The Light Thief

by David Webb

  To make matters worse, the quiet voice that had guided his every move was now gone. He was on his own now, blindly trying to finish his mission. But that wasn’t the worst part. Nicholas had gotten used to the constant interruption coming from the radio in his helmet, and now that things were quiet again, there was nothing to distract him from the awkwardness with Aniya.

  She hadn’t taken her eyes off him all day. In recent months, he would have done anything to get her to do that, but now she looked at him with a suspicious glare that he felt even when his back was turned.

  Nicholas knew she had every right to not trust him after the way he had treated her. Even though she seemed to understand that he did what he had to, he couldn’t shake the feeling that something between them had forever changed.

  It had lifted his spirits to see her close her eyes, let her guard down, and temporarily forget about all the horrors behind her and the troubles ahead. As she slept, her face was washed clean of her anger and pain, and it was the same Aniya he had fallen in love with back in the Hole. Nicholas could only wish that it would be that way when she woke up.

  He had seen her sleep several times. They had innocently spent the night together many times before. Sometimes, it was intentional. Aniya would often spend so much time talking with him that leaving his house was too dangerous, the consequences of getting caught while breaking curfew being too great to risk. Instead, she would sleep on Nicholas’s cot while he arranged extra blankets to the side as a makeshift bed.

  Other times, it was a happy accident, and they would fall asleep while watching the sky ceiling, its stars twinkling with an unnatural brilliance. The technology had fascinated him and was what originally inspired him to work in programming. It meant something else to Aniya, something almost mystical. Nicholas would often ignore the lights and simply watch her fall into a trance as she gazed at the twinkling lights above.

  Even before all this started, those nights had long since come to an end. Aniya’s parents didn’t like that he was spending so much time training with Gareth and Roland, so they limited Nicholas’s time with her as much as they could. She would still make an effort to sneak out to come see him, but it was never as frequent as it used to be.

  Maybe it was for the best. In the last several months, he had wanted something different, something more. And it hurt to see her and know she didn’t feel the same way.

  She had once told him that it wasn’t worth getting invested in each other when the Lightbringers would surely have someone else in mind. Whether or not this was her true reason, Nicholas was never sure, but she was right. Her candidates were never going to include him. They only knew each other because of her brother, and after studying the algorithms himself, he was dismayed to find that propinquity was a major factor in candidate selection. They may have spent a lot of time together, but as far as the Lightbringers were concerned, they were complete strangers. But even if the Lightbringers knew they were best friends, the daughter of Uprising instigators paired with someone in possession of advanced tech? It was never going to happen.

  But now that they were no longer monitored by the Lightbringers, now that they had no way to enforce their stupid rules, maybe she would decide that things could be different.

  They could turn around now. They could find a new sector, one in the far reaches of the Web where Lightbringer presence would be low. They could start a new life together and never look back.

  It would be difficult to convince Aniya to leave her brother behind, but if he told her everything he knew, maybe she’d agree.

  After all, he had enough doubts about his mission. Maybe, like Aniya suggested, his contact couldn’t be trusted.

  Get the girl and bring her to me.

  The mission sounded identical to the Operative’s, and Nicholas had nothing to go on but the word of a disillusioned idealist who claimed that he wanted to bring down the Lightbringers.

  Aniya was right. Even as he had defended his contact to her earlier, Nicholas questioned how it was so easy to believe Kendall. But when the world is falling apart, you have to trust someone. This mysterious stranger seemed like the only option at the time, but now that Aniya was here . . .

  It’s not too late.

  It wasn’t.

  He would never know.

  He wouldn’t.

  Nicholas began to rise from the rock as he reached out toward Aniya. She was so close. Everything he ever wanted—

  Aniya stirred, and Nicholas sat back down roughly and spun around on the rock.

  He picked up the stick he had been using to stir the fire and began poking at the flames again. After the day they had, Nicholas couldn’t imagine what Aniya’s response would be if she woke up and found him watching her. After a moment, Nicholas started to turn around again but was stopped by Aniya’s voice.

  “Is it night yet?”

  “Almost,” Nicholas said.

  Aniya joined Nicholas on the large rock, sitting next to him but keeping plenty of distance between them. “Couldn’t sleep?”

  “Got an hour or two, but no, not really.”

  “I guess we need to leave soon anyway.”

  “I guess.” Nicholas poked the fire again.

  They sat for several minutes.

  Talking with her used to be the most natural thing in the world, but as hard as Nicholas tried to start a conversation now, he couldn’t find the words to say.

  Whether Aniya faced the same problem or she simply didn’t want to talk to him, Nicholas didn’t know, but she remained silent as well.

  Finally, it was Aniya who broke the silence.

  “I never thanked you.”

  “For what?” Nicholas spun on the rock and turned to face her, resisting the urge to laugh. “I helped them catch you, I hit you, and I shot you. What do you have to thank me for?”

  “It’s not like you chose to do any of that. They were watching you, right?”

  Nicholas’s face grew red. “I never apologized.”

  “I didn’t ask for your apology.” Her words came out harshly, and he saw the regret in her eyes as she looked away.

  “It felt awful, every second of it. If I wasn’t being watched, I never would have acted like that. I never would have—I never would have done those things.” He winced as the image of her hurt face flashed in his mind again.

  “I understand,” Aniya whispered.

  “No, you don’t. Every second, I had to think and act like one of them, all while fighting the urge to turn on them. They killed that poor girl, and I had to stand there and watch, pretending not to care. They used me to get to you, and I let them. I could have refused.”

  Even now, I could refuse.

  Aniya shook her head. “Then you would have died because of me. I don’t want another person’s blood on my hands.”

  “At least then I wouldn’t have betrayed you. Maybe I could have found a way to escape earlier.” Nicholas’s voice grew low. “Maybe it wouldn’t have been the worst thing for me to die.”

  “Don’t say that, Nicholas. We’re still alive,” she said, placing a hand on his arm. “And the man who killed my parents is dead. We’re alive and together, and I think we’re in a better spot now than we would be if you were dead and never forced to be one of them.”

  He pulled away. “You really think it makes everything else okay?”

  “I’m not saying that. I’m saying I understand. I’m saying I forgive you.”

  Nicholas shook his head. “I don’t deserve that.”

  “It’s not about what you deserve.” Aniya touched him again, this time pulling on his arm, bringing him closer. She placed her other hand on his knee and gazed into his eyes as her voice began to shake. “Want to know a secret? I wish William had never escaped. I wish he had stayed in the Hub, forced to work for them for the rest of his life. You know why? Because then my parents would be alive. I wouldn’t be running for my life all over the Web. They wouldn’t have taken you. I keep telling myself that this isn’t what I r
eally want, but it is, Nicholas. I want more than anything to be back in the Hole, on your roof with you right now. Do you want to know what I deserve for wishing my brother was rotting in the hands of the Lightbringers? Because I don’t. I’m forgiving you, Nicholas, even if you don’t deserve it. And I hope that someone forgives me, too.”

  Nicholas sat, dumbfounded, staring at the rock they sat on, unable to look her in the eyes.

  “You’re all I have left, Nicholas.” Her tears began to splash on the rock in front of him.

  He could take her.

  “My parents are dead.”

  They could run away together.

  “William is probably being tortured.”

  She could finally be free to be with him.

  “And I have no idea what happened to Roland.”

  He could at last have everything he ever wanted.

  “Nicky, I don’t know what I would do if I lost you too.”

  Nicholas finally looked up at Aniya. She was already looking in his eyes with an intensity that chilled him. Her eyes were wet, and her lips were trembling as he felt her hands slowly caress his own. Slowly, he brought his face toward her. Just as he closed his eyes, Aniya finally reacted, backing away with a gasp.

  Nicholas froze. He opened his eyes again and stared into hers.

  He had always been good at reading her, always able to tell what she was thinking. Even the first time he told her how he felt about her, he knew what she was going to say, her response written in her averted eyes.

  But now, Nicholas was lost. He saw everything in her eyes, from anger to sadness to shock to bitterness to something he had never seen before.

  Does she know?

  As Nicholas studied her eyes, he realized that despite her claims, she would never truly forgive him.

  Nor should she.

  Dejected, Nicholas backed away. As awful as he felt, he knew he didn’t deserve anything from her. He had made his choice.

  But as he relaxed and leaned back, Aniya leaned forward. Gone was the confusion in her eyes, and she leaned toward him intently, her eyes fixed on his lips.

  The one kiss they shared years ago in the darkness of a Black Day had been enough to permanently seal that passion in his heart, and ever since that day, he had dreamed of kissing her again. But out of the thousands of times he had played the scene out in his head, it never went like this.

  This time, with a sigh of passion, he took her chin and pulled her closer, meeting her lips in a long-awaited embrace, letting a small moan of contentment out as he locked lips with her in passion.

  His head spun as sparks danced across his closed eyelids. His moist hands stroked her hair and rested on her warm neck as he held on for dear life.

  Chills raced over his body, and his skin tingled in pleasure and excitement as his heart raced within, pounding so hard that he could feel his heartbeat in his fingertips.

  And as he opened his eyes and watched her kiss him back, he saw his love reflected on her face, and he let himself melt in her arms.

  But as Nicholas snapped out of his imagination and leaned forward to make this fantasy a reality, the orders he was given came back to him as guilt crashed over him in waves.

  Get the girl and bring her to me.

  Nicholas knew it could never happen now, not with the gut-wrenching condemnation that ravaged his heart. No matter how much he wanted to express his love for her, even now that she presented herself to him, finally ready and willing to give him what he had always wanted, he couldn’t bring himself to do it.

  I’ve made my choice. Now I have to live with it.

  Nicholas shook away the imagined kiss and backed away from Aniya’s advance. It looked so good in his head. Even now, he could feel her lips, remnants of the fantasy he had enjoyed for a split second. If he thought hard enough, he swore he could taste her lips, and he wished more than anything for it to be real.

  But he couldn’t. He could never.

  Nicholas stood up and turned, leaving Aniya behind, her lips unkissed.

  “We need to get going. It’s dark enough now, and we need all the time we can get.”

  He kicked dirt over the fire, extinguishing the glowing embers. He heard Aniya get up behind him, but he refused to turn around and let her see his eyes beginning to water.

  “I’ll pack our bags.” Her voice came from behind. She walked past Nicholas and picked up the leftover jerky, and in the torchlight, he saw her cheeks glistening with tears.

  I hope you know what you’re doing, Kendall.

  37

  Roland held on to Tamisra’s waist for dear life.

  Every movement of the mole beneath his body threatened to throw him off and send him crashing into the dirt and rock wall on either side. He found himself realizing that instead of practicing various forms of combat with Tamisra, he should have spent the last two weeks learning to ride the moles. His lack of experience meant that he had to double up with Tamisra, and the lack of control made the ride nauseating.

  “You okay back there?”

  In response, Roland pulled her closer and let out a “uh-huh” that came out in a much higher pitch than he would have liked.

  Tamisra only laughed.

  They had been riding nearly non-stop for the last eleven hours, resting only for the benefit of the mole. As it turned out, their mole had the kind of endurance Roland had hoped for, an endurance he wouldn’t mind having himself. The two times they rested, he had collapsed in exhaustion until Tamisra woke him.

  “We’re almost there,” she shouted back at him above the thundering footsteps. “Just a bit longer.”

  Roland moaned and watched the cave walls as they raced by. It wasn’t much better than watching the ground below, but at least glowworms populated the walls, softly illuminating the tunnel in a twinkling green glow where the torchlight was scarce.

  Despite Tamisra’s reassurance, it was another hour before they slowed down. Meanwhile, Roland had resumed his normal position of laying his head on Tamisra’s back, his eyes closed tight.

  “Do you see this?”

  Roland looked up again as the mole slowed to a brisk walking pace. The walls of the cave were no longer illuminated by the glowworms or the occasional torch. As they continued further into the darkness, the light behind them fading, Tamisra lit a torch and held it as they lumbered on.

  “Aren’t these tunnels supposed to be lit?” Roland examined the dark walls closely. A few torches hung from the walls, but none of them were lit.

  “They are. The Lightbringers must have disabled them when they collapsed the tunnel exit. Guess they scared away the glowworms at the same time.”

  They finally reached the end of the path and stopped in front of a large rockslide that reached all the way to the cave ceiling five feet above their heads, blocking off the rest of the tunnel.

  Tamisra dismounted and approached the blockage, leaving Roland still on the mole. “This is going to be fun to get through.”

  “Still think the mole will be able to get through in time?”

  “Curry,” she said, correcting him. “And it’s not a matter of whether Curry will be able to get through in time, but whether he can get through without killing all three of us.”

  Roland dismounted. “I thought you said the moles would be able to dig straight through.”

  “Technically, yes, but I was hoping the tunnel exit would be dug by a smaller one. This is one of the larger tunnels I’ve seen.” She shuddered. “I’d hate to meet the mole that dug this out. Curry’s only a pup. If he digs through debris that’s only a couple weeks old, it might just collapse on him. Might even trigger another cave-in that will fall on us.”

  “So we came all this way for nothing?” Roland threw his hands in the air and walked away from Tamisra and Curry.

  “No, we can still try. We’d have to be a safe distance away, and we run the risk of losing our only means of transportation, but we can try. We can help him to the top of the rock slide and let him try to di
g his way out near the top. It would definitely lessen the chance of death for all of us.”

  Roland heard Tamisra approach from behind and felt her hands on his shoulders, massaging them gently.

  “We could even go back and take another side tunnel. There’s plenty of those. I don’t know if you saw, but we passed one not too far after the tunnel went dark. There’s a chance that one of those leads to the Hub. And if all else fails, we can go back and take the train tunnel into the Hub.”

  He laughed dryly. “Take the most dangerous route, the one that’s sure to get us caught and killed? Stop it, that sounds almost too fun. Besides, it would be way too late by that point.”

  “We have to do something, Roland.”

  After a long pause, he turned around again. “I know. Tell you what. We’re all tired, even that beast of a mole.”

  “Curry.”

  “Right, Curry.” He continued, “We made good time, but I don’t think there’s any way we’ve beat the train to the Hub. Let’s rest tonight, and tomorrow we’ll figure out our next step. We’re getting into the Hub one way or another.”

  Tamisra nodded.

  “Deal.”

  It didn’t take long for them to fall asleep. Though they had done practically nothing, the constant vibration from the lumbering mole had worn them out and left them exhausted. Even Curry was asleep within minutes, but not before Tamisra fed him a special treat of glowworms for his hard work.

  They slept soundly enough, almost straight through a troubling sound five hours later.

  Roland sat up slowly and rubbed his eyes. He looked around, gathering his surroundings. Whatever had made the noise that woke him up was not obvious. Roland only saw Curry in the light of glowworms from a glass container on the ground. Tamisra had placed them out after feeding a few of them to Curry, and they now softly illuminated the immediate area of the tunnel. As Roland became more alert, the thought of the noise all but disappeared.