* * * * *
Kesney figured it was about time to start asking some questions.
“What the hell are we doing here?” He erupted angrily. “I can’t go back home now—ever! My life is over!”
“Just calm down.” Eiron said with supreme composure, adjusting the aquatic controls. Kesney judged Eiron’s face and fought to stay angry.
“Why did you order me to come with you—and where in the world are we going, anyway?” Kesney burst out laughing, looking around with childish wonder at the underwater panorama.
“We’re going up. Hold on.” Eiron advised.
“I’ve got to admit, that was one fantastic ride!” Kesney said a minute later, recovering from a veritable surplus of adrenaline. Now that the experience had passed, he could look back on the past few moments, and he realized they had been the most exciting ones of his life. He’d also slowly begun to realize that Eiron wouldn’t have ordered him along without a damned good reason.
A moment later they rose above the water and towards the cliffs. They landed beneath a small ledge that left hardly any room for them to get out. In the end, the roof hatch collided with the ledge, and they had to squeeze out sideways on their bellies.
Kesney narrowly missed landing on his head when they fell to the ground, landing on his shoulder instead. He stood and brushed the dust off of his knees and chest, coughing a little as the sand the plane had stirred up whirled about them. Eiron was standing still, watching the cliffs with his head leaned back a little so that he could see up the slope. It was as though he waited for something to happen.
That’s odd, Kesney thought. They stood there that way for about ten more minutes, until Kesney’s impatience flared. He better not have brought me all the way out here for nothing.
Then a doorway appeared in the cliff-side, just before an enormous ledge on the otherwise sheer cliff face; Kesney realized that from the air, the ledge would appear to be a part of the shore below. There were few footholds up to the ledge, twenty micro-nariars up.
“Now we can go,” Eiron announced, moving to the cliff and grabbing a hand-hold. Kesney shrugged his shoulders in disbelief but began to climb after Eiron, anyway. It was easier than he expected, he realized, as appropriate places to grip jutted out just where his hands and feet moved. He felt sure someone had created this ladder, which had appeared insignificant on the ledge from the ground.
When they reached the top, Eiron strode confidently through the opening as if he’d been there before. Kesney stopped to glance at the crumpled heap of a plane on the smaller ledge, thinking it was no wonder they’d had to land below. He decided to follow with a little more caution, edging into the cavern but keeping close to the exit until it was swallowed up behind him into the wall. He reached back a hand to feel for it and discovered to his alarm that it was no longer there.
It took a minute for their eyes to adjust to the dimness of the room. Kesney blinked, and his eyes came back into focus. They were standing in a large room with sandstone walls. Further inside, he could see several doorways on each side of the wall, but they had evidently entered the main area.
A woman sat on a chair, wrapped in a rich blue cloak held together by a strange clasp, like a flower with six petals set in a metallic circle. The hood of her cloak was pulled back.
“What are you doing up here?” Eiron asked.
“I’ve been waiting for you to get up here. What took you so long?”
Once the woman had reached them, she rushed towards Eiron’s outstretched arms, and they hugged like old friends. Kesney had the discomforting sensation of an outsider in these situations.
“You know her?” Kesney wondered aloud, but Eiron wasn’t listening.
“I didn’t expect you back,” the woman said. “Who is this?” she asked, turning to Kesney.
“Alessia, this is Ekasi Kesney,” Eiron said.
Kesney’s eyes darted from Eiron to the strange woman. He wasn’t sure why, but his stomach had tightened into little knots when Eiron said her name. Alessia? Like Vaikyur’s ghost?
“You’re probably wondering why we’re here.” Eiron began. “Ezáitur’s bunch rejected the idea to negotiate.”
“I thought that might happen.” Alessia interjected.
“That’s not all,” Eiron continued. “I never got a chance to finish building the first rescue ship. The council decided to transfer me to Wysteirchan. ‘Seems they want to make my spaceship Sukúr into a war vessel.”
“I see,” Alessia said quietly.
“One of you had better tell me what’s going on,” Kesney insisted, aware that he had taken on his serious expression.
As Eiron explained what had happened with the Sukúr, Kesney listened. The pieces of the puzzle were at last coming together. This must have been where Eiron had been cloistered during his long absence, and this Alessia, well, he admitted she might have been related to the woman of legend, though she seemed a far cry from the alien ghost and conspirator he’d heard about.
Then Alessia told him about Selesta, how she’d hidden it below the surface. As she spoke, he noticed a gradual change in her appearance. By the time they were ready to leave for her ship, he knew what Vaikyur had been talking about. If he hadn’t seen her with his own eyes, he’d never have believed it. She looked inhuman, like a ghost.
What bothered Kesney most about the whole situation was that now he’d never be able to talk toVaikyur again.
To thank him for everything, and to say one final good-bye.
Entre tard et trop tard, il y a, par la grace de Dieu, une distance oncommensurable. The difference between late and too late is, by God’s mercy, immeasurable.
—Mme Swetchine
Chapter Nineteen