Dreamweaver, page 8
Incredulously, I stared at her, my mind spiraling around her words, and my gut burned in response to her callousness, her insults. So, it hadn’t been charity that had made her reach out and care for two orphaned girls. It was because I was an experiment to her. I watched every minute move she made, from the tapping of her fingernails against her knee, to the way her shoes did the same to the floor. Something had her impatient.
“What is it I’m supposed to do?” I asked, my voice hoarse.
“You will find out when we meet again in my office. For now, it’s probably best for you to sleep and continue to heal. Take this time to focus on recuperating. You have been through quite an ordeal.”
“And…” Breathing in slowly, I pressed a hand to my stomach, trying to fight my rising nausea. “And if I say no? That I won’t participate in any more of your tests or whatever it is you’re doing?”
Her eyelids lowered as her gaze glinted, hardened. “Then I would strongly suggest you reconsider. After all, the physical report that cleared you for service and work with the Division of Harvesting was a counterfeit, wasn’t it? An embellishment of your actual physical strengths.”
My throat seemed to close up on me, my lungs spasming as my jaw dropped. She knew. She knew about—
Leaning forward, she trailed a hand lightly across my right leg. “Though it was kind of Spinner Bloodthreader to cover your weaknesses for you, I might not be inclined to overlook such perjury should it become a necessity to address it.” Her expression was flat as she gripped my knee, leveling me with a stare. “Not to mention your sister knowing about the lie and deciding not to report it. And that’s not to speak of the unregistered essence beads that you have been using.”
Biting my bottom lip so she wouldn’t see my chin quivering, I drew away from her, my back pressing into the wall next to me. Punishment. She was going to punish Daneon and Dayja if I didn’t agree to whatever she had planned. They would be thrown into prison, or stripped of their Spinning and Harvesting, or maybe exiled from Idosis. I swallowed heavily against the bile stinging the back of my throat.
“Okay,” I croaked out. “Whatever you want from me, I’ll do it.”
Her hand squeezed my knee once, a painful grip, and then she released me as she sat back. “Good girl. I knew you were reasonable.” Sweeping to her feet, her heels clicked against the polished flooring as she stepped away and waved in a dismissive farewell. “Rest well, Dreamweaver. You will hear from me when it is time to talk again.” She paused beside the door, straightening her cherry jacket, flicking her hair. “And I’m sure this goes without saying, but for the sake of being thorough, if you were to tell anyone about our little chat this evening…” She reached out and strangled the doorknob. “It would not go over well.” Yanking the bolt free, she solartransported from the room in a blinding flash, leaving a crimson ghost that was burned behind my eyelids every time I blinked. The door yawned wide, empty.
Flow rolled her eyes. “That’s my cue to go, I suppose.”
“Hold up,” I pleaded as she strode away. “I don’t understand what’s going on. What is she asking me—?”
Flow’s braid sliced through the air as she whipped around, snarling, “Did you not hear her, Enea? Be silent.” And she was gone, marching through the doorway without so much as a backwards glance.
In the few minutes it took for my sister and then Aro to slowly trickle back into my room, hesitant and silent, I was a trembling wreck.
The bed sank as Dayja sat next to me, setting a cool palm to my brow, her face almost as anxious as my own. “En? What happened? What did Commander Flow want?”
But I turned away, curling into a ball around the tight knot in my gut, and closed my eyes.
Chapter Seven
If I had to reject a message from Dane one more time, I was going to drop my solarband into the garbage disposal and turn it on.
It didn’t help my frayed nerves that Dayja was pacing the length of our apartment’s hallway, speaking in hushed tones to Aro on her own solarband, tattle-telling on me that no, I hadn’t eaten anything since I got home from the hospital the day before, and no, it didn’t look like I had been sleeping, either. The bags of goodies Aro had dropped off the day I got discharged were still sitting on our small kitchen table, untouched for the last two days.
“No, she won’t tell me anything,” Dayja all but whined into the screen as she stalked past my room again, her steps careless and heavy. “It’s driving me crazy!”
“You’re making me crazy,” I shouted out at her and heard her huff of annoyance in reply, followed by a muffled message to Aro that I couldn’t quite hear as she rounded into the living room. Resuming my study of the cracks in my bedroom ceiling, I lay on my back with my arms behind my head, counting the seconds between when I needed to blink. My entire room smelled of the healing paste that I had been given at discharge, like rosemary and lilac blended together, belying the sharp sting that accompanied its application to each of my stitch-riddled wounds.
When my solarband rang again, announcing an incoming message, I growled, intending on finally answering Daneon and ripping him a new one for not taking a hint and leaving me alone.
“Incoming message from the office of Chancellor Kaya Allones,” my solarband announced and I stiffened. Jolting up made me flinch, but I ignored it and scurred over to my bedroom door, shutting it and twisting the lock into place. “Accept,” I whispered to my band, striding to the far side of my little room. “Low volume.”
A pinch-faced secretary appeared on my hologram display, her curly hair spilling out from the bun she had tried to tame it into. “Harvest Dreamweaver, please report to this address tonight at nineteen hundred hours. Instructions for entry will be delivered to your personal inbox; please be advised that any sharing of this classified information will result in penalties.”
The message ended, the hologram blipping out, leaving me in the silent dark.
“En?” Dayja’s knuckles rapped against my closed door. “En, you okay?”
“Yup! Like I said, you’re just bugging me.”
“Seesh,” she grumbled. “Sorry for caring.”
A twinge of guilt shot through me as her footsteps receded. I knew she only meant well, that she cared about me; sometimes, that caring led to her being a little overbearing, but to be honest, I didn’t usually mind it. However, right now, I needed her to not pay me any attention, so I could go unnoticed to meet up with the Chancellor.
Looking to my solarband, an idea struck me, and I swallowed. Waking up it up, I tapped to Daneon’s name, calling him back.
“Oh, you’ve decided you’re talking to me, now?” His voice rolled through the air, and I tried my best not to react to it. And failed.
“Can you please get Dayja away from me?” I didn’t mean to sound so irritated, but the words were out, so too late for that. “I’d like to be able to take a nap without her breathing over my face. Can you take her out and force her to go do something fun? If she gets any more tense, she’s going to snap.”
There was a stunned silence that pressed against my ears for a long moment. “Wait, what?”
“Please,” I said. “I’ll pay for it. Take her out, Dane, or I’m going to bodily shove her through the open door of a steamtaxi and tell the operator to not stop driving for three hours, no matter what she threatens him with. I could do it, too. I’ve been saving up. I’ve got quite the stash to bribe with.”
“It’s not going to be necessary to have your sister abducted,” he said dryly. I knew he was rifling through the pages of his patient cases on his desk, probably rubbing at a headache building beneath his skull. Now I felt bad for pestering him into unknowingly helping me sneak out.
“Never mind—” I started.
“I’ll give her a call, get her out of your hair for a while. You’re welcome.”
The line closed abruptly, leaving me standing in my room alone. I blinked at my ceiling, reorienting myself. Then I pressed my ear against my door, holding my breath so I could listen more carefully. I could hear Dayja’s solarband ring from where she was no doubt clutching a couch pillow to her stomach in despondency. Her voice drifted back to me, hesitant and surprised. When I heard her utter the death-toll words of “I don’t know…”, I shoved my head into the hallway and shouted down to her, “For the love of gold and glory, Dayja, go! You’re suffocating me!”
Five minutes later, she tied her boots on and stomped out the front door, making sure to slam it on her way out so I could register just how irritated she was with me.
Didn’t care at the moment. I was busy stuffing myself into the newly issued uniform that had been delivered for me that morning. My bruises ached and my stitches felt like tiny jaws biting into my skin, but I ignored it all, shoving my feet into my new boots and lacing them up as fast as my finger could go, nervousness making me fumble. No sooner had I stood back up, slipping my glasses back into place after tying back my braids, then my solarband dinged. My heart pounding, I scrolled through the directions that I received, frowning in confusion.
I was going to have to head to the town next to ours, Kanty. It was a business-heavy town that hosted a flock of skyscrapers ringed by townhomes and apartments. Further out of the town’s core, the outskirts abutted the coastal line that drew alongside the Doest Sea. For whatever reason, the Chancellor demanded that I make it into the heart of Kanty and up to the sixteenth floor of a specific skyscraper.
The roar of Dane’s vaporbike carrying my sister away from our apartment startled me back into the moment, and I lifted my head. I watched the pair speed around the corner outside of my window, taillights trialing behind them. Buckling on the last straps of my leg brace, I yanked my pant leg down and scurried down the hall, snatching my jacket as I slipped out the front door. With a swipe of my solarband, I locked the door behind me and practically tossed myself down the spiraling staircase to the parking alcove beneath the building.
Thanks to Daneon, the new vaporbike I owned would carry me without any problems to Kanty. The motor purred to life, mist spiraling out in its wheel sockets, and I zipped out onto the streets, merging with the skyway. The small blinking arrow in the visor of my lighthelmet directed me, estimating the trip to take me the better part of two hours.
Luckily, I had playlists to draw on to pass that time, and without Dayja there to complain about my choice of music, I sang along with every single one.
By the time I exited the skyway, a thunderstorm had rolled in, breaking loose and soaking through my clothes and gloves. Lightning diverted most of the traffic from the skyway from the main roads to smaller side channels, clogging them with impatient drivers. By the time I managed to weave my way downtown into the heart of Kanty, the minutes were shaving close to 1900, and I knew I was going to have to run to make it. I wouldn’t put it past the Chancellor to banish me from the entirety of Idosis if I showed up late or impose a fine that I wouldn’t be able to afford.
Following the directions streaming through my solarband, I wheeled my vaporbike into a parking stall around the edge of the hulking structure. I had to crane my head way back to take in most of in. Countless windows glowed through the drizzle from the towering construction; the top levels of the building were swallowed by the storm clouds that swarmed overhead. I felt incredibly small in the glow of the streetlight that tried its best to throw back the gloom of the evening.
Shaking myself, I forced myself through the revolving door—I didn’t have the time to take any of this in. I needed to get going. Once I reached the elevators, I waited for them to glide open, checking the instructions on my solarband again, before punching the buttons along the wall in the order that I was directed to. The doors slid shut.
“Stat your name,” instructed a smooth female voice from the ceiling.
Nervously, I looked around at reflections of myself at all angles from the mirrored walls, cringing a bit at the fluorescent harshness against my stitches. “Uh… I’m Enea Pell.”
“Name registered. State your business intentions.”
“The Chancellor ordered me here?”
“Please wait.”
My eyes stung a bit from the brightness of the box I was in. Apprehension coiled inside of my body, and I forced myself to breathe deep, count to three, and let it go slowly, purposely relaxing my right leg and arm. I didn’t want my muscles to start spazzing out now.
A click, and then a second voice drifted down from the ceiling. “Dreamweaver,” said the Chancellor, her tone tight and annoyed. “I thought I made it clear that you were to come alone.”
The hell was she talking about?
“I take it from your unattractive gawping that you were unaware of being followed.”
Taken completely aback, I caught sight of my reflection and bit down on my protestations and questions. I went rigid when the elevator doors drifted back open, the polished lobby opening up before my bewildered searching.
My eyes snagged and caught on a familiar form standing there, dripping a puddle of water onto the shiny floors. “Dayja?” My voice squeaked in my complete surprise. Then I saw the long-legged figure next to her, scowling my way. “Dane?”
“We caught you!” Dayja stomped my way, a stiff finger pointed directly at me. “I knew you were being sneaky! Your left eyebrow twitches when you’re hiding something. What are you even doing here? You’re going to explain to me what’s going on and—what?” She faltered, registering what was written on my face.
“Dreamweaver.” The Chancellor’s voice struck behind me, stabbing down from the elevator’s speakers. “Bring your guests with you. We’ll discuss the penalties for breaching your instructions when we’re done here. Make it quick, you’re already late.”
Dayja’s jaw dropped towards her shoes. “Is that—?”
Dane snatched hold of her elbow, hauling her forward with strong strides that brought her into the elevator before she could recover from her shock and protest. The doors closed once again, and the carriage lifted, floating soundlessly up past several floors. Though I didn’t look directly at them, I knew my sister’s gaze was pinned on me, and Dane’s was too.
“En.” Dayja poked her elbow into my side. “Tell me what’s going on. Was that Chancellor Allones we just heard? Why are you meeting with her? What’s happening?” She took hold of my hand when I didn’t look at her, squeezing my fingers gently. “Hey. Come on, talk to me.”
Pressing my lips together in a thin line, I didn’t say a word. What could I say to her? That I had no idea what was happening? That I was only here to keep her and Dane from being punished for helping me out when I asked them to? How in the world was I going to be able to keep them safe from the Chancellor herself?
Dane finally spoke. “Leave her be.” My sister stilled at my side, but she didn’t let go of my hand.
When the elevator opened once again, it was on a floor that wasn’t listed on the directory. A plague on the wall listed it as the nineteenth-and-a-half floor, and when I stepped out into the black marble hallway, dim lights flicked to life overhead. The walls were ridiculously shiny, like black mirrors that showed my sullen body language and my sister’s nervousness and Dane’s suspicious glare. There was only one room to head for, the bright blue door at the end of the hall wide open, like a beckoning hand. I glowered at the paintings that lined the hall, disliking the macabre subjects of people screaming in pain or ugly crying in emotional agony. The chandeliers that lined the way dripped red and blue glass, throwing off flickers of color that were absorbed by the dark marble.
“Listen,” I said under my breath, hoping the other two would actually heed what I had to say. “When we get in there, don’t say anything. Not a word. No matter what happens.”
Dayja whipped her head towards me. “But En—”
“I’m serious.” Clearly, she could see the panic written all over my face because she shut her mouth and nodded. Whether or not she’d be able to stay silent was another matter altogether.
When I marched through the open blue door, I fought to keep any of my uneasiness from showing. The pastel yellow room beyond made me feel like I had walked into the center of an egg, and I grimaced as I looked around at the sterile furnishings and abundance of yellow daises filling yellow vases everywhere I looked.
It certainly didn’t help the atmosphere to have Cay sitting there, halfway slumped out of a yellow chair like he himself was turning into melted butter.
“Well, shit,” he said by way of greeting when he saw me. The bruises that peppered his skin and the stitches that in a disturbing way matched mine made me shudder. He wore a new uniform too, his too-shiny boots swaying back and forth as he wagged his toes. “You look terrible, Pell.”
“You’ve always looked terrible, so, this just may be an improvement for you,” I said back.
“I’m not here by choice, so don’t try and attack me this time, or I’ll hand your ass to you. I’m not in the mood to scuffle.”
“You could try.” I rolled my eyes, dismissing him.
He noticed my sister then, straightening himself to his feet so quickly I thought he’d snap his spine. All his swagger was gone, replaced by a dweeb-ish insecurity that was almost painful to witness. “Oh. Hi Dayja.” One hand ran across his scalp, brushing his white ponytail.
“Cay, what’s going on?” She set her wide eyes on him, and he was helpless.
