Three’s eyes link with mine, and his figure sags with relief.
Corin walks off, maybe to find Rahn.
“Where have you been?” Three demands as he jogs over.
After a few seconds, I say I was meditating. Three questions me no more.
“Rahn says we’re to leave as soon as possible,” Esther says. She’s patting something onto her arm—a thick paste of baking soda mixed with a little water. It helps mosquito bites and bee stings. “Marouska told us about the child. Oh, Seven, that must’ve been horrible.”
I nod. My fingers clutch at my belt. “How did the raid go?”
Three nods. “Not too bad. Got fuel. And a few other things.”
“But,” Esther says, “we got into a bit of trouble with the Enhanced. Corin shot two. Then one got his hands all over me—and knocked Three unconscious.”
I glance toward Three, his face is expressionless. He doesn’t look like he’s badly hurt. He’s standing tall. And, as I’m looking at him, I realize my brother really does look his age. He’s twelve years older than me, yet normally I think of him as Corin’s age. But, now, I realize that’s wrong. Three’s experienced in a way Corin’s not. Yet Three was the one knocked unconscious.
“And,” Esther says, “they’re really strong. Stronger than normal. And we saw this poster of their rules, and it said only the Supreme Enhanced are entitled to use violence, so long as it’s for the good of humankind.” She makes a face. “I bet all of them will be promoted to the Supreme level soon, given their mantra about equality. Yeah, and we saw a warehouse that was full of augmenters. It was amazing. I had no idea they had so many. All different colors….”
That evening, I fall asleep to the rumbling of the car engine and the motion of the moving vehicle. I’m no longer next to the window as Three wanted to be there; he felt sick. I’m squashed in between my brother and Esther. Rahn hasn’t said anything to me about going off to the mountain alone, but I’m pretty sure Corin’s spoken to him. Though whether Rahn knows about the leopard, I don’t know. The kiss, definitely not.
When I wake up in the morning, the car’s still moving. Three’s now driving; in the rear-view mirror, I see him yawn. Corin sits on my right, and Rahn’s by the other window, Esther and I are in between the two men. Marouska’s still in the front passenger seat. I make eye contact with Corin; he gives a strange smile. I try not to burst.
We’re now in a rather flat land. Fields stretch out as far as I can see to the right, and straight ahead is the glistening plane of a lake.
“No Seeing dreams?” Corin taps me lightly on the arm. It is my bad one, but it doesn’t hurt so much now.
“No.”
Corin, Three, and I seem to be the only ones awake; we keep our voices low.
“We’re going east?” Corin sounds surprised, and I see him look up at the vehicle’s digital compass. The small screen is near the rear-view mirror, but the shape of it doesn’t quite fit in with the design of the car’s interior—probably an extra that was added.
Three grunts. “Rahn told me to keep driving east.”
“So we’re just going east?” I frown. New Sié isn’t in the east.
Next to me, Corin shifts slightly, taking over more of my seat. Just that movement makes me feel like I’ve been hit. My breath quickens.
I’m going to have to leave Corin behind, he’d never come with me.
Oh Gods. How didn’t I think of it before?
I swallow hard. I need to get it into proportion. It was just a kiss. It doesn’t mean anything. I can’t base my survival on it. I need to go to an Enhanced town or city. I have to. Even if it means Corin won’t go with me. Yet just the thought makes me shudder. I’d be betraying him, when he realized. It would be the thing he’d remember most prominently about me. And he said he’d protect me when I told him what the bison said, about me being the key… Oh Gods.
“Just east,” Three says.
“We should have a proper plan.” Corin frowns, and I try not to look at him. “Wandering around aimlessly isn’t going to help our survival. We could walk right into a nest of the delightful vultures.”
Three makes a nonchalant sound. “Well, obviously I’m using my own judgment as well. I’m not stupid.” He sounds annoyed. “If I’d just gone east all the time, we’d have cruised right into another Enhanced city.”
Corin nods grimly. He looks past me, toward Esther and Rahn. “We shouldn’t be on the road all the time. We’re asking to be caught. We should be finding our own base, settling there. Increasing our resources and chance of survival. Or trying to find a tribe, the Mariballii or the Zharat. That was the plan before.”
“But Rahn says we need the Enhanced to survive,” I say. We use their fuel, their clothes, their medication, their food. We may as well be them.
“We’re only dependent on them if we let ourselves be,” Corin says. “We need to be strong without them. We don’t need them. We should’ve already found somewhere for us to stay permanently, as far away from them as possible. I don’t know what Rahn’s playing at. It’s like he wants us to get killed, sometimes. Or converted.”
“I’m catching some radio waves.” Three’s mouth sets into a thin line, and Rahn slows the car, so the engine quiets a little.
I lean forward, my eyes on Three. He’s against the window, on the other side of me. Marouska makes a huffing noise. I’m trapped between Esther and Corin.
“About bloody time,” Rahn says.
The foxhole radio in Three’s hands—a careful construction of wire and bits of metal—hums. Three’s got the earpiece clamped to the side of his face, and his nostrils flare.
“What is it?” Corin asks after a particularly loud crack emits from the radio.
Three waves a hand at him.
“Is it an Untamed channel?” Rahn’s voice is low.
Three turns his back on us all, hunching over the contraption. “No.”
I sit up straighter.
Rahn glares at me in the rear-view mirror. A few seconds later, the vehicle stops, and he turns the engine off. The silence is bigger now, and I strain my ears. After a few seconds, I hear murmured broken voices.
“Give it here.” Rahn stretches a hand behind him, more aimed at me than my brother. But his hand remains empty.
“Aye, let him listen,” Marouska says.
Esther leans closer to me. We all listen.
I make out the words big and rock, but that’s it. Corin’s breathing begins to get louder. Rahn frowns at him. Three lifts the gadget higher, until it’s level with his head. He frowns.
“Signal’s going.”
There’s a raspy noise from the radio, followed by the sound of metal scraping on metal. The faint whirring tails off. My brother curses under his breath, and Rahn drums his knuckles on the steering wheel. Next to me, Esther crosses one leg over the other, and Corin leans back against the leather seat.
I remain where I am. Rigid, in between the two siblings, sitting bolt upright. My eyes are on Marouska. I frown. Something’s not… I bite my lip. She wouldn’t tell them now, about the augmenter, would she?
I try to shrug away the feeling—I don’t even know where the thought came from, it was just there like an ambushing insect—but it clings to me. Like the Calmness. It’s in the inside pocket of my jacket. I can feel it against the side of my right breast, inches from my mother’s pendant. I stiffen.
“Well.” Three sighs, and the radio drops into his lap. “Some broadcast about music.” He looks across at me for a second, and my skin tingles. “I don’t think we should stay stationary though. I’ll keep trying.”
Rahn makes a snorting noise. “And I thought you were finally goin’ to prove useful. Thought you might tell us the Enhanced Ones’ next steps, what their plans are, but no—”
“Rahn.” Esther leans forward, tapping him on the shoulder. “Three’s doing his best.”
“You couldn’t do any better,” Corin mutters, but his voice has an almost sarcastic tone to
it that I don’t understand. “Do as Three says. Start the engine. Sometimes we need to listen when a Sarr speaks. Properly listen and not twist their words, like what really happened with Katya—”
“Shut up,” Rahn says.
My body jerks. “What did you say?” My neck cricks as I turn on Corin.
His eyes are shut, but I can see movement beneath his lids. “Nothing.”
“My sister said what did you say?”
My heart pounds.
“Nothin’,” Rahn says. “Corin’s just stressed. We all are. We need to stick together. We’ll carry on drivin’. Three, keep at it with your metal shards and wires and stuff.”
It takes a good few hours for the atmosphere to diffuse.
“It was proof,” I whisper to Three when we stop for a few minutes later that afternoon. We’re outside, and the temperature’s dropped alarmingly. “They practically admitted it. They know what really happened to our mother.” I swallow the gritty air—we’re not as much in the wilds now, closer to civilization.
“We know what happened.” Dark shadows haunt Three’s face. “She chose them.”
I touch his arm. I think of my mother. All the stuff she stood for. Sure, she’s on the surviving side now, but I still know she wouldn’t have chosen it voluntarily. Not like I will….
“You can’t still believe that,” I say.
My brother turns toward where Rahn and Corin are standing. Corin’s stooping slightly, his head lowered to Rahn’s height, and I can see their lips moving, though I can’t hear the words.
“I’ll believe it if it keeps us alive.”
“So you do suspect them then.”
“This conversation never happened,” Three says as he walks away, toward where Esther and Marouska are playing with the dog.
Nope, I grimace. None of this is happening. But something will.
We stop near the third lake we see on the following day, and Esther and Three take the terrier for a walk. I watch them as they walk across the plains, their figures silhouetted in the evening light. The day’s gone quickly. I turn back and look at the little camp we’ve set up. We’re about thirty miles from a small Enhanced town: New Salvus.
My new home? Corin and Rahn are in deep discussion about whether we should raid it. I want to go over and encourage them, but it might make them suspicious—I never liked raids before. And if I do go and join in Corin and Rahn’s discussion, I might lose my nerve about leaving. Could I really leave them all behind? Could I leave Three behind?
Could you leave Corin behind?
Marouska’s inside the car, sorting out the remaining food. Apparently, we have a lot left, but I’m not sure I believe that when our meals are getting smaller.
The lake we’re at now is huge. We’ve parked not far away from the water’s edge, but there are trees dotted about, and lines of shrubbery provide some seclusion. I stare at that water. It looks so bright, pure, appealing. Yet deadly. Like it has fingers that will grab me, never letting me go, as soon as I touch its unrippled surface.
But I do need to wash.
I walk back to the car, grab a spare set of clothes, some soap, a flannel, and a cloth to dry myself with, then head off, looking for the most secluded part of the lake I can get to.
It takes me about fifteen minutes to spot a suitable place. Trees provide privacy, but when I’m there, and the concept of undressing is real, the place doesn’t seem as isolated.
I look at the lake’s untouched surface. I can do this. And I am going to go through with this.
I put my clothes down on the grass, folded up, and take one last look around. Corin, Rahn, and the car are in the distance, hardly visible. The chances of them coming here are slim. I hope. Three and Esther have gone in the opposite direction, and Marouska had been making it clear how much her legs ached the whole journey. She’s not going to make the trek.
Anyway, I’m not going to be long. They’ll probably not even notice I’ve gone anywhere. Corin and Rahn might think I’ve decided to catch up with Esther and Three.
I strip my clothes off and fold them up next to my clean ones, careful not to let the augmenter shatter. I put my mother’s pendant on top of the pile of clean clothes. It feels wrong taking it off, like I’m losing a part of myself that I’ll never get back.
Next, I break off a small chunk from the soap bar, then, taking one last look around—and covering up as much of myself as I can with my arms—I skip the few feet down to the water’s edge.
I gasp as cold water splashes over my ankles, and I try not to scream as I run deeper and deeper. Gravel underfoot moves in torrents, and small, sharp pieces scratch at my feet.
The water slams against me.
My body’s crushed deeper into the platform.
My throat constricts. I taste bile. I turn, trying to pull away. More water hits me.
Mumbled voices over me. A laugh?
Too much water.
I push off from the gravel, forcing my head above water again. For several seconds, I drink in the air.
“I will not drown.” As I say the words aloud, I shudder. “I won’t. I can do this. I will do this. Raleigh is not here.”
I scrub myself down with the soap and the flannel—a cleanish piece of old cloth. My teeth chatter, and the water seems to be getting colder. I look back toward the shore. My clothes are still there, and I can’t see anyone else.
I dunk my head under the water for a few seconds, then work the remaining soap into my hair. It’s a pity I didn’t bring any shampoo with me. I lather the soap up and then rinse it out. I swim out farther, to a part of the lake where the water isn’t soapy—it’s organic soap made from a root Marouska found—and revel in it. A willow’s branches dance in the water up ahead, and I swim toward them, then under the hanging branches. I smile as I resurface, shaking my wet hair out. Droplets fly everywhere. This is freedom. Even if it is cold.
A few minutes later, I climb out of the lake—the sides aren’t too steep—and start toward my clothes. Then I stop. Ice shards run through me. I run.
I reach my clothes, push them aside, my eyes searching hungrily. The fabric falls away, soaked under my fingers. I push my shirt out of the way, revealing the mud and the bank. Frowning, I search through the garments again, my hair dripping over them.
My mother’s pendant is not there.
I pull back the clean oversized T-shirt, not even caring that I’m getting loads of water all over the fresh, dry clothes. I look on the ground either side, then at the long khaki shorts and the underwear. I shake them all out, in case it’s somehow caught among the garments. But it isn’t. It’s still not there.
I pause, look again. And again. The sinking feeling in my heart makes me feel sick. After a few moments, I dry myself, pull on the clean clothes. But they don’t do anything to fill the ragged, gaping hole within me.
I’m breathing fast as I search the grassy land around me. There’s nothing there but my old clothes. I check for the vial of Calmness in the shorts. It’s still there. I move the vial to a pocket in my clean khaki shorts.
The pendant—my mother’s Seer pendant—has gone.
When I get back to the car, I feel like I’m dying. I didn’t think I’d been gone long, but Esther and Three are already back, and everyone’s standing around, roughly in the same area, though Marouska’s not quite within hearing distance.
“It—it’s gone,” I cry. “My…my mother’s pendant…it’s gone!” I skid to a stop, panting, next to Esther and Three.
Esther frowns at me. “What? Are you sure?”
I nod. I’ve never felt so empty.
“We need to find it,” Three says, his voice deep. He glances over at me, then at Rahn who’s just come over to us with Corin. “We all need to look for it. She could get trapped in the Dream Land without it—her pendant’s gone, Rahn.”
Rahn frowns. “You’ve lost it?”
“We need to find it,” Corin echoes my brother, folding his arms as he stares at Rahn sullenly.
Rahn looks at me. “When and where did you last have it?”
I tell them about my swim in the lake and how the pendant disappeared. I struggle to get the words out fast enough.
“So there are other people about?” Three frowns. “If it’s been stolen—”
“There are no other people here,” Rahn says. “We’d have seen tracks.”
“But we have only just got here,” Corin says. He moves closer to me, then lightly touches my back. I think it’s an automatic reaction on his part, because when Three glares at him, Corin doesn’t seem to notice. “There could be others watching us.”
The thought of someone watching me swimming naked doesn’t make me feel any better. My hands shake, and I feel faint. It’s just the worry, I tell myself. I’ll get the pendant back. I have to get it back.
“We’ll divide up and look,” Three says, taking charge. I see him glance toward Rahn for confirmation of the plan, and our leader nods. “Right, Seven, show me where you were swimming. Esther, you check the car. And update Marouska too. She might have seen it. You two,” he addresses Corin and Rahn, “look everywhere else.”
Corin snorts something about everywhere else, and Rahn frowns.
“Come on, Seven.”
I show Three where I swam, but sure enough, the pendant hasn’t miraculously materialized.
“Do you think it’s really been stolen?” I ask, looking up toward the sky. It’s going to be dark within a few hours. I can’t sleep without its protection. I gather up my wet hair and tie it back. Not that it does much good now—my shirt is already soaked from it.
Three shakes his head. “I hope not,” he says, eyes dark, “because that means it was an intentional action to put you in danger. I also don’t like the idea of someone watching my sister undressing and bathing either.”
By the time evening’s drawn in, the pendant still hasn’t turned up. Esther and Marouska are trying to stop me from hyperventilating.
“It’ll be okay,” Marouska says. But what does she know? She’s not the one in danger.
Untamed Series, #1 Page 24