The Stolen Child (36 page)

For a moment, Rachael wasn't sure if she should answer.

“I won't tell my dad,” Arsha said.  “I promise.”

“Yeah.  He's been following us since London.  And now... God, Arsh, I don't know what to do.  He wants...”  She paused, not sure if she could go on.  “He wants me to go with him.”

“Where to?”

“I'm not sure exactly.  I guess we'll have to head back to London, somehow.  To get back to that... Gateway.”

“
The Seed.  You're trying to find a way out into the Deep Wild, right?  To where your mother is.”
 

Rachael nodded.
 

“Yeah.  
This seed thing, it can take us there.  
We'll be safe.  That's what he told me.”

“You trust him?”

“I do.”

“When
... When are you going
?”

“
Now, pretty much,
” Rachael
said
.  “Well... Assuming you don't say anything about it.”

“I won't,” Arsha said, with a quiet conviction in her words.

“
Thanks Arsh.  Really, thanks.”
 

“
It's OK,” Arsha said.  She spoke quietly, her eyes fixed on the floor.  “Just… Just tell me one thing.  Do you trust him?  When he says that… That he can keep you safe.  That he'll get you home.  Do you believe he can do it?”
 

“
Yeah.  I do.  It's… Hard to explain.  I'm not good at, y'know, trusting people.  Not so much.  But with Justin… The way he talks, you just know he believes it, every word he's saying.  Like, really believes it.  You feel like nothing in the world could stop him.  Just look at all he did to find me.  Because somehow he really believes I'm worth that.  He nearly died to keep me safe.  I have to believe in him Arsh.  If you can't believe in someone like that, what can you believe in?
”

Rachael looked up to see Arsha watching her with an uneasy expression.
 

“You really care about him, don't you?”
the girl said, quietly.
 

“
Yeah.  I do,
” Rachael nodded.

“Was that...  Was that the first time you've kissed him?”

It was such a strange question that Rachael couldn't help but smile.
 

“Yeah.  
It a
ctually...  It was kind of the first time I've kissed anybody,”
she said.  She was relieved to see that Arsha at least looked surprised.  
“
Back when I was still going to school
and stuff,
I always used to make out like I was, you know, experienced
like
,”
she continued, looking down at her hands.
  “Like I'd
been with all these guys and stuff
.  But it was all just this... This thing.  Like, if I kept acting like I'd been there and all, I could just keep pushing
them
away.”

“Why?”

She shrugged.

“
I'm not exactly much of a people person, right?
”
she said.
 

Arsha smiled.
 

“
You might have mentioned it,” she said, sticking her tongue out.
 

“
I guess with your dad flying around all over the place,
you never had
much
time for boys and all?”

“Not much,” Arsha said,
but t
here was something in the way she smiled that caught Rachael's eye.

“
Get out,
”
she said, laughing.  “Come on then, share the goods, girl.”
 

Arsha's started
nervously
tugging at her fingers again.

“It was just this one guy, actually.”

“Oh, now I have to know,” Rachael said.

“Not a chance,” Arsha shot back, sticking her tongue out.

“After I told you all that about Justin?  Come on.”

“Fine,” Arsha said, pouting.  “But... You can't tell my dad.  Or, any of the others, I guess, but they'd just tease me and stuff.  I think Dad would actually have a heart attack.  He still
acts like
I'm ten.”

Against the face of everything else that had just happened, it seemed like such a ridiculously small secret to keep.  All the same, Rachael nodded, solemnly.

“So, we were stopping in Tairk for a few days.  It's out in...”  Arsha seemed to catch herself, about to rattle off the name of another place Rachael didn't know.  “It's this big desert.  The three main cities, they're all in this area called the Hive, because it's this massive plateau of rock that got carved up into a kind of honeycomb by the wind.  We were there a few days, and my dad just sort of let me explore after we got to know the place.  I just kind of went out walking... I mean I stayed to the safe parts, but I was pretty much just going wherever.  I got hungry, so I found a café and had something to eat, and then as I was walking out I heard this sound coming from the alley by the café.  It was music... So, I sort of poked my head around the corner, and he was sitting there, playing a... He called it a 'haran'.  It's this sort of stringed instrument they have there.”

Rachael clapped her hand over her mouth, but could scarcely hide her delighted smile.

“Oh my
lord
,
he
was a guitarist,”
s
he nearly squealed.  Arsha blinked in confusion.

“
A
musician,
like,
” Rachael explained.  “
Trust me, b
oys who play music always get the girls.”

Arsha shrugged, and blushed a little.

“It was really...
I dunno… It was something about his hands.  I just kept thinking that he had really pretty hands
.  
He was so caught up in what he was playing, I don't think he noticed me at first
.  I must have looked really stupid,
just staring at him like
that.
”

Rachael smiled to herself at that.

“But he just sort of looked amused.  And I got all
embarrassed
and told him I really liked
what he was playing
, and he shouldn't stop because of me... And
I guess we just got
talking.”

Arsha
's eyes were fixed on the ground
, but the way her lips curled as she smiled told Rachael everything she needed to know.

“His name was Mikal.  He was a Hiver boy... One of the people who'd lived there for forever.  
H
e had long hair, all in braids, and the paint marks they wear... But
not too much,
just around his
face
and neck.  We talked for... Hours.  He
showed me all around the city
, but... I sort of don't really remember any of
it
.  I guess I was too busy looking at him.  
It got late, so
he walked me back to the ship.  
W
hen we were a few streets away I told him dad might worry if he saw me coming home with someone strange, and we'd have to say goodbye... And when I squeezed his hand, he just sort of leaned in...”

Arsha's blush was pure crimson.

“And... After that I sort of didn't get back home for a while.”

“Did you see him again?”

Arsha nodded.

“We were there for another
week
.  I didn't even bother with breakfast.  We just spent every minute together.  My dad had to tell me off for coming home so late.”

“
Can't blame ya
.”

“Yeah.  But we've never been back since.  He probably wouldn't remember me.”

“Hey, what... Are you crazy?  Of course he would.”

Arsha shrugged.

“I think it's just as good this way... I'm not really sure what I'd do, if I saw him again.”

“Kissing him might be a start,” Rachael said,
sticking her tongue out
.

“Well... After that, I mean,”
Arsha smiled.
 

Rachael just shook her head.

“So... What about you and Justin?  What was it like,
you know,
kissing him
?” Arsha said, raising an eyebrow.

Rachael could feel herself blushing again.
 

“It was... I don't know.  Exciting.  Scary.  I didn't really think about it much, but,”
s
he gave Arsha an amused smile, “
h
is breath kinda smelled a little actually.  I didn't mind so much, but... I guess flying thousands of miles doesn't give you much time to find
breath
mints, right?”

Arsha giggled a little, putting a hand over her mouth to stifle the sound.

“Like, really smelled, or just a little?”

“Just a little.  I wasn't really thinking about it,”
s
he shrugged.  “But I could feel his heart beating.  Like, really loud, you know?  What about you?”

“You mean Mikal?  He kind of smelled of cinnamon.  He worked at the café in the morning, baking the rolls.”

“Wow.”

“Yeah... But after that, I couldn't eat cinnamon buns for a month.  First time Milima put a basket down for breakfast, I had to pretend I needed the bathroom, I
got so embarrassed.
”

“God...” Rachael put her head back against the cool glass, and looked up into the black.  “
This is so weird
.  I mean, here I am, who knows how far away from
any
thing normal, in a place that shouldn't even exist, with a girl who lives on a flying ship... And I'm
having just about the most normal conversation I've ever had in my life.
”

Arsha just smiled.  Rachael tucked her feet up on the bench.

“Thanks.  For trying to be my friend,”
s
he added.  “I mean I
really am
happy that I met you.  
I guess, in a way, e
verything in my life has been falling apart
f
or a long time now.  But you were nice to me, even when I didn't give you any reason to be.  So... Thanks.”

She smiled, awkwardly.

“Thanks for letting me
be your friend,
” Arsha said,
returning the smile.
 

They made their way back to the room and waited,
sitting
on their beds, staring nervously at the walls.  Rachael kept her bag at her side and forced herself not to recheck the contents every five minutes.  The hands on the clock ticked round so slowly that she began to wonder if it was broken.

A shadow flickered across the room and Rachael looked up to see a movement at the window.  The raven was perched on the corner of the sill, one eye turned in their direction.  Rachael jumped off the bed and pulled the window open.  Instead of changing, the bird just hopped back and forth, nodding towards the gardens below.

“OK,”
s
he said.

As the raven took flight, she turned to look at Arsha.  She could see the nervousness in the girl's eyes.  She imagined her own expression could not have looked much different.

Slipping out the window was easy enough.  With Arsha's help, she reached the first handhold, and began to scale her way down the wall, until she was near enough to the ground to drop the rest of the way.  A movement above made her look up, surprised to see Arsha following her down.

An open expanse of moonlit garden was all that was left between them and the nearest wall of the estate.  She turned to Arsha who just nodded, as if showing that she was ready.  They dashed across the open ground and huddled into the cover of the bushes, watching for any sign that they had been spotted.  Above them Rachael heard the flutter of wings as the raven landed on the wall.  Then she saw the cloud of black smoke take form, and suddenly Justin was there, perched atop the wall and reaching down a hand for her.

She turned to look back at Arsha.

“This is it,”
s
he said, keeping her voice low.  Arsha nodded.

“I wish I could come with you,”
t
he girl said.

“No, you don't,” Rachael said, smiling, much to her own surprise.  “You've got a life here, Arsh.  A proper life.  And things will be OK, now that I'm not around.”

“I know.  But I wish...”

Rachael put her hand on the girl's shoulder, cutting her off.

“Just give me a decent head-start, OK?”

“It's OK.  I won't tell them where you're going.”

“
Thanks.  I'm going to miss you,
”
Rachael said.  It felt strange, saying those words, and she was surprised by just how much she meant them.
 

“I'll miss you too,” Arsha said, biting her lip and looking genuinely miserable.  
Feeling like she ought to do something
,
Rachael
pu
t an
arm around the girl's slim shoulders.  Arsha
immediately threw both arms around her,
burying her face in Rachael's shoulder.

“Hey, give over.  You're making me blush here,” Rachael mumbled.

“Don't care,” Arsha replied, her voice muffled.  The girl released her grip and took a step back.  “Be safe.”

Rachael nodded.  
Above
her, Justin hissed at them.

“Come on.  We don't have time.”  She looked up to see him glaring at the both of them from his exposed perch.

“Alright, I'm coming,”
s
he said, reaching up to take his hand.  He pulled her up to the top of the wall, and they both
turned
to drop down on the other side.  She caught one last glimpse of Arsha looking up at them.  The girl waved.  Then they dropped down into the long grass at the foot of the wall and Arsha was gone.

They kept moving, following the road
down
the cliff-face, but staying in the bushes and long grass until at last they could see the glow of the foundries and hear the sound of the train pulling in to the station.

“Come on, we won't have long before they finish loading,” Justin said, gesturing for her to hurry.  They kept moving down the winding road, and soon they were in amongst the buildings, keeping to the narrow back alleys as they made their way towards the station.  
It was only by the silhouettes of the cranes
looming over the
skyline that Rachael had any sense of
how close they were.  In the gloom, she could almost have been in London again.  The buildings had the same feeling of faded industry, though up close they were obviously recently built.  Even in the night they could hear the sounds of work coming from the warehouses, getting louder as they grew closer.