Burn Bright

Retra didn’t wait for Suki on the Vank platform, but went looking for Charlonge straightaway. She found the Vank supervisor up in the gallery listening to the organ and staring down at the crowd in the cruciform. Charlonge was dressed in her resting lingerie, a pearly satin shift with bunches of black ribbon around the hem and neckline. With one arm she hugged a small parchment book to her chest while she held a small set of binoculars.

The book took Retra by surprise. In Grave the Council kept books locked in the library. Her mother went to the library once a week to read but the wardens had prohibited her from doing that when they put them on probation.

‘Why did you lie to me?’ Retra asked.

Charlonge started from her seat but, when she realised who had spoken, she fell back as if tired. ‘You should be resting, baby bat.’

‘I saw my brother, Joel, tonight. They call him Clash and he runs with Dark Eve.’

‘Hush!’ whispered Charlonge. She hastened to the end of the gallery and put the binoculars away into a small hutch, next to several other sets. Then she closed the narrow door and checked carefully to make sure the shadows were empty before she spoke. ‘Do you realise what will happen if they hear this … did y-you speak to him?’

Retra nodded slowly, absorbing the girl’s nervous, almost excited, expression. ‘Joel said I should stay here. That you would watch out for me. Yet you told me you didn’t know him.’

Charlonge took Retra’s arm and pulled her closer. ‘Dark Eve is an enemy of Ixion. She breaks the rules.’

Retra pulled away in rejection of Charlonge’s words. ‘Rules? Ixion is supposed to be free of rules, yet it seems as strict as Grave in its own way and more … more dangerous.’

Charlonge stared at her for a long moment. Retra saw something change in her eyes, as if a layer peeled away, letting her see further in. ‘You are learning quickly, baby bat,’ the older girl said. ‘But then Joel’s sister would.’

Retra quivered. It was not what she’d wanted to hear. She’d wanted comfort – Charlonge to tell her that she had misread the way things seemed.

A sob caught in her throat, a croaking sound like an old person gasping for breath. It took a moment before she could speak. ‘Joel said that I should stay away from him. Why has he joined the League? If they find him what will happen to him?’

‘He will be withdrawn.’ Charlonge’s lips quivered.

The chill fist of fear that held Retra’s heart captive squeezed tighter. ‘Tell me how you know my brother?’

Charlonge pressed her eyes with her fingers and sighed. ‘We arrived on the same night – though from different places – and went through the Register together. Then we came to Vank for our first rest cycle. It stayed like that for a time: together at the clubs and the parties. I loved it here. But he was always restless and he didn’t like the Ripers looking over his shoulder. He said they reminded him of Grave and his father, and that the Youth Circle was a waste of time. Then he met Eve – Dark Eve. She filled his mind with ideas.’ Charlonge’s face became angry. ‘She took him … from me.’

Retra bit her lip. Did Charlonge’s stomach ache when she saw Joel in the way hers did when she saw Markes? ‘Now he’s helping Ruzalia?’

Charlonge nodded and her flush of anger drained into a look of fear. Her eyes flicked constantly to the balcony door. ‘I was happy here. It was fun. Everything the pamphlets said, everything we whispered about in Lidol Push. But Joel worried about where the over-agers went. He became obsessed with it. He followed the older ones around. It became creepy –’

‘My brother is not creepy,’ interrupted Retra hotly.

‘Others thought so … They didn’t understand his obsession with finding out what happened when you were withdrawn. Eve encouraged him. I found them … together one night. We had a fight. He didn’t come to Vank again. I don’t know where he rests now.’

Unreasonably, Retra felt guilty that Joel had let Charlonge down. But Charlonge had not believed in him. Retra had always believed in Joel, and he in her. ‘I want to see him again. Talk to him. Maybe I can convince him to stop.’

Charlonge’s expression changed again. Hope lit her face. ‘You could do that?’

‘Perhaps,’ said Retra. ‘But I need to talk to him, alone.’

Charlonge thought for a few moments before replying. ‘Then search for him again. But in the meantime you must act like everyone else. There is a likeness between you that’s unmistakable; your brown hair and eyes, and the way your expressions are always so serious. After the incident with Brand, the Ripers will be watching you. If they realise that you’re his sister they’ll use you to capture him.’

‘Modai already watches me.’

‘Modai?’ Charlonge was startled. ‘Why do you say that?’

‘I don’t know. From the start, at the Register, they sensed I was here for different reasons. They tried to trick me into telling them. I’m not sure if my badge is right. They called it a faux –’

‘A faux badge!’ Charlonge grabbed Retra’s hand and turned her wrist. The mark was beginning to glow. She stared and bit her lip. Her look scared Retra.

‘What do you see?’

‘I should have noticed before, when your friends brought you here. The badge is only temporary. According to Ixion law it can be revoked at any time on the word of the Guardians. You must be very careful, Retra.’

‘Or?’

Charlonge dropped her hand and moved towards the gallery door. ‘Or you’ll be withdrawn early.’ She opened the door and glided out as one practised in the art of vanishing. ‘Now go and rest before you burn out.’