Burn Bright

A noise woke Retra from a chilled and uneasy doze. Disorientated, she looked around for the source of the disturbance, standing to peer over the side of the barge. The dark sea boiled where it met the boat’s underbelly, sending sprays of water up the side. The salt stung her eyes. She clung to the railing, listening to shouts and screams coming from the waterline. Something was wrong.

Suddenly, the party lights extinguished and invisible wings beat in the air above her. She dropped to her knees and crawled back towards the cabin, frightened to stay where she was.

Just before she reached the stairs, the barge juddered as if running into something and she sprawled forward. Her outstretched hands touched flesh. She bit off a cry as a hand grabbed her arm and helped her to sit upright.

‘Hey, it’s all right,’ said a soothing male voice.

She strained to see him. He seemed broad; solid, in the grainy light. Alongside him Retra recognised a smaller figure whose swathe of white hair glowed with light of its own.

‘Cal?’

Cal leaned against the guy, their shadows melding into one, and whispered too loudly, ‘She’s a Seal.’

The guy moved his hand quickly from Retra’s arm.

She wanted to tell him that she wasn’t contaminated, that she was just the same as him, but the noise around them intensified with urgent shouts and footsteps.

Several Ripers appeared and sped past them, so quickly that Retra heard the clatter of their boots but only glimpsed the flicker of their long coats.

The boy next to her climbed to his feet and peered over the side. Retra and Cal copied him.

A blood-red flare burst across the starboard sky and Retra saw a sleek, stingray-shaped powerboat floating alongside them. Leashed echo-locaters hovered on giant wings above it, screeching.

‘How can she harness them like that?’ asked Retra. She shivered, picturing how they roamed the night skies of Grave, preying on the smaller of their own kind. Cannibals, Joel had called them.

‘It’s Ruzalia the pirate,’ said the boy. ‘She can do anything. She’s a body snatcher who steals people for crew. Or because she fancies them.’

‘Who told you that?’ asked Cal.

‘It’s in the confetti. They warn you.’

Retra tried to make out his features. ‘What do they say?’

‘If she raids the barge, stay still. Don’t attract attention in case Ruzalia takes you. They say she uses the ones she steals to amuse her. Perform and sing like trained animals.’

‘Maybe we should go to the cabin?’ Retra began to step away from the draught caused by the beating wings.

‘No!’ said the boy. His hand shot out and grabbed her wrist. ‘Don’t! That’s where the Ripers took the over-ager. Ruzalia will search everywhere. Especially down there.’

His touch shocked Retra but something about his voice made her feel safer. He had confidence, like Joel. She automatically moved closer to him.

Sensing her reaction, he relaxed his grip. But it tightened again as a body loomed up over the edge of the railing close to them.

Suddenly, the pirates were everywhere. Running along ledges on nimble feet, using swords to flip over piles of rope, and jab behind casings.

Another flare shot skyward, exploding in red fluorescence.

Some of the other Grave runaways fled past them towards the bow, screaming.

The boy drew Retra and Cal down into the shadowy hollow of the barge’s curved side.

‘Keep quiet,’ he said.

They were close enough to the cabin to see a Riper emerge from down below. When the Riper reached the top of the stairs a pirate jumped on him from above. But the Riper shifted, leaving the pirate to crash to the deck. Then the Riper leapt upon him, moving with unnatural speed, dragging him downwards.

Shouts and deep growling noises emanated from below.

‘What was that?’ Retra whispered.

‘Sssh,’ said the boy, pointing upwards.

A tall figure straddled the railing immediately above them. Long legs slid over, boots almost scraping Retra’s head. The boy reacted quickly, pulling Retra hard against him so that the pirate missed stepping on her.

The booted figure jumped down lightly, sword in hand, and sprinted towards the stairs. Long hair flared out over leather-clad shoulders. One agile leap took her down into the cabin and the growling stopped abruptly.

Retra felt the boy holding his breath; imagined she could hear the thud of his heart. Or maybe that was hers? She was used to fear, but not closeness; her chest on his stomach, his knee resting against her thigh, his breath close enough that she felt its damp warmth.

She began to pull away but he didn’t let go.

‘Wait! Watch. In case …’ He tapered off.

Retra tilted her head back towards the cabin. What did he mean?

A moment later the tall pirate exploded back up the stairs, half-dragging, half-carrying a limp form – the over-ager, Retra realised. With her free hand she brandished her sword. She retraced her steps, bringing her to the exact spot alongside Retra again.

The boy, Cal and Retra huddled closer as the pirate dropped her sword to lift the body over the railing. The weapon clattered down close to Retra, spattering her with something wet and sticky.

‘Catch her,’ said the pirate, in a stern and commanding voice to those waiting in the stingray boat below.

‘Please, don’t hurt me,’ begged the scared young woman.

‘I’m saving you, if you keep quiet and do as you’re told,’ said the pirate. She reached down for the hilt of the sword and saw Retra.

Fierce eyes peered at her and the point of the pirate woman’s blade flicked up against Retra’s temple, lifting her veil.

Retra froze, paralysed by her own terror. Would the pirate kill her? Or take her?

But the pirate frowned with recognition at the veil and let it slip back in place. The boy hauled her away onto his lap, arms sliding around her as if he were protecting a child.

The pirate stared at them both and the moment lasted longer than any Retra had known; longer than when the warden had stapled on her obedience strip.

Then the woman gave a wink and, as suddenly as she’d come, her sword flipped away and she was gone.

‘Ruzalia,’ breathed the boy. ‘Hair redder than fire and her blade as quick.’ He laughed, shakily. ‘I guess she got what she came for, and that was enough.’

As if the pirate captain had heard him, her sharp voice bellowed from below, ‘Ditch this tub!’

Retra slid off the boy’s lap and sprang up to watch. Several pirates leapt from the barge to the water and the cruiser swept around in a tight arc to scoop them up.

‘No one can catch Ruzalia. She’s too fast,’ sighed the boy. He and Cal were standing now as well. ‘And smart.’ He sounded impressed; envious, perhaps.

‘And lucky,’ said Cal.

Retra strained to follow the fading wash the stingray boat left behind in the dark as Ruzalia sped away.

Quiet settled on the barge and the party lights came back on. A spotlight began to rove the decks. It revealed groups of the runaways still clinging to each other at the bow. Ripers moved about the deck, urging them back to the stern.

Retra turned to the boy. In the spotlight she saw him properly for the first time and her stomach knotted. Smooth skin and full lips framed by hair that curled around his ears and down onto the collar of his coat. His eyes might be hazel, she thought, or grey, and his deep, soulful look made her eyes sting. She dropped her gaze to her feet in case he thought she was tearful.

‘Thank you f-for …’ She tapered off.

‘I’m Markes. From Grave North.’ He thrust his hand into her blurred vision.

‘Retra, from Seal South.’ She heard the apology in her own voice.

‘I’ve heard that the Ripers don’t like Seals. You might want to change your name,’ he warned her softly. ‘As it is, you were lucky Ruzalia didn’t take you. She knows everyone who comes on. No one knows how. But she does.’

The thought of it started Retra trembling. What she had done to see Joel again – the pain. If the pirate had taken her …‘Why does she do that?’

Markes shrugged. ‘It’s hard to know the truth. Some say it’s a rescue. Others say she’s perverted and cruel and uses them as pets. The truth may be somewhere in between.’

‘Whatever.’ Cal tugged at Markes’s arm until he faced her. ‘The over-ager deserved it. You can’t come to Ixion when you’re old.’

The spotlight showed that Cal’s white hair framed a heart-shaped face, made prettier by upturned lips and long-lashed blue eyes. She was attractive in a way that Retra immediately envied.

Not that Retra had much to compare with – the women in the Seal compound wore veils, and the men wore deep-caps that hid the sides of their faces. But Cal was beautiful.

‘She shouldn’t be pretending she’s young enough for Ixion,’ continued Cal. ‘She had her chance to come here when she was younger. It’s our place. Our time.’

‘We all pretend things sometimes. And sometimes we leave things too late.’ Markes showed his disagreement with her by turning back to Retra.

He reached out and wiped his finger across Retra’s cheek. ‘There’s blood on you from Ruzalia’s blade. You never made a sound when she pointed it at you.’

Retra trembled, not knowing what to do with the admiration in his voice, or her body’s reaction to his touch. She wasn’t going to Ixion for the same reason as Cal – for parties and boys. She wanted only to find her brother.

I can’t live like this anymore, Ret, Joel had told her. I’m suffocating.

Her brother had been all impulse and quick, blazing heat. She’d felt so cold without him. But right now, Markes’s touch and his gentle, steady gaze warmed her.

‘Yeah, you’re covered in it. You should go and clean up, you look terrible,’ said Cal. ‘We’ll be in Ixion soon.’

In the silence that fell between them, the engines seemed to throb louder than before, straining to get there.

Retra bit her tongue and frowned. Cal wanted to be left alone with Markes – that was obvious. She risked a glance and found that he was staring intently at her. He didn’t speak, though, or offer to come with her.

Under Markes’s silent scrutiny and Cal’s disapproval, she fumbled for the handrail, and made her way aft looking for somewhere to wash.