Eko (NINE Series, #1)

PART FOUR

  I.

  Are you awake?

  She opened her eyes. The rumbling had ceased. They had landed again.

  Yes, Sydel, we have arrived. Would you join me, please?

  The words echoed around her head; her mind had grown lax with sleep. Sydel quickly rebuilt the walls of her psyche. Her stomach moaned with hunger, but she pushed it out of her thoughts and slowly rolled to her feet. She wrapped the navy wool cloak around her body and peered out of the window.

  Red desert and gray sky, no sign of any civilization.

  She could just stay inside the storage unit. But she had to say it again to prove a point, even if the answer was the same.

  Sydel opened the door and raised her eyes to Huma’s waiting face. “I wish to leave.”

  “Oh, Sydel,” the older woman murmured. “I understand. But there is no civilization for miles. For your own safety, I cannot allow you to leave.”

  Sydel kept the barriers tight around her mind. She would give nothing to these people.

  Huma sighed, the sound now familiar to Sydel. “I have an announcement for the group. Please join us.”

  Never, Sydel thought. But uncertainty followed that thought, and not for the first time.

  Several weeks had passed since she boarded Huma’s transport. On entry, she refused the offered room. Instead, she did the same as she had in the siblings’ old Volante; she found a storage unit and barricaded herself within.

  Huma’s followers were persistent: first the men, then the women, coming to the door with gentle pleas, passionate promises, heartfelt offers to enfold her into their family. It had no impact. She refused to move, or speak.

  Frustration was palpable in the old freighter. She didn’t care. They were monsters. But she had made a deal to stay, so she did.

  From the dusty windows, Sydel had seen endless gray roads, acres of forests, a million bodies and faces of unknown destinations. She has seen wild animals in the South, industrial skylines, lumbering ships that darkened the sun, and the Impact skerries in the North and East. The novelty of the new wore off quickly, as did the cruel, monotonous, depressed thoughts of the public.

  But the flashes scared her. Twice now, images had overpowered her brain. First, the old Volante screaming over water, overlaid by a vision of a daughter, wailing for her father, and a strange word repeated again and again: Hitodama. And then a second premonition: Phaira’s blue head crushed by icy hands, sinking, screaming, twisting into dust, her white-hot energy sparking and dying.

  The visions might have been trickery, or insanity, but Sydel would never find peace if she didn’t warn the family. So she stole moments to try. When Huma and her followers abandoned the freighter and set it ablaze, Sydel left a hasty etching on one of the doors. When the group travelled on public transit underground, on route to securing a new vessel, Sydel found a surveillance camera and a wall to write on. Phaira should be able to see the etchings; the blue-haired woman was an Eko, after all. If the family was even looking for her. Those days seemed like a dream to her now.

  Sydel shuffled into the cargo bay, which served as gathering space. Inside, the six members of Huma’s group sat cross-legged, awaiting their master’s arrival. All had the slightly feverish look of the devoted, even days into this journey, when food was scarce. Their faces were lit in sickly yellow-green from the overhead lights. They didn’t look up at Sydel’s entry. They knew better by now.

  From a distance, always from a distance, Sydel had watched as Huma taught these men and women how to invade each other’s minds, cripple motor skills or render someone unconscious with a single focused glance.

  And Huma’s telekinesis wasn’t a part of Eko, after all, but something else entirely. Nadi, the woman explained to her students: self-generated energy, or energy manipulation, which could be used to manifest objects and even control them in mid-air. A wholly new skill, another paranormal oddity. The heat Sydel generated in her hands. That’s what it was. She was both Eko and Nadi. What would happen when Huma found out?

  A few of the followers were also Nadis. They seemed to spend most of their time in meditation, firearms and crossbows lying in their laps. But as Sydel watched through the window, when those weapons were fired outside, the blasts removed trees from their roots; arrows were able to pierce through steel. They had infused their energy into these weapons on purpose to heighten their power. And Huma encouraged it. It made Sydel sick. That was why she refused to speak to any of them. This morning was no different. She made her way over to the corner to stand apart from the rest.

  Finally Huma swept into the cargo area. Gliding into the center of the circle, she sank onto her knees, her hands folded on her thighs. The followers bowed their heads, and she returned the gesture. “I am so proud of every one of you.” Sydel was struck by the tenderness in her voice.

  “You have proven yourselves to be extraordinary,” Huma continued. “And truly evolved into higher forms of being. Today, we come to the end of our journey.”

  End of their journey? Sydel wondered, uncomfortable with the accolades. Was Huma asking everyone to leave?

  One of the converts had the same idea, it seemed, blurting out: “Huma, are you leaving us?”

  “No. We are all leaving.” Huma’s expression became serious. “Just a short distance from here, our destiny awaits. Everything I have trained you for, you must be ready to utilize to fight the great enemy - ”

  “How dare you.”

  Heads turned as Sydel’s voice echoed through the hanger. The navy cloak slipped from her shoulders, but she didn’t care. Her skin was on fire.

  “I understand your frustration, Sydel,” the older woman soothed. “And I am sorry to have been so secretive. But now that we are here, I can tell you the whole truth. I have said that a tragedy is underway, but not who - ”

  “It doesn’t matter who,” Sydel shot back. “To use our abilities to hurt others - to show these men and women how to cause suffering on purpose - ”

  “It does matter,” Huma corrected. “Because the hunt is against our kind. Others like you, like me and all of us. Gifted, and misunderstood. They are being tracked down as we speak.”

  “What others?” Sydel said sharply. “By who? Why?”

  “Please,” Huma purred. “Be calm, and let me explain.”

  Sydel’s nails dug into her palms. The skin pulsed underneath. She realized she wasn’t breathing. “Explain,” she wheezed

  “Twenty-five years ago, there was a gathering, much like this one,” Huma began, “of masters of mind and body, who came together to evolve. But there was a terrible accident, where civilians were killed, and the masters disappeared into the public sphere. Now they are under threat of extinction and we are here to ensure they survive.”

  Is that true? Sydel wondered. Is that why Huma sought to recruit me? To save lives?

  “But you said slaughter,” she said outloud.

  “Everything I have done has been in preparation to protect our kin,” Huma said smoothly. “Show them mercy and forgiveness. Establish a new order and learn from them. Though it has required deceit, and some minor violence, I believe it is worth it.”

  The followers nodded in unison. Sydel’s resolve started to crumble. Was she wrong? Was she being too prejudiced? Look at how these men and women were so ready to serve and to protect. And why else did Sydel have these abilities, if not to prevent horrors?

  “If your intention is peace, why work so hard on offensive tactics?” Sydel countered weakly.

  Huma nodded. “A fair question. If we are to protect the masters from harm, we must be able to defend ourselves. Wouldn’t you agree?”

  Those intense green eyes held Sydel’s for a long moment.

  And Sydel couldn’t think of what else to say.