“What does this have to do with me?” She asked softly as I finished.
“We need you to come back, because you are the only one who can free her.”
“Why me?”
“The dagger? It’s linked to the women, only. Edwin cannot wield it, neither can Victor, nor I.”
Alayna reached under the cushion of the lounge and produced the dagger. It lit up, swirling with the electric magic that it always produced when she touched it. The jewels on the hilt lit up in the dim room.
I breathed a sigh of relief. “Thank God you have it.”
She looked at Dinga, who was snoring peacefully, then back at the dagger in her hand. “Thank God he kept out of sight when the police questioned me.”
“You have to come back with us.”
“Sebastian, I can’t. I’ve built my life, and it’s safe. I go to school and go to work. I don’t have to worry about my father’s next drink. I’m learning. I’m making money. Soon I’ll have a car and—”
“There’s more,” I paused, Victor’s voice rang in my head, “Only tell her if she refuses to come.”
“You’re the only one who can get us back. The thin places won’t work without your power. Victor barely managed to get us through with the key, but on this side, it won’t work.”
“So, we go to the thin place and I’ll get you through. Toss the dagger after you. You can go save her.” She stood and turned her back to me.
“Alayna, please. We need you. Your mother needs you. Will you let her die again?”
“Again?” She spun to look at me. “Faking her death, that wasn’t my fault.”
“This one will be.”
She pursed her lips together, and I knew I’d made her mad. It hurt me to see her upset, but I didn’t have a choice. She had to come back.
“I’m tired,” she said finally, “and I’ve got an early class tomorrow.”
“Will you at least think on it?”
It took her a while to respond, and I scooted to the edge of my seat.
“Yes.”
“In the morning, you will have an answer?”
“I suppose so, yes.”
I nodded to her. “Acceptable. Good night, sweet princess.”
“Don’t call me that,” she said, and without looking back, disappeared into the back bedroom.
Chapter Fourteen: Decisions
IN THE MONTHS SINCE Alayna had been gone, I had always slept fitfully. I tossed and turned, falling off the narrow lounge once or twice, dreaming of the mines. The dust and dirt infected my lungs and I slowly suffocated, clawing at my throat as the life breath escaped. I wanted out. I needed daylight, I had to...
I bolted up right, the room pitch black around me. Dinga was still sleeping in the chair. The clock by Alayna’s window was on the number five. I almost believed I was home, as the crimson sunlight streamed through the shades on her windows, but then I had to remind myself it would still turn yellow.
I wandered through the tiny apartment, looking in her ice box at all the strange objects: cardboard containers stamped with milk and tiny plastic containers with mystery food. The cabinets had three mugs, a plastic cup, and a few plates. Sparse, but clean.
I heard a scream from the back bedroom. Had the Keeper traversed the thin places and found Alayna? I rushed to the door Alayna had shut hours before.
Her bedroom was as sparse as the rest of the apartment. In the low light I could see a dresser in one corner, badly chipped and worn, with one drawer hanging crooked. On top of it, there sat a small metal box like the one in the Quod. A threadbare rug was thrown across the middle of the floor. Against the back wall, Alayna tossed and turned on a thin pad on the floor with one blanket that looked unfit for a child.
This was no place for a princess.
In her nightmare, she yelled out again. “Mother!”
I knelt next to her, my hand on her shoulder. “Alayna,” I spoke softly. “It’s just a bad dream.”
She tossed more, her arms flailing at her side, but she did not awaken.
There was only one thing I could do, and I hoped she wouldn’t hate me for it later. I crawled in next to her and wrapped my arms around her, holding her in her sleep. She sobbed off and on, but the flailing eventually stopped. Her breathing evened, and she began to snore.
At some point, I drifted off to sleep, but awoke with her staring at me.
“Morning, beautiful.” I tried to force a smile on my weary face.
Her arm encircled my waist. Her sweet breath of jam and sweet roll floated across me. Her lips...
Was I imagining things?
“Sebastian.” Her voice was deep and groggy. “How long have you been in here?”
“Couldn’t sleep,” I said, “kept seeing fire in my dreams.”
I scooted closer.
“Sebastian—”
I tucked a stray strand of hair behind her ear. “Don’t go.”
My head was still too fuzzy to do anything else but obey.
It seemed like no time passed before my eyes opened again, but this time I was firmly planted in Alayna’s living room, where I had been all along. I sat up and rubbed my eyes. It was still dark outside. The dream with Alayna still flashed before my eyes.
I wandered back to her bedroom but I could hear her snoring, so I ducked in the bathroom.
The bathroom, unlike the rest of her apartment, was more glorious than anything I had ever seen. A private shower and a porcelain toilet were luxuries that not even most of the palace could afford. Dragons, lasers, and bots in my world and not a single person had thought of indoor plumbing, not like this.
Even the sink had clear, crisp running water. Not the slightly yellowed, acrid water that came from the pumps at home. I stared at the running water for a minute, then focused on the shower. I wondered if the water was hot, then I decided I’d have to experience it for myself.
The water was so hot it burned, but the cleansing power was so refreshing. In the corner of the tub there was a cup with a razor and a metal bottle. I picked up the bottle, pressing down the curved lid, and a stream of pink ooze shot across the tub curtain, where it promptly turned to shaving foam. I laughed and lathered it on my face. Their foam was encased in a little metal bottle, why hadn’t I thought of that? No sooner had I finished shaving than there was a knock at the bathroom door. “Yes?” I said, my eyes closed against the soap that burned on my scalp.
“You’re still here,” I heard her from the other side of the blue opaque plastic that surrounded the shower.
“Why wouldn’t I be?”
“I just figured maybe you’d go back home during the night.”
“I wouldn’t go without you,” I told her, letting the hot water rinse slowly. I shut off the shower with one hand and poked my head out of the curtain. “Toss me a towel? And maybe some, uh, privacy?” It made me a bit nervous she was in here. It wasn’t proper.
She was sitting on the toilet, her legs crossed, ignoring me. She reached behind her and tossed me a yellow towel.
“I’ve been thinking, you know,” she started to say. I almost groaned, realizing she wasn’t leaving. I wrapped the towel around my waist and pushed the curtain open. As I did, the soap in the shower slid to the bottom. I turned to pick it up. “Yes, Alayna?”
When I stood, I noticed she was staring at me. I reached up and smoothed my curly hair against my scalp, trying to maintain my composure. Please don’t ask.
“What are those scars?”
I winced and nodded. She was too inquisitive for her own good. “I didn’t want you to see those.”
“It’s terrible,” she blurted.
I hadn’t heard it too often before, but it still hurt when she said it. Anyone but her.
“Can I,” her voice dropped, “touch them?”
I sucked in a breath through my teeth but nodded slowly. “I suppose.”
“Turn around.”
I did as she asked. I felt her fingers glide softly over the crisscrossed scars on m
y back. They were raised and healed, but ugly still the same. I caught a glimpse of them in a mirror once and I never wanted to again, even by accident. They were a terrible mar, a memory of a past I didn’t want to think about.
“Oh, Sebastian,” she breathed as I turned to face her. “Who did that to you?”
“A few I caught in the crossfire of an automaton’s lasers.” I shrugged. I knew not how else to put it. I shivered, not from the draft, but because outside my late father, she was the first person I’d showed.
“And the others?”
“Lashes, from the overseers.” I reached for my shirt on the counter and pulled it over my head.
“Automatons as well?”
“No, humans.”
She gasped. “There are humans in the mines keeping those poor children prisoners?”
The way she looked at me, her eyes so wide and innocent, tore at my heart. It was hard to look at her; I was sure she would be disappointed at my weakness. I couldn’t stop the lashes, I couldn’t stop the overseers from hurting us.
“When you don’t work hard enough, the drivers use lasers to encourage faster work,” I explained. “Sometimes you get caught. It isn’t pleasant.”
“What an awful place.”
“Yes.”
“Whoever did that must have been a monster.”
That was it, this was my chance to make her come back with me. I had to sieze it. “And the marks you bear, on your arms, your cheek, your earlobe? A monster did those as well, correct?”
She winced at that, backing up and pulling her long sleeves down over her wrists. I inhaled sharply. Maybe I’d said too much.
“Alayna,” I drawled, “why do you think Victor sent us here? There are fates the children suffer more than scars. What was done to me, to you even, we cannot let that continue.”
The silence dropped like a heavy stone between us.
I sighed. She was scared, and I didn’t know if I’d convinced her otherwise. The fact still remained I was standing in just a towel and a shirt and she was between me and the rest of my apparel. “Do you mind?” I said finally, motioning to my pile of clothes. “There’s not much I can do without being dressed first.”
She scooped my clothes in her arms and turned toward the door.
“Alayna!”
“I’ll be right back.”
“What are you doing? Come back!” I started to panic. I couldn’t go around naked. What was she doing? I stood helpless in a towel as she ducked out of the door, the remaining steam from the shower rapidly evaporating behind her.
A few minutes later, she emerged with neatly tucked clothes under her arm. “I’m not sure if this will fit, but I’ve put your clothes in the washer. God knows they needed it.”
“Washer? Woman, we do not have time to spend all day on washing!”
“Whatever,” she grinned, “it takes an hour, tops.”
“An hour? What kind of mechanism does that?”
“A washer and dryer, of course, in the hallway,” she smirked as she set the clothes down on the toilet and shut the door behind her.
I stepped out and looked at the folded material. There were some kind of light blue pants, with a rope around the waist instead of a belt. The shirt was pink. I groaned as I pulled them on. Tight, but they fit. She’d even taken my stockings but left my boots in the corner. I picked them up and left the door open to the bathroom.
She sat at the small corner table near the kitchen, sipping hot liquid from a steaming mug.
“Where’s Dinga?”
“Out on the porch, with his pile of crickets. Apparently, they are bigger than ishies.”
“I don’t know what a crick-cut is.”
“It’s a bug with six legs and it makes this chirping noise. Lizards, and apparently demons, eat them.”
“Lizards?”
“Like scaly reptiles?”
“Oh, gorgons,” I nodded, “I’ve seen pictures of the ones that live in the desert lands, beyond the Zespar forest.”
“Gorgons?” she stared at me.
“Yes. About three hands long.”
“Well that’s terrifying.”
“That’s Elestra.” I smiled at her and took a seat at the table. She didn’t respond. As I sat down, she tossed me a pair of short, thick stockings. “What are these?”
“Socks.”
“You took my stockings.”
“Aye,” she winked at me, using my own word. “Like I said, that rest will be done in the hour.”
I could hear the faint whir of the mystery washing machine she spoke of, but I didn’t investigate. I pulled on the sock-objects and my dusty boots that went over the knee. They looked strange over the blue cotton pants. I looked over at her.
She was dressed in a black shirt with one shoulder hanging low, and the same type of pants I had, only in that bright pink color that matched my shirt.
“It’s strange to see you in pants,” I blurted before I could stop myself.
“Seriously?” She eyed me over her mug.
I tilted my head to the side. “Women don’t wear trousers, and it was an age ago when you came to us in the torn ones.”
She laughed. “People pay good money now for those torn ones! Just because we don’t wear pants in your world, doesn’t mean women can’t here. We can go to school and do everything men can.”
I chuckled at that. “Absurd. Women going to school. What employment do they hope to gain? Seers, magicians? Or do they teach seamstressing and baking at your schools?”
She glared at me, but her eyes twinkled. “You don’t know anything about my world.”
“I know you force women to work in shops and they wear clothes that are little less than a vagabond would wear.”
“What?” Her face twisted in shock. “What are you talking about?”
“Before your shop, I, uh, procured clothes for Dinga, to hide him. A store called Shirts and Ladders.”
“For real?” she laughed, her glee returning. “You met Lisa and Mary?”
“Yes, they called me a ‘cosplayer.’ Is this some kind of religion?”
“It’s uh,” she chuckled, “it’s where people dress up like characters they see on TV or the Internet. They go to conventions with other people dressed up like you.”
“What is a TV? And this convention, do women dress like this as well?”
She shook her head, a smile still playing on her lips. “Never mind.”
I was thoroughly confused.
“Coffee?” She asked finally, holding up her mug.
“Is it like warm kafe leaves tea?”
She frowned, puzzled, as she poured the black liquid into a mug identical to hers. “Maybe.”
I took a sip and nearly choked. “Much, much stronger.”
She pushed the tall cardboard container marked milk across the table at me. “This helps.”
It did.
“Sugar?”
“Ah, finally, this world has sugar,” I said. “Two cubes if you do not mind.”
“Cubes are expensive. I have the ground stuff.”
I shook my head. “That’s odd.” I took two spoonsful. It had a faint chemical taste. “Is nothing fresh here?”
“Sugar doesn’t grow on trees, you know.”
“It doesn’t?”
She looked at me. “Is does in Elestra?”
“The sugar trees at home are hard to find, they only grow in the places by the sea, where it is warmer. That’s why it’s so expensive, the Keeper cut off trade to those cities.”
Alayna sighed. “Did he.”
I wasn’t sure if it was a question, but nevertheless, I let it lay between us. “He has done awful things, Alayna.” I was feeling much like a repetitive firebird. “Awful things.”
She examined her hands for a moment. “I know.”
I reached around my mug and tried to take her hand, but she withdrew sharply. I pulled my arm back slowly. “I don’t want you to feel like you don’t have a choice, but we need you.�
�
Her head came up sharply. “That’s exactly what I feel like. Have you never read a book? The hero always gets pressured into dancing like a puppet on strings.”
“Is a puppet like a marionette?”
She threw up her hands. “You don’t have lizards but you have marionettes?”
“We have a lot of things, Alayna, and I want to show you all of them, once this is over.”
Her face softened. “Sebastian, I—”
“Look at all this,” I splayed my hand around the room.
She glanced around. “At what?”
“This. This loneliness. This go to school, go to work, study. Get up and do it all over again. Are you happy, Alayna?”
She stared into her mug. “Actually—”
“Mistress? May I come in now?” Dinga said on the other side of the door behind Alayna.
I cursed under my breath for his interruption.
“Yes, Dinga, the door’s unlocked.”
Dinga came in and hopped up on the chair next to me. “Can we take some crick-cuts home with us, mistress? Dinga loves them so.” He patted his protruding belly to demonstrate.
A buzzing sound interrupted Alayna’s answer. “That’s the washer.” She stood. “I’ll be right back.”
Dinga looked at me. His voice was soft, a little scared. “Will she come with us, master?”
“I don’t know, Dinga, but I’m trying my damnedest.”
“Master must try harder,” he said urgently. “Remember Master Victor’s words.”
“‘Time is of the essence,’” I whispered, hoping our voices didn’t carry in the small apartment. “Yes, Dinga, I know.”
“Dinga thinks you should stop trying to make babies with mistress and convince her.”
I guffawed at that. “Pardon me, Zespar, but that is not what I—”
“I may just be a Zespar,” he eyed me sideways, “but with my Eisha I hold her hand and show her love just as you do with mistress. Then the babies come. It is not pleasant.”
“Dinga...”
“What’s going on out here?”
Alayna appeared then, and she took my breath away. She had changed her clothes, wearing a brown dress that would put the ladies of finery to shame. Dozens of brass buttons trailed from her neck to ankle, and white lace lined the edges of the wrists and hem. The tips of worn black boots poked out the very bottom. Her short hair was wound up behind her, with a driving cap hiding most of it.
Clock City Page 14