World Warden, page 22
The spikes shuddered again.
Tchk. Tchk.
“Not spikes,” Elias said aloud as understanding dawned. His voice rose in volume and urgency as he spoke next. “They are teeth. Tristan, get out of there! These are not kelp strands!”
But his words appeared to disturb the camouflaged organism that had been about to feed, and the surface around them erupted in writhing snakes.
Chapter 14. Housework
OSCAR AND Samantha flew back from the Nightmare Caves on Doran. Although it was still scary to hold on for dear life while riding a winged wurl, Oscar was no longer nauseated and actually managed to dismount without falling on his back, which was good given that he was carrying a heavy pack full of food.
“Thank you, Doran,” Samantha said after dismounting, placing her hand on his forehead. Doran grunted softly and then bounded away. He jumped with daredevil grace off the cliff from where they had taken off earlier that day. The sun was setting, and Oscar beamed when Doran opened his wings to their full extent midair and began to flap energetically, rising up and away. His scales reflected the light and appeared to blend in with the different colors of the sky.
“Doran is so cool,” Oscar said under his breath.
“He is the strongest of the surviving males, and the most agile,” Samantha commented, and Oscar could have bet that there was a hint of pride in her voice.
“He’s really different from the wurl back home,” he added. “So fast and sleek. And he can fly. It’s no wonder he beat all the other wurl the day of the storm.”
“I would not be so sure,” Samantha replied. She sounded thoughtful. “Attacking Portree that day was terrifying. The wurl of your continent may be slower and earthbound, but they have a deadly ranged attack, which neither Doran nor any of the other Flyer males possesses. Dodging those spines was incredibly difficult, and had it not been for the shelter of the storm, I am not sure whether victory would have been ours. You forget, as well, that Doran was the only male from that group to survive.”
“Are there any others? Other males?”
“Some remain,” Samantha answered. “Although I see fewer every day. Maybe she is still sending them out across the ocean, despite the perils of the journey, to finish what she started. Perhaps she wants them to find your brother. She obsesses about him, you know. She always mentions him when she summons me.”
Oscar closed his eyes briefly, trying not to be overwhelmed by fear for himself and for Elias. He tried to find defiance in his heart before he next spoke. “Why doesn’t she go herself to find Eli? If she’s so obsessed and all.”
Samantha sneered. “Because she is a coward. She would see all of her males dead if it meant she could live. Do you remember how she backed away from your brother when he wounded her?”
“Yes. And she sent you and Doran to fight instead, right?”
“Correct. Incidentally, your brother….”
“Yeah?”
Samantha shook her head slightly. “He is brave. None of us have ever hurt her, but he did. I could scarcely believe it when it happened.”
“Eli is awesome,” Oscar said firmly. “He’s coming to save me, I know he is. And he’ll help you too. And your family. We can work together, save everyone—”
Samantha held up her hand. “Stop.”
“What?”
“Hope is the worst torment of them all. We should go home,” she said. She scanned the sky. “It is better not to be out in the open at night.”
“Why not?”
For a moment it looked as though Samantha would simply ignore his question as she took a step in the direction of the house. However, she answered as she started walking. “She comes out at dusk to feed.”
Oscar shivered and hurried to catch up with Samantha. He watched the sky with apprehension as they went, and he realized that he was developing an almost superstitious fear of Dresde. The fact that he could not even say her name made it worse.
There was a light on above the door of the house, and as they approached, Oscar smelled the enticing aroma of cooking food. His stomach growled with anticipation when the door opened and Nadja came out to greet them.
She hugged Samantha first of all. “Sam. You are safe, thank goodness.”
“Yes, Oma. This was a good trip. We collected two packs’ worth of food.”
Nadja gave Oscar her usual piercing look.
“Um, hi,” he said awkwardly. “It, uh, smells good! What are you guys cooking?”
“Was the young male helpful?” Nadja asked Samantha, although still looking directly at him.
“He was. Doran accepted him, and he worked well throughout the day. He did not complain. With his help I was even able to go deep into the caves to gather seaweed.”
Nadja nodded slowly. “Good. Come in, both of you. Dinner is ready.”
She went on ahead while Samantha and Oscar took off their heavy packs.
“Whew,” Oscar said, literally wiping sweat off his brow. “That was intense.”
“What do you mean?” Samantha asked as she placed her pack on the ground.
“I think your grandmother doesn’t like me. She’s super scary.”
“She is merely suspicious, like I am, in fact. We have welcomed you into our home, male, but we do not trust you. If you attempt to harm my family in any way, I will—”
“No need to finish that thought,” Oscar cut in. “I swear I’m one of the good guys. Tell me what to do and I’ll do it, okay? We’re on the same side.”
“Perhaps.”
Samantha led the way into the house, where it was pleasantly warm and the fragrance of mysterious dishes was even stronger. Ute greeted both of them with a smile, hugging Samantha briefly and even waving at Oscar in a friendly way before returning to the kitchen, where she was hard at work watching over several different pots and pans. Oscar put his pack with the day’s haul where Samantha told him to, and then he went out again to wash his hands and prepare for dinner. When he returned, all of the women but Ute were seated at the table.
There was an awkward moment of silence. Oscar had no idea whether he was invited to sit down or not. Laurie was watching him with what he could only classify as hostility, and he wasn’t particularly sure he wanted to sit next to her again.
“Right,” he said, since nobody was speaking up. “Do I, like, go upstairs?”
“You may join us,” Nadja replied. “You worked hard today, according to Sam. For that, we thank you.”
“No problem,” Oscar said. “It was really fun, actually. This place is so different from where I grew up. And Samantha is awesome! I mean, she smacked a forest hound right in the face.”
“What?” Laurie asked right away. “Sam, there was a forest hound?”
Samantha shot Oscar a dirty look. “A small one, but it left.”
“I knew it,” Laurie continued. “It is dangerous to go there. Nadja, you should not let Sam go to the Nightmare Caves on her own anymore. She could get hurt!”
“There was no danger,” Samantha argued. “The male can vouch for me.”
Again, all eyes were on Oscar. Even Ute, who had been busy setting plates, took her place at the table and looked at him intently.
“Samantha… um… was awesome, like I said. Seriously, I don’t think she was ever in danger. She saved me, actually. She’s really strong.”
More silence. It dragged on for a few seemingly eternal seconds before Nadja said, “Sam, please remember to be careful. For your mother’s sake.”
“I always am, Oma.”
There followed a rather uneventful dinner. Oscar was mostly ignored, for which he was thankful. He offered to help do the dishes afterward, but he was again rejected and told to go to his room. He climbed upstairs and sighed with relief when he shut the trap door and could finally relax, alone in the bedroom. He lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and tried to let the tension ebb away from his body.
His link beeped.
Dad!
It was indeed a message from his family, as Oscar was overjoyed to discover when he tapped the notification. Eager, Oscar opened the text document and started to read. He felt warm inside as he read the words his father had written.
Dear Oscar,
I write to you tonight hoping you and your brother are well. Your mother and I have hope, each and every day, that both of you will come back to us safe and sound so we can be a family again. I pray nightly, and I know in my heart I will see you again.
Elias is resourceful and strong. He said he was going to get you back, and I don’t doubt it. However, I know also that you are strong in your own way. Ever since you were little, you have been the heart of this family. You care deeply about others, and you bring a smile with you everywhere you go. Use your strength. Be confident. Wherever you may be, whatever challenge you may be facing, I’m sure you’ll find a way to overcome it.
Your mother is doing well despite the circumstances, and she says not to worry about her. In fact, her health is better than it has been in many years. She is certain that it’s because the world is back to the way it should be, and I am starting to think that she’s right. There is life everywhere, and for the first time since I can remember, I can see something in the faces of others around me: hope for the future.
We buried Sizzra a few days ago. Some people still think she meant to destroy the colony, but I’m not so sure. I think we owe our lives to her, at least in part, even if she didn’t intend to protect us from the other wurl queen.
Some good news: we have started to plant the seeds Elias brought. It’s been done very carefully, with each and every seed treated as a precious treasure, which it is. Your aunt hopes that, if everything turns out the way we expect, we can see the first shoots in a few days. We’ll send you another message when we know for sure.
By the way, I’m trying to keep the messages as short as I can so the file size is minimal and it can fit into a single data packet, in case the satellite has trouble sending more information to your link.
Take care, Oscar. Remember to be strong, and never give up hope.
Your mother and I love you very, very much.
-Dad
Oscar smiled as he turned the display on his link off. Even though he was so far away from home, and he was scared about pretty much everything around him, knowing that his mom and dad thought about him every day made him feel better. He spent the next half an hour dictating a reply for his dad, although he knew he wouldn’t be able to send it. He felt better afterward, almost as if he’d been able to talk with his parents.
He undressed and turned the lights off. He was tired, and he didn’t know if he’d have another nightmare that night, but he closed his eyes with a faint smile still on his lips.
The next morning he woke up groggy, and a brief glance at his link told him it was nearly the middle of the day. Surprised, he got dressed as quickly as he could and went downstairs.
Nadja was sitting at the kitchen table, drinking a steaming beverage from a dainty little cup.
“Good morning, Nadja,” Oscar said. He still felt weird calling such an elderly person by her first name.
“Good morning.”
“Is Samantha around? I’m not sure if I should help her go out for more food today.”
“She is not. She was summoned.”
Oscar felt a needle of worry. “Why? Is she going to be okay?”
Nadja watched him for a moment before answering. “She will be. Out of all of us, she is the strongest. Why do you ask? Are you worried about her?” Her lips curled up in what could have been a playful or perhaps ironic smile.
“Yeah, of course I’m worried!” Oscar answered immediately. Nadja appeared taken slightly aback at his frankness. “I’m worried about all of you. I know some horrible things have happened here in the past, but I also know that we should try to prevent more awful stuff from happening again. We should, like, draw up a plan or something. When Eli gets here, we should be ready.”
“Your brother?”
“Yes. He’s coming for me. He’s coming to save me, and when he meets you, he’ll want to help you too. Just like I do. We can all fight back and get away from here for good.”
Nadja looked as if her gaze were lost in the depths of memory. “Fight back.” She flicked a strand of white hair away from her forehead. The gesture was only partially successful, given that she had used her prosthetic hand to do so. Oscar tried not to stare.
“Um, yeah. So until Samantha comes back, can I help with something?”
“I assumed you would be tired from yesterday. You worked for many hours.”
“I’m fine. I used to help my grandma in the greenhouses all the time when I was younger. I can do some chores, if you want. I learned how to cook when Eli was gone, so I can do that. Or I can clean and stuff.”
Nadja’s expression softened a tiny bit. “You are a very interesting young male. Very well. Come with me. There is much to do, and I could use the help.”
At the beginning Oscar still felt awkward working alongside Nadja and following her instructions. He had no idea where Laurie or Ute were, but he didn’t see them around the house as he assisted Nadja in fetching water from the river, repairing one of the broken shutters from a ground-floor window, and assisting in the surprisingly complex task of hanging up the seaweed strands he and Samantha had gathered yesterday to dry in the sun.
“This is an excellent source of protein,” Nadja explained as she directed him. Her tone was friendlier. Doing the complex work of setting up clotheslines, hanging the dark-green macroalgae exactly right so it would not touch the floor, and securing each with a little pin was obviously hard to do with a prosthetic hand, and Oscar was sure she appreciated his help.
“How long do they last?” Oscar asked, untangling yet another blob of seaweed while being careful not to rip the plant tissues as he did.
“When dry, more than a year. It is good that you and Sam were able to collect so much yesterday. Seaweed is fickle—it may be abundant one day, then disappear entirely for many months. We have yet to understand its life cycle.”
They were done with all of the algae around midafternoon, and after a quick snack that consisted of sweetpod slices and some kind of tuber, Oscar and Nadja worked on dusting off the solar array panels.
“Please be very careful with these,” Nadja asked. She was showing him how to gently remove the dirt and little grit particles that tended to collect in between the hexagonal arrays. “They provide our energy for cooking, lighting, and heating in the winter. They are irreplaceable.”
“Oh, don’t worry, I do this all the time,” Oscar replied.
“You do?”
“Yeah, back home I’m in charge of cleaning the solar arrays on the roof of our house, and I also help my dad at the telecommunications lab, which has a ton of these. Not as old, though, obviously. Do these come directly from the Ionas?”
“They do. We have cared for them diligently for three generations.”
“What happened to that one?” Oscar said, pointing at the only broken panel, which he had previously seen from a window upstairs.
Nadja looked in the direction of the volcano.
“Oh,” Oscar said. “I get it.”
“Thankfully, she appears to think that the panels are merely some kind of amusing toy that keeps us entertained,” Nadja explained. “If she knew how important they are to us, I am certain she would destroy them out of spite.”
Oscar cast a look of his own at the sky, which was thankfully clear and devoid of any large flying shapes. He was beginning to get tired of having to watch out for Dresde at every moment, and it occurred to him that this was how Samantha and her family had lived all their lives. He couldn’t even begin to imagine how awful it must have been.
Oscar focused on dusting the thick reinforced metal casing that anchored the panel he was working on to the ground. He pulled out a weed that was growing nearby and got a very mild zap when he touched the surface of the device with the back of his hand. “Ow! Um, Nadja?”
“Yes?”
“Have you been getting intermittent electricity? Maybe flickering lights in the house? Some machines not working at a hundred percent?”
“We have. In fact our refrigerating unit’s performance has decreased dramatically over the last two years. The terminal in the house estimates that the array is operating at sixty-five percent capacity. How do you know?”
Oscar peered closer. “I’d have to look inside the casing, but I think some of the cables here might be short-circuiting. I just got zapped, and that shouldn’t happen.”
“You can repair the circuitry inside?” she asked, lifting her eyebrows in disbelief.
“Sure, it’s no problem. I downloaded all of the schematics for solar panels last year, so I’d need some time to look for the correct model, and also maybe some tools to open the casing. Do you have any?”
“Yes. There is an old toolbox. Are you certain you know how to work on this, young male? If you could repair our energy source, you would be doing us a great service.”
“It’s really easy,” Oscar said, and he found himself smiling. “I can take care of this.”
“Very well. But I will supervise you as you work.”
Oscar spent the next hour or so familiarizing himself with the appropriate schematics for the solar panels he was working with. They were very similar to the ones back in Portree, with some slight variations because of their age. When he was sure he knew what he should expect, he turned off the entire array and reached for the tools Nadja had brought him in order to open the casing of the panel he had been working on. By this point he was becoming increasingly desensitized to being presented with relic after relic of the generation ship, but he had to gasp slightly as he opened an original shipboard service toolbox from the Ionas engineering section. He realized that, together with the clothes he had been given and the circuitry on which he was about to work, he was essentially going to do the same job as an engineer from the actual ship might have done more than a hundred years ago. It gave him a little thrill.
