Cloudland by Lisa Gorton Read Free Book Online Page B

few steps, he gestured for them to follow. Fracta seized Lucy’s arm.
    â€˜Let go,’ snapped Lucy, and shook her off. Side by side, they followed Linneus down some steps into a cavern where the air was so hazy it made Lucy think of asphalt, fuming in the summer heat. In the sudden gloom, she found it hard to see anything. Fracta’s eyes must have adjusted more quickly. She stumbled back, almost falling against Lucy.
    â€˜What is this?’ she gasped. ‘Why are they sitting like that?’
    It was the first time Lucy had heard Fracta sound uncertain. She rubbed her eyes. When she opened them again, she saw the cavern was crowded with Stratus, slumped on the ground, all staring straight ahead. There were hundreds of them. Linneus startedflinging his hands about, pretending to drink from a bottle. He was almost shouting – but the Stratus in the cavern didn’t stir or look around.
    â€˜Too late.’ Fracta stumbled back up the stairs. Lucy followed her, glad of the open air. It was eerie to think of that gloomy cavern, those half-dead creatures, buried in the cloud beneath her feet.
    â€˜We are too late,’ repeated Fracta.
    â€˜Too late for what?’ demanded Lucy, but Fracta had turned away. She was dragging herself over the cloud plain: a little crooked figure.
    â€˜You can’t leave me here!’ called Lucy. ‘I won’t stay.’
    Fracta swung around. The look on her face made Lucy flinch. ‘I won’t leave you,’ she said. Just as suddenly, she dropped her head and muttered, ‘But Linneus should have told me.’ Tilting her head towards the lift, she sighed, ‘Get on. I’ll take you back to your friends.’
    Linneus had stopped a few metres behind them. He was silent, staring at his hands. The last of the Stratus clustered around him, turning their backs to the wind.
    Lucy waited in the lift, clutching her ankles, and felt relief rise through her like warmth, knowing soon the lift would carry her back to the Citadel. Daniel’ssharp face floated into her mind.
He must be awake by now
, she thought. He would be afraid she had left without him. When she pictured his face, twisting with panic, she felt a quick surge of impatience.
    â€˜Hurry up!’ she called out the lift door. ‘They’ll be looking for me!’
    Fracta was still talking to Linneus. She fixed her eyes on Lucy. After a pause, she nodded and climbed into the lift, leaning out to give a last order: ‘Listen, Linneus! I’ll help this Earth creature fight the Kazia. I’ll make sure she succeeds. Tell your Stratus! Tell them that!’
    â€˜Earth creature,’ grumbled Lucy, as Fracta slammed the lift door. Ropes creaked through a wheel; slowly, in jerks, the lift climbed. Fracta sat with her eyes closed and her chin propped on her knees.
    â€˜So you’ll help me against the Kazia?’
    Fracta’s eyes flicked open. ‘Yes, and I will see you defeat her. This once, their war is our war.’
    â€˜Their war! Your war! Why don’t you fight it yourselves, then? I can’t do anything against the Kazia! If you really want help, send me back to Earth and I’ll get it for you – a proper army.’
    Fracta shook her head. ‘Not one person on Earth would believe you. Here, they think you are their Protector. Here, you can raise an army.’
    â€˜Oh yes! Wist and Jovius!’
    Fracta blew air through the side of her mouth. ‘Not Cirrus and Cumulus! They can’t even feed themselves; but the other sky creatures – birds and Arcarals – and the Stratus will follow you.’
    â€˜But I keep telling you, I’m not the Protector!’
    Fracta shrugged. ‘It’s enough that they think you are. War makes lies useful.’
    â€˜So why do you care, all of a sudden? What about your revolution?’
    â€˜Why ask me to explain? You saw those Stratus, so drunk on phumooze they cannot see or