forty-six
The first sign that Sonall and Kema had returned from Spear City was the commotion in the fortress’s front plaza.
Sulim emerged from the infirmary, where she procured some anti-nausea medication to combat what teleporting had made her feel, and discovered a crowd of semi-feral children surrounding a woman sitting beneath one of the awnings that protected half of the plaza from the sunlight.
“Do it again!” cried a kid, a boy whom Sulim recognized as belonging to one of the cooks. “Make it bigger!”
Sulim was just taller than the tallest teen in the group; otherwise she wouldn’t have seen Kema sitting on the bench with both of her hands open in prayer position.
The kids converging on her espoused an eclectic mixture of excitement and awe, and all Kema had done was clap her hands and create a large flame that flickered up toward her face before petering into a swirl of smoke around her head.
“All right. But be careful.” She sat up straight and clapped her hands again. One of the little girls prematurely shrieked in fear before the flames shot up toward the ceiling, creating a tiny firestorm near one of the giant fans that kept air moving in the plaza. “I said be careful!”
When one of the kids got too close, Kema snuffed the flames and created a barrier around herself. It knocked two of the kids back, and after they reoriented themselves, Kema winked the ward away and revealed that it had been enough to kill the fire in her hands.
After a second of staring, the audience of children erupted into shouts and applause. The tallest boy sprang into a fit of acrobatics as he did cartwheels around Sulim and landed into a slick somersault that narrowly missed one of the girls.
“That’s amazing!” The cook’s son, who had goaded Kema, turned to Sulim and made sure she was looking in the julah’s direction. “Isn’t that cool? Even you can’t do that, Sulim.”
She crossed her arms. Since when have I been invoked? “No, I’m just a human.”
“Only julah can do that!” the boy exclaimed, as if Sulim, of all people, had no idea. “They can do magic!”
“Ah, not all julah can,” Kema explained, blushing. “And I’m only a hybrid. I’m half-human. I’m nowhere near as talented as Lady Mira.”
“Oh, man, we should get the chief to do something!” The kids turned to Sulim, suspicious that she could make it happen. “Can we please, Sulim?”
“Why are you asking me? Chief Mira doesn’t have time to be doing parlor tricks. Aren’t you guys supposed to be doing chores right now?”
Instead of responding, they erupted into fits of giggles and began chasing each other around the plaza. Only a couple of the younger girls remained behind, one sitting next to Kema as if searching for her lost mother. The other knelt by the bench and drew a flame in the dirt.
“All I did was sit here,” Kema explained to Sulim, who came closer. “I guess they heard I was a julah and wanted to know if I could do ‘magic.’ Sorry for indulging them.”
“Eh, don’t be. They don’t get a lot of proper excitement around here.”
Sulim didn’t count the violent fist fights or someone getting killed in the training pits.
Or fooling around with each other way too young because they’re emulating what they see…
Olma had done a lot to root out the molesters and their ilk, but many of the kids born and raised on Cerilyn were confused about boundaries.
Sulim couldn’t blame them. “They can be overwhelming, though. Kids here are feral. I mean, they’re independent.”
“Are all of them fated to become mercenaries?”
Sulim shrugged. “Some will. That’s where the best money is.”
“Poor things.”
“Well… lots of kids also go on to become support staff. Or they get a job in town. We recently had a kid abscond himself on a trading cruiser. Made it all the way to Wormhole 16 before he was discovered. Last I heard, they gave him a job.”
Kema sighed in relief. “I know they’re used to this place, but it must be rough growing up here. I hope they’re at least allowed some semblance of a childhood.”
Sulim felt awkward standing right in front of her, but also didn’t want to sit down and invite a longer conversation.
Or draw some of these kids toward me. They were nosy, grimy, and way too touchy for Sulim’s tastes.
It was one thing when a little kid clung to her because they were looking for any kind of solace in that place—but some of those boys were just as likely to smack her ass before running away.
It had taken her years to get used to idly threatening them to get even a few to stop.
Am I not the adult here? They certainly weren’t like her young cousins she had to help raise back on Qahrain.
“So, you’re back,” she segued into. “Did you find what you two were looking for?”
Kema perked up. “We just got back an hour ago. Sonall took the book somewhere safe, but didn’t tell me where. We were looking for Lady Mira, but she doesn’t seem to be around. How did it go with you and Hannu? Sonall said you two would be back by dinner. You’re early.”
“So are you. Spear City is no short distance.”
“We teleported back.”
“So did we.”
“Oh, dear. Hannu must be wiped.”
“Yes. She went to lie down as soon as we got back.” That wasn’t the point. “Where is he now? I want to touch base with him.”
“No idea. He said he would see me at dinner.”
At least that seemed like the truth. Sulim extracted herself from Kema’s presence and proceeded farther into the fortress, where she encountered a few others who wanted a moment of her time.
When she dropped that she was on tribal business, they glanced at one another before mentioning that they saw Sonall heading toward the dormitories.
Well, that wasn’t what she asked, but if she were on business…
She didn’t have a key to his room. Yet if anyone knew how to pick a lock, even a digital one, it was Sulim, who descended into the bottom levels of the senior dormitories, where Sonall kept his things and slept.
Like Sulim, he had his own room with an attached bath, but unlike her, his bargains were better furniture and a view of the sky.
“I’m tired of feeling like a prisoner in this place,” he had explained.
“At least let me see the clouds.” Since Sulim had to make cooling a priority, thanks to her electronics, she couldn’t understand letting a window into her room.
At least it was dark enough outside by the time she reached his hall.
Dusk had settled over the continent, since it was winter, but the heat still got to a woman if she wasn’t careful.
She knew the best route with the most shadows and the highest-powered fans.
You’d think I didn’t know what heat was before I was dragged here.
Qahrain was never this humid, though. Not even in the height of summer.
It was what made it such a perfect agrarian planet to feed most of Terra III.
She knocked twice before opening the electronic lock on his door.
After inputting the override—which she set herself for most of the fortress, thanks to Olma trusting her too much—she slid open his door and found the man sitting on his floor, propped up against his bed.
A half-empty bottle of something sat beside him as he fussed with the curly hair on top of a doll’s head.
He barely glanced up at her. But when he did, the first thing Sulim noticed was the bloodshot already settling in. Whatever he was drinking, it was not his first of the day.
Sulim closed the door behind her. She threw them both into demure darkness, but she didn’t have trouble sitting down next to him, where the pervasive stench of alcohol nearly did her in until olfactory fatigue quickly settled in.
“You won’t believe this,” Sulim casually said, “but the Relic we were after was destroyed last night. After Third Tribe’s chief had a ‘vision’ of the High Priestess. So, we’re back to square one on that.”
Sonall stopped petting the doll’s head. When he spoke, he didn’t sound intoxicated—but that was the mark of a man who knew his swill well enough to not get into trouble.
“We got the damn book. I was expecting a fight, but apparently, someone else had a vision, too.”
He picked up the bottle and had a drink, the doll still close to his chest.
“But she made me play for it. Had to win against her at dice to get it without a fight.”
“I’m sure Kema was very impressed with how things are done in Spear City.”
“Oh, she had a great time. Was like a princess traveling around in that dress and impressing everyone with her sorcery. When they asked who she was, I was a dumbass and said she was my girlfriend. Now, what drove me to do that?”
Sulim snorted. “You like the idea of everyone knowing you’re sleeping with a julah, too. Especially one as pretty as her.”
“So, you admit she’s pretty.”
“I never thought otherwise.”
“I’m just saying. Having a woman such as yourself confirm that the girl I’m with is pretty means she’s actually, firmly pretty.”
“I’m sure we can think of a word that’s better than ‘pretty.’”
“Fine, Professor. She’s beautiful. She’s gorgeous. And the sounds she makes when we—”
Sulim elbowed him in the arm. “I don’t need to know.”
“Right.” Coughing, Sonall put down his bottle and let the doll rest in his lap. “Sometimes I forget you’re not a guy.”
“Okay, that I find hard to believe.”
“You’re right. You are very much not a guy.”
“Thank you for noticing.”
He held the bottle in her direction. “Want some?”
“No. Why are you drinking? Did something happen with First Tribe?”
“Ah…” The bottle clanked to the floor again. “Nah. It was almost too easy. Felt like there should have been more at stake taking another tribe’s book of names. Can you imagine if those fuckers came here and asked for ours? Supposedly to save the world?”
Sulim shook her head. “I mean, Mira might give it to them. But she barely understands the significance of the book.”
“Shit, right? Do you remember when you signed our book?”
“Of course. Was practically done at gunpoint around here.”
“They make it sound like a big deal. Like your life is changing for the better, now that they’ve kidnapped you, killed your family, severed you from your birthright, and are going to make you into a murder machine.”
Only one of those things happened to me. “I’m sorry.”