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The last thing Madeleine wanted was the Core to go attack theSpire Squad. She needed to unbalance anddistract him, long enough to get closer.
"I think you've given him a black eye, Millie," sheadded. "But I expect Gavin willforgive you. Look after him." Another few steps.
The Core glanced toward the Spire, still standing, stillscreaming, but was not so easily diverted. His arm started to lift, and Madeleine dived forward, not trying toreach him, just closing the distance so that she didn't need to stretch herselfbeyond endurance.
She slammed into the footpath, hollow, a doll. Empty, as if only a scrap of her self remained. But light had bloomed. Madeleinerolled painfully onto her back and stared up at the deeply Blue Core as itmoved toward her.
Hands, rough and hasty, grabbed her by the armpits and pulledher backward. Fisher. Blackly frowning, hair wild.
"I'm sure you have some perfectly reasonable explanationfor not waiting for the leeches," he said, panting as he reversed themboth rapidly away, "but right now it's escaping me."
"Delaying manoeuvre." Madeleine hadn't heard him ru
Fisher let out a startled laugh, and shook his head. "Dangerous logic."
A heavy round bin served as a useful prop, with Fisherpositioning himself in front of her, a lone figure almost as tired as she. But already there were pounding feet behindthem, and a cry of "Once more untothe breach, dear friends!" to herald a sudden crowd, a city'sdefenders arrayed before her.
The Core, far from stupid, immediately flitted in the otherdirection, and a Moth's speed may well have led to an escape, but for a grimfigure which rose into its path.
"No cutting out on your death scene," Gavin said,perhaps trying to achieve a lightly chiding tone, but with such a harshundernote of anger that he sounded totally unlike himself as he hit out with ashield.
Knocked backward, the Core failed to evade reaching hands –Nash, Tyler, Claire and Quan – all of them crowdingforward. The Core lasted only a fewmoments longer than Noi's Moth, and then it wasnothing, a collapsing jellyfish.
"May you rot."
Gavin stepped forward, and for a moment seemed about to spit,but shook his head instead and turned his back. And then they were all looking around at each other, eyes large.
"You finished the dragon–?" Madeleine asked.
Pan turned, checking. "Nah, it's still galumphing up the road behind us, but the Core wasthe primary target. Time tosnicker-snack, ev–"
The Spire stopped screaming.
Madeleine found enough energy to slew around with the rest,to stare across Hyde Park at a familiar skyline, where Sydney Tower was thetallest building, and no midnight spear stabbed the dawn.
Then, as cheering rose all across the park, the dragonreached them.
Chapter Twenty-Six
A neutrally-decorated guest bedroom dominated by a fourposter bed. Sunlight streamed throughFrench doors, danced with dust motes, and kept Madeleine, tucked beneath aquilt, toasty-warm. Inertia pi
"I've bad news if you're pla
Madeleine shifted gingerly, moving from her side to herback. "Noi told me," shesaid. "Did you find yourfriends?"
"Only Eliza. Shethinks Josh is still Plus One." Tyler put down a carry bag and sat on the side of the bed, rearrangingthe long skirt of his dress before surveying Madeleine judicially, from herscraped and bruised face to her tightly wrapped left arm. "Malingering, or genuinely can'tcope?"
"Both?" There had been a patch, when she'd woken early in the evening after thebattle of the Spire, where it had all slammed down on her and she'd weptherself numb, barely responsive even to her Blue's hunger. The next day she'd slept when she no longerneeded it, and struggled to have anything to say to Noi and Emily when theybrought her food and news. "Ijust...don't know how to be."
"Would it help if I mentioned that burning first lovesrarely look quite so eternal from the perspective of a couple of years? Or weeks. No?"
"Has saying that ever helped anyone?"
"Probably not." Tyler shifted so he could see through the French doors to the long sweepof sunlit garden outside. "I willconcede that this is deliciously complicated. You're not sure if you were in love with the alien, or the boy, or apastiche which was neither of them. Whatdo you think would have happened if your Théoden had settled on a differenthost? The practical Noi, forinstance?"
Tyler could be unsparing. Madeleine tried to picture a Noi who was Théoden, but it was impossible,so she dived into a different subject.
"Was the fight with the dragon bad?"
"No, highly entertaining." Tyler accepted the redirection withoutcomment. "You chose a terriblemoment to pass out, and missed a most impressive exhibition of bronco ridingfrom our junior acting squad. Thoughwith the Spire and the Core gone, I'm fairly sure the thing was only trying torun away. All I had to do was providesuitable applause." He caught Madeleine'schange of expression and gave a tiny shake of his head. "Yes, I am aware of the massivecrush. Sixteen. Not going to happen."
Madeleine wondered if she was sorry, and sighed. "I've missed you, Tyler. You never walk on eggshells."
He laughed, that beautiful, warm chuckle. "You have a most lowering opinion of me,judging from that excoriation on my bedroom wall. How unsparing, Leina." But his smile faded, and he touched herstrapped arm, which she'd been told was likely only a hairline fracture. "Did you blame me?"
"No. A bit. I blamed everyone. But I didn't really care whose fault anythingwas – I just wanted to get away, not have to see any of those peopleagain."
Tyler waited, humming softly.
"That's not what I'm doing now."
"It mightn't be what you want, but it is what you'redoing. Not that I haven't gone out of myway to avoid an awkward conversation or two in my time. Do you really want to not have this one?"
The thought of talking to Fisher, sitting down and properlytrying to work out where they stood... She squeezed her eyes shut.
"Things worth having are rarely easy, kiddo. There are worse responses than deciding howyou want things to be, and doing everything you can to make that what is. Here." Tyler plopped the carry bag onto her lap. "If nothing else, get out of this room,sit in the sun a while. Your complicatedbeau is off having discussions with a crowd of military types who showed up thismorning, so you'll have an hour or two to lose your nerve. If it all ends up being too much, my couch isalways available. Oh, and I've spoken toyour parents, but you might want to call them."
Dropping a kiss on her forehead, Tyler left Madeleine toinspect the carry bag, which held a pile of unused sketch pads. She still felt absolutely no impulse to putthem to use, but supposed she could at least open these without fear of comingacross drawings she couldn't bear to look at.
Madeleine's eventual reason for getting up had more to dowith not liking the extra burden she was putting on everyone. The two days since the fall of the Spires hadspared the Musketeers little time for victory parties. Around a third of the Blues in the city werestill possessed, and for the first day both they and the Greens had continuedto either attack or hide. The second daythe Greens had stopped, like run down toys, which was not a better situation,but after several hours of emptiness they'd started to show signs ofreacting. And new Blues and Greens werereturning to Sydney, helping to lighten the load of people who'd started outdamaged and exhausted.