Authors: Gillian Andrews
Chapter 21
BACK ON ENARA, Diva made her move. There was no time to waste. Her friends on Xiantha were in trouble. She had to break the mental attack that was raining down on both the canths and the others from the crystal cavern, and do whatever she could to break up the astrand. Even though she didn’t know how she was going to do it, there was nothing to be gained by waiting, and everything to be lost. It was time to put herself in the centre of the Ammonites.
Once she had made up her mind, she wasted no time. It was a moment to float up above the astrand, where she maintained her position for a few seconds, peering down on the assembled Ammonite minds and waiting for her psyche to see through the faint aura and perceive the diamond of diamonds clearly again, to see the individual minds which fitted so effortlessly together into this shining mental shape.
She thought of Six, who would be helping Arcan on Dessia by this time, and smiled to herself. Trust a Kwaidian to be always in the thick of things. She felt her heart lurch just a little as she thought of him, and wondered how a non-existent heart could still lurch. Was it like a phantom limb, which hurt amputees even after a severely damaged leg or arm had been surgically removed? Or was it all a figment of her memory, small threads of moments in the past which occasionally filtered down to her new consciousness? Whatever it was, it still felt real to her, and she had to take a moment or two to calm herself down. It was no good trying to stop the astrand with only half her mind on the job; she would need all of her faculties with her, and even then, it would be an almost impossible feat. There was, after all, only one of her, and thousands of the Ammonites forming the astrand.
She let her mind hover above the diamond of diamonds until she felt calmer, and then closed her eyes, allowing herself to drop slowly into the beautiful geometric structure, to float down inside the boundaries of the diamond star, beginning a slow spin with her physical body as she did.
Immediately, she was electrified by the huge amounts of energy that buffeted her from one side to another. The astrand was humming with power. She felt the increased temperature inside the formation and let herself drift further and further inside it. As she did, the heat rose even further.
And that gave her the answer. She could use second sound to dampen the action of the astrand. All she had to do was transmit this energy out of the diamond of diamonds and away from the astrand. Then it would no longer be able to function, at least not at the strength it was achieving now.
She found herself examining the structure of the astrand from inside and was immediately aware that the canths should also be able to form an astrand. They must simply have forgotten how to do that.
Each individual mind had a place in the mental latticework. She was able to see exactly where each piece fit in, and where the joins between minds had vanished to form a new whole. It was quite remarkable. Because it really had a lower potential than the larger diamond shape which the canths used; it was more energy efficient.
Diva could see how the shape had been formed, starting with one particular joint which instead of continuing horizontally had taken a vertical slant. She felt amazed at the simplicity of the framework for the astrand; it was so obvious now that she had seen the formation that she couldn’t see how the lost animas inside the canths had ever managed to forget it.
She closed her eyes further and delved deeper into the minds surrounding her. They were like a patchwork, a sea of individuals who fitted together perfectly. Between them all was the buzz of pure energy which flashed in the mindmerge.
Diva concentrated on this flash, spinning more now, trying to redirect all that energy, take it away from the astrand. Her own shape was becoming more and more electrified and was swelling out with so much light. She could feel the mindmerge of the Ammonites burning through her, singeing her own stability, threatening her very existence. Still she persevered, determined to block the astrand, to stop the Ammonites in their attack on the binary system.
She felt their surprise and then their consternation. The diamond of diamonds trembled and then re-formed. She concentrated harder, aware now that her act of dissipating all this energy in second sound was focusing it in a different direction. She could feel wave after wave of heat flowing away from the centre of the astrand, out into the crystal cavern, out into the hot rock which surrounded them. The temperature nearby in the cavern had already gone up substantially.
Diva was suddenly aware that the Ammonites knew there was an intruder in their midst. She felt a sharp thrust of anger, sufficiently strong to vapourize her, and was only able to avoid it at the very last minute. The link she had with the assembled minds cracked, the astrand crumbled into its individual parts, and, as they broke free, the Ammonites came to their senses again in their original wispy bodies and flung themselves at her, furious at the intrusion, determined to seek revenge for the violation of their most sacred right.
Diva flashed. She was immune to the wrath of their minds, but not to their physical presence, and she was aware that hundreds of Ammonite animas were dropping out of the mental merge in the cavern and were hurling themselves at her with no thought to their own safety.
Diva instantly raced out of the cavern, taking the tunnels she had found earlier and heading for the landmark she had noticed when they had first dropped into orbit around Enara, when they had first introduced the Ammonites to the planet that was to be their new home: the Eye of Enara. She hurtled towards the deep crater which they had seen from space and searched desperately for somewhere to hide. She was careful not to transport; she didn’t want to lose them altogether. The longer she could keep the Ammonites centred on her, instead of the binary system and Dessia, the better, she thought.
Diva looked around the Eye of Enara, which she knew was an eroded geologic dome. It was clear that nothing had changed in this landscape for years, and it looked as if it expected to remain undisturbed for another century at least. She could see no signs of life. That was not surprising. The bowl of the crater was made of a clear shining greenish magmite of some sort. This formed circles between ridges of harder rock, which glistened with violet tones under the Enaran sun. It was a stunning place, almost as impressive as the crystal cavern she had just come from, but it was not exactly hospitable.
She sped across the expanse of shining magmite, amazed that it had not become covered by sand. There was no place to hide here; she was more exposed than a temaris tree in the Great Plain. Exactly what she wanted; this would draw them all after her. She fled over the shining green rock formation, heading towards the mauve-coloured ridges.
She could feel hundreds of Ammonites behind her, and was exultant. While they were chasing her they couldn’t possibly be attacking the binary system or aiding the Dessites in any way. And she knew that the canths would helping Ledin, Six and the visitor over on Dessia. This was great! She felt euphoric and was enjoying the chase. She knew she could transport away whenever she wanted; which made it a little tamer than she would ideally have liked, but it was still fun to be the quarry in this game of hide and seek. She hadn’t been in action since her transformation into a firemorph, and it quite felt like old times.
She bent neatly in and out of the purple rock promontories, with half the population of Enara in angry pursuit. It was exhilarating to lead them such a dance; she flashed between the sharp jutting rocks so fast that she could hardly be detected.
“Come on, then, Ammonites! Come on, Animas of Enara. Catch me if you can! I bet you won’t be able to!”
The Ammonites clearly didn’t agree. They were closing in on her from all sides now, and Diva wondered how long it would take them to surround her completely.
Not long. Soon she was completely blocked. Her followers had formed a sphere all around her, until the sky was dark, and she could no longer see the Eye of Enara below her.
Diva began to spin. “Now let’s see how you fight, shall we?”
ON THE BEACH of the Emerald Lake, Grace suddenly stopped her struggles and lay gasping, looking confused.
“W-what happened?” she asked.
Tallen tried to grin. “Diva did it!” He signaled to Sanjai, and they both struggled up from her prostrate figure. Tallen made a sign to Sanjai, who nodded that he would stay with Grace. Tallen took off at a run for the tree line, and for Quenna.
Sanjai managed a smile. “How do you feel?”
Grace tried to sit up and then winced. “Did somebody beat me up?”
“You did quite a good job yourself.”
She groaned. “What did I do? Did I hurt anybody else?”
Sanjai shook his head. “Get your breath back. Can you wait here while I check out how Bennel is?”
She nodded, still feeling dizzy. Sanjai waded out into the water, to where Lannie was still holding his father’s head above the surface of the lake.
“Any change?”
She shook her head. “He still hasn’t come round.”
Sanjai bent down and, with great difficulty, began to haul the unconscious man towards the shore. “Let’s take him out of the water, closer to Grace. She has come round, so I think Diva must have succeeded in breaking the astrand. He should be all right now.” The Coriolan boy staggered, his feet sinking deep into the damp sand at the edge of the lake. Then, with Lannie’s help, he managed to tug Bennel a few steps onto the beach before dropping him as gently as he could on the ground.
“There! He should be all right now.”
Lannie and her son looked down at the two people on the ground, and then their eyes tracked over to where Tallen had reached the tall trees. Lannie looked up to where her daughter was crushing Raven into the tree trunk, and went white.
“Oh, no!” She closed her own eyes. “She is frozen with fear; she will never get down.”
But Sanjai shook his own head. “Don’t you worry about Raven and Quenna. Tallen will make sure they are all right. It is up to us to take care of Grace and my father. Leave the Namuri to get the two girls down. He will, you know.”
“But look! He is dragging that leg again! He must have opened up that old wound!” Lannie clicked her tongue.
“That won’t bother
him
! Now, come on, Mother. We have things to do.”
As he sped over the sand, Tallen checked his own injuries mentally. He didn’t think anything was broken. The only thing he was really worried about was the damage to his bad leg. He hoped there was nothing serious. At least he was able to force his muscles to work, even though they felt stiff and unyielding.
He reached for the first rung of the tree and called up to Quenna.
“I’m coming! Stay still!”
“She has stopped struggling, but I can’t move!”
“I know. Don’t worry; I am on my way.”
He swarmed up the tree as if an army was at his back, ignoring the pain in his leg completely. In fact, he barely noticed it; he was desperate to get to the two girls.
As he reached Quenna he put up one hand to steady her. “I am here. It is all going to be all right.”
The girl was shivering and shaking all over, except her hands and feet, which were white with the tension of holding on.
Tallen made his voice as calm as possible.
“You have done brilliantly, Quenna. You have saved Raven’s life. Now, we have to get her down first, don’t we?”
Quenna’s eyes were squeezed tight shut. “Yes. Yes, of course.”
“Then I am going to need you to climb up two more rungs, so that I can help her down. Can you do that?”
Quenna gulped. Her face was a palid grey with a tinge of green. She tried to give a nod.
“Take your right hand. Here, let me show you.” He made his way around the tree trunk so that he was on the other side. Then he put his hand on hers, and pulled it up to the rung he was hoping she would take next. He felt her panic as she tried to snatch her hand back, but he insisted, covering her fingers with his, and trying to hold them gently in place. Meanwhile, he was talking to the other girl.
“Are you all right, Raven?”
A muffled and rather defeated voice answered him. “Where am I?”
Tallen explained what had happened. “Quenna is going to move up, so that I can help you down. Will you be able to hold on while I move around the tree?”
“I … I think so. T-T’an …?” she quavered, regressing to her old baby name for him, forgetting that she had grown up too much for such things. “It is a l-long w-way down.”
“I know, little one. But you have the heart of your mother, and I will be there to make sure you don’t fall. I will keep you safe.”
“A-all right.”
Tallen took Quenna’s other hand, unstuck it from the rung, and moved it one up, then repeated the exercise so that the older girl was now a couple of rungs above Raven. Quenna was shaking so badly that Tallen thought she might not be able to hold on for much longer. He would have to hurry.
“Will you be all right, Quenna? I have to take Raven down first.”
Quenna tried to nod through her shivers. “O-of course you must. Don’t worry about me. I am … I am not g-going anywh-where.” Then Bennel’s daughter clamped her teeth together and closed her eyes.
Tallen left the Coriolan girl where she was and edged back down to Raven.
“Now, Raven of Xiantha, it is time to go down.”
Raven peeked downwards and gave a wail. “Can’t, Tallen! Too far! Scared!” The little girl pressed herself against the tree trunk and shook her head. Her eyes were wide open, but unfocused. Tallen put one hand on her shoulder, firmly, trying to give her warmth and confidence.
“Do you remember when you helped me to safety? When I was injured on Coriolis?”
There was a long pause, and then a certain awareness began to creep into the panic-stricken eyes. Eventually, she nodded.
“Well, that proved to me that you are a truly brave person, that you can do anything you put your mind to. This is just the same. All you have to do is trust me, and I will help you down. You can do that, now, can’t you?”
Raven looked at him, clear blue eyes meeting impenetrable black ones. Tallen pressed home his advantage. “You were as bold as a lion on Coriolis, Raven of Xiantha. Are you going to be a mouse now?”