by Eden Wolfe
But Daphna was confident nothing had changed as they were under Cork Town in this area. Cork Town hadn’t developed. It was part of the Directive of the twelfth generation.
That was the Directive that most sickened Daphna.
A policy that intentionally prevented a commune from developing. A social test, so it had become. So few Sisters had been able to escape Cork Town. Several more would-be Sisters had been disappeared by the Queen’s cronies before they even made it a day’s walk beyond the commune’s gates.
She looked around at the ducts, the wide concrete tunnel and the offshoots that brought water into Cork Town.
“You see this?” she said to a Sister. “It’s exactly as I’d predicted twenty-five years ago. The surface hasn’t been sufficiently treated with the molecule I developed. Damn it, Uma. I told her she had to apply it universally, but she was too much of a hardliner.”
Daphna reached for her collar, the old habit, but she’d stopped wearing the lava rock years ago. Ever since she realized how many deaths she could have prevented if Lower Earth’s Direction had allowed her to.
“Let’s not stay here a minute longer or I’ll be sick. Why didn’t she just do as I said?” Daphna knew the Sisters couldn’t respond. She didn’t need them to. She said it for herself, the guilt of the years rising in the back of her throat.
Three miles and they were directly under the city center. Daphna led them to the staircase that would open right by the main square. She turned back to the women, the group of eight looked at her, eyes intent and bodies leaning slightly forward.
“Ready?” she asked.
“Ready,” they all replied, and she lifted the grate into Geb, into the square, into the next stage of their history.
20
Uma
The clock ticked midnight. Uma’s office was so quiet that the tick of the hour hand against the minute hand gave her a headache. She’d been staring at Daphna’s employment record, desperate for insight on the woman who was doubtless on her way to the Tower already. For years they had worked together, but never gotten along. Daphna had a way of beating Uma on every indicator, even though Uma had always been more senior.
Uma felt the old envy sneaking in.
Why of all things does this come back to me now? I am the Great Geneticist. She’s a reject. She abandoned our principles. She ran off like a thief in the night to the Sisters. No better than Sahna. No better than any of them.
And yet, ever since the sewage incident all those years ago, Uma couldn’t help the feeling from lighting up every time she heard Daphna’s name.
She put me in that position, with her obsession with the water. As if that had been the primary purpose of the studies we conducted. As if Cork Town was worth putting our careers on the line. Not just our careers; the good of all of Lower Earth. If we had redirected our investment, if we hadn’t kept a laser focus… look how far Geb has come now. Look how much we’ve overcome in the common code of women. We’d never have reached this pinnacle. It’s only Elgin now. One last enemy and we’ll be able to finally turn our sights towards the rebuilding of our nation. We’re so close now. And imagine if it had been up to Daphna. Imagine.
Uma took a deep breath, calm washing over her again. Cool level-headedness reinstated itself.
Yes, all has been as it must have been. No thanks to Daphna. Good riddance to Daphna. Let her come. Her pleas will fall on deaf ears. I always saw better the way forward for Lower Earth.
She mindlessly strolled to the window that overlooked the square and the fortress across it. A few lights on. The Queen’s chambers appeared dark, but with those heavy curtains, it was impossible to tell. Uma couldn’t imagine Queen Ariane would be sleeping on a night like this, with the arrival of the Sisters imminent.
But then, Uma never really understood this Queen at all.
Something in Uma’s vision shifted.
Am I seeing things? I could have been sure the ground just moved.
She tried to focus in on the ground nineteen floors below. She squinted, scanning the square, dark even in the midnight moonlight.
And something moved.
Uma’s eyes caught sight of it immediately, dark but in a different shade from the rest of the ground. It moved, and moved again. And again.
Women.
I’ll be damned. The Sisters.
They’re coming out of the sewers.
Without time to think, Uma marched out of her office and ran down the stairwell, not waiting for the elevator. Surely the Queen’s Guard would come across them, perhaps long before Uma could reach them.
From this point on, they were off the map. There was no plan for what was to come next. No strategy.
Uma paused.
I have no strategy. The Great Geneticist, and I have no strategy. How have I reached this point without a strategy?
But it was too late to chastise herself. She carried on, her feet moving her faster than she felt she could and slower than she wanted.
By the time she reached the main entry of the Tower, she could see the Guard moving out from the barracks towards the Sisters. They were in formation. At least thirty for the small group of Sisters who had pulled themselves out of the depths of the city.
The Guard moved at pace, uniform in their height, each woman the same width as the other. The code was strong in the lines used for the Guard. The power of their genetics. They didn’t run nor rush. Collected and intent, they took each step in a single sound, their feet touching the ground in perfect unison.
The Sisters moved in a clump, heights and shapes and hair and garb of all varieties. Some were obviously of the Geb lines, their physique a dead giveaway. Others seemed to have come from outer counties where there was less consistency. The Sisters would reach the Tower before the Guard could out-pace them. Uma kept her eyes set on the Sisters, waiting for Daphna’s face to step out from the rest.
They were twenty feet from the Tower when the small woman, about Uma’s age but with skin glowing young in the moonlight, stepped out from the bodies of Sisters who parted to let her forward.
“Uma,” she said, her lips dark grey without light to color them. Daphna almost felt she was looking at a ghost of the woman she knew from thirty years earlier.
Except that she was there, in the flesh, before her. And the guards weren’t far now.
“Daphna.”
“We have much to discuss.”
“You’ve made a big mistake coming here.”
“We had no other choice.”
“You had another choice. But you chose this one. The Guard will not look kindly on it.”
“The Sisters are ready to be held by the Guard. Just part of what must happen. We are not afraid. But you and I must talk.”
“It’s midnight. I don’t talk with deserters at midnight.”
“You’ll want to hear what I have to say.”
Uma laughed, “You always thought that what you had to say was the most important thing to be heard. But you always assessed that others shared your same concerns. You haven’t changed in nearly thirty years, and you’re going to pay the price for that now. If I’ve learned anything, it’s how to adapt. Something you could never do.”
The Guard would be on them within moments. They would cart Daphna and this troupe of misfits away. As quickly as they’d come, climbing out from the sewers, so they would be gone, locked up in the fortress. Uma tried to hold back an involuntary smile. It was only a matter of moments now.
“I’ve solved Elgin.”
Uma blinked. She wasn’t sure she heard correctly.
“You what?”
“Your nemesis. The guillotine over Lower Earth’s head. Elgin disease. I solved it.”
Uma stepped closer to Daphna, her voice lowering, “You couldn’t have.”
“I did.”
“It’s a ruse.”
“You think I’d come here empty-handed?” Uma watched as fire seemed to alight in Daphna’s eyes, the muscles of her eyelids pulling sidewa
ys, the reflection of the moon growing brighter in them. “You think I’m so naïve as to believe you would help us simply for the good of Lower Earth’s people? I know you better than that, Uma. I’ve seen the limits of your humanity. You are limited, indeed.” Daphna stepped closer to Uma, the Guard only a few paces away. “If you want what I have, then you’d better deal with these thugs before they dare to touch my Sisters.”
A large arm reached forward, grabbing Daphna. With her small frame, the guard looked like a giant, an overgrown version of a woman. An ogre.
Uma breathed out through her teeth. “Let her go.”
The guard’s spine stayed tall. “I have orders, Ms. Uma.”
“And I’m giving you another one. You’re going to have to let her go. Right this second.”
The guard hesitated, looking back at the group of guards behind her. “This conflicts with the order given by the Second Captain Joane”.
“But we both know I’m more senior than any Second Captain so let her go. Now.”
The guard released her hold. Uma could see the thumbprint on Daphna’s arm.
“Stay with the others until the Commandante tells you otherwise,” Uma nodded toward the group of Sisters. “This one is coming to my office.”
Uma turned and opened the door to Central Tower, knowing Daphna was just behind her.
Her mind was racing.
Elgin? It’s not possible. Damn it, Daphna, how could you flaunt this in my face. Elgin, of all things. Damn it. She knows I can’t say no.
She should have known better. Daphna was a coward, but she wasn’t stupid. Far from it. And now here she was, climbing out of the sewers with promises of a cure for the one and only enemy that Uma had been unable to conquer.
Of course. Daphna wouldn’t risk coming out of their Strangelands hole without something to hold over my head. And I thought she operated on morals alone. She’s changed tack. I might have to do the same.
Uma pressed the button for the elevator, avoiding eye contact with Daphna.
“I understand you’ve moved up a few floors.”
“You mean to the Great Geneticist’s office.” Uma heard the tinge in her voice, defensive. I’m the Great Geneticist, I have no reason to be defensive about that. I earned it, unlike Roman.
And yet, as she pushed the button for the nineteenth floor, she couldn’t help feeling like she was some kind of fraud.
They stood beside one another, and for the first, time Uma remembered how small Daphna was. She was nearly a head smaller than Uma and her shoulders were hardly more than the width of a child. Yet her brain packed a capacity that Uma knew surpassed most others. If not all.
Daphna’s design was not common, Uma had searched it years earlier, not long after Daphna had defected to the Sisters. Uma had wanted to know what could drive a woman to leave behind all she’d ever wanted for a life that would never meet the standards she could enjoy in the Tower. But when Uma searched it, Daphna’s design was absent. Not registered. She wasn’t of the normative design and yet there was some kind of precedent for it, as it had the regular hallmarks for tissue endurance and bacterial resistance.
But ultimately, Uma didn’t know where Daphna came from.
Third floor. Fourth floor. Uma didn’t recall the elevator ever feeling quite this slow.
She swallowed hard, feeling her saliva catch in her throat and it made her cough. The saliva pushed into the back of her nose and she had to cough. She sighed; even her own body was rebelling at the thought of standing beside the only woman who had made her believe she would never be good enough to lead the Tower.
But I am leading the Tower. She can’t take that away. She can’t.
“You alright?” Daphna asked, though her face didn’t show any sign of concern.
“What do you care?”
Daphna raised her eyebrows but didn’t respond.
The elevator continued up.
“Elgin is particular,” Daphna began, but Uma raised her hand. They wouldn’t speak of it until they were in her office. On her turf. Under her command.
“Really?” Daphna turned to face her, “Even now, with the situation we’re in, you want to run everything according to your rules? You’re unbelievable, Uma.”
“Unbelievable is you showing up, crawling out of the sewers like a rat.”
“I wanted to see if things had gotten as bad as I had thought they would...”
“I don’t want to hear it.”
“…And they have.”
“That’s not what you’re here for.”
“You’re right, and yet, that tells me you haven’t changed one bit in all this time.”
“And that’s why I am where I am now. My unchanging commitment has resulted in my position today.”
At last, the elevator arrived on the nineteenth floor. Uma could have sworn it took twice as long as usual.
“Ah yes, Uma on the nineteenth floor. Just as she always wanted. And what has it cost? Simply looking the other way as people in the country suffered. Just a dash of apathy is all it takes. Let those who ought to die simply be taken by the natural way of things while you preserve those you deem worthy.”
Uma pushed open her office door with her shoulder, “That’s an awfully high pedestal for someone who’s looking for my help.”
“I’m not looking for your help. I’m offering a trade, an intellectual exchange, and you know it.”
“I don’t need your exchange. You’ve bet on the wrong horse. I’d solve Elgin eventually, I’m not far even now.”
Daphna smiled, “Time to tuck your arrogance away, Uma. I know better than anyone that you’ve reached the limits of your ability. You never did appreciate that I could out-analyze you on any given day. You won’t solve Elgin. You couldn’t if you put everything behind it. You’re done, Uma. You need me as much or more than I need you, or else Elgin will start affecting your precious Geb, and what will the Queen do with you then?”
Daphna held her chin high, and Uma had no choice but to concede. But not on Daphna’s terms.
“So you come with a peace offering then. In the small hours of the night, you drag your Sisters to Geb.”
“Better to begin the discussions at night without the eyes of women across Geb to watch. Though even I didn’t expect you to greet us the moment we arrived. Listen, Uma,” Daphna walked past her, sitting on the edge of her desk. “The illness coming after the Sisters started with Gale. I can’t tell you how, but when the former Queen’s aide appears wandering in the Strangelands, it’s hard not to let your imagination run. She was the first to fall ill, but before we could understand it, before we could even really identify what it was, Gale was gone. Did the Queen send one of her goons for her? A member of the Guard eager for favor with the Queen?”
“It’s possible. Gale betrayed Ariane early in her reign. She only would have gotten what she deserved.”
“She’s Subject Zero, and she’s gone, and we’re left behind with the aftereffects,” Daphna looked out to the square, where the Guard had the Sisters surrounded. The Sisters looked comfortable enough, seated facing outward in a circle, their backs touching to hold each other up. Daphna looked back to Uma. “I’m certain that whatever she had, she’s passed it on to the rest of us. And moreover, I’m confident it started right here in the Tower.”
“Conspiracy stories again.”
“Experience. It’s not far from others we’ve seen, but it’s not responsive to any treatment or anti-viral in our arsenal. Some have said it is the sickness that affected the children last year who were taken away...”
“That could be - ”
“Except that I know there was no such sickness. Don’t treat me like a fool. It was all smoke in mirrors for the program that left shame and dishonor in its wake. You were overseeing the incubates,” Daphna looked Uma straight in the eye, “Weren’t you, Uma?”
She can’t possibly know the truth of the incubates.
But Uma couldn’t be sure. “You know nothing about it.�
�
“Still trying to pretend they live in a compound in the countryside?”
Uma felt a burning running up from her chest, up her neck, like her head might explode. “You know nothing. Nothing.”
Daphna stood, coming nose to nose with Uma. “You want the secret to Elgin? I’ll give you a piece of it right now. As proof. And then I want to know your plan for addressing the planted illness that has afflicted my Sisters. I need to see an antidote or else you’ll watch the capital slowly fall because you couldn’t stop the disease from coming.”
Uma shook her head. “Your words better not be empty or else the Queen will have your head. You don’t know her. I do. You’re already a breath away from the Forgotten Islands or the depths of the ocean.”
“This is what I’m willing to risk for the women I serve.”
Uma turned her head to the fortress. Certainly the Queen knew of Daphna’s arrival. She must have heard it if not seen it herself from her window.
“Seems we are both slaves to our service.”
In the distance, Uma could just make out a figure standing in the window of the Queen’s chambers. Moonlight caught the fabric of the figure’s dress and it shimmered like water cascading down her body.
The Queen knows. Yes, it’s only a matter of time now.
21
Ariane
Ariane stood on the cliff behind the fortress looking down into the city, across to the Tower, but all was quiet in the early morning hours. The black night fell over her like a blanket. No stars. No moon. Cool darkness and a light rolling of breeze like a hand caressing her arm.
Though no hand had ever touched her so gently. So few hands had ever touched her.
She loved this time of night. She no longer heard the murmurs of voices, no weight of breath from those who slept undisturbed. How she despised those who slept as though all was right in the world. How she resented those who believed their lives were secure. Nothing had been secure for her. Not since the first day of her life.
