Chaos Space - Marianne de Pierres [22]
‘And the palazzo—’ said Joe hoarsely.
Trin turned seaward. The Tourmaline Islands were exactly where he had reckoned: a line of flat scrubby land dots so close together that they would have looked like another large land mass if each one had not been divided from its neighbours by narrow channels of foaming water.
He scanned north, seeking the palazzo’s familiar outline. It too was where it should have been, its imposing column-edges pale against the dawn. Above it, though, flashed the lights of circling AiVs.
‘They are there ahead of us.’ Trin turned to Joe. ‘Quickly. Call the men. We must get to the cover of the nearest island before the light is truly upon us.’
‘Trinder.’ Joe’s tragic face again. ‘See.’
With an effort Trin widened the scope of his view, as though his eyes had become a telescope through which he must alter magnifications scanning first along the beach line where he saw Cass Mulravey and her women in the water as he had been; saw Cass herself scooping water over the head of the bambino Vito. The infant hung limply in her arms. ‘Where are the rest?’ he demanded. ‘Why are they taking so long?’
This time Joe Scali dragged at the front of Trin’s robe, pulling him round to face the dunes. Bodies lay on the ridge and further down the side: men, all of them without robes, fallen from exposure in their final effort.
‘Carabinere.’
‘Si. Some did not make it that far, even.’
Trin struggled to remember something. Why was it so hard to think, and to see? Then it came back to him. Djes?’
‘I saw her helping Seb Malocchi. I-I...’
Trin strained his eyes again to examine each fallen body, searching out the configuration of the limbs. On the furthest, half buried in the red sand, he thought he saw his pale ensign. He had bound Djes’s leg with it when the Saqr had wounded her and now she wore it, hidden under her clothing. Wrenching free of Joe Scali’s grasp he staggered along the beach, fuelled with emotion.
As he passed Cass Mulravey he stopped and waded out to her. ‘See what you have done.’ He punched his fist towards his dead Carabinere. ‘See what you have cost me.’
She didn’t flinch from his anger but held out her hand to the women. ‘And see what you have saved. I’m sorry for your men, Trinder Pellegrini. But you have saved your future. Without these women you are nothing. You cannot even breed.’
Trin would have hit her then, slapped her down into the water and held her under until all the air left her limp body if he had not needed the last of his strength to reach Djes.
He left Mulravey and began first to climb, then to crawl up the almost sheer face of the dune, towards his ensign.
Djes was there, half buried as he had guessed, beside Seb Malocchi’s body. Malocchi was gone, his tongue swollen, his cracked lips coloured with dried blood.
Trin dug for her underneath the corpse of the Carabinere, shuddering with the effort, unable to cry. He remembered the fire in Loisa. He had saved Seb from it, just so he could die with no less dignity.
Joe Scali joined him, and Vespa Malocchi, Vespa cradling his fratella’s face while Joe helped Trin pull Djeserit free.
Trin put his face to her lips but felt no breath. ‘Djes.’
‘Principe.’ Joe Scali brushed the sand from her neck. ‘See.’
Her gills moved sluggishly as if her body was searching for another source of oxygen.
‘Quickly. The water.’
Together they dragged Djeserit down the dune and laid her in the surf. Trin held her body against his, willing oxygen into her blood, muttering senseless words. The water sluiced off the worst of the dirt and the flaking skin, leaving her face hideously raw. But Trin saw only her failing gills.
The survivors gathered on the water’s edge, watching in silent exhaustion.
Cass Mulravey pushed to the front of the group. ‘She’s part Mio. Move her through the water,’ said Mulravey. ‘In a circle—to get the water passing through.’
The cursed woman was right. Trin dug his feet into the sand and began to spin slowly around.
After a dozen spins Djeserit’s gills started to open and close rhythmically and within a few moments her