The Faarian Chronicles: Exile (12 page)

It was an enormous greenhouse, bright, lush, and humid, with
a grove of coconut palms in the center. Tropical orchids grew throughout the
rainforest canopy and the enormous room buzzed with life and growth. It was an
oxygen-rich paradise. The only thing missing was a pool.

 “Okay, that’s it. We’ve gotta start patrol soon. Hurry
up and go change and don’t forget to grab your scy. I’ll meet you at
procurement with some other equipment for you. Let’s go.”
And break,
I thought as I reluctantly left the
courtyard and we ran off in different directions. Thankfully, I made it back to
the apartment without getting lost. Score one for me.

Entering my room, I stopped short. I hadn’t even unpacked
the night before, so most of my things should have still been neatly folded in
the bags that I’d tossed into the corner. Instead, someone had dumped them out
into a jumbled heap and strewn them across the room. And everything I’d had out
on the dresser and bedside table this morning had been moved around. Whoever it
was hadn’t exactly made an effort to disguise their visit.

I rummaged frantically through the mess and uncovered my scy
with a huge sigh of relief, as its familiar tingle spread through my fingers
and up my arm. Sensei had given it to me years ago, on my return to training
after the avalanche.

“It’s called a scythion, scy for short,” Sensei had said
about the intriguing double-bladed weapon leaning against the sun-glazed wall
one day in the training room back home. I’d immediately itched to pick it up.

 “I brought it with me, a gift from your mother for
when you were ready. I wasn’t sure before, but I think it’s time for you to
have it now.” She had motioned to the long wooden pole with a wicked curved
blade attached to either end. “Go ahead, take it.”

I had slowly reached out and had picked it up - and gasped.
A river of energy seemed to flow up from my hand and into my body. I stared at
my arm in amazement.

She hummed in satisfaction. “What you’re feeling is the
sun’s energy stored in the alloy of the handle. It may look like wood, but of
course they haven’t made them out of real wood in many years,” she said wryly.

“No showing this to anyone, not even Andi. Got it?” She gave
me a hard look until I sighed and nodded. She knew me too well.

“Good. Press the button here once.” She pointed to a single,
recessed button in the center of the pole between two raised grips. I pushed it
with my thumb and both blades smoothly folded into the pole. I was left with
what looked like a wooden pole with handle grips in the middle.

“Now press it a second time.” I did and dropped the thing
with a surprised squeak when the whole pole collapsed in on itself down to the
grips, looking something like a police baton. Sensei smiled in the closest
thing to a laugh I’d ever seen from her.

“Now extend it the same way. One press extends the pole, the
second deploys the blades.” I did as she said, holding it as far away from my
body as possible to avoid accidentally slicing and dicing myself with the
moving blades. She smiled.

“Don’t worry. Watch.” She reached out and held the weapon in
place with one hand as she moved her other arm toward one of the blades.

“Sensei, no!” I yelled in alarm and tried to pull the weapon
away. Failing that, I dropped the scy and stepped back to watch in fascinated
horror while she ran her forearm over the blade. I expected gushing blood and a
trip to the emergency room, but nothing happened. The blade was still clean,
and her arm unscathed. She gave me a mischievous smile and turned quickly to
swing the weapon into the nearby wall. The blade cut easily into the
tongue-in-groove pine and stuck there with a resounding
Thwack!

“Wha…? How?” I stammered.

“On this setting, a DNA sensor wraps the blade in a force
field if it comes too close to human skin. You couldn’t cut a person with this
if you tried. The worst you could get from it is a big bruise.”

“You mean it’s child-proofed,” I observed, trying
unsuccessfully to yank it out of the wood paneling.

She nodded. “Yep. You’ve got it.” She removed it smoothly
from the wall and handed it to me. “Of course, it’s still dangerous to
everything else, so
please
be careful.” She retrieved another scy from
the equipment closet and squared off with me.

“Now,
en garde.
” I had rolled my eyes. She’d been
watching too many old
Three Musketeers
movies.

Back in my new room, strangely enough nothing seemed to be
missing. I couldn’t figure out what the intruders were looking for, but I had
my suspicions about who would’ve rifled my room.

I quickly pulled on my hideous, but ugh, admittedly
comfortable new uniform, clipped my scy to my belt and was about to hurry back
to get my new equipment from Thal (ray gun, hopefully) when I realized what was
missing. Meowman.

Chapter 14: Stranger Bearing Gifts

I’d left him on the pillow that morning, I was sure of it.
Where was he? I searched the little room quickly for any sign of synthetic
orange fur, under the bed and through my belongings, but no Meowman.

I stomped down to the room Thal had told me was procurement.
Shelves upon tall shelves filled the room behind the counter, stocked with
basic household necessities, some completely empty. Familiar looking crates
were stacked against every available wall, waiting to be unloaded, and two
fifty-gallon drums labeled ‘Unscented Lotion’ and ‘Sun Block’, stood next to a
shelf filled with empty glass bottles. Narrow aisles wound between the shelving
units, barely big enough for two people side by side.

“I need a lock for my door,” I demanded from the short,
middle-aged man behind the counter when he looked up from restocking packs of
unbleached, organic-fiber underwear from a box. I didn’t see Thal around, but
no need to wait for him for this.

“You need to fill out a work order and turn it in,
specifying what kind of lock you need and why,” he replied. “Don’t forget…” he
looked up from his task and took a step back. Oh right, my eyes. I hadn’t
thought to wear my sunglasses - again.

I tried to be pleasant and give him a smile, but my attempt
was weak. “Can you please just give me a padlock? I promise I’ll fill out
whatever you want when I’m done.”

“What’s wrong, Earth Princess?” A taunting voice called from
behind me. I spun around to see Lyta and Otrere grinning wickedly at me. “Lost
your dolly?” That one was Lyta, I thought. The leader. The loud one.

The other one, Otrere, held Meowman by the head and shook
him, whipping his furry body back and forth. She was the thuggish one. The
enforcer.

“That was a gift, give it back!” I growled, making a grab
for the stuffed cat.

“Or what?” Lyta asked while Otrere held Meowman up out of
reach, both of them laughing. “Nice eyes, by the way.” I could have cared less
about my eyes right then.

I made a jump for it and missed as Otrere jerked Meowman
back tauntingly.

“Come on. You have to be able to jump higher than that.”

“You know, I thought she’d be taller,” Lyta mused.

“Yeah, me too,” Otrere said as I jumped again, this time
grabbing the tail as Otrere jerked it back. A ripping sound echoed through the
stone hallway.

“Oops! Now look what you did, Princess!”

“That’s gonna leave a mark,” Otrere snickered. I held
Meowman’s body by the tail, while Otrere still held the head. She had
decapitated him! I was so angry I dropped the headless body and took a sloppy
swing at her nose. She caught my arm easily and whipped me around into a
headlock.

 Lyta stalked forward, no longer grinning. Otrere had a
moment to laugh next to my ear before I kicked her in the face over my shoulder
with the toe of my ugly, steel-toed boot. It was a move designed more for shock
and awe than to knock a person out, despite how cool it looked in
The Matrix
.
Nevertheless, it had its intended result.

Lyta jumped back, and Otrere released me with a grunt of
surprised pain before I stepped back into her for a hip throw. The big girl
swung easily over my back into her sister, leaving them both sprawling on the
stone floor in a heap.

“Come on then!” I said. “You two are so slow I can take you
both!”

“Hey!” the clerk exclaimed behind me. “What are you three,
animals? Take it outside or I’m calling Alten.”

Lyta and Otrere untangled themselves and got up, glaring at
me but not advancing. Then unexpectedly, Lyta started to laugh as Otrere rubbed
her jaw. I slowly stood upright in shock, slow to believe I wasn’t going to
have to kick both their butts.

“So, Earth-girl
can
fight when she wants to,” Lyta
said finally, nodding at the clerk. She picked up Meowman’s head from the floor
and tossed it to me, losing bits of stuffing all around. Otrere nodded slowly
and backed off, still massaging her jaw and glaring at me as if she couldn’t
quite figure out what had happened. I eyed them both with distrust, wondering
what their next trick would be.

“Relax, Princess,” Lyta sneered. “We’re just messing with
you.” She inspected the tag on the body before tossing that to me too,
deliberately losing half the stuffing in the process. “Whoever this China
person is, he didn’t sew the head on your cat doll very well, did he?”

I glared at them in answer and turned back to the
procurements counter. All the while, I kept listening behind me.

“That’s made
in
China, not made
by
China,
idiot,” I heard Thal say to his sister from where he leaned on the wall, arms
crossed, watching the show. “Remember China? That big country on Earth, a lot
of stuff’s made there?”

“Oh. Yeah. Cheap crap you can’t trust not to poison you,”
she replied with a sneer.

“Whatever,” I breathed, rolling my eyes.

The lock set I’d requested now sat on the Formica counter,
with no paperwork to be seen.

“Thank you. May I have some orange thread and a needle too,
please?” I asked the man as politely as I could, gathering stray pieces of
stuffing from the floor as Lyta and Otrere walked away. They took turns
taunting and punching each other in the biceps as hard as possible as they
left.

“Girls,” the man at the counter muttered as he searched
under the counter for the supplies.

“Get a move on, you two. We’ve got Myrihn today,” Lyta
paused to say over her shoulder on her way down the hall, exchanging a grin with
Otrere.

“On second thought,” Otrere grunted with a laugh, “take your
time.”

“Shoot, they’re right!” Thal exclaimed, checking his link.
“We gotta go. You don’t want Myrihn mad at you on your first day. She already
has it in for me. Don’t ask,” he rolled his eyes in response to my silent
question.

"Okay, I just have to run up and put this stuff in my…”

“Nuh uh, no time,” he hopped over the counter, barely
missing the little man who dodged into a shelving unit, sending it swaying.
Thal didn’t notice his glare. “Hand me your stuff and I’ll stick it here under
the counter.” He grabbed Meowman’s parts, the sewing supplies and lock from me
and stuffed it into a cubby. “There. You can come back for it later.”

He grabbed a mesh backpack like the one slung over his own
shoulder and thrust it at me. It had what looked like an octagonal plastic
stepping stone and a camel hiking canteen inside.

“Supplies,” he explained hurriedly. “I’ll explain later, now
let’s go!” He jumped back over the counter again, this time knocking the little
man who had just steadied the shelves back into them again, sending packages of
briefs raining down on his head.

“Hey!” the clerk yelled.

“Sorry!” Thal called to him over his shoulder and sprinted
away toward the Great Hall.

“Sorry!” I echoed, chasing after him.

We skidded to a stop at the back of a group of about fifteen
women and men ranging from young teens to middle-aged adults. Myrihn was giving
directions in front. She glared at me, ignoring Thal completely.

“Well, since our newest team member finally decided to show
up,” fifteen heads swiveled in our direction, “we can get going.” Part of me
wanted to drop through the floor, but I stared back defiantly instead. We were
only, like, a minute late.

“As I was saying, no activity was noted by the night or
morning patrols, so I don’t expect any problems today.”

“Veridian, you’ll have to get the hang of things as we go.
Stick with Lyta and Otrere. They’ll be your partners and show you the ropes.” I
heard snickering from the twins in front of us. Yeah right. They’d show me the
ropes alright, right off a cliff.

Myrihn made her way through the group to lead us out the
door and gave me a warning look on her way past. “Don’t cause me any problems
and we’ll get along fine,” she said in a low voice. “Why do I always get stuck
babysitting?” I heard her grumble as she led the way out the door.

As the group filed out through the side door, Thal motioned
me into the kitchen.

“Don’t pay attention to her. She’s always got a gortflam in
her armpit,” Thal said as he filled the flexible water pouches in our packs.

“Huh?” I gave my head a shake. “Anyway, what did I ever do
to her? I just got here.”

“That’s exactly the problem,” Thal snorted. “Don’t worry,
she doesn’t like me either.”

I looked at him questioningly.

He sighed as if it were obvious. “We’re both different.
Outsiders, right? Me, I’m not supposed to want to train to be a warrior.
Because I’m a boy, and I’m small,” he explained when I still looked confused.
“But I don’t want to stay inside where it’s safe. No, I want to fight the
haratchi, protect the Kindred and the crops that keep us alive.

“And then there’s you, someone she thinks has had it easy
all her life. If you’d grown up here, you’d already know what you’re doing, but
instead she sees you starting at the beginning and getting special treatment.

“And that’s the real rub for Myrihn. She and Alten had an
older sister, Jak, who was in line to be leader of the Kindred, and would have
been if your mom hadn’t come back from Earth when she did. When Aunt Vaeda
returned, tradition said they were supposed to share leadership, but Jak wasn’t
willing and so she challenged your mom. When Jak lost, she left and was never
heard from again.” He capped the full pouches with hoses and slid one in each
of our backpacks.

Great, so now I was dropped in the middle of some extended
family soap opera. Perfect.

“It doesn’t matter that your mom won, or that she’s a born
leader and twice the warrior of anyone else. Myrihn blames your mom that Jak’s
gone. In her mind, your mom should never have come back and you wouldn’t even
be here.”

“Ugh, I wish I weren’t! Doesn’t she get that none of this
was my choice?”

He shook his head. “No, and it would just make it worse if
you told her. Like you don’t appreciate what it took to get you here.”

I grunted, thinking no, I didn’t appreciate it.

“Oh, and my sisters practically worship Myrihn. I heard her
complaining to them about you before she even left for Earth.” He gave me a
wry, sympathetic look and dropped two Tupperware lunch containers in our sacks
from a small stack by the door before taking off at a jog to catch up with the
others. “Hey, life’s an adventure, right?”

I jogged after him and slung the pack he handed me over my
shoulder. “You sound like my dad.”

He grinned at me. “Smart men think alike.”

We caught up with the group outside where the heat enveloped
us like stepping into one of those dry, wood-paneled saunas – a really bright,
sun-filled sauna. I pulled my sunglasses down from the top of my head and
immediately felt myself start to sweat. A hot breeze went straight through my
clothing, quickly sucking the moisture into the greedy air.

Everyone in our patrol group wore sunglasses,
touristy-looking double-billed visors, and dull, stained bandanas tied around their
necks. Despite my sunglasses, I squinted into the brightness. Note to self: get
a stupid looking visor for tomorrow, but skip the bandana. That would be too
hot in this heat.

“Where’s my mother?” I asked Thal. “I thought she would be
going with us.”

“The General’s already out with her team, but we’ve got our
orders. The warriors range out much farther than we do and can spread out more,
too. Us trainees, we mostly stay within shouting distance of each other.”

I felt my lips twist. It was so nice to get to know her
after all these years.

“Today we’re going to sweep the fields first, then the
nearest town, Anatolia, and then spread out and search the surrounding
countryside,” he continued, unaware of my rancor.

But as soon as we marched over the bridge and through the
chain-link gate in the huge dome fence, a big, shiny blur zipped up to us from
the north. It hovered for a moment before landing on spindly legs. It was a
ship like the one I’d come through the wormhole in, only new, its silvery blue
hull shining like a mirror in the suns.

A door opened about eight feet overhead to reveal a woman
dressed in an expensive looking navy suit, like a sleek, American
businesswoman, except for her silvery green hair. As a circular pad smoothly
detached and hovered her to the ground, she reminded me of the business-y moms
who would come to the evening gymnastic competitions, or the agents and
corporate sponsors who paved the way for the elite gymnasts.

“What is
she
doing here?” I heard Myrihn mutter. She
grabbed her link off her hip and held her thumb on the thought pad for a few
moments. The woman hadn’t even reached the ground when my mother and Micha
phased up in a blur to a stop in front of her. The middle-aged businesswoman
rocked back in her low-heeled, Gucci pumps before covering her surprise.

“Why Nereus, what a surprise to see you here,” my mother
said. Micha growled softly, deep in her throat.

“Ah, General. Just the person I was coming to see,” the
woman replied, stepping forward onto the dusty soil, away from Micha. She
grinned and extended her arm which my mother shook grudgingly.

“What about?” my mother asked.

“Why, about my offer of course. I trust you received my
link?” The woman’s eyes landed on me.

“Of course I received it, Nereus,” my mother replied,
stepping in front of me and bringing the woman’s attention back to her. “Half
of my Kindred received your link.” She crossed her arms over her chest.

“Good, good. Just wanted to be sure it reached you,” Nereus
smiled winningly. “And this must be your daughter from Earth. Welcome, my
dear,” she said, switching to flawless English as she strode around my mother,
holding her hand out to me. In a flash, my mother was back between us with her
arms crossed, preventing the woman from shaking my hand.