‘I thought you said it wasn’t her,’ Oscar countered.
Tomansio’s handsome face shone with a bright smile. ‘Touché.’
‘It’s her,’ Oscar said.
‘Still not convinced,’ Tomansio said. ‘This . . . empress isn’t the same girl we’ve been chasing after. Facing down Living Dream simply isn’t in her psychology.’
‘What then?’ Beckia demanded.
‘Double bluff,’ Tomansio said. ‘They got to her, they broke into her mind and installed their own operating routines. This is a puppet of Living Dream, one that’s been pushed out centre stage to focus everyone’s attention. Big bonus that she’ll do what every follower wants, and lead them to Pilgrimage. It makes perfect sense for Ethan to do this, he gets everything he ever wanted.’
‘Except lead Living Dream,’ Oscar said. ‘That’s her next step, it has to be, she can’t do anything else but claim the throne now.’
‘It doesn’t matter,’ Tomansio said. ‘He still gets what he wants, which is a ticket into the Void, and at the same time he doesn’t get any of the blame if it all goes arse over tit.’
‘Which it will,’ Beckia said.
‘I still don’t buy it,’ Oscar said. He remembered the expression of fear and determination he’d seen on Araminta’s face when they met oh so briefly in Bodant Park; her magnificent run eluding not just his team, but the entire complement of agents from every power player in the Commonwealth. Besides, she was descended from Mellanie, and that meant trouble on a level these modern Greater Commonwealth citizens couldn’t comprehend. His lips registered a slight smile. Something about the whole situation wasn’t quite right, Tomansio had the truth of that; but he had absolutely no idea what.
‘Then what is she doing?’ Beckia asked. ‘She might have come out fighting from the corner they’d backed her into, but she’s burned any options. She has to take Living Dream on Pilgrimage now. That’s what her whole tenuous authority is based on.’
‘Suicide?’ Liatris suggested. ‘She leads them into the Gulf, and the Pilgrimage ships get blasted apart by the warrior Raiel.’
‘That’d work for me,’ Beckia grunted.
Oscar grinned from the strength of his own conviction. ‘Have a little faith,’ he told the Knights Guardians. ‘After all, she is a messiah now.’
Tomansio groaned. ‘You mean you want us to stay on?’
‘You’ve seen what’s going on in the docks right now; every Living Dream follower on the planet is going to come running to the wormhole, and Phelim will have to shut off the weather dome to let them in. If we left now we’d definitely be seen, we’d blow our cover.’
‘We don’t need cover if the operation is over.’
‘Give her a few days. She is rather busy right now, after all. And she has my number.’
‘Don’t we all,’ Beckia muttered.
*
Araminta stood at the front of the big passenger capsule, looking through the transparent fuselage wrapped around her. Five hundred metres below, Greater Makkathran was laid out across the ground, a phenomenal urban sprawl which stretched to the horizon in every direction. Sunlight glinted and flashed off the crystal towers rising from lush parks; lower buildings shone with implausible colours. It was, she acknowledged, a beautiful city. However, her vision of the capital was slightly obscured by the sheer number of capsules rising up out of the designated traffic streams to wait for her to pass. Then they curved round to join the festive armada already flying along behind her. There were so many packed together, like a smoke cloud, she could actually see the hazy shadow they splashed over the ground.
Up ahead, the ocean appeared on the horizon where the city dipped down to a broad swathe of green park. And there, gleaming in the late afternoon sunlight, Makkathran2 was perched on the shoreline.
‘Do you want to go straight to the Orchard Palace, Dreamer?’ Captain Darraklan asked. He’d stayed with her after they walked through the wormhole, seemingly appointing himself as her personal guard. She wasn’t about to argue. With his helmet off, he was actually quite handsome in a classic square-jawed way, his floppy chestnut hair reminding her of one of Mr Bovey’s younger selves.
‘No,’ she said, without taking her gaze from the hauntingly strange reproduction city. ‘Edeard first entered through the North Gate. Take me there. That will be fitting. I will walk to the Orchard Palace.’ Which will give Ethan plenty of time to throw up the barricades, if he dares. She felt a grim amusement coming from Darraklan’s mind as the capsule began to lose altitude. He must have been thinking the same thing.
They touched down on the vast circle of parkland surrounding the crystal wall. As she alighted on to the grass, she glanced back at the vast armada that was now tussling for groundspace. It really had turned the sky dark. She was sure none of them were obeying local traffic control orders any more. That’s good. A little knot of anarchy which I influence. They don’t all obey Ethan’s laws unquestioningly.
So far everyone was waiting to see what would happen next. Pushing her along with their enthusiasm and her apparent newfound relish for the role of Dreamer. All she had to do was supplant Ethan, and the only way to do that was to show her ability and determination was greater than his. Just like Bradley said.
Araminta walked through the great arch in the crystal wall, with people pouring out of their badly parked capsules to form a carnival procession behind her. She didn’t really get much of a look at Makkathran2 from ground level. High Moat, which the gate opened on to, was jammed with people; surely everyone who lived in their shrine city had turned out to welcome her. The cheer which arose at her arrival was deafening. A row of men in Makkathran constable uniforms (exactly like the Water-walker’s squad) saluted. Darraklan and their sergeant shouted back and forth while Araminta waved at the crowd – all the while moving forward. Never hesitate, never slow.
After a moment the constables fell in around her, easing her passage towards the bridge over North Curve Canal and into Ysidro.
She was wrong about the whole population being on High Moat. Ysidro’s narrow twisting streets were packed solid with supporters, some crying openly. The eerily familiar Blue Fox tavern was there beside the ginger sandstone bridge, which took her into Golden Park where the sunlight was shimmering off the white pillars. Another sea of bodies thronged the vast open space, while the high domes of the Orchard Palace dominated the far skyline.
While she was walking along one of the park’s elegant paths Darraklan leaned over to murmur in her ear, ‘The Cleric Council has convened at the entrance to the palace.’
‘Wonderful,’ she replied. There were a lot of children lining the path, all of them with shining adulation in their eyes. It was hard to keep pushing on knowing she would ultimately betray that trust and reverence. It is their parents who have misled them, not me. I will be the truth for them.
By the time she reached the wire and wood bridge that crossed Outer Circle Canal her resolution had returned. The thousands of smiling faces that urged her on no longer even registered as she crossed the canal. Darraklan accompanied her, while the constables tried to stop the crowd pressing forward into the canal itself. They were all so desperate to see what happened next, their combined thoughts urging the Clerics to acknowledge their new Dreamer.
As Darraklan said, the Cleric Council was waiting for her just inside the Malfit Hall, resplendent in their scarlet and black robes. Ethan stood in front of them, his white robes shining far brighter than Araminta’s own. Reasonable enough, she admitted, after all she’d sewn hers together from the lining of Mr Bovey’s semiorganic curtains.
The Cleric Conservator bowed deeply. ‘Dreamer,’ he said, ‘welcome. We have waited so long for this moment.’
Araminta gave him a sly smile; for someone who’d just been politically outmanoeuvred he was in surprisingly good humour. ‘Be careful what you wish for.’
‘Indeed. May I ask why you have finally come forward?’
‘It was time,’ she replie
d. ‘And I wished to end Viotia’s suffering.’
‘That was most regrettable.’
‘It is past,’ she said lightly, knowing how angry her home-world would be at that. ‘I am here to lead those who want a better life for themselves, those who choose to live as the Waterwalker did.’ Again she appealed to the Skylord, who said: ‘We await you. We will guide you.’
The gasp of joy from the crowd outside was audible through the hall’s thick walls. She smiled significantly at Ethan: your call.
‘We are honoured,’ he said effusively.
‘Thank you. Shall we move to the Upper Council chamber, now? We have much to settle.’
Ethan glanced along the line of Cleric Councillors, their uncertain hopeful faces. One of them smiled slickly. ‘Of course, Dreamer,’ he said.
‘Rincenso, isn’t it?’ Araminta said.
‘Yes, Dreamer.’
‘I’m grateful for your support.’
‘My pleasure.’
I’ll bet it is, you unctuous little tit. ‘Which way?’
Rincenso’s bow was so deep it verged on parody. He gestured. ‘This way, please, Dreamer.’
She watched the eternal storm playing across the ceiling, oddly saddened by the fact it was only a replica of the real Malfit Hall, the vivid images above her nothing but a copy of Queren-cia’s planetary system. Now she’d begun this course of action she was actually keen to see it resolved, to walk through the real Makkathran and see for herself the streets and buildings where Edeard’s dramas had played out.
They walked silently through the smaller Toral Hall and into the Upper Council chamber. Araminta grinned at the solar vortex playing on its cross-vault ceiling; here the copper sun’s accretion disc was still in its glory days, not as Justine had just seen it, with the brash comets dwindling and a new planet orbiting where it should never have been.
‘You haven’t updated it, then?’ she enquired lightly as she walked straight to the gold-embossed throne at the head of the long table.
‘This is the Makkathran of the Waterwalker, Dreamer,’ Ethan said.
‘Of course; not that it matters. We will soon be leaving here for good. Be seated,’ she said graciously.
Ethan claimed the seat on her left-hand side, while Rincenso sat opposite him. There were just enough seats for everyone. No Phelim, she thought sagely. Let’s keep it like that. The thin Cleric unnerved her somewhat.
‘May I ask if you intend to keep sharing so widely with the gaiafield?’ Ethan said.
‘Until we pass into the Void,’ she confirmed. ‘The followers of Living Dream have had too much doubt and trouble intrude into their lives of late, in no small part due to you, Cleric. I feel they need the reassurance of seeing for themselves that I am honestly doing everything I can to lead the Pilgrimage. That is my only concern now. In that respect I will require this council to continue its running of the day-to-day aspects of Living Dream.’
She studied Ethan, curious how he’d react to the deal. It was so painfully obvious he didn’t understand nor believe in her apparent conversion to the cause. He suspected something, but couldn’t see what could possibly be askew.
‘I will be delighted to help in any way I can,’ Ethan said.
‘We all will be,’ Rincenso added quickly.
Araminta had to be stern with herself not to leak any disgust out into the gaiafield at the cleric’s sycophancy. ‘Excellent. So my first question is on the progress of the Pilgrimage fleet.’
‘The hulls are all complete,’ Cleric DeLouis said. ‘Fitting out is going to take a while, but hopefully no more than a month.’
‘And the drives?’ Araminta asked.
It probably helped that Ethan was less than a metre away from her, but there was no way he could hide the little burst of dismay from her. She turned to fix him with a level stare. ‘By my estimation, it will take nearly half a year to reach the Void using a standard hyperdrive.’
‘Yes, Dreamer.’
‘There is also the problem of the warrior Raiel. Justine barely made it through.’
‘We are making arrangements,’ Ethan said grudgingly.
‘Which are?’
He made a small gesture with his hand. ‘They are confidential.’
‘No more. This unhealthy obsession with secrecy and violence ends now. It has done untold damage to Living Dream. Inigo and Edeard would not have tolerated such vice. Besides, we are no longer members of the Greater Commonwealth, and you are under my protection. Now what arrangements have been made?’
‘Are you sure you—’
‘Yes!’
‘Very well. I organized delivery of ultradrives for each Pilgrimage ship. The journey time should be less than a month.’
‘Good work. And the Raiel warships? How do we get past them?’
Ethan was completely impassive. ‘The same manufacturing facility will also provide force fields capable of withstanding an attack by the warrior Raiel.’
‘I see. And the cost?’
‘It’s budgeted for. We do have the wealth of the entire Free Market Zone at our disposal, after all.’
Araminta’s voice hardened. ‘The cost, please, Cleric, specifically the political cost for this technology?’
Everyone at the table turned to look at Ethan. The pressure of curiosity from the gaiafield was extraordinary. Even the Skylord was displaying a minor interest, engaged by the volume of emotion.
‘Our supplier is to be taken into the Void with us.’
‘Logical,’ Araminta said. She smiled graciously. ‘Thank you one and all for attending me. We’ll convene formally tomorrow when I’ve had a chance to settle in. Ethan, I will be using the Mayor’s staterooms here in the Orchard Palace as my residence until we depart.’
‘Yes, Dreamer.’ He seemed surprised there had been no censure concerning his Faustian deal.
Darraklan peered in through the door as the subdued yet relieved Cleric Council filed out. Araminta held up a finger to him. ‘A moment more, please.’
‘Yes, Dreamer.’ He bowed and shut the doors after the last Cleric had left. Araminta allowed herself a slow look round the Council chamber, her gaze falling once again on the radiant image spinning endlessly on the ceiling. She wondered how Justine was getting on inside the Void, if she had reached the real Makkathran yet. But no, that would take days – weeks – even with the Void’s accelerated time. Although the Silverbird should arrive before the Pilgrimage ships reached the boundary. Ozzie! I hope she and Gore can do something to salvage this crock of shit before then, or I’m well and truly screwed. It sounded like Gore had a plan, or at least an idea. He owes me, too. Maybe he’ll get in touch. Somehow, she suspected she was going to have to do most of the work. But for now, there was the real threat to face. She took a breath, feeling the billions of Living Dream followers share her mind with a sense of trepidation as her own unease leaked out.
‘Aren’t you going to talk to me?’ she asked the chamber. Her own voice reverberated off the hard walls. ‘I know you’re sharing me.’ Again, the chamber was silent. Empty. Araminta let out a mildly exasperated sigh and allowed her ire to show. ‘I am talking to you; that which emerged from Earth’s prison. You have to speak with me at some time, for I am the only way to reach the Void. Let us begin now. Don’t be afraid. You’ve seen I am both reasonable and practical.’
The curiosity within the gaiafield grew more intense as everyone strained to perceive what she was talking to. Her u-shadow reported the Upper Council chamber’s secure communication net was activating. A solido projection appeared at the other end of the table. Not a person, but a simple dark sphere scintillating with grim purple light. Araminta faced it impassively.
‘Congratulations on your ascension, Dreamer.’ Its voice was female, melodically sinister.
‘And you are?’
‘Ilanthe.’
‘You must be the one supplying the ultradrives and the force fields.’
‘My agents arranged that with Ethan, yes.’
/>
‘Will the force fields be strong enough to protect us from the warrior Raiel?’
‘I believe so. They are the same type currently protecting Earth.’
‘Ah. And for this bounty you expect to be taken into the Void?’
‘Without my assistance you cannot reach the boundary.’
‘And without me you cannot get inside.’
‘It would seem we need each other.’
‘Then we have reached a concord.’
‘You will take me?’ Ilanthe’s voice carried a note of surprise.
‘The Void welcomes all who seek fulfilment. Whatever you are, you obviously believe you need what the Void can offer. Therefore I will be happy to bring you to it. It is, after all, my destiny as Dreamer to help those who yearn to reach the Heart.’
‘That’s very noble of you. And completely unbelievable.’
‘You are evil.’
‘No, I am driven. It is not just Inigo and Edeard who had a vision of a beautiful future.’
‘Nonetheless, you are inimical to the Commonwealth and its citizens.’
‘Again you are misjudging me. I simply wish to achieve a different goal to the mundane aspirations which have so far existed among our species. A wonderful uplifting goal that everyone can share. I require the Void’s assistance to do that.’
‘Then I wish you well on your voyage.’
‘Why?’
‘Because the Void will obliterate you. The Heart will not tolerate malevolence no matter the intent behind it, deluded or deliberate. You cannot avoid it, you cannot elude it. Despite my many misgivings I do genuinely believe in the goodness of the Heart, for I am twinned with the Skylords who truly know its munificence. If necessary I will travel there myself to expose you and your machinations.’
‘Good luck with that.’
‘Knowing this, knowing I will oppose you; do you still wish to come with us?’
‘Yes. Do you still wish to take me?’
‘Yes.’
‘So be it. Our fate will be decided within the Void.’