Page 20 of Corvak's Challenge

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?

The skies darken as we sit under the furs together. As they do, the stars come out. Like grains of sand, they fill the night sky and pepper it with light. There are two moons here, but the stars are the true beauty. The skies begin to dance with greenish and pink hues in addition to the colorful nebulas splashed amongst the darkness. It is awe-inspiring to see, and I wonder if she appreciates it as much as I do. I nudge Aidy with my elbow. "Do you see the stars?"

"Hard not to." She sounds a bit like her old self, and she leans her head against my shoulder.

I like that she pulls closer to me. "Which one is yours?"

"No idea," she says. Then her face crumples and she sobs.

I panic. She is that sad today? I turn to face her fully, wiping at her wet cheeks. "Do not cry, Aidy."

"S-sorry." She sniffs hard and wipes her face, her hand tangling with mine, but the tears keep coming. "Not trying to be a baby."

"You are not a baby." I brush her hair back from her wet cheeks as if my fussing will somehow help the situation. I need her to be happy. I need her to laugh. So I think fast. "Do you want me to kill something?"

The sound she makes is a cross between a choked laugh and a cough, but it's a good sign. "Kill something?"

"It makes me feel better to be productive."

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