Earthseed

trouble. You’re a coward, Lillka.”
    Lillka got up. Her cheeks were red, her face mottled. “I’d better go.” She did not look at Manuel. “I’ll try to come back later.”
    “Don’t bother.” Zoheret glared at her. “We don’t need cowards here.”
    “I was going to tell you something else about one of the strangers,” Lillka shouted. “But I won’t now. You’ll find out soon enough.” She strode from the room, slamming the door.
    “What was she talking about?” Zoheret asked.
    “I don’t know. She didn’t say.” Bonnie looked at Manuel. “You look awful.”
    “Is my face marked?”
    “They don’t leave marks. Don’t worry, you’re still pretty. Who’d you get, Caleb?”
    Manuel nodded and sat down carefully, as if he were glass and about to shatter. “I didn’t tell him anything. At first, he was nice—he only got mean later, when I wouldn’t talk. Then someone else came and pulled him off me. I think he wanted to kill me.”
    “That’s awful,” Zoheret murmured.
    “Oh, I understand him. He got into the rhythm of it, that’s all. It happens—you’re hitting and hitting and you just want to go on doing it. It isn’t even personal by then—you get to the point where you’re not even hitting a person anymore, just something that whines and cries and makes little sounds. I bit him once.” He lifted his chin. “He didn’t expect that. He had my arms and legs tied down, but I got in a bite. You should have heard him yell.”
    “Where’s Ho?”
    “I don’t know. Somebody took him to the storehouse—I haven’t seen him since. We’re just wild animals to them. They think they own us.” His face blanched. “I feel sick.”
    Zoheret held his head, listening to his labored breathing, stroking his hair until he was able to sit up. He tried to smile. “Guess there’s nothing left to come up.”
    Bonnie gazed at them scornfully; her eyes glittered. Zoheret realized that the other girl hated Manuel even now, that she was glad he’d been beaten. She knew now that the strangers would win. They would set them against one another.

    Whenever the door opened, Zoheret’s stomach reeled and her neck grew stiff; she was expecting them to come for her. Brendan and Bonnie were taken away to work and returned near evening; food was brought.
    After supper, the door opened and Zoheret tensed, but it was only Helena coming for the empty dishes.
    “Just do what they tell you,” Helena murmured as she piled bowls on the tray. “They won’t give you any trouble if you behave. It’s for your own good. I’m giving you good advice.” Zoheret did not reply.
    She waited alone in the front room after the others had gone to sleep. Ho had still not been returned; she wondered if they had decided to keep him elsewhere. Perhaps he had talked. Somehow, she doubted that; Ho’s pride was so excessive that he would not allow himself to show weakness. He might, however, have tried to make some sort of deal. He knew where his friends would go after they left the island; he knew about the corridors. That information would be valuable. There was another possibility; he might have been badly beaten. He might be dead.
    She thought about the settlement. There had to be some who wanted to rebel; she had grown up with the group and was certain that there were others who felt as she did. She tried to make a list: Anoki. Jorge, perhaps; the chubby boy was often sullen and recalcitrant, and could be pushed around only up to a point. Robert might fight if he thought there was a chance of winning, and Gowon, too, was probably biding his time. She would have to find a way to talk to them. There were Brendan and Bonnie, of course, and Manuel. It was a very small list. She would have added Gervais, Dmitri, Serena, and Kagami, but they weren’t here, and they had given in to Ho without much of a struggle. For a moment, she was sure that Owen and Daniella and Vittorio and the other members of that group would have fought the Earthfolk, but she might be wrong about that, too. Perhaps they would have cooperated in return for some power over the settlement. How little she knew about those she had once called her friends.
    At last she went to bed, convinced that she would be sent for in the morning. Her sleep was uneven; once, she cried out, waking Bonnie. In her dreams, she was struggling in the river, staggering to the shore only to be slapped by Owen, who was waiting for her. He laughed as she tried to run