The Light Thief

by David Webb

  Maybe it was better that he didn’t know.

  The night before, Aniya had finally promised Kira that she would leave the sector today, one way or another, before the Operative could kill someone else. Kira had simply nodded. Her gaze remained empty, and Aniya couldn’t tell if she was in shock or angry.

  Even now as the girl slept, her expression was pained, twisted. Aniya knew that Kira would never be the same, and she knew that she had lost a friend.

  Aniya sat on her cot, watching Kira’s unsteady breathing. The weight of the man’s death the day before hung over her head, the image of his lifeless body fresh in her mind. Someone else would die today if Aniya didn’t do something. And if anyone found out where she had found shelter, Urich would die too.

  She had to get out. Away from Kira, away from Shyvale, away from everyone. Death seemed to follow her wherever she went. No one seemed to be safe as long as they were close to her.

  Unfortunately, the only way for Aniya to ensure Shyvale’s safety was to make her departure as obvious to the Lightbringers as possible. That meant causing a commotion by the tunnels. It meant that by the end of the day, she would either be running for her life again or in the hands of her pursuers.

  But to Aniya, there wasn’t a choice. She couldn’t stand to see another person killed because of her.

  She rose and packed her things quietly. Her original plan was to leave at midday, but as Aniya watched yesterday’s execution play out in her mind over and over, she knew that every second she stayed meant danger for Kira and her father.

  She had almost finished packing when the backup generators kicked on and blasted First Light throughout the sector.

  “Where are you going?”

  Aniya winced. As the blast of light faded away to darkness again, she turned to see Kira rubbing her eyes.

  “I’m leaving. It’s not safe here for me or you.”

  “You still have a few hours.”

  Aniya shook her head. “I don’t want to risk it any longer. I’ve stayed way too long as it is.”

  “At least stay for breakfast. Please.” Kira’s eyes welled up as she looked at Aniya pitifully, her sadness the first intelligible emotion the girl had expressed since the day before. “My father will want to say goodbye to you anyway.”

  “Okay,” Aniya said, trying to hide her shock. She had expected the silent treatment to continue. “But just breakfast.”

  Kira made some cold oatmeal for Aniya, who accepted the food gratefully, even though she had supplies in her rucksack. She had tried to convince Kira to let her eat from her own stash of food, but Kira insisted. Food was a valuable commodity in the poorer sectors, and Aniya knew she should feel honored to accept what was apparently a farewell gift from the girl.

  Instead, she ate every bite with a pit in her stomach, avoiding eye contact.

  “Are you still going to the Hub?” Kira asked as Aniya ate.

  Aniya nodded.

  “I hope you find your brother.”

  “I just hope I make it out of Shyvale alive. If I had tried to leave before they found out I was here, I would have stood a better chance.”

  “I thought you said you would have triggered some sort of . . . earthquake alarm?” Kira scrunched her nose.

  “Probably, but they still would have had to come get me. Now that they’re already here, it’ll be that much easier for them.”

  “Well, you can at least try.”

  Aniya shrugged. “It’s the only option I have left. I have to go that way anyway, or they won’t know I’ve left.” She continued to eat in silence.

  Several minutes passed. Aniya wanted to finish quickly and get out, but her appetite wouldn’t let her eat more than one small bite at a time.

  “Uh-oh.” Kira’s voice trembled. “Aniya, they’re coming.”

  Aniya snapped her head up in alarm.

  Kira was standing by the window, pointing outside. “They look like they’re in a hurry.”

  “Get back.” Aniya leapt to her feet and rushed to the window.

  Sure enough, several beams of light bobbed in the distance, but they seemed to be moving off to Aniya’s left. Then, as if they sensed her gaze, they all simultaneously turned and pointed directly at the house, nearly blinding her even though they were still several hundred feet away.

  “Do they know we’re here?” Kira’s voice trembled.

  Aniya quickly stepped back from the window and reached for her pack. After rummaging for a moment, she pulled out the radio. This wasn’t right. Surely, she would have heard something if they had discovered her.

  But as she gazed at the lifeless device, she remembered that she had shut if off again the day before when they went to the market. With trembling fingers, she turned on the radio and cranked up the volume.

  “Approaching the house now.”

  “Affirmative. Alert the asset and prepare for forced entry.”

  Aniya turned the radio off and stuffed it in her bag. She had heard enough.

  “We need to leave now. What’s the fastest way to the tunnel I showed you without using the main road?” Aniya’s hand grazed something else inside the bag.

  “They’re coming from the way you need to go,” Kira said. “You’d have to circle around them.”

  “Well, it looks like that’s my only option.” She pulled out the other device Nicholas had given her.

  “Your only option? What about me?”

  Aniya pried open the glass case and tucked the device under her belt behind her, careful not to flip the switch or press the button. “You need to get as far away from me as possible. That’s the only way you’ll be safe.” After pulling her shirt over her belt and hiding the device, she stepped toward the window again, and her eyes widened as a bright red light washed over the approaching officers. “Change of plans. Don’t move, and don’t panic.”

  “I thought you said we were going to run?” Kira’s voice raised in pitch and volume.

  “They have scanners out there. And if they’re anything like Nicholas described, there’s no way we’d make it past them unless we lure them inside first.” Aniya rushed around the room, extinguishing each candle until the room was dark. “If it makes you feel any better, if we had left any sooner, they would have seen us anyway.”

  Kira began to whimper.

  Aniya placed a hand on her shoulder. “Trust me.”

  Even though tears were streaking down her cheeks, Kira nodded.

  The sound of heavy boots closed in on them like a thunderstorm, and the mechanical hum of the scanners surrounded the shack, creating a cacophony that carried the threat of death.

  The footsteps stopped, and silence fell over the house.

  “Aniya—”

  The door flew open with a loud bang.

  Bright light flooded the doorway, and Aniya raised a hand in front of her eyes, trying to make out any shapes.

  Several men marched inside and lined the walls of the shack. By the time they all settled into place, there were at least fifteen armored men pointing guns at the two girls, and the shack was completely illuminated by the lights on the men’s helmets.

  Then the Operative walked in.

  “Annelise Lyons. You’re a hard girl to find.”

  Aniya dropped her hand to her side and stood face-to-face with the man in the black suit. Rather than speaking, she glared at the man with steely eyes.

  “You should be proud of yourself. This is by far the most effort we’ve put into finding someone since the war. Even your brother was exactly where we expected him to be.” The Operative seemed to be in no hurry, but instead dragged a chair away from the table and sat in the middle of the shack. “You, on the other hand, have had us scrambling all around the Web. I will admit that it’s been nothing short of fun trying to predict where you would pop up after you disappeared into the tunnels. You even put up quite the fight. I advised my superiors against venturing into the caves after you, but they just couldn’t wait. Sure enough, that proved fruitless, and
all we did was lose a squadron to a giant rat and tunnel trash.”

  Aniya’s heart filled with hope. Roland could still be alive.

  “However, all fun must come to an end, and it seems that we have come to just that time.”

  Her heart sank again as she realized that though Roland may be alive, she would never see him again. But she still refused to speak.

  “Don’t fret,” the Operative said, as if reading her thoughts. “It’s not your end. I don’t have the authority to kill you, and even if I did, I could not do that without compromising the Lightbringers. Your mother and father didn’t really have the chance to pass on any information your brother had obtained, but you . . . You have been running around the Web saying who knows what to who knows whom. We will be having many discussions in the near future regarding exactly what you’ve told those sympathetic to your cause. And I can personally promise you that they will not be fun discussions.”

  Aniya’s eyes remained steady, but her hands began to tremble. She placed them behind her back.

  “Surely you have something to say now. If not you, then maybe your friend here.” The Operative turned to Kira and grinned. “After all, we don’t plan on killing you, but we have no use for her. That is, unless my superiors are willing to bend the rules and place her in relocative servitude. We always have room for more.”

  Kira began to whimper again. Aniya took the girl’s hand and clutched it in her own sweaty palm, but she kept her other hand behind her back.

  “Might as well take her. We can dispose of her father on the way out of town, so no one would miss her anyway.”

  With this, Kira broke into tears.

  “No sense in staying here any longer. This sector is depressing.”

  The Operative stood up and tossed the chair aside. He turned to his men and gave a curt nod.

  “Stun them and tie them up.”

  With her left hand, Aniya squeezed Kira’s hand one more time. With her right hand, she flipped the switch on the device that stuck out from underneath her belt.

  Fifteen guns raised as one.

  Aniya closed her eyes and pressed the button.

  29

  A deafening whine shook the walls of the shack, and the room was plunged into darkness as the Silvers’ lights all blinked off simultaneously.

  Without waiting for the Silvers to respond, Aniya lunged forward and rammed her shoulder into the Operative’s unarmored chest, sending him reeling to the ground and clearing a path to the door.

  With Kira’s hand still clutched tightly in hers, Aniya ran over the Operative’s supine body, forcing the door open and spilling out onto the walkway outside. Wasting no time, she let her momentum push her into a dead run, yanking Kira’s hand and forcing her forward. There was no time to be gentle.

  Several large metal orbs littered the roads of Shyvale. They were now dark, powerless, thanks to the strange device that Nicholas had left for Aniya.

  Aniya shuddered and ran past the debris, not sure how long it would be before the scanners would come back to life. She set her sights on the road ahead and led Kira into the center of town, hoping to lose the officers in the crowd.

  As people stopped and stared, one man in particular took a special interest in the two girls. Aniya recognized him as the same man that had chased Kira through the streets two weeks earlier. As they passed him by, he calmly walked back to his stall and pushed it over into the street.

  Dozens of apples rolled across the street behind the running girls, creating several small obstacles for any pursuers.

  Aniya turned just long enough to gratefully wave to the man.

  The man nodded at her and raised a hand, pointing four fingers in the air.

  Maybe not everyone here wants me dead.

  Seconds later, the first officer arrived in the square. It wasn’t long before his foot landed on an apple instead of cobblestone, and Aniya smiled as she heard his armor crash to the ground.

  A shot rang out, and Aniya’s skin crawled as she was forced to wonder whether it was a desperate shot at the running girls or a punishment for the man who had helped them.

  Leaving the town square behind, the girls continued and crossed into the industrial district.

  Shyvale, while not much larger than Holendast, seemed much more successful than Aniya’s modest home sector. Businesses seemed to be prospering, and the sector was expanding with what little room it had left.

  Here in the industrial district, more buildings stood in various stages of construction but forced to halt in the dark of the Black Days.

  To the rest of the Web, it was a sign of progress, the badge of a successful sector.

  To Aniya, it was the perfect hiding place.

  She chose one construction site that was already five stories tall, knowing there would be plenty of places to find shelter inside. The Lightbringers would be forced to slow down their chase and spread out, perhaps even giving Aniya and Kira opportunity to escape and leave their pursuers behind.

  This particular building had completed framework, and the first floor sported finished walls and a locked door, discouraging any intruders. But if anyone happened to scale the wall of the first floor, they would be free to move about the building by way of the open second floor.

  Aniya approached the building and climbed the wall effortlessly. Kira attempted to follow, but she apparently was not agile enough to grasp the ledge, and she slipped and fell back down.

  “Help me!”

  Aniya lay down on the floor and extended her arm over the edge, reaching her hand down as far down as she could. “Do you see my hand?”

  “No!”

  She waved her hand around wildly, hoping Kira would see the movement even in the dark. From below, she could hear Kira grunting and jumping.

  Finally, Aniya felt fingers graze her palm.

  “Right there! Just keep trying. I won’t move my hand.”

  Kira jumped again and grabbed her hand but slipped away. Heavy footsteps grew close.

  “Again!”

  “Aniya!”

  Kira’s scream gripped Aniya’s heart as the footsteps suddenly halted. Aniya pushed herself farther over the edge, dangerously teetering on the edge of the building. With one last grunt, she swung her hand wildly, reaching for something, anything.

  Aniya’s hand finally made contact, and she closed her fingers tightly.

  But all Aniya held was a crystal attached to a leather cord.

  From below came a dull thud.

  Aniya froze.

  “Kira?”

  Silence.

  Then, a loud bang as the locked door below burst open.

  Aniya’s heart raced as she crawled away from the edge. She stood up and immediately hit her head on a piece of rebar sticking out of the wall. She put her free hand to her head and felt warm liquid coursing down the side of her face. Ignoring it, she swiped her hand on her pants and ran deeper into the construction site, dodging discarded materials and boxes as best as she could in the dark.

  The footsteps grew louder.

  She managed to find a set of stairs in the corner, but apparently, so did her pursuer on the floor below as heavy footsteps echoed throughout the stairwell. As quietly as she could, Aniya climbed the stairs to the third floor, hoping that whoever was chasing her would stop at the second level.

  Aniya reached the third floor, and she ducked into a corner behind the stairwell, dragging a large box in front of her.

  Then the footsteps stopped, and everything went silent.

  The deadly game of hide-and-seek paused, and Aniya held her breath.

  For what seemed like an eternity, Aniya crouched in her corner as her pursuer remained still. Neither made a sound.

  Then, finally, the footsteps resumed, slowly advancing.

  Aniya breathed slowly and carefully as she listened. Her pursuer was definitely still on the floor below.

  But a few minutes later, the footsteps shifted, and her breath caught in her lungs. They now echoed in
the stairwell around the corner once again, growing louder with every step as they ascended to Aniya’s level.

  With every step, her breath quickened, and when her pursuer reached the third floor, she was nearly hyperventilating.

  Aniya pulled the box closer and held a hand over her mouth. She became very aware of her heart, pounding against her rib cage at an incredible pace. The hand over her mouth began to drip sweat that slipped through the cracks between her fingers, slowly seeping into her mouth. The salty tang lingered on her tongue as she trembled.

  Her other hand still gripped Kira’s crystal, squeezing so tightly that the edges of the rock cut into her skin. But the pain distracted her from her panic, and her breaths began to slow.

  The footsteps slowly began to move across the room. She thought she heard her pursuer say something, but she couldn’t make it out.

  And then Aniya realized her escape.

  As the footsteps continued deeper into the room, Aniya stood up. She took a deep, slow breath and carefully stepped out from behind the box, walking around it and peering into the darkness. In the pitch black, she would be nearly invisible, even if her adversary were facing her.

  She slipped the necklace over her head, tucked the crystal under her shirt, and slowly made her way toward the stairs.

  Aniya’s escape was inevitable. The Silvers, spoiled by the light their headlamps provided, were all but useless in the complete darkness. She moved quietly toward the stairs, her steps silent compared to her pursuer’s much louder footfalls, which echoed throughout the construction site. There was simply no way she could be caught now.

  But as she silently celebrated her escape, her hopes soaring, the lights came back on.

  Shyvale lit up in an explosive glow as the sky ceiling powered up, the artificial sun blinking on and flooding the sector with light.

  As Aniya’s eyes adjusted to the light, she found herself standing ten feet away from a man in white armor, a powerless light built into his helmet.