Fragmented

by Madeline Dyer

  No… No… No… I’m drowning. Actually drowning. Oh Gods.

  I can’t die! Not now… Not like this… I’m supposed to die at the end of the war…when Death calls me back….

  I try to move, to swim, but my arms won’t work.

  Jed… It was him. That’s all I can think. That kavalah spirit that was in me before…it was him. He sent it. Not Mart, not Raleigh. Jed.

  My mind reels. Why? Why would Jed—

  Do you want to be safe?

  A kavalah spirit appears in front of me, smiles at me. For a moment, it looks less like a snake.

  We can make you safe, Little One. Tell me yes, and we’ll make you safe.

  Its face elongates as I stare at it. Safe? The Enhanced?

  “No!” But more water invades me, and my word doesn’t come out… Just more pain… No… Too much pain. I’m dying, dying, dying….

  Poor little Seven. You don’t want to die, do you? But you are dying. You’re dying right now. Only we can save you. He gave us the energy to do it, Seven. Gave us our new instructions.

  I try to get away, need to swim—but the water’s too heavy, and my arms are still trapped, useless. And the spirit smiles again.

  So let us save you, Little One. Just say the word. Give us access to your soul. Let us get you a nice, strong soul-commander.

  The silver threads around me tighten, and I scream again, more water in my body, lungs burning. The black water gets hotter. I raise my arm—somehow manage it—see my skin, see the top layer twist and peel off, wrinkling at the edges.

  My stomach twists.

  No. No. No. I need to get out. Have to get away.

  I try to look up, try to see the sky, but the water’s too dark. Can’t make out a thing. It’s all just black. Black and gloopy. All black and gloopy apart from the spirit in front of me.

  You’re not supposed to die like this…drowning… Let us save you.

  I shake my head, feel thousands of pins dive into my flesh. I scream, see flashes of white everywhere, and—

  You can’t beat us, Little One. We always get what we’re sent for.

  Something cackles next to me. I flinch, try to turn, try to see….

  They swim at me, all at once. Hundreds of them. The snake spirits. But they’re smaller. Tiny. An inch long, and they get to me—crash into me. Through me.

  My skin—more marks, more punctures, more kavalah spirit scars. Everywhere. Like Jed… Everywhere.

  I scream, more black water in my lungs.

  We took your Seeing dreams as you slept… And you had no idea… You thought we were gone, after you expelled our mother. You couldn’t detect us: us who she’d so carefully laid inside you.

  You didn’t even know… Couldn’t feel us coming and going… Free access.

  And Jed gave us enough energy to be invisible.

  We stole your warnings from the Dream Land when you fainted once, twice, three times….

  Three times? I blink—then I remember. Earlier, before the Enhanced attacked and on the day of the fight… I fainted twice then. Corin thought the second time, when we were trying to escape, looked like a Dream Land summoning. Oh Gods. Two summonings, close together on that day… But what were the Gods and Goddesses trying to warn me about? I struggle to think….

  You allowed multiple conversions to take place.

  The conversion attacks! The girls going fishing… The girls who never returned… Two faints, two summonings to the Dream Land—warnings that were stolen away from me before I even saw them. Oh Gods. And Death warned me about obeying the visions soon after that, said he wouldn’t give many more chances.

  Oh Gods. How many other Seeing visions have I missed… The dreams, when I was sleeping… How many?

  And I look down at my body, my left side, see all the kavalah spirit scars—all the marks, the bites, the older ones that were so prominent before. And, oh Gods… It works… The timings work… I’m sure of it… Every time new marks appeared, it was after a Dream Land vision I never received…and something bad followed—girls went missing, were converted… Several times… And the last summoning, right before the Enhanced attacked: deaths and conversions I could’ve prevented if I’d seen the vision…deaths and conversions that the Gods and Goddesses needed me to prevent….

  We took your Seeing dreams as you slept. We stole your warnings from the Dream Land when you fainted.

  And every time, it marked my body—wrote on it that something bad was going to happen.

  My body jolts. My Dream Land visions… Jed—Jed arranged for me to forget… Put the mother kavalah inside me… How? I blink, then I think of the drugs…and the other drinks he’s given me, how after the first drink—when he’d just rescued me—I’d felt ill, because of the kavalah… It was in the drink? My head pounds; I don’t understand… Why? Why would he do this? Block my Seeing dreams?

  Because he’s Enhanced? He must be… Jed’s Enhanced… Got to be… Stopping my visions…so I couldn’t prevent conversion attacks… But what about his visions? His Seeing dreams? No—he’s on the Enhanced Ones’ side. He won’t get visions… So he made sure I didn’t either, so I couldn’t stop the conversion attack and—

  Pain lashes through me, tries to stop me from thinking.

  But I push through… Got to… Know I… The other Zharat Seers… Do they have bite marks too… The baby kavalahs… Did Jed target the other Seers too? I don’t know, can’t think, can’t remember. But they had no warnings, did they? Oh Gods. No Zharat Seers had any warnings…because they let female Untamed Seers be killed…and they kill them themselves…and so the male Seers were traitors…good enough Enhanced—and that explains why they don’t need their own Seer pendants, or how they didn’t recognize mine… They can’t get lost in the Dream Land…not after they’ve been banished from it….

  My head… no—I scream as something burns me, my back, my neck….

  We were with you…all the time.

  And it was fun…so much fun….

  I blink, feel my body get lighter. Can’t understand how I’m still conscious, how I’m still alive. I can’t breathe. But I’m alive.

  A snake laughs. Then it moves closer, touches my stomach with its nose for a second.

  And now we have a new assignment.

  We have to bind you now, Little One. Change the governor of your soul.

  Just say the word, Seven Sarr. Give us access. A simple yes is needed for such a big task.

  Bigger than stealing your dreams....

  Let us do our job.

  Let us save you.

  I reach out for the nearest spirit, try to grab it, but I can’t reach. It slithers out the way, waiting until the last second, and I can’t move fast…not fast enough. And they’re all the same.

  I scream, more pain in my chest.

  But I know I can do it, can get away, can avoid this. I’m stronger than they think—than Jed thinks… They thought they blocked the Dream Land completely… But I saw Death, he called me there, I spoke to Death… And I got to the Dream Land when the Gods and Goddesses started to banish me….

  But neither of those showed you the future, showed you conversion attacks, Seven Sarr…

  But my brother! I saw him, saw him—

  That was before we were employed!

  We did our job, Little One. Jed didn’t want you seeing the future.

  And you didn’t, not once we were onboard.

  I feel empty. Seeing my brother—that was my last Seeing dream. My last vision. And I didn’t do anything—Death was right. I ignored it. Because I didn’t see the bison. But we were indoors. I wouldn’t have seen him.

  But it was my last vision.

  The snakes hiss, and I see fangs. Fangs so sharp they cut the black gloopy water, leave slashes.

  We’ll make you agree… We always get what we come for.

  So make it easier for yourself.

  Just one word. Just say it.

  The pain in my chest sharpens, spreads down my left arm. I gas
p, but there’s no air. Just more black water, and then—

  Then I see Corin.

  He’s suddenly here.

  He’s swimming toward me, reaching for me, pushing the snakes aside.

  I’ll help you, he mouths, and his hair looks longer, floats in the water around his face. His eyes are wide open, staring at me. Sev?

  His hands reach for me. Our fingertips touch. Electricity races through me, stirs the adrenaline, the energy. And I’m kicking out behind me, propelling myself closer to Corin. I grab his hands, ignore the heaviness in my stomach.

  Let me help you, let me save you, Corin says. Do you want me to save you?

  I nod.

  Sev?

  And I know it isn’t him, because it can’t be. But my lips aren’t listening to what I’m thinking.

  My mother’s Seer pendant burns, tries to remind me that it’s still there, but the water cools the burning, and then the sensation’s gone.

  Sev? Say the word!

  “Yes.”

  Corin changes instantly. His face pinches in, his body gets longer… The contours of his face become sharper…sharper…sharper… And something happens to my face, my neck, my arms, my body… I look down, see something gold splash onto my skin.

  The snakes all smile.

  We’ll deliver your soul’s access safely. Jed gave us the name of your new master.

  This one’s said to be a strong soul-commander.

  No!

  Goodbye, Seven Sarr.

  A long time later, someone grabs my arm. I feel my body moving, swaying, floating, as the hand pulls me along, flips my body over.

  My eyes are open, stinging, and I make out blurry shapes. But nothing else. I can’t do anything else.

  “S’ven?” The voice is weak, but frantic.

  Access to your soul has been delivered to your new soul-commander.

  You will now be under the control of the Enhanced.

  At first the words don’t make an impact. Then, what little contents is left in my stomach starts to shift. My body sways faster. My skin starts to burn. A flash of gold, there—and there.

  More movement. Floating. The water’s cooling down now. My skin burns, hurts, aches. But there’s too much pain, so I shut it out, what I can. Just push most of it away.

  “S’ven?”

  Sudden hard gravel, rocks, beneath my shoulders.

  He needs to lift me over the gravel, not drag me. But he doesn’t lift me, and the sharp rocks cut into what’s left of my shoulders.

  I stare at the sky, can’t blink. The steam above me makes everything shimmer. The sky is purple and red and orange and navy. Little streaks. But there’s blue too.

  The Turning.

  Yet there’s no sound. It’s silent. Except for his voice, saying my name, over and over again.

  My arm twitches a little.

  You will now be under the control of the Enhanced.

  “Oh, S’ven! Thank the Gods! I thought the kavalahs had disobeyed….”

  I don’t like his voice—don’t like him, hate him—so I shut my eyes, and I drift away.

  I dream of Corin, see him running on the forested slopes with Esther, Clare, Soraya, and three Zharat men. One of them carries a child, but the girl will be dead within minutes. The adults are screaming, crying, and they’re covered in blisters.

  “We need to find them!” Corin yells.

  But Jed doesn’t like Corin, and he doesn’t like me dreaming of him, so he wakes me up, leans over me, his wet hair dripping into my eyes. He’s got splashes of gold on one side of his face; they merge with his black tattoos, make the goat look as if its horns are golden.

  I sit up slowly. My underwear and dress are back on now, and the thought of him touching me makes my stomach twist. My mother’s pendant is still on too, and I hold it, try to get some comfort from it.

  You will now be under the control of the Enhanced.

  Then I retch and spew out what little was still inside me.

  “S’ven?”

  I jump up, anger hot in my veins.

  “Why?” I demand. My hands shoot out. I want to strike him, but don’t want to touch him. “What the hell have you done? My Dream Land visions… My soul… The Enhanced! Why? Oh Gods, stay away from me.”

  I look around. I have to get away. He’s one of them. And I’m trying to talk to him, understand him… No. I can’t. I need to get away. You can’t reason with an Enhanced One.

  But his eyes are still Untamed. That unsettles me.

  Jed’s lips lift up at the corners. The movement reminds me of someone. “To save you.”

  “What?”

  I’m breathing hard, too hard. My fingers click as I clench them into fists. I turn slightly, look about again. His gun. He hasn’t got it, so it must be somewhere. Must be. And I need it.

  But I can’t see the firearm, no glint of metal.

  “He said I must keep you safe. All of it was done to save you,” Jed says, louder. “If you did not remember your Dream Land visions, you could not tell anyone. Therefore, my people could not kill you for being a Seer.” He pauses, and my upper lip trembles with disgust. “As for your soul-commander, he will keep us safe, he has promised. We are on the right side now… The Enhanced will be around here somewhere, come on.” Sweat glistens off his brow. “They will not have sent only a few to the cave. We shall find them. I did all this to save you, to keep you alive.”

  I shove my finger at Jed. Part of it is gold—gold like the splashes on his face—and the brightness of it shocks me.

  “You gave an Enhanced One access to my soul—to command me?” I swear loudly. “Why? Oh Gods. How—how can you do this?”

  For a second, I entertain the idea that Jed doesn’t know how powerful I am, how I’m the key to the survival of one race, but then I forget it. He’ll know. Of course he’ll know.

  Jed breathes hard. “To make sure we are on the winning side. He told me. He is not supposed to share the augury but he did. To save us. The Chosen Ones survive. Now, we are on the right side. We will survive too.”

  You will now be under the control of the Enhanced.

  If they have you, they’ll have all the Untamed.

  I scream, and I go for him as rage fills my veins, hot and desperate. I shriek as I punch him, catch him off balance.

  “It is the only way,” Jed cries, and he catches my hands, holds them together, stops me and I just—halt. Freeze as if someone’s made me.

  Oh Gods—the Enhanced? I’m now under their control… I look around quickly, expect to see hundreds suddenly surrounding us, but there’s no one there. It’s just us.

  “S’ven, I have to protect you. He promised me he would keep us both safe if we gave him access to our souls. That was the deal.”

  “I am not joining the Enhanced!” I shake my head, spit at him. I don’t care if I’m under their control—it’s not happening. Just—not.

  “You already have.” His fingers push against my face, tracing what? Some sort of pattern? Another gold streak? But I don’t care. I try to bite those fingers, but can’t. “You have a Promise Mark here. We both have them. All over us. We are theirs now.”

  “No,” I say. “No. No.” I look at Jed, look at the gold patches on him among the many kavalah spirit bites. “Undo it,” I scream. “Undo it now!”

  “I can’t,” Jed says.

  “Call the spirits back!” I shove my hand at him, as if expecting white light to shoot out, like it seems to for all other Seers, but nothing happens. I curse. “Get the spirits back here, and stop it all! The Enhanced can’t have access to my soul, Jed. They can’t. Call the kavalahs back.”

  Jed shakes his head. “Only a powerful God can take a soul away from a soul-commander by destroying the Promise Marks.”

  A powerful God—Death? My eyes widen. But he’s…banished me… I can’t contact him… And I think of what he said about my soul, how it will suffer even more if it is the Enhanced who survive. And now I’m bound to them, to my enemy?<
br />
  I swallow hard, then decide exactly how I’m going to kill Jed. I want him to suffer. I want him to suffer greatly. He has to feel pain, he has to know what he’s done.

  “S’ven, I am sorry I tricked you.” Just seeing Jed’s eyes on me nearly makes me vomit. “But he told me. And he said you would not agree, that you wouldn’t understand. That’s what my father said, why I had to—”

  My legs turn to stone. “Your father?”

  My eyes widen. I feel something moving inside me, inside my chest. I’m shaking.

  No. No. No.

  It can’t be.

  Just can’t.

  Coincidences like that—they just don’t happen.

  But who else? And—oh Gods. Suddenly I know, don’t know how I didn’t realize before. Jed looks like him in this light, this angle. He looks just like him. Younger, but just like him.

  But appearance means nothing! Their appearances are artificial!

  But….

  I turn, and I run. Because I know. Oh Gods, I know. I know who my new soul-commander is.

  My legs don’t feel numb anymore, and I can’t feel the pain in my hip. I am devoid of everything. I pant, pumping my limbs.

  Jed’s behind me. Always behind me. Can hear him shouting. But I’m getting away. How? He’s faster. I’m injured. Yet, I am getting away… The distance between us is growing. Brown grass gets crushed beneath my feet. I skid on a rock. Something scrapes my ankle. I can see the valley. It looks dark down there…eerily dark.

  I crash through more undergrowth. Thorns rip at my ankles, tear the skin there. I feel blood, wet and sticky and—

  He’s there, in front of me. Feet away.

  No. Can’t be.

  But he is.

  He grins at me.

  I skid to a stop.

  No. No. No.

  He will always be able to find you.

  I go cold, feel my body tighten up, tighten until it’s stone.

  Oh Gods. No.

  “Shania, how lovely to see you once more. Then again, I knew you’d run toward me, because I made you do it.” Raleigh pauses, and his mirror eyes flash. “We’re going to do great things together.”

  I shriek, arms jerking out, but there’s nowhere to go—he’s everywhere, everywhere I look. Raleigh is everywhere. I throw my hand out, my fingers catch against rubbery bark, try to stop myself. Slow my momentum down, and—