Burn Bright

The Abraxas line ran downhill from Vank; a weaving, rocking trip that gave Retra time to stare out of the window at the mountainside’s brilliant nightscape while Suki’s prattle became faster and more excited.

They’d gone to confession before leaving Vank but Test had been dispensing and hadn’t forced Retra to ingest the pod. Afterwards she’d dropped hers over the edge of the platform as they got on the kar.

‘You have to take it,’ Suki warned, as she swallowed a whole red bead. ‘They’ll know.’

‘I don’t like them. They made me see things – visions.’

‘What-kinda-visions?’

‘Demons.’

Suki pulled a face. Then she giggled. ‘It-made-you-dance-all-sexy,’ she said.

Retra noticed that most of the people in the kar were speaking in the same kind of high-pitched, jerky voices as Suki. Had she sounded the same?

When the kar stopped, they piled out, pushing and shoving and mock-arguing. Retra searched the faces on the platform, looking for her brother, but she saw no one that could be him.

She and Suki followed the crowd as they walked the lamp-lit path to Club Abraxas.

Unlike the Drop, which they’d accessed from a bridge, the Club Abraxas entry was deep in the hillside.

As they walked along, the warm air played over Retra like a wet tongue, making her skin pimple.

‘Want you,’ a voice whispered from the dark. ‘Soon.’

Retra glanced to either side of the path but saw nothing save shadowy, low bushes, stretching away into the night. The smell of musk made her look up into the sky. The black rainbow of bats was back, cutting through the starlight in a long arc of black.

‘Suki, do you hear that?’

‘What?-Hear-what?-What’re-you-talking-about?-All-I-can-smell-is-stinking-bats-Can’t-hear-nothing-’cept-myown-heartbeat-bang-bang-bang,’ Suki raved. She jigged as they walked, unable to keep her limbs still.

Retra pressed closer to the people in front of her. She felt relieved when the stars blinked out and they entered Abraxas’s cave system.

The first cave was small, more like an entrance hall, with Ripers standing around watching new arrivals.

She and Suki passed through it quickly into the next, which was wider with a raised stage cut from the rock wall, and passages running off it in different directions. A band of musicians spread across the stage, tuning instruments, most of which Retra didn’t recognise.

‘Krissie-says-Abraxas-has-performers-in-all-its-caves-We-just-have-to-find-the-one-with-Markes-now.’

Suki’s fast talking unnerved Retra. So did her jerky movements.

‘We could look separately,’ she said, feeling the sudden need to get some distance from Suki’s glittering eyes and fast mouth.

Suki danced on her toes a little, agitated. Tears filled her eyes and she ran off without a word.

Retra went to follow after her but fingers gripped her wrist and swung her around.

Modai.

‘In a hurry, baby bat? Why is that?’ He curled back his lips to show off sharp teeth. ‘What did you see? Who did you see?’

Two more Ripers joined him. Retra recognised Forlorn as one of them, but not the other. They crowded around her, blocking out most of the light from the club. She tried to squeeze between them but Modai caught her wrist again and held it, crushing the bones.

Retra made herself think outside the pain, the way she’d practised in Grave. She had survived the agony of the obedience strip where others had died from it. So could she think through this. ‘No one.’

‘Why were you running?’

‘Is there a rule not to run?’ she asked.

‘The rule is not to keep things from us.’

She held his dead gaze with one of her own. She would tell him nothing.

‘You’ve caused trouble among the Guardians,’ hissed Modai. ‘I knew you needed to be watched. Tell me what you are doing or –’ He lifted his other hand as if to strike her.

Retra twisted away, feeling his fingernails scratching her skin as she wrenched her wrist from his fingers.

She ran towards one of the passages but somehow the Ripers were in front of her before she could reach it. How could humans move so fast?

Retra glanced behind her to the crowd collected on the dance floor. The Ripers’ movements had caught their attention and they stopped dancing as a tall figure cut through the middle of them.

‘Modai?’

The Riper stepped back, head bowed in immediate obedience. ‘Lenoir.’

‘What has this batling done that you seek to harry her?’

‘I sense her falseness.’

‘Has she broken any of our rules?’

‘No, Lenoir.’

‘Then I suggest you and Leyste find other amusements.’ Lenoir’s voice was soft, almost gentle, and yet Modai became rigid.

Leyste? Retra searched the face of the unknown Riper – was he Leyste? Why did Leyste and Modai wish to taunt her?

She glanced back at Lenoir but he continued to stare at Modai.

Both of them had pale skin, dark, straight hair and lean, muscular physiques. How was it that on Lenoir the combination was so magnificent, and yet on Modai it was repellent?

‘Hey there! Sorry, did I interrupt something?’ A body barrelled into the middle of the group, breaking the tension.

It was Rollo. His red hair was dyed black and plastered to his head with sweat; his bare chest covered with snaking tattoos. He grinned and grabbed Retra around the waist, planting a wet kiss on her lips. ‘Been looking everywhere for you.’

Retra stiffened but didn’t move. Rollo felt hot and damp, his skin slippery against her bare arm and neck. His breath smelt sweet like her father’s, after prayer meetings and prayer wine, when he came to her room and spoke in maudlin tones of his disappointment in his son, and his marrow-deep conviction that she would not be allowed to follow the same path. Stay pure, Retra, Father had said, over and over. Stay pure.

But Charlonge’s warning chafed against her father’s, as if one sought to rub the other out. Modesty is a sin in Ixion.

She leaned into Rollo’s arms, pretending to welcome his affection. ‘M-me too,’ she stammered. ‘Where were you?’

Modai gazed at them with suspicion.

‘Come on,’ Rollo said. He began to steer her away from the Ripers towards one of the passages.

Retra felt Lenoir’s gaze follow her.

‘What did they want?’ asked Rollo, when they entered the next cave.

‘Nothing. I mean, I was running.’

‘So what?’

Retra shrugged. ‘Modai wanted to know why. I wouldn’t tell him. I didn’t think I should … have to.’

‘Stubborn, huh? Most people would tell Modai anything he asked. He’s so frossin’ scary.’

They walked over to a dark nook furnished with low couches. Couples huddled together on the seats, some kissing, others more than kissing, hands roaming each other’s bodies.

Retra wanted to turn away from it but walking in the near dark required concentration.

Rollo crooked his head against hers, clamping her body against him. ‘Don’t look behind but Modai’s followed us,’ he whispered.

They walked, entwined to an empty couch where Rollo fell onto the plush seat, pulling her down with him.

Modai stood at the cave entrance, watching.

Retra slid closer to Rollo and he put his arm around her again. They looked like any of the other couples there, she told herself. She tilted her face up to look at him and he pulled a face at her.

‘I saw you come in but I was kinda annoyed at how you ran off on me at the re-birth, so I was going to ignore you,’ said Rollo with disarming honesty. ‘Then I saw Modai hassling you.’

‘You know him?’

He rolled his eyes and licked a bead of sweat from his upper lip. ‘Everyone does. They say he’s the one who makes you disappear if you’re a troublemaker. But he seems real interested in you. Even back at the Register he was.’

‘You noticed?’

‘I notice a lot.’

Neither of them said anything more for a moment or two, letting the dance drumbeat fill the gap.

‘You’re here looking for someone, aren’t you? I mean like … someone who came before you,’ Rollo said, breaking their silence.

Her eyes widened in surprise.

He shrugged and frowned. ‘’S obvious you don’t really wanna be here. You’re a Seal, and not the rebel type Seal who wants to run away. You’re way too tight and rigid. And you’re not looking for this …’ He stroked her face.

She flinched.

‘See,’ he said.

‘It’s not that I don’t want …’ she protested. ‘It’s just that … you didn’t ask and I … I …’ She let the words fade. How could she tell him she found him unappealing?

Conversation lapsed between them again.

Rollo stared openly at the couple making out across from them, his expression envious. Retra thought about getting up and leaving but Modai still lingered at the railing near the lift.

‘What if I tell you about me? Will you trust me a bit more? I mean … I’m making most of the conversation anyway, I might as well.’ Rollo laughed then, just as easily he had frowned before. ‘I ran away from home.’

Retra stared at him. ‘We all did that.’

‘No … I ran away from home. Not to Ixion. See … my dad is … he’s on the Grave Council.’

Retra swallowed to wet a sudden dry patch in the back of her throat. A councillor’s son. She’d never met one before. Council lived in the wealthy part of Grave North, in rich houses behind the giant, growing wall that protected them from … everything. Not like the grim mesh fence of the Seal Enclave. No wonder Rollo knew so much about history. Councillors were allowed free reign of the library. They decided on what people learned. They made Grave’s rules. The Council had ordered the warden to keep surveillance on her family. ‘I d-don’t understand. Why did you leave then?’

‘He wanted me to be a councillor too. It usually works that way. Father to son.’ Rollo screwed up his face as if he was nursing a mouthful of bitters. ‘I hate what they do. My dad took me to court sessions to prepare me – all these creepy old men in wigs and masks. Making rules. Making people’s lives a misery. Telling what they can and can’t do. How they should think.’

‘Hush,’ whispered Retra, automatically. ‘Don’t speak of them like that.’

The air squashed from her lungs at the memory of the Council’s clicking electro-eyes on her nakedness.

‘Why? They can’t do anything to us here –’ Rollo broke off in sudden understanding. ‘You’ve been on probation, haven’t you?’

Retra crossed her arms over her chest in an involuntary movement.

‘See. You must understand. That’s why I don’t want to be one of them. They have no right to do that sort of thing. No right!’ he cried out.

Retra wished that he would go away. His vehemence frightened her, and his careless talk. He didn’t seem scared of anyone and she thought him foolish to be that way. He was like Joel. So confident and sure of what he thought. Why can’t I be like that? Why must I over-think and be so careful?

And yet, she’d attacked Brand when her anger had taken over. Perhaps she was not so different to Joel? Perhaps she was changing? ‘I hit a Riper,’ she said to him. ‘She was touching a girl called Krista-belle and I … picked up a stool and …’

Rollo’s eyes widened. ‘You’re the one who smashed the Riper with a chair? Everyone’s talking about it, but I didn’t believe it. What happened?’

‘Lenoir came and stopped Brand before she could punish me. But I don’t think it’s over. Modai said I’d caused trouble among them.’

‘Why did you get involved? That’s not a Seal thing to do.’

‘I … what Brand was doing to Krista-belle … she was scared … like when the warden gave me the obedience strip.’

‘You had a pain strip? Fross! How did you leave the compound then?’

Retra gave him a small, anxious smile. ‘I practised. The pain.’

Rollo’s expression changed. His eyes widened in a kind of admiration and he enveloped her in a comforting hug.

But Retra didn’t want comfort right now. She wanted to leave.

As she tried to edge out his grip he held on. ‘There’s something I’m going to tell you. The real reason that I came here,’ he said.

‘What’s that?’

‘You can’t tell anyone this. Not yet. Not until I say. Promise.’

She nodded, hesitantly, not sure that she wanted to know Rollo’s secrets.

‘When I went to the Grave Council meetings I got to know things. I listened to how they talked. They made lots of loud, empty noise most of the time but when they wanted something, their voices changed. Each time they talked of Ixion – how depraved the place was and what they could do to stop us coming here – their voices were loud and empty. At first I didn’t think much about it. Then one night when Father and I were walking home with Councillor Jarvis and Councillor Mison, someone called to them from the shadows. My father hustled me away but I saw who it was.’

Retra waited.

Rollo’s stare grew intent, as though he was trying to force the memory to life before them. ‘It was a Riper. At least that’s what I thought he was. I had to come here to be sure.’

‘That can’t be.’

‘It is! I saw Modai there,’ he said hotly. ‘And now I know that the emptiness in the councillors’ voices was real. They pretend to be angry about Ixion – but they aren’t, not really. It’s a game.’

‘What do you mean – a game?’

‘I don’t know but I’ve come here to find out why the Ripers are visiting Grave. There’s some tie between the two places that nobody knows about. I plan to tell the Youth Circle about it.’

‘What can they do?’ Retra felt suddenly exhausted, as if the energy that she’d gained from petite nuit had burned through her already.

‘They’re the ones who represent us to the Guardians. They’re specially chosen, and they get extra privileges for it. Look, there’s one of them there.’

Retra followed the line of Rollo’s pointed finger to a guy sharing a single armchair seat with a girl. He looked much the same as anyone.

‘They have a circle tattoo on their temples.’

In the dim light it was hard to see, but Retra had noticed circles on others. ‘What sort of privileges do they get?’

Rollo shrugged. ‘Not sure exactly except that they get to go everywhere except the forbidden places, and they don’t need to rest as much as we do.’

‘Don’t they burn out quickly then?’

‘’parently not. Ripers tweak their adrenal glands to give ’em extra time with no deficit. But they have to pledge their service to Ixion.’

‘What does that mean?’

‘Being good citizens. Not like the gangers. Telling the Ripers if they see people breaking the rules.’

‘If they serve the Ripers then how will they help you?’

He shook his head glumly. ‘I don’t know. Who else is there to go to?’

Retra didn’t know what to say to him. ‘When will you tell them?’

‘Soon. I wanted to find my way around before I open my mouth.’ He grinned, cheering up. ‘I’m loud but I’m not stupid. Will you come with me to the Circle? You can tell them about how things are for you in Grave; how evil the Council are.’

‘Perhaps,’ said Retra. Kero and Krista-belle hadn’t sounded impressed by the Youth Circle. ‘But not now, I have somewhere else to go.’

‘Another club?’

‘No.’ Should she tell Rollo what she was doing? He’d seen something important in Grave. Maybe he should come with her; learn more about Ixion before he went to the Youth Council. ‘It’s a meeting. I’ve been invited to become a member of the White Wings.’

‘You! In a gang?’ Rollo made no effort to hide his astonishment and disbelief.

‘You’ve heard of them?’

‘I’ve been resting at Goa. Place stinks of mould, and there’re vines growing in through the cracks in the walls: giant roaches come in on them. Or so someone said. I couldn’t relax, waiting for one to land on my face. Anyway, that’s where the Wings mainly hang out. They’re way cool. Especially Kero. Word is he can take anyone in a fight except for Dark Eve from the Cursed League.’

‘I wouldn’t know about –’

‘Take me to the meeting!’

Retra felt uncomfortable. ‘I’m not sure –’

‘Why not?’ Rollo gave her a wounded look. ‘I told you about the Council and the Ripers.’

‘It’s just that …’ She started to defend herself but trailed off when she saw his gaze drift across her shoulder and his eyes grow wider.

‘Look at those hot pants,’ Rollo gasped.

Suki was standing behind Retra, alone, pretending not to see them.

‘That’s Suki.’

‘You know her?’

Retra nodded.

‘Well, for Grave’s sake, Retra, introduce me!’