by L. L. Crane
Go.
Go.
Go.
Where was I to go?
I reached my arms around myself, shivering in the darkness, immobilized. Orion had told me to go, and Troll had told me to go.
But nobody told me where to go.
I closed my eyes, and laid down on the hard bench, sleep overtaking my weary mind and very pregnant body.
Chapter 53
Awakened
I didn’t know how long I slept, but when I woke up, someone had covered me up with a scratchy blanket and was gently stroking my hair. It was familiar, yet odd. The hand was too large. I immediately thought of the man who had pulled me up when I fell, and I was ready to give him a piece of my mind, no matter how big he was.
I battled to open my eyes in the darkness, wanting to flail at the man. It was all wrong.
But I was so tired and cold, shivering against the windy night and incessant rain. At least the man was warm. I struggled to sit upright, wanting to go back to sleep, float away from the decision I had to make and all of the hurt I had caused. I moaned, and in an instant the hands were pulling me up into an embrace.
I pushed against his chest, trying to wrangle my lopsided body away, thinking it was the man who had caught me when I fell.
But it wasn’t him. And it wasn’t Troll.
I knew then who it was…who it always was and always would be. Who I always would fall for. Time and again.
He lifted me easily, his strong arms cuddling me next to his broad chest. I nestled into the blueness of him, the smoky blue I had almost forgotten about.
“I’m taking you home.”
The words were simple, but they were what I needed to hear. Home. It seemed like I had been searching for a home most of my life.
He whispered in my ear. “You and our baby.”
I had no words for him. I just shivered and nodded foolishly, a cry slipping out of my throat.
Orion turned down the path then and as if I were nothing more than a small doll, he carried me to a humble hut, kicking the door open with his foot.
I opened my mouth, but he shushed me, a rough whisper in my ear as he stepped inside. “Ice is asleep. He…he’s a light sleeper.”
He kicked the door shut with his foot, and the darkness embraced me. I struggled to see in the little hut, tucked into Orion’s arms, exactly where I knew I should have been all along.
He breathed deeply, then spoke throatily into my ear.
“And I have plans for you.
Chapter 54
Patience
I awoke in a tangled mess of bedding, my huge belly protruding like a whale, Orion’s arm draped over me. I groaned, turning toward him.
He opened one eye, sleepily. “Everything okay?” he asked.
I smiled at him. “Yes.” It’s just getting hard to breathe. The Peanut jabbed me just then and I pushed against the bed, but it was too hard to get up. Orion was there in a heartbeat, lifting me up gently by my arms.
“Today’s the day,” he exclaimed excitedly, like a little boy. Once I was settled, he stroked my hair, which had grown out quite a bit over the past few months. He kissed me deeply, and as usual, I was lost in it, lost in all that was Orion.
“I’m claiming you today,” he murmured into my ear.
“You’ve always had me,” I snipped airily, teasing him.
“Ha!” he argued, and we both laughed as I waddled to the bathroom. Still, a jab of guilt ran through me when I thought about Troll.
He had moved out of the house we shared and stayed as far away from me as possible. Lily at first showed up at Orion’s hut, but I took her back to Troll. I figured he needed her more than me. Still, she came to visit often and I treasured my moments with her, sometimes regretting my decision to give her up when I looked into her sweet brown eyes.
I tried to talk to Troll several times, attempting to make it right between us, but he would have none of it, always turning away from me with a forlorn look in his eyes. I last heard that he was courting one of the girls in the Blue Spectrum Band and was planning on claiming her. I still bristled at the word claiming, but Orion assured me it was just verbiage and that living in the Asters was much better than the Provinces. I had to agree.
Still, as Lordess, I had plans of changing the way that women were treated, especially those without mutant finger necklaces. But first…first I needed to be claimed by their leader. And have a baby. I sighed. It seemed like a lot at the moment, but with the baby due at any time, everything seemed to overwhelm me.
When I emerged, Orion was waiting outside the door, his deep blue eyes filled with worry.
“Will you quit fussing over me?” I quipped. “I’m fine.”
He cocked his head to the side. “You’re beautiful, you know that?”
I smiled at him, wondering once again what he saw in me. “I’m as big as an elephant!”
Just then Ice came tearing by us, squealing and screaming. The little hut that originally housed Ice and Orion was much too small for us, and a new one was being built. I couldn’t bear to go back to the house I shared with Troll, and thankfully, Orion asked no questions about it. Shade and Spice moved back in and Troll found an empty hut on the perimeter of the crater. Still, even though I was excited to be getting a larger home, some of my happiest memories were in the little hut I shared with Orion and Ice.
Orion chased after Ice, and I padded to the kitchen, remembering my first morning there, how I woke up next to Orion, his giant hand resting gently on my then smaller belly.
I insisted on answers right away, and he and I talked, me asking the questions, Orion answering with animosity, as if it was a story out of one of Blush’s books.
His eyes sparkled with the mischief I had grown to love so much. Without the prying eyes of the Administration, Orion had certainly changed. So had I, reveling in the freedom to just talk without the fear of cameras and mandates, harsh punishments. Arbitration that always ended in incarceration. Or worse.
“How did you get Ice out of the Clinic?” was my first question.
He smirked. “I swiped Glass’s clearance card. They’re lax about security at night, because really, who would want to steal someone with S.L.A.G.?”
The next question flew into my brain. “What about your tracker-timers?” Without giving him a chance to answer, I quickly told him how I had cut mine out with scissors, about the brandy I drank beforehand to numb my senses.
“Holy shit, Rain, you gotta be kidding me.”
I glanced down at my scar. “Nope. I did it alright. Then I got real sick.” I went on to explain how Pan, Garment and Blush took care of me. When I finished, I pressed him about his tracker-timer. And Ice’s.
His blue eyes were serious, landing on mine like stars from the sky. “That was the worst part. I threatened this kid I knew who was in med school.”
“Why would he do it…where did he do it?”
Orion shot me a sheepish look. “I…uh…I told him I’d beat the shit out of him if he didn’t do it...or if he told anybody about it. He probably weighs one hundred pounds. If that.”
“You didn’t.”
“I did.” Orion went on to tell me how the med student sedated Ice and removed his tracker-timer. “I refused to be sedated,” he added. “I was afraid the little wimp would go get somebody.”
“What about the cameras?”
Orion laughed heartily. “Here’s the funny thing. They have no cameras in operating rooms. Can you believe that?”
“No way.”
“Well, even if they did, I was getting the hell out of there. I figured by the time I got to the underground sewers they wouldn’t be able to track me.”
“The sewers? You came in the sewers?”
Orion nodded, a pained expression leaking onto his face.
I couldn’t help but ask the next question. “Did you…eat rats?”
Orion busted up laughing. “No. I wasn’t about to let Ice eat rats. I brought enough food, carried it in a p
ack.” He became serious then. “I am glad for all of that military training my dad made me do. I could carry enough food and water for both of us.” He wrinkled his brow. “But there were rats everywhere. I don’t care if I never see another one in my life.”
“Why didn’t you come get me?” I asked next, my voice whiny. I still hadn’t forgotten about the time I spent alone, wondering where he had gone, the pain and loneliness of it all, how confused I had been.
He chortled, his blue eyes glimmering in the morning light. “How? I couldn’t steal Ice and you without being caught. I knew you were smart enough to get here.” His eyes met mine. “Ice was at their mercy.”
Orion went on to explain how he and his father had a terrible fight after his dad told him he was being enrolled in the military the following morning. Of course, his dad tried to hit Orion, but it was the last blow he took. Orion left his dad in a crumpled pile, stalking out of their apartment.
“Oh Gods, Orion,” I gasped. I traced my finger over a scar by his eye, knowing without asking that his father had finally crossed the line, hitting Orion in that perfect face instead of his back and chest like he always had before.
Orion cupped my face in his hands and kissed me softly. Although I knew he was distracting me, I had more questions.
“How did you become leader here?”
He chuckled out loud. “Well, Ice was a benefit, for sure. In case you haven’t noticed there are a whopping seven children in this band, including Ice.”
“They made you leader because of Ice?”
“No, they accepted me because of Ice. They made me leader because I head-butted one of those mutants and killed it. I cut its fingers off, and it was more than anybody else in the band had. Between Ice and the twelve fingers, I was in.” He grinned sloppily at me, and I couldn’t help but laugh. “Oh, and my name happened to be Orion.”
“What does that have to do with anything?”
“The Blue Spectrum Band worships the constellation Orion…the hunter. I didn’t think to use a different name. Just got lucky, I guess.”
“Troll killed a mutant the same way. He told me he saw some big guy do it from the tunnel entrance. Was it you?”
He shrugged. “Might have been.”
I thought for a few minutes about the mutants and the lack of children. “Why don’t they have babies here?” I asked him.
He shrugged again. “I don’t know…but I bet some sexy scientist can figure it out.”
“Who?” I asked innocently.
He huffed. “You, who else? These guys here aren’t exactly rocket scientists.” He nibbled on my ear. “You’re the only one who’s had enough training to figure it out.”
“Thanks for putting that burden on me!”
“You just make sure the Peanut is born healthy and we’ll worry about that later.”
“Orion?” I had asked. He turned toward me. “Nobody has S.L.A.G. here. Why is that?”
Orion’s big chest heaved. “I knew you were going to figure that out.” He hesitated, as if what he was saying was painful. “After I…uh…pummeled my dad, I tapped into his tablet. I saw some shit that I wasn’t supposed to.”
“What?” I pushed. “What did you see?”
“It was just a stupid Administration experiment.”
“What?”
“S.L.A.G.” He sucked in some air. “It always has been. Just one dumb assed experiment.”
Orion continued, his eyes huge and sad. “They started it in Asia. They were trying to make a super smart human gene. Some babies were injected and followed through time. They were really smart, especially in math and science, and of course, other countries wanted the gene.” He paused, taking in another deep breath. “Only we got it all wrong. Our babies were inoculated without consent. Nothing really happened at first but then they started to react differently…they were almost too smart. That’s what made them S.L.A.G.”
“Oh, Gods, no,” those poor babies. I thought about all of the people with S.L.A.G. who were housed in the Clinic back home.
“It gets worse,” Orion added.
“How could it get worse?” I shrieked.
“The gene mutated on its own. Pretty soon babies that hadn’t been inoculated were getting S.L.A.G. There was no rhyme or reason to it. Nobody knew what to do, so the mandates were formed.”
“That’s why Ice has S.L.A.G. but Snow doesn’t?”
He nodded sadly. “Yep.”
“But how is it that Ice is talking now?” I pressed. “How is it that he’s getting better?”
“There is a library here.”
“What’s that?”
“A place where they have a bunch of books.”
I knew what books were, and it didn’t seem to make much sense. Books were just made up stories. “How could that help Ice?” I asked him, confused.
“I found this book about a researcher a long time ago who was getting excellent results with autism. That’s what they called it back then.”
“But books are just made up stories.” I argued.
“Not all of them.” Orion’s eyes were bluer than I had ever seen them. “This lady had the autistic kids do some exercises every day. So I started having Ice do them. Pretty soon he started getting better.”
I stopped for a minute to think. It was wrong. All wrong. “So there is a cure?”
“Well, not really a cure. But help. That’s for sure.”
“So, all of the people with S.L.A.G. in the Clinic could do these exercises and get better?”
“I guess, Rain. Shit, I was just messing around. You’re the scientist, not me.”
His face froze then.
“What?” I asked. I knew Orion was hiding something else.
He sighed as if his very insides were hurting. His voice was shaky when he told me the next part. “Snow and Ice are LASTS.”
What was he talking about? “I know that.”
His eyes blazed at me, only this time with blue coolness. He looked down, afraid to meet my gaze. “Every baby that has been born since then…a non-biological conception…” In frustration, he ripped his hand through his blonde hair.”
“What?” I reached for his other hand. Whatever he had to say couldn’t be much worse than what he just told me.
“They don’t live very long.”
“What do you mean?”
“They die, usually by the time they are seven or eight years old.”
My heart fell into my bulging stomach. “Sun and Storm,” I hissed.
Orion nodded, his eyes so sad that I didn’t think I could take it.
“They’re going to die?”
He nodded again.
“Oh, Gods, we need to stop them.” I thought of Dove, my dad, how much they adored the toddlers. I brought my hand to my mouth, horrified. “There must be a way to fix it,” I stammered. “The Administration. My mother…”
Orion stared at the floor as if it had the answers to our problems.
“We’ll go back for them, he whispered, holy-like, reverently. “The Rebel Fighters have been at war against each other…instead of the Administration, like before. The bands aren’t unified. We need to get the Red Spectrum Band to join us. Then we’ll go get your family.” He lifted his head. “Right now we can’t…it’s just too dangerous.”
I kissed him then, my heart swelling with love and a desire I couldn’t begin to explain.
Ice came crashing through the room and landed directly on Orion, and I knew my other questions would have to wait.
But it didn’t matter. At some point Snow and Ice would be together again, like they should have been from the start. I would have the rest of my family with me. And somehow, I would find a way to save Sun and Storm and all of the other unnaturally conceived babies. After the Peanut was born, was big enough, I could pour myself into finding a cure for them, just as I was planning on finding a cure for S.L.A.G.
I could also work on figuring out why these people in the Blue Spectrum Band were sterile. It al
l had to be figured out. I sighed, knowing it would have to be postponed.
For once, I didn’t mind. If waiting for Orion had taught me one thing, it was patience. But the library, if I could start reading books, then maybe it would help. It was something I could start on right away.
“Orion?”
His eyes were softer, melting through me. “Yeah?”
“Can you take me to the library?”
He laughed then and pulled me into an embrace. “I knew you’d ask me that, and yes, of course I will.”
Chapter 55
War
I found some jerky and apples, a quick breakfast for us before our claiming ceremony. I had already dressed in the most exquisite robe of all, beads and elaborate stitching decorating it like a delicate work of art. I wasn’t really hungry, the baby filling up most of my stomach, but Orion insisted that I eat.
He, too was dressed in a similar robe, and I caught my breath at the sight of him. The blue brought out the color of his eyes, and his hair was getting longer, tied back with a leather band. Somehow the star tattoos blended it all together.
I was edgy and uncomfortable, ready to get the ceremony over with and get back home to rest. It wouldn’t be long before the baby would be born. I still worried about him having S.L.A.G.
I spent a good part of each day reading books from the library, and I was starting to figure out a plan. It just wasn’t happening fast enough.
We were gathered around the table, and Ice was chattering in full sentences. Every day he became better at speaking, and sometimes I thought that I was actually talking to Snow. Ice had two friends, and after the claiming ceremony they were coming over for a play date. Orion had volunteered to supervise, because I could barely find my feet anymore, much less oversee three rowdy boys.
I still marveled at how Ice was interacting with the boys, the change in him from when he lived in the Clinic, a gift that Orion gave me, more special than the ring studded with silver stars that I wore on my left hand. Orion wore a similar one, only quite bigger. We had decided to have our own private ceremony with Ice, exchanging rings like ancient cultures did. I had remembered reading about it in our history classes. It seemed fitting. The claiming ceremony we were preparing for didn’t matter to us. It was for the people in the Blue Spectrum Band. In our eyes, Orion and I were already marriage partners.
