by Unknown
Jamie hurries in without her counterpart. “We weren’t expecting you back so soon, Keeper,” she apologizes without apologizing, then curtsies for Echo. Eventually, her gaze settles on the baby and she lifts a brow in curiosity. “You brought back a baby?”
“A Seer,” Echo corrects, then rubs his face with his hand. “My mother is going to kill me.”
Jamie approaches the bed and swaddles the infant into its blanket. When she picks it up, it settles, and she rocks it back and forth in her arms to keep it calm. “I’ve never seen a Seer baby before.”
“That’s because they are killed before anyone gets a chance to see them.” I sit on the edge of the bed and tilt my chin up. “But we can send it back to the City, right?”
Echo meets my gaze. “If that is what you want, I will find a way for it to happen.”
“I want to go back with it.” I push the issue while I can.
“Beatrice, you and I both know that my mother won’t let that happen. She’s probably ordered the guards to put you down if you tried.” He brushes a hand over his short, almost-white hair. “But, I can manage sending the baby back. Who should I send it to?”
“The Institution.”
“You know, it is a girl, right?” Jamie giggles to herself, rewrapping the newborn. “I think she should have a name.”
This makes me uncomfortable. I’ve never really seen a baby, let alone given one a name. Though Jamie holds it in a natural, learned way, I could barely manage to keep it quiet. “They will probably name her when she gets to the Institution,” I point out, avoiding the responsibility of giving a whole new life a name. “And then she will be one of us.”
But this isn’t good enough for Jamie. “I think her name should be Fortuna.”
Echo cracks the faintest smile and shrugs a shoulder. “Sounds reasonable to me. She is quite fortunate to not have been carried off and disposed of.”
I shudder at the word “disposed.” “Okay. Fortuna, then. Prince Echo will make arrangements to deliver Fortuna back to the City, and until then, Jamie, you can care for her.” I’m not ready for the responsibility, and it reminds me all too soon of the fact that one day, I’ll have to bear my own child to become the next Keeper.
Echo puts a hand on my shoulder, drawing my thoughts away from the subject. Jamie leaves with the infant, slipping out of a side door to a small servant’s room connecting to my own. “How’s your head feeling?”
I touch my temples with my pointer and middle fingers and rub them in small circles. “It still hurts. I think the Settlements were a little too much for me to focus on all in one day.” Echo sits beside me on his sister’s bed, and it dips under the added weight. “I thought it would be different, Echo. Don’t you ever feel bad that you keep them like that?”
“It’s how it has always been, ever since I was a child. I suppose I’ve not really thought about it because I didn’t know of another way … not until I saw the City through your dreams, and then later, for myself.” Echo brushes the wrinkles out of his robes and watches me from the corner of his eye. “Was it really that bad?”
“Yes. And it’s even worse that you plan on wiping half of them out in order to get rid of the plague.” I add this part in quietly, aware of the fact that Jamie might still be listening.
“I will speak to my mother about that.” Echo puts his hand down on my knee, comforting me with just a simple touch. “Okay?”
Nodding my head, I take in a breath, trying to will my heart to stop beating so quickly. We sit in silence for a moment, and I wonder if Echo was truly being sincere when he said he’d send Fortuna back because it is what I wanted. We are both stuck in his mother’s game, pawns to a political move that has been forced on the both of us. Will I ever see my home again? Would I really have to marry Echo?
And would it really be that bad?
I watch Echo’s hand on my leg, the silence growing larger and becoming more awkward. He leans forward and kisses the side of my head, in just the same place where I had rubbed it before. Tucking my hair behind one of my ears, he smiles at me, and I’m suddenly sure that Echo means everything that he says. He always has. Fortuna will get back to the City, and somehow, some way, this whole situation will resolve itself in the right way, if only because Echo said so and has faith in the outcome.
That’s when the Vision happens. I clutch onto Echo’s hand as the prophesy draws me out of this world and into another …
***
I am standing alone in the Camp, and it seems empty. The wind blows through the hundreds of tents, which billow and wave in one eerie, uniformed motion. In the distance, I see the shadow of a human figure moving, jerking awkwardly, limbs at strange angles. At first, there is only one, but then another shadow grows behind it, and I realize there are more. Dozens more. Hundreds more.
They are advancing toward me, but I am stuck where I am. I feel sick inside, like something is trying to claw its way out of my center, fingers raking at my stomach. The world flickers on and off around me, like a broken holo, and each time it comes back to view, the creatures have gotten that much closer to me.
They are dead.
Or are they?
Another flicker, and they are right in front of me. They stand lined up beside each other like a wall. A wall of the dead. They are grotesque and dripping with fluids that should be inside of the body and not on the outside. It smells like bile and rotting flesh. One of them is pointing at me, and then the rest of them follow suit, and soon I have a bunch of dead fingers pointing in my direction, as if blaming me for something.
One of them speaks. “Save us.”
The rest of them repeat, “Save us.”
Their dark hair and dark eyes tell me that they used to be Citizens. The plagued Citizens in the Settlement. They’ve charged me with saving them, just as I was charged with saving the City from the Dreamcatchers. I want to tell them that I can’t save them, that I’m no good at saving anyone, like Gabe, for example. Now he is in a coma, and it’s all because I couldn’t save him. And worse, I left him there to deal with it all by himself.
But I can’t speak. I can only watch them point at me, hundreds of pairs of lifeless eyes stuck on where I stand. Waiting.
***
I start out of the Vision and Echo is just where he was before, but now he holds both of my hands in his own, and he almost looks hopeful. He probably thinks that I’ve had the Vision that he wants me to have, one that will tell him the answer to this plague. I shake my head sympathetically, and I can see my glowing eyes in his gaze. “I’m sorry, Echo. It was about the plague … but there wasn’t anything to tell me what to do.”
Echo’s shoulders slump just a touch, but he doesn’t let go of my hands. “I’m more concerned about you than I am about the Vision. Are you okay?”
I nod my head and find it touching that he’s so concerned about the aftermath of something that has been happening all my life. “Yes, I’ll be fine. But the Vision … it was not pretty. There was a bunch of dead people, Citizens, and they were all pointing at me, telling me to save them.” Rubbing my head again, I try to will away the headache that follows.
Jamie peeks back out from the servant’s room, obviously having overheard the conversation. She holds Fortuna in her arms, and thankfully, the child is still quiet and doesn’t add any more pain to my headache. “Save us from what, Keeper?”
“That’s a good question, Jamie. And, I don’t know the answer, unfortunately.”
Echo lets go of my hands and rises from the bed. “I’ll go get you some tea for your headache. And I’ll figure out how to get Fortuna back to the City before my mother finds out we’ve smuggled a baby out of the Camp.”
“She probably already knows, Echo,” I say realistically. We didn’t exactly sneak the baby out of the Settlements in our retreat back to the palace. And people were well aware of who we were when we left the Birthing Tent.
“In either case, I need to figure out how to get her someplace safe.” Echo leans
down and kisses my forehead. “I’ll be back, Beatrice.”
I smile at him before he leaves and touch the place where he kissed my head. How any girl could deny herself such a boy, I don’t know. But I can’t let him get too close to me, especially when I intend to go back to the City where I belong.
I can’t get too close to him.
Chapter 5
Sitting under the tree with the umbrella limbs, Gabe and I share a piece of the native citrus fruit of Aura. The juice has made our fingers and lips sticky, and we laugh about something, and it doesn’t matter what, because I am with Gabe, and that’s all that matters.
When the laughing tapers off, I lift a piece of the fruit to Gabe’s mouth and smile. “I am sorry I left you.”
Gabe opens his mouth and comically chomps down on the fruit. He mmm’s and shakes his head. “I understand, Bea. You don’t have to apologize to me.”
I think that this is too easy, that he has forgiven me too quickly, but it doesn’t feel wrong. Wiping my hands off on my robes, I reach out and brush his hair back behind his ear. He turns his head to nuzzle into my touch, then sighs happily.
“Don’t leave again, Bea. Promise me that you won’t leave again.”
I hesitate here, staring into Gabe’s violet eyes. Everything about him is handsome and familiar. Though we sit in the middle of a field, under the tree that seems to reach for the sky and the ground at the same time, Gabe feels like home, and I don’t want to lose that again. I want to go home.
“Promise me?”
I open my mouth to reply, but nothing comes out. I try again, but the same thing happens.
“Beatrice?” He takes his hand in mine. “Beatrice?”
Beatrice …
***
“Beatrice?”
The intercom crackles with Echo’s voice and rouses me from my sleep. I roll over and reach out toward the side table, feeling for the speaker with the tips of my fingers. When I find it, I drag the intercom closer to the bed and press the transmit button.
“Yes, Echo?” I rub the sleep out of my eyes and check the time. It’s just past the seventh hour. Too early.
“I need you to get dressed and meet me outside your room as soon as possible.”
“I sense the urgency in his voice. “Is something wrong?”
There’s a pause. “No. I just need you ready as soon as possible.”
I drag my legs out of the bed and slap the button again. “All right.”
Echo comes over the speaker again, “ And Beatrice?”
“Yes?”
“Make sure you hurry up.” The intercom clicks off and Echo is no longer there.
Jamie and Irene enter after a knock on the door. They seem uncertain today, their movements timid and unsure. Irene approaches with a crimson gown that has a high collar, in Dreamcatcher fashion. “Is this one good for today, Keeper?”
I shake my head. “No. Today I will wear my robes. It’s what I look best in, and whatever is happening seems important.” I won’t have them keep dressing me as a Dreamcatcher, like one of Paradigm’s porcelaine dolls. “But maybe it won’t hurt to wear it underneath.”
Irene smiles when I relent and helps me into the gown. I pull my robes over and poke my arms through the long sleeves. The collar sticks out of the top, the deep red contrasting with the pitch black of my robes.
Jamie steps forward with a hair brush in hand, but I wave her off with a flick of my hand. “No need for fancy today. I’m going to leave my hair down.”
“Very well, Keeper.” Jamie moves aside, and I look at myself in the long, full-sized mirror with the gold-gilded frame.
Approving of my appearance, I spin around to face Irene and Jamie. “Okay, I think I’m ready now.” Then, I eye each of them. “Do either of you know what is going on?”
They both shake their heads without saying anything.
“Well, I guess I’ll have to go find out myself.” I nod my thanks to the girls and approach the door with many questions running through my mind. What has Echo acting so seriously?
When I step outside, Echo is there, as he said he’d be. He has two guards with him, each holding a large gun across their chest. Their uniforms are golden, like most things in Aura. I can’t tell, but their helmets might be solid gold.
“What is this about?” I give the guards a look, and they eye me back, their contempt obvious. They don’t want me here, and I don’t trust them anymore than they trust me.
“You’ll see.” Echo is wary about something, I see it in the way that he shifts uncomfortably where he stands.
“You’re worried.”
“I am.”
I frown. “I don’t like this.”
“Most people won’t.” He doesn’t clarify and begins to lead me down the hall. The closer we get to the entrance of the palace, the more I notice that there are more guards here than there were the previous days of my stay.
I anxiously slip my hand into Echo’s, but try to keep the jittery feeling buried deep inside so that no one else knows. We round one more corner, then step outside onto a large landing at the top of about a dozen stairs that lead up into the palace. Dreamcatchers have gathered in the courtyard, standing around waiting for something, but I don’t know what. I’ve never been surrounded by so many of them before, and with all their eerie blue eyes settled on me, I clutch onto Echo’s hand for support.
I am so distracted by everything else that I don’t realize when the queen, dressed in another beautiful gown of white satin, joins us, taking her son by the arm, as if to pull him away from me.
“What is the meaning of this?” Though her words are milky-smooth, there is danger wrapped around each one. She’s not pleased with whatever is going on.
The guards work hard on clearing a path into the courtyard, just big enough for a vehicle to come through. The Dreamcatchers have to be kept back with firm reminders from the guards who have formed a perimeter to control the growing crowd.
“This is my wedding present to Beatrice, Mother.”
I loosen my hand in his grip, surprised. “If there’s a marriage at all.”
“Oh, there will be Keeper. There will be.” The queen casts me a sidelong glance, as if daring me to challenge her any more.
I don’t reply. I have learned that it is more powerful to say nothing rather than say something.
Echo, thankfully, doesn’t say anything back to his mother, either. Instead, he whispers into my ear, “I would do anything to make you happy, Beatrice.”
I shiver from his lips being so close to my ear and continue to stare straight ahead at the amassing Dreamcatchers.
“Anything. Remember that.”
I look up at him, our eyes locking on each other. “I know, Echo.”
“I hope you enjoyed the dream I gave to you last night.”
“You did that?” Memories of Gabe and I sitting under the tree in the field come flooding back.
“I did. You were missing him so much, that I wanted to give him to you.”
“But … but you don’t even like Gabe.”
“I like you, though.” He stands up straight, the whispering coming to an end. A car approaches the palace, kicking up sand and dirt that forms a cloud behind it. Echo folds his hands in front of him, watching his plan unfold before all who are gathered.
As the car gets closer, I realize that it’s a white van with a symbol of two hands facing palms down painted on the side. “What does that mean?” I ask, having never seen the symbol before. There is a car behind the van that is unmarked, with dark, tinted windows. “What is this?”
Soon enough, the van pulls around in front of the palace and stops. “It’s the symbol for healing.” Echo gestures to the vehicle. “That is a medic van.”
The doors to the back of the van click, and two Dreamcatchers jump out of the back. The second car pulls up behind the van and stops; no one exits.
There’s a tense moment when everything stands still. Even the queen is silent, though she looks s
tiff and uncomfortable, as if she knows something I don’t. All of the Dreamcatchers look that way.
“Anything,” Echo repeats again, nodding to the two Dreamcatchers behind the medic van. On cue, they reach inside and firmly tug on something that I can’t see. With another tug, a stretcher comes into view. Another medic carefully disembarks the van, holding a pole with IV tubes dangling from the bags that are hooked to the top.
Another tug and the stretcher’s wheels unfold and hit the ground. I look up at Echo, confused, and I find that he’s already looking at me. Watching me. Studying me. “You are going to heal the Citizens?” I guess, but he shakes his head then nods to the van.
“Go and look.”
I unwrap my hand from his and descend the stairs, toward the van. Each step brings me closer to whatever it is that is being kept a secret. And that’s when I see what Echo brought to me to make me happy.
Gabe.
“Gabe!” I yell and jump down the last few stairs, nearly tripping on my robes as I throw myself across his lifeless torso. “Gabe! You’re here!”
“He still can’t hear you,” a familiar voice cuts in. I glance up and there beside me stand Brandon and Elan. They don’t look too happy. Not as happy as I am to see Gabe again.
I straighten myself, but keep a hand on Gabe’s arm. “What … how did you get here? And why?” Casting a glance over my shoulder, I stare at Echo. “He brought you here?”
“He told us that you called us here. So we came because you’re our Keeper,” Brandon says, all while avoiding eye contact with me.
“Even if you abandoned your post. And us.” Elan’s words are more serious and cut to the bone. He’s always been serious since the attack on the City, since he had to witness things that no boy his age should have to witness.
“I didn’t abandon you, I—”
“This is unacceptable, Echo.” The queen cuts me off as she steps down from the landing. “How many of them will you end up bringing back here?”
“These ones aren’t staying,” Echo says.
“You’re staying?” Brandon asks me in confusion.
