by J. J. Green
The other laborers stepped aside resentfully as she passed through the crowd and climbed into the back of the transport.
“Hey, honey,” called the young woman who had smiled at Carina. She was smiling again, this time at one of the men. “Don’t forget me.”
Carina didn’t rate the woman’s chances. She was the smallest and weakest of all of them. Yet to Carina’s surprise, the man called, “Thirteen” and waved her aboard.
A few nasty names floated in the young woman’s wake as she stepped up and into the transport. She put her hand behind her back and made a gesture with her fingers that Carina guessed meant something obscene on Ostillon. The seat next to Carina’s was spare, and the woman sat down next to her.
“Phew,” she remarked. “I thought I wouldn’t make it. You’re new, right?”
“Yeah,” said Carina, and turned away to gaze out the window as the transport pulled into the traffic in the middle lane.
“Hey,” said the woman, “don’t worry. I’m not going to give you away.” She lowered her tone. “Everyone here has a secret. Jonas over there embezzled millions from his father’s company. Adrienne killed a man. Kali is hiding out from his psycho wife.”
“Shuttup, Asha,” said a man sitting in front of them, who Carina assumed was Kali. Ignoring him, Asha went on, “So you see, we can’t turn you in because we all have something to hide ourselves.”
“Okay,” said Carina.
Asha waited for her to say more and when Carina remained silent, she said, “What’s your name?”
“Tamira. You can call me Tammy.”
“Good to meet you, Tammy,” said Asha. “As you’re new, I’ll show you the ropes. First, your uniform: don’t bother trying to avoid tearing it. It doesn’t matter what it looks like when you hand it back, they’re gonna dock you five percent. You could turn in a brand new set of overalls and they would still dock you five. So don’t worry about it. Second: we get free lunch but we only get fifteen minutes to eat it. If you’re late back, they’ll dock you ten percent for every minute. So if you’re ten minutes late, you owe them, see?”
“Okay, I get it. Thanks.”
“I haven’t finished. No restroom breaks except over lunch. So try not to drink too much or you’ll be in pain before we knock off.”
“All right.”
Asha leaned closer and said in a lowered tone, “One more thing. If you do the boys a favor, you’ll get work whenever you want it.”
Carina had been continuing to look out the window while Asha was speaking, but at this latest comment she turned and stared at the other woman.
“What?” Asha asked defensively. “It takes ten minutes and if you’re guaranteed work from it, what do you care? I’m just saying, when your bruises go down, you won’t look too bad. I bet they’d go for you. Only remember that I was the one who told you, okay? I get in first.”
“Yeah, thanks,” said Carina. “But I won’t be competing with you on that.”
Asha shrugged. “Just trying to be helpful.”
“I know. I appreciate it.” Though Asha’s methods weren’t for her, Carina didn’t think less of the woman. In that kind of life people did whatever it took to get by.
When they arrived at the job site, Carina was surprised to discover it was one of the complex apartment blocks, newly built. One of the supervisors told the workers they were to remove all the construction debris, dust, and dirt, ready for the decoration crews who were arriving the following day. Carina had been expecting heavier work, but she guessed that machines took care of most of the buildings’ construction. The Dirksens loved their high tech.
As soon as the workers disembarked from the transport, one of the supervisors took Asha by the arm and led her away into a room. The door closed and the other supervisor addressed the remaining crew.
“There’s twenty-six floors, so you have to clean two each. At six o’clock we’ll check every floor and if we find any dirt or trash no one gets paid. Got it?”
Sighs and groans came from the group but no one dared to openly protest the unfair rules. Instead, the men and women began to shout out the floors they would clean. Carina was too slow to catch on. In a few seconds the verbal claiming was over and the only floors left were twenty-three through twenty-six. Two of them would be Asha’s—when she returned from doing the other supervisor a “favor”—and the other two would be Carina’s.
Thirteen cleaning machines stood in the bare, dusty lobby. The devices were old and battered. They were also large and heavy, Carina discovered when she tried to move one of the two that hadn’t been claimed. It was then that she discovered the elevators weren’t working yet.
The door to the room where Asha had gone with the supervisor opened and she emerged with the man. She walked over to Carina, who was squatting next to her machine, trying to figure out how it worked. All the other workers were leaving to begin their jobs for the day.
“Huh,” Asha said, watching the departing men and women. “I bet they left us with the broken ones.”
“Have you used these before?” Carina asked.
“Yeah. It’s always the same machines for this job, though I shouldn’t complain. This is one of the best kinds of work we can get. But only if the damn machines aren’t broken.” She pressed a button on the remaining machine. When nothing happened, she said, “Yep. Like I thought. What about yours?”
Carina pressed the same button. Her machine started up and gave out a low hum, but then it died. “Can’t we just tell the bosses our machines don’t work?”
“They’d only tell us to borrow someone else’s, and how likely do you think that is? No. We have to try to fix them or we’re stuck.” She lifted up the cowling on her machine. “But these aren’t complicated. It’s probably just a loose wire or something.”
Asha fiddled with her own and Carina’s cleaning machines for a while and managed to get them both working. Then together they carried the machines up to the top floors, one at a time. They were far too heavy for one person to carry alone.
After demonstrating to Carina how her machine worked, Asha went downstairs to floor twenty-three. The morning was wearing on and Carina had to clean floors twenty-five and twenty-six before the day was out. She was still sore from Harmon’s beating, her hands ached from spending the night removing the bricks from the wall, and she was groggy with tiredness.
If it had only been her who would suffer the repercussions of failing to do her job, Carina might have lain down and gone to sleep. But if she did that twelve other people would lose their day’s wages, and they were the types who couldn’t afford it. Carina pushed her cleaning machine to the farthest apartment on the floor and started it up. The machines were designed to work automatically, Asha had told her.
The apartment was full of odd bits and pieces left over from the construction work, which Carina had to take all the way downstairs to a dumpster outside. She began to carry out the trash and build a pile next to the stairwell, thinking she could push the lot down the stairs at the end of the day.
When she returned to her cleaning machine, however, instead of working methodically across the floor and up the walls of the room, it was spinning in a circle. The area it had worked was spotless but the rest of the place remained dirty. Carina cursed and tried to turn the machine off but it was spinning too fast. Whenever she reached in to press the button, it whirled out of her reach.
Carina swore again, loudly. She kicked the machine and sent it scooting over the wall, which it rapidly climbed before continuing up and onto the ceiling where it began spinning again.
Carina uttered words that only mercs used—and then only out of the hearing of their officers—as she jumped up to try to reach the machine’s controls.
She heard laughing from the doorway. Asha was standing there, her arms folded. “I was wondering how you were getting on.”
Carina ceased her efforts and rested her hands on her knees, panting. She laughed too. “Not very well.”
�
�Don’t worry. We’ll get it down. I wanted to ask you something. As you’re new in town, I thought maybe you don’t have anywhere to stay. Would you like to sleep at my place tonight? I have a spare room.”
Asha seemed nice and she was right—Carina didn’t have anywhere to stay that night. “Okay. Thanks.” Although she couldn’t ever tell Asha her true reason for being on Ostillon, perhaps her new acquaintance could give her some tips for finding people on that world. She could begin her search for her siblings.
Chapter Fourteen
Parthenia was awake before her brothers and sisters. She pushed down the smelly, hairy animal blanket they’d covered themselves with to help keep out the chill of the night and sat up. Darius had somehow worked himself fully under the remaining blanket and was lying cross ways. Oriana and Ferne were sleeping back to back, their heads resting on a thin pillow they’d made from the raggedy dress Parthenia had used to hold the food.
The barn had no windows but pale daylight shone through cracks between the planks of the walls. On the other side of the wide space the animals were shifting about as if agitated. Parthenia wondered what was the matter with them.
Her joy at being reunited with Ferne and Oriana remained but she knew their situation was as dangerous as ever. Their Sherrerr relatives would be searching for them and the clan wouldn’t give up that search for a long time—as long the memory of the mage children lasted, down the generations. The children had unfortunately proven the power and value of their abilities when they blew up the Dirksens’ shipyard.
As soon as the others woke, they would have to decide where to go and what to do next. Parthenia thought it might be best to find out where the capital city was and go there. It seemed to make sense that to find someone you went to the most important place in the country. What they would do when they got there, she didn’t know, but she didn’t have any better ideas. They might find it easier to live in a big city too, where there were jobs and lots of people to hide among.
Parthenia didn’t know how they would travel to the city, or, now that she thought of it, where the capital was located. But maybe they could ask someone. More urgently, they needed to find food. Her belly was already grumbling in spite of the meal provided by Jace the previous evening. She wondered what the ranger had made of her and her little brother’s disappearance. She hoped he hadn’t told anyone, and particularly not the Dirksens, who she guessed were his employers.
Darius groaned and turned over, pulling the blanket off Oriana. He sat up, still under the blanket. Parthenia tugged it off of his head. Darius blinked and looked around, taking everything in like he was trying to figure out where he was. When he saw Parthenia he smiled. “When’s breakfast?”
Parthenia was about to answer when her brother’s words sparked a realization. That was why the animals were moving around so much. They were hungry. And that probably meant someone was on their way to feed them.
“Parthenia?” said Darius. “When’s—”
“Shhh.” Parthenia reached over Darius to shake Oriana’s shoulder. “Wake up. We have to leave,” she said as her sister’s eyes opened. “Wake up Ferne.”
Parthenia stood and helped Darius to his feet too. The only thing they had to take with them was the elixir. Where was it? She didn’t know where Ferne had put the precious liquid after using it to Transport himself and Darius to the barn. Ferne was sitting up and rubbing his eyes.
Just as Parthenia said, “Ferne—” the lock on the barn door rattled and a moment later the door swung open. The golden light of sunrise flooded in, silhouetting the figure who stood in the doorway. Oriana and Ferne jumped to their feet.
“What the…?” said the figure. It was a woman, though she was tall and broad. She continued more angrily, “What are you doing in my barn?” The woman stomped farther inside, swung the door closed, and dropped the latch. “Are you here to steal my horses?”
“No,” Parthenia protested. “We aren’t here to steal anything. We only needed somewhere to sleep. We’re sorry. We haven’t touched anything, honestly. We’ll leave now.”
“Oh no, you won’t. You aren’t going anywhere. You’re trespassing and I’m going to call the authorities. But before I do that, I’m going to search you. I want to make sure you haven’t stolen something.” The woman’s eyes narrowed as she scanned the children from head to toe. “Those aren’t yours,” she exclaimed, pointing at Parthenia’s bracelets. Oriana was wearing one and Parthenia was wearing the other. “They’re far too valuable for urchins like you. Hand them over.”
“They belong to me,” Parthenia protested. “They were a present from my father.”
“Give them here. If you can prove they’re yours, you can have them back.”
Oriana pulled off her bracelet and placed it in the woman’s outstretched hand. “Please don’t call anyone. Please.”
The woman frowned. “Why? Are you in trouble for something? Whatever it is you’ve done, you’re runaways. That little boy is far too young to be away from his parents. You.” She pointed at Parthenia. “Give me your bracelet.” When Parthenia had done as she’d been asked, the woman slipped the bracelets inside her shirt. “And you.” She was looking at Ferne. “Come here and turn out your pockets.”
“No,” shouted Parthenia. Ferne might have the elixir. She couldn’t risk the woman taking it. They all stared at her. “Ferne. If you do have anything in your pockets, give it to me.”
“Don’t you dare,” the woman said, striding across to Parthenia’s brother. “Whatever you have, it’s mine and I want it back.”
Ferne reached into his pants pocket and took out a bottle. It held a small amount of elixir. Only enough for one Cast remained. As the woman moved to grab the bottle, Ferne tossed it to Parthenia. She caught it and unscrewed the lid. The woman was only one step from her but Parthenia managed to swallow the last of the elixir before the bottle was snatched away.
“This is mine,” the woman exclaimed, staring at the empty bottle. “You took it from the things I stored at the back of the barn. You are thieves.”
“But it’s only an old bottle,” said Darius.
“How dare you,” the woman blustered. She turned on the other children with narrow eyes. “What else have you taken?”
The children were watching Parthenia, however. She closed her eyes, hoping the woman would leave her alone long enough for her to Cast. She didn’t think she could Transport all four of them but she could do something else.
“What’s wrong with you?” Parthenia heard the woman ask. “Open your eyes! What are you doing?”
Parthenia struggled to concentrate and write the character she had in mind. She heard the sound of struggling.
“Mmmwharrrrr,” exclaimed the woman. “Get off me!”
Parthenia was deep inside her mind, writing the strokes of the character one by one. She Cast. When she opened her eyes, the woman was on her back and Ferne and Oriana were on top of her, holding her down. Darius was sitting on her head.
Despite the seriousness of the situation, Parthenia giggled. “You can leave her alone now.” When the three children stood up, the woman remained on the ground. She was limp and though her eyes were open they were glassy and unfocused.
“Did you Enthrall her?” Oriana asked.
“Yes. It was all I could think to do at the time. But I think it’s going to work to our benefit. I have an idea.” Parthenia walked over to the woman and looked down at her. “What’s your name?”
“Marcia.”
“Okay, get up, Marcia.”
The woman slowly rose to her feet. Her arms hung limply and her mouth was open.
“Do you have a vehicle?” Parthenia asked.
“Yes.”
“Good. I want you to take us all to the capital city.”
Without a word, Marcia turned and walked out of the barn.
“Quickly,” Parthenia said. “Put on your shoes.” As soon as they could the four children followed the Enthralled woman.
“Don
’t you think we should go in her house to make some more elixir before we leave?” Ferne asked.
“No,” Parthenia replied. “We don’t know who else might be there. I don’t want to risk it.”
The strange procession marched down the path that led from the barn and across a field. Marcia was heading in the direction of the farmhouse. Parthenia hoped that no one was watching from the farmhouse windows. They had to be such an odd sight, anyone seeing them would be bound to come out and investigate.
“Do you know how far it is to the capital?” Oriana asked Parthenia.
“No, I don’t have any idea.”
“But what if your Enthrall wears off before we arrive?”
“Then I guess we’ll just have to go the rest of the way by ourselves.”
Ferne laughed. “Our new friend is going to be very confused when she comes out of it.”
They had arrived at a shed that stood next to the farmhouse. Marcia opened both doors wide, revealing a shiny vehicle with a pointed nose. It rested directly on the ground. Parthenia wondered how it moved.
Marcia was walking into the shed. The door of the vehicle opened to her touch, and the children scrambled to catch up with her and take seats inside. Enthrall was an unpredictable Cast. Its effect on the victim’s mind varied according to their mental characteristics. Intelligent, strong-willed people could resist it to an extent, and the less intelligent who were easily persuaded could be so affected by Enthrall they lost touch with what was happening around them. Marcia seemed to be so heavily influenced there was a chance she might drive away and leave the children behind, not realizing they weren’t with her.
Parthenia closed the driver’s door for Marcia as she didn’t seem about to. The woman started the vehicle. It rose up, causing the children to gasp. Marcia drove out and onto the small lane that ran in front of the farmhouse. She drove between the trees of the lane all the way down to a larger road and pulled out directly into it without looking for oncoming traffic. An oncoming truck blared at them and rose above and over them to avoid a collision.
