Light in Dark Places

Chapter Four

Agatha lies on her cot and she can hear the guards talking about Mathiessen's construction.

"Of course we need to build more houses, that just makes sense. Ashes, I live in a single room studio apartment with a wife and two kids, you think that's right?"

"Well, no, but the land ordinances—"

"They're just stupid. There's all that empty space out there, and what's it for anyhow? You think some of the Northern regions care so much? Heck no."

"Yeah, but the Ash—"

"Who can prove that? Can you prove that? The Ash has been around for hundreds of years now, and people think, what? That it's just going to go away because we build a few more buildings?"

Ash is in the land, Agatha thinks. It's a common recitation, they teach it to school children. Or at least, they used to. Ash from the Crash, it's all in the land. It gets in the water, it gets in the sand. It gets in the plants, it gets in the ants, it gets in the birds it gets in the bees, you can be sure it grows in the trees. Ash in the land, and Ash in the Air, Ash in the sea, and from it all, Ash in you and me.

It sounded better, when you sang it as children. And the scientists could prove it, they had proven it, they prove it over and over again:

If you destroy the land, you destroy the Ash. They're stealing from our children. The more Carl Mathiessen took down, the more children wouldn't develop Ash talents. Not strong ones, at any rate.

At least, the poor children growing up in those buildings wouldn't.

*

Benedict is still lying in the nurse's office with a headache, still dizzy, when the monster comes in.

"Oh, Bridgit," Nurse Swanson says. "Again?"

"You should see the other guy," Bridgit says, bouncing up on the bed next to Benedict. The noise and the movement cause Benedict to startle, flinching away instinctively. When he sees the monster girl he experiences such intense vertigo he topples out of the bed and stays on the floor, a useless mess.

"What's his problem?" the girl asks, peering down at him.

"Oh dear, Ben hun? It's getting worse, isn't it? Maybe you should go home after all."

Benedict hates the nickname "Ben" almost as much as he hates "Benny." He's not sure why the nurse started calling him that.

The girl hops off the bed and holds out a hand. Benedict tries to take it but now he's seeing seven of her, and he's not sure which hand to grab; he guesses wrong and his hand falls down as a useless swipe in the air.

A cold hand grabs his and yanks him up. "Wow, you're a mess. You're not drunk, are you? You can tell me. Swanson left to call your parents."

"No. Not drunk," Benedict collapses back into the bed, the girl mostly manhandling him there with surprising strength. (Not that it's so surprising that she's stronger than him—almost everyone is. She's also the tallest girl he's ever seen and towers over him, and definitely looks like someone who could outmuscle most people. But lizards, typically, do not have much upper arm strength, and perhaps that is why he is surprised).

"No, you didn't seem the type." She puts a cold hand to his forehead. "You don't have a fever either. Weird."

He likes the feeling of her cool hands against his skin. He doesn't flinch away from it, like he otherwise would have, even when he registers the small scales that are on her palms. He's never been this close to one of the monster students before.