by Geoff Rodkey
A moment later, she reappeared and beckoned us to follow her inside.
It was pitch-black in there, with just enough junk on the floor and people to bump into that it quickly started to get noisy.
“Shhhhhh…,” Kira whispered.
I picked my way over to the back wall, where her voice had come from, until I bumped into someone I was pretty sure was Kira.
“What are we doing?” I whispered in the direction of her ear.
“There is a problem,” she whispered back. “The tunnel is in the building across the street.”
“Someone’s living there.”
“That’s the problem.”
CHOICES
It was two hours past sunrise, and the old man who lived in the building across the road was still eating his breakfast.
I’d never seen such a slow chewer in my life.
Everything about him was slow—from the way he shuffled out of the little stone house just after dawn, to the way he carefully rebuilt his fire from a pile of kindling around the corner of his house, to the way he turned the stick he used to roast some kind of potato over the low flames.
Now he was savoring that potato like it was the last meal he’d ever eat. And judging by the dark scowl on Kira’s face whenever she raised her head to check on him through the little window, if he didn’t clear out of there soon, it might be his last meal.
Or it might be us who’d eaten our last, if the Moku found us. There was only one way out of the little one-room shack where we were holed up, and nowhere to hide among the bits of broken furniture littering the floor. If anyone showed up at the door, we’d be trapped, with no weapons except the stones I’d brought and the lengths of wood the others had scavenged from the floor.
We knew the Moku were looking for us. Once we realized someone was living inside the tunnel building, I’d told Kira about the tree I’d seen growing near the wall. It was nearby, and she had agreed it was worth trying to get out that way instead. We’d set out to find the tree, but we hadn’t gone more than fifty feet from our hiding place when we heard voices shouting in the distance. It sounded to Kira like the guard at the pit had come to and raised the alarm, so we’d beat it back to the house in case the streets filled with warriors searching for us.
And they had. Within minutes, we’d seen torchlights flickering down the road by the main avenue. At first, they’d clustered near Dad’s house, making me terrified that we’d doomed him. But soon, they’d left his place and fanned out through the city. Every time we’d poked our heads out, there were torches bobbing on the main avenue, and occasionally search parties would pass by on the path that ran beside the city wall, so close to us that their lights danced on the walls of our hiding place.
But they never came up our street, and when dawn had broken and the old man had first appeared, I started feeling hopeful that we might be able to make a dash for it soon.
But the old man never went any farther than around the corner of his house, and when he did, it was only to pee or gather wood.
So we had no choice but to wait him out, praying all the while that no warriors would come down the street searching house-to-house for us.
With the sun up, the others all looked filthy and exhausted. Adonis turned out to be sporting a nasty black eye, along with a pretty good cut near his chin, but under the circumstances I had to swallow my curiosity about who had slugged him. Nobody was talking, for fear of giving our position away.
At one point, I stuck my head out the window to look down the street at Dad’s house. Before Kira yanked me back, I got a glimpse of what looked like Dad’s Moku shadow, cooking breakfast in front of the house.
That was a relief. If the Moku was cooking his breakfast, Dad must still be there. Which meant they hadn’t hauled him off on suspicion of helping us.
After that, I tried not to move unless there was a good reason to do so. Time dragged on. As excruciating as yesterday’s waiting had been, this was worse.
Finally, when Kira checked the window for what felt like the hundredth time, I saw her eyebrows jump. I leaped up to see what was happening.
The old man had finally finished his breakfast. He was standing up, stretching his legs like he might be getting ready to use them.
All around me, the others got to their feet, ready to run for it the moment the old man walked away.
Then he started tidying up.
It was endless. Just putting away the big roasting stick seemed to take him five minutes. One by one, we sat down again, dejected.
Then I felt Kira’s hand tap my head. I stood up and looked out.
The old man was shuffling down the road toward the main avenue. Just before he passed out of our line of sight, I saw him turn down a side street.
We were all up now, clustering behind Kira by the door.
She poked her head out to survey the street.
Then she drew it back with a sharp intake of breath.
“Warriors,” she whispered.
I stepped around her and took a look for myself. There were a dozen buildings on either side of the street between us and Dad’s house. Three Moku warriors with rifles were coming up the road in our direction, halfway between the abandoned house next to Dad’s and its closest neighbor.
As I watched, one of the soldiers approached the house and poked his head in the door while the others paused to wait for him.
They were searching every house, on both sides of the street. At the rate they were going, they’d reach us in a couple of minutes.
We had to make a choice. Should we run for it? Or stay and try to ambush them?
Either way, the odds were terrible.
Kira stepped to the far side of the doorway and raised the length of wood she’d taken from the floor. She wanted to fight.
I shook my head. She scowled at me.
“They’ve got guns,” I whispered. “And they’re spread out. We can’t take all three of them.”
“If we cross the road, they will see us,” she said.
“What if we hide behind the house?” suggested Millicent.
“It’s open to the road behind us. Anyone could see us.”
Then, in the space of a second, Kira changed her mind.
“We have to run,” she said decisively. She set down the piece of wood. “In the house, at the bottom left corner of the back wall, is a stone. This wide.” She held her hands up, shoulder width apart. “It slides out. That’s the tunnel entrance. There is a ladder down and only one way to go at the bottom. Follow it to the end as fast as possible. Probably they will see us and give chase.”
She took a deep breath. “Stay close.”
She turned back to the door and was getting into a crouch when we heard the hoofbeats.
They grew louder by the second—a steady rumble of riders, dozens of them from the sound of it, moving into the city over the paving stones of the main avenue.
The Rovians had arrived.
Kira turned her head to peek down the road, then looked back at us. To my surprise, her face showed relief.
“They are turning away.”
I poked my head out. The three Moku warriors had their backs to us as they walked together toward the avenue.
“Go!” I said.
Kira took off like a shot. The rest of us followed on her heels. The sound of hooves on the paved avenue was loud enough that we didn’t need to worry about anyone hearing us. Whether they saw us, I couldn’t say, because I was running too hard to turn my head.
The old man’s house had an odd musty smell and no furniture. There was a straw sleeping pallet in the far left corner, where Kira had said the tunnel would be. By the time I entered, she’d already yanked it aside and was working to pull a heavy stone block from the wall just off the floor.
The stone looked like it weighed as much as she did. I would have offered to help, but she managed to pull it free in just a couple of seconds. I helped her push it to one side, revealing a wide, dark hole.
“Feet first. On your stomach. Go!”
Millicent was closest, and she dropped to the floor on her stomach and wriggled backward into the hole. Guts followed her. Then Adonis.
“You go. I’ll close it,” Kira told me.
I lay down on my belly and shimmied backward. When I got far enough in to drop my legs, my feet quickly found the rungs of the ladder. I climbed down into the darkness.
The tunnel wasn’t far underground. Ten feet, maybe. When I reached bottom, I couldn’t see a thing. But Kira was right—in the narrow space, there was only one way to go. I started off, one hand on the side of the dirt wall and the other out in front of me so I didn’t plow into anything face-first.
I could hear the others moving up ahead. Right in front of me, Adonis let out a curse of surprise. A moment later, my head brushed the ceiling, and I realized he must have hit his head when it suddenly dropped. I bent my knees and kept going.
Pretty quickly, I bumped into Adonis. He growled at me.
Half a minute later, he came to a sudden halt, and I bumped into him again.
“Watch it!”
“Why’d you stop?”
“No place to go!”
“There’s a ladder!” I heard Millicent say.
Kira’s hand touched my back. She called out to Millicent. “When you reach the top, push hard on the ceiling!”
As we waited for Millicent to climb up and get the ceiling open, Kira gave a sigh that sounded like relief.
“We are close now.”
It was good to be able to talk again. “I hope my dad’s all right,” I said.
“Why does he think the Rovians will save him?”
“Save him from what?”
“Being killed with your sister.”
“What?!”
“It just pops off?” Millicent called out from up the ladder.
“Yes! Push hard!” Kira answered.
“Who’s killing my sister?”
“The Moku. At the next thunderstorm. I thought you knew this.”
“If they’re going to kill her, why are they treating her like a queen?”
“They think she is a goddess. Of the Okalu. The Princess of the Dawn. Come from the sky to save my people. And your father serves her. They treat her well to make her happy until the next storm, when Ma comes to earth—”
“I can’t budge it!” said Millicent.
“Lemme at it,” said Adonis.
“Millicent, come down,” said Kira. “Let him do it.”
There was some jostling in the narrow space. Adonis elbowed me in the gut.
“When who comes to earth?” I asked Kira.
“Ma. Thunder God. Moku worship him. When there is a storm, with thunder and lightning, Ma is present. And they will offer your sister as a sacrifice, to increase Ma’s power. Along with your father, and all her servants.”
From somewhere up the ladder, I heard Adonis snort. “Says her. Them savages ain’t killin’ Dad. He’s square with ’em.”
“Your brother is a fool,” Kira told me.
I felt woozy and sick. The darkness didn’t help. “He doesn’t know. I’ve got to tell him.”
“Don’t be stupid. It’s too late for that.” She raised her voice, calling out to Adonis. “Do you need help?”
“Almost got it,” he grunted. “Stuck on sumpin’.”
My mind was racing.
The tunnel’s not long. He’s right down the street. If all the Moku are distracted by the Rovians…off in the square…and Dad’s in his house…
I pushed past Kira. “I’ll be right back.”
“NO!”
“I won’t be long!”
I ran in a crouch down the tunnel, my arm stiff in front of me. They were calling out behind me, but I was too busy trying to work things out in my head to listen.
If he’s not there, I can leave a message…Scrawl it in the dirt…What if the shadow’s with him…? I’ll just peek out. Go right back to the tunnel if the coast isn’t clear…It’s not far…Fifty yards, there and back…
I was already at the top of the ladder. My body seemed to be moving without much input from my brain. I started to push the stone away, feeling the shudder through the earth as it rumbled across the floor. A square of light opened up around the corners of the stone.
“Don’t…!” I heard Kira hiss from below me.
I didn’t answer. I wasn’t thinking about whether what I was doing made any sense. I was thinking about how I was going to pull it off.
Still got the stones. In my pocket. The sharp one, and the one for throwing…Keep the throwing one in my right hand, just in case…
I shoved the stone back just far enough to squeeze through the opening. The old man’s house was still empty. In the distance, I could hear the clop of hooves on stone. I went to the door and peered out.
The street was empty down to the avenue, where a double line of soldiers in Rovian blue were trotting past on horseback, headed for the main square.
Is that…?
It was. Dad was standing in front of his house, his back to me, watching the troops go by. He was alone.
I looked behind me to make sure the street was empty that way, too.
Deserted. Not a Moku in sight.
Run.
I sprang forward, my head low and my legs pumping hard—
Then I was on the ground, colors exploding in my eyes and a hammer blow of pain across the top of my head. I’d run headlong into something that hadn’t been there a second ago. Pieces of wood—wood?—were tumbling down on top of me.
I heard someone cry out.
I lurched to my feet, trying to make sense of what had happened.
The old man was sprawled on the ground in front of me, split wood lying all around him.
He must have come around the corner of his house with an armload at the exact moment I started my sprint, and I’d hit the wood head-on.
But I didn’t figure that out in the moment. There was too much else to worry about.
Like what I was going to do next.
The old man was on his back, staring up at me in terror. His lower lip was trembling so much that the whole bottom half of his face quivered along with it, all saggy wattle and spit.
His mouth gaped and puckered, and I could see his Adam’s apple bounce in the middle of his throat. He was trying to scream, but he couldn’t make the sound come out.
The long, narrow stone was still in my left hand. I’d pulled it from my pocket before I started running, and somehow I hung on to it even as I dropped the other stone when I fell.
Kill him before he screams.
I had to do it. If he raised an alarm, I was doomed.
I switched the stone to my right hand and raised it up, closing in on him.
Do it quick.
His watery eyes were locked on mine, piteous as a broken-winged bird staring up at a cat.
Kill him.
He was old and feeble. He wasn’t going to put up a fight. All I had to do was bring the stone down on his head.
Do it!
I was still clenching my upraised hand over the stone, trying to will myself to bring it down, when the scream came out of him in such an earsplitting shriek that it hardly sounded human.
“Shut up!” I fell on him, knees across his arms, and covered his mouth with my free hand.
He bit me hard on the fleshy part of my palm. When I drew my hand back, he screamed again.
I looked up. Down the road, Dad was staring at us, his mouth open in shock.
And two Moku warriors were running toward me, rifles in hand.
Where they came from, I don’t know.
I leaped up. I knew if I went for the tunnel, they’d catch me there and find the others as well.
So I turned and sprinted in the other direction, toward the city wall.
Get to the tree.
I reached the path by the wall and turned left.
The tree was up ahead, its branches drooping over the wall.
If I can get there…
I could hear the Moku shouting behind me. I passed a side street and saw a blur of movement—more Moku—but paid them no mind.
The tree was close. A few more seconds.
How to climb it?
The lowest branch was at least a foot above my head. It was thick and sturdy, but I’d have to leap up just to reach it.
Jump!
I sprang into the air, fully extended. I managed to catch the branch with both hands, but my momentum carried me forward so hard I nearly lost my grip. I stiffened, trying to steady myself—and too late, I realized I should have tried to use my momentum to get my legs up onto the branch.
Now I was hanging there, dead weight. I swung my legs. Once, twice—
I got a leg up over the branch. I was going to—
Someone grabbed hold of my midsection, trying to pull me down.
I hung on with everything I had. I could feel the bark rip at the inside of my forearms.
Then someone else grabbed me around the legs, and that was it.
THERE WAS A WARRIOR on either side of me, marching me by the arms down the avenue toward the main square. There was a third one in front, and two more behind. I could see the horses up ahead in the square, and I wondered if Venus might actually get her pony.
It didn’t matter. Eventually they’d kill her. Dad too.
I heard his voice behind us, out of breath.
“Wot happened, boy?”
One of the Moku barked a warning at him.
“You’ve got to leave while you can,” I said. “They’re going to kill you both.”
One of the warriors grabbed me by the jaw and slammed it upwards, knocking my teeth together. They didn’t want us talking.
“Wot ye mean?”
Dad was trotting alongside us. One of the Moku from the back stepped up to cut him off.
“They’re going tomph smrf—” The Moku on the right grabbed my head and pulled it to him, yanking me forward in a headlock.
They marched me the rest of the way to the square like that—bent at the waist, my face smothered, tripping over my feet.
I wasn’t an honored guest anymore.
I could hear Dad behind me, trying to argue his case to men who didn’t understand a word of what he was saying.