“What… where are we? How are we here?” Her joints no longer ached, and though her arms were still old and wrinkled, she felt like she was twenty again. “This is a dream.”
“Maybe.” Shandra shrugged. “Does it matter? Heaven? Your mind? Vee space?”
“Hell yes, it matters.” She stood, staring at Shandra. “Are you real?”
Shandra took a seat on the stairs leading up to the front porch, looking up at her. “I feel real. I suppose under the circumstances that has to be enough?” She grinned. “Come. Sit.”
Andy stared at her for a moment longer, then took her invitation, sitting next to her wife. “Oh God, I’ve missed you.” She took Shandra’s hand and pulled it over to her lap.
“I miss you too.”
“Things are bad, Shan. They’re hunting Liminals in Darlith. Hunting our kids.”
“I know.” Shandra stared out at the world in front of their porch. As Andy followed her gaze, it revealed itself as if it had just been hidden by a heavy fog. The apple orchard stretched out to the road about two kilometers off, and from there the curve of the world stretched above them. “The world spins, and things change.”
Andy laughed. “Yet somehow they stay the same. That’s rather cryptic.”
Shandra snorted. “Yeah, well. You try dying and see if it doesn’t make you a bit more philosophical.”
“Point taken.” Andy looked up at the spindle. “What did you see, all those times I found you looking up there?”
Shandra shook her head. “I don’t know. God? The future? Possibilities? Sometimes it felt like if I just looked at it long enough, everything would make sense.”
“God? You were never religious.”
Shandra shrugged. “You know. Death, and all that.”
Andy nodded. “Yeah, I suppose.”
“Your grandparents were religious, though, right?”
“Jackson and Glory? They were. It never really rubbed off on me.” Still, she wondered. It was some comfort to think there was a great beyond. A place your lovers and friends and family went when they died. Who wouldn’t want that? “Still, you didn’t come to talk religion with me. Why are you here?”
“Always so direct.” Shandra kissed her cheek. “It’s one of the things I loved most about you.”
“Not everyone values it like you do.”
“Then they’re fools.” She let go of Andy’s hand and stood, looking off toward Darlith. “I came to tell you that you’ll find a way through this. You are right where you’re supposed to be.”
“Me? Or we?”
“All of you. There will be a price to pay. But this too shall pass.”
“Philosophical and cryptic.”
“I earned it.” Shandra pulled her up and kissed her, and just for a moment, they were in their early twenties and in love for the first time. “Stay strong.”
Then she was gone, and Andy fell into a deep sleep.
Chapter Six: Fugitives
AINE FOLLOWED the lines of probability ahead into the future, gaming out a hundred, then a thousand, then ten thousand possibilities for what was to come.
There were so many variables, but one of the main ones was her own growing ennui. Human minds, no matter how evolved, were ill-suited to the prospect of near-eternal life.
She’d played this game many times before, and it always got old.
The imposition of human will over the natural id of the biomind was a relatively new step in the evolution of biominds. Prior to the introduction of Jackson’s consciousness into Ariadne, it had only been done once before, at least that she was aware of.
Lilith.
And that had ultimately gone very, very wrong, both back on Old Earth and in the inthworld.
Aine feared she too might one day lose her mind, pushed to her limits by the never-ending demands of the job and of the biomind itself.
If she did, the results would be catastrophic for the humans under her charge.
A new course was needed.
In the short-term, she had more immediate concerns.
About half of the Liminal humans in Darlith had escaped, but many were still in hiding. Short of physical intervention, which she was loath to use against her own people, there was little she could do except encourage them and help them connect with one another.
That was a blunt tool that was likely to cause more problems than it solved.
Andy’s little thief was still shielded from her senses, but he’d show up again, sooner or later.
Aine sighed. Humans always seemed to find a way to make a mess of something good. Just when you thought they had evolved, they took two steps back into chaos.
She loved them, all the same.
DESTINY SLIPPED around a corner, trying hard to stay unnoticed. Ser hood was down, and ser whole posture screamed I’m not important.
Se had reached the square a few minutes before to find the Earth sculpture a broken, smoking ruin.
Something had happened there, something bad. It would kill Andy when she found out.
“I’m looking for a friend,” Destiny said to a young blond woman, maybe twenty-five. The tenth or twelfth person se’d approached in the square.
“I’m sorry, I just want to get home—”
Destiny touched her cheek gently, and the woman’s mind opened up to ser. The woman went silent. Se disliked using ser gift this way, but desperate times…. “What’s your name?”
“Sera.”
“I’m looking for a friend. Her name is Andy.” Se slipped Andy’s image into Sera’s head gently.
Almost immediately, a flood of images came back.
Andy touching the sculpture. Andy knocked to the ground by one of the city guards. Andy arguing with Della. The crunch of bone and Andy being carried off to the medic.
“Thank you.” Se let go of the woman’s cheek, taking with ser the memory of their encounter.
Halfway across the square, se turned to see Sera standing there, blinking. The woman looked around, shook her head, and continued on her way.
No harm done. There were more important things to worry about today than ser own conscience.
There was only one medic’s office in the heart of Darlith, and it was just two blocks away. Destiny hurried out of the square.
When se arrived, se sighed, finding a locked door. It was closed.
Destiny stepped back into the street, looking up at the open windows above. “Hello?”
It was late in the afternoon. Soon nightfall would race by, and se hoped to find Andy before it got too late.
No one answered.
Se found a small pebble and tossed it through the open window.
It clattered across the floor inside.
A man popped his head out. “Who threw this?” He held up the pebble accusingly.
Destiny gave him ser most disarming smile. “I’m sorry. I need to see the medic.”
He stared at ser. “Why didn’t you just ring the bell?”
Destiny looked back at the door. A small rope hung from the portico over the door. “Because I didn’t see it?” Se ducked her head.
He frowned. “Oh, all right. I’ll come down.” His head disappeared back inside.
In a couple of minutes, he popped out of the open door. “Can I help you?”
“I’m looking for my friend. Her name’s Andy. I think she was brought in by a couple guards an hour or two ago. Can you tell me where she went?”
THIERRY WAITED by the Black Fountain, hiding in plain sight, pretending to be a bored kid playing in the water.
The fountain sat in the middle of a small plaza at the heart of the Grid, a convenient meeting place for people living on the Farside. A pair of fat black metal fish leapt over the water, suspended in midair, their elongated snouts open in a toothy grin.
Thierry growled. Skate was late.
He climbed up on the fountain rim and made his way around the edge to kill time, balancing over the bubbling water.
He came around his first sp
in and stopped dead.
Smoke was billowing up above the Warren.
He’d seen clouds of smoke across the river earlier and had quickly picked up what had happened there from the agitated chatter of passersby. The new mayor had disbanded the city council and had burned Old Earth to the ground.
Now smoke was rising over Darlith once again.
Skate came barreling toward him at a run. He clipped a woman’s side, almost knocking her down in his haste. Her bag tumbled to the ground.
“Sorry!” He knelt to help her pick up her belongings.
“Get away from me, you little street urchin!” She slapped him and shooed him away. “You’re not stealing my things.”
He backed away slowly, glaring at her. Then he turned and ran to where Thierry was waiting. “Roland….” He puffed and panted.
“What? What happened?”
“House burned down.” His hands were on his knees as he caught his breath.
Thierry took his arm and, with a quick glance around to make sure no one was watching them, disappeared them from everyone’s perceptions.
“Roland’s place burned down?”
He nodded. “City guards. The fire’s spreading. Mr. Longfinch is organizing a bucket brigade to keep the fire from burning down the whole Warren.”
“Fuck and Forever.” They were trying to flush him out. Thierry had a thing against Roland after the man had tried to sell him to someone from the city’s elite, but even so…. Roland didn’t deserve to be burned alive. “Did he….”
“Get out? I don’t think so.”
Thierry whistled.
“What’s going on?” Skate looked worried.
Of course he was. His home was burning down. “I don’t know. I think… they’re looking for people like me. People who can do things.” He sighed and said a quick prayer to Saint Ana for Roland’s soul. It was the one thing his mother had taught him that he still remembered. “Did you find the address?”
Skate nodded. “Vinnie did.”
“Wait, you told spin-fucking Vinnie?”
“He knows everyone.” Skate frowned. “I wasn’t supposed to?”
“I told you not to.” Thierry looked around the square. Guards were entering from all four sides. “Dammit, Skate, Vinnie led them right to me!”
Skate stared at the guards. “I’m sorry, Thierry.” He was trembling.
The guards were approaching the fountain, closing ranks as they walked toward the center of the square.
“Quick, follow me.” Thierry took Skate’s hand and led him over the edge of the fountain and into the water. They retreated to the center of the basin, underneath the great fish. “Stand absolutely still, and don’t say a word.”
“I’m really sorry, Thierry—”
“Shhhhh.”
They fell silent as the wall of guards approached. The line was not letting anyone through until they’d been carefully checked.
Thierry held the younger boy’s hand, his other hand over Skate’s mouth.
The net closed in, until the guards surrounded the fountain.
“What are we looking for here, a ghost?” One of the guards, a large man with a black beard, spat on the ground in disgust.
“You heard the captain. The kid can disappear at will.” The woman, a blond with short hair who reminded Thierry of the woman in the square who had helped Andy, looked around. Her eyes were narrowed, as if she could pierce the veil that hid her adversary. “Maybe we’re too late.”
The square was all but empty, the passersby not wanting anything to do with whatever the guards were up to.
Poor Skate was shaking even harder now. He wasn’t gonna last much longer without moving or blurting something out.
Thierry had to do something.
Maybe if he could make them not see where he was, he could make them see him where he wasn’t.
He concentrated on a place halfway across the square. I’m over here.
“Look!” Black beard pointed across the square.
A spitting image of Thierry stood there, sticking his tongue out at the guard. Then he turned and ran.
“What are you waiting for?” The woman pointed at the quickly disappearing thief. “Five moon bonus to whomever catches him!”
Most of them ran off, but one man, a young cadet with short dark hair, stayed behind for just a moment. “This is your chance,” he whispered to the fountain. “Run.” Then he was off after the others.
Thierry stared after him for a moment. Somehow he’d known they were there. Was he a Liminal too?
Thierry was smart enough to take his luck where he found it.
“Come on. We have to get out of here before they come back.” He looked down at Skate. “You okay?”
“I… think so? That was close.”
“Dry your feet off as best you can so we don’t leave tracks.”
They sat at the edge of the fountain and flicked the water off their feet, leaving a dirty stain in the basin.
“Thierry?”
“What?”
“Thanks for showing me what you can do. It’s really spin.”
Thierry laughed. “Thanks. It’s useful sometimes. What’s that address again?”
ANDY DRIFTED in a sea of calm and quiet. She was wrapped in soft cotton, floating free from all her old cares and concerns.
You’ll find a way through this.
Shandra’s words echoed through her mind. Andy grinned. When had Shandra ever lied to her?
She opened her eyes.
The ceiling above was made of smooth planks of mallowood, the reddish golden grain polished until it almost glowed.
Her left arm was wrapped in something. It pulsed with a dull ache that somehow didn’t make her feel any less serene.
“You’re awake.”
Andy sat up slowly to see who was addressing her, using her uninjured right arm as a lever.
Della sat in a wooden armchair opposite the bed, watching her from across the room.
“Good morning to you too.” She worked her way back in the bed until she was sitting comfortably against the wall.
The floors of the room were mallowood too, in wider planks than the ceiling, and had been fitted together expertly. The rest of the room was empty except for a small table with a pitcher and a couple of hand-blown glasses, and a chamber pot in one corner. There was a smaller side table next to the bed.
Andy’s bladder was full, but she’d be damned if she was going to humiliate herself that way in front of Della. She glanced at her arm. “Looks like you took me to the medic?” She remembered something about that, but the memories were hazy.
Della nodded. “I’m sorry for your injury. I didn’t intend for that to happen.” She got up and poured a couple of glasses of wine and handed one to Andy. Then she sat down next to her on the bed.
Andy sipped it, nodding appreciatively. “Red berry wine.”
“Your favorite.”
She probably should have suspected some mischief with the wine, but she felt calm, controlled, safe. “Thank you for remembering.”
Della looked out the window, her gaze distant. “Those were happy times. Before—”
“I know.” The wine hit Andy’s stomach, and a feeling of warmth and contentment suffused her.
“You’re wrong, you know.” Della turned to look at her, as if judging how she’d react.
Andy laughed. “I’ve been told so before. What about this time?”
Della stared at her.
Apparently you expected argument, strife?
“About Old Earth. I used to believe in it too. All those amazing things you showed us in vee. The history you taught us.”
“Earth was real. I saw it.”
Della sighed. “I know you believe it. You think you saw it.” She put a hand on Andy’s knee. “Our overlords show us only what they want us to see. The inthworld taught me that.” She tore her eyes away from Andy’s. “That false idol—Lilith—she almost broke me. It took the better part of a decade
to pull myself back together after….”
“The first intifada?”
“Yes. You’d know that if you’d ever bothered to find me. To check in on me.”
Andy looked down at her hand, wrapped around the wineglass. It was old and wrinkled, spotted with age. “You’re right. I’m sorry for that.” She sighed. “I should have reached out. Helped you.”
Della looked surprised again. “Yes, you should have.”
Andy sighed. “I have a lot of regrets in my life. You’re one of the biggest.” She set down her wineglass on the side table. “Regardless, you don’t have to do this.”
Della’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t have to do what? Expose all the lies? Free everyone from the baseless restrictions society has placed on us?”
Andy put her good hand over Della’s. “I know you’re angry. I would be too. Life dealt you a bad hand, and you’ve come through the worst of it intact. Just let me show you—”
Della jerked her hand away. “I’m sorry, Andy. I really am. You know I loved and respected you.”
Past tense. She’d make one more try. “I’m sure Marissa and Danny would love to see you again. Maybe if we—”
“It’s too late. I’ve made up my mind.” She got up and went to the window, looking out into the distance. “I’m not going to hurt you. Just keep you here for a while. You’ll be fed and well cared for.”
“It’s a prison.”
Della smiled tightly. “I prefer to call it an enforced vacation.” She turned back to Andy and leaned forward to kiss Andy’s forehead. “I really am sorry.”
That and two copper stars will get me an embrew. If Andy had still had her strength, her abilities, she would have reached inside Della to find out what had twisted her so terribly, what had made her so angry and brittle.
Instead, she just watched in silence as Della left the room and locked the door behind her.
Shandra, you’d better be right.
DESTINY LEANED against the wall, hood down, staring at the Mayor’s Residence across the street. As far as se could tell, that’s where Andy was being held.
The trail had led here before going cold.
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