by Leyton, Bisi
A few nights later, Wisteria was locking up the library. The empty building unsettled her since she was still getting used to her new, safer job. A part of her missed being outside and learning to cope out there. She wondered now if she would ever learn the skills she needed to return to her father. Heading down from the third floor, she was startled to see Bach standing at the bottom of the stairwell. “Ah,” she cried. “You scared me.”
“The door was unlocked,” he said before she asked.
“Oh.”
He looked different. Maybe it was because he was now wearing jeans and a t-shirt, giving up his more formal 1930’s look. But that wasn’t it. She could not place it; perhaps it was because she hadn’t seen him in a while. Since she had stood up to Coles, she hadn’t set eyes on him. That was a mean feat in a community as small as the Isle of Smythe. Then again, it was Bach. Hadn’t Hailey also been scarce the last couple of days? Her jealousy rose up again and she shoved it away. “How are you?” she asked as she descended the steps. “How are Garfield and Felip? How’s Hailey?”
“How can you defend someone like Coles?” he demanded while not answering her questions.
“Bach, he’s important to me,” Wisteria said softly as she continued to make her way down the stairs. He blocked her path.
“Are you scared of him? Because I can make him very afraid of me.”
“You’re in my way.”
“Wisteria, don’t go.” His hand held her forearm. “What does he have on you? He treats everyone like they are nothing, even you, and you still stand up for him. Why?”
“You won’t understand.”
“Help me to. Please.” He let go of her hands.
Grimacing, she explained, “When we first got here, it wasn’t like this. You wouldn’t believe what it was like when the leadership council ran everything, before the soldiers got here.”
“Okay, so tell me.”
“The community was rough. Everyone had a gun or knife on them at all times. Some people hoarded food, some stole, some traded drugs, but the only thing everyone agreed on? No one was allowed across the bridge from the mainland. When the food ran out, things went from rough to toxic.” Wisteria became uneasy as she remembered.
“What changed?”
“Nothing at first—we tried to manage. Then, the leaders started trading with the sea merchants.” Wisteria shook her head and sat down on the steps. “Everyone thought they were our salvation, because they had so much food. But whenever the merchants arrived they took over and they did whatever or whoever they wanted on the island.”
“Did they do something to you?” Bach crouched down in front of her.
She closed her eyes to stop the tears that were building up in her eyes. “My mother and a few other women too, she still won’t talk about it.”
“No.”
“Yes, at one point, she cut one of the men’s faces and he broke her arm, but at least she survived.”
Bach was speechless.
“Anyway, the island soon ran out of anything to trade with the merchants.”
“So they left?”
“The town hall gave the pirates people—in exchange for food and weapons.”
“What? You cannot be serious!”
Wisteria forced a smile, not because she was happy but because it was helping to control her tears. “I wish I wasn’t. They didn’t even tell us who they were exchanging. Sir Davenport set up the first trade and one night, five women were taken. My mother tried to help them, but she still had a broken arm. They beat us both pretty badly.”
“And the five women?”
“We never saw them again,” she said. “Then Coles and the soldiers arrived. They were passing through en route to Luton Airport and just wanted to rest. They stayed a few weeks and left. After the soldiers were gone, town hall set up another trade and my mother was chosen to go,” Wisteria choked out. “Men from the town broke into the shelter we were living in at the time. They dragged her out. David and I tried to fight them, but there too many. One woman told me not to worry, that I’d be in the next batch.”
“What happened to her? How did she escape?” Bach wiped another tear that ran down the side of her face and then rested his hands on her knees.
“She didn’t. Even she can’t take on five people with a broken arm. I followed them to the dock where they started to load her and three others onto their ship. The merchants’ leader told her she’d pay for cutting him. My mother spat in his face.” Wisteria laughed proudly. “Then, he punched her and starting hitting her.”
“And no one stopped him?”
“Someone shot him in the head,” Wisteria answered.
“Who?”
“Coles,” she continued. “When the news got to Coles about the trade, his men came back. There was a shootout between the soldiers and the merchants. Eventually, the soldiers stopped the merchants and sank their ship. But Coles’s brother, Heath, died in the fight. He saved my mother’s life.”
“So you owe them.”
“Everyone on the island does, if they’re honest. The army took charge. Coles set up the factory so we could trade medicines with other merchants. He got the farms working so we grow more of our food. The soldiers built the wall around the town and set up the patrols, the quarantine center, with actual doctors, the school,” she informed him. “That was them. Everything from the trackers, guards, and the work plan, so people work on the farms and everyone pulls their weight. They did it all. We’ve had a bad winter, but we never run out of food.”
“I see.” Bach looked troubled.
“We’re free to go anywhere except for Barton Lake and Mulberry Orchard,” she said. “I just wish they were here before those animals touched my mother. After that, she became a tracker and started picking fights with everyone. Now almost everyone in town is afraid of her. I’ll be lucky if I’m half as scary as she is.” This time, she chuckled.
Wisteria knew her mother had changed since the madness started. Wisteria used to wish her mother was more like the other Smythe mothers who seemed to be content to wait in the community while the guys went out and were trackers and soldiers. She stopped wishing that when she realized her mother was tougher than most of the men in Smythe.
“So he has free rein to attack people?” Bach rubbed her neck.
Wisteria gazed into Bach’s sad eyes and then nodded. “When my mother found out that Blair pushed me down, man, she was mad enough for ten people,” Wisteria informed him. “She sprained her wrist and dislocated Blair’s shoulder.”
“You mother does not feel she owes Blair?”
“It’s different with Coles.” She’d no idea the extent of the history between Coles and her mother, but it did seem they were often coming close to blows. “Even though now they’re always fighting, she trusts Coles more than anyone else here. If anything happens to her, she says we should go to him. And my mother doesn’t trust anybody.”
“Yes, she looks very intense.”
“Intense?”
“In a good way, kind of like you.” He grinned broadly.
“Me?” Wisteria scoffed. “That’s rich coming from you.” When he teased her it really scared her, she felt like he actually cared about her.
He laughed.
She liked the sound of his laughter too. Oh, boy, Wisteria, get a grip.
As his emerald eyes bored into her, Wisteria finally realized she was in love with this strange young man. “I need to get home.” She bit her lip as she became acutely aware she was very alone with him.
He moved closer—and closer.
* * * * *
Bach couldn’t let her go. “Wait, do not go Wisteria, we need to talk about us.” Grasping her arms gently, he felt as if someone else was talking. Realizing he should walk away, he knew he could not. Bach had tried to take Mrs. Kuti’s threat seriously and stay away from Wisteria. He knew that finding the obsidian coral would be easier without Wisteria’s mother breathing down his neck. So he’d kept his distance fro
m Wisteria for a few days, but he was tired of it.
“Okay,” she whispered.
Leaning in to kiss her, he stopped himself. The Family had harsh laws about relationships between them and humans, and they had even harsher punishments. While he’d face judgment if they were caught, Wisteria would be tortured or worse. A vision of such a judgment flooded his mind. When he was a child, Bach saw it with his father, a Sen, along with the six other Elders as they passed judgment on a woman for marrying a Terran man. Bach didn’t remember the exact punishment, but he’d never seen as much blood as he did that day. He had nightmares about it for years.
“Wisteria, I cannot.” He needed to finish what he’d come for and stop getting distracted. “I need you to tell me where you got the red stone you gave Enric. It is important to me.” His faycard appeared in his left hand, but he hid it away. Renewing her was out of the question, even though it would cause her to tell him exactly what he wanted to know.
“That’s why you came? You wanted something from me?” She appeared disappointed, but then she seemed to try to hide it behind a smile.
“I need the red stone. I need your help to find it.”
“Why?”
“To make another necklace.”
“I don’t want a necklace.”
“It is not for you. It is for Hailey.” It was a pathetic lie, but the Terrans could never know what obsidian coral really was. If Wisteria hated him, it would make it easier for him to let her go.
It took her a few seconds to appreciate what he was saying. “For Hailey?” She let out a false laugh. “And you expect me to help you?”
* * * * *
Wisteria knew she sounded desperate. Let him go and be the bigger person. But she knew Bach wanted to be with her. Well, she thought he did, but now he just stood there saying nothing.
The longer he waited, quietly watching, the more she learned she was wrong. She realized there was no point in trying or hoping that things would be different. She was Wisteria Kuti. Love never happened to her. “Barton Lake,” she capitulated while feeling depressed. “That’s where I found it.” It was the one time she managed to sneak into the lake. She had swum alone for several hours until a few kids came and stole her clothes.
“I have been there several times and I have never seen it.”
“Did you go into the water?”
“No.”
“I found the rock underwater. You’ll have to reach to the very bottom of the pond. The south most edge, you’ll find what you want.”
The library’s front doors opened. Steven came in, soaked from the rain outside.
“Steven, hi,” Wisteria sang, jumping up. “What are you doing back here?”
“Hey, Ria?” He shook out the water from his umbrella. “I thought I’d walk you home. Actually, I promised your mum.”
“Thanks. You’re a life saver.” She knew he was lying, but right now, she would’ve followed him or almost anyone to get away from Bach.
“What are you doing here?” Steven stared at Bach. “Does Hailey know you’re here? I heard you and my ex-girlfriend were spending a lot of time together.” He glanced at Wisteria. “Every night this week at the lake.”
“Okay, Steven,” she said calmly, in an attempt to appear unbothered. “But why are you telling me this?”
“Just in case the player is making additional plans.”
“No, I know he’s dating Hailey. But right now, there are far more important things for me to deal with than who you guys are dating.”
Bach remaind silent.
“Listen Bach, I’m not going to keep you.” She moved away from him. “We can talk another time.”
Although his face remained expressionless and he said nothing, Bach’s fist clenched. “Wisteria,” he muttered.
“Let’s go, Steven.” She smiled brightly. “I didn’t bring an umbrella. Goodnight, Bach.”
“Wisteria, it is complicated,” she heard him say as she bounded down the stairs with Steven.
“Bach, you’ve got to go so we can lock up,” Steven called out. “Don’t worry. I’ll take good care of her.”
He took out the playing card he always carried with him, and she thought she saw the tips of his fingers turn blue, but then the card was gone.
“Seriously, you need to go,” Steven commanded, oblivious to the blue light or the card, as the rain poured all around them.
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
Completely drenched, Bach emerged from Barton Lake after almost twenty minutes, while trying to appear calm.
Waiting on the bank was Felip, who laughed as Bach approached, carrying a bagful of the scarlet coral to add to the small pile of obsidian Bach had fished out of Barton Lake.
“Is that all of it?” Felip asked.
“Yes.” Bach concealed his anger over Wisteria running off with some boy. If he’d just renewed her then she would be fine and she wouldn’t have any interest in anyone else. As for Steven, Bach should renew him as well, and send him off to meet the infected. He was livid over all of it and frustrated that he just didn’t do what he’d been taught—just renew her.
“You never thought to check down here before?” Felip said for the seventeenth time as Bach dropped the last of the coral he found. “All the times you were communing with the Terran girls?”
“Obsidian coral becomes unstable underwater. I did not think to look there. The coral should have turned black.”
“This is not the Jade Ocean. Something about this environment makes these thrive.” Felip picked up one of the corals. “These are three times as large as they should be.” He tapped the coral with his faycard and the card glowed. “It seems fine.”
“Hmm.” Bach took the obsidian coral and pulsed it with his blue light. The stone glowed. “Strange.” Suddenly, he dropped to his knees, out of breath.
“What is wrong?”
The world seemed to be spinning around him. “I do not know, but it will pass. I am fine.” Bach looked around and his vision was returning to normal. “How do you think the obsidian got here?”
“There is enough obsidian here to send a hundred of us home. Why would the Terrans have this? It is useless to them. Even with the obsidian, they could never survive the journey,” Felip wondered.
“Somehow, your ancestor did it.” Bach panted. “No one knows how he got to the Jade Ocean.” He immediately regretted the remark as being part human was a great humiliation to Felip.
“I will ask him when I die.”
“I am sorry, Felip. I was not trying to be a vadda. What if they found a way to pass to our realm without being renewed? We know at least one free Terran has done that. With this much obsidian, they could be planning something.”
“Maybe they are very, very stupid. After all, Wisteria wore it as jewelry.”
“You are probably right. Still, we should not take any chances.” Bach got to his feet and lost his balance slightly.
“What is wrong with you?”
“She still bathes in strangle weed.” He shook his head to regain his focus.
“You need to tell her to stop.” Felip inspected Bach’s eyes. “That should not be a problem now that she is your Thayn. Let her know the strangle weed could kill you.”
“I just need to regenerate again.”
“Yes, but you need to make sure you set her straight about this. What is the point of renewing her if you cannot get her to do what you want?”
“I did not renew her.”
Angrily, Felip’s eyes widened and Bach could see his pupils dilated almost to the size of his iris. “You are in love with her?”
“Never,” Bach said fiercely. “I do not know what happened.”
“And how does she feel about you?”
“Her feelings are not important. I could not renew her because the strangle weed’s poison was inside my system.”
“Are you certain that is the only reason? If Enric or the others hear you are in love with a Terran…” Felip laughed. “You must know expos
ure to strangle weed can mess with your mind.”
“Nothing has actually happened.” Bach turned his attention back to the stack of coral nearby. “We have to get this back to Enric. We will go on foot.”
“Why? We will take our vehicle in the morning. It will be faster and the Terrans will not care if we leave. I am even certain your friend Coles will be thrilled.”
Bach wasn’t ready to leave Smythe at that moment. “But we may not be able to come back, if they discover the obsidian coral gone. We can go and return before they realize we have left.”
“Why would you want to return here? For your Terran? If you want to, why not just take her? They will not let you take her without a fight. When that happens, the Thayn usually gets killed.”
“I am not strong enough to take her with me now and renew her. She will fight me, if I tried. Take the coral to Enric and let me regenerate. Tomorrow I will renew her.”
“You do not need a lot of energy to wipe her mind. That is why you Inos have the faycard. I can help you regenerate so you can renew her now.”
“Felip, by then the sun would be up and we will not be able to leave.”
“Why are you making up pathetic reasons for not wanting to renew the damn Terran? You will not be the first one that really likes a Thayn. You will learn to live with it. Just renew her or leave her to breed with other Terrans. I see the way she looks at the golden-haired boy. Steven Hindle? Garfield tells me Steven would like to breed with her.”
“D’cara, Felip!” Bach swore and flung one of the sacks of obsidian coral at his friend. “This discussion is over!” The breeding comment was disgusting. But Bach couldn’t leave Wisteria here to be with someone else. At the same time, he could never be with her either, but how could he, a Sen-Son, want a free Terran girl so much? It was revolting, even though he did love her, or he thought that he did. No, it was the strangle weed messing with his mind.
They started placing the last of the rocks into his messenger bag. They heard some rustling. Someone was moving in the trees.
