Chill

Chapter 5

Tam networked with some of his mates that evening, trying to see if they had heard anything about the professor, but they just laughed. Why was he bothering about that stuck up old fogey? Was he thinking of asking for permission to plight the Drooling One in marriage? Tam blushed at this, thinking he might have been spotted by the Plighting Oak in the morning with the girl.

He sighed and brought up Maena's address. He started typing and then paused. Delete. Type. Delete. Close. He shook his head and went to bed.

The next day the blonde locks of Sara Manderby were flicking this way and that in his vision and Evie made faces at him through maths and economics but he did not notice. The seat in the corner where the intensely focused Maena Madrullian would normally sit was empty. All day. She had not turned up for school that morning. Absent. Sick. Disappeared.

As soon as school was finished Tam positively ran up the hill as if he owned a pair of skimmer shoes, ignoring the shouts from friends inviting him to the Lower Maeven after school club to do some arching. Out of breath, he banged on the now familiar wooden gate and waited. Nothing. He shouted Maena's name and after a moment a panel high up in the mansion slid across and a tousled head poked out.

"Wait a moment," a girl's voice shouted down to him, as if he was going anywhere, and the sound of running feet could be heard approaching rapidly. The gate rattled open

"Thank goodness!" Maena said, pulling the boy into the polished wooden hall. "Falma's completely useless without grandfather being around. I've got to do everything."

"I saw--" Tam began and noticed the bustling activity of Maena as she went into cupboards and pulled out items, some of which she stuffed in a bag and others discarded on the floor. This as suddenly ceased and she gave him a hard look.

"I thought girls are supposed to be tidy," Tam said, gazing at the mess being created around him, not able to withstand that silver grey look from the girl. She punched him on the arm hard enough to leave a bruise.

"This is serious," she said and he mouthed a silent sorry. "We've got to get to Pashak tonight, stay overnight, cross the Ridge and pick up grandfather tomorrow at Ithak and bring him back. Don't trust him on public transport and I don't trust me on long journeys alone, so you will have to come."

"What, wait a minute!" Tam replied, suddenly realising she was expecting him to escort her close to a thousand miles to the capital. "That's quite a trip to be making at short notice," he declared.

"Says the boy who was planning a one way trip of a billion miles into space."

"That was different."

"Absolutely. We'll have air to breath on this trip, and food, and warmth, and insurance. Oh, and each other's company, but if you don't want to talk, I got reading matter," and she held up what looked suspiciously like a Rosy Love Romance book, well thumbed.

This girl's wit was sharp, Tam thought, razorly harsh. No wonder, being the granddaughter of a professor with enough intellectual gumption to take on the Crystal Lumos. Which reminded him.

"What happened? To your grandfather, I mean," he said more softly, avoiding the immediate issue of sudden travel planning. The question seemed to deflate Maena's energy somewhat, as if all that activity was her way of forgetting the previous day's event, the apparent arrest of Professor Madrullian.

"They do this, from time to time," she sighed.

"Who?"

"The Lumos of course. They got it in for him I think. He criticised the Lumos for how they manipulated the Guild. Got into a lot of trouble, but not enough to press charges. Defamation and that sort of thing. So the next best thing is to harass him, the poor dear, as if he needed that in his time of life." She looked radiantly indignant at that moment, positively glowing in the low light of the hall. "He's been at the Chambers in Ithak, giving evidence. Something about divulging Agency secrets. The stuff is in the public domain of course. The Lumos thugs know that. It's not the charge, but the inconvenience. They drag him off, leaving me and Falma to pick up the pieces at home, and then when he clears himself they just leave him there, without a fraction to his name, begging like Paterion."

"Is that what happened to the hermit?" Tam said, curious in spite of all.

"Don't know. Probably. Don't care. Picking up grandfather tomorrow and getting on with life," Maena responded with offworld abruptness and thrust a bag into his hand.

"What's this?"

"Food, medicine, money, some extra clothes for grandfather and proper shoes. He attended the hearing this morning in slippers for goodness sakes!"

"Oh."

Maena then shuffled on a light coat and a rucksack and gave Tam a once over.

"You ready?" she said, eyebrows raised questioningly.

"I just came from school." He showed a pile of books in his free hand. Maena grabbed them and tossed them in a corner.

"They'll keep. Anything else?"

"Uh, no. If I had my board I could skim down to Proctor Bridge with you."

"Fetch it. I'll meet you at the garrison. The Love Star's long gone so I'll wait for you in the recruitment shed." With that she shot through the half open gate and whizzed down the slope past a startled flock of sheep that parted in her wake like a fleecy wave. Tam retrieved his books from the corner and noticed Falma was standing at the foot of the stairs.

"You look after her," she said with a sharp nod of anxiety. "And bring the professor back. You're a good boy." She wrung her hands and ascended the stairs out of sight.

Tam said nothing but ran up the hill to his home, concealing the bag Maena had given him, grabbed his board, a change of clothes, and slipped out a back way to glide as best he could down the dry riverbed to Proctor Bridge, just like before. What an adventure awaited him. Then he remembered he would have to spend the night at Pashak with Maena. A root caught him as he pondered this and he spent the next five minutes spitting dirt and curse words out of his mouth before resuming his journey.

He found Maena exactly where she said she would be. By the looks of things she had been there a while for she was engrossed in her book, her things scattered at her feet as she propped herself on the plank beside the door. She was in shorts again and one bare leg was hooked up over the other to balance the book on her knee. As soon as she saw Tam she changed position. She greeted him with a flurry of words.

"There you are. Thought you weren't coming. Almost completed chapter nine. You've dirt on your face by the way. See that guy over there? Been staring at me the whole time. Think he fancies me. Doesn't he know I'm still in school?"

Tam looked over at the burly individual indicated. He appeared a Lumos guard of sorts, not as intimidating as the ones who took the professor, but still a six footer not wise to argue with.

"You're imagining things," he muttered and shifted his rucksack to the floor. He sat next to the girl and immediately stiffened when he noticed the guard come towards them.

"Sorry to bother you, sir, madam," he said with surprising politeness, "but I couldn't help thinking you're familiar. The young lady here by herself didn't quite trigger it but when you turned up sir that clinched it for me."

"Fancies you, does he?" Tam sniggered under his breath. A sharp elbow on the bruise Maena had given him earlier made him yelp.

"And how would you, um, know us?" she said, looking all innocence up at the man. His eyes flicked between the both of them, but mainly lingered on Maena.

"Oh, I was on surveillance duty during middle night when the Love Star docked. Watching the pair of you sneaking around the compound like stealthy spies in luminous day wear was entertaining. Slow night otherwise. What were you two up to?"

Tam blushed and hid his face as a fit of coughing seized him. Maena was briefly shocked but her quick wits came to her rescue. She gave Tam an appraising glance.

"You know what boyfriends are like. Promise you anything. I said I wanted to have a look inside the Love Star, secretly like and he said, sure no problem. So he tried to sneak us in. I got scared and we ran for it."

"We tracked you a while," the man took up the story from his point of view, nodding understanding at the innocent prank of youngsters. "Looked like he ran for it but you just sort of glided away. I'm glad you didn't try to get on board. Our infras and pressure sensors would have caught a feather if there were any on Troy, and set off a whole slew of alarms. Commander doesn't much like his sleep being broken into and our watch would have probably been on short rations for a week."

"Sorry," Tam said, trying to look contrite amid his embarrassment. "Should have thought of the consequences, but my girl... friend is so demanding." He almost choked on the word girlfriend.

"There's a sensible lad," the guard smiled. "Hope you're not up to anything naughty this fine evening."

"Nope," Maena responded, standing and looking past the man. "There's our ride to Pashak," she said noting the red lights of a hover coach gliding into view five minutes early. The two youngsters made for the coach and Maena leaned out of the window as the guard waved them off.

"We're on our way to the capital to steal the jewelled girdle from Director Mardoe's statue in Lumos Square," she shouted as the vehicle skimmed away into the night. The guard's face blanched and he reached for a broadcast phone to notify headquarters of a possible planned misdemeanour in the offing.

"Did you have to say that?" Tam protested as the girl settled back in her seat next to him. She rested her chestnut hair on his shoulder and closed her eyes.

"Where's the fun in having no fun?" she asked philosophically. Tam could not think of an answer to that so he sat very still, feeling the proximity of the girl intrusive and wished this part of the journey was over. A quick glance at the coach clock said, another forty five minutes to go, so he stared out the window at the twilit landscape flitting by and whistled low and long as one of the great mining scars rose majestically into view, dwarfing the homesteads in its wake.

"Are you checking me out?" Maena's lazy voice reached his ear as his thoughts drifted to past crimes of the greedy Crystal Lumos Agency.

"What? No!" Tam looked around at the other passengers, searching for witnesses to the fact he was not checking out Maena Madrullian. His anxious glance was greeted with knowing smiles. This is not funny he thought to himself. Maena sat up and looked out of the window too.

"Oh," she said, looking at Devil Made Scar. "It gets more horrible every time I see it. A wound in the side of a world. Sometimes I wonder if we have a right to pillage innocent worlds like we do. Was this what the Imortas wanted us to do, I mean, really?"

"Child," an elderly lady sitting near responded. "The Space Gods gift us things but it is up to us to use them wisely." Then she added more prosaically, "free will sucks." Tam looked at the clock. Thirty minutes still to go. Thankfully, with Maena now absorbed in her book again with its naked male torso emblazoned on the cover showing a girl's hand raking across it and leaving clearly painful marks, and the landscape dimming into shadows dotted with fast moving lights, Tam was able to nod off. He briefly dreamt of Maena's hand raking across his naked flesh and the pain seemed so real he woke with a start.

"Wake up sleepy head, we're here," Maena said, her breath fanning his cheek as he opened his eyes. "Did my pinch hurt?"

"No more than your punch," he retorted and gathered up his things as everyone on the coach made to leave. The provincial town of Pashak was the only stop from the Wilds of Maeven. "Where to next?"

"Some seedy traveller's hotel where we can make a wild night of it unchaperoned before hitting the capital nice and early tomorrow," Maena responded gleefully.

"Play safe," the strange old lady said as she departed.

"It's okay, I'm ster--" Maena began to say but Tam covered her mouth with his hand hastily. They dropped onto the pavement beneath the station lights like that and were given some strange looks by other departing passengers.

"Are you drunk?" Tam hissed. "You been drinking before we started this journey?" She shook her head briefly and he released her.

"Your hand tastes of dirt," she muttered, wiping her mouth. The pained expression on his face elicited an apology. "I'm sorry. I don't go out much and can get a little over excited. It's an energy release, okay? It's either that or blackouts. And you know when I black out I feel really hot and want to strip all my clothes off and jump into a fountain, you know, like that one over there," and she started to make a move towards the shimmering waters. Tam grabbed her arm.

"Will you quit it! Will you just stop," he said, exasperated. The girl was completely hyper. Thank goodness he was here to look out for her. "Let's just find a nice quiet apartment for hire, with two separate rooms, have a quiet night without any trouble and pick up your grandfather tomorrow, okay?"

"Two adjoining rooms," Maena pouted.

"Two adjoining rooms with a lockable door," Tam conceded. A taxi drove up, for they were the only ones left on the pavement, and they skimmed in sullen silence to the Barnoel Rooms With A View Lodgement. Room Eight, Floor Five. Only one double room was available and Maena squealed with delight as she threw herself onto the large double bed and began undressing. Tam gulped, grabbed some sheets and locked himself in the bathroom for the night. In spite of the discomfort he slept like a log.

The sound of running water woke him next morning and he thought in brief panic he had nudged a tap in his sleep. He opened his eyes to the sight of a slender body bent over the sink, chestnut hair in a cascade over pale bare shoulders. The light was on and he could see Maena was in skimpy underwear he recognised from the roof ridge incident. From this angle, although she was definitely boyish in form, there was something fetchingly feminine about her.

"Are you checking me out again?" a distorted voice came from the mass of hair and Maena straightened up, spitting toothpaste into the sink and rinsing her mouth. Tam sat up too and caught the back of his head on the tap. Busted.

"How did you...?"

"Bathroom locks are a piece of cake, you dummy. Besides I needed to go to the loo so mother of necessity and all that. You looked cute while you slept. Did you know you suck your thumb?"

"I do not. Put some clothes on and let's get out of here."

"Take a shower first."

"That - is not happening."

"Meany. Hey if you won't I will. We got half an hour before the shuttle's due to leave for Ithak."

"I'm gone. I'll wait for you in the lobby," and with that Tam darted out the room, sought a men's only rest room on the ground floor for necessary ablutions and waited, rucksack in hand, for the demanding little madam to accompany him to the capital. As he waited, exasperation turned to excitement as he had never been to Ithak before, only seen it on image screens. His thoughts were soured a little as he tried to remember if the statue of Director Mardoe had a fountain around it.

Maena Madrullian had transformed herself into an offworld sophisticate. She swept down the wide stairs, hair made up, dressed in a casual, close fitting frock with a brightly coloured waistband and smelling of some heavenly perfume.

"Shall we?" she said, extending her elbow for him to hold on to and like the country bumpkin everyone around the lobby thought him to be Tam Sorrell just stared. Maena rolled her eyes, grabbed his arm and bundled him down the steps and into the waiting taxi she had ordered moments before from her room. "Really, I wish we had brought some sheep along with us for added fun," she said in a snooty voice. "Joke, okay?" she added to the driver as he looked over his shoulder in alarm. She made a face at him and he returned his attention to the light traffic ahead.

The shuttle journey through the tunnel that cut the Ridge was exhilarating and claustrophobic all at the same time. Maena's mood changed as they entered and she clung to him like a frightened little girl. For once he felt in charge and kept making soothing noises to her, milking it for all it was worth. She was actually trembling and he stroked her hair. As soon as light flared, signalling they were out of the tunnel, she sat up straight, took a deep breath and gazed at the view of an inland lake that stretched a hundred miles either side of the causeway the magnetic shuttle was hurtling along at close to three hundred miles an hour.

"Pretty," she murmured.

Tam could already see spires glistening in the distance, reflected on the water, and recognised the familiar silhouette of Centrax Tower, the administrative chambers of Troy Totalis. At the speed they were travelling it was impossible to see much up close. Structures flashed by, overhead roads made strobing patterns in the sky, and it was only as they closed in on their destination the shuttle reduced its velocity enough to allow the passengers to gawp at city folk going about their daily business in funny costumes associated with their varied employments. With a jolt the shuttle halted, announcements buzzed through the carriages and everybody jumped up. Doors slid aside, a rush of warm air breezed through and the scent of the city filled Tam's nostrils. It wasn't a particularly pleasant smell, sort of bland, unrewarding, not like the fresh scented hills of the Wilds at all.

"Come on goggle eyes, we're on a tight turn around schedule. No sight seeing I'm afraid," Maena said, all businesslike now she was close to the conclusion of her mission to rescue her stranded grandfather. He was waiting for her in the public square overlooked by Director Mardoe. Tam noticed the jewelled girdle she had threatened to steal. It was a massive item, weighing more than a flock of twenty sheep he reckoned. No lone girl could have shifted it even with the help of skimmers. Nonetheless, it looked as if security had been beefed up around the foot of the statue for guards were patrolling the lower plinth. Tam laughed. The girl was incorrigible.

Maena hugged her grandfather, and he looked delighted to see Tam, shaking his hand vigorously.

"We got twenty minutes and then it's back on the shuttle," Maena announced, checking the timetable. So they walked casually around the square, being eyed by Lumos guards all the while, and laughed and pointed at various curiosities visible around them until it was time to leave. They even had an ice cream, which made Tam's teeth ache but filled his belly with unexpected warmth.

The return journey was uneventful, thanks to the watchful eye of Professor Madrullian. He promised to write a note for Tam to the school authorities regarding a missed day and offered to present a thank you gift of a floor polisher to Lick Sorrell as an apology for kidnapping his son for a day. Just as they parted, he shook Tam's hand again with gratefulness.

"She's dearer to me than life," he said, nodding to Maena. "Thank you for looking after her."

"It was a day I will never forget," Tam responded truthfully and staggered with great fatigue up hill to present his excuses and notes of apology to his parents for the day's adventure.

Maena meanwhile gave her grandfather a kiss on his bearded cheek and told him to lie down for the rest of the day, seconded by a relieved Falma.

"No work today, grandfather, promise?" She would not leave him until he promised and when he did she went upstairs to freshen up and put things in order for a normal day tomorrow.

As she prepared for an early night she paused and opened her messager. Several school friends were live chatting and she pondered their conversations a while absently. They were not talking about her thankfully, nor the adventure of her grandfather. She typed in a name and brought up Tam's message box. He wasn't live, probably asleep the poor boy. With a gentle smile she began touching letter keys.

"This is to let you know I love you."

Maena frowned. No, it was too soon. Going straight to the point like that. No boy would tolerate such forthrightness. Tam would run a mile. She deleted the sentence.

"We've been going together for years now and don't you think we should step it up a level?" she typed and giggled at the racy phrasing. Mirthfully she continued, blushing at her own daring. "We should kiss, and other stuff, really get to know each other, like all over." Her fingers trembled as they paused above the letter keys. "Because we love each other unto death and must marry immediately. I love you, I love you, I love you..." This last repetition was typed rapidly, quick fire tappings embodying the yearnings she had for the boy. A pause. A sigh. Delete.

She realised she could be at this all night, but if she failed to send, what was all this passion for? She powered down the messager and the blue glow faded from her face just before a tear slowly tricked down her hot cheek.

"I'll tell him tomorrow, to his face," she whispered in the darkness and clutched a pillow as she settled to sleep, her stomach quivering with subdued emotion, but a smile formed on her lips that settled her nerves into sleepy repose. Thus she did not hear the distant thunder that heralded an unprecedented storm brewing over the High Peaks so early in spring.

The dawn saw little activity lower down the mountainside but two figures wended their way up a path that skirted the escarpment so popular with the youngsters of Maeven.

Parthan Fallow was a giant of a man, heralding from the Frozen Peaks district farther north. As his giant strides took him upwards, scampering alongside him in a fresh spring frock was dark-haired Sumira Sumoe, taking two strides to his one in order to keep up. Any difficult obstacle to overcome and the man would gently lift the girl, carry her a stretch and then let her down again to continue the journey on foot. Although they did not exchange a word it was obvious to the most casual observer they were deeply in love. It soon became apparent as they entered Arcadia Valley with its early morning carpet of dewy mist that their destination was the Plighting Oak.

The orangy sun warmed the grassy meadows and the mist faded away, leaving fresh lush greenery carpeted with daisies and cornflowers. It was the third week of spring and even so high up among the mountains the air was warm and pleasant. By mutual consent the couple stretched out on the turf between dark roots, positioning themselves so they could look south beyond the Ridge at the great blue cloudless sky.

It was Sumira who chose to break the silence, intense curiosity compelling her to pursue the unspoken matter at hand.

"Why take me up here so early, before milking time?" she said softly. The man next to her although a year younger at age twenty two was such a great figure of a man she seemed like a doll next to him.

"So we can see the Love Star together," he replied and they both glanced beyond the Ridge at the purple horizon where a bright spark glittered in solitary majesty. "And so I can give you this." The man held out another glittering spark, a ring to plight his troth with. He had known her most of the two years he had lived at Maeven village since relocating from the Frozen Peaks. The girl's eyes filled with tears and she was about to say yes when a blast of cold air rolled down the mountain behind them. They sat up together and turned, looking past the tree and beyond the lake.

High above where the jagged peaks soared, shrouded now and then with cloud, flashes of light amid the rolling vapour could be seen and faint tremors felt as dark shadows thickened before their eyes.

"What's happening?" the girl asked, affrighted, shivering with the cold.

The man put his arm around her.

"It's been like that since last night," he said. "I watched the lightning till tiredness drove me to bed. It's just a passing storm, the last of winter no doubt. We had them over the Frozen Peaks." He showed the ring again. She smiled and nodded.

"Yes, of course I will be your wife," she said softly and as they kissed neither noticed a light dusting of snow begin to fall.

Farther down the mountain another pair of eyes gazed at the great Spark in the sky. Professor Motar Madrullian stood upon his balcony, deep in thought, enthralled by the Love Star across the valley and plain below as it hovered above winding rivers, rolling meadows and misty hollows of early morning. He was thinking about Maena upstairs in her attic room getting ready for school. One day he would tell her the truth about her mother, but for now let the sixteen year old enjoy her youth. He had provided some offworld toys for her to keep her distracted so long as she did not abuse their remarkable properties. Looking at the Spark again, sad memories associated with the great ice planet that orbited a billion or so miles from Myscenna reminded him again of his responsibilities.

"Maena!" he cried, leaning over the balcony and looking up at the open skylight so he knew she could hear him. "It's almost time for school. Hope you're ready." A muffled shrill cry in response floated down from above.

Upstairs, Maena Madrullian sat at her dresser tugging on her thin dark locks with hopeless despair, her brush doing nothing to liven them up. Her window did not face the picturesque valley where the Love Star floated for she cared not for that and thought her grandfather's obsession with the astronomical phenomenon a trifle creepy. Instead her window looked upwards toward the mountains beyond the rampart, visible when the cloud layer decided to peel off in a strong wind. This morning she noted it was thicker than usual, darker and occasionally flickered with silent lightning. The weather was of little interest to her, for more importantly her window faced the Sorrell Wayfarer Inn, which she could see beyond the rooftops beneath the escarpment where three passes met. It was the favourite place of all the wayfarers and travellers from other provinces, from the mining towns and business centres right across Troy and was thus a place of excitement for many reasons, not least as being the home of Tam Sorrell. She could just make out the corner of the building where his bedroom window showed as a light rectangle against the dark stone wall of the building, and at night a warm glow in the looming shadows.

"He'll never love me, looking like this," she cried at her mirror image which was struggling as much as she with trying to look beautiful.

"Psst!" a voice sounded from a corner of her bedroom. "Want to know a secret?" Maena turned quickly and slammed her brush down on the dresser. She looked over to where a glowing cube pulsed pleasantly. Picking the device up in her hand she gazed at it with a squint.

"What have you got for me today Kyoobee? Better be good after all that's happened."

"Tam is not going out with Sara Manderby, not out with her at all," the cube casually said.

"Yes," Maena replied, rolling her eyes. "I think I already got that."

"And..." the cube began again.

"There's more?"

"Your father still loves you, loves you still," it said in the same emotionless voice. Maena paused in her amusement and pondered this item. She had no idea where her father was. Disappeared after the tragic fate of her mother when she walked through that most dreadful of things a Ghost Gate, a gate to nowhere. At least, wherever he was, he still loved her. She sighed, then a beep sounded on her dresser and she picked up a bracelet that flashed a ruby warning light. She loved the gadgets her grandfather had given her. This one had been a thirteenth birthday present. It was an affinity charmlet, and she had set it to signal when Tam was coming near so she could always be ready.

She kissed the cube, whirled clumsily around before tossing it onto her bed for Falma the housekeeper to replace on her shelf later, grabbed her bag and thundered down the three flights of steps in a flash. Beyond the wooden gateway she skidded to a halt for coming down the path from the higher levels was Tam Sorrell and walking with him chatting earnestly was the blonde-haired school beauty Sara Manderby. Of course he passed her house before reaching the professor's place on the way to the school in the valley below. But did she really have to walk with him, like, every morning?

"Hi!" she said, waving a thin arm at the lad. Both looked towards her and Sara shifted her rucksack with impatience at the interruption. Maena fell in beside Tam as they walked, no invite necessary as it was natural to go down the hill together, and gave him a sidelong glance to check his reaction. There were lots of things she could talk to him about now, lots of things. Knowing that he and Sara would never be an item was one she would keep silent on however. It was as she gazed up at him she noticed a soft white flake of snow land on his dreamy bronze hair.

"Oh my gosh!" Maena said, gurgling with surprise. "It's snowing!"

To be continued...