Sileas grinned. "I just want to get recruited before it’s too late. I'd even break a Law just to get noticed. I can’t go to the Camps and be a baby-maker. Aside from recruitment what choice do we have?" She looked at Shai, her eyes shining. "If I wasn't so afraid of punishment I would do something that no one else has ever done, like break the big Law. But my only hope is Recruitment. There's no way I could stay here and become a Mother. Ugh, and I couldn't stand being forced to give birth in one of those Camps..."
Sileas's voice trailed off as she began to twist the silver chain around her neck. She rubbed a small wooden pendant across her lips, staring into the fire.
Shai's heart sunk, her stomach churning. How easy it was to forget that those Camps were where every one of them was from. And returning to Lael, after giving birth, to become a Community Mother was a far better fate than being recruited as a Watcher of Lael.
I’d rather go to the Camps than collect my reward.
CHAPTER 7
Aliah
When Ellersly left, Aliah ran across the bridge and cut through the woods behind the rows of Girls' Houses. When he was out of sight he pulled his hood up and zigzagged through the thick trees. He made sure to take a different path than last time so no one would follow him.
A wire fence with wooden posts marked the end of Lael's boundary and the beginning of the Borderless: no-man's land. He found a spot where the wire had been cut and continued running until the trees grew so close together the branches slapped his face. He covered his face with one arm and pushed through the trees to the other side. A large, two-story stone house came into view. Thunder Manor.
He opened the heavy wooden front door and clenched his teeth at the sharp bite of the cold steel door-knob against his palm. He leaned his forehead against the doorjamb, inhaling Thunder Manor's stale air until his nostrils burned.
The smell of privacy.
He closed the door then fumbled in the dark to find the small table he'd placed near the door, with an oil lantern and a few matches. A scrrch penetrated the darkness and the sulfuric match odor filled the entrance. The small face of a young man was revealed in the sudden halo of lantern light.
Aliah jumped. "Who are you?"
"I’m Zev. I... I followed you here." The boy’s voice was surprisingly low and rough. His grey eyes held a hint of amber that suggested he wasn't from Lael. They flicked from Aliah's face to the lantern then back again.
"How'd you get in?" Stupid question. He never locked the door. He had no key.
The young man shrugged. "Front door. Here, let me help you."
Aliah struggled to get his boots off by himself in the dim light, but let Zev take his wet cloak and hang it on a hook by the door. "You can't stay here. You need to leave."
"Now? There’s a storm coming!" The boy's face fell and a pang of guilt struck Aliah. He straightened, looked Zev in the eye, then took him by the elbow and led him to the living room.
"Sit." He pushed the wiry kid into a rocking chair then knelt before the hearth to coax the coals into flame.
"How old are you? Where did you come from?" A long drawn-out silence followed by sniffing caused Aliah to turn around. Zev sat hunched over in the chair wiping his nose with the back of his hand.
"I'm seventeen. Come from Brenton. Everything's bad there. My folks were killed in a raid a few days ago." He sniffed again then continued, "Houses burned down... not much left. We'd been waiting for help from the Division leader, Elchai, but...” Zev made a slicing motion across his throat with a finger.
Aliah rose to his feet and stepped close to the young man, bending down until his face was close enough to see the smattering of freckles across the boy's nose. He narrowed his eyes. He knew better than to believe this outrageous story. The Gracious Leader dead? He'd just chosen Aliah's best friend to receive a reward.
"Brenton?"
"Yes. I guess you’d know it as Sector Two. I'm half Brentonite. My father's from Brenton, my mother from the Borderless. I grew up in Brenton though."
Aliah's brow furrowed. "You're lying. There aren't any Sectors. I've been all through the Borderless territory. The Sectors don't exist." Aliah chewed his lower lip and put his hands on his hips.
"Nope. The Sectors exist. Every time there's a raid they just pull together and re-build."
Aliah frowned. "So why'd you come here? What do you want?" A ripple of guilt rushed through him. He wasn't with the last group that went on the raid but just knowing the Watchers destroyed this young man's family made Aliah's stomach sour.
"Want? Nothing. If I could just stay awhile until I figure out where to go. I'm real quiet. You won't even notice I'm here." The boy grinned, his amber-flecked eyes creasing in the corners.
Aliah shrugged. What was he supposed to do? Turn the kid out into the storm?
"Fine. You can stay for a few days but while you're here, you'll work for me. Keep a low profile." He reached behind Zev and pulled a black cloak from a hook on the wall. "I'm one of the Watchers around here. We uh, you know... watch and protect. Wear this. Let nobody see you. Consider yourself Recruited." He threw the cloak at Zev and walked back to the fireplace.
Zev laughed. "I'm good at stealth."
"Good. I'll explain your first assignment. If you don't follow through with it, I'll throw you out and I won't care what happens to you."
Zev held his hands up in surrender. “Okay, okay, I’ll do it.”
Something about the boy set Aliah’s teeth on edge but he shrugged off the feeling. He could manage the small annoyance if the kid proved to be useful.
CHAPTER 8
Shai
“Shai!” The desperation in the voice gripped Shai and forced her into consciousness. Sileas was leaning over her with dripping wet hair plastered to her face. She had Shai's upper arms gripped in her thin hands and every time she shook Shai, her hair sent little rivulets of water down her delicate face.
"Wake up, Shai!" Sileas's voice had developed an edge of urgency. Shai struggled to sit up. A strange heaviness filled her head like it had been packed with wet sand.
"Shai!" Sileas kept shaking Shai like a rag dollHow does such a small girl possess such strength?
"I'm awake, Sileas. Sorry, I just... I..." She pushed her friend away and swung her legs slowly over the edge of the bed. Every movement felt like she was under water.
Sileas pulled Shai into the living room. "I went to get Aliah's help but he wasn't at the Boys' Houses."
She handed Shai a cloak, then stood by the fire rubbing her hands together. "It would’ve taken me forever to wake up the Mothers. Aliah was the best one to help but since he wasn't there I had to come back to get you."
Shai threw the cloak onto a bench then stood in front of Sileas, arms crossed. "What are you talking about? Help for what? And what do you mean you came back? You were already here."
Sileas touched Shai's arm, her eyes wide. "Shai, I didn’t stay here. I left after you went to bed. I... broke into the Chapel and waited in the dark for the Leader to open the vault. I only wanted to look at the Book. Maybe even touch it. But... after a while no one came so I went to the vault. It was open and there was the Book... just lying there." She stopped, and Shai wanted to scream at her. What was Sileas thinking? It was the worst infraction.
"Oh, Sil. Tell me you didn't touch it."
"I just wanted to peek. To see it up close. But once I saw it I couldn't help it. I looked in it. I saw names... of course, and the infractions but I saw something else... pictures.”
"Pictures? Of what?" Shai wrapped her arms around herself as she shivered. She didn't want to hear anymore but couldn't help wondering what Sileas had seen. Everyone at some point had dreamed of looking in the Book. Wondering if their names and infractions were really written there. “Why would there be pictures in the Book when no one’s allowed to show individuality or creativity through drawing or painting or…”
"I don’t think whoever drew them was trying to break the Law of Equality. The pic
tures were like... I don't know. I can't explain it. But beside every person’s name there was a small picture. Lots of people shared the same one. On the pages I looked through I counted seven different pictures. And I saw your name, Shai. But your name had the only picture that was different. It looked like this." Sileas held up her hands and linked her thumbs and forefingers together, interlocking them. "There were three circles joined together like this."
Shai sucked in a breath and felt her fingertips go numb. Sileas’ description resembled Shai’s birthmark. Her secret mark that both frightened her yet made her feel special. Like her Old World dreams and visions of the boy with the beautiful eyes. She'd been careful her whole life to keep her birthmark secret.
"Anyway, I was looking at the picture beside your name when someone came into the Chapel and startled me. I ran but he caught up to me. I couldn't see his face clearly under his hood but I know it was Aliah. He gave me this then took off. I think he wants to recruit me!"
Sileas held out a thin cream-colored piece of parchment. It was folded into quarters and when Shai opened it, her thumb smudged the water-spotted ink.
S----, I need you t---. Meet m- by th-- tomor-ow. ~A
"Sileas, it's blurry. How do you know it's for you? And it's from "A" not Aliah. He doesn't recruit anyone. He's not even a Watcher."
"You're kidding right? You mean you haven't noticed that Aliah goes sneaking off almost every night into the woods? He's gotta be a Watcher."
Shai stared at the paper in her hand. It definitely looked like Aliah's handwriting even down to the way it was signed with a simple ~A. Her mouth grew dry. He had been secretive lately but then she had been too. She hadn't told him about her reoccurring visions of the young man with blue eyes.
She crumpled the note in her hand and tossed it into the fire.
"What did you do that for?" Sileas leaped from her chair, grabbed the poker and pushed at the curling paper as flames licked its edges. She threw the poker down then stood up and shoved Shai's shoulder.
Surprised, Shai tripped and fell backwards into the stone mantel. She rubbed her throbbing shoulder and looked into her friend’s angry, grey eyes "Sil, I'm sorry but you'll only get into more trouble if you meet with him secretly."
"Aliah never gets an infraction so why would he want to get us both into trouble by asking me to meet him? He only wants to recruit me." Sileas stuck out her bottom lip and crossed her arms.
"Recruit you? He'd never..." Shai pressed her fingers into her temples. This wasn't happening. Sileas would never be Recruited, her infractions were too numerous. Aliah would never send Sil a recruitment letter. Would he?
"Shai! Didn't you hear me?" Sileas yanked on her sleeve.
"Sorry, what?" Shai focused on Sileas's slender form as her friend bent down, grabbed the poker again and stabbed at the fire.
"I just said, maybe you feel that way because you care about Aliah. I know he cares about you too but maybe you're not the only one he's allowed to care for."
"What? Sileas what do you mean, allowed? No one is allowed to care about anything or anyone. It breaks too many Laws and stirs up rebellion. Don't you see? Recruitment is a punishment, not a reward. Being here in this House isn't a reward either! Everyone says that no one knows who the Watchers are but I do! I know who they are because I see how they change after they're recruited. Like they're suddenly better than everyone else!” A sharp pain exploded in her hand and she realized she had been pounding the stone mantel. For a few moments neither of them spoke. Shai half-expected a Watcher to barge through the door and drag her away for her slanderous infractions.
A thread of excitement went through her and shook off the remaining weight of exhaustion. Soon, I will be free of Lael and none of this will matter.
Sileas looked up at Shai with puffy, red eyes."I love what the Watchers do. Especially Aliah. I never told you how much I care about him. Don’t get mad. I try to find ways to be near him. I daydream about him. There's no Law against that. But I want him to notice me. I only want to be a Watcher because he's one. So when he gave me the letter, I thought it had finally happened." Tears streaked the younger girl’s cheeks. Shai pulled her into a hard embrace.
"I know, I know." Shai murmured into Sileas’s hair. "Of course you feel that way about him, Sil. And you're right. I...I do care about him." Shai's heart thudded against her chest but the momentary thrill of her confession was interrupted by another thought. Sileas had to be wrong about Aliah. He couldn't be a Watcher. He wouldn't betray her like that. He knew how much she hated them.
Sileas pulled away and wiped her cheeks with her arm. "Shai, I know you think it's dangerous to meet Aliah, but I did try tonight. Only when I got to the bridge I realized I couldn't cross over to the Boy's side because the river's too high. The storm…it nearly washed out the bridge. I tried yelling for Aliah but I know he must've gone to the woods again after he gave me the letter. So I came back to get your help. We need to sandbag the riverbank."
Shai's eyes met her friend's and fear seeped into her pores. She nodded then grabbed her cloak and pulled on her boots. Sileas’s ice-cold hand grabbed hers and pulled her into the deluge outside.
The rain drenched her face in seconds. She was grateful for the cloak's shield from the sudden cold. Icy gusts scratched at her throat as she sucked in air. Mouth opening, closing, gulping.
Dots of light moved all over Lael like fireflies when Shai and Sileas reached the bridge. A wild-eyed Mother holding a lantern gripped Shai's arm.
"They're gone! They're gone!" Her wails were louder than the shrieking wind.
Shai pulled her arm away and rubbed it. "Who's gone?"
"The children! Twenty-one of them. It's too early for Recruitment!"
CHAPTER 9
Aliah
Something moved in the shadowy corner of the living room. Aliah twisted in his chair and strained to get a better look. Lantern light played on the walls and stretched shadows beyond recognition.
"Who's there?" His voice vibrated throughout the expansive room. Zev stepped from the shadows. Aliah sighed. He'd have to get used to the boy's stealth. “So?”
Zev's blonde head bowed toward the stone floor. "Lael is a mess. Rain won't stop. The river's flooding..." His voice sounded thin and strained.
Aliah drummed his fingertips on the chair with his eyebrows raised. When the young man remained silent, Aliah stood up, cupped Zev's chin in his hand and looked into his eyes. "What is it?"
Zev coughed a little and took a small step back before answering, "Twenty-one children are missing."
Aliah walked slowly across the room to the door. "Twenty-one exactly? Are you sure?"
"The Mothers found twenty-one pendants...nothing inside them, just laying on their pillows." Zev cleared his throat and continued. "And your friend Shai is out there. She's upset."
"It's the middle of the night, Zev. Go to bed. I'm going into Lael."
Aliah had just grabbed his cloak and opened the door when Zev called out to him. "I completed my first assignment. Delivered both messages just like you asked."
Aliah paused in the doorway with one hand on the doorknob. He nodded, then closed the door and headed towards Lael.
Twenty-one children missing. His heart raced. So far everything was working according to his plan. But there was someone he had to see before he proceeded with the next phase.
CHAPTER 10
Shai
What was going on? And where was Aliah? He was the oldest Laelite male; the one every Mother looked to in difficult situations.
Shai held onto Sileas's arm and the two of them sprinted towards a group of teens near the river. Two blocks of Infant Houses and several of the Young Children's Houses were at the greatest risk, being the closest to the river. The bridge had a few boards missing and some damage to the railings.
Dawn was still a few hours away, but the entire community was wide awake. Shouts filled the air as the Mothers called out for the missing children. Tangible fear hung
over the community like a wet blanket. Nothing had ever broken the community’s routine life before.
As the rain continued to pound the ground, the community lost themselves in a flurry of activity. The teens and older children formed an assembly line along the river, and burlap bags filled with sand were tossed hand-to-hand, then stacked along the river banks. Shai stood in the line, muddy from head-to-toe, teeth chattering, passing sandbags to the others.
"Shai?" A woman's voice rang out amidst the clamor, sounding both frightened and relieved. A slender woman wearing a thin shawl and oversized leather boots hurried over. "Shai, is that you? I was so worried! When I couldn't find you at the Hill House I was afraid that you were missing too!" Darkness hid her features but her voice cracked with emotion.
"Eliana! I'm okay. I was at the House but came into town when I heard what had happened. Are you alright? How are the rest of the children?" Shai reached forward, her cold fingers briefly touching the Mother's arm.
A sandbag landed on the sloppy ground as she missed the next one passed to her. The boy to her left grunted when she apologized, then he stooped to retrieve the bag.
"I'm fine and the children are okay. We're all worried though. We counted twenty-one missing. We have all the pendants that were left behind. The Watchers have never taken more than one recruit at a time for their initiation and they've never broken the Pendant Rule before. Something is wrong."
Shai’s stomach clenched. The population had always been strictly monitored: six thousand and three hundred. Eliana was right; something was terribly wrong.
Where are you, Aliah? You should be here helping. What if Sileas was right? At eighteen he was past the age of eligibility. He was the oldest male in Lael. Shai always thought he had never been recruited so he could help the Mothers raise the children, and she often teased him, calling him 'daddy' and 'father': names she’d heard in her Old World thoughts.
Dread washed over her in a cold wave. What if Aliah was not only a Watcher but the Head Watcher, the Recruiter?