Promised (10 page)

“It depends on what the sacrifice is, and the benefit to the community,” Gaia said. She wasn't stupid. He obviously wanted something from her.

The Protectorat patted his hand on the back of the nearest chair and straightened taller. “I'd like to reacquaint you with a very important, pivotal person. She's a fine, peace-loving young woman to whom I am deeply indebted,” he said, and glanced at Mabrother Iris. “Please ask Masister Waybright to join us.”

A side door opened softly, and Emily stepped in.

“Emily!” Gaia cried. She was so happy to see her old friend that she impulsively started forward, but Emily's quiet smile remained aloof.

“Untie her, please, Mabrother,” Emily said politely to the Protectorat.

Gaia stopped where she was, shocked. Who was this calm, genteel girl? Her auburn hair was neatly swept back in a soft bun, setting off her wide cheekbones and jawline. A white, high-waisted dress draped gracefully over her slender form and fell to below her knees. An unusual bracelet adorned her left wrist, and Gaia had to look twice to realize it wasn't simply reflecting light, but emanating a soft, blue glow. Emily's formerly expressive eyes were as intelligent as ever, but now gently calm. What surprised Gaia the most was the assurance with which Emily spoke to the Protectorat, the most powerful man in the Enclave, as if expecting her command to be obeyed.

Even more startling, the Protectorat nodded to the guard by the door. “Release her,” he said.

Gaia held her wrists up and felt the little jerks as the young guard undid the strap. She couldn't take her eyes off her girlhood friend.

“Are you all right?” Gaia asked. “Where are your children? Are your boys well?”

“They're in the nursery,” Emily said. “They're quite well, thank you.” She turned to the Protectorat. “Have you told her anything?”

“I thought you could explain things best, seeing as you're old friends,” he said.

“Are you offering her a position?” Emily asked.

Gaia rubbed at her wrists, attending closely.

“It's not the usual position. Just bring her up to date on the institute as it now stands,” the Protectorat said.

Mabrother Iris cleared his throat, and Gaia glanced over to find him following the exchange with interest, but he said nothing.

“As you like, Mabrother,” Emily said. “The girls are in the back courtyard breaking for tea. It would be easiest to take Gaia there to explain.”

“Take her to one of the overlooking balconies,” the Protectorat said. “Have you seen Genevieve?”

“Your wife was in the kitchen half an hour ago,” Emily said.

The Protectorat gestured to the guard, who opened the door. “Stay with them.”

The guard inclined his head, holding the door, and in a moment that seemed strangely surreal to Gaia, she walked out behind the elegant girl who had once been her best friend in hardscrabble Wharfton, and followed her down the hallway of the Bastion.

“Emily!” Gaia said urgently in a low voice. “What's going on? What's wrong?”

Emily glanced over her shoulder as she kept walking. “I'm sure this is all rather a surprise to you.”

“You're my
best friend
. I haven't seen you in over a
year
, and you're treating me like a stranger!” Gaia said.

“Well, then. If you put the clues together, you can probably guess I'm not your best friend anymore,” Emily said.

Gaia came to a stop. “What is this?” she demanded.

Emily paused, too, crossing her arms as she turned to face Gaia. She flicked her gaze toward the guard, who was obviously within earshot and showed no inclination to leave. “My old life is over. All of it. I'm going forward, and difficult as it is to greet you with civility, I'm doing my best. Please don't ask me for more. Now if you'll turn here, you'll be able to see into the courtyard.”

Gaia stared at her. “You can't be serious. This is
me
you're talking to!”

“Believe me, I am fully aware of who you are. Now if you please, come along here,” Emily said.

A popping noise burst in a bright rhythm, went silent, and then began again, growing louder as they approached. When Gaia and Emily came around another corner, the corridor opened into a covered balcony that overlooked a square courtyard, and Gaia recognized that she'd been there once before with her mother, although perhaps on one of the other tiers. She hadn't had time before to appreciate how the graceful, arched openings surrounded the courtyard on all four sides, stacked four levels high, but now she found the harmonious effect decidedly inviting.

Emily raised a hand in greeting over the balustrade. The popping noise, Gaia saw, came from a pair of young women playing ping pong at a table below, their collars loose and damp with sweat. Five other young women were resting with their feet up on lounges and chairs. Two more were pouring tea at a dainty, wheeled cart, and two others were playing chess. Potted ferns in the corners added touches of green, and several pale orange awnings were unfurled to provide wide swatches of shade, but the overriding color was white, from the whitewashed columns of the surrounding balconies to the flowing white fabric of the women's dresses and the porcelain sugar bowl on the linen-covered tea cart.

One of the women reached over to retrieve the ping pong ball, bracing a hand to her back. A luminescent bracelet identical to Emily's gleamed on her wrist. All of the women, Gaia saw, wore the bracelets on their left wrists, and all of them were visibly pregnant. She had found the baby factory.

“Hello, Gaia!” one of the women called up, waving. “Come have some tea with us!”

Gaia recognized her from her days in Wharfton, playing in the quad, though she'd never known her well. A couple of the others looked vaguely familiar, too, and she saw from the way they looked at her scar that they knew who she was. She lifted a hand in polite greeting.

“I want to know everything,” Gaia said to Emily. “Are you pregnant, too?”

“Yes. Just two months,” Emily said. “I'm not showing yet. The others are much farther along. Trixie is due any day. What do you know of the Vessel Institute so far?”

“Only that you're surrogate mothers in a pilot program.”

“That's not strictly accurate,” Emily said, crossing her arms. “A few of us are surrogates, carrying children that are not biologically our own, but most of us have been artificially inseminated with the father's sperm. Either way, we're carrying promised babies for other parents, and our part is over when the babies are delivered.”

“You make it sound so simple. Like it's a job,” Gaia said.

“In a way, it is,” Emily said. “We've been hired for one year, with the option to continue a second and third year if we satisfy. Anyone who delivers three healthy babies is entitled to stay in the Enclave for life, with a pension.”

Emily trailed a hand along the banister as they began a lap around the balcony. Gaia glanced back to see the guard discretely following them.

“What if you change your mind?” Gaia said. “What if you don't want to give up your baby?”

“It isn't my baby,” Emily clarified. “It doesn't matter if we've been implanted with a blastocyst or inseminated with sperm. When we signed on, we agreed to give up any rights to the babies.”

“You lost me. What's a blastocyst?”

“Sorry. It's a little package of cells that forms about a week after fertilization,” Emily said. “It has everything you need to develop into a human embryo, so if it attaches well in the woman's womb, it can eventually grow into a baby.”

Gaia glanced down to where two women leaned over a large book, and one laughed. They made a picture of health and peacefulness, and she couldn't help contrasting it to what she knew of life back outside the wall.

“Do you actually sign a contract or something?” Gaia asked.

“We get this.” Emily held out her left wrist, where her bracelet shimmered around her skin. It was made of some material Gaia had never seen before, both delicate and strong, elastic enough that Emily could push the band comfortably up her arm yet snug enough that she couldn't slide it off over her hand. A golden clasp attached the ends together, and fine strands of gold laced a filigree on the surface. Most unusual was the soft, blue glow.

“It's beautiful,” Gaia said.

“This is the contract,” Emily said. “It's a matter of honor. When you agree to join the Vessel Institute, you agree to stay until your promised baby is born. You keep this on until the birth ceremony, when the parents receive their child and cut the bracelet. Until then, it emits a signal so the Protectorat always knows where you are. The parents know, too, anytime they want to check on you. They find it reassuring.”

“So it's a security device?” Gaia asked.

Emily looked at her oddly. “If you want to be cynical.”

“I'm just trying to understand. Are you saying you're not captives?”

“Of course not,” Emily clarified. “One girl has already broken her promise and left. Do you remember Sasha? From back home? She left.”

“Sasha was in on this?” Gaia rarely thought about their other girlhood friend.

“She isn't anymore. You can cut off your bracelet any time you like,” Emily continued, “but if you do, the contract is null and void. You won't be paid and you won't receive any more medical care. You'll prove yourself a liar. Worst of all, you'll give unspeakable grief to the disappointed couple that trusted you and paid for your care all this time. You'll be stealing their child.”

Gaia was increasingly uncomfortable with Emily's use of “you.”

“But, Emily,” Gaia protested. “How can you possibly carry a baby in you all those months, knowing you have to give it up? How could you do that? You've had your boys.”

“I still have my boys,” Emily said. “I'm staying with them here forever. I'm doing this for them.”

Gaia stared at her, shocked. “So you'll give away their
sibling
?”

Emily closed her eyes and took a deep, visible breath. Gaia suddenly realized that she'd crossed a line. When Emily opened her eyes again, she had herself firmly in control.

“Of course we grow attached to the babies,” Emily said. “That's a natural part of it, and if you ask me, babies need to feel they're loved and wanted long before they're ever born. But that's why being a vessel mother is such an amazing, sensitive job. It takes a special person to do this, Gaia. A completely selfless, generous woman. But it's worth it. Have you ever met a couple that wants desperately to have a child, but can't? Your heart goes out to them.”

“I thought that's why we used to have advanced babies. So they could adopt,” Gaia said.

“But those Wharfton mothers never had a choice. You saw that firsthand. Isn't this better? We vessel mothers see where our babies are going. They aren't just lost to some void.”

Gaia was surprised. “You know the parents of your babies?”

Emily's profile was aimed toward the courtyard below, and she smiled once more at one of the women who looked upward. “We aren't supposed to know, specifically, which couple's child we carry, but some of us have guesses,” she said. “The couples know. They picked us, and some of them can't help seeming to have favorites. We meet them socially. They like to take us to events and give us cute little gifts. They're so grateful. We're invited to all the nicest parties. We're like royalty here.”

“For a year,” Gaia said.

Emily turned to her. “Yes. For a year. Maybe longer.”

“And then what? The mothers go back outside the wall, like nothing ever happened and leave their pampered lives behind? What happened to Sasha?”

“I haven't heard from her. I'm not surprised.” Emily paused beside a corner pillar and leaned a shoulder against it. “We'll have to see about the rest. Some will have a chance to stay on, as I said. For the ones who go back outside, their lives couldn't possibly be as hard as they were before they came because they'll have sizable payments. And memories. They'll have memories of living here that they never could have had. Look at them.” She glanced sideways at Gaia. “Don't you remember how amazing this all was to you the first time you saw it?”

Gaia regarded her friend. “Yes. But it changed. And it changed how I see things outside the wall, too.” Gaia wondered uneasily what role in this scenario the Protectorat saw for her. “How were the women chosen in the first place?”

“The Protectorat chose the women. We invited forty initially. We ended up with twelve who agreed to be vessel mothers, plus me.”

“But why the original forty? I want to know how they were chosen,” Gaia pressed. “Was it for genetic reasons? Didn't you say that the couples picked you?”

“I only meant that each couple picked a vessel mother to carry their child once we'd joined the institute.” Emily's expression grew puzzled for a moment. “I don't know how the forty women were originally selected. I mean, they were all healthy, single women from Wharfton. They had to be intrinsically generous to even consider joining. No one's doing it purely for greed, that's for sure.” She met Gaia's gaze directly. “Frankly, Gaia, you don't need to worry. The institute only takes women who actively want to do this, and you obviously don't. The Protectorat won't want you on board.”

“He has some other plan for me,” Gaia said. “I don't know what. I could have told him already that I'd never sell a baby of mine, not for any price.”

Emily's face closed as completely as if a shutter were drawn. “Harsh, Gaia.”

Gaia couldn't help herself. “I'm telling you, Emily, this isn't going to work. This is heartache just begging to happen.”

“I'm not naïve,” Emily said, moving toward the hallway that led back to the Protectorat's headquarters, snapping her fingers to signal the guard to follow. “Heartache's a given, isn't it? At least this is chosen heartache.”