by Adria Eustis
Opal appeared in the doorway, staring into a book, All You Need To Know About Mountain Lions. How the hell was that even useful, there surely weren't any mountains or lions on the island? Opal offered a dainty wave and took up leaning against the wall, minding her own.
“What do these ranks mean?” Nina asked.
“1, 2 and 3. There assigned based on your reason for being in here. Minor crimes get you a 1, murders and rapists, that sort of thing, get a 3 and rank 2 is everything in between – and also evicted people are upgraded to a 2 on their way out.”
“There's no way I can kill one person never mind fifty.”
“That's where I can help. See I'm not that arsed about doing what needs to be done to get where I want to be. Long as you and Bridge act as distractions I can sneak up and easily do off with whoever tries to get you. All you need to do is throw one little slap or a punch, whatever a girl like you can muster, and you'll get half a point for the assistance.” Astra ran her eyes up and down Nina, as if accessing her ability to fight as low.
Nina couldn't be angry at that, girls at her school had fast learnt not to pick on her, she wasn't as helpless as she looked, not with a brother who practised martial arts in her view all the time, she couldn't help her soft appearance and quietness, but had been constantly reminded of it in her younger years. Though she'd happily throw a few jabs towards Astra's pretty little face, killing people was a whole other level, one that didn't seem should ever, ever, be imposed on her.
“Half a point? That means one hundred people?” Nina shook her head, no way. Not only did that seem highly immoral, but literally impossible. Surely they'd starve to death before that even happened.
“Those one hundred people are your ride home.”
“Those hundred people are people,” Nina replied.
“Ya-ha, people who would happily kill you for their freedom.”
“If you're so proficient in magic, can't you like, teleport us out or something, once we got out there?” Nina asked.
“Darling, do you even know magic at all?” Astra replied.
“Not really.”
“Teleportation doesn't take you far at all, not to mention you can't just re-cast a spell straight away. Even if you made it through the gate, you'd drown in the waters.” Astra rolled her eyes.
“I was brought here in a portal. Can't we find out of those and go back through it?”
“I can't make portals, even if I could, it'd take too long to conjurer one, they'd zap me for cheating, not to mention that I'd need to have made the exit portals first. Do you know anything Nina?”
“I just can't believe that there's no way out. Not even for anyone.”
“What about invisibility? There's a girl upstairs, reckons she can turn completely invisible when there's no anti-magic shield of course, tells me she plans on just waiting for the victory gate to open to let someone else out – then she's going to make a run for it,” Bridget said.
Astra spat out a guffaw. “Uh, it's like teaching a nursery class. Gees, okay, no one can turn invisible, sure some people can fade into the shadows, but out there she'll have an Oculus watching her at all times, and the Oculus can see right through the shadows, they'd still see her. Face it bitches, I'm your only hope.”
Nina rocked back and forth for some moments, head in hands. The moans and wails of victims of the system, struggling to face their new realities, echoed around the slimy brick walls of the penitentiary. In the darkness of her hands, she envisioned the days here slowly going by, like a slide show of torture, tick tock, there goes another day of a future-less existence in purgatory. It just wasn't fair. The waste from one thousand or so prison-cells, shot up her nose with every accidental sniff she took. Nina's stomach begged for food, but she feared the dining hall and it's bowls of cold slop. She should be at home, cradling her sick little sister, helping her brother follow his dreams. Preparing for the day when she finally got to the Design Academy, and picking out fabrics for the window display on the Jewellery Shop that for years she saw in her dreams. Around her, Astra splashed in the sink, Bridget jotted love poems, Mol lay still and silent, and dainty Opal tapped her bare feet on the floor as she read her book. These people didn't exist to her two days ago, but now, they were fast becoming her future. Those things that she did have, were slowly fading away. And the things that she had yet to experience, were lost somewhere in the space between regret and outrage. She hadn't seen the world yet, she hadn't experienced love yet, there was so much out there to see and do, and nothing in here at all. Nina squeezed her eyes tight, this couldn't be it? This couldn't be the rest of her life!
“There's no other way out?” Nina asked. Her eyes blurry as she glanced at Astra, suddenly the girl seemed crucial to her rather than arrogant.
“Sweet Nina, the world isn't going to magically change over night. The king is invincible and his ways unshakable. When you did whatever you did that made you a sinner in his eyes, you sentenced yourself to death. How very dare you take a dump on his perfectly peaceful lands. Perhaps you should have thought about all this before you acted. How slowly do you need me to say it? There. Is. No. Way. Out. But. War.”
“Don't be such a bitch, I'm sure Nina is just as innocent as we are,” Bridget said.
“What about escaping?” Nina asked, “there has to be some way to sneakily get out?” Desperation clung to her throat.
Astra sighed, smacked her gum, “trust me, if there was – I'd be gone long ago. Even if you got out of the cell, then what? You're on the island, surrounded by a gigantic wall of bars that'll turn you to toast if you so much as breathe on it. And if somehow you got around that, you'd drown in freezing cold waters, but before all of that, an Oculus has found you, paralysed you and you're tossed down the cliff into the river and left for dead anyway.”
“What if you could somehow fly out? I don't know on a giant bird or something? How would you keep a Teleportist in here?”
Astra rolled her overly large blue eyes, “She's reached stage two quicker than I expected, girls, she's gone from why, why, why? Straight on to, there has to be a way to escape. We all go through these stages Nina, the next one is acceptance. Take Bridge for example, she's in acceptance right now, she's in love. Mol here is on stage four, the broken spirit. After that, the guards cremate you.”
“The Condors are too small to lift you, and there's an anti-magic shield from the front gates to the river that runs down the back of the yards,” Opal added before retreating back to her pages.
“So, I'm truly stuck here?” Nina said, her heart shrinking up.
“Just say the world Nina, and you Bridge, Mol, and even the weird one over there, and I'll get us all out of here.”
“I have to get out of here,” Nina said, her fists tightened into a ball, a sudden rush of panic swept through her, “my sister is dying, my brother is trying to look after her alone, that's my life out there, my home, in Nanta, and they've taken it from me, and I want it back.”
“That's the spirit,” Astra said, flicking her ponytail behind her with a grin.
“But I can't murder people. I just can't. I've seen death and it's not pretty.”
“What's wrong with your sister?” Bridget asked.
“She has a terminal disease, and without me, she won't get medicine.”
“What's her name? How old is she?” Astra asked, her sad eyes most likely feigned.
“Her name is Anna and she's six,” Nina replied.
“I can picture her now,” Astra said, “sobbing her little heart out, asking where her sister is, why she ain't there for her, why she thinks she isn't as important as some sinning crook. Poor lil' Anna, what did she do wrong?”
Nina quickly swiped the rogue tear from her cheek. Astra was a bitch, but only said out-loud everything that Nina was thinking inside.
“I don't want to talk about it no more, I need some air.”
CHAPTER ELEVEN
JANINA
October, Year of the Pearl Acacia
At least the atmosphere outside was breathable. Managing to get rid of her entourage, Nina sat on the end of the bleachers, close to the fence, wondering why they even had such things out here in the first place. It seemed implausible that such wicked beings that wouldn't flinch over handing her to her doom, would care too much about her having a place to sit outside. Bridget and Davie brushed their fingertips together through the chain-mail. Their cheeks flushed pink, at least there were two roses in this bottomless pit.
Nina found herself unconsciously parting her lips. Her eyes had wandered around the yard next door, glanced at thin limbs, overgrown beards, matted hair and gang tattoos, and then settled on one spot. There he stood, somehow, even though they all wore the same colour clothing, his were a darker shade of black. Or perhaps it only seemed that way, because he eclipsed her view of herself. The murderer of the motor garage victims - here in the flesh. His face like the embodiment of lust, everything her eyes had wanted to see. He stood almost facing her, his eyes focused somewhere else. Alone, all that surrounded him was a misty fog of enigma. Back straight, hands in his pockets, he looked lost amongst contorted, hopeless people. As though he was only visiting, as if he had come for the sights and would turn and walk out of this wretched place any second. Her quivering fingers balled in to a fist, which she shoved in her mouth and bit, hard. Breathe – don't forget to breathe. Frozen to his spot, his impeccable dark-brown locks, swirled in the breeze, against his face, the ends caressed the bristly hair on chin. She wanted to gaze at him forever, but she hated herself for it. He had the allure that she'd craved in all her fleeting dates, the attraction that they'd all lacked. But he was baneful, he was wrong.
“Drool much?” Astra said, hopping onto the seat next to her.
“Wasn't.” Nina looked away, heart pounding from being caught.
“He's hot,” she said, “came in a few days ago. Hundreds come in and out of here, but I'd not miss a face like that. Oh what I wouldn't give for a night alone with that one.”
“If you know what he did wouldn't.”
“Oh? You know him? Introduce us then!” Astra nudged her elbow into her side.
“I don't know him. I saw him on the news, and he isn't a nice person. Can we talk about something else?”
“Have you ever had a boyfriend before Nina?”
“Not really.”
“Wow.” Astra raised her thick white brows, “it most be cause you too quiet. Cause you're not exactly ugly are you.”
“There was just no one I liked okay.”
“Shame, you're gonna die a virgin.”
Nina dragged her finger nails through the wooden beach. Don't remind me.
“Maybe I can hook you up with a nice guy, might get you a snog at least.”
“No thanks,” Nina said. But Astra was already stood, eyeing possible suitors behind the chain-mail, like she was window shopping for a date. It was more humiliating than Velle's efforts, at least Velle picked out the losers when she wasn't looking. Astra tugged her arm, like a naughty child, she wanted to protest – but she also didn't want to do anything that attract his attention, and it pained her that she didn't want him to see her looking like a fool.
“Psst!” Astra said, peering into the boy's yard. An Elven boy turned, thin, ashen skinned, with poker-straight blue-black hair that brushed against his waist as he moved. He threw them a luke-warm smile, arms folded in front of his chest he joined them at the fence. Towering some inches above her, he stood studying her face, a sparkle in his eyes that she knew well. That same look that her past admirers had given her.
“Lasiah, Nina, Nina, Lasiah.”
“Nice to meet you Nina.”
“Likewise,” she said. She gripped her arms with her hands, had it gotten cold so sudden? Lasiah was charming to look at, many girls might have lined up at his door, but the white beaded pendant, with the lavender symbol of calm, that hung low around his neck only told her one thing. He wasn't for her. What's wrong with me? I'd rather gawp at a crazy, than fall for a nice guy. But at least the last five minutes had taken her mind away from reality.
Her eyes flicked up into Lasiah's exotic eyes, small and thin, deep and brown. As their eyes met, she felt an odd serenity within. Like nothing in the world could harm her in that moment. Suddenly the metal cage around her seemed to her like shining silver thread that glittered beautifully in the sunlight. She held back the happy laughter that ached to come out. Shot him a look of confusion, his wide lips curved into a smile, and Astra was gone, leaving her alone with... Las..i..ah. Why she wanted to say it like that, she didn't know.
“You feel it?” He asked.
Staring at him in bewilderment, Nina gripped her arms tighter, pushing her elbows into her ribs, trying to work out the sudden bliss within.
“Uh?” Was all that came out, her words were stolen by the imaginary, prismatic butterflies that danced and twirled in the strawberry scented wind above her.
Lasiah leaned his side against the barricade, stroked his pendant through long thin fingers. She'd made an item like that once before, a request from her neighbour back in Prille, a man of faith who spent most of his waking life preaching with a bell in the city center. That was the image her mind had labelled Lasiah with the second she'd met him.
“Harmony,” he said, “you're special Nina.”
“Special?” She tapped a foot repeatedly, she wanted to dance.
“Our Lady Eina doesn't lull many.”
“This is magic?”
He laughed a quiet cheerful laugh, “There's no magic under this shield Nina.”
“Why'd I feel like, so, funny?”
He shrugged, “some gifts come with no magic attached.“ Lasiah looked around, “but let's not talk magic here, the eyes, they're sneaky.”
“What's a guy like you doing in here?”
“A guy like me?” He smiled.
“Sorry, just you look like one of those priests.”
“I am one of those priests,” Lasiah whispered. He tugged up the sleeves of his jacket, revealing his tattoo of a winged woman in the clouds, with Elven lettering underneath. “Eina, Goddess of Calm. She's beautiful, much like you.”
Nina felt the flush in her cheeks. “Thanks.” She could almost picture him in unflattering white robes and a silly rectangular hat.
“And to answer your question, what's a guy like me doing in here? See, where exactly is here? To answer that, we'd have to know where here was. And here isn't anywhere. It's not a correctional facility, correction I need not. Is it a cage? Are we animals waiting our slaughter? Perhaps. But since I am indeed here, then here might be the place of need. Here could be where we're meant to be. Just maybe, here, is where it all begins.”
“What?” She asked, wondering if he too felt the same calm that she did right now. It seemed so, it seemed as though Lasiah was high on it.
He pushed himself back from the chain-mail and twirled on the spot. Is anyone else seeing this? Did Lasiah and I die and become invisible to the world? It seemed as though their was a bubble around the two of them, forcing bad-thoughts out and holding delirium in.
“Its dark outside Nina, dark everywhere. Eina is fading. The churches are in ruin,” he came closer, his breath hot on her nose, “there's somebody here that I need to find. Something sent me here. We die for those we love.”
“You're adorable.” A giggled escaped her, though straight away she didn't remember telling herself to giggle.
“What's Nina doing here?” Lasiah asked, clutching the lavender shaped carving that swung from his neck.
“I stole medicine to save my dying sister,” as she spoke the words she felt as though she was making them up or telling someone else's story.
He hung his head low, began chanting under his breath, long passages in Elven that she didn't understand. Nina stood back, staring at his tall, thin frame. One arm shot out towards her, gripping the metal fence in its fist. Startling her. Is he possessed? The calmness that surrounded her was quickly fading. The
bubble exploding, she felt a sea of sadness wash over her. Memories flooded back, Eri, Rohn, Maire, Mum and Dad, memories that a minute ago didn't exist.
Lasiah went silent, glared up at her with watery eyes, “Eina forgives you,” he said. And at once, his straight lined mouth warped into a friendly smile.
The chattering of the inmates around her was loud now, as though it'd not been there for the last few minutes.
“What did you do to me?” She asked.
“It wasn't me Nina.” Again he peered all around him, “it was she.”
“Whatever it was. Can you do it again?”
“The monsters only go away for a while, they always come back. I can't control it in here, but out there I could.” He nodded off to the distance.
Nina's eyes destructively wandered away from Lasiah, shocking her when they met with the drop-dead gorgeous murderer. Luckily, he was looking elsewhere, she lingered on him, unaware that it was obvious.
“His name is Cain,” Lasiah said.
“Who?” Nina's eyes widened in embarrassment.
“He's the one whom I endure my nights with in the stronghold.”
“I wasn't even-”
“Don't worry I'm not offended, I took my vow of celibacy the day I became a man. Why do you presume your less than lovely friend picked me from the crowds?” Lasiah winked. Shame, he was surely too pretty to not marry one day. Though what did that matter now he was in here.
“He killed five innocent people, on his own, he's pure evil.”
“Its most curious, Eina doesn't forgive him. She usually always forgives. But not that one. She tells me, 'not yet'.”
“How long have you been in here?” She asked, hurriedly changing the subject.
“Six weeks now, I'm not sure how much more I am willing to take. This place crushes me. I don't belong here. Wrong is never wrong, and right is never right. And...” He looked all around, “...that king is no judge nor jury over me. Here is not home, I have no home. My eyes have seen far too much, they don't wish to see anymore,” Lasiah looked up to the cloudy blue sky. “I think my home is up there.”