Feru’s care of me during my pregnancy was obviously very good indeed! I gave birth to three healthy daughters, whose names meant pearl, gladness and hope. Meg, Letitia and Nadine were lovely, contented babies – and Feru was one very contented father as well.
Adri Valdin came round and offered to take me out for a walk. He took me down to the river bridge that had been the first place I’d explored on this planet – Adri Caldin had taken me there. It reminded me how much I didn’t like being shut inside all the time.
We stood on the bridge and chatted for ages – reminiscing about times past. I smiled to remember how strange everyone had looked to me when I first met them. Now it all seemed quite normal. Adri Valdin asked me if I was happy here, and I had to stop and think about it.“Yes,” I said eventually. “I would be totally happy, if it wasn’t for this collar round my neck.”
I touched it gingerly. At the moment, it was still quiescent, fooled by the remnants of the pregnancy hormones in my bloodstream. But soon they would be gone, and then…
“I’ve met so many wonderful people. I have some amazing daughters, who are changing the world they live in, for the better. But…”
We walked on, still talking. He filled me in on the latest news from the mine – they had managed to make the beginnings of an opening in the bulkhead wall, but it was such slow work. The hole was still very small. Suddenly, I realised where he’d taken me.“My house! My lovely first house that Adri Tallin built for me!”
I looked out at the lake, made by their spaceship crashing here all those years ago. I thought about the colony they’d founded, that had been growing nicely, until the plague had devastated it and killed all their women, as well as many of their men. And then they’d rescued me, from the death that someone else had planned for me, and brought me here. They’d asked me if I would be willing to bear children for them, and I had been willing.Adri Valdin broke into my thoughts, holding my hands in his own strong ones.
“Oh my brave little Rilla, it’s been a long journey for you, hasn’t it?”
He drew me close into his arms.“Rilla, I think things are getting even more dangerous for you. I don’t think you’re going to be able to go out again for a while – that’s why I wanted you to have this one day out. I want to move in with you, so that I can keep you safe: may I do that?”
I nodded, saddened by the thought of being trapped behind all those walls once more. He hugged me even tighter.
“But this one day is yours – Feru will see to the children, and I know you’re safe at the moment. We can do whatever you like!”
We spent part of the day at my old house. It had been built for me with such love, and I had been happy there (as well as frazzled, challenged, perplexed, confused and just plain tired!). It was good to remember how much the house had meant to me, even if I did see a young Gabriella out of the corner of my eye from time to time.
I even tended the garden for old times’ sake (and forced Adri Valdin to help me as well).
Later that night, far away from my old house, W was sleeping an uneasy sleep.
“Look into my eyes and say that again. If you dare.”She had looked into his eyes. She had looked into his eyes. She had looked into his eyes. In her dreams, those burning blue eyes looked at her again.
“Tell me what is happening.”
In her sleep, W tried to escape, tried to find somewhere to hide. But there was nowhere. She raced down endless echoing corridors, past dim, empty archways, and found nothing at all. She tried to reach within herself for strength – and found herself there. Found an angry, spiteful child, who had delighted in hurting others. Found a teenager, who only wanted to make enemies, not friends. And found, in the end, the choice she had really made when she grew up, found the dream she had regretted letting go of: the dream of a home and a family of her own.
The eyes came even nearer.“I own you. I can make you Adrina. You have no name, and you never asked for one, but I can give you a title: the highest one there is. I can make you Adrina.”
As her mind swirled and spun about her, W thought: what else is there for me? And in her sleep, she said to him,
“What do you want me to do?”
“Tell me everything.”
Meg, Nadine and Letitia left me earlier than any of my children had ever done. Feru took them to Adri Mellin’s house, where he and Felicity would take care of them. And hopefully, if they were spotted, it would be assumed that they were Mellin children. And I was expecting again – Adri Valdin didn’t think I had it in me to grab three children and run!
When I went into labour, Adri Valdin was the most panicked father I’d ever seen yet! Wait a minute, I thought – you’re mister tough guy, mister I-can-cope-with-all-sorts-of-dangers. So what’s with the panic here?
Work on rescuing the Xydin down the mine had been going on round the clock. Finally, the hole had been made big enough for the two little boys to crawl through it. No-one was quite sure what to do with them, who would be best for them, but Adri Mellin was very definite.“Send them to Yan. He will understand them the best.”
And Adri Mellin was right. Unhappy and confused themselves, the boys found solace in the echo of their feelings in Yan. And Yan welcomed them with all the love that he was longing to give to his own child – the one he had never seen, and could only hope existed.
“We’re going to have to disguise you,” Yan told them. “And I’m afraid we’re going to have to disguise you as girls.”Once Chandin had finished rolling around laughing at the sight of Dyander dressed as a girl, Yan reminded him that it was his turn next. Coloured contact lenses to hide those Xydin blue eyes, semi-permanent make-up to hide their Xydin stars, and Mellin markings instead – they looked quite convincing in the end.
They did feel a bit silly in their long nightwear – and they weren’t used to having new clothes either.“But we got out, and that means that the others will too. But I hope it’s soon.”
School and homework was a bit of a shock to the system as well – there was nothing wrong with their educational standards: everyone had taught them things – but it was odd doing things with other children around.“Nice odd, though, I think,” Chanden said, as they did their homework together one evening.
Their arrival had made a huge difference to Yan. If they could be found and rescued, then so could Gabriella and their baby. He began to look after her garden again; he didn’t want her to come back and find it neglected.
The other Xydin girls were pleased that W was trying to make friends with them at last. Her overtures were a bit timid, as though she was afraid to make them, so they responded by being very friendly in return. One evening, she suggested that they all meet up at The Place, and then go back to her barracks for a meal together.“W’s a bit late,” Unity said. “That’s not like her – she’s usually really prompt.”
Querida was a bit uneasy. “Yes, and it’s getting a bit dark.”
It was getting dark too – dark enough to hide the figures that were closing in on them from the shadow of the trees.
They had no warning of the danger they were in. Verity was attacked by two people at once. Unity was struck so hard and so fast that she fell to the ground straightaway.
Querida had got no distance at all before she too was attacked, and like Unity, fell to the ground and lay there unmoving.
Xanthe made the best attempt at an escape, and was halfway across the floor of The Place, when Four brought her to her knees as well. She and Verity were dragged off, their hands bound behind them, and a gag stuffed in their mouths, while Unity and Querida were slung over the backs of the sinister, dark clothed girls who had attacked them. Eventually, they arrived at a place with high railings all around it. The gags were pulled from their mouths, but before Xanthe could speak, she felt a sharp pain in her arm, and darkness closed over her.
The next morning, Pertin awoke before Gabriella or Ella. He slipped quietly out of bed, and went out into the garden to see what needed doing that day. He liked the garden first thing in the morning. Despite the unmissable menace that hung round Four like a dark cloak, the garden remained peaceful. It was as though whoever had planted it had set an invisible wall around it, that kept the place serene and calm.He wandered into the orchard, and stopped short in horror. There, in the cages Four had built a while back, were four people, lying sleeping. From the way they were lying so still, and breathing so heavily, Pertin rather thought they had been drugged.
The news of the girls’ disappearance had spread fast. It was obviously no coincidence that they had all gone at once, and it had to be W who had engineered it. She had suggested the outing to The Place.“Rilla, I have to leave you. I’ve got to go and look for them.” Adri Valdin hugged me.
“I know. I know. Find them, please.”
“Adri Adrin’s on his way, and someone will take over from him soon – you won’t be alone. I won’t leave until he’s here.”
Adri Adrin had come round to put me into the medi-suit for a while: we had worked out that I was okay for a while after a pregnancy, and that with the help of the medi-suit we could stretch things for a bit longer. He was very pleased with all the readings from it though.“You’re doing very well, Rilla. Not like those three Xydin…”
“I heard that you were worried about them. Tell me what’s happening.”
“The drugs they were taking – they enhanced all their abilities: physical and mental. They were stronger, fitter, faster, and their mental abilities were boosted by them too. We’ve taken them off them, but it’s as if their metabolisms are still running really fast. They’re aging before our eyes.”
He sat down and carried on talking.“It’s as though it’s the reverse of our anti-aging drugs. Except that they have no harmful side effects, as long as you don’t take them for too long. Their hair is falling out, their fitness is a shadow of its former self, their minds are degenerating. I’ve never seen anything like it. But while they took those drugs, they seemed to be able to perform at peak efficiency all the time. We’re still trying to get an exact analysis , but it’s a complex procedure. It does seem as though the effect was cumulative though – the longer one took them for, the stronger one got. As long as the dosage continued.”
“Now they are shrinking away before our eyes. And there seems to be nothing we can do to help them. They’re all dying, Rilla, and I’m a doctor, and I can’t do anything about it.”
To my delight, it was Adri Tallin who came to stay with me. It was wonderful to see him again – since visiting my old house with Adri Valdin, I had been thinking of him, and his kindness in building it for me.
“Rilla!” He engulfed me in another of his great bearhugs. “Girl, it’s lovely to see you again!”I didn’t really think of myself as a girl any more: I was a mother (and a grandmother, I hoped) now, but in Adri Tallin’s arms, I was suddenly the young girl I had been when I arrived here. Scared, a bit out of my depth, but being steadily and gently reassured by all the Adris that I could do this, and they would help me.
I burst into tears on him, and sobbed out all my worries, about Gabriella, about Verity, Xanthe, Querida and Unity, about how I felt I must have failed W completely for her to do this to her sisters…Adri Tallin soothed me, petted me, mopped me up, and finally put me to bed with a painkiller for my headache, and left me to an exhausted sleep.
I was right to be worried about the girls. Unity was the first to awake. She found herself in a small cage. There was a metal helmet on her head, and she couldn’t remove it. It seemed to be clamped there, pressing in on her head. And her mind felt fuddled and confused, as though her head was stuffed with wool, and she couldn’t think clearly.
Xanthe woke next. Outside the cage, and a little way away, she could see W.“W! W! Come and let me out!” But W ignored her, and walked away into a long low building.
Until Querida heard her sister call out, she had no idea she wasn’t alone. And that was odd, because normally she was aware of the people around her, even if she didn’t have the sensitivity that Zoe, for instance, had. She was quicker on the uptake than the other two: it was the metal helmet. It was cutting her off from other people.
Verity too, woke to a metal helmet on her head. And a medi-suit on her body, and a definite feeling that something was very wrong. Then Four entered her cage.“You could have been Adrina! I always told you so. Why did you turn your back on the destiny I had for you?”
“Maybe I didn’t want it!” Feeling ill or not, Verity wasn’t going to bow to him like she used to.
“Not want it! How could you not want it! I offered you the highest honour there is, and you threw it away. Well, I have other plans for you now.”
For the first time, a trickle of fear ran down Verity’s spine.
“You’ll do for breeding from.”Verity flinched.
“A little while in that medi-suit, and you’ll be nicely primed – I’ve set it for multiple births, hopefully, and boys. You can provide me with some sons to carry on rebuilding the Xydin into the clan they should be!”
“Never!”
“Oh, you won’t have any choice. Don’t worry, you won’t know anything about it. You turned your back on Adrina, but you can have this honour instead.”
He meant it. Verity could tell.
After he had gone, Querida tried to comfort Verity, but there was not a lot she could do. They were given food much later on, and a chair to sit on. Twice a day, they would be allowed to use the toilet, and to wash. Once a day, they would be fed. W didn’t bring them their food: instead, it was a girl with a face blackened like Unity’s was. She seemed to be the general dogsbody, ordered around, kicked and cuffed by Four and the two other women there.
“You have done well. You brought them to me.” All her life, W had been waiting to hear Four say that she had done well.“You too need to wear a helmet. This will prevent anyone from sensing you from a distance. Now that those others have been found, we must take extra precautions.”
“Must I?” W hadn’t liked the look of those heavy metal helmets.
“Do you question me?”
His eyes were angry again, and W was taken straight back to her childhood, when he had towered over her, demanding that she do whatever he asked. She hung her head.
“No. I will do as you wish. You know best.”
“That is better. You have done well by me. I will reward you: you shall be Adrina.”
Not only a helmet, but also a uniform – and a collar. W looked at the girl in the mirror. Deep inside the eyes, something seemed lost…
The search for the missing girls had gone on and on. But the place was so big, and there were no clues as to where to start looking. Adri Tallin was massaging my aching back one night, while he told me the latest news – Adri Valdin had called round, but I had been asleep. His three daughters, Patience, Ottilie and Queda, were safely tucked away with Tansy and Umbel helping to look after them.“The trouble is that they’re having to look in all four directions at once. There’s no clues at all as to which way they went from The Place – and we don’t even know if they got there before they were taken. But we think they probably did, because they weren’t all going there together, so that’s the first place you’d have all four girls in one spot.
“At least you’re safe here, Rilla. With Adri Adrin’s bio-signature security, that Xydin - the other three call him Four – can’t get through the gates.”“I’ve never asked how that works. Do you know?”
“The palm lock recognises your DNA: it samples your skin, which is why it tingles a bit.”
“And why my daughters can come and visit! Clever.”
Too clever. Even as I said that, the door to the room crashed open, and a slim black-clad figure hurled herself on Adri Tallin with deadly intent.
Another one blocked the doorway as I ran towards it as fast as I could in my pregnant state.
She seized my arm and twisted it behind my back. I could only watch helplessly as Adri Tallin was kicked and beaten by someone who had plainly trained hard at fighting for years. And I remembered what Four had once shown me: my daughters training as fighters. These were my daughters, and they were doing this to me.
They forced me out of the room and I had to go, leaving Adri Tallin lying there on the floor.
We walked through the narrow maze of paths, between the high walls that were supposed to keep me safe. My worries were for the children I was carrying, Adri Tallin’s children. What was going to happen to them – and to me? And what had happened to their father?We went through the final gate, and I came face to face with someone I had hoped never to see again.
