Two Moons of Sera (15 page)

“Tor!”

Tor’s blue eyes sparked. His lip curled, and Elgon’s
corresponding growl increased. Around me the Erdlanders remained still,
hypnotized by the music, unaware of the danger around them.

“Tor!”

I shoved him, slamming my palms into his chest. I shook his
shoulders and screamed in his face, but nothing broke his attention from the
music. The temperature around him rose. The air vibrated with intensity, and
the sun’s baking heat washed over me, parching my skin.

Pushing and screaming, I fought to get his attention before
something bad happened. The music called to me, trying to pull me into its
trance, but somehow I managed to resist.

Tor raised his hands, the dangerous glow of fire radiating
from his palms, sparking into the air. Out of options, and unable to pull his
attention to me, I did the only thing I could think of. I opened myself to the
passion of the music and reached up to Tor, bringing my lips to his. I pushed
myself against him, forcing the kiss on his unresponsive frame until the
outline of two hands on my back burned against the fabric of my shirt.

Breaking free from the music’s spell, Tor kissed me back.
Then grabbed me and pulled me to him—so close that had I needed my lungs to
breathe, I would have suffocated. As it was, I absorbed oxygen from the air,
content just to be closer to him.

“Tor,” I whispered into his mouth, hoping he was with me
now.

“Yes?”

“We have to get out of here.”

“All right.”

He didn’t move. His hot hands still pressed against my
flesh. The music rose to a fevered pitch, and Elgon’s growl turned into a howl.

“
Now
, Tor!” I yelled, pulling away from him. I took
his hand and prayed he would let me lead him from the song.

With some resistance, he followed.

I screamed at Elgon as we scurried past, not worried any of
my new friends had witnessed our odd behavior. They all remained in a stupor.
While I worried about them, I had to get Tor and Elgon away before things
escalated. That would be much worse for us than a few awkward questions.

Elgon’s fur vibrated as he struggled to look at me, breaking
the hold of the music.

“Come on!”

The mountain hound whimpered. He looked back at the source
of the music a moment longer before shaking himself and joining us on the black
platform. I opened the access panel and pressed the screen for the first floor.
The chamber filled with Tor’s light as the walls came down around us, and the
transporter whisked us away from Pod Thirty-four.

Outside, Tor and Elgon stood in the darkness, staring up
into the dimly lit sky. There were no stars here, and it was impossible to see
the moons behind the massive buildings. If I closed my eyes, I could block out
the silence and imagine the sound of waves beating against the shoreline.

My companions sighed in unison. More connected them than
life alone in the forest. I opened my eyes and reached out to touch Tor, but
Elgon stepped between us, placing his forehead against my hand.

~
You okay, Monster?
~ I asked quietly, leaning down to
him. I scratched his ears while his sharp eyes bored into mine, as if he were
trying to tell me something.

“He wants to go home,” Tor whispered.

“I know. Me, too. But we can’t.”

“Not back to the cave. Not to the forest.”

“What are you talking about?” I spied a wistful look on Tor’s
face, a dreamy, faraway gaze that reminded me of the look my mother wore when
she talked about her childhood. The look of an exile.

Elgon pulled away from me, and he and Tor began walking side
by side.

“Tor, where are you going?” I trailed a little behind, not
willing to let him out of my sight. His pace quickened. I jogged to keep up but
stumbled in the boots I had to wear. Panic rose again. What was he doing? Where
was he going?

“I don’t want to be here, either. We’ll find somewhere to
go, I promise. Please. Tor, give me some time.”

He walked on without a word, without any indication he heard
me, in a straight line, past other pods, past Linguistics, past a building
marked “DISCIPLINE.” Lights cast down onto the paths, revealing the barren
landscape of the camp. No life thrived here, no grass, no trees. I couldn’t
even hear any animals. Only the low hum of mechanical automation resonated
around us.

He kept going until we were on the outskirts of the camp,
where roads and fences separated us from the barren field beyond. Darkness
bombarded us, and in the distance I found the silver slice of the smaller moon.

“Happy?” I panted. “You found the end, now let’s go back.
They might all still be listening to that music; they may not have noticed we
left. Did you see what happened to them?”

“Why do you care?” Tor turned on me, embers still smoldering
behind the blue in his eyes.

“I don’t!”

“Yes, you do. Since we got here, you’ve been lying and
trying to fit in.”

“I’m sorry that I don’t want to be dissected like a sea
urchin in one of their labs! I’m trying to keep us alive!”

“If you wanted to stay alive, you would run with me.”

“You can’t run, Tor. Where would you go?”

He turned and looked past the fence, past the field, past
the forest. He inclined his head and pointed to the distant mountains. “We can
go there.”

“The mountains?”

“The Erdlanders never go there.”

“No one does. That’s insane. The Devil’s Daughters live up
there.”

“Stories. Myths. Like man-eating fish people. Haven’t you
figured out that none of it’s true? Nothing we know is true. Sera, the only
thing we know anymore is that we aren’t safe and it’s just you and me. We’re
the only ones who matter now.”

“They may be stories, but we don’t know what’s out there.”

“We don’t know anything about what’s in
here
!” Tor
railed, frustration brimming in his voice.

I shook my head, trying to formulate a coherent thought and
make him understand. He was right. I didn’t want to leave. I knew these people
were the enemy. They would just as soon kill me and study me as easily as they
had torched the fields. Still, I wanted to know these people, this other side
of myself. I needed to know who I was. As much as I hated them, I also found a
comfort in being here like I’d never known before.

“I can’t. Not yet,” I admitted, my voice shaking.

Tor’s eyes flashed. “You aren’t one of them. You never will
be,” he growled, menace close to the surface.

“I know.”

“Do you? You saw what they did to me. That’s what my
parents, the people who were supposed to love me, did. What would Ada do if she
found out about you? She doesn’t love you, doesn’t know you. You’d be strapped
down and dissected within a heartbeat, and yet you want to stay here?”

“You already know what it’s like to have a family! You had
parents! You had a brother, and all I ever had was my mother, who looked at me
like I was the enemy half the time. Every time I came up for air, it was a
betrayal.”

“At least she loved you. She’d never have hurt you.”

“You don’t think I’m hurt?” Tears grew close to the surface
of my eyes, rising and pushing against the protective membrane, begging to be
set free.

Instead I turned my back on him and began retracing my steps
back to our pod.

“Sera?” Tor’s voice sounded pained.

I stopped, trapped between the promise of freedom and my
need for answers.

A hand pressed against my back, a reminder of the embrace we’d
shared earlier. “You aren’t burned.”

“What?” I pulled away, turning back to him. The sudden shift
in conversation had my mind whirling. I had no idea what he was talking about.
Above, a flash brightened the sky just before a crash of thunder assaulted the
silence.

“Your back.” Tor stood stiff before me. His hands were
frozen in front of him, somewhere between extending toward me and pulling away.

Reaching around, I felt my back. The tight shirt I wore had
split open, revealing my skin. “When did that happen?” I pulled my shirt
around, trying to look closer. The glow from buildings behind us illuminated
the night enough for me to see the charred outlines of burn holes. “You burned
me?”

“I....”

“You set my clothes on
fire
?” I screamed.

Tor was supposed to be the safe one. He meant the start of a
new life, the beginning I wanted to believe in. Without him, what had I been
doing? There was danger in being near him, yes, but I never thought he would
purposely hurt me. The sudden threat of it broke through my bones, leaving me
brittle and afraid.

“But you aren’t hurt. Sera, why aren’t you burned?” His
hands sparked and flared, and the fire he worked so hard to control burst to
life. The night ignited, glowing first blue and then orange.

“Touch it,” he commanded.

“Are you nuts?”

“You aren’t burned, Sera. Touch it.”

“No.”

I turned away again, but this time he reached out for me.
His hand, surrounded by the yellow-orange glow of his fire, grabbed my arm.

“What the hell are you doing?” I pulled away, the smell of
melting plastic and fire emanating from my arm, but there was no pain. Wisps of
smoke drifted up from where he had gripped me. My shirt had burned away, but my
skin was as pale and pristine as before. The only difference I felt was the
dryness of my skin.

Wind picked up around us, gusting through the paths between
the buildings and whipping out to where we stood. Tor stared at me, and Elgon
whined as I studied my bare arm.

“You could have burned me.”

“But I didn’t.”

“You could have! Don’t you get that? You... you were willing
to risk hurting me.”

“Sera—” Tor stopped. Whatever words he wanted to say were
incapable of explaining what I needed to hear. Instead, the fire behind his
eyes flared again, until not a trace of blue remained. His arms reached out for
me, strong and irresistible.

I struggled against him and pulled away, trying to hold on
to my anger. He tugged me to him, crushing me against his chest, breathing into
me.

Above, the sky opened. Rain broke free from its prison and
fell.

Tor’s arms tightened around me, and water drenched my hair.
I breathed him in as the rain sated my thirst. Flashes of light streaked across
the sky, and the thunder crashed closer until it echoed in my ears, drowning
everything else away. Noise and fire and water and life sped across my skin.

The gray filthiness of the camp washed away until it was
just us, two impossible creatures, drawn together through the maze of chaos.
What were the chances Tor, the only other being out there as alone and unwanted
as I was, would be the one to find me? I looked up to his face. His features were
so hard, drawn, and tight from a life lived alone. His fiery eyes reflected the
lightning—or perhaps they created their own.

“Okay, Tor. You and me. We’ll leave, soon, I promise. Just
give me a few more days, and we’ll find a way.”

“Thank you,” he whispered before lowering his lips to mine.
His kiss was warm and slow. He pulled away slightly, forcing me to reach for
him to keep the moment from ending.

Elgon howled as the deluge pounded against the streets and
buildings.

Tor held me against his chest, and I melted against his
hardness. Dizzy and overwhelmed, I slid my fingers into his hair. His tongue
lit a fire of sensation and desire against my lips. I opened my mouth, reaching
out for him and pulling him deeper. The taste of him was so delicious I became
lightheaded.

His hands gripped me, one wrapping all the way around my
waist. The rain slicked down my hair and soaked into my parched skin.

Our kiss deepened, becoming urgent, desperate. My heart
swelled from the feeling. He pulled me up into his arms, hurting me with his
embrace, but I needed it. I needed to feel his strength. I pushed away my fear
of discovery and my need for a home and made room for him in my heart. Standing
on my toes, I leaned into him, releasing myself into his care.

As we kissed, thunder crashed overhead, reverberating in the
air. The world faded away as Tor’s hands roamed across my back. The outline of
his touch tingled at each place our skin met. Was the fire inside him burning
me? Or maybe it was something within me, finally sparking to life.

Our passion slowed, and I couldn’t stop the nervous laugh
bubbling up inside me.

“What?” he asked, his lips still against mine.

“You know, before the other day, I’d never even seen a man,
let alone kiss one.”

Tor smiled in the darkness and kissed my lips again lightly.

I’d never experienced what it meant to fall. Always, I’d
spent my life wanting, seeking, and I’d never known the freedom that came when
you just let go. Others fell from great heights, but I always landed on my
feet. Erdlanders drifted below the surface, drowning from the embrace of the
sea, but I always sank to the bottom, only to emerge again more alone than I’d
been before I’d started.

I wanted to go home, but walking with Tor, the rain falling
in sheets around us, I let go of my childhood and fell.

The dirty lights of the camp began flickering out as night
deepened. High above, the stars emerged, reasserting their eternal presence.
The truest things in life could never be blotted out by artifice. I knew the
truth of that as I slipped my hand into Tor’s.

In front of our building, we stopped walking, and a heavy
weariness overcame me. Even Elgon stopped chasing the stars’ reflection in the
windows and lowered his head. The rain slicked my hair back and left ripples
where there had only been footsteps.

Tor opened the door, ushering his dripping entourage inside.

When the transport chamber opened into Pod Thirty-Four, the
lights were out and the living area was silent. Energy I couldn’t quite place
permeated the room.

“They must all be in bed,” Tor offered, stepping farther
into the living space and dropping my hand.

Elgon whimpered. His fur matted down on his head as he sat
and pressed his wet body against my leg.

“Where did you get this?” a familiar voice whispered from
the darkness.

Stretching my senses beyond my eyes, I realized it was Traz,
sitting in the same chair at the table where we had left him. He was holding my
melodisk. His breathing sounded exhausted, like he’d been awake for days.

“I found it,” I told him.

Stepping farther into the room, Tor approached Traz. I knew
Tor would hurt him if it came down to it.

Traz lifted his pale eyes to me. Reflecting against the dim
light, they shimmered silver. “I’ve heard whatever this is before.” His voice
was soft, but his words slammed against me and took my breath away.

“What do you mean you’ve heard it before?” Tor demanded,
stepping farther into the room. “Where? What is it?”

“Tor”—I followed and placed my hand on his arm—”let him
answer.”

The muscles in Tor’s arm flexed as he held himself back. His
instincts were those of the wild, of survival. He wanted to be in control, to
fight and force the world to his will. Even though I had never lived in this
world, my old life hadn’t been wild, just lonesome.

Traz stood, barely taller than me, and glared at Tor’s
imposing figure. The darkness in the room sparked, and I gripped Tor tighter.

“Traz.” I pulled the two men’s attention back to me. “What
do you know?”

“First tell me where you found it.” He stared at me, the
tightness on his face something I’d never seen before. He was usually so easy,
so comfortable. Even when the others teased him, he never got upset. Something
about him in this moment though was so... cold.

“I found it. I told you that.”

“Where?” he pressed.

“Near the water, past the woods.”

“The beach?”

“It washed to the shore with some other things. I don’t know
why I took it. I just did.”

Traz considered my words, and I could see him calculating my
lies in his mind. But he didn’t ask anything else. Instead he sighed and
slumped back down into the chair.

“What happened to everyone here? Where did you two go?” Traz’s
voice was softer and he sounded even more tired than before.

“Damn it, tell us what you know.” If a whisper could be a
roar, Tor’s voice was just that.

“Sit down,” I commanded.

Tor crooked an eyebrow at me, but Elgon sat.

“Good boy.” I smiled in triumph at Tor and pet Elgon’s head
before sitting on the floor, pulling my legs under me. “You, too.” I looked up
at Tor and received a snort in response before he settled on the floor next to
me.

“You can sit on the furniture, you know,” Traz said.

“Oh, um, we’re just used to the ground now, I guess.”

Traz shrugged before sliding off his seat and joining us on
the floor. Sitting in a low circle felt safer and more secret. I watched Traz
organize his thoughts.

“About a year ago,” he began, “one of the expedition teams
went to the mountains.”

“But that’s off limits,” I interrupted, earning a low growl
from Tor.

“Yeah, well, they didn’t go far before there was an
earthquake and one of the hot springs erupted into a geyser. One of the guys
was burned so bad he’s got scars all over his face and back now. It was really
bad.”

“Oh my gods,” I gasped, thinking about Tor’s scars. I took
his hand in mine and squeezed. It never occurred to me to not just reach out
and touch him. The barrier between us had vanished.

He squeezed back gently but kept his intensity focused on
Traz.

“So half the group came back here to get help, and the other
half explored some cavern they found after the quake. They went pretty far in
and kept going after they got lost. Way longer then they should have. They had
to crawl through some tight spaces. In their report, they’d said they heard
music drawing them in. But that’s crazy, right? No one would risk their life
over some music.”

Traz paused and locked his eyes on mine before continuing. “One
of them had a tonifier mic, though, and recorded the sound.”

Elgon moaned as he stretched out on the ground, forcing his
body between Tor and me to claim his place in our lives.

“They got lost in the caverns for a few days before finally
making their way back out empty handed. When Linguistics played the team’s
disk, nothing happened. The recording was just silent. But that wasn’t really
true. They just didn’t know what was happening. So Linguistics pulled me in
from Culture, probably because I’d been studying Sualwet music and they thought
I’d be able to hear something they couldn’t.”

“You studied Sualwet music?”

“Sera!” Tor growled, not wanting us to get sidetracked.

“Sorry. Go on, Traz.”

“Well, when they played the disk it wasn’t that
nothing
happened. It was that same music. It was
amazing
. There aren’t words for
it. I didn’t understand how they couldn’t hear it, but when I looked around,
everyone was standing stiff, completely mesmerized.”

“Like tonight,” I added.

“Exactly! I fell into it, too, but not as deeply. I don’t
know why, but I could hear it and listen along and feel its pull, but I didn’t
lose time like they did. When I tried to tell them about it, they dismissed it
and said I was making it up.”

“But you weren’t.”

“No. I was aware of everything. Like tonight, when you weren’t
affected.” Traz looked at me for a moment before turning to Tor. “And you... I
don’t know, almost attacked? Was it the music or us you were going after?” He
paused, examining Tor before taking a steadying breath. “And then there was
some kind of light and you....” Traz turned back to me. “You screamed at him
like you were afraid....”

“So the music is from the mountains,” Tor summarized,
ignoring Traz’s questions.

“Yes.”

Tor turned to me. “Then we have to go up there,” he said,
excitement in his voice bubbling up like the geyser that had burned the hikers.
He gripped my hand tighter. “See, I told you it’s the mountains.” A smile broke
over his face as if he’d discovered the secrets of the gods.

“You can’t go up there,” Traz said. “No one has been up
there since then. It’s too dangerous.”

“Traz, why do you think you can hear the music?”

He shrugged and looked down, avoiding my eyes.

“Traz?”

“Why can
you
hear it, Sera?”

The air shifted as I considered telling him everything. For
a moment, I yearned to believe I could trust him, and that maybe he would help
us. I wanted to believe it so badly that I had almost convinced myself it would
be okay—then Tor spoke.

“Sera’s special” was all he said. The simplicity of it so
sweet and sincere.

“And you?” Traz asked Tor.

“You really don’t want to know,” Tor responded with
finality. He moved to stand, but Traz reached out and put his hand over ours.
His touch was cool and dry. In fact, the first time he had touched me, I had
been struck by how familiar his skin felt.

“You’re Sualwet,” I said in a rush, the air leaving my
lungs.

The world spun.

“What?
No
,” Traz protested. But I could see a flash
of recognition and a silver glimmer in his gray eyes.

“Yes. Yes you are.” I pulled my hand away and leaned toward
him. Inspecting his eyes, I spotted the thin layer of extra membrane that
protected his eyes from the dryness of land. It was thinner than mine, smooth
and easy to miss, but it was definitely there.

“How do you stand it?” I asked. “How can you breathe up here
all the time? Where do you swim?” I spat out one question after the next,
giving away more about myself then I meant to. “Let me see your feet!”

I reached out and pulled on his foot, trying to take the
boot off myself.

“Sera, stop it!” Traz protested, pulling away from me, but I
wouldn’t let go.

I had to see. How could there be another like me? How had he
lived with them for so long?

“No, Traz, let me see. It’s okay, I promise.” I tried to
speak in soothing tones but my excitement made it come across as more manic
than calming.

“There’s nothing to see.” He wrenched away from me and
removed his boot. After pulling off his sock, he revealed five perfectly shaped
and separated toes. “What the hell was that about?”

As I stared at his feet, a disappointment I hadn’t expected
washed over me, and tears began to build. I couldn’t cry. I couldn’t release my
tears without opening my membrane, and so they accumulated, threatening to
force the dam to break.

“But you
are
!” I insisted, needing it to be true. If
he was Sualwet, even a
little
, then I wasn’t the only one. I wasn’t the
freak who should have never been born. I needed him to be like me so I could
justify my existence in the world. Without him, I was banished back to the dark
expanse of my solitude.

“Sera....” Tor reached out and pulled me to him, holding me
above that black surface, saving me again. With my face buried in his chest, I
peeled away the protective membrane and allowed my tears to fall. Elgon moved
enough to allow me close to Tor but laid his head in my lap, reminding me I
wasn’t alone, no matter how much I felt like it.

“What’s going on?” Traz murmured.

Instead of answering, Tor asked, “Do you know your parents?”

“What? Of course!”

“What about your grandparents?”

“What the hell are you talking about? What’s that got to do
with anything?”

“
Do
you?” Tor insisted.

He had an arm wrapped around me, steadying me as I sniffed,
pulling myself up and away from him. The shock of discovery had immobilized me,
drawing out tears at a time when I wanted none. I calmed my heart and hid the
telltale membrane before turning back to Traz.

“Who
are
you?” he finally asked the question I’d been
dreading.

“I’ll tell you. After we figure out who you are.” My voice
was steadier than I’d expected.

“Fine. I grew up in the City with my parents. My father’s
people were from there, but my mother’s people came from across the bay.”

“Did you ever meet them?” Tor pressed.

“No, that’s too far to travel unless you are a councilor or
wealthy.”

“How did your mother get here, then?”

“My parents were Matched at the camp, then they stayed here.”

Tor continued his interrogation. “Do you have any brothers
or sisters?”

“No.”

“That’s unusual, isn’t it? Aren’t Erdlanders encouraged to
have multiple children?” Tor said, the implication of his words dawning on me.

“Yes, but not completely unheard of. What are you—”

“Did you know they did tests on Sualwets?” I cut in. “Trying
to breed them?” I watched his reaction as it went from shock, to outrage, to
sudden understanding.

“I am not Sualwet.” Traz pulled away, his posture defensive.

“No, you aren’t. You’re something else.” I reached out and
put my hand on his, feeling the dryness of his touch. “You get thirsty and you
need water, not that brown stuff or the fizzy drinks—real water. And you long
to swim, but you don’t understand why. And no one else even thinks it’s fun,
but you dream about it.”

“No—”

“Your skin gets tight if you can’t get wet, so the others
tease you about showering all the time. But you can’t help it.”

“I—”

“And you can hear things, can’t you? Things other people can’t.
That’s why Linguistics pulled you in, not because you studied music. Why not
pull in one of the directors or someone with an expertise? They called you in
because they knew you would hear what they couldn’t.”

“Sera, no. I’m not whatever you think I am.”

“You are. You
know
you are. I bet you’ve always known
it. You know because you understand the Sualwets, you understand how they
think, who they are. You don’t want to kill them, you want to know them. You
long to find someone like you because you’ve never fit in here. No matter how
hard you try, you just aren’t built the same.”

“This is ridiculous.”

“Traz.”

He looked up into my eyes, and before I could talk myself
out of it, I opened the membrane covering my eyes.

Traz gasped and jumped away, knocking against the chair he
had been sitting in earlier. “What the
jikmae
are you?”

I took a deep breath, knowing his reaction was tamer than I’d
expected. He didn’t scream or run or wake everyone up. He only wanted answers.