Suited Read Online Free PDF Page B

were guarded, mouth set in a heavy line teetering on the edge of a frown. It was always the same with him. He held so many walls around himself, he kept the world at a distance, all to ensure his brother’s safety. And after so many years he had trouble recognising the appropriate time to let down those barriers, or the right people to let in.
    “You know better than that,” he said, and I tried not to take offence at the rough edge to his tone. “He’s big, he’s strong, what will you do if he becomes violent?”
    Yes, I had seen it happen. Gentle, child-like Lad turned to a terrifying and furious man for no reason the rest of us could understand. But I unfurled a hand and allowed my suit to seep solid and silver to my fingertips. It caught the flickering of gas lamps as I slowly turned it. Valya, like Kichlan and Lad’s landlord, refused to rely on pion power to light her home, or heat her water, or cook her meals. So she tapped into the old gaslines that ran beneath the city – which couldn’t be safe, and surely wouldn’t run forever in this new pion-powered age.
    Kichlan looked away. He knew that with the control I had over my suit, I was stronger than Lad, and far stronger than Kichlan could ever be.
    “We know more about Lad, and what happens to him, now than ever.” I tried to sound reasonable, and withdrew the suit. “The voices he didn’t understand, the things that used to upset him. We know who that is. We can calm him.”
    “The Keeper.” Kichlan spat the word with the same vehemence Valya had bestowed upon the puppet men.
    “Exactly.” I tried to be the voice of reason in the centre of Kichlan’s storm. “And I can talk to the Keeper too. So I can look after Lad.”
    Kichlan rested his hands on the table, tapped hard with his fingers, pushed the chair out, stood, and began pacing. I should have known it was only a matter of time before the pacing started. “It’s not just voices, Tanyana. How will Lad get to this new address? I can’t send him on his own. It wouldn’t take much for him to get lost, and then scared, and maybe even angry. I don’t know what he’d do–”
    Two long strides and I was by his side. I touched his arm and froze him mid-pace. “We will work something out, Kichlan. I’ll come and get him, or we’ll meet half way.”
    “This is tomorrow, you realise!”
    “I do. And we’ll work it out, isn’t that why you’re here?” I smiled at him, and was finally able to pry one out of him. “What Lad needs most of all is the support of his brother, like he always has. And you can’t give it to him if you’re railing and panicking. He needs you to be calm.”
    “I’m not panicking.”
    I laughed and leaned back. “Oh really? Doing a good imitation then.”
    “I’m...” He paused, thought for a moment, then said with a grin, “fretting.”
    “Well warn me if that’s about to change. If this is fretting, I’d like to get as far away as possible before panic happens.”
    Suddenly his smile was gone. He gripped my shoulders, his fingers pressing hard into the strong, reinforced uniform beneath my woollen shirt. He leaned in close, eyes bright and intense. I wanted to back away, but couldn’t move my legs.
    “I can’t let you go either,” he whispered. His breath was hot. “Another team, where I can’t be. You and Lad, together. You don’t understand, do you? I need to be with you, I need to know you are safe. Both of you.”
    My heart beat too loud, too fast in my ears. My mouth felt dry and my stomach knotted and something at the back of my mind chimed in with a quiet: “Shouldn’t you be more worried about the Keeper, Tanyana?” But I could hardly hear it, and easily pushed it aside.
    “Kichlan, I–”
    Someone knocked on the door.
    For a moment we remained frozen, Kichlan holding my shoulders, his breath on my face, our eyes locked. Then the knock again, harder. We broke away.
    Kichlan folded his arms, and turned his back on me as I hurried to