Swans & Klons by Nora Olsen

Author:Nora Olsen [Olsen, Nora]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781602829138
Publisher: Bold Strokes Books
Published: 2013-05-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seventeen

They didn’t have much parley with Picker Klon until they were sitting around the campfire. Picker Klon said she had never slept anywhere except in a dormitory, so she simply watched with interest as Salmon Jo set up the tent while Rubric made the fire and dinner. Rubric had discovered she had a wonderful talent for building blazing fires, so she was always in charge of this.

They ate quickly without speaking. Salmon Jo, who polished her food off first, poked the fire and said, “I think we’re just one day’s ride from the fence that separates us from the Land of the Barbarous Ones. But I don’t know if there’s a place that’s better than any other to cross it.”

“Klons say that near the town of Lvodz is the best place,” Picker Klon said. “I don’t know if that’s true. Klons escape, but they never come back. So we don’t know what happens to them. My schatzie escaped two years ago. The Kapo Klon said she was captured and redistributed. But they would have to tell us that, whether it was true or not. I mean, they want us to think escape is pointless.”

“Do a lot of Klons escape?” Salmon Jo asked in surprise. “I never heard that before.”

“Of course you wouldn’t hear that,” Rubric said. “That would imply that Klons don’t like their lives and have something to escape from.” Rubric felt self-conscious talking to Picker Klon. Every second, she couldn’t help thinking that Picker Klon was a Klon, a Klon, a Klon. She wanted to think of Picker Klon as just another girl, but she didn’t know how to shake off sixteen years of training. She kept wanting to prove to Picker Klon that she thought she was a real person, even though Picker Klon clearly wasn’t worried about Rubric’s opinion.

Picker Klon nodded. “We don’t escape a whole lot. But it does happen. And there are so many different stories and songs about the Barbarous Ones. Some say they are bestial and they will make you mate with Cretinous Males and, you know…” She made a pregnant belly shape with her hand and crinkled her face in disgust. “Then others say the Barbarous Ones don’t really have Cretinous Males or”—she made the pregnancy gesture again—“that these are just stories that Panna humans made up about the Barbarous Ones to make them sound bad. That actually the land of the Barbarous Ones is a wondrous paradise.”

“Wow,” said Rubric. She felt that brain-exploding thing again and glanced at Salmon Jo. She looked pretty shocked herself. Rubric inched closer to her schatzie.

“I suppose that could be true,” Salmon Jo said slowly. “How would we really know?”

“But some of the stories about the Land of the Barbarous Ones being paradise seem too good for true,” Picker Klon said. “Like, they say there are trees that grow hot buttered toast with honey, and waterfalls that have vodka instead of water.”

“Preposterous,” Salmon Jo muttered.

Picker Klon smiled at her. “You are like Panna Castle Mattea, except not so cracked up in the head.

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