by Ella Young
“The bug I placed shorted out the microphones. It will take them a minute more to get them back online.” Weinan answered Liari’s unasked question. Liari looked up at Weinan, alarmed. It hit her then: Weinan had ruined the prints.
“What do you want from me?”
“It’s not what I want. It’s what the Remnant wants. If you’re tired of hiding in the shadows, they can help. You can help. Make something of this life you’ve been dealt.”
Liari’s heart was racing. This seemed unreal. Something in the room clicked and Weinan looked up. Liari assumed it would be mere moments before the microphones were back online.
“Hebman’s Warehouse, building L-11. Tonight,” Weinan said in a hushed whisper. There was another click and she sat back.
“There’s nothing else you can tell me?” she said louder, giving Liari a pointed look. Play along.
“N-no,” Liari stammered, reeling from what she’d just heard. “I don’t know anything.”
“Well then,” Weinan reached across the table and deactivated the buzzing energy bands. “There’s nothing else we can do to keep you here. You’re free to go.”
Liari stood up so fast she knocked the chair onto the ground. “Thank you,” she said, putting as much feeling into her words as she could. Without Weinan’s help Liari would be on her way to her trial by now. Weinan smiled tightly. Her eyes said more than her words ever could. Without another word, Liari left the interrogation room for good.
-~-~-~-
Liari had not expected to breath fresh air again. So when she stepped out of the hawk station and into Valiant’s scorching sun, she inhaled deep. The smells of the city filled her—speeder exhaust, food from the vendors that sprang up every few hundred feet along the walkways, sand, dust and heat. She wanted to laugh and cry all at once. The impossible had happened. She was somehow, miraculously, free. The release of adrenaline made her excited, giddy. She resisted the urge to whoop victoriously and instead set off on her walk home, a spring in her step. Even her ankle had stopped hurting. This time Liari caught her pneumobus and stood as it carried her to the Lampless district, bouncing on the balls of her feet.
She raced home to Taz as fast as her legs would carry her. When she arrived at the flat she flung the door open, startling the equina inside for the second time that day. The look of relief that flooded Taz’s face was immense.
“Oh thank Vezah,” xe said, and rushed to greet Liari. The size difference between them was quite pronounced, and Liari scooped Taz up in a hug, burying her face in xer mane. “I thought I’d never see you again.”
“So did I,” Liari confessed. She set Taz down and collapsed on the couch, suddenly spent. “I messed up.”
“That’s obvious,” Taz said. Xe sat down at Liari’s feet. “What happened?”
Liari chewed her lip. After today, she had to come clean. She had to tell Taz everything. But there was no good way to say what Liari had to say, and telling your friend, “Sorry, I’m a serial killer” didn’t quite cut it.
“You can’t get mad when I tell you,” she started. Golden. Immediately Taz was on the defensive, hackles raised.
“Get mad about what?”
Liari disappeared into her room and returned with her duffel bag. She rummaged around inside it, her fingers brushing the soft material of her mantle. She pulled it out. Taz knew instantly what it was.
Before Liari could say anything else, before she even had the mantle halfway out of the bag, the equina slapped Liari. Hard. Her cheek stung, and when Liari touched her skin she felt blood on her face. Liari looked at her friend, wide-eyed. Taz was glaring fiercely at her.
“You hit me.”
“You can heal yourself.”
“Taz—”
“No, I don’t want to hear it.”
“Taz, you can’t blame me,” Liari pressed on despite Taz’s words. She pressed her hand to her cheek and felt the flesh knit back together. “Something needed to be done. I did what I had to do.”
“No, you did what you wanted,” Taz growled. “You didn’t need to do anything.”
“I can’t just sit by and let others fight a war that I have a stake in.”
“Yes you can!” Taz roared. “Yes. You. Can. Your job is not to fight, your job is to survive, and my job is to help you. What happens if you die, hm?”
Liari sighed. “There’d be no real Heir left.”
“Precisely. The Divari would ordain a new Heir, and Lhiyrra would teach that new Heir, and the Cradle would continue down the path he set us on. You are key, Liari, whether you want to believe it or not. You cannot be risked.”
“You and I both know the Cradle won’t accept me. Not after everything that’s happened.”
Taz’s jaw worked. “I certainly don't know that.”
Liari was suddenly angry. “I didn’t ask for this!” she snarled. “I didn’t ask to be some heaven-sent savior. And I don’t want it. I want to fight, not sit around waiting for others to die in my name!”
“Do you think either of us asked for this?” Taz shouted back, and it gave Liari pause. Xe had lost just as much as she had. They were in the same situation. “Do you think I wouldn’t love to join the Remnant, stick it to the people who did this to us? Because I would! I really, really would. But I have something more important to do, and so do you. What you did is selfish beyond belief.”
Liari swallowed her next words and looked at the ground. “The detective was Remnant. That’s how I got off. She fudged the evidence so I couldn’t be charged.”
“Well, good on her.”
“She wants me to join up.”
Taz looked at xer friend, still clearly enraged. “Liari…”
“I want to help, Taz. Maybe I won’t fight. I’m Luminant, I could help other ways. But I can’t just sit here any longer. I’m done laying low.”
Taz vehemently shook xer head. “It’s too risky. Putting yourself out in the open is just asking to be discovered.”
Liari pushed on as though she hadn’t heard Taz. “There’s a meeting tonight. Weinan, the detective, invited me. We could join up, make a difference. Do something for a change.”
Taz laughed coldly, derisively. “That’s a trap if I ever heard one. They probably mucked up the evidence on accident and this is their way of catching you. You’d get a harsher sentence if they could pin you with treason as well.”
Liari’s hands balled into fists at her sides. “Whatever the case, I’m going.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You can’t keep me here.”
“Watch me.” The equina marched over to the door and planted xerself in front of it.
Liari glared at her friend and sat back into the couch, arms crossed. Taz didn't move.
They stayed like that for an inordinate amount of time, staring each other down. But they each tired quickly. Liari reached for Taz's pad, resting on the couch, and flipped idly through a report from the front lines on Hlean. She absorbed little of it, instead plotting a way to get to the Remnant meeting later that night. Taz, on the other hand, moved away from the door (but still remained near it) to tinker with what appeared to be a radio relay. They sat in chilly silence for the better part of the day.
At last the sun began to sink in the sky, and the immune lamps were powered on to full intensity. It was now or never.
Liari slowly reached out her hand and slipped it into her bag, searching out the syringe that had fallen to the bottom. She hadn’t had the chance to empty it since killing Arlei nearly twenty-four hours prior. There were still three needles, each filled to the brim with tranquilizer. It would be tough to get the needle past an equina’s scales, but it could be done. Liari had done it before.
Taz heard the rustling and looked up from where xe sat near the door. “What are you doing?”
“Nothing,” Liari said as her hand closed around a syringe. Taz narrowed xer eyes. Xe didn’t trust her.
“Let me see your hand.”
Liari flicked the cap off.
She had one shot at this. If she messed up Taz just might tie her to her bed. “You’ll have to come over and check it,” she said defiantly. It was so obviously a trap. Taz had to see that. Regardless, the equina stood and slowly walked over. With lightning fast speed Liari whipped her hand out from the bag and jabbed at her friend. Taz just barely managed to dodge. Xe stared at Liari, eyes wide.
“What in the stars—”
Liari didn’t let xer finish before she lunged again. She wrapped her hand around Taz’s neck and wrestled xer to the ground. The equina fought mightily, and Liari almost dropped the syringe in the struggle. She wrapped her legs around Taz’s torso, pinning xer to the ground, and found the bare patch at the base of xer neck where no scales covered. From there it was a simple matter of stabbing the needle beneath the skin and depressing the plunger. The equina made a strangled grunting noise and went limp in her arms.
Taking a deep breath, Liari pushed her friend off of her. She felt for a pulse beneath Taz’s cheek and found one, steady and strong. Then, she picked up the equina’s limp body and set it on the couch. Xe would be out for a while. That had been a big dose for a small being. Liari did feel immensely guilty for drugging Taz. They’d been together through so much, it physically hurt to betray xer like this. But she wasn’t going to miss out on a chance to fight. Trap or no trap, Liari had to know what was in Hebman L-11.
CHAPTER SEVEN
The Industrial district was a few dozen klicks to the north of Liari and Taz’s flat. The pneumobuses didn’t run after sunset, so Liari set out early to get there ahead of time. Long shadows fell from the immune lamps levels above them, dangerous to anyone who wasn’t Luminant. Starless sickness could lurk in any corner. Most preferred to stay indoors where it was lit rather than take their chances. Liari walked without fear through the deserted walkways, feeling more than a little invincible. The hawks couldn’t touch her, the sickness couldn’t infect her, and Taz didn’t control her. She was untouchable.
But Taz was right to be suspicious, Liari knew. There was nothing stranger than a hawk scrubbing your file and offering you a spot in the resistance. If this was a trap, Liari wanted to be on top of it.
She followed the directions on her pad to a cluster of warehouses at the far edge of the city. According to her pad, Hebman L-11 was the fourth warehouse to the left. Liari looked down from her vantage point on an overarching walkway at the flat permacrete roof. A yellow glow emanated from the large holoplate window centered atop the warehouse. A perfect vantage point. She silently dove off the walkway, hands reaching for a bundle of fiberoptic cables dangling from above. They found their mark and Liari slid soundlessly down to the rooftop below.
She landed heavier than she would have liked and froze, heart pounding. Had the people below heard her? How many were even down there and would they come after her? It would take her longer to crawl up a cable rather than slide down it. Her escape was not a sure thing. Suddenly the invincible feeling from before evaporated, leaving only a cold sweat and a feeling of unease behind. Still, she had come here with a purpose. After a few minutes, when no one came pelting out of the building, guns raised, Liari crept towards the holoplate window. She peered over the edge of the window into the interior of the warehouse below.
The space was well-lit, but not by any built-in lighting. Portable immune lamps had been erected in a circle around the center of the building. At the periphery Liari could make out the hulking shadows of dusty equipment, long past its usefulness. A single desk facing a group of chairs sat squarely in the middle of the lamplight, and standing by the desk was Weinan. With her was a levian female, dwarfed by her companion. If Liari strained her ear, she could just barely make out what they were saying.
“—no more kids,” the levian was saying. Weinan shifted on her feet.
“Admiral Ferrao let the aquarin in.”
“Yes, but it’s too dangerous to send her back to Nakut. He didn’t really have a choice.”
“Then we won’t let him have a choice with this one.”
“What’s so special about her?”
“You’ll see, Yara.”
The levian, Yara, tilted her head back. Liari ducked out of sight, breathing hard. Had she been seen?
“If she shows up at all,” Yara said. A long pause stretched between the two women in which Liari processed what they’d said. She’d heard the name “Ferrao” before, but she couldn’t remember where. One of Lhiyrra’s self-appointed cronies? It didn’t sound right. Liari moved back over to the window, hoping the two women would say more. She wasn’t disappointed.
“No one comes anymore, Weinan,” Yara said with a sigh. “We had so many recruits in the early years, so many people who believed in the cause. They’re all dead now.”
“There are still people who believe,” Weinan said reassuringly. Yara shook her head.
“No, there aren’t. Not enough to do anything. They sit in their homes, fret about the war, but in the end realize it doesn’t affect them. And so they don’t care to help.”
“I think you’re oversimplifying it.”
“Well, maybe I am. That doesn’t change the fact that the Remnant is dying and we’re losing this war. We need soldiers, we’re losing more every day. Did you hear the latest from the Hlean front?”
“No…”
“Jovi’s entire unit was ambushed. Wiped ‘em all out. We’ve been pushed back into space and we’re running low on fighters. It's only a matter of time before we lose Hlean altogether.”
Weinan toed at the floor. The news seemed to have sobered her. As for Liari, she had heard enough. She vaguely remembered the story about Hlean's front from the news earlier that day—apparently, she’d absorbed some of it after all. The newscaster had called it “a great victory for Lhiyrra’s glorious Hegemony” and Liari had wanted to throw up. There was no doubt in Liari’s mind that the two women below her were, in fact, Remnant.
Now convinced, she rushed back to the edge of the warehouse and scaled a rusty pipe downwards. The Industrial district, too, was unlit at night, and Liari melted into the shadows. She followed the wall of the warehouse until she reached a door with a broken biometric scanner. Taking a deep breath, she pushed it open.
Weinan and Yara turned to her, and Weinan smiled welcomingly. Yara looked profoundly unimpressed by the lanky teenager standing before her.
“You came,” the older avian said. Liari nodded and crossed the floor to stand beneath the lamplight by Yara and Weinan.
“I want to help. Do something meaningful.”
Weinan tutted. “You have been doing something meaningful; you don’t know how many people in the Remnant know your name.”
“I’m sorry, who is this?” Yara finally asked. Weinan turned to her companion.
“This is Liari,” Weinan introduced her, as if that name would mean anything to Yara. Clearly Weinan was waiting for Liari to correct her, and a thought occurred to her, fueled no doubt by Taz’s suspicion. Weinan was still a hawk, and the hawks didn’t have proof of her being Knight. If Liari admitted to it now Weinan could arrest her immediately.
But why would she fudge the records in the first place? Knight reasoned. Liari pushed her suspicion aside. She had to trust Weinan, and so far the older avian had given her no reason not to. So Liari extended her hand in greeting.
“You might know me as Knight,” Liari said. Yara’s eyebrows shot to her forehead. She glanced from Liari to Weinan and back again, mouthing really? to her friend. Weinan was grinning, enjoying Yara’s shock. Slowly, almost reluctantly, the levian took Liari’s outstretched hand.
“You’re not what I expected you’d be.”
“A kid?”
“An avian. Lhiyrra’s been spreading the rumor that you were human.”
I may as well be, Liari thought to herself. It didn’t surprise her that Lhiyrra was using her as another tactic to turn the Cradle races against humans. It was just the kind of move she expected from scum like him.
“I’m Yara,” the
levian said, dropping Liari’s hand. “I’m a recruitment officer for the Remnant.”
“Yara here is responsible for most of our sign-ons,” Weinan explained. Yara snorted.
“I used to be. No one much signing up these days.”
“I’m here,” Liari said, hoping to be helpful. Yara smiled wryly.
“If only one kid could turn the tide, we’d be in luck.”
Liari frowned. If only you knew…
“So you’ll be coming with us back to headquarters?” Weinan asked. Liari paused. It would mean leaving Taz behind, and she wasn’t sure she could do that. They’d been through so much together, inseparable for seven years. Unless…
Unless Liari could convince Taz to come along. It would take some doing, especially after the events of earlier that night, but if Taz really wanted to protect her xe would have to come along, right?
“When do I have to let you know by?”
“Preferably tonight. We have a shuttle leaving in two days’ time with whoever we can pack on it,” Yara answered.
“There’s someone I have to talk to first. Can I give you my answer tomorrow?”
Yara and Weinan exchanged a glance. “It would be cutting it close, but yes. Be back here this time tomorrow if you’re serious about joining up.”
Liari nodded. “I will.”
-~-~-~-