And I’ve got an advantage. Something he doesn’t know about. And it’s going to stay that way.
“Nothing,” I say.
David repeats my words, it’s eerie. I try not to look at him.
Raleigh straightens up and folds his arms carefully. Then he kneels in front of me, so our eyes are at the same level. “Lying is bad, Shania.”
I grit my teeth, try not to shake. “I haven’t been doing anything. I’ve been in my cell the whole time, alone. Your men took me there. You can ask them.”
He makes a noise close to a snarl, then lifts his hands up. I wince as he touches my face, but I can’t turn my head—he makes sure of that. His fingertips run lightly over my skin, following the contours of my face. I want to bite his fingers as they cross over my lips, but I can’t open my mouth—he’s prepared.
“Your powers are burned out.” His tongue moves like a snake as he speaks. “Don’t worry, it’ll be a temporary thing. They’ll heal and replenish their energy in no time.” His hand moves to my left ear; he gives it a sharp tug. “Must be because your powers are newly awoken, and I took too much yesterday and didn’t check afterward how much you had left. I remember when I was younger, my powers would run out quickly. Only for a while though. Now I have a near infinite source.” He smiles his creepy smile. “Not to worry. I’ll let your powers have some time to renew. We don’t want to burn you out. Not with all the greatness we will do together. But now, there are…other things we can do.” He licks his front teeth very obviously and intentionally. A short laugh follows. “Come with me.”
My vision blurs for a second.
Other things. The words turn over and over in my mind as he makes me get up, as he commands me to follow him from the room. I try to resist, try to look back at David, but his hold is strong, and—
There are other things we can do.
My mouth dries.
Fight!
Fight!
Fight!
But my body’s locking up, and I can’t.
“This is my office,” Raleigh says, when we reach a new room. “My personal office. Sit down.”
He directs me to a chair in front of the table. It’s a soft chair, makes me feel like I’m sinking. He laughs softly as he walks behind me. I try to turn, but I can’t move. I hear rustling sounds, then he leans over me, places a large metal sheet on the table. I smell his breath: liquor and…chocolate.
“Turn on,” he says, and a screen appears on the metal. Raleigh, still leaning over me, taps on it in several places until he’s satisfied. “Have a look, Shania.”
I stare at it.
It’s a map of the world. The diagram is divided into seven parts by thick black lines, each expanse labeled. Every land mass has been color-coded. Nearly everything is yellow, but in the areas marked as Section Three and Section Five there are some areas blocked out in lime green, with a few pale blue dots too.
I lean in closer. The land to the far western side of Section One also has some blue dots—and some green ones. As do parts of Section Four, though the dots of both colors there are much smaller.
“Those are the regions of the world. Section Three is where we are.” Raleigh indicates the middle bottom section, and I stare at it. “Yellow masses indicate areas that we—the Chosen Ones—have saved. And green is where the spirits are most active. Blue is where we believe there are remaining Untamed settlements or lone individuals living—and, unsurprisingly, they go where there the spirits are most prominent. Or perhaps it is the spirits who gather around the Untamed. Both are wild creatures.” He points at a predominantly green and blue area in the bottom half of the main land mass in Section Three, then he moves to my side so he’s no longer leaning over me. “Those are the Noir Lands. This map hasn’t been updated, it would seem, not since we caught many Zharat. We can reduce the blue part quite a bit, now that those Untamed are no longer there… They can count as Chosen Ones, for the purposes of this map now; they’ll be saved soon.”
He taps on the map, and the blue area reduces in size until it’s only a few dots. He looks at me.
“There are still some there, but you’ll find them. Just like you’ll find them all. Save all the poor Untamed, make the Chosen Ones victorious.”
I stare at the map, my pulse quickening. The blue dots represent the Untamed, the ones still out there. I lean in closer. There are still a few in this section then—Raleigh’s section. People like me. Out there. My eyes narrow as I search for where Nbutai is. But this whole section is vast and straddles areas either side of the equator. My eyes narrow as I look at the other parts of the map. Section Five shows some Untamed, as does Section One. And Section Four. Which one of those blue dots is for Taras and his group? And then I see a blue dot high at the top of Section Five, near the border to Section Six. The land around the blue dot is white. Ice. Snow. That’s got to be it.
But then I frown. Other areas can have snow. Even the mountains near the equator get snow, if they’re high enough.
“As you can see,” Raleigh says, “my section—Section Three—houses the largest number of Untamed. Because my section is also where the most spirits are, and they make the land dangerous. We have lost many of our sacred men venturing into those areas.” But now he smiles, radiant. “But with you on our side, with you luring the Untamed out and bringing them to us, that won’t happen.”
I stare at him, my eyes widening. No. No. No. He can’t know about my body-sharing…he just, can’t.
“You think I’m going to lure them out?” My voice wobbles. I shake my head. “No. I’m not.”
“I don’t think—I know.” Raleigh smiles brightly. “So, Shania, we need to work out how this might work. I could direct you to physically go to each place and round up the Untamed and bring them to us—I can even give you some mirror-destroying drinks so they trust you more, as you’ll definitely be a Chosen One by then… But it would be time consuming, would it not? And very tiring. Lots of travel. No.” He taps my head—actually taps my head. “You must have a conversion power in here…something that can be used across a wide area. It’s the only logical explanation. Something that makes you special, makes you the key to one race’s survival.”
“I haven’t got any special powers. Not at all.” I wince; I spoke too quickly, too forcefully.
Raleigh laughs. “We don’t know what you’ve got. Every Seer is different. Even though we share some powers—like we all have the white light for defense—a Seer has multiple other powers too, and the combination is nearly always different. I can put trackers on another person’s senses, for example. Most often, I get their vision, sometimes their hearing.” His lips twitch a little. “I also possess a degree of natural healing power, and even without the augmenters, my strength could be called superhuman at times. And that’s just touching the surface. Your mother can project a spiritual form of herself in front of another, usually a Seer, only for a minute or two at the most though. Body projection can be very difficult.”
My eyes widen. When I was traveling with Three, Rahn, Corin, Esther, and Marouska, the second time I secretly consumed part of an augmenter was because I was stressed and upset as my pendant had been stolen. And I saw my mother then. She…she was disappointed, upset, annoyed that I’d taken the Calmness, gone against everything she’d told me. I’d thought it was my imagination, but it was…it was her? Body projection?
And I saw her again, here…when I was tired, and the Enhanced were torturing me with Tiredness and—
And the moving image she showed me, it flashes into my mind again:
A woman falls in flames. She screams, and long, dark hair whips around in front of her face, obscures her features. Orange tongues rise around her. They eat her.
Her scream goes on and on, cuts the night.
And then it’s over.
My eyes narrow. That was really her?
Raleigh’s still talking, and I look up at him, strangely startled.
“It’s possible you can project too, thoug
h I doubt that would be the conversion power that would save us, given that projection usually only occurs in front of another Seer, and the projection itself does not have a physical form.”
But she did. My mother touched my hand, gave me the vision. She had a physical form. Raleigh’s wrong.
“So,” Raleigh continues, “we’ve got to work out what you can do, what it is about you that makes you so important. Why you’re the key to the Untamed.”
Unite the Untamed.
I try not to think about Taras. But I know—just know—the body-sharing is part of the reason I’m the key. Or the reason. It’s obvious. I just don’t know why, or what I’ll actually do to end the war in favor of the Untamed—uniting us can’t be enough. We—or rather I—have to do something when we’re united. But how can I know what that is when I couldn’t even contact any Zharat Seers or Corin earlier…because I was worn out? And I don’t know how to control it.
Not yet anyway. I press my lips together firmly.
“It should be easier to do this once your Seer powers have renewed themselves,” Raleigh says. “Be easier to detect the individual energies then. I’ll have a probe around in them, then. See if we recognize any energy types. Yes. We can do that tomorrow, you should be strong enough by then, and it’ll work better—get us more accurate readings—if your energy levels are strong. But we do need to get a move on, Shania. Understand? The other section leaders expect me to have a plan ready for the next meeting as well as an estimated date for the end of the War of Humanity. The end of the Untamed.”
The end of the Untamed.
I try not to look at him.
“Now, study this map, Shania. I want you to memorize it, learn the names of all the identified areas where Untamed beings still live.”
He touches the map and thousands and thousands of words appear on it. Names of towns, cities, rivers, forests.
Raleigh makes me stand up, makes me step closer to it. My neck aches horribly as I look down at it.
Raleigh laughs softly.
I look at the map—because I have no choice—but I search for New Kitembu. Need to know where we are, what’s around us. At last, I spot it, and, for a moment, my chest feels cold. We’re so far from the Noir Lands…and so far from New Kimearo, the nearest Enhanced settlement to Nbutai. I don’t think I’ve ever been so far east.
I glance over the rest of the map, at the huge masses of yellow that make up at least ninety-five percent of the color-coding. Green is the next biggest collective area—the spirits. The Untamed really are just a splattering.
“How many Untamed are there?” I ask.
Raleigh points at the map. “We estimate between three and five hundred, worldwide. The number was bigger before, thanks to the Zharat, but many perished during the volcanic steam eruption. Such a shame… But three to five hundred is nothing. Not when there are just over seven billion Chosen Ones. And with you, we will find the poor wild ones, and save them, make them feel better, make the world better.”
My eyes widen. Three to five hundred of us against billions of them? My hands tremble. Even if I hadn’t been captured and my soul bound into Raleigh’s command, how could we—even including the Zharat’s number—have overcome billions of Enhanced?
Unite the Untamed.
Taras’s words drive through me again.
“Come on, Shania,” Raleigh says. “Memorize the regions believed to house Untamed. I’ll be testing you on the co-ordinates later.”
I fail the co-ordinate test two hours later, as planned. I need Raleigh to underestimate my intelligence, my abilities—if that’s possible—and I know I can use it to my advantage.
“You’ve got to do better than this,” Raleigh says. He’s kneeling at the opposite side of the table now. “I know you’re a clever girl—I know you can do it. You are a Seer. But you’re letting the Untamed evil in you stop you—because the Untamed part of you is misguided, and it thinks you must not know this information, that you must not help save everyone. But you must. It is your duty. It is what you are meant to do.”
Meant to do.
No free will.
He’s sorted that.
“I’m tired,” I say. “I can’t think properly.” I pause, then look at him carefully. “How do you expect me to remember a bunch of numbers if I can’t get a good night’s sleep? Have you tried sleeping in a cell? And these overalls aren’t exactly comfortable. The seams are really rough.”
“You desire something more comfortable? You want to live a luxurious life?”
“I don’t want to be kept like a prisoner.” I press my lips together. What I want is a room with a window. A window offers escape.
“But, Shania, my dear. You are a prisoner. The Untamed evil is keeping you prisoner. And I’m sorry that I’m forced to keep you in this state, but my men are working on the augmenters, and soon—I promise, soon, you’ll be able to feel better. For now, you need to be strong.”
I snort. “And you’re supposed to be kind.”
The look on Raleigh’s face changes in an instant. “I am kind.”
“You were kinder at New Kimearo,” I say. “I had a nice bed there. And a teddy bear. I wasn’t kept locked up in a dungeon.”
“I was able to save you quickly there. Shania, don’t concentrate on the negatives—it’s what the Untamed entity wants you to do. Instead, show it how strong you are.”
I shrug. Then I choose my next words carefully. “Then give me an incentive. Give me a nice room. With a window. I don’t like being cooped up. And my powers would regenerate quicker, wouldn’t they, if you at least tried to keep me happy, rather than treating me like I’m evil? You said before that the Untamed part of me was a parasite. Yet you’re not just punishing the parasite by locking me up, you’re punishing me. You’re turning me against you. You’re making me more likely to side with the evil, to let it grow.”
Raleigh is quiet for a long time. Then he sits up straighter and folds his hands carefully on the table. “You won’t resist as much, if I provide you with a nice room?”
“Of course not,” I say as sweetly as I can.
Raleigh grunts.
A moment later, he takes me back to my cell, only exerting the smallest bit of control on me—just to guide me really. But I don’t fight him.
Not yet.
Timing is important.
I smile at Raleigh as he leaves. And I get the desired satisfaction when I see how much my behavior has unnerved him.
I don’t know how long I’ve got until Raleigh comes back—either tomorrow, ready for our next session…or before that with a room-change? Have I really got through to him? And if he does give me a window, I’ve got more of a chance of escaping.
What if the window is barred?
Then I’ll break the bars. Raleigh said he had superhuman strength. I stare at my hands. There’s a chance I do too.
But there’s one thing I do know for sure: I body-shared and used a significant amount of Seer energy yesterday. So much so that Raleigh couldn’t find my powers, couldn’t use them, and so, instead, he gave me the location of every Untamed out there instead. And, despite what he thinks, my memory is fine. I know where they are, and when I get a new room with a window, I can escape and find them.
My smile gets wider.
I couldn’t have imagined things would go any better.
Knowing I need to body-share, and that I need to use up my powers so Raleigh can’t exploit them, doesn’t mean it’s any easier for me to actually body-share. Especially when I don’t know what I’m doing. Taras seemed to think it would be easier for me now, but it’s not.
My mother’s pendant feels strangely heavy as I hold it up in front of me, twirling it between my thumb and forefinger. I free up my mind, empty it.
I don’t know what the chances of slipping back into Viktoriya’s body are—so far, it’s never been the same person twice, yet I’ve only done it less than a handful of times. And none of those were me actively wanting to do it. Still,
I concentrate on how Viktoriya’s body felt smaller, but stockier, denser than mine. The way the fur on her hood tickled against my—her—forehead. I picture her reflection again, then think of Taras.
Then I expand the image and the features of the Untamed person in my mind change. Feeling strangely in a dream, I morph the face into Rahn’s, then switch the eyes for Keelie’s. Elf materializes for a second, then he’s gone and I’m looking at Finn. Then Keelie. Then the other Untamed who I know. Who I knew. The ones who are dead.
At the same time, I picture the map. I zoom in on places, see place names. I try to find the Untamed living in these places, pull the face of one back up, and let its features change so it’s no longer Bea, Keelie’s sister, but a man who looks more like Taras—but not quite.
More features change, and then I’m zooming along the map, drinking in place names.
And then I see my mother in my mind’s eye. But she’s not Untamed. She’s Enhanced.
I open my eyes, stare at the pendant.
It’s not working.
Or maybe I’m trying too hard, letting my imagination take over, rather than my powers.
I get up and pace about. My powers are probably still burned out. How long will they take to renew? I swallow uneasily. What if they only renew just before Raleigh’s next session tomorrow and I haven’t had time—or been able—to use them up before then? And how quickly do they renew? Is it gradual regeneration—or will it just suddenly flood me, like a switch has been pressed?
I grit my teeth and focus on the stone wall ahead. I will not be the Enhanced Ones’ weapon. I will not. I squeeze my hands into tight fists and—
Footsteps. Outside my room, the corridor.
I freeze.
Raleigh? Coming back already?
But he said tomorrow….
My breathing speeds up. What if he’s changed his mind? Or knows, somehow, that I can body-share?
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