Vessel (9 page)

Anders swung his arm and let the book in his hand fly into the flames. The crowd responded by throwing objects, big and small, into the fire. I’d heard these sermons before, but all the objects of obsession in Roma were destroyed years ago. We threw symbolic wood on our fires, but now that I knew what a book was, I felt confused. It didn’t seem like a terrible thing, an object of obsession. If they really were a way of sharing information, couldn’t they share Mother Sun? I stared until I felt Recks shove me into moving again.

We drifted down empty, dark alleys, Recks looking into windows here and there.

“That was Master Anders,” I whispered.

“Who?”

“The Reticent who came to Roma to try you.”

“Looks like he’s keeping busy,” said Recks, still poking around. Movement down the street caught his eye and mine.

“Get back,” he warned as he motioned to me. I melted into the shadows, something I was used to doing. A gang of boys moved down the street toward us, some running, some walking, none well-off enough to marry by their looks. The sight of them didn’t worry me, but the twitching of Recks’s hands at his sides told me there was something to be wary of.

“Hey!” the tallest one called to Recks. “This is our street. Fug off!”

“I’m just traveling, looking for food.”

“You won’t find nothing here. Unless you wanna work for it?”

“How’s that?”

The crowd of boys stood all around Recks now, but none of them noticed me. “We were just going down to the river to see what we can find. Maybe you can help us.”

“There’s a Cleansing going on. I came from there,” said Recks.

“Heard they were burning someone down there tonight. Distractions always help. I’m Tiber. This is my tribe.” The tall, thin boy waited for Recks, sizing him up, as if deciding whether to accept him or not.

“Recks.”

“Where are you from?” asked Tiber like it was a test.

“West of here … Buchen.”

“You don’t look like anybody from Buchen I’ve ever seen,” said Tiber, scrunching his forehead. The boys around them laughed even though there was nothing funny.

Recks shifted his weight. “Do you know where I can get some food or not?” he asked impatiently.

Tiber narrowed his eyes and glared before answering. “Yeah. You can be the decoy. C’mon.”

As Recks followed the boys away, I saw his hand signal for me to stay put. We hadn’t made a plan for this, but I wasn’t about to be left behind in the darkness. I waited until they rounded the corner and then silently followed. I wished Recks had hidden with me. He was far outnumbered, and Tiber’s tribe didn’t seem all that friendly. I guessed these were the people Recks wanted to hide my femaleness from. I wasn’t so sure he was any safer than I was. If we got out of this city together, I made up my mind to tell him next time we should forage in the woods. I could at least find edible plants there.

As we approached the Cleansing fire, I realized the crowd was hushed again. They stood still in stick-straight rows around the flames, watching a procession of Reticents carrying someone tied to a stretcher made of logs and cloth
. Is this an execution?
My horror was like a hard chunk of bread I couldn’t choke back down my throat. I looked at the victim long enough to make sure it wasn’t Kinder and then focused on Recks’s back, determined not to lose sight of him.

Tiber’s tribe moved slowly now, trying to avoid being noticed in the crowd. Try as I might, I lost Recks. I searched the dark crowd, growing frantic. Everyone looked the same. But then I found him with Tiber close behind, almost as if he was guiding Recks by the arm. I scurried behind the crowd to keep up, focusing only on Recks and not the man on the stretcher about to be executed. I couldn’t help seeing the man lifted upright to face the flames.

It wasn’t Kinder, but it could’ve been. He was old like Kinder, with a full head of shaggy, gray hair. He slumped forward, held up only by his restraints and the people lifting the stretcher. He looked beaten, and I prayed he might already be dead to spare him the pain the Reticents planned. I remembered the hot oil on my face and tried not to imagine that feeling over my entire body. There was no doubt they’d tried to kill me, and I probably would’ve died if Master Dine hadn’t cared for me. The man on the platform wouldn’t be so lucky.

“This man,” began Anders, “has defied Mother Sun’s law. He made machines. He taught others to make machines. He must pay for his crimes. The price? His life.”

The crowd began to sing an old hymn, a funeral song without words, only the somber sounds of human cries. Tiber worried me. Was he taking Recks to Anders? Why would they come to a Cleansing to steal food? Why walk through the crowd when they could be hidden from it?

Then I saw it—a shop on the edge of the square the tribe was creeping toward. The curb out front had a small grill with skewers of stringy meat hung over the flames. A man tended the skewers, turning them this way and that while watching the Cleansing from a distance. He must’ve expected customers after the show.

The people on the street made it easy for me to get close to Recks and Tiber, but I strained to hear what Tiber said to Recks before shoving him toward the vendor. The shouts of the crowd grew again, drowning out everything else.

Recks didn’t hesitate. He ran up to the vendor and grabbed the man’s arm, gesturing toward the crowd. Then I heard Tiber shout.

“Move!”

Members of the Tribe I hadn’t even noticed sprang out of the crowd, running behind Tiber. They descended upon the vendor, his cries going unnoticed in the roar of the crowd. The prisoner was in the flames now, and no one heard the vendor. In a second, the grill was emptied, and the tribe disappeared into the dark streets. I ran after them, unable to see Recks, to get away from the screams of the dying prisoner. Somehow I heard his screams above everything else. I knew what it was like to feel your flesh burning off. I wished him a speedy death as I ran.

***

The rubber-soled shoes wore my ankles raw as I dodged the garbage and the metal carriages littering the street. The last of the Tribe ran into a dark building through a broken window, shards of old glass crunching under their boots. Was Recks even with them? Had he gotten away?

My blood pounded in my ears, thankfully the only sound I heard now, finally far from the crowd. I stepped into the building where the Tribe had disappeared and froze, waiting for my eyes to adjust to the inky darkness. A light flickered on in the distance, and I realized the building was enormous. This was no house. Perhaps it was a place machines were once made? Pipes and machinery filled the floor space, ominous in the eerie glow, the high ceiling invisible in the gloom. I crept closer to the light, straining to hear the excited voices growing louder.

“What was that?” shouted Tiber.

“What was what?” The sound of Recks’s voice soothed the ache in my head, but it didn’t sound quite right. I peered through some machinery for a better view. A fire burned in a barrel. Two boys held Recks by the arms while Tiber kicked at his stomach. Recks doubled over, and the boys let him fall on the ground next to the barrel. He groaned.

“You tried to warn him!” said Tiber.

Recks couldn’t answer. Tiber kicked at him again. Recks writhed on the floor while the rest of the tribe watched, some devouring bits of stolen meat.

“I don’t like traitors,” said Tiber. The Tribe jeered and shouted in agreement. Someone handed Tiber some meat, which he ate with his grubby fingers while he circled Recks, watching him through beady eyes. Weevil had the same eyes when he was about to finish someone off. I wanted to scream, but I knew I had to keep my head on. I looked around. What could I do? Running into their camp wasn’t an option. There were at least eight of them that I could see.

A set of ladders glowed in the firelight overhead. Not knowing exactly what I was going to do, I climbed a ladder quickly to a second story landing and scurried over their heads to hide behind some giant pipes. Lucky for me, the Tribe was entranced by Tiber’s ranting. He wiped his greasy fingers on his pants and leaned over Recks, who wasn’t moving. He lay face down on the filth-strewn floor.

I fumbled around in my pockets for the slingshot and something to shoot. Yanking it out of my pocket, several pebbles spilled onto the floor. Feeling in the dark, I found a box of heavy metal tools and round metal nuggets about the size of rocks. I wasn’t about to be picky. I loaded a metal bit in the slingshot and fired it at Tiber, missing him by inches. It slammed into the iron vat behind him with a loud bang, startling the entire Tribe.

“What the hell was that?” said Tiber, looking up at my perch. I hid in the gloom, reloading the slingshot. I took aim and fired again. This time I hit his shoulder. He screamed, more angry than hurt. Some of the other boys ran away.

“Get up there!” he ordered the closest boy. I’d given my location away, and I might be trapped. A stupid slingshot wasn’t going to take them all out. I grabbed a handful of the metal nuggets and jammed them into my pocket before I lifted the tool box to throw it. It was heavier than I expected, and I struggled to get it over the railing. It fell hard, crashing into beams and scattering metal bits everywhere. The remaining Tribe members scattered as the box fell into their camp, nearly hitting Recks.

I turned to face the boy now on the landing coming after me. I thwacked him hard in the face with a shot at close range, and he went down immediately, holding his face. He stumbled and fell over the railing, landing with a smack on the floor by Tiber.

“Get back here!” Tiber screamed at the empty building, deserted by his Tribe. I took another shot at him, grazing his head. This time, he dodged in fear. I fired three more at once, and he ran into the shadows.

I crept down from my perch, carefully listening for any sound. All I heard was the wood burning in the barrel. I hurried to Recks, past the boy who’d fallen and who was as still as death. I never meant to kill him.

My hands on Recks’s back felt his warmth, his shallow breaths. He groaned at my touch and curled into a ball.

“Recks, it’s me.”

“Alana?”

“Yes. Are you hurt bad?”

“I don’t think I can get up.”

“Be still. They won’t come back for a while.”

“Where’d they go?”

“Run off somewhere,” I said. I tried to think of how to treat his injuries.

“Wait … what are you doing here? How did you find me?”

“I followed you.”

“You saw everything?”

“Yes.”

“You were supposed to stay put.”

“How could I save your life if I did that?”

“It was reckless, but I’m glad you did it.” Recks tried to smile through the pain, but it looked more like a face I would make.

My stomach growled hard. We hadn’t eaten for a long time. The smell of barbecued meat hung in the air around the fire barrel. Glancing around, I found two pieces of meat dropped in the confusion. I picked them up and brushed off the dirt.

“Look, Recks. There’s some left.” I pulled off a bit with my fingers and stuck it between his lips. He chewed it, still lying down, and then opened his mouth for more like a baby bird. My bird. I fed him nearly all the meat like that, saving only a little for myself. I knew I’d find something else, but Recks was helpless.

His arm looked broken. He refused to move it, hugging it close to his body when he was finally able to sit up.

“You shouldn’t stay here. They might come back,” he warned.

“Can you walk?”

“Just get back to the room with the books. I’ll meet you there.”

I shook my head. “I’m not leaving you like this. You come with me or I don’t go.”

“Don’t be stupid! Go!”

I flinched at the anger in his voice. I felt myself shrink for a moment, but I knew he couldn’t make it on his own. “You aren’t my master, remember?”

Recks started to speak again but stopped and smiled at me. I felt myself smile back.

“Help me get up then,” he said, reaching for me with his good arm.

I pulled him up and let him lean on me. He held one foot off the ground as if he couldn’t straighten his leg.

“Can you put any weight on it?”

“Maybe a little,” said Recks, gingerly setting his foot down. He groaned between clenched teeth.

“We can wait a while,” I said, unsure how we could get back to the apartment.

“No, we need to move, at least out of this warehouse.”

“I saw some vacant shops down the street. They weren’t too far.”

“Okay,” Recks said, taking a deep breath. We worked our way to the exit, stopping to rest twice before we got there. Once there, I let him rest against a window frame.

“Wait here and I’ll check to be sure we can get inside,” I told him. Out of breath, he didn’t argue. I ducked outside into the night. It was late now, the light of the bonfire down the street completely gone. A white cat ran across my path, but otherwise, it was completely still. Recks needed a place close but hidden. I followed the cat, hoping it knew of such a place. It scurried down a narrow gap between two buildings, across another deserted street, and inside a broken window.

Trying the doorknob, I found it already broken open and stepped into a room so black I had to stop to let my eyes adjust. A set of stairs led to a second floor where a small couch sat underneath a tiny window.

Getting Recks there was no small feat. By the time we reached the stairs, the first glimmers of dawn were on the horizon. I put him to bed on the couch and found a pillow for myself. I curled up on the floor beside him, more exhausted than I had been in a long while, and sank into oblivion.

***

“Hey,” someone whispered. A hand on my shoulder startled me out of my stupor. I sat up quickly, squinting in the afternoon sun coming through the window.

“Stay down!” ordered Recks. “The window isn’t covered.” He lay on the cot above me. I crouched back down, my neck stiff from sleeping wrong. I rubbed my eyes and crept to the window to peek out. Seeing the street empty, I closed the raggedy curtain. Golden light filtered through it. Now I could see how swollen and purple Recks’s left eye was.