Chapter 29

Tá Súil Abbey
Little Sister
Then

Emily

Reka led the way to a pool in a quiet, almost private bay. "The private rooms are for patients." She explained. "This will do for us." Once there she set her things aside, tossed off her robe and slipped into the steaming hot water.

Emily felt a pang of guilt at doing this with Spencer in prison somewhere. But some instinct told her that this was important, whatever was about to happen would matter in the greater scheme of things and if this was where Reka wanted it to happen then so be it. By the time she finished that thought she was in the hot water to her neck, practically sighing with pleasure, even as she cringed at the pictures going through her head. If only Spencer was here. Not that she thought he'd get in the baths like this with her, but he'd be so fascinated by this place. And he'd be safe. Without him here enjoying herself seemed a horrible thing to do. "All right, what is all this about."

Reka hissed a warning and nodded to the other side of the room. "Wait until the Healer gets out of here." The Healer, clearly identified by the indigo blue she wore, was escorting what had to be a patient, a frail looking woman wrapped in towels. They stepped into a small room and closed the door, only then did Reka lean back and relax. "So you're going after them?"

"That's right."

"And you're taking Andrew with you?"

"He's got the horses."

Reka looked her over. "You might make it, but that place will chew him to the bone."

"How do you know? Have you ever been in there?"

"In the cages? No." She was quiet a long moment. "I was born on Level 12." She admitted at last.

"Level 12?"

"In the Below," Reka smiled at her confusion. "Didn't know you'd have to go there, did you? Where did you think City folks kept the stuff they'd rather not see?"

"How do you know it's down there?"

"I've been trying to tell you, I was born down there. Went to school down there, or what passed for it. Played around with my neighbor a little too much, ended up with a baby when I was seventeen, a boy, Clancy I called him. I went to work in a factory making shirts for the people in the City. It was clean work; at least, City folk didn't want their tidy white clothes getting all soiled. Clancy grew up pretty, prettiest boy you ever saw, and with a good heart. Too pretty and too good, one day he didn't come home from school. He was all of fourteen, got tall on me; that was it."

"What happened?" Emily asked.

"They took him to the Cages." Reka smiled gently when Emily winced. "What, you thought they only took from out here? No, they see a pretty face and a pretty body they want to break it down, no matter where it is. Your Healer must be a looker himself or else they just would have taken Kira. My boy was the best thing in my life. It was easy, down there, to find a way to escape. Not your body, but there were pills and powders if you had something to trade, and a woman always does. But I stopped all that for my boy, he was going to do something great, I just knew it, and I wasn't going to let him down."

All of a sudden something clicked. "So you went after him?"

Reka nodded, "All the way from level 12 to level 64. Had to find the ramp on every level, climb it, steep and slippery every time. Avoid the gangs, avoid the Watchers, and try not to get raped in the sanits, steal food and water where I could. Took days to figure it all, days and days. I finally got up there and I had to bribe the operator to get him out, only thing I had. But I did it for my boy. Then I got lucky, or blessed, depending on who you talked to."

"How?"

"We all heard about Outside, some magical place where there wasn't any dirt, any bugs, where there was sky and fresh air and food and water for the taking. Where there weren't any people, no one was packed in like fish in a can. Some folks said that it was nonsense; that Outside had been destroyed but some said it was real. I wanted to try. My boy was sick, even I could tell that, and if he was going to die he was going to go with sun on his face and fresh air in his lungs, not down with the rats and the trash. So I made for the cargo trains, all the way down on 5. If anything led outside they did. I found a lift that went down there, straight shot up and down, and took it. Problem was, down on the train platforms, I didn't know where I was going. I knew there were crazies living down there, people driven mad from hunger and sickness and the dark, people who would eat you if they caught you. I just hoped we'd go quick if they found us first."

"I assume they didn't?"

"No. No, before we got that lost I saw the most amazing thing. Strangers coming in. People so big and so tall and so dammed confident they almost glowed. And color, red and blue, I had never seen color like that in all my life. They asked me what I was doing and I knew they weren't Watchers, they weren't the Authorities and I thought I was losing my mind anyway so I told them."

"A Missionary team?" Emily guessed.

Reka nodded. "One of those folks in red said they would get us out of there, me and my boy, and they did. But the other three, they went into the tunnels even though I begged them not to go." She sighed with the memory. "We never saw them again. Bosc brought us back here, and they saved my boy's life."

"So you and your son became Guardians?

She nodded. "I started right off. They made him wait a few years until he got some bone into him. Seemed the only right thing, payback for saving him." She smiled, just a little. "Before you ask he's not here now. We lost him five years ago."

Oh. Oh, after all that to lose her son. "How?" Emily asked, gentle with compassion.

"He was on a Missionary team; they went out to one of the villages to see if anyone needed help, and to spread the Message. The local priest riled up a mob of men to go after them. Clancy took an injury protecting the Healer, he never recovered."

"I am so sorry."

Reka shook her head slowly. "He died a man, free, under the sun and the sky, doing honorable work and with love in his arms. I couldn't have wanted more for him except more time, and that wasn't his to have." She looked over at Emily now, leaving her memories behind. "And now they've taken a Healer."

"Yes."

"That cannot stand." She sighed. "You know we're going to have a devil of a time getting Andrew in and out again. Going to have to be hard with him to make him listen to reason."

"We?" She was willing to go back there?

Reka just smiled. "I don't want my partner mourning her best student. Come on." She headed for the steps out of the pool. "Let's go help him pack."