by Sarah Jaune
“That was exactly the look I was going for,” she promised as she continued to apply the sunscreen. “You’re already turning brown. It’s not fair.”
Fair or not, sunscreen or not, they baked as they walked. Ivy pulled water from the ground for them along the way, but there wasn’t much to be had. It wasn’t like the north where springs and underground reservoirs were plentiful. Out here, in the desert, the only thing they had a lot of was dirt and scraggily scrub brush.
“This is miserable,” Ivy complained as they stopped beneath the shade of a huge rock. She was scarlet from the heat, and despite the sunscreen, probably sunburned, and was using her hand to fan herself.
“I can go on ahead,” he reminded her. Eli was hot and miserable as well, but there was no need for both of them to suffer.
Ivy shook her blonde head and tugged her sweaty hair out of the ponytail to shake it out. The blonde curls and tangles enveloped her face as she rubbed at her scalp. “Why didn’t I cut it all off?”
“‘Cause it’s pretty,” Eli blurted out without thinking. He looked quickly away, embarrassed that he’d said it. He hadn’t even realized he’d thought it until that moment. He and Ivy didn’t have that kind of relationship. They were friends, best friends.
Ivy nudged him with her shoulder. “Thanks. It makes the annoyance of all this hair worth it.”
He turned back to find her smiling, not upset or… well, he didn’t know what he’d have expected, but she hadn’t taken it to mean more than that he liked her hair. Eli sighed in relief and stood up. “Come on, let’s go.”
She nodded and tied all her hair back into a messy bun as she rose to join him.
They didn’t find a town until the sun was setting off to their right, blazing the countryside in a brilliant, red glow that seemed to light everything it touched so that everything appeared to be on fire. The setting of the sun brought in a blessed relief from the heat, but Eli knew that would be short lived. Soon, very soon, it would be cold, and then they’d be in trouble.
“Come on,” he urged as he spotted the lights of a house. They’d worked out a cover story as they’d walked, and it was one that Eli thought would hold up.
It had to hold up.
They jogged towards the one-story, stucco house that had lights on in the front window. They couldn’t see in, but they could see a person silhouetted behind the simple curtains.
They stopped before the door, which was painted a deep burgundy. “You ready?” Eli asked Ivy.
She nodded, raised her hand, and knocked. A moment later, an older woman opened the door tentatively and poked her wrinkled face out. “Yes?”
“Ma’am,” Ivy said, respectfully, “we broke down up the road. Is there a mechanic in town?”
The woman eyed them beadily, her blue eyes shrewd in her deeply lined face. She had the sort of look of a woman who had spent her whole life out in the sun. Her skin appeared to be more leather than not. This was not a woman who was idle. This one was clearly still active, as evidenced by the scrutiny that she was paying them. “He’ll be closed.”
Eli glanced to Ivy. They’d thought this might happen. Ivy was ready, though. “Is there some place we can get a room for the night?”
The woman’s pause was made even more nerve-wracking to Eli as his heart thudded loudly in his chest, counting off the beats of time while he waited for her to answer. “Are you two related?”
“Cousins,” Eli supplied, unapologetically lying to her. “Our dads are brothers.”
“Our grandmother died,” Ivy explained as she pretended to fight back tears. “She lived in Santa Fe, and we’ve been sent to see to her stuff, but the jeep has a flat tire, and we d-don’t have a spare.”
The hiccup in her voice was very well done. Eli almost believed it as he put a comforting arm around her shoulder and Ivy leaned against him.
The woman’s shoulders relaxed visibly. “Alright, in you come then. You can sleep here for the night and see about your car in the morning.”
“Thank you,” Eli told her as he led Ivy into the living room, which was small and sparsely furnished. There was one couch, which looked lumpy and unappealing, a small, scrubbed table and two spindly chairs.
“You two look nothing alike,” the woman groused as she closed the door behind them. Ivy made a show of trying to wipe fake tears from her face. Or maybe they weren’t fake. Ivy could, after all, force tears from her eyes. Her power was water. “I’d never guess you for related.”
“Our fathers don’t look alike, either,” Eli admitted with a shrug. “But my mom is why I’m so dark. She is as well.”
The woman nodded, clearly buying their story. She stuck out her hand to him and gripped his fingers in a surprisingly firm grip. “My name is Clem.”
“I’m Eli,” he said. They’d decided to use their real first names, but a fake last name. “Elliot Graham, but Eli for short. This is Ivy.”
Graham probably wouldn’t have been amused that they’d stolen his first name for their last name, but it would be easy to remember.
Clem inclined her head. “Do you need food?”
“No, thank you,” Ivy gave her a tremulous smile. “We really appreciate this. I thought we were going to freeze out there,” she told the older woman, waving vaguely out the front door. Then she yawned, which Eli thought was faked at first, until he saw Ivy’s eyes. She was clearly exhausted.
“I only have the couch,” the woman told them. She turned to Eli. “I’ll get you a pillow and blanket for the floor, though.”
“Anything is great,” Eli assured her. Given a cold night on the desert floor exposed to the elements, or this woman’s rug, he’d take the rug.
Ivy motioned to the couch. “You can have it, if you’d like.”
Eli rolled his eyes and accepted the pillow from the woman when she shuffled back in.
He didn’t sleep badly. The rug was fairly plush, and he was exhausted from walking all day in the heat. If he dreamed, he didn’t remember it.
The next morning, they were up and moving early. The woman gave them directions to a man named Rex in town who might sell them a tire. Eli didn’t like the sound of that, but he didn’t question it too closely, either.
Ivy’s face and arms were still pink and raw from the day before. Clem had given her a big, wide straw hat to shade her face, which Ivy had taken gratefully.
“You almost look like a farmer,” Eli told her with a grin.
“What I do look like is someone who isn’t going to get burnt again today,” she told him as she peeked out from under the hat.
The town they’d come upon was smaller than Redmond by a good bit. If Eli had to estimate from what he was seeing, he’d have guessed the population to be under a thousand. There were a couple of shops along the sides of the main highway, and a few houses spread out from them, but not many people wandering around.
They located the mechanic easily enough. Rex turned out to be a short, skinny man with thin brown hair and a crooked smile. He was about fifty and had on dirty jeans, with a pristinely white t-shirt. When they’d explained what they were looking for, he shook his head. “I can’t sell you nothing like that without permission from the rep.”
His accent, which didn’t sound like it belonged in this town, threw Eli off for a moment. He’d never heard someone speak that way before, and he’d been a lot of places. “What?”
“The rep has control over all that,” Rex pointed behind him. “I’m only allowed to help the locals. All others have to go through the rep.”
The rep, shortened for representative, Eli was sure, was the person that the Overseer of the zone left in charge of the various townships. They acted locally for the Overseer. If they truly couldn’t get a part without permission from the rep, they could be in big trouble.
The rep could report back to the Overseer of Salt Lake City Zone and tell him about them.
There was no good reason that the rep would do that, but still…
“Where can we fin
d the rep?” Ivy asked Rex.
Rex shifted nervously from foot to foot, his agitation obvious. “See, he don’t like outsiders.”
“Where’s the next town?” Eli wanted to know.
Rex shook his head and his thin hair flapped about oddly on his shiny head. “It’s a good sixty miles away. We’re isolated, here.”
“We can’t walk that,” Ivy said, turning to Eli. “We need a tire.”
Eli scrubbed at the back of his neck, trying to think of what to do. “How about you turn your back for ten minutes, Rex, while I steal a tire and happen to drop a gold coin on my way out?”
Rex burst out laughing, doubling over, and holding his sides. “I like you kid. I wish I could help, but the rep could shut off my water, and if he does that I’m dead.”
They stared at the man in horror. “He controls the water?” Ivy questioned, clearly horrified. “He can’t do that! That’s a common good, and it belongs to the Overseer.”
Rex shrugged. “Tell him that, then, if you’re so bold. It don’t do no good. The water is on his land, see, so he gets to say who uses it. We used to have a well, but it stopped working years back.”
Eli and Ivy exchanged a meaningful glance. “Okay,” Eli said slowly. “Let’s go find the rep.”
The moment they were out of earshot, Ivy blurted out, “I can fix the well.”
“You can’t fix the well without giving yourself away,” Eli reminded her flatly. “We aren’t here to solve all problems.”
“But this is wrong!” Ivy growled.
They caught sight of a woman scurrying across the road to a small shop. She shot them a nervous glance, but turned quickly away and kept moving.
“That’s not good,” Eli said once the woman was off the street. “What on earth is going on here?”
“I bet the rep is just as bad as your father,” Ivy muttered, then sighed apologetically. “Sorry.”
Eli shrugged that off. His father was horrible. “It’s doubtful that the rep is that bad, actually. He wouldn’t have enough power.”
They continued on down the street, not spotting anyone until they entered the two story, brick building with the sign out front that read ‘Representative Zhu Savon.’
A pretty secretary with curly red hair, and baby blue eyes greeted them as they entered. She was dressed not in jeans and a t-shirt, as most others were, but in a tailored purple dress with white buttons down the front. “May I help you?” she asked in a honeyed voice.
“We need to see the rep,” Eli told her.
“Do you have an appointment?”
Eli sighed inwardly. Of course it would be like this. It had to be like this. “We do not have an appointment, but we need to see him now.”
“Well,” the woman’s smile didn’t slip at all as she went on. “I’m afraid that he is too busy to see anyone today. If you’d like to make an appointment—”
Annoyed now, Eli moved around the desk and headed for the door with the gold plaque that read ‘Savon’ and didn’t bother to knock as he pushed the door open. Unfortunately, his control slipped and the door banged so hard that it was knocked a bit off its hinges.
Ivy groaned behind him.
A tall, blonde man with brown eyes eyed him from behind his large desk. He didn’t speak, at first, as Eli marched up to the desk. He glared down at the rep, crossing his arms. “We need to buy a tire.”
“You have made a grave error in judgement, son,” the rep said in a rumbling, quiet voice that sent chills up Eli’s spine.
CHAPTER 11
DO WHAT’S RIGHT
Eli would put up with a lot of things, but a bully was not one of them. Eli stared at the man as he rose from his seat, towering over Eli. The man had to be a good foot taller than him, easily the biggest man Eli had ever seen. It took all he had not to step back from him, but Eli fought to maintain eye contact with Savon, showing him that he wasn’t afraid.
He wasn’t afraid… much. It was a gut reaction. Logically, he knew that he could take him in a fight if it came down to it. However, using his powers would give him away and that was only to be done in life or death situations.
“You broke my door,” Savon said mildly as Ivy came in to stand next to him.
Eli checked his gut reaction to apologize. He wasn’t actually sorry, so he didn’t say it.
“Nothing to say for yourself?” Savon questioned them mildly. “Well, we don’t take kindly to people with no manners around here. I can’t have you destroying property, after all.”
Eli felt his control slip again. Ivy grabbed his arm. “We’re sorry about the door. It’s been a difficult few days. Our grandmother died, and we need to get to Santa Fe Zone to clear out her house. We need a tire, and my cousin would be happy to fix the door before we go.”
The man finally turned to study Ivy. Eli didn’t like what he read on the huge man’s face. He couldn’t tell what, exactly, Savon was thinking, but Eli knew it wasn’t good. “I’m afraid that’s not how it works around here, young lady. You will soon learn that. Your, uh, cousin,” his gentle inflection on the word told Eli he didn’t buy their story of being related, “will need to make restitutions for the damage. Then, possibly, we might work up a price to buy the tire. It will cost you, though.”
Eli shook his head. “We’re leaving.”
He turned, but his arm was wrenched backward before they’d even made it to the door. The enormous, powerful man slammed Eli into his desk, knocking papers to the floor in a shower of fluttering white. Pain rocketed through Eli’s back as he fought to catch his breath. Savon bent over him, his hand squeezing at Eli’s throat. “You’re not going anywhere, son. You are under arrest. Celie—” he pitched his voice so his secretary could hear. “Get the police.”
Eli closed his eyes and forced his heart to calm. Thankfully, Ivy hadn’t done anything to get herself in trouble. Eli needed to beat this man, using only his training in self-defense, and without tipping Savon off that he was magical.
It was easier than most people would imagine. Eli opened his eyes, so he could see where he was aiming, and brought his hands up hard to hit Savon on the main artery of the neck.
Savon went pale, gasped as he let go of Eli, and slumped to the floor, taking Eli down with him and practically pinning him under his substantial bulk.
Ivy ran over to help him up, but Eli easily pushed the huge man off himself. She shook her head, her green eyes danced with amusement. “That’s one way of doing it.”
“Not my favorite way,” Eli assured her as he turned to find Celie, the secretary, who was shrieking at the top of her lungs. “Stop!” he called out to her. “He’s not dead, just knocked out.”
The woman didn’t stop, even as they made their way around her, heading for the front door.
They didn’t make it. The door burst open and a huge man, the exact copy of Zhu Savon rush in, gun drawn and at the ready. Eli froze in shock, but reality kicked in as he realized this man was in a police uniform, not a business suit, and Eli, more than most, should know what an identical copy meant.
Twins.
“Don’t move!” the other man commanded them, keeping his gun trained firmly on them.
Ivy raised her hands, smacking him lightly so he’d do the same.
Infuriated, Eli did as he was told.
Ten minutes later, an extremely unamused police chief, Otis Savon, threw them in a cell and slammed the door shut, locking it and telling them they were going to rot there for eternity.
Ivy sat on the cot, which was a thin, dingy mattress on a wooden frame. She folded her legs up beneath her and stared out the bars. “I don’t think he’s going to see reason.”
Eli snorted in disgust. “Nope. How long should we wait?”
“I dunno,” Ivy yawned and leaned back against the stone wall, closing her eyes. “I say an hour. If he hasn’t left us alone by then, we’ll just break out.”
Eli’s mind raced through the possibilities. This jail cell was nothing to him. He could get ou
t without any problem, but not without magic. Unfortunately, the paperclip he always carried to pick locks wasn’t going to work on the huge, steal lock that they used on the prison cell door. They were supposed to be arriving in New Orleans in two days. The other pursuer had already been missing for a while.
However… “I think you should destroy their stranglehold on the water.”
Ivy finally opened her eyes to blink in confusion. “Come again?”
“Those two have the town under their control,” Eli pointed out. “We can remove that control from them, then, while they’re distracted with that, we can grab a tire and go. Can you sense the water?”
