Zero

by Claire Stevens

  Chapter Nineteen

  I woke up to bright light streaming in through the small windows. Cracking one eye open I saw Oriel standing over me, suited, booted and sword strapped across his back. ‘Morning, Sunshine.’ He grinned at me, flashing his crooked eye teeth. I groaned and tried to worm my way back under the covers, but Oriel started prodding me with the toe of his boot. ‘Come on, we need to get going.’

  I peered at him through eyes still puffy from sleep. He looked well-rested and well-groomed with his mad spiky hair slicked back. He’d even managed to have a shave. Damn, he looked good.

  I, on the other hand, felt exactly like you would expect to feel after scratching out a night’s sleep on the bare wooden floor of a woodland shack. Without even looking, I knew my hair had formed itself into a crazy, spiralling bird’s nest. ‘I take it you’ve recovered from your brush with death?’

  The prodding stopped as he closed his eyes beatifically. ‘I feel at least a billion times better than I did last night.’ He crouched down next to my nest. ‘And you, Nurse Roanne, totally, totally saved my life. I will be forever in your debt.’ His tone was light but something serious lurked in his eyes and I shivered not unpleasantly.

  He jumped to his feet and the nudging started up again. I briefly considered grabbing my new crossbow and shooting him. ‘Come on, let’s go and rescue my brother. There’s a pump outside, if you want to freshen up,’ he said.

  ‘If I don’t have a wash, can I have an extra ten minutes in bed?’ I asked in my best pitiful voice.

  The toe prodding my bottom gathered momentum. ‘No. Come on, get up. We need to get to Thornsvale. They were expecting us, like, yesterday.’

  On the basis that it seemed to be the only way to stop Oriel kicking my bum, I staggered out of my warm blanket-nest into the chilly morning air.

  The town of Thornsvale was a pretty cluster of houses spreading out in a spiders-web pattern from the town square. There were no demon nets. This meant that the inhabitants were either poor or very, very confident in their abilities. There were, however, huge grey walls surrounding the town, a remnant of the time it had been occupied by Baeroth.

  The square was dominated by a pub made of the same grey stone and dark timbered beams as the rest of the village, but with bow windows of leaded glass panes. ‘That’s where the others are staying,’ Oriel said, pointing across the street. A large wooden sign hung above the door depicting a rampant lion picked out in gold. ‘Let me guess; The Golden Lion?’ I asked and Oriel nodded. ‘So is this the- Argh! Argh!’ Something was stabbing my foot.

  ‘What’s the matter?’ Oriel asked quickly.

  ‘I’ve got something in my shoe.’ God, it felt like a bee. Please let it not be a bee.

  ‘Come on, take my arm, let’s get you inside the pub so you can sit down. You need to lace your boots tighter. That way you won’t get stones in them.’

  I clutched his arm pathetically. ‘I think it might be a bee,’ I whimpered.

  Oriel rolled his eyes. ‘It’s not a bee. I don’t think any insect would risk going in those boots.’

  Annoyed, I made to push him and he dug me in the ribs, tickling me. ‘Get off! I’ll fall!’

  Still laughing, he pushed the door to the Golden Lion open and we fell inside.

  The only occupants of the inn sat around a table near the bar. At the clattering of the door, Neve, Kallista and Raelthos all looked up, meerkat-style. Neve beamed to see us, whilst Kallista looked like a cat having its fur stroked the wrong way with a damp hand. She got up from her seat and stalked across the room to the bar.

  I took a seat next to Neve while Oriel went to talk to Kallista. She took my hand and squeezed it. ‘Are you okay?’ she asked, her fine eyebrows pinching together.

  I managed a nod, touched at her concern. Completely unfooled by my nonchalance, Neve took my arm and folded me into a side-hug. ‘You’re so brave to even carry on with this mission, given what you’ve had to deal with.’

  ‘I’m so sorry...when we were in the woods...’ I broke off and tried to get a look at her neck. There were no marks to be seen; her skin was a creamy white.

  Neve shook her head. ‘I’m the one who should be sorry. We should have told you before, but we really thought it was for the best. You’ve always been so amazing at using all your Blessings and then completely forgetting about it, we thought you’d just automatically open a portal for us, once you realised it would be the only way to get Owen back.’

  Fresh drink in hand, Kallista returned to the table, plonking herself down so close to me that I was forced to shuffle away to make room. She glared at Neve and I as if she couldn’t quite decide which of us she hated more. ‘Nice,’ she scoffed, looking at our linked arms. ‘Using her emotional vulnerability to get her into bed, are you, Neve?’

  Neve jumped back like she’d been slapped. An angry tic started just behind my forehead, like a fire ant burrowing to get out of my head. I let go of Neve and leaned over until I was right in Kallista’s face. ‘Hey, Kallista,’ I said softly. ‘Don’t know if you heard, but I just found out that I have all these crazy Blessings. Now, I still don’t know much about them, but what I do know is that I have very little control over them. Like, I just randomly do stuff and most of the time I don’t even remember doing it. How weird is that?’ I made a huh, whaddya know face. ‘Now, wouldn’t it be a shame if someone was to piss me off, only to wake up the next morning to find that her mouth had just...vanished. Just sealed itself up, so that she could never say mean things again.’

  I stared at her in what I hoped was a really passive-aggressive way and she glowered back while across the table Raelthos hooted with laughter. ‘Well, well, well. Someone’s discovered a pair of balls along with her phenomenal psychic powers.’

  I sat back in my chair as Neve outlined the new plan to us.

  The Psions who had created Baeroth’s jail had installed a one-way portal into it: food and supplies could be sent in, but nothing could ever come out. After the war ended, hundreds of retired Protectorate soldiers had moved into Thornsvale and had taken it upon themselves to guard to hidden portal to the jail, to stop anyone tampering with it. Owen’s kidnaper had used this portal to deliver him to Baeroth.

  We were going to have to tread carefully; it was likely the custodians of Baeroth’s jail didn’t even know that their security measures had been breached.

  There were now two options open to us. The first was to ingratiate ourselves with the locals, let Raelthos turn on his Influence, discover who the custodians of the jail dimension were and somehow convince them to let us break in.

  The second was for me to open a portal with my mind.

  I really, really wanted the first option to work.

  By the time I made it back down to the bar, the evening’s entertainment had begun. A huge man that looked like he was genetically linked to an ocean liner was standing on a makeshift stage over one side of the bar, chanting a dirge-like song. ‘Right then,’ Neve said over the racket. ‘It’s a talent evening. Apparently. Everyone gets up and performs their favourite song, poem, whatever they like.’

  The rest of us looked at her in undisguised horror. ‘Please let your next sentence be, “So we’ll just sit here and enjoy the show”,’ Oriel said.

  Neve sighed. ‘Well, duh. Talent evenings usually attract a large crowd and there’s an excellent chance that at least one of the portal custodians will be present. Raelthos will mingle with the patrons of the inn until he finds a custodian and will use his Influence to get the information we need to access the portal.’ Raelthos gave her a solemn, confident nod and a thumbs-up. ‘Now, for this plan to operate effectively, we also need some kind of spectacle, a diversion, something that will pull the attention of the spectators in two directions. The confusion will lower their defences and make it easier for Raelthos to do his job unobtrusively.’ Neve took a deep breath, as if mentally preparing herself for an argument. ‘Roanne and Kallista: that will be your task.’

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nbsp; Kallista’s look of horror deepened, an expression I was sure was mirrored on my face. ‘How are we supposed to do that?’ I squeaked.

  ‘Two attractive young ladies? I’m sure you’ll think of something...’ Raelthos leered. ‘And if your imaginations fall short, I would happily make some suggestions.’

  ‘I am more than happy for you both to use your initiative on this one,’ said Neve, with the hurried air of a girl who realises she is within striking distance of avoiding an argument from which there will be no winner. ‘But nothing violent or you’ll be thrown out. The rest of us will be on crowd control.’

  The bar was beginning to fill up and several more patrons had taken their turn on stage since the ocean-liner dirge-singer, with more queueing up near the emcee to put their names down. I ran my hands over my face, trying to think of something to create a diversion that wouldn’t end in Kallista and me belting the shit out of each other. Raelthos leaned back in his chair and began to roll one of his sickly black cigarettes, eyes glinting mischievously.

  For a minute, neither Kallista nor I spoke. We sat eyeing each other, each daring the other to speak first, while Raelthos sipped a bright red, slightly smoky drink in an elaborate glass. Eventually he set his drink down and sighed. ‘Clearly neither of you is going to reach the logical conclusion, so I’ll spell it out for you. If you two sit at this table and pretend to be, shall we say, amorously infatuated with each other, the delightful patrons of this establishment will be so overjoyed with your performance that they’ll not only tell us how to get through the portal, but I should be surprised if they don’t also offer to take us there themselves.’

  Kallista snorted derisively. ‘Like I’d kiss her, with all that shit in her face.’

  It took me a moment to realise she was talking about my piercings. My mouth fell open in righteous indignation which, admittedly, added to the point she was making. ‘Like I’d kiss her, with that slapped-arse look on her face,’ I countered.

  Kallista snarled quietly and ran her fingers through her perfect hair, swishing it over her shoulder with a practised flick. ‘We’re getting nowhere and we’re running out of time,’ she sighed, eyeing me as if this was my fault. ‘Let’s just set up a drinking contest and run a book for the spectators.’ She cast her eye around the room. ‘They all look like Guardians in here, so drinking and gambling will be right up their street.’ Kallista caught the indecision that flitted across my face. ‘Unless you have a better idea?’ she huffed.

  I racked my brains. ‘Can’t we just explain to the people in Thornsvale that we really need to get into the prison?’

  ‘Were you starved of air at birth, or something? Do you honestly not think we’ve already thought of that? It’s a prison, Zero. Nothing gets in, nothing gets out. Besides, it would involve the custodians admitting that someone had managed to sneak Owen past them.’ She spread her hands in front of her. ‘Any more brilliant suggestions?’ I shook my head. ‘Fine, then. Come out the back with me and I’ll morph our outfits into something a bit more appropriate.’

  We left Raelthos at the table blowing suggestive-looking smoke rings in the direction of the barmaid and pretending not to notice when she giggled at them, and headed to the (smelly, unisex) toilet.

  Something was dripping and I tried not to think about what it might be as Kallista experimented with different hairstyles in front of the speckled mirror. ‘Are you going to be long?’ I huffed.

  She didn’t answer me immediately, but turned mid-pose, one hand holding her hair on top of her head and looked at me speculatively. ‘I know you think I was out of order out there in the bar. With what I said to Neve.’ I said nothing, not trusting myself not to slap her. She turned back to the mirror. ‘The thing is I probably wasn’t far from the truth. She really is the most dreadful slut, you know. She’ll shag anything that stays still long enough.’ She let go of her hair and let it fall around her shoulders. ‘That’s Guardians for you, though. Rash. Impulsive. Not much given to introspection.’ She paused for a moment before pulling out the big guns. ‘Oriel’s just the same,’ she said with a sly fake laugh.

  My head jerked and I could feel the blush creep up my neck. ‘Why is it any of your business?’ I asked in a voice that shook.

  ‘It isn’t,’ she said shortly. ‘It’s no concern of mine what they do; I’m just trying to be nice. To you,’ she said, in case this hadn’t been immediately obvious. ‘I’m sure you’re a big cheese in a Psion-free world back in the Sanctuary, and you probably have lots of Zero boys flocking around you, but things are a bit different here, so consider this a piece of friendly advice: steer clear of Oriel Saldana. Girls who get mixed up with him tend to end up regretting it, and you...’ She shook her head sorrowfully. ‘He’d crush you like a bug on a cobblestone.’

  Stunned into speechlessness, I turned away, wondering how I’d made my feelings so blatant, wondering if everyone else could see it too.

  Satisfied that her warning had been heeded, Kallista closed her eyes, murmuring softly under her breath, and, like a mood ring changing colour, her clothes slowly and subtly altered. Where she had been wearing breeches, she now wore a long scalloped skirt in a dark green with a slit up the side, showing off a lace petticoat. The collar of her shirt lowered and the sides came in considerably, turning into a low-cut bodice that made her breasts look pneumatic. Another incantation and the tresses of her hair coiled themselves up on top of her head like a basket of snakes.

  ‘Right then,’ she said, fixing her vivid blue gaze on me. ‘Let’s see what we can do with you.’

  She started murmuring again and I felt my clothes shift and change around me. I looked down in alarm. ‘What the hell have you done?’ I sputtered. The outfit I was now wearing consisted of a long greige skirt with a thick gathered waist and a long-sleeved, high-necked blouse tucked into it. I looked like her frumpy, dumpy, librarian cousin.

  Kallista smiled her lazy cat smile. ‘What’s the matter? I think it suits you.’

  ‘Change it to something more like yours!’

  ‘I can’t; the effort has exhausted me,’ she lied. ‘Besides, if you want it changed, you could easily just do it yourself.’ It was the first time she had mentioned my Blessings and she peered at me curiously to see what I would do. When I did nothing except seethe silently, she gave a small smile. ‘I thought not. You may not, technically, be a Zero, but you aren’t exactly a Hero, are you?’

  ‘Now,’ she said as she leaned into the mirror and began pinching her cheeks to redden them, ‘in all seriousness we need to have a chat. I’m not expecting you to save the day, or even contribute to the plan in any way while we’re out there, because, let’s face it, it’s you we’re talking about. Just sit there and, you know, try not to mess up too much. Smile nicely at people if they talk to you. Drink your drinks quietly, without drawing attention to yourself. And let me do all the talking.’

  ‘Maybe I’ll just turn myself invisible,’ I said, only half joking.

  She whirled round. ‘No! Gods, no. Don’t, whatever you do, tell anyone you’re a Psion. No one will go up against a Psion when it comes to gambling or gaming, anything that involves money being staked on a game of chance or luck. If they find out we’re Psions, even a crappy Psion like you, we’re done for. No, all we have to do is create enough of a diversion to let Raelthos do his job because, frankly, if we get to the point where we’re relying on you to open a dimensional door...’ She broke off and gave a tinkling laugh that made me want to punch her in the face. ‘Well, let’s face it, we may as well say goodbye to Owen right now.’

  With that, she spun on her emerald-green high-heeled boots and flounced out of the toilet, leaving me muttering and stomping in her wake.