The Superiors (25 page)

“Draven, you’re lucky to be alive. Somehow those saps had contraband items, and you’re extremely fortunate that the sap who stabbed you had poor aim or insufficient time to plan her move. You would have died if she’d got you a few inches higher and a few inches to the right.”

“The wood. I’m not healing because the wound is from wood.”

Draven, like all Superiors, knew the dangers of wood. He’d spent a good number of years seeking and confiscating contraband items from the Confinement and restaurant workers and even other Superiors. Wood was the most dangerous weapon. The law forbade even Superiors from having it anywhere that it could be pilfered by wandering sapien hands.

“Yes, the two injured ones. They found the third one trying to get back out into the compound, and when they caught him, he told everything.”

Draven woke again later, alone in the hospital room. He itched. Inside and outside, his skin crawled and burned and itched until he wanted to tear his flesh and reach inside and scratch and scratch and scratch. He tore at the bandages, slid his fingers under the edges, and scratched savagely. A woman came, then two men, then two more women, all of them doctors. They looked at him, pulled away the bandages, rolled him over and looked at the wound on Draven’s back. He cried out, and his doctor gave him a shot and he slept.

When he woke again, Byron and Hyoki were in the room. He didn’t hurt as much. He didn’t itch as much. But he still did felt plenty of each.

“Hyoki,” Draven said, looking at her placid face.

“Yes, I found the lady you’d been talking about, and I let her know what happened to you,” Byron said. “Should I let you be alone?”

“Not now,” Draven said. “I feel quite weak. Have I eaten?”

“Yes, but you lost some blood and you need to eat extra in order to heal properly. Now that you’re awake, we’ll replenish you and you’ll be good as new in a few days.”

“I can breathe again. That’s a relief.” Draven drew a few deep breaths, as deep as he could, just to make sure. It hurt, but he could do it.

“Yes. You were very brave, soldier. We found where the sapiens had escaped, and the evidence of the places you struggled with them. It took a lot of courage to carry them all the way around the Confinement with a stake in your chest.”

“It wasn’t a stake. It was jagged, like a giant splinter from a board. Have you traced it?”

“No. We can’t find anything like it. There’s not much way of knowing where it came from. The sap who had it, she said she got it from someone else, and we found the one she identified, and he said he got it from someone else, and that sap is now dead, so…” Byron shrugged, but he looked frustrated.

“Did you get the boy out of the blood bank?”

“No.”

Draven looked at Byron, both men stubborn in their resolve. “I could have killed him, or any of them, and been excused for it with this wound, couldn’t I?”

“Yes. You will be rewarded for your catch, and your bravery.”

“Then put the boy back in the Confinement. That’s all I ask, on top of the usual bonus for catching a runaway.”

Byron studied Draven for a moment and then nodded. “Alright, soldier. But we will have him tagged, and if he tries to escape again or is involved in any way with an escape…”

“Oh,” Draven said, managing a smile. “I wasn’t outside. I was inside, feeding from a sap. She was in the garden, and I saw the saps climbing over.”

“And you didn’t stop them?”

“I was eating,” Draven said, wishing his mind were a bit clearer so he could lie a bit better. His story bordered on the truth, but didn’t exactly qualify. “I wasn’t paying attention, and when I was done I saw them on the wall. The human tried to stop me, and I threw her away and went after them.”

“Could be. We can’t have dishonest Superiors climbing over the wall and stealing livestock. If you can do it, a man like Ander could easily climb in and take back the saps we confiscated from his restaurants. He might feel entitled, since he paid for them.”

Draven’s mind flashed to Cali. If Ander could climb over... Ander had owned Cali at Sap Heaven. “I hadn’t thought of that,” he said.

“Was it easy for you to get over?”

“I…I’m not sure, sir. I wasn’t thinking about it. I was thinking about the escapees. I didn’t know they’d be armed.”

“It was a brave and stupid thing you did, going after them. And bringing them in after you’d been stabbed. A Catcher would have brought them in the next night if you’d let them go. No one would have blamed you for walking away.”

Draven jerked, causing a spasm of pain to run through him. He hadn’t even thought of it. He’d thrown Cali from him and hadn’t checked to see that she lived. If she’d fallen on the rock they’d been sitting on… Surely she hadn’t. Still, he knew he could kill a sapien with one blow, however unintentional. How hard had he hit her? He tried to remember but couldn’t.

“Yes,” he said. “Yes, please do that. I…put my shirt on her, but I didn’t check to see if she lived. Surely one of the other saps found her in the garden that day?”

Byron shrugged. “I’d assume so. No matter, it’s just a sap. I’ll make sure it’s noted that you prevented an escape. That’s one of the perks to being an Enforcer. I’ll make sure you’re not charged with killing her, and I’ll waive the fine. It happens to the best of us. Saps are fragile and sometimes we use more force than we’d meant. Right, soldier?”

“Yes,” Draven said slowly. He thought of Cali, about what he’d done. He’d done it so he might buy her, and if he had killed her instead… He didn’t care about the fines, or being charged with killing a human. He just needed to know he hadn’t. “Byron, sir?”

Hyoki bent to kiss him. “You are very brave, Draven. When you’re well again, I have other payment for you. I hope you find satisfactory.”

He smiled. “Thank you, Hyoki. I would like to talk to you more then, too.”

“I’ll bring back your sap. You just sleep, get better.”

They left and Draven sank back on the bed, drained from the visit but not able to sleep for a while. He couldn’t stop thinking he’d killed Cali.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Cali exploded out the doors of the bunkhouse, running blindly towards the gardens. She veered a little, shot a glance at the eating hall. She could hide there. But the girls could find her there, too. Her feet pounded the hard, dusty earth. She didn’t look back—she didn’t have to. The footsteps of Ruth and the others came on her heels. Still behind, but not for long. Legs pumping, arms pumping, blood pumping, she ran.

She shot around the corner of the fence and scrambled to unhook the gate. That’s when she glanced back, as her fingers jerked the fence open. The girls chasing her had always lived in the Confinement. Some of them had been her friends as she grew up. But for the past three years, the girls had worked in the garden all day and slept all night. Cali had sat waiting for Superiors to come to her table most of the night, slept half the day, and did some light cleaning. They had all the advantage of strength and health that Cali had lost.

One look at the faces of the girls and adrenaline surged through her. She charged through the gate and screamed encouragement to her legs inside her panicked mind. Go go go, run run run, faster. Faster than Ruth and her friends who would give Cali a good pounding if they caught her, and for no other reason than to show her they thought themselves better. She didn’t care if they were better or not—she hadn’t come back to prove anything. If they wanted to be better than her, she’d let them. She wasn’t trying to mess up anyone’s order. If only she could get to the section of the garden where all the people had clustered for the midday meal.

Cali heard girls closing in, felt them drawing near, but she didn’t dare look back. And then they had her. One of the girls pushed her, and she dove forward, trying to regain her balance, and went sprawling on the hard-packed dirt. She scrambled up, catching herself on her hands, but before she’d gained her feet, Ruth slammed her back to the ground. Cali struggled, twisting around under the blows of the three girls.

Fighting was nothing new in the Confinement, although more often boys got into it. More often the boys got carried away, too, hurt someone in a real way, a way that lasted a few months, or years. Or forever, in a few cases. Girls minded the Superior rule more often, the rules of the Confinement. They all knew who they belonged to—the Confinement. And the Confinement said no fighting allowed. Fighting risked a life, and that was one whole body full of blood that a Superior couldn’t come along and suck out.

The people in the Confinement didn’t like fighting much either—not amongst the others. Everyone seemed to think it was okay when they did it. But no one wanted to lose a pair of hands to work in the gardens or help with the food or the clothes or any of the other duties that kept every pair of hands busy all day long. So the fights—especially planned ambushes like this one—had a kind of control to them. They’d hurt her, but they wouldn’t kill her. To avoid getting in trouble by Superiors and maybe even humans, they’d leave her face alone and hit her soft places so as not to break bones.

Cali scratched at Ruth and left big red welts along her chest and neck and arms, but it didn’t do much good. Ruth was bigger, stronger, meaner, and backed by two other girls. Cali yelled for help, twisted back and forth under Ruth, and kicked at the girl holding her feet. The other girl held her arm and pounded on her arm, shoulder, and chest. That was the best place to hit someone in a fight—the best place to hit a girl, anyway.

Ruth sat on Cali’s hips and punched her in the stomach so hard Cali couldn’t breathe, and then the girl got her chest on both sides, over and over, pounding away at those two great punching bags that sprouted up on her chest like they were meant for that particular torture.

“You think you can run from us, huh?” Ruth said. “You can’t get away now, spoilt little restaurant girl. What you think, you think one of your bloodsucking boyfriends is gonna come to your rescue? Where are they now, huh, Cali-girl? Where’s your Jonathan now?”

The girl holding her arms—Mona, Cali thought—started rubbing dirt in her face and hair, and Cali thrashed her head back and forth, squeezing her eyes and mouth shut to keep the dust out.

“Oh, you think you’re such big stuff now you been out in the real world, don’t you? But it don’t do you one bit of good here, does it? Trying to run away from us. Who do you think you are? We run this place, not weak, pale, sickly restaurant girls. Look at her, she looks like she’s turning into a Superior she’s so white. Only way I know you ain’t is cause I’m beating your ass right now.”