The Great Escape Chapter 16, Part 10 of 12

The Great Escape
Chapter 16, Part 10 of 12

Ezra wondered what would happen now, but neither Ferne nor Devon, whom he thought would be most affected by Kalyndra's demonstration, showed any disquiet. Ferne smiled benignly at her daughter, and Devon still talked to Thalassa. Calliope was oblivious, though she was more likely pretending not to notice.

When Thalassa saw Kalyndra kneeling before Ezra, she said to Devon:

"Could you do that? Serve him, I mean?"

"No, but he'd never want me to. He does not want Kalyndra to, either. It's all her doing."

"I could serve him," Thalassa said confidently. "I could kneel and kiss his feet if it would make him happy, but I don't understand what punishment has to do with it."

"Nor me," said Devon. "That's because we're sane. It's Kali who's twisted."

The girls smiled at each other, yet her beautiful new bedmate left Devon with something to think about.

On her first morning in the Cloner City, Wildchild woke early and went to see her horse. She led her out of the paddock and into the large field where the Cloner Fair had been. Here was lush grass and a slope down to the river. She hobbled the pony and left her to graze. There was some dung in the shelter to shovel onto a midden pile before she'd finished and could return to the hall for her morning duties.

Hazel woke at the same time as Wildchild and watched her leave. Then, she slipped quietly out of bed, sneaked over Wildchild's backpack, and rummaged through it.

"What are you doing?" Jenna asked, stirred by the movement.

"Samothea has a necklace with a pendant. I want to see it more closely."

"You shouldn't do that, Hazel. It's not right."

"True, but don't you want to know more about her?"

"I do, but not enough to go through her belongings."

"Well, aren't you the saintly one! Come on, help me take a look."

"No!"

"All right. I'll do it myself."

Hazel put two shoes and a book on the floor around Wildchild's backpack and lifted it onto the bed. She felt inside the pockets until she found the necklace. A little morning light came through the curtains, so she opened them to look at the necklace. That woke Preeda up, who wanted to know what Hazel was doing.

"Take a look at this pendant," Hazel said, holding it up to their gazes. "I've seen it somewhere.

Where do you think it was?"

"I think I've seen it, too," Jenna admitted, "but I can't remember in what context."

"It might be the Family Name Book," Preeda volunteered. "There are some drawings in it."

"You're right!" Hazel said. "I think it was there. All right. Let's see what else the mystery girl has."

She dug into the pack and brought out a pouch of glass arrowheads, lengths of catgut, and a copper-colored cylinder with a diamond-shaped perspex nib, three-ring controls, and a button.

This was the laser penknife that Ezra had given her.

"What is it?" Jenna asked.

"No idea," Hazel said.

"Try pressing the button," Preeda advised, caught up in the intrigue.

Hazel pressed the button and made a warm red laser-blade. Thankfully, Wildchild had heeded Ezra's advice and locked the penknife on its lowest setting. Otherwise, Hazel might have cut into her hand or set fire to the bed.

"Wow!" the girls exclaimed, realizing what it was. The only laser penknife anyone knew about belonged to Ezra Goldrick, who had shown it to Madam Scientist two weeks earlier at the Cloner Fair. Their friend, Crystal, had been agog with the news, describing the excellent tool in detail.

"How come such a precious thing is in Samothea's backpack?" Hazel wondered: a rhetorical question, of course. The consensus was that Samothea must have stolen it.

"Keep it secret, for now," Hazel commanded the other girls. "This is something to investigate.

We're not ready to inform Gloria that Samothea is a thief."

Although Hazel put Wildchild's belongings back in their proper places and fitted the backpack into the space marked by the shoes and book, she was unlucky because Wildchild had an almost perfect memory. She saw immediately that her backpack had been tampered with.

Wildchild ignored the intrusion, but later that morning, when it was quiet, she returned to the dormitory and checked over her pack.

Although the necklace had been removed and returned, Wildchild said nothing about it and did not change her behavior toward the girls.

When Wildchild revisited her horse in the late afternoon, Hazel unexpectedly came. She did not speak but tagged along as Wildchild walked to the field and whistled for her horse. When she led the horse into the paddock, Wildchild saw a hay bale and oats bag. Hazel had ordered them from the Farmers.

"Thank you for this," Wildchild said.

"You're paying for it," Hazel nonchalantly replied.

She helped fill the feeding trough and waited as Wildchild put the blanket on her horse to keep it warm during the chilly night. Then they walked in silence together back to the Council Hall.

After putting the councilors to bed that night, the Juniors washed themselves in the bathroom.

The newest Junior cleaned the bathroom, and Wildchild took her responsibility seriously. Still naked from her bath, she fetched buckets of water to rinse the walls and floor but was surprised to find Hazel in her work apron waiting for her when she returned.

Hazel had two mops. She handed one to Wildchild, and they mopped the floors together.

"Thank you for helping me," Wildchild said.

"I'm checking you're doing the job properly," Hazel responded.

In bed that night, Jenna and Preeda wanted to make love. Most nights, the three girls made love together but had not since Wildchild joined them. Jenna whispered an invitation to Hazel, who said:

"No thanks. You girls use a spare bedroom. I'll stay in the dormitory with Samothea."

Carrying their bedding and with shy giggles, the girls skipped past Wildchild out of the dormitory. Wildchild did not ask where they were going, and Hazel did not tell her. Silently, they went to sleep.

Hazel got up early the following day to help Wildchild with her horse again. After they had shoveled the dung onto the midden heap, Wildchild asked:

"Would you like to ride her?"

"No, thanks," Hazel said.

It was a simple answer but dashed Wildchild's theory of why Hazel was so hostile toward her.

She conjectured that Hazel was helping her, so she let her ride the horse. The next theory was uncomfortable: Hazel suspected her of something and was watching her closely. Regardless, she would not change her behavior or let Hazel's disdain provoke her.

They returned to the hall in silence to perform the day's duties.

Later that morning, Hazel had some free time. She knocked on the scriptorium door, where students were seated at desks, copying out one of the Cloners' precious books.

"Yes, Hazel?" the teacher presiding over the lesson asked.

"Can I see the Family Name Book, please? There's something I want to look up."

"Help yourself."

Hazel took the book to a lectern in the corner of the room and began leafing through the pages. It was not long before she found what she wanted: the story of the first Prefect of Samothea. There, she saw a drawing of her wearing Samothea's pendant around her neck.

"So," Hazel whispered, "the question is: is that yours or not? If it is, why are you here? Are you escaping from something? Are you a thief on the run or worse?"

Hazel had a romantic imagination and hoped Wildchild had done something genuinely monstrous. In triumph, she slammed the book shut, disturbing the students and eliciting an intense look of disapproval from the teacher. Apologizing, she meekly tip-toed out of the room.

She did not share all her current information with the other Juniors, but Hazel primed them to quiz Wildchild that night in the dormitory, hoping to learn more about how she got her laser knife.

"Have you met Ezra Goldrick, the Earthman," Jenna asked.

"I have."

"We have, too. Hazel spoke to him. You must have spoken to him lots."

"A few times."

That was strictly true: in most of her conversations with Ezra, Tamar had done the talking.

"I hear he's generous," Preeda said, playing along.

"He is."

"Has he ever given you anything?"

"Yes."

"Anything valuable?"

"To me."

Wildchild was reticent from modesty, not deliberate deception. She never boasted, considering it beneath herself to show off. In this case, she did not want to claim superiority over the Juniors because she was one of those Ezra loved most.

It was late, and they left off further questioning that night.

The three Juniors convened in private the next day to discuss the case.

Jenna and Preeda were impressed that Wildchild knew Ezra, but they were not keen to press her further about the penknife or the pendant. They did not feel Hazel's hostility toward their new colleague but were eager to get to know the girl better and learn more about her.

All three Juniors were obsessed with sex, and Wildchild was eighteen years old. Everything that implied vis-à-vis the Earthman and his duties to the three tribes concerned Jenna, mainly because she was worried that if Hazel alienated Wildchild, they could never ask her any intimate questions.

"Why do you dislike Samothea so much?" she asked.

"Because she's proud and arrogant," Hazel replied.

"She's not!" Preeda exclaimed.

"She is! What business does any girl have with such a pretentious name?"

"She didn't choose her name," Jenna objected.

"Yes, but who calls her child after the planet? Her mother must have known that growing up with that name would make her daughter think she's better than everyone else."

"Samothea doesn't think that," Jenna protested, not too convincingly. She did not know for sure.

"Also," Hazel added, leveling every charge she could against Wildchild, "how come an ordinary Woodlander girl owns a horse."

"I thought she was a Herder," Preeda said.

"No, she told Madam Recorder she's a Woodlander."

"Why can't a Woodlander own a horse?" Jenna asked. "You Farmers have horses."

"But we don't ride them. They pull plows and sleds. Only the Herders ride horses."

"So, she's a Herder and a Woodlander," Preeda said. "I won't distrust her just because of that."

"Can you explain the laser-knife and the pendant?"

"No."

"Well then, tonight we'll confront her."

Jenna and Preeda reluctantly agreed, and that night, after her bathroom chores, Hazel confronted the mysterious girl as Wildchild sat on her bed, wrapped in her towel.

"Samothea," she said in a voice that lacked friendliness or respect, "will you show me the necklace you wore the first day you came here?"

"I'm sorry, Hazel, but it's private."

"Why is it private?"

Wildchild remained silent.

"It looked precious. Where did you get it?"

Again, Wildchild did not answer.

"If you find it," Jenna suggested kindly, "you can return it. No one will blame you."

"I didn't find it. It was given to me," Wildchild said.

"Who gave it to you?" Preeda asked.

Wildchild said nothing. She was beginning to resent the inquisition and turned away.

"I saw the necklace in the Family Name Book," Hazel said accusingly. "I know it's the Prefect of Samothea's Pendant. Does it belong to you?"

Wildchild still said nothing. She was fighting to keep her temper.

"I think you stole it," Hazel goaded, "and I think you stole Ezra Goldrick's laser-knife."

Wildchild turned now, her face calm and neutral but her eyes shiny with the tiniest hint of tears. Hazel was chastened. She thought Wildchild would fight back, but she had not expected to hurt the girl.

"Ezra gave the penknife to me, and the pendant is mine, from my mother," Wildchild said, holding her head up proudly.

"Why would Ezra Goldrick give you his laser knife? Madam Scientist would kill to have it. It is the most precious thing about Samothea!"

"It's his spare penknife," Wildchild calmly explained. "We salvaged it from his ship."

"I don't believe you." Hazel started, but Preeda excitedly interrupted her, exclaiming:

"Oh my God! You are here! ... You're the wild girl. The one who rescued the Earthman from the sea. The one who went to the White Mountains to find the lost Miners. Oh my God! You are a celebrity! Why are you here with the Juniors?"

"Never mind Hazel," Jenna added, "she's not usually so mean. You can talk to us. We think you are amazing! We know you were just being modest. You were not intentionally hoodwinking us. But you can tell us now. Tell us everything!"

For a moment, Wildchild was shy. This was becoming a habit. She shook off her diffidence and answered boldly.

"What do you want to know?" she asked.

"How did you find Ezra Goldrick?" Jenna said. "What's he like?"

"Have you had sex with him?" Preeda asked.

"Preeda!" Jenna exclaimed. "That's not a polite question."

"Sorry, Samothea," Preeda said. "Just tell us about your adventures."

Wildchild collected her thoughts and told the bright-eyed young woman how she and Tamar had found Ezra in the ocean and taken him to Forest Camp. She then spoke about her adventure with Carlin and Tamar in the White Mountains, where they lived on rabbits and trout. They climbed the volcano and found Tamar's mother and bedmate.

She told them about the Salvage Party that rescued Yumi, tasted whisky, and was given the laser penknife by Ezra to use to make her glass arrowheads. She fetched the penknife from her pack, lit the room with a phosphorous beam, and projected rainbow colors on the walls and ceiling.

"Does Madam Scientist know you have a laser penknife?" Jenna asked.

"I haven't told her."

"She'd love to see it, I'm sure. Or are you worried she might want to take it from you?"

"I'm not worried."

"Then you should show it to her. She'll have lots of tasks for your knife."

Wildchild agreed.

The last thing she said was about Ezra, in answer to Preeda's question.

"I haven't had sex with him, but I will be his bedmate sometime."

She said this matter of fact but with the hint of a blush, visible even by candlelight.

Wildchild had not spoken so much and was fatigued by the time she finished, but the Juniors were delighted with her story. If Hazel had been grateful that Wildchild had not mentioned her rifling through her backpack, it would not have made her friendlier.

"Samothea," she said, "you still haven't told us what you're doing here. Why are you, of all people, a Junior?"

"Solange, Madam Solange," Wildchild corrected herself, "thought it would be good for me."

"Why?"

How could Wildchild answer that question without being arrogant and proud? How could she reveal that she was being trained for leadership? She resolved to tell a half-truth.

"Social skills," she said.

"What do you mean?"


To be continued