Part 26 (1/2)

*What are you doing, Rain? To us you're a G.o.d. To everyone else you're a thing they call a witch a” something to be hated and hunted. Think of the connection we had back in the Biopolis. Think about what I'm offering you. Power! Wors.h.i.+p! Adoration!'

This should be a grand moment where I embrace G.o.d-head or spurn it magnificently. To my utter embarra.s.sment I find myself crying.

*I don't want your adoration! I don't want to be your G.o.d. I'm me, just me, why can't anyone understand that?'

It's no good. I cannot keep myself within this skin any longer.

Lamps spill. Silk catches fire. It burns with a blue-green flame. In the clearing outside soldiers leap up and arm themselves. Traption turrets swivel, seeking an enemy. Silver-sleek wolves leap out at them. Thorn-vines twine round guns, limbs, necks a” snap! Further out in the forest mirror-leaves blink into eyes. Awake now, the trees slowly feast, beginning with ground.

Power flows out of me. I can't control it. Can't keep myself me. My body's breaking up. Skin's splitting. Life's pouring out, spreading in great waves of utter, unending dark. Fear makes me shake. I'm disintegrating, disappearing, lost . . .

Not lost.

Found you, says a voice, as if whispered underground a thousand klicks away. A hand grips my hand. Hold tight.

At this touch, dark turns to light, ma.s.sive light, all the light imaginable, shooting up like a spear then spreading out under the clouds. It's not day, it's not darkness, it's a wave of impossibility a” a second sun. This is dark light from the heart of the forest. My heart. My forest. It spreads and stretches until it beams over every branch, under every leaf, into every dark corner. The world turns white.

Battle explodes in the light of this fake day. All the invading forces are scrambled. Instead of stars, the sky is a constellation of Crux planes. Soldiers swarm like insects. At the centre of the war it's just me. Me against the whole Crux army. Eyes closed, I can still see. Body motionless, I can still move. I spread invisible hands across the lake and the water stretches out, flooding the sh.o.r.e. From the unseen lake-bed I dredge up every skeleton, every plane, every boat that's ever been buried there. Up they come, dripping grey weeds and water. These I fling at the Crux Air Force, and when Crux planes and pilots come tumbling down, trees are only too ready to greet and eat them.

The whole world shakes. The very sky cracks. I can't keep this up for much longer! There are bombs and bullets, corvils and missiles. I'm here, I'm there, I'm everywhere. I'm spread too thinly, I'm stretched too far . . . I can't do this alone! There's only one of me!

Then I hear a new sound a” I know this noise! It's the gritty rumble of Storm engines.

*Witches!' call all the Crux still left alive. *The Night Witches are coming!'

Here they fly, nine tiny Storms, each with faithful friends. They're here, they've come, they're on my side! First Lida's plane, the Revenge. Next Dee with Zoya . . . Dee in her lucky hat. The other Storms follow, chasing whatever Crux I can't catch. I'd cheer if I still had a voice. I offer up one last utter, bursting, supernova . . .

Then silence.

Just silence.

Simple. Quiet.

I gasp a” my first breath since the storm began. Flames lick the gutted G.o.d-house. Reef is lying at my feet, not to wors.h.i.+p me but to keep me connected through all the catastrophe. It's his hand that's been stretched out to seize mine. He held fast and kept me from disappearing. Now he's not moving.

I sink to the floor. Smoke thickens.

*Reef?'

I'm too weak to break the bane-metal chains wrapped around his body. Still gripping my hand, he opens his eyes and looks straight at me. An arm's length away, I look back.

His voice is weak. *Are you OK?'

I want to laugh but can't find the energy. *I think I stepped off the path.'

*I think you blasted the path to oblivion.' His eyes close briefly. The black ink on his lids stares at me.

I tell him, *You can let go, you know. I understand. I mean, you've seen what I am now. It's a bit late to be reporting me to Aura but I know you'll probably hate me.'

*Report you? Why would I do that?'

*Isn't that why you've come to the Mora.s.s, to hunt me?'

*Oh yes,' he says. *I've been hunting witches for years.'

*And now you've found one.'

*So I have.' Still he doesn't release my hand.

*Are you supposed to capture me and send me back to Corona?'

*Are you stupid?' he murmurs tenderly. *I'm not letting you go now.'

*But . . . you hate me?'

*Do I? Doesn't feel like it.'

There's a long pause where I think of all the things I could say, but none of my words seem to be in the right order. I end up with, *So when you were hunting witches, it was to find out if they existed or not?'

*I had to know a” were my parents arrested wrongly? Were they superst.i.tious criminals . . . or was Aura simply clamping down on anything that statistics and science couldn't explain?'

*How crazy a” you were with one all along and you never knew it. I didn't know either. I wish I'd trusted you.'

He says, *Didn't I keep saying you could share your secrets with me?'

*I thought that was just a trick, to get me to show myself. I thought you'd throw me in prison too, or worse.'

He shakes his head gently. *Now that Aura can't possibly deny that witches exist, the only business I have with prisons will be to get my parents released with a full pardon.'

I grin. *I can help with prison breaks if that doesn't happen!'

I wish wish wish I could shake off this exhaustion to reach further and hold him. Some deity I am a” sprawled on the floor like a bird without wings! Eye Bright lands on my shoulder and bites my ear a” affectionately, I think.

I have to ask. *Weren't you afraid I'd take up the offer of being wors.h.i.+pped as a G.o.d?'

*The thought may have crossed my mind, but only about a million times or so. Mostly I was afraid you'd be hurt when you finally used your powers to the full. That you, the girl I love, would be swallowed up and disappear.'

Love love love! He said love. Dare I believe him? Is it possible to be happy, after all the doubt and destruction? Love is just a word people say, after all. I look in his eyes, his beautiful, clear bright eyes. They say love too, no need for words.

I have to take a breath. *And you don't just want to put me in a laboratory like Uncle Mentira and use me as a weapon of war?'

He smiles. *Not top of the list of plans I have for you, Rain.'

I smile back, wondering if there's even any war left to fight. The forest is calmer, I know that much. No machines, bombs, guns or G.o.d-followers left. Let the Crux wors.h.i.+p their idea of a Light Bringer without forcing others to have their faith! Let Rodina march to the beat of science and common sense, without Slick spraying everything that grows outside the realm of normal rules! Let the Mora.s.s be safe as a place of possibilities!

As roots reach down to soil, and shoots sprout up, I feel my senses stretching to the edge of the forest and beyond . . . to the night-frosted fields of the foodlands, the dark, blossoming buildings of the city, and further still . . . stopping only at sea-waves and running rivers.

I feel a great peace spreading.

I ask Reef, *Can you hear the birdsong?'