“What?”
“Are you OK? You were talking.”
Coll stared at him. “No I wasn’t.”
Fillan frowned. “Oh. OK.”
Up the next hill and down, scrambling through thorn bushes. And the next, and the next. This one seemed incredibly steep, and Coll felt the urge to crawl up on all fours. His head was full of thunderclouds, thick and black and pressing against the inside of his skull. But at the same time he felt strangely light…
He tottered to the top and stopped in surprise. Wolf was there! The huge Construct was standing only a kilometre away. Her mouth was open, her tongue lolling in a smile.
“Wolf!” he gasped.
“What?” asked Fillan.
Coll turned to him and grinned. “Look, up ahead! Come on!” He pushed his aching legs into a trot. “Wolf!” he shouted. “Wolf, wait!”
He was close enough to see the deck and even some of the crew. Rudy was there, waving to him, and Luna, and the enormous figure of Dolph. And there was Alpha, smiling and beckoning…
“Wolf, I’m coming!” he called. “Alpha!”
But as he watched, Wolf turned away and he realised she was leaving. “No!” he croaked. “No, Wolf, wait! Alpha! Wait for me, Alpha! It’s me, Coll! Wait!”
“Coll?” called Fillan, behind him, but Coll ignored him.
Wolf was running now. Weirdly the crew were still smiling and waving to him, but Wolf was leaving…
“No!” he cried. “No, please! Alpha, please!”
He stumbled on, his lungs burning. Black spots darted in front of his eyes like flies and he waved his hand to shoo them off, and then stared at his mechanical fingers. They seemed fascinating…
He bent over and was suddenly very sick. He staggered on two more steps, and then the ground swam towards him, and then he was on the ground, looking up at the sky, and then there was Fillan’s round face gazing down.
“Coll?” Fillan was asking, but his voice seemed far away. “Coll?”
Coll tried to speak, but his tongue wouldn’t move. It was as if it was too big for his mouth, like Wolf’s. That was it! He had a long Wolf’s tongue! He laughed, and Fillan’s face disappeared. Coll felt his tongue, still laughing. He wondered if he was going to be sick again. The sky was very blue. And then there was someone else there and he smiled.
“Alpha,” he murmured. “You came back for me.”
Alpha leaned in. Her face curled into a scowl.
“Idiot,” she snarled.
Coll’s heart sank. “Oh, it’s you, Rieka. Where’s Alpha?”
Rieka sighed and turned away. “Help me with him,” she said to someone. Then Coll was being dragged. The blue sky became dark, and then black, and then there was nothing.
“How are you feeling?”
Coll blinked. He was lying down inside a green tent. It seemed oddly familiar. Had he been here before? Rieka was sitting next to him.
“Th—” His throat clogged and he tried again. “Thirsty.”
Rieka nodded and held out a cloth dripping with water. The drips landed in his mouth, and he swallowed with a feeling of incredible relief. His whole body wanted to absorb the water like a sponge. Rieka let him drink a little more, then stopped.
“Enough for now,” she said. “Back to sleep, OK?”
He tried to nod, but something told him that moving his head would be a terrible idea. He answered or thought he did. His eyes closed and he fell asleep.
He wasn’t sure how long this went on for – waking up to find Rieka or occasionally Fillan, taking little sips of water, falling asleep. Then soup, a mouthful at a time. Sometimes it was light, sometimes dark.
And then one day he woke up and felt … better. He looked around. Fillan lay next to him asleep. Carefully Coll sat up. His muscles creaked, but he wasn’t dizzy. He crept out of the tent and found Rieka still working at the strange metal tripod. Her device was fixed on top, turning slowly.
Rieka turned. “Careful,” she said in a warning tone, and Coll nodded. It didn’t hurt to nod. He reached to the back of his head. It was sore, but not the sickening feeling of before.
He crawled over to the fire and sat gazing at the flames. Rieka handed him a bottle of water and he drank. They sat in silence.
“Thank you,” he said at last.
Rieka sighed. “I’m sorry for knocking you off the rope. I didn’t mean to.”
Coll still felt groggy, as if thinking was hard. From here he could see the remains of the battle. Raven lay on the other side of the plain, twisted and broken. That was important, and there was something about it – he should be worrying about something… And the cache – had Dragon come back to claim it? If not, why not?
But all he could do was remember Rieka’s shocked face on the rope.
“You left Wolf,” he said. “Did I remember that?”
