Chapter Seven

The Company of Savages

Osara led them into an elongated bed chamber. Two four-poster beds were positioned at opposite ends, with two dressers and a row of oaken cupboards arranged between them. A dinner suit was lain out on one bed, and an evening gown on the other. Agloff glided towards the former, drawing his finger across the quilt. He pressed his fist into the bed, and it seemed to sink into its embrace for an eternity. He cast an eye to the side, where bags of clothes had been lain out for him.

The servant departed and Agloff watched as Ariea dug into one of her bags, inspecting each item with a distasteful look furrowed in her brow. Agloff had no interest in unpacking anything, however.

‘What’s up?’ she said after a long silence.

Agloff bit down on his lip. He felt Ariea watch him. His temples bulged from the sides of his head and a shot of adrenaline chilled his extremities. He couldn’t be held back, even for this. He had to go on. He had to tell the truth.

‘I can’t stay long,’ he said. ‘I have to do this.’

Ariea cranked her neck ninety degrees to face Agloff. ‘Oh?’ she said, folding a shirt to the side. ‘What do you have to do?’

Agloff’s throat tightened. He forced his eyes to meet hers. ‘Marty knows where she went, Ariea!’ he professed. He thought if he said it with enthusiasm, it might spread to her. That she might share in this feeling.

But Ariea only smacked her lips and turned to fold another shirt. ‘So, why don’t you go ask him then?’ Her voice was so calm, but it wasn’t pleasant. She scoffed, turned to face the wall opposite Agloff. She sat like a schoolgirl, her back poised.

Agloff copied her. ‘What’s wrong?’

Ariea tucked a strand of hair behind her ear and considered Agloff. ‘That you don’t know is the funniest thing. You sit there in your own little world.’

He was confused. What had he done? Was he even supposed to know? He had thought she would join him. Away from Fall. Away from Oxford. Away from all of it. But he saw none of that in her. Agloff kicked himself back along the bed, knocked his head against the headboard, like a petulant child banished to his room.

‘I’m sorry,’ he said in ignorance.

‘Sorry,’ Ariea repeated, as if she were digesting the word. ‘You’re sorry. Hmm.’

‘I never told you,’ he said. ‘Drake said to me what happened. My mum had this work partner during the war. This guy called Tomas Wise and when—’

Ariea stood. ‘You don’t get it.’

‘—he had my brother. He took him away! He’s alive!’

‘What’s wrong with you, Agloff? You think Fall is just gonna let you walk out after everything he did to get you?’

‘With Marty’s help, we can do it.’ His voice was desperate. But he sensed the tide was against him.

Ariea scowled. ‘We?’

‘I thought we would go together.’ He dragged himself across the bed, perching himself on its end.

She scoffed again. ‘Oh, you did?’

‘I didn’t think you’d like it here.’ Agloff’s confusion set in deeper.

‘That’s not the point, Agloff. You keep missing the point. It’s shit here. It’s shit at March Town. It was shit at Backwater. But you just think I’m gonna just go, so I can help you find your brother? Listen to yourself. What about my life?’

Agloff wanted to mutter, What life? What did Ariea have anymore, but for him? Wasn’t he her best friend? Her only friend? But he held his tongue. He knew they were empty words. Words he would regret. Words he did not mean. Words he would never mean. ‘We’d be able to do what we want!’

‘What you want,’ Ariea said. ‘And you don’t even have a clue how to get out. For all we know, this place is a maze.’

‘Marty will help us.’

He could see the frustration burn in her cheeks. For every argument Ariea had, Agloff trotted out his riposte. A flash of anger flickered through her features. Fear even. It stirred between her eyes. Fear of Marty. For a long time, she said nothing.

‘Do you remember what it was like when he was at Backwater? When he used to come visit us?’ she probed.

It was Agloff’s turn to pause. ‘Not really,’ he said.

‘Then let me tell you.’ She sat again, her back straight, as if hoisted by some imaginary string. ‘Because I remember an ill, angry man who would invite himself into our home. Would threaten my father. Would shout the house down. Would send me crying up to our room because I was terrified of him. Who came and took my best friend from me. You don’t realise what it was like for me.’ Her lip trembled. ‘How much I used to dread his visits. How I happy I was he never came back.’

Agloff thought about moving towards her. ‘I… I didn’t realise,’ he said. ‘I’m sorry.’ It was a part of Marty he had always batted away beyond memory or awareness. All that mattered was he had known his mother, that he might one day have helped Agloff find her and Eron. But now he saw himself. His shame there in her eyes. And a tight feeling grew in his chest.

‘You’re always sorry. And you never realise. Agloff. Think about someone other than yourself for a goddamn second.’

He tried for some honesty. ‘Since I’ve been old enough to think, I’ve waited for them, Ariea. You don’t know what that’s like. Every night I go to sleep, I think about it. I… I just need it. And when Drake showed me…’ Agloff reached a hand to his pocket, and he produced his mother’s letter. It never left his person. He unfurled its folds and looked at the words. ‘…Showed me this. You don’t know how much it means to me.’

Ariea stared at the floor. ‘It’s a wild goose chase, Agloff! Can’t you see that!’

Agloff stood, fists clenched, a measure of assertion about him. A fragile confidence he had found within himself.

‘It’s not a wild goose chase. It’s not.’

This time Ariea laughed wildly, almost deranged. ‘And why’re you so convinced? Intuition? You know in your heart?’ she said. ‘Piss off, Agloff.’

Agloff’s eyes flared. ‘Ariea, look at me.’

And Ariea’s eyes narrowed to slits, her face alight. ‘They’re dead, Agloff! They died, years ago! Dead or chose not to come back. As dead as we are in here and look at all the good leaving Backwater did for us. You happy? We’re stuck here forever. Prisoners. If you can’t see that, then…’ She cracked her neck, tilting it towards Agloff as she made to stand. Her rage swelled. ‘The food. The clothes. They’re buying you off. You are stuck here! Your brother is dead! Or keep being deluded, I don’t care anymore.’

Agloff sighed. ‘I have felt an alien everywhere I ever stood. I practically was one in Backwater,’ he said, thinking of how Drake had told him he was regarded. No more than a pit stain, eager to be cleansed. Agloff walked towards Ariea, his head leaning in towards her shoulders, his voice suddenly scarce. ‘I’m lost. Can you understand, Ariea, how much I need this? To… I need them. Wherever they are. It’s… I need to know.’

‘Agloff. You had a family with me and dad.’ Her voice was soft again.

Agloff’s teeth tugged on his lip and there was an unsavoury pause. ‘But you’re not—’

Ariea laughed. ‘Don’t you dare say that to me.’

‘—my blood family.’

Ariea howled with laughter and Agloff stood down from her. ‘What am I? To you?’ She rubbed her brow with the tips of her fingers. She looked tired, as though her resentment had begun to age her. ‘Am I your… sister, friend, best friend, more than? Hell, acquaintance? Because why did I come here with you? Doesn’t look like I’m leaving. Either I’m here forever or I get thrown out when Fall realises he doesn’t need me. After all, it’s you he wants, Agloff. You’re his precious treasure. His Winter deterrent. Will you stand up for me that time? Like I did for Merry and Memphis. And the time after that, and the time after that? Because they won’t care about me, no. They only care about you. And you know the worst thing, even after all this you still don’t even know what the problem is. You still haven’t asked.’

‘What did I do?’ he said.

With slow and deliberate steps, Ariea moved closer. ‘My dad,’ she said. ‘My dad died… He raised us…’ Her voice began to break. He saw the broken glint of tears in her eyes. ‘And now he’s gone, and you never said so much as even ‘sorry’ then or… I don’t know, ‘how are you feeling?’, or ‘is there anything I can do to make you feel better.’ It was like you didn’t even care, after all he did for you!’ Ariea voice tumbled into a growl. There was no hiding her rage now. It burned through her. Her eyes were feral. ‘Even Oxford did more than you. He asked. He did that thing down by the river. It’s just the gesture, just to know he cares. You didn’t say a thing!’

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She paused. She waited. She waited for him to say something, here and now. But Agloff just sank into himself, collapsing back into his bed. His jaw lowered. Air came but no sounds. He wanted to say something, anything, but he wasn’t entirely sure he knew what to say and, even then, if the answer in his mind was the one she wanted to hear.

‘If you had to choose; them or me.’ Ariea swallowed. Red rings burned around her eyes. Again, Agloff’s throat clutched on absent words. ‘Wow. I suppose fourteen years of being your best friend counts for nothing when you’ve got a ‘real’ brother.’ Agloff sank deeper. ‘Don’t say anything to me. Just don’t.’

It was worse than anger; it was disappointment, an expectation that Agloff was more than he allowed himself to be.

Osara’s clumsy footsteps led into the doorway, her shadow cast between them. ‘Dinner,’ she stuttered. ‘The Governor requests you wear the clothes provided for the engagement.’ Her slight frame bowed to each of them.

‘I’m not wearing that,’ snapped Ariea, and nor was Agloff, ‘but I’ll tell Fall where he can shove it.’

They were led from the guest chamber and up the sloping corridor that jutted off from the main hall, where the table was set for them at the banquet. Agloff noticed white-clad guards peering through hollow windows on a platform raised above them. The taut figure of Governor Fall was perked at the far end of the table. His flowing robes spilled onto the floor. His chair was a throne, nearly twice as tall as he- angular, and veneered in gold. ‘Please, sit,’ he said softly. His face split into a wide smile. Ariea and Osara chatted as the latter led them through.

To Agloff’s surprise, someone else was already sat down.

Marty Naples was hunched over the table, brooding as he gripped his fist. His once-blonde hair was greying and thin. Lines Agloff did not recognise were etched into his face. He looked no kinder than when Agloff had last seen him, eight years prior.

‘I believe you know each other. Marty Naples, my Keeper of Wars. Commander of the 174th Confederate Battalion, veteran of the Battle of Ku.’ Fall declared with characteristic pomposity. Agloff gave a stiff nod of recognition, unsure how to react. He moved to sit as far from the Governor as was polite. Ariea waited for Agloff to seat himself before moving to the opposite end of the table.

‘Lily, would you like to join us?’ Ariea offered a curt grin to Fall and pulled out a chair, nodding to Osara, who looked terrified at the offer.

‘Who on Earth is Lily?’ Fall snorted.

Osara raised a hand to her shoulder as she shuffled towards Ariea. ‘That’s my name, Sir.’

‘Oh, well, who knew,’ the Governor said. Osara took his lack of refusal as permission that she might be seated and placed herself between Marty and Ariea. She grabbed a handful of roast potatoes and smothered them in gravy, catching Fall’s disgusted eye.

Agloff stared down at his own plate. Suddenly, the meats and pastries that awaited him, proudly stacked into perfumed mountains, were uninviting. The spasms in his stomach yielded to jolts of shame. Hunger traded in for butterflies. He shuffled in his seat; arms drawn across himself. He was no longer hungry. Nor was he happy to see Marty as he had imagined. The endless questions Agloff had expected to occupy his mind were absent. He wanted to crawl within himself and watch the world to pass him by.

Marty raised a timid hand. ‘Ag. Ria,’ the old soldier said with a hesitancy.

Agloff stole a look at Ariea but she turned it away, deep in conversation with Osara.

‘Agloff, I’d like to talk to you about your integration into life at the Underground,’ Fall began and Agloff could sense it was another one of his monologues. ‘You will become an esteemed and respected citizen, I am sure. You will be living …’

Biting his lip, Agloff stared at Ariea, Fall’s words falling out of focus. He automatically grinned as he watched Ariea and Osara share a joke. Ariea spared none of her words for the table.

‘…Anyway, I sincerely—’

‘Actually, Governor, Sir,’ Agloff said with courage. His eyes still lingered on Ariea. ‘Respectfully, I think I’m a little tired tonight and I’d just like to see my friends… if that’s alright?’ He thought of Merry and Memphis’ company. Weirdly, it was theirs he craved more than anything right now.

Fall choked on his wine, taken aback. He failed to suppress a scowl, shot a glare at Marty. The veil of endless smiles and pleasantries lifted. Agloff knew if Fall could not flatter him into submission, he would surely bully him. All the more reason to leave.

‘Naples, take him up,’ Fall said.

Agloff hastened to his feet and scarpered over the marble in a direction he did not know where it led.

‘Not there,’ growled Marty. ‘With me.’ He drew a walking stick from beneath the table and struggled towards one of the chamber’s many other exits. Gingerly, Agloff followed, unsure of the socially acceptable distance to which he should keep. He took one last look at Ariea, who was certain not to return the compliment, and followed Marty out of the hall.

A door slammed behind Agloff, and he was led into a low corridor, passed two porters and a procession of guards. Marty headed up a slope away from Fall’s palace into a circular staircase. Slowly, their homely surroundings were traded for chipped paint and steel grating: the beating heart of the Underground. Marty held his silence for a long time, pressing his shoulder against the wall to guide his ascent. Agloff offered an arm of support but Marty batted him away.

‘Leave it,’ he said, jabbing his free hand in the air.

‘Sorry,’ Agloff said. ‘Just trying to help.’

‘Well, leave it,’ Marty repeated. It was the strangest of reintroductions. But Agloff had expected nothing less.

Marty’s breath rasped with every step, haggard and uneven, like there was a lion purring in his lungs. ‘The hell are you doing, Ag?’ he said. It seemed a lot of people were thinking that today. He thought better than to argue; he waited for Marty to explain himself. ‘Did a hell of a lot to get you here, Ag. Now, first thing you’re pissing Fall off to go talk to some strangers you met a day ago. You’re better than that. The closer to Fall you are, the safer you are. People in these parts aren’t fond of strangers. I know. But down here, you’re secure, fed, watered, clothed… forever.’

‘And a prisoner,’ Agloff pointed out, hanging on Marty’s last word. ‘Wait, you were the one who got me here?’ he added.

‘After a fashion. Is it really a bad thing you’re a prisoner? Best thing you can do for yourself is nothing. I’ll smooth things with Fall. What happened between you and Ria?’ Marty asked, amused.

‘She hates Ria.’

Marty smiled. ‘Well, I hate being old, but what can you do.’

Agloff shrugged. ‘How did you notice that anyway?’

‘You’re kids. It was obvious,’ Marty said.

He pointed for Agloff to go left at the next landing, marked 94. It hadn’t felt like they had traipsed six floors. Agloff noticed a checkpoint across the landing, where guards in capes were inspecting the residents’ privileges. Marty told Agloff that the people rarely left their floors except for work, only on holidays. He jested the floors were isolationist nations within an isolationist nation.

Marty stopped to reached an arm to Agloff’s shoulder. ‘So, what happened with Ariea?’

‘She thinks I’ve become obsessed.’

The old soldier raised an eyebrow. ‘With what?’ but Agloff was sure he knew.

‘This whole thing with my brother. Before I left Backwater, Drake told me mum wasn’t who she said she was. I need to know.’ Despite the days he had to digest this information, the nights he had spent thinking of little else as he willed himself to sleep, Agloff still didn’t know what he should think.

‘That’s understandable,’ Marty acknowledged. Agloff was unsure whether this was a reference to his obsession or Ariea’s festered resentments.

‘Give this thing with Ria time,’ Marty continued, ‘Boring, I know, but it’s the truth. When you’ve given it, I think you should apologise. And after she’ll either want to reconcile and talk it over, or not. Don’t force it. I speak from experience.’

Agloff knew little of his days before Colony Two, as a respected man of the Confederacy, a man of war. Maybe the Underground had done him good.

Marty herded Agloff left. A guard waved them past a checkpoint into one of the main lifts that served all one hundred and four floors of the Underground, and all four of its HabComs. All four HabCom were individually-resourced and populated silos, spanning every floor, Marty said. And every few floors there were tunnelled walkways between silos, border points, strictly forbidden for civilian use. Agloff asked the reason for this, but Marty replied that there wasn’t one. It was control for control’s sake. It kept people in their places.

Marty ordered it to the surface and the cage rattled in obedience. At once, the layers of rock began to flow past them.

‘What happened, Marty?’ Agloff asked frankly. He was in no mood to skirt around his point. ‘Why did you go?’

Marty puffed his cheeks. ‘When your mum left, she asked me to find someone to look after you. I did for a couple weeks, but when it was clear your mother wasn’t coming back, Drake and I we arranged for something more permanent.

The lift rattled and Agloff fell against the walls of the cage in search of support. ‘You advertised for a parent?’ Agloff asked, unsure as to whether he should be disgusted.

‘Michael seemed the most competent, and he had a daughter the same age as you. Made sense. All I said was ‘don’t ask any questions’ and ‘treat him well’.’ Marty sniffled, his nose twitching and Agloff noted his eyes dart around, scanning the lift in perpetuity, out of habit no doubt.

‘Did you threaten him?’ Agloff quipped. His mind harkened back to Marty’s angry tirades.

‘Yes,’ the old solider said simply. ‘Said he just wanted someone for Ria to play with.’ Again, Agloff corrected him; again, Marty ignored him.

‘How did you end up here?’ Agloff recalled Marty had developed a certain infamy with the people of the Back End of Backwater. A lonely, angry man.

Marty smiled. ‘You were doing great,’ the soldier said. But it brought Agloff no satisfaction. Then, there was a sudden weakness about him, and his face slackened. ‘I was ill,’ he added, ‘if you remember.’

‘I do.’

Marty’s eyes appeared to drift as his mind was called back to some darker place. ‘One afternoon I came in and Michael just said to me. Said I was scaring Ria, scaring you. Something needed to change. I mean, he was a tremendous listener.’ Marty rubbed his fingers together thoughtfully. ‘When you’ve lived among high society long enough and you trade that for a place those same people call a prison, one might expect the company of savages. But Michael Finland was a true gentleman.’ Marty paused for a deep breath. ‘I had to leave, you see. I can get my meds here. The doctors here make me better. Not many people in Backwater had access to one. I certainly didn’t.’

‘Does anyone in the Colony?’ Agloff complained. Most small town ‘doctors’ were simple vagrants, passing themselves as travelling physicians.

‘Quite. Michael suggested I leave, and I agreed. I knew of the Underground. But the rigour, the regulations, the order, the structure- it felt like something I could get used to. Miller vouched for me here, and I’m forever grateful.’

‘You know Lietuenant Miller? You’re close?’

‘She is one of the most tenacious, brilliant people I have met. I care for her greatly. Speaking of…’ Marty produced a small radio from his hip and called for Lieutenant Miller. He exchanged words with what sounded like fits of static to Agloff. The radio fizzed something that sounded like ‘floor nine’ and Marty thanked her.

A moment later the lift ground to a halt, ejecting them into an untidy plaza. The residences and markets jutted off to one side, and the mess hall to the other. A flock of children flooded from a building on the far side into the tiny expanse of their world and Agloff was jealous of their ignorance. The plaza hissed and crackled with the buzz of life and machinery, its boiler-suited occupants turning through another day in symbiosis, like this whole place was one giant organism. Above the boxy buildings, walkways sprawled in every direction under the smitten haze, clanking under the weight of footsteps. It was as if the world was obscured behind a monochrome filter, Agloff noted, and its pungent notes were tinted just as stale. A mosh pit of humans, riper than ripe.

Marty flashed a card at one of the guards who nodded them through. He then drew back the cuff of his sleeve and flicked through a screen that looked soldered to the back of his hand.

‘Your friends are in a block just across from the kitchens. When you’re done just head straight back down the lift we came from,’ Marty said finally. ‘I’ll see that Fall cuts you slack. Good to see you, Ag.’

‘Marty,’ Agloff called as the soldier turned to leave.

‘Yeah?’

The words were almost lost on Agloff’s lips, but he steadied himself, his heart threatening to tear through his chest. It was a question he had asked himself a thousand times and more but never aloud, as though it were forbidden for some reason. Now was the time, he convinced himself. Now, today. This moment. This was why he had allowed himself into this place, to find Marty.

He had to just say it.

‘Who was my dad?’

Marty did not react for a second. Then his breath began to shake.

‘I made a promise to Andromeda. It’s her secret to tell. Or his.’