Tab woke several times. A buzzing sounded close by, and wind buffeted her. When she tried to move her hands she discovered she was gripped by claw-like pincers. A herb-soaked cloth was strapped around her mouth – that accounted for her drowsiness. Her head nodded and she lost consciousness again. In that brief moment of wakefulness Tab had seen she was hanging from a flying machine. And though she couldn't see the land below, she knew it was a very long way down.
The next time she woke, she wished she hadn't. The hard bunk beneath her, the harsh lighting, and the metal bars told her all she needed to know. She tried to sit up again, but her head felt as if it had been split with an axe. Her vision swam, and she slumped back on her bunk. She must have fallen asleep because she woke several more times in the night, but each time she heard horrible noises and screams from somewhere nearby. She stuffed her fingers in her ears and curled up tightly, more frightened than she had ever been in her whole life.
Finally, Tab woke and she knew it was morning.
She caught brief ‘glimpses’ of the world outside as a series of rapid mind-melds flashed through her brain without any effort on her part: she was a rat poking its whiskery nose cautiously from a jutting drainpipe; a cat prowling a battlement, questing for food; and a hawk-like bird of prey gliding past a filthy, tattered sail that flapped in a light breeze; then she was back inside her dismal cell. With a sinking heart she knew she was on Tolrush.
Unsteady on her feet, Tab carefully crossed her cell and clutched the bars. She craned her neck to peer up and down the corridor but could only see more cells. The cell opposite hers was occupied, though she couldn't tell by whom.
‘Hey, you in there,’ she hissed. ‘Can you hear me?’
Somebody stirred, sat up briefly, giving her a look of pure terror; it was the boy from her vision. His eyes held such desolation that Tab gasped. Then he buried his face under his thin blanket.
Keys jangled and she heard footsteps coming along the corridor. Tab moved away from the bars and sat down.
A guard unlocked her cell. ‘Stand up in the presence of the King,’ he growled. He went to kick her but years of experience in Mrs Figgin's orphanage had given her swift reflexes. She dodged easily.
The boy-king she had seen in her mind-melding with the rat swept into view. Kull Vladis didn't seem as imposing in the flesh as he had in her vision. He was not more than five years older than her. But there the similarity ended. He was already massively muscled and a monster in the making. His brutal face and small darting eyes revealed treachery and cunning.
Kull eyed her up and down. ‘Answer my questions and you will live,’ he said. ‘Where is the magicians’ icefire gem?’
Tab blinked at the boy-king in surprise. Before she could open her mouth, the guard slapped her, hard. Tab grunted in pain, and her ears rang.
‘You will answer immediately and truthfully,’ said Kull, bored. ‘I'm told you're the thief who stole the gem from the Magicians’ Guild. You then pursued a fellow by the name of Fontagu Wizroth and were present when the Spell of Undoing was itself undone.’ He paused, and seemed to be mocking her. ‘I have it on good authority that the icefire was not recovered by your magicians. Indeed, no one has seen that particular gem since it was stolen, though the ruins of the slaughterhouse were thoroughly sifted. So let me repeat my question -’
‘I don't have the gem,’ said Tab. ‘I -’
Another blow knocked her to the ground.
The guard snarled, ‘Answer when spoken to, not before.’
Kull smiled. ‘I believe you returned to the slaughterhouse, found the icefire, and hid it. My advisers suspect that you then used it to hurl Tolrush into this,’ – he spat fiercely – ‘this demon-riddled hell! So I ask you once more. Where is it?’
‘I don't have it.’
‘Brand her. We shall see if she knows more than she's telling.’
Tab woke screaming.
She clutched her left hand to her chest, but no matter how hard she pressed, the pain wouldn't go away. Gritting her teeth, she forced herself to unclench her fingers. Pain seared through her arm, and made her gasp. When she could see again, she stared at her hand. The palm was ruptured and blackened like charcoaled meat. Crying, she dipped it in a pail of water…and fainted from the excruciating pain.
Dreams came to her. The branding was just one part of the torture. They had flogged her, hung her upside down from a high beam by her feet and tried to drown her by shoving her head repeatedly into a barrel of ice-cold water. The torture had gone on for hours. As she slept she jerked and cried out, cringing away from unseen horrors.
Tab woke hours later. She was no longer in her own cell. She raised her head. She now shared the cell with the boy she'd seen when she had first woken to find herself in this hellhole. Two swarthy-looking men sat slumped in the cell she had previously occupied.
Her mind, still groggy from pain, became more alert then. She forced herself to sit up. The boy's bunk was hard against the other wall, barely an arm's reach away.
Tab knelt by the other bunk. Very gently, she shook the boy's shoulder, aware of how stick-thin his arm was. The boy suddenly recoiled in horror, kicking and screaming. His foot caught Tab on the jaw and knocked her backwards. The boy scrabbled as far away as he could, whimpering.
Tab rubbed her jaw and got back on her knees. She could see the terrified boy watching her from a gap in the blanket.
Ruefully she said, ‘You've got a kick like a mule, did you know that? Owww!’ She tried moving her jaw from side to side. It hurt, but nothing seemed broken. ‘How many guards have you brained by now?’
The boy said nothing, but his tiny whimpers had stopped. He continued to gaze at her with enormous brown eyes.
‘My name's Tab. I'm from Quentaris.’
Nothing.
‘They kidnapped me and brought me here – last night, I think.’ Nothing.
‘I'm an orphan. Grew up in Mrs Figgin's orphanage. She was horrible. An old bat. Actually, bats are all right. She was more like an old she-dragon… Well, some of the time. She could be really gentle on her better days.’
The boy did not answer, nor did he look away.
‘You know, I'm a prisoner here too,’ said Tab, trying not to sound exasperated. She realised one of the boy's legs was poking from the blanket. His shin was painfully skinny and a large seeping sore was crawling with flies.
Tab wrinkled her nose. ‘Oh, what have they done to you?’ She blinked back tears and stretched out a trembling hand to move the blanket so she could see the wound better, but fretting, the boy jerked his leg away. He was crying now, silently.
Tab reached for his hand. The boy cried out like a frightened animal and covered his head with his arms, cringing away from her.
Tab froze, her arm in mid-air. Slowly, she drew it back.
Softly then, she continued talking about her life growing up as a Dung Brigader, not ever having known her parents; she talked about Quentaris and what it was like and how much she loved it, even though she herself had not been born there, but had stumbled from a rift cave one day, an articulate four-year-old who knew her own name but little else; she talked about meeting Fontagu and the Spell and the great Rupture, and how her life had changed for the better; and in an even lower whisper she told the boy how she had discovered her ability to mind-meld. ‘Somehow the magic in me was awakened by the icefire itself,’ she said, thinking back. ‘And that eventually helped me become an apprentice magician. I've had that dream from as far back as I can remember.’
All the while she kept her tone low and gentle, though the things the boy seemed to respond to most were her sudden smiles and the silly laughter which she tried to hold in but couldn't.
Tab realised later that it had probably been a long time since the boy had seen a smile that wasn't cruel, or heard laughter that wasn't at his expense.
She ended her story by bringing him up to date. ‘And they tortured me for hours, but I didn't tell them anything. They did this.’ She held up her burnt hand. She had actually managed not to think about it while she related her story to the boy, but seeing it again brought the horrible memories back, and the pain seemed worse than before.
She tried very hard not to, but suddenly she burst into tears, cradling her wounded hand. Wave after wave of pain throbbed along her arm.
Through the blur of tears she could see that the boy had crept forward to the edge of the bed. Tab didn't dare move, in case she frightened him again. Despite her tears she smiled at him, wanly.
As she watched, he reached out towards her wounded hand. Instinctively, she started to pull it away, and the boy froze. His eyes seemed to appeal to her. She swallowed, and tried not to move as he touched her hand.
Even that gentle touch sent a shockwave of pain racing along her limb, but she bit her lip and forced herself to remain utterly still.
Then, with a quickness which surprised her, the boy wrapped his hand around hers. She gasped in pain, went to jerk it away, but then a sliver of light shot out from between their two hands, and the pain ebbed, then disappeared.
Just like that, the burning sensation was gone.
Tab's free hand flew to her mouth. The boy released her hand and crawled back to the wall, not taking his eyes off her.
Tab looked down at her hand. It was still blackened and ruined, but the wound was now… old. As if it had happened weeks ago. She looked up at the boy. ‘What did you do?’
There was the tiniest of shrugs.
‘Do you… do you have a name?’ she asked, barely above a whisper.
Nothing. Then the boy's lips moved. Tab bent closer, and this time she heard it.
‘Torby.’
Tab sat back and smiled. ‘Thank you for fixing my hand.’ She wished fervently that she could heal Torby's wounds, knowing that healers couldn't cure their own injuries.
Tab woke later that night to find a small warm body pressed against her. Very slowly she rolled over. Torby whimpered but did not wake or leap away in alarm. She made sure he was covered with a blanket then slid her arm around his shoulders, and held him tightly as her eyes filled slowly with tears.
What's going to happen now? she wondered bleakly. Because one thing was very clear to her: she had to escape from this place, and she had to take Torby with her.
Shockingly cold water hit Tab's face. She sat up, gasping and spluttering. Immediately she was aware that Torby was gone. She looked about frantically. He was nowhere to be seen.
In a fury that took even the boy-king by surprise, she leapt off the bed and attacked him. Momentarily stunned, he took a step backwards, then regained his composure and laughed, holding her off with ease.
The next second a guard grabbed her from behind and threw her back on the bunk where she crouched, snarling. Kull clicked his fingers and another guard stepped into the cell doorway, holding Torby. Tab held out her arms and Kull nodded. The guard released the boy and he hurtled across the cell and into Tab's arms, burying his face against her shoulder, his body trembling.
‘What did you do to him?’ shouted Tab.
Kull seemed amused. ‘Nothing,’ he said. ‘Not today at least, and it can stay that way – if you cooperate.’
Tab's sharp intake of breath was the only sound in the cell. So that was why they had moved her. They hadn't gotten what they wanted by torturing her so they had tried something different.
‘Well?’ said Kull. ‘I'll ask only once. Where is the magicians’ icefire?’
Tab slumped. This was all her fault. If she hadn't been stupid enough or arrogant enough to think she could handle the Tolrushian spies, she wouldn't be here now. But then she wouldn't have found Torby either…
She sighed, and told them exactly where she had hidden the gem that she'd stolen from the magicians.
Kull smiled broadly. ‘See, how hard was that?’ He suddenly frowned and pursed his lips. ‘Tell me, riftling. Why didn't you hand over the icefire to your Navigators’ Guild?’
Tab slumped with her betrayal. ‘I was going to but as time went by I knew no one would believe my story. And even if they did, they would have blamed me for everything. I had… had intended to leave it in the Chief Navigator's office… but -’
Kull slapped his thighs with merriment. ‘Enough, you fool of a child. For a moment I thought perhaps the icefire was faulty. Instead you worried about your own safety and have caused a two-fold calamity for your city!’ He turned to go.
‘What about us?’ said Tab. ‘You've got what you wanted… ’
‘We'll see,’ said Kull. ‘Perhaps the gem is where you say it is, and perhaps it isn't.’
He turned and strode out of the cell and the guards followed him. The cell door clanged shut with an ominous sound. Tab held Torby as tightly as she could. She suspected there was almost no chance that Kull would release them, even when he had the gem. Much easier just to slit their throats and throw them overboard.
Torby raised his face and looked at her. ‘You knew.’
She smiled down at him. ‘Yes. I went back to the slaughterhouse and grabbed the icefire. Only just in time, too, because Fontagu turned up about two minutes later. I don't think he saw me. I snuck out and hid the gem where nobody could find it.’
‘Why?’
It hit her then that Torby was actually talking. She felt like laughing, as if he were her own child, or a little brother, and these were the first words he had ever spoken. The feeling caused an odd ache in her chest.
‘Because I thought that it was the most dangerous thing in the whole world. And I was right. It ripped my home, Quentaris, from out of the very ground and threw it through a rift vortex, into another universe. Later, I realised what the icefire really was: a source of fuel. But by then I'd waited too long to hand it back to the magicians. And the longer I waited, the more impossible it was. But I really was going to leave it in Stelka's office.’
Torby was silent for a while, then he said, ‘What now?’
‘I don't know, Torby. I really don't know.’
She kept hoping that Kull, once he had the icefire, would release them. But that hope was dashed that evening. Kull himself, alone, came to gloat. He even bowed low to her.
‘Truly,’ he said, ‘I am in your debt. Never have I seen such an icefire gem! My magicians tell me it will power the ire ore for at least a year, maybe more. With it we will capture and crush Quentaris, and we will extract the secret of how to get home again. So once more, apprentice, I thank you.’
He bowed a second time, smirking.
‘If you are in my debt then I ask that we be released.’
Kull stared at her for a moment then burst out laughing.
‘You can't keep us here!’ she cried. ‘And anyway – Quentaris will send somebody to rescue us.’
Kull stopped laughing and his eyes glittered with malice. ‘Are you threatening me, brat?’
Tab's eyes went wide. She looked away from his gaze. ‘No,’ she said. But then she looked up again, defiant. ‘But they will come for me.’
‘Why, because you saved them?’ asked Kull. He emitted a scornful bark of laughter. ‘A creature like you lives to serve its city, not the other way around. Do you really believe Quentaris feels any loyalty towards you? Know this, even now they are making speed away from us. Besides, your name there is mud, thanks to the vigorous efforts of my… agent.’
‘You're a liar,’ said Tab.
Kull's face flushed and he gripped the cell bars. Tab knew that if it had not been for those bars he would have killed her on the spot. Finally, after a long panting moment, he took a step back, smirking.
‘Tomorrow morning, you will be given a breakfast fit for royalty,’ he said. ‘Then you will provide the day's entertainment. My nobles and I, you see, are in disagreement over exactly how high above the ground we are. And my master magician has come up with a delightful way to measure our altitude.’
Tab scowled and said nothing. She pressed her hands over Torby's ears so he couldn't hear.
‘Apparently, sound travels at a fixed rate of speed. So my master magician has determined that by throwing a child overboard and timing its screams as it falls, we will be able to arrive at an exact measurement. Rather brilliant, I thought.’
And with that, Kull turned on his heels and strode out of the cell block, whistling merrily.
The night deepened. Tab dozed fitfully and woke to the sound of a distant bell tolling midnight. And with the final peal, the first threads of a plan began to knit in her mind. She woke Torby…