Nightpeople Read online

‘Just for a while? Please?’

  A quick glance passed between Dariand and Dreamer Gaardi.

  ‘For a moment, that’s all.’

  On the hard, red ground Saria tugged ineffectually at the thongs that bound the shoes to her feet.

  ‘There’s no point pulling at them, girl, they won’t come off.’

  ‘I just want to loosen them.’

  ‘Sorry.’ Dariand shook his head. ‘They have to be tight.’

  ‘But my legs …’

  ‘They’ll get used to it.’ Dariand turned and stared in the direction they had come from, where the ranges crouched dark in the distance. ‘You can take them off when we stop for the day.’

  ‘Dreamer Gaardi doesn’t need them.’

  It was true. The old man’s bare feet seemed impervious to pain.

  ‘He’s different. His ground doesn’t follow the same rules as ours.’

  ‘It’s the same ground.’

  ‘You’ve got a lot to learn.’

  Giving up arguing, Saria gazed back at the now distant mountains. The vaultlight cast them into long shadows, but the tops of the ridges were outlined in pale silver. Her valley was somewhere up there, she thought, and for a moment she considered trying to slip away from the men, to creep off in the darkness and pick her way back up the creek bed until she found the path to her home.

  ‘You’d never manage it, girl. Not on your own.’

  ‘What?’ Saria threw a startled glance at Dariand.

  ‘Find your way back to the valley.’

  ‘How’d you know I was …’

  ‘The look in your eyes. I know that expression.’ Dariand stared back up the path. ‘And you’d be wasting your time. It’s impossible to find your way through the Shades unless you know how. You’ll have to trust me.’

  ‘Why should I?’ Saria snapped, infuriated at the ease with which he had read her thoughts. She half expected him to get mad at her for challenging him, but instead Dariand just laughed softly.

  ‘Because I tried it myself when I was only a little older than you.’

  ‘You?’

  ‘You didn’t think you were the only child ever to grow up in the valley, did you?’

  ‘I thought …’

  ‘You thought wrong. Dreamer Wanji found that valley a long time ago, and I know of at least five children he sent there.’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘To give them a chance. Protect them.’

  ‘From what?’

  Dariand hesitated.

  ‘There’s all sorts of things you need protection from in these lands, girl.’

  ‘So where are these children now?’

  ‘Grown up like me. Or dead.’

  ‘Why weren’t any more children sent up there with me and Ma, then?’

  The final traces of Dariand’s smile faded.

  ‘There weren’t any more to send. Now come on, let’s go.’

  He stood and offered her a hand up.

  ‘Just a little longer?’

  ‘No. We have to get across the lake before sunrise, otherwise we’ll cook.’

  ‘How far is it?’

  Dariand shrugged. ‘Far enough.’

  Saria climbed back to her feet, pointedly ignoring the proffered assistance, and followed the two men out into the flat expanse.

  The ground gave a little and crunched slightly underfoot. Occasionally one of the men would step into a softer patch and break through the crust-like surface, releasing a stench of long-trapped gas. In the vaultlights, the whole landscape seemed alive, twinkling and shimmering.

  ‘What is this place?’

  ‘Silver Lake.’

  ‘What’s a lake?’

  ‘It …’ Dariand paused for a moment, thinking. ‘It’s an old word, from times before. It means that all this was once covered by water.’

  Saria stared. ‘Water?’

  ‘Yes. Everything you see here was left behind when the water vanished.’

  ‘Water.’ Saria looked about. They had walked far enough that the shimmering surface extended in every direction. Only behind was the horizon broken by the hills.

  ‘You’re not lying?’ She thought about the creek. Even during the wettest parts of the year it was little more than a narrow trickle between the rocks. She couldn’t imagine enough water to cover an area like this.

  ‘No.’

  ‘What happened to it?’

  ‘Don’t know. This was long ago. Before the Shifting.’

  ‘What’s that?’

  ‘It was …’ Before he could speak further Dreamer Gaardi made a soft, almost silent, guttural noise in the back of his thoat and Dariand hesitated.

  ‘It happened a long time ago. The Shifting changed everything about this land, and the people who live on it. Before it there were no Darklands. But it’s not something for me to explain.’

  ‘Why not?’

  ‘Not my business. These aren’t my stories to tell.’

  ‘But …’

  ‘Enough.’ Dariand lengthened his stride.

  Saria soon grew bored with the monotony of the landscape and the continuous crunch of their footsteps. At one point she stopped and knelt to touch the ground. It was surprisingly rough and when she licked her fingertip she was surprised by the tang of salt.

  ‘Don’t do that!’ Dariand snapped. ‘That’s a sure way to dry yourself out.’

  And they kept plodding across the lake.

  The only distraction was the vaultlights. Without any trees to obscure the skies, they stretched from the nightwards to the daywards horizons, gleaming against the blackness. She was surprised to notice that they were all slightly different. Some were large, some were small. Some appeared to twinkle while others were still. Some were coloured – reds and yellows – but most were pure white.

  ‘They move. Have you noticed?’ Dariand slowed his pace to walk beside her again, his footsteps almost exactly matching hers.

  ‘What?’

  ‘The vaultlights. They move.’

  ‘Move where? They all look still.’

  ‘That’s because your eye isn’t used to following them, but trust me, they shift across the sky. They tell us where we are and where we are going.’

  ‘What do you mean?’

  ‘I’ll show you. See that cluster over there?’ He pointed daywards, towards the horizon behind them.

  ‘Where?’

  ‘Right above the hills: three of them.’

  Saria squinted her eyes in the direction he indicated, but found it impossible to separate three of the vaultlights from the thousands of others.

  ‘They all look the same.’

  ‘Here.’ Dariand leant down, putting his head next to hers and pointing so she could peer along the length of his arm. ‘That one there, and that, and the brightest of the three, right above our path. Can you see them now?’

  ‘I think so.’

  ‘They appeared the night of your birth.’

  ‘Really?’

  ‘I was there. It was Dreamer Wanji who first spotted them and named them the Child. He named them for you. They’re a powerful cluster. I use them often.’

  ‘Use them?’

  ‘To guide me. They showed me the way to Ma Lee’s valley when you were a baby, and tonight they show us the correct way back across Silver Lake.’

  ‘How?’

  Dariand smiled.

  ‘I’ll have to explain that when we have a little more time.’

  The man cast a last glance at the distant cluster, then turned his back on them again. Far from satisfied, Saria followed.

  Light was staining the daywards horizon crimson when Saria made out the shapes of low bushes and undulating sand that marked the edge of the lake ahead of them.

  ‘Will we rest now?’

  ‘Soon. Once we’re on the other side we can find some shelter.’

  Suddenly, Dreamer Gaardi stopped.

  ‘You hear that?’ They were the first words the old man had spoken since leaving their campsite the p
revious evening, and he spoke them urgently.

  ‘What?’

  Wordlessly, the old man nodded behind, into the dawn. Dariand stood still, staring. Saria peered too. A moment later her ears picked up a tiny, high-pitched noise that floated through the still morning air from the far shore of the lake. She stared even harder and thought she saw a shape, made of darkness and light, whipping through the sky in the distance, but in the strange pre-dawn light it was hard to be certain.

  ‘You hear ‘im?’ Dreamer Gaardi asked.

  ‘Yeah.’ Dariand replied. ‘We’d better move.’

  Before she even had time to react, Dariand swept Saria off her feet and slung her over his shoulder. She started to struggle, but he delivered a sharp slap to her bare calves.

  ‘Stop it! We need to move fast, so you get carried.’

  And he set off again towards the edge of the lake, Dreamer Gaardi scurrying beside them on his skinny legs.

  ‘What is it?’

  Dariand didn’t answer. Jolting up and down on his shoulder, Saria tried to catch another glimpse of the tiny shape in the sky, but all she could make out was their three sets of shallow foot prints stretching back across the lake towards the hills, marking their route through the night.

  By the time they reached the far bank, Dariand was sweating heavily and was short of breath. Saria thought they would stop immediately but instead they plunged up and over the first of the sandy dunes which marked the edge of Silver Lake. There Dariand slowed and eased the girl to the ground. Even through the animal hides wrapped around her feet, the sand was cold as her feet sank into it.

  ‘What do you think, Dreamer Gaardi?’

  The old man stood still, head tilted, listening.

  ‘Dunno. Can’t hear ‘em now.’

  ‘They shouldn’t be out at this time.’

  ‘Can’t say what those nightfellas should or shouldn’t be doin’. They got no rules as far as I know.’

  ‘Don’t usually see them out this close to daylight.’

  ‘True.’ The old man turned his head slowly. ‘Gone now. I reckon they must have been hurrying home.’

  ‘Wherever that is,' Dariand agreed.

  Both men were still tense.

  ‘What’s happening?’ Saria tugged at the sleeve of Dariand’s robe, but he pushed her gently away.

  ‘Should we bunk down?’

  Dreamer Gaardi thought for a second.

  ‘Go a bit on first, I reckon, and walk real soft. This land’ll hide our path.’

  ‘Right.’

  Dariand grabbed Saria’s hand and started along the base of the dune, pulling her with him.

  ‘Aren’t we going nightwards?’

  ‘Too dangerous climbing over the dunes. We might get seen going over the crests.’ Much safer down here, out of sight.’

  ‘Seen by who?’

  ‘All sorts of characters. We’re in the Darklands and I’d rather not let anybody else know you’re here. Not yet, anyway. Once we get to Woormra, then things’ll be different.’

  ‘How come?’

  But Dariand didn’t answer and they slid around the base of one sand dune after another, while the vault above grew steadily brighter. Eventually, when they came across a clump of desert bush, Dariand stopped.

  ‘This’ll do.’

  Thankfully, Saria collapsed on the ground.

  ‘Here.’ Dariand threw her a water-skin and she drank deeply.

  ‘You did well tonight.’ He reached out as though to touch her hair, but then thought better of it and dropped his hand. ‘Let me get those things off your feet.’

  Saria had forgotten all about the tightly bound shoes. Dariand fiddled with the leather lacing for a couple of moments then slid them off. The early morning air was cold on her toes.

  ‘You’ll need to rub them for a bit, then you should get to sleep. Here.’

  He passed her some dried meat.

  ‘Eat and drink.’

  ‘I don’t eat meat.’ Saria pushed the hard stuff away.

  ‘It’s all there is. Now eat it.’

  His tone made it clear there’d be no arguing, and she was hungry, so, finally Saria slipped a piece into her mouth and chewed wearily.

  Dariand watched her while Dreamer Gaardi stood a little way off, not moving, his eyes closed.

  ‘Crawl right in under those bushes and get to sleep now. I’ll wake you when it’s time to move again.’

  ‘What was that thing?’ she asked.

  ‘What thing?’

  ‘You know. In the sky.’

  ‘Nightpeople.’

  ‘Nightpeople? Who are they?’

  Dariand sighed.

  ‘They’re the reason both you and I had to grow up hiding in that valley.’

  Saria opened her mouth, but before she could speak Dariand held up a hand to stop her.

  ‘You keep asking me big questions, girl, and right now I don’t have the time or the energy to answer them. For now, just believe me when I tell you that if the Nightpeople find you, then it’s the end of all of us. I’ll try and explain more tonight, eh? But for now I want you to climb in under here and go to sleep.’

  Saria noticed for the first time how tired he appeared. His eyes were drawn and he rubbed stiffly at the back of his neck.

  ‘That run across the lake with you on my back wore me out a bit,’ he told her ‘So let’s try and get some rest.’

  Realising that she was exhausted herself, Saria lay down. The sand was cold and slightly damp.

  ‘Further. We’ll need to get under too.’

  Saria scraped a hollow depression deep in the shade and allowed herself to sink into it. Despite all the questions running around in her mind, tiredness rushed over her and she was only vaguely aware of Dariand and Dreamer Gaardi clambering quickly under the bush beside her. And when the distant, high-pitched humming echoed between the dunes a few minutes later, she was completely asleep.

  Saria woke in the middle of the afternoon, the sun still high overhead. The two men slumbered beside her and the shade where they lay was dappled with brightness. She sat up cautiously, not wanting to disturb Dariand, and crawled carefully out.

  The glare of the sun on red sand painted the afternoon in a harsh, bloody light, which burnt at the back of her eyes. She took a couple of hesitant steps towards a curve in the dune, but leapt back into the shade with a yelp as the sand seared the soles of her feet.

  Above, the dayvault shimmered, a little like the surface of Silver Lake had gleamed in the vaultlights. The rest of the landscape was hidden behind the huge dunes, red sand rippling steeply up to peaks on either side of their bush.

  A clicking broke the silence. Instinctively, Saria closed in on it. It took a couple of minutes to find – a tiny chirping insect, nestled in a fork in the branches. Saria sighed in disappointment. She’d tried reaching insects before, larger ones than this, but only ever with limited success. Their minds were too small, too dependent on instinct to reach into.

  Still, there was nothing else to do. Settling cross-legged on the sand, the tiny creature perched just in front of her face, she examined the feelers and spiderwork-patterned wings folded along its length, then let the earthwarmth flow up from the ground into her body. Finally, her toes and fingertips tingling, Saria closed her eyes, relaxed and reached out.

  It was there immediately: a twittering, skittering little mind, alien and cold, right in front of her, a flickering spark against the afternoon. Sighing with contentment, Saria let herself sink into the insect’s consciousness.

  It was unlike any reaching she had ever done. Even the wild dog, for all its aggression, had not been as overwhelming. With other creatures there was always some sense of being slightly detached from the land, of living in it but with a barrier of intelligence keeping distance between the mind and the core of the land. With this tiny creature, though, there was no protective thought process to hold her separate, only cold, mute instinct. She was sinking into the fabric of the earth itself, drowning
in sudden, all-encompassing awareness.

  She could feel every tremble and vibration in the shrub, the coldness of the damp, deep below where the root system twined through living rock. She could feel the warm restless air drifting between the leaves and across the membranous wings of her host. The two sleeping men, a few metres away, pulsed – their size and power almost overpowering the little creature’s sense of its world.

  For a long while Saria stayed hovering at the outermost levels of the insect’s consciousness, barely even brushing it with her own senses and calming herself against the barrage of sensation. Then she slipped deeper, probing out into the surrounding landscape, searching for other life.

  The emptiness of the land almost swamped her and for a moment she came close to losing contact. There was nothing in every direction. Somewhere a long way distant, a few tiny flickers might have been creatures, but they were gone before the insect was even properly aware of them.

  After years in the valley, reaching into creatures surrounded by familiar life, the sudden isolation shook Saria to her core. Desperately needing to find some other indication of life nearby, she dived deeper in.

  When it struck, the pain was blinding; flashes of burning colour leapt across her vision and into her mind and Saria yelped, reflex tearing away her connection with the insect. She fell back, clutching her hands to her temples, and lay curled on the warm sand, sobbing as waves of bright pain washed over her.

  A soft hand touched her lightly on the forearm. Through eyes still blurred, Dreamer Gaardi swam into view, kneeling over her.

  ‘You gotta sit up. Here.’

  His touch was gentle as he eased her back into a sitting position and held a water-skin to her lips. Saria drank long, the water tepid against the back of her throat. When she finished, she wiped a sleeve across her mouth and the old man sat back on his haunches and surveyed her closely.

  ‘You’ve gotta be careful with them little ‘uns.’

  His voice was hardly more than a whisper. He was being careful not to wake Dariand.

  ‘What?’

  He opened his left hand. There, sitting quietly on his palm, was the insect.

  ‘These fellas. You gotta watch yourself. These blokes are much closer to the land than us bigfellas. You go in too deep and you’ll feel the Shifting, and that’s real bad pain.’