The Ascendant Stars - Michael Cobley [116]
And then, all at once, she was embodied. Physicality felt oddly multifaceted, so crammed full with minuscule details of sensation. For several dizzy seconds she stood there, revelling in the solidity of weight, of feeling grass and twigs with the soles of her feet …
Then came the odours of burnt wood and vegetation, charred earth, wet ashes. She opened her eyes and saw she was standing at the edge of a stretch of black devastation. Bushes reduced to spidery skeletons, trees stripped to seared spikes, the forest floor a sodden grey waste dotted with vile-smelling pools.
You are in a memory …
Catriona caught her breath – it was Segrana.
… my memory of the destruction wrought by the off-worlders …
‘It is like my memory of it,’ Cat said. ‘Segrana, forgive me, but I no longer … ’
… wish to be Keeper? Understandable, but you underestimate yourself – you have strengths that are needed … the Other is coming for you with a Keeper’s task … give no more than the task requires and remember that you are my Keeper, not that Other’s …
The charred forest turned about her, blurred and brightened, spun into a translucent blueness … and she was back in the dream-palace. A shadowy cloaked figure stood off to one side, waiting. Incorporeal once more, Catriona glided over to a nearby opaque blue pillar, putting it between her and her visitor.
** I hope that my counterpart is well ** said the Zyradin.
‘Couldn’t really say, one way or the other,’ she said. ‘I’d have thought you’d know more than a lesser being like me.’
** In certain ways I am a lesser being than you ** You may know that I have a task which only the Keeper can accomplish ** It is important and you must follow my instructions precisely **
‘May I know what this task is?’
** Like you, I have observed the conflict taking place out in space ** The black ship that destroyed the Hegemony vessel interests me ** With the Keeper’s assistance I will be able to gain a closer perspective and gather detailed information that would be otherwise unobtainable **
‘Sounds like you want to use me as some kinda glorified telescope,’ she said.
** No, my purpose is quite different ** May we proceed? **
She paused, curiosity warring with distrust.
‘Fine – let’s proceed.’
** First, close your eyes and do not open them until I say ** Shrugging, she closed her eyes.
At once she felt a sudden swirl of sub-zero iciness all over her body for just a moment, then it was gone. But her spirits lifted at the thought of experiencing physical sensation again. Could the Zyradin be taking a contrary position to Segrana, such that she might get her body back? It wasn’t exactly her preferred circumstances but if the offer was made she knew that she would accept. In any case, it seemed obvious to her that any of the senior Uvovo Listeners would be more suited to the role than she.
** You may now open your eyes **
At first all she saw was blackness, perfect, indivisible, until she glanced to one side and saw the stars.
Panicky terror seized her, along with a reflexive gasping for breath, and a wild flailing … until she realised that her body was pale and translucent, that she had no skin to freeze solid in the hard vacuum, nor any lungs to be sucked empty. The inky blackness was the shadow side of a big piece of ship’s hull, floating in a cloud of debris, much of it still spinning, rebounding from other pieces, being struck by faster-moving ones, a constellation of collisions, a random sea of razor glitter.
Must be another spectacle of memories, she thought to herself. Another meticulous mirage …
** You are wrong ** This is quite real and you are experiencing it directly **
A vertigo reflex ghosted through her, a promise of nausea that never came.
‘If this is real,’ she said (or at least heard herself say), ‘you must be projecting my awareness beyond the planet’s stratosphere. Why? I doubt that it’s just so you can get a closer look.’
** Segrana chose her Keeper well ** An elevated Listener would have been overcome by terror but you have adapted and have begun to ask the right