Cloudland by Lisa Gorton Page B

alone and helpless – just another Stratus, invisible in the hierarchy of the clouds.
    â€˜Foolish!’ spat Fracta. ‘If we’re caught . . .’ In that small, freezing cave, the two of them glared at each other. Fracta’s mouth twisted as though she had eaten a stone. ‘As you say, I need you. At least, I need the illusion that makes you worth more than you are. If I help you rescue your precious friends, you will accept the title Protector? You will lead the sky creatures against the Kazia?’
    Lucy nodded.
    â€˜You will keep this promise?’ Fracta held her face within an inch of Lucy’s. Her eyes burnt through Lucy’s skin. Finally, she sat back and nodded. ‘We’ll go now. At night, shadow-mongers carry the Kazia over Cloudland. We’ll find your friends in the Great Hall, no doubt, with all the other prisoners. We’ll have to be quick to cut them out before the Kazia comes back.
    â€˜Here. Take this.’ Reaching into a pouch she wore tied to her waist, Fracta handed Lucy a tool like a chisel made of glass. It had a blade so fine it was almost invisible. Lucy raised her hand to test her thumb against its edge.
    â€˜No!’ Fracta seized her wrist. ‘Try it against that wall.’
    When Lucy rested the blade against that hard-packed ice, it slid through it like a knife through water. Lucy drew back her arm and stared at the blade in astonishment.
    â€˜An ice-razor,’ said Fracta. ‘A cloud the size of a city compacted to make that blade. It will cut anything in the clouds.’ She looked at Lucy. ‘Including you.’ She handed Lucy a sheath. Lucy was still fixing it around her waist when Fracta cut a gap in the cave wall.
    They stepped into the dark.

CHAPTER TWENTY
Alkazia
    Above them, the sky was fierce with stars – pure light smashed across its empty reaches. Lucy couldn’t stop shivering. Alkazia was a dark shape against the sky, a door into some other world. While Lucy stood there, gazing at it, the moon slid over the top of Alkazia and the whole plain shone. For one moment, Lucy was suspended, part of the sky, feeling the stars burn in her own flesh. Then Fracta tugged at her arm and they started walking.
    The silence was astonishing. Lucy could hear tiny crystals grating against each other under her feet. What she felt, above all, was the unreality of fear. She might have been suspended an inch above her body,noting with curiosity how her hands were shaking, how her bones felt hollow.
    Fracta signalled the entrance was on the far side. They walked around Alkazia. The entrance was a cutout square, darker even than the walls. Holding her ice-razor in front of her, Lucy walked into Alkazia. Inside, it was dead cold. Moonlight, glimmering through the door, showed Lucy she had stepped into a vast hall, its ceiling and corners lost in shadow.
    Fracta tapped against Lucy’s back and pointed at one wall. Then she pointed at her chest, and the opposite wall, and scurried away. Splitting up, they edged along opposite sides of the hall. The wall showed Lucy’s reflection – her face, distorted on the uneven surface. When Lucy stepped closer, her reflection rose and blossomed, opening as she leant towards it, until she leant into her shadow. Then her reflection vanished. Where her face had been, she saw someone else’s face.
    Her cry echoed in the silent hall. It was the Heir, like him in every way; only there was no life in him at all. The ice gave his skin a marble sheen. He had his hands raised, fingers splayed. For a moment Lucy was in the aeroplane again, watching him press his fingers against the window. Then the memory faded and Alkazia gathered around her again.
    The Heir was in a cell cut into the wall. A layer of ice held him, its dirty translucence pitted with bubbles of air. He was frozen; she could not save him. Still, she couldn’t bear to leave him there, staring at nothing. Her ice-razor sliced