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The lead Oracle glanced at it, then tossed his head back with a loud laugh. “You are a Luke from the House of Archives, are you not, boy?” The question was rhetorical since every New Eden Citizen could tell which House each belonged to. “Don’t you know that this map is hundreds of years old? The place you were hoping to find was destroyed during the last Great War, when the Chaos reigned over humankind. If you would have made it that far, which is unlikely, you would have found only dust and rubble.”
Disappointment sat like a stone in Eve’s stomach. “But I thought that’s where the Banished go,” she blurted before she could stop herself.
“So you want to find out what happens to the Banished,” the head Oracle said as he nodded to one of his companions. Eve noticed that he was holding a syringe tipped with a needle. She froze as a nauseous feeling flooded her. “Curiosity is a flaw which both of you apparently possess. That could be why you are such good friends. But it does promote Chaos, which is something that is not tolerated amongst our Citizens.” Eve winced as the man with the syringe pulled up her sleeve and pricked her upper arm with the needle. She instantly felt relaxed as the man moved on to Luke, whose face was pale with fear.
Her body felt rubbery. She couldn’t keep her eyes open as an intense drowsiness clouded her mind. Her knees buckled, and she felt strong arms around her. “The Banished never leave New Eden. They move amongst the Citizens every day but do so virtually unnoticed, doing all the dirty work no self-respecting Citizen would do. All it takes is a little surgery.”
Eve slipped into unconsciousness…
*
She didn’t have a name and didn’t know how she’d come to be. Nor did she really care. She glanced down at the tray she was holding and inhaled the scents of fresh fish, steaming vegetables and the tang coming from the cup of fireberry juice on the tray she was carrying. She and the others would be fed later, after their duties were complete, from the scraps the Citizens left behind. Her sole duty was to serve. That was what she was created for.
She passed a tray-laden youth, clad in the same gray tunic that she and the others wore. He seemed familiar, but his face was blank, impassive.
She set the tray down onto a table. “Thank you,” said a tiny voice.
She blinked in puzzlement. That was a word no other Citizen ever used with her kind. Although she could be severely punished for looking a Citizen in the eyes, she couldn’t resist.
The speaker was a young child, a girl.
She quickly bowed her head and stepped away before anyone noticed. Still, a fleeting melancholy touched her. Wasn’t she once this child, in a distant other life? One where she’d known nothing but bliss but ached to know more?
The ephemeral memory instantly faded. There were still more trays to deliver and the Citizens were hungry.
They depended on her to keep them well fed and happy,
About Donna Marie Robb
