Oh, and she had her little knife—the same one I’d seen her use to take out Kungo’s eye—pressed right up against the side of my neck.
“Holy shit,” I croaked.
A flicker of amusement in her glowing eyes. “Class is in session.”
I was half-awake, so it took me a moment to acclimate to my situation. Zara had her whole weight on me, but I wasn’t having any trouble breathing—she was light, and I was strong. Sharp as it was, I didn’t think her knife could pierce my impenetrable skin.
I went to shove her, but as soon as I shifted my weight she leaped backward, a neat little flip landing her at the foot of my bed. Her tail flicked back and forth.
“You’re slow,” she said.
“People keep saying that,” I replied, thinking of Hiram and Darcy. “Get out of my room.”
“No. You signed up. This is class.”
“Your class is you sneaking into my room and scaring the shit out of me?”
She nodded enthusiastically, tossing her dagger back and forth between her hands. “I get necessary practice. You better your chances of one day surviving a Vulpin assassination attempt.”
“I don’t think I need training for that,” I said. “Your little knife wouldn’t hurt me.”
“Oh, I could hurt you, human,” Zara said, oozing confidence. Her hand flicked in my direction, and, in spite of myself, I flinched, thinking she might toss her dagger at me. Instead, the blade disappeared somewhere into her fur. “Tell me. Why did you sign up? No one ever signs up. Two semesters ago, this Denzan girl tried me. She quit and left the institute. Do you think you’re brave? Are you stupid?”
It was a bombardment of questions. “I don’t think I’m particularly brave,” I replied. “And yeah, I’m definitely stupid.”
Zara hopped up so she was crouching on the foot of my bed. She cocked her head, studying me. “Obfuscating.”
“What?”
“You don’t want to tell me why.”
What was I supposed to tell her? A Vulpin had tried to kidnap me ten years ago and almost killed my mom? I thought some of her species had something to do with my dad’s disappearance? Or maybe—Hey, I saw a vision of the future and you and I were tight, blowing up planets like besties sometimes do? Should I lead with that one?
I decided to appeal to her ego. “I liked how you stabbed that guy’s eye out,” I said. “When I saw that, I was like, Wow, I want to know more about the Vulpin.”
“It made a wonderful sound,” she agreed, then cocked her head suddenly. “Now, will you tell me the truth about why you signed up for my class, or must I slowly torture you until you submit?”
Maybe a little bit of the truth was in order. After all, if the two of us were one day going to be planet-killing pals, I could probably trust her.
“When I was little, I was almost kidnapped—”
“Ah, and now that is your fetish and you are excited by the thought of me lurking around,” Zara said. “I am both disgusted and intrigued, human.”
I sighed. “No. I was almost kidnapped by a Vulpin.”
Zara’s spine straightened. That had gotten her attention. “My people aren’t allowed on Earth. The Denzans have forbidden it.”
“And yet it still happened.”
She leaned forward. “What happened to this kidnapper?”
“My mom killed her.”
“Respect.” Zara tapped her front fang with a claw. “I see now. You’re taking my class so you can know your enemy.”
“I mean, I don’t think of you as an enemy—”
“There is something more, though,” Zara said, her green eyes narrowing in the dark. “You’ve told me a bit of the truth, but not all of the truth. You’re a very mediocre liar. We can work on that.”
I finally sat up in bed. “Look, Zara—”
“Zarrrra,” she corrected, rolling the “R.”
“Zar-errrrr-ahhh.” I went for the over-the-top enunciation. “I—”
“Better,” she interrupted again.
“I don’t care if you think I’m lying or not,” I finally managed to get out. “This is idiotic. I just want to go back to sleep. So far, your class sucks.”
“Hmm.” She picked at her teeth with the dagger, which had reappeared in her hand. “You interest me, Sydney Chambers from Earth. I think knowing you might be entertaining. I’ll allow you into class.”
“Great,” I replied. “Are we done?”
“For now,” Zara said. Her fangs glinted in the darkness, my door hissed open, and she was gone.
“Jesus Christ,” I said aloud, flopping back into my pillows. I might have bitten off more than I could chew with that one. It wasn’t clear if I could learn anything useful about the Vulpin from Zara, but it was definitely clear that she’d be studying me in the meantime.
I sniffed the air. Odd. I could still smell her perfume.
Not going to lie: I screamed when Zara’s clawed paw reached out from beneath my bed and slapped me in the face.
“Twice in one night!” she yelled. “We have a lot of work to do!”
She’d never actually left my room, but had instead slithered across the floor and hidden like a monster under my bed.
“Get out!” I shouted.
That time, Zara listened. She bounded across my room and leaped out the window. I could hear her claws scratching down the rock face.
Twice I thought she was back in my room and lunged awake, ready to defend myself. It was only the shadows.
I was exhausted for my first class.
Introduction to Wayscopes was held in a lecture hall at the institute that really wasn’t all that different from the classrooms I’d been in on Earth, with the obvious exception of the seats being arranged in a semicircle around a technological marvel instead of a dry-erase board. The Wayscope apparatus hung from the ceiling, the chair beneath the goggles unoccupied to start, its screens displaying a view of Denza’s local solar system. The room was filled with Denzan students, most of them a little older than me, all of them looking very serious and businesslike. They were all assigned to different crews, so I figured that was why they didn’t make any effort to introduce themselves. I couldn’t help but feel like I was getting a lot of unnecessary side-eye from them as I settled into an empty seat.
Just before class started, Darcy slipped into the seat next to mine. As usual, she had her hood pulled up, as if she was already prepared for the icy looks we were getting from the Denzans. She slouched low and crossed her arms, looking like she might just nap through the two-hour seminar.
“Hey,” I said. “Didn’t know you were in this class.”
“I’m not,” she said cryptically. “And neither are you.”
Before I could ask Darcy what she meant, Instructor Coreyunus began her lecture. She was an older Denzan woman, rail thin, with her dark purple hair tied into a severe bun. One of her eyes was sealed shut by an immense scar, like someone had taken a hot iron to her face. I soon learned that she kept that ruined eye on display as a reminder to her students about what could happen if we misused a Wayscope—she’d burned it out during an exploratory session when she’d expanded her consciousness too far too fast.
I swallowed hard. I’d gotten lucky with my mishap back on the Eastwood. If it hadn’t been for the intervention of the Etherazi, I might’ve ended up with an even worse disfigurement than some shiny hair.
“We begin, as always, with meditation techniques,” Coreyunus intoned. “These may seem rudimentary or even silly to some of you, but learning how to compartmentalize your mind may one day save your life.”
It was basically forty-five minutes of Zen-like deep breathing and focused thinking. We were supposed to concentrate on one thought and one thought only, something to anchor us, something that we could retreat back to if our control of the Wayscope ever got away from us.
I thought of the hood of my dad’s car. Donuts and rockets. Finally put the dream that had been haunting me to good use.
It was a
little difficult to focus, with Darcy gently snoring next to me.
“For today’s practical, I ask that you access the Hydari system, located three jumps away from Denza,” Coreyunus said, once trance time was over. “Reaching this system via the Wayscope should be relatively easy, but what I would like to see from you students is a clean path. Precision, clarity, and safety. Let no excess data enter your consciousness. Volunteers?”
I raised my hand along with the rest of the room. Coreyunus swept the class with her good eye before selecting a Denzan guy in the first row. He buckled himself into the Wayscope, the goggles lowered onto his face, and he was off. We watched on the screens as his consciousness expanded out into the Vastness. It was interesting to see what he was seeing—or rather, how he was seeing. He probed the galaxy with pinpoint accuracy, delicately seeking out the places where space intersected, and slipping through to the areas in between. Seeing him operate the Wayscope made me realize what blunt force I’d used in my solitary attempt, even guided by the cosmological tether.
Of course, this Denzan didn’t have an Etherazi randomly flaring up in his vision. I’d like to see him handle that shit.
The first student took about seven minutes to navigate to the proper system. The next Denzan up went a little faster, trying to beat the first one’s time, and spasmed in the chair when she accidentally veered into a red giant. That got her a stern rebuke from Coreyunus.
Each time a demonstration was over, I raised my hand, hoping to go next. And each time, Coreyunus passed me over for a Denzan.
At some point, Darcy had woken up. She shot me a sardonic look when she caught me waving my hand in the air.
“I think that’s enough for today,” Coreyunus declared. “For next week, please study your star charts and see if you can devise a more direct route to any of our known systems. Farewell.”
I frowned. There were still five minutes left in class. Every Denzan had gotten a chance to use the Wayscope, but Coreyunus never even looked in my direction.
Darcy stood up, sneering at the instructor’s back as she paced out of the room. “At least you got an arm workout,” she said to me.
“What the hell?” I said, keeping my complaint low as the Denzan students walked by us. “Is this like a hazing-the-new-kid thing?”
Darcy snorted. “It’s an every-class thing. The Denzan Senate says that us halflings have the right to use the Wayscope. But that doesn’t mean they have to teach us.”
“That’s bullshit,” I said.
“Next time, bring a pillow.” As we walked out of the classroom, Darcy leaned close to me, lowering her voice. “How did it go yesterday? With the Chef?”
“It was cool, I guess,” I said nonchalantly. “He wouldn’t let me eat any pizza.”
Darcy scowled. “You know that’s not what I’m asking about.”
“What are you asking about?”
“Earth,” Darcy said sharply. “I know the Chef wants to go back, and I think you’re here to help him. I want in.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Hiram said—”
“Hiram doesn’t speak for me,” Darcy snapped. “If you’re going back, I want to come. I hate it here.”
Darcy blurted that last part way louder than necessary. A couple nearby cadets—both Denzans with violin insignias to symbolize whatever ship they were assigned to—gave her a look. Darcy wilted under their attention, pulled her hood tighter around her head, and stormed away before I could say anything more.
That afternoon, I met up with Tycius for lunch in the beachside atrium on the institute’s bottom floor. I was still fuming after my Wayscope class, but I was also starving. I still hadn’t gotten a grip on Denzan cuisine—it was a lot of mushrooms and mutant root vegetables, and tons of seaweed and kelp. I put my hands on my hips and surveyed the dozens of food kiosks along the atrium’s inside wall.
“What’s most like a burger?” I asked my uncle.
Tycius shook his head. “Still can’t shake those carnivore instincts, I see.”
He led me over to a stand and bought us two of these big mushroom patties that dripped red juice like raw steak and were sandwiched between two buns made of something similar to pressed corn. It wasn’t the most appetizing thing to my Earther senses, but as long as I avoided eye contact with the patty, it tasted smoky and savory, like a freshly grilled burger. With just a little bit of dirt thrown on top.
In between bites, I told him about Coreyunus’s class. “How am I supposed to learn anything if she won’t even allow me to practice?” I asked. “Darcy says she’s never gotten a chance to use the machine.”
A dark look passed across my uncle’s face, the same look he’d gotten when he flipped out on Arkell back on the Eastwood. “That’s unacceptable. I’ll talk to some people at the institute. Get to the bottom of this.”
I looked around the atrium—it was mostly Denzans passing through, with a smattering of humans and Vulpins here and there, none of them paying any attention to us. But I couldn’t shake the way the other students had looked at me back in Coreyunus’s class. Like I didn’t belong.
“Carnivores,” I mumbled.
“What?” Tycius asked.
“Just been getting some weird vibes since I got here,” I said. “I mean, most of the Denzans are polite as hell. Like annoyingly polite. But sometimes I catch some looks and it’s like—it’s like they’re afraid I’m going to eat them or something.”
Tycius nodded, looking around. “I hear what you’re saying. I suppose the further away the war with the Etherazi gets, the more my people forget what humanity did for Denza. But most of them do remember. It’ll get better here. I promise.”
My uncle had been away from his home world for a long time. I wondered if he still knew his own people as well as he thought.
“I met with Rafe Butler yesterday,” I said. My mom had told me to watch what I said around my uncle, but, so far, he seemed like the only adult I could trust. Unlike the others, he didn’t have some political agenda. He just wanted to find my dad.
“Ah,” Ty said with a smirk. “Of course. The Chef works quickly.”
“What do you think of him?”
Ty dunked a bit of baked seaweed into a pinkish sauce. “I like him, but he’s a pain in the ass. Why do you ask?”
I remembered my uncle’s penchant for gangster movies. “It felt a little bit like getting brought downtown to see the Mafia don.”
“What did he want?”
“To feel me out, I think. See if I thought of myself as more human than Denzan.” I shrugged. “He was nice enough. I guess he knew about my dad’s work?”
“Doesn’t surprise me. Rafe has ears everywhere. I’m sure he was following what Marcius was working on.” Ty paused for a moment, as if unsure how much to tell me. “Back on Earth, before I spent ten years chasing you around, my job was to make sure the expatriated humans on Denza didn’t smuggle any technological secrets back home. Rafe was always trying to sneak something back. Coded letters, programs hidden in transmissions—he even baked a bit of ultonate into a cake once. We caught him every time, and every time he got off with a warning. Nobody on Denza wants to see a war hero punished, so Rafe’s troublemaking gets swept under the rug.”
I thought about what Rafe had said yesterday about the impending extinction of the human race. “Would it be so bad if Earth did get some Denzan technology? It would save a lot of lives.”
“Agreed. I think my people should be doing more for your planet,” Ty said. “But with so many warring nations and competing corporate interests, the question we always get stuck on is who we trust on Earth to handle such a gift.”
“You’re worried that humans would go to war over Denzan tech, or try to sell it, or keep it for themselves,” I said.
“That sums it up,” Ty replied.
“What if humans like Rafe went back themselves?” I asked. “To . . . lead.”
“The Wasting would kill them. Unless . . .” Tycius put the pieces together quickly. “Ah
.”
“What would the Denzan Senate think of that?”
“Meddling with a primitive species is against our ways,” Tycius said thoughtfully. “However, if the meddling was done by the same species, I suppose that would be something of a gray area.”
“We don’t even know what my dad found out there,” I said. “All Rafe’s big ideas might be for nothing.”
“Speaking of which . . .” Ty pulled out his tablet and slid it across the table to me. A list of names was displayed there. My father’s at the top.
“What is this?” I asked as I read down the list.
“The manifest of your dad’s ship,” Ty replied. “His crew.”
Including my dad, there were six other Denzans on board the missing ship. There were two names that stuck out: Alexander Abe and Ool’Vinn.
“They had a human on board,” I said. “And a . . . ?”
“A Panalax,” my uncle said.
As I scanned down this list, I noticed that every name had a number beside it. A time stamp, it looked like. All except for my dad.
“What are these?” I asked.
“Those are records of when their tethers went dark,” Tycius said.
“You mean when they died,” I replied.
“We can’t assume anything,” Tycius said. “But, unless they were performing brain surgery on one another to remove their beacons—yes.”
I took a closer look at the numbers. The Denzans—except for my father—all died first. Each death came minutes apart. I couldn’t tell anything from that. That could’ve been anything—an accident where some died more quickly than others, or something could’ve been hunting each of them down.
Alexander Abe went next. He lasted hours longer than the Denzans, but he still died.
And, finally, Ool’Vinn. The Panalax survived a whole day after Abe.
My dad had been alone since then.
As I thought all that through, I took another bite of my sandwich. Something popped between my teeth, and my mouth flooded with a sour liquid that tasted like pickled fish. I gagged and spit the stuff onto my plate—a dark blue, viscous solution mixed in with my half-chewed bits of mushroom. Coughing, I gave my uncle a wild look—were these sandwiches supposed to have some awful surprise in the middle?—but he looked as shocked as me.
Ashfall Legacy Page 20
