“I saw you arrive in Reception with Donnell this morning,” said Hannah. “Had you been talking to him?”
“We had a short conversation.”
“What about?”
Donnell had ordered me to keep the aircraft’s arrival secret, so I dodged the question. “I’d been on the roof with a good view of the weather.”
“If you told Donnell about you offending Cage, do you think he’d step in to protect you?”
I didn’t want to frighten Hannah, but it would be cruel to let her build up false hopes. “I don’t think I can count on that. Donnell mentioned my birthday, and said he was going to talk to me about my future.”
Hannah made a sick, gagging noise. “That sounds like a warning. Is Donnell going to discard you from the Resistance?”
I tried to keep my voice calm and confident. “He just said that he’d talk to me. It needn’t mean anything bad.”
“It’s not likely to mean anything good though, is it?” Hannah chewed on her gloved finger again. “If Donnell does discard you from the Resistance, none of the other divisions will be eager to accept a girl with a broken arm.”
“My broken arm has healed perfectly,” I said.
“No, it hasn’t.” Hannah made an exasperated clicking sound with her tongue. “It’s still hurting you.”
“My arm sometimes aches a little,” I admitted, “but that’s just a temporary problem because of the cold winter weather.”
“It doesn’t matter if it’s temporary or not,” said Hannah. “If Donnell discards you from the Resistance, you’ll have to beg for membership of one of the other divisions. Their leaders will hold your brother’s actions against you, and a badly healed arm will be an extra reason for them to decide against taking you in.”
She paused. “You could be left fighting for survival on the fringes of the alliance, Blaze. You don’t understand how hard that would be. I do. I lived that life for two years in London.”
I was tempted to say that I did understand. Eleven years ago, Hannah’s father fought Ice for the London division leadership, lost, and died of his injuries. The next day, Hannah and her mother were formally expelled by Ice. I’d watched every struggle they went through in the next two years, because I sneaked off each day to visit Hannah, taking her scraps of food and other oddments.
Watching someone else going through something wasn’t the same as experiencing it yourself though, so Hannah was probably right that I didn’t understand.
Hannah pulled a pained face. “After my mother was killed in that stupid accident, I would have starved to death, but you talked your mother into pleading my case with Ice. He let me rejoin London division, but took every opportunity to make it clear I was its most unwelcome member. When we arrived in New York, and Donnell wanted you and your brother to join the Resistance, I was terrified. I knew Ice wouldn’t let me stay in London division without you.”
My mind conjured up the memory of Ice’s unreadable face, the emotionless tone of his voice, and the exact words he’d used as he spoke to Seamus and me that day. “Your father has invited you both to join the Resistance, and the three New York divisions have said that you must accept that invitation. They’ve grudgingly agreed to give house room to us homeless beggars, because they know having more people will give everyone a better life, but they won’t tolerate Donnell’s children staying with us in case it makes him favour London division over them.”
Whenever I remembered that day, I always got caught up in the pointless loop of thinking through what happened next, and wondering if there was anything I could have done to make things end differently. I should have realized there was something terribly wrong about Seamus’s behaviour. I’d known that he hated our father for abandoning him as a child. I’d expected Seamus to resent being forced to move to the Resistance, but we were welcomed with open arms as Donnell’s adored children, and Seamus seemed to revel in being the centre of attention.
I hadn’t thought that was strange at the time. I’d been awed to meet my legendary father at last. I’d believed Seamus felt the same way, but he hadn’t forgotten his old anger. In fact, he had a new and even more bitter grievance against Donnell, thinking our mother would still be alive if Donnell had taken his family with him to New York years ago.
Seamus was just hiding his feelings while he gathered the knowledge he needed to take his revenge for our mother’s death. Two weeks after our arrival in New York, Seamus left, and the next day every portal in New York died. Three hours after that, Donnell and I had a blazing argument where we both said impossibly destructive things to each other, and we’d never risked talking about anything personal ever again.
Hannah’s voice dragged me out of the painful past. “It was a huge relief when you persuaded Donnell to make me a trial member of the Resistance, but then there was that trouble with your brother and …”
She shook her head, and her voice changed from anxious to despairing. “I tried so hard to please Donnell and the rest of the Resistance after that, but they were suspicious of both of us, treating the slightest mistake like a crime. If Donnell discards you from the Resistance, then I won’t be in any position to help you, Blaze, because he’ll discard me as well.”
I opened my mouth to say something reassuring, but closed it again. Hannah was right. Her position in the Resistance was even more precarious than my own. There was a grim silence before Hannah spoke again.
“Do you think you could persuade Ice to take us back into London division?”
“I doubt it. Manhattan, Queens Island, and Brooklyn were furious about Seamus sabotaging the New York portal network. They put part of the blame on Donnell for being gullible enough to trust him, but most of their anger was targeted at London division for bringing a traitor to New York. Ice had to grovel for months to stop the whole of London from being expelled from the alliance with nothing but the clothes on their backs.”
“But your mother was Ice’s cousin,” said Hannah. “You’re the only relative he has left now. Surely that must mean something to him.”
“Ice doesn’t seem to have ordinary feelings.”
There was a long silence before Hannah spoke again in a mournful voice. “Everything would be so different if you only looked more like Donnell.”
Her words echoed what Cage had said at the cooking fire, hitting me hard in my most vulnerable spot. I hadn’t met my father at all until I was eleven years old, and we’d hardly spoken since then, but my life had still been built on the fact I was the daughter of the legendary Sean Donnelly, founder of the Earth Resistance. If that wasn’t true, if I wasn’t the girl I’d always believed I was, then who was I?
One of the fishing lines gave a sudden jerk. “Fish!” I shouted, eager for an excuse to escape this conversation.
A shoal of fish must have arrived, because a flurry of activity on the fishing lines kept us busy for a while. When things calmed down again, I kept the discussion to neutral topics. By the afternoon, we were both feeling so dreadfully hungry, that we talked about nothing but food, debating our chances of getting a decent meal to eat tonight. We were catching some fish, so the other women should be successful as well. It was less easy to predict the men’s hunting luck, which could vary wildly from one day to the next. There was only a faint chance of them bringing home one of the deer that sometimes strayed into New York, but they should get some geese. Hopefully there’d be wintereat leaves, and perhaps even baked roots as well.
Finally, we heard a piercing whistle blowing one short note, then a longer one, and another short. That was Natsumi at the next fishing spot, signalling that it was time to pack away the fishing gear and head back.
By the time we’d got everything into the building, and carried the net bags of fish over the roof, my left arm was aching badly from the combination of hard work and cold. I tried to hide the problem, but Hannah must have seen some betraying sign, because she insisted on carrying more than her share of the bags as we followed the path to where Natsumi was w
aiting with her sister, Himeko.
“Blaze.” Natsumi greeted me with her usual brief nod, and ignored Hannah entirely.
The four of us continued along the path in total silence. Natsumi and Himeko had been members of the Earth Resistance since the day it was formed, and were unrelentingly hostile to me for being the traitor’s sister, and to Hannah for being my friend. I sometimes made an effort to make polite conversation with them, forcing a few grudging sentences out of them in return, but I was too tired to try it today.
The wind had eased now, but as the other fishing pairs joined us in turn, it started snowing, large wet flakes that hovered on the edge of turning to rain. By the time we’d reached the Parliament House, my coat was dripping wet, and there was a chill, damp feeling across my shoulder blades.
As we went in through the door, Hannah and I shook the water from our coats, then unbuckled our knife belts with hands that were stiff and clumsy from the cold, and carefully placed them on the table reserved for the Resistance knife belts.
Two women came bustling over to collect our fish bags. I’d just handed them mine, when I saw their faces suddenly change. They seemed to be staring past me at something.
Confused, I turned to look behind me, and saw the door was opening again. Three figures came through it, strangers dressed in matching, hoodless, blue and black outfits. For a second, I was too stunned to think, but then I realized these people had to be from the aircraft I’d seen that morning.
I was face to face with the off-worlders, the enemy!
Chapter Four
There was total silence as everyone gathered round to study the off-worlders in their fancy clothes. I spared only the briefest of glances for the woman, and the slightly built boy who couldn’t be much older than me, focusing my attention on their leader. He was a broad-shouldered man with light brown hair, almost exactly the same age, height, and weight as Cage.
I saw people shuffling aside to let Donnell through the crowd. He walked up to stand facing the off-worlders, and I was stunned when it was the boy rather than the man who stepped forward to meet him and started talking.
“We apologize for the intrusion,” he said, pronouncing his words with odd precision. “Our aircraft was damaged when we landed across the river, and we saw the smoke from your fire so we headed here. We’d be grateful for food and accommodation until the weather improves and we can make our way to the nearest settlements.”
There was a shout of laughter from over to my left, and I heard Cage cruelly mimicking the boy’s accent. “Their lordships apologize for the intrusion. They’d be grateful for food and accommodation.”
“We should eat them, not feed them,” Shark joined in the attack. “We could use the meat.”
The off-worlders drew closer together, and I saw the boy’s head turn rapidly to left and right as he searched for the speakers among the hostile faces surrounding him.
“Quiet!” shouted Donnell.
“We should keep the woman alive though,” said a voice from directly behind me. “We could have a lot of fun with her.”
Donnell whirled round, stepped past me, and I heard the crack of a fist meeting bone. By the time I looked over my shoulder, his target was lying on the floor clutching his jaw, and everyone was backing away from them. I hastily scampered backwards myself.
Donnell watched the man on the floor for a moment, to check he wasn’t planning to get up and continue the fight, then looked slowly round the faces in the crowd. “When I say be quiet, I mean it.”
He pointed the finger of his right hand as he said the last words. That might have been just for emphasis, but the lights of the gun wrapped around his right forearm were flashing at high speed, warning it was at alert status. Everyone froze, barely daring to breathe, as Donnell walked back to the three tense figures in blue and black, and paused in front of the woman.
“Pretty.” He touched her cheek fleetingly with one hand, before turning to face the crowd. “The off-worlders could prove valuable. No one lays a finger on any of them, especially the woman. Understand?”
There were hasty nods in response.
“I’ll take them to the Resistance wing for questioning,” said Donnell. “Luther, you’re coming with me. Machico, you’re in charge here.”
The two of them came out of the crowd. Luther went to stand next to Donnell, while Machico looked round with a relaxed smile on his weathered face.
“Today’s thrilling entertainment is over, people.”
Everyone turned and started drifting away. I was the only one standing still now, my brain struggling to adjust to what had happened. The enemy wasn’t just at our gates, but inside them, and Donnell … The way he’d just acted towards that woman seemed completely out of character. Everything I’d been told by others, everything I’d seen for myself, confirmed that Donnell had never been attracted to anyone since his relationship with my mother broke down. Could he really be interested in an off-world leech?
I stared at the group heading for the stairs, Donnell in the lead, the three off-worlders behind him, and Luther bringing up the rear. The woman looked about twenty-two or twenty-three, and yes, she was pretty even with her blonde hair wet and straggling limply against her head, but …
Donnell glanced over his shoulder. “Blaze! You’re coming with me too.”
Me? Included in this? I was too bewildered to move for a second, then pulled myself together and hurried after the group, catching them up as they went through the curtain to the Resistance stairs. As soon as the heavy material fell back into place behind us, the woman started talking.
“I don’t …”
“Hush!” said Donnell sharply. “It’s dangerous to talk here with only a curtain between you and the mob.”
The woman frowned and went quiet, but the boy waved his hand urgently at the man. “Yes, but Braden injured his leg on the way here. He needs to see a doctor.”
“I wish we had a doctor here, but we don’t,” said Donnell. “What sort of injury is it? Can you make it up the stairs, Braden? You’ll be much safer up there.”
“It’s just a cut.” Braden rolled up one leg of his blue and black outfit, to show a bloody gash in his right calf. “I can manage the stairs.”
We headed up to the sixth floor, moving slowly since Braden was limping. Donnell opened the security door, we went through into a grey corridor, and the door closed behind us. I usually felt a wave of relief as I entered the top floor of the Resistance wing, the safest place in the Parliament House, but this time we’d brought an unknown threat with us.
Donnell paused to speak to the off-worlders. “When we first occupied this building, my technical expert, Machico, spent six weeks getting full control of the security system. Only my most trusted Resistance members have access to the top floor of our wing, so you’ll be safe here.”
I flushed with pleasure at the comment about trusted Resistance members, then realized Donnell had probably forgotten all about me when he said it. He’d given me, my brother, and Hannah neighbouring apartments up here when we first came to New York. My brother had only lived here for two weeks, and a few months later Hannah was unjustly accused of stealing from the sixth floor supply rooms and moved down to an apartment on a lower floor, but I still had my original rooms.
“Luther, we need a medical kit,” said Donnell.
Luther dashed off into a storage room, while Donnell led the rest of us to his conference room. He pulled out one of the chairs from around the circular table for Braden to sit down.
Luther arrived with the medical kit a moment later, and Donnell knelt down to clean Braden’s wound with some alcohol and tie a bandage round his leg. The boy frowned as he watched this, as if he thought the treatment incredibly primitive.
“Don’t you have regrowth ointment?” he asked.
“We used the last of our ointments and medicines three years ago.” Donnell stood up. “This is a straightforward cut, and I don’t think it needs stitches, but I’ll get Nadira, our bes
t nurse, to check it when she’s off duty later this evening.”
“Thank you,” said Braden.
Donnell gestured at the other chairs, and we all sat down. I’d never done more than peek through the door of this room before, so it felt strange to sit down in a chair at Donnell’s side, and even stranger that an off-worlder woman was sitting on the other side of me. I glanced at her, and saw her hands were clenched tightly together on her lap. I realized she was terrified, and felt a traitorous moment of sympathy.
The off-worlder boy had taken a chair opposite me. I took my chance to study him, still finding it hard to believe he was the leader of these three. His hair was a nondescript brown, and his face wasn’t classically handsome, but he had an anxious, strained expression in his eyes that caught my attention. I revised my estimate of his age up a little, but not by much. He could be nineteen, but I doubted he was twenty.
“Before we get started,” said Donnell, “I’d like you to place any weapons you’re carrying on the table. I’d rather not be driven to uncivilized measures like searching you.”
“We didn’t bring weapons,” said the boy. “It didn’t seem necessary when we were only expecting to spend a few hours in an empty city.”
“Today hasn’t gone according to plan for either of us,” said Donnell bitterly. “Let’s move on to some introductions. I’m Donnell. The young man on my left is one of my officers, Luther. The girl on my right is my daughter, Blaze Donnelly.”
My head snapped round to look at Donnell. He’d called me his daughter for the first time in six years. Had he meant to do that, or …?
“Your name is Donnelly?” The tone of the boy’s voice changed, as if he was reciting something he’d memorized. “When the last of the two hundred and one worlds in the Alpha sector star systems opened for colonization in 2365, the Earth Loyalist Party came to power and blocked further colonization. Five years later, the Expansionists won the key vote that allowed the colonization of Beta sector to begin.”