by K. M. Fahy
“I know water is one of the easiest to learn because our bodies and the air already have so much of it,” she said with a shrug.
“Oh yeah?” Kitieri asked. “How did you hear that?”
“Mama’s books,” Jera replied, pointing to the wide bookcase along the wall near the door. Kitieri’s gaze followed her finger, surprised. She’d all but forgotten that bookcase existed after she’d been laughed out of the marketplace for trying to sell them. No one had the money or time for books in this part of town.
Another memory bubbled to the surface, unbidden, and she saw her mother holding the thick instructional book on wielding the elements in an attempt to teach her eldest daughter. Shame wriggled into Kitieri’s gut at the memory of her failure, and she turned back to her sister.
“Well, you have a talent, Jera,” she said. “With a real education, you could become one of the best water elements I’ve ever seen.”
“Really?” Jera squeaked. Kitieri nodded, smiling down at her sister’s beaming face.
“And you, Taff?” She looked up at her brother. “How is your practice coming?”
Taff raised his head, as if he hadn’t been paying attention to the rest of the conversation. He lifted his right hand in a fist, snapping the fingers open with a burst of fire. Flipping his hand over, he shaped his element into a perfect fiery sphere like a bouncy ball, and threw a mischievous look at his little sister.
“Ready, Jera?”
Jera straightened, putting out both hands as Taff tossed the fireball to her. The flame extinguished in her wet palms with a hiss, and she broke into a fit of giggles.
“Very impressive,” Kitieri said, clapping. “How long have you two been practicing that?”
“Just today!” Jera jumped up and down. “Please show us yours, Kitieri!”
Kitieri put a hand on Jera’s head, smoothing her hair.
“Jera, you know I don’t practice my element,” she said, moving past her to the table. “Come eat, now.”
“Why not?” Jera whined, coming to her seat across from Kitieri.
“You know why.”
“But you could be really good, and not even know it!”
“We are not discussing it, all right?”
Kitieri picked up Jera’s plate, and from the corner of her eye, caught a silent exchange between her siblings.
“Something you want to say?” She raised an eyebrow at Taff, who dropped his gaze.
“We—I—think you should practice again,” he mumbled.
Kitieri set the plate down, leaning her full body weight on both hands.
“What is it with all this tonight? You both know why I don’t practice. It’s way too dangerous. We’re lucky I locked it when I did, or we’d be worse off than we are now.” She turned her attention back to the plates. “And besides, I spend all day making sure we have something to eat every once in a while. I don’t have time for any of that now, unless it’s in Gadget form.”
Taff and Jera looked back to each other, but held their silence.
“Hey.” Kitieri tilted her head. “Don’t make me the villain, here. You both understand why I do what I do, right?”
Her siblings kept their eyes on the table.
“Right?”
They nodded in unison, and Kitieri sighed. “Come on, let’s just have a nice dinner. This is a happy night. We’re celebrating!”
“Celebrating what?” Jera’s head snapped up.
“Your breakthrough, of course!” Kitieri raised her clay water cup. “To Jera!”
“To Jera!” Taff echoed, bringing a wide smile to her little face.
“To me!” she cried, kneeling on her chair to lean over the table and clink cups. Taff and Jera sat back as Kitieri finished filling her sister’s plate.
“On your butt, please, Jera,” she said, passing the plate to her. Jera grinned sheepishly, pulling her feet out from under her.
“There’s nobody here but us,” she mumbled.
“I know,” Kitieri replied, “but we won’t always be so isolated, and I don’t want you growing up feral because I never taught you manners.”
“Feral?” Jera cocked her head.
“Like a wild cat,” Taff said. “You know, the ones that hiss and spit at you in the alleyways.”
Jera turned wide, inquisitive eyes on him, and Kitieri felt a pang of guilt. The lightning had been a threat for Jera’s entire life, and she’d spent very little time away from the safety of their house in her six years. Was it better to have known a world of freedom and lost it, she wondered, or to not know any different?
Her gaze drifted to Taff, who was miming a hissing cat, hunching his back and clawing the air with curved fingers. Taff had only been a baby when the lightning started, but he’d been able to see Shirasette on errands with their father as he got older. Back then, the Strikes had come only once or twice a week. Now their increasing violence and frequency made it harder and harder to leave the house without a Gadget, and that only made the damned things more expensive. Before long, a simple trip to the market would mean certain death for anyone outside the elite circles of the two Churches.
“Kitieri says we are close to getting a Gadget,” Taff said to Jera, leaning over the table. Jera’s face lit up brighter than the lantern.
“Then you’ll be safe, Kitieri!” she cried.
“I’m not going to wear it,” Kitieri said. “Taff will take it so he can help with the errands and go to work, and we can save even faster for one of your very own. How does that sound?”
“A Gadget… for me? So I can meet the alleycats?” Jera’s hands smacked flat on the table, her jaw dropping open. Kitieri laughed.
“Yes. Then I will take you to meet the alleycats.”
In the back of her mind, Kitieri hoped there were some cats left to show her. She had seen precious few street animals in the past year, now that she considered it. But, that aside, Jera deserved a life outside these walls.
“But if I go to work, Jera,” Taff said, “you’ll be spending a lot more time alone here.”
Jera looked at him, uncertain. “Alone?”
“Come on, Taff,” Kitieri said, nudging him with her elbow. “Jera’s a big girl now.”
“Yeah!” Jera’s shout filled the small room. “I can take care of myself.”
“That’s right.” Kitieri smiled, extending one hand to Taff and the other across the table to Jera. Her siblings placed their hands in hers, soft and smooth in her callused palms. “Remember what Dad always said,” she told them. “‘The Manons will always survive.’”
Chapter 2
Kitieri forced the shovel into the steep hillside, ignoring the pain in her blistered hands. The thin black gloves did little against the metal handle, and she’d pushed herself harder than normal over the past two days in hopes of that small bonus a productive worker sometimes received. The mines’ operators made so much money that the piddly bits felt more like an insult, but money was money. If she had to walk straight through the hells of Enahris and Histan, she would be free of this place someday.
Kitieri pulled her shovel back, tossing its contents into the trough beside her. The dark soil filtered through a fine metal mesh over the top, and Kitieri sifted through the dirt with her hand.
A pale purple glint in the late afternoon sun caught her eye, and Kitieri pulled out one of the largest pieces of cintra she’d ever seen in her three years of work. She brushed away the excess soil, staring in awe at the plum-sized rock in her palm. The clean, perfect lines of the crystal caught the sun in flashes as she tilted her palm this way and that, admiring its natural beauty.
How many meals this could provide, she thought. Even the raw stuff sold for so much these days that a crystal of this size could probably buy an entire Gadget.
Kitieri shook her head, refusing to so much as entertain the thought of stealing. Even if it were feasible to smuggle it out, only the black market vendors would consider such a transaction, and she’d still incur unnecessary risk. If she was imprisoned for
theft, Taff and Jera would be left alone with no care, no source of income, and no protection.
Her best chance with this rock was earning that bonus.
“Hey.”
Kitieri jumped at the gruff voice behind her, reflexively closing her hand around the cintra as she spun around to face a black horse. Dressed in fine clothes and shining leather boots, its rider glared down at her.
“You seem mighty interested there,” the man said. “Getting some big ideas?”
“No! No, I—” Kitieri stammered, falling over her words. Heat rushed to her face and neck, and the suspicion on the man’s face deepened. He spurred the horse forward, holding out his open hand, and she braced herself for the fall of the riding crop across her shoulders as she dropped the cintra into his palm.
“I’m sorry,” she stammered, “I’ve just never seen one that size before.”
The overseer grunted, and Kitieri dared to glance up at him. His scowl bored into her, erasing any hope she’d still harbored for the bonus. She was lucky he hadn’t laid into her with the crop yet or called for one of those full-body searches, but still her heart rebelled as she lowered her eyes back to her feet.
The leather saddle creaked, and hooves crunched on the gravel as the overseer turned his horse away.
“Get back to work,” he barked over his shoulder. Kitieri reached for her shovel with a silent sigh, hoisting it to slam it into the rocky soil once more as several small objects pelted the arm of her jacket. Her eyes snapped open wide to see four bits hit the gravel at her feet.
Kitieri dropped to the ground so fast her head spun, scooping up the little black pebbles.
A full day’s pay!
Tears sprang to her eyes as she cupped the bits in her hands. The overseer never looked back, riding away down the busy line of miners.
This was it. These four stones brought her total to three caps, and enough for a Gadget.
Home was in sight when the first warning struck, vibrating through Kitieri’s body in hot waves. Cries of shock and fear echoed off the buildings, and she felt the shift as electricity moved in the atmosphere. She’d felt the air thicken and had noticed the charge on the breeze a while back, but she’d thought she would make it before the warning. Eyes on her front door, she broke into a jog.
The piercing cry of a baby gripped her with icy fingers, and Kitieri stopped to look behind her. Across the street, a young, dark-haired woman bounced the child, muttering unintelligibly, hands shaking so badly it was a wonder she kept the baby in her arms. The woman cast about in panic and terror as people fled around her.
“Shit,” Kitieri muttered under her breath. Taking in strangers just wasn’t something people did when the Strikes came. The risks of being slowed down and killed, being robbed, or simply making a friend and becoming attached were all too great.
But as the child wailed in its mother’s arms, the woman turned her wide, panicked eyes on Kitieri. Tear-tracks marked her dirty face as hopelessness set into the frail, gaunt features, and Kitieri growled in the back of her throat before running to her.
“Come on, follow me,” she said, resting a hand on her arm. “I live right there. Take shelter with us.”
The woman remained frozen, enormous dark eyes fixated on her. Kitieri tugged on her arm, nodding in encouragement as the second warning hit. The baby’s cries doubled in urgency as they both ducked down against the shock, and Kitieri dragged them toward home. After the first few steps, the woman seemed to comprehend Kitieri’s intention and started moving her feet, her sobs mingling with her child’s screams.
Kitieri’s hand was almost on the door when the third warning struck, knocking both of them to their knees; Kitieri threw her arms around the woman to keep the little one from hitting the ground.
“Taff!” she screamed. The door flew open. “Get the baby!”
Hands shot out to take the child, and Kitieri pushed the woman into the house in front of her. The door slammed shut behind them, wooden bolt falling into place as the deafening crack came outside and the garish blue light filled their home.
With the Strike passed, Kitieri turned to the woman.
“Are you all right?”
“My baby!” the woman cried, clambering to her feet. “Where’s my baby?”
“Right here.” Taff stepped forward, cradling the screaming bundle of blankets. The woman snatched the child from Taff’s arms, pressing her lips against the wispy dark hair on its head. Sobs shook her body as she held the infant tight, rocking side to side.
“You saved us,” she finally managed, lifting her head.
“Just glad I could help,” Kitieri said. “This is Taff and Jera, and I’m Kitieri.”
The woman nodded, a faint smile coming to her tear-stained face. On second glance, without the lines of terror marring her features, Kitieri realized she was younger than she’d thought—maybe twenty or twenty-one years old.
“W-well, Kitieri…” The woman sniffed, brushing a hand over her wet cheek. “Thank you… for what you did. I’m Noia, and this is my daughter, Vina.”
Jera stepped forward, eyes wide and curious.
“Hi, Vina,” she said, standing on her tiptoes to peek at the baby. “Aw, she has a little beauty mark on her cheek. See, I have one, too!”
Calming slowly from the ordeal, Vina fixed her huge eyes on Jera’s face. Noia bent forward.
“Would you like to hold her?” she asked. Jera nodded, and held out her arms. As Noia passed the baby over, showing Jera how to hold her properly, Kitieri cleared her throat.
“So, home is a ways away, I take it?” she asked. Though she didn’t look up, Noia’s expression went flat and unreadable. “I just mean, because you couldn’t make it there with the Strike. I mean, you weren’t running…”
Noia met her eyes, and Kitieri snapped her mouth shut.
“We have no home,” Noia said.
“What? How?” Kitieri asked. “How have you…”
The last thing she wanted was to appear insensitive, but she could not fathom how this woman had managed to live homeless with her baby amidst the lightning. Hells, even the cats were disappearing.
“It’s our first night on the street,” Noia said softly. “My husband, Histan bless him, was killed by the lightning two months ago, and we had very little saved. We lived off his pay from the mines.”
“That’s where Kitieri works!” Jera piped up.
Noia gave her a tight smile. “I can tell,” she replied, looking back to Kitieri. “Your hands look just like his, covered in calluses and blisters.”
Kitieri glanced down at her palms, which looked nothing like the soft hands of her element-wielding siblings; that was a life she had long ago left behind.
“What happened to your house?” Kitieri redirected the conversation.
Noia hung her head. “Without Beran’s income, Vina and I were starving. You’re supporting three on a miner’s wages, too. Tell me, how long do you think your family would last if something happened to you?”
Kitieri glanced at Taff and swallowed, but let Noia continue.
“I sold everything we had. I tried to get work, but… my education was poor and the mines are no place for a baby. They wouldn’t allow her even if I tried. When we used up our meager savings and ran out of food, I knew we had to leave. My only other option was to beg on the streets, exposing us both to the lightning.”
Noia took a shuddering breath, just as Vina started fussing in Jera’s arms. Taking the child back, Noia rocked her gently, gazing into her daughter’s eyes.
“So,” she continued, “I sold our house to a rich man for three caps.”
“Oh.” Kitieri needed no more explanation to understand this woman’s plan. The idea of trading her home for a Gadget twisted Kitieri’s stomach into a knot.
“We were heading for the Church of Histan when that Strike came,” Noia went on. “They’ll sell us the Gadget we need.”
Kitieri swallowed, searching for the right words. Any words. The though
t of this young mother and her child out on the streets, begging for bits and scraps of food from the cruel upper class with only a Gadget for protection, made her sick. She’d seen the men in red coats murder the poor like dogs in the street at a first warning when the Gadget-less begged for protection. She’d seen people beaten and robbed for the prized possessions. While she knew the Churches were the only place to acquire the Gadgets, Kitieri abhorred the thought of adding to their rich coffers. They wouldn’t take Noia in, wouldn’t offer her shelter… they’d simply take her money and turn her out to die. They were nothing but heartless monsters running a monopoly on survival.
“I’ll go with you, then,” Kitieri said. “You can eat dinner here with us, and then we can walk to the Church of Histan together. We should be safe enough, since a Strike just passed.”
“Oh, no.” Noia shook her head. “You don’t have to come with us. We’ll be all right.”
“Well, it just so happens that I’m also in the market for a Gadget tonight,” Kitieri said.
Taff’s head swiveled on his shoulders. “What? Tonight?”
Kitieri nodded, smiling as her brother’s mouth fell open and the warmth of his joy spread through her tired body.
“So if you’ll have me,” she said to Noia, “I would love to accompany you after dinner.”
Noia’s eyes darted between the siblings, but her head bobbed in a slow nod.
“All right,” she said. “I can’t deny that we could use the meal and some company.”
Kitieri smiled, and gestured to her brother. “Taff, light the lantern and grab an extra chair. Jera, will you set the table, please?”
As they sprang into action, Kitieri’s heart felt fuller than it had in years. Not only was she finally in a position to help her own family, she had the means to help someone else, too. For the first time in three years, she thought, everything was going to be all right.
Chapter 3
The two made their way up the cobblestone street by moonlight, and Kitieri breathed in the crisp, clean air.
“It’s a nice evening,” she commented idly, looking over at Noia. The young woman looked nervous and uncomfortable. “What’s the matter?”