by Kate L. Mary
Her fingers tightened on mine. “I will heal.”
“I am so sorry, Xandra. We did not want to leave you in the city, but we had no way to get to you.”
“You did nothing wrong, Indra. You are always too hard on yourself.” She winced, pausing, and then her eyes moved over me. “What is this?”
Xandra ran the fingers of her free hand over the cut on my neck, and in turn I found myself wincing in pain. I had almost gotten used to the way the teeth pulled at my skin when I moved a certain way, but the injury was still tender to the touch.
“Emori,” I said. “She was angry with me. Mad that I aligned myself with the Fortis who fled their village. Angry that Asa and I got married.”
“I heard about the marriage.” Xandra moved as if to sit, crying out when she did, but waving me away when I reached for her. “It is nothing. Minor compared to what could have happened.” She paused, hesitating. “They killed Bowie.”
I exhaled at the news, not surprised, but dreading what this might mean. We had enough problems without adding Cruz to our list “We will have to get word to the Trelite, although I do not know how they will respond. They have pulled out of our alliance.”
“We knew it would happen,” Xandra whispered.
I squeezed her hand.
Inside me, the joy at seeing my friend warred with the desperation I felt at not knowing what was happening with Asa. If he was alive or dead. If I would ever see him again.
Nyko stood over us, silently, and when I lifted my head to find his gaze focused on me, dread pooled in my stomach. Like Xandra, he had taken a beating. Both his eyes were swollen to the point they could barely open, and his nose was not nearly as straight as it had once been. His bottom lip was cut open, and bruises circled his throat. I had no doubt there was more damage under his clothes.
“Tell me,” I said, unable to keep my questions to myself a moment longer.
“They found out about you and Asa.”
My body weakened, and I slumped to the side as if on the verge of fainting, Zuri barely catching me before I fell.
“He is dead,” I managed to get out.
“No, Indra, he is not.” It was Xandra who spoke. “He is alive. I saw him with my own eyes before we were taken from the city.”
“Taken?” Roan asked. “Who took you?”
“The Fortis.” Nyko paused so he could spit on the ground, as if uttering the name of his former people left a bad taste in his mouth. “They took us out in a wagon, tied up in the back. Through the borderland to the edge of the wilds. That’s where they dropped us. We were trying to make our way back to the caves when we heard voices and headed this way instead.”
“Why?” Mira asked. “Why did they send you back here?”
“We are a message,” Xandra said.
Silence fell over us, heavy with dread like dark clouds barely clinging to the storm within. I could feel it hanging over my head, threatening to open up and rain down on us.
“What—” Roan began.
The question was cut off by the thud of footsteps charging through the forest, heading our way.
A moment later, Atreyu and Gaia broke through the trees. The older woman was sobbing already, and when she saw the state Xandra was in, her tears doubled in strength. She dropped to her knees when she was still arm’s length away and had to pull herself forward, her body shaking with sobs.
“I thought I would never see you again. I thought you were gone,” Gaia managed to get out between tears.
“I am here,” Xandra said soothingly. “I promised I would not leave you. Not for good.”
The two hugged, and when they kissed, I did not miss it when Atreyu looked away. I did not. Unlike my friend, I had come to accept that love revealed itself in different ways. Right or wrong, it was not my place to judge. Not after everything I had done, and not when I myself had fallen in love with a man who by all rights should have been my enemy. Now he was in trouble. He was inside the city, and if I did not figure out a way to save him, he would die just as Bodhi had.
With the emotional reunion between Gaia and Xandra still going strong, I pulled myself to my feet so I could face Nyko. Mira followed my lead, as did Zuri. The others were already standing, and like me, they were focused on the former Fortis man.
“What is the message you have been sent to deliver?” I asked.
Nyko pressed his lips together like the thought of delivering it made him sick. “The Sovereign said they want everything to go back to normal. They’ll release your husband and they’ll even let the Outliers return to their jobs if they want.”
“Impossible,” Zuri hissed.
“What do they want in exchange?” I asked, ignoring her, knowing there was more. Saffron would not simply give up, and she would not expect me to, either.
Nyko looked down. “You.”
Silence stretched out, heavier than before. I was unsurprised, but it did not mean the revelation left me unaffected. Asa for me. Knowing Saffron as I did, it made sense, especially after what had happened with Bodhi.
Atreyu’s gaze flicked to me. “You said we needed a distraction.”
“No,” Mira gasped at the same time that Roan growled, “We will not hand Indra over to be slaughtered.”
I lifted my hand to stop them from saying anything else. “It could be the only way.”
Nyko’s head jerked up, his blue eyes straining to open so he could look at me. “Asa wouldn’t want you to do this. He would rather die than have you go into the city.”
“But would he leave me to die if the situation were reversed?” I asked calmly.
Nyko shoved his hand through his red hair, his fingers nearly getting tangled in the knots, then shook his head. “You know they won’t honor this deal.”
I knew he was right. If I went into the city, I would not come out alive, and the Sovereign would not leave the Outliers alone.
More to the point, though, I knew Atreyu was right as well. This was the solution I had been looking for. The Sovereign would not forget what I had done. They were a people who liked to punish, to torture, to lord their power over others. Asa had even come into the forest to warn me about Lysander’s desire for retribution. I also remembered with perfect clarity how the people inside the city had flocked to the square to watch my first husband’s death. If the Sovereign managed to get their hands on the woman who tried to kill one of their own, they would be focused on only one thing. Me.
Plus, there was the thing I could not voice out loud, not to anyone. It was the thing Saffron knew about me. It was why she was so sure I would take this deal. I would not leave my husband to die in the city alone. No matter how little I believed the Sovereign would honor their promise, I would go to Asa. If we died side by side, I would consider it fate.
Perhaps all the winding roads I had traveled over the last two years had been to lead me here.
“It is only a distraction,” I said. “Something that will buy us time.”
Roan pressed his lips together while Zuri shook her head. Mira looked away like she was trying to hide her emotions from me, but did not do it fast enough. I saw the tear sliding down her cheek. Still, no one said a word to try to dissuade me.
By the time Ontari returned with her healer, a man as bony as Arkin had been, but not nearly as tall, the decision had been made. To say I was worried about the outcome would be an understatement, but only because there were no guarantees the distraction would be big enough.
“This is Lev,” Ontari said, waving to the man as he rushed to Xandra’s side. “Our village healer.”
Lev knelt, his focus entirely on Xandra. “Let me have a look at you.”
The rest of us stood in uncomfortable silence, listening as Xandra relayed the abuse she had been subject to inside the city. It was not long before Nyko, too, was down, a groan pulling its way out of him as his legs gave out.
“He has been shocked many times,” Xandra said when Lev looked the large man’s way.
When Lev tur
ned to him, Nyko tried to wave the healer’s attention away, but only ended up wincing. “I’m okay.”
“Let me decide that,” the healer said.
It took a little urging for Nyko to relent, but when he did and his shirt was pulled open, I had to look away. He was a large man, and brawny like all the Fortis, but it was not his muscled chest that made me uneasy. It was the marks dotting his skin. Burns, from the looks of them, and no doubt a result of the multiple hits he had taken from an electroprod. There were at least five that I could see, and most likely more were hidden on his back, arms, and maybe even legs. Was this what Asa was enduring at this very moment? Would I get into the city only to discover he had been killed before Xandra and Nyko were even able to deliver their message?
“Asa will be fine.” Zuri stood at my side, tall and broad and sounding as sure as she always did.
I nodded even though I could not know for certain whether or not it was true.
Then, mostly as a way to distract myself, I asked, “How is your daughter?”
The girl, who was just a teenager, had worked in the city and been held prisoner for a year, escaping only when we stormed the Fortis village and freed the Outlier slaves.
“She is recovering. It could have been worse. We both know that.” The older woman twisted her gray hair around her hand, her gaze moving to where Xandra was spread out. “My daughter, Iona, was lucky. She worked for a kind woman. A sympathizer.”
“Did she?” I asked, my eyebrows lifting in surprise.
Although I had known sympathizers existed, I had never met one myself.
“Yes. The family has been working with Outliers for a long time. Since my first husband was a child. There is very little they can do, but they try.” Zuri paused as if the next words were difficult to get out. “As kind as they were, they could not protect Iona from everything. Especially not once she was taken to the prison in the Fortis village.”
The expression of agony on Zuri’s face made me want to reach out and take her hand, but I was not sure if this strong woman even needed my support.
“Your first husband worked in the house as well?” I asked, trying to remember what she had told me when we first met.
“He did.” Zuri tugged harder on her gray hair, but I was not sure if she was even aware she was doing it. “Barrick began working there when he was still young, after his father died of a fever, but Iona was much younger. Only eight when her father was killed. Had she not worked for such a good family, I would have let the job die with Barrick.” She looked down. “Perhaps I should have.”
“You had no way of knowing any of this would happen,” I said gently.
“Is this not how life has always been for the Outliers?” She lifted her eyes to meet mine, her head still bowed, her brows raised. “The uncertainty of this world should have been enough to make me protect my daughter.”
“There is nothing we can do to really protect our family. Not as long as the Sovereign and Fortis are still alive.”
Zuri simply shrugged in response.
Lev stood, pulling my attention back to our injured friends. “I am not wise in the way of the Sovereign’s technology, but it looks as if these two will recover. Rest is the best thing for them right now.” He looked at Xandra. “I can give you an herb to prevent pregnancy, although it could be too late.”
At her side, Gaia began crying harder.
Xandra squeezed the other woman’s hand. “I will leave it up to fate.”
“Fate has not been kind to our people so far,” Lev said, as if trying to talk her into it.
“Not yet,” Xandra replied, “but it will not always be that way.”
Lev simply nodded in response.
“Atreyu, Gaia, and Tris, I need you to help our friends back to the caves,” I said.
Nyko dragged himself to his feet. “What of you?”
“I am going to the city.”
“Now?” Mira asked, alarm ringing in her voice.
“Now.” I looked up at the bright sun and cloudless blue sky, squinting as I did. “We have waited long enough to earn our freedom.”
16
Indra
Mira stood at my side as we moved through the forest, with Roan next to her. The wilds were alive with activity and the sun was high over our heads, pounding down on us with its fiery rays, while around us animals scurried for safety. Above us in the trees, rawlin sang out as if warning us of danger, and the sound of their frantic songs made my heart beat faster.
“You are sure about this?” Mira asked.
Her voice, although quiet, seemed to ring through the air. Above us, a bird squawked in protest at the disturbance before taking off, red feathers falling to the ground in its wake.
“This is the best plan,” I said. “You know as well as I do how much the Sovereign revel in their punishments. With me in their clutches, they will be too distracted to notice anything else.”
“And if the Fortis are patrolling the area?” Roan asked.
“You can take them,” I replied with confidence. “There are only a handful remaining, and most will stay in the city in case of a grizzard attack.” I looked up as if expecting the creatures to swoop in at the very mention of their existence, but the sky was clear and cloudless, the sun moving lower as the day drew to an end. ”The Sovereign would not risk going unprotected.”
“She is right,” Mira said, but the sorrow in her voice gave away how she thought this would turn out.
Not that I could blame her. I did not see myself leaving the walls of the city, but I also knew I could not stand back and do nothing, and I believed with every inch of my being that this was the only way. If I was lucky, it might even redeem my soul, and when I finally made my way into the afterlife, it would not be to burn for eternity.
“You should make your move soon. Tomorrow morning,” I said, slowing to a stop. “The Sovereign will hold a gathering at sunrise, I am sure of it. When that happens, everyone will be focused on me.”
I nearly choked on the last words, remembering how it had felt to stand on the platform in the middle of the square, facing a sea of people in red robes. I would stand at my husband’s side for the second time, forced to watch as he was taken from this earth. The good news was, I would not be allowed to suffer alone without him. No, Saffron would not let me live after this. Asa would die, and then I would follow him.
We had reached the edge of the wilds, and in front of us the borderland stretched out, the Lygan Cliffs to my left, the wastelands to my right. I would finish my journey alone.
I exhaled and turned to face Mira. “Tell Anja I am sorry.”
“She will be angry that you left without a goodbye.”
“I know,” I said, the words coming out like a sigh. “If there had been more time…” I paused and looked up, finding the words difficult. My eyes were still focused on the blue sky above us when I said, “Tell her I will see her again. Either in this life, or in the next.”
I was still looking at the sky when Mira grabbed me. She pulled me against her almost violently, wrapping my body in a firm embrace.
“You are the bravest person I have ever known,” she said, her mouth pressed against my ear and the words loud enough that only I could hear them.
Tears filled my eyes, but before they could spill over, I pried myself from my friend’s grasp and turned to face Roan. Like a dozen times in the past, the Mountari Head gave me an appreciative look.
“I have never met a woman like you, Indra of the Windhi, and I doubt very much I ever will.” He paused, pressing his lips together before nodding once, almost like he was giving himself permission to say the next words. “You know I admire you. It is something I have not tried to hide. In my tribe, we value strength, but I have come to realize it is more than that. It is your heart, and it will be missed.”
Roan’s words, like Mira’s, touched me, but in a completely different way.
“I respect you as well,” I said, “more than I can even say.”
“Yes,” I murmured, “it is.”
I said nothing else before turning my back to them and heading off, leaving my friends and the wilds behind. Possibly for good.
More than a year had passed since the last time I crossed the borderland to Sovereign City, the final time being the morning Mira was attacked by Lysander. It was the start of something, but not the beginning. All of this was set in motion centuries ago when the cataclysm occurred, changing the world forever. Mankind had to start over, and with my limited knowledge of the world, it was hard to know if what was created was better or worse than it had been before. I knew one thing for certain, though. If the Outliers won, if the Sovereign were wiped out and the three tribes continued to work together as they were now, things would be better. Maybe it would not always stay that way, but for now, it was enough.
The sun, although low, beat into me as I walked, coating my skin in a layer of sweat before I had gotten far. To my right, the dry, cracked dirt of the wastelands stretched out as far as the eye could see, and skeleton trees, bleached white from the sun, dotted the landscape, along with the occasional boulder.
I paid little attention to the dry wastelands as I walked, though, instead keeping my focus on the Lygan Cliffs to my left. The stone that made up the mountain was jagged and sharp and as black as night, and held the dangerous creatures they were named for. It would do no one any good for me to get taken by surprise and killed by a lygan before I had even reached the city.
Despite the long walk, it seemed to take no time at all for the wall to come into view, looming in the distance and dwarfing even the cliffs. The sun had reached the horizon, painting it in brilliant shades of pink and orange and purple. I could not yet see the remains of the Fortis village, but I knew they were there. Even more, I knew it would not be an easy trip to make. The men and women who had lived in the village used to line the streets, eager to torment me as I headed for the wall, but they were quiet now. Dead and rotting in the sun. Still, the ghosts left behind would no doubt bring twice as much torment as their human counterparts once had.