‘He is right,’ said Sholto at once.
Dirk hesitated for a split second, then nodded.
Tucking the feather into his pocket with the key, Rye took the rope Dirk thrust at him and grasped it firmly, about a body length from the end. He saw by his brothers’ faces that the rope had almost vanished from sight when he touched it. Good. That was what he had hoped. Once he was away from the iron bars, the hood should hide him and the rope completely.
There was a strange ringing in his ears. Everything seemed unreal, but his mind was very clear. He looked down at Sonia’s bent head.
Sonia, we can escape through the roof. I am coming down to you with a rope. It will not be visible, but everyone must be ready to take hold of it the moment I land. And everyone must be linked.
Sonia’s answer came in a flash.
We will be ready.
No doubt she had not intended it, but a gale of other thoughts and feelings came on the heels of those simple words. Rye felt them, and his heart swelled.
Sonia knew that the plan was desperate. She realised that if it were to have any chance of success the prisoners would have to be off the ground, out of reach, before their captors realised they had vanished. But she wanted to live. She wanted them all to live. And she was determined that Rye’s effort would not be in vain.
‘I think you will be visible when I am gone, even holding the rope, because you will have no direct contact with me,’ Rye said rapidly to Dirk and Sholto. ‘And the others will be visible too, once they reach you and break contact with the hood. I will have to come up last, to keep the feather and the armour shell working till the end. But with luck no one will look up here—they have other things to interest them.’
He glanced across the hall to the balcony on the other side. The guards had gone. Figures in grey coats were fixing large, clear pieces of pipe to the black circles on the skimmers’ cages. Other figures were attaching the free ends of the pipes to the circles on the balcony shield. Brand was sitting down, the black box on his knees. The supervisor was still standing, watching her workers intently.
‘Wish me luck,’ Rye said.
He felt Dirk and Sholto grip his shoulders briefly before letting him go. Then he stepped into space.
25 - The Rope
Dirk fed out the rope slowly and steadily, so that it seemed to Rye that the drop to the floor of the testing hall took forever. In fact it was only seconds before he was landing, gently and without a sound, beside Sonia.
He knew that Dirk had felt the tension on the rope slacken, because the next moment a few coils of spare rope slithered to the floor behind him. He gathered them up quickly, and looked around.
Sonia had prepared her companions well. They had all drawn a little away from the guards, and turned to face her. Their arms were linked. Not one of them jumped or cried out as an invisible presence landed among them. The chance of rescue had overcome their dread of magic, it seemed.
‘Here!’ Rye whispered, holding out the coils of rope. ‘Make haste!’
And in seconds, Bird’s people were reaching for the lifeline they could feel but could not see. They did it in the order they had plainly decided beforehand. Itch and his sisters first, Chub and Pepper next …
Rye glanced at Sonia, standing tensely beside him. They could both hear Kyte’s booted feet striking the paved floor, but the guards blocked their view of her. Above their heads, the monster birds shrieked and tore at the mesh of their cage.
‘Listen to those stupid beasts!’ Rye heard Kyte complain. ‘Their noise is unbearable—and they’re right above our viewing balcony, too!’
Rye held his breath, praying she would not look up. If she did, she would soon see the reason for the giant birds’ fury. She would see Dirk and Sholto standing motionless in their high corner perch, while the birds’ razor-sharp talons raked the mesh of the cage on the other side of the bars.
‘The birds are hungry, Kyte,’ mumbled one of the guards. ‘You should have let us release them to hunt before we brought the prisoners up. The Master wouldn’t like it if he knew—’
‘If the Master’s pets are hungry, it is not my fault, but Brand’s!’ Kyte broke in. ‘Brand was the one who broke into my rest, ordering me to move the prisoners long before they were needed.’
And at that moment, Rye realised that, more quickly than he had thought possible, the people of Nanny’s Pride farm were all gripping the rope, and all touching one another. Bird and Bean were the last. They were panting as if they had been running, but their faces were set, and their eyes were gleaming with determination.
Rye pulled the red feather from his pocket. He put his arm around Sonia, and together they formed the last links in the human chain.
Now, Rye knew, the hood concealed them all. Anyone watching from above would have seen the whole group of prisoners vanish. Urgently he tugged on the rope.
Up! he thought, as much to Dirk and Sholto as to the Fellan magic he had come to trust. Up!
And with joy he felt his feet leave the floor. He felt himself rising steadily. He felt Sonia’s relief and heard the high, nervous chattering of the clink hidden in her pocket. He looked up, and saw Bird, Bean, and the others clinging to the rope like grapes on a stem, and Dirk and Sholto pulling together high above, their faces anxious and sweating.
Then he looked down. He was well above the heads of the guards now, almost to the level of the balconies, and the guards had noticed nothing. They stood like figures carved of grey stone, listening to Kyte, watching Kyte swaggering up and down before them, little knowing that behind their backs there was nothing but a patch of bare, paved floor.
We are out of their reach, Rye thought gleefully. Way out of their reach. They cannot touch us now.
Kyte was still talking. Her voice floated up from below, sneering and confident. Rye wondered grimly how confident she would feel when she found her prisoners gone.
‘… nothing but foolish nerves and fuss!’ Kyte was saying. ‘The test could not begin till full daylight, after all—but that is typical of Brand.’
‘We could have opened the roof of the cage room and let the birds out first,’ a guard mumbled. ‘It wouldn’t have taken—’
‘Brand said “at once” so I obeyed him to the letter!’ Kyte barked. ‘Perhaps next time he will listen to me! Or perhaps there will not be a next time for Brand. Perhaps the Master will decide that he is not fit—’
‘KYTE! THE SPECIMENS ARE GONE!’ Brand’s roar, made terrifyingly loud by some means Rye could not begin to understand, burst like an echoing thunderclap through the great room.
The shock was frightful. Rye heard a strangled cry from above as someone jumped violently. The rope twisted and swung, almost slipping from his hands. Clinging on for dear life, he caught a glimpse of Brand. The Controller was standing up, shouting, his swollen face pressed to the balcony shield, the black box in his hands, his eyes bulging as he stared down at the place where the prisoners had been.
‘WHERE ARE THEY? KYTE, YOU FOOL …’
Do not think about him! Sonia whispered urgently in Rye’s mind. Do not think of anything but—
Chub’s despairing cry rang in Rye’s ears. His head jerked up, and above him he saw disaster.
Chub was clinging to the rope with one hand. Her other hand was straining towards Pepper—straining down, uselessly, because Pepper was falling, his arms flailing as he tried to save himself.
Rye knew what had happened as clearly if he had seen it with his own eyes. The human chain had broken. Shocked and terrified by the sudden roar of Brand’s voice, Pepper had lost his grip on the rope, and on Chub’s hand. Chub had done her best to hold him, but had not been able to bear his weight. He had slipped from her grasp.