Part 23 (1/2)

”But,” Bayle said, ”if this is a journey of no return, it need not be a journey without an end.

”Look around you! We do not yet know who built this city, and why I have no doubt we will discover all this in the future. But we do know that it is empty it is empty. The spa.r.s.e population of the Lowland has never found the collective will to inhabit this place. But we can turn this sh.e.l.l into a city and with our industry and communal spirit, we will serve as a beacon for those who wander across the Lowland's plains. All this I have discussed at length with Sila.

”Our long journey ends here. This city, bequeathed to us by an unimaginable past, will host our future.” He raised his hands; Enna had never seen him look more evangelical. ”We have come home!”

He won a storm of applause. Sila surveyed the crowded room, that cold a.s.sessment dominating her expression and again Enna was sure she could smell the cold iron stench of raw meat.

At the end of the dinner, despite her anxiety and determination, Enna still couldn't get to talk to her father. Bayle apologized, but with silent admonishments, warned her off spoiling the mood he had so carefully built; she knew that as Expedition leader he believed that morale, ever fragile, was the most precious resource of all. It will keep until the morning, his expression told her.

Frustrated, deeply uneasy, she left the building, walked out of the city to her wagon, and threw herself into Tomm's arms. He seemed surprised by her pa.s.sion.

Wait until the morning. But when the morning came, the city was in chaos. But when the morning came, the city was in chaos.

They were woken by babbling voices. They hastily pulled on their clothes, and hurried out of the wagon.

Servants and Philosophers milled about, some only half-dressed. Enna found Nool, her father's manservant; disheveled, unshaven, he was nothing like the sleek major-domo of the dinner last night. ”I'm not going back in there again,” he said. ”You can pay me what you like.”

Enna grabbed his shoulders. ”Nool! Calm down, man. Is it my father? Is something wrong?”

”The sooner we get loaded up and out of here the better, I say...”

Enna abandoned him and turned to Tomm. ”We'll have to find him.”

But Tomm was staring up at the sky. ”By all that's created,” he said. ”Look at that.”

At first she thought the shape drifting in the sky was the Expedition's balloon. But this angular, sharp-edged, white-walled object was no balloon. It was a building, a parallelepiped. With no signs of doors or windows, it had come loose of the ground, and drifted away on the wind like a soap bubble.

”I don't believe it,” Tomm murmured.

Enna said grimly, ”Right now we don't have time. Come on.” She grabbed his hand and dragged him into the city.

The unmade streets were crowded today, and people swarmed; it was difficult to find a way through. And again she had that strange, dreamlike feeling that the layout of the city was different. ”Tell me you see it too, cartographer,” she demanded of Tomm. ”It has changed, again.”

”Yes, it has changed.”

She was relieved to see her father's building was still where it had been. But Philosophers were milling about, helpless, wringing their hands.

The doors and windows, all of them, had sealed up. There was no way into the building, or out.

She shoved her way through the crowd, grabbing Philosophers. ”Where is he? Is he in there?” But none of them had an answer. She reached the building itself. She ran her hands over the wall where the door had been last night, but it was seamless, as if the door had never existed. She slammed on the wall. ”Father? Bayle! Can you hear me? It's Enna!” But there was no reply.

And then the wall lurched before her. Tomm s.n.a.t.c.hed her back. The whole building was s.h.i.+fting, she saw, as if restless to come loose of the ground.

When it settled she began to batter the wall again.

”He can't hear you.” The woman, Sila, stood in the fine robes Bayle had given her. She seemed aloof, untouched.

Enna grabbed Sila by the shoulders and pushed her against the wall of the building. ”What have you done?”

”Me? I haven't done anything.” Sila was unperturbed by Enna's violence, though she was breathing hard. ”But you know that, don't you?” Her voice was deep, exotic ancient as Lowland dust.

Desperate as Enna was to find her father, the pieces of the puzzle were sliding around in her head. ”This is all about the buildings, isn't it?”

”You're a clever girl. Your father will be proud or would have been. He's probably already dead. Don't fret; he won't have suffered, much.”

Tomm stood before them, uncertain. ”I don't understand any of this. Has this woman harmed Bayle?”

”No,” Enna hissed. ”You just lured him here didn't you, you witch? It's the building, Tomm. That's what's important here, not this woman.”

”The building?”

”The buildings take meat,” Sila said. ”Somehow they use it to maintain their fabric. Don't ask me how.”

Tomm asked, ”Meat?”

”And light,” Enna said. ”That's why they stack up into this strange reef, isn't it? It isn't a human architecture at all, is it? The buildings are competing for the light. The buildings are competing for the light.”

Sila smiled. ”You see, I said you were clever.”

”The light?”

”Oh, Tomm, don't just repeat everything we say! He's in there. My father. And we've got to get him out.”

Tomm was obviously bewildered. ”If you say so. How?”

She thought fast. Buildings that take meat. Buildings that need light ... ”The balloon,” she said. ”Get some servants.”

”It will take an age for the heaters ”

”Just bring the envelope. Hurry, Tomm!”

Tomm rushed off.

Enna went back to the building and continued to slam her hand against the wall. ”I'll get you out of there, father. Hold on!” But there was no reply. And again the building s.h.i.+fted ominously, its base sc.r.a.ping over the ground. She glanced into the sky, where that flying building had already become a speck against the blues.h.i.+fted stars. If they fed, if they had the light they needed, did the buildings simply float away in search of new prey? Was that what had become of poor Momo?

Tomm returned with the balloon envelope, manhandled by a dozen bearers.

”Get it over the building,” Enna ordered. ”Block out the light. Hurry. Oh, please...”

All of them hauled at the balloon envelope, dragging it over the building. The envelope ripped on the sharp corners of the building, but Enna ignored wails of protest from the Philosophers. At last the thick hide envelope covered the building from top to bottom; it was like a wrapped-up present. She stood back, breathing hard, her hands stinking of leather. She had no idea what to do next if this didn't work.

A door dilated open in the side of the building. Fumes billowed out, hot and yellow, and people recoiled, coughing and pressing their eyes. Then Bayle came staggering out of the building, and collapsed to the ground.

”Father!” Enna got to the ground and took his head on her lap.