A Girl From Nowhere

by James Maxwell

  “They were settlers. I joined in the raid. They are all dead.”

  “You killed them.”

  “Yes,” Mugrak grunted. He turned as Borg re-entered the tent, this time without the girl. “Good. Now we can begin.”

  Mugrak crouched next to Selena, his breath hot and fast as he stared into her eyes. “I want you to tell me about Zorn, the city that protects the humans while they drive us from these lands. Describe it to me in detail. I have seen it up close, and risked my life to escape the city guard, so I will know if you are lying. If you are as strong as the skalen say, you will do this for me. My only reason to camp here was to give you this test, and I will give you one chance only. A dead human girl-child means nothing to me.”

  “No,” Selena said, staring into his eyes. “I won’t do it.”

  Mugrak turned to his companion. “Cut the girl’s hand off and bring it to me. Do it quickly. Those weak skalen might catch up to us soon.”

  “Which one?”

  Mugrak’s face curled up. “What?”

  “Which hand?”

  “I don’t care,” Mugrak snapped. “Just get it done.”

  As Borg turned to leave the tent, Selena knew she had to act. Her mind worked furiously. Thoughts surfaced and arguments opposed them. She gritted her teeth.

  If she helped Mugrak, she would be putting an entire city at risk.

  If she didn’t, she would be dooming a child to certain death.

  “No, stop,” Selena said, loud enough to catch Borg at the entrance. The look Selena gave Mugrak was venomous, but she reminded herself that all she had to do was describe a place to the bax that he already knew. “Don’t hurt her. I will do it.”

  “Excellent,” Mugrak said. “Describe the city. Farcast Zorn.”

  Selena drew in a deep, shaking breath. She tried to ignore Mugrak’s glare and the sour stench of her surroundings.

  Her vision became unfocused.

  She again pictured the moon, round and indomitable, high in the sky, far away and massive. Remembering Rei-kika’s lessons, she made the moon pure and featureless, a sphere of golden light without craters or flaws.

  She continued to slow her breathing to calm herself. She fought the surging emotions and tried to bury thoughts of the little girl deep where they couldn’t intrude. After all her practice, she was usually able to contain her symbol without difficulty, but now she struggled to make its mass something manageable. She attempted to touch the radiance inside her, but her concentration faltered, and then it was gone. She lifted her head.

  “Why are you not casting?” Mugrak demanded.

  “I’m trying,” Selena protested.

  “Would some of the girl’s blood help you focus?”

  Selena met the bax’s dark gaze, hating him even as she pleaded with him. “Give me some time.”

  “You test my patience.”

  She concentrated on calming herself first. She took several more deep, even breaths, her chest rising and falling, and achieved a steady rhythm before she began. As she fought her fear, rage, and frustration, she recalled a time when she had been at peace. Once again she was on a hillside, looking up at the night sky while she spoke to Taimin about other worlds. She remembered the sense of safety he gave her.

  She pictured the way the moon had looked that night, round and ethereal, yet so clear it seemed she could reach up and touch it. She focused on that thought: reaching up and grasping the moon. It wasn’t big; it was small, the size of a bowl.

  Then she had it. The glowing sphere was inside her mind and although it was fiery, she could grasp it. She tried not to think too hard about what she was doing; instead she maintained her breathing, and the feeling that Taimin was with her.

  In an instant the orb in her mind flared brightly. She placed imaginary hands around it, and let it lift her up.

  With a surge of pleasure, she floated free.

  She looked down at her body and saw her straight back and even breathing; Rei-kika would be proud of her. But Mugrak’s scowling face reminded her of the little girl.

  Keeping careful control of her emotions, allowing no fear to surface, she imagined herself rising higher. In moments she was above the tent and climbing the sky. She soon looked down at a ravine that was just one seam in a canyon, and then she was ascending higher than the Rift Valley in its entirety. She saw a connected series of gullies and tiny dots that marked the mouths of caves. The golden sun Dex shone over the landscape, highlighting the wrinkles of the great canyon and revealing the nearby plain.

  Continuing to rise, Selena climbed until she was higher than the tallest mountain. She then set her sights on the plain.

  She headed away from the Rift Valley until she was soaring over the landscape. The flat terrain spread out below her, decorated by the occasional cactus and misshapen boulder. The sense of freedom was exhilarating. Even though she was casting for Mugrak, her excitement grew at the thought that she would be seeing the city of Zorn up close for the first time.

  A small white circle appeared on the horizon.

  “What is happening?”

  Selena heard Mugrak’s throaty voice, both distant and directly by her side. She started to speak, but then realized she had to direct some of her attention to her body in order for her lips to move.

  “I’m nearly at the city,” Selena murmured, instructing her body to speak.

  She could see it in the distance, rising up out of the sunburned plain: a glistening white city shaped like a mountain and encircled by a tall wall. As she flew toward it, the city became larger.

  “Good, good,” Mugrak said. “Get as close as you can.”

  The city’s color was brilliant against the rusted hue of the surrounding landscape. Selena saw rows of green outside the wall, fields of cultivated plants: cactuses, spindly vegetables, graceful whitewood, hardy basalt, and hedges of nutbush.

  “I can see the fields outside the city,” Selena said.

  “I don’t care about the fields,” Mugrak said. “Get closer to the wall.”

  The white wall grew in her vision but it was the tower at the city’s midpoint that drew her attention. The tall, graceful structure shot up into the sky; imposing, but also beautiful. She approached until she was level with the top of the tower but still a mile or so outside the wall. Streets framed structures that were the same pale color as the tower. The houses were all matched in height, giving the city a uniform character. The wall enclosed everything, far taller than the houses, but still well below the height of the tower.

  “Can you see the wall?”

  “Yes, I can see it.”

  “How high is it?”

  “About thirty feet.”

  “How tall is the gate?”

  “About twenty feet.”

  “Is it the only gate?”

  “I don’t know. It’s the only gate I can see.”

  “It is. I was testing you,” Mugrak said. “How thick is the wall?”

  “I can’t see.”

  “Then find out,” Mugrak growled.

  Selena sent herself forward. She was desperate to travel into the city and see the people in the streets, but she was also filled with guilt that they were the very people she was betraying.

  “It looks like the wall is about six feet thick,” she said, glancing down.

  “Now look inside the city,” Mugrak instructed.

  Selena moved closer, eager to explore such an incredible place. Her attention was drawn to a massive oval-shaped structure on one side of the city.

  “I can see a huge round building. It’s—”

  “That is the arena, where the humans watch fights. What else can you see?”

  Selena’s gaze inadvertently returned to the tower’s summit. She felt a strange sensation of foreboding. There was a presence in the tower, and it wasn’t friendly.

  Then, before she had passed the wall, a wavering shape appeared directly in front of her. Shock coursed through her when the figure’s penetrating black eyes stared
into her. Pain sizzled through her mind.

  Who are you? the figure asked. Tell me now!

  Selena caught an impression of a triangular head and stick-thin body. Without knowing how she did it, she projected a force from her consciousness, pushing the figure away. She launched herself backward, whirling to fly far and high, until the city was distant again, a white-walled dream on the horizon that became smaller and smaller.

  Wanting nothing more than to be back in her body, she searched for her lifeline and saw the glowing white cord connecting her to a place in the distant canyon. She pulled on the cord. Immediately she flew back toward the canyon, down to the ravine, and sped directly to the small collection of tents where Mugrak had made his camp.

  A moment later her eyes refocused.

  “What happened?” Mugrak asked.

  “Something . . . someone . . . was keeping guard. I swear it’s true.”

  Mugrak grunted. “Never fear, I believe you. You met the Protector’s mystic sentinel. The Protector has a mantorean up in that tower. I was hoping you might escape her notice.” Mugrak shook his head. “To cast so far . . . I am impressed.” He met her eyes. “Blixen will have more questions for you. The next time you cast, it will be for him.”

  18

  “Fare you well,” Syrus said. The skalen’s voice became grave as he stood with Taimin and Lars near the hidden entrance to his home. “And be careful. War is coming to Zorn. Be in no doubt. You are heading into danger.”

  “It’ll be worth it in the end,” Lars said. “No matter the risk.”

  Taimin knew that Selena was right: individuals should be judged on merit, and Syrus was one of the good ones. “Thank you,” he said. “I mean that.” He patted the bow on his shoulder. “I’m in your debt.”

  Syrus shook his head. “I have told you, young human, there is no debt.”

  As Lars said his goodbyes, Taimin was tense. All he could think about was Selena. She had put herself forward, offering her ability to the skalen so that the three of them wouldn’t be killed. By now she was almost certainly at the Rift Valley, where she would have to make a choice, and he knew what she would do. If she refused to help the Protector of Zorn’s enemies, she wouldn’t be useful anymore. She would die.

  Syrus and Lars were still talking. “You remember my directions to Zorn?” the skalen asked.

  “Seared into my mind.”

  “Once again,” Syrus said, “be careful of the Rift Valley. I don’t have to tell you that the bax don’t like humans at all.”

  “That’s where I’ll be going,” Taimin said.

  “Not me,” said Lars. “As soon as I get to Zorn, I’ll tell them about the things we’ve learned, but I’ll leave the soldiers to do the fighting. I’m getting old. Give me a job butchering meat or tanning leather and I’ll happily take it.”

  “The route I’ve given you will take you straight to the plain,” Syrus said. He glanced at Taimin. “If you want to go to the Rift Valley from there, that’s your choice. I know your reasons. Just keep your wits about you.”

  Three days after leaving Syrus’s homestead, Taimin and Lars emerged on the far side of a narrow pass and stopped to gaze over the landscape. Tall mountains loomed behind them. A cool breeze blew from the heights, but Taimin knew that the air would become hotter as they descended. The bright blue sky contrasted with the colors of brown and rust below.

  The two men were silent as they stood together on the slope, where the high ground gave them a sweeping view of the broad plain and the immense canyon on their distant left. The plain spread across the land until the Rift Valley at its edge fell away in a long, broken escarpment, as if some monstrous creature had plunged from the sky to devour mouthfuls of dirt and rock, leaving behind the impression of gigantic teeth. Deep and wide, the canyon splintered into countless smaller ravines.

  Taimin glanced at Lars. The skinner scowled as he stared at the horizon. “Can’t see it,” he muttered.

  “Still wondering if the white city is real?” Taimin asked.

  “Zorn is real,” Lars said. “But there’s a difference between knowing it and seeing it for myself.”

  Taimin returned to his inspection of the great canyon. “She’s down there, somewhere,” he murmured, more to himself than the older man beside him.

  Lars clapped him on the shoulder. “You’ll find her, lad. I’m sure of it.”

  Taimin didn’t reply. Instead he patted Griff’s flank and, now that they were on open ground, pulled himself onto the wherry’s back. Griff whined, excited. He hadn’t had a chance to stretch his legs in a long time.

  “All right,” Lars said. “You’re in a hurry, lad. I can see that.”

  The two suns beat down from overhead. Lizards clung to the sides of broad cactuses. A strong wind swept dust across the ground but did nothing to relieve the heat. Scavenger birds wheeled overhead, shrieking to one another as they tracked the two humans below in hope that they would falter.

  Taimin and Lars walked side by side, with Taimin resting a hand on Griff’s back. It was their third day on the plain. There was little conversation other than to remind each other to conserve their water. Their footsteps took them in a direction that would eventually fork and cause them to part ways. Veering left would lead to the Rift Valley; turning right to the city of Zorn.

  Out in the open, the creeping tension that always accompanied travel in the wasteland had grown until Taimin was on edge. He knew that they were exposed, in a region inhabited by enemies.

  Taimin didn’t say it, but he was glad for Lars’s company. Lars seemed to feel the same way about him. But despite knowing they would soon separate, Taimin didn’t slow. As he traveled, his mind conjured up images of Selena coming to harm at the hands of the skalen or their bax allies. He became more and more impatient.

  The suns’ rays were still fierce when they came across the refugees.

  The wavering figures ahead were too upright to be bax, too numerous to be trulls, too big to be mantoreans, and their gait was nothing like the sinuous movements of skalen. As Taimin and Lars caught up to them, Taimin saw that they were humans: old and young, male and female, entire families burdened with packs filled to bursting. Taimin waved and called out; one of them gave a desultory wave back. The rest offered the newcomers scant attention.

  There were perhaps a hundred of them, settlers from different homesteads, banded together for protection as they headed for the safety of the city. Hardy people, they were survivors who had learned to keep their heads down and homes secure. They let Taimin and Lars join their group without question, perhaps too weary to care. An old woman told the newcomers that bax had ravaged their homes; all bore the stone faces of sorrow caused by hardship.

  It was a somber bunch who walked together, hour after hour, helping the weakest among them but focused above all else on their destination. Everyone knew that they were in constant danger.

  As part of a far larger group, Taimin and Lars continued to cross the plain, and Taimin knew that he would soon be as close as he would come to the Rift Valley before each step began to take him farther away.

  The group had stopped to rest. As Dex sank into the horizon, the golden sun cast a warm light over the landscape that transformed the plain into an amber sea. It was time to say goodbye. Taimin set his jaw and walked over to Lars. With Griff following just behind him, he thought about what he would say.

  Then Taimin realized why Lars, and all of the refugees, had come to a halt. It wasn’t to rest. People were murmuring. All eyes were staring ahead.

  A pyramid-shaped silhouette glistened on the horizon: a white city tinted rose by the setting sun. A tiny spike—a tower—shot up from the city’s middle. The city of Zorn was small and distant, but even so it beckoned, and it was beautiful, putting out a call for weary travelers.

  Taimin glanced at Lars. The old skinner had an expression of awe on his face. Lars had followed his dream, and despite all the obstacles in his way, here he was.

  “There it i
s,” Lars breathed. He glanced at Taimin. “Zorn.” He said the name with relish.

  Lars was right. There was a difference between knowing the white city was real and seeing it revealed on the plain. Taimin only wished that Selena was beside him. They were supposed to reach the city together. Of the three of them, each with their own reason for making the journey, it was Lars who would get there first.

  As he stared at the distant city, Taimin was taken back to the time when, rifling through the remains of his home, he had found the drawing in Abi’s clothing chest. He had lost the piece of paper when they were captured by the skalen, but the drawing had undoubtedly been made by someone who had seen Zorn firsthand.

  It was a strange thing for his aunt to have in her possession.

  He remembered her scowling. There is no city, boy.

  At the very least Abi knew of the possibility that Zorn existed.

  “Why?” Taimin whispered, so low that Lars couldn’t hear. Why had she kept Zorn’s existence from him?

  Lars saw his expression. “Taimin? Lad? What is it?”

  Taimin didn’t take his eyes off the white-walled city on the horizon. He still couldn’t believe it was real. In the emptiness of the wasteland, how had it come to be?

  “Who built it?” he asked. “Did humans build Zorn? Was it us?”

  “I . . .” Lars scratched his thick black beard. “I assume we did.”

  Griff snorted, reminding Taimin that it was time to go. He would say farewell to Lars and make his own way to the Rift Valley. Zorn would have to wait. When he saw it again, Selena would be with him. He opened his mouth, but then stopped.

  Still looking in the direction of the city, he spied something else, something that made him frown. Several shapes in the sky, like tiny birds, were flying from the direction of Zorn. The shapes swiftly grew larger, traveling with speed to head straight for the people on the plain. They were far too large to be raptors.