Transformation Space (27 page)

‘You found water?’ Her voice lifted.

‘Si. Water and something—’ He broke off as little rocks began to tumble down from above.

‘Joe,’ Djes called out. ‘I’ve found him! The Principe is here.’

They waited in silence as more rocks skittered past them, and Joe Scali slid and climbed his way down to where they sat.

‘Over here,’ Trin called him closer.

‘Principe,’ gasped Joe as he reached them. He threw his arms around Trin with relief. ‘I knew he lied.’

Trin grasped Scali’s shoulders briefly and then pushed him away. ‘Let’s hurry or the light will beat us.’

Djes stood and took his hand. ‘Lean on me,’ she said.

He dearly wanted to. Every part of his body hurt, but the worst was his head. With each movement, shocks of pain shot up from
his neck and shoulders. Yet leaning on Djes was something he couldn’t do. He must never do. As it was, too many of them saw
her as his strength.

They reached the caves as Leah lightened the sky from a warm black to a heat-heavy grey. Tivi Scali was on sentry duty and
shouted to all those settling for daytime sleep.

By the time Trinder, Djes and Joe had reached the shady protection of the overhang, everyone had assembled.

Trin interrupted exclamations and questions with an abruptly raised hand. ‘Where is Innis Mulravey?’ he demanded.

‘He and Juno have not returned,’ said Tivi.

‘My brother said he saw you dead,’ added Cass Mulravey. She pushed her way to the front of those gathered, Mira Fedor’s ’bino
in her arms. The baby had an unworldly look about him: overly thin, like the rest of them, with large serious eyes. Even now,
with so many concerns on his mind, the ’bino made Trin uncomfortable.

‘Your brother stole up behind me and pushed me from a rock,’ Trin declared with vehemence.

‘No!’ The denial ripped from the woman in a way that sounded part apology.

Trin glared at her. ‘At first dark the carabinere will look for them both.’ He glanced at Tivi. ‘Take the spears.’

‘No—’ This came from Cass Mulravey again, but another voice drowned out hers.

‘Principe? What of Juno?’ asked Josefia Genarro. She squeezed through the crowd to stand alongside Tivi. ‘What if he is—’

‘Juno can care for himself, Josefia,’ said Trin firmly. They could do nothing about it during the light but hope that Juno
was safe and had found shade.

‘You can’t jus’ accuse Innis of tryin’ to murder you,’ said an angry voice.

Trin located the source of it, standing behind Cass Mulravey: the tall woman, Liesl, who’d been sleeping with Innis.

‘He ain’t even here to defend himself,’ Liesl added.

Trin touched the crust of blood in his hair. ‘And I was not able to defend
my
self when he pushed me from behind, hoping to murder me.’

‘Don’t say that about him!’ she shouted.

Cass Mulravey grabbed her wrist, twisting it, urging quiet.

But even Mulravey’s action didn’t stop the wave of righteous anger that poured from Trin. ‘I am Principe!’ he roared back
at Liesl. ‘I do not lie!’

He’d never shown them such raw anger before, but this woman’s bald accusation inflamed him beyond thought.

A tension overtook the group; wary eyes glanced around.

Djes put a calming hand on Trin’s arm. ‘We should all rest. The Principe is injured and hungry, and must be tended.’

Liesl looked as if she wanted to say more, but Cass Mulravey stepped in front of her. ‘We’ll bring some food in.’

Cass and Djes nodded to each other, and Trin felt a swell of misgiving – as if they indeed lead the survivors, not he. Their
complicity worried him, and yet he was too exhausted to think more about it.

Instead, he walked stiffly into the cave, mollified by the fact that that at least the refugees parted respectfully to let
him through. Inside the cave he turned and looked back at them. Most were watching him still, except Mulravey, who was looking
at Josefia Genarro. ‘I’ve found more water,’ he said. ‘We need no longer carry it up the mountain and risk the ligs.’

A small cheer rose.

Trin found his spot in the cave and sank gratefully onto the brush bed, knowing he had been right to give the news of the
water last.

Djes followed him in with some berries and dried fish. As he ate, she tried to tend to his head wound, but he waved her away.
He needed sleep first.

She woke him later by gripping his hand, her hot breath close to his ear. ‘Trin.’

He rolled towards her, reaching to pull her closer.

She resisted, speaking again. ‘Liesl’s made trouble while you’ve been resting. A group of them are leaving.’

Trin struggled to sit up, his skin stinging and his head aching.

Djes handed him a shell of water, which he swallowed quickly to ease his sore throat. The cave was dimmer than when he’d laid
down to sleep, and he could see the pinprick lights in the night sky through the opening.

‘What’s happening?’ he asked her, to be sure.

‘Innis is back. He and Liesl have persuaded some to leave with them and find another part of the island.’

‘Juno?’

‘Innis says they became separated.’

Fury coursed through Trin in an instant. ‘Is Cass Mulravey siding with him?’

‘No, not yet, but you should come now.’

Trin used the wall to help him to his feet. He felt hot and dizzy and his tongue seemed swollen. A fever? ‘What is it?’ whispered
Djes.

He pushed away from the wall. ‘Nothing.’

There was no one else in the cave. The whole group was outside, standing in a ragged circle.

As he drew closer, a wave of nausea beset Trin. He turned his head and swallowed the vomit that rose up his throat.

No one seemed to notice; they were too concerned with their argument.

‘You can’t take our food,’ said one of the Pablo miners.

‘We worked for it. We’re entitled to some,’ said Liesl. Trin could see Innis next to her, gaunt and belligerent and filthy.
He held a spear in one hand and a club in the other.

The ’esque on his other side was one of theirs. Marrat was his name, Trin thought; he’d been a bullish type
in earlier times. Now he was as lean and weak as the rest of them.

Several of the women stood behind Liesl, including Tina Galiotto, his mardre’s servant. Just under a third of their females
– too many to lose.

Kristo stood opposite Innis, with Cass Mulravey next to him.

‘There’s too few of us for this, Innis,’ said Kristo. ‘Use yer brains. We need each other to survive.’

‘I’m sick of being kicked around,’ Innis shot back.

‘Lennie.’ Cass used her pet name for him. ‘Where’ve you been?’

‘I’ve been thinkin’ and lookin’ around on my own. Not because I’ve bin
told
to do it. Crux, Kristo, ain’t you had enough? Or’ve you gone soft on aristos, like you did with that high and mighty bitch
Mira Fedor? I shoulda stitched her up proper back in Ipo. Then she wouldn’t have gotten away and left the rest of us here
to fr—’

Kristo launched himself at Innis, taking him full in the chest. They fell together, tumbling into Marrat and the women behind
him.

Trin’s madre, Jilda, screamed, and suddenly everyone was moving – pushing, shoving or shouting.

It’s been coming
. The thought hit Trin’s consciousness as he stepped into the melee.
Now we’ve stopped running.

‘Tivi! Joe!’ he bellowed. ‘Arrest Innis Mulravey.’

Both men detached themselves from the melee and hastened into one of the caves. They reappeared within a few heartbeats, armed
with spears and clubs of their own.

Making weapons was a mistake.
Another glancing thought.
No
, he thought again.
This was coming
.

Someone knocked him forward to his knees. Josefia Genarro moaned and cursed in his ear, scrambling to get off him. Trin twisted
and took her arm, helping them both up.

Liesl stood, glaring at them, fists half-raised. She kicked out at Josefia, catching her in the thigh. Before Trin could intervene,
Josefia threw herself at the taller woman in much the same way as Kristo had at Innis.

Trin jerked his head around. Kristo had his hands around Innis’s throat. Marrat was kicking Kristo.

Tivi and Joe ran across, shouting, readying their spears. Trin looked back. The korm had intervened, pinning Liesl to the
ground at Djeserit’s instruction. Josefia was bleeding from the nose and mouth.

Trin gazed between the groups, caught by indecision. Then Juno Genarro burst back into the clearing.

‘Principe! He tried to kill me! Innis tried to kill me.’ Blood smeared his robe and his face.

Before Trin could respond, Tivi Scali’s voice rose above the rest. ‘Let go, Kristo,’ he bellowed. ‘Let go, so I can stick
him.’

Kristo let go of Innis’s throat and rolled away, but Innis responded by rolling after him, clawing at him.

Tivi Scali raised the spear. ‘Let go of ’im, you bastard,’ Tivi screamed.

Cass Mulravey’s ragazzo bolted from behind his mother to throw himself across his uncle.

‘Tivi!’ roared Trin.

But it was too late. The young carabinere brought the spear down in a two-handed stab.

It pierced the child below his ribcage. Though the
ragazzo never uttered a noise, Cass Mulravey’s scream pierced through every other sound.

‘Caro!’ she cried. She broke away from where she knelt over Liesl and ran down.

But the ragazzo lay limp across his tio, a thin bundle of bones with the life fading quickly from it.

Cass felt for his pulse and gave a pained moan. She wrenched the spear out and threw it away, and then she gently lifted him
from where he lay atop Innis.

Silence fell over the group as they watched the distraught woman cradle her ’bino. She rocked back and forth on her knees,
willing life back into him.

Tivi Scali fell down beside her and began sobbing apologies, but Cass didn’t seem to hear him. Nor did she notice Innis crawl
to her side and stare dully at the thin body.

A weight of despair and guilt settled on Trin. What had he set in motion by ordering them to make the spears? He should have
dealt with Innis Mulravey differently, out of sight. Now what would happen?

He glanced around at the faces. Several of the women had hastened to Cass Mulravey’s side, while others stood where they were,
lit by the moon-glow. He saw tears or anger on their faces. Even Djes seemed lost, offering him neither counsel nor comfort.

Then a noise wrenched all of their attention to the light-studded sky above – an AiV flying low over the mountainside.

‘Into the caves!’ called Trin.

They all moved except Kristo, Cass Mulravey and Tivi Scali. Even Innis got shakily to his feet and staggered towards Liesl,
who helped him inside.

Trin slid down the rocks to the others. ‘We must get out of sight.’

But none of them responded.

The AiV sounded closer, circling back.

Trin grabbed Tivi’s arm. ‘It was an accident, Carabinere. Tragic, but just so. We must shelter now.’

Cass Mulravey stared at Tivi, ignoring Trin. She opened her mouth to speak but only an incoherent noise escaped.

‘Get beneath the bushes.’ Awkwardly, Trin grasped Cass Mulravey’s shoulders and tried to pull her down towards cover. The
woman stumbled, almost dropping the ragazzo’s body.

Tivi Scali reacted by diving forward to catch the child.

Trin felt warm blood from the spear wound splatter across his face. Tivi and Cass were covered in it.

Then a light shot down from the belly of the hovering AiV, capturing them, and the dead ’bino, in its circle.

‘Fuel cell’s low,’ said Randall. ‘We need to turn back.’

‘Just one sweep,’ Jo-Jo urged. ‘Otherwise the cell’s been wasted. We’ll have to come back again.’

Their search had taken them north-east over scattered islands, most of them flat and without vegetation. The most likely location
turned out to be a largish tract of land at low tide that then diminished on the swell. They landed and explored it during
the hour right after sunset. Though the island harboured no ’esques, they stretched out in the sand to sleep for a few hours.

Randall woke them well before light, and they continued on south to the other likely location. Just short of sunrise, Randall
announced that they must turn back.

‘No,’ cried Jo-Jo, pointing out of his window. ‘There.’

Randall grunted and held her line, taking them down lower.

A surge of hope livened Jo-Jo’s tired body. This island was heavily vegetated and dominated by a small mountain.

‘Looks better’n the last one, Capo,’ remarked Catchut.

‘Hope so,’ said Randall. ‘Most like we’ll be stuck on here for ever. This cell’s probably not gonna get us back.’

Jo-Jo saw them first: a scattered group of figures on the mountain crest, scrambling toward cave mouths.

‘There!’ He pointed again.

‘I’ll sweep back.’ Randall dragged her finger around the screen, and the AiV obediently circled. This time, though, she brought
them in to hover just above the crest of the peak, spotlights blazing.

Most of the figures had disappeared, leaving only a small group clustered together. One of them, a woman, huddled over the
limp figure of a child. Three others, adult ’esques, stared up at the AiV.

‘Looks like Cass Mulravey, Capo,’ said Catchut.

‘Think yer right, Cat. Don’t know the others.’

‘Bunch of skeletons, whoever they are.’

‘Who is she?’ asked Jo-Jo.

‘Friend of Fedor’s. They came into Ipo together. Tough woman. Not surprised she’s still alive.’

A friend of Fedor’s. That knowledge somehow fanned Jo-Jo’s optimism. ‘Let’s land.’

‘Cat,’ said Randall, ‘you stay on board.’

The light was approaching rapidly as Randall dropped the AiV onto a small cleared area just above Mulravey and the others.
The vehicle thunked hard onto the uneven rock and teetered for a moment, as if it might topple.

Jo-Jo let go of a breath when it settled.

Unworried, Randall threw off her harness and slid the door back. ‘Lemme go first. She’ll know me.’