The Namura Stone (46 page)

“I will leave you to it, then. I’ll see if Tallen’s leg is bothering him, and I want to check on those cuts and abrasions you say Raven has.”

“Don’t forget to see Bennel, too!” Grace added. “—And his family!”

“I won’t. Then Arcan has promised to take me over to Pictoria in a shuttle. I … I … need to see Diva too. I … I have to find out if she is all right. Look after Grace, won’t you, Ledin?”

Ledin smiled down at his wife. “Always.”

Chapter 24

SIX STEPPED DOWN into the cavern of ortholiquid on Pictoria fully expecting to find his wife waiting for him, recovered from her injuries. After all, that was what the ortholiquid did, wasn’t it? But there was no sign of any of the morphics.

He shouted, but no-one came.

A cold feeling began to take over his stomach. He knew that something was wildly wrong; he could feel it in his bones.

“Diva? DIVA? DIVA!”

The call echoed around the huge cavern and was returned to him with ever-diminishing volume. ‘DIVA!
DIVA!
DIVA!
DIVA!
DIVA!’

Nothing happened. Six turned towards the ortholake, ignoring a few amorphs which were scattered around the floor of the cavern. If they were not on the shore, then they must be inside the ortholiquid itself. That was the only thing that made sense. But he knew it was not a good sign. Diva would have come, if she had been able to. She would never keep him waiting, worrying like this.

He flung himself into the ortholiquid, using his hands to speed his progress towards the central column. That didn’t go too well, either – the lack of viscosity meant that his hands swept through the liquid in a very strange way.

Soon, he was swimming towards the centre of the lake. His eyes darted from side to side. They must be here somewhere.
She
must be here somewhere.

But he had seen no sign of them by the time he reached the central column. He came to a halt and put one hand on the rock, which poured down from the dipping ceiling of the dome rather as though one huge inverted candle had been fused to another, upright, one. He trod ortholiquid, by now terrified at the thought of what had happened to Diva.

The only thing he could think of to do was to feel his way around the central rock, gradually letting himself slide out of the lighter part of the cavern and into the darkest zone.

Which is where he found them.

The visitor saw him first. The bimorph moved over immediately to hover above his head.

“I am sorry, Six. We hadn’t heard your arrival. You see … that is…” He couldn’t go on.

“Diva …?”

The bimorph flickered. “She … I … I am afraid that she is not healing.”

“What in Sacras do you mean, not healing?” Six demanded, his blood thudding disconcertingly in his veins. “The ortholiquid is healing her. You said it would.”

The visitor prickled at that. “Well it isn’t. And she has lost a lot of energy. Her life is draining away.”

Six tried to push him out of the way. “Let me see her!”

“You won’t be able to help. Nobody can. I am sorry.”

Six stared at him. “You can’t mean …? No, that can’t be! She … she was fine … she just had pains in her imaginary legs! How can that kill her? That one neuron of yours must have fried itself! You aren’t making any sense!”

The visitor spun. “We don’t understand it either, Six. It seems that what she perceives as blood loss is really a seeping of her vital energy. She has lost so much already that she will not be a viable being for much longer. We have been with her, and the ortholiquid doesn’t seem able to cure this. If anything, the loss is becoming greater. There is no way we can stem it. We have tried everything.”

“What about Vion? Maybe he could do something!” But Six knew that was impossible. Even if they did bring Vion over, if they did tell him that Diva had not died in the explosion, how could he know how to treat a morphic? It was a stupid suggestion. “Oh, all right, don’t answer that!”

“Six?” The touch on his mind was feeble, quavery.

“Diva! I’m here! What can I do?”

“Nothing. I’m afraid I was not meant to be a morphic for long. I’m sorry.”

“Not your fault. Is it very bad?”

He felt her answer in his head, and his fingers dug into his palms. It was about as bad as it could get.

Diva tried to dissimulate. “I don’t think I would mind, except … except this pain is wearing me down.”

“I will get Arcan. Perhaps he could do something. Or the canths. Have you thought of asking them for help?”

She hadn’t; he could feel her surprise at the idea. Then there was a small pause. Something had occurred to her. A new determination crept into the absolute exhaustion he sensed in front of him.

“I must go over to Xiantha, before it is too late,” she said slowly. “I have to tell them about the astrand. I have to show them how to become one themselves. If anything h-happens to … to me … that knowledge would be lost. And it … it must be important.”

“You think the canths can form an astrand too?”

“I am sure they can. After all, the lost animas and the Ammonites have the same origins, don’t they?”

“Ye-s, but that doesn’t mean they can do exactly the same things, does it?”

“I saw how the Ammonites slotted into their astrand when I was on Enara. I knew then that I had to show the canths how to do it. If I wait much longer I will be too weak to go.”

“Then we will all go over to the canth farm,” said the visitor. He didn’t like what he was hearing, but the logic could not be refuted. “I am sure the canth keeper will make us welcome.”

“You and the trimorphs will have to help me. I am not fit enough for quantum travel. You will have to carry me. My waveform is rigid.”

“Then we must go now. If we wait …” There was no need for the visitor to finish that sentence. Diva knew what he had been going to say. She would not last very much longer.

Diva hesitated. “What do you think, Six?” She had been trying to hide from him how very weak and worn out she was by this continual pain, but she knew that she was losing that battle too. She could feel his own desperation. There was no longer anything to hide. She owed that to him.

“He doesn’t know … won’t be able to accept …” The visitor sounded as though he doubted Six’s capacity.

“Of course he knows, Visitor. He will accept it. He will have to.”

“Accept what?” Six held his hands open. “What will I have to accept?”

The visitor darkened. “—That Diva is dying. Even the ortholiquid is unable to stop what she perceives as haemorrhages and we perceive as involuntary emission of energy. It is killing her.”

“She is NOT dying!” Diva managed a weak smile to herself as Six proved the visitor right.

The visitor spun sadly. “I am afraid she is. We have known it since we arrived on Pictoria.”

“—And she wants to go to help the canths? The journey is too much. It will kill her!”

Diva sighed. “I
have
to go to the canths. I can’t die without passing on what I learned from the Enarans. They
can
make an astrand. I saw how they could do it. They have to know how to do that, or the Enarans will always be stronger than they are.” The effort of talking so much left her breathless; she had to stop.

“But another journey might be the end of you.”

Diva closed her eyes as another wave of pain washed over her. “I am dead anyway, Six. The ortholiquid can’t cure me.”

“NO! Don’t say that! You must get better.”

“I have been trying. But there is nothing it can do. The wounds are too deep; it cannot stem the blood.”

Six looked at her for a long time. When he did speak it was in a hollow tone, one which sounded like somebody else. “I shall come too.”

The visitor gave a low hum, a sign that he was about to disagree.

Diva’s voice broke over the sound. “Of course you are coming, Six.” She managed a wan smile. “I wouldn’t go anywhere without you. Not now.”

The visitor gave something suspiciously like a sniff. “He and the canth keeper can help watch over the canths. If what you tell me is true, they will also be vulnerable if they form an astrand.”

“Yes. There is that, too.” But Diva was looking at Six. She wasn’t going to die again apart from him. Not this time. Not on Xiantha. She could sense the same determination in him, as well. He would stay with her, to the bitter end. They hadn’t had that last time. They would, this.

For once, Six felt sorry for the bimorph. After all, what could a few strands of consciousness know about staying beside your own wife? He looked across at Diva.

“When will you leave?”

She knew what he was asking. Would he have time to get to Xiantha himself? She answered the question he hadn’t asked. “You will have time, Six. We will see you there.”

WHEN THE MORPHICS arrived at the canth farm, the man who spoke to canths stared up at four shapes which hovered in front of him. Six had arrived only moments before. Both Tallen and Bennel were standing beside him, ready to take whatever action might be necessary. Arcan had dropped them all off, and was standing to one side himself. Grace was still weak after giving birth, so distraught at Six’s news that Ledin had not wanted to leave her alone. She had begged to be taken to the canth farm by magsled, but they all knew that there was nothing she could have done, and her husband had shaken his head firmly. He and Six had exchanged meaningful glances. Six had given Grace a fierce hug.

“I will come as soon as I can. You have to take care of Ashuaia. Will you two keep an eye on Raven, please? Lannie is there, but you know how prone she is to get into trouble when I am away.”

Ledin had nodded. Raven was a handful. She was quite capable of taking it into her head to disappear in any direction, especially if she felt her father was not taking enough notice of her. More than once they had been forced to send out search parties.

Six had given Grace another hug. “Diva knows, Gracie. Whether you are there or not, she knows.”

Grace had nodded dumbly, eyes full of tears. There had been nothing else to say.

Arcan had to be there at the canth farm. The possibility that the lost animas might be able to form into an astrand themselves was of prime importance for any of the orthospecies. It was something he should be there to witness. He was also the canths’ strongest protection.

Diva looked around as she arrived and managed to spin slightly as she spotted Arcan. The orthogel entity scintillated. It was enough. They understood each other.

Now the canth keeper stared at the morphic who was Diva. “Is that really you?” She was almost transparent with loss of energy and barely able to maintain herself in the air. “—I can sense your canth, so it must be.”

Diva shivered. “Yes.”

The canth keeper’s face broke up with sorrow at the sight of her evident illness. “What can I do to help you?”

Diva told him what she had come to do, and the canth keeper bowed before her. “It is a truly noble thing to do, when you are feeling … as you are. You are beyond colour.”

That was literally true. Six examined her pallor, and his lips grew thin. He knew how she must be hating having to admit to any weakness.

“Sure.” He made his voice sound unconcerned. He would not be the one to make this any more difficult for her. Not him. He nodded to the canth keeper, who immediately turned and began to open all of the corrals, leaving the gates fastened back so that as many canths as wanted to could get into the upper paddock. Six and the others spread out, one to each cardinal point, where they could be useful as sentries. As the canths began to enter the central corral he looked up at her.

“Diva, you don’t want us in the mindmerge, then?”

“No. Once the canths manage to form an astrand they will reject any other minds anyway. I shall only be in the diamond at the beginning. I think it is better that only I go; any more of us in a mental merge with them when they try this would only be confusing.”

Tallen was staring at the firemorph. “You look terrible.”

“Thank you, Namuri. I might have known you would be as polite as ever.”

“Well, you do. You are all pale and shaky. What in Sacras happened to you?”

“I got too close to the Ammonites. Didn’t Six tell you?”

“Well, yes, but he didn’t say it was this bad!” Tallen was clearly aghast to see just how ill she was.

Diva tried to laugh, but it hurt too much. She felt tears come to her eyes. Lumina knew what that would look like to the others, but it felt horrible to her.

Six saw the quivers which suffused the small body. He glared at Tallen.

“Perhaps you should concentrate on keeping guard, instead of talking so much?”

Tallen looked across at Bennel, who shook his head warningly. This was not the moment to speak out, he felt.

“We will be here,
Valhais
,” the older man said formally. “We will be alert.”

Tallen gave one of his ferocious scowls and then nodded, although everyone could see that he was having to bite his tongue not to reply.

Diva smiled at Six. Then she wondered what that would look like too. Oh, this was getting far too complicated. She just wished that awful, degrading pain would go away. This was not something you could simply force into the back of your mind; it was a grinding, continuous scorching pain that made it impossible to think, to be, to do anything. It was wearing her down, and she hated it for that; she hated herself for succumbing to it.

They all watched as the canths slowly began to gather in the upper paddock, crowding in through the gates until there must have been at least 150 of them in the reduced area. They clustered around Diva, forming a circle with the firemorph in the centre.

“Go on, Diva! Don’t wait any longer.”

Diva looked at the canths and felt reassured. She could feel their simple minds, their trust in her. They were not spooked by this meeting, she saw with the part of her which was still canth, still lost anima. They were curious but not frightened.

She held her arms out and began to spin. The canths saw only the round shape of the firemorph revolve.

Diva let her mind take over and was aware when it began to transmit to the canths how they should position themselves to form the astrand.

At first, the canths were reluctant to move out of their usual diamond shape. It was something they were used to, and it was hard to change the habits of thousands of years.