The Lostkind

by Matt Stephens

  "And what was Vandark's role before he promoted himself to a Rebel leader?"

  "He was the guy in your job." Keeper nodded. "So if something happened to you, who would be in line for your job right now?"

  ~oo00oo~

  Dorcan looked up and found Keeper staring at him. "Ma'am?"

  Keeper glanced past him, and Dorcan followed her gaze. Yasi was behind him. As he turned to face her, she decked him.

  TEN: "I Don't Want To Lose You."

  Dorcan woke up slowly, his ears ringing. He was seeing six of everything, which didn't bother him too much since there wasn't a whole lot to see at the time. After a while, his eyes focused on the chain. There was a heavy linked chain bolted to the floor, and it was shackled to his ankle. Realization struck him and he looked up quickly, at the high smooth walls of the room he found himself in. It was almost pitch black, but every Shinobi knew how to see in the dark, and he could make out the heavy oak door above. He was locked in the Oubliette. "HEY! Lemme out of here!"

  The hatch opened, and Yasi stared down at him. "What took you so long Dorcan?" She demanded. "I told you to watch our two guests. I told you to protect them. I told you that they were a target, and we couldn't be sure of all our own. I trusted you with this. We were worried somebody might come up behind them and put a knife in their backs… instead, they're in the middle of an open attack on the entire Underside. Why'd it take you so long to get there?"

  Dorcan looked up blearily. "You're not seriously telling me…" He gaped. "You don't honestly think that I'm the one who…"

  Yasi started counting on her fingers. "You were the one that told me the nets had been winched out of the way, you were the one that-"

  "The one that saved Vincent and Connie when they were too frozen to save themselves!" Dorcan shot back.

  "Yes, but we know that Vincent wasn't the target of the attack. It was a diversion. So I want to know where you were, for those three minutes while the Riverfolk were scaring the hell out of everyone when you should have been hiding in Vincent's shadow."

  "They were taking the elevators up to their chamber when you left, then Connie changed her mind and jumped to one going the other way." Dorcan called up. "I was supposed to watch them both, and they split up! What was I supposed to do?"

  "Exactly what you did, but I'm wondering if you weren't doing something else at the time too." Yasi was merciless.

  "Yasi, I've been your second for years! You've known me my whole life." Dorcan snapped.

  "I remember." Yasi nodded. "And I also remember that you didn't put your name forward to be my second until three years ago. Within a few months of this whole thing starting in fact." She glared at him. "What was your real reason for suddenly being at my back the whole time?"

  Dorcan's mouth shut with an audible sound as his teeth slammed together sharply.

  Yasi nodded. "Okay. Talk to you again soon Dorcan."

  And the hatch swung shut with a resonant bang.

  ~oo00oo~

  "He might have a far more innocent ulterior motive for wanting to get close to you y'know." Keeper challenged.

  "I know." Yasi admitted. "It's threatened to be a problem for a while, but I can't trust anything else he says right now."

  "He likes you, that's hardly a threatening problem." Keeper caught her arm. "Yasi, my dear... do we need to have a conversation?"

  Yasi tensed. "About?"

  "It's no secret that Dorcan was a little sweet on you. Good looking man, someone you trust, you're in a high-placed job, don't have a lot of confidants... you have a tough day, you decide to talk to someone, you realize he's the only one around..."

  "I haven't told Dorcan anything he couldn't have got from his post."

  "Nothing?"

  "No."

  Keeper just looked at her, until even Yasi wilted a little under the fierce glare. "What?"

  "We talked about this, about you keeping everything close to your chest. We talked about you trusting your people, and showing them that you trust them... This was a big night, for good and bad reasons..."

  Yasi wondered sometimes how much Keeper knew. For sure she knew the answer to every question she asked. "Spit it out Keep."

  "I know you've already confided in someone, and it wasn't me or Archivist..."

  Yasi wanted to look at her feet for some reason, but she spoke the truth. "It was Vincent."

  "You want to know how many ways that's a bad idea? Getting chummy with him?"

  "He's not the bad guy Keeper."

  "He's not exactly one of the good guys either. At least not one of our good guys." Keeper shot back.

  "He's proven himself to be a friend to us, and trustworthy with our secrets. As of now, we can't say that about our good guys, let alone anyone from the surface, or any other Underside out there."

  "He froze during the fight, he froze at the jump during your little initiation test two years ago."

  "How the hell do you know about that?"

  "I know everything." Keeper softened, at least for her. "Yasi, this is me you're talking to. Why Vincent?"

  Yasi sighed hard. "There's nothing going on between me and him."

  "No there isn't. If there were, I would have put a swift brutal stop to it long before now, but you've never been this open with anyone before. Why him?"

  Yasi struggled with the question for a second. "I... I never really thought about it before, but maybe... maybe, because he isn't one of us. Maybe because with everyone here, all the Lostkind... I can't be relaxed when I'm the Captain of the Shinobi. Vincent didn't have a clue what a Shinobi was when we became friends."

  "And the fact that he can't be relied on?"

  "If I need a warrior, I look in a mirror." Yasi scorned. "Have I ever needed someone to look after me?"

  "Constantly, but not like that." Keeper shot back and rose to her feet. "So. Where the hell did that Invasion come from? You and Watcher were so convinced that someone had cleaned out the River and lower levels. You said that the Riverfolk weren't there any more."

  "We thought that because we found a bunch of Riverfolk bodies." Yasi nodded. "And at the same time; there was dead silence from the River. So I figured something had happened to them. They can't go the surface and survive the pressure change; so if someone was kicking them out; the only place they could go is here."

  "So. We know they're still down there. We know they had casualties long before they came up. What's option three?"

  "That someone has taken over, down below our feet." Yasi nodded tightly. "But we can handle the River with a few more Razor Nets. It's a blow; but one we can handle."

  ~oo00oo~

  With some of the ropelines severed, and neither Connie or Vincent able to scale the walls as easily as the Lostkind, the most convenient private place to talk was at the stall the two of them had taken refuge in.

  "You really think Dorcan is working for Vandark?" Vincent asked. "I mean, he did sort of save my life today."

  "Yeah, but we know they weren't after you." Yasi responded. "I've known him for years, trained him myself. I can't believe he's a traitor either, I just can't see any more likely suspects out there."

  "We'll find out eventually." Keeper said coldly. "I told him to keep an eye on you and Connie. But it took him a few minutes to get to the Seven Steps when the Riverfolk attacked. Where was he for those few minutes?"

  "Owen's escape could have been anyone. The fight was far from there. Anyone could have got the door open."

  "Doesn't matter." Yasi said. "We won."

  "Won?" Vincent repeated. "We lost Owen, we lost two Shinobi… where did we go right?"

  Connie looked cannily at Yasi. "You found something didn't you? In Owen's locker. Something that changes the whole game."

  "No." Yasi said. "Something that wins it."

  ~oo00oo~

  "We've got the information." Yasi waved the package victoriously. "All the secret ways in and out that he spent two years finding, we got all of it. I don't know how much Owen had commit
ted to memory, but I highly doubt he would have written so much of it down if it was enough to be worried about."

  "Owen must be freaking out, trying to decide what to tell Vandark." Keeper cackled. "I'm told he doesn't have a ‘shoot the messenger' policy, but do you really wanna find out?"

  "Does this mean we did it?" Vincent asked, delighted. "I mean… Owen will never get away with that trick twice, surely…"

  "He tries, you know where to find me." Yasi chuckled. "We did it. The real question is what to do next."

  Everyone turned that over in their heads for a moment.

  "Yasi." Archivist interrupted powerfully. "Take the civilians home."

  Vincent and Connie reacted with surprise. "Now?"

  "The danger is over." Archivist reasoned. "You two have lives of your own that you're on the verge of screwing up, and Owen is still at large. If he tries to get back into the City Planners Office to recreate the information we lost, Vincent can find out. If not, Vandark will almost certainly kill him for blowing the whole invasion. The crisis is over. Go home, declare victory, get some sleep."

  "You've done us a fantastic turn today, and like as not saved this place." Keeper put in. "We got long memories down here, and it's probably a good idea that you take some time to sort yourselves out before you come back."

  "Come back?" Vincent and Connie both repeated in unison; though Vincent sounded a good deal more hopeful.

  "Hate to say it, but this whole thing could have been over a year ago if we'd sought Vincent's help when we had the chance. I was the vote against bringing him back in on it while Owen was there watching." Keeper conceded. "I wish I liked him more, but it's probably a good idea to have someone in the City Planner's Office."

  Yasi met Keeper's gaze. Was that true, or was the old woman giving Yasi a legitimate reason to keep Vincent around? Either way, Yasi gave away nothing.

  "And as for you Connie, well... we've wanted to recruit you for three years." Keeper continued.

  "You have?" Connie and Vincent said in shared disbelief.

  Archivist nodded. "I suggested it. Tecca and Wotcha thought highly of you."

  "They were watching me at the Clinic?" Connie stared at him. "What did they say?"

  "They said that you had the gift of empathy, and that you had love for strangers. That's a rare gift. Tecca said that you always remember the kid's names, and that you sat and read with the while their parents were with the doctor."

  Connie looked down. "Family member with a fatal disease needs to go to the free clinic... Doesn't seem right to leave their kids alone."

  Vincent watched the Triumvirate subtly. They liked that answer. "So, now that we know; now that we've been here, is the offer still open?"

  Yasi looked at Archivist; Archivist looked at Keeper; Keeper glared at Yasi. "Take them home."

  Yasi was on her feet instantly. "Yes'm." She led the way out, Connie and Vincent following.

  "I thought you didn't like him." Archivist said to Keeper as soon as the door closed.

  "I don't." Keeper said immediately. "But... Yasi likes him."

  Archivist smiled broadly. "You old softie."

  "Don't spread that around." Keeper sighed. "My little attempts to push her and Dorcan closer together seem to have backfired spectacularly, and against all natural laws she seems to trust the yutz from Upside... and he did help us out. Twice now."

  Archivist was still smiling broadly at her.

  "Stop that." She growled. "I'm not being nice to him, I'm just looking out for Yasi. I don't want her moping."

  "Was she moping two years ago?"

  "Not as such, no." Keeper admitted. "Things might be different now, and I figured – Stop smiling at me! – I figured handling the people who work here is my job."

  "Yes, of course it is." He made no effort to hide his amusement. "But of course; you have to tell Yasi that you're against it."

  "If I told her anything else she'd push back. This way it's her idea."

  "Has it occurred to you that we could all save ourselves a lot of time and effort if we just said what we thought?"

  "Ahh, but then we wouldn't really be Lostkind, would we?"

  "You're a good girl." He told her primly.

  "Well, you didn't marry me for my money." Keeper demurred. "And stop smiling at me!"

  ~oo00oo~

  "Put your paws down Vincent." Connie said lightly as they walked. "You've been drooling like you smell a roast dinner ever since Keeper said you might get to come back."

  "Oh come on. You don't want to see more?" Vincent waved a hand around at the market and its stalls. Life was returning to normal in the Underside after the attack.

  "I've seen plenty." Connie retorted. "I saw kids in Halloween costumes killing people. I saw ninjas jumping across rooftops and coming into our home with swords..."

  "You've seen the worst day we've had in decades." Yasi retorted. "This isn't our life. What you saw before the attack, down on the Seven Steps? Lots of trading, music, traffic... That was our real life. We laugh, we cry, we hurt, we love... Just like anyone else does. We're not so different, we just live a few feet out of sight."

  "I know, I know..." Connie admitted. "But, I got a job, and I got a life, and I like where I am with both of them. I don't want to get a second job that involves sneaking through sewer grates when nobody's looking."

  Yasi nodded. "Sure. Most people wouldn't, which is why we almost never ask. Think about that for a second. You got an offered something that several million people would never know was possible."

  "Yeah, but... I didn't get an offer. I got drafted the second the Riverfolk broke into our apartment." Connie retorted. "And maybe what happened today means they can't hurt us any more, but you know that's not really the end of it. They spent three years on this plan, Vandark whoever he is, is patient as hell."

  The three of them paused to let a team of Borrowers through to the stairs with their heavy loads; waiting beside a stall full of ‘borrowed' clothing. Yasi sent a nod to the stall-merchant; when something occurred to Vincent suddenly. "Yasi, what time is it up above?"

  Yasi drew her fob watch, and checked the extra two hands. "Early morning. Sunday. It'll be just after dawn when we get there…"

  "Our anniversary was Friday night…" Connie looked to Vincent. "My god. We might just get away with this."

  Vincent looked down at himself. They both had filthy torn clothing, and Vincent's bruises were becoming more visible as they healed. "Assuming we don't get caught climbing out of the subway looking like we've been mugged six times."

  "Mm. There's a thought." Yasi grabbed clothing off the stall's pile and pushed them at Connie and Vincent. Cloaks; sweaters; casual clothes that covered up the damage. "Here. Take these and cover up."

  "Wear them well, go in beauty." The stall-keeper bowed slightly to Yasi. "Shinobi, may I ask... is it over?"

  Yasi smiled at him. "Coates, the matter is dealt with. We'll have more to tell you soon; but for now, the danger is over." She sent a smile to Vincent.

  Connie shook out the bundle Yasi had pushed at her. It was a long leather coat, that went down as far as her knees. It covered up her clothes neatly, and she tied it at the waist. Vincent had something similar. It looked a lot like the one Yasi had worn. "Where'd you boost so many of these from?"

  "Borrowed." Yasi corrected pointedly. "And... from a place that won't miss them. Don't ask."

  Connie adjusted the coat. It was hardly the strangest thing to adjust to this week.

  Yasi glanced around. "I'll be right back."

  Vincent turned to ask her why, but she had already vanished. "Where's she going, you think?"

  "Probably the Chapel." Connie guessed. "Check on her wounded before she leaves the place."

  Vincent nodded. "Like you do; checking on the out-patients before you end your shift at the Clinic. You two actually have a lot in common."

  "We do not." Connie retorted.

  ~oo00oo~

  "How's Pockets?" Archivist asked
warmly as Yasi stalked out of the Chapel.

  Yasi met his eyes with a hollow gaze, and shook her head slowly.

  Archivist sighed. "We were preparing a memorial for Wotcha. Did you want to make it a ceremony for all of them, or..."

  The Captain shook her head. "The Shinobi will hold our own Memorial for all our guys."

  Archivist nodded. "Listen, this may not be the time, but... Don't be too harsh on Connie."

  "Why the hell shouldn't I be? She's so selfish." Yasi shot back. "She's looking at us like she's expecting us to kill her and eat her, and never mind that our whole world is at stake here."

  "She's not selfish, she's scared." Archivist returned. "You know Rule Number One."

  "Be Invisible." Yasi recited promptly.

  "Why do you think that is?" Archivist asked her, suddenly a teacher with his favorite student. "The Upsiders don't have a clue we're down here. Why do you think we want it to stay that way?"

  "Well." Yasi blinked. "I guess because we're scared of them coming down here."

  "No sweetie, it's because they'd be scared of us. The one thing that terrifies all manner of man, is that which they do not understand. So we stay hidden. They don't notice, they don't know, and we don't care. If they suddenly knew we were under their feet, they would act out of fear, and drive us out of the hidden places into the light. The unknown becomes a target. So we stay hidden."

  "Vincent never had that problem." Yasi protested.

  "Well, let's compare shall we?" Archivist challenged. "Vincent was introduced. A pretty girl invited him in and showed him her world; and then we sat him down, served him tea, and asked him for help. Now Connie. Her boyfriend vanished, she found evidence that he'd been in a violent altercation, then someone she thought was a friend attacked her, and her house was invaded by two small armies that proceeded to go to war in her living room. The good guys chloroformed her and dragged her to a secret underground city, and she wakes up to find she's caught up in a grand conspiracy to-"

  "I get the point." Yasi interrupted.

  "She's trying desperately to protect the things she loves, from a position of no power or control at all, from things she can't begin to guess at." Archivist finished. "And the one she wants to protect the most, is failing to perceive a problem at all." He pointed a warning finger at her casually. "And by the way, that protective streak extends to the kids at her clinic, the homeless at the Kitchen... That's the whole reason why we thought about recruiting her, and the whole reason Wotcha pointed her in Vincent's direction."