by K A Riley
No. She doesn’t walk. She glides.
She’s average height, maybe five foot seven or so, but that’s all that’s average about her.
Her onyx hair hangs down to her shoulders in shimmering waves. Like Epic, she’s wearing a set of black-trimmed golden-yellow scrubs. Unlike Epic, hers are form fitting, so the toned muscles in her neck, shoulders, and arms under her short-sleeved scrub shirt are on full display.
She looks like she just stepped out of a fashion magazine. Or maybe stepped down from an Olympic podium. Either way, she looks like she belongs somewhere other than in what I think is an underground bunker most likely designed for the capture, experimentation, and torture of people like me.
The exotic-looking woman has high cheekbones, olive eyes, and the smoothest honey-colored skin I’ve ever seen.
But it’s her legs that draw my eyes. Long and shapely, they taper down to her knees where they stop abruptly and lead into a pair of tall metallic-black boots with what look like silver tank treads at the bottom. Only they don’t quite touch the floor. Instead, they hover an inch or so in the air over a wavy distortion.
“This is Aubrielle,” Epic announces with a casual wave of his hand. “As you can see, she’s a Modified.”
Aubrielle reaches down and pats the side of her leg. “Magnetic propulsion system,” she says with a smile way too pretty to belong to someone on the same side as an evil arse like Epic.
She taps the back of her head and smiles again. “I’ve got a few transhuman things going on up here, too. But there’s plenty of time for all that. We’ve been waiting for the two of you for a long time.”
Her eyes flick between me and Haida, who is still tucked quietly, as if paralyzed, in Micah’s arms.
“Aubrielle is the third part of our triumvirate,” Epic says, his voice brimming with barely restrained pride.
“We always work in threes,” Aubrielle explains. “Epic handles the big picture stuff. You know…planning, strategizing, coalition-building. All the things it takes to start and win a war.” She gestures over toward where Micah is standing on a weird angle and looking oddly out of touch. “You’ve met Micah. You might say he’s our Inside Guy. The one who knows how to get in and out of places. A handy ability to have when it comes to reconnaissance missions, wouldn’t you say? And me…well, I’m a lot of things. But the one job I have you might be most interested in is ‘bird wrangler.’”
She reaches over and scoops Haida Gwaii out of Micah’s arms, tucking the white raven against her chest.
Haida’s eyes flutter, and her head and wings shuffle a little at the motion, but otherwise, she doesn’t react.
I feel my nails digging into my palms as my fingers curl around into tight fists.
“What did you—?”
Aubrielle gasps and puts her hand over her heart, like even the thought that I may have my doubts is enough to offend her. “We didn’t hurt her if that’s what you’re worried about.”
“I’m worried about a lot of things,” I snap from behind the curved wall of my glass prison.
Epic steps forward. “We wouldn’t hurt Haida Gwaii any more than we’d damage a key we were about to use to open up a lock.”
“Honestly,” Aubrielle adds, “she’s at least as important to us as you are.”
“Kress is the key to what I’m looking to accomplish,” Epic says. “But you’re the key to Kress. With you on our side, we can counter her and any other Emergents she and her so-called ‘Conspiracy’ manage to get their hands on. And yes. Before you ask. We know they’re out on a recruiting mission. I’m not the only one who knows what’s coming. As for the rest of your friends, well, we’d like them on our side, too.”
“But they won’t join us without you,” Aubrielle sighs.
“They won’t join you at all,” I growl, lashing out as best as I can toward the glass.
Instead of being startled, offended, or intimidated like I’d hoped, Aubrielle just beams her pretty smile at me and brushes a swoop of her thick hair behind her ear. “Don’t be so sure, Branwynne. After all, how long have you known your fellow Emergents? And how well?”
“I know them well enough to know they’ll do whatever it takes to help Kress and stop you.”
“Really? Did you know that two of your friends are mass murderers?”
I stare daggers at her, but she still doesn’t react.
“Or that one of your friends has already betrayed you?”
Don’t let her manipulate you, Branwynne. Remember your training: Stay focused and in control.
I take a deep breath and try to connect with Haida. Maybe if I can channel her senses again—even just a little…
The lightning strike searing its way through my head is twice as powerful as it was before. Only this time, it’s not only me who suffers.
Still in Aubrielle’s arms, Haida shrieks in agony and strains her wings but fails to fly as Micah launches himself over and joins Aubrielle in clamping their arms over her.
I don’t know if I hear her screams in my ears or in my mind. Or maybe both. It doesn’t matter. All that matters is that my white raven companion, my friend, is in excruciating pain.
And I can’t even move far enough to bang on the glass.
Epic waves his hand in the air, and it’s like he’s sprinkled magic dust or something over Haida, who settles into Aubrielle’s arms with a fading series of light clacks.
Micah releases his grip and shuffles over to stand just behind Epic.
“There’s a place called the Lyfelyte—” Epic begins as he takes a few steps toward the bubble.
“I know about the Lyfelyte,” I pant, my lungs, mind, and entire body brimming with rage.
Epic comes to a screeching halt. “You do?”
“I’ve seen it.”
He strides the rest of the way over to the cell so fast I think he’s going to crash into it. But he stops and slaps both of his palms onto the glass. “You’ve seen it?”
“Uh huh.”
A deep crease forms at the bridge of his nose between his white eyes as he scans me up and down. Apparently concluding that I’m off my trolley, he grins and takes a half step back. “I don’t believe you.”
“I’m not surprised. You’re an idiot.”
The groove grows deeper but then his entire face softens, and his bone-white smile returns. “You think you have leverage now, don’t you?”
“I think you have me and Haida trapped, but I have information you want, which means you’re trapped too.”
“Hardly.”
“If you let me go, I’ll tell you what I’ve seen. And I’ve seen a lot.”
“Counter deal: You tell me what you’ve seen—tell me everything you know about the Lyfelyte, including how to access it—and I won’t have them snap all your bones and toss what’s left of you out into the desert for the Unsettled.”
On cue, two men and one woman in matching armored amber-yellow and black motorcycle racing suits march single-file into the room and line up behind Epic.
“This is one of our Trio of Sanctum Sentinels. As you can see, like us, they travel in threes. And they have the toughest job of all of us. You see, they’re tasked with keeping you here. That’s the easy part. But they’ve also been assigned to making sure they don’t kill you if you try to escape. I think you’ll admit, it’s quite the balancing act we’re expecting of them. But I believe they’re up to the task.”
“Where are my friends?”
Epic rolls his eyes at me. “Why? So you can start planning your great escape? And where would you go, exactly?”
My eyes have a mind of their own and glance up at the ceiling. Epic notices.
“The Academy? We’ll follow you. Or did you mean out there in the desert? The Unsettled would love to get their hands on you.”
“More likely their teeth,” Aubrielle chuckles. “Food’s been scarce out there for a long time.”
Epic gives a nod to Micah, who taps the cashew-shaped comm-link in his ear and
says something I can’t hear. Epic turns back to me and fixes his eerie eyes on mine.
Do my black-with-white-speckled eyes look this creepy to other people?
“I’m sorry, Branwynne,” Epic sighs. “But this isn’t the movies. There’s no cavalry coming to help you, and I’m not some moustache-twisting evil genius who’s going to tell you all my plans and leave the room unguarded while you make your escape.”
“You’re right about one thing.”
“Oh?”
“You’re no genius.”
Epic tilts his head back and laughs. Wiping a tear from his eye, he chuckles, “I didn’t expect this.”
“Didn’t expect what?”
His face goes oddly serious. “I’ve known about you for longer than you’ve been alive. I expected great power and great stubbornness from you. I just didn’t expect to like you quite so much.”
Without turning around, he waves his hand to Micah and Aubrielle, who turn and begin walking past the three guards toward the door.
On their way out, I catch a glimpse of Haida’s barely-open eyes from where she’s secured on Aubrielle’s forearm.
I’ve seen Haida hungry, angry, bored, overprotective, and deadly.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen her scared.
37
Stronger
I don’t remember falling asleep, but I must have, because when I open my eyes, Epic is sitting in front of me on his floating mag-chair.
He smiles but also grumbles a little as he stands, like he’s been waiting for me for a long time.
On the long lab table behind him, Haida Gwaii is perched on top of a silver, mushroom-shaped platform.
She gurgle-craws and clacks her greetings to me from across the room.
It’s nice to hear her voice.
I pin my eyes to Epic’s. “Where are my friends?” I’m too tired to bark it out, and it comes out as more curiosity than an angry question.
“They’re being held in a different part of the compound. We can’t have you collaborating now, can we? Frankly, Branwynne, we’re not interested in them. They can’t do what you can do.”
“I can’t do anything.”
“Not by yourself. That’s true.” Epic swings around to stand behind Haida Gwaii, his hands pressed flat to the table on either side of Haida’s perch. “You are one of a very few people who can talk to her.”
“Haida?”
“I meant what I said before,” Epic says. “I’m all about connections. And you have a very special connection with this very special white raven.”
Haida yelps a series of weak clacks before hanging her head in helpless defeat.
“What I want is the telempathic bond you and your raven share.”
“You want our bond?”
Epic smiles. “Kind of. You see, Branwynne, human beings have spent thousands of years elevating ourselves over everything around us. Plants. Animals. The air. The earth. Each other. You name it. We’ve hardwired ourselves to survive at the expense of everything outside of us. It’s what we’ve conditioned ourselves to do. And what’s worse, we’ve brainwashed ourselves into believing we’re unique. Separate. Individual. We go around breaking bonds. Well, you and Haida are the key to reconnecting.”
“I don’t know what you mean.”
“Didn’t Kress teach you anything?”
“Kress taught me everything,” I snap.
Micah laughs at this, which makes me furious since I’m not even close to joking around at the moment.
“From what we’ve heard, she’s teaching you to fight.”
“How do you know—?”
Epic puts up a hand to interrupt me. “And she’s teaching you how to connect with Haida. It doesn’t matter how we know. We know.”
My heart races, not out of fear or desperation. It’s out of frustration. If this were a regular cell, I could pace around, smash my fists against the walls. I could dig, scratch, and claw to try to find a way out.
Whoever designed this maddening bubble knew what they were doing. I’m free, helpless, and powerless at the same time. I can feel my muscles and my will getting weaker by the minute.
In front of me, Epic drags the backs of his fingers along Haida’s wings before walking around the table to stand behind his mag-chair.
“Emergents have abilities to varying degrees. Some of you are quite powerful. Others aren’t. What makes all of you special, though, isn’t what you can do. It’s how you’re able to do it. You’re not an evolutionary leap forward as much as you are a return to a natural state of connectedness. By tapping into what you and your raven here share, I can bring that connectedness back to the world.”
“You know,” I tell him in my snarkiest possible voice, “you could’ve just asked.”
“And what would you have said?” he laughs. “If I had tracked you down in your hidden fortress and asked you to let me into your head so I could put an end once and for all to this hell on earth we created…”
“I would’ve called you a barmy loon and told you to bugger off.”
“Exactly.”
“And then, I would’ve busted up your bloody face and chivvied off to bed without giving you a second thought.”
Nodding, Epic eyes me up and down. “From what I understand, you could do it, too.”
He reaches into his pocket and draws out a red disk not much bigger than his palm. Stepping toward the bubble, he slaps it to the glass where it sticks and starts to shimmer in a kaleidoscope of color.
“You see, when it comes to being connected, humans are on a spectrum. We bounce back and forth between wanting to be with others and wanting to be left alone. We dream of living in safety and isolation in a big house—or, in your case, a big school—high up on a mountain, but we can’t resist the pull of others. We’re in orbit around each other.”
I’m trying to focus on Epic, but the swirls of reds, blues, greens, and yellows from the disk on the glass keep drawing my attention.
“Way over on his end of the spectrum,” Epic says, spreading his arms wide, “Krug was the ultimate human being. And way over on the other end, there’s you.”
“I don’t…”
“I’m going to find out exactly what’s happening between you and Haida. Then, I’m going to replicate it. And then, I’m going to use it as the glue to put back all the broken pieces of the world.”
He steps back to the console in the table where Haida is perched.
“It’s time for some tests.”
Only, there are no tests. No challenges. No questions or interrogations.
There’s just pain.
I scream and beg to black out, but I can’t seem to lose consciousness.
Across from me, Haida starts to quiver and cringe. She spreads her wide white wings and tilts her head back, crawing to the ceiling and snapping out a string of anguished barks.
As casually as I might slip on my boots, Epic taps out a flurry of codes into a scrolling holo-display floating in the air between him and Haida.
A sizzling, green-hued dome of light materializes around Haida, trapping her inside.
Everything that happens next happens in about five seconds.
Or is it five weeks?
It’s impossible to tell. I’ve lost all sense of time and space. I’ve lost all sense of myself.
I’m not me, and I’m not Haida.
Somehow, as impossible as it sounds, I’ve become the connection between us.
I start out as a dot, a pinprick of light, bouncing around in the vast black of outer (or is it inner?) space.
The dot I am turns into a line, which turns into a crisscrossed patchwork of streaks and contours. The contours become a web that bends over onto itself until it forms a sphere, like someone wrapped a planet-sized soap bubble in a giant spider’s web.
As quickly as it seems to happen, the disorientation gives way to a strange calm, which gives way to pure fury when I finally open my eyes to discover that I’m still floating helplessly in E
pic’s spherical suspension cell.
Across from me, Haida is still under the crackling dome of energy on the lab table.
Her head perks up when she notices me noticing her.
I take a quick look around. The three guards are still stationed just inside the door, their eyes glued to me.
But no Micah, no Aubrielle, and no Epic.
A noise that starts as static and turns into language startles me to full attention. It’s Haida Gwaii, and her voice in my head is the best sound I’ve ever heard in my life.
~ Gone.
Epic is gone?
~ Yes.
Are you okay?
~ Yes. Are you?
Yes. What did Epic do to us just now?
~ He tried to access our connection.
Did it…did it work?
~ Yes. But not how he planned.
What happened?
~ He accidentally made us stronger.
38
Escape
With Epic gone, I figure it’s now or never.
Hovering a foot in the air and ignoring the nasty looks from the three amused guards, I thrash around inside the bubble.
I stretch my arms as far as I can, but I can’t reach the sides of my glass cage. I can kick my legs, but it’s pointless. I can’t reach the glass, and even if I could, I don’t see how I could possibly break it. And if I managed to break out, I’d still have the three guards to deal with.
And even if I managed to do all that, I’d still need to free Haida Gwaii, locate my friends, escape from this facility, and somehow get us back up the mountain to the safety of the Academy.
In my seventeen years, I’ve been shot at, beaten up, and kicked around.
But nothing guts me like feeling helpless.
Furious, I thrash around some more until it feels like all four of my limbs are about to come unhinged.
How can moving be so easy and so impossible at the same time?
If I could get free, maybe I could find a way to channel Haida. Or use what Kress has been teaching me to walk right through this thing.