weeks.
Finally, Kara Jade led them out of the scrum to rooms within the Caress, and the crowd did not follow. This was the oldest building in Shale, it demanded quiet and respect — and sometimes it got them.
A single doorway connected David and Margaret's rooms. Kara nodded to it, and grinned most salaciously.
“That door won’t be opened, I guarantee it,” Margaret said primly.
“Of course,” Kara said, “from you I would believe it. Though I'd watch this one, seems he can even charm a Mother of the Sky.”
CHAPTER 22
There are always factions wherever you go. Get five people in a room, and factions will form. Drift was just a very big room. Yes, we were politically naive, but we were quick to lose that. We had to.
THE CITY OF DRIFT 1401 MILES NORTH OF THE ROIL
Kara Jade let out a long breath and grinned.
“You,” she said, and swung her arms around him, she didn't hold him for long, but David appreciated the effort. “How do you stand her?” she whispered in his ear. Then much louder, “I didn’t think I would see you again.”
“I never thought it would happen, either,” David said.
“And I’m happy to see you, too,” Margaret said.
“Of course you are,” Kara waved a hand in the air. “Of course you are.” “I’m sorry,” Margaret said, “if our parting was a little heated.” Kara laughed. “Heated, I suppose some of your threats could be considered heated.”
“You left us alone, mired in the politics of Hardacre.”
“I left you because I was summoned home. You can be scary, I suppose, but you’re nothing compared to the Mothers of the Sky. You saw her, and that was a good day. Imagine seven more, all in a fury because I didn’t deliver you to them.”
“You were meant to deliver us to them?” Margaret said.
“I think it was implied more than a direct order. Otherwise I would have taken you here immediately.”
“So, now we know where your loyalties lie.”
“Where did you think they lay? With a pallid, death-hungry bitch and a drug addict?” Kara smiled. “No offence intended.”
“None taken,” Margaret said archly.
“Count yourself lucky I didn’t bring you here at the beginning. David, you were unconscious for days, think about what might have happened then?”
“Well, you’ve got us here now,” David said and smiled at Kara, but she didn’t smile back, just a tightening of lips, a deepening of frown.
“Mother Graine says you’re a monster. But looking at you, all I see is a young man, with a ridiculous moustache. What are you?” she said, holding his arms. David tried his hardest to keep the cold from them. But what did he know of warmth? All the power that he possessed drew from its opposite.
“I quite like the moustache,” he said. “I’m still me, and I’m not. I’m an Old Man in a young body. I’m David Milde and John Cadell, well, Cadell is in there somewhere.”
“Hey, Old Man.” Kara bumped a knuckle against his skull. “How do you both fit in there?”
David shuddered. “Truth is, I don’t know if we even can. But, at the moment at least, we’re managing.”
“But I thought that Cadell died.”
“Yes, and then I had to kill the body.”
Kara’s eyes widened. “You what?”
“Cadell’s body went missing after you left. Without his mind, all it possessed was hunger,” David explained.
“You fought Cadell, and you won? That man leapt onto an iron ship, destroyed it with his bare hands.”
“We managed. I had all of Cadell’s strengths — and Margaret — all he had left were his weaknesses. Hunger is a terrible and frightening thing, but it isn’t that smart.”
“And are you still hungry?”
David laughed. “I am always hungry. Always, takes a lot of fuel to drive what I am.”
“This is so unfair,” Kara said.
“Life is always unfair. I’ve never expected it to be anything else. And since my father died, I’ve been reminded of this almost a half-dozen times a day. Nothing is fair for anyone now. We’re all of us struggling, all of us frightened.
“Hardacre is all but ready to throttle itself, and the situation here, I’m not sure I understand it, but it is a situation, that’s for sure. Even the Roil is frightened, or it wouldn’t continue its attack with such urgency. I mean, what need does it have for human agents now, and yet it still infects them.”
He pulled from her grip. Kara might not have noticed it, but she was shaking. David said, “We’re stuck with doing the best we can with what we have. I suppose that has always been the way of it. If I give into my grief now, all I have in my future is madness and killing, and the spectre of Old Men hunting me down.”
“ The Old Men?” Kara asked.”Yes, they’re after me. Don’t worry, they’re still a long way away, but they see me just as abhorrent as I saw the mindless Cadell. They’re coming to tear me from the earth if they can.”
“Obviously they won’t be interested in any of your friends.”
That stopped him; he’d forgotten what it was like to have friends. Those had been substituted by suppliers and addicts and little else over the last few years. Even Cadell had been more of a supplier than a friend. After all, what friend would give you this?
“Of course, they’re all damned, too,” David said. He studied his room: five steps to the door, no window, just a narrow vent. “So when do you think we will be allowed to leave? You’re not in trouble, and I’m guessing you will be accompanying us to Tearwin Meet.”
“Soon and yes, I’ll be facing the headwinds full on with you.” She smiled. “Not that I’m much good. Look at these hands, they’re almost as soft as yours.”
“They’ll toughen up,” Margaret said. “Now, what do you mean by soon?”
“Tomorrow, I’d guess, after the reception. I suspect that all Mother Graine wanted was to see you were capable of finishing this.”
“And I’ve passed the test so far?” David said.
“So far…” Kara reached into her pocket and pulled out a small device. She pressed it once, and it began to keen, a shrill mechanical sound, like a tiny engine weeping. She looked back at the door, waited a moment, and released a breath.
David raised an eyebrow at her.
“That should work for a minute. Things are bad here,” Kara said. “I think there has been something of a coup in the upper echelons. Amongst the Mothers themselves. Not too long ago you would see them all. Now we have Mother Graine alone speaking for them.”
“You think she’s killed them?” Margaret asked.
Kara looked like she was going to vomit. “No, that’s not what I think. That would be unthinkable-”
“And yet…”
“They’re trapped somewhere.”
Margaret shifted. “You said you were in trouble.”
“I’m very much in trouble. Even more so now that we’re having this conversation, believe me,” Kara Jade said. “But not as much as you.” Her eyes dropped to the Orbis. “The Mothers of the Sky wanted that ring, and I
