"Gateway" - читать интересную книгу автора (Shinn Sharon)

FIVE

THE SMELL OF cooking tickled her nose, and Daiyu turned over in bed, trying to figure out what her father was making for breakfast. Something flavorful, maybe sausages. She was starving.

She opened her eyes and immediately lost her appetite.

She was on the low mattress in the small room in the white stone building where she had arrived the previous night. If she was still dreaming, it was the longest and most detailed dream she had ever had.

Clothes had been laid out for her across a stool-a red top and wide-legged black pants, as well as a pair of black cloth ballet flats that didn’t look all that different from her Skechers. She scooped them up and scooted into the bathroom before anyone could see her. Once she had dressed and combed out her hair, she felt a little more prepared to face the day. There didn’t seem to be a proper mirror in this place, but a shiny chrome square hanging on the bathroom wall gave her a wavering reflection. Her chin-length black hair seemed lustrous as always, her dark eyes thoughtful and measuring. Her face was deceptively serene, belying her inner disquiet.

She took a deep breath. If she could make her interior match her exterior, she might yet sail through this adventure without a total meltdown.

She stepped out into the main room of the house. “What’s for breakfast?” she asked.

Kalen was the only other person home, and he turned from the kitchen to give her a hopeful smile. “How did you sleep? How are you feeling?”

“I slept wonderfully and I feel pretty good,” Daiyu said, settling at the table. “But I’m still… well, it’s all pretty weird, youknow.”

“I know,” he said. “Or, at least, I guess. It must be even stranger for you than it was for me.” He brought over a casserole pan holding what looked like potatoes and eggs and crumbled bits of meat. “Are you hungry?”

“Starving,” she said. “Do I eat with my fingers or what?”

He laughed and fetched flat wooden boards that served as plates and large spoons that appeared to be the only eating utensils. Juice completed the meal-definitely not orange juice, but something pulpy and sweet, and Daiyu gulped it down-and for a few moments they ate in companionable silence.

Then Daiyu remembered what he’d just said. “What do you mean about things being strange for you, too?” she asked. “Aren’t you one of them? A servant to the gods and all that?”

He laughed. “Me? Hardly. I’m just a cangbai workingman.”

She gestured around the room. “So this is your world? Jia?” When he nodded, she said, “How did you meet up with Ombri and his friend?”

“Ombri and I were both stonepickers on the river, and we talked now and then while we were working. One day he said he and his wife wanted to buy a house, but they’d have to rent out a room to be able to afford it. Did I want to be a boarder? I was living in a tent at the time, and winter was coming, so I didn’t even think about it. I just said yes.”

Daiyu filed away the question about what a stonepicker was. “How did you know they wouldn’t steal your stuff?”

He shrugged. “I don’t have any stuff. I wasn’t risking much.”

Daiyu propped her chin on her hand and looked him over. She had originally thought he just had a slim build, but now that she paid more attention, she could see that his was the slenderness of lifelong hunger. His face was bony, his wrists thin; his eyes were kind because they had looked upon a lot of misery and empathized with pain.

“What’s your story? ”she said presently. “Where’s your fam- ily?”

He shrugged again. “My father was never around. My mother died when I was little,” he said. “I’ve been on my own most of my life.” He grinned. “Meeting Ombri and Aurora is about the most exciting thing that’s ever happened to me.”

“Well, it’s certainly been exciting for me so far too,” Daiyu said dryly. She hesitated and then said, “I have to admit, even after this morning, when I woke up and I was still here, I’m having a hard time believing that anything Ombri said was true.”

“This is where I’ve lived my whole life, so I can’t really judge,” Kalen said. “But you seem to think you’re somewhere that you didn’t expect to be. So you tell me. Is this a different world?”

“Going by what I saw last night, yes,” she said. “But I just don’t know how that could be possible. ”She gave him a straight look. “What did they tell you to make you believe that they were from another universe?”

“To tell you the truth,” he said, “at first I didn’t believe them. But I didn’t care. They were generous and they were thoughtful and they made sure I had enough to eat. If they wanted to pretend they were sent here by the gods, it didn’t matter to me.”

“What changed your mind?”

He tapped his flat wooden plate with the bowl of his spoon. “Little things. Ombri can see in the dark. Aurora knows when the weather is going to change. And-like he told you last night-they’re both able to read people as if they can see the thoughts in their heads. It’s like nothing in this world is mysterious to them. I find that pretty convincing.”

“So what did they tell you about why they came here?”

“Pretty much what Ombri told you last night. That they wanted to find a way to send Chenglei back to his own iteration.”

She toyed with her spoon. “And did that make you-curious? Uneasy? Did you wonder why they should have the right to decide who gets to live here and who has to go home?”

Kalen just looked at her, his expressions tartled. “Not really,” he said at last. “I’ve come to trust them, so I believe they have good reasons for what they want to do.”

Daiyu nodded and let it drop, though her own uneasiness remained. She glanced around. “So where is Ombri now? And Aurora?”

“I don’t know, but I think they’ll both be back by dinner tonight.” He gave her a tentative smile. “So what would you like to do today? If you’re feeling rested enough to leave the house-”

Rested and deeply curious.“Iam,”she said.“Why don’t you show me your world?”

By daylight, Kalen’s neighborhood didn’t look any more impressive than it had by twilight. Daiyu followed him to a rundownintersection, where they hailed another of those clattering trolleys. This one held riders who were mostly whites and blacks-cangbai and heiren-and was even more crowded thant he one the night before. When the trolley made a ninety- degree turn, Daiyu realized that they were on a broad avenue that was parallel to the river. If this had been the Mississippi, they would be heading north away from Soulard, a district that had been built a century ago to house the working poor…

“Hey,” she said, “I think you live really close to where I live back on Earth.” Her voice trailed off. “That is so weird.”

“Ombri said there would be a lot of points in common be tween our worlds.”

“Yeah, but I didn’t think that I’d be staying in practically the same neighborhood where I live back home.”

Kalen smiled down at her. “Does that make you feel a little better?” he asked. “Like you’re where you’re supposed to be?”

She couldn’t help a slight laugh. “Kalen,” she said, “nothing will make me feel like this is where I belong.”

Once Daiyu was oriented to the river, though, she did start to develop a better sense of how Shenglang was laid out, which made her more cheerful. They disembarked from the trolley within sight of the red gate and slowly strolled toward the river, their shoes crunching over the yin-and-yang pattern of the decorative stone mosaic. The riverfront was crowded with workers hauling cargo to and from small boats and idle onlookers watching the water slip by. A steady stream of pedestrians crossedaseriesofnarrowbridgesthatledfromtheeasternside of the river, where the land appeared to be dense with houses, vehicles, and commercial buildings. Daiyu thought it might be even more populous than the city on this side of the river.

She automatically looked north, where she would have expected the symmetrical scallops of Eads Bridge to connect Missouri and Illinois. Instead there was a high, thick structure spanning the river that looked like a combination dam and sluice. Three monstrous gates had been lifted from the central portion of the bridge so that water streamed unimpeded past the remaining supports, carrying the occasional boat on its surface. Daiyu guessed that when the gates were lowered, the river slowly filled up behind the dam. She couldn’t imagine why.

She looked up at Kalen. “Okay. This is where you explain everything you’ve said about working on the river.”

He guided her toward a stone bench that overlooked the water. She settled beside him and was grateful for the erratic breeze that wandered off the river. It wasn’t even noon yet, and already the day was heating up.

“The Zhongbu River washes down from mountain ranges way up north,” he said. “It brings all sorts of minerals and stones with it-particularly qiji gems.”

“What gems?”

“Qiji,”he repeated. It sounded like he was saying scheet-schee. He went on, “The word means ‘miracle.’ Whenever they dam the river, stonepickers-like me-wade out into the muck and pick up every stone we think might be a qiji-”

“You mean you can’t tell?” Daiyu interrupted.

He shook his head. “In their raw state they look like any common river rock. So we bag up as many as we can, and we take them to the vendors to be tested, and they pay us for the ones we find.”

“How many qiji gems do you find on an average day?” she asked.

“Maybe two. A good day would be five.”

She appraised him. “And I’m guessing two stones don’t pay all that well.”

“Enough to live on,” he said.

“How often do they dam the river?”

“Usually two or three times a week.” He pointed at a rickety tower set about ten yards back from the river. It looked like a lighthouse made of scaffolding, but at the very top, instead of a light, Daiyu could see a huge bronze bell. She glanced across the river to see its twin on the eastern bank. Kalen said,“They ring the big bells the night before so all the stonepickers know to come work the next morning.”

“And how long does the dam hold? Because I’d think that the water would start pouring over pretty fast.”

“Generally you get about half a day. But when it’s time to get out, they ring the small bells-you probably can’t see them from here. The whole time you’re working, you’re listening for that sound, because they wait till the last possible moment to send the signal. Sometimes there’s already water spilling over the top of the dam.”

“I think I’d be working as close to the riverbank as I could!”

He shook his head. “Most qiji gems can be found in the middleoftheriver.You’d starve if you only worked the shallow ends.”

“I’d probably starve anyway if I was stranded in this world,” Daiyu said under her breath.

“Not now that I’ve found you,” he returned with a smile.

A young cangbai man about Kalen’s age had approached whiletheytalked.“Hey,Kalen,”hesaid.“Can’tstayawayfrom the river, can you?”

“Neithercanyou,”Kalensaid,grinning.Theystoodup,and Kalen made introductions. “Gabe, this is Daiyu. She’s a friend from another city.”

She saw Gabe give her a quick appraisal, note her Chinese heritage, and decide that she couldn’t be wealthy Han or she wouldn’t be with Kalen. He gave her a conditional smile.

“How long are you here visiting?” he asked.

“I’m not really sure yet,” she replied.

Gabe’s smile widened a little. “You could go stonepicking with Kalen next time they shut off the river. You wouldn’t have tobenervous.I’d make sure the bells called you back before the river ran free.”

“Gabe’s the ringer on this side of the river,” Kalen explained.

Gabe turned to Daiyu, his eyes alight. “Hey, you want to see the bells?”

She glanced at the open tower. “I can see them. The big one, anyway.”

“No, I mean up close. Come on. I’ll show you.”

She looked at Kalen, who nodded an affirmative, so she said, “Why not?”

It was a short walk to the bell tower but it was a long climb to the top, up a truly terrifying set of circular metal steps that spiraled around the outside of the scaffold. “Are these safe?” Daiyu demanded as she took her first few steps behind Gabe. She clung to the rail, convinced that the whole tower had just swayed under their combined weight.

“Sure, of course they are,” Gabe said. “Just make sure you hold on.”

So, fighting vertigo the whole way, Daiyu slowly followed him up. The top portion of the tower was almost a room, with a half wall, a roof, and a narrow catwalk circling the interior to serveasafloor. It was barely wide enough to stand on, with no interior barrier to keep any careless visitor from tumbling down the center of the tower to the ground below. Daiyu stood on the top step and refused to release her hold on the railing.

Kalen passed her and moved with care around the catwalk, but Gabe skipped across the boards with the agility of the fearless. He pointed to a thick woven rope that stretched from the monster bell to an iron tether embedded in the far wall.

“That’s the rope that starts the bronze bell clanging,” he said. “It’s heavy, so you need a few good pulls before the clapper hits, and you’d be surprised how much strength it takes to keep it moving. Once it pulled me off my feet and I was swinging back and forth over the open ground, trying to land on one side or the other.”

Daiyu figured this story had an equal chance of being true or false, but she didn’t really care. She didn’t like heights, and she was pretty sure the whole tower had trembled again. “What about the little bells?” she asked.

Gabe danced even farther away, hopping over what appeared to be a small break in the continuity of the catwalk, to point at a much thinner rope tied to a second hook. The other end was attached to a circle of small bells that looked as if they were made of chrome swirled with crystal. “They don’t weigh hardly anything at all,” he said. “A little kid could pull them. A girl. You could.”

She smiled faintly. “Why didn’t somebody design the tower so you could reach these ropes from the ground?”

“Then anybody could come along and pull them just for a prank. You’d have people rushing out of the river when they had half a day of work left.”

“Well, they could do that now if they felt like climbing a hundred stories and maybe breaking their necks,” Daiyu said.

Gabe shook his head and grinned. “The gate at the bottom of the stairs is supposed to be locked. Everyone thinks it is, but I know the lock is broken.”

She didn’t answer. She was starting to get nauseated, and she really wished she was back on level ground.

“Are you feeling all right?” Kalen asked, and Daiyu shook her head.

“No. I think-This is kind of making me sick.”

Abruptly, she sat down on the top step, quickly transferring her hold to one of the metal posts that supported the railing. She heard Gabe exclaim, “What’s wrong with her?” but Kalen didn’t bother asking questions. He just crossed to where she was sitting and crouched beside her, putting a hand on her wrist.

Just as he had the night before. Taking hold of her so she wouldn’t be afraid.

“Maybe breakfast upset your stomach,” he said. “All that food you’re not used to.”

She tried to smile at him. “I think it was the climb. And maybe the travel yesterday.”

“Can you get back down?” Gabe wanted to know.

“Well, I hope so,” she said. “Maybe I’ll just go down on my butt, one step at a time.”

Still holding her hand, Kalen slipped past her and carefully stood up. “I’ll go down first,” he said. “You can hold on to me.”

A little uncertainly, she came to her feet, clutching the railing with one hand and resting her other on Kalen. His bony shoulder seemed so much more solid and reliable than the thin railing. She quickly figured out how to synchronize her steps to his, and they eased through the descent. Daiyu was shaky but grateful when she was finally back on solid ground.

Gabe bounded down the last three steps without touching his feet to one of them. Daiyu attempted to smile at him. “Thanks for showing me the bells, even though I got sick,” she said. “I hope I hear you ring them sometime.”

“You will, tonight or tomorrow,” Gabe said. He looked at Kalen. “Are you going to work the next time? Or will your friend still be here?”

Kalen gave a convincing shrug. “She’ll probably still be here, but she might be busy. If she’s got something else to do, I’ll come to the river.”

“Don’t miss work because of me,” Daiyu said.

He smiled. “It’s all right. I can work in the river any day, but you won’t be here very long.”

She laughed, but the sound was a little rueful. “Well, Idon’t think I will be,” she said. “I suppose you never know.”