Nest of the Monarch by Kay Kenyon

Author:Kay Kenyon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Gallery / Saga Press
Published: 2019-04-15T16:00:00+00:00

30

AN APARTMENT, BERLIN

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 17. “Do not smile.” Joel lined up his camera shot. “For the passport, they do not like a smile.”

Kim tried to comply, but gazing into the camera lens, the smile hovered. She finally knew her place, the thing she was to do. And she was around people who supported her, were willing to work for the cause. Hannah, the mastermind. Joel doggedly doing his part. Gone, now, was the strain of pretending, fearing, struggling with everyone in her sphere. And, worst of all, fighting with herself. She suppressed the smile, but she felt it below the surface.

The camera flash popped. The after-image in blue, gliding across her eyes. Joel disappeared into the darkroom to develop the pictures.

In his apartment, Joel had drawn heavy drapes over the windows, leaving a grayish morning light to squeeze out the sides. The apartment smelled of wood polish and books. Posh, for Prenzlauer Berg.

On the sideboard, her letters requesting the airplane that would get them out of Germany.

Earlier, they had considered the issues and, together, fine-tuned the plan.

“You will have to meet me at the lake, Hannah. My people want you; me, I’m less sure about.”

“I will be at the lake, I promise.”

“Have you been there? How will you get to the lake?”

“A service road. I’ll have a truck, which will also be our backup transportation if your friends don’t show up.”

“Can you really get so close to the Aerie? A half mile . . . They must have patrols.”

“They focus on the road from the village to the Aerie, feeling impregnable otherwise.”

Hannah had arranged sliced beef and dark bread on the dining room table. “Eat something,” she said. A topographical map of the Aerie’s locale lay where they had been studying it.

She wasn’t hungry, picking at the slices of beef. At times, she had the urge to laugh for no reason.

“Is it starting?” She looked at Hannah, who had taken a seat next to her, hovering a bit, as though her maternal instincts had been triggered. “The meat looks very good. Is it all I’ll want?”

“Do not think about it too much,” Hannah said, sitting beside her. “Who knows how it will go?”

They had talked through the possible side effects, including the danger that she would have to endure another catalysis from Irina Annakova in order to deliver the powder. The only way to make physical contact with Annakova and transfer the tincture was when the woman would initiate the close contact of catalysis during a purification ceremony. Depending on where Kim was in the line to see Annakova, more or fewer of the Nachkommenschaft would receive new power, but after she touched Kim, her powers would unravel. In the line behind Kim would be faded monsters living out their last weeks of power.

It did mean that Kim would undergo two catalysis sessions, not just one. But the effects would weaken and evaporate with time, Hannah had reminded her. So whatever the initial shock to the system, she would not deteriorate, or at least not much, or at least not for long.

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