Anna scowled and opened her mouth to protest but obviously thought better of it. With an angry swirl of her robe she headed for the front door. The others followed her, with Adam bringing up the rear. He was the only one to mutter an apologetic “Good night” as they went out.
When they’d gone Jan said to her mother, “Do you really think any of the men will fight?”
Melissa shrugged again. “Some may do. Self-preservation is a strong drive. We shall see. But I’m hoping it won’t be necessary. With any luck the Lord Pangloth will be destroyed before the Sky Warriors can be deployed.”
“If some of them do fight,” said Jan slowly, “then they might develop a taste for it, mightn’t they? We’d never be able to trust them again.”
“Superstition,” said Melissa. She walked out of the hallway and into the front room. She sat wearily on a puff-ball sack. Jan followed her inside.
“But isn’t that the reason they’ve always been forbidden to handle weapons?” she asked her mother. “For fear of awakening the taint of the Old Men that still dwells within them?”
Not looking at her Melissa said, “The Mother God changed them for good. They can’t revert back.”
“Then why the law against weapons? Why the separate compound? Why the curfew? Why are we still afraid of them?”
“Tradition. And that is how it should be. Even the men of Minerva, changed as they are, cannot expiate the sins their ancestors committed against our foremothers for untold millennia, or the sins that the Sky Lord Pangloth commits against us now. That is why the men must worship in the Cell of Atonement in the cathedral every Sunday. They lost the right to be our equals a long time ago and can never retain it. Now go to your room and leave me be. I have much to think about.”
Jan did as she was told. As she sat cleaning her sword for the third time that day she pondered what would happen to the men after Monday if Melissa’s plan to destroy the Sky Lord was successful. Would there be a movement among the sisters to expel the men completely from Minerva? It was highly likely, and highly likely that she herself would support such a movement, but at the same time she didn’t like to think of her father being banished from Minerva. Or even Simon, for that matter. And what would the future of Minerva be without any men at all? The next breeding time was less than three years away. …
That Sunday—the day before the coming of the Sky Lord—the cathedral was packed with worshippers. None prayed harder to the symbol of the Mother God, carved from the trunk of an ancient and sacred oak tree, than Jan. She prayed that she would wake up the following morning and find that everything was back to the way it had been when she was younger; when the crop-lands hadn’t been overrun by the blight, when the rooftops of the town were not concealing weapons to be used against the Sky Lord … but most of all she prayed that the cold and ruthless woman that Melissa had become would vanish and that her mother would return.
Jan did not sleep that night. At first she spent the time restlessly pacing about the empty house—Melissa was out conducting a final inspection of the rocket positions—looking and touching familiar household objects in an attempt to convince herself that everything was normal, and would continue to be normal, even after tomorrow. Then, at around two in the morning, she heard a distant bellowing followed by a thunderous crash. There were shouts, screams and then came the strident clanging of one of the wall alarms. She hastily buckled on her armour and weapons belt and, taking one of the cold light lamps with her, hurried outside.
The narrow street was already filling up as other sisters rushed out of their homes and headed towards the source of the alarm. Jan joined in the rush. As she ran she speculated on the nature of the emergency. From the sound of the crash it was obviously serious—one of the big reptiles perhaps. She hoped the wall hadn’t been breached. Since her last tour of duty she hadn’t given much thought to the dangers beyond the perimeter defences, being too preoccupied with other worries. It would be ironic if Minerva were to be overrun by the denizens of the blight lands before the arrival of the Sky Lord.
She gave a start as something touched her bare thigh. She looked and saw that it was Martha. The chimp, her tool bag secure around her waist, was keeping pace beside her. “Martha, you scared me.”
“Sorry … Mistress…. ” She panted as she ran, using all four limbs. “You know why … alarm?”
“No. Probably a lizard. A big one.”
Jan was proved right. When they arrived at the wall they saw that the massive west gate had been flattened and lying in the splintered wreckage was the monstrous form of one of the giant reptiles. It was tangled in the steel mesh from the upper barrier and it was this that had obviously prevented it from getting any further into Minerva. Cross-bow bolts protruded from its body but it continued to jerk and writhe. Jan saw that it was of the type that walked on two legs like a human—a type noted for its ferocity.
She pushed through the growing crowd, looking for Alsa, who she knew was on wall duty tonight. She spotted her friend with a group of guards. They were gathered round something on the ground.
As Jan drew closer she saw it was a body covered by a blood stained robe. “Who is it?” she asked Alsa fearfully. Alsa turned and gave her a dazed look. She didn’t seem to recognize Jan at first, then her expression cleared and she said, “Oh, it’s you, little one,” then turned her attention back to the body on the ground.
The dying reptile gave a tremendous thump with its tail, causing Jan to jump with alarm. As she turned she saw one of the wall guards step dangerously close to the beast and put a bolt into one of its eyes. It gave a convulsive shudder and went quiet, though its chest continued to rise and fall. Jan turned back to Alsa. “Who is it?” she asked again.
“Carla,” said Alsa. She leaned down and pulled back the blood-sodden robe a short way. Jan felt her stomach turn over as she looked at what lay beneath the robe. Carla’s one remaining eye seemed to stare at her from her ruined face. Jan was suddenly filled with the irrational conviction that Carla was still alive, even in that terrible condition, and could feel everything that had happened to her body. Jan wanted to run screaming back to her house and hide under her bed covers until the world returned to normal—returned to what it had been like when she was a child, when she didn’t have to see things like this … when she didn’t have to know such things even happened. She had actually taken a step backwards before she managed to regain some control of herself. You’re the daughter of Headwoman Melissa, she told herself, you can’t disgrace yourself!
“We were together on the gate,” Alsa said as, to Jan’s relief, she covered up the thing that had been Carla again. “I jumped clear just in time but she stayed at her post. She was crushed under the collapsing gate when the lizard broke through.”
“What happened?” Jan asked her. “What made it charge the gate that way? The big lizards have been known to blunder into the wall occasionally but none has ever acted like this before.”
Alsa massaged the side of her face. Jan saw that a large purple bruise was forming there. “I’m not sure … but I think it was chasing something.”
“Chasing something?”
“I only got a glimpse but I think it was a cat. A big cat. Black. It was running just ahead of the lizard, then it sprung to one side and just disappeared.”