Prophet's Journey, page 5
part #1 of Prophet of the Badlands Series
Althea shrugged. “I’m too old. This is for little kids. It says so right here.”
“You know some of it already. All you have to do is catch up.”
The word ‘carrot’ appeared. She said it.
“Good!” chirped the blue rabbit.
‘Tree’ appeared.
“You spelled it wrong. The number is three!”
“Almost,” said the blue rabbit. “Try again.”
“Three!” yelled Althea.
“You’ve almost got it.” The rabbit jumped and waved. “Try again.”
Althea snarled, almost threw the learning machine to the floor, but calmed herself.
“Terry.”
An image of a pine tree appeared above the word.
“Pino,” said Althea.
“English, please,” replied the rabbit. “Sound out the letters.”
Frustration built. “Te-ree.”
The rabbit made sad eyes at her.
“There’s no ‘e’ in it,” said Karina. “Just roll the T into the ree.”
Althea furrowed her brows. “Tree.”
“Woo-hoo!” cheered the rabbit. Happy music played for a few seconds while it danced.
While the animation might have made a six-year-old giggle, it made Althea feel stupid. She sulked, ashamed of herself until the display stopped.
‘Reassembler’ appeared.
Althea screamed in frustration.
Karina ran over. “What? What’s wrong?”
She pointed at the screen.
“Umm. Whoa.” Karina leaned closer, reading. “I have no idea what that is. But, you don’t need to in order to speak the word. Use the letters.”
Althea tripped over trying to pronounce the word a few times, squeezing the learning machine tighter and tighter each time the rabbit’s overly cheerful voice told her to try again. After three failed tries, an image of a silvery box appeared above the word. It had a door-like section and a panel with buttons.
“I don’t know what this is.” Althea pointed at it. “It’s something from the bad city.”
“Umm. I have no idea what that is either, but it’s not asking you to guess. It just wants you to read the word. Sound it out.”
Althea scowled.
“Okay. Can you spell re?”
“Re isn’t a word.”
Karina laughed. “No, but it’s a part of one.”
“R. E.”
“Okay. Can you spell ass?”
“A-r-c-h-o-n,” said Althea with a smirk.
“Aww.” Karina hugged her.
“Why did he have to do that? I couldn’t… I had to… Anna…”
“Don’t cry.”
She took a deep breath, then huffed. “A-s-s.”
“Okay. Em.”
“M.”
“There’s an e in front of it.”
Althea looked up at her, mouth agape. “But why? It’s just m! Why do they have to put in stupid nothing letters that don’t say anything? This is so confusing.”
“I have no idea. But that’s how it’s spelled.” Karina leaned close and whispered ‘reassembler.’
Althea wanted to throw the datapad across the room. “That’s not even fair! That’s a made up word that doesn’t mean anything.” She sighed and recited the word to the electronic tablet, which emitted a happy chirp.
“Very good! You’ve completed this module.” The cartoon rabbit disappeared and a miniature fireworks display went off.
Althea twitched at the explosions and bangs, but didn’t dive to the floor, even if it did sound like a bunch of raiders shooting at each other.
“Come and eat!” called Father.
She happily tossed the pad onto the cushion and scrambled to her feet, racing Karina down the hall to the kitchen. They squeezed through the door at the same time and took their seats. Over the meal, Althea told him of meeting Pol and his friends, as well as seeing Adriana and Elias. Father didn’t seem at all happy to hear what she’d witnessed, but he also didn’t spend much time talking about it beyond asking her to run off and go somewhere else if ever she stumbled on people doing that again.
“I will.” She stared at him with an apology glowing from her eyes.
He chuckled. “It’s all right. You are young and… innocent. Curious. It is rude to hide and watch people doing that.”
Karina bit her lip, too embarrassed to speak.
They ate in silence for a little while. Althea chickened out at asking Father if he had a different word to use for wifeing when the woman wanted to do it. He would either ignore the question or assume things had happened between her and Den, then go hurt him.
So instead, she talked about finishing the second-grade spelling lesson.
“Excellent! Tomorrow, I shall talk to Julio and try to convince him that you can go with the other children to school in the day.”
“Axton said that kids don’t usually go to school during the summer.” Karina glanced back and forth between them while eating a forkful of rice.
“Who is Axton?” asked Father, eyebrow up.
“One of the Zero Police from the big city in the west.”
Althea, sensing her older sister’s emotion, gasped. She likes him!
Karina gave her the ‘don’t you dare say it!’ look.
Althea giggled.
“How old is this man?” Father leaned on the table.
Karina shrugged. “Seventeen. And we only talked.”
“You are sixteen, Kara.”
“I know.”
“He’s a grown man.”
“No, he isn’t. He’s only one year older than I am.” Karina snapped her head up, tossing her hair back in one fluid move. “I’m allowed to talk to people still, aren’t I? He answered questions about his city.”
Althea stuck her tongue out.
“Mmm. You know I am just worried about keeping you safe.” Father reached across the table and patted her arm.
Karina smiled. “I know.”
“Why don’t they go to school in the summer?” asked Althea.
“He didn’t know why they do it. Just something that’s been happening for like hundreds of years.” Karina shrugged and kept eating.
“Well,” said Father. “We only recently opened the school here, now that those people from the west are here helping out. Maybe they’ll close it for a break, maybe not.”
Althea shrugged to herself. She didn’t really care either way if school stopped for a few months or kept going.
After dinner, she helped Karina clean up all the dishes. An accidental drop of a plate into the water started a playful battle of tossing soap foam back and forth while laughing. Perhaps some things—like the bubble soap—that came from the big city weren’t so bad after all. When they finished cleaning up, they spent the rest of the time they had before bed on the couch, Karina teaching her about knitting.
Once they’d crawled in bed for the night, Althea’s curiosity got the better of her.
“You know what wifeing means?”
Karina shuddered. “Yes. You’ve told me. Why?”
“Is there a different word for when both people want to do it?”
“They call it ‘making love’ or relaciones.”
“Really?”
“Yes. Now go to sleep.” Karina kissed the side of her head.
“How can someone do that forever?” asked Althea.
“They can’t. It’s not even possible.”
Althea rolled her head to look at her sister. “Den said he thought wifeing was forever.”
“Aww.” Karina smiled. “He’s thinking of getting married, not doing a physical act. And, you shouldn’t even talk about that either at your age. He’s way too young for that.”
“Married?”
“I want to sleep. That would take a long time to explain. Can I tell you later?”
“Okay.”
Althea made a face at the ceiling. The term confused her because people ‘made love’ all the time even when they didn’t do anything even close to wifeing each other. Every time she saw her family, she gave off love. Whenever Father was around either one of them, he radiated it, too. ‘Making love’ didn’t seem like a great name for a physical act. The Water Man created lots of love when he saw his dog Ornry, and so did the dog. Then again, that dog loved everyone. There had to be a better word, since to Althea, a hundred different things from the reaction of a beautiful sunset, to seeing a kitten, to being with her family could cause someone to make love.
But, she didn’t need to know it now.
It can wait five years.
She rolled her eyes, then closed them.
Althea found herself fully awake for no apparent reason.
Her surroundings appeared black-and-white, which meant the sun hadn’t come up yet. A strong sense of warning gripped her. Knowing something bad would happen soon, she leapt out of bed and hurriedly changed out of her nightgown into the dress she’d worn the previous day. She almost shouted for Father, but her clairvoy ants must have given her an alarm. Making noise would also warn whoever threatened her, or her family.
She didn’t detect any nearby mental energy or emotions except for Father and Karina, so she ran out into the hallway toward Father’s room.
Two steps out her door, she crashed into something neither hard nor truly soft, somewhat like an armored raider’s body—only nothing was there. The air in front of her shimmered.
Ghost!
Althea whirled to run away… but hands made out of nothingness grabbed her.
Thin air five feet in front of her split open, revealing a dark pant leg and belt—and a hand holding a mirror-finished pistol.
She simultaneously screamed and braced her body to purge itself of the drugs that would put her to sleep.
The gun went off with a soft pthoonk. A painful impact struck her in the center of the chest like a rock. She peered down at a tiny black cylinder no bigger than the tip section of a man’s finger.
“Fath—”
Bzzt!
Blue sparks danced around the little projectile. A brief flicker of pain washed over her entire body.
And everything went dark.
6
The Voice That Speaks False
The worst headache Althea ever had dragged her back to consciousness.
An irritating, continuous roar came from somewhere nearby, making her head pound even more. She tried to reach up to her face, but couldn’t move. A few seconds of struggling penetrated the fog in her brain and she realized her hands were tied behind her back.
Grr. Not again.
She opened her eyes to a small, rectangular enclosure that reminded her somewhat of the metal box she had used for a bedroom while staying with Whisk and the others at the Bumwallow, only smaller. Four featureless walls and a ceiling surrounded her with no buttons, handles, or levers. Light blooms appeared on the polished plastisteel wherever she looked, reflections of the glow in her eyes. The chamber didn’t have enough room to let her stretch out to her full height lengthwise, but did allow her to sit up without bonking her head.
Her abductors hadn’t taken her dress away, even though the modern garment was so nice and clean any raider group would probably have stolen it, even from the Prophet. No raider could fit into it, but they could cut it open and make it into a skirt. Aside from a small black dot in the middle of her chest where the strange projectile had hit her, the garment remained intact.
Shiny metal bands encircled her ankles, connected by a short length of chain. Both shackles had small strips that glowed with pale green light next to minuscule keypads. Althea growled at the binders. One raider group had put handcuffs on her legs like this when she’d been about nine to keep her from running away. Of course, those hadn’t been electronic. She fidgeted at the restraints, making the metal click.
Rather than being frightened or sad, she grew furious… but held her anger back. As soon as whoever abducted her opened this box, she would force them to set her free and hit them with a sad bomb so heavy they’d spend the next month weeping.
“Karina’s dead,” whispered a voice out of nowhere.
Althea gasped. “What?”
She listened, but nothing replied.
“Who said that? You’re speaking the false!”
“Father’s dead,” whispered a voice as if someone’s lips hovered at her ear.
“No!” she spun to the right, but found no one there, merely a plain metal wall.
Growling, Althea struggled to wriggle her hands out of whatever bound her wrists. She didn’t have enough room inside the cargo box to maneuver her arms around her backside, nor could she pull her hands free of the cord.
She landed on her side, glaring at the wall, too angry to even scream.
I hate being the Prophet! Why can’t people just leave me alone! I wanna go home!
The eerie voice whispered, “Home is gone. They destroyed it to take you. Everywhere you go gets destroyed. Everywhere you ever go will be destroyed.”
“No!” screamed Althea. “Who keeps saying that?”
Another voice that reminded her of the girl Esmerelda who started a fight with her once over soccer whispered, “I still hate you. I only have to pretend to be nice because my father will hit me.”
She pivoted and double-kicked the wall, but the metal didn’t give.
“I’m being stupid. I can’t even make myself strong enough to break this.” She rolled on her side and squirmed around, attempting to look at her arms. Black cord had been tied around her wrists, but rather than a knot, a molten lump secured it. The cord stretched ever so slightly like rubber when she struggled. That made her think it would be easy to cut—if she could find a blade.
The constant roaring noise increased in pitch. She slid into the wall, then squeezed into the floor. The feeling reminded her of being in the flying city car with Officer David. That thought brought another wave of anger. Someone from the big city would have magic they could use to sneak into Querq and take her. The man she’d run into in her house had been invisible… somehow. It might have been magic like a Scrag mystic… wait, no, they used psionics like her. But, no mystic would have a flying car or a metal box like this. Nor would they have that zappy gun. A mystic who wanted to abduct her would have tried to use magic on her, and she would have laughed at him.
Sometimes, being an Awakened psionic could be nice. She’d like it much more if it didn’t make everyone want to kidnap her.
“Den doesn’t really love you. He only wanted power,” whispered a voice.
“Who is speaking the false?” asked Althea, in an angry tone. She struggled at the restraints, looking around her small enclosure—clearly alone. “There’s no room in here for anyone else. Who are you?”
No replies came.
She closed her eyes and concentrated on wanting Father to help her. The instant the intent to broadcast a beacon to him formed in her head, a tremendous shock blasted across her skull.
Althea screamed, nearly making water from how much it hurt.
“Ow!” she wailed, curling up in a ball.
With her hands tied behind her, she couldn’t grab her throbbing eyeballs, and settled for pressing her face against her knees. When she did that, another zap stung her on the leg like a bee. She jumped with a yelp and sat up straight.
“What is hurting me!?” she yelled.
The pain from the jolt to her head eventually faded enough that she stopped sniffling. Althea leaned back against the side of the box… and felt a thin, hard band encircling her head. She tried to rub against the wall to pull it off, but the band clung too tight and the smooth metal surface didn’t offer enough friction to budge it.
“Ooh!” She fumed, glaring down her legs at her chained ankles.
The first person to open that box and make eye contact with her would regret it. She wouldn’t hurt them, but they would let her go and she would force them to bring her home… then let the Watch do whatever they wanted with them. Though, she’d refuse to allow execution to happen.
She slid forward when the flying machine she assumed carried her made a slight turn. Not bothering to fight the motion, she ended up flat on her back with her heels against her butt, staring straight up at the top of the container. Of course, bad city people took her. Raiders would’ve been nice enough to at least give her a blanket, not a plain box with no openings. Not even a hole to breathe from.
“Karina is dead. You will never see her again,” whispered the voice.
“You speak the false,” muttered Althea.
The evil voice didn’t feel right. If Karina had died, she’d know something happened. The same clairvoy ants that warned her of danger would certainly tell her if someone she loved so much had been hurt. It would be impossible for harm to befall her sister and go unnoticed.
“Dammit,” muttered Althea, realizing that the psionic warning she’d received while out with Den had to be for this kidnapping. “I should have told Father or the Zero police to be on guard.”
She tapped her foot in annoyance, making a soft clapping sound against the metal.
Hands tied, ankles locked in binders, trapped in a cramped box, she couldn’t do much of anything but simply wait. Even without the cord or chain, she couldn’t have escaped the container. That made her think the people who took her had to be particularly mean since tying her up didn’t really accomplish anything but make her uncomfortable. The metal binders she almost understood since her kidnapper probably didn’t want to have to chase her if she ran. But her hands? Why? What threat did they possibly think a girl her size could be?
Angry, worried, and frustrated, she rolled her head side to side on the thin headband, wondering why the heck anyone put that on her. She sat up and rubbed at it with her knee again, but got another bee-sting zap.
“Ow.” She sighed.
“Nobody ever likes you. You’re just a prize they take,” whispered the voice.
Althea ignored it.
Another whisper in the cartoon rabbit’s voice teased her about being stupid, mocking her for taking so long to learn the frozen speech.
Althea ignored that, too.
“Father thinks having you makes him important. He doesn’t really love you.”
