Poppy’s smile thinned on her lips. Her eyes grew intense. ‘Look, there’s no point in going on about the things that could go wrong; I’m well experienced in how things can go wrong. What of it? At least we’d be able to spend what time there’s left together. And if we get to the Mountain, I’ll just have to learn to live with what we’re allowed. Where do you think I’m going to have a better life?’
‘Among the Lepers…’
She frowned and shook her head, tears in her eyes. ‘I’ve tried that. I don’t want to live there without my family.’
Carnelian felt his heart clench at that word.
‘Besides,’ she said, forcing her tears back with another smile, ‘I want to do something now. Something useful. If a battle’s coming, I don’t want to watch everyone else getting ready for it and do nothing myself. I can at least look after you and, perhaps, I can act as a link between you and the Lepers. By being here I’ve proved how easy it is for me to pass through the Marula. They’re used to me having access to you and so is everyone else. No one will notice me, either here or there.
‘The Master-’
Her eyes flashed. ‘I’m beneath his notice. If you tell him I’m yours, he won’t touch me.’
Carnelian considered that and thought she was probably right.
‘I’m a woman now and can make my own decisions.’
He noticed how, indeed, she had grown taller; how her face was growing oval, her breasts swelling. If not a woman yet, she was also not a child. He wondered how this change had come upon her so young; then recalled that some orchids, threatened with death, flower early. It made him sad that it might be the pressures of her life that had snatched away what little childhood she might have had left. He had to ignore that, and the hope in her eyes, to focus instead on working out what he must do. His heart leapt at the thought that he might keep her with him. He regarded her. It felt right in his bones. He reached up and began to remove his mask. As it came off he breathed a sigh of relief.
‘Carnie!’
She launched into him and he caught her, kneeling to embrace her. She pushed away and gazed at his face in wonder and her tears started his.
At last they disengaged, wiping tears, suddenly a little shy of each other.
‘Who’s that?’ Poppy said, pointing at the homunculus.
Carnelian tried to explain.
‘I thought he was a boy until I looked under his mask.’
‘He’s probably older than any Elder.’
Poppy gave him an anxious glance. ‘Did you kill him?’
‘Kill?’ Carnelian laughed. ‘He’s not dead, merely sleeping.’ Poppy gave him a look of disbelief. ‘Really. I made him take a sleeping drug.’
Poppy’s eyes grew sharp. ‘He has something to do with those things next door?’
Carnelian saw she was pointing to the wall, beyond which lay the Sapients in their capsules. ‘You didn’t open them, did you?’
She shook her head quickly in a way that made her look very much like a little girl. ‘I didn’t dare…’
He tried to explain who was inside.
Poppy grew pale. ‘Childgatherers.’
‘Their masters.’
Seeing her fear, he felt a jab of panic. Poppy saw this and reached out to take his arm, smiling. ‘Don’t worry about me.’
He put his hand over hers and drew her towards the bed, where they sat side by side, with the homunculus behind them. He wanted to ask her so many things, but he needed time to marshal his feelings. ‘Tell me about Krow.’
She turned to him, smiling. ‘You’ve noticed how different he is.’
Carnelian nodded. ‘I suppose I have.’
‘He’s a lot happier,’ she said, with a warmth that Carnelian had never seen her show towards the youth. He asked her to tell him, from the beginning, what had happened between them.
‘Well, when you left’ – she gave him a sharp look that made him laugh, but then seized his hand and clung to it – ‘we were forced into each other’s company a lot. There was no one much else to talk to. I grew used to him, but there was always the…’ She regarded Carnelian with haunted eyes.
‘The massacre.’
She swallowed. ‘Yes, that lay between us. However much I wanted to like him, it was there. Until one day I asked him about it.’
She frowned, unaware she was kneading his arm, staring at the ground as if seeing something far away. ‘For days he stayed away from me, until one day he came and told me everything.’
‘Confession can be unburdening,’ Carnelian said.
‘Yes, it was a confession of sorts. He did help the Master in the killing.’ Poppy turned to look Carnelian in the eye. ‘But only because Akaisha begged him to.’
‘Akaisha…?’ Carnelian thought about it.
‘I think she knew it was the only way to save him from the Master.’
‘And she wanted him to carry a message to us.’
‘And he did.’
‘And we ignored him,’ Carnelian said. He let out a groan. ‘Why didn’t he tell us?’
The sadness that came into Poppy’s eyes was answer enough.
‘He still did help.’
Poppy nodded. ‘It took me a while to persuade him that he could have done nothing more than he did, that he was not responsible for the killing.’
Carnelian understood and smiled. ‘No wonder he looks so different.’
‘Yes, he is different,’ Poppy said, her face suffused with a warmth that displayed how she now felt about Krow.
Carnelian was happy for them both, but this feeling faded as the pressure built up to ask another question. ‘And Fern?’
‘Oh, you can imagine that was hard. Though his body had recovered by then, his spirit seemed to have fled him, but I worked on him and, eventually, he came round to forgiving Krow. At least, he seems to have; it’s difficult to say what he feels. He’s so closed now.’
She had misunderstood his question. Carnelian tried again. ‘You implied earlier that he might want to enter my household…’
She searched his eyes, then grimaced. ‘I’m not really sure about that. But, surely, there’s hope in him wanting to come up with the Lepers?’
Carnelian dropped his gaze, trying to hide his disappointment. He bit his tongue, which would have said: hatred could have motivated him to do that. ‘What about Lily?’ he asked, wanting to talk about something else.
‘What about her?’
It was no good, he could not drag his thoughts away from Fern. He rose. ‘It’s time to sleep.’ He looked around the cell and then back at the bed.
‘Let me stay here with you,’ Poppy said.
Carnelian nodded. She would be safer. He glanced again at the bed with the homunculus lying on it. In the past he and Poppy would have shared it, but she was getting too old for that. He thought of giving her the bed and making another for himself on the floor, but this was to set a precedent that could only lead to trouble. He found a cupboard that had some blankets in it. He threw these to her and smiled, indicating the floor. ‘Wherever you want.’
She glanced at the bed, then gave him a nod. As she made herself comfortable, Carnelian lifted the homunculus and transferred him to his nest of blankets. He kissed Poppy good night, then dowsed the lamp and lay back on his bed. The murmur of the camp rose through the night. He wondered if he had done the right thing by letting her join him. He listened for her breathing. When he heard it, it soothed him. It was the most at home he had felt for a long time.
When he set off the next morning, he left the homunculus in Poppy’s care. She had insisted that she could do it. When the little man had woken, they had gazed at each other warily. Carnelian had told the homunculus he had a choice. Either he agreed to her supervision, or else he would have to be drugged. Clearly perplexed by the relationship the Master had with this strange girl, the homunculus elected to remain awake.