Authors: L J Leyland
Keir said kindly ‘Iris, you know Rex can do you no harm. He is trained.’
‘Damn him to the depths and watch him drown,’ she hissed.
‘Iris?’ asked Noah, steadily.
She ignored him and muttered obscenities under her breath. She was visibly shaking, as though she had a palsy, and we watched in silence as she shuffled to the table and picked up one of the cups. She drained it in one gulp and a trickle of liquid ran down her chin.
The bird squawked suddenly and she cried, ‘Poison! You poison me!’ The cup flew across the room but Keir knocked it away easily.
‘No-one is poisoning you, Iris. Please sit down, you have guests who wish to speak to you.’
Her expression dropped into a sly, furtive glance and she whispered to no-one but herself, ‘What do they want with old Iris? What is it they come for?’ She had a nervous twitch which made her look quite deranged.
I was already beginning to dread the moment when we would have to tell her that Flora was dead – killed by her own father, killed by Iris’s husband-jailor, the Mayor. Flora’s memory was quite plainly the only thing that had kept her going since her banishment. A small flame of determination had been ignited within her the day that she was banished – determination to keep Flora safe. She would comply with her punishment as long as Flora was safe. I guessed that it was her only reason for living, for carrying on. If she discovered that Flora was dead, would she be able to continue and help us with our plan? Or would the fragile mortar holding her together start to crumble and reduce her to rubble? A wreck of a person, crumpled on the floor? Oh God, I wasn’t ready for this. I didn’t know how to act in these situations. Matthias looked as panicked as I did. We were used to people being strong or at least feigning strength when they felt weak. We found emotional and hysterical outpourings acutely embarrassing – Matthias was already squirming in his chair. We were in no way equipped to help this woman or to offer any kind of comfort that she craved. We were inadequate and useless and I felt ashamed that I was witnessing this poor woman’s decline.
Panic-stricken, I turned to Noah. Yet again, his eyes were as calm as the glassy surface of a lake but they had the soulful depth of the ocean. He looked at her as though contemplating a mild predicament rather than the potential obliteration of our entire purpose for being there. His chair squeaked as he pushed it back. He walked calmly to where Iris stood. Keir made a movement forward, as though to say, ‘Stop! Don’t touch her!’ but Noah shushed him with a single glance.
Iris cringed back from him with her yellow teeth bared, like a dog fearing that he would strike her. But instead, he held his hand out to her. She looked surprised at this sudden offer of human contact. The hostility slid from her face as she considered his hand. I wondered when the last time was that she had been touched gently by another person. Probably the last day she saw Flora. That was over twenty years ago. Twenty years of rough treatment and imposed mental confinement would be enough to send anyone mad. Iris timidly took his hand, like a child. I felt a stab of sorrow as I remembered Flora’s childlike manner.
Noah led her to the fireplace. He dragged his own chair a couple of feet from the fire and sat her down in it. He brought another one to the fire and sat opposite her. The heat from the fire made her stiff limbs relax into something less animal. All it took was a tiny bit of kindness for her to shed her cloak of madness. The change in her was visible already. I knew then that he could do it. He could tell her and he could make her feel better and he could keep her on our side. He was just somehow far more
human
than I could ever be; far more subtle, far more understanding. A fierce wave of love swept through me.
Noah yawned, stretched out his limbs, and smiled conspiratorially at Iris, as though they shared a secret. To my surprise, she broke into a cackle and curled up in her chair like a sphinx.
‘I know you,’ she said with a sly grin.
‘We’ve never met,’ he replied with a smile.
‘But I know you all the same. I’ve seen you in my dreams.’ She laughed. ‘You’re Tulip’s boy. I’d know those Penmorthan eyes anywhere. You’ve got Tulip’s husband’s hair, too. Black as the night.’ She cackled again.
‘You’re right, Tulip is my mother. You know, that makes you my aunt. I’m pleased to finally meet you.’
‘How’ve you got such nice manners when your father is as charmless as a slug?’ she asked. Her eyes were twinkling.
‘Skips a generation?’ Noah offered.
‘Skips ten in the Farringdon family,’ she crowed.
‘This is the most sense we’ve ever had out of her,’ I heard Keir whisper, in awe, to Fergus.
‘My mother talks about you a lot. She always said that you looked the most like my grandfather. I see it now. Features less deep-set but still,’ said Noah.
‘They’re alive? I don’t believe you. I’ve seen them drowning. I see it every day and I don’t help them. Why should I help after what they did to me? They thrash and cry but the ocean gets them every time. Just what they deserve, just what the doctor ordered.’ Her hunched posture returned and she began to twist her fingers painfully until I could see red marks on them.
‘No, they’re alive. They told me about you, Iris. That’s why I’m here. To take you back home. If you want to, that is.’
‘Can’t go home. He won’t let me,’ she whispered.
‘He can’t hurt you anymore, Iris,’ replied Noah.
‘He’s gone?’ she rasped; she meant the Mayor. Her eyes glistened with hope. Pity washed over me as I realised that his spectre stalked her through every day and taunted her at every turn. He may not have killed her but he had ended her life all the same.
‘No, but we need your help to get rid of him. For good this time. The time has come for you to return. The time has come for you to stand up to him. We’ll help you beat him this time.’
She began shaking violently. ‘No, no,’ she burbled. ‘Can’t go back, he’s got my baby. Must stay here.’
Oh no, this was it. Noah would have to tell her. I scanned the immediate area for any potential ways she could harm herself. No knives on the table and no glass to smash which was good. But she was sitting precariously close to the fire. I gave Matthias a meaningful look and we both readied ourselves should we need to spring into action and prevent her from jumping in.
Noah knelt before her and took her shaking hands, soothing them between his own injured ones. ‘Iris, look at me. Flora is free from him. He can’t hurt her now. She is free.’
Noah fixed her with a look that conveyed all he needed to convey.
An awful realization crossed Iris’s face as she understood. She understood everything he had told her and all it implied. Iris wailed a low, pitiful wail that made my neck hairs stand on end. Her chest heaved as she wept with tearless rasping sobs. ‘My baby, my baby!’ Her face was distorted and colourless.
I saw the Highlanders quietly rise from their chairs and leave the building. Perhaps it was out of respect or perhaps they were just as uncomfortable with Iris’s breakdown as I was. Either way, I felt relieved that they were gone. It was too intimate for spectators. Matthias took my hand and led me out of the building. Grimmy followed. We left Noah embracing Iris, confident that he was the best comfort for her.
We sat under a tree, facing the door of the building. I nuzzled my fur coat and tried to catch snowflakes on my hand. After a while, they stopped melting and that’s when I knew I was dangerously cold.
‘We should go into Keir’s house with Fergus and Mhareen,’ Matthias said, pointing to a large, round, thatched house next to the Eagles’ Nest. ‘We can’t wait out here any longer for them to come out. We’ll freeze to death,’ said Matthias.
‘You can. But I want to be here in case he needs me,’ I replied.
The air was so cold that it hurt to speak. It was as though the air had turned the moisture in my throat to ice crystals but there was no way I was moving. Matthias sighed but didn’t move to go indoors. He simply put his arm around me and leant his head against mine.
‘Family’s a strange thing, isn’t it?’ asked Grimmy.
Neither of us replied. I was still doling out a huge dose of silent treatment.
‘I mean, they’ve never met but they have an instant connection. Iris trusts him,’ he said.
‘Anyone would trust him. He’s trustworthy, unlike you,’ I muttered.
‘I wonder if you and Regina … well, you’ve never met but I wonder … oh never mind, you’re obviously not interested …’ he said.
In the weak moonlight, I couldn’t see him but I could
sense
that his expression was as smug as a fat cat. Smugness just painted all over his sly little face. My fists tore out tufts of fur from my coat. He thought he had me, he thought I’d rise to the bait and ask him to explain what he was about to say.
Take the higher ground, don’t reply, don’t give in.
‘I mean, you’re exactly like her … wonder if … but what does it matter? You obviously don’t care … shame really … we could talk about her …’ He shrugged.
Oh Christ, this is what I had been waiting for – a chance to ask him about Regina and whether he thought I was her daughter. And I couldn’t even grill him about it because I was administering the bloody silent treatment. Oh, he was a wily sod. He had raised the Regina issue on purpose to break my punishment. Grimmy shrugged and made to get up to walk away but Matthias swiped his ankle. He crashed to the ground with a yelp.
‘What did you do that for?’
‘All right, you worm, I’ve had enough of you teasing her. You know nothing about what happened to Regina, you’re just trying to get her to talk to you again,’ he said.
‘Well, she’s ignored me for two whole days now! What am I supposed to do? I have to get her to talk to me somehow.’
‘How about trying an apology, moron?’ I snarled.
‘OK, OK, I’m sorry about leaving you to face the deer alone but I was
scared
. OK? Scared. I’m not proud of it so don’t make me feel worse.’
‘Then get some guts, you coward, and help out next time. You promised me in that cave that you were part of our team, that you are on our side but then you abandon us and then tease me about Regina when you know that I don’t find that funny.’
‘Ah, Maida, look, I wasn’t deliberately teasing you about Regina just to get you to talk to me. I’ve been meaning to speak to you about it for a while. It’s all been adding up. You know her song, you have her binoculars … Maida, I don’t know what happened to her but what I do know is that … is that … I think you’re her daughter. Actually, I don’t think it, I
know
it. You’re her daughter.’
A sudden sob took me by surprise and I instantly upbraided myself;
where on earth did that sob come from? This is no time to cry.
I guess it was just seventeen years of not knowing, of wondering, of guessing, that had been resolved with three simple words: ‘You’re her daughter.’ It was almost too much for me to take in. It was almost too easy.
‘How do you know I’m her daughter?’ I eventually managed to say.
‘Because … I can just tell.’
There was silence whilst I let that sink in. I tried to take deep breaths but my rage bubbled to the surface. ‘That’s it? You can “just tell”? You can “
just tell
”? Well, break out the champagne, that’s cracked the mystery then! Congratulations, detective! Perhaps you should take up a job crime solving – cases will be solved in no time as you can “just tell” if someone is guilty or innocent. You know, I was hoping at least for a tiny, miniscule sliver of concrete proof, nothing big, I wasn’t asking much, but the best you can offer me is “I can just tell”? Well thanks for getting my hopes up. I knew I shouldn’t have risen to the bait. Pointless.’
‘Maida, cool it, you’re overreacting. It’s a start at least,’ said Matthias.
But Grimmy smiled affectionately at me. ‘That’s exactly her. You are her. It’s like she’s here. That’s what I mean about family. Funny isn’t it, how you’ve never met her but you’re just alike. She’s part of you. She’s in you. That’s how I can just tell.’
The door from the building creaked open and orange firelight escaped out; long shadows crept through the woods and reached our sitting spot under the tree. I shook the icy layer from my clothes and from my mood with great effort. We clambered up, Matthias gingerly heaving himself up using the tree trunk as an aid; his injuries were still causing him problems. The willow bark had mostly kept the pain in my ribs at bay but the cold didn’t help with the creaking stiffness I felt around my torso.
Noah walked out. His expression was unreadable. We walked towards him.
‘Well?’ asked Matthias.
‘She’ll come with us.’
A spontaneous, jubilant whoop escaped me and I dashed to hug him. He laughed and swung me around as though I weighed nothing. His warm lips grazed my forehead and I closed my eyes to savour it. He pulled away from me and tousled my hair absently. ‘It’s not as simple as we had hoped though. There’s … a complication.’
‘What is it? Is it about the tapes? Has she forgotten where she’s hidden them?’ I asked.
‘No. I’ll let her explain on the boat. We should ask Fergus and Mhareen to get us back to the houseboat as soon as possible. We will need as much sleep as we can if we are to set sail back to Brigadus tomorrow.’
‘Is it serious, Noah?’ asked Matthias.
‘Yes,’ he replied simply.
‘How serious?’
‘Well, let’s just say that the Eagle Clan haven’t built defences around their islands for nothing.’
The windows were rattling with the full force of Grimmy’s volcanic snores. My God, that man had the most finely tuned talent for irritation, even in his sleep. It was like he was deliberately teasing me, even though he was not conscious. There would be ten minutes of hard, regular snoring during which my temper would steadily rise to a dangerously high boiling point. Then, right on the edge of my cataclysmic eruption, he would stop. All would be still and quiet. I would praise the heavens, weep with joy and promise never to have bad thoughts about him again. Relieved and happy, I would relax into sleep.
Then, just as I was in the cradling cuddle of a light slumber, an enormous nasal snort would rip sleep from my grasp. After the third time this happened, I lost it. My pillow as my weapon, I battered him. ‘
Will. You. Shut. Up!
’ Each word accompanied a thwack from my pillow.
‘What are you doing, you mentalist?’ he cried, thrashing around in his covers trying to shield himself from my blows.
‘Teaching you proper sleep etiquette. This’ll teach you to keep me awake.’
We had been forced to share the living room as we thought it would be prudent to let Iris have my bed. Fergus and Mhareen had delivered us back to the houseboat moored off their island in the early hours of the morning. They had offered to come back to Brigadus with us. They said it was because they were worried about us, being young and not knowing how to fight an enemy such as the Metropole. They had experience in this area and would be of great assistance. But I think they wanted to come because they enjoyed a good fight. They relished having the chance to get one over on the Metropole. It was payback for the landmines that had ruined their land and taken so many of their clan. But before we could set sail to Brigadus, I had to first survive this night of living hell.
The commotion had awoken someone in the next room. Matthias stuck his head around the door and took in the scene. I was straddling Grimmy, my knees pinning his arms to his sides, my pillow raised menacingly above his head. There was a beat of silence.
‘Carry on,’ Matthias said and closed the door.
‘Noah! Help me!’ croaked Grimmy.
‘Damn it, what have you called him for, you little informer?’ I spat.
Noah emerged from the door, looking ruffled and adorably sleepy.
‘Maida, put him down, you don’t know where he’s been.’
I reluctantly let my pillow drop but not before whispering menacingly, ‘This isn’t over, snorer.’
Grimmy stuck his tongue out at me and looked smug, which was quickly becoming his default expression.
‘Maida, sleep in here with us tonight.’
I gathered my blankets and pillows and made a nest between Noah and Matthias’s beds. Noah, of course, offered to sleep on the floor but I refused. But as the night wore on, it got colder and I could no longer keep the warmth in my blankets. I quietly slipped into Noah’s bed. His arms automatically welcomed me and his lips found my neck. It was the most tranquil sleep I’d had in weeks.
‘Wakey, wakey, sleepyheads. We’ve come bearing gifts and breakfast.’ Mhareen’s voice drifted through the boat the next morning and I rolled reluctantly from Noah’s arms.
He grunted and tried to pull me back to the warmth of the blankets but then fully awoke and realised that our little haven had been shattered. I wrapped a fur blanket around me and walked barefooted into the main cabin to find Mhareen putting vanilla-coloured buns into the stove to heat up.
Fergus was stirring a giant pewter jug which had steam rising from it.
‘Tea?’ I asked.
‘Ha! No, lass, who do you think we are? Prissy Metropolites? Try this.’
The liquid was thick, lumpy, and sour as though it had sat out for days. My face crumpled with disgust as I forced down an unidentifiable gelatinous lump.
‘Fermented yak’s milk. We get it from the Scandinavians. Delicacy, that is; full of protein. Put hairs on your chest, that will.’
‘And you seriously think that’s something I desire? No offence, Fergus, you may know about stags but you have a lot to learn about women.’
He chuckled.
‘Why are you not wearing your antlers today?’
He looked at the low ceiling of the boat and said lightly, ‘Believe it or not, sometimes they’re a bit impractical.’
‘Really? I hadn’t noticed,’ I teased. ‘Will you still bring them with you? I’d love to see the Mayor’s face when a whole regiment of Highland warriors wearing antlers charge at him. He’ll think he’s gone mad.’
‘Oh, I wouldn’t miss it for the world,’ said Fergus, rubbing his hands together.
‘Grub’s up!’ called Mhareen, pulling the buns from the stove. ‘Matthias, please take some of these to the warriors outside. We’ve left them on the boats but they do get grumpy if they are hungry.’
I cobbled together a decent attempt at a dining table, using the map table and a hodgepodge of sofas, rocking chairs, and piles of cushions. It was so good to have the boat full of people and food and laughter. Too often it had been Edie, Aiden, and me, silent through hunger, sitting in near-darkness so as not to burn too much dry wood.
Noah knocked on Iris’s door and said, ‘Auntie, I hope you slept well. Breakfast is ready. Mhareen has made rolls and Fergus has made … well … something. Anyway, come out and join us. We need to talk about what you told me yesterday.’
The door slowly creaked open. Huge eyes peeked out of the gloom inside. It was like a nocturnal creature was emerging. Long fingers curled around the door.
‘Morning, Iris,’ I said gently.
The door opened further and she stepped out cautiously. I led her to a seat. Fergus made a beeline for her, holding aloft his jug full of phlegm-drink but I stopped him and said, ‘Perhaps just water for Iris.’
He nodded dejectedly but recovered when he locked his target onto Grimmy, pouring nearly a full half-pint of the stuff for him. I placed a wooden jug of water in front of Iris and poured her a cup. She sipped it suspiciously.
Matthias came back inside looking windswept.
‘There are dozens of them!’
Mhareen laughed. ‘Well of course there is! You can’t expect to start a rebellion without any rebels! Trust me; we’ve fought the Metropole before. We know that they have strength in weapons that can only be matched by strength of character and strength of numbers. We need them all.’
‘Speaking of the Metropole …’ said Noah. Everyone turned to look at him. ‘Iris told me something yesterday about the Metropole which I think is very important. Auntie?’ he prompted. Iris’s eyes widened and she shook her head slowly. Her dreadlocks wiggled like snakes.
‘It’s OK,’ Noah soothed, ‘just tell them what you told me.’
She shook her head more violently this time and slapped Noah’s hand away. ‘Drown them all, all gone. It’s coming. It’s back again,’ she muttered.
‘Perhaps I can tell them?’ asked Noah. She didn’t reply but Noah took this as a sign of assent. ‘We all know that the Flood was not an accident. It was caused by the Metropole so that they could get to the gas and oil under the Arctic ice. We know from Iris’s tapes that they seeded clouds with some sort of chemical to melt the ice. But Iris filmed more than that. She filmed meetings the Mayor had with some Metropolites about what they had to do after the Flood. You see, the Metropole’s plan was in two stages. Iris heard them discussing the two separate stages and they said there was no point carrying out one without the other. The first stage was the Flood. We know that they successfully completed that stage, over thirty years ago. Easy. But stage two was trickier. Stage two was the extraction of oil and gas from under the ground. Iris filmed them for weeks discussing that. They were flummoxed as to how to get at the oil and gas.’
‘But why? Surely they just drill down to the seabed?’ I asked.
‘The oil and gas under the Arctic aren’t easy to get to. It’s not pure like it is elsewhere. You can’t just drill down and it will spurt up. The gas and oil is all intermingled with the rock. Therefore they had to find a new method of extraction. A way that would separate the rock from the gas and oil. One of the Metropolites’ scientists came to visit the Mayor and said that they were working on a new method of extraction. Iris filmed their discussion. The scientist said that the method would be perfected and ready to use within a few years but that it was potentially very dangerous so they would need to test it before it was put to use in the Arctic. Couldn’t have all that precious oil and gas go up in smoke if the method went wrong after all. So, guess where they tested it?’
‘Brigadus,’ I said, already knowing that, of course, we’d be the test dummies for the Metropole. It’s not as though the Metropole cared about killing us off so why not try out their experiments on us at the same time? Win-win.
Noah nodded. ‘Correct. The Mayor did a secret deal with the Metropole to let them test out these new methods of extraction on the almost empty gas reserves under the ground of Brigadus before they melted the Arctic. I mean, what would be the point of carrying out the Flood if the oil and gas could not be extracted? So they tried out the method. The new method they used was called “deep mantle fracking”.’
‘I don’t speak science geek,’ said Matthias. ‘Can you explain what “deep mantle frackle-whatever” is, please?’
‘Fracking means fracturing the rock so that the oil and gas can be separated from it; basically giving it a big shock so that the oil and gas can be dislodged. Only this time, the fracturing needed to go really deep, deeper than they had ever gone before. The land needed to be broken from deep, deep down.’
‘Doesn’t that make the ground unstable?’ I asked.
Noah looked meaningfully at me and Mhareen gasped.
‘The earthquakes! Before the Flood there were earth tremors in Britannia. The news told us that it was the Earth going mad. I mean, because of the change in climate we had already had tornadoes, typhoons, droughts … we just thought the earthquakes were another natural catastrophe we would have to deal with.’
‘No. It was the fracking. Iris filmed the Metropolites at the Mayor’s Complex during the earthquake. They were ecstatic. Their method worked. Sure, it caused earthquakes, flattened some houses and killed a few people, it even caused an almighty crack down the middle of the Mayoral Complex’s deer park but the Metropolites thought that was a fair price to pay for oil and gas. I think it’s safe to say that they’ve been using fracking in the Arctic for years, and up until recently, it served them well. But now …’ He trailed off and took a sip of water from the jug in front of Iris.
‘Fergus, what were you saying to Maida about the northern traders increasingly hearing noises and feeling tremors from the North?’
Fergus’s face turned pale as though a sudden realisation had dawned on him. ‘They … they say they hear rumblings, explosions, and feel tremors. They say they are getting louder and more frequent.’
Noah nodded. ‘Well, it’s been nearly thirty years since the Flood. The oil and gas reserves must be getting pretty low up there. It must be getting harder to get the reserves out. They must have to go deeper and deeper, using stronger explosions. Fracturing the earth deeper under the sea. Very unstable, I should imagine … very dangerous …’
I slowly put down my bread roll as I realised his implication. Unstable ground being smashed to pieces deep below the sea in the Arctic. Increasing tremors and explosions as they tried to dislodge the last stubborn traces of oil and gas from its hiding place. ‘Noah, this fracking – it’s causing the seabed to be unstable? Like underwater landslides or earthquakes? Well … what … what does that mean? What’s going to happen?’ I asked.
Before he could answer, Iris dived across the table and grabbed the jug of water. She splashed it across the table with a cackle. The water spread across the surface quickly, in a wave that drowned the rolls and swept cutlery onto the floor. ‘All gone again,’ she said.
There was a horrible silence. Then the storm broke.
‘Oh Christ, oh Christ, not again, not again!’ wailed Grimmy, dancing from foot to foot in panic.
Mhareen yelled hysterically at Iris, calling her a witch and an evil-doer. Iris threw water in the air and screeched nonsensically about death and drowning and tidal waves. Fergus huffed and puffed, shouting, ‘I will
not
have this,’ at Noah, wagging his fat finger.
Matthias and I remained in our seats, dumbstruck as the hysteria unfolded in front of us. I thought
they
were supposed to be the adults and yet here we were, composed as saints, whilst they acted out a mass tantrum.
Noah struggled to get a handle on the situation. The adults had quite simply gone crazy and there was nothing we could do about it. ‘Quiet down,’ he said, calmly. ‘I said, shut up and listen. Auntie,
sit down.
Mhareen,
shut it.
Grimmy,
get a grip.
You’re behaving like lunatics. How is this panicking helping anyone? Look, it’s a dangerous situation but nothing is set in stone. If they stop the fracking now, this might be avoided. But we need to get back to Brigadus
now
and let the townsfolk know immediately. Maybe the Mayor doesn’t even know how close the Metropole is to bringing disaster down on us but we need to get back, interrupt the coronation ceremony and let the world know.’
‘What will happen to Brigadus if a big earthquake happens? If a wave comes?’ I asked Noah.
‘It might not come,’ he replied.
I was starting to become infected by the hysteria. It was like a fish hook in my lip and I was being reeled irresistibly closer to the panic. I was teetering on the edge and it would be so easy to just let go.
‘Noah, we’re low lying. We’re already waterlogged; the marshes … all the townsfolk live on the marshes. There’s no high ground, apart from the Mayoral Complex and his estate but he’s not going to let people take shelter in there, is he?’ My voice had risen an octave.
‘It won’t come to that. Don’t you go crazy on me as well. I need my Maida now; the Maida that doesn’t panic, the Maida that’s brave.’
His bandaged hands were soft as he cupped my face. He tilted my chin and kissed the end of my nose lightly. ‘We’ll get through this together. Remember what I said? I’ll never let you stand alone. You don’t need to be frightened when I’m next to you.’