Part 36 (1/2)

The Trap.

*The Change can be used for evil, but it is in itself neither good nor evil. Would one fault the morals of a stone, or cast blame upon the actions of the wind?'

THE BOOK OF TOWERS, FRAGMENT 256.

T.

he return trip took much longer than when Skender and Chu had flown over with the wing. The heavy lifter was slower and loaded down to boot, so they barely outran Pirelius and the twins below. Skender found himself missing the forced intimacy of that first flight. Chu was kept busy constantly adjusting the trim of the heavy lifter. It took much more than just a raised arm or outstretched leg to bring it back on course. How she kept track of the many levers and handles he didn't know.

Noon came and went. When not attending to the winds ahead, he watched the ground creep by beneath them. Having been down there, he could better comprehend the scale of the wrinkles and cracks that seemed so minuscule from the air. He could also appreciate the ma.s.s and momentum of the man'kin migrations as they crawled like ant swarms along the Divide floor. He was heartily glad to be no longer within their reach.

From his elevated position, he could see that the migrations' dust trails were bending north, also heading for Laure. When he swivelled to quiz Mawson about it, he found the man'kin being interrogated by one of the wardens, who was frowning as most people did after talking to Mawson for too long.

*What do the man'kin want?' Skender asked into a break in the conversation.

*We want the same thing you do,' said Mawson. *To survive.''

*But what can kill you, apart from a sledgehammer? You don't need to eat, drink or breathe. You don't die of natural causes. The only disease I've ever known you to suffer from is mould.'

*We are mortal. We begin and therefore we must end.'

*Is that why the untamed man'kin are afraid of the Homunculus?'

*Yes: *Could it kill you?'

*It does, every time we fall under its shadow: Skender nodded, wondering if he was beginning to appreciate the problem. When a man'kin became tangled in the wake of the twins, it ceased to be. That the man'kin returned to life when the twins moved on was irrelevant. For an awful time, a living mind was reduced to nothing. That would be worse than sleeping, worse even than the Void Beneath. Who wouldn't be afraid?

*What about the Angel?' he asked. *Can you tell me more about that?'

*The Angel is necessary,' said Mawson, his heavy stone features wrinkling into a frown. *It is the gathering point, the focus.'

*Of what?'

*Of us.'

*Do you mean the man'kin, or humans too?'

*The Angel draws many kinds towards it. We will not all survive without it.'

*Why not?'

*Because the Angel is essential to our survival.'

*Why?' he asked, even though he knew he would probably regret it.

*Because without it we will not all survive.'

He shook his head. Man'kin didn't see the world the way ordinary people did. Their sense of logic and causality wasn't so much circular as bound up in loops. They saw the future, past and present all at once, but not just one discrete version of the future or the past. It depended, apparently, on which way they were looking - when *which way' had less to do with the orientation of their gaze than with what they were trying to see.

*Can you be any clearer than that?' he tried.

*To me it is perfectly clear,' said the stone bust with eyebrows raised. *Your questions are as obtuse as ever.'

*Skender!' called Chu. *Stop chatting and get those eyes of yours pointing forward.'

Skender did as he was told. *What?'

*See anything unusual?'

He looked around, studying the flow of the wind. The heavy lifter was nearing the Wall. The currents were chaotic there, but for the moment the dirigible was in no danger.

He looked behind them and saw nothing out of the ordinary there, either. Pirelius and the twins had taken to a creek bed, as he and Sal had. That he couldn't see them was no cause for alarm; at least one warden watched them at all times, tracing their every movement via a telescope focused on the Divide floor. He was sure he would've heard if something had gone astray.

*No, why?'

Her stare challenged him to try again. *What about the other flyers?'

*What about them? They're -' He stopped in mid-sentence, realising then what she was hinting at. *They're gone! What happened to them? Where did they go?'

*They flew away.'

*Why?'

*I don't know, and I don't like it.' Chu gripped a lever tightly in both hands. *Keep an eye out. I think something's up.'

He agreed. Without the mocking calls of Kazzo and his buddies, the sky had fallen eerily silent. Chu seemed apprehensive as she worked the controls, which he could understand. Casting her lot with the Sky Wardens had seen her wing returned, but now she was tangled up in their messy quest. She had helped them cross the Divide and steal the heavy lifter; if they were in trouble with the Magister, so was she.

Her nervousness was infectious. Skender kept his gaze moving, looking everywhere for anything out of the ordinary as the charm-painted Wall grew steadily larger ahead.

*I wish we could just fly away,' he told her, feeling a sudden and almost overpowering urge to be reckless. *Leave everything behind and keep on going.'

*Why don't we?' she responded, adjusting the heavy lifter's trim with a deft tug on the controls before her.

*Marmion would freak, for a start, and Dad would be unhappy if I left the buggy behind. How much fuel does this thing have, anyway? My home is a long way away from here.'

*Let's go to the Hanging Mountains instead,' she said. *To h.e.l.l with Marmion. We could just dump him and run.'

Chu's grin told him she didn't expect him to take her seriously. He didn't doubt, though, that the sentiment was an honest one, and he was genuinely tempted by it. He had rescued his mother; the twins were irrelevant. What else did he have to hang around for?

The suggestion drew his gaze to the northeast, where the grey wall of mountains seemed to hang on the edge of visibility. A shelf of white cloud obscured the largest peak, like a single blossom on a stunted branch. He wondered what the fog forests and the balloon cities really looked like.

Reality intruded in the form of turbulence as they entered the complicated airs.p.a.ce over the city. He laughed at himself and his notions. First a date, then an adventure that practically amounted to elopement? Yeah, right. If the Magister kicked Chu out of the city or made life too uncomfortable for her to stay, then maybe she'd leave, but not before. While she had a shot at getting a licence, she would stay exactly where she was.

Thinking of the licence reminded him that he had a job to do. The heavy lifter rocked as the winds around them surged and roiled. Skender gave Chu an update on the currents ahead, and she adjusted course, aiming roughly for Observatory Tower, where she had unsuccessfully tried to steal eagle eggs. When he next looked at her, her grin had faded.

The gondola shuddered more strongly than before. A puff of cold brushed Skender's cheek.