City of Time (26 page)

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her fingers burned with cold. But still she held his eyes.

"Who are you?" she said. "What did they do to you?"

Something seemed to change in his face. The cold stare faltered. A tear formed at the corner of one eye and rolled down his cheek, then stopped, frozen. She held on to his hands. And although she did not see his lips moving she could hear a voice in her head, a distant, faltering voice.

We had an island in time ... the Harsh came at night ... they destroyed it with frost... I was a baby ... they took me as their own. They do not have children. I am ... I am ... so cold, so cold
.

The voice was full of loneliness and Silkie felt as if her heart would break. She leaned forward and put her arms around the boy even though the cold seared her through her thin clothing. His expression did not change, but she could feel his heartbeat now. She started to sing a Raggie lullaby about the sea and the sky and their warm home by the harbor.

Silkie didn't know how long she held him. It was the boy who gently took her arms from around him and she realized that the ground was trembling. This time it was the boy who took her hand. He led her outside. The moon seemed impossibly close. Not white anymore, but a vast expanse of gray, pitted with craters. As they looked, it shuddered and a great fissure ran across the surface.

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It's too late
, Silkie thought. She sat down on the grass. The Harsh boy sat beside her and together they waited.

At the Workhouse flames and smoke rose around Wesley and Pieta.

"Look!" Wesley said when he saw the crack that had appeared in the moon.

There was a great crackling from the fire below. The smoke was choking, but for a minute the wind cleared it and Wesley saw Pieta standing on the roof, gazing in defiance at the moon, as if she might by force of will drive it away. And then even the wind failed and darkness covered her again.

The street outside Black's museum was deserted. The truck screeched to a halt outside and Cati helped Owen down out of the back. He was pale and weak and his skin felt cold to the touch, but there was a determined light in his eye.

"It is time to say goodbye, Rosie," Dr. Diamond said. "I don't know how to thank you."

"Getting paid would be nice, Doc," Rosie said.

"Of course, of course." Dr. Diamond fished all his magno coins from his pocket and Rosie's eyes widened. "That should be enough to ransom your brother. I would have given them to you before, but I thought I might need them to buy a tempod."

"You're a star, Doc." There were tears in Rosie's eyes. She threw her arms around him and kissed him.

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Cati grinned when she saw that Rosie had left a ring of lipstick on his cheek.

Behind the truck Cati saw Clancy. He was standing in the middle of his Dogs. She went up to him and rubbed noses with him. All the other dogs laughed and Cati could have sworn that under his mask Clancy turned red.

Rosie went over to Owen. To his surprise and embarrassment she bowed deeply and formally.

"Stop it," he said.

"No. We are the first people in Hadima to see the Navigator for many years. Travel safely. And come back soon," Rosie said. Owen saw that there were tears in her eyes. Without thinking what he was doing, he put her hand to his lips and kissed it.

"Quickly!" Dr. Diamond said. Owen shook hands with Clancy, who looked long and deep into his eyes before turning to the other Dogs. Then the pack wheeled as one and in the blink of an eye disappeared into the night.

"What about Andromeda?" Cati asked.

"He can come with me," Rosie said. "I'll get him back to the mountain."

The Yeati came over to Owen. It touched the ring on his hand. Owen took it off and, copying Rosie, bowed to the Yeati, who bowed deeply back, then gave the ring to Cati.

"I think he's telling you to keep it," Owen said.

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"I can't ..." But the Yeati's great eyes were on her, telling her that to refuse the great gift would offend him. So instead Cati said, "Thank you, Andromeda."

The Yeati swept Rosie up in his arms. And if his fur was ruffled, he didn't seem to mind. They walked off down the street.

"Now," Dr. Diamond said. "To business."

The door of the museum wasn't locked and there was no one in the hallway. Dr. Diamond called out Black's name. No answer. They walked through the museum. The tiny magno lights seemed lower than ever. Shadows of the strange dead beasts in cases flickered against the wall. They went deeper into the museum.

"Black?" Dr. Diamond called again, and it seemed as if he was describing the feel of the place rather than someone's name. His voice echoed round the empty room.

They found him at last. He was sitting at a candlelit table under the skeleton of the giant schooner. There was a glass flask on the table and a gun in his hands, pointing at them. Black's face was pale. His hair fell over his forehead and his eyes were like smudges of soot in which a dark fire burned.

"I should have known," Dr. Diamond said.

"Your health, Damian," Black said with sarcasm, "for as long as you have it." He lifted the flask and took a sip.

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"I see that horadanum is your drink of choice," Dr. Diamond said. "The curse of the ages. One gulp and you can see time, feel it ..."

"You are part of it, Damian," Black said, his voice slow with intoxication. "Part of the long deep flow of time. You can sense the mystery, the majesty of it ..."

"Perhaps," Dr. Diamond said, "but the stuff eats away at who you are. You no longer know right from wrong."

"What is right from wrong when you can see the divine mysteries of time?" Black said.

"Everything," Dr. Diamond said.

"Enough!" Black said. "You have something belonging to me. My Yeati."

"The Yeati doesn't belong to anyone," Cati said indignantly.

"Who is that?" Black demanded. "Is it the little thief, the sewer rat? No? Her friend, then. They have the same ratlike squeak, do they not, Damian? Give me back my Yeati or I will shoot the good doctor."

Black gave a cracked laugh, but Owen saw his finger tighten on the trigger. He felt Cati edging be hind him.

"Where did you find the Yeati?" Owen asked, to distract him.

"Find him? He found me. Came here looking for something, I don't know what. Found him in here, looking through astronomy books ..."

"It was cruel what you did to him."

"He's only an animal, Damian," Black drawled.

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"No," Cati said quietly, "he isn't only an animal. Which can't be said for you." She had worked her way around to the pulley that held the schooner aloft. With one swift stroke of her knife, she cut the rope. The skeleton of the great beast plummeted toward Black. He looked up and shrieked, but moved too late.

The schooner crashed down on him and dust flew up from the floor. The surrounding glass cases tottered and some of them fell. When the dust settled they saw that the rib cage of the Schooner had landed right where Black was sitting, the ribs forming the bars of a cage. Black's expression as he peered between the bones was a mixture of fear and rage.

"Where is the tempod?" Dr. Diamond towered over Black.

"Please don't, Damian," Black said. "You were never good at being tough."

"You have one, still full of time," Owen said. "The Yeati told us. It could save our whole world."

"What's a world?" Black said. "There are plenty of worlds. Your grandfather could have told you that." Owen started. "Did you think I didn't notice? There's a photograph in my study. The old Navigator himself. The resemblance is striking."

"We'll set the Yeati on you," Cati threatened.

"No," Owen said. He had seen Black's eyes flicker sideways. Owen picked up the flask of horadanum and tilted it until a few precious drops spilled.

"No!" Black's voice rose. Owen tilted again. Half of

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the contents ran out onto the floor and were lost in the dust. "Stop!" Black shrieked. "You have no idea ..." He flailed feebly.

"The tempod," Owen said firmly, tilting the flask one more time.

"The terfuge!" Black said, almost crying. "In the terfuge!"

Dr. Diamond ran to the case containing the gloomy-looking stuffed bird. He opened it and examined the moldy feathers. He felt around before inserting his hand into a gap. Gently he drew out a rock with an intact piece of crystal attached. The crystal was hollow and filled with a cloudy substance, which glittered when he moved it.

"This is it, Owen," Dr. Diamond said. There was awe in his voice as he gazed into the shifting depths. "This is the intact tempod."

From his bone cage Black sobbed. "The most sought-after artifact of my collection," he said. "Perhaps the only one left." Then his expression changed to one of cunning and triumph. "I have one consolation. Look over there, Damian."

Owen followed his pointing finger. In the corner of the room was what appeared to be a television set in an ornately carved cabinet with large wooden knobs on the front.

"A visionater," Dr. Diamond said in wonder. "I thought they all had been destroyed."

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"What does it do?" Owen asked, with a feeling of foreboding.

"It sees between the worlds," Dr. Diamond said. "If you had one at the Workhouse, you could see what was going on in the City."

"And vice versa," Black said, his eyes glittering. "Turn it on, Damian. It will tune to the place you desire to see. Let's see what is happening in your world."

Dr. Diamond turned the big knob on the front. At first nothing happened, then the screen flickered and buzzed, and slowly images started to become clear.

"The moon!" Cati exclaimed. It was the moon, but in close-up, each crater and large rock visible. Then the picture opened out and they realized that what they were seeing was the moon from the earth, impossibly close. Great fissures and cracks shuddered across the moonscape as though it was being riven by quakes. The picture changed. They saw the earth, and there were fires everywhere, and earthquakes.

"Look!" Cati said with terror in her voice. "The Workhouse!"

Flames leapt from within and one whole wall had collapsed, and what looked like the ceiling of the Starry too, although the Sleepers were hidden by smoke. As they watched, the Skyward shot into the sky, opening like a telescope until it towered above the flames and smoke. Then it fell with a great crash into the fire below.

"No!" Dr. Diamond cried. Then the visionater

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crackled and popped and the screen went blank. Cati stared at it in shock. Dr. Diamond sat down abruptly.

"I let them down," Cati whispered, her hands shaking. "I am the Watcher and I did not watch. They are all gone."

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Chapter 32

Cati slumped to the floor. Even Dr. Diamond's shoulders seemed to sag. Black's eyes gleamed with malice. Only Owen seemed not to have given in to despair. He took Cati under the arms and lifted her to her feet.

"Come with me," he said. Cati and Dr. Diamond followed him dumbly out of the room and into the hallway. They watched as he knelt beside the battered old prospector's boat that lay in the hall, dust-covered and neglected. Using his sleeve he rubbed at the nameplate on the bow, uncovering the full name.

Wayfarer
.

"This is it," he said quietly. "This is the
Wayfarer."

"I don't understand," Dr. Diamond said.

"The strange thing is that I
do
understand," Owen

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said. "I understand in here." He put his hand on his chest. "I just can't explain it."

"I don't know what you're talking about," Cati said dully, "but it doesn't matter anyway."

"It might, though," Owen said, his eyes shining in the dark hallway. "I can't explain, but I can show you. Look." In one easy movement he slid over the side of the craft into the stern and took hold of the slender wooden tiller. A tremor ran through the vessel, the timber itself seeming to come alive. The deck swayed under Owen, then the boat righted itself. Dr. Diamond's eyebrows shot up, and rose even further as the entire craft lifted gently from the floor, hovering above it.

"It feels alive," Owen said quietly.

"I never suspected that such a thing existed," the doctor said.

"What is it?" Cati asked.

"The
Wayfarer
. The Navigator's vessel," Owen said. "My grandfather had maps of time, but he couldn't walk there. It makes sense. There had to be a vessel to carry him. ..."

"To sail on time the way a boat sails on the ocean!" Dr. Diamond said.

"Yes," Owen said. Cati had never seen him like this. He looked tall and strong, and although there was no wind his hair seemed to stream back from his forehead.

There was a flat board in front of the tiller, and in it was a hole.

"There must have been an instrument," Owen said.