‘It’s Cuckoo-shite,’ said Galin.
‘Corruption,’ Toller announced once more.
‘Where did you get it?’ Cal asked de Bono.
‘None of your business.’ said Galin. He took a step towards the trespassers. ‘Now I told you once: you’re not welcome here.’
‘I think he’s made his point, Cal,’ Suzanna said. ‘Leave it be.’
‘Sorry,’ Cal said to de Bono. ‘You’ll have to mend it yourself.’
‘I don’t know how,’ the youth replied, crest-fallen.
‘We’ve got work to do,’ Suzanna said, one eye on Galin. ‘We have to go.’
She pulled on Cal’s arm. ‘Come on,’ she said.
That’s it,’ said Galin. ‘Damn Cuckoos.’
‘I want to break his nose,’ Cal said.
‘We’re not here to spill blood. We’re here to stop it being spilled.’
‘I know. I know.’
With an apologetic shrug to de Bono. Cal turned his back on the field, and they started away through the birches. As (hey reached the other side they heard footsteps behind them. Both turned. De Bono was following them, still nursing his radio.
‘I’ll come with you.’ he said, without invitation. ‘You can mend the machine as we go.’
‘What about Starbrook?’ Cal said.
‘Starbrook’s not coming back,’ de Bono replied. ‘They’ll wait ‘til the grass grows up their backsides and he still won’t come back. I’ve got better things to do.’
He grinned.
‘I heard what the machine said,’ he told them. ‘It’s going to be a fine day.’
2
De Bono proved an instructive fellow-traveller. There wasn’t a subject he wasn’t prepared to speculate upon, and his enthusiasm for talk did something to coax Suzanna from the melancholy that had come in the wake of Jerichau’s death. Cal let them talk. He had his hands full trying to walk and repair the radio at the same time. He did, however, manage a repeat of his earlier question, as to where de Bono had got the item in the first place.
‘One of the Prophet’s men,’ de Bono explained. ‘Gave it to me this morning. He had boxes of them.’
‘Did he indeed,’ said Cal.
‘It’s a bribe,’ said Suzanna.
‘You think I don’t know that?’ said de Bono. ‘I know you get nothing for nothing. But I don’t believe everything a Cuckoo gives me’s corruption. That’s Starbrook’s talk. We’ve lived with Cuckoos before, and survived –’ He broke off, and turned his attention to Cal. Any luck?’
‘Not yet. I’m not very good with wires.’
‘Maybe I’ll find somebody in Nonesuch,’ he said, ‘who can do it for me. It’s only spitting distance now.’
‘We’re going to Capra’s House,’ said Suzanna.
‘And I’ll go with you. Only via the town.’
Suzanna began to argue.
‘A man’s got to eat,’ said de Bono. ‘My stomach thinks my throat’s cut.’
‘No detours,’ said Suzanna.
‘It’s not a detour,’ de Bono replied, beaming, ‘it’s on our way.’ He cast her a sideways glance. ‘Don’t be so suspicious,’ he said. ‘You’re worse than Galin. I’m not going to lead you astray. Trust me.’
‘We haven’t got time for sight-seeing. We’ve got urgent business.’
‘With the Prophet?’
‘Yes …’
‘There’s a piece of Cuckoo-shite,’ Cal commented.
‘Who? The Prophet?’ said de Bono. ‘A Cuckoo?’
‘I’m afraid so,’ said Suzanna.
‘See, Galin wasn’t entirely wrong,’ Cal said. ‘The radio’s a little piece of corruption.’
‘I’m safe,’ said de Bono, ‘it can’t touch me.’
‘Oh no?’ said Suzanna.
‘Not here,’ de Bono replied, tapping his chest, ‘I’m sealed.’
‘Is that how it has to be?’ said Suzanna, sighing. ‘You sealed up in your assumptions, and us in ours?’
‘Why not?’ said de Bono. ‘We don’t need you.’
‘You want the radio,’ she pointed out.
He snorted. ‘Not that much. If I lose it I won’t weep. It’s worthless. All Cuckoo stuff is.’
‘Is that what Starbrook says?’ Suzanna remarked.
‘Oh very clever,’ he replied, somewhat sourly.
‘I dreamt of this place –’ Cal said, breaking into the debate, ‘I think a lot of Cuckoos do.’
‘You may dream of us,’ de Bono replied ungraciously. ‘We don’t of you.’
‘That’s not true,’ Suzanna said. ‘My grandmother loved one of your people, and he loved her back. If you can love us, you can dream of us too. The way we dream of you, given the chance.’
She’s thinking of Jerichau. Cal realized: she’s talking in the abstract, but that’s who she’s thinking of.
‘Is that so?’ said de Bono.
‘Yes, that’s so,’ Suzanna replied, with sudden fierceness. ‘It’s all the same story.’
‘What story?’ Cal said.
‘We live it and they live it,’ she said, looking at de Bono. ‘It’s about being born, and being afraid of dying, and how love saves us.’ This she said with great certainty, as though it had taken her a good time to reach this conclusion and she was unshakeable on it.
It silenced the opposition awhile. All three walked on without further word for two minutes or more, until de Bono said:
‘I agree.’
She looked up at him.
‘You do?’ she said, plainly surprised.
He nodded. ‘One story?’ he said. ‘Yes, that makes sense to me. Finally, it’s the same for you as it is for us, raptures or no raptures. Like you say. Being born, dying: and love between.’ He made a small murmur of appreciation, then added: ‘You’d know more about the last part, of course,’ he said, unable to suppress a giggle. ‘Being the older woman.’
She laughed; and as if in celebration the radio leapt into life once more, much to its owner’s delight and Cal’s astonishment.
‘Good man,’ de Bono whooped. ‘Good man!’
He claimed it from Cal’s hands, and began to tune it, so that it was with musical accompaniment that they entered the extraordinary township of Nonesuch.
V
NONESUCH
1
s they stepped into the streets de Bono warned them that the township had been put together in considerable haste, and that they shouldn’t expect a paradigm of civil planning. But the warning went little way to preparing them for the experience ahead. There seemed to be no sign whatsoever of order in the place. The houses had been laid cheek by jowl in hapless confusion, the tunnels between – the terms streets flattered them – so narrow, and so thick with citizens, that wherever the eye went it found faces and facades ranging from the primitive to the baroque.
Yet it wasn’t dark here. There was a shimmering in the stone, and in the paving at their feet, that lit the passages, and turned the humblest wall into an accidental masterpiece of bright mortar and brighter brick.
Any glamour the town could lay claim to was more than matched by its inhabitants. Their clothes had in them that same amalgam of the severe and the dazzling which the visitors had come to recognize as quintessentially Seerkindish; but here, in the Fugue’s closest approximation to an urban environment, the style had been taken to new extremes. Everywhere there were remarkable garments and accoutrements on view. A formal waistcoat that rang with countless tiny bells. A woman whose clothes, though buttoned up to the throat, so matched the colour of her skin she was dressed as if naked. On a window sill a young girl sat cross-legged, ribbons of every colour lifting around her face on no discernible breeze. Further down the same alley a man whose fedora seemed to have been woven from his hair was talking with his daughters, while in an adjacent doorway, a man in a rope suit sang to his dog. And style, of course, bred anti-style, like that of the negress and the white woman who whistled past naked but for pantaloons held up wi
th string.
Though all took pleasure in how they appeared, it was not an end in itself. They had business to do this new morning; there was no time for posturing.
The only sights that seemed to be drawing any significant attention were the few items of late twentieth-century bric-a-brac that a few of the citizens were playing with. More gifts from the Prophet’s Elite, no doubt. Toys that would tarnish in days, the way all Shadwell’s promises would. There was no time to try and persuade the owners of these glittering nonsenses to discard them; they would find out soon enough how frail any gift from that source truly was.
‘I’ll take you to The Liars.’ said de Bono, leading the way through the crowd. ‘We’ll eat there, then get on our way.’
From every direction sights and sounds claimed the attention of the Cuckoos. Snatches of conversation came at them from doorstep and window; and songs (some from radios); and laughter. A baby bawled in its mother’s arms; something barked above them, and Cal looked up to see a peacock parading on a high balcony.
‘Where’s he gone, for God’s sake?’ said Suzanna, as de Bono disappeared into the crowd for the third or fourth time. ‘He’s too damn quick.’
‘We have to trust him. We need a guide,’ said Cal. He caught sight of de Bono’s blond head. There –’
They turned a corner. As they did so a cry went up from somewhere in the packed alleyway ahead, so piercing and so grief-stricken it seemed murder must have been committed. The sound didn’t silence the crowd, but hushed it enough for Cal and Suzanna to catch the words that followed, as the echo of the howl died.
‘They burned Capra’s House!’
‘That can’t be,’ somebody said, a denial taken up on every side, as the word spread. But the news-carrier was not about to be shouted down.
‘They burned it!’ he insisted. ‘And killed the Council.’
Cal had pressed forward through the throng to within sight of the man, who indeed looked as if he’d witnessed some catastrophe. He was dirtied with smoke and mud, through which tears coursed as he repeated his story, or what few bones of it there were. The denials were quietening now: there could be no doubting that he spoke the truth.
It was Suzanna who asked the simple question:
‘Who did it?’
The man looked her way.
‘The Prophet…’ he breathed. ‘It was the Prophet.’
At this the crowd erupted, curses and imprecations filling the air.
Suzanna turned back to Cal.
‘We weren’t quick enough,’ she said, tears in her eyes. ‘Jesus, Cal, we should have been there.’
‘We wouldn’t have made it,’ said a voice at their side. De Bono had reappeared. ‘Don’t blame yourselves,’ he said. Then added: ‘Or me.’
‘What now?’ said Cal.
‘We find the bastard and we kill him,’ Suzanna said. She took hold of de Bono’s shoulder. ‘Will you show us the way out?’
‘Of course.’
He about-turned and led them away from the knot of citizens surrounding the weeping man. It was apparent as they went that the news had reached every ear and alleyway. The songs and the laughter had entirely vanished. A few people were staring up at the slice of sky between the roofs, as if waiting for lightning. The looks on their faces reminded Cal of how the people of Chariot Street had looked, the day of the whirlwind: full of unspoken questions.
To judge by the snatches of conversation they caught as they went, there was some argument as to what had precisely happened. Some were saying that all those in Capra’s House had been murdered; others that there were survivors. But whatever the discrepancies, the broader points were undisputed: the Prophet had declared war on any who challenged his primacy; and to that end his followers were already sweeping the Fugue in search of unbelievers.
‘We have to get out into open country,’ said Suzanna. ‘Before they reach here.’
‘It’s a small world,’ de Bono observed, ‘it won’t take them long to purge it, if they’re efficient.’
‘They will be,’ said Cal.
There was no sign of panic amongst the residents; no attempt to pack their bags and escape. This persecution, or events like it, had happened before, or so their furrowed faces seemed to say. And most likely it would all happen again. Should they be so surprised?
It took the trio a handful of minutes to wind their way out of the township, and into the open air.
‘I’m sorry we have to part so quickly,’ Suzanna said to de Bono, when they stood at the perimeter.
‘Why should we have to part?’
‘Because we came here to stop the Prophet,’ Suzanna said, ‘and we’re going to do that.’
‘Then I’ll take you where he’ll be.’
‘Where?’ said Cal.
‘The Firmament,’ de Bono replied with confidence. ‘The old palace. That’s what they were saying in the street. Didn’t you hear them? And it stands to reason. He’d be bound to take the Firmament if he wants to be King.’
2
They’d not got far from Nonesuch when de Bono halted, and pointed across the valley to a pall of smoke.
‘Something burning,’ he said.
‘Let’s hope it’s Shadwell,’ said Cal.
‘I think I ought to know something about this bastard,’ said de Bono, if we’re going to slaughter him in his boots.’
They told him what they knew, which was, when they came to summarize it, a piffling amount.
‘It’s odd,’ said Cal. ‘It seems like I’ve known him all my life. But, you know, it’s less than a year since I first set eyes on him.’
‘Shadows can be cast in any direction,’ said de Bono. ‘That’s my belief. Starbrook used to say there were even places close to the Gyre where the past and the future overlap.’
‘I think maybe I visited one of them,’ said Cal, ‘last time I was here.’
‘What was it like?’
Cal shook his head.
‘Ask me tomorrow,’ he said.
Their route had taken them into marshy territory. They picked their way across the mud from stone to stone, any hope of conversation cancelled by the clamour of frogs which rose from the reeds. Half way across, the sound of car engines met their ears. Putting caution aside they crossed to firmer ground by the most direct route, sinking up to their ankles in the water-sodden ground while the frogs – thumb-nail small, and poppy red – leapt before them in their many hundreds.
On the other side Cal shinned up a tree to get a better view. The vantage point offered him sight of a convoy of cars, heading towards the township. It had no need of roads. It was forging its way by dint of wheel and horsepower. Flights of birds rose before it; animals – those that were fast enough – scattered.
Suzanna called up to him:
‘What can you see?’
‘It’s Hobart’s mob, at a guess.’
‘Hobart?’
She was up the tree and beside him in seconds, edging out along the branch to be clear of the foliage.
‘It’s him,’ he heard her say, almost to herself. ‘My God, it’s him.’
She turned back to Cal, and there was a wildness in her eyes he didn’t much like.
‘You’re going to have to go on without me,’ she said.
They climbed down again, and picked up the argument at ground level.
I’ve got business with Hobart. You go on. I’ll find you when I’m done.’
‘Can’t he wait?’ Cal said.
‘No,’ she told him firmly. ‘No he can’t. He’s got the book Mimi gave me, and I want it back.’
She saw the perplexed look on his face, and could hear before he delivered them every argument he’d make against their parting. Shadwell was their true objective, he’d say; this was no time to be diverted from facing him. Besides, a book was just a book wasn’t it?; it’d still be there tomorrow. All of which was true, of course. But somewhere in her belly she sensed that Hobart’s cleaving to the book had some perverse logic about
it. Perhaps the pages contained some knowledge she could put to good use in the conflict ahead, encoded in those Once upon a times. That was certainly Hobart’s conviction, and what the enemy believed of you was probably true, or else why were you enemies in the first place?
‘I have to go back,’ she said. ‘And that’s all there is to it.’
‘Then I’ll come with you.’
‘I can deal with him myself, Cal,’ she said. ‘You two have to go on to the Firmament. I’ll find my way to you once I’ve got the book.’
She spoke with unshakeable conviction; he sensed it would be fruitless to argue with her.
‘Then take care,’ he said, wrapping his arms around her. ‘Be safe.’
‘And you, Cal. For me.’
With that, she was away.
De Bono, who’d been out of this conversation while he toyed with his radio, now said:
‘Aren’t we going with her?’
‘No,’ said Cal. ‘She wants to go alone.’
He pulled a quizzical face. ‘Love-affair, is it?’ he asked.
‘Something like that.’
3
Suzanna retraced their steps to the township with an urgency, an enthusiasm even, she didn’t entirely comprehend. Was it just that she wanted the confrontation over and done with? Or could it be that she was actually eager to see Hobart again; that he had become a kind of mirror in which she might know herself better?
As she stepped back into the streets – which the citizens, retreating behind their doors, had now left more or less deserted – she hoped he knew she was near. Hoped his heart beat a little faster at her proximity, and his palms sweated.
If not, she’d teach him how.
VI
THE FLESH IS WEAK
1
hough Shadwell had set his sights on occupying the Firmament – the only building in the Fugue worthy of one teetering on Godhood – once ensconced there he found it an unsettling residence. Each of the monarchs and matriarchs who’d occupied the place over the centuries had brought their own vision to its halls and ante-chambers, their one purpose to expand upon the previous occupant’s mysteries. The result was part labyrinth, part mystical ghost-train ride.