Away

CHAPTER 14





THE DAYS PASSED. Rachel wished they were already on their way to The Property. Still, she made certain she helped as much as she could at camp; she gathered more firewood than Pathik did, and setting up the classroom with Nandy was a regular morning chore.

“Can Rachel help teach class today?” Bender tugged at Nandy’s shirt.

Rachel hid her grin and continued to distribute the sharpened sticks the children used to write in the sand trays.

“I thought you didn’t like Rachel, Bender?” Nandy smiled at Bender while she scratched Nipper, who was, as always, reclining on one of the benches. His leg had healed well, and he seemed fit as he had ever been.

The boy’s cheeks flushed with shame. “I was being ignorant.” He looked up from beneath his lashes to see if using one of the previous day’s vocabulary words was going to get him anywhere.

Nandy laughed. “Yes, Bender, you were being ignorant. It appears you’ve changed your opinion now. But I think Rachel wanted to observe Usage, so you and the rest of the gifted are going there today instead. The rest of us will work on math, and we’ll do spelling tomorrow.”

“But I practiced my words just so she could see! Can’t you go to Usage tomorrow, when we usually have it, Rachel?” Bender used his most persuasive pout.

“I think we have plans for tomorrow, Bender.” Rachel saw Nandy’s questioning look and nodded slightly.

“Off with you now, Bender, and get the others.” Nandy shooed the boy out of the room. She turned back to Rachel. “So it’s tomorrow?”

“I think so. Dad’s been feeling strong enough for a few days now.”

Daniel had been resting and regaining his strength. His leg was almost completely healed, and he said he felt strong enough to make the trip back to The Property. The plan was to use one of Peter’s key to Cross, find out if his wife and child were still alive, get them if possible. Then return, using the second key, with Vivian and Ms. Moore too, of course, and get to Salishan.

Rachel had asked about the keys during one of the evenings she spent with Daniel in his bakery building room—she wanted to know how Peter had come to have three.

“Military issue,” Daniel had said. “When the Border Defense System was first activated, soldiers still Crossed fairly often for one reason or another, mostly diplomatic excursions to neighboring countries. Not along the Line, of course, but on other parts of the System. The keys were originally issued in sets of three to commanding officers who were going to Cross troops to escort diplomats. One for the trip over, one for the trip back, and one for insurance. Ideally, they were supposed to turn in two expended keys and one unused one at the end of a mission. Or have a convincing reason why they had to use the third. The collaborators got hold of some sets early on when one of the supply officers defected. The set Peter was in charge of safekeeping had been passed through the years from collaborator to collaborator.”

“If you’re going tomorrow I’m sure there’ll be a council meeting tonight.” Nandy’s voice brought Rachel back to the schoolroom. “Michael will want to get his opinion registered, as he does about everything.”

Rachel nodded. “I don’t think it’ll have much effect on Dad’s plans. He has his mind made up that tomorrow is the day.”

Nandy nodded. “I think Indigo agrees. He said he was going.”

Rachel wasn’t really surprised. She could see it in Indigo’s eyes, hear it in the questions he asked her about The Property. He wanted to see Ms. Moore. She wondered what had been in Ms. Moore’s letter to him.

“Well, off to Usage with you, young lady.” Nandy smiled. She reminded Rachel of her mother just then.

Usage was held in the smaller of the two buildings next to the hospital. Or at least the parts of Usage that could be held in such a small, interior space. Rachel had learned that it consisted of two parts: theory and practice. Theory was all about how gifts should be used, and it was held inside. Practice was just that—practicing gifts, honing them. Some practice was held inside, but some practice had to be held outside, depending on the gift.

Rachel paused at the door of the building. She was about to knock on it when it opened, and Pathik smiled at her from inside.

“Are you ready to observe?” He made a sweeping gesture with his hand, bowing and bidding her to enter the building.

“Oh, fancy,” she said.

“Welcome, Rachel!”

Pathik’s grin disappeared as Fisher came up behind him.

“I think we’re all ready for you.” Fisher smiled and reached over Pathik’s head to hold the door open. “Let’s go find you a place to sit.”

Rachel started to enter but Pathik stepped in front of her. He turned to Fisher.

“We’ll be in shortly.”

Fisher continued to hold the door open, his arm over Pathik’s head.

“Any particular problem?” Fisher tilted his head at Pathik.

“No problem at all, Fisher.” Pathik smiled, a warning in the curve of his lips. “We’ll be right there.”

Fisher removed his hand from the door and let it fall toward Pathik, who stopped it with a foot. After a glance at Rachel, Fisher nodded.

“See you inside.” He turned and left.

Rachel poked Pathik in the back, hard. “What?”

He turned to face her. “What?”

Rachel crossed her arms. “ ‘We’ll be in shortly’?” She waited. “Did you have something you needed to talk with me about?”

“No.” Pathik wouldn’t meet her eyes. He scuffed the bottom of the door with his toe.

“Then, shall we go inside?”

Pathik opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t. Finally he moved aside. “After you.”

There were about a dozen kids in the room—some close to Rachel’s age, but not all—sitting on the floor. She saw Jab, and Kinec. She recognized some of the others from having seen them around the camp. Indigo was at the front of the room and he smiled as Rachel came in.

“Welcome, Rachel. Have a seat anywhere.”

Rachel chose a seat toward the back of the room. The whispers she heard as she settled in didn’t sound exactly friendly to her. Pathik sat down next to her.

“Can we all welcome Rachel, please?” Indigo looked intently around the room.

“We agreed she could be here. Doesn’t mean we’re happy about it. A Reg, at Usage.” Jab sounded disgusted. He didn’t look at Rachel.

“Enough out of you, Jab.” Pathik half rose.

“Enough out of both of you for now.” Indigo motioned to Pathik to sit down.

“She might be a Reg, but she’s a good one.”

Rachel had to crane her neck to see the source of the comment. Bender, sitting near the front of the room, almost hidden since he was shorter than the rest of them. He grinned in her direction and she smiled.

“She brought medicine.” Bender shook his finger at Jab. “She didn’t have to do that.”

“All right, all right, Bender.” Jab didn’t look convinced.

“We’ll start today with a brief explanation for our guest,” said Indigo. “Rachel, you know some of us have gifts.”

Rachel nodded.

“Usage is our practice of those gifts, and our study of how we use them.” He waited to see if she had any questions. Rachel kept silent.

Indigo addressed the whole room. “Today, let’s focus on control. We’ll save experimentation for next time.” Indigo nodded toward Bender. “Bender, would you like to show us your progress?”

Bender leaped up; he was an eager student here, unlike in school. He walked to the front of the room and stood next to Indigo. From his pocket, he extracted a metal rod. It was about six inches long and about an inch in diameter. Rachel wondered what it had come from; one end was twisted and jagged where it had been broken from something.

Bender held it at eye level in front of him. He stared at it. After a minute or so the rod bent, so that it formed an upside-down L. Bender tilted his head a bit and the L became an upside-down V.

“Very good!” Indigo patted Bender’s shoulder. “And back?”

Bender tapped at the bend in the metal. “Still too hot.” He blew on the rod, cooling it. After a few more minutes he stared at it again. The V became an L, and then the rod straightened back to the way it was at the beginning of the exercise.

“You make that look so easy!” Kinec was grinning at Bender from the floor.

“But I can only do metal, Kinec,” said Bender, looking proud despite himself at the older boy’s praise. “You can do anything.”

“That was very much improved, Bender, over last session.” Indigo looked pleased. “You have been practicing well.”

“Thanks.” Bender’s cheeks turned rosy. “I worked on it every night.”

“Who’s next?” Indigo looked around. A girl, younger than Rachel by a year or two, raised her hand. Indigo beckoned to her.

“Serena.”

The girl rose and took Bender’s place. Indigo looked at the students again. “A volunteer?”

“I will.” Fisher spoke, but he remained where he was.

Indigo nodded. “Whenever you’re ready,” he said to Serena. She nodded, and smiled shyly at Fisher. She took a deep breath, and brushed at her hair with one hand.

“Is it deep trouble, or light?” She watched Fisher carefully.

“I’d say it’s somewhere in between,” said Fisher. He looked pointedly at Rachel. Returning his gaze to Serena, he continued. “I’m unable to sleep well, at times. And I feel a certain melancholy.”

The girl nodded. She closed her eyes, and her hand crept up toward her hair again. She pressed two fingers to her temple, and the other fingers splayed out away from her brow.

The room was silent. Rachel noticed that nobody watched the girl; they were all looking at Fisher. She looked too. At first, she didn’t notice anything. But then, there was a shift, something so subtle it happened almost invisibly. Fisher’s face relaxed, just around the eyes. That was all. Rachel looked at Serena and saw that she was smiling softly, her eyes still closed. Fisher didn’t smile, but he looked the way someone does when some pain, a headache, a sore muscle—inconsequential but wearying—eases.

Indigo placed his hand on Serena’s shoulder and she opened her eyes.

“I could feel it a lot better this time—I knew right when it was soothed for him.” Serena looked excited.

Indigo nodded. “It seemed like it was easier for you to get there this time.” He looked toward Fisher. “How do you feel?”

Fisher allowed himself a smile then. “Just like she said. Soothed.”

“Excellent work, Serena.” Indigo waited while the girl sat down.

“Now. I know we haven’t all practiced yet, but I want to move on to our study. That way Rachel will be able to have a general sense of all that we do in Usage class before she leaves us. Do you have any questions, Rachel, before study?”

Rachel hadn’t realized she wasn’t staying for the entire Usage class. She tried to hide her surprise. “So, gifts come in different strengths? Or are they harder for some than others?” Rachel remembered the beads of sweat on Kinec’s forehead when he had made his pack move during the trek to camp. Bender’s face had betrayed no great effort when he bent his steel rod. She didn’t remember that Jab had looked particularly strained when he hurt her either.

“We don’t know all the answers about our gifts, Rachel. They do come to us with varying degrees of power. But practice does seem to make a difference.”

“And how do you decide whether you should get better, at a gift?”

Indigo nodded. He knew Rachel was thinking of his kind of gift. “That’s a hard question to answer, Rachel. I do believe some gifts should not be honed.”

“What sort of gift should not be used, if it’s given?” Jab sounded defensive, as if he knew the answer.

Indigo spoke quietly. “Just because a person can do something, does it always mean they should?”

Jab didn’t answer.

“I’d like to have a talk with you, Jab, after Usage.” Indigo looked at Rachel for a moment, then addressed the room again. “But let’s talk about this a little now.” He pointed to Bender. “When, Bender, would it be wrong for you to use your gift?”

Bender spoke by rote. “If I trespass on another unbidden.”

Indigo smiled. “Precisely. But what does that mean, Bender?”

Bender shrugged.

“If I asked you to help me by straightening my knife, could you use your gift?”

Bender nodded. “But if you didn’t ask, and I just did it, it would still be helping you.”

Indigo nodded. “If Serena used her gift without asking you, would it be helping?”

Bender thought. “I don’t see why it wouldn’t. She makes people feel better.”

“I make people feel less.” Serena spoke. “That’s my gift, Bender. I take away feeling. Not permanently. But that’s what I do. And sometimes, if a feeling isn’t good, it helps someone to feel better.” She looked at Indigo for permission to continue. He nodded. “When I get really good at my gift, I’ll be able to make you feel nothing at all if I want to, Bender. Would you want me to do that?”

Bender frowned. “I don’t think so.”

“So that’s why we have study. Why we have to think about when it’s right to use our gifts, how we can use them wisely.”

“At least you’ll be able to, though.” Jab scowled at Serena. “You have a gift you can use. Some of us have bad gifts. Or so some say.” He glowered at Indigo.

“There is no such thing as a bad gift.” Indigo spoke firmly. “There are only bad ways to use gifts.” Indigo looked around slowly, making certain every person heard his words. “I think we can end early today. I thank you all for allowing Rachel to observe.” People began to file out of the room. “Jab.” Indigo motioned to the boy to come to him. “You and I need to have a discussion.”

Rachel saw them later, sitting on two stumps at the edge of the camp. Jab was listening intently to Indigo. She wondered if Indigo was telling him about his own gift. Rachel wondered if Indigo was telling Jab how he might use his gift in good ways. She couldn’t think of any.





THE COUNCIL MEETING was short. Michael was there, as was most of the rest of the camp. Word had gotten out that there was a trek planned. And somehow, it seemed common knowledge that the trek was to the Line, back to the place Indigo had gone so many years ago, the place where he had fallen in love with a Reg, and fathered her son. People were chattering in gossipy, low tones. Pathik and Indigo arrived a bit late. Indigo strode once again to the front of the room.

“Daniel has recuperated well from his injuries.” The crowd quieted. “The Roberts have not yet retaliated against us for rescuing him, but we think they will.” He looked around the room, meeting eyes here and there. “We think they have already done worse, as you know.” He looked saddened. Ivy, the mother of the missing twins, was not in the council room: the fate of the boys weighed heavy on them all.

“We’ve stayed here for generations, and we’ve made a home. But I believe it’s time to make a move. I believe that we need to go to Salishan. Daniel, his daughter, Rachel, Pathik, Fisher, and I will leave tomorrow to fetch Daniel’s wife. When we return, I will be making a new home.”

A buzz of conversation began and grew louder. Some people shook their heads, some nodded, some looked deep in thought. All of them focused on Indigo again when he spoke.

“I know that it’s hard to think about leaving here. We’ve built a place where we’ve felt safe, and where we can survive. But we need to do better than survive.

“We’ve discussed the idea of going to Salishan many times. We’ve argued about whether it’s true there are Others there, and maybe those are just firetales. But even if there is no one there, even if Salishan is deserted, it affords us a place we can defend. It allows us the chance to build another home, a better home, where we might be able to live without fear.” Indigo studied the ground in front of him for a moment. When he looked up, he looked to Rachel the way a leader should look, strong, and sure.

“When we return from our trek, I will be going to Salishan. Any who wish to join me are welcome.” With that, Indigo strode out of the room.