Harbinger

by Sara Etienne

  Stronger than the others the Harbinger

  peers far into the Future There men

  will feast off of the Earth like maggots There The

  Circle will fail the Family Two quarrel and the

  Harbinger alone slaughters

  the lambs Forging a new Path and journeying

  the sea of time To finish what has begun

  Dread knotted in my belly, and far away, at the edge of my hearing, music thrummed. Drums joined my pounding heart. I flipped the cards over.

  The Vision. A sleeper waking from a nightmare, warding off swords.

  The Lovers. This card was upside down. Two masked lovers reaching out for each other. A sword slicing the air between them.

  The Ritual. A figure hidden behind a mask and a robe, rowing a boat away from shore. Six swords glittering, just under the water.

  A voice cut across my thoughts. “That’s the Past.”

  My heart stopped and the music with it as two bare feet appeared in front of me. I blinked up, seeing the white sundress and the blond braid.

  Rita.

  “Shit. You scared me!” It’d been stupid to let myself forget where I was. I fumbled with the cards, stacking them together as I got up and checked out the window for Dragon.

  Through the hazy waves of heat rippling off the sidewalk, Dragon gestured violently at another guard with her cigarette. Her voice drifted in through the window. “. . . No. I told you, not locusts. Crickets. Practically covered the whole damn state of Utah. The crops, rations, even the grass . . .”

  “You’re doing it wrong.” Rita crossed the room and stood next to me at the window. Her words were soft and her eyes vague as she peered outside. “We used to do this all the time when I was little. You have to lay them out the right way if you want to tell your fortune. Three rows of three.”

  “I don’t want to tell my fortune,” I snapped, my pulse still hammering in my head from her surprise appearance. I’d been lucky it’d just been Rita. Dragon would come back inside soon, and I still didn’t know the last message.

  “But you laid out the cards.” Rita sounded dazed. “Three for the Past. Three for the Future. You only need three more to bridge the gap between them.”

  To bridge the gap?

  “To know how the Future will come to pass.” She beamed at me. A little girl’s smile.

  I don’t want that Death card anywhere near my future.

  Then Rita’s eyes went wide and she skewered me with them. “Only one person can stop Death’s approach.”

  I backed away from her. She’d just answered my thought. And what about her disappearing the other night? Were there other secret doors in the Compass Rose? Or was it something else? Maybe she’s just another of your hallucinations.

  No. Whoever Rita was, what she’d said about the Past and the Future had gotten my attention. I took a deep breath. “Can you show me what you mean about the cards?”

  She nodded, giving me a simple smile that wasn’t all there. “Deal out those cards you were looking at when I came in. One, two, three . . . the Past you’ll see.” She pointed at the floor, showing me where to lay them down.

  The smell of cigarette smoke drifted in through the window, and Dragon was still safe on the other side of the courtyard. So I sat back down on the floor and laid out the top three cards again. The nightmare Vision. The upside-down Lovers. The Ritual, with its shrouded boatman and swords.

  Rita knelt next to me, reaching out toward The Lovers. Her voice was sad. “The Past is unfinished . . .” Then she pointed to another spot on the floor, just to the right. “Time moves forward. Lay down the next three, right here. Four, five, six . . . the Future it predicts.”

  She sang the rhyme in a little child’s voice, sending shivers up my arms as I dealt out the next three cards, arranging them in a row. The frowning Moon. The glowering Sun. Death’s sharp scythe.

  She shook her head. “No! Not so close to the others! Those cards are the Future.”

  Tears welled up in her eyes, and I hurried to put space between the Past and the Future cards. I didn’t want to be the one who sent Rita off the deep end. I scooted the foreboding Future cards a little farther to the right, so now there was a bigger gap between the two lines of cards.

  She rewarded me with a smile. “Yes. Seven, eight, nine . . . a bridge across time.”

  Rita pointed to the blank space between the Past cards and the Future cards, showing me where to put the final three.

  Not sure of the order, I put the blindfolded Harbinger, with its crossed swords, in the middle of the open space.

  “Higher. You’re building a bridge.” Then she sang to herself, “Over the river and through the woods . . .”

  Trying to finish this before she completely stopped making sense, I shoved The Harbinger card farther up, so it sat a little higher than the other cards.

  This time, Rita nodded her approval. “This is the one who brings destruction.”

  She waited for the next card and I showed her The Circle, with the winged woman with the goblets. Rita pointed to a spot to the left of The Harbinger.

  “One foot in the water and one on land. Time flows through the goblets, back and forth, back and forth.” Rita’s soft voice wavered, getting lost in her own words. “Time balances strong with weak. Weak with strong. The planets spin round and round. And her— she’s part of The Circle. Connected to all. She’ll teach you the pattern, but she won’t change it.”

  Her words prickled at my mind, agitating my thoughts. I wanted to finish this. To be done with these eerie pictures and secret messages.

  The last card in my hands was the most disturbing. Some of the people in the other cards were wearing masks, but this crowned figure was completely hidden from the world. Only the hands hinted at its humanity. And above the palms floated a set of scales and a sword. The card had originally been labeled Justice, but M. H. had renamed it The Path. I laid The Path down on the right side of The Harbinger.

  This final card completed the literal bridge between the line of Past cards and the line of Future cards. Now that Rita had begun to explain the cards, I recognized some of the symbolism. “The Path means balance too, doesn’t it?”

  “Yes.” Rita pointed to the picture. “A king rules alone, one fierce leader controlling the fate of the world. Weighing weak against strong. Not just observing the balance, but keeping it . . . with the might of the sword.

  “The Circle goes nowhere . . . round and round, round and round, round and round. But The Path . . . The Path forges into the Future, leaving terrible retribution in its wake.” Rita shuddered, her eyes cloudy. “These three cards, The Circle, The Harbinger, The Path, they are the bridge between the Past and the Future. Only one person can stop this.”

  Suddenly, the vagueness went out of Rita’s face. Her eyes turned wild, like a caged animal. “You must be careful, Faye. He is here. You are both crossing over the bridge now.”

  Then the fog returned to her eyes and she looked down at the cards with a puzzled frown. In her wispy voice, she finished off her eerie rhyme. “Nine cards portend . . . the day this world shall end.”

  Hand shaking, I turned the three bridge cards over, the words lining up perfectly. This final prophecy was the longest of the three, the slanted letters crammed onto the cards.

  Look carefully for the Harbinger

  is shielded from the glare of day

  But the moon will know them Peer into strangers’ eyes

  for the Harbinger will carry pain with them

  through the lonely places of the Earth When the hour

  arrives the Harbinger will smother the sickness that is humanity

  Only the Harbinger can wash this world clean

  The words were sour in my mouth. Only the Harbinger can wash this world clean. I didn’t think M. H. was talking about some kind of angelic cosmic baptism.

  No. The words sounded more like someone ready to drown a litter of unwanted puppies. Now I was the one who shuddered.
>
  “Does this mean what I think it does?” I looked up at Rita, but she was gone.

  The words on the tarot cards rang in my ears the rest of the morning as I finished cleaning the bathrooms. I hadn’t finished copying down the prophecies before Dragon came back from her smoke break. But I had managed to rip my scribbled notes out of the diary and stick them into my sock. The folded paper jabbed into my ankle while I scrubbed sinks and breathed in chemical fumes. While I choked down cold tuna fish casserole. While I wondered about the Harbinger.

  Was any of this real? Rita seemed insane, totally out of touch with reality. And yet I couldn’t deny that something real was going on with the diary and Holbrook and my Family. When Dragon escorted me to Free Time, I was relieved to have something else to think about.

  Ever since the arson attempt the day before, the tension had been crackling at Holbrook. An undercurrent of agitation bristled through me as Dragon locked the gate. Forty disaffected kids fenced in together. Add blinding heat and no shade, and it was a recipe for anarchy.

  My Family was sitting back in the same corner as the other day. There was a gap between them and everyone else. A no-fly zone.

  I thought about following suit and avoiding Kel altogether, but Nami had already spotted me. She was waving and doing some sort of air guitar riff. I wanted to stop her before our Family attracted unwanted attention from the Takers. I hurried through the hostile forces to get to them.

  Kel pulled off his sunglasses and looked up at me. The adrenaline of the chase pounded through my body again, and I wanted to run. Had Kel told any of them about yesterday’s exploits? Had Maya told them about the symbols on our floor? My body tensed, not sure what to do.

  But everyone acted normal. In fact, they’d lost the exhaustion I’d seen this morning. Nami scooted closer to Damion, making room for me to sit.

  “Miss us?” Nami’s eyes not-so-subtly darted toward Kel. The real question showed plainly on her face. Trying to figure out what was going on between him and me.

  Her guess was as good as mine. It didn’t look like Kel had said anything to turn the Family against me, but after yesterday, I didn’t know what to believe.

  “Back from the front lines, I see.” Damion’s face was still serious, but relaxed now. Like his proximity to Nami had melted some of his ice.

  Zach cut off his explanation of Gray Hulk versus Green Hulk and saluted me. Maya scowled in my direction, but I guessed this was more an expression of her disgust with the conversation topic than her feelings about my arrival.

  I sat down, wishing I could feel more comfortable, more a part of the group. The rest of them seemed like they were taking a vacation from reality. From red hands and Tasers and the other students. But I was too acutely aware of Kel, sitting just a few feet away, to be able to relax.

  Kel pulled off his hoodie. I’d never seen him without it. He looked like a different person, smaller, more vulnerable. Unlike everyone else, he looked more tired than he had that morning. Whatever he was sick with, it was getting worse. His cheeks were tinged red and he sat stiffly, like he was in pain. He peeled off his gloves, exposing a rash speckling his long, brown fingers. No one else noticed, their attention on me.

  “What’d they do to you? Lock you in Solitary?” Maya asked.

  Kel’s eyes met mine. I tried to look away, but they held on to me. I thought about his low voice drifting through the wall, wrapping me. About his body so close to mine.

  “No.” I shook my head, clearing it all away. “Bathrooms.”

  Groans of sympathy came from them, and I felt a little more stable.

  “Latrine duty.” Damion’s usual bark was quiet now, softer around the edges. “That’s what they called it at the cadet training I went through last year. Fifty guys. One bathroom. Enough said.”

  “Anything would’ve been better than being exposed to what Zach calls art.” Nami rolled her eyes over-dramatically. “You should’ve seen the busty ninja chick he drew as his ‘self-portrait’ in art class. The Uncle flipped.”

  Zach turned red as both Nami and Maya struck a karate pose, but I could tell he was enjoying the attention.

  “Now that you’re here, Faye—” Damion cleared his throat then and everyone’s face fell. Like Dad telling the kids to get out of the swimming pool. Not that there were many pools anymore. “We’ve gotta talk about what’s going on. I can’t afford to get in any more trouble. This is my last chance . . .”

  We were silent while Damion struggled with his words. This was the first time he’d revealed anything personal to the group, though I could tell by the tears in Nami’s eyes that she’d already heard this story. She reached out as if to hold his hand, but Damion pulled into himself as he talked, physically distancing himself from all of us.

  “Last year, my parents were deployed.” Damion’s voice was terse. As if sticking to the facts would make it less painful. “They both got killed in the Peak War. I freaked out and did some pretty stupid shit. Two months later, I got kicked out of the Air Force Academy. But I worked my ass off this summer, and the dean finally gave me one more chance to prove I can keep it together. If I toe the line at Holbrook, I can graduate from the Academy next year. I can make my parents proud and help win this war. I can’t screw this up.”

  I ached for Damion. And his pain was not only echoed in my eyes, but in everyone’s around the circle. Suddenly, despite what had happened with Kel the day before, I wanted to tell them everything. To open up the way Damion had.

  But Kel’s dark eyes locked on mine again. Was it a threat? A dare? A plea? I had no idea.

  And what if I do tell them what’s going on? They’ll think I’m crazy.

  What good would it do anyway? I didn’t have any answers to give them. Only hallucinations, a symbol drawn in crayon, and a fistful of tarot cards.

  I looked down at my hands, thinking of what Rita had said about the future the tarot cards foretold.

  Only one person can stop Death’s approach.

  The bathroom cleaner had finally gotten rid of the red stain on my palms, but I could still feel it marking me.

  Maybe I’m the person. Maybe I can stop it. The words perched precariously in my mind. If I was supposed to stop the Harbinger, then everything made sense. My nightmares and visions. Whatever happened when I was a kid. The arrow markings in the Compass Rose. The tarot cards. They were all signs. For me.

  That powerful thought tremored through my body. For me. I wouldn’t have to hide anymore.

  A shout sounded from the other side of the yard. Two guys were shoving each other, yelling something I couldn’t hear. A mass of kids circled them, drawn into the fight’s gravity. Takers rushed to get inside the fence.

  But a few of the students beat them to it. They barricaded the gate, keeping it from swinging open.

  The fight was exploding into a riot. By now most of the kids were punching someone, half fighting each other, the other half fighting off the invading Takers. One of the revolutionaries screamed and flew back from the fence.

  It’s all fun and games until someone gets a Taser in the crotch.

  Under all the chaos, I heard my name.

  “Faye?” The voice was weak and low. “Faye?”

  I turned reluctantly. Kel’s face was pink. The rash on his hands had grown into scaly blotches. Sweat beaded up on his forehead, and invisible lines pulled his skin tight across his face.

  “Kel?”

  This time when I looked in his eyes, all I could see was pain.

  “Kel?” I tried again, crawling over to him. His cheeks had darkened into a red rash that spread across the bridge of his nose. “What’s wrong?”

  His voice wheezed, dry and faint.

  “Help.”

  23

  THE WHOLE FAMILY was on their feet now.

  “Is he okay?” Nami’s voice rose in panic.

  “I don’t know.” I racked my brain, trying to remember exactly what Kel had told me in Solitary about what he was sick with. Nothing. H
e’d told me exactly nothing. “I’m getting help.”

  Freddy and the other Takers had rammed open the gate by now, and there was a guerilla war going on. Screams and pepper spray filled the air.

  “Help!” My voice got lost in the mutiny. I tried again, and this time my shout was louder, stronger. Zach was right behind me, his voice joining mine.

  We nodded at each other, then jumped into the fray. Freddy manned the gate now, shouting into his earpiece. Takers streamed in from all over Holbrook. We fought our way through the mob.

  “Kel’s sick. I think—”

  “Sure, princess.” Freddy was a professional bastard, remembering to patronize me even in the middle of a crisis. He kept his eyes on the crowd while he talked to me. “I’ll be right over to deal with his tummy ache. Right after I deal with this little riot we’re having.”

  “No. Something’s wrong. He looks like—”

  “Just in time to distract me, huh?” He swung the gate open to let out a Taker who was dragging a girl by her hair. “How long do ya think I’ve worked with you monsters? I know every pathetic thought that goes through your head before you do.”

  Zach stepped up, right in Freddy’s face. Zach’s body trembled, but rage lit up his eyes, driving him forward. “Listen, you fucker . . .”

  Freddy laughed down at him, spit flecking Zach’s face.

  “Remember who you’re talking to.” Freddy fingered the canister of pepper spray in his fist. “Your little friend here already knows what a bitch this is to inhale. Think of what it’ll feel like directly in your eyes.”

  Maya ran up behind me. “Damion says Kel’s getting worse. He’s having some sort of fit or something. All spasmy and his skin’s burning up.”

  Through the chaos, I spotted Damion and Nami huddled over Kel. Damion was propping Kel up against him, adjusting the tilt of his head, while Nami felt his forehead.

  Doubt flickered across Freddy’s face. I had to find some way to convince him I was serious. Some way to reach him through all that Taker bullshit.