Voices in the Dark Read Free Page B

this.’
    His skinny arm appeared with a bottle of spirits. I took it and drank some, out of politeness more than anything. A gale blew through my room, troubling the pages of the books on the table and making the faded picture on the wall swing wildly. ‘What was the service like?’ Michael asked.
    ‘Grand. Like you would expect. But it was just us, those foreign heads of state, and a few famous people. He should have had more family there. I could tell it troubled Leo.’
    ‘And I’ll tell you someone who wasn’t there,’ said Michael. ‘The Alcyrian president.’
    ‘Wasn’t he?’
    Michael leaned precariously out of the window and handed me a newspaper. It was tomorrow’s edition; Michael’s father always walked to the end of the street to get it from the printers’ at ten o’clock. The first seven pages were taken up with Aldebaran’s funeral. Michael had underlined a single paragraph: ‘The new president of Alcyria, the self-styled Commander General Marlan of the New Imperial Order, was conspicuous by his absence. Many saw this as a sign of the new Alcyrian government’s growing hostility towards its neighbours.’
    ‘General Marlan?’ I said. ‘Aldebaran hated him; he wouldn’t have wanted him there.’
    ‘But he should have been there. Everyone else was. Even a few of the presidents from the west and the Crown Prince of Marcovy.’
    ‘I know.’
    ‘And now that Aldebaran is gone, what’s to stop Marlanfrom invading every other country on the continent?’ said Michael. ‘That’s what I want to know.’
    ‘It won’t happen,’ I said, because Aldebaran had always said it. But the newspaper thought otherwise. Several pages were taken up with a discussion of the chances of war with Alcyria and the chances of civil unrest from the New Imperial Order here. They had groups in every nation on the continent. They marched about in mock uniforms, and held rallies, and stood for government at every election under the banner ‘Liberty and Justice’.
    ‘I think it was them,’ I said. ‘I think the Order were the ones who did it.’
    ‘It’s why my father got so angry,’ said Michael. ‘At least, that’s part of it. Joseph Marcus Sawyer has been linked with General Marlan. Everyone knows Sawyer was part of Lucien’s government. He’s no choice for chief adviser. What was the king thinking?’
    ‘I have never seen your father angry like that,’ I said.
    ‘No,’ said Michael. ‘He was talking tonight about getting out of the country.’
    ‘Does he really mean that?’
    ‘I don’t know. He doesn’t want to see another war.’
    ‘But what about you? What do you think?’
    ‘Maybe it isn’t so crazy to think of going, now that Aldebaran is gone. My father was in the resistance, and everyone knows it. And people are leaving Alcyria.’
    ‘I know,’ I said. We had seen them arrive in the city with their belongings piled up in carts and a dazed look in their eyes, as though they hoped they were about to wake up from something. ‘I know,’ I said again. ‘But where would you go if you left? Michael, you are not really serious?’
    He did not answer, just sighed and changed the subject.The wind was growling so fiercely now that I could hardly hear my own voice, and we were both shivering. ‘We should go inside,’ he said. ‘My father is in no mood to catch me leaning out of the window.’
    ‘Listen,’ I said. ‘I have to know – you are not really serious about leaving?’
    He sighed and I saw his shadow on the pavement shrug its shoulders.
    ‘I’ll talk to you tomorrow,’ I said.
    ‘Goodnight, Anselm.’
    ‘Goodnight.’
    I heard him push the window down. The rain began to fall again, but I remained where I was. As I stood there, the lamp came on in the shop below. Leo must be down there. I had known he would not sleep tonight. The light threw the letters from the front window backwards onto the pavement: L . NORTH & SON , DEALERS IN SECONDHAND GOODS . I stared at those