Illumination 2.1: Wolf In A Cage
What we worried about with Ajax, we actually had to face with others. It puts things in perspective, discovering real danger when all you’re used to is potential disasters.
“Announcement: Nightfall commences in approximately three hours.” Kentigern’s calm voice echoed in the main hallway outside the Portalry. Ajax paused, mid-step, and looked around. But the other people passing by did no more than glance at the wall and keep walking. One man nodded to himself and quickened his pace.
So Ajax did the same. When he’d entered the Portalry and settled in the corner he’d claimed as his own, he said quietly, “Is nightfall a big deal, Kentigern?”
“The animals in the land outside become much more aggressive at night, and sometimes there are storms. It’s best to be prepared, but nightfall is far more dangerous to those outside my walls than those within. Normal Tower operations are only interrupted in the worst storms.”
Ajax nodded, thinking about the ominpresent clouds he’d seen outside.
“Ajax! What a surprise, seeing you in the same place you’ve been lurking all week! You’re like a wolf in a cage, big guy.” Seth joined Ajax, followed by Jehane.
“You. I’d ask what you wanted but I kind of dread the answer.”
“Hey, we’re Nightlights. We have to patrol. Check out the nightlife. And the wildlife.”
Ajax gave first Seth, then Jehane a dubious look. “Her too?” She blushed, looking down, and he immediately felt bad.
“She’s our novice. We’re training her up.” Seth patted Ajax on the shoulder. “If you’re a very good boy, maybe you can get a novitiate too.”
Ajax grabbed at Seth’s hand and Seth dodged away, eyes dancing. “No, no, I still remember.” He put Jehane between himself and Ajax, and leaned on her shoulders while she stood there with her eyes downcast. “You spend a lot of time here watching the portals, man.”
Ajax shrugged. “Wolf in a cage.”
Seth leaned in, over Jehane. “Have you noticed how there’s kind of a bubble when Kentigern closes a portal? When the image is gone but they’re still open?”
Ajax narrowed his eyes. “No.”
“Well, you sort of have to flare your anima a bit. And the bubble catches on it and draws you in. Very useful if Kentigern isn’t supposed to open a gate for you.”
Ajax stared at Seth, bewildered. “Kentigern is listening to every word we say, isn’t he?”
Seth raised his hands and stretched. “Oh yeah, of course. But why would he bother getting involved if it doesn’t hurt the Tower? He’s got a lot on his mind. Nah, it’s the Council that’s all about restricting people. They’d totally be pissed if they found out.”
Ajax looked uncertainly at the walls. Seth pulled his latchkey device from his pocket, tossed it into the air, then strolled over to a gate a third of the way down the great hall. Ajax followed him.
Natalie ran into the Portalry, out of breath. “Sorry I’m late. I had to help somebody—”
Seth said, “No worries. We were just shooting the shit here with Ajax. Man, there’s nothing like the air Earthside. Can’t wait to breathe it again. It’s Boston tonight. Well, ready to go?”
He smacked the portal frame lightly, and it activated, showing a nighttime city street. Then he shook a finger at Ajax. “Now, you can’t come. The Council says you’re not allowed out.”
Natalie gave Ajax an apologetic look. “Sorry. I really wish—” she shook her head, and stepped through the portal.
Seth laughed silently, and said, “Come on, Jehane. We’ve got monsters to kill.”
Jehane passed by Ajax, giving him an apprehensive look. Seth draped an arm over her shoulder. “Now tonight, you’re going to—” and they vanished through the portal. Almost instantly, the image of the Boston street vanished.
Ajax darted over, poking at the portal. The mirror rippled under his fingers, sucking at them as he pulled away, but staying solid as he pressed. He took a deep breath and found the point inside where the Stage 1 weapon came from. As soon as glimmers of light gathered around his fingers, the surface under his fingers yawned open. It still looked like nothing more than a mirror, but now he could push his arm into it. The tugging was stronger, too.
Ajax looked around. Although there were a few people in the Portalry, nobody was looking at him. He shrugged. That was enough.
He surrendered to the pull.
Last time, when he’d arrived at the Tower, it had been like stepping through a heavy curtain. This time, it was like stepping across a gap that widened as he moved his leg to complete the step. There was enough time to be aware of the utter blackness he passed through, and the tiny glimmer of his anima threading ahead of him.
Then his foot came down and he stumbled onto a sidewalk. Lights danced in front of his eyes, and at first he thought something was wrong with his eyes. Then he realized that the street beyond the sidewalk was wet, and the bright streetlights were reflected in the puddles of water. The sky above was orange with the light haze from the city reflecting off the night clouds.
Ajax took a deep breath, tasting the cool, humid air. He smelled grease from a fast food place just down the street, and crisp smell of autumn leaves that had fallen that day from the naked trees dotting the sidewalk. It was amazing. He was in a city he’d never been in before, and he felt like he was home.
Dazed, with no idea where he was going, he wandered down the street. The street was well-maintained, and the buildings were old but carefully preserved. Near one, a red brick hotel with a low wrought-iron fence, there was a slithering sound that made Ajax freeze.
He’d heard that sound his whole life, all unknowing. But now he knew it. It was the sound of an Awakened. Ajax cut down the alley beside the hotel, and found the Awakened at the service entrance. As soon as he realized where it was, he looked around the alley, then picked up a short metal stave discarded from the hotel garden fence. Then he peeked around the corner again.
The sound came from two Awakened, and they were fighting.
Fascinated, Ajax watched. One was low to the ground, with short legs and a long tail like a crocodile, and slender humanoid arms jutting from its elongated jaws. The other one— the smaller one— had six insectoid legs, a cat’s body, and a spider’s pinchers. The fight between the two was grim and silent. Although the smaller one was clearly weaker, it showed no interest in escaping or even surviving. When the jaw hands of the larger Awakened finally caught the smaller one’s head and stuffed it into the jaws, the smaller Awakened’s six legs kept fighting as it was swallowed whole.
The remaining Awakened shuddered and visibly grew, then turned its hideous head. With a jolt of horror and excitement, Ajax realized it was looking directly at him.
He held out the fence stave, sending his anima out to wrap around the rod. He could do it easily, because this time, it was for real. “Yeah? But this time I’m ready.” He was finally going to get to do what he’d signed up for.
Illumination 2.2: Running Away Is A Good Idea
Ten minutes into their patrol, and Natalie and Seth had already lost Jehane. It was a new record. Natalie stalked along the sidewalk, listening for anything that sounded out of place. “We should split up to look for her.”
Seth strolled along beside her, arms behind his head. “Why are you so worked up about it? She always finds her way back to us when she calms down. It’s a lot easier for her to find us than vice versa.”
Natalie set her jaw and didn’t say anything. Seth looked at her from the corner of his eye. “Tell you what. I’ll be kind for a while to make up for the way you rolled your eyes when she broke and ran.”
“I did not roll my eyes!” snapped Natalie. She hadn’t. But maybe there’d been a tiny sigh of exasperation. Tiny! Impossible for anybody to notice. But she knew, and Seth knew her too well. “It’s just— why does she run half the time? We’re not dragging her out here.”
“You’re not,” murmured Seth. Natalie gave him a sharp look and he started whistling as he walked along. Natalie heard something and put her fingers over his mouth as she tilted her head toward running feet. The stride was too long and heavy to be Jehane, though.
“Ajax,” said Seth, a delighted smile curving over his mouth.
Natalie gave Seth a puzzled look, and he pointed. Ajax rounded a corner a block ahead. As soon as he saw them, he dropped to a quick walk. He was holding a bent iron rod, glimmering with anima-light.
“Uh, hi,” he said.
“Naughty, naughty,” said Seth.
“What are you doing here?” Natalie demanded.
Ajax looked at Seth quickly, then back to Natalie. “Just getting some fresh air. Uh, there’s an Awakened back that way.” He hooked his thumb over his shoulder and Natalie noticed the abrasion on his inside arm. He looked dirtier than he had only half an hour ago, like he’d been rolling around in the street. “It’s a little… stronger than the one I tangled with at my house.”
“They are sometimes,” said Seth cheerfully. “Especially when they’ve just eaten. No proper weapon or backup? Running away was a smart move.”
Ajax narrowed his eyes, then shrugged. “Had nothing to look after but myself.” He looked around. “Where’s Jehane?”
“We lost her,” Natalie admitted.
“But don’t worry,” said Seth. “She’s really good at running away. I’m sure there’s no chance she’d dash straight into the arms of the Awakened you just left behind.”
“Arms,” said Ajax, in a haunted voice, then shook himself all over.
“Unless,” said Seth thoughtfully, “She was blinded by tears, perfectly aware that by running once again, she’d driven the kindest and most tolerant of mentors to give a tiny sigh.” He held up a thumb and a finger a centimeter apart. “Tiny.”
“Seth!” wailed Natalie.
He relented. “How about Ajax and I go harass this Awakened he found, and you make sure Jehane’s all right?”
“Fine!” Natalie dashed off down the street until she saw a building with a handy balcony she could catch herself on when she jumped up from a brick planter. She hauled herself up, then jumped for another balcony, and so made her way to the roof of the building, four stories up. From there she scanned the late night streets below, searching for a small figure either running or cowering against a wall. She saw neither.
But she did discover, after she leapt to another roof, yet another Awakened skittering down a narrow. This one had long, shadow-dappled pincers and a complex carapace with unpleasant evil light shining out of cracks in the exoskeleton. It crossed the street Natalie was on and headed down a blind alley on the other side, intent on something in the shadows.
It was Jehane. She’d fled into an alley with no easy escape. So much for her skill at running away. Instead, she just stood there, trembling, as the carapaced Awakened extended feelers that stroked her outline, tasting her anima.
Natalie quietly lowered herself down onto a fire escape above Jehane and the Awakened and hissed, “Fight, Jehane. You can do it!” Her katana was in her hand.
Jehane started, and the Awakened jerked, its many legs dancing backwards. Natalie went on. “Go on! Summon your weapon! I know you can do it!” and she infused her voice with as much faith as she could find.
And she knew Jehane could do it. The younger girl had enormous talents, but she spent so much time hiding from them. Students of far more mundane capacity than herself had achieved Stage 3, Natalie knew from her parents.
Instead, Jehane’s trembling grew worse, and a sob broke from her. One of the Awakened’s pincers closed around her arm and pulled her close, whiskers of light scoring marks all over Jehane’s skin.
Natalie did not sigh. But she did jump down, landing beside Jehane. “Pull your weapon out, Jehane,” she commanded, abandoning encouragement and resorting to orders.
With another sob, Jehane placed her palm on the other front pincher that was reaching for her, pushing it away. There was a long moment of struggle, and then Jehane pulled her hand away, as if pulling the bar of light out of the Awakened’s spectral substance.
The Stage 2 weapon flickered, then fell to Stage 1, a simple glow around her hand, then vanished.
“Good,” said Natalie, and cut off the pincher holding Jehane’s other arm. The Awakened squealed and backed away, and Natalie cut off three of its legs. Then it lunged at Jehane and Natalie knocked the girl behind her, turning her shoulder into the monster’s charge. The severed pincer regrew and Natalie swore. She dodged a hammer-like swipe of the larger claw, before driving her katana into its back. This it hardly noticed, and Natalie started to get nervous. Sometimes they healed like this, when they’d absorbed other Awakened recently. In her experience, the only way forward was to wear it down. That could be tricky, in the blind alley Jehane had so mysteriously chosen for her stand.
But Jehane, sprawled on her knees, whispered, “The eyes.”
Immediately, Natalie drew back her katana, assessed the monster, then slashed at the central eye on the tiny head.
The monster exploded into a huge splash of water, drenching both of them.
“Ew,” said Natalie. “And it’s just the beginning of the patrol, too.”
“I’m sorry,” mumbled Jehane. “I think I gave it power and made it stronger.”
Natalie paused, then said, “I don’t even know if that’s possible, Jehane.”
Jehane shrugged. After a moment she said, “This one was attracted to the other big one running around. They would have fought and combined. So it’s good that didn’t happen, right?”
Natalie slicked her hair back from her face. “This wasn’t Ajax’s big one? Great. Man, this neighborhood is going downhill.”
“Is Ajax with Seth?” Jehane looked around. She was suspiciously unsurprised to hear about Ajax’s presence, in Natalie’s opinion.
“He should be. But I think I’m going to make him sit with you while I help Seth.”
“Okay,” said Jehane, meekly.
“Um,” said Natalie. “Jehane, I’m sorry I push so much. You’ve already come so far that I know you can keep going.”
“You’re not pushy,” said Jehane, her voice low. “You’re very kind.”
Natalie hesitated. “Well, I’m glad you think so.” Awkwardly, she put her arms around Jehane to hug her. Jehane stood still and cold in her embrace for a moment, then sighed and relaxed into the hug. And afterward, she took Natalie’s hand to lead her to the others.
On the way there, Jehane spoke, in a more normal voice. “I don’t mind sitting with Ajax. He’s cute.” Natalie gave Jehane a startled, sidelong glance and Jehane went on, “Don’t you think so? I thought you liked him.” After a moment she added earnestly, “I could ask him what he thinks of you, if you want.”
To her horror, Natalie felt her cheeks warming. “This is not a conversation we’re having right now. And when did you start noticing that kind of thing anyhow?”
“I’m fifteen. I’ve gone through puberty, you know. I have boobs and all,” Jehane said, and now she sounded half like herself and half like Seth, if Seth were a strange French teenage girl.
Natalie made a strangled noise, then said, as solicitiously as she could manage, “Ah. Do we need to have a little talk?”
Now it was Jehane who blushed. “I’ll go sit with Ajax. And I won’t say a word.”
Illumination 2.3: Do Your Best!
Ajax leaned against a light post, watching Natalie and Seth stalk the Awakened he’d briefly engaged.
“Stay out of the fighting,” Natalie had ordered, as she’d deposited Jehane behind him and run off to join Seth. And as long as the situation didn’t get desperate, he was content to do so. If he was smacking monsters with a half-assed semi-weapon, he wouldn’t get to see what he really wanted to see: how Natalie and Seth used their Stage 3 weapons.
Natalie, tall and slim, held her katana in front of her, half the time with one hand and half the time with two. She moved like a candleflame, flickering, bending, dodging but always returning upright. Every time her blade lashed out, it bit into the Awakened lunging at her.
It was maddened by Natalie’s cuts. It moved in rapid bursts, the awful arms coming from its jaw waving and grabbing at whatever came close. Ajax knew from personal experience that once grabbed the Awakened’s grip was phenomenally strong. He’d been far too close to those gaping jaws when he’d managed to bash one of its eyes with his metal rod. The Awakened’s tail was just as dangerous as its arms, crackling with ice, and capable of slamming into the unwary like a speeding car.
But Seth was never unwary. He never stopped moving. When the Awakened got too close to his sister, forcing her back a step, there he was to pester it, poking his knives in its eyes, then vaulting over its low back to run down its tail and take off its tip. It turned after him, reaching for him, and he smacked the monstrous hands away in a blur of motion. Then he rolled backward, just avoiding its drive forward, and Natalie stepped in again to cut.
They were an experienced team. A few moments later, the monster, leaking water from a thousand cuts, shuddered to a halt. Natalie stepped in and swiftly decapitated it and the Awakened dissolved into a steaming puddle. Natalie and Seth weren’t even breathing hard.
Natalie looked over at Ajax and Jehane. “More?”
Jehane nodded and pointed. “Three streets over that way.”
“All right. We’ll be right back. Stay in the area.” Natalie turned and jogged down the street, Seth right behind her.
Ajax looked down at Jehane, who was giving him a nervous look. As soon as she realized he was looking at her, she ducked her head and looked at a smartphone in her hand. She was a strange girl.
“How good are they?” he asked her, tilting his head after the others. She gave him an inquisitive look. “I mean, they seem pretty good to me, but I’m new and I don’t exactly have a lot of experience evaluating monster fighting.”
“Oh! Natalie is very good, as good as some assigned Nightlights. She works hard at it. Seth is…” she frowned. “Erratic. He manifested his Stage 3 only a few days after Natalie did. But he doesn’t practice like she does and his anima isn’t as focused, and he doesn’t hit as hard.” It was the longest speech he’d heard from her, and her faint French accent was more noticeable. He realized suddenly that it probably meant she was from Earth originally, like him.
“Why do they bring you out here, if you don’t manifest your weapon reliably and you don’t like to fight?”
“My special gifts are so useful.” She looked away.
Like knowing where the Awakened are? But Ajax hesitated, listened to her tone of voice, and didn’t ask. Instead he said, “Do you like getting back to Earth? I can’t believe how much I missed it, myself.”
“No.” At first he thought that was all he was getting, but she added, “It reminds me of my life before the Tower. It wasn’t,” she paused, searching for a word, “It wasn’t nice. But it’s good that you like Earth,” she added hastily. “It probably gives you a solid foundation for… for everything else.”
“I don’t know about that,” he said vaguely, trying to come up with another, less troubling topic for small talk. He was just about to start on the weather when she spoke again.
“I wish I was like you.” At his startled noise, she explained. “You’re so strong. And confident. You just jumped through the portal, as soon as Seth suggested you could. You didn’t care that he was trying to get you into trouble. And you like Earth. Every time I try to do things the way other people do them, I mess up. They keep telling me, ‘You can do it!’ but I don’t know why they think I can.” She ran out of words and fell silent.
“It’s not very good encouragement,” he said, after a moment to reorganize his thoughts. That he’d been about to say those exact words to her was more than a little embarrassing. “You never know whether they’re brushing you off or trying to convince themselves or if by some craziness they really believe it.”
Jehane gave him a grateful look that made him feel ashamed. “Yes, exactly.”
The phone in her hand rang and she jumped, then answered it. “Yes? Oh. I can— okay. We’re six blocks west.” She pulled the phone away from her ear and stared at it. “That was Elian. He has a message from the Council for Natalie and Seth.”
A couple moments later, Elian ran up. He looked out of breath, and excited. “Where are they?”
“On their way back,” said Jehane. “They were tracking a monster down.”
Elian’s eyes narrowed. “Good. Why aren’t you with them?”
“I’m babysitting him,” said Jehane, pointing at Ajax. Ajax, who had rather thought of it the other way around, scowled.
“Oh. Uh, what’s he doing here?”
“Exploring,” said Ajax curtly. “Your turn.” He noticed Seth and Natalie strolling down the sidewalk from the other direction.
“The Council wants you all back immediately—” Elian turned and saw Seth and Natalie and waited until they were close enough to hear. “The Council wants you all back immediately. They’ve got a report of Malachi and they want to talk to you before they move in.”
Natalie shot Seth a look, then said, “Why?”
Elian spread his hands. “I don’t know. But I know who they’re most interested in talking to: Jehane.”
Illumination 2.4: Special Skills
Ajax looked skeptically at the portal that Natalie and Jehane had already stepped through.
“Not coming back, big guy?” Seth grinned at him.
“Not in a hurry to get chewed out, at least.”
Seth pulled the latchkey away from the reflective window and the portal vanished. “It’s cool. I wasn’t going to head back right away either. Figured I’d finish the patrol. You sticking with us, Elian?”
Elian, looking down the street with his hands in his pocket, said, “Yeah.”
“Your mom lives around here somewhere, doesn’t she?” Seth strolled down the street and Ajax fell in beside him.
“Yeah, she does.” Elian caught up.
“You see her much?” Seth asked.
“Holidays.” Ajax shot a look at Elian and saw the self-conscious little smile on his face. “It’s easier for her if she doesn’t have to keep an apartment big enough for both of us, so I don’t go home on weekends except for dinner sometimes.”
Ajax imagined heading back to his dad’s place for dinner some weekend and felt sick. “Hey, what’s Jehane’s story?”
Seth’s gaze slid over to Ajax, and his everpresent smile flickered for just a moment. Then, lightly, he said, “She was born luminated. And you have no idea what I mean, do you?”
“Sometimes I wonder if you’d give a straight answer if I smacked you around first and asked the questions after.” Ajax showed Seth his fist, then his middle finger.
“Aww, so sweet. Work harder or get smarter and then you might have a chance,” said Seth. “You know how when we met, I’d just flashed a bright light into your eyes?”
“I remember what lumination is,” said Ajax impatiently. “But isn’t everybody born in the Tower luminated? What’s the big deal?”
“There aren’t any Awakened in the Tower,” said Elian.
“Jehane wasn’t born in the Tower,” said Seth. “It’s rare, like one in a million, but sometimes kids are born being able to see the Awakened naturally.”
“I guess that makes getting recruited easier to handle?”
Seth laughed. “Ajax, big guy, think about it. You grow up, always seeing monsters nobody else can see? That’s crazy, by definition. Most naturals are found as adults. Completely nuts, totally unreachable. And the Readers think a lot more die as children.”
Elian said, “The story goes that Lailoken, the guy who founded the Guardians, was a natural. That’s how Kentigern managed to open the first portal and contact him. But pretty much every functional natural we’ve recorded since, the Guardians have rescued as a very small child.”
“Jehane was eight. Not so small. The team that brought her in pulled her out of an institution where her parents had abandoned her.” There was an odd note in Seth’s voice and after a moment Ajax realized that the laugh that underscored under almost everything Seth said was gone. “This way,” he said, turning down a narrow street between two apartment buildings.
Ajax was confused for a moment, then heard the metallic slither he associated with Awakened.
“Now Ajax, you stand right here and try to look tasty. Brood a little. Think about Natalie, or those other girls you’re always drawing. Or your asshole father, if you must.” Seth pushed Ajax to one of the walls, under a balcony, then skipped out of Ajax’s reach.
“You’re using him as bait?” said Elian, disbelievingly.
“Better him than you.” Seth put a finger to his lips and winked. Ajax bared his teeth at Seth, then tilted his head to listen to the slithering. It sounded like it was coming from above them, somewhere several floors up. He wondered if it was nibbling on somebody. Little bites, lapping at that which leaked, drawing sustenance until at last it became so strong it could take big bites. The victim would become weaker and weaker, sicker and sicker, or might even just die. And medical science would find a reason for what otherwise would seem senseless and random.
“He can hear it?” Elian whispered, in the same tone of voice. “That’s just not fair.”
“Yeah,” whispered Seth. “It’s an advanced skill, unless you’re Jehane or Ajax.” He paused. “Okay, or me, but I wouldn’t want to brag.” He raised his voice. “Come on, Ajax, flare your anima a little, or it’s going to be up there all night.”
Throwing Seth a look of intense irritation, Ajax channeled his anima through his hand and smacked the wall. A line of light raced up the wall, following the jagged brickwork pattern. He had time to notice Elian’s amazed look before the metallic slithering became a crash, and then something skittered over the balcony and plummeted off.
It had an absolutely round torso, with several nested rings that rotated like a saw. Red light spilled from a hole in its center, and eyes blinked around the edge of another disc interlocking with the first. And it was small, much smaller than the other one Ajax had seen tonight, closer to the size of a dog than a giant crocodile.
Although he dodged, it landed on his back, digging into his skin with spindly clawed legs. He reached up with his glowing hand and threw it off, as hard as he could. On the other side of the alley, Elian swung his Stage 2 weapon like a baseball bat. He smacked the little monster down toward the main street to where Seth had run. Seth jumped, slashed up and around, and water drenched him as the Awakened dissolved.
Seth spread his hands and his daggers vanished. Then he pushed wet hair out of his eyes. “More fun than usual.”
Ajax reached around to touch the punctures on his back. “Okay, I’m damn glad I’m not Jehane. How the hell did she survive? No wonder she can’t manifest a weapon reliably, if these little shits were drawn to that kind of thing when she was a kid and she knew it.”
“Skills,” repeated Seth. “Special skills. Up for another?”
Illumination 2.5: Make Me Real
Jehane stepped through the portal. The air in the Tower was sweet, the shadow music comforting. A moment after Natalie stepped through behind her, the portal closed. The Councillor waiting, whom Jehane did not know by name, raised his eyebrows. “Where are the others?”
Natalie announced, “Since we were in the middle of a patrol, I asked Seth to finish up.” It was the sort of thing she said, even though Jehane knew she’d done no such thing.
“Is Ajax Holdren with him?” asked the Councillor, frowning. His leitmotif was all deep brassy notes and steady rhythms.
Natalie sighed. “Yes. I thought since he was so eager to get himself into trouble, he’d better follow along with Seth and see how a patrol goes. Elian is helping out.” Jehane was fascinated. Natalie lied so much better to people outside her usual circle. Perhaps it was that her family knew what to expect.
The Councillor peered over little glasses at Natalie. “All right. We’ll need them back soon, but for now you’ll do. Come along to the Council chamber.” His gaze ran over Jehane, cool and measuring. It was a familiar look.
Deep inside Jehane, panic started to bloom.
In the Council chamber, Tanist Kiley said, “I see. Thank you, Taki. Everybody, please take a seat.” A ghastly smile flickered across her face, the sort of smile that Jehane was very used to from adults trying to be kind. “You too, Jehane, Natalie.” The Council chamber’s shadow music rippled with excited trills and deep, throbbing foreboding.
When Jehane, stiff with nerves, perched on the edge of the plush chair, the Tanist went on. “Now, Jehane. You’ve been training with Natalie and Seth for some time now, because of your special gifts. We’d like to put that training to work dealing with the Echthros. Kentigern?”
The screen over the table displayed a staged group shot. “Malachi Kasparian’s graduating class,” said Kentigern. The image zoomed in to Malachi, standing on the edge of the group. He was an expressionless young man with dark brown hair and eyes shadowed by his heavy brows, standing straight with his hands loose at his side. The photograph dissolved into a video clip: Malachi standing in almost the exact same position, while a young woman with an auburn ponytail hung on him, laughing. “Malachi with his partner, Emily.” Right before the clip ended, Malachi’s eyes slid sideways to look at Emily, and one side of his mouth crooked up.
Jehane felt sick. The Tanist said, “Did you ever meet him, Jehane? He only moved out of the Tower two years ago, around the time you decided to start school, but the two of you arrived at the Tower near the same time.”
“N-no. We never met.”
She lied. She couldn’t lie like Natalie or Seth, but the truth could not be explained. She was too afraid of what they’d do with the truth.
She remembered him. Malachi. The first time she’d seen him, he’d been escorted by a nurse down the hall of her ward. He was a scrawny boy with snarled hair and dirty hands, and his shadow music was a whisper of wind across dark water. She thought he couldn’t see the horrors that haunted the hospital any more than the doctors and nurses. But he seemed to see something, his gaze combing the common area and the open doors, looking near the monsters even if he never looked at them. His eyes lingered on her as she sat curled up in her open door frame.
Three days later, he’d walked back down the hall again. This time he was alone; it was only Jehane who noticed him. He’d paused and looked at her, meeting her eyes for a long moment before he raised his finger to his lips. Then he’d walked out of the ward like a ghost, quietly passing through the door behind a nurse who never saw him.
He’d looked at her like she was real. He’d looked at her like they were the only two real people, in a world of monsters. They’d never spoken— he never spoke to anybody— but the three days he was in the ward stretched as long as the previous year. He’d made the loneliness and frustration of her life fade away with a look, a touch of his hand as he passed her a cup. He was real, and he made her real too.
It seemed like only a few days later when the Guardians came for her, spilling into the ward in the middle of the night. They came through a portal opened by a teenager who’d checked in that day. First, they’d found her where she hid, and bundled her into the care of Jake and Doctor Pepperman. Then the three Nightlights and the teenager began to clear the ward of every single monster that lived there, even the ones she’d befriended. It was awful and wonderful and horrifying. The shadow music that had accompanied the Nightlights was an overwhelming orchestra, as far removed from the nightmare songs of the ward as she could have dreamt.
She’d seen Malachi again, once she’d been established in her private room at the Tower. It was only in a private room that she felt comfortable, although they’d tried to foster her with various Tower families. But while she needed the privacy and the silence, she still liked to leave her door open sometimes and watch the empty hall outside. Once, when she opened her door, Malachi was there, leaning against the opposite wall. His hair was combed, and he wasn’t nearly as scrawny, but his music was still the whisper of wind across water. He met her eyes first, expressionless, silent, before looking her down and up. When he’d returned to her face, he’d raised his already-heavy eyebrows.
Nine years old, and she knew she shouldn’t suck her thumb. But she’d wanted to. Instead she’d clasped her hands tightly together and raised her own eyebrows. He’d nodded once, and walked away.
She remembered. “I-I can’t track him based on pictures, if that’s what you want.”
Tanist Kiley said, “That’s all right. We know where he is. We’ve got a recent report of him in Vancouver, just as expected. He’s not raving, but he also wouldn’t declare himself unfallen.” She frowned. “The reporting Nightlight said he had some kind of stealth ability. I’m not sure what that’s about, but you’re our best anti-stealth measure. I’d like you to go to Vancouver, along with Seth and Natalie, and help track him down. There will be signs you can detect, movements of Awakened and so on, just as you have before. Can you do that?”
Jehane shook her head wildly. “I can’t, ma’am!” She wouldn’t. The memory of his eyes meeting hers still seared her. He’d changed her whole world, shown her she wasn’t alone, with nothing but a look. He’d seen her, not a case, not a burden, not a mystery.
Natalie squeezed Jehane’s hand. “It’s okay, Jehane. It’ll be just like practicing with Seth, just like what we do on patrol. You can do it.”
Jehane dragged in a ragged breath. She could get out of it. All she had to do was break down into sobs and demonstrate she too broken to be useful. She hadn’t been able to stop doing that for years after her rescue.
But the Council was treating her like something more than a fragile child for the first time. Or at least Kiley was; the expressions of many of the other Councillors made it clear they considered this a waste of time. If she did break down, she’d lose everything she’d gained in the past two years.
She curled up in the chair, leaned her head against Natalie’s arm, squeezed her eyes shut, and nodded her head.