Firebrand

by Antony John

  “Hey,” she whispered. “It’s all right.” She stroked my cheek as if she were calming a wild animal. “Everything is all right.”

  She reached for her canister and sniffed the contents, challenging herself to connect with water the way she used to. But she couldn’t do it. I could see it in her eyes.

  Before I could change my mind, I wrapped my arms around her and focused on the water inside the canister. My pulse was quick, but as long as I focused on the water, the energy surged right through her.

  Rose didn’t pull away.

  I could feel her regaining control of her own element, forcing the liquid out of the canister in a slow, perfect arc. She opened her mouth, ready to drink. Her eyes shone with the miracle of it. At least until the water touched her lips. Then I sent a rush of power that spattered the liquid across her face.

  She gasped. “You . . . pig!” She tried to brush the water off her suddenly wet tunic, then burst out laughing instead. “I was actually thirsty!”

  “So try picking up the canister with your hands. It’s what I’ve been doing all these years.”

  I meant for it to come out as a joke, but it fell flat. Maybe deep down, I kind of meant it.

  Rose lifted the canister and drank. “You’re right,” she said. “It works this way too.”

  She lay back down then, wet tunic and all, and reached for my hands. She dragged my arms across her. “It’s your job to keep me warm now. You know, since you’re the one who got me wet.”

  She held my hands and pressed them against her chest. I couldn’t decide what was more amazing: the feeling of holding her, or that she’d forgiven me for being stupid.

  We were still after that. Nothing but our breathing and heartbeats to tell us apart. Concentrating so hard on my element had left me tired. My pulse wasn’t racing anymore.

  “I felt you, Thomas.” Rose swallowed hard. “Felt your element running through me. It was gentle and warm. I was controlling the water, but you were controlling me.” She closed her mouth, then opened it again. Her breaths were fast and shallow. “There was no pain. I . . . I liked it.”

  For a moment, the words hung between us. They were more than words, though. In them was a promise.

  There was so little distance between us. I studied the arch of her eyebrows and the way the breeze toyed with her hair, each loose strand silhouetted by the setting sun. As she played with the glass pendant around her neck, her hands shook.

  Rose lifted my hand to her cheek. I ran my fingers over every part of her face and lips. She closed her eyes, and I closed mine, and when our lips came together it felt completely natural. I still half expected her to pull away, for closeness to shift toward pain. But the energy, or adrenaline, or fear, or whatever usually came between us wasn’t there this time.

  I ran my hand behind her head and pulled her closer. Kissed her over and over, madly, fumbling for everything at once. She dragged me on top of her and I felt her legs and her chest. The moment I’d dreamed of was finally—impossibly—here.

  I was as alive as I’d ever been.

  CHAPTER 22

  We woke up as the sun rose. My clothes were damp from the grass and I was sore from the hard ground. Cold too. Rose and I came together for a moment and shared body heat while I ran my fingers in slow circles around the small of her back.

  A strand of hair fell across her face, so I eased it away. Eyes still closed, she batted at it as if it were an insect. I couldn’t help smiling. There was something so instinctive about it. I was reminded that everything had felt that way until a couple weeks ago.

  “What are you thinking about?” I asked, breaking the silence.

  She opened her eyes halfway and ran the backs of her fingers across my right cheek. “Hatteras. I thought what we had there was real, but it was a lie. Now I want to believe that this is real, but . . . I don’t know. It’s just this feeling I have. You know what I mean?”

  I rolled onto my back and sighed. “Yes, I do.”

  Scanning the area around us to make sure no one was there, Rose leaned across me and planted a kiss on my lips. “So what’s bothering you?”

  “Right now? Well, Chief told me that Kell is his right hand. He also said Jerren is like a son to him. But those two are hiding things from each other, and maybe from him too.” I fought to concentrate; it wasn’t easy with Rose so close. “I’m worried that they were both so interested in Dare’s cabin.”

  Her eyes opened wide. “You think it was Kell who disturbed us on the ship?”

  “I’m sure of it. What I don’t understand is why he and Jerren were there at night in the first place. What’s ours is theirs, right? They could’ve just gone during the daytime.” I took a deep breath. Saying everything out loud was making my concerns feel more real, not less. “No. There’s something more. What if neither of them is playing by Chief’s rules anymore?”

  “Then we stay out of it.”

  I gave a wry laugh. “Try telling Alice that.”

  “Are she and Jerren . . .” Rose raised an eyebrow questioningly.

  “If they’re not, I reckon they will be soon. Anyway, staying out of it might not be an option. Griffin noticed that Dare’s logbooks were missing some pages from about a month ago. He traced the ship’s course to Hatteras, but we don’t know where Dare came from. What if he visited here?”

  Rose rolled her eyes. “Dare could’ve come from anywhere. And even if you don’t trust Kell and Jerren, do you really think Chief would keep something like that from you?”

  “I don’t know anymore.” I puffed out my cheeks and let the air out in a steady stream. “I just want this place to be perfect, you know? Without all the stuff that tore our colony apart.”

  “Sumter doesn’t have to be perfect to be good, Thomas. I mean, I know one person I can always trust.” She leaned in to kiss me. “And we couldn’t do this on Hatteras. Or . . . this.”

  She opened her mouth, and so did I. The energy that flowed between us then had nothing to do with an element. It was more powerful than that, more all-consuming. And still I needed more. I slid my hands down her back and found the hem of her tunic. I pulled it upward, her bare skin perfectly smooth against my fingertips. When I reached her chest, she pulled away from me slightly so that I could lift it over her shoulders.

  We heard the footsteps at the same time. Slow and heavy, coming from the battery.

  Rose sat bolt upright and adjusted her tunic back down. The footsteps stopped at the first level. She reached out and took my hand, relief written all over her face.

  Then the footsteps started again. Someone was climbing the stairs to the esplanade.

  There was a bank about ten yards away. It looked like the other side was only a yard or so lower than where we were, but we crawled over and hid behind it. I didn’t stop to think about why we were hiding, or how guilty it made us look. I just knew that I didn’t want us to be seen.

  The new arrival paused at the top of the steps. At first, I was relieved because it meant we probably wouldn’t be found. But why climb the steps at all, then? Unless he or she was looking for someone.

  Or making sure that no one was around.

  As the footsteps receded, I pulled myself up and stole a quick look. I didn’t see much, just the top of his head, but as the light caught the wisps of gray hair, I knew it was Chief.

  Several footsteps later there was the sound of a door opening. There was a click as Chief closed it behind him.

  Rose exhaled slowly. “Please tell me that wasn’t Chief.”

  “At least it wasn’t your mother.”

  She wasn’t amused. “He’s in the gunroom again. All those weapons—it scares me. Why is he visiting at dawn anyway?”

  “I don’t know. But I do know he didn’t want anyone to see him.”

  We lay side by side again, but apart now. Kissing Rose already felt like
a distant memory.

  “We need to know what’s in there,” she said. “And soon.”

  The words could’ve come from Alice, but Rose’s tone was different. Where Alice would’ve been looking to prove someone’s guilt, Rose just wanted to reassure herself that everything was all right. At least we were in agreement about that.

  “There’s no way we’re getting in that room, Rose.”

  “We won’t have to.” She wrapped her fingers around her pendant. “Anyone would notice you or me sneaking in. But what about Dennis?”

  “No.”

  “He’s small, Thomas. If someone were to leave the room in a hurry, he could slide in before the door closes.”

  “He shouldn’t get involved in this—”

  “He’s already involved in this.” She huffed. “He’s split between us, my mother, and everyone new at Sumter. He doesn’t want to leave us. Anyway, has it occurred to you that he might want answers too? He’s not stupid, you know.”

  “I know.” I wasn’t sure what I felt worse about: getting Dennis mixed up in everything, or telling Rose she didn’t know what was best for her own brother. “How can we make someone leave that room in a hurry?” I asked finally.

  “Oh, I can think of a way.” She smiled to herself. “Want to hold my hand again?”

  CHAPTER 23

  Rose told Dennis what we wanted him to do. I almost hoped he’d say no, but he didn’t. After a lifetime of open spaces, he felt cooped up in Sumter. Checking out a room that no one else had seen was irresistible to him.

  That’s what he said, anyway. But from the way he watched Rose the whole time, I wondered if he would’ve agreed to anything just to be with her again.

  Two strikes after sunrise, Dennis hid in a shadowy space beneath the battery stairs, exactly as we’d told him. Down on the parade grounds, Rose and I stood beside the sewer entrance.

  “Ready?” she asked.

  “No,” I answered truthfully. But I took her hand anyway.

  I didn’t think the diversion would work. The water level was at least a couple yards below us and our elements were as weak as they’d ever been. People wandered back and forth, a constant distraction. But my heart was pounding and so was hers. So I sent my energy through her and watched.

  The stench grew worse as the waste reversed course. I closed my eyes and felt her element respond to my touch. I was vaguely aware of the liquid’s progress, but when I heard a shout, my first thought was that we’d been caught.

  Rose let go of my hand and we split, taking separate staircases up the battery. Behind us, the colonists were gathering, staring with alarm at the filth strewn across the ground. It formed a dark circle in a yard radius around the sewer entrance.

  Kell joined them momentarily and slipped away, making a direct line for the gunroom.

  I retreated to the corridor just outside our room and spied from the shadows as Chief accompanied Kell outside. I would have kept watch too, but Griffin and Nyla were in the corridor and I didn’t want them to be suspicious.

  They sat cross-legged opposite each other, signing in the half-light. Amazingly, Nyla already signed better than some of the Guardians ever had.

  Good. Signs, I told her.

  She accepted the compliment without smiling. Useful, she returned, the gesture too small, like she was still afraid of getting it wrong. “Imagine how this’ll change the food squads,” she said. “Jerren says the gatherers work in the same area so they can hear each other. But with signs, they could move anywhere, as long as the lookouts still see each other.”

  The more she spoke, the more excited she became. Even though he couldn’t hear her, she looked at Griffin from time to time like she was seeking his approval. Her signs were more natural and confident with him around too. She smiled, which I hadn’t seen before.

  I peered around the corner to see if Dennis had left the gunroom, but he hadn’t. He needed to get out. He was only there to look around and report back to us.

  As I turned back to Griffin and Nyla, a young child’s cry split the air. It was loud enough to startle Nyla. The others flooded out from our room and joined me on the walkway.

  Kell was marching Dennis toward us. Rose was running up from behind them. Her mother too. Even the people working on the parade grounds paused what they were doing to watch.

  “What’s going on?” cried Marin. “Are you all right, Dennis?”

  Kell stared at every one of us, weighing our guilt. “Dennis decided to pay a visit to a room . . . a private room.”

  Under other circumstances, we might have been able to pass it off as an innocent mistake. But from the way Dennis was shaking, it was obvious he knew he’d done wrong.

  Marin was desolate. “Why did you do such a thing?” she asked him. “Did someone tell you to go in there?”

  Dennis didn’t answer. But his eyes shifted to Rose as if he was waiting for her to save him.

  Marin understood well enough what the look meant. “What have you done, Rose?” she hissed.

  “I didn’t know what was inside the room,” said Rose. “It scared me.”

  “Is that so?” Kell sneered. “Well then, ask your brother what’s in there. Ask him what we have lined up against the walls. What horrible little secrets have we been keeping from you all, Dennis?”

  Dennis shrank back from him. “There were guns. Lots of guns.”

  “Lots of loaded guns,” corrected Kell. “The kind that might accidentally kill a child if he got hold of them. The kind that any responsible colony would kept locked away.” He gritted his teeth. “If you think you need one of those guns, Rose, you should’ve asked. Although I’d like to know what you plan to do with it.”

  Chief had joined us now. He looked from one to another of us. “I don’t understand,” he said. “One moment, I’m on the parade grounds dealing with a serious health issue, the next I hear that you took advantage of the situation to spy on us. If you’d just asked me, I would have told you what was in that room.” His voice had an unfamiliar edge. “Please, tell me what we’ve done to make you so distrustful.”

  I should have held my tongue, but I couldn’t stand the way that everyone was turning on Rose. “Kell boarded the ship the second night we were here,” I told Chief.

  He hesitated. “Is that true, Kell?”

  Kell didn’t miss a beat. “Yes. I saw a light through one of the portholes. I got to wondering who’d board their own ship in the dead of night. And why.”

  “You went into the captain’s cabin,” I snapped.

  “As did you, even though you told us you hadn’t. How else would you have heard our radio transmission?” He paused to let the words sink in. “The thing I really want to know is how you got back into the fort that night without me noticing. Seems that if anybody has been keeping secrets, it’s you, Thomas.”

  Chief was hunched over now. He looked older than before. “I trusted you, Thomas,” he said quietly. “I really did. But trust works two ways. I sincerely hope you’ll think ours is worth winning back. If not, I’d urge you to find another home.”

  He turned to leave. Kell stayed right beside him, his allegiance unquestioned.

  No one else moved.

  “There was something else,” began Dennis, but Marin cut him off.

  “Enough!” Her eyes roamed from Rose to me as though she couldn’t decide which of us she hated more. “Stay away from Dennis. You told us not to use our elements anymore, Thomas, yet from the mess over there, I can see you dared to combine with Rose. In full view. Never mind the dangers of having human filth strewn across the ground.” Her voice was quiet but venomous, anger visible in every twitch. “As for you, Rose, a real sister would never have done what you did today.” She pulled Dennis toward her, hands draped over his shoulders possessively as he tried to wriggle free. “Do whatever you like, but understand this: Dennis and I wil
l be staying here. I will not let you jeopardize his future.”

  As Marin dragged Dennis away, he kept his head turned back and eyes fixed on us. I expected him to appear as angry as his mother did. Marin was right. We’d taken advantage of his trust. Instead, he looked conflicted about the side he’d been made to choose. Or was it more than that? He mouthed a silent word as he retreated, but I couldn’t make it out.

  Ananias placed a hand on my shoulder. “What were you thinking, Thomas?”

  “Look, something’s going on between Kell and Jerren—”

  “So? That’s their problem, not ours.” His voice rose with every word. “What’ll happen to Father if they throw us out? What’ll happen to any of us? There’s no food on that ship. If they make us leave, not one of us will survive—”

  “I’m sorry,” I snapped. “All right? I’m sorry.”

  There was a flash of anger in Ananias’s eyes. He was bigger than me and stronger. If he wanted to hurt me, it wouldn’t be a close fight, especially without full use of my element. But the anger didn’t last. “You brought us here, Thomas. You were the one who said everything would work out. We doubted you, but it turns out, you were right. And now that we’re safe, you’re risking everything to prove you were wrong. If they knew that you had done that to the sewer . . .” He squeezed my shoulder. “We have friends now. Allies. You can stop doubting that everything is real.”

  Alice and Tarn watched me with looks of disappointment and confusion. Griffin and Nyla too. Chief had opened up to me more than to anyone else. Of all of us, I was the one who should have trusted him. If I still had doubts, how could anyone else be reassured by what they saw all around them?

  Rose hurried past them, heading toward our room. I ran after her, and caught up to her in the corridor.

  “This is all my fault,” she whispered.

  “No, it’s mine too.”

  “I have no one now.” She drew a quick breath. “I have nothing left.”