Fledge

by JA Huss

  I have the t-shirt on. But I've looked at every inch of thread on this thing and there is no secret power woven into the cloth.

  The book is back at camp. I read it. They're interesting, those cave dwellings. And this is a cave, so that might have been it. But I scoured it from cover to cover and there was no hidden power that I could see.

  The workbook was spiral-bound paper. Filled with word puzzles and pictures. Mazes and crosswords. Word searches. I did every single one and there were no secret messages in there either.

  I hear the hissing again. This time it's loud. Not a slither mutant. The kind that has legs. I close my eyes and will myself not to cry or whimper.

  The scream jerks me back to action. I open my eyes and it's covering the distance between us at full speed. I withdraw my first knife and fling it. It sticks in the shoulder and even though the mutant is big, much bigger than me, it stops short and paws at the blade to remove it. But my blades are barbed. It can try and remove it, but it will remove a section of skin and muscle as well.

  It paces about ten feet in front of me. My hand is already holding the second knife, but then I hear the second mutant come around the far corner and I panic.

  I run back towards the nightdog and the hunting instinct in the mutants takes over and they give chase. My feet pound through the water, splashing and making enough noise to wake the dead so the nightdog is waiting for me.

  Think, Junco. What is your power?

  I throw the second knife and it sticks in the bitch's eye, she goes down wailing in pain and I slip past her and the third knife is in my hand in case this is a birthing den.

  My luck holds and there are no more bitches.

  I run, my breath heavy enough to partially drown out the thundering footfalls that follow me.

  I turn, then turn again. This tunnel system is like a maze and I begin to panic. I'm never going to get out of here!

  Stop it, Junco. Think clearly.

  I burst into a larger tunnel and slip in the mud, recover, and then fall forward. The mutants are on me before I can even think. I roll, stick the first attacker in the belly and drag the blade upward until the blood gushes out all over my face.

  I throw my legs up and kick it off me as the second one flies in for another try. It hits me in the chest and I go reeling backward in the mud, my fourth knife careening out of my hand and hitting the stone wall off in the distance. I reach for the dagger but the jagged teeth find my leg and I scream.

  My hands reach out to grab the thing by the hair and I smash the tender underside of the protruding jaw down onto my kneecap. The jaw splits in half inside the skin and I hear a sickening crack as the mutant screams in pain. I push it off and scoot backwards, waiting to see if there's another one coming.

  Silence.

  What's your power, Junco?

  I don't know! I don't know!

  I scramble to my feet and look around. The tears want to come out, but I push them down and pivot, trying to get my bearings. I'm totally lost.

  Junco, you know your power, think!

  I see another tunnel on the far side of this little cave and I walk towards it, my heart still beating quickly, but not at a dangerous level.

  I'm lost, it's like a maze in here.

  I hear the nasal growl of a prairie lion up ahead and this time I cannot keep the whimpers down. Oh, God. Please help me. Please, I'm going to die here. Please.

  What is your power?

  I can kill the lion.

  Yes, you'll have to, that's not an option.

  I get my last knife out.

  The lion is not in the tunnel I want to go through, it's off to the side. It sees me but it's eating a half-decayed mutant. Does it want a fresh meal? Does it want to hunt? Or eat?

  I inch past it, pressed up against the ragged wall of the tunnel, and I watch the predator's eyes as it changes its mind about the rotting flesh on the floor below.

  I bolt and run into the cave and I'm immediately presented with decisions, the tunnel twists and turns, new entrances appear and I run past or duck into a new pathway, oblivious to where I'm going or where I came from.

  What's your power, Junco?

  I'm lost, it's like a maze in here.

  What's your power, Junco?

  It's like a maze in here.

  Exactly.

  A maze.

  I'm still booking it, the lion behind me a few twists and turns, but definitely still behind me. And I smile. It's like a maze in here. I bring the mazes from the workbook up in my head and go through the titles of each one.

  The lion catches up and grabs my foot.

  I kick it off and stab it with my last throwing knife, pulling the knife up and twisting it inside the body in a last desperate attempt to save my own life. I hear the rip of skin and muscle and the lion drops off, screaming.

  I get back on my feet and find the title of the maze I'm looking for in my head. It's called Fun in the Dark. My mind pulls up all the paths I took to get from the inside of the maze to the outside. From bondage to freedom. The only maze in the entire book that makes you get out instead of in.

  My feet know where to go and I run, turning left and right. Slipping out of the reach of the wounded lion more times than I can count. And then I see it.

  The light.

  I cry out with victory as the lion slaps me down to the ground, its claws raised and ready to swipe my face off.

  I scream.

  And then the head explodes above me and the lion falls aside, dead from the rifle my dad is holding as he covers the remaining distance between us at a run. I lie there crying, my dirty fists pressed into my eyes, my body shaking and my alarm chirping a warning that forces me to calm down.

  "Junco?" My dad pulls me up and hugs me. "You're OK, Junco. It's over."

  "No, I lost! I lost!" I cannot even think straight, I just cry. Matthew sneers at me as I am dragged past him and my dad pushes me into the passenger seat of his Jeep and we drive off, bouncing across the scrub.

  We don't even stop at camp to treat my wounds, he simply slaps a membrane over the coagulated blood once we make Stag Camp Road and lets me sit there in silence for the next six hours as I wonder if this means they will kill me now.

  I lost this fight. My last fight before I get sent off to cadets and gain some freedom. I've never lost before. And this was no ordinary fight. This was a test.

  We drive back to Council 3 and when we get home it's way past midnight. He wakes the maids and they scrub the blood off and then dress me in bed clothes and make me sleep in the princess room.

  I wake up in a cold sweat and look over at Tier. His face is pressed into the pillow and he's snoring lightly. I smile even though the dream still haunts me.

  Was it real? I can't tell.

  I love this man so much but I can feel what's coming. I can feel it. I push it down and snuggle up against him, memorizing every second we've spent out here in the little vacation house. Later today we'll go back to Amelia.

  But not now.

  Now I still have him.

  He stirs then turns and grabs me, pulls me in close before falling back to sleep.

  Enjoy it, Junco.

  It never lasts.

  Chapter One

  "Abso-fucking-lutely not, Lucan." I turn my back on him and shake my head as I take in his office. I've never been in here before and it's got my interest up. Focus, Junco. "I'm not gonna be stuck with those girls!"

  He shuffles around some tech devices on his excessive desk and then answers a call on his com, spitting out short, curt responses that don't give me much of a hint at what he's actually talking about. My eyes scan the books on his shelf.

  Mythology? Jasus fuck, you've got to be kidding me.

  I pace a little and throw him a few dirty looks at being made to wait for his conversation to be over. Finally, I slump down in a chair. He doesn't even look up from whatever he's entering into his tech. I lean my head back and groan as he abruptly ends the call.

  "Ju
nco, I was on the com with the Archer of Clutch, please try and act like a grown-up."

  I scowl at him and whine as my arms go up in the air in exasperation. "I want to be with a team, Lucan. Why are you doing this to me?"

  "You don't need a team, you're going to Earth in a week and you'll have a team then. But for now, you'll babysit the girls and teach them what it means to be a warrior." He pinches the bridge of his nose and I know I'm giving him a headache. He looks up at me as if reading my mind. "Just to clarify, Junco – it's not you who is giving me a headache, it's them."

  "Them? Them who?" I say, squinting my eyes.

  He groans. "Those girls. Get rid of them."

  I laugh. "What? But you promoted them so I wouldn't have to be the only one. Or the first."

  He looks up and his eyes are dead serious. "Junco, you are the first, like it or not, that's the fact. Everyone knows it, there is no way around it. And these girls are complainers. They don't want to work, they don't want to fight, they don't want to get hurt. What good is a warrior who can't do those simple things? Test them, get rid of the ones who disobey or fail. There are only about a handful of good ones in that group, weed them out."

  I just stare at him as he fiddles through the various tech items. "Here is your com back." He hands me the flexible little card. "I've coded it for access to the private quarters until your biometrics can be updated. Go find your room and get settled."

  I don't move or speak.

  "Get out, Junco. We're done."

  "Yes, sir." I salute and leave.

  Tier is down the hallway talking to a few guys I don't know. He smiles as he spots me and leaves the group. "What did he say?"

  "I'm stuck training the girls for a week, Tier. And I have to live at his house!"

  Tier scowls down at me with his green eyes, a little glow of annoyance in there. "So he told ya no?"

  I shake my head. "No, not really. He said he wanted me to get rid of the girls. He's not happy with them. I'm supposed to cut them down to a handful and then I'll have my team when we go to Earth."

  "But ya can't come live with us?"

  I look up at him as he directs me to start walking with a firm hand on the middle of my back. "Right. He said I'm to go to his place and find my room and settle in." I pout a little, I admit it. I was looking forward to moving in with Tier's team, my old Fledge team. To seeing Annun and Tessen again and settling in there for a week before we leave for Earth.

  Tier just shrugs at me. "Well, OK then. Let's go."

  "That's it?" I look up as we turn the corner of the hallway and start walking towards the elevator.

  "Junco, you don't get to debate orders." He stops us to consider this for a moment. "It was an order?"

  I shrug.

  He laughs at me and pulls me in. "It's only a week, ya know I'll be on the Earth team, so–" The elevators open and he pushes me away. "Do you have credentials to get to Lucan's quarters?"

  I pull out my com. "It's on here for now."

  We enter the elevator and Tier waves my hand across the biometrics and asks for the top floor. "It's a nice place. You won't be unhappy there, Junco."

  "He's punishing me for breaking up the 039, I know it."

  "You didn't do that, it was all Ashur and Braun. He knows that."

  The elevator stops and the doors open. Tier waves me through and I stand in a giant lobby. "Where do we go now?"

  "This is it, Junco."

  "Oh, it looks like a hotel."

  "It's the president's home. What did ya think it looked like?"

  Not a hotel, obviously. It's furnished much like the 039 – minimal, reflective white tile floors, chrome. It's got a traditional estate home layout that I'd find on Earth. Large foyer that contains an elaborate stairway made up of thin cables and floating glass steps. On either side of the foyer are two large rooms, the one to the right a formal living area and the one to the left a formal dining area.

  A cocktail party house.

  I've been to a few of these with my father as I was growing up. He dragged me all over the world, not only for competitions and assassinations, but also social stuff. Probably to show me off for a possible future sale.

  I peek into the living room and spy my black baby grand.

  "What the fuck?" I look over at Tier who just shrugs. "Obviously he's had this planned."

  "Come on, let's find yer room." He drags me up the stairs, which actually make me nervous because I don't care for the whole floating step thing, and then puts his palm out for my com. I hand it over and he starts waving it in front of biometric pads outside the various doors.

  In the end we don't need to look so hard for the room because there's a small ankle-high servo standing guard at a door chirping Junco's Room over and over again until Tier swipes my com at it and kicks it out of the way. He laughs despite my scrunched-up annoyed face. "Feel at home yet, darlin'?"

  "I don't get what this is."

  Tier smiles and squeezes my shoulder. "Junco, there are worse things than being treated special by Lucan. Indulge him, he likes ya and he hates everyone. Let him spoil ya. He's treated me special my whole life and take my word for it, it's not a bad deal if ya can get it."

  I'd forgotten about that. "Did he make you live with him?"

  He shakes his head and waves my com in front of the biometrics on the door and it clicks open. "Nah, boys don't need protectin', Juncs. Only girls."

  The lights go on as I walk in and it's my same room from the 039, only in a much bigger space and a much bigger window. In fact, the window is an entire wall on the opposite side of the room and it leads out to a terrace.

  I smile and look back. "Well, if I must make do, then…"

  He laughs and pushes me over to the bed. "And now, little snowbird–"

  My com buzzes and Tier hands it over. "Hello?"

  "Is Tier there, Junco?" It's Lucan.

  "Yeah, he's here. You wanna talk to him?"

  "Yes, put him on."

  Tier takes the com and answers a bunch of yes and no questions, then says yes, sir and hands the com back to me.

  "Yeah?"

  "No visitors in the bedroom, Junco."

  And the com goes dead.

  I just stare at Tier. "Are you fucking kidding me? He sent us on a private vacation to have all the sex we wanted for weeks, and now you can't come in my room?"

  Tier shrugs and makes for the door. "Orders, darlin'. I'll pick you up tomorrow at six, be in the lobby." And then he gives me a little salute and he's gone.

  I go outside to smoke off my annoyance. It's actually a nice terrace and there's a porch swing off to one side near a fountain that is quite spectacular. I flop into the swing and let it move me by momentum only for a few seconds, then dip my foot down to make it keep going as I puff on my cigar.

  The terrace wall is transparent so the view is uninterrupted. From this high up there's not much to see really. Just the tops of lower buildings down below. No traffic up here, and I suppose there wouldn't be. It's the president's house after all. Privacy is probably a concern.

  What it does show is a pretty fair layout of the capital city proper. I can see the rows of tall buildings, like I've got a bird's eye view of a map.

  I flap a little and fly upward, then settle on the roof and pivot slowly so I can look around. Aves headquarters, and by extension Lucan's quarters, is smack in the middle of everything on all sides. The city is big and spread out far enough so that the urban center is still sprawling as the torus-shaped habitat rounds out in the distance.

  I don't even finish my stogie before I get the princess in the tower feeling. I go back inside and grab my com from the bed and leave the room before I get trapped.

  Out in the hallway there is no one about, just the methodical hum of cleaning servos. I go back the way Tier and I came and make my way carefully down the damn stairs. They even jiggle a little as you step. In the lobby there are only a few options so I head for the piano.

  I pluck out a few tunes tha
t have stuck in my fingers for whatever reason over the years, then switch to what I always end up playing once I take a seat at the keys. Asgarth. Maybe there'll be time for an opera when I'm on Earth?

  This makes me laugh out loud. Yeah, sure, Junco. Between rounding up the saviors of the avian race you can just slip into the opera. Wings and all.

  I dip into the deeper notes of the opening sequence, then stop.

  Why do I always play it from beginning to end? I can start wherever I want and I'm sick of the unhappy scenes. I hardly ever play long enough to get to the sweetest part of the tale. His salvation. I switch gears and begin playing the melody of the ascension and stop again.

  Asgarth just isn't doing it for me tonight.

  My mind goes back to the Enki and the World Order nargala and I begin the tedious recall of putting the notes from the Inanna scene onto the keyboard. It's a nice song. Of course I can't play all the notes the Ilat Nargalist sang, that was like an orchestra of instruments coming from her mouth, but I get a pretty good approximation going and before long I can almost play the whole thing. I am playing the high notes at the end that made me cry when I hear the applause behind me.

  I jump a little and turn. "Shit, Lucan. You don't have to sneak up on me."

  His face is bright and he looks happy. "I've been sitting here for thirty minutes, Junco. I didn't sneak up on you." He points to the piano. "You were engaged." Then he gets up and pushes me over and begins to play the song I just finished. "That's a pretty good approximation you did there, how do you do it?"

  "How do you do it? I didn't know you played."

  He grins but his fingers keep moving. "I don't, Junco. It's just a gift."

  "Oh, programmed learning? My father wouldn't let me do that. He made me practice."

  "Yes, I can see that. But your skill at finding the notes and putting them together is quite good. Why did he make you learn the hard way?"

  I shake my head, but I know the answer so I say it anyway. "He always said, 'Things worth doing are also worth learning to do.'"

  "He's right. No one cares that I can play this song. Because I cheat what it takes to really make it worthwhile. You, on the other hand, you just pulled it out from your memory and matched every single note with a key and then put them all together. That is something worth doing."