Ozzie ran that through his mind, fearing he was losing track of what was being said. But then that was always the way when you talked to the Silfen. ‘All of humanity needs to see what you become. I walk for them to that place. Where is the path?’
‘Knowing is in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat; rejoice for it is yours as much as ours, to live among it is glorious. Look to nature in the fullest of bloom, bend the sky and the ground to your bidding if you truly can for what will be has also been. Fond farewells and fond joinings are all part of the endless turn of worlds upon worlds, and who are we to cry judge upon which is the jolliest of all.’
‘This child weeps nightly for his lost father and mother.’
‘We all weep together, huddled in the breath of this iciest of winds in fell consequence we do ignore, for who has lost who in this benighted time asunder.’
The Silfen began to get up.
‘Well thanks, man,’ Ozzie said in English. ‘It’s been unreal.’
‘Hasten us as the quarral flies to its nest amid the lonely lake beyond dale and tonight’s river.’
‘I hope you reach it okay.’
Nine Sky sprang to his feet. He and all the other Silfen were running now, hurrying round the side of the pool. Their wild strange song filled the air again. Then they were gone, vanishing into the quiet spaces between the tree trunks.
Ozzie let out a long breath. He looked down at the boy, who wore an expression of troubled wonder. ‘You okay there, man?’
‘They’re so . . . different,’ Orion said slowly.
‘Could be,’ Ozzie said. ‘They’re either stoned the whole time, or my memory is nothing like as good as the warranty claims. Whatever it is, they don’t make a lot of sense.’
‘I don’t think they’re supposed to make sense, Ozzie. They’re elves, mortals aren’t part of their world. We’ll never be able to understand them.’
‘They’re as real as we are, maybe more so if I’m right about them. But I can certainly see why all our dippy hippies love them. They know things they shouldn’t. One little glimpse of forbidden knowledge amid all the gibberish, and they’re instant messiahs.’
‘What do you mean?’
‘Where I live, for a start. That was more than enough to convince me I’m on the right track – pardon the pun.’
‘What track?’
‘I’m trying to find where the Silfen go after they leave their forests.’
‘Why?’
‘I have a question for the thing they become.’
‘What thing?’
‘I’m not sure.’
‘That’s silly.’
‘Yeah, man. Put it like that, I guess it is a bit.’
‘Will we find Mom and Dad on the way?’
‘Honestly: I doubt it.’
‘Nine Sky didn’t seem to know where they were, did he?’ Orion said.
‘You understood all of that?’
‘Some of it. You speak Silfen really well.’
He gave the boy a wink. ‘That’s because I cheat. It’s the only way to get through life.’
‘So where do we go now?’
‘Same place as before,’ Ozzie said. He glanced round the big clearing, unsure where they’d come in. ‘Down the first path we find, and without a clue.’
9
Legend has it that the asteroid was a lump of pure gold, the core of which remained intact and now lies buried deep beneath the castle. Whatever the actual composition was, it certainly had an above average density. When it hit Lothian’s southern continent, a couple of centuries before humans arrived, it carved out a perfectly circular crater two miles across. The rim wall was over four hundred feet high, with quite a steep inner face; while the central peak rose to nearly thirteen hundred feet. In those days, ‘peak’ was something of an exaggeration; there was a conical mound in the middle with gently crumpled slopes. It didn’t survive long in that form.
The first settlers, all from Scotland, had a large Edinburgh contingent among them, nostalgic for the old town, and dynamic in their approach to their new homeworld. Their bigger and better attitude was given an aggressive outlet when it came to building the new capital, Leithpool, with the crater as its nucleus. An entire river was diverted, the High Forth, flowing for seven miles along a newly built aqueduct embankment to pour over the crater’s rim wall, slowly filling the ring-shaped lake inside. They wanted a castle at the centre, of course, but the new island’s easy gradient hardly matched the jutting rock crag to be found dominating the heart of old Edinburgh. A fleet of civil engineering bots got to work carving as the surrounding waters rose. Over the following years, three rock-blade pinnacles were hacked out from the solitary mound, sharp and rugged enough to be at home in any Alpine range. A Bavarian-style castle was grafted onto the apex of the tallest peak, reached by a solitary road that spiralled up around the sheer rock cliffs.
Beneath the castle, and occupying the rest of the harsh mount, monolithic granite buildings sprang up, separated by broad cobbled roads and twisting alleyways. There were no parks and no trees, for there was no soil where living things could grow, only the naked rock exposed by the cutting tools of the bots. As the construction work progressed, the entire over-financed mechanism of government moved in; from the doughty parliament building itself to the elaborate palace of the supreme court, bloated office-hive ministries to the Romanesque planetary bank. With the world’s rulers came the usual circus of subsidiaries, the expensive restaurants, hotels, clubs, the office service companies, theatres, corporate head-quarters, concert halls, lobbying firms, legal partnerships, and media companies. Swarming through the sombre official buildings were the army of elected representatives, their aides, researchers, interns, spouses, civil servants, and pimps. Only the top echelon actually lived on the Castle Mount; everyone else commuted from the city which grew up on the other side of the rim. Suburbs and boroughs sprawled for mile after mile down the incline of the crater’s outer walls, home to four and a half million people.
Leithpool was one of Adam Elvin’s favourite cities, a welcome exception to the neat grids which were found on most worlds. Here the streets wound down the outside of the rim in random curves, intersecting and branching chaotically. Light industry and housing all had their separate zones, but they were squashed together in true jigsaw layout with admirable disregard for logic. Broad terraced parks formed pretty green swathes through the stone and composite structures. A good underground metro network, and street-level trams kept the private traffic to a minimum. Elevated rail lines knitted together the main boroughs, meandering their way down to the bottom of the north-eastern slope, where the CST station squatted on the outskirts.
Today, Adam was walking along the western quadrant of Prince’s Circle, the road which ran around the top of the crater rim. It was the main retail district, renowned on many planets. A rampart of tall department stores and brand-flagship shops formed the outer side of the broad road, while the inner side curved down sharply to the quiet waters of the ring lake twenty yards below the pavement. When the city was built, the rim had been levelled off, with the exception of the High Forth inlet, which was roofed by a twin arch bridge; and the similar outlet gully on the opposite side that sent the water foaming down a long artificial cascade through the most exclusive residential districts.
He spent a quiet twenty minutes walking among the crowds that boiled along the shop fronts. Every building was sporting a white and scarlet Celtic Crown national flag. Without exception they were at half mast. Two days earlier, Lothian’s team had been knocked out of the Cup. That had knocked the new Scottish nation hard, it was as if the planet had gone into mourning. Eventually, he found the café he was looking for, a door at the side of a big electrical retailers, opening onto stairs which took him up to the first floor. The large room was some kind of converted gallery, with high ceilings and huge curving windows that looked down on Prince’s Circle. He found a slightly tatty sofa in front of one window, and ord
ered a hot chocolate with two choc-chip and hazelnut shortcakes from the teenage waitress. The view he had out towards Castle Mount was peerless. A few hundred yards to the south, one of the monorail tracks stretched out across the calm dark water; a single silver carriage streaked along it, shuttling late office workers over to their desks.
‘Impressive, isn’t it?’ a voice said at his shoulder.
Adam glanced up to see Bradley Johansson standing behind him, holding a large mug of tea. As always, the tall man gave the impression of being slightly disconnected from the world around him. There was something about his thin, elegant face which made him appear far more aristocratic than any Grand Family member could ever manage.
‘I enjoy it,’ Adam said evenly.
‘Of course, it looks even better at Mardi Gras,’ Bradley said, sitting down on the sofa beside Adam. ‘They light up the castle with huge hologram projectors for the whole week, and during the closing ceremony they let off real fireworks overhead.’
‘If you ever give me the time off, I’ll come and take a look.’
‘That’s what I wanted to see you about.’ Bradley stopped as the waitress brought Adam’s hot chocolate, and smiled winningly at her. She sneaked a smile back at him before hurrying off to the next table.
Adam tried not to show his annoyance at the little silent exchange, it was just one more reminder of his own age. ‘You’re going to give me more free time?’ he asked.
‘Quite the opposite, old chap. That’s why I wanted to see you in person, to impress upon you how important the next few years are going to be. After all, you’re not . . . a lifelong Guardian. Your commitment to the cause has always been more financially orientated. I want to know if you’re prepared to continue your role when things get a lot tougher.’
‘Tougher? That Myo bitch almost caught me on Velaines.’
‘Oh, come come, Adam, she was never even close. You outsmarted her beautifully. And continue to do so, the components are all arriving on schedule.’
‘Save the flattery for the bourgeois. I can’t be motivated that way.’
‘Very well. So will you continue to provide us with your assistance, and if so how much will it cost?’
‘What exactly are you wanting from me?’
‘This is the time which the Starflyer has worked for. The time for good men to draw a line in the sand and say: no more.’
‘No further,’ Adam muttered.
Bradley sipped his tea and smiled. ‘In the past, maybe. But in the here and now, I know what must be done. Little of it will be pleasant.’
‘Revolution never is for those who live through it.’
‘This is not revolution, Adam, this is my crusade. I am going to fling the corrupter of humanity into the depths of night beyond hell, where even the devil fears to tread. And that will be the least it deserves. I will avenge myself and all the others who have been consumed by the Starflyer’s evil.’
‘Bravo.’
‘You have your beliefs and convictions, Adam, I have mine. Please don’t mock them, I find it unpleasant. What I am proposing is to extend our combat activities off Far Away. I want to directly confront the Starflyer’s agents and interests in the Commonwealth. And now would you care to tell me what your cooperation will cost, if that doesn’t make you too much of a capitalist.’
‘Direct confrontation? You want me to lead your troops into battle?’
‘Yes. You know more about covert operations and security procedures than any of us. That makes you invaluable to me, Adam. I need you for this. All I can say is that without a human race, there will not be any Socialist society. So will you help me?’
It was a fair question, Adam admitted to himself. Not one he expected in a pleasant café overlooking a serene lake with a fairytale castle. But then where should such questions be delivered? Just what do I want out of life? Once again his resolve faltered. It had been a principle for so long not to seek rejuvenation, because it was a purchase of the bourgeoisie and their plutocrat masters. Society should be structured so that everyone received it regardless of circumstances. The ancient political dream of justice and equality for all, true Socialism. For all his active involvement in the cause, the disruption and violence he’d unleashed against the establishment, nothing had changed. But that doesn’t make me wrong. When he thought of the others, ex-friends and comrades, who had betrayed the movement over the decades by abandoning them or worse, he knew what his course must be, despite the intensely human wish to live for ever. If even someone as committed as him gave in at the end, what hope ultimately could there be?
‘I’m tired, Bradley, really truly tired. I’ve seen my ideals crushed by the plutocrats for my whole life. I’m clinging to a lost cause because I don’t know anything else. Do you realize how pathetic that makes me? Well, I don’t want to save the Commonwealth any more. I’ve tried to do that for fifty years and got nowhere. I can’t do it any more. There’s no point. Capitalism or the Starflyer, I don’t care which of them finishes off this society. I’m through with it.’
‘No you’re not; stop trying to talk up your bargaining position, Adam. You are not going to stand by and watch an alien commit genocide against your own species. You’re an idealist. It’s a magnificent flaw, one I quite envy. Now what can I offer you for your invaluable services?’
‘I don’t know. Hope, maybe.’
‘Fair enough.’ Bradley nodded at the remarkable castle atop its pinnacle. Sunlight was striking the slender conical turrets, making their polished rock walls shine with a vivid bronze and emerald hue. ‘The original castle back in Edinburgh was the seat of Scottish nationalism. It symbolized everything to the diehard believers. Despite all the changes and defeats they endured, the castle stood solid at the centre of their capital. They waited for generations for the Scottish nation to be properly reborn after their bonny Prince was lost. There were times when the cause seemed impossible, or even cursed; they regained their independence from the English only to lose it again right away with the formation of Federal Europe. But once people reached the stars, the true nation was reborn here, and on two other worlds. An ideal kept alive in the darkness can flourish if it has the chance, no matter how long the night lasts. Don’t give up on your ideals, Adam, not ever.’
‘Very trite, I’m sure.’
‘Then try this. I’ve seen what societies like ours progress into. I’ve walked on their worlds and admired them first hand. This Commonwealth is only an interim stage for a species like ours; even your Socialism will be left behind in true evolution. We can become something wonderful, something special. We have that potential.’
Adam stared at him for a long time, wishing he could see through those enigmatic eyes into the mind beyond. Bradley’s faith in himself and his cause had always been extraordinary. There had been times over the last thirty years, when Adam really wished he could write Bradley off in the same way as the Commonwealth establishment did, that he was nothing more than just another crackpot conspiracy theorist. But there were too many little details for him to be laughed off. His superb intelligence sources for a start. The way little facets of Commonwealth policy were organized, seemingly out of kilter with the interests of the Grand Families and Intersolar Dynasties. Adam was so close to believing the whole Starflyer notion, or at the very least he didn’t disbelieve it anymore. ‘There’s something I’d like to know, though I’m afraid it might be a personal weakness on my part.’
‘I will be honest with you, Adam. I owe you that much.’
‘Where do you go for your rejuvenation? Is there some secret underground clinic that I don’t know about which provides the treatment for people like us?’
‘No, Adam, there’s nowhere like that. I use the Unstorn clinic on Jaruva. It’s very good.’
Adam paused as his e-butler called the CST Intersolar timetable up into his virtual vision. ‘Is Jaruva a town some-where?’
‘No, it’s a planet. CST shut down the gateway two hundred and eighty years ago, after a civi
l war between various nationalist culture factions and the radical evangelicals. The only thing they hated worse than each other was the Commonwealth – there were some unpleasant acts of terrorism committed before the Isolation. Things have calmed down considerably since then, thankfully. They have rebuilt their society, with each faction having its own homeland. The structure is similar to Earth in the mid-twentieth century. None of the mini-nations are Socialist, I’m afraid.’
‘I see,’ Adam said carefully. ‘And how do you get there?’
‘There is a path which leads to Jaruva. The Silfen don’t really use it any more.’
‘Somehow I knew you’d give me an answer like that.’
‘I will be happy to take you there and pay for a rejuvenation, if that’s what you want.’
‘Let’s leave that possibility open, shall we?’
‘As you wish. But the offer is sincere and remains.’
‘I wish I believed as you do.’
‘You are not far from it, Adam. Not really. I expect what is about to happen over the next few years will convince you. But then, I expect it to convince everyone.’
‘All right,’ Adam said. He had a sense of near-relief now he’d made his decision. Many people spoke of the contentment which came from accepting defeat. He was mildly surprised to find it was true. ‘So what do you want the Guardians to do in the Commonwealth? And bear in mind, I won’t ever repeat Abadan station, I don’t do political statement violence any more.’
‘My dear chap, neither do I. And thank you for agreeing to this. I know how it conflicts with your own goals. Don’t give up on them. You will live to see a socially just world.’
‘Like a priest will see heaven.’
Bradley’s soft smile was understanding and sympathetic.
‘What are you going to hit first?’ Adam asked.
‘The Second Chance is my primary target right now. Part of your task is going to be assembling a crew to obliterate it.’