Shadows and Smoke by Rich X Curtis

Author:Rich X Curtis [Curtis, Rich X]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Arrow North, LLC
Published: 2020-07-20T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

The Center, The Black Barracks

Concurrent Present Timeline

Tarl opened his eyes and sucked a great lungful of air. He forced his eyes into focus and looked up. He was on a low slablike bench in the mission room, where he had set out into the world of the festival, the amphitheater, and the woman atop the mound of fruit. He blinked. His eyes were clear, not stinging from the thin citrus mist that had enveloped him on the platform with her.

He sat up, shaking his head. Grandmother was there, looking out the window, down onto the training grounds below. He could hear the singing of the trainees as they jogged their circuits in close order. She noticed him and turned. She glanced at an attendant and made a motion with her finger. The Archivist nodded to her and left.

“You are well,” Grandmother said, not a question. “They checked you. All fine. While you slept.” She sighed. “Your return got them quite exercised. They are frantic.” She smiled at him. “You gave them all a fright, showing up back here like that.” She lowered her voice. “They think they might be in trouble over it.”

He looked at her. She was old, Grandmother was. How old? He had asked once, long ago, and she had not answered him, only shook her head and silenced him with a raised finger. But nobody could remember a time when she hadn’t been here, or hadn’t been old. Was this age, or something else? He shook his head. “She sent me back?”

Grandmother nodded. “She did.” She frowned. “I reviewed the record,” she said. “Just now, in fact. As soon as it was ready.” She glanced at him. “You have been asleep for almost two days.” She shrugged. “So tell me, what do you think?”

“How could she do that?” Anxiety rose in him, as he reviewed his last memories of the mission. “She said…” he looked at Grandmother and swallowed. “She said she was coming. She sent a message. For you.”

Grandmother pressed a hand to her bony chest. “Me?” she said, smiling. “She did not name me, did she?” She shook her head. “No, I remember her words quite clearly. Them, she said. She didn’t name me, specifically.” She approached him, gliding over to him from the window. He looked up at her as she approached, meeting her cloudy eyes that seemed to look through him as if he were transparent. “But she seemed to know you. She knew you, or claimed to.” She looked at him.

He shook his head. “The woman was strange to me. You know this,” he said. “How did she know I was there?”

Grandmother pursed her lips and blew out a short breath. “The mission planners detected a strong computational nexus there, in that place. In that temple complex.” She glanced towards the door. “Their Dreamers were confident this was an anomaly worth investigating.” She sighed. “They thought they had found a Mind.”

“So they sent me?” He said, knowing it was a foolish thing to say as soon as it left his lips.

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