Andrea Höst: And All the Stars

It was a brave show, and Pan almost succeeded in behaving just as usual, though his eyes gave lie to his smile. Full of sympathy, and awareness of the length of Fisher’s possession. Mercifully, he transferred his attention to Tyler, crossing to hold out his hand. "I’m Lee, and I give you fair warning that I am going to fangasm over you at some point when we’re not saving the planet."

"I’ll look forward to that," Tyler said with perfect gravity, shaking the proffered hand.

"I didn’t figure out how to free you," Madeleine began, then caught Fisher’s expression. A clear later , which she understood and accepted while hating the idea of receiving thanks which belonged to Théoden. "Do we have enough to go get Noi?" she asked instead, glancing at the crowd outside the door and feeling a little better to see Min among them.

Fisher gave her a brief, grateful smile, surely not intended to pierce her heart so thoroughly, and said: "Yes. A quick parcelling out of targets and we’ll go up."

A woman called Jannika was left behind as monitor room guard, and the now dozen freed Blues and four leech Blues crammed into the nearest emptied hotel room, to assign each leech Blue a protector, and divide everyone else into attacker or reviver with the recommendation to "adapt as necessary". This piece of advice became the whole of the plan after they split into two groups, and the elevator Madeleine rode up in arrived at its destination floor and opened its doors on two surprised Blues.

Min punched and one of the Blues fell beside a limp possessor, but Moth song rose piercing and urgent from the other. The freed Blues spilled out into the lift foyer, Fisher punching, Pan dropping to his knees to revive the first Blue. The second Moth bloomed, but did not fall. It was the worst moment possible for a Moth to survive separation, filling the air with song, and Madeleine thrust herself forward, raising a shield. Instead of attacking the Moth flitted sideways, and off down the corridor.

"Heading toward our target!" Fisher said, and they raced after it even as answering song rose from surrounding rooms.

The Moth’s path lay through the foyer of the second elevator, and it was that which saved the moment. The other group stepped out, and Sarah reacted to a Moth flying directly at her by shield-punching it into the ceiling. Claire, confused but willing – or hungry – reached up and pressed her hands to the single trailing tip in her reach, and the song abruptly died.

"Clear the rooms we’ve passed?" Pan asked urgently, and at a nod from Fisher reversed direction and headed toward a door just as it opened.

Madeleine scrambled with the rest, using the security master key taken from the monitor room, and ran through the next door only to be blasted by a force punch which knocked her on her behind. The Blues on the far side of the room were the youngest she’d seen, but clearly strong and too far away for her to comfortably spirit punch. Hating the idea of injuring children, she snapped a light force punch in their direction to keep them occupied – blowing out wooden shutters and glass from the windows behind them – and staggered into a run at them.

The taller one – a skinny boy with a blue stripe down his chin – punched her again, but she was expecting it this time and set her feet so she wasn’t bounced when her shield absorbed, then spirit punched, both at the same time. A wave of dizziness swept through her, and she fell against the foot of the bed as twin Moths projected back through the gaping windows.

"Leina?" Tyler, following her about according to instructions, lifted her more or less upright.

"Help me over," she said urgently, and fed two still little figures energy despite the dizziness. She stayed kneeling by them because there was no way she could leave without being sure she hadn’t just killed two children, even if she could stand up.

She could hear the progress of the fight in neighbouring rooms, flurries of sound, brief outbursts of Moth song. It seemed to spread and spread, and then when Madeleine thought she had to go help no matter how dizzy, it all died away. By then one of the children, a girl around ten, had her eyes open, all her attention on the boy, who was slower to revive. They both looked to be of African descent, might even be brother and sister, and a knot gripped Madeleine’s stomach then relaxed as his eyelashes fluttered.

"Always sleeping in," the girl said, and promptly put her head down on his chest and began to cry.

"Where did–?" Pan came through the door at a trot. "Maddie, we’re going for Noi straight away – there’s too much chance they heard something. You good?"

The dizziness had faded enough that she could stand, so she nodded and followed along, grateful when Tyler slipped a supportive arm through hers. The group of freed Blues had grown in size yet again, and there was a milling confusion of people gathering in the nearer lift foyer.

Sarah, low-voiced, was making brief explanations, but an urgent trill of Moth song interrupted her and it started all over again, but this time the figure they were chasing down was Emily, who wasn’t even supposed to be there, and no convenient third group emerged to intercept her as she ran straight for their target suite, song spiralling.

"Go! Go!" Madeleine didn’t even recognise the person who shouted, but sprinted, hand-in-hand with Tyler. Someone ahead punched straight through the door closing in their face, and they streamed inside, a frantic mass, but Madeleine checked at a glimpse of a fallen tangle with blonde hair.

Min, panting but bright-eyed, was there before her. "I’ll look after her. Get Noi."

No choice, the crowd surging, flooding into a spacious lounge area, so many that Madeleine couldn’t be sure which were the possessed Blues. Then Fisher yelled "Balcony!" and she turned to see a familiar figure heading over the railing.

Far too far to spirit punch, but Madeleine did it anyway, a desperate move which sent her ploughing into carpet, feeling like she’d shield-stunned herself except with an absence of sensation which was more frightening. But the punch worked, blue and white blazing out, Noi left hanging like abandoned laundry. The Moth rose, and only Nash was even close, his full speed run turning into a hop, a leap off the top of the railing to grab a trailing edge of white before it could escape. He landed like a gymnast, balanced on the crossbeam, dragging his captive down. Tyler and Quan, following, raced to stretch and press hands to light.

It died quickly, a candle flicker compared to the Rover.

Nash’s pose on the railing – and Noi’s position hanging over it – were not so perilous at second glance. The balconies were merely sectioned off portions of the roof of the tier below, with a broad expanse of concrete beyond. Still Madeleine desperately tried to lever herself off the carpet because there were only leech Blues near Noi, and the attention of the room had been drawn to the fight with the South of the Five.

But from two lone escapees their numbers had grown exponentially, each freed Blue quick to put to use the skills and knowledge gained during their possession. It was two skinny kids who hopped over the top of Madeleine and ran to the rescue. And Madeleine managed to stay awake long enough to see Noi, precious for many more reasons than perhaps knowing how to bring down the Spire, lift her head.

Another domino.

Madeleine was resting her eyes, with occasional interruptions. The first had been Tyler, prodding her to drink lukewarm soup. Next, a relative hush in a room which had been humming with voices. Then a question.

"Is it possible?"

"Yes."

Not Noi, but the lightly accented voice of the former South, a Malaysian man in his late twenties named Haron. Madeleine opened her eyes to look at him, the focus of a room crowded with forty or so freed Blues.