The Faarian Chronicles: Exile

by Karen Harris Tully

  “But you don’t need to prove anything to those people anymore, Veridian,” she said, like she hadn't even heard the first part of what I'd said. “I’ve seen what you can do, and it’s very impressive.” She pressed her thumb to the map frame and it switched to suddenly show a video – my floor routine at the Pan Am Classic last year. I felt a warm rush as I watched myself completely nail a tumbling run.

  “But what actual use does this have, Veridian?” she asked, waving her hand at the screen as the crowd all but exploded for me. “I’m sure you can see our world is nothing like Earth. We can’t afford to dedicate our lives to frivolous hobbies. We have real work to do here.” She turned the video back to her map as if that was all there was to say on the subject. I sputtered, my mouth flapping in disbelief before words came out like a tidal wave.

  “Frivolous hobby!” I yelled, bringing Micha’s head up with a jerk and a snort. “Gymnastics is important to me! I’ve worked for this all my life and I need to go home where I can train! I’ve planned a year out of my training schedule for you. An Earth year that still might cost me everything! And for what? So you can continue being too busy to spend time with me, always rushing off to meetings or on patrol with your warriors? To have dinner in here alone while I get mocked by your friends? I’ve been here a week and you’re still as much of a stranger as ever!”

  I watched her eyes shift to match mine, a flash freeze spreading across her irises.

  “Your father and I agreed that you could go visit when we normally go to Earth for supplies once a year. A Macawan year,” she emphasized. “Beyond that, you live here now, Veridian. I don’t know why you chose to believe that you could go back to your father’s after such a short time and stay there. That was never part of the deal.”

  “And don’t I get any say in this deal? Or do you and Dad just get to decide my life for me?” I couldn’t say I was planning to run away and hide as soon as I got to Earth until they had to leave me behind.

  “We’re your parents, Veridian. It’s our job to decide what’s best for you until you are old enough to make your own decision about where you want to live.”

  “And when will that be?” I crossed my arms defensively, grinding my teeth and trying not to cry with frustration.

  “When you legally become an adult at the age of ten Macawan years,” she replied.

  “What? But that’s like five more years to me! That’s ridiculous; I can’t be stuck here for five years!”

  “Veridian, act like an adult, please. Whining is not acceptable behavior.”

  “Why should I act like an adult, when you’re not going to treat me like one? I’m not some possession you and Dad can just divide in half because you two split up!” Despite my best efforts, my eyes were tearing up on me. I had to get out of there. “I’m a person here! And it’s not my fault that you ran out on us!” At that, Micha growled and got up off the couch. I quickly skirted around her bulk toward the door.

  “You’re ruining my life!” I yelled at her and crutched as fast as I could, all the way to my bare little room to flop face-first onto the quilt. I screamed into the pillow and found myself reduced to huge, body racking sobs.

  It didn’t take me long, punching the pillow into the wall, to realize I had to email Dad. This wasn’t the deal! He had to do something. He couldn’t have known, could he? What agreement had he made with her, exactly?

  I grabbed my link and started an angry, ranting email.

  Dad, did you sell me down the river to this woman? Because she can’t be my real mother. Moms don’t act like this, selfish, with no care for their kid’s happiness or goals. She says I can’t even visit home till I’m 17! And I don’t have any say in where I live till I’m a legal adult here – that’s age 20 to us! 20! Did you know about this? That one year here is two on Earth? This is crazy! Ridiculous! She called gymnastics a freaking “frivolous hobby” and told me to give it up! Just because I’m a kid doesn’t make my goals unimportant!

  Tell me this wasn’t your deal with her. I don’t want to believe that you knew, but right now it seems like either she lied to you or you lied to me. So, which is it?

  Not to mention, there are real live vampires here – that want to kill me. Did you know about this too and not tell me?

  I’m sorry, I tried, but I can’t live with this woman. I won’t. I won’t be imprisoned someplace I have no rights and no say in my life. Almost anywhere else would be better, especially someplace like Glass City, where vampires aren’t allowed. Either you get me out of here or I get myself out.

  Sunny.

  Chapter 24: The Return of Drazen

  The Anakharu tracked me, stalked me through my dreams that night. Like watching a bad horror movie – one shot in night-vision green that was strangely blurry around the edges – I saw myself running, looking back, screaming, and running more. But no matter how far or how fast I ran, I couldn’t get away. He was calm, fast, powerful, with a cocky smirk, and called himself Drazen. I couldn’t fight back because I was too much of a weakling, couldn’t run anymore, and finally, couldn’t even move. I tried to scream again, but suddenly his grimy hand was covering my mouth as he lowered his pointed incisors to the vein in my neck….

  I woke in bed with an angry jerk, punching and kicking at shadows. Not afraid. Furious. I couldn’t shake the feeling that the dream actually was the Anakharu, bragging like a little boy, telling all who would listen what was going to happen the next time he saw me.

  It felt so different from any dream I’d ever had, part of me wasn’t even sure it had been a dream. My body, covered in sweat, cooled quickly from the night breeze through the open window, but… I swear there’d been a screen there.

  I looked around warily, half expecting to see red eyes glowing at me from the corner. But no, it would be blue, of course. One glowing blue eye stared at me - and a row of four small eyes shone white below it, like animals in the dark. The ugly patch of wrinkled scar tissue below his eye was open now, like one large eyelid, and he seemed to have somehow grown several more eyes in it, but not human eyes. The man-animal crouched in front of the window like a huge frog ready to jump. Or more like… a spider. I stared for a moment, unsure if I was still dreaming.

  “Ah, good. You’re awake,” he said, a smile turning up the corners of his gross, cracked lips. “Aren’t you going to scream for me again?” he asked, revealing long, yellowed canines right before he jumped at me.

  I rolled automatically, bringing my arms and legs up and using his momentum to fling him and his fangs with a heavy thump into the wall behind me, rolling away and landing in a crouch on the floor. Pain shot through my swollen ankle, unhappily reminding me of its presence and knocking me off balance. It was dark, still before the red sunrise, but I could see him clearly and somehow knew that this was because my own eyes had shifted. He snapped his jaws at me from the bed.

  Stop staring, Sunny, and get to your scy! the voice in my head yelled. I only needed a weapon and this guy was going down. The jerk thought he could break into my room, with his weird eyes and his gross fangs? He had another thing coming.

  I threw a quick right-left into his ugly face and spun toward the door, where my scy and boots awaited my mother’s early morning inspection. Unfortunately, my punches didn’t distract him long enough, and he made a super-human lunge at me again, all the way across the room. He capitalized on my bad ankle to tackle me to the floor in a choke hold, one of my arms pinned into the wall next to the door. I tried to buck him off my back but he was stronger than he looked, and he was grinding his boot into my swollen ankle, while his bony forearm dug into my windpipe. This was definitely not the best grappling position for me.

  “Thirsty,” he croaked, his rank breath panting into my ear. Ewww! I used the flat of my free hand to smack into his ear, hoping to burst his ear drum, and he reared away. I groped out the door for a weapon that I couldn’t quite reach.

  “Don’t worry,” he hissed, slamming his weight back into me, “I won’t take
too much. Just a taste. My new employer wants you intact when you arrive.” He grunted and pressed harder. “You know, I’m glad I didn’t catch you yesterday. I didn’t know then how valuable you were going to be to me.”

  He clearly expected me to pass out any moment, but I had not survived an avalanche, trapped without air for two and a half hours, only to pass out from a stupid choke-hold. I just had to get him to let up. I closed my eyes and pretended to go limp.

  “Finally,” he hissed through his fangs and loosened his hold on my throat, but kept all his weight still grinding painfully into my ankle. I could feel his disgusting breath on my neck, getting closer.

  I reached my arm a little farther and felt something. Finally, a bootlace. I pinched it between my longest fingers and yanked it toward me, grabbing hold of the boot and smashing it into his nose while jerking away from his gross fangs. He rolled away, protecting his head, and I pushed off from the wall ready to pummel him back to the stone-age. Before I could, a growling blur flew past me. A snarling, demon-woman with orange eyes tackled him head first out the second story window.

  I ran - okay limped - over to the window to see my mother standing over his body below, prodding at him with her boot. His neck was at an odd, unnatural angle against a rock. Dead. Somehow, that part didn’t really bother me.

  “Dang it, Mom!” I yelled. “I had him!” She looked up at me with one eyebrow raised in disbelief, her eyes already faded back to hazel. She was no longer Telal-ursu, demon-warrior, but was back to being my mother again. Okay, so maybe it hadn’t looked like I had him from her position, but I did.

  “Just get dressed and come down, Veridian,” she yelled the order up to me. My mother, the General.

  I huffed again and slammed the window in frustration, changed clothes in a rush, and grabbed my crutches to head downstairs after this latest disaster.

  I glanced out the living room window on my way out the door and paused to see a shiny flying saucer arrive and land out front, this one glossy new and tinted red. Two women in matching red uniforms exited the craft. They had to be police. That was quick.

  I crutched my way downstairs as quickly as possible, having to take the long way to avoid the tower ladders. I glanced out another window to see the women pushing a long, white box toward the ship. Well, one woman was pushing; the other was trying to keep Micha at bay. She was pacing agitatedly next to the hovering casket, shoving it with her shoulder and jumping up on it like she was trying to push it over.

  As I watched, one woman snapped at Micha and shoved at her to get off the box. What was she, crazy? Micha was like, a thousand-pound tiger; you didn’t push her around.

  As one red-clad woman blithely invited death, the other opened the lid. From my angle, I couldn’t see inside, but I did see the second woman quickly reach into her pocket, produce something shiny, slip it into the box, and then return it to her pocket. If I’d blinked, I would’ve missed it. Micha simply shouldered aside her antagonist and jumped up to put her front paws on the edge to peer inside. She cocked her big, furry head, snorted in disdain and hopped back down.

  Penthe arrived a minute later looking troubled. She reached inside the box for a few moments, shook her head and lowered the lid. The red-uniformed women then pushed the box up a ramp and into the ship.

  I hurried the rest of the way downstairs to see what was going on. Despite the early hour, the Kindred was abuzz as I approached the main corridor outside the Great Hall. I recognized my mother’s voice, but couldn’t make out what she was saying until I got closer.

  “Tell Veridian I’ll be back tonight,” I finally made out as I turned the corner into the entryway to find my mother, Ethem, Penthe, and a few of the warriors standing in front of the main door. Two more women in dark red uniforms stood on either side of my mother. Micha stood back and off to the side, quietly growling at them.

  “I’m right here. What’s going on?” I asked, crutching my way forward.

  “Give me a minute, will you?” she said to the women in uniform as though asking permission. What the heck was going on here? One nodded respectfully and took a step back from my mother’s side. The other paused and grudgingly followed her partner’s example. They both stared at me as if I were an exotic new species: the defenseless, half-breed gimp.

  “Veridian, I want you to stay with Teague and Sarosh today. Help them out, learn more of how the farm runs, that sort of thing. I’ll be back tonight.” A look passed between my mother and Teague and she nodded in unspoken agreement.

  “I have to go with the police…”

  “Mol police,” I thought I heard someone cough.

  My mother sent a look over at Myrihn and continued, “…right now to answer some questions. Don’t worry about anything, I’ll take care of it and I’ll explain everything when I get back tonight.” With that, she turned on her heel and strode arrogantly between the two policewomen and out the massive front door. She was almost gone when I noticed the handcuffs holding her wrists together behind her back.

  Alten, as acting head of the Kindred with my mother gone, took me into mom’s office immediately so she could question me, something the red police hadn’t bothered to do. She sat heavily in one of the chairs in front of my mother’s desk, facing me and thoughtfully rubbed her expectant belly as she listened to my story. Micha sat quietly in the background. I told them everything I could think of, hoping it would help; how I’d woken disoriented from a dream to find the Anakharu in my room, how he’d attacked me, what he’d said about his boss wanting me, how I’d misjudged his strength and he’d pinned me to the floor, and how I’d gone limp to distract him. How he’d almost bitten me, and I’d smashed my steel-toed boot into his head. How I’d never forget Mom’s orange eyes as she tackled him headfirst out the window.

  And when I was done, one question after another tumbled out of my mouth.

  “Alten, what’s going on? Why did they take her? Where did they take her? Was she arrested? Is that man dead? Did he have extra eyes?”

  “Veridian… Sunny,” she began, closing her eyes and pinching the bridge of her nose wearily. “Yes, he’s de-,” she stopped and looked at me. “Extra eyes? What do you mean extra eyes?” She looked at me like I was crazy.

  Oops, I must’ve skipped that part. I explained the eyes in the scar tissue under his blue eye.

  “Huh, I’ve never heard of anything like that,” she said. “Are you sure? I mean you were just waking up.”

  I clenched my teeth. “I’m sure,” I replied. Wasn’t I? Yes. Yes I was. I nodded decisively.

  "Okay, well,” she looked at me skeptically. “At least you won’t have to worry about him coming after you again.”

  “Good, but that’s not what I’m worried about.”

  “I know. I’m doing my best to figure out what’s going on with the General. They weren’t from the local police station at Inmar, so she must have been taken to their headquarters in Glass City. Right now, all we can do is take her at her word that she’s being questioned and she’ll be back tonight, alright?”

  I nodded.

  “Good, now go on patrol like normal and be sure to stick with Teague and Sarosh like your mother told you.”

  After she shooed me out and shut the door to talk with Micha, I remembered the question I should have asked: who would have called the police?

  Chapter 25: Marked

  I never knew how alone I could feel while surrounded by hundreds of people. Over breakfast, I thought again about running away like I’d told Dad, getting away from here, but… things had changed. I couldn’t leave while I didn’t even know what was going on. And as much as I really hated her complete disregard for what I wanted, I couldn’t take off while my mother was under arrest for helping me. When she returned maybe, but not now.

  All morning, the people around me served up the silent treatment, with glares of resentment liberally peppered in. Myrihn looked almost smug at my public disgrace. And every time Thal and I got close enough to talk, someone w
ould call him away for one reason or another.

  I looked up Sensei’s number on my link and stared at it for what seemed like an hour. I sure could use her advice, but I didn’t want to admit to her what a mess I’d made of everything in such a short time. After running from, and now almost getting eaten by a "harmless" Anakharu, most of the people here seemed to have formed the conclusion that I was weak and helpless. And that made it my fault that Mom had been arrested for killing the Anakharu attacking me. Which was plain nuts all around.

  I remembered one of the last things Sensei had said to me: that I would have to prove myself here. What’s our mantra? her voice said in my ear.

  “Anything worth doing is worth doing well,” I repeated to myself for the millionth time, for once not rolling my eyes like I would have back home. Prove myself. Yeah, but how?

  Teague and Sarosh both went on patrol with my team of novices while their Ahatu partners continued patrol with the rest of the warriors. All they would say about what was going on with my mother was that Alten had the investigation underway and we’d all get answers when they became available. Still, that didn’t stop people from whispering together in small groups, shooting dirty looks in my direction, and stopping their conversations whenever I got near. Even the twins didn’t say a word to me. They just flicked me on the head and tried to trip up my crutches whenever they got the chance.

  We patrolled the fields out toward Etmar that morning, with me riding an auto-pilot hover-tractor that towed the cart of food supplies this time. I thought the group would have been happy not to have to pull it along themselves, but instead I heard several people grumbling that I couldn’t even keep up on foot. I tried my best to ignore them and acted as a spotter for the bright blue eggs.

  Not far into our patrol, I heard a rumble and turned to see Micha nodding regally to Teague and Sarosh as she passed them, before stopping next to the hover-tractor. She projected a loud, throaty purr at me that resembled a jackhammer in my head. I got the distinct impression it was meant to reassure me, although mostly it just gave me a reassuring headache.