The thing comes at me again, suddenly right in front of me. I breathe in water, more water. Too much water. There’s only water. Sharp, stinging water.
My body jolts. It’s a kavalah spirit. The type that try to make deals with people, so they can feed from them every day. I freeze, look at it. Kavalahs mess with your head.
And people make deals with them.
The snake grabs me. It’s big. Massive, fills the water, wraps around me, squeezes me, tries to get back inside me, tries—
I choke, cough, but there’s only more water. Hissing, in my ears. Oh Gods. Need to get out… Need to….
My throat’s closing up. Muscles spasm. And the pendant… My mother’s pendant, it’s heavy, drags me down. For a second, all I can think about is that Seer’s pendant, because he must have one. All Seers must, unless the Zharat are different… Yes, they must be. They’re stronger, stronger than me and my mother? Or it’s their bison tattoos….
Let me back in.
My body jolts, and then there’s a net. Rope. Something wraps around me. I try to see it, but can’t. I kick out, but my legs aren’t… My arms….
You’re weak. Let me help you. It’ll be all right.
I try to get away from it all, but I can’t. My lungs are on fire. I can’t breathe. Can’t—
I try to see where the kavalah has gone, but everything’s a murky gray, like there’s an opaque film over my eyes. I kick out, but I’m disoriented—can’t remember which direction the water’s surface is, and….
My mouth opens, the water dives in.
The pain goes away.
Everything goes away.
I am strapped to a bed. Huge buckles. There’s no mattress on the bed, and the wooden slats of the frame dig into my spine.
“Such a pretty one, aren’t you?”
My body jolts, but the metal straps pull me back. They’re cold, sear my skin.
Raleigh steps closer, until I can just about see his head in my peripheral vision. I feel bile rise, sticking to my throat as he smiles.
It’s all right now. The water spirit’s voice is here. I turn, try to see it—my neck clicks—but can’t.
“Oh, Shania.”
I turn to Raleigh, feel something clicking and whirring inside me as I look at him. As I look at my reflection in his eyes. He smiles.
“Such a beautiful little one, aren’t you? My darling butterfly.”
I gulp. My mouth dries. He reaches forward, a finger on my face, traces along my jaw. He presses, exerting the smallest of pressures. Then he smiles. His teeth are whiter than I remembered.
For a second, Raleigh’s face changes. His skin gets a couple of shades lighter, and his eyes lose the mirrors, become brown. His features get blunter, and then he’s Jed. But no, the changes don’t stop. They keep going, skin darkening now, darkening more than Raleigh’s skin is, and he’s—
Three.
I’m trying to sit up, trying to reach my brother, and then—
Raleigh returns, laughing.
Pain whips through my body. I don’t scream though, don’t know how I don’t.
“Are you ready?” Raleigh asks.
“For what?” My voice is a croak.
“To give me what is mine.”
I see myself in his eyes again: my Untamed face. Makes me feel calmer, somehow. I think.
Raleigh leans backward, until I can’t see him properly, just his shape. I hear the sounds of a case being opened and then metal scraping metal as something’s pulled out.
Get out, Seven. Get out now. Get out while you can.
I don’t know where the voice comes from. It’s different.
“Oh, don’t look so scared, my dear butterfly.”
He’s back, stepping closer. So close I smell the liquor on him. My nostrils curl.
He raises his hand. There’s something clenched in his fist. Metal, thin. It takes a moment for my eyes to adjust, for my brain to recognize it.
I go cold.
Raleigh grins. Light bounces off the scalpel.
“Come on, Shania. I want them properly this time. Give me your eyes.”
Raleigh leans over me. I scream, but, no—his face is changing. His skin pales, his hairline shoots back, and braids dart out behind him.
“You awake, woman?” Water drips from Manning’s braids onto me. He’s breathing hard, and his face is crimson.
I let out a small squeak and bolt upright, nearly clashing heads with him. I scramble backward, and my vision blurs for a second.
“Sev?”
Arms start to encircle me.
I scream. But it’s Corin—his arms stop me—and I slam against him. He’s soaked too. Still, I turn. The snake spirit, it’s still here. I can feel it. And I’m trying to tell him, trying to tell them all, but my words are getting stuck. And they’re all talking, ignoring me. I catch the word hallucinations and then something else that I don’t understand. But they’re the ones who don’t understand. We’re in danger, that thing, that snake spirit… It was here. Still here. It’s got to still be here.
And Raleigh! I whimper at the nightmare, my imagination—still fresh in my mind—and pull my head around. But everything’s moving, and I can’t see.
“It’s all right! It’s gone now. You’re okay, Sev.”
But I can’t stop shaking.
Manning peers at me. “Do you remember it, woman? Who sent it after you?”
I shake my head, feel my neck click, and he barks the words at me again. I try to block his voice out, lean into Corin, but Manning’s face just gets closer and closer.
“This be serious, woman. Who sent it?”
I feel Corin’s body tense up, and I try turning my face into his chest more, but I can’t move properly. I catch a glimpse of Soraya behind, her face pale, ashen.
“Back off,” Corin says, and he’s pointing at Manning. “Can’t you see what state she’s in? Your questioning can be done later.”
I blink. My lashes are wet. No, all of me is. I take a shaky breath. The pounding in my head has gone. And I can hear, I can hear all their words, so clearly.
“No,” Manning says. “Someone’s sent a kavalah to her. I need to know how long it’s been in her system, messing with her soul.”
His words pull through me, make me feel sick. I’m right next to the water’s edge. I turn, heart pounding. Peer into the water. It’s clear. Crystal clear. Not darkness, no murkiness, no colors. Can see the bottom, unlike before.
The Noir Lands are bad.
I shudder.
“Someone sent a kavalah to her?” Soraya’s voice has a strange undertone to it. “So, Seven hasn’t made a deal with it?”
Manning shakes his head. “She was fighting it, in the water, woman. If she’d bonded with it for a deal, she wouldn’t have had no chance of fighting it, knocking it out her system like that.” He turns to me, and water drips from his braids onto my face again. “Good idea, that was, throwing yourself in the water like that. Certainly got it out. Now, woman, have you felt unwell? How long? I need to know how long it was in you, what damage it’s done.”
I nod, try to think. All that time, when I felt strange—when I went outside because I forgot the bison’s warning—that spirit was inside me? Feeding from me? And someone’s sent it after me?
Raleigh.
I inhale sharply. He’s got my eyes. And that spirit… That must be how he’s doing it? He’s made a deal with the kavalah spirit…and it’s been inside me. For how long? Since the bison warned me? My stomach twists. All that time—and I only felt different, felt it, toward the end.
I don’t get any warning before I throw up—all over Manning.
“It’s all right,” Corin says. And he’s pulling me away, onto his lap, smoothing back my hair.
I drag a hand across the back of my mouth, taste bile and acid. My breaths come in sharp busts.
But it’s okay. The spirit’s out of my system now. I swallow hard. So Raleigh hasn’t got my eyes any longer. He can’t have.
Not now that it’s out of my system, gone.
But I still went outside. I still showed Raleigh what it looks like outside the cave.
I go even colder. He must’ve seen, mustn’t he? But the Dream Land would’ve said… No. I haven’t slept yet, not since going outside. I could still get summoned to the Dream Land tonight, in my sleep. But even as I think the words, I’m sure I won’t be. Because I was unconscious in the water and when they got me out, wasn’t I? And that would’ve been the perfect time for the Dream Land to summon me, to tell me—if anything needed to be told.
Manning stands up, and my vomit drips off him, makes long stringy patterns. My eyes start to glass over as he pulls his cloak off, thrusts it at Soraya.
“How long have you felt unwell?” Manning’s voice is dark.
I blink hard, lean against Corin, feel my chest shudder. “Since those men… Mart… Shortly after that.”
Manning’s eyes narrow. “A few hours then.” He shakes his head. “I will kill him.”
“Who?” Corin looks up.
“Mart.”
“What? He did this?” Corin’s arms get tighter around me.
No, I want to say, it wasn’t Mart. It was Raleigh. But I can’t. I can’t say the words. I can’t make it real.
But an innocent boy will die.
I swallow hard, and my fingers wrap around Corin’s arm a little tighter. I wrinkle my nose, try not to smell my vomit.
Manning flicks his hand to my left, and then I realize the other two men are here. “Go and get Mart. Bring him to me. And get all our Seers down here. I wanna make sure that kavalah’s gone and ain’t hiding in the tubes.”
Soraya blinks several times. “But if Mart’s made a deal with it, it’ll come in here every day to feed from him—and carry out his work.”
“It won’t if he be dead, woman. Mart’s the one feeding it, controlling it. Not her.”
Corin makes an irritated noise deep in his throat. “Doesn’t Sev need to see a healer or someone?” His arms are still around me, and I listen to his heart.
Manning shakes his head. “She’ll be fine, after rest, man. It’ll just have given her hallucinations. No permanent damage. But we need to check where that spirit’s gone, get it out if it still be lingering.” He shakes his head, and his braids drip more water. He points to one of the men, tells him to get the Seers now.
Hallucinations?
Raleigh’s face fills my vision for a split-second.
“Don’t worry, woman. The kavalah knows you’re too strong for it now, it won’t try and get you again, even when it be looking for a new human to bargain with.” Manning turns to Soraya. “Seven needs to rest, recover from the spirit attack. Take her to the girls’ room, woman. She’ll be sleeping there for the next two nights anyway.”
By the morning, my head is clear, and I don’t feel as sick. The Dream Land didn’t call me, so Raleigh can’t have seen anything—can’t have been using my eyes when I left the tubes—else he’d be on his way, and the Gods and Goddesses would’ve told me. I breathe a sigh of relief. I don’t need to tell Corin about going outside.
I get up slowly, realizing I’m the last one awake. The other girls are talking in low voices. I try not to think of yesterday as I sort through the pile of red dresses at the foot of my sleeping area—yet I can’t help but wonder whether Raleigh will send another kavalah now the first one is out of my system, or how soon it will be before the bison warns me again.
A few minutes later, I pull on one of the dresses—though I long to wear a T-shirt and jeans again—and follow the girls out into the main tubes. Jed is already there. I hear the click click click of his stick immediately, and I make sure my pendant is safely hidden. Thankfully, the Zharat seem to like high necklines on their dresses.
I watch him for several moments. He looks like he’s having trouble moving; the bandages under his jeans must need changing, redness seeps through the denim.
“S’ven.” It’s Jed, stepping closer now. He nods at me, at my dress. “Are you all right? I heard about the water spirit.” Concern flashes across his eyes, then he yawns. “Do not worry, it has gone now. Mart has been dealt with.”
Dealt with.
I nod, feel shaky, try to pull my dress down, stretch a crease out of it. The material is thick and heavy; I think the dresses have been made from one of the red curtains that hung in the gathering room for the welcomings.
“Come and sit down,” he says, pointing to the side of the tube. “You should still be resting, so soon after an attack.”
He switches to the Zharat language and addresses one of the girls. She nods, runs off, and returns with some food no less than half a minute later. She hands it to me. Slivers of meat and some sort of bread. I catch her side profile. She looks like Jed.
“Is she your daughter?”
Jed nods, rubs at the skin under his eyes. “Jeena.” For a second, something crosses over his face. Then it’s gone. “She looks so much like her mother… Sometimes I wonder if it is all pointless, raising children if we are all going to die.”
His words jolt through me. I lean forward. “What do you mean?”
“My father was a Seer of Life. He knew how this war will end, who will survive.”
His eyes go dark for a minute, and I frown, then look up as violet movement catches my attention. It’s Clare, the one who called Jed a murderer before. She sees us sitting together, and her eyes narrow. She raises one hand, mimes a gun. Then she points at Jed, eyes darkening, before leaving.
I stare after her.
Violet. She wore green before. She’s lost status.
The hairs on the back of my neck rise. I look at the wall. There are horizontal marks, drawing across from one side to the other, with a layer of lighter-colored lava between them.
Jed coughs, apparently oblivious to Clare’s short visit. “Shortly after my father was made a Seer, he was told it: how it will end, how the war ends. The augury, he called it. The Dream Land augury. A message of the far future. A promise. He said other Seers of Life would know it too, but that he could not tell ordinary people. Everyone thought he was more important than our other Seers. He lorded it over them, all because he was a Seer of Life. Well, I suppose he still is.”
Jed spreads his hands wide, and I stare at the thick skin over his knuckles, the small scars. He sees me looking and turns his hands over.
“It must be the Enhanced,” Jed says quickly. “The augury must say that only they survive the war. My father was making sure he was on the right side. He would not give up the Dream Land if he needed it, if the Untamed were to be the surviving side.”
“Give up the Dream Land?” I can’t help myself, the question’s blurted out before I can stop myself.
“Of course.” Then, seeing the look on my face, he lets out a bitter laugh. “This is the problem with you run-arounders. You have lost the ancient knowledge, the reasons for why everything is. You know why Seers were created?”
“To warn the Untamed of conversion attacks.”
Jed grunts, half-nodding. “Yes. Well. Sort of. The Gods, sometimes aided by the benevolent spirits, choose some Untamed humans to give divine powers to, and access to the Dream Land, to help win the war, because they are angry that man is throwing away his individuality, joining a mass of robotic creatures. So they favor the Untamed, give powers to special ones to show their support, give us the advantage. That is how men become Seers. And we only get visions if we are in danger—that is how we know we are safe here, no visions.
“But if we get converted, the Gods block our access to the Dream Land—some Gods take longer to block the person, but they always do…eventually. Too risky in the end if they do not. The Dream Land has to stay Untamed. If an Enhanced Seer got into the Dream Land, he would probably destroy it because it is one of our only advantages.”
I swallow hard. I took augmenters, I wanted to become an Enhanced. Yet I’ve still got access to the Dream Land. I look at Jed. Does that mean I have one of the m
ore lenient Gods or Goddesses guiding my Seer powers? Or was it because I hadn’t actually joined the Enhanced fully, only making plans to go to one of their cities? Maybe once I’d got there, my access would’ve been blocked.
“Still, he will have his other powers.” Jed glances at me.
I try to keep my face blank. Other powers. Like Raleigh’s power—torturing. I go cold.
Jed coughs. “The other divine powers cannot be revoked. So my father still has his Seer powers. Just no visits to the Dream Land.”
No visits to the Dream Land.
I frown. My chest tightens, and the Zharat mark on my arm throbs. What about my mother? Even though she didn’t want to become an Enhanced, she got herself converted to save Corin and Rahn and because she knew an Enhanced One would get to me in the battle. She became Enhanced to help us all, to ensure that person was her, to ensure I could get away and remain Untamed.
Still, my mother’s an Enhanced Seer.
I want to ask Jed, but I know mentioning that my mother’s a Seer would be a bad idea.
“You know,” Jed says. “It is nice to talk to someone about this… Us Zharat are not supposed to speak of the ones who converted. Same with the dead. Still, I do not know how I am just supposed to forget about my father, when I know he converted for a reason, to save himself, and that he did not care enough to take me or my sisters with him.” He turns more to me, angling his body toward me. “Sometimes, I wish the God of Life had never showed up to my father. Maybe if it had been a different God who made him a Seer, things might have been different.”
My mouth dries. “What? He saw an actual God?” I get a strange tight feeling in my chest.
Jed nods. “Of course. All Seers meet their God. That is how we know they are true Seers. Not fakes.” A far-away look crosses Jed’s eyes. “My father became a Seer at eighteen—quite late. He was very proud. Said the God of Life met him a few weeks later, told him he must never tell any others about the auguries, that others could use the information badly.” His eyes darken, and he clenches his hands into tight fists. “I just wish he had told me for sure that that was why he left. Or why he did not take me.”
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