The Light Thief

by David Webb

  “But who’s going to tend the bar?” Roland asked.

  “Now.”

  Gareth turned around and led them past the bar and into the back room, where an unconscious man lay in the middle of the floor. Without a word, Gareth closed the door behind them and sat down on the floor next to the injured man.

  Aniya stared at the blood-soaked man lying before her. His body was decrepit, his rib cage showing through his unclothed chest. His face was saggy and worn, wrinkled and aged, accompanied by gray hair that grew in patches.

  “Who is he?”

  “I didn’t recognize him at first either,” Gareth said. “Take a closer look.”

  Aniya approached the man carefully, as if he could leap up and attack her at any moment.

  “Given that those selected for relocative servitude spend the rest of their lives working for the Lightbringers in the Hub, I’m very curious to learn why he is here, about forty years older than he was when he left three years ago, and almost dead.”

  Even with Gareth’s comment, it wasn’t until she saw a familiar scar above the man’s right eye that it all fell into place. She backed away, holding back tears as she held her hands to her mouth.

  She turned to Roland. “It’s William.”

  2

  “We have ways of making you talk, Mr. Lyons.”

  This was true. One look at the small fire in the corner confirmed this. A poker could be heated and used to scorch human flesh. Or perhaps the knife sitting on the table a few feet away—it certainly looked sharp enough to slice off a finger or two.

  But out of all the ways anyone could have extracted information from Theodore Lyons, his interrogator had chosen a much more effective approach.

  He held back a smile from his wife, silently daring her to come closer as he gestured with his finger.

  Catherine finally broke and flashed a wide grin as she jumped into bed with her husband, straddling his hips with her legs. She grabbed a candle from the nightstand and let hot wax drip onto Theodore’s bare chest. “Torturous enough?”

  “Wow, that’s actually pretty warm.” Theodore winced but chuckled. “Yes, I suppose that would work.”

  She set the candle back down and kissed him. “I’m glad we get to have this Black Day to ourselves for once, but I can’t help but feel bad for Aniya right now.”

  Theodore nodded. “I know she wasn’t exactly excited about this, but at least she has a choice. You and I didn’t have that luxury.”

  Catherine’s grin turned to a pouting frown. “Are you saying you wish they chose someone else for you?”

  “Very much so,” Theodore said grimly before cracking a smile of his own, rolling his eyes. “You know I’m okay being stuck with you, darling. Especially considering how long I chased after you for. I may not have been your first choice, but we turned out okay after all. I guess the Lightbringers know how to play matchmaker.” He picked up his wife off his body and threw her down next to him, wrapping his arms around her. “But do you really want to talk about the past or Aniya right now? We have other things to do.”

  “Good point.” Catherine smiled again, and she leaned in to kiss her husband.

  “Mom? Dad?”

  The door shook, but the latch holding it shut held fast.

  Catherine let out an audible sigh of exasperation.

  “One night. Just one night.” She got up from bed and put on a robe while Theodore picked his shirt up from the floor.

  “Hello?” The door jiggled again, followed by multiple knocks.

  “One moment, Aniya.” Theodore got up from the bed and disengaged the latch, opening the door for his daughter. “What are you doing back so soon? I thought you were spending time with Everett tonight.”

  Aniya gave a nervous laugh. “Yeah, he’s not going to make the cut. I assume you two are the only ones here?”

  “Well, we were.” Theodore chuckled sheepishly as he avoided his daughter’s knowing glance.

  Aniya’s expression darkened. “Good.” With that, she walked back out the door.

  Theodore turned to his wife, who shrugged.

  Within seconds, Aniya was back inside. She was followed by two men, one of them carrying a blanket-covered bundle.

  “Roland? Gareth? What are you doing here?” Theodore frowned and stared at the strange sight. “What is that?”

  The bartender ignored the question and placed his load on Theodore’s bed. He stepped back to the door, replacing the latch and placing a chair underneath the handle.

  Meanwhile, Catherine pulled the blanket off the mass on the bed, discovering the bleeding body that Gareth had brought. “Who is it? I haven’t seen anything this bad since the last person who tried to dodge the Citizen Tax.”

  Roland nodded toward the bloody heap. “Keep looking.”

  Catherine turned back to the man on the bed and began pulling long strands of blood-soaked hair away from his face. After a moment, she shrieked and backed away from the bed, her trembling hands covering her mouth.

  Theodore’s eyes narrowed as he approached the bed to examine the man.

  The victim was in terrible shape. His facial hair had grown to a point where his lips were invisible. His face was strained and worn. The man may as well have been fifty.

  But despite the radical change in the man’s appearance, Theodore still recognized his son.

  “William,” he whispered as he stepped back in disbelief.

  Gareth pushed Theodore and Catherine aside. “Give me some room. This is going to take a miracle.”

  They stepped aside and let the bartender/doctor go to work. Theodore waited nervously, alternating between sitting on the second bed and standing over Gareth’s shoulder. Catherine sat at the head of the bed, diligently wiping away the seemingly endless flow of blood that seeped from her son’s wounds. Roland also pitched in, assisting Gareth in no small way. Apparently, Theodore surmised, Gareth had been teaching the boy more than just notions of rebellion. Aniya was the only one who did not move, and she sat in the corner, staring at the bed where her brother lay. It was the most still Theodore had ever seen his daughter.

  As the hours stretched on, Theodore resorted to helplessly pacing back and forth in the small room that made up nearly the entirety of the Lyons’ shack. “I don’t understand,” he muttered. “He was never supposed to come back. They said he was gone for good.”

  Gareth did not look up but replied, “I’m sure that was the idea. It looks like they tried pretty hard to keep him from leaving, and they almost succeeded. Good on him for getting past the Silvers, though. That’s one trick he’ll have to teach me before he passes.”

  Catherine visibly shuddered.

  “Not here,” Theodore said. He glanced at Aniya.

  Gareth looked up at Theodore. “She’ll find out soon enough. Change is coming, Theodore. If nothing else, this proves it,” he said, motioning to William.

  “If I have anything to say about it, she’ll never be involved.”

  Aniya said nothing indicating her acknowledgment, and it was unclear whether she even heard. She simply stared at the bed. “No one’s ever returned.”

  “Right you are, little one,” Gareth said, turning back to William. “Though you won’t be little for much longer now, will you? Your Day is coming before the month is out, isn’t it?” Not waiting for an answer, he held his hand out to Roland. “Pincers.”

  Roland retrieved the requested tool from Gareth’s large bag and handed them to the doctor without a word.

  Aniya scoffed. “My Day? If I didn’t want it before, I definitely don’t want it now if I’m going to end up like William.”

  “You’re a girl, Aniya. You know there’s no risk of that,” Catherine reassured her.

  “Gareth, what happened to him?” Theodore asked. “How does he look so different? His eighteenth birthday was a mere three years ago, but he looks older than I do.”

  It was true. William’s face was lined with wrinkles, his body was emaciated, and his overgrown fa
cial hair could have been the envy of every other young man his age.

  “Clearly, your son was very poorly cared for in captivity.” Gareth extracted the first bullet from William’s back, dropping it in a bowl held by Catherine. “He must have been working at least twenty hours a day in the Hub. Not manual labor, or else his muscles would be more defined. Perhaps menial work that was just engaging enough to keep him from going mad. And to be honest, I can’t even be sure of that. There’s no telling what his mental state will be like when he wakes up.” He paused and bowed his head. “If he wakes up.”

  Catherine held a hand to her mouth.

  Theodore shook his head slowly and resumed pacing.

  “You know what this means, don’t you, Theodore?” After Theodore did not reply, Gareth continued. “They’ll come looking for him. If they don’t have a body, they won’t make any assumptions. He has to be moved by the morning, whether he is awake, unconscious, or . . . otherwise.”

  “We have the basement,” Catherine said.

  “Basement?” Aniya looked up and rubbed her eyes, yawning. But Theodore knew his headstrong daughter well enough to recognize a veiled attempt to wipe her tears away. “We don’t have a basement.”

  Theodore glanced at his wife.

  She shrugged apologetically. “She’ll find out anyway.”

  “I’m not sure the basement is sufficient,” said Gareth. “It will do for tonight, but he will need to be moved as soon as he is stable.”

  “We’ll have to be careful until then. Aniya, I’ll make sure you are exempt from school tomorrow.”

  Gareth shook his head. “No, Theodore. You can’t act like anything is wrong. If you hole yourself up here, it will only raise suspicions.” He secured the last bandage on William’s upper back and reached again for the pincers. “Go on with your business just as if this had never happened. The power will be back on tomorrow, so go to work, go to the tavern for a drink, and then come back here at your regular time. Catherine will keep him well cared for in your absence. In fact,” he said, looking up at Aniya, “perhaps you should go to one of your Potentials’ houses for the evening, just until we’re done patching up your brother and he’s hidden.”

  “It’s a Black Day, Gareth,” Theodore said, as if the doctor did not already know. “Curfew is in fifteen minutes.”

  “If she gets caught, she’ll be in far less trouble than if she were to be found here with her brother on the bed. If the Silver Guard pay you a visit, they’ll finish what they started and kill him. And if Aniya is still here and they think she helped shelter him, I truly have no idea what they’ll do to her. The Chancellor might find it appropriate to lift the Female Restriction Act for a night just for her. I wouldn’t put it past him.”

  At this, Catherine finally burst into tears. Her husband rushed to her side, taking her in his arms.

  “Nothing is going to happen to Aniya, darling.” But Theodore looked up at Gareth, and sighed in reluctant agreement. “I suppose it is wise that she leave, given the circumstances.”

  “Will you stop talking about me like I’m not here?” Aniya finally spoke and stood up, her clenched fists at her side. “I can take care of myself, and I’ll die before I let them take me or William to the Hub.”

  “That’s exactly what we’re afraid of.” Gareth frowned. “It’s a dark world out there, and I’m not just talking about the blackouts. If you insist on relying on no one but yourself, you won’t make it very far.”

  “I’m not leaving,” she snapped at Gareth, folding her arms in defiance.

  “Please, Aniya.” Theodore released his wife and approached his daughter. “We’ll keep him safe, but we want you to be safe too. Come back in an hour, and you can stay by his side in the basement as long as you want.”

  Gareth nodded in agreement.

  After staring at the two of them for a moment, Aniya spun on her heels with a huff and exited the shack, leaving the door wide open.

  “If I didn’t know better, I would worry about her,” Theodore said as he closed the door.

  “She has a strong head on her shoulders, and a smart one at that. But I still worry for her, and you should too.” Gareth dropped the final bullet into Catherine’s bowl and reached for more bandages. “I’ve no doubt she’s catching on to the roles we played in the war.”

  “You’re nearly done, Gareth.” Catherine took the bloody bowl to the counter and set it down gingerly. “Why did she need to leave for so long?”

  Gareth sighed. “You’re not going to like this.” He turned again to Roland. “In my bag, there’s a large syringe filled with green liquid. Give that to me, then go home. You’ve done enough, and it’s not safe for you, either.”

  After a quick search in the bag, Roland handed the syringe to Gareth and offered a hug of consolation to Catherine. “I hope he wakes up soon.”

  Catherine hugged him tightly as a smile slipped through. “You’re a sweet boy. Don’t tell anyone you were here.”

  Roland left as quickly as Aniya had, gently closing the door behind him.

  As she sniffed back a tear, Catherine kissed Gareth’s cheek. “Thank you.”

  Theodore locked the door, then knelt next to his unconscious son as he squeezed Catherine’s hand. “I second that. You’ve done well with him.”

  Gareth looked up with a sad smile, then returned to work, examining the green syringe.

  “What is that?” Catherine asked.

  “Roland hoped for William to wake up soon. Well, he’s going to get his wish much sooner than he may expect. We have to talk to your son and find out what he knows before it’s too late. Turn him over.” Gareth squirted a small amount of the green liquid onto the floor as Theodore and Catherine carefully turned William’s body over. “This is pure adrenaline.”

  Without another word, Gareth plunged the syringe deep into William’s forearm and pressed the plunger down until it would go no further, shooting the green substance deep into William’s body. He withdrew the syringe and massaged the injection point.

  No one said a word as they stared at William’s face, watching for any sign of life.

  After a long moment, Gareth looked up and sighed. “I’ve done all I can. I’m sorry.”

  As Catherine threw herself over William’s body, sobbing into her son’s shoulder, Theodore backed away slowly, pressing his palms against his forehead. Was this how the Chancellor would make him pay for his crimes against the Lightbringers? Or was this Alpha’s sick revenge?

  With a shout, Theodore spun around and punched the wall.

  3

  Nicholas Kent stood up straight and looked in the mirror, examining himself by the light of the candle in his right hand. He took his other hand, licked it, and carefully put a stray hair back in its place. Taking a breath, he grabbed the piece of paper taped to the mirror and studied the words in the candlelight.

  “This is why I think I should be reassigned to the programmers’ division.” He stopped, took his pencil and scratched out a couple words, and started over again. “This is why I should be reassigned to the programmers’ division. I taught myself to code when I was eight years old, and it’s been my passion ever since. I’ve been familiar with the government-issue UX-97 since it was first released because it was assigned to my father for his work in the Ambassadors’ Program. I’m familiar with—” Another scratch of the pencil. “I am very familiar with—”

  “Nicholas!”

  The piece of paper fell to the floor as Nicholas jumped, his focus lost.

  “What?” he shouted down the hole in the roof, annoyed that he had been caught off guard.

  “It’s time for bed!”

  Nicholas sighed and muttered under his breath, “You’d think that would have stopped last month when I turned eighteen.” He leaned down toward the trapdoor and called back, “Okay. I’m going to sleep up here tonight.” Without waiting for a response, he closed the trapdoor and engaged the latch to ensure no more interruptions. Disregarding his cot in the corner, h
e went back to the mirror and cleared his throat. “This is why I should be reassigned to the programmers’ division.”

  He was interrupted again, this time by a loud thump coming from behind him. He sighed and gritted his teeth. “I’m going to bed, ma!”

  However, his annoyance faded as he discovered the source of the noise, evident by the rope near his feet stretching taut and grinding against the edge of the roof. Several more thumps later, a hand appeared in the darkness, accompanied by a feminine grunt.

  Nicholas grinned and extended his hand past the ledge. As his best friend grabbed the hand and held on tight, he pulled her up and embraced her. “Aniya, what are you doing here? You haven’t broken curfew in weeks.” He let her go and pulled the rope onto the roof as Aniya fixed her hair from the strenuous climb.

  “I thought it would be more fun to see you than dreary, old Axel again. Or worse, Everett. Besides, like you said, it’s been weeks since I broke a rule. Life was getting pretty dull.”

  “You would say that,” Nicholas said. He smiled at her, but she looked away. “Are you okay, Aniya?”

  Her eyes flickered back to him. “What?”

  “Are you okay?”

  “Of course,” she said, but her words trailed off into little more than a whisper.

  Before Nicholas could speak, Aniya spotted the paper on the ground and snatched it up. Nicholas’s eyes widened, and as he reached for it, she backed away with a smirk, keeping the paper away and bringing it closer to the candle to read. “This is why I should be reassigned to the programmers’ division,” she read out loud, exaggerating proper speech and deepening her voice as low as she could. She looked up and offered one word in mock derision before continuing: “Nerd.”

  Nicholas rolled his eyes.

  Aniya looked back down at the paper but didn’t keep reading out loud. She looked up again and frowned. “I didn’t think we had a programmers’ division in the Hole.”

  Avoiding her gaze, Nicholas turned and sat on a stool next to his cot. “Someone has to keep the sky ceiling turning.”