City of the Falling Sky (31 page)

“
What on earth are you
getting, Tenk?” Seckry asked.

“
Some slipshakers. Haven’t
you ever had one?”

“
No, never heard of
them.”

“
Ah man, they’re great!
Hey!” he called to the bartender, “I’ll have another slipshaker for
my friend here!”

The bartender slapped the drinks on the table
and they both took a sip. Seckry’s taste buds went wild in his
mouth. According to the bartender, a slipshaker was a mix of
something named goldberry, sweetslush, limeleaf, chocomilk,
honeybutter, and all manner of other delicious sounding things, but
even the taste of it couldn’t numb the pain he was feeling at
seeing Eiya with someone else.

“
Come on, Seck,” Tenk said,
more soberly now. “Just enjoy the night for what it is,
hey?”

“
Where’s Poola?” Seckry
asked.

“
She’s off chatting to her
friends, which is fine by me.”

Kimmy joined them at the bar, slightly
breathless, and ordered a large love potion, which appeared to be a
bubbling red berry juice with two spiralling, intertwining
straws.

“
Kimmy, when are you gonna
have time to drink that?” said Tenk. “I mean, think of all the
kissing you’ll be missing out on while you’re slurping that
thing.”

Kimmy just smiled.

“
Come to think of it,” Tenk
continued. “I think this is the first time I’ve actually seen your
face all night. I’m surprised Loca hasn’t eaten you
whole.”

“
I never imagined kissing
would feel this good,” Kimmy said, his face beaming with
delight.

Snibble pushed past them and said, “Enjoying
yourself, Kod? Must be like kissing a guy with that shaven head of
hers.”

Kimmy slanted his eyes in anger but Snibble
wandered off.

“
Don’t take any notice,
Kimmy,” Tenk said. “Snibble ain’t spoiling it for any of us
tonight.”

Before long, Loca had pulled Kimmy back onto
the dance floor and smacked her lips on his again.

“
So where’s Natania?” Tenk
asked.

“
Oh yeah,” said Seckry,
feeling misery sink back into his body. “I almost forgot about her.
I better take her the drink. See you later, I guess.”

“
Where have you been?”
Natania scowled angrily, as he approached her. “I’ve been waiting
for my drink for twenty minutes.”

“
Sorry. I lost track of
time.”

“
You lost track of time?
You’re supposed to be treating me like a princess. It’s the annual
ball. Don’t you know anything about how to treat a
girl?”

Something inside of Seckry burst then, and he
exploded with rage.

“
A princess! After what you
and Snibble did to me down that alleyway! You’re lucky I didn’t get
you both arrested. Here’s your soursucker.” He thrust the drink
into her hand and it splashed all over her dress, making her scream
in outrage.

Seckry stormed away as she stood, dripping,
shouting all matter of obscenities after him.

Seckry plonked himself down at the side of
the stage and covered his face with his hands. Even when he had
been beaten up by Snibble, he still hadn’t felt as bad as he did
now. For the first time in his life, he knew he was feeling
heartbreak.

“
Seckry.
”

To Seckry’s surprise, it was Eiya’s voice. He
lifted his head from his hands and tried to regain his
composure.

They both looked away from each other
uncomfortably.

“
Things didn’t go so well
with you and Natania, hey?” Eiya said.

Seckry laughed feebly. “You could say
that.”

“
How are you enjoying your
evening with Thom?” Seckry felt ill just saying his
name.

Eiya sighed. “Well, he told me I looked
‘fit,’ and then tried to shove his tongue down my throat earlier
on. That’s probably been my highlight of the evening so far.”

Despite himself Seckry laughed, and Eiya did
too.

“
So . . . he kissed you
then?”

“
Are you kidding? I managed
to dodge his face.”

Seckry smiled weakly.

“
You look terrible,” Eiya
said.

Seckry almost couldn’t talk any more. His
emotions had been so unstable over the past week, it felt as though
everything was culminating at this very moment. The lump in his
throat was ready to burst.

“
Hey, wanna play the thumb
war game?” Eiya said.

“
Don’t you have to get back
to Thom?”

“
He can wait.”

They locked hands and had a game of thumb
war, and Eiya managed to win again.

They sat for a while and played a few more
games.

“
You know what?” Seckry
said, his voice cracked and raw. “Sitting here with you has been
the best part of my evening so far.”

“
It’s been mine too,” Eiya
said. She sighed and looked down. “When I saw the note, it took me
by surprise how much it affected me.”

Seckry frowned. “What note?”

“
You know . . .” Eiya said.
“The
note.
”

“
Eiya,” Seckry said. “What
note are you talking about?”

Eiya reached into her small handbag and
pulled out a torn piece of paper with typed text on it.

Eiya, I’m going to the ball with Natania
Linse, I’m too embarrassed to tell you myself so I’m writing you
this note. I know you were expecting me to ask you but I’ve been in
love with Natania since before I met you. Please don’t bring this
up or mention it to me, it’ll be too embarrassing. Thanks.

Seckry was sitting bolt upright.

“
What?” he said. “What in
Gedin’s name is this?”

Eiya frowned. “You didn’t . . . write
this?”

“
Eiya, I have no idea
who–”

Seckry suddenly spotted Natania across the
room. She was glaring viciously at a couple on the dance floor who
were kissing.

“
That’s her ex boyfriend,”
Eiya said. “Apparently she’s jealous of this new girl he’s been
seeing.”

Seckry looked at the note again.

“
It was her. It was Natania.
She’s been dragging me around all night, trying to position me in
visibility of someone. It was him. Her ex. She wanted him to see
her at the ball with someone. She wanted to make him jealous. No
one would go with her and she knew I was the only one without a
date.” Seckry put his hands to his head and bared his teeth. “I
can’t believe she did this!”

“
So . . . you never wanted
to go to the ball with Natania?” Eiya asked.

“
Natania?” Seckry said. “I
hate her. She’s the last person I wanted to come here with. Wait .
. . so you didn’t really want to go with Thom Malerk?”

“
I never even knew who he
was!” Eiya said. “He asked me in the corridor, and I was so
confused after reading that note that I just said yes without
thinking about it.”

They looked at each other for a moment, and
then burst into fits of hysterical laughter.

Suddenly, Thom appeared, having pushed
through the crowds with a fierce expression on his face.

“
What’s going on?” he
demanded.

“
I’m talking to my best
friend,” Eiya said sternly.

“
Yeah, well you’ve been
talking long enough. I invited you to this ball, not
him.”

Seckry wasn’t sure what happened to him in
that moment, but he was filled with an incredible sense of ease and
confidence. He felt like he could conquer the world. He stood up
and said, “You came to the ball with the most beautiful girl in the
room and you treat her like a piece of dirt. What do you
expect?”

Thom looked at Seckry with confusion and then
anger, and made to shove him, but Seckry was quicker and shoved
Thom first, so that he stumbled backwards. Thom’s eyes flickered
nervously for a moment. Seckry held his gaze until the large boy
huffed and stormed off.

Seckry sat back down, adrenaline still
running through his body.

Eiya gleamed with delight.

“
You really showed
him.”

“
Yeah, well the guy is just
absolute scum, you know?” Seckry said, now shaking
slightly.

“
Did you mean what you
said?” Eiya asked, “About me being the most beautiful girl in the
room?”

Seckry gulped. “Oh . . . right . . . um . .
.” Suddenly he was back to his normal self, bright as a beetroot.
He had been so overcome with confidence he hadn’t even realised
what he had been saying.

“
Thank you for that.” Eiya
flashed him an embarrassed smile and wiped a wet strand of hair
from her face. “All this music, this noise, the heat and the
lights. It’s really full on, isn’t it? It’d be nice to get some
fresh air.”

“
Yeah, you’re right,” Seckry
said.

Eiya suddenly shot up. “I know! Seckry, take
my hand.”

“
What?”

“
Just trust me. It’s
perfect.”

Seckry took Eiya’s hand in his, and felt the
little beads of her sweat mix with his own in his palm. With anyone
else, he’d find it unpleasant, but with Eiya, it was the
opposite.

“
Actually, there’s something
I want to do before we leave,” Eiya said. “That’s Natania’s drink
sitting over there, right?”

“
Yeah, I saw her leave it
there while she went off to the bathroom.”

Eiya looked around quickly before hurrying
over, pulling a small tube out of her shoe, and tipping half the
contents into Natania’s straw. They were some kind of bright green
capsules, but after a few seconds they dispersed and the drink
looked normal again.

“
What was that?” Seckry
asked.

“
I bought it a few days ago.
Just in case Thom Malerk tried anything funny.”

Eiya handed him the tube.

Toppletang’s Tongue Inflater – when you just
can’t get rid of that guy, put a little TTI in his drink and he’ll
soon be tongue tied.

Caution: only ever use one capsule at a
time.

“
You put five in!” said
Seckry.

“
Yep,” said Eiya
matter-of-factly, and Seckry grinned.

Eiya led him through the crowds of pupils and
out of the back door of the hall, into the fresh, open air. Their
ears were ringing, and the clip clopping of their shoes was
magnified as they walked down the street.

She twirled around in front of him. “It’s so
nice to be away from that oaf.”

“
So are you going to tell me
where we’re going?” Seckry asked curiously, but Eiya shook her head
playfully.

“
It’s a secret place,” she
said.

Seckry followed her around a couple of
streets until they came to an old power reactor.

There was a wooden sign hanging on a chain
that blocked any entrance to the site saying, ‘BEWARE. DO NOT
CROSS.’

“
Eiya, I’m not sure about
this.”

“
It’s okay. Honestly.
There’s nobody here. I came across it the other day. It was
abandoned twelve years ago. They just put that sign up to stop kids
coming in here and graffiti-ing.”

Eiya stepped over the chain and Seckry
followed cautiously, glancing around him.

The only entrance to the inside of the
reactor was a circular grating on the ground that led into the
lower section of the main funnel.

Eiya made her way over to it, slid the
grating to one side with a heave, and began climbing down.
Tentatively, Seckry followed. He was so overcome by relief and joy
and excitement about Eiya not wanting to go to the ball with Thom
Malerk that he would have done anything for her right then.

They made their way downwards, their feet
clanking on the metal rungs, and emerged into the funnel, which was
radiant with the shimmering light of thousands of blue
glowflies.

“
Wow,” Seckry said, stopping
in his tracks. “What are they all doing in here?”

“
I don’t know. It’s
incredible, isn’t it? It must be some kind of nest or
something.”

“
Do you think they mind us
being here?”

Eiya raised her arm and a few glowflies
settled on her moist skin. “I think they like the company,” she
said.

“
It’s like we’re
underwater,” Seckry said, dreamily. “Look at the floor.”

Waves of light were ebbing and flowing
beneath them and rippling over their shoes.

“
Can you hear something?”
Seckry said.

They both stood still.

“
Is that music?” said
Eiya.

“
It’s . . . Serenade in D,”
Seckry replied, reaching into his own past. “By Ingledorf
Zivskin.”

“
Wow, you really know your
classical music.”

“
Not exactly,” Seckry
laughed. “We had to learn it for assembly back in Marne. Where’s it
coming from?”

They held their ears close to the circular
wall.

“
Maybe the metal remembers
the music from long ago,” Eiya said quietly. “Maybe the music’s
been stored in the memory of the reactor, and if you listen
carefully enough you can hear the echoes of it.”

At the other side of the funnel was a rusty
door with a wheel for a handle. Seckry wandered over and tried to
turn it.

“
It’s rusted shut,” Eiya
said. “I tried it last time.”

Some of the glowflies were hovering above it,
and a group had settled on the wall, almost forming a kind of
pattern.