by Cege Smith
from all of the parents’ faces except the McMurrays who were old hands at this. They all nodded.
The Head Master seemed satisfied. He clasped his hands together and smiled a tight smile. "Samuel will now process you and admit you to the compound. I trust you will heed everything that he tells you from this point forward. I will see you at the fountain." Then the Head Master spun on his heels, his grand robes flowing around him. He started to move away with a confident stride that belied the words he had said to Samuel only ten minutes before.
"Sir," Samuel whispered urgently to the Head Master as he passed.
The Head Master stopped next to him but didn't turn.
"One of the Chosen is missing," Samuel whispered softly. "Do we wait?"
"The fountain does not wait," the Head Master said softly. "Proceed." And he walked away, heading for the garden entrance.
Samuel had no idea what would happen. They had prepared for four, and now there were only three. But he had to trust that at some point before the Head Master had dealt with this situation and that he knew what to do. Samuel shook off the tiny tendril of doubt and stepped up to the gate.
He pulled a small key out of his sleeve, whispered the ancient prayer of safe passage, and then opened the gate. Mark McMurray stepped in front of the other two Chosen families with his wife and toddler close behind.
"I am Mark McMurray. I come to ask the Office of Souls and the Creator of all that is Good for the chance to put my child onto the path of the Light and ensoul him. He is Chosen."
The words were spoken with a reverent fervor. Although Samuel was a man of faith, men he encountered like Mark McMurray made even him wary.
"The Soul Garden recognizes you, Mark McMurray," Samuel said in return. "Who else pleads for your child's soul?"
"I do," Tabby McMurray said.
Samuel could barely hear her, but it was enough. He nodded. "Enter." He swept his hand into the courtyard and the McMurrays moved past him. He motioned to the next man in line.
"I am Brian Deed," the man started. There was a short pause as Samuel watched him struggle to remember the next words. "I come to ask the Office of Souls and the Creator of all that is Good for the chance to put my child onto the path of the Light and ensoul her. She is Chosen." The last words were said in a rush as if he was afraid the words would escape him again.
"The Soul Garden recognizes you, Brian Deed. Who else pleads for your child's soul?"
The petite brunette standing behind Brian stepped forward, bouncing their daughter on her hip. "I do."
"Enter," Samuel said. There was only one family left. He waited for the man to approach him. Surprisingly, the man carried the infant. That was unusual; infant care was almost exclusively done by the mother.
"I am Malcom Lowden. I come to ask the Office of Souls and the Creator of all that is Good for the chance to put my child onto the path of the Light and ensoul her. She is Chosen."
The words were spoken with a quiet confidence, and with the last three words Samuel saw Malcom smile down at the infant in his arms. He was surprised. He thought that it would be difficult to love a soulless one, even if you were the procreator.
"The Soul Garden recognizes you, Malcom Lowden. Who else pleads for your child's soul?"
There was a pause, and Samuel peered over the man's shoulder at the blond woman who was obviously the infant's mother. She looked completely out of it. That wasn't good. The words had to be said in perfect synchronicity and no extra words could be added. Samuel looked at Malcom, who turned and cleared his throat loudly. As the noise reached the woman she jumped, as if she had just remembered where she was. She hurried to Malcom's side.
"I do," she said a bit breathlessly.
Samuel almost sighed in relief. "Enter."
With the Lowdens past him, Samuel peered out into the parking lot just to ensure that the missing couple wasn't about to appear. The parking lot was empty. He shut the gate and relocked it, murmuring the prayer of the closed loop. Everything was still on plan, with the exception of the missing Chosen one. Samuel pulled out his journal and glanced at the page as he approached the small group waiting in the middle of the courtyard. Deed, Lowden, McMurray present and accounted for. The Chims were missing. Samuel closed his journal. That was that. No Chims and no fourth Chosen. He had no choice but to do as the Head Master had commanded and proceed.
EVE
Eve saw the handsome acolyte pause and consult his book before approaching the group again. She felt Malcom's hand on her arm.
"What happened back there?" he whispered.
"Shhhhhh," said Mark McMurray, glaring in Malcom's direction.
Once inside the compound they weren't supposed to speak. Malcom knew that. Before he could say anything else, Eve shrugged and shook her head. She wasn't sure she could explain the feeling that had been growing inside of her ever since they had arrived outside the compound. She was grateful for the required silence because that meant she didn't have to try. She could see that Malcom was annoyed, but this time he held his tongue.
The acolyte, Samuel, drew up to them and stood looking behind them. Eve had taken note of the tall shrubs that signaled they were looking at an outside wall of the Soul Garden. She wondered again at the size of the place. Even though the Office of Souls had the garden ensconced behind a wall of stone, they still took care to grow shrubbery high and dense around it. Someone wanted to make very certain that nobody got into the garden.
They were standing in the middle of a large courtyard on top of the emblem that represented the Office of Souls. It had two hands that looked as if they were moving to join each other through a misty fog that Eve knew was the artist's interpretation of a soul. At the bottom of the seal was the fountain, and it looked like the misty presence was rising up from the fountain's top. Eve wondered if that was what they were about to see today.
There were four pathways leading out of the courtyard. Eve was facing the one that led back to the gate they had just entered. The one on her left looked as if it went down to a group of smaller nondescript buildings that were long and narrow; likely these were residence halls. Eve had stayed in similar looking buildings during her collegiate days.
The other two pathways were far more interesting. Eve turned around, facing away from the gate. This was the pathway that led to the main administration offices. Although the main building was likely several hundred yards away, it glowed with the same iridescent quality as the boundary walls. She could see tall columns spaced out along the front and a wide patio that graced the second floor. It looked like a plantation house from the few picture books that remained from Before. But even from this distance there was something about the building that felt cold. It wasn't the least bit inviting, and Eve thought that would probably please the Head Master.
Eve knew what it felt like care for someone who you could barely tolerate, and she felt that many of the servants of the Office of Light felt the same way about Malm’s Residents. They looked after the Residents like one looked after an ugly pet. You didn't want it to die, but you didn't want it cuddling up to you at night, either.
Now Eve turned to her left. She had saved the best—or worst, depending on your perspective—for last. About fifty feet away from where they stood, there was a wide opening in the tall shrubbery. Through it, Eve could see a wide, well-trodden path that led deeper into the garden. According to the Official Handbook of Soul Implantation Procedure, the path weaved through a maze until it finally reached its destination: the courtyard of the Fountain of Souls.
Eve studied the entrance carefully, and then frowned. The handbook was extremely specific about every minute detail when it came to what a Resident would encounter on Soul Distribution Day, right down a recommended number of hours to sleep leading up the day as well as meals and mediations that were supposed to increase you and your infant's attractiveness to the souls that had been Called. The handbook outlined the timeline once you arrived at the compound as well the roles of each of the participant and the
incantations that had to be delivered at the right time to ensure a flawless ceremony.
In all of that detail there had never been mention of a person standing at the entrance to the garden. Eve looked at Malcom to see if he had noticed, but Malcom was still listening intently to Samuel.
Eve peered more closely. The man's age was hard to determine. His hair was black with startling streaks of white throughout, but his face appeared unlined. He was dressed in bib overalls and his skin was tanned from many days out in the sun. In one of his hands, he held what looked like a large pair of pruning shears. The man looked up at the sun and seemed to shift uncomfortably.
On any other day, Eve would have assumed the man was a gardener, but today there was something about him that was...menacing. If Eve hadn’t known better, she would have said that the man was guarding the entrance. But that would be silly. First of all, who in their right mind would want to go into the garden, and secondly, for what purpose? It was a large creepy place that led to the most mysterious monument in the whole of the territory.
She heard a throat clear again and realized that everyone in the group was looking at her. The acolyte looked pained and Malcom wore an expression of dismay. He bounced Cameron in front of him, and Eve racked her brain to remember where they were in the ceremony. She had studied the handbook night and day for the last six months. She knew she should know this stuff cold.
Eve closed her eyes as she clutched the handbook closer to her chest, willing it to tell her where they were. One wrong word and she would cost Cameron her soul. They had received the opening remarks. They had gone through the gate incantation. They were in the courtyard. The Lead Acolyte would ask if anyone had any questions before they would be escorted into the garden.
Eve's eyes flew open. As the last ones to enter, she and Malcom had first rights to ask a question. Each Chosen's parents had the right to ask one clarifying question in the event that the handbook had left out some critical detail. Given the complexity of the handbook, Eve thought many questions had been asked over the years, and the handbook had been enhanced to such a degree that the prescribed Q&A was little more than a formality. But today didn't seem like a normal day.
The words tumbled out before she could think to stop them, "Who is that man by the entrance to the garden?"
Eve heard small gasps from the others around her, and the acolyte looked at her through narrowed eyes. She saw him flush around the collar of his cassock. There was something going on.
"That is Bishop, the gardener," he said.
Eve started to ask for more information, but saw the warning in Malcom's eyes and caught herself. Each couple was allowed one question and custom dictated that usually it was the father who spoke. She knew she should be proud that he had been obviously paying closer attention to the ceremonial formalities than she gave him credit. Eve looked at the other two couples. Emily was staring at her with her mouth open. Eve felt herself blush under the scrutiny. She had been merely curious. The other two men murmured quick declines when Samuel asked if they had any questions.
Eve felt Malcom's hand on her arm. He tugged her off the side and she could tell that he was angry. He made one quick gesture. He swiped a hand across his neck and cupped it over his mouth. Then he stared hard at her. Cut it out. Keep quiet.
Eve didn't know what was going on with her, but the seriousness of the situation, now that it had arrived, was not lost on her. She looked at her daughter and then up into her husband's eyes and felt ashamed. She nodded and hung her head.
Suddenly Malcom's hand was under her chin and she was looking into his eyes again. She saw that they had softened, and she felt
