Skylark by Meagan Spooner Read Free Book Online Page A

heard from the lighted panels in the hallways, started from the chair itself. This time I could feel it through my bones, and after only a few seconds it began to feel as if I would shake apart. Every molecule of my body was vibrating.
    I tried to cry out to whoever was operating the Machine, get them to stop, but something had paralyzed my vocal cords. No one had ever told me their harvest had hurt like this. Something had gone horribly wrong.
    Unless they had found out. Perhaps this was my punishment.
    Just when I was certain I’d disintegrate from the throbbing vibrations, searing pain lanced through my back. Something jabbed into my skin, slicing deep along my spine. In front of my eyes flashed a vision of the glass wires piercing the creature I had seen.
    I opened my mouth and screamed soundlessly until the darkness smothered me.
     

Chapter 5

    I became dimly aware that someone was helping me out of the chair. My back ached and my legs shook, but the person I clung to was steady.
    “There now, that wasn’t so bad, was it?” A round, cheerful face swam into focus.
    “No,” I croaked, my mind still a blank. “Not . . . bad.”
    The lights had come on again at some point, a soothing glow all around me. The round-faced person helped me into a tunic and ushered me along, her hands under my elbows. We went through a door that opened up in front of us and then clicked shut again.
    “You must be hungry now. The harvest process always has that effect. We can go directly to your feast, get you some of that delicious food. Would you like that?”
    I was hungry—ravenous, in fact. “Yes,” I said, my voice sounding much more normal now. I was rapidly becoming steadier on my feet. What had I been so upset about? No matter, there was a feast awaiting me.
    “Fabulous,” exclaimed the round-faced person. I remembered her now—the Administrator.
    And I remembered—something. There was a fading image of a glowing chair, a vague notion that something had touched my back. And something else, too. A person made of light, eyes that sought and held mine. And glass. I remembered glass....
    “Right over here, darling!” said the Administrator, putting her hand between my shoulder blades and shoving me into a tiny, strangely familiar room.
    “Hang on when the elevator starts,” she said, squeezing her larger body into the box after me. “You’re in for a treat!”
    With a lurch, the ground rose underneath us. My legs buckled, but I kept my balance. The sensation was hauntingly familiar.
    It wasn’t a very long ride, barely enough time to grow accustomed to the sensation of movement inside the box. The doors hissed open.
    “Wasn’t that fun?” said the Administrator, laughing. “Right this way, duckling—please have a seat.
    In front of us was a long hall dominated by a huge wooden table. It was more solid wood than I’d seen in one place. The table was clearly meant for dozens of people, and I chose a seat near the end of it. The chair was strangely cold against my back, as if the skin there had been recently irritated.
    The Administrator moved to stand at my elbow. The entire space was done up in the style of an old-fashioned dining room, with lush carpet covering the floor and soft lights overhead. I had the strangest feeling that the lights should have made my head ache. They didn’t. A fireplace complete with the mechanical illusion of flames adorned one end of the room. A mechanimal dog lay dormant on the rug in front of it. I’d never seen mechanimals outside the museum trips we took every few years in school. I stared at the dog, willing it to move, until the Administrator joggled my elbow to catch my attention.
    “Let me introduce myself properly,” said the Administrator, beaming at me. Something about her saccharine smile and sing-song voice made me shift uneasily in my seat. “I am the Harvest and Power Administrator here at the Institute, but you can call me Gloriette. My entire purpose is to help you