Splinter (Whisper Walker Series) (12 page)

I was a bit shocked by how the Magistrate was talking to his wife. I didn’t really know how couples were supposed to treat each other, since my mother had died giving birth to me and my father had raised me alone. Still, I believed that that attitude was entirely uncalled for.

“Why is there coffee spilled on the table!” Now he didn’t seem to be asking as much as just yelling. “You don’t drink coffee, woman! Did you have someone over? Did you serve them
my
coffee?”

Well, that was bad. I figured I should get out of there while the going was good.

LEANING BACK INTO THE stream of water to rinse out my hair, I found myself half wishing Drake would get up and hang out in the bathroom to talk. Maybe talk over our little tussle yesterday. All night we had avoided it, like it wasn’t even there. I stayed in the shower as long as I could before giving up and resigning myself to the fact that he wasn’t coming.

I’d gotten up early, waking up still in Drake’s arms, and it felt too right. I’d forced myself to get up quietly, fighting all the urges in my body telling me so inexorably to stay in bed.

With a sigh, I climbed out and dried off, throwing on some clothes. Stepping into the hallway, I started towards the kitchen before deciding to check to see if he was still in bed, the sleepyhead.

I found the door open and the bed made, like he always did. Whenever Drake was home, he went super-cleaner – kind of obsessive over things like dishes and making the bed and folding laundry just so. It was one of his endearing qualities.

Turning around to head back down the hall, I caught a faint whiff of coffee. I grinned, unable to help it. My heart sped up in anticipation and excitement. I love coffee. It also meant that Drake and I were going to get our customary sit-down time at the table, where we talked over our hot and delicious treat. It was going to taste even better since it was the coffee we’d liberated last night.

My pace quickened down the hallway. I entered the kitchen and paused, feeling my excitement drop. No Drake. He’d made the coffee and left.

I sighed in resignation. Buck up, girl. You’ll see him later. Or would I? He might have left for a mission. Maybe he left in a hurry, forgetting to tell me. Then, just like last time, I’d have no idea where to look if he didn’t come back.

My stomach started to knot in worry again. Unbidden.

Grabbing the pot, I poured the hot contents into a handmade ceramic mug. Exactly a cup. Like always. He never splurged a little with coffee. Except on my birthday, when he let me have his cup. Though, that wasn’t really splurging, he was just being nice.

My birthday was the day after tomorrow. I’d be seventeen then, like Drake.

I plopped down onto a chair. I kicked my feet up under the table onto the seat of another chair and leaned back. I stared at the vapor wisps trailing off the surface of the liquid in my cup.

The other day, he’d sworn he had seen someone walking down the street that was dressed in unusual clothing. Like something from an old picture, wearing a dress and everything. He had raced to follow her into a corner, but when he got there – nothing. He said he couldn’t find her, like she’d walked through the wall.

Crazy. That’s what this was.

I took a sip of coffee, savoring the flavor, feeling the caffeine lift the cobwebs and morning fog. There, an idea. I didn’t have to work yet, and that meant I had nothing to do for a while. I finished up the coffee rather quickly, finding myself impatient to get to work on my idea.

My idea took me to the Guild office, if you will. It functioned as a town hall of sorts and also a library. I pulled open the heavy pine doors. The entrance room was filled with smell of aging paper and dust. The woman who was a multipurpose secretary/librarian sat at a small desk in the center-back of the entryway.

As I approached her, she looked up and smiled when she saw me. “Kelsie. How nice to see you. What brings you here?”

I smiled back at her. I had spent quite a bit of time here over the years. Books fascinated me, the thoughts and ideologies of persons long dead left immortally on paper for future generations to learn from.

“I’m just here to look at some books.”

The librarian smiled knowingly and said, “Sure. Here, it’s dark in there, as usual. Take a light.” She handed me a small light. “We have you to thank for these new lights, I believe. Marvelous design! They never go dead, and they’re so light and bright. Wonderful work, Kelsie.”

I flushed at the praise. Lights were one of my specialties, after all. “Thanks. You’re too kind.”

I left before she could say anything else. I pushed through the door into the dark and cool room of books. The smell of old paper and must and dust became overwhelmingly stronger, a scent I relished.

I knew the medical books and such were on the left side of the small library, so that’s where I started. It had been a few months since I had been in, and I could tell the Ackspecs had been busy. There was a new collection of books. Titles I didn’t recognize.

When the Acquisitions Specialists, or anyone for that matter, found books, they were supposed to bring them back for the library. It was hard to find books that weren’t damaged, so some of the editions in here were only partially legible.

The medical section was about two meters high and three meters wide. I scanned the titles but found nothing like what I needed.

I stepped over to the next section. “Ah-hah,” I said. Psychology.

The titles leapt out at me, with the light in my hand.

The Human Nature

Psychology and You

The Mind

Psychology for Dummies
(Really?)

There was a bunch by some guy named Sigmund Freud
.
Guess he was some sort of expert or something. I grabbed a couple that sounded like they might be what I was looking for.
Surviving Schizophrenia,
and
Schizophrenia, the Voices and Me
.

I dropped down to the floor and leaned back against the case. The first one opened with a description of schizophrenia. Break-down of thought processes, auditory hallucinations, paranoia, and other things like that. Flipping through that book, there weren’t too many cases of people seeing things so vividly. But there were a few. However, Drake didn’t show any of the other symptoms. I’d never caught him talking to himself, or having weird thought processes. He’d been acting weird for the last six months, but deep down, I didn’t think that was related to this.

The other one said pretty much the same stuff. I gave up on them, chastising myself for even being willing to consider that my best friend, one of the most level-headed people I knew, might have schizophrenia.

I put them back on the shelf and headed for the door. I was almost to it, when I decided, just because, to look in a different section. I wasn’t sure what to look in, exactly, but chose a section on fantasy. In it there were books labeled
Paranormal
and
Urban Fantasy
and things like that. They all said they were fiction, but through scanning the backs of some of them, I at least got a term to look up.

I put them back, then searched the library for the section I had in mind. I found it,
Supernatural
, right next to
Myths
and
Folklore
, which didn’t make me feel very confident with my choice. I found a book on people with
Sight
, those that could see spirits and things of an other-worldly nature.

I flipped through it, finding it interesting. Especially how a book on the subject spent so much time discrediting most of those who said they had
Sight.
That reassured me a little.

I put the book up and left for work.

I had a special project to work on today; I was pretty excited. Lighting, any form of illumination, really, was my specialty. I had made some of the greatest advances in low-energy, environmentally friendly lighting in recent years. Tonight, I was to bond a new filter that I had created onto a bioluminescent platform. I’d gotten the idea from a large lizard I had run across outside the Gates that glowed at night. I’d been able to emulate the chemical reaction that took place in the lizard. However, the lumens had been far less than needed and left me disappointed.

I’d been on the verge of throwing away the project as wasted time when Rebecca told me to keep working on it. We’d brainstormed it, spending weeks trying to figure out a solution to salvage the project.

I had to create either a way to pump up the light, or make it more focused and efficient. Then it had hit me. I hadn’t had any luck with boosting the output, not even after trying a few chemical combinations that nearly cost me my eyebrows and one that had succeeded in dyeing the skin on my face purple for a solid week, so I was trying to focus and direct it, ensuring that none was wasted.

I entered the Development facility and set up to work in the darkroom. Rebecca was as excited as me. I was allotted the large laboratory to work in alone, since I couldn’t have any distractions. I was working on a microscopic level and needed quiet.

I DEPARTED THE MAGISTRATE’S house and started back home. I passed Kelsie’s work along the way and decided to stop in and say hey. Make sure she was all right since I hadn’t seen her yet.

I pushed open the door and walked in. It was surprisingly dark, and I paused to let my eyes adjust, lest I walk into something and break it.

Once my eyes adjusted, I headed in to the small cubicle that functioned as a break room. It was better lit than the work rooms and hallways, and I had to blink against the light. Inside, I found Rebecca, Kelsie’s boss, drinking green sludgy-looking stuff. Her face lit up when she saw me.

“Drake! How good to see you. Actually, you’re just who I needed to see. It’s like you read my mind. I know you’re probably here to see your sweetheart, so I won’t keep you long.” She motioned towards a chair and took the one opposite for herself.

“Sweetheart?” I asked, eyebrows raised.

She gave me a large smile. “Why, yes. I thought you knew. The way she talks and worries about you, I thought you two were together. Which is what I wanted to talk to you about.”

“Together?” I asked, a little at a loss.

“Of course! You guys are together, aren’t you?”

“Um, no. Not really. I mean, yeah, we live together. But that’s it. Besides, far as I can tell, she still doesn’t really know guys exist on anything other than a platonic level. She’s holding on to what we were always taught.”

“Is she really? Well, she has had a traumatic life. That could cause her to hold onto that a little tighter. It’s all for the best, then. You know what would happen if you two started having sex. It would put the rest of the community in a
very
awkward position. You don’t want that now, do you?” She raised an eyebrow at me in stern question.

I squirmed in my chair. “Umm…” I stammered. “No. That wouldn’t be good. You have nothing to worry about, Rebecca.”

Her expression broke, replaced by a smile. “Good! That brings me to my next topic. We need something.”

I pulled a small pad of waterproof paper out of my pocket. “Okay, what do you need?”

“We’re going through Sticky Root like crazy. We’re about to run out, but we have to have it to rebuild filters for Ash season. Can you get some for us?”

I nodded. “Sure. I can have some for you by tomorrow morning.”

Sticky Root was a plant that grew completely underground, rarely coming within a meter of the surface. It had a thick bark that was extremely useful for its fiber properties. When mixed into a type of resin, the result was a material of astonishing strength and durability. I was one of the few that knew how to obtain it and had a steady supply. Some thought it selfish that I was the only one that knew where my supply was, that I didn’t share it with the other Acquisitions Specialists. While part of my intention was selfish, a good part of the decision to keep it quiet was based simply on the fact that I knew it needed to be regulated. If I told more of my “associates,” there would be a flood of harvesters on it in a flash, and they would most likely devastate it in weeks. This way, I ensured that the supply wouldn’t be eradicated nor would I lose my reputation as the best Acquisitions Specialist.

I made arrangements with her for the material, working out the billing details. Then I turned to leave.

“Drake?” Rebecca’s voice stopped me at the door. I turned to look at her.

“Kelsie’s doing a darkroom project right now, so be careful not to startle her. It’s a fragile thing, and if you cause her to break it, she’ll probably shoot you. She’s around the right side, about halfway down the tables.”

I nodded thanks and smiled, then stepped back out into the dim hallway, letting my eyes adjust. I made it into the development area and noticed that the only light was coming from glowing unidentified objects on the workbenches. I walked around the right side and finally caught sight of her silhouette in the dim glow. I moved around nearly behind her and watched for a second.

I could just make out the expression on her face as she was huddled over one of the objects that glowed. On her face was a look of the most intense concentration. Her brow was wrinkled, her normally pouty lips were pursed tightly, and I swear that I could see the tip of her tongue stuck out between her lips.

I watched her work for several minutes. She was doing something that I couldn’t make out. The way she went about it, doing stuff that didn’t really make sense to me, was quite fascinating.

I could track something through the thickest of jungles. I could find and obtain almost anything. I was a skilled hand-to-hand fighter, but this creation of things from the rawest of materials was far beyond me.

After I had watched Kelsie in fascination for a while, I came up behind her, slowly. Quietly. I stood behind her and wrapped my arms around her waist. It wasn’t easy, since she was hunched over the bench.

She jumped in surprise, standing straight so quickly that she slammed into me. It caused me to “oompf” as she hit my chest.