Relic (The Books of Eva I) (16 page)

A simple white rectangle pokes out from the pile. In all this color and design, its plainness draws me in. I take a
closer look. A minuscule image of a girl is somehow grafted onto its surface. The likeness is so startlingly real that I jump back, bumping into the Scout-Reliquon. Chiding myself for being ridiculous, I mutter an apology and bend back toward the image. I smooth out a ripple in the translucent pouch to get a better look at the girl’s face. With her fair hair and bright blue eyes, the girl in the picture is beautiful. If you ignore all the paint on her face, of course. And she appears to be about my age.

How did the pre-Healing people make such a lifelike picture? I’ve never seen anything like it in the Aerie. Pigments are so rare. Even those sacred tapestries woven out of dyed thread for the Basilica or for diptychs look rudimentary compared with this. Only then do I notice tiny writing underneath the picture. The word
nimi
is there; I recognize the Finnish word for name from the Finnish-origin Founding families who occasionally still use the word. Beneath
nimi
are two words: Elizabet Laine. And then I know. The girl in the picture—the girl to whom the Prada and all of these artifacts belonged—was called Elizabet Laine.

Elizabet Laine. Those two words make the owner of my Relics come alive, something I didn’t expect. I don’t recall a single Testor ever mentioning the owner of their Relics. Maybe they didn’t find anything linking their artifacts to a particular person, or maybe they thought the artifact itself was more instructive than the person who once owned, used, or even loved the Relic they found. But I cannot ignore the presence of Elizabet Laine in these Relics. She is everywhere.

Ignoring the Scout-Reliquon’s glare, I lean within inches of the four translucent pouches. I know I am taking risks by handling the items and rushing a little, but I don’t care. I must know this Elizabet Laine.

“Caution,” the Scout-Reliquon whispers. He’s not supposed
to offer judgment or guidance, only protect the Relics with that single word while the Testors work. Taking a risk, I ignore him. Again.

The second sack contains a smaller open bag patterned in vivid stripes of yellow and pink. I gently shake it, and the smaller bags contents pour out: small tubes and vials and bottles. I notice two brownish-colored bottles have lettering on them—
for depression
—and a third says
for pain
. I’ve heard of these pre-Healing diseases before, sicknesses of the soul, but don’t know much about them. I’ll look for those terms in my pre-Healing Histories later, when the Scout-Reliquon takes the Relics away for the night for safekeeping. Then I see the word
Prozac
on one of the bottles. Instinctively, I drop the sack, horrified. I know that word. Prozac is one of Apple’s most prized and wicked remedies.

Placing the sack down on the mat, I turn my attention to the third pouch. The objects within seem much more recognizable at first. I spot a knife not unlike my
ulu
, and something that resembles my water pouch, though of an odd material. I see a piece of metal and a rock-like material similar to the objects we use to make fire, as well as a few candles. I catch a glimpse of a circular object with a dial and arrow, kind of like the lodestones we use to tell direction. One item is especially strange to me: a black oblong tube with no purpose I can discern. But otherwise, the items resemble those I might pack to go hunting or out into the wilderness.

I reach for the fourth sack, which holds just one rectangular object. It looks pretty bland at first, until I get really close. Then, I see the words
Kirov Ballet
inscribed in gold on the cover, and next to it, a tiny lifelike picture of a dancer dressed in teensy scraps of clothing. The girl is nearly naked.

It’s my turn to gasp out loud, and when I do, the Scout-Reliquon rushes to my side. He holds his lamp dangerously near the fourth sack. Before I can make a single move, he carefully lifts up the pink pack and the translucent pouches and slips them into the Relic bag. “I think we’ve had quite enough excitement for today, Testor. You will be permitted to study your Relics again after the dig tomorrow evening.”

And then he leaves my igloo. Leaving me alone with endless questions. Because the nearly naked dancer in that tiny, lifelike picture is Elizabet Laine.

All I want to do is stay in the igloo, making sense of Elizabet Laine’s belongings and of her strange pre-Healing life. Her Chronicle is starting to form in my mind, and I’m eager to begin it. Especially since I think this discovery might actually give me a chance at the Archon Laurels. It is so unlike anything I’d imagined finding.

But I can’t begin. Not yet anyway. The spring thaw hasn’t started, so all us Testors must continue with our Claim digs until the Site is closed down as unsafe. The Triad—and all the people waiting back in the Aerie—want us to find more and more. I’ll do my duty. But what could I possibly unlock from the ice that would be more compelling than Elizabet Laine’s pack?

My fellow Testors seem eager to descend into the
crevasse each of those six mornings. Even Aleksandr and Neils. When that horn sounds out, they race to the Site ready to begin, as if it is the first day of the dig. Why? Aleksandr and Neils have already found key Relics. From overheard whispers in the crevasse, I know that the other Testors have all uncovered Relics of educational value. Jacques found a box of remedies—including Tylenols—which will cause an even greater furor in the Aerie town square than Prozacs. Benedict, Petr, and Thurstan all found cartons containing silver-foiled packets of foodstuffs that look nothing like food. William discovered the metallic nets of a fishing boat, and Jasper unearthed the machine designed to make that boat travel quickly through the seas. The pre-Healing people hated fish and water. I couldn’t hear what Knud located—maybe he hasn’t found anything, he seems so lackluster since the news about Tristan.

Any of these Relics would garner a Testor a solid chance at winning the Archon Laurels. Only an artifact that served in direct tribute to the false god Apple would beat them out. And such a treasure hasn’t been found for nearly one hundred and fifty years. Not since Madeline.

Yet, even though they all scamper back to their igloos at night, not a single one of the Testors has begun to send Chronicles back to the Aerie by carrier pigeon. Surely their Relics bear cautionary tales worthy of a Chronicle, and the first to send in a Chronicle always seems to gain an edge. Oddly, they all seem determined to find something else, something rarer and more interesting.

Are they trying to top my discovery?

There’s no way they could have learned about my find. Only the pink pack was registered in the Testing book; I
have not instructed the Scout-Reliquon to enter the pack’s contents yet. I want to make better sense of the items first. And there’s no way the other Testors could have access to my Relics during the day; all the Relics are under the Scout-Reliquons’ guard. Unless Scout Okpik is conspiring with my assigned Scout-Reliquon and others against me? But I can’t give into my suspicions.

I don’t want the other Testors sniffing around my Claim, and I still don’t trust Aleksandr and Neils even though they haven’t done anything untoward. Yet. So I pretend I’m still looking for a worthy Relic. I arrive at the lineup for the first horn of morning as if I’d rested the night before instead of furiously studying Elizabet’s belongings during the short time allotted me by the Scout-Reliquon. I belay down the crevasse wall as if I am desperate to locate a teaching artifact. I dig into the wall and siphon off rivers of water as if I must make my Claim yield. And I give Jasper pitiable half-smiles when he looks down to see how I’m faring. I need him to believe in the paucity of my findings too, although I feel a little guilty about deceiving him.

As I go through the motions of the excavation, I dream of Elizabet’s belongings and what I’ve learned about them during the past six evenings. I think about the first pouch, with the Prada and the multi-colored rectangles that fit within its little slots. I believe that they are some form of currency—like Euros—which the pre-Healing people had to earn and use to pay for life’s necessities; I’m pretty sure that’s true of the MasterCard anyway. Incredibly, pre-Healing leaders didn’t think it was their job to dispense food or provide a safe home for their people. The leaders assigned false values to this currency and forced their people to
barter for survival with worthless MasterCards. The Keeper of the Ark wouldn’t dream of denying anyone the fruits of the harvest.
Pari passu
, the Keeper always says at Harvest time, quoting The Lex, of course. And all the Triad members echo that view, in words and actions

I think about Elizabet using the patterned bag within the second clear sack. It turns out that the colorful vials and bottles are Maybellines and Chanels—kinds of face paint—a sad statement about the pre-Healing values and the sin of Vanity. The three brown bottles—including the Prozac—are remedies for mysterious pre-Healing diseases called pain and depression. I know what pain is, of course. And I know that depression is a kind of pain of the mind. But I think it is odd that they suffered so much, considering that they didn’t know the Healing was coming, that their deaths were near. Maybe they somehow knew that their lives were empty and false? And anyway, the Founders told us that these conditions had no magical cure.

T
HE NIGHT OF THE
sixth
sinik
, I discover what I must do.

It stems from the moment I touch a small button on the mysterious oblong black object I found in the third sack. A bright, bluish light shoots out from it. A light that reminds me of the one that shone on my tent the night Scout Okpik visited me. It’s hard to imagine a world where light came at the mere touch of a finger, instead of arduous ticks with flint and steel over hard-won wood. The pre-Healing people lived in a world of luxury and indulgence, and had no appreciation for it. As for the knife, lodestone, and water sack, well, I still can’t figure out why a girl living in a bustling pre-Healing city would have need for them. They are items used for hunting. All I can figure is that they were
sentimental trinkets of a past time before the world became so full and crazy.

Before it vanishes, the light strikes the “Kirov Ballet” book I’ve discovered in the last clear pouch, which contains countless lifelike renderings of dancers in practically no clothing, in all sorts of lewd poses. They have the same precise, realistic appearance as the image on the card with the word
nimi
. And the dancer who appears in most of the pictures is Elizabet Laine.

Yet the images that move me most are the sketches in a greyish ink along the page borders, the ones that bear a more homemade look. Pictures that seem as though Elizabet had drawn them herself, especially since they bear her initials. Here, a lone dancer is shown on stage in series of uncomfortable contortions before a sea of leering faces. Again, the barely clothed dancer closely resembles Elizabet.

Elizabet looks so exposed. And so very, very cold.

Poor, poor Elizabet. I wish I could cover up her shame. From the humiliation of exposing her body nightly and her spirit daily, with none of the Maidenly protections that the Aerie affords young women. She had none of the Lex-sanctified rules that I benefit from every day, even if I bristle at them from time to time. Maybe my mother has some justification for all her Lex adherence after all.

Because of this, I almost don’t want to share my Relics with anyone, even though there is no precedent for this discovery. Eamon’s meticulous research into past Testings has shown me that. Not even the stuff of rumors. My discovery could be unusual—even legendary. Like my father’s mirror.

But I believe that it’s much more.

I don’t know why. Maybe it’s Eamon’s death. Maybe it’s Lukas’s map. Maybe it’s the conspiracy against me that I detect in whispers and glances. But I feel like this is a Gods-given sign. Elizabet Laine sent me this gift from the days before the Healing. With this offering comes a Gods-entrusted duty to Elizabet and to the people of New North—to the past and to the present. I must write a new sort of Chronicle, not simply a cautionary tale of how an object led to the world’s downfall and necessitated the cleansing waters of the Healing.