Paragenesis: Stories of the Dawn of Wraeththu (9 page)

“Sounds grim,” Inari
agreed evenly, “How old were you then?”

“I dunno… fourteen, almost
fifteen?”

“And how old are you now?”

“About twenty… almost
twenty-one, I think.”

Silence returned and we both
stared out across the river.

“Was it your Grandmother who
taught you to love books?”

“Yeah. She worked in a library.
It was an enormous old fortress of a building with an old broken
down fountain out front. As they closed down schools, colleges, and
smaller libraries, they’d bring all the books there. I was too
little to stay home alone, so she’d always take me to work. They
were all old people at the library, and I was quiet, so they didn’t
mind having me around. I learned letters and numbers helping to
sort books by call numbers. I could sit for hours with books. There
weren’t any other kids – just books. By the time I was old enough
to go to school there weren’t any left in our area. So I just kept
getting reading tips from the others and discussing stuff I read
with them. When I was ten I decided to read the whole library – I
was going to work my way through every single book…”

I saw a flash of white teeth in
the dark.

Inari asked me a lot of
questions; at some points it felt a bit like an interview, but I
didn’t mind too much. I was ridiculously flattered and way too
eager to answer, too eager to please; no one had ever expressed any
interest in me or my story. Have you ever heard yourself saying way
more than you intended to? That was sort of how it was. I did try
to reciprocate with questions of my own about him and his friends,
but he was quite skilful at deflecting them. I told him about my
life from my times at library to being part of the human gang.
After I’d described the events surrounding my inception the
conversation fell into a lull.

“Was Dawson your first?” Inari
asked.

“Yeah.” I acknowledged finally
after an awkward pause. “He’s everyone’s first.” These were not
good memories. “He’s the first and then it’s open season for anyone
who wants a go.”

“Not a good situation,” Inari
observed; his voice was carefully neutral.

“It’s over.” I shrugged. “They
got tired of me pretty quick. I don’t have to do it anymore.”

“You don’t like aruna?” Inari
sounded bemused.

“Pain and humiliation? What’s
to like?” As soon as I’d said that I wondered if aruna was why he’d
followed me up there. After all the food and the booze his group
had offered us it would probably be rude to refuse him, if that’s
what he wanted.

“But,” I added hurriedly, “that
doesn’t mean I won’t. I mean… I will, if that’s what you want…”

“No … but thank you,” he said,
his voice solemn. “It’s been a long day and I’m too exhausted to be
any use to a partner.”

I couldn’t see his face clearly
in the dark, but it sounded like he was smiling.

There followed a few minutes of
silence that felt very awkward to me. I was racking my brain to try
and figure out what to say when he broke the silence. “That’s human
territory across the river isn’t it? So what are they guarding? It
looks like quite the operation. Something rather valuable it would
seem? Weapons perhaps?”

“Something even more valuable.”
I sighed. “Their loved ones. It’s a family compound.”

“Ah…. A truth that some humans
never understood, until it was too late. So tell me Nolan, how far
did you get when you tried to read the whole library?”

I found myself back in my
grandmother’s library, running through the stacks, desperately
trying to find her before the tanks and soldiers did. Along the
way, I was trying to grab and rescue as many valuable books as I
could. I was panic-stricken because I kept dropping so many of
them, but there wasn’t time to stop. I burst through a door and
into an old storage room. I was overjoyed to find the fountain that
had stood derelict in front of the old library for as long as I’d
been accompanying my grandmother, was there in the storage room
fixed and functioning; but as I barricaded the door to stop the
tanks, the fountain changed into an old dishevelled silver
Christmas tree that disintegrated when I touched it.

Nolan!

My eyes flickered half-open and
the dream faded. I saw nothing but blackness There was no sound;
the warehouse was still.

Inari and I had talked about
reading and books for quite awhile. We’d gone back inside together
but we’d parted ways; he’d headed back to the fire-lit circle and I
to my sleep spot along the wall farthest from the main area. I
began to drift back to sleep.

Nolan!

I was suddenly wide awake. I’d
heard my name but not with my ears. I’d heard it in my head.

Nolan!

I sat bolt upright. There was
no mistaking it that time; someone had said my name in my head –
but the whole warehouse remained still and silent. I sat there
tense, alert; peering into the darkness. A pale blue light appeared
around a corner of boxes and seemed to float towards me. My heart
was pounding as Inari crouched down in front of me.

Nolan, we have to be
leaving now. Come with us.

I was frozen. This had to be
still part of a dream; his lips weren’t moving, yet I could hear
his voice in my head. As my eyes were drawn to the light in his
hand, my blood ran cold. This didn’t make sense to me; I could see
no source for the light. There was just an orb of light floating
just above the palm of his hand.

Nolan?
I looked up at
him. Even in that light the confusion and fear I was feeling must
have showed on my face.

Don’t be afraid, Nolan! The
last thing I want to do is hurt you. This kind of communication is
called mind touch and the light is a pretty simple trick. You’re
Wraeththu – and you will learn to do this too. We’ll teach you how.
There is so much more to being a har than what your life is
here.
We’ve been travelling into the cities trying to find
hara like you. You believe there is a better way, don’t you? So do
we. We believe that we Wraeththu can be more than just ‘bigger and
badder’ humans and we’re working to make that a reality. We’re
building our future.
Come with us, Nolan. Please.

I opened my mouth to say
something but he put his fingers lightly on my lips.

Shhhh. Quietly! We don’t
want to wake anyhar. We want to be miles from here before Dawson
and the others wake up. Do you have any belongings to
collect?

I shook my head slowly.

He moved his fingers from my
lips and I felt a feather-light caress of my cheek.

Let’s go.

It had only taken me a second
to decide to leave the warehouse with Inari and the others. I did
not want to miss this opportunity for escape by over-thinking and
over-analysing; opportunities only knock once, they say, and
sometimes not even that often. I’d made the choice purely on
gut-instinct. Leaving with them just felt like the right thing to
do; time would tell if I’d jumped out of the frying pan only to
land in the fire.

As we picked our way through
the back alleys, my new friends answered my questions readily, but
their answers tended to fill me with more questions. This made me
slightly uneasy and I entertained certain second thoughts, but for
better or worse I had put my lot in with these strangers and the
farther from Dawson’s warehouse I got the more committed to this
path it seemed I was.

We travelled steadily but
cautiously, and by the time the sun began to rise we were miles
past the bridge that spanned the river marking the territory
between Dawson’s crew and the territory next door, which was
controlled by a harish band of ‘nightwalkers’.

There wasn’t much conversation
as the day wore on. Everyone was on high alert, but so far I’d seen
no one. We were halfway along a block of boarded-up and burnt-out
shops when Zekki stopped suddenly signalling the rest of us to
halt.

“What’s wrong?” I
whispered.

Danger!
Aydenn replied
into my head.
Can you feel it? Try. Let your mind feel, let it
go… trust what it tells you.

I wasn’t exactly sure what he
meant but I took a good hard look at the intersection we were
approaching. It was as unremarkable as any other, with cracked
pavement, weeds, and more boarded-up storefronts. Then I’m not sure
what happened, I suddenly felt something; I felt jumpy and panicky
– there was something wrong.

Zekki advanced two steps,
stopped, then suddenly spun on his heel, signalling madly.

D’rik grabbed me and hustled me
into one of the sheltered store entries between the now
non-existent showcase windows. The rest of them crowded in after
us.

Don’t move. Don’t
breathe.

All of us were motionless as a
heavily-armed human patrol slowly came around the corner; alert –
their guns at the ready.

Maelduin was in front of us all
at the edge of the store front alcove, closest to the street. He
stood tall and straight, his eyes closed, his arms hanging at his
sides, palms facing out to the street. His body was relaxed and he
seemed focused inward completely.

The soldiers moved slowly,
still holding their guns ready. We were sitting ducks. There was no
way they’d miss eight hara crushed into a tiny store entranceway. I
closed my eyes and waited for the bullets but nothing happened.
Nothing happened for what seemed like ages.

I opened my eyes. A soldier
stood not ten feet from where we were. He was scanning the area
slowly. He was so close that when he turned his head and his gaze
travelled over where we huddled I could see that his eyes were
blue. How could he not see us? How could none of the patrol members
see us?

D’rik was directly in front of
me. His body suddenly became relaxed and his breathing deepened. I
noticed he was staring hard at the alleyway that cut between two
derelict shop buildings across the street. Suddenly his body went
rigid, his breathing stopped, his eyes closed and almost
simultaneously all hell seemed to break loose down that alley; it
sounded like metal trashcans were being bashed around.

Several yelled orders had the
patrol moving briskly into the alleyway. We waited a few breaths
after the last human had entered the alley and then we ran; we ran
until I thought my lungs would burst.

“I don’t understand how they
didn’t see us.”

The sun was setting and we’d
taken shelter in a small garage that stood behind a tiny old house
that was stripped of its siding and whose roof had caved in.

Maelduin smiled “I created a
kind of psychic veil… a metaphysical barrier… between them and us.
It clouded their minds enough to keep us hidden. You know ‘out of
sight out of mind’? Well this is sort of an ‘out of mind, out of
sight’ thing.” He chuckled at his own little joke. “We hara have so
much potential – you’ll learn. We’re all still learning.”

I mulled over some of the
‘potentials’ I’d already been witness to that day.

“D’rik? Can I ask you a
question?”

“Sure,” he nodded. “As long as
you ask in mind touch.”

I frowned. “I can’t.”

“Try. Think it into my
head.”

I tried. I thought hard about
my question but D’rik just sat there patiently. I closed my eyes
and tried again; still nothing.

“Nolan.” Acorn leaned forward.
“You’re just beginning, so start with your eyes open and look at
D’rik. Picture your words going into his head.” He reached out to
place his index finger on my temple. “Visualize your words going
from here to here.” He traced an arch toward D’rik’s temple. “Focus
and try again.”

I took a deep breath and
focused on the question, I repeated it several times to myself and
then looked at D’rik and thought it at the same time as visualizing
the arc Acorn had drawn with his finger.

“Try again,” Inari
encouraged.

I did; this time I sort of
‘shoved’ the thought out of my mind towards D’rik.

“Yes! I did!” D’rik grinned. “I
made that commotion in the alley this afternoon. More Wraeththu
conjuring – I knocked some garbage cans off a fire escape.”

“He did it?” Acorn exclaimed.
“Wow, that’s awesome, Nolan!”

“Yup, Nolan asked if it was me
who caused that hullabaloo in the alley.”

After almost three full days of
walking we’d left the dismal ruin of the city behind. We were now
following the crumbling network of highways and byways of the open
countryside. The sunshine, open fields and the fresh air were
uplifting. I had not seen this much nature in my entire life. The
tensions of the city seemed to melt away, our group chatted and
laughed as we trekked.

Inari and I had spent many
hours talking about books and authors we liked, debating literature
styles, and discussing the exciting possibility of books that could
be written about Wraeththu, for Wraeththu, and by Wraeththu. When
we’d left the city, we had started out on wide multi-lane
highways that had once seen thousands of rumbling cars and trucks,
but now were desolate empty spaces where the once smooth asphalt
was riddled with potholes and cracks in which wild flowers and
grasses had taken root.

We’d veered off the main
highway to follow a variety of smaller routes, always skirting old
towns “just in case”. Late in the afternoon of the third day,
Aydenn suddenly turned off the narrow winding country road we had
been travelling along and began walking up a gravel drive that
wound between the trees.

“Wow,” I commented. “I didn’t
even see this driveway until you walked up here!”

“I know.” Maelduin smirked.
“Thank you.” He laughed good-naturedly at the confused look I gave
him. “It’s another one of those magic veils – we leave it here at
the entrance. That way, unless you know it’s there and are looking
for it, you don’t see it. It cuts down on unwanted visitors and
snoops!”