Sound by Alexandra Duncan

Author:Alexandra Duncan
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2015-08-11T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

“You’re younger than I thought.” The voice is a harsh, tracheal croak.

Younger? I squeeze my eyes shut. Maybe this is another hallucination. I open them again. It still stands there, its head cocked to the side quizzically.

“Who . . .” I swallow and try to make my voice stop shaking. “Who are you?”

“I used to think I was Kaede-san.” It’s voice is thoughtful, almost sad. “But I know better now.”

We stand in silence a moment. What is there to say after that?

“We heard you coming.”

“We?” I repeat, my throat dry.

It waves its hands in the air, as if gesturing at a cloud of gnats. “Yes. We.”

I decide not to press the issue.

“You need help.” It scuffles closer, out into the lantern light. Its baggy clothes obscure its shape, but I start to think it might be a woman.

“I . . . I need supplies,” I say, though my words sound as if they’re echoing from someone else’s mouth. “Or access to a medical bay. My friends, they’re sick.”

The woman smiles, displaying a red-stained mouth. “We can help.”

Somehow, this isn’t entirely comforting. I back around the water barrels, putting another meter of space between us. “You know where the med bay is?”

She shakes her head. “That place is no good, not anymore. But we can help.”

My stomach sinks. “How?”

The woman draws herself up and shakes out her filthy robes. “We are isha. We are a doctor.”

I follow her back through the refuse. I could run, but Kaede-san or Isha or whoever she is clearly knows this station better than I do, and that means she might lead me to the medical bay if I play along. She keeps one hand on her head, steadying a makeshift headlamp, and swats at the garbage with a plastic stick she holds in the other.

“They like to bite,” she explains. “Rats.”

I shudder and thank the stars for my pressure suit’s boots.

“What should I call you?” I ask.

“You can call us doctor.” She lets out a harsh wheezing sound I take to be a laugh. “Incorruptible Jewel of the Heavens, Lady of the Phoenix, High Priestess of the Winding Cloth—”

I interrupt. “I don’t think I’m going to be calling you any of those things.”

She frowns back at me. “Fine. Call us Isha.”

We arrive at a service lift I missed on my way in. A metal bar sticks out of the seam where the double doors meet. Isha leans her weight against it, and the doors roll back, revealing a car with a thick carpet of damp debris and spattered stains on the walls. A single emergency light strip fills the carriage with a dull blue glow.

“This thing still runs?” I ask, incredulous.

Isha bobs her head. “Everything runs.” She looks at me and waggles a finger. “Everything runs, except when we don’t want it to run.”

Fantastic. I make a mental note not to piss off Isha any more than I already have.

She smiles and holds out a hand, inviting me into the lift. “After you.”

The car shrieks as it jolts into motion.

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