Blood Moon (10 page)

T
he kitchen seemed to cocoon us with its walls of living wood. The holos flickered on the shelf above the bench, brighter than the lights above us.

‘They can’t have gone far,’ said Eleanor finally. She was sitting beside me again now.

‘Have they ever gone missing before?’

Eleanor shrugged. ‘Of course. They are cubs. Oh, I wasn’t supposed to know, or Emerald. But that’s what you do; you sneak out, chase a few deer, catch a hare maybe, be back before breakfast and think the adults don’t know, that they can’t smell the fresh grass on your feet, the scent of hare or deer. We all did it…’

‘So they’ll be back soon.’

‘Yes. Of course. It’s just…’

‘What?’

‘They’ve disobeyed me. They never have before.’

‘It’s not so terrible is it?’ I asked gently. ‘Kids do disobey their parents.’

‘Not with us,’ said Eleanor. ‘They have never disobeyed a specific command. I suppose that’s why I’m worried…’

‘Surely if someone took them, you’d have smelt them? Heard them? Even without Dusty’s sense of smell and hearing. I don’t suppose the cubs would have gone quietly.’

‘No, of course not. You’re right, of course.’ She tried to smile. ‘Now I only have to worry about someone seeing
them in the moonlight. Someone who’s heard about poor Andy. Someone watching for a wolf in the night.’

I tried to think of something comforting. But what comfort was there? I had heard Brother Cydore’s threats, knew the power of a tangler. If somone had seen the cubs in the darkness tonight, they might well have acted instinctively. Kill the animal before it can strike again…

‘Eleanor?’

‘Mmm?’

‘Why was the wolf-human cross made?’

‘What?’ She hadn’t exepcted the question, neither had I. I had said the first thing that came into my head. She laughed shakily. ‘You don’t ask much, do you? Just our innermost secrets.’

‘Is it a secret?’

‘It’s not something you tell all and sundry,’ said Eleanor dryly.

‘I thought…some military purpose maybe. A superguard…’

‘Nothing so romantic. It was a dentist.’

‘A dentist!’ I fought the impulse to giggle.

Eleanor looked amused at my shock. At least, I thought, I’ve diverted her from worry about the cubs. ‘He was researching gum disease, regeneration of tissue. Of course you can use cloned tissue but that’s expensive, and takes time if your patient doesn’t have a clone in stasis. He wanted to find a way to stimulate regeneration in anyone. He wanted a research animal that doesn’t get gum disease: wolves don’t, so he ordered a wolf-human cross. That way, when he deliberatley infected them with gum disease, he knew he’d be studying human gum disease, not wolf.’

‘But you turned out more human than he thought? It happens.’

She nodded. ‘The human-wolf mix proved unstable. There were six in the original batch: four wolf-like, two fairly human-like. One of the human-like test subjects was our ancestor.’

‘A human bred with her? Or was it him?’

‘Her. And no, don’t ask me for any details, because I don’t know them. But the dentist—Dr Forges—must have felt responsible, and anyway the process worked and he made a fortune so maybe he felt grateful too. He set the clan up here and had the Tree grown for us.’ She smiled a bit bitterly. ‘I suppose he thought a giant tree was just what a partly wolf clan would love. Personally I’d like something a little less noticeable. His plan was that we’d raise deer to keep us occupied and self-supporting.’

‘And it worked,’ I said.

‘Has it?’ She stood up again, and prowled over to the window. ‘Have you any idea—any idea—what it is to be oh-so-nearly human, but not quite? To have your friends—even Ophelia—look at you as thought they’re saying, which bit is animal, which is human? I’ve tried so hard…and now this! There is no proof, no proof at all, but just because of a few genes, they’re sure we’re guilty.’ Her voice broke.

I had to tell her. ‘Eleanor…I’m sorry…Mrs Anderson told me she saw a wolf, just after Andy was attacked.’

Eleanor turned back from the window and stared at me. ‘A wolf? That’s impossible!’

‘She seemed very sure.’

She strode back across the room. ‘It must have been
something else! She was upset! Besides, we were all here. You know we were all here!’

I said nothing. Eleanor said slowly. ‘You know no such thing, do you? You were in your room. Anyone of us could have made our way down there. But we didn’t.’

‘Eleanor…are you sure?’

‘Yes.’ The authority was back in her voice. ‘Danielle, if you were a wolf you wouldn’t ask that question. If Emerald or Dusty or any of the clan had killed someone don’t you think we’d all know? We’d smell it on them.’

‘But you’d protect them.’

‘Yes, naturally, but I wouldn’t let it happen again either. There have been three murders, Danielle, three. You don’t think…you surely don’t think Rusty and I would let things go that far?’

‘No,’ I said and found I believed it utterly. ‘No, of course I don’t.’

‘Well, then,’ said Eleanor. She began to pace restlessly again. ‘Would you like a cup of tea?’

‘Not really.’

‘Just as well. I’m not sure where the tea is kept.’ She smiled, a ghost of her charm returning. ‘Emerald does all that. Each to their own. But if only I could do something…’

I tried to think of something to say, something far away from blood and missing children. ‘Eleanor, do you ever wish you weren’t who you are?’

‘What do you mean?’

‘Wish…I don’t know. That you weren’t head of the clan? Free-er, I suppose.’

‘No,’ she said seriously. ‘This is exactly where I want to be. I am exactly what I want to be. You see, I love them. I want the best for them. And I think I’m the best one to
find that for them. Once you accept that…well, it’s easy.’

‘I wish my life was so simple,’ I said ‘Nothing—almost nothing—about my life was my own choice. Not my modification. Not my career—oh, there was some choice in that, but not much. Each of us Forest was expected to go into different fields, so our ability could be properly assessed. Tom was so clearly an engineer. Mel loved medicine from the time she was small, Michael was always the…the boss if you like…’

‘They were your clan,’ said Eleanor gently.

‘Yes. And now I’ve lost them, and that wasn’t my choice either. And I live at the Utopia where I was sent when I was Proclaimed.’

‘You don’t have to stay,’ said Eleanor.

‘No,’ I said slowly. ‘There is that, isn’t there? I could leave. I chose not to. And Neil…I chose him. I wonder though…’

‘Shh,’ said Eleanor.

I listened. A scraping noise, out in the living room.

‘Someone at the window,’ whispered Eleanor. I could almost see the hair rise on her head.

For one terrifying moment I thought of Brother Cydore and his stun gun, of endless Matriarchal vigilante clones come to destroy the werewolves in their sleep. Or even the murderer—whoever, whatever they were—come to rip our throats out too…

There was another noise outside. It was unmistakeably a giggle.

Eleanor strode out the kitchen door. ‘I’ll give them hell,’ she promised.

I followed her from the kitchen into the living room, just as something dropped from the window ledge.

Something small. Something sodden, that squelched
as it hit the floor. Something red…A rabbit. A headless rabbit. A larger figure plunged after it and then another and another.

‘Bonnie,’ said Eleanor calmly.

It was as though the other two didn’t exist. Connie, wide-eyed in the sudden light. Johnnie, blood around his mouth and on his hands. Rabbit blood, I thought, it’s only rabbit blood, I eat rabbit too. Not raw, came the whisper. Not alive…

Bonnie stepped forward. Her eyes met her mother’s. The small chin rose. ‘We caught a rabbit,’ she said.

‘I see. But didn’t I also tell you no one—no one—was to go out after dark?’

‘Yes,’ said Bonnie. There was a touch of defiance now. ‘But we were careful. I made sure we didn’t go near any of the houses. Just up the ridge and along.’

‘Someone might still have seen you. There are people patrolling. Didn’t you know?’

Just Gloucester, I thought. Or were others out there too?

Bonnie looked momentarily uncertain. ‘No, I didn’t know,’ she said. ‘But we’d have smelt them if they were close.’

I shut my eyes, but I saw the image anyway. That child has no idea, I thought, how far away a neuron tangler works.

‘It’s irrelevant anyway,’ said Eleanor. ‘When I tell you to do something, Bonnie, I expect you to obey. Do you understand me?’

Bonnie shrugged. It was a Portia-like shrug, the shrug of a child who won’t admit she’d misbehaved. I expected…I don’t know what I expected. But suddenly Eleanor lunged.

Johnnie and Connie cowered by the window. Eleanor’s jaws—larger, wider jaws than I had realised, even though they were smaller than her brother’s and sister’s—closed around Bonnie’s neck and shook her like a doll. For a moment I stood unbelieving. Then just as I jerked myself forward (to do what, I’m not sure), Eleanor gave the child a final shake and dropped her on the floor.

Bonnie bent her head. At first I thought it was from pain, but then I realised she hadn’t been hurt at all—she was submitting.

‘Do you understand?’ said Eleanor again. Her voice was still quite calm.

‘Yes,’ said Bonnie.

‘Are you sure?’

The voice was even smaller now. ‘Yes.’

‘Then you may go to your room. All of you.’

Bonnie nodded, moved towards the staircase. Connie followed her. Johnnie hesitated. ‘Can I take my rabbit?’ he asked.

I expected Eleanor to say no at once, but she considered. ‘You may have your rabbit,’ she agreed. ‘It was a good catch.’

Johnnie’s face lit up. ‘It ran and ran, and then…’ he stopped. ‘We won’t do it again,’ he said.

Eleanor’s voice was gentle now. ‘I know, Johnnie,’ she said. ‘Go to bed now.’

Johnnie nodded. He scampered after his sisters. Eleanor moved to the table and sat down heavily. For a moment I thought she might cry. ‘I thought…I almost thought,’ she began, then seemed to shake herself. ‘It doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter at all. They’re safe. Danielle, I wonder, would you mind?’

‘Anything,’ I said.

‘There’s a bell outside the front door. Could you ring it? For about a minute if you don’t mind. It’s a signal. The others will hear it and come back. Now all I have to worry about is them getting back here safely too.’ She levered herself to her feet. ‘I’d better go and leave another message for Rusty. Danielle,’ she hesitated. ‘Thank you.’

‘I didn’t do anything.’

‘You did a lot. Good night.’

‘Good night,’ I said.

I watched her walk into the study, clumsy now from weariness. No, I thought, not clumsy. Eleanor could never be clumsy. But for once the word came close.

T
he floater arrived at breakfast. It had been a subdued meal. Even the cubs were quiet as they ate their porridge (without resistance for once) and chewed their chop bones. The weariness showed on the adults’ faces. Mine too, I supposed.

Dusty peered out the window. He moved stiffly this morning and looked as though he were in pain. His arthritis, I supposed, aggravated by his search for the cubs last night. ‘It’s Sister Karen,’ he said in surprise.

‘Sister Karen!’ Eleanor got to her feet—she too moved more heavily this morning—and stood next to him. ‘What on earth can she want?’ Then to me. ‘No one from Nearer to Heaven has ever been up here. Even when we had the Christmas gathering here that year, they refused to come. I wonder what she wants.’

Another warning, I thought. But she could do that over the Net. To warn me then.

‘I’ll go and see, shall I?’

Eleanor was quick on the uptake. ‘Yes. She’s welcome to come in, of course. But I don’t suppose she’ll want to.’

I nodded, shoved myself upright from the too-low table and crossed the living room just as the knock sounded on the door. It opened in front of me on the last echo.

‘How lovely to see you!’ I said maliciously. ‘Do come in! Emerald is just setting another place at breakfast for you.’

Sister Karen didn’t bother responding to that one. ‘Come out,’ she said abruptly. ‘I want to speak to you.’

I considered refusing, unless she stepped over the threshold of what she obviously considered was a den of sin. Even the modification that had created the Tree must be abhorrent to her. But she had at least made the effort to come up here so I felt I owed her something in exchange.

The air was fresh outside. I had grown used to the smells indoors, but it was good to be in the breeze.

‘We’ll walk down the hill,’ said Sister Karen. It wasn’t a query.

I glanced at her as we walked. The last time I had seen Sister Karen I had been with Neil. She and Sister Tracey—and Brother Perry and Brother Cydore too—had all but salivated over his young body.

Sister Karen looked much the same: tall, skinny, intolerant. Her robe was light blue. Small shells had been sewn—or glued—onto the front of it. She kept a good metre or two away from me, so that even her skirts might not be contaminated by touching mine.

We stopped at the stone wall. Sister Karen leant against it and stared at me with distaste. ‘The Truenorm is the Will of the TrueLight and anyone who deviates from it plunges into darkness.’ She spoke quite matter-of-factly, as though describing tomorrow’s weather.

‘I can’t say I’ve noticed any particular darkness,’ I said.

She glared at me in contempt. ‘I was speaking symbolically, as you are well aware. That poor boy who was with you…is he modified too?’

‘No, he’s not modified. But he knows I am.’

‘Poor lad.’ There seemed genuine pity in Sister
Karen’s voice. ‘And now you are up at the Tree.’

‘Yes.’ I waited for her to say ‘Like to like’ or ‘The Devil hunts with his own’ but she didn’t. Instead she said, ‘I’ve come to warn you.’

‘Warn me? Of what?’

‘Your body is the Work of the Devil,’ said Sister Karen. ‘But your soul,’ she paused, ‘there may still be good in evil bodies.’

‘Thank you. I think,’ I said.

‘Don’t mock,’ said Sister Karen. ‘You saved us from the vampire.’

‘Actually it was Gloucester who killed him,’ I said. ‘Not me.’

‘But you hunted him. Yes, there is good in your soul.’

This time I didn’t thank her. Despite myself I found myself moved by her sincerity even as her bigotry revolted me.

‘We discussed it this morning,’ said Sister Karen. ‘And we decided that as a gesture of our respect, I should come and warn you this morning.’

‘As I said, what of?’

‘I should think it was obvious,’ said Sister Karen. ‘You’re in danger here. You heard Florrie Anderson last night.’

‘How is she this morning?’

‘Grieving. Her son should be with her by lunch time though. And, besides,’ Sister Karen spoke more gently. ‘Andy hadn’t long to live, poor man. Have you ever seen anyone die from rejuvenation rejection?’

‘Only in Virtual.’

‘Then you’ll have some idea. She was prepared for his death,’ said Sister Karen. ‘Just not for…for the rest of it.’

‘Why do you think I’m in danger too?’

‘They are Abominations with human faces,’ said Sister Karen.

‘Anyone could have murdered those men. You for instance.’

Her head jerked up. The thin lips thinned even more. ‘Me?’

‘Yes. Brother Perry was a problem, wasn’t he? Several problems rolled into one. His drug problem. His rape attempt. Word gets round in the Outlands, doesn’t it? How many Wanderers have you had to do your work since news of Brother Perry got around?’

Sister Karen didn’t answer. Her long thin fingers angrily smoothed the pleats in her robe.

‘None? I’m right, aren’t I?’

Still no answer.

‘So how do you get rid of him? Ask him to leave? But what if he won’t go? Why should he? And you can’t tell him to leave, can you? That would be…nasty. Not quite as bad as a rapist Brother, but still bad for your Closer to the Light image.’

Sister Karen stopped smoothing. ‘So I waited in the darkness outside the refectory and tore his throat out? Don’t fool yourself. I’m neither physically nor mentally capable of doing such a thing. Only an Abomination like yourself would even think it possible.’

I smiled at her. My anger had returned in full. ‘Really? That was the trouble last time, wasn’t it? We were sure that only a genetically modified vampire would suck someone’s blood. But we were wrong. Tam was as Truenorm as you can get—well, if you decide a psychotic manipulator is normal. But that’s what the so-called Truenorms have done all through history, isn’t it? Humans aren’t always a particularly nice species, Sister
Karen. Successful, yes. But often more than a little bloody.’

‘I repeat,’ said Sister Karen. ‘I did not tear out Brother Perry’s heart and leave him bleeding on the ground. Nor—it should be needless to say—did anyone else in our community.’

I looked at her face, sharp-beaked and expressionless. She was a hypocrite, an exploiter, a parasite who cloaked her selfishness with the trappings of religion. But no, I couldn’t imagine her ripping out another person’s heart.

She must have read my expression; hers softened too. ‘I know what you must think of Brother Perry,’ she said. ‘To some extent you’re justified. But you saw him at his worst. Fleshly…restraint…wasn’t one of Perry’s virtues. But he did have them.’

‘Name one,’ I said.

‘Loyalty. When Brother Jason died, Brother Perry sat with him every night for three weeks. Perry liked his comforts but he stayed in that chair by Jason’s bed, except for the shortest of breaks, just holding Jason’s hand.’

Her face softened a little. ‘No one is wholly good or bad, child. But we believe,’ and for once her voice was both rational and sincere, ‘that if you accept the TrueLight you can be better. Perry was not an…entirely good man. But, at times, he tried.’

She stared at me for a while, with her little chook-bright eyes. When she spoke again her voice was, if not kind, at least not as hostile as it had been before. ‘Ophelia told Sister Tracey last night that you are staying up here. Do you think that’s wise?’

‘I think it’s necessary if I’m to find out the truth.’

‘You know what you are risking?’

‘What? Having my heart torn out? No, I don’t think I’m risking that. I’ve been there two nights already and they’ve resisted the urge to tear me into pieces and eat me remarkably well. I’m as safe or unsafe here as I would be anywhere. Safer probably. No one’s been murdered at the Tree yet. Or do you mean I’m at the whim of Rusty’s animal lusts? Anyway, he and the older kids aren’t here.’

Another considering, almost compassionate look. ‘You must feel very strongly about this, then. To risk staying here.’

‘I don’t consider it a risk. I don’t even feel particularly strongly about it. My friends at Black Stump asked me to help their friends. So I came here.’

‘Black Stump,’ said Sister Karen, the parchment-like skin of her hands making tiny swishing noises as she rubbed her hands absentmindedly together. ‘They are kind people there. They haven’t seen the TrueLight of course,’ her tone was matter-of-factly regretful. ‘But good people nonetheless. Innocent even.’

I didn’t answer. What she said was true.

‘I don’t think it would ever occur to Ophelia or Yorik or Hippolyta that anyone they liked, anyone who appeared friendly, could possibly do them or others harm.’

The narrow eyes watched me thoughtfully. Someone told me once—Mel, it must have been—that the eyes are untouched by cosmetic rejuvenation. Your eyes always look as old as you really are, unless for some reason you need a transplant.

Sister Karen’s eyes seemed old.

‘I think you’re right,’ I said. ‘That boy—Tam—who killed Perdita—none of them ever suspected…’

Suspected the Virtual-drugged fantasies that clouded his brain. Suspected that he would tear at Perdita like the
vampire he had fantasised himself to be. But I found I couldn’t bring myself to say the words.

There was no need. ‘You know, I was fond of Perdita,’ said Sister Karen, and for once I didn’t imagine anything but an almost aunt-like affection in the words. ‘You may not believe it, but I blame myself too for what happened to her. If we had acted more swiftly, had thought to warn them…but we didn’t. I wouldn’t like them to be hurt again.’

‘Neither would I,’ I said.

‘It would also hurt them if anything happened to you,’ said Sister Karen. ‘When they look at you they see a friend, not…what you are.’

‘The modified creature of darkness, you mean?’

Sister Karen ignored me. ‘It would hurt them even more if they thought you had been attacked because they had dragged you into this, convinced you that this…pack…up here are safe.’

‘They’re a…’ I stopped. I had been going to say a normal family. But of course they weren’t normal. ‘They’re nice people,’ I said instead.

‘Yes,’ said Sister Karen. ‘Superficially they are…nice. Superficially they are even people too. But believe me, there is a lot that doesn’t meet the eye.’

‘Like what?’

‘They are animals. True animals, in spite of their faces. Have they told you at Black Stump how they breed?’

‘Yes. Ophelia told me that only one pair breeds in every generation. The clan are quite open about it too.’

‘Did she also tell you that the woman—Eleanor—comes on heat? Like an animal? She comes on heat and her brother mates with her and she has a litter five months later. Five months! Animals!’

‘Dogs take only nine weeks. Elephants take nearly two years and zebras thirteen months or more.’

She blinked at that. ‘What?’

‘Elephants gestate for almost two years. If a long gestation makes us human and therefore superior, elephants are better than us all.’

‘Don’t mock,’ she said. ‘I’m telling you this for your own good. That’s why none of the subordinates ever breed. The females don’t come on heat, not if the lead female is around. And Rusty is there to defend his mate if any of the other males sniff around her when she’s ready to breed.’

‘All right,’ I said. ‘So they have wolf genes too. But doesn’t the fact that they have wolf genes make them less likely to be killers, not more?’

‘It’s the cross,’ said Sister Karen. ‘It’s deviating from the Truenorm. It lets the evil in.’

‘And Santa Claus is coming down the chimney next month,’ I hoped my voice still seemed calm.

Sister Karen bit her lip. ‘Well, I’ve tried,’ she said at last. ‘My conscience is clear.’

‘That must be a change for you,’ I said.

We walked in silence back up the hill.