The Gods and their Machines (22 page)

They managed to smother the worst of the fire, but Thomex had been badly burned. He was not moving. The boy’s arms were raw and blistered, and Riadni saw with horror that it was Benyan. She knelt down by his side. He was semi-conscious and mumbling incoherently. Kellen fell to his knees by his father and reached down to him, wanting to touch him, but afraid to. Nita came out to him and pulled him away, hugging him to her as he let out a trembling moan.

Medical staff ran up and ushered everyone away, lying Benyan flat and getting him onto a stretcher. Thomex was not moved. Two doctors solemnly checked his vital signs and looked at each other, shaking their heads. Chamus lay back and covered his face with his hands. The more senior of the two doctors stood up and turned to Kellen and asked them all to step into the room. He was a small man with a wizened face, greying hair and hard eyes. He closed the door behind them.

‘I’m sorry, but there is nothing we can do for Thomex,’ he
told them. ‘I doubt anything I could say at this time would offer you any comfort.’

Kellen and Nita sat on Chamus’s bed, holding each other. Nita grasped Chamus’s hand. Riadni found herself left to stand in a corner, forgotten by the family and ignored by the doctor.

‘What I will say is this,’ the doctor said hesitantly, ‘this boy was dying. He would not have been alive to do this if he had not been brought here and treated. Even now his life is hanging by a very thin thread.’

His eyes flicked towards Riadni, but then fixed on the Aransons once more.

‘He could still
die
,’ he said carefully, his voice intense. ‘Despite our best efforts, the boy who killed Thomex could still die.’

They all stared at him. There could be no doubt about what he was saying. Kellen’s gaze hardened and Nita looked shocked. Riadni glanced over at Chamus. She was stunned, seeing Benyan like that had taken the wind out of her, and now this. She said nothing. Despite hating the doctor for his offer, everything she had grown up to believe told her that this family had the right to make that decision. There was a long silence.

‘I want him alive,’ Chamus said, his throat tight with tension.

The doctor spared him a glance, and then looked back at his parents.

‘Keep him alive,’ Chamus insisted, the iron in his voice forcing the man to turn and face him, his gaze boring into the doctor’s. ‘This is why none of it ever stops. Because
everybody thinks killing people is how you get things done.’

‘This isn’t our decision,’ Nita told her son, before turning on the doctor. ‘You do your job, Doctor. Save that boy’s life. I want to ask him face to face why he killed my father-in-law.’

The doctor looked unsettled. After what he had seen in the corridor, he had already made a decision and now this family were turning their backs on what had just happened. The old man’s son, though, he would want something done. Kellen was leaning his head on his wife’s shoulder, staring at the wall. His eyes came into focus and he lifted his head, meeting the other man’s gaze.

‘I want him to know what he’s done,’ Kellen muttered. ‘I want to change his mind, to make him see what he’s done. He already wants to die. Why give him what he wants?’

The doctor turned and opened the door. He regarded them carefully one last time and then walked out, closing the door behind him.

Two months later, Riadni stood watching the red and white biplane coming in to land on the mucky road. It touched down, spattering mud on the undersides of its wings, and settled back on its tailwheel. Slowing down, it taxied to the clear area where the aid column had pitched its tents and drew up beside her. She waved frantically and Chamus waved back before cutting the power, sliding back the canopy and taking off his helmet.

‘Can you stay long?’ she asked, walking over as he climbed out.

‘Just for a couple of days,’ he replied, taking out a sack of
letters. ‘Dad’s still nervous about me having his plane for any length of time. Says, given my record, I’m lucky he lets me fly at all. Here, I brought your post.’

‘Thanks.’

He pulled a cane from the cockpit and leaned on it as he let go of the plane.

‘How’s the leg?’ she nodded at the walking stick.

‘Not bad, getting better.’

‘You’re just in time for lunch. Leynid’s down at the village. She said she’d be up as soon as she’s finished helping with the calving. Not that they need her help, but she thought it would be a bit of a laugh. Only a townie would consider sticking their arm up a cow’s you-know-what a bit of a laugh. I think she’s definitely a lost cause.’

‘As long as she washes her hands before lunch.’

‘How are your parents?’

‘Holding up. The hearings have brought up a lot of
Grandad’s
history. It’s pretty gruesome stuff. Dad’s taking it hard, but he’ll be okay.’

They looked at each other, smiling.

‘How’s Benyan?’ she inquired, hesitantly.

‘Almost well enough to stand trial,’ he replied, staring into the distance. ‘Apparently he’s terrified. Strange that … willing to die for his cause, but scared of sitting in a courtroom. He’s going to spend a long time in prison. Maybe it’ll give him time to think.’

He looked at Riadni, leaning on his cane and not saying anything, and she could see he needed this break.

‘Ever been flying?’ he asked her.

‘You know I haven’t.’

‘Want to?’

‘If you promise not to crash, maybe.’

‘Well, doing it without crashing is the whole point.’

‘You’d do well to remember that, then.’

Chamus helped her into the back seat and showed her how to belt up. Then he climbed into the seat in front of her and started up the engine. He slid the canopy closed, eased the throttle
forward
and stepped on the rudder pedal to swing the plane around.

‘You won’t do anything dangerous, right?’ she said worriedly.

‘Except for taking off, no,’ he replied and pushed the throttle forward.

The engine’s pitch rose and the plane trundled forward, picking up speed. Riadni clutched the edge of her seat so tightly her knuckles went white and her whole body tensed up. Then the plane lifted off and her
stomach
lurched. She closed her eyes at first, and then forced herself to open them. The land was falling away around them. She shut her eyes again. When she opened them again, the sky was all over one side and the land all over the other. Riadni gaped as the plane banked one way, then the other. Below them, she could see the camp that had become her home and off to the west, the farm where she had grown up and the land she and Chamus had fled across. From up here she could see it all together for the first time.

‘How are you feeling?’ he called back to her.

‘Take me higher!’ she cried.

He laughed and climbed towards the clouds.

Born in Dublin,
Oisín McGann
spent his childhood there and in Drogheda, County Louth. He studied at Dún Laoghaire School of Art and Design, and went on to work in illustration, design and film animation, later moving to London to work as an art director and copywriter in advertising. He now lives in Drogheda and works as a freelance illustrator and artist. He is the author of two books for young children,
Mad Grandad’s Flying Saucer
and
Mad Grandad’s Robot
Garden
, both in the O’Brien Flyers series. He is currently writing a fantasy novel and its sequel:
The Harvest Tide Project
and
Under Fragile Stone.