Part 48 (1/2)

*About what?'

*Going with the wardens, of course. What else? They're heading for the Hanging Mountains - for the fog forests and the balloon cities. This is my big chance to see where my family comes from. I'm not going to turn that down.'

*I guess not,' he said, his stomach doing a gentle backflip. He didn't know whether to be relieved or appalled. *I guess that's what we argued about.'

*Not at all.' The beginnings of a smile returned. *That was about who would win a wrestling match between Kemp and the quartermaster. I think you're overestimating your white friend's reach, but would you listen? Pfft. For someone who professes to like girls, you're rather smitten with Kemp's form.'

*I am?' he squeaked.

She laughed again, and he felt his face burn.

*So what about Kazzo?' he asked. *If you're not staying in Laure, what gave him the impression that you were? Was he just lying?'

*Why does it matter what that jerk says? Sure, I said I'd meet him for a drink. I even hinted that I might spend the night with him if he'd ditch that s.l.u.tty Liris. But now he'll sit in the bar for a while and get bored. Then he'll give up and go home alone, feeling like an idiot. Serves him right, the s.h.i.+t.'

A knot of tension loosened inside him. *And me? Where do I stand in all this?'

*Well, that's up to you. When you've decided which you'd rather do - go back to your father's safe little nest, or come with us to the Hanging Mountains - you let me know.'

That wasn't entirely what he'd meant, but he supposed the answer served either way.

He shook his aching head. *I can't believe I slept on the bar floor. Did you really have to carry me up here?'

*Yes, and you do snore. I can tell you that for a fact.'

*I - what?'

*This is my room now, as well as yours. Where do you think I slept last night?'

He stared at her, not sure exactly which part of this new development horrified him more.

*Are you pulling my leg?'

*Maybe I am, maybe I'm not. After all the drinking and the carousing ...' She hesitated, studying him with her gracefully curved eyes. Her expression was one he hadn't seen before: almost wistful, almost wounded; almost a lot of things, but not quite. *You really don't remember?'

He shook his head.

*Then I guess, my friend, you'll never know.'

The Saved.

*On the beach, on the brink of death, on the Divide, and on the cliff; on the boundary between one state and another - from the edge of things we see most clearly and lose ourselves most readily.'

THE BOOK OF TOWERS, FRAGMENT 99.

H.

abryn Kail sat in his undergarments as the rest of his clothes dried by the fire. The night was deep and dark and as empty of the Change as the heart of the Aad had been. The shadow watching him from the far side of the fire was darker and emptier still.

*You must have rescued me for a reason,' he said over the crackling flames.

*We need your help,' said the Homunculus.

*I've already helped you by stopping Pirelius from killing you. On that score, I figure we're even.'

*Yes. We're asking, not demanding.'

*For what, exactly?'

The creature's eyes glittered. *Understanding. We must understand each other or all will end in disaster. That's obvious, now. We tried to do it alone and it didn't work. We were pursued and attacked and imprisoned, almost killed. If we die, everything will come undone. It will all have been for nothing. We need you to help keep us alive long enough to achieve what we came here for. Then you will be free. We will all be released.'

Kail took several slow, measured breaths. The sense of tumbling and drowning in the flood returned, making him feel disoriented and nauseous. Then, he had thought he would die. He had been willing enough to accept his fate, under the circ.u.mstances, until two pairs of strong hands working in unison caught his wrists and hauled him to the surface, setting him on an entirely new path. Now, he thought he might just lose his grip on himself.

The taste of spiderbush leaf was bitter in his mouth. The leaves took the edge off his appet.i.te, but little else.

*The place you're headed,' he said, *it must be in the Hanging Mountains. I've studied the maps of the plains between here and the foothills, and there's nothing else to speak of. The occasional Ruin, the odd struggling town. Laure is the last outpost until you hit the mountains, and there my knowledge ends.'

*How far are they?'

*Hundreds of kilometres. I don't know exactly. It depends on how far downstream we've been swept. By tomorrow morning, I'll be able to tell you.'

The Homunculus slowly nodded. *It's a long way. But the mountains sound ... plausible. There is a connection between our previous lives and this one.'

*What sort of connection?'

*That'll be hard to explain.'

*Well, I'm not going anywhere until my clothes are dry.'

*We mean that it will be hard for us as well as you. Much remains unclear in our own minds. It's been a long time since we last had to think of such things.'

*How long?'

*You tell us. When did the giant cities die? When did electricity stop working? When did the world end?'

*No one knows for sure. ”A thousand years ago” is what the stories say, but that's like ”once upon a time”. People say it because they don't know for certain.'

*However long it's been, that's how long we've been in the Void. We're only just beginning to remember parts of what happened. You'll have to be patient with us.'

*But you will tell me?'

*In return for helping us survive our journey, yes. We'll owe you that much, at least.'

Kail thought of Eisak Marmion and his mission to destroy the unnatural interloper, for reasons he kept carefully to himself. He thought of s.h.i.+lly insisting that the Homunculus deserved to live, and the promise he had made to her, to prevent the Homunculus from being killed out of hand. He thought of Highson Sparre, who had inadvertently given it a route back among the living. And he thought of himself, a tracker who had disobeyed orders and now had to work out where he stood. Everything had seemed so simple in the moments before the flood.