Chapter 4
Chapter four
Hallie was waiting outside the front door when Girard arrived, a few minutes early, a large and heavy bag at her feet.
Not used to packing for any kind of journey, and not knowing how long she would have to carry her bag for, she had tried not to over-pack but suspected she had failed in that goal.
Bearing in mind Girard’s warning that the weather was likely to be changeable, she’d decided that having a couple of spare sets of dry clothes would be a good idea.
Not knowing what they were heading into, she’d decided against her usual jeans and leather jacket and instead had on a pair of dark-coloured, outdoor trousers, weatherproofed on the outside but with a fine lining inside to keep her warm, and a hip-length jacket in similar colours that was also weatherproofed.
Under the jacket she had on an old long-sleeved top and sweatshirt that had both seen better days, the outfit finished off with a knitted hat, a scarf looped around her throat and matching gloves in her pocket.
The hat, scarf and gloves set, in a deep red shade that she loved, had been an unexpected gift from Cotovatre, and all carried a hint of the lady’s magic, promising to keep her warm and dry.
An additional hint of magic came from the egg-like zauber, tucked into one of her trouser pockets where it should stay warm and dry but still be close to her.
The zauber pulsed faintly as her attention drifted to it.
She wasn’t sure she would ever get used to carrying around an ancient object of power as habitually and casually as she carried her phone and house key, but the zauber had attached itself to her and did not like being left behind.
As Girard drew the vehicle to a stop, Hallie picked up her backpack.
The backpack, like the outdoor clothing, had come from Cotovatre, but she hoped she wouldn’t need to carry it too far.
Despite trying to pack light, it was heavy in her hands.
She headed for the back of the car as, from their last journey together, she knew that luggage went in the back.
Girard got out and held out his hand. After a moment of confusion, Hallie surrendered her bag to him and watched as he set it inside the boot, next to a similar-sized backpack that must be his.
He closed the boot and paused, looking at her, eyes bright.
Hallie suspected that there were many among the elite, his people, who would consider him quite ordinary looking, but he was anything but ordinary to her.
He had skin almost as pale as her own, a shock of dull blond hair that seemed to be almost permanently tousled, as if he continually ran his hands through it, and pale blue eyes that were warm as they rested on her face.
Hallie could happily look at him for a long while, but it wasn’t his appearance that drew her to him.
It was the quiet and deep integrity he carried with him.
A rare quality in any population, in her experience, but one which she had never thought to find among the elite.
“Good morning,” he said. He took a quick look around them, making sure there was no one else there, then took a half step forward and pressed a brief, warm kiss on her mouth.
She managed not to grab hold of him as he stepped back.
In the time they’d managed to spend together since returning from Vertiger, they’d shared a good number of kisses.
Hallie always found herself wanting more.
But this wasn’t a personal meeting. They were supposed to be working. So she followed his lead and settled into the passenger seat, clipping her seat belt in place while he started the car. “I never asked, how are we getting to the island?”
“I’m not sure I want to spoil the surprise quite yet,” Girard said, mischief in the sideways look he sent her.
“Will it be safe?” Hallie asked, the warmth of the kiss forgotten as apprehension swept over her.
“As safe as anything is,” Girard promised her. He was telling the truth. As one of the three people in the world who knew about her magic, he knew how futile it would be to lie to her. And because she knew him, she also knew he would always try to tell the truth, no matter who he was speaking to.
“Alright.” She sat back in the seat as the car pulled away from her front door.
“Isoud wanted me to send you her best wishes,” Girard said. “She’s a bit frustrated that she wasn’t invited on this trip.”
“I can imagine,” Hallie said, unable to help the laugh in her voice. Isoud Sabard had an almost insatiable curiosity. It stood her well in her work leading the forensic team. “I’m sure she’ll find something to keep her busy, though.”
“No doubt,” Girard agreed easily. “If you look in the glove compartment, the director gave me a tablet for you. It’s charged up and loaded with the background information we have on the community and the liaison, Waller Howther.
” He shook his head slightly. “I went over the information we have last night. It’s a lot less than we would normally have.
We’ve only got old maps for the island. No recent images, and very little information about the people there.
” He shrugged. “I suppose that makes sense as they moved there to get away from us.” There was a quiet, self-deprecating humour in Girard’s words that Hallie suspected would not be shared by many of his fellow hochlen.
Or, rather, their fellow hochlen. She had to remember she was - technically - one of them.
Hallie pulled the slim computer tablet out of the compartment and eyed it with both suspicion and longing.
She’d seen the forensic team and Girard using similar tablets in their work, and had secretly coveted one for herself.
But now it was in her hands, she found she had no idea what to do with it.
“The power button’s on the side. The home screen will have a bunch of icons on it.
Press one to open the document and read it,” Girard said.
He was watching the road as he navigated a set of close-together junctions, no judgement in his voice.
He knew her well enough to understand that tablets weren’t used in low city.
The screen sprang to life, showing the time and date along with a series of little squares. “Oh, it’s a bit like a phone screen.”
“Yes, same principles as the more advanced phones.”
“Good. Let’s see…” Hallie selected one of the icons and a dense block of text took over the screen. “Oh, this is useful. Background on the founding of the colony.”
“You should have time to read most of it through the journey,” Girard said.
Hallie didn’t answer, too caught up in studying the text in front of her.
The founding of the island community was a bit of a mystery to her, and everyone else in low city.
There’d been some rumours about a human-only enclave for a while, and then suddenly the name Paradise began to be spoken.
It didn’t surprise Hallie that the hochlen perspective was somewhat different.
A handful of militants and rebels had settled on a long-abandoned outpost on an island that had plenty of natural resources such as fresh water, timber and stone, and could sustain farming.
The hochlen had not found it rich enough in the kinds of things they were interested in, such as minerals that could be used in modern technology, to continue to support a population there.
It had been deserted for at least a hundred years before the humans took it over.
The outrage felt by hochlen at having the common folk simply take what had been theirs came over clearly in the somewhat dry account that Hallie was reading.
The question of whether to evict the humans or not had gone to a vote on the Conclave only a few years before and the humans had won their right to stay by the narrowest of margins.
There was a snippy comment in the text that not one of the humans had seemed appropriately grateful, which made Hallie smile.
The way the text was written suggested that some among the Conclave did not consider the matter closed, and Hallie couldn’t help but wonder if the human inhabitants of Paradise knew how precarious their hold over the island was.
As she reached the end of the document, she became aware that the car was climbing up a slope. Looking up, she realised that they were almost at the security check point that was the only way into and out of the elite home of high city.
Girard exchanged a few words with the armed guards on duty, who waved him through with barely a glance at Hallie.
She knew that was because of his presence.
Any resident of low city who turned up here out of curiosity, wanting access to high city, would be turned away.
Some of the elite households did employ common folk and the employees could only move in or out of high city with appropriate passes from their household.
The restriction on getting into high city had never bothered Hallie all that much.
She’d never had much interest in staring at the grand houses and whatever else was here, in sharp contrast to a lot of the children she’d grown up with who had looked longingly at the lights they could see on the high hill and wanted so badly to visit, to find out what was there and whether any of the truly fanciful stories about streets paved with gold were true.
Hallie hadn’t wanted to visit the elite on her doorstep.
She’d wanted to go much further afield. And now she was getting that chance.
The road noise reduced to near-silence as the car moved through high city thanks to the magic that had been worked into the road surface.
They were going a direction Hallie didn’t think she’d been before, but she couldn’t be sure.
And she didn’t have a great deal of insight into high city as it was.