Burn Bright

They hurried back along the path to the station. This time nothing spoke to Retra from the dark. Still, she was shivering despite the sticky warmth when they boarded the kar.

‘What’s wrong?’ asked Suki, as they took one of the back seats.

Retra didn’t answer her even though Suki’s voice sounded more normal and she’d stopped scratching.

‘Look,’ Suki said, after a while. ‘Friends talk to each other. That’s what they do. Tell each other things.’

Retra licked her lips and forced herself to speak. ‘Do they?’

‘Haven’t you ever had a friend?’

Retra stared out the window. Joel was her friend. Did that count? And Toola had been for short while, though Retra knew her real interest had been in Joel.

But Suki wouldn’t let it go. ‘You’ve never had a friend? That’s impossible.’

‘There was a girl called Toola, but after my brother left and the warden came to live with us she stopped …’

‘What? Being your friend?’ Suki frowned. ‘I don’t really understand your world but not everyone from Grave is as private as you. Look at Rollo. He’s not like that. What’s it like there?’

Retra leaned back on the seat. She’d only ever thought about her world, never spoken of it to another person. Perhaps she could tell Suki. The Council can’t hear me now, she reminded herself. The warden can’t touch me.

‘Seal South is stricter than the rest of Grave. We aren’t allowed to speak to others at will. Only at certain times.’

‘That’s just plain loco,’ said Suki.

‘We’re taught that our Elders left the Old World to found a better place with stronger morals. The Old World had become depraved and without rules. The young were vicious and selfish and self-destructive. The Elders called their behaviour a sickness.’ As she spoke, the memory of her history lessons flooded back. ‘They sailed among the stars looking for the perfect place to start again but their travelling ship malfunctioned and they were forced to make their home on this world. They built Grave, and sealed it off from the native barbarians who shared the land with them. Growing walls kept the barbarians out, and over time they gave up trying to fight us and left us alone.’ Retra stopped, eyes widening. ‘I always thought that part was just a story. But now I see that there are other cultures on Grave. Maybe your people are the barbarians?’

Suki crossed her arms. ‘Well, for a start, this world is not called Grave. It’s called Stra’ha’ine. And your people sound like barbarians, not mine.’

‘I suppose so,’ allowed Retra, not wanting to upset the girl.

‘You mean, “I guess so”?’

They both smiled and the awkward moment passed.

Retra continued with her story. ‘Some of the Elders believed in firmer rules than the others. They moved to the south of the city and put up their own walls. They called them the Sealed South Walls. That’s where I’m from. That’s how we got the name.’

‘So what’s it like in Seal South?’

‘Cold,’ she said. In so many ways.

‘What about your parents?’

‘They believe in the rules. Especially my father. Mother does as he tells her. She used to read to me but he told her to stop. She used to brush my hair out at night but he said it encouraged unclean thoughts.’

‘Unclean thoughts.’ Suki smirked. ‘Why wouldn’t you want them, anyway?’

But Retra was too caught in her memories to react to Suki’s teasing. ‘After my brother left, Mother didn’t speak much. It was as if all the life went out of her.’

Suki screwed up her nose. ‘Your home sucks. Mine was just boring. Hunt, kill, skin, salt, cook, eat, clean and bury. Then start all over again. But we laugh a lot.’

‘What about Liam?’

‘Won’t be the end of the world if he doesn’t come here. I mean, that Rollo’s kind of cute.’

Retra didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything.