The Rift - Howard Chris - Страница 31

She moved like she was at the very center of the music, all the light and all of the faces, like it was all part of the same tapestry. And as my pirate girl shook and danced and started to move even faster, it was like nothing bad could ever touch her again. As if she’d slipped out of this world, moving too fast for its dirty fingers and the grip of decay. She moved like a twister on the dustlands. Her arms pulsing with the music and her skin glistening, each drop of sweat vibrating with the thunderous steel drum boom.

And I reckon she wanted me to move with her, but I didn’t have it in me. I couldn’t figure out how to let myself go. And before I knew it, Kade was pushing past me and dancing beside her. He was shirtless, shaking the ugly stump at the end of his arm above his head and grinning at my girl.

I started to slip away through the crowd on the steps, suddenly wanting to find Crow. My old, broken friend. Hell, I knew he wouldn’t be dancing.

I found Zee before I found Crow. She was crouched at the edge of the silver mud pit, staring up at the dancers and the circle of sky.

“Kade was looking for you,” she said when I squatted beside her.

“Don’t reckon it was me he wanted.” I watched the steam swirl about us, tinged by the blue lights of the cosmos. And then I peered up at where Kade and Alpha were still dancing away. “You seen Crow?”

“He was talking with the old woman. Then he went off with one of the twins.”

“The one that looks like this?” I made my face full of misery.

“No.” Zee grinned. “The one who doesn’t speak so good.”

Already had a pretty good idea where I’d find Crow and the Healer, but I had Zee point out which passage they’d taken before I started to go.

“Banyan,” she called, putting a hand on my leg and tugging me back towards her.

“What’s up, sister?”

I tell you, just me saying the word made that lass smile.

“What did you mean?” she asked. “About not wanting to leave here?”

“Look around you. No GenTech. No dust. There’s food growing, and it belongs to everyone. And the mammoths.” I pointed to one, bopping its head out of one of the tunnels as if it was enjoying the tunes. “Hell, this place has it all.”

“But we can’t stay here. We don’t belong with these people.”

“I don’t belong nowhere else.”

She shook her head at me like I was being ridiculous. “You ever even heard of a place like this?”

“Sure. You used to talk all about it. Called it the Promised Land.”

Zee rolled her eyes.

“What? Looks more like it than that island we found.”

“This ain’t the Promised Land, Banyan.”

“Well, stories only get you so far, I reckon.”

“And you think the trees are safe here?”

“That’s the best part of all,” I said. “They’re safe and healthy.”

“So you just want to keep them hidden away.” Zee made this face, like she was all disappointed in me.

“Last I heard, you wanted to give them to GenTech. Or Harvest. Anything to make sure they survive.”

“I never said I wanted to hide them from people.”

“Well, maybe I don’t give a damn what you want.”

“That figures.” She frowned. “We’ve been talking it through, you know.”

“Who?”

“It was something Alpha said. And Kade.”

“What the hell’s he got to do with it?”

“I don’t know why you get like that about him.”

“Yes, you do,” I said. “Guy’s a punk.”

“He never did a thing wrong to you.”

“No? And what else did he tell you?”

“Don’t be like that.”

“Used to be hooked on the crystal. He tell you that?”

“Yes. He did.”

“Just like Frost,” I said.

“Not like Frost. Come on, Banyan. Stop.”

“Then quit talking about him.”

“I like him.”

“You can quit liking him, too.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re supposed to be my sister,” I said, letting myself get as pissed as I wanted. I pointed up at Alpha, dancing without me. Kade spinning her around like a fool. “And that’s supposed to be my girl.”

“You can be such an idiot.” Zee stared up the side of the crater, watching Alpha and Kade vibrate with the music. “Why aren’t you dancing with her, anyway?”

I listened as the drums crashed and looped. “Guess I ain’t the dancing type.”

“I would be, if that was my girlfriend.”

“So maybe you should go dance with Stumpy.”

“Who says I won’t dance with him?”

“You say it like I give a damn if you do.”

As I started to leave her, I wondered if she could really be sweet on that punk. And I wondered what else had happened since we’d all been apart.

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

I came to a junction full of steam, then cut in the direction the steam blew thickest. It led me to the cave full of mud and algae and the saplings. The place the Healer worked her magic best.

I slipped inside the cave, my feet shuffling on the wet rocks. Had to wait till the hot mist cleared, but then I spotted them. They were deep in the wet gray mud, up close to the saplings, and the Healer was helping Crow get low in the pool. His bottom half was submerged by the time I reached them. The mud boiled and spat at his chest.

“What you looking at?” Crow grumbled, seeing me over the Healer’s shoulder.

“How’s it feel?” I said.

“Burns like fire.” He winced as he sank further into the slime.

“No pain, no gain.”

“Them the words you live by, little man?”

“Little man,” I muttered. Why couldn’t he just use my damn name?

“Maybe I should call you Tree King, eh? I seen you, top of that ridge. Took a big old leap of faith, no? Dropping off the mountain to take care of your trees.”

“Can’t say I planned on it.” I couldn’t tell if he was being serious. “But I guess you think that was stupid.”

“Nah. Give yourself a break,” he said. “You can’t be brave without being a fool.”

I glanced at the Healer, and she was beaming away like she usually did, though there wasn’t much hope she could understand a word me and Crow were saying.

“Fix him?” I pointed at Crow.

“Rest,” the woman said, helping him lie back so his body was floating in the mud but his head was supported.

“Better follow the doctor’s orders,” I told him, sitting on the rocks beside Crow as the Healer splashed out of the pool. “Though you are missing one hell of a shindig.”

“Shindig?” Crow closed his eyes. “You ain’t seen a thing till you seen Waterfall City.”

“I been there, remember? We built for those Rastas, my old man and me.”

“You might have been to Niagara. But there’s no chance you been in Waterfall City, not all the way. The ground in there’s too sacred. Crow will take you, though. He’ll get you inside. Before all this is through.”

“Except I ain’t going nowhere, remember?”

“The parties,” he mumbled. “You never seen nothing like it. And the women.” He opened his eyes for a second. “You never knew something could look so good.”

“I seen your Soljah women.”

“Not the one I’m talking about.” He was drifting off. Heading for sleep. “I’ll take you there, though. Someday. You and me. And the trees.”

“Told you,” I said, loud enough to keep him awake. “I ain’t leaving here.”

“Oh, I know what you said.” Crow pried one eye open and fixed it on me. “Some foolishness about this hole in the ground being Zion.”

“Let me see—it’s safe, plenty of food and water. No one starving. No one trying to kill us.”

“Not yet.”