Burn Bright

by Marianne de Pierres

  Suki was sitting cross-legged on her bed with Rollo. They were playing a finger game, trying to grab each other’s first. Suki was winning easily.

  Rollo noticed Retra and poked Suki. ‘She’s back with us.’

  Suki bounced up off her bed. ‘We’ve been waiting for you. We’re starving. Let’s get changed.’

  Retra stretched and quickly got to her feet. Now she was refreshed, a strong sense of unease had beset her. ‘I’m going to bathe.’

  ‘Rollo said we should go to Blissed to eat.’

  ‘Where’s that?’

  ‘Outside Bella Death,’ said Rollo. ‘They’ve got wicked sausages.’

  ‘Wait for us while we get dressed.’

  Rollo clutched his stomach. ‘Wait for you? I’m surely gonna starve to death.’

  Suki led the way to the neglegere, and talked to Retra through the screen as Retra bathed. The girl’s idle words trickled over her like the water, soothing and cleansing.

  When she emerged, wrapped in a towel, the room was filled with other heavy-eyed girls, peering in their lockers and chattering.

  ‘Hey! You’re the Seal who saved Krista-belle,’ said one of them loudly. She was pulling on a mesh top that barely covered the tips of her breasts.

  ‘Her name is Retra,’ said Suki. ‘She’s going to start her own gang. You wanna join?’

  Retra stared at Suki in shock.

  ‘Whatcha gonna call it?’ asked another girl with violent pink streaks through her short black hair.

  ‘Naif’s Chosen,’ said Suki promptly.

  Retra wanted to wrap her hand across her friend’s mouth to make her stop, but Suki was fired with mischief.

  ‘The Chosen will do what the Youth Circle is supposed to do. Only better. They’ll make the Ripers listen.’

  ‘Sounds boring,’ said pink streaks. ‘I like the League. They’re way cool. Clash’s gorgeous.’

  ‘This will be more than that. Retra knows how to handle herself,’ said Suki.

  ‘We’ll think about it,’ said the mesh-top girl.

  When they’d left, Retra rounded on Suki. ‘Why did you do that?’

  Suki shrugged. ‘Like Krista-belle said, you’re famous. In my village if luck comes your way you grab it. One time, my friend, Rani, was attacked by a bear up on the pass. It would’ve killed her but it slipped on the rocks and fell into a crevice. She waited for it to starve to death then she crawled down and skinned it. She came back to village with the skin on her back. Everyone thought she’d killed the bear, and she was given a place on the town senate for bravery. Her family got extra firewood and beef-chew every winter.’

  Before Retra could offer comment, Suki pulled open a drawer in her locker. ‘You ever worn makeup?’

  Retra shook her head, caught out by the quick change of topic.

  ‘I’ve been watching the others. Reckon I know what to do. Come over here.’

  Retra sighed and submitted. In truth, the process of having her eyes and lips painted distracted her from worrying over Joel, or thinking of Markes, or Lenoir. She could still feel the Riper’s touch, and the memory of his hungry look caused little twists of nervousness in her stomach.

  When she and Suki were ready, they found Rollo.

  ‘Hurry and get your tonics. Got mine already.’ He held out his hand. A blue bead rolled around in it.

  ‘No. They make me see strange things,’ said Retra.

  ‘Like what?’

  ‘Demons,’ she whispered.

  ‘Demons! Don’t be fou!’ said Suki.

  When she saw Retra’s confusion, she explained. ‘Mad, I mean, crazy like the Bonies who live halfway between our village and the men below. You know why they’re called the Bonies? We used to bury our dead halfway down until we found them digging up the graves. They ground up their bones because they thought it would make them stronger. They thought they’d be able to come and take our village from us then. They are fou – mad from living in a place where the oxygen is too thin for them.’ But then she added with a touch of grimness, ‘Just to put an end to it, we burn our bodies.’

  ‘Nice,’ said Rollo.

  ‘No,’ said Retra stubbornly. ‘I don’t want any.’

  ‘Suit yourself.’ Suki headed into the confessional, leaving Rollo and Retra standing together alone.

  Retra felt the curious glances from those on their way out to the clubs.

  ‘You really are famous,’ said Rollo. ‘Everyone is looking at you.’

  Retra sighed. ‘Suki told some girls that I am starting my own gang. They must have told other people.’

  ‘What?’ Rollo burst out laughing. ‘You?’

  Retra frowned at him and changed the subject. ‘Are you still going to tell the Youth Circle about the Riper you saw in Grave?’

  He shook his head. ‘I don’t think they can be trusted. Kero thinks they spy for the Ripers. Maybe I should tell Dark Eve instead.’

  ‘That could be dangerous.’

  ‘This place is dangerous.’

  The girls that Suki had talked to in the dressing room sauntered past them, giggling and whispering.

  ‘Not everyone thinks so,’ she said, suddenly longing to be carefree like them.

  Rollo watched them as well, licking his lips in mock desire. ‘I think I’m hanging with the wrong crowd. Owwww!’

  Suki was back and had him by the ear, pinching it hard. ‘Stop pruving, you dirty flesher.’

  ‘Oww … wassat mean?’ asked Rollo, struggling to get his ear back.

  ‘Pruving,’ she repeated. ‘Staring at girls.’

  Retra hid a smile at Rollo’s shocked expression.

  ‘And fleshers are males without mates,’ Suki added.

  ‘But that’s what I came here for,’ said Rollo, rubbing his ear. ‘To look at girls.’

  ‘Not while you’re in our company,’ said Suki. ‘It’s rude.’ She turned to Retra, her eyes already shiny from whatever substance she’d swallowed in the confessional. At least she was speaking at normal speed. ‘I just heard something’s happened to Markes. He was taken from one of the clubs by Ripers.’

  Retra grasped her hand. ‘Which club?’

  ‘Ravens, they reckon.’

  The memory of the demon images flared in Retra’s memory. ‘We should find out if he’s all right.’

  ‘Why bother?’ asked Suki with a shrug.

  ‘Markes helped me on the barge when Ruzalia nearly took me.’

  Suki’s jaw dropped. ‘Ruzalia the pirate? You never told me that.’ She put her hands to her hips and humphed. ‘Well, that’s typical. But I’m not going to Ravens again. Not after what happened out the back there.’

  ‘Will you wait for me on the platform then?’

  Suki looked at Rollo and cast her eyes upward. ‘I suppose so.’

  Retra smiled at her. ‘Don’t you mean, “I guess so”?’

  Retra walked several circuits of the main dance floor at Ravens before she saw Cal. The girl was dancing alone among the billowing funnels of smoke discharging from vents in the walls. Freshly painted tattoos decorated her arms and neck and her expression was sour.

  ‘Cal?’

  She looked at Retra without really focusing. ‘What?’

  ‘It’s Retra. Seal Retra.’

  Recognition slowly stole into Cal’s face. ‘You? Alone?’ She glanced around vaguely. ‘Where’s your girl shadow?’

  ‘Suki’s waiting out on the platform. She doesn’t want to come in here – since that boy was taken by the Night Creatures.’

  Cal pulled a face. ‘Thought she was the too-brave-to-care type.’

  ‘She’s brave,’ said Retra in defence of her friend. ‘But where she comes from they believe in omens.’ Her eyes slid to the end of the dance floor and the corridor that led to the back of the club. ‘Maybe she’s right. Suki heard that Markes was taken from here by Ripers.’

  ‘Who told her?’

  ‘Some girls at the confessional in Vank.’

  ‘So what if he was? T
hey took him for a good reason, not bad. What’s it to do with you anyway?’

  ‘I-I … some of the Ripers can’t be trusted. I want to warn him.’

  ‘He’s with the Youth Circle and they know more about this place than you do.’ Cal sneered and turned away.

  Retra left the club and found Suki and Rollo standing at one end of the platform. Suki was staring out into the dark, and Rollo was staring at Suki.

  ‘Come away from the edge,’ Retra said to her friend.

  ‘Usually it’s me that’s saying that sort of thing to you.’ Suki’s eyes were dark with eyeliner, and melancholy. ‘Do you think he’s dead?’

  ‘Who? The boy … the one that the Night Creatures …’

  Suki nodded.

  Retra didn’t know what to say. ‘You saw what we saw. The blood and everything …’

  ‘Maybe they don’t kill you. Maybe they just keep you out there with them.’ She shivered. ‘That would be worse.’

  ‘Did you find out anything?’ asked Rollo.

  ‘I saw Cal. She said Markes was with the Youth Circle.’

  Rollo gave Retra a charged look.

  ‘We should hurry. Do you know where they meet?’ asked Retra.

  ‘Switch to the Danskoi line and get off at a station called Syn. That’s all I know,’ said Rollo.

  Hearing the grinding of the cables, Retra pulled on Suki’s arm. ‘Come away. Let’s go.’

  They changed kars at Illi and sat together in silence as the kar climbed the mountain. Retra stared out the window. In the clear air the lights shimmered in their brilliant night rainbow formation. It should be … could be … beautiful if she could forget what she’d seen – what she’d heard – in the dark.

  When the kar stopped, Retra got off first, followed by Suki and then Rollo. The sign hanging on chains from the stair rails read ‘Syn’.

  ‘It’s Latin, you know. Means “together”,’ Rollo said. ‘You know Latin?’ asked Retra.

  He shrugged, embarrassed. ‘Sure. All pre-councillors know that stuff. You can’t quote the law without it: abusus non tollit usum.’

  ‘I know some too,’ said Suki. ‘Kiss my bama.’ She tapped her backside.

  The pair burst out laughing and slapped hands high in the air. Retra didn’t join in.

  They walked down the platform’s stairs and stopped in front of a wood and iron door. Rollo pushed open the door for Suki and Retra with a mock bow. Instead of a club or church, though, it led them into a plain, wood-panelled room which narrowed off into a rocky passage.

  Rollo took the lead, stooping to avoid hitting his head on the overhead rock. Every few steps, the three had to press against the wall as others squeezed past them, coming out.

  The cramped passage began to slant downward and Retra and Suki took off their heels so they wouldn’t stumble on the uneven floor. They walked like that until Retra’s back began to ache from bending and Suki had begun to curse under her breath.

  The end came quite suddenly.

  Around the curve of rock lay a majestic but eerie cave lit by hundreds of candles. The cooler underground air smelt of wax, and layers of volcanic red stained the walls as if seeping blood. Altars set into shallow recesses punctuated the perimeter of the cave. People sprawled on them, chatting.

  ‘What are they doing?’

  Rollo shrugged. ‘Waiting for the meeting to start? How should I know? I’ve never been here before.’ He sounded tense now that they were here.

  ‘Where do we go?’ asked Suki.

  ‘Over here, I think.’

  They walked to one end of a narrow stippled carpet bordered by red guide ropes. It ran down the centre of lines of pews; enough seating for a large audience. The carpet ended at the centre of the cave, where a rough, rectangular-shaped slab of rock larger than the cable kar platforms stood. On the rock was a table adorned with ornate, gilded handles and motifs that reminded Retra of the coffins she had seen at Grave funerals. She counted ten seated figures but only one caused her heart to leap.

  Lenoir!

  ‘Five Ripers and five of us,’ whispered Suki as if reading her thoughts.

  ‘You mean five Ripers and five of the Circle,’ corrected Rollo.

  ‘Same thing.’

  ‘No it’s not,’ said Rollo. ‘Circle are not us. Plenty think they’re spies.’

  ‘Who’s plenty?’

  Rollo glowered at her. ‘The gangs.’

  ‘Yeah. Kero the great,’ said Suki sarcastically.

  Retra listened to their soft bickering but it was Lenoir who captivated her gaze. He sat at the head of the table with Test at his side.

  A girl with hair that fell past her knees, and a red mask painted across her eyes, appeared next to them. ‘Would you like to view the Circle meeting, baby bats?’

  ‘Sure!’ Rollo gave her a wide grin.

  His manner irritated Retra. How did he so easily switch to being charming?

  ‘I’m Jaime. Follow me,’ she said. ‘You’re lucky. They’re about to begin a new discussion.’ She unhooked a section of the guide rope and ushered them onto the hard wooden seats. A young man lay drowsing with his eyes open on the pew in front of them. Retra heard his deep breaths and saw the steady rise of his chest.

  Jaime wrinkled her nose. ‘He didn’t make it to a church for petite nuit. This is the only other safe place to rest,’ she lowered her already quiet voice, ‘although Lenoir doesn’t like it …’

  As if hearing his name, Lenoir stood and turned, sweeping his gaze past each candlelit corner of the cavern. His glance raked over them like the blast of a hot wind.

  ‘Circle will now discuss the business of Ruzalia the pirate. Test?’ His voice entered Retra’s head, sibilant and intimate as if his lips were at her ear and his breath brushed the hairs on her neck. Her skin pimpled all over, as it had when she had first taken the Rapture pod.

  Lenoir retook his seat and Test rose, the stiff frill of her hair collected into one dramatic spike that pointed out from the base of her skull. The leather of her waistcoat hugged her torso so closely that only its colour distinguished it from her skin. ‘Ruzalia has attacked and boarded barges from Grave, Mustafar and Lidol Push. In each instance she has taken the older ones. We are finding less and less reaching here.’

  ‘Then we owe her a debt, not a penalty,’ said a young Circle member in a confident voice.

  ‘Ruin. He was with Markes,’ said Suki, reminding Retra.

  ‘It is not such a simple matter, Ruin,’ replied Lenoir.

  With each word he spoke Retra’s heart pounded in her chest and needles pricked her skin. Somehow his voice played with her senses.

  ‘Ruzalia’s raids on the barges are unsettling for the baby bats. Sometimes they become frightened and go with her on impulse. Another few were lost today. You see, she is not simply rescuing the older ones: she opposes Ixion on all counts. Guardians have been injured. She undermines our purpose.’

  ‘W-what is your purpose?’ asked Ruin boldly.

  ‘Your pleasure is our purpose.’ Lenoir smiled, but it did not ring true. ‘Brand? You of all of us have seen the worst of Ruzalia. What think you?’

  Brand. Retra’s heart thumped as the scarred Riper came forward from the shadows.

  The Riper’s fingers went automatically to the scars on both her cheeks, tracing them along their rough ridges in an unconscious gesture. ‘I say we set a trap for her and bring her in.’

  ‘A trap?’ Lenoir’s voice rose in interest.

  Retra’s scalp-hair stiffened in response, as though his voice tugged at each root.

  ‘Let it be known that we have a special group whose time has come. Tempt her with them. Charlonge should be one of them. She has been here too long. Flaunt them under Ruzalia’s nose,’ said Brand.

  Suki grabbed Retra’s hand. Not Charlonge!

  ‘The pirate would know it is a trap,’ said Lenoir.

  ‘Perhaps. Even so, she would not be able to resist.’

  ‘You think her that foolhard
y?’ Lenoir chuckled. It was a softer sound and it flowed around Retra like tepid water.

  Next to her Rollo shuddered. ‘What is it with him?’ he muttered. ‘Every time he speaks my skin crawls.’

  Retra ignored him and leaned forward to the long-haired girl, Jaime. ‘Where do you think they take the Peaks?’

  Jaime turned her head, barely. ‘The edge of the Spiral.’

  ‘What happens at the edge?’

  The girl shrugged her shoulders with impatience.

  ‘No one knows what happens at the Spiral’s edge. Some say you can fall off this world,’ said Suki, with authority. ‘Or burn to bits. It’s been like that since the darkness came.’

  ‘But we got here all right,’ said Retra.

  ‘The getting here’s fine. Leaving is not. Or so the Ripers say,’ Rollo added.

  ‘Where does Ruzalia come from then?’

  He shook his head. ‘Dunno.’

  Jaime raised her hand to silence them.

  Rollo pulled a face at Retra, but her attention had already returned to Lenoir and the Circle.

  ‘I think I know a way to ensnare her,’ said Brand. She turned and pointed to the shadows. ‘Present him!’

  A Riper glided across to an altar at the opposite end of the cavern, where a figure knelt in a flowing white robe, his curling hair worn loose like a beautiful dark angel. He held a guitar carefully – lovingly – as he stood.

  Markes.

  He walked back to the centre altar, eyes focused on Lenoir, unaware of Retra or anyone else.

  Jaime clasped her hands together. She gave a soft moan of pleasure. ‘Astonishing!’

  ‘What’s astonishing?’ whispered Retra.

  ‘A baby bat being brought into the Youth Circle … that’s never happened before.’

  ‘Why have they done that?’ asked Rollo.

  ‘Hush,’ said the girl. ‘You’ll see.’

  ‘Who are you?’ asked Lenoir.

  ‘I’m Markes.’ His voice was unnaturally thick and slow.

  ‘Play for us, Markes,’ said Brand.

  Markes lifted his guitar and began the melody that had stirred so many people in Vank. For Retra it brought back the memory of how she had been after taking the Rapture pod – the abandon with which she’d danced, the desire, and then the clamouring demons. Even now the memory filled her with both chagrin and fear.