The New Day

by Lorraine Thomson

  “You don’t get to decide that.”

  Cyrus went to David’s side and spoke quietly to him. “Think about what you want. This is not the way.”

  David pictured Sorrel. Where was she?

  Cyrus appealed to Brig. “We have travelled a long way. At least let the boy see his father. Look at him – Valen isn’t going to do anything. What harm can it do?”

  After a moment, Brig conceded. “He can see Eli – but then you will be on your way.”

  “Did you hurt her?” David asked. “Did you hurt Sorrel?”

  Brig scowled at him. “My patience is wearing thin.”

  Cyrus looked at Brig. “He deserves an answer – did you hurt the girl?”

  “They left in peace.”

  “In pieces more like,” Olaf said.

  David leapt at him and was held back by Cyrus. “What do you mean by that?”

  Olaf mimed sobbing and wiping his eyes with his knuckles.

  “Enough!” Brig said. “They came. They saw Eli. He chose me. They left. That is the end of the story.” He turned to Olaf. “Bring Eli here. Let them see the boy, then they can leave us in peace.”

  Olaf carried Eli into the room on his shoulders. The child stopped laughing when he saw the group of people, immediately reaching out for Brig. Brig swept Eli into his arms, the gesture so sure and comfortable it rocked David to his core. Is this what Sorrel had witnessed – Eli’s apparent love for Brig? Then no wonder she had wept.

  He approached the boy. “Eli – do you remember me? I’m David.”

  Eli shrank against Brig. As he did so, David caught sight of a flash of silver – a necklace around the boy’s neck. He saw two points of a star. Sorrel’s necklace!

  David looked at Brig – how much of what he’d said was true? Did Sorrel and Einstein really leave in peace? Before he could say anything, a mutant burst into the room. He was panting, his face red from exertion.

  “What goes?” said Brig.

  “News from the south – none of it good.”

  9.

  Atonement

  Sorrel

  Though the sun was high, Brig’s place was shrouded in black. Sorrel told herself it was some trick of the light, that the shadows would recede as they drew close. But it was no trick and the shroud was not cast of shadows.

  Even if they’d arrived in the dead of night with no visual clue to assist them, the heavy veil of char and ash hanging in the air would have told its own story.

  Sorrel looked at Einstein but found no comfort in the grim set of his face.

  “Do you want me to go on ahead?” he asked.

  “No, I’ll come with you.”

  Her heart was filled with dread as they approached the wide, shallow steps. The windows had blown out, the walls were soot-stained, and the heavy front door lay open, but this time Olaf was not there to greet them.

  “Is anyone there?” Einstein called out.

  The only answer was heavy silence.

  “I need to know if Eli is still here,” Sorrel said. “You stay with Tailwagger. I need to do this by myself.”

  “Are you sure?”

  Not trusting herself to say anything else, Sorrel nodded and went up the stairs. With each step she took, her grandmother’s voice echoed in her ears. Strength, vitality, courage, wisdom and perseverance – the traits she’d said Sorrel would need to survive, the traits represented by the five points on the silver star. It was only now that Sorrel realised her grandmother had missed the most important quality of all – hope.

  So many times she’d been full of hope only to have her heart torn apart. Each time she’d recovered, each time she’d gone on, but there was only so much pain and loss she could take and only so many times she could patch her heart together again.

  Everything that had happened since Amat weighed down on her now. Though she might hope for the best, she reached the top step telling herself to prepare for the worst, knowing as she did so that the worst would break her.

  She was almost at the entrance when she noticed the symbols scraped on the doorstep. She stared at them for several moments before turning around and looking at Einstein. He was watching her, Tailwagger by his side.

  “What is wrong?” he asked.

  “I’m not sure.” She looked back at the symbols. “Maybe nothing.”

  Einstein bounded up the steps. His mouth fell open when he looked at the markings. “Do you understand what it says?”

  “Some, but I want you to tell me.”

  Einstein pointed to the words as he read them. “David – Eli.”

  Sorrel nodded. She thought she’d recognised the letters, but didn’t want to let herself hope too soon. “David, Eli – and an arrow pointing to mountains.”

  “And this below.” Einstein smiled at her.

  Below the message was a heart with two letters entwined within it: D and S. Sorrel looked at Einstein and saw the joy she felt reflected in his face.

  “David left this for you.”

  “Someone did – David’s writing is no better than mine.”

  “Even better news as it means he has a friend. David must have come here looking for you.”

  “And he found Eli. But why this?” She looked up at the charred building.

  “The same reason the message is here. They know what is coming from the south and that you would return for Eli. The burning will have been Brig’s doing – he would not have wanted to leave anything for them.”

  “Do you think Brig is with David and Eli?”

  “Stranger things have happened.”

  DAVID

  They woke up after their third night in the mountains, coated in a light layer of snow. It took a lot of walking for David’s blood to warm, but if Eli felt the cold, he showed no sign.

  He was strapped to Brig’s back in a cocoon of animal hides. He still wouldn’t talk to David, but he didn’t shrink away from him now and on a couple of occasions David had caught Eli sneaking looks at him. It was something at least.

  They were eleven in all. On one side there was David, Valen, Cyrus, Kala and Lizbit. On the other, Eli, Brig, Olaf, and three other mutants. The one who had brought news of the invading army from the south was called Ivan. The other two, Warbles and Zee, prepared food for them all but otherwise kept to themselves.

  The news of the army coming from the south threw the two factions together. If they agreed on nothing else, all were in accord that the best course of action was to go north. David refused to let Eli out of his sight again and with no time for arguing, two became one. It was an uneasy alliance borne out of necessity.

  Wherever Sorrel was, David knew that if she got wind of the ill in the air, her first course of action would be to return to Brig’s for Eli. Cyrus helped him mark the message for her. That first night in the mountains, David introduced Valen to his son. Eli hadn’t shrunk away from his father, but had stared at him with solemn eyes.

  Valen’s eyes were as empty as ever when he stared back at Eli, but when his gaze settled on the silver star necklace, the muscles around them twitched.

  “Do you recognise the necklace, Valen?” David asked. “It was Sorrel’s.”

  But Valen did not reply and if anything had been there, it disappeared like a raindrop sinking into soft earth.

  “Did you see his face when he saw the necklace?” David asked Cyrus. “He recognised it, I swear it.”

  Cyrus shook his head.

  Brig watched all of this with his face set as though it had been carved out of rock.

  “Enough. Whoever that man once was has long since died. Leave him and the boy in peace.”

  Following Brig’s orders stuck in David’s craw, but ever since they’d left the valley, he’d been chewing over the words Cyrus had spoken to him. Think about what you want. This is not the way. His future hopes mattered more to him than losing a little face by dipping his head to Brig so, outwardly at least, he did as Brig asked, but he wasn’t giving up on Valen.

  He’d seen what
he’d seen. Brig was wrong – the man Valen had once been was slumbering deep inside him still and no matter how long it took, David resolved to wake him.

  Eli looked round and peeked at him from his cocoon on Brig’s back. David smiled, and though Eli did not smile back, neither did he hide from David’s gaze. Little by little David was gaining his trust.

  Brig assumed leadership of the group, but Kala challenged him whenever she thought there was a better route to take through the mountains. She won the argument more than once, saying there was a chance of finding goats if they went this way, or she knew of a quicker path if they went another. There was an admiring look in Brig’s sharp eyes whenever he conceded the argument. When they followed Kala’s way of the goats and did indeed spot the animals, even though they remained beyond the reach of Kala’s arrows, Brig was impressed. He appeared to enjoy locking horns with Kala. David wasn’t the only one who noticed. Olaf saw it too and used it to needle Cyrus.

  He likes her well, it’s plain to see.

  Cyrus’s weathered face gave nothing away, but Olaf kept working on him, drip, drip, drip, falling into step beside him or sneaking up behind him to deliver his poisonous barbs.

  There’s a spark there and no doubt.

  Two handsome mutants together, a more natural union, don’t you think?

  Despite Olaf’s best efforts, Cyrus kept his own council. At least he did until they’d made camp on the fourth night.

  They were in the foothills on the other side of the mountains. The snow had not yet reached this level and they had gathered enough twigs and branches from the scrubby woodlands to light a decent fire. Warbles and Zee huddled beside it, barely looking at anyone else while they spoke in whispers only they could hear.

  The pair were odd for sure, but they could have been ten times as weird and sprouting two heads each and David would still have welcomed their presence, for with the remaining scant rations and a few foraged shoots and roots, they cobbled together a warming broth which was served with hunks of bread they baked by the side of the fire.

  “No need for that goat after all,” Brig said to Kala.

  “This is a fine feast.” Kala nodded to Warbles and Zee. The pair snuck sideways glances at each other and indulged in silent smiles. “But goat is a welcome addition to any meal.”

  “See how they tease,” Olaf murmured. He had wormed his way in between Cyrus and Kala, separating the pair with the sharply elbowed bulk of his body. “I sense the first flourish of something deeper.”

  Though Olaf spoke apparently to himself, his remarks were clearly intended for Cyrus’s ears. But Olaf’s insidious tone carried and David, sitting on the other side of Cyrus, heard them as clearly as his own thoughts.

  Cyrus moved with such speed that David caught barely a blur between Cyrus sitting with his meal and him kneeling on Olaf’s chest, one hand squeezing his cheeks, the other holding a knife above his face.

  “What say I do you a favour, Olaf, and cut out your poisonous tongue before it infects the rest of your body?”

  Olaf squirmed beneath Cyrus’s weight, his eyes rolling as he sought Brig’s gaze.

  “Pleeth, get him off me.”

  David tensed, ready to cover Cyrus’s back in an instant, but to his surprise, Brig did not leap to Olaf’s defence. Instead Brig stayed where he was, with Eli by his side, looking not in the least bit perturbed by the scene.

  “Pleeth,” Olaf beseeched him.

  “You’ve long had it coming, Olaf. The man has been patient. Had you needled me the way you have needled him, I’d have removed your head from your shoulders before now.” Brig shrugged. “You got yourself into it, Olaf. You can get yourself out of it.”

  Cyrus grinned and jabbed his knife at Olaf’s mouth. “Will I do you that favour then?”

  Olaf’s pinprick eyes bulged like he was a Sawney. “Noooo, pleeeeth!”

  In one smooth move, Cyrus was on his feet looking down at Olaf.

  “Be careful in future whose affairs you meddle in. Next time, I won’t be so forgiving.”

  Olaf squirmed away from Cyrus on his back before rolling onto his knees and getting to his feet. He skulked to the opposite side of the fire, his head sunk into his body, eyes on the ground.

  “Let that be a lesson,” Brig said to him. He looked across the fire at Cyrus and raised his canteen in a toast. “Well played.”

  Cyrus raised his canteen in return. “Your health.”

  Brig looked at Kala. “For the record, Olaf was right in one respect – you have qualities I admire – a welcome relief after so long a time in the company of fools – Eli excepted. You and Cyrus make a good match.”

  Kala looked at Cyrus and smiled. Cyrus dipped his head at Brig as he sat down beside her.

  Ivan, the messenger, leaned over Lizbit to address David. “He didn’t mean me – I’ve been away.”

  David couldn’t help but laugh.

  Brig’s insult went over the heads of Warbles and Zee while Olaf’s head gradually lifted as he sought a way out of his sulk. He had, no doubt, been in this position with Brig many times.

  A peace settled over the group that had not been there before. When Lizbit shuffled closer beside him, David did not move away. It felt good to be warm and fed and with no antagonism in the air.

  “We must be within a day or so of Dinawl,” David said.

  “This is the furthest north I’ve been,” Kala said.

  Brig spat on the fire. “Dinawl is a filthy place, built on a love of coin.”

  “You took your share at the Thrall Market.” A rush of adrenalin flushed through David’s system as he uttered the words. The moment of peace was gone – finally, he was facing Brig down. Brig remained as unperturbed as he had been by the sight of Cyrus with a knife at Olaf’s face.

  “I wondered when you’d bring that up,” he said. “Yes, I took the coin, but it was dirty work. It left me with a foul taste in my mouth and a rotten stench in my nose. I’m done with the place.”

  David stared at him. Brig had been a figure of hate in his mind for so long, but he could not reconcile those feelings with the person he saw before him now. It occurred to him that, despite those feelings, he’d never had any doubt that Eli would be with Brig after all this time and that Brig would care for him well. It also occurred to him that even while he was trying to make sense of his thoughts, he had thought of Brig, not as a mutant, but as a person.

  He looked at Cyrus. “What about you?”

  Cyrus shrugged. “I’ve passed through on more than one occasion. I have no great desire to return.”

  “Face on too many Wanted posters, eh?” Brig chuckled.

  Cyrus shrugged again. “Maybe.”

  “But what about all the people in the city?” David asked.

  “What about them?” Brig said.

  “We’ve got to warn them about the army – Dinawl is surely where it’s heading.”

  “Warn them why?” Brig asked. “The place is rotten. Let the invaders from the south have it. Even if they burn it to the ground, it’ll be an improvement.” Eli snuggled into his side and he stroked the boy’s head. “I plan on skirting around the city to the west and heading north. Come with us or go your own way, makes no odds to me.”

  “Your way is my way,” Olaf said, “if you’ll have me.”

  Brig snorted.

  David thought about what had happened to him in Dinawl, the humiliation of stripping naked in front of the leering guards at the Thrall Market, the abuse he’d suffered at the hands of Black Angus. Yet more humiliation as Quirke the Blacksmith fitted the thrall-band. Being chased through the Dregs by Bobby Bloodbath. Niven’s lies and betrayals. He had little love for Dinawl. And yet.

  “You’re right,” David said to Brig, “there is a lot of bad in Dinawl. No place where people can be bought and sold is good, but it’s not all rotten. Kindness can be found in the cracks between the greedy and the cruel.” David thought about the kindness Stacey had shown him in the Three Rats vittle house, a
nd about how old man Joe had helped him and Sorrel escape Bloodbath Bobby in the Dregs. “They’re not all bad, and they’re not all there by choice. They deserve to be warned. They deserve to be given a chance. I’m going to Dinawl.”

  He looked at everyone around the campfire in turn. Lizbit stared back at him. She’d be with him whatever and wherever. Ivan was next.

  “I’m with Brig.”

  Valen stared at the fire. Perhaps David could persuade Valen to come with him, but more likely he’d go wherever Cyrus went.

  Olaf had already declared his allegiance to Brig. Warbles and Zee glanced at David then at each other. They were with Brig. That left Kala, Cyrus and Brig. David looked at Kala. She looked at Cyrus.

  “What about the Zeros?” she asked.

  “I’ve been thinking about them. The army would have to cross the Wastelands to reach them but they’re more likely to travel through the mountains which means they won’t go anywhere near the Zeros. Even if they did, the Zeros would disappear like dust in the wind long before the army got near them.”

  Cyrus glanced at Brig before answering David. “Loathe though I am to admit it, Brig got me spot on when we pitched up at his place. Close to death is where I feel most alive. I’ve been close to it plenty of times and caused it plenty more, a fact of which I am not proud. I’ve done some atoning with the Zeros, but I’ve plenty more to do and if you think you can save some innocent lives in Dinawl, I’ll gladly come along and lend you a hand.”

  “Thank you.” The two small words could not contain David’s feelings of thankfulness. He looked at Kala.

  “I’m in.”

  David looked at Brig. “You owe me.”

  Brig’s heavy brow shot up. “I owe you?”

  “You destroyed my home, killed my people and sold me into slavery. You owe me.”

  Cyrus turned to Brig. “Maybe it’s time for you to do some atoning of your own.”

  Brig looked back at Cyrus for the longest time before turning to David. “Maybe it is.”

  10.

  Leaving Is Not An Option

  David had left Dinawl on the run, but there was nothing furtive about the way he returned. They walked the straight road to the South Gate, in clear sight of anyone watching from the city walls. The bold approach had been Brig’s idea.