The Red Queen (117 page)

Then I saw Ariel approaching Dameon very slowly, a taunting smile on his beautiful face. The empath’s blind eyes stared unseeing before him, his expression fixed, intense, and I guessed that he was empathising as hard as he could, striving to use his formidable talent to turn the emotions of their attackers against them. But it was not working. This realisation seemed to come to Dameon as I watched, and I saw anguish replace the still concentration in his face, as two men caught hold of him and bound him. He struggled hard, but he could not fight and there were two of them, hard muscled and powerful. Then Ariel leaned close to whisper into his ear. I did not hear what he said, but as he turned away, he laughed cruelly, and I saw Dameon’s lips move. Ariel did not react, as if the word had been too softly said for him to hear, but I had seen Dameon’s lips shape my name, and felt as if my heart would break.

Then Ariel whirled and raised his hands as Fey flew at him and Gavyn appeared out of nowhere. He hurtled towards the man holding Ana, leaping onto him, snarling and clawing and biting. I saw Rasial close on the men holding Dameon at the same time, belly close to the ground, snarling lips drawn back to reveal sharp white teeth in her red maw. The men released Dameon and backed away, reaching for their daggers, but before she could attack them, the man Gavyn was on threw Ana roughly down, plucked the boy from his back, and drove a dagger into his chest.

Gavyn screamed and Rasial reared, coiled, and howled terribly as she turned to go to the boy, flung down into the red dust like a pale rag beside Ana’s still form. Then all of the men froze and I realised the ground was shaking when several of them staggered. They looked up in terror and I knew Entina had given its terrible howl, then Ariel was shouting and the men bent to their tasks once more. The one who had thrown Ana down bent to scoop up her limp body and two others caught hold of Dameon again, another pair lifting Swallow between them, then all of them made their way around the side of the dome and vanished from sight. Only the slight cloaked figure had not moved and Ariel went to take the reins of the ponies. When he led them off in the wake of the others, the cloaked figure followed.

‘Where?’ I asked Rasial. ‘Where did he take them?’

She sent me an image of the dome and I wanted to fly after them, but it was clear that Gavyn was mortally wounded and I could not simply abandon him. I bent over his chest, appalled and helpless.

‘Go,’ Rasial sent. ‘There is nothing you can do ElspethInnle. I/we are together. You go. Save the funaga.’

I looked up at Fey who was still wheeling and circling overhead then I laid my hand on the white dog’s paw, where it rested on the boy’s arm. ‘Hold him, Rasial. I will summon help.’ Then I rose and tried to reach out to Matthew, to warn him and to summon help for Gavyn, but the block had resumed, and Redport was impenetrable. Desperate, I shaped a probe to Blyss and found her at once.

‘Elspeth!’ she cried in delight, and then I felt her recoil from the fear that filled me. Unable to moderate my emotions, I simply showed her what I had been shown and bade her have someone go to the settlement to warn Matthew and Dragon that Ariel had not got away on the emissary’s ship after all, and to come to the dome camp, for the sake of a dying boy who might yet be saved.

Then I withdrew and farsent Sendari, bidding him go and carry Blyss to the dome camp.

‘The Moonwatcher is not here,’ Gahltha beastspoke me urgently.

‘I know, I don’t think he was here, nor Darga either, for they were not in the visions Rasial gave me.’ I showed him the images Rasial had shown me as we rounded the dome. There was no sign of anyone but I could see the hoof prints of the ponies crossing the rail running into the first dome, and around past the entrance to the second dome, and I wondered with a sinking heart if he had taken them into the mine commandeered by the Ekoni. But then I saw that the hoof prints ran into the next to last dome in the row. I was about to enter it when the ground shook, and moments later I heard again the hideous howling cry of the Entina, louder than ever before. And I realised with horror that it was coming from
within the dome.

Yet surely Swallow had said it dwelt in the dome closest to Redport. He had assumed that because that was the only one he had not looked inside. But the Ekoni had taken refuge there, which they would never have done if it housed the Entina.

I had stopped at the sound of its howl, my blood turned to ice, but now I forced myself to enter. In layout, it was exactly the same as the first dome I had entered with Swallow to steal a food hopper.

The hoof marks ran alongside the twin rails that cut through the crops, and I followed them, utterly puzzled as to why Ariel would enter any dome, let alone the one that housed the monster. As before, daylight was diffused through the surface of the dome, and it was a rich, peaceful vista of plenty, but there were no people working in the fields, nor loading hoppers nor pushing mine carts. Obviously no one had come because all usual work practices would have been suspended with the fall of the Gadfians who had established them. It was utterly quiet but for the soft hum of insects and an occasional hissing sound that frightened me until I realised it was coming from a device that looked and moved like a very slow metal spider, flinging intermittent bursts of water in airy arcs. The rails ran around the crops closer to the rear of the dome, but the ponies and the wagon had diverged, gouging a clear path diagonally across a tall yellow crop, which showed me exactly where Ariel and his men had gone.

I set off along it, but Gahltha butted at me and bade me mount up, for if there was danger ahead, he could use his hoofs to repel it and get me away faster than I could run on foot. Once mounted, I could see over the head-high crop to the edge of the dome and a cluster of low buildings near the rails. I could not see any movement about them. I bade Gahltha go slowly and quietly, so that I could hear if anyone spoke or moved before they saw us. It was hard to think because of my fear for my friends. They had been alive in Rasial’s vision, but they could all be dead by now. I tried to farseek them, but I could find nothing.

I did not have to wonder why Ariel had not left Redport by ship, but had troubled to make it seem he had, even to the point of removing the machine that caused the block. He wanted Sentinel. The only thing that made no sense was why he had not brought me with him, for I had been his prisoner. Unless he had not known there was something yet to be acquired when he had taken me captive. It might be that he had imagined I had all he needed, only to discover that there was one last thing. The cloaked figure, whom I had seen in Rasial’s memories and who might be one of his infamous nulls, may have told him so.

So he had left me behind, making it seem he had left with the emissary, knowing I would be rescued and would continue my quest, believing he was no longer any immediate danger. The emissary must be waiting for him to return with the promised weapon, never knowing the extent of treachery he was capable of offering to any ally. It might even be that he had warned the Chafiri of an uprising and had bidden them take refuge in their compounds until he had dealt with the threat.

And I had done exactly as he would have hoped. I had entered Luthen’s crypt in search of Cassandra’s final clue – the key to the darkest door. Only I had found nothing. Unless, once set in place, the stone sword would reveal something more than the Red Queen’s sceptre.

Was
that
why Ariel had taken the others? He thought to use them to force me to give him what I found. I felt sick at the knowledge that I must complete my quest, no matter what. Or did he think to threaten to free the Entina? The threat would be a dire one if he were capable of freeing the beast. Yet I could not allow it to stop me completing my quest. As soon as I knew what Ariel was doing in the dome, I would ride straight back to Redport, warn Rushton, use the stone sword and leave.

All at once, I saw a figure ahead, rising above the crops, one arm outstretched. Too high. It must be standing on something. I farsought, but found my way blocked by a familiar static. Whoever it was wore a demon band. It was not until we came to the end of the crop that there was a fallow field and I could see that the person I had seen from afar was not standing on something, but had been bound to a wooden frame, one arm stretched out. Closer still, I saw that it was Ana, and although she had been tied to the frame, the outstretched hand was held in place by a dagger, driven through her palm into the wood. Her face was a mask of agony, running with sweat and blood and streaked with tears and red dust. Her hair and clothes were wet with perspiration.

How long had she been there?! I had assumed Ariel had only just left the camp because of the smoking pot, but seeing Ana, I realised it must have been burning for an hour or more.

Perhaps I made some sound, for she opened her eyes and they were full of terror, then they settled on me. ‘Elspeth . . .’ she groaned, and it broke my heart to hear hope in it.

I leapt from Gahltha’s back onto the frame and looked in horror at her mutilated hand. Anything I did would cause her further agony. I removed the demon band fixed around her neck with hands I willed to be steady and told her that I would render her unconscious before I pulled out the dagger.

‘No’ she rasped. ‘Wait, first I must tell you. He ordered his men – Salamander’s men – to carry Swallow and the others into . . . into the mine tunnel, and to lay them at the mouth of the beast’s lair. They did as he bade them and then returned. He . . . he said it was a lesson to you . . . not to think you had won before . . . before the end of the game. He said to tell you that you and the Red Queen would . . . would grovel and beg at his knee ere all ended. Then he did this to me . . . so that I could point the way . . . then he left.’

‘When?’ I asked.

‘Hours, I think. I don’t know, I kept fainting . . .’ She opened her eyes and looked at me. ‘Gavyn?’

‘I . . . I think he is dying,’ I said.

‘Free me . . . I have . . . medicines in my . . . my pack,’ she said. ‘Do not make me sleep.’

Aghast, I said, ‘It will be unthinkably painful to pull out the dagger!’

‘I don’t care. I am no use to anyone unconscious . . . Free me and . . . use your powers to keep me awake. Then go and help the others. Do it now . . . quickly.’

Oh there was such courage in her!

I swallowed my tears and clenched my teeth and reached into her mind to hold her conscious and then I gathered my courage, closed my hand about the hilt of the dagger and heaved at it with all my might. I chose speed over agonising gentleness but it did not come free at once. She gave several terrible screams and sobbing shrieks of pain, and when her hand was free, I had to fight to hold her awake, absorbing the waves of pain with her, until she could muster her own potent will. Only then, did I draw back. She collapsed to her knees, whimpering, and bade me go.

On the verge of obeying, I heard the Entina roar. Inside the dome, the sound was crushingly loud and I staggered to my knees until its shuddering, roaring cry ended.

Freed of the need to be careful by the news that Ariel had left, I ran lightly down the sloping passage to the mine, determined to save the others from the Entina, if they lived. Of course there were no more miners than farm slaves working in the aftermath of the uprising, and I had the advantage of having seen the mine before. I had never entered it, of course, but I had coerced the tale told by a miner who had been posted to the ilthum mine as a punishment, and had seen his friend devoured. I was very grateful I had been unable to see the ghastly feast, but I could vividly recall the miner’s terror.

The silver rails had ceased at the top of the mine where the larger hoppers stood, and there were grooves in the earth which I knew were made by the smaller hoppers the miners used to bring loads up to fill the big hoppers. A team of two shifted the smaller hoppers and the larger hopper was filled and then moved to Redport along the rails by a team of four. There were a good many boot marks but it was impossible to tell how long ago they had been made. My feet thudded softly against the rammed earth floor as I hurried down the slope, seeming to mock the heavy, sluggish beat of my heart. I was not afraid that Ariel had left someone in the passage to capture me. Ana had made it clear that he and his minions had gone, presumably to make their way to the Sentinel base. I could not imagine this was anything other than a delaying tactic, and more of his strange cruel revenge for the fact that he needed me. He
wanted
me to get to my destination; wanted me to come to the mouth of the beast’s lair and find them devoured: dear, gentle, blind Dameon; brave, bold Swallow.

I realised that I was weeping. I brushed the tears away and prayed that the mutant beast had not discovered any of them yet. Its reputed fickleness of appetite was my only hope, but I could not help thinking how often the creature had uttered its awful cry in the last few hours.

The dark deepened and I slowed, cursing myself for not having the sense to bring light. Then, as if in answer to the thought, I saw light, a bobbing circle of brightness that came closer until I could see the small boy carrying it. He was Gadfian, but there was a Landborn look about his eyes, too. He stopped dead when he saw me and asked in a frightened whisper who I was.

I tried to enter his mind for the sake of expediency, but he was naturally shielded. I said as gently as I could, ‘I am Elspeth and I have come to look for my friends. What is your name?’

His eyes widened in his filthy woebegone face and some of the fear receded. ‘I’m Ika. I came to find my da but . . .’ He hung his head and admitted that he had been unable to make himself go past the monster’s lair to the mine. Then, hopefully, he asked, ‘Are your friends being punished, too? Maybe we can go down together.’

I was puzzled by his talk of punishment. ‘Why do you think you father is down in the mine, Ika?’ I asked, coveting his light.

‘Because he is a
miner,
silly,’ the boy said scornfully. ‘And because the miners sent to this mine had to go down yesterday even though everyone else was going to Dragonstraat and there was no curfew, because of it being a punishment. But Da didn’t come back an’ . . . an’ Mam said the monster et him and she cried and went to bed. But my da promised he was too tough and he would break its teeth if it dared try. I thought maybe the Ekoni forgot the miners because of the ball and the emissary coming to Dragonstraat. Da said they could never come home at the end of a day without an Ekoni unshackling them from the mine chains. And Nil’s nuncle is a miner with my da and being punished too, and
he
didn’t come back neither.’

‘It sounds as if you might be right about your father being stuck in the mine,’ I said. ‘How about
I
go and release him and you go back up and wait,’ I offered.

His eyes flared with hope and then it faded. ‘You won’t be able to find them. My da said they work in a different bit of the mine every day. But he drew the tunnels for me in the dust, and I remembered them for a game. I know where they were going.’

‘All right,’ I said, realising I would not be able to get the light from the lad save by force, and despite my own need, I could not help but be touched by his pugnacious courage. ‘We’ll go together but let me hold the light, and we had better stay to the middle of the passage for I believe there are cracks and rifts along both sides further down.’

‘It’s all right till it gets near the monster’s lair,’ Ika said, slipping his hand into mine without embarrassment. ‘But then there’s the mist that comes out and my da says it’s that does for most miners that get et. It makes them muddled in the head and it’s right where the big cracks start. And it’s hard to see even if you have a light. But it’s better once you get past, Da says.’

‘The mist . . .’ I muttered, remembering the miner saying to his circle of listeners that it befuddled your mind.

The boy nodded. ‘Da says he holds his breath but the smell gets in through your skin anyway.’

I noticed it had suddenly got a good deal colder, and our breath was beginning to come out in puffs of white. ‘Ika, did you see anyone else come here today?’

He looked up at me. ‘You mean the laughing man with the white hair? Him that brought the monster some dead people to eat?’

His words roused such a tide of fear in me that I could not speak at all. But I managed to nod when he lifted his light to look at me.

Oblivious to my apprehensions, he went on, ‘I saw him. I was coming out because I was too sacred to go down past the monster’s lair, and I heard people coming down the passage talking about feeding the monster. I thought it must be some Ekoni and they would throw me into the monster’s lair for fun the way I saw them throw a cat in the water once, and laugh while it drowned, the poor thing. Then I heard a man laughing and it was such a horrible creepy laugh that I got scared so I climbed in a hopper. I was so scared they would find me. I stayed hiding till he came back and went back out of the mine, then I thought maybe they were hiding just up the top, waiting for me, so I stayed and then I fell asleep.’ He said this with an incredulous air that would have been funny had not the situation been so terrifying.

The mist began almost imperceptibly as a light haze in the air, but once I became aware of its icy dampness settling on my skin, the air in the tunnel quickly thickened into a heavy vapour that reflected the light back instead of allowing it to reach any surface. I gave a gasp at the sight of a woman running across the tunnel. The walls were unbroken, so where had she come from?

‘Are you seeing things yet?’ Ika asked.

‘I think I am,’ I said, relieved.

‘We better be careful. My da says he counts so he knows how muddled he is getting.’

I did as the boy suggested as we continued to descend, and the mist grew so dense that the air seemed to thicken, changing gradually from white to a dirty brown. I felt the potency of whatever was in the fog, and tried to ignore the vague phantoms flitting about. Once I flinched, for I thought I heard Jes calling my name. I kept a tight hold on the boy, for whom I felt some responsibility. He had fallen silent, and when I looked at him more closely I saw his eyes were downcast and his lips were moving.

Then I saw a yellowish flash of light ahead. I stopped and squinted, lifting the lightball, but there was nothing but the slow roiling movement of the fog. Obviously I had imagined it. If only I had thought to weave a coercive net to trap the confusion higher up, for now when I tried, I could not focus my mind enough to make use of my Talents. I went back to counting.

Ika flapped a hand and I looked at him to see he was batting away some imaginary flying thing. I wondered dreamily what it was then I put my foot into a narrow crack and fell hard, slamming into the ground and dragging the boy down with me.

The fright and shock and pain cleared my mind. Ika sat up and looked around as if he had just woken as well. I realised we had slipped into a daze, but I was glad we had fallen because I could see better at ground level, which meant the mist was thinner there. Indeed, when I laid my cheek down I saw that it was floating just above the ground. I breathed in several deep breaths, and bade Ika do the same. The air was much fresher and I wondered if I could manage to create a coercive net.

Then I heard the sound of movement. I told myself I was imagining it, until I saw the fear on Ika’s face. He thought it was the mutant beast and my own heart gave a great bound of responsive terror, until I became aware the sound was coming from
behind
us.

A different kind of fear assailed me then, for it suddenly occurred to me that Ana had said Ariel had gone, but she had also said she had fainted some of the time. What if he had crept back after I had gone into the mine tunnel? I got to my feet quickly and reached for my dagger only to realise I had left it with Gretha when I had changed into the green tunic.

Then Gahltha materialised like a dark and shining wraith and Ika gave a terrified wail.

‘Hush, is it only a horse,’ I whispered.

I stood and beastspoke a greeting but Gahltha did not react or stop. It was as if he did not see or hear me. Realising that he was being affected by the mist, I reached out to tug hard at his mane, for pain had worked wonders on Ika and me. He reared back and gave a whinny of protest, rolling his eyes and baring his teeth.

I caught his mane and, holding onto it firmly, pressed my hand to his flank and entered his mind, relieved to find my mind was clear enough to do so. ‘Gahltha, my dear! This mist is like the smoke from dreamweed. You must fight it. Why have you come after me? Has Ariel returned?’

‘No, Ana sent me to help you carry the others. She sent light. A knife. Tied to my mane.’

‘I thought I saw a cat,’ murmured Ika dreamily.

‘It is the fog,’ I reminded him, pressing my nails into my grazed palms till they stung to keep my head clear. ‘Pinch yourself when your mind starts drifting.’ I turned to Gahltha and bade him drop his head low as if to graze, so that his nose was close to the ground, because the air was clearer there.

He did this and I found the sack Ana had tied loosely in his mane and freed it. I rummaged and was elated to find she had sent a lightstick. Throwing off the red gauze and the silk gown, I tied the sack to my belt, then I touched the lightstick mechanism. A hard white beam of light shot out in a narrow stream that cut through the murk. I handed Ika’s little lightball back to him and turned to play the light beam along the tunnel. Some way ahead, it flattened out and I could see there were rifts in its floor running up the walls, just visible through the eddying fog. There were not just one or two cracks, but a ragged ladder of them either side of the tunnel, as I had seen in the mind of the miner. There was only a narrow band of smooth unbroken ground between them. I aimed the light further along the tunnel and saw that the walls went from being relatively smooth to being folded like soft cloth ruched up between the ruptures. Just beyond these, on the right side, was an immense opening in the wall.

Playing the light over it, I realised it was not a crack as I had thought, but an actual tunnel entrance. I had only seen a terror-blurred glimpse of it in the miner’s mind. It looked as if it had once been a tunnel in the Beforetime, but now it was old and half collapsed. If there had been any doubt in me that this was the mouth of the lair of the mutant beast, it left me, for the murky fog was billowing from the opening.

I shone the light around the floor of the tunnel opening, but I could not see any bodies. An icy hand gripped my heart. Either they had already been taken, or Ariel had laid them inside the tunnel. I would have to get closer.

‘You better put out that bright light,’ Ika said suddenly, fearfully, making me jump. ‘If it shines into its lair, the monster will come, Da says.’

‘Ye gods,’ I muttered, turning the light away from the tunnel, and wondering how I was to find the others without light if they were in the tunnel. The thought of entering it in the dark and feeling my way along it made my flesh creep.

‘You have to be quiet, too,’ Ika said. ‘Da said the monster has very good hearing.’

My mouth went dry but I nodded and turned to Gahltha, who was again beginning to look glassy-eyed. Touching his flank, I bade him take the boy up and then return, but to come no further forward. ‘If I can find Swallow and the others, I will drag them out.’

‘I can hear water,’ Ika said.

Only after I had lifted him onto Gahltha’s back and seen them depart, did I realise that I could hear it too. Not running water, but water dripping into water. Something about the sound made the hair on my arms prickle. I set down the lightstick so that its beam shone along the passage, reckoning that it had not yet drawn the mutant beast, and aimed thus, it would at least send some light into the tunnel. I crept forward carefully and as silently as I could towards the entrance to the beast’s lair, carrying the unsheathed dagger I did not even recall taking from the sack at my belt.

I tried to breathe normally, willing my heart not to hammer so loudly. But I could not rid myself of the certainty that the monster was lying just inside the tunnel entrance, having scented me, and waiting to spring at me the moment I looked into the tunnel. I would have pressed myself to the far wall, but even as I had seen in the mind of the miner, the ground and the wall opposite were cracked and there was no choice but to walk close to the mouth of the side tunnel. It took all of my courage to lean forward and look into the opening, and I saw nothing in the oblique light and thick fog but some mounds of stones that were probably a collapsed part of the tunnel, and between them a glimmer of light on dark water. I could not see far down the tunnel for the thick fog billowing towards me.