I cannot move. I am frozen, and not by my Ability. A single object that changes everything. Our whole friendship is a lie. Anger supersedes shock and I wriggle forwards, snatching the transceiver. On my feet again, I look at it with burning hatred. But it isn’t necessarily Tahan’s transceiver. My first thought was that it belonged to her, but Finn could have hidden it in here when he went to the bathroom.
I don’t know to whom it belongs. Finn and Tahan are the two people I’ve always been able to count on. The only two real people in my fake life. And now one or both of them will always be an illusion. I sit on the lumpy bed. It seems that no matter how many truths I uncover, there are always more lies to break my heart.
From under the bed I snatch a wrinkled market receipt, the ink faded. I find a pencil on the nightstand to scribble my note: ‘We have to leave now. One of them is lying.’ I fold the paper and slide it into my sleeve. I shove the transceiver underneath my jacket, clipping it to my waistband. I stand, composing myself, waiting for the tears to subside. I open the door with a newfound determination and head down the hallway. I find them all sitting silently.
Tahan leaps up from the dining table. ‘Do I have style, or what? You look so much better! Don’t you two agree?’
Finn looks unsure, not accustomed to seeing me in such daring, unrefined clothing.
‘Look at that, you could almost pass as a normal person,’ Jay says.
Unable to stop myself, I smile, and then I remember that one of the people I care for most is betraying me. I casually walk over and sit next to Jay. With the table as cover, I slide my hand over to his, pressing the piece of paper into his palm.
In my peripheral vision I see his whole body tense. He calmly gets up, walking over to the kitchen counter, where our maserlocks lie. As soon as he picks them up, I jump to my feet and we both move into the hallway, Jay pointing a maserlock at Tahan and Finn.
Finn leaps up and Tahan says, ‘What are you doing?’
‘Which one of you betrayed me?’
Tahan stands up. ‘A, what are you talking about?’
Through my anger I feel tears welling.
‘Betrayed you?’ Finn says. ‘Althea, what is going on?’
They stand side by side in front of the small, chipped table, hands raised, their faces stunned.
‘WHO?’ I wave the transceiver at them.
‘A, seriously, what are you talking about?’
‘Was it you, T? Were you receiving your orders when you went on your suspicious trip to the markets?’ A look of alarm dashes across her face so fast I’m not sure I really saw it. I turn to Finn, looking at me with hurt and alarm. ‘Or was it you Finn? Was that why you met with Duncan two nights ago?’
‘Althea, no. I would never–’
‘Thea, we have to leave.’ Jay tucks one maserlock into his waistband and grabs my arm. ‘The sentinels will be on their way.’
‘But I have to know who–’
‘We don’t have time.’
‘Please, just tell me.’ My anger is fading and all that is left is sadness.
‘A, we don’t know what you mean,’ Tahan says.
Their hands still raised above their heads, Tahan and Finn look at each other, both apparently confused.
Jay starts pulling me down the hallway, his maserlock trained on them. Finn and Tahan watch us walk away and I feel tears crawl down my face.
At the front door Jay looks out the peephole. ‘Oh, no.’
I wipe my eyes on the back of my hand. ‘What’s wrong?’
‘Sentinels.’
Sadness has made me too numb to react with any fear.
Jay guides me back down the hallway to Tahan and Finn.
‘Althea, what is happening?’ Finn asks, taking a step toward me. Jay pushes him back with the maserlock.
Before I can respond Jay is ushering me through the back door. The sky is grey, waiting for night to fall. Surrounded by tall wooden fences, the small backyard is empty aside from a lone metal outdoor chair. My legs feel weak as Jay tows me down the steps. Tahan and Finn were my family and, like Duncan, one of them has betrayed me. For all I know Finn and Tahan are working together, their constant bickering a smokescreen. I fall to my knees.
Jay tries to help me up but I bat his hands away. ‘Thea, come on, we have to go.’
From the front of the house we hear banging and yelling. The sentinels are inside.
Jay pulls my hand and I stumble to my feet. I bolt for the back fence and climb. I follow Jay along the darkened laneway, the faded graffiti on the fences becoming a blur as I run.
I glance back and see three sentinels jumping down from Tahan’s fence, and more emerging from the head of the laneway, maserlocks pointed at us.
Jay stops at a wooden fence of a stranger’s yard and, without communicating, I know what to do. He links his hands together and I step into them. He pushes me up and over the wooden palings and pulls himself over.
I look back at the sentinels running towards us. Amongst them is the scar-faced sentinel I bashed with the cane on the oval. He fires his maserlock and I don’t have time to raise my left hand.
Jay grabs my waist and pulls me down, the pulsar missing my head by centimetres. We race down the side of the weatherboard house and Jay runs straight into a factory worker on the street. Jay pushes the shocked man out of the way and we narrowly avoid being run over by a cart full of caged chickens as we dash across the road into another yard. We run along the side of the house into the backyard, most of it taken up by a vegetable garden. The back fence is half collapsed, tilted on an angle.
As I scale the bowed fence, I hear, ‘Stop right there!’
I look back. A sentinel stands ten metres away, his maserlock aimed at me. Jay is already over the fence and he reaches out his arms.
‘Get down! Now!’
I climb back down the fence into the backyard.
The sentinel lifts his transceiver and speaks, ‘I have the subject. We are off Nepean Road, in the backyard of a grey weatherboard.’
An old lady emerges from the back door. The sentinel glances at her. ‘Back inside, ma’am.’ She retreats, peering out the window. ‘Where’s your friend?’ the sentinel asks.
‘Gone.’
‘Don’t lie to me, Princess! Where is he?’ The anger in his voice is refreshing, making me smile. Never has a sentinel spoken to me like this. ‘What’s so funny?’
I ignore him, waiting for Jay to make his move.
The sentinel takes a step forward. ‘Where is he?’
‘Right here.’
Before the sentinel can react, Jay fires. The sentinel drops his maserlock, clutching his arm. Jay fires again and the sentinel drops to the ground as his leg buckles beneath him.
I ignore his screams of pain as I turn and again climb the crumpled fence. On the other side, Jay hands me a maserlock and we head southwards. For the next ten minutes, we duck and weave through yards and streets. The few people that see us stay clear when they spot our maserlocks. The abundance of sentinels that I imagine closing in on us gives me extra speed.
My legs shaking with exhaustion, in a well-maintained backyard Jay signals a break. We hide in a child’s playhouse, the peaceful backyard visible through the small window. Thankfully, the only movement we see are tree branches swaying in the light spring breeze.
‘Where did you learn to shoot?’ I ask, adjusting myself to avoid splinters in the floor.
‘It’s something all Variants learn growing up.’
‘Why?’
‘At the end of the day, when you take away our Abilities, we are just people. People fighting other people. Other people with maserlocks.’ He shuffles, stretching his long legs and hitting a child’s play table.
‘Did I learn?’
He nods. ‘You were just starting to learn when . . . when you were taken.’
I aim my maserlock out the window, but the motion doesn’t feel familiar. As I look out, I see the back door open and a gentleman in a red smoking
jacket steps out, looking over the backyard. I hope the cover of nightfall makes us undetectable.
The man’s young daughter steps out of the door, reaching up to take her father’s hand. ‘Daddy, is something wrong?’
He looks out across the yard before looking down at his daughter. ‘Everything is fine, honey. Let’s go back inside.’
They go inside and I glare at Jay in the darkness, hoping he can see me as I whisper, ‘No more noise.’
He whispers back, ‘As you wish, Your Highness.’ I can dimly make out the smirk on his face.
I wonder if either Tahan or Finn is talking with the sentinels right now. Talking with Duncan.
‘I know what it’s like to be betrayed, Thea,’ Jay says softly, his smirk gone.
‘Who do you think betrayed me, Tahan or Finn?’ I whisper back.
‘Finn,’ he says without hesitation.
‘Why Finn?’
‘First impressions. I didn’t like him. He has shifty eyes. If his mother knew the truth about you, he had to know. How could he not?’ I contemplate his words. ‘And his concern for you didn’t seem genuine.’
‘Everybody likes Finn!’ I say defensively. ‘Everybody except Tahan.’
‘Well, I don’t. I’m sure it was him. He was just a decoy to keep us at Tahan’s while the sentinels closed in. We were fine until he showed up.’
‘Maybe you’re right,’ I concede reluctantly. ‘Who betrayed you, Jay?’
His jaw tightens and he transfers his gaze to the window. ‘Someone who doesn’t matter anymore.’ He looks to me again, seeing I’m about to ask another question. He lets out a single laugh. ‘Oh, I forgot, you don’t give up with your questions. Look, he was just someone I shouldn’t have counted on. I wanted to believe in him, to trust him, but in the end I found out you can’t trust anyone.’
‘You are one mysterious man, you know that?’
He nods. ‘Yes, yes I do.’
I wake, drowsy and confused. I lift my head from Jay’s shoulder, twisting my neck to relieve the stiffness in it. It is completely dark outside and I realise where we are. How could we fall asleep?
I look up at Jay, his face soft and peaceful in sleep. I almost don’t want to wake him. I nudge him. ‘Should we stay with the plan of heading south?’ I ask, my voice raspy from dehydration and not speaking for hours.
He looks around, getting his bearings. ‘What? Oh, yes, south. Unless you’ve come up with something brilliant?’
‘Unfortunately, I’m all out of brilliant ideas.’
He stands, hunched over in the small playhouse, and offers me a hand up. At the small door he pauses and turns. ‘Remember, use the maserlock first, Ability second.’
We make our way slowly through the kingdom’s yards. Not only do we have to be careful of sentinels, but the owners of the houses, too. It’s night-time and the majority of the kingdom will have returned from their workplaces.
My heart rate spikes each time we have to venture onto a street to bypass an apartment building or a too-high fence. A few times, we only just make it to the cover of low-hanging eaves or a handy tree before a sentinel comes into view. At Schofield Street, we stop, hiding in a bed of azaleas. It’s difficult to cross here; there are more street lights in this part of town, lighting up the wide street and the carriages, carts and horsemen that traverse it. Not too far away I see the smoke plumes from the factories spiralling into the night sky.
For ten minutes we wait, analysing the situation. Every few minutes a sentinel passes our hiding spot. After the fifth sentinel passes, we wait thirty seconds after he is out of sight, and out we run – me looking right and Jay looking left. We keep our heads low as we pass a young lady strolling along the pavement, pushing a pram, and then we duck down an alleyway.
Suddenly, Jay yanks my arm. I stumble as he seizes my waist and pushes me against the wall of a roughly rendered house. His breath hits my cheek as he lowers his head, eyes wide. One of his hands holds my waist while the other grips his maserlock. I tighten my grip around my own. Although I can’t see past Jay, I know there must be a sentinel on the street.
Footsteps approach.
I peep behind Jay and my eyes lock with a sentinel, twenty metres away. My left hand tightens around Jay’s forearm as I raise my maserlock.
The sentinel looks past us, yelling, ‘They’re–’
Before a second syllable can escape him, I fire, hitting him in the shoulder. He falls to the ground, writhing in pain.
Jay steps away from me and I hear another sentinel say into his transceiver, ‘I have them. They’re on Schof–’
Jay fires.
My arm is still raised from shooting the maserlock.
‘Let’s go.’
I can’t move. My hand shakes uncontrollably. Jay is looking up and down the street, empty but for the lady with the pram, staring at us. I don’t want to fire my maserlock again. I avoid looking at the sentinel, still squirming on the ground. I can’t avoid the sound of his screams – they ring in my head. The young lady with the pram also starts screaming as she runs away from us.
Jay gently places his hand on my arm, forcing it down. ‘Thea!’ He points to the sentinel. ‘He’ll be fine. But we won’t be if we don’t get moving.’ He takes my free hand and pulls me along.
I glance back at the sentinel and a groan escapes me. He isn’t moving and his screams have stopped, but they still echo in my head.
Jay drags me along the alleyway. A pulsar whips past my ear. I let go of Jay’s hand and start running, followed closely by Jay, and further back, a unit of sentinels.
I turn down the first side street I come to, finding myself running straight at a sentinel. Not just any sentinel, but the one with the scarred face from the earlier chase. Scar-face lifts his maserlock.
‘Stop!’
We pick up speed.
‘I said, stop! I will shoot!’
Jay lifts his left hand and blasts the sentinel with a burst of blue light, making him stagger back. Jay barrels into him, knocking Scar-face over and his maserlock skitters into the gutter.
Out of the alley, we turn right onto Patterson Road, heading south, sentinels on our tail, firing their maserlocks over our heads. Jay stumbles and cries out as a pulsar rips into his arm. He doesn’t stop. If anything, he surges ahead, desperate to escape.
Another laneway provides us with relief from pulsar fire. My legs are burning as we sidestep into an adjoining alley before the sentinels see where we went. I have lost track of which direction we are heading.
My breathing is laboured, thoughts of quenching water filling my head. I’ve never run this much in my life. The alleyway spouts onto a narrow street with a lone horseman trotting down the centre of the road. From all the ducking and weaving, I am lost. I don’t know which way is south. Jay rounds a corner and I follow. Even with his arm bleeding from the pulsar wound, he is still faster than me.
Up ahead, I see him stop; a sentinel has him covered. Fear flashes through me.
Jay takes aim.
I scream, ‘No!’ and leap onto his back as he fires.
I roll off him and look up. Jay missed.
‘Thea, what are you doing?’ Sprawled on the road, Jay raises his maserlock.
The sentinel does nothing, neither lowering his arm nor shooting.
I force Jay’s arm down. ‘No! Don’t, Jay!’
‘Thea, are you crazy? Let go of me!’
I get up, standing in front of Jay to block his aim.
The sentinel’s maserlock is pointing directly at me.
Behind the barrel of the maserlock is a familiar face. Francis.
I feel like I haven’t seen Francis in years. His calm, gentle face is a reminder of my life before all this started. My sentinel, my friend, who stood beside me, protecting me from dreaded Manipulators and adoring commoners. He now stands before me, dutifully pointing a maserlock at me as I stand in front of Jay.
‘Thea!’ Jay takes my arm but I shake him off.
‘Fran
cis,’ I say, my voice small.
Francis’ arm trembles.
‘Francis, please.’
He not only drops his arm, he drops his maserlock. I run over and hug him. I’ve always felt safe when he was around and now is no different.
‘Princess Althea, I thought I’d failed you!’
I smile.
Jay makes his way to us, holding his wounded arm. ‘Thea, who is–’
‘This is Francis, and he’s my friend.’
‘Oh, great. Your last friends turned out to be incredibly trustworthy.’
I glare at Jay.
‘Francis, we need to get out of here.’
‘It is all true, Princess? You’ve been turned?’
‘What are you talking about?’
‘Yesterday afternoon at the public meeting, the king announced the Manipulators had converted you into one of their own. He said you’ve turned against him, that you are plotting to make your new Manipulator allies the rulers of the Kingdom of Cardiff.’
Fury rises within me. I’ve never wanted to hurt someone as much I want to hurt Duncan Cardiff. ‘No, Francis! That’s not true. I’m not really Duncan’s daughter, he kidnapped me when I was eleven!’
Francis’ face registers complete shock. ‘No, that cannot be!’
‘We only met when I was eleven, didn’t we, Francis? I don’t remember my childhood – and not because of the supposed accident.’
Jay is getting antsy standing on the open road. ‘Look, we’d love to stay and chat but we really have to get going, what with sentinels around trying to kill us and all.’
Francis warily steps away. ‘Are you a Manipulator, Your Highness?’
‘A Variant. We call ourselves Variants. I wasn’t “turned” by Jay, or anyone else. I was taken from my Variant family five years ago and brought here. Duncan had my memories wiped.’
Although I think my story sounds bizarre, Francis seems to believe me. ‘Let’s talk over here.’ He leads us to the shadowed veranda of a storefront. ‘I’ve often wondered about that first year I met you. Many times after a seizure, King Duncan would have you confined to your room with Lucy – sometimes for weeks. For you to recover, he said. Sometimes you would say strange things before you were given your medicine.’
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