Neci turned back to look at Syn, and Kerwen mouthed I’m sorry to Syn. Syn glared.
Neci pressed her thumb further into Syn’s neck, sending a sharp jab of pain down her back. “Is that true?”
Syn could barely move, but she gave the slightest nod.
“How?”
“I don’t know.”
“Liar!”
“I don’t. I promise. It just does.”
“So you can go back up and open the gate?”
Syn shook her head. “No. No—it won’t—it wouldn’t open for me. My companion had to open an access point. Even he couldn’t open the gate.”
“Liar.”
“No. I’m telling—”
Neci jerked and slammed Syn’s head against the table, splitting her forehead open. Blood splashed across the table, and Syn cried out in pain.
Neci roared. “You came over, and you can go back! Get up! We’re going now!” She jerked Syn to her feet as blood poured down the girl’s face.
Kerwen held her hands up. “No way!”
In a flash, Neci spun and turned on her, fire in her eyes. “What?”
“I’m not going out into the Desert at night. It’s a few kilometers to the closest Jacob. We won’t make it.”
Neci looked above, into the darkness of night. “Dammit.” Then to Syn. “Tomorrow morning, we’re going up there, bright and early, and you’re opening that gate.”
Through her sobs, Syn said, “I can’t. I’m telling the truth. Only Blip can.”
Neci pushed her back and slapped Syn, sending her to the floor. “I said to stop lying!”
Something wriggled from underneath Syn. From out of her backpack, a black streak zipped into the air and hovered above Syn. Huck! It squeaked—something Syn had never heard it do, and then just as fast, he flew away and was gone. “Huck!” Syn shouted.
“You brought a machine into Zondon? Here?” Neci kicked at Syn’s leg.
Syn held her hands up. “No! I didn’t know! He must’ve hidden.”
Kerwen interjected, pulling Neci’s focus away, “I told you the companion could do it.”
Neci shot back, “I believed you. That’s why I didn’t bash the thing to bits. I had hopes. But it won’t turn on.” Then she looked at Syn. “But machines love you, don’t they?” She pulled back and pointed out the door. “I bet you know how to turn him on.” She was spitting as she spoke. Every word came out with a rasp. “You are going to get that companion to work, and you are going to show us how to get back to the Garden.” She reached out and slapped Syn hard. “You little lying brat. You’ve lived in Paradise, and you have that gall to lie to me about it. No more!”
She snagged Syn’s spear from the ground and slammed it against the table and a crack radiated down the shaft. “You came through. You’re going to take us back. And I swear, if that machine has told anything to that Great Old Woman, I’ll personally kill you. Olorun is blind and deaf. It’s going to stay that way. She has no eyes, no ears, and no voice inside this aborted world. She rejected us. Discarded us like a forgotten mass. And I won’t have her following us into Eden.” Neci held the cracked spear in front of her, a single white line running the course of the shaft raggedly jutting like lightning, turning it like a lathe in her hands. Her face curled in disgust. She flung it across the room, and it smacked against the wall.
Above them, the clouds thundered again, and drops of rain began to pour down.
Syn stammered, “I was going to tell you.” Blood dripped from her lip as she came up onto her knees. “I was scared.”
Then as if a switch had been turned off, the anger drained from Neci, and she stood there poised. The fury behind her eyes vanished. She spoke clear and confident. “You were going to tell me?”
Syn nodded her head. “I was going to take you there.”
The Crimson Queen crouched down and lifted Syn’s chin up. For a brief time, Neci examined Syn’s face. Then she dabbed at a tear and wiped a swath a blood from Syn’s cheek, staining her own fingers. It didn’t reduce much of the blood on Syn’s face but left a clean streak to the dark skin below. “You are telling the truth. Okay. And now?”
Syn opened her eyes, straining to focus through the blood and tears matted over her eyelids. Her words were a whisper, “I’ll take you there.”
Neci stood up, straightened her dress, and wiped a splatter of Syn’s blood from her own face. She nodded. “Well then. If I could, we would leave tonight, but… Kerwen, you are correct. Tomorrow morning. So, let’s all get a good night’s sleep, and we’ll be up early, ready to go. Have everything packed.” Neci turned away. “And clean her up. Post a golem by her room. Grab her companion and have him loaded to go. We leave in the morning. Oh, and Taji, I need your help in my lab preparing the new ones. We have a final bit of heavy lifting to do before we leave.” She glanced back at Syn and gave a wink. “A guarantee. A back-up plan of sorts.”
As she left, her dress dragged through the small pool of blood at Syn’s feet. In her exit, unseen by her, Neci smeared a streak of crimson across the cold concrete.
34
MENAGERIE AND BLOOD
“[A] dragon had set up its nest at the base of the tree, the Zu-bird had placed his young in its crown, and in its midst the demoness Lilith had built her house.”
Unlike the last night, sleep came fast. She had bathed again, but ended it as the water turned red from her own blood. She slipped into the old, tattered blankets wearing only a thin shirt one of the Sisters (she assumed Pigeon) had left out for her. Her head hit her pillow, and despite hearing the hoarse breathing of the burly set outside her room, she fell asleep in moments.
In her dark dreams, she heard her name whispered. “Syn. Syn. Syn, wake up.”
She swam up into consciousness and opened her eyes to the still eyes of her own face looking down at her. The mirror Syn brought a finger across her thin lips. Syn thought to herself, how did I ever get so thin? As the fog of sleep drifted away, the confusion left. It was not her own face. It was Pigeon. “You’re not me,” Syn whispered.
Pigeon gave a quick “Shh” and then said, “I need you to come with me. Don’t talk. Don’t make a sound.”
“There’s a burly… a golem outside,” Syn said as she sat up.
“Don’t talk,” Pigeon hushed, “Follow me.”
Syn noticed there was a different quality to Pigeon’s whispers than her own. The girl could only be heard when Syn was against her. As she leaned back, the words seemed to fade. How did the girl act like a living shadow?
Pigeon grabbed her hand and pulled Syn along toward the back, where the tub room was. Syn tugged back and pointed toward her clothes piled on the ground. Pigeon shook her head. Syn glanced at her own bare legs, gesturing at her own nakedness. Pigeon paused and nodded.
Syn hurriedly put on her pants, but Pigeon grabbed her hand and yanked her along, still wearing the thin shirt rather than her own clothes.
In the back room, beyond the tub, Pigeon walked up to the rock wall and ran her fingers across a lighter-colored stone. With a small tug, her fingers pressed into a visible crevice, and the rock moved toward her. No—it wasn’t just one rock; an entire door of rocks swung on hinges inside the wall. A hidden door had been there the entire time.
Syn’s mouth hung open in surprise, but Pigeon did not give her the opportunity to ponder. Instead, she pulled her into the dark passageway beyond. They moved through a few smaller rooms, and Syn recognized these as spaces that the zoo handlers and the assistant bots (at least on her Disc) had used to prepare food for the animals. Syn smiled—of course there had to be a door into this space—the handlers wouldn’t come through the main gate; they would have to use an entrance that allowed easier management of all the animals. The various animal enclosures were set up in a ring around the singular hub that the handlers had operated and managed them from.