Part 32 (1/2)

*You know what this is?' asked Sal.

*It's the Caduceus. I glimpsed it as Pirelius brought us to the cells.'

*It's the source of the sink, right?'

*Yes, only it doesn't seem to be working now.' Her broken-nailed hand stroked a hole in the side of the stalagmite. *Part of it's missing.'

*Kail has it.'

*What's he doing here?' asked Skender.

*Marmion sent him to keep an eye on us.'

*Well, he's not doing a very good job.'

*I don't know where he is, but I'm sure he'll catch up eventually. He can handle himself.' Sal looked uncertain for a moment. *Come on. Through here.'

Skender's mother pulled herself away from the stalagmite with obvious difficulty, her need to study the artefact stronger than her fear of being recaptured. Skender took her full weight again as they resumed their hurried exit.

*Dad always said that your curiosity would get you into trouble one day.'

*And I've always known he was right.' She laughed softly. *But it worked out in the end, didn't it? We found what we were looking for. Our understanding of the world will increase accordingly.'

Skender glanced behind him at the twins toiling steadily under the weight of Shorn Behenna. He was keen to find out how she had known about their return to the world and what she had hoped to learn from them. But just then wasn't the time for an interrogation. She obviously wasn't keen to talk about it with everyone around.

*I hope it was worth it,' he said.

*Absolutely.' She squeezed his arm. *You'll have to tell me later how you got past Pirelius and his thugs. When they ambushed us, we didn't stand a chance.'

Skender was about to say that he hadn't, in fact, got past her captors at all, and that he had the bruises to show for it, but Sal made shus.h.i.+ng noises from the head of the party and he took the hint. They were still in enemy territory and could easily be captured again if they weren't careful.

The route they followed led along exactly the sort of tunnels Skender had been looking for under Laure. He was gratified to that extent, but he still felt slightly stupid for searching the wrong side of the Divide. If he'd had Tom with him from the start - or just Tom's ability to glimpse the future - things might have gone very differently.

He idly wondered what it would be like to go through life experiencing occasional flashes of one's fate. He had once read in a biography of a seer that prophecy was like having memories of the future, and that these future memories were no different to having memories of the past. Ordinary people lived with vast amounts of information from their younger days, but not all of them remembered it correctly or used it when they should. People forgot things and disagreed with other people about what had *really' happened. Skender could see how having some knowledge of the future could be problematic under those circ.u.mstances. If people couldn't always agree on what had happened in the past, how could one person be certain all the time about what would happen in the future?

Skender came from a long line of Skender Van Haasterens, all of whom possessed perfect memory, all of whom had taught at the Keep. He knew exactly where he had come from, and he had a pretty good idea where he was going. Once that had seemed stifling; now he considered it a blessing. Unless something utterly unexpected came along and threw his life completely off-track, he would soon be back where he belonged.

Something utterly unexpected like Pirelius, he thought; or Lost Minds from the Void Beneath, back in the world for unknown reasons; or Chu, if she would ever talk to him again after he stole her wing, crashed it and possibly lost it forever ...

The exit from the tunnels glowed with daylight. This threw Skender for a moment: the last thing he remembered of the outside world was utter darkness, when he had been following a faint thread of smoke to the entrance of the bandits' hiding place. Now the sun had risen and he could smell hot dust in the air. He could also hear shouting and the sound of stone breaking.

Sal stopped at the base of a crack leading upwards through raw, unfinished rock. A series of natural steps led to fresh air and clear sky. It looked dauntingly blue. Sal hurried up the steps to check the lie of the land.

*Well,' he said, *this complicates things.'

Skender eased his mother into a sitting position and edged his way past Kemp and Mawson. *What? What can you see?'

*Man'kin.'

*In the Aad?'

Sal nodded grimly, and Skender climbed to see for himself.

The sun-baked ruins, visible from his elevated position, were spread out before him. The crack partly severed a retaining wall on the edge of the city, where it ab.u.t.ted the sheer cliff face. Below was a series of low buildings that might once have been barracks or stables. Their roofs had collapsed long ago, leaving just stubs of walls pointing at the sky. Through these stubs walked a stone creature fully three metres high. Vaguely insectile, with a huge, tilted head and long, blade-like arms, it didn't seem to notice the bricks it sent tumbling. Cutting a swathe through the ruins to Skender's right, it angled up and back into the ruins proper.

There, Skender caught sight of people running. These were the source of the shouts. Now that they had lost the cover of the Change-sink, Pirelius's goons were coming face to face with the inhabitants of the Divide.

So would the escapees from the dungeon, Skender thought, if they emerged at the wrong time.

*We need to get Mawson up here,' said Sal, *away from the Homunculus and its wake. We might be able to talk to the man'kin through him - at least find out what they want.'

Skender scurried down the stairs to convey the request to Kemp. The albino, who had just put the bust down so he could rest, feigned irritation. He hefted Mawson into the crook of one arm and slowly eased himself up the crack. Skender, determined not to miss out on anything, followed.

*There are plenty of hiding spots,' Kemp said, leaning Mawson on the lip of the crack and peering out at the ancient walls. *I can make a dash for one while you keep an eye out.'

Sal nodded. *Take Skender with you. He can watch for my signal and act as a runner.'

Skender nodded, although the thought of breaking cover amongst the man'kin made his bowels turn to water. The ruins looked awfully open under the bright light of the sun.

Kemp levered himself up onto the edge of the wall and jumped down. Skender helped Sal slide Mawson into Kemp's waiting hands, then jumped down after him. The sudden exposure was alarming. He could hear the man'kin cras.h.i.+ng through walls and buildings all around him. The sound of their destructive vigour echoed off the cliff face and surrounded him with the clamour of breaking stone. He could almost feel the gleeful violence the man'kin wrought through the ground under his feet.

Kemp scrambled twenty metres to a relatively sheltered corner and managed to put Mawson down without dropping him. Then he fell back against the wall and wiped sweat from his brow. His barrel chest rose and fell.

Skender sank down next to him and looked behind them. He could see Sal peering out of the crack in the wall, and waved. Sal raised a hand just enough to show that he had seen them. Then Skender turned to Mawson, remembering how the man'kin in the Divide had told him that Mawson was *gone'. It hadn't meant that Mawson was dead, just that he was temporarily out of action, thanks to the Change-sink and the Homunculus.

*How long do you think it'll take for him to recover?' he asked Kemp.

*How should I know?'

*Use your ears,' said the man'kin, *and your eyes. The evidence of both senses will give you the answer you seek.'

Skender jumped as Mawson's stone form shook, raising a small shower of dust that had settled into his angular lines. His face moved like an elaborate clockwork machine, jumping by increments from expression to expression. His mouth didn't open when he spoke, but his stone eyes tracked.

*Listen to me, Mawson,' said Kemp. *I need you to talk to the man'kin around us. What do they want? Why are they destroying everything?'

*They are not destructive. They are freeing the stones from captivity.''

*What stones?'

*The ones bound into walls and roads and other human artefacts.'

*Is that all they want?'

*For now.'

*Will they attack us?'

*I cannot say. Their natures are imprecise.'