Change of Edict (The Change Series Book 2) Read online

  The sound of the door opening and closing behind him was incredibly loud in that still room, but Siray hardly noticed. She stared straight ahead at the glossy opposite wall, in which she could two silhouettes reflected.

  ‘Siray … I’m so sorry. Please believe that I didn’t mean for you, or anyone, to get hurt.’

  Siray stared blankly at the wall in front of her for a moment. If that scout had survived the sands … if he had reported back … then she would never be safe. Anywhere.

  She finally turned to Baindan and looked at him. Through him. ‘I trusted you,’ she whispered. ‘And you used us all as bait.’

  The blood drained from his face, and he reached a hand out towards her.

  But Siray merely lay down on her pillows and turned her face away.

  ***

  Siray spent the rest of that day in silence, ignoring Baindan’s attempts to talk to her. He eventually gave up when she continually showed him her back and pretended to sleep. It helped as well that she really did need more rest, and she only realised she had actually fallen asleep when she awoke later that evening to the feel of someone touching her lightly on the shoulder.

  Startled, her good eye flashed open and she grabbed the offender’s wrist with her uninjured arm.

  ‘It’s okay, Siray—I’m just conducting your evening checkup,’ Nafren said soothingly, giving her a concerned smile.

  Siray let a breath hiss out between her teeth as she forced herself to relax and settled down again. She smiled apologetically up at the healer. ‘Sorry, Nafren. Bit jumpy.’

  ‘So I see.’ Nafren gave her a good-natured smile and pulled the trolley with his bits and pieces closer. He checked both Siray’s arm and her face, muttering to himself in a charming fashion as he went about his work. Before he moved to check the bandages on Siray’s side, he touched a button on the wall to the left of her bed.

  With a low hum, an opaque wall of light sprung up between the two beds, running across the entire width of the room, giving Siray the much-needed privacy she had wished for earlier in the day.

  Nafren smoothly rolled down the top sheet and bent over to carefully examine her wound. ‘Good, good,’ he murmured. His touch was gentle and his movements efficient, reminding Siray of another healer she had once met. ‘Excellent,’ he commented happily.

  Siray wasn’t sure if his comments were for her, himself, or her injuries.

  As Nafren rolled the top sheet up over Siray’s torso and helped her settle down again on her back, he frowned slightly. ‘What’s the matter, sweet? You had a brighter look about you this morning, but now …’ He trailed off. ‘Are you feeling well?’

  Siray nodded. ‘I feel … fine,’ she said quietly, the half-truth coming out slowly.

  Nafren considered her for another moment before he glanced at the wall of light and then back at her, his eyes knowing. ‘Well, I won’t pry, but if you want to tell me anything in confidence, this wall also absorbs sound.’

  Siray hesitated, but Nafren had something about him that made her want to confide in him. She said slowly, ‘What if someone who you thought cared about you … what if they broke your trust?’

  Nafren looked at her for a long moment. Not judging, as others might have done, but seriously contemplating the question. ‘Well, that is a weighty problem. And it would need deliberate consideration before I did anything about it, I think.’

  Siray nodded, watching the healer.

  He continued. ‘I would say that I would need to know why they broke that trust.’

  Siray didn’t say anything to that. She knew why.

  But Nafren wasn’t done. ‘And I would need to consider what I would have done in their place, if I had had the same knowledge at the time.’

  That gave her pause.

  Nafren must have seen this, as he said gently, ‘It’s always good to reflect on our actions. It’s how we learn. But it’s both our intentions and our actions that matter. So, my guidance would be to consider the situation from that viewpoint. Ask yourself what you would have done in the same scenario, and what might have been different afterwards.’

  Nafren tidied his trolley. ‘Of course, then I would have to consider that scenario in light of everything else I know about that person. After all, we should never condemn a person for one mistake in a lifetime of good deeds.’

  He moved his hand towards the switch on the wall, one finger pausing just above the activation button. ‘On another matter entirely, I hope your companion gets some rest tonight. From the data we observed on his sleep pattern last night, I’m guessing he did nothing but watch over you the entire time.’

  Nafren smiled at her in a kind way and flicked the switch, the white wall of light disappearing as the healer pushed his trolley before him as he exited through the door.

  Siray spent a couple of sleepless spans staring at that same door as she replayed Nafren’s advice in her mind.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  SIRAY WAS AWOKEN by Nafren again in the morning. This time, Porda was with him.

  ‘Good morning. How are you feeling?’ He asked the question lightly, but Siray could tell there were potentially two questions there.

  ‘Better today, thanks,’ she said, smiling up at him.

  ‘That’s good to hear. I carefully advised Porda to stand away from the bed when we woke you, just in case.’ He chuckled again.

  Porda smiled as she stepped forwards. ‘We’d like to take you down to the therapy room now, Siray, if that’s okay?’

  She nodded in the affirmative.

  Porda turned and activated the switch that threw up the wall of light between Siray’s bed and Baindan’s. ‘I’ve brought you some more appropriate clothing for the session. Nafren will help get you dressed, and then we’ll go down.’ Porda smiled at her again, then turned and vanished through the wall of light.

  Siray stared.

  Nafren saw her expression, and smiled. ‘Neat trick, hey?’

  Siray nodded. She had thought the wall was actually some kind of hard material, but the disappearance of the female healer through the barrier definitely ruined that theory.

  Nafren shook out the pair of pants and overshirt Porda had left on the bed and said, ‘Shall we?’

  It took longer than Siray had thought it ever could to do something so simple as to put on a pair of pants and a shirt. After Nafren helped her to slowly sit up, he assisted her to carefully manoeuvre the shirt over her head and then get both arms through the sleeves. Although her injured arm hurt when she moved it, it was the effort of raising both arms up above her head to get them through the sleeves that hurt the most, as the motion caused the lacerated muscles in her lower left side to pull, stretching the tissue.

  Next, Nafren helped Siray move from the bed to the floor, another lengthy process. After removing the pillows so she was lying flat on the bed, he assisted her to shift down its length slightly so that her feet were just hanging off the bottom. Motioning for her to stay still, Nafren activated a button on the side of the bed that Siray couldn’t see, and the bed slowly began to rise on an incline until it almost stood straight up on its end.

  Nafren now stood before her, one hand on her good arm to offer support. He helped her walk a few paces forwards away from the bed, then, with a gentle but firm hold on her, turned towards the opaque wall. Drawing out what looked like a soft blue ball that fit snugly in the palm of his hand, he lobbed the sphere lightly through the barrier of light. When Porda popped her head through the wall in response to this apparently preknown signal, Nafren said, ‘We’re ready.’

  Porda disappeared back through the whiteness, and a moment later the wall disappeared completely, revealing Porda standing there with an arm circled around Baindan’s waist. His bed was also inclined, and the brief glimpse she had of his face before she glanced away showed her that he looked how she felt—uncomfortable, and drained by the little movement they had already done.

  She knew that Baindan’s eyes were fixed on her now, but she refused to me
et his eye.

  ‘Alright, off we go.’

  Nafren’s tone was cheery, but Siray knew he had sensed the tension. Maybe that was why he purposefully kept up a stream of steady chatter as they moved through the halls.

  ‘Now, it’s not that far to the therapy room, Siray, but we’ll take our time getting there. The movement is good for you after your much-needed rest, but we don’t want to overdo it before we can even put you through your paces.’

  They turned a corner in the hallway.

  ‘We have many rooms just like the one you were in. Sadly, we see too many injuries these days,’ the healer said, shaking his head.

  After another stretch of hallway and more chatter that Siray only paid half a mind to as she surveyed her new surroundings, they rounded a final corner. Ahead were two armed guards.

  Nafren must have felt her tense, as he explained, ‘Security has increased since the last attack. Now it’s constant inspections and checks, what are you doing here, and questions, questions, questions. And,’ he added in a lower his voice, ‘I’m still not sure why they need to carry stun sticks.’

  He frowned towards the leg of the closest guard, and Siray followed his gaze, observing that a silver stick about the length of her forearm was strapped to the male’s leg. She assumed this was similar to the stunners that peace patrols in the cities used to keep the peace, with the stick able to generate a small or substantial shock to a person’s nervous system.

  Nafren paused before the guards to show them something wrapped around his arm, which they scanned while the healer explained where he was taking Siray.

  Satisfied, the guard pulled a different device from a pouch at his hip, punched something into it, and then settled the object at his side once more, motioning for Nafren to proceed towards the bank of risers set into the wall.

  Siray noted that these risers were smaller than the one she and the others had ridden down into the facility, with only enough space for four people at a time.

  As Nafren led her towards an open riser that had a glowing square above it, with Siray gratefully holding onto his arm, a discreet chime sounded from a nearby riser. A pair of doors slid open with a swish, and two healers in grey stepped out, deep in conversation.

  Nafren gestured to Siray and, still using him as a support, she slowly stepped onto the open riser with him. Once on the platform, she turned just as slowly on the spot, carefully avoiding looking at Porda and Baindan as they also climbed onto the riser.

  The riser’s doors slid closed, and it was only the quietest hum that told Siray the riser was moving, although there was nothing to indicate if the riser was ascending or descending through the facility, and Siray strained to get a sense of any motion as she stood there. When she failed to determine anything, she spent the remainder of the time on the riser staring at the back of Baindan’s head.

  How could he have come up with such a stupid plan? Did he really think no one would get hurt? To want to use a patrol like that—to use his friends like that—he had put them all at risk. But he had also decided on a course of action without their involvement.

  Siray still had all these questions and observations cycling through her head when the riser’s hum dropped off and the doors glided open to reveal a new floor. A small, simple sign on the wall across from them read, ‘T & R’.

  Another pair of guards stood on either end of the bank of risers, observing the four of them as they emerged. This time, it was Porda, first out with Baindan, who showed her arm device to the guards and answered their questions.

  Satisfied, the guards waved them on, and Siray and Baindan were guided by Nafren and Porda down a central hallway. The hallway appeared to stretch on for quite a distance, but it wasn’t until they reached the midpoint of the corridor that Siray actually saw any doors. There were four, all of them closed. Three of them were marked ‘T1,’ ‘T2,’ and T3’. The fourth door, second on the right, was marked, simply, ‘R’.

  Porda activated this door and guided Baindan into the room, Nafren escorting Siray through behind them while also hitting the activation pad to close the door after they’d all entered.

  Siray had barely made it through the doorway when she froze. Or her mind did. It had to, in order to process what it was she was seeing. The stark white room she had expected to see did not exist. In fact, she wasn’t in a room at all. Instead, she appeared to be standing in the middle of a lush forest. Lazy sunlight streamed through the trees in front of her, their branches waving gently as a slight breeze moved through them.

  Looking up, Siray could see a familiar soft purple sky, clouds slowly journeying across it.

  Her eyes drifted down to the ground, and she toed the earth beneath one bare foot. It was real.

  ‘Welcome to the therapy room, Siray,’ Nafren said.

  Siray turned her eyes to look at him, words failing her. Then she rotated to look toward the door she had come through, wondering if she had been transported somewhere. It was there alright. A white rectangle that seemed to be free standing in the middle of a forest.

  ‘How?’ was all she could manage.

  Nafren smiled at her obvious wonder. ‘It’s a mixture of projections and actual materials,’ he said, bending down to scoop up a handful of dirt before straightening once more and letting the grains of soil flow out between his fingers and cascade to the ground. ‘The room has a number of surfaces that we can use to help simulate different environments. This one, obviously, is the forest room. When we asked Baindan what environment he thought you might be most at home in, he suggested this.’

  At the mention of Baindan’s name, Siray’s mouth thinned into a line. She glanced quickly in his direction and saw that Porda was guiding him away to another location in the room.

  Nafren continued. ‘The other environments include a grass plain, a coastal beach, and a cityscape.’

  Siray looked at him in surprise. ‘All this is just to help injured patients recover?’

  ‘No,’ the healer said, shaking his head. ‘It’s also used by teams coming back from the field to reduce stress, by those who need a break from being underground, or by those who simply just need a break from everything.’

  ‘But I don’t understand—I thought this was a secondary camp?’

  Nafren nodded. ‘It is. But it was built a long time ago and has been used more or less ever since. And when news of the recent Faction raid reached us, we set this up as a secondary location, opening up more of the facility and reassigning more Resistance members here.’

  Siray nodded slowly, looking around the room again. She took a few more steps forwards, listening to the sound of leaves crunching underfoot. ‘So, just how big is this room, then?’

  ‘Fairly large, but to give you something comparable, it’s probably as big as a city block,’ the healer said, moving forwards to join her.

  Siray’s eyebrows rose before she could control her reaction, and she grimaced in pain at the tug on her facial injury, raising a hand lightly to touch one bandage. ‘Incredible,’ she murmured.

  Nafren just shrugged. ‘It allows a few people to use the room at the same time without making it feel crowded. Although, if you’re after a specific simulation outside of scheduled therapy sessions, you’ll need to go at the time it’s programmed in for.’

  She nodded again, filing away the information. But when she turned to look back at the door behind them once more, and the invisible walls that she knew had to be there, she asked, ‘How do you know when you get close to a wall?’

  ‘Simple,’ Nafren said, and he gestured for her to accompany him towards the door.

  As they drew close, Siray felt a tingle start in her leading foot, then quickly move up her entire body as she took another step, and another.

  Nafren was watching her reaction carefully. ‘You feel it?’ Nafren asked her.

  Siray nodded, looking down curiously at her prickling legs.

  ‘That,’ he explained, ‘is the projection field. When you feel that, you know you’
re within three paces of the wall.’ He led her away again. ‘But now, we really better get started on your actual recovery session.’

  Nafren took her farther into the room and then had her stand in an open space while he backed away a little to better observe her. ‘Now, I want you to Change into your yeibon form. But,’ the healer said, holding up a finger, ‘I have to warn you, there will be pain when you Change. It should subside rapidly once you are in the larger form, but it will last for the length of your transformation. If you feel any intense pain after you have Changed, then I want you to return to this form straightaway.’

  Siray dipped her head to show her understanding, slightly nervous.

  ‘Alright, then.’ Nafren inclined his head, and clasped his hands behind his back to wait.

  Siray took a couple of steadying breaths, told herself not to think about what she might be about to feel, and closed her eyes. Turning her focus inward, she looked to that core within herself. She Changed.

  Nafren was right—there was pain. For just a couple of heartbeats, it felt as if her wounds were being ripped open again afresh, and Siray’s mouth opened in agony.

  But it was gone again just as fast, leaving only a ghost of the feeling, and a moment later, she stood looking down at Nafren, who had wisely backed up to give her a bit more space. Another breath in, and Siray raised her head higher. She felt stronger. Not only that, she realised, but she could see with both eyes. True, the left side of her face still ached and felt swollen, and her left eyelid only opened halfway, but she could see. For a moment she wondered why she didn’t have any bandages on her face, but then she remembered the discussion with Baindan. In her yeibon form, even though she knew she was injured, she would never picture herself with bandages. Couldn’t even form the image.

  She flicked her tail happily as Nafren started walking around her to examine her more closely.

  As he moved, Siray arced her long neck to peer down at her injured leg. A gash remained there, and it still throbbed painfully, but compared to how it had felt mere moments ago, it was a vast improvement. And in this form, it was just a minor injury.