The Keep

CHAPTER 19

CHAPTER 19Even as he opened the door it occurred to Badr that this was perhaps not the wisest of actions. Yet he sensed no danger in the knocking, urgent though it was.

“What the devil’s going on?”

It was Nyk, pushing the door as Badr pulled it, to their mutual surprise.

“Why was the drawbridge up? What were you thinking about? And why did you start raising it again while we were still on it?”

Nyk’s questions burst out angrily as the restraining tension of leading this motley group evaporated abruptly in the warmth of familiar surroundings.

Qualto gaped.

Josyff moved forward, gently easing the gesticulating Nyk to one side. He spoke to Qualto quietly but urgently.

“We’ve a sick woman and a new guest,” adding softly, “an important guest.” He indicated Adroyan carrying the still motionless body of Esyal. “Could you and Henk find quarters for them. And then perhaps some food and warmth for us.”

“And a place for the Surveyor’s equipment,” Adroyan intervened.

Josyff’s jaw tightened and his hand flicked out towards a nearby alcove.

“Just put it over there for now. It won’t come to any harm.”

He slammed the door shut by way of emphasis.

Qualto dithered briefly then nodded and trotted off.

“I’ll get Henk,” Badr said. “Good to see you back safe.”

“Good to be back,” Josyff said, with a smile.

There followed a bustling interval which saw Esyal laid out on the long couch in the common room, rooms quickly found and allocated, layers of chilled clothing discarded, packs emptied, and Josyff’s equipment stacked by a narrow-eyed Nyk, under Adroyan’s supervision. Qualto was clattering busily about his kitchen.

“What’s the matter with her?” Henk asked when the flurry had subsided and all, save Qualto, were gathered in the common room.

Josyff briefly recounted their journey but concluded with an unhappy shrug.

“I have no idea. She has a steady pulse, she’s breathing, even her colour’s good considering the cold.” He scowled. “I can only think that it’s some kind of head injury, although there’s no sign of any outward damage.” He ran his hand carefully through her hair as though yet another examination might give him the lie, but there was nothing. He looked round at the others but found no answers there either. “I think all we can do is perhaps take turns to sit with her in case she wakes up or... her condition changes in some way... until we can get a doctor from the village.”

No one disagreed, or laboured the point that at the best it would be several days before a doctor could be brought. Nor did anyone touch on the fact that they might all have no choice but to stand by helpless in their ignorance while this young woman died.

Josyff pulled a chair up to the couch and sat down. He glanced at Adroyan. The big man was sitting by the fireplace, staring into the blaze that Henk had conjured. He had the hunched air of someone carrying a burden and Josyff felt an unexpected twinge of sympathy for him.

“You must be exhausted,” he said. “You carried her a long way.”

Adroyan tilted his head slightly as if he had been woken from a reverie, then turned to look at Josyff and stared at him as though momentarily not recognizing him. Eventually he said, “Yes, yes,” offhandedly. “I was the best suited. To have left her would have distracted you from your work.”

Josyff had made his remark partly out of a habit of courtesy and partly to establish some relationship with this unanticipated new arrival, to draw him into — to welcome him to — this “family” that circumstances — a degree of common adversity — had formed. Insofar as he had expected anything, this reply was not it. The placing of his work before Esyal’s life was peculiarly shocking and he could not keep it from his face.

“Who are you?” he asked, his normal caution forgotten.

Adroyan was looking into the fire again. “Your superior,” he replied. “The person who chose you for this task.”

Though Adroyan’s voice was flat and emotionless, Josyff’s mouth went dry. What the devil was happening here, and what, in the name of pity, was this place? The thought of his wife came unbidden and, for an instant, he wished he were with her — far away from the Keep, the mountains, the New Order, everything.

The awkward silence that followed was broken by Qualto bustling in with food and drink. As the atmosphere eased, Nyk’s original complaint re-surfaced, though less irritably.

“Why did you shut the drawbridge?” he asked Henk.

“I... we... didn’t,” Henk replied, adding, with just a hint of injury, “I didn’t know it was shut until you told me. What would I do that for?”

“It couldn’t have shut itself.”

Henk floundered visibly, concluding, reluctantly, “It must have... somehow. No one here’s been outside since we lit the Beacon, and then that’s all we did.”

“That’s true,” Badr intervened. “Most of the time we’ve all been prowling around the bowels of the building looking at something Henk wanted to show us.”

“It’s counter-balanced, isn’t it?” Josyff said.

Nyk seemed glad of the intervention.

“It is,” he replied, adding thoughtfully, “Very finely balanced, actually.”

“Something odd happened only a few minutes before you arrived,” Badr said. “I dozed off in the book room and when I woke up, all the shelf ladders were moving.” He wafted his hand sideways in demonstration and offered, hesitantly, “Perhaps there was some kind of earth tremor... a slight one... or something.”

“I never heard anything,” Henk said, a touch sulkily.

“You heard someone call out, though, didn’t you?” Qualto said, part in accusation, part in conciliation. “Or thought you did.”

“We were shouting on the other side of the moat,” Josyff said. “Perhaps our voices carried into chimney stacks. But we didn’t feel any kind of earth tremor, or hear anything.”

He looked at Nyk for confirmation but his erstwhile guide was still fretting about his unwarranted exclusion from the Keep. “It might be counter-balanced but I can’t think of anything that would make it move on its own — least of all three times.”

“Three times?” Qualto queried, showing a hint of Nyk’s concern.

“Three times,” Nyk echoed. “It’s shut now. I told you, the damn thing started shutting while we were standing on it.” He looked half inclined to leave the room to investigate the problem immediately. “It makes no sense — it’s solid equipment and in good order. And I checked it only the other day.”

“Look at it tomorrow,” Josyff urged. “It’s been a long, tiring day and you’ve been carrying the responsibility for us all. You’ve done more than enough just getting us back. Given that we’re all safe...” He hesitated and glanced at Esyal. “There’s nothing that needs emergency attention.”

“The surveyor is correct.”

It was Adroyan. He was standing.

“You’ve done well,” he said to Nyk. “The only thing that is urgent is the measuring of the Keep...”

“And the girl,” Qualto said pointedly.

Adroyan paused and Josyff thought he saw a brief touch of irritation pass over his face as he looked down at Esyal. “Yes, and the girl,” he said, his voice flat again. “But nothing can be done now. It’s late and we’re all tired. Rest, now, all of you, rest.”

There was a quiet command in his voice that brought Josyff to his feet before he could think about it. He stopped himself as he was about to move to the door. “I’ll sleep here,” he said. “Keep an eye on the girl — on Esyal. We can’t leave her.”

Only Adroyan demurred. “You have much to do. You must rest.”

Josyff managed to keep the anger out of his response. “If she wakes in the night, she might need help — someone has to be here. And the least she’ll need is a face she recognizes — that’s me or Nyk.” He did not allow Adroyan any interruption. “Nyk needs a decent night’s sleep in his own bed. He’s done more than enough these past days and he has plenty routine work to catch up on as a result, I’m sure — not least the drawbridge, which sounds as if it needs looking at urgently. Plus or minus a few hours won’t make any difference to what Badr and I have to do.”

Adroyan looked set to dispute this but said simply. “As you wish, surveyor,” and turned to leave.

“Can you remember the way to your room, sir?” Henk asked.

“I can... thank you. Good night.”

When he had gone Josyff looked round at the others. They were all looking back at him and he knew that a careless remark now could make him the unspoken leader of a faction against this... intruder. It was tempting and it took him a considerable effort not to show his real feelings. Compared to Adroyan, they felt like old friends. But whatever might transpire here, Adroyan had the authority. Tomorrow he could quietly speak to him and formally confirm that he was who he said he was but even that would only be to show Adroyan that he was being watchful of the New Order’s concerns. There could be little doubt that the man was indeed who he claimed to be — his whole manner radiated it. And if he was here — out in the middle of nowhere, in a bizarre and seemingly useless building — then something important was afoot and it would be a foolish man indeed who risked antagonizing him. There were other surveyors as capable as he.

He declined the leadership being offered him by opting for the mundane.

“Can you find me a couple of blankets, Henk? One for me and one for Esyal. It might get cold in here once the fire drops.”

It broke the conspiracy, Josyff thought — though it would arise again, he knew. Mistrust and obsessive watchfulness were hallmarks of the New Order’s way even though they served no worthwhile civic end. They merely bred their own kind and, Josyff had long concluded, would ultimately destroy themselves as the State became progressively unable to function. What he had not concluded and which coloured his daily working life was how long this would take and what harm would be involved, save that the longer it took the greater the harm would be. His task was no longer surveying, it was surveying and doing whatever was necessary to retain his position in the old hierarchy that now found itself serving the New Order.

Bad though he considered this to be, there was lurking beneath it the unfounded but persistent suspicion that not only did the New Order not care about the society it had gained power over, it even intended it to deteriorate, the better to control it. This, when it came to him, he chose not to ponder.

Henk glanced at the fire and almost chuckled. “It’ll be some time before that drops, but I’ll get you something.”

“I’ll get you some water, as well,” Qualto added. “She’ll be thirsty for sure if she wakes up.”

Conspicuously, none of them discussed Adroyan, and after Henk and Qualto were satisfied with Josyff’s comfort for the night, they all left.

Josyff pulled two chairs together so that he could stretch out between them. It was remarkably comfortable, and despite being in his walking clothes and feeling the need for a wash, the exertions of the day together with Qualto’s food began to make themselves felt and he soon became drowsy.

As he drifted between waking and sleeping however, frissons of unease made him restless. Walking away from the Keep he had felt an indefinable tension slipping away from him, as though he were gradually shedding a burden. He had not noticed any return of this tension on the journey back, but then his mind had been on other matters, not least, putting one foot in front of the other safely. He opened his eyes and turned over to gaze up at the ceiling. Shadows danced across it as the firelight flickered and bounced through the iron-barred frontage of the fire and Henk’s array of fire irons.

Though he could not have said why, the thought filling his mind was simple and familiar — from somewhere deep inside him came the knowledge that he did not want to be in this place. He clenched his teeth and swore under his breath, his professional pride remonstrating with this unasked for and unwanted visceral intrusion. It had been a fraught few days, that was all. No equipment, trekking through the mountains, finding Esyal, meeting Adroyan. Fraught indeed. Do the job, he reminded himself, almost viciously. Check it thoroughly — very thoroughly — so that no return visit would be required, and leave. Badr would be fine, he was sure, Nyk and the others were helpful and pleasant — even Henk in his own way — better than many he had met, for sure — and whoever Adroyan was, he would, presumably, have nothing to gain by slowing progress in any way. Indeed, a few days living in this place with him might in fact prove useful. It was an unexpectedly positive thought.

His eyes beginning to close, he turned on to his side.

Esyal had done the same. She was staring at him.