Fledge (33 page)

Anni takes my hand and lifts it in the air as she turns me slowly in a circle. "You are ready."

She claps and her attendants escort me into another chamber, then through a closed door to the parking garage where the flyer is waiting. The door opens and Kadian appears, dressed in a very nice dark brown suit that complements the tones in my hair and jacket. I take his hand as he offers me help into the cab.

"Junco," he breathes, "you're stunning."

I pick up the high-society manners I was forced to practice all growing up. "Thank you. You look exceptionally handsome as well."

He is tight-lipped about our destination. I watch as the flyer takes us a few wide avenues over to the boulevard, then banks to the right and slides into a slot in the side of a building. I read a marquee above a large expanse of wide brass colored doors:
Enki and the World Order
, last night on Amelia.

When my eyes come back to Kadian, he is grinning. "I think you'll enjoy it, Junco. It's a beautiful retelling of the myth in nargala."

I nod, but I have no idea what he's talking about.

I've been to the opera on Earth, Handel's Messiah in Berlin and London, as well as The Marriage of Figaro in Vienna and of course, Asgarth's Genius in just about every city it opened in during my lifetime. My father indulged me in the arts for reasons known only to him.

This feels like the opera.

The women are dressed in expensive finery while the men wear complementary suits to match something on their lady's person. Kadian is a nice-looking man to begin with, and his suit is cut to perfection, so we fit in with the crowd. We stand in the lobby as people take pictures of us. Normally I'm self-conscious about stuff like that, but tonight I feel like I have a costume on and don't have to be the gawky Junco. I don't smile, I can't smile, but I do paint on a neutral expression that passes for acceptable.

An usher directs us to a chamber that contains several seats. We take two near the edge of a balcony, and Kadian leans over to talk in my ear. "The nargala is sung in avian, but I have been told that you understand it. Yes?"

"I do."

He smiles. "Good, good. It's an old story, but the fourth act is especially poignant. I think, anyway."

He gives me a conspiratorial look and I nod a little. "OK."

A little while later the lights dim and the show begins.

Kadian calls the woman rotating in mid-air in the center of the theater the Ilat Nargalist, and he genuinely beams with pride when he suddenly announces that she is his girlfriend.

She is beautiful, dressed in a bright blue gown that hangs to the floor several stories below. She floats like an angel, her outstretched wings the color of a robin's egg. They don't flap, so I can only assume she is controlling herself via a free-G zone that doesn't touch the rest of us.

When she begins her song my chest heaves with the beauty of it. It is not a song any human can replicate, the notes are so high they barely exist in my hearing range. I see my vision screen come to life and adjust my capacity for sound detection, and her true talents flood into my body. She is singing several notes at the same time, like an orchestral arrangement coming from the mouth.

I am so taken by the sound, I forget to listen to the words. Eventually I catch on to the story. Enki is the all-powerful creator and he's going about to various family members allocating supervision duties. Each god and goddess is bestowed a realm with special powers. He has quite a big family, so this lasts the first three acts.

The fourth act begins with a twist.

A very young goddess Inanna complains that she has been overlooked. I think back to what I know of Inanna. Not much except for her journey to the world down below as told to me by Tier. In this story she begs to know why Enki, her uncle, has forsaken her.

Why do you treat me so badly?

My sisters have all been given domains to rule over.

My sisters have all been given powerful husbands.

My sisters have all been given special skills.

My sisters have all been given the ability to please you.

But I, the woman Inanna, have been given nothing of this new world.

Her uncle replies,

Tell me what you require, Inanna.

Tell me how I have wronged you.

Tell me what more could I give you?

You shine brilliantly in the evening,

You brighten the day at dawn

You stand in the heavens like the sun and the moon,

Your wonders are known both above and below,

I made you strong.

I made you the destroyer of all that cannot be destroyed.

I made you cunning.

I made you the speaker of words known to no man.

I made you the twister.

I made you the manipulator of the threads that bind the world.

I gave you sight.

You see further than any other, you see what no other can.

I made you beautiful.

You have endless suitors ready to lay down their lives.

You cut off the heads of those that cannot be cut.

You make the final decisions,

You make the sacrifice.

You stand apart.

You make us whole.

You complete us.

What more do you want?

Chapter Thirty-Five

I feel a tear slip down my cheek as I listen to her song and I wait for Inanna to accept her gifts with grace. But she does not, she demands the Carrier of Light and she is denied. The nargala ends with her behaving badly and being cast aside. Someone grabs my hand as another tear slips out. I look over and Lucan is sitting next to me. He squeezes as the theater goes dark.

We are standing in the lobby a short time later when the Ilat Nargalist comes to greet us. She bows low from the waist at Lucan and he takes her arm at the elbow and squeezes with both hands. She slips her free hand to his elbow and bows again. A very avian greeting that I have yet to master the nuances of.

I am introduced but my world is spinning. Lucan excuses us and taps me on the shoulder and we are out in the dark of space.

I sigh. "Thank you, I was beginning to feel dizzy."

He smiles and wraps my hand into the crook of his arm. "Yes, I could tell it was becoming too much."

"Why did you come?" I look up at him and he does something that surprises me, he shrugs.

"I would not have taken you there, Junco. It is–" He stops and searches for a word. "Too close."

I think back to the story. "Yeah. Why do I feel like it is talking about me?"

He laughs a little, but it's not a happy laugh. "You are so much like Inanna it is becoming painful."

I let out a large breath. "What's going on, Lucan?"

He shakes his head. "You are the Seventh Sibling, Junco. We know this now, and we can state this openly, correct?"

I shrug. "Hell, Lucan, if you say so. What am I gonna say? I don't know any better. But I'm not here to kill anyone."

He pats my hand, the one still holding onto his arm. "I think we are past that, but there is still a long way to go before we can sort it out."

I stay quiet for a few minutes and look up at the stars, enjoy the view for once. How many people can say they've been out in the middle of space with no suit? Not many, I bet. I count myself lucky. "Thank you," I say, looking down again.

"For what, Junco?"

"Everything. I feel so ungrateful. Always looking at how much I've lost instead of how much I still have. I don't want to be Inanna. I don't want to be hungry for power. That's not me. I want to be satisfied." I look up to him. "And even though there is still a lot to be sad about, there is also a lot to be grateful for. I'm thankful that you're here helping me through this. Even if I don't show it all the time."

He squeezes my hand and we are on the terrace at the 039. "You lost a lot in the last few months, Junco, and even though grief is a negative emotion, it is still necessary. There is nothing wrong with grief."

I look over and see Ashur lingering in the doorway. Then Lucan takes my arm like he did the Ilat Nargalist and says goodbye in a way that touches my heart.

I watch the air after he's gone for a few seconds, then walk over to the open terrace door to look up at Ashur.

He smiles. "Did you have a nice evening?"

"Yes, but…"

He raises his eyebrow at me. "What?"

"It would have been better if you were there with me." I shrug, then lift my long gown slightly as my fancy shoes click past him, past the guys sitting in front of the screen, and down the small hallway to my room where I take the costume off and soak in the tub until I am red with heat.

I'm in bed, not sleeping since my days and nights are mixed up yet again, when Ashur, dressed in some thermals and a t-shirt that makes him look more like one of my scrub buddies back on Earth than my avian captain, knocks on my open door. He walks over to the bed and sits down. "I have something for you." In his hand is a book and I sit up a little, interested.

"What is it?"

"The translation of the syrinx church door inscriptions."

I scoot over and open the covers. "Get in and read it to me."

He smiles and does what I ask. I lean up against him as he opens the book and we flip through the pages, looking at what the inscriptions mean. It's an obscure creation myth that even Ashur is unfamiliar with.

He loses interest and hands the book over as I pore through the translations, then go hunting for a few in my own memory to compare them. They are not exact word-for-word matches, but close.

Ashur is almost asleep when I close the book and sink down into the covers with him. "You were so beautiful tonight, Junco. I could barely look at you."

I smile. "I did look pretty good."

He turns his head and opens his eyes. "You know, you make a much better woman than you do a soldier."

"Thank you."

"You should stay a woman, Junco. Retire and be soft for the rest of your life. You don't have to do this if you don't want to."

I shake my head and let out a sigh. "I am what I am, Ash. It can't be helped. This hardness is what keeps me alive and soft is not really something I do. I'm OK with that, for a while anyway. And I promised to go back to Earth and bring home the stupid Siblings. I can't quit now."

"I could do that for you."

I turn and look at him. His green eyes study me back. "I made the promise, it had conditions attached. Besides, Tier might have given up on himself, but I haven't. It's not over until it's over."

He props himself up on his elbow. "What? Are you fucking kidding me?" His eyes dart back and forth, trying to see the meaning behind my words. "He's done, Junco. I don't like it either, but he's done."

"Maybe he is, but I'm not. I owe him."

"You don't owe him, you owe us, the 039! We're the ones who saved you, and we're still here with you!"

I rub my forehead and close my eyes.

"There is nothing you can do. What more is there?"

I shrug. "There is always another way, Ashur. If he can be saved, wouldn't you want to save him?" I sit up and search his eyes now. They are glowing green, bright enough to create shadows in the dark room. "I think it can still be done."

"Junco, you're not rooted in reality. He pled guilty to treason, it carries an automatic death sentence."

"We'll see, Ashur."

He gets up out of my bed and stands over me, shaking his head. "No, I'm not doing this with you, Junco. I'm not going to watch you do something stupid just because you can't sort through your feelings for him."

I sit up, angry. "That's not what this is about, Ashur. Not even close."

"No?"

I stand up too. "It's not about you, Ashur." I stand on my tiptoes and reach up to wrap my fingers around his neck and he puts his arms around me and tries to pull me in as I step back to see his face. "I'm not going to let them kill him."

He shakes his head and pushes me away. "No, I'm not participating in this. Did you talk to Braun?"

I squint up at him. "What?"

"Braun, did he tell you this shit? Fill your head up with this bullshit? He's crazy, Junco. I told you that from the fucking beginning, don't fucking get involved with him!"

"I haven't see Braun since that party here after the Sixth Fight."

He looks down at me suspiciously. "If he's put ideas into your head, Junco, do yourself a favor and forget you ever met him. He thinks he's this super tactician, but he's fucking impetuous and reckless in everything he does."

I slump back in the bed. "Are you going to come to sleep, or what?"

He shakes his head and walks towards the door. "While you plot out some harebrained idea about saving Tier? Forget it."