When he’d been growing up in Thyre, he’d had a long-term crush on Quentin Thicke, a beautiful blond man who worked with the construction crews in town. The guy would be taking a break from one of his jobs, sweat dripping off his brow and onto his muscular, hairy chest, and Dax would just watch him.
But the man had never even noticed that he existed. Probably not on our team either.
Still, a boy could dream.
Now, though, things with Kiryn were moving fast.
Somehow in the course of one night, they’d had their first real date, he’d been introduced to Kiryn’s family, and he’d gotten in a mess of trouble with a coven of witches, if Gordon’s tale were true.
Does Earth really exist? His entire life, he’d listened to his father, to all the reasons there couldn’t have been an Old Earth. It was too big. How would everything not spin off, atmosphere and people included?
If it was so great, why would humankind have left?
He had taken it as an article of faith that Forever was the only place where people like him existed, and yet Kiryn seemed so sure that Earth was more than a myth or legend. That they had all come from some ball of rock and air and water spinning around a great fireball in the sky.
He snorted softly. It sounded like science fiction.
He stroked Kiryn’s dark hair gently. It was too soon to use big words like love and commitment. Way too soon.
Nevertheless, Dax could imagine a future with him. This one is special.
Dax closed his eyes, imagining fantastical round worlds spinning against a backdrop of little fires.
Soon enough, he was asleep too.
BELYNN PRESSED her back against the log walls of the Vaughn dormitory, crouched down below a screen of jerrywood bushes. The whole boy-girl dorm thing was archaic. I suppose Earth ways die hard. But actual Earthers apparently didn’t.
She was still trying to wrap her mind around Gordon’s situation. How had he gotten there? What had that green fire been, and the people who had sent him, how had they done it? Had a bit of Old Earth somehow survived the Collapse?
Or was Dax right and the whole thing was a thicket of lies?
She yawned. It had been a long day, her dream-drunk nap notwithstanding.
The jerrywood hedge hid her and Gordy from the sight of any passersby. Not that there were too many people out so early in the morning.
There was enough silver light from the spindle above and the night ivy that covered most of the building to see each other by.
Gordy’s hands flickered in the silver light. “Is this where we’ll find Timothy?”
His signing was different than she was used to—the movements were choppier, and some of the words were a little off. But she could read them well enough.
“No. My dorm.” Modified home sign. “I wanted to pick up a few things.”
“Are you sure? They might be watching.”
Belynn peered over the hedge at the surrounding campus. All was quiet. “I’m going to risk it. Wait here.”
Gordy growled but said nothing more.
She scrambled up the drainpipe. She’d done it dozens of times since she and her brother had arrived at the university the month before. She had always been athletic, and she preferred that everyone didn’t know about her late-night comings and goings or the reason for her frequent drinking.
She paused at the second floor and peered into her room through a corner of the open window. The shutters were pulled back, giving her a clear shot.
It looked empty. It was also a mess.
Her sheets had been pulled off the small bed, and her pillow had been torn to shreds.
The bookshelf had been ransacked and her chest of drawers emptied, with her clothing strewn across the floor.
Light shone under the doorway, and as she watched, shadows shifted on the other side. Gordy was right. Someone was watching the door.
As quietly as she could manage, she slipped from the drainpipe to the windowsill, avoiding the creaky spot on the far left.
In a handful of seconds, she had navigated the opening to come to rest on the cool wooden floorboards.
She froze for a second, watching the shadows under the door, framed by golden luthiel light.
They didn’t move.
Satisfied, she inched her way across the floor, avoiding the squeaky floorboards until she reached the corner farthest from the door. By touch, she found the board she had carefully pried up and reset weeks before. It was tight and had to be coaxed up out of its housing.
When she had it partway out, it made a low moan as it rubbed against its neighbors.
She stopped, her glance darting back to the doorway.
No change.
Phew. She managed to get it up and out of its hole without further noise. She reached into the darkness, retrieved the packet she’d hidden there, and tucked it into one of her pockets. She also pulled out her flask. She stared at it for a moment, then stuffed it in another pocket. She carefully pushed the board back into place.
As she retreated toward the window, her hand encountered something under the feathers and clothing on the floor.
She lifted it up and grinned. It was the silver cross her mother had given her. Her great-grandfather’s, Andy had said.
She slipped it over her head and around her neck.
As she climbed onto the windowsill, her foot slipped on a pile of feathers and the came down onto the floor with a loud thump.
With a quick glance back, she leapt out the window and shimmied around to the drainpipe just as the door swung open, flooding the room with golden light.
“GET DOWN!”
Belynn let go of the pipe and dropped to the ground in the darkness behind the jerrywood bushes.
Gordy dropped with her. He looked up at the window.
Someone peered out of it into the night, silhouetted by dim golden light.
He held himself absolutely still.
The face withdrew and the shutters closed, blocking the light.
“What happened?”
“No time. Come on.” She got up and dusted herself off, pulling a couple leaves out of her hair, and then dragged him out through a gap in the bushes and away from the dorm.
A group of maybe a dozen students rounded the building from the other direction. Gordy didn’t recognize any of their faces from the church.
“Act normal.” Belynn squeezed his hand. “Follow my lead.”
“Sure.” She was going to pull the “fake boyfriend” card. He was sure of it. She was pretty enough, and he did kind of have a crush on her. She smelled like ivy.
Instead, she slapped him. Hard. “And that’s for sleeping with… Smandy.”
“Smandy?”
The herd passed them. “You okay there?” One of the guys hung back, looking at Belynn.
“Fine. Just a little spat.”
He nodded and followed the rest, laughing.
“Smandy?” he asked again.
“Best I could come up with on short notice.”
He rubbed his cheek. “You didn’t have to hit me so hard.”
“I had to make it look real.”
“It was payback, right?”
She grinned.
A lone voice drifted back to them. “Astin?” The woman was pretty, with tawny skin and short dark hair.
Gordy frowned. “Sorry, no. My name is Gordon.”
She approached them, a strange look on her face. “Oh my God, it is you!” She threw her arms around him. “They told us you were dead.”
Gordy gently extricated himself from her embrace gently. “I’m sorry, I’m not Astin. My name’s Gordy.”
She stared at him, confused. “You’re Astin. You must be. You look just like him—”
“Nope, not him. I’m sorry you thought I was your friend.”
The woman looked from him to Belynn and back. “Seriously? You’re his spitting image. You even have a mole right here….” She reached up to touch his left cheek.
“He ge
ts that a lot. He has one of those faces.” She took Gordy’s hand. “Come on. We’re late!”
“I’m sorry,” he mouthed as Belynn pulled him away.
The hurt on the other girl’s face was palpable.
They kept walking, and soon they made it around another dorm, leaving her behind.
“What the heck was that?” Belynn stared at him.
“I guess… this was Astin’s body, before?”
“Holy Ariadne.”
“I know, right?” Astin. He had a name now. Had Astin actually died before Gordy had taken his body? Been brain-dead? Or… is he still inside me somewhere? That was the most unnerving thought of all.
What have I done? In his zeal to leave New York, to escape his old life, had he inadvertently taken someone else’s? Astin’s?
Belynn searched his eyes. “Do you think…?”
“I don’t want to think about it. Not yet.” It was overwhelming.
“Okay. Come on, we have to get to the SO, and it would be better if no one else saw us on the way. Who knows who might know Astin?”
“One way or another?”
She nodded.
“What’s an ‘S.O.’?”
“The Sender’s Office. It’s up on Boston Street. That’s where we’ll find Timothy.”
“The Sender?”
“Yup.”
He glanced up at the spindle, wondering how much nighttime they had left. “Were any of those students…?”
“Like you?”
He nodded.
“I don’t think so. I didn’t see any masks.”
He took a deep breath. “Okay, let’s find this Tim and see if he can help.”
He shoved his doubts and anxiety deep beneath the surface. He’d have to find a way to deal with them later.
Chapter Seven: Rain
BELYNN SNIFFED the air.
It smelled like rain, despite her earlier statement to the contrary. That could mean trouble for Kiryn and Dax if it flooded the cavern.
She reached for Kiryn to warn him.
There was no response.
She couldn’t feel him either, probably because he was underground. Her range was limited, especially with her senses numbed, and there was too much distance and dirt and rock between them.
They had to hurry. Once she was able to speak with her mothers and the world mind, they’d be able to figure out how to get out of this mess.
Belynn thought about her flask, tucked away in her pocket. A drink would be so good right about now. Just a sip to calm her nerves and quiet the voices.
She shook her head. She needed her wits about her.
Still, she was very aware of the shape of it, the weight of the flask in her pocket, just a grab and twist away.
“You okay?”
They crouched in an alleyway not far from the campus, the darkness hiding their forms from passersby. It was early in the morning. At least an hour until daylight if she gauged it right.
“Yeah. Just worried.” It was strange to have someone else to sign with, but comforting too. “Come on.”
So far she hadn’t seen any more of the invaders. Very few people were out at this time in the morning, which was also why they had to be extra careful. They stuck out by their very presence in the quiet, silent night.
She counted the back doors that opened onto the alley. Piles of garbage let off unsavory smells. It was trash day, when the wagon would come to collect all the refuse and haul it off to one of the dissolution pits.
Above, the steepled roofs were black against the silver sky glow from the spindle.
Gordon hissed and pulled her back against the wall.
“What?”
He pointed at something in the dark.
A still form lay against one of the doorways.
She knelt, watching the body for a moment, and relaxed when its chest rose and fell. “Just a town drunk.”
“So this place isn’t perfect after all.”
Belynn snorted, and the person stirred in his sleep, turning over. It was Olly, one of the perpetually wasted men who slept on the streets. “Hardly. Come on!”
They crept past him, and at last she found the door she wanted. She pulled the bell cord as gently as she was able, and somewhere above, a small bell rang.
Belynn looked around nervously, half expecting one of the invaders to jump at them from the shadows. She wondered how many of them there were, walking among them, unseen by most of the world.
Lying on her bed, her head pounding after the party the night before. Someone leaning over her, staring into her eyes. The mask staring at her hungrily….
“Spin me down!” She put her hand over her mouth and glanced around.
“What?”
“Nothing.” She’d thought it was just a weird dream. But now…. They were in my room. Before.
She had to stop drinking. She was reaching for the flask on autopilot when a light went on above and a shuffling noise announced someone’s arrival. Timothy.
She knew him, though not really well. He’d been one of her mothers’ Liminal kids. He’d come out to the Estate once or twice when she was growing up.
The door opened, and he stood there in his pajamas, disheveled and squinting into the darkness. “Who is it?”
“Timothy, it’s Belynn. Andy and Shandra’s daughter.”
“It’s the middle of the night. Come back tomorrow.”
He closed the door, but she blocked it with her foot. “I know. I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have come if I didn’t think it was a matter of life and death.”
He stared at her for a moment, then blinked. “Life and death?”
She nodded.
He sighed heavily. “Come in, then.” He opened the door, and they went inside.
The downstairs was the Sender’s Office—a neat, businesslike space with a desk covered with books and stacks of papers that looked out on the Loop Road on the other side of the building.
He led them upstairs, where he had his private residence. After lighting a luthiel burner, he put some water on to boil.
Belynn made the introductions. “Timothy, this is Gordon.”
“No one calls me Timothy anymore. It’s Tim.” He held out his hand. “Nice to meet you, Gordon. Please have a seat.” He gestured to the mallowood table.
“This is beautiful.” Belynn traced her hand over the smooth wood, admiring the gorgeous red-and-gold grain.
“One of the other Liminals made it for me. It does the job.” He leaned against his kitchen counter. “Do you like red fern tea?”
She nodded. “I’m so sorry to bother you, Timo… Tim.”
“It’s all right. I’ll survive. What’s this life-or-death matter you came here to tell me about?”
She looked at Gordy, who nodded. “Something strange is happening. There was a murder at Kiryn’s dorm this morning….”
That got his attention. “A murder? Really.” He set down the tea canister. “Have you called the authorities?”
The kitchen shutters were open, and outside a cool breeze blew through the branches of an alifir tree. They scraped against the side of the house, the noise sending shivers up Belynn’s spine. “No. We don’t know who we can trust.”
Something was off. She couldn’t put her finger on it. But he seemed far too calm after what she’d just told him about poor Aric. There hadn’t been a murder in Micavery in years.
She slid her hand over to Gordon’s and squeezed it.
“So what do you need me to do?” Tim was still turned away from her.
“I need to contact the world mind.” That much was true and probably obvious, given the fact she was in the Sender’s Office.
“Where’s Kiryn? Why isn’t he with you too?”
That’s when she knew. He’s one of them.
“I… I haven’t seen him since yesterday.”
“We both know that’s not true.” He turned then, and her stomach twisted at the sight.
“You’re….”
He
smiled, but his mask did not. “Yes. One of the acolytes of the intifada.”
Shit shit shit. Why hadn’t she seen it? She had to play for time. “Who are you?”
“That doesn’t matter. I’m just like your friend here. Did you think we couldn’t tell where he was, as soon as you popped out of whatever hole you were hiding in?”
The intifada—they could track Gordy. Somehow, someway.
Maybe she should ditch him.
Gordy shot her a look. He had puppy dog eyes—poor guy looked lost. She couldn’t just leave him. She kept forgetting how young he was.
They had to get out of there. “Okay, then. We’ll just be going on our way.” She stood and pushed her chair back.
“Oh, I don’t think you’ll be going anywhere. Not on your own, anyhow.”
There was a noise behind her, and Belynn turned to find three others coming up into the kitchen from the stairwell, each with an eerie mask.
“Fight!” she flashed at Gordy.
She leapt at one of the invaders with a roundhouse kick, taking her in the stomach and knocking her back down the stairs.
Behind her, Gordy upended the table and rammed it against Tim, and then took up the coffeepot and splashed its boiling water across the man’s face.
Tim screamed and clawed at his eyes.
Was Tim still in there? Did he feel the pain? Belynn was too busy to worry about it.
One of the others grabbed her from behind.
She crouched and threw him over her shoulders into the final attacker. She knocked them both into the wall, which broke with a loud crack, sending wood and plaster into the air in a hail of dust and splinters.
“Come on!” No sense in being quiet now. They had to get out.
They clambered down the stairs, leaping over the prone form of the woman Belynn had kicked. She was still, her mask gone.
Belynn knelt to check the woman’s pulse. She was alive.
Thank God. She didn’t want anyone’s death on her conscience, even one of these masked freaks. Especially if their hosts were still inside.
They slipped out of the building into the alley and set off toward Lover’s Point at a dead run.
KIRYN BLINKED and sat up, trying to figure out where he was. His left leg was cramping up, and he was lying on someone else’s legs.
The Shoreless Sea Page 7
