Abarat: Absolute Midnight

Chapter 57

A Knife for Every Heart

CANDY’S EYES SHOT OPEN. She was on dry land; for that she was thankful. The last thing she’d seen was a glimpse of Rojo Pixler, or something that had once been Pixler, lurking in the depths of the Izabella. It had smiled at her hungrily and then reached for her with vast, tentacle limbs.

She was glad to be delivered from that vision.

“What island is this?” she murmured, hoping there would be someone close by to answer.

There was. Beaming with happiness, Malingo’s face came into her field of vision.

“Malingo?”

“You’re awake! I thought you’d really got away this time.”

Candy offered a smile, back up at him; or at least she tried her best to do so. But she felt so dislocated from her body she wasn’t entirely sure it was doing what she thought it was doing. All she knew with any certainty was that her eyelids still felt very leaden, and that despite the pleasure of seeing Malingo again, all that she really wanted to do was to feel sleep gather her up into its arms again and carry her away to some kinder time and place.

“No,” Malingo protested. “Please don’t leave again. I need you. We all need you.”

“All?”

He looked away from her, and curious to see what Malingo was seeing, Candy pushed herself up into a sitting position.

“Lordy Lou . . .” she murmured.

They weren’t alone. There was an immense crowd here, sitting or standing, most of them silent and seemingly alone, the whole assembly contained within a long rectangle of razor wire.

“From what I gather, there are about seven thousand of us,” Gazza said from somewhere behind her.

She looked around at him. He was climbing up onto the top of the boulder followed by, much to Candy’s surprise, Betty Thunder. Candy took a good look around.

“How come we get to sit on the only rock?” she asked.

“You’re famous,” Gazza said. “So we get the rock.”

“Who are all these people?”

“We’re all the Empress’s prisoners.”

“Is it just the four of us?”

“No. Eddie and the Johns are here too,” Gazza said.

“What about Geneva? Tom? Clyde?”

Betty gave a sad shrug.

“We might find them, though,” said Malingo. “Eddie and the Johns are out there looking for them and trying to find out why we’re here. What we’ve all got in common.”

“She doesn’t like us,” Candy said. “What more reason does she need? She’s the Empress now. She doesn’t answer to anyone.”

“Everybody answers to somebody,” said Gazza.

Candy shrugged and stood up to survey the crowd. Bonfires were blazing in dozens of places around the camp. By their light, Candy saw that the crowd here was just as diverse as it had been on the boardwalks of Babilonium. Though these were prisoners, not pleasure seekers, the familiar exuberance of Abaratian life was visible: the same dream-bright colors that had no name; the same elaborate configurations of feathered crests and fanning tails; eyes that looked like smoking embers and rings that were decorated with constellations of golden eyes. The only real difference was in the noise the crowd made, or rather its absence. The pleasure seekers at Babilonium had whooped and shouted and howled at the dusky sky as if to call it down to join in the fun. But there were no whoops nor shouts here. Nor were there tears. Just whispered exchanges, and perhaps here and there some murmured prayers.

“They’re all watching the sky,” Candy said. “Seeing the cracks opening up.”

“Well, that is a good thing, isn’t it?” Malingo said. “I saw a star just a little while ago. See it? Oh, and there!”

“She knew this would happen,” Candy said.

“She knew the darkness wouldn’t stay?”

“Of course,” Candy said, momentarily forgetting she’d kept her conversation with Carrion a secret. She quickly added a defensive, “I mean, how could she not? She had to know that whatever creatures she put up there wouldn’t live forever. Otherwise why would she have all the troublemakers locked up? It just makes sense.”

“What’s going to happen to us now?” Malingo said.

“We’re going to get out of here,” Candy said. “Before Mater Motley gets here.”

“What makes you think she’s going to come here?” Gazza asked.

“She’s worked a long time to get all her enemies in one place. She can take us all out at the same time.”

“What? There are thousands of us!” said Malingo.

“Yes. And we’re hidden behind a volcano at the end of the world! Nobody will ever know if we’re murdered here. But she’ll want it soon, before some order is put back into things.”

“How can you be so sure?” said Betty.

“I just am. I think I have come to understand her . . . a little.”

“Well, I don’t see how we get the six of us out of here,” Betty said. “Maybe you and Malingo . . .”

“No,” Candy said.

“What do you mean no? Is six too many?”

“When I say all of us,” Candy said, glancing back toward the compound and all the souls imprisoned within it, “I mean: All. Of. Us.”

“There are stitchlings in every direction, Candy,” Gazza said.

“Yes, and no doubt she’ll bring more with her when she comes.”

“Lordy Lou . . .” Malingo murmured.

“How many more?” Gazza wanted to know.

“What does it matter?” Candy said.

“I need to know what we’re going to face,” he said to her.

“I don’t have precise numbers, Gaz. I wish I could explain it better, but I can’t. All I can say I know she’s coming, and that she’ll have a knife for every heart.”

She’d no sooner given her grim answer to his question than a commotion started running through the crowd. Candy tore her gaze away from her friends.

“What now?” she asked.

Candy walked to the edge of the boulder in time to see a blind man emerge in front of the crowd.

“Candy Quackenbush?” he said.

“Do I know you?”

“No,” said the blind man. “I’m Zephario Carrion. I believe you know my son.”