Kingdom of Cages

by Sarah Zettel

  Finally! “Yes, so shut up, would you?”

  Teal blew a raspberry at her, which Chena ignored. After a minute, Chena heard her sister wriggling around and getting comfortable. She closed her eyes gratefully and drifted to sleep.

  That night, she dreamed of Farin, but in the morning she couldn’t remember what those dreams had been about.

  CHAPTER SIX

  Witness

  Madra showed up during breakfast, which was brown bread toasted on top of the stove and raspberries and early apples, eaten raw.

  There was a knock, Mom opened the door, and Madra stepped in, surveying the room. For once, she was not smiling.

  Instead, she sighed and put her hands on her hips. “So, you did raid the stores.”

  “Is there a problem?” asked Mom, pushing the door closed.

  Madra’s mouth pursed, as if it were trying to smile on its own and she was trying to tell it not to. “There is if you didn’t tell the shift supervisor that you’re not living in the dorms anymore.”

  “I didn’t tell the shift supervisor anything. There was no supervisor there when I went in.” Mom sat back down at a little table and nodded toward an empty pillow. “Won’t you have a seat?”

  Madra pressed her lips together in a thin line. She did sit, however, folding her legs neatly under her. “In that case, we do have a problem. More than one, actually,” she added under her breath. “But the one that relates to you is that the recycling stores are only for the people who are living in the dorms and working exclusively for the village.”

  “Well, I had no way of knowing.” Mom folded her hands on the tabletop and gazed calmly at Madra. “There should be a sign posted.”

  Madra nodded. “You’re right, there should be. I’ll see about it. But the fact remains that you now owe the village for what you took.”

  “Owe?” Mom’s voice hardened. “For a broken table, some dirty pillows, and a few scraps of fabric?” Chena felt herself tensing up. Here it came again. Money. How they didn’t have enough, and they weren’t doing the right things with it.…

  “I’m afraid those are the rules,” said Madra softly. “The value isn’t in the materials themselves, the value is in what they could be used for, and by whom. You are working, you are making money, and your labor isn’t being given to the village, so some of your money has to be.”

  “I still work for the village. We all put in shifts.”

  “Reduced shifts, and”—Madra raised her index finger—“you’re not doing the heavy labor.” She lowered her finger, and her gaze, so she was talking to the table. “I’m afraid these are the rules. It’s my fault that you didn’t know them and I’m sorry. But you either have to give the things back or you have to pay for them.”

  Mom’s face had gone rigid. Her hands, still on the table, began to curl into claws. “May I ask you who decided to alert you to this shocking impropriety?”

  “Well, I confess, that’s part of the problem.” Madra glanced at Teal and Chena, who were sitting there completely intent on the conversation. Mom’s gaze followed Madra’s.

  “Girls, why don’t you start on the breakfast dishes?”

  They moved obediently. Chena prodded at Teal to keep her going. They needed to hear, yes, but they didn’t need to call attention to the fact that they were listening.

  “The person who told me was Experimenter Basante,” said Madra, as Teal and Chena carried the breakfast dishes to the basin by the stove. Chena waved toward the door, indicating that Teal should go get fresh water.

  “From the hothouse?”

  Teal made a show of stomping her foot, and Chena frowned at her. Teal made the piss-off sign and left to get the water.

  “Yes,” said Madra.

  Chena ladled hot water from the pot on the stove into the dish basin. Basante was the spy. They were talking about Teal’s spy.

  “Helice, have the hothousers told you what kind of experiment they want you for?”

  “Yes.” Mom’s next few words were lost under the sound of Teal banging open the door and grunting dramatically as she lugged in the bucket of water. “… after me for it since I decided to emigrate.”

  Chena frowned hard at her sister and grabbed the bucket away, splashing water all over the floor.

  “Girls,” said Mom warningly, without turning around.

  Chena frowned down again at Teal’s stubborn face, almost ready to yell. But she didn’t. She just tipped cold water in with the hot.

  Behind her, Madra said, “Helice, I don’t know if you fully understand the situation here.”

  Chena swirled the dishes around in the water a little and then rubbed a thick cake of the omnipresent yellow soap on the rag. Teal was staring at Mom. Chena elbowed her to get her to stop.

  “But I’m sure you will be pleased to enlighten me,” Mom said.

  Chena’s throat tightened as she picked one of the bowls up out of the water. Her hands scrubbed at it without her mind paying attention to what she was doing.

  “I’m not saying the rumors of the hothousers snatching people out of their beds are true, but I’m not saying they aren’t either. The complexes have been threatened, and as usual, we are the ones who are going to suffer.”

  Chena dumped the bowl into Teal’s hands so she could dry it.

  “Madra, I appreciate all the help you’ve been, but what business is this of yours?”

  Chena scowled and forced herself to keep her eyes on the bowls remaining in the cloudy water. She heard the thunk as Teal put the dry bowl on the shelf.

  “Because they may not just stop at making trouble for you. They may decide to make trouble for the entire village.”

  “I hope you’re not saying that is my fault?” asked Mom indignantly. Chena gave Teal the next bowl.

  “No,” answered Madra. “If you want to see me as an interfering busybody, that’s fine. You’re not alone. But I care what happens to the people in my village, and I don’t want to see anybody sold off for body parts.”

  Crash! Chena jumped. Teal stood shamefaced beside the shattered remains of the bowl. She’d probably tried to put it on the shelf without looking.

  “Vapor-brain…” groaned Chena.

  Mom was on her feet, her face thunderous. “Both of you, outside, and close the door.”

  Chena didn’t even dare to protest. She just grabbed Teal’s arm and dragged her out the door, kicking it shut behind her.

  “Good job, you nit.” She turned Teal to face her. “Now—”

  But Teal didn’t let her finish. “Shut up and come on!”

  Teal ran to the back of the house. Chena followed, uncertain but curious. Teal skidded to a halt beside the tree trunk and grasped the thick rope lashings that held the house to the tree. Before Chena had time to ask any questions, Teal swarmed up the wall, using the ropes as a ladder, and disappeared into the unkempt growth that covered their roof.

  What are you doing? Chena grabbed a couple of ropes and found her footing so she could follow her sister up. It wasn’t hard. Chena was alternately surprised and angry that Teal had been the one to find this way up.

  She waded through the tall grass and wild creepers to where Teal hunkered down in the greenery beside the chimney. She pressed her ear right against the clay pipe. As Chena got close, Teal put her finger to her lips and motioned for Chena to get down.

  Chena wrinkled her forehead, but she did it. The pipe was warm from the stove, but not too hot. After a moment, she realized she could hear Mom and Madra, soft but clear.

  “Even here, I own my body,” Mom was saying.

  “Not if you break the law, you don’t.”

  “Is that what they’re saying I’ve done?”

  “Not yet.” Madra paused and Chena bit her lip, straining her ears until they ached so she could catch every word.

  “Listen to me, Helice. I’ve seen this before, plenty of times. The hothousers track down somebody full of useful alleles, and they offer them credit and comfort to sell off their bone marr
ow or to rent out their womb. If the person doesn’t bite, they start enforcing every regulation in existence until they fine them back into the dorms. If the person sticks it out down there, they end up breaking some little law, and then their right to body ownership is forfeit.”

  “They can’t be sentenced to…”

  “Not sentenced, no, but the hothousers have automatic access to anybody in custody.”

  “Chena…” whispered Teal. Chena glanced at her sister. Teal had gone dead white. Her chin trembled.

  “Shhh…” Chena wrapped her arm around Teal’s shoulder. “It will be all right. We haven’t done anything. They can’t get us.”

  “Right.” Teal gripped Chena’s hand so hard it hurt. “Right.”

  Without letting go of her sister, Chena pressed her ear against the chimney pipe again.

  “If that is what is going to happen, what do you suggest I do?” Mom was asking. She still sounded angry, but now she also sounded tired.

  “Leave,” said Madra calmly. “There’s nothing else you can do.”

  “Leave? And go where? Back to the station? My children will be begging in the corridors and going without food to pay for air. To get anywhere farther, the Authority demands a hefty chunk of positive balance. I can’t even pay my debts.”

  “Your children are Authority citizens, you can send them to one of the cities.”

  “But I’m not an Authority citizen and would not be allowed to go with them. No.”

  “Helice, what happens to them if you’re taken in? They’ll become public wards. I won’t be able to protect them for long.”

  Mom was silent for a long, long moment. Grass and ferns tickled Chena’s ears. Her nose filled with the scent of moss and woodsmoke. Her arm clenched around Teal’s shoulders, drawing her sister close, to comfort herself as much as to comfort Teal. This wasn’t happening. It couldn’t happen. It wouldn’t. Mom wouldn’t let it. Never. Chena closed her eyes against the prickle of tears. She wouldn’t cry. This was just talk. What did Madra know? She didn’t know anything.

  “Thank you for your concern,” said Mom. “When are you going to assess what I’ve stolen?”

  Silence. “It won’t be that much.” Pause. “Helice, please consider what I’ve said. This is just the beginning. They will have what they want from you.”

  “So why don’t they just swoop down and carry me off?” Mom demanded.

  “Would you believe because they don’t want to spook us too badly?” answered Madra. “Once upon a time, they could take whoever they wanted and do whatever they wanted with them. But there was a riot. One of their precious domes got destroyed by a bunch of villagers who had finally had enough. Apparently there was even some help from inside the dome. After that, a charter got written up. Now they can only experiment on lawbreakers or volunteers, or their village can take them to court. Village court, no less. It makes them at least a little careful. Even now.” Madra paused, and in her mind’s eye Chena saw Madra shake her head. “But I wouldn’t put too much faith in their restraint. They still see you and me, anybody outside their complexes, as raw materials, and they’ll only put up with so much protest from us.”

  “Then why don’t you leave? Why doesn’t everybody leave?”

  “Because, unlike you, the rest of us have no place to go.”

  Below them the door opened and the door closed. Although she knew they were screened by the weeds, Chena pressed herself and Teal even flatter against the roof. They heard footsteps on the catwalk. She listened as they faded, grateful that Teal decided to stay quiet.

  After a moment, the door opened again.

  “Chena? Teal?” called Mom.

  They glanced at each other, guilty of eavesdropping, but not sure whether Mom realized it or not.

  “Coming!” called Chena.

  They clambered down the lashings and side by side walked to the front of the house. Mom leaned against the threshold, watching them. Chena tried to keep her head up, to act casual, but beside her, Teal shuffled.

  “How much did you manage to overhear?” Mom didn’t sound angry now.

  Chena decided this was probably one of those times when it was better to tell the truth. “Pretty much all of it.”

  Mom nodded, smoothing her hair back over her scalp. “Come back in here. We don’t need to discuss this in the street.”

  Mom stood aside and Chena and Teal walked past her. They stopped beside the table, but neither one of them sat down. Mom closed the door behind them and stood there for a moment, one hand on the knob and one hand on the smooth wooden surface.

  “All right,” she sighed at last, and turned around. “So, now you know. The man who came here yesterday was from the hothouse, and he wants me to work for them.”

  “Don’t they pay?” asked Teal, nudging a pillow with her toe.

  A fleeting smile crossed Mom’s face. “Yes, they do. Very well. The thing I have a problem with is what they want me to do.” She took a deep breath. “He wants me to have a baby for them.”

  “A baby?” exclaimed Teal before Chena was even sure she understood what had been said. “How can you have a baby for them? Dad’s not even here.” She stopped, realizing what she had said and how stupid it was.

  Mom crossed the room and sank low into one of the pillows. “It is possible that I could have a baby without your father, Teal.”

  “But you wouldn’t do that?” Teal hurried to Mom’s side, putting both hands on her shoulder. Chena couldn’t move. The words and their implications rooted her to the floor. Sadia’s mom had disappeared. Had the hothouse taken her? Madra said it happened. Had they wanted her to have a baby for them? Would they take Mom away?

  Mom actually looked sheepish. “It is vaguely possible that I could have another baby one day without your father,” she said, looking more at her hands than at them. “What I will not do…” She stopped herself and started over again. “What I do not want to do is to have a baby and give it away, especially when I don’t know what will happen to it. I don’t even know if they will keep it alive or use it for spare parts when they can’t use me. I do not want to do that to a brother or sister of yours.”

  Chena swallowed hard. Her hands were cold as ice and she felt them begin to shake. She didn’t like the way Mom was talking. She didn’t like the uncertainty under her voice.

  “But from what Madra was telling me, the people in the hothouse may start to make it very hard to say no.”

  Chena did not want to hear any more. She had to stop this. Right now. “I know how to get money,” she blurted out. “I thought it out yesterday.”

  Mom looked up at her. Chena wasn’t sure how to read her face.

  She looked both hopeful and doubtful at the same time. “And what way is that?”

  “I can run errands on the railbikes.” Chena sank to her knees so she could look right into Mom’s eyes. “I’ve already got a job. Somebody gave me a message yesterday and paid me to take it to someone else.”

  “Sombody gave you a message? Somebody gave you money?” Mom sat up straight, gentleness and exhaustion gone from her face and voice. “And you didn’t tell me yesterday?”

  Chena bit her lip. She had said too much. Now she had to explain it. How was she going to explain this?

  Start with an apology. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t want to say anything until I was sure I could do it.”

  Mom’s frown plainly said she did not believe a word of that. “Start talking, Chena Trust.”

  A story came to her then, like the stories about Dad. No, not like the ones about Dad. This one was mostly true. Chena swallowed her hesitation and did as she was told.

  “I got to Stem, and I tried to eat in their dining hall, but they wouldn’t let me, because they said it was only for citizens.” She watched her hands in her lap, twisting their fingers together. “I got the serving guy mad and I was scared to stay by the shore, but I was hungry and I was wandering around looking for somewhere to eat. I ran into Farin, he’s a friend
of Sadia’s, and I thought he was okay, really.” She risked a glance up at Mom. Her face hadn’t softened at all, but Chena had no choice but to keep going. “He got me lunch and we were talking and he said he had a friend in Offshoot he wanted to get a note to, and I said I’d take it, and he said he’d pay for it. So I did and he did, and I thought, you know, I bet if I could do a lot of this I could actually make money. But I didn’t know if it was going to be against any of the rules. They have so many here, so I didn’t want to say anything until I’d had a chance to go to the library and look it up.”

  After a few anxious heartbeats, Chena saw Mom’s frown relax. It had worked. She was listening. Even better, she was believing.

  “Well, if it’s not against the rules, it is a good idea,” said Mom. “But you still have your shifts to pull, and I want you in school as soon as we can get you there.”

  “I know,” said Chena, eagerness rising in her voice. This would work. It would work. “But if I could do this, I could help get us money to go to school. I was gonna give part of the money I earned to Teal if she would take my shifts.” Now both Mom and Teal looked dubious. “We only have to put in a few hours a day now, and we don’t have to do any of the heavy stuff. She can do my work just as well as I can.” Chena gave Teal a pleading look. Please, please, go along!

  “Half,” said Teal coolly.

  Shock stiffened Chena’s spine. “You’re crazy! A quarter.”

  “Half,” Teal repeated.

  Chena snorted and stopped just short of making the piss-off sign. “You’re only going to have to work an extra couple hours. I’m going to be working all day—”

  “As pleased as I am to have such fiscally savvy children,” Mom interrupted, touching Chena’s raised hand and pressing it gently back down onto the table, “we have not determined whether this project is actually going to happen yet.” Both girls turned to her and waited. Mom ran her hand through her hair and rubbed the back of her neck, shaking her head.

  “This was not what I planned for you,” she said softly. “I had thought you would be able to go to school. That I would be able to support you, like a mother should support her children. Children should not have to worry about whether or not the family is going to be able to get along. But then, children should not have to be apprenticed out at ten years old because their parents can’t keep them from starving any other way.” She wasn’t looking at them now. She was staring out the slit windows at the shifting shadows that patterned the catwalk. “But if wishes were fishes, we’d all cast nets. We have to work with what we have.” Her attention came back to the room and her daughters. “We will talk to Madra about this scheme of Chena’s. If she agrees that it is not violating any regulations, then Chena you can give it a try, if you can negotiate the price with your sister.” A smile flashed across Mom’s face. “And if we agree on a code of conduct for your enterprise. I will not tolerate any more omissions of fact from you, understand me, Chena?” Her eyes were hard and sharp as glass and bored right through Chena’s heart. “If I catch you out again, that’s the end of this.” Her hand slashed through the air between them. “I don’t care if we have to end up living on the rooftops.”