by Seven Steps
“Who cares about these creatures?” Eva roared. “What about the Venian blood that’s been spilled? Don’t you care about that?”
“Of course I care,” Lex said. “I had friends die, just like you.”
“Then why are you doing this?” Eva asked.
“Because I can’t allow these people to suffer any more than they already have,” Lex said. “If Embrya wants Arees, she’ll have to come get her herself.”
Kiln helped Nadira stand.
“She already told us that she can’t,” Eva said. “We have to take her back. We have to finish what we started.”
“We?” Lex said. “We didn’t start anything. You didn’t even want to come here.”
“I’m here now,” Eva said.
“Against your will,” Lex said.
“That doesn’t matter,” Eva said. “She’s a murderer! Don’t you remember?”
“I do, Eva, but—”
“If you aren’t going to take her back,” Eva interrupted, “then I will.”
Eva sprinted toward Arees’ floating body, but before she could grab Arees, a stone wall rose between them.
“Eva, stop!” Lex commanded.
Eva whipped around to face him. “You are a fool!”
“We’re leaving, and Arees is staying.”
“Why, Lex? After everything, after all we’ve done, after all we’ve been through to get here, why? Why?” Eva put her head in her hands. She looked up at Lex, her eyes turning wild. “Why?” she whispered. “Yes, I see it now. I should have seen it all along.”
“What are you talking about?” Lex asked.
“You and Arees,” Eva said. “I should have known. I should have known!”
“There is no me and Arees,” Lex said.
“But you want there to be, don’t you?” Eva asked. “That’s why you are letting her live. You don’t care about the creatures or this place any more than I do. You want her to be happy. You want to curry her favor. That’s why you are letting her go. You have feelings for her.”
Lex looked down. “Maybe I do, but—”
“You are a fool,” Eva interrupted. “Are you so desperate for love that you will fall for any woman willing to open her arms to you? Is that what happened, Lex? Did she open her arms to you?”
Lex shook his head. “No.”
Eva stalked toward Lex. “First it was Kiera, and now it’s Arees.” Eva backed Lex toward the broken gate. “Well, let me let you in on a secret, Lex. Once you get Arees back to Zenith, she will return to the way she was. You may think that she’s changed, but she will rip your throat out once she remembers who she was.”
Lex’s back hit the wall. “You don’t know that.”
“Take her back, Lex,” Eva said. “Then we’ll see.”
“No.”
Eva hissed and walked to where Nadira watched with hooded eyes. “Nadira, talk some sense into him.”
Nadira, though still woozy, nodded. “Lex, we have to take her back.”
Lex shook his head. “No, she’s changed. I can feel it in my blood.”
“Yes, hot blood,” Eva said. She walked toward Lex again. “Did her pretty face heat your blood? Is she dancing in your head like I used to?”
Lex’s eyes narrowed. “Stop it.”
“And now you want to be with her,” Eva said.
“I said stop it, Eva,” Lex said.
“You would rather take a filthy, murdering, psychopath into your bed than—”
“I said stop it!” Lex interrupted.
Eva flew back into a wall of the tunnel, her body crumpling.
“Lex, stop!” Nadira jumped between Eva and Lex, her eyes narrowing. “Eva may not be the best with words, but what she says is right. If you desire Arees, then fine. But that doesn’t mean that the mission stops. She’s a murderer. We have to get her back to Zenith.”
Lex crossed his arms. “What if I don’t go back with you?”
“Then our future is unsure,” Nadira said. “Is that what you want, Lex? To have us all be in danger?”
Lex weakly shook his head.
“What about us?” Pennick asked, his hand tightly coiled around Seven’s. “If we stay here, then what happens to us?”
Lex sighed. “I don’t know.”
“But you said that Embrya had plans for us,” Pennick said. “What if we are supposed to be something special?”
Lex looked down.
“We can’t leave him,” Kiln said. “‘Follow him as if you were following me. Even when you feel that the path has veered, keep on it. He will lead you back to success.’ Those were Embrya’s exact words. We have to stay together.”
Nadira looked at Kiln and frowned. She walked to Eva’s side and knelt beside her.
“Nadira, we have to go,” Eva whispered. “We have to go back to the ship and leave this place.”
Nadira looked at the floor.
“Nadira?”
Nadira took a deep breath and exhaled shakily.
“Eva, we have to follow Lex,” she said. “Embrya said so. Even if he’s wrong, we have to follow him.”
“But he’s crazy,” Eva said. “He’s going against the Magistrate. He won’t take Arees back to Zenith.”
“I don’t think—”
“Nadira, wake up!” Eva interrupted. “Think! Be a woman for once in your life and think about all of the evidence, and go with the facts instead of your heart.”
“I am going with the facts,” Nadira said. “I’m going by what Embrya said.”
Eva felt her body shake as anger rolled off of her. “Them or me, Nadira?”
Nadira met her eye. “What?”
Eva scrambled to her feet and faced Nadira. “Them or me? Tell me right now. Who do you choose? I love you, Nadira. I love you with everything that I have in me. You’re the only one in the universe that I love. Did you know that?”
Nadira nodded.
“We’re sisters,” Eva said. “We should stand together. And I can’t abide by this any longer. Following Lex will kill you. It will kill all of us. Use your Toma and force Arees to come with us. We’ll go back to Zenith alone, without them. Think of all of the people she’s killed. Don’t you want vengeance for them? Think of Seven and Pennick and their future. Think of our planet that is up in smoke because of Arees. We will finally avenge Venus. Say that you’ll come with me. Do the right thing for once. Listen to your head and not your heart for once, Nadira.”
“Eva I—”
Eva gritted her teeth. “If you are going to betray me, Nadira, look me in the eye while you do it.”
Nadira bit her lip and tried to stop the tears. “I can’t. I can’t leave Kiln. And Lex ... the Magistrate said to follow him. I ...”
Nadira tried to reach out to Eva, but Eva swatted her hand away. The look of disgust that ran across Eva’s face made Nadira shudder.
“That is the last time that you will choose them over me,” Eva said. “Goodbye, Nadira.”
Eva walked toward the mouth of the tunnel. Nadira started after her.
“Eva! Eva, please don’t go. Eva, please don’t leave me!”
Eva pulled the Toma off her neck, walked back to where Arees stood, and handed it to her.
“Here. I am sure that they would want you to have this.”
Arees wrapped a hand around the blue jewel.
With one last scowl at Nadira, Eva left the chamber, disappeared around the curve of the tunnel, and was gone.
Nadira looked at Lex and shook her head.
“What do we do now? I may never see her again. What do we do now?”
Nadira’s angry gaze slid from Lex to Arees. Without warning, she charged, delivering a hard slap across Arees’ cheek. Before Arees could react, Nadira slapped her twice more before she was pulled back by Kiln.
As tears gathered in her eyes, Arees cradled her stinging cheek and stepped back.
“That was for Venus,” Nadira spat. “And Eva.”
“I’ve done nothing to Eva,” Arees said,
massaging her sore cheek.
“You have,” Nadira said. “She’s gone because of you.” Nadira shook free from Kiln and pointed an angry finger at Lex. “And you, too. I have to follow you because the Magistrate demands it, and I believe in her, but don’t think for a moment that I’ve forgotten what Arees has done.”
“Maybe you should try,” Lex said.
“I see that you already have,” Nadira said.
“Arees has done good work here, and I won’t punish these poor creatures for her past mistakes,” Lex said. “We can’t find a way forward by looking into the past.”
“A way forward?” Nadira sighed. “Forward where? The way I see it, the only way forward for you is to stay here and be with Arees. For the rest of us, who knows what will happen?”
“It is your choice to stay,” Lex said.
“I am staying under orders from Embrya,” Nadira said. “Choice has nothing to do with it.”
“In a few hours it won’t matter,” Lex said. “By sunset tomorrow, we won’t remember who we are, and we won’t have the Tomas to protect us.”
“Again, great for you, but where does that leave us?” Nadira asked.
Lex shrugged. “I don’t know, but—”
A violent shudder ripped through the tunnels. Chunks of the ceiling shook, smashing into the ground.
“This isn’t right,” Arees said. “Earthquakes come from below, not above.”
A large section of stone fell onto Arees’ table, decimating it in a blaze of dust.
“Into the shelter!” Arees cried. “Now!”
CHAPTER 46
The walls of the tunnels trembled under the assault of the shaking mountain.
One by one, the cauldrons turned over and extinguished in the standing water, throwing the tunnel into deeper and deeper darkness. The rocks from above shattered when they reached the ground, filling the tunnel with a choking haze of dust. Dirt and debris rained down from above.
Creatures scattered. A few of them joined the travelers in the sprint to the safety of the Habby.
Terrified screams filled Lex’s ears, and he saw the ceiling began to give way around long wooden support beams.
One of the beams snapped in three.
“Watch out!” Lex cried.
The middle of the beam dislodged and fell, crushing a knot of creatures to his left.
The smell of smoke and death began to creep into Lex’s consciousness. He briefly thought of Eva and wondered if she had made it out of the tunnels alive.
They raced through the Habby to the earthquake shelter, located between the Habby and the mines.
Before their eyes the ceiling above the mines groaned and collapsed, spewing dark dust into the Habby.
“The shelter!” someone screamed. “The shelter is gone!”
Arees froze. “That’s impossible.”
“The ceiling’s collapsed!”
Arees moved her hands in front of her, trying to clear away the omnipresent debris cloud. She marched in the direction of the fallen shelter, determined to free those trapped inside.
“Arees, no!” Lex ran to her side, pulling her back by the waist.
“Let me go!” Arees cried.
“You can’t save them!” He forcibly turned her toward him, staring at her through the dust. “You can’t save them. They’re already gone. You have to get everyone else out.”
Arees looked at him, eyes wide in panic.
Another jolt shook her, forcing her mind to function again. “Out of the tunnel! Everyone out of the tunnel!”
She heard her people choke in the dust-filled Habby.
“Grab onto me!” Arees called.
She held out her hands, the creatures feeling their way to her. “Grab onto me! I will save you!”
As their bodies rode out the waves of rocking earth, the creatures placed their hands on the shoulders of the creature in front of them and created one long chain with Arees at the head.
Kiln lit fire in front of them, filling the hazy tunnel with light.
Another jolt. A large chunk fell from the ceiling directly above them.
Kiln turned his hands to the sky, incinerating the large rock. Pebbles rained down from above.
“Let’s go!” Arees called. “Follow Kiln out of the tunnel!”
Kiln started forward, his flame a beacon of hope in front of them.
Arees didn’t know what would happen to the creatures when they made it outside, but she couldn’t think about that now.
I will not let them die in these tunnels.
The Habby creaked and moaned behind them. As the last creature ran for safety, the ceiling of the Habby groaned then caved in, filling their former home with earth and stone. The mines were gone. The shelter had failed. The Habby had collapsed. Even if they wanted to go back, the road to rebuilding their home would be an impossible one.
The floor of the quaking tunnel filled with stones. As the ground rolled beneath them, they staggered, uncertain of their future once they reached the outside.
They passed God’s Tunnel. Even through the haze, Arees saw that the sky was filled with stars.
She turned the line away from Kiln’s flaming beacon, hoping for a quicker escape through the roof of God’s Tunnel.
Then, the stones that made up the archway to God’s Tunnel quivered. One by one they fell to the ground. A moment later, the entire entrance collapsed.
Arees’ eyes opened wide. She sucked in a breath to keep from screaming.
God’s Tunnel was gone.
The way she had come into this place was not the way she would get out. There was only one way out now.
Arees searched through the haze and saw Kiln’s flames moving steadily ahead. She turned the line again, picking up the pace as she rushed to catch up.
“Keep going! Don’t stop!”
Arees heard a crash behind her but didn’t dare stop and turn around.
The only thing back there is death. Keep moving forward. Get the people out.
Each time the line would break, the creatures would find each other again, keeping the chain alive.
“Keep going! We’re almost there!”
Arees heard squeaks behind them. Screams.
Rats, she thought.
She wasn’t sure if she was pulling her people forward, or if they were pushing her. She only knew that they had to survive.
Arees put her hands on top of the creature’s claw behind her and marched on through the dust and falling debris. Though the world fell around her, she trudged on.
We have to make it. We just have to.
She vaguely recognized the watch station, only a pile of stones now. Following Kiln’s light, she moved forward. It seemed that the world had fallen away. She reached out her hands, trying to find something to hold on to.
Anything.
She felt a rough hand take hers.
The stones piled higher and higher until she could touch the ceiling with the tips of her fingers.
Kiln’s light, their only beacon of hope, was beginning to shrink.
Fear crept upon her. Terror at the thought of being trapped in this tunnel made her lungs seize. She imagined herself crushed to death between the rock and stone that rained down on her from above and the piles of debris that rose from beneath her. Her chest constricted. She tried to take in a breath, but the hazy air wouldn’t allow it. Though she wanted to stop, to think, to regroup, her legs carried her on, pushed forward by the thought of her people behind her.
She thought of Monk and Cy-Cy. What would become of them if she stopped? What would happen to all of the children behind her? She sucked in a smoke-filled breath and choked as she marched on over the shaky, rising ground.
Kiln’s light had vanished, and Arees vaguely wondered what had happened to it. Perhaps he was dead too, along with the others? Perhaps she was the only one left? She forcibly pushed the thought aside and kept moving forward.
The incessant rumbling in the tunnel was all she could hear, the darkness a
ll she could see, the rough hand all she could feel.
Still she choked out, “Keep going! We’re almost there!”
Deaf and barely able to stand, she marched on until she felt vines in front of her. She felt a push from behind. Then nothing.
CHAPTER 47
Arees sputtered, clearing the dust from her lungs. She squinted in the setting moonlight, rubbing away the dirt that had crusted in her eyes. She had been underground so long that she had almost forgotten what it felt like to be awash in the moon’s bright beams. A gentle, warm breeze blew sweet jungle scents to her. The grass was soft beneath her.
“We’re out,” she whispered. She took a deep breath of fresh air. “We’re out! We’re—”
She turned around to celebrate with her people, only her people were not there.
Arees stood stunned, staring at the archway, now sealed off with stone. The earth beneath her feet had stopped shaking, but she felt her knees give out.
Lex’s strong arm wrapped around her waist, supporting her.
The jungle was silent. There was no celebration. No victory.
She pushed off of Lex and walked back to the tunnel entrance.
The archway was filled with perfectly stacked stones. She caressed the stones with one hand and thought about what laid beneath them.
No.
She couldn’t breathe.
Arees put her hands to her lips, found her breath, fell to her knees, and screamed in agony.
Lex drew her to his hard chest, allowing her tears to run beneath his shirt.
“Why?” she cried out. “Why?”
Lex felt her shake with the force of her tears, felt her pain as she mourned for the only people she had ever known, felt her agony as she screamed for work undone, for small lives unlived.
He wondered if it was his fault.
From above, the familiar hum of an engine cut off his train of thought and Arees’ mourning. They looked up in time to see a giant ship land close by.
“Slave traders,” Pennick said.
Pennick and Seven jumped back as the door opened, and dozens of large women stepped out, forming two lines.
One woman, her sweat-soaked forehead topped in a black cap, walked up the middle.
“Well, well, well. Look what we found,” she said, her voice deep and strong. “If it isn’t our fearless leader.” Her lips stretched in a smile as she walked up to Arees and snatched her from Lex’s embrace. She pulled her close.