Children of the Silent Season (Heartbeat of the World Book 1)

by T. Wyse

  "It's this machine, all of these things." Craig dangled his blue lantern. "There’s something unnatural about them. I've heard things, things about the machines they work with." His voice went down even further. "It's this screaming machi—"

  Wendy made a fearful and subtle cutting motion to Craig. An older youth approached from behind, and declared: "Alright let's get going then." Craig and Wendy rose as ordered.

  "You then." The boy said, looking down at Amelie. He drew his lantern closer to her face. "Getting up?" He demanded with annoyance. Amelie saw what must be the flower emblem on the left side of his collar.

  "She's cleaning crew." Wendy said, standing behind him.

  "Great." The boy's annoyance was palpable. "Well then, get over there then." He motioned to Melissan's table. Amelie stood, and fumbled around in the darkness towards Melissan. She traced Craig and Wendy's departure from the cafeteria. The entire place had emptied with such preciseness it was eerie.

  "Hello." Melissan greeted her as she sat down. "I usually wait for the whole place to empty before I get to it." The little girl's face leaned against Melissan's side. "We're about to get to scrubbing this place down, and shoveling the filth from the entry." She declared to Amelie.

  "No lantern though, huh." Melissan remarked.

  "Not yet." Amelie replied, feeling lacking.

  "Ah well, no point then. You'd have to ask Mrs. Roberts or the Prof himself for one, and they're both busy as heck. You might as well just wander around or such."

  "No, I'm fine, I'll help you." Amelie declared stubbornly.

  "We're cleaning the gym. You'd be completely useless without a torch, just take the rest of the day off, go to your room, whatever." She insisted.

  "I guess I could go visit Kokopelli." Amelie said with some reluctance. "What time will you be out of the gym?" She asked, hoping that she could help at that point.

  "Don't worry about it, really." Melissan said, dismissing with her hands. "The cleaning isn't very important." She said with a sarcastic secretiveness. "It's mostly busy work." Her voice lowered into a flippant whisper.

  "Really, it's just one less day of frustration for you, be glad of it." She insisted.

  "Kokopelli." Melissan said to herself. "I've heard that name before somewhere. Hm." She hugged the little girl close.

  "That's my cat. You probably heard it from Mrs. Roberts or something." Amelie dismissed.

  "I don't know. I could swear I've heard it somewhere else." Melissan pondered. "Oh well, gym's empty." She declared. "Let's get to it E." She rose, and the little girl rose with her, picking up her lantern, aping the older girl's motion. "We'll help you out of here." Melissan motioned, offering to light Amelie's way through the darkness.

  Left to her own devices having lead into the hallway by Melissan's torch, she wandered into the commons room. The sun hung lazily in the sky, the coloured squares humming warm songs of the aging day. Amelie wandered through the projected checkerboard, and arriving just short of touching the glass she stared out into the world beyond. There were jutting white structures within the sands closest to the school, a peppering of petrified trees amongst them. Other than those few distractions there was nothing but sand.

  Curiosity lead her towards the entryway. However muted voices and vague shapes of a pair standing guard at the entrance shooed her away.

  The library, perhaps, was her cold and numb conclusion as she turned back to the commons only to find it almost entirely darkened by black figures. Turning her back to the smearing dark she followed the hallway and entered the library. The door swung shut with a sadistic haste, ending with an echoing slam to announce her intrusion.

  The air within gradually returned to its stilled resting state, and no set of spear wielding guards came to challenge her. Through the rows of books she spied more of the colourful windows, though they looked even more out of place than before. Her curiosity leading her feet once again, she came again to the squared windows, peering outside.

  The glass coloured the world red, a hellish pit of burning lava. Moving along to another vantage gave the illusion of a vast field of even grass, marked with a few jagged mossy rocks and trees beyond.

  "Can I help you with something?" A voice called to her right. She jumped in surprise, rotating around to see a girl, an older girl, standing before her.

  The girl struck Amelie as strange before she could process the entire figure. She had the same uniform, the jacket and skirt, white dress shirt and tie. The shirt, however, bore the collared insignia, but not the flower this time, so she could only assume it was the gear. This was enough to shift Amelie a little off centre, and force a half step back, but then she noticed the jacket. It was far too big, the bottom of the jacket spilling down into the skirt, the shoulder tips buckled and sagging downwards. The right sleeve dangled loosely, obscuring the hand beneath, while the left sleeve was crisply rolled to show her left hand.

  "Shouldn't you be out in the fields?" The girl said, giving a quick fall of her glance to Amelie's collar. "I understand you want to sneak some time, but really..."

  Her breathing was easy enough. Her heart wasn’t rattling either. She seemed bored rather than angry.

  "Oh, I'm on cleaning crew." Amelie parroted the explanation she had heard Wendy use, the one that had satisfied the other.

  "Really? You seem...able." The girl stated bluntly. Amelie realized what bothered her so much, a subtle nuance in the way she moved. The girl's right hand hung useless, unmoving, obscured beneath the sleeve.

  "Shouldn't you be cleaning then?" She asked with a hint of derisive sarcasm.

  "I don't have a lamp." Amelie nodded at the small metal orb sleeping on the older girl's hip. "Can't do the dark places without it, so they told me to burn time until they're done with the gym." She lied a little, but fully intended to meet the two of them when they had finished with the gym's cleaning.

  The older girl gave an impassive shrug, one that only involved her left side. She gazed out the window, suddenly not seeing Amelie. She scratched her hidden arm gently through the uniform's cloth.

  "I was looking for a book, or such." Amelie said, thinking perhaps this would help break the awkwardness.

  "Sure, what was it you were looking for?" The girl leaned her back on the window gently, facing the library at large. "I'm Eilis by the way. Good to have some company, even if you're a slacker." She gave a half smile.

  "Oh, I'm Amelie." She introduced herself informally. She couldn't think exactly what she wanted, and apparently her long pause had bolstered Eilis' suspicion.

  "Aw, what you can't even think of a decent lie to tell?" Eilis regarded her with a smile somewhat reminiscent of a viper, her head tilted askew.

  "Are you, the librarian, or something? Mrs. Roberts mentioned I had to ask permission to take books out." Amelie asked finally.

  "Yeah guess that's me." Eilis broke her gaze, leaning on one leg, her hand seemed unable to resist rubbing her right arm. "Not that I wanted it, just can't work the machine room anymore is all."

  "Why not?" The question was reflexive, and Amelie regretted it instantly. It had come from an honest curiosity, an interest in pursuing the conversation, nothing more.

  Eilis’ breath caught, and Amelie had all the answer she was going to get from the glare she was shot. A glimmer of annoyance was there, but something else too. Amelie almost sensed a glow from her eyes, something not dissimilar to Kokopelli's, but something that seemed more...wrong...somehow.

  "Someone mentioned the name Kokopelli." Amelie said finally, having thought of him just now. She desperately wanted to dismiss those eyes, try to not see what her subconscious was beginning to peer through.

  "Hmmm. Well that's something to do at least." Eilis declared, giving a half shrug. "Any other information, other than that it's a name?" She asked, her left hand pointing at various parts of the library, thinking of where best to begin.

  "No, sorry." Amelie apologized, but was glad that those eyes were upon the stacks, and not her. />
  "Well, we can start with simple reference materials, and work from there I suppose." Eilis replied, her attention wandering through the stacks.

  Suddenly the girl broke off, into a directed walk, apparently having decided the location to visit for this information. Amelie followed after, but at a distance. She followed in a few sharp turns, ending up in a dimmer area of the library.

  "Here we are." Eilis' hand pointedly searched along a reference library of fattened tomes.

  Amelie noticed, trying to dismiss it, yet it was there. There was a subtle green glow about the older girl, something simply wasn't right, and it wasn't something Amelie could place exactly, nor something she could ignore.

  Eilis grabbed one of the large books in her hand, and then motioned with her head for Amelie to follow. They made their way to a nearby table, and the older girl placed the book down.

  Amelie watched as the girl thumbed through the book quickly, trying to find the word. "No luck, not here." She declared finally. They both rose, returning the book to where it had previously sat.

  They repeated the process a few more times, each time with no success. After a time-lost hour or so of thumbing uselessly, they were visited by another of the youths bearing the gear seal.

  "Who is this?" The older boy demanded, scrutinizing Amelie's collar. He scowled disapprovingly, and turned to Eilis. "Well?"

  "Ah it’s okay, we were just looking something up." Eilis said dismissively at the older boy.

  "Well she'd better get out of here, soon." He didn't look at Amelie.

  "Yeah, probably." Eilis agreed, shrugging. "Tell you what Amelie, why don't you go looking yourself for a bit, but once people start pouring in, you'd better get out." Her tone was closer to a concerned warning than anything else.

  The boy sat down, and began to talk to Eilis. Amelie recognized that the conversation was not for her, and went towards the stacks again. There was something off about him, something beneath his gruff unpleasantness. The intangible taste he left in her mind, was much fiercer but of the same source as what seemed to be emanating from Eilis.

  Amelie perused the stacks, not finding anything in specific without the aid of the older girl. The day was growing old, the light piercing through the room came at a lower angle, causing multicoloured beams shooting through the room. Amelie was preparing herself for her retreat out the further door, as the one nearest the commons room had opened and closed a number of times, hinting at further visitors.

  She turned, then stopped herself mid stride. There was a row of deep red volumes there, as large as the book Eilis had opened the first time. A small piercing beam of light seemed to hover over a particular volume, lacking any labeling on the spine.

  She took the book out, warmed by sun’s nudge, and sliding it out saw letters across its face. It was a textbook, bearing the label "Machkachin-tech: Introductory concepts to spiritual machination." then a series of words underneath italicized, foreign to Amelie’s knowledge but familiar in their makeup. "Puuwi machkachsin, puuwi hak taataqt kiihu."

  The book itself was some sort of guide, a course apparently specific to the Macca school. It was a primer on language, giving various definitions of things. Amelie fleetingly thought of translating the words on the cover, then realized something. She went to the back, a glossary of words and terms were there, and yes 'Kokopelli'. She flipped to the page referenced.

  It was a chapter on the mythologies of the native cultures. The specific subsection was a number of points detailing various deities, and worship.

  There he was, only it wasn't him. The Kokopelli here was a man, a fertility god, and yet... Amelie looked at the picture, her heart sank in realization. She recognized the picture of the carving, depicting the god bringing in spring. The carving was a cruder version of the glowing figures, dancing in a world of light that the little cat had shown her in reward for her two sacrifices.

  Her heartbeat increased, but she wrinkled her nose in confusion. He was responsible not only for the fertility of the earth, but of humanity as well, he ushered in the seasons with...

  "Hello there, find what you're looking for?" Another boy, different from the first, asked her. He pushed the book down, looking at the page.

  "No. I was just looking around, I didn't realize it was time to go." Amelie said apologetically.

  "Ah. Well it is." The boy's glare was not as intense as the first, but was perhaps more forceful.

  "Well you chose a good book at least." He smiled. "Tell you what, why don't you take it with you? I'll Let Eilis know and she'll mark you down for it."

  "Thank you." Amelie tried not to meet his stare. His eyes were glowing green, intensely. She tried to tell herself it was the light through the windows, causing some kind of illusion. The lighted square was, however, a glowing red.

  "Something wrong?" He asked.

  Not looking at his face was worse. She imagined she saw a sharpened tongue, longer than it should have been, lash out as if tasting the dead wind between them.

  'No, just, I hope I didn't break any rules by being here." She stared into his face this time, the tongue wasn't there, but the eyes pierced into her.

  "Ah well, not any hard rules, no." He smiled, guiding her out towards the back door of the library. "Do be careful where you're caught in the future. You might meet someone less forgiving than me." He let the door slam behind her.

  In the briefest moment between the crack of the door, she saw his face changed into something different, twisted, but still human. She hugged the strange book close. Surely it had just been a trick of the light...surely.

  Still hugging the book like a cherished childhood toy, she moved into the commons room, intending to find Melissan. She wasn't there, though a number of brown clothed children sat amongst the couches. Feeling like a stranger, but one well blended in thanks to her clothes, she moved onto the games room. Again, no familiar faces presented themselves outwardly, though the room bustled noisily.

  Amelie moved on, into the fire room. Still no familiar faces, no sign of Melissan or the two she had worked with in the kitchen. Then it struck her, and she felt stupid. Of course Craig and Wendy were likely in the kitchen again, and the meal was in the preparatory stages.

  Amelie quickly returned to the glass tower, depositing the book on a shelf in the bathroom nook, then headed with freed hands towards the kitchen.

  The gymnasium was pitch black, Amelie felt her way along the wall fearing a tripping footfall along the way, but managed to arrive at the halo of light around the closed kitchen door. She burst into it, and into the bright light that burned her eyes. The smells of the kitchen hit her nose, and she realized that she was in fact, too late.

  "I'm sorry!" She apologized. Craig and Wendy were there, leaning against the counter, their preparatory tasks at an end. There were two other strangers there as well, one younger, one older, who regarded Amelie with the surprise of an intruder.

  "It'll have to do for now," Lyssa said, without turning around. "In the future I would expect you'll have a better foothold on your time." Her breath was withdrawn, and unmistakably annoyed, but at least there was no hint of serious anger.

  Amelie sat on the counter beside her two acquaintances.

  "I think it's about time anyways." Wendy replied, leading Amelie out into the gymnasium, practically pulling her.

  "You have to be careful about these things." Wendy said with a hissed warning, as they sat down at the same bench from earlier that day. "Where were you anyway, we looked everywhere, even the tower."

  "I was, in the library, I wanted to look up that—"

  "The LIBRARY!?" Wendy practically screamed, her voice echoing in the darkness.

  "It's our fault really." Craig had added his blue light to the table.

  Wendy nodded somberly, then turned to Amelie. "You didn't talk to them, about the crows, or when you came, nothing like that, right?" She whispered, leaning across the table.

  "No, it didn't come up. It was just the library girl anyway
s." Amelie answered. "Though...there were some of the others, I met two of them. You were righ—"

  "No, don't even talk about that." Wendy hissed, shushing her. "Don't even think about it, just forget about anything you saw, and for your own sake, keep it to yourself, even around us, you never know who's listening." Wendy breathed out with relief. "What did you do while you were there?" She asked finally.

  "Oh I met Eilis, and we looked for reference for something. I was curious about something someone said." Amelie answered, being somewhat evasive.

  "Oh, Eilis." Wendy was even more so relieved. "She's one of the less...strange of them. She had an accident, early on. She studied with them before..." Wendy's eyes probed into her memory.

  "Okay, so this school, it's a boarding school, but it's...different. It’s almost like two different schools at once. There are even two different sets of uniforms. There’s a special curriculum that most of us here were in or heading into. Most of the real stuff comes in the last two years, so Craig and I were just doing the prep courses since that would’ve been next year.”

  "They're mandatory?" Amelie asked, thinking of the strange textbook.

  “No, like I said, most of us were.” Wendy leaned her face on her arm pensively, her breath rolling within. “There are two separate boarding sections, and the housing for the engineer curriculum is in this building. Usually the greens outnumber the browns.”

  “She wouldn’t know,” Craig scolded teasingly. “Greens are the ones in green uniforms, the ‘privs.’”

  “Hey!” Wendy snarled.

  “Privs are the ones who came to the school cause their parents bought their way in. Most of us had to pass a bunch of prereq tests.”

  “You’re forgetting that I used to be in green.” Wendy snorted like a bull readying a charge.

  “Well you don’t count.” Craig waved dismissively. “You’re one of the good ones.”

  Wendy made a cutting gesture through the air before he could continue. “We don’t even really know the specifics of the curriculum until later on, when we take the real courses.” She hung on ‘real’ with a biting annoyance. “The school used to be a whole campus of buildings, cutting edge stuff, much nicer than this one.”