When Copper Suns Fall (23 page)

“I don’t know, Chela. Maybe I don’t enjoy
being interviewed to death.” He clenched his jaw.

“I asked two questions. Important ones,” I
said.

“Think again. There were five,” he said.

“Doesn’t matter. You won’t answer them,
anyway.” I folded my arms, pouting a bit. We were having our first
disagreement. A crazy blend of excitement and annoyance mingled in
my chest.

“Get dressed and meet me outside the door in
a few minutes.” He placed my neatly folded clothing on the bed.

“Why?” I said.

“You want answers? Then be ready,” he said
and closed the door behind him.

Chapter Nineteen – Chelby Rose

I followed Faris down a spiral stairway like
the one in Cornice, only it was three times as long. The walls in
this house were covered in gold paint, a water suppressant. Bess
and the Sisters had pushed to have all of Castle Hayne’s homes
painted with it, and won. The crystal chandeliers and maze of dark,
multicolored rooms complete with fireplaces in each one told me
Faris lived in a plantation house. The light paint smell mixed with
wood and furniture polish odors indicated it was a restored
house.

A window with patterns etched into the glass
was at the end of the hallway. It began at the ceiling on the level
above us and stretched all the way down to the first floor landing.
When staring at the cracks long enough, I noticed they formed three
angels. Two smaller ones sat on either side of the tallest one.
They held objects shaped like lightning rods and were turned away
from the middle angel whose face could be either a man or a woman.
The tall angel formed a triangle with its fingertips. The mosaic
filled me with a strange calmness. As with everything else
unearthly, I imagined Micah’s face on it.

The entire house was alive with activity.
Both male and female voices sailed from behind closed doors. Two
girls stumbled from in one of the rooms. They stopped in front of
Faris and giggled.

The tallest girl had dark eyes outlined with
smoky makeup and was wearing a pink stone necklace like Muriel’s.
She stepped up to Faris and said, “Look what I learned how to do.”
She held a pink rose in her hand. The scent drifted into my
nostrils, making me ache for Cornice’s moss-covered gardens,
reminding me that my situation was much worse than I probably
understood. She squealed and said, “Aren’t you impressed?”

“Of course, I am, Teulah,” Faris said.

Behind me, the shorter girl felt my hair.
“It’s c-colorful and pr-pretty.” Faris eased her hand away.

“Careful with these guys,” he said, leading
me away.

“Wait. G-g-gift for you.” The smaller girl
placed a honeysuckle bloom in my palm and gave me a toothy grin.
“Your sp-spirit’s aura. F-for luck.”

“Hmph. Showoff,” Teulah said, scowling.

“Persephone was born with aura insight,”
Faris said. I frowned. “She can see what creates your aura, like
how she just did for you. She can turn it into a gift, or cripple
you like a paraplegic.”

“It’s beautiful. Thank you.” The girl tilted
her head and frowned as if confused by what I said.

“Don’t bother using false gratuities. Those
are mirrorland ways.” Faris turned to the girls. “Clean up the mess
you made in the hallway before Nina sees it.” Pulling me away from
them, he led me toward the end of the hallway.

“Could you have been anymore rude?” I
asked.

“You wanted answers, right? The fledglings
don’t have them.”

“And there’s nothing wrong with saying thank
you. It’s okay to say something kind to people who act nice,” I
said.

“Actions carry more weight than words. Trust
me. That theory works where my people are concerned.”

We walked by several other rooms. More
fledglings stopped to watch us pass by. A tall black boy wrestled
in the hallway with the tattooed Eurasian boy I remembered seeing
at the Cradleshack. They had secured one another in double
headlocks. Faris trudged over to them, lifted them by their
collars, and said, “Take your idiocy outside.” The two boys swung
at each other again. He slammed both of them against the wall,
pinning them by their throats with his arms.

I flinched. “Faris?”

They spoke through choking gasps. The
tattooed one said, “Mercy, Master Toulan.”

Remembering how he’d made minced trunk out of
a tree in Batts Grave, I touched his arm. “Please stop, Faris.” He
was strong, more than I think he realized. He shot me a fierce
look, the same cloudy-eyed one I’d seen in Batts Grave. A brief
moment had passed before he moved his arms away. The boys slumped
to the floor, gasping.

He spoke to the tallest one first. “Dugan,
act like a leader. You too, Flint. Rules are rules. Next time, I’ll
be joining the fight, too.” The boys glanced at me, mini-bowed to
Faris, and shuffled off, caressing their necks.

Faris whirled to face me. “Don’t interfere,
again.”

“Excuse me, but I didn’t want to see
somebody’s neck get cracked open.” I worried about these mood
swings. They showed me an unsteady part of him.

“Rules. The fledglings know them by heart.
They could hurt you,” he said, lowering his voice.

“But they didn’t,” I said a bit flattered by
his concern.

“Whatever you say.” He turned and stalked
off. I trotted to keep up, ignoring his sarcasm.

“What is this place?” I said, still intrigued
by the giant angel mosaic.

“A metalized plantation house,” Faris
said.

“Don’t be smart. I can see that,” I said.

After reaching the end of the stairway, we
walked toward a doorway that led into a ballroom. “Stop ignoring my
questions,” I said as he prepared to open the door.

“It’s a safe house for fledglings training in
the mirrorlands. Are you any wiser, now?” He shoved the doors open
without breaking our gaze.

“She made this wind thing happen. Then the
Tainted’s ale-brained puppets ran like babies, “A boy was telling a
story. My story. I recognized him from the Eight Hills Gathering.
He was the boy Faris called Tobie.

“So this is where you came after stalking me
back in the day?” I pulled my arm away. He grabbed it again and led
me into a well-preserved ballroom. Four pairs of eyes met us: Tobie
the model, Muriel the awol from Minders Camp like me, and Desi the
fearsome. The last pair belonged to Nina Winthrope, our first
female governor. My mouth dropped even as an excited feeling rushed
through me. I was like the kid who skipped school to explore a new
cave I’d just found.

“Close your mouth before you start drooling,”
Faris said in a low voice.

“It’s so good to see my Baila Chela, again.”
Muriel rushed over to embrace me. Even though I was just as happy
to see her, I wanted to know why she was here.

“Chelandria, it’s delightful to see you up
and about. Welcome to Chelby Rose.” Governor Winthrope strolled
from across the room to where I stood and hugged me. Unlike
Muriel’s, the embrace was stiff and awkward. Her scent reminded me
of the wild lavender growing in Cornice’s gardens. The smell
tingled in my nose, making me work hard to hold back a sneeze.

“Governor Winthrope?” I didn’t know whether
to enjoy the hug from her as a friend, or prepare to receive a
citation slip for missing camp.

“Check out the hair.” Desi studied me with a
curious face. She wore a ripped brown shirt and pants that were a
cross between spandex and jeans, outlawed clothing. She trudged
over to me with a mirror and held it up to my face.

Glancing at my reflection, I gasped and
grabbed it from her hand. The girl in the mirror had my eyes, nose,
and mouth, but she also had silver-streaked hair strands framing
the face…my face. I was going silver, and before I turned sixteen.
Even worse? Faris hadn’t said a thing. I let the mirror fall. Faris
caught it in a wink.

“What is all this? My family is probably
worried. I want to go.” My voice shook, and my stomach lurched. I
felt a claustrophobic urge to be away from these people, this
house. “Somebody better start talking, or I’m gone.” The
honeysuckle scent, my aura’s aroma, drifted into the room.

“Uh-oh. I think we’ve gone and done it, now,”
Desi said, returning to her seat. She picked up a nail file and
started using it as if my distress were the most mundane thing in
the world.

“Listen to me, Chelandria. Your father knows
you’re here. I spoke to him.” The governor placed an arm around my
shoulders, leading me to an armchair near the fireplace.

“I know you see me on the projectors every
day as Governor Winthrope, but I’d like for you to call me
Nina.”

“I understand because I prefer Chela,” I
said.

“Not afraid to speak your mind, I see. That’s
an admirable thing. Champions need to be leaders instead of
deadbeat followers.” She glanced at Desi who rolled her eyes
upward. “Chela it is from this day forward.”

The governor minus her trademark tailored
suits and regulation bun picked up a glass of purple liquid that
gave off a hyacinth-scented aroma. It was calming ale. She wore a
ruby colored dress made of velvet with a black inset that swept
around her ankles as she walked. Her chestnut tresses hung in loose
waves cascading down past her waistline.

“Drink this. It’ll help ground your energy,”
Nina said.

“I’m fine, thank you.” I glanced at Muriel.
Had she told them about how we stopped drinking our ale-meds?
Muriel’s face was a blank canvas. I was fairly sure if any of them
had known about our rebelliousness, they’d have said something.

“Talk about somebody that’s ungrateful,” Desi
said. Faris made a grumbling noise. “It’s the truth.”

“Very well, then.” The governor sat the vial
on a table.

At once, the chandelier rattled. Something
that sounded like a train rolled through Chelby Rose’s upper level.
“Muriel, Tobie, go see what the fledglings are up to,” Nina said in
her commanding voice.

Muriel scoffed. “Why me? Last time one of
them melted my hair into the wall by accident. Why can’t Desi go?
They’re her students. She knows—”

“Tobie,” Nina said without another glance
toward Muriel. He trudged over to her, grabbed a wrist, and led a
whining Muriel out of the room. Nina turned back to me. “By now,
I’m sure you have many questions. Conjuring wind inside the
borderlands demonstrated remarkable progress in your training.”

Faris had told her one of our secrets.
Obviously, the Desi girl knew as well because she kept picking at
her fingernails, as if we were talking about a historical poet
rather than my life.

“Are you listening, Chela?” Nina asked.

No, I wasn’t listening because questions
didn’t even begin to address my curiosity and because Faris was now
absorbed in an intense conversation with Desi. Envy pinged my
chest. Exactly how close were the two of them? “Please, Governor
Winth—Nina. I just want to understand my role, this task I was
assigned. Why me?”

“I arranged to have you sent to Minders.
Yolanda came to you because of me,” Nina said. Faris and Desi had
stopped talking and were paying attention, now. “Do you know why?”
I shook my head.

She walked over to an armoire, removed a disc
from inside it, and sat back down in the chair beside me. “A live
image is worth more than a thousand stories. Isn’t that what they
used to say in the historical days?”

“Something like that, I think,” I said.

“Here is the footage the Thoughtmasters show
new border guard recruits and Created Shade trainees.” Nina pushed
a button on the arm of her chair. Over the fireplace, the walls
slid back to reveal a projector.

“Bad idea, Nina. She’s not ready for that,”
Faris said.

“Of course, she’s ready,” Nina said and slid
the disc in.

Faris eased into the seat beside me. Glad he
was so close, I had the feeling that what I’d see would change my
life.

The video started. By the time the Tribunal’s
Heartagram symbol cleared, and the ending notes to Corunum’s anthem
faded into a medley of high-pitched strings, I was on the edge of
my seat. It began by showing a sunny town covered with trees and
high-rise buildings and people strolling about their daily lives.
They drove historical cars. The kind powered by gasoline instead of
steam engines run by solar rays. I recognized them from Father’s
photographs. Families played on beaches with shores as clean as the
ones on Batts Grave. A chubby little girl with hair the color of
grain ran along the beach, giggling as she moved further away from
her parents.

A large shadow moved over her.

She dropped her doll, glanced up at it, and
screamed.

So did her parents and all the others on the
beach. Goosebumps prickled my arms. I’d recognize that shape
anywhere. It was the giant bird from my dreams about Micah.
Although it never materialized on screen, I knew it was the one.
Faris clasped my hand where only we could see. I inhaled, afraid to
breathe. The footage continued. An alarm similar to our bullhorn
roared in the distance.

It all happened at sunset.

The bomb I’d thought was the giant bird’s
shadow mushroomed along the edge of the skyline.

The footage cut to soldiers storming the
beaches and cities all over the old world. Next, the video switched
to snapshots where various scenes of injured people were shown.
Some of them were missing hands, arms, feet. Injured people
wandered around the streets. Many of them were dead. Soldiers in
strange black uniforms similar to our SOCS used thick batons to
control the crowds, leading them toward boats made of steel. I’d
heard about these boats before. But no one knew where the Tribunal
hid them, or if they existed at all. They’d even been nicknamed the
A.R.K.S., Advanced Rescue & Keepsafe Ship. I lowered my head,
willing the grinding ache in my chest to stop.

A throat cleared. I looked back up. President
Pinkerton’s face had appeared on the screen. He was addressing the
recruits, now. “For every action, there’s a reaction. For every
chromo gifted child born into our society, a rebel outcast is born,
as well. The rebels are a constant threat not only for people
living in the Dim Cities but in all eight Hill Boroughs. You,
inductees of the Red Order, have been chosen to maintain control
alongside our fine Sons of Created Shade, our militia that will
seek out and destroy the darkness. Exceptional soldiers trained to
withstand even the most extreme torture. One day, you may also join
the ranks of Castle Hayne’s finest, protecting our nation from
outcasts, members of exiled groups and their supporters, the Beast,
and any evil that follows these persons. You will enforce the
boundaries built to protect us from disease and famine, ensuring
our people never see the dark days of the Tidal Years ever
again.