by Eve Langlais
She shrugged. “That too. Hard to be someone’s friend or neighbor knowing that their proximity might get them tortured and killed. Not to mention some would have held me hostage in the hopes of ransoming Toxic Dust from my mother.”
“What? Why would they ask for dust?”
“Because of the price they can sell it for.” She rolled her eyes at the obviousness.
“But dust is worthless.” He frowned.
“Is it? Surely you’ve heard the stories.”
“You mean the dome myth that the particles in the air outside can turn people into raving lunatic deviants?” He laughed. “That’s such a load of shit. The dust in the Wastelands isn’t contaminated, just dry.”
“Wrong,” she said softly as they returned to their ride. “While most of it is useless as you claim, the stories are actually true. There is a toxic strain that is highly prized. It’s used in a variety of applications with the most popular being as a drug. Its existence is the only reason Emerald hadn’t collapsed. My mother keeps a tight grip on its location and trade.”
“Your mother is a Toxic Dust drug dealer.” He snorted. “Hey, maybe we should find a few bags and sell them so we could be rich.”
“It’s a little more complicated than that. I told you, it’s got to be the right kind.”
She’d never seen this supposed secret mine of it that her mother held with a tight fist, but she’d once seen someone in the throes of the drug. Riella preferred to keep her inhibitions and not fornicate with every long, cylindrical object around. Poor Karella spent a week in the clinic after her experimentation. Then months away from the nursery and her siblings. When she returned, she was a changed girl with shadows in her eyes and a flinch when people got near.
“Anything else about Emerald I should know?” he asked.
“A better place to start might be you telling me what you know so that I can expand or correct it.”
“Because just about everything I’ve been told or thought is wrong.” He scrubbed his face. “I can’t believe I never knew any of this. It’s like finding out dragons really exist.”
She bit her lip rather than admit they did. “When we get to Sapphire, don’t tell anyone you’re from Emerald because they won’t believe you. Regular citizens aren’t allowed to leave.”
“What am I supposed to say then?” he asked.
“Just say you’re from the Marshes.”
“You think I can pass?” He glanced at himself. “The clothes might be theirs, but most of them weren’t as tall as me.”
“You’ll blend in just fine. Lots of strangers in Sapphire, especially in the city. But we won’t be going inside it. We’ll stick to the outskirts where there is a second layer of town.”
“Sounds like a big place.”
“It is, which is why it’s one of the few without a wall.”
“Aren’t they scared at night?”
“It’s properly guarded against monsters, and even if it were overrun, they could retreat up the cliffs to safety. The land all around the town was razed and flattened. The cliff upon which the original castle and city sits only has a winding road leading to them. If they had to, the citizens could protect themselves for decades.”
“I assume the port is at the base.”
Riella nodded. “Set in a vee of land is a bay with docks. You’ll usually see a few massive warships moored at any time.”
“They dare to sail the seas?”
His disbelief brought a grin. “All the time. Aside from the five other continents, there are islands out there with tiny cities and villages of their own.”
What she didn’t say was some were maybe even far enough to escape her mother’s reach. But that would require crossing the big, dangerous ocean and hoping the warship could hold off a denizen of the deep.
But she’d take her chance with drowning or being eaten to following the shoreline north into Diamond, a dead zone. No one had been in and come out of there in twenty years. It was assumed lost to some kind of natural disaster—or monster—and to be avoided at all costs. A good place to hide if she could stay alive. But she didn’t just have herself to think of now.
“Do you know how to get back to Emerald?” he asked.
“Why would you go back?” she asked with a wrinkle of her nose. Then continued on to say, “I guess it’s possible, but if you want to avoid the queen and the well-guarded passes, then it would require crossing the marsh and returning to the tunnels. If you can find an opening. Perhaps there’s one that’s not flooded that will lead back under the mountains.”
He grimaced. “That sounds as if it might take a while. Is there another way to get to Emerald?”
“Why the sudden desire?”
“Axel and the others need to know that Emerald is essentially a lie. If they knew how big the world truly was…”
If the citizens suspected, then the queen might find herself too busy to worry about a runaway daughter.
“I’ve heard rumors that you used to be able to travel between the kingdoms via the Ajatarai forest.”
The border of wild trees spanned miles and miles. Dangerous, especially the closer you got to the crevice that ran along the middle of it. It had split open about a hundred years ago. Nasty things lived down chasms in the dark. They liked to hunt at night.
The bike hit a root and wobbled. Titan steadied it. “The forest isn’t an option. We’ve been looking for a way across. Even sent out watcher drones.”
“What did they see?” she asked.
“No idea. They all stopped working the moment they got in sight of the chasm.”
She blinked. “That’s kind of freaky.” It also made her wonder if something like that could harm Alfred.
Apparently, Titan read her mind. “Alfred probably shouldn’t try it.” Then he kept mumbling. “There must be a way we can let people know there’s other places they can go.”
“You’re talking about a revolution.”
He cast a glance sideways at her. “Guess I am.”
“Hero.” She coughed. When he didn’t say anything, she looked over and noticed the ruddy color in his cheeks. “Look at you. You want to save the world.”
“Not the world, just the people who’re slaves to others.”
“Citizens don’t see themselves as slaves, though.”
He snorted. “Maybe not in the city. But elsewhere people don’t like being told what to do and being hurt if they don’t listen. If the outer domes were to revolt, the farms and the factories, even the baby-making places, we could force the Enclave to negotiate with us and grant concessions.”
A grand idea. Noble even. “But there’s one problem with it,” she remarked.
“What?”
“The queen would destroy you. Your friends. Your friends’ friends. And so forth. You are not dealing with a nice person or a rational one. She will scorch the earth and murder everyone if it means keeping her power.”
“In other words, it’s hopeless,” was his bitter reply.
“Not quite.” And while she didn’t say it aloud, it was as if he read her mind.
“The queen must die.”
Sixteen
They spent a moment in silence after saying aloud the truth. Funny how it had a way of killing conversation.
She broke the quiet. “Your plan to use me as bait is the right one.”
“No, it’s not. I’ll find another way that doesn’t put the baby or you in danger.”
Her nose wrinkled. “Another way? How long will that take? And exactly where do you think we can go? There is nowhere that will ever truly be safe for her while the queen lives.”
“Her?” he queried.
“Yes, her. I’ve decided it feels like a girl.” She cupped her belly.
“Feel?”
“Call it a mother’s intuition.”
He drawled. “Guess I can’t be arguing with that.”
“I’m surprised you’re not insisting it’s a son.”
“It doesn’t matt
er what comes out of you. I’m the father.”
He said that now, but what if… “What if she has a tail?”
“I’ve heard you can teach them to toss knives with it.”
The fact he even had an answer stymied her. “You’ll teach her to fight?”
“Well, yeah. She’ll have to know how to defend herself.”
“I’d rather not live somewhere she has to.”
That had him shaking his head. “Now you’re living in a dream world. New Earth is a rough place. It needs tough people. Like you and me. Folks who know how to survive.”
“Since when are you an optimist?”
His mouth opened then pulled into a wide smile. “Since I stopped being a whine bag. I got caught up in missing the things I’d lost and didn’t recognize the things I’d gotten in their stead. Like these radioactive limbs.” He flexed his bionic arm. “And then there’s you and the baby. I gotta stick around and make sure everything goes all right.”
The sense of hope he was tossing around proved contagious. “You talk as if you’ll be around a long time.”
“I plan to live a goodly number of years yet. Maybe long enough to make a second daughter.”
“You would want another kid?” She wasn’t really having this conversation.
“I’d like a bunch, but that’s kind of up to you, I guess.” No declaration of love, and yet the lightness of his words made her heart stop and start all at once.
He halted his steps by their ride and forced her to a standstill too. He stared at her across the bike. Waiting for something. But she wasn’t ready.
Rather than make her own declaration, she mumbled, “Give me a second while I pee.”
Which she did far enough away he couldn’t hear her. When she returned, she ate a bird-like creature Alfred caught and Titan flamed over the wand torch he found in the bike’s tool kit. The man was handy. Almost as handy as her.
While they ate, Alfred perched on the vehicle and reported. “There is nothing to see.”
She gnawed on a crispy wing. “How can there be nothing? This isn’t nothing?” She waved the meat.
“I saw a bird. I brought it to you. I didn’t realize we now reported on insignificant wildlife.” Alfred’s sarcasm had survived his transition from body to body. Funny how she didn’t remember her father being this acerbic in real life. Or perhaps as a child she’d never noticed.
“Any humans? Signs of recent passage?” she asked.
“If there were, I’d have something to report. Doesn’t look like there’s much traffic this far north anymore,” Alfred said.
She didn’t trust it. It seemed too easy. The woods too quiet. It felt wrong she’d not had to fight off something by now.
A bit of water shared from their recently filled flask and they were off again. The grumbly motor of their vehicle made it impossible to hear anything around them.
They came across a path and followed it, only to be disappointed when it entered a small abandoned village.
Since she was driving, so Titan could nap, she had to make the decision. Stop and investigate, or keep going? Given the forlorn appearance of the place, and Titan’s heavy weight at her back, she chose to ignore it. Whatever had happened here didn’t concern her. She’d rather have Titan rested before the next attack.
Because they would have to fight at some point.
The hours passed, and she kept an eye out as the dappled sunlight dipped through the trees and made it hard to see due to moving shadows. Despite spending the ride tense and on edge, nothing occurred.
Alfred zipped ahead and burst from the edge of the trees with a mighty yell. “Aaaaahhhh!” He liked his new body. Genuinely liked. A robot who cared. Artificial intelligence at its finest.
Only as she edged past the tree line did she slow the vehicle.
Titan mumbled, “What’s wrong?”
“Take a look at your first ocean.”
The vista before them stretched, a span of water that went on and on.
Titan gasped. “Fuck me, it’s so goddamned big and light blue.”
She understood his surprise. On the eastern side of the continent, some of the seas ran red. “Apparently, if you keep sailing, you’ll fall off the edge eventually.”
“You think the Earth is flat?” he said with some surprise.
“Doesn’t everyone?” She held her serious expression a moment longer before busting out with laughter.
“You laugh, but my uncle swore the Fall sheared off half the planet. Which might have been believable if he didn’t also claim it exposed hell and only demons and the eternal fires of damnation waited for those who didn’t believe.”
She gaped. “Your uncle believed in the old religion?”
Ancients from Old Earth used to believe in a deity that would grant them a position in a beauteous place called Heaven, or, if sinful, in Hell.
He offered her a wry smile. “My uncle also claimed he spoke to the trees in Seimor Forest. He was somewhat eccentric.”
“The only religion we learned was to obey the Enclave. But as part of our history, we were taught about the Ancients and how they used to all believe in these hidden gods. Even fought wars in their names.”
“What was it like being raised in the Enclave?”
“Hard.” The first word that came to mind. “From as far back as I can remember, I was training. Learning.”
“What about when your lessons were done for the day?”
She shook her head. “We rarely had free moments. We never got to play. Everything was about increasing our power. Working for the crown or anyone else who asked.”
“But you were a princess. Surely you could say no.”
“Not until we became full Enclave and received a proper rank. While my siblings and I were higher than a regular citizen, we had to show obedience to full Enclave members. Everyone in the city is sorted into tiers of power.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“I would have said deadly if you make a misstep. As prince and princesses, my siblings and I were in constant rivalry. Three sisters, one brother. And none of them as good as me in the psionics, which meant they were constantly trying to take me down.” She was the only one to inherit two powers and the strength to use them both.
“Your rare strength is why your mother kept you even after you lost your arm.”
“Kept me but made it clear I’d never be seen in public. Never be her true heir. I got to live in the city but was little better than a prisoner. And then, after she killed my father, I was shipped off.”
He reached for her hand and held it. “I am starting to think your life was pretty shitty compared to mine.”
“I had shelter, food, and all the education I could ask for.” She pointed out the positive. Because, hard as she had it, at least she didn’t have to survive in the Wasteland.
“What happened if you disobeyed?” he asked softly.
She stared out at the still water. It was said back before the Fall the ocean used to move in waves, lapping against the shores with something called high tide then ebbing on a low one.
That was before. Now it just sat there. Pretty and still until something long and sinuous emerged from it, slapped a passing bird in the sky, and dragged it under.
“Did I just see—?” he exclaimed.
“Yes, you did.” Then because she felt like it. “If we go the market, there are vendors who sell skewers of kraken meat roasted with herbs.”
“You’re fucking with me.” He glanced at her then huffed. “Fuck me you aren’t. You can eat that monster?”
“It’s actually quite delicious, which is good because it makes the city less dependent on farms and outside food.”
“The world is a big fucking place,” he muttered.
“It is, and you’ve barely explored any of it yet.”
“I wish the people in Haven could see this.” He swept a hand. “They deserve to know we don’t have to stay in shitholes or keep running. There are places to go. Fr
eedom to live.”
“If you stay out of the clutches of the bad people who want to keep their power, like my mother.”
“I didn’t get the impression the swamp king was bad.”
“He made himself king, meaning he went after power.”
“Maybe, but that doesn’t mean he’s evil.” Titan shook his head. “I had a chance to see how things worked, and while the Marsh king rules tightly, he’s also loose at the same time. His citizens make their own decisions and follow some simple laws. If they don’t, then the punishments are public, and the person being accused of a crime has a chance to defend themselves.”
“If by defense you mean battle. Which hardly seems fair. The weak can’t fight,” she remarked. “It seems like it’s tilted to the bullies.”
“Except for the fact that they can ask for a champion to fight in their stead. I won enough times I became the king’s own fighter in the ring. On matters that required a firm conviction, I was called in.”
“You won and then kept fighting despite winning over and over? One would almost think you enjoyed it.”
“I did. Besides, it helped keep me in shape while I waited.”
“Waited for a kick in the ass,” she muttered, but she smiled too.
“Keep in mind it wasn’t bad. The beds they provided proved better than the ground. Food was good. It wasn’t just some mush slopped into a bowl. There was meat and some kind of flat cake. Fruit. They even found me some books to read during my recovery time.”
“You read?” It surprised her.
“Yes, I read,” he hissed, obviously insulted.
“Don’t act so mad. It’s an honest question given not everyone learns to read. And books can be a tad scarce.”
“What do you mean scarce? All you need is access to a library on an electronic tablet. You can read modern to ancient classics.”
“I wasn’t allowed computers when I was young. All metal working was strictly overseen.”
“Seriously?”
“At times I was surprised they allowed me a steel fork.”
“A fork is a good weapon. I killed someone with a spoon once.”
“I have no idea how to reply,” she said. “Other than to say that’s impressive?”