Prophet's Journey, page 14
part #1 of Prophet of the Badlands Series
“Thank you for helping me and being nice, but I can’t stay and live here. Father and my sister miss me.”
“Well, they should come down here where it’s safe… if the Silver Men haven’t gotten them already.” Isha shook her head. “Please just sit down.”
Annoyed, Althea poked the teacher’s mood with a telempathic jolt of apathy. The woman let go of her arm and walked back to her desk, flopped in the chair, and stared disinterestedly at the class. Althea hurried to the door, glanced back only long enough to remove the apathy, then hurried off down the hall, jogging toward the main chamber.
A few adults gave her odd looks as she went by.
“Why aren’t you in school?” asked one man.
“Going home,” said Althea, not slowing down.
She followed the corridor to the large central room and crossed it to another passage that brought her down to the platform by the giant tunnel with rails. Shara, Ulon, and two other men she didn’t recognize stood guard there. The red-haired woman ran over to get in front of her.
“What are you doing down here, child? You should be in the school at this time of day.”
“I’m going home.”
The adults chuckled.
“You can’t go out there,” said Shara.
“Why not?”
“Because you’re a small child.”
Althea folded her arms. “I’m not that small. I’m eleven. Maybe even twelve.”
“That’s still a child.” Shara patted her on the head. “Now go on. Back inside where it’s safe.”
“What about Ooru, Paama, and Eem? He’s smaller than me.”
“They are scouts. All three have trained, know the dangers, and have the blessing of the council.” Shara tried to shoo her back into the tunnel. “Go inside. You’re too little to be out there alone.”
She considered ordering them to get out of her way, but they’d only been nice to her so far, which made controlling them feel mean. “If I get permission from the council, is it okay?”
Shara shot a look of mild frustration off to one side. “I suppose. But they won’t give you permission so fast. The training takes years.”
They’ll give me permission if I want them to. “Okay.”
Althea turned on her heel and marched back inside, up the passage, across the main chamber, and through the heavy plastic curtain into the council chambers. Noema, Sumiko, and Bill engaged in a conversation a few inches short of being an argument about the farm being too small, a you-vee light failing, and general worry they won’t have enough food. Ell-Gee wanted to set traps on purpose to catch Silver Men for more parts. Noema thought it blasphemous and dangerous, likely to incur the wrath of the gods and destroy them all. Sumiko agreed with her, but Bill, his emotion tinged with humor, said if the gods didn’t want them to take a Silver Man for parts, they simply wouldn’t allow the plan to succeed.
Eventually, Noema appeared to notice the reflection of Althea’s eyes on Bill’s glass and turned her head to stare at where she’d been patiently standing a step inside the doorway. Sumiko smiled at her. Bill raised his glass in that strange gesture again, then drank the last sip from it.
The elder, again, gave off annoyance at someone simply barging in. Bill took advantage of the pause in their discussion to refill his cup from a nearby bottle.
“Why are you not in school?” asked Noema.
“I need to go home to Querq. Thank you for taking those metal things off me, but I can’t stay here. Please tell Shara that I have permission to go outside.”
“It is far too dangerous to go above the ground.” Noema shook her head.
Althea put her hands on her hips, tapping her foot. “If it’s that dangerous here, you should all go away. There are no Silver Men in Querq. We live above the ground and it’s really nice there. You should come with me. And if your farm is dying… you’re going to run out of food here anyway. You would be happier in Querq.”
“Child, you don’t understand.” Noema sighed.
“She brings up a point,” whispered Sumiko. “You saw what she did for the injured my grandmother attended to. We expected all of them to die. Would we not do well to stay with her? Mariko could not hope to tend to the sick as well as this child.”
“What makes you think this child is leaving?” asked Noema.
For an instant, Althea tensed in fear, bracing for the leashes and cages to start all over again… but the elder’s emotions contained only worry. She likely thought Althea would be hurt if she went to the surface. The woman did not want to own her, merely thought it foolish for her to go outside so young.
“She is only a little thing yet. Sumiko, you surprise me, taking counsel from a child like this.” Noema shook her head.
Sumiko gazed off into space. “I feel this will come to pass. Great fields of open nothing. Sand. Sun. I have had this dream. If the gods came in the form of a child, would you disregard their wisdom and put them to bed at eight?”
Noema made an odd noise in her throat.
“Hold on.” Bill moved his legs off the recliner pad and leaned forward. “Tell us about this place.”
Althea spent the next twenty minutes or so talking about Father, Karina, the Watch, the Zero police, the Water Man, her friend Kim, the farm, even the Old City outside. “Isha knows where it is on the land-drawing, it’s only a few inches away.”
“That sounds like a nice place… but way too far for us to walk.” Noema smoothed her hands down her hide dress. “There are many people here including old ones and babies. Some could not survive.”
“Is there a place where water runs fast over large, boxy stones with sharp edges,” asked Sumiko, still gazing into nowhere.
Althea nodded. “Yes, a stream not far from the gate. And your elders and babies will survive. I will make all the hurts and sicks go away.”
“Jo would surely have gone to the realm of the gods if not for this girl.” Sumiko glanced at Noema as if asking for permission. “Perhaps she can do as she says.”
“The boy had been called by the gods. We should be wary that they will punish us for keeping him here.” Noema gazed up at the ceiling. “Please forgive us for interfering. If you desire Jo be with you, we shall send him.”
“No!” yelled Althea. “I will not let you kill him.”
“How dare you!” barked Noema.
Althea fixed her with a glower, raising her arms and extending her energy wings, flooding the chamber with blinding blue-white light. “How dare you threaten to kill a boy for no reason! If the gods want him, they can come for him themselves.”
“Whoa,” said Bill, before taking a sip of his drink. “That’s bright.”
Sumiko gasped.
Noema stared for a second before dropping to her knees and bowing. “Please, forgive me!”
“Gods didn’t try to take him.” Althea let go of her anger, her wings receding into her back, dimming the room. “He had a hurt in his leg that got a ’fection. He almost died because no one took the dirty rock out.”
“How are you so wise for such a young child?” asked Sumiko.
“She is from the gods,” whispered Noema, still with her face down to the floor.
“Please don’t bow to me. I’m just Althea. Not a god. There are bad machines outside here. They don’t belong to gods either. Those things are meanies.” She shivered at the sudden realization of why she had seen so little life here. Everything must be a ‘contaminant.’ “You don’t need to hide underground. It’s much nicer outside, but you should go away from this place before the machines find you here.” She shook her head. “They won’t leave you alone for being underground. If they get down here, they’ll kill you all.”
“Kid’s got a point.” Bill swirled his drink around. “Danas thought the same.”
“And look what happened to him.” Noema sighed. “Now he is gone and his daughter has yet to return from her trial.”
“Trial?” asked Althea.
Sumiko bowed her head. “Our former king, Danas, listened to Ell-Gee, who told him the Silver Men were not sent by gods but machines, and we do not need to stay hidden down here. Danas went to the surface, but he is not small enough to hide. The Silver Men found him. Only one of his group returned alive. Even with the gods’ magic, our king could not survive.”
“When he died, his daughter, Kye, became our queen.” Noema clasped her hands in front of herself. “It is our custom that a new leader suffer the trial within the Cursed Place to prove that it is the will of the gods for them to lead the Transit tribe. Unfortunately, she has been gone for too long. We fear she has failed the test, leaving us without a queen.”
“Do not speak of this, child,” said Sumiko. “If the others here lose hope in Kye’s return, there will be much sadness.”
Noema closed her eyes, tilting her head up as if trying to listen to a faint voice. “If she does not return soon, dear Sumiko, we will need to declare she has failed. Until we have a king or queen, we cannot make any decision about relocating. Only our ruler can decide this.”
“Have you sent anyone to go look for her?” asked Althea.
“No. The Cursed Place is not for ordinary people. Only royals may enter. That is why the trial takes place there, as only a true royal will be able to survive.” Sumiko paced about. “I want to go, but I am afraid. Kye is only nineteen. She is too young to die.”
“If she is to die, she will already have gone to the gods. Anything now is too late. Our people may be leaderless. Such is the will of the gods.” Noema made an odd hand motion.
Althea scrunched up her nose. “What are gods? Have you ever seen them? Do they talk to anyone? Do they do anything? I sometimes see Ancestors, but I don’t really know what gods are.”
“They are those that created all. They watch over us and guide us to do their bidding,” said Noema. “They are always with us.”
“But have you ever seen them?” asked Althea.
“The gods do not show themselves to mere people.”
“Then how do you know what they want if they never talk to anyone or let you see them?” asked Althea.
Noema raised a hand at her. “Please, child. You must stop asking about such things or the gods will become angry and lash out at you.”
“If they’re angry at me, why don’t they yell at me?”
Bill wiped a hand over his mouth, but couldn’t stop smiling. “Perhaps they are afraid of whatever those… wings?”
Noema gasped at him.
He gestured at her. “Well, have you ever seen such a display from anyone else? God or not?”
“No,” said Sumiko.
Noema whirled to gawk at her. “The lot of you are falling to blasphemy so quickly.”
While the councilors got into an argument about the will of their gods, Althea folded her arms and scowled at nothing in particular. Sometimes, adults could really have the stupid. Who sends a young woman off to some dangerous place as some kind of test? Especially with machine men running around everywhere. Sure, she’d seen raider groups put warriors through trials, but that usually involved fighting someone or doing some physically demanding task like climbing an old building to recover a ceremonial object from the roof. That made sense since it proved the warrior had the strength and agility to survive in a fight. Some raiders or villagers revered the Ancestors, as Althea did… but she had seen them. Even the Zero police knew about Ancestors despite their using another name for them: ‘ghosts.’ One crazy person even worshiped something he called the Cloud of Mushroom, claiming that it is what reshaped the land and it would do so again if it wasn’t appeased.
Though, after seeing the huge bad city in the west, she suspected the Cloud of Mushroom—if it existed—wasn’t as strong as that man thought. It hadn’t eaten the entire world, merely a lot of it. The more the councilors argued about what to do regarding their people and the queen they sent off to die, the more annoyed Althea became. Like a small mother ready to haul her baby away from danger, she considered commanding the councilors to accept the idea of evacuating their entire tribe and following her to Querq. No one in this place deserved to stay here near those horrible machine men.
But if she did something like that, she’d be no better than The Many. Forcing people to do things against their will was evil—exception being forcing them not to do evil things. No, before controlling them, she’d try to make them understand. But first things first, they needed to know what became of their queen.
“Hey!” yelled Althea.
The councilors stopped bickering and looked at her.
“Do you have anything that your queen liked a lot?”
“What do you mean?” asked Noema.
“Like a bracelet or piece of clothing.”
“Yes, there is something.” Sumiko stood. “I will be right back.”
After the woman ran out, Bill gestured at Althea. “She has magic like the royals.”
“None of the royals has ever done anything like that.” Noema regarded her with a resigned, sad stare. “Nor have they brought our people back from the edge of death.”
“What kind of magic does Kye have?” asked Althea.
“She is stronger than any man, faster than the Silver Men with wheels, and tough.” Noema smiled with the pride of a mother.
Althea thought back to the man who had thrown Shepherd through a wall despite being much smaller than him. Mamoru… She faintly remembered meeting him again outside that warehouse. Aurora had taken him somewhere after a brief conversation about a ship. He, too, was an Awakened like Althea. She didn’t like that word much since Archon used it, but the Zero police had decided to use it as well to describe psionic people who had much greater powers than others. Perhaps Queen Kye was a psionic? It didn’t seem likely the girl would be Awakened, or she wouldn’t have gotten stuck in some cursed place.
Althea bit her lip. Her powers wouldn’t stop a machine man. She could heal, affect emotions, control thoughts, see thoughts, mind-talk, occasionally see ghosts, and sometimes the clairvoy ants would tell her stuff or let her see far off places. None of that mattered to machines. If Kye could make herself strong enough to throw Shepherd across a room, she could probably break the machines.
Sumiko ran back in holding a small plastic doll. “Here. Kye has had this ever since she was old enough to walk. Please be careful with it. She will be very angry with us if it is lost or damaged.”
Althea gently took the ancient toy. It resembled a blonde woman, though oddly proportioned. Too skinny, with distortedly long legs and tiny feet. Its eyes had faded off, simple paint on the plastic, and it bore numerous scuffs and scratches. She smirked. No one would notice if this became more damaged.
“Why did you want that?” asked Noema.
“I’m going to ask the clairvoy ants if Kye is okay.”
“What does that mean?” asked Bill.
“I can concentrate on stuff like this toy, and sometimes see or feel things about people.”
“Magic.” Sumiko nodded. “Yes. Please, tell us if Kye is all right.”
Noema smirked.
Althea gripped the old doll in both hands and focused on her desire to know what happened to the girl that loved this toy. Fleeting glimpses of a bright metal hallway flashed and faded. The uncomfortable feeling of wearing boots came out of nowhere. Running. Something trying to hurt her. She had to find somewhere to hide. Elation. Safety. Metal hands grabbing her by the arms. Kicking, fighting. Liquid. Drowning—but not death. Confusion. Drowned but alive. Safe but trapped. Sleep.
“She is alive.” Althea opened her eyes and looked up at the councilors. “But she’s stuck.”
“Feh.” Noema waved dismissively. “Why should we believe the words of a little girl?”
Bill raised his tumbler glass, gestured at her, and took a sip. “I’m more inclined to believe a kid with wings.”
“She must be sent from the gods,” said Sumiko. “Kye has not failed her trial. The gods want to help her.”
Noema raised her hands. “We cannot interfere. There can be no help. It is against the gods’ will.”
“What if the gods sent me here?” asked Althea, radiating telempathic trust. She couldn’t allow the old woman’s bizarre fears to hurt Kye. And if those gods actually existed and didn’t want her to help, they could speak for themselves. She still suspected these gods might be ‘shadow goblins,’ like the metal can half hidden behind a cabinet she’d been so frightened of as a little girl—until she saw it for what it really was.
Noema stared off into space, lowering her arms after a few seconds.
“She is not of the Transit.” Sumiko reached toward her for the doll. “The gods will not be angry with her for interfering. Perhaps even the Cursed Place will not harm her.”
Althea handed over the doll. “I’m only eleven. Shouldn’t you send a grown-up to look for Kye?”
“Our people cannot enter the Cursed Place unless they are royals. Others will surely die.” Sumiko stroked the doll’s hair. “No one here would dare enter. Our people will bring you to the gate, but they cannot go in.”
Ugh. Althea stared down at her feet. It wouldn’t do any good to force someone to go in there as they’d be too terrified to be able to help. She tried to open her senses, hoping her abilities might be able to give her a hint about what to do. Thinking about going to find Kye herself didn’t fill her with dread, nor did it give her a strong nudge of urgency. The compulsion to jump out of the flying machine had been undeniable and immediate. Either the clairvoy ants had gone to sleep, or nothing particularly dangerous would happen if she went there.
At least it didn’t feel like a bad idea.
“Okay. I will go look for your queen.”
16
Sky Monsters and Silver Men
Bill walked with Althea out of the council room, heading across the central chamber toward the passage to the platform.
“What is that you keep drinking?” asked Althea.
“Not for kids.”
