Vulture's Gate

by Kirsty Murray

  ‘See?’ said Festie. ‘Weird, eh?’

  ‘Bo probably programmed him to do that,’ said Callum.

  ‘Where is Bo?’

  Callum put his face in his hands. ‘They took her away.’

  ‘Her?’

  They sat by the fire roasting crickets and cicadas while Callum told Festie everything that had happened since the raid. When he got to the part where Bo was taken away from them, Festie shook his head in disbelief.

  ‘Everything goes to pieces when there are girls.’

  ‘How do you know? Have you ever met a girl?’

  ‘Roc said they were like poison, that they ruined everything. He said if boys could work together and not worry about girls, we could make a better world.’

  Callum swallowed hard, trying not to think about that moment when Roc had slipped from the raft and disappeared beneath the waves. ‘Roc said to tell you to grow the Festers again.’

  ‘Me?’ asked Festie, surprised.

  ‘Before he died, he said you have to make them strong.’

  Festie looked into the fire and poked at the embers. For a long while, he was silent. Finally, he said, ‘And you, Scab?’

  ‘I need to get into South Head. My dads might be there. They worked for the Colony and now that the Nekhbet Tower is gone . . .’

  ‘Gone? The Gaias must have done that. It should have been the Festers that took it down.’

  ‘The Gaias? Roc said something about them too. He said you should find the Sons of Gaia.’

  ‘I’m not going near that lot. Not even for Roc’s sake.’

  ‘Who are they?’

  ‘A pack of devils ready to slit your throat or sell your soul. Roc traded with them for explosives and weapons. We used to rule all the tunnels under the city until they came along. Roc didn’t want to believe it, but I reckon the Gaias slunk around our territory, sniped our boys, sold us rubbish, tricked us at every turn.’

  Callum recalled the eerie voices that had called out to him and Bo in the flooded subway.

  ‘But Roc trusted them.’

  ‘Roc was a great man. But he only saw one side of things.’

  ‘Do you think everything he said about the Colony was true?’

  ‘I know what I’ve seen,’ said Festie. ‘You’ve seen it too.’

  Callum shuddered at the memory of the ROT facility. ‘All I want is to find my fathers and then find Bo so we can be a family. We don’t need the Colony, we just need each other.’

  ‘You know,’ said Festie, ‘I’ve heard you can make kids with girls and you don’t even need a lab to do it.’

  Festie drew Bug onto his lap and fed the little boy a cicada.

  ‘That’s not why I want to find her,’ said Callum. ‘If we can find my dads too, we could all run away.’

  ‘You’ll never get into the Colony,’ said Festie. ‘They’ll think you’re a Fester and harmonise you before you can open your mouth.’

  ‘Then I’ll sneak in. Once I’m over the Wall, at least I’ll have a chance.’

  ‘The only ones that can help you break into South Head are the Gaias. If you’re cunning, cunning as a cockroach, you might get them to take you into the tunnels that they’ve been making under the Wall. It’s the only way. That or flying.’

  Festie reached inside his shirt and pulled out a long, crumpled piece of white fabric. Unfurled, the material revealed itself as a banner. In the centre was a painting of a black flower exactly like the one Callum had seen on the notepaper in his fathers’ apartment.

  ‘You take this. Tie it to a long stick and make sure you carry it with you. Then the Gaias will know that you’re there for trade. But watch your back – they’re mad as snakes.’

  ‘What about you, Festie? Don’t you want to use it? Aren’t you going to do what Roc wanted?’

  ‘No, I was never cut out to be a Disease. That was Roc’s dream. Not mine.’

  He tickled Bug under the chin. ‘I’ll take care of this one until he’s growed bigger. Then we’ll be a team and we’ll go find other little ’uns to take care of. Make ourselves our own little tribe. I want to make things grow, not kill them. That’s my dream. You, Scab, sounds like you’ve got a bigger dream to hunt.’

  Festie got to his feet and crossed to the humpy of bark and sticks. From inside he drew out Bo’s string bag and then he scooped up Mr Pinkwhistle and offered both the bag and the roboraptor to Callum.

  ‘Reckon you’ll be needing these,’ he said.

  30

  RIPENESS

  Bo threw the book she’d been reading over the side of her chair. Was this what ‘boredom’ felt like? At Tjukurpa Piti there had always been something to fix or something to hunt. The Zenana was full of entertainments, but after a few days they had lost their attraction and Bo couldn’t contain her restlessness.

  Across the harbour, somewhere on the North Shore, the ruins of an old building were on fire. Bo wondered if a Fester had started it. She wished she was there, sitting by a bonfire with the Festers. Her gaze drifted across the water to Mater Misericordiae and she felt a tiny shiver course through her. She touched her hips gently, checking to see if the tenderness in her groin had subsided.

  There was a flurry of excited calls from the hallway. ‘Bo, Bo, the husbands are coming tonight,’ called Serene. ‘Meera and Verity are going to do our nails. Come and make pretty.’

  Bo could see the girls gathering on the tiered steps of the adjoining lounge room, while Verity knelt before them, carefully decorating each of their tiny toenails with flowers and hearts.

  Li-Li came to the door of the viewing room and beckoned Bo.

  ‘Why don’t you come and join us? Why do you always have to make yourself separate?’

  ‘I’m not making myself separate. I’m thinking.’

  ‘Well, stop it. It will only get us into trouble.’

  Bo sighed. ‘It won’t get you into trouble, Li-Li.’

  ‘Wake up, Bo. This could be our last season here. We should make the most of it. They’re going to take both of us away soon, back to Mater Misericordiae. As soon as we’re ripe enough.’

  ‘You said you never wanted to go there again. And what do you mean, ripe enough? You never explain anything. ’

  Li-Li looked at the floor. ‘That’s because I never mean anything,’ she said. She turned away and started to climb up the stairs, back to the circular mezzanine.

  Bo ran after her and grabbed her arm. ‘Li-Li, what is going to happen to us? And if you don’t know, how can you live like this? Not knowing and having them in control of everything you do.’

  Li-Li grew limp. She stretched her arms around Bo’s neck and clung to her, resting her head on Bo’s shoulder. ‘I can’t tell you,’ she whispered into Bo’s ear. ‘Not here, not now.’

  Late in the day, as dusk settled over the gardens, the girls assembled in the main lounge. Bo ran her hand down her thigh, feeling the smooth, silky fabric against her skin. In honour of the visit of the husbands, all the girls were dressed in new outfits. Each girl wore a different colour. Bo’s outfit was turquoise with a fine silver thread running through the weave. Li-Li’s was magenta. Serene wore blue and Lolly was in baby pink. Gathered together, they looked like a flock of strangely beautiful birds.

  When the husbands arrived, Bo was a little disappointed. They were seven ordinary men, older than most of the drones she had seen but younger than Mollie Green. Bo wondered whose husbands they were meant to be, as they brought no women with them. Nor did any of them seem very interested in the girls. They talked among themselves as Verity and Meera offered them trays of food and drink. Every now and then they would ask a girl to join them. The girl would stand patiently beside the man who had asked for her company until Verity told her to go back to her seat.

  Li-Li took Bo by the hand. ‘I’d better introduce you,’ she said, gloomily. ‘Verity said I had to.’

  She led Bo over to a small group of men who stood near the entrance to the terrace.

  ‘This is Bo,�
�� said Li-Li. ‘She’s new. A foundling. She was in the wilderness but now she’s with us. She’s very clever. Cleverer than me but not too clever.’

  Bo laughed and Li-Li elbowed her sharply.

  One of the men put his finger on Li-Li’s cheek. ‘There’s no one in the Zenana as clever as you, Li-Li. Not even Verity or Meera. Some would say you’re too clever for your own good.’

  Li-Li suppressed a little snort of annoyance. ‘This is Hackett,’ she said.

  Hackett was taller than the other men. His black hair was smoothly combed and slicked back. He leaned down to talk to Bo, his mouth close to her ear, and his breath was warm and minty against her cheek.

  ‘Welcome to the Zenana, Bo. I want you to know that if there is anything I can help you with, you only have to ask. Perhaps I could come a little earlier next week and we could walk around the garden together. Get to know each other. I want you to be happy here.’

  Bo liked the way he spoke to her, as if she was his equal. She looked up into his broad, handsome face and smiled.

  ‘I’d like that,’ said Bo. ‘It’s very dull here, being cooped up all the time.’ Then she turned to see Li-Li grown pale, her eyes glittering.

  ‘Are you all right?’ she asked, putting one arm around Li-Li. ‘You look faint.’

  ‘I don’t feel very well. Will you help me upstairs?’

  In their bedroom, Li-Li drew the curtains and pushed a chair against the door. Then she climbed into bed and put her arms out for Bo to join her. When they were nestled snugly under the blankets, Li-Li cupped her hands around Bo’s ear and began to whisper in a low, raspy voice. Bo realised she was crying.

  ‘Promise me you won’t go anywhere with Hackett?’

  ‘Why?’

  ‘Because he’ll hurt you, the way he hurt me. I had to go to Mater Misericordiae because of him. He made me bleed. Meera thought I had my period but it was Hackett’s fault. I wasn’t ready but he tried to . . . to make me ripe.’

  ‘You’re doing it again. Saying things that make no sense. What do you mean?’

  Li-Li took a deep breath and spoke softly. ‘When we get older, we start to bleed. It happens to all girls. We bleed every month. That’s when we’re ripe. That’s when they’ll take us back to the island. We’ll have to stay there while they harvest us.’

  ‘Harvest?’

  ‘Alethea told me that girls have over four hundred thousand eggs inside them. Eggs to make babies. Once a month, we bleed, which is a sign that the eggs haven’t made a baby. They need seeds from boys to hatch properly. In our lives, only four or five hundred of our eggs will ripen properly. At Mater Misericordiae they give you medicine to help make lots of eggs come out every month, not just one. And they keep them safe in freezers to make babies with later. Some girls get sick from the drugs and then they never come back to the Colony. And most girls, not pretty girls, they stay and incubate babies. Nearly all of the babies are grown in glass jars but special babies are grown inside the incubator girls for a while. Those precious ones, the girl babies and chosen boys, are put inside the incubator girls for a few months. Then they’re cut out again and put in glass boxes until they’re properly cooked. And then the brewers put another baby in you. So you cook tiny babies and are cut open over and over again. It’s horrible.’

  Bo felt dizzy.

  ‘Why don’t they leave the babies in the girls until they’re ready to be born? Boys and girls.’

  ‘Because they’re running out of time. They need more girls and more babies. That’s why they feed us so well and take care of us. They want us to be healthy breeders.’

  ‘I don’t understand. Why don’t they just make all the babies inside glass boxes? Why do the girls have to incubate them?’

  ‘Only the boy babies grow properly in glass. Things always go wrong with the girl babies if they’re not inside a mother. And even the boy babies in the glass boxes, sometimes they don’t work either.’

  ‘Is that where the Festers came from? The glass boxes instead of the mothers?’

  ‘I think they use animal eggs to make some boys. Or maybe the Festers were ones that didn’t cook properly.’

  ‘They looked pretty cooked to me.’

  ‘I don’t know!’ said Li-Li, her whispering growing louder. ‘I don’t know everything. All I do know is that the mothers can only incubate a few babies each year so they keep you on the island forever. Incubating and incubating forever and ever until you die. That’s why I went with Hackett. I thought he would want me to be his wife. The pretty girls are chosen by the husbands. They don’t have to die. I let Hackett hurt me because I thought he’d help me get back from the island when I grew up. Once they have all your eggs, you can come back to the Colony and get married, if one of the men wants you. I don’t want to be like my mother and die on the island.’

  ‘Your mother?’

  Li-Li rolled away from Bo and covered her face with her hands.

  ‘They lied to her. They told her the island was a safe place for women. We sailed into the harbour together. She thought we would find a home here, but she was wrong. They brought me to the Zenana and took her away. When I went to Mater Misericordiae I thought I’d find her, but I found the truth. The horrible truth.’

  ‘We have to get out of here, Li-Li,’ said Bo, sitting up.

  Li-Li pulled her back down under the covers. ‘Shhh,’ she said, stroking Bo’s face and pulling the coverlet up over their heads. ‘They can hear everything we say, unless we’re careful. Bad girls disappear, the way my mother did. That’s why we have to be nice to everyone, Bo. Girls have to be nice and try to get a husband. That’s why the husbands come every week. They watch you and wait and if you’re nice enough, they’ll help you later.’

  It was hot and fetid beneath the covers but Bo couldn’t push them back until she had all the answers.

  ‘Like Hackett? Do you think he’ll help you?’

  ‘Maybe I wasn’t nice enough,’ said Li-Li despondently. ‘Maybe if I’m nice to one of the other husbands, they’ll want me.’

  ‘I’m not “nice” at all, Li-Li. I don’t want to marry someone like Hackett and I don’t want to be one of their incubators either.’

  ‘Neither do I!’ sobbed Li-Li. ‘But better to marry than to incubate forever. That’s what Meera says.’ She wept hot, angry tears that spilled onto Bo’s shoulder.

  ‘But Meera and Verity. Why do they get to look after all the girls and not die on Mater Misericordiae?’

  ‘They’re boygies – you know, shemales. They aren’t good for breeding but they make the Colony work.’

  ‘I don’t know what that means. But I do know one thing. You won’t go back to Mater Misericordiae. Neither will I. We’re going away,’ said Bo firmly.

  Li-Li choked back her tears, almost as if she was laughing.

  ‘Oh Bo, don’t you understand! Once you turn into a woman, you won’t be able to live with the Festers. You could only do that because they didn’t know what you were. There is nowhere to go, nowhere safe for women.’

  Bo was quiet. ‘Even if the world is dangerous, I can make my way in it. I don’t need the Zenana. I can make my own home. I had one before, I will have one again.’

  ‘My mother had a home too, an island where I was born, far to the north.’

  ‘Was that the magic faraway place you told Serene about in your story?’

  ‘I made some of that up. I can’t remember very much about it, I was so small. I don’t even know what it was called. It feels like a dream from an imaginary life. But I know there were other women there, and I think we were happy. Then one day, when we were out at sea, there was a storm. The island disappeared. We were swept away and drifted for weeks until we sailed through the Heads, into Vulture’s Gate.’

  Bo pulled Li-Li’s head onto her shoulder and stroked her silky hair. ‘Are you sure the island was destroyed in the storm? I mean, what if it’s still there? A place where you can grow into being a woman and not be afraid? Where there are so many women
that it’s normal?’

  This time Li-Li was silent for a long time. ‘How would we get there?’

  ‘Somehow,’ said Bo, ‘we’ll find a way.’

  31

  SONS OF GAIA

  It took Callum three days to reach the middle harbour where the Gaias had their base. Festie had explained that the Sons of Gaia lived in a tower of dead wood, an aerie built on the side of a precipice. In places, the bush was so thick that Callum had to carry Mr Pinkwhistle in the string bag, for fear he would lose him in the thorny blackberries. Without co-ordinates, he could only rely on instinct.

  He spotted the aerie long before he reached it. Remembering Festie’s instructions, he unfurled the white banner with the black flower and secured it to a stick. Then he crawled along rocky waterways and scrambled through dense undergrowth until the banner looked limp and ragged and his knees were bloody with gashes. As he drew closer, he saw guards scattered through the bush. A hundred Sons of Gaia watched silently from beneath wide-brimmed bark hats as Callum made his way to the base of the aerie. No one spoke, no one questioned his mission.

  A tall, skinny man in khaki shorts stepped forward as Callum approached. His legs were like the knotty roots of an old tree and his eyes were sunken in his leathery face.

  ‘You are not the leader of the Festers. State your name and business.’

  ‘Callum Caravaggio. Roc is dead. I am the new leader of the Festers.’

  Callum thought his voice sounded odd, too childlike. They’d never believe him. Festie had made him recite the announcement but when it came out of his mouth here, at the base of the Gaias’ stronghold, it sounded tinny and unbelievable.

  The man gestured for Callum to climb the ladder. Callum followed him up a winding flight of stairs. At the top was a tiny room looking out over the harbour. It was full of bird droppings and pigeons roosted on the windowsills. As Callum stepped over the threshold, he thought of Bo, of how terrifying this would be for her. Suddenly, he realised he too was afraid.