Emergence (Eden's Root Trilogy) (30 page)

Asher frowned.
“What, Sean? What does that mean?”

Sean looked up, his eyes burning.
“It means they cut her, Asher. They cut her hand like them.”

Asher’s stomach turned.
Sara was strong, he knew. But she was also uniquely vulnerable to the Truthers since her kidnapping...since the first time they’d cut her. It must have been torture to let them hurt her. Judging by the general greenness of Sean’s skin, the thought had also occurred to him. “I’m sorry, Sean. But Sara’s tough. You know she chose it.”

He nodded, flushing.
“I know. Still makes me sick, though.”

“You and me both.
But this isn’t going to be pretty, this war. All of us are risking everything.”

“I know,”
Sean exhaled. “Anyway, the girls are good. They have a whole bunch of notes for us at the bottom. Seems like our worst news is that there are at least a hundred Lobo “Angels.” But then, we pretty much knew that.”

“Awesome.
I guess no worse news counts as good news?”

“Yeah.
I guess it has to.”

“But they’re
alive, Sean.” It was hard not draw out the word
alive
. Asher’s mouth clung to it, unwilling to give it up, to have it cease. “They’re succeeding at this undercover stuff.”

Sean folded the paper and tucked it into his jacket.
“Yup. Now let’s hope the rest of us are as good as they are.”

----------
Fi ----------

“Absolutely not, Nona!”
Carter roared, not even attempting to sound like his normally mellifluous self. Fi flinched. “And what’s worse,” he continued, “is that you know better! You shouldn’t have brought these two here until you’d discussed it with me first.”

“So you could say ‘No’ more easily, Father?” Nona retorted.

Wow
, Fi thought, startling. She’d nearly shouted. Nona never raised her voice. Sara and Fi’s heads swiveled as the debate grew more heated.

“Nona, it’s not safe.
We can’t send these girls in to those…those, LIARS!”

“Well, then send
someone
in for God’s sakes, Father! Please, before their time runs out!”

Sara grabbed Fi’s hand and squeezed it.
This was the sticking point, Fi knew. If Carter was going to play it off like he’d given people a chance to convert, he couldn’t say no. Not if he was going to turn women and children out to die. He’d lose half his following.

Nona was arguing this salient point when
Carter raised his hands and bellowed in frustration. He whirled to face the girls. “So…Nona says you two have done a lot of ministry in the past.”

“Yes, Father,”
Fi said. “We used to travel to different cities with our family and minister to those who would listen.”

“And we went on missions every summer,” Sara added.
“Mostly in Central America. Dios es amor.” She dropped her head and signed the cross.

Good Lord
, Fi thought.
She’s throwing in Spanish now?
José and Mayra would be proud.

“Father,” Nona said, softening, “they have the Angels for protection.
And besides, the hostiles are all separated from the rest.”

“Hostiles?”
Sara’s voice rose.

Nona grimaced.
“I know Father has told you something of this group, these scientists who want us to make the same mistakes that led to the Famine. Most of them are just misguided. But a few…”

“…
a few are determined to do more than just lead sinful lives, as if that weren’t enough,” Carter interjected. “A few were determined to convert Truthers to their way of thinking. By force, if necessary. Those are the ones we call the hostiles.”

“Convert the Truthers?”
Fi did her best to feign shock. “To what? Science? But that’s just crazy.”

“Well you don’t have to worry about them, Marie,” Nona assured her.
“They’re secured elsewhere.”

“So why don’t you just banish the hostiles to the Wasteland right now?” Sara asked.

Fi dropped her hand in shock.
Why would she suggest that?

“We’re not animals, Sara,”
Carter said, with disgust. “Some of them have family members in Camp Truth. We’ll turn them out together at the end of the initiation time if no one in the family converts.”

Fi ignored the clench of her stomach and seized the opportunity.
“Father, you can count on us. We’ll help to separate the future Truthers from the Liars, if you just give us a chance.”

Carter’s face twisted, his eyes darting between the women.
…
Like a cornered animal
, Fi thought. He was damned if he did and damned if he didn’t. And she was Nagaina, the head of the snake. “Please, Father,” she added, striking again.

“Please,” Nona echoed.
“
Carter
, it’s the right thing to do.”

“All right!” he shouted, flushing.
“All right. They can try it. They start tomorrow. I’ll make the arrangements with Silas.”

Gotcha
!
Fi thought, with barely suppressed glee. If only real poison could be working its way into his veins. No matter, it was getting closer every day. And, she was going to see Kiara! Finally, the object of her desire, so close at hand, was to be hers.

I’m coming for you
, she thought.
I’m coming for you, baby girl.

##########################################

The next morning Fi tried not to burst into a full sprint as they made their way around the lake toward the prison camp. Despite the Lobos flanking them, nothing could dampen her excitement. At least, she’d thought nothing could. When they drew closer to the dreary little site, she shifted from biting back smiles to fighting back tears.

Small
huts sat clustered like animals huddled against the breeze, the shredded plastic sheeting covering the windows fluttering. Hillocks of muddy snow crested in waves against their walls, giving the impression of a sad flotilla, adrift in a gale. The entire camp was girded and staked by six-foot barbed wire fence and twin watchtowers.

For a moment she was struck by the starkness of the
contrast between Eden and Camp Truth: light and dark, right and wrong, garden and dungeon. All this time she’d been worried about the in-betweens, the greys.
But sometimes things weren’t grey at all
.

Sometimes things were
as clear and pointed and painful as the moment you first feel love. Real, true, love. Knowing that love is not the things that
are
, but the things that
are done
: homemade soup for a fever, saving the last bite of dessert, picking flowers for no reason at all, massaging tired shoulders. Each tiny act buoying each other, saving each other, every day, over and over again.

That’s why it’s cutting, that moment of clarity, that kind of love
, she thought. Because love is not grey.
It’s sharp. Definite. Right.

“Here you go ladies,” one Lobo said, as he swung open the outer gate.
“Be careful.”

She stepped inside, her head high.
Mired in the mud like a tired herd, the residents of Camp Truth watched in silence as Sara and Fi stepped inside. The Lobos stayed outside, their weapons drawn. Fi prayed that the colonists would have the good sense to pretend their silence was due to something besides recognition.

Their second, and final, message in a bottle had been to prepare the colonists for this.
Sara had been the one to take it this time, but they couldn’t know if the message had been received.

“What’s this?” Lucy asked loudly, striding forward from the steps of her cabin.
Two girls’ heads poked out behind her and Fi choked.
So close…

“We’re here to provide ministry, ma’am,” Fi sa
id, her voice strangling as Kiara’s eyes bored into her over Lucy’s shoulder.
She’s real! She’s right THERE!!

For her par
t, Lucy’s eyes kept wandering to Luke, tucked into his sling. “Ministry, huh?” she declared. She pointed at the Lobos at the gate and in the watchtowers. “’Bout time you all gave us a chance. C’mon girls, you can come to my cabin first.” She held out her hand and Fi took it.

“More special treatment for you two, huh?”
A voice called down from the east tower. Fi looked up into the pug face of the Lobo called Mouth. “Wonder what you both did to make the Father like you soooooooooooo much?”

Fi ignored him as they made their way to Lucy’s cabin
. It was enough of a struggle to keep her composure while every molecule in her body was screaming for her to run to Kiara and snatch her up. “How are you all?” she said, forcing herself to focus on the other colonists. “Are you staying warm enough?”

Clearly,
they’d gotten the message. All of them acted as if they’d never seen them before, even Kiara, whose face twisted with the strain. The moment the door to Lucy’s cabin closed behind them, Fi fell to her knees and crushed Kiara to her, nearly strangling Luke. “Kiara! My baby girl! Oh, my baby.”

Her little sister
shuddered and shook in her arms, but she was
real
. It wasn’t a dream. Kiara was alive and breathing… Well, almost not breathing Fi was squeezing so hard. She tried to relax her grip, but Kiara snatched her tighter, pressing her face into Fi’s shoulder to cover her sobs.

“I thought I’d never see you again, Fi,” she gasped, hiccupping.
“I thought I’d be all alone.”

Fi’s heart went black as she sank back onto her heels, pulling Kiara with her.
Alone.
Even with hundreds of people around her, even with the Skillmans. She would have been alone. Not just an orphan, a little girl lost. She pressed Kiara’s head to her chest, kissing her hair again and again. She’d never imagined Kiara feeling that way, never thought what nightmares may have been ripping her apart night after night.

Lucy’s hand
touched Fi’s head gently. “I’m sorry, honey,” she said, pressing her finger to her lips.

Fi took a deep, shuddering breath
, nodding. “Shhhh,” she murmured to her sister, rocking her. “It’s ok, baby girl. I’m here. We’re here for you.” Kiara’s sobs subsided and she relaxed in Fi’s arms, settling into her like she had as a baby, despite being nearly ten now.

A w
armth began to fill Fi as they held each other. She closed her eyes and concentrated on it, drawing it in like a plant starving for sunlight. It started in her chest and worked its way out until her whole body was alight. “Do you feel that, Ki?” she murmured, kissing her sister’s cheek. “Papa’s here too.”

In another world, Fi would have had time to catch her family up on everything. They would have oooohed and aaaaahed over Luke and expressed congratulations and best wishes. Instead, the clock was ticking, literally, and they had to focus on the siege. Fi did her best to swallow her tears, though she couldn’t take her eyes off Kiara for a second.

Lucy explained what the colonists knew.
“Darryl’s been able to catch us up on the Army’s plans so far,” she said.

Fi
’s eyes flicked to the man seated in the corner, a grim look etched across his normally inquisitive face. Her chest tightened. Darryl had changed. He was dressed in black from head to toe and had grown a heavy beard. His head lolled against the wall and he picked at his fingernails with a knife. His knife, apparently, she thought, noting the sheath at his belt.

From what Lucy said, Darryl had been going back and forth between Camp Truth and the Army encampment across the river fairly regularly, sneaking the
colonists food and blankets and bringing news. It heartened Fi to hear that Sara had been right. Camp Truth’s “guards” were lazy.
Hopefully the rest of them are equally “dedicated
.”

“Here
, Darryl,” Fi reached into the pocket of her jacket and pulled out folded papers. “Here are the maps we drew, the timing of the Angels’ shift changes, and a complete work-up of Carter’s schedule.”

Darryl
scanned the notes. “This is good. So you’re sure that this map is complete?”

“We’ve been
all over the settlement,” Sara said. “I can’t imagine what we would’ve missed.”

“What’
s this?” He pointed. “You marked it ‘hostiles.’”

Fi grimaced.
Of course he’d hone in on that. Sara had told her how distressed Darryl had been about giving up names, especially Georgina’s…though from what Sara said, Carter hadn’t even needed him to actually name them. Obviously Darryl had turned into this “Rambo” version of himself as penance. She didn’t want to have to answer him, but there was no way around it. “We used their term. It is what you think it is.”

He nodded, but to her surprise, he didn’t falter.
“They’re keeping them in the bathrooms then?”