Witch's Pyre (Worldwalker 3)

They traveled south along the water to where the trolley line ended at the far side of the wharf. The wall loomed close. The trolley came to a full stop inside a station and they had to go through a turnstile that was watched by hovering Warrior Sisters. There were no charming little restaurants by the sea here.

“What is this place?” Lily asked.

“It’s a checkpoint. Technically, we’re leaving the city although we’re still inside the wall, and entering the restricted zone,” Toshi answered. “Whatever happens, just hold still.”

A Warrior Sister flew in close to Lily, her head twitching. She got near enough so that Lily could see the pincers in her mouth dart out and swipe over her face to clean it. The Sister’s human hands played with the barbs at the end of her whip while her eyes seeme

d to zero in on Lily’s willstone. The Sister’s head suddenly jerked down to where Lily had her other two willstones stashed inside the bodice of her kimono. She landed on the ground almost close enough to touch. Several Workers flew from the Warrior Sister’s shoulders and landed on Lily. They started to crawl over her, trying to get inside her clothes.

“Toshi,” Lily said tremulously.

“Hold still,” he repeated, his tone both understanding and urgent.

Lily could feel them tasting her with their tiny tongues as if they were sipping nectar off her skin. She prickled with goose bumps and forced herself not to slap at them. The Warrior Sister seemed to get what she wanted, reared back, and flew away, taking all but one of the Workers with her. The final Worker stayed on Lily’s throat.

“That one will remain with you the entire time you’re outside the city,” Toshi told her. She noticed that he had a Worker on his neck as well.

“And it stays right here?” she said, gesturing to its perch just over her jugular.

“Yes,” Toshi answered. “Don’t do anything to disturb it.”

Lily looked at the other people in the checkpoint. No one but her and Toshi had willstones, but they all had Workers attached to their throats, the poisonous barbs of their stingers poised right about the jugular.

“It’s like walking around with a knife at your throat,” Lily said. She felt the Worker’s prickling feet and shivered with the knowledge that a bug was crawling on her. “Worse.”

Toshi looked at her. “It’s what you have to do so your children or grandchildren can have any chance of being chosen by the Hive one day. If any of them are lucky enough to be born with magical talent, that is.”

“And if they aren’t?”

“They wait.”

Toshi and Lily emerged from the relatively empty station to join the throngs of people jostling up and down the streets of the restricted zone. The buildings were giant concrete blocks, bare and unadorned. The streets were scrubbed, but there was a gray oppressiveness to the place, and the lingering scent of harsh cleaning chemicals was almost as disheartening as filth. Every block a sentry tower rose up from the pavement, and the platforms on top buzzed with Warrior Sisters. The Workers did not fly around pollinating flowers in their cheerful, bumbling way. There were no flowers. Here, the Workers stayed anchored to an individual, constantly threatening to take the life that hosted them.

Toshi took her hand so they weren’t separated in the crowd, and Lily soon found herself overwhelmed by the teeming throngs and pressed close to him. The sun was still shining, but there was a chill in the air. Even the people dressed in drab colors, wore no makeup, jewelry, or perfume, and they never seemed to look up. The solid mass of the perimeter wall, and the Warrior Sisters on top of it, seemed to hang over them.

“Families can wait generations in the restricted zone,” he shouted over the din. “They work whatever jobs they can in the city or outlying farms and hope that they have a child or a grandchild or a great-grandchild with talent. Only the magically talented get chosen by the Hive.”

A raggedy old woman approached Lily, moaning in a language she didn’t understand, and Toshi stepped forward quickly to intervene. He spoke a few words of Japanese and a few of something Lily couldn’t hope to place and the woman backed off, doubling over with a racking cough as she moved away.

“I think she needs help,” Lily said, looking back over her shoulder. Toshi hurried her along.

“She probably does. Everyone here needs something.”

“I’m guessing they don’t have miracle soap that keeps them young and healthy sitting around in their bathrooms.”

“No. They don’t. And the Hive won’t let us give it to them, either. They won’t let us help the people here in any way. Not medically or financially.”

Lily saw the set of Toshi’s shoulders and the grim line of his mouth. “How long was your family here before you were born?” she asked.

“Only two generations,” he answered.

“What if someone comes here and already has talent?”

“They’d still have to wait. Everyone waits.” Toshi’s eyes were far away. “I’ve never heard of anyone being chosen by the Hive who was fresh off the boat, no matter how much talent they had. If the Hive wants you, Sisters go and get you. If not, you wait.”

As they wove through the streets, Lily saw people from every ethnicity and every culture she could name in just a few short blocks. Toshi led Lily off the main thoroughfare and down a series of alleys. They arrived at the back door of a shop of some kind, and Toshi let himself in as if he belonged there.

“Toshi!” a woman’s voice called out as he pushed his way in. Lily felt Toshi take her hand and bring her forward.