“But that’s not true—” I broke off again, remembering that half of it was true, already; I’d told the Satoh that myself. And the rest of it might become the truth sooner than I wanted to admit. “Won’t people know—?”
“The Satoh believe it is true, and that is what people will see. Naoh asks the Community to gather where the Bridge of Sighs crosses over to Riverton. She tells them that if enough believe as they do, they can stop Tau. That enough of our people joined together can banish all trace of the Human occupation from our world—”
“Oh, God,” I muttered, rubbing my face. Miya knew about the airborne drug. But Naoh wasn’t sharing the truth about that with the Community. “When is this—miracle—supposed to happen?”
“Soon. Those who have heard are already beginning to gather and draw others.”
I thought about the people I’d seen out in the street as I’d made my way here, their restlessness, the suspicion in their faces. I wondered whether the Satoh’s rumors had been the cause of it all. And then I thought about what Naoh was telling them to do. Uniting, acting with one mind, almost sounded reasonable. As if it was something that should have been done years ago.… Maybe it had been done years ago; maybe it had been tried again and again through the years since Humans had taken over Refuge. But it had always failed, because Human technology had been one step ahead of them all the time, and Human ruthlessness hadn’t changed at all.
Tau’s CorpSec had nephase gas. Borosage had used it in my hotel room; used it again at the monastery. There was absolutely no doubt in my mind that he’d use it on a mob trying to force its way into Riverton. And gathered together in one place, without their Gift, they’d be sitting targets for anything Tau wanted to do to them.
I looked up at Grandmother again. “You see the Humans attacking the demonstration, don’t you? And we’re helpless to stop it—”
She nodded, her face heavy with shadows. “That is what I have seen, if the people follow Naoh’s Way. And they will. No one can stop it.”
“Hanjen is trying. Have you tried—?”
She nodded. “But it is too late.”
“How much did you know about the Satoh’s activities, anyway? And for how long? Did you know they planned to kidnap Joby?”
“Yes, Bian, I knew…” she said quietly, shaking her head. I shut my eyes. “At the time, the Way that I saw brought us to a better place, in the end.”
“But now it’s changed?”
She didn’t answer me.
“Why? What changed?” Me? Was it my interference, when Miya…? But the Corpses nearly had her. If she hadn’t run into me, she’d probably be dead now, and Naoh’s vision with her. The riot gas? If Grandmother hadn’t known about that, would that throw off her precognition? I didn’t know enough about it even to guess, and she wasn’t telling me. “Maybe I can still stop them. Maybe I can change things back—”
“No.” She shook her head again and rose slowly to her feet. “Bad things will happen no matter what you do, Bian. If you go after Miya, they will happen to you too.”
“Where’s Joby?”
“He is safe.”
“Where? Here? Do you have him?”
“He is safe,” she said again, and the look in her eyes told me that was all the answer I was getting. She started toward the door.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
She turned back, her veiled gaze unreadable. “I am going to join the gathering at the Bridge of Sighs.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Because that is where the Way leads me.”
She disappeared.
I lunged after her, grabbing at her cloak. My fingers closed over nothing. I scrambled to my feet, swearing under my breath; knowing, as I left the room, that I was heading for the bridge too. Even if I had to get there on foot, if Miya was there then it was where the Way led me now.
As I went back out through the great hall I realized the music had stopped. Instead, someone was shouting in Hydran, the words echoing above the level of random noise, like the speaker was trying to make everybody else listen. Maybe in this crowd of unfocused energy, shouting was actually easier than telepathy; or maybe he was using his mind to spread some other message. The voice was both louder and less distinct than the music had been; it took me a minute to get a fix on the words.
The speaker was standing in the middle of the room. I realized that he was someone I actually knew, someone from the Satoh. Tiene, one of the radicals I’d met that first night with Miya and Naoh. By the time I recognized him I didn’t have to listen to know what he was saying or why he was here.
I shoved my way through the mass of bodies around him until we were standing face-to-face. He looked down at me. I looked down and realized he was drifting about half a meter off the ground, making himself visible above the crowd. When I looked up again, his face was slack with surprised recognition.
I hit him in the stomach.
He dropped to the floor like a sack of laundry. “Haven’t you done enough to these people?” I shouted. “Get the hell out of here, Tiene, and don’t come back.”
He glared up at me, and his expression told me what I couldn’t hear him think. “Naoh was right about you,” he mumbled, doubled over, holding his stomach.
“No, she wasn’t,” I said, backing off as he got to his feet, in case he wasn’t as dazed as he looked. “And she’s wrong about this. Take me to her, I’ll—”
He disappeared. The breeze of his disappearance ruffled my hair.
“Shit.” I went on across the room. People backed out of my way, leaving me a straight path to the exit.
When I got outside I searched the air above the rooftops for the profile of the bridge; found it, relieved. I wasn’t in the mood to ask for directions, and I didn’t think anyone in the street was in the mood to give them to me.
I pushed myself, not sure how long it would take me to reach the bridge the hard way, through this maze of streets … not sure how long I had before things turned critical. I wondered how many Hydrans had listened to the Satoh; how many of them were going to be hurt or killed today because of it. Whether one of them was going to be Miya. Or me.
But I couldn’t let myself think about that. I had to keep believing that even Grandmother couldn’t see the Way completely clearly; that somehow it could still be changed. That I could change it.…
I heard the crowd long before I saw it. By the time I reached the open plaza at this end of the Riverton bridge, the square was already filled to overflowing. I realized then that the noise they made was nothing compared to the sound of a Human crowd that size … maybe because I could only hear half of it. I was stunned by how many people had actually responded to Naoh’s twisted vision … how much that said about their anger, their sense of futility and powerlessness.
An amplified Human voice speaking in Standard rang out over the crowd noise—ordering them to disperse, threatening reprisals. I couldn’t see the speaker, but even distorted by amplification I knew it was Borosage.
I shoved my way through the crowd backed up into the street’s entrance, trying to see over their heads, listening for the sound of a familiar voice, the sight of a familiar face.
“(Miya! Nasheirtah—!)” I shouted with every cell in my body, making heads turn in the claustrophobic press of unreadable strangers around me. I ducked my head, cursing with frustration, and pushed deeper into the mob before anyone realized what I was.
I’d been able to reach Miya’s mind, she’d been able to find me, in a way that had never happened with anyone else. The bond was forever … whoever or whatever came between us, I had to believe that.
I found a recess in the wall I’d been shoved up against and slid into it, trying to clear my thoughts of everything and everyone but Miya: her face, her mind. The way she moved, smiled, held Joby, touched me … bringing my soul to life, like water in the desert. The feel of her mind joined with mine as our bodies joined, transforming the heat of physical lust into something truer, p
urer, more …
(Miya?) I sucked in a startled breath as she completed the contact; almost severed the fragile link between us with my surprise. And in that moment I realized she could have avoided me or shut me out. Instead she’d been open, waiting …
(Cat—) Her thoughts were as clear as my own, and as much a part of me. (Bian!)
I stayed where I was, crushed against the wall until I couldn’t have moved if my life depended on it. The mood of the crowd began to seep in at the interface of thought linking my mind to hers, until my mind was as desperately aware of their presence as my body was. I held the contact open against the anger/frustration/hunger/grief of the crowd, but the effort drove spikes through my eyes. I wondered what was keeping Miya, when she could just come to me.
The alternating currents of sensation feeding through my brain began to make my thoughts strobe; made me want to let in the crowd’s emotion, drown in it, be one with it.…
I imagined what would happen if I did; or if anyone in the crowd paid me enough attention to notice that I was different. I closed focus convulsively, almost losing Miya before I got control of myself. Searching the crowd again, I realized that most of the people I saw had turned toward the bridge, rapt with anticipation.
A new voice was drawing the crowd—not Borosage’s distorted threats, even though they still echoed over every corner of the square. This voice wasn’t spoken, couldn’t be heard; instead I felt it feeding directly into my thoughts through my bond with Miya. One mind—Naoh’s—amplified through a network of other minds all repeating her message: This would be a day like no other. Cross over to the other side. Take back our world. The future is waiting. The Humans cannot harm us, nothing will stop us, if we go forward to claim our future with one mind. Believe—
The crowd pushed forward around me, surging toward the bridge.
(Miya!) I threw everything I had into the cry, willing her to keep the promise she’d made to me—
(Bian!) She was beside me suddenly, clutching at my arm to steady herself against the current of bodies pushing past. She was still wearing the same muted earth colors, the same traditional loose tunic and pants, but with a fringed scarf muffling her face as if she was trying for anonymity. People around us stumbled or moved out of her way without giving us a second look.
“Where were you—?” I broke off as she looked at me. Her incandescent relief swept my brain like burning phosphor.
(You came back! You are with us! I knew your heart.…) She pulled the scarf away from her mouth and kissed me. My body answered her, ready to follow her anywhere, blindly, eagerly.…
But I tasted the residue of Naoh’s suspicion in her relief as the doubts that had made her doubt me disappeared. With her arms still around me, she started to pull me forward into the mob.
I broke away. (Miya, stop!) “What the hell are you doing here?” I shouted. “This is crazy!” Blurting out the words before my tongue could turn traitor, before my brain could: “How could you leave me behind like that—?”
She looked at me with dazed imcomprehension. (I had to,) she answered finally, faintly. “Naoh.…”
“What the fuck does Naoh think she’s doing?” I demanded, not even trying to focus my thoughts anymore. “She’s setting these people up for a CorpSec massacre!”
“No, Bian—” Miya shook her head. “She has seen the Way. We can protect ourselves from them without hurting them, if all of us join together. They’ll be powerless to stop us. Belief has moved mountains. We can make them disappear—”
“Miya, listen to me!” I caught her by the shoulders, hard enough to make her grimace. “Your sister’s infecting your mind. She’s—sick, and she’s infected all of you. Everything you think you believe is twisted, it’s wrong.”
She shook her head again.
“Please, Miya,” My voice cracked. “If you love me, if you love Joby, then look at Naoh with my eyes, see her like I do. You know she can’t get inside my head. You know what I am; it makes me … immune.” I waved my hand. “Look at this mob through my eyes, and then tell me it doesn’t look wrong.”
She looked at me, vacant-faced for what seemed like an eternity, while the crowd swept past, crushing my hopes underfoot. But then at last I felt her mind stir, like a sleeper waking: the unquestioning belief gave way like a dam of ice, setting free a flood of questions without answers. (Bian—?)
I opened my thoughts, let her see for herself the things that I could see, that her sister and the rest of the Satoh refused to believe. I tried not to push her toward the truth, knowing that if she even imagined I had, I’d lose her forever.
(Nephase…?) The color drained out of her face, like she’d forgotten she’d ever even known about it. (This is the Way that you always saw—?) She clutched at my clothing, hanging on to me like suddenly she could barely stand. (Our people—Tau will … they will…?)
I nodded, feeling something break inside me and fill me with pain, as the truth shared became twice the burden for us both. But what choice did I have…? There were no choices left, not for me, not for her. “Have … have you seen the oyasin?”
She pushed away from me until she was standing alone. She shook her head again—meaning both (no) and (she didn’t know why I was asking.)
“She’s here. She said this was where the Way led her. Maybe she saw a chance of stopping Naoh.” I tried not to think about how little hope she’d foreseen of anything but failure. “Can you find her?”
Miya half frowned, craning her neck; even I could barely see more than three meters through the crowd around us, and I was taller than most of them. If her mind was as choked with strangers as the street was, she wouldn’t have any better luck searching that way. She glanced at the wall above us. “Up there—” She pointed.
I nodded, tried to relax and let it happen as she lifted us straight up. We settled on top of the wall as if we were massless. I clung to the ledge, its gritty surface biting into my hands as I steadied myself. As I looked out over the crowd, I knew that finding Grandmother by sight alone would be impossible. Maybe Miya could do what I couldn’t; I didn’t know whether even her Gift, even from this height, could pinpoint Grandmother in that molten sea of thought.
Looking out from here I saw suddenly that there were children in the crowd. My heart sank; the Community had so few children left, after Tau’s biowarfare. I wondered why their parents had brought them here, risked their last hope for the future … whether they really believed Naoh’s claim that Human weapons couldn’t harm them or whether they simply believed there wouldn’t be a future worth living if this failed. I thought about Joby as I raised my head to watch for CorpSec flyers. Borosage’s amplified threats droned on in a surreal counterpoint as I murmured, “Any luck?”
(No, I—)
“Talk out loud,” I said. I felt her surprise as she heard the hardness in my voice. “If they use gas on us, at least we’ll know it.”
She nodded, her expression strained. “I’ve found Naoh.” She pointed. “She’s all in white; you can see her at the bridge.”
I followed her pointing finger until I found the figure in white, glowing like the dawn as she hovered above the muted colors of the crowd. Naoh had set herself apart, drifting a meter or so off the ground, as if she’d declared herself Chosen. There was a force field at both ends of the bridge: I could see the crowd around her pressed up against the invisible barrier like insects in a bottle.
And then, as I watched, Naoh was suddenly beyond the barrier. It happened so quickly that I hadn’t even seen the change. Two Satoh joined her, and then two more, as they got their bear ings and teleported beyond the barrier. More Hydrans followed, no longer just Satoh now, in twos and fives and dozens until they filled this end of the bridge span. I watched the mass of people pour on across; saw Naoh floating like a pale angel of death above the crowd. “Grandmother—?” I murmured, barely remembering to ask, hypnotized by the sight like all the rest.
“Not with her. I’m searching…” Miya answered li
ke only half of her mind was listening to me.
I tried to go on searching visually. My eyes kept being drawn back to the mob moving farther out onto the bridge—and beyond them to its far end, where Tau’s world began. They called it the Bridge of Sighs over here. That wasn’t what they’d be calling it tomorrow.
At the far end Borosage and a small army of Corpses were waiting. Body armor glinted in the early morning light—which meant they’d come armed with weapons systems I didn’t want to think about. CorpSec flyers were taking up positions overhead now. There was no chance at all that they were only here to observe.
The force barrier I’d collided with the other night wouldn’t stop the Hydrans any more than this first one had, once they got a sense of the dimensions and densities of the farther shore. Maybe with enough of them together, their minds linked, they actually could disable every weapon, block the wills of every Human waiting to use one, without anybody getting hurt.…
Maybe hell was about to freeze over.
I watched as the space between two worlds in collision kept shrinking, watched it until my eyes ached, not able to look away.
“There! The oyasin!” Miya cried.
I strained to see what she saw without losing my balance, felt her hand against my chest, steadying me. Her mind guided my senses with a thought to Grandmother.
I watched Grandmother move through the mass of believers still waiting in the square, saw her touch one person and then another. Usually they were ones with children. Almost always, as she let them go, they disappeared, taking their children with them. “What’s she doing?”
“Sending them away—the ones who’ll listen.” Miya glanced at me. “I want to go to her. Maybe together we can reach Naoh and make her stop.”
I shook my head. “It’s too late. Nobody can turn them all back. Is’s too late to shtop i’—” I broke off. “Shid. Miy’—?”
She looked at me in sudden panic, back at the crowd. “No! Oy’sin—” I felt her mind take me, try to pull us through a jump to reach Grandmother in the heart of the crowd.