Song of the Worlds Boxed Set

by Brandon Barr

  To that, she whispered, “It’s right. Stop thinking. Just kiss me.”

  CHAPTER 10

  WINTER

  Aven looked handsome in the white uniform of the Guardians. Winter, on the other hand, had never experienced pants. They rubbed her skin oddly and constrained the movement she would normally have in a dress or skirt. Even the light fabric of the sarong she wore in the field did not feel as awkward.

  Winter looked at her brother again and smiled. She saw father in him—especially his eyes and mouth.

  “I wonder if we are paid as Emissaries?” asked Aven.

  Winter scowled. “I wouldn’t know what to do with coins in my hands.”

  “Karience said I could buy a farm,” said Aven. “Now I cannot stop thinking of it.”

  When Winter had awoken that morning, she’d been reminded of the morning before, waking in the Baron’s household, the perfumed sheets, the feeling of luxury. She’d felt it all over again, only the sheets had an indistinguishable scent and the bed was not as opulent as the Baron’s. There was something good about this. The Guardians did not live lavishly, but comfortably.

  And then she’d seen the view from the window. The sun hadn’t yet broken, but a soft glow illuminated the city as it awaited daybreak. The city was so amazingly large, she had stood there in silent awe. The street below had horse riders, men and women on foot, and an occasional horse carriage. The height of the building they were in was taller than the highest tree she’d ever climbed. At the edge of the window’s frame of sight was what she knew must be the Royal Palisade. Castles upon castles, with rows of towers stretching into the sky like spines on the backs of the sunfish found in farm ponds.

  Aven had joined her there, in her room. And they stood there now, gazing at the vast expanse of human activity they had never really known existed.

  “Have your feelings changed a little about this place? You seem more cheery than last night.”

  “I’m a little more hopeful. If I can have a farm and a family living with the Guardians, I will be happy. Even if they are, in the end, just another form of the Baron, always watching, and controlling. Karience said I could marry and buy property. I intend to.”

  “Don’t get ahead of yourself, brother,” said Winter. “It’s my job to find you a mate, now that our parents are gone.”

  He took her hand, contentment bringing a peaceful aura to his face. “I’m going to find someone who can answer more of my questions,” said Aven. “And get some breakfast.” He squeezed her hand. “Coming?”

  “Staying. Not hungry.”

  Aven put his arm around her and squeezed her shoulder. She felt stable now that her brother’s mood had changed. When he departed, she stood at the window, but her mind was drawn outward, to Leaf. She felt certain the Maker was listening.

  I know you are here, in some way. As close as my next breath. Your child is ready. Take her where you will.

  ______

  AVEN

  Aven found his way back to the large room the Guardians had greeted them in. The white walls glowed brightly, lit by overhead strips of light. Four hallways ran off in opposite directions. Each one glowed softly in a different color. Last night Hark had explained that this was the center of the second floor. The Guardian Tower was twelve levels high in the shape of a…the right words formed in his mind with an image…a cylinder. The outer edge of his bedroom, like Winter’s, was curved. Hark had shown him the simple layout by giving him a tour of the sleeping quarters. Aven and Winter’s rooms were in the orange lit hallway. The kitchen was down the red lit hall, on the level above them. Hark had pointed out the lift that moved one up and down the facility.

  Aven eyed the square lift door suspiciously where it blended into the strange edgeless room, almost indistinguishable from the wall.

  A child’s shrill laughter echoed from the hall lit in blue. Curious, Aven walked toward the sound. Around a bend in the hall stood Hark in a doorway, talking to a woman holding an infant. Ambling about Hark’s legs was a little boy pulling at his loose white uniform pants.

  The woman’s eyes turned to Aven as he came near. Her eyes were strange, tilted down at the corners, extenuating a long, darkly freckled face. A glint of intrigue marked her expression as he approached.

  “You’re up early,” said Hark. “It’s barely daybreak.”

  “Is that early on your world?”

  “I’m an asteroid miner, remember. The idea of early and late have no meaning on my world, but here on Loam, they make perfect sense. On an asteroid, you can be eating breakfast, and by the time you finish, you can call the meal dinner. It depends on the size and rotation speed of the rock you’re working on. Different than planets like yours, where you can get a pattern going.”

  The woman beside Hark bowed her head to Aven and spoke, but the words were strange.

  “Akexi welcomes you,” said Hark.

  Aven bowed in return. He hadn’t thought about the VOKK device since he’d awoken that morning. He knew it was working, but didn’t know how.

  “Why can I understand your words, but not hers?”

  “She speaks a language not yet translated by the VOKK.”

  Aven nodded. “So then she can understand me, but I can’t understand her?”

  Aven glanced at her face. Her eyes were fixed on the baby in her arms who was starting to squirm.

  “She could understand you, and you her, if she had a VOKK. But they’re costly, and only Guardians receive them.”

  “So how does it work?” asked Aven. “Am I speaking your language, or are you speaking mine? It feels like you’re speaking mine.”

  “Yes. I am speaking yours. But if you were to travel to my asteroid belt, or any chartered world, you could speak and understand their language the moment you arrived. And if you traveled to a world like my Akexi’s, you would pick up on it quickly. That is how the Missionaries learn the language when they arrive on a new world. And if you continue to speak to my wife a little more, you’ll find the VOKK will begin to learn her language on its own. But if I find you’ve become fluent in my wife’s language by the end of a week, I’ll rip that VOKK straight out your brain.” Hark winked. “That’s a joke.”

  Aven smiled, but an intriguing question had wrapped around his thoughts. “Your family lives with you here?”

  “That’s right. Wherever I go within the Guardians, that’s where they go. Unless I’m on my mission.”

  “Right now I’m on a mission to get some breakfast,” said Aven, smiling down at the boy at Hark’s feet.

  “I didn’t finish telling you about our tower.” Hark hefted the little boy into his arms and carried him across the hall, leading Aven back to the center room. “Think of it as a tree with twelve branches. The lower nine branches belong to the Shield Force. We, in the Missionary enclave, get the nicest view from the top three branches. Branch ten is the one we’re on now. It’s our sleeping quarters. Branch eleven of the enclave has the kitchen, recreation room, a library, an exercise facility and at the center is the lounge. The upper level, branch twelve, is where we Missionaries train. And Karience’s office is on that level, too.” He pointed to two buttons on the wall. “Black is up, white is down. Press them and just tell the lift where you want to go.”

  Hark pressed the black button. “Kitchen,” he said.

  The square portion of wall opened. Inside was a large space that could fit ten or more people.

  “Go on,” said Hark. “I already told you where the kitchen was. Down the red lit hallway on the floor above us.”

  Aven stepped inside. The door closed, and then almost immediately opened again. He stepped out into a large room like nothing he had seen before. Tall, comfortable chairs and deep sofas were organized around low tables. This was the lounge, as Aven recalled. The room was empty but for Arentiss, who sat on a large cushion hunched over some kind of game. Beside her was a spread of food.

  “Hungry? Come, I’ve brought breakfast out from the kitchen.”

&nbs
p; Aven took a seat.

  “The kitchen is just tables and chairs. I prefer to eat out here. Go ahead, fill your plate.”

  “Who prepared this food?” asked Aven.

  “The Royals of your world provide cooks around the clock. Whenever you’re hungry, just go into the kitchen and you’ll see a wall display with the current food choices. When you see what you want, just speak it and the cooks will send it up the shaft.”

  “They make it down below then send it up to us?”

  Arentiss nodded, then began scooping food onto a plate. Eggs. Sausage. A sweet smelling bread.

  “This is for you,” she said. “I hope parsing out your food wasn’t too motherly of me.” Her last sentence held some sarcasm.

  “I insulted you earlier while on the starship,” said Aven. “I am sorry. I meant nothing by it.”

  “I’m teasing you,” she said softly. “I’m the one who should apologize. Upworld cultures like mine are much more sensitive about age.” She gave him a strange look. “You are handsome. And aboard the starship, I had been contemplating the possibility of your being attracted to me when you made the comparison of me to your mother. That’s why I reacted as I did.”

  Aven grinned awkwardly. Was she being funny? Her eyes showed no humor, and he escaped her relentless gaze by looking down at his food.

  “Thanks for breakfast,” he said finally.

  “You are welcome.”

  Arentiss put a small bite of food in her mouth and stared at him with her sharp eyes. Her small nose tilted upward as she continued to observe him, as if studying a field, not a human being. He shrugged away his discomfort. He didn’t think she was trying to make him uncomfortable. She was just, odd. Different worlds. Different cultures.

  He ate his food in awkward silence for a while.

  “I should tell you about Pike,” said Arentiss, taping the prongs of her fork against her lips. “Karience wants you and Winter to meet him again today.”

  The coming meeting with Pike had been on his mind ever since the last one. “I promise, Winter and I won’t cause trouble this time.”

  “Good,” said Arentiss. “We’ve erased the memory of yesterday’s incident. You’ll have a fresh start. Karience had the Physician create more distance between Pike, and you and your sister. He will now have a new memory of the last five years where he barely saw you, and when he did, it was just a casual greeting, or a comment on the weather, or asking how the family is.”

  “But, everything before will be the same?” asked Aven.

  “Yes. As I understand, you only mind wipe down to the origin of the problem. There’s usually one defining first moment that has led to a chain reaction of choices. Erasing down to that first moment is all that’s needed. And when I say erase, I mean stored in a locked region within the brain.”

  A horrific thought dawned on Aven. Did Pike’s new memories reflect the reality that his family was gone?

  “Will he know about his parents and his sister and what happened to them?”

  Arentiss’s eyes narrowed. “You mean the—”

  “They were killed this year,” said Aven quickly.

  “Yes. They will remain dead in his new memories as well.” Arentiss reached her hand across the table and placed it on top of Aven’s. Her eyes held a glimmer of sympathy, even though everything else about her face was blank and emotionless. “Karience told me last night about Pike’s memories. About all the deaths.” She withdrew her hand. “I advise you not to bring them up. Karience had the Physician make those largely suppressed memories. Before the mind wipe, Pike was obsessively accessing those memories and they were driving his emotions. But now, he knows his family has passed, and does not want to think about it because of the pain.

  “As for you and Winter, you have been removed from any significant part of his life in the last five years. Including the deaths. I advise you to avoid talking about your past with him. Instead, keep conversation on the present. It’ll be easier on all three of you if you do.”

  Mulling through her words, Aven realized with relief that this was ultimately a gift. Even though Pike was relieved of the consequences he should face, and the guilt he should feel, the fact was that Pike, the monster from yesterday, was gone. It was a hard trade, but at the end, Aven could take comfort in his and Winter’s safety.

  Arentiss’s eyes were again tracing over his face, only this time, they showed a hint of emotion. “Your lips are a beautiful shape,” she said, brushing the fork lightly on her chin. “Do you mind if I—”

  A voice interrupted from the ceiling. “All Missionaries and Emissaries, Karience requests that you please report to the portal. Thank you.”

  Arentiss set the fork down and stood. “Everyone is meeting at the God’s Eye. Come, I’ll lead you there. We all want to observe your first time stepping through.”

  Aven’s thoughts were a jumble of questions.

  “Stepping through?” asked Aven. “You mean…”

  Arentiss’s wry smile and a raised eyebrow indicated that, yes, that’s exactly what she meant.

  CHAPTER 11

  WINTER

  Winter stepped out from the lift and immediately her hair was touched by a powerful breeze. The aroma in the air was heavy with new smells she had never experienced. She inhaled deeply and slowly released the sweet scent from her nose.

  The sight directly before her was exotic. A pathway lined by scrubby trees disappeared behind sandy spires dotted with rocks of varied color. Beyond that was the sea. A deep blue that disappeared into the horizon. She was bemused, considering not too long ago, she had been momentarily part of the world under the water, in the exotic base where they kept their starship.

  In the distance she heard a soft crashing. It was a chaotic noise; a crackling crash followed by a slow sucking, like the sound of a brook rushing over a shallow rocky straight. There was a moment of quiet, and then the crash sounded angrily again, thrashing in her ears until the fury was spent, and then returning as before, the thin crackling sound of water rushing over rocks. The cadence was inescapably soothing. Again and again the pattern repeated.

  Winter placed her hand on her chest, feeling the outline of Whisper's glass jar. She took it out and opened the lid. Whisper crawled to the lip, spread its wings, then took to the sky.

  Karience stood beside her, watching, as did Daeymara and Zoecara.

  “Why did you have a butterfly in a jar?” asked Daeymara.

  “I take it wherever I go.”

  Daeymara looked surprised. “You mean it’s a pet?”

  “Yes, but it’s free to leave me if it wants, though.”

  The butterfly drifted down on a current of air and came to rest on a loose tangle of hair above Winter’s ear.

  Zoecara seemed to be watching it with amusement.

  “Some people don’t like the smell of the sea,” said Zoecara. “What do you make of it, Winter?”

  “It’s delicious.”

  Zoecara placed a firm hand on Winter’s shoulder. The human touch was warm and welcoming.

  “Many primworlds paint the sea as a place of chaos and evil,” she said, her eyes drifting up to look at Whisper. “But I agree with you. It is delicious. I see only beauty and mystery.”

  “The sea is unpredictable,” said Daeymara. “That is why some cultures fear it.”

  “Some people are drawn to monotony,” said Zoecara. “I prefer to be surprised once in a while.”

  “As do I,” said Winter, turning toward the three women.

  “I’ll second that,” said Karience, “Especially the monotony of bureaucracy.”

  Winter turned back to look upon the Guardian Tower. Here, at the bottom of the great circular spire, she stared up in awe at the windows at the top. Twelve levels tall, it was beautifully designed. Winter had looked out from her window on the tenth floor only an hour ago and had soaked in the sights of the Royal City.

  Everything was so new. So fresh and exciting.

  At the base of the towe
r, the lift doors opened. Arentiss and Aven stepped through the door, followed by Pike and Rueik. She noted Pike’s expression. There wasn’t a trace of the old malice tugging down on his lips, or the smoldering anger behind his eyes. Instead he wore an excited, boyish grin, and his arms swung loosely at his sides, unreserved and unburdened.

  Winter heard whispering behind her. She slid her hair behind her ear and angled her head.

  “Who? Pike?” giggled Zoecara.

  “No. The handsome one,” said Daeymara. “Shhh…”

  Winter smiled covertly and felt a strange sense of pride and duty. She would have no trouble finding Aven a mate.

  Karience led them down the dirt path. Aven quickly found Winter’s hand.

  “Has Pike tried to talk to you yet?” tapped Aven.

  “No.”

  “It’s so strange. He’s so friendly, he’s fake.”

  “When did you talk to him?”

  “Arentiss and I were coming here when we ran into him and Rueik. Remember how goofy he used to be…before the Baron got his fingers on him? He’s like that. It’s like talking to a puppet from the past.”

  “At least he won’t hurt us anymore…don’t make trouble.”

  “I won’t,” tapped Aven.

  Winter shared Aven’s dislike. She would avoid speaking with Pike. Though he looked as placid as a milk cow, she would never forget the murderous look in his eyes as he held a sword to Aven’s throat.

  “The God’s Eye is at the end of this path,” said Karience. “This space out here is fully guarded by Nephitus’s men and women of the Shield Force. The only way to reach this path is through our facility. The Shield Force is responsible for protecting Loam. The God’s Eye represents the greatest threat to your world. One never knows what might pass through. The Shield Force ensures that your world is safe, as per the charter’s promise.”

  “What is the charter?” asked Winter.

  Karience stopped. “It is an agreement allowing a world the protection of the Guardians. We promise protection against Beast worlds in return for meeting certain criteria. For instance, once your world is fully a chartered member under the Guardians, Loam will be held to certain standards of civility. Your former Baron will no longer be allowed to extort the farmers under his employ. The Watch will be held to privacy laws.