It took a moment for Daisy's words to really sink in. Siren is back? Siren is back. Then the emotions all rushed in together. Siren
is back! A smile spread across his
face, despite everything and, for just a moment, the worries of the moments
before faded away. Then Ellis turned and
saw the Former Baron's half-smile and the bubble burst once more.
"This is not over," he said to the old man,
"we're going to have a proper discussion about this later." Then he turned back to Daisy, let his smile
return and said, "lead on!"
It didn't take long to reach the edge of the Colony nearest
the ruined harbour - just a matter of a few minutes really. Here the militia had set up one of a number
of makeshift watchtowers each big enough for two people to stand guard and
equipped with hypostatick searchlamps which could send their beams out across
the rubble-filled wasteland of Shalereef.
The militia had not been the Former Baron's idea, nor any of the old
crew who formed the core leadership of the fledgling settlement. It had actually started up rather on its own,
a result of several factors: increasing numbers of people joining the
settlement, the crime rate rising in equal measure, and the total lack of any
sign of the mysterious Knights who usually served the role of police in this
region of the city. Despite their
largely vigilante origins, however, the militia did a good job and were well
respected. They had become an important
part of the Colony and had a good relationship with Ellis and the others.
Daisy chatted away excitedly to Ellis and Annabella as they
walked, asking them how it felt to know that Siren had finally returned after
these many weeks away and what they thought she'd make of the changes to the
Colony (mostly its size) since she had left.
She was a likable girl - only just into her late teens - and easy to
talk to, but Ellis held back on much that he was feeling. His argument with the Former Baron threatened
to overshadow his joy and he didn't want to give the wrong impression.
The Ebon Crest was
visible from the edge of the Colony, lit up against the lonely night shore and
seeing it brought Ellis a sudden thrill of anticipation made tangible at
last. The thrill only grew stronger as
he saw the lights of a small party making their way through the ruins of
Shalereef towards the Colony. Siren
really was coming.
"Do you think she'll have brought us anything?"
Annabella asked.
Ellis glanced down at her.
The girl had changed so much since the Lakhma incident - both becoming
more confident and mature and yet also more child-like - that sometimes it was
difficult to remember how quiet and uncertain and haunted she had been. In many ways she was like his little sister
and, if they dared consider the late Doctor Barkham as their mother, that had
more than an element of truth to it. It
warmed his heart to see her smile and he felt powerfully protective of her, and
she of him - useful, considering how powerful she was becoming with her strange
aetheric summonings.
"Well?" she asked, waving a hand in front of his
face, "what do you think?"
Ellis blinked, realising that he had become lost in his
thoughts again. "Sorry," he
replied, then added, "I don't know.
She wasn't exactly away looking for souvenirs, though, was she?"
"I suppose not," the girl replied, "but I
hope she's brought something anyway. I'd
love a little piece of somewhere else - it doesn't really matter what, or
where."
Since gaining her confidence and opening up a lot more
Annabella had become filled with a sort of dreamy wanderlust. Ellis couldn't blame her really, he'd felt
something like it himself once, even though the world of Shadow had scared him
he had been interested to see more of it.
Already, however, his mind was turning more towards settling. Perhaps his days of adventure could be over?
"We'll see," he said, "we'll see very
soon."
It didn't take long for Siren's small party to reach the
Colony. There were just a handful of
them really, made up of Siren, a couple of crew members who Ellis knew had
spouses and young families to see and, walking beside Siren, staring up at the
Colony with a bemused look on his face, was Gulliver. Ellis' grin widened.
The party picked its way across the last of the uncleared
rubble and made its way onto the beginnings of what would become a Colony
street. From there it was just a short walk to where Ellis, Annabella and
Daisy waited. Ellis' felt his
anticipation and excitement twist with a knot of tension as he caught Siren's
eye for the first time. She gave a
slight smile and, just as he thought she was going to take the others in, or
turn and speak to her crew, the smile widened, she marched straight over to him
and, without even really experiencing the intervening seconds, the physical
motions which brought them together, they were kissing, long, deep and certain,
and all Ellis' tension melted away.
"Gods, but I've missed you," Siren whispered in
his ear after pulling, just barely, away.
"Unbearably," Ellis agreed.
And then she took a step away, turned around to her crew and
let the formalities kick in.
"Justin, Olga, Hera, you're dismissed. And you Asim, go give your baby girl a big
hug from me. I know it was hard for you
to be away from her this long."
The four crew members gave a rough salute, then hurried off
into the Colony for their own reunions.
Only Siren and Gulliver remained.
"You found him then," Ellis said through his grin.
"Is it that obvious?" Siren replied with a laugh.
"Oh," Gulliver interjected, "so I'm not just
meltin' in to the background 'ere, am I?"
“Of course you aren’t, Gulliver,” Annabella said with a huge
smile. “We’ve all missed you very much!”
“Really?” the lanky pirate asked in surprise.
“It’s really not the same without you,” Ellis confirmed, “but
did you manage to see your mother? How
did she take the news?”
Gulliver’s face darkened.
“Just ‘ow you’d expect, really.
She put on a brave face whilst I was there, of course and ‘avin’ company
must ‘ave ‘elped, but… I’m worried that leavin’ her might not ‘ave been the
right thing to do.”
“Your mother’s made of strong stuff, Gulliver,” said Siren, “and
she’ll cope without you for a good long while.
Besides, if you want to be you can be back with her before you know it.”
“But I thought you brought me all this way because you
needed my ‘elp for somethin’?”
“We did,” said Ellis, “something very important.”
“So important that Siren couldn’t explain it to me at all,
apparently. I ‘ad a right time explainin’
it to my mother before I left. So what
it is? Another plot to take over Shadow,
or Earth, or both? More Philosophers trying to kill us? A new wave of monsters
from another dimension? Zombies!?”
“No,” Ellis said, trying to hide a grin, “it’s a little, ah,
closer to home than that.”
“The Former Baron’s finally gone mad!”
Ellis felt a chill at how worryingly true those words might have
been, but the excitement of the moment pulled him past that.
“No, Gulliver, it’s about you!”
“I’m not a zombie,
am I? ‘Cos I know I did that
impersonation back on the Fabled Isle-”
“Gulliver, I want you to be my best man!”
“Best for… for what, exactly?”
“For the wedding, you idiot,” Siren interrupted, clipping
her old friend around the back of the head for good measure, “Ellis and I are
getting married!”
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