Burn Bright

They entered one end of the cruciform and followed others heading to a curtained area. Suki linked arms with Retra as they passed through into a servery and a cluster of tables.

Her casual friendliness made Retra uneasy but she didn’t draw away. Things would be different here. She must adapt.

Ripers watched them as the pair piled black linguine and a pink sauce onto brass platters and poured grape juice into thick-rimmed goblets.

‘They give me the creeps,’ whispered Suki.

Retra nodded, not trusting herself to speak. She couldn’t rid herself of the notion that they could hear her, wherever they were. She shivered, remembering the Riper at the barge, and the voice in the dark. ‘I met a girl on the barge who thought they were … attractive.’

‘Yeah, like bama droppings,’ said Suki.

Retra reached the end of the meal line and glanced back along the row of silver hotplates. Who was serving the food? She hadn’t noticed before but now that she was concentrating, she saw a small, furry, grey creature with a ladle in its prehensile paws.

She nudged Suki. ‘What are they?’

Suki blinked a few times before she answered. ‘Must be an uther. Charlonge told me they’re hard to see. It’s like they’re invisible unless you concentrate on them.’

‘She told you that?’

‘Yeah. I had thousands of questions for her but she only answered a few.’

‘For me too,’ said Retra.

As they found a table and ate, Retra felt a pang of sympathy for Charlonge. How many new runaways had asked the same things? How many times had she given the same answers? And yet she had been patient with Retra, and gentle.

Suki sucked the last of the linguine off her fork, splashing her chin with the sauce. ‘Nice chow,’ she said, wiping her chin with the back of her hand.

Retra tried not to flinch. She wondered what Suki’s home was like. Father would have punished her for such raw manners.

Charlonge entered and circled the tables with the air of a dormitory supervisor. She didn’t stop to speak to Retra though her glance rested on her for a moment longer than necessary.

‘They say she’s been here for ages,’ said Suki, watching Charlonge. ‘That she’s the oldest in Vank and should have gone ages ago.’

‘Gone?’

Suki pulled a face at her. ‘Didn’t you know anything about this place before you came here?’

‘Not really,’ said Retra.

‘When the Ripers decide you’re too old to be here, they move you on somewhere else. They call it withdrawal.’

Retra felt a little surge of panic. Charlonge looked about the same age as Joel. What if Joel had already been withdrawn? ‘Where do they move you to?’

‘Nobody knows really but the Ripers say it’s another island like this. I don’t think it’s an island, though. I bet they just take you out to the cusp of the Spiral and let you go.’

Retra picked up her plate and goblet and looked around for a place to rub them down.

‘For agony’s sakes,’ Suki hissed. ‘Leave them, Retra. The uthers will do it.’

Retra saw the smirks on the faces of those at nearby tables.

‘Get it through your head,’ said Suki. ‘We don’t have to do pig-cuss here. Ixion is just about fun and parties. Now let’s go to confession so we can get out of here.’

Confession? Retra dropped the plate with a clatter, drawing the attention of one of the Ripers. She wanted to run from his penetrating stare but forced herself to copy Suki’s jaunty stride as she got up and left the servery.