Flicker and Mist

by Mary G. Thompson

  Nice Boy growled.

  Porti patted her gently on the head, a grim smile on her face.

  The Deputy and the Council walked forward, toward the cliffs. We were in the same part of Heart’s End where the Flickerkin tents had been. The wind whooshed by my ears. The ladies’ gowns were blowing around them. The gentlemen’s suits were flattened and the guardsmen’s uniforms disarranged. My mother’s hair had escaped from its pins and whipped around her face, so that I couldn’t see her expression.

  Sky came forward with his receiver. The other men carried their photoboxes. The guardsmen brought Brach in front of the Deputy and the Council, who now stood facing us near the cliff’s edge. Brach was still wearing a Guard uniform, stripped of anything to do with rank. It was now simply a dark green suit. His hair was too short to blow in the wind.

  The Deputy took the receiver from Sky, who stepped back toward the men with the photoboxes.

  “Show yourselves,” the Deputy said.

  My grandmother appeared next to him. Behind her, four more people appeared, my new cousins Groton and Terta among them. They stood solemnly behind Pinwin, their hair and clothes blowing.

  The Deputy didn’t flinch. He acted as though he had known where they were standing all along. He was good at faking, I realized. Good at pretending he had control. This thought made me more apprehensive about the near future. If the Deputy himself had to fake his composure, who among us had real strength?

  And where were the rest of the Flickerkin? I had counted seven besides Pinwin when we had met before. Perhaps they were hiding in case the Deputy broke his promise, but I didn’t like it. The Deputy was sincere. The thought nearly knocked me off Hoof. I couldn’t believe that I trusted him in this, but I did. He would allow them to leave. Let the Waters swallow him if he doesn’t. And let them swallow me, because if I was wrong, I was the Upland’s biggest fool.

  My grandmother was so much shorter than the Deputy that the sight of them side by side was almost comical, and she was wearing the simple garb of a miner, which contrasted greatly with the Deputy’s fancy black suit. She took the receiver from the Deputy’s hands and spoke into it. “We are here on behalf of those people of the Left Eye who flicker. From all of us, we are truly sorry for what this man has done. Please know that we offer this murderer no support. With his Judgment, we hope that our peoples may be reconciled, and that we may begin to discuss how to improve all of our lives.” She did not look at Brach or at me as she spoke, but out at the photobox operators. She handed the receiver back to the Deputy.

  “That is also my hope, Pinwin,” he said. It shocked me to hear the Deputy say my grandmother’s name, though he surely knew about all the agitators in the Eye.

  “Brach Petraguard,” the Deputy continued, “you have been charged with treason against State’s Guard, the murder of Orphos Staliamos, the attempted murder of Caster Ripkin, possession of weapons, and failing to declare your Flicker blood. Do you have anything to say?” The Deputy handed the receiver to one of the guardsmen, who held it up to Brach’s mouth.

  “I would like to speak to Myra Hailfast,” Brach said.

  The Deputy said something I couldn’t hear, but it was clearly a refusal.

  “Are you not curious about how I came to be?” Brach said. “I would like to unburden myself, that the Waters might show me mercy. But only to Miss Hailfast.”

  The Deputy’s eyes rose to mine. We all wished to know what Brach knew. But he was only attempting to stall his execution. He could lie or merely take the chance to spew more hate. I looked toward my parents. My mother nodded. My father shook his head. They looked at each other, eyes locked in contest. I would get no help there.

  “Let her approach me on her great beast,” Brach said. “I will stand away from her and shout. You may shock me as much as you like.” He held up his cuffs, and I saw that his guards held triggering rods.

  The Deputy refused again.

  I rode forward.

  “Myra!” Caster called, but I wouldn’t let him stop me. I didn’t care if what Brach said was all lies. I wished to hear something, anything. I wished to understand, if nothing else, how he came to hate me so fiercely.

  The Deputy waved me back, but I rode ahead until I was behind the guardsmen who were holding Brach. “I wish to hear what he will say,” I said, shouting over the wind. “Hoof and I aren’t afraid of a wounded man wearing prezine.”

  “You will have five minutes,” said the Deputy. “But the guardsmen stay. You can accept that or be judged now.” He tipped his head sideways, and two guardsmen dragged Brach to my left, out of hearing of the Deputy and the Council.

  “Thank you,” I said.

  The Deputy only glared at me. Pinwin betrayed no expression.

  Hoof and I rode up to Brach. I didn’t see the need to keep our distance. The man was having trouble standing, was cuffed, and was still held by two guardsmen. I recognized them as those from the jail.

  “Tell me why you hate me,” I said.

  “Is that what matters?” Brach said. He looked as if he would like to spit.

  “Answer me,” I said.

  “You are worse than a Plat,” he said. And he did spit. The liquid landed at Hoof’s hoof. She lowered her horns and growled softly.

  “You are a Plat,” I said.

  “Raised with wealth, living as one of them, abandoning your flicker as if it were a cause of shame,” he continued. My heart pounded. The Deputy knew about me, and now his guardsmen had heard me described thus. They didn’t react, just held on to Brach.

  “So you don’t hate Lefties, then? It was all an act?”

  “I hate Lefties who aren’t Lefties,” he said. “You are a Plateau Person with Leftie skin.” He spat again, but this time, it fell short, landing at his own feet. He winced in pain. “And I am a Leftie with Plat skin,” he said. “Just as there are Lefties in New Heart City, there are Plats in the Eye. Did you think you were the only one of mixed blood?”

  I had thought that. My own parents had told me so.

  “Well, you’re the only mixture of Leftie and Plat.” He coughed, as if trying to find more saliva to spit. “I am Plat and Flicker Man. I am from the Left Eye. But above all, I am a Flickerkin, like you.” He looked up at me, but I looked away, over his head, out to the water.

  “So you hated me because I was rich and happy,” I said.

  “You abandoned the cause,” he said.

  “What cause?” I asked. “Murder? What did Orphos do to you? Or Caster?”

  “The Deputy’s father discovered there were Plats living in the Eye,” said Brach. “He believed the races shouldn’t mix, so he forced all the Plats to leave. My family settled in the Head, but my parents weren’t used to the life there. They couldn’t farm the crops they knew. They had to hide their Ability. They became sick and died. My brother and my sister followed. My whole family was dead within a year.”

  The proper response to such a statement would have been to express sorrow, but I wasn’t sorry for him, so I didn’t say it.

  “I traveled from farm to farm, working for others. Then Nelston Ripkin took his father’s place as Deputy. He was no better. In fact, he increased the burden in the Eye, stole even more prezine, began building sensors to catch Flickerkin who weren’t harming anyone. He tested his device on his unlucky catches, torturing them until finally he tossed them to the Waters.”

  My mother believed that this was true. But I wouldn’t be sorry for Brach or feel pain for anything he had to say.

  “So when the Deputy’s wife came to the Head on her imperial journey around the Upland, I poisoned her. Then I came to New Heart City and joined the Guard. I vowed to kill the Deputy’s son and then the Deputy. I would destroy Ripkin’s family the way he had destroyed mine. I would ensure that the citizens of New Heart City knew they should fear us.”

  “Because they fear us, I have lost everything,” I said.

  “You have gained your true self,” Brach said. He smiled, his eyes bright, and
tried to lean toward me. “They torture us because our Ability is so powerful. We will use our strength, and this will be our city. If you join us, it will be your city too.”

  “Is that why you wished to speak to me? To convince me to carry on this crusade, to kill Caster and his father? How could you think I would do that? It’s over, Brach. You will be judged. Take him back,” I said to the guards.

  “There is one more thing, Miss Hailfast,” said Brach.

  “No,” I said. “This is over.”

  “We aren’t giving you a choice.”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a change in the light, the same shadows I had seen at Orphos’s funeral. I spun Hoof around and felt her hoof knock into something.

  Someone leaped onto Hoof’s back behind me. I tried to reach into my jacket for the dagger, but the rod stung me, right at the trigger spot at the base of my skull. I flickered, there in front of the Council and all the guardsmen.

  Twenty-Seven

  HOOF DIDN’T FLICKER WITH ME. I DIDN’T HAVE enough time to concentrate, to form the bond between us that would make it possible. Whoever was behind me held on to me, and I recognized the feel of those arms, their warmth, their strength.

  “Let go of me!” I shouted. Nolan fought my attempt to flicker in.

  Hoof mooed loudly and reared. She bucked, horns rising up. I held on with my legs, but Nolan didn’t know how to stay on a beast. We slid backwards.

  “Quiet, Myra,” he said.

  I thrust back with my elbow, but Nolan was holding me so tightly that I couldn’t get any leverage. Ghostly figures stood on either side of Hoof. The Flickerkin Pinwin had hidden.

  Hoof bucked again.

  Nolan and I flew into the air, but Nolan didn’t let go. He hit the ground on his back, still clutching me. I pulled out of his arms and jumped to my feet, flickering in as I did so. I did it without thinking; I only knew that because Nolan wanted me to be invisible, I didn’t want to be. Hoof bucked this way and that as if being corralled by unseen hands.

  Brach grinned at the scene. The two guardsmen holding him were wild-eyed, but they didn’t leave their charge. The Council’s guards ran toward us.

  I flickered out. I couldn’t let myself be caught; I had been exposed. I ran for Hoof and jumped. It was the first time I had tried to leap onto her back in many months, but I was helped by the surge of adrenaline. I landed on top of her and flickered in.

  “Now,” I said, and we both flickered out. We ran forward, pulling away from grasping hands. They had no hope of holding on to Hoof, and we had the strength and fear to run forever. But my parents were still prisoners. Caster and Porti and my whole life were here. I couldn’t leave. Curse you, Nolan, I thought. After what we had shared, how could he do this? I stopped and turned Hoof around.

  She mooed, giving away our position, but no one came after us. Everyone’s attention was on Pinwin, who was floating over the ocean, holding Sky’s receiver. Her feet and legs swirled in mist while the rest of her body was solid. “It is time to end the farce that there can ever be peace while Lefties live under Plat rule,” she said. “You have tortured our people, stolen our prezine, and controlled our lives. You have denigrated Flickerkin and forced us to hide. But no more. We, the people of the Left Eye, solid and Flickerkin together, declare ourselves independent. As we speak, our people are expelling you from our land. We have regained control of the mines and will no longer supply any prezine outside the Eye. We reject your rule and your laws.” Pinwin turned to me, and it seemed that she looked straight into my eyes. “We do not abandon any of our people and will take them all without conditions. If you do not accept our full and unconditional independence, then more Plats will die.”

  Pinwin dropped the receiver into the water. She raised her arms, and her hands suddenly burst into mist. The pieces of what had been her hands swirled around her arms as they, too, dissolved. Her legs and torso dissolved and swirled, leaving only her face. She stared out at the crowd for a long second, and then she was all mist. She became a churning spiral, spinning above the ocean but unmoved by the wind.

  “Arrest these traitors!” the Deputy shouted.

  Guardsmen shot green sensor beams at Pinwin, but they passed harmlessly through her mist. The other Flickerkin had become invisible. Their shimmering figures scattered before the sensor beams.

  The cuffs fell from Brach’s arms, and the two guardsmen holding him flickered out. Brach followed them a second later. All at once, I understood. The guardsmen from the prison were Plat Flickerkin, and they must have helped Nolan make contact with his parents. Pinwin and her kin had never intended to keep their word and had always supported Brach’s campaign of revenge. Pinwin wanted everyone to see her misting, to know that Flickerkin could become impervious to sensors, that they were superior and deadly. She wished to cause terror among the citizens of New Heart City so the Lefties could win their freedom. And it didn’t stop there. Brach had said this will be our city. The Lefties intended to rule over the Plats as the Plats had ruled over them.

  But neither race should rule over the other. That was the truth that almost everyone else failed to see.

  Caster and Porti were near each other on their restless beasts, looking on in horror. Beyond them, Nolan’s father pushed a guardsman away. He grabbed Nolan’s mother, and they ran from the fight.

  My mother’s cuffs fell off, and then my father’s. The Flickerkin freeing them flickered partly in as they touched the prezine and then out again as they dropped the cuffs to the sand. My parents were yelling at each other. A guardsman had hold of my father, and my mother was exhorting my father to fight. I knew he still had faith in the government and didn’t want any part of this traitorous rescue. In that moment, a ghostly figure ran the guardsman through with a dagger. My father turned to berate his rescuer, my mother grabbed his hand, and a figure next to her tossed something over his head. He disappeared from view.

  A cloth made by the Drachmans.

  They’re stealing my father, I thought. And he isn’t just my father. He’s the only other person who understands that we must all live together. We all need him.

  He and my mother and the other Flickerkin moved toward the Deputy and the Council. Why couldn’t they run away as the Drachmans had? Porti and Caster rode toward the Council as well, and they weren’t safe even on beasts. As Plats, they were as good as blind.

  I owed the Deputy nothing, but he was Caster’s father.

  And Orphos’s father was in danger, too. “Member Staliamos!” I shouted. “To your left!”

  He caught a man’s ghostly hand just as a dagger appeared in thin air.

  “Deputy! They’re coming straight for you!” My parents’ group was moving toward him.

  Caster raced to help his father. Monster ran into an invisible man, and the man stumbled, while Monster mooed in fear. He was a beast built to run, not to fight. The man reached inside his jacket.

  “Caster! He has a blade! He goes for Monster!”

  Caster wheeled Monster around, and the dagger struck the thick hide of the beast’s shoulder. The beast growled in pain, but he wasn’t really hurt. Caster kicked out with his heavy riding boot and struck the man’s body. The Flickerkin cried out but held on to his dagger.

  How could a man attack a beast? The attack angered me more than all that came before it. I reached into my jacket and pulled out the dagger.

  “Momma, get out of the way!” I cried. “Poppa, run!”

  The Council Members were all fighting Flickerkin. Gregor’s father had suffered a wound to his arm and was perilously close to the cliff’s edge. Member Solis raced away from the melee, a Flickerkin in pursuit.

  Porti rode toward her. “Anga, get on!” she cried. Kicking out blindly, she struck the pursuer with her riding boot.

  Member Solis reached into her coat, pulled out a sensor, and aimed it at the Flickerkin. A green beam sprang from it. The man ducked, barreled into Member Solis’s legs, and took both of them down. Member Solis still rais
ed the sensor, and she gave the Flickerkin a shot straight to the belly. He rolled over, visibility spreading from his midsection. He became a strip of torso, clad in the dark, rough garb of a Leftie farmer. He stumbled to his feet.

  “On!” Porti shouted. She reached both hands down, and Member Solis deftly climbed onto Nice Boy, gown and ladies’ boots and all. She was a former champion herself. As Porti turned Nice Boy away, Member Solis turned the sensor back on the Flickerkin. It struck him across both shoulders, and he became fully visible.

  “Anga, forget him,” Porti said as she looked back. But then she and Nice Boy pulled up short. “Father!”

  The man stumbled backwards, toward the edge of the cliff.

  “Father!” Porti jumped off Nice Boy.

  “Portianna!” Member Solis shouted, but Porti didn’t hear or care. She ran toward her father, who took another step backwards. The waves crashed high on the cliff, much higher than they had been only two days before. Angry wind swirled. Blood dotted the sandy ground.

  Porti grabbed her father’s arm and pulled him to her. She said something I couldn’t hear. He leaned over her, obviously injured. A Leftie, he was barely taller than she was, but much wider. He enveloped her thin frame.

  “Portianna, step away from that man!” Member Solis cried. She raised her sensor.

  I rode toward them. I couldn’t let her do this. By the Waters, Porti had just saved her life.

  “Drop the sensor!” I shouted in her ear.

  She turned around on the beast and aimed the sensor at me, but before the beam could connect, I pushed her. She waved her arms, trying to keep her balance, but her skirt slowed her movement. I pushed again, and this time she fell off, hitting the ground hard.

  “Stay, Hoof.” I leaped off and ran to Member Solis, who was attempting to stand. The sensor beam went wild, and I grabbed the thing out of her hand, then turned and threw it toward the sea.