Seeker (21 page)

"So you've no idea at all what this brother of yours might have done to get himself cast out?"

"No idea at all."

"Humph." The Prophet frowned with puzzlement. "Very odd."

"I wanna do wee-wee," said the child.

"We've given you fresh knowledge," said the Wildman. "Now you've got to answer our questions."

The Prophet shot the Wildman a sharp look.

"Answers cost money."

The Wildman produced a gold shilling.

"Get on with it, then. Today's my day off."

"We've heard about a secret weapon being built in Radiance. We want to know what it is, and where we can find it."

"Secret weapon, eh?"

"I wanna do wee-wee!"

"Be quiet."

The Prophet closed her eyes.

"Leave me," she said. "I'll call you back when I'm ready."

All this time, the three visitors had been on their knees. Now they got up and went back out into the portico, and the doors closed after them.

"There's something not right about her," said Morning Star.

"You wait and see," said the Wildman.

After about five minutes the doors opened again, and there was the River Prophet, hunched on her throne, with the orange-haired child curled up at her feet, sucking on the loose end of one sleeve and looking sullen. The visitors forgot to kneel.

"Well?" said the Prophet. "Don't I get any respect?"

They knelt.

"Not that I have much in the way of answers for you. This secret weapon must be very secret. I don't know where it is. I can only tell you it's an explosive weapon, and it's been tested, and it's very powerful."

"Who tested it?" asked the Wildman.

"I don't know."

Morning Star gazed at her. She had been growing more and more puzzled since their first sight of the Prophet. The puzzle sprang from her colors; or rather, her lack of colors. All that she could detect was a very faint tinge of green, which was not at all the color she would expect from one who was wise and crammed with knowledge. Now as she spoke to them, there were flickers of orange round her white-haired head.

"Make them go away," whined the freckled child. "I'm tired."

Morning Star turned her attention to the child. Seeker was asking a second question.

"Can you tell me where my brother Blaze has gone?"

"No, no more questions. You've had your lot. You didn't give me much fresh knowledge, and it's my day off. Now go away and leave me in peace."

"It's the girl!" cried Morning Star. All round the child was a deep blue gleam, a blue so dense it was almost indigo. Morning Star had seen this color only very rarely before, and always on people of great age. It was the color of knowledge. "The answers come from the girl!"

"Nonsense!" said the Prophet.

"She knows nothing!" insisted Morning Star. "The girl's the one with the knowledge!"

"It's a lie!" said the Prophet.

"How does she know?" said the child.

The Prophet took hold of the child and cradled her protectively in her arms.

"You can't have her!" she said, her voice cracking with emotion. "Go away! Leave us alone. I won't let you take her. You'll have to kill me first!"

"We don't want to take her," said Seeker, watching with surprise.

"You've brought that killer here! You mean to kill me and take my little girl!"

She was becoming frantic. Her little girl seemed quite untroubled.

"Tell her we won't take the girl, Wildman."

"We don't want her. We want knowledge."

Little by little, they calmed the old woman down. Then she bowed her white-haired head in shame.

"It's just a way to make a living," she said sorrowfully. "Don't blame an old woman for wanting to live."

"So you have no knowledge after all?"

"Not me, no. Not a jot. But my little girl, she knows everything. Tell her what you like, she never forgets, do you, my flower? They said she was a Funny, but she's not a Funny. She's just different. Aren't you, my flower?"

"When will they go away?"

"Soon, my love. Soon."

There was something oddly disconnected about the girl. Here was her protector almost in tears, confessing her fraud, and the child seemed not to be aware of it.

"So she gives true answers?"

"Oh, yes. True as can be. People come to us from all over, and they tell us what they know, and my flower remembers it all. Then when someone comes and asks a question, as you have done, she casts the question like a hook into her memory and pulls out whatever catches the hook."

"So it was the girl who said the weapon had been tested?"

"Of course."

They looked at the child, who was back chewing on her sleeve and paying them no attention. It seemed impossible.

"How does she know?"

"There was a story about some cattle burned alive in the fields outside Radiance. Another, about a freak wave on the lake that sank a fishing boat. She puts all the little pieces together without even knowing she's doing it or what she's come up with when she's done."

The child lay and sucked her sleeve and ignored them all.

"Is she your granddaughter?"

"Not exactly."

"So what is she?"

"Well—you might say I found her. But we get on very happily together, don't we, my flower?"

"I like it when you give me sweeties," she offered.

The old woman looked at them with pleading eyes.

"She couldn't do it without me. It's our living, being a prophet. Please don't tell anyone."

"Not if you answer our questions," said Seeker. "I mean, not if she answers our questions."

"What else do you want to know?"

"Where my brother's gone."

"The Noma who was cast out? That's too new. She won't know that."

Morning Star then spoke. Her voice trembled a little.

"Ask her where my mother is. She left thirteen years ago."

The Prophet frowned. "You'll have to give her more to go on than that."

"My mother's name is Mercy. She left us thirteen years ago this midsummer to join the Community on Anacrea. They sent her away. She never came home."

"Anything else about her?"

"I was very little. I don't remember. My father always told me she was very beautiful. And that it was a rainy summer when she left. The rainiest for years."

"Well, we can try."

"Shall I tell the child?"

"You've told her. She hears everything, and forgets nothing." She stroked the little girl's head. "Take a look, my flower."

The strange child pulled a face to show she was unwilling to make the effort.

"With them watching?"

"Yes, my love."

So she sat herself up, cross-legged on the floor, and closed her eyes. She started to mutter and moan, and then the moan became a half-recognizable mumble of words and phrases with no connecting meaning.

"Anacrea ... Pretty lady ... Rain! So much rain!...Death in the family ... Cry, cry, cry ... The road to the mother bear ... Someone needs to take care ... Have you seen the new governess?...Naughty children! Do as you're told!...No better than a servant ... White curtains blowing in the wind ... Some have all the luck, not that she knows it ... And the pretty little governess, crying behind closed doors ... Well, well, well..."

Slowly the murmuring voice faded into silence. Morning Star looked up at the old woman, her eyes glistening with tears, though she hardly knew why.

"Does it mean anything?"

"A little," she said. "I think your mother is working as a governess to a rich family. She's been very unhappy."

"Oh, Mama!" said Morning Star, unable to hold back a sob. "Where can I find her?"

"The road to the mother bear. White curtains blowing in the wind."

"I don't understand."

"I'm sorry. Nor do I."

A
S THEY MADE THEIR WAY BACK DOWN THE RIVER PATH
, Seeker and the Wildman spoke of their coming journey, but Morning Star remained silent. She was still distressed by the news of her mother. It had been enough to reawaken the pain of her memory, but not enough to be of any use.

After a while the Wildman noticed her silence.

"What's the matter with her?"

"She wants to find her mother."

"We're not going chasing after any mothers," said the Wildman. "We're going to find this weapon, and we're going to join the Nomana, and we're going to get all their powers. And we don't need any mothers."

"Are you stupid?" said Seeker. "Or just nasty?"

The Wildman went very still.

"Nobody talks to me like that."

"Can't you see she's upset?"

"You calling me stupid?"

"Stupid. And blind. And deaf."

The Wildman shot out one golden arm and gripped Seeker by the throat.

"You don't love me no more?" he hissed, his eyes shining very brightly. Seeker was choking too much to answer.

Morning Star drew back one arm and smacked the Wildman as hard as she could across the side of his face. He staggered back, releasing his grip on Seeker.

"You're stupid and nasty and blind and deaf!" she shouted at him. "And we don't love you!"

Then she turned to Seeker, who was massaging his throat.

"Has he hurt you?"

"Not too bad."

"What about me?" cried the Wildman. "You hurt me!"

"Good."

"You want me to slit your necks?"

"Go right ahead."

She glowered at him fiercely.

"Come on, spiker! Bandit! Wild man! Let's see this famous neck-slitting! Start with me!"

She stretched out her neck, inviting him to attack her.

"No," he said, now sounding peevish. "I won't. Slit your own neck."

"All right. So are you coming with us, or do you want to go on alone?"

The Wildman shrugged.

"Don't mind," he said.

Morning Star turned to Seeker.

"Do we still want him?"

"Yes. We want him."

"Why? He's no better than a dumb animal."

Seeker rubbed his neck and thought about that.

"Even so," he said. "I rather like him."

They were talking about him as if he weren't there. The Wildman wasn't sure what he felt about that. It ought to have been humiliating to be "rather liked," but it was a new sensation, and not an unpleasant one.

"You can come with us if you want," said Morning Star, "but you're to stop being stupid and nasty."

"I'll do as I please," said the Wildman, his pride flaring up again. "If it pleases me to be stupid and nasty, then that's how I'll be."

Before either of them could respond, out of the trees burst a spitting ball of rage. Morning Star just had time to register the flying hair, the wild eyes, the fire-red aura, before she felt the impact of a frenzied attack.

"Cow! Scum-face! Get off him!"

It was Caressa, beating, tearing, kicking, and spitting her fury The Wildman grabbed her by one arm and pulled her off.

"I'm going to kill her!"

He shook her violently.

"Whoa!" he said. "Whoa! Mistake, Princess!"

"I'm going to kill her!"

"No, you're not. Nobody's going to kill anybody."

The girl glowered at Morning Star.

"She's just a baby," she said.

"So leave her alone."

"Who is she?"

"She's a friend of mine."

He let her go. Caressa smoothed her hair and clothing and stared at Morning Star now with open contempt.

"How can you want a plop-face like that?"

"I don't want her. She's a friend."

"She's a girl, isn't she? Boys don't have girls for friends."

"We're helping each other."

"How's she any help to anyone? She looks like a boiled pudding."

Morning Star had now got over the shock of the attack and did not appreciate what she was hearing.

"Hey, sweetie-pie," she said. "Go on being so nice about me and I might have to thank you."

"What?" Caressa wasn't sure she'd understood. She was older and taller than Morning Star, and she could not imagine that the younger girl would dare to stand up to her. "I wasn't being nice to you. And don't call me sweetie-pie."

"But you have such sweet lips," said Morning Star. "And such big eyes. And such a lot of hair."

"Shut your mouth! Wildman, if she don't stop this, I'm gonna smack her right in her plop-face!"

"Go home, Princess. We're leaving town."

"With her?"

"Like I said, we're helping each other."

The girl turned on Morning Star and hissed at her.

"You touch him, you die."

"Really?" said Morning Star. And reaching out one arm, she laid her left hand on the Wildman's shoulder.

Caressa flew straight at her, but this time Morning Star was ready. Her right hand swung hard and sure, catching the bigger girl right across the side of her face, sending her crashing to the dirt.

"Whoa!" exclaimed the Wildman. "You smack hard!"

"That's enough," said Seeker. "Come on."

He took Morning Star by the arm and half led, half dragged her away down the river path.

"This isn't about you," he said.

"I don't like being told what to do."

"So we see."

The Wildman stayed by Caressa and spoke to her in a voice too low for them to hear. In a while she got up from the dirt and put her arms round him, and they spoke some more. Then she turned and went back into town. He came up the river path to rejoin them.

"How did you make her go away?"

"I told her you'd smacked me, too. We agreed you were a vicious little witch."

"Thanks."

"And plain and flat-chested."

"Enough," said Morning Star.

"I only said it to make her go away," said the Wildman. Then he burst into laughter. "Whoa! You smack hard!"

They reached the river crossing. This was a raft attached to a rope that stretched from bank to bank.

"Other side of the river," said the Wildman, "that's the empire. But it's still two days' walk to Radiance."

"Is it dangerous?" said Seeker.

"Not so long as we don't break any of their laws."

"How about bandits?"

"There's bandits. But then, I'm a bandit, too."

He spun his sharp spike in the air and caught it again, grinning as he did so.