Chapter 6: Thunder And Darkenings.
The panic was total.
The darkness, torn by screaming, smothered like a blanket and stifled the people`s capacity to reason. Kell could sense their terror surge upon surge through his mind - conveyed to him by Shamra against her will, as she too trembled on the edge of a madness that threatened to sweep her away.
But immediately Feoh`s calming influence made itself felt, solid as an anchor in their heads. `I`m close, and we`re together, and we are going to live and be free of this place very soon.` It was a wordless message, but that was the sense of it; and it went deep, deeper than any power Shamra had ever known.
Skjebne`s hands rested lightly on the children`s shoulders. His voice was very close and a secret spell in their ears.
" This is the All Mother`s doing. Her retaliation for our defiance. Come on, let`s be going. We can use the darkness to our advantage."
He eased them back and they felt the roughness of the brick wall and the sharp corner, and heard Skjebne`s ragged breathing above the awful noise of the city`s confusion. High above, sky gleams were massing; bright beacons dipping and swinging through the air. Some of them were quite low, and Kell was able to see them as mechanical devices bristling with points and reflecting faces. They made a fluttering sound like birds as they flew, although the means of their flight itself was silent and unknown to him. One sky gleam shone a sudden dazzling beam of white light down into the streets - Kell had a frozen impression of many people with upturned faces and open mouths - then utter blackness and a flurry of ghosts fading slowly on his eyes.
" They`re searching for us," Skjebne hazarded. " The Goddess does not know we`re here!"
" Then why the darkness?" Shamra couldn`t understand. " Why is she making all of the Community suffer?"
" To prove her authority. To terrify us into inaction, or into changing our minds. Or into losing our minds," he added seriously. Kell thought about the cityzens caught up in this catastrophe, and the people beyond Odal in the outlying villages. Poor Munin and Enjeck, and Gifu alone in the fields, and all of the helpless creatures...The cruelty of it was beyond belief. But that cruelty fuelled Kell`s anger, and it was the anger that made him stay sane.
" We are not far now..." Skjebne said.
Kell felt Feoh`s guidance again: Shamra`s mind was radiating it like heat. He had never known her display such an easy openness of thought. It was as though the crisis had shaken loose her self control and she was simply passing on Feoh`s reassurances without deliberation. Kell held Shamra`s hand, and her fingers were cold and limp and unresponsive. She was relying completely on the power of the other woman`s word.
They had been easing themselves carefully step by step, moving sideways along the line of the wall towards the junction that would take them to their rendezvous. Kell`s memory of it was that the alley lay a few streets down from the sprawl of the market. And indeed now they could smell the complex odours of the abandoned stalls, and the bellowing of terrified moxen and the shrieks and chitterings of other creatures not very far away.
" We must cut through to reach the meeting place," Skjebne said. Kell had been expecting it and dreading it, for it would mean moving from the security of the wall. Apart from that, there were many people hurrying and stumbling nearby; and others who had fallen to the ground. Some of them, by their cries, had been injured. Others, undoubtedly, would be dead.
" Do you think we should arm ourselves with weapons?" Kell wondered. It was a new and strange idea to him, but one that seemed appropriate now.
" Trust and a cool head are all we need for the present." Skjebne shifted his grip and took hold of their hands, and they allowed themselves to be led out into the ocean of the dark.
" Feel forwards, step cautiously...That`s it...I think there`s an obstacle here - a canopy...It`s a crockery stall..." Skjebne`s commentry, calm and continuous, sustained them. Whenever he squeezed their hands suddenly, they stopped. When they felt the pressure ease off, they allowed themselves to be led. In this way they moved between the chaos of scattered goods, resting briefly when they crossed an open space, making better headway as they came to the next row of stalls. Once, unexpectedly, Skjebne stepped on a man who had fallen. The stranger gave a low moan, and in his startlement Skjebne let go his grip. For a few alarming seconds all three of them flailed randomly in a panic of the newly blind. Then Shamra`s hand caught Kell a blow on his forehead. He grabbed at her and they clung to each other until Skjebne, searching carefully and systematically, found Kell`s shoulder and held on to it like a treasured gift.
Skjebne laughed softly. " This is already more of an adventure than I bargained for!"
His face flared into being with a loud crackling sound as someone nearby lit a firebrand. All three of them startled and ducked and screwed up their faces under this sudden painful drenching of light. The man with the torch waved it in front of himself, its brilliance as useless to him as the blackness had been. He was one of the dispossessed, recently freed; his eyes were reddened and sore, and his fear was such that he would not be soothed even by the salve of Feoh`s mind. But other followers on seeing him acted more purposefully. A woman with short-cropped black hair ran forwards and thrust a torch into his flame. As soon as it caught she touched the brand to a nearby stall hung with clothes.
The garments burned up with a whoosh of fire and pushed back the dark a little more. Skjebne and the children were shocked at this action, but at least now they could take proper bearings. Kell was surprised that they had come less than thirty paces from where he thought they had started. The alleyway was still some distance away, a good five minutes` brisk walk. But if the dispossessed could see, so could the ordinary cityzens of Perth. And they, under the influence of the All Mother, were looking at the world through her eyes.
Almost instantly two - three - four cityzens turned on the woman with the torch, clawing at her and lashing out with their fists. Briefly she managed to keep them back by swinging the firebrand to and fro in a dangerous arc. One attacker jumped clear with a howl as the brand cracked across his arm and singed the sleeve of his tunic. He spent a few seconds in a ludicrous dance patting out the flames, but then with renewed anger he moved in with his friends: the torch was knocked from the woman`s grasp and she went down under the onslaught of their blows...
In Shamra`s mind a glass vase dropped and shattered and the fragments were trampled underfoot.
Skjebne turned the children`s faces away from the death. He felt guilty not to have acted to stop it. But his injury pained him horribly, and Kano`s previous orders had been precise and final: if the Goddess attempted to stop the exodus, then the duty of the individual was to the others in the cell. Whatever else happened, the integrity of the group must be preserved. At the time it had seemed like a harsh but distant pronouncement, and Skjebne had never imagined he would be forced to stand and watch in a torment of inaction as another human life was ended. Now he realised this might happen many times before the great portals rolled back to release him.
All across the wide square where the market of Odal had been held for longer than anyone could remember, fires were kindling and spreading; the darkness being traded for the light. By and large the scene was chaotic: many people still didn`t realise what was happening. But some were hurrying with purpose to find other members of their team, and all the while little groups and clusters of cityzens were banding together to stop them.
" Let`s go now," Skjebne said. " There`s nothing we can do to change any of this."
By the dreadful light of a hundred fires they wove between the stalls towards the alley. Once a young girl, perhaps only two seasons older than Shamra and Kell, came stumbling towards them with a broken spar of wood held out as a threat. The girl`s face was twisted in a senseless anger. She attacked blindly with a catlike scream. Kell parried the spar and pushed her forcefully away with the flat of his hand -
She came on again, jabbing and swinging the pike. Shamra released a blizzard of confused images defensively and instinctively. The girl stopped in her tracks. Shamra walked up to her and took the weapon away from her unresisting hands. She was a fisherman`s daughter and her name was Tyr. Shamra gleaned this in the instant of their meeting - Then Skjebne was pulling her back and the little girl Tyr was a world
away, then lost amongst the uproar of the night.
In the distance came a mighty shout, accompanied by a more controlled and meaningful message from Feoh. Kell saw Hora as he bellowed again. The huge figure held two blazing torches aloft to be more easily seen, and moment by moment he was touching them to the drapes and canopies of the stalls. Cloth and wood and careful wickerwork leaped into flame, creating a corridor of fire that closed in behind Hora and the others, helping to protect them from attack.
Skjebne brought the children to the alley and they waited to be joined there by the rest.
" The entire city is like this." Kano`s face was bleak. " The Goddess is determined to put a stop to us and reassert her authority in the enclave - "
" It is not so bad in the villages," Feoh said, catching a glimmer of Kell`s concern.
" The main routes to the outer portals start here in Odal - the cleft you found is a freak flaw. The land must have shifted over the centuries..."
" We`ve had a difficult journey," Skjebne began.
" I know that." Feoh bent to him and eased aside the cloth of his tunic to look at the extent of his wound. She visualised the flesh whole again, and at the same time gave Skjebne`s mind the gift of forgetting as far as the pain was concerned. That would help for a time, but she knew then - and Skjebne would know it later - that he was likely to be hobbled for life.
There was no time for the swapping of tales. Without warning there came a tremendous rushing sound through the sky, followed by a vast muffled thunder. High overhead a blue spark flashed intermittently, illuminating tangled swirlings of black cloud. Again and again the spark cracked and flared, until finally the sun returned as a huge red amorphous shadow of itself; an enormous spherical hull which cast a dull and melancholy glow.
" She tells us what we already know, that this is a dark day of blood," Hora said. He passed one torch to Birca and the other to Skjebne, preferring his hands free now if it came to a fight. They were after all his most dangerous weapons.
" Look there." Birca pointed upwards and they saw swarms of tiny black dots streaming in from the farthest horizons; clusters of sky gleams dropping fast towards the city.
Kano shook his head. " The All Mother wants to make an end of it (Things will get worse now, Shamra snatched from his mind). Let`s be on our way."
Kell`s last glimpse of the plaza was of a mass of burning piles, with figures running between them, and a dirty coppery pall of smoke rising lazily towards the scarlet sky.
Then they were in the alley and moving quickly towards the hatch that would take them to the tunnels. Here between the buildings the gloom was deeper and the dim red overcast made things difficult to see. The high walls kept out most of the sound, but occasional screams and cries came clearly through the hazy air and grated on the nerves.
They reached the place where the metal hatch was stamped into the roadway. Hora dropped to his knees, drew an iron spike from his belt and began to lever it up. Without telling them, Feoh and Skjebne moved protectively to shield the children, while Kano and Birca held the torches high to keep a lookout for danger; though when it came, it happened quickly and without any warning.
" I have it! " Hora heaved and gave a grunt and the heavy steel hatchway lifted free. He dropped it with a clang to the side and motioned Feoh to enter. She, being the first, could scan for hazards below ground.
" I sense nothing..." Feoh climbed quickly down the ladder and vanished into blackness. " It`s clear here -"
" Not here!" Kano`s warning snapped like a whip. He had seen a jumble of running figures at the end of the alley: but more menacingly, above them, a flight of shapes that bounced and bobbed like floats on a turblent stream.
One of the sky gleams disintegrated suddenly. It came apart in an explosion of black crystal. Kano threw himself down across Skjebne, who cried out with the agony of his wound, and the two of them tumbled into Hora, who only just managed to keep his balance. Birca, slower and more startled, did not have time to drop clear.
There was a swish and a hard pattering of little projectiles on the wall and fencing nearby. Kano glanced up to warn Birca, but the man was already dead, pierced a hundred times through. The fleens had cut so cleanly that he stood upright for another second or two, before the dumb weight of his body toppled forward and he fell on his face in the road.
" Oh - no - no..." Shamra`s shocked, spinning mind had caught Birca`s death-thought; a merest glimpse and memory of boyhood, casting flat stones on the shore of the Central Lake. And he`d counted the times each had skipped the surface: one - two - three -
Then a blackness empty of pain.
Hora lifted the girl with ease and bundled her down through the hole. Then Kell, unresisting, was delivered into Feoh`s trembling hands.
" Now you Kano - now!"
Hora was in no mood for argument. He wrenched Kano down and pushed him through.
" Skjebne - "
Hampered by the stiffness of his hip, Skjebne took a few seconds to clamber clear.
Another sky gleam exploded. Hora snatched up the hatch cover and held it like a shield. Fragments sang and tinkled on the metal. A few pierced his leg. And one, painfully, sliced clean through his left hand in a splash of bright blood.
With a roar of outrage Hora hurled the steel disc towards the mass of cityzens who were now perhaps only thirty paces away. It banged and rattled on the roadway a little short of the crowd. A few stones were thrown weakly in retaliation. Hora disdained them. His big square face had been carved by what he`d seen into a mask of determination, and the heat of life burned in him now more resolutely than ever before. He did not bother with the ladder, but dropped cleanly three man-heights to the floor of the labyrinth and lumbered at a slow running pace to catch up with his dearest friends.
*
The network of stone and metal corridors channelled the noises of the fighting in strange and frightening ways. Fires burning above made a low and continuous roaring like a steady wind or a distant fall of water. There came clangs and bumpings, scrapes, shrieks, cries and other sounds that the children`s imagination failed to grasp. Occasionally the group heard distant shouting from elsewhere in the tunnels: more of the dispossessed escaping below ground, making their way to the waiting travel machines.
After a first hurrying to be away from the open hatch, Kano called a halt and insisted on checking Hora`s injuries.
" They are nothing," he muttered gruffly, embarrassed as Feoh wiped away the blood.
" Even nothings can become infected..." Hora knew better than to argue with her and waited patiently as she bandaged the wounds and touched Hora`s mind with her thoughts to stimulate his healing.
" Besides, we need you well to carry us when we grow tired!" Skjebne`s smile was strained and his humour weak. The shadow of Birca`s death would stay with them for many days to come, and their spirits would flicker low from the horror of it.
They moved on and a natural pattern formed - Kano leading the way with Feoh and Shamra just behind; then Kell walking at the side of Skjebne, and Hora like a prowling rock-bear bringing up the rear. Their conversation was brief and infrequent, though all of them felt the balm of Feoh`s thoughts and were glad of it: and she, working hard, was also sensitive to Shamra`s every change and emphasis of mood, and kept some of her attention cast like a gentle net all around for any signs of danger.
In this way they walked for several hours, making good progress by taking turns to help Skjebne along. The troubling sounds of the city in its turmoil dropped away behind them, and for a long while there was silence but for their footsteps and breathing and the sputtering of the firebrands.
Then, gradually, shortly before the tunnels sloped up towards the mountains, there came a distant cacophany, as of huge millstones grinding together. Kano stopped and looked automatically to Skjebne for advice.
" Who can know for sure?" Skjebne`s sharp bright eyes, frightened though they were, still held curiosity`s passionate light. " The All Mother works the world with a marvellous machinery. We have discovered that. And do you notice how it has grown colder? I suspect she is making changes all across Perth - inflicting her punishments perhaps on those who are left..."
" All of the poor people!" Shamra`s thoughts went out to them, and Feoh turned them aside and brought them home to save the waste of a purposeless grief.
" The Goddess will not destroy her worshippers. She is sustained by them as much as they are by her. Her lesson will be sharp and swift, and then over and done with."
" We must look out for ourselves," Kano said. " Should we move on Skjebne?"
" Where we have no choice, our action must be the right one."
And this time he smiled naturally, and the other adults joined him.
As they moved on, coming at last to the upslope, the grindings grew louder and the drop in temperature more noticeable. A weak yet steady breeze blew in their faces. Somewhere to their left metal scraped against metal. There was a dull boom, a silence, then a frantic scurrying of footsteps.
" Three people," Feoh surmised. " Terrified - "
Something shattered violently. A tinkling of metal. There was a scream.
" The sky gleams." Hora came up level with the others. " They have entered the tunnels."
" They`re searching us out." Kano took stock of their position. " We aren`t far from the cache of weapons - "
" And then we come back," Feoh said firmly, " to help these others in trouble."
" There isn`t anything...." he began, and then saw the look on Feoh`s face and knew that argument would be pointless.
She said gently, " We want to make a human world, Kano. Let`s start now."
He nodded, and they moved. Skjebne with his injury found it hard to keep pace, so Kano decided that he would go for the weapons alone.
" I can stay in touch through Feoh, and by myself I can be back in minutes."
" If you`re caught you are vulnerable," Hora pointed out.
" No more than we all are, my friend. Stay out of sight. I won`t be long."
They watched him dwindle along the length of the tunnel, until all that was left was a flame, then a memory of a flame; and then only Feoh`s quietly spoken word that he was safe.
" And what do you glean of the others?" wondered Skjebne presently.
She looked beyond him and upwards. " One of them is badly hurt..."
" I feel it," Shamra confirmed. " And his friends...Little mice...Little mice in the corner..."
Feoh comforted her with a hug. " The sky gleams radiate nothing I can read. There could be many of them. Through all these years they have watched us! How could we have known?"
" Never mind it now," Skjebne said. " At least there are three of our friends still alive, and Kano will be with us directly."
" He`s returning now - "
A thought. A flame. The running figure of a man.
Kano came up to them panting and hefted the fire-rod across to Hora. He gave a similar though smaller weapon to Feoh and to Skjebne.
" And you`ll just have to curse," he told Shamra and Kell.
They left their path and took a side tunnel towards the commotion. Skjebne reasoned that the first sounds must have been of the sky gleams entering the labyrinth, happening upon the other group probably by chance.
" Let`s hope it was," Feoh said. Her black mask, turned towards him, reflected the torch flames like liquid. " For if they are systemmatically hunting us, we stand little chance..."
It was not a thought to dwell on, and Kell tried to keep his mind focussed on the task in hand...But again and again the vision of the beautiful little sky gleams he`d watched so often pushed to the front of his mind, and there transformed into the monstrosities that had killed Birca and how many others? Such was the measure of the All Mother`s goodness, her true face a spray of cutting blades.
They hurried on as best they could through the tunnels, Feoh sensing ahead and filling their minds with what she saw. And so it was they anticipated the death of the other group well before they came into the cavernous space where the killing had happened.
Huge conduits soared upwards into the towering dark, disappearing into a high vaulted roof that their torchflames could never illuminate. Equally below, where the pipes dropped into sheer pits many furrowlengths deep. Skjebne, experimenting, picked up a chunk of rubble and let it fall. Ten heartbeats later came the distant sound of its shattering.
`One of them fell down there,` Feoh told Kano alone. ` The other two have been mutilated. I think they are somewhere nearby. The children should not see it.`
" We are too late," Kano said. " The gleams have done their work efficiently."
Hora gave a soft groan of horror; and Skjebne, a startled gasp as something glittered deep in the shaft.
" Kano - "
They held their brands over the pit and Skjebne deliberately let go of his and watched it fluttering wildly, and by its light caught a momentary glimpse of a shape as it came soaring upwards.
" Back!" Kano thrust his torch into Skjebne`s hand, grabbed the children and ran with them, half dragging them, to the greater safety beyond the cavern.
Skjebne and Feoh retreated, taking cover behind the clusters of vertical tubes. Hora`s withdrawal was slower and more considered. He back-walked as he unslung his fire-rod and swung it into position with a grunt; coming to a halt some paces from cover, steadying his aim on the rim of the shaft.
The gleam appeared seconds later, came buzzing like a meadow fly in a flurry of twinkling antennae. Hora discharged the fire-rod and the cavern boomed like a drum with deafening echoes. The machine exploded and fell in fragments of flame back into the pit.
" It was a scout - " Skjebne called, voicing his instinct. " Not a fighter - "
He had no time for more. Two other devices swept up into view, leaden jewels more solidly built. Feoh and Skjebne aimed and shot, and the higher machine burst apart into scraps that whined and ricochetted among the complex of pipes.
The other gleam showered scalding rays in all directions, then seemed to focus on where Skjebne was hiding. It launched a glowing projectile which struck the ground just short of his position. There was a thud of dull sound and brief flame; smoke and stone erupted outwards leaving a ragged crater in their place. Skjebne fired again and sent the gleam spinning. Hora took advantage of its confusion and loosed a further shot. It struck dead centre and the machine came apart in a shower of debris.
" There may be more," Feoh warned. " I cannot read them - they do not think like human minds."
" There is nothing else for us to do here." Kano beckoned his friends to leave. " We aren`t far from the Traveller now, though we should hurry."
They kept together in a tight group, Hora back-walking with the fire-rod held high and ready. Only his huge strength made this possible: earlier Kell had taken hold of the weapon and had barely been able to lift it.
So it was they came to the place where the travel machine was housed, patiently waiting like a well trained mox beneath its canvas cover. Kano ran ahead and began to unhitch the securing ropes while Feoh, Shamra and Kell started hauling the caul aside. Skjebne worked a pattern of studs at the rear of the Traveller: the back hatch folded downwards and he disappeared inside. Hora unhooked a clip on the fire rod and clicked a small metal stand into place. He positioned the weapon propped thus on the ground, and laid a huge heavy hand on Kell`s shoulder.
" Now I need to open the outer portals. Take your position like this - " He demonstrated by lying out on his stomach, legs splayed, the stock of the rod tucked tightly into his shoulder. " Use your favoured eye." Hora showed Kell how to hold the weapon and look along its sights. " You see, it`s weightless mounted like this on its pivot. Let yourself relax...Grow easy in yourself Kell, that`s it. Just be lazily alert in case more of the sky gleams appear."
" And if they should?"
" Just assert your authority." Hora gave his big, open, uncomplicated grin and padded away to do his other work, leaving Kell alone.
Meanwhile Skjebne was spinning his magic. Lights blazed across the Traveller`s hull and the hunched beast shuddered as the great engines woke up from sleep. It growled with a first burst of power, then its voice settled to a quieter muttering. Feoh and Shamra went aboard. Kano ran across to assist Hora in turning the wheels that would force the portals to open.
Kell, only half aware of this activity, arced the fire-rod to and fro, to and fro in a daydream of things yet to come. So it was that he almost missed the appearance of the sky gleam, and yelled and fired wildly as the attacker hurtled forward into the chamber.
The rod`s powerful missile hit the wall close to the gleam, the impact sending it tumbling. Kell fired again, losing all sense of Hora`s instruction. The shot went wide.
But now, with the others alerted, Kano came to help. He did not humiliate the boy by taking charge of the fire-rod himself. Instead, he checked his own weapon and began shooting with a cool regularity as the gleam tried to reorient and focus in on its enemies.
Behind them, Hora cried out with the effort of freeing the portal-wheels, and then again in triumph as he succeeded. Deep inside the mighty doors some mechanism engaged: the lights in the chamber dimmed briefly and a cold cutting wind began to blow.
Smiling ferociously, Kano took pleasure in watching the gleam lose its fight. A glancing shot took off one side of its many-faceted shell; while Kell struck lucky and destroyed the machanism that kept the gleam aloft. It fell like a stone to the dust.
" You`ve done enough." Kano tapped Kell`s arm smartly. " Get aboard with the others. Go now!"
Kell obeyed at once. He ran to the Traveller, letting out a whoop both of excitement and pain as the frigid wind from the outer world tugged and nipped and buffetted his body with a ruffian`s hands.
Then he was in a small warm room of cramped spaces and skittering lights and chattering machinery, cosy darkness and the unusual tantalising smell of plastics. Shamra nearby was tucked into a bucket seat, strapped in place by a diagonal belt. Feoh likewise. Not five steps farther on Skjebne hunched over the Traveller`s controls and played them like an intent and frenzied musician.
As Kell took the seat next to Shamra, he looked beyond Skjebne and saw a widening light, a pearly light filled with spinning flakes; and his heart seemed to loosen and dissolve with the wonder and the fear of it all.
Hora came aboard, having completed his tasks. He hung back near the rear hatch and watched as Kano performed a necessary ritual -
Feeling his body as tight as a tensioned cable, Kano drew one of the securing spikes out of the ground. He walked over to where the sky gleam was clicking furiously, rocking itself randomly this way and that with the aid of strange grappling appendages. Its shell had been ripped loose in several places, and inside the tangling of wires and mysterious jewellery blue sparks popped and fizzed and disappeared into smoke.
" This is how the future will be, All Mother." Kano dropped to his knees. Now he felt strangely tranquil and passionless. The magnitude of his freedom had washed away his hate.
" This is how it will be."
He raised the spike high and drove it down through the machine, staking it to the earth. Something crackled at its core and its clicking and trembling stopped...
But for a short while afterwards its systems stayed alive, and it watched with a baleful eye as its destroyer entered the Traveller. The back hatch closed. Then with a howl of engines the vehicle moved forward, through the outermost gates of Perth, into a confusion of rose pink blizzard-filled light.
*
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