by Sofia Vargas
“Um, thanks, Viper, but I’m going to pass. I have a lot on my mind right now.”
“So much that you can’t relax for a little while?” he said, sounding let down. “I think a little time away from this place will do you some good.”
“Really, Viper,” I said, making sure to keep my temper in check, “it really isn’t a good idea. I have things to do.”
“Why isn’t it a good idea?” he pushed. “We haven’t spent some time together in a while. It’ll be fun.”
“I’m sure it would be,” I said, rounding on him. I felt my patience leave me in a flash. “But I don’t think your fiancée would like it very much.”
He halted.
“Oh,” he said, understanding immediately.
“How could you not tell me?” I snarled. I figured there was no use in stopping now.
“I didn’t think it would matter,” he said.
I stared at him. “Viper, how can a piece of information like that not matter?”
“It happened a long time ago. It’s not like things can’t change.”
I laughed. “And you thought I’d be okay with being the one to change it?”
“I didn’t want my engagement to get in the way of you feeling like you could. Emma, I really like you.”
I had been hoping to hear those words for so long. And yet when they finally tumbled out of his mouth, they didn’t make me feel the way I needed them to.
“And I thought I liked you, too,” I said, turning away from him.
“Emma—” Viper put a hand on my shoulder.
“Please,” I said, pushing his hand off and walking away. “Just leave me alone for a while.”
To my slight disappointment, he did.
* * *
I walked to my tent and looked back to where he was walking away with his eyes fixed on the ground. I was sure that if he really liked me as he’d claimed, he wouldn’t have let me walk away while I was so angry.
I turned my head from him and went inside. I hung up my jacket, pulled the chair up to the fire, and sat down. I wasn’t sure what to think about things. The thought of Viper being engaged to someone didn’t hurt as much as the fact that he had kept such a big secret from me. I watched the sky darken through the top of my tent. I sat there for minutes. Or hours. I wasn’t sure.
The shock and anger dripped off and all I was left with was sadness. After a while I realized how hungry I was. I put on my jacket and walked out. I knew I wasn’t up to going to the main tent and sitting with the others so I had a seat in the one place I felt like I had a place.
“Why so gloomy?” Oak said when I sat down.
“It’s been a rough day,” I said. I inhaled the aroma coming from the pot he was stirring. It made me feel even hungrier.
“Well, you’re in luck. Tonight’s a good night to finish a rough day,” he said, ladling the contents of the pot into a bowl and placing it in front of me. “It’s stew night.”
“Just like every other night,” said a dark skinned man at the other end of the bar.
I looked at him and realized he was the same man that had been sitting there when I waved to Oak the other morning.
“I don’t think anyone was talking to you,” Oak said to him.
The man laughed and kept eating. I spooned some stew into my mouth and instantly felt better.
“I told you,” Oak said without me having to say a word. “Training not going well?”
“It’s going fine,” I said. “I’m not sure how I feel about other things.”
Oak looked at me. “And by other things you mean?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “Things are so wrong around here. People not being able to do more important things with their lives, abilities only being granted to a certain demographic, having to be told how to think and act.”
“It’s messed up, isn’t it?”
“Very,” I said, swallowing more stew.
He grinned. “That’s the way things have been done here for a very long time. People aren’t going to like that you don’t agree with it, especially considering who you are.”
“I can’t help it,” I said. “I guess I’m not used to it.”
“That may be it,” he said. “Or maybe you know that things shouldn’t be that way.”
“I can’t say I know it,” I said, “but I certainly think it.”
“And how does it make you feel? Sad? Angry?”
I stared into my half empty bowl. “It makes me feel…”
I thought about it. I thought about all the people in the market being made to live a mediocre life. I thought about Professor Elias having to teach what he didn’t believe. About the soldier that threatened to slit my throat because I was different. How he had been forced to hate anything that didn’t look like it belonged. I thought about the soldier that was ashamed of not looking like the others in his group.
It made me feel like I was home again where no one talked to me because they knew Emily would ruin their lives, just as she had mine. People knew I was a pleasant enough person that didn’t cause trouble when it could be avoided. But they also knew that I was taboo and that Emily did whatever she felt necessary to keep me that way.
I felt a strange wave of emotion come over me. Like I had finally realized something I had been waiting for my entire life. It felt like I had finally found my life’s purpose and direction. Though I couldn’t see the path clearly, I knew it was in front of me.
“It makes me feel like it shouldn’t be,” I said, looking at Oak. “It makes me feel like something should be done about it.”
He nodded and looked at the man sitting at the end of the bar. I looked at him, too. I hadn’t realized that he had been sitting there watching and listening to me the whole time.
“That’s the kind of thing we like to hear,” the man said with a smile.
There was a loud yell and I heard a lot of commotion coming from the middle of the campsite. Everyone else around us heard the tumult, too, and started running toward the center. I looked at Oak. He shrugged his shoulders. I jumped off my stool and ran with the others. Everyone seemed to be running toward the main tent where the yelling was going on. I rushed forward and pushed myself into the entrance to see what was happening.
There was a big group of people gathered around the center table. I pushed through the people and stopped at the table. A little way down the table I could see Ms. Riley staring at the half-eaten dinner on her plate. Viper was cradling Arie in his arms while she wailed. Ms. Riley looked strange. She looked pale, almost translucent, and seemed gradually to be growing more so as the seconds ticked by.
“Arie, please,” she said. “We knew this time would be coming very soon.”
“I don’t want you to go,” Arie all but screamed.
“Arabella, I’m old,” Ms. Riley said, dimming even more. “I’ve lived out my very long life and now I’m ready to rest.”
Arie broke away from Viper and wrapped her arms around her aunt. “Please stay with me.”
Ms. Riley kissed her on the forehead. “I’m afraid I can’t do that, darling. So please stop crying,” she said.
Arie put her head on Ms. Riley’ soon-to-be nonexistent shoulder and cried even harder.
Ms. Riley turned her head and put her cheek on the top of her niece’s head. Her eyes locked with mine and she gave the slightest of nods.
“Everything will be all right,” she said to me. Or to the entire room. Perhaps to the whole world.
There was a burst of yellow light and she disappeared completely. Arie fell through the air Ms. Riley once had occupied. Viper caught her shoulders. I backed away from the table while she wept.
“Well, it’s official,” my father said from across the table.
Everyone turned to look at him. He looked like he might cry.
“Emma is now Enlightened and ready to take her command post.”
The air caught in my throat. I continued to back out through the crowd of people in the tent. I edged out
of and slid around the side where no one could see me. I let my back slide down the rough fabric and sat on the ground, burying my face in my hands.
“Emma,” someone whispered.
I looked up, squinting my eyes in the darkness. Oak was motioning for me to come to the nearby tent he was in. Without thinking I got up and went to him. He stepped aside and I entered the tent. Through the darkness of the tent I saw various pots, pans, and other cooking utensils.
“This is my supply tent,” he answered my unasked question. “Celeste Riley is gone, isn’t she?”
I gave his tender voice a nod. I could feel tears gathering in my eyes. My legs collapsed under me. I held my hands up to stop him when he rushed to me. He gave me a moment to breathe.
“You don’t want to lead the troops into battle as their new Enlightened leader, do you?”
I shook my head. The tears overflowed and ran down my cheeks.
“Then can I ask you to take a little trip with me?”
I looked at his blurry figure. “Where?”
“I’d like to show you something,” he said.
He peeked out of the tent and waved to someone, then looked back at me.
“I think you would like to see that there are other options open to you.”
I wiped my cheeks and listened to the commotion outside. If I took my military post everything Ms. Riley and Professor Elias had taught me would be useless. I gave my cheeks one more wipe and straightened my back. I knew there wasn’t a question about it; I had to find another way.
“Okay,” I said. “Show me.”
X
A digression
I feel my limbs moving of their own accord. My arms and legs are being lifted and placed back down. Straps are being tightened over every part of me.
“Make sure they’re all nice and tight.” I hear a woman’s voice that I have never heard before. “She’s going to do a lot of squirming when she wakes so we want to make sure no part of her will move too much. That will only put her in more pain…”
I let the voice float away. I don’t want to know why it is saying these things.
* * *
“Emma, I am going to break a lot rules showing you what I’m going to,” Oak said. He looked out of the tent again. “There are going to be a lot of angry people and probably some panic, but I really think I’m doing the right thing.”
I nodded. “I’ll try to help make it as easy as possible.”
“Thanks,” Oak said.
He put his hand on my shoulder and gave it a squeeze. I was amazed how comforted I was by the small gesture.
“The most important thing is that you stay quiet and calm.” He looked at me. “Your presence can go unnoticed with any hope. Do you have anything to … put over your hair?”
I pulled the scarf Dresden made me wear every morning in the market out of my pocket and wrapped my head in it once more.
“Great,” Oak said, watching me tuck in the last strands around my face.
“I’m sorry I’m not the most discrete person.”
“That isn’t something you need to apologize for," he said. “That is something to be celebrated.” He looked out the tent once more. “All right, let’s get going.”
He held out his hand to help me off the ground. He pulled me up, took one more look around outside, and then ran out of the tent.
Things had gotten much quieter during the time we were in the tent. Everyone seemed to be congregated closer to the back of the campsite. I realized they were probably at my tent looking for me. Things would get very nasty once they realized I was nowhere to be found. Oak and I weaved our way to the front of the campsite ducking behind as many tents as we could to stay out of the line of sight. The atmosphere started to grow louder no matter how much closer to the front of the site we got.
When we got to the front I could see that the entrance to the gate was ajar. Oak stepped forward and looked around. A small flash of light illuminated his face for a second. Oak turned to me, pointed to the ground, and pulled me forward through the gate. I looked down and saw the two guards that were supposed to be watching the entrance passed out on the ground. Once again I saw a flash of light penetrate the darkness between the trees lining the right side of the road. As soon as we cleared the guards we ran to the source of it.
“Glad you two could finally make it,” a man’s voice said when we approached the trees.
“We’re here now,” Oak said. “So let’s get moving.”
I could see the outlines of two people standing in front of us. I was alarmed when I saw something else that didn’t have a person’s silhouette a little further into the trees.
“Yes,” said a female voice, “let’s go before they realize their savior is gone and come smashing out of the gates after us.”
They turned and walked to whatever was making the strange profiles. Oak put his hand on my shoulder and gave me a small push in their direction. The man climbed on top of the object then helped the woman climb on behind him. A long head with pointed ears rose from the ground and the object separated into two. I realized that they were two horses. Oak climbed onto the second horse and helped me on behind him.
“Hold on,” he said.
The horses started to move away from the campsite. Everything started normally. That was until we were about five minutes into the ride and then the sound of the horses’ hooves disappeared. I thought my ears had clogged so I swallowed to clear them, but it did nothing. There was no sound while we picked up speed and galloped through the trees.
“Hey, Oak?” I said, but nothing came out of my mouth.
I cleared my throat and tried again. “Oak?” I said as loud I could.
Again I heard nothing. There was a small burst of light from the horse in front of us. The woman on the back of the horse lit up then dimmed. A few seconds later I caught sight of another horse from the corner of my eye. I turned my head and could see it to the side and a little behind our horse. I couldn’t see who or how many were on the horse. A few more seconds went by and yet another horse and rider joined the one in front of us. From this angle I could see that it was just one person. I glimpsed the whole group for only a few moments before all three of the horses and their riders disappeared. I looked around to see where they had gone, but all I could see were the tall, dark trees as we rode past them.
Oak didn’t seem disturbed by anything that had taken place, so I figured that the strange occurrences had to be planned. I calmed myself and we rode on. It was impossible to tell how much time was passing on our impromptu journey. The night only seemed to get darker. The few stars that I could see through the tops of the trees shone brighter while the time went by. There weren’t any clouds in the sky from what I could tell. It made me happy to know that we wouldn’t be caught in the snow.
My eyes became heavy watching the trees fly by us and I could feel myself drifting to sleep. I laid the side of my head on Oak’s back and thought that it wouldn’t hurt to close my eyes for a few seconds. They flew open again when I felt a falling sensation and realized I was slipping off the side of the horse. Oak realized what was happening too and reached an arm back to steady me before I fell completely off. I regained my grip and slid myself upright again. He took something out of his pocket and wrapped it tightly around my wrists. It kept my arms tightly wrapped around him. He looked back at me and nodded his head when he was done. I tried to moved my arms and found that they didn’t budge. I put my head on his back knowing that I wouldn’t be in danger of slipping again. Relaxing was much harder than it had been before the shock of almost falling and being trampled by a horse.
I noticed the trees started growing further apart while the time ticked away. It wasn’t a sudden change, but the trees were definitely spreading away from each other. The number of surrounding trees grew fewer until the horse burst out of the forest and entered a field. Not having to watch passing trees calmed my nerves even more. My eyes drooped during our ride through the tall, frosted grass. I though
t I saw mountains in the distance but found it extremely hard to focus on them to see if I was right. Once more I closed my eyes and let myself drift to sleep.
* * *
Light flooded through my eyelids. My head swam while I was dragged back to consciousness. I blinked them open and saw a log ceiling come into focus above me. They were very faint, but I could make out voices coming from a distance.
I sat up and looked at the plush blankets spread on top of me. As warm as I was, I pushed myself off the bed and stood on the cold, hardwood floor. The whole room, as well as the furniture, was made out of wood. I walked to the door and pulled it open just enough to have a look out. The voices in the other room didn’t sound happy. I looked down an unlit hallway. It looked like the room, only it was lined with closed doors. I seemed to be in the room that the hall dead ended into. Directly opposite of me was another room that wasn’t enclosed by a door.
“…I just never expected this from you, Oak,” a woman’s voice said. “Perhaps from Caden but never from you.”
“I understand why you’re angry; we did this behind your back,” said Oak’s voice. “But you know I wouldn’t have done something like this if I hadn’t given it a lot of thought and known it would work.”
“We’re going to be in so much trouble,” the woman said. “You didn’t do this behind only my back but behind everyone else’s, too. The Council’s going to be furious.”
“We’re part of the Council so all we need to do is explain our plan,” Oak said.
“You will have to explain your plan,” the woman snapped. “I have nothing to do with any of this.”
“Kaia, please,” he said. “You have to see our side of this.”
I heard the woman sigh deeply and stomp around.
“She can help us,” Oak said. “Just talk to her and hear what she has to say—”
“I don’t need to talk to her to know what she has to say. She’s one of them. She will want to gather them up and throw them into Northern cages.”
“No, she’s different,” he said. “She’s not one of them. You don’t understand.”
“What do you mean she’s not one of them?”