Last to Rise(56)

The lab windows shone in the dark like the sun, the Glow lights trapping grimy snowflakes in dizzying whirls that matched what was in my head. I staggered inside and the warmth hit me like a brick.



What greeted me stunned me almost worse.



It was chaos, even more so than the usual riot of cables and bits of machinery strewn over workbenches. Half a dozen young mages shivered in one corner and more than one was in tears. Halina was there, looking remarkably poised, all things considered, and she favoured me with a raised eyebrow and a curl of her lip. All cynics together.



Allit stood with Lise, a comforting hand on her shoulder, while Dendal twittered around in the background making vague soothing noises. I knew it was something bad because while Dendal is away with the fairies most of the time, at least he’s happy. I know I’m home when I can hear the scritch-scratch of pen on paper and him humming a cheerful tune to himself. He wasn’t humming now, and that was akin to the sun not coming up in the morning.



Not as unnerving as the shouts that echoed out of the pain room, punctuated by a lower voice that was still firm, obstinate even as it held a tone of regret. It didn’t take much to work out that the shouter was Pasha and the obstinate one was Perak. I couldn’t decipher the words, but I reckoned I could figure the gist anyway.



When I came in, Lise jumped to her feet and all but ran towards me, Allit a step behind. She was a study in frustration, her dark hair awry, her face streaked with dried tears but with that stubborn donkey line between her eyes that meant she was damned well determined to get her own way. She and Allit both started talking at the same time, rushed, garbled words that made no sense.



“Calm down and start again,” I said and reached for her hand. She grabbed mine in a death-grip. Of the two, Allit seemed calmer, so I got him to explain.



“It’s Perak. He says Lise has to destroy the new machine, the shield thing. He says if she can’t make it so we can at least test it safely then we need the metal, and he’s right, we do. Only Pasha says he wants to use it to help Jake.”



“I can’t dismantle it, I won’t!” Lise burst out. “It’s one of the last things Dwarf designed. I know we can make it work, and if we do – if we do, then we won’t need guns. It’ll work, it will.”



“And the mage involved?”



She hesitated only a moment. “I can make it work, even that. I know I can. I just need time, and Perak won’t give me any and Pasha’s ready to use it anyway and he’s…”



Pasha’s gone all lion, I said to myself. I’d known he would. I had to admire the guy’s zeal, always so ready to fight.



“All right. Look, I’ll see what I can do. But even if I persuade Perak, you need to get it ready as soon as you can, OK?”



Her shoulders relaxed and she nodded before scurrying off to a desk that was covered in incomprehensible drawings and bits of machine.



Allit lingered, and a crash sounded from the pain room so that he flinched, but I waited and it didn’t take long for him to come out with it. Never could keep a thought inside, that boy.



“I saw more. When I, you know. When I hurt myself. I’ve been practising like Pasha said I should. I – I don’t know, Pasha says he’s not sure if I see the now or past or future. I think maybe it’s all of them, because I’ve been trying to focus like you said and I know I’ve seen things that haven’t happened yet. Not all of them do happen either. When you went into the tunnel, I – I saw you die in there, and I tried to get Perak to call you back but it was too late, and then you didn’t die so I don’t know… But I saw – she’s out there, on her own. I saw that, and I saw Dench with her, stronger this time, maybe the strongest possibility? She’s on her own, no one to help her, but she’s not afraid. That’s Pasha. But I saw someone use Lise’s machine too. I think.”



“And did it work?”



His face screwed up in frustration. He was trying, and hard, to help but he was too new in his magic, still figuring it all out.



“I don’t know! I only know that someone tries it, and then later – then later there are no Storad. But it’s all hazy, like maybe it might not happen if we don’t do it right? Does that make sense? Because I saw Storad in Top of the World too. Whatever, I don’t know if it’s because of the machine, or something else. I thought magic was going to be something useful! But all I can do is see things that might happen, or might be real, and I can’t tell one from the other! What’s the use in that?”