The Unspoken: Book One in the Keres Trilogy (8 page)

The Healers are stepping down from the stage. The feast is officially over and the normal order of subdued obedience settles over everyone almost immediately. PG3456 starts back to our block, staying well within the crowd.

“
Every time we go back to the common room, we must be sure to search it carefully for anything The Mothers may have left,
”
Wex says to us under the cover of chatter around us.
“
They may try to establish a feeling of safety in us. Once we stop checking is most likely when they will place a device.
”
We all nod and smile as if he is talking about the performances.
“
We won
’
t talk about anything on the block tonight, but tomorrow we will take an inventory of our services and what we have observed.
”
I feel the smoke black finger tattoo throb on my chest.
“
Merit, you will be in the best position to find a place to conceal a stockpile. The fields are too open but you might be able to find a place in the stables or barns.
”

Merit agrees as we cross the threshold to our block. Our talk turns to the feast and the anticipation of tomorrow
’
s service training. I don
’
t speak, aside from the few times I am directly applied to for an opinion. In a few minutes the bell tone sounds, alerting us that power down is in ten minutes.

At that moment, something that makes me feel normal for the first time since the Solace began happens. We girls stand in a line in front of the fireplace and the boys walk down it, kissing each of us goodnight. We have said goodnight like this every night since we could walk. It was always my favorite part of the day. Armed with some return of our own routine that makes me feel safe, I no longer dread retiring to my solitary room.

I wash my face and get ready for bed, climbing into it just as the one minute warning bell sounds. The Mothers have cleaned my room and changed my sheets. The stale smell of imprisonment that dominated the room yesterday has been replaced with the crisp and cool feeling of outside. The window must have been opened for an airing and the blackout glass has been removed.

Something else has changed in this room, but I can
’
t tell exactly what. Looking around slowly, I can see it
’
s nothing to do with the furniture or the accessories. It
’
s something strange though and it makes me uneasy. The slight buzz of the lights is silenced with power down. The Heavy steals over me again as I lie still, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the dark. I hear a little click in my door signaling that The Mother has turned the key and I am locked in again. This is also reassuring in a way. We have been locked in our rooms after power down since we were ten when caught together on the common room floor in the middle of the night. I begin to see the shapes of my bookcase and desk as I get accustomed to the dark. Everything is the same. My new pack is on the back of the chair and the black box containing my uniform is on the desk. Everything is right where I left it, just straightened up. There
’
s nothing missing or new. All the same, I
’
ll have to start sweeping my room for devices as well.

And then I see it. On the ceiling directly over the door there is a painted hand with the fingers curled in like a fist, the thumb straight out to the side. The same design that
’
s on my Service notebook. The symbol doesn
’
t send shivers down my spine even though my body automatically convulses like it does. It has a soothing effect, as if it
’
s to protect me rather than harm me. It reminds me of Abbot. Remembering that he is connected to the sign somehow allows me to shut my eyes and fall asleep.

* * *

I sit bolt upright in bed. My dreams were filled with Doe and Frehn screaming on the other side of a wall I could not break down. I
’
m drenched in sweat and heaving for breath. I look at the clock on the nightstand. It
’
s 06:30 and time to get up anyway. I pull on a robe and go to my bathroom. I turn on the shower and try not to look at myself in the mirror. The sound of Doe screaming still echoes in my head. I try to burn it out by turning the water as hot as it will go.

After drying my hair I pile it up on the top of my head and dress in everyday clothes as instructed. I stuff the uniform in the pack and am just about to walk out of my room when I remember I have to wear the black diamond pin. I haven
’
t seen it since I slammed it on the table yesterday afternoon. It
’
s probably still there.

Merit is already in the common room, picking up his jade horse from the row of all our ornaments on the mantel. It
’
s hung on a piece of leather string now and he ties it around his neck. He looks almost excited to get his hands on the animals.

“
Morning,
”
I say walking over to him.

He starts a little at the sound of my voice, but smiles at me.
“
It
’
s going to take some getting used to, hearing other people
’
s voices.
”

“
I hold my breath every time I try to open my door,
”
I say,
“
just in case it
’
s not really over.
”

I see my black diamond in the middle of the row. Merit steps back to allow me to pick it up. I don
’
t want to touch it. We stand there looking at it for a moment when Harc, Doe and Wex join us. They claim their own ornaments and are putting them on when Frehn
’
s door flings open and he dances through it. The combination of his knees in the air and his uniform of orange overalls makes us all laugh.

“
No one could possibly miss my magnificent body in these,
”
he says, strutting across the room. The tight white shirt underneath the overalls is too small for him and doesn
’
t have sleeves.
“
I will be the envy of Chelon at breakfast.
”
He hangs the chain of emeralds, diamonds and coal around his neck and picks up the black diamond. He walks over and sticks it in my hair without ceremony.
“
Now,
”
he says,
“
let
’
s go eat.
”

His matter of fact way of picking up the thing the rest of us were all avoiding makes me feel childish. I put all my fears into an inanimate object, something that has no power, and I treated it like a venomous snake. If I start being afraid of things that cannot hurt me, it will only escalate my terror of things that actually can.

Grabbing our packs, we head to the canteen. After breakfast we will not see each other again until lunch. Because of the Solace, PG3456 has the advantage over the rest of the Play Groups from our year. The four hours spent in training this morning will be the longest forced separation for them. They will feel as if their families are being torn apart while PG3456 will be able to concentrate completely on our Services.

We devour our morning rations and make plans to meet up in the Quad before going to lunch. Then we walk our separate ways: Wex and Merit to the outer wall gates, Harc to the south to the rows of factories, Doe to the Healers
’
Building on the west side of the city, Frehn to the north where the tunnel to the mine entrance begins, and me to the northeast and the Gratis Building. Being this widespread is different from being locked away on our block. We aren
’
t more than a few miles apart yet it feels like we are on the other side of the world from each other.

I
’
m buzzed through to the elevator with another Unspoken, a tall woman in her late fifties. Her tattoos seem to engulf her entire upper body. She looks down at me with a slight nod and we go our separate ways when we reach the hall. I unlock the door labeled 29 and step into my den. I shut the door behind me and lean my back on it, dropping my pack to the floor.

The den is just as I left it last night, the book Abbot assigned me still on the corner of the desk. I change into my uniform and stare at myself in the mirror. Between my black hair and the black suit with orange patches I look like an oriole.

Abbot said he would probably not have time to start my training until after lunch. I take this opportunity to explore my den further. The bookcase runs the length of the wall opposite to the wardrobe section. The desk is on the bookshelf side while the seating area spans the width of the room in front of it. A few feet behind the desk, an exercise mat takes up the remaining depth of the den. The back wall is covered in floor to ceiling mirrors. There are several lockers and when I explore these they contain hand towels, various free weights and exercise equipment. It
’
s clear strength training is a major component of the Unspoken.

Coming back to the desk, I take up the book Abbot left for me,
Elemental Behavior of The Human Body
. Opting for the comfort of the sofa rather than the rigid desk chair, I gather my notebook, a lead pencil from the desk and curl up for a long morning of boring reading. I
’
m torn between being thankful for the solitude and annoyed at the waste of time. Anatomy is one of the basic subjects the Pedagogics teach.

The first few chapters are exactly what I expect, an elementary overview of the muscle groupings and how the different functions of the body are connected. Nothing I don
’
t already know. I
’
ve been reading for what feels like forever, but when I look at the timepiece on the desk, there are still two hours before I can leave for lunch. Stretching and yawning, I decide to move to the desk, hoping it will keep me awake while I trudge through the book.

Putting the book down on its spine, it falls open to the middle of a chapter close to the end. There is a diagram of the nervous system on the page, only it
’
s not marked the way I am used to. Instead of having each nerve labeled with its name, groups of nerves are bracketed together with strange terms written beside them. Exploroare, Detrudo, Sublevatio, Dominatio and others completely foreign to me fill the page. I flip the pages back to glance at the table of contents. After the first five chapters of the fundamentals I have already learned, the titles start looking interesting. The book is divided into three sections: the physical body which includes basic anatomy and how to accelerate the build up of muscle mass while keeping the body lean, a section devoted to the mind which looks like instructions on developing brain capacity and the last and largest section on the nervous system. The nervous system section isn
’
t about how the different nerves control the body, it
’
s about how to control the different nerves.

I flip back to the chart and start reading the paragraphs around it.
“
Isolate the Sublevatio nerve group and apply your intentional signal to activate the ink which marks them. The nerve group will send the ready signal to the brain and retrieve the action command, building up your weapon. With labored study, the Sublevatio weapon variations can be aimed with millimeter precision. Self control is essential. Activation of the Sublevatio nerve group is not recommended without the presence of a qualified trainer.
”