Hakim had called a private meeting aboard the command deck of The Golden Turtle. None of the normal crew members were present, and those who were spoke quietly in a closed circle around the map table: Jack, Dannie, Ruth, Hakim, Adâ, Vince, Gaby, Malik, Charles, and the set of others previously unknown to Jack.
In comparison to the bubbling of the zöpütan dinner, the atmosphere had quelled considerably. It was less than twenty-four hours since the cremation, and everyone was understandably reserved. Hakim and Adâ had come in wearing black. Adâ, he noticed, had also cut her hair: streaming dark locks had been sheared, exposing her frail neck. She looked as if she hadn’t slept.
When everyone was assembled, Hakim cleared his throat, and the mumbling quieted. His voice was cracked but steady. “I’m not going to attempt to elegize Sardâr now. I couldn’t do him justice in so few words. Suffice it to say, Adâ and I want to escort his ashes back to Tâbesh. He has no remaining family, but many friends and colleagues are there who will want to honor him. By the laws of our country every citizen, even if they are exiled, has the right to return in death.”
There was general nodding around the circle. No one was going to prevent such a reasonable request. Hakim half-turned to Adâ, as if to see if she had anything to add, but she stared absently ahead.
No one said anything for a few moments. The morning sun blazed through the glass dome, catching swirling jets of dust in its beams. No one seemed to want to continue talking.
“I’m presuming, then,” Hakim continued, “that the rest of you will remain here until we return?”
“I think so,” Charles confirmed, once several people had given their assent. “The zöpüta still have a considerable way to go with their new community, and we can all lend a hand.”
Hakim smiled faintly. Jack could tell he was glad that he and Adâ wouldn’t be missed too much. “In that case, has anyone got anything more to add?”
Again no one spoke. Jack’s heart quickened. He was in a moment of indecision. He knew it was right that the others should know what Sardâr had told him, but this didn’t seem like a particularly respectful time. He didn’t want to hijack the situation. And yet, they would be angry later if he hadn’t told them when they were all here…
“Well, in that case—”
“I’ve got something to say.” Jack stepped forward slightly. Everyone was now looking at him. He gathered a deep breath, taking in all their waiting expressions, and then took the plunge. “I’m the Übermensch.”
He had expected something radical to change. It didn’t. Everyone looked at him as if he’d just announced what he’d be having for lunch.
Conscious that he only had a limited time before his credibility completely deserted him, he pressed on. “I can speak all your languages. Literally all of them. Isaac thought that was meant to be a sign, didn’t he?”
“Jack,” Hakim began, with the tone of one dealing with a delusional child, “as impressive as that is, I’m not sure—”
“No, you don’t understand. This is new.” He pulled the defunct language ring out of his pocket and held it up to the light. It reminded him of having to stand up and speak in front of a class at school, and the painful memories of that occasion spurred him on. “When I first met you, when this first started, I couldn’t speak anything other than English. Now, though, the ring doesn’t have any effect.”
“He’s right.” Adâ’s voice drew everyone’s attention. “He couldn’t speak any other languages when we first picked him up.”
There was a pause. Jack saw Hakim and Charles exchange skeptical looks. He was losing his audience. Impulsively, he yanked the cord of the Seventh Shard from around his neck and held it at arm’s length. “Look, if you don’t believe me, watch this. Come on out, Inari.”
There was a flash of incandescent light, and a couple of people cried out. It faded, and on the ground beneath the dangling Shard, the double-tailed white fox sat on his hind legs, regarding the room.
“Everyone, this is Inari. Say hello, Inari.”
“Hello, everyone,”the fox drawled.
Everyone else looked stunned. There was definitely no skepticism now.
“Inari’s the one who gave me the Seventh Shard, back on Earth. He’s pulled me out of quite a few scrapes so far.”
“But,” Ruth ventured, “it’s a fox…”
Inari bristled. “I’d rather you didn’t pander such essentialisms around, my dear. I have two tails, I’m glowing, and I can speak. I am demonstrably not a fox.”
Ruth didn’t seem too happy with the rebuke.
“But, more to the point, Jack is the Übermensch, although your terms of reference are hardly fitting. It’s more a state of becoming than a state of being.”
Dannie seemed to be on a different wavelength. “Does it live in the Shard, then?”
“In a manner of speaking. There’s no proper mortal equivalent. I suppose I’m tied to the Shard but free to come and go as I please. You’ll find that the other Shards are similarly inhabited, although because of some special conditions you won’t find any of their denizens as vocal as I. And, madam, I’d also rather you addressed me directly, rather than through Jack. Really, you lot call yourselves civilized.”
Jack thought it was time to intervene. “Okay, Inari, that’s enough.”
The fox did its equivalent of rolling its eyes, and a moment later it had vanished.
There was a stunned silence.
“Sardâr worked it out originally,” Jack said, wanting to acknowledge the real source. “He said he’d had his suspicions for a while, but…”
“So if he’s the Übermensch,” Dannie began slowly, “then that’s good, isn’t it?”
“Very much so,” Hakim replied weakly. “All we need to do is find the remaining Shards, and…” He let the remainder of his sentence hang.
Jack continued. “Well, I was thinking about that. We’re fairly sure there’s a Shard in this world, aren’t we? And now that the Cult’s gone, it’s not going to be at all as risky to find it. There aren’t any people besides us: the worst we’ll come across are a few wild animals. I could take a dimension ship with a few others and bring it back here, whilst Hakim and Adâ are away. Then we can sort out what to do about the others after that.”
He hoped he sounded sincere. Of course, he was planning to go and get the Shard, but Lucy’s departure had given him a jolting reminder of the real reason he’d become involved with the Apollonians in the first place: to find Alex. And if Alex had been on Nexus, there was a good chance he would have ended up somewhere on this planet—if he’d managed to get out at all.
“That seems reasonable.” Charles nodded along with several others. “We haven’t thought about the implications of the Cult being gone yet, but it would seem that the pursuit of the Shard will now be considerably easier. Who would you take with you? If it’s to be one of our ordinary dimension ships, then it can’t be a big group.”
Jack looked around the assembled faces. He knew who he wanted but was tentative about announcing it to the group. He was saved the embarrassment when Ruth stepped forward.
“I’m in.”
“Me too,” Dannie added, rolling the Third Shard between finger and thumb. “Sounds like you could use someone with another one of these. Mine’s got a shiny animal as well, then?”
“Three’s fine,” Jack said quickly. He didn’t want the entire group volunteering, or it would turn into something like a school trip.
Preparations didn’t take long. Their trio was allocated one of the other dimension ships: very like the one Lucy had been taken home in but violet instead of turquoise. Their belongings and some provisions were loaded in the cargo section beneath, including an egg from The Golden Turtle for contact purposes.
As they were stocking up the ship, Adâ approached. Jack panicked slightly: he had avoided speaking to her since Sardâr’s death, not knowing how to possibly begin consoling her.
However, she didn’t seem to expect him to say anything. She was holding an object that he initially took to be a slab of stone, but he realized it was the Cultist mirror they’d taken from Thorin Salr. The surface was now dulled completely. It had lost its obsidian quality and now seemed as if it could have slid out of any cliff face.
She pressed it into the crook of one of his arms. “It might come in useful.”
He scrabbled for something to say. “I know you’ll make sure he’s sent off properly.” The words sounded painfully blasé.
Adâ didn’t seem to mind. Instead, she pulled him into a brief hug. “Look after yourselves. He cared about you.”
The zöpüta brought gifts for them as well. Along with drying foods, they had been experimenting with art. They presented Jack, Ruth, and Dannie wallet-sized woven sculptures in the likeness of lion heads. Jack clipped his onto the thread around his neck to hang with the Seventh Shard, whilst Ruth planted hers in her hair. Dannie, after a failed attempt to eat hers, sheepishly deposited it in one of the pouches on her belt.
They were ready within half an hour. Ruth was in the pilot’s position, adjusting controls, whilst Dannie looked on with interest. The remaining Apollonians had collected by the side of the ship, along with an assortment of zöpüta.
Charles wheeled over, and Jack crouched on the edge of the ship to hear him speak. “I know this should be straightforward, but don’t get complacent. We’ve survived the wreckage of Nexus, so others may have too.”
Jack nodded and was about to stand.
Charles halted him, speaking more discreetly. “And watch out for that fox.”
“Inari’s always been—”
“I know you trust him,” Charles pressed on, “and perhaps with good reason. But I’m sure you remember as well as I do what Isaac’s last letter said about a white fox.”
“Okay, we’re ready,” Ruth called.
Jack backed away and strapped himself in with the odd jellied belts as Charles cleared the vicinity. The vibrations from below and the suddenly blurring air around them told him that the wings had begun to beat. He saw that Dannie hadn’t bothered to put hers on. “Trust me,” he told her. “Use that. You didn’t see what happened to Vince…”
The two passengers had just begun to wave as Ruth slammed her palm down on the control panel. The ship lurched forwards, and they caught a last glimpse of waving figures, the shelters, and the metallic sheen of The Golden Turtle before they were hurtling across the savannah under the beating sun.