I fought not to react as his presence retreated, leaving me standing there, shaking and a little sick-feeling, staring at the grid and that sharp spot of light. Once I relaxed a little more, I saw that the grid originated from one of the geometrical shapes above my own head. I aligned the grid and the sharp bright spot with the silhouette on the paper.
“Gently,” Ullysa said.
I glanced at her in surprise. I’d forgotten she was there.
I started to pull out of the Barrier, but a faint pressure told me to stay.
So he hadn’t left entirely.
Aligning the grid once more, I forced a deep breath...and squeezed the trigger.
Inside the Barrier, there was no need to flinch.
Without clicking out of that calm state, I aligned the grid over a different part of the silhouette, firing again. I fired a third time, and a fourth. It all seemed to happen slow, like in a dream, but when I opened my eyes, the corridor between me and the target still drifted with smoke.
Ullysa laughed aloud, clapping her hands.
I stared at the target. Four neat holes punctuated the head, chest and abdomen of the shadowy outline. For a bare instant, I flushed in elation, tinged with a near relief that I’d finally managed to hit something, and that I might even be able to repeat the trick on my own.
Then I found myself really looking at the outline of the silhouette. My excitement faded.
I was practicing killing people.
Behind me, I felt his presence withdraw. It left gradually, almost reluctantly, leaving a faint whisper of nausea in its wake.
“ANY MORE NEWS of Jon or Cass?” I said.
I didn’t wait for an answer before plopping down on the enormous, faux-suede couch in front of the wall-length monitor. The feeds ran as a gentle hum on that same monitor, the sound low, text running beneath flickering and morphing images.
Mika flopped down heavily beside me, gesturing what I now knew to be a “yes” in seer sign language.
We had just come from the kitchen. She handed me a glass of grapefruit juice and half a sandwich filled with something called iresmic, a chutney-like spread made by seers, so weird-tasting in the extreme. Still, it was better than most of the stuff they’d tried to give me, half of which made me gag outright.
Mika, who was the same, short, Chinese-looking seer from that first night I’d gotten there, gestured at the monitor.
“Your friends have been moved by the government,” she said. “Your mother, too. It is good, Allie...it means they are handling it through the humans.” Mika rolled her eyes, smiling faintly as she finished swallowing her bite of sandwich. “...It is the Rooks’ new favorite toy, to call everyone a terrorist.”
I tried to smile back. I couldn’t quite feel the same relief the seers did at my mom and brother in a federal prison.
“I suppose breaking them out is out of the question?” I said.
Mika laughed, poking me in the ribs with a finger. “You human-borns are all the same. It is all pow-pow with guns...”
“Yeah,” I said, exhaling. “That’s me. Gun girl.”
Mika smiled, but her eyes remained serious. “The Rooks have infiltrators all over the human government, Allie...and in every branch of law enforcement. It would be very dangerous for your family if we were to try such a thing. They will let them out soon. Our intelligence tells us that your mother should be out in a few days...maybe less. And in some ways, they are safer in there. The other humans may harass them once they are out.”
I frowned, not really reassured by that, either.
From above us rose a loud bang, like someone knocking a table to the floor.
I glanced up, then back at Mika.
When the seer didn’t react, I forced a shrug.
“Yeah,” I said. “I figured there was a reason.”
“We will monitor the situation closely.” Mika hesitated, then added, “I know Dehgoies feels very responsible...”
I looked back at the television, keeping my face neutral. “I really don’t know enough about what he could have done differently to blame him,” I said honestly. “Anyway, he didn’t make me a seer. I don’t know why he thinks this is all on him.”
Mika patted my leg. “We will get them out as soon as they are released. Do not worry, Bridge Alyson.”
The banging above us started up again.
It grew louder, more rhythmic, broken by thick female cries.
I glanced up, then smiled wanly at Mika. “Someone’s having fun.”
Mika clicked in irritation, shaking her head. “Kat...always Kat. ‘Llysa should give her a soundproof room, or at least one away from the common areas. Poor Ivy...their rooms are next to one another.”
She noticed my expression then, and her irritation faded.
“Oh. Sorry, Allie.”
I shook my head, taking another bite of the sandwich and chewing.
Mika sighed, staring back at the ceiling. “It is not you, you know. She would never admit it, but she has always been weak for him.”
I let the sandwich drop to my lap, suddenly not hungry at all.
Mika clicked her tongue. “It is no excuse. She would not be doing this if you had been raised seer. If it were me, she would wake up missing an ear.”
Briefly, I was tempted to press it. If anyone might tell me what was really going on with me and Revik, it was Mika. I’d already asked her, of course, but every seer in the place had taken some kind of vow of silence. Mika at least seemed to feel bad about not telling me.
I forced a smile. “Wow,” I said finally. “Remind me not to piss you off.”
Mika only made an irritated sound, aiming it at the ceiling.
Hesitating, I started to ask, but she gave me a direct look.
“I can’t, Allie,” she said. “I really can’t. Please don’t ask me.”
I gave her a wan smile, nodding. It had crossed my mind more than once that Revik had made them all take some kind of blood oath not to tell me anything. But that seemed paranoid.
“No,” Mika said, glancing at me again. “It’s not.”
I opened my mouth to speak, but she cut me off.
“I can’t tell you, Allie,” she said, sighing with a soft clicking sound. “We all promised. You will have to ask him.” Mika gazed up at the ceiling when the banging started up again. Her voice grew apologetic.
“It could be a customer.”
“At ten in the morning?”
“It could be.”
I didn’t argue. When the cries got louder, I glanced deliberately at the clock. Placing what was left of my sandwich on the ceramic platter, I nodded to Mika.
“I need to get going. Thanks for the food.”
Mika looked at my barely-touched sandwich, then up at the ceiling. “You going to play with guns again?”
“No guns. Sight training. Ullysa’s turn to make me throw up while I try to block her and can’t.”
“You’ll get better,” Mika said, sympathetic. “It’s like that for all of us at first. Only we’re younger...you know.”
I tried to ignore the sounds coming through the ceiling. “Even Ullysa says I’m learning slow. All those years of human conditioning...”
“She says that,” Mika said. “And Ullysa acts like she is a novice, but she is really good at finding holes.”
The cries above grew louder once more, even as the banging slowed, punctuated by more masculine groans.
I cleared my throat. “Can I practice on you later?” I said.
“Sure. My first customer is at four.”
Nodding, I rose deliberately to my feet. I made a point of moving slow, but still felt like I walked too quickly from the room, heading for the nearest corridor without paying too much attention to where it led. I was about two hours too early to meet Ullysa, so decided to go to the compound’s small temple, look at some of the paintings, maybe read more of the old books they had lying around in there.
As I passed the industrial-sized kitchen, though, I saw mo
vement and paused, peering through the swinging doors.
The kitchen itself was huge, even for the size of the building. One wall consisted of an oven range with ten or so burners, two stainless steel refrigerators and rows of cabinets and counter space. A massive, wooden chopping block crouched by two porcelain sinks, and in the middle of the room stood the high, marble table where I’d sat that first morning, polished to a mirror-like sheen and surrounded by barstools.
Revik stood by one of the cabinets. His shirt hung open on his shoulders as he moved cans around.
I stared at him. I was still staring when he turned.
He flinched slightly when he saw me there, then stared back, his pale eyes shining faintly in the kitchen’s lights. I watched him reach for his own shirt. He buttoned it up while I watched, still not really looking at me.
“What?” he said finally. “What is it, Allie?”
I fought to suppress the feeling that rose in me, couldn’t.
It was relief, but more than that. From his face, I could tell he felt it, too...and that it startled him. His eyes flickered between mine, wary, but I saw something else there, too.
“Allie?” he said. His voice got lower. “Tell me.”
For a second, I hesitated. I glanced down the hallway, then back at him.
I did want to talk to him, though. I didn’t know how, exactly, but I was more tired of the impasse between us than I knew how to express. I heard voices in the corridor, heading in our direction, and glanced at him again, feeling like the moment was about to pass. When I saw the wary look sharpen in his eyes, I found myself thinking about Kat, what I’d told myself about staying out of his business, leaving him alone.
He continued staring at me as the voices got louder. I forced a smile, my nerves rising in spite of myself when it occurred to me he was probably reading my mind again.
I felt a faint whisper of anger on him.
Backing away, I shook my head, stepping away from the doorway.
“Sorry, I just...” I shook my head again. “Sorry.”
I had just let go of the door when his voice rose.
“Allie. Wait.”
I came to a stop, in surprise as much as anything.
He exhaled when I turned, running his fingers through his dark hair. For a moment he only stood there. Then he looked up, meeting my gaze.
“Do you play chess, Allie?” he said.
His voice was low, almost stiffly polite.
I continued to stare at him. “Chess?”
“Yes.” He motioned vaguely towards the marble bar, his accent thicker. “There is a board. We could play. Eat lunch.”
I hesitated, but only for another few heartbeats. “Yeah,” I said. “Great.”
“Are you hungry?” he said. “I could make us something.”
I thought of the sandwich in the other room, then pushed it from my mind.
“Sure,” I said. “Whatever you’re having.”
I just stood there as he poured a large can of soup into a pot. He put it on the burner and lit the flame, then walked to a cabinet on the other side of the kitchen. I remained by the door as he pulled out a wooden chessboard that folded with hinges on the side, the black and white pieces housed within. He opened up the box on the marble bar, and started to pull out the pieces when I took another breath, and walked up to where he stood.
“I can do that,” I said, feeling my cheeks warm. “You’re making food.”
He hesitated a bare instant, then put down the piece he was holding.
“Okay.”
He retreated to the stove while I set up the board. I toyed with asking him other things. Maybe something about the sight training with Ullysa, or the gun range trick he taught me, or more about me being the Bridge. Finally I settled on,
“You want to be black or white?”
When he looked over his shoulder, he surprised me with a faint humor in his eyes.
“You’re the Bridge,” he said. “You have to be white.”
“Really?” I said, smiling back. “Why is that?”
“The White One,” he said. “It is another name.” Seeing my puzzlement, he gestured vaguely, facing the stove. “You know. You mentioned horses. The Bridge is the white horseman.” He glanced back, bowing slightly.
“...Woman,” he amended. “Horsewoman.”
I smiled again, but the comment stayed with me as I sat there. I remembered something about that, actually, about each horse being a different color. White, red, black. Then there was the fourth one, the one I could never remember...
“Pale,” he spoke up from the stove.
I nodded again. “Yeah. Death, right?”
When he didn’t say anything, I just sat there, trying to relax as he finished warming the soup. Pouring the contents of the pot into two bowls, he pulled spoons from a drawer and walked everything over to the bar, setting one of each beside me.
“You want anything to drink, Allie?”
“No,” I said. “...Thanks. This is great.”
When he nodded, his face still, I hesitated, wanting to say more.
I picked up the bowl instead. I was a little relieved to see it was regular old crappy human soup, like I was used to. Blowing on a spoonful to cool it, he motioned towards the board, using his fingers that held the spoon.
“White moves first,” he said.
I swallowed my mouthful, nodding, then put down the bowl.
It crossed my mind that the chances were good that he would kick my ass in this, too, given that there had to be a sight component to chess, just like there was with everything else. Still, a smile rose to my lips as I focused on the board, hearing the soft chink of his spoon as he ate.
Pausing, I glanced around the kitchen. My eyes found one of the embroidered thankahs hanging on the wall, a golden buddha with peaceful eyes.
Under it, on a small shelf stood a lit candle.
It crossed my mind that he’d done that, too, after Mika and I left.
I’ve never been a Buddhist or anything, or even religious, but for some reason, that touched me, too.
I moved my first pawn. Watching Revik’s eyes narrow on the board, the bowl of soup balanced in his hand, I smiled again.
I didn’t let myself think too clearly about why.
14
VANCOUVER
HE’D BEATEN ME outside.
I stood in a doorway below the street, blinking against the tired rain of a Seattle afternoon. He threw a leg over the back of a motorcycle as I watched, and my nerves rose even more.
We were leaving.
Almost four weeks had gone by since I’d first woken up in bed with him.
Things were better with us now, yeah, but they still weren’t exactly normal. We were polite to one another. We played chess. In fact, we’d played at least a dozen games by then, although we still barely talked while we played. I hadn’t managed to beat him in a single game. In fact, I suspected playing me bored him in terms of the game itself, but he still offered whenever he saw me, maybe just because it was easier than us talking.
I suppose he did it mainly to try and ease things with us a little.
I’d begun to wonder if we were ever going to leave Seattle. But in monitoring the activity of the Rooks and SCARB and the Sweeps and whoever else, a group of seers somewhere in Asia finally decided it was time for Revik and I to push on. The main news channels still ran “special reports” that showcased images of the car chase up 101 north, along with scuba divers and scows dredging Lake Washington for the GTX and our bodies.
Revik didn’t appear on any of these.
I, on the other hand, was all over them. I’d been the one accused of killing cops and...more oddly...a doctor at San Francisco General. They named me openly as a seer terrorist and showed my true face on the feeds. The one picture I’d seen of Revik showed an avatar only, and called him a “potential accomplice” without using his name.
On the plus side, in not a single report about “Allie the terrorist” did
I hear any mention of what happened in the diner, with Jon. If anyone knew or suspected I was telekinetic, they were keeping it really quiet.
Another thing in the plus column: my mother had been released.
Mika assured me that they had people watching her house, to make sure the Rooks left her alone now that she was free. I hadn’t heard anything directly about Jon yet, but Ullysa and Ivy seemed confident that he would come out of this unscathed, too.
Still, I never really relaxed.
It wasn’t all Revik, or even the never-ending physical discomfort since that morning when we woke up in bed together. I was an outsider here, and I knew it. Most of the time, I couldn’t forget it for more than a few seconds in a stretch.
More than that, they all seemed to take the Bridge thing a little too seriously. As a result, even when they saw me as a fellow seer, I wasn’t really one of them. I was something else, and I felt it in every word they said to me, every time I saw their faces grow more closed when I was around, even though Mika and a few of the others, including Ullysa, tried to befriend me.
I’d gotten a lot more on the Bridge thing, though, mostly from Revik, and mostly during our frequent, if one-sided, chess matches. It was one topic he seemed pretty comfortable talking about with me. Revik told me that the symbol of The Bridge was part of their Myth of Three, where they believed some kind of apocalypse happened for each of the humanoid races. Humans, who were nearing the point of their own apocalypse, would be given a group of beings to aid them through that transition, just like the other races had been.
The Bridge supposedly led that group of beings.
Thus the cracks about the four horsemen...which I think Revik meant mostly as a joke, although it was hard to tell with him. I could tell there was some seriousness to his teasing, too. He would drop things, here and there, that let me know he believed in the whole Bridge thing as much as the others, even if he seemed to see me differently.
According to Revik, the human myths were pretty far from those of the seers, in terms of their meaning, but honestly, I wasn’t sure if that relieved me or not, since I didn’t really understand either.
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