Lorna was feeling a sudden excitement. Art history had been a secondary or optional course for her, but she always considered Yo to be an inspirational figure as a woman who had built and continued her career in spite of endless antagonism and philistinism. There were many islands in different parts of the Archipelago where the intricate and sometimes terrifying tunnels drilled by Yo and her artisans were now recognized as major pieces of modern installation art.
She had achieved her work under a lifelong barrage of criticism and prejudice, sometimes also physical attack, with many of the more conservative islands passing laws that banned her from landing there. She had spent at least two years of her life in one prison or another. But anyone who saw her work today could not fail to be moved by the grandeur of her vision, the sheer scale of her achievement. Her memory was cherished for the great drilled mountains, the artificial valleys and passes, where tides and winds played the harmonics of the sea, the sky and the earth.
‘I had no idea,’ Lorna said. ‘Jordenn Yo, working on Tremm! That’s simply astonishing.’
‘Yo said that she did not want anything she left behind on Tremm to be considered as an example of her real work. She described Tremm as her schoolroom, a test laboratory. She was experimenting with techniques, discovering how rock strata had to be worked with, learning how to turn or reverse tunnels deep inside the mountains, or to tune the passages so that they reacted to the wind. She left Tremm while the lease was still in her name. As far as I know the tunnels are still more or less as she left them.’
Lorna said, ‘Where did you find this information? Have you known it all along?’
Bradd tapped the top of his computer. ‘I looked it up this evening while I was waiting for you. Tremm itself is never mentioned. It’s just like the maps. The censorship has been thorough. But Yo is documented in detail and although Tremm isn’t named it’s possible to work out her connection with the island. How many offshore islands does Meequa have, for instance? Only one, of course. That’s the sort of detail that often slips past censors.’
‘So did she ever return to Tremm after she was famous?’
‘There’s no record of it. But she kept the lease going until she died. After that the title to the island reverted to the Seigniory, and it was then taken over by the people who have it now.’
Suddenly, all the lights in the bar room went out, with just the bar area itself illuminated. The other group of customers had already dispersed. Lorna and Bradd made their way out.
In the corridor Bradd said, dawdling, ‘Well, then.’
‘Thanks for everything you’ve done, Bradd. See you tomorrow at work?’
‘Lorna —?’
‘What?’ But she knew what he wanted. ‘No, Bradd.’
‘No harm would come of it. Just tonight.’
‘No. It’s not what I want. Nor do you, if you think about it.’
She turned away from him and walked towards the part of the building where the living quarters were situated. Without looking back she waved a hand as she turned on to the staircase. She half expected he would be following her, but there was no sign of him when she reached her door. She went inside quickly.
As she made herself ready for bed she could hear Patta in the other bedroom, moving around, playing music. Lorna went to see her. Patta was feeling better, but she was angry about her boyfriend now, not tearful over him. They brewed some tea and sat together companionably. After that Lorna went back and they closed the doors that lay between their rooms. It was silent in her bedroom, and soon Lorna was asleep.
She awoke suddenly, with a dread feeling that she was no longer alone. The air had moved, and something under the floorboards had creaked, a noise she recognized from whenever she moved in that part of the room.
There was a dim, residual light showing from beyond the curtained window, and Lorna saw the dark silhouette of a man standing there close to her bed. In terror she sucked in her breath, tried to make a noise, but she felt paralysed by fear. Her instinct was to sit up, but she always slept naked, so instead she threw an arm across her head, pulling up the covers from the bed, trying to hide everything of herself.
‘Lorna?’
It was Bradd — she knew instantly it was Bradd.
She managed to speak. ‘No, go away!’
‘Lorna, it’s me. Tomak. I still have a key. I didn’t want to frighten you.’
‘Tomak! No!’ She disbelieved him. But the voice was not Bradd’s. She knew it was Tomak, but the way he had come silently in the dark was still terrifying her. She could not throw that off. And for a few seconds everything was unreal. She was still half in the dream she had been in before she awoke, she was unable to move, and her breath was rasping.
She groped towards the bedside lamp, got it on. In the sudden glare of light she saw it was Tomak, or looked like him. He had thrown his arms up to cover his face.
‘No! Don’t put on the light!’ His voice was urgent with fright.
He moved quickly, bending forward with one arm still clamped over his face, the other hand fumbling for the switch. For a few moments he was within touching distance of her, but something made her shrink away from him. His hand found the lamp and he switched it off almost as swiftly as she had turned it on.
Her eyes were dazzled by the after-images from the glare.
‘Lorna — you mustn’t see me.’
‘Tomak, it really is you, isn’t it?’
‘Yes.’
‘Then hold me! Come here! Let me see you. Put the light on again.’ A sense of relief was sweeping over her, and she moved quickly so that she was sitting up. She felt one of her pillows slide away to the floor. ‘I’ve missed you so much! Why haven’t you —?’
‘Lorna, you have to trust me. I can only stay for a few minutes and I don’t want you to look at me. There was an accident last year. I was all right, not badly injured.’
‘What sort of accident? Are you hurt now? Why didn’t anyone tell me?’
‘The whole place is — we aren’t allowed to communicate off the island. I shouldn’t even be here now. If they catch me I’m in deep trouble. I can’t tell you what happened in the accident but I want you to know I’m over it. I’m all right now. I was close to an explosion, didn’t get away in time, and there was a fire. It’s healed up at last.’
‘This is terrible! Are you burned? Tomak . . . come and sit here with me!’
‘I can’t. But I wanted to tell you this myself. I had to come to see you. I know a lot of what’s been going on. On Tremm we have access to almost everything. I know what happened last year, when you were involved with that other guy, the one who works here. I understand all that. It doesn’t matter. You must be free to do what you want.’
‘Of course it matters! Where have you been and why haven’t you at least written to me?’
‘I can’t tell you. We communicate as passive receptors — you know what that means. We aren’t allowed to send. None of that is important, though.’ His voice was coming out of the dark, so familiar, but sounding sonorous, stilted, alien to her. This was Tomak, whom she had loved so long? As her eyes adjusted to the darkness, she could again make out his shape. He was still standing a short distance from the bed. There was never much light from outside at night, but there was enough to reveal the shape of him against the thinly curtained window. ‘I know you think I’ve run out on you,’ he added. ‘There was nothing I could do, there is nothing I can do about that. But I also know you’re planning to visit Tremm, and I’ve come to say you must not go there. Not under any circumstances. If you’ve made plans, don’t carry them out. It’s a dangerous place.’