Squid was staring up at the dark wooden slats on the underside of Nim’s bed and considering their current predicament, the feeling of hopelessness that had settled over him growing heavier with the realization that they were never getting out of here. The prison was dark. The lights had been dimmed to a dull flicker. There seemed to be a pattern to the lighting. During the day they had been at full brightness, though that had done little to illuminate the space. At night the prison was darkened to replicate night. The lamps were really the only thing that allowed anyone down here to know what time it was. His heart sank even further when he thought they might never see the sky again. That was when he heard a rattle in the lock of the cell door. He looked up.
The figure at the door wore a black dress, the garb of a Black Sister, as well as a thick black shawl that had been pulled up over her head as a kind of hood. She blended into the darkness eerily well, but the diffuse glow from the nearest lamp cast enough light on her face for Squid to see that it was Sister Constance.
“Nim,” Squid whispered, hoping he didn’t have to face the Black Sister alone. “Nim, are you awake?”
“Hmmmph,” Nim mumbled from the bunk above, the slats squeaking as he rolled over.
“Squid,” Sister Constance said. “Be quiet. Don’t attract any attention. I need to be quick.”
The Black Sister entered the cell and pulled the door shut behind her, though she didn’t lock it. Squid sat up and retreated nervously back on the bunk as Sister Constance sat on the edge of the bed and pulled her hood down. She reached into a pocket on her dress and removed Squid’s key, letting it dangle before his face.
“Tell me where you got this,” she said.
“I told you,” Squid answered, “it was my mother’s.”
For the first time, Sister Constance’s face changed from its expressionless flatness to something else. She lowered the key to her lap. It took Squid a moment to see that she was crying. Her mouth was pulled tight, her eyes glassy and wet. She reached out and touched Squid’s face, running her fingers gently over his cheek and then brushing his thick black fringe back across his forehead.
“My god,” she said, her voice breathy and strained, the tears now running freely down her face, leaving long, wet, shining runs. “It’s really you, isn’t it? My Samuel, it’s really you.”
“What?” Squid said. “What do you mean?”
He didn’t know what this Sister was talking about. But then, if Squid didn’t know what she meant, why were tears streaming down his face too? He had felt an affinity with her when he’d first seen her, had seemed to know he was safe around her. He felt like he knew this woman. Sister Constance grabbed him in her arms and pulled him against her, and then he was sure. This was her. His entire life he’d thought she was dead, had been told that she was dead, and had thought himself silly for never quite believing it. But he’d been right all along. All those nights in the outhouse on Uncle’s farm, all those nights dreaming that she would one day come for him hadn’t been flights of fancy. Here she was. Squid tucked his face into the space between Constance’s neck and her shoulder and began to sob, as quietly as he could, into her black dress.
“My mum,” Squid said, choking on his own emotions. “You’re my mum.”
Sister Constance pulled away and held him at arm’s length. She was smiling, fresh tears all over her face, but her voice broke as if she was beginning to laugh. “Yes,” she said. “Yes. I thought this day would never come.”
“You’re alive. But …” Squid began. His mind felt as if it had exploded, as if it had expanded and expanded and was trying to fit a whole universe of new information inside it. “Why … How are you here? Why did you … why did you leave me?”
“No, Samuel,” Sister Constance said as she wrapped him in her arms again. “No, no, no. I never left you. I never left you. You were taken from me. He took you from me.”
“Who?”
“The Administrator,” she said, still holding him tightly. “Your father.”
It was Squid who pulled away this time. “What?” he said. “My father was a farmer.”
Sister Constance shook her head. “No, Samuel,” she said. “No. Your father is the Administrator. He and I, we had a relationship we shouldn’t have. I was young, too young. I didn’t know what I was doing. I was in training to be a Sister. He visited the cathedral. He was handsome and we talked. He sat with me at dinner. He said it wouldn’t matter. When he found out I was pregnant he had me exiled, cast out to the Black Sisters, and when you were born he took you away. He wanted you gone, dead, I think, but Knox Soilwork told me you would be given to a nice family, a farming family in the Outside. I never saw you again, but I never stopped thinking about you, Samuel. I always hoped that someone, one day, I would see you again.”
“Why do you keep calling me Samuel?” Squid said.
“That’s your name,” Sister Constance said. “At least, that’s the name I gave you.”
Samuel. Samuel. Squid rolled the name over in his mind. It was a perfectly reasonable name but the shape of it didn’t seem to fit him. His name wasn’t Samuel, it was Squid. Squid seemed a much better name for him, even if it was Uncle and Aunt who had given it to him.
“My name is Squid,” he said.
Sister Constance looked at him and then nodded. “I suppose it is.”
Squid didn’t know what else to say. He ran the revelation through his mind but it wouldn’t stick. It bounced around the inside of his mind, a slippery thought he couldn’t grasp hold of. His mother was alive, and she was here with him right now. His father was alive, and he was the Administrator. That seemed to be the part of this whole thing that was the hardest to grab on to. How could he be the son of the Administrator? He had met that man and not felt anything but fear. He was the man who’d been responsible for the murder of his best friend’s father. He couldn’t be that man’s son.
“I’m not the Administrator’s son,” Squid said, hoping that his mother would correct that statement, but she didn’t.
“Yes,” she said. “I’m afraid you are, and you’re older than his legitimate son Bren, so that makes you heir to the title of Administrator. You are next in line to run the government of the Central Territory – not that it seems to exist anymore now that the High Priestess has seized control in Alice.”
“But,” Squid said, “I don’t want to be Administrator.”
“No,” Sister Constance said. “I wouldn’t want you to be either, but I wanted you to know that’s who you are. Whether you decide to follow that path or not is your choice.”
“I already have a path,” Squid said. “I am supposed to go to Big Smoke and find the weapon that will destroy the ghouls.”
“Yes,” Sister Constance said. “I know the prophecy, but a journey out here is terribly dangerous.”
Squid nodded. “I know,” he said, “but it’s what I want to do.” He thought about Lynn telling him to keep going, to finish what they’d started, to do it for her. “It’s what I need to do.”
“How will you find it?”
“I’ll help him,” Nim’s voice came from the top bunk. He peeked his head over the side to look. “I’ll help get him there.”
“Did you hear all that?” Squid asked.
Nim nodded. “I heard enough.”
Sister Constance looked up at Nim. “And who are you?”
Squid looked from his mother to Nim. “He’s my friend.”
Maybe for the first time since they’d first met on the bio-truck, Nim smiled at Squid. It wasn’t much of a smile, but it was a start.
“And those two men who were with you,” Sister Constance said. “Who are they?”
“They’re helping us too."
“Why?”
“I don’t actually know,” Squid said. Saying it out loud had made him realize that he really didn’t know enough about them. He thought about Lynn then, about how she was probably right to want to know everything she could about people, about how she didn’t trus
t anyone. With her gone he would need to be like that. She would never have allowed them to be captured like this.
“I don’t think you should trust them,” Sister Constance said.
“I don’t,” said Squid, “but we need them.” And that would be the truth from now on.
“The High Priestess Patricia has ordered us to keep you here,” Sister Constance said, “to make sure you are never able to fulfil the prophecy of Steven.” She sighed. “I don’t understand her reason for this. Why would she, the High Priestess of the Church, stand in the way of the word of the prophet? It doesn’t seem right. We need to follow the Book of the Word, and if now is the time when we can cleanse the world of the ghouls, if God believes we have been punished long enough, then it is not even the place of the High Priestess to stand in the way. The prophecy must be fulfilled.” She stared into Squid’s eyes. “I just wish it wasn’t you.”
Sister Constance looked down and extended her hand. Squid’s key, her key, sat in her palm. She absent-mindedly ran her index finger over it.
“This has been in our family a long time, Squid, since the time of the Reckoning. My father told me it was special, though no one really knows why. I asked Knox Soilwork to ensure it was left with you. I only took it away from you before because if I hadn’t, someone else would have. It was what made me sure of who you are.” She reached out and touched Squid’s hair again. “Although I already had my suspicions.” She smiled. “You have your father’s hair, did you know?”
Sister Constance held the key’s string in a loop and dropped it over his head. Almost instinctively, Squid gripped the key again as it fell around his neck. It felt good to have it back.
“This is yours to keep,” Sister Constance said, “whatever it opens.”
“So,” Nim said, interrupting the moment, “you gonna help us get out of this place?”
Sister Constance nodded. “I can sneak you to the surface, but we must leave now.”
The Black Sister, Squid’s mother, rose from the bed. Squid pushed the scratchy woollen blanket aside and Nim dropped from the top bunk to follow them out of the cell. As they exited Sister Constance unlocked the door of the neighboring cell, the one containing Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes. The old hinges creaked. Mr. Stix, knowing better than to speak, gave Squid a questioning look as they walked free. Squid shot back what he hoped was an “I’ll explain later” look.
Sister Constance led them along the walkway. As they passed in front of other cells some of the prisoners stirred at the footsteps on the wooden walk.
“Hey, where you takin’ them at this time?” one of the prisoners called from his cell.
Sister Constance stopped and turned to look into the darkness of his cell. “Unless you want to be taken to the colosseum waiting area too, I suggest you keep quiet.” She spoke loudly enough that those in the cells around could hear. Squid didn’t know what a colosseum was but it seemed it was enough to keep all the prisoners quiet.
Once they’d turned down one of the dark corridors leading away from the cells Sister Constance spoke to them again.
“I’m afraid we cannot retrieve your equipment,” she said.
“My hat and my gun,” said Mr. Stix. “Surely we could make a quick stop.”
“We won’t have time, and the risk is too great that we will be seen by another Sister or one of the Order.”
Mr. Stix shook his head, looking at his feet. “That’s a shame,” he said. Squid wouldn’t have been surprised if the man had begun to cry. “A damn shame.”
Mr. Stownes placed his enormous dinner plate–sized hand on Mr. Stix’s shoulder.
“How are you going to get us out of here without them seeing?” Squid said.
“There are maintenance tunnels for the gas piping and mechanicals. I have an access key. There’s venting on the surface.”
“The smoke stacks?” Squid asked.
Sister Constance nodded. “They only burn bio-fuel at certain times of the day and I don’t think they do it at all in the middle of the night.”
She led them down a winding corridor. The gas lamps on the walls were spaced so far apart and had been turned down to burn so dimly that it was all but impossible to see where the next turn in the tunnel was, but Sister Constance seemed not to hesitate or slow her pace at all. Squid realized that she must know this place intimately, since she’d been living here for as long as he’d been alive. He felt a momentary pang of guilt, as if it were his fault that his mother had been forced to live the last sixteen years as a Black Sister. He knew, of course, that he wasn’t to blame, but he still felt somehow responsible.
Sister Constance unlocked and opened a heavy door set into the wall of the corridor. Behind it was an open space, a thin tunnel that ran vertically through the rock. Set against the far wall was a tangle of gas and fuel pipes, and beside them was a ladder. Squid poked his head into the space. The ladder extended both upward and downward, vanishing into darkness in both directions.
“That ladder leads to the stacks,” Sister Constance said. “There’ll be a door in the side and another ladder that will take you to the surface. When you reach the top, head back toward the river. You can make your way around the guard towers and stay out of sight if you remain below the riverbank.”
“Are there other people living out here?” Squid said. “Are there other people beyond the fence? Is Big Smoke really out there?”
“I’ve never been away from Pitt,” Sister Constance said, and even here, away from prying ears, she dropped her voice to a whisper at the mention of this most forbidden subject. “But I’ve heard …” She paused. “Just keep following the river.”
No one moved. They seemed to be waiting for Squid to act first. He looked at his mother. He had found her. In this place beyond the fence he had finally found her, and now he was going to leave again.
“Come with us,” Squid said.
“I can’t,” Sister Constance said. “I am rostered to do the prisoner count in less than an hour. I need to remain behind and cover your escape otherwise you won’t get very far before they realize you’re gone.”
“No,” Squid said. “You were sent here because of me. That’s not fair. You’re not supposed to be here.”
“Maybe not, Squid,” she said, taking his hand in hers, “but neither is my place searching for Big Smoke with you. If all my days here have meant that I can allow you to escape and get closer to reaching Big Smoke then I have played my role in all this.”
Squid didn’t know whether it was that he didn’t want to be away from his mother now that he’d found her, or if he couldn’t stand the thought of her being here, or maybe both. It seemed she could read his mind, because she seemed to understand what he was thinking, something no one else had really ever been able to do. She smiled at him.
“Don’t worry about me,” she said, letting go of his hand to touch his face. “I have seen you again. I am happy. You need to go, quickly now. We do not need to make this harder than it already is. I need to return before someone notices I’m gone.”
Squid looked at his mother. He thought again of how he had dreamed she would come and take him away from Uncle and the dirt farm. Things were different now, though. In that moment he knew that he was less of a child and more of a man. It was now he who wanted to save her, to take her away from this place.
“I’m going to come back for you,” Squid said. “Once the prophecy is complete, once I’ve got this weapon, I’m going to come back for you.”
Sister Constance nodded, though Squid could tell that she didn’t really believe it would happen. He meant it, though. Whatever happened from now on, he would get her out of here. His mother joined the list of people he would save. Her eyes had brimmed with tears again as, he was sure, had his own.
“Go,” she said.
Squid turned to Nim, Mr. Stix and Mr. Stownes. “Let’s go,” he said before turning and reaching for the ladder, stepping out into the maintenance shaft. He looked back at his mother one last time.
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“I’m coming back for you,” he repeated before he looked up and began climbing toward the surface.
CHAPTER 29
At least she wasn’t in a cage. Lynn had decided to take after Squid and look for the bright edge of this dark situation, and if there was nothing else worth taking away from it, at least there was that. She wasn’t in a cage.
She was aboard the Holy Order dirigible, as she had been for the past week, but unlike the pirates of the Blessed Mary, who’d insisted on locking her in that cage barely high enough to sit in and barely wide enough to turn around, the Holy Order had merely locked her in the hold. She had plenty of open space and there were even windows in the wooden walls of the hull. It was easy to be lulled into the false sense that she wasn’t a prisoner on her way to meet her fate at the hands of the High Priestess.
Despite this façade of apparent freedom she had been unable to find anything to help her make an escape. The hold was completely empty. The only contact she had with a red cloak was when they opened a locked flap on the bottom of the door to slide through food and water. The windows were barred and sealed closed, not that they really needed to be. They didn’t exactly represent an escape route. The only thing that was out there was empty sky and a long fall to the red dirt below. The toilet in the corner of the hold was a hatch that opened, but once again there was nothing down there but a long, long drop.
She did have a plan, though. She had grown up in Alice. Though there were parts of the city she had never visited, she knew most of it well enough. She had often seen the Holy Order dirigibles arriving and departing from the Supreme Court or the cathedral; they flew in low over the city to tether at the roof. She had often seen them fly overhead when she’d been in the park with her father. Of course, at the time she hadn’t known, and she supposed neither had her father or anyone else who had seen them, that at least some of them were flying all the way out beyond the ghoul-proof fence to a secret prison in the badlands. It was reasonable to assume that this dirigible would fly the same route. Her current plan was to wait until they were flying in over the park and drop down through the toilet hatch, hopefully landing in the tops of one of the gum trees that grew there and letting the branches break her fall before she herself broke into pieces on the ground. What she would do after that to evade the Holy Order and escape the city, well, she hadn’t figured that part out yet. She would be the first to admit that it wasn’t a perfect plan, and she could only imagine what Squid would say about it, but it was all she had at the moment.
A City Called Smoke: The Territory 2 Page 20
