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Madeleine staggered to her feet. Emily's hand tightened in hers, and the girllet out a startled little sound. Andstopped still. Nearly falling again,Madeleine stared back at Emily's calm face, and tried to let go of a hand whichsuddenly held firm to hers.
"No." Noi, caught on Emily's other side, pulled herhand free, but did not run. "Millie..."
"Noi." Amocking tone, accompanied by a thin smile which did not fit Emily's youngface. "Just wait there."
"For pity's sake, look up!" Min grabbed Noi'sarm and swung her aside, then ducked himself, but not quick enough. A second Moth settled around his shoulders,and sank beneath his skin.
With a wordless, sobbing cry Noi snatched at Madeleine's handand pulled her free, and they ran with Nash and Pan as another ball of lightdrifted into view, and behind them two boys, one strawberry blonde and theother sandy-haired.
"Fish!"
At Pan's exclamation Madeleine looked ahead. They'd rounded enough of the corridor's curveto see the fire exit door, and Fisher waiting beside it, and the relief was sostrong she stumbled, but then found the strength for a burst of speed, catchingup with Nash as Fisher took a step or two in their direction.
Their speed undid them. The quiet determination of Fisher's expression, the way he moved awayfrom the fire exit instead of opening the door, stopping to rest a hand againstthe wall and lift the other, it was all clearly wrong, but they processed thistoo late to not run straight into the shield he raised.
Madeleine's own shield reacted automatically, saving her fromparalysis while bouncing her violently backward. She had barely wit enough to create a shieldto protect her head from smashing into the ceiling, but this had the effect ofslam-dunking her to the carpeted corridor floor.
Wind knocked out of her, sight hazed with wriggling grey, shelay stu
Noi, least-impaired, punched at Gavin, but the sandy-hairedboy was between them, planting his feet, shield shimmering to visibility as itabsorbed the energy.
"Not bad," he said, and then collapsed.
The sandy-haired boy's body landed beside Madeleine, as adeeply blue-veined Moth lifted out of him. She gasped and tried to make heavy limbs move, staring into the boy'sgreen eyes, glazed and empty. It was sohard to lift her head. She heard Noi cryout, a shout of rage and despair, and then, nothing.
Chapter Twenty
Cotton-headed, mouth dry, driven to consciousness by a Blue'shunger, Madeleine cracked eyelids and winced at the assault of unrelentingsunlight. Then the full unpleasantnessof memory intruded, and she bolted upright.
There was no-one near her. Not a sound, or any hint of movement. The strangeness of her location took her attention. She was on a single bed in an enormouscurving room, bare except for carpet. Floor to ceiling curtains formed distant makeshift walls in bothdirections. The narrower curve of i
Staring out – and down – over Sydney, Madeleine realisedwhere she had to be. Sydney Tower, thetallest building in the city. Fourdoughnut-shaped floors which from the outside looked like a gold ice bucketbalanced on a pole, crowned by a thick cylinder and ante
Her backpack and a spare bag of clothing were sitting a shortdistance away. She was still wearing theclothes she'd snatched on at dawn: sneakers, track suit pants and a white dressshirt held together by two misplaced buttons. Looking down at the shirt, Madeleine began to shiver in the warmsunlight, rubbing her arm as she realised the significance of the needle. She was too strong for the leader of clan Ul-naa to possess. The Moths had taken the others, and drugged the prize they could notuse, yet would not give up.
A black balloon swelled in her chest. Fisher...Fisher must have gone downstairs andmet a roaming Moth, then simply led others to where a clutch of free Bluesslept. To the people who had become hercomrades in arms, her friends. They wereall gone. Arms wrapped across her face,curled protectively over her head, Madeleine wept in suffocated abandon. She had failed every one of them. All for one had become the only one.
Fight. Alwaysfight. No matter how impossible theodds, no matter who you've lost, how you've been hurt. If there doesn't seem to be a way out, lookfor one. If you seem to have come to anend, start afresh. Never, ever give up.
Fisher had been so insistent that Madeleine particularly hadto go on, had foreseen with his usual clarity that her strength would set herapart. But being difficult to possessdidn't give her a path forward. Thesebare two weeks as part of a team had left her all too aware of her deficiencies. She needed Fisher to gather information, Noito come up with a plan and three backups. Emily's determination to fight, Pan's madly inspired suggestions, andMin to poke holes in them until Nash mediated a resolution. They were supposed to have stood together,and found a way to win.
If she fought, these would be the people she killed.
No-one, human or alien, interrupted her tears. When she had sobbed her way to numbexhaustion the curving room was as still as when she'd woken, nothing but drowsysunlight and dust motes, offering no guide to how to face what next. Madeleine could pretend that she foundrenewed determination, that her promise to Fisher spurred her to seekinformation, some plan or solution. Butit was the Blue's imperative appetite which got her off the bed.
It must be the same day, perhaps very early afternoon. A full day without eating would have left hersingle-mindedly focused on filling her stomach, a hair's breadth from lickingthe floor. What she'd be like goingwithout food for more than a day was something she'd never care to find out.
The presence of her backpack made the food hunt simple. Emergency ci
It was not true to say she felt numb. She felt hate. But it was formless, a resentment which hadno sharp edges, stymied against acting by the consequences. If she stopped caring about the people theywere wearing, Madeleine suspected that she would be able to kill at least a fewMoths by swinging full-strength punches. She wanted something far more difficult: her friends, free, together,undamaged. Something she had no idea howto achieve.
If you want B, first doA. Which was great advice, but whatshe wanted was more like M – or X – when she didn't know what the letters ofthe alphabet were, let alone in what order they lined up. But the thought helped. Instead of stumbling over how to do everything,all at once, she would step back from the big picture. Neither X nor Z – the destruction of theSpire – seemed at all possible for her to achieve alone, but if she first didA, perhaps she could find a way to B and to C.
A was simple. A waslooking around.
She began to explore, heading for one set of the curtainswhich shut away the rest of the doughnut-shaped room. Pulling them back she found herself standingbeside a flight of stairs leading back and up. Beyond them, the i