by J. J. Green
The last thing she wanted to do was leave her sisters and brothers alone on Ostillon, fending for themselves. Now she was better and the tracers were gone she could begin searching for them right away. They’d been on their own for days. She hated to think what might have happened to them.
Carina pushed back her covers and sat up half way but the movement made her head spin. She slumped down.
“Whoa,” said Reyes. “Take it easy.” He pulled the covers over her.
Carina noticed she was wearing a hospital gown. “Where are my clothes?” She wouldn’t have gotten far dressed as she was. What had she been thinking?
“The medics cut your clothes off you, remember?” said Reyes. “Your money is in the drawer next to your bed. I can get you some more clothes. I’ll order them for you now. What do you want?” He took up his interface again.
“Wait. What are you doing?” Carina asked.
“Huh? I’m buying you some clothes. Didn’t you hear? Don’t worry. The anesthetic will wear off soon.”
“I mean,” said Carina, “what are you doing here, now, with me?”
“What do you think I’m doing? I’m looking after you. The surgeon said your operation went well. Said you’re as good as new now.”
“Thanks, but… ”
“But what?”
“I don’t get it. What’s all this about?”
Reyes said, “I told you already. I’m leaving my mother’s clan. What you were saying was right. They are a bunch of thugs. I never really saw it before because I was brought up in the middle of it. I believed Mother when she explained that we Dirksens were helping to develop and modernize other societies to their benefit. It just took me a while to realize it was all garbage. Excuses.
“It’s hard when it’s your close family who’s doing evil things. That was what I wanted to talk to you about before, only you didn’t give me a chance. Then I saw what you’d done to yourself trying to remove the tracers. That made up my mind. I’m never going back home. I still love my mother but I can’t accept what she does and I don’t want to be a part of it.
“But I haven’t told her about my decision,” Reyes went on. “I’ll let her figure it out for herself. Until she does, I can make use of my status. But only to do good things. Like helping you. No one here will ask who you are or what happened to you. There won’t be any record of your treatment on the hospital records. And… ” he smiled slyly, lifting his interface, “I can order whatever I want until my account is closed.”
“Yeah,” Carina said, “and your mother will be able to find out exactly what you ordered and where it was delivered.”
Reyes’ face fell. “I didn’t think of that.”
“If you do plan on doing a disappearing act,” said Carina, “you’ll need to be a lot more careful. It isn’t easy to stay hidden. Not easy at all.”
“I guess that’s true.”
The young man looked troubled and Carina felt a little sorry for him. It was a bold, brave, and perhaps foolish step he was taking. She didn’t think he was mature or experienced enough to understand all the implications. Yet he was doing the right thing. Overall, she was glad her previous goading seemed to have tipped him into a decision he’d been brooding about for a while.
“What do you plan to do?” she asked, wondering if he had a plan at all.
“I’m not sure.”
He didn’t.
“Maybe I can get a job,” Reyes continued. “I have my star racer. I can sleep in that.”
“You don’t think your mother might have put a tracer on it?”
“I don’t think so but you’re right. I should have it scanned. It was my present for my sixteenth birthday. I don’t think it’s registered or anything. No Dirksen registers anything.”
“Of course not,” said Carina. “Why would they? That might force them to operate within the law, which would be ridiculous.”
Reyes’ wry smile returned. “I like your sense of humor. How are you feeling now?”
In truth, Carina was still feeling the effects of the anesthetic, but she felt much better than she had before. “I’m okay. I think I’ll be able to leave soon.”
“Don’t do that,” said Reyes. “Rest a while longer. The surgeon said you should wait until tomorrow to go home.”
“That isn’t going to work for me,” Carina said. “I have some things I have to do urgently.”
Reyes said, “Please, stay here for a couple more hours. Allow some time for the drugs to wear off. Maybe I can help you do whatever it is that’s so urgent.”
“Well… ” Carina considered. Could she trust him? Reyes had saved her when she was in a dangerous position. Bryce had always said she too distrustful. Carina wondered what had happened to her friend. She hoped he’d made it back to his family.
Carina looked into Reyes’ eyes. He gazed back openly, unblinking.
“Maybe you can help me,” she said.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“I can’t do it,” Oriana sobbed. “I just can’t do it.”
“It’s okay,” Parthenia replied, taking her sister’s hands in her own. Oriana’s palms were red and raw from trying to start a fire. “I’ll think of something else.”
“The wood’s too wet,” Oriana said. “In the barn it was bone dry, and even then it took me ages to make it smolder. Here, outside, it’s too damp. I’m sure that’s the problem.”
“I guess you’re right,” Parthenia replied. “It was a miracle you started a fire at all the first time you tried. I wouldn’t have known how to do it.”
“I saw it in a vid,” said Oriana. “Ferne showed me.” She burst into sobs again.
Ferne was lying to one side under a tree. He was on his front, the bolt the hunters had shot him with still sticking out of the back of his thigh. He was awake but in so much pain he’d hardly spoken over the last few hours.
“Just pull it out,” he said between clenched teeth. “I can’t stand having that thing stuck in me. Please, just pull it out. We can tie something around my leg and then we can go into the city.”
Parthenia had been trying to avoid that solution to their problem. As it was, Ferne’s wound currently only bled when he moved. She was worried that if they pulled the bolt out they might not be able to stop the bleeding and her brother might bleed to death. She didn’t want to tell him that, though. If only they had some elixir. She could Transport the bolt out and then Heal the wound. Just a couple of mouthfuls was all it would take. But they couldn’t start a fire.
Oriana was holding her poor, sore hands under her armpits. Parthenia put an arm around her sister’s shoulders. Parthenia’s own hands were hurting too from trying to help her.
Darius was where he’d been for hours, sitting at the wire fence watching shuttles take off and land at the spaceport.
Parthenia was trying to be strong but she felt like crying. No matter how hard she tried she couldn’t figure a way out of their situation. If she could make it into the city, it might be easier for her to make some elixir. The process was so simple and the ingredients so mundane, it shouldn’t be too hard. But she didn’t want to leave Ferne where he was, even if Oriana stayed with him. What if the hunters came looking for them? Parthenia didn’t know what might happen to them while she was gone.
She’d been parted from the twins once already. She didn’t want to leave them on their own again. The responsibility weighed on her heavily. At some point during the trials of that day, Parthenia had given up hope of Carina finding and helping them. For whatever reason, her older sister clearly wasn’t going to turn up. They were on their own. Yet Parthenia had learned that she wasn’t up to the task that had befallen her. She’d made so many bad decisions.
Dusk had fallen and was turning to night. The lights from the spaceport meant they weren’t in darkness, but Parthenia remembered with a shudder the sounds of night creatures in the forest where she and Darius had first been lost. Also, though no one had complained, Parthenia knew everyone was extremely th
irsty and hungry.
Perhaps it was time for her to face the truth about what she had to do. As she made her decision, Darius turned away from the fence, stood up, and walked over to her. He wrapped his arms around her neck and hugged her. Her little brother didn’t say a word. She knew he had sensed her mood and was trying to offer her some comfort.
“It’s no good,” Parthenia announced. “I’m going to have to leave you and find someone I can ask for help.”
“No,” Ferne muttered. “I keep telling you. Pull the damned thing out. I’ll be fine. I would do it myself if I could reach it.”
“We can’t,” Oriana said. “Parthenia’s right. It wouldn’t be safe. We aren’t splicers. We don’t know what we’re doing. It isn’t like Casting. You could die.”
“Dying would be better than going back to living how we were,” Ferne said.
He’d spoken the thought that was on all their minds. If anyone discovered who they were or what they could do, the best they could look forward to was a life of captivity. But while their lives with Father and Mother had been luxurious, they couldn’t expect the same treatment at the hands of the Dirksens. Parthenia wondered what the clan might do to her if they figured out she was responsible for many of their business deals going awry.
But what else could she do? Feeling like a failure, she said, “I’m the oldest and I’m making this decision. We can’t stay here trying to make fire forever. At least this way we have a chance. It doesn’t automatically follow that whoever we ask for help is going to do something bad to us. Maybe they’ll be kind and not ask any questions. When Darius and I were lost we found someone who helped us.”
“I agree with Parthenia,” Oriana said. “You can’t stay as you are, Ferne. You need help. If we have to take a risk to find someone to help you that’s what we have to do.”
Ferne closed his eyes in pain and turned his head away.
“Okay,” Parthenia said. “Let’s go over our story one more time. We don’t know the name of any places here, so we’ll make one up. We’ll say we’re from Riverfield. There has to be somewhere called Riverfield. Then the rest of the story is the same as we said before.”
All the children except Ferne rehearsed their cover story. Parthenia wasn’t sure it sounded authentic but it was the best she could come up with. It would have to do. When they’d repeated all the details a few times, she said, “Right. I want you all to stay here. I’m going to try to find someone.”
“Where will you go?” Darius asked.
“I’m going into the spaceport. It’s the closest place that has people in it. Now, none of you must move from this spot while I’m gone. Especially you, Darius. No matter what happens, you mustn’t leave Oriana. Do you understand?”
“I want to go with you,” said Darius.
“No, you can’t.” If something bad happened she didn’t want Darius with her.
“What if you don’t come back?” Oriana asked, her eyes glistening in the darkness.
Parthenia didn’t know what to reply. As she struggled to think, a shuttle passed overhead, momentarily lighting up her sister and brothers with its beams. She still ran to hug and kiss them, just in case. “I will come back.”
***
The spaceport was full of passengers. Parthenia had walked around the perimeter fence until it met the road that led to the facility. She went through the transparent doors as they parted and entered the busy space. After the quiet of the forest the noise of announcements and crowds of chattering people was almost painful. Everyone seemed to be in a hurry. Who should she approach? She didn’t want to speak to anyone in authority in case they asked her awkward questions.
Parthenia decided to target people who were on their way out of the spaceport because they wouldn’t be in a hurry to catch their flight. Yet after glancing at Parthenia’s odd clothes—she had never felt so aware she was still wearing Jace’s shirt up until that moment—everyone she went up to ignored her and went on their way.
“Please… ” Parthenia said, trying to catch the attention of a mother with two children. “Please, can you help me?”
But the mother only pretended not to hear her and hurried her children along. Parthenia tried to approach another passenger but the result was the same. She’d never felt so alone and helpless as she stood by herself in the shifting crowds. What a change it was from the last time she’d been in a spaceport, with Father and Mother. Father had been so haughty and arrogant, arguing with the official about having to walk through the public departures hall.
Parthenia had to make someone stop and listen to her request. Ferne and the others were counting on her. A young couple were walking slowly over to the exit, arm in arm. They seemed to have kind faces.
“Excuse me,” Parthenia said, planting herself in the couple’s path so they couldn’t avoid her. “My brother’s had an accident. I need some help.”
The couple had been entirely focused on each other. At Parthenia’s interruption, they looked surprised and then embarrassed. “I’m very sorry,” said the woman, side-stepping Parthenia.
She grabbed the woman’s arm. “How can you be so uncaring? My brother’s seriously hurt. Why won’t you help?”
“Hey,” the man shouted. “Let go of her.” He tore Parthenia’s hand away. “Come on, honey,” he said to the woman. “She probably wants money for drugs.”
“No, I don’t,” shouted Parthenia, at her wit’s end. If she didn’t get some help soon, Ferne might die. She was worried that her siblings might give up on her and try to pull the bolt out of Ferne’s leg. “You have to help me! Someone has to help.”
A guard Parthenia hadn’t noticed before began to march toward her. She tensed. She didn’t want that kind of attention. After a moment’s indecision, Parthenia turned and ran… directly into another guard who had been approaching her from behind.
“Got you,” the guard said as she grabbed Parthenia’s arm and twisted it behind her back.
Parthenia cried out at the sudden pain. She struggled but the guard only twisted her arm more tightly. Parthenia gasped. “Let me go! I haven’t done anything.”
“I don’t believe that for a minute,” said the guard. “But we’ll soon find out. Come on. Let’s go.” By this time the other guard had also reached Parthenia. The two of them manhandled her across the spaceport hall. Suddenly, all the passengers to whom she’d been invisible only a moment before stopped and stared.
“I’m only here because I need help for my brother,” Parthenia protested. “He’s been hurt. He was shot in the forest. I had to leave him there with my other brother and sister.”
“Shot? In the forest?” the male guard asked.
“Save your lies,” said the female guard. “They won’t do you any good.”
“Why would I lie about something like that?” Parthenia asked. “I’m not asking for money. I’m asking for help. Please. You have to believe me.”
The male guard was grave. “If your brother really is lying injured in the forest, there isn’t anything we can do. That’s Dirksen land. Whatever goes on in there is up to them.”
“No!” Parthenia yelled. “You have to help him. If you can’t help him, let me go! Let me go back to him.” She twisted and fought, trying to bite the guards’ hands, trying anything to make them release her, but she couldn’t break free.
The two guards hauled her, struggling and kicking, into a security room. Parthenia was beside herself with fear and rage. The guards pushed her into a corner, left the room, and locked the door.
Chapter Twenty-Four
As Reyes checked the Dirksens’ comm records, Carina was having grave misgivings. Why had she told him she was looking for her brothers and sisters? If she hadn’t been groggy from the anesthetic at the hospital she doubted she would have taken the risk. On the other hand, without his help she might never be able to locate Parthenia and the others. What chance did she really have of locating four children in an entire continent, or perhaps a whole planet?
&n
bsp; Reyes had sent out a medic to buy Carina clothes after she insisted on leaving the hospital. They still hadn’t quite left, however. They were sitting in Reyes’ star racer on the roof of the building and he’d been going through the recorded comms for ages. Carina had passed some time looking out over the city while the sun came up and she’d passed some more examining Reyes’ vehicle. It was tiny, holding only two people, yet he’d assured her it was interplanetary.
“Maybe this was a bad idea,” Carina said to Reyes as she finally lost patience with waiting for him. “If there was any mention of my siblings on those files I’m sure you would have found it by now.”
“Not necessarily,” Reyes replied. “These are personal files and they aren’t searchable. I have to go through them individually.”
“Personal files? You mean that Dirksens have access to other clan members’ personal comms?”
“Of course not.”
“Then how come you can read them?”
“I figured out a way into the intra-clan comm system a few months ago. It was what I read there that partly fueled my decision to leave. Some of my family are depraved. It’s sickening. Mother is about the best of all of them. Ah, wait. What’s this?” Reyes’ fingers swiped down the screen. “Huh. That’s odd, and interesting.”
“What?” Carina looked over his shoulder.
“It’s an audio file that was deleted only a few minutes after it was made.”
“That could be anything,” Carina said. “And it’s gone now anyway.”
“Not from my records, it hasn’t,” said Reyes. “Let’s see… ” He continued to work at the interface for a few moments. “Got it. I’ll play it back.”
“But you said it was deleted.”
“When I discovered that deleting conversations and messages was somewhat of a habit in my clan I set up a system to automatically copy all comms. It’s the deleted files that are the juiciest. I only have room to store the information for a few weeks before I have to clear it out but this comm was only made yesterday evening. Let’s hear it.”
