by Liz Delton
A familiar melancholy crept upon her then. It was times like this when she thought of Seascape the most, bringing up memories of being trapped in her suite in Castle Tenny, practicing for hours upon hours to learn the technology, or learning on the spot in the Trials so she could win help for Meadowcity.
She rolled her eyes at the thought of it. She had thought the help was going to be much more involved than simply a drone and an earlink. But she would work with what she had.
She wasn’t quite sure what she had been expecting from Lady Blackwater’s promise—a weapon? an army? She didn’t even know if Seascape had one. Though, she thought she knew Lady Blackwater pretty well by now, and was positive the Lady had far more defenses up her datawoven sleeves than anyone could guess.
With a flick of her finger across the datastrands, she sent the drone even further south, keeping it low in the trees. She took special concentration to chart its path around low-hanging branches and tree trunks, sending the commands with a dexterity that was now second-nature, her fingers flying over the datastrands.
The small black bird passed unnoticed by the nighttime wildlife, as natural to them as any other bird flitting through the trees. There were no predators in their immediate vicinity, something she now always monitored with her drone when they were in the wilds.
Nor were there any Scouts. Ever since the destruction of Lightcity, the Defenders had seen less and less of them prowling the wilds outside of Meadowcity. No doubt Greyling was tightening his control, fortifying his army.
She passed the rest of her watch by sending the drone further and further south, testing her connection over the distance. She knew the drones were capable of flying and recording images from immensely long distances, because Lady Blackwater had a whole network of them spying on the rest of Arcera. The drone’s capability wasn’t a question—it was a matter of Sylvia’s skill with the connection that kept her from sending it too far. She was torn between wanting to use the drone to spy on Greyling and the Scouts, and fear of losing it in the middle of the wilds with no chance of recovering it.
The Defenders woke with the sun, and erased all signs of their camp before heading northeast. Upon waking, Sylvia sent the drone to scout out the path ahead to be sure it was clear of Scouts or any other danger. They altered their path to the west a bit when she spotted a brook by a field that would suit for some practice weapons drills.
When they reached the brook, Vince and Amelia assigned their respective teams to either side of the water. They would take turns defending their banks, then try their hand at breaching the other side. Since this drill was close combat, there was no need for Sylvia’s drone to play a part in the practice, so she hung back to observe.
“Barclay and Fern, use the embankment to your advantage, push them against it!” Amelia called.
The brook was a good place to test the Defenders, and Sylvia was immersed in the mock fight, which would be the first of many today. They struggled with the water up to their stomachs, their boots got stuck in the mud as they tried to hold their ground or advance, and as it reached mid-morning, the sun began to shine directly into their eyes from the east. Terrible conditions were the best conditions for practice.
Not to waste her time merely observing the fight, she began to send her drone south again for another test of distance. They were a day out of Meadowcity now. Could she send it there and still maintain the connection? If it got lost, she would be able to search for it on her way back, at least.
Her looking-glass was carefully wrapped up in her pack, so instead she connected to the drone solely with her earlink. No longer did the snap-to-the-side feeling in her brain feel foreign to her, now it was more of a pleasant feeling, as she readied to use her skills.
Finally, the first bout ended: Amelia’s team had managed to defend their bank from Vince’s team’s onslaught. Now it was time for Amelia’s group to attack. She dimly heard their battle calls as she settled in to concentrate.
The drone was sailing through the open space the stream cut though the wilds, soaring gently on the light breeze that tickled the tips of the trees. Every so often she would change its course to the east or west to check the woods, and make it look more like a normal bird’s winding path. The last thing she wanted was for Greyling’s Scouts to notice it, if any happened to be in the area. She doubted if they were even smart enough to notice a bird’s strange behavior anyway, but did it just to be sure.
She shivered, and realized the sun had gone behind the clouds. Sitting still in the shadow of a tree made her pull her sweater sleeves down, and shake out her limbs to warm up. She jumped when Vince’s team let out a riotous cheer—which was quickly stifled by Amelia’s shout: “Quiet down, you lot!”
Sylvia settled herself back into a seated position and returned her attention to the drone’s images while the Defenders began yet another round.
Despite sitting perfectly still with her eyes closed, Sylvia’s heart began to race. Over the connection, she could feel the distance of the drone—almost, but not quite measure it. She hadn’t figured that one out yet, but she knew the information lay in the strands somewhere. The vague feeling of distance had grown even further than she had sent it before.
With a jolt of excitement, she pushed her finger across the silver datawoven threads and instructed it, faster. The bird soared on the wind downstream, growing further and further away, the connection as strong as ever.
All of her concentration focused on holding the connection between her earlink and the drone. Inside her closed lids, the brook sparkled far below and the wild green trees sprawled into the distance on either side.
Dimly, she heard the footsteps, and a small thought crossed her mind that the Defenders were still upstream, and then—crack!
The back of her skull exploded with pain while her eyes swam in blurry nothingness. She would have fallen to the ground except for the rough hands that grabbed her while another pair of hands stuffed fabric into her mouth.
As her eyes fluttered closed, she felt her link with the drone flicker off. Her head lolled backward, and everything grew black.
Eight
It was still light out when Sylvia emerged from the blackness and found herself slung over someone’s shoulder. She was surprised the bumping and bobbing hadn’t woken her earlier, but from the state of her headache, she knew she had been hit hard. She could feel a crust of dried blood running down the side of her face.
The shoulder shoved into her belly was bony, and a vice-like arm was wrapped around her legs. Her hands were tied, and they bumped against the man’s back as he walked.
Was it even the same day? How long had she been unconscious? More importantly, what were the Scouts planning to do with her?
There was no question in her mind as to who had snatched her: there was only one group of people who meant her any harm.
With a sudden jolt in her stomach, she realized she still had her earlink in. At that same moment, the man halted and said, “Oy, give me a hand, I think she’s awake.”
Sylvia gasped as she was slid to the ground, and the man who had been carrying her grabbed her by the rope at her wrists. He spun her around.
Now she was facing another man, who was close to her in height, though nothing like in stature. His beady eyes surveyed her as if she was a delicious-looking piece of cake. She fought the urge to kick him. They hadn’t tied her legs, but she didn’t want to give them a reason to—yet.
Only the slightest sound of slithering leaves made her jerk her head to the right. She spotted two mountain lions prowling in the woods behind them. The beasts were slowly circling the group of four. Sylvia looked back to the man who faced her, her eyes betraying nothing.
“What do you want?” she demanded, throwing back her shoulders.
The men broke out into a raucous laughter that filled the woods. Sylvia’s eyes shifted to watch the larger mountain lion as it came into her line of sight.
“What do we want?” the grubby man repeated,
leering at her. “It isn’t what we want, deary, it’s what he wants.”
Sylvia didn’t need to ask who. Without warning, the man reached forward and untied her wrists, allowing her to rub at the rope burn for only a second before someone yanked her arms behind her back and retied them.
She stared into the beady eyes of man in front of her.
As she knew he would, he broke eye contact first, then said with a sickening grin, “All right, lads, give her a leash.”
She could feel someone secure a length of rope to her bound hands, then they shoved her forward, allowing the rope to stop her short with a jerk.
Guffaws all around. Sylvia’s rage bubbled just under the surface, as she was more concerned about the dangerous evidence tucked into her ear. With her arms tied behind her back, she took stock of her situation.
Her earlink nestled in her ear felt like it was covered by a sheet of hair, and her datawoven sleeve was concealed under her sweater. The looking-glass was in her pack, wherever it had gotten left, and the drone—
The drone! The drone had been flying down river a great distance from where the Scouts had taken her. Had it fallen when she shattered the connection, and broken on the rocks below? Had it continued flying?
During training, she now recalled, she sometimes lost the connection with it when her concentration was broken, and the inanimate bird had gone on in a vague circle until she connected with it once more and gave it a command. A long sigh escaped her. She had to believe it was all right.
She didn’t know what Greyling would do to her if he learned she had acquired some of Seascape’s technology. Whatever he had planned for her even now was promising to be bad enough.
With another jerk she was pushed forward once more, but the rope gave way this time, so she began walking, as her tormentors intended. The Scouts took up behind her, and their beasts prowled along the forest on either side of the group.
Careful to keep her hair covering her right ear, she marched on, occasionally poked or shoved by the Scouts, and she tried to think of how she could possibly hide her earlink, when she couldn’t even move her arms.
Nine
Emrick nervously adjusted the collar of his new datawoven jacket as he looked himself over in the mirror. The jacket had been a gift from his parents after he had passed the Trials and taken his serum, and it was made of seriously high-quality datathreads. The storage capacity of the threads alone made the jacket very valuable—but it also looked really good on him.
He didn’t feel any different after taking his serum, except today it felt like he had something buzzing about his stomach—but that was because it was his first day as an intern in Observation.
If he really thought about it, he was enormously lucky to have gotten any internship at all, fresh out of his Trials, let alone in a prestigious workplace like Observation. None of the other initiates had been formally offered any positions yet, and he hadn’t even heard from Atlan in a few weeks.
Emrick’s parent’s house was just outside the city, so he left with plenty of time to catch the train. He had studied the timetables, and, though he hadn’t told anyone about it, had actually made the trip into the city yesterday to time exactly how long it would take to get to Castle Tenny.
The nearest train platform was only a short walk from the house, and before long he was standing with the other commuters awaiting the train. The cloudless sky allowed the sun to shine directly across the fields on the outskirts of his village, and shed some warmth on his face. He adjusted the collar of his jacket again.
After seven minutes—just as he had expected—the train came rumbling up to the platform from the east. The black solar panels that covered the train were sure to be soaking up plenty of energy this morning.
He stepped onto the train and grabbed a handhold by a window. After a moment, the doors slid shut and the train lumbered forward, slowly gaining momentum as it ran down the tracks. Emrick slid his thoughts to his earlink, as he could tell many others were doing, by the looks of concentration or blankness on the faces of the commuters.
The day’s news vids were up on the main link, where everyone could access them. A slow grin formed at his lips as he tapped into one of the vids. Soon he would get to see far more than the public vids and news summaries—he would get to see the raw vids from all across Arcera: pure data, before it was filtered out by Lady Blackwater and her staff.
Observation, he knew from his interviews and research, focused on collecting data only. The interpretation and pattern prediction of events, activities, and weather was done through several other agencies throughout the island.
Emrick had signed enough confidentiality disclosures to last him a lifetime—though he doubted he would work in Observation his entire life span. Several decades at least, after all the work he had put into securing the position.
As the city came into view, Emrick swiped his finger across his wrist in a concentrated motion. He barely noticed the silver datastrands winking as the document flickered in his mind’s eye. His new mentor, Korey, had linked it to him and told him simply that it would help him get to the Observation workstation. Emrick hadn’t gotten the document to work yet, but he suspected that it only functioned inside Castle Tenny. They had studied these kind of location-based link programs in school.
Much too soon, the train began to slow, and from Emrick’s quick check at the time over the link, right on time. He now had two minutes to walk to Castle Tenny, and had allocated fifteen minutes to get inside and find the Observation room to meet Korey.
He straightened his collar again as he stepped off the train platform and onto the street. A few of the other commuters preceded him down the long street, also heading straight to the castle, while others headed in various directions to their places of work.
Emrick pinned a smile to his face and approached the castle.
As he had expected, upon entering the castle, the document flickered to life across his earlink connection. Oliver Merstone, the Secretary of the State, greeted him as he entered, and asked Emrick if he knew where he was going.
With a knowing nod, Emrick said, “Yes, thanks,” and he consulted the live-map in his head. After a moment’s hesitation, he set out to follow the outlined route, his heart fluttering in his chest.
It quickly became clear why the live-map was needed. He had never penetrated so deeply into Castle Tenny before, only straight into the grand ballroom a few times during the Trials.
Emrick swore he had walked down the same hallway twice—with the same layout of rooms, the same table against the wall, with the same flowers arranged upon it—yet his map said differently.
Eventually he located the room that was labeled Observation, and a grin broke upon his face. He looked up and down the hall before knocking smartly upon the polished wooden door.
Almost immediately, the door swung open and Korey’s somewhat tired face appeared. Korey greeted him cheerfully, if a bit sleepily, and ushered Emrick inside.
The room was kept dim, with looking-glasses lining each wall, and two large ones in the center on tables. The staff sat on stools, huddled around their looking-glasses, inputting commands on their datathreads, or else taking notes on screen. It reminded Emrick of a dark library.
After brief introductions to the staff and other interns, Emrick was assigned his own looking-glass. Korey rushed through a few commands, and showed Emrick how to access his particular drone’s flight map before hastily retreating to his own station. Emrick sagged on his stool a little. It was a somewhat lame first peek into Observation.
“That one’s just circling a spot in the wilds,” Korey told him, hovering over one of the enormous looking-glass tables in the center of the room. “Try altering its course and messing with the maneuvers. I know it’s your first day, but I need to submit these vids before nine to Blackwater.”
Emrick perked back up. With a small smile to himself, he turned to his looking-glass. He didn’t mind learning by himself at all. At least he didn�
��t have to sit through a boring orientation all day.
His looking-glass displayed a great green forest from high above. Emrick connected to his drone the way Korey had hastily explained, and searched for its flight pattern.
After a few tries at accessing the data, he could see that the drone had been programmed to fly in a very specific, but still random, pattern.
He glanced out of the corner of his eye to the workstation to his right. He wasn’t quite sure what he could do next, and didn’t want to bother Korey. His neighbor’s looking-glass displayed far more stats than Emrick’s: it had temperature, humidity, and altitude, in addition to the timestamp and location. Perhaps he could figure out how to customize his display later.
To his left, a woman with a long grey braid was staring at her screen with intense concentration, her left arm resting on the counter so she could more easily input commands onto her datastrands. Her screen showed something Emrick immediately recognized: the northern coast of Seascape. With a deft command, the woman zoomed out the image, then looked back down at her wrist, which was showing something Emrick had never seen before.
The datastrands were shining silver across her forearm—but they remained lit, and in a recognizable pattern of simple lines. The same pattern was depicted on the lower right corner of her looking-glass. The woman reached out and carefully made an adjustment to the shape on her datastrands, which changed its counterpart on the looking-glass. Emrick couldn’t tell for sure, but he thought she was altering her drone’s set course.
He grinned. There was nothing he enjoyed more than a good challenge, and learning a brand new command style would certainly qualify.
First, he decided to familiarize himself with the drone’s manual controls, before learning how to change the automatic flight path. As with all datastrand commands, it took some imagination to associate a physical command on the datastrands with the action it requested through the earlink. He spent the entire morning fine-tuning the simple commands it took to fly the drone.
