Parallel U. - Sophomore Year

by Dakota Rusk

  “Fine,” said Valery. “That’s three. Is there anyone else we can count on—or do we have to risk the last four spots being filled by random innocents?”

  “If not innocents,” I said, as an idea struck me, “how about the opposite?” A lot of furrowed brows greeted me on this, so I quickly explained: “Gunther and the Hyena Girls.”

  Merri actually laughed out loud. “You are such a natural warrior! You’re even allowing for cannon fodder!”

  “With any luck, that’s how they’ll function.”

  Valery was energetically shaking his head. “No, no—I really can’t have this. I can’t have you deliberately putting people into this situation on the expectation that they’re going to be hurt.”

  “Isn’t it better,” said Darius, “than letting other students fill those slots? I mean, we know Gunther and the Hyenas are vicious, violent troublemakers. Let me play devil’s advocate, here: maybe the experience would be transformative for them. Maybe it would even do them good.”

  Valery scowled. “You can’t say it would do them good, not knowing anything about what they’ll be facing.”

  “And you can’t say it’ll do them harm, for the same reason.”

  “Point taken. But I’d also add that if it’d be suspicious for all three of you to be among the winners, it’s equally suspicious for all three of them.”

  “Possibly so; but the suspicion wouldn’t fall on us, which is kind of the point. And I’d like to see President Foxglove try to rescind the honor to any one of those cretins; they’d stirp up a storm of chaos on campus if she did.”

  Valery seemed on the point of making a rebuttal, but was interrupted.

  “Excuse me,” Eddie said, raising a finger. “As the person who’ll actually be doing the hacking, my vote is the only one that counts here. Because no matter what you say, I’m going to enter the names I want. And by my count, I’ve got six that suit me fine. Anyone for a seventh?”

  We all racked our brains, but no one could think of a worthy candidate.

  “It’ll have to be luck of the draw, then,” Eddie said. “I pity the poor kid, whoever it may be.”

  29

  “But, Fabia…I’ve told you, I don’t want to go home!”

  Ntombi sat across from me—as tall and strapping and muscular as she’d ever been, and yet somehow looking, at this moment, like a forlorn and frightened little girl.

  “I understand,” I said. “But what’s at stake—”

  “You don’t understand,” she wailed, interrupting me. “You’ve always had just enough privilege in your life to keep you from any risk of hunger, or poverty, or losing your home. But not so much privilege that it traps you—keeps you from making decisions on your own behalf, becoming your own woman. You’ve had the best of everything, Fabia! And you aren’t trying to see what you’re sending me back to: a gilded cage—a suite of rooms in a palace with everything I’ll ever need or want—except the freedom to walk out of them.”

  Tears brimmed in her eyes; I could see she was regretting this meeting.

  She’d wasted no time coming, after Gerrid summoned her—arriving so fast that at first I worried she might have been followed; but she was smart enough not to let her haste overwhelm her common sense. And when she threw her arms around my neck and drew me into a fierce, steel-limbed hug, I knew she’d missed me as much as I’d missed her.

  “But why didn’t you ever come to see me?” I’d asked, once the hug was broken.

  She looked at me with wide-eyed wonder. “You told me not to! ‘Don’t come back unless I send for you,’ you said.”

  I felt my face go red with embarrassment. I had said that, in the rush of confusion and anxiety after our sighting of the witches’ sacrificial rite. I just hadn’t realized she’d take it so seriously. I suppose I was used to hanging out with people like Eddie and Merri and Gerrid, whom you can bark orders at like a drill-sergeant and they’ll just turn around and do whatever they think is best.

  So Ntombi had obeyed my command and kept her distance; and now I could see she was wishing she’d kept it still.

  I reached out my hand and put it reassuringly over hers. She didn’t flinch or pull back, as I’d feared she might. “You’re wrong about me,” I said as calmly as I could. “Not about the privilege…but about the risk. I’ve had plenty of that, and I’ve lost because of it. I did lose my home, Ntombi. Remember.”

  She looked suddenly stricken. “Ohhh—I didn’t mean—”

  “Never mind,” I said, removing my hand and straightening my back. “The point is, we need you to take a risk this time. I’d do this myself, but obviously I can’t. For what it’s worth, I don’t think they will be sending you home. I’ve got a strong feeling they’re sending you somewhere else—somewhere you’ll be in danger.”

  She scoffed. “I’d sooner face a hostile army than my grandfather and his courtiers.”

  “So you understand? And you agree?”

  She took a moment; and I could almost see the wheels in her head turning as she weighed everything I’d told her about Jocasta Foxglove’s plans—which wasn’t much. I prayed it was enough.

  Finally she shrugged her shoulders—a sign of submission. “I’ve spent so many months wishing I could be like you,” she said with a weary grin; “I guess now’s my chance to prove I meant it.”

  “Thank you,” I said. “But seriously…you have nothing to prove. Not to me. I know your heart; I know your will. And I’m counting on both to hold out against whatever trouble might be brewing here.”

  “They will; I promise.”

  “And…you’ll talk to Donald? Get him to do the same?” She looked dubious, so I said, “I’d do it, but I think it’s best he not know that I’m here—that I’ve been here all along.”

  I guess I was hoping she’d disagree with me—that she’d say No, Fabia, he needs to hear it from you, so that I’d have to see him again despite the recklessness of it; it would be out of my hands.

  But she agreed with me. “He’s every inch a fighter,” she said, “and I’m certain he’d do everything he could to bring down anyone who’d tried to hurt you. But he can also be careless and impulsive. It wouldn’t be unlike him to have a little too much to drink one night, then blurt out the whole plan, including your part in it, to anyone who’d listen—just for the pleasure of bragging about it.” She laughed. “Believe me. I know him better than he knows himself.”

  I felt a jolt of alarm at her harsh assessment of him. “So you think he shouldn’t be part of this?”

  “That’s not what I said. What I think is that you should go ahead and make sure his name is included on the winners’ list; and after the drawing, when he’s been chosen and confirmed and is all ready to go—that’s when I’ll tell him. The night before the actual trip home—or wherever it is we’re being sent. That leaves plenty of time for him to fire up for a fight, but not enough for him to run off at the mouth about it.”

  It seemed like a good plan; and when Valery and Eddie—who’d left me alone to make the appeal to Ntombi—came in and heard it, they gave it their approval, and welcomed her to the team. She seemed both humbled and thrilled.

  We parted; and once again I told her not to attempt to see me unless I sent for her—which I wouldn’t. It was just getting too risky, and would only get more so as the day of the lottery approached.

  Both of us knew, though, that this meant we might be seeing each other for the final time. Ntombi was willingly walking into a trap, and she was doing it for me; and if the worst came out of it, I’d have to find some way to live with that.The lottery was set for the end of that week, and the departure of the winners for their home parallels would be the following morning. Darius and Merri reported a high pitch of hopeful expectation on campus; for these few days, every student was a potential winner in his or her own head, and once again that took the pressure off of President Foxglove, who—so Valery reported—had taken the opportunity to relax her guard a little; though she was still clearl
y unhappy with the way her hand had been forced.

  Eddie hacked the lottery program and substituted our slate of winners’ names in about six minutes, in and out; he was really so proficient at this type of thing, it was almost frightening. I wondered if there was anyone, anywhere who matched him for sheer digital wizardry; I hoped there wasn’t. The idea of two of them…

  We watched the announcement on a small holographic screen Eddie had built into the Hopper. It was just the two of us. Valery and the others were all together in the auditorium where the other students had gathered, and where, apparently, President Foxglove was presiding at a rally where she’d congratulate the winners as their names came up on the overhead screen. We couldn’t be there, of course, and so were left to imagine the scene as the first winning student was projected:

  GERRID SELK

  I pictured some generous but confused applause; Gerrid was famous as a member of the foursome who had shut down the Terminus Engine, but he was the least well known of the group, and the most distrusted because of his appearance and his habit of lurking underground. Also, he was notoriously opposed to the witches and everything to do with them.

  I was still pondering this when the second name came up.

  PORTIA SEALE SCABO

  “Who’s that?” I asked.

  “One of the Hyena Girls,” Eddie replied.

  Again I imagined the scene at the auditorium; there was probably a very vocal reaction from the Hyenas’ circle of thuggish friends, but I doubted many other people on campus would show any enthusiasm.

  DONALD MAC DÚNGAIL

  There’d be plenty of congratulatory applause here; Donald was popular. And, if Ntombi had kept to her plan, this moment would be as surprising for him as it was for everyone else.

  SIMONE URSINE

  “The other Hyena Girl,” Eddie explained.

  GUNTHER CROSS

  By now the section of the auditorium where the thugs were seated must be near to a state of frenzy. I wondered if anyone else in the crowd had the courage to boo. I hoped not; a riot might start.

  NTOMBI OF THE MTHETHWA

  There’d be some approval here as well; Ntombi was a star athlete, after all, and those are always popular (I should know), although her rather chilly royal demeanor made her slightly less well liked than she might have been.

  “So all that’s left is the random-drawn student,” I said, watching the holo-screen.

  Eddie smirked. “Not exactly…”

  I was about to ask what he meant when the name appeared.

  ROWELLA RAVENCROFT

  “Are you crazy?” I cried, leaping up from the couch and facing Eddie—who just smiled as though he’d totally been expecting it—a reaction of anger and betrayal that I knew must be exactly what was going on in the auditorium, too. “She’s one of the witches! She already has access to her parallel whenever she wants!”

  Eddie shrugged. “I just thought, if this is really some kind of meat-grinder Jocasta’s sending our people into, one of hers ought to go along as well.”

  “But…Rowella wouldn’t even have entered her name! There’ll be an investigation…it’ll lead right to us…”

  He shrugged. “It’ll be too late. In twelve hours, the winning students will be on their way home—or wherever else they’re being sent—and this whole thing will play out however it’s going to. In the meantime, if Foxglove tries to remove her pet from the list, she’ll be signaling that something’s screwy with the whole project.”

  I didn’t entirely buy his logic; but what was done, was done.

  I hunkered down in a chair and waited. I could hear shouts from the commons; something was going on out there; it was impossible to tell whether it was joy or outrage. All I could do was wait for someone to come and fill us in on what was happening in the wake of the drawing.

  I was as anxious as a cat in a room full of rocking chairs. But Eddie seemed entirely calm, and in fact went back to his workbench and did some more fussing with his Hopper.

  “I don’t know how you can be so blasé,” I said. “Doesn’t it kill you? Sitting here, waiting to find out what’s happening—whether our plan worked—what happens next—anything?” I could hear my voice getting shrill, but I couldn’t seem to help it.

  He swiveled in his chair and said, “No, the wait isn’t killing me. And you know why?”

  “Why?” I asked, suddenly on alert.

  “Because I’m going to fast-forward right over it.”

  He just smiled at me until I understood. “You’re—you’re going to jump ahead?”

  He nodded. “Twenty-four hours. My biggest chronal vault yet. Want to come?”

  I shook my head. As much as I hated this awful waiting, the idea of being confronted with the results immediately felt like too much, too soon.

  “Suit yourself,” he said, and he stood up from his stool, took the Hopper from his desk, and tossed it at me. “Catch,” he said.

  I was so taken aback, I had to scramble my arms in the air to grab it before it flew right past me. “Stop screwing around,” I said. “Here.” I held it out to him.

  “It’s yours now,” he said, backing away. “Your very own. You’ve earned it, and then some.”

  I looked at it. “Mine? But…”

  “I’ve put a feature on it, just for you. Help get you out of a scrape, if you’re ever in one. What am I saying, of course you’ll be in one. Just be sure it’s a big scrape…’cause I’ve given you some big guns, right there.”

  I tried to force him to take it from me. “I can’t accept this. Didn’t you just say you were going to time-jump?”

  He nodded. “And so I am. Just try and stop me.”

  “I’m not, I’m trying to help you! I’m giving you back your Hopper, aren’t I? You won’t get very far without it.”

  He shook his head and smiled wanly. “When, when, when will you people ever learn? Boy genius, here.”

  And then—right before my eyes—he disappeared.So…Eddie had apparently figured out a way of jumping without using a Hopper. I shouldn’t have been surprised—and yet I was, very much so. How was such a thing even possible? I couldn’t even begin to imagine.

  But beyond my bewilderment, I felt something even more potent…and I had to consider it for a while before I figured out what it was.

  I was lonely.

  Not because I was literally alone…I’d gotten used to that. Every athlete does. Training is very isolating; it forces you to internalize—to find everything you need within yourself. I was fine with being alone; I thrived when I was alone.

  But this was something different. My isolation now wasn’t just from other people—it was from events. I’d been deeply involved in so much of what had happened sophomore year; for a while it had seemed like the whole drama of the witches’ arrival and everything that followed had swirled chiefly around me. And now it was all coming to a head without me. Other people had taken over; I’d passed the baton, and was sitting out the rest of the race.

  And as should be apparent by now, I’m not the type of girl who’s happy sitting out anything, much less waiting quietly for news of how major events are unfolding.

  As it happened, fate had a surprise for me in that department…as the person who finally showed up to fill me in wasn’t anyone I’d remotely expected. I suppose it’s an indication of how far gone I was about him that I recognized the shape of his shadow creeping along the wall of the corridor outside before he actually showed up in the door frame.

  “Donald!” I cried, leaping up from where I’d been slumped on a lounge chair, trying to call up one of Eddie’s video games from the Hopper.

  “Ah!” he said. “There you are. Just as promised.”

  I quickly brushed my hair back and smoothed out my shirt and skirt. I’d been taken entirely by surprise; if I’d known he was coming, I’d have spent at least an hour fixing myself up. I hoped my breath didn’t stink; I’d had nothing to eat all day but circus peanuts.

  He swaggered i
n, looking as ridiculous and as gorgeous as ever; his beard was even fuller and more unkempt than usual, and his eyes were blindingly bright—even in this soulless fluorescent illumination. “Now, you mustn’t blame Ntombi,” he said, coming close and giving me a hug. My knees actually buckled; and I was glad he gripped me so tightly, or I’d have crumpled right to the floor. “She didn’t want to tell me where to find you—or even that you’d come back from your home parallel.” He released me, but held me by the shoulders, looking at me with that tractor-beam gaze of his. “She tried to resist, she fought like a tigress…but no female can withstand the Mac Dúngail charm. Eventually she told me everythin’ I wanted to know.”

  I breathed in his scent—the cumin seeds and cloves aroma I’d so loved, and so longed for; though there was some new element to it—familiar, but elusive; I couldn’t quite pin it down…

  And I didn’t really have time to, because he leaned in and kissed me gently on the lips. My head disconnected from my body and shot around the room for a few seconds, like a Catherine wheel.

  “I won’t blame her,” I said, willing to agree to anything. “But she really shouldn’t have given me away.”

  He scoffed, then finally removed his hands from my shoulders—their heat dissipated instantly; I almost felt a chill—and lowered himself into the nearest chair. “I knew already,” he said. “As soon as my name—and hers—came up on that screen, I knew you were behind it.”

  “But you couldn’t,” I said, sitting back down as well—more primly this time. “For all you knew, I was back home.”

  “No, I knew you were back,” he said, just oozing self-satisfaction. “It was the way Ntombi always changed the subject, looking guilty or furtive whenever I mentioned your name. ‘I wonder how Fabia’s gettin’ on with her family now the holiday’s over?’ I’d say, and she’d suddenly find somethin’ very interesting stuck on the bottom of her shoe, or start babblin’ on about the weather. So it wasn’t hard to figure out there was a conspiracy.”