Fledgling, p.1
Fledgling, page 1
Kokila
An imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, New York
First published in the United States of America by Kokila, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024
Copyright © 2024 by Sajidah Kutty
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Contents
Dedication
Characters
Epigraph
Part One
Raisa of Upper Earth: How We Met
Musaid of Underground: At the Tower of Bones
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of a Chess Move
Raisa of Upper Earth the Proposal
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of the Ever-Changing Aerd
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of a Return
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of an Attempted Reunion
Musaid of Underground: Resistance to Treason
Raisa of Upper Earth: Goodbyes
Part Two
Musaid of Underground: An Account of an Air Carrier Possessed
Raisa of Upper Earth: Unknitted
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of Mission Disruption
Musaid of Underground: An Intervention
Raisa of Upper Earth: Caught, Again
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of Men Who Thwart
Raisa of Upper Earth: Trapped in a Puzzle
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of a Flicker of Hope
Part Three
Musaid of Underground: Mind Games
Musaid of Underground: Lord of the Frogs
Musaid of Underground: Lein in My Brain
Musaid of Underground: A Barbecue on the Beach
Part Four
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of a Longing for the Underground
Raisa of Upper Earth: A Head Full of Dreams
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of Dreaming in Memories and a Love So Perfect
Eyas, a Child of Underground: A Record of a Purchase and a Theft, Excerpt One
Part Five
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record-Seeker
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: Two Orphans, No Bird
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: Record-Keepers and a Record Remnant
Eyas, a Child of Underground: A Record of a Purchase and a Theft, Excerpt Two
Part Six
Raisa of Upper Earth: Monsters and Fledglings
Raisa of Upper Earth: Performances
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of the Grandest Hive and an Unseen One
Eyas, a Child of Underground: A Record of a Purchase and a Theft, Excerpt Three
Part Seven
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: Knowledge to the Rescue
Musaid of Underground: With or without You
Part Eight
Eyas of Underground: When We Drove through Ullula
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of the Cost of Resistance
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: Reunited
Raisa of Upper Earth: Alone in a Circle
Hasuf of Upper Earth: A Record of the Sound of Silence
Nayf of Lower Earth: Two Parts of a Whole Soul
Raisa of Upper Earth: The Fledgling
Hasuf of Upper Earth: A Record of Revolutionary Teachings
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of Finding the Key to Peace
Jansu of Lower Earth: A Record of a Foolish Escape
Lein of Lower Earth: A Record of a Prologue
Part Nine
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of a Poem and a Prayer
Musaid of Underground: My Love and a Love Nest
Nada of Lower Earth: A Record of Perfection
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of a Visit to Upper Earth
Raisa of Upper Earth: A Record of Sabotage at a Market
Musaid of Underground: Investigations Before—
Part Ten
Musaid of Underground: Time to Say Goodbye
Raisa of Upper Earth: A Record of Living Death
Lein of Lower Earth: A Record of How the End Began
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of Treachery
Lein of Lower Earth: A Record of a First and Last Auction
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of a Loss
Raisa of Upper Earth: A Record of a Weapon, Ready
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of a Switch
Raisa of Upper Earth: A Record of Standing Alone, Standing with Thousands
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of a Spark Onstage
Raisa of Lower Earth: A Record of the Start of the Second Revolution
Lein of Lower Earth: A Record of My Demise
Part Eleven
Raisa of Lower Earth: A Record of the Death of a Fledgling
Nayf of Lower Earth: A Record of Returning Broken in Half
Musaid of Underground: A Record of the Truest Epitaph
Khalda of Lower Earth: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Jansu of Lower Earth: A Record of the End of the Attempted Second Revolution—the Beginning of War
Khalda: Record of the Last Record-Keeper
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
About the Author
_148396024_
To Hamza—
from an early age, you had an ear open for
distinct perspectives. From you, I learned how to listen better.
Characters
Upper Earth
Aeon Freelund—Raisa’s father, the chief guardian of the Council of Guardians
Align—Alliance Liberté of Independent Guardian Nations, a governmental confederation made up of Upper Earth and the lands known as the Bridge, with decisions made through a seventeen-member Council of Guardians
Dame Kizuwanda McCoy—a sought-after garment engineer of Upper Earth
Raisa Freelund—daughter of the chief guardian of the Council of Guardians
The Bridge
Sumr Almarady—Raisa’s mother, resident of the Bridge, born on Lower Earth
Lower Earth
Gauis Verg—the amir of Lower Earth
Jansu—a member of the Ahraar
Khalda Jenin—sole remaining member of a record-keeping family; her family and all other record-keepers were murdered on orders from Lein’s father, Gauis
Lein Verg—son of the amir of Lower Earth, soon to be confirmed a guardian on the council
Murrabi Hasuf/The Tangled Servant/Hasuf Mukhtar—an advisor to the former amira of Lower Earth, went into hiding after the amira was killed
Nada Verg—Lein’s cousin, granddaughter of the former amira of Lower Earth, imprisoned at twelve
Nayf Verg—Nada’s twin brother, imprisoned at twelve
Nushba Chemalk—the former amira of Lower Earth, now deceased
Salwe—Nada’s mentor/trainer in prison
The Ahraar—a group calling for revolution on Lower Earth to disrupt and cease the hold of Upper Earth/ALIGN
Underground
Eyas—a child formerly enslaved in a bird shop, cannot speak
Musaid Habib—Lein’s personal pilot, from an Underground family, taken in as a child by the amira of Lower Earth when his parents died in an explosion
Saqri—Nada and Nayf’s nanny, Eyas’s grandmother
I swear to you that I am the record-keeper of the second revolution, one of the seven who sought refuge in the cave.
My deepest hope is that you’re reading this when there is no longer peace in the world.
The following is a compilation of records written from individual memories and independently stored caches, told to those trusted, or collected by other firsthand means. They are recorded in past tense and third person, except from the one who was not of us, who preferred keeping her account distinct.
And except an entry from one of our own—before she left us.
I have also included select communications from the governmental organization ALIGN.
I’ve been told that I am the last remaining record-keeper on Earth.
This cannot be.
Join me.
Expose. Disrupt.
Resist.
Part One
3rd Day of the Month of Graze
Upper Earth
Gregorian Year 2153
Raisa of Upper Earth:
How We Met
For the future of our world, he has to fall in love with me. But at the party Papa orchestrated for this to occur, Lein has yet to glance my way.
Lein didn’t even look at me when we were first introduced, pride swelling Papa’s voice. “My daughter, Raisa. Raisa, may I present to you Crown Prince Lein, soon to be a guardian representing Lower Earth.”
With his hand firmly clasped in my father’s, Lein merely nodded at Papa’s announcement and then moved on—to shake hands with the other men in the receiving line, to lift the hands of the other women to his bent forehead, ever a model of perfect Upper Earth customs despite his Lower Earth upbringing.
For the rest of the evening, my eyes trail him. I can’t help it. Papa prepped me for this introduction for months: I read the dossiers on Lein transferred by Alet, Papa’s assistant; I practiced the scripts Alet composed, full of warmth and wit, in attempts to win Lein over, in attempts to overcome my supposed aloofness when meeting new people. The latter task was hard work, to be truthful.
For ALIGN’s sake, I even deigned to dress in Lein’s favorite color.
But I’m left nursing an unsipped drink, wearing what Dame Kizuwanda assured me was a gorgeous dark emerald dress, standing at the outskirts of the party alongside whoever makes their way to me, my eyes darting to find Lein again and again as he flits about the hall, laughing with some, speaking low and serious, head bent, with others.
I locate him easily every time he pauses to scan the room before moving on with purposeful long strides to work another corner of the Visionaries Ballroom, built in the stuffy baroque style of centuries past.
Never, in any of those sweeping scans, does his gaze register my presence in the slightest.
“Raisa, you’re not listening.” Suzume tilts her head—I can’t tell if it’s to check the left side of my forehead, to see whether my link is activated, or if it’s in judgment. “It’s a scalplink-off event.”
“I’m not knitted.” I hide the unease in my voice—access to the information a scalplink provides would make this event easier to navigate. But our social events are increasingly scalplink-free to encourage stronger connections between us. I don’t bother to tilt my own head to prove to Suzume that my link is idle.
She holds back a laugh. “I was hardly suggesting you were.”
“You were talking about pomegranates.”
“Did you notice the lack? No trace of pom in our drinks, no pom molasses dip for the amuse-bouche. How can this be the status at the Autumn’s Eve Gala? All the guardians are here, and not just the Uppers.” She leans over to whisper, the long trails of tiny diamonds on her scalplink falling over one eye like shimmery bangs. “Even the new guardian of Lower Earth is here. If the council itself and their guests cannot be provided with offerings from the best of the harvest, what does that mean for the rest of us.” She ends in her typical way of speaking, a question uttered flatly, unquestioningly.
I nod, keeping my opinions to myself. Suzume is my closest companion—I would never say confidante—and she knows better than to ask such questions with any note of inquiry.
She knows that as I’m the chief guardian’s daughter, I likely know the reasons behind every decision made for this gathering and any others organized by the guardians. Perhaps she’s waiting for me to slip up and reveal a small kernel of truth. But I only reveal what my father tells me to, intentionally planted seeds of information—or misinformation—that strategically spread from Suzume through the upper echelons of our society.
I absolutely know that our carefully managed Upper Earth existence will only last, at most, twenty more years, that the future of the Bridge, the land mass on Lower Earth that we’re connected to, is projected to be even shorter—perhaps a decade. That all the years of working to establish peace and safety on the remnants of our planet after the Great Catastrophe are being undone by the latest agitations by the brutes of Lower Earth, which have been growing in severity and violence in the last ten years.
Our food security is under the greatest threat at the moment as the brutes double their efforts to disrupt the flow of goods from Lower Earth farms to the Bridge processing plants and launch sites, gleefully seizing on this horrendous way to hurt us.
Crown Prince Lein’s father, Amir Gauis, not at the gala, governs Lower Earth but with increasing ineffectiveness. After a short period of iron-fisted rule when the agricultural and mining operations were in full swing, he gradually lost hold of the small towns and villages of Lower Earth. Forget about the mission to track and control the brutes—that fell to us in Upper Earth and the Bridge, to our commissaries, our experts, our spies. A drunkard and womanizer, the dossier on the palace revealed, Amir Gauis lives in a constant state of stupor, only revived by the periodic smuggling of new women into the palace or his excursions to visit the bride markets. His rulership, once seen as a hopeful replacement of the previous leader, is now a security threat to ALIGN. Resources and support must be shifted to his son, Lein, who by all accounts is more sophisticated in both lifestyle choices and world views.
The sophisticated Lein is now laughing at something Moineau just shared, her porcelain-smooth face upturned to his own olive-tinted one. He appears taken by her, which isn’t surprising.
She’s a tiny thing, aptly named “sparrow” in French, one of the three languages of Upper Earth. She tells everyone she meets everything in her brain, which is often filled with quite fanciful observations connecting the happenings around her with something she just read. She reads a lot. I wonder if her scalplink, dressed up tonight in stems of gold reaching to the center of her forehead, is idle now, or whether it’s offering facts to share with a rapt-faced Lein.
I recall what I read this morning: Lein has great respect for the accruement of knowledge. He believes in access to information for all. He is committed to the importance of knitting the population of Lower Earth into the streams of civilizational scholarship ALIGN has preserved. He believes in the immediate implementation of the Enlightenment Project.
“He doesn’t appear to have Lower Earth ways, that’s certain.” Suzume is also observing Lein now, as he continues to bestow Moineau with amused attention. “I would have sworn he grew up here with us. His manners are beyond reproach.”
We watch Lein’s face—dark eyes under dark groomed eyebrows, a straight nose, and a wide mouth that bursts into smiles just as easily as it closes into a thoughtful line, framed by an impeccable jawline and a high brow—transform as he leans closer to Moineau. She puts a hand on his arm and says something into his ear earnestly, at which he draws away to indulge her with a beautiful smile. Even from across the room, I can read what his lips say in response: “I’ll keep your secret, not to worry.”
Moineau is also wearing green, but hers is a short, sleeveless, simple sheath that emphasizes her ingenuousness. It’s not like the long fulsome gown I’m wearing on my tall frame. The dossier suggested Lower Earth men prefer outward modesty.
