Chapter 255: Those Who Reached the End

Vina slept against her mother’s side, and the gold light did not change.

Logan did not know how long she slept. Nothing in the gold moved, and nothing in it marked the time. There was no Time remaining panel any more. He had looked for it twice out of habit, and found only empty light where it used to hang.

Alice dozed against his shoulder. Across from them, Garen sat with his back against Isolde’s and his eyes shut. Daniel lay on the gold with one arm over his face and the other hand on Hob’s neck.

Logan stayed awake.

He sat with Stay across his knees, and he thought about the old man.

When Vina woke, a new panel was waiting.

It hung before the units. All of them looked up at it at once, and Billy made a startled noise and rolled backward into Terry’s legs.

[ The Curse of the Abysslon is lifted from every unit that reached its end. ]

Logan went over it twice, the way he had gone over every panel since they came into the gold. Then he looked at Pebble.

Pebble stood with his hand pressed flat to the white streak at his temple. His face had gone still.

"Boss," he said. "Does that mean what I think it means?"

Logan opened Pebble’s status.

The lifespan line was gone. There was no number where it had been, no count of days ticking down. The line had simply been taken out, as if it had never been there.

He checked Billy, and Terry, and Halden. Beside him Alice checked Burr and nodded, and across the gold Daniel checked Hob. It was the same for all of them.

"It means you do not have a number any more," he said. "None of you."

Pebble sat down on the gold.

He sat there with his sling in his lap. The white streak in his hair was still there. It did not go away. But he took his hand away from it at last, and he laughed.

"I told you," he said. "I did not know what I would do with ten years anyway."

The units went wild.

Billy spun in a circle so fast that the gold blurred round him. Sonic shot straight up into the light, screaming with joy, and came down again on Halden’s helmet. Martha lifted her ladle over her head like a sword. Thessaris unfolded her long green limbs to their full height and swayed.

Burr’s falcon Whistle screamed so loudly that Vina covered her ears and laughed. Hob lifted his great plated head and bellowed, a deep sound that rolled away through the gold, and Daniel laughed out loud at him.

Link did not move from his place before Vina. But Logan saw his frown ease, and the red flame in his iron cage burned up bright and high.

Alice was laughing too, with tears running down her face.

"Their days," she said. "Logan. Every day they paid. Pebble’s thousand. All of it. It does not matter now."

"It mattered," said Logan. "It got us down."

’It got him down too,’ he thought, and he did not say that part.

The next panel opened before the family.

[ Those who reached the end may ascend. ] [ Ascension may be accepted now, or claimed later. ] [ Return to your world? ]

Garen opened his eyes and read it. Then he sat up slowly.

"Claimed later," he said. "That is new. That is not what I thought it would say."

"What did you think?" asked Alice.

"I thought it would take us up whether we liked it or not." Garen rubbed his face. "That is what I always assumed happened to him. He reached the end, and he went up, and he came down to us afterward."

Isolde was looking at the third line.

"Return," she said. "We can go home."

"We can go home first," said Daniel. He had sat up too, with his hand still on Hob’s neck. "And decide about the rest after."

Helen nodded. She had Vina in her lap.

"I want to go home," she said. "I want to sit in our kitchen. I want to cook on a stove, and wash, and sleep in a bed with a door that shuts." Her voice wobbled. "And I want to cry somewhere that is not a floor."

Garen laughed, shakily.

"Then we go home," he said. "All of us. Ascension can wait at the end a little longer. It has waited this long."

Logan looked at Alice.

She was already looking at him.

"Home," she said. "And then the mountain."

He had not said it aloud. He had not said it to anyone. He stared at her, and she shrugged and wiped her face on her sleeve.

"You have been holding that sword like it is about to speak," she said. "And you keep looking at it the way you looked at the pond the first time. I know where you want to go."

"Will you come?"

"I will always come," said Alice.

Bram and Edda were standing a little apart.

They had read the same panel. Logan could see from their faces that it said the same thing to them that it said to him.

"Return to your world," said Edda. She was holding her father’s hand. "That means ours. Not yours."

"Yes," said Bram. "It does."

They stood without moving. Then Edda let go of her father’s hand, and she went to Vina.

Vina got up out of her mother’s lap.

The two girls looked at each other. Edda was a head taller, and Vina had to tip her chin up to meet her eyes.

"You are going home," Vina said.

"Yes."

"To your world. Not mine."

"Yes." Edda’s eyes were wet. "You can keep the walking song. Papa says so. Sing it on the bridges at home so you do not look down."

"We do not have bridges like that."

"Then sing it anyway," said Edda, and she hugged her.

Bram went down the line of the family, one by one.

He shook Daniel’s hand and held on to it. Neither man needed words for it. He bowed to Helen. He clapped Garen on the shoulder so hard that Garen staggered, and he bowed to Isolde.

He came to Logan last.

"Boy," he said. "That old man taught you a sword. Use it."

"I will."

"And keep walking." Bram’s beard twitched. "Grandmother would say that too. She would say it louder."

Edda came back and took her father’s hand.

They read the panel together. Logan saw her lips move on the third line, and he saw Bram nod.

"Yes," said Bram, aloud.

The gold around them brightened. It brightened until Logan had to narrow his eyes, and Edda was waving with her free hand. She was still singing the first line of the walking song, softly.

Then the light closed over them, and they were gone.

Vina stood where Edda had hugged her and stared at the empty gold.

Then she squared her small shoulders and turned round.

"Our turn," she said. "Right? We go home now?"

"We go home now," said Helen.

The family gathered together. The units gathered behind them, every one of them, with no numbers left on any of their status lines. Link stood in front of Vina with his flame raised. Logan took Alice’s hand, and he settled Stay at his hip.

They read the third line of the panel together.

"Yes," said Logan.

[ Returning to Earth. ]