Chapter 6

The more time went by, however, the more it seemed like getting away from Gimlet by going to New Castle would not be possible. He did not come by every day, but he did come by frequently. Sometimes I was able to get out of it by staying after lessons and asking questions until the sun went down, but then that left Gimlet more time to talk to my companions. Bit by bit, glance by glance, I could see him worming his way into their graces.

Until one evening I found myself sitting with Gimlet, Beka, Raikan, and Moron under a tree in the yard, with Moron going on and on.

“…unless you become a Bench Dog, Jack, or you actually might be better as a Rover! Then with me as the RCFer, Beka as Thaumaturge, and Raikan as Second we could secure clearance to go as far as the Wilmot Valley!” Moron had gone all glassy eyed. “They say there are whole landfills and junkyards buried under layers of Mount St. Helen’s ash that haven’t been touched in over a century. Just think of the discoveries!”

Gimlet mulled things over, “And they pay top price for this stuff? These ‘Grancestor Finds’?” Moron nodded enthusiastically to the affirmative. Gimlet shrugged, “Just not so sure about any position that likens to an extinct animal. Bench Dogs. Rovers. Doesn’t sound like a position with high life expectancy. I could be the RCFer; considering I’ve been up and down the coast more than half a dozen times, I’d say I probably know it a bit better than you.”

Moron shook his head, “No, see that’s why you’d be a better Rover, someone like Tabby Porter. Rovers are all about exploration and travel. Retrochronofanters are the scholars of the expedition in charge of identifying technology and figuring out how it works.”

“Tabby Porter? Who’s that? Some tour guide?” Gimlet snorted.

Beka laughed, “More like Finnias’s crush, and he hasn’t even met her in person!”

“I have too! There was that time at the Explorer’s party where I was demonstrating my Arboreal Escalier. She was kind enough to climb up and unhook me after the darn thing jammed.”

Beka rolled her eyes, “So why would we be putting you in charge of getting technology to work correctly again?”

Moron took a dignified posture, “Because I have a patient yet inquisitive mind, unlike some whose methods of ‘fixing’ machines includes strapping on steel-toed boots and kicking them!”

Beka shrugged, “It worked didn’t it?”

Moron sighed and rolled his eyes back to Gimlet, “Tabby Porter just happens to be one of the most famous and successful expedition Rovers in the city right now. If even half of her stories are true, then she’s been across the Plains of Ruins to a formerly unheard of civilization, survived everything from dire turtles to wild elf attacks, and no one, not even a Regular’s eagle eye can out shoot her with a bolt rifle. She and her crew, Lithium Shrike, Averly Fox, and Cuthbert Qa’la, have made some of the most significant finds around New Castle to date, including evidence of retrochronatic societies similar to New Castle. They were the first yondering to affirm the existence of Tien Hong! And that is why you would be such a good Rover, Jack. You know the outdoors. You know handy obscure things, like engines. And you know how people really work.”

Gimlet grinned, “Can’t argue with that.”

“What would Lorus do?” I asked. All eyes swiveled to me. It was the most uncomfortable I’d felt in three months.

“Well…uh…”Moron stalled in the middle of his vision.

“You could be my backup,” Gimlet gave me a thumbs up. “A good front man is important, but unless you have support and your back secure, any mug can just sneak up and whack you.”

“Are you sure?” Beka wrinkled her nose. “No offense, but Lorus is kind of…delicate. Adventuring might not really be her thing. Once you two are settled in New Castle, she may not want to venture out.”

Was Beka kidding? Delicate? And here I thought she was the smart one of the group! I could feel my face begin to burn. It was one thing to work up a proper concern and urge to protect in these people. I was beginning to think it had gone too far.

Gimlet nodded as though Beka had said something very wise, “That is true, Beka. Well, what do you say then Lorus, you can keep a nice, tidy house for me and the gang, and we’ll bring you back all sorts of pretty trinkets and baubles.”

“No!” I shot to my feet, startling even quiet Raikan. “No, Lorus will not be a housekeeper. Lorus will not be part of someone else’s plan!”

I fumed. Moron and Beka actually had hurt looks on their faces. Gimlet clucked and shook his head like a disappointed parent. My hands shook at my side. What should I do now? If I attacked Gimlet, what little sympathy and pull I would have with his now devoted fans would be gone. If I stayed silent, they would take it as a tantrum and forget it just as quickly. I pivoted on my heel and limped off.

I could still hear Gimlet talking unnecessarily loud as I left.

“I told you all. Lorus isn’t much of a joiner. Doesn’t take well to people. She’s kind of a wild thing, you know.”

I made it to the housing blocks before I had to stop and lean against a wall. My endurance was getting better, but it was still only in bursts. There was a gray-haired woman in a black dress, with a strange dangle of elaborate chains at her waist, each ending in a different odd accessory, sitting on one of the benches, gloved hands folded in her lap. She seemed familiar as her beady black eyes assessed me. I supposed she’d seen the confrontation between myself and Gimlet. Angrily, I straightened and turned on her.

“And who’s looking at Lorus?” I growled.

She eyed me coolly, “I beg your pardon?”

I huffed, “Who are you looking at Lorus?”

She took her time answering, “First of all, my name is not Lorus-“

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“Lorus knows that!” I snapped. “Lorus is Lorus! Who are you?”

With a sniff the woman drew a small, flat metallic case that seemed to be hanging from the jangle of chains at her waist. With a flick of her thumb she snapped it open and produced a small, flat paper rectangle, which she then handed to me.

“I, besides being someone who knows how to properly form a question and answer, am Irinia Crane, Second to Warden Catalyn Forsythe over Ward One,” she answered then continued with a tight smile. “And I am to be the evaluator of this next batch of applicants all hopeful to become New Castle Cogs. I will judge who is suitable to be let into the city.” She pursed her lips, “And who isn’t.”

Later on, safely tucked completely inside my blankets and rolled into a ball, I pondered whether it had been anything I had done to get myself into this situation. Where had I gone wrong? Everyone started out on my side. How did Gimlet reel them in so quickly and so easily? Later when Moron and Beka came by to apologize for leaving me out, I considered emerging from the blankets, crying to them, maybe even trying to explain to them again who and what Gimlet was really like. As they yammered on though, I knew deep in my heart it was already too late. They were not my friends. They never had been.

This meant all of my plans of moving into New Castle to start a new life had to be scrapped. If Jack was in New Castle, I would not be. Even bands of wild elfs would be better than falling into his hands again. If I went along with it, this new group of people would willingly drop me into his clutches. However, if I blew my chance to be admitted to New Castle, I might never get it again. It was a very big city. Gimlet said it was like a wilderness in its own way. Once I got in, I could hide. That was something I was always very good at, even if I couldn’t run.

All night I tossed and turned. The immigration exam was in a couple of days. Would it be better to cut my losses and flee back to the wilderness, or should I do my best to gain admittance and hope beyond hope I could find some hidden niche in New Castle to carve out an existence? Beka and Moron must have taken my increased crankiness as worrying about failing the exam as their faces got more and more concerned, and they spoke to me less and less about moving to New Castle.

One day Moron even said, “You know Lorus, if you don’t get in this time, it’s not the end of the world. Plenty of immigrants have to try two or three times. And you could always come live in Arsenal in the meantime. Jack even said he would wait up if you didn’t make it the first time.”

I sighed and put my head down on my desk, “Moron, stop talking please.”

The exam had two parts: correct identification of common symbols and signs seen around New Castle, what they called ‘words’, and then one on one interviews in the afternoon. I thought I had done all right with the symbol identification. I knew which colors meant it was okay to cross a city trail, a road. I knew to look for red crossed sticks for medical, a mortar and pestle for a chemist for medicine, an owl for city enforcement drawn from the Regulars, a lizard for the ward salamanders where they safely kept coals alive for households, and a spoon for the Cog Kitchen where all registered cogs could collect their rations and grog for the week. There were more, but I felt for sure these were the most important ones.

Nurse Jane ran our exam, calling out the location, leaving the lined up examinees to raise the correct sign. Behind her Irinia Crane and the Captain sat taking notes of our answers. I felt a bit odd watching the Captain. There were a few times where she glanced up at me then her eyes slid sideways to Irinia’s check sheet then back to her own as she gnawed on a corner of her lip.

By lunch break I was exhausted mentally and physically. During the pause, some of the younger girls decided to take up playing Red Canary, and soon I found myself unwillingly pulled in by Beka and Moron.

“Oh don’t be such a sour puss, Lorus,” Gimlet smirked, giving the brown-haired girl he’d used before to send messages a pat on the head. “Take pleasure where you can find it. It helps take your mind off unpleasant things, like not doing as well as you thought or not getting what you want.”

I was more interested in the fact that the Captain hadn’t left the classroom but had made some excuse about paperwork to stay behind. Gimlet had an exceedingly pleased air about him today. I stared hard at him, trying to figure out his angle of being all nicey-nice, worrying about how I was doing in exams. If I didn’t make it into New Castle, that would certainly mess up his plans of gaining custody of me. Or did it?

…The door is wide open,

But the bird won’t fly.

Along comes a kitty cat and bye bye bye!

The red pebble slapped into my hand. Blinking, my head shot up, looking around the circle. In a second the brown-haired girl would turn around and point to me, catching the pebble. Then I would be put in the cage. I felt the world slow as brown-hair girl turned, her locks flaring out in the sun, teeth bared in a wide grin. She already knew where the pebble was. Of course it was a set up. Either way I would lose. Either way Gimlet would catch me. The game was over before it started. Like heck it was.

“The bird is there! You’ve got the canary!” brown-hair girl pointed and giggled. She couldn’t help but look over for approval from Jack who winked at her. I opened my eyes wide and held up both of my hands, palm up, empty.

She blinked, and then stared hard at me.

“Where is it? I know you’ve got it, Lorus!”

I spread my hands and arms even wider, shrugging, “Lorus no have. You got?”

She huffed and put her hand on her hips then lunged for me patting about my hips and waist.

“I know you’ve got it, Lorus! You’ve stuck it in your pocket or something! Stand up! I bet you’re sitting on it!”

I obliged, slowly climbing to my feet to show I wasn’t moving or stashing the pebble anywhere. Then I suffered the indignity of being frisked, up and down, every pocket, arms out, legs spread, she even went through my hair and looked in my ears. Uncertainly, she turned back to the rest of the circle.

“She doesn’t have it?”

But now everyone else was staring about confused as well. Gimlet was looking particularly hard at me. I smiled wide like a cat with a good meal and gestured discreetly to brown-haired girl.

“Psst! Come. Lorus tell you where pebble went.”

Cautiously, she came over.

“Closer!” I whispered.

She stepped up, looming over me.

“Closer!” I hissed.

She leaned in.

Winding up like a sneeze, I slammed the top of my forehead into hers.

“ACHOOOO!”

Brown-haired girl wailed and flailed backwards, holding her forehead and staggering back and forth. The group erupted into surprised laughter though everyone quickly tried to politely stifle it.

“She head-butted me!” she sobbed, burrowing her face in Gimlet’s shoulder. There, let him deal with his clingy, dependent groupies. If he liked people so much, it shouldn’t bother him to take care of them. As for me, they were too much trouble. I shrugged, pretending to be embarrassed.

“Sawy! Lorus allergic to butt-heads. Lorus go blow nose now!”

Then I trotted off back to the classroom. When I got to the steps, I slowed. Irinia Crane was sitting there. She had probably been there the whole time. I considered saying something to her, trying to explain why even though she just watched me head butt a little girl in the face she should still consider admitting me to New Castle, but I couldn’t think of a good answer really.

“Lorus,” her voice halted me in my tracks just as I opened the door. Irinia hadn’t even bothered to turn, “What did you do with the red canary? Where is the pebble?”

I could have kept walking, but a sneaky trick like that is only fully enjoyed when someone else knows what happened. Still, this was the proctor after all.

“Let’s just say the canary probably won’t be able to return home for a few days.” I could feel myself begin to cat-grin again and licked my lips despite myself. Irinia’s head turned in my direction, and as I disappeared in the door, I thought perhaps she laughed.