Total pages in book: 210
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 200837 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 1004(@200wpm)___ 803(@250wpm)___ 669(@300wpm)
It is in this moment that I realize I have never seen this bridge before and even though the brightly-lit secondary canal below us is something familiar—Tau City has dozens of them, after all—I don’t recognize this one in particular. Or any of the outside buildings that I catch a glimpse of as we swiftly cross and enter a hallway on the other side.
I don’t know where I am. “Where are we going?”
Connelly doesn’t answer, just flashes me a sidelong stink-eye conveying annoyance.
Of all the Matrons that I had to get stuck with tonight, of course it would be her. She’s mean, and big, and built like a man. At least, I think she is. It’s hard to tell what her body really looks like under her ten-sizes-too-big blue tunic and cream-colored scapular apron.
She and I round a corner and come into yet another hallway, which looks like every other hallway in the Maiden Tower. But we’re no longer in the Maiden Tower, of that I’m certain. We crossed a canal, so… I’m not sure where we are.
It’s all very familiar though. Because everything in up-city has the same vibe. Plastered walls that curve up into an arched ceiling—bits of it peeling away in various spots, revealing the stonework underneath—and lit up by electric candles inside sconces positioned about every twenty feet along the passage.
I wouldn’t say I’ve gotten used to the almost free-flowing spark here in up-city, even though I’m an official resident now. But it’s no longer such a surprise.
However, I am, and always will be, a down-city girl.
I’m not ashamed of this, either. Even though there are no spark lights where I come from. No elevators—because there are no high towers—no fans to keep you cool during the hot, stifling day, and no vents blowing heat to cozy things up during the frigid, freezing nights.
There is just enough power down-city to run the automated irrigation and heat lamps in the fields, orchards, and greenhouses. We need the power—not ‘we’ as in down-city people, but the collective ‘we,’ as in the city itself. The extreme temperature changes between day and night in Tau City prohibit farming to a large degree. And the city does, after all, need to eat.
We, as in the Bell family, weren’t always down-city. The Bell-family austerity is partly self-imposed and partly leftover circumstances from deeds done long ago. Punishment, if you will.
My family designed the carillon inside the clocktower. Bellmaker. That used to be our last name. We used to live up in the Tower District as well—which is a privilege that very few families get, even today. But something happened. It was hundreds of years ago now and no one in my family talks about it, so I don’t have a clue as to what this something was. It’s even possible that they are telling the truth when they say they don’t know why we were demoted to down-city.
Matron Connelly stops in front of an arched doorway made of thick, dark wood panels. She grabs the iron knocker and bangs it three times. Then lets out a breath, clasps her hands behind her back, raises her chin, and rocks back on her heels.
The door opens and I find Auntie, staring down at me.
I lower my gaze and curtsey the way I have been programmed to do from all the Little Sister instruction over the years.
Auntie sighs and spits words at Matron Connelly. “Thank you, Matron. I’ll take it from here.”
Connelly responds with a deep bow, which I only catch the last of because I’m still straightening up from my curtsey. But it’s intriguing because I’ve never seen a Matron bow to one of her peers before.
Connelly turns with a swish of her tunic and goes back the way we came.
“Come in, come in, Jasina. We don’t have all night.” Then Auntie steps aside and waves me forward.
The room I enter is… confusing. I stop in the center of it and tilt my head, shaking off my bewilderment and forcing my brain to make sense of what I am looking at.
But… I have no idea what I am looking at. So I simply blink.
“It’s a jolt, isn’t it?”
I look up her. “What is this place, Auntie?”
“It’s a control room, Jasina. These are called switches.” She pans a hand at an array of… I dunno. Bits? Bobs? Buttons? Lots of little knobby things positioned on a metal panel that is kind of like a table. But there is a partition with many sections of thick, curved glass coming up out the back side of it.
I look at the… switches, then up at Auntie. “What?”
She sighs. It’s not a tired sigh, either. It’s a ‘you’re stupid’ sigh. “Switches, Jasina. To power the images that show up on the televisions.”
“Tell-a-whats?”
“Tele—never mind. That’s not important. There is something happening right now with the new Extraction Master that we did not plan for. You will be going in. Tomorrow.”