Into the No-Zone. Eugene Lambert

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СКАЧАТЬ glance at our guards. They’re still all watching us, unblinking, unmoving, as if carved out of stone. I’d figured we’d been stuck in here for our protection. Now I’m starting to doubt. These guys are doing a great job of making me feel more like a prisoner.

      ‘Wonder how long they’ll keep us in here?’ I say to Colm.

      He sits on the bench, swings his feet up and stretches out. ‘Who knows? We should get some rest.’

      ‘Hey, what about me?’

      But my brother’s eyes are closed already, and he looks so destroyed I haven’t the heart to make him shift.

      I settle for the dirt floor. It’s as uncomfortable as it looks.

      Without windows in here it’s only a guess, but based on how stiff I feel after hours of squirming around on hard-packed dirt, I reckon it’s early morning when they come for us.

      We each get a beaker of water and a biscuit to munch as we’re marched along one rock-hewn corridor after another, minded by a dozen or so heavily armed guards. Finally, we’re shoved into a room where Ballard is waiting, sitting behind a massive round table. His wire-framed glasses reflect the glowtubes so I can’t see his eyes, but his lined face is one big frown. I’d hoped Rona would be there too. She isn’t. The only friendly face belongs to Scallon, the senior healer woman who pulled that bolt out of me back in Bastion. She gets up, greets us and shows us to a couple of spare seats.

      ‘Why are we here?’ I whisper.

      And wish I hadn’t as her face falls.

      ‘You’ll see,’ she says, and returns to her seat.

      I glance around the room. Apart from Scallon and Ballard and some watchful guards, there are two other people here, both seated at the table. Like Ballard, they wear the long grey cloaks of Gemini Council members. The tall black woman is Mendela, Defence Commander of this Deeps outpost. The irritable-looking plump man with the savagely pockmarked face I‘ve never seen before.

      ‘So there they are,’ fat guy says.

      He inspects Colm and me, a look on his face like we’re pieces of fruit to choose between and both of us seem rotten.

      ‘Hard to believe,’ Mendela says, ‘it all hangs on these two boys.’

      I swap glances with Colm. He looks worried too.

      Ballard stands up, waving away a guard who leaps forward to try and help him. He takes his glasses off and rubs his eyes. He looks tired, like he didn’t get much sleep last night either.

      ‘Kyle, Colm,’ he says, blinking at us. ‘You must be wondering –’

      Fat guy slams his hand on the table and interrupts angrily, chins wobbling. ‘For Wrath’s sake, Ballard, you’re wasting time we haven’t got. We have important things to discuss.’

      Ballard stiffens. ‘We do, Councillor Schroeder. But first I think we owe these boys an explanation.’

      Schroeder glares at us and snorts, sending spit flying.

      Well, I can do angry too. I jump up. ‘What the hell’s going on?’

      I expect to be shouted at, but Commander Mendela smiles. Not Ballard though. He looks like he’s in pain.

      ‘Sit down, son,’ Mendela says. ‘We like defiant, but we’ve got something to tell you and you would do well to listen.’

      I swallow and sit down again, feeling more than a bit stupid.

      Ballard clears his throat. ‘As Councillor Schroeder says, the Council has much to discuss, so I’ll be brief.’ He puts his glasses back on and his gaze settles on me. My head pounds and blood hisses in my ears like static. ‘You boys will, I’m sure, have heard the rumours of a peace treaty between us and the Slayers.’

      I nod, not trusting my voice. So does Colm.

      ‘Well, the rumours are true,’ Ballard continues. ‘If Gemini ceases fighting and we withdraw our forces to the Barrenlands, in return the Saviour will grant us a sanctuary out there.’

      ‘So tempting.’ Mendela’s voice is thick with sarcasm.

      Ballard sighs. ‘As you might expect, the peace offer comes with many strings attached. Ident children must still be handed over and held in camps. Instead of Peace Fairs, as soon as nubloods are identified they will be returned to us in our Barrenlands paradise.’ He sighs deeply. ‘However, the strongest of them will first be required to do two years’ service down darkblende mines. After completing this, they too will be returned.’

      ‘If they survive the two years,’ Scallon says.

      ‘Be quiet!’ Schroeder snaps.

      I shake my head, dazed, struggling to take this in. Two years down a darkblende mine is crap, but sanctuary sounds good.

      ‘There is one other condition,’ Ballard says.

      Mendela pulls a grim face, as if she’s chewing a mouthful of something sour. As for Scallon, she won’t look me in the eye.

      Colm and I say it as one. ‘What other condition?’

      Ballard winces, his watery eyes like grey pools in cracked rock. ‘The final condition is that we hand you both over.’ He pauses, maybe to let this sink in. ‘Unless we agree to all these conditions before the next doom moon, the peace offer will be withdrawn. The Saviour will order the mobilisation of a conscript army to fight alongside his Slayers. He says they won’t rest until every nublood on Wrath is hunted down. Extermination, pure and simple.’

      ‘The sting in the tail,’ Mendela says, and sighs.

      My head pounds like someone’s taken a club to it. So this is how it all ends, I think dismally. I should have fraggin’ known.

      ‘And you’d do that? You’d hand us over?’ I croak.

      Ballard just looks at me, stony-faced.

      ‘So that’s why those fighters tried to kill us,’ Colm says.

      ‘Huh?’ I glance at him. He’s staring at Ballard.

      Ballard nods. ‘Details of the peace offer must somehow have reached here before we did. The Saviour wants you alive. The attempt on your lives was an act of sabotage by Gemini hardliners who wish to fight on regardless. With you dead, the peace deal is dead too. They will have known that my first act upon my return would be to place you in protective custody.’

      I’m not sure I get all this, not fully, but one thing I do get: Colm and me, we’re screwed. I lick my lips. ‘What happens now?’

      He pulls at his beard. ‘That, Kyle, is for the Council to decide.’

      ‘I’m glad to hear it.’ Schroeder wobbles to his feet. ‘Let’s get this farce over with. Bring in the damn Slayer.’ He clicks his fingers at the guards by another door at the far side of the chamber.

      They СКАЧАТЬ