Creatures of Snow (33 page)

Sara gave a loud shout as the ship lurched
and grinded, “Look!!” She shouted, “We’re moving!”

Sky could tell she wanted to rip her
restraints off to get a better look, but honestly, aside from the
bridge, she had the best seat in the house.

“
Have you never been to
space before?” Lee questioned with a mild amusement.

“Are you kidding, I had
hardly been on a transport before the start of the school year!”
She laughed, her wonder filled eyes glued to the show beyond the
glass as the greens and brown of the ground retreated as they made
there quick assent towards the black of space.

They kept silent, out of
respect for Sara, as she saw their planet for the first time just
like the stars saw it. As Archaios became smaller and smaller out
the window the look on her face was not just awe, but relief. She
had finally gotten away.

His mind drifted as they
cruised on towards the jump gate, but kept going back to what Soul
had said. He was the son of a Fury. It explained so many things.
Like why he always felt like such an outsider, and why his mother
had killed herself. It might even explain why Sara detested him -
her people’s natural enemies were the Fury.

A laugh from Sara brought
him out of his musings. He rubbed at his eyes, not sure if he had
been dozing. But, when his eyes had opened, he was sure he had seen
Lee’s hand withdraw from Sara’s. The thought of them holding hands
briefly while he was spacing out sent a firestorm of rage through
his belly. A flash of Lee in agony with a knife in his back assured
Sky that his anger wasn’t his own. These weren’t his thoughts. He
had to relax. He had to center himself.

Stop it.
He told Zar.

You think these living
beings are your friends, prince? This ginger giant is trying to pry
into your thoughts, you are lucky I am here to stop him. All he can
see and hear are your pitiful feelings.

“
Sky.” Lee’s calm voice
called to him. “You have become troubled.”

That girl, she is afraid
of you. Terrified, actually.
Zar laughed
in a guttural growl.
Oh how I would love
to see how brightly the Blue Star can burn.

A new rush of resentment
swept through him. “I’m trying to focus, just give me a second
man.” Sky breathed deep and pushed the thoughts away.
Shut up!
He opened his
eyes to see Sara and Lee staring at him in a fearful wonderment.
“I’m fine. Really.”

“
You broke the table.”
Sara nodded towards the section of table directly in front of him.
A large chunk of the thick stone was missing and had somehow ended
up in his hand.

“
A little glue should fix
that right up.” He didn’t remember doing that.

“
That was solid stone.”
Sara’s eyes darted between him and his hand.

“
It wasn’t that solid.” He
set down the piece in his hand slowly, “It’s old, probably
fragile.”

“
This might be more
serious then we anticipated.” Lee was genuinely concerned with his
eyes trained on Sky.

Sky stared back. He didn’t
like the way Lee was looking at him. As if all of a sudden, he
didn’t trust him. “It’s no big deal. I’ve just got a lot of pent
up…anticipation.”

“
What were you thinking
about?” Sara looked at him quizzically.

“Why?” He didn’t mean for
it to sound so defensive.

A look of offence overtook
her look of concern, “Furies find triggers in your subconscious.
Thing’s that make you uncomfortable or angry, and they feed off it
to control you. But, since you’re so positive you’ve got it under
control you probably don’t need my advice.”

“I’m sorry. I didn’t
mean-”

“You have nothing to be
sorry for, Sky.” Lee reached across the table and grabbed firmly
onto his shaking hand. “A lot has happened to you.” His glanced
sternly towards Sara, “We need to be sympathetic towards that. This
all must be very hard on you - it is a lot to take in all at
once.”

“Thank you, Lee.” He hoped
it sounded sincere, because in his heart it was. But in his mind
all he could picture was the disgusting things that Lee and Sara
probably did when he wasn’t around, intermingled with all the awful
and torturous things he could do to Lee to make him pay for
it.

Lee pulled his hand slowly away, trying to
smile politely.

“
I’m sorry,” Sky
whispered, horrified at his thoughts, “it’s not me.”

“I know.” He nodded, but
Sky could tell he was now thoroughly uncomfortable.

“Don’t.” Sky grabbed his
head and squeezed his eyes shut. He bent over and let his head hit
the cold of the table. “Don’t talk anymore.” He had to clear his
head and being strapped in a chair next to what was apparently his
‘trigger’, wasn’t helping.

Sara leaned forward, “Sky, look at me.
You’re mind is being played with right now. You need to push that
thing out of there.”

“I’m trying.” He pressed
his forehead harder into the table, gritting his teeth. He needed
happy thoughts. A distraction. He needed to get out of the damn
room.
Zar, you jerk, knock it
off!

He heard a sharp inhale of
breath from across the room.

“
From far away, across the
sea,

I saw an old man looking
back at me,

and he told me son you’re
far from home,

come tell me why you drift alone,”

Al sang out loudly, the acoustics in the
commons bounced the lyrics merrily around the room, “and I
said,”

Sky forced himself to lift
his head, mouthing out the first few words before his voice caught
up.

“
I’m searching, searching
for my love,

I lost it to the sky above,

but it crashed back down and I saw it
fall,

into the sea in a fire ball.”

It was an old folk song
his dad had taught them and had always been their battle cry when
things got bad – but usually it was Al who was the one in need of a
good chantey.

He and Al belted out the next few verses as
loud as they could as Lee and Sara drummed their hand’s to the
beat. When the last words of the song faded into a melody of
laughter Sky stole a look of thanks to Al.

“
What a wretched song.”
Roland shook his head with a look of horror.

“Watch your mouth; this
isn’t your classroom anymore.” Sara hissed.

“
Did you listen to the
words? It’s about a man slowly going insane after his wife dies
when her ship crashed.” Roland looked between them, “I don’t see
how that should cheer anyone up.”

“
Because,” Al shrugged,
“It makes us glad we’re not him.”

“
That’s
demented.”

Sky heard the ding of the intercom and his
excitement rose – they were out of interspace.

“All right kiddos,” The
Captains voice came over the speakers, “Your belts have been
unlocked, and you’re free to move about the ship. And by move about
the ship, I mean, stay in the Commons until we say
otherwise.”

Sky bolted up from his seat and headed
across the room towards Al.

“
Not so fast, slacker,”
Zero stepped into the room and pointed to Sky, “You’re with me.
Come on.”

“Seriously?” Sky spun
around. It was if fate itself was trying to prevent him from
talking to Al.

As he slumped out the door
after Zero, he couldn’t help but notice the lingering concern that
was hidden behind Lee’s mild expression.

“We’ve got a special
mission for you.” Zero growled with a bit more cheerfulness then
usual.

“You know, whenever I hear
that from you I always end up cleaning something.” He hadn’t been
on the ship in almost a year, just the thought of what kind of mess
awaited him made his heart sink.

Zero led him to the lift,
passed the living quarters, and down to one of the lower levels
near the cargo bays. It was a part of the ship he was rarely let
into, but that only strengthened to his suspicion that he was about
to receive the worst assignment in history.

They reached the end of a long, narrow
corridor that was lit only by the occasional bubble light, and were
greeted by a large steel door.

“
Supplies are already in
there,” Zero just couldn’t stop the menacing smile from creeping
across his face, “and it’s all I could find so you’ll have to make
do.” He heaved open the door and flicked on the lights.

It was a large, mostly
empty room, with a large glass tank in the center.

“Ugh! When’s the last time
anyone’s been in h
ere?” Sky wrinkled his
nose a
t the smell as he looked around. The
musk in the air was thick enough to chew.

“
Probably not since we
stopped shipping live sea creatures. Soooo, seven years, give or
take.” Zero answered, leaning his weight on the door
frame.

“You guy’s didn’t even
drain this thing, did you? You just let it evaporate.” Sky walked
towards the tank, his repulsion growing the closer he got to it.
The build up of scum and years of neglect was clearly present over
every inch.

“
Yeah…Have fun with that.”
Zero shrugged and kicked a small bucket that contained nothing more
then a small brush, a sponge and sample sized bottle of
soap.

“
Wait, what?! You’re
helping with this, right?” Sky called out, but Zero was already
gone, the door clanking shut behind him.

“I seriously hate my
life.” He mumbled to himself, eyeing up the tank with a look of
utter disgust. Taking off his shirt and rolling up his pant legs he
was only left to wonder what in the Haven they were going to put in
the tank.

C
hapter Twenty-Five

Every inch of the once clean bucket was
covered in a thick scum. Sky himself wasn’t in much better shape.
He looked over his shoulder towards the sparkling clean tank. It
was if it had never been used.

Sky dragged himself over to the wall where
the main water line came in and heaved the valve open. After a bit
of protest from the pipes the water came out in a thunderous
rush.

With the longest sigh in
history, he slumped against the wall and let his tired body slide
to the floor. His tired muscles melted in to the cold steal of the
floor, but his moment of peace was cut off abruptly by the clanking
of the door.

Sky jumped to his feet as
his dad walked in with Sara at his heels, her eyes wide with
wonder.

“…
And this is your room.
It’s all yours.” He gestured around them.

“
It’s wonderful.” She
breathed with the slightest of smiles as she saw the tank,
glistening in all its clean glory.

She had yet to even notice him standing off
to the side, covered in muck, but he could see her just fine as she
stepped towards the tank with a face that was truly touched.

“
I’ve never…” She walked
slowly, taking it all in with each step until she was close enough
to reach a hand out.

“Once on Haigon I figured
you can still come back here to sleep, otherwise there is a nice
stream out behind the place...” His dad edged towards the door,
shooting a look over to Sky that told him to do the
same.

“This is the nicest thing
anyone has done for me.” She placed her hand gently on the glass
briefly before turning to once again face his dad.

He caught her eye as she
turned, and she finally noticed him lurking in the shadows.
She met his gaze with a look that brought a rush
of heat into his cheeks.

The sweetness of the
moment was put to rest when her face screwed up into a disgusted
grimace, “
EWWW!!! You’re filthy! Get out
of my room.”

He should have expected no less. Sky shook
his head and snuck in a coy smile as he passed her. He was just too
tired to think of a come back.

“
Faster, pervert.” She
crossed her arms and pointed towards the door, but he could see the
humor behind her stern exterior.

Once out in the thankfully
dim hallway, his dad put a heavy his arm around his shoulders,
which was quite brave on his part, given that Sky didn’t even know
what sort of substances made up the muck that was drying on his
clothes.

“
I really do appreciate
what you did.”

“
I’m sure you do since
that means you didn’t have to do it.” He was only half
joking.

His dad took his arm back
and hit him lightly on the back, “That’s why people have kids in
the first place.”

It was obvious his dad had
something to say, since he wasn’t saying anything.

“
What?” He had to
ask.

“I’m sorry about this.
About all of this.” His dad finally said.

Sky was slightly confused, they stuck him
with crap jobs all the time, “No worries, I kind of saw it
coming.”

“No, not this.” His dad
shook his head sadly. “I mean, everything…” He trailed off,
deciding to instead chew on the inside of his cheek.

“
It’s fine, really.” It
came out stale and cold.

“No, it’s not. I feel like
we’re strangers Sky, and it’s my fault. I wasn’t there for you when
you needed me.” They had reached the lifts, but neither made a move
to summon one.