order; earliest; initial; original; basic
OR
Before doing something else; first and foremost; in the
first place; now
OR
The first occurrence of something notable; novelty; new
experience; maiden voyage
I feel a jolt of recognition. I take a pencil and circle the first word of the last synonym. Then, barely breathing, I amend my list.
Human.
Girl.
Crime.
Snake.
Maiden.
I’ve heard those words together before.
Snake Maiden? That’s what it means in English, doesn’t it?
Chumana.
Chumana is at Bletchley Park, calling to the human girl who committed a crime.
Chumana is calling to me.
I WAIT FOR THE LUNCHTIME lull to steal a loquisonus machine. At the end of the shift, Sophie seems to want to say something to me, but decides against it, following Dr Seymour and the others to lunch. Only Soresten is left guarding the glasshouse and he barely glances at me as I walk past the spot where he’s basking in a patch of sun.
‘I’m taking this for maintenance,’ I say, shifting the bag on to my shoulder.
Soresten lifts his head as if to sniff it and my heart flutters. It’s unlikely he could guess what it’s for, but the trumpet-shaped speaker sticking out of the top of the bag hints that it’s something used for listening. Still, it’s a risk I’m willing to take.
I stumble into the thick forest of trees. What if I’m too late and Chumana is gone? How long has she been calling for me? What if one of the patrol dragons heard her calls and decides to investigate?
I pull the loquisonus machine out and turn it on, listeningas I walk deeper. I hear nothing but the occasional ranging call. If I’m outside the blocking range created by Dr Seymour’s rubber sonar blockers, that means I can emit calls through the loquisonus machine. What if I play Chumana’s calls back to her? She’ll know it’s me, and follow the sound until she finds me. It’s dangerous, of course. One of the patrol dragons could hear, and then witness me speaking the Koinamens through a machine in the forest.
Do you have a better idea?
I kneel at the foot of a tree and set the loquisonus machine on the hard ground. I take off my gloves, pull the headphones out of the machine and flick the switch frominputtooutput. I’ve never done this before. I don’t think even Dr Seymour has, either. The point of the machine isn’t to play back entire recorded calls, but snippets of them, the different calls cut up and stuck together again to say whatever it is we want to say. But there’s no time for that.
I pressplayon Chumana’s recording.
I can’t hear the calls as the loquisonus machine is converting them back to their original frequency. But I can tell they’re playing, thanks to a tiny flashing green light. What have I done? I cast a nervous look up at the sky. Any minute now, Muirgen or Yndrir or Soresten are going to swoop down on me and demand to know how and why I’m using their secret ultrasonic language, and then they’ll report to their Queen and she’ll abandon Wyvernmire and we’ll lose the war—
‘You dare play that abomination to me, human girl?’
I spin round. A huge pink dragon approaches. How does she tread so quietly with feet the size of boulders? She peersat me with those amber eyes ringed with white circles, and nods her head towards me in greeting.
‘Chumana,’ I breathe. ‘You came.’
