Book of Glitch – Chapter 12

She glanced back at Iggy as she shifted over to another pile of debris, but did not answer. He followed her to the next pile as he continued to chatter into her ear.

“Maybe it’s something rustic like, Maribel? Either way, I’ve got plenty of time to guess...”

“Syena,” she answered.

Iggy started as he had not expected her to respond to his pestering. He smirked as he dwelled in his unexpected victory. As she observed the lanky looking Stonie, who was no more than a few inches taller than she. The Stonie boy’s attire was somewhat ragged, his trousers were faded and the denim fabric appeared to have thinned significantly from its original constitution. His oversized shirt had already given way to several rips and stains, which Syena could see the youth’s lean ribcage through.

She looked up at the boy’s sallow face and tried her best not to frown at the jagged and chipped grin he gave her.

“The pleasure is all mine,” he said.

“Forgive me, Iggy,” she said. “I’m in the middle of trying to find someone, so if you could-”

“Find someone?” he interjected. “What happened, you lose your rock under all that mess? Two of you had a fight or something?”

She glared at Iggy and returned to her rummaging. He came to her side and began to shovel through the new pile of sheet metal Syena had moved to.

“Hey, there’s no shame in fighting with your companion,” Iggy continued. “You wouldn’t believe how often I’ve seen a gem bigger than you getting beaten on by her fool of a stone. At least you won-”

“He’s not my stone,” Syena retorted. “He’s my friend and he’s an Elder, so I need to make sure he’s all right.”

The boy dropped the cinderblock he had hoisted over his head to the ground and stared at Syena’s back with his mouth agape.

“An Elder?” he shrieked. “You think you’d be able to get an Elder out from underneath all this? If you tossed him around this much-”

Syena jumped back from the mound while hurling a small boulder to the ground. She stomped over to another mass and began to dig more feverishly. Iggy approached her and reached for her shoulder, but as his fingers met the tatters of her shredded blouse she twisted his arm behind his back.

“Oi all right, easy,” Iggy shouted. “I’m not going to tell anyone you roughed up some old man.”

She released him and retreated from the towers. Iggy shook out his arm and followed after her.

“Honestly love, I won’t speak a word about it,” he said. “I mean, it’s absolutely the daftest thing you could do, but-”

“We weren’t fighting,” she huffed.

“Oh, then how’d he get buried under all the...?”

Syena stopped and looked up at the tower, searching for any sign of Joshua or where he might have landed. She could see the cavity at the top of the tower where the first explosion had occurred, but as she scoured the ground below it she saw no signs of a collision with the Earth below.

“I’m not sure,” she replied. “We were in the top lab of the tower and then all of a sudden a blast knocked me down. “When I looked up, he was gone and all that I could find was this scrap of clothe from his robe.”

She held up her wrist to show Iggy the only shred of evidence she had to convince her that the young Elder had been with her at the top of the tower. Iggy followed her gaze up to the hole at the top of the tower before looking back at the ground around them.

“Hate to tell you this but if you’re Elder friend fell from all the way up there we’d be able to smell what’s left of him, don’t you think?”

She searched the ground and the rubble a second time, but she knew Iggy spoke the truth. Had Joshua’s body plummeted all the way from Professor Reginald’s lab to the pavement they were standing on, the scent of his pulverized flesh and blood would have stained the street. You should know that a Stonie’s sense of smell is unmatched by any creature extinct or living. So even with the wind whirling around her, Syena would have been able to smell as little as a drop of Joshua’s red life-liquid around them for several yards.

Studying the scorch marks around the tower’s main entrance, the disheveled state of the road, and the lack of any signs of a crushed body, Syena backed away and began to run toward Caleb’ estate. Not wanting to stand amongst the ruins, Iggy followed after her.

“Where are you going?” he called after her.

“I need to get help,” she answered.

“Hold on.”

Iggy grabbed Syena’s arm, and once again the girl wrapped the young Stonie with his own meek limb.

“For the love of Glitch, let go,” he hollered. “All right I get it, my girl doesn’t like to be touched. Have it your way love, but come your hatch-day you’ll be aching for me to congratulate you.”

“Actually, today is my…” she whispered.

“What was that? Don’t tell me,” Iggy bumbled. “Is today your hatch-day? Well it would be bad luck if I didn’t… Right of course, I’m only joking love.”

He backed away as Syena recoiled to strike him once again. She resumed her trek toward the Grand Duke Elder’s office at 10 Downing Street as Iggy trailed behind her nursing his sore arm.

“Boy I’ve never met a girl like you,” he said. “Where’d you learn to counter like that?”

“My brothers spar all the time, sometimes I join,” she replied.

Iggy rooted himself to the ground, forcing Syena to stop and stare back at him a few steps behind her. His eyes were wide and studying her with an incredulous look on his face.

“You have a brother?” he asked.

 “Yes, two,” she answered. “They’re twins.”

At this the young Stonie dropped to his knees shaking his head. Syena doubled back to see what had tripped the boy, but seeing nothing wrong with him she simply stared down at him.

“They’re your juniors?” he finally whispered.

“No, they’re my seniors,” she gasped as he began to pummel the pavement. “But only by thirteen of the Incantare years.”

“And your mother?” he yelled.

“What about my mother? She’s with the rest of my family at our hotel/villa,” she answered. 

Iggy stood up still looking grieved, and Syena watched as her companion seemed to focus all of his attention on one of the pebbles he had dislodged from the street. It appeared that the male was making an especial effort to hide his face from her gaze, but she saw that his lips were gnarled in a tortured manner.

“What is the matter?” she asked. “Would you please stop that?”

“Your brothers, do you and they share the same mother?” he whispered.

“I suppose that depends, are you going to have another fit?” asked Syena.

He sneered, “I’m just not used to hearing about Stonies having siblings.”

“Well when I was hatched everyone said that I had practically clawed my way out from my casing and started sipping plasma within hours,” she smiled. “But according to my grandfather, I was an easy delivery after the trouble Gray and Phit had caused. Mother said it took eight Dragoon midwives to keep her belly heated for two entire days before the boys’ pouches were soft enough to pass.

“My father had manually pulled them out and cracked each of their casings just in time to soak them in a heated bath of plasma. They were such nimble, little things because they had absorbed so little while in the womb, and since they were still too weak to sip plasma directly that they both had to stew in the bath for a week. Gray actually had to keep soaking for an additional four days after Phit, which Phit and I tell him is the reason he has such a rosy disposition.”

Syena grinned as she finished her brothers’ hatching story, but Iggy began to wander away. Slightly miffed by his indifference, she pursued him. After a few moments traveling behind her sulking friend, she made an attempt to break the silence.

“So where do you live?” she asked.

He grumbled, “Everywhere,” and continued to stomp to and fro.

“I see, so those in your family are travelers?” she pursued.

“You could say that,” he said. “Of course I couldn’t tell you what my dear old dad is up to, and I’ve moved about so much that I doubt he could find me if he wanted to.”

Syena now stopped and stared at Iggy’s back.

“You’re father abandoned you and your mother?” she choked.

Iggy shook his head, “There was no mother for him to abandon, just me.”

She didn’t dare ask what came of Iggy’s mother, she feared the answer she was certain he would give her. Syena was aware that Stonie birthing was dangerous, but the story of how her mother had delivered her brothers seemed to diminish such archaic issues as maternal mortality. She reanalyzed the boy’s battered and worn garments and considered the possibility that they might very well be the only garments in his possession, an idea which only served to make her feel foolish.