Kingdom of Cages(50)

Why are you doing this? I don’t want to talk about this. Chena forced herself to think in terms of the story, of their Dad the brave spy and pilot, not anything else. “They do, but they’re not always sure they can trust them.” The story blossomed inside her. “See, the poisoners are working on a whole bunch of Called worlds. They have to work in small labs and keep what they’re doing a secret. But they also have to talk to each other to tell each other what they’re doing. So they use messengers. They’re bribing the Authority pilots to carry messages back and forth for them, between the labs where they’re making their poison.”

“But the Authority knew nobody bribed Dad,” added Teal. “Because we didn’t have any money.”

“Right.” Chena smiled to the darkness. “The Authority knew Dad was honest, so they came to him, and they said, ‘We need you for this mission,’ and he said, ‘What about my wife and kids? I can’t leave them. It might be dangerous,’ and the Authority said, ‘You don’t have to worry about them. We’ll watch out for them, but we might have to hide them until your work is finished.’ ”

“And Dad said, ‘All right, I’ll do it, because we can’t let the poisoners go free,’ ” jumped in Teal, her voice low and shaking with drama. “ ‘There are too many lives at stake, but I’ll need to know what happens to my family, so I can make sure they’re all right.’ ”

The story took hold inside Chena. It felt warm and comfortable, like Farin’s smile. “So Dad flew out to one of the Called worlds where they were pretty sure there was a lab, and he started asking questions, carefully, because he’s a spy too now, but he’s spying for the Authority. He started asking about making extra money, and who’d have good jobs, and he didn’t care what it was as long as the pay was good, that kind of thing.”

Chena heard cloth rustle as Teal nodded and pitched in. “Pretty soon, a bribed pilot told Dad that there were these people who’d pay him to take coded messages to other planets. Secret stuff, and how he wasn’t supposed to get caught with it. So Dad said sure, he’d do it, and the pilot gave him the message.”

She fell silent, and Chena picked up where she left off. “The message, which was encrypted. But Dad said, ‘Don’t I get to meet these guys?’ And the bribed pilot said, ‘Not until you prove you can do the job.’ ”

Teal let out a long happy breath. “So Dad’s got to deliver that message first before he can find out who’s sending it. I like it.”

“Me too,” admitted Chena softly.

“Do you want to go to sleep now?” asked Teal.

Finally! “Yes, so shut up, would you?”

Teal blew a raspberry at her, which Chena ignored. After a minute, Chena heard her sister wriggling around and getting comfortable. She closed her eyes gratefully and drifted to sleep.

That night, she dreamed of Farin, but in the morning she couldn’t remember what those dreams had been about.





CHAPTER SIX





Witness





Madra showed up during breakfast, which was brown bread toasted on top of the stove and raspberries and early apples, eaten raw.

There was a knock, Mom opened the door, and Madra stepped in, surveying the room. For once, she was not smiling.

Instead, she sighed and put her hands on her hips. “So, you did raid the stores.”

“Is there a problem?” asked Mom, pushing the door closed.

Madra’s mouth pursed, as if it were trying to smile on its own and she was trying to tell it not to. “There is if you didn’t tell the shift supervisor that you’re not living in the dorms anymore.”

“I didn’t tell the shift supervisor anything. There was no supervisor there when I went in.” Mom sat back down at a little table and nodded toward an empty pillow. “Won’t you have a seat?”

Madra pressed her lips together in a thin line. She did sit, however, folding her legs neatly under her. “In that case, we do have a problem. More than one, actually,” she added under her breath. “But the one that relates to you is that the recycling stores are only for the people who are living in the dorms and working exclusively for the village.”

“Well, I had no way of knowing.” Mom folded her hands on the tabletop and gazed calmly at Madra. “There should be a sign posted.”

Madra nodded. “You’re right, there should be. I’ll see about it. But the fact remains that you now owe the village for what you took.”

“Owe?” Mom’s voice hardened. “For a broken table, some dirty pillows, and a few scraps of fabric?” Chena felt herself tensing up. Here it came again. Money. How they didn’t have enough, and they weren’t doing the right things with it.…