Total pages in book: 92
Estimated words: 83205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 83205 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 416(@200wpm)___ 333(@250wpm)___ 277(@300wpm)
Corvak's hand twitches on my back, and he leans in close. I pull back, confused, but he only rubs his nose against mine. "I understand, Aidy. You are my female, and I don't want to make you uncomfortable. I'm still learning how to please you."
He could start by not referring to me as his, but this is close enough to an apology, and I'll take it. "You did just fine. Better than fine. And you know, I'm happy to instruct."
He rubs his nose against mine again and then gives me a wicked, knowing grin. "You smell good today, too."
"Annnd that's enough of that," I say, sliding out of his grip, blushing. "Can we just travel, please?"
Chuckling, he releases me and points at the sloping rocks. "We're going higher. I think it levels out just above. We will see how things look then."
Lovely. I lean forward to balance myself, watching as he moves up the rocky slope. "So how is it you don't have memories anyway? What's the story with that?"
"I told you, I'm a splice. We are created beings." His stump tail twitches, making his clothing jump.
"Everyone's a created being. Created like how?"
"Someone picks out the traits they want their gladiator to have, and I am produced in a lab and sent to my new owner."
Produced in a lab…? "So, what? You were never a baby? Or a child? You just popped out of a test tube fully grown?" I take the hand he extends down to me and haul myself up after him. "How does that work?"
"Just like that, I suppose. It was not the same with you?" He doesn't seem concerned. He makes sure my footing is solid and then continues climbing.
Of course it wasn't the same with me. "Absolutely not. I have memories. I was a kid. I…"
I pause.
"Go on," he says, encouraging.
But I can't go on. Because the more I look for proof of how right I am, the more blank my mind feels. I search for memories, assurances that what I'm saying are legit. My name, I decide. That's an easy one. Aidy's short for A.D. Which is short for…
Short for…
I have no idea. Hot panic flashes through me. "Ask me something, Corvak. Something I should know."
"What species are you?"
I wave a hand. "Too easy. Ask me something specific. Something that pertains only to me."
He stops climbing, sensing my panic. "Tell me about your home place."
I shake my head, because my mind is blank.
"Then tell me about who created you."
"My parents," I say with gusto, because that's an easy answer. I try to call up their faces from my memories, and when that fails, their names. Something? Anything?
But all I'm getting is…fog. If I was a radio, I'd be nothing but static right now. There are vague blips here and there, mental images of things, but everything is a mess, and when I try to focus on specifics, it all disappears. It's like trying to hold a handful of mist. I have a vague sense of a wet nose pressing against my hand, of the creak of wooden stairs. "I had a house. And a…job? At a movie theater, I think. But I don't remember anything else. Nothing's coming together."
"Stasis will do that," Corvak says confidently. "It can affect your memories."
"Really? How do you know?"
He shrugs. "I just know."
I have to take his word for it. He puts his hand out again to help me climb, and I take it, but I no longer feel like talking. How am I supposed to get to know him when I don't know anything about myself? There has to be something I recall.
Anything…?
CHAPTER
NINE
CORVAK
We travel through the day, climbing higher, heading for the tallest peak in the range of jagged, purplish mountains. I enjoy the climb—my muscles burn with the workout, and I like that I'm getting to exercise. Aidy's breathing is heavy behind me, a sign that she's struggling to keep up, but she never complains.
When dusk approaches, there is no cave to shelter in, so we look for rocks that will protect us from the worst of the wind and relax wrapped in furs, seated upright and pressed against one another.
Aidy's mood is terrible. She's no longer chatting or teasing. She's been silent since our earlier conversation, and I don't know how to break her from her sadness. I am beginning to suspect that Aidy is not a human captive as she thinks, but a clone like me. It would explain the lack of specific memories, and the fact that the hand that grips mine when we climb has no calluses, no scars of any kind.
I keep these thoughts to myself. I do not think she is ready to hear them.
I do not like her silence, though. I am good at answering her questions, but when it is my turn to ask what troubles her, I do not know how to begin. I want her to smile and say teasing things. I like Aidy best when she is joking, her mood light despite the danger of our situation. Now her expression is bleak, as if she has lost all hope. I have to give it back to her somehow. But how?