Thirteen Mercies, Three Kills

by Liv Olteano

  She shook her head ever so slightly. “I don’t think we should—”

  I waved my hand. “She knows. Of course she does, don’t you, Nikola?”

  “I knew something was going on when the smoke manifested that night near my shop. By the time I made it anywhere close, Cristina Mera had already… solved the problem.”

  Nana frowned. “If you’re talking about the attack, my Miss didn’t do a thing. I took one of them down, and then, as we were struggling with the second, he just… fell.” She looked at me. “Didn’t he?”

  I bit my lip. “Well… my smoky resources might have taken him down.”

  “You didn’t say a thing about that,” Nana reprimanded me.

  “Well, considering all the things you never said a thing about, Nana, I’m sure my faults are the fewer.”

  She tightened her lips. “You’re right. I’m sorry. I was just trying to protect you….”

  I smiled. “So was I, Nana. Trying to protect you from knowing, and me from looking like some kind of monster.”

  “You’re not a monster,” Nikola chastised me. “You’d never be one, no matter what abilities and talents you might have.”

  I looked into her beautiful eyes. “I’m not so sure. See, this smoke, I don’t feel like I’m doing it. More like it’s being done for me, not by me. I’m scared of that, and yet I love feeling its presence.”

  “Are you sure? That it’s done for you, not by you?” she asked, tilting her head to the side.

  I nodded. “It’s what I feel. And it’s not, as Verner thinks, Death at my beck and call. I’ve seen the tendrils of Death. They’re black and thick, not pink. They feel cruel and unsettling, not tender like the pink smoke does. I’m sure they’re not the same thing.”

  “But your smoke can take a life too,” she half asked, half said.

  I nodded, looking down. “It killed that harvester when he attacked me.”

  Nana looked around. “I don’t see a thing. It’s here, this smoke?”

  Nikola and I nodded. Nana rubbed a hand over her chin. “And it’s pink?”

  We nodded again. Nana hummed for a moment, considering. “Well, then, if it works for you when you’re in danger, I like it—whatever it is.”

  Nikola smiled. “I agree. Though I do believe we should investigate the phenomenon.”

  I looked up at her at that word. “‘The phenomenon’…. Like the phenomenon of my mercies? The ones you’ve been investigating by following me around?”

  She crossed her hands at the small of her back. “Rumors travel fast, Cristina Mera. You’ll agree it had to be looked into. It’s a peculiar phenomenon. And it’s the only one of the kind I’ve heard of.”

  “Maybe you set this whole thing up just so you could have a closer look,” I gritted out, suddenly furious.

  Nana glanced at her sideways. “Don’t think so. She’s in cahoots with Jean, and that’d be going too far just to create this opportunity. But I’m sure she wasn’t averse to taking advantage of it, now were you, Skazat?”

  She shrugged. “I’m a woman of science, ladies. And since we’re on the topic, Cristina Mera, I’m asking your permission to investigate this further. Somehow….”

  The real reason for her willingness to help me all along, I suspected. Couldn’t blame her, really. We all had to do what we had to do.

  If I ignored any kind of emotional ties, I could face the truth that Nana was a marauder. She’d always been one, I realized. And she hadn’t quite hidden it from me since she introduced me to Jean a few years ago—when I was old enough to understand he should never be talked about. Nikola was scientifically interested in me as a phenomenon, and if she and the marauders could use me to get rid of Verner, then it was all the better. And even though I loved Nana like family and Nikola’s eyes made my heart flutter, not to mention how her touch had turned my knees to jelly up in her room a short while earlier, I knew I could trust our little arrangement based on each of our own selfish reasons. Selfish reasons, I thought, were more predictable than feelings. As long we all had something to gain from our collaboration, I was safe.

  The tendrils of smoke shuddered and wrapped tighter around me. Maybe I wasn’t the only one looking out for my interests. But who else was?

  Chapter 14

  “MISS SKAZAT, call your servant. I’ll send Jean a message to come here in the servant’s disguise.”

  Nikola nodded at Nana and left the lab. The pink smoke shivered around my skirt as I walked closer to her. She avoided my eyes, but I reached for her hands, and she finally looked back into my eyes.

  “You’ve been trying to protect me, Nana. I understand.”

  She sighed. “I don’t like secrets, Miss. But we couldn’t take chances. I couldn’t take chances, you understand? I didn’t want my… activities to affect you. I wouldn’t be able to forgive myself for it.”

  “You promise to stop keeping things from me, though?”

  She nodded. “I’ll do my best,” she said, smiling crookedly. Then she seemed to sober, her face becoming dark. “They tried to kill you. The reaper must die.”

  “The reaper must die,” I repeated, nodding.

  The soft cherry-blossom scent of the smoke permeated the air of Nikola’s lab. Though I didn’t feel that angry or scared anymore, the tendrils didn’t disappear. They crawled playfully over the hardwood floors and my eyes kept straying back to them. Nana and I sat down side by side, waiting for Nikola to return.

  Tach came in with tea and coffee and bowed gracefully. I said, “Thanks,” after he served me my cup and admired his elegance as he nodded. Nana thanked him too, though she regarded him curiously. Nikola finally returned with one of her guard golems. The man was shorter than Nikola herself, but he was wider. He looked similar to Jean’s size, from what I remembered of him, at least. He had a dark trench coat on, long and with the collar held up high. He also had a hat, something many gentlemen wore, but that Nikola told us he didn’t usually like wearing.

  Nana got up, walked around him. “Golem?”

  Nikola smiled. “His name is Aaron.”

  The main thing that differentiated him from Jean was his paler complexion and the almond-shaped eyes. But keeping the hat on and tilting it enough would cover most of his face.

  “I’ll write Jean a note. He’ll be sure it’s from me, and if your golem manages to deliver it safely, he’ll be here as soon as he can.”

  She headed for the table, took some paper, and began to write. I sat there, hands clasped in my lap, and watched Aaron. The smoke tendrils slithered up his legs, seeming to caress him too. I couldn’t be sure why, but I knew the smoke liked golems.

  Nikola watched the same thing, a hand propping her chin. “Fascinating,” she muttered.

  I cocked my head to the side. “I suppose the smoke and golems get along well?”

  “Too bad we have no way of asking him,” she said, shaking her head.

  “He can’t speak, I get that. But can’t he write it down for us?”

  A strange look crossed Nikola’s face. “You’ll agree most terminated citizens are the… simpler ones.”

  I frowned. “You mean the poor. He can’t write, is that what you’re telling me?”

  She smiled, a small and bitter thing that broke my heart. “Most of them can’t read or write, and they can’t speak anymore. But it doesn’t mean they don’t think. We just gave them no real opportunity of learning to communicate their thoughts before termination. And after it, though I’ve tried, they don’t seem able to learn complex new things.”

  I shuddered. “That’s awful.”

  She nodded. “Just as awful as it was before they became golems.”

  “My father,” I gulped. “He’d be able to write, though. Wouldn’t he? Some of the ones who got terminated knew how to write and read.”

  “True, but then again, you’ll never really see one of the golems who can communicate. Verner keeps them occupied with special tasks, labor not quite as physical as most. Higher-rate gol
ems, I guess, end up with higher-rate tasks. And once the binding is done, a golem will never turn against its master. It will never go against their word.”

  I frowned. “How do you bind a golem to someone anyway? I never really got that. If they can think and function, more or less, why don’t they just rebel?”

  Nikola reached inside her suit jacket’s pocket and took out the alkemic palm device for taking souls. “You know what this is?”

  I nodded.

  “Aside from extraction, it can also bind. A soulless creature can become linked to one who still has a soul. The body yearns for a soul, you know? That’s why extraction is difficult, why it needs special devices. Simply killing sets the soul free, and you can’t control it anymore. But through alkemic extraction, you separate the body from the soul and manage to control them each because they’re confused, yearning for the part they miss. So when you link a golem to the master’s soul, the golem becomes an agent of that soul, a faithful servant. It’s a binding that won’t break for as long as the master is alive.”

  “All of your guards are bound to you? Your servants, everyone?”

  She nodded. “You’ll have your own golems when you become a full-fledged alkemist.”

  I shuddered. “No, I won’t. I’m supposing you ‘extracted’ all of their souls?”

  She smiled bitterly. “When they were dying, yes. Each one of them has been a friend or a lover at some point in my life. I avoid turning lovers. It’s too difficult to let go of them if you see their face every day. But if they so choose, those women or men become my golems just like anyone else.”

  I gulped. “You mean every one of them is someone you cared about?”

  She nodded, a terrible sadness etched into her face. “It’s the curse of never fading yourself, Mer. Everyone and everything else around you will go. And you’ll be left with these reminders of all you loved and lost. Because when a friend, or a lover, asks to remain by your side as your golem since they’re dying anyway, you won’t be able to turn them down. You won’t want to because you’ll want to hold on….”

  My eyes prickled but I pushed the tears back down. “Every alkemist has such an army of golems?”

  “Most, though it depends on you who it is you keep in service, of course.”

  “My father is Verner’s golem now.”

  Nikola regarded me sadly. “Most likely. You need to prepare for the idea you might see him again in Verner’s household. You need to know that he won’t be entirely your father anymore, though he may look it. He’ll be Verner’s golem just like my friends here are mine.”

  I nodded and looked down. The smoke tendrils on the floor grew thicker, restless. They wrapped up on my body and the cherry-blossom perfume enveloped me. It settled my heart, but the sadness remained. It grew roots and latched on to me.

  “There,” Nana said, folding the paper, “take this to Jean.” She looked at the golem with unveiled suspicion. “You sure he can get there safely?”

  Nikola sighed. “Your faith in our capabilities is heartening, Mrs. Herran. Aaron, please take the note from the kind lady. Take it to….”

  She turned around and walked out, holding Aaron’s arm as if they were friends. Which, it would appear, they most likely were at some point during Nikola’s life. How terrible, I thought, to live and see all you loved and cared for die. My breath hitched as I realized it was a fate awaiting me as well. I’d see Nana perish, I thought with a shiver. The pink smoke writhed on the floor, embracing me sweetly me from head to toe.

  I watched Nana through the pink haze. She stood with her arms crossed and a faraway look on her face. She wasn’t worried, not as much as she might be. My friend, the cherry-blossom perfume, kept her turmoil at bay—and mine. It was a blessing to have such a way of keeping calm. We’d need our wits about us when Jean got here. I floated outside of my body, saw Nana’s soul shimmering with a rich array of colors. She had a positive float factor right now, I knew. Positives shimmered with rich colors while the negatives looked drearier, duller.

  The door opened and Nikola came back inside. She clasped her hands at the small of her back and looked at me slowly from head to toe. “I realize this isn’t the best of times, but you’re breathtakingly beautiful.”

  I smiled. “I’m not sure if you mean me or the smoke.”

  “Both,” she said and regarded me with intense eyes. “It’s a magnificent combination.”

  Nana pursed her lips. “I hate not knowing what you’re talking about.”

  “Unpleasant, isn’t it?” I muttered.

  Her lips tightened. I sighed and shook my head. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean—”

  She shrugged. “It’s all right, Miss. I deserve it, so mean it.”

  Awkward silence fell over the room as they paced around. I found them rather amusing, quite alike. They both kept their hands crossed at their backs, slightly bent forward, almost at the same angle. I sat there wrapped in my pink smoke and wondered how anxious we’d all be if the soothing effect of the smoke weren’t there.

  The waiting seemed to take forever. My bottom hurt from sitting, but getting up to fret around with the two of them didn’t appeal to me. The door finally shot wide open and a figure wearing a trench coat and a hat came in. He slammed the door shut, turned around, and fixed his hands on his hips.

  Nana breathed a sigh of relief and I chuckled. I loved Jean’s funny faces, and he made one at every occasion. What kind of face would he make now? As he threw off the hat and the coat, I felt relief to see his honey-colored hair and warm brown eyes. Jean Jacques, fierce leader of the marauders, looked between the three of us and frowned. He wrinkled his nose and one of his eyebrows went higher than the other. His hair stood up in odd places as if he’d just been roused from sleep.

  “What’n the hell have you people been up to here?” he said.

  Nikola reached out and they shook hands. Jean gave Nana a good and long stare, at the end of which they both smiled. And then he fixed his eyes on me and wagged a finger.

  “I knew you’d be a handful since you were twelve.”

  I fluttered my lashes at him. “Why ever would you think so?”

  He snorted. “You looked me straight in the eye and told me I was standing too close to your nana, and I’d better stand back or I’d be corrected.”

  Nana chuckled and looked over at me.

  I shrugged. “Someone had to be in charge.”

  “Damn right,” he quipped, grinning. “And now you get to do it all over again. I’m at your service, Cristina Mera Richards.”

  Chapter 15

  I SMILED, then got him up to date with the situation. We were all sitting down by the time the story was over. I inhaled deeply, exhaled, and slouched back in the chair.

  “We have to move quickly,” Nikola said, looking Jean in the eye.

  “I believe so. Verner won’t rest until he feels in charge again. Cristina Mera here must be giving him headaches now.”

  I frowned. “Why would I? I’m not dangerous unless being threatened, and I don’t plan to become so either. What makes me such a prize or an enemy?”

  Nikola crossed her legs and sat back in her chair…. I wished it wouldn’t draw my gaze to her thighs again, but it did. “You’re a living, breathing soul-extraction device. You know what’s the best kept secret about it?”

  I shook my head.

  “It extracts all souls. Even alkemic, should you have a device powerful enough. We’ve never managed to give ours that much power to extract an alkemic one. But there’s no way of knowing if you can or can’t do it yourself as a natural death bringer.”

  My eyes widened. “I can kill alkemists?”

  “You just might be able to. Though if you say it’s not you controlling these events, it could be harder to harness that power than we might have hoped.”

  I squinted at Nikola. “You’ve been planning this, haven’t you? Planning on using my ‘events’?”

  Jean shrugged. “We’re fighting for our lives here
. We’ll use whatever we can.”

  “Jean!” Nana scolded. “She’s not a weapon. She’s a person.”

  He nodded. “One who can give us a fighting chance. That monster is destroying New Bayou.”

  “I agree. So what were you planning since you began researching the ‘phenomenon’?” I said, glancing at Nikola.

  “Surprise attack. We go in, take his place by storm, extract his soul, and be done with it. Then I can become the resident alkemist until you reach alkemic maturity.”

  I shuddered. “Oh no, you don’t. I won’t ever be that kind of… thing.”

  Nikola’s eyes flashed dangerously. “You’re this hovertown’s only hope. You will be its resident alkemist and you will care for it.”

  “What’s it to you? Why can’t you do it if it’s such a noble thing?” I snapped.

  “I’m a wanderer, Mer. I can’t take permanent residence anywhere. To do so would mean depriving all other platforms of much-needed maintenance and upgrades. Someone else must keep the boat floating between improvements of the sails. Besides, being the resident would keep me from my research. It’s very important research. Vital.”

  “I will not remove Verner to only take his place immediately after. You hear me and hear me well. I won’t be a killer.”

  Nikola smiled bitterly. “Not for the town’s survival. But you’d be one for your own revenge?”

  I gave her a withering glare. “Fine point, well observed. I’m still not going to do it. I’ll try to pluck the reaper’s soul out if you think I can, but don’t count on me for anything else.”

  Nana nodded. “It’s not fair to ask so much of her. She’s right. You can’t expect her to become the very monster she hates.”

  “But she can expect me to become that ‘monster’?” Nikola asked, getting up from the chair. “Is that what I am to you already, Mer? A monster? Is that what you are?”

  I looked away from them all. The tendrils of smoke grew thick enough to color everything in the room. They wrapped around me tightly and calmed my racing heart.