Affinity

by Dianne Wilson

  Shasta bounced a glowing thing on his palm.

  Elden’s arms stiffened, and he whispered in her ear, his breath blowing her hair onto her cheek. “LightSucker.”

  “My Sons, watch and learn.”

  Torn and the others gathered close. The LightSucker hovered over the centre of his palm, not restrained. Wherever Shasta moved his hand, the bug followed. He began swinging his hand in complex loops, back and forth, up and down. The bug kept up with him. Without touching it, Shasta squeezed his hand into a tight fist and the LightSucker fell on its back on the floor with its legs in the air. One final twitch and it was dead.

  Eva felt sick.

  The trainers nodded and murmured to each other, seemingly impressed.

  Shasta stood silent, waiting.

  After a while the buzz died down and they gave him their attention.

  “How powerful do you think DarkLight is? Anyone?” Shasta’s grey eyes stayed on the dead bug.

  His voice rolled over Eva, deep and soothing. Her limbs grew heavy.

  Torn said nothing, but one of the new trainers blurted out, “Well you just killed that LightSucker without even touching it. Does it get more powerful than that?” His eyes gleamed with a dark hunger.

  “Observe.” Shasta bent down and stretched out his hand over the bug. Sparks flew from his palm, shooting between the cadaver and his skin. For a few moments, nothing seemed to happen. Then a bug leg twitched, two more, then all of them. It flicked its wings, walked a few shaky steps, and then launched into the air.

  The trainers seemed to be in stunned silence.

  Only Torn remained unaffected.

  “Moving on.” Shasta waved them all towards where Peta lay whimpering.

  Elden’s arms tightened around Eva, probably sensing that she was on the verge of running out to put herself between Shasta and the small girl.

  Shasta’s hands hovered over Peta’s damaged ankle. The same sparks darted between his palm and Peta’s skin that had resurrected the bug. The swelling went down and the bruising retracted like an outgoing tide.

  Eva didn’t know what to think.

  Her gaze told her what Shasta was doing for Peta was good, but her heart felt otherwise. Elden’s arms didn’t relax a smidge. Buzzing filled the air in the alcove.The resurrected LightSucker flew past her head. She bit her tongue not to yell out loud. It circled twice before death-diving and hitting the floor with a bug-sized crash. Its light extinguished and it breathed its last.

  ~*~

  Peta had left the Infirmary on her own legs but hadn’t returned to their room.

  Eva had only slept about an hour when Torn woke them up for training. Laps and climbing in her sleep-deprived state had Eva on the verge of throwing up. She stopped running and bent down to stop her head spinning.

  Peta was training with them but she kept to herself.

  Torn had been watching them from the side. In two strides, he reached Eva, took her hand, drawing her to the middle of the training ground, and stood her next to him. Her head swam, and she was barely aware of his cold fingers around hers.

  “Everybody stop. Fall in.” Torn’s voice was loud enough to penetrate her fog and she tried to pull her hand away, but he tightened his grip. The pulse from his thumb beat through her skin. Those climbing dropped off the wall, and came over on wobbly legs.

  Peta moved mechanically and avoided eye contact.

  Runners stumbled more than ran and only doubled over to breathe when they’d bundled in close.

  A half-smile played on Torn’s lips that sparked fear in Eva. There was no kindness in that smile. Torn waited until every last person in the room had gathered. He gazed at them with narrowed eyes. “I’d like to thank Zee here. She is new to the OS but has already proved to be invaluable in the assistance she’s given us.”

  Eva stared at him, a deep frown pulled her eyebrows down. What was he talking about?

  Elden stood at the back of the room with a bunch of other trainers called in to be part of this debacle. He’d help her. Whatever was going down here felt wrong. But Elden would help.

  “With Zee here’s help, we’ve uncovered some heretics.” Torn’s eyes widened in sarcastic, mock-surprise. “Who knows? Maybe they were even planted by the enemy. You all know that our work here is for the good of all of us. I won’t have it sabotaged by an ignorant few.” He turned to her now, face beaming, “Your co-operation has been useful to us. You’ve no idea just how useful.” He motioned to the trainers, “Come and get them.”

  Eva saw the lounge door in her mind, the soft light and the fruit that seemed such a blessing…nothing more than a trap. Her hands flew to her face, breathing became impossible. She searched for Elden among the trainers who ran forward, homing in on Morgan, Zap, Kezia. No-one moved towards Peta. A dreadful ache bloomed in the pit of her being.

  Morgan stared at her, disbelief turning to rage in her silent eyes. Betrayer…betrayer…betrayer…

  This couldn’t be happening.

  She met Peta’s eyes, but her stare was vacant. Everything had been scraped out and discarded.

  Eva was losing her mind. “Father God, help.” The world spun in a blur of red light.

  Torn’s hand closed around the back of her neck and he pulled her in close enough that she could count each eyelash. She lost count somewhere between thirty-seven and forty. Her gaze slid down to meet his—pale, cold steel. “Did you just call me God? How appropriate.” His voice was a fierce whisper.

  “No...”

  “Don’t deny it. I heard you.” His smile was slow, calculated. “You had to be talking to me. Nobody else will rescue you. Do you think your friends didn’t notice that you didn’t eat any of the fruit?”

  For a moment, his words filled her world, her mind, her heart. She was lost in the expanse of his eyes. Adrift. Abandoned.

  “Why are you doing this?”

  Torn swung her around by the shoulders to face her fellow prisoners. His breath was hot in her ear, “What do you think? Hmm?” His fingers slipped around her neck. Instead of choking her, he found the necklace which hung beneath her top, concealed. It lifted off her neck easily. The leather thong with its extra length for hiding made it simple to take off. “You won’t be needing this anymore.” He slipped it into his back pocket.

  As the two feathers left her skin, Eva’s last sliver of hope slipped away.

  God had abandoned her.

  Through the swimming maelstrom of starved, exhausted thoughts, one rose with crystal clarity: She would never get out of this place. Jail bars snapped shut in her heart. She turned to Torn and met his cruel eyes with her wide-open ones. “What do you want from me?”

  ~*~

  With his body so broken, Kai found himself moving slower than he normally would. Cold water had numbed the pain, but as he warmed up and blood began to flow to his fingers and toes, he shivered and ached all over. Where to begin looking for Zee?

  Runt had disappeared to explore through the dusty tunnels created by piled crates and boxes.

  Kai was beginning to worry, when she popped up at his elbow.

  “Come!”

  “You can’t just run off.” He spoke in a hushed whisper.

  “I found something. Come!” She grabbed his arm and hauled him along.

  He followed her, “This place isn’t safe. You can’t go skipping about as if you’re on a picnic.”

  She stopped dead and swung around with her nose scrunched up. “What’s a picnic?”

  “Forget it. Stay close to me, OK?”

  “Hurry up, then.” Runt frowned at him. She led him to a narrow metal ladder. She was up in no time at all.

  He made his way up painstakingly slow, favouring his injured left arm.

  At the top, Runt lay flat on her belly, chin in her palm, waiting for him as the rest of her twitched and moved.

  He got to the top of the ladder to find Runt’s nose on his.

  “I think I saw Zee.” She turned and scurried down a metal tunnel, a metr
e square—a maintenance tunnel of some kind. The roof of the tunnel was high enough for Runt to run almost upright.

  Kai sighed and followed her on hands and knees.

  They passed two windows, set high on the tunnel wall. Runt ignored both and kept going. How far down had she gone by herself? Kai ignored both windows as well for fear of losing the little girl. His heart pounded, though he couldn’t tell if it was from the feeling of being buried alive, fear of failing Runt, or the fact that Runt might have found Zee.

  He peered back between his legs and tried to judge how far they’d come. Then he crashed into a soft object.

  Runt stood at the third window, nose scrunched in concentration so deep she didn’t even notice that he’d nearly knocked her over. She snaked an arm around his neck, her attention focused through the window. She pointed. “Look!”

  He knelt next to her, blinking to focus. The room below was lit red, and he could see people running around a track. None of them seemed to have much energy. Then he saw her standing in the middle holding hands with a man who had twice as many muscles as Kai could ever hope to have. For a moment, she seemed to look straight at him. He almost waved, stopped only by the thought of drawing more attention to himself than just Zee’s. Better to stay hidden.

  The muscle man holding Zee’s hand shouted something. Those running left the course and gathered close to him. Others joined them from below where Kai and Runt hid. Muscles seemed to be making an announcement.

  Zee’s face turned from horror to disbelief, and then crumbled in despair.

  Runt still had her arm around Kai’s neck. She smelled of flowers. “Zee looks sad.” Her bottom lip jutted out, trembling a little. With a sniff, she pulled herself closer to Kai, hiding her face against his. Her soft skin brushed over his imprint, then pressed close as she tucked herself in his arms. Empathy rolled off the little girl in waves.

  A heatless heat wave shuddered through Kai.

  Dirty cement gave way to smooth, dark lava glass. Red light flipped green and all those gathered below turned hollow and dark. All except Zee. She glowed with LifeLight, though dimly, just as she had when they’d tried to escape the slums together. A dull buzz filtered through the thick glass.

  Kai squinted to see what was causing it.

  Thick masses of LightSuckers hung in droves close to the ceiling—level with the observation window they were looking out of. The noise of their fat bodies buzzed and filled the air.

  He instinctively cradled Runt’s head to prevent her seeing what he did, should she try turn around. As if by a sign, the LightSuckers began circling—high and wide at first, dropping slowly, narrowing the circle. They were homing in on Zee.

  A foot above her head, one broke ranks and settled on her forehead. It bounced off her and flew away limply, as if it had been burnt. Another tried, then a third. Each time, they shot off her, unable to bite. The circling bugs dropped lower now, until they were flying loops around Zee like a million lit-up hula hoops. Each bug trailed a dark cloud from its rear, a cloud that soon shrouded Zee from head to foot, wrapping her in darkness, mummified. She may have been immune to their stings, but whatever was coming out of them seemed to stick and she bowed under the weight of it.

  Muscle man dismissed them all with a wave of his hand and they began to lead off.

  It was then that Kai saw the darKounds. About a dozen of them paced in the far corner of the room, stretching their necks toward where Zee stood.

  Within a heartbeat, all the people had cleared out.

  Flanked on either side by escorts, Zee was the last to leave. The darKounds followed, though nobody seemed to pay them any attention. The large room stood empty. Apparently training was over for the day.

  Kai pulled away from Runt. The lava glass slid away, leaving rusty metal in its place. “Come on kiddo, we’ve got to go find a way to get her out.”

  27

  They followed the tunnel until it branched off into a three-way split, signs in chipped paint above each opening: Control, Maintenance, Quarters. Control seemed a good place to start since it led in the direction of the area they’d just seen Zee. Without warning, the tunnel dipped and angled downward.

  Crawling on his knees head-first made Kai feel as if he might go rolling. He swung his feet around and slid the rest of the way on his rear.

  Runt had already started down the metal ladder. She looked up as he slid towards her, blinking wide-eyed as if he were about to fly out of the tunnel and knock her down like a bowling pin. Her eyes squinted as his feet stopped just short of her nose.

  At the bottom of the ladder they found a dark, dead-end passage. It led to a red-lit walkway, a strip metal railing running along the far side. Seeing no one on the walkway, they crossed to the railing and peered over the edge. The narrow path ran along the top edge of the training room where they’d just seen Zee. Kai leaned way over. The wall beneath where they stood was covered in climbing grips with a doorway to the far right. It made sense, the people below had all walked in that direction.

  “Someone’s coming.” Runt had her eyes shut, head cocked to one side.

  “Quick, back to the passage.”

  They made it without being seen and crouched low, praying no one would turn in—there was nothing to hide behind. Soon the hollow echo of footsteps and voices in heated argument sounded. Runt had good ears. If they’d relied on Kai’s, they would surely have been spotted. He peeped around the corner. In the dim light, he counted four men, Zee half-walking, half-stumbling, held up between two at the rear.

  “Put her in the holding room.” It was the muscle man. A door squeaked open and shut with a clang that echoed.

  “That is not the best way to handle her. You are wrong. You seem to be forgetting she’s in my pack now.” Kai strained his ears. The voice seemed familiar, low and edgy.

  “Listen, pretty boy, don’t fool yourself. You won’t be going anywhere near her. I’ve worked hard on her De:construct. Crystallizing will have to be done with the utmost precision. One wrong move now—one wrong thought—might spark rebellion in her that could undo everything I’ve worked into her. I’ve seen what you do. You’re a butcher swinging a meat cleaver. This requires far more delicate handling. She’s too crucial. Back off.”

  “You have no authority—”

  Something slammed into a wall with enough force to make Kai wince.

  Runt tucked herself in close next to him, staring up at him with big, luminous eyes.

  “Don’t talk to me about authority.” One set of footsteps left, clipped and quick—if footsteps could be angry, this is what they’d sound like.

  The other turned their way, pace slowing.

  Kai pressed Runt flat against the wall behind him and remained crouched down, trying to be invisible. Bad lighting would work in their favour. He prepared himself to fight or run. Footsteps came closer and carried on past. Kai rubbed his eyes, squeezing the bridge of his nose to try and clear them. This lighting was messing with his vision—he could have sworn he knew the guy walking past.

  “Elden?” His hand flew to his mouth. That was stupid. He’d recognized Elden, which was good. Elden could lead him to Zee. Then he’d spoken his name out loud, which was not so good. Elden spun around.

  “Who are you?”

  Kai motioned to Runt to stay hidden and stood up in the open. “It’s me.”

  “Kai!” He checked left and right and ducked into their hiding place. “What are you doing here? Is it Bree? Does she need me?”

  Kai opened his mouth to answer, but his mind free-wheeled and he could think of nothing to say. Bree. His heart pulled in his chest. “I need your help to rescue Zee. Please.”

  “Anything. You saved my sister. I owe you.” Elden’s shoulders slumped a fraction. “To be honest, I don’t know if you can rescue her. The De:construct is complete. If you take her out now, you’ll have rescued her body, but I don’t know that you’ll ever get her mind or heart back.”

  “What have you—I mean…they. W
hat have they done to her?” The blood rushing past his eardrums was too loud, a drumbeat drowning out an answer he didn’t want to hear.

  “It’s a process. A careful annihilation of belief. They start small—lies, disappointment. Petty issues. Starvation is a big part of it. Then they move on to betrayal of trust. It’s not hard to separate someone from everything they ever believed in. The goal is unbelief. Your Zee is on the verge of it. Once she’s gone over the edge…” His words trailed off and he shook his head. “I shouldn’t be telling you this.”

  “Where is she?”

  “Have you not heard anything I’ve said? You cannot just take her out.”

  Kai pounded his forehead on his fist. “What do you expect me to do? Leave her here? I will not abandon her.”

  “I’m not asking you to. Trust me, we have to figure out how to reverse the De:construct or rescuing her will mean nothing. You’ve helped me and I’ll help you, but you have to be patient. Now, please tell me how Bree is doing.”

  Of the hundred things Kai thought of saying, only one made it out his mouth. “She’s in…a better place.” But even that wasn’t true. She didn’t believe. Worse than that, she’d flat out rejected Tau. Kai had been around the religious fanatics at St. Greg’s long enough to know that decision pretty much confiscated her ticket to eternity. He shut his eyes, trying to stop the turmoil inside from bleeding out onto his face.

  “What are you not telling me?” Confusion contorted Elden’s chiseled face. “Where is she?”

  “She isn’t anywhere that we could reach her now. From here.” His voice cracked. “I don’t know for sure that she made it.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “The crossover point to get back here was in the desert.”

  “But that’s darKound territory. What were you thinking?”

  Heat flooded Kai’s cheeks. “It was the only way back. I thought she’d be carried back with me. I didn’t know whether it would work.” It didn’t.

  Elden breathed deliberately. He turned away from Kai and paced back and forth as if each step could take him closer to his sister. When he stopped, cold fury blazed in his eyes. “I…you can forget ever getting your friend back.” He swung on his heel and left.