Chapter 8
Greene Gardens formed the only open space in a town with little room for open space. The Gardens were a series of oddly shaped areas, connected by a stream and its overgrown banks. They were on the north side of Orlyons, where the densely packed streets gave way to the rising side of the gorge. Here, great crags of blue and grey intruded into the edge of the town, dragging with them a few pieces of green: some trees and a few mown areas of grass wherever the land achieved a precarious horizontal.
At MidNight, Greene Gardens was the haunt of lovers and drunks, enchanted by the sounds of the stream and the soft scents of wilderness. At other times it was the haunt of merchants arranging deals, traders selling wares too risqué or hot to expose on the streets, whores looking to sell, the wealthy looking for ways to spend.
But despite the ever-present commerce, Greene Gardens was essentially wild, virgin territory enclosed by the growing port of Orlyons.
Away from the pathways and lawns, there were dark places, corners known only to animals and fugitives.
Mathias changed position, again. Stiffness had set in as he waited out the few remaining hours of MidNight, shivering in the cooling wind and trying to shelter from the repeated showers.
He had a good view from where he crouched. He was in the undergrowth that grew up the side of one of the larger crags, well concealed but with a clear outlook over a wide mown area and a pathway that led out of the Gardens and into the part of the Gentian Quarter where Mono lived.
Greene Gardens was almost on Mono's route back from Salomo's and Mathias knew that she loved the place. 'I like the scents,' she had once told him, 'they turn me on.' Her cheeks had dimpled and she had laughed when she saw Mathias's face. 'No, not like that. They turn me on in here.' She had smacked herself on the chest, over the heart. Mathias had said something about that being as good a place as any he could think of and the moment had passed, but it came back to him now, the mood, the happiness. He could smell the same scents now, Greene Gardens fresh from the MidNight showers. Mathias knew in his heart that Mono would be drawn to the Gardens that day; she could do nothing else.
Someone was walking along the footpath; the Gardens had been quiet that morning and this was the first person Mathias had seen. He peered at the figure but it was not Mono. It was a tall youth, oriental, a wisp of a moustache over his wide, sensual mouth.
'Lui!' hissed Mathias. It was Lui Tsang, a trader with a special talent for electronics.
Lui looked around and Mathias noticed that his face was badly bruised and swollen on one side. After a final reconnaissance, Mathias stepped out from the bushes. 'What have you been doing?' he asked. 'And why wasn't I invited?'
Lui laughed and looked around cautiously. 'They said you were dead,' he said. 'Come on. If it's good enough for you then it's good enough for any of us.' He stepped into the undergrowth. 'The word is out, Mathias. After last night. They're out to get you and my guess is they want to get you quick before they draw any more attention to themselves.'
'Lui, do you know who they are? One of them tried to knife me last night. Andras MacLeugh. He used to be in the Primal Guard and probably still is. Listen, Lui, I have to know why Lucilla has the Guard with her, I have to know if it's Edward after me or just her. Can you find out?'
'Hmm.' Lui tugged at his moustache. 'The word in Orlyons is that they are militia, posing as cultists. After last night's mess they leaked that they were from Ngota Clan and they had sworn revenge on you.'
'No,' said Mathias 'That's not right. MacLeugh isn't Ngota Clan. He's from north of Abidjan!' So it had to be Edward. He had finally decided that his stolen Primacy would be more secure with Mathias dead.
'What can I do, Lui?'
Lui shrugged. 'I don't know, Matt. I guess all you can do is, next time, don't get born into a royal family. Get born in the gutter like the rest of us. When no one can tell you from shit in the street then they have no reason to kill you.'
'You know a scientist called Sukui?'
'I've sold him junk.' Lui smiled awkwardly.
'He said I could go with him to Alabama City, that there was a place for me with his Project. Doing what, I don't know, but it's a place.'
'Then what are you doing sitting here? Jesus, Matt, you get a chance to get out of all this and you hide out in the bushes. Is that'—he pointed at Mathias's head—'bone right through, or only most of the way?'
Mathias shrugged and stared at the strands of lichen that were hanging from the bushes. He knew what he should do, but that would be running away again.
When it was run or be killed, though, what choice was there? Scared as he was of staying in Orlyons, he didn't like the prospect of going with Sukui much better. He had to talk to Mono, she was all he had left. 'You never did tell me where you collected those bruises, Lui.'
Lui looked at him strangely. 'Where have you been, Matt? I was at Salomo's, at the gig. All I knew was the 'tones going up for an encore then a knife came flying through the air. People started screaming and then you came charging through. And this other guy. Then I got hit and someone else got hit, and some furniture got broken and somehow I came out of it alive.'
'Is Mono OK?'
'Oh sure,' said Lui. 'I don't know how, but they say no one had more than a few broken bones. I saw Mono afterwards and she was OK. Physically, anyhow. Listen, Matt, one piece of advice: don't ask Salomo for any help. He's liable to tear you apart, from how he was last night.'
Mathias sat down heavily. 'Thanks for telling me, Lui. I'll sort things out.'
Lui stepped back, uncomfortably. 'I've got to go,' he said. Then he turned and headed out of Greene Gardens.
~
He must have dozed, because when he opened his eyes she was sitting there by the stream. She was only a distant figure but he knew it was Mono. She had her head in her hands, her black hair spread over her arms and legs as she slumped forwards over the water. Mathias knew from her pose that she was adding, minutely, to the flow and saltiness of the stream.
He had never seen her crying before.
There were others on the mown area nearby but Mono was apart from them. Mathias could reach her easily without coming into the open but he held back, not wanting to break her solitude. He had done her enough harm already, maybe he should just turn and leave.
But that would be running away.
He waited while a trader he vaguely knew passed along the pathway, hand linked through the arm of a glasshouse farmer. 'I know someone who could throw stones,' he was saying; the farmer laughed half-heartedly, it was clearly a familiar joke.
Closer up, Mono looked terrible. Her knuckles were white where she pressed her hands into her face. The stream gurgled past, not caring the least if it sounded cheerful against Mono's quiet sobbing.
He crouched by her side, said, 'Mono, I'm sorry.'
She lifted her head, looked around, a dazed expression on her shadowed, creased face. Then she sprang at him, crying, 'Matt! Matt! Matt!' She hit him in the chest and he fell backwards, Mono in his arms, clutching at him, begging him to be real, to be alive, to be Matt.
He tried to hush her, and suddenly she was quiet, not calling his name, just kissing him and holding him to the ground. 'Mono,' he said. 'I didn't know what would happen at Salomo's. I don't know how... but I feel responsible. I wrecked it, Mono, I spoilt it for you...' He carried on, not knowing what he was saying but saying it nonetheless. He didn't know what else to do.
Eventually Mono recovered. She leaned away from his face, sitting astride him, still pinning him to the ground. 'Matt,' she said. 'You talk shit. You're alive. I didn't see what was happening—all I could do was duck out. They said there was a guy after you with a knife. Slide said you'd never have got out. Matt, I thought you were dead.'
'But... the gig.'
'It was no good, Matt. The music wasn't right.' He could see in her eyes that she was lying, maybe lying to herself rather than to him. 'The music was shit. Who cares if Salomo doesn't want us back. If I want to play again I'll play Greene Gardens like everybody else.'
'Of course you have to play. Mono. What about the Semi-A?'
'It got broke.' Mono slumped against Mathias and began to cry again. 'We were good, weren't we, Matt? They liked us... before...'
'Yeah.' He stroked her hair and waited for her to stop.
'What are you going to do, Matt? You're not safe in Orlyons.' Mathias thought of Sukui's offer. Maybe Mono could come along—Sukui was one of her regulars, maybe she could whore her way to Alabama City and, once there, they could start again. Or maybe they could move around Clermont, find a fishing village somewhere and hope they wouldn't be found.
It was a decision Mathias didn't want to take.
'Come on,' he said. 'I'm going to lie low for a while, think things through.' He stood and pulled Mono to her feet. If he lay low for long enough Sukui would have left and there would be no decision to make. He was honest enough to recognise that maybe that was what he was doing.
~
Mathias sat in the mouth of his cave, listening to the gentle susurrus of the sea. Earlier, he had left Greene Gardens with Mono, his head tied in a tight bandanna, Sikhist style. He had walked boldly through the streets, insisting that Mono walk ahead, clear of any trouble that might arise. No one had challenged them. If the search persisted then they were probably seeking him out in any of the bolt-holes a fugitive could find throughout Orlyons; they wouldn't expect him to be striding openly through the town, out past the merchants' houses that had been built into the gorge-sides when the first trade boom had struck the port.
The northern cliffs were riddled with caves, some no more than hollows in the rock, others deep and unexplored. Mathias's cave was a deep one, although he had penetrated no more than the first fifty metres or so, back to where the light was mid-grey and his eyes were unable to focus.
He sat in the lotus position, letting the world pass him by and, at the same time, trying to grow closer to his surroundings, trying to feel like a part of Expatria, not just someone dumped there by alien ancestors.
It didn't work. He knew that he didn't fit.
Mono had returned to him with food and an opal pendant which she placed around his neck and told him to keep. 'Whatever happens,' she had said, 'this is for you. My eleven-greats grandmother bought it in Jakarta, before she joined the Ark Ship. So the story goes.'
Mono had stayed for a short time and then left to see what was happening in Orlyons. 'Come back soon,' Mathias had said; then, as her figure diminished in size and finally lost itself on the rocky beach, he had repeated it softly: 'Come back soon, Mono.'
So Mathias Hanrahan sat, listening to the waves and trying, again, to stop the thoughts that were running through his mind. Things were clearer now, but it was still too much for him to handle on his own. He watched a cutter clipping the wave-tops with its wings and then dodging a gull that stooped at it, trying to make it regurgitate its most recent meal.
'It would have been a simple matter to kill you, Mister Hanrahan.' Mathias flinched. 'You are somewhat inattentive for one in such a predicament.' It was Sukui, standing to one side, hands folded in front of him, showing that he was unarmed.
'Sukui-san,' said Mathias. 'I didn't hear you approach.'
'As I initially observed.'
Mathias gestured for him to sit, but the scientist remained standing.
'Silence is a simple manner, if the codes are logically followed. It is no feat.' Finally, Sukui sat and stared out to sea.
'The old books talk of waves higher than I've ever seen,' said Mathias, in an effort to keep the conversation neutral. 'Do you have an explanation?'
'The old books talk of many things,' said Sukui. 'They talk of animals the size of large buildings and particles smaller than specks of sand. They talk of weapons that destroy entire cities with their blasts and of nations that exist only as electrical patterns in global communications networks. My colleagues in Alabama City know that all these things are possible.
'You ask about the sea. Our planet is smaller than Earth, and it turns more rapidly; a logical hypothesis is that our planet turns so fast that there is little time for one side of the sphere to heat up before it is turned away from the sun and cooling again. Old books say that it is such differences in heat distribution that drive the weather systems and they that drive the waves. A hypothesis to consider in more detail, perhaps once you have proven yourself in Alabama City? If, of course, you act rationally and accompany me there.'
'How did you find me?'
Sukui smiled briefly. 'Another elementary piece of deduction. You are not fool enough to stay in Orlyons; I credit you with that much sense. On an earlier occasion you told me that you found the sea therapeutic. There is a certain prostitute in Orlyons who I understand is an acquaintance of yours. She was careful, but clearly she is not a deep thinker. You have no reason to worry: I was the only one to follow her, I am sure of that. Please, you are avoiding the issue.'
'If I went with you... would there be a place for a companion? I would—'
'No,' said Sukui. 'Your prostitute will be safe in Orlyons. You have no need to worry. You will not be a prisoner in Alabama City, there will be occasions when you can return.'
Sukui stood and looked down at Mathias. 'You occupy much of my time. I must return.'
'Sukui-san. You win: I'll come. Will you tell Mono for me? Tell her I'll be back for her.'
'It is not a matter of victory,' said Sukui. 'I only serve the Lord Andric. You must stay here for now. I will make the necessary arrangements.'
'What about Lucilla?'
Sukui smiled and backed away. 'Forget about your past, Mister Hanrahan, and it will forget about you. I will take care of your Miz Ngota.' Sukui turned and walked rapidly away, along the rocky shoreline and out of Mathias's sight.