“He whispered he thought the key was probably not in my bag, then mentioned it was most likely hiding in one of Keron’s parts, then I dropped him.” Keron looked up briefly- she hadn’t told him that part.
“That’s my girl.” Nelson’s spine straightened, and he hooked his thumbs in his pockets.
“Keron took the other two and we ran." She looked at Keron, bent over working. How could such a strong, capable man worry about being unworthy or unequal? It was silly. He had proven himself as a man among men in the fights, over and again, but it wasn’t enough for him.
“You helped.” Keron pushed on his wood planer.
“Yes, well, you found the perfect hiding place.”
Nelson looked back and forth between the two of them and frowned. He put his arm around Fale. “I’m glad you’re safe. Why bring up the key, though? I thought it was strange, you having a sudden interest in it. It’s come down your family line in secret, I know; but what does it have to do with your visions? What does it have to do with this, ah-- young man?" He glanced at Keron. “No offense to you.”
“None taken, sir.”
“We think the key is what they are after. And someone knowing my visions has me on my toes. It’s been helpful having Keron around.”
“I’ll just bet it has,” Nelson said sourly. He lowered his voice, “I can take better care of you. I’m stable, wiser and have more resources. Fale, come home.”
“I have my own home. What’s gotten into you?” she whispered.
“Nothing.” He put his hand on her back and his head close to her ear. “You didn’t tell me he was one of… them. I don’t want to see anyone take advantage of you. A needy young woman on her own…”
“You just hang on.” She pointed at his chest. “I can take care of myself. You’ve seen to that. Now let me do it.”
Keron appeared to smother a cough-chuckle as he checked the smoothness of his work with a sand block.
“Fine. I have the books you wanted over here.” Nelson pulled a small stack of ancient looking volumes with faded jewel colored covers, from another desk drawer.
“I’ll be careful with them,” Fale promised, gently packing them in her shoulder bag. It was the same bag she used every day, stuffed with everything from exercise clothes and weapons to school books and lip gloss. It was a military green canvas bag patched with blue denim, coral, and crimson blocks and a lemon pinstripe. The bag was ugly and worn, but comfortable. Nelson had acquired the bag for her years ago when a street vendor traveled to Alloy City from the Textile Mills. He bought it because it reminded him of someone he had known long ago, he said. It felt like home to Fale.
“Take all the time you need,” Nelson said. “What can I do?”
“Can you find out any more info on my dad?” she asked hopefully. “He had to know more. Maybe those people he knew, maybe they have clues.”
“Fale. Those people could be the reason your father is dead.” Nelson’s brow furrowed.
“But maybe they aren’t, maybe they were friends,” she said. Either way, they had to know something.
“I can’t intentionally put you in danger.” He pushed little circles into his temples with the pads of his fingers.
“Do you think I’m not in danger already?” she scoffed.
Keron looked up. “She can fight, and so can I.”
“You stay out of this,” Nelson snapped.
“I’m part of this now,” Keron protested. “If they want to take me apart for this key… and if she needs me.”
“That’s it. She doesn’t need you. And I know what you’re after. She’s only 18, for goodness’ sake. What are you- 30? She doesn’t need you lurking around her apartment.” Nelson gestured toward Fale as she slowly ran her palm down her face. It was obvious Nelson couldn’t think of a good reason why Keron would want to hang around her, except to take advantage of her. Somehow, it was more insulting than it should have been.
“I’m 24, and she’s growing up, sir. Fale makes her own choices. You’ll have to get used to it.” Keron slammed the finished drawer shut, his face a burning ember.
“Get out.” Nelson pointed toward the door.
“Gladly." Keron picked up his tools and walked out.
“Keron-” Fale started, turning toward the door.
“Let him go,” Nelson said, putting his arm in the doorway.
“Go to the library. I’ll meet you there at noon for lunch,” he shouted from the hallway without turning back.
Fale stood with her mouth open. She watched Keron’s retreat and turned back to Nelson with a glare. Did that really just happen?
“You guys are acting like mongrels fighting over meat. I am a person, you know.”
Nelson sighed. “I’m sorry, Fale. I think you’re too young to be involved with him… and he’s a bondsman. No one will ever be good enough for you in my eyes. But you can certainly do better than that- uh, him.” He ran a hand through his hair and sighed again. “I’m afraid to lose you, in any way. This nonsense has me worried.”
She relaxed and hugged him around his middle. “You won’t lose me. Ever. We’re connected. No one else would have taken me home from the gutter, cleaned me up, given me a home and loved me all these years.”
“You know I do.”
“I love you, too, but next time be nicer to my friends." She laughed as he took a deep breath, like an orator about to make a long rebuttal. She raised an eyebrow, then he laughed too, kissing the top of her head.
Fale said goodbye and walked from Barton Hall to the University campus. It was springtime in mid-April and the sun was warm on her shoulders. The breeze was soft and balmy, and it gently swayed the potted plant life. Alloy City was not naturally a place filled with greenery, but the University made a point to have potted plants and flowers at even intervals about campus. Today it loaned a fresh feeling to the manmade metal city.
Fale came to the huge set of library steps and looked up into the dark recessed entrance of the massive building. Some said this used to be an adjunct to the castle grounds hundreds of years ago. The castle foundation still lay behind the University in an outline of rubble, like the castle had been lifted completely from its base. By this age, all the history had been wiped out. She wouldn’t find any information on the old legends in the library. All history and legend that didn’t agree with the current state of government had been burned or hidden in the underground. She was lucky Nelson had found her three books on the right subject. He must have known one day she would want to know more about the key. She smiled to herself. Of course he did.
Once inside, she quickly found a section on Industrial Engineering where she thought no one would bother her and followed the long row back until she came to the outer wall of the library. Deep in the soulless stacks, there were fewer lights to conserve energy, and glowing orbs could be borrowed from the front desk if needed in the evening. But during the day, natural light poured in from the stained-glass cathedral windows, and the light was adequate. She quickly discovered a table and green leather chair. Fale checked and re-checked her surroundings before taking out her books, notecards, and pen.
She spent the next few hours reading until she found what she needed and made condensed notes. One color of notecards for each source. They were all very different. One was a partial story, one a political agenda, and one a fairy tale. Finally, it was noon, and Fale packed up her things. She tapped down the library steps to a smiling Keron. He was kinder than she remembered him being, and his smile sent her stomach fluttering like cotton on the breeze. Thinking of falling for him again made her want to frown, but she pulled her lips into a slight grin and waved.
“Find anything?” he asked.
“Lots,” she answered. “Do you want to see?”
“Let’s eat first.”
“Sure, I’ll follow you.”
The nearest deli had scuffed tile floors in black and white squares. The sandwich counter was high, and surrounded with padded barstools in the strangest sha
de of purple, almost red. Keron led Fale to a table in the back, away from the giant window allowing passersby to notice them. The plaster on the walls had begun to chip away a few years ago, revealing a mural of shining colors. A castle with a red flag. The owner allowed people to pull pieces of it down one day to see the painting. Control officers swarmed the room, pulling patrons out and pushing the shopkeeper. No one understood what happened that day. The paper said nothing, but the colors were replastered and painted black, then the deli changed hands.
Fale stared out the window at nothing, her eyes glazed over.
“Having a vision?” Keron looked concerned.
“Just thinking,” she said. “You need to see what I found, and then I’m going to Lisle’s.”
“Think I can go back to my apartment? I need new clothes and a toothbrush. Actually, do you think anybody would expect you to stay at my place tonight?” Keron finished chewing his sandwich and licked his finger and thumb. “I still don’t like the knocking from this morning.”
“I don’t see why you couldn’t get your things, nobody’s called you by name. They only seem to know you from being around me. Maybe I should leave you alone? I’m sure I’ll be fine.”
“Fale, strangers are calling your name and trying to attack you. I’d feel more comfortable if you stuck with me. Just for the night.”
“Fine. Let’s swing by to get my stuff and I’ll show you my notes while we’re there.” Fale shoved down her nervous excitement and dusted crumbs off her lap with a crinkled paper napkin.
Fale and Keron swiped their wristbands to pay for their food and report their location to the Control Agency. Fale had learned early in her lessons, each city in Algea had its own system for enforcing its regulations and knowing the whereabouts of its people. She didn’t even consider going to Control about her followers though, because everyone knew it was better to stay off their radar. Life could be made miserable by the intrusion of the Control Agency; they decided what society believed and what history was accepted. An entire future could be ruined by saying the wrong word to the wrong person; jobs were lost, personal belongings confiscated, children were taken, apprenticeships begun where Control needed people most… usually in the Industrial Plant. Fale was too comfortable in her schooling at the University and work at the TacTrac to get Control involved. She didn’t want to lose what she had, including her freedom, by involving the Agency’s focus on her life. She believed she should solve this mystery on her own, no matter the cost. The shop bell’s metallic buzzing as they left sent shivers of foreboding along Fale’s skin like the screech of the injury whistle at the Industrial Plant.
To take her mind off of her worries, Fale talked to Keron about childhood things on the way to her apartment. Keron had taken very rudimentary lessons due to his apprenticeship and Fale had mostly been tutored in the TacTrac, with the exception of social learning classes, until she reached the University. They talked about favorite past-times and found common ground in a love of fiction. Fale explained her enjoyment of card games and Keron listened intently.
“Ever have a pet?” he asked.
“I had a spiny fish,” she answered wistfully, “It had the prettiest scales. They were all iridescent, throwing out shades of blue and green and purple, with spiked fins. I named it Noxilus.”
“Noxilus?”
“I made it up.” She shrugged and looked up at him with a shy smile. “How about you? Can fantocci keep pets?”
“I could, I suppose, now. Not when I was a kid, though. I did have a worm in a box named Charley, but he didn’t live very long. My mentor wasn’t pleased with a box of dirt under my cot. Charley went out with the garbage after a week." Keron flashed an adorable sideways grin.
It hit Fale how differently they had grown up even under the same set of unfortunate circumstances. Being an orphan, she could have been a domestic apprentice and be working her fingers down to bony nubbins cleaning people’s homes right now, belonging to the domestic guild for the rest of her life. She had to try hard not to feel pity for him, because she knew he wouldn’t want her to. It made her heart feel a strange ache, though, something she couldn’t name.
“Favorite food?” she asked.
“Wings and ale,” they said together and laughed.
The smiles died on their faces as they approached Fale’s apartment and the door was ajar.
“Did we leave it open?” she asked hopefully.
“No.” He stepped in front of her. Keron pushed the door open with his stainless-valezsan arm and scanned the room. Cushions were ripped off the couch and sliced open, tables upended and drawers pulled out, but everything was empty. The scene was identical in the kitchen, bath, and bedroom. Everything stood open and exposed; whoever had been there had definitely been looking for something. Fale’s luggage had been rifled through and someone had dumped out her belongings. The part that frightened Fale most was they knew where she was, which meant she was no longer ahead of the game. Who could have done this? What did they know?
Chapter 5
Fale numbly packed her things as Keron righted furniture and picked up. Fale was shaking as she worked.
“Hey, you okay?” Keron’s concern was written in the lines on his forehead.
“How soon do you think they’ll be back?” she asked.
“Don’t think they found what they were looking for. I don’t know.” He was obviously not helping to reassure her. “Pack up as fast as you can. We’ll terminate your lease.”
When they were finished, she checked out at the front desk, telling the proprietress about the incident.
“Well, I did give a gentleman your apartment number, but I’m sure you are mistaken,” said Mrs. Paramor in a black and white hounds-tooth jacket. “We don’t have break-ins at our complex.”
“I’d like my credits back all the same,” Fale insisted. Keron held her large luggage as she scanned her wristband.
Mrs. Paramor pursed her lips, “I’ll need your forwarding address.”
“I don’t have one,” Fale admitted. Heat raced up her neck into her cheeks.
The older woman looked Keron up and down. “I’ll need someone’s address, in case we need to get a hold of you.”
“You won’t.” He stepped forward imposingly, his voice deep and loud.
“Fine,” Mrs. Paramor said flatly, punching numbers into a keypad. “But that forfeits any deposit.”
“I didn’t make one.” Fale swiped her wristband again, hoisted the rest of her bags, then held the door for Keron as they stepped into the sunshine.
Their walk was somber as they considered the implications of Fale’s apartment break-in. He continued to scout the areas ahead of her and she wondered how she had gained enemies so quickly, and how they knew where to find her. Most of all, she wanted to know why? Fale couldn’t comprehend what they wanted and why they would attack her for a key she had never even appreciated as more than a gift from her father. At Keron’s apartment, they looked at each other worriedly before turning the knob, but everything was just where he’d left it. All over the place. She began to chuckle.
“What?” he laughed.
“I can’t tell if you’ve been ransacked or not,” she snickered.
“Are you kidding?” Keron teased. “This little piece of Heaven? It’s not a mess, it’s art.”
Fale pushed a pile of towels with her foot. “Uh huh.” She beamed at him and he took a step toward her, his gaze centered on her mouth. She breathed deep, took a step forward, and tripped over something on the floor. She fell face first into his chest, he caught her and roared with laughter as she scowled at him.
Damn.
“Gotta get back to work.” He held her up by her forearms and pushed her upright. “I’ll be back around seven. Make yourself at home.”
“I’m going to Lisle’s and to teach my class at the TacTrac, then I’ll meet you back here.” She pushed her things to the other side of the couch, since she assumed it was where she’d be sleeping. “I’ll see
you later,” she said.
“You teach? Thought you were a student?”
“I am, but growing up as part of the TacTrac requires me to give back. Plus, I want to honor Nelson for everything he’s done for me. Since he owns the TacTrac, working there makes me feel like I’m helping pull my weight. It’s also how I make my income. I have a class of nine- year- olds called the Tigers. It helps me master my patience and understanding of basic techniques.” She toed the carpet and looked over his shoulder.
“Sounds really cool. It could be fun.”
“It usually is. I’ll tell you more about it later, if you want.”
“Sure, we’ll talk later,” he said. “Oh Fale?”
“Yeah?”
“You look nice today. Real grownup, Sprout." He dimpled as he smiled brightly and winked.
He noticed.
“Lisle, it’s Fale, open up.” She knocked on his door knowing he’d never open it unless he knew who it was. Lisle was not only generally paranoid, he was afraid of the government, in particular. The locks clicked open like popping knuckles.
“Fale?”
“Yeah, it’s me.”
Lisle was a wizard, but he didn’t wear a cape. Just a light blue button up, opened to show his t-shirt and hemp necklace. Beneath brown twill pants peeked bare feet. “I’ve got a funny reading about you. Very strong.” Fale had known Lisle since she was a child. He was studying science at the University, but most of his time was devoted to practicing magic spells. He had begun training two years ago with the local group of wizards.
“You’ve done readings on me? Why? I didn’t ask you to.” Fale’s head cocked to the side. She almost felt like her privacy had been invaded, but this wasn’t anyone, it was Lisle. She relaxed.
“It was an assignment from my council leader; to consult the crystals, interpreting the future of all my friends and make a report. I hope you don’t mind.” Lisle shut the door, absently flicking the deadbolts.
The Key of F: a young adult fantasy romance (Freedom Fight Trilogy Book 1) Page 5