Fracta sealed the door. Now, only narrow lines of moonlight angled in through chinks in the roof. It was eerie to sit in that uncertain light with the still forms of Wist, Jovius and the Heir propped against the wall.
A shudder ran through Daniel’s body every time he took a breath. Lucy told him about Fracta and the rescue but it was impossible to know how much he understood. He only nodded, dull-eyed, and blew into his hands.
‘We have a bargain.’ Fracta pressed one finger into Lucy’s arm. ‘I have done my part.’ Drawing a flask from her pocket, she took a swig.
‘I said I’d do it,’ snapped Lucy. She pictured Alkazia looming over the plain, its walls lined with frozen Cloudians. In her mind, she saw again those still faces rising from her reflection.
It was strange – she felt more shivery now, thinking of them, than she remembered feeling at the time. Then, fear had been all around her: an electric charge in the air. Now, it had burrowed into her skin. She felt it stir and scratch there whenever she moved. Daniel’s broken whimpers made everything seem intimate and real. She was afraid of suffering the way he had suffered. All she wanted now was to wait in the still quiet of the cave. Her home felt too far away to want, or even imagine.
‘Can I have some?’ Daniel reached for Fracta’s flask. The skin tightened on her face but she handed it to him. Daniel’s hand was shaking so much the flask bumped against his teeth. When the liquid poured down his throat, he choked and broke out coughing.
‘What is that?’ he rasped, rubbing his throat.
‘I do not drink it often.’ Fracta snatched the flask back.
‘I don’t care whether you have it for breakfast.’ Daniel sat straight up. His eyes, which a moment ago had looked as lifeless as sand, gleamed in the pale light. ‘I’m sure that’s alcohol. We could light it.’
‘Do you still have matches?’ Lucy asked.
‘I think so.’ He fumbled in a pocket of his jeans and raised the little box like a trophy. ‘It’s almost full.’
Fracta sat watching, suspicion wrinkling her forehead. ‘Matches?’ she said.
‘Hand me that flask again,’ said Daniel. Fracta looked at Lucy, who nodded. Drawing the flask once more from her pocket, Fracta passed it to Daniel. He scuffed a hollow in the floor and tipped in a few drops of liquid, which pooled and glittered. Grinning at Lucy, he scraped the match. Blue and then red, it flared. After so long in the cloud’s cool light, the fire’s colour and dry rustling made Lucy’s courage leap up like her shadow on the cave wall.
Fracta stretched forwards, sheltering her eyes. Distrust and curiosity flashed across her face. She’s never seen fire before, thought Lucy, and wondered how it must appear to her – a fierce spirit trapped on a splinter. Daniel eased the match towards that little pool of liquid.
Crack! Light jolted through Lucy. She thought the cave had exploded.
‘Brilliant!’ Daniel leapt up, not noticing when his head hit the ceiling. ‘I’m warm!’ He stretched his arms out and turned awkwardly, with his lips parted. ‘What is that stuff?’
‘Block those gaps!’ ordered Fracta. She had fallen back against the wall. Now she pulled herself up, holding her arm stiffly, and jerked her chin at some breaks in the ceiling where the dawn light poured in.
‘Fracta! Your hand! It’s burnt!’ Lucy seized Fracta’s wrist and pulled it into the light. It was seared in a claw shape. Its skin had the sheen of damp linoleum. ‘It’s burnt!’
‘Block those gaps!’ Fracta snatched her hand away. ‘Quick, or we’ll all be caught.’
‘Alright!’ Lucy gazed around the cave, seeing nothing she could use. Her heart was shuddering.
‘Ice-razor!’ hissed Fracta. ‘Cut pieces!’ Lucy knelt and slashed but the pieces shattered.
Fracta moaned with impatience. ‘Slow! Calm!’ With her injured hand, she marked a shape on the floor. Lucy traced the shape with her ice-razor, copying the twisting motion of Fracta’s wrist, and a piece eased free. Lucy slid it into the widest gap. Fracta was already tapping on the floor. Again, Lucy knelt beside her and traced the shape that she had made.
The work settled Lucy’s mind. She kept on until they had closed the cave again in half-light. Fracta nodded and sat back, balancing her seared hand on her knee. Lucy noticed she didn’t complain or even study the injury, and felt a nudging respect.
A clatter made Lucy turn. Wist had tumbled sideways. Daniel balanced him against the wall again. ‘His eyes!’ he breathed, his hands still on Wist’s shoulders. ‘He’s looking.’
Lucy crawled across the cave. Wist’s face was stiff but his eyes had a light in them. ‘And the Heir,’ she whispered. ‘And Jovius.’
‘The fire woke them!’
Though Jovius hadn’t moved, Lucy saw life flow through him again: a motionless tremor up his wrist, disappearing under his sleeve and flashing out again on his face. His fingers looked oddly vulnerable, like grubs. They started moving like grubs, too, with little wrinkling twitches. He clenched one hand into a fist and uncurled his fingers slowly.
‘Wist?’ His eyes cleared and he frowned. ‘Wist?’
Wist was rubbing his eyes. He yawned. ‘But were we taken or not?’
‘Lucy saved us,’ said Daniel.
‘Saved us?’ Wist jerked forwards. ‘From Alkazia?’
‘Fracta did most of it.’
Wist saw Fracta and flinched. Fracta stared back, her face fixed in an expression of defiance. Lucy guessed it was the first time she had looked any Cirrus in the face. At last, Wist nodded, so slowly it was almost a bow.
‘Thank you,’ he said. Fracta’s eyes flickered. Wist started examining the wall with one hand. When he caught sight of the Heir, he pressed his palms against his chest. This time, he did bow, with his chin tucked against his neck.
The Heir only gazed at Wist. Lucy wondered whether he was still frozen, but, after a pause, he frowned and turned his head, studying each of them in turn. When he saw Lucy, he inched up one hand and brushed his fingers across her cheek.
‘But I remember this face,’ he whispered. He kept gazing at her. ‘I have lost things,’ he said. ‘In my mind. There’s a blank here.’ He pressed his fingers against his forehead.
‘Why did you choose me?’ she breathed. ‘Am I really the Protector?’
He blinked at her. Once more, he brushed the tips of his fingers against her cheek. ‘I have seen this face. Always in windows. Looking up at us? The only one looking out?’ He frowned. ‘Why is the light so dim?’
‘Frozen too long,’ said Fracta. ‘He’s forgotten everything.’
‘But he’s alive,’ said Lucy. A tingling feeling ran down her arms. ‘We could rescue them all.’
Daniel looked at her, his face bright. He nodded slowly. ‘Fracta,’ he asked, still with his eyes on Lucy, ‘how much of that drink do you have?’
‘Only this flask. But I could get more. The Stratus have plenty of phumooze.’ The bitterness in Fracta’s voice made Lucy remember that cavern filled with Stratus, slumped unseeing, half-lost in the heavy air.
Daniel started tapping his fingertips against each other. ‘We could blast the whole place! Run a line of that stuff around Alkazia! Then boom!’ He splayed his fingers. ‘There wouldn’t be anything left!’
Lucy pictured flames reaching across the whole sky. ‘We could do it!’ she cried. Her heart started hammering against her ribs.
‘We need a plan,’ said Fracta. ‘If we’re going to trap the Kazia, we’ll have to work in daylight. That means shadow-mongers. Maybe the Varactor.’
‘I’ll need at least a hundred litres of that stuff,’ interrupted Daniel.
Fracta nodded. ‘I can get that. And Stratus to help you pour it.’ She looked at Lucy. ‘I’ll summon them in your name. You and I will lead another group into Alkazia to cut the prisoners out.’
Jovius and the Heir had settled back against the wall but Wist was glancing between Fracta and Daniel, frowning. ‘They have fire,’ explained Fracta. ‘You have watched Earth? You have seen it?’
A look of comprehension ran across Wist’s face. He nodded. ‘Snow geese can hold off shadow-mongers.’ He turned to Lucy, his face pinched with excitement. ‘We’ll go into the sky and call them to us.’
‘Rest now,’ said Fracta. ‘Set off at nightfall.’