Promised

by O'Brien, Caragh M.

  When she finally heard a noise beyond the door, she listened, attentive, and nearly cried with relief when a click came in the lock.

  She pushed herself to her feet, keeping her hands on the wall.

  The door opened, and Mabrother Iris stood on the other side. Dressed in his customary white, his urbane appearance contrasting sharply with the rough hallway, the man seemed completely at ease, as if accustomed to visiting V cell. The overhead light glared in the lenses of his tinted glasses, concealing his eyes. In his arms, he cradled a small, white animal with a pale snout: a baby pig.

  “Had enough, my dear?” he asked.

  She wanted to puke. “Take me to the Protectorat.”

  He lifted an eyebrow. “It is so, so tempting to leave you here, just as you are. You’re far more satisfying to deal with than Leon ever was. Or your mother. You care so much more, like a finely tuned instrument. I can’t decide which one. A viola, maybe.”

  She could feel him wanting her to beg him to release her. She wiped at her face, feeling the smudges of tear tracks.

  “Just let me out,” she said. “You’ve had your fun.”

  “A taste of it,” he agreed.

  “The Protectorat didn’t order me here, did he?” she said. She could not believe how odious the small man was to her, with his gray hair and slumped shoulders. “This was your idea.”

  “Naturally, but we had to keep you somewhere while we waited.”

  “For what?”

  A banging noise came from the corridor and she flinched in alarm.

  Mabrother Iris smiled slightly. “Your blood work. I felt it would be wise also to remind you who’s in charge here, especially considering your past record with us. It’s a very poor record. The Protectorat would prefer to deal with you himself, but cross the line, and he’ll pass you along to me. I get results. Are we clear on that?”

  Gaia glanced again at the whip. “Is that what happened with Leon?”

  “Leon was a very special case.” Mabrother Iris stepped back and gestured in four guards. “Tie her hands,” he said. “We won’t need another gag, will we, my dear?”

  She shook her head. Strong hands pulled her arms together before her, and she winced as the strap was bound tightly around her wrists again.

  They left V cell, and at the end of the hall, turned down a staircase. At the bottom, a musty, narrow tunnel led farther down, and caged bulbs came on automatically as they progressed single file. In places, the guards ducked to avoid the low ceiling. Wooden joists bracketed the walls and ceiling, reminding her of the old mine tunnels she’d traveled once with Leon, and at last they came around another corner to an old door.

  The quality of the air changed when Mabrother Iris shoved open the door to a small, private wine cellar. Black bottles had turned pale under a coating of fine gray dust that conveyed not neglect, but precious wealth. In the opposite corner, a staircase, cleanly swept and bordered by a gleaming wooden banister, ascended upward.

  Gaia knew without being told that they were under the Bastion now.

  “That’s convenient,” she said. “To have a secret link between the seat of government and a torture cell.”

  “You’d be surprised how convenient,” Mabrother Iris agreed, discounting her irony. “On we go. Marquez, see that she doesn’t trip.”

  The youngest guard, a stout, short man with pale eyebrows and hair, guided her elbow and stayed beside her up several flights. At the top, Gaia looked down a long hallway, recognizing the tall ceiling and patterned carpet that ran its length. They’d reached the second floor of the Bastion, and if memory served, the headquarters of the Enclave was ahead on her right.

  “Marquez, remain,” Mabrother Iris said, opening the door. “The rest of you may go. After you, my dear.” He gestured Gaia in before him, and with a sense of foreboding, she walked into the familiar room.

  The four tall windows looked out on the Square of the Bastion, where evening sunlight sharply illuminated one tapering side of the obelisk. Just as before the desk with the glowing screen-top still dominated the room, with upholstered chairs and small tables in groupings to her right. The air smelled fragrantly of tea that she knew would never be offered to her. The only thing missing was the canary’s cage, which had been replaced by a low glass box containing a blanket and paper shavings. Mabrother Iris leaned over to put the piglet inside, and it snuffed into the blanket.

  As a man turned from the window, Gaia was face-to-face with the Protectorat, her future father-in-law. His salt-and-pepper hair was trimly cut, and his black mustache was shorter then he’d previously worn it. His white suit gleamed, and his trousers fell crisply to shiny black shoes.

  She measured him in wary silence. Knowing Leon more closely as she did now, she discovered her feelings for the Protectorat had gained secret layers. She had already distrusted and feared him, but now, on Leon’s behalf, she resented him for his failings as a father, too. It somehow made him more human, but in the worst sense.

  The Protectorat did not smile. His cool eyes scanned her trenchantly from head to toe and back up again.

  “The blood work?” he asked.

  “As we’ve hoped,” Mabrother Iris said. “In every possible way. It’s a miracle. She’s even O negative.” He stepped to the computer desk and touched his fingers over the surface. “Dr. Hickory checked everything twice. He’s ecstatic.”

  “What did you test me for?” Gaia asked.

  “You carry the anti-hemophilia gene,” the Protectorat said calmly. “Like your mother did.”

  The information at first confused her, and then fury coursed through her. He’d mention her mother so casually, as if she’d been nothing more than an experiment to him. “You killed her,” she said. “You confined her until she was so weak and sick at heart she couldn’t live!”

  The Protectorat crossed the room, took the strap that confined her, and coiled it around his hand. She tried to withdraw, but he drew her wrists inexorably against his chest. With his other hand, he reached toward her face, and when she ducked away, he took her right ear and pinched inward with his thumbnail. The pain was so sharp that Gaia gasped, cringing, but trying to twist away was impossible.

  “Actually, I believe you had the honor of killing her,” the Protectorat said. “We were caring for a fragile pregnant woman as best as we could. Feel that?”

  “Yes.”

  “You sure?”

  The pain increased, piercing and radiating.

  “Yes! Please, stop!” she said, gasping.

  “You will not speak rudely to me,” he said.

  “I’m sorry!”

  “I didn’t hear you.”

  “I’m sorry, Mabrother!” she repeated. “I’m sorry!”

  He released her abruptly, and Gaia lifted her hands to her pulsing ear, feeling blood where he’d gouged into her tender skin. Her heart was racing, and a rushing noise filled her head. The Protectorat took a handkerchief from his pocket, wiped blood from his fingertips, and held out the handkerchief to her.

  She had to step near to him again to take it, and as she did so, she found she was shaking, so thoroughly intimidated she was. Her episode in V cell had shaved away all her reserves, and now she, the Matrarc of New Sylum, had been reduced to a frightened girl in a matter of minutes.

  “And what do you say when a gentleman hands you a handkerchief?” he prompted her.

  “Thank you, Mabrother,” she said softly, and pressed the white cloth to her ear.

  He regarded her dispassionately. “What’s this about you bringing my son back?”

  She was too rattled to reply. She was still trying to figure out the significance of the anti-hemophilia gene. It even seemed like they’d been planning for her, but they couldn’t have known she was coming until they’d arrested her scouts. Did having the gene put her in more danger or make her more valuable, or both?

  “Speak up, girl,” the Protectorat said briskly. “Do you have Leon with you or not?”

  “We do.”<
br />
  “And how many others? Two thousand? Answer my questions. Don’t act stupid.”

  “There are eighteen hundred of us. We want to set up a new community, New Sylum, just below Wharfton. We’ll need a supply of water to survive.”

  “Let me correct you,” he said. “You’ve brought me a political nightmare. An army of rats, swarming outside my walls. In the last hour, I’ve had a dozen do-good busybodies pounding down my door and insisting we open the gate for you, and twice as many others clamoring to know how I’m going to protect them from your diseases and criminals.”

  “We just need some time for your people to become better acquainted with ours,” she said. She kept her voice respectful and quiet. “We’re not criminals, or unhealthy.”

  “Your scouts gave me the same hogwash. I’m not buying it.”

  “Where are they now?”

  “In the prison. They’re of no use to me anymore, now that their information has proven accurate. I can release them. You see, I’m a reasonable person,” the Protectorat said. “You, on the other hand, are not. You came here needing our help, yet you didn’t even have the courtesy to give us a warning. I’m sure you’ll understand if we’re not prepared to be generous.”

  “I didn’t send envoys earlier because I was afraid you’d refuse to let us come.”

  He smiled slightly. “But now that you’re here, we have no choice. You’re forcing my hand. Is that correct?”

  She hesitated, knowing it was true. “We can’t go back, Mabrother,” she explained. “The environment in the Dead Forest was poisoned. My people have been dying off by generations until we reached a critical point. Now we just want a chance to survive. We want to see our children survive. It’s the same thing you want here, isn’t it? The Enclave has more than enough resources to share.”

  “We only have resources because we planned and sacrificed. People always seem to forget that.”

  “We’ll pay for what we need.”

  The Protectorat paced away from her, and then turned.

  “How do you think you could pay?” he asked. “I’m curious. For eighteen hundred of you, that’s four thousand, five-hundred liters of water a day, not counting bathing or crops. Water costs, Masister Stone.”

  “We can work for it,” Gaia said. “We bring craftsmen and artists and farmers. We’re not helpless.”

  “Artists?” the Protectorat said, plainly amused. “I didn’t realize you had a sense of humor.”

  Gaia fell silent. She refolded the handkerchief and pressed a clean area to her ear again, trying to think how to persuade him. “You must still be concerned about the problems of inbreeding,” she said.

  “Interesting you should mention that,” he said. “It so happens I am quite concerned.”

  “Diversification is the best long-term solution,” she said. “Your hemophilia and infertility inside the wall are a direct result of inbreeding. Open the gate, encourage the people of the Enclave, Wharfton, and New Sylum to get to know each other, and intermarriage will solve your problem. In the meantime, we can irrigate—”

  He waved a hand, cutting her off. “Your idea of intermarriage does have merit, I concede,” he said. “Don’t think I haven’t considered it, but aside from how distasteful the concept is, it’s a long-term solution that would take generations to be fruitful. It can’t help our acute problem right now, and just as your people can no longer wait, we in the Enclave are no longer willing to wait for an answer. I wonder how much you, personally, would be willing to sacrifice for your people.”

  “What do you mean?” she asked.

  He moved slowly around the room, setting his hand on the back of one chair, and then another, observing her. While she’d been on trail, she’d hardly noticed the unavoidable grime that had settled into her clothes, but now, surrounded by impeccable elegance, she realized how dingy her blouse and trousers had become, and she could only guess how wild her hair must look. She straightened, meeting his scrutiny with her own unapologetic dignity, and saw a hint of respect register in his eyes.

  “I am caught in a delicate position, the sort you might appreciate as a leader yourself,” he said. “Additional cases of hemophilia this past year have brought unspeakable anguish to certain families, and we’ve been helpless to do anything for them. Myrna Silk’s blood bank is a stopgap at best before her patients die from the disease.” His gaze met Gaia’s. “We have no cure, but we have found a way to prevent hemophilia. At least, in theory, we have. To put it in practice, we’ve just needed one more key piece.”

  “Which is what?”

  The Protectorat tilted his head slightly, and idly smoothed his mustache. “I’d like you to consider an interesting dilemma. Suppose one person could sacrifice something that would help a handful of people, and then that handful of people went on to help an entire community. Should that one first person make the sacrifice?” He regarded her closely. “Should the community compel the first person to make it?”

  “It depends on what the sacrifice is, and the benefit to the community,” Gaia said. She wasn’t stupid. He obviously wanted something from her.

  The Protectorat patted his hand on the back of the nearest chair and straightened taller. “I’d like to reacquaint you with a very important, pivotal person. She’s a fine, peace-loving young woman to whom I am deeply indebted,” he said, and glanced at Mabrother Iris. “Please ask Masister Waybright to join us.”

  A side door opened softly, and Emily stepped in.

  “Emily!” Gaia cried. She was so happy to see her old friend that she impulsively started forward, but Emily’s quiet smile remained aloof.

  “Untie her, please, Mabrother,” Emily said politely to the Protectorat.

  Gaia stopped where she was, shocked. Who was this calm, genteel girl? Her auburn hair was neatly swept back in a soft bun, setting off her wide cheekbones and jawline. A white, high-waisted dress draped gracefully over her slender form and fell to below her knees. An unusual bracelet adorned her left wrist, and Gaia had to look twice to realize it wasn’t simply reflecting light, but emanating a soft, blue glow. Emily’s formerly expressive eyes were as intelligent as ever, but now gently calm. What surprised Gaia the most was the assurance with which Emily spoke to the Protectorat, the most powerful man in the Enclave, as if expecting her command to be obeyed.

  Even more startling, the Protectorat nodded to the guard by the door. “Release her,” he said.

  Gaia held her wrists up and felt the little jerks as the young guard undid the strap. She couldn’t take her eyes off her girlhood friend.

  “Are you all right?” Gaia asked. “Where are your children? Are your boys well?”

  “They’re in the nursery,” Emily said. “They’re quite well, thank you.” She turned to the Protectorat. “Have you told her anything?”

  “I thought you could explain things best, seeing as you’re old friends,” he said.

  “Are you offering her a position?” Emily asked.

  Gaia rubbed at her wrists, attending closely.

  “It’s not the usual position. Just bring her up to date on the institute as it now stands,” the Protectorat said.

  Mabrother Iris cleared his throat, and Gaia glanced over to find him following the exchange with interest, but he said nothing.

  “As you like, Mabrother,” Emily said. “The girls are in the back courtyard breaking for tea. It would be easiest to take Gaia there to explain.”

  “Take her to one of the overlooking balconies,” the Protectorat said. “Have you seen Genevieve?”

  “Your wife was in the kitchen half an hour ago,” Emily said.

  The Protectorat gestured to the guard, who opened the door. “Stay with them.”

  The guard inclined his head, holding the door, and in a moment that seemed strangely surreal to Gaia, she walked out behind the elegant girl who had once been her best friend in hardscrabble Wharfton, and followed her down the hallway of the Bastion.

  “Emily!” Gaia said urgently in a
low voice. “What’s going on? What’s wrong?”

  Emily glanced over her shoulder as she kept walking. “I’m sure this is all rather a surprise to you.”

  “You’re my best friend. I haven’t seen you in over a year, and you’re treating me like a stranger!” Gaia said.

  “Well, then. If you put the clues together, you can probably guess I’m not your best friend anymore,” Emily said.

  Gaia came to a stop. “What is this?” she demanded.

  Emily paused, too, crossing her arms as she turned to face Gaia. She flicked her gaze toward the guard, who was obviously within earshot and showed no inclination to leave. “My old life is over. All of it. I’m going forward, and difficult as it is to greet you with civility, I’m doing my best. Please don’t ask me for more. Now if you’ll turn here, you’ll be able to see into the courtyard.”

  Gaia stared at her. “You can’t be serious. This is me you’re talking to!”

  “Believe me, I am fully aware of who you are. Now if you please, come along here,” Emily said.

  A popping noise burst in a bright rhythm, went silent, and then began again, growing louder as they approached. When Gaia and Emily came around another corner, the corridor opened into a covered balcony that overlooked a square courtyard, and Gaia recognized that she’d been there once before with her mother, although perhaps on one of the other tiers. She hadn’t had time before to appreciate how the graceful, arched openings surrounded the courtyard on all four sides, stacked four levels high, but now she found the harmonious effect decidedly inviting.

  Emily raised a hand in greeting over the balustrade. The popping noise, Gaia saw, came from a pair of young women playing ping pong at a table below, their collars loose and damp with sweat. Five other young women were resting with their feet up on lounges and chairs. Two more were pouring tea at a dainty, wheeled cart, and two others were playing chess. Potted ferns in the corners added touches of green, and several pale orange awnings were unfurled to provide wide swatches of shade, but the overriding color was white, from the whitewashed columns of the surrounding balconies to the flowing white fabric of the women’s dresses and the porcelain sugar bowl on the linen-covered tea cart.