Weavers (The Frost Chronicles) (15 page)

“Come on,” Gabe said softly, jogging me back to the present. We continued to the bottom of the stairs and down a long hall.

“Garrett?”

We both turned at the voice that had called Gabe’s other name. A thin man in a white robe stood at the end of the hall, eyeing us curiously. He had silver-white hair that brushed the edges of his shoulders and a long, narrow chin. When he frowned at us, his mouth puckered.

“Hello, Doctor Borde,” Gabe said. His tone was respectful, cautious.

A shiver went through me from my scalp to my toes.
Doctor Borde
. The man Jonn had asked me to get a piece of paper to.

“Do you have those deliveries I’ve been expecting?” the man asked. “I’ve been waiting for half an hour.”

“Yes, sir.” Gabe produced a sheaf of papers and passed them to the man. The doctor took them and examined them briefly before raising his head to regard me.

“Who is this?” he asked.

“Lila,” Gabe said, after the slightest hesitation as he remembered my new name. “She’s the newest swabber for the Labs.”

Borde’s gaze slid over me, and I felt as though he were examining every freckle of my face. His blue eyes burned like lightning in his wrinkled face, and his white hair quivered as he tipped his head to one side. “Lila,” he repeated, as if committing it to memory. “You...remind me of someone.”

I didn’t know what to say, so I didn’t say anything.

After another moment, he nodded and disappeared down the hall.

“That was odd,” Gabe said, releasing his breath in a sigh. “We aren’t supposed to attract too much attention from the stationaries.”

“Stationaries?”

“People who haven’t jumped. People who belong in this time.”

“Oh. And who was that?” My heart thumped as I tried to keep my voice even.

“Doctor Borde...he’s one of the head scientists here. Not exactly someone we want scrutinizing us. But he’s an odd one, so perhaps it doesn’t matter too much—now come on.”

I wanted to ask more questions, but I didn’t want to signal that I was overly interested in Borde. I didn’t want anyone to know about Jonn’s little side mission that he’d given me.

We passed more gleaming doors and descending another set of stone stairs that curled in an endless spiral. My heart pounded at the glitter and bustle around us. “Tell me more about this place.”

“What do you want to know?”

“Everything.”

He laughed in a way that indicated I’d better pick a topic, because there was too much to even begin to sum it all up without direction. I searched my mind for what I wanted to say. I thought of the woods we’d passed through to get here, how we’d traveled without fear. “There are no Watchers?” I asked finally.

“No,” he said. “And no Frost.”

“Why is it so warm? Where is the snow?”

“The coldness hasn’t begun, and won’t for another century,” he said. “It happens after.”

“After what?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “Whatever happens that makes all...all
this
go away.” He waved his arms to indicate the shining halls and gleaming floors, and in my mind’s eye I saw the withered hallways of crumbled stone that they would one day become. “Whatever happens to end it,” Gabe said. “Obviously, it’ll be something big. This place is largely untouched in our time. The gates remain, and the buildings...but the people all left.”

That made my chest ache strangely. I ran my tongue over my lips, thinking. I remembered something he’d said to Borde. “What’s a swabber?”

Gabe snorted. “That’s what they call the people who clean the floors and decks around here.”

“So I’m a swabber?”

He jerked his head in a nod. “Swabbers are mostly seen and not heard, so try not to talk to anyone.”

I imagined I would have little difficulty following that advice.

Gabe continued down the hall, and I followed. Our footsteps rang hollowly as we turned the corner. Cool air rushed over us. I sucked in a sharp breath.

The room arched up and away into a vast space, just as I remembered. Gone was the hole in the roof that let in snow and sunlight. Instead, a smooth arch of pristine white glowed with inner fire. Gone were all the stains and debris on the walls. In their place, colored markings of paint—lines, numbers—made neat, orderly rows, and snaking cables curved along the walls like coils of gray intestines. We were in the bowels of Echlos here. A smooth, clean floor of stone stretched ahead of us, and at the end of it, I saw
it
.

The gate.

The circular metal frame of the portal glittered beneath the glow of the lights. Blue fire flickered in the seams, and a hum electrified the air and made my hair stand on end. It was alive today, seething with power and energy. A flicker of corresponding excitement curled in my stomach, responding to the tug of energy that swirled around us. I stared at it, transfixed. This was the gate that had brought me here.

But it could not take us home. We needed the PLD for that.

Red lights flashed above the gate, and slowly I became aware of the figures dressed in gray garments who roamed at the base of the portal, checking things and pausing to speak to one another. They wore goggles and masks that obscured their faces and made them look strange, alien.

“How do the jumpers arrive without being seen?” I asked Gabe in a low voice. “Won’t these people see them?”

“We’ve worked out a system,” he said. “We have fugitives working everywhere here, watching things. So when the gate begins to power up, we pull a switch that clears the floor. It’s a random emergency test that happens regularly and without warning. Everyone clears out, and we can take the new arrival to safety.”

Simple and elegant. I nodded, impressed. “How many come through?”

“Not many. I was one of the last,” he said. “Except for two children, and now you.”

I remembered those two children, lost and frightened and bruised, shivering in the woods when I’d discovered them. “What happened to them?”

A smile flickered across his face, a brief quirk of his lips that made my stomach twist at the familiarity of it. “They are thriving. They learn at the school and play in the town. They’re too young to work, so we said they were the children of one of the fugitives. They are happy. They don’t talk much, but they smile. And they aren’t so skinny anymore.”

A rush of warmth and affection pooled in my chest at the thought of those frightened children being safe and whole now, and I smiled at him in relief. Gabe’s eyes widened slightly, as if he couldn’t believe that I was looking at him with such warmth. He stared at me thoughtfully for a moment before allowing his mouth to curve slightly in response.

For a brief second, I was transported to another time, another place. We were surrounded by cold air and swirls of snow, and his heart was bleeding into mine as we whispered words to each other in front of my farmhouse.

But I blinked, and the memory was gone. The hum of the gate behind us pulled my thoughts from him to the present. The chafe of my garment and the heat of the surrounding air reminded me that I was here. I needed to focus. I needed to complete my mission.

There wasn’t much time.

“I need to speak to a man called Jacob,” I said. “I have a message to deliver to him. I think it’s Jake. Can you get me to him?”

“Jake works at the Security Center,” Gabe explained. “You already have a pass to be at the Labs. Jake mentioned to me that they have a job for a swabber open at the Security Center. That way you’ll have regular access to him if you have any questions—he’s almost always working.”

I nodded. “Perfect. How do we do that?”

“I’ll arrange it,” he said. “For now, let me show you your duties here.”

He showed me the cleverly hidden closet and the bronzed door that hissed open from its hiding place in the wall. And for all the technology of this world, the cleaning devices were simple mops and brooms. I almost snickered.

A few other swabbers moved around us, retrieving things from the closet and eyeing me with undisguised curiosity. True to what Gabe had said about being seen and not heard, they all stayed silent. They wore garments identical to mine, and most of them looked weary. I noticed Claire among the others, but she did not acknowledge either of us. Her red hair bobbed as she bent to grab a mop, and then she turned and headed down the hall.

A faint frown creased Gabe’s mouth, but he said nothing. He didn’t look her direction, so I didn’t, either.

When Gabe had finished explaining the cleaning duties, he handed me a mop and pointed me toward one of the hallways, then he left to arrange the final things for my job at the Security Center.

The other swabbers avoided me. They didn’t speak or make any noise except an occasional whistle. Sharp and short, low and long—the calls varied, and soon I realized they were a sort of communication. I listened, trying to detect patterns. I saw Claire again as she passed me in the hallway, but we didn’t look at each other. She put her mop away and vanished around a corner.

I mopped floors until my arms ached and I could see my reflection shining back at me in the tiles. With all their technology, couldn’t they find some other way to clean these floors? As I worked, my thoughts wandered between the problems facing me. I needed to find Jacob and deliver the message from Atticus. That was my most pressing concern. And I needed to figure out a way to give Jonn’s message to Doctor Borde. But...my mind kept returning to the Frost. That world seemed so impossibly far away now—the snow, the dark forests, the gray-uniformed soldiers, the creatures in the night. My heart ached when I thought about those who were there. Jonn. Ivy. Were they all right? Was Everiss helping them? And Ann...Adam. They were gone without me. It should be Adam here now, finding Jacob and delivering the message and getting the fugitives we needed back to the Frost. He was the one who would have known what to do. Instead, it was me. Adam had insisted I take the job instead, Atticus had said.

And I’d never felt so lost and helpless.

But I gathered resolve around me like the folds of a cloak. I could do this. I had no choice but to do it, and I would succeed. Because anything else was not an option.

One of the swabbers whistled a short, piercing note, and they all melted away. I stopped, confused.

The clip of footsteps along the halls made me pause. A dark-haired man with narrow, sharp eyes and wearing the flowing robes of a scientist rounded the corner. He stopped when he saw me, and my heart wrenched abruptly when our gazes met.

He reminded me of Adam, and I flinched as I remembered that Adam had left without telling me, leaving me to this mission alone.

“Excuse me,” the man said coldly, noticing the wet ground at his feet. “I’ll go another way.” And then he frowned at the route he’d just come, as if unable to calculate how he was going to accomplish this. Lines appeared across his forehead, and he turned and contemplating the path where I’d just mopped.

I only wanted to avoid any long conversations or scrutiny. I didn’t need anyone asking me too many probing questions. I simply wanted him to move on.

“Just go across carefully,” I said. “Don’t slip.”

He nodded and spared me a brief smile before venturing across the wet tiles. He stepped gingerly, and his mouth worked with concentration.

Another scientist appeared at the end of the hall.

“Doctor Gordon,” he called, and the dark-haired man lifted his head to reply to the other scientist. His feet wobbled on the slick floor, and he grabbed the wall to avoid falling. Hissing a curse, he darted a dirty look my way and moved forward to greet the one who’d called out to him. “Swabbers,” I heard him mutter. “Always underfoot.”

A few of the others appeared, and all of them eyed me warily. I grimaced. So much for staying out of the way. I’d managed to attract more than enough attention for one day. I saw Claire looking at me, and I returned her stare until she turned away. Satisfaction swirled in my chest—a small victory, but one nonetheless.

More footsteps sounded, and again the swabbers seemed to melt away. This time, Gabe appeared. “I secured your pass to the Security Center,” he said. No mincing of words, not between us now. He looked around, noticing that I was alone, and then he shrugged. “Let’s go.”

I swallowed to ease the dryness in my throat. I put away the mop with shaking hands and then followed him up the spiraling staircase.

~

The sky had begun to turn dark when we finally emerged into the open air. Purple shadows lined the paths and crept from the trees. A smattering of stars sprinkled the sky, and in the distance the moon was just a sliver of faint white.

“This way,” Gabe said, and we took one of the paths into the forest again. Some of the paths were elevated, I noticed, held aloft by gleaming white struts. Vehicles zipped past on them, moving at impossible speeds. The wind from their passing stirred my hair. Soft glowing strips of light lit the paths and illuminated our steps. Around us, the chirps of animals filled the air.

“Are you in charge of my assimilation?” I asked Gabe after a moment of silence. “I thought Claire...?”

He flinched slightly at the mention of her. “I asked to be assigned to you.” His tone was careful, guarded. Not quite apologetic. Defensive, maybe. “I need to talk to you. Explain things better.”

“There isn’t anything to explain.” I feel hollow saying it. Foolish. I was the practical one. Why couldn’t I accept this? “You didn’t trust me. I understand.”

A sigh escaped him, and he scrubbed both hands through his hair in a display of sudden frustration. His mouth opened and closed, and his fingers clenched into fists. “My family was in great danger,” he said. “We were being watched all the time. The political coup had happened bloodlessly. My uncle died of natural causes, and instead of the rule passing on to my cousin, the soldiers stepped in and the dictator took over. He moved us from the palace. He put us under guard. We were treated well, only put under house arrest. We were paraded about as if we were all friends, as if we approved of his rule. He even began courting my sister.” His voice thickened in disgust and he paused for a moment and looked around at the trees. The sky above us glittered with starlight. “It’s dark there,” he said finally, in a wistful tone. “The city of Astralux is cold and wet from the swamps that surround it. The sky is filled with steam and machinery and metal.” He sounded wistful now. “So different from the Frost...all that blinding white and blue sky and trees. So different from here.”