The Unspoken: Book One in the Keres Trilogy (11 page)

“
The hall and everything below us isn
’
t exactly part of Chelon, so it
’
s outside of The Mothers
’
jurisdiction. We are still citizens of the city, clearly, so we follow the rules. But it
’
s more out of compassion for our Play Groups. Our actions still reflect on them and they are still governed completely by The Mothers.
”

“
The Mothers can
’
t touch us? Can
’
t punish us I mean?
”
I ask before thinking.

“
They sort of could before we were assigned Service, but not the way they could punish everyone else. I mean kids need discipline. But, no. They can
’
t now,
”
he shrugs.

And now it becomes clear why I was not visited by the five in black. The Mothers could not send them to me because I was marked from birth as an Unspoken and out of their control. And that is probably why PG3456 was often left to our own devices. My status and closeness with my Play Group undoubtedly drove them mad. I find a huge sense of satisfaction in that.

“
But they can always control us through our Play Groups,
”
he continues,
“
Same principle they use to keep everyone else in line: if you break a rule your whole Play Group is punished. Only in our case, they punish the Play Group more harshly because they can
’
t touch us.
”

And the satisfaction is gone.
“
That
’
s a reliable method,
”
I say. I
’
m finished moving things around on the desk and my notebook is tucked away in my pack.

“
Do you have a hard time, not talking about what you do here?
”
I ask him while I fumble around for my den keys.

“
I did at first. I
’
ve still got scars from trying. But it gets easier the longer you are here. I
’
ve found a way to leave it all on the elevator. I leave my Play Group behind on the way down and I leave the hall on the way up.
”

I nod. It
’
s something I will have to try if I
’
m going to be alive long enough to get my Play Group out of Chelon in one piece.
“
How do you do it?
”
I ask him.

“
Well this helps a lot,
”
he shows me a tattoo behind his ear.
“
It was my first, I mean the first I earned.
”

“
What does it do?
”

“
It keeps things separate. It helps me focus on one thing when I need to and it allows me to let other things go. When I
’
m feeling particularly jumbled, I can use it to sort everything out and put my memories and thoughts away until I want them again.
”

“
That sounds helpful.
”

“
Want me to try it on you?
”

“
Oh- uh, no thanks,
”
I stammer.

“
It doesn
’
t hurt. And you don
’
t completely forget anything. You can just, I don
’
t know how to explain it. It
’
s like you can file your thoughts away, shut them in books and put them up on a shelf until you need them again,
”
he says.

“
Can you just make me put away the hall and nothing else?
”
I ask.

“
It
’
s up to you what you pack away. This just makes it easier to assemble what you want to think about and what you don
’
t. It
’
s totally alright.
”

It
’
s totally not alright. What if he erases my mind? What if he can read my mind while he does whatever he is going to do?
“
Um, no thanks, not this time. I think I
’
ll try keeping my mouth shut first.
”
He looks crestfallen and I realize I
’
ve hurt his feelings. He has probably been aching to try helping someone for the past seven years. Everyone else on the hall would be so much more advanced than he, they wouldn
’
t need his help.
“
Maybe tomorrow?
”
I say,
“
I just have to get used to the idea.
”
He brightens up at that.

“
Gotcha,
”
he says,
“
I remember my first week. It was pretty terrifying.
”

“
Oh, I
’
m not scared or anything,
”
I suddenly have the need to be sure he understands I
’
m no coward.

“
No, of course not,
”
he says, mashing the call button for the elevator.

“
I
’
m not,
”
my voice has a whine to it. I might as well have stamped my foot, too.

The car arrives as Zink starts laughing. I huff and cross my arms. What am I doing?

“
Come on, we will be late for dinner,
”
he says, still laughing as he pulls me on the elevator. Once we reach the top lobby, he leaps out of the car and bolts out of the building. Does he always leave the Gratis Building like this? I wonder if he runs to the hall the same way he runs from it.

I meet PG3456 at a table in the canteen. They are in deep conversation over the mashed potatoes and duck glazed with an orange sauce. I must find a way to balance my life underground with the one on the surface. Pushing everything from today to the back of my mind, I give my whole attention to the discussion Merit is leading about the animals.

“
But I think my leader will have me with the horses tomorrow. She told me I showed promise already. They might let me start learning animal healing in a few months,
”
he says, hardly containing his joy.

“
That
’
s great, Merit!
”
I say with genuine pleasure. He smiles at me, cheeks flushed with pride.

They all exchange information on their afternoons and I can actually pay attention. I even make a few contributions. When we finish dinner, our schedules indicate we should take part in one of the optional recreation activities on the Quad. Most of us are ready to be back in our common room though, away from everyone else. The day has been exhausting.

After searching the room three times for devices, we relax.
“
Alright,
”
Wex says as he starts pulling out his notebook,
“
I
’
ll start.
”
He begins going down the list of notes he has made of things he noticed in the fields. Where the farming equipment is kept and which outbuildings are locked up at night.
“
I will be able to see just about every step in a growing season,
”
he says,
“
I
’
ll be rotated through the crops this year until they decide which one to put me on full time. I
’
m aiming for Experimental, that would be the most beneficial to us.
”
Experimental encompasses the development and preparation of new food sources. Learning to identify new and different foods and how to cook them will be invaluable.

The others pull out their Service notebooks and read down their lists. After trying him at the coal seam for an hour, Frehn was reassigned to the transportation systems within the mines.
“
Apparently, my physique looked a little too menacing with a pick and jack hammer,
”
he says in a raspy voice. I
’
m glad he won
’
t be in the deepest places for hours at a time. He will be able to see light from time to time throughout the day.

Doe dealt with her first trauma case and says she noted everything that was done. She also has a book to study in her free time of medicinal plants and natural healing methods. In a few months, once she is proficient in the basics, she will be progressing to manufactured medicines. Those medicines are under a locking system that requires three different Healers to open. There will be no chance of adding anything from the Healers Building to our stockpile.

In the stables Merit learned some husbandry basics. His training will eventually cover prepping the meat for the kitchens, training the horses and eventually trapping the wild game that comes over the outer wall.
“
I
’
ll be shoveling different types of manure for most of the first year though. Not a survival skill exactly, but it should be great exercise,
”
he says hopefully,
“
And I found the perfect location for our stash. In our old hangout between the roofs of the horse barn. There
’
s a corner that is only accessible if you pry up one of the loose shingles. I found it when my leader sent me to shoo the chickens to keep them from roosting up there. The space is large and dry and if Harc can rig some kind of fastener or lock that keeps the shingle in place unless we open it, everything will be completely safe.
”

Harc immediately says she has just the thing, she has already smuggled a set of magnets out of her factory. She can
’
t explain how she got them in her pack with no one noticing, it happened so fast. She didn
’
t even know why she was grabbing them before it was over. Her long fingers moved so smoothly and quickly that even she didn
’
t see what they did. She begins to put a lock together for Merit while she runs down her findings. She was assigned to an electronics factory but will most likely be moved through several as demand from the other cities fluctuates. She should have access to thousands of items over the next few months. It
’
s so loud and there are so many moving parts in the factories that no one can pay attention to anything but where their own hands and feet are, so it will be easy to pick up things here and there as long as she grabs from the discard piles. She
’
ll wait and see if the magnets are noticed before she tries anything else.