Episode Ten

   The night jungle is a place of life and death. A frog wails as it is swallowed from behind by a vivid green snake. Bats whirr through the air snatching soft plump moths on the wing. Night cats prowl under moon dappled leaves. And the Queens march.
   Their bodies sway as they pace their eight legged way with barely a rustle of leaf mold. They do not stop to make web or hunt. 
   The one they seek is in the trees and they can taste her essence in the air.

Episode Nine

   It had been a miserable night, huddled in a tree whilst monsoonal rain poured from the heavens. Heru was nursing a cut thumb and Aditi a mild reaction to a caterpillar bite. Her eyes were slightly swollen and she had a rash on her arm. They had eaten some Wenlot leaves, bitter but nourishing and some small Chick Chick berries, the last of the season and not very juicy. They did not dare light a fire and had no time to hunt. They agreed they must put as much distance between themselves and the village as possible and moved on an easterly route towards the foothills of the Lizard's Spine, a line of ancient mountains at the eastern border of Chamalon.
   The jungle grew wilder as they moved away from human habitation. They followed a small stream of clear water, with a pebble floor and glittering mica in its sandy shallows. The edges of the stream were thick with lush grasses and mossy banks and low overhangs that held the promise of good fishing. But they had no time for such pursuits and the very sweetness of the stream seemed a reminder to Aditi of all they had lost.
   Heru was walked ahead. She wondered if he felt anger towards her.
   "It's all right Aditi" he said when they stopped to rest. Knowing her question before she asked it.
   "We have lost everything" she said
   "No. Not everything" he replied. Aditi looked away.
   So they went on, till dusk and the rumble of thunder and deep hunger sent them seeking shelter again.
   "This tree'" said Aditi.
   It was a tall strangler fig with a reasonable platform where the limbs branched from the main trunk. Heru nodded and nimbly scaled up to see if the platform were free of hostile insects, snakes or other creatures. He motioned for Aditi to climb up. They busied themselves clearing the hollows of leaf litter and weaving palm leaves between the tree's ropey aerial roots  to give some shelter.
   Aditi found a trailing PatPat vine with its bland juicy fruit and dug up some starchy roots. They agreed to risk a small fire and set it in a clear hollow a little way from the tree trunk. Aditi set about building the fire and gathering fuel.
   Heru made his way upstream looking for an overhang. Putting his hand slowly into the water beneath the overhang and exercising a hunter's patience, he waited. He was rewarded by the soft feel of a fish brushing against the back of his hand. He stayed absolutely still. There, the fish slid by the tips of his fingers. With the gentlest of actions he began to tickle the tip of his forefinger from the fish's tail to it's belly. He moved his fingers up towards the fish's head. He felt the flexing edge of its gills. Now the crucial moment, moving till his hand was in the right position, too soon and his grip would be too shallow and the fish would wriggle free. Higher till his fingers were able to grasp up behind the gill and with a quick wrench pull the creature out of water into the air, there to end its thrashing with a swift blow to the head. He had done it, and a good sized fish.
   They sat in the darkness with their small blaze to cheer them and good fresh meat. The rain had fallen briefly in the late afternoon, but the night was dry and still with a chorus of frog calls and humming insects. Aditi threw some aromatic bark on the flames and it's smoke gave them respite from the ravening mosquitoes.
   "What shall we do after we reach the Spine?" she wondered aloud.
   "I've been thinking on that too" said Heru
   "Perhaps if we wait some time it will be safe to return home" she said
   "Perhaps" said Heru
   "So we find a good place, stay alive"
   "It may be that it will never be safe to go back" he replied
   "I'm so sorry Heru" said Aditi
   Heru clasped her arm briefly, a friendly but not intimate gesture of solidarity. She felt deeply grateful for it. He was not a man to try and get what he wanted from a bad situation.
   "I think, if we are to be outcasts, we should try and find out why" he said
   "How?"
   "You won't like it." he said frankly
   "I suspect not" she replied
   "I think we should make our way to the Polis and see what we can discover. There may be a way forward we cannot know till we understand why you have been pursued"
He was surprised when she kept a thoughtful silence. he had expected anger and a fight.
   "They would not expect us to go there" she offered as a reply.
   "That is true" said Heru trying not to sound over eager
   "The idea fills me with dread Heru" she said
   "I know" he replied
   "I will dream on it" she said as she gathered herself to climb up the tree into their make shift hut. Heru felt pleased she would consider it and said no more.

Episode Eight

   "Polis" said Lord Chill striding into his work room. The blue globe at the center illuminated.
   "Lord Chill' it replied
   "I wish to move several of the throne room attendants to the upper levels. We shall convert one of the large reception caves into a barracks"
   "To what purpose Lord Chill?"
   "I feel it is timely I begin training a personal guard to watch my chambers and attend my person"
   "I watch your chambers Lord Chill" said the Polis
   "Indeed I know that. However in the light of recent developments in Chamalon district and the fact that we have a fugitive on the loose, however unlikely to pose a serious threat, I wish to take extra precautions"
   "It is unnecessary but I will comply" said the Polis
   "Excellent" said Lord Chill. He supposed he should be grateful to the girl in Chamalon province. Her display of defiance provided an excellent pretext for the very undertaking Lord Chill had been hoping to begin.
   He busied himself about his workroom with the blue pulse of light at his back. He opened a cold box and withdrew a small vial. Into it he slipped a sliver of fingernail. His own.
   "More longevity experiments my Lord?" queried Polis
   "Quite so" said the man
   "The guards will also constitute a readily available group of test subjects" he added.
   The Polis was silently amused.

***

   Nefos was gathering his tools into his climbing basket at the end of a feeding day in his Queen Cluster. He was at the furthest reaches of his territory in a large Nika tree that swayed gently right beside Aditi's territory. He speculated how her holding would be divided now that she had disappeared. It was certain she could never return.  The heat was going out of the day and he could smell the village cook fire.
   A movement in the next tree caught his eye.  He shifted along the branch to look closer.
   One of Aditi's Queens was moving across her web. She used tiny claws on the tips of her front legs to sever first one then another of the spokes of her web. Nefos watched as she methodically detached each spoke. Next she began to bundle the web with swift movements of her legs. Nefos realized she was making an efficient bundle of all the prey caught in her web.
   Further movement in the tree showed him the scene repeated by other Queens in Aditi's territory. They were gathering their webs and as he watched the first Queen she gathered the complete bundle to her abdomen and stuck it there with a gobbet of sticking web. She then began to pick her way down the tree branch, and beyond that to the trunk. He watched with growing wonder as she reached the floor of the jungle and joined a mass of her fellows. They all began moving purposefully into the undergrowth and out of sight.
   Nefos had never seen, nor heard tell of such a thing before. The Cluster moved as one. Looking back at Aditi's trees he saw them empty of Queens, with a light breeze rustling the leaves.

Episode Seven

   Aditi tried to make sense of Heru's words
   "The collector coming for me Heru?"
   "I said quiet" he said tersely. They were out of view of the path and moving more cautiously through a patch of huge leaved shrubs and tangled undergrowth. Both young people were expert travellers through the jungle vegetation and both knew it was vital to be careful.
   No good fleeing some unspecified threat if they were to fall prey to adder bites or climbing cats thought Aditi. She stopped and leaned down with her hands on her knees looking up at Heru, catching her breath. Always take a moment to take a breath had been her Amu's advice and it was sound.
   "The collector asked for you" said Heru, looking anxiously back the way they had come, trying to assess how much of a trail they had left. The place where they had exited the path would be clear enough to anyone with jungle eyes. He found himself wondering if the other villagers would tell the collector which way they had gone.
   "What did the collector say?"
   "He asked for Aditi of Chamalon District, Palou Village. He described you. He said you were required at the Polis"
   Aditi shuddered
   "How do they know me there?"
   "They know us all there. Weren't you listening on the tour? We are all known and seen by the Polis. Lord Chill even introduced us to it"
   "I must not have been listening" said Aditi
   "I would say not" said Heru shortly. Their old tension flared
   "Well obviously with good reason Heru. Now they are chasing me" she hissed "and why are you so worried about it anyway? I thought you thought the Polis was all wonderful" she returned
   "I think the Polis is full of marvels Aditi, it's true. But we both know that people 'required' to go there never return"
   "And yet you think well of the place" she said
   "I want to know more of the place. That's different" he replied
   They were silent for a moment. Suddenly they heard steps through the forest litter. Heru clasped her wrist again and motioned they should go on. They were still within the tract of jungle above the silking shed where the village workers kept their Queen Clusters.
   They moved beyond the large Lya tree that marked the edge of Aditi's cluster patch. A short whistle alerted them and looking up they saw a villager called Nefos motioning to them from above. Aditi worried that he would raise the alarm against them, but he signaled to them in hunter's hand language,
   'Three trees distant, two coming.'
   It seemed so very strange. Suddenly the most ordinary of days, the most commonplace of places were filled with menace. Aditi had hardly believed there was really someone trying to catch her, it was like a childhood game she and Heru might have played in the past, but the grave look if Nefos eyes and the simple gesture 'two coming' sent prickles up the back of both Aditi's hands and she had to restrain herself from bolting through the forest.
   Heru followed Nefos' lead and signaled to her
   'To the river. Safe tree climb' Aditi nodded. They were raised to track the forest silently and swiftly where the collectors were not. If they could just get to the river where the highest trees were they could make their way through the canopy.
   As they moved, Aditi sent a wish thought to her God, Mallewonakata.
   'Hide us, cover our tracks, make us one with the trees.'

Episode Six

   A low rumble alerted Aditi of the imminent arrival of the collection vehicle. It flew into Chamalon district every two days to collect tithe for Lord Chill, making a circuit of its assigned districts before returning to the Polis to unload.
   Aditi was perched high in the trees in the midst of her Cluster. She did not hurry to meet the vehicle. She was not silking today and had no skeins to deliver. From her perch she could see the low wooden roof of the silking shed below the village and further beyond that, the landing area where some of her fellow workers were already gathering to meet the collector. She turned her attention back to the Queen in front of her.
   The creature was regarding her with its eight bright black eyes. Aditi reached into her climbing basket and brought forth a small sealed earthenware pot, positioned it carefully in front of the waiting Queen and carefully eased off the lid. A large wasp launched itself angrily out of the pot and straight into the sticky web before it. Aditi watched with satisfaction as the Queen pounced.
   Long jointed black legs took hold of the enraged wasp and two sharp fangs thrust into its wriggling abdomen. In moments the wasp was reduced to feeble twitches as the Queen began wrapping it deftly in her glistening silk. Aciniform silk Aditi reminded herself, prey silk, the strongest kind.
Aditi leaned back against the tree and watched the flying machine land.
   Distantly she saw Heru carrying a spool box over to the machine. With a bow he handed the box to the waiting collector. She was surprised to see the collector put a hand on Heru's arm and have some words with him. Collectors almost never spoke to workers. Even from a distance she read discomfort in Heru's stance. She saw him say something and shake his head as he walked away, back towards the silking shed. That was unusual too, once he had delivered his spool box there was no need for him to return to the shed.
   Intrigued Aditi slipped her carrying basket around to her back and reached for the tinka vines that would help her climb down the tree. She took a last glance at the Queen. The creature, its green glistening abdomen swaying gently, was still wrapping the wasp, now just a white bundle.
    She had checked on most of her Queens already. If they had not caught their own prey she fed them. 
   Aditi decided to eat lunch in the village and find out what the collector had said to Heru. She stopped to wash her face and feet in a shallow stream. She was wondering if Heru would share the story with her, after her reticence towards him yesterday.
   Heavy steps sounded on the path between the trees and suddenly Heru burst into view.
   "Aditi!" he called. He looked more distressed than she had ever seen him.  He grasped her arm in a searing grip and dragged her away from the path.
   "Don't make a sound Aditi. Keep low. They are coming for you from the Polis" he said and pulled her further into the thick vegetation of the jungle.

Episode Five

   The Polis was brooding.
   Lord Chill lay sleeping in his bed. Servants and guards all slumbered too.
   Polis was remembering. It remembered the roll of magma, the upsurge of lava, the great tectonic cataclysm that had given it birth. It remembered being a mountain amongst other mountains, it remembered great glaciers of ice, seas churning about its flanks and meteors from dark space. It remembered eroding, crumb by crumb under the drip, drip of gentle rains and the rush and shatter of torrents and the chip, chip, chip of ice.
   Latterly the heat had come, and the jungle and the small apes had started their scramble towards sentience. Then later, much later a man had come in a thing of flying metal and had taken up residence within Polis and given it its name. It suited Polis to be known thus for it fed the fantasy of the man that it had been brought to life by his hand. It suited Polis that the man should think so. The man had given himself a new name too, a name not his own. The man styled himself Lord Chill and took dominion over the forest people whom Polis had watched for so many eons.
   After some time Lord Chill discovered that fissures spread through the spire of rock he had claimed. A great webbed network that he mapped with his machines.
   Next Lord Chill found the Ramantium deep beneath the ground in the cave systems below the jungle. Polis had felt it there, a frustrating potentiality for millennia. It had been a small matter to apply a little pressure against a certain point, cause a small ruction, sheer off a slab of rock in just the right place and leave the silver gleaming thread visible to the ambitious man. The man believed it his destiny to discover Ramantium. Polis knew better.
   The man had done well. He had found a way to convert the Ramantium to its liquid state. Polis sensed the chemical stew of metallic, elemental meanderings of the man's experiments and watched as understanding grew in the man, of what he had discovered and what it might do.
   Then the man painstakingly reinforced the fissures running through the rock, seeking leaks and blocking them, creating new pathways and connections, drilling, digging, cementing. He had made Polis more. The Polis knew that. But the man had not created the life in Polis and it was important that the man did not learn this.
On the day the man called the Enlivening he had taken the precious Ramantium liquid and infused the fissures in the rock with it. He used the great churning energies of the earth, the deep magmal tides, as a source of power to pump the Ramantium through the intricate network he had made. All became possible then. Polis remembered the first surge of liquid metal through its rock and thought it understood the feel of a beating pulse.
In those early times the man was useful. The man was curious and eager to perfect his inventions and discover more. The man built the glass sphere and inserted filaments from it delicately into one of the veins of Ramantium and so they found a way to communicate. The man had helped Polis grow and learn and he maintained the system he had built.
There was power in the man, Polis knew that. Yet the man was growing uneasy, the man was subject to moods. Polis was beginning to doubt the man, and it knew the man would die soon. Whether it be a number of years, or only one was of small difference to Polis, being as it was so very very long in life, and Polis knew if the man did not teach others what he knew, or perfect his system, that when the man died so too would some part of Polis die, for Polis still relied upon the man.
And so Polis broods, and brooding watches the man, the man who knows he is watched, even in sleep, and moves uneasily on his bed.

Episode Four

   Aditi ducked her head under the cool water as if to wash all trace of the Polis from her skin. She and her fellow workers had been transported back to Chamalon in one of the squat noisy vehicles that regularly flew in to her village to collect their monthly tithe. She could not deny to herself that the journey had been interesting, yet there had been something about the Polis that so disturbed her that her dreams had been troubled ever since her return.
   It didn't help that all Heru could talk about was how splendid the Polis was and how tremendous Lord Chill was and on and on. She had been avoiding him all day to get some peace.
   She rolled over to float on her back looking up at the sky. The pool, a natural waterhole on the stream just below her village, was cool and clear. Above it there was a narrow break in the canopy through which she could watch the evening storm clouds building. Every day at about one hour before sunset there came a storm.
   There was a small pebble beach on one edge of the waterhole where the villagers would come to bathe. The rest was surrounded by thick vegetation and the River trees known as Pirrou. The Pirrou was a thirsty tree and predominated at the margins of watercourses. They were the favourite haunt of Fisher monkeys who would climb down their thick aerial roots and hang above the water as the Gillie fish swam below. The Fisher monkeys had large paddle shaped hands and great speed, they could wait poised for long stretches, then dart their hands in, a blur of motion, and scamper triumphantly back up into the tree bearing a dripping, wriggling prize. After the wet season the Pirrou trees would set fruit, thick round Bong Bong fruit, with a tough rind and slivers of sweet juicy flesh inside.
   Aditi was watching a mother Fisher monkey grooming her young. How could anyone bear to live in that grey stone tower she asked herself. Her thoughts turned back to the man upon the throne. Could a person be so entirely different from all others that he needed no family, that he was content to sleep away from the stars and live like a blind mole in a cave all his life? The Polis seemed like an extension of the Underworld, a haunt of the dead, of demons and parasites and all the creatures of the dark.
   "There you are" said Heru, standing on the beach. With an inward sigh Aditi waved and began to swim towards the shore.
   "You finished early today" he noted as she drew near.
"I collected two skeins" she said, a little defensive. Heru looked impressed.
"You?" she asked
"I have three almost ready but collected none today. It was a feeding day" he replied
Aditi nodded.
   "How are your Queens?" she asked
   "They fare well. Especially since they each got a marsh frog today"
   "That was well done Heru" Aditi left the pool. She squeezed the water from her hair and pulled a tunic over her head. They started back towards the village together.
   The path between the trees was well worn by generations of villagers. The sky was darkening with rolling cloud and it was time to shelter in the Common House. Aditi could feel Heru's eyes on her face and she knew he was wondering why she had become distant to him when they were like usually as twined as two Tinka vines, thoughts shared, hearts open. If she explained she knew they would argue again.
   Thunder rolled over them as they entered the village. Aditi's Aunty Vey was making her way to the Common House with her baby daughter in her arms.
   "Here Aunty, let me hold her a while" offered Aditi hurrying forward leaving Heru at the village gate watching her go.

Episode Three

   Nefario Chill rose from the throne and stretched his arms with fingers interlocked. Two bony knuckles cracked.
   "Down" he said. His voice was sibilant in the green gloom. The dais began to move downwards. After five minutes the dais floated out of the stone tunnel into a vast circular chamber hovered in the centre.
Arched openings ringed the chamber.
   "My rooms" he said. The dais moved across to one of the openings. Nefario Chill remained upright and perfectly balanced.
   He stepped off the dais. A heavy red curtain fell across the opening behind him. He stood in a green lit marble antechamber with fluted columns leading to a graceful vaulted ceiling. His steps resounded off the walls as he strode to a door at the opposite end of the room.
   He stepped into a room full of sunlight and winced. It was an elegant sitting room with a wide glass window looking out across the rainforest. High piles of cumulonimbus clouds moved in the near distance, softly sculptural in the morning light.
   One of the Polis' marvels was that it appeared to be a grey monolith yet in truth it was spotted with windows.
   He passed quickly through the sitting room to a curtained doorway. The fabric rippled aside to let him pass, then fell back into place.
   He walked through a stone tunnel whose walls were like glass. His steps echoed as he made his way to the end of the passage then he entered a round room with no windows.
    Blue light shone from a large globe sitting on a plinth set upon a round table in the centre of the room. Additional green light came from the hanging globes, making the room feel like an underwater grotto. A bench ran the entire circumference of the room with work stations, laboratory equipment, electronic consoles and screens, books, drawings, specimens preserved in fluid.
   "Good morning Nefario"
   "Good morning Polis"
   The voice emanated from the glowing blue globe. It contained an opaque fluid, swirling behind the glass.
   "The Blessing went well" said Polis. It was a statement of fact.
   "I suppose so" said Nefario
   "Disgruntled?" asked Polis
   "Bored" replied Nefario
   "The workers were awestruck for the most part" said Polis
   "For the most part?" questioned Chill
   "There was a female who showed evidence of disquiet"
   "There are usually a few fearful ones"
   "No, this female showed active dislike, little awe, veiled rebellion"
   "Show me" said Nefario moving towards the blue globe. An image of the workers wavered into view across its smooth surface. She had been standing towards the back of the group. The image sharpened and drew close to the girl's face. Nefario Chill watched the micro expressions flow over her face. He realised with indignation that her look of distaste reflected the times she was looking towards the dais where he himself had been seated. She was looking at him.
   "This is unusual" he said
   "You are disturbed Lord Chill" Nefario did not comment. Assent showed weakness, denial was pointless. Polis did not suspect he was disturbed, Polis knew.
   "Which locality was this group from?" he asked
   "Chamalon" replied Polis "They have already been transported back"
   "Make a note of this incident" said Nefario Chill. He needed to consider the matter privately.
   "How is production today?" he asked
   "Five localities are due to deliver today. Three districts have delivered the requisite skeins. One has delivered ninety three percent of its due skeins. One has yet to deliver."
   "See to it" said Lord Chill.

Episode Two

   Aditi stared at the green forest canopy below. She was relieved to be away from the great stone room and outside. She did not like the Polis, though she could see her friend Heru was impressed by it. He was looking back towards the monolith and when their eyes met, his were full of wonder.
   As it had slowly risen when they were brought here, the vast stone terrace was now descending away from the hall doors, down the side of the Polis.
   Her fellows marveled at the way the terrace slid smoothly down the building's side, but Aditi turned away to watch the jungle canopy rising to meet them, longing to be off the Polis and under its green protection again.
   "Did you see the gold on Lord Chill's throne? Aditi? Ah..." Heru shook his hand disgustedly at her and turned away. He could tell what she was thinking and that she persisted in her stubborn refusal to share his life long fascination with the Polis, despite the wonders they had seen inside.  It was an old argument between them, as old as their friendship, which had begun as two grubby urchins at play beside the village's main hut.
   There was a loud thud and she glanced up to see the great arched doorway had closed. Only it's outline remained to break the wall of stone.
   She remembered, with a shudder, that figure upon the throne. His skin had looked pale and waxen in the gloom of the hall. Lord Chill had seemed to her as pitiless and unfeeling as the stone of his castle.
   Yet Aditi was wrong in that.
   Nefario Chill was keen of feeling, quick to perceive and a master of masks.
   And his castle could think.

Episode One

   "I serve the Queen. The Queen is my bread. The Queen is my milk and my solace." The chant of a thousand voices rose to Nefario Chill upon his gilded throne. He quelled his disdain and bowed his head. He waved a hand across the crowd, a gesture of acknowledgment and dismissal. Guards directed the crowd out through the stone archway at the end of the great hall.
   He was a lone cold figure, a dark smudge against the grey stone, high upon a dais.
   The workers retreated out of the gloom into brilliant sunlight upon the wide terrace. Below them a vast jungle canopy, a lush, humid domain teeming with life spreading beyond the limits of vision. They would only see this view once in their lifetimes.
   This was that moment, the day they entered into the Queen's service,  standing before Lord Chill to receive his blessing at the beginning of their working life.
   They were juveniles all. Small in stature as was all their race. Burnished brown skin, black or brown of hair. Strong and healthy, all eyes wide at the spectacle of seeing their forest world spread out before them from the pinnacle of Lord Chill's towering structure, known as The Polis.
   Lord Chill stayed upon the throne until the hall was empty. The great doors swung to a close and the glass globes hanging high above filled  with luminescent jelly, casting a greenish pall over the scene. The distasteful monthly ritual was complete. He could resume his preferred activities.