Broken Children

 

He walked the long walk, by the edge of the highway.

 

The rich lived at the high end, on top of the hill. The poor lived at the other end of the twelve and a half mile long road. And so on, graded in between, people whose whole purpose in life was to move a street or two higher up the hillside in the city suburbs, and lived in fear of being forced to move a few streets down.

 

There was plenty of city around the main road, mind, in a roughly oval shape, but everything was gauged in relation to the highway.

 

Jake had lived quite near to the top of the highway. He’d gone to school at one of the best colleges. Scholarship boy. Shopped at the best shops. Eaten the best food. Watched the best videoscope shows.

 

All that was over now.

 

Jake saw his father, briefly, again, towering over him, a burning pain in the side of his face, his ribs aching like the hull of a ship caught in a whirlpool, dull sickness in his stomach as the man screamed at him. His mother, hiding her bruised face behind a tear soaked kerchief, curled in the farthest corner of the sofa. His two brothers and three sisters, all younger than him, peering nervously through the doorway in fear, anger, confusion, hatred.

 

He pressed on, shaking away the thought along with the single tear on his cheek. It hadn’t been his fault! How dare he! Kick him out of the house for… for something he couldn’t control… something he wasn’t even sure he did…

 

Sorry. Sadness. Didn’t want this.

 

Shut up. I don’t want you. Leave me alone. Jake didn’t even think about how he was speaking with… with it…anymore. It just happened. After all, he’d… brought it here, hadn’t he? Or had he?

 

You silver-child. You bring me. Name me!

 

NO. Jake didn’t know why it kept insisting on being named. And he bloody well wasn’t going to do it. If he gave it a name, he’d get attached to it, and the next thing you knew, he’d be welcoming this power…

 

Was it a power? Not a curse?

 

No. Anything that would make his father, his father who was so proud of his son, beat him to within an inch of his life and turn him out onto the street with nothing but the clothes he stood up in and what was in his pockets had to be a curse. No coat, no outdoor shoes, just a light, fashionable sweater, a pair of jeans and thin, indoor loafers that let the water in. He had his wallet on him, and he’d gone strait away and withdrawn every penny he had in the bank. It came to about six hundred dollars, all told. He’d had his keys, not that they’d help him anymore. He’d thrown them off the bridge. He’d had a few bits of rubbish, a sweet wrapper and a couple of receipts, but he’d thrown them away. And a single sweet. He’d eaten it already, and it was late, and none of the shops were open, and with the rain pouring down onto him, he was cold, hungry, and scared.

 

Be brave. I protect you. Name me!

 

Shut up and go away.

 

You summon me.

 

“I did not!” it burst out of him. Jake glanced around, making sure there was nobody else around.

 

But there was.

 

He… it was walking on the other side of the six-lane highway. Even with a number of hoverpods whooshing up and down between them, Jake could see the figure clearly. It was wearing a very long coat that brushed the ground, which was impressive because it also seemed to be wearing very… very thick platform boots. It was completely bald, with a dark band around its head and over its eyes, although it’s scalp seemed a strange colour. Jake thought it was the light.

 

He couldn’t, however, mistake the heavily built tiger pacing by the androgynous figure’s side, one of its hands resting on the cat’s shoulders.

 

What was worse… what was worse than seeing that this strange figure was there, was that, five minutes later, when he glanced across, it was still keeping pace.

 

And then the tiger spoke.

 

Yours?

 

Mine. The creature that plagued him replied. Jake stopped dead, and the tiger and it’s human did the same.

 

New. Young. Frightened. The creature explained. The hoverpods whistled past so quickly that Jake could see, very clearly, that the human with its hand on the tiger’s withers nodded, smiling slightly.

 

Name?

 

No name.

 

You have not named him?

 

This voice was different. The tiger’s voice… had a growl to it, but it was barely discernable. The voice of his own creature… no, don’t think like that… was musical and breathy. This voice was smooth, like polished black crystal, and undeniably feminine.

 

A woman… with a shaved head and a tattooed skull? The tiger explained it all, of course, but he hadn’t heard they were quite so…

 

You have not named him? She repeated, louder. Jake glared at her.

 

I don’t want this. I don’t want this thing following me. I don’t want anything to do with you and your pet. Leave me alone and stop this creature bugging me. I don’t want to give it a name and I don’t see why I should.

 

She was quite blunt about it.

 

If you don’t, Asura here will tear you limb from limb.

 

Why? All this for a dumb… thing? Jake stopped short from calling the beast an animal. It wasn’t really and animal. It was just a… a thing.

 

Sad.

 

You’ve upset him.

 

Lonely.

 

Cruel human.

 

Want you.

 

They love us, you know, no matter how mean we are to them. And besides… you have money. Money we need. So you better liven up, kid, or it’ll be a needle filled paw courtesy of this particular silver-child.

 

What the fuck are you on about?

 

There’s a bridge up ahead. We had better talk in person. And call your beast in, for silver’s sake.

 

I come.

 

“Wonderful.” Jake couldn’t help muttering it out loud.

 

Without the bridges, there was no way you could cross the highway. They were mostly broad enough for three or four people to walk abreast, but this one was very narrow. He wouldn’t be able to get past the girl and her tiger, no matter what.

 

About halfway up the steps, he considered running. But too late. That… thing, the beast that had started all of this, ran up behind him, waiting patiently for him to move forward.

 

He suppressed a feeling of warmth towards its hopeful eyes. It was a wolf…he knew it was a wolf… but in the same way that the girl’s tiger was too big, too powerful, this wolf was too sleek, too silver, bigger and leaner and faster and stronger than your average creature. With huge, amber eyes. Full of love. God, how he hated it. And… and loved it at the same time.

 

It was a girl. He could just about make this out, up close, a face that could never have been pretty but might just have been called handsome, if she had some hair and wasn’t wearing those black goggles and didn’t have sixteen different piercings in her ears (He counted them. He couldn’t help it) not to mention the circuitry tattooed on her scalp and across part of her face. The long, tatty black coat obscured most of her body, except for those huge boots and a pair of thin, pale, spider-like hands in fingerless black gloves. Her nails had been painted black, but it had chipped.

 

“I’m Ragno.” Her real voice wasn’t quite as sleek or as… high bred… as her mind voice, but there was still a hint of that regal nature. “What’s your tag?”

“My name’s Jake, if that’s what you’re asking.” He growled, his shoulders hunched and his arms folded. Her eyebrows rose, then lowered again.

“You don’t have a tag. You’re new on the streets.”

“You might say that.” Jake was setting himself up for a fight. Suddenly, the wolf by his side seemed useful; he certainly couldn’t take Asura, that huge tiger who was eyeing him with golden eyes, but maybe it could…

 

Name me!

 

Not now. He replied, more gently than before. He couldn’t think about something like that at a time like this.

 

“You should give that one a name, you know.” She ruffled Asura’s pelt with her long, pallid fingers. “Otherwise you won’t be able to bring him back just the same. He’ll be different, and you might like the next one less.”

“What d’you mean, bring him back?”

“You brought him here, didn’t you?” She waved her hand suddenly. “Sorry. Forgot. You’re new. You don’t understand what the fuck is going on. Your parents kick you out?”

“What’s it to you?”

“Don’t get all defensive on me. I’m here to help.”

“Oh really.”

She held out her hand. “Ragno. Codifichi Il Ragno in full. Code Spider. It’s Italian. But everyone just calls me Ragno. Traditionally, one of us has to take you under their wing… look after your, teach you what to need to know. Never had to look after someone before, but I’ll do it.”

“And what do you want?” Jake spat back.

“Well, I’d like you to name that wolf, for a start. And secondly…” For the first time, Ragno smiled. “Secondly, you can buy me dinner.”

 

Dinner. He wasn’t going to complain if dinner came in to this equation somewhere.

 

* * * * *

 

“Here we are.”

It was a rather dingy takeaway. Jake wouldn’t have gone there if it had been normal circumstances, but with a wolf at his side and a strange girl with a tiger leading the way, he didn’t really have a choice.

“Ragno…” the word was strange to him, but she glanced over her shoulder, arching her eyebrows. Where her eyebrows should have been. She’d shaved them off as well.

“They won’t let us in, will they? Not with these.” He gestured to the animals. No. Not animals. They weren’t animals.

“They will. I know this place. The person who owns it, four of her children are Chiamata.”

“What?”

“Chiamata. It means ‘Call’, or ‘To call’. It’s what we do. It’s what we are. Italian again, see?”

“What the hell is Italian?”

“It’s a language that isn’t spoken much anymore. The language we’re speaking now, what’s it called?”

“I… I dunno! It’s just what everyone speaks!”

“And where are we?”

“Green Plain City.” He replied quickly.

“What’s the country called?”

“You what?”

“We’re in Italy. Or what used to be Italy. And the language we’re speaking, back when everyone spoke different languages, would have been called English. Actually, It’s more like American, which is roughly similar, but technically it’s called English. That’s globalisation for you. Everyone speaks the same language, so you don’t need a name for it. Who needs countries if you know the name of your city, and the cities around you?”

 

And she wouldn’t say any more on the subject until they were inside.

 

There was only a few people there, most of which took one look at the tiger and the wolf and busied themselves in their newspaper, or the state of their fingernails, or the menus on the counter. One, however, a strange, almost androgenus figure with long, greasy black hair in flared jeans, high heeled boots, a tight fitting, long sleeved black knit top with slashed shoulders, a long black coat and a broad brimmed hat, waved at them. She had a patchwork looking dog with long legs and huge ears beside her. Ragno nodded at the tired looking Oriental woman behind the counter and then moved over to talk.

“Yo, Regina.” The young girl, who, Jake noticed, was wearing bright red lipstick and eyeliner, blew her a kiss. “What’s up?”

“Nothing much.” The voice was like a kick in the stomach. Jake had been almost certain that the figure, although not terrible pretty, was a girl. But the voice was about the same level as his. No girl could have a voice that deep. “You found a friend, I see?”

“Newbie. No tag yet. Jake, this is Regina Cattiva. Ignoring the dress sense, he’s quite nice. The hunting dog is Kuro, I believe.”

Jake blinked a few times, then muttered. “What does that name mean?”

“Regina Cattiva? ’Wicked Queen’, which, trust me, is quite appropriate.”

“Oh.” Regina giggled, however, scratching the ears of his dog.

“Pleased to meet you, Jake. Your Italian will get better, trust me… nice to see there’s a few more people favouring cannids on the streets.”

“Huh?” Regina laughed again. Jake was beginning to think he didn’t like this weird, gender-challenged young man much.

“Cannids. Canines. Wolves, dogs, foxes… everyone is going with felines, equines or reptiles these days. The doggies are getting absolutely no press!”

“Wolves are pack animals. No good on their own.” Ragno patted Asura contentedly. Regina snorted.

“There are bears. They’re vaguely cannids…”

“Like rhinoceroses are vaguely equines. You’re not telling me ALL your babies are dogs, are you?”

“Well, of course not!”

Ragno cocked an eyebrow.

“Oh, fine. Anyway, I already asked Tzu Lee to round me up some scraps, so you’ll have to wait a while.”

“To hell with scraps. We’re ordering a proper meal.”

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah.”

Although Regina was trying to look nonchalant, Jake could see the sudden hunger in his eyes. For the first time, he looked into those eyes properly and saw…

 

Pain. Hunger. You don’t know how long we have suffered… what we went through to get enough money to eat… you have no idea…

 

“Jake?” Ragno was looking at him strangely. Jake leaned over to have a look at the menu. Another kick in the teeth. Nothing, not even the most expensive dishes, was over five dollars. How poor could these people be?

“Um…”

Ragno elbowed him.

“I’m sure… I’m sure we could get you something…”

Regina was on his feet in an instant and flung his arms around the startled boy.

“I could kiss you!”

“Please don’t!”

Regina giggled again, and then the two street kids (What had Ragno called them? Chiamata?) Leant over a tattered menu.

“Just a minute, Regina… you pick something and we’ll come back… Jake, a word?”

 

Ragno dragged him outside and well into the light of the tacky neon sign.

“Jake, you’re so lucky that was Regina you scryed and not anyone else.”

“You what?”

“You looked into him! You saw a part of him you shouldn’t have seen! You’re so fucking lucky… if it had been me you’d done that to, I’d have hit you. Possibly killed you.”

“But… I didn’t even know what I was doing!”

“You’re good.” She suddenly looked at him like he was a human being, if a little grudgingly, not a piece of pond scum. “You’re very good. What did you see?”

“That… that he was hungry and hurt and had been through a lot…” Jake shook his head. “Are you telling me I read his mind?”

“No. His body. It’s sort of an integral memory… you wouldn’t ever read what he’d thought or felt about something, only what his body had actually experienced.”

“But… he thought as ‘we’, not ‘I’!”

“So? So do I. There’s me, and Asura, and Kiranu, and Silvershadow, and Snap, and all the rest of them. You’re not ‘you’ anymore, Jake, you’re ‘them’.”

“I don’t believe this.” He rubbed his eyes, suddenly feeling embarrassed. “How come… how come you noticed and Regina didn’t?”

Ragno was silent for a long time. Then she sighed.

“Regina learnt a long time ago to separate his mind from his body.”

“You what?”

“Dammit, Jake, don’t you know anything?

“Obviously not!” He burst out. She scowled.

“Fine. If I have to spell it out to you. He’s a fucking whore. The only way he can get money is to sell his body to whoever wants it. Men or women, he doesn’t care. His mind doesn’t really belong in his body anymore, because so many people have bought it from him. That’s why he didn’t notice you scrying him.”

Jake felt numb. Regina… ok, he was weird, and he didn’t like him, but he’d felt sorry for him… when… when it was really all his own fault…

“My god.”

“Exactly.”

“I don’t know if I ought to buy the creep dinner.”

He didn’t see the fist swing. He vaguely heard the crack, and the wolf’s sudden snarl backed by the deep rumble of Asura’s growl, and then he was on the floor, and felt like someone had dropped a brick on his face.

“Get up.” Ragno growled. Jake stayed down.

“Ok. You learn fast. Not quite fast enough. Don’t you dare talk about Regina like that, you bastard. You think it’s his fault? Do you think he’d do it if there were any other way? I nearly ended up the same way and you still bloody well might, you sonuvabitch, because believe you me, something fucking special has to happen to keep you from selling yourself or stealing or running errands for anyone who’ll pay you… from running with the gangs or acting as muscle on stupid bank robberies that always go wrong! Do you have any idea how difficult it is for us to get jobs? To learn skills that people actually need? To do anything? You bastard. Get up.”

He didn’t move. She kicked him in the stomach. That hurt.

“Get. Up!”

Slowly, Jack got to his feet. Asura had pinned his wolf with one huge paw, but now let it up. Ragno grabbed his jumper and hauled him to within an inch of her face.

“I’m going to tell you one thing, and one thing only. And I want you to remember it. And every time you look at Regina, I want you to think about it, and what it means. And then you try having a normal conversation with him. You try hating him after you know this.”

Jake didn’t say anything.

“Regina is sick. Very sick. You felt pain, when you were looking in his head? It’s a virus, and it’s eating away at him day after day. You’ve seen how thin he is. Even if you buy him a meal now, even if you buy him a meal every day for a month, he’ll just keep getting thinner. In two months, maybe less, he’ll be a walking skeleton. And then all he needs is one little bug… flu, measles, even just a cold… and that’s it. He’ll be dead. Tomorrow could be the beginning of the end for him. He’s going to die, Jake. He’s going to die very, very soon. And there’s nothing we can do about it. And do you want to know how he caught this disease, Jake? Do you?”

“I can guess.” He croaked. His throat was suddenly very dry.

“You’d probably guess right. And guess what, Jake? He’s still doing it. He’s still selling himself. Because he had no other choice. He’s always hungry, always, and this is the only way he can get food. And it’s killed him. And he’s still doing it. And he’s going to die. He’s going to die.

“B-But…” Jake tried to get his head strait. “But viruses can be cured… can’t he…?”

“Can’t he go to a hospital? Like fuck! There isn’t a hospital that’ll take us in! There isn’t a street doctor with the capabilities that’s friendly to us, and the ones that do have it want money. Money we don’t have! There’s no way in heaven or hell we could possibly get him cured and that just makes it worse! So you just shut your fucking face!”

She shoved him back. Jake stumbled, regained his feet, and stared at her, stunned. Slowly, he felt his bruised jaw. Ragno snarled again, then turned and moved to go back inside.

 

Don’t call after her.

 

“Ragno!”

Idiot.

 

She stopped, glancing over her shoulder. He realised that Asura had moved with her, always at her side. It was strange how quickly the tiger had become a part of her in his mind, no different, just like…

 

Name me!

 

Oh god…

 

“Look… I’m sorry… I didn’t… I’m just a jerk, ok? I didn’t mean what I said. Well, ok, maybe I did, but I… I didn’t know and… and I should have… and I still shouldn’t have said it. I’m sorry.”

He realised he was watching the way she was breathing. She’d been panting hard after her tirade, but now it was slowing, evening out. She wasn’t too pissed with him.

“That’s ok, Jake. You’re learning. Now c’mon, you’re buying us dinner.”

She waited as he moved up to her.

“I wish you could have done that somewhere a bit more private.” He said, realising that everyone inside the takeaway, including Regina, could have seen that through the large plate glass windows if they had wanted to.

“First lesson; dark alleyways are not private. You go there, you get attacked, and since you’ve still only got a single unnamed wolf… yes, sweetie, as soon as possible… I wouldn’t say your chances are good.” He noticed the change of tone between when she was talking to him and when she was talking to the wolf. “In the light, sure, people can see you, but they ain’t listening, and they ain’t gonna mug you for the couple of dollars you’re carrying. And that’s as private as you’re going to get. Now c’mon.”

“I just hope Regina doesn’t say anything.” He muttered. Ragno smiled slightly.

“He won’t.”

 

“There you are!” Regina held out a menu. “I’ve chosen already, c’mon!”

“Oh…” Ragno brushed it aside. “I don’t have to look. Sweet and sour pork balls, special fried rice and crispy duck pancakes with plum sauce.”

“Mmm. Excuse me while I drool. I’m having lemon chicken, but I’ll share your rice, and we could get, what, the pancakes come in pairs, don’t they? So, what, four between us?”

Jake glanced at the menu. The rice was three dollars fifty, and the pancakes were a dollar each.

“You can have a rice each, if you want.” He said. “And I’d say more like eight pancakes.”

Both Regina and Ragno looked stunned, and then, much to his embarrassment, Regina flung his arms around him again and kissed his cheek.

“You are wonderful! And rich! Two things that go perfectly hand in hand!”

Jake browsed the menu carefully, trying to hide his flushed face. He had lived in a world where food prepared by humans was considered to be disgusting, and only machine made dishes with that strange, slightly plastic-y edge to them he hardly even tasted anymore were eaten. He’s had synthesised Oriental food before, though, and had a vague idea of what he liked.

“So, yeah, that’ll be three special fried rice, eight crispy duck pancakes, a sweet and sour pork, a lemon chicken… I’ll have the Cantonese fried duck… and how about… a bag of prawn crackers, six spring rolls and three rice cakes.”

“And six donuts, and three fortune cookies.” Ragno added. Regina swept his hair out of his face.

“And a big bottle of cola!”

 

It came to just under fifty dollars. Regina and Ragno both winced, and Jake knew the looks on their faces… it’s a look he’d seen whenever his kid sisters had been sent out shopping with a strict budget… they’d got carried away and now they wouldn’t have enough, and they had to decide what they wanted to let go of.

 

He felt a strong urge to pull out the wad of cash he had in his pocket, peel off a hundred dollar note, and probably clean the place out of change. But then he thought about what Ragno had said, and about the people behind him, and about Regina…

 

Ragno had said they needed money to cure Regina. Well, how much money? If these people were too poor to spend five, six dollars on a halfway decent meal, then it couldn’t be more than a few hundred. He had almost six hundred dollars. He’d do it. Then Ragno would see, and Regina… who he didn’t mind that much, actually… would live.

 

Digging in his other pocket, he produced a crumpled fifty-dollar note. Regina squealed like a schoolgirl and kissed his cheek again, and Ragno thumped his shoulder with the biggest grin he’d seen her wear since he’d met her. They settled down to wait for the food (A novel experience for Jake, who was used to it being there within a few minutes) and watched the other customers collect theirs and clear off as quickly as possible. Very soon, they were left alone, apart from Tzu Lee, the woman behind the counter, who put down a bowl of scraps for their animals (She was feeling rather generous after Jake had told her she could keep the change).

 

“Ragno.” He spoke up suddenly, not entirely sure why.

“Yes?”

“You said that you… that we,” He corrected himself, noticing her nod. “Are called Chiamata?”

“That’s right.”

“But… when you first met me, you called yourself…”

“A silver-child. That’s right. Silver-children come in all shapes and sizes, Jake, Chiamata are just one group of them. One of the biggest, mind, and some of us have other talents as well, but unlike the rest of them, our particular skill expresses itself in a very noticeable way. Most of them will go unnoticed their whole lives, a few, those who can shift or silver-jump or suchlike, usually go missing… they get lost in the silver or in another form, and can’t get back… but the rest of them, the telepaths, the empaths, the healers, they usually don’t get noticed. Speaking of which, you need a name for that baby.”

“One last thing. What’s the silver, then?”

There was a long silence. Finally, it was Regina who spoke up.

“It’s beautiful. You ever seen mercury?”

“Yes. On the videoscope, I mean.”

“It’s like that, but with… I dunno… different shades of silver swirled in, and it’s like gas or clouds instead of liquid… but it’s sort of liquid at the same time… I dunno. It’s difficult to explain what it looks like. But what it is… it’s like a parallel dimension. You know the theory?”

“Yes…”

“Well, when you’re there, and there’s different depths you can go into it, but at the usual one, you can see the real world, like it’s really, really, really foggy, but you can’t touch or affect anything. If you’re in shallower, you can touch things, just about, or if you’re shallow enough, people can see you, but you’re like a ghost. You can be almost real but they can’t touch you, or silvery and see through, and if you go in deeper… the real world fades away, and that’s when you can get lost. It’s almost scary when all you can see is silver mist.”

Ragno looked surprised. “Regina, I never knew you shifted.”

He looked embarrassed, something Jake noted, as he imagined it didn’t happen often.

“Well, y’know, it’s not something you parade around.”

“I’ve known you eight years.” She muttered reproachfully.

“Yeah, well, Jake’s known me eight minutes. It just never came up.”

“Hang on…” Jake turned to look at the pair of them. “How old are you two?”

“Ah. Knotty question.” Ragno stretched, her shoulder joints clicking alarmingly. “When I got kicked out of my home, I was nine.”

Nine?”

“I was an early one. I guess it must have been about two years, yes, I came here in the spring and I turned ten in the autumn, so I’d have been twelve or thirteen when I met Regina here for the first time. So now I must be about twenty, twenty-one? Twenty-two tops.”

“That was when I was fairly new on the streets.” Regina was filing his nails. “I must have been about fifteen, cause I’d been there a little over a year. So I’m, what, twenty-three now? Must be. Gosh.”

“You learn how to count seasons, not years.” Ragno rubbed Asura’s ears. “How old are you?”

“I’m seventeen. Have been for about two months.”

“Hmm. Quite old to suddenly start showing. You get bullied at school?”

“No!”

“That explains it then. When did he,” Ragno gestured towards the wolf. “Appear?”

“Some…” Jake felt his cheeks going pink and muttered the rest. “Some guys in the year above me were laughing at me because I had a scholarship. I pushed it and one of them hit me. And next thing I knew, they were running because he was chasing them.”

The wolf picked his head up, chewing down a piece of duck skin, and whined hopefully.

 

Name me!

 

“About time you did, you know.” Regina had now produced a compact mirror and was examining his makeup. “Thought of anything?”

“No.” Jake admitted. Ragno smiled.

“Don’t force the decision. You’ll know what he’s called.”

He stared at the wolf. What did she mean? He’d seen his kid sister bring stuffed animals home and stare at them for a bit, then announce their names with a kind of weird certainty. He’d never seen that kind of spark in an inanimate object. But an animal…

 

His wolf…

 

Sleek and silver and fast as lightning…

 

It looks like mercury…

 

“Quicksilver.” He announced. The wolf… Quicksilver… came over and put his head on Jake’s knee.

“Good one. Not too original, but it suits him.”

“Not too original?” He scowled at Ragno. She shrugged.

“I’ve got a white lion called Peter, so I can talk.”

“Peter?”

“Don’t ask.” Regina warned, but Ragno had an expression that Jake rather clearly read as not wanting to answer.

 

Realising that he had probably touched a nerve, Jake stayed silent until they’d collected their food and left. Ragno took the lead, Asura pacing at her side.

“We can go to my place. That reminds me, Regina, you still sleeping rough?”

“Not all the time.” He giggled. Ragno winced.

“Look, there’s always a spare bed, you know? But you wouldn’t be able to bring anyone else there.”

“If I don’t work I don’t eat.” Regina flicked his hair behind an ear. “For the hundredth time, sweetheart, thanks, but no thanks.”

 

Ragno’s ‘place’ was an abandoned factory. She wouldn’t risk opening any of the ground floor doors, but lead them up a rickety fire escape and opened a well padlocked door about fifteen feet above the ground.

 

“It’s not very comfy in here, but it’s home.” She swung the door open, flicking a light switch. What must have once been a spacious office still contained a battered desk and chair, a few cabinets, and a couple of ancient blacked out computer screens hooked up to a battered server. Jake put his head to one side.

“You know, anyone who just broke the door down could steal those.”

Ragno laughed. “You’re sharp. Do you honestly think I don’t know that? That server’s been stripped and there’s hardly anything left in the monitors. I jacked a hard disk that’s about a hundred and fifty years old into the empty casing and left enough running so if someone turns it on, they’ll get a fairly simple binary labyrinth to trawl through in black and green. It’s completely isolated from my other systems. This room is just a front. I always leave somebody sleeping here, that’s all. Where the hell are you, Yuokie?”

 

On cue, a snow leopard slung out from one of the cupboards, where it had obviously made a den. Ragno knelt down and scratched her head and neck playfully.

“Who’s a clever girl, Yuokie? Who found a clever place to hide? Good girl!”

Regina laughed. “Nothing like disgracing yourself by being soppy around your animals.”

“Shut up.” Yuokie had flopped onto her side and rolled onto her back, curling her paws around Ragno’s hands to stop her pulling them away. “She can come down with us and I’ll give her a bit of my pork. Snap can watch the place for a while.”

 

Then the strangest thing happened.

 

Ragno turned her head and whistled… and through the door came slithering an enormous Nile crocodile. Jake leapt back and even Regina pulled his dog behind him.

“Ragno, you know that thing scares the hell out of me.”

Jake was more concerned with other things.

“Where the hell did it come from?”

She.” Ragno interrupted. “Snap is a she. Not an it.”

“Sorry. Where did she come from?”

Regina laughed again. “They don’t come from anywhere. They just come when you call. Like magic.”

 

Ragno scratched Snap’s eye ridges fondly. “She’s a sweetie really. I don’t know why people don’t like her.”

“Normally because you set her to mauling people.”

“Shut up, Regina.” Ragno locked the door behind them, then, moving to the one on the opposite wall, calmly twisted the door handle off. Behind it was a lock more like those found on safes, but the dials were pitch black and completely unmarked.

 

“Clever little piece of work here.” Asura leant his head against her arm, shielding their view as she twisted the combination in. “Notice there’s a lock? Well, I’ve got a key for that… unlike most of my keys, it’s hasn’t got an insulated rubber handle. All of my locks are wired up to the mains on the inside, so don’t ever poke your fingers in them. All the ‘false’ locks, the locks that don’t do jack, have keys with no rubber on them, so if someone steals my keys and tries to open any important doors, or tries to pick any of them with metal lock picks, they’re gonna get a hell of a shock. It’s usually lethal.”

Regina nudged him. “This is all for your benefit, by the way.” He muttered. “I’ve heard it all before. Mind you, I’m sure there’s a lot she doesn’t tell us.”

 

Ragno fiddled with the door a moment longer, then stood up, and hit the other side, near the top set of hinges. It popped open – in reverse. The side with the handle and lock pivoted while the hinges, hinges that Jake now realised were false, swung outwards.

“Tell me I’m not a genius.”

“You’re not a genius, Ragno.”

“Regina, I’ll set Snap on you if you’re not careful.”

 

A set of metal stairs lead down into the main factory floor. It had been stripped down, mostly, but it was obvious that at one point it must have been used for making something fairly large, probably transport vehicles. Of what kind, Jake couldn’t be sure, but it was also quite obvious that Ragno had used it for building whatever she wanted. Strange metal creations were strung from the ceiling or covered in dustsheets in corners, some of them just frameworks, some of them almost finished. She’d even refitted the skeletal construction robots. Now they could probably do anything she wanted them to do, including deal with intruders. Jacked to the top of every single one was a primitive machine gun that had been crudely converted into a rapid-fire plasma weapon, and the two biggest robots, curled like the necks of sleeping swans, had an even more unorthodox looking weapon on their beaks.

 

“Mostly just for show. No fool would try and tangle with these babies, but what with the likelihood of them blowing themselves up… I was young and didn’t do a great job on the conversion and I haven’t got the time right now to bring them up to scratch… plus the fact that those two,” Here Ragno pointed at the huge monsters in the centre of the room, “Are electromagnetic pulse weapons and would completely massacre the rest of the site, not to mention my system. My living quarters and the computer rooms and insulated against that sort of thing, so my network should be okay, but everything in here would be corpse cold within seconds.”

“Ragno?”

“Yes?”

“Are they on?”

She laughed, stretching and running one hand across her tattooed scalp.

“You want to squeal like a schoolgirl and run down and hug that rather attractive looking hunk of metal?”

“Yes please.”

“They’re not active, Regina, and won’t do jack while I’m here anyway. Feel free.”

 

Jake raised an eyebrow as Regina shot down the stairs in his high heels, Kuro just ahead of him, and flattened his face against the window of a sleek black racer.

“Don’t smudge the glass!”

“Where the hell did you get this beauty? Don’t tell me you built it. Please don’t tell me you can build these things.”

“Don’t get exited, Regina, it was a commission. I got given the car and asked to fit it out.” Her coat sweeping out behind her, Ragno traipsed down the stairs. Asura leapt up onto the rail, over and down to the factory floor, loping towards the machine. Yuokie turned to glance at Jake, then padded after them. Jake followed, Quicksilver at his side, still a little wary of the robots.

“This belle is going to be the fastest car on the streets.” She stroked the smooth black bonnet like it was a living thing. “With the nitro, she’ll top five, maybe even six hundred miles an hour on the flat, in theory. The chassis is perfectly balanced; she’ll take a corner at three hundred without turning a hair. She looks plain now, but there’s a little holographic generator with a couple of beautiful little programs and the paint is charge-reactive. It’ll turn whatever colour you want it to. The police won’t be able to track her, every traffic light you approach switches to let you through, she won’t show up on radar or surveillance video, and the radio will pick up every pirate station in the city. Even some of the legitimate ones. Oh, and it’s leather upholstery.”

“You sound like you love that thing.” Jake put his head to one side, hands in his pockets, and moved up to the side of the car. Ragno shrugged.

“I put a lot of work into it. I’m getting paid a fucking fortune for it too; otherwise I wouldn’t have done it. It’s a shame the guy who’s gonna get it will crash it within the first two weeks.”

“You’re kidding.”

“Almost guaranteed. This darling needs a safe driver and that he is not. Maybe he’ll realise that since I fitted it out, only I will be able to fix it, and my services don’t come cheaply.” Ragno patted it one last time, picking up a dustsheet. “I better put her to bed. Give me a hand, Regina.”

 

A little reluctantly, the two of them covered up the beautiful racer. Ragno lead them through another door, with another complicated series of keys and codes and combinations. This new set of rooms was more like it. The one they had just entered into was painted a peeling lavender colour, with a battered sofa, a few chairs, two huge floor cushions and a low table. There was a counter top, a few cupboards and a small gas burner in one corner. Pictures torn from magazines and newspapers, as well as a number of movie posters were pinned all over the walls. Ragno spread her arms wide.

“It’s not much, but it’s okay. Like the posters? I’ve got a friend works in a cinema not far from here, he gets them for me. He’s got a couple of bats that help him see in the dark, so he makes a great usher. The guy who owns it puts on a show specially just for our kind about once a month, three or four pictures, but he gets shit for it so every so often he can’t do it.” Ragno sighed. “Last two months he hasn’t been able to do it. I haven’t seen a movie in ages.”

 

She turned to Jake, Asura and Yuokie turning to look with her.

“Since you’re going to be living here a while, Jake, I’ll give you the grand tour later.” She pointed at each of the three doors in turn. “In there’s the bedrooms. There are a couple of bunks, my bedroom, and a bathroom en suite. Lap of luxury, eh? Through there is the computer room. Don’t try and go in there without me, I’m the only one who knows how and I’m not going to teach you for a long time yet. And in there’s just a room I use for junk, mostly. Now, lets eat!”

 

Jake had almost forgotten the takeaway, but his stomach started rumbling loudly at the mere thought. Ragno got out forks and three chipped mugs from one of the cupboards, while Regina began to peel open the containers from the takeaway.

 

“Right, pancakes first!” The pretty boy flopped down onto one of the cushions, snapping the top off a cup of thick plum sauce. Jake took the other cushion, while Ragno flopped down on the sofa. Asura leapt clear over the table to curl up next to her, while Yuokie head-butted Jake in the shoulder and flopped across his legs. Quicksilver lay on his other side, chin on his front legs, his eyes large and begging. Kuro hopped into Regina’s lap and licked his chin, but the boy shoved him away resolutely, filling and wrapping all eight pancakes for them before dumping the container with the remainder of the duck on the floor.

 

“Get that down you.” He pushed one of them across to Jake. Ragno had already stuffed one whole in her mouth with an expression of utter bliss. A little apprehensive, Jake bit into the hot pancake.

 

“Dear god.” He mumbled, a few seconds later, having crammed the whole lot in. “That’s… that’s so… Jesus…”

“Never had handmade food before, have you?” Regina grinned. “Don’t get any ideas, we don’t eat like this all the time… this is a special treat.”

“I love Chinese.” Ragno added through another mouthful of pancake. The pretty boy looked suspicious, glancing down to the table for a quick mental count.

“Hey! Ragno, that’s your third and I haven’t even had ONE…”

“I’ve had two!”

“Then who…” Yuokie hiccupped guiltily. “That’s what me putting all that good duck on the floor was for, you silly cat…”

“You can have my share.” Jake interrupted quickly. Regina looked at him with a raised eyebrow.

“Nah, I’m serious, you two are probably a lot more hungry than I am. I’ll just fill up on the main course.”

“Y’know, Jake, I had my doubts, but you’re alright. For an uptowner.”

“Gee, thanks.” Jake rolled his eyes. Regina giggled, wiping a spec of plum sauce off his cheek with a pointed thumbnail.

“So you gonna be living here now?”

“Yup.” Ragno replied between mouthfuls of rice, before Jake had even thought about it. “I’ll kit you out one of the bunks. I’m gonna expect you to work for rent, mind. You can be my assistant. But I’ll teach you for free. Someone’s gotta show you the ropes.”

“The ropes?” He repeated blankly, fork hovering over his duck. Regina nodded with a wide grin.

“Summoning beasties one-oh-one. Take it away, Ragno, I’ve not heard the Words in a long time.”

“The Words?” Jake was getting into deeper and deeper confusion. Running a hand over her tattooed scalp, Ragno licked her lips and cleared her throat.

“The Words are one of the few pieces of history we have. They get handed down from Chiamata to Chiamata, and any other silver-children we come across. Everything else is just common sense and practicing. Now’s as best a time as any for you to hear them.”

“Okay…” Jake had forgotten his food in sheer amazement. “So… they’re like rules?”

“Kinda. We don’t have rules, we don’t have religion, we don’t have philosophy, we don’t have the law. We just have the Words. Always remember them. Remember what they are. Say ‘em back to yourself until you know ‘em off by heart, exactly as I said ‘em to you, and think on the fact that a hundred generations of Chiamata before you have said them in a hundred thousand different voices, but still the same words. If ever you find another silver-child who doesn’t know them, teach the Words to ‘em. If you ever need to prove that you are what you say you are, or that someone is who they say they are, quote the first to ‘em and see if they can quote the second back. And always, always, just remember that they’re important.”

 

There was a long silence. Ragno held up a fist and uncurled one short, tapering finger.

 

“One, this world owes you nothing and you owe it nothing.”

A second finger joined the first.

“Two, all of existence is duality.”

And now the ring finger.

“Three, the righting of wrongs is your responsibility, no one else’s.”

Little finger.

“Four, there is only ever one of anything, so appreciate it.”

Thumb.

“Five, happiness is all down to the way you think about things.”

 

 

There was another long silence. Then, inexplicably, Jake started crying.

 

“’M sorry…” he mumbled, as Regina moved round the table and wrapped his arms around Jake’s broad shoulders. Shielding his face – for some reason, he didn’t think he could bear to let Ragno see him cry – he tried hard not to sob or worse, snuggle up against Regina’s tender yet bony embrace.

“It’s okay.” Ragno replied, with a gentleness he hadn’t heard before in her voice. “Sometimes it takes a while to sink in. It’s okay, Jake… like it or not, you’re one of us now. Regina and I are your friends now… and we’re here for you. Never forget your friends, Jake. Never forget your friends.”

 

Never forget your friends.

 

It ought to be the sixth of the Words, Jake thought, giving in and nestling his head against Regina’s shoulder while Quicksilver licked tears off his face. Never forget your friends.

 

* * * * *

 

Somehow, it had become late.

 

The warehouse was dark, the stripped swan-necks of the automatons just silhouettes in the low blue light. Jake found Regina smoking a rollup and watching the canvas mummy of the racer.

 

The last few hours were a blur. Mostly they’d eaten, and laughed, and Ragno and Regina had taken it in turn to tell stories of things that’d happened to them, nice, funny kinds of things. They’d stayed away from heavy subjects, and Jake hadn’t asked any questions. And then they’d gone to bed. Jake and Regina were both on the bottom beds of a couple of bunks, although he wasn’t altogether sure why Ragno, who seemed so solitary, had several spare beds. Ragno’s own bedroom was separate and almost eerily empty apart from almost every surface was draped in heavy rag rugs and torn blankets and wedges of foam padding ripped out of cheap cushions. It had a padded door, although the padding was ripped and torn, as though from claws.

 

Jake had thought about asking what had happened, but had decided he probably didn’t want to know. Not just yet.

 

He’d been wrong.

 

He’d felt like he’d only just drifted off when he’d been awoken by a muffled noise that was unmistakably Asura’s roar. For a moment, he’d panicked, thinking they were being attacked, but Regina had caught him and clapped a hand over his mouth.

“It’s alright.” He’d mumbled. “It’s just Ragno. She doesn’t normally call Asura, though. And trust me, although he isn’t the quietest, he certainly isn’t the loudest either.”

Jake had stared at the padded door, which shook occasionally, and became aware that underneath the tiger’s angry snarls there was the muffled sound of moaning. Human moaning.

“What’s…” Words failed him as Regina sighed.

“It’s just Ragno’s night terrors. She doesn’t always have them, but whenever she’s stressed – which is most of the time, mind – she’ll sorta half wake up an hour or two after she’s gone to sleep and start screaming. She says that all she can remember afterwards is being really, really afraid, like in a nightmare, except that there’s nothing to scare her. And obviously, automatic defence reaction is to call someone, and they panic because she won’t wake up and she’s scared but they can’t do anything about it. Trust me, when it’s that bloody lion you’ve got no chance whatsoever of sleeping through it.”

“Is there nothing we can do?” He’d mumbled, and the other boy had shrugged.

“She’s a good old soul, and locks the door, and takes early nights mostly. Wait up until she’s got it out of her system and then go to bed afterwards. She only has one a night, unless it’s really bad. I’m gonna sneak out for a fag… I’ll be on the factory floor if you need me. For anything.”

 

And so he’d gone out to sit, because the dull realisation that his world had changed completely and forever had taken its toll again, and he couldn’t sleep.

 

“You okay?” Regina’s question didn’t seem to imply there was another answer. Jake shrugged.

“I will be. It’s still a little bit… weird.”

“Tomorrow, you’ll probably start training properly. Ragno’ll try and suss out where your tendencies lie, as far as animals go, y’know, and see what kind of a menagerie you’re gonna start pulling together.” Glancing at Quicksilver, who’d just pattered down to lie at Jake’s side and nuzzle his hand, the boy cocked his head to one side. “He still here?”

“I don’t know how to make him go away.” Jake admitted, but without any malice. Regina laughed.

“Just tell him he’s a good boy and that he can go now. He knows what to do. He’s probably pretty tired. They get tired, y’know, if you keep ‘em away from the Silver.”

“Well…” Looking down into those huge amber eyes, Jake ruffled the wolf’s ears and grinned. “You heard him. See you later, Quicksilver.”

 

And just like that, as though he’d heard someone call him, his ears pricked up and he turned and ran… away.

 

Then he was gone.

 

“He’ll come back whenever you call him. They do, y’know.” Regina smiled slightly, but the smile seemed oddly distant.

“It’s weird… before, he would talk to me, like in my head, but in the last couple of hours…”

“It’s difficult for ‘em. They tend to give it a rest unless they absolutely have to. Like, once you’ve learnt a bit more Italian, it’ll be so much hard work to try and communicate in Italian, when you can’t express yourself properly and you don’t know enough words and you don’t quite understand what’s said in reply, than in English. It’s like that for them. Our language is their second language – most of the time you’ll just get these pulses of instinct, feeling, sensation… you get used to it.” The boy finished, seeing Jake’s exasperation.

“There’s so much to learn…” He rubbed his eyes, feeling the fatigue. His mind was full of worry, and wouldn’t let him rest, but his body was just about ready to pack it in.

“You get used to it. It’ll be okay for you, anyway, first couple of weeks… after all, you’ve got money to burn.” For some reason, Jake got the sense that Regina was choosing his words carefully. And he remembered what he’d decided earlier.

“I’ve got a bit, well… quite a bit, yeah.” Blushing, he hung his head and glanced sideways at the boy. “Look, Regina, about that…”

 

All of a sudden the boy’s hand touched his cheek, pulling Jake’s face towards him, and his body was too close, and Jake’s yelp of surprise was muffled by soft, coloured lips on his.

 

It was his first kiss, ever, with anyone, and he was almost too stunned to pull away. But when his back hit concrete and he realised that Regina was practically on top of him, and admittedly when the slender, pretty drag queen’s tongue slipped into his mouth, he shoved the boy back.

“What are you-”

“Please…” Regina’s voice sounded a little desperate, lower and more sensual, with his face buried in the crook of Jake’s neck and shoulder. He tried desperately to shuffle away as one long nailed hand slipped down over his stomach and between his thighs. “Please, I like you and I need the money, I really need the money, please…”

“Regina!” Jake panted, his bare hands and feet scuffling on the concrete to little effect as he tried to work his way free of the boy’s caresses. “Regina, I don’t… don’t do that…” One of his hands tangled convulsively in the boy’s hair as Regina worked his sweater up and started nuzzling at the bare skin of his chest. “S-S-Stop that, I’m serious…”

“It’s okay, just relax…”

“Regina, I don’t like boys, I…” He gasped sharply as the boy’s tongue flicked over one nipple and the free hand worked its way under the waistband of his trousers.

“I’ll make it good, promise I’ll be just as good as a girl, you can pretend, I don’t mind…”

“…I don’t… I don’t… don’t want this… please, Regina, don’t…” struggling harder, Jake started to pant, Regina holding him down and nuzzling at his throat, kissing and licking.

“Just go with it, relax, c’mon…”

“STOP IT!” In a single violent motion, Jake shoved the Regina off him, sitting up sharply. For a few seconds, while he watched Jake pull his shirt down and wipe his mouth with the back of his hand, the boy didn’t move. Very slowly, he sat up, tucking his legs under him, hands resting on the ground, still watching, before his eyes fell to the concrete in front of him.