shrugged her surrender with a brooding look that told me her doubts about the wisdom of the walk were real enough, but Swallow gave me a rakish, reassuring smile, a brief flash of white in his dark face.
He and Dameon set off, striding along the path of crushed stone that ran between the rows of huts, carrying me with them. Although my feet were touching the ground, they were carrying almost the whole of my weight and it was impossible to make my legs move fast enough to keep up even a semblance of walking. No one watching would believe this walk was meant to exercise an invalid, which told me the others feared being overheard, but not being seen. No doubt sensing my confusion, Dameon leaned close and murmured to me to relax and let them do the work. I nodded, now certain that the purpose of this walk was not to exercise me, but to get to a place where we could talk freely.
So I hung between Dameon and Swallow like a sack of oats and concentrated on fighting nausea and a sickening dizziness, only wondering whether all of the Speci were obediently abed with their lights out, meek as a new intake of novices in the Farseeker wing.
None of the others made any attempt to speak as we walked, so I held my tongue, too. Ana and Dragon were ahead of us and I noticed that the garments they wore, for all their similarity to the Beforetime clothes I had been given at Oldhaven, lacked their impossible symmetry. The cloth looked to me to be woven on a simple loom and I guessed, given the little I had taken in about life in Habitat, the Speci had woven it and made the clothes. But the huts we were passing were so exactly alike they had assuredly been built using Beforetime technology.
‘How do you feel?’ Swallow broke into my thoughts, panting slightly.
I turned my head to assure him I was well enough, and he gave me a dry half-smile that doubted it and I realised he and the others must have endured the same weakness and lack of control. But we did not slow until we were approaching a hut with a drooping bush growing before it.
‘That is the hut I share with Dameon,’ Swallow murmured. ‘I planted the bush so I need not count huts every time I wanted to find my way to my bed, but it troubles the Speci because they see conformity as harmony, so the desire to be different is regarded as a tendency to disharmony. They find it hard to believe that the bush was merely a practical solution to a small problem.’
‘Better to destroy the bush than risk troubling the harmony in Habitat,’ Ana said, turning to glare at him. I could not tell if she was really angry or if her words were part of the ongoing magi play they had all performed to some degree or other since my awakening.
‘It may be wiser to err on the side of caution,’ Dameon murmured tranquilly.
‘I do all that is asked of me, willingly and well,’ Swallow said, and though his tone was light, his grip around my waist tightened involuntarily. ‘After all, I am still a man even if I am a good Speci. I have a mind of my own.’
‘You would do well to exercise it now and then,’ Ana said tartly.
I lost interest in their quarrel when we reached the end of the row of huts and I saw that the darkness before us was not the vague star-pricked black of night but an immense wall. It had to be the one surrounding Habitat, I thought, marvelling at the height of it, which must surely exceed that of the wall surrounding the black city on Herder Isle. No wonder there was nothing visible beyond it. Even a scraper would need to be close by to be seen, let alone trees and lower buildings. That meant Habitat might be on the outskirts of Pellmar Quadrants after all.
I wondered how thick the wall was, and if there were any rooms or tunnels constructed within it, as in the wall about the black city. It was far too high to throw a grappling hook up, if one could be made, and climbing it would be a frightening business even with a rope, let alone without one. A better target would be a
He and Dameon set off, striding along the path of crushed stone that ran between the rows of huts, carrying me with them. Although my feet were touching the ground, they were carrying almost the whole of my weight and it was impossible to make my legs move fast enough to keep up even a semblance of walking. No one watching would believe this walk was meant to exercise an invalid, which told me the others feared being overheard, but not being seen. No doubt sensing my confusion, Dameon leaned close and murmured to me to relax and let them do the work. I nodded, now certain that the purpose of this walk was not to exercise me, but to get to a place where we could talk freely.
So I hung between Dameon and Swallow like a sack of oats and concentrated on fighting nausea and a sickening dizziness, only wondering whether all of the Speci were obediently abed with their lights out, meek as a new intake of novices in the Farseeker wing.
None of the others made any attempt to speak as we walked, so I held my tongue, too. Ana and Dragon were ahead of us and I noticed that the garments they wore, for all their similarity to the Beforetime clothes I had been given at Oldhaven, lacked their impossible symmetry. The cloth looked to me to be woven on a simple loom and I guessed, given the little I had taken in about life in Habitat, the Speci had woven it and made the clothes. But the huts we were passing were so exactly alike they had assuredly been built using Beforetime technology.
‘How do you feel?’ Swallow broke into my thoughts, panting slightly.
I turned my head to assure him I was well enough, and he gave me a dry half-smile that doubted it and I realised he and the others must have endured the same weakness and lack of control. But we did not slow until we were approaching a hut with a drooping bush growing before it.
‘That is the hut I share with Dameon,’ Swallow murmured. ‘I planted the bush so I need not count huts every time I wanted to find my way to my bed, but it troubles the Speci because they see conformity as harmony, so the desire to be different is regarded as a tendency to disharmony. They find it hard to believe that the bush was merely a practical solution to a small problem.’
‘Better to destroy the bush than risk troubling the harmony in Habitat,’ Ana said, turning to glare at him. I could not tell if she was really angry or if her words were part of the ongoing magi play they had all performed to some degree or other since my awakening.
‘It may be wiser to err on the side of caution,’ Dameon murmured tranquilly.
‘I do all that is asked of me, willingly and well,’ Swallow said, and though his tone was light, his grip around my waist tightened involuntarily. ‘After all, I am still a man even if I am a good Speci. I have a mind of my own.’
‘You would do well to exercise it now and then,’ Ana said tartly.
I lost interest in their quarrel when we reached the end of the row of huts and I saw that the darkness before us was not the vague star-pricked black of night but an immense wall. It had to be the one surrounding Habitat, I thought, marvelling at the height of it, which must surely exceed that of the wall surrounding the black city on Herder Isle. No wonder there was nothing visible beyond it. Even a scraper would need to be close by to be seen, let alone trees and lower buildings. That meant Habitat might be on the outskirts of Pellmar Quadrants after all.
I wondered how thick the wall was, and if there were any rooms or tunnels constructed within it, as in the wall about the black city. It was far too high to throw a grappling hook up, if one could be made, and climbing it would be a frightening business even with a rope, let alone without one. A better target would be a
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