by J. J. Green
“What are they?” asked Oriana.
“You don’t know?” Ma clearly hadn’t told them. Or rather Stephan Sherrerr had made sure that she didn’t. “Never mind. Oriana, come here and do what I’m doing. Press down as hard as you can. I have to look for a firestone.” Carina removed her hand as soon as her sister was ready to take her place.
She set off on her search. It wasn’t likely that there would be firestones or other kinds of stone lying on the surface of the forest floor, but it was the only way she might save Ferne. Carina noticed Darius was following her.
“Go back to Oriana and Ferne,” she said. “Wait with them.”
“I want to stay with you,” Darius replied. “Please, Carina.”
“No, I’m sorry. You’ll only slow me down.”
Darius turned and sloped back the way he’d come. Carina returned her attention to the forest floor. It was littered with dry leaves that overlay the dark brown mold underneath. The leaf mold had to be centuries old. It was moist and spongy.
Carina was concentrating so intensely as she searched she didn’t notice Reyes until he called. She looked up to see him some distance away. “Did you find them?” he shouted.
Carina sprinted toward him, yelling, “Do you have anything that can start a fire?”
“A fire? No, of course not. Why do you want to start a fire? Did you find your brothers and sisters?”
Carina reached him. “I found them. But I have to make a fire. Don’t you have anything at all? Please, think. Is there something on your star racer? Where did you land it?”
“Sorry, I would help you if I could but I don’t have anything like that.”
Carina grabbed the front of his jacket with both hands. “Where’s the star racer?”
When Reyes turned to point, she set off immediately, not waiting to hear what he had to say. There had to be something inside the spacecraft that she could use to make a spark and light some tinder. Perhaps she could short a circuit.
As she neared the star racer, however, Carina found that her problem had been solved for her. The forest was burning. The heat from the landing spacecraft had ignited the dry leaf litter. It wasn’t a big fire yet but it grew fiercer as she approached it. The flames were being blown toward her. She could see the rear of the vehicle through them.
Carina grabbed a fallen branch and ran over to a patch of burning forest floor. The end of the dry tree limb soon kindled. On her way back to the children, carrying the torch over her head, she passed Reyes as he caught up to her. “I’d get your spacecraft out of here fast if I were you,” she said.
She would have to get the children out of the forest quickly too. Just as soon as she Healed Ferne.
***
As the color began to return to Ferne’s face, Carina put her head down and listened at her brother’s chest. His heart was beating strongly. For a moment, she couldn’t move. Tears of relief welled up and spilled from her eyes onto him. She’d Healed him just in time.
“Is he going to be all right?” Oriana asked anxiously.
Carina couldn’t speak. She nodded. Oriana threw herself over both of them. Carina gasped as the agony of her broken ribs tore through her.
Hearing her sister’s reaction, Oriana quickly moved off of her. “Are you hurt? I’m so sorry.”
Carina grimaced. She took a sip of the hot elixir and set about Healing herself. As soon as she’d finished, the acrid scent of smoke filled her nostrils. The forest fire was getting closer, but Ferne remained unconscious. She would have to carry him.
“We have to go,” she said to Oriana and Darius. She grabbed Ferne under his armpits and put him over her shoulder before rising slowly to her feet. But she was forgetting someone. “Where’s Parthenia?” Oriana had said something about their sister not coming back.
“She went to get help,” said Darius. “But that was last night.”
A shadow settled over Carina as she wondered what had happened to her oldest sister. “Okay. Don’t worry. We’ll look for her. But we have to get out of the forest first. A fire is heading this way.” Smoke was already making the sky hazy and wreathing between the trees. Carina was sure the air had grown warmer too.
Carrying Ferne, who was as limp as a rag doll, Carina led Oriana and Darius into the trees. She didn’t get far before she realized she was walking toward the fire, not away from it. The ash in the air was growing thick and she could hear the roar of the flames. The conflagration had spread quickly. Carina doubled back toward the fence, thinking that they could walk along it to reach the highway that lay to the north. As they walked, however, a tree a short distance in front of them began to smolder.
Carina cursed. She turned. They would just have to go the other way. But the smoke in the place they’d only just left was growing thick.
Darius’ hand slipped into hers and gripped it tightly. He looked up at her, his eyes wide and scared. Oriana coughed and pulled her shirt up and over her mouth and nose.
It was no good. The only way to avoid the fire was to climb over the fence. Carina looked up at the top of it, which was twice her own height. She might make it there carrying Ferne, but she didn’t know how she would climb over and hold onto her brother at the same time. She might easily drop him and a fall from that height could kill him.
“We’re going to have to climb our way out of this,” she said to Oriana and Darius. “But you two are great climbers, right?”
“Yes,” Darius said. “I’m a good climber.”
“Okay,” said Carina. “You go first. Oriana, you climb under Darius. And both of you be careful when you’re climbing down.”
“But what about all the shuttles on the other side?” Oriana asked. “Won’t it be dangerous out on the landing ground? Won’t we get arrested?”
Neither of Oriana’s points had escaped Carina’s attention but she couldn’t do anything about them right then. They would have to face those problems after they’d avoided becoming forest barbecue.
Darius hadn’t waited to be told twice. He was already halfway up the fence.
“We’ll figure that out later,” Carina replied to Oriana. “You go up now. I don’t want Darius to be on his own.”
Oriana began climbing. The air was beginning to choke Carina and she was coated in sweat. She adjusted Ferne so that he was sitting firmly pushed up against her neck. Grabbing the links of the fence, she started to climb.
It wasn’t easy but she thought she could do it, though she still hadn’t figured out how she would climb over the top. Darius was already over and was heading down the other side. Oriana was nearly there too.
When Carina reached the top of the fence she paused. Her toes were pushed into gaps in the wires and one hand gripped the fence while the other held onto Ferne’s side to prevent him from slipping off. She needed two hands free to climb over, which would mean letting go of Ferne. Carina continued to hesitate, not knowing what to do.
Then Reyes arrived.
His star racer was lowering out of the sky, a safe distance from Darius and Oriana but at the edge of the spaceport’s landing ground. He was really going to annoy Traffic Control. By the time Carina was at the top of the fence, he’d landed and the hatch had opened.
Oriana was looking scared. She didn’t know who Reyes was.
“It’s okay,” Carina called down. “He’s a friend.”
“Wait there,” Reyes shouted, running toward her. “I’m going to help.” He worked his way up the links of wire. “Can you pass him to me?” he asked as he neared Carina.
“Yes,” she replied. “But please be careful. Don’t let go of him.”
“Of course I won’t,” said Reyes.
With great care, she transferred Ferne over to Reyes, who balanced the boy’s limp form on his shoulder. As Reyes began to descend the fence, Carina climbed over, catching a glimpse of tree tops on fire. She sped down the wires to catch up to Reyes and shadow him, ready to catch Ferne if he started to fall. They reached the ground together just as a tree bordering the fe
nce burst into flames. Military vehicles were speeding toward them across the shuttle landing field.
“Quick, everyone into the star racer,” Reyes shouted.
“We can’t all fit in that,” Oriana said.
“We’re going to have to,” said Carina. Reyes was already at his vehicle, still carrying Ferne. Carina took Darius’ hand. “Come on.”
The children and Carina piled into the tiny space. Reyes had lain Ferne on the passenger seat and taken the pilot’s seat.
“I’m closing the hatch,” he said. “Breathe in.”
Carina, Oriana, and Darius squeezed into whatever spare space they could find. The hatch of the star racer closed against Carina’s back, pushing her down. The spacecraft lifted and everyone was crushed together further by the acceleration force as Reyes flew away from the spaceport.
Three out of four of Carina’s mage siblings were safe—for now. But what had happened to Parthenia?
Chapter Twenty-Seven
Parthenia had spent the night in the security room. The guards hadn’t even given her a cot to sleep on and so she’d been forced to curl up on the cold floor, napping fitfully over the long hours she’d been left alone. Aside from a couple of restroom visits, Parthenia hadn’t been allowed out and no one would tell her what was going to happen to her or listen when she tried to tell them her brother needed help.
She couldn’t stop thinking about Ferne, Oriana, and Darius, alone in the forest overnight. She’d told them she would be back but she’d failed to keep her promise. They needed her but she didn’t know how to return to them. She was out of her mind with worry, to the extent that she barely considered how much danger she was in herself.
The female guard had brought her breakfast then left her alone again, once again refusing to hear her pleas. Parthenia guessed that something would happen to her soon. The guards had taken her into custody late the previous evening. Their boss had probably gone home by then but now that it was morning he or she would be back at work and ready to deal with the stray girl who had been annoying the passengers.
Parthenia was mentally rehearsing her cover story when the door to the small room opened and the female guard came inside. Someone else entered behind her—an older man wearing a civilian suit, not a uniform. His hair was white with age, which was odd. Having your genes spliced so that your hair never changed color no matter how old you grew was a standard treatment. Even the servants at Parthenia’s family estate on Ithiya had undergone the procedure.
The older man also wore a small, neat mustache—another anomaly. Parthenia knew few men who hadn’t arranged for the permanent removal of their facial hair not long after puberty, for convenience’s sake.
The man sat down and put a finger to his mouth as he regarded Parthenia. “Would you mind telling me your name?”
“Penny. Penny Sharp.”
“And where are you from, Penny?”
“I’m from Riverfield.” Parthenia’s next words fell out of her mouth in a rush. “I was traveling with my family but we got lost. My brother’s hurt and he needs help. I’ve told your guard many times but she won’t listen to me.”
The man turned to the guard. “Check her again. I want to be sure.”
The guard was carrying an ID scanner. She leaned over Parthenia. “Open up.”
Parthenia had been subjected to the same test twice before during the previous evening. She opened her lips. The result would be the same, and it meant she was in trouble.
The guard put a probe into Parthenia’s mouth and wiped it along the inside of her cheek. The machine bleeped. The guard turned the display screen toward the man.
“Well, Penny Sharp,” he said, “according to this you don’t exist. Now, ordinarily I wouldn’t be very surprised to come across an unregistered vagrant hanging around the spaceport. But you aren’t a regular member of the invisible fringe, are you? There’s no such place as Riverfield on all of Ostillon, and the fact that you lied about your origins tells me you have something to hide. What is it? Are you working with smugglers?”
“Am I working with smugglers?” Parthenia asked, her worries temporarily forgotten in her amazement at the man’s question. “If I was a member of a smuggling gang, do you think I would go around drawing attention to myself by dressing like this and asking people for help?”
Even the guard looked embarrassed by her superior’s question.
The older man colored and coughed before muttering, “You could have been acting as a diversion. Anyway, what you were doing is irrelevant. As an unregistered individual we have a duty to hand you over to the appropriate authorities. It’s clear that you aren’t Ostillonian, therefore I’m going to send you to the Illegal Migrant Holding Facility.” He stood up. “Someone will be along to collect you soon.” He went out.
The female guard tutted. “If you’d been more polite and asked nicely, he might have let you go.” She also left, and Parthenia heard the lock click closed.
Parthenia’s head sunk onto her arms. Why had she been rude to the spaceport official? Now she would never get back to Ferne and the others.
***
The Illegal Migrant Holding Facility was full to the brim. Parthenia was put in a cell with at least ten other girls and women. They all stared at her when she arrived. And after the cell door was locked and the guard walked away, no one spoke to Parthenia.
“Excuse me,” she said to the person nearest to her—a girl about her own age who had bouncy blonde curls, “what happens here? Do we ever get to leave?”
“There’s a few ways out,” the girl replied, looking Parthenia up and down. “Proving your identity, bribing the warden, or sleeping with the guards. Those are the main ones anyway.”
At Parthenia’s shocked expression the girl laughed. “I was kidding for the last one.”
“Yeah,” another woman chipped in. “You have to sleep with the guards just to eat.”
“That’s why Laury’s so fat,” said a third.
The golden-haired girl turned and glared at the speaker.
Parthenia asked, “And what happens if you don’t do any of those things?”
“It’s off to the asteroid mines with you,” Laury replied.
“What? Forced labor? Can they do that?” Parthenia realized what a fool she sounded like as the words left her mouth. Her own clan had done the same, if not worse.
“If you don’t exist,” said Laury, “they can do what they like.”
Parthenia’s low mood sunk even further. How could she help her brothers and sister if she was stuck on a mine somewhere? She might never see them again. What would become of them all by themselves? And what would happen to Ferne if he didn’t get medical help?
She eased through the crowded cell, stepping over women who were sitting or lying on the floor, until she reached the little window. It looked out onto a square yard where a few of the inmates were wandering aimlessly. Shuttles from the spaceport were crossing the small area of sky. Parthenia felt like crying but she didn’t want to show her emotion in front of all these strange women.
She rested her elbows on the ledge of the high window. Ever since escaping from the Sherrerrs, everything had gone from bad to worse and Parthenia had no idea how to turn things around. Fate seemed to be pushing her down a road that ended in nothing but loneliness and despair and there wasn’t anything she could do about it.
Was she going to live out the rest of her life slaving away on an asteroid, never seeing her family again or finding out what had happened to them? The only saving grace in her situation was that things couldn’t get any worse.
As Parthenia aimlessly watched the sad figures of inmates meandering around the exercise yard, the murmur of voices in the cell behind her grew louder. She heard snatches of comments like, “Here he is again,” and, “I wonder who he’s looking for.”
Mildly curious about what the women were talking about, she turned around. A young man was moving down the corridor that linked the cells, accompanied by a guard. He l
ooked so different from the last time she’d seen him, Parthenia almost didn’t recognize him. When she did, she nearly froze. She had just enough presence of mind to turn away.
Her back facing the visitor, Parthenia’s heart raced as she stared sightlessly out of the window, hoping beyond hope that he would pass by without noticing her.
But her brother wasn’t so unobservant as to not recognize his sister, even from behind.
“Parthenia,” Castiel said. “How nice to see you again.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
“Where are you taking us?” Carina asked Reyes, her neck painfully scrunched up. Before he could answer, she also said, “Darius, could you scoot under Ferne’s seat? I can see some room there.”
Her little brother did as she’d asked him, shuffling along on his bottom to the space under the reclined passenger seat, where he fitted comfortably.
“That’s better,” Oriana breathed, moving into the place Darius had occupied, which allowed Carina to change position and straighten up.
“Back to the hospital, of course,” Reyes replied. “Your brother needs a medic.”
“No,” Carina said. “He’s fine.”
Reyes gave her a quizzical look over his shoulder but at that moment, Ferne stirred and his eyes opened. The first thing he saw was Carina. Before she had a chance to warn him, Ferne blurted her name and tried to sit up.
“Oh, I feel terrible,” he said as he gave up his attempt and lay back down. “What happened?” He reached for his leg. “Did you—”
“Ferne,” Oriana hissed. “Shuttup.”
He finally noticed Reyes. His lips clamped closed and he gave Carina an apologetic look.
Reyes said, “Were you the one who was shot? Are you hurt?”
“I… ” Ferne began.
“He wasn’t shot,” said Oriana. “Or, he was nearly shot. He was just exhausted because we’d been walking through the forest for so long.”
It was a terrible excuse to explain Ferne’s unconsciousness, but Carina didn’t blame her sister. She couldn’t think of a credible explanation herself. And Oriana had thought it through: if Reyes found out that Ferne had been shot he would want to know why he didn’t have an injury and that would require a whole lot more explaining.
