"No!" she shouted, as afraid as she was angry.
"Stop it, both of you!" Berita roared.
Their eyes met, but in silence. It had been the same argument that had driven Karra away from him. He had insisted that she learn to use her Talent. Everything about the use of energy terrified her. Neither had she been willing for her daughter to learn. But Snake had forbidden her to return unless she brought Chalatta for this express purpose.
"You are planning to bring her, erren’t you?" Berita asked. "You remember the conditions for returning."
"Yes," Karra said. Her voice lacked the emphasis she wanted. "But as Chalatta, not your Krindarwee Tadessa. She’s a little girl, not some goddess, or daughter of prophecy, or whatever you mean when you call her Tadessa.”
Snake and Berita exchanged glances, and Snake nodded. Perhaps they had just spoken together in their silent language. The thought of it unnerved her.
“Realize,” Snake said solemnly. “I’ll also try to include you in the use of ambigah.”
She had no doubt about that. She took a long drink from her glass, hoping he could not see her fear. His internal power—Krindarwee magic, some said—his ability to use internal speech and to change the forces around him, the massive use of Talent that Snake took for granted, filled her with incredible fear, and she had no idea why. Aren’t you the Talented one, Carlon had asked. What was it about using unseen forces that frightened her so badly?
“I will keep you hidden within shadow,” Snake promised, not seeming to need her answer. “No one will see you bring her here.
His eyes captured hers. “And now, tell me why you run.” He smiled sadly. “I am almost grateful to the one who pushed you toward me, the one who frightens you more than I do.”
At Snake’s insistence, she told him everything.
When Snake first met Karra, she had been a child of nine, too young to be on her own. But that was not what caused him to notice her. This child was being tormented by an entity known to his people as a Zocassari. She was sick with its stench. It drove her into wild rages and kept her from getting close to anyone. When he discovered, much later, that she was refusing to live with her siblings who loved her, he knew it was not the fault of her oldest brother, as she believed. The Zocassari convinced her that her brother’s concern for her safety was something else entirely.
Snake chose to partner with her, not to teach her to steal from the Neevee, but to teach her how to keep free of the vile entities that the Neevee had brought with them—the Zocassaris. But she had refused all training. Indeed, his persistence through the years eventually frightened her away. That was devastating enough, since he had also learned to love her, and when she became old enough, married her. But when she left, she took their daughter with her. That had been the darkest day of his life.
But now she had returned free from the stench of the Zocassari.
“Did you not smell the sweet fragrance in the air around her?” he asked Berita.
His sister rolled her eyes. “I take it you erren’t talking about her breath, which could knock over a goat.”
Berita barely dodged the pillow Snake threw at her.
Chapter 38
Chalatta hummed under her breath as Kata and Benej walked her and Anetta from school. In a few days Aunt Suzin would take her to see Mama again, not that she could tell anyone, of course.
"You're a happy little thing," Benej commented.
"Yeah," she said. "Wouldn't you be if you were going to have a party after school tomorrow?"
"And I get to come!" Anetta squealed.
"And there will be muffins for everyone!" Benej mimicked playfully.
Thinking of her mother, so close a day ago, yet so far away today, Chalatta grinned as she stole a look down the alley where she used to meet her mother. The blue rag?
"So what's wrong now?" Kata asked, noticing her sudden change of mood.
"Nothin'. I just wish my mama could come."
"When are you gonna quit moping over your mother?" Kata said with a toss of her thick, dark hair.
"Never!" Chalatta screamed at her and ran on ahead.
Benej gave his sister a worried glance. "Shouldn't we run after her?"
"No," Kata said, pouting. "She's being such an awful baby. It'd serve her right if someone scared her pocket money away from her."
Chalatta hid until they passed, then doubled back to the alley. A few seconds later she dropped through the basement window. She ran past the debris and the side that had caved in, then beat with all her strength on Mama's door. This was one of those times when she wished it had a latch or a knob like a real door.
As if her mother had been waiting, the door slid open almost at once. Mama let her in without comment, and slid the door shut just as quickly.
Chalatta took in the stale smell of liquor in the room. It was far from the first time she had smelled her mother drunk, but it still upset her. She followed her mother into the bedroom, vowing that if she saw a bottle she would break it.
Her mother took the brush from the top of the chest of drawers, sat on the cot and began to stroke her long, long hair. A faraway look came into her eyes. Chalatta climbed up beside her, afraid. She knew that look. It meant something bothered Mama, something serious. Sometimes her mother would be gone a long time in that place behind her eyes.
"How would you like to come with me, baby?" Mama asked finally.
"Do you mean it?"
She stopped brushing her hair and pulled Chalatta into her lap. "Yes. But it'll be dangerous, and it might not be for long."
"How long?"
Mama hugged her. "As long as we can make it, baby."
"Erren't you still 'on the run'?"
"Yeah." Although she began brushing her hair again, the absent stare never came. "It's a lousy idea, isn't it?" She worked at a tangle in angry strokes.
"No! I want to be with you!"
"Do you?" She put the brush down and turned Chalatta toward her, facing her squarely. "I'll be taking you to a bad place, with bad people, and I'll be one of them."
"But Mama, you're not all bad."
"Says you." She laughed. "I don't know what to do, Chalatta. I just about can't stand being away from you any longer. My world is still no place for a kid."
"I don't care where you take me. Mama, I really don't care if it's a bad place as long as I'm with you."
"You'll care." Mama's attention turned toward a wall. Her eyes stared into the distances beyond.
As if she had suddenly made a decision, she faced her daughter. "All right," she said as she looked at Chalatta once again, a drunk, sad expression on her face. "Tonight. Sneak out of the apartment in dark clothes. You can bring along a few things, but only what you can stuff in your shirt."
"Why not now?"
"It's daylight. I have half the city looking for me. Do you think I want to make it easy for them?"
"No." She guessed she had a lot to learn, and felt embarrassed.
"Also, waiting will give you a chance to think things over. You'll have to leave without saying good-bye. No notes, Chalatta. No last kiss for Aunt Su or Uncle Benej. If you change your mind I'll understand. Taking you with me is not a good idea, no matter what you think right now, so I won't hold it against you if you decide to stay with Aunt Su. I'll wait until dawn tomorrow, no later."
"I'll be here tonight!" she promised.
"Really?" Mama studied her doubtfully. "Do you know those big kids who would cut you just to see what's in your pockets, the ones Kata and Benej keep away?"
“Yes."
"That's the world I'm taking you into. This is real. You could die, or you could watch me die. I could get caught. If you get caught you’ll be placed in a children’s home. Think about this today, and maybe I'll see you tonight. But no matter what you decide, I love you, Chalatta, more than anyone or anything, more than life itself."
"I love you too, Mama." And I will see you tonight, she almost insisted, but she was too unsure. Mama had really s
cared her this time.
…more than life itself, she had told her daughter. This time she knew it was true. Not even the beast had been able to break her bond with her daughter.
But Karra could not return to sleep after Chalatta left. No matter what she did from here on, it would be wrong. She felt the world tilt off balance.
Chalatta awoke with a start, wondering how long she had slept. She wanted to pull back the curtain to see if it were already daylight. But if she moved too suddenly, she would wake Aunt Suzin. The place was spooky in the dark. She was glad she knew the location of each piece of furniture; she did not dare turn on the light. It seemed to take hours to dress, and longer to find her way out of the apartment building without making any noises.
The sky was already getting lighter. Alarmed, she ran through the streets until she reached the alley.
The rag was gone.
"Be there, Mama," she whispered aloud, unable to keep her panic contained any longer.
"I'm here." Her mother's voice came from the shadows. A second later Mama appeared. "In a few minutes I would have been gone."
"I fell asleep," Chalatta said, near tears. Her mother seemed so far away, as cold as the dawn.
"All right. But sleep is sometimes a luxury you can't afford. Since it's so late we'll need to use the airway system, but I don't think too many people will notice us. Let's get out of here."
"Mama, I'm scared."
"I know. From now on you're going to be afraid much of the time."
"Are you?"
"Often."
Somehow, that made it better. She grabbed onto her mother's hand, trying to swallow her fear. But tears flooded her eyes.
“What is it?” her mother asked with puzzled concern. “Are you too frightened to move? We need to get going. It’s late.”
Chalatta threw her arms around her mother, sobbing.
“Mama,” she said when she could speak again. “I thought you didn’t want me anymore.”
But when her mother knelt beside her and enveloped her in a wonderful hug, all her fears vanished. She relaxed in her arms.
“Oh, baby,” Mama said. “I left everything so that I could be with you. I just couldn’t stand being away from you any longer. I have no idea what the future will bring, or if I can keep you safe, but I’m not leaving you again.”
“Promise?”
“They will have to drag me away,” her mother said.
Mama didn’t know that she felt things beneath the surface. The dark wrongness that always filled Mama was gone. Whatever caused it no longer existed.
As she looked around at the people going to work in the dim predawn, she realized that quite a bit of that kind of darkness existed. Chalatta decided that somehow she needed to find a way to get rid of it, that neither her mother nor the people around them knew how.
You have much to learn first, she heard in her mind.
Startled she looked around for the owner if the internal voice.
I will see you soon, the voice promised.
Afterward
Your experiment failed, the High and Exalted One said. You claimed that if you took her as a child, she would show us how to dominate all the rest of the Talented on this planet.
Beast hung its head in shame. It had feasted well on the violence this one caused. She had been his slave for over ten years. No one on any other planet managed to resist a Moloch’s control when inhabited for so long. Yet she had.
You will follow and keep in touch with her. Concentrate on that youngster of hers. The little one is Krindarwee. This planet hums with the power of their energy. What we could do with those people under our control!
END
Did you enjoy this first book in The Second Generation series? Steps of the Dance, the next book, explores using a strange weapon to use against the same enemy that once possessed Karra.
Chapter 1
The sky pushed a warm glow of light onto the horizons as Karra rushed her daughter toward their new home.
Safety had its price. Karra was willing to pay any price to keep her daughter safe. Chalatta, full of questions, sent snippets of them gasping out at odd moments. Each time Karra glanced back, she saw her little girl’s eyes wide, the way they became when a hundred questions nudged toward expression. But Karra had no time to answer them. They were hours away from where they needed to be, and soon dawn would make them visible to everyone.
Chalatta kept stumbling in mounds of snow, and then would run to catch up, but Karra didn’t slow. She had to get through their old neighborhood before someone recognized them.
The early dawn blossomed into full morning before Karra stopped, so suddenly that Chalatta ran into her. She pulled her daughter to her and eased into the shadow of a building, while she kept her eyes on the airway glistening not far away in the morning light. No dark-uniformed Security guarded the entrance, but a handful of people moved in and out.
Karra glanced down at her once-beautiful B’anu silk dress and sighed in defeat. They would be noticed. Nevian attire was very out of place here in the Area. The populace wore durable thickweave, a fabric known for its warmth and function, not the flimsy, stylish threads that adorned her body.
“I hoped to be there by now,” Karra said, more to herself than her daughter. She kept staring at the airway and at the increasing number of people boarding individual bubbles to speed them to their destinations. In the distance, more individuals strode toward them; their number made Karra even more nervous.
“Wh…” Chalatta gulped for air. “Where?”
Karra knelt beside her daughter. It was time Chalatta she knew a couple of things about their new home.
“There are some people I know. We’ll be staying with them but…” Her eyes flitted toward the airway again. She wondered when she would be able to offer her daughter a measure of security.
“No one I know is safe, baby girl,” Karra finally admitted aloud. What am I thinking, taking my one precious jewel into my world?
“I’m not a baby,” Chalatta said in protest. “I’m seven today.”
Karra chuckled under her breath. “So you are. How silly of me to forget that a girl of seven is no longer a baby.”
Her daughter snuggled under Karra’s arm. Karra loved the rare moments of closeness and wished she knew how leave herself open enough to enjoy them. She always felt as if she fought against herself, the desire to be close warring with her need to keep a protective distance.
Now was not the time to discuss her failings as a mother. “Do you remember why I had my youngest sister and brother walk you to and from school?”
“Kata and Benej kept me safe from the bad people,” Chalatta said. “Mama, I know how to hide. I’m not afraid of bad people.”
She couldn’t keep back the bit of a smile that escaped. “I know, baby. I know. But it might be a bit different if we have to live with some of them.”
“We’re gonna live with bad people? That doesn’t sound like a very good idea, Mama.”
“Well, they won’t be bad to you.” Some memories still hurt. “When I was just a few years older than you, I lived on the streets. Both my parents were dead, and no one else cared if I lived or died. I lived with these people, off and on, until I could finally survive on my own.”
Karra wondered if her daughter understood.
“What about Aunt Kata and Uncle Benej?” Chalatta said. “They’re your brother and sister.”
“They were younger than me by several years.”
“Well, didn’t Aunt Su care about you? She cares about me.”
Karra remembered how it had been, her brief visits to a home that was never hers. Karra and seven siblings survived their parents’ deaths. Her next-to-oldest brother, Jem, moved into Homelander Front Headquarters instead of the new apartment Carlon rented for them. The Front, being the only organized resistance against their Nevian invaders, replaced his family.
Her oldest brother, Carlon, not quite out of his teens, provided for the rest of the
m financially, but he never made it a secret that he didn’t want her around. Even Suzin expected no more than visits. Karra had been only ten.
“Maybe Su,” Karra said. “Su agreed to watch you for me.”
“Aunt Su loves us,” Chalatta said with a firm nod of her head.
“Has she ever said so?” Had anyone ever actually spoken up on her behalf?
“Well, no. But she calls me her little girl lots of times. And that means she loves you too, doesn’t it?”
“I suppose so.” She knew otherwise. Her sister wanted Chalatta as her own child. Su provided her daughter with stability and love, making her home a healthy place to live. Karra couldn’t have asked a better person as a substitute mother for her daughter during the years she couldn’t parent her. Am I doing the right thing by taking my daughter away?
“If I could make it possible, would you like to go back?”
Instead, Chalatta pulled herself away so that her mother could see her face, and jutted out her chin. “No. I want to live with you.”
Not that there was much choice. Jem would use his niece to make sure she returned to her assignment. Her daughter was safer hiding with “bad people” than she ever would be with Jem.
Karra rose and turned her attention at the airway. “Good. Then it’s settled. Here’s the situation. I wanted to use the cover of night to get us to our destination, but morning’s already here, and people are now using the airway tubes to get to work. So instead of the cover of night, we’ll use the crowds to hide our movements.” She still worried about her Nevian gown attracting attention, but there was nothing she could do about it.
Suddenly she felt a cold shiver of air, and blinked in irritation. From here, Snake? He was much more powerful than anyone had a right to be.
“We won’t be noticed,” Chalatta said, surprising her.
Her Darkest Beauty_An Alien Invasion Series_The Second Generation Page 31
