Sanctum (Guards of the Shadowlands, Book 1) (16 page)

“We’ll go soon. We’ll find her.” His voice was soft but firm. He walked to the door of the room and opened it, calling down
the hall. “Rais, please summon Ana. Tell her to come to my quarters.”

“You seem certain she made it back.”

“She always does,” he said. “But I doubt she was able to catch Sil. He’s annoyingly fast.”

“Is she coming with us?”

Malachi had traversed the room and was buckling a belt around his hips. “Yes, we’ll need her for this. But also, she has things that might fit you.” He approached and stood next to me by the desk. “Lela, I know you’re impatient to leave, and I agree we need to move quickly, but there are some preparations we have to make if we want to be successful. We have a place to look, and that’s a great start. More than I expected to have. But that area is the most dangerous part of the city, the worst possible location. If you don’t mind, I’d like to give us the best chance of coming back alive. Can you be patient if we don’t leave until tomorrow?”

Here it was, a decision point. He was asking me to trust him, but not in so many words. I gazed at his face, translating the messages there, looking for a lie or a trap. Again I saw nothing but determination and sincerity. “Yes,” I replied.

He smiled and I kept staring, caught by the way it transformed his stark, fierce face, rendering it whimsical, beautiful.

“Malachi,” interrupted a smooth, lethal voice.

Malachi didn’t take his eyes off me, but his smile widened. “Ana. Glad to have you back.”

“I could say the same. Raphael told me you were in bad shape.” Ana strode into his room like she belonged there. For all I knew, she did. And with that thought, an uncomfortable stab of…something sliced through my chest. I rubbed away the ache and turned my full attention to her.

Without her bulky coat to conceal the curves, Ana’s body was very feminine but emanated an animal strength and confidence that caused my fingers to twitch in readiness for an attack. Her smooth, brown skin glowed with amber undertones, framed by the stark black of her hair, which hung in thick ropes from a ponytail high at the back of her head. Her eyes were tilted up slightly, like a cat’s, and their dark depths were fixed on me.

“You must be Lela.” She turned to Malachi. “Was she worth it?”

Malachi made a noise in his throat that sounded distinctly like a growl. Ana smiled but didn’t look happy.

“I guess so,” she murmured.

“Lela needs clothes,” he said. “We have a mission, and I’d like you to outfit her. We leave tomorrow morning for the northwest quadrant, Harag zone.”

Ana’s eyes went wide. “You’re taking her to Harag? Didn’t we just break our backs to keep her away from there?”

“
Ana
.” There was nothing but warning in his voice.

Her mouth snapped shut, but she looked at Malachi with disgust.

My gaze bounced between the two of them as I tried to figure out what could lie behind his tone and her expression.

Malachi’s voice was tight as he issued his instructions. “She’ll bunk with you tonight. We will train this evening. Distance weapons only. Please get her settled and properly clothed while I go see Michael.”

He turned to me and his face relaxed noticeably, as if he was making a conscious effort not to scare me. “Michael is our weapons supplier. I’ll be back after dinner, and we’ll have a training session. You were able to handle the small Mazikin on your own, but there are a few things I’d like to show you before we go, in case you have to deal with something more challenging. Will you stay with Ana until I come back?”

He actually seemed to be giving me a choice. Another decision, another request for trust. “I will,” I said as I looked at Ana, who crossed her arms over her chest and stared at Malachi with narrowed eyes.
Assuming she doesn’t kill me before then
.

But Ana, too, relaxed as her gaze met mine. “Come on, girl, let’s get you out of that ugly green shirt.”

She marched from the room. As I turned to follow, Malachi winked at me. It took all my concentration not to stumble over my own feet as I headed for the door.

ANA’S ROOM SMELLED FAINTLY
of cinnamon, welcoming and warm. In spite of myself, I relaxed a little. Compared to Malachi’s impersonal, spare quarters, Ana’s room was an oasis of color and quirk, the most appealing space I’d come across since arriving in the city. She had a similar arsenal of deadly looking accessories, but her walls were covered in paintings, all done in the same style. Though the colors were muted and dull compared to those on Earth, the strokes were lush and bold, curves and strikes and stabs of paint. They looked like war. Or love. I wasn’t sure which, but they made my chest ache.

“Sit down, Lela. Let’s work on you. What happened to your hair?”

My hand traveled automatically to my head. I hadn’t looked in a mirror since I’d died. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh. It’s always that crazy? We need to get it under control before we go. It’s asking to be grabbed.”

I eyed her spill of ebony hair. “And yours isn’t?”

Ana smiled. “Maybe. But those who try lose limbs.”

In that instant I decided I liked Ana. I smiled back. “Maybe you could teach me how to do that.”

Ana shook her head as she opened the trunk at the foot of her cot, which was carved with intricate markings that looked like Chinese. Or Japanese. Something like that. “Malachi said distance weapons only.”

“What does that mean?”

“It means he doesn’t want anyone’s limbs to get close enough for you to have to slice them off. And he doesn’t want you accidentally slicing off your own limbs, either.”

I tilted my head, remembering how I’d nearly cut off my leg with Lacey’s scimitar. “I guess that’s hard to argue with.”

“Malachi often is. Here we go!” Ana straightened, brandishing a thick wire brush. She circled me, and I turned in place, not letting her at my back. Ana’s eyes narrowed speculatively. “It’s just a brush, honey.”

I shrugged apologetically. “Habit.”

Ana pulled a chair away from the wall. “Sit.”

I obeyed and focused on a large painting hanging on the far wall. From a distance, the chaotic strokes of paint came
together, and an Asian man’s face, deadly and handsome, stared back at me. Ana followed my gaze to the painting.

“Takeshi,” she said softly as she picked up a section of my hair and brushed the ends. “He taught us most of what we know.”

At the tight, hoarse sound of Ana’s voice, my eyes flicked from the painting back to the trunk. “Is that Japanese writing?”

Ana laughed, but it sounded a little sad. “Malachi said you were observant. Yes, it is. And yes, the trunk was Takeshi’s.”

The sorrow in her voice and her use of the past tense were enough to silence me. I sat quietly while she brushed the tangles out of my hair, reducing it from gravity-defying curls to bobbing waves.

“So,” she said, “want to tell me what you did to Malachi?”

I closed my eyes, praying that my cheeks weren’t turning red as I thought of all the things I had done to Malachi. I wondered which of them Ana was referring to.

I swallowed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

Ana kept brushing, her fingers deftly separating my hair into sections, attacking each part systematically. If she noticed a blush, she didn’t comment on it.

“He’s not acting like himself. Malachi is the most calculating person I know. But he’s different with you, like something’s not adding up for him.”

“Probably because all he wants to do is make sure I leave this city and stop being such a nuisance.” Girly hair brushing or no, this was not something I was prepared to discuss.

“
Mmm-hmm
.” Never had a sound dripped with so much skepticism. Mercifully she changed the subject. “Do you have any weapons training?”

I scoffed. “Why do people keep asking me that? I’m a high school student. Or I was. I guess I’m nothing now. But no, no ‘weapons training’ for me. I’m pretty good at defending myself, though.”

“We’ll see. That’s why Malachi wants you to practice with weapons that keep attackers at a distance. Fists are bad, but Mazikin bites are worse, and if we’re going as far as the Harag zone, odds aren’t good we’d get back to the Station in time for Raphael to do his thing. So—you’ll learn to use the bo staff. Maybe throwing knives. It depends on how good you are because we don’t have much time to teach you if he wants to leave tomorrow.”

She started to braid my hair. “Keep still. I don’t usually get to work on another girl. It makes me feel like a girl. Don’t ruin it for me.”

I swallowed a chuckle. Not that I had a ton of experience, but this was the freakiest slumber party I’d ever attended.
First we braid each other’s hair, then we attack each other with assorted weaponry
. Maybe it wasn’t
so
different from your average high school girl get-together.

When Ana finished, she held up a warped mirror. My reflection reminded me of a Picasso painting I’d seen in one of my textbooks. “Um, it’s great?”

“Well, it’ll keep your hair out of your face. Now. Clothes. I think my stuff will fit you.” She dug through her trunk again and came up with a serviceable pair of boots and an outfit that looked almost exactly like the one Malachi had been wearing. I tugged off the icky green shirt and pulled on the navy-blue top, which was soft as it hugged my skin. The pants were a little snug, but also the most comfortable thing I’d had on my body since I’d arrived.

Ana looked me up and down. “You look just like one of the Guard.”

She laughed when I shot her a horrified look. No girl wants to be told she resembles a rhinoceros. “One of
us
,” she clarified. “You look like one of us.”

“Are you and Malachi the only—”

“At present, we are the only human members of the Guard.” Ana was suddenly very busy putting things back in her trunk. After a few minutes, she completed her meticulous, and seemingly needless, rearranging. “Since Malachi’s not back yet, let’s get something to eat, and then we’ll go to the training room.”

“You know, I’m not really hungry.”

Ana looked me straight in the eye. “Ah. I forgot. That’s because the food here’s not right for you. You’re in the wrong place. Malachi knew it immediately. That’s probably why he’s so crazy to get you out of here.”

“The food here’s not right for me?” Was that why I wasn’t hungry?

“Let me guess—nothing looks good here. Whatever you see here, you can have as much as you like. But none of it tempts you, am I right?”

I winced as the unwelcome image of Malachi’s bare chest flashed in my mind. “No, nothing’s tempting,” I said through clenched teeth.

Ana gave me a quizzical look. “All right, so you’re in the wrong place. Most people here are gathering possessions just like they did on Earth, eating, drinking, smoking—some of them even hoard stuff in their apartments, blocking themselves inside. Only people who are ready to be released stop consuming the things that are here.”

“What does that mean, though?”

“It means you need to get out of here or eventually you’ll starve because you’re not getting what you need.”

“What? I don’t feel hungry!” My hands poked at my stomach like someone else was controlling them.

“It’s all right, Lela,” Ana reassured, watching my wiggling fingers with amusement. “It takes a while. You have some time. A few weeks, at least.”

I hadn’t realized I had an expiration date. “And if I eat?”

“It won’t nourish you. Don’t bother. It’s no good, anyway. Be glad you don’t have to force it down like the rest of us.” Her eyes darted up to mine. “You know, you could go see the Judge and head out into the Countryside…maybe fatten yourself up and then come back to look for your friend?”

I clenched my fists just to stop myself from giving her the finger. “Yeah. I’m sure the Gate Guards would have specific instructions to welcome me back with open arms, right? Nice try.”

She shrugged.

“Did Malachi put you up to that?” So much for trusting him.

She shook her head. “He probably thought of it, but he’s obviously decided he cares what you think about him.”

Something in my chest loosened a bit. I felt…relieved. I realized I
wanted
to trust Malachi. I tugged absently at my braid as I thought of him—and then I remembered something he’d said. “Malachi told me he doesn’t drink the water here.”

Ana’s expression fell. “Oh yeah. He eats sometimes, but he stopped drinking a few months ago. Lucky him.” Envy sucked the life out of her voice. “He won’t talk about it with me, but I know what it means. He hasn’t started to lose weight yet, but it’s only a matter of time. He’s on his way out.”

“You mean he’s going to starve or something?” I wished I’d tried to coax some of the water down his throat while he was unconscious.

“No, I mean
out
, as in out of the city and into the Countryside.” Ana’s smile was brittle and tense. “I think Malachi’s almost done here. I don’t know when, exactly, but I guess I’ll know when he stops eating completely.” She threw her shoulders back and pulled her ponytail tight with practiced fingers.
“Well, I’m starving. Do you want to come with me to the food room?”

My brain was still working over the thousands of questions bouncing around in my skull, but one look at Ana told me the conversation was over. I kept my tongue clamped tightly between my teeth as I followed her purposeful strides out of the room and down the hall.

The “food room” was exactly what it sounded like and very similar to the
FOOD
store I’d visited. Unappetizing was a generous way to describe it. Ana gathered random items for herself, including a forlorn lump of cheese, a black banana, a hard roll, and some sort of soup that smelled, to me at least, like feet. I didn’t mention it to Ana, though.

Other Guards sat at long, wooden tables, piles of food in front of them. Most of their gem-bright eyes were riveted on us as we crossed the cavernous room. It felt a little like Warwick High School, except that all the other kids were more than seven feet tall and heavily armed.

Ana pulled a knife from the sheath at her thigh and scraped at the bits of mold that clung to the face of the cheese. I sat across from her, thoughts racing. If I didn’t make it out of the city in a few weeks, I would starve. Malachi hadn’t mentioned that, but it explained a lot of his eagerness to get me out. Well, I was just as eager to leave as he was to see me go, as long as I had Nadia with me. Maybe he wouldn’t be too far behind. I thought back to the longing in his voice as he talked about what
lay beyond the city walls. I was happy that he might be able to get out soon and spent a few moments musing about the smile it might put on his harsh, defiant face.