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She'd hoped to find the restaurants – well, not open forbusiness, but perhaps one or two of the dozen with doors ajar. But a line of shutters and solid glass doorsgreeted her, and she'd collected too many cuts in awkward places making her wayout of the wrecked bathroom to be eager about breaking in. There was, however, something unexpected wherethe wharf widened and curved around to its second mooring. A café table set with a brilliant whitetablecloth. Seated very upright besideit was a girl, pouring herself a cup of tea.
And eating scones. Scones with jam and cream.
The girl looked around as Madeleine approached, providing a glimpseof starry blue streaks marking her throat. She was short, curvy, her eyes and light brown skin suggesting Asianheritage, though her hair was a wild mass of spiral curls, held back from herface by a red tartan banda
"Table for one?"
Madeleine laughed, and then stopped because her laughterworked as well as the girl's smile. "I'm having to hold myself back from mugging you for your littlepot of jam."
"Ha." Thistime the smile worked, warm with wry edges. "I could tip you into the bay before you got so much as aspoonful. Sit down, I'll bring some moreout."
Hunger overrode any pretence of restraint, and Madeleineswallowed the remaining half-scone before the girl had taken two steps, thenquickly emptied what was left of the little serving pot of jam and cream,ru
"One Devonshire tea, special Blue serving," thegirl said, putting down a tray holding a half-dozen scones, whipped cream, anda jar of plum jam. She picked up theteapot and left again, and by the time she was back, lugging a chair whilebalancing a tray, Madeleine had inhaled four still-warm scones and wasspreading jam on the fifth.
"Sorry." Madeleine had recovered enough to put down the jam and make room for alarger teapot and accompanying cups and milk. "Thanks."
"No problem – it keeps hitting me like that. You've got to stay ahead of it." She surveyed Madeleine frankly, gazelingering on her face and hands, and Madeleine, uncomfortable with the extentof her blueness, was glad she'd worn a long-sleeved shirt knotted over thedress. "I'm Noi."
"Madeleine."
They drank tea in silence. Madeleine, who constantly received report cards declaring "does notwork well with others" and "does not participate in groupactivities", searched for the right thing to say. With a glance toward the restaurant, Nikosia, shetried: "Did you stay in there the entire time?"
"No." Noi's voice dropped. "Once the stain started showing, everybody went home. I...there's no-one at my home now, so I cameback to check on Niko."
Madeleine awkwardly took another bite of scone, giving thegirl time to take a few deep breaths. "Niko?"
"My boss. I knewhe lived alone, that no-one would be around to check on him." Her voice wavered again, then firmed, and aghost of a smile emerged. "I'veonly been here a few months – first year of my apprenticeship – and he was alittle tin-pot dictator who had me on prep and cleaning for forever. But he took me on, so I owed him for that,and, well. He was in hisapartment."
Madeleine didn't need to ask for details: television had fedher more than enough statistics. In theareas of heaviest dust exposure the first deaths had been recorded withintwenty-four hours of the darkening of wrists, though for most the crisis pointwas after the two to three day point. Green stains were slower to regain strength, but so far had a muchhigher survival rate. Even among Greensit still took the very young, the sick and weak, the elderly – and a great manyothers who were none of these. SurvivingBlues were rare. Noi had stayed at herhome till everyone there died, and then returned to find this Niko dead as well. Making scones and drinking tea in the sun was a better response thanMadeleine would likely have managed.
"My parents haven't shown any signs yet," she said,glad and guilty to be able to say that. "They live at Leumeah, and had a little time to prepare."
"That's southwest, right? Are you going to head out there?"
"And risk letting in the dust – or infecting them ifthis is infectious?" Madeleine shook her head. "I'm borrowing my cousin's apartment. I'll stick there until–" She stopped, unsure what limit there was to'until'. Tyler had sent her a text twodays ago, letting her know he was still at Sydney Airport, no longer on theplane. Then, nothing.
"Want to go look at it?"
Noi was gazing up at the Spire, and Madeleine suddenlyregretted not bringing her sketchpad, and then was overwhelmingly glad for thatreaction. Since she'd woken she'd spenthours staring at Tyler's portrait, but had inexplicably lacked any urge tocomplete it. She'd thought she'd lostsomething, but with Noi her usual drive to capture people around her hadrevived.
But Madeleine also wanted to see the Spire again up close, tocompare skin to stone, so she finished off the last of the scones, and helpedNoi put her table away and lock up. Noihad obviously been tidying earlier – Nikosia was the only restaurant where the outside tables hadbeen cleared of dusted food. Then theystarted up the curving multi-flight stair to The Domain.
Noi stopped abruptly, and Madeleine barely avoided ru
"He has stars," Noi said, fingers digging intoMadeleine's arm.
After a beat, Madeleine understood Noi'sreaction. The stars developed after thecramps, at what the TV was calling the survival point for Blues.
"Maybe there's a stage we haven't hit yet," shesaid, approaching the body reluctantly.
He'd been around her own age, and what she thought of as half-made:someone who'd shot up in height recently, and was all bony wrists andcoat-hanger shoulders, not yet fully filled out. Wide mouth, strong nose, and very straight,dark brows below a mop of black hair which didn't quite curl. Madeleine immediately wanted to draw him aswell, which felt a wildly inappropriate thing to do with the body of some poorrandom boy who had died of being Blue.
"I think he's breathing," Noi said.
"Could he have fainted from hunger?" Madeleine reached down to press fingers tothe boy's throat, and easily found a pulse.
Noi joined the examination. "There's an enormous lump on the side of his head," she said,and showed Madeleine red-streaked fingers. "I guess we better take him back to the restaurant. This should be interesting."
Madeleine rescued a pair of rimless glasses about to slideout the boy's pocket, then she and Noi carefully straightened him and tried towork out how to get someone taller than either of them down several unforgivingflights of stairs.
"If I go first, with his knees hooked over my shoulders,and you lift him under the armpits?" Noi suggested.
They experimented with this, and eventually managed to getenough of the boy off the ground to move down. The steep, lowest flight was hardest, both of them struggling, but notdaring to stop. It wasn't that he wasimpossibly heavy, but they needed to keep pace with each other or be pulled offbalance. The last few steps were particularlywobbly.