The Key to Starveldt (15 page)

Solace fell silent, her bruised chest heaving. She was in pain, Evan realised abruptly, and only some of it physical. Whatever she’d undergone since leaving them had rattled her badly. He wanted to speak, to grant her permission to put the discussion off, but even without the advantage of his Trick, he knew his friends well enough to realise that he couldn’t speak for all of them.

‘You waited for me,’ Laine said softly, breaking the silence. ‘About being the Watcher. You let me wait to tell. I say, we can wait for you, too.’

‘No. It’s been long enough already.’ Paige’s words were sharp. ‘We waited on the
ground
. With
satyrs
. We discuss this
now
.’

A strange light came into Laine’s eyes. Evan felt the pull of her Rarity as she drew her thoughts tightly out of reach – out of
his
reach, he realised. Nobody else could possibly overhear her, and whatever she clutched to herself was something she couldn’t bear him to know. Given how much they’d already shared, albeit unintentionally, her secrecy intrigued him, so much so that he almost missed what she said next.

‘There are other discussions we could have now, Paige. Things that have gone too long unsaid. Would you speak of them, too?’

The pixie girl looked furious, her emotions suddenly scarlet with fear and resentment. ‘No,’ she croaked. ‘We’ll wait.’ Her eyes shot to Solace. ‘We can all wait.’

There was a pause, the kind into which inappropriate comments are all too easily dropped. To Evan’s absolute relief, Sylvia rescued them, though her sudden speech caused Manx and Jess both to jump.

‘If it helps,’ the guard said, ‘your suite is ready. Shall I lead you there?’

‘Yes,’ said Evan, before anyone else could. ‘Please. That would be good.’

T
heir suite was magnificent: eight separate bedrooms, each with its own private bathroom, joined to a common living area. A large, ornate tapestry depicting a scene from the Garden of Eden covered the entire far wall, while a semicircle of expensive yet comfy-looking lounges sat to one side, furnished with a low mahogany table and accessorised with some plump, soft cushions.

‘The freedom of the Rookery is yours,’ Sylvia reminded them. Throughout their gawking inspection, the guard had remained by the main doorway, leaning against the wall with her gun slung over her shoulder, as watchful as any soldier. ‘You may come and go as you please.’

‘Thanks,’ said Solace, not quite looking up. Though her bruises were already fading, she’d still been shaken by the day’s events. Was it the same day? She felt she should know, but lacking a watch and with the Rookery’s unnatural sky devoid of the usual indicators, it was impossible to tell. Out of nowhere, an unpleasant spasm rippled through her nerves, one of many such aftershocks she’d experienced since drinking from the Castalian spring.

‘It is our pleasure,’ Sylvia said. Solace heard her straighten. ‘If you’ll excuse me, I have duties elsewhere. Seek out the guards, should you require anything.’

‘You’re leaving?’

From the doorway of one of the bedrooms, Manx swung his head back out into the common area.

Sylvia nodded. ‘Don’t fear for me, little lion,’ she said, wryly. ‘We’ll meet again.’

Before Manx could muster an appropriate response, the guard was gone, leaving them all completely unsupervised.

‘Well,’ said Jess, flopping down beside Solace. ‘That was abrupt.’

‘We should get out of here,’ Electra said, unexpectedly. When the others stared at her, she waved a hand. ‘You know what I mean. Get out
there
. See the sights. So long as we’re putting off the serious stuff, we might as well have some fun.’

‘I need a drink.’ The words were out before Solace could stop herself.

Evan burst out laughing.

Solace glared at him, but to no effect: he simply grinned at her. After a moment or two, she was forced to grin back.

‘At last, my wisdom prevails!’ Evan said. ‘Not to say I-told-you-so, but I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again:
drinks are necessary
. Look!’ He gestured to the main door in a bid to convince the others, some of whom looked sceptical. ‘We’ve met satyrs and guards and wandered a bit, which was fine, but there’s a whole new world out there, a world with purple grass and unfathomable wonders, and how have we spent most of our time?
Sitting
. So as of now, I don’t care about ancient prophecies or Sharpsoft or crazy vampire women – present company excluded, of course –’ he tipped a non-existent hat at Solace, ‘– because we are going
exploring
. Somewhere out there,’ he went on, rubbing his hands together, ‘is a pub. I can smell the cider. What’s more, it is
interstellar
cider, distilled from the tears of angels and giant bees and crazy sentient wheat. Most importantly – need I remind you –
it is free.
’ He raised an eyebrow. ‘Any objections?’

‘None from me,’ said Harper, shrugging lazily.

Manx pulled a face. ‘I hate it when you make sense.’

‘Don’t encourage him,’ Jess chided, but there was an unmistakeable light in her eyes, the kind Solace knew to associate with a particularly protracted evening at the Gadfly. It should have made her glad. And yet, as her friends mobilised, she found herself longing to do nothing so much as sleep.
You need rest
, the Vampire Cynic pointed out. Stubbornly, Solace clenched her fists and stood, ignoring it. This had, after all, been her idea.

‘Lead on,’ she found herself saying.

For a moment, Evan’s joviality faltered. He looked at her – looked into her, almost – with a compassion that belied his usual carelessness. She returned his gaze and shook her head, afraid of ruining his fun. Then the moment passed: the empath grinned again and resumed his boisterous waving on of everyone, herding them out the door like cattle.

It felt to Solace as though only Manx, Jess and Electra were truly enthused about their choice of activity. Paige and Laine were still engaged in hostile silence since whatever-it-was had passed between them outside the grove, each as blank-faced as a mannequin, while Harper’s smile seemed just a little too forced. And then there was Evan, whose loud enthusiasm would have placed him with the former, happier camp, if not for the look he’d just given Solace. The two of them were last out of the suite. As they passed, his fingers brushed the back of her hand. It wasn’t accidental. A shiver like electricity shot through her arm.

‘You’ll be all right,’ he murmured, too low for anyone else to hear. Despite being stunned by this statement, Solace found herself believing him, if only for an instant. Unconsciously, she straightened her shoulders and realised that Laine was staring at her. She looked quizzically back at her friend, wondering what had merited the attention, but rather than answer, the psychic merely blinked and turned away again.

Oh, yes
, the Vampire Cynic muttered.
This is going to be
wonderful.

But with all the marvels of the Rookery spread before them, it was hard to remain troubled for long. Descending the temple stairs to the purple grass unchaperoned, it was like a pressure valve on their collective wildness was suddenly released – even in Solace, who had felt herself too tired for such antics only minutes earlier. Evan yelled something about trans-dimensional tag and whacked Jess on the shoulder. Before anyone could form a coherent adult thought, the seer shrieked her indignation and they were off, chasing each other through the improbable crowds with all the abandon of children at a playground.

Reaching the summit of a gentle slope, Manx tackled them en masse, precipitating a group tumble into the clearing below. Solace began laughing so hard that breathing became painful, and then Laine, evidently jolted out of her doldrums, started the tickling. It was too much, all of it: they fell about in a heap, shrieking and wrestling and flailing without the slightest shred of dignity or embarrassment, gloriously mad beneath the glow of wide, white stars.

It wasn’t until a woman with curly blue hair, bronze skin and an anxious face peeked over the edge of the valley and asked, in a language only Solace could understand, whether or not she ought to send for the guards, that they came back to themselves. Guilty and grinning, Solace replied in the negative. A short exchange later, and the woman was directing them to the nearest ale-stand – or at least, to its closest equivalent. In keeping with the ethos of the Rookery, it didn’t appear to sell
ale
so much as a fascinating array of hitherto undreamed-of alcoholic beverages. Evan’s eyes widened, and though Paige started to explain about being guests of Liluye, the store holder – more bird than man, with an eagle beak and taloned fingers – shook his head and pushed a small cup of unfamiliar liquid into her hands, his raptor-eyes bright with amusement.

It was the first drink of many. Time became fluid, stretching out like an endless ribbon. After the first few rounds, they moved away from the stall and out to the grass, carrying several amphorae of the drink Paige had initially sampled, which the store holder said was called
jin’sa
. Coloured with the bright fire of burnt amber and scenting headily of cinnamon, rose and blood-copper, it was both potent enough to set Solace’s throat on fire and so flavoursome that the burn didn’t matter. Each of them had acquired a small, glazed pottery cup, only slightly larger than the saké cups they’d once had at the warehouse, into which the
jin’sa
was poured and poured again, until keeping track of how much she’d drunk became dangerously difficult. Though a tired, reckless part of Solace insisted it didn’t care, she finally forced herself to set down the cup, refuse a further refill and start downing water instead. The wisdom of this decision became apparent from the first gulp: not only was she dehydrated, but her stomach was empty, too.

She frowned, glancing at her friends. None of them had eaten since that morning, and if the merrymaking continued – which seemed extremely likely – then food was definitely necessary.

‘Anyone else hungry?’ she asked, pitching her voice to carry across their sprawling circle. From where she sat on the other side, Jess looked up and made an appreciative noise.

‘Starving! Do you reckon Liluye runs a kebab stand?’

‘Kebabs?’ Evan propped himself up on an elbow and grinned. ‘I could murder a good kebab.’

‘Should we all go?’ asked Paige, prompting a discussion as to who could be trusted to search out appropriately greasy food. In the end, it was decided that Jess, Manx and Electra would go, as they were most amenable to the idea of getting up. Solace almost went with them, but changed her mind at the last minute. Though the
jin’sa
seemed to have kept her spasms at bay, or at least made her numb enough that they passed without notice, she now found that her feet and hands were shaking.

As the three appointed hunter-gatherers vacated the circle, Evan gave a satisfied sigh and lay back full-sprawl on the grass, his arms crossed under his head.

‘We are so lucky,’ he said. ‘All of us. Lucky to be here.’

Paige stared at him. ‘You really think so?’

Evan blinked and raised his head. ‘Don’t you?’

‘Lucky,’ Paige repeated. ‘
Lucky
. You think
I’m lucky
?’

‘Paige, he didn’t mean anything –’ Harper began.

‘This isn’t the time, either of you.’ Laine cut him off, but her voice was unsteady.

‘Oh, really?’ Paige gave a strangled laugh. ‘You thought differently earlier.’

‘That’s not what –’

‘– you
meant
,’ said the pixie girl, her voice dripping with sarcasm. Solace felt her muscles tense. Though Paige was slurring a little, the
jin’sa
cup she gripped with white-knuckled fingers had been empty for some time. ‘No, of course not. Nobody ever
means
it. But that doesn’t change anything.’

To her horror, Solace realised that though Paige was breathing normally, large tears glistened in her eyes.

‘I’m sorry.’ Evan sat straight up. ‘I’m an idiot, we all know that. I didn’t think.’

It seemed like Paige might be appeased, until a tear fell down her cheek. Its sudden wetness startled a hand to her face. She stared at her fingers, the tips of which glittered with salt. She made a gulping noise. Her face flamed red, and before anyone could stop her, she leapt to her feet and ran, darting over the Rookery grass like a rabbit pursued by dogs.

Laine and Harper stared at one another.

‘Tell me.’ His voice was a growl. ‘Whatever this is, Laine, tell me.’

‘No.’

‘Tell me!’

‘I
can’t
!’ Laine dug her fingers into the grass, as though anchoring herself. ‘Don’t make me,’ she said, and this time, she was almost pleading.

‘Whatever.’ Harper hauled himself up.

‘Where are you going?’

‘Where do you think?’

He walked away, his long legs eating up the ground. Despite being uncertain of what, exactly, had happened, Solace felt dazed by the whole incident. An extremely awkward silence followed as she, Evan and Laine all tried to avoid looking at one another.

‘Bloody hell.’ Evan swiped one hand through his hair, then reached for another drink. He was just done pouring himself an inadvisably large cup of
jin’sa
when Manx, Jess and Electra returned, laden with hot food.

‘What happened?’ Jess asked, peering around for Paige and Harper. ‘We lose some people?’

‘You might say that,’ Laine replied, grabbing a kebab from the pile and biting savagely into it.

The seer’s brows shot up as she looked to her brother for confirmation.

‘We lost some people,’ Evan echoed, topping up Manx’s glass. ‘There, get that into you. You’re a growing cat. Lad. Thing.’

‘Cheers,’ said Manx, for once not rising to Evan’s bait. The two chinked cups and drank, eliciting a sarcastic snort from Jess and a giggle from Electra.

Solace felt sick. Though getting food had been her idea, she suddenly wasn’t hungry. Out of a perverse sense of duty, she still made herself choose a kebab and eat it, but the process was mechanical: each mouthful was like chewing cloth, the meat tasteless and heavy in her throat. She choked it down like medicine, attempting to wash away the thickness in her mouth with a swallow of water, but even then, she still felt muzzy.