Two Moons of Sera (21 page)

Our crime was a small one. Keeping something personal and
painful to ourselves made sense to me. The ways of the Erdlanders were still
alien, and I failed to grasp the gravity of our deception as I sat at the edge
of Lace’s bed and stroked Elle’s hair. Tears fell from her unmoving eyes.

Sal had refused to join us, saying he wouldn’t be a part of
covering up Elle’s crime. Whatever her felony was, it had broken her heart, and
the love between them cracked and crumbled beneath it.

I continued to sing the songs from my childhood as I ran my
hands across Elle’s hair and face, offering comfort in any way I could.
Although the lyrics were in Sualwet, they seemed to soothe her. Each breath she
took brought her closer to sleep as I sang about the cruelty of the ruby moon’s
seduction and the young Sualwet girl who climbed the mountain to join it, only
to disintegrate to dust at the top. I murmured the legends and religion of my
mother’s people, the cadence of Sualwet a song in itself.

Soon after Elle drifted off to sleep, Lace finally spoke
from her position on the floor. “Sal is going to tell them tomorrow, if he hasn’t
already.” She bowed her head. “This is the third one she’s lost. This is the
end for her.”

“I don’t understand,” I confided.

“I guess you don’t, do you?” She lifted her gaze to my
slipper-shod feet.

I inhaled deeply, pulling strength from the ether, hoping it
would be enough, that this moment wouldn’t mean my end. “I’ve... never been
around Erdlanders before. I lied about the Iaera team. My mother was Sualwet.
She died... a few days ago now, in the war.”

“And Tor?”

“He’s an orphan. Grew up alone in the woods.” I didn’t offer
any more than that. Those secrets were his to tell.

Lace nodded and licked her lips, her shoulders squared as
she finally met my silver eyes.

“Well, here at the camp, you have three chances to carry a
pregnancy to term before you’re sent to Life Services. If you can’t conceive
with your first Match, they’ll reMatch you and have you try again. If after two
reMatches you still can’t, to Life Services you go. This was Elle’s last
chance.”

“Why?”

“What do you mean
why
?”

“Why does anyone care who gets pregnant or not?”

“Because we’ve stopped having babies. We’re dying out.
Science has been pairing people for a few generations to improve the chance of
viable conceptions. If it doesn’t work, then you’re out of the gene pool to
give someone else a chance.”

“So, Elle goes to Life Services because she couldn’t keep
the baby, and Sal gets reMatched?”

“Yes.”

“So she loses everything? She’s punished for something she
didn’t even do?” Indignation crept into my voice, and Lace glared at me to
quiet down. After a few breaths I whispered, “There’s nothing else she can do?”

“Nope.”

“Is that why Ada is in Life Services? And Lock?”

“Ada is there because she’s sterile: she never got pregnant
with any of her Matches. Lock seems to be unMatchable. Who knows if he could
conceive? Every time they medically Match him, he refuses the connection, and
he’s never had a natural Match. They probably finally got sick of his excuses
and decided to just move him to Life Services and not deal with it anymore.”

“What about you? You aren’t Matched.”

“I was. Once.”

“Could you not conceive?”

“No... I could.” Lace took a breath.

I wasn’t sure if she would continue, if I’d earned the right
to hear her story. But when she looked back at me with a hard set to her jaw, I
realized whatever had happened regarding her Match had ultimately changed her
into the Lace I disliked.

“I kept the baby to term, even delivered it, and I remember
hearing it cry when it was born. But something went wrong, and I never got to
see it. I don’t even know if it was a boy or a girl. My Match, Jax, was taken
away after that. Our baby was taken from me before I got to hold it, without
anyone telling me why, and when I came back to the pod, Jax was gone. All his
stuff had been removed from our room. I haven’t seen him in two years. He’s not
in the system anywhere. It’s like he just disappeared.” Lace glanced up at the
fabric-covered window and shook her head. “I’ve avoided being Matched since
then, but they’ll force me to sooner or later.”

“This is insane.”

She shrugged. “It’s either this or we let ourselves die off.
Which would you do?” The defeat in her voice sounded so complete. Like the
weight of Elle’s sorrow, Lace’s acceptance bound her to a life she didn’t want.

“I’d run away,” I said.

“And go where? You’d go back in the water, I bet. I can’t
exactly do that.”

“I can’t live underwater, either. I’m half Erdlander. But I
still wouldn’t stay here.”

“Well that explains the hair, at least.” The attempted joke
hung hollow in the air.

“Lace.” Her eyes met my own, and in that moment, wrapped in
the intimacy of our secrets, I trusted her in the cocoon of her room. “Tor and
I are leaving tomorrow. You could come with us.”

A glimmer flared in her eyes, but it died as reality doused
her imagination. “I can’t. I can’t leave Elle here alone. Tomorrow, Sal will
report her, and she’ll need someone to help her.
Jikmae
, with my luck, I’ll
be forced to Match with him.” She grimaced. “He said he
loved
her, that
they were going to have a life in the City, and tonight he wouldn’t even come
see if she was all right. What kind of man is that? If I end up Matched with
him, I’ll kill him in his sleep.”

Blazing ahead on instinct, I longed for some kindness in the
world. I needed there to be something pure. The Sualwet were cold and
unemotional, the Erdlanders cruel and vengeful. But maybe, without the others,
maybe if it was just
us
, our small group could make the world something
better.

“What if we take Elle with us?” I offered.

“She’ll be taken to Life Services by morning work call.”

“Then we leave tonight.”

Tor’s eyes grew wild when I told him what I’d learned about
Elle and the Erdlanders. The fire inside him sparked and flared without warning
as we spoke. Elgon growled in response to Tor’s reaction. The mountain hound
understood something was wrong, and he hunched down, prepared to defend us
against the unknown.

Lace stayed with Elle while I calmed Tor down enough to come
up with a plan. The problem was, there was no time to make a plan. We had far
too much to do. We had to get Elle out of here, and Tor was the only one strong
enough to carry her all the way out of camp and into the forest, but I needed
him to go with me to rescue Mintoch.

“Who cares?” Lace responded when we told her the problem. “Just
leave the flounder here.”

“Or we could just leave Elle here,” Tor retorted, flames
sparking at his fingertips. “I mean, she’s useless to you people anyway, right?”

They stood face to face, Lace far shorter than Tor but
holding her own with ferocity alone. The last thing I wanted to deal with was
Tor setting fire to all the fabric in her room, let alone her, but his
righteousness was justified. His passion, his desire to protect others, was one
of the most amazing things about him. No way would he would ever leave Elle or
Mintoch behind. He’d rather risk everything attempting to free them both.

“Shut up, both of you,” I hissed, trying to contain the
volume. If these two kept at it, they would certainly wake someone up. “You
aren’t helping.”

Elle moaned and curled up tighter on Lace’s bed, mourning
even in her dreams.

“Lace,” I said, “you know the way out of here, right?”

“There’s a way through the northern fence that’s seldom
monitored. If we can get there fast enough, we can make the forest by morning.”

“Okay, you tell Tor the way. I’m going to go get Traz.”

“What? Absolutely not.”

“Lace, we can trust him.”

“How do you know? We can’t trust
anyone
,” she
insisted. “Look at Sal: he’s willing to turn in his own Match. You don’t
understand how ingrained these things are.”

“You’re right, I don’t. But Traz knows what I am, and he
hasn’t told yet. If he can help carry Elle, the three of you can get farther
than if you try to drag her down the street by yourself. Then Tor and I can get
Mintoch.”

I was right, and Lace knew it. Her worry and protest
reflected my own feelings and the fears evident on Tor’s transparent face. But
tonight was about risks and freedom, and I had faith in Traz, even if I didn’t
have faith in his people.

Traz’s door was ajar when I approached, and inside I found
him sitting in his bed, waiting expectantly.

“You heard us?” I asked. His Sualwet senses were likely
sharpening now that he knew how to use them, just like I’d learned to use mine
when I was a child.

“Not exactly. I knew you were up and with Lace. That was
enough to make me worry. What has she done this time?”

“Nothing. Lace is... helping Elle.”

“What do you mean? Where’s Sal?”

“Sal’s.... Look, we don’t have a lot of time and I need your
help. Elle lost the baby.”

“Oh my gods.” Traz’s shoulders slumped. His face moved from
shock to sadness, then to understanding. “Sal’s done with her?”

“Yeah.”

“That
jikmae amedu na’lughe
!” He stood, his voice
rising as he paced around the room.

“Quiet!”

“How can he do that to her?”

I shrugged. “I guess that’s just what Erdlanders do. You
would know better than I.”

“So what are we going to do?”

I stood straighter. Fatigue battled adrenaline within me,
creating a whirlwind of sensory overload. “We’re leaving.”

“What? You can’t just leave. Where would you go?”

“There’s more.”

I told him about Mintoch, about our plan to leave with Lace
and Elle, about my plan to free Mintoch. Images of Lace’s anger and Elle curled
up on the bed fueled my delivery with urgency.

“We’re going to go to the mountains. Mintoch can find a way
back to the sea, and the rest of us.... I don’t know. Maybe we’ll look for the
A’aihea. Maybe we’ll make a new home. I’ve lived out there before. So has Tor.
We’ll be fine.”

“Tor and his women, huh?”

“You could come, too.” Until the words left my mouth, I didn’t
realize how desperately I wanted him to. Traz was the only connection I had
left to the Sualwet, the only other creature who understood what it was like to
experience the world the way I did.

“I can’t.” He shook his head. “But I’ll help you.”

We snuck back out to the main room. As we headed toward Lace’s
room, I heard a quiet rustling coming from behind Lock’s door.

“You go ahead,” I whispered. “Tell everyone to pack only
what we can hold or have Elgon carry.”

“What are you going to do?”

I closed my eyes and extended my senses throughout the pod. “Lock’s
awake. I have to find out what he heard.”

“
Jikmae
,” Traz swore again before heading to Lace’s
room. Now doubt we were committing some kind of crime, even if no one had said
so outright.

“Lock?” I whispered against the green door.

It slid open, revealing a very awake Lock. His puffy eyes
gave away nothing. Instead of speaking, he stepped back and ushered me inside.
Unlike Lace’s room, Lock’s was completely stark. It had no decoration, no
personalization. It was no more a home than the empty room Tor and I shared.

“So you’re leaving,” he said.

“Yes.”

He nodded without looking at me. “How many of you are going?”

“Me, Tor, Lace, and Elle.”

“I thought I heard Traz.”

“He’s not coming. He’s just going to help Lace and Elle
until Tor and I can meet up with them. I’m sorry, Lock. I couldn’t risk telling
you.”

“I understand. Some secrets have to be kept.”

I nodded. “You won’t tell?”

“I won’t.” He shook his head and stared at the ground. “Why
aren’t you and Tor going with Lace and Elle?”

As quickly as I could, I told him all about Mintoch and our
plan to free him.

“You’ll never make it,” Lock said with a frown. “The Hub is
too far underground. And the water pressure alone will kill you.”

“I won’t leave him there.”

“You’re really willing to die for some Sualwet kid?”

“Yes. Maybe if someone had done that for my mother, her life
would’ve been different.”

“You mean she wouldn’t have had you.”

A grin squeezed through my thin lips. Fatigue threatened to
take over. “That probably would have been better for her.”

We stood awkwardly for a moment. Part of me wanted to hug
him and say goodbye, to thank him for being a friend and keeping what he
suspected about me a secret. On the other hand, he’d acted so strange since he
was moved to Life Services. I didn’t know what to think anymore.

“I have to go,” I whispered.

“All right. Well, I hope you make it.”

“Thanks, Lock. Take care of yourself.” I backed out of his
room and let the door click shut behind me.

Lace and Traz carried what they needed in backpacks. We didn’t
dare to go into Elle’s room and risk letting Sal know what we were doing, so
Lace packed extra clothes for her and I made sure to bring everything Ada had
given me, right down to the second pair of awful shoes. Lace found knives and
rope in the kitchen, and Tor used some of the rope to devise a harness for
Elgon. Then he strapped two large duffel bags to the harness, and we filled
them with clothes, sheets, and as much food as we could fit. Once we were all
weighed down with supplies, we rode the transporter down to the ground floor.

Outside, Traz carried Elle, who clung to him in silence.
Lace led them toward the northern fence without a word. Elgon whined, but Tor
convinced him to follow Lace. Tor and I were soon alone, but we would find our
companions in the forest tomorrow. And if we didn’t—well, they would have to
decide for themselves where to go from there.

No lights shone from windows or buildings. Overhead, the
ruby moon loomed, the smaller moon directly in its path, as if the larger
satellite were swallowing it. The Sualwets called nights like this
tsi’tsa
halach
, the gods’ little sacrifice.

Linguistics wasn’t far, but we took our time slinking along
the edges of buildings. The fear of being discovered stretched minutes into
eternity.

“So I break the glass and the water rushes in,” Tor
whispered, eyes darting into the darkness, searching for danger. “If it doesn’t
break all our bones, you’re going to breathe for me?”

“That’s the plan. Then we find some stairs or hope the
transport works in water.”

“It’s not a very good plan.”

“You got something better?”

“No, but I don’t like the idea of you getting hurt.” His
eyes settled on me, gentle concern shaping his features.

“We have no choice and no time. Come on.”

Inside, my codes worked as easily as they did during the
day. Security was no higher despite our apprehension. Some part of me assumed
sentries and motion sensors would be ready to capture us at any moment. Much to
my relief, we strolled through the building as if nothing were out of the
ordinary.

The transporter took us straight to the Hub. We rode in
silence.

After pulling the clip my mother had given me from my
pocket, I tugged my hair up and fastened it in place. “So it doesn’t get in the
way when we’re in the water,” I explained when Tor raised an eyebrow at me.

At the main door, I entered my code, and the doors to the
Hub slid open.

Within, the lights were on and my eyes took a moment to
adjust. Before I could make anything out, I heard Mintoch’s muffled scream.

~
Run!
~

Tor pushed me behind him and crouched with a growl,
defending me from what was in the room. Past him, I spotted Dr. Vaughn and two
guards. The doors closed behind me, and I turned to find Lock standing by the
key pad.

“Lock?” My disbelief was so complete that I couldn’t
comprehend what had happened. If Lock was here too, then he was in danger. I
reached out to him, tried to pull him behind Tor’s increasing heat, but he
jerked away with a frown and joined Dr. Vaughn.

“Lock!” I screamed, pushing my way past Tor. “What is going
on?”

“I should ask you that.” Dr. Vaughn sneered and stepped
forward. “My prize interpreter here late at night with her Match. You wouldn’t
be showing off our freak here, would you?” Vaughn stretched an arm toward
Mintoch and a growl formed in my chest.

~
Serafay, run! Leave me here and get out!
~

“You already know why we’re here,” I snapped, staring back
at Vaughn’s tight eyes. His short stature was no longer comical. The kindness
from our first meeting had faded away, leaving behind the truth of Erdlander
cruelties.

“I know why you’re here. I know what you are. You think you
fooled me? You’re that bitch Nila’s spawn, aren’t you?”

“You... you knew my mother?” My strength faltered, but Tor’s
burning hand held me steady.

Vaughn stepped forward, closer to us than Lock and the
guards. The cockiness in his relaxed stance told me he had no idea what Tor
could do. “That mother of yours was our best success. She was the first viable
Sualwet female we were ever able to mate with an Erdlander male. We’d
successfully mixed DNA strands into embryos before, but lab-grown hybrids never
survived to term. With her genetics and the study of her offspring, we planned
to reshape the future of our race. But Nila escaped us.

At least we have you now.”

“Nilafay,” Tor spoke, his voice low and menacing. “Her name
was Nilafay.” Heat rose from his hand. A spark lashed out and trailed up my
arm.

The two sentries backing Vaughn raised their weapons.

~
Break the glass!
~ Mintoch’s words vibrated in my
mind, but I couldn’t respond without Vaughn or Lock realizing our intentions.
Vaughn could understand Sualwet, but he couldn’t sense Mintoch’s vibrations the
way I could.

The guards took another step closer.

“I’m sorry, Sera.” Lock shook his head. “Vaughn said I
wouldn’t have to go to Life Services, that I could move to the City alone.”

Desperation had driven him to this. The Erdlander obsession
with Matching and mating destroyed Elle’s life, Lace’s life, Lock’s life, and
now mine.

“And you will, Lock,” Vaughn said, turning his cruel smile
on my former friend. “Once we figure out why you can’t be Matched. We’ll study
you along with Sera. Perhaps we’ll even let you have adjoining cages.”

Lock’s eyes ballooned with terror.

~
Break the glass!
~

Tor’s growl intensified, and my bones shook with its
vibration. The guards exchanged glances and adjusted their hold on their guns.
Even without knowing about his abilities, Tor cut an intimidating figure.

“I knew who you were the moment we met,” Vaughn said to me. “You
have your mother’s eyes, you know. They’re a different color, but the
calculating intelligence is the same. When you pretended to have worked with
Rhine, I knew for sure. Rhine is an idiot, and his grasp of Sualwet is about as
sophisticated as this idiot’s understanding of the female mind.” He gestured to
a withering Lock.

“You t-tricked me,” I stuttered.

“Guards, take her. Put her in the genetics lab in Science.”

“No!” I screamed as the guards rushed forward.

Lock lunged, knocking one of them down before he could reach
me. Tor’s flame burst from his free hand and wrapped around the other guard’s
body. For a moment, a single flame extended from his hand like a rope but
seconds later the man’s clothes caught fire, and flames engulfed his entire
person.

“A’aihea!” The guard Lock had tackled screamed, scurrying
out from under Lock’s bulk and away from Tor.

“How did you get in here?” Vaughn seethed, stepping closer
to us.

Instead of attacking, Tor squeezed my hand.

“
Now!
” I shouted.

“What?” His attention broke, and he turned to me in
confusion.

Vaughn lunged for the incinerated guard’s weapon.

“Do it!” I yelled, staring at the gun pointed straight at
Tor.

“Slime! That’s all you A’aihea are. Slime of the earth! No
matter what temperature you make it, you’re still the rotten—”

Like a flash of lightning, Tor’s heat rose, and flames
bursting from his hands ignited Vaughn’s clothing, immolating the Erdlander in
mid-sentence. For a moment he was an ashen statue. Wisps of his form flitted
around him and floated up into the air as the rest drifted to the ground in a
gray cloud of dust.

Releasing my hand, Tor looked down at me, the embers behind
his eyes bursting to full blaze. Red and orange flames licked along his arms,
his eyes emitted a radiant white light. He turned away from me and focused all
his attention on the wall before us.

The blistering heat didn’t break the glass the way I’d
expected, but slowly melted it, allowing a trickle of water to enter the room.

“You’re going to kill us!” Lock screamed as he and the last
living guard ran for the secured door behind me.

Water spilled out onto the floor and splattered against the
tile until it stopped. For a split second the molecules of water, glass, and
time stood suspended. I watched them intermingle, creating the chaos that would
crash around us.

The glass wall splintered with a crack. It seemed like time
froze as fractures slowly spread their fingers across the expanse. I found
myself holding my breath, fear and anticipation shocking my senses. This had
been my idea, but now, faced with the reality of what was coming, I wished I
had some way to know how it would happen. I tried to brace myself for impact,
but I feared nothing I did would stop the wave from slamming me against the
wall, crushing my bones, and dragging my body underwater.

The glass groaned and then broke with the ferocity of an
unchained animal. A wave of unadulterated power slammed everything and everyone
against the back wall. I struggled to breathe, my brain insisting I needed to
be above water to survive. I choked on inhaled salt water, and my body tossed
through the room like no more than a child’s plaything.

But Tor stood in the middle of it, a blazing god of
righteousness and fury. The water arced around his heat, leaving him in a haze
of steam.

The water receded and I lay on the now-dry ground. When it
crashed back in, I was ready. I kicked off my shoes and dove as low as I could
to avoid the pressure change as the undertow pulled furniture and bodies
through the broken wall. The relentless current swept the remaining guard past
me. I reached out to him, but he was gone before I could grab his clothing.
Lost to the prison he’d helped create, the guard was sucked through the wall
and into the fury of the river.

All around, bubbles and currents distorted the water.
Furniture floated past me, and a dark stream of liquid coalesced and dispersed.
It was only right that Vaughn found his end in the sea.

I quieted my thoughts, absorbed the cool water into my
flesh, and opened the membrane over my eyes. In the distance, I spotted Mintoch
swimming toward Tor’s dimming flame.

We’d done it.

We’d escaped.

Through the water, I heard the vibrations of an alarm
sounding, but more guards would never reach us before we broke out of the cage.
And even if they did, opening the Hub door would only invite disaster by
letting the water into the rest of the building. Their computers, research, and
war plans were all destroyed anyway.

Mintoch reached Tor and led him into the cage, careful to
keep a distance from the blasting flame that kept the water from overcoming
Tor. I swam toward them, past the dark outlines of computers, desks, and
bodies.

Bodies.

Lock
.

No matter what he may have done, Lock was my friend. He had
been my first real ally here, and desperation had driven him. I’d seen the look
of devastation and terror in his eyes when he learned I would be tested on and
he would be joining me. Lock couldn’t be trusted, but did he deserve to die?

I swam to his limp form and pulled him to me. Absorbing the
oxygen I needed directly through my flesh, I placed my mouth over Lock’s and
exhaled, hoping he hadn’t swallowed too much water yet.

~
Sera, the cage is breaking!~

Mintoch’s Sualwet song met my ears with glee. He would be
free, rescued by people so unlike his pure-blooded brethren. Maybe this was how
we forged peace.

Tor’s fire dimmed in the distance. The exertion of breaking
the wall, keeping the water at bay, and melting the cage bars was taking a toll
on him.

I continued to breathe for Lock. With a sputter, he opened
his eyes and spit out water into the abyss surrounding us. Red emergency lights
flashed around us, giving the eerie look of chum strewn in the water.

He tried to speak but inhaled a mouthful of liquid.

I pinched his nose and latched my mouth back onto his to
give him the breath he needed. After three or four breaths, I pulled away. Lock
kept his mouth shut this time and nodded to me with sorrowful eyes. Or maybe it
was just the distortion of the water and my own desperate desire to forgive
him.

After taking his hand, I pulled him to where Tor was melting
the last bar needed for us to swim out of the cage and into the open river.

~
I can go home!
~ Mintoch’s joy rang through the
words.

~
I need you to help me get these two out of the river
first.
~

The boy’s scowl focused on Lock. ~
Leave that one here
.
~

~
He’s my friend. I won’t leave him. And you won’t let Tor
drown after what he’s done for you, will you?
~

“What?” Tor yelled from within his shrinking bubble of air
and humidity.

I pulled Lock close and pushed him into Tor’s sphere of
protection. It would be hot, but at least he wouldn’t drown. Lock was already small
standing next to him, but shame made his stature minuscule.

“We’re taking him with us,” I yelled as Lock took in a deep
lungful of air.

“I can’t do this and swim at the same time,” Tor replied
without protest.

“Mintoch and I will breathe for you while we swim.”

~
I’ll take the fire starter. You can save the traitor if
you want.
~

“What’d he say?” Tor inquired, glancing from me to Mintoch.

“He’s going to swim with you. Just let him know when you
need a breath. I’ll take Lock.”

Tor’s eyes widened, but he hardened his jaw and nodded at
the Sualwet boy who was about to save his life.

~
We will have to swim upstream. They have a trap set
downstream for Sualwets who wander that way. Plus, upstream will take us closer
to the mountains. There are springs there, which come from this river.
~