‘I don't like the look of him,' Framer said, taking a step back from Megenda's rigid body as if afraid of contagion.
‘He's warm enough now,' Dott said, grabbing one of Megenda's hands and trying to pull it away from his face.
‘Hey, how can you have fog in a cave?' Framer asked and pointed to the mist beginning to rise from the floor.
‘These caves are supposed to be special places,' Dinah said as evenly as she could but the vapour rising carried an aroma to it that was unlike anything she had ever encountered. Her skin began to crawl under the warm parka she'd been given. 'I'd like to know what's going on here,' she said, turning around on her heel, addressing whatever was generating all these unusual effects. She could have sworn that there'd been no mist, no odour, and no vacillating wall colours and designs when she'd first reached the cave floor. She looked behind her and the mist was closing in so that she couldn't see the walls now.
‘Going on here?' The phrase was interrogatory, not rhetorical and the voice that said the words was not an echo of hers.
‘Dinah?' The unimaginative Dott's voice quavered. 'How do we get out of here?’
No way out of'here.’
‘Keee-rist, who's talking?' Framer looked wildly around him. 'Who's talking?’
Dinah wanted to reassure him that it was the Petay-beans perpetrating some sort of a hoax to frighten them but she absolutely knew, though she didn't know how, that the voice was nothing caused by any human phenomenon. It penetrated her body through to the marrow of her bones.
‘Listen, it commanded.
‘I'm listening, I'm listening,' Framer said, dropping to his knees, bringing his hands up together, probably for the first time in his life, into a prayerful position.
Dott just sat down, hard, licking his lips. He kept his head straight but he rolled his eyes around in his head as if he didn't quite dare to look at who, or what, was speaking back at them.
Megenda began to jibber more wildly, writhing in and out of the foetal position as if his limbs, and torso, were attached to invisible strings.
For the first time in her adult life, since the time she had turned a weapon on a man who had threatened her with vicious and sadistic treatment, Dinah O'Neill knew fear. She forced herself to remain standing, clenching her fists at her sides as the mist crept up over her knees, so dense now, and almost substantial in its covering, that she couldn't see her boots. It engulfed her, a moist, permeating blanket, travelling quickly up her body until it covered her face and she could see nothing. And the sound seemed to emanate from the vapour that enveloped her: sound that cut her skin to her blood and bones: sound that was warm and vibrated through her, and filled with darkening colours, until she heard herself scream in protest at such an invasion. There were screams around her and, with an almost superhuman effort of will, she bit her lips, determined that she would not cry mercy from whatever was happening as the crewmen did. Her resolve ended when she felt the hard thwack of stone against her face and her body as she fell down. Then she whimpered and wept, as much the lonely, confused, tormented five-year-old girl who had been abandoned by all the adults who had managed her life up till that moment.
‘The planet has been speaking?' the boy whispered to Cita, his hands moving restlessly on the cub's fur as if that motion were all that protected him.
In one sense, Cita would tell Yo Chang much later, petting the cub had protected him as he had valiantly protected the cub when in danger from Zing Chi.
‘Yes, Petaybee does in these places,' Cita said in a very grown-up voice.
‘And it keeps this place warm for us?' Yo Chang asked because he had to be sure. Though this girl was not much older than himself, he felt she had exhibited commendable authority and certainly bravery in walking the gauntlet of those great animals.
‘The Home is always warm.’
‘How? It was so cold on the surface. Why would it be warm down here? I could feel my ears adjusting to the air pressure so I know we are down.' He gestured to the ground on which they were seated.
‘The Home protects us, Coaxtl says. It takes care of us… if', and Cita paused to permit Yo Chang to see how important her next phrase was, 'we take care of it.’
‘It isn't taking care of them,' Yo Chang said, rolling his eyes, and pointing to one side where the despoilers were writhing in agony and shrieking in great anguish.
‘I know,' Cita said soberly. 'I used to live with people who called it the Great Monster and feared it only. Because it can be cruel to those who take without respect and give no thanks. The Shepherd Howling was the kind of man who did that all the time so he stayed out of these caves and taught us all to fear them. But I am disobedient and selfish, and when I ran away from the flock, because they would have taken from me what I was too proud to give freely, I met Coaxtl, who called the Great Monster "Home". I decided that if I could, I would rather be like the Great Monster than like Shepherd Howling. The Home is proud too and it obeys no-one. And it too begrudges what is taken from it against its will.' Cita patted his hand. 'Your people have angered the Home and it has become the Great Monster. They' She waved her hand at the writhing bodies. She was having to shout over the noise they made, 'need to be shown how it feels to be stripped and cut, slashed and dug, prodded and pulled and flayed.’
To demonstrate her point - and having had a great deal of experience with such torments - Cita got a flap of skin from Yo Chang's neck and twisted and pinched it as hard as she was able.
‘Hey, don't do that,' and Yo Chang scrambled sideways away from her, rubbing his neck.
‘I was only demonstrating how the planet feels. You were cutting and pulling, too, you know, and you are very lucky that Petaybee saw you save the cub.’
Yo Chang gave her a sour, jaundiced glance, rubbing the outraged spot of the pinch. 'You didn't have to demonstrate so hard.’
‘I did because that is how we learn how the planet feels,' she replied. 'You're much luckier than they are!’
The shrieks and howls were beginning to diminish as the strength of the condemned, or the planet's ministrations, eased.
‘They're not dead, are they?' Yo Chang asked most urgently.
‘I don't think so,' Cita said, though she couldn't be sure. 'Why?’
‘My… my… father is not a bad person. Not really,' Yo Chang said, his round face and eyes entreating. 'We are all forced to work hard at what we do for those who despatch us to where we must harvest plants. If we do not work hard, and if my father does not make his crew work hard, then the quotas are not filled and we do not get the rations which only hard workers deserve.’
Neither youngster would have understood being paid in credit notes, for both had toiled long and hard hours just to get enough food to fill their stomachs.
‘It is hard,' Cita agreed, nodding her head approvingly,' to get enough to eat. Since Coaxtl found me, I have been eating so well I will soon be as fat as Clodagh.' She patted her stomach with great satisfaction. 'Everyone feeds me now - Coaxtl, Clodagh, my sister, my aunties and uncles and cousins in their homes. They are very fair about the distribution of food to the plate.’
She nodded her head once more in emphasis. But thinking of the food she had shared with Sinead, Sean and Bunny reminded Cita that it had been a long time since she had eaten. She also wondered if the call for help had reached anyone. Not, she hastily corrected herself, that Petaybee had not come to their rescue. It had provided ample shelter and water although one had to be careful not to drink too much water or one could get a stomach colic which twisted the guts very uncomfortably.