“I am the judge of New Canaan.”
“Oh, really?” Faye is unimpressed. “Well, since I doubt you came out here to offer up helpful information, it seems more likely you have something you want to say.”
Lian stands a little straighter, her face a Knowing mask. “The city of New Canaan wishes to surrender to you without further loss of life.” I watch the Commander’s eyebrows go up. I think mine are up, too. “Under certain conditions.”
“Which are?”
“That you remove your ship from over our city”—Faye looks skeptical at the word “city”—“and that we be allowed to formalize our agreement in the proper way. In the meeting place of old, in the city of our ancestors. At sunrise. That is the way these things should be done.”
“And why should I agree to that?”
“Because otherwise,” Lian replies, “my people will fight. We will not win. We will merely decrease our numbers. And this, I think, is something you might wish to avoid.”
The rest of the Knowing are as expressionless as always, but the Commander looks like somebody just told her it was her birthday. I think again about what would happen if the minds of the Knowing came to Earth, what use they would be put to. Faye doesn’t have a clue how big this prize really is. She’s also getting taken. The Knowing don’t have any way of getting back to the old city by sunrise. Not on foot. The sun, and the twelve-year comet, must be only three, four hours away. A rosy pink is blushing over the sky. Or what I can see of it from under the ship.
Lian goes on. “I also require that your ship be left half a kilometer away, and that the old city be entered without technology.” Faye’s eyes narrow at that. “And that seventy-five of your protectors be present. At least. That is the proper way.”
Now the Commander is really confused. “And who will be present on your side?”
“As you see.” She waves a hand across the group of Knowing. “And my last request is … him.”
Everyone looks at me. I can feel my face swelling, bruises hot beneath my skin.
“He must be present for our negotiations.”
Commander Faye laughs at that, whether about me or the word “negotiations,” I’m not sure. What did Lian Archiva see in the Forum? That I love her daughter? That her daughter loves me? Whatever it is, I think I’m about to feel her revenge as well as the Commander’s.
“One question,” says Faye, casually. “What happened to the Centauri II?”
“Do you mean another ship from Earth?” Lian feigns a look of innocence, and it doesn’t really work for her. “I have heard stories about a ship that came here once. And flew away again.”
“Flew away again,” repeats Faye.
“I believe so. I believe they left a … base camp. If those are your words. But this would have been long before my time. Do you accept our terms of surrender?”
“I accept the terms,” Faye says. She’s not hiding her glee. She nods at Finchley, and he surrounds Lian and her Knowing with half the squad. “Oh, I’m sorry … ” The Commander also feigns a look of innocence. It doesn’t really work for her, either. “You didn’t think we were going to meet you there, did you? You’re invited to be my guests until that time. And we’ll make sure you can instruct your people not to fight, and tell them all about what happens next. Don’t worry about a thing.”
“The Knowing of New Canaan do not worry, Earthling,” says Lian. “And my people have their instructions. Now if you were not to move your ship, as we agreed, or if you were to return to this city without us, or not arrive with the required numbers, well … ” She tilts her head graciously, a pleasant smile on her face.
Faye doesn’t know what to make of this. She has no idea what she’s dealing with. Five minutes on the wrong part of the Centauri and the Knowing will be flying the thing. Not that I’m going to be the one to tell the Commander that. I don’t know what Lian’s game is, either, except for one thing: She’s getting exactly what she wants.
And that gives me a bad, wrong feeling beneath my bruises.
I hold up a yellow lamp in the empty storage room, looking at the shaft that leads to the Outside. I’ve got a resin pot, ready to seal the metal door, for safety from the sunrise and the air Outside. Safety from Earth is not an option. If Earth decides to come Underneath, then they will come. Here, or through the gates, or by blowing their own doorway through the mountain. The Forgetting might get some of them. But sealing this door means that no one will be able to come back through it. And both Nathan and Beckett have not come back.
Something is wrong. I Know it.
And then I feel a change in the rolling hum of a heartbeat beneath my feet, in the noise of the ship hanging over us. The intensity is weaker, the rhythm slightly slowed. And slowing. And there’s a bump against the other side of the metal door. I step back as it swings open, and Nathan’s sandals are followed by Nathan, sooty and grim-faced.
“What happened to you?” I think I just shouted.
“Jill happened, that’s what … ” Then another pair of feet comes down the shaft, a woman’s, and another set of bare and dirty soles right on top of her head, knocking a shoe out of the shaft that I realize is mine.
“Where’s Beckett?”
“They’ve got him.”
I stand where I am. They have Beckett. I don’t believe it. Even though I Knew it. Deep down. “Is he on the ship?” I whisper.
“Yes.” Nathan helps an old man out of the shaft. “It’s moving off, but there’s still a lot of Earthlings out there, rounding up everyone they can find. They’re on these … things, I don’t know what to call them. They’re like technology you can sit on and they fly the Earthlings around. You can’t outrun them. You can only hide … ”
I listen to him talk, about Earth and the Commander, what he saw her do to Beckett. And Lian Archiva. Surrendering. With terms. And I feel the world slowing, heavy with memory, and I sink as soon as it pulls, down, where …
My mother’s voice is saying, “Earth will soon be weak, while I have ensured that the Knowing will always be at a place of strength … ”
And I fall again, to the day of my Judgment …
“You have shared our most precious weapon … ”
I rise back to the present, and Nathan is shutting the door after the last Outsider to come down the shaft. Waiting for me to come back.
“You’re sure my mother said sunrise?” I say. “In the old city? And that she’s bringing Beckett with them?”
“Yes. I saw them taken up to the ship. On one of those flying things, only bigger … ”
“And the ship is gone?” There’s no hum beneath my feet now. Nothing.
“I watched it go.”
I breathe, and breathe again. She’s tricked them. My mother tricked them. She’s lured Earth into the Cursed City, where the Knowing have their weapon: the Forgetting. And Beckett will Forget, like everyone else from Earth. But she’s tricked herself as well. Because my mother made them immune, and now the Forgetting is going to kill every last one of them. All the NWSE.
“Nathan, was my father there?”