The Illusionists (11 page)

Rue woke.

The dream ran its fingers through her once more, soft and wet, before fading.

That one had been about Wren. But not a Wren she knew. This Wren had been fake, a puppet being made to dance. Something else was living behind his eyes. Something that made her want to be sick.

Wren was an idiot, but he was also the only Talented she knew here, and she needed to talk to him about these dreams she kept having. Either, she decided, she had somehow developed the ability to see the future, or she was just dreaming. Something like that had never even been mentioned in connection with the Talent. It had always been about trying to see the now, elsewhere. About moving across, not forward. Surely White would have told them about so monumental a skill if he had known of it?

No. No one could see the future. This was beyond ridiculous.

And not all of her dreams were of the future, were they? She couldn't exactly see herself going to that nightmare castle with Cho, with awful things that slithered in the black spaces. She certainly hadn't been dreaming of a future time with White, had she, in the last two dreams she'd had of him? There was no way she was ever going to see him again. And a Wren that wasn't Wren, with something crawling inside him? Just how possible was that?

But she remembered Cho's face so clearly in that castle dream. And then a few weeks later there Cho had been, suddenly, a stranger at a party they both happened to be invited to. Wasn't that too much for coincidence?

And the Life signal attack. That horrible, vague night. She had dreamed that too, hadn't she, way back in her old home with Fernie? People falling down around her like rain, nothing in their eyes, their mouths stretched open.

Maybe she was connecting dots that weren't there. Maybe she was making her dreams fit future things to suit her. Maybe she could drive herself mad with trying to reason it on her own.

She would find Wren and talk to him about it. He would take it seriously. He'd help her know what to think.

Rue waited all day, until it was way past the time he was usually home, and Wren still hadn't materialised. She hadn't seen him since last night. She checked his room, but he wasn't there.

She began to feel the first chest-burning itch of anxiousness. Her dream of him still lingered in her mind, its taste tainting everything.

Maybe he wasn't all right.

She switched on the Life box and jacked in, descending to Surface Life. Cho had given her a little trick piece of code, a game hackers played where one would try to hide their Life signal and the other would try to find them. She rifled through her messages, and then opened up the code that Cho had sent her.

When the search box came up, she painstakingly tapped out Wren's Life signal code. He'd given it to her when she'd first arrived, in case she needed to prove to anyone who asked that she was living with a World citizen. At the time she'd dismissed the incomprehensible string of symbols and numbers as something she would never be able to understand. Now she was learning to stop underestimating herself so much.

To her surprise, the search indicated that he was in the building. But where? She looked at the little blip of his signal, and then, suddenly, she knew.

It was only two doors down.

Rue slipped out into the corridor and to the room Wren was in. She pushed on the open button on the wall outside, thinking it would be locked, and then she'd have to knock, and what if she was just ignored? Would she stand there looking like an idiot for a while, and then slope away?

But it wasn't locked. The door slid open.

Sabine had her lights set to dim, so the room was lit well enough to see them both outlined in her bed.

‘Who's that?' a voice came, half whispered. ‘Wren, there's someone there.'

She watched them disentangle themselves.

‘Rue?' said Wren, peering up at her, his eyes in slits. ‘What are you – ? What are you doing?'

‘I need to talk to you,' she said.

‘What  …  now?'

‘Yes, now. It's important.'

Wren flopped back on the bed. ‘Go away,' he said tiredly.

‘Wren, you can do whatever you're doing later,' Rue snapped. ‘This is Talent stuff. Come on.'

‘And it really can't wait until the morning.'

‘If it could, do you think I'd be standing here now?'

Gods, Wren. Some things were more important than lounging around in bed with a girl in the middle of the afternoon.

‘Just tell me what it's about.'

Rue glanced at Sabine, who was looking between them with an impatient expression on her face.

‘It's Talent stuff,' she repeated stubbornly.

‘We can talk about that in front of Sabine, it's fine. She won't know what we're on about, anyway.'

Sabine's eyes flickered.

‘Charming,' said Rue acidly.

‘Will you just get on with it? I'm tired. You woke me up.'

Rue gasped. ‘You weren't
asleep
,' she tossed at him, suddenly furious.

Why did you think he'd listen?
Her mind's voice was amused.

Why keep giving him chances? He just doesn't want to take them
.

Truths tasted sort of sour, she decided, exploring the sensation she had in her mouth. Here was another truth, more bitter than the last: that she was bored of this.

Really, really bored.

It came like a shock of ice water, dumped on her. She remembered the river behind Fernie's house, how it would make her squeal when she washed in it, even in the summer. How it would clear everything away with its sudden, all-encompassing
now
, because there was no room for anything other than it.

That was how she felt. Clear as ice.

Gods, what had she been
on
this whole time? It was obvious now. Maybe her dreams weren't the future. Maybe they were just telling her that she needed to go.

She would listen to her dreams.

She turned and started back down the corridor. She heard Wren call her name but ignored it.

Cho would help her. She would go to Cho. They hadn't spoken in the last few days, not since the Life signal attack, but there was no time for that now. She needed to get out of this place, and away from Wren.

A hand closed on her arm.

He only had his trousers on, undone, and his hair was ruffled. He looked truly lovely, like a wild creature. But that was all it was – a look. It didn't match the vain selfishness that lay underneath his beauty.

‘You're angry with me,' said Wren. ‘About Sabine.'

‘Not really.'

She watched his forehead twitch in a frown.

‘Honestly,' she said. She meant it. ‘I'm not angry. You should be with someone you really like. Everyone should.'

‘Well, I wouldn't go that far,' he said. ‘I mean, Sabine and I, we're having a good time. Everyone has a good time here. It's kind of understood. So I just wanted to say that, in case you thought it meant something. Because it really doesn't. It's just fun. That's how it is, you know, with adults here.'

It was hard to know which part of that speech was supposed to rile her the most. She smiled, instead.

‘It's fine,' she said. She tried to tug out of his grip. He didn't let go.

‘Where are you going?' he said.

‘I'm leaving.'

‘Leaving?'

Inside, Rue snapped at herself. Why in seven hells had she said that?

‘Yes,' she said, trying to sound normal. ‘On assignment. You know Greta has me on assignment right now? I'm going away in the morning.'

Wren watched her.

‘Where?' he said.

‘Well, I can't tell you where, can I?' she said, forcing irritation into her voice. ‘It's secret.'

Those stupid, horrible silver eyes. They gave her nothing but a shining blankness.

Gods, she was such a bad liar.

‘She hasn't said anything to me.'

‘Why would she? It's my assignment, not yours.'

Wren searched her face.

‘What's the problem, Wren?' she said. ‘Are you worried that you're not her special little boy any more?'

His expression grew dark.

‘I know more than you ever will,' he said.

‘How mature. Is this a game of one-up, two-up?'

Wren lost his temper.

‘Oh, yes, Rue the innocent. Mustn't sully her sweet little vision of the world, must we? Do you have any idea how irritating it's been for me having to babysit you? You're barely Talented. You can't even Jump. What are you
good
for?'

She called him a word. He laughed out loud, delighted.

‘Where did you pick that up from?' he said. ‘Some divey Life café? Don't you know I know everywhere you've been and everything you've looked at in Life? It's been part of my job to monitor you. Of course. Because I certainly couldn't be doing anything more important than that. And you know what, Rue? Spying on you is really dull.'

‘At least I'm not a stuck-up pretty boy who fucks everyone he meets to make himself feel special!'

His hand tightened on her arm until it hurt.

‘Ow,' she said. ‘Get off me!'

She aimed a knee at his balls.

He buckled back out of reach and his smile curdled. ‘Didn't you say you weren't angry with me?' he said.

‘I will be if you don't let go of me!'

Her body had started to squeeze, as if she was trapped under a bed and couldn't get out.

She knew what that meant. He was pulling her into a Jump.

‘Wait, wait!' she said, hating how panicked she sounded. She'd never be able to leave this place if he Jumped her somewhere she couldn't get back from.

She tried to shove him away, but he had his arms around her, and gods it was too hard to fight that feeling of thinning, half of her pouring like sand through a hole to an elsewhere. She had nothing to move with.

Everything went dark.

Her head was spinning, spinning. How she hated that part.

She waited until she could feel life seeping back into her bones, then tried, weakly, to wrench out of the arms encircling her. She felt them let go, and Wren stand away from her.

‘Where are we?' she managed.

‘An empty bedroom upstairs. The door's broken, so no one can get in or out until an engineer comes to fix it. And they won't send an engineer until someone is assigned to this room, which hasn't happened for weeks. But everything works, the heating, the lights, the bed. You'll be fine.'

Rue turned her head. He was standing behind her, his arms folded.

‘You're locking me up? You can't do that!' she said.

He shrugged. ‘Of course I can. I'm responsible for you. I can't have you leaving to go to some mysterious place you won't tell me about. Greta would kill me. I'd get in a lot of trouble, Rue. Do you even care about that?'

‘Frankly,' said Rue, ‘I don't give a shit.'

Wren just laughed.

‘You've picked up a real dirty mouth since you've been here, haven't you?'

Rue scrambled up and ran to the door. It was definitely broken. The lock panel light was dark. Nothing she pressed or thumped did a thing.

Bastard.

Bastard
.

She turned, her back against the broken door.

Wren was watching her, amused.

‘Look  … ' she said. ‘I just want you to leave me alone. I'll stay here.' She swallowed in the lie. ‘But no more of your sneaking around. I don't care about any of your silly games. Do what you like.'

‘Oh, really? I thought you liked truths,' said Wren. ‘I've got a good one for you: the truth about Sabine. About why I sleep with her.'

Rue felt disgust creep up her spine. ‘I don't want to know, you pig.'

‘Yes, but I'm going to tell you anyway. She knows a hacker, you see. And just a couple of days ago this hacker managed to get me copies of the files Greta has on White.'

‘Gods, Wren, I don't want to know!'

‘AND,' he said over her, ‘AND I saw Cho's file, okay? Your friend Cho. Do you know who she is?'

‘I don't –'

‘She's White's sister.'

Rue felt her stomach flip and then drop, falling down, down.

He stared at her eagerly.

She wavered, her thoughts tangled and wild.

‘I don't believe you. You're lying for some stupid, hateful reason of your own.'

‘Rue!' Wren said, losing his temper. ‘Think. White is the most powerful Talented you've ever met, right? So what would they want with you, or even me? It's all about getting
him
back to World. I just knew it, ever since Greta asked me to poach you. She wanted me to get
you
, Rue. Not anyone else. You. Because of White. They're making coming back here as attractive as possible to him. They're taking away everyone that means anything to him, so he feels like he
has
to come back. Now they have his girlfriend here, cosying up to his sister. Don't you see?'

‘I'm not his girlfriend,' Rue said faintly. Wren didn't bother to reply.

It was all too much. Too much, too fast. No time to think or understand. No time for anything except the most ardent desire she'd ever felt, bursting into flame inside her, to be away from here. Away from all of it.

Cho is White's sister.

‘They don't even have the same family name,' she said, uncertain.

‘Because that matters in World? Names don't mean a thing. Your only identity is your Life signal code. Everything else is changeable. You know that.'

‘Why are you telling me this?'

Wren sighed, irritated. ‘Do I have to spell it out? You've been lied to!'

Rue lost her temper.

‘Don't patronise me,' she hissed, slipping back into Angle Tarain. ‘Yes, I've been lied to. By
you
most of all, you insufferable cock! So Cho is his sister. So
what
? There's no game if you're playing by yourself, Wren. Because I don't
care.
'