by Leyton, Bisi
“What’s this?” Enric noticed the red stone pendant hanging around her neck.
She scanned the room, puzzled by what had just happened.
Picking up the pendant, he studied it like it was some sort of amazing find.
“It’s just a rock.” She tried to pry the stone away from his grasp.
“Where did you get it?” He broke the woven chain apart, causing the red stone to fall to the ground.
“I made it from some rock I found a few months ago.” Looking to retrieve it from the ground, she saw that it was already in his hand. “Enric, give that to me.” Reaching for the pendant, fury was building onside of her, but she had be smart and know when to pick her battles. There was no point getting upset over the necklace she made for a boy who never cared about her anyway. “You know what? Forget it.”
She decided that staying in the room with Enric wasn’t an option, so she headed out.
Piper stood in the doorway. The taller girl was red-eyed and she looked furious. Her contorted face and clenched fists was obvious enough to Wisteria. She was definitely Enric’s girlfriend.
“What are you doing with him?” Piper bawled. “Why was he touching you like that?”
“Wisteria was telling me how much she wants to please me, Piper. Were you not?”
“Are you crazy?” Wisteria swung her shocked gaze over and saw him studying the red stone he took from her. “No, I wasn’t telling him anything like that. I’m leaving.”
“Actually, you are going to be our guest a lot longer.” Enric snatched Wisteria’s arm, pulling her back.
“Stay away from me!” Wisteria struggled to break free.
Then, abruptly, Enric let go.
She landed on the ground, but clamored to her feet in time to spot Enric walking toward the window.
“Nice sword. You never thanked me for returning it to you.” Enric pulled the sword out of the holster. “Bach thought it was a bad idea, but I suppose a girl needs a knife.” He examined the blade and ran his thumb down the edge.
The blade was very sharp and she marveled that he wasn’t bleeding.
“Here is your toy. It should keep you busy for a while. After all, Wisteria, you could be here for a long time.” He tossed the sword at Wisteria’s feet and walked out.
She started shutting the door behind him, but Piper swung it back open.
“Cow, you get out of my house,” Piper warned.
Wisteria looked into Piper’s dead gray eyes. They looked as fearful as Wisteria felt.
“I don’t know what you’re doing to Enric, but you’ve got to stop. He has changed since you arrived. He’s going to send me away, now that you’re here.”
“You’re not making any sense! Piper, please go. I promise I will go the first chance I get. Trust me. Bach, I mean, Enric, is the last thing on my mind right now.”
“You’re trying to change everything.” Piper brushed her long, wild hair out of her eyes. “Enric told me, Bach’s never going to let you leave. They’re going to keep you here and I’ll be cast out. Please go now!”
Wisteria’s heart broke a bit for the girl’s plea, and if she could, she would be gone in a second, but there were tens of thousands of biters on their doorstep.
“You’ve come from somewhere nice. I don’t have anywhere to go. I’ll die out there if Enric sends me away.” Piper’s body shook as tears ran down her cheeks. “He’s everything to me and he doesn’t even care.”
“Did he do this?” Wisteria pointed at Piper’s black eye, letting the now docile girl into her room.
“It was an accident.”
“Oh.” Wisteria doubted that. “If we survive the swarm, I’ll be gone. You can come with me.”
“I hate the way he treats me, but I can’t leave him.” Scratching nervously at her arms, she moved to the window.
“You’re in love with him?”
“I don’t think so, but the idea of leaving him terrifies me in a way I can’t describe. When I’m not with him I fell like my mind is on fire. He saved my life.”
“How?”
“My convoy was being attacked by biters. He came and asked me what I wanted more than anything in the world. I said I needed to live. He showed me what my life would be like with him and after that I’ve always needed him.”
“So you do love him?” Wisteria inched toward the sword that was far too close to the wild girl’s grasp.
“I need him and he made it clear: it’s either you or me.” Tears began to roll down her cheeks.
“He was joking.” Wisteria inched closer to her weapon.
“No, he wasn’t.” Piper suddenly wielded what looked like a bowie knife.
As Piper lunged at her, Wisteria dove to the sword. Taking her weapon, she scrambled behind the bed.
Piper jumped on the bed and lunged toward her.
Pulling the bed sheets hard, Wisteria knocked the redhead over.
“I’m going to kill you,” Piper screamed as she tumbled to the floor. “Terran rat!”
“Stop this!” Running to the fallen girl, she struck Piper with her holstered sword, knocking her and the knife back to floor.
Piper recovered quickly and scrambled to her feet. “I’ll kill you.”
The only way Wisteria could respond was by hitting the irate girl harder with the covered sword.
Toppling to the ground, she wiped blood from her forehead and scurried to reclaim her knife.
Wisteria kicked it under the bed.
This made Piper snarl and jump at Wisteria.
Wisteria swung at her with both hands on the sword while quickly dropping low and jabbing her attacker’s left knee with the steel handle of her sword.
The taller girl wailed and fell back down, squirming in pain. “Terran rat, I’ll kill you!”
“Are you insane?” Wisteria yelled and decided that she’d had enough. She was going to beat this girl.
Bach appeared in the doorway. “Stop. What the hell happened?” Looking around, his gaze fell to her sword. “Wisteria, what did you do?”
“Me? Piper was the one who attacked me because of Enric or something.”
“Where did you get this?” He took the sword away from her.
“It’s mine.” She yanked it back.
Gripping her sword, he pulled it. “You cannot carry weapons in here.”
“I didn’t know you had rules here.”
“Bach, don’t tell Enric we fought. He’ll be so angry. Please, Eminent?” Piper implored, falling at Bach’s feet.
“Please give me the blade or we are going to have a problem.” His green eyes darkened while his grip on the sword stiffened.
“A problem?” She couldn’t believe any of this. “That crazy girl wanted to stab me with a knife.” Was he going to throw her out to the biters, too?
“I brought you into my home and you have beaten her in less than a day. I will do what I need to do to protect those living here and it starts with you giving me the knife,” he ordered.
Wisteria let go of the sword and he took it.
“Funny, that you don’t protect her from Enric,” Wisteria quipped and pointed at Piper, but the other girl was gone.
“So you beat her? Like an animal?” Bach turned back to her.
“She attacked me with a knife. Go ahead and check, it’s under there.” She pointed at the bed.
Bach looked under the bed where he located Piper’s knife. “Piper will not come back here.” He stormed away.
* * * * *
Enric was shooting golf balls off the roof when Bach found him. His Terran, Piper, sat on the ground at his feet.
“I am so bored. Was it like this when you were on Terra as a child?” Enric moaned as he drove another ball over the edge and into the sky. “Bach, let us go up North again.”
“Enric, if I leave during the swarm, the biters might kill me,” the girl pleaded.
“I was not talking to you,” Enric snapped at her and turned to Bach. “Your Terran seems strong, I am sure s
he will at least last the trip to Glasgow. Once up there, we will find you someone much prettier.” He hit another golf ball over the edge.
It sailed through the sky and disappeared in the gray clouds overhead.
Bach seized the golf club from Enric’s grasp and flung it over the edge.
“Bach, are you insane?” Enric boomed.
“You set your Terran on Wisteria!” Bach yelled.
“Huh?” He looked perplexed for a moment, and then he smiled. “I did not send Piper anywhere, but your Terran did break mine, apparently. Now I have to find another one and you know how hard that can be.”
“How did she get a hold of your danor?” Bach showed him the knife he found under Wisteria’s bed. This particular danor was one of a pair of ceremonial daggers Bach had given to Enric and Felip as gifts at the start of the Great Walk.
“Piper stole it.”
“She is your Thayn, so she could never do anything without your permission.”
“I suppose she got carried away when I told her I was going to release her. If I remember correctly, you insisted. Honestly, I never thought Piper would kill someone.” Enric seemed impressed with his Terran.
“What did you say to her, exactly?”
“Bach, why do you care? I do not see the problem. They are just Terrans. They are animals and animals fight. Do not blame me for the way they choose to act. You think your pet is somehow blameless in this?”
“You gave Wisteria back her knife and you gave your Terran your knife. What were you hoping would happen?”
“Nothing happened. Something is happening to you, though. What is wrong with you? You have never talked to me like this about Piper, even after Felip complained a million times. Why now?”
“Because now I am tired of you torturing your Terran.” Bach always detested the way Enric treated her, but now Enric seemed keen to treat Wisteria badly, too.
“I will keep my Terran away from Wisteria and I will take better care of my danor,” Enric chortled. “I hope you do the same with yours.”
Bach grimaced.
“If she does this again then I will send her away,” Enric proposed. “Or at least until I can get another one from Glasgow or Windermere, and I will release her then.”
“Fine,” Bach reluctantly agreed and turned away.
“A question, Bach,” Enric called out. “I assume we are keeping your Terran here for the foreseeable future.”
Bach heard the smirk in Enric’s voice. “Yes.”
“Well, then, this is now your problem.” His friend handed him what appeared to be obsidian coral.
“Where did you find this?” Bach examined the warm scarlet rock closely. It was much larger than the slices they used to journey.
“Your Terran brought this with her. She made it from a coral she found on her island.”
“That is impossible. The Terrans do not have obsidian coral. Are you sure it is real?”
To prove his point, Enric took out his faycard. The faycard was a powerful focal point of energy for a Famila. While it was great for playing simple tricks on children and Terrans, it was mostly used by the Ino caste to renew free Terrans, turning them into Thayns.
He tapped it on the red stone. The faycard card started to glow as the stone tried to draw on its power.
“How did she get this?” Bach stared in disbelief.
“She has no clue what it is, but she made it from rocks on her island. We need to get the rest of it before the Terran figure out what it is.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Returning to look for Wisteria, Bach found her searching the kitchen for something. She was rummaging through the drawers and cabinets. Then, she tucked a long wooden spoon and one of his metal tools in her backpack.
“You are stealing from me,” he accused as he walked into the kitchen.
“It’ll only be a matter of time before some biters make it through here.” She hobbled away from him.
“You have lived through an overrun. You know if the infected were to get in, they would have gotten in here by now. We are safe here.” Whoa, she smelled incredible now that the poisons she’d smeared on herself had worn off. Her scent reminded him of… What did she remind him of?
“Of course,” she mumbled unconvincingly and then nodded, her braids framing her face.
This was disappointing, as he felt that she used to trust him implicitly at one time. Unless this was part of the game she was playing with him all along. If this was a game, she was going to lose in a big way.
Bach didn’t know when he decided to renew her, but seeing Enric trying to make a play for her decided it for him. He had indeed seen Enric go into her room and Bach felt obligated to ensure his guest was safe. Enric had tried to use his faycard and attempted to lull Wisteria into asking for something.
Furious to see Enric starting the renewal and powerless to stop it, Bach had left the hallway outside of Wisteria’s door. Part of him wanted to know if Wisteria would allow Enric to renew her. Fortunately, Enric’s attempt failed, and she didn’t surrender to him, but Bach wouldn’t risk Enric or another Famila trying the same thing.
“I heard you and your friend arguing up there.” She was inching away from him. “What were you arguing about?”
You. He closed the space between them. “He was not treating his Terran properly. We had to discuss it.”
“His Terran? I thought her name was Piper?” Backing toward the living area, she pretended to smile.
From his experience with Terrans, they hated being called Terran.
“What happened to her? Do you know why she’s so crazy?” she asked.
“It is complicated.” The renewal was never something he discussed with Terrans. Their minds weren’t designed to assimilate such knowledge.
“I can only imagine what she’s been through.” Biting at her lip, she closed her eyes. “If things were different I’d say she should leave him.” Her eyes shot open and her expression looked sad.
“You are right. She should be with more people and taking her back with you might be the best solution for her,” he admitted.
“Really?” She smiled a little.
“If you think your people can help her.”
She seemed to release a slow breath.
“You look relieved.” Bach sensed that she seemed happier.
“Enric was telling me that you weren’t going to let me leave.”
“Would staying here be that bad?”
“Hmm.” She looked as if she were trying to choose her words. “No. Yeah, it would be great. I’d like to first get back to my family—or my mum will be out of her mind. You guys can come. They’d be eager to know how you managed to travel eighty miles in this. The soldiers would be eager to learn how you knew about the swarm.” She rambled.
“I do not integrate well with you Terrans.”
“Why do you call everyone Terran? Can you not call me that?” Trying to back further away, she discovered she was trapped between him and a counter.
Looking to his right hand, he glanced at his faycard. A blue light, what they called the pulse, weaved through his fingers as he lifted up the card. He had sworn he would never renew a Terran, but Wisteria was too important to let her just go free. Uncovering what she was hiding was imperative. Being from the Ino caste, he could renew her and keep her mental and emotional balance, if he wanted to. There was no risk she would end up like Enric’s Terran. No, Bach hated creating Thayns, not because he didn’t want Terrans serving him, but because he believed Terrans needed to be destroyed. They were a plague on everything they touched. “I use the name to describe human people,” he clarified as he stepped even closer to her.
“Oh.” Her reply was short and she now looked very fearful.
“What do you want more than anything in the world?” He’d ask her one wish, show her an image of it and in exchange for the glimpse of the life she wanted, she’d agree for him to renew her. This was going to hurt her more than anything she’d ever feel, but she’
d soon forget the pain.
“Are you okay?” she asked. “You’re sweating and it’s not that hot here.”
“I do not sweat.” Unless some of the poisonous lotion she wore when she arrived was still on her?
“No, you’re really sweating.” She ran her finger down the side of his face.
“Do not touch me.” Removing her hand from his skin, he was stunned to see his sweat on her fingers. Trying to make sense of it, his vision blurred for a second, but he shook his head and it cleared up. “What if I could give one thing to you, what would you want?”
“You can let me go.” Her eyes dropped to his hand now gripped around her wrist. “Once the swarm below leaves, you can take me back to Smythe.”
“What if I show you your island now?” Raising his faycard, before her dark eyes, he asked, “What would you want?”
Entranced, she stared at the card.
“Wisteria, what do you see?”
“Home?” she whispered. “I see my parents, together with David.”
In a few seconds, she would be fully entranced and would give her free will over to him. Bach, stop! he heard her say, not the Wisteria in front of him, but her voice echoing from his past. Bach moved the card out of Wisteria’s line of sight.
Her eyes followed it until he put it in his pocket. Blinking, she shook her head. As she looked at his empty hands, she saw his fingers glowing blue. “What—what are you?” She was clearly repulsed and clambered over the counter to get away from him.
Watching her run from the room, he wondered at his own actions.
“Bach, you lost your nerve?” Felip was standing behind him.
CHAPTER EIGHT
Wisteria raced through the penthouse, desperate for a way out, hoping that somehow she’d fare better on the streets with the swarm of flesh eaters. Reaching the dark corridor that led to the stairwell, she saw the door was chained and padlocked. Shaking the door in attempt to force it open, nothing happened. As she ran to the other end, she passed Bach. He didn’t seem interested in chasing her; instead he handed her the sword.
