ‘prenticed as a thief. That's why! And make your way up the ranks twice as sharply, I'd imagine.’ He did a winding motion with his fingers. ‘Round you go!’

Tab sighed and turned her back, arms folded. She listened intently, but heard nothing until Verris said, ‘All right. It's done.’ When she faced the mast again the tunnel mouth was plain to see.

Verris took a torch from the first wall sconce and lit it from one in the street, then he led the group down the passageway, lighting more along the way. Tab followed him and behind her marched a crew of Loraskians, each holding an empty casket.