Free Daywards by Anthony Eaton

now.’
    â€˜Just sit.’
    Jaran resumed his position by the flames, and reluctantly Dara lowered herself back to the ground. He regarded her with his usual serious expression, the cheerful, smirking Jaran now vanished.
    â€˜I don’t know everything, so there’s no point asking a whole lot of questions, but, from what Uncle Xani’s told me, our best bet now that Da Janil’s gone isn’t to go chasing off into the middle of nowhere just because Ma Saria says we should.’
    He paused, as though expecting some response, but Dara simply stared until he kept talking.
    â€˜When he … died, Da Janil was working on something. I dunno the details, but it involved us kids, and it involved making everyone viable again.’
    Dara snorted. ‘You can’t make people viable. Either you are or you aren’t. Everyone knows that.’
    â€˜Not true.’ Jaran shook his head. ‘According to Uncle Xani, there was a time when everyone was viable, automatically – it was just the way people were.’
    â€˜When?’
    â€˜Not recently. Thousands of years ago. We lost it when we moved into the skycities, and Da Janil reckoned he could get it back. That was his life’s work, even before the fall.’
    â€˜Shi.’ Dara shook her head in disbelief. There was no way Jaran could have known that. People didn’t talk about their lives before the fall.
    â€˜It’s true. Da Janil told Uncle Xani all this ages ago, just in case something happened to him. Now it has, and it’s up to us to carry on where Da left off.’
    â€˜How?’ Dara’s expression showed her skepticism. ‘Even if Da was working on something, there’s nobody left in the clan who knows enough about the Eye to carry it on. Da was special.’
    â€˜Uncle Xani knows a lot. Da was teaching him …’
    â€˜Then why’s he suddenly so worried about Ma Saria? Da Janil never seemed that concerned.’
    Jaran looked as if he was struggling to find an answer to this.
    â€˜I don’t know. But I’ve seen Uncle Xani do some pretty strange things with the equipment in the Eye, so I’m certain he knows more than he lets on. He showed me how to use all this stuff, too …’ He gestured at the cooking equipment. ‘And a lot of other things. If he thinks we can make everyone viable, then we have to try. Think about it, Dara.’
    Dara tried to imagine a life in which everyone in the clan could come out into full daylight. Where everyone could hunt freely. Where the responsibility for keeping the clan fed didn’t rest on the shoulders of her and Eyna and the other viable kids. She tried to imagine what life would be like if their father hadn’t been caught out, if they hadn’t had to worry about the possibility of those kind of accidents … But then she pushed such silly musings aside. They were a waste of time.
    â€˜I can’t believe you’d swallow such a load of shi, especially from Uncle Xani. You know he’s always wanted to be in charge. This is just a trick …’
    â€˜No.’ Jaran was as emphatic as she’d ever seen him. ‘It’s not, Dara.’
    The argument stopped. The only sound was the gentle crackle of the flames. Then Dara asked, ‘So what happens now?’
    â€˜You’ve got a choice.’ Jaran nodded south, back along the path they’d been walking all day. ‘Either you go back to camp on your own, where you’ll find that nothing’s wrong, just like I told you, or you can come on with me, see the city and help with the salvage.’
    â€˜Then what?’
    â€˜Then we go home again and you’ll realise that I’m right.’
    Dara considered these options and then another presented itself. Perhaps she could do both. With her belly now full, and feeling a lot warmer from the fire, she felt less drained, and so she tried to reach into the Earthmother,