After drying off, Fale put on her new lavender cotton pajamas. She had hoped to be in a vastly different place with Keron tonight and wearing her red nightgown, but he was acting like they weren’t even friends. She opened the bathroom door and the house was plunged into darkness. Keron had turned out all the lanterns and gone to bed. She felt desperately alone. Unable to deal with his rejection one more time, Fale went to the couch in the darkness.
Keron lay in bed listening to Fale in the living room. She was being as quiet as she could, but he could tell from the way she was breathing and her occasional sniffle that she was crying. He knew it was his fault and he told himself it was better for her to get over him now rather than later. He told himself it was for her own good, but hadn’t he done this to her before? Didn’t she deserve better than him? Lisle liked her; he would be a good match for her. A better match than him. He had been settled in his decision when he heard her whisper, “You promised you wanted me.” Then she began to sob.
Keron’s resolve melted. He had promised her he wanted her, and she thought he didn’t. How could she think it? He couldn’t hear her heart breaking for another minute. Throwing off the covers, he strode to the couch and said, “I’m sorry, Sprout.” He picked her up, cradled her in his arms and took her back to bed. Fale lay her head on his shoulder and cried.
“Stop, honey. I’m here.” Keron smoothed a hand down her back.
“I can’t,” she hiccupped. “Why?”
He knew what she was asking; why did you abandon me? “Because I realized I was masquerading as a free man, with a fake band. I had forgotten for a moment I was a fantocci, an orphaned bondsman, a half man created by the plant and owned by the Agency. Good only for fixing or fighting. And you deserve better,” he said.
“I chose you. Tell me how to make you believe it. You belong with me.”
“The more I’m with you, the more I believe it. I doubt myself so much,” he said. “You have this bond with Lisle…” Keron was a confident man, but Fale’s friendship with Lisle threatened him for some reason.
“Lisle? He’s my friend. I guess he’s cute, but- “
“You’re not helping.”
Fale laughed. “I’m not sleeping next to Lisle.”
“You’re not actually sleeping next to me, either,” he teased.
“Unless you have something better to do, I’m going to be asleep in minutes.”
“Go to sleep, I’ll be here.” Keron gathered Fale into his arms like she was going to escape and nodded off.
Fale woke not knowing where she was. It was a disconcerting feeling, but she felt anchored by the weight of Keron’s arms; he still held her in his sleep. Her white hair fanned out around them on the pillows and the contrast with his black hair was striking. She gazed at the angles of his face and the strength of his jaw. Fale would have kissed him, but she wanted to look her fill while he was asleep. She loved the way his shoulder and bicep muscles separated, the shape of his chest and the earthy smell that was Keron. She breathed it in by his neck before she kissed the soft flesh there.
“You know that’s creepy, right?” he yawned.
“You didn’t even know what I was doing,” Fale complained.
“Lucky guess. You were up first,” he said.
Fale chuckled. “True.”
Keron slid his arms from her shoulders to her waist, then ran one down her hip. “What would you like to do this morning before Izzy’s?” he asked suggestively. “I was thinking we could go to the gym?”
She lightly slapped his arm in embarrassment. “Didn’t you tell Lisle we were working out when we discovered my scream?”
They laughed together. “Is that what you had in mind?” he asked.
She blushed hotly. “Surely there’s something new we can do for a few hours. Maybe we can practice my magic.”
“As you desire.” He grinned. “I’ll get the Ondah.”
“Check this out,” Fale said as they walked in the marsh. Her hand reached out and disappeared from the end of her arm.
“You’re freaking me out now,” Keron said. “It was only cool the first twenty times.”
“If Effailya, me, whatever, had the Ondah, I can see why she had so many powers. I mean, if she got hers the way I get mine,” she laughed.
“She had her own, and there has to be a limit. You’re awakening what’s already there, right? Surely they’ll stop coming?” he asked.
“Do you want them to?” she stopped walking.
“It’s not… I just think there has to be an end to the power.” He turned around.
“I don’t know.”
“Her power came from inside her, but maybe you have your own power to add to it.”
“It’s so confusing. And it’s all so new to me,” she said.
“I know, Sprout. We’ll conquer it together,” he said. “Now make your hand reappear so I can hold it.”
A sudden vision creeped up on Fale’s sight. She was walking to the city with Keron and was captured by the Control officers who recognized them from yesterday. Then the pictures were overtaken by gruesome scenes of Keron in the industrial plant being skinned alive, as she waited her turn. He was wailing and there was blood everywhere. Fale screamed. The sound of Keron’s pain nearly choked her, but she couldn’t stop screaming.
“Fale.” Keron gripped her shoulders tightly. Her eyes were open, but she didn’t see him. She was gasping for air and sobbing. He shook her and called her name, but the more he called out to her, the more desperate her crying became. “I’m sorry Sprout,” he murmured as he slapped her face.
Finally, her vision cleared, and she saw him standing before her, whole and uninjured. “Keron, oh my stars! I thought you were- I thought-” She dissolved into tears again.
“You thought what?”
“I thought they were turning us into machines. I saw you. I saw what they did to you.” She hiccupped.
“It didn’t happen,” he said, smoothing her hair away from her face. “And it won’t happen. Whatever you were doing in the vision, we’ll do the opposite.”
“We were going to the city the way we always do.”
“Then we’ll go another way. We will just be incredibly careful today, okay?”
She laid her hands on him, loving the feel of his defined chest. “I’m scared.”
“I’ve got you. And no one is going to hurt you as long as I’m alive.” He peered into her eyes. “It was only a vision, Fale. We know how to stop them, right? It doesn’t mean anything. Hey, you’re shaking. Come here.”
She stepped into his embrace and tried to breathe normally. She could feel his heartbeat under her ear, and she knew he was worried, too.
Be brave Fale, she told herself.
“You ready to go?” he asked, and she nodded.
They dashed through the city’s edge, as quickly as they could. No longer afraid of death, but the threat of living an inhuman mechanical existence in a dimension not their own. They knew in the open they were targets. The only thing that drove them to make these risks was the hope that Lisle had the information they needed to win… and to survive.
Chapter 14
When they got to Izzy’s, Fale left Keron at the door with a kiss. “I’ll be back soon with Lisle,” she promised.
“Be careful,” he said.
“I will. Tell Izzy I said hi.”
He kissed her again and watched her walk away. Lisle’s building was only three blocks over and one block down, so she wouldn’t have far to go, but he watched her until she was out of sight.
Lisle was in a great mood when Fale arrived at his apartment. “Come in,” he welcomed her. “Can I get you some tea? I have jasmine.”
“Oooh, I love jasmine.”
“I know,” he smiled.
“Thanks, Lisle.” Fale entered, walked past Lisle’s desk and bookcases to his living area with the little couch, chair, and coffee table.
Lisle looked comfortable in a soft cream jersey and plaid flannel lounge pan
ts. His glasses were off, and his eyelashes were long, brown and curled around his deep brown eyes. His hair was swept to the right and tousled, sticking out here and there. Fale thought about how Lisle had managed to become cute without her realizing it and wondered if Izzy had noticed.
He poured tea from a pot on the coffee table into demitasse cups with saucers. They both sat down, Lisle in his chair and Fale on the couch. She felt like she was on a normal social call. It was something she had taken for granted before she went into hiding. “Thank you for making this so comfortable, Lisle. I miss just visiting. I feel like everything lately should be a fact-finding mission or a fight. It’s nice to be a regular friend.”
“I thought you might enjoy a change of pace,” he said.
“I really do. You have no idea. Lisle, you know, you are the only person in my life who’s truly honest with me. I need you around sometimes to remind me that I’m not crazy.”
“What do you mean?”
“Nelson tries to shelter me from the world, which has always been his job, and Keron treats me like I’m breakable. They both keep things from me ‘for my own good’ at times, but not you. You’re always honest and you want me to be who I am, magic and danger and whatever may come.” She smiled warmly at him.
“What about Iz? She’s your friend.” Lisle gave her time to think.
She cocked her head to the side. “I owe Izzy. Since I’ve met her, she has kept me going when I feel desolate, when being an orphan made me feel like an outsider. She never let me sulk. She never let me pull away, and she made sure none of our friends ever made me feel different. But we are different. She wants something else from life, something she can’t get here, with me. I can feel a chasm open between us sometimes, but I’m not willing to lose her. She’s never given up on me, and I won’t give up on her. She’s the only woman in my life and I need her. I know I tried to protect her from all of this, but it wouldn’t feel right going on without her.”
“But why don’t you think she’s honest with you?” he asked.
“I can see it in her eyes. She’s on another level than I am. She won’t say so, but I don’t fit with her plans for herself. She tells everyone she’s happy, and I can see how hard she tries, but she’s miserable. It started when I advanced into Takanori training and she didn’t. Her parents made her go to the TacTrac to be cultured and to work out her high-strung emotions. She hated being stuck in that class and watching me receive my swords.”
“How do you know?”
“Because she told me. She didn’t mean to hurt me, but Izzy has no filter. After that, I made time to work out with her every evening. Nelson thought we just didn’t want to be separated, so he allowed it, but sometimes I wonder if we would still be friends if I hadn’t,” Fale said, considering her teacup.
“I don’t think that would have torn you two apart.” Lisle reached out to pat her hand.
“She doesn’t tell me things, Lisle. She thought my crush on Keron was stupid and dangerous, but now she acts like it’s so romantic. She’s changed.”
Lisle nodded. “I think she’s a good person, even though she believes in Control, and I think if she comes with us, we can show her. Convince her Control is one of the bad guys.”
“I don’t want to lose her. I want her to take this journey with me because I need to fix... us. I need her to know I want her with me to the end, and I need to know if she’s still my little mother. I don’t want to lose another one.”
The pregnant silence hung between them as quiet as a thunderstorm.
Lisle gazed at her with sadness. “Would you like to skip contacting Taran today? We can talk, if you want.”
“No,” she said. “We need to check Garrith for Nelson. Besides, Izzy and Keron will be expecting us to tell them about it.”
“True, but I already have things to go over with them.”
“Really? What do you have? Did you find something new?” she questioned.
“I have access to some archives I didn’t before, and I found a lot of information. The help I’m giving to the wizards has gained me more trust, and passing my last class bumped me up a level from apprentice to wizard-in-training. I haven’t been through it all yet, but there are tons of spells, drawings, recipes, and classified history on famous wizards. One of whom is Gryndoll. None of his writings can be found, but there is historical information." Lisle drank his tea. “When I looked him up, I found the information you wanted on Princess Effailya.”
“Great news.” Fale said enthusiastically, her eyebrows high and her smile warm.
“I figured we could go over it when all four of us are together, unless you want to see it first?” Lisle offered.
“No, I’ll wait,” she said. “Have you had any luck finding the machine?”
“Not yet,” Lisle said regretfully.
“It’s okay. You’re helping already. I really appreciate it.”
“They led a party to the south today, looking for you.”
“That’s good- it means they don’t suspect you, Lisle.” Fale said. “It feels relaxing to be quasi- safe, not having to fight to live anyway.”
“Speaking of fighting, where’s your dagger?”
“Bryla wouldn’t be carrying one, and a dagger wouldn’t fit under her skinny denims,” Fale laughed nervously. “Plus, Keron said he could help protect me if we get into trouble." Fale felt like she was justifying herself to Lisle, which was silly. Why would he care if I am protected by Keron? I don’t really need a weapon to take care of myself anyway. It was obvious he did care. He had a sad look on his face again. The look he often got when they talked alone. The same one he had when he gave her the dagger. “Lisle, why do look at me like that? Why did you get so sad when you gave me the dagger? Did you not really want me to have it? Did it belong to someone special?”
“No,” Lisle said. “I get sad because princesses always look for a warted frog to kiss and find love, but overlook the wizard saving her life, because he loves her.”
“What?” Fale asked.
“Nothing,” Lisle said. “Never mind.”
Fale thought he was speaking a riddle, but when she took it literally, she understood. “Oh Lisle.”
“Please, let it go. It doesn’t change anything.”
“How can it not?” Fale reached out to touch his hand.
Lisle inhaled deeply. “Either you love me, or you don’t. I don’t think I can hear the answer right now.”
“But Lisle, it’s not that simple." She wanted to tell him she did love him as a best friend, a beloved brother, one of her favorite fellow humans. In so many ways. Just not the way he needed from her, but she remembered how she felt last night when she had been rejected by Keron and she couldn’t do it. She’d never thought of Lisle in a romantic way, but she couldn’t hand his heart back to him. So, she took it, and tucked it into a safe place; where she could cherish it as the gift it was. “I am honored you told me, Lisle. I won’t forget.” She told him with all the sincerity she had.
“Thanks, Fale.” Lisle looked away from her. “Shall we call Taran?”
Fale didn’t think things were settled between them, but she wanted to spare him pain. “Yes," she smiled. “Tell me what to do.”
“Close your eyes like last time,” Lisle said. “This should get easier each time until you can control it. It’s a gift, like all the rest.”
Fale wondered why this gift had awakened on its own, without the Ondah’s help, but with Lisle’s. The Ondah was meant to “wake up” powers inside Fale that were already there, but dormant. Maybe Lisle woke up this power from inside her? What did that mean for her and Lisle?
She didn’t have any answers, so she closed her eyes and listened as Lisle spoke in the Crion language. Waiting for a lengthy journey through space and time, Fale was shocked to be relatively quickly thrust into Taran’s body.
She sat around one of several fires, a wooden bowl of vegetable stew in her left hand and a spoon in the other. Her mouth was full of the tasteles
s, overcooked mess and she had trouble finishing it. It was like swallowing glue. Fale looked blankly around the fire at the other haggard faces of her people, assumedly eating the same stew from the large pot sitting over the crackling flame. Hushed conversation took place all around. “Did ya hear me, Taran?”
“Oh sorry,” Fale said, turning to the boy on her right. “I must not have.”
“I said, is this the night?”
Fale didn’t know what he was talking about. All she could think to say was, “I need more time.”
“We gotta do it soon. We’ll be losing our chance,” the boy said.
“We will,” she promised, hoping she wasn’t spoiling any of Taran’s plans. “Hey,” she asked. “Have you noticed any new, ah, slaves lately?”
The boy looked at her strangely. “Why you askin’?”
“I was looking for someone.”
“Who?”
“A man,” she said. “He’s tall and broad, with dark hair.”
“I ain’t seen a new man, you want I should look around for ya?”
“No. But if you see one, tell me, okay?”
“Okay.” The boy ate his stew.
Fale tried to eat another bite, knowing Taran needed the nourishment, but the stuff was awful. She picked at it. “Have you seen my sister?” she asked the boy.
“Sure,” he said, pointing with his spoon. “She’s over with the girls. You feelin’ all right?”
“Yeah,” Fale said, trying to act casual. “I just need to ask her something.”
“I thought she wasn’t speakin’ to ya on account of us sneakin’ into the castle?” Fale tried not to look surprised. Taran had guts, he deserved credit for that. She had to know what they found in there. She knew nothing about the castle. “O’ course you could wait ‘til after supper. She shares a hut with ya,” he said around a mouthful of food, laughing. “Can’t get away from ya then, can she?”
Fale would have waited, but she didn’t know how long she would be there, and she didn’t know which hut was hers. “Think I’m gonna get her now.” Fale tried to talk like the other boy.
The Key of F: a young adult fantasy romance (Freedom Fight Trilogy Book 1) Page 21