Sear walked fearlessly up to the edge of the dome.
‘That is where the dome will open,’ Ford said tonelessly.
‘I, Sear, leader of the scatterlings, am come to bargain with the leader of the Citizen gods,’ they heard him shout. He had lifted his hands in a ceremonial manner and Merlin thought how absurd he looked in his dirty rags. How was it that he and the others did not see how unlikely it was that the Citizens who named themselves gods, would honour a contract with such a figure?
But immediately there was a loud humming sound that made Merlin’s teeth ache and a small regular section of the dome close to the ground shimmered and dissolved.
Around her the scatterlings tensed, aware that this was the moment of truth. If the Citizen gods meant to attack, they would kill Sear.
One of the Citizens, clad in a white suit and glass helmet, walked out through the gap and crossed to where the scatterling leader waited. The suit flared in the sunlight to dazzling white. Sear’s words were inaudible now, but after some moments the Citizen handed him something. Sear crossed his fist over his chest. The Citizen responded with the same gesture.
‘That means the bargaining is done,’ Era whispered, relief in her tone. Merlin’s own heart began to beat faster, knowing her own moment of truth had arrived. Any minute now she would be inside the dome.
Sear crossed the grassy expanse and blended with the trees. The dome gap remained open and the suited Citizen stood waiting. Sear appeared suddenly from the trees behind them, panting with excitement.
‘What has been decided?’ Ford demanded. ‘What have you told them?’
Sear frowned impatiently. ‘I told them we know about the broken collar and why they want her back. They told me her mind is damaged because of the broken collar and that’s why she can’t remember anything. They want the collar back, but they have promised to heal her mind and you and I are to go with her as guardians. Once they have finished with her, we will all be set free.’
‘How do you know they’ll let us go?’ Ford asked. Merlin thought of Ranulf and the other Lord wardens being drugged, but held her tongue.
‘We are oathbound,’ Sear said.
’And if they simply kill us and keep her?’
Sear snorted angrily. ‘Do you think I am leader of the scatterlings for nothing? See this.’ He held up a small wafer-thin metal disk. He squeezed the disk, pointing it into the trees and a great patch was instantly burned and obliterated. The smell of the burning leaves was acrid and dreadful, but the path of destruction was worse.
‘They gave you a deathweapon,’ Era said, seeming more horrified than elated.
Sear nodded proudly. ‘You see now? They have given this weapon to me as a signal of their honour. I will keep it trained on them all the time we are in the forbidden city.’
‘Perhaps we should just take this. We can hurt them badly with such a weapon, perhaps even destroy the dome,’ Era said.
‘Any other suggestions?’ Sear sneered. His yellow eyes scanned their faces. ‘Good, now that we’ve had this little Conclave and you’re all satisfied, let’s go.’
Merlin took a deep breath. She did not believe the broken collar was why the Citizens had been so desperate to have her back, but there was no way of convincing Sear. His rigid belief in the clan honour system made him incapable of understanding how the Citizens would look on that custom. She looked at Ford whose brows twitched up questioningly.
‘Ford, I don’t want you to come,’ she said.
His single good eye blazed for a moment with something very near to hatred, then it was hard, like a piece of stone. ‘I don’t think you have anything to say about it. Let’s go.’ He turned his back on her and walked purposefully into the glaring sunlight. Sear took her arm possessively and followed, pointing the lethal disk at her head.
‘Of course I won’t shoot you,’ he confided. ‘But they have to think I might until I get close enough to aim it at them.’
As they approached the opening, Merlin saw there was a kind of airlock just inside and level with the ground outside the dome, though the rest of the city lay below. It seemed very dark in the dome, yet what could be seen was wondrous. The city was less like the ruined city in the Region of Great Trees than something from a science-fiction movie. Though she did not remember going to such movies, she could recall them.
The buildings in the forbidden city soared to much greater heights than the buildings she remembered and were frequently surrounded by a spiralling outer lattice of stairs. Outside, she had thought the world regressed, but inside the dome, she felt herself primitive in comparison.
If she was amazed, the two scatterlings stared around with their eyes starting out of their sockets. Sear was dazzled out of his senses.
The waiting Citizen stepped inside the dome and beckoned for them to follow. Suddenly Merlin wondered whether the air inside the dome were breathable, but it was too late to ask as the dome wall recoalesced and the world outside became a dim, blurred shadow. The dome glass cut off almost all outside light. There was a hissing noise as the outside air was replaced with dome air. She breathed tentatively and found the air cold and metallic.
Once the hissing ceased, the airlock began to descend and Merlin realised it was an elevator. The two scatterlings flung themselves against the transparent walls, wild-eyed with fright.
‘You are quite safe.’ The Citizen god spoke slowly, as if to very young children or fools, the voice distorted by the helmet.
The elevator descended into the city and Sear lost his fear, eyes devouring the forbidden city with its soaring buildings, convoluted towers and walkways. Unlike the cities of her memory, there were many layers of paths at various levels passing from building to building. There were numerous trees growing at all levels but they were not real, and gave the dimlit city a forlorn air.
Ford’s face was grimly unimpressed. Absurdly Merlin wished she could think of something to say that would make him smile. There was something very real and reassuring in his lopsided grin.
The movement ceased and there was another hissing sound. The suited Citizen touched the wall and it opened straight onto a broad, spotless street. They had come right to ground level, which was far below ground level outside. Buildings soared above on all sides, shadowed and silent. The street was lit by dull artificial lights and was dreadfully cold. More of the artificial trees were planted along the centre of the streets.
The Citizen pointed to a door on the other side of the road.
Shivering, Merlin wondered how the Citizen gods could bear the cold. Sear went eagerly through the door, pulling her along behind, so the blast of gas hit him in the face first and he dropped like a stone. Merlin was dragged from his grasp and the suited Citizen who held her pointed the weapon at Ford’s startled face.
‘No!’ Merlin shrieked as he fell hard at her feet. She whirled to face the Citizen who held her. ‘You made a bargain with them!’
The Citizen released her arm, and removed the helmet with a faint clicking noise. Inside was a very beautiful woman with bone-white skin, cropped dark straight hair and dazzling sky-blue eyes. ‘We do not honour contracts with apes,’ she said in a familiar voice.
‘Sacha!’ Merlin whispered.
The blue eyes widened. ‘Well, well, how do you know my name, I wonder? I thought you could only read what I was thinking.’
‘I didn’t read it from your mind,’ Merlin said defiantly. ‘I heard you speak when you were all looking for me after the crash.’
‘So, you were restored then. Remarkable,’ she said.
The other Citizen had also removed his helmet. He had dark hair and white skin too. ‘She’ll have to be decontaminated.’
Sacha nodded. ‘You take care of them. I’ll take her.’
Merlin looked down at Sear and Ford. ‘Are they dead?’
‘No,’ Sacha said. ‘There was no need. We are not the barbarians, Merlin.’ Seeing Merlin start, she smiled. ‘Nor do I read minds, more’s the pity. Your name
was known to me. Now come with me.’
Merlin did not move.
‘You might as well come. You will sooner or later, walking or . . .’ She looked significantly at the crumpled forms on the floor.
Defeated, Merlin followed her to the door.
They walked along the empty barren street, their footsteps sounding loud and intrusive. There was no real greenery, no trees or bushes or flowers, and no natural light to brighten the dreary city. The deadness was accentuated by the lack of people. Not a single Citizen was visible. Where were all the people who lived in the forbidden city? Even the windows in the buildings were dark, as if the city were a magnificent, lifeless tomb.
Sacha climbed into a small vehicle like the cars Merlin could remember, and motioned Merlin to climb in too. In response to the touch of a lever, the vehicle rose with a faint hum, and they soared over the tops of the dark buildings towards a single lighted tower.
Merlin wanted to ask questions, but stubborn pride kept her silent. When the vehicle came to rest on the roof of the tower, Sacha gave her an amused look and climbed out. Again, they descended in an elevator which opened onto a white passage. The carpet was soft and thick beneath her thin sandals.
They passed one door and stopped outside the next. Sacha passed her hand over a small red light set at eye-level in the door and it slid into a recess, opening the way to a pristine laboratory filled with gleaming bottles and tubes. It was very white and clean, and in the midst of the room stood a red-faced man with ginger-coloured hair and faded brown eyes.
‘At last, Merlin. You’ve given us a lot of trouble, but now you’re home,’ said Andrew.
13
Decontamination meant a series of unpleasant smelling showers in water that burned her skin and left it sore and red. Dressed in a white tunic which was an exact copy of the garment she had worn in the wrecked flier, Merlin padded barefoot from the shower room into the small adjoining laboratory.
Sacha inspected her as before by running a small square box which ticked slowly up and down her body. This time, the clicks were very faint.
‘Not bad,’ she decided. ‘Andrew wants to talk to you, then you will be fed.’
Merlin did not respond, but her mouth watered. Sacha shrugged and led the way back down the corridors to the laboratory.
Andrew beamed at the sight of her. ‘Much better.’
Merlin gaped, staring at the cages behind him. She had not noticed them previously because they had been empty, but they were no longer empty.
Ford and Sear were in two adjoining cages.
They were awake, squatting on their haunches since the height of the cages made it impossible for them to stand. The sight filled Merlin with a terrible impotent rage and she wondered why they were so passive about their captivity, until she noticed the dull gleam of collars around their necks.
Unwittingly she fingered her own collar.
Andrew smiled at the movement. ‘Their collars work,’ he assured her.
Merlin whirled to face him. ‘You lied! They trusted you to keep your word.’
Sacha stared at her with mild interest. ‘They bargained to enter the city – they entered it.’
‘That was not what they meant and you know it. I tried to tell them you wouldn’t honour any bargain you made with them but they wouldn’t listen.’
‘Fascinating development, wouldn’t you say, Sacha?’ Andrew asked. ‘She was able to stand outside the beliefs of the savages and see the truth, yet they would not be warned. It’s amazing what a civilising effect knowledge can achieve. If she had been with them longer, she would have begun to change them.’
‘An unfortunate development is what I’d call it. A disastrous development!’ Sacha said.
‘How so?’ Andrew asked.
‘Surely it’s obvious. If things had gone as planned, she would have been completely malleable. Now, she sides with the scatterlings. She is useless to us because she looks on us as an enemy.’
‘I’m not so sure that matters,’ Andrew said evenly. ‘There are advantages in this outcome. After all, if things had gone according to plan, there was always the possibility that her natural telekinesis and telepathy would have been suppressed. I believe we will find both those abilities functioning in her.’
‘But what good is it if she will not do as we ask?’ Sacha protested mildly.
Andrew smiled. ‘Perhaps it is not necessary to ask. In choosing to align with the scatterlings, she makes herself vulnerable to other persuasions. Her mental processes appear undamaged, and that is reassuring.’
’Persuasions?’ Sacha echoed curiously.
‘As I see it,’ Andrew interposed smoothly, ‘there are two courses open to us. One, we can regard this as a failure, and simply use her as if she were any other outsider, which will almost certainly render her useless. Or we can use her as she is.’
‘What!’ Sacha began.
Andrew smiled and something in his eyes reduced the woman to silence. ‘The point is, though she has aligned herself with the primitives, she would not be able to help feeling superior. For instance, she foresaw the possibility that a Citizen would lie – the others are incapable of that. This means she would be an outsider with them, until they came to think the way she does: the way we taught her to think. That tells me she is developed enough to interface with the computer and intelligent enough to be convinced.’
‘But even if she is capable, you can’t mean to use her when she regards us as the enemy,’ Sacha protested.
‘That is exactly what I propose,’ Andrew said pleasantly. ‘She will do as we ask, precisely because if she doesn’t, her little playmates in the cages will suffer.’
Sacha’s eyes widened appreciatively. ‘We will still need to make sure the psychic abilities are developed enough for our purposes.’
Andrew nodded without taking his eyes off Merlin. ‘What do you say, girl? How much do these savages mean to you? Enough for you to want to save their lives?’
Merlin felt a stab of shame at the realisation that she had thought of the scatterlings and the clanpeople as Andrew did – as savages. Now, Merlin saw the error in her thinking. Andrew was not a good man, though he might call himself a civilised man. She felt confused about her own reactions, and found herself wondering whether it was so terrible to be a savage if that meant one was honest and naive and believed in the word of another. Maybe it was better to be a savage than civilised, if it meant being like Andrew or Sacha.
Merlin wished with all her heart she could have spoken to Ford one last time just to tell him she had been wrong.
But it was too late. Merlin blinked away tears of helplessness, because she was not completely helpless. Whatever it was the Citizens wanted her to do required her co-operation. She would refuse until the scatterlings were freed. She might not save herself, but she had the power to save Ford and Sear, and because of that, she had the responsibility to try, even if she failed.
She felt Marthe would have approved and, strangely, that gave her courage.
‘I won’t do anything until I know who I am and until you free them,’ Merlin said, looking at the caged scatterlings.
The two Citizens stared at her with as much astonishment as if she had been a chair that had begun to speak.
Andrew recovered first. ‘Extraordinary. See how strongly she wishes to know the truth about herself? I believe she would have come to us eventually of her own accord, since she is intelligent enough to work out that we would be the only ones who could fill in the blanks.’ His eyes widened in sudden comprehension. ‘Of course. She was coming to us. She cares enough about these youths to allow them to bargain for her. She was not their prisoner. The savages asked for her safe return. I daresay they worked it out between them.’ He shook his head in admiration and Merlin felt a savage urge to scratch the cool clinical interest out of his eyes.
‘I think you will find it best to do as we wish, for the sake of these two creatures. There are worse things than being collared. I’m sure
you understand what I refer to.’
Merlin thought sickly of the Voids.
’As for knowing who you are, you will be told the truth, but only because it suits my purposes for you to understand your situation exactly. Therefore, I will arrange for your questions to be answered.’ Andrew looked at Sacha who turned to a small intercom built into the wall. There was a barely audible crackle as someone responded.
‘If she makes a mistake . . .’ Sacha said, replacing the receiver.
‘The simulator will ensure that doesn’t happen,’ Andrew said. ‘If she can succeed there, she will have no trouble with the real thing.’
‘And if she fails?’
‘I don’t think she’ll fail given the possible consequences,’ Andrew said, peering into the cage holding Sear.
He reached through the bar and scratched the leader of the scatterlings under the chin.
Merlin shuddered with revulsion.
Andrew looked up suddenly at Sacha. ‘Have you looked at the collar yet? With luck, we won’t need it any more, but it should not have failed. I have warned Sedgewick about his carelessness.’
‘It was probably damaged in the accident, but I’ll have to dismantle it before we can find out exactly what went wrong,’ Sacha answered. Casually she lifted her hand and pointed a tube at Merlin, who flinched.
The collar fell apart from her throat and onto the floor with a clatter. Sacha gathered the two halves, taking them to a bench.
Andrew waved his hand grandly, and before Merlin could see what was coming, Sacha had fastened another collar on her from behind. ‘Unlike the collars your friends are wearing, this one has to be activated. It won’t be used as long as you behave yourself,’ she warned.
Merlin lurched forward as a shock of pain filled her head. Then it was gone.
‘Just a little demonstration to ensure we understand one another,’ the Citizen woman said.
‘Take her now,’ Andrew said, suddenly brisk. ‘There is much to be done before tomorrow.’ He smiled and Merlin’s stomach seemed to curdle at his false warmth. She wondered why he bothered.