by J D Morganne
Nano started to speak, but the woman put her hand up to hush him.
Her lemon hair hung in fat twists, wrapped with bright-colored yarn and accentuating two round, seaweed green eyes. She fixed her full lips into something between a smile and scowl and flopped the paper onto her legs. She stared at Nano. Then, turned her attention on Jaxon, who said nothing. They all had brown skin. Jaxon knew it was wrong to stare, but he couldn’t help himself.
“You made front page.” She turned her sight back to the paper, picked up something that looked like a pencil and scratched out whatever was on it. “Well done.” She stretched her arms and legs before standing. Even with her fur and armor like Nano’s, she was smaller than everyone in that room. Still, grinning, she walked to Jaxon and observed him like he was a product she’d recently purchased.
“I’m Beck,” she said, finally, fingering a gold septum ring.
Her grin wasn’t as soft as Aria’s. Jaxon doubted it was anything more than a method to keep him calm. It didn’t work the same.
“Emiir Beck, depending on how this conversation goes.” She spoke through her teeth at the end of almost everything she said. Her voice was both sensual and calm, as if her audience was a theater of half-naked men. She paced around him to Aria, pulled three coins from her pocket and forked them over.
Aria pocketed them and bent close to Jaxon’s ear. “Told you,” she said. “Good luck.” She tugged Eshauna’s arm.
Eshauna’s goodbye was a quick wave. Then she was gone with Aria, leaving Jaxon with Nano and… Beck.
Beck stared him down for a long time, her hands tucked behind her back. For a while, the chamber held all her silent questions. She wrapped her hair around her arm twice before speaking. “Re’oon do’e Bucky?”
Jaxon laughed inside, as she waited for him to speak a language he had never heard. Was she trying to find out information through this pointless technique? Either way, he kept his lips buckled tight.
Nano slapped the back of his head. “Talk.”
“If you touch him again, I’ll break your fingers.” Beck trained her eyes on him, a look of disgust on her face. When she focused on Jaxon again, her face was unbothered, calm. “Do’e klaahtde poj-terramulken belaadi?” She was watching Jaxon for the answer, but Nano was the one to speak up.
“He don’t speak it,” he said.
It was then Jaxon realized that this epiphany wasn’t what either of them were looking for.
“I can see that.” With her hands in her pockets and her nose scrunched, she faced Jaxon again. “I don’t speak Terramulken fluently, myself.” She turned her paper over to show him it was what she had been writing, knowing he wouldn’t understand that either. “I wanted to make sure you weren’t… an enemy.” Again, she left room for him to speak. “Aria said something about you freaking out. You don’t want her touching you?”
He couldn’t believe she kept waiting for him to answer. She was the leader here, like Farah in Obedience. Well, she acted like one, but where were her guards? Where were all the people who worked for her? Where was her common sense?
“Does your toy have an on switch?”
She was the one from the other day, who had yelled at Nano in the hall.
“He was talkin’ earlier,” Nano said.
“Oi. Boy. Open your mouth.”
Jaxon lifted an eyebrow. Boy? he thought. She was at least a foot shorter than him, but she couldn’t be much older. “You’re the commander?”
Beck spun and slapped her hands on her thighs. “He does speak. I don’t like that term. Don’t call me that.”
She didn’t like titles? Definitely wasn’t Farah. “Should I… bow?”
Beck squinted, exchanged glances with Nano. “Suuure?”
He was in a wheelchair, but he could move his body. He bowed. If she was the leader, she was the one who could answer his questions. She was the one who could help him.
Nano snorted. “You ain’t gotta bow to her.”
Jaxon wouldn’t waste time talking to him. He wasn’t in charge. “We do have a law,” he said.
“We?” Beck stepped closer.
“Obedience.”
She ducked her head, while shaking her finger at Nano. “Told you he wasn’t a Torcher.”
“I”— Nano started.
“Shut up. Or get out.” She turned her attention to Jaxon again. “You came in through another Door, didn’t you?”
He hadn’t “come in”, as she had delicately put it.
“I’m the smart one in the family. Men aren’t the best thinkers in general, but that’s not my point. My brother didn’t think to identify your… obvious differences before deducing you weren’t a Torcher.”
They kept saying words he didn’t understand. What was a Torcher?
She tilted her head and squinted at him. “Your eyes. Your lack of… color. Your hair.”
Jaxon was aware of the differences. “I apologize for any problems I’ve caused.”
Beck nodded, her smile long gone. “I like you. You can teach that discipline to my brother. First, we need to talk about what we’re gonna do with you. You actually have caused problems so…” Jaxon followed her glance to a circular block of wood that had twelve numbers and two arrows. “Look at the time,” she said. “I haven’t slept since he was born. You still look tired, too. How do you feel?”
“Who cares how he feel’?” Nano said. “Where you come from? You said somethin’ about a law?”
“Am I a prisoner?” As willing as they were to demand answers from him, they could provide him answers of his own. Was he their hostage? Did this mean he would have to work harder to get back home? What did they want with him? What were they going to do to him?
Beck shrugged. “You tell me.”
“We have a rule about skin-to-skin contact where I come from.” Jaxon thought if he gave her bits of information, she might return the favor. “Where is this place?” He waited for her to answer, but she stood there, transfixed. He looked himself over, a sight for sore eyes. “Commander?”
“I said don’t call me that,” Beck snapped, staring him down, establishing dominance. “You’re in Tien, Jerus’s highest point,” she said, finally. Her face took on a new darkness, smile gone with her patience.
“You… manipulate earth?”
“We're Earthens. That's usually what Earthens do. I’m tired. Answer my questions.”
Jaxon wouldn’t’ apologize for being curious. His curiosity was the only thing suppressing his fear. “Naruchi. A city where I’m from.” That’s all he wanted to say.
“How many people in there?”
“Can’t remember my last headcount.”
Beck smirked. “A rough estimate?”
She was their leader. She had a sucky way of getting information out of him. A hard, cold feeling in his chest reminded him who he was. A soldier. His higher-ups had trained him better than to go divulging intel before he had what he needed. He could bargain: answers for his celrings.
“All done talking?” Beck looked him up and down. “I can tell you didn’t volunteer to waltz your baking-sheet-looking-ass in here so tell me what I want to know.” She stood back and began to pace, with her finger under her chin.
Jaxon shut his eyelids. His leg throbbed where he’d bruised it thumping it on the chair.
“Who sent you here?”
“No one,” he said. Rumors. Obedience’s stupid rumors were false. He’d thought this Door was empty, that everyone was dead. Jaxon didn’t know who to trust or believe. They weren’t his people. He tried to stop squirming, but if he did, he would piss all over himself and the floor.
“How did you get in?” Beck said, her eyebrows drawn low.
Jaxon couldn’t read her. One minute she was smiling. The next she couldn’t care less. Now, she looked concerned like she was seeing him for the first time. That pretty face wouldn’t break him. He could’ve gotten his mother or everyone he knew killed with what he’d said already.
“You can g
o back to your room then,” Nano said, snatching the handles on his wheelchair.
“Stubborn for? We’ve helped you. Aria gave you that detox-soak and set your fractures.” Beck stomped her boot on the floor. “We cleaned you, clothed you, got you out of that”—
Jaxon hadn’t asked them to do any of that. He would’ve gotten himself out. Besides, they’d had to touch him to save him. He’d broken the law against his will.
Beck shook her head, without making eye contact. She slapped her hands on her legs and hopped up. “Poor judgement on my brother’s behalf. I told him to let you die.”
He didn’t know this woman, but her venomous tongue made him feel like he was talking to a serpent.
“Do you want me to take him back?” Nano said, amid turning his chair.
Beck snatched the wheel and jerked the chair back.
“Better yet, park him outside the bathroom and leave the water running.” She thumped his leg.
Jaxon bit the inside of his cheek against his cramping bladder.
“You’re a stranger from a Door we have no connection to. Refusing to speak makes you dangerous.” She grabbed the chair and leaned in closer. “I won’t allow danger around my people. You want a toilet? You want to get all that hot waste out of you? Answer everything. Starting with your name.”
He shook his head, wishing he could wait a minute longer. Any longer and there’d be piss all over his shoes and the floor. “CO3,” he said, voice cracking.
“What?”
He cleared his throat. “My name’s CO3. Could”—
Beck put her finger up, telling him to wait. “Doubt you’re aware, but, however you got here, you entered on the wrong side of the forest. Nano is the dumbass who needs to take responsibility for that, but it’s still an issue.”
Nano’s head popped up, as if he was waking from a trance. “Nano what?”
“Understand,” Jaxon said. “I’ll get out of your way if you could point me in the direction of the Door.”
“That’s what I’ve been trying to say. You came in through it on the Torchers’ side. You could’ve broken our treaty. Not only do we have to explain your actions, but you have no way of getting home.” She shrugged keeping her shoulders that way for a complete five seconds before letting them drop.
Then she could show him another Door. Any Door. He didn’t have to go straight back to Obedience. He could go through any of the three Doors. He would go anywhere. Anywhere, but where he was.
“Thanks to you, all the Doors are closed.”
“I have to get home,” Jaxon stated. “I can’t stay here.”
“Did you hear what I said? You’re stuck. If you want to fight the Torchers yourself, be my guest. Ey, they might even welcome you. They like fire, too.” She reached into a pack behind her and brought back his red celrings.
Jaxon was speechless. She had stolen them right off his fingers. He hated this Door already and all the people in it. He tugged his rings on and watched Beck saunter to the bridge.
“We’ll pick this up later. Nano, find’em a toilet. I’m going home.”
“Wait,” Nano said, curling up his lip. “Should I leave him here when he’s done?”
They hadn’t said Jaxon was a prisoner, but he felt like one. He wondered if any of those books was a dictionary. He could explain to this impudent brat what prisoner meant.
“Read my lips. He’s your responsibility. I don’t care what you do with him.”
“Guess she’s done playing Emiir tonight.” Nano snatched his chair, jerked him around and sped toward the bridge. Spit from his puerile engine noises smacked Jaxon’s ear. “Welcome to Jerus.”
10
Jaxon’s shirt clung to the sweat sheening on his chest and back. Jerus was a sweltering, complicated panorama. In Obedience, Farah kept the temperature at a steady fifty-five to sixty degrees to keep all her celtech running at its best.
But Obedience didn’t have brilliant flowers growing out of red dirt that built between the cobblestone walkways. Or radiant lavender, teal and burning orange petals sprouting out of clay vases, set outside honeycomb windows and doorways. Or guardrails made of train tracks curving along the edges of the mountains, keeping safe narrow pathways. Or children playing Tag, climbing the handmade ladders that were all over the place. Their laughter echoing over the land.
Jaxon stared at the slanted, tiled awnings that extended over storm drains. His eyes roamed to the roaring lioness golden seals covering manholes every few feet. Ancient stone aqueducts connected through a vast forest to the mountains below.
“Lot of rain?” Jaxon said, keeping his voice neutral. He wanted to conceal his interest, his awe. He couldn’t let them know how frighteningly fascinating this place was.
“Not recently.” Nano kept licking his lips like he had syrup on them.
Jaxon ducked at the swish of a sphere on wooden tracks, rolling above them. It slowed and came to a halt at a platform down the hill. There was a surge of commotion as families rushed to get on it, waving strings of glowing flowers over their heads. Several more weaved under and above aqueducts, from tracks that spiraled all over the mountains like strands of DNA.
“Nahdai. Oi, Anga.” The conductor—a short, stocky man—said, over clustered laughter from the car. He sat behind a metal booth that looked like it’d been thrown together in a few minutes. There were no levers or controls Jaxon could see save for two switches and a button attached to a cardboard thin pad.
“Hey,” Nano called back. “We’uh get the next one,” he said to Jaxon, pushing him past the steps to a ramp.
They waited on the platform after the lively crowd. Jaxon goggled at puffy white and yellow flowers, growing between the cracks. Grunting, he leaned forward and poked one. He didn’t know what he’d expected it to do—sting him, grow teeth and bite his finger off. It bobbed for a few seconds before going still. Aria bent down, plucked it and handed it to him. Jaxon brought it close to his face, brow creased. He sniffed it and white fuzz flew up his nose. “Gah, ugh.” He rubbed at his nose, but no matter how hard he did, he couldn’t get the fuzzy feeling out. “What is that?”
“A dandelion.”
“What’s its purpose?”
Aria stopped her laughter with a snort. “To live, I guess.”
“Car’s here.” Nano jerked Jaxon’s chair hard and spun him around. They passed the cashier sleeping at a coin deposit machine. His drool puddled on the top of the machine, curling tips of blond hair at the end of a braid.
The conductor nodded at Nano before flicking a switch beneath his booth that lit an orange light above a sign that said: Two rusies to ride after sundown. The rails above lit up too, guiding the path through the trees and around the mountains.
Jaxon’s chair jerked over the empty space between the ground and the car. He ran his fingers over smooth, hard earth like the ground he’d rolled over a second ago. Below, there was nothing but trees. The car etched, camouflaged, through them into the forest. Couldn’t be safe. The scaitren in Naruchi was securer.
“Look, I’m tired so when we get in you can help ya’self to Zo’s room on the second flo’.”
“Who’s Zo?” Jaxon asked, but Nano ignored him. The sphere rounded the spiraled tracks, jerking his wheelchair against the row of seats. They were as close to the ground as they would get now and he could see small animals skittering through the dense bristles. “What’re those?” Jaxon said, but Nano was asleep.
“Pines,” Aria said. “Here since the Old-World. We love our trees. They’re our building tools. They sacrifice to keep us warm at night. In return we foster their land, take care of it for them. They been here longer than us so… You don’t have’m?” She rubbed her finger down Bucky’s horn and dropped her eyebrows like she felt sorry for Jaxon.
“No.” His mom would lose her mind if she saw them. Their spicy scent would take her breath away.
Aria didn’t say anything for a long time. Then, she perked up her eyebrows and said, while poking out her l
ips, “We got tons of gigantic ones. I’ll take you to see one.”
Jaxon smiled because she reminded him of his mom. She was the one to take the cuffs off when the skyrail stopped at the bottom of a grassy hill.
The jolt catapulted Nano awake. “Oosh”— He slapped drool from his chin and hopped to attention. “I’uh push him. Go on ahead.”
The night was as peaceful as day, the fields vast. Jaxon thought if he ran for miles, he would never get anywhere. Exhaustion crept into his limbs. What kind of soldier was he? How could he let himself sleep this much? So much time wasted because of sleep. If his goal was to get home, he had to learn the layout of their land and everything about their people. Knowing everything would make up for his lack of trust.
A brick house was the centerpiece to a delicate forest. Vivid lights fluctuated in its many layers. Jaxon looked back and forth from Nano to the house, wondering if they lived there. Did Beck? She was the Emiir. Why would she live in a normal shack like this?
Yellow, bulbous flowers sprouted from the twisting banister of a wrapping veranda. Red candles lit the porch and cast triangular, pink light over sheening wood.
“You got it from here?” Nano stopped his wheelchair at the front steps. “Take ya shoes off.” He went into the house, stretching his arms and yawning.
Jaxon sneered. He didn’t need him anyway. The house looked small from afar, but surrounded by land, gardens, forests and mountains, it was palatial. He used his working arm to pull himself up and hopped to the front door. The three steps were enough to knock him breathless. He was still panting when he sat to take off his shoes. It was the first familiar custom he understood, and the first comfortable thing he’d done. When he finished, he stumbled and snatched the hall table to keep his balance. A photo frame secured with a photo of a short woman holding a blonde baby girl fell against the wall. Jaxon stood it up, his thumb leaving an imprint in the dust.
He hopped past every open window. Were these people crazy? They lived and slept here with no protection? Why would Emiir Beck be so careless? he thought. He hopped past a lumpy, green sofa in the living room, into a dining room. A long table with three chairs took up most of a blue, diamond-patterned oriental rug. Jaxon pulled out the only pink one and plopped into it. There was color everywhere he looked, from abstract paintings on the walls to elaborate vases and the flowers they held. Everywhere. He rubbed at the headache starting behind his eyes.
