by Kate L. Mary
“You gave me to Aralyn that day?” I asked my mother.
More tears filled her eyes, but this time she did not wipe them away. They rolled down her cheeks, cutting through the dirt gathered on her face. “I did. I kissed you goodbye and handed you over to a woman I’d just met, trusting she’d make sure you were safe.”
“How did you know Dichen raised me?”
“Aralyn,” Edwina replied, motioning to the older woman. “I saw her a week later and asked about you. She told me a Winta woman named Dichen had smuggled you out of the city and was going to raise you as her own daughter. She told me your name was Indra.”
Edwina checked on me.
My life had been a happy one, especially considering all the things I had gone through. I was an Outlier, so an easy existence was impossible. Comparatively speaking, though, things had been good for me. My parents had loved me, and my sister, too. I had fallen in love and married not one, but two men. Yes, I had lost. Who among us had not? But I had been given so much as well. More than so many people I knew.
Still, knowing my birth mother had checked to make sure I was okay… That did something to me.
“What happened to my father? To Barrick?” I asked, knowing the connection he most likely had with Zuri, but still needing to know more about him. Had he followed up on me the way Edwina had? He had been so much closer to me.
“A woman in his village won the right to be his mate only a few weeks after you were born,” Edwina told me, and I tried to picture Zuri back then, fighting as a young woman so she could marry my father. Barrick. “They had a son a year later, and several more children after that. How many, I don’t know for sure.”
I did, though. Four. Three boys and a girl named Iona.
“He married someone else?” Tereza asked, sounding appalled by the idea.
“He wasn’t alone in that,” Edwina replied with a shrug. “We had very few options available to us. When I turned eighteen, I married the Sovereign man I’d been promised to. We’re still married, assuming your mother hasn’t had him killed for my part in helping the Outliers. He’s a foolish man, as most Sovereign men are, but he knew nothing about my involvement.”
“What about Barrick?” I asked, trying to get her back on track. I now knew with almost certainty that he was dead, but I had to hear it from Edwina. Had to know for sure.
“He’s gone, Indra. I’m sorry.” My mother reached out to take my hand, a sad smile on her face. “We were together for many years after that. He was even the father of the two children I was allowed to keep, although he was never able to acknowledge it. Barrick died almost ten years ago, though. He was hunting with his son when a lygan slashed him across the stomach. It was a fatal injury.” Edwina let out a breath that sounded almost painful. “Two days passed before I learned of his death. That’s when his daughter arrived at my house, claiming his job.”
It was so much information. Too much to take in. I had learned my mother was Sovereign two years ago, but to find out that my father had been an Outlier was an utter shock. Barrick, the man who had helped create me, had not only been Mountari, but had been married to Zuri, who as far as I could tell had loved him a great deal. Had he loved her as well, or had he only cared for Edwina?
Another thought suddenly occurred to me. Like Asa and me, Edwina and Barrick had broken all the rules, defied every odd, and fallen in love. As a result, I existed.
The thought caused happiness to swell in my chest even as I thought of how Zuri would react. That was when another, almost more shocking, reality slammed into me. I had siblings, four in the Mountari village and two who had been raised right here in Sovereign City.
Were they still alive? Were they being held captive like their mother? Could I save them?
“Where are your children?” I asked desperately. “My siblings, are they okay?”
“I don’t know. My daughter and her husband were taken from the house with me. I don’t know if they’re somewhere in this building or dead.” Edwina’s voice broke. “My son’s fate is even more of a mystery because he’s married and living in his mother-in-law’s house. He could be free, or he could be here.”
If he was free when we raided the city, he very well could have been put to death by now. The Outliers who raided his house would never know he was a sympathizer. They probably would not have taken the time to listen even if he tried to tell them.
I did not tell Edwina this as I climbed to my feet, my gaze moving down the hall and over the cells we had not yet opened. “What are their names?”
“My daughter’s name is Samara, and my son is Jareth,” the woman who had given birth to me replied.
“We will find them,” I said firmly.
31
Asa
My wife hurried off, rushing to the next cell in a desperate need to find the family she had never known, but I was frozen. This story had touched me in ways I couldn’t understand, but it also explained so much about who Indra was. She was a product of love, brought into this world by two people who had risked everything to be together.
It was a startling thought, and while it made me happy for her, it saddened me. Indra had gotten two loving families, while I had been given nothing. I still believed what I’d said, that I wouldn’t change what I went through because it had made me who I was, but it still seemed unfair to think the gods had chosen to give some people so much while others were given nothing.
The other revelation was one neither one of us had voiced even though I knew she’d made the same connection I had. Zuri had told us about her first husband, Barrick. He’d worked in the city, in a house run by sympathizers, and when he died, his daughter had come to take his place. Iona. The girl we’d met only the day before, was Indra’s half-sister.
There were others, too, half-brothers, as well as two siblings who’d lived right here in this city. Were they kind like their mother, or evil like the rest of the Sovereign? If they were alive, we would soon find out.
I moved when Indra pulled the next cell open and a woman stumbled out. She was crying and dirty, bruised and bloodied, but too old to be the girl Indra was looking for.
Tereza ran to the woman’s side while my wife moved to the next cell. This time, I was next to her when she pulled it open, and the second I set eyes on the girl inside, I knew we had found Indra’s sister.
Samara was rounder than my wife, but they had the same green eyes. The same heart-shaped mouth. Her hair was dirty, but light brown as well.
Indra must have seen it, too, because when the girl looked up, she said, “Samara?”
The girl nodded, and Indra was instantly at her side. She didn’t explain who she was as she helped her to her feet and out of the cell, but I wasn’t sure if it was the timing of the situation or the emotion swirling through her. I was familiar enough with my wife’s moods by now to see it in her eyes. The mixture of pain at seeing her sister so mistreated and hope at finding her alive.
When Samara spotted her mother, she rushed to the older woman’s side, sobbing in relief. Indra watched them embrace, silent and still for just a moment, before turning and moving on to the next cell.
Two more turned up nothing. They were empty, although the foul stench told me it hadn’t been long since someone had occupied the room. The next cell was different, though.
Indra ripped it open to find a figure hunched in the back. At first, there was no movement, and I started to wonder if whoever was inside had died. Then the figure shifted, twisting around so his face came into view, and I knew immediately that we had found Jareth. It wasn’t until he dragged himself up off the ground that my suspicions were confirmed. He was taller than most of the Sovereign, and lanky. Clearly taking after his Outlier father.
“Who are you?” he asked, his gaze moving from Indra to me.
“We are here to save you.” My wife’s voice was strained, and I could tell that she, too, knew this was her brother. “You are Jareth?”
He still didn’t move. “I am.”<
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“Your mother is here, as is your sister.” Indra waved to the hall at our side.
Jareth stepped forward then, leaning against the wall for support. His steps were labored and slow, but his face was unmarked. It was the electroprod; I was certain of it. I remembered the feeling well. How my limbs seemed to not be able to obey. How I’d stumbled.
When he reached the doorway, Jareth hesitated like he thought this might be a trap. One look out into the hall was all it took, though, and then he was moving. His steps were staggered and jerky, but in no time he made it to where his mother and sister sat holding each other.
Indra followed silently, watching the exchange as Jareth joined his family. For a moment, Edwina didn’t look away from her other two kids, and I began to wonder if she’d forgotten Indra was present. Then she looked up and smiled, her eyes shimmering with tears.
“Thank you for saving us.” She sniffed. “My daughter.”
32
Indra
Samara and Jareth looked up at me but said nothing. I had no way of knowing if they knew about me or our father, and there was no time to ask. Not when we still had work to do. It would have to wait until after the city fell. Then we would have the time we needed to get to know one another, and we would be free to share our story.
Still, as much as I needed to find Lysander and make him pay, the idea of leaving my family here when they were still so vulnerable terrified me. I had just found them. What if they died while I ran off to exact my revenge?
Emori seemed to sense my hesitation, and reached out to grab my leg. She was leaning her head against the wall and looking weak and beaten, nothing like the angry woman I had come to know, except for the expression in her eyes. She was not ready to give up. Not yet.
“Go,” she hissed, her fingers digging into my skin. “I will make sure nothing happens to them, but you must find Lysander. He has to pay.”
The determination in her voice got through to me, but before I could take even one step, her grip tightened even more.
She sat up, pulling herself closer with great effort. “Do not kill him. Not until I can watch. Understand?”
“Yes,” I said.
Her nails bit into my skin. “If you do, I swear I will use the last few breaths in my body to make sure you die with me.”
I pried myself free, nearly wincing when her nails scratched across my skin. “I will make sure everyone who wants a piece of Lysander gets it.”
Emori let out a deep breath as she once again slumped against the wall. “Thank you.”
I pulled my sword as I turned to face my husband and Asger.
Asa’s head dipped once. “Let’s finish this.”
Together, the three of us headed down the hall.
We moved deeper into the government building, stopping when we burst through a set of double doors and found ourselves in another hallway. Unlike the one we had just come from, which was made of the same gray stone as everything else in the city, this one was white from floor to ceiling and clean. It was also dark, thanks to the lack of power. It was the first time I had ever been anywhere in the building other than the prison cell, and not only was I unsure of what to expect, but I also had no idea where to go. I had heard many stories over the years about the technology the Sovereign had and how they used it to grow food inside this very building. Using artificial light that worked like the sun, and bringing water in from Sovereign Lake so they did not need to worry about rain. The idea of being able to grow things so easily when we had always struggled was difficult enough to wrap my brain around, but they made other things here as well. They had machines that manufactured clothing, household goods, spirits, medicine, and any other item the people in this city thought they needed to survive. Most of it was useless, as far as I could tell, but it made the Sovereigns’ lives easier than they already were.
I looked to my left, and then to my right, but did not move. “Where do we go?”
Asa exhaled, and it echoed through the empty hall. “Up. I think we should go up. In the tower, the controls are on the very top floor. Assuming that building is a duplicate of this one, it should be the same here.”
“It’s a good guess,” Asger said while I nodded.
Still, I looked left and then right. Doors lined the wall in front of us, the space between them as big as two Fortis men were tall, but that was all I could see. Nothing told me which way to go if I wanted to find stairs.
Asa, however, must have seen something that told him where to go, because he turned to the right and started moving. “There.”
Asger and I followed, trusting he knew what he was doing.
He did not slow until he reached a door at the end of the hall. A word I could not decipher was printed above it, barely visible in the darkness, but my husband seemed to know exactly what it was, because he shoved the door open.
Stairs made of smooth, gray stone loomed in front of us, twisting their way up. The hall we were standing in was cloaked in shadows, thanks to the lack of electricity, but the stairwell in front of us was pitch black.
“We could run into anyone in there,” I said.
Asa looked up. “The good news is they won’t be able to see us either.”
“It is a small consolation,” I said.
“Yes,” my husband replied, “but it’s our only option.”
“Then we go,” Asger said.
I pushed past him and moved to the stairs.
Asa moved to join me with Asger right behind him. The door swung shut and darkness fell over us as the bang echoed through the stairwell, magnified by the stone. I gripped the cold railing and moved, the smooth metal making me feel like I was once again lost in the caves, surrounded by darkness and shivering from my fall into the stream.
“We’re right behind you,” Asa said.
Like the bang of the door, his words bounced off the walls and came back over and over before finally fading away.
“I am moving,” I replied, keeping my voice to a whisper.
I began walking.
Even though it was dark, I could feel my husband’s presence behind me. His warmth gave me comfort and confidence as I climbed. There was not a single sound other than the clump of our footsteps and the rasp of our breathing, but I kept my ears open anyway. I did not want to be taken by surprise.
We moved higher, deeper into the darkness of the government building. Our footsteps echoed around us, mixing with the pounding of my heart as we moved. Asa stuck close to me. I knew because I could feel his presence even though I could see nothing but blackness. The railing helped guide me, its smooth surface stopping when we reached the next level. There I was forced to run my hand along the wall, over the stone and door until I found the railing once again and started climbing higher. Two times this happened, and then a third, only this time when I felt around I was met with nothing but a wall and a door.
“We have reached the top,” I said.
Despite keeping my voice low, the words still bounced off the walls and came back to me, causing my heart to pound harder and faster. Now that we were no longer moving, there were no sounds other than our heavy breathing and the pounding of the blood in my ears, which seemed twice as loud as before.
Feeling around in the darkness, it took only a moment to locate the doorknob. I paused, my hand wrapped around it, and took a deep breath, pulling air in through my nose and blowing it out through my mouth. It was a desperate attempt to calm my pounding heart and steady my nerves, but it did not help. I had come too far, had thought about this moment too many times, and the energy flowing through me felt as volatile as the shock of electricity that had blown a hole in the wall.
“Indra.” My husband said my name softly. “Are you okay?”
“Yes,” I said, as firmly as I could. “I am okay.”
And then I pulled the door open.
I expected a larger version of the control back at the tower, but instead found myself staring at a windowless and empty room. A few lights glow
ed along the ceiling despite the lack of power, casting the room in a red glow that made it seem as if the white walls and floor had been coated in blood. It caused the hair on the back of my neck to stand on end, as did the utter stillness of my surroundings when I stepped inside.
There was only one place to go. One door that had to lead to Lysander and hopefully the end of this war. Asa, Asger, and I said nothing as we crossed to it, our footsteps oddly silent. My sword was drawn, and when I reached out to grab the doorknob with my free hand, it did not tremble in the least. Then I jerked the door open.
Lysander was not alone.
Before coming here, we had known there would others with him—members of the council—but it was not just Sovereign women at his side. There were three Fortis men as well.
“Halt!” one of the men yelled when he spotted us.
His sword was already out, and when he moved, Asa ran to meet him. Asger, like my husband, charged forward, and the clang of metal echoed through the room, but I was too distracted by my surroundings to pay attention to the fight. The room was a replica of the one in the tower, although nicer. Cleaner. Pristine and white. The walls were lined with the same glass squares—monitors—and lights blinked in a few places while a couple of the monitors showed flashing green symbols, but most of it was dark, thanks to Egon.
Standing in front of them was Paizlee—I recognized her from the many meals in Saffron’s house—as well as another Sovereign woman. Lysander was present, too, but he had retreated to the far corner of the room where he held an electroprod in his hand. It was not on, though, and I found myself wondering if it worked at all.
A grunt of pain drew my attention to the battle raging beside me. Both Asger and Asa were fighting, my husband going up against two Fortis men at the same time, and the uneven fight was enough to knock Lysander from my thoughts.
I ran to Asa’s aid, my sword already up when I reached the nearest Fortis man. I swung my weapon down, my blade making contact with the back of his leg. He let out a shout of fury and spun to face me, but I was ready. My sword was pointed at his chest, and when he stepped forward it pierced him right through the heart.