Spurn (6 page)

“You’re mine to protect, Abigail
, and I will not let anyone or anything hurt you again.”

I ignored my surge of
disappointment; I should have realized this was just a duty to him.

“I
’m no one’s to protect. I look after myself,” I said.

I felt
, more than heard, his second deep groan.

“That’s where you’re wrong, Red.”
Now I could barely hear him. He’d turned away to speak into the breeze. “You are mine.”

He
ignored any further attempts at conversation. I turned my attention back to Lucy and Talina, who were following behind us.

“Did I kill it?” I
asked.

Talina
shook her head. “There was a lot of blood in the water. You definitely hurt it, but it took off, faster than any of us could follow.”

Her worried tone said much more than her statement
.

Sighing
, I closed my eyes, and pretty soon the rhythmic movement of walking, and that intoxicating scent that was all Brace, had me drifting in a half-sleep state.

I was standing in my room on First World staring at four pale-pink walls. Lallielle appeared in front of me and I realized I was dreaming.

“Mom
!” My voice sounded a little disjointed. This was different to my dreams on Earth.

She ste
pped closer to me. Her long black hair flowed down her back and her green eyes, lighter than my own, were shadowed with concern.

“
Aribella, thank the gods. I’ve been trying to dream-span you for days.” She sounded almost the same, maybe less vibrant, a little more one-dimensional.

I couldn’t move
toward her, but speaking was easy enough.

“We were ca
ptured as soon as we landed. We’ve just managed to convince them to let us free ... or kind of under house arrest.” I still couldn’t move. “Have you spoken with Dad?”

I
needed to ask him about my powers.

Lallielle shook her head. “No, I
’ve tried a few times, but wherever he is, I cannot reach him.”

No wonder she’d been upset
; she hadn’t been able to reach anyone.

I sucked in a
breath. “Is that normal?”

She
shook her head and shrugged.

Great answer.

Since I didn’t know how much time we had, I decided to tell her about my energy.

“
So my powers have sort of shorted out ... since I opened the initial portal. I’ve only been able to use them one more time.” I raised my brows, the only thing I could move. “They’re kind of temperamental.”

She gasped. “
I don’t like that, Aribella. You’re stuck on Spurn?”

Her face was
turning into one big wrinkle of concern. She was probably flashing back to the time she couldn’t find me on Earth.

“This
must have something to do with your halfling nature. Not even Josian could guess what we were going to produce.”

I laughed. “
Don’t you worry about that. You produced all kinds of awesome.” I’d teased half a smile out of her. “And, yes, we are stuck here for the foreseeable future, although I’ve already found the halfling. Tell Frannie that planet one was as easy as she promised me. Although the natives are a little blood-thirsty and there’s a crazy-ass creature in the water.”

“Aribella
,” she admonished me. “I’ll let her know, and if she has any additional advice I’ll pass it on next time I manage to contact you.”

“Why couldn’t you contact me until now?”
Were everyone’s powers crapping out today?

Her image
froze then.

I waited an extra second, before trying to move forward again. I swore angrily as I was once again contained.
The scene began to fade, and with a pop, I was back inside my own head. But at the same time I wasn’t there alone. My mind flooded with a repeated phrase and even though I had only heard it just one other time, I had no problem recalling every word.

Children of Gods, born unknown and alone,

the seven are needed to eliminate. Take heed,

for baby will not live till four and one year

unless removed from the world here.

The youngest and strongest to collect.

Lost and alone, a god-man is the key.

Gather the Halflings, stone and fear.

The end of days is written in mineral.

It was a warning
– or prophesy, if you could call it that – from Francesca. I wanted to open my eyes and stop the chanting of words but I couldn’t.

How had I jumped from Lallielle to this? I guess
, if I was honest, until this point I hadn’t really spent much time thinking about these words. I didn’t put much faith in prophesies. Although most of what was there made sense, it was about the seven half-Walkers and how we were the key to preventing the end of the world. But gather the stone and fear? Written in mineral? It was too vague, and that was part of my pet hate of soothsayers. Just give me facts, not this crap that can be interpreted in twenty different ways.

I wrenched my mind free from the chant and forced my eyes open. I didn
’t have time to get lost in those words. I needed to do my job, and that was to collect Talina and move on to the other worlds.

Sitting
upright, the last echoing vestige of the words faded from my mind as I stared at my surroundings.

I
was camped out on the ground, but it was soft. I realized I lay on some type of mesh throw rug. The room looked like a living area, and if my slightly queasy stomach was any indication, the ground was shifting under me. I stumbled to my feet, my right hand pressed firmly against my chest. My throat tightened, unexpressed tears and emotions brimming, threatening to burst free.

I was out of the dream
but there was something wrong with me. Had the words affected me somehow or was this manipulation from an outside force? After a few deep breaths, I calmed and distracted myself by walking around the small room, stumbling occasionally from unexpected lurches.

T
he floor was timber. It was smooth, with an oily feel under my bare feet. There weren’t many pieces of furniture. The main piece leaned against the back wall and I realized it was a strange-looking couch. It was bright blue in color, but the material was unusual, and appeared brittle enough to collapse if someone were to sit on it. Moving closer, I reached out to gently drag my hand along the arm, pulling back as my finger-tips caught on the rough material.

“It’s made of coralline
.” A voice sounded from behind me.

I spun around to face Talina, who was standing in the open doorway.

“I wanted to check on you and see if you had woken yet.” She smiled as she stepped inside. “Th
e coralline grows in our waters. It’s part of a living ecosystem. Once we remove it from the sea, parts of it petrify, but the rest continues to grow and change. It’s the basis for most of our furniture.”

That’s what it reminded me of
: coral – the way it grew in peaks and ridges, with many little turrets. Of course, I’d only ever seen pictures. The pollution on Earth had destroyed most of the fragile coral structures throughout the world, or so we were told. Never having set foot out of New York, I kind of just had to take their word for it. And from my experience their ‘word’ wasn’t worth much.

“Where are we?”
I managed to croak out, my voice husky from the salt water.

“You
’re on Gladriel’s pontoon.” She blinked rapidly.

As with
the other Spurns, she had a clear lens which occasionally flicked up and down over her eyes.

“This is part of my area. We
were no longer welcome on the isle; everyone had to make their way back to their territory. We’ve been traveling for about ten leagues.”

My heart
stuttered.

We were
n’t close to land. We were smack bang in the middle of the freaking ocean.

I pushed back my damp curls
and without much thought reached for the comfort of my energy. In that moment I understood my previous emotional outburst. My energy felt empty, and I felt empty too. I was grateful Talina didn’t notice my distress as she started talking again.

“
Sorry about the wetness in here. The pontoons are designed to distribute a constant stream of humidity. It’s enough that most Spurns suffer no discomfort, but you will probably feel damp.”

Now that she’d menti
oned it, I was slightly itchy and kind of wishing I hadn’t swum in my clothes and let the saltiness dry on me.

“Where are my friends
?” I croaked again, unable to clear my swollen throat.

“It’
s almost meal time; they’re upstairs on the decking, waiting for us. I’ll show you the way.” She waved me forward as she moved toward the doorway.

I placed a hand on her cool arm to halt her for a second.
“Did you collect our bags from the guards before we left the Isle?” I was not staying in these clothes a moment longer.

She shook her head. “I’m sorry, Abby. They w
on’t release them until you leave Spurn; they seem to think that’s incentive for you to behave and to get off the planet in a timely manner.”

I croaked out bits of laughter. There was nothing
in our bags but clothes and a couple of first-aid essentials.

“I will get you some netting
. It is quite easy to learn the wrap.”

I paused, looking down at Talina. She was wearing a pale blue netting now, but besides covering the essentials, the rest of her skin was bare.

“Are you telling me that everyone is wearing this?” I gestured to her skimpy attire. “All of my friends?”

With a slight
grin, Talina nodded. “Uh, yes. Gladriel insisted that if we are to house you, then you must conform to as many of the Spurn customs as possible.” She lowered her head. “Looking at the males of your clan, she might have actually done us all a favor ... for once.”

My heart
almost stopped beating. My face went burning hot as I mentally pictured Brace in one of the loin cloth garments. My feet began to move all by themselves. I was just about out the door when Talina’s voice halted me.

“Would you like to change first, before you
leave? Gladriel will not allow you to dine unless you are dressed appropriately. She is quite the sea-witch.”

M
y arm caught the door, halting my pace. Looking back over my shoulder, I saw Talina hadn’t moved and she still had that grin on her face.

“Yeah, sure, that would be great
.” I was calm; I would not go breaking my neck to see Brace shirtless.

Talina turned to rummage through a large wooden tr
unk tucked away in the corner. She emerged with two long strips of black material. I forced my feet to make their way back to the center of the room.

“This
color will look stunning with your hair and red marking.” She turned to me, holding the material aloft, her warm eyes sparkling.

She didn’t ask me abou
t my Walker marks, but I could hear the curiosity in her voice. She possessed such an obviously kind nature. I wasn’t a horrible person, but if anyone messed with me or those I considered mine, I was inclined to go all psycho. Talina appeared to be a genuinely gentle soul. Could she really be half-Walker? I didn’t get the impression that kind and gentle was part of their ... our nature. I could open my necklace and test it for sure, but I didn’t want to scare her away before having the chance to explain everything.

“
Okay, strip off your clothes.” She gestured for me to throw them into a nearby bucket. “Stand tall and hold your arms out to the side. I’ll hose you down and then we can get these wraps on.”

She produced a large smooth device, like a bucket, but it was in the shape of a half
-clam. I discarded my clothes and was turning around to face Talina when she dumped the entire contents of the shell on me.

“What the hell
, Talina?” I spluttered as the clear liquid ran down into my mouth.

It didn’t taste like water. Actually
, it was similar to the fruit we had been eating here. I was amazed and grateful that it cleared the last clogging from my throat.

“Oh, sorry, Abby
. I should have warned you. We don’t generally wash, since we are always in the ocean, but the juice of the cucreamer fruit is our only means of fresh water.”

“I guess that explains why we haven’t needed anything to drink since we arrived here
,” I said, sardonically wiping the excess liquid off of my face.

I
t wasn’t sticky. In fact, when I looked down I realized I was clean, as if it had literally sucked the dirt off as it flowed over me.

Once I was reasonably dry
Talina showed me a simple but effective manner of wrapping the soft strips so they covered everything. It was pretty ingenious; they were secure and actually really supportive. She led me over to a reflective surface against the side wall. It wasn’t a mirror, more like another of the giant shells, but it did echo a slightly distorted version of my image back at me. My red and black curls hung loose down my back, and the meshy wraps offered more coverage than a swimsuit. My mark was obvious, even all the way down my hip and thigh. I liked the mesh. I felt liberated, no clothes weighing me down, and they were amazingly soft and light.

Standing there, hair flowing free, Talina and I looked like
Amazonian woman.

“Okay, let’
s leave; Gladriel doesn’t like it if we’re late for dinner.” Talina’s creamy features paled to a sickly white and her eyes widened.

Every time she mentioned her mother, the brown of her lovely eyes dulled and she retreated even further into herself. I didn’t like it. I wondered what the odds of me making it through a dinner without punching
Gladriel in the face were. Low, I’m sure.