Night Witches Part 16

*Sit in a circle,' she says. *Everyone take a pen and paper.'

*Paper?' snorts Lida. *I haven't written on paper since I was at pre-school!'

*Me neither,' says Ang. *I bet you lot don't even know how to hold a pen.'

Barely.

*We used to write on connecting boards before Aura started streaming through the keypads,' says Zoya. *We can manage.'

*I learned to read and write by myself,' Haze boasts. *I only had books I hid from the Old Mother. You went to school, didn't you Rain?'

Dee is so fascinated by the pens it saves me answering Haze. *Where are these from?'

*Fenlon ordered some from a museum in case connecting doesn't work one day. Do your best with them,' Haze replies, like some kind of teacher. *Write a fortune on the paper. Put it in this pillowcase. Next, one by one, put a hand inside. Pull a fortune out.'

*See,' Mossie whispers to me. *It's harmless, don't worry.'

We suck pen ends and slowly form letters on the paper. We pa.s.s the folded notes to Haze.

Lida goes first. She sticks her long arm into the pillowcase, picks a paper and reads, *You will be the best aviator on the squadron.'

Dee complains, *That was my fortune!'

Lida laughs. *You're not supposed to write them for yourself, Dee.'

Zoya says. *My turn. Huh, this is stupid, listen a" You will marry a foodlander and have fifteen babies. Oh, come on! Mossie, why are you sn.i.g.g.e.ring? Was that the fortune you wrote?'

*How many of the babies will look like Yeldon?' Mossie teases.

*Do you think they'll come out with ready-made muscles like their papi?' wonders Petra.

Zoya glares. *You try your fortune then!'

According to the pillowcase predictions, Petra's going to inherit a fortune, Mossie is going to kiss Marton Fenlon a" *You can't make me!' she shouts a" Haze is going to open a fashion boutique in Corona, Dee is going to run away with a tractor driver and I'm going to devote my life to knitting socks for soldiers.

At what point do things start getting serious?

Probably about the time Haze says to put the lights out.

*All of them. Right out. Firelight only. Think what you want to know about your future. The basin of water will show the answer.'

*It doesn't really work,' I point out, and Dee looks at me gratefully.

The others don't care. They're caught up in it all. Haze pulls the basin of water closer. She stirs it with a black feather and stuns us with a chant that conjures up every forbidden thrill of Old Nation superst.i.tion.

*Black Night's daughter Bright White's kin Let the lights go out Let the Witch come in!'

*What can you see reflected in the water?' whispers Haze.

*I see the bath-house ceiling,' Dee whispers back.

*Whoever's jiggling the bowl, stop it,' says Lida. *You're making ripples.'

Haze raises her hands. She's not touching the bowl. No one is. Little snakes of steam twist up from the water. Haze blows them away.

*Look . . .' she invites us.

Don't look! shouts my common sense.

Look . . . calls the water.

In my pocket the bird Eye Bright is stirring. It pecks and peeps but no one else seems to hear. Each of us moves closer to the basin till we're a ring of firelit faces with cold shadows leaning over our shoulders.

There are things I want to know, of course there are. Will Mama and Papi be safe in the war? Will I be safe? Will Cousin Zoya? My friends? When will we win the war a" will we win? And Reef . . . what about Reef, my beautiful, impossible, not-happening-not-going-to-happen romance? Does he really like me? My nails press so hard in my palms they must be breaking skin. Does he love me?

Don't look . . .

I look.

First I see my friends, not as they are now in the bath-house, but lined up on a windswept airfield, with a cloud-blown sky behind. One by one they turn from me, as Umbra swallows them all into darkness. All light disappears. I stumble around, blind. Whatever I touch burns. The skin on my arms blisters and peels away. My hair becomes a fiery halo. I fall . . . and the forest catches me. Ferns uncurl around my face. Spores burst from tree bark and drift across a stretch of silver water. I see birds a" no, bird skulls a" bobbing on the lake with flames for eyes. Not flames, bright-orange thorn-vine flowers, nestling in a dead woman's face. I reach down and lift the blossoms. The woman's eyes open.

Welcome, Rain, she says.

Flowers pour out of every corner of this vision, covering the ground with perfume and petals. Stone walls rise up and light shines through coloured gla.s.s. Now, spread face down at my feet, is a bare-backed boy. I crouch and stroke his hair. He lifts his face and kisses me but I can't see who he is because of a mazy white mist spiralling around us.

Enough! I want to get away! I turn. And turn. And turn again. My way is blocked by bane-metal bushes. As I yank them out of the ground my skin is torn to ribbons. I try to hold myself together with my hands, but they seem to become wings or wide rays of black light. Ground-eating trees soar up, winking their mirror leaves. A hundred thousand birds whirl round, beaks as sharp as cut diamonds.

Help me!

I shout but my voice is a trickle of pebbles on a waterless riverbed. The mist thickens. I flounder on. My skin is almost all gone. There's nothing but darkness inside and out, and the pain of something peck, peck, pecking me.

My corvil breaks the trance by stabbing at my leg. Startled, I lash out. My hand smashes the basin of water. The visions disappear and countless droplets of darkness spill out of the basin in slow motion. I watch them fly into the air. Each drop has an eye. Each eye has more darkness inside. There, in the bath-house, while the other girls are frozen, I curve and turn in a mad dance to catch every drop before it lands, pouring them into the bowl.

Then I stumble back into the circle.

And breathe.

And breathe.

And flinch as time speeds up to normal.

Sound slams into my ears.

The girls all move and speak at once. When will it start? When will we see something? Has it happened yet? Only Haze is silent. There's a wet spot on her tunic, right over her heart a" the one drop I missed. When she eventually speaks, it's to me.

*You saw something.'

*Me? No . . . oh, you mean, just pretending? OK, yeah, actually I saw lots of visions, one for each of you. There was Zoya to start with . . .'

*Make it good,' says Zoya, hugging her knees.

*Why wouldn't I? Er, you get free run of a luxury banquet in Corona.'

*Wait till I tell Yeldon! He'll be mad it's not him!'

*Petra and Mossie are going to stay lovey-dovey together.'

*Doesn't sound very probable to me,' says Petra, with her arm around Mossie.

*Sounds horrific,' Mossie complains, nuzzling Petra's neck.

*Who else?' asks Haze.

I could kill her for forcing me on. *Let me see . . . Lida gets command of her own squadron, and Ang gets awarded the Hero of Rodina Nation medal a" twice.'

Ang likes that idea. *What about Dee? What's her future?'

How should I know? I sc.r.a.pe my brain for ideas and get an odd one. *Dee will be very happy with a new hat.'

*Oh come on,' Ang complains. *If I came up with something twice as good as that it'd still be pathetic.'

But Dee is satisfied. *I need a new hat,' she points out to Ang. *You threw mine on the roof again, and you still didn't get it further than Lida could.'

*What about Haze?' says Zoya suddenly. *Can't you give her a fortune too?'

Haze says, *Yes, tell me what you saw for me, Rain Aranoza.'

*You don't really . . .'

*Tell me!'

Everyone must notice the sudden tension. I swallow. I've got an awful urge to reach out and touch Haze so I can foresee her death, preferably happening really soon, because right now I hate her more than anyone or anything in the world. She's bug, bug, bugging me all the time, for absolutely no reason I can think of. She wants a fortune? Fine a" I'll think of one. I close my eyes, and that's when I see her, wrapped in a woman's arms, both of them crying with great, shaking sobs.

I open my eyes. I'm so surprised at the vision I forget I'm supposed to be making one up. *You're going to meet your mama again,' I say slowly. *She'll hold you.'

Haze's mouth tightens to a thin line. *Hurting me?'

*No . . .' I've started this now, I'd better finish it. *She loves you. She'll be happy to see you.'

*You're lying!' Haze screams, suddenly furious. *Liar liar liar!'

Lida tries to calm her. *Easy, Haze. It's just for fun, remember? Just fun.'

*She's making fun, talking about my mother! Ask her why a" liar! Thief!'

All eyes are on me.

*Oh come on, I've no idea what she's talking about, honestly!'

Mossie shivers. *I think we've all had enough fortune-telling for one lifetime.'

Dee frowns. *It's not fair. We all had a fortune except Rain.'

I laugh that idea off. *That's OK, nothing ever happens to me. I'm just little Pip, right?'

It's no good, I can't sleep. I'm still having wide-awake nightmares long after the others have settled for the night. What is wrong with me? Maybe I should connect and see what a medic says. I could just be sick from some completely normal problem, like optical nerves jiggling during stress, causing hallucinations. Apparently that happened to Ang's brother. I could handle that. Except then they wouldn't let me fly and that would be the worst thing that could happen.

I watch Zoya sleeping, on her back with her mouth open. She says I'm too secretive. That I keep everyone at a distance. If I push all my friends away that would be the worst thing that could happen.

*Zoya?'

She mumbles something and rolls over.

*Zoya, are you awake?'

Of course she isn't, and I should let her sleep while she can. I reach for my keypad, thinking Aura will know best. Best for who? The keypad stays under my pillow. Easing myself silently into clothes and boots, I nestle the baby corvil in a pocket and creep between the beds to the door. Dee gives a funny mew as she stirs.

*Rain?'

*Ssh, don't wake the others.'

*Where are you going?'

*To get some air.'

*But there's plenty in here, else we wouldn't be breathing.'

*Go back to sleep, Dee.'

Power-rationing and blackout rules mean the Biopolis is mostly submerged in shadows. There's very little light from nearby Sea-Ways either. Stars wink whenever there's a break in the clouds. I wander between empty bio-towers, listening to the rustle of rablets and rachnids when the wind lulls. Out here more plants have colonised the bioweave. Only after sunset do their tiny flowers unfold white petals almost too small to see with the naked eye.

I take Eye Bright from my pocket. Growing bigger every day the bird now grips my hand and spreads its wings to feel the air.

*Are you going to fly?' I whisper.

At the first drops of hot summer rain Eye Bright creeps back inside my jacket.

A streak of lightning cracks the sky, followed some time after by deep thunder and a downfall. I don't care. I wander on, letting the storm play out. I find I'm near the place where Steen's imprisoned a" one of the big bio-vats that are open to the sky. I hope he's getting rained on. I hope lightning strikes him dead.

I could worship you, he said.

I press against the bio-vat wall, wondering if I can hear him breathing.

I turn. A silhouette appears in a second lightning flash.

Reef Starzak is out night-walking too. He's silver-sleek wet. If Zoya thinks I'm secretive, that's nothing on Reef. He's solitude in solid form. I've never heard him speak of family or friends. He walks alone and sleeps alone. At least, I hope he sleeps alone. I think it would be so restful just to lie down at his side, arms wrapped around each other, as white snow or white blossoms drift down.

He sees me. No point trying to run or hide. He must know Aura hasn't authorised my wanderings. I just stand there, watching rain trickle down his face and his throat; watching the wind flatten his clothes against his body. My hair is loose and runs like a river along my spine.