The Black Rose Part 15

He'd also been conscious that he still hadn't managed to properly see Lucy, but they both had more pressing matters to attend to, and the mere thought of trying to find her amongst the crowd had been daunting.

There were also far too few cabins for the number of pa.s.sengers. Jack, like the others, had volunteered to sleep in the corridor, huddled in a blanket on the thin carpet. With the ordinary ship routines suspended because of lack of s.p.a.ce, there had been no semblance of day or night. He had awoken several times, trying to find a comfortable position, and lapsed back into uneasy sleep before he'd given up and gone to keep Vince company.

He was on the command deck when they finally broke through the water. They had glimpsed a glow in the distance a few hours earlier and steered towards it. It had grown steadily brighter until their view through the gla.s.s dome had been filled with churning waves shot through with amber. Only minutes after shapes had swum into vision beyond, with a frothing that vibrated the ship like a gigantic mobile phone, they burst out of the waves and into bright air.

Jack had to blink several times to check that his eyes were still working. What he saw made so little sense in relation to where they had been. They were soaring through the air, sky expanding upwards and beyond them. The earth was not far below. His instant thought was of a doc.u.mentary he had once seen about the African savannah: gra.s.slands of yellow and green rolled out below them, shrubs and trees scattered around, blue hills rising into the clouds in the distance. Herds of figures were shifting on the ground-they could have been antelope or something similar.

Jack and Vince exchanged looks of incomprehension.

"I suppose you don't have any more idea of what's going on than I do?"

"Not at all."

The next few minutes were a flurry of activity. As they arrived on deck, each Apollonian's expression changed from identical exhaustion to varied ones of shock. There was no question as to whether or not they would land. All of them were dispatched to spread the word around the ship, whilst Vince piloted The Golden Turtle onto the gra.s.s. Moments later, they began a ma.s.s exodus, the pa.s.sengers clambering or being hoisted one by one out of the top hatch and to the ground.

Jack's first reaction was that this place and Nexus could not be more different. It was warm-hot, actually-and the air was fresh and unpolluted. From what he could see, the pa.s.sengers were having a similar reaction. Astounded as they were, he caught his first glimpses of smiles amongst those who had already disembarked. He wondered when any of them had last smiled: something he took for granted almost every day must have been an extreme scarcity in the dark metropolis of Nexus.

It took almost an hour to get everyone off the ship, by which time the sun had risen higher in the sky and the air had become oppressively heavy. As there seemed to be no people or settlements anywhere around them, on Hakim's suggestion they began constructing some shelters.

Even with the aid of alchemy, Jack was still hopeless at this. He had once put up a tent on a camping trip and failed so badly as to not only render his own unusable but also impale someone else's canvas with a metal pole. This wasn't much better.

Ada located a spot between five trees, and she and Hakim set to work. As gently as possible, they removed the current occupants of the s.p.a.ce-what turned out to be several hare-like creatures and something that looked a little too much like an anaconda for Jack's liking. Ada and Hakim formed a pile of gra.s.s between them, arms outstretched, working in tandem. The gra.s.s blades rose off the ground in concert. Within minutes, something like a roof had been bound into the top of the trees, rendering an area of precious shade under which everyone took refuge.

Despite their new locale, the rest of the day pa.s.sed much like the previous one. The medical and food stores on board hadn't been completely exhausted, so the Apollonians, besides Sardar, continued their work. Jack even chatted with some of the refugees, learning names and lightly speculating about where they might be. Though no one seemed to have the slightest idea what it was or how they'd got there, there was something about this new place that lifted his spirits. For the first time since before they had reached Albion, he was beginning to feel cautiously optimistic about their situation.

It was only when the sun dropped to dye the sky rich ochre and crimson, when the shadows of the trees lengthened and star-scattered blue began to emerge above them, that the Apollonians finished their work for the day and had a chance to talk to each other.

Jack had just collected his allocated meal from The Golden Turtle when he heard a cry of happy surprise from the shelter. Craning his neck to see where it had come from, he caught sight of Ruth and an elderly refugee pulling her into an embrace. She appeared as nonplussed as Jack was.

"I thought I knew your face," the man exclaimed, pulling away but maintaining a grip on her shoulder as if she was likely to run off at any moment. "How many years can it have been?"

"I don't think I know..." Ruth began, but then trailed off as she clapped her hand to her mouth in recognition. "Hang on, I do remember. You were at my parents' house, weren't you?"

"Yes," the man replied, tears seeping into the corners of his wrinkled eyes. "Little Ruth, look how much you've grown!"

Still not having any clue what was going on, Jack lost the thread of the conversation. He had just spotted Lucy, who sat with her back against a tree. Brushing the dirt off his trousers to little effect, he shuffled over. She didn't seem to see him until he was very close, and he even had to greet her to shake her out of her reverie.

"How are you doing?"

"Oh, Jack. I'm, I'm okay..." She scooted over to make room for him.

He slumped onto the gra.s.s next to her. He could tell why she'd chosen this spot: the view clear of the silhouetted Turtle, the full fabric of the sky opened out before them across the plains.

Neither of them spoke for a moment, just listening to the noises of the evening savannah.

"Where do you think this place is?" Jack ventured.

"I really don't know."

"Pretty amazing, isn't it?"

"I guess so." Her voice remained flat, and she didn't look at him.

This was very unlike Lucy, he thought, but then, he had not seen her for what must have been about a month now. She had gone to two other worlds in that time and been captured. s.n.a.t.c.hing a glance at her now, he realized her injuries were not insignificant: bruises and cuts covered her exposed skin, and blood was dried into the back of her tunic. When he had left her back in Thorin Salr, she had been so confident, just finding her feet in a place so unlike her home. That confidence now seemed to have entirely evaporated.

"Is everything okay? Do you want to talk about anything?"

She took a moment to answer him. "No. Not now. Thanks, though." After another pause, she hauled herself to her feet. "I think I'll try and get some sleep."

"Okay, well, good..." She was out of earshot before he could finish his sentence.

He remained under the tree, watching the sunset whilst he ate his dinner alone, and allowed his mind to wander.

The last time he could remember doing this was the day all these events had been set in motion: the day he had first glimpsed Inari on the edge of the orchard. He had gone home and sat in his room to eat burnt baked beans. He'd thought he'd been exhausted then, but now he really knew the meaning of the word. And yet, though he was concerned about Lucy and the others injured, and though he knew nothing about the world they were in or how they had got there, he felt strangely peaceful. In this state of mental tiredness, he couldn't even begin to start thinking through the implications of what had happened in the last few days. For now, he was just content to relax and let sleep come to him.

The last rays descended over the horizon, leaving a faint amber haze along the line of the distant ground. As though the sun had pulled with it a veiling from the sky, stars began to appear in the dome overhead. Jack had heard that, in entirely uninhabited places with no kind of light pollution, the night sky was like this-and he wasn't disappointed. Thousands if not millions of jewels glimmered in the gloom, arranged in wreaths and plumes of constellations, each one a slightly different brightness to all the others. To describe the night as dark or black would have been a huge simplification: it was alight with subtle shades of blue and purple.

"This is the second time I've caught you stargazing." He didn't have to look up to know it was Ruth. "You're a lot less apologetic this time."

He laughed a little. "There are loads more of them out tonight. Maybe it's just where we are." Then, reminded of the conversation he had overheard, he said, "What did that guy mean about recognizing you? And what was that about your parents?"

"Of course, I haven't had a chance to tell you." She sat beside him in the spot Lucy had been occupying. She explained everything, from leaving the cell where they had all been captured to her sudden remembrance in the Precinct below.

"And that man, Methuselah, knew my parents-knew me. He was able to tell me what this means." She rolled up the sleeve on her right arm to expose the lion tattoo furling out from her bicep. "My parents were part of an underground revolutionary organization. They were trying to overthrow the Cult. This was their symbol so they could know who was and wasn't involved."

"But the Cult got them?"

She smiled sadly. "Yep. That's what I remember from before. The Cult broke into our house, but I managed to escape. I think I must have fallen through some kind of portal, because I somehow ended up in the ocean where The Golden Turtle picked me up, with my memory gone."

Jack didn't really know what to say. It was a lot to take in for him, let alone for Ruth. "So you're still an orphan, then?"

She broke into a giggle. "Don't worry. I'm not going to desert you on that score. But it does mean I can't really think of Ishmael as my dad, now that I remember my real parents."

Jack pondered this for a moment. "I think you can. I mean, you remember your biological parents now, but that doesn't undo what Ishmael did for you. He's still your dad, really, isn't he?"

"I suppose so."

"Have we got any idea where we are yet?"

"I don't know exactly, but I've just spoken to Hakim and he says he's got a theory. He's going to get everyone together for a meeting tomorrow to talk about it and what we do now. We've also got in contact with the other Apollonians. They're going to be here tomorrow too."

"And the Cult?"

"Nothing. No idea what's happened to Nexus, either. Some of the crew have been trying to trace our journey, but we can't make any sense of it. It's literally vanished from all our readings."

Jack nodded. He felt as though he should be contemplating this conundrum, but he was too tired. The night was far from cold, yet Ruth moved a little closer to him. She leaned her head on his shoulder. They sat in silence for a few minutes, hearing only slight rustlings from the undergrowth and the shelter somewhere behind them.

She shifted, and he glanced at her. She had turned her head to look up at him, and at that angle her eyes captured and twinned the myriad starlight. They held each other's gaze a moment longer. Then her eyes closed as their lips pressed together in a kiss.

Chapter X.

nduino It was the following morning, and as far as they knew everyone on the entire planet was cl.u.s.tered in the shelter. Lying, sitting, or standing, depending on each one's injuries, they were arranged in a semicircle around Hakim. The only person not awake and attentive was Sardar. Amongst all those wounded, only his case had seen no improvement. He was feverish, having lapsed in and out of sleep throughout the previous day and night, and now lay in pale unconsciousness behind Hakim, wrapped in a thin blanket. Standing between Ruth and Ada near the back of the a.s.sembly, Jack couldn't help thinking of a dissection demonstration: Hakim the doctor and Sardar the unlucky cadaver.

True to Ruth's words, the dimension ships carrying other Apollonians had arrived just as the sun was coming up. Within half an hour, what seemed to be the whole cohort materialized in a series of light-infused sonic booms sending shock waves through the makeshift camp.

Jack recognized a couple of faces but not all of them: Charles, his wheelchair strapped into one of the cargo areas, and the man who had been on the laptop back on Apollo Hill. He realized that, though he had pledged himself to the Apollonians' cause, he had actually met very few of his fellow agents. There were dozens of them, and he was struck by just how diverse they were: a mixture of humans, elves, and dwarves, and now, with Dannie, a token fairy as well. One notable absence was King Thorin. Jack wondered whether he had heard the news of his nephew Bal's fate and whether this lack of attendance was for that reason.

Combining the new Apollonians, the crew of The Golden Turtle, and the survivors from Nexus, their group now numbered well over a hundred. As they huddled together with the sun on the ascendance, it was becoming uncomfortably stifling in the shelter. Nevertheless, they waited, and when Hakim in his teacher-like style cleared his throat, they all fell silent.

"Good morning, everyone. I'd normally thank you all for coming, but in this case the majority of you had very little choice. I'm going to try and answer a few questions in this session, and hopefully afterwards we'll be in a better position to discuss what to do."

Jack caught Ruth's eye, and she smirked. Hakim usually took a backseat whilst Sardar was the one to give these kinds of explanations. For the first time, Jack could now imagine Hakim in his role as a teacher.

"We're all confused about how we got here-and, for that matter, where here actually is. The readings from The Golden Turtle have been checked and rechecked, and we made no spatial jump in our last journey. Moreover, those Apollonians who have just arrived had no problem locating us as they would have located any other world. There can be only one solution: this planet is Nexus."

There were instant murmurings, and someone actually snorted. Jack looked around in disbelief. The dusty plains, the trees and shrubberies, the sunset in the sapphire sky-he could hardly imagine anywhere less like the stormy metropolis of the Cult's world.

Hakim waited a moment, then a.s.serted himself over the mutterings. "As incredible as this sounds, I have a theory to support it. Jack, Dannie, if you would bring your Shards up here, please."

Not knowing exactly where this was going, Jack complied. He and Dannie stumbled through the seated crowd and handed their crystals over. It only then occurred to Jack how strange it was that they both still had them. He would have thought the first thing the Cult would have done would have been to strip them of these artifacts.

"For those of you who don't already know," Hakim continued, holding up the Shards by their threads from each fist, "these are two of the seven Shards of the Risa Star-the most powerful alchemical objects we know of. The Cult was searching for them to power the Aterosa, which they evidently managed to do by other means. Until now, we've regarded them only as weapons-we've almost ignored the tremendous healing and preserving power they possess. Anyone who has control of one of these has seen his or her life force boosted beyond measure-being able to recover from injuries which would almost certainly have been fatal otherwise. And when the Shards are retracted"-he glanced behind him at Sardar's unconscious figure-"the user's return to mortal level is very much noticeable."

Jack leaned toward Ada. "I never got the chance to ask. What happened in the Sveta Mountains? Did you get the Fifth Shard?"

"It's a long story," she replied distractedly, still trying to listen to Hakim, "but no, we didn't. It was gone before either we or the Cult got there."

"But, you may ask, what has all this got to do with the world we're in now? Well, it is my belief that we have so far underestimated the true power of the Shards-we have seen them only in mortal use. What would its limits be if one was fully unleashed? Could it sustain life even for an entire planet under the ocean?"

There were more murmurings at this. Jack was beginning to see where this was going, but the leap in logic Hakim had made was a huge one.

"The Aterosa was sabotaged, and what presumably should have been some kind of cannon or bomb imploded, apparently dragging the entire city and ocean into the Darkness. If I am correct, we are still on the same planet but several thousand miles beneath where Nexus once was. This world around us"-he raised his arms as if to take in the entire landscape-"was here all along, hidden beneath the waves and maintained by an as yet undiscovered Shard of the Risa Star."

"So what you're suggesting," Charles said slowly, as if trying to make sense of it even as he spoke, "is that there is another Shard of the Risa Star-by a process of deduction, either the Second or the Fourth-that has existed on this planet since before the Cult even arrived. That would suggest some event, some kind of monumental deluge, occurred in this world's past to render it in the state it was in only days ago."

"Exactly. We don't currently know what that was, but we have hope of finding out. The level of life on this world is astounding-not only rudimentary bacteria but beings as complex as plants and animals. This is even more amazing when we consider that all of this has presumably been maintained without the presence of a sun. Given all this, the existence of higher life forms at one time or another is not only possible but probable."

"Sorry, guys," Dannie cut in, "but for us lot who didn't go to school that much... or at all, you're basically saying there was a whole world underneath that other one? And there might have been people down here too?"

"Sorry for the intellectualism. And, yes, that's essentially it. This is where the majority of you come in." He was now addressing the crowd of refugees, most of them floor-bound with injuries. "I've interviewed a few of you, and it seems the Cult didn't have quite the stranglehold over the population of Nexus that they thought they did. Many of you were imprisoned for political dissidence, and many more now confess to having had doubts about the government and state religion. For the remainder, I'm sure doubt will come in time. From what we know about the Cult's activities, their existence and reign over Nexus can only have gone back five hundred years at the most-not long enough for legends of a pre-Cult world to have completely died out. Delilah, could you perhaps repeat what you told me yesterday?"

An elderly woman nodded meekly and sat up so the crowd could see her better. She spoke, like the other refugees, in a heavy accent Jack thought sounded like something from central Africa. "My grandmother used to tell me stories when I was a child, stories that she said had been pa.s.sed down through our family, stories about an ancient people called zoputa who lived on this land. They had been created by a G.o.ddess, who left a divine crystal behind to look after them. But the zoputa began to fight over its power, and the land was ripped apart by war. Water began to fall from the heavens, and many of the people drowned. Others fled to the mountains, but the waters kept rising. In desperation, the zoputa prayed, and their prayers were answered. The top of the mountain they had taken refuge in was cleft off and rose into the sky, carrying them far above the ocean." She finished, her voice hoa.r.s.e from the speech.

Hakim thanked her. "Looking through the obvious embellishments here, this is a very interesting case. It seems quite possible that Nexus and perhaps even the Cult of Dionysus were originally the result of trying to escape a flooding planet. The people in this tale fled to the skies, whilst the healing power of the Shard kept the planet sustained below the waves. If this theory is correct, then the majority of you sitting before me are in fact the descendants of the last inhabitants of this world. You are all zoputa."

This last p.r.o.nouncement was greeted by deadened silence. The refugees were glancing at each other, mostly in surprise, but some with expressions that plainly said, So what? Jack didn't blame them. As much as he appreciated Hakim's intellect, he wasn't exactly sure what they were supposed to do with this information.

Seconds stretched into minutes. Hakim was beginning to look uncomfortable. He exchanged looks with Charles. "You seem to need time to mull this over. I think all the Apollonians should see to the dimension ships and come back a little later..."

It was their first full day on the planet, and it was far too hot to do anything productive. The Apollonians spent the following hours slumped in the shadow of The Golden Turtle, stripped down to as few layers as possible. The zoputa had shuffled into the shelter and were now sitting in a semicircle, not unlike some kind of council or parliament, taking turns to speak. They were too far away to hear, and as the proceedings dragged on, some of the Apollonians retreated belowdecks. Only Jack, Ruth, Dannie, and Hakim were left outside, sagging against the cool metal.

Typically, only Dannie seemed to have the energy to talk. "Dragging on a bit, isn't it?"

"Yes, it is," Hakim affirmed, wiping his brow. "But then it's a lot of information to take in all at once. It's not going to be easy for them, breaking out of the old mindset. They've been locked into the Cult's system their entire lives, barraged with propaganda for generations. Even for the ones who were tortured for questioning it, this will be tough."

While the others moved as little as possible, Dannie kept fidgeting. Since the landing, she had made perhaps her most bizarre transformation yet: sprouting a thin layer of fur and large ears, making her look something like a humanoid desert cat. The changes had now become such a usual occurrence that no one really commented on them.

After a few more minutes of silence, Dannie turned to Ruth. "Shouldn't you be with that lot?"

Ruth blinked at her, then shrugged. "Maybe. I guess I am technically zoputan. I don't really feel like one, though."

"What do you feel like?"

She frowned a little. "I don't know. Apollonian, I suppose. I guess I'm sort of a hybrid."

A few more minutes pa.s.sed. Dannie tried again. "Hey, Jack, your ring's not working."

Jack blinked his sagging lids and looked down at his hand. There didn't seem to be any light glimmering from the symbol, despite the presence of an unknown language. "Maybe the sunlight's too bright to see it."

A few more minutes pa.s.sed. Dannie shifted several times, crossing her legs, uncrossing them, stretching. "How long are they going to take-?"

"Dannie," Jack and Ruth exclaimed in unison.

"Alright, calm down, just trying to make conversation..."

The sun had pa.s.sed its highest point when Jack was finally shaken awake by Hakim. The zoputa council had dispersed, and several emissaries had made their way out from the shelter's cover to the side of The Golden Turtle. The other Apollonians were in the process of exiting the ship to hear the verdict.

A slender woman, whose right leg was supported by a splint, stood before them. Jack noticed she had the same lion tattoo as Ruth's on her forearm. She addressed them in an earnest tone. "We're sorry to keep you waiting for so long. We have had a lot to discuss. Some of us knew each other, some didn't, before today. We will tell you the details, if you would like to hear them, but for now what matters is this: we have decided, as we now find ourselves without a home, to establish a new community on this planet. Our ancestors lived here, it seems, only several hundred years ago, so our society should be able to thrive."

Hakim smiled. "That's what I had hoped."

"And," the woman continued, "we find ourselves greatly indebted to you all. What you have done for us is nothing less than an act of selfless heroism. And yet, there is so little we know about you. Where do you come from? How is it you were in Nexus and can speak our language so well? We would be honored if you would share a meal with us this evening."

Hakim's smile widened, and he actually embraced the woman. She looked disorientated but not unhappy.

As Jack watched, he felt Ruth's hand slip into his and squeeze lightly.