Part 23 (1/2)

She gave no sign that she could. Her eyes remained closed. Short, gasping breaths escaped from between her desiccated lips.

If he hadn't come back in time one month, if he hadn't worked in Il-Eruk's, if he had never met Arielle, then she'd still be alive. And maybe the Omnethoth attack wouldn't have happened. His head reeled as he tried to work it out, and he came to a shattering conclusion. His coming back in time had set in train the sequence of events leading to the end of Yquatine. He'd been so b.l.o.o.d.y careful, not warning anyone, going out of his way to avoid Lou Lombardo, but it had all been for nothing. He'd walked right into it, like a trap. Was it because he was tainted by Faction Paradox? Was this some intricate, temporal sick joke? Fitz couldn't shake the feeling that it was all somehow his fault. That inbuilt Kreiner guilt again.

'Arielle?'

She was hardly breathing now.

Fitz let go of her hand, turned away. He couldn't stand this. 'How much longer?'

Compa.s.sion's impa.s.sive tones. 'Not long.'

Fitz screwed himself up to say kill her, put her out of her misery kill her, put her out of her misery, but he couldn't do it. He couldn't let go of hope. 'Isn't there anything else you can do for her?'

'A ma.s.sive infusion of Artron energy might reverse the process. But I don't know how to control it, Fitz. I'm too young. It could kill her or worse.'

Fitz looked around at the forest. It was like a hotchpotch of all the forests in every horror movie he had ever seen. The strange thing was, he could see quite clearly, although there was no obvious light source. The nearest trunks were gnarled, the bark ancient and black, crooked branches thrust as if in supplication to the 'sky' above, which was like an upturned bowl of blue gla.s.s, cloudless, starless. The leaves on the trees were dark-green spiked things, like tiny daggers. Beyond the first row of trees the trunks proliferated, until they became one solid ma.s.s of gloom.

And, in the middle of the haunted forest, this oasis of life. Arielle, on her green leaf, Fitz kneeling on the short purple gra.s.s willing her to live.

It had to be worth a try. 'Do it, Compa.s.sion. It's her only chance.'

A sigh whispered through the trees. Something glowed within their depths, a golden sprite. It danced nearer, nearer, zigzagging through the branches and trunks.

Fitz crouched near Arielle again, leaning on the porous pale-green tongue of leaf, placing his hand in hers. 'It's gonna be all right,' he whispered, mainly to calm himself.

The golden sprite danced out of the woods, a fairy sparkle, a magic spell. Compa.s.sion was murmuring wordless soothing sounds at the edge of his hearing.

The golden sparkle settled over Arielle, spreading out over her body. For a second, Arielle's skin glowed with health, and she was young again, young and beautiful, her perfect face smiling in sleep.

Fitz's heart leapt and then the glow vanished, and Arielle was ravaged and desiccated and dying.

Fitz's heart was thumping fit to burst. He pressed her hand to his chest. A sob escaped his lips.

'The cellular damage is irreversible. All the energy in the universe wouldn't be enough to save her.'

Fitz let Arielle's hand drop. He turned away, walked into the forest. 'Take me outside,' he said.

There was a flash of light and

he was sitting in the copilot's seat next to Compa.s.sion. He stared at the blackness of s.p.a.ce through the forward window. He could make out only a few distant stars. If he stared long enough he could forget he was sitting inside a shuttle, and could believe he was floating in s.p.a.ce, drifting between the stars, a bodiless ent.i.ty.

Compa.s.sion spoke. 'Fitz, I am sorry.'

Fitz looked away from the window, rubbed his eyes. He turned to look at Compa.s.sion. 'For abandoning me on Yquatine?'

She nodded.

'For trying to kill me?'

She nodded again.

'For not being able to save Arielle?'

Compa.s.sion hung her head. But her voice carried threat. 'Don't push it.'

Fair enough, thought Fitz. At least she was still human enough to realise that trying to kill your companions was just not on. He stared at the blackness of s.p.a.ce once more. trying to push all thoughts of Arielle from his mind. Something was bothering him.

If Compa.s.sion hadn't turned up to save him, if she hadn't interfered with the transmitter, then maybe the possessed Arielle wouldn't have activated it. It was an uncomfortable thought. He tried to put it into words, though Compa.s.sion was probably the last person person? you would ask for rea.s.surance. 'Compa.s.sion, if you hadn't attacked the transmitter, would it have activated?'

Compa.s.sion smiled, which Fitz thought highly inappropriate. 'It was due to be activated shortly. Had I not arrived, you would be dead, remember?' She rolled her eyes. 'Have a little faith, Fitz.'

The phrase was so Doctor-esque it brought Fitz up with a start. 'What about the Doctor? Couldn't you have traced his biodata when you were in the vortex?'

'The Doctor's biodata is complicated, spread out through time like seeds in a storm, impossible to track. You were easy to find, which is why I came to you first, even though I wanted to find the Doctor.'

Thanks a bunch, thought Fitz. 'So, where is he now?'

Compa.s.sion's eyes gleamed. 'He's in this time zone. I can feel him. On Aloysius Station. I've set us on course but it'll take a couple of days in this pile of junk, even with the repairs I've managed to make.'

She obviously saw the little shuttle as a far inferior travel machine to herself. But at least it worked. Just. Fitz relaxed a little. The Doctor must have escaped from Yquatine. He'd probably saved hundreds of people as well. Could Fitz allow himself to hope that the Doctor was alive? Compa.s.sion may think she was right, but Fitz was afraid of having his hopes dashed, afraid of the grief he would feel if it turned out the Doctor was dead. Only when the Doctor was standing there before him would he allow himself to believe.

'I hope we find him,' said Fitz with feeling. 'I hope he's OK.'

'So do I,' said Compa.s.sion.

There was a tone in her voice that made Fitz stare at her. 'Look, you're not blaming him for all this, are you?'

Her eyes blazed. 'Who fitted this thing to me? Who cursed me to travel for decades in the vortex?' She sighed. 'Who's the only person who can remove it?'

Her questions were clearly rhetorical, so Fitz lapsed into thoughts of Arielle. 'How is Arielle doing?'

Compa.s.sion's fingers danced on the keypad in front of her. 'She's asking for you.'

Fitz all but lunged at her. 'Well, take me to her, then!'

Arielle's eyes were open, her lips trembling to form a word, to speak a name. 'Fitz?'

He moved so his face was above hers. 'I'm here.'

'What happened to me?'

Fitz held her hand. There was no point in lying. 'I'm so sorry, Arielle. It must have been on the St Julian St Julian. You got infected with something and I couldn't help you because I was in prison.'

'Prison?'