Preda shuddered. “No reason.” After a moment she said, “Look, Will, I’m really sorry. I had no idea that what I said would be binding.”
Her apology seemed to bewilder Will. “Please don’t apologize. I should be sorry for reacting the way I did. It was just a shock.” He hesitated before continuing. “Your choice honors me.”
Preda squirmed a little under the gravity of his words, and she decided to lighten the mood. “Can we go get Laney now?” she asked hopefully.
Will laughed at the question. It was what she had wanted to do in the first place.
“You’re my official guardian now, so you get the final word, right?” she asked.
Will sighed heavily, and he assumed a mischievous expression. “All right,” he said. “We’ll go in the morning.”
Preda was elated. She had gotten a feeling from Laney that the girl just wanted to be her friend. She had never experienced that before. Will smiled at her obvious excitement and said she should get ready for dinner. Al was cooking downstairs.
30
It was odd, but when Will left the room, Preda felt his absence. It wasn’t as if she missed him, but she could feel he was no longer next to her. She looked down at her clothes after he left and realized they were the same ones she was wearing in Argentina. She desperately needed to shower and change. The shower she would ask Al about later. Maybe her wound had healed enough. As for the clothes..., she wondered.
Preda walked over to the heavy armoire in the bedroom and opened the door. She hoped but did not expect to find clothes. What she saw astounded her. She shouldn’t have been surprised after all the things she had been given, but this was incredible. Beautiful silk gowns in every color filled the entire cabinet. She noted the dresses were not exactly modest. They had swooping necklines and open backs. What on earth am I going to do with these?
Thankfully the drawers held more reasonable clothing, though they were no less expensive looking. Silk blouses and tailored pants that fit her perfectly filled the drawers. The shoes were also beautiful. Preda had never worn anything but sneakers, and the slightly raised heels she tried on now made her whole body look different in the mirror. No wonder women wear these things. Her whole self-image had changed with just a pair of black pumps.
She walked down to dinner. She felt awkward, but the men made her feel appropriate. They were all wearing nice clothes themselves. All four had been waiting in the dining room, and Preda was chagrined to find that dinner had already been served. They were clearly waiting on her.
Preda blushed when they all stood as one as she entered the room. Having spent her entire young adult life serving her supposed father dinner and leaving to eat alone at the kitchen counter, this felt unusual. Al pulled out a chair for her, and they sat down only after she did. She felt herself blushing. “Please don’t wait for me next time,” she said.
They looked confused by the request. “Nonsense,” Al said as though that was the end of the discussion.
Jim said, “Preda, you look very pretty tonight.”
The compliment was innocent, but it was the first time anyone had ever said that about her. Preda blushed an even deeper shade of red. She concentrated on the food in front of her and murmured, “Thank you.”
Will smiled. “OK. Enough making her feel uncomfortable.”
“What did I do?” asked Jim.
His question was ignored, and everyone started eating. The meal was incredible. Al had baked lasagna with garlic bread. Preda ate so much, she felt as if her stomach was going to explode. It tasted so good that she was only slightly embarrassed when she had eaten more than any of the men eating with her.
Al laughed at her effusive compliments, but she put genuine feeling behind her words to let him know she meant it. He beamed under the praise, and she knew her voice had worked because the tips of her toes were tingling. The more she spoke, the better she was getting at controlling it.
At one point during the dinner, Al said, “So, our little Preda has already chosen herself a guardian. I think that must be a record. Will is even younger than you were when you were made guardian, Tamron.”
Preda saw him wink at Will.
Jim dropped his fork. “She what?” he asked incredulously.
“She made me guardian,” Will mumbled.
“Whoa.” It was his only reply.
Preda once again felt as if she had already messed up her job as a Vozia by not following some protocol. She decided to change the subject quickly. “Will is going to take me to see Laney and explore the caves. You want to join us, Jim?”
Before Jim could answer, Tamron spoke up. “You’re doing what?”
Preda decided to test the limits of this guardian arrangement. “I’ll have my guardian with me, and Laney grew up here, so she knows every tunnel, I’m sure. I just want to see,” she said.
She could tell Foxy had no good argument to prevent her from going. It was not an unreasonable request. Preda knew he would have had her housebound for the duration of their time there if he had his way.
Al saved her from further discussion. “Tamron, don’t we have a council meeting with the Vank tomorrow?” he asked innocently.
Preda caught Will and Jim glance at each other. Will gave him some sort of hand signal across the table. Jim nodded, made a quick motion with his forefinger, and picked up his fork. It looked as though they had just had an entire conversation without speaking. Preda thought she would ask Jim about this sign language thing later.
“Who are the Vank?” she asked.
“They are an important family,” Al answered. “They value knowledge above all else and are responsible for almost every major scientific advancement on our planet.”
“They think they should have more say in what happens with you, Preda,” Foxy said. “Your father was a Vank. It makes you part of their family too.”
“My father wasn’t a Vozia?” she asked.
“Of course not,” Al said. “Your mother was a Vozia. The Vozia have always married outside their name to ensure genetic diversity in the family. It is most often a Vank, but others have been represented. All except the Kait.”
“Why not the Kait?” Preda asked.
“By the very nature of our responsibility to your family, we have not,” said Foxy. “There is also the issue of our…combative natures.”
“But the Kait have been in charge since I was born. Because we’re at war,” she said with insight.
“Yes,” Foxy and Al said in unison.
“So everyone on Vaka is part of one of these families by name?” she asked.
“Yes,” Jim answered this time. “Each person gets to choose the family name he or she wants to be a part of when two members from different families marry. Of course, each family has thousands of members, so many marry within their name. As a result some people are more like their family names than others. Not all Landis are as brilliant as yours truly,” he said with a dramatic flair.
Preda couldn’t help but laugh at him, and Jim feigned offense at her amusement. She imagined for a moment she was having an ordinary meal with her family. It was wonderful. Preda stood first and started to clear the table of dirty dishes to bring to the sink amid the protests of the men around her. She smiled and said, “I can do what I want.”
Preda left with an armload of dishes to wash.
That night Preda dreamt of Vaka again. This time the green planet was not set on fire, but it kept its distance from her as she floated in space. In the dream the planet was revolving around her as if she was a sun. In reality she knew she was revolving around Vaka—drawing ever closer to it.
31
Laney sat down to breakfast with her parents that morning. Excitement overcame her. It was only a few short days until they would be leaving for home. It felt strange to think of a place she had never been as home, but she just knew it was going to be ev
erything she imagined and more.
Her parents seemed tense while they ate, and Laney supposed it had to do with the impending meeting with the Vank later. She decided to break the silence and asked, “What do you think they’re going to say at the meeting?”
Her father answered after he carefully swallowed a bite of toast. “They are going to bluster on about the importance of tradition and ensuring the Vozia line has the intelligence to lead in the coming war. It will be the same as always. The only difference is that the Vozia girl is here, and tensions will be running even higher.”
Laney’s mother stopped her father from saying anything further with a stern glance. She turned to Laney with her no-nonsense face and said, “Today you have to decide what you want to take with you to Vaka. It can only be what you can fit into two bags. Think carefully.”
Laney obediently nodded and started to clear the breakfast table. Her father and mother started talking again quietly while Laney was washing dishes. She overheard her mother. “Karn, are you meeting with Artem before the meeting?”
Her father’s response was lost under the clanking of washing dishes. Laney frowned and wondered why he would be meeting with Artem Vank before the meeting today. Are they going to discuss Preda or maybe the trip home?
Just as she was about to return to her room to start sorting through her most prized possessions, she heard a sharp knock on the front door. Laney put the last of the dishes down and made a quick detour to get to the door before her parents did. When she opened it, her jaw dropped open. It was Will Kait standing in front of Preda Vozia herself.
“Laney Ceren,” Will said, “Preda Vozia would like to know if you could…” Will hesitated and glanced back at Preda before continuing. The Vozia had a mischievous smile on her face. “Come out and play?” he finished, looking slightly embarrassed.
Laney couldn’t help herself. She practically leaped off the floor in delight. Her parents were behind her. They both looked worried, but how could they deny a Vozia’s request? She ran to her room, gathered some spelunking supplies, and threw them into a bag. She didn’t know how adventurous Preda wanted to be, but it never hurt to have some rope and belaying equipment.
She practically knocked her parents over in her haste to get out the door but stopped before running out of the house entirely. Laney turned back toward her parents and bowed in respect. She said in the most humble voice she could muster, “May I beg leave to escort Preda Vozia around Underground Deception?”
Karn Ceren sighed heavily but nodded his assent. Laney practically skipped down the walkway to join Preda and Will. Preda had a beaming smile and seemed almost as excited as Laney.
As they turned to walk down the pathway, Preda asked, “Underground Deception?”
“It’s what we like to call our humble cave system here,” Laney said. “It’s deceptive in how large it is, and this is Deception Island, after all.” After a moment she asked, “Where’s Tamron? How did you get out of his sight without a guardian?”
Preda looked acutely guilty and glanced back toward Will. He was following at a discreet distance behind them. “Will Kait is my guardian.”
“No. I mean your official guardian. You don’t have one yet, but when we get to Vaka, there will be a big choosing ceremony and…” Laney trailed off at the look on Preda’s face.
She glanced at Will. He was doing an excellent job of looking everywhere but at the two girls.
“I might have skipped the ceremony part,” Preda said, and she looked more than a little chagrined.
“You what?” Laney exclaimed. “How did you even know the words or how to say them?”
“I don’t know,” Preda answered.
The three had stopped walking, and Preda seemed intensely concerned with a piece of rock she was pushing around with her feet. “It just happened,” she said and shrugged.
“It doesn’t just happen,” Laney said. “You have to have true intent when you speak. Otherwise it doesn’t work. However you knew what to say, the meaning was there. Will Kait was meant to be your guardian—no matter what anybody wanted.”
“Really?” Preda had looked up, and her eyes seemed to glow more brightly.
“Sure,” said Laney. “It’s in all the histories. When a Vozia tries to pick someone to be his or her guardian as a political maneuver, it never works. No matter how much the Vozia thinks he or she wants it, that person can never make the words work.”
Preda started to smile, and Laney leaned in conspiratorially before continuing in a whisper. “The other thing about it is…the guardian has to want it too. More than anything. Otherwise the words mean nothing.”
Preda glanced back at Will. He was speaking to a passerby about some fruit that was in season this time of year on the mainland. When she looked back at Laney, it was as if the weight of the world had been lifted off her shoulders.
Laney beamed back. “OK. So where to?”
Preda laughed. The laugh was genuine, and coming from her it rang through everyone standing within a twenty-foot radius. People turned around and stared with good reason. The sound made Laney’s whole being feel better. She imagined this what being drunk felt like.
Will came forward and leaned in toward them. To Laney’s eyes, he looked more affected by Preda’s laugh than anyone else. The tension around his eyes she had noted before was absent. The two truly were bound.
“Ladies,” he said, “we should go somewhere soon. People are staring. Also, Preda, we have got to work on that whole voice projection thing.”
Preda blushed and looked around. She finally seemed to notice all the people staring at them with grins on their faces.
Laney grabbed her arm and started to lead her down one of the back tunnels. “Come on,” she said. “I know just the place to start.”
32
Preda couldn’t believe what she was looking at. The cavern was at least twice as big as the main one. The ceiling was so high, she could barely make out the delicate stalactites dangling from it. It wasn’t the massive cavern that had caused her to stop and stare in wonder, though. It was the enormous spaceship inside it.
The people working around the ship looked like ants in comparison. It had a reflective black surface that curved in such a way that it created intricate spirals with no corners. What Preda could see was just the top half of it. The bottom half was hidden in a depression—a crater in the cavern floor.
Laney said the crater had been made when they had first landed it. The cavern roof was formed when the caldera was formed. Preda could barely concentrate on Laney’s voice. The rippling green reflections on the black metallic surface mesmerized her. The ship looked alive.
“What’s it made of?” she asked.
“That is the secret to interstellar space travel,” Laney said excitedly. “The metal was discovered at the bottom of one of our deepest ocean trenches. It absorbs any surrounding radiation like a sponge. This allows it to act as its own fuel source and travel faster than anyone had ever dreamed possible. Once we figured out how to work with the metal, the Vank developed an algorithm to use gravitational fields to calculate distances between stars and planets. This way, when we travel as fast as we do, there are no collisions.”
Laney seemed proud of her explanation, but Preda could only shake her head in wonder. Her first thought was that people on Earth would do anything to discover such an element. She looked at the ship, and her eyes almost had trouble following its otherworldly shape.
“It’s called the Feria,” Laney said after a moment. “It’s named after your mother, Preda. She was the one who dreamed of finding this planet. It was because of her that the ship was built. I’m sorry she never got to see this place. Or you.”
Preda swallowed and looked at Laney in disbelief. “This is because of my mother?”
Feria, Preda thought. It was a beautiful name. Will came up behind Preda and stood on h
er other side. He looked at the ship while he spoke. “On Vaka we’ve always known about our shared ancestors on Earth. What we didn’t know was that humans had completely forgotten about us,” he said.
“Shared ancestors?” Preda asked.
“We came from here. Well, from what is now Central Africa. Before your year 3200 BC. A race of beings took a group of humans and brought us to Vaka. Ever since then we’ve been on a different evolutionary path. Didn’t you wonder why we look so much like them?” Will smiled.
Preda felt stupid for not wondering. She had taken it on faith that she was an alien who happened to look just like a human. This made more sense, though. She had so many questions, she didn’t know where to start. Everything was unbelievable. After a moment she asked, “Who took you…us, I guess…to Vaka?”
“We don’t know,” Laney answered. That thought was frightening.
“We have a description from our earliest histories. I can show you when we get home,” Will said.
Home, Preda thought. It was a strange concept to think of a place she had never been to as home. Laney sighed next to Preda as though she had been thinking the same thing. Abruptly she smiled and asked, “Do you want to get closer to the Feria?”
Preda nodded enthusiastically. She felt drawn to it. As they made their way closer, the colossal structure truly towered above them. She craned her neck back but could no longer see the top of it. It felt as if it was humming. On closer inspection Preda confirmed that it was one continuous piece of metal.
Laney watched Preda and said, “When the Landis were first charged with trying to forge and shape the metal, they found that it resisted any force applied to it. It takes the opposite shape that is intended. They had to learn to work with it. Not against it. My father says this shape is the one the metal wanted—not us.”
Will chuckled. “It is hard for a Landi to admit defeat and compromise.”
Laney laughed at the shared joke. As they drew closer to the ship, people working around it stopped what they were doing and stared at the three of them.
Preda's Voice (Guardians of Vaka Book 1) Page 13