The Faarian Chronicles: Exile (20 page)

“You must be the new Katje girl,” she observed but didn’t
wait for me to confirm. “Anakharu: bloodsucker,” she translated. I looked over
again, reflexively, and spotted sharp, yellowed teeth peeking out over his
lower lip. Fangs. The man had fangs.

“But I thought the Afflicted weren’t dangerous,” I said.

“They are to Brown-Hairs,” she replied, looking at my hair
again. “Why do you think they’re not allowed in Glass City? Well, where’s your
weapon, girl?” the old woman asked, looking down at my belt. I shook my head,
fear setting in. I hadn’t brought my scy on the supplies run today. What did
she mean, bloodsucker? Like a vampire?

She huffed in annoyance. “You’d best run then. Now.” She
stood and drew a short knife from her belt, as did another observant old woman.
The door was between me and the vampire, so I dove through the service counter
window, my legs getting caught in the wide fishnet lights. I freed myself as I
ran, hopping and stumbling to pull one leg up and through, and then the other
before slinging the lights to the side onto the cracked soil.

I looked back to see the vampire shove the old women aside
as if they, with their years of fighting experience, were nothing, and barrel
out after me. I didn’t know if that was a mark of the vampire’s super-human
strength or the women’s super-old age, but fear made me run faster, ignoring my
panting and concentrating on getting back to the safety of the cargo plane. I
sprinted down the dusty road and through the dry weeds leading around the back
of the large makeshift warehouse. He was fast, gaining on me, spitting and
snarling.

“Ahhhhhh!” I screamed in the high-pitched voice that I was
trying not to use here. “Vampire!” I rounded the corner and saw the chain-link
fence blocking my way. My mother and cousins were in the jet or the warehouse
on the other side of that fence. I had to get out!

There wasn’t time to go around to the warehouse gate; the
vampire was close on my heels. I leapt at the fence and threw myself up the
chain-link, barely avoiding his reaching grasp. Thank goodness it wasn’t
razor-wired at the top as they sometimes were back home. As I reached the top
and easily swung my body over, my cousins came out of the plane, scys drawn,
having heard my screams.

“No! Veridian don’t!” I heard as I jumped down to get away
from his grubby, grasping fingers.

It was too late for their warning, not that I understood it
anyway. Why would I wait to let the vampire grab me and drag me away? I landed
on the dusty earth and my question was immediately answered. The soil gave way,
tumbling me into a deep trough dug into the ground next to the fence. The pit was
a trap for anyone trying to break into the supplies warehouse and I’d fallen
right into it, breaking my ankle in the process too, by the feel of it. I guess
I was lucky there weren’t sharpened spikes at the bottom, or poisonous vipers…
I hoped.

Coughing in the dust and darkness, my left ankle almost gave
out as I jumped up, staring up at the mouth of the pit, sure that the vampire
would follow me in at any second, and I would be stuck down here with him. I
heard the chain-link rattle and sank into a crouch, determined to defend
myself. I had no idea what a real vampire was capable of, but I had to try.

“Hey ugly!” shouted Lyta, and I breathed a sigh of relief.
Back up had arrived.

“Time for you to go before we come over that fence and make
you into shish kebab. The Earth girl’s with us.” Above me, Lyta’s voice was
fearless and threatening, but a growl was all I heard in response.

Chapter 22: Down in the Pit

I waited, ears straining, staring into the overly bright sky.

“Come on, let’s get him,” Otrere snarled. I watched as my
three cousins jumped across the pit above my head and onto the fence, climbing.

“That’s right, you’d better run!” shouted Thal. The three of
them shook the fence fiercely before jumping back over the pit and I breathed a
sigh of relief.

The twins' tanned faces appeared in my field of view.

“Hey you, down in the pit! What’d you go jumping in there
for?” They were laughing, as if I hadn’t almost gotten eaten by a fictional
monster! I swear, this place was straight out of a bad horror movie.

“Come on you guys, just get me out of here! I did something
to my ankle,” I shouted up at them, not liking the whining quality in my voice.
I looked around at the walls and floor of the pit for the first time. Who knew
what was down here with me? They only laughed some more.

"Glad I'm so amusing," I grumbled to myself.

“I think we should just let her try to scramble up those
dirt sides for a while,” Otrere said. Refusing to whine anymore, I gritted my
teeth at the pain in my ankle and kicked my good foot into the soft dirt wall,
reaching up to dig my fingers into the wall above my head to pull myself up. At
least my ankle wasn’t broken, or I wouldn’t be able to stand on it. That was
one thing to be thankful for, although possibly the only thing. The dirt
quickly crumbled under my weight, sending me sliding back to the floor in a
dusty cloud, undoubtedly what it was designed to do. More laughter from above.

“Hang on Sunny, we’ll get you out,” Thal called down in a
kinder voice, though he still sounded amused. A second later, his arms hung
over the side as he lay down next to the pit. More dirt crumbled onto my head
and he almost slid in himself. “Get my feet!” he yelled at his sisters. “Give
me your hands, Sunny.”

I jumped and missed. And jumped again. A little more
adjusting and he grabbed my wrists on my next leap and they pulled me up. My
burned skin was scraped raw by being dragged up the dry, crumbly dirt side, but
I didn’t want to complain. Thal was grinning from ear to ear, highly amused by
the whole thing. 

“Vampire!” Lyta squealed in a high-pitched voice, laughing
at me. “You have a lot to learn about Afaar, little cousin.”

“Why didn’t you go after it? You just let him go. It could
be attacking someone else right now!”

“They’re not dangerous to people around here, don’t bother
people with chlorophyll. We taste bad, apparently. But you, with your black-ish
hair, he must have thought you were worth a try,” Lyta replied with a smirk.

“My hair’s green,” I grumbled. “Why can’t anyone see that?”
What, now I wanted it to be green?

“Not very,” Otrere said.

My mother came down the stairs of the plane with a rotund
woman who I thought must be the owner of the store. “Who was that I heard out
here, screaming like a little boy?” the old woman asked through rotting teeth,
then spit a reddish stream of something she was chewing into the dirt. The
cousins busted up laughing again, while I stared at the ground in
embarrassment. She didn’t wait for an answer, but walked back toward the gate,
shaking her head.

“Veridian, you’ll need to carry your scy with you everywhere
from now on,” my mother said. “Honestly, I don’t understand why you didn’t
defend yourself. You’ve had martial arts instruction for how many years now? It
wasn’t as if he was armed.” She must have seen the whole thing and now she was
disappointed in me. Well that sucked. Didn’t she get that what I knew about
vampires came from movies?

“Who do you think I am, Buffy the Vampire Slayer?” I asked,
exasperated with my fists on my hips, even though I knew she wouldn’t get the
reference.

But she did, and shook her head in disgust. “Veridian,
Anakharu aren’t invulnerable monsters like vampire myths on Earth. If you’d
bothered to read the books I gave you the other day, you’d know that.” And the
Robot didn't teach me things that the Macawan government had restricted on
Earth.

I didn’t know what to say, how to defend myself without
sounding like I was making excuses. How could I be expected to read all that so
quickly? Never mind that I hadn’t even started on it. So I didn’t answer, just
continued to stare at the ground in embarrassed resentment until she threw up
her hands in exasperation and walked back to the now empty tiger-jet, leaving
me to hobble morosely after her.

“You know, your mom’s right,” Thal said later that
afternoon.

I grunted testily in reply, strapped an ice pack to my
rapidly swelling ankle with an Ace bandage, and elevated it on couch cushions.
His mom, Penthe, had said she was getting tired of seeing me in her clinic as
she handed me a much-used set of crutches.

“Why didn’t you just kick that Anakharu’s butt?”

“I thought you didn’t call them that.”

He made a face. “Yeah, okay. Rogue Afflicted, you’re right.
So why?”

He was looking at me with honest curiosity and concern.
Maybe he would listen. Thal was my one friend here. I had to try to explain.

“Thal,” I sighed. “Do you know what a horror movie is?” I
didn’t even know the word in Faarian, so I used English. He shook his head in
confusion. As far as I’d seen, they didn’t even have movies here, so I tried to
explain a concept that would be completely alien to him. “You know the
holograph-news on our links?” I’d played around some more with the shows
available on my link. They all seemed to be informational: commercials, and
news. “Are there ever shows that are fictional stories, for entertainment?” He
shook his head again, more slowly.

“We have stories of our history,” he offered. “Sometimes
they’re acted out in plays, like on your first night here.”

"Okay. So, are there ever any stories or plays that are
made up, that people watch just for fun?”

“You mean that aren’t true?”

I nodded.

“No. What would be the point of telling a story that wasn’t
true?”

I could see his confusion and tried a different tack.

“Well, on Earth there aren’t any real monsters, like
vampires or zombies.”

“Vampire is the Earthan word for Anakharu, right?” I nodded.
“So, what’s a zombie?” he asked.

I sighed. “Never mind.” I plowed ahead. “So to us, vampires
- Anakharu - are just stories that aren’t true. Myths, okay?” He nodded slowly,
wrapping his head around the concept. “And TV, which is sort of like the
informational shows on the link, doesn’t only have news on Earth. They have
shows that tell stories, all kinds of stories, funny ones, sad ones… scary
ones.”

His eyebrows arched with surprise, “So, they show untrue,
scary stories about Anakharu? Why?”

“For fun.”

“Why would you want to scare people for fun?”

“I guess… well I guess some people like to be scared when
they know it’s not true, for the thrill. And, since vampires aren’t real there,
the storytellers make them as bad as possible. Super speed, super strength,
dangerous to everyone, and they’re nearly impossible to kill because they heal
really fast and normal stuff won’t kill them.

“Most people in those movies don’t stand a chance. So, when
I saw that one was after me today, found out they were
real
, I just…
panicked,” I concluded, looking at his face, hoping he understood. I didn’t
want him to think I was such a pansy that I’d run screaming for help from
something I thought I could fight. 

“Well,” he said thoughtfully, “the fast healing part is
true. And they don’t die easily, but they’re really not hard to kill, for
someone who’s trained with a scy. You would just cut their head off.” He said
it so calmly and matter-of-fact that I only stared at him.

“But it never comes to that,” he quickly reassured me,
seeing my expression, “because rogue Afflicted are mostly cowards. And they
don’t want us anyway, cuz of the chlorophyll in our blood. That’s why they’re
not allowed in Glass City with the people who didn't develop the chlorophyll
gene. But girl, would they ever love to get to Earth if people would act the
way you did today! It’s a good thing they’re not allowed to travel there.”

“How do they stop them?” I was horrified at the idea of
these things getting to Earth.

“There are security scanners, plus they’re pretty
recognizable, once they go rogue I mean: that one bright blue eye and the weird
skin under it, not to mention the fangs. It’s all part of a bad reaction with
the chlorophyll in their genes.”

“See, this is the kind of stuff I need to know!” Why didn’t
anyone teach me this before I came here? I grabbed his arm, “You’ve got to tell
me about stuff like this Thal!”

“Ow! Okay, okay, ease up!” I immediately let go of his arm,
leaving red marks in my desperation. Oops. I grimaced at him in apology and he
laughed.

“Sorry, I just didn’t think it was important. They’ve never
been a problem for any of us.” He looked down at my handprint on his arm.
“Well, at least we know you’re strong enough.”

Chapter 23: A Single Orbit Around the Suns

That afternoon I looked at my disgustingly dirty boots and
sighed. I put some more of the cooling salve from Penthe on my double sunburn,
and got to work, even though I’d sworn I wasn’t going to bother. At least
cleaning boots was something I could probably get right.

Everywhere I looked, there was more gunk stuck in another
cranny. Before I knew it, I’d spent nearly two hours de-gunking, treating, and
shining those ugly blue biker boots. And they still looked like they were made
out of cheap plastic. They did however, absorb the stinky, gross oil in the
bottle marked “deterrent” better than I’d expected. I did
not
want to
know what made up a substance that repelled haratchi.

While I was trying to break apart a particularly stubborn
hunk of who-knows-what on the back of one heel with my fingernail, the whole
heel came apart in my hand. My first thought was,
oh great, what kind of cheap crap was this?
But
the heel was still attached, it just swiveled out. All my thoughts of
third-world sweatshop labor stopped dead at the first flash of sharp, shiny
silver nestled inside.

The heel continued to swivel all the way out, and I realized
it was on a spring. So, it was supposed to do this? At the same time, something
sharp poked me in the thigh where the toe was resting. I jerked it away from my
leg to see a wicked forked dagger jutting out of the toe of the boot. It
snapped into place as soon as it was away from my leg. Okay, that had so not
been there before.

I tried to push it back in with my index finger and drew
blood. Dang, that thing was sharp!

I reexamined the now open heel to find a star-shaped
compartment with a silver star about 2 ½ inches across fitted snugly inside. I
poked my finger into the star’s dull-looking center hole and popped it out
easily. It fell apart in my hand into not one, but five totally wicked throwing
stars. What the heck? The center holes were the only dull edges on these
things. The outside edges were honed razor sharp like the front forked dagger.

Sure enough the other boot held the same forked dagger, but
its heel compartment held five disks that resembled mini-CDs with vicious
serrated edges.

Okay, I take it all back. These were the coolest fricken’
boots ever! If only I’d known about these earlier, maybe today could have gone
differently. I cautiously tried a practice throw, the star pinging wildly off
the stone wall, making me duck as it came back at me. Okay, if only I’d known
about them – and practiced with them a lot – today could have gone differently.
Did Mom know what was in the heels of these things?

Once I put the stars and moons back in their compartments, I
figured out that the toe daggers released by pushing the heel button again.
Thal came by to drag me to dinner just as I was snapping the heels shut. I
almost showed him, but decided to keep it to myself for a while. Once closed
you couldn’t even tell the secret compartments were there. So cool.

I didn’t want to brave the Great Hall and all the people who
were probably talking about me. I'd rather stay in my room with my newly
awesome boots, but Thal refused to bring me dinner.

“No way. You can’t just stay here and mope, Sunny” he said.
“You’re coming with me. Besides, I’ve got someone I want you to meet.”

I crutched after him into the Great Hall, feeling
disapproving stares focus on me from around the room. Thal led me straight to
the table where his mom and sisters were already sitting. Greeaat.

“Thal!” A man beside Penthe got up to hug Thal hello and
ruffle his hair.

“Daaad! Stop it,” Thal said, ducking out from under his
father’s hand and swatting at it. When they turned toward me they were both
grinning. Thal’s father looked just like him, but older.

“Dad, this is Sunny,” Thal said. “Dad’s been on a business
trip since you got here,” he told me. “He’s the Kindred’s best salesperson,
selling our produce to stores around the world.”

“Nice to meet you.” We exchanged arm shakes.

“Yes, you too, Sunny. I’ve heard so much about you.” I
winced involuntarily, wondering what exactly he’d heard. “No, no, it’s all been
good!” he assured me and Otrere snorted, earning her a warning glare from
Penthe.

“What an adventure you must be having, so far from
everything you grew up with,” he continued while Thal ran to get us both food,
so I wouldn’t have to try to juggle a plate and my crutches. We made small talk
about Earth until Thal got back, and the twins actually managed to keep their
mouths shut, mainly because they were busy stuffing their faces.

“Hard to believe you’re already seven, Thal. He’s getting to
be quite the young man right before my eyes,” he said to me with a smile.

“Wait, what? Seven? You’re only seven, Thal?” I asked.

“Yeah, why? How old did you think I was?”

“I thought you were close to my age. How can you be seven?”
I was completely confused again.

“Well, you’re only seven and a half!” he exclaimed. “I know
cuz your mom told me just before you came.”

“What? I’m fifteen, Thal!”

He choked and started laughing. “What? There is no way you
could be fifteen! You’d be old! No offense, Dad.” Thal’s dad rolled his eyes at
his son.

“Well, how old are Lyta and Otrere?”

“They’re eight,” Thal answered. Meanwhile, the twins were
looking at me like I was nuts.

“Hold on, I think I know what’s happening here,” Thal’s dad
interrupted. “It’s the difference in solar orbits. Doesn’t it take almost twice
as long for Macawi to orbit the suns as it does for the Earth to orbit its
sun?” We both looked at him blankly.

“One year here is two Earthan years,” he clarified. I
blinked numbly at him for a minute.

“What?” I screeched.

I excused myself in a rush, abandoning my dinner, and went
in search of my mother, crutching around until I found her in her office, an
empty plate on her desk.

“Were you talking Macawan years or Earth years?” I asked
without preamble. She was scrolling her touch-screen wall map over vast reaches
of desert with a worried look on her face. The desert seemed to be marked and
blinking every couple of inches, showing predicted haratchi emergences. Micha
was snoring softly on a dilapidated couch nearby.

“What?” she asked distractedly.

“When you said I could go home in a year,” I enunciated.
“Did you mean Earth years or Macawan years?” She raised one eyebrow and pinned
me with her gaze. I squared my shoulders and held her stare.

“A year on either planet means the length of time it takes
for the planet to orbit the suns. You’re on Macawi now, Veridian. A year is 722
days. Earth years are so short, we could never afford to make the trip that
often for supplies.”

“But that’s like two years for me!” I exclaimed. “I’m a
gymnast! If I go that long without being able to train properly, I’ll lose
everything I’ve worked for!”

“No one ever said you would be able to continue your sport
here, Veridian,” she said, shaking her head. “In fact, I believe your father
specifically discouraged you in that area,” she pointed out.

“But, I’m nationally ranked now! I should be training to
make the Olympic team!”

“I understand how good you are, Veridian, and I’m proud of
all that you accomplished on Earth. However, I’ve never understood why this was
so important to you. All those tiny girls flipping through the air in sparkly
leotards – why do you want to be one of them so badly?” she asked.

“I don’t just want to be one of them. I want to be the best!
You don't get it because you were
never there
. I love gymnastics. It's
like flying. Plus, all those jerks who say I’m too big or too tall or too heavy
for gymnastics – they don’t get to tell me what I can and can’t do!”

“But you don’t need to prove anything to those people
anymore, Veridian,” she said, like she hadn't even heard the first part of what
I'd said. “I’ve seen what you can do, and it’s very impressive.” She pressed
her thumb to the map frame and it switched to suddenly show a video – my floor
routine at the Pan Am Classic last year. I felt a warm rush as I watched myself
completely
nail
a tumbling run.

“But what actual use does this have, Veridian?” she asked,
waving her hand at the screen as the crowd all but exploded for me. “I’m sure
you can see our world is nothing like Earth. We can’t afford to dedicate our
lives to frivolous hobbies. We have real work to do here.” She turned the video
back to her map as if that was all there was to say on the subject. I
sputtered, my mouth flapping in disbelief before words came out like a tidal
wave.

“Frivolous hobby!” I yelled, bringing Micha’s head up with a
jerk and a snort. “Gymnastics is important to me! I’ve worked for this all my
life and I need to go home where I can train! I’ve planned a year out of my
training schedule for you. An
Earth
year that still might cost me
everything! And for what? So you can continue being too busy to spend time with
me, always rushing off to meetings or on patrol with your warriors? To have
dinner in here alone while I get mocked by your friends? I’ve been here a week
and you’re still as much of a stranger as ever!”

I watched her eyes shift to match mine, a flash freeze
spreading across her irises.

“Your father and I agreed that you could go
visit
when we normally go to Earth for supplies once a year. A
Macawan
year,”
she emphasized. “Beyond that, you live here now, Veridian. I don’t know why you
chose to believe that you could go back to your father’s after such a short
time and stay there. That was never part of the deal.”

“And don’t
I
get any say in this deal? Or do you and
Dad just get to decide my life for me?” I couldn’t say I was planning to run
away and hide as soon as I got to Earth until they had to leave me behind.

“We’re your parents, Veridian. It’s our job to decide what’s
best for you until you are old enough to make your own decision about where you
want to live.”

“And when will
that
be?” I crossed my arms
defensively, grinding my teeth and trying not to cry with frustration.

“When you legally become an adult at the age of ten Macawan
years,” she replied.

“What? But that’s like five more years to me! That’s
ridiculous; I can’t be stuck here for five years!”

“Veridian, act like an adult, please. Whining is not
acceptable behavior.”

“Why should I act like an adult, when you’re not going to
treat me like one? I’m not some possession you and Dad can just divide in half
because you two split up!” Despite my best efforts, my eyes were tearing up on
me. I had to get out of there. “I’m a person here! And it’s not my fault that
you ran out on us!” At that, Micha growled and got up off the couch. I quickly
skirted around her bulk toward the door.

“You’re ruining my life!” I yelled at her and crutched as
fast as I could, all the way to my bare little room to flop face-first onto the
quilt. I screamed into the pillow and found myself reduced to huge, body
racking sobs.

It didn’t take me long, punching the pillow into the wall,
to realize I had to email Dad. This wasn’t the deal! He had to do something. He
couldn’t have known, could he? What agreement had he made with her, exactly?

I grabbed my link and started an angry, ranting email.

Dad, did you sell me down the river to this woman?
Because she can’t be my real mother. Moms don’t act like this, selfish, with no
care for their kid’s happiness or goals. She says I can’t even visit home till
I’m 17! And I don’t have any say in where I live till I’m a legal adult here –
that’s age 20 to us! 20! Did you know about this? That one year here is
two
on Earth? This is crazy! Ridiculous! She
called gymnastics a freaking “frivolous hobby” and told me to give it up! Just
because I’m a kid doesn’t make my goals unimportant!

Tell me this wasn’t your deal with her. I don’t
want to believe that you knew, but right now it seems like either she lied to
you or you lied to me. So, which is it?

Not to mention, there are real live vampires here –
that want to kill me. Did you know about this too and not tell me?

I’m sorry, I tried, but I can’t live with this
woman. I won’t. I won’t be imprisoned someplace I have no rights and no say in
my life. Almost anywhere else would be better, especially someplace like Glass
City, where vampires aren’t allowed. Either you get me out of here or I get
myself out.

Sunny.