Andrea Höst - And All the Stars

"Have you posted how to free people?" Sarah asked from the door. "We need to get something out there, tell the world how to do this."

"Is right…" The man lying on the floor beside Madeleine groaned, then tried to lever himself too quickly upright. "Can’t delay–!"

"We’ll prepare a time-delayed post after we have the leech Blues," Fisher said shortly. "Failure insurance. But we can’t go public yet. Not everything’s in place."

He too was thinking in terms of dominos. Of course he would, following the memory of Théoden’s plans, and that idea started to bring too much to the surface, so Madeleine turned to help the newly freed Blue to his feet. He wobbled unsteadily, told her to call him Kiwi Joe, then gathered her up in a huge hug. Since he was a big, solidly built man, this was more than a little overwhelming, but then he, like Sarah, took himself in hand, producing the keys to the makeshift prisons, asking Fisher questions about what next.

They shared out keys, unlocked the screens, and then Madeleine jumped back with a stifled squeak as Nash cannoned out of the room she’d opened, a broken chair leg swung like a sword, missing her head only because he pulled up at the last moment.

"Not possessed!" she said hastily, but he’d already worked that out, probably because Moths weren’t given to squeaking.

"The others–?" he asked.

"Soon," Madeleine said, but suddenly Nash wasn’t looking at her, was staring past her down the hall, the tense determination vanishing from his face, replaced by stunned disbelief.

"Leina?"

Madeleine had known, had seen him on the monitors, but still that husky, once-familiar voice broke something in her, and she whirled and flung herself into a startled Tyler’s arms.

Tyler’s soothing, barely audible hum took Madeleine back to the summer when she was five, an inconstant moon in Tyler’s orbit as he strolled the back pastures of a neighbouring farm. She would dart off to follow a butterfly, examine a flower, bring back a seed pod to offer him. At twelve he had seemed impossibly tall and distant, holding his sun hat against the wind. But when there were nettles, scrapes, bruised knees, he would drop down to her height, open his arms, and hum just as he did now as he gave her a tiny squeeze.

"Are you rescuing me, or am I rescuing you?" he asked, as completely self-possessed as Tyler always managed to be.

"Both?" Madeleine gave a shaky little laugh and made herself let him go. "I think it’s supposed to be more we’re mustering forces to save the world."

"What’s that supposed to mean?" Another of the leech Blues stepped forward, a short, ivory-skinned woman with a bruised face partially hidden by streaming red hair. "We don’t have a hope of fighting these things."

"Let’s not discuss this in a corridor," Fisher said, and herded them back to the security room, where they could talk while keeping an eye on the monitors – and the Greens who had inched across the floor and were trying to lever themselves in reach of a desk phone. The question of Greens bothered Madeleine immensely, since there wasn’t a Moth to remove to make them themselves again.

Ten people and a jellyfish corpse made for an extremely crowded room. Madeleine and Tyler tucked themselves onto a corner of the wrap-around desk, and since Sarah was partially shielding her, Madeleine took the opportunity to let herself look at Fisher, who was giving them all a survey in return, betraying a hint of impatience.

"In a little over four hours, the Core and two others of the Ul-naa Five will return from the Buenos Aires Challenge," he said. "And discover that Blues have been freed and revived, which is the most forbidden act among their people. Freed Blues retain the information they experienced. Not a lifetime’s memories, but everything including the Moth’s thoughts during the period of possession. This is such a serious thing that the clans will unite with a single purpose: to kill us."

The redhead looked doubtful. "What do you know that’s so important?"

"Isn’t knowing how to kill Moths, and free and revive Blues enough?" Joe asked.

"After what happened because of Washington? Shit no." The last leech Blue, an Asian teen with an impressive collection of piercings, moved restlessly, limited by the crowded space. "Not that I’m sorry you busted me out, but unless you found a way to stop them dusting any more cities, you got to be ready to kill a lot of people to save a few Blues."

"Are you volunteering to be locked back up?" Fisher leavened the question with a tired hint of smile. "I don’t have enough information, yet. What I need to do is free a Blue possessed by one of the Ul-naa Five, gambling that one of the Reborn – one of the Fives – will know of a way for us to bring down the Spire. If there isn’t…" He hesitated.

"I will not turn my back on the possibility of ridding ourselves of the Moths," Nash said firmly. "And for the moment, we cannot do a great deal more harm by trying to find out if there is a way. If there is not, then we can discuss the risk of another dust attack, and whether we allow that threat to keep us from fighting. Until then, there are friends I must find."

"Hear hear," Tyler said, his voice soft, but carrying effortlessly. Nash immediately lost his poise, his glance at the cramped corner uncertain.

"But how do we fight?" the redhead asked. "They feed us just enough to stay upright. It’s all I can do to stand here so close to you lot, not draining you dry."

Madeleine couldn’t see the woman’s expression as Nash explained the Rover fight, but her stance shifted enough to be a response in itself.

"All right," the woman said. "I can’t say I want to do this. And I can’t say that I’ll go willingly back to that room, threats of more dust or not. But I’ll help to a point."

"Until we know more," the Asian boy conceded.

Fisher simply nodded, already focusing on the next step. "We have just over four hours."

"Your remodelling job on my bathroom was impressive."

The words were only teasing, but Madeleine still shifted in embarrassment and glanced across at the redhead, Claire, who was watching the monitors for progress of the collection team Fisher had led off to free reinforcements.

"I didn’t realise you reached the apartment."

"Oh, yes. I’d just found your Mysterious Note when, well, aliens, and my two friends became very curt types who bundled me up and delivered me here. It sounds like you’ve been having a far more adventurous time."

"I guess. I–"

A great roil of emotion swelled, blocking Madeleine’s throat, filling her eyes. Tyler glanced at her, then tucked her against his side.

"The edges become less raw," he said, conversationally. "Big hurts never really go away, but you can contain them, build up scar tissue to stop them cutting so deep. The question for you here, given that it’s apparently so important you rest for this fight, is whether it will help you to cry about it now, or put it off till later."

Madeleine leaned her head against Tyler’s shoulder and let his warmth seep into her, borrowing the strength to push back breaking down a little longer. She was far from the only person who had lost someone, and the thing to do was focus on freeing Noi, not so much to save the world, but because it was Noi.

"Did you see the painting?"

"It was there?"

"On the wall in your bedroom."

"I didn’t get that far. Will I like it?"

"No. But I do."

"And that’s what matters?" The door opened as Tyler laughed, that rich, throaty burble, and Pan, leading the way in, stopped dead, a delighted grin consuming his face.

"Maddie, you seriously held out on us," he said, stepping aside as Fisher, Nash, and the fourth leech Blue, Quan, bunched up behind him. "I’d tweak your nose for it, but I’m so damn glad you figured out a way to free us I’ll let you off this once."