Awakening (27 page)

Two more meters to go, and she saw with horror that Abran’s grip was weakening. He was sagging from the rock and Petiri looked terrified. Japara screamed again, the sound going on and on.

Risa hovered close, looking miserable that she couldn’t help. Kayla flung over her shoulder at her, “Tell the woman to shut up!”

Risa ran toward Japara and grabbed her, dragging her bodily away. Kayla lifted her voice, shouting against the storm.
“Abran!”

Somehow her cry reached him. He repositioned himself, wedging his shoulder against the rock to free an arm while keeping the boy between him and the rock. As quickly as she could, Kayla sent out the rest of the length of bar to Abran.

The end of the bars kept dancing away from Abran as he tried to reach for it. Kayla pulled the bundle in, then fed it out again upstream, once, twice. Abran finally lunged for it and got hold, but lost Petiri, only grabbing the boy’s shirt at the last moment.

Abran was turned toward her; she had no idea if he could see her. His face was a dark blur in the downpour. He had to give up the slim safety of the rock now, to trust her strength to be enough against the raging pull of the creek. He wrapped his arm more securely around the boy. And pushed away from the rock.

The jolt seared along her muscles and tendons, tore at her shoulders. Despite Garai’s hold on her, she tipped precariously forward, felt her feet slip forward on the muddy bank. Her joints roared with pain.

I can do this. I can do this.

She pulled against the driving creek and Abran and Petiri’s weight. Hand over hand, she reeled in the lifeline a centimeter at a time. Abran and Petiri bounced in the water and she was terrified Abran would lose his grip.

Would the bars hold? Three together had to be enough.

Then with a sudden lurch, the bank gave way under her feet and her shirt tore from Garai’s grip. She was neck deep in water, and only her fingertips thrust into one of the straps wrapped around the bars had kept her from letting go. Trash beneath the surface of the creek—pieces of fallen tree limbs, rocks small enough to be pulled along by the water—slammed into her and threatened her grip on the plass bars. Something hooked the necklace Abran had given her and snapped it off her neck, nearly toppling her under the water.

Infinite help me.

Behind her, Garai flung himself onto the muddy bank and wrapped his arms around her chest. His mouth close to Kayla’s ear, he said, “Save my boy. Please.”

Garai lifted her so the water only reached her waist. Ignoring the debris smashing against her, Kayla dragged at the plass bars again, pulling, heaving their length in as Crevan caught what she fed him. Abran came closer, closer.

Petiri rode on Abran’s shoulder, fear-filled eyes fixed on his father. But Abran looked barely alive, as if his every resource were being used up in saving the boy.

Finally, they got close enough to the shore that Crevan could snag the boy. Risa rushed over to help Garai get Kayla and Abran from the water. Garai flung Abran over his shoulder and ran for the truck.

Kayla swayed, her cold-chilled legs betraying her. With an
arm around Risa’s waist, she and Risa stumbled along to the bay of the lorry. The others were already inside.

“Use your chutting circuitry, girl,” Risa yelled as they flopped into the lorry bay and out of the sullen downpour. The doors clanged as Risa shut them, cutting them off from noise and the day’s dim light.

Her brain must have been made stupid by the cold. She turned on her warming system, then slumped against the nearest stack of plass bars. Risa vanished, then a few moments later the illuminators came on in the bay.

Kayla spotted Petiri in his mother’s lap, heaped with some of Risa’s store of packing blankets. He shivered violently, but his eyes were bright. Garai had his arms around both his son and wife.

Abran sprawled several feet away. Crevan had piled blankets over him.

Kayla’s circuitry had warmed her enough she felt merely cold, as much as she could hope for until she could get into dry clothes. But she didn’t like how still Abran lay.

She pushed herself up and woozily made her way over to him. Crevan shot her a worried look.

“Thought that circuitry of his would toast him right up,” the lowborn said.

“It should,” Kayla said.

She dropped beside Abran and took his hand under the blankets. It felt like ice in her relatively warmer fingers.

“Warm yourself, Abran,” Kayla said.

He turned his face toward her, but seemed confused. “Can’t,” he said. “Nothing there.”

Now a new chill shivered up her spine. “Your circuitry isn’t working?” she asked. “You can’t warm yourself?”

“Nothing there,” he muttered. His gaze strayed to her neck. “Lost it. Better that way.” His eyes drifted shut.

She thought at first that he meant that the water had somehow damaged his circuitry. Then she realized he meant the necklace. But why was it better that she’d lost it? She was sorry it was gone. Although keeping the necklace would have meant nothing if she hadn’t saved Abran.

And if she couldn’t get him warm, she might still lose him. He was in far worse condition than Gemma had been. And Gemma had had her circuitry to help.

“Give us some privacy,” Kayla said to the lowborn man.

Crevan walked over to where the others were focused on Petiri. Risa was squirming through the hatch with a large flask, likely filled with kelfa drink heated in the flash oven.

“Hand that off,” Kayla said as Risa passed her. “I need a dry shirt and leggings.”

Risa gave the flask to Crevan, then went back to the sleeper. Meanwhile Kayla tugged off Abran’s sodden clothes. She was about to pull his clout from his hips, then decided to leave him a little dignity. She piled the blankets on top of him again, but he still vibrated with the cold.

When Risa returned, Kayla stripped off her own shirt, leggings, and socks. She left on her wet skivs as well, unwilling to strip naked with such an audience. Those last scraps of fabric were soaked, but her circuitry-augmented body heat would dry them eventually. She tugged on the thick tunic and winter leggings Risa had brought.

Risa held out Abran’s prayer mirror. “He’ll want this.”

Abran might not be able to speak to the Infinite in his current state, but the Creator of the creators would be able to
see Abran through its reflective surface. Kayla took it, then noticed the mirror’s odd plasscine backing had indeed cracked. She wondered if there was storage for a small keepsake inside, if that was the purpose of the case. Maybe a lock or two of hair from his nurture mother and sister.

“Best you take care of that boy, the way you did with Gemma,” Risa said.

Kayla knew she had to, knew her warmth would restore him better than a hundred plasscine blankets, but she hesitated. The reality of lying beside him, so intimately close to his near-naked body, seemed impossible.

Risa poked her. Then as if sensing she needed the privacy, walked off toward the hatch. Kayla lifted the blankets and slid under them.

She fit herself against him. He felt like ice, not like a living thing at all. He’d stopped shivering too, but not because he’d warmed up like Gemma had—his body was so cold it was shutting down.

She moderated her temperature higher and higher until she felt nearly feverish from it. His violent shivering started up again until she almost couldn’t hold him. She nearly sobbed with relief when the shuddering slowed, when his skin lost its clamminess.

His circuitry must have finally kicked in. He felt nearly as warm as she. So warm, so comfortable that she couldn’t resist the tug of drowsiness brought on by exhaustion.

She was startled awake by Abran’s voice. “They told me I didn’t have to.”

His eyes were open and turned toward her, but he still seemed dazed.
“Who
told you?” she asked. “Told you what?”

He reached a trembling hand up and pressed it against her cheek. It still felt cool, but quickly warmed against her hot skin.

His gaze roved across her face, lingering on her tattoo. “It’s beautiful.”

His fingertips traced its pattern on her cheek. Her breath caught in her throat. Then he leaned closer, pressing his mouth against hers.

It seemed strange and wrong at first, especially knowing the lowborns were there, and maybe were watching them. But then she shut off her mind and let her body take over. Her heart thundered in her ears and she felt so impossibly hot she feared she would burn him. But he didn’t seem to notice. He kept his body pressed against hers, the kiss going on and on.

“GEN girl!” Risa’s voice calling from the hatch jolted them apart. “Going to drop this crew off, then on to Daki sector. For that reprogramming.”

Kayla glanced up at Risa, caught the worried look on the lowborn woman’s face before she shut the hatch. The sense of wrongness settled again in the pit of Kayla’s stomach, even as her body still tingled from Abran’s nearness.

She realized he’d sagged back and fallen asleep. His chest rose and fell with deep even breaths. He shivered a little with her having pulled slightly away from him.

She lay down again and wrapped her arms tightly around Abran. Setting his prayer mirror where his hands were clutched to his chest, she increased her already feverish heat. Abran’s shuddering eased.

The lorry bumped as Risa pulled away. The motion jostled Abran even closer to Kayla, and her stomach churned. Abran’s kiss seemed to still cling to her mouth.

As a thirteenth- and fourteenth-year, she’d let more than one GEN boy steal a kiss from her in a Chadi sector alley. She’d been too young for it to feel good or bad—mostly it felt silly. The boys would sometimes grope her, but they were her age, and just as ignorant as she.

Then along came Devak. His kiss had been serious business. She’d not only felt it with her body, but with her heart.

Why not with Abran? Her body had said yes, had wanted it. But somehow it hadn’t seemed right. Because she had no real feelings for Abran? Or because she still had too many for Devak?

She couldn’t, wouldn’t think about it for now. Instead she turned her mind to the intrusion in her bare brain, welcoming the distraction. Like probing a sore tooth, she followed the familiar neural pathways within her to that infuriating brand on her bare brain. Then she explored the other lines of programming that seemed to weave within her annexed brain like a tightening net.

She felt helpless to solve the problem of Abran. But she would demand answers from Junjie in Daki sector. And if Junjie couldn’t help her, she’d go all the way to Zul himself.

D
evak upped the speed of the wiper blades on his AirCloud’s windscreen, squinting through the buckets of water the heavens flung down at him and Junjie. He’d programmed the route into the lev-car and was letting it handle navigation, but the vehicle’s onboard computer could only adjust so well to the buffeting of the fierce winds. He’d grabbed the wheel more than once, just to have something to hang onto.

Beside him, Junjie seemed to be handling the rough ride by fidgeting with a datapod, flipping the thumb-sized device over and over in his fingers. Devak’s gaze kept straying to Junjie’s nervous gesture, a distraction from the way the lev-car rocked and yawed its way across storm-ravaged Daki sector.

It wasn’t so much Junjie’s twiddling fingers that distracted Devak, it was that datapod. It contained the upload for Kayla, to correct the intrusion in her bare brain. Once they got to the Daki safe house, Junjie would meet up with her, would press that datapod against the tattoo interface on Kayla’s cheek. He’d probably touch Kayla since Junjie didn’t give a rat-snake’s tail
about the rules against trueborns touching GENs. Or maybe he’d just hand over the datapod and let Kayla do it herself. Their fingertips might still brush.

Junjie’s gaze narrowed on Devak. “You’re thinking about her.”

“I’m not,” Devak lied.

“Then why not come with me?” Junjie asked. “Why not see her?”

Devak side-stepped the question with one of his own. “Why risk being seen entering a safe house when I have no business there?”

Junjie swapped the datapod to his other hand and resumed flipping it through his fingers. “Yet you drove all this way, just to give me a ride here.”

Because Devak couldn’t resist being at least that close to Kayla, even if he wouldn’t actually see her. “If Jemali had brought you, you would have had to go with him on his rounds, attending to the Scratch-infected. Or he would have left you stranded in Daki safe house.”

Junjie smirked. “Too bad you can’t take my place, so you could be stranded in Daki with Kayla.”

Great Lord Creator, he could think of nothing he’d like more. But then the memory of Kayla walking so close beside that GEN boy intruded. Devak could see Abran fastening that necklace around her neck, as clear as a vid in his mind’s eye. “I doubt Kayla even wants to see me. We’ve completely cut ties.”

It was what he’d wanted. What they both wanted apparently.

Junjie glanced over at him and Devak could see his friend formulating a new line of attack. Devak cut him off. “Anything new with Guru Ling?”