The sadness would have hurt more if he weren’t already so wounded from the past few days. The true meaning of being a vagrant settled in on him.
He snatched a rock out of the air before it could hit Carlee on the back of the head. He crushed it to a powder with his metal arm and didn’t slow pace. As they stepped over the shattered palisade wall, several village guards spit at them. Beyond the wall, where Stefani had been fighting, dozens of fallen attackers rested in pieces. From the looks of it, Stefani had been equally as efficient and ruthless as Carlee had been with the invaders.
“We should have let them burn,” Jeff said.
Carlee stopped.
“No,” Carlee said. “We shouldn’t have.”
Her voice was passionate enough that Jeff immediately regretted voicing his opinion.
“It’s not their fault that this happened. Don’t hate them for their ignorance.”
“They spit at us when we were trying to help them!”
“Does that really matter to you so much?” She was emotional again. He had suspected that being thrown out of their village had upset her, but he was confident now that he had been wrong. She was upset at not being able to help their wounded.
He felt guilty for wishing they had left the village to the warlord. But that was how he had been raised. That was what he had grown up believing. People like Carlee shouldn’t exist in the world. It was kill or be killed.
She started walking again, this time staying a few steps ahead of him. He was grateful for the space. He felt like a child.
The sounds of the village faded quickly, and soon they were walking through moonlit nature. He hoped that Stefani was giving the warlord behind the attack what he deserved.
14 PATHS
IT SEEMED LIKE A LIFETIME ago that Jeff was arguing with Dane about whether it was a smart decision to enter another fight. And in many ways, that had been a different life.
He had spent the morning trying to turn a rock into dust with his mind like the vagrants did, but he gave up on it after a few hours of feeling silly. No matter how hard he stared at the rock or screamed at it mentally, nothing changed. So, he carefully went over the events of the past few days again, combing his mind for details that he could use to learn how to press as they waited for Stefani to return.
All he had discovered was that he still longed to bring justice to Sean, Dane, the mayor, and the Apostles. Carlee was adamant that attacking Apostles—even with the full power of pressing—was suicide, but Jeff didn’t believe they were gods. And that meant they could be killed.
He just needed to learn how to press first, and so far, he hadn’t made any progress on that front. Carlee didn’t seem particularly pleased with him after last night, and he knew he was running out of time before they ditched him at some community.
It was midmorning, and sitting in one place was making him anxious about Stefani, so he climbed to his feet and walked slowly around the exterior of the antigravity transport. That one piece of technology alone was so far beyond anything humans could create these days that it seemed magical. The piners could talk for days about how wondrous the past had been, with its endless medicine, food, and comforts. Their stories had never interested him like they had the others. In fact, nothing had seemed all that worthy of excitement except for women and fighting until he had met the vagrants.
The air cracked, and Jeff ducked under the closest tree. He stared up at the sky, where five leeches blasted across the sky at incredible speeds. Slowly, he dared to breathe again. From a young age, he had been taught to seek cover every time a leech passed by, no matter how uninterested in him they might appear. It was fairly common to see one, but it was chilling to see them in larger groups.
Once, when he was twelve, not too long after the solstice, there had been a massive dogfight between groups of leeches just outside of Fifth Springs. He had hidden at first, but Chad convinced him that they should go watch. For half an hour, the leeches spewed beautiful streaks of energy at one another, slowly whittling their numbers down until there were hardly any leeches left. The battle had scared everyone he knew except for Chad. They had talked about it for years.
“Did I miss breakfast?” Stefani asked as she came pushing through the brush.
Jeff jumped at her voice. He had let himself get lost in memories and had let his guard down momentarily. Luckily, it hadn’t been members of the warlord’s army that found them.
Stefani had apparently experienced a rough night. Her uniform was tattered in a number of spots, her face was sweaty and covered in dirt, and she looked how Jeff felt inside: exhausted. She didn’t even tease him about not seeing her coming.
“I think you might have missed lunch too, judging by the sun.” He was happy to see her; she was much more approachable than Carlee was right now.
“Where’s Carl?”
“Sleeping.”
“I’m over here,” Carlee said. She slowly rose from where she had been sleeping among some tall grasses.
“Taking a nap while you make the cripple protect you,” Stefani said. “You’re getting lazy.” The words were playful, but they lacked Stefani’s usual energy.
“You found us,” Carlee said.
“Got shot at by the villagers,” Stefani said. “Best interaction I ever had with them.”
“You didn’t—”
“No,” Stefani said. “Of course not. I just accepted their message and came peacefully here.”
“Good. I’m glad you made it back safely.”
“Me too,” Jeff said.
They both glanced at him, but he didn’t shy away. He might not be a vagrant, but while he was traveling with them, he considered himself part of the team even if they didn’t.
“What did I miss?” Stefani asked. She rifled through some boxes in the transport until she found what she was looking for, which Jeff was pretty sure was a banana and some kind of bar wrapped in plastic.
“I tried to help a boy after the fighting ended. Jeff was kind enough to donate some of his blood, but they figured out that we were homeless, and they kicked us out.”
Jeff relaxed a little. Carlee was in a much better mood, and it sounded like she had actually appreciated his efforts last night. It wasn’t too surprising; Carlee didn’t seem like the type to hold a grudge.
“So, they let him die, eh?” Stefani said between bites. “Hate when they do that.”
“He might live . . .”
“And you gave Handsome some new parts, I see. Too bad. I liked him better before. More vulnerable.”
“I’m a fan of having two arms and legs again,” Jeff said.
“That’s because you have a bad attitude,” Stefani said. She was warming up slightly now, and part of the signature bite to her words was returning.
“And your night,” Carlee said. “Anything to report?”
Stefani took a big bite of her food and chewed it patiently.
“I’m tired,” she said when she finished. “Should I sleep here or while we travel?”
Carlee accepted that as all the answer she needed. If Stefani didn’t want to talk about something, Jeff didn’t want to know about how ugly things had gotten.
“On the road,” Carlee said.
They traveled for several hundred miles, by Jeff’s estimation, before they pulled into a swamp where other vagrant transports were resting. Seeing the other vagrants again made him nervous—not because he feared them but because his chances to learn from them were running out.
Talon was waiting for them when they arrived. He towered over their transport and most of the camp, standing motionless with zero expression on his face.
“She’s waiting for you,” Talon said as soon as the force field above the transport was deactivated.
“Of course,” Carlee said. Talon turned and led them through the camp to Jane’s tent. A few of the vagrants slapped Carlee on the back, but it was the only pleasantries they received. The twins walked by and mumbled something about how it took Stefani so long to make it back, to which she did not mumble her reply. Carlee walked into Jane’s tent while Jeff hesitated outside with Stefani.