Chill

Chapter 3

Was this the tragic secret Sara had mentioned the Madrullian girl kept close to her chest? A delusional identifying with the Madrullian Mission which almost brought the powerful Crystal Lumos Agency to its knees eighty years ago. How could anyone take seriously the idea she was the daughter of that young woman who disappeared? No wonder she kept it to herself, Tam thought fiercely.

The long walk back up to Upper Maeven was performed in a furious silence and alone. The girl thankfully made no attempt to follow him and he was perfectly happy to leave her there in the garrison compound with her apparent good intentions to find her own way back. Truth be told there were tears of frustration and anger in his eyes and he did not want anyone to know it was so.

His dream was over, spoilt by a strange girl who did not want him to die like that woman of long ago. Delusional but caring. Could it get any crazier? When he passed the Madrullian mansion a wearying hour later it did.

A porch light came on as he trudged by the great wooden gatehouse and a slender figure appeared silhouetted in the deep-set open door.

"I'm sorry," the girl said into the night as Tam marched with aching legs up the steepening slope. "I know how much it meant to you, to escape from here."

"How did you...?" and he looked over his shoulder at a distant misty light far down in the Wilds Proper where the Love Star was moored five miles away.

"I skimmed."

"Up hill!"

"Please, get some rest. Perhaps we can talk tomorrow?" There was a hopeful catch in the shrill voice as she concluded the question. Tam just shook his head, wiped his eyes and resumed the final leg of his journey, cheeks burning with shame and confusion. He heard the door quietly shut behind him and felt rather than saw the light go off.

"Talk!" he muttered to himself. That was the last thing he wanted to do with her. Throttling her scrawny neck was uppermost in his mind at that moment. Then he felt ashamed of his anger. "If you really can read minds," he said silently, "I'm sorry, I didn't mean that."

The day seemed to be getting crazier and crazier and Myscenna was not even yellowing the sky yet. Thankfully as it was the final school free day Tam was able to lie in as long as he dared for it was also a day of rest and the inn would be closed. There would still be cleaning and resupplying chores, but they would be minimal. Thus he found his warm bed and fell into a dreamless sleep, the embittered frustration he felt being overwhelmed by exhaustion.

Bright light and shouting voices jolted him awake and he got dressed quickly. Shadow positions told him immediately it was late morning but he did not care. In fact at that moment he cared about nothing at all, the inn, Sara Manderby, Pioneers or meta-minerals. There was an emptiness inside him and as he sat on the edge of his bed, one boot on and the other in his hand, he paused and looked around at the cramped little room that had been his home for all of his sixteen years. Was he destined forever to remain the son of an innkeep? Then he was forced to take notice of more immediate matters as his mother shouted up the stairs to him.

"She's been there almost an hour, the poor thing," she cried cryptically. "It's simply rude to keep her waiting any longer. Your father and I did not bring you up to behave in so inconsiderate a manner."

Tam's heart sank. He knew there was only one girl who would be waiting, the silver-eyed, straggly-haired crazy Madrullian creature. She must have come to the inn on the pretence of a pre-arranged meeting and convinced his mother of the fact. Finding he was still asleep she chose to wait in full view of his increasingly scandalised family, determined not to be ignored.

"Coming," he shouted back down in reluctant tones, not even bothering to check out the window to see where she was. He thrust his foot into the remaining boot and zipped it up furiously before stomping with heavy tread down the narrow stairs to confront his unwanted visitor. In fact when he got down and out into the yard there was no one in sight. His twin uncles were up among the meadows with their modest flock of mountain sheep. His father Lick Sorrell was in Lower Maeven stocking up on supplies and his mother had returned to the scrub room with the women of the inn to continue cleaning bed linen, her usual occupation this time of the day. By noon the yard would be like a ship of old in full sail with snowy white linen fluttering on criss-cross lines and filling the air with soapy freshness.

Tam sauntered uncertainly out onto the grassy path, looking down towards the village in hopes of spotting Teric or even the entwined figures of Sara and Evie, but there was no one in sight except the old hermit whittling some wood on the step of the Poellan residence. A bowl of food was beside him. They often fed the old man who spent most of his time in the caves on the south side of the High Peaks near the Cut. He had crossed the Wilds to see the Love Star of course and hung around looking for handouts. The wizened old creature ignored him so Tam did likewise and turned his gaze to the mottled black escarpment whose soaring flanks basked in the morning sunshine. That was when he saw her.

High up on a precarious ledge, kicking her long legs out over the precipice, Maena Madrullian sat patiently, waiting for the boy whose dreams she had thwarted not ten hours ago, as if nothing had happened. Tam's first feelings on seeing her drove him upwards at a furious pace and it was only when he had reached the ledge she occupied did he realise just how difficult and dangerous it was for her to have placed herself there. She seemed as fearless as when she climbed that roof ridge two days ago. A grudging respect seeped into him. He could not think of any other girl who would have risked it.

Catching his breath from the difficult climb, Tam fixed his gaze upon the dark grey eyes of the girl.

"Mum says you've been waiting for me," he gasped, taking in oxygen as fast as he could. She stood up at his words and from her natural height and position on the ledge she could look down on him a little. If he was not mistaken it appeared she had made an effort to look presentable as he appraised the tall form towering above him. She wore shorts that exposed pale thin legs and a simple top which seemed to sparkle a little in the orangy sunshine. It was such a skimpy affair her midriff was exposed and the tight fitting fabric emphasised her lack of curves. She seemed almost boyish in figure but one look at her face countered this impression. Maena had not only combed her hair thoroughly but curled and shaped the warm chestnut locks in a curious style that flattered her oval face and high cheek bones. She had applied make up that made her wide mouth seem luscious and those offworld silvery grey eyes less zombik and more hypnotic. The tip-tilted nose wrinkled a moment as Maena squinted in the sunshine and then she smiled in simple wordless welcome.

"Well then," Tam said, actually trembling a little, which he put down to the adrenalin rush caused by the exertions of climbing, "what is it you want? I mean apart from apologising to me like forever for letting the Love Star leave without me." His words emphasised how hopeless he felt right then, expressing a need to acknowledge all was over, turning his back on the Wilds Proper, Proctor Bridge and all offworld matters.

"Not a good name for a vessel that lures people to horrific death," the girl snorted contemptuously without a hint of apology about her. "Let's go to the lake," she added unexpectedly and with those extraordinary long limbs she effortlessly hauled herself up the escarpment, over the top and away across the grassy plateau where a few days before Tam and his friends had cheered the star vessel's passing. He watched her go with open mouth, debating inwardly as to the point of following her. Let the mad creature wander about Arcadia Valley all by herself. What did he care? Then he remembered the simple but extraordinary fact she had found out about his super secret plans involving Sara, Cimmeron and the Love Star. He needed to assure himself she truly was not a reader of minds like those rumoured to exist in a distant arm of the galaxy among the Old Worlds. By the time he had reached the upper ledge Maena was far ahead of him, scampering with mischievous glee across flower sprinkled uplands towards the stepped rise where Lake Mirron nestled between soaring cliffs of black granitic rock.

He found her leaning against an old oak that overlooked the lake, the Plighting Oak he realised and swallowed with dread. Still, there were a thousand questions he wanted to ask her and no amount of flirting on her part would prevent him from getting to the bottom of her crazy antics of the last few days. She was twirling a plucked daisy when he finally reached her. This time he could see her small bosom rising and falling rapidly as if out of breath. Please, he thought to himself, no petal plucking, and then remembered her apparent mind-reading talent and blushed in spite of himself.

"Lovely day," she said, looking at him archly. She flicked the flower away and squat on the turf in the shade of the oak. Clearly she thought his being there was a tacit understanding they would be spending some time together and she felt in no hurry to satisfy his curiosity on certain matters she knew were eating him up inside. "Spring's here. Winter was so soft I hardly noticed the change and those funny sheep the Maeven folk seem so fond of have been grazing all year round," she elaborated unnecessarily, skirting issues. "And yet..." The reflection from the lake made her eyes seem truly silver as she glanced across the still waters.

"What?" the boy took the bait as Maena intended him to. Mystery engenders fascination. Her grandfather was always telling her that. To fascinate is a sure way to engage a boy's heart. After an uncomfortable pause in which Tam frequently looked around him to see if anyone else was about, the boy slid down reluctantly next to her and leant against a gnarled root.

Once she felt her victim was suitably settled and as comfortable as he was ever likely to be in the circumstances she continued her mystifying conversation.

"Sometimes I have these deep and compelling dreams when I see snow falling, lots of snow, blizzards and blizzards of the stuff covering everything. Ever seen snow flakes mister Sorrell?" She was too shy to simply call him Tam again like she had in that desperate moment previously at Proctor Bridge. He smiled at her formality, so different from wicked Evie. Nicer in a way.

"Call me Tam," he said dismissively, "and I'll call you the - Maena, the Dancing Devil of Upper Maeven." He had almost called her the Drooling One, thinking of Evie at that moment but corrected himself and linked a nickname to one of the subjects concerning her he was naturally curious about. As he appeared to have been the only one aware of her strange actions that previous morning it seemed a private matter between the two of them, a secret they shared.

"Why a dancing devil?" Maena sat up eagerly, interested in this flirty seeming phrase. Her eyes sparkled like her skimpy top.

"When I was watching the Love Star pass on the ledge over there I saw you in my scope. You were on the roof ridge of your house, dancing a kind of welcome dance I suppose, as the vessel flew down the valley. Whatever was that about?" He chose not to mention she had been in her underwear.

Maena blinked and looked thoughtful. Not the reaction he was expecting. She shook her head.

"I don't remember that. Ohmigosh! Did I really?" She covered her face with her hands then passed them through her chestnut curls. "That would have been right when..." and she blushed beetroot red. Tears formed in her eyes and Tam felt a pang of sympathy for her. It really seemed as if she had had no idea what she was doing at the time.

"It was the excitement," she said quietly, in a confessional way. "The stress of the day, knowing what you were going to do. I wanted to be on the ledge watching with you all. Sara invited me and I was going to go. But I got one of my headaches that morning and I knew something bad was going to happen." She looked at him, her face the picture of tragedy. "They're more than just headaches of course. Mister... um, Tam, sometimes I get... blackouts."

"Blackouts? You mean you forget everything?"

"Worse, I do things, crazy things and I have no idea I'm doing them. I never used to be like that. Only since I came here. It's the metallic water Doctor Mardilloe thinks, but grandfather says otherwise. We wouldn't stay here if he thought the place was bad for me."

Tam sat back and whistled. He looked up at the serrated oak leaves a moment. In the local climate this deciduous species shed and replaced leaves twice a year. The fresh leaves were already a month old, lush with new greenness.

"Why bring you here, if this place has bad memories though?" he asked, jumping to the next topic of conversation that simmered beneath the surface of his eagerness for answers from this strange, blighted girl. "I mean your grandfather's old enough probably to remember the Madrullian Mission so why would he even want to be here?"

"He stares at the Spark," the girl snorted by way of explanation that was no explanation. "I mean, like, a lot."

"Do you really think you're that woman's daughter?" Tam had resolved to pull no punches on this subject for he felt the reality of the case was palpably absurd.

"Yes. Grandfather says so. My mother's story was one of the most romantic and tragic stories ever." She seemed exultant about it, as if somehow the significance of the tragedy touched her and imbued the lonely girl with enhanced status. "My headaches, grandfather says, are somehow related to her, and the dreams. She walked through a Gate into a world of snow and blizzards and stuff. An echo of her passing fills space all around us, and it is like she is calling me, in my dreams..." Her gaze lifted to the blue sky flecked with lazy morning clouds and she seemed proud of the idea. Tam thought otherwise of the matter, considering the girl's grandfather somewhat of a storyteller to keep the strange girl amused. Yet why tie her deepest emotions to such a tragic event in the past, confronting her with it by bringing her almost to the very spot it occurred?

Since linking the crazy offworld girl with the Madrullian Mission Tam had consulted old docu-histories on Mineral Star exploitation. They affirmed what he already knew, how the Crystal Lumos Agency, having discovered the richness of Cimmeron, foamed at the mouth at the possible dividends which would accrue from mining such a treasure world. So they put pressure on the Pioneer Guild to instigate a recruitment drive for an extreme mission to directly colonise the totally uninhabitable world. The Life Gate on Atherbridge Nine was calibrated to throw anchors across space towards the Myscenna System based on the DNA of a special volunteer. Her name had been Phileece Madrullian, that was all Tam could find out about her. Aged twenty, the first and only Extreme Pioneer. She walked through the Gate on Atherbridge Nine and was never heard from again. There had been rumours that it was something unique about the girl which messed with the DNA anchors. The Gate simply refused to recognise her and as there was no turning back she effectively walked into an endless time-space tunnel. Ominously known as a Ghost Gate.

The fact the Crystal Lumos Agency still held an exploitation licence was due to the equally mysterious recovery of the irreplaceable Gate. Some said the living essence of the young woman sacrificed to the ambitions of Lumos endeavour had finally succumbed, in short, she had died within the warping confines of the Gate and so it finally released her DNA. Thus Troy was colonised instead. Drones were sent into the planetary system using the less sophisticated Lifeless Gates, a tentative connection was made on Troy and a DNA anchor was established without any farther trouble. Troy was nowhere near as rich or valuable as Cimmeron but it was agreed to establish a colony on the geotype world as a food planet among the Mineral Stars and a jumping point for further exploration of the other planets that orbited the K-type orange star.

Cimmeron was eventually visited by conventional means from Troy ten years after the Ghost Gate incident and automated mining operations of a limited nature were set up under the auspices of a locally based branch of the Crystal Lumos Agency. There were no more attempts to lure Pioneers into extreme missions and the whole matter conveniently forgotten, except among those who were personally affected by the incident.

Crystal Lumos had invested so much finance and political influence in the Madrullian Mission that the whole Agency still remained under a shadow at the Resource Directorate so the whispers went. In spite of this a new policy of exo-suit exploration was introduced and although death toll levels were uncomfortably high, it was thought the reward merited the risk. It was this new danger that seemed so at one with Adventure Channel exploits to Tam, bringing the whole man versus nature challenge to the forefront of excited young minds. It was what Tam had dreamt about so much and for so long and which was now thanks to the intervention of the crazy offworld girl as far as ever from being a reality for him.

All these things happened ages ago of course. The girl sat next to him was a fresh-faced teenager, not a grey-haired old crone with muddled memories and no original teeth. Her grandfather on the other hand, could have known the Ghost Gate victim personally. Same name. Perhaps his sister? He appeared obsessed with the Spark which certainly suggested some family connection.

"I've never met your grandfather," Tam said suggestively, having mulled over all these old facts and reaching no specific conclusion. Perhaps the old man could enlighten him more than his young charge, whose drifting ideas and blackout headaches were hardly a reliable source of information. "I mean to talk to. He doesn't get out much."

"Working hard. Secret stuff," Maena responded in short, sharp tones, as if the subject was forbidden.

"For Crystal Lumos? I'd think, being a Madrullian they'd owe him something."

Maena's painted lips pressed together but she remained silent.

"Was it him who gave you your uphill skimmer, and lets you read minds?"

This made the girl's mood change instantly and she giggled so much her slim figure quivered on the grass before him as if some invisible attacker was tickling her mercilessly. He looked away, out at the lake, wishing Troy had bird life so that he could watch ducks upon the water like he had seen in films. There was not so much as a pigeon throughout the whole planet. Something about the naturally strong and twisted magnetic fields of the world screwing up navigation. He confessed he did not understand, but was amused by the laughter of crazy Maena.

"What's so funny," he laughed in his turn. Maena raised a long leg up and waved a chunky shoe at him.

"Bought at Tapisco's Super Shoe Emporium on Ladderstock World," she choked out between gasps for breath. Tam shrugged, none the wiser. "Look," and she stood up, struck up a curious pose and started to literally slide up a grassy slope that circled the lake. Astonished, Tam scrambled to his feet.

"Your shoes are skimmers!" he said, realising what she was up to.

"They're almost like anti-grav. I just lean a certain way, tilt an ankle, wiggle a toe and away I go. They work really well on these heavy Mineral Worlds," Maena explained, now at some distance as she swerved this way and that by way of demonstration. There was something almost balletic about her movements as her arms mimicked the gliding sweeps of her slender body. She seemed the epitome of gracefulness at that moment.

"Offworld technology," Tam sighed to himself. Now he understood how the girl could clamber onto a rooftop and dance precariously without a care in the world. She would have been wearing the skimmer shoes no doubt, but he was too busy watching her naked limbs to remember. This revelation made him wonder what other secrets this crazy girl had brought with her from out there among the civilised stars.

"What about that other stuff, I mean the mind reading trick?" he shouted after her. The question brought the girl to a halt. She pirouetted and returned by conventional means, strolling reluctantly back, equally reluctant to answer that particular query.

"I don't read minds. I can't read minds. I hardly know my own mind at times," she said, pouting like a little girl ordered to confess a moment of naughtiness. "I get whispers, sometimes. Don't always make sense," she added in that abrupt offworld way of speaking that amused Sara for its apparent quaintness. An earnest tone seized her as she continued. "Tam, I respect people's privacy. I don't give things away just like that. Your going away was the hugest thing and there were those that needed to know so I told Sara. It was only afterwards I found out what you were going for. It was certain death. I had to stop you!" She almost shouted this last bit.

"You hear whispers?" Tam frowned. This still sounded like mind reading to him. "Inside your head, when you dream of blizzards and stuff?"

"Not in my head," and she smiled. "A gift my grandfather gave me just before I came here. My fifteenth birthday. A harmless toy on Atherbridge Nine where the chaos of a busy world would muddle any sensitive brain feeder. But out here on this funny backward world of quietness so full of sheep and farmers and dream stuff it whispers truly."

Her eyes were silver bright with unshed tears as she spoke, remembering perhaps the whispers and secrets that had flooded in upon her since she first arrived. These thoughts somehow affected her so much she was getting emotional, over excited. She put her hand to her forehead as if trying to assuage a growing headache. Tam took a step forward.

"You mustn't tell him," she muttered, half to herself, as if she was no longer aware Tam was there. "He'll take it away if he finds out. I know he does stuff I must not know about and I try not to pry but it is so difficult where my mother is concerned. I need to know and if he will not tell me all he knows I shall try to find out otherwise. I respected your secret plan, please don't tell him." She wandered off as in a daze and Tam was unsure what to do. He was not totally sure what she was talking about. Her grandfather doing secret research about the Madrullian Mission, research his granddaughter was not to be a party to? This suggested indeed he was somehow in league with the Crystal Lumos.

As he mulled over these conundrums he realised the girl had skimmed to the edge of the great placid lake full of cold meltwater. She stood there a moment, as if debating her next best move, and before he could raise his voice in warning she plunged in, disappearing under the water. A blackout. She was having one of those Troy inspired fits before his very eyes. The girl had no idea what she was doing and he realised she might drown.

In a flash Tam dived into the lake and dragged her out. She did not resist him, or struggle when he hauled her back on dry land, remaining quiet as he sat upon the sloping ledge near the Plighting Oak. She started shivering and crying and he cradled her close, letting the warmth of his body seep into her delicate frame, thinking nothing of intimacy or embarrassment, only of keeping her alive, keeping her safe.

"Please don't tell him," she muttered, eyes closed, and then she relaxed into unconsciousness.

No, he would not tell Professor Madrullian about the girl and her whispers. But he determined to confront him about her health. Cimmeron might be the death of him one day, but sure as sure Troy would be the death of Maena Madrullian before long.

With rising dread Tam realised he could not carry the girl down the escarpment by himself and pondered calling for help. His uncles would be in the valley beyond but that would mean leaving Maena alone and he could not risk her waking and still being in a semi-conscious state that might result in her resuming wading into Lake Mirron. Could he tie her to the tree perhaps?

Then to his relief he spotted a figure moving among the scattered trees to his left. He waved frantically and by the movement of the other knew he had been spotted. His heart sank when he saw it was the hermit, wandering far from his usual haunts. Had he followed the youngsters?

The old man sidled forward, leaning on the great, carved staff he always carried. With a brief glance at the girl lying in Tam's lap he paused and frowned uncertainly.

"She's fainted," Tam said, fixing his stare earnestly on the watery eyes of the elderly man. Some said he was so old he was a first lander.

"I see you," came a gruff statement.

"That'll be because you have eyes," Tam responded impatiently. "Look could you go get Forsten or Fursten? They're in Long Valley with the sheep. Tell them their nephew needs help by Lake Mirron, urgently." He growled the last word to emphasise the importance of his request.

"The girl," the hermit said, looking down, not heeding Tam's words. "She's not like everyone else. More than just an offworlder. She'll bring devils I think."

Before Tam could respond to this bizarre accusation he felt Maena shudder and then she stretched across his legs like someone waking from a satisfying sleep.

"I'm so hot!" she gasped and opened her eyes. They froze on sight of Tam looking down at her in worry. Scrabbling to her feet and brushing off imaginary dust, Maena realised she was soaking wet. "What happened?"

"You wandered off into the lake," Tam said, standing also. "I rescued you."

"Thank you," she replied without hesitation and then looked at the hermit. "Hello Paterion, a bit out of your way this?" she casually observed. She was taller than him and he looked up at her with a kind of hesitant unease. Like a servant confronted by a wilful and powerful mistress.

"Miss was unwell," he replied in a softer voice than he used earlier. "Came to help." Tam realised the man had drifted into a clipped offworld style of speech just like Maena was prone to do. It was as if two people from distant worlds were meeting in an obscure place, recognising in each other by invisible signs that they had some common ancestry or cultural affinity.

"I'm okay now, as you see," Maena said in casual tones and she spread her arms wide to demonstrate the fact. "But thank you for your concern."

The man tugged his dusty robes tighter around himself, nodded, and by means of the staff thrust repeatedly into the soft turf, he marched off to a pass that led south over slopes which would eventually reach the Cut of Doerath, muttering to himself all the while.

"You know him?" Tam said, astonished.

"Grandfather does. Said they used to speak the Science Tongue together years and years ago but there was a falling out or something."

"But the old hermit's been here decades. Your grandfather only arrived last year." Tam remembered the comment that Maena was a stranger, an offworlder. She gave him a look and rolled her eyes.

"Gate-speaking," she said. "They chatted about projects when grandfather lived on Atherbridge Nine and elsewhere, and Paterion worked for Crystal Lumos in Ithak, silly."

"Oh." Tam absorbed this information. Decades ago the hermit had a normal life, a science agent for the Lumos presumably. They must have dismissed him and he then roamed the Wilds of Maeven ever since. Strange life choice for a scientist, unless a touch of madness governed his actions. Tam felt it was perhaps the latter indeed.

"Are you okay, now?" he decided to drop the subject and turn his attention to more immediate concerns. "You'll freeze if you don't get dry soon."

"Thank you," she replied and the way she said it was completely different from the dismissive response to the hermit's query after her health. She sounded genuinely grateful. "One of the odd things about my blackout episodes is I always feel as if I'm burning up inside. Probably why I wandered into the lake, to cool off. Surprised I'm not steaming," and she laughed. Tam noticed she was drifting into offworlder speak again with her short sharp sentences.

"Still," he said, "I think we should get back. I'll escort you home," and he blushed.

"Sure," and Maena gave him a sideways look that suggested she was more than happy with the idea.

To be continued...