by J D Morganne
“You would allow this stranger to destroy a treaty that has kept your people safe since the end of The Wars?”
Beck snorted. “You are stupid. The Treaty of Divii is for your people’s safety. Let’s think about this for a second. You crossed the border to ‘talk’ to me about a contract that’s most vital term was to not cross the border? I explained why you have no business here, yet you’re still in my face. You have no right to be here. Leave.”
“We can’t return without him.”
“Tell Cayman to give me a call.”
The man took another step forward. Beck did, too, her fists clenched at her sides. Jaxon’s heart backflipped, the tension in the air enough to make him sick. He didn’t like being the center of their argument, but he would rather be with a million Becks and Nanos than these suspicious strangers. But he didn’t know them either. They could just as easily throw him to these wolves, never batting an eyelash. His stomach sunk at the thought.
“We have orders,” the man said.
“Now that… sounded like a threat.” Beck drew a circle in the sand with the heel of her foot, her cold eyes locked on the man.
Nano stepped around Aria, whipping his rod from behind his shoulders.
Jaxon clenched his fists and watched the man weigh his options, rubbing his chin before tucking his hands behind him. “When Eshauna is”— Before he could say more, Beck stomped her foot into the dirt. The earth bolted toward the man in the form of syringes. The sharp point of the last one poked his chin. Unperturbed, he stepped back, the dust cloud clearing to show his face. “The next time I return, it won’t be as tame a visit as this, Emiir Beck.”
Beck didn’t speak or move until they were gone from where they had come. She stormed past Jaxon into the house. “Whiny crybabies. Is anybody around here doing their job? Who’s on border patrol?”
“I’uh figure it out,” Nano said.
Jaxon looked after her. How could she be so reckless and fearless? They had threatened her and she was acting like they had agreed to put on a play together. She had proven Jaxon wrong, though. She wasn’t nothing. She was transcendent. Women in Obedience couldn’t do what she had done to the earth. They wouldn’t dare disrespect anyone in an authoritative position. They would only obviate due to fear.
Aria wrapped her arm in his. “Who were those people?” he asked, once they were back inside.
“Don’t worry your handsome head,” Aria said.
“Nano, I need you to go trading in the morning. We need avocados. Take some kolo-scrub to Tituba’s. Drop him off in Jerus on your way.” Beck’s eyes were on Jaxon, but not in a way that said she cared about his situation. “Loving night. Good luck tomorrow.”
“Th-thank you.” Jaxon realized she’d bought him time with those Torchers. He might have thought it endearing if she wasn’t who she was. Still, because of her, he had another night to try to get some sleep. Tomorrow, in his attempt to get wherever he was going, he would have to look after himself.
“Why do I always have to do the trading?” Nano said, once she was gone.
Aria tongued the inside of her cheek and shook her head. “Uh, because you don’t do anything else?”
“Yeah, but ain’t women supposed to do all that stuff? Cleanin’, cookin’?”
Aria wore an adorable smile that said she would fight him if she had to. She tiptoed to whisper in Jaxon’s ear. “How about a nice shower?” she whispered.
Nano’s brow wrinkled when his eyebrows shot up. “Hell was that?”
“Beck told me to make sure he gets a shower.”
“Following Beck’s orders gonna get you killed, woman.” Not a sheet of paper could slice through the space he left between Aria and Jaxon. “He already hadda shower.”
Jaxon saw right through Aria and her devious plan to get more of Nano’s attention. She played Nano like a holo-violin, one predictable note at a time. She lifted her chin and walked off. “That’s why you have to go to Jerus in the mornin. And the women get to sleep in.”
“Ain’t it called beauty sleep?” Nano called after her. “Get as much as you can.”
“Boy.” She ran back to knock some sense into him, but he curved around her, flashing sharp teeth as he howled in laughter. While she chased him around the house and Beck did whatever Beck did, Jaxon tried to put a million days behind him.
He went to his room and closed the door.
Naruchi wasn’t Jerus. Naruchi was white and gray and black, and holospray and arson and suicide and men and women hanging in Kami Square. Naruchi was far away from his mother’s constant reassurance. Naruchi was Naomi, who had betrayed him, and Kenner who needed him more than anything. It was Farah, whose crooked lies had gotten him punished for a crime he hadn’t committed and thrown into a Door that scared his soldier-nerve out of him.
He swiped his arm over his eyes.
Naruchi was gone.
13
Be diligent in prayer—one of Obedience’s most crucial commandments. “Kamiaka, what do I do?” Jaxon said, willing himself to believe. He’d never felt more lost. As he stared out the window, wondering what damage a jump like that would do to him, three soft thumps came at his door. He couldn’t read the strange clock on his nightstand, but a small arrow pointed to the number three. It wasn’t three in the afternoon. “Yeah?”
The door creaked open and bumped against the wall. Beck and Aria blocked the garden room’s grow lights. Beck tapped a red marker on her nose ring, while Aria bounced on her toes, waving three glasses. “Or is that another law?” she said.
“Wine?” Consuming alcohol wasn’t a commandment or law. King Dasher allowed the indulgence once or twice a month, and sometimes provided it on grocery vouchers. Jaxon’s mom had let him taste it to celebrate his acceptance into the Crimson Army. The tart sweetness had washed away his fears.
“Sure.” Beck nodded for him to follow.
Aria rushed to help, but he declined and grabbed the crutches instead.
Downstairs, they could hear Bucky’s snoring, as loud as the fan in Beck’s window. She skipped ahead of them to snatch a crate of mason jars from the table.
“Nano isn’t coming?” Jaxon said to Aria.
“Nope. He ain’t here.” She said it with venom and a smile.
Jaxon followed them into the extensive trees. He wanted to ask where they were taking him, but he wasn’t sure he cared anymore. His mind was exhausted. If they wanted to drag him to the middle of nowhere, get him drunk and send him on his way, why would he complain?
Beck turned and walked backwards. “Still haven’t slept, huh, bait?”
Why does everyone keep calling me that? Jaxon wondered, watching them climb a fallen tree without breaking a sweat. Aria had run ahead of them and was waving them along. Jaxon wasn’t getting over that thing, unless he grew wings.
“My bad,” Beck said with a chuckle. She set down the crate. “Hold on. Trees are my expertise.” She said expertise with enough hubris to found her own self-awareness society… for herself. She tapped her foot twice, like a conductor preparing her choir. Then she thrust her fists into the air and tugged on something that wasn’t there. It took her more than twice before the trees creaked and moaned. They sounded alive for a second, waking from a long slumber. Branches wrapped around Jaxon’s waist, lifted him over and set him on his feet. Beck released her fists and shook off her foot.
“You good?” She was on her way up a wooden ramp before Jaxon nodded.
He rubbed his side. He couldn’t tell yet what was so special about this place. It was dark, hard to see anything at all. He thought about Aria but didn’t see where she’d run off to.
“I wanted you to meet my Lions before you left,” Beck said. Without missing a step, she waved her arm like she was swatting a fly.
In an instant, treehouses above, below and within materialized with lanterns that lit the forest in aurora light. The lights clashed, infusing the colors like the flames of Crimson soldiers. It should’ve made him feel at home, b
ut they were the monsters who had thrown him into Knowledge.
“This is the Den,” Beck said.
The men and women she had referred to as her Lions must have been the many sneaking a peek, spreading like nosy children, eager to see the Emiir’s new toy. They did look like lions with their hair and skin. Jaxon understood when he saw their armor—like what Beck had worn when they’d met—hanging in glass cases or on wooden mannequins.
“Are they soldiers?” Jaxon said. He had only managed to keep up with her because he didn’t know what these people could do to him if he didn’t.
“Mine,” Beck said, proudly.
They were something. Their large builds yielded many well-toned muscles, like they’d stuffed melons in tight bodysuits.
“Loving night, Emiir,” one boy said, jumping aside to let her cross a bridge. “Who’s ya mans?” The boy’s hair—four ponytails that stuck straight up on his head—bobbed as he jogged up beside them. He went to throw an arm around Jaxon’s shoulders.
Beck shoved him before he could. “Hands off.”
“Ey, you that bait that rolled in from another Door?”
Did that mean everyone there knew about him? Jaxon hated to think anyone could find him there.
“You come here to help us?” the boy said. His wide nose and hard chin resembled Nano’s. Coupled with his energy, Jaxon was already exhausted by him.
“Help?” he said.
“Fight the Torchers?”
“You’re gonna say that in front of me?” Beck raised her eyebrow as if to say, “the nerve” and chuckled in amusement. “Sweet, breakable Naamah, I’ve protected you since before you were born.”
“You’re twenty-three.”
“Oi!” Her cheeks blazed red and she jumped at him with an open hand. “Ka!"
He shot off around her arm, over a busy bridge and deeper into the depth of the forest city.
“Oiya—so annoying.” Beck looked over her shoulder at Jaxon.
Could she tell he was getting tired of standing on those crutches?
“These’re heavy,” she said, shaking the crates and nodding straight ahead. “Come.”
Together they crossed the bridge. Trickling water from somewhere eased Jaxon’s nerves, as they rounded into an enclose, farther where the lantern lights didn’t reach. A study of some kind. Water rained from wall fountains and the lights behind them coruscated on every surface.
“Finally.” Aria had tucked herself inside an alcove, surrounded by books.
Jaxon’s heart jumped when he saw them, and he had to remember where he was. He scanned intricate sketches of houses and cities framed on the walls. One was of the chateau—the first place Jaxon had woken. Y. Beck had signed each one in red marker.
“Here.” Beck set the crate down before taking his crutches. “Sit there.” She plopped onto a floor mat smothered in fluffy pillows. “Wine, you said?” She flicked her hair over her shoulder and sifted through the crate like she had more than a few options.
Jaxon sat, but not too close to either of them. Soft drums flowed through the walls of another room through the alcove. Aria pushed open the door to release a mellow saxophone that wafted on the air like the scent of music. It was a smooth glaze, cutting through spicy seasonings. It was the first time he had heard music like it. Familiar, yet foreign chords resonated in his feet and chest.
“You like that?” Beck twisted off the cap of a jar filled to the rim with wine and handed it to him. “Old-World Jazz.” She took a mighty gulp of whatever peach-colored liquid she was drinking. “Intoxicating, right? The percussions whisper around that sax like… like…” She took a second to think about it. “Like they’re supposed to be a secret.”
“What’re you drinking?” Jaxon said.
“Peach Cobbler moonshine.” She took another hard gulp then swiped her thumb over her lips. “Want some?”
He couldn’t tell if she meant her mouth or the stuff she’d called moonshine. It smelled sweet on her breath. “Wine’s fine. Thanks.”
“I don’t think anyone’s ever thanked me as much as you do.”
“It’ll be the last time.” Aria finished what was in her glass and jar. She held out her glass for Beck to fill. Beck obliged but didn’t look happy to. “You’re off to Obedience tomorrow,” Aria said. “Home, sweet home.”
“And you won’t have to worry about us strange folk anymore.” Beck watched Aria dance to the other side of the room and pounce onto the cushioned alcove bench. “Careful,” she said, too quiet for Aria to hear.
Jaxon had gained enough experience to hold him over until he died. He didn’t know anyone else who’d bring him into a hidden city in the early morning for wine. “I’m a soldier. Isn’t worrying in my job description?”
Chuckling, Beck leaned forward and rested her arms on her knees. She tried to focus on him, but Aria was stealing all her attention. “He speaks, he jokes, he laughs. He’s not a robot. I was beginning to wonder. What’s your name?”
“Jaxon,” he said. “Fletcher. My dad didn’t spare me his ego. Gave me his middle name. My mom calls me Jacky. Don’t call me that.”
Beck laughed. “I won’t.”
“If Beck’s your last name, what’s the Y for?”
“What gave that away?”
He sipped the wine, which was starting to broil in him an insouciance to courtesy and nodded toward her sketches.
“Yep. It stands for Yahid.” She wrenched with a grunt to get the marker out her back pocket. She twisted the cap off with her teeth, grabbed his cast and wrote her name in the clearest space she could find. It was the smallest name on there. “Yah-eed.”
“Yahid Beck,” Jaxon tried. As Aria swayed her hips, waving a shawl above her head, he anxiously watched her, bracing for her to stumble and fall. “Is she okay?”
“She’s upset.”
“What happened?”
“I already tol’yu.” Beck sipped more and flopped back against the pillows. She huffed at him like she had told him the story a million times. “Aria loves him all the time and he loves her sometimes.”
“So, right now he’s”—
“Not here.” Beck sat up.
“And not welcome.” Aria’s wild undulating spilled her moonshine over her glass.
“But you’re here,” Beck said. The blue lucence across her face made her smile seem softer, comforting. Or had Jaxon had too much wine? “So, you’re allowed to drink but no touching?”
“We’re allowed to have wine,” he said, forcing his gaze away from her. “It’s rare.”
“But no touching?”
“The rule’s not—it’s not no-touching. It’s no skin-to-skin. We avoid it altogether.” He sipped again.
“If there’s no skin-to-skin, how’d you get here, handsome?” Aria hopped down so that she was right in front of him. She chugged what she’d managed to keep in her glass.
“Mind your bees, Ria,” Beck said, but she hadn’t turned her gaze from Jaxon.
“It’s okay.” He didn’t mind answering Aria’s questions, especially if it would shut Beck up. He explained to them how hopeful parents could apply and if they were approved, Waiting Doulas scheduled a date for supervised intercourse.
Silence dragged between them for what felt like minutes.
“Okay,” Beck said, finally. “And what happens if it doesn’t work the first time?”
“They can reschedule.”
“Sounds like population control.” Aria went back to dancing.
“Yeah,” he said. That was exactly right. Obedience was massive, with more land than the other Doors and more territories. Farah and Dasher ruled them all and since Farah liked to be in control, knowing exactly how many citizens she had under her command was crucial. Jaxon had never thought about it before but saying it out loud made it sound ridiculous. No—inhumane.
Beck perked up. “What happens if someone has sex without permission and gets pregnant?”
“Sex…” He felt dirty saying that word, and knew
he didn’t want to use it again, “without permission?” Farah wouldn’t forgive that. They would hang in Kami Square no matter their age.
“And what about rape?”
Jaxon tensed. When he glanced at Beck her face was turning red, disapproval in her eyes. She’d taken umbrage with his words like he’d carved them in stone himself.
“You don’t have horny men needing to bury the bone?”
He shifted and tapped his fingers on his jar. “I don’t know.”
“Am I making you uncomfortable?”
Even more so that she was pointing it out.
“Your laws seem to have a few holes.”
“Isn’t that the standard definition?” Aria had gone from dancing to sifting through the bookshelf. She came back with a pocket-sized Terramulken dictionary, which she tossed at Jaxon. He moved his leg before it could hit, like he would catch fire if it did.
“They’re not my laws,” he said.
“You’re full of inexperience, aren’t you, Robot?” Beck leaned back again, this time with her arms behind her head. She closed her eyes. “Supervised intercourse. Applications to have a kid.” She laughed and opened her eyes, shifted to lie on her side. “I guess you gotta be married, too?”
Jaxon sipped his wine, not interested in answering anymore of her questions.
“Bet your parents were,” she said.
She would win that. Though he didn’t know his parents’ lives before him, there was a good chance they’d done it the right way. His dad was all about doing things the right way. He sipped.
“Bet they got lucky and conceived you their first try.” She guessed again.
She would win that one, too.
“And you’re an only child.”
He was failing his attempt at not answering to shut her up. The slow tingle that had started in his fingertips saturated every limb now.
“You and Ria,” Beck said. “You’re both perfect offspring. Perfect people.” She said it like it tasted raw.
“Nano likes other women, too?” Jaxon tried to be quiet in the midst of changing the subject, but the music was loud and he wasn’t close enough to Beck. She kicked the pillows out of her way to sit closer. Back home, he had been anxious to get Naomi out of his apartment. Now, he was alone with two beautiful women. When Beck wasn’t bombarding him with questions he was mildly comfortable around them.
