The Seeker - Isobelle Carmody [76]
It took me a long moment to take in that the eyes did not move or glisten. My heart was still pounding as I went closer and took the lantern. I saw then that the eyes belonged to a stuffed Guanette bird mounted on a shelf of stone. Even in death, the massive bird’s bright, round eyes seemed penetrating, and I wondered in disgust who would kill and stuff something so rare and lovely.
I heard a sound behind me and whirled, but I could see nothing. I went across to another alcove, where there was a bed set again the wall. Then I saw a movement and realized with a shock that it was occupied. “Rushton?” I whispered.
The person lying on the bed stirred and turned toward me. To my astonishment, I saw that it was Cameo!
The light bathed her face as I approached, and her skin glowed marble white so that the blackness under her eyes looked like crescents of ink. Her eyes flickered open. “Elf?” she murmured, but vaguely. It was strange and terrible to hear her using Jes’s nickname for me, but I reached out and touched her face. She frowned and said more strongly, “Elspeth?”
“I’m here,” I whispered.
Consternation crossed her features, bringing them to life. “No! You mustn’t be here. He … he wants you. I heard him say it. You must go now.”
“Don’t talk,” I begged.
She fell back and closed her eyes. “I knew you would come,” she whispered.
But too late, I thought to myself.
“Not too late!” she protested, and I gasped, for she had read my thought. Then I saw that she had heard my realization as well, for she said, “I don’t know why, but somehow the pain made me … able to hear better. But I still couldn’t do what they wanted. I’m not strong enough. But while they used their machines, I had a true dream. I dreamed there is something you have to do. You alone. I dreamed it was more important than anything else in the world. It has something to do with this place and with the map that Alexi seeks. The map that … shows the way to a terrible power.… He does not realize how terrible it is, and it would not stop him if he did know.”
“A … terrible power?” I echoed, thinking of all the nightmarish stories I had heard of the capacity of the Beforetimers for violence and destruction.
“Worse,” Cameo whispered. “Worse than you can possibly imagine. The map shows the way to the very machines that caused the Great White.”
“No!” I gasped.
Her eyes fluttered, and I saw the effort it took for her to go on. “You have to stop them from finding the machines, Elspeth. You have to find them first and make sure no one can ever use them.” The veins in her neck stood out like cords.
“I can’t do that,” I said, my mind whirling.
“You can, for you are the Seeker,” she said.
“Please,” I rasped, and discovered that tears were running down my face. For Cameo was dying. It is my fault, I thought. All along it was me they really wanted.
“You came,” she whispered.
I fell to my knees by her bed and cried while she stroked my hair with a hand no heavier than a breath of air. Then her hand was still.
I wept bitter tears until a laugh echoed down the passages and penetrated the fog of sorrow that had enveloped me. I stood up. I knew that laugh, and it dried all the tears and sorrow in me, leaving a rime of brittle determination. I set off down a hallway that led deeper into the structure, vowing that Ariel and the others would pay for what they had done to Cameo.
When I got closer to the source of his laughter, I saw there was light ahead. I extinguished my lantern and set it down before continuing.
I had been creeping along for several minutes when Madam Vega suddenly spoke, so near that it sent ice sifting over my skin. I inched forward until I could see into another room,