Moirai (16 page)

“Wait and I'll go with you.” He slipped on his shoes and
grabbed his key, locking up the room behind him. I opened my door and turned on
the light, finding my shoes on the floor. I hadn't even remembered slipping
them off I'd been so tired, but I knew I must have done so. I slid them on and
together we headed down to the elevator. Joshua pushed the down button and we
waited a moment before the elevator doors opened.

Together, we descended to the lobby. Stepping out, I
glanced around, catching sight of Chloe and Elsa waiting for us. I wondered how
this meeting in Torv would go. The last high council I'd met out east in Haven
and it hadn't ended well for anyone.

“Thanks for getting ready fast.” Chloe gestured for us
all to follow her outside. We walked to the end of the road and two blocks
north. My eyes scanned the streets, taking in everything surrounding us. Torv
was huge! There was no other way to describe the city. It was bustling with
people and made Haven look inferior. I pushed down such thoughts as I felt
Joshua's hand in mine. I glanced at him, giving him a faint smile.

Together, we followed Chloe inside the old brick
building. It was tall, approximately six stories, but nothing like the place
where we stayed. It looked much older than the rest of the town. Ivy climbed
the outside walls, and I wondered why they hadn't worked to remove it. We were
led into the main foyer and walked across the hardwood floor to another room.
Chloe knocked before continuing into the room. “Douglas.” She nodded once.
“I've brought the three from Shadow—Olivia, Joshua, and Elsa—to help us with
the pregnancies.” She introduced each of us to him.

Douglas was a tall, heavyset, balding man. He sat at the
head of the table, wrapped in exotic red robes and presumably clothing
underneath. He acted in charge as he tapped his fingers against the table.
“Come in, come in.” He gestured for us to come closer. I didn't particularly
want to be here. I tried not to seem affected though, watching as he sized us
up and down. “We appreciate your help in the matter. As such—” I felt his eyes
lock solely on me. “If what they say is true about you, Olivia, I feel it
necessary to keep an armed guard with you at all times. Your head will not be
my responsibility.” I didn't quite know what that meant. Did he think people in
Torv would harm me? I knew Margo had been shot but it had been outside of
Spade. They hadn't so much as been given acceptance into the town before they'd
been fired upon.

“Mr. Douglas—” I smiled weakly, unsure how to address
him. “I'm not concerned for my safety unless your men can't control
themselves.” I felt plenty capable of looking after myself, and considering the
Mindonsiphan, I had little doubt anyone would be capable of hurting me.

He nodded curtly. “Although you may put such little value
on your own life, or the responsibility of carrying a child, I cannot do the
same while you are in our home of Torv. Once you leave the city walls, you are
free to go wherever and do whatever. While in Torv, I ask that you please have
the guard, Kelvin, with you at all times, and accept this as an offer of
peace.”

I didn't quite know how peace and armed guard fit into
the same sentence, but I nodded all the same. There was no point in arguing. I
reached over, holding Joshua's hand. I still didn't quite understand how they
knew about me but bringing it up now seemed like a terrible idea. If they
suspected we didn't trust them, things could get a whole lot worse. “Let it be
known that Joshua and I are together.” I didn't care what they thought.
“Understand that having a guard to protect me is your responsibility, but
separating us is not an option.”

Douglas laughed. “We have no intention of dictating your
life for you, child.” His voice was condescending, but I ignored him. “We
merely wish to make sure your destiny isn't chosen for you while you're here.”

Joshua squeezed my hand and spoke up. “Can you tell us
how you've come to help women in Torv conceive?” So far we hadn't been given
any real details and we had been more than just a little curious.

Elsa nodded, stepping forward. “Perhaps the procedure
you've used is in part the reason for the high number of deaths. If we know
what we're getting ourselves involved with, maybe we can offer more
assistance.”

Douglas eyed Chloe. “How far have you come?”

Chloe sighed. “Elsa and I have developed an experimental
hormone. We hope to administer it during labor to save the mother's life.”

“That is good news.” He clapped his hands together. His gruff
voice echoed through the room. “I can assure you the procedure we performed on
the mothers was safe and no more challenging than that of two hundred years ago
when some families couldn't conceive: IVF, or in vitro fertilization,” he
explained. “In most cases the implanted egg will take. It's not until the final
trimester when the woman is in labor that they die. We can't fathom why.”

I spoke up, remembering the discussion in the lab just a
short time ago. “The government demands of its people marriage at eighteen.
There's always one man and one woman, the perfect number of pregnancies, always
healthy and always ready for the government's wishes.” A hint of annoyance rose
in my voice. “Is it not the government that determines a child's sex? Whether a
baby is a boy or a girl? Could it not be the government tampering with our
genes? The government determining who is right for one another to live by and
have a child with if they deem necessary?” I laughed darkly. “Our government, a
sick and twisted system, tells us what is right and what is just.” I shook my
head in defiance. “I say they are wrong. I say they do this on purpose. They
keep us infertile. They want us weak. They wish us to denounce ourselves and
fail at will.”

Joshua coughed softly and nudged me as Elsa spoke out.
“Olivia is right. The government always has the perfect number of boys and
girls. Yes, the chances of a boy should be fifty-fifty but the odds that every
year each is exact is unheard of. We all know they choose the sex of the child.
It fits their system. Why couldn't they choose other traits: hair color, eye
color, or perhaps something much more important, like reproductive ability?
This isn't by accident,” she affirmed. “Maybe once the Red Plague was an
accident, a misfortune, but our current system is no longer that today.”

The room erupted in loud chatter. Then Douglas raised his
hand to quiet everyone. Clearly he was the man in charge of the council. “We
accept your theory.” He nodded, understanding where we came from. “It still doesn't
change the fact that we're all here. If certain genes are gone, or turned off,
how do we fix it?”

“They're not all gone.” I stepped forward. “We all know
my mother conceived me naturally. We don't know how that was possible. Perhaps
her mother or grandmother hadn't been inoculated or it had been faulty. Perhaps
she has a new gene that is dominant and allows me to give birth to a child. I'm
not a scientist,” I reminded the high council. “I'm a girl, thrown into this
mess by mere chance.”

Douglas laughed, glancing at his council members.
“Chance?” He shook his head and then stopped laughing, staring hard at me.
“Nothing, child, was by chance.” I wondered why the sudden dark look appeared
in his eyes. I couldn't quite read his expression and felt my stomach
somersault. I wanted to look at Joshua but I couldn't.
Did I say something
wrong?

He didn't answer me. He didn't have time. Douglas stared
at me. “Child, you have no idea what the rebel alliance in Torv has done for
you. Your father—” Speaking about him made the room spin. “He secured your
future long before you were born. Chance hardly plays into your life. Your
marriage ceremony, your job placement—all decisions made by the high council
and interjected into the government's systems.”

“How?” Joshua spoke up. I didn't blame him for
questioning what they said. It did, after all, involve him as well.

Douglas smiled. “You would be curious, wouldn't you?” He
didn't seem entirely surprised. “Joshua, your family and Olivia's were close.
Much too close long before you were born. If marriage had been a choice, I
believe your parents, Rebecca and Gavin, would have wed. That's neither here
nor there.” He brushed his hands together. “When Olivia was conceived, it
happened to be the same lottery Rebecca had won that winter. Gavin knew who he
could trust. There weren't many in Genesis willing to help.” He paused
momentarily. “Rebecca didn't come to us. Let me tell you that. We came to her
when she became a member of the high council of Haven. She'd known two other
rebels in Genesis, but her allegiance and what she promised to do proved her
beyond a doubt as one of us.”

“She helped forge my papers?” I guessed.

Douglas shook his head no. “There were doctors who were
involved in the papers and ‘The Day of the Chosen’ aspect of it. Rebecca was
important, because she made sure your match in the system was to Joshua.” I
didn't quite understand the severity of what was being said and what had been
done.

“Why did they need us to be matched together?” I asked,
confused and glancing at Joshua.

“In time you would learn the truth,” Douglas reminded me.
“You needed someone strong and loyal by your side. The Governor would not take
lightly to the news and betrayal within his system.”

Slowly it began to make sense. I wondered if all the times
we'd played together, if it had been to ensure we would become friends. I
couldn't ask that. His hand had dropped from mine. I didn't blame him.

“Is there anything else?” I asked uncomfortably.

“We appreciate you coming here. Stay safe,” Douglas answered
curtly.

Chloe opened the doors, and the three of us followed
behind her, back outside and down the street with an armed guard in tow. It
felt odd to be followed. I tried to pretend he wasn't behind us, but I couldn’t
ignore the sound of his heavy boots.

“Where's dinner?” I ask half-heartedly. I didn't feel
hungry but I knew we needed to eat. It was dark, late, and we hadn't eaten much
since arriving in Torv.

“Floor twenty-two in our building,” Chloe explained as
she led us once again into the foyer, and then the elevator. I didn't know what
to say. Joshua hadn't said much. He'd been wrapped up in this for far longer
than he'd realized. I wondered if he was angry with me, though I didn't feel it
was my fault.

We all crammed into the elevator, and Joshua pushed the
button for floor twenty-two. I reached for his hand, glad he didn’t pull away.
Already so much was going on. I couldn't lose his support right now. The doors
opened, and Joshua and I stepped out together, glancing around and wondering
precisely where to go. Chloe stepped out behind us, and I moved to the side,
letting her lead us into the cafeteria. Elsa stood behind us, and I glanced
back to see our armed bodyguard still following us. I wondered what it would
take to lose him.

This was definitely going to be awkward. If I didn't feel
like we'd stand out from not being known around here, I was certain everyone
would notice the six-foot man carrying a gun in to dinner.

Stepping out, I saw a rush of commotion through clear
glass panels. Opposite us was a cafeteria with hundreds of people sitting down,
eating, and talking candidly. “Come on,” Chloe insisted, leading us through the
open archway. I felt Joshua fall just a few steps behind. Upon walking through
the open door, the sound seemed to increase tenfold. It was rather
overwhelming. “Grab a tray,” Chloe instructed as she maneuvered us through the
crowd towards the line for food.

The three of us each grabbed a tray, and I glanced at him
silently.
This is pure chaos
. I couldn't believe how many people were in
the cafeteria. How were there so many people unaccounted for in Cabal? Had they
all left, escaped at some point? We stood in line with Chloe, grabbing our food
as we followed her to a table, where Jaxon already sat.

“Hey.” I smiled, grateful for one more face I recognized.

“I see you found the food,” Jaxon teased, noting the
heaping pile of beef and mashed potatoes on my tray. I pulled up alongside
Jaxon and Joshua, having a seat on the bench. Elsa sat beside Joshua as the
table seemed to extend on forever. The cafeteria was huge! Chloe sat across
from me and as I grabbed a roll, my eyes landed on the guard. He hadn't budged
an inch. I could feel his shadow towering over me.

“You can sit down,” I offered, hoping he would oblige. He
made me nervous.

“Have to do my job, ma'am,” he insisted.

I felt eyes surrounding us as whispers erupted even
through the loud chaos of the cafeteria. “I'm sure you do, and you are, but you
must be hungry.” I gestured. “Get yourself something to eat. I won't send you
home.” I knew he just tried to do as he was told. “You can keep an eye on me
while you eat,” I insisted.

The guard gave me a relieved smile and headed to the
line, cutting in front of other people. I imagined having a gun on him kept
people from complaining. “So does this place feed the entire town?” I still
couldn't believe how large the cafeteria was in Torv. Where did all these
people come from?

“Just the residents who live here,” Chloe answered. She
didn't seem to think it was any big deal. All of Shadow had a population of
maybe fifty people. I knew the other cities nearby were larger, but I never
imagined Torv being so densely populated. “I suppose it takes some getting used
to.” She gestured over to a young girl who couldn't have been any older than I
was. “Zarrah, have a seat.” She made room at the table. “This is my daughter,
Zarrah. Zarrah, this is Jaxon, Olivia, Joshua, and Elsa.”

Zarrah smiled faintly, giving us a weak nod. She had the
same dark hair and eyes as her mother. “Glad you're back, Mom.” She kissed her
cheek. “Dad wants to know if you're planning on leaving for Shadow again.”