Jenny turned to Lin. “How much is this going to cost?”
“Don’t worry about that.” Lin waved. “Cabin is paying for everything.”
After the measurements, Mary Ann led Jenny past the sewing room and into the bathroom. Large black-and-white tiles covered the floor, and a white marble countertop stretched from wall to wall. Mary Ann approached a large white porcelain bathtub and turned a pair of brass dials. Jenny sighed as steamy water gushed out. She studied her reflection in an enormous mirror. An array of bright lights highlighted every horrific feature of her tangled hair and mud-caked face.
“I’ll be in the next room,” Mary Ann said. “Adjusting your new clothes.”
Lin picked up the burstepi. “And I’ll see that your things get clean and dry.”
“I believe you owe me a story,” Mary Ann said to Lin as they walked out the door.
“Thank you,” Jenny shouted as the door closed behind them. As the latch clicked shut, Jenny pulled her t-shirt off. Her filthy clothes were so caked with dirt that they held their shape on the floor. She lowered herself into the half-filled tub. Warm water caressed her tender skin. A wave of pleasure caused her to shiver with delight. A row of essential oils lined a nearby shelf. Jenny added a few drops of lavender to the running water for its calming scent, and a few drops of peppermint to clear her stuffy nose.
The scratches on her back stung as the water rose, but the pain faded after a minute. Jenny shut off the water, closed her eyes, and floated. From the other room, Jenny heard the pocka-pocka-pocka of a sewing machine. She replayed the day in her mind, beginning with solving the VRGo puzzle. Jenny thought about this incredible opportunity. She could start over fresh and reinvent herself. No longer would she be labeled as a Gypsy. Jenny focused on that part of her identity. That eleven-year-old girl who had loved Romani culture. She pushed it deep inside, hiding it where it would never surface again. Jenny pulled the stopper and dried herself. Then, she took a robe and left the bathroom.
Mary Ann pursed her lips, looked Jenny over, and nodded. “Based on the state you arrived in, I wasn’t sure a bath would be enough.” She waved toward two mannequins. “Here are your Cabin uniforms. This one has a nano-weave, carbon-fiber fabric, which means it is highly resistant to heat, punctures, and most stains. This other one is for formal events, and is made of cotton.”
Jenny pulled her white bathrobe tight and studied the uniforms. Each included a pair of pants and a long, asymmetric white shirt with a mandarin collar and a large pocket on one side. She thought about how much time and effort she’d spent crafting her goth appearance. A pang of sadness flashed across her face.
“Don’t worry,” Lin assured her. “You don’t have to wear a uniform all the time.”
At least no one will mistake me for a Gypsy in this outfit. “Do I have to wear it now?”
“Yes.” Lin pulled the formal uniform off the mannequin. “After all, you’ll be meeting our entire team, along with the CEO of Cabin, this evening.”
Jenny straightened up and thrust her shoulders back. “Lance LaGrange?” She felt a bit queasy and anxious as she took the uniform from Lin. He was the person who would determine her future here, on this Earth. If she didn’t make a good impression, would he send her home?
“That’s right. Now, get dressed.” Mary Ann pointed to a door. “You can use that changing room.”
Jenny entered the changing room. She removed her robe and put on the formal uniform. It fit like a dream, and the fabric felt soft on her skin. Next, she pulled on a pair of black socks followed by a pair of black leather boots. Jenny stood in front of a mirror and studied herself. She had to admit, she did look good in a uniform. Finally, she tried to massage her dark hair into spikes, but it was futile without any product. Jenny left the changing room.
“Are you the same girl I found in the woods?” Lin asked.
Jenny smiled.
“You look fantastic.” Mary Ann adjusted the uniform near Jenny’s hip. “A complete transformation. Still...” Mary Ann lifted a bundle from behind her sewing machine. “I think this would look better on you.”
Jenny took the bundle and opened it up. It was the green dress Jenny had admired in the waiting room.
“I saw you looking at it,” Lin said.
“It’s beautiful.” Jenny held the dress up to her body. The light, silky fabric felt amazing against her skin. “Is this for me?”
“If not”—Mary Ann put her hands on her hips—“then I wasted my time adjusting it.”
Lin handed the burstepi to Jenny. “I did my best to clean and dry your clothing. We have people who can fix your communication device.”
“Thank you.” Jenny slung the burstepi over her shoulder. She looked at Mary Ann. “And thank you so much for your work. It’s more than I could have dreamed of.”
“You are very welcome, my dear.”
“Okay, we’ve got to run.” Lin pulled Jenny toward the door. “Thank you, Mary Ann.”
Mary Ann waved. “I’ll send Cabin my bill.”
The open door to Mary Ann’s shop cast a wedge of light on the darkened street. A warm breeze carried the smell of the sea from the east. Overhead, the sun had ignited the sky like fire. Fireworks lit the lowermost clouds in flashes of white, red, and blue.
“What do you do for Cabin?” Jenny asked as they walked toward the plaza.
“I’m an archaeoastronomer,” Lin said.
“What’s that?”
“I study alien artifacts. The Waypoints are my specialty, and I’ve spent my life researching their effect on our history.”
“Then you know a lot about the Waypoints?”
“Yes, it’s my life’s focus. After inheriting a key, I became obsessed with their history. I traveled to Nimue and studied with Rygelus.”
In the plaza, a man with a long pole lit gas streetlights that circled the interior of the cobbled walkway. Diners sat at small tables sipping wine from crystal glasses. Lin and Jenny returned to the table where Aindriu, Sadi, and Kensei waited for them. Empty plates sat in front of them. Jenny’s stomach growled.
“Hello, who’s this?” Aindriu looked Jenny from head to toe in confusion.
“It’s me, Jenny.”
“No,” Aindriu said, “this can’t be the same girl from before.”
Sadi narrowed her eyes and glared at him.
“Sorry to make you wait,” Lin said.
“No worries.” Aindriu pulled up two more chairs to their table. “Have a seat.”
Jenny and Lin sat down.
“Hi again.” Kensei pushed up the brim of his hat and studied Jenny over the top of his glasses. “You look a lot better.” He tore a small chunk of bread and fed it to a little fuzzy animal on his lap. The creature took the food with tiny, almost human hands and bit into it.
“I told you,” Aindriu said, “do not let it eat at the table.”
Kensei’s shoulders slumped as he opened his backpack and placed the little critter back into his bag. He fidgeted in his chair, looking two sizes too small, then settled for slumping backward.
The waiter came by to clear plates and promised to take Jenny’s and Lin’s drink orders when he returned.
Jenny snacked on the bread appetizer while she studied the menu. Prices were surprisingly inexpensive. Items that would be over ten dollars back home weren’t even two dollars here. She also noticed a theme for this restaurant. Everything used honey as an ingredient.
The waiter returned and took their drink orders.
Aindriu ordered another beer, Lin chose mead, and Jenny decided on an Italian raspberry soda. While they waited, Jenny watched an old man putting a chessboard away. He counted each piece out loud as he dropped them into a drawstring bag. In the plaza, costumed characters had joined a group of street musicians. They were performing a mock battle between the Songbirds and the Risi. Two soldiers used a blunt halberd to take down a giant. The giant wore a large papier-mâché head. It was styled after a human, but with more grotesque feat
ures. The man stood on short stilts, and his body was wrapped in a long robe. When the halberd struck, he tumbled to the ground. The entire act reminded Jenny of Walther’s men attacking the Risi that first scaled the fort’s walls.
The waiter returned with their drinks and asked Jenny and Lin for their food order. Jenny ordered the honey-ham sandwich, and Lin got the honey-glazed salmon. When Aindriu took a sip, Kensei fed a piece of bread to the furry face poking out of his backpack. While they waited for their food, Aindriu asked Jenny about her trip. Jenny provided an abbreviated version of her journey, from finding Heather in the cabin to getting lost in the woods. She decided to leave out the part where she followed Astrea’s ghost and had a vision, and told them about Rygelus and Brock finding her.
“Did you see Trey while you were over there?” Sadi asked.
“Trey?” A horrified look crossed Jenny’s face as she remembered tripping over the dead body in the woods. With her memories of Astrea’s people defending the fort, she had forgotten about the corpse she had tripped over. She stared down at her hands and avoided answering the question.
“I haven’t heard from him all day.” Sadi looked at Lin. “Last I heard was that he went through the Waypoint.” She looked over at the gazebo.
“No”—Lin looked at Jenny—“we don’t know.”
“What’s going on?” Sadi stared at Jenny. “You know something.” She narrowed her eyes. “Tell me.”
A tingling sensation spread over Jenny’s body, and her tongue itched where she had bitten it. Jenny squirmed.
The corners of Sadi’s lips curled up. “What did you see?”
Trey’s blood-soaked, bruised head flashed into Jenny’s mind. She winced and rubbed at her cheek as her tongue blazed in pain.
“Sadi, stop it,” Aindriu said. “She doesn’t know anything.”
“I…” Jenny stared at Sadi. Is she doing this to me? Jenny trembled. Her mouth felt like fire, and her tongue was the fuel. “I…” Jenny forced the words out through the pain. “I found…” She shook her head. “I mean, I tripped over…a body, a dead body.”
“Sadi, that’s enough!” Lin shouted.
Sadi glared at Lin, then turned her focus back on Jenny. “What did he look like?” Her eyes widened until the whites encircled her brown irises.
“A week of kitchen duty,” Lin said.
Jenny squirmed in her chair like a mouse caught in a cat’s claws. “I don’t know!” she screamed. Several diners turned to see what was happening.
Aindriu stood behind Sadi and lifted her out of the chair as if she were a doll.
Tears welled up in Jenny’s eyes. “He was wearing a uniform,” Jenny said. “Like yours. He had blood on his face, and in his hair.”
“You thought that taking a bath and getting new clothes were more important than telling me?”
“It’s my fault, Sadi,” Lin said. “I told Jenny not to say anything. We don’t know for sure that it’s Trey.”
Sadi twisted out of Aindriu’s grip. She leaned on the table and looked at Jenny with pleading eyes. “What color was his uniform?”
The pain in Jenny’s tongue faded away. She rubbed at her face with the heel of her hand and sucked on her tongue. “Gray. It was gray.”
Sadi clenched her jaw and glared at Lin. Without saying a word, she stood up and stormed off toward the Waypoint.
“Sadi, there’s nothing to be done,” Lin called out.
Sadi pushed through the performers and their mock battle, toppling a man off of his stilts.
Aindriu started to follow her, but Lin held him back. “Let her go.”
“Are you okay?” Kensei asked Jenny.
“I think so.” Jenny took a deep, racking breath and wiped at her eyes. She turned to face Lin. “What was that?”
Lin shook her head. “Sadi can use any memory of pain and enhance it.”
“How is that possible?”
“She’s an Æon. In time, you may discover similar gifts.”
“Some gift,” Jenny said.
Andriu said, “She can also reduce pain.”
“She should stick to that,” Jenny replied.
“But, Sadi had no right to do that to Jenny,” Kensei said.
“No, she didn’t,” Lin assured him, “and we will punish her.”
“She’s usually not like this,” Aindriu assured Jenny.
Lin nodded. “She’s just distraught about Trey.”
“You should have said something earlier,” Aindriu said to Lin.
“You’re right,” Lin said. “I’m sorry, Jenny.”
“It’s okay.” Jenny forced herself to smile.
“You want to know why we call her Moonlighter?” Aindriu asked.
Jenny shrugged. “Does she have a night job or something?”
“There’s a tree that grows in the rainforests of Australia. It has these stinging hairs that deliver a neurotoxin that can last for days, weeks, or even months. The pain is so excruciating that it has driven its victims to suicide. One of this tree’s names is Moonlighter.”
Just then, the waiter arrived with Jenny’s sandwich and Lin’s salmon. At the sight of food, Jenny drove all thoughts of Sadi’s impropriety from her mind. She lifted the massive honey-ham sandwich from the plate and took a bite. She felt every layer. Soft bread, crisp lettuce, and thick honey ham. Flavors flooded her mouth. The pain in her tongue even seemed more tolerable now. As her stomach filled, her anger toward Sadi lessened.
All too soon, Jenny looked down at an empty plate and still felt hungry. She sipped the last of her soda and wondered if she could order some flan. The waiter dashed her hopes when he returned with a check and a loaf of bread in a blue-and-yellow bag.
Lin took the bread and handed it to Jenny. “I know you’re probably still hungry, and you never know when a loaf of bread will come in handy.”
Jenny took the bread and inhaled the yeasty aroma. After thanking Lin, she slipped it into the burstepi.
“Tell me, what are you doing here in Acacia?” Lin asked Aindriu.
“I am supposed to meet someone named Jack Spriggan. Trey told me that he is a new member of the team.”
Lin cocked her head. “I was not notified of a new hire. Does Lance know about this?”
Aindriu pulled a dark-gray tablet from the front pocket of his uniform. After pressing his palm against the surface, he tapped the screen and handed it to Lin. “Have a look at his resume.”
“Looks like he has a military background.” Lin nodded. “Oh, he served in two operations, Pakistan and Syria. Hmm, and then he went on to freelance. Oh, this is good.”
“What?” Aindriu asked.
“It says here that he already has the appropriate security clearance, and he’s a pilot.”
“With his own plane too.”
Lin raised an eyebrow. “When can I meet him?” She handed the tablet back to Aindriu.
Aindriu looked up at the clock tower. “He’s supposed to meet me at the Waypoint in an hour.”
Aindriu looked at Jenny. “Sorry again about Sadi.”
“It’s okay.”
Aindriu turned and walked toward the center of the plaza. Finding a bench near the Waypoint, he sat down to wait for Jack Spriggan.
14
Key Ceremony
Rain fell on the streets of Acacia City and the scent of wet stone mixed with the sulfur of the fireworks. Lin led Jenny and Kensei toward the north end of the plaza where a large building with neoclassical architecture loomed above them. It was at least twelve stories tall. White granite framed tall windows, and a great brass clock told the time. A bas-relief sign near the entrance read “Cabin Department of Transportation.”
A drop of rain landed on Jenny’s forehead as they climbed the white marble steps. She looked up and noticed a little pink nose peeking out of Kensei’s backpack. “Kensei, can I see your pet?”
“Sure.” Kensei unzipped the bag, and a furry animal climbed up his arm and perched on his shoulder. Dark stripes ran from his s
hort pointy ears to his long furry tail. “His name is Leon. He’s a sugar glider.”
“Hi, Leon.” Jenny stroked his furry back. “He’s so cute. Did you bring him from home?”
“Yeah, he goes everywhere with me.” Kensei gave Leon a sideways glance. “Even when I don’t know it.”
“Did he sneak into your bag?”
Kensei nodded and scratched between the sugar glider’s ears with his long brown fingers.
They passed through a revolving door. The sounds of fireworks and tourists vanished, replaced by the din of voices echoing inside a large chamber. In the foyer, the walls were lined with signs requesting donations for clothing, food, and money to help refugees. From there, they entered a cavernous lobby. It had the feeling of being outside. Large, leafy plants and small trees filled the vast space. To their left and right, brick walls rose five stories tall. In front of and behind them, huge windows revealed the night sky. An exact replica of the cabin in Esperanza Woods stood in the center of the floor.
“Aliens?” Jenny stared openmouthed.
Two large humanoids with thick, wrinkly, bluish skin walked out of the structure. They had four stout legs, two huge arms that swung at their sides, and two smaller arms near their heads. One of them held a huge baby.
A creature resembling a chewed-up pile of bubble gum slithered across the marble floor. Six short, thin legs and two tentacled arms propelled it forward. Its skin changed color and flashed complex patterns. Leon squeaked and ducked into Kensei’s backpack.
“What is this place?” Kensei looked around the lobby.
“This is where extrasolar entities register to live and work here on Earth.”
Jenny watched two extraterrestrials with wrinkly skin working a strange handheld device. Then, a group of compact aliens with scaly gray skin rushed by them as they entered the cabin. Inside, relics of the past adorned the shelves. Interactive signage detailed the rise of Cabin and the CEO’s humble beginnings in a cabin like this one.
Through the cabin window, Jenny saw a pair of brass elevator doors open in the outer wall. Two thin and feathery birdlike humanoids stepped out, and a sizeable human woman with a lot of upper lip approached them. The aliens waved their long, delicate arms and their voices rose to a loud chirp. A thick bun of black hair bobbed in rhythm as the woman spoke.
The Key of Astrea Page 15