another voice. Suki’s almond eyes swam into her view.
‘Suki, do you see them – the claws?’ Retra whispered.
Suki’s fingers gripped her arm, nails biting her skin. ‘Don’t see nothin’ but him.’ She fluttered her eyes. ‘And I don’t mind looking at that.’
Markes frowned. ‘What did you say about claws? What –’
But then Cal and the crowd closed in on them, collecting Markes, urging him back to his guitar and the altar, and expunging Retra and Suki in their wake.
As Markes climbed back to his seat the claws and wings vanished and Retra sagged back against Suki with relief. The world had come back, the smell of incense and the murmur of voices.
‘Markes,’ voices carolled. ‘Play for us. Play …’
A girl in black silk shorts and a metallic tank top jumped up alongside him. ‘I’ll dance for you.’
Cal tugged the girl down. ‘No you won’t.’
The girl slapped at Cal but Cal ducked and kicked her ankle. Arms grabbed at them and bodies moved in between until Retra could barely see Cal or the girl at all.
Suki forced a beaker of water into Retra’s hand. ‘Here.’
She drank it, coughing a little. The water sank heavily onto her stomach and she pressed her hand to her mouth.
‘You gonna be sick?’
Retra nodded.
Suki pointed to a small, dark apse furnished with a large urn to one side of the side of the altar. ‘In there.’
Retra ran a few steps and sank her face into the urn, heaving the water up. Her sight cleared properly and she realised her velvet dress had ridden up high on her hips and that her hair had come loose. She wrenched her dress down over her thighs, humiliated, and retied her hair.
‘Better?’ asked Suki. She stood behind her, unfazed by the vomit.
‘I think so. I’m sorry.’
Suki shrugged. ‘People get sick. I’ve nursed plenty of ’em. What did you take?’
‘A Rapture p-pod.’
‘How much of it?’
‘He-he told me to eat it all.’
‘Modai gave you a whole rapture pod? No wonder you were about to do the la la.’
‘Is that the Riper’s name?’
‘Yeah, ’parently. Someone in the line told me about him while you were in there. Asmodai is the demon of lust and wrath and this guy is supposed to be his half-mortal son. Fits him, don’t you think?’ She glanced around. ‘The uthers will clean this up. Come on, let’s get out of here.’
Retra got to her feet and followed Suki out of the cruciform, leaving Markes and his audience behind them.
Outside, different noises filled the damp air; not the normal night owl sounds Retra heard in Grave. These were more guttural, deeper.
The climb to the platform seemed endless, the stairs stretching further and further before them. She grasped the handrail with both hands, using the solidity of the iron to guide her.
‘How do you feel now?’ Suki asked when they reached the top. She held Retra’s arm firmly, keeping her away from the edge.
‘Dizzy.’
‘You’re s’posed to have the pod in pieces over a week – or at least a few days.’
‘How do you know that?’
‘Modai told me. Besides, it’s common sense. Just like taking our rock algae medicines at home. They mess with your head. Too much and you’ll eat rat gizzards thinking it’s sweet goo-berry pie.’
Retra stared over at the dark edge of the platform. It beckoned to her but this time she resisted. ‘I think I’ll sit down.’ She tottered to a bench seat, welcoming the hard wood underneath her. ‘I feel strange still. Not myself.’
‘Well, while you are someone else,’ said Suki, dancing a few steps along the platform, ‘let’s party.’
Suki talked about her home as the cable kar looped back onto the main lines and up the face of the crater. She chatted, feet up on the seat, admiring the twists of leather and lace on her new boots.
‘My town is called Stra’ha. It’s the highest town on the Stra’haman trail before the high path to the ranges. It’s so boring there, except for the caves. Draculins by the million.’ Her expression became wicked, one eyebrow cocked. ‘I signed a pact once in draculin blood with a boy from the low towns. He came to visit with his father to sell arms to the women.’
‘Women don’t use weapons in Grave. We’re not permitted to do … group things.’ Retra heard her own voice speaking sensibly yet the words might have come from another’s mouth. Her body and mind went through the actions of being her, but her deep mind, her imagination wandered elsewhere. In her hindbrain