Obedience on Fire

by J D Morganne

  A few Lions began to gather the dead, while most of them guarded.

  Eshauna led Jaxon past the scene into an alley. It enclosed them tighter and tighter, until Jaxon could hardly breathe. Eshauna pushed through a narrow door into the antechamber, onto the platform that overlooked a maelstrom of Earthens.

  The heat from their fear fueled him, while making his stomach queasy. “Beck’s in here?”

  Eshauna nodded and waved him down the staircase that opened into the thousands. She had become a presence everyone expected. They all reached out to her, begging for answers. Mothers clung to their young, demanding to know why Torchers had ambushed.

  Tunnels connected every tier in Jerus. Cayman’s Torchers could get inside without a problem, yet no Lions guarded the exits. There should’ve been a guard at every exit. Or two. Jaxon’s thoughts got lost in all the panic, but he hadn’t forgotten his training. “Do you see Beck?” He tried again.

  Eshauna didn’t say a word until they were standing in front of a slender hall, white light gleaming through the glass door. “She’s in there.” She pushed the door open for him.

  Jaxon was no stranger to Beck’s vexation. Nor was he its friend. With caution, he peeked his head into the room at the end of the hall, where she was furiously going over contingency plans with a panel of older men and women. He was relieved to find her unharmed but knew better than to intrude. He waited until they filed out of the room. An old man paused to rub Jaxon’s arm, like he had lost something important, too. Then Beck waved him inside and motioned for him to close the door.

  “Where’s Nano?”

  “Searching through the de”— Jaxon caught himself. “Survivors. He’s looking for survivors.”

  Beck nodded, said nothing more. She stood there, rubbing her eyes red.

  “What’s happening?” he said.

  She looked at him at first like she was about to remind him how infantile he was. Then, with compassion. “What we knew would happen the whole time. They’re coming for you.”

  Then he would go. He wouldn’t have anyone else suffering for him. “Your people”—

  “You are my people too. Don’t pull that shit.”

  Her words gave him pause. She thought of him as her people? He’d only meant he wasn’t from Knowledge. He wasn’t Earthen. Native Earthens were dying because of him. The blood. The smell. In his mind, he was walking past Kami Square. Except, this time, these deaths were on his hands.

  “Come with me,” Beck said, like she sensed his dilemma.

  He followed her without reluctance, felt the Koloberry anchor to him before they were there. When they got there, Beck crossed the bridge. Closer now, its intoxicating poison smothered Jaxon. He held his breath, refusing to take another step closer.

  “Your presence has unbalanced Knowledge. This thing doesn’t think you should be here,” Beck said.

  If it had a mind to think, it was right. He didn’t want to be anywhere near it either. Beck wasn’t affected like him. Inside, he was dying, holding his breath for long periods of time. As if the tree was his predator, he felt the need to defend himself from it.

  “I have a confession,” Beck said.

  Jaxon’s ears twitched.

  “I figured out why Cayman wants you.” She grabbed a piece of fruit, minding her fingers on the thorns. “I’ve known for some time. Didn’t wanna believe it. But I saw what you did when we fought.”

  Jaxon tapped his finger against his leg, as he waited for her to make sense.

  “At first, I didn’t wanna believe I was this stupid”— She picked the thorns and flicked them to the ground. “But let’s be honest, I walked you through my front door.”

  “Well… I walked myself.”

  Beck didn’t laugh. After twirling the fruit in her hand, she bit hard into it. She wiped away the juices that squirted onto her lips and nose. She shrugged, before tossing him the koloberry. He caught it on reflex. He hadn’t held it long before the skin began to crisp and blacken, crumbling like wilted rose petals. In seconds, it was inedible.

  Why’d it do that? Jaxon stared at the dead fruit, trying to make sense of it. A soundless alarm beeped in his head, like he needed to be on alert now.

  Beck swallowed the chunk she’d bitten and smiled, having confirmed what she knew.

  The fruit had reacted like the leaves in the koloberry water Aria gave him. Its sweet smell died with it, putrid and foul like unbison blood. What was he supposed to make of this? His palms were so clammy, he couldn’t grip it anymore. He dropped it and it crumbled to dust at his feet.

  Beck stared at him, not surprised or amused. Simply tired. “This is why they sent you. It’s so obvious, I should slap myself.” She pulled folded paper from her back pocket and brought it back to him. She unfolded it to reveal a painting, a replica of the Koloberry.

  “My ma painted it,” she said. “In short, they want you to destroy it.”

  Why would anyone want to destroy the most beautiful thing that existed? Why the hell would Jaxon do it? He read over the many notes scribbled in sloppy penmanship. Toxic, acidic water. Celecomb crystals act as armor. Indestructible, unless flames of blackness. Kurohi flames burn koloberries— produce ‘black dust’??? No tree=no manipulation— possible.

  His eyes darted back to the name Kurohi. He knew that place. In Obedience, the Kurohi Ruins was an uninhabitable wasteland. A violent plague had ripped through, killing its children. Irveng Syndrome had taken more. Dasher had evacuated the inhabitants, who hadn’t died, to Sunguld. Before Jaxon’s time but he knew the history. What did that place have to do with his flames? “What is this?”

  “Can’t you read? Those crystals in the tree are indestructible. Well… were. They’ve shielded it for hundreds of years. The water is like acid, but it doesn’t affect it, either. The only one who can burn that tree is you, according to this. Congrats, you may have become my number one enemy.”

  “I don’t”— Jaxon blinked fast at the paper, wanting desperately for his addled thoughts to clear.

  She was saying Dasher had sent Jaxon there on purpose. That made no sense. The koloberry’s medicinal qualities had saved Jaxon from glowing veins, and anxiousness, and healed his burns and scrapes and bruises. For the first time, he wondered if it would heal Irveng Syndrome. No doubt that idea had crossed Dasher’s mind. No way he’d send Jaxon to destroy it with that as a possibility.

  Dasher and Farah had known about the tree before he had. And his black flames. There was a greater force than betrayal slinking its way through his brain. Though he had every urge to find the nearest hole and yell until he was blue in the face, he tucked his hands behind his back and stood up straight. “If I did that”—

  “No more manipulation… in any Door.”

  Jaxon froze, his toes curling in his shoes. Was that possible? What did their manipulation have to do with a tree? “How?”

  “Don’t have that answer yet.”

  “He wouldn’t.”

  Beck’s eyes shrunk, her chin wrinkling as she stared at Jaxon. “Why the hell wouldn’t he?”

  “Because… people are sick where I’m from. He wouldn’t”—

  “What? Sacrifice millions of lives?”

  “People are dying! Dasher wouldn’t have me burn down your tree when it could save them.”

  Beck chuckled, twisting up her mouth. “You’re the smartest man I know, but you say the dumbest things sometimes.”

  He wouldn’t, Jaxon thought, though deep down he knew Beck was right. Dasher wasn’t the kind of leader who harbored some insane manifesto about keeping Obedience healthy and pure, but he did whip people for eating chocolate. Kids got spanked for forgetting their prayers. Women never knew—never felt—love. And if it was true, if Dasher and Farah had sent Jaxon to burn the Koloberry, he couldn’t stay there. He couldn’t let Knowledge become Obedience.

  He looked at his trembling hands. “Okay.” He stepped away. “I shouldn’t be here.”

  “You’re not going anywhere.” Beck
snatched the paper and tucked it away.

  “You don’t know her. If Cayman’s anything like Farah”—

  “I don’t know the wench but she ain’t ever met me neither.” Her words faded as she finished. She took a deep breath, before sighing. “Swear to me you didn’t know anything about this.”

  “I swear on nature itself.” If he had known, Beck was the first person he would’ve petitioned for support. Though—like him—she didn’t have answers.

  “Swear on Kamiaka.”

  “Yes. I do.”

  “Good.” She went from biting her thumb nail to nodding. “We’re not gonna let anything happen to you, Robot, Aria’d kill me. I need you here for my earthday anyway.” She rubbed his arm. “We’ll figure it out,” she said.

  She didn’t rub him in what he would consider an affectionate way. Still, Jaxon’s stomach ached, his breath seemed to form a cold ball in his chest. He believed her.

  He snatched his arm away as Eshauna came running across the bridge.

  “Excuse me,” she said, her face filled with panic, a glossy sheen of sweat across her forehead. “I been lookin’ everywhere for y’all. Unbison are invading again.”

  They all rushed out, not needing another warning. Eshauna’s bracelets dangled as she waved her arms, rushing hundreds of people through the exits unbison hadn’t blocked from outside. They crawled a narrow tunnel into Tiyeert, where sirens wailed for miles.

  Jaxon couldn’t take the time to be stumped. Adrenaline tingled down his spine, rushing him forward. Beck shot him a final look of uneasiness, before shooting in the opposite direction.

  “Find Nano,” she called.

  That was Jaxon’s plan, but his instinct was to help an older man, shielding himself from a debris splatter. He helped a woman, a group of kids. Then, he ran into Beck’s hand. She gripped his shirt and snatched herself to his height. “I said find my brother.” She shoved him back, but Jaxon snatched her shoulders and clasped her to him, spinning her away from the stone claw of an unbison. They would’ve torn through him if a fist of what looked like clay hadn’t trapped the beast. The fist plugged half the unbison’s body into the hole it had created and anchored it there.

  “Nice catch,” Jaxon said.

  Beck pulled herself up. “My brother, please.”

  Jaxon left her again. This time, he had her brother in his sight.

  Nano was slashing at the ribs of an unbison, screaming like a madman, as its tail shredded the fountain. Before Jaxon could snap it to hell, another unbison hurled him into Bongani’s. He heard and felt the glass pop beneath him. “Ah, shit.” His bones vibrated with a soreness he had no time to react to or recover from. Grunting, he ducked through the doorway and whistled after the beast.

  Nano didn’t need his help. “Look,” he yelled, using the unbison’s back as a trampoline. “I vanquished a beast!”

  The unbison that hadn’t responded to Jaxon’s whistle was charging toward Nano like a kid on sugar. Jaxon snapped and regretted it immediately. He had forgotten his flames weren’t… the same.

  Black flames popped into a fiery ball and bulleted toward the unbison, before an explosion and a flash of blinding light. It splattered bloody rain, too fast for him to withdraw. It didn’t stop there. Their dying heat extended from every direction slamming into him. The impact vacuumed every morsel of oxygen from him. He couldn’t scream. A memory played of his mother standing in her pond, waving from behind a fluctuating gate. He took a couple steps forward, toward her, before collapsing.

  “Bait?” Nano’s hand on his back was as painful as Dasher’s fire scorching his ribs.

  He felt everything, hot and cold at his core, moving out like he would explode too. His eyes were wide open, but all he saw was a white void. In the moment, he tasted death, while blood rained from the sky.

  28

  An unbison chased Beck from town, down past the homes that sat on the narrow hills, leading into the barren fields before the forest began to take over. Beck tried to yank free the manipulated arrow she’d plunged into the unbison, but the animal was too fat. She didn’t need it anyway.

  Cayman was a fool. Did he want Beck to slaughter his last unbison? He would risk eradicating an entire species, getting to Jaxon. It was too insane to be laughable.

  “He said you would show mercy.”

  Beck turned to find a Torcher, covered in black paint, glaring at her like she’d killed his mother. “When will you learn? Cayman is a liar.”

  “He’s your father.”

  Hearing another person say that was like having dirt stuffed down her throat. “That means he’s a liar with kids.” Beck snorted before laughing. “You owe me an arrow.”

  The Torcher didn’t find it funny and showed her that by shooting two arrows in her direction. Beck ducked out of their trajectory and crouched while twirling a circle in the dirt. Thrashing roots bursts from the ground and roped the Torcher. Unperturbed, he didn’t squirm. Beck even thought she heard him laugh.

  “Only needed one.”

  “This could’ve been simple,” the man said and grunted as he tried to writhe free.

  “You killed my people.” Beck examined the flame rifle he’d dropped. They’d updated them to shoot arrows. Their weapons were becoming more advanced. A battle she couldn’t win. “Nothing about this was gonna be simple.” She manipulated the roots to fracture his rifle into little pieces.

  “It’s the Kurohi kid. Not us.”

  Beck cringed at the idea that Cayman and his Torchers had known about Jaxon and his black flames long before she had. “Yeah, you want him to burn the Koloberry. Weeyo?”

  “Do you understand anything?” He was hissing through his teeth now, every word more venomous than the last. “I don’t want him to burn anythin’. I’m trying to help Jerus! If you burn that tree, Knowledge is done. You hear me?”

  What does that mean? Beck thought. She looked at where his rifle sat in pieces. He’d had the perfect chance to kill her, but he hadn’t. And in his panic, he was spilling more information than he should’ve. Beck wasn’t going to let him stop now. She clenched the roots tighter when he started to wriggle.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You disrespect Fifth Emiir Yahid’s memory.”

  Beck shot the man a baleful look. She waved her hand and drew him down. She punched him across his face so hard, her knuckles broke the skin at his eye. “You ever speak about my ma again and I’ll kick your teeth into your tonsils.” It would be easy to break his nose. She shuddered at the pleasing thought of breaking more of him. All of him. Any Torcher who had the temerity to bring up her mother was a dead one.

  The silence between them dragged as the tension grew. “When Eshauna takes your place”—

  Beck punched him again.

  “She’ll do a better job,” the Torcher screamed.

  Beck broke his nose. Blood gushed from his nostrils.

  Eshauna was her half-sister. Cayman had moved on before leaving her ma. Had started other families—with Eshauna’s mom, with Zo’s mom— while pretending to still care. He had lied to Beck’s face when he said he loved her mother, and Nano… and her. He hadn’t been the one to kill her, but he had run, had left her bleeding to death. When they’d escaped and waited for months, he hadn’t come. When Nano was sick and dying on a dirty alley floor, he still hadn’t come. They had saved themselves, while Cayman plotted his next nefarious move.

  “Why does Cayman want Jaxon to burn my Koloberry?” She gripped her fists and the roots squeezed him tighter. “He knows what that’ll do.”

  The Torcher gasped. He tried to laugh but ended up coughing. “Be… because… without it… there’s nothing stopping them.”

  “Who?”

  “Obedience, child!”

  Beck’s forehead creased for the briefest moment before the epiphany struck like heartbreak. “Obedience wants Knowledge.” She stepped away, terror slithering through her. She couldn’t trust this man. Not a word he said. He was one of Cayman�
�s. He was a liar.

  “Obedience wants every Door obedient… and with that boy… if he burns the Koloberry… they’ll get them. Us.”

  That didn’t make sense. Cayman had fought so hard to separate Alasta from Jerus. He’d ruined his family—families—for it. He would hand Alasta over to another Door like that? Jaxon was the most innocent person she had met, and they wanted to use him for something like this?

  “You can’t let him burn it.”

  “Why would I?” Beck said. “Why won’t they get another stupid kid with black flames?”

  “You have no idea who he is, do you? There are no others. He killed them. He’s a ravager.”

  Beck refused to believe his lies. “Stop talking.” All Torchers were liars. Jaxon wasn’t like that. She didn’t believe it for a second. While the Torcher squirmed from her loosening roots, she grounded herself, sucked in a deep breath and pushed it out. What was she supposed to do? Jaxon had asked her for a way back to Obedience. She couldn’t let him go back there. She couldn’t let him stay in Knowledge, either.

  Boysenberry wafted on the wind, broke up her thoughts. On Saturday mornings, she would watch her ma create worlds with a paintbrush. Cayman would stand behind them, his boysenberry cologne as magical as the art. When Beck was small, she thought he was protecting her. She knew better now.

  She turned fast enough to see him, but not fast enough to stop him from wringing her neck. He slammed her to the ground. The impact stole the air from her lungs. She hacked, clutching at her chest.

  “Where is he?” Cayman stalked after her as she struggled to regain her footing.

  Her vision teeter-tottered and she did with it. She had done herself a disservice by running off alone. For the first time in a while, she feared her father. Her toes scraped the ground as he lifted her again. She kicked and twisted her torso, trying to wrench out of his grasp. Out of her control, roots twisted and buried themselves.

  “Where is he?” Cayman demanded and threw her to the ground again.