Jed. It’s….
The thought slips away.
Don’t drink it. Just get away. Get away now.
I blink, look up as I hear the words. And for a second, I think I see him—Corin. He’s standing there, in front of me, sunburnt and angry. Staring. Just staring.
Staring’s rude, but he’s staring at me. Makes me—
Then he’s gone.
Jed’s moving, speaking. He’s got something else now. A small water-skin. He hands it to me. I don’t know where the cup’s gone.
“Drink this.”
I frown, my head’s too heavy. I sniff the drink. It smells the same as the liquid that was in the cup… The cup… Where’s the cup now? I look around, but the scenery looks different, as if we’ve moved, as if we’ve walked, but I don’t remember it.
A muddy pathway leads farther up, among rocks and trees The air is thick, alive. The cave entrance is nowhere in sight now. Neither is anyone else.
We’re on the side of a mountain. I see it now, look around. Halfway up? I try to focus on the nearest plants, wait until my vision clears again.
No Untamed Seer does that.
Nettles. They’re nettles. And the trees… They’re short, with thick branches, thick trunks. I reach out for a branch, touch the peeling bark. I stare at it. I should know its name. I do know its name… I reach for it, reach for the word….
“Drink it, S’ven. Be a good girl.” Jed’s voice pulls through me, and there’s something about his tone, a quality that makes me want to obey him. A quality that—
No.
I rub the back of my neck with my free hand, and the ring catches on sinew. I freeze for a second, but it’s just the pendant. My mother’s pendant. It’s under the top of my dress, against my left breast, the crystal has twisted around. It feels cold, like ice.
“Drink it,” Jed says. His hand presses against my lower back. “Drink it now.”
I look around again. We’re alone.
I’m wearing the white dress still, and it’s perfect. But that’s not right… Death got his smoke on it, made it go gray and….
“Drink it, S’ven.” His voice is more insistent. Deadly.
Something jolts through me. I look back down at the water-skin. My whole body stiffens.
I shake my head, try to hand the drink back.
“I… I don’t want it.” My voice wobbles, still doesn’t sound right. Not like me.
The light in Jed’s eyes disappears. “What do you mean you do not want it? Of course you want it.”
His hands grab me. I try to move, but can’t, my limbs are like lead. And then Jed has the water-skin by my mouth. I try to twist away, but liquid splashes over me, over my face, and I swallow some. His fingers go for my lips, like clamps. He tries to pull them apart.
I whirl around, head pounding. I try to kick him, punch him, but my movements aren’t right. My arms and legs aren’t doing what I want them to do, they’re ignoring me. My shoulders tighten, my spine stiffens. Everything’s locking together.
Your soul will suffer for this setback.
The scream builds up in me, and then I’m reaching out, my fingers grabbing him. My feet are slipping, it’s muddy. Too muddy. I’m falling, manage to latch onto his shirt. Beads of sweat drip into my eyes. I try to slam my body into him. But can’t do it, can’t—
A snake spirit suddenly appears, hovers in front of us. A kavalah.
I freeze, feel my breath get pulled from my body. Jed stops.
I stare at the spirit. The air around it is damp, but too bright. I can’t focus on it, yet I know what it is, that it’s watching us. And Jed… He’s watching it. He’s absorbed by it. His eyes have dulled, and—
I run.
I run uphill, because Jed blocks the route down. It’s steep. Slippery. Thick mud, the kind that grabs you, tries to bind your ankles.
“S’ven!” Jed screams.
I flick my head back, try to see where the spirit is now, but can’t. It’s just Jed. Just Jed, after me. Oh Gods.
My heart flutters, my head bangs. I feel more bile rise, spit it out, see the strings of phlegm fly across. Got to get away.
My feet slam the ground, my heels are already bruised. Low creepers grab at my ankles, yank me backward. I fall heavily. The air’s knocked out of me. I hear him yell something at me, turn and twist, see him: a looming figure, silhouetted by the sun.
Oh Gods.
Adrenaline propels through my body, and I roll over, under a low tree branch. Its thorns catch my skin, ripping through it like paper. Blood, everywhere. I taste it as I push myself up, my hands closing around a stick.
Weapon. Yes. I need a weapon.
“You won’t get far!” Jed shouts. “Not with that in you!”
Mud and water spray over my legs. Fine bits of grit stick to my skin. My arms flail out. My left one—my hand—burns. It’s the ring.
Keep going!
“S’ven, I will catch you!”
I shriek, try to turn, try to see him, feel his hot breath on the back of my neck.
Oh Gods.
Faster, faster—I need to be faster. Have to be.
I force myself onward, but my thighs are burning. Burning into a sticky mess. And it’s just more land, getting steeper, steeper. More of those thick trees—hagenia. The name flashes into my mind, and—
Jed grabs my shoulder.
I scream, feel my voice grate, drop the stick.
He slams me onto the ground.
My eyes blur for several seconds, pain in my head. I try to get away, I kick out, but there’s blood everywhere, and suddenly all I can look at is the blood and—
He points a gun at me.
“Get up. Drink this. Do not disobey me again.”
He pulls me up. My legs jerk out. He’s still holding the water-skin. After all that, he’s still got it. Or it’s another one, I don’t know.
I try not to show fear. “Where are the others?”
I swallow hard, but my voice was stronger that time. And it feels like an accomplishment, something to be proud of.
Jed bites back a laugh. “You do not need the others. You only need me. We will survive.” He tilts his head to one side, glares at me. “But not if you fight me. He has told me. He has told me what to do. We have the knowledge, S’ven. We are going to use it. Drink this.”
The pouch is thrust into my hands. I grab it. My hands just do it, without me telling them.
“Drink or I shall shoot you.” He moves the gun closer to my head.
I gulp, don’t understand where the semi-automatic pistol came from. He didn’t have it before, did he?
“Drink it all.”
The water-skin seems to get heavier. Sweat runs down me, soaks my shirt as I stare at it. I move my lips, try to think of something. It’s not an augmenter. Just a drug, to make me sleepy. Right? It’s not an augmenter, because augmenters are in vials.
Unless this is… I press my lips together, shift my weight a little. I try to look around. The hagenias close in. I weigh up my options again. Drink it or run.
The gun flashes.
Drink it or get shot.
Shaking, I bring the water-skin to my lips. And it’s not an augmenter. Can’t be augmenter. I tell myself that over and over again, as if it will make a difference. As if it will help.
Jed’s eyes narrow, watching me. “Drink it all,” he says again.
I drink it all.
The black water laps at my bare feet, and I watch it through half-closed eyes. The water feels warm, nice. Jed tells me it’s good.
I’m lying on a slope, a steep slope. The ground above the dark waves is dusty, dry. Strangely dry. The air above me is mist, water vapor.
“It is all right, S’ven,” Jed whispers. He’s next to me, sitting, and his voice makes me shudder. I feel sick, but the nausea’s good—I remember that. If I feel sick, that liquid wasn’t an augmenter. Augmenters just give positive emotions. Nothing bad. Jed smiles. “Go back to sleep. We will be safe so
on.”
I nod, feel fuzzy. There’s too much stuff in my head, I can’t think, don’t want to think because there’s something bad there, but it’s something I need to remember. No. Jed is right. Sleeping does sound better. And I am tired. So tired.
You let this large-scale conversion attack happen.
I frown; that’s not right.
The black water blinks at me. It’s moving, hissing. Steam rises from it. I try to shut it out, because it looks bad, and I don’t want to think of bad things before I go to sleep. I roll onto my side, so I’m facing Jed. I need to watch him. Mustn’t turn my back to a predator.
Jed’s smiling as he looks up at the sky. He’s been watching it for ages. Staring at it. But it’s just white, there’s nothing there. Just mist.
I pull my feet out of the water, and the cold breeze washes over them, makes my skin tingle. I move my head, so I can’t see the black water because it looks bad.
Don’t go to a black lake. If you see it, you run. If you go to this black lake, you’ll die. But he’s going to try and get you to go there. He’ll trick you.
The words jolt through me, make me frown; I don’t know why, and I can’t remember who said them. Every time I try to think, try to sort through everything in my head, the pain starts.
It’s small at first. Little beads of pain that dive into my brain. But then the beads get bigger, push my thoughts out of the way, to make room for them—for the beads of pain. And the pain’s all I can concentrate on.
Traitor!
I try to sit up. After a few seconds, I manage it. I twist my head around, look at Jed. He’s sitting calmly, face up to the sky.
“It will be over in a minute,” he says. “All over and done. And we will be safe.”
I rub at my bare skin, try to ignore the puncture marks. My bare arms.
I go cold.
I am naked.
I drag in air, struggle to breathe.
“My clothes…” I look around, can’t see the dress or my underwear, can only see the steep banks of the lake, rising up above me, higher and higher. But I still have my mother’s pendant on…and the ring. The engagement ring…my engagement ring. “Jed… What’s happening?”
“We are being saved.”
My skin starts to tingle. I look at him. That’s when I notice he’s naked too. And—and he’s covered in the marks. Covered in the puncture marks—the insect bites? But his are everywhere, covering every ounce of skin, tattooed or not. There’s no part of him that hasn’t got the bites. Even his face now.
And his bites are bleeding.
I blink, and then his blood’s pouring out of them, pooling toward me, scorching my skin.
I start screaming, shouting at Jed. And I’m trying to get away, but I can’t, can’t move.
Jed’s eyes are still on the sky, and the angle of his head emphasizes the bites on his skin. “Any minute now.”
Pain flits down my spine; I don’t understand. My shoulders tighten. I try to wrap my arms around myself, try to do something. My gaze focuses on the bites on his lower back, how they’re distorting the tattoo there—
It’s the bison. The bison tattoo. Like that other Zharat Seer had, just a different place.
I swallow hard and stare at my hands.
“Where are we?” My voice still shakes as I pull the ring off my finger, as I try to press it into the bloody ground, get the redness to swallow the jewelry up. But the ring doesn’t disappear, it’s moving, buzzing against my fingertips.
“The crater lake at the top of our Fire Mountain,” Jed says. He’s still looking up, as if he’s waiting for something.
I look up. But all I can see is the mist. Thick, white, hazy.
“Why?”
“He told me. Told me what to do, how much energy to give the spirits.”
“The spirits?” My voice cracks.
Jed nods. “The spirits… He told me…” He trails off, frowning.
He? I blink hard, think I remember something… Jed said something about a he before, didn’t he? I grimace, can’t remember. But I need information.
“What are these marks?” I ask, and a voice in my head tells me that that isn’t the question I should be asking.
Jed glances at me. I see the gun behind him, but it’s out of my reach. At the moment.
“Scars,” he says. “Kavalah spirit scars.”
I stare at him, echo his words. The whole world seems to stop. Oh Gods.
“What have you done?” My voice stutters. I flex my fingers, need to get up, need to get away. I take several deep breaths, push my hair back from my face. It is wet, warm. “Jed! What bargain have you made?”
But he just shakes his head, looks up at the sky again.
Oh Gods.
I need to get out of here. Something bad is going to happen. I look around again, but my clothes aren’t here.
“Do not worry.” Jed’s hand darts across, and his fingers close around my wrist. His skin burns. For a second, I think he’s seen I’m not wearing his ring. But he doesn’t say anything about it. “Come on. It must be time now.”
“Time?”
But he doesn’t say anything else. Just pulls me up. And, the moment I’m standing, I feel the full effects of the drug in my system. My legs weaken, and I feel all my blood rush to them. Dizziness starts to overtake me, but Jed’s holding me up.
“Lean against me. I will help you walk.”
Run! the voice in my head screams, uses Five’s tone.
But Jed’s got my arm; he’s right next to me… And he’s strong. I can’t run. So, I do as he says. I lean into him, and he tells me what a good girl I am. But I don’t like the way he says the words, or how his voice shakes.
I shudder. “Where are the others?” My words are slurring again; I hadn’t realized they were so clear before.
“I cannot save the others,” Jed says. “I can only save you.”
He steps forward again, pulls me with him. I stumble, force my legs to work. But they’re still not right. Nothing is right.
If you go to this black lake, you’ll die. But he’s going to try and get you to go there.
Five’s voice.
I whimper.
The Untamed part of you will be killed.
I try to turn, don’t know where those words came from…not Five’s voice now. I try to speak, but my words don’t sound like words. They’re just sounds.
“It’s all right,” Jed says.
But it’s not. It’s not. It’s not.
Oh Gods.
He marches me forward more. I can’t stop him. We’re suddenly waist-deep in the thick water, and there are stones under my feet. I frown… Time—I’m losing time. I shake my head, try to feel something beyond the pain. Something important, it’s right on the edge of my mind.
The black water laps against my body, swallowing me. I look down, can’t see anything below the water’s surface. My hips, my legs, they’re completely obscured by the dark liquid. The water…it is black. Thick, and gloopy, the kind of water that has weight.
The kind of water that can pull you down, trap you.
My body jolts. I look at Jed.
He knows I’m a Seer.
He’s a Zharat man.
He’s going to drown me.
He’s finally going to kill me, after waiting so long—tormenting me.
Soraya said he likes the kill—but he likes the chase too.
He’s a proper hunter.
“No…no…no…” I shake my head, try to pull away from him, away from the black water.
But his arms are around me, and the water’s around me. Everything’s around me, and it’s pushing.
And—and I can’t die now. My chest tightens. My death, it’s important… I try to fight through the fog in my head, try to remember why….
“Please… Don’t kill me…” I cry, turning, facing Jed.
A muscle pulsates in his neck. “I am not going to kill you.”
But it’s a lie. Oh Gods. Ye
t the gun’s still on the bank. He’s not going to shoot me, because it’s too far away now, glinting. I frown, the light isn’t—it shouldn’t be glinting. It’s still foggy here, still—
The spirits drop from the sky.
I scream, try to duck but I’m suddenly too deep in the lake. Water invades, the darkness dives down my throat. I jump back up, feet slipping on the rocky bed, splashing. Water sprays from my mouth, I’m choking, and Jed—
Jed is….
He’s not here.
“This is her! Do it now,” he yells, but it’s just his voice. He’s not here. “Save her!”
I turn around again, and again, and then I can’t stop moving. I’m just going round and round. Nausea squeezes my throat, then I see a spirit in front of me. An evil snake spirit, like the one I saw before… The one in the cave? I frown… That feels right…doesn’t it? I saw one…a snake spirit….
And then Jed’s voice is everywhere again. “Do it! I fed you all, I gave you the energy, my blood has run for this—so do it!”
The nearest snake spirit moves closer to me.
I stare at it. It’s looking at me. Its eyes are bigger than before, so big. Its whole body’s bigger. Fatter. The thin line of its mouth gets longer.
Get out!
My body jerks, and I turn, and—
Something slams into me. I don’t see it, just feel it. I fall back, my head underwater. I kick out, but the water’s thicker now, heavier…and it’s hotter. So much hotter. It’s holding me, burning me.
My skin…blistering, too much pain…can’t….
I try to kick out, but can’t find anything. Try to move my arms, but they’re too heavy. The water’s wrapping around me, and the silver lines—the silver lines that are suddenly there—are wrapping around me too. They’re ropes, tiny ropes that pull me down.
And—oh Gods.
I can’t breathe.
Can’t—
“Do it!” Jed’s voice is different, lighter. “Spirits! Let them save us! Give control of our souls to the Enhanced!”
The black water burns my throat all the way down. I feel it in my stomach, my lungs. I’m choking, choking. Heat forces its way up my esophagus, mixing with bile and rancid tastes and—
I take another breath, breathe in more water, more pain….
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