The Equen Queen Part 2

*It has been such a wonderful day,' Chak enthused. *Some of the sports are variations on games we have seen before. Baubles has been called "tonks", "nuts", or "marbles". Hooey seems to be a mixture of a number of ball sports that we know, although your scoring system is unique. Lokey spokey is new to us. We're very excited about it and looking forward to learning more tomorrow.'

One by one the diners used their serving tongs to place chunks of vegetables onto the plate of the person next to them. Tab was nervous but managed to serve Stelka without spilling anything. Tab nibbled her serving slowly, glad that the low simmering of the broth and the buzz of conversation covered the sound of her stomach rumbling.

*We rarely receive such a cordial welcome. Quentarans are a generous people,' Chak added.

Stelka smiled. *It is kind of you to say so. Perhaps in the spirit of goodwill you would allow some of our navigators to observe how you manage to manoeuvre your sky-city with such agility?'

Chak put a hand to her chest, as though she had choked. *Dear me! It's not often asked. Let me think of an equivalent in your culture.' Chak used her wooden eating tongs to grasp a strand of honickle fungus out of the broth. *Such a request is the same as asking whether a small group from our city might be allowed to see your undergarments.'

*I see,' Stelka replied, smoothly. *And in our culture such a request is akin to serving oneself out of the communal urn.'

Chak let the fungus drop and it landed back in the broth with a sploosh. *Oops! So does this mean I have to show you our bridge, or my undergarments?'

The diners all laughed.

*Your bridge will do just fine,' Stelka a.s.sured her. *We shall make arrangements on the morrow. It has been a great pleasure.' Stelka stood, indicating that the first course was over.

Tab joined her friends in the corner between courses. The waiters took the opportunity to refill the coal boxes under the pots, replace the tongs, refill the goblets, and clear away the empty plates and bowls.

*I'd always thought a formal feast would be the best meal in the whole world, but I'm so nervous about doing something wrong that I'm hardly eating anything. I'm still starving!' Tab complained.

*Florian was so busy trying to impress everyone with his bad jokes that all I got was two bits of fungus.' Philmon pouted. *He's managed to talk his way into a trip to the sky-traders city tomorrow. I wish I was going too.'

Tab guessed organising the games wasn't as exciting as Philmon had imagined.

*Aren't the dresses beautiful? I wish I had a gown for special nights like this,' Amelia said, plucking at her plain, borrowed dress.

Florian called the second course and the three friends made their way to their new tables. Philmon and Tab were at the same table this time.

When First Lieutenant Crankshaft tipped his bowl of spices into the pot the broth sizzled, crackled and swirled, changing colour. The broth tasted better with the spices added. Tab and her friend ate slowly and listened to the conversation of the older people.

During the fourth course Tab sat at the same table as Verris and Captain Kel. Fontagu slipped into the seat next to her. *Don't forget to eat all your purples.' He grinned at her.

*You have fungus in your teeth,' she observed.

Fontagu blanched and spent the rest of the course trying to lever out the offending fragment with a fingernail.

Every time Tab tried to take a mouthful, Verris peppered her with questions about what she had planned for the next day. Eventually Verris turned his attention to Captain Kel.

*Those small sky-vessels you have look excellent for shipping goods or people. Tell me, how do you power them?'

Kel grinned. *That would be telling, wouldn't it?'

*Yes, it would,' Verris replied bluntly.

The little captain shook his head. *You haven't earned enough credit for information like that.'

Verris tried a new tack. *You mentioned something about an animal that heals the sick. I'm curious about it and wonder, have we earned enough credit to purchase one, or perhaps a breeding pair?'

*You speak of the equens,' Captain Kel replied. *Wondrous creatures. We'd be happy to send you two, but sadly they don't breed in pairs. They have a hive structure, like bees or ants. We'll send over two in the morning, and you can have a closer look.' Captain Kel wiped his mouth with the hem of the tablecloth.

Fontagu arched an eyebrow at Tab.

*What?' she whispered.

*Nothing!' he replied. *Nothing at all.'

By the end of the fifth course Tab was surprised to find she was full a" a sensation she hadn't had an opportunity to enjoy all that often.

*My sides may burst,' she confessed to Amelia as they sat down at the sixth and final table. Luckily the final serving was a single ball of cheese that was soft and slightly melted on the outside. It was soaked with the flavours from the previous courses. Tab was delighted to find that it was both delicious and small.

Florian stood once more on the dais to make a speech. *It is my great honour, and my duty, as one who has the blood of our sovereigns running through his veins, to thank each and every one of you, on behalf of my uncle, a great and glorious leader, and on behalf of all Quentaris. Tonight heralds the beginning of a new era, an era in which our two peoples a'

*Will be great friends,' interrupted Chief Navigator Stelka. *Good night!'

A cheer echoed in the chamber. Any other of Florian's words were drowned out by the sound of chairs shifting across the flagstone floor, and the din of talk and laughter. The guests stood mingling in loose queues while the servants emptied the urns into the ceramic *offering bowls'. One by one the guests peeled away and walked along the candlelit corridor to the front steps where the poor were waiting.

Tab was concentrating on not tripping on the hem of her dress, and not spilling the contents of her bowl, and so she didn't see her allocated *poor person' until they were literally toe-to-toe.

*Mrs Figgin!' She was amazed to see the wizened face of her old dosshouse mistress. Tab thrust the dish forward and the broth slopped dangerously toward the bowl's lip. Mrs Figgin took it from her and curtsied. Tab turned and fled.

Later, lying in bed Tab wondered if Mrs Figgin was simply too shocked to say anything, or whether she didn't recognise Tab clean and in a dress.

She lay on her back too full to sleep and groaned. *I'll never eat again!'

*Hush, will you?' Amelia whispered from the bed on the other side of the room. *We need to get to sleep. It's nearly time for breakfast.' The two girls giggled.

Later in the night Tab awoke with a brief fragment of a dream in her mind. A boy with sandy-coloured skin and chocolate-coloured hair climbed a long, wide rope. His arms shook with strain and the skin on his hands was raw. His face was pressed into a grimace. The boy rested for a moment, straddling the rope, gripping with his fingers. He looked down at the clouds beneath him.

That's impossible, Tab thought, as sleep washed over her again.

Inside the Sky-traders' City.

From a distance the two figures looked like strange birds, but as they got closer Tab guessed they were the equens Verris had asked for being transported from the sky-trader city. They looked like ponies. They were hanging by a sling beneath vast gliding wing craft. A tiny sky-trader steered the craft above while the ponies writhed and thrashed in fear.

Tab tried to reach them with her mind, to calm them, to let them know it would soon be over, but her head thumped with pain, and instead she held her hands to her cheeks, waited and watched. Her chest started to sting and she realised she had forgotten to breathe.

The first wing craft coasted lower and lower over the stretch of Barrenlands close to the City Gate, until the equen's hooves nearly touched the ground, pedalling in antic.i.p.ation. The vision was comical and several of the spectators laughed. Then the equen tripped. It somersaulted once, twice, and then slid along the dirt on its side.

*Ooh!!' the crowd gasped as one.

It lay still for a second. Tab's hands balled into fists in dread, and then the equen stood up and shook itself. Dust fell from its hide.

*Ah!' the crowd sighed in unison and some of the onlookers clapped.

The second equen landed more delicately. Tab could see the glance between the two equens. She didn't need to meld with them to know what they were thinking. The first laid its ears to the side, almost frowning and the second wrinkled its nose as though it was laughing.

Still Tab couldn't resist the temptation to try, so she probed gently. The fuzz in her head spiked for a moment and the two equens both turned their heads in Tab's direction. Were they looking at her? Looking for her? Or were they just reacting to the noise of the crowd around her?

Each equen was wearing some sort of harness around its head and the first sky-trader uncoiled a long leather lead from around his waist, fastening it to the halters. Unhitching them, he led them towards the City Gate. The other sky-trader stayed behind, dismantling the gliders and stacking them in pieces against the wall just outside the gate.

As the equens got closer Tab had a better view. They were a creamy, sandy colour, like a buckskin Quentaran pony. But they were different from Quentaran horses; they had long, horn-like spurs protruding from their fetlocks. There was a bald patch running along the back of their legs which Tab first thought was wear from a carriage harness, but then she saw markings like scribbled script running down the muscle a" not a brand, but pigments in the skin, like a birthmark, even and matching on both sides. A tattoo, she thought.

This time the two equens turned their heads sharply in her direction.

>>>Tattoo They tossed their heads and fretted, straining against their leads.

*Get on with you!' their handler barked. At the City Gate the handler met the palace ostler. He took one of the leads and escorted the sky-trader through the streets to the palace livery.

Tab followed them for a while catching snippets of conversation. The handler said the equens' names were Talisman and Trinket. They were male drones. The ostler had just asked what they ate when Tab felt a tug on her sleeve.

*'Scuse me,' said a little girl. *Chief Navigator Stelka sent me to fetch you.'

Oh no! Tab thought. She had been to the Square of Dreams where the morning's games had started, but then she saw people flocking towards the wall overlooking the Barrenlands and wandered along to see what all the fuss was about. She should have been back ages ago.

*You're to meet her at the harbour,' the little girl added.

Tab broke into a jog. Further along the lane she pushed through a crowd that had gathered around Tibbid, who was demonstrating a ball and cup game. The sky-traders looked on, unimpressed. Tab guessed they had probably seen it all before, but she admired Tibbid for trying.

As she pa.s.sed the vast building that housed the Navigators' Guild she happened to look up. There in the window she saw a pale face, like a little ghost of a boy. Torby! She stopped in her tracks, waving both arms over her head, grinning.

Her friend placed his palm against the gla.s.s. All of a sudden Tab felt a warm breeze circle around her, lifting her hair off her face. She threw her arms around her own torso, as though she was trying to hug the wind. She thought she saw a smile on Torby's face, and then the curtain dropped and he was gone. Tab waited for a moment, but the curtain stayed firmly closed.

Soon she was at the harbour where Stelka stood with a group from the Navigators' Guild. Not far away Florian, Fontagu and Vindon were aboard another sky-trader's vessel, heading out of the harbour.

Fontagu gave her a majestic wave. Tab narrowed her eyes. He was up to something.

Stelka pulled Tab aside. She looked around, waiting for a moment when their sky-trader attendant was distracted. *I'd like you to join us for this trip, Tab.'

*Lord Verris said I'm supposed to a'

*You are a member of my guild, are you not?' the Chief Navigator asked.

Tab hung her head. *Yes, ma'am.'

Stelka looked around again. *There is something odd about this whole business,' she whispered. *I want you to slip into the city and report back to me on what you see. I would like you to use all your senses.'

Tab opened her mouth, ready to explain to the Chief Navigator that she couldn't use her special mind-melding ability right now, but she remembered how difficult it had been to convince Stelka that she had the ability in the first place. Besides, the Chief Navigator was already sweeping towards the small craft. Tab slipped into the sky-trader's vessel behind the other magicians and they were away, drifting over the expanse between the two cities.

The clouds beneath them resembled fields of fresh snow. They looked solid, as though you could bounce on them and they would be soft, like a princess's bed, but when they pa.s.sed through one it was just ordinary, everyday fog.

Seeing the clouds reminded her of the dream from the night before. The boy on the rope was the same colour as the equens she had seen. She tried to recall more about the dream, but the closer they got to the city the louder the fuzz inside her head grew. It was grating, as though someone was rubbing sandpaper inside her brain, but she tried to stay still and not draw attention to herself, so the sky-traders wouldn't notice when she slipped away.

The sunlight pa.s.sing through the burgundy sails above cast an eerie pinkish glow over the streets. Rather than blocks of stone or bricks, the buildings seemed to be made from sheets of a much smoother material. Some of the buildings were dome-shaped and others pyramids. Tab peered through the childsized doorways and saw sky-traders at work a" making objects, resting, cooking. She only saw a few skytraders out and about.

Above the narrow laneways were footbridges, so low that Stelka and her navigators had to crouch to get beneath them. Tab stayed at the back of the group and at one of the footbridges there was a side alley. She ducked behind a post, pretending to be curious about one of the buildings in case she was spotted. She waited until she heard Stelka's voice fade away in the distance.

It was easy to know which way to go. Tab followed the buzzing in her head as it changed pitch. At the end of the alley she turned right, then left, then right again. She saw two sky-traders heading her way and ducked into one of the dome-shaped buildings. It was stacked high with bolts of fabric a" an easy place to hide.

After the sky-traders pa.s.sed she followed a few more alleys until she found an odd contraption at the base of a mast that she had never seen before. After experimenting with it for a while she could see that it ran on a counterweight system, similar to the one that operated the portcullis on Quentaris's City Gate. The small platform would carry you up the mizzenmast, past the next level of lanes, and on up to the crossjack.

She pushed the lever and headed up to the next storey. Here the buzzing in her head was much louder, and she squeezed her eyes shut against the pain as the platform rose up. She stepped out and followed the ache over the footbridge. She stumbled along until she reached a door. Tab pressed her hand against the door, and the ache in her head thrummed.

Stepping back she looked up at the pyramid-shaped building. There was an opening about halfway up. If she climbed up there she would be able to see inside. She would have to be quick. Although there weren't many sky-traders in the streets, there were others in the rigging and it was only a matter of time before one of them looked down and saw her spying. Tab shimmied up as quietly as she could. She gripped the edge of the window, feeling all the muscles in her shoulders straining.

Inside three sky-trader magicians sat cross-legged on the floor. Between them was a metal tray full of coloured sand. One drew symbols in the sand with her fingers, while the others chanted incantations.

Tab felt her hand slip. Her other hand shook with the strain of holding her whole weight. Her foot thumped against the side of the building as she struggled to hang on. One of the magicians looked around, her concentration broken.

Tab gasped. All at once her head was filled with a sound, but it wasn't sound exactly. She let go and slid down the side of the pyramid, arms flailing. At the bottom she somersaulted twice and thumped against the base of the building opposite. Dizzy and disoriented, she crawled into a narrow s.p.a.ce behind a nearby footbridge pylon.

One of the magicians came to the doorway, looking up and down the street.

Tab curled up into a tight ball, covering her ears with her hands. Sorrow flooded through her. It was as though the emotion was a solid thing pressing against her, and making it hard to breathe.

It reminded Tab of a feeling she had a long time ago when she had a toothache that throbbed and reverberated through her head. It gave her a fever. She had been delirious and in such pain that she hadn't been able to think of anything else. She had thought it would never end. Tab would have cut off her own head if she had thought it would have made the pain stop.

Then the magician disappeared. Soon Tab could hear the murmur of their chant begin again and the sensation went away, replaced again by the buzzing, rubbing sandpaper feeling.

Tab realised it was the sky-trader magicians who were blocking her ability, and no wonder, after what she had felt. She was about to slide out of her hideyhole when she heard m.u.f.fled voices approaching.

*a don't seem to have any uniform discipline programs for their children, schools or military training,' a voice was saying. *The guilds are divided. They will be easy to subdue. The d.a.m.nable thing is that they were telling the truth about their resources. Quentaris has nothing of value to us.'

*It will be best to offload as many of the gems as we can and move on. The Loraskians are hard on our heels,' another voice added. They sounded familiar to Tab.

*I agree,' said the first. *The Loraskians should be happy to find their useless gems here. They won't follow us once they find them in Quentaris. It will be a relief to have them off our tail.'

Tab risked a peek. It was Captain Kel, only now he didn't look so friendly.

*It's much better to offload them in the city than on the world below. The distraction should give us time to skip through two vortexes at least.'

*Oh, there is one thing of interest. Quentaris has a dragon,' said the other sky-trader, who Tab couldn't see.

*Is that so?' replied Kel. He grunted. *Dragons aren't the easiest things in the worlds to move. Have you seen it yourself ?'

*Not yet, but it is a female.'

*You should check that situation a' Then the voices trailed away.

Melprin! Tab thought. She hadn't seen her dragon friend for a long time. Last she had checked Melprin was hibernating in one of the towers. How did the sky-traders find out about her?

As soon as it was safe Tab rushed along the alleyways heading back the way she had come.