Free Sapient Salvation 1: The Selection (Sapient Salvation Series) by Jayne Faith, Christine Castle Page B

distraction.
    “Come in.”
    I took a deep breath and turned from the mirror. Mother stared at me, her mouth pinched and her eyes squinting. Lana couldn’t see me, of course, but pain was so clear in her eyes it made it feel as though she could.
    I suddenly hated that Mother’s last memory of me was the image of a pale-faced girl clad in black Departure garb. In a dead girl’s dress.
    I knew it was time to go, but my feet were rooted to where I stood, refusing to take a step.
    Lana left Mother’s side and moved to me. She felt for my hand and wrapped her fingers tightly around mine. Only with her hand gripping mine was I able to unstick my feet and force myself move. She led me out of Mother’s bedroom, through the living room, and to the front door. There, she stopped and half-turned her head, listening for Mother behind us.
    Lana felt for the doorknob, opened the door, and walked outside ahead of me with her hand still firm around mine.
    I held my breath as I passed through the doorway, trying to numb my heart to the knowledge that I would never pass through it again. I kept my body rigid, refusing to look over my shoulder to watch Mother close the door.
    Lana let go of my hand to link her elbow with mine, pressing close to my side as if huddling against a frigid winter wind. Mother took my other elbow.
    I forced my face into a neutral mask and locked my eyes on the ground a few feet ahead of us. It was half an hour from sunset and the low-angled dwindling light of the sun made our shadows stretch out in a diagonal in front of us. Three walking shadows pulling ahead and to our left, as if trying to coax us to turn that way.
    But that wasn’t where we were headed. I lifted my eyes to the horizon and trained them onto the gentle V between two low foothills. At the base of that V, the overlords would open the portal to Calisto.
    A shock of worry shot through me. Would Mother be able to walk all the way to the portal? Perhaps I should have asked Rand if his father could take her in their car.
    But her footsteps kept up with mine and Lana’s, and her breaths were quiet and even with no hint of wheezing. The walk, unlike the steep path up to the pavilion, was over nearly level ground. I sensed that she needed to make it on the power of her own two feet, so I let that worry slip away.
    I heard the shuffle of shoes all around us, the murmur of low voices, but didn’t care to look around or identify anyone nearby. The only people who mattered at all were the two at my sides.
    I lowered my eyelids for a moment, trying to take in the sensations of the cooling evening breeze, the earthy scent of alfalfa harvested from a nearby field, the way the dry ground gritted under my shoes. The exact feel of being on Earthenfell.
    I opened my eyes to the deepening colors of the sunset. Would there be a sunset on Calisto? If there were, would I ever be allowed to watch it?
    “I will write you, as often as I’m allowed,” Lana said, and I started at the sound of her voice.
    I tipped my head toward hers, and we leaned into each other for a moment. “Thank you,” I whispered. I’d forgotten that letters could be sent from Earthenfell to the departed Obligates. But I would not be permitted to write back.
    The voices and sounds of movement around us thickened as we neared the site of the portal, and I finally glanced around. The faces around me were familiar yet strange, as if my mind were already trying to condition me to the idea that soon I would no longer be one of them.
    The crowd slowed, and we slowed with it. I gave myself a mental shake, remembering that I could not hang back as I had six months ago, six months before that, twice a year for as long as I could recall. I forced my feet forward. Mother, Lana, and I threaded through the throng as I aimed us at the point of the V between hills that had looked like gently rolling bumps from a distance but closer up loomed tall enough to blot out much of the sky.
    The crowd parted as