you that?’
‘Yeah. I had thousands of questions for her but she only answered a few.’
‘For me too,’ said Retra.
As they found a table and ate, Retra felt a pang of sympathy for Charlonge. How many new runaways had asked the same things? How many times had she given the same answers? And yet she had been patient with Retra, and gentle.
Suki sucked the last of the linguine off her fork, splashing her chin with the sauce. ‘Nice chow,’ she said, wiping her chin with the back of her hand.
Retra tried not to flinch. She wondered what Suki’s home was like. Father would have punished her for such raw manners.
Charlonge entered and circled the tables with the air of a dormitory supervisor. She didn’t stop to speak to Retra though her glance rested on her for a moment longer than necessary.
‘They say she’s been here for ages,’ said Suki, watching Charlonge. ‘That she’s the oldest in Vank and should have gone ages ago.’
‘Gone?’
Suki pulled a face at her. ‘Didn’t you know anything about this place before you came here?’
‘Not really,’ said Retra.
‘When the Ripers decide you’re too old to be here, they move you on somewhere else. They call it withdrawal.’
Retra felt a little surge of panic. Charlonge looked about the same age as Joel. What if Joel had already been withdrawn? ‘Where do they move you to?’
‘Nobody knows really but the Ripers say it’s another island like this. I don’t think it’s an island, though. I bet they just take you out to the cusp of the Spiral and let you go.’
Retra picked up her plate and goblet and looked around for a place to rub them down.
‘For agony’s sakes,’ Suki hissed. ‘Leave them, Retra. The uthers will do it.’
Retra saw the smirks on the faces of those at nearby tables.
‘Get it through your head,’ said Suki. ‘We don’t have to do pig-cuss here. Ixion is just about fun and parties. Now let’s go to confession so we can get out of here.’
Confession? Retra dropped the plate with a clatter, drawing the attention of one of the Ripers. She wanted to run from his penetrating stare but forced herself to copy Suki’s jaunty stride as she got up and left the servery.
The cruciform was crowded now and Retra held her breath, automatically searching for Joel.
What if he is here? Now.
Suki grabbed her hand again and pointed towards the confessional queue. ‘Over there.’
‘Why do we need to confess if we can do what we like?’
Suki shrugged. ‘Weird, huh? But that’s what they told us we have to do. Maybe it’s part of the cleansing. Like the re-birth.’
Retra noticed Cal at the head of the line, next to go in.
Suki saw her too. ‘That one.’ Suki pointed behind her hand at Cal. ‘I hate her already.’
‘H-has she been mean to you?’
Suki laughed. ‘Nah. But she acts like she owns the guy on the guitar. And he is sooo hot. Why should she get dibs on him?’ She pointed.
Retra looked over at the larger apse. The guitarist still sat atop the altar, backlit by glowing jewel lamps. Recognition made her pulse quicken. ‘His name is Markes.’
‘You know him?’ Suki’s eyes lit.
‘I-I met him. That’s all. On the barge.’
‘You came by boat?’
Retra thought of the pain radiating along her leg when she left the Seal compound, and her desperate lunge to catch the barge. ‘Why? How did you come?’
‘You ever hear whirring in the sky?’
Retra nodded. ‘Fly-eyes.’
Suki shook her head. ‘Not always. Sometimes it’s draculins. I trapped one in a cave outside my town, and strapped myself to its back.’
‘What is a draculin?’
Suki rolled her eyes. ‘You must know? Giant bat with wings bigger than … two mountain bulls. They eat their own.’
‘You mean echo-locaters?’
‘Sure, if that’s what you call them.’
‘How did you know where the … draculin you caught would go?’
‘Don’t you know anything? It’s the lore. Draculins fly to Ixion in winter.’
Retra stared at the girl in amazement. ‘But I’ve heard their bite will bleed you to death?’
Suki tossed her head airily. ‘Uh-huh. But I’m here still.’ She pushed Retra forward towards the confessional. ‘Come on, you’re next.’
Retra stepped cautiously into the small, dark cubicle. She was used to confession in Grave. The priest spoke through an electrified grille and arranged degrees of punishment depending on what she had the courage to confess. Usually he ordered denial: denial of food, or conversation, and sometimes sleep. When she’d confessed to listening to the Angel Arias he had prescribed six lashes of the snake