Chung Kuo - The Marriage Of The Living Dark Part 29

Nothing happens without a reason."

"No..."

"And your coat?"

DeVore's eyes met his blankly. "My coat?"

"Your special invisible force-field. Did the creatures finish it?" "They..." DeVore stopped dead, sitting forward suddenly, his eyes, which had been lifeless, now brightly alive again. "You don't think...?" "What?"

"The field. You don't think the field affected them?"

"Why? Could it?"

"I don't know." DeVore frowned, then shook his head. "No ... If it was harmful Hannem would have known."

"Maybe he did."

"Impossible"

"Why?"

"He would have said there was a danger."

"Would he?"

DeVore bridled. "Of course he f.u.c.king would!"

"Why? You told him to make you a coat of power. It wasn't his place to question that decision."

"But that's stupid. If he knew ..."

"Then he would have said nothing. You said it yourself, Howard - there's no more obedient creatures in the galaxy than your morphs." "But that s ..."

"Crazy?"

DeVore nodded, but Ben could see he was already half convinced.

Ben gave a little push. "Which of them have sickened?" DeVore turned and looked at him. For a moment he was silent, then he made a little shrug of acceptance. "You're right."

"None of the others have been affected?"

"Not one."

"And the coat?"

DeVore looked to him, then smiled. "Try touching me"

As the morning sun slowly climbed the sky they buried Michael under the lawn beside his favourite stream, the branches of an ancient elder overhanging the mound. They were all there - at least, all of them that were still alive after six years of campaigns against The Man.

Emily was the last to leave the graveside Lin Chao waited for her some little way off, then walked across and put his arm about her shoulders, letting her weep against his side. But his face too was wet Michael had been a good man, yes and a good father too. He had been a "Mender", like Lin Shang before him. Mender Lin, who had first taken him from the streets and cared for him. Three fathers he had had now, and each in turn had been taken from him violently. Such was the world he lived in. Yet he did not despair. Not while she was there. Not while she yet strove for a better, kinder world.Daniel was waiting for them beside the tiny wooden bridge that crossed the stream. Seeing him, Chao smiled. K any doubts remained, they were not significant Daniel had proved himself twice over on the journey. Now he was a brother. At the head of the valley, Emily turned, looking down at the stream and at the tree-edged lawn beyond it You could barely see where the mound was from this high up, yet she seemed to see it clearly. Once more her eyes misted. That's where her heart is now, Lin Chao thought, watching her face, finding a real beauty in those deep-carved lines of hers, in the fine-spun grey of her hair.

They said DeVore kept a copy of his mother. A younger, fairer copy, made from the finger she had lost to him that time. But no copy could match this original. To his eyes there was no finer sight in all the universe than this.

Emily turned, looking to him, her eyes gentle now, a faint smile on her lips.

"What were you thinking, Chao?"

He lied. "I was wondering what was for breakfast."

She laughed. It was what he always said. "Come," she said, taking his arm and holding it overlong, letting the love she felt for him pa.s.s between them. "Let7s go and find out"

CHAPTER-12.

waking.

Waking, he found her in his arms, her naked b.r.e.a.s.t.s against his chest, her body folded along the length of his body. Bodies surrounded them; soft, warm bodies, their sleeping forms filling the shadows of the well. Sighing deeply, he stretched like an animal, the feeling of relaxation, of utter satiation, so strong that for a moment his mind was dark and without thought Nameless he was. A leaf drifting on the great swell of the ocean's tides. All will, all struggle had been washed from him. For the moment he was complete, enclosed.

Adrift He was adrift upon the dark tide. Sleep took him once again and he turned, folding himself back into the contours of her body, her limbs and his interlocked, their breath a single sound, a single motion. Adrift And then a noise, like the lapping of a wave against a rock. Consciousness.

Slowly, memory returned.

Li Yuan opened his eyes and yawned. The light was above him. A bright curve of light that was slowly travelling down the side of the well. Morning.

He looked about him, remembering the long nighfs pleasures, a tiny s.h.i.+ver of astonishment rippling through him.

1 never guessed.

Need. s.e.x had always been a matter of need, and the more intense his need, the more intense the experience Until last nightLast night had been surrender. Last night he had found at last what he had been seeking all his life. Obliteration.

The smile he now smiled was like a child's, wholly innocent; a waking smile that came from the great well of contentment deep within him. Contentment ... and love.

Yes. He was loved. Even as he lay there, he felt that love all about him, there in the bodies that lay against his own, flesh to his flesh, enveloping him. He had lived his whole life in ignorance, unaware of the depths within himself, lacking even the vaguest notion that this other self - this vast oceanic being - existed within the narrow compa.s.s of his human frame. He had spent his time staring at sunlit surfaces, his inner eye blinded by the winking light. But now he saw.

Halfway, a voice said, or rather, did not say, except in his head. You have come but halfway.

Li Yuan narrowed his eyes, looking up into the brightness above him. "Tuan Ti Fo? Is that you?"

A rope fell softly from above, brus.h.i.+ng his upper arm.

Qimb up, the voiceless voice said. Oimb up and meet your other self.

"Must P"

There was laughter. A gentle, healing laughter.

You wish to stay there, Li Yuan?

He reached out and took the rope, grasping it with both hands as it tightened, letting himself be pulled up out of that soft mound of naked bodies. Dangling on the rope, he looked back, a sigh of happiness escaping him.

They will always be there for you.

"I know."

There was no jealousy, no discord, none of that awful, hateful nonsense that normally accompanied the s.e.xual act This once it had been pure, unselfish. He had given and taken without thought As it always should have been.

The old man slowly hauled him up, then put out a hand, pulling him up onto the flattened earth beside the well.

Li Yuan looked at the sage, seeing him properly for the first time. He was both there and not-there. Light pa.s.sed through him, and yet he was solid. "What now?" he asked.

"You must climb up."

Li Yuan looked past Tuan Ti Fo to the spire. In the morning's light it seemed to spear the heavens. He stepped forward, meaning to go across to it and climb, but Tuan Ti Fo put out a hand, gently touching his chest "Not yet, Li Yuan. First you must rest and bathe."

Egan stepped from the bathroom and stopped. Li Kuei Jen stood in the doorway, his face clouded.

"Whaf s up?"

Li Kuei Jen shrugged. "Maybe nothing. Then again ..." He finished towelling himself then threw the towel aside and walked across to where his clothes were laid out.

"Rumours?" he asked, stepping into his pants.

"No."

Kuei Jen came across and sat on the edge of the dressing table, watching him dress. "Something's happening, Mark, but I'm not sure just what it is. I heard it from one of my servants first It seemed incredible, but, now that I've checked on it, it looks like ifs true."

"True?"

"The clubs. Last night they were empty. Not a soul in them."

"dubs? What clubs?"

"You name them. Ectogenesis. The Kitchen. Blake's. Yes, and the rest Not a soul in any of them."

Egan had begun to turn away, now he turned back, facing her. "Impossible! The world could be ending and those places would still be packed out!"

"That's what I thought"

"So what the f.u.c.k's happening? Someone throw a party or something?"Kuei Jen shook his head. "No. And no one's gone down sick, as far as I can make out" "Then maybe ifs got something to do with our declaration of Martial Law?" "It crossed my mind. But anyone who can afford to go to The Kitchen is going to be exempt from current legislation anyway. Oh, a handful might have been worried about the reaction of the common citizenry and not ventured out, but aH of them?"

"So maybe they know something we don't"

"A coup?"

Egan nodded. "Are the palace defences in place?"

"It was the first thing I checked on."

Egan stood there a while, thinking it through, then shook his head, more confused than ever. "No. It still doesn't make sense. Why tip everyone the wink, then do nothing?"

"I don't know."

"My grandfather?"

"Is in Providence still."

"Horton?"

"With Coover in Reno."

"DeVore?"

Kuei Jen shook his head. "They'd not stay indoors for DeVore."

'Then whafi" He was getting twitchy now. "What in the G.o.ds' names is going on?" There was a knock. Egan stared at the door a moment then went over to a drawer and took out a gun. He walked across, standing just to the side of the door. "Who is it?"

'Ifs me. Li Han Ch'in."

Egan turned, looking to his wife Kuei Jen nodded, then walked across and pulled open the door.

Li Han Ch'in stepped in, then turned, giving Egan a little bow. "Here," he said, holding out a package for him to take "I think this might explain what1 s going on."

It seemed a long wait, but finally the lid swung back and Egan sat up, looking dazed, but dearly none the worse for the experience. "Well?" Kuei Jen asked anxiously. "What is it like?" Egan climbed out then sat on the edge of the sh.e.l.l, staring at his hands and frowning. "It was ... wonderful." He s.h.i.+vered, then looked up at his wife '1..." Kuei Jen came across and wrapped a cloak about Egan's shoulders, then sat beside him. Li Han Ch'in stood across from them, looking on, his face creased with concern.

"You what?" Li Kuei Jen coaxed, his arm about him, his face looking into his.

"I... killed a man. A rival in love I... wanted to." Li Kuei Jen looked to his half-brother and frowned. "What do you mean? It was a sh.e.l.l, Mark. A fiction. You didn't really kill a man." "No, but it was so real. So ..."