Chapter 46:

Mayah reached up to touch her shorn head, trying not to pout. She had liked her hair. Why had the serf woman cut it off? Her hair gives her away. Did that mean Mayah’s hair had been too Rajas-looking? She had gone to one of the best castle stylists to get it done. Anything to not stick out. Although Mayah had also just liked how it looked.

Now it was gone. At least the woman had cut Mayah’s bangs short enough that they didn’t poke into her eyes under her glasses. That would have been so annoying.

“We’ll be staying here in the crosspoint for a bit,” Vek told her. “Get changed, then sleep, if you can. After this, we won’t stop until we get to Sukren. Also – you should take your glasses off. Serfs don’t wear glasses.”

Mayah obeyed, turning around to change into the castle serf uniform Vek handed to her. When she was done, she handed her village suit to Vek, who packed it into a pouch at the bottom of one of the fishnets. Mayah then pulled off her glasses and tucked them into her pocket. After lying down, she picked up her new identification booklet. If she held it right before her eyes, she could make out her new serf name: Iroa Kaduk.

Kaduk, she thought. That means my patron’s name is Duk. While Sukren… Mayah tried to remember what his last name had been. Kanan? Kaner? Kanari, that was it. Nari. Lady Nari, it had to be.

Lady Nari, Mayah thought again, and then to her surprise, she yawned. Sleepily she tucked her papers inside her pocket next to her glasses. The next thing she knew, Vek was touching her shoulder, shaking her awake. “Let’s go.”

She got up at once, wrinkling her nose. Even without the glow of the breathflowers against the darkness, it would’ve been easy to find her way to the fishnets – they stank. Curling her lip, Mayah pulled one of the fishnets onto her back, fitting the straps on by feel. She could hear Vek doing the same thing next to her.

Once they were done, she followed Vek out of the crosspoint into the larger forest, where the lambent breathflowers and leaves continued to shed light onto their path. Vek didn’t speak except to tell her which direction they were going, but Mayah didn’t mind. She wanted to think now, not talk. Lady Nari. The name sounded familiar somehow.

All of a sudden a memory came to her, of light slanting through blue panes of bioplastic – of the excited screams of other serf children as bags of citrus fruit were passed around – Lady Nari they said, Lady Nari gave this to us, our village’s patron lady, Lady Nari –

Mayah’s heart was pounding. She was standing in her mind’s eye at the edge of a balcony, looking down on her past from a soaring height. If the shadows from the bio-dome above moved, if the landscape beneath her feet shifted, if the tiniest of changes was made, it would all click into place, and Mayah would understand, she would see the line that threaded through it all…

A mocking male voice in the castle serf pidgin shattered the image in her mind. “What are two Chenta serfs doing traveling so late at night?”

Mayah felt Vek stiffen. She peered over his shoulder. Two blurry Eenta soldiers were striding towards them. She squinted, trying to bring them into focus. Her eyes widened when they came close enough for her to see the serf prod in the male Eenta’s hand; she took in a quick, sharp breath. Was this actually a mobile checkpoint unit? Or were they soldiers sent after her, the runaway Rajas?

If Mayah let herself believe they were there specifically for her, she would panic. So it had to be a normal checkpoint unit. Just a normal mobile checkpoint unit. A regular old unit. All she had to do was pretend to be a Chenta servie girl, and they would leave her alone.

“Stand next to each other and show me your papers!” the male soldier barked. Hoping her hand wouldn’t tremble, Mayah stepped forward and pulled out her travel pass and booklet. She chanced a glance at Vek. There was a hard look in his eyes.

“What’s that stench?” the female Eenta soldier commented, clapping one hand to her mouth and nose. She held a capacitor lamp in her other hand. “Dolan, what’s that smell? It’s like rotting fish.”

The man snorted. “We’re standing next to two dirt ta, and you’re asking me where the smell is coming from?”

Mayah kept her gaze on her sandaled feet. She did not look at Vek.

“So, Iroa, you’re traveling to Stoneset Quinter, are you?”

Mayah nodded.

Without warning, the serf prod came smashing down onto her left arm. Electricity buzzed through Mayah’s nerves. She stumbled against Vek. Surprise at the very experience of physical pain washed through her.

“When I ask you a question, you will speak up, and speak respectfully. Now, Iroa, your pass says you’re going to Stoneset Quinter. Is that true?”

“Yes, Soldier,” Mayah whispered, barely managing to keep the bewilderment out of her voice. “Yes, Soldier, I am.”

Very surreptitiously, she touched her right hand to her left forearm, and discovered it had no sensation. Panic spiked through her, but she forced herself to hold still. After another lingering, too-long moment, the Eenta soldier moved onto Vek, and Mayah quietly let go of the breath she had been holding.

“So, you’re delivering fish to Stoneset Quinter?”

“Yes, Soldier,” Vek responded promptly. Mayah dared a glance at him and saw the Eenta soldier step up so that his face was right in Vek’s.

“Why are you taking rotten fish to Stoneset Quinter?”

Stolen novel; please report.

“I don’t question my orders, Soldier,” Vek said softly, and yet there was a hint of belligerence in his voice. Mayah saw that both Eenta soldiers heard it. The woman had been examining Vek’s and Mayah’s papers under the light of her capacitor lamp – she looked up. The man began swinging his serf prod.

“Maybe you spent too many days out here, and the fish started decaying because you weren’t fast enough. Gilta,” he snapped at the other Eenta soldier, “check the stamp codes. Make sure their passes were issued for tonight.”

“They look good to me.”

Mayah tried to direct her thoughts at the male Eenta soldier. Yes, it’s all good. Let us go. Please.

The feeling was slowly coming back to her left arm. She tried to wiggle her fingers but froze when the Eenta soldier pulled back from Vek. Her eyes flicked over to the serf prod in his hand, but the soldier did not hit her. Instead, he yanked Vek forward, in front of Mayah.

“I think there’s something fishy going on here.”

Not funny, Mayah thought. She took a step back as the Eenta soldier circled around so that he was between herself and Vek. She stifled a gasp when he pulled out a bioplastic knife. Holding it up high, the soldier hovered over Vek’s shoulder. Then, without warning, he slashed through the fishnet on Vek’s back. The fish flopped across the forest floor, silver blue with dead eyes and mouths that were open as if surprised to find themselves spilling into the open air. A stench ballooned outward. Mayah flinched as it assaulted her senses.

“It’s just fish,” she heard Gilta say. “Look, there’s nothing but fish.”

“Shut up,” Dolan snarled. “You know this doesn’t add up. They’re hiding something!”

“Nobody’s hiding anything, Eenta,” Vek said softly. A smirk played on his lips as he emphasized the term. “You’re going to leave empty-handed.”

Mayah heard the sound of the serf prod before she saw Vek reel under its impact. A series of blurred images flashed before her eyes: the Eenta soldier’s face twisting in rage; the prod landing against the back of Vek’s legs and Vek buckling; Vek pitching forward, the fish stitched into the lining of his net lending enough weight to send him flying headfirst.

Vek was quick enough to catch himself on his palms, but then the Eenta soldier slowly and deliberately smashed the serf prod against Vek’s right arm, then left, sending Vek to his elbows.

“Pick up the fish, dirt ta.”

Mayah’s left arm ached in sympathy as she watched Vek’s bandaged hand grope for an ever-surprised fish. The one he reached for first was a little rounder than the others. Mayah hoped that Vek would be able to lift it up by curling his fingers around it.

But then the Eenta soldier brought his serf prod down on Vek’s knuckles. “Pick it up!” he barked. He looked like he wanted to lay the serf prod into Vek’s back, but there was the torn fishnet in the way, its ripped ends trailing onto the ground. In the light of the capacitor lamp, Mayah saw Vek flush, his face contorting as he tried, and failed, to move his numb fingers. Then she saw the serf prod raised high in the air, above Vek’s head.

Before she could stop herself, Mayah was shouting in the castle serf pidgin. “How can he pick up the fish if you keep hitting him? Are you stupid?”

I’m dead, Mayah thought, as the Eenta soldier turned his furious gaze to her. He tossed the serf prod to his other hand and stepped over Vek. Mayah tried to keep her face calm but she knew her eyes were wavering – it hurt, the serf prod hurt – and she could still barely feel her fingers – and the Eenta was coming closer and closer – he was right in front of her –

The Eenta’s hand shot out. With the fishnet on her back hampering her movements, she couldn’t avoid him, couldn’t do anything as he forced his thumb halfway into her mouth, as he gripped her jaw with his hand, as his fingers dug into the soft part of the flesh under Mayah’s chin. Tears sprang into her eyes as he yanked her jaw down and forced open her mouth. Then he held the serf prod up. It was pinched between his fingers as if he were about to jab it forward.

“Open your mouth more,” he purred and Mayah’s eyes widened as she realized what the Eenta soldier meant to do. In a flash Mayah understood why Vek, despite all his Free Serf defiance, had reached for the fish when ordered to. What choice had he had? Tears of humiliation pushed out of her eyes as Mayah opened her mouth wider and let the Eenta soldier jab the serf prod straight to the back of her mouth.

It filled her mouth completely. The electricity buzzed its way through her tonsils, into her throat, numbing her lips, tongue, gums. For several seconds, the Eenta held her in place as she struggled to pull away. Finally, finally, he removed the serf prod, a smirk on his face. Mayah’s mouth was left hanging open and she realized, her innards twisting and her face burning, that there was spittle on her chin and cheek, that she was drooling.

“Dolan? Are you done? Dolan, please!”

Dolan turned to castigate his fellow Eenta soldier. “You always get weak-kneed whenever punishment needs to be administered,” he snarled. “Shut up and wait for me to be done. These dirt ta haven’t picked up the fish yet. We don’t want them spoiling the bio-dome with their carcasses. I want all the fish picked up. Now!”

Mayah jumped at his words. She scurried over to where Vek was still kneeling on the ground, his arms curled helplessly into his body. She slipped her fishnet pack off and used her good arm to stuff into it as many fish as she could.

“Faster! Faster!”

Vek began helping her the best he could, pushing fish towards her with his numb hands. Together they filled Mayah’s fishnet to bursting. When they were done, she tried to tell Vek to take off his own ripped pack so that she could tie its ends together, but her tongue lay fat and useless inside her mouth. She pulled at Vek’s fishnet with her hands. Thankfully, he seemed to understand what she wanted.

“Hurry up!”

“Dolan, come on –”

“How many times, Gilta? How many times do we have to go over this?”

The Eenta soldiers continued to argue. Mayah paid them no heed. Pick up the fish, she told herself. Pick up the fish. Soon she had mended Vek’s fishnet the best she could. She was about to return to her own now-bulging pack, but Vek stopped her. “Switch packs with me. Yours will be too heavy for you now.”

Mayah pressed her unfeeling lips together as Vek pushed himself up off the ground and crawled to her pack. She was glad her vision was blurry. It was hard to watch Vek fight his own body. But fight he did. Sweat shone on his face as he threaded his arms through the straps and forced his legs to lift him, trembling, into the air.

The Eenta soldiers had stopped arguing and were now looking at Vek and Mayah, satisfaction in the man’s eyes, strain in the woman’s. Go away, Mayah thought, as she bent to pull Vek’s torn pack onto her own back. Go away and leave us alone.

“Line up and receive your papers!”

Mayah did as she was told, stepping up next to Vek so that Vek wouldn’t have to move. When she tried to lead the way forward into the forest, however, Dolan stopped her. “Your passes say you’re going to Stoneset Quinter. Go through the greenhouses until you get to the greenhouse next to the shelterbelt. You can cross into the Xhota urb at that point. There’s no need for you to cut through the forest.”

Mayah swallowed. Her numb tongue was thick against the roof of her mouth. She looked at Vek, but his gaze was fixed on the ground. Not knowing what else to do, Mayah held her hand out to Vek, and turned around. Step by step, she and Vek returned the way they had come.