Andromache Between Worlds, page 13
‘Look down,’ Lady Black suggested.
I did and was immediately hit by a wave of dizziness.
Well below us was the stretch of a bronze city, shining in the sun. But it stopped sharply at the edges of a perfect curve, past which was just more sky.
‘You can’t see it that well, but look there.’ She pointed.
Everything got a touch more terrifying and confusing. Where the city stopped on the left, I could just make out another circle below it and across, this one lined with neat, orderly houses.
I stepped back, unsteady on my feet.
‘Are we . . . are we flying?’ I stammered.
Lady Black laughed. ‘No, nothing like that. Although, it feels that way sometimes. No, this was Vincent’s plan. See, he knew things had to change. More people every year, cities expanding, wiping out the environment as they did. Before long, there’d be nothing of nature left. And he thought, well, there are limits to spreading outwards, but what about upwards? Obviously, people can’t live piled on top of each other without room to move. So, he devoted everything he had to this.’
She led me over to a cabinet on the wall, opened it and slid something out. It was a model; it looked a bit like a DNA strand from science class, but not quite. Maybe more like a spiral staircase, except with discs instead of stairs. And on each disc . . .
Some were made up of skyscrapers. Others, thick forest, houses or farms. Narrow tubes connected each one. I looked from a forest level down to the city level below. That was where I had arrived. Near the top. If this was accurate, then we were really, really high up.
Lady Black tapped the very top of the central tower around which the discs gathered. ‘We’re here,’ she said helpfully. ‘Right at the top.’
‘How . . .’ My voice was a squeak. ‘How is this possible? How doesn’t it all collapse?’
‘Every brilliant mind is devoted to making it work. Every city in England has been rebuilt like this. Which means all the land in between is free for nature to do its thing without our interference.’ She beamed. ‘Genius, right? We don’t even miss out. We have the forest levels, the farming levels. We can visit them if we want. There’s more than enough fresh air up here. It’s a paradise without consequences for the rest of the planet.’
I crouched, looking from level to level. It seemed unreal, like something out of the wildest dreams. But I had seen the lower levels from the window, and I’d arrived in a forest and walked down to a city street. This place was real. And somehow, I was at the centre of it.
No. Not me. This other glamorous, charming, intelligent me, who seemed able to guess the most unbelievable things in seconds. I didn’t want to give something away by looking at her – jealousy or awe or whatever – so I focused on the model.
At the very base of it, gathered around the tower, were what looked like a series of long buildings. I crouched a little lower and tapped them.
‘What’s at the very bottom?’
‘Come on,’ she said. ‘Let’s eat.’
After getting ready and dressing in a shimmery dark suit that had been left out for me, I met Lady Black in the entry hall. Even though there was no-one else around but this other me, I still felt self-conscious. Usually, I went for shirts and jumpers and jeans, for clothes that wouldn’t draw attention. But this, so perfectly fitting, was something else; unique and classy and striking.
Lady Black was dressed similarly, except in red with a short cape attached to the back of her jacket. Waiting in the marble hall, she looked like some kind of superhero. Part of that, I knew, was the way she wore those clothes; as if she’d never worn anything else, because I guessed she hadn’t. I couldn’t imagine myself ever being so comfortable in such fancy gear.
‘I figured I’d show you London,’ she said as I approached. ‘I mean, I’ve been a terrible host – you’re in a parallel world and I’m showing you models? You need to see it all properly.’
‘Are we using those orbs?’ I asked suspiciously.
She laughed. ‘Of course! It’s the best way to travel. But don’t worry, we’ll be going a lot slower this time. Call it the tourist setting.’ She gestured towards the same room we’d arrived in the night before. I followed, trying not to notice how she walked with absolute confidence, striding along as though she owned the place. Which, I reminded myself, she did. We were so alike, yet behind her I felt stupid, stumbling and awkward.
Again, the orb didn’t sway as we got in, but I still grabbed on to the seat and closed my eyes. I’d never thought I had much of a problem with heights, but then I’d never been this high up before.
‘Andromache,’ Lady Black said.
I opened my eyes, and she took my hand.
‘I promise it’ll be fine,’ she said. ‘Enjoy the views, yeah? They’re really something.’
The wall slid open, and far slower than the night before, we glided out into the sky. My whole body tensed as we left the building, ready for a sudden, sharp drop into nothingness, but it never came. The orb remained steady. I looked back. Lady Black’s home, the top of the enormous tower, pointed upwards like a cone, windows circling it. But below . . .
I saw the full expanse of the towering city buildings. The suburban streets below it and some lazy clouds drifting around them. Lower and to the side again, a forest level – I guessed the one I’d arrived on. Past that, the levels disappeared around the tower and out of sight.
It was all so overwhelming, so huge, bigger than anything I’d ever seen. It drove the air out of me and left me transfixed by the sheer splendour of it all.
Lady Black was watching me with a proud smile. ‘Shall we take a closer look?’
Time slipped away as the orb soared through Lady Black’s world. I knew my host was speaking, explaining details and how things worked, but I was barely listening. Every time I thought I was used to this spiralling world in the sky, something else stunned me into another wide-eyed stare.
We flew between towering bronze buildings, passing large, sun-filled balconies full of well-dressed people having breakfast. We passed other shining orbs – some going up, some down, some past us, all attached to those cables that seemed to join everything here – building to building, level to level.
On the wide, clean streets below people teemed, not one of them looking stressed or poor or anything other than happy.
Then we were travelling over thick forest canopies that would seem to be in the middle of nowhere if it wasn’t for the sudden edges we’d fly over, revealing cities or suburbs far below. Neat streets where families walked out the front of pretty, orderly houses. Parks where games of football and cricket were played. Then down again, over paddocks and farmhouses and barns. Life carrying on, calm and happy, as if there was nothing strange about living so high up. Occasionally, past each level, I would catch glimpses of the ground below, of trees and hills, of nature left alone.
It was hard to deny that Vincent Black’s world was beautiful. At every turn I couldn’t help but compare it to the dirty, run-down, smoggy London I knew. It seemed so wrong for them to have the same name, like a bad joke.
Finally, the orb started to make its lazy way back up, past all the levels of farms and towns and trees and city streets.
‘Any questions?’ Lady Black asked.
‘How do you get to other cities?’ I asked.
‘There are special orbs that will take you to them.’
‘What about overseas?’
‘It’s quite a fast trip between cities,’ she went on, as if she hadn’t heard me. ‘A pretty one, too. Look,’ she pointed out the window. ‘That’s Kent.’
Far, far in the hazy distance, I could see the vague shape of another towering spiral.
‘Okay, so . . .’ I was trying to concentrate. ‘I get that every city has been replaced with one of these . . . tower things. But millions of people live in London. This is huge and unbelievable and . . .’ I wasn’t sure I had the words for all the things it was. ‘But it’s not enough for millions. Surely not.’
Lady Black cocked her head to the side, looking amused. ‘Why are you trying to poke holes in this?’
‘I’m not,’ I said. ‘I’m just trying to understand.’
‘Of course,’ she said. ‘Everything I told you last night must have been a lot to hear. Believe me, I get that. What your parents were, that’s not your fault. Not at all. But now that you know, you’re left with a choice.’
‘What choice?’
‘Whether to stay.’
It took me a moment to realise she was serious. ‘To stay . . . I can’t stay!’
‘Why not?’
‘Because . . . this isn’t my world, because I have to—’
‘Find your father and return to your mother?’ she asked. ‘Why? Andromache, you know the truth now. You don’t owe them anything. Don’t you see? This is the chance for a whole new start. A better life, away from all the secrets and lies.’ She leaned forward. ‘Tell me, Andromache, have you ever been truly happy in your world?’
I didn’t reply.
‘How could you be?’ she asked. ‘You’re the daughter of celebrities. You’re always, always going to be compared to them. Every time you fail, you’ll be an insult to their legacy. Every time you succeed, you only got there because of them. It’s exhausting. And believe me, I get it. More than anyone, I get it. Vincent Black changed the world. You think it’s easy being his daughter? Everyone thinks it is. So rich, so powerful, so lucky. In reality, it’s lonely. Just really, really lonely.’ Her voice cracked.
Something had tightened around my heart. Maybe it was hearing somebody say out loud what I’d never dared to.
She took my hand again. ‘This world and everything in it, it’s all ours, Andromache. Forget the past. Forget your old life. Stay here and embrace a new one.’
Silence in the orb. Outside, the levels of this incredible new world twisted away below. The sky opened up behind us. And ahead, the top of the tower, the palace that could be my home.
There were tears in Lady Black’s eyes, but still she smiled as she asked, ‘What do you think?’
Chapter Sixteen
I sat alone in the library, cup of tea in hand, looking up at the painting of Vincent Black.
It was strange that somebody so famous, so feared, could be such a mystery. In my world, anyway. But the man in the picture didn’t look like a monster. He looked young. He looked brave and determined. But more than anything else, he looked sad. I tried to imagine how it felt, to be locked away for your whole childhood, to devote everything you had to getting out and saving the lives of those you loved, only for somebody else to take the credit and see you put straight into another prison.
If it was true, it was beyond awful.
What would it have been like to be raised by him? I knew I could ask Lady Black, but for some reason I was scared to. Probably because I knew the answer. Me, prone to trouble, always screwing up, a target for bullies and so often wishing I could be anyone else. And her, beautiful, perfect, smart.
There were things I’d always been sure were set in stone. I was Andromache Peters, the daughter of two heroes whom I could never, ever live up to. But now, not only did I know that in other worlds everything could have been so very different, but that what I’d taken to be a sure thing in my own world wasn’t as solid as I had believed. I felt like a flag that had come loose from its pole, flapping around wildly in the wind, hanging on by only a thread to what I’d always taken to be secure. But I knew now that it would only take one strong gust to come away entirely.
Did I really have to continue the search, or go back home? If my mother had never wanted me to begin with, then what did I even owe her? She’d probably be happier without me. And I could be happy here. Rich and comfortable, spending my time with somebody who understood me better than anyone else because she was me. And somehow, for all the ways in which we were nothing alike, we had one massive thing in common: neither of us knew how to exist in the shadows of the legends who had raised us.
I kept looking at the painting, right at those distant eyes, willing them to turn to me and reveal . . . anything.
Beneath the very real part of me that wanted to cut ties with my old life and stay here, something still bothered me. Whatever Lady Black had said, there were parts missing. Questions she hadn’t answered, questions I was sure she thought I was too overwhelmed to pay attention to. She’d been so excited to tell me everything about her world, but when I asked about travelling overseas or what was at the base of the tower, she’d changed the subject. And if years of obsession with history had taught me anything, it was that you couldn’t form a real opinion until you knew everything there was to know about a subject.
I stood and faced the window. The sky was pink and orange, the buildings below lit up. There was no way to see the ground from here, what was really down there. The faint lines of my reflection on the glass were clearer.
I reached out and touched it, and in that moment, knew exactly what to do.
I waited in my room another hour, before stepping out into the darkened hall. Taking care to walk quietly, I listened for the sounds of anyone approaching, but there was nothing.
At the door to the room where the orb waited, I placed my hand on the panel just as Lady Black had. I half expected it not to work, but then I guessed no machinery, however smart, could tell that I was a different Andromache. The door slid open.
Still a little uncomfortable, I got into the orb and closed it, watching through the glass for angry guards or even Lady Black herself to come bursting in and demand to know what I was doing. I wasn’t sure what my answer would be if that happened.
Closing my eyes, I thought about everything I’d seen and learned in this world. Thought again about Lady Black’s offer. It all looked so perfect. If some parts weren’t, well, did it really matter? My world, what I still thought of as the ‘real’ world, definitely had enough of its own problems.
But if I was going to give up my search and my life, abandon everything I’d known – my mother, Oscar, Rylee and Tobias – then I had to be sure it was right, on every level.
Which meant going to the one level Lady Black hadn’t been keen on showing off.
‘Down, please,’ I said. ‘All the way down.’
I braced myself for an alarm, or code I had to put in. But instead, the orb flew out into the night. Even though I’d experienced how smooth travel in these machines was, I held on as I plunged down and kept going. I knew the spiralling levels of London would be flying past outside the glass, lit up brilliant in the night. But for some reason, I didn’t want to look. Not just then.
The descent took a while, but finally the orb came to a gentle stop. I didn’t move. The fact that it had come down here meant that there was something to come down to. And once I had seen that something, there was no going back.
Ahead of me, behind a towering fence topped with razor wire, was a series of long, well-ordered warehouses, lit up by harsh floodlights. I stepped out onto concrete. Beyond the warehouses was the enormous base of the tower around which London was built, spreading so far in either direction I couldn’t see where it ended. The warehouses and the fence continued with it; they had to surround the base. I looked up. We were in the shadow of one of the huge levels, blocking out the night and the stars.
I didn’t know what to make of what I was seeing. It all looked so cold and industrial, so different from the beauty of the city above. That didn’t mean it was bad. But it also didn’t explain why Lady Black had not told me what it was.
There was a gate in the fence. Behind it, two guards in black uniforms, rifles slung over their shoulders, were approaching. Cold fear rushed through me. I was totally alone here. I reminded myself of the Locksmith on my hand. I could get out if I had to. But I shouldn’t have to. I looked like their Lady Black, even down to the clothes I was wearing, the clothes she’d lent me.
There were risks. I was around four years younger than Lady Black. To me, that was obvious. But I also knew that nobody was as sensitive to how you looked or sounded as you were – nobody else heard fingernails on chalkboards when they listened to recordings of your voice. Plus, Lady Black was the most important person in this city, and I doubted she made regular appearances down here. In the semi-darkness, I hoped the guards would assume they’d misremembered how young she looked in person rather than immediately suspect a slightly younger double from a parallel world.
I could do this.
The guards came to a halt behind the bars of the fence. Both, a man and a woman, looked stunned.
‘L-Lady Black,’ the man stammered. ‘We weren’t expecting you.’
I wasn’t sure what the real Lady Black would say here, so I stayed silent and hoped I seemed at least a little intimidating.
‘You weren’t scheduled for an inspection until next week,’ the woman said.
‘Is there a reason you don’t want me here tonight?’ I asked.
‘No!’ they both blurted simultaneously.
‘Not at all,’ the man went on. ‘It’s just a surprise. A v-very pleasant one, but a surprise. Um. Right, so, would you like to inspect the lab?’
‘Is there a reason I’m not inspecting it already?’
The guards hurried to open the gate. Watching them, their darting eyes and sweaty brows, something hit home, something that made me feel queasy.
They were terrified of me.
The gate slid open and I followed them down the well-lit concrete stretch between the warehouses. I glanced behind me, where the orb waited. The gate closed in front of it.
The female guard was looking at my hand, a little confused.
‘Not familiar with London fashion?’ I asked, a hint of coldness in my voice.
I followed as the guards hurried down the line of warehouses. At each doorway there was another guard, all looking equally surprised as I passed, equally scared as they stood to attention and saluted. I tried not to give any of them more than a passing glance. I had the sense that Lady Black wouldn’t.
